494 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 191. 



River with canons, steep slopes and high peaks, one of 

 which, Tuchas Peak, attains an altitude of 13,000 feet. 

 The tract is not adapted to agricultural use, since its canons 

 are often filled with snow to a depth of fifty feet, which lies 

 on the ground far into spring, precluding timely tillage. 

 Although of little value for settlement, the reservation, if 

 protected, would be a lasting source of benefit to a large 

 region by furnishing a continued supply of wood and 

 water, while if left to lawless invasion and unregulated 

 appropriation the results would be correspondingly dis- 

 astrous. 



The Pike's Peak Reservation is asked for by the citi- 

 zens of Colorado, by the Senators and Representatives 

 of that state, and by its Forest Commission. It is situated 

 in El Paso County, and embraces Pike's Peak, with its 

 slopes, including an area of 357 square miles. Ranging 

 from 7,000 to 14,000 feet in altitude, and furrowed by deep 

 gorges, it is unfit for agricultural use, the few small parks 

 adapted to grazing having been already taken, and it con- 

 tains no valuable land to be withheld from settlement. 

 Thirty thousand people now depend on this forest-area for 

 their supply of timber and fuel, and here originate many 

 streams which furnish water indispensable for hundreds of 

 thousands of acres of land besides the water-supply of 

 many thriving towns and communities in a country where 

 water needs to be husbanded. These supplies are now 

 threatened with extinction by loggers, who are cutting the 

 timber illegally and wastefully, and a railroad which has 

 recently been extended to the summit of the peak will in- 

 sure its more rapid destruction. Besides this, Pike's Peak 

 has rare attractions in its scenery, more than ten thousand 

 tourists having visited it during the past year, and it should 

 be preserved in its present wooded condition as one of the 

 healthful and pleasurable places of resort in the great west. 



We have already spoken of the Minnesota Reservation 

 which is proposed at the extreme northern part of that 

 state extending from the international boundary, including 

 the head-waters of the Mississippi, and comprising some 

 six millions of acres. The region is generally covered 

 with forests of larger or smaller growth, but there are 

 many lakes and marshes, and little of it is suited for agri- 

 culture. This fact makes its preservation advisable for 

 productive forestry, as much of it is useless except for 

 wood crops. Its preservation is also necessary to main- 

 tain a supply of water for the sources of the Mississippi 

 and minor streams, and to preserve for adjacent farm-lands 

 conditions of atmospheric humidity and protection against 

 the cold winds of the north. 



There need be little fear that too many forest-reserva- 

 tions will be set -apart under this new law. The most we 

 can hope is, that the woods, which now stand as a pro- 

 tecting cover to the highlands where a few of the tributa- 

 ries of our great rivers have their source, may escape those 

 attacks of man and beast which have already swept away 

 the forests which were once doing the same beneficent 

 service to many other streams. We are convinced that the 

 question of forest-preservation is not surpassed in impor- 

 tance or urgency by any which has been or is likely to be 

 brought in the near future to the notice of Congress. But 

 the prospect of adequate legislation seems almost hope- 

 lessly remote. We trust, therefore, that the President may 

 see his way clear to give favorable consideration to the 

 letter and spirit of this memorial. 



It is somewhat surprising and a very interesting fact 

 that at Barnard College (the Woman's Department of 

 Columbia College in this city) more students are enrolled 

 in the botanical classes than in any others. The recently 

 issued report of the institution shows that it numbers 

 nineteen botany specials as against seven freshmen, 

 twelve sophomores and seven chemistry specials. 



When the college opened in the autumn of 1889 it pos- 

 sessed a well-equipped botanical laboratory, given by the 

 Torrey Botanical Club. Two hundred dollars have since 



been given by Mr. C. Neustadt for the purposes of this 

 laboratory, and it is under the competent direction of Dr. 

 Emily L. Gregory, who is a graduate of Cornell University 

 and holds her doctor's degree from the University of Zurich. 

 "This laboratory," says the report, "opens to women 

 special facilities, not found elsewhere in this country, for 

 the study of the physiology and anatomy of plants through 

 a systematic course, leading to the successive degrees 

 given for similar work in other branches of science. The 

 course includes two years of undergraduate work and two 

 years of graduate work. There are now studying in this 

 department nineteen students, three of whom are doing 

 graduate work and will later enter upon the work of origi- 

 nal research." That these young women are serious and 

 well-prepared students is shown by the fact that, to be ad- 

 mitted to the departments of botany and chemistry, candi- 

 dates must pass the regular entrance examination of the 

 college, unless it is otherwise ordered in special cases, and 

 that "a student taking the degree of Ph. D. in botany is 

 supposed to have gone over the entire known ground of 

 the science, to know what questions are yet to be solved 

 and to have some practical knowledge of the methods of 

 solving them, so she may be ready to make original in- 

 vestigations. The minor studies are taken," the report 

 continues, "in order to insure a knowledge on collateral 

 or cognate branches sufficient to enable her to grapple 

 with the problems of the major subject," and these cognate 

 studies include chemistry, zoology, physics and mathe- 

 matics, while the candidate for a degree "is supposed to 

 have a solid foundation of university studies already laid." 

 As regards the value of a thorough study of botany to 

 young women the report quotes Dr. Gregory as saying : 

 "Aside from its value in a purely intellectual way, it 

 has a practical value in furnishing occupation, with remu- 

 nerative salaries, to an increasing number of persons. One 

 of these fields is that of pharmacy. Adulterations are con- 

 stantly made in the use of drugs, and we are just learn- 

 ing the importance of a methodical study of the inner 

 structure of plants. This, also applies to the students of 

 medicine, but more particularly to the pharmacist. A 

 much wider field for trained botanists is found in our 

 agricultural stations. In the Agricultural Department in 

 Washington one of my former students is now doing work 

 in mycology, and her position commands a good salary. 

 The call for this work is the increasing devastation made 

 by parasitical plants on our grains and food-plants. Be- 

 fore anything can be done to prevent failures in crops 

 from rust, smut, blight and mildews, the nature and habits 

 of the parasite plant must be known. Such investigations 

 are made and the results published in journals, and the 

 scientific advancement of the country may be marked by 

 the number and worth of such publications. In every 

 state these experimental stations have been started. The 

 work of the botanist is such that a woman is specially 

 fitted for it. " 



Great Hill: A New American Country-seat. — I. 



'"THE interesting letter which you recently published under 

 -*- the title "Gardening on the Shores of Buzzard's Bay," 

 tempts me to write you a description of a country place in this 

 same region which is remarkable because "gardening," in 

 the usual acceptation of the term, has played no part in creat- 

 ing its beauty. It is, I am sure, one of the most attractive 

 country-seats in New England, partly because of its size and 

 its unusually fine situation, but largely because it has been 

 developed out of wildness with so singular a degree of 

 taste and so keen a feeling for the character which ^Nature 

 had indicated. No one has been more in sympathy than I 

 with the counsels so often given in Garden and Forest rela- 

 tive to the necessity of employing a landscape-gardener when 

 a piece of wild nature is to be adapted to human habitation 

 and given an artistic aspect. But there is no rule without its 

 exceptions, and the place in question, belonging to Mr. Albert 

 W. Nickerson, of Dedham, shows that while most men must 

 be educated to the possession of taste, some are born with it, 

 and are justified in dispensing with professional assistance. 

 No hand but the owner's has touched Great Hill, and the result 



