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Garden and Forest. 



[Number 319. 



Forest-growth. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your correspondence columns of issue February 

 7th Dr. Hoskins gives some interesting experience of his 

 plantings, and finishes up with some quotations from The Ver- 

 mont Farmer, in which it is made to say that a Pine plantation 

 of seventy-five years' growth produced from 40,000 to 50,000 

 feet of timber per acre. This does seem an enormous yield 

 for so short a period, and quite beyond anything that can be 

 grown on this side. In looking over a well-grown Scotch Fir 

 wood of ninety years' growth a few days ago I was satisfied 

 there was not more than 5,000 cubic feet to the acre. The 

 situation was somewhat exposed, however. I see, also, on 

 turning up a copy of the charts used in the Danish schools of 

 forestry, that the average contents of an hectare of Fir at 

 eighty years' growth is 660 cubic metres, which will be equiva- 

 lent, speaking roughly, to something like 6,000 feet to the 

 acre. We expect much better results, however, from the 

 Douglas Fir, but it has not been sufficiently long planted yet, 

 nor in such quantities as to state accurately for purposes of 

 comparison its timber-producing capacity here; suffice it to 

 say, however, it is one of the best American introductions, and 

 grows about as fast again as the Scotch Fir on good soil. 



My object in writing you, however, is to express my pleasure 

 on reading an account in your paper a few weeks ago of some 

 planting by Mr. Robert Douglas, I believe, in Kansas. It 

 struck me at the time that if this methodical plan could be 

 carried out on the American and Canadian prairie to some ap- 

 preciable extent, it would very soon improve the aspect of the 

 country immensely. If timber could be produced at one- 

 quarter the rate before mentioned it would pay the farmer 

 well ; besides, the break afforded in these northern regions in 

 checking blizzards and hot winds would also prove invaluable. 

 Mixed farming must ultimately be the method which will give 

 the safest return, and one succeeds much better with wood at 

 hand for farm-buildings and for sheltering stock. The 

 Douglas Fir might succeed well out there. The European 

 Larch has been a great success in this country for fencing pur- 

 poses and farm-buildings. The great north-west is the quarter 

 to which thousands in the old country look for a home, and 

 every facility should be afforded to make it, at least, more 

 pleasant. And next to a plan of regenerating the fine natural 

 forests on the American continent, would be some judicious 

 prairie planting. 



Blinkbonny, Earlston, Scotland. W. W. Robertson. 



[In this country it is the practice to estimate timber by 

 board measure, and not in cubic feet. In America 50,000 

 feet of timber means 50,000 square feet of boards one inch 

 thick. So that the growth recorded by The Vermont 

 Farmer, although heavy, is not so enormous as it seems to 

 Mr. Robertson, and does not differ materially from the 

 European instances cited in his letter. — Ed.] 



Russian Apples. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — I observe that in your issue of March 7th Mr. Jack 

 gives Charlottenthaler as a synonym of Yellow Transparent. 

 This is hardly correct, and an error like this should be arrested 

 before it leads to trouble. The facts are that Charlottenthaler, 

 Grand Sultan and Yellow Transparent belong to one family, 

 and their fruits resemble each other closely in appearance, 

 though they differ in quality, and they do not ripen at exactly 

 the same season. I have grown and tested them carefully to- 

 gether. Yellow Transparent is the poorest of the three in 

 quality, but it is the only one of much commercial value be- 

 cause the other two are subject to a bark blight which destroys 

 the trees almost before they come into bearing. Most of the 

 prominent Russian Apples are grouped in families, and are 

 more or less closely reproduced from seed. 



Newport, Vt. 



T. H. Hoskins 



Dangers from the Pride of China Tree. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The article on page 92 brings to mind certain experi- 

 ences of mine, when, as a young girl, I spent some time on a 

 South Carolina plantation. The only trees nearer the house 

 than the long avenue of approach were an immense Crape 

 Myrtle, and a little farther away a fine Pride of China Tree. 

 Under this tree the boys of the family, not too much my ju- 

 niors to invite me to share in some of their escapades, found, 



when its berries were ripe, an occasional prize. They were 

 quite in the habit of picking up birds which had eaten these 

 berries to their destruction, as they were summarily served 

 and eaten at certain irregular picnics. As I was told, the birds 

 became intoxicated from feasting upon this too stimulating 

 and delightful food, of which they were evidently inordinately 

 fond. Having eaten heartily, they would fall to the ground, 

 overcome ; in this condition they were picked up, their necks 

 wrung, and after being plucked and wrapped in a shaving of 

 bacon were suspended from a bent stick and roasted before a 

 surreptitious fire. After this process they were eaten with in- 

 finite zest. Occasionally, by great watchfulness on the part of 

 a squad of small negroes, quite a string of birds would be col- 

 lected before the "young masters" came out of the school- 

 room. 



The birds, if left to themselves, soon recovered, and took 

 themselves off, with a headache, perhaps. At all events, that 

 the inebriated birds could be eaten without any injurious effect, 

 save a slight prick of conscience, I am abundantly able to 

 testify. 



Amherst, Mass. D. H. R. G. 



Recent Publications. 



The October and November issues of the Bulletin of Mis- 

 cellaneous Information of the Royal Gardens at Kew, con- 

 tain a most interesting paper on a botanical journey along 

 the Sikkim-Thibet frontier, made by Mr. G. A. Gammie, an 

 assistant in the Government Chinchona Plantations at 

 Mungpoo. The article is made specially interesting by the 

 publication in the same number of the bulletin of a letter 

 written to the Director of the Royal Gardens, by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, who, more than fifty years ago, explored this very 

 region and first made known the character of its vegetation. 



In writing on Mr. Gammie's report, Sir Joseph says: 



The perusal of it strengthens in me the opinion which I have 

 long entertained, but which I have never formulated, that 

 Sikkim, for its area, presents one of the richest, if not the 

 richest botanical region on the globe. And further, that though 

 no more than about forty miles from east to west, and one 

 hundred from north to south, and situated beyond the north- 

 ern tropic, I believe that when all that is known of its vegeta- 

 tion shall have been brought together, it will prove to be a 

 better microcosm of the flora of the globe than any other area 

 of equal or even of much larger dimensions. Thus, in its 

 alpine region, the floras of the European, Siberian, Chinese 

 and American mountains are all richly represented, and there 

 also are found the principal types of the steppe and desert 

 vegetations of Thibet and central Asia. In its temperate region 

 European genera abound in species in greater numbers than 

 they do furthest west in the Himalaya, or probably than they 

 do further east in the same range, where different climatic 

 features prevail ; and in the same region types of Chinese, 

 Japanese and North American genera appear in force, which 

 rapidly disappear in advancing toward the western Himalaya. 

 Lastly, in the tropical region the Malayan flora disputes prece- 

 dence with those of the plains and lower hills of the Indian 

 continent, Burma and Ceylon, as represented by genera and 

 species, many of which are also characteristic of tropical 

 Africa. 



Some idea of the vegetation of this region will appear 

 from the following extracts from Mr. Gammie's paper, which 

 we commend to every one interested in botanical geog- 

 raphy, and to the aspects of vegetation in one of the most 

 interesting forest-regions of the world : 



The Singalelah range is an elevated mountain pass, spring- 

 ing from the face of Kinchinjunga, and extending southward 

 to the plains of India. Owing to the facilities of traveling 

 afforded by the Nepal frontier road to Phalut, the range so far 

 is much frequented by general travelers, and is, in conse- 

 quence, too well explored to induce one to linger on the way 

 in search of novelties. Some Yew-trees, Taxus baccata, grow 

 close to the road beyond Tohglu, and Abies Webbiana is first 

 seen on the last ridge between Tonglu and Sandakphu ; from 

 thence onward it exists in profusion up to 13,000 feet in eleva- 

 tion, covering mountain-sides with dense and sombre forests. 

 There are trees of Tsuga Brunoniana below Phalut, and Juni- 

 perus Pseudo-Sabina abounds near the path to Cheabhanjan ; 

 but the other species of conifers, so characteristic of drier 

 Sikkim, are altogether absent. Above 11,000 feet the most 

 notable plants are Aconites and Meconopsis Wallichii, and a 

 few species each of the genera Ranunculus, Anemone, Poten- 



