574 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 197. 



the other fall-flowering kinds, G. Octobrensis is said to be 

 found only in the Grecian Archipelago — this particular one in 

 Albania — from which it was sent some years since. It has 

 been rare in gardens till lately, when the increasing interest in 

 various forms of the Snowdrop has led to the collection of the 

 hitherto scarcer kinds. This plant seems to have considerable 

 vigor, since the recent hard weather — fifteen degrees of frost 

 with high winds — does not affect it. The danger would seem 

 to be that it would weaken from insufficient ripening. Per- 

 haps a warm covering of leaves later will help it in this. 



Snowdrops are always beautiful and dainty, and one wel- 

 comes them even at this season, though now there is an un- 

 mistakable lack of that sentiment which has endeared this 

 flower to so many and is so associated with their normal early 

 spring-blooming habit. Snowdrops are, even when plen- 

 tiful, not very striking flowers in the garden, and it will be well 

 when small plots of the varieties are grown to cover the beds 

 with some neat-growing Sedums, or similar plants, to serve as 

 a foil to their fragile loveliness. G. Meekani would be a capi- 

 tal plant for the purpose. These autumnal Snowdrops will 

 probably never be useful garden-plants or offensively common. 

 Elizabeth, N. J. J.N.Gerard. 



[The specimen sent to this office by Mr. Gerard, and 

 which is, perhaps, the first, or at least among the first, to 

 flower in America, was almost a precise copy of the sin- 

 gle Snowdrop which ordinarily blooms in late winter or 

 earliest spring. — Ed.] 



Correspondence. 



What are the Experiment Stations Doing for 

 Forestry ? 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The twelfth number of the Experiment Station Record, 

 completing the second volume, has just come from the press. 

 Its issue has been delayed by the preparation of the very full 

 index and table of contents, embracing more than a hundred 

 pages. The Record is composed of abstracts of the annual 

 reports and bulletins of the experiment stations, and the index 

 is, in fact, an index to 42 of the reports and 329 of the bulletins 

 issued during the year 1890 and apart of 1891, and comprises 

 14,781 printed pages. It becomes, therefore, the ready means 

 of surveying the field of experiment station work and seeing 

 what the fifty stations are practically accomplishing. 



I find out of between eight and nine thousand entries of the 

 index there are only five under the words " forest" and "for- 

 estry." Under the title Trees there are nine entries relating to 

 forest-trees. Under Insects only two have special connection 

 with timber trees. Under Conifers there is a single entry, 

 referring to some valuable notes on this class of trees by Prof. 

 Popenoc, of the Kansas station, and under Evergreens there 

 are two entries, one referring to a list of trees growing on the 

 grounds of the Oregon station, the other to an account by 

 Professor Keffer of the evergreens in the nurseries of the 

 South Dakota station. 



There may be, here and there, in this extended index an 

 entry bearing upon forestry subjects in addition to those now 

 noted, but they must be few. So far as a quite careful exam- 

 ination of the index shows, it appears that only seven out of 

 fifty or more stations have as yet published anything relating 

 to forestry. Some of the stations may have done some exper- 

 imental forestry work which they have not carried so far as 

 to give results warranting publication. But with all reasona- 

 ble allowances, does not this official record show a marked 

 neglect, on the part of the stations generally, of a subject 

 which has the closest and most important relation to agricul- 

 ture ? 



This neglect seems the more inexcusable when we see the 

 work done by some of the stations. In South Dakota, for ex- 

 ample, the station originally established for the whole terri- 

 tory of Dakota — though dating its existence only from 1887 — ■ 

 has already done such experimental forestry work as to war- 

 rant the publication of four forestry bulletins besides what is 

 published in the annual reports. In the very year of the estab- 

 lishment of the station three acres of ground were planted 

 with tree seeds. In April, 1889, Professor Keffer gave the public 

 the results of this experiment. A statement was made of the 

 kinds of seeds sown, the varying depths at which the seeds were 

 placed in the ground, the per cent, of those that germinated, 

 the influence of deep or shallow planting on germination, the 

 greatest growth of the various kinds of seeds, the method 

 of cultivation, atmospheric conditions, and the general result 



at the time of publishing the bulletin. An account is then 

 given of the planting, in the spring of 1888, of a forest-tree 

 nursery, comprising 12,000 or more seedlings and embracing 

 thirty species. The method of planting and the subsequent 

 treatment are given, with the results at the time of writing. In 

 November of the same year another forestry bulletin was issued. 

 In this Professor Keffer gives an account of the planting 

 of the seedlings in permanent forest-plats, which was done in 

 the spring of 1889. The situation and character of the ground 

 are given, with a diagram showing the relative location of the 

 various species. The method of planting and the subsequent 

 management are described, and the growth from month to 

 month is tabulated. A third bulletin was issued in January of 

 the present year. This bulletin is a report of progress in lines 

 of work previously recorded in the otlfer bulletins. Analyses 

 of the soil of the experimental plats are given, with observa- 

 tions on the root-growth of transplanted trees, and a discus- 

 sion of the value of a dense leaf canopy. A list of trees spe- 

 cially valuable for forest-plantations in South Dakota, as shown 

 by observation and information, is also given. Still another 

 bulletin was issued in April of this year. In this the impor- 

 tance of tree-planting is urged, methods of grove, street and 

 lawn planting are discussed, and the advantages of certain 

 varieties of trees for groves, streets or lawns are set forth. 



It is impossible to overestimate the value of these forestry 

 bulletins, though no adequate idea of them can be given in 

 this brief space. But the question at once arises, Why are not 

 similar bulletins issued by all or most of the fifty stations, in- 

 stead of being confined to less than half a dozen ? There is 

 not a state in the Union where there is not manifest need for 

 forest-experimentation, though it may not be the same as in 

 Dakota. The forest-crop is the great agricultural crop of the 

 country, most important in itself, as also in its relation toother 

 crops. The problem is confronting us, How shall this crop be 

 maintained in adequate measure when consumption is increas- 

 ing, while the area of ground occupied by trees is decreasing 

 because of the demands constantly made upon it for tillage pur- 

 poses ? We appropriate $728,000 annually to the experiment 

 stations to aid them, in the language of the act by which they 

 were established, " in acquiring and diffusing among the peo- 

 ple of the United States useful and practical information on 

 subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific 

 investigation and experiment respecting the principles and 

 applications of agricultural science." The farmers of other 

 treeless states, and of those also where trees abound more or 

 less, may well ask whether the stations established among 

 them are carrying out the full purpose for which they were 

 endowed so liberally, when they fail to give instructions in re- 

 gard to the uses and management of trees, the kinds adapted 

 to their soil and climate, and the relations of trees to the whole 

 business of agriculture. 



Department of Agriculture. 



N. H. Egleston. 



Winter Weather in North Carolina. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — We have just passed through the most sudden and 

 early cold snap I have yet experienced in this locality. The 

 autumn has been continuously dry and sunny, and the cold 

 wave which struck Raleigh on November 16th was the first 

 killing frost we have had. The true temperature was not far 

 from nineteen degrees above zero. Since then we have had 

 sunny and pleasant weather, and I have been much interested 

 in observing the effects of the sudden cold. The day before 

 the frost our late Irish potatoes were still green, and the cold 

 was so intense that it froze many of those which were near 

 the surface. Our beds of Scarlet Geraniums had just taken on 

 new growth from a shower a few days previous, and it is 

 curious to notice that of two beds in the same exposure one 

 had all its plants completely blackened, while the other, not 

 twenty feet away, is scorched all over the top, but still shows 

 green leaves below. In this bed the growth was more dense, 

 and the mass of leaves above protected the lower parts of the 

 plants. Pittosporums do not show a singed leaf. Gardenia 

 florida, sheltered by the walls of the college building from the 

 west and north winds, was not hurt at all. Oonshin Oranges, 

 on an exposed hill-top, where the north wind had a full sweep, 

 show no sign of injury. Agave Americana, planted on the 

 samelawn, is quite uninjured, and a three-year-old bush of Jeru- 

 salem Cherry {Solatium Pseudo-capsicum), near by, looks just 

 as happy and full of its scarlet fruit as ever. Olives, of several 

 varieties, received from California last spring and planted for 

 the purpose of testing their endurance of our climate, show no 

 signs of injury. The Tea Roses look worse than anything else, 



