October 7, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



469 



GARDEN AND FOREST, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sakgent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles :— Government Timber Tests 469 



The Use of the Bordeaux Mixture on Grapes 470 



Sacred Trees of the World Deutsche Rundschau. 470 



How We Renewed an Old Place. — XX Mrs. J. H. Robbins. 470 



Forest-vegetation of the Upper Mississippi. — II. .Professor L. H. Pammel. 472 



Notes on North American Trees. — XXIX Professor C. S. Sargent. 472 



New or Little-known Plants : — Aster Shortii. (With figure.). 472 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 474 



Cultural Department : — Early Grapes in the North T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 475 



Planting Hardy Bulbs E. O. Orpet. 475 



Wintering Aquatic Plants f.N. Gerard. 476 



Primula floribunda, Primula denticulata, Early Chrysanthemums, Cycla- 

 men Persicum T. D. Hatfield. 476 



Hollyhock Diseases Professor Byron D. Halsted. 477 



Recent Publications 477 



Pomology : — Meeting of the American Pomological Society. — II. : Recent Prog- 

 ress in the Treatment of the Diseases of Pomaceous Fruits, 



Professor B. T. Galloway . 477 

 Fruit Districts Geologically and Climatically Considered, 



Professor E. S. Gofif. 479 



Fruit Notes from Canada L. Woolverton. 479 



Notes 480 



Illustration : — Aster Shortii, Fig. 74 473 



Government Timber Tests. 



IT is an admitted truth that there is too little precise 

 knowledge, . even among those who are considered 

 experts, of the technical and physical properties of the 

 more prominent woods that are used as timber in the 

 United States. The country has been so far blest with 

 such an abundant supply of excellent material that every 

 one has been able to secure a kind of wood suited to his 

 needs, so that there has been little practical necessity for 

 studying the nicer distinctions between the various species. 

 Again, wood of the same species varies very largely in its 

 qualities as it is grown under different conditions, and it 

 varies, too, in different parts of the same tree. But the 

 study of these differences can only be made at great ex- 

 pense and by persons of special training, and it is not a 

 matter of wonder, therefore, that our knowledge is no 

 greater. It would hardly be credited, however, by the 

 public that large dealers in lumber, and even inspectors, 

 architects and builders, do not even know, in many cases, 

 what kind of timber they sell or use. A large dealer in a 

 western city, in writing to the Forestry Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture, stated that he was selling Long- 

 leaved Pine which came from Arkansas, but since Pinus 

 palustris does not grow there he is probably buying and 

 selling Pinus mitis for the true Long-leaved Pine. Not 

 long ago a prominent dealer in Chicago, where millions of 

 feet of southern pine are handled every year, wrote to know 

 how timber of the Long-leaved Pine could be distinguished 

 from that of the Short-leaved Pine, showing that such prom- 

 inent timbers as these are not well known, even to those 

 who handle them. It is a fact that, owing to the increased 

 demand for Norway pine, certain dealers in the west met the 

 emergency by branding some southern pine as Norway, 

 and the sales went on as before. The ordinary macro- 

 scopic resemblance between the woods of some of the 

 different species of Oak is so great that the three of them 

 are indiscriminately sold as White Oak. 



Now, it is plain that any help which will enable persons 

 to identify the various woods by an examination of their 

 structure would be of great value to all those interested 

 in the use or the sale of timber, and this is hoped for as 

 one of the results of the investigations instituted by the 

 Forestry Division within this year, since the studies of Mr. 

 Roth, of the University of Michigan, who has in charge the 

 physical and microscopic work, are expected to furnish the 

 means of distinguishing the wood of one species from an- 

 other even when their resemblance in superficial characters is 

 close. As a result of this there ought to be fewer mistakes and 

 misunderstandings, not to speak of deceptions and frauds 

 which can be practiced in general, while the vital distinc- 

 tions between the woods of different species are not recog- 

 nized. This work will be still more valuable in connection 

 with a check-list of the arborescent flora of the country 

 which is now in preparation by the Forestry Division, and 

 which will aim not only to give all the synonyms, both com- 

 mon and botanical, of each species, but the geographical 

 distribution of the common names, because nurserymen, 

 lumber-dealers and others who use these woods are 

 naturally misled by the indiscriminate use of the same 

 name for different timbers in different localities. Mr. Fer- 

 now calls attention to the fact that buyers of southern pine 

 in the north are quite uncertain how to order and how to 

 distinguish the three kinds that reach the market here, since 

 the same name is applied to each in various regions ; and 

 since the botanists have undertaken to revise the scientific 

 nomenclature it is still more desirable to publish the new 

 names, so as to establish a basis of intelligent communi- 

 cation. 



Attention has been directed to this subject by a circular 

 recently sent out by the Forestry Division in relation to 

 the Government timber tests now going on, and which, as 

 is stated with justifiable pride, are the first to be made in so 

 complete a way in this particular direction. In order 

 to make these investigations of the highest utility the 

 material for study must be collected by a careful observer 

 who has the judgment to note accurately the conditions 

 under which the samples have grown and sufficient intelli- 

 gence and training to make certain determinations on the 

 spot. Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, has been doing this 

 work in the south, and a no more trustworthy agent could 

 have been selected. He chooses trees of each species from 

 a number of localities with different soil and climatic con- 

 ditions, and from each site five trees are cut up into logs 

 and disks, each division being carefully marked to show 

 its proper position in the tree. Disks of a few young trees, 

 as well as of wood from the limbs, are collected for bio- 

 logical study, so that from fifty to seventy disk pieces and 

 ten to fifteen logs are collected for each species, and a full 

 account of the conditions of soil, climate, aspect, measure- 

 ments and determinable history of the tree and the forest- 

 growth about it is added to the collection from each site. 

 This is the material from which Mr. Roth makes his studies 

 of the physical properties of the tree. He notes its specific 

 weight, the amount of water and the rate of its loss by 

 drying in relation to shrinkage, the structural differences 

 between the pieces, especially as to the distribution of 

 spring and summer wood, strong and weak cells, etc., and 

 the rate of growth and other biological facts which may 

 help to show any relation between the physical appearance 

 of the tree, its conditions of growth and its mechanical 

 properties. Finally, the logs are shipped to St. Louis, 

 where Professor J. B. Johnson will test one-half of the 

 logs while they are green and the other half after a 

 thorough seasoning, in order to judge of the strength of 

 the wood under various kinds of strain and pressure. Be- 

 sides the beam tests, fifty others will be made of each tree, 

 or about two hundred and fifty tests for each species and 

 situation. 



A few problems upon which this work ought to throw more 

 light are stated by Mr. Fernow, as follows : What influence 

 has seasoning of different degrees upon the quality of 

 wood? How do age, rapidity of growth, time of felling 



