53Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 194. 



together, 

 botanic 



and every one tries to make a museum or a 

 jarden instead of an attractive and restful sur- 

 rounding to a home. This fault is emphatic in many pub- 

 lic gardens, which should, be the first to teach a lesson of 

 restraint, of breadth of treatment, of judicious selection 

 and arrangement of a few interesting plants. The most 

 beautiful of all gardens are the old ones, which were lim- 

 ited in the matter of vegetation. The material was scan- 

 tier then, but the results far better. Where there is much to 

 distract the attention, a multiplicity of detail, it is impos- 

 sible to derive from a garden that sense of intimate charm 

 which should be its finest characteristic. To be conscious 

 of grace and beauty, of repose and harmony in a pleasure- 

 ground, is impossible when the mind is kept on the alert 

 by endeavoring to take in a hundred new and curious 

 things. 



This thirst for photographic detail is the foible of the 

 age ; it is thrust upon us at every turn — in pictures, in 

 novels, in current literature, in gardens. The landscape 

 is be-kodaked till fancy and imagination are well-nigh 

 knocked out of the picture. The way of seeing things, 

 the art of composition, is cast aside for the things them- 

 selves, heterogeneously thrust upon us. It is the death 

 of the finest art, of repose and dignity and noble simplicity. 

 A delicate suggestion as far outvalues a bald statement as 

 a poet's verse excels a catalogue. 



Leave Nature alone and there is never this emphasis of 

 detail. Masses she gives, with here and there an accent, 

 but no overwhelming sense of clutter, of the unimportant 

 and wearisome variety with which man encumbers his 

 landscape. And yet what infinitude the great Artist com- 

 presses into comparatively simple expression, but it is as a 

 whole we see her most splendid panoramas, not as a col- 

 lection of disjointed parts. To learn to express this secret 

 of unity in variety is the lesson of the true gardener, and 

 this it should be his part to teach by vivid and beautiful 

 example. 



The guardians of public pleasure-grounds should bear in 

 mind that these resorts are for the education of the public ; 

 that they hold their office not to minister to unlearned and 

 vitiated taste, but to appeal to the finer and higher percep- 

 tions which may be latent in the most unlikely quarters. The 

 multitude grope in the dark, longing for light. Let that 

 light be true, and not false — a guide, and not a concession ; 

 a beacon, not a mirror. 



It is wise to show people what can be done with simple 

 and easily accessible material ; with perennial plants ; 

 with beautiful, but not uncommon, annuals ; with shrub- 

 bery that can be cultivated in almost any garden ; with hardy 

 plants that may be found blooming early and late, when 

 exotics must be housed, and tender things-wizen in a chilly 

 wind. Rare things, too, there may be, but let a part of 

 every public ground serve as an example to all who love 

 gardens. There are millions of people, who cannot afford a 

 landscape-gardener, but would be grateful for a hint of how 

 to manage their own little grounds in a way that would be 

 pleasing without being costly, and that would be reasona- 

 bly permanent. Not until public gardeners realize that they 

 have a mission to perform will they truly merit their high 

 office, for it is a high office to develop taste, to define 

 beauty, and to indicate dignity and grace in the arrange- 

 ment of trees and shrubs and flowers. 



Waste Places. 



SCATTERED throughout the eastern states, infact, on nearly 

 every farm, are untillable places that are almost non-pro- 

 ductive, and, being almost worthless, greatly reduce the aver- 

 age acre-value of the farm. Such places are usually wet or 

 rocky, and are pastured, whether profitably or not is for those 

 immediately concerned to decide. But the present depression 

 in the dairying business, together with the increasing value of 

 lumber, has suggested some notice of waste tracts on which 

 timber has been permitted to grow ami of which the history 

 is known, in the hope that suggestions may be found that will 

 apply to tracts at present unprofitable. One such lot, which 

 seems characteristic, was found in Warren County, New Jersey, 



in the Pequest Valley, and is a fair example of what may be 

 expected on muck land that produces only Sedge-grass and 

 wild Rose-bushes when cleared and pastured. Some of the 

 notes of most general interest are here given. The soil is 

 muck, from one to four feet deep. The subsoil is drift re- 

 deposited by a post-giacial lake near its eastern shore, and 

 consists of sand and clay irregularly bedded, with some " hard 

 pan." A spring-brook flows through the tract. The surface 

 of the water in the brook is above the surface of most of the 

 subsoil, and supplies the soil with abundant and constant 

 moisture, except during unusual drought. 



Prior to 1858 this lot of seven acres had been continuously 

 depleted of tree-growth and burned over. At this date a few 

 defective trees, say twenty, were standing, with about half of 

 the tract in coppice of Maple and Ash, the remainder being 

 occupied by Sedge-grass, Rose-bushes and scattering seed- 

 lings. The whole young growth was then cut off, and during 

 the next ten years it was burned over every spring to reduce 

 it to pasture. In spite of the fire and pasturing, the young 

 growth gradually developed into a complete cover. The 

 Maples, starting freely among the Sedge-grass, were at first 

 eaten off by the cattle, but dense clumps and belts of Rose- 

 bushes annoyed the cattle, and, finally, with Blackberry-vines, 

 formed so dense a hedge near the adjacent cultivated land 

 that the cattle seldom penetrated into the young growth of trees. 



The last places to be covered were two very wet spots 

 (where the seedlings at last started on decayed logs, sending- 

 their roots down a foot or two to the soil, as the Togs rotted 

 away), and the higher ground that was never overflowed. The 

 latter was most grazed by the cattle, and was only covered by 

 seedlings after the cattle were hedged out. The trees are thus 

 not all of one age ; some are from the seed, others are sprouts 

 from the small stumps left from browsing. The trees near the 

 "fail places," or those places last covered, started up very 

 limby, and are now much shorter than those densely grown 

 from the first. The species found on this lot were Red Maple, 

 Black Ash, Swamp White Oak, Pin Oak, Sycamore, White Birch 

 and White Elm. The Red Maple is throughout the most 

 numerous, and in the parts most subject to overflow is 

 only accompanied by a few Ash and Elm. The oldest of the 

 trees are now about thirty years, and the youngest fifteen years. 

 The greatest space between trees is twenty-five feet, and the 

 average is about seven feet. 



The growth on the whole tract is vigorous, and the crown 

 cover is very nearly complete. The trunks of the best trees 

 are free from live limbs to a height of thirty feet above the 

 ground, and are now nearly smooth, though a few dead 

 branches are still adhering near the lowest live limbs. Many 

 inferior trees are dead and sickly from overcrowding, but the 

 remainder will be the better for their death. All the leading 

 trees are vigorous. It is noticed that the White Birch and the 

 Swamp White Oak are rapidly overtopped and killed by the 

 Red Maple. The Elm holds its own with difficulty, while the 

 Ash, in damp spots, where there is more space, seems to equal 

 the Maple, and will eventually overtop it. 



An area was selected that seemed to represent fairly the 

 average of the whole tract. The measurements on this acre 

 showed the average to be as follows : Number of trees per 

 acre, 901 ; height, 48 feet ; diameter, 6 inches on stump, and 

 5 inches breast-high ; contents, 4.1 cubic feet per tree, or 3,685 

 cubic feet per acre ; merchantable wood, 3.4 cubic feet per 

 tree, or 30.6 cords per acre. 



TABLE OF GROWTH. 



No. of Section. 



Dist. from Ground. 



No. of Rings. 



Diameter. 



No. 1 



8" 

 4' 8" 

 8' 8" 

 12' 8" 

 16' 8" 

 20' 8" 

 24' 8" 

 28' 8" 

 32' 8" 

 36' 8" 

 40' 8" 

 44' 8" 

 48' 8" 



24 

 22 

 20 



!9 

 16 



15 

 13 

 II 



9 



8 



5 

 3 

 1 



6" 



No. 2 



418" 



4rV 

 4f" 



4" 

 3s" 



a 



3" 



2g" 



No. 3 



No. 4 



No. 5 



No. 6 



No. 7 



No. 8 



No. 9 



No. 10 



No. 12 



If 



5" 



No. 13 



8 



The value of this land at the time attempts at clearing were 

 abandoned in the year 1868 was not more than ten dollars per 

 acre. To-day the market value of the wood-growth alone is 

 $30.00 per acre. 



Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. -". &. Ayres. 





