58 
destruction of life and property that recently 
occurred to a village of the Swiss Alps, which 
was overwhelmed by a terrible land-slide. 
Those of us who reside in the country of plains, 
interrupted only by ridges of easy slopes and of 
moderate elevation, can hardly conceive the 
terrible effects of a rain storm falling upon 
the bared summits of elevated mountains, 
from which the water suddenly flows down 
the sharp ravines and is collected in the stony 
beds of narrow valleys, thi ough which it is 
urgently forced to their outlets in the broader 
plains below. 
To understand them we must look to the 
attendant conditions and circumstances in 
which they occur, and we can do no better 
than to quote from those who have studied 
these Alpine torrents, among whom Mr. Bur¬ 
rell of France is high authority, having made 
the Alps a special study. He describes the char- 
act rs of the water-courses as mountain 
streams, torrential rivers , and glacial rivers, 
with their rocky moraines. The first are 
comparatively quiet, but they may contribute 
to the torrents, The rivers are characterized 
by a comparatively easy descent through a 
nearly level vale, and in a wide bed but a part 
of which is usually occupied by the stream at 
any one time, though the water may flow suc¬ 
cessively in any and all parts. The word tor¬ 
rents, on the contrary, is applied to what may 
be called “dry water-courses, along which 
tiny streams may be seen to flow, but which, 
from time to time, are filled with rushing, 
roaring, resistless floods. They generally tra¬ 
verse very short valleys, which cut up the 
mountains into buttress-like projections.’> 
♦Their fall is very rapid, and they undermine 
their banks causing land-slides, similar to the 
one which recently destroyed the village of 
Ems in Switzerland. 
The sources of the torrents are hid in the 
recesses of the mountains, thence they descend 
to the valleys, where they spread out over an 
immensely extended convex bed. “In most 
other water-courses,” says Surrell, "the waters 
always flow in a hollow', which incloses them 
in such a w'ay that a section of the ground iu 
a direction across their course would give a 
curve couc'ave toward heaven, the lower por¬ 
tion of which would be occupied by the waters. 
In the torrents, on the contrary, when they 
reach the plain, a similar section would show 
a curve convex toward heaven, and the waters 
running on the summit of this elevation. With 
the w'ater flowing in a slight depression on the 
summit of a convex torrent-bed it may be im¬ 
agined that there can be but little stability in 
the current, and such is the case. The most 
trifling rise or swelling of the torrent throws 
the water out of this depression, and it is 
scattered right and left, doing immense dam¬ 
age.” 
“ The flow of water occasioning the damage 
and devastation is due rc> the melting of the 
snow usually early in June, and to the rain¬ 
storms occurring late in the Summer. Those 
resulting from the latter cause are the most 
destructive. Rains are not frequent in the 
region of the high Alps, but when they do fall 
it is in tremendous show'ers, and the effect 
upon the torrents is instantaneous. The swel¬ 
lings caused by rains are local, one torrent 
becoming furious, while another, not far dis¬ 
tant, will remain dry, and so the flood cannot 
be anticipated as w hen caused by the gradual 
melting of the snow.” 
“The phenomena accompanying the swell¬ 
ing of torrents are varied. The flooding of 
some torrents is characteristic, which is due to 
diverse distribution of slopes, etc. Sometimes 
the swelling occurs gradually, the w aters rise, 
clear at first, they become more and more tur¬ 
bid, and then throwing their strength into 
their velocity, rolling along stones which 
strike each other with a dull sound, they end 
at last by overflowing their banks, and then 
extend their ravages. At other times they 
appear suddenly, and all at once is seen, in¬ 
stead of w'ater, the black lava-like flow of 
stones, the slow advance of w'hich has nothing 
like to the flow of liquid. At other times the 
torrent falls like thunder. It is announced by 
a rumbling roar in the interior of the mountain 
range, and at the same time a furious wind 
escapes from the gorge. In a few moments 
the torrent appears in an avalanche of w'ater, 
rolling before it a heaped up mass of blocks of 
stones. This enormous mass forms a moving 
barrier, and such is the violence of the impulse 
that the stones may be seen leaping before the 
waters become visible. The hurricane w'hich 
precedes the torrent makes stones fly in the 
midst of a whirlpool of dust, and immense 
blocks have been seen moving on the surface 
of a dry bed, as though propelled by some in¬ 
visible force. In illustration of this last state¬ 
ment Coaz reports that at Reukenberg, on the 
right bank of the Vorder-Rhein, in the flood 
of 1868, a block of stone estimated to weigh 
9,000 cwt., was carried bodily forward—not 
rolled—by a torrent for a distance of three- 
quarters of a mile.” 
Surrell says there are torrents which, at the 
* Rebolsemeut in France, by Rev. J. C. Browne, from 
which liberal abstracts have been made. 
THE RURAL 
time he w r rote, had not been in existence three 
years, that had in that brief period destroyed 
the finest parts of the valleys of Piedmont. 
Whole villages have been almost carried away 
by ravines formed in a few hours, and often 
the wild w'aters flowing in broad sheets over 
the surface of the ground have ruined whole 
districts, which have been abandoned forever. 
The primal^ cause of these Alpine torrents 
is said by M. Fabre to lie the destruction of 
the forests w'hich covered the mountains, and 
which by their foliage and branches inter¬ 
cepted a considerable portion of the falling 
rains, and caused that which did reach the 
ground to fall so slowTy and gently as to 
quickly sink into the earth. The bushes and 
tufts of grass, which grew in abundance in 
the woods, broke and destroyed any torrents 
that might have formed at their very outset. 
But after the woods w T ere destroyed, the w'aters 
of a storm no longer met with anything iu 
their fall to intercept them. Their abuudauce 
prevented their absorption by the hard and 
baked soil; they overflowed the surface, and, 
meeting no obstructions, w'hich might have 
broken or divided their courses, they foi'wed 
torrents. The chief cause of torrents is the 
clearings ou the mountains. 
These disasters are briefly enumerated by 
Fabre to be: After the destruction of the 
forests, the abrasion in many places of the 
vegetable mold with which the mountains 
were covered, the ruin of the domains which 
lie upon the streams below', the damage ex¬ 
perienced in the navigation of rivers by the 
divisions iu the water-courses—which are the 
consequents of great floods, the deposits at the 
mouths of attluent streams, which often inter¬ 
cept the navigation, and the diminution of the 
springs which feed the streams and keep up 
the rivers in their ordinary stage. 
The French are so thoroughly satisfied that 
these torrents may iu large degree be controll¬ 
ed, that they have begun reforesting the sides 
and summits of the Alps. Comparatively 
little has yet been accomplished, but the re¬ 
sults of what has beeu done are most favor¬ 
able, and the government is expending vast 
sums, under the direction of the best eugineers 
and foresters, in endeavors to restore the for¬ 
ests to these Alpine hights. 
In our own times—1859 and 1800—France 
seems to have realized the necessity for action 
in the matterj.it preserving the mountain for¬ 
ests, and stringent laws for the protection and 
extension of woodlands were passed with 
wonderful unanimity, the latter enactment 
having met but a single negative vote, though 
it asserted eminent domain, interfering with 
private lights where necessary for the public 
good, and appropriated ten millions of francs, 
at the rate of one million a year, for the re¬ 
planting of these bared mountain slopes. 
Many hundreds of ravines, that were for¬ 
merly channels of formidable torrents, have 
already beeu secured by barriers, and by grad¬ 
ing and planting, as reported by Mr. B. G 
Northrop, of Connecticut, who recently (lbi!) 
traveled iu Europe t<> study the forests, and 
w ho, since his return, has unceasingly ugitated 
the subject by voice and by pen in his en¬ 
deavors to arouse his fellow citizens to the 
necessities of the situation. 
Mr. S Van Dorrien of New York, an edu¬ 
cated German, has raised his voice likewise, 
haviug issued two pamphlets, one the Protec¬ 
tion of Forests a Necessity, and one entitled 
Forests and Forestry, both containing valu¬ 
able information. 
Mr. Van Dorrien informs us that as a result 
of the vigorous legislation of France, 70,000 
acres on the mountain sides were restored to 
forest. While public opinion declared in favor 
of the legislation, however, the mountaineers 
complained of the injustice and injury done 
to them by restricting the pasturage, poor us it 
was, ou the bate and gullied hillsides; they 
demanded indemnity, and as a compromise 
they were allowed to plant grass iu certain 
sections instead of trees, though it was soon 
found that the sod did not a nest the flow of 
water. He asserts that the damage done by 
floods during the last ten years in Southern 
France alone is estimated U6 high as three 
hundred millions of francs, notwithstanding 
the successful progress of sodding and plant¬ 
ing trees upon those thousands of acres rescued 
from pasturage and desolation. 
After referring to other lands W'hich have 
suffered from the destruction of their forests 
Mr. Van D. says; “There is hardly another 
country which needs protection by forests so 
much as Switzerland. * * * The desola¬ 
tion wrought in the Alps by avalanches, land¬ 
slides, and the falling of rocks, grow's more 
frightfully manifest, the more ruthlessly the 
woods are ravaged. The damages from ava¬ 
lanches in the canton of Tessin, during Janu¬ 
ary, 1863, amounted to 675,090 francs. The 
impaired fertility of the Alps, and the gradual 
receding of vegetation from its upper limit, 
the disappearance of forests in the higher 
regions, the unfavorable conditions of tem¬ 
perature and w'eather during the growing 
season, the more frequent recurrence and 
greater extent of the devastations by waters, 
JAN. 28 
avalanches, and falling rocks, the increase of 
land slides from the slopes and accumulations 
in the valleys, all these are mainly the conse¬ 
quence of the excessive destruction and heedless 
misir anagement of the forests, and all the 
misery that has come or that is still to come 
from that source must be attributed to the 
greediness of men and their disregard of natu¬ 
ral laws.” 
After the wooded area of France was re¬ 
duced from one-eighth, in 1792, to less than one- 
tenth but a few years since (1804), the destruc¬ 
tion continued, aud “ the year 1840, 1S41 and 
1856 were to teach the French a frightful les¬ 
son. Enormous masses of water, destroying 
whatever they reached in their course, and 
rolling along from the declivities a vast quan¬ 
tity of gravel, rushed down the mountains, 
spread over a large extent of land in the fer 
tile valleys of the Rhone, the Loire and the 
Seine, and destroyed all human prosperity. ♦ 
* * In 1843 the treeless and unproductive 
tracts of land in the department of Ardeche 
amounted to 425,000 acres, or almost a third 
part of the area of the department. The 
masses of sand and gravel washed down over¬ 
spread 72,500 acres of arable laud. Plateaus 
3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level are entirely 
destitute of fire-wood.” 
Similar troubles are in store for us, in parts 
of our own happy land; indeed they have 
already occurred to some extent, and the ter¬ 
rible disasters by floods on the Connecticut 
and ol her streams may plainly be traceable 
to excessive clearings on the mountain sides 
about the sources of the streams, and to the 
utter neglect of auy artificial means for their 
reforesting. 
In the last number the influence of mountain 
forests upon the water supply of the continent 
w’as considered, and the destructive fires were 
pointed out. In the next number the reader’s 
attention will be called to the effects of excess 
ive clearing and draining upon the permanence 
and equal distribution of the flow of w'ater in 
the rivers. 
nurserymen have had to consign so many 
hundreds to the annual bonfire. 
5 Germantown Nurseries, Philadelphia. 
HONEY-LOCUST. 
Professor Budd’s account, page 826, of the 
value of Honey-Locust for posts and rails is 
agreeable information to me, for I have a lot 
of what were, some years ago, spare plants 
from a hedge, which have run up to be large 
bearing trees, now almost big enough for split- 
posts. But there is a great waste of material 
iu them ow ing to the spreading out of horizon¬ 
tal branches, and a generally crooked disposi¬ 
tion of growth. I have noth ed, however, that 
the least thorny (at first entirely thornless) 
ones have a more erect habit and freer growth, 
and a plot of seedlings from a thornless tree 
show the same character. The savage thorns 
are an objection to thetree, making it danger¬ 
ous to all but thickly encased feet, and very 
troublesome to the axman. As a hedge it is 
excellent, sprouting very little, ami impassa¬ 
ble to the most breachy beast. "When the 
stout five year-old stems have been plashed 
down they form living bars that cannot be 
pushed through. Its ease of growth and trans¬ 
planting, and entire hardiness, and the great 
beauty of its foliage, when condensed in a 
trimmed hedge, are great merits, but a draw¬ 
back is that cattle like to browse on it. The 
directions for scalding the seeds are applicable 
to the common locust, but unnecessary for the 
larger, softer beans of the tree I have in 
view; for they come up w ithout such prepara¬ 
tion quite readily. The shelling of the seeds 
is difficult. I once gave some to a German 
hand to shell at home. He got his wife to 
help him, The dust from the pods proved such 
a determined sternutatory that, after a w hile, 
the pair could do little else for sneeziug. The 
next larger lot w as run through a thrashing 
machine, a very much more rapid and easy 
way of getting the beans out of their reten¬ 
tive, long, brown shells. W. 
GOLDEN NINE-BARK. 
.15 
EXPERIMENTS WITH THREE VARIE¬ 
TIES OF OATS. 
J. M. m’bryde, prof, agr., hort., andbot., 
TTNIV. TENN. 
THOMAS MEEHAN, EDITOR OF THE GARDENERS’ 
MONTHLY. 
I have some old specimens of this—some 20 
years old, and probably the first plants intro¬ 
duced to our country—which have scattered 
their seeds, some coming up self-sown in an 
old stone quarry which I have. Among these 
are some which are quite as golden as the 
parents, though others, as in the “Rural 
Grounds” experiments, are as green as the 
original species. I find this to be the case with 
the Golden and Purple-leaved forms of other 
species. Large numbers of Blood-leaved 
Beeches come purple, and also of the Purple¬ 
leaved Barberry. With the Golden Arbor- 
Vitse about one third come golden. It is 
not safe, however, to rely on seeds w'hen the 
trees eau be readily propagated from grafts 
or cuttings. The Golden Spiraea, or “Nine- 
Bark,” is readily propagated from cuttings 
put in in Spring. It is a lovely plant in the 
hands of a good landscape gardener, and I 
have often wondered why some of our leading 
There is, according to general opinion, a 
great difference in varieties of oats. Not only 
different sections of country, but different 
soils in the same section, require different 
kinds. I have fieen Winter oats yield 40 bush¬ 
els per acre, where the Spring oats, in the 
same soil and season, gave only five bushels. 
The English agriculturist, Johnston, remarks: 
—“The oat and the red clover love a firm 
and stiff soil— a natural habit w hich chemistry 
cannot hope to change. On some soils the 
Tartary Oat yields heavy crops, while, on the 
same soil, the more valuable Potato Oat re¬ 
fuses a remunerative return.” (Experimental 
Agriculture, p. 14). 
The Red Rust-Proof variety has been grown 
in this section for several years. It has been 
tested on the University Farm for the last 
three years. It is supposed by many to be en¬ 
tirely rust-proof. This, however, is a mistake, 
but it is certainly less liable to rust than the 
other kinds. Last year when the w'heat at 
the Farm was almost destroyed by rust, it 
did not escape uninjured. Win. Trenhohn, of 
South Carolina, in the Report of TJ. S. Dept, 
of Agr. for 1879 (page 4S8), testifies to the 
same fact. “Theonly oat, I think, that we 
can raise in this State, with any chsnce of 
success, is the Red Rust proof, aud even this 
is rusted in some parts of the State.” 
The Washington is described as a new varie¬ 
ty of great promise, “the very best domestic 
sort iu cultivation.” It is said to have been 
discovered in Illinois, growing in a field seed¬ 
ed with imuorted German wheat. Ithasgiven, 
so it is stated, great satisfaction at the North, 
and w-eighs 40 pounds per bushel. 
The Chinese Hulless is held to be a different 
species from the kind usually cultivated, and 
w'hile considered by some a very recent impor¬ 
tation from China, it is advertised by others 
as an eutirely new variety. It is thus herald¬ 
ed by a leading seedsman: “A new and very 
popular variety; the berry comes from the 
head as deanas wheat without the chaff adher¬ 
ing; the gruiu is at least double the size of the 
ordinary oats relieved of the hull; is as white 
us w hite winter wheat, and weighs 55 pounds 
to the measured bushel. This new cereal is des¬ 
tined to a considerable extent to take the place 
of other grains, as it is certain to become 
largely an article of food for man as well as 
beast.” A Missouri correspondent of the U. 
S. Dept, of Agr., writing of this variety in 
April, 1880, says: “ 1 had six acres of Winter 
wheat, six acres of Spring wheat, aud 18 or 
20 acres of common oats destroyed by chinch- 
bugs. They did not touch it ’y Chinese Hulless 
Outs, This may be owing to the oily coating 
of the latter. They will be of great value on 
this account if they can be acclimated.” Such 
claims merit attention. This oat has, how¬ 
ever, been tried iu several places at the North 
w'ith not very satisfactory results. Alien, in 
his New American Farm Book (p. 164), pub 
lished many years ago, states that, “theskin¬ 
less oatq much commended in Ireland, have 
been tried iu this country without much suc¬ 
cess.” 
It is certainly neither a new variety nor a 
very recent acquisition from China, as the fol¬ 
lowing citation of authorities will show'. Phil¬ 
lips in his “History of Cultivated Vegetables,” 
(2nd London Edition, 1827, Vol. II, Page 13) 
makes special mention of the following kinds 
of oats: “Turner observes, in 1568, that the 
naked oat, mi da, grew in Sussex; he adds > 
‘that it hath no husk abyding upon it after it 
is threshed, and is like oatmele. This kind 
growetli in no other countre that ever I could 
tell of, saving onelye in England, nether 
haue I rede iu anye newe or olde Autor of 
this kinde.’ The bearded oat, sterilis , was 
brought from Barbary, and first cultivated 
in this country in 1640. The brittle oat, 
fragilis, came from the South of Europe in 
1796.” Careful writers distinguish between 
the naked oat and the skinless or hulless, and 
the latter is, most probably, an improved 
variety of the former. Varlo in his “ New 
System of Husbandry ” (Edition of 1785, Vol. 
II, page 259) thus treats of the naked oat: 
“ The naked oat is a small grain; it is called 
naked because it has no bran upon it, like 
other grain, but grows in the same state as 
the kernel of the common oat when Gielled; 
therefore it is a ready grain for bread. 
* * * * When sown on land proper for 
it, it will produce as good or profitable a 
crop as other oats * * ♦ * The straw is 
short and fine; therefore good fodder for cat¬ 
tle. This oat does not stool or branch much; 
