November 24, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



467 



founded which would teach the people of the state to value 

 the forests and to use them wisely. A feature of the meet- 

 ing on that occasion was an exhibition of maps showing 

 forest reservations in the west, and the forest area of New 

 Jersey ; views of the Palisades, in which Nature and 

 Nature's defacements were contrasted ; photographs show- 

 ing the desolation wrought by criminally careless methods 

 of lumbering ; illustrations of the expensive engineering 

 work in southern France, due to the mountains having 

 been stripped of their forest cover. Photographs of note- 

 worthy trees and attractive landscapes were other features 

 of this convincing exhibit, together with pamphlets on tree- 

 planting, forestry and village improvement, and a specially 

 prepared pamphlet containing a bibliography of books re- 

 lating to forestry, village improvement and rural life. 



As an outcome of the interest manifested at Trenton, at 

 the national meeting of the General Federation of Women's 

 Clubs held in Louisville, Kentucky, in June, 1896, a resolu- 

 tion was adopted " that as federations of women's clubs 

 and as individual clubs, as far as possible, we pledge our- 

 selves to take up the study of forest conditions and re- 

 sources, and to further the highest interests of our several 

 states in these respects." These resolutions were after- 

 ward printed and circulated among 1,500 clubs in the United 

 States. 



The growing interest in forestry was signally shown a 

 few weeks ago in the meetings of the Pennsylvania and 

 the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs, the 

 first held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 27th and 

 28th, and the latter in Camden, New Jersey, on the 28th 

 and 29th of the same month. On the occasion of the New 

 Jersey meeting in the spring of 1896, Garden and Forest 

 remarked editorially that the arrangement of the forestry 

 exhibit was so effective that it seemed a pity that it must 

 be transient, and the suggestion was made that every 

 library and school-room should have something of this kind 

 as a general help in the education of public sentiment. A 

 partial fulfilment of this suggestion has now been realized 

 in the formation of a traveling forestry library, arranged by 

 Mrs. Gifford, as chairman of the committee on Forestry and 

 Protection of the Palisades of the New Jersey State Feder- 

 ation of Women's Clubs, who also introduced the forestry 

 resolution at Louisville a year ago. The library, neatly 

 encased in oak, with a traveling dress of white duck, was 

 a conspicuous feature of the Camden meeting. The cata- 

 logue states that the library is intended as an introduction 

 to the study of forestry, and it is arranged in seven classes. 

 As illustrating the range covered, Group A comprises books 

 on Trees and Forestry, and contains The Woods of the 

 United States, C. S. Sargent ; Elements of Forestry, F. B. 

 Hough ; Trees of the Northern United States, Austin C. 

 Apgar ; Management and Protection of Forests, D. Brandis; 

 Forest Tree Planters Manual, J. O. Barrett ; specimen sheets 

 of Sargent's Silva of North America. Group B consists of 

 Reports of the Division of Forestry for 1890-91-92-93 ; 

 besides What is Forestry, B. E. Fernow ; Wasted Soils and 

 How to Prevent Them ; Relation of Forests to Farmers, B. E. 

 Fernow ; Planting in Western Plains, Planting in Waste 

 Places, Planting on the Farm, all by C. A. Keffer ; Age of 

 Trees; Defects of Wood, A. D. Hopkins; Uses of Wood, 

 Filibert Roth. Other subjects included in this class of the 

 library are Information to Wood Consumers ; Government 

 Timber Tests ; Suggestions to Lumbermen ; Facts and 

 Figures regarding Forest Resources ; Forest Fire Legisla- 

 tion ; Is Fire Protection Practicable ; Report of the Com- 

 mittee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences 

 upon the inauguration of a Forest Reservation Policy ; 

 Rules and Regulations.governing Forest Reserves ; Public 

 Lands and Their Water Supply; Notes Regarding Depart- 

 ment Publications ; Arbor Day Planting in Eastern States ; 

 and Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture. 

 Group C contains publications of the American Forestry 

 Association ; Group D, State publications and papers ; 

 Group E, Monographs and Short Articles ; Group F, Peri- 

 odicals and Press Clippings, including sets of Forest Leaves, 



Tlie Forester, a series of editorials, notes, etc., and a port- 

 folio of illustrations from Garden and Forest, with speci- 

 mens of foreign forestry periodicals from Switzerland, Bel- 

 gium, France, Germany, Austria, India and Ceylon ; also 

 specimens of American Lumber Journals. Group G con- 

 tains Reports of Park Boards, etc. The library is to be sent 

 to women's clubs in New Jersey in the order of applica- 

 tions, the expense of carriage to be borne by each club, 

 some member of which shall be responsible for its care 

 and return at the end of a month. Several applications 

 were at once made and the journeying promptly begun. 



A circular letter constituted part of the report of the Com- 

 mittee on Forestry and Protection of the Palisades, and in 

 this it was recommended that members of the State Fed- 

 eration see that libraries, schools and reading circles are 

 supplied with forestry literature. The endowment of a 

 forestry scholarship, it was suggested, would speedily lead 

 to the establishment of a chair of forestry in colleges, and 

 that with the approaching need for trained forestry officials 

 in the national reservations the time is ripe for public- 

 spirited effort in this direction. Widespread and intelligent 

 pressure upon our rulers was recommended to overcome 

 the selfish ends of greed, lest, as in the case of the recently 

 declared national reservations, the nation lose control 

 of vast resources which should be held for the benefit and 

 welfare of all. It was specially recommended that mem- 

 bers should thoroughly familiarize themselves with every 

 aspect of the Palisades question, with a view to their 

 preservation. In connection with forestry interests, Waldo 

 G. Morse, Esq., one of the New York State Commissioners 

 for the Preservation of the Palisades, made an impressive 

 plea for the Palisades, the address being distributed later 

 in pamphlet form. Miss Vermilye, of Englewood, New 

 Jersey, gave a graphic account of the actual damage result- 

 ing from blasts in quarrying the Palisades. In the verbal 

 report of the chairman of the Forestry Committee it was 

 stated that interest in forestry is steadily growing. It was 

 explained that forestry is not a sentimental enthusiasm for 

 beautiful trees in themselves, but that it is an economic 

 science. That a forest is a crop, just as corn and wheat 

 are crops, and exists to be utilized for the benefit of man. 

 Forethought and complex considerations enter into the 

 raising and utilizing of a crop of timber, which make for- 

 estry a difficult and intricate science, depending upon the 

 varying conditions of different countries. Our vast re- 

 sources and optimistic habits of thought have too long 

 delayed the understanding of this beneficent art. Forestry 

 must be practical and must take the financial aspect into 

 consideration. Lumbermen most of all ought to be inter- 

 ested in forestry, because their future supplies are at stake. 

 The forest is a crop and something more, and its direct and 

 indirect benefits are as important as its cash returns. In 

 Europe the state regulates the rotation of the timber crop 

 according to fixed laws, and we are trying to persuade our 

 Government to save the remnants of our vast and beauti- 

 ful forest possessions, and to protect them from fire and 

 offer inducements to woodland owners in the reduction of 

 taxes. Popular enlightenment must be depended on most 

 of all. Women should first intelligently inform themselves, 

 and then devise adequate means of instruction, to the end 

 that public opinion may become educated. 



New York. M. B. C. 



Notes. 



The Department of Agriculture in Circular No. 17 of the 

 Division of Forestry has brought together in a convenient form 

 a summary of recent legislation bearing on state forestry com- 

 missions and forest reserves, including the laws of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and those sections 

 of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill passed on June 4th last 

 which relate to the national forests. 



Our correspondent, Mr. Carl Purdy, whose knowledge of the 

 bulbous plants of California and their cultural requirements is 

 unrivaled, describes in the October issue of Erythea three 

 new California Lilies ; Lilium occidcntalis, from boggy places 



