March 7, 1894. 



Garden and Forest. 



9i 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building. New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles:— The Adirondack Reservation gi 



Skilled Labor for the Parks gi 



The Pride of China Tree. (With figure.) 92 



Vegetable Sculpture in China A. B. Westland. 92 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 93 



Berlin Letter C. BolU. 95 



Cultural Department : — Annual Flowers from Seed. — IV J. N. Gerard. 96 



Alpine Poppies H. Carrevon. 96 



New and Rare Plants at Baden-Baden Max Leichtlin. 97 



Chrysanthemums T.D.Hatfield. 97 



Maranta Lageriana, Adiantum cuneatum variegatum IV. H. Taplm. 97 



Dendrobium Phakenopsis Schrcederianum E. O. O. 97 



Peas H. 98 



Correspondence : — The Quality of Modern Process Maple-sugar, 



Professor C. S. Plumb. 98 



Apple-scab in Canada J. G. Jack. 98 



Recent Publications 99 



Notes 1°° 



Illustration : — An Umbrella Tree, Melia Azedarach, var. umbraculifera, in 



Riverside, California, Fig. 20. ■ 95 



The Adirondack Reservation. 



THE special report of the New York State Forest Com- 

 mission, recently published, insists upon the im- 

 portance of an absolute purchase of lands within the 

 Adirondack preserves, and there can be no doubt that the 

 ownership in fee-simple of these forest-lands is the first 

 step to a perfectly satisfactory solution of this vexed 

 problem. The proposal, that the state should acquire these 

 forests by purchase and take absolute possession of them, 

 has been discussed for several years in all the organs of 

 public opinion throughout the state, and it is an encourag- 

 ing fact that not one newspaper has at any time published 

 a paragraph in opposition to the plan. To carry out this 

 scheme, however, will cost a considerable sum of money 

 at the outset, and if any method can be devised for dimin- 

 ishing this expense without sacrificing any of the advan- 

 tages of immediate and complete ownership, it ought to be 

 considered. 



One plan which proposed to accomplish such an end 

 was authorized in the law of 1893, under which the Forest 

 Commission has power to offer a lumberman a certain 

 sum, say, $1.50 an acre, for forest-land, and give him the 

 right to remove the Pine, Spruce and Hemlock within ten 

 years. The privilege of cutting under this agreement is 

 restricted to trees more than twelve inches in diameter at a 

 height of three feet above the ground. At the end of ten 

 years or less the state would in this way acquire absolute 

 possession of the land, while the forest would consist of 

 hard-wood trees and young conifers below the size-limit of 

 the law. Such a forest would show little diminution in its 

 canopy of foliage, and would, in most cases, serve all its 

 functions as a protector of the water-supply, while the 

 young conifers left would in time furnish another crop of 

 timber and a revenue to the state. There is a good deal to 

 commend in this method of securing uncut timber-land. 



A plan which does not involve ownership in fee-sim- 

 ple, but which gives the state a certain control of 

 the forests, is provided for in the law of 1892, un- 

 der which a contract can be made between the state 

 and a private owner to the effect that the state will 

 grant exemption from taxes, provided the owner will 

 agree to restrict all his timber-cutting to certain species 



and to a minimum diameter of twelve inches on the slump. 

 Of course, if it is impracticable for the state to own forest- 

 lands, the next best thing to do will be to control the cut- 

 ting of the trees. But the scheme as it stands is open to 

 some serious objections. In the first place, a twelve-inch 

 limit is too small for Spruce and Tamarack, and in the case 

 of Poplar it is too large. The mere fact that a tree has 

 attained a certain diameter on the stump may not be any 

 reason why it should be cut down. Umder correct forest- 

 management a great many other things besides the diam- 

 eter of a tree must be considered before it is condemned to 

 the axe. It may be ready to cut simply because it has 

 reached a certain size, or because it is so situated that its 

 removal would be a benefit rather than an injury to the 

 forest, or because some definite provision has been made 

 for the occupation of the ground it covers by some other 

 forest-growth, at least equally valuable. It can readily be 

 seen that whole groups of Spruce might be cut away while 

 there was nothing on the ground to replace them. It may 

 be seen also that the constant cutting of Spruce, Tamarack 

 and Poplar would eventually reduce the number of trees of 

 these species to a marked degree. It is much to be feared, 

 too, that the cutting of these or any other trees by lumber- 

 men without any supervision of a. trained forester would 

 entail much more damage upon the woods than is neces- 

 sary. That is, under the act as it stands a great many trees 

 are likely to be cut which should be allowed to stand, and 

 the removal of trees which it is quite proper to cut would 

 be carried out in such a way as to do permanent injury 

 to the woods. 



What the state needs in the first place is skilled counsel 

 in all matters of forest theory and practice. If there is to 

 be any agreement between the state and private owners 

 under which the state is to remit the taxes of forest-land, or, 

 what is the same thing, to pay indirectly the forest-owners 

 a certain sum of money for the assurance that the land is 

 to be kept in permanent forest, it may as well be under- 

 stood that such an assurance is worth little when the only 

 restraint upon the owner is a limit to the size of the logs 

 which he is to cut. The woods will never be safe 

 until they are practically under the control of skilled for- 

 esters who will see that every operation is conducted 

 with a view to increase or sustain the productive capacity 

 of the whole. Of course, some concession must be made 

 to owners of these lands, but in the long run they will 

 receive more from their land, under scientific management, 

 than they will if allowed to cut at pleasure above any arbi- 

 trary size-limit. It would be better for the state and better 

 for the owner if a definite plan of management were first 

 formulated with the understanding that all the work should 

 be done under the direction and control of a competent 

 forester. 



Some time ago the Legislature of this state, in a gush 

 of easy-going benevolence, voted a million dollars to be 

 used for furnishing work for the unemployed in the parks 

 of this city. Ever since then the Park Commissioners have 

 been pelted with censure on every side because they were 

 not able to set two or three thousand men at work at once. 

 Much of the work needed on parks cannot be done at all at 

 this inclement season. Any work of importance must be 

 carefully prepared for by preliminary surveys and esti- 

 mates. If it had been understood that this money was to 

 be expended in the course of a year, designs for improve- 

 ments of various sorts could have been made ready, but as 

 such a sudden appropriation was utterly unlooked for, it is 

 not the fault of the Board that they are unprepared to spend 

 it on sight to any good purpose. 



One of the things which can be best done at this season 

 is the thinning out and pruning of the trees in the woods 

 of the new parks, as well as in Central Park. This is work 

 which ought to be done. It is not a work upon which 

 thousands of unskilled workmen can be used to any advan- 

 tage, but it is a work which a well-organized Park Board 

 ought to be ready to undertake with a strong force at a 



