August i, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



301 



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. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article:— Forestry in the Land-grant Colleges 301 



Wayside Plants in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 302 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 303 



New or Little-known Plants: — Spiraea bracteata. (With figure.) C. S. 5". 304 



Plant Notes 304 



Cultural Department: — Notes on Trees and Shrubs J. G. Jack. 306 



Climbers for Garden Fences J. N. Gerard. 306 



Alstromerias IV. G. 307 



The Hardy Flower-garden F. H. Horsford. 307 



Midsummer Cultural Notes IV. H. Tafilin. 30S 



Correspondence : — Orchids in Wellesley A. M. S. Rossiter. 308. 



The Forest : — Mixed Oak and Beech Forests of the Spessart : Management by 



the Bavarian Government. — II Sir Dietrich Brandts. 309 



Notes 310 



Illustration : — Spiraea bracteata. Fig. 50 305 



Forestry in the Land-grant Colleges. 



EVERY thinking man knows that this country is 

 already suffering serious loss, and that we are in- 

 viting incalculable loss in the future by neglecting to pro- 

 vide any systematic management for our public forests or 

 private woodlands. Not only is there no system, but there 

 is no realization of the fact that we need any system, and 

 the men who control our timber-supply keep on in a 

 happy-go-lucky way, getting the most out of the woods 

 that seems possible to-day, and trusting to luck for to- 

 morrow. No doubt, the country will awake some time, as 

 its needs become pressing, and there will be a demand for 

 skilled foresters, but just where the supply of competent 

 men is to come from is not so clear. To-day it would 

 not be easy to find men who can be trusted to manage a 

 large forest-property to the best advantage ; to manage it — 

 that is, in such a way as to secure from it the mostremunera- 

 tive output now, while, at the same time, its productive 

 capacLty is not only kept unimpaired, but steadily increas- 

 ing. Of course, any man of ordinary intelligence and 

 executive force could improve on our present practice, but 

 the men whose knowledge and experience are sufficient to 

 manage our forests to their highest profit as permanent 

 sources of supply are few and far between. 



In other countries there are forest experiment stations 

 established by the Government, where investigations are 

 constantly in progress which will add to the knowledge of 

 the various subjects included under tire comprehensive 

 term of forestry, and there are schools in which persons 

 are trained in its theory and practice. Even if it were ad- 

 visable to establish schools of that sort in this country, we 

 have no corps of teachers capable of giving proper in- 

 struction, and no well-managed forests to serve as ex- 

 amples. But there is much elementary knowledge which 

 can be acquired without any course in a French or German 

 forest-school, and there seems no reason why the rudi- 

 ments of the science and art of forestry should not be 

 taught in our agricultural colleges. The state has en- 

 dowed these institutions, and they are supposed to afford 



instruction in various departments of agriculture as well as 

 in horticulture, including pomology and even floriculture, 

 and this, too, although the Government does no farming or 

 gardening. On the other hand, the Government does own 

 large tracts of timbered land, many of which are already 

 set apart as reservations, and there is little doubt that other 

 portions of the public lands which are forest-clad will ulti- 

 mately be left under the control of the General Govern- 

 ment, so that, to a certain extent, the Government will 

 manage its own forests. There is a special reason, there- 

 fore, why the Government should assume to provide expert 

 training for the care of its own property in this way. 



A few of the land-grant colleges recognize the subject of 

 forestry as one of the branches included under the head of 

 agriculture, and it is worth while to inquire how much in- 

 struction is actually given at these institutions. Professor 

 C. S. Plumb, of Purdue University, has collected some 

 data from their current publications on this point, 

 which he has kindly placed at our disposal. From these 

 data we learn that not a single reference to forestry is made 

 either in the catalogues, registers or reports of the agricul- 

 tural colleges in the following states : Alabama, Arizona, 

 Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, 

 Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ten- 

 nessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

 In Colorado a portion of one term of the junior year is de- 

 voted to this subject. " Lectures are given on gathering 

 and preservation of forest-tree seeds, planting of the seeds, 

 care of seedlings and the value of trees for timber and or- 

 nament, for hedges, screens and shelter belts in this state." 

 In Storr's Agricultural School, in Connecticut, forestry is 

 said to be taught with botany and horticulture, but to what 

 extent is not stated. "Some acres of the college-land are 

 covered with a growth of young trees, which will afford 

 an opportunity for the present to illustrate the methods 

 of pruning forest-trees and the management and preser- 

 vation of forests." In the Illinois University there is 

 a course in forestry which embraces a "study of for- 

 est-trees and their uses, natural distribution, and their 

 artificial production." The relations of forest and cli- 

 mate are studied, and the general topic of forestry 

 legislation and economy are discussed. In Purdue Uni- 

 versity, Indiana, three hours a week, for eleven weeks in 

 the spring of the senior year, are divided between forestry 

 and landscape-gardening. In Iowa Agricultural College, 

 " during the second term of the senior year a general view 

 is taken of the influence of horticulture and forestry on the 

 civilization of the earth and the health and comfort of its 

 inhabitants." Three hours are devoted to this a week. 

 There are "forestry plantations" which are among the 

 means of practical illustration. The Kansas Agricultural Col- 

 lege has among its illustrative material " a forest plantation 

 of twelve acres, containing twenty varieties of from one to 

 twenty-five years' growth." In the Kentucky College for- 

 estry is included as one subject of instruction under the 

 head of economic botany. In the Massachusetts College 

 instruction is given two hours a week for the fall term and 

 three hours a week for the winter term in senior year. It 

 is added that a large forest-grove is connected with the 

 horticultural department, where methods of pruning trees 

 and the management and preservation of forests can be illus- 

 trated. During the spring term of this year, Mr. B. E. Fer- 

 now, Chief of the Division of Forestry of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, delivered a course of twelve 

 lectures before the senior class. In Michigan Agricultural 

 College the seniors may elect to devote their year to the 

 elements of forestry, the first three weeks being given to 

 an examination of the indigenous trees of the neighborhood 

 and the remainder of the term devoted to lectures and read- 

 ing. There is an arboretum of nearly two acres, which 

 was begun in 1877, and which contains about one hundred 

 and fifty species of trees. In Minnesota, during the first 

 term of the third year, lectures on forestry are given three 

 times a week. There is a post-graduate course in horticul- 

 ture at the Mississippi College, which includes work in 



