88 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 314. 



have some that has been in use for the past five years and is 

 still as good as new. Another advantage to be considered is 

 that the peas can be gathered with much greater ease than 

 when brush is used. 



AgM Expt. Station, Newark, Del. H. M. BecklVltll. 



[Professor Massey advocated this plan in Garden and For- 

 est five years ago, and we have called attention to it several 

 times since. New devices, however, are adopted slowly, 

 and we are obliged to Professor Beckwith for this reminder 

 that wire netting is invaluable for many uses in the gar- 

 den, and especially where a low trellis is needed. — Ed.] 



Solanum Seaforthianum. — Under the name of Solarium 

 azureum, this plant has been offered by various dealers, 

 usually with glowing descriptions, and in one instance, it is 

 said, to bear "Wistaria-like" trusses of bloom. It requires 

 some imagination to see this resemblance, but still the flowers 

 are pretty and very freely produced, and they are followed by 

 clusters of bright red berries about the size of peas. Like 

 most of the Solanums, this one is very easy to propagate, and 

 almost any piece of young growth will soon take root in a 

 warm house. Though new to the public, S. Seaforthianum is 

 not entirely new to horticulture, since it was sent to Kew from 

 the West Indies some thirty years ago, although it was not dis- 

 tributed at that time. 



Philadelphia, Pa. ■*■ 



Correspondence. 



Forest-land for Investment. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your issue of January 24th I observe a reference by 

 Dr. Brandis to my paper on " Timber as a Crop," read at 

 the World's Fair Forestry Congress. Allow me to modify some- 

 what the impressions conveyed by this reference, and espe- 

 cially to the one that my recommendations were new, and not 

 simply a repetition in new form of often reiterated thoughts. I 

 have repeatedly urged during the last ten years that the lum- 

 bermen could, and should, cut with more regard to the value 

 that their property might represent, after culling the merchant- 

 able part of it, demonstrating to them that this negative for- 

 estry can be practiced without any, or little, curtailment of 

 present incomes. Such positive forestry as Dr. Brandis has 

 in mind I have also repeatedly explained, and shown the con- 

 ditions under which, even now, it may be made successful ; 

 see especially my report on the Adirondack League Club prop- 

 erty, reprinted in the Report of the Forestry Division for 1890, 

 where the following language is used : 



"The absence of forest-management in the United States is 

 due to various causes, mainly arising from the state of our cul- 

 tural and material development. As long as the competition 

 of wood-supplies from virgin lands, exploited for the best tim- 

 ber only, is to be met, forest-management will be beset with 

 great difficulties from a financial point of view, yet it is not 

 impossible, impracticable, untimely or unprofitable in the lo- 

 cation and under the conditions in which the club's property 

 is found. A near market and facility for bringing even infe- 

 rior material to market profitably are the conditions, without 

 which forestry is financially impracticable. Accessibility, easy, 

 cheap and permanent means of transportation furnish the 

 key-note of profitable forest-management." 



The reasons adduced by Dr. Brandis for expecting a ready 

 change in the prevailing treatment of our forests do not, how- 

 ever, seem to me altogether convincing. 



The low figure at which virgin forest-lands can still be 

 bought is the very reason that the bulk of our forest-owners, 

 lumbermen, may not readily be deterred from doing what they 

 do — namely, turn the merchantable parts into cash as quickly 

 as possible, regardless of consequences to the remainder, and 

 invest the whole proceeds in other lands to be treated the same 

 way. When timber-lands become valuable, then there will be 

 hope of greater care. The price of certain classes of timber 

 has advanced, to be sure, but the price for lumber has not — 

 that is, the margin of the saw-miller has been reduced. This, 

 again, is antagonistic to a further curtailment on account of 

 expenses in better ad ninistration, where the owner of the saw- 

 mill and the owner of the forest are the same person. The 

 diminishing rate of interest, no doubt, will aid in making forest- 

 property more valuable, just as the decreasing quantity in the 

 market will, but it will require years to make these changes 

 effective, just as I believe that the predicted increase in the 

 price of labor cannot be foretold as visible in the near future. 



Altogether, the uncertainty as to when all these necessary 

 economic changes will take place, although we confidently 

 predict and expect them, is a potent element in deterring 

 lumbermen from engaging in positive forest-management. 

 They propose to reap while they can see the present crop, 

 without caring for the future crop. 



Immediate hope, therefore, lies mainly in the last reason ad- 

 duced by Dr. Brandis, a tendency toward permanent family 

 estates. This is growing in a small way, and the example 

 would, perhaps, be more contagious if there were notsomany 

 drawbacks due to existing lawlessness and other risks affecting 

 forest-property. Then, too, results in forestry make their ap- 

 pearance slowly, especially on the financial side. 



In this connection it may interest your readers to know that 

 the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture is now 

 engaged in making a large number of measurements of tree- 

 growth, from which to determine the rales of growth of our 

 various species in various localities, as a basis for discussing 

 the profitableness of forestry. The Division seeks the co- 

 operation of all who are interested and in position, by their 

 access to lumber camps, to aid in this work, and will send out 

 blank schedules and instructions for their use. 



Washington, D. C. B. E. FertlOW. 



The Longevity of Trees. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Can you give me the title of any work on the trees of 

 Massachusetts or North America that gives the ages to which 

 the Oak, Elm and Pine live — that is, their longevity in many 

 instances ? No mention seems to have been made of this sub- 

 ject by Mr. George B. Emerson in his works upon the trees of 

 Massachusetts. 



Haverhill, Mass. N. S, 



[The life of a tree depends upon the amount of nourish- 

 ment it can obtain from the soil, and, this being an uncer- 

 tain quantity, it is impossible to fix the length of life of the 

 individuals of any given species. Trees, like Oaks, Hicko- 

 ries, Walnuts and Chestnuts, with long deep roots pene- 

 trating into the subsoil, are able to obtain a greater 

 amount of food than trees with roots which remain near 

 the surface of the soil, like the Elm, Alder or Pine, and, 

 therefore, as a rule, are longer-lived. A White Oak might 

 live in good soil for centuries, or it might exhaust the 

 plant-food within reach of its roots in a comparatively 

 short time, and then perish. Theoretically, a tree fur- 

 nished with sufficient nourishment and guarded from acci- 

 dent might live indefinitely, as it renews itself every year 

 by a fresh layer of wood just inside the bark, the death of 

 the interior of the trunk making no difference to it ; and 

 the only real reasons why trees do not live forever are 

 found in the exhaustion of the soil in which they grow and 

 their liability to destruction by storms of wind, lightning, 

 and other vicissitudes to which they are subjected. 



A discussion of this whole subject will be found in an in- 

 teresting paper on the longevity of trees, written fifty years 

 ago by Professor Asa Gray, in The North American Review, 

 and republished in his Scientific Papers. — Ed.] 



Notes from South Lancaster, Massachusetts. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The middle of February, with two feet of snow on the 

 ground, is not the best time to visit South Lancaster, but there 

 are horticultural treasures in the glass-houses here which will 

 repay one for a pilgrimage hither at any season. At Mr. E. V. 

 R. Thayer's I found a rapidly growing collection of Orchids 

 under the charge of Mr. Orpet, and, although but three years 

 have passed since the collection was begun, there are few pri- 

 vate places in New England where a better or healthier assort- 

 ment can be found. It was rather early to see many kinds at 

 their best, but I noticed a fine lot of Cattleya Trianae, while 

 Lycaste Skinneri was growing vigorously and giving quantities 

 of flowers. Phahenopsis Schilleriana and P. amabilis were 

 carrying fine spikes,) while Oncidium Papilio, O. splendidum 

 and O. flexuosum were most prominent of that genus. Of the 

 Cypripediums a few of the Insigne group were still in flower, 

 as were C. Chamberlainianum, C. barbatum, C. O'Brieni, C. 

 Lowii, C. villosum, C. tonsum, C. leuchorhodum and others. 

 Dendrobium Phatenopsis Schrcederianum was especially 

 good, with about fifty plants in flower. Too much can hardly 



