November 3, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



429 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargf.nt. 



ENTERED AS SRCOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 3, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Article: — Autumn Work among the Trees 



Notes on Cultivated Conifers.— V C. S. S. 



The St. Croix River.— II Mrs. y H. Rabbins. 



New or Little-known Plants: — Hypericum galioides. (With figure) 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 



Cultural Dfpartment : — Chrysanthemums T. D. Hatfield. 



Decorative House-p'ants y. N. Gerard. 



The Cultivation of Mushrooms E. O. Orpet. 



Correspondence : — Trees and Shrubs for Winter Effects T. D. Hat Held. 



Plum-fruit Rot Professor Byron D. Halsted. 



The Forest: — Natural Reforestation on the Mountains of Northern Colo- 

 rado. — 1 Professor Charles S. CrandalL 



Recent Publications 



Notes 



Illustration : — Hypericum galioides, Fig. 55 



429 

 429 

 43i 

 432 

 43= 

 434 

 435 

 435 

 436 



437 

 437 



Autumn Work among the Trees. 



NOW is the time at the north to prepare for planting 

 trees next spring, for all planting north of the latitude 

 of this city is most safely done at that time of the year. 

 Further south the long autumn enables trees planted when 

 the leaves are ripe to push out new roots and establish 

 themselves before the ground freezes. Where cold weather 

 follows close after the early frosts a tree planted in the 

 autumn has no opportunity to develop new roots and, 

 therefore, loses not only the benefit it would have obtained 

 in a more temperate climate in an early and vigorous 

 spring growth, but is forced to go through the winter with- 

 out the aid of roots in actual working condition. Trees 

 planted in cold countries at this season of the year do not 

 necessarily die, but they are more apt to suffer than those 

 planted in the spring; they are often blown over unless 

 carefully staked, and they are frequently upheaved by the 

 frost or thrown out of the ground entirely. For all opera- 

 tions, however, connected with the planting and care of 

 trees, except the mere setting in the ground, the autumn is 

 the best time. At this season planting plans should be 

 made and stock selected, and the ground should be made 

 ready to receive the trees as soon as the frost leaves it in 

 the spring. Spring in this latitude is so short and the rush 

 of spring work is so pressing that it is impossible to prop- 

 erly prepare ground for planting unless it is done during 

 the previous summer or autumn. This is the time, there- 

 fore, when northern planters should decide what trees they 

 want to use next spring and where they will plant them ; 

 it is the time to select and order nursery stock, and here it 

 may be said that better results are always obtained by 

 personal inspection and selection by the purchaser than by 

 leaving it to the seller to fill his orders. If the planter has 

 facilities for protecting plants through the winter in a cold 

 cellar or pit, it is better to obtain them now than in the 

 spring, when nurserymen are crowded with orders and too 

 busy to devote proper time and attention to digging and 

 packing their trees. The ground being prepared, the exact 

 position of each plant determined on and the plants on 

 hand, the mere operation of setting them in the ground 

 takes but a short time. A man, moreover, who is thus 



prepared beforehand for spring planting can take advan- 

 tage of the first suitable weather and get his trees into the. 

 ground as soon as the frost is out and it is dry enough to 

 work, while if he waits for material ordered in the spring 

 it will frequently not be received until after the trees have 

 started to grow and warm dry weather has set in. In a 

 climate like that of our northern states, where summer 

 follows hard after winter and where spring is almost 

 unknown, there is no other operation of the farm or garden 

 which demands more carefully planned preparation than 

 tree-planting. 



It is wise economy, too often neglected in this country, 

 to prepare the ground thoroughly before trees are 

 planted. Where isolated specimens are required ample pits 

 should be dug fir them, and the larger they are made 

 the better it will be for the health and beauty of the future 

 trees. A hole three feet deep and twenty feet across is not 

 too spacious for a long-lived tree of the first class. Into 

 these excavations the loam taken from them should be 

 returned, together with enough peat or good soil added and 

 thoroughly mixed with it to supply the place of the poor 

 subsoil, hard pan and stones, which should be rejected. If 

 it is proposed to plant trees closely over considerable areas, 

 as is sometimes necessary in large parks, the ground should 

 be thoroughly subsoil-plowed and broken up, the large 

 stones removed and the surface as carefully mellowed 

 and enriched with good stable -manure, as if it was 

 proposed to raise a crop of corn on the land. When the 

 land is prepared in this way the surface can be easily 

 stirred and kept free of weeds by horse power until the 

 trees are large enough to shade the ground. 



But the care of growing trees is quite as essential as the 

 planting of new ones. As we have often insisted, time 

 and labor are worse than wasted in planting unless the 

 alter care is intelligent, determined and ceaseless. Now is 

 the best time for pruning trees, before work among them 

 is rendered unpleasant and unsafe by extreme weather and 

 before their limbs are coated with ice, and every year all 

 young plantations intended to produce ornamental effects 

 should be looked over ; too vigorous or unnecessary 

 branches should be checked and all but single leaders 

 removed, that forks of the main stem which are liable 

 to endanger the trees in the future by splitting may be 

 prevented. 



This is the best season, too, for studying plantations and 

 marking for removal all trees which are injuring their more 

 valuable neighbors. No tree can attain its full size or its 

 noblest expression, or hope for a reasonable period of lon- 

 gevity, unless it can obtain its share of air, sunshine and food. 

 Many of our public parks and private gardens are disfigured 

 by trees which are left dwarfed or starved, or forced out of 

 shape by aggressive neighbors Most planters desire to 

 produce an immediate effect with their work, but planting 

 for immediate effect means overcrowding, and when the 

 young trees begin to struggle with each other for mastery, 

 delay in thinning is fatal, for they will begin at once to 

 spindle up or fiend toward the light and will soon be ruined 

 as ornamental trees. 



These autumn days can be used to no better purpose, 

 therefore, by one who has trees or hopes to have them 

 than by a thorough stud)' of his ground before the snow 

 covers it; by thorough preparation for getting through 

 spring planting without hurry, and by a resolute and de- 

 termined use of the axe wherever the thinning of trees is 

 necessary to improve the appearance and insure the per- 

 manency of his plantations. 



Notes on Cultivated Conifers. — V. 



THE genus Cupressus, which is distinguished by mon- 

 oecious terminal flowers and subglobose woody cones 

 with scales abruptly dilated, and flattened and furnished 

 at the apex with short central knobs, is widely scattered 

 over the Atlantic and Pacific coast regions of the United 

 States, Mexico and Lower California, and in the Old World 



