6o 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



fulness of the said land to its owner, and to perpetuate 

 and improve the forest upon it. 



3. Upon the completion of the said plan, and its 

 acceptance by the said John Doe, the Department 0/ 

 Agriculture shall supervise the execution thereof so far as 

 may be necessary. 



4. The Department of Agriculture shall render all 

 services under this agreement wholly without charge to 

 the said John Doe, nor shall it participate in any degree 

 in the receipts and expenses arising from the said land, ex- 

 cept to defray the pay and expenses of its agent or agents. 



5. The Department of Agriculture shall have the 

 right to publish and distribute the said plan and its 

 results for the information of farmers and others whom 

 it may concern. 



6. This agreement may be dissolved by either party 

 upon ten days notice given to the other. 



( Signed ) 

 ( Signed ) 



Washington, D.C., October 1, 1898. 

 The working plan above mentioned being now com- 

 pleted is accepted, and will be carried out under the con- 

 ditions and during the validity of the above agreement. 

 ( Signed ) 



Timber Lands. — Large bodies of forest land in 

 almost every wooded portion of this country have 

 come into the hands of private owners, and are 

 held by them chiefly for their value as sources of 

 timber. Much of this land, probably the greater 

 part of it, is in hilly or mountainous regions, where 

 the preservation of the forest is of importance for 

 both wood and water, while the destruction of the 

 lowland forests, except when they give way to agri- 

 culture, would bring with it the loss of a plentiful 

 spring of national wealth. 



The harvest of the timber crop on these private 

 timber lands is commonly accompanied, under the 

 usual methods, by the destruction of the forest 

 when saleable trees predominate, and in any case 

 by needless injury. Fire follows the lumberman, in 

 spite of the precautions he very often takes, until in 

 many places it is thought to be inevitable. These 

 are misfortunes from which the owners of the forest 

 land are the first but not the only losers, for in the 

 aggregate the loss is a public one. It is to prevent 

 these public and private losses that the Division 

 offers its assistance, realising fully that they must 

 continue until the success of some of their number 

 proves to the great mass of timberland owners that 

 improved and conservative methods of lumbering 

 will pay. 



A specimen memorandum agreement, such as 

 this Division, through the Department of Agri- 

 culture, is prepared to make with owners of timber 

 land, so far as its resources will permit, is appended. 

 Second growth and partly devastated lands will be 

 considered as well as virgin forest. 



[Here follows a similar agreement to that above, 

 but for owners of larger areas.] 



Applications. — Applicants for working plans 

 should state which agreement, wood lot or timber 

 land, they have in mind. They are requested to 

 specify the acreage and situation of their land, the 

 latter by State, county, and township, or by public 

 surveys. Full details as to the character of the 

 forest are especially desired, in order to avoid delay. 

 Applications may be made at any time. — Gifford 

 Pinchot, Forester. 



Approved : James Wilson, Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C, Oct. 8, 1898. 



Overdoing. — It should be a cardinal rule in land- 

 scape art (as in all other art, I think) not to multiply 

 means for producing a given effect. Where one stroke 

 of the brush is enough, two evidence weakness, three 

 incompetency. If a clump of half-a-dozen trees will 

 effect the needful diversion of the eye, and produce 

 the desired shade, any additions are worse than need- 

 less. If some old lichened rock upon your lawn is 

 grateful to the view, do not weaken the effect by mul- 

 tiplying rocks. A single outlying boulder will often 

 illustrate by contrast the smoothness of a lawn better 

 than a ponderous mass. A single spiral tree in a cop- 

 pice will be enough to bring out all the beauty of 

 many round-topped ones. Because some simple rus- 

 tic gate has a charming effect at one point of your 

 grounds, do not for that reason repeat it in another. 

 Because the Virginia creeper makes a beautiful au- 

 tumn show, clambering into the tops of one of your 

 cedars with its crimson leaves, do not therefore plant 

 it at the foot of all your cedars. — D. G. Mitchell. 



Vegetation on Stone Walls in England. — 

 If the roadside happens to have no hedge, the ugliest 

 stone-fence (such as, in America, would keep itself 

 bare till the end of time) is sure to be covered with 

 the small handiwork of Nature ; that careful mother 

 lets nothing go naked there, and, if she cannot pro- 

 vide clothing, gives at least embroidery. No sooner 

 is the stone-fence built than she adopts and adorns it 

 as a part of her original plan. A little sprig of ivy may 

 be seen creeping up the side of the low wall and cling- 

 ing fast with its many feet to the rough surface ; a tuft 

 of grass roots itself between two of the stones, where 

 a pinch or two of wayside dust has been moistened 

 into nutritious soil for it : a small bunch grows in 

 another crevice ; a deep, soft verdant moss spreads 

 itself along the top and over all the available in- 

 equalities of the fence ; and where nothing else will 

 grow, lichens stick tenaciously to the bare stones and 

 variegate the monotonous grey with hues of yellow 

 and red. — Hawthorne. 



