94 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 157. 



does credit to the men who invested their capital in it. 

 They probably will make a trial of cutting away these 

 dead branches, at least in certain parts of the plantation, in 

 order to arrive at some intelligent idea of the value of such 

 work, and whether or not it is possible to trim the trees with 

 profit. Thefollowingisthe substance of Mr. Kessler's report : 



TheCatalpa occupies a larger area in the plantation than any 

 other tree. Of this area Catalpa speciosa was the species used 

 wherever the planting was done by Robert Douglas & Sons, 

 and the condition of the trees now proves very conclusively 

 the wisdom of the selection of that species. It seems that the 

 railroad company began the plantation with Catalpa bigno- 

 nioides, and also planted some Catalpa Ktzmpferii, both of 

 which, as I understand, were bought as C. speciosa. Asidefrom 

 these trees, they planted Black Walnut, Butternut, Pecan, 

 White Ash, Chestnu-t, Black Cherry, Osage-oran»e, Ailanthus 

 and Box Elder. 



The seedlings of Catalpa speciosa (as in fact all the other 

 trees) were planted four by four feet apart, and owing to this 

 close planting they have all made an excellent upright growth. 

 Except on the outside rows along forest-roads or openings the 

 trees are perfectly straight, have few large branches, and all 

 the smaller, and most of the larger, branches that did grow 

 have died out from want of light on the lower part of the 

 trunks to a height of ten feet from the ground. These 

 branches, however, have not fallen off, and few show any in- 

 dication of decay. Some of the stronger trees are now begin- 

 ning to overtop the weaker ones, and would, I think, soon thin 

 themselves. However, the difference in growth shown be- 

 tween the trees standing on the forest-roads and those in the 

 interior prove the necessity of hastening the process of thin- 

 ning out, and this I am having done now. 



Catalpa bignonioides does not do as well as C. speciosa. It 

 looks rough. Each year's growth shows the struggle between 

 the natural branching habit of the tree and the confining con- 

 ditions of close planting. The trunks are crooked and often 

 forked. It is quite large in diameter, but only for ten to twelve 

 feet up, and from there seems much reduced in size. 



Catalpa Ktzmpferi is hardly worth mention as a forest-tree, 

 however valuable it is in park-planting. The trees of this spe- 

 cies are about one-half the size of the other Catalpas, very 

 crooked and scrubby. 



In the thinning out, some 600 trees are removed from -an 

 acre — this means about every fourth tree. This first thinning 

 is entirely a matter of expense, as none of the trees culled are 

 large enough for use in any way, and cannot be disposed of 

 even for fuel, though there is no timber for miles around, be- 

 cause of cheap coal. For this reason the trees are merely cut 

 from the stumps and allowed to fall where cut. At the pres- 

 ent rate of work I should say that the thinning will cost not to 

 exceed seventy-five cents per acre. 



By way of comparing" the results of close and open planting 

 of Catalpa, I noted that some trees on a farm close by, on sim- 

 ilar soil and same conditions— trees planted eight feet by eight 

 apart — were one-fifth larger in diameter, from five to eight feet 

 shorter in height, and branched out too much to make straight 

 timber. Whereas the closely planted Catalpas are growing 

 tall and straight enough for some of the future thinnings to 

 furnish excellent telegraph and telephone poles. 



The tree covering the next largest area is the Ailanthus. 

 With this the company has had varied success. On rich loam 

 and with a loose or sandy subsoil the trees have grown well, 

 showing good strong trunks and straight, upright growth. Un- 

 fortunately, however, these trees do not form sufficiently 

 dense shade to prevent grass and weeds from growing under- 

 neath. This means that the sod formed stifles the trees, and 

 they remain stunted. The worst of this, however, is that the 

 weeds and grass furnish food for fires, the only real danger 

 and greatest obstacle to forest-growth on these dry prairies. 

 On the' light and thin soil and on places that are taken to have 

 been " buffalo wallows," the Ailanthus makes a growth simi- 

 lar to the Sumach. The best Ailanthus-trees are found where 

 a few were planted isolated among the Catalpa speciosa. 

 Here they have kept up with the Catalpa and form fine trunks. 



Of the Osage hedge-plants I can only say that they are ex- 

 cellent for hedges. When planted closely, they form bushes 

 instead of trees ; and when the trees do grow, they look small 

 and stunted. None of those on the plantation will exceed three 

 and a half inches in diameter and are about sixteen to eighteen 

 feet high. They will never make trees like those in Texas. 



In the mixed planting of Wild Cherry, Black Walnut and 

 White Ash I found a strange condition of growth. The Cherry- 

 trees were planted aboutsixteen to twenty feetapart in the rows, 

 apparently at haphazard, the space filled with Black Walnut 



and White Ash, four feet apart. The Cherry stands twenty- 

 five to thirty feet high and six to ten inches in diameter — ex- 

 ceptionally large, fine trees. The Walnut and Ash are only 

 twelve to fifteen high and two to three and a half inches in 

 diameter. Close by, where the Cherries were planted closer 

 together, the trees were much smaller, and the intermediate 

 trees, also Walnut and Ash, have made nearly the same growth 

 as the Cherries. At another point in a mixed planting a few 

 isolated Walnuts seem to have taken the lead, but the Cherries 

 are not far behind, and crowding out the larger number of 

 smaller Walnuts. 



Where planted alone the White Ash is making a good, 

 steady growth, and seems to form just enough shade to keep 

 down grass and weeds. In the mixed planting mentioned 

 above the Ash is crowded out to some extent. 



The Butternut, Pecan and Walnut do not grow as well here 

 as they usually do when placed in the rich deep loam of creek 

 or river-bottoms. The American Chestnut does no better than 

 the Walnut, and there are only a few left of the small number 

 planted. The Box Elder (Negundo) looks starved, and proba- 

 bly is so, as this tree is usually found only on the bottom-land 

 in moist, shaded places. As its wood is very soft and brittle, 

 it does not appear to me to be of any value as a forest-tree, 

 unless, possibly, as a nurse for other and better kinds. 



The best trees of all kinds are naturally found on the deepest 

 loam, but this, strange as it may appear, is nearly always on 

 the high ground. 



Correspondence. 



The Fruit Interests of California. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — The State Assessor's report for 1890 makes the total 

 numberof fruit-trees in the state 13,180,134. This is a great gain 

 over previous reports. Lassen, Los Angeles, San Francisco 

 and Solano are not represented in this report, and it is unfor- 

 tunate that the Los Angeles and Solano assessors have failed 

 in their duty, for those two counties are largely devoted to 

 orchard interests. Solano in 1889 reported 669,774 trees, and 

 it is probable that Los Angeles had 1,000,000 trees. This 

 would give a grand total of 14,849,908 for the orchards of Cali- 

 fornia in the summer of 1890. We can safely say that 15,000,- 

 000 trees are reported by the township assessors of the fifty- 

 two counties of the state — and not one tree more. Com- 

 pared with the extravagant estimates and forced statistics of 

 some sensational newspapers, this sober result of the forty 

 years' orchard-work of Californians does not seem large. 

 But every man who knows how great an amount of labor, 

 capital, energy and skill the planting and cultivation of 

 15,000,000 fruit-trees means, is able to measure the extent 

 of the achievement. Careless writers state with airy grace 

 that 5,000,000 or 10,000,000 trees are planted. in a single year 

 in California. The plain statements of the assessors show 

 that considerably less than a million trees are planted in a 

 single year ; but that is a great many. 



The total number of acres planted in 1890 to grapes, for 

 table, wine and raisin purposes, was 142,534, according to the 

 assessors' reports from all but twelve counties, only two of 

 which — Los Angeles and Solano — are important in this connec- 

 tion. It is worth while to note relative importance of the sev- 

 eral divisions of this industry. The acreage devoted to wine 

 grapes is still greater than that devoted to both raisins and 

 table grapes ; but the area of raisin culture is increasing-, and 

 the prospect is that it will soon equal that of the wine grapes. 

 The present order of supremacy in table grapes is, Tulare 

 first, Placer second ; in wine grapes, Sonoma first, Napa sec- 

 ond, Santa Clara third ; in raisin grapes, Fresno first, San Diego 

 second. 



These brief notes from the latest statistical reports of the 

 state of California help to prove what many of us have learned, 

 through painful experiences, that floating newspaper items 

 about horticultural subjects are not always reliable. 



Niies, Cal. Charles Howard Shinn. 



Flowers and the Perfume Industry. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — In your issue for January 14th I find the above heading, 

 and I have thought it would interest your readers to know that 

 for over six years efforts have been made by myself and many 

 other southern women to learn how flower pomades are made 

 in southern France, for we believe our climate and soil perfectly 

 suited to this industry. Our lack of success comes, we believe, 

 entirely from not knowing by what process the fat is deodor- 



