358 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 179. 



of our inheritance, to relegate the forest to the non-agricul- 

 tural soils, and to make the soil do full duty in producing- only 

 that which is useful to man. 



Then a new conception of the forest arises. The "forest 

 primeval," together with the young natural growth of the bet- 

 ter class, becomes " woodlands " ; the brush-lands, which 

 result from the careless treatment of the original growth, be- 

 come " waste lands," and the name of "forest" is reserved to 

 those woodlands, which have become objects of human care, 

 producing to the fullest capacity of the soil the most useful 

 material. No more convincing argument for the importance 

 of this resource in a nation's economy can be offered than to 

 state the value of the forest-product in the United States. 



The total annual product of wood-material of all sorts con- 

 sumed in the United States may be valued in round numbers 

 at $1,000,000,000, representing, roughly speaking, 25,000,000,000 

 cubic feet of wood, or the annual increase of the wood-growth 

 of 500,000,000 acres of forest in fair condition. This value ex- 

 ceeds ten times the value of our gold and silver output, and 

 three times the annual product of all our mineral and coal 

 mines put together. It is three times the value of our wheat 

 crop ; and, with all the toil and risk which our agricultural 

 crops involve, they can barely quadruple the value of this 

 product yielded by nature for the mere harvesting. If to the 

 value of our total mining product be added the value of stone 

 quarries and petroleum, and this sum be increased by the 

 estimated value of all the steamboats, sailing vessels, canal- 

 boats, flatboats and barges plying in American waters and 

 belonging to citizens of the United States, it will still be less 

 than the value of the forest-product by a sum sufficient to 

 purchase, at cost of construction, all the canals, buy up at par 

 all the stock of the telegraph companies, pay their bonded 

 debts, and construct and equip all the telephone lines. The 

 value of the annual forest-product exceeds the gross income 

 of all the railroad and transportation companies. It would 

 suffice to pay the indebtedness of all the states, if we leave out 

 New York and Pennsylvania, including that of all counties, 

 townships, school districts, and cities within those states (in 

 1880) ; and it would more than wipe out the remaining public 

 debt of the United States. In fact, ranking manufactures of 

 all kinds and agriculture as respectively first and second in 

 importance, as far as production of values goes, the forest- 

 product occupies the third place. This was the case accord- 

 ing to the census of 1880. It is claimed that since then the 

 lumber industry has enlarged to such an extent as to make its 

 product second, if not first in value. 



Not only does the forest furnish the material for the construc- 

 tion of dwellings and other structures, our railroad consumption 

 of 500,000,000 cubic feet of timber included, but it yields to two- 

 thirds of our population the fuel to warm their houses and to 

 prepare their food ; it gave us the first means of using our 

 mineral resources, and even now 600,000 tons of our iron 

 product depend upon charcoal. Not only does the wood in its 

 natural form serve our needs, but our ingenuity has invented 

 methods by which we can transform it into cellulose, paper, 

 and even silk, while lately it has become possible to prepare 

 from the brushwood a feed for cattle more nutritious than 

 straw and equal to hay. By distillation of the wood numer- 

 ous new products are derived from it, like alcohol, acetic acid, 

 gas, vanillin, etc. ; the bark yields indispensable tanning 

 material. Resin and tar to pitch our vessels, and turpentine, 

 sassafras oil, and quinine to cure our ills, rubber and cork for 

 a great variety of uses, maple sugar and cinnamon to flavor 

 our food, all are derived from the forest ; an enumeration of 

 the use of forest-products would be almost endless. 



While this direct usefulness of the forest is patent to every 

 one, there are to be noted some more hidden indirect phases 

 of utililty as important as those which are presented by its 

 material. The forest, with its decaying vegetation, has fur- 

 nished the fertility of our fields and waters, for the mineral 

 soil without the humus or vegetable-mold would never have 

 produced food enough for mankind. 



Another incalculable benefit of the forest-cover is the part 

 which it plays in the great economy of nature, the recognition 

 of which led Humboldt to exclaim : " How foolish do men ap- 

 pear, destroying the forest-cover without regard to conse- 

 quences, for thereby they rob themselves of wood and water." 



It is only within a century or so that the value of a forest- 

 cover as a protection against destructive natural forces and as 

 a regulator of favorable cultural conditions, by its influence 

 upon climatic conditions and upon the flow of water, has been 

 recognized and proved. Whatever may in general remain un- 

 explained in regard to these influences of the forest, it is well, 

 established by observation, experience and experiment that, 

 under certain conditions of soil, topography and climate, these 



influences not only exist, but are of considerable importance 

 in preventing the washing and shifting of the soil, regulating 

 the surface and subterranean drainage of waters, breaking the 

 force of and tempering hot and cold winds, and thus acting as 

 a regulator of cultural conditions. 



The significance, then, of the forest is twofold. For the 

 private interest it is, in the first place, only a source of profita- 

 ble products ; for the interest of the community, the state, or 

 nation it forms an indispensable basis of material prosperity, 

 directly and indirectly. Forest-management, therefore, in- 

 cluding a proper maintenance of forest-cover where desirable, 

 supplies not only profitable employment for private enterprise, 

 but is also an important factor of public economy, and the 

 application of proper forestry-principles is hence a matter of 

 the highest public interest. 



Correspondence. 

 Our Neglected Native Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It is a fact to be regretted that the value of plants is so 

 commonly rated by the remoteness of the country from which 

 they have been brought. The cold inhospitable regions of 

 Siberia and Kamtchatka, the torrid jungles of Africa, the wilds 

 of Australia, the distant Indias, the treeless Brazilian Pampas, 

 and the forests of the Amazon are eagerly searched for floral 

 treasures, while our native plants, such as Laurels, Magnolias, 

 Andromedas, Rhododendrons, Lilies, Irises, Cypripediums, 

 Cacti, Phloxes, Passion Flower, Verbenas, Calycanthus, Trailing 

 Arbutus, Calamusand Pond-lilies are comparatively neglected. 



A few persons are beginning to appreciate this class of 

 plants, but our people generally are willfully blind to their 

 beauty. In my own little backwoods corner of' the south-west 

 we have Clematis coccinea, Iftomea fiandurata, 'Bignonia radi- 

 cans and Virginia Creeper among vines, Cornels, Red-bud, 

 Hydrangea and Viburnums among shrubs, Phloxes, Lobelias, 

 Penstemons, Verbenas, Ageratums, Aquilegias and other her- 

 baceous plants, all growing wild. One of my neighbors once 

 lamented the poverty that had kept her yard bare of flowers 

 for fifteen years. When I suggested that her boys could get 

 her a great many flowers in the wOods a quarter of a mile 

 away, she drew herself up with sudden dignity and freezingly 

 remarked, " that she supposed she could if she wanted wild 

 flowers, but she didn't." The sarcastic emphasis on that word 

 " wild" showed that she considered the suggestion a positive 

 insult. Again, while traveling in Arkansas, we passed a grove 

 of beautiful trees, which were then unknown to us. Meeting 

 a family group a little later, we asked the name of "those 

 grand trees, remarkably handsome," we told them, " tall and 

 straight, with corky bark and curious five-pointed leaves, shin- 

 ing as though varnished." But the more we explained, the 

 more puzzled the party became. At last an old lady recog- 

 nized the description, and burst out with, " Lasakes ! stranger, 

 them aint nuthin' but Sweet Gums ! The men thought yer 

 meant sumthin' fine." " Sumthin' fine" meant something 

 they could not see every day, and it seems to mean this with 

 most people. 



Nor is the contempt of wild things confined to the unedu- 

 cated classes. A certain academy town, whose citizens pride 

 themselves on their culture, has several amateurs ambitious 

 of being considered connoisseurs of choice and rare flowers. 

 Twenty years ago, within a radius of two miles of this village, 

 one could find Lilium Canadense, Cypripediicm spectabile and 

 C. pubescens, Gaultheria, Sarracenia pitrpurea and Trillium 

 grandiflorum. A choicer or more distinctive half-dozen plants 

 could hardly be named. To-day not one of these plants can 

 be found in that neighborhood, and it is but a question of time 

 when the Cardinal-flowers and Lobelias, the Phloxes and the 

 Hepaticas will also be extinct there. In this same town a lady 

 once received a gift of a rare hybrid Azalea. The premises 

 included a river-bank, and here the precious treasure was 

 planted, and watched until it was a thrifty, good-sized speci- 

 men that each year gave large clusters of rich scarlet blossoms. 

 In time a new owner changed the boundary-fences, and this 

 bank was thrown outside of the enclosure. The river-side 

 soon became the promenade-ground of the town, and though 

 the beautiful Azalea was quite conspicuous, it was supposed 

 to be indigenous, and so was unprotected and uncared for. 

 Lovers sat beside it and picked its leaves and blossoms to 

 pieces as they talked ; stray cattle ate it down, until but dwarfed 

 shoots remained ; baby-buggies were trundled over it, and 

 people stepped on it in their haste to witness a boat-race or a 

 baptizing. A few years after, one who knew of this rare shrub 



