SIXTY-FOUR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. 



519 



pyramidal form, and almost invariably assumes the 

 singular shape for which it is distinguished, and is 

 very distinct. The leaves grow mostly in tufts. 

 There is a variety known as the golden Irish yew, 

 with leaves green in the middle and margined with 

 yellow. This may be grafted on the common stock 

 with striking effect. Mr. Temple speaks of speci- 

 mens with which he was familiar as having a cylin- 

 drical mass of black foUage 18 inches in diameter, 

 solid from the earth up four feet, and surmounted 

 by a solid, broadened cone three feet wide and as 

 many high, of rich golden color. There is another 



variety, with its leaves blotched with white, which 

 is beautiful. None of the Irish yews are so hardy 

 as not to be benefited by protection when young. 



T. erecta is easily trained to low, round forms, for 

 which its mass of small leaves gives it a peculiar fit- 

 ness. This bed has for its central figure a finely 

 formed Colorado blue spruce, Picea pinigcns, with 

 several Japanese maples and other hardy plants, to- 

 together with a few annuals to fill. It is almost a 

 matter of surprise that so many plants can be used to 

 advantage in so small a space with such excellent 

 effects. L. D. Davis. 



SIXTY-FOUR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. 



THE COST OF SPOILING THE FORESTS THE LESSON OF FRENCH EXPERIENCE- 

 DRIFTING IN THE SAME ROAD. 



By the Chief of the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture. 



T IS an old observation that every 

 body wants to learn by his own 

 experience. History, it is said, 

 repeats itself, and it seems es- 

 pecially the foolish actions of 

 man that again and again re- 

 appear, in spite of the experience 

 of past ages or neighboring people. One folly com- 

 mitted in all ages and nearly all countries is the 

 irrational destruction of natural forests, and we are 

 just now presenting to other nations the spectacle 

 of the youngster who must learn by his own experi- 

 ence. 



We could have begun in Asia, the cradle of hu- 

 manity, and followed the wanderings of man to 

 trace in his trail the consequences of forest destruc- 

 tion by which he has turned one region after the 

 other into a desert, or has rendered them less fer- 

 tile, less capable of supporting human life than 

 they were before ; but my object is rather to bring 

 home to the readers of The American Garden an 

 idea of the consequences of such folly. I have se- 

 lected from the classic work of the French Forest 

 Administration on "Reboisement of the Mountains" 

 two characteristic pictures, which largely explain 

 themselves. 



Briefly, the history of the folly which the French 

 people now seek to remedy dates back to the 

 French revolution, when the forest lands were 

 handed over to the people individually, who, left 

 entirely to their own sweet will and ignorance, cut 

 the timber, burnt the forest floor and grazed off sod 

 and young growth, just as is done in the Adiron- 

 dacks and in every American mountain and wood- 

 lot to-day. The consequences were, first, that the 



waterflow was disturbed ; torrents carried sand and 

 debris into the plains below, covered thousands of 

 acres of land, making them unfertile, and impover- 

 ishing whole communities. The reason for this 

 deluge was found in the forest destruction. So far, 

 over ^30, 000, 000 have been spent in retrieving this 

 folly, and a further expenditure of $34,000,000 is 

 estimated as necessary to quiet the torrents and 

 cover again the mountain slopes. 



In the frontispiece illustration of this issue the 

 first work toward such reforestation is shown, con- 

 sisting in the building of live fascine works, made 

 of willows, etc., across the gullies on and near the 

 very tops of the mountains, where the danger be- 

 gins. Further down, these works are supplemented 

 by retaining walls, to allow the debris to settle and 

 to retard the rush of waters. On page 521 the pic- 

 ture shows how, on the steeper slopes, it becomes 

 necessary to cut trenches into the mountain side, in 

 which to plant trees and shrubs. Often there is no 

 soil left on these places, and soil for young seed- 

 lings must be carried in baskets to the trench. 



The experience of the last 30 years in the French 

 Alps has demonstrated not only that reforestation 

 is the only practical remedy, but also that it is very 

 difficult and expensive ; and that proper treatment 

 of the original forest cover, the application of "for- 

 estry," would have saved the losses by floods, fur- 

 nished a continued supply of wood and timber and 

 saved the great expense of planting. 



Let us profit by this experience. Forestry is not 

 to prevent the cutting of trees, nor does it consist 

 in the planting of trees after the old ones are cut. 



Forestry in a wooded country means so cutting 

 the forest that the trees will improve in value until 



