April i, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



H5 



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, APRIL 1, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles: — The Movement for Better Roads. (With illustration.).. 145 



Every Man His Own Gardener 145 



Rafinesque '. • • ■ 146 



How We Renewed an Old Place Mrs. Mary C. Robbins. 146 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXV. (With figure.) 



Professor Charles S. Sargent, 147 

 New or Little Known Plants : — Viburnum dilatatum. (With figure.). . C. S. S. 148 



Cultural Department : — Choosing Varieties of Apples T. H. Hoskins. 149 



Points in Chrysanthemum Culture John Thorpe. 149 



Early Flowering Plants F. H. Horsford. 151 



Phajus°;randifolius .. W. T. 151 



Hardy Plants from Seed E. O. Orfet. 151 



Pruning Out-door Roses J. Meehan. 153 



More Nematodes Professor Byron D. Halsted. 153 



The Cultivation of Beans Professor W. W. Tracy. 153 



Correspondence : — " Insect Lime " Professor John B. Smith. 153 



The Western Arbor-vitse Samuel C. Moon. 153 



The Owl and the Sparrow Dr. C. Bolle, C. Naudin. 154 



Viola ocellata Mrs. J. S. R. Thomson. 154 



Notes from Milton, Massachusetts H. G. 154 



Recent Publications 155 



Notes 156 



Illustrations : — Acer barbatum, var. nigrum, Fig. 27 149 



Viburnum dilatatum, Fig. 28 150 



Scene in New Hampshire 152 



The Movement for Better Roads. 



THE agitation for improved systems of road-construc- 

 tion and road-maintenance has become so general 

 throughout the country that it may be fairly said to have 

 attained the dignity of a popular movement. The subject 

 is calling forth articles by writers of authority in our lead- 

 ing magazines and weekly journals, in the bulletins of 

 scientific societies and state experiment stations, and in 

 pamphlets issued by various associations organized for 

 economic reform. The Governors of half a dozen states 

 have felt impelled to invite attention to the importance of 

 the subject in their annual messages ; in several of the 

 states, notably in New Jersey, laws have been enacted 

 during the winter which overthrow the traditional methods 

 of highway repairs, and in other legislatures bills are under 

 consideration, with a probability that they will become 

 laws, which provide for state aid and expert supervision in 

 the maintenance of highways, and it is proposed in more 

 than one instance to use the direct-tax money which has 

 been returned by the general Government to individual 

 states as a permanent fund for the improvement of country 

 roads. 



The sentiment in favor of reform in this matter would 

 be still more urgent if the mass of the people had any ex- 

 perimental knowledge of the superiority of good roads over 

 poor ones. When farmers can be shown by actual prac- 

 tice that good roads, by enabling them to double their 

 loads, add to the value of everything carried away to sell, 

 save minutes or hours every day which amount to days 

 and weeks in the year, and bring them closer to markets 

 and amusements, and schools and churches, they will 

 urgently demand a reform which promises to add so much 

 to their comfort and profit. And they will be still more 

 eager for this improvement when they find that it costs 

 one dollar to keep in repair a good macadam road in- 

 stead of the five dollars which they have been paying in 

 taxes to maintain the same length of dirt road, upon which, 



even when in fair condition, three horses are required to 

 haul the load which one can draw on a properly metaled 

 surface. 



But one of the special duties of this paper is to invite 

 attention to the value of natural beauty, and we wish here 

 to emphasize the arguments quoted last week from the re- 

 port of the New Hampshire Forest Commission. Every 

 census shows that the population of our cities is growing 

 at a more rapid rate than that of the rural communities ; 

 and every year the proportion of the city population which 

 escapes to the country for summer rest and recreation in- 

 creases quite as rapidly. The people of the country enjoy 

 and appreciate natural scenery, no doubt, but to those who 

 have been confined to blocks of stone for eight or ten 

 months of a year it has a charm of freshness and novelty 

 that brings intense delight and unspeakable refreshment. 

 Good roads not only help the country on its way to the 

 city, they invite the city to enjoy the pleasant prospects of 

 the country. The bit of New Hampshire road-bed on page 

 152, reproduced from a photograph by Dr. W. H. Rollins, 

 of Boston, is by no means a model of construction, but the 

 illustration altogether is its own excuse for being. The 

 happy brook as it flows out into the sunshine from under 

 the shade of lofty trees and the hint of forest-covered hills 

 in the distance unite to make a bit of scenery which every 

 one will recognize as a typical one in the New England 

 hill-country. Such prospects are to be found there by the 

 hundred, and only the instinct of an artist is needed to se- 

 lect a view-point from which the landscape will present a 

 richness of composition, a harmony and balance which 

 make a perfect picture. Such scenery is a part of the 

 natural wealth of any region. It is not only a priceless 

 inheritance of delight to the eye and the imagination, but 

 it has a productive value in attracting strangers. The 

 building and maintenance of good roads and paths in such 

 a country are investments which will bring even more 

 abundant pecuniary return than they will in strictly agri- 

 cultural regions. Indeed, there are many parts of the 

 world which are famous for their natural beauties alone, 

 and the only way to make these attractions available is by 

 perfecting their system of public roads. 



One who is preparing a home in the country will always 

 find that it is as profitable to" secure the counsel of a 

 landscape-gardener, if his grounds are to be laid out to 

 the best advantage, as it is to take the advice of an 

 architect in the construction of his house. Indeed, as has 

 often been insisted on in these columns, the two ought to 

 work together from the very outset; for just here the 

 training of the landscape-gardener will be found of especial 

 value in selecting the precise location of the building. 

 But a great many houses throughout the country have 

 not been designed by architects, and, of the grounds about 

 them, not one in a hundred has been planned in ac- 

 cordance with professional advice. Of course, many of 

 these houses are ugly and inconvenient, and the same 

 is true of their surroundings. But we have all seen 

 country houses which look as if they were made to live in, 

 and in which their occupants find life a pleasure ; and 

 these houses nestle cosily in the exact spot where they 

 belong, and are so naturally connected with it, by shrub 

 and vine, that they seem to have developed there as an 

 integral feature of the landscape ; and yet no profes- 

 sional designer has ever aided in planning either house 

 or grounds. 



Such "house-scenes," however, are not likely to come 

 by chance. They are the result of thought and taste. 

 They are the expression of careful study and long labor 

 by some one, although the labor has been one of love, 

 for there is no more fascinating occupation than a serious 

 attempt at designing the home-acre. In no other way than 

 by actual practice can the amateur appreciate how much 

 is meant by the word "design." At every step he will find 

 problems to puzzle him which an expert might solve at 



