J 



UNE IO, 189I.] 



Garden and Forest. 



265 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New Yokk. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE TOST OFFICE AT NEW YOKK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. . 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article :— Railroads in the Adirondacks 265 



A Fountain at Potsdam. (With figure.) 266 



California Plants for California Gardens 266 



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



IV. Botting Hcmsley. 267 



How We Renewed an Old Place.— VIII Mrs. J. H. Robbi?is. 267 



New or Little Known Plants :— Alnus maritima. (With figure.) C. S. S. 268 



New Orchids R. A. Rolfe. 270 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 270 



Cultural Department: — A Home Supply of Tree Fruits. . . T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 271 



Bagging Grapes W. H. Goldsmith. 272 



Notes on Irises .y. N. Gerard. 273 



Roses IV. H. Taplin. 273 



Myosotis palustris semperflorens O. O. 273 



Nymphsea Marliacea chromatella G. 273 



Sweet-potatoes Professor IV. F. Masscy. 274 



Correspondence: — The Preservation of Beautiful and Historical Places. 



Daniel Denison Slade. 274 



Recent Publications 274 



Notes 275 



Illustrations : — Alnus maritima, Fig. 47 269 



A Fountain at Potsdam, Fig. 48 271 



Railroads in the Adirondacks. 



THE failure of the last Legislature of this state to pro- 

 vide for a forest-reservation in the Adirondack region 

 has been followed by an energetic effort on the part of sev- 

 eral railroads to build lines across the entire region. The 

 sudden interest which has been aroused in the question of 

 forest-preservation by the efforts of these railway com- 

 panies to secure the right of way across the lands which 

 now belong to the state is somewhat surprising, in view 

 of the fact that so little effective work has been done hith- 

 erto toward protecting these woods from other encroach- 

 ments of this sort. If the proposal to set aside a portion 

 of these elevated forest-lands for public use had been a 

 novel one and there had been no time to arouse popular 

 interest in the necessity of such a step, we might infer that 

 the great organs of public opinion in the state had just 

 awakened to the fact that there was such a forest and that 

 it was in danger. But the truth is, that it is now twenty 

 years ago since a commission was appointed, with the 

 Hon. Horatio Seymour at its head, who were directed 

 to " inquire into the expediency of providing for vesting 

 in the state the title to the timbered region lying within 

 seven counties designated, and converting the same into a 

 public park." Even then it was reported by these com- 

 missioners that the land of this vast region, once owned 

 by the state, had been largely conveyed away to pur- 

 chasers who had bought it for timber and bark, excepting 

 a tract of a quarter of a million of acres which had been 

 transferred at the price of five cents an acre to the Sacketts 

 Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Company. It was stated, 

 too, that the small fraction of the territory still held by the 

 commonwealth was in detached parcels, amounting in all 

 to less than 40,000 acres. 



At that early day much of the land had been stripped of 

 its timber and had been abandoned by the owners after 



this had been removed, because it was not worth to them 

 even the taxes due on wild land. In this way great tracts 

 were sold for arrears in taxes and left in the possession of 

 the state as not worth these claims until the lands lying 

 under such condemnation had again been covered with 

 timber enough to make them desirable when they were 

 again bought from the state, to be again abandoned when 

 stripped of everything valuable upon them. Of course 

 this process has been continued ever since. The magnifi- 

 cent Hemlock forest has fallen before the demands of the 

 tanneries along the eastern, southern and western borders 

 of the wilderness, and the timber, after the bark was 

 stripped from it, has been left to perish. Where the lum- 

 ber has been cut away the remaining wood has been con- 

 sumed in charcoal kilns or worked up into paper pulp or 

 destroyed by fire. 



Railroads have already done their share toward helping 

 on this desolation. The forests along parts of the Chateau- 

 guay Railroad have been transformed into a literal waste. 

 The destruction has been absolute and utter ; the very 

 stumps have been burned out, together with the humus 

 which had accumulated from a forest-deposit of thousands 

 of years, until no green thing has escaped, and there is no 

 hope of future growth to cover the scorched ground and 

 fire-cracked rocks. Not only does such a road furnish an 

 opportunity for the speedy carrying away of all marketa- 

 ble lumber, but it makes profitable the conversion of all 

 the remaining wood into charcoal, so that every particle 

 of verdure within reach is obliterated. This is a universal 

 law, for what is true of the desolation along this Chateau- 

 guay road is true, and worse, if possible, along the other 

 railroads which have penetrated the forest. All this ruin 

 has been going on for years, and the people of the state 

 have taken no effective measures to arrest it. Perhaps the 

 present torrent of discussion means that all the work 

 which the friends of the woods have been doing for years 

 in the way of protesting and educating the people to an 

 appreciation of their value has at last begun to bear fruit, 

 and if so, this must be counted one of the few encouraging 

 signs of progress toward a proper treatment of our natural 

 resources. 



It is true that the Reservation Act passed some years 

 ago gave fair promise of greater security to the woods, 

 but, somehow, the commission appointed under it failed 

 to inspire the public with confidence, and although it 

 is claimed that they have done much to prevent tres- 

 passing on the state land, the people's park seems as far 

 away from accomplishment as it was when they were ap- 

 pointed. The last activity of the commission, however, 

 has borne some fruit. They have taken steps to prevent a 

 railroad from crossing the lands already in possession of 

 the state, and in the conflict which has followed the Attor- 

 ney-General has given an opinion which, if sustained, will 

 prevent the building of any line over the state lands in the 

 Adirondacks without special legislative enactment. If this 

 opinion is sound law, it follows that the other railroads 

 which are now built on state lands must be driven out as 

 trespassers. Even this, however, may not prevent the con- 

 summation of the most ambitious of these new schemes, 

 for it is asserted that a railroad can be built across the 

 forest for its entire width and keep on private property all 

 the way. 



Of course, the success of this plan would be a public 

 calamity. We are aware that the projector of this road 

 is himself a large forest-owner, and we have no reason 

 to question the sincerity of his intention to hold this vast 

 property in forest forever. But, even if it is admitted that 

 this would be possible during his life-time, it must not be for- 

 gotten that the permanent preservation of a forest can never 

 be assured until it is under the control of an undying owner. 

 All experience has proved that forests are never safe so long 

 as they are held by private owners. The time must soon 

 come in their history when they are transferred to alien hands 

 and when it will become the absolute duty of some one 

 who has them in charge to realize the greatest immediate 



