24 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



F EBRD ART, 1909 



individuals, is to recognize this law of 

 evolution and put our home grounds in har- 

 mony with it. 



How can we do this? In two ways. 

 First, by transplanting all the large trees 

 we can afford. Second, by planting enough 

 slow-growing native trees to dominate the 

 land we own. The fast growers and horti- 

 cultural forms should be reduced to a mini- 

 mum. The former are only for temporary 

 luxuriance; the latter only for spice. This 

 is the only true perspective. 



What a different programme this is from 

 the one we have hitherto been following! 

 Until a few years ago, it was the regular 

 thing for nurseries to have only the English 

 oak, elm, beech, and linden; there was no de- 

 mand for the American equivalents. Now the 

 whole attitude is changing. We see that we 

 can never get English effects merely by plant- 

 ing English species. 

 We have abundant 

 proof that European 

 trees, as a rule, are 

 not long - lived in 

 America, except on 

 the Pacific Coast. 

 But, even if they did 

 thrive here, it would 

 be slavish imitation 

 to have them in pre- 

 ponderance. We 

 want an American 

 landscape, not an 

 English one. For- 

 merly we aimed at 

 the letter and missed 

 the spirit. Now we 

 see that mellowness 

 resides, not in Eng- 

 lish trees as such, 

 but in the great age 

 and stature of tree 

 growth, and that we 

 can have mellow 

 country places only 

 by preserving and 

 planting our own 

 long-lived trees. 



But my theme is to 

 show how to repro- 

 duce all the most 



important English effects with material that 

 will really be hardy and long-lived in Amer- 

 ica. In my judgment there are about eight 

 main effects. 



THE PRIVATE FORESTRY EFFECT 



Everywhere in England you see private 

 forests planted for profit. England first 

 won her naval supremacy in ships built of 

 English oak trees which were practically 

 planted for the purpose on private estates. 

 Public or state forestry hardly exists in Eng- 

 land. Here we commonly think that 

 forestry concerns the Government only. A 

 few Americans will plant catalpa, locust, or 

 some other tree crop that matures in seven 

 to fifteen years, but when the passion for 

 enduring things becomes a national trait 

 with us we will plant oaks and other species 

 that require a hundred years or more to 

 mature. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Forestry 



at Washington, D. C, has a plan for co- 

 operating with any one who has a forest in 

 which profit is the chief consideration. 



THE LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 



the art 



There 



private 



By "landscape forestry" I mean 

 of managing woods for pleasure, 

 are thousands upon thousands of 

 deer parks and game preserves in England, 

 while here they are comparatively rare. 

 One can always tell a park by the abun- 

 dance of grass and the peculiar shape of the 

 trees. Most of these are nicely rounded, 

 and all have a flat base at a uniform height 

 above the ground — the height to ' which 

 deer and cattle can reach. It would be child- 

 ish in us to imitate this effect. If one keeps 

 cattle for breeding purposes the effect will 

 come naturally and will be appropriate. 

 But if one wants a park for beauty it is 



The English landscape possesses more luxuriance and mellowness than ours, and this is largely due to 

 the tree growth, since trees grow taller and live longer than other plants 



much better to have the branches of speci- 

 men trees come right down to the ground. 



In sporting woods, the characteristic effect 

 is a dense undergrowth of English laurel, a 

 broad-leaved evergreen shrub of great 

 beauty which is not hardy here. We can 

 never duplicate this effect, but even if our 

 rhododendrons are narrower, darker, and 

 duller of leaf, the fact is of small conse- 

 quence. When America is as crowded as 

 England we shall doubtless pay much 

 attention to breeding cattle and making 

 game preserves, but it would be the shal- 

 lowest sort of affectation for us to imitate 

 now her cattle-pruned trees or laurel coverts. 



The private arboretum is occasionally seen 

 in England. Its object is to cultivate every 

 kind of hardy tree. Some examples that I saw 

 were too haphazard, some too botanical. We 

 have a good many wrong kinds in America. 

 The best pattern for us is the Arnold 



Arboretum. Mr. Thomas Proctor has a very 

 good private arboretum at Topsfield, Mass. 

 The commonest point of view toward 

 pleasure woods in America is to "let them 

 alone." That is why our woods are so 

 uninteresting. American woods are full of 

 diseased, crooked, and spindly trees, and 

 there is no comfort in walking among them 

 because of mosquitoes, brambles, and burs.. 

 The slowest and most imperfect way to 

 restore a piece of woods to its primeval 

 grandeur is to let it alone. We can make 

 it wilder and more interesting at once by 

 planting great quantities of wild flowers 

 that will spread out of their own accord. I 

 saw acres of bluebells in English woods, 

 and this effect we can reproduce literally. 

 The cheapest methods of carpeting the 

 forest floor with wild flowers I hope to 

 explain in July. At present I can speak 

 only of wild garden- 

 ing in which trees 

 are dominant and 

 flowers incidental. 



The loveliest effect 

 of this kind I saw in 

 England was that of 

 beech woods. The 

 beeches themselves 

 are a constant revela- 

 tion of beauty. All 

 have exquisite, 

 smooth bark, and 

 retain much of their 

 foliage all winter. 

 Some are beautiful, 

 others grotesque; 

 some are high 

 branched, others low 

 branched; some are 

 developed on all 

 sides, others only on 

 one; some are spot- 

 ted with gray lichens; 

 others uniformly 

 coated with green. 

 The finest moss in 

 the world grows 

 under beech trees. 

 Holly grows to per- 

 fection under beech, 

 and makes an ideal 

 companion for it, but there is an atmosphere 

 in beech woods that is positively not of this 

 world, and therein lies its mystic charm. 

 Tennyson reproduces it in "Pelleas and 

 Ettare." 



But I realize that private forestry is only 

 for people with good-sized country places.* 

 Most of us can have only a few trees on the 

 lawn or in the garden. All the other effects 

 I shall describe are from this point of view 

 and I must omit street freest an d conifers.! 



THE FLOWERING EFFECT 



The grandest flowering tree 

 England is the horse chesnut. 



I saw 

 There 



* Let them buy and study Forbes's " English Estate 

 Forestry." 



t Because the point of view is generally public, not private. 

 Let the student consult The Garden Magazine. Vol. VI, 

 p. 128, and Vol. VIII, pp. 118-121. 



1 1 wrote something about cnifers last month, but there 

 are better articles by Mr. Berckmans in The Garden 

 Magazine for January and March, 1008. 



