322 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 176. 



to soil, it thrives everywhere except in low peaty swamps and 

 on the moving sands of our maritime provinces. The Douglas 

 Fir is one of the best presents which have been made by the 

 New World to Europe. The publication to which I have re- 

 ferred devotes itself especially to discussing the differences 

 between the so-called Red and Yellow Firs, races which seem 

 to mingle in this country in the general success of the species. 



The Douglas Fir has for a close second the Sitka Spruce, 

 which is also very promising, although it grows less rapidly 

 than the Fir ; and we expect to see this tree of the Pacific coast 

 occupying some day or other immense tracts of the German 

 forests, especially in those peaty soils where the Douglas Fir 

 refuses to flourish. 



Lawson's Cypress, that ornament of gardens, is valued for 

 the solidity of its wood and for the ease with which it adapts 

 itself to soils of the most variable character. What I think will 

 surprise you is the hardiness of Thuya gigantea in the extreme 

 north, even to the very confines of that eastern Prussia which 

 at Berlin has come to be considered the vestibule of Siberia. 

 It is needless to say that, as it flourishes in that inhospitable 

 region, the parks and gardens of Brandebourg, in a more tem- 

 perate climate, are now enriched with the tall stems of this 

 superb plant, which passes uninjured our most severe winters. 

 Even this last one of abnormal severity and length has not 

 affected it in the least. 



Finns Jejfreyi and P. fonderosa have been struck out from 

 the list of trees available for planting in the neighborhood of 

 Berlin, although there is still some hope that Pinusrigida may 

 succeed here, this being the species which was believed to fur- 

 nish the pitch pine of commerce, which is, however, probably 

 produced by Finns mitts or by P. palustris. That this com- 

 munication may not be too long, I must not speak in detail of 

 all the species which have been tried. The Black Walnut and 

 the Hickories rarely find here soil suited to their needs, while 

 the Red Oak succeeds admirably. This last, however, has 

 been naturalized here for a long time, its introduction dating 

 from 1740. Up to the present time, however, it has been 

 grown as an ornament of gardens, and not as an inhabitant 

 of forests. 



I cannot leave this subject without expressing my thanks to 

 Mr. Schwappach for his admirable essay upon the results of 

 these forest-experiments. I shall take an early occasion to 

 speak of the results of the experiments with Japanese trees in 

 Prussian forest-planting. 



Berlin. C Bolle. 



Irish Daffodils versus Dutch in the New Country. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I was pleased to see what is said about the successful 

 cultivation of Daffodils in Garden and Forest. I should add, 

 as a European and one who grows bulbs by the thousand, 

 do not depend for bloom on rich, over-fed bulbs that look 

 plump and heavy. Rather select smaller bulbs that are prop- 

 erly ripened, with flower-buds well set in them. Where there 

 is a lot of green unripe wood on a plant, it means a lack of 

 flowers. Where there is a lot of dense foliage on a Daffodil- 

 bulb produced by over-feeding, the same rule holds good. 

 The overfed bulb never gets properly ripened. It keeps grow- 

 ing, making leaves instead of bloom, and when it settles down 

 to rest is too often dug from necessity in a thoroughly green 

 state. This applies to Daffodils such as Trumpet Major, 

 Trumpet Maxim us, Spurius ; with Bicolor Horsfieldi, Emperor, 

 Empress, Sir Watkin, etc., that produce large broad leaves, 

 the larger the bulbs and better fed they are the better. But 

 with all the Spurius class, Princess, Trumpet Major, Von 

 Sion, etc., the hard, dry, well-matured bulbs, grown without 

 stimulants of any sort, are best. For experiment I procured 

 four bulbs of Princess from Holland, which were beautiful to 

 look at. In fact, they were originally Irish bulbs, grown 

 three years in Holland. I planted them side by side with small 

 bulbs of the same stock grown in Ireland. The result was one 

 flower each on the fat Irish bulbs, pampered by a Dutch ex- 

 pert for three years, and two and three blooms each on smaller- 

 looking stuff kept and grown on in their native soil. Holland 

 can grow Tulips, Hyacinths, Crocus, Anemones and Ranun- 

 culus better than any nation in Europe ; it never can grow 

 ordinary Daffodils with the south of England or Ireland. It 

 has not the soil. Sand answers well. But to grow Daffodils 

 to perfection you must have the command of good hazel loam 

 and ample drainage during the resting period. 



The crop of bloom does not come in Holland until April. In 

 the south of Ireland the flowering season is late February and 

 March. If bulbs flower early under good conditions they 

 ripen early, can be planted early, and will bloom early. 



Cork, Ireland. John Quill. 



Recent Publications. 



A Manual of Forestry, Volume II. Formation and Tending 

 of Woods, or Practical Sylviculture. By William Schlich. Lon- 

 don : Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1891. 



The first volume of this manual appeared in the autumn of 

 1889 and was reviewed at length in these columns by Sir 

 Dietrich Brandis, the former head of the Indian Forestry De- 

 partment. That volume dealt with the question of the gen- 

 eral utility of forests, and, in part, with the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of sylviculture. The present volume describes the 

 practical application of those principles, with a description of 

 various trees, with special reference to their adaptability and 

 value for cultivation in Great Britain. Practical sylviculture, 

 as Mr. Schlich defines it, is the production of woods or forests 

 — that is, all the operations connected with the formation and 

 care of woods until the trees which compose them are ripe 

 for the axe. The principles which guide the forester in this 

 business were explained in the first volume of this manual, 

 and all that is left for the author to accomplish in the present 

 installment of this important work is to explain the practical 

 application. The subject he divides into their following chap- 

 ters : 



Preliminary Works, under which head Dr. Schlich treats of the 

 choice of species, the question of fencing, and the preparation 

 and reclamation of the soil. In his second chapter he treats 

 of the formation of woods either by artificial or natural means. 

 The third chapter is devoted to the care of the woods after 

 they are planted, while in his fourth chapter the author 

 sketches in the form of notes the economic value of various 

 forest-trees. 



Mr. Schlich very properly points out that the success of all 

 forestry operations depends primarily upon the judicious se- 

 lection of the species of tree which is to be grown under a 

 given set of conditions ; and this, we may remark, applies not 

 only to forests planted primarily for the production of timber, 

 but to all plantations for whatever purpose they may be made. 

 Mistakes made in the selection of species to be planted can 

 be rectified only after a considerable lapse of time. Many 

 species, as we know to our cost in this country, where we are 

 only just beginning to learn that the Norway Spruce and the 

 Scotch and Austrian Pines are worthless here, thrive well for 

 a series of years, and only commence to fail after twenty, 

 thirty, or even after a longer period. The entire success of any 

 species in any given locality is dependent on many things besides 

 hardiness. A species possesses greater or less value in pro- 

 portion as it can be adapted to desired systems of sylviculture, 

 as it may possess, in a greater orless degree, power to preserve 

 or improve the fertility of soil and capacity to resist damage 

 from external causes. Not only must the value of the prod- 

 ucts of any species have its proper weight in causing the se- 

 lection of trees to be planted on a large scale, but the matter 

 of the improvement of the soil through planting is one of vital 

 importance which cannot safely be overlooked, as in it lies the 

 germ of the whole theory of profitable sylviculture. Unless 

 land which is covered with trees improves from year to year 

 and from century to century by the action of these trees, some 

 mistake has been made in their selection, and any system of 

 sylviculture which does not improve the condition of the soil 

 has not been wisely selected and developed. 



In the chapter on the formation of woods, directions are 

 given for sowing, for selecting and testing seeds, for the for- 

 mation and management of germinating or seed beds, for 

 methods of sowing, whether broadcast or in patches, or in 

 trenches or pits. The section which treats of the quality of 

 the plants we are glad to reproduce entire, because there is 

 no department of planting in which planters in this country 

 so often fail as they do in this particular. 



"The success of planting operations," the author tells us, 

 " is governed by the quality of the plants which are used, just 

 as the success of direct sowings depends on the quality of the 

 seeds. Hence only healthy vigorous plants should be used, 

 which are likely to bear well the interruption of growth in- 

 volved in the transfer from one locality to another under cir- 

 cumstances admitting only of a limited amount of attention 

 being paid to each plant. The vigor or growing power of a 

 plant is indicated by a normal shape and a healthy appearance. 



"The development of each part must be in due proportion to 

 the rest ; the plants should be neither tall and thin, nor too 

 short and stout ; nor should the stem be crooked, especially 

 in the case of coniferous plants ;> the root system should be 

 ample, with a fully developed system of rootlets ; the crown 

 should have a healthy green appearance and possess numer- 

 ous well-developed buds. These are the general character- 

 istics of good healthy plants." 



