34^ 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 178. 



latitude. The White Maple is more tender than the Sugar 

 Maple, outside the forest or as a lawn tree — the bark being 

 frequently killed in exposed situations. Red Maples are more 

 hardy, and the striped and mountain Maples seem quite iron- 

 clad. Negundo has also been lately introduced with success. 



The Beech thrives as well as the Maple, but is often un- 

 sound, and does not reach so large a size as it does farther 

 south. It fruits freely, however, although all of the great 

 county of Aroostook, in Maine, lies considerably to the north 

 of Vermont, yet the effect of a lower altitude is shown in the 

 greater perfection to which the Beech grows there, even up to 

 the latitude of Quebec. The Yellow and Canoe Birches are 

 our only species of this family, and they both thrive perfectly, 

 being among our largest and tallest trees. The first is almost 

 as abundant as the Maple in the untouched forests, but is re- 

 moved preferably for fire-wood, and lately for lumber — the 

 Sugar Maples being rarely taken for this purpose, except when 

 too much scattered to be available for sugar. 



Among other Maples is a tree, not uncommon on my farm, 

 differing distinctly in some particulars from the other Maples, 

 though I am not botanist enough to accurately describe the dis- 

 tinctions. But the most notable practical fact about the tree is the 

 great amount of tannic or gallic acid in its sap. Sugar-makers 

 avoid it on this account, for it strongly reacts upon the iron 

 spouts, so as to give the sap an inky color and taste, ruinous to 

 the sugar. Neither the White, Red nor Sugar Maple saps do this. 



Among our evergreen forest-trees, now that the Pines have 

 nearly disappeared, Spruces stand first in number and com- 

 mercial value. The Black Spruce is everywhere abundant, 

 but the Canada line seems almost the southern limit of the 

 more beautiful White Spruce, the finest of our evergreens for 

 ornamental planting. Both are perfectly hardy, and make fine 

 lumber, though the larger trees are becoming scarce, except 

 in inaccessible localities. The Hemlock Spruce, though it is 

 abundant, and grows to a large size, I have found distinctly 

 tender when planted in exposed situations, and it is perhaps 

 due to this lack of absolute hardiness that the "shaky" charac- 

 ter of a large proportion of our hemlock lumber is to be 

 attributed. At neither of two large mills was I able, recently, 

 to obtain hemlock planks sufficiently sound to make a water- 

 ing-trough, though they had plenty of hemlock timber, such 

 as it was. 



It is often asked whether our forests are disappearing. In 

 northern New England they certainly are not. The farmer 

 has a constant struggle against the persistent spread of seed- 

 ling trees over his cleared land ; and if man should abandon 

 this region I think in a hundred years it would hardly be pos- 

 sible for a visitor to realize that it had ever been inhabited by 

 civilized man. It is this constant pressure of the forest upon 

 intruding settlements that prevents the average farmer from 

 taking an interest in forestry. He has to fight for his life 

 against the forest, and the idea that the forests are likely to be 

 extirpated seems to him quite absurd. One of the largest and 

 finest sugar-orchards in this town was seventy years ago a 

 wheat-field. 



Newport, Vt. J ■ -H. Ho skills. 



[What our correspondent says of the pressure of the 

 forest upon the cleared land in the eastern states is all 

 true. It is also true that there are vast areas in the coun- 

 try which will never reforest themselves, when once 

 stripped of timber, and that there are many places, even 

 in the east, where the thin coating of earth left on the rocks 

 after the forest-floor has been destroyed by fire, will not 

 support a vigorous forest-growth. Of the deterioration of the 

 quality of the forest, which is quite as important as loss in 

 quantity, we have often had occasion to speak. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



Landscape-gardening. By Samuel Parsons, Jr., Superin- 

 tendent of Parks, New York City. Illustrated. G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, New York and London, 1891. 



It is many years since Downing wrote of landscape-garden- 

 ing for American readers, and, though helpful books by Scott 

 and others have since been published, there was room for 

 another. During the past thirty years the desire of American 

 dwellers in cities to possess and beautify country homes has 

 greatly developed, and such homes have been established 

 along sea-coasts of very diverse character, as well as on moun- 

 tain-sides and fertile valleys. The spread of wealth and cul- 

 ture through the western states and along the Pacific coast has 

 likewise multiplied the problems with which the landscape- 

 gardener has to deal in the disposition both of private grounds 



and of public parks ; and the materials now offered for his use 

 are infinitely richer and more varied than those of a genera- 

 tion ago. It would indeed be a complicated and difficult task 

 to write a book pn landscape-gardening which would cover 

 the whole field to-day and be of use in all parts of our country. 

 This task Mr. Parsons has not attempted. In his introduction 

 he explains that his book is not a systematic treatise, but a se- 

 ries of "simple desultory talks," written with the desire to 

 arouse increased enthusiasm for his art among men of mod- 

 erate means. 



Judging it from this point of view, it contains much that is 

 of interest and value, and though it must be charged with 

 some sins, these are chiefly sins of omission, partly chargeable to 

 the fact that unless one writes very systematically on such a sub- 

 ject as this, points of vital importance are sure to be forgotten. 



Unfortunately, the terminology of this art is not firmly 

 fixed and generally understood. One who writes about land- 

 scape-gardening is compelled to begin by defining the terms 

 he uses, and, with all possible care, he cannot always find 

 terms of exact appropriateness. For example, Mr. William 

 Robinson, writing recently in The Garden, used the word 

 "garden" to indicate the grounds forming the immediate or- 

 namental environmentof the house, though this word is com- 

 monly employed to designate a place in which flowers are 

 grown. He explained, however, that the lawn must be " the 

 heart of an English garden." To indicate these same grounds 

 Mr. Parsons uses the word "lawn," although the very first 

 sentence of his first chapter explains that "to the minds of 

 most readers the lawn suggests simply grass." He might bet- 

 ter have employed the term " home grounds," a term that 

 once was generally used, but now appears to have gone some- 

 what out of fashion. This term is never applied in a narrower 

 sense than the one Mr. Robinson intends by "garden," and Mr. 

 Parsons by "lawn," and a very brief and simple explanation 

 would prevent its being taken in too wide a sense. 



Mr. Parsons' first chapter is devoted to the proper way of 

 laying out and making a lawn, in the narrower acceptation of 

 the word, and is chiefly of practical value, although it contains 

 some good suggestions of an artistic kind, notably one with 

 regard to the placing of the house, so that the lawn shall come 

 opposite the main living-rooms and not the entrance front. 

 Then he treats, in an excellent way, of "Sloping Grounds," 

 and of the effects which may be produced in the home grounds 

 during the different seasons, giving lists of plants which are 

 especially beautiful in spring, summer, autumn and winter. 

 We are gratified to see the fact emphasized that all times of 

 the year should be provided for in our home grounds, as it is 

 common to find places at their best for a brief time only, or, 

 if no season has been specially thought of, the effect is at no 

 period of the year so beautiful as it ought to be. The possi- 

 bility of creating a charming winter landscape is more com- 

 monly ignored than any other, and Mr. Parsons' words on 

 this branch of the subject should be especially suggestive. 

 Throughout these chapters much is properly said about the 

 beauty and variety of the greens of foliage as well as about 

 the colors supplied by the flowers amid the foliage. But in 

 dwelling upon color in this unusually broad and artistic spirit, 

 he has not given equal attention to the question of form. No 

 matter how carefully trees and shrubs may be chosen with 

 regard to their shades of color, no effect will be good unless 

 the same thought has been given to their forms as they will 

 appear when growing toward maturity, and to the final sky- 

 line of the plantations. These facts Mr. Parsons clearly indi- 

 cates in his introduction, but they might well have been en- 

 larged upon in the subsequent portions of his book. 



The texture of different kinds of foliage is another interest- 

 ing matter, and one to which he barely refers. Trees of simi- 

 lar habit and a similar shade of green may vary much in 

 aspect, according as their foliage is thick or thin, large or 

 small-leaved, and endowed with more or less mobility when 

 touched by the breeze ; and the planter who does not recognize 

 this fact loses many chances for increasing the beauty of his 

 arrangements, although, of course, he does not run so great a 

 risk of producing ugly effects as though he neglected to think 

 of form or of color. 



The lists of plants which Mr. Parsons gives as displaying 

 their chief beauty during successive seasons of the year will 

 probably be the most helpful, as they are the most complete, 

 feature of his book. Of course, it is as difficult to draw up 

 such lists to the satisfaction of everyone as it is to make fault- 

 less collections of "favorite quotations" or of "beauties" 

 from popular authors. A reader who is thoroughly familiar 

 with garden-plants will probably miss some of his special pets 

 from Mr. Parsons' pages, but one who is simply anxious to 

 become familiar with them will certainly not complain that 



