December 12, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



491 



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. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles: — Forestry by Proclamation 491 



The Professional Tree-trimmer 491 



Imagination in Gardening M. C. R. 492 



The Box-elder and the Russian Mulberry Pro/essor Charles A. Keffer. 493 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter W. Watson. 494 



Plant Notes: — The Garry Oak. {With figure.) Francis Ernest Lloyd. 494 



Cultural Department:— The Eariy Bearing of Orchard-trees, 



T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 496 



The Ferrocyanide Test for Bordeaux Mixture Professor L. R. Jones. 497 



The Cultivation of Strawberries 497 



The Cultivation of Violets W N. Craig. 497 



December Notes J. N. G. 498 



Late Chrysanthemums W.K.Harris 498 



Correspondence: — A Robust Pin Oak Henry Trimble. 498 



Chrysanthemums Naturally Grown R. P. 498 



Climbing Roses in California //. G. Pratt. 499 



R ecent Publications 499 



Notes 5°° 



Illustration :— Quercus Garryana, the Garry Oak, Fig. 78 495 



Forestry by Proclamation. 



WHEN the act "to repeal the timber-culture law and 

 for other purposes" passed Congress just as the 

 session was closing on the 3d of March, 1891, it was not 

 generally understood that the provisions of the bill " for 

 other purposes" were a good deal more important even 

 than those repealing the timber-culture laws, and that one 

 section of the act invested the President with unprece- 

 dented power in regard to the future of the public domain. 

 This is the now well-known provision empowering the 

 President to set apart reservations of timber lands, and "to 

 declare by proclamation the establishment of such reser- 

 vations and the limits thereof." This law marked a dis- 

 tinct departure from the policy of the Government in 

 relation to our public forests, but there is little reason to 

 fear that it will be exercised against the public welfare, for 

 the strongest pressure of local and pecuniary interests 

 brought to bear upon the President will always be against 

 the withdrawal of lands from sale. In less than four years 

 seventeen reservations have already been proclaimed in 

 nine states, and, altogether, they amount to more than 

 26,500 square miles, an area considerably more than half 

 as large as the entire state of New York. All the selections 

 seem to have been judiciously made ; they insure the 

 integrity of much scenery of great natural beauty and sub- 

 limity ; they save many kinds of great game which are 

 threatened with extinction ; they ought to ensure a lasting 

 timber supply in regions where it will be sorely needed, 

 and, most of all, they protect the headwaters of some of 

 our great rivers. 



We have often called attention to the negligence of Con- 

 gress in failing to provide systematic and efficient protection 

 for this vast territory. As it now stands, these seventeen mil- 

 lions of acres have nothing but the President's proclamation 

 to protect them from sheep-herders or timber-thieves, and it 

 is well known that any one can plunder or burn them with 

 little fear of punishment. Every attempt to enact a meas- 

 ure for the safety of these forest reserves has been defeated, 

 and a force strong enough to defeat protective legislation 

 is strong enough to guarantee impunity to trespassers. If 

 there is not enough virtue in Congress to protect the forests 



already established, what would be the effect if the Presi- 

 dent should at once increase them by making proclamation 

 to reserve the land about the headwaters of all our great 

 western rivers wherever such land is now public ? Would 

 Congress be impelled to make greater haste in passing 

 laws to protect these lands, or would the opposition to the 

 reservations be increased by enlisting the support of ad- 

 ditional local interests which might seem to be threatened? 

 These inquiries are suggested by an article in the current 

 number of the Review of Reviews, by Mr. Robert U. John- 

 son, who argues that the delay of Congress in providing for 

 the care of reservations does not relieve the President of 

 responsibility for the delay in creating others. He adds : 



By one stroke of the pen the President can make a reserva- 

 tion, for instance, at the headwaters of the Missouri, which, 

 without interfering with private rights, shall control for all 

 time for the public the source of that great stream. The 

 country would not fail to greet with favor a well-considered 

 scheme for similar tracts in the entire west. Such action 

 would be an honorable challenge to the patriotism and good 

 sense of Congress, qualities which are never found wanting in 

 a crisis, and the necessary legislation for the patrol and care 

 of these reservations would be all the surer to follow, by rea- 

 son of the magnitude of the beneficent scheme. 



In one of the early issues of this journal it was proposed 

 that Congress should withdraw from sale all forest-land 

 until a commission of competent men should report on 

 their extent and value, and designate such portions as 

 should be forever kept in forest to insure a full and equable 

 water-supply for our great rivers. If this plan had been 

 adopted a scheme would have been formulated long before 

 this, mapping out the permanent forest and giving reasons 

 for the boundaries laid down. It may well be questioned, 

 however, whether under the act of 1891 the President would 

 be justified in any such sweeping proclamation as is now 

 contemplated. The act was not passed with any such 

 object in view, and it is not improbable that such an exer- 

 cise of power would excite hostility which would ultimately 

 destroy the whole scheme. Forest-protection, though it 

 may come late, will come at last, when there is a thor- 

 oughly enlightened public opinion on the subject, which 

 will insist on expressing itself in law. Neither the people 

 nor their representatives can be driven to this wise work 

 by any Presidential proclamation. The logical course is to 

 make sure of protecting what we already have before at- 

 tempting to take the entire public forest-lands by procla- 

 mation. There are certain mountain regions which palpa- 

 bly ought to be reserved, and which the President could at 

 once establish with the approval of almost the whole 

 country. But before any proclamation is made which 

 embraces in its scope the "entire west," there ought to be 

 a great deal of study in selecting locations and fixing 

 boundaries. Under the law a " stroke of the President's 

 pen " establishes the condition of these reservations for- 

 ever, and surely the word which fixes the boundaries of 

 the nation's forests and makes them permanent and final, 

 ought not to be hastily written or spoken. 



As soon as possible after the falling of the leaves the 

 professional tree trimmer begins to practice his rude' 

 surgery on street-trees, and he keeps it up as long as he 

 can find remunerative employment. Almost exactly two 

 years ago a row of fine Norway Maples, standing in a 

 neighboring city, were mutilated in this way beyond all 

 hope of recovery, and hardly two blocks from the remains 

 of these trees a butchery of the same sort is going on as 

 we write. These professionals approach the owner of some 

 city lots, and their elaborate apparatus of ladders, ropes and 

 saws impress him with a sense of their superiority as ex- 

 perts in their art. The man himself knows nothing about 

 trees, and, probably, cannot even give the correct name of 

 a single tree which stands in front of his door, and he is 

 easily persuaded that, unless his trees are pruned, they will 

 soon die, or be worthless. What these journeymen do to 

 a young thrifty tree is to cut off all its large limbs to 



