October 23, 1890. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
365 
I would distribute shrubs in mixed shrubberies, so as to present 
a good face to the eye ; but, at the same time, with a variable yet 
harmonious aspect. But were the place large I would plant each 
rlatural order in groups, after the style of an arboretum ; and with 
a view to this I would place the Berberideas in the foremost rank. 
A group of Berberries on a lawn would be a beautiful object in 
May when our flower gardens are little better than fallow fields, 
and highly ornamental in autumn from the effect produced by 
their berries. Disposed of in that way, I should plant the deci¬ 
duous kinds in the centre of the group and the evergreens chiefly 
around them, always taking into consideration the height of each 
species and their character of growth. I should not plant a strag¬ 
gling grower in front, but put it behind a compact grower. 
In planting, however, ideas vary. Some would object to plant¬ 
ing deciduous shrubs and evergreens together in groups, and it 
certainly detracts much from the beauties of evergreens when 
they adjoin deciduous trees, especially when seen on the same level 
with them. Therefore I would only employ evergreen Berberries 
for groups on lawns, unless I were forming an arboretum, when I 
might plant the deciduous and evergreen together. 
Propagation. —Seeds of the common varieties, deciduous and 
evergreen, may be sown in sandy loam in the open ground on 
nursery beds in March or April, covering them with fine soil about 
half an inch deep ; but seeds of the evergreen species, as Berberis 
Fortuni, nepalensis, should be protected in a cold frame until 
the seedlings are fairly up, and when of sufficient size io handle 
transplanted into nursery beds, and afterwards further transplanted 
annually or biennially, allowing more room each time between 
the plants, until they are of sufficient size to plant out finally. 
Seedlings are such a long time before they flower compared with 
plants raised from layers, division of the root or suckers, that it 
is not a very advisable method of propagation.—G. 
(To be continued.! 
THE NORTH AMERICAN FORESTS. 
The visitor from Europe is particularly surprised at the extra¬ 
ordinarily long and numerous wooden structures which the railway train 
sets to vibrating in crossing the watercourses. In America the streams 
retain a freedom of movement of which they make full use ; one year 
here, another there. From high mountains the bed of a stream looks 
like a broad white band of water and gravel banks, with green, wooded 
islands between. 
Streams are a good indication of the state of cultivation of the 
surrounding country. Those which from year to year discharge their 
clear water into the sea, and through the year scarcely vary in their 
water-level, come from an undisturbed woodland. Their banks are held 
fast by the roots of the trees in the region of the headwaters, and in the 
mountains the water gathers slowly from the woods. Such streams one 
sees now for the most part in uninhabited regions only ; in the island of 
Hokaido, in northern japan, for example, I have found such. 
Streams which during the rainy season or during the season of melt¬ 
ing snow flow turbid, and during the rest of the time clear, showing in 
ordinary weather small variations in their water-level, rise in wood¬ 
lands, and flow through arable land, part of the soil of whose roads and 
fields the rains wash into the streams. Of this kind are the streams of 
Germany and France. 
Finally, streams which year by year flow with turbid water, or which, 
at least, through the rainy season rush through the cultivated plains 
to the sea with swollen floods, here carrying away soil, there heaping up 
gravel banks, come from an up-country in which the forest is almost 
entirely wanting, or the deforesting is under full headway. Such 
streams one sees, for example, in Ceylon, where the English, with plan¬ 
tations of Tea, of Coffee and of Cinchona, have begun the destruction of 
the forests and the woodlands of the mountains. Such streams are 
numerous in Japan, Spain, and northern Italy. There the streams are 
feared whenever it rains a few days longer than usual. The American 
streams approach this stage. In their unrestrained impetuosity they vie 
with each other in bringing ruin upon their bottom lands, which, as a 
rule, contain the best soil. That a change must have taken place in a 
river is clear when during the rainy season it undermines its banks 
covered with trees that have stood for centuries, and finally sweeps them 
away in its floods. Instances of this are numerous in America, and 
speak plainly to everyone who can and will see, more plainly than all 
the books upon the influence of the deforesting of the mountains and 
the plains upon the water-level of streams. The deforesting of the 
Adirondacks through fire and in useless attempts to take the mountains 
for agriculture, causes a perceptible change in the water-level of the 
Hudson, which during the dryness of the season is fed with the moisture 
of the earth in the Adirondacks. Formerly Peeksgill was a water station 
of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. This station had 
to be abandoned because during the dry season the salt water forces 
itself as high up the stream as Tivoli, and saltwater is unsuitable for 
feeding locomotives. 
Although the American engineer is familiar with the increasing 
variation in the level of the streams, one sees but few efforts to regu¬ 
late their flow, which, indeed, would involve a mere waste of money, as 
long as the average level of high water is yearly becoming higher. 
Moreover, many look upon the deforesting of the mountains with indif¬ 
ference, because they believe that the forest, with its beneficent influence, 
can be replaced upon a magnificent plan. Their idea is to fill enormous 
reservoirs with water during the rainy season, and then to permit the 
contents to flow throughout the cultivated lands. But for the filling of 
such reservoirs a considerable surface of soil which may collect the rain 
is necessary. It is to be hoped that the rain will be so gracious as always 
to fall with due regard for human safety, for the breaking of the reser¬ 
voirs might have worse consequences than a cloud burst. To me it seems 
much safer that the great amount of money which permanent water 
works would require should be utilised in buying up the mountain lands 
and preserving their forests. This would be good policy even without 
taking into account the fact that these national reservoirs bring in 
money, while the artificial ones only swallow it up. 
In spite of the outrageous management of the forest everywhere in 
the United States, I am inclined to believe that, partly of itself, partly 
with some little help, it will return to its beneficent condition, if m the 
future it should be possible to preserve it from fire. Danger from fire 
in the forests in the civilised parts of Europe has become a rare thing ; 
at the least fire everyone hastens to put it out, and the Government has 
power to compel all to help. 
In India the number of forest fires is lessened yearly, thanks to 
the energetic measures of the Government and the watchfulness of 
an efficient body of foresters, while young growth springs up on the 
protected plains. 
In Japan, a smaller country, fire and axe have already nearly com¬ 
pleted the work of destruction. The brave nation is labouring with 
the utmost zeal and with great outlay of money for the restoration of 
the forest on the shrub-covered mountain slopes, and for the preserva¬ 
tion of what still remains. 
In North America the practice of burning forests has become cus¬ 
tomary, even in cases in which it is entirely without reason. How can 
anything else be expected from the descendants of a nation that has no- 
forest, and therefore knows nothing of the blessings of a forest ? Closer 
study of the causes of the burning of the forests forms an instructive, 
if not an edifying chapter. We see what man can bring to pass in a 
country of such highly vaunted elbow room, in a country where the 
most complete individual liberty seems to be the chief principle, in a 
country whose laws for forest-protection are empty threats, because the 
ignorant and unprincipled cannot be compelled to obey them. 
According to the report of Professor Sargent, 1,000,000 acres of 
forest were burned in a single year (1879-80), and with it 20,000,000 
dollars’ worth of property was destroyed. The causes of these fires have 
been ascertained as follows : —197 fires resulted from burning over 
pasture lands ; in 1152 cases fires started in making forest clear¬ 
ings ; 508 started from locomotive sparks ; 628 from hunters’ fires ; 
72 from camp fires ; 35 from pipes and cigars ; 12 from prairie fires - r 
9 from charcoal burning ; 32 from lightning ; 56 were kindled by 
Indians ; 10 by lumbermen ; 2 by tourists ; 262 were kindled maliciously ; 
in 2 cases fire is said to have been started by spontaneous combustion ; 
3 times woodcutters and 3 times unknown carelessness set the fire. This 
makes a total of 2983 cases. 
Let us examine further the fires started maliciously and those caused 
by locomotives, hunters, and campers out, 1470 in all. The injury that the 
railway does to the forest interests is very serious. One who travels 
to-day in North America must grow accustomed to the charcoal heaps 
on both sides of the railway, if he would have any pleasure from the 
beauty of the landscape. From the railway the fire has encroached for 
countless miles upon the forest. Upon the oldest railways the danger of 
fire is reduced yearly by constant burning of the trees from the clearing 
on both sides of the road bed. Upon such clearings it would be an easy 
thing to cut off the fire from the forest with a safety ditch. It appears 
to me that there is no other expedient than to make a cleared belt along 
the tracks as soon as possible. At all events, this does more good than 
the spark arresters which the law prescribes, since, in spite of laws, the- 
locomotives run without them. 
A characteristic result of the boundless freedom of the individual at 
the cost of the people is presented in those cases in which hunters and 
tourists camping or travelling in the forest cause the fires. In the year 
1880 they kindled 700. As far as my experience in western America 
extends, the sportsmen are careful to burn the under brush, which in 
the primeval forest contains generations of future forest trees, in order 
that they may be less hindered in their aim. In other regions the woods 
are fired in order that the game throughout particular districts may be 
driven together. Comment on this is quite unnecessary. Forest thieves, 
too, start fires, especially in the Government forests, in order to obliterate 
the traces of their theft. 
With reference to the Yellowstone Park, the possession and the pride 
of the whole nation, H. Winser says in his “ Guide for Tourists — 
“ It is to be deeply deplored that because of the carelessness of 
campers out, many of them cultivated people, vast stretches of forest 
have been destroyed by fire. The fires have resulted from neglect of the 
simplest precautions as to camp fires. In consequence of this it is not 
at all unusual to be obliged to ride in the park for miles and miles 
between black tree stumps instead of in the refreshing shade of the 
green forest. This thoughtless destruction of the forest should be 
checked by severe punishment of the offenders.” 
It should be provided by law that anyone who causes a fire shall be 
held for the injury done, and the amount of damages should be equal 
to the value of the woodland destroyed, But the injury done to the 
