February 18, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



73 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



rUBLlSHEP 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 LOST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— An Experiment in Forestry 73 



The Forsythia as a Pillar Plant. (With figure.) 74 



Recent Botanical Discoveries in China and Eastern Burma. — I., 



IV. Sotting Hemsley. 74 



Notes on North American Trees.— XXI II C. S. S. 75 



New or Little Known Plants :— Viola hastata. (With figure.) 76 



Plant Notes :— Barbacenias and Vellozias W- Watson. 76 



Cultural Department :— Planting and Pruning in the Orchard. ..T. H. Hoskins. 78 



Aquatics in the Flower Garden IV. Tricker. 78 



Perennial Gaillardias E.O. Orfict. 80 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Garden M. Barker. 80 



Freesia xanthospia -G. 80 



Begonia Winter Gem .A.i>. 80 



Correspondence :— Winter Notes from North Carolina F. H. Ilorsford. 81 



Winter Flowers in California Carl Purdy. 81 



Recent Publications 8l 



Exhibitions:— Orchids at Short Hills, New Jersey -S. 81 



Meetings of Societies:— Iowa State Horticultural Society : Plums and Cherries 



for the Farmer's Orchard H. A. Terry. 82 



Crossing and Hybridizing for Fruit N. F. Hanson. 82 



Stone Fruits and Their Propagation Professor J. L. Budd. 83 



Forestry for the North-west C. F. Gardner. 83 



Notes °4 



Illustrations :— Viola hastata, Fig. 16 77 



Forsythia suspensa trained on a Porch at Wellesley, Fig. 17 79 



An Experiment in Forestry. 



THE Adirondack League Club, of which we have be- 

 fore spoken, owns a hundred square miles of timber 

 in a compact body on the south-western outskirts of the 

 mountain region of the wilderness. Some Beech and 

 Black Spruce are mixed with the prevailing Birch and Maple, 

 which here attain magnificent proportions, and scattered 

 among them are small quantities of White Pine, Fir, Tama- 

 rack and Hemlock, besides single trees of Black Cherry 

 and" Elm, with Black Ash on the swampy land. The qual- 

 ity of the timber is said to be excellent ; Birch-trees, which 

 are three or four feet in diameter, as well as the tall, straight 

 Spruces, are still vigorous and healthy. This region is 

 within easy reach of the greatest lumber markets of the 

 east, with waters capable of floating softwood and a topog- 

 raphy which admits of easy grades for roads, so that it 

 offers good advantages for carrying on lumber operations 

 and for intelligent forest-management. The lands of the 

 Club have recently been inspected by Mr. B. E. Fernow, of 

 the Forestry Department at Washington, and, if the recom- 

 mendations in his report are adopted, the people of the 

 United States will have for the first time a practical object- 

 lesson in the management of their woodlands, according to 

 the established principles of forestry. The tract offers a 

 favorable field for such an experiment, for it is sufficiently 

 large, and it contains a large amount of available and valu- 

 able material uninjured by fire, and within an accessible 

 distance of good markets. 



Bearing these facts in mind, Mr. Fernow's report is one 

 of exceptional interest and value, in that it brings out 

 clearly what the true function of forestry is, and it sweeps 

 away some of the misconceptions that are almost univer- 

 sally prevalent, and which must be corrected before any 

 successful forest-management can be established in the 

 United States. Systematic forestry is a business carried 

 on for profit in the production of wood-crops, just as agri- 

 culture is practiced for the profitable production of food- 



crops. Attention to this primary object does not exclude 

 other considerations, such as the preservation of our water- 

 supply and of certain climatic and soil conditions. In- 

 deed, forest-management for profit and forest-preservation 

 for other reasons may be in certain localities harmonious, 

 but economic forestry in a wooded country means pri- 

 marily the utilization of a wood-crop in such a way that 

 the original growth, or a forest of trees superior to those 

 of the original growth, will be reproduced with the least 

 expense. The operations of the lumberman and of the 

 forester differ in that the forester cuts his trees with the 

 view to secure a desirable reproduction, while a lumber- 

 man cuts them without such forethought. The efficient 

 management of a forest like the virgin tracts of the North 

 Woods requires no planting unless it is desired to intro- 

 duce new species, or unless clearing out and replanting 

 appears profitable, and the most successful way of per- 

 petuating the forest. In order to secure continued wood- 

 crops, the forester takes advantage of the constant struggle 

 for supremacy that is going on among the different trees 

 of a wood. One species will gain a foothold by prolific 

 seed-production, another by its dense shade, which will 

 kill out its rivals, a third by a vigorous root-system, which 

 enables it to endure the shade and bide its time until light 

 is let in to give it aid. Different kinds of trees and the 

 same species at different periods of its life have different 

 needs in regard to light and other influences, and it is the 

 practice of the trained forest-manager to assist the desira- 

 ble kinds in their struggle for existence, to check the unde- 

 sirable kinds and to create such conditions of soil and light 

 as will improve the composition of the forest as it is repro- 

 duced, and secure for it the most profitable growth. 



Hitherto prudent forest-management, looking toward 

 continued reproduction, has not existed in this country, 

 and therefore forest-property has had only a temporary 

 value. The lumberman's practice has been to secure the 

 valuable timber as quickly as possible, and leave the rest to 

 rot, or burn, or deteriorate. So long as there are virgin 

 forests to attack, the lumberman finds the greatest imme- 

 diate profit in stripping one tract of its most salable tim- 

 ber, and then abandoning it to invade another. The owner 

 of a large office-building will expend in repairs a part of 

 his income from its rent in order to improve its future pro- 

 ductive value, but the owner of a forest will not sacrifice a 

 part of his present profit in the interest of a permanent in- 

 vestment. He operates his timber-tract so as to insure the 

 quickest returns, and when it is exhausted he buys more 

 land. Of course there must be a limit to such short-sitrht- 

 edness and extravagance. When that limit is reached 'the 

 lumberman as we know him will give place to the forester, 

 of whom we have heard. The man who plans for the 

 future will supersede the man who works for the present. 



This day may be nearer at hand than many of us 

 imagine. At all events it is none too early to begin prepa- 

 ration for it. We have acquired great skill in the methods 

 of forest-destruction ; we know practically nothing of the 

 best means of forest-reproduction. The ability to direct 

 and modify and control the growth of a great forest can 

 only be acquired by study and practice. This technical 

 knowledge must be adjusted to the ever-changing commer- 

 cial aspects of the forest as new uses are found for wood 

 products and new markets opened. The managers of our 

 future forests, plainly, must be men of sound judgment 

 born of wide experience. It is to be hoped, therefore, that 

 the Adirondack League Club will not be diverted from its 

 purpose to carry on its proposed experiment. Let us have 

 one example of a forest managed as a permanent investment. 

 In other countries such ventures have proved profitable. 

 The state forests there are not public burdens, but they 

 help to pay the taxes, and it is not improbable that if the 

 state of New York could buy the land in the proposed 

 Adirondack Reservation at a reasonable price it could be 

 made to pay as a business investment if placed under 

 proper administration. The experiment to which we have 

 called attention ought to furnish data which will help in 



