August 15, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



329 



pleasantly sweet, though rather insipid to the taste. These 

 Roses still give us a few blossoms. 



Rosa Wichuriana, planted last spring, bloomed profusely in 

 June. This Rose grows and spreads rapidly without any care, 

 and is a charming plant for wild places and rockeries, with a 

 creeping habit, tiny varnished leaves and pretty single white 

 flowers. 



Another interesting June bloomer is Hovenia dulcis, a small 

 tree from Asia, the fruit of which " is said to make men mad." 

 Our Hovenia bloomed, but it did not set any fruit, so that we 

 have no means of proving its intoxicating qualities. It is four 

 years since it was planted. I would be glad to know whether 

 any readers of Garden and Forest have succeeded in obtain- 

 ing fruit from the Hovenia. The flowers have a perfume like 

 that of Elder-blossoms. They are cream-colored, and borne 

 in axillary and terminal panicles. The Hovenia thrives in a 

 clay soil and seems to have no insect enemies. 



Many Altheas are in bloom. These shrubs have cool-look- 

 ing foliage, and the flowers of some of the single-flowered 

 kinds are pretty enough. The bright pink, the white and the 

 blush-colored single-flowered Altheas form a pretty group in 

 one of our shrubberies, but their chief merit lies in the fact 

 that they are August bloomers. 



Shepherdstown, W. Va. Vanske Dandridge. 



A Desirable Tree. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I should like to call attention to the Kentucky Coffee- 

 tree, Gymnocladus Canadensis, a tree which has not received 

 the attention it deserves in the northern states. It is one of 

 the hardiest, cleanest and most distinctive of our trees, and is 

 never assailed by any enemy, so far as I know. Its growth is 

 extremely rapid, and it sometimes makes six feet in a season 

 from the seed, and more than that as a sucker-growth. The 

 transplanted sucker, however, is less rapid in development 

 than a seedling. The limbs have an attractive way of elbow- 

 ing about that distinguishes it from all other trees. Forshade, 

 the tree has the charm of sifting and thinning the sunbeams 

 rather than totally excluding them. The flowers, which come 

 on about the first of July or earlier, have a spicy fragrance. 



A valuable characteristic of this tree is that it leaves out late 

 in spring. Difference in time of coming into leaf adds varieiy 

 to plantations, and the Butternut, the White Ash, Magnolia 

 acuminata, the Catalpas and the Coffee-tree are two weeks 

 later than the Willows and Birches. The English Elm is fully 

 two weeks later than our native Elms in putting forth its leaves. 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



The Forest. 



Mixed Oak and Beech Forests of the Spessart : 

 Management by the Bavarian Government. — IV. 



CONIFERS MIXED WITH THE BEECH. 



T is not, however, intended that those portions which will 

 be left to be stocked by the Beech are to grow up as 

 pure Beech-woods. The worst places where the woods 

 are stunted, on shallow stony ground, or when the rock is 

 near the surface, or when the soil has deteriorated through 

 continuous removal of litter, have been and will hereafter, 

 as the wood on them is cut, be transformed into Scotch 

 Pine on dry, and Spruce on moist ground. But also into 

 the Beech-woods on better soil, where it does not appear 

 expedient to establish Oak areas, is it intended to introduce 

 a mixture of coniferous woods. The object is to produce 

 more timber within a shorter time. The timber of these 

 coniferous trees, Larch, Scotch Pine, Spruce and the Silver 

 Fir, invariably fetches good prices where it has grown up 

 mixed with the Beech. In fact, it is intended to create 

 mixed woods, not only of Beech and Oak, but also of Beech 

 and these conifers. It has been stated above that a Beech- 

 tree 180 years old, with a diameter of twenty-four inches, 

 may be expected to yield 30 per cent, of timber at twenty 

 marks and 70 per cent, of fire-wood at five marks a cubic 

 metre. That time will suffice to produce two successive 

 crops of coniferous trees with, in the aggregate, a much 

 larger volume of wood, of which about 80 per cent, would 

 be timber, worth as much if not more than Beech. More- 

 over, the demand for Beech-timber, which is never very 



considerable, may diminish, whereas the demand for 

 coniferous woods is certain to increase. 



As regards the Larch, many of the younger woods do not 

 look promising, but, as already mentioned, there are groups 

 of trees over 100 years old which have grown up in the 

 midst of Beech, and which are well grown and healthy. 

 The Silver Fir has not yet been tried to any large extent in 

 the Spessart; there is not, however, any doubt regarding 

 its success. In accordance with these ideas, coniferous 

 trees are introduced into the Beech-woods in a variety of 

 ways, blanks in the young crop are filled up by planting 

 groups of Larch in dry, Spruce in moist places, while the Sil- 

 ver Fir, which demands much shelter while young and must 

 have a start on account of the very slow rate of growth in 

 its youth, requires different treatment. In compartments 

 which are to be regenerated within a few years, holes are 

 cut by the removal of old spreading trees ; in these holes 

 the ground is sown with Silver Fir which comes up under 

 the shelter of the surrounding wood and can bide its time, 

 until the rest of the wood is regenerated in the usual man- 

 ner by means of successive cuttings. 



FUTURE TREATMENT OF OAK AREAS. 



At the present stage these Oak areas are exceedingly 

 healthy, completely stocked thickets. But it is certain that 

 when they have attained the age of from forty to fifty years 

 their condition will be less satisfactory, the stems will show 

 a tendency to branch, they will assume an irregular shape, 

 and the ground will not be sufficiently shaded or suffi- 

 ciently manured by the scanty leaf-fall of the Oak. At that 

 time, therefore, Beech will have to be sown or planted to 

 serve as an under wood to shade and manure the ground, 

 and thus to improve the growth of the Oak. For this pur- 

 pose the Oak will have to be heavily thinned, and these 

 thinnings will have to be repeated from time to time in 

 order to afford the light needful for the development of the 

 Beech. Eventually it is expected that these areas will be 

 stocked with two-storied woods, the upper story consisting 

 of Oak and the lower of Beech, when at the age of 120 the 

 Beech-wood is cut, a portion of the Oak-trees will be held 

 over and these will probably run through a second rotation 

 of the Beech. All this, of course, is hypothetical, but the 

 hypothesis is based upon actual experience, and when plans 

 are framed for the management of such slow-growing trees 

 as the Oak, some idea must be formed regarding the effect 

 which the operations prescribed in these plans will have in 

 a far-distant future. So much, however, may be regarded 

 as certain, that it is not expedient to allow the woods in 

 these Oak areas to grow up as pure Oak-woods. 



The question arises, whether matters might not be ar- 

 ranged a little differently, so as to save the underplanting 

 with Beech and the heavy thinning of the Oak entailed by 

 this operation. In that portion of the forest-range Lohr 

 West, which adjoins compartment Horstig, and in com- 

 partment Schwarzbuch of the Rothenbuch range, which is 

 situated west of Horstig, considerable areas were sown in 

 1 86 1 with acorns, not broadcast, nor in lines two to three 

 feet apart, as previously described, but in lines from six to 

 nine feet apart. These lines had evidently been well dug 

 up and the acorns had been sown very thick in them. The 

 lines of Oak-saplings are dense and in excellent condition, 

 and between these lines Beech has come up at a later date 

 naturally, but the Oak having a sufficient start the Beech 

 hitherto has been no hindrance, but on the contrary an 

 advantage in shading and manuring the ground, and in 

 making the Oak form clean and straight stems. It remains 

 to be seen whether a distance of six to nine feet between 

 the lines is sufficient, and whether the Beech will not after 

 all overtop the Oak under this arrangement. Should a plan 

 like that here indicated prove successful, the Oak areas 

 would have to be made larger than hitherto, but the great 

 advantage of a mixture from the commencement would be 

 gained, and the operation of underplanting with Beech at a 

 later period would be saved. „. , . . ., ,. 



Bonn, Germany. DlClllCll LrdlldlS. 



