April 4, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



131 



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, APRIL 4, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Article:— The Yellowstone National Park 131 



Apples at the Midwinter Fair Charles H. Shinn. 132 



Exotic Trees and Shrubs for Florida Gardens. — V H. Nehrling. 132 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 133 



New or Little-known Plants: — Prunus Watsoni. (With figure.) C. S. S. 134 



Cultural Department : — Patience with Germinating Seeds J. G. Jack. 135 



Work in the Flower-garden E . O. Orpet. 136 



Summer-flowering Carnations ll r . N. Craig. 136 



Celery Culture . .Professor W. IV. Tracy. 137 



Correspondence :— Earth-worms in Flower-pots K. L. 137 



Forest-growth /•'"". //'• Robertson. 13S 



Russian Apples T. H. Hoskius, M.D. 138 



Dangers from the Pride of China Tree D. H. R. G. 13S 



Recent Publications 138 



Notes 139 



Illustration :— Prunus Watsoni, Fig. 25 135 



The Yellowstone National Park. 



MUCH indignation has naturally been kindled by the 

 stories recently published of the slaughter of the few 

 buffalo which were nominally under Government protec- 

 tion in the Yellowstone Park. A late number of Forest and 

 Stream contained a circumstantial account of the capture 

 of one miscreant in the very act of skinning one of the 

 five buffaloes which lay dead about him, and there were 

 evidences that he had been quite as successful in his mur- 

 derous work on former days. The situation is made more 

 depressing by the knowledge that this is probably a repre- 

 sentative case, and that other poachers are engaged in the 

 work of exterminating the few surviving individuals of the 

 countless herds which once ranged over the plains. More 

 aggravating still is the reflection that no law exists for the 

 punishment of such crimes. The fact that Yellowstone 

 Park and the adjacent reservation have been set apart for 

 the use and enjoyment of the people forever is really no 

 protection to its forests or its game, but rather an adver- 

 tisement to every outlaw' that he can steal the timber, or 

 set the woods on fire, or slaughter the big game, without 

 fear of punishment. Obviously the first duty of Congress 

 in this matter is to pass laws for the government of all 

 our parks and reservations and then administer them in 

 such a way that they will command respect. It is a 

 national disgrace that property which belongs to all the 

 people should be more unsafe than property that belongs 

 to any one of the people. 



But, while Congress seems slow to move where the case 

 demands immediate action, there is a lobby which works 

 without rest for measures relating to Yellowstone Park. 

 The bills are nominally to "fix the boundaries of the park," 

 but their real intention is to take away from it more than 

 a million acres. The lands which they speak of adding 

 to the park are really a part of it already — that is, they 

 are part of the forest-reserve which properly belongs to 

 the park and is under the same rules and government as 

 the park itself. For years after the National Park was cre- 

 ated thoughtful people had seen the necessity of its enlarge- 

 ment, better protection and maintenance, but such action was 

 always blocked by this persistent lobby, which somehow 



had power to prevent the enactment of any park law which 

 did not give the exclusive franchise for a railroad through 

 its north-east corner. It was said in open debate in the 

 Senate that this alleged railway company never had a 

 meeting ; that it never had books opened for subscriptions 

 to its capital stock ; that it had never made a report nor 

 built a rod of railway, and that under the laws of the state 

 of Montana all its supposed rights had been long forfeited. 

 But, somehow, it was stronger in Congress than the friends 

 of the park, and it was not until the President was author- 

 ized in an act, which escaped the attention of these adven- 

 turers, to set apart by public proclamation certain lands for 

 the use and enjoyment of the people, that Yellowstone Park 

 was practically enlarged to the dimensions and boundaries 

 laid down in Senator Vest's bill. The same lobby wdiich 

 for years fought every measure to enlarge the park is now 

 equally determined in the struggle to make it smaller. 



At one time it was proposed, as a sort of a compromise, 

 to cut off the corner of the park above the north fork of the 

 Yellowstone, but the speculators objected to this because 

 it would permit other railroads to pass through, and 

 what they desired was a monopoly. They now, how- 

 ever, propose this river as the boundary, and with a 

 stronger lobby than ever, they come armed with so-called 

 expert opinion to the effect that the corner cut off contains 

 valuable minerals, and is of no value to the park ; that the 

 portion of the forest-reserve to be rejected contains land 

 valuable for agriculture and grazing, while it is of no value 

 to the park, and that altogether the proposed change of 

 boundaries will facilitate the administration of the park and 

 afford better protection to its waters and forests and game. 

 Now, the man who ought to know something about these 

 matters is George S. Anderson, Captain of Cavalry, who is 

 now acting as superintendent of the park. He asserts that, 

 with the Yellowstone River for a boundary, all the ante- 

 lope and mountain sheep in the park, and many of the elk, 

 would be left at the mercy of poachers. He adds that this 

 north-east corner is not only of peculiar value to the park, 

 but is actually worthless for anything else ; that the large 

 deposits of coal and minerals exist only in the imagination 

 of adventurers, and that the little there found is in a small 

 placer belt, and can be secured without trouble. Captain 

 Anderson denies, too, that there is any land which can be 

 subdued to profitable agricultural use in the part of the 

 reservation which it is proposed to restore to the public 

 domain. Some of it does make good grazing-land, which 

 is the best reason for retaining it, because it is one of the 

 few good winter ranges — nearly the only good one — for 

 the big game in the winter-time. 



The fact seems to be that no one who has any real de- 

 sire to preserve our forests or game would like to see a 

 single rod taken off of the park or of the reserve. The men 

 who have objected to the present boundary have done so 

 from the outset from interested and personal motives. It 

 is the selfish ends of a few speculators against the public 

 good. Diminishing the park area might prove a temporary 

 benefit to a few merchants in Montana, but it would in the 

 end prove an injury to all the surrounding country. It 

 would gratify some lawless skin-hunters and perhaps some 

 timber-thieves, but no right, privilege or possession of any 

 honest man in the country, so far as we can see, will be 

 imperiled in the slightest degree by fixing the boundaries 

 of the park forever as they are. Here is a place for Con- 

 gress to make a determined stand. If a few speculators 

 prove that they can get away from the people 1,861 square 

 miles of land which have been formally dedicated to their 

 use, and can set back park boundaries which have stood 

 for twenty years, there is no security for the newer reser- 

 vations, nor for those to be hereafter established. Any 

 expert lobbyist can find equally valid reasons for dismem- 

 bering every tract set apart for the protection of forests and 

 game. Unless we are prepared to abandon the idea that it 

 is possible to hold for public use any land devoted to such 

 use bj r national authority, Congress must save Yellowstone 

 Park from mutilation. 



