172 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 480. 



furniture, the lesson they receive in taste and morals will 

 not be the same as it would be if they were in a neat and 

 tidy room with simple and cheerful decorations. If the 

 grounds about the schoolhouse are bare and comfortless 

 they would hardly suggest any refinement or elevation in 

 the instruction within, and certainly grassy, shrub-bordered 

 grounds with well-kept trees will have a more civilized 

 look, and if the minds of the young are influenced by 

 external objects, cleanly and beautiful surroundings ought 

 to suggest orderly habits of life and thought. At all events, 

 there is no reason why, in even the poorest neighborhoods, 

 the grounds about schoolhouses should not be beautified 

 by the shrubs and plants which can be obtained from the 

 nearest wood. Where there is a will there is a way, and a 

 dilapidated schoolhouse with an unshaded and repulsive 

 yard means that the community lacks civilization, that it 

 does not possess even the germs of refinement. School 

 gardens, too, are possible wherever there are a cultivated 

 and enterprising teacher and an intelligent community, 

 and the time ought to be near at hand when a garden and 

 window plants will be considered quite as essential articles 

 of school equipment as maps and apparatus for experiments 

 in the sciences. 



Dr. Augustine Henry, of the Chinese Custom Ser- 

 vice, in a personal letter from Mengtse, writes the con- 

 ductor of this journal : 



There is here a fair number of northerly forms, as Fagus, 

 Corylus (one species each) ; of Ouercus, perhaps twelve spe- 

 cies. Coniferas are few, two Pinus, an Abies and Cryptomeria 

 Japonica. The flora seems very varied, with many genera. 

 Clematis has, perhaps, fifteen to twenty species ; Lespedeza, 

 Desmodium, Uraria, many species. Characteristic Hupeh plants 

 still occur — Platycarya strobilacea, Buddleia, several species ; 

 but only one Acer. I have just found an Altingia. But I can- 

 not pretend to go into an account of the flora yet. I must 

 have close on a thousand species in the six months' collecting. 

 I wish I had nothing else to do but botanize, then I might hope 

 to rival Delavay's three thousand species from western 

 Yun-nan. 



I have not been to any tremendous forest yet, though I was 

 in one which must have been fifteen miles long. My native 

 has just come back from a forest situated between here and 

 Laohey, which he describes as full of immense trees and lots 

 of big game — bear, wild pig, red deer, musk deer and panthers. 



It is very curious to note how persistent the Chinese have 

 been in deforesting their country. On the Red River in Tong- 

 king we saw much forest, but the moment we entered the 

 Yun-nan part of the river, only grass hills and little shrubberies. 

 Last month in Tongking, close to the Red River, a herd of 

 wild elephants was discovered in the forest, and two were shot 

 by the French officers. And I imagine elephants must have 

 big forests to live in. So the best collecting ground is on the 

 Yun-nan-Tongking frontier. 1 hope to set off soon on a trip of 

 twenty days or so. 



Second-growth White Pine in Pennsylvania. 



Forest Conditions. — The valley along the Bear Creek, 

 Pennsylvania, attracts attention by its marked tendency to 

 reproduce the White Pine. The region is practically stripped 

 of its forests and presents a familiar picture of desolation. 

 Small and comparatively young groves are seen now and 

 then scattered over the valley. The kinds of trees consti- 

 tuting these groves vary with the elevation of the valley ; 

 the lower portions are chiefly stocked with Hemlock and 

 Spruces, and young White Pine and a few hardwoods are 

 only seen on comparatively drier ground. The ridge land 

 is covered with scrubby Oaks and other young hardwoods, 

 among which the second-growth White Pine, Pitch Pine 

 and the Pine seedlings are usually scattered. The com- 

 paratively high ground only seems to offer more favorable 

 conditions for the natural renewal of the White Pine. The 

 Pine on such portions rarely occurs in pure growth, and is 

 usually mixed with Maple, Beech, a few Yellow Birch, 

 White Birch, Hemlock and Spruce, scattering White Oak, 

 Red Oak and occasional Black Cherry. The White Pine 

 in such groves is imposing, even when found in compara- 

 tively small numbers, for with its greater height and well- 



developed crowns it reaches above all the other sorts of 

 trees and forms a canopy under which they find shelter. 

 The soil is usually protected from the direct rays of the sun 

 by the moderately dense undergrowth, consisting chiefly 

 of young and very small Hemlock intermixed with the 

 hardwoods already named, which are also young and 

 small, under three inches in diameter at breast-height and 

 from five to ten feet high. The soil, being well drained by 

 Bear Creek and a number of other small streams, is kept 

 fresh under the mold layer, wmich is usually thickly covered 

 with leaves and a few Ferns. 



Acre-yield. — The process of regeneration of the White 

 Pine may be fairly illustrated by the following acre-meas- 

 urements procured from sites representing typical condi- 

 tions of natural reforestation for the valley. One acre was 

 staked off in a grove on a slope facing south-west. The 

 grove was of hardwoods intermixed with White Pines. 

 The undergrowth consisted of 280 small Hemlock, 146 

 small Beech, 84 small Maples and 12 small Yellow Birch 

 and White Birch. The loamy sand soil was light, loose, 

 deep, dark brown in color, of medium grain, and with peb- 

 bles and gravel intermixed. Of the 216 trees on the acre 

 there were : 



80 White Pine, from 6 to 23 inches in diameter at breast-height. 



6S Maple, " 14 " 18 " " " " " " 



22 Beech, " 6 " 24 " " " " " " 

 14 Yellow and 



White Birch, " 6 " 24 " " " " " " 

 12 White and 



Red Oak, " 6 " 14 " " " 



2 Black Cherry, " 10 " 14 " " " " " " 



18 Hemlock, " 6 " 14 " " " " " " 



The height of the White Pine averaged from 60 to 80 

 feet ; the height of the hardwoods did not exceed 50 feet. 

 The age of the White Tine ranged from sixty to eighty 

 years. The volume of boles of the White Pine equaled 

 2,918 cubic feet, which means an average annual accretion 

 of 41 cubic feet to the acre. Making an allowance of fifty 

 per cent, for waste when the timber is ready for the axe, 

 250 feet, board measure, may be counted upon as the an- 

 nual increment to the acre. 



Another acre was staked off in a grove on a slope facing 

 north-east. The grove was of White Pine, intermixed with 

 hardwoods, with scattering Hemlock and Spruce. The 

 undergrowth consisted of 200 small Hemlock, sixty-six 

 small Beech, twenty-four small Maple and ten small 

 Spruce. Soil, sandy loam of a reddish brown color, fine 

 grain, medium loose, fresh, deep, with two to three inches 

 of mold on top and a surface cover of abundant leaves, 

 Laurel and a few Ferns. Of the 232 trees on the acre 

 there were : 



1231,- 

 6 " 14 

 6 " 14 

 6 " 10 

 3 " 10 



36 Maple, 

 18 Beech, 

 16 Hemlock, 

 8 Spruce, 



Iii height and age the trees on this acre were exactly 

 comparable to those described above. The volume of 

 boles of White Pine equaled 5,036 cubic feet, which gives an 

 average annual accretion of 72 cubic feet, or 432 feet, board 

 measure, when ready for the axe. It should be noticed 

 that the density of crown cover* in both groves was very 

 uneven and did not exceed from o. 5 to o. 7. 



Growth. — The growth of the young White Pine shows 

 irregularities in its progressive development. Side by side 

 may be found internodes differing more than two feet in 

 length. It is not unusual to measure consecutive inter- 

 nodes and find one from three to six inches, and the other 

 from two to three feet long. The same is true when the 

 annual rings are examined on the various cross-sections ; 

 rings three to five millimeters in width may be encircled by 

 others with a width of one millimeter or less The crowns 

 of the Pine, though not lacking in development, show also 

 a wide difference in their relative length with regard to the 

 total height of the trees. In short, every individual Pine 



* The degree of density is expressed in decimals, taking ten to represent a full 

 cover impenetrable to sun rays. 



