292 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 335. 



the areas which had been devastated and to provide for 

 future supplies. All the fundamental problems of forestry- 

 had to be dealt with, and an explanation of the manner in 

 which these problems were met ought to prove useful to 

 American readers. Of course, no forest experience in one 

 part of the world can be exactly repeated in another. In 

 fact, the details of any forest system will differ widely in 

 different parts of the same country. Very plainly, we can- 

 not attempt to grow the same species of trees as are grown 

 in Franconia. We have a different soil, a different climate, 

 different markets, different financial conditions ; but be- 

 cause we cannot repeat the details of forest practice which 

 are used elsewhere there is no reason why we should go 

 blundering along without recognizing the fact that there 

 are principles which lie at the basis of all successful for- 

 estry. When Sir Dietrich Brandis was appointed to organize 

 the forest practice and the forest service of British India, he 

 had to deal with Teak and Bamboo instead of with Oak 

 and Beech. He found that Teak and Rosewood were be- 

 ing exterminated in all accessible areas. No protection 

 was given to valuable trees, and no provision was made 

 for their reproduction. Using the principles which he had 

 learned in Germany, and properly mingling the trees which, 

 as he found by observation, demanded light with those 

 which endured shade, he founded a systematic manage- 

 ment of the Teak-forests, which now brings a steadily in- 

 creasing revenue to the Government and insures a lasting 

 supply of timber. 



The first requirement for a successful system of forestry 

 in America is a thorough knowledge of the habits of our 

 native trees. Until we can give an intelligent reason for 

 planting any one kind in any given place and in any given 

 company ; until we can make a forecast which includes 

 the entire life of a forest-tree up to the appointed date for 

 felling it, and which takes into account the particular in- 

 fluence its growth and its removal will have upon the 

 forest of which it is a part, our planting will be nothing 

 but an experiment, and probably a failure. We can afford 

 such experiments with a grain crop, for example, which 

 takes but a year to mature, but if we are planning for 

 forests which are to be permanent, and yet yield an an- 

 nual timber crop, a mistake at the outset may be serious 

 beyond computation. Unfortunately, our space compels 

 us, as was the case in the earlier papers of this series, to 

 abbreviate to some extent the instructive treatise which 

 Dr. Brandis has prepared, but we have tried to omit noth- 

 ing which will weaken the force of the argument which he 

 addresses to Americans. Experience, he says — actual ex- 

 perience — is the only safe guide in forest-management. 

 Hence it is wise to learn from the actual experience of 

 those countries where the profession of forestry has at- 

 tained its highest development. It would be a waste of time 

 not to utilize the lessons which success and failure have 

 taught other countries, and he sets forth in detail the man- 

 agement of the mixed wood of the Spessart in the hope that 

 Americans will be induced to come and see and study for 

 themselves. Forest-management in British India is suc- 

 cessful, and this was based upon forestry as it had been 

 developed in France and Germany. If a successful system 

 of forest-management is ever built up in America it will be 

 founded on the same solid principles. 



North American Thorns. 



THERE are several species of Crataegus in east- 

 ern North America that are excellent garden- 

 plants, although they are rarely planted in this country, 

 and yet the European Hawthorn, Crataegus Oxyacantha, 

 is frequently used in our plantations in spite of the fact 

 that our hot dry summers have such an effect upon it that 

 it is often deprived of its leaves through fungal diseases in 

 July or August. The best North American Hawthorns to 

 plant in the northern states are Crataegus mollis, Crataegus 

 cordata, Crataegus punctata and Crataegus Crus-galli. Cra- 



taegus mollis, which grows to a larger size than the other 

 species of the northern states, where it often appears as a 

 broad-branched shapely tree, fully thirty feet tall, is the 

 earliest American species to flower. The large flowers and 

 brilliant scarlet fruit of this tree make it very ornamental in 

 spring and early autumn, and the intricate branches, cov- 

 ered in their early years with lustrous chestnut-brown bark 

 and armed with long curved spines, render it interesting in 

 winter. The fruit, which is sometimes an inch and a quar- 

 ter long, unfortunately falls almost as soon as it is ripe in 

 August or September. 



Crataegus cordata, known as the Washington Thorn, has 

 the merit of flowering later than any of the other species, 

 the small flowers opening here late in June ; its thick and 

 lustrous leaves turn in the autumn to brilliant shades of 

 scarlet and orange, and the small bright red fruit hangs on 

 the branches until late into the winter. As an ornamental 

 plant the Washington Thorn is certainly one of the most 

 valuable of the small North American trees. Once popular 

 as a hedge-plant it is now rarely seen in our gardens. 



Crataegus punctata is distinguished by its obovate 

 rounded leaves with prominent veins, its large bright red 

 or clear yellow fruit marked with many pale dots, and by 

 its flat-topped head of spreading branches. Very common 

 in all the Appalachian region and in the north central 

 states and Ontario, it is often seen occupying hill-side pas- 

 tures with open thickets or groves of considerable extent. 

 The habit of this species and its large and showy fruit 

 should recommend it to planters, who, up to this time, have 

 generally failed to recognize its value. 



But the most valuable of all our Hawthorns as an orna- 

 mental plant is the Cockspur or Newcastle Thorn, Crataegus 

 Crus-galli, one of the most variable in the form of its leaves 

 of all our Hawthorns, and one of the most widely dis- 

 tributed trees of eastern North America, ranging as it does 

 from the valley of the St. Lawrence to the valley of the 

 Colorado, in Texas. In cultivation the Cockspur Thorn is 

 a shapely tree with a short trunk and wide-spreading 

 branches, which sweep the ground when sufficient space 

 is allowed them in which to develop and form a compact, 

 round-topped, well-proportioned head. Such a specimen 

 appears in our illustration on page 295 of this issue, made 

 from a photograph of a tree that has been growing for sixty 

 years in a garden near Boston, Massachusetts ; it shows 

 what the Cockspur Thorn is capable of becoming with 

 good treatment. The flowers open in June after the large, 

 thick and lustrous leaves have attained their full size, and 

 at a time of the year when a comparatively small number 

 of trees and shrubs are in bloom ; the fruit is large and 

 abundant, and hangs on the branches throughout the win- 

 ter without diminution of brightness, and the leaves in the 

 autumn turn to brilliant shades of orange and scarlet. This 

 tree has to recommend it longevity, a good habit, hardi- 

 ness, ample lustrous leaves brilliant in the autumn, abun- 

 dant late-opening flowers and well-colored persistent fruit. 

 It is not surprising, therefore, that it has attracted the at- 

 tention of gardeners in Europe, where it is more highly 

 prized and more frequently planted than any of the other 

 American species, or than it has ever been in this country, 

 although at one time it was used in large numbers by the 

 farmers of Newcastle, Delaware, as a hedge-plant — a fact 

 to which it owes one of its populai names. 



The Thorns are best increased by seed, although par- 

 ticular varieties are multiplied by grafts. The seeds 

 usually do not germinate until the second year, and the 

 seedlings at first grow slowly ; once established, however, 

 in good, deep, rather moist soil, which all the species of 

 the genus require in order to display all their beauties, 

 they grow rapidly and begin to flower at the end of a few 

 years. 



Of all our small trees none surpass the Hawthorns in 

 beauty or in interest, for two seedling plants are nevei 

 alike, and their variations increase the pleasure of culti- 

 vating them. Many woody glades from New England to 

 Texas owe their greatest charm to an abundance of Haw- 



