DAVID CANNON ON INTRODUCED FOREST TREES, 



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vigorous in poor limestone soils. I have seen some 

 young specimens doing very well with my colleague, 

 M. Maistre, in the limestone and barren lands of 

 Herault, where the Pines make but a mediocre dis- 

 play. The wood is excellent and of great durability 

 within their natural areas. 



" Lawson's Cypress (Cupressus Lawsoniand). — 

 In Sologne it promises to make an admirable orna- 

 mental tree, with its delicate branches, elegant and 

 pyramidal, somewhat spreading form and fine green 

 colour, which it retains during the winter. Like 

 other Cypresses, it has this peculiarity, that theyoung 

 stem often divides from the collar into several. This, 

 generally, is of little importance, as later on the 

 middle stem gains the mastery over the others, which 

 then become mere side branches. The wood is of 

 fine quality, delicate, and compact. 



"The Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiand). — In 

 1 89 1 I planted it alternately with Thuya gigantea. 

 Its growth has been inferior to that of its associate, 

 being less than 13 feet, but at the present time it has 

 begun to shoot up. The tree is, however, one of 

 only second-rate size, seldom rising more than 49 or 

 50 feet ; but it is to be recommended for the fine 

 quality of its wood, which is useful in certain delicate 

 parts of cabinet and other work, and notably in the 

 manufacture of pencils. 



"The Yellow Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens). — 

 This is a superb tree, and in California and Oregon 

 grows to a height of between 98 and 115 feet. The 

 stem is very thick, but the branches are short and 

 slender, and the form of the tree is elegant. I have 

 an isolated specimen in my park which was planted 

 in 1870 ; its height is about 62 feet and its girth 

 about 5 feet. In the clumps planted in 1889 its 

 height varies between 13 and 15 feet. But for the 

 attacks of rabbits (which are particularly fond of this 

 species) it would doubtless have shown a finer 

 growth. It promises even now to make up for lost 

 time. Its delicately grained wood is excellent for 

 some building purposes. 



"The American Pitch-Pine (Pinus rigidd). — 

 A tree of very slow growth. We have only some 

 poor specimens of it at Barres, though in the sands 

 at Vaux it does very well. Fourteen years ago, with 

 the intention of forming a nursery in a small area of 

 waste land, I had the ground cleared by burning the 

 Heather. The fire having broken bounds, overran 

 and burned up i| acres of fallow sandy land be- 

 yond, which had been completely exhausted by bad 

 farming. The burning of the heath sods imparted 

 an ephemeral fertility to the soil, and for three years 

 I used it as a nursery for the hardiest kinds of plants. 

 In the last of these years we planted half an acre 

 of this land with P. rigida, one-year-old plants, and 

 the following year, when removing the crop, 1 left 

 enough of the young trees to form a permanent 



plantation. These Pines, aged now between eleven 

 and twelve years, average about 1 6 feet high with a 

 circumference of 11 to 12 inches. The plantation 

 having been properly thinned, the result is a good 

 upright growth, contrary to the reputation of these 

 trees for a knotty and bushy habit, a reputation 

 which is probably owing to travellers having only 

 seen it growing in a scattered state, in which its 

 branches would gain disproportionate development, 

 as happens to the common variety of P. syhestris in 

 open spaces. From my experience I should say that 

 P. rigida might be of service for cultivation in lieu 

 of the Maritime Pine in dry, poor soils, in plains, 

 and on slopes distant from the sea coast where the 

 Maritime species is decimated by the ring (ronde) 

 disease, and suffers from too rigorous winters. 



"The White Pine (P. strobus). — It was planted 

 since the year 1870 in the moist, not to say boggy 

 soil of thecommunal forest of Raon-l'Etape (Vosges). 

 In 1890 it had grown to a remarkable height for 

 its age, and the wood, which before had been used 

 chiefly in the making of boxes — a purpose for which 

 it was well suited as not being liable to split — was 

 also found useful in paper making. One tree near my 

 house, planted in 1872, is over 50 feet. 



" The Forest Administration continues to plant 

 the species in the Raon district, so I presume that its 

 cultivation is remunerative. In Nievre it is used for 

 building purposes by my colleague M. de Saint 

 Maur with satisfactory results. He finds that this 

 Pine does well with light shade. 



" I consider the success of young American coni- 

 fers in rather sandy soils very encouraging, taking 

 into account the slow growth during the first years, 

 of the Silver Fir especially. At the present time the 

 conifers at Vaux display a vigorous upward growth, 

 and I believe that in another ten years the rate of 

 increase will be much higher. 



"Summer Leafing Trees {Negundo). — This 

 year, for the first time, I have planted the Californian 

 Negundo, which, according to M. de Vilmorin, has 

 showed extraordinarily quick growth at Eberswalde, 

 as at Barres, and at eight years old is already between 

 39 and 40 feet high. This would be, so to speak, 

 the Eucalyptus of temperate lands ; it remains to be 

 seen whether it is hardy enough to withstand our 

 cold seasons. 



"The Jack Oak. (Quercus palustris), despite its 

 name, is as prosperous in growth in our dry sands 

 as the other American Oaks. I have three isolated 

 specimens of this tree which were planted 25 years 

 ago,and are respectively 3 2 39 1-, and 35-J- feet high, 

 and 23^, 26, and 28 inches in girth. At the present 

 time they throw out some fine head shoots. With 

 their very erect growth (though inclined, almost 

 drooping tops) they are regular-pyramidal in shape, 

 somewhat spreading and covered with a foliage 



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