April 15, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



171 



and Pines that we have hopefully planted along the borders ; 

 for, in moving our trees with the surrounding sod, we usually 

 brought along these close companions — the Pines and Birches 

 being so married, in most instances, that it seemed a cruelty 

 to separate them. 



Hope and faith are qualities that find splendid exercise in 

 tree-planting, and no pursuit can be more unselfish ; for, as we 

 watch the tardy growth of our plantations, it is with the stern 

 conviction that other eyes than ours will see the waving of 

 tree-tops above them, and far younger feet that will tread the 

 fragrant woodland-ways when they are at last carpeted with 

 Pine-needles. It is by this spirit that we become one with Na- 

 ture, sharing humbly in her patience, in her vast unending 

 plans, in her bountiful provision for the future. What better 

 boon to the race can a man leave than a wood that he has 

 planted, in which a future generation may walk and bless his 

 name ? Or, if the name be forgotten, there shall abide the 

 forest-blessing, ever beneficent, the mother of springs that 

 fertilize the plain, a shelter to the weary, a delight of the eye, 

 a source alike of profit and pleasure while it endures. 



We have friends who scoff when we take them to walk in 

 our forest, and beg them not to step on the Oaks ; but, to us, 

 these tiny seedlings, so feeble and unimportant, are person- 

 alities that we have cherished through successive seasons, 

 feeding them when hungry, giving drink when dry, grieving 

 when their tender leaves, scorched by too fierce a sun, withered 

 and fell, and rejoicing when, under the cool rains of Septem- 

 ber, their little bare stems put forth fresh crowns of leaf-buds. 

 Much comfort can be taken in the fact that an Oak once rooted 

 will not wholly perish, but some day conquer even the most 

 obdurate of soils. Like good seed sown in the heart of a 

 child, the storms and sunshine of the world may seem for a 

 time to wither the plant to the ground, but in the end the beauty 

 and power of deep-rooted character will prevail and bear fruit. 



We have in our experiments endeavored to make use of 

 such materials as lay at hand, though well aware that nurs- 

 eries and gardens could have helped us on our way more 

 rapidly. But dealers in trees are expensive luxuries, and our 

 object has been partly to see what can be done without much 

 money, and with only a moderate amount of labor. Our expe- 

 rience has shown us, what the books on forestry told us in the 

 beginning, that sowing seeds and nuts is far less satisfactory 

 than transplanting small trees ; but we have had the entertain- 

 ment of proving their statements for ourselves, and find our 

 compensation in such trifling results as we have achieved. 

 The Pine-seeds, which we shook from the cones in the autumn, 

 and planted before they had time to dry, came up profusely 

 enough in little clusters, but so tiny and weak, that it is won- 

 derful that they are ever discovered even in the thin grass of 

 the hill-side, which we leave near them to afford shade. They 

 make, under these conditions, a sturdy little growth so long 

 as the weather is cool and moist, but are apt to disappear alto- 

 gether in the month of July. Any small tree, that one can pull 

 up by a wayside, will make better returns for a little attention 

 than these slow-growing mites from seeds. 



Such White Birch-seed as we have sown, either because we 

 did not know when to gather it, or whether it came from the 

 wrong tree, has failed to come up at all ; but in the sandiest 

 and most uncomfortable part of the hill we find little seedlings 

 that have come up of themselves from the trees at the foot, so 

 that we are fain to confess that Nature understands her busi- 

 ness better than we do. 



The very small Pines, a few inches high, of which we have 

 set a large number on the rear of the hill, do not grow as well 

 as the larger ones, and are more apt tp die. So far our expe- 

 rience leads us to prefer good-sized trees of all kinds for trans- 

 planting, rather than small ones, the larger tree seeming to 

 have more vitality to come and go upon until new roots are 

 formed, and it has become adapted to its new conditions. 



We have planted various kinds of acorns in great pro- 

 fusion, but the Mossy-cup and the Chestnut Oak seem to 

 thrive best in this waterless soil. The White and Red Oaks 

 seem to require enriching to hold their own at all, and Maple 

 seedlings, which come up promptly, yield to the first drought, 

 though very small transplanted trees live on. Hickory-nuts, 

 though slow in growth, are not vanquished by the condi- 

 tions, and little yearling Chestnuts, transplanted and dug about, 

 flourish bravely. 



From a friend in town whose English Walnut-tree has borne 

 profusely after the recent warm winters, we have obtained 

 fresh nuts, which, promptly set, have germinated and given us 

 fine little shoots in one season. This tree is a more rapid 

 grower than any of our native nut-trees, and so far has stood 

 the winters, but we have had no weather below zero here since 

 1887, and cannot answer for the effect of an old-fashioned 



winter. The field mice have a great predilection for them, 

 and gnawed our largest one down to the root a year ago, but 

 it came up again in the spring with redoubled vigor, and made 

 up for lost time. 



Small Beeches, dug up by the road-side, and put into holes 

 prepared for them in the side of the hill, have thriven without 

 much attention, and make a favorable growth ; but some 

 Ailanthus-trees from a nursery, in spite of Horace Greeley, 

 have refused to do anything at all. In the swale at the foot of 

 the hill, where the soil is deep and moist, all trees flourish. 

 English Oaks grow rapidly from acorns, and we have a fine 

 group of Chestnuts, transplanted when fifteen feet high, that 

 grow superbly after being cut back sternly when set. Though 

 much beset by insects, they are now firmly established, having 

 been planted in the autumn of 1888. In this same moist, rich 

 soil we have also had very good success with that difficult tree 

 to move, the Hemlock; and the Tulip-tree and the Mulberry also 

 flourish, though the tender young branches of the latter suf- 

 fered after the last two warm winters, dying back badly. How 

 they will have borne this moderately cold one remains to be 

 proved. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



The Sap and Sugar of the Maple-tree. — I. 



I 



N October, 1890, and January, 1891, The American Anthro- 

 pologist published two interesting papers — -one on "The 

 Indian Origin of Maple-sugar," by H. W. Henshaw, and the 

 other on " The Maple amongst the Algonquins," by A. F. 

 Chamberlain. 



These accomplished investigators have thus opened up a 

 new subject of Forestry which may interest some readers of 

 Garden and Forest. They recognize the really sedentary 

 condition of the various Indian tribes, and the fact that, while 

 their supplies of animal food were derived from fishing and 

 hunting for animals and men, they really depended for their 

 daily bread more upon the fruits of agriculture carried on by 

 the Indian squaws than on any other single source. So skilled 

 were they in cultivating the staple grain of America, the price- 

 less maize, that the early colonists were their willing pupils 

 in learning the art ; and to these Indian savages, in many 

 times of famine and distress, the colonists on all the Atlantic 

 coast were obliged to appeal for supplies of corn from stores 

 garnered up in sacks, or baskets and boxes made from the 

 bark or wood of forest-trees, or in holes in the ground. 



However little practical interest the result of this inquiry 

 may have, it has been thought of some importance to the 

 student of history to know what point upward the Indian race 

 had attained in the arts of common life and in the chemistry 

 of nature as related to their food-supply. 



From the great knowledge of the Indian as to all edible 

 products of America, as he had often to draw a part of his 

 subsistence from the bark and wood of trees, the a priori pre- 

 sumption of the discovery of the properties of Maple-sap by 

 him is, as stated in these papers, entirely in his favor ; yet the 

 question of fact is to be finally decided by appeal to>two classes 

 of evidence, the historical and the linguistic, and the two cor- 

 responding lines of argument. The rarity of specific reference 

 in the early annals of discovery to the making of sugar by the 

 Indian is accounted for by several causes, among which is the 

 fact that the earliest navigators and explorers were seldom 

 chroniclers. Coming to new shores peopled by savages, they 

 rarely went far into the interior. They generally lived on their 

 ships, or, if on shore, drew from the ships their supplies ; while 

 the great staples of such trade as they sought and could carry on 

 with the natives were almost wholly furs of various kinds, 

 and fish. 



The shores of the sea and the tidal streams were not the 

 common home of the Sugar Maple. And so far as the forests 

 were concerned, the aspirations of these bold navigators were 

 more than satisfied by the majestic Pines for masts and spars, 

 the other splendid timber-trees for building ships, and the 

 rich sources of turpentine and tar which everywhere met their 

 eyes. Besides this, their passion for conquest often led to 

 fierce contests with one another for territorial aggrandizement, 

 so that little- heed was given to questions of plants or food- 

 products on shores where at almost every step they were liable 

 to meet a savage barbarian, or a but little less ferocious wild 

 beast. 



On the other hand, the missionaries, to whose habit of writ- 

 ing we are indebted for many of the early notices of trees and 

 fruits, were in no respect naturalists, and their descriptions of 

 natural products are extremely incomplete, as well as few and 

 far between. The very early records are indeed few, but care- 

 ful research has been rewarded by the statements of Lescarbot, 



