134 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 161. 



our Silver and Scarlet Maples, a habit which is peculiar 

 to them, may be found, perhaps, a wise provision for 

 their perpetuation. These two trees grow on low river- 

 banks or in swamps — situations which are often submerged 

 for a considerable part of every year, especially in winter 

 and early spring. If the seeds of these trees ripened in the 

 autumn, like the seeds of other Maples, and did not germi- 

 nate until the following spring, they would run a serious risk 

 of being water-soaked and of losing their vitality. Now, 

 however, they reach the ground at the very best period of 

 the whole year for quick germination. The water has 

 receded from about the trees, leaving a moist open surface, 

 warm, but not yet baked by the sun of early summer. 

 It is a question which we do not pretend to answer, 

 whether these trees acquired this habit of ripening their 

 seeds early in the summer in order to maintain their exist- 

 ence in the low situations where they grow, or whether, 

 the habit having, been previously acquired, they were 

 gradually driven to the swamps because their seeds were 

 unable to germinate on the drier uplands at the period of 

 the year when it reached the ground and could only ger- 

 minate in soil from which the water had recently receded, 

 and was, therefore, full of moisture. 



The Silver Maple is widely distributed in eastern America ; 

 it is found in the north from the valley of the St. John's 

 River, in New Brunswick, to southern Ontario, and extends 

 southward to western Florida and westward to eastern 

 Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and the Indian Territory. It is 

 not found very near the Atlantic coast or in the high 

 Appalachian Mountains. It is very common, however, 

 west of the mountains throughout the Mississippi-valley, 

 where it is one of the largest and most generally distributed 

 of the river-trees. 



The Silver Maple is often called also the Soft Maple, a 

 name which it owes, probably, to the brittleness of its 

 slender branches, for the wood of this tree is not soft, but 

 hard, strong, close-grained and valuable', furnishing excel- 

 lent material for the floors of houses and for furniture. It 

 was the Swedish traveler Kalm who first distinguished the 

 Silver Maple, and sent it to his master, Linnaeus, who 

 named it Acer saccharinum, a name which has unfortu- 

 nately become more associated with another of our Maples 

 than with the tree to which it properly belongs. 



The Silver Maple has been cultivated in Europe since 

 1725, and nourishes there not so well, perhaps, as on the 

 banks of its native streams, but better than many of our 

 American trees ; and in American and European nurseries 

 a number of varieties with more or less cut or divided 

 leaves, or with leaves blotched with yellow or with white, 

 or with more or less pendulous branches, have appeared. 

 None of these varieties, however, are very distinct or in any 

 way materially better or more beautiful than the wild tree. 



The Silver Maple is a valuable tree in ornamental plant- 

 ing only when it can be placed in deep, rich and moist 

 meadow-land or by the banks of streams or lakes over 

 which it can spread its long and graceful branches and 

 display the beauty of its brilliant foliage. Its beauty as a 

 meadow-tree is shown in the illustration on page 140, 

 which represents a young planted tree, fifty or sixty feet in 

 height, growing near Boston. 



The Value of Good Roads. 



IN the issue of this journal for December 17th and 24th, 

 1890, we gave some extracts from the report which Mr. J. 

 B. Harrison, one of the Forestry Commissioners of New 

 Hampshire, was about to present to the Legislature. These 

 extracts set forth the value and functions of mountain-for- 

 ests in relation to climate, soil and water-supply, as well 

 as their use in furnishing beautiful scenery as an attraction 

 for summer tourists. The broad prospects among the New 

 Hampshire hills, as well as the pure air and clear flowing 

 streams, with the game and fish in woods and waters, are 

 just as truly natural wealth and sources of revenue as are 

 fertile soil and abundant water-power. They invite sum- 



mer travel, as similar attractions draw thousands of tour- 

 ists every year to Norway and Switzerland. These re- 

 sources, neglected as they are, brought visitors into New 

 Hampshire in the year 1889 who left five millions of dol- 

 lars in the state. If a genuine effort were put forth to 

 heighten these attractions and make them available, there 

 can be no doubt that these summer visitors could be in- 

 creased manyfold. For the full utilization of these advan- 

 tages good roads are essential, and on this point the 

 Commissioners make some recommendations which we 

 quote from the published report : 



If we had in our mountain regions as good roads and paths 

 as have been constructed in European countries, whereby 

 more of our mountain scenery could be brought to view, and 

 more of our mountain passes, ravines, gorges and lakes be 

 rendered accessible to the tourist, which are now known only 

 to sportsmen, searchers for timber, and the bold climbers of 

 the Appalachian Club, the large revenue from summer tour- 

 ists might be doubled, quadrupled, or increased indefinitely. 

 This great interest urgently calls for better roads and paths than 

 it now has, and for more of them, so that in time every mountain 

 pass shall be accessible by a good highway, and every im- 

 portant lake and summit, and other place of special interest, 

 can at least be reached by an easy foot-path or bridle-path. 



This opinion has a basis other than that of mere sentiment. 

 It rests upon the more solid ground of profitable utility. If 

 properly constructed and cared for, such roads and paths 

 would prove as remunerative as our average highways. 

 When completed they would afford, in connection with those 

 now in use, circuitous drives of great attractiveness, opening 

 new areas to the lumberman, and new sites for mountain 

 houses, and influencing summer visitors to prolong their 

 sojourn in the state. 



If such highways were carefully projected and gradually 

 constructed, at the rate of a few miles each year, their cost 

 would not be burdensome, and they would eventually make 

 known to the world the scenic treasures of our mountain 

 region, many of which are still unknown and inaccessible to 

 tourists. In these attractions New Hampshire has natural 

 resources possessing a cash value as real as that of her water- 

 falls or her soil ; resources which she can and should develop 

 for the benefit of the thousands of summer visitors who 

 annually come within her borders, and for the pecuniary 

 advantage of her own people. The last Legislature made 

 seventeen different grants of money to aid in the construction 

 and maintenance of public bridges and highways, mostly in 

 the mountain regions, amounting to $20,700. It is important 

 that there should be system and foresight in the expenditure 

 of such appropriations. The Swiss and Norwegian roads, so 

 inviting to tourists, have been planned with much care and 

 built with great thoroughness. Their surfaces are hard, their 

 grades are easy, and they are, in all respects, pleasant and 

 safe for travelers. Thus made, they are more expensive at 

 first, but in the end they are more economical, as well as 

 much more satisfactory in use, than the mountain roads to 

 which we are accustomed in New Hampshire. 



Memorial Trees. 



ELEVEN years ago a man who had watched with great 

 interest the developmentof Cornell University from its 

 very beginning intimated his desire to present to it some 

 memorial to express his interest and love for the institution. 

 He had not the wealth, by means of which others had en- 

 riched it with costly buildings, but he appreciated the 

 beauty of trees, and he conceived the idea of manifesting 

 his love for the University by planting a row of Elms along 

 the eastern avenue of the campus. He was enabled to 

 carry out his generous purpose, and the trees are already 

 attaining noble proportions. The giver has passed away, 

 but the gift promises to remain for many a year, a living 

 witness to his generous spirit. At either end of the long 

 line is a firmly bedded stone, upon which is chiseled the 

 simple inscription, "Ostrander Elms. 1880." 



May not this example stimulate other public-spirited" 

 citizens to adorn their town-squares or village-streets with 

 beautiful and unobtrusive memorials of this character? 

 In what more delicate and permanent form can a man of 

 moderate means express his appreciation of the beautiful 

 in nature, and his desire to bless those who are to come 

 after him ? 



