442 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number. 350. 



were rigidly inspected. These difficulties would be multi- 

 plied many fold if the supervision of all the commerce 

 between the various states is undertaken. A single state 

 may prohibit the importation of fruit or nursery-stock, for 

 example, if it comes from a disease-infected district, just as 

 it has the power to exclude cattle sent from a place where 

 the Texas fever or pleuro-pneumonia prevails. In every case 

 where such transportation is arrested, decision must be made 

 as to whether the material is justly held or not, and what 

 tribunal is to decide all these cases? If all the states set 

 up a quarantine, such action might compel an examination 

 not only of all the nursery-stock and fruits which cross 

 state lines, but of every article which is liable to harbor a 

 dangerous insect or a fungus spore, so that the cost of all 

 this examination would ultimately be more serious than 

 the ravages of the pests themselves. Legislation in indi- 

 vidual states for the suppression of some of these enemies 

 may be locally beneficial, but even then such laws will 

 only have value when there is a strong public sentiment 

 behind them, not to speak of such a public spirit in indi- 

 viduals as would enable them to take broad and patriotic 

 views of the destruction of their own property when it 

 threatens that of others. We by no means assert that quar- 

 antine laws which have been so far enacted are to be con- 

 demned, but it is pretty plain that not only the spirit of 

 individual independence, but the sentiment of retaliation 

 of one community against another could be easily aroused 

 if it should appear that the rights of one section were in- 

 fringed by the restrictions on commerce made by another. 

 Altogether, the subject is one worthy of careful study by 

 every thoughtful citizen. 



In conclusion, it is worth while to repeat here what we 

 have said before on more than one occasion : What the 

 General Government can do, and what the state govern- 

 ments can do, in the same direction, is to give liberal support 

 to the scientific study of contagious diseases of plants and 

 of pestiferous insects, and to experimentation for insuring 

 the most effective methods of eradicating them. 



California Experiment Centres.-- 1. 



THE experiment station system in California is inter- 

 esting because it covers so much territory, and 

 extends over such a range of soils and climates. It will, 

 necessarily, be incomplete for many years to come, but 

 care has been taken to occupy the most important outposts, 

 and future development will be along lines already laid 

 down. The work is controlled by the University of Cali- 

 fornia, from its central station at Berkeley, on the east shore 

 of San Francisco Bay, opposite the Golden Gate. The funds 

 which maintain the regular outlying stations, six in num- 

 ber, are chiefly from the General Government, partly from 

 the state. Several lesser viticultural and horticultural sta- 

 tions, supported by private individuals, and more or less 

 closely connected with the university, are subject to some 

 supervision. The points at present covered by the main 

 system are : the Sacramento Valley, the San Joaquin Val- 

 ley, the central portion of the Sierra foot-hills, the south- 

 central part of the Coast range, the southern California 

 coast, and the southern California interior valleys, besides 

 several important districts around San Francisco Bay. The 

 inspector, in visiting the six outlying stations of the first 

 rank, travels about fifteen hundred miles to make a com- 

 plete circuit. When the extreme north-west and north-east 

 corners of the state have the stations which are greatly 

 needed there, and when one or two more are established in 

 the extreme south among the mountains and on the desert, 

 a round of visits will necessitate a journey of three thou- 

 sand miles. 



The elevations of the stations vary from a few feet above 

 the ocean to about twenty-five hundred feet above it. When 

 a forestry station is established on Mount Hamilton its work 

 will extend to four thousand feet above the sea ; when the 

 time comes for alpine stations one can be put in some 

 Sierra valley seven thousand or eight thousand feet high. 



The climates vary as greatly as the altitudes and geograph- 

 ical locations, and the soil of each station covers as wide 

 a range of representative soils as it has been possible to 

 obtain. Differing in almost every particular from each 

 other, the stations are developing marked individualities, 

 and form a most attractive group of pioneer experiment- 

 centres in forestry, horticulture and general agriculture. 



THE CHICO FORESTRY STATION. 



On the first of July, 1893, the University of California 

 took possession of the Chico Forestry Station, which had 

 been established half a dozen years before and had become 

 run down and neglected. The sum of $2,000 per annum 

 appropriated to keep up two stations was evidently insuf- 

 ficient, and it was plain the university would have to 

 advance more funds to carry on the work until the next 

 session of the Legislature, but the duty of the Agricultural 

 Department of the University seemed plain, that is, to en- 

 deavor to preserve and develop a piece of state property 

 potentially very valuable for experimental forestry purposes. 



The twenty-nine acres of land which constitute the station 

 are beautifully situated a mile east of the town, toward the 

 foot-hills, on rising ground, south of Chico Creek, and com- 

 prise both red and alluvial soils. The shape ofthe tract is 

 nearly that of a blunted triangle, with the base toward the 

 town. Large Oaks and Sycamores are massed north, along 

 the creek, and about a dozen large Oaks are on the station 

 land. A lumber company's water-flume, extending back 

 into the Sierras, passes along the western edge of the tract ; 

 the soil under it is continually wet, and offers a good 

 place for Willows and water-loving shrubs. The station 

 also controls, for planting purposes, a superb avenue ex- 

 tending from the south-west corner of the tract to the 

 town. Large Locusts, and some very large White Oaks 

 (Q. lobata) already line portions of this avenue, and it is 

 being planted with other Oaks. Professor Sargent sent 

 out a collection of Japanese Oaks, and many ofthe Ameri- 

 can species have been obtained elsewhere. 



A second approach to the station is by a winding road 

 along Chico Creek, a very charming drive or walk at every 

 season ofthe year, through one ofthe finest young Oak groves 

 inCalifornia. The vines of Vitis Californica here often climb 

 to the tops of the Sycamores. Perhaps a thousand acres 

 of woodland extend north from near the Forestry Station, and 

 form one of the most attractive portions of Rancho Chico. 

 In the centre of a large open glade, about a mile from the 

 station, is the famous Hooker Oak, illustrated and described 

 in Garden and Forest, vol. hi., p. 606. 



On so small a tract as twenty-nine acres there cannot be 

 any extensive forestry work. It is necessary to do much 

 testing of species, a few trees of each, and this arboretum 

 work is also desired by the community for the Chico Nor- 

 mal School classes. The demand _for something of an 

 arboretum is therefore strong, and, "if kept within limits, 

 entirely reasonable. But, as soon as the land is cleared of 

 the Sorghum Halapense, which has been allowed to take 

 possession of a considerable part of it, it will be practicable 

 to lay out ten or twelve acres in mixed high forest, using 

 California species for the Conifers, and for the hard woods 

 probably Quercus robur, Q. Cerris, which grows very fast 

 and tall here, Eucalyptus rostrata, Zelkowa Keaki and a 

 few others. Such a forest would blend finely with the 

 natural groves of Oaks near it, and would form a back- 

 ground for a more forma) arboretum toward the western 

 entrances. A ■ little coppice-work may prove desirable, 

 because a great many farmers on the treeless portions of 

 California wish to have fast-growing wind-breaks and fuel- 

 producing woodland, but know little or nothing about this 

 department of forestry. 



A very interesting lot of trees is now growing on the 

 station, and some are quite large, as they must have been 

 six or seven years planted, although no register of the 

 place seems to have been kept. The Pines are chiefly 

 Pinus Austriaca, P. Canadensis, P. insignis, P. ponderosa, 

 P. resinosa, P. Strobus and and P. sylvestris — in some 



