New-York tribune., 1886-07-19

Eastern States for every VINO plan s trees for o
rect profit The exclusion OF foreign trees ana trees
from other portions Of our own continent should
be much less rigid when the planters purpose is
not strictly utilitarial. Professor Sargent would
hardly condemn for Massachusetts planting the
magnolias. the Southern linden Mlia heterophylal,
the buckeyes, the virGilia. the Kentucky coffee
tree. the redbud, the liqudambar. the sorrel tree
the persimmon. the water ash (trdrinas qudGrdn-
dalats, the Western catalpa. the cork elm tdtnu1
rGceo,osa the Western shellbark (cdryd sutcdfdl,
the burr oak the pin oak the willow OAK, the paid
cypress. smaller trees like the balesla the VIZ
GINA fringe tree, the black haw wibraum pr'm'-
f0Nam, certain thorns and many Others
all of which belong to our Appa-
achlan fora but are not found IN
Massachusetts, forests. And not to speak OF such
Pacific trees as Dougas spruce and blue spruce
(picea puageas who would condemn the six OF
eight specles of maple already introduced from
Japan China and Mantchuria. or congeners of our
marnoias tulip tree, box-clder. lindens. crab
apples vlrgilla, ashes, oaks. beeches. walnuts,
birchcs, henlocks, larches, cypress and many more
from the same rich fora so strangely Ike our own
And yet it should he added that with growing
refinement of taste the percentage OF native trees
Ill ornamental plantations Is constantly increasing.
Tue idea that an ornamental tree must he i'll some
of It's features distinct from common tree that
grows in the woods and furnishes fuel and timber
is a natural one to a people whose ancestors found
the forest an inhospltablc obstruction which
needed to be swept away before home could be
established The Lombardy poplar and the weep
ing willow were strictly ornamental trees to our
fathers. They were strikiagly unlike any vulgarly
useful trees i'll tho forest, and they were
not worth mnch of anything for
any economical purpose. Trees OF odd
shapes and colors wonld naturally be cla5sei as
ornamental" and if they had been brought from
over the sea and had the added virtue of being rare
aud costly and difficult TO grow, the planter natu-
lily felt greater pride in their possession. 10
meet the demands springlne from such notions
nurseryIGcn have been driven to raise aud sell so
many trees whose sole merit is that they purple
or golden. sivcry, ng-streaked and speckled,
or that they can be warranted to grow straight
downward and never get inch higher than the
stock on which they grated, or to grow Straight
upward and as sharply conlcal as church
splrc. Fortunately eye has been horri-
fed at the spectacle OF Il wood fall of these
monstrositles, but they often too obtruslve
in places where they should be seen. and the
nurseryman vino should orignats' tree with
sky-blue foliage would make his fortune IN single
year for thous lnas of people would bny the ornl-
mental blue tree who never thought of planting
white oak or white pine.
While aesthetic idels like these hold sway, and
while the fashions in gardening like other fashions
are set abroad it is small wonder that i'll parks
and private grounds foreign trees than natives
arc to be found and as persons VINO contemplate
planting 60 to such places for ideas 1T IS not sur
prsing that they become better acquainted with
the former than with the latter 1t Is plblic SER
vice therefore TO direct the attention of planters to
the neglected material in the woods they rarely
lt1ga
one OF Professor Sargens and another by Pro essor
Robinson. which was also published by the Massa
chusctts Board of Agriculture five years ago, are
to be commended for setting forth the wealth OF
arborescent forms in native forests Ii Is 10 DC
hoped that other agencies can be enlisted III educa-
tIonaI work of this kind If each of our agrcult-
ural colleges or experiment stations would estab-
lsh an arboretum to include every tree and shrub
found native in the State where It is situated and
not another one. the collection would not be over
ambitious nor unwieldy and would furnish oppor-
tunIty for study and COMPARISON now sadly needed,
and prove most instructive both for what it con-
tanned and what il did not contain collection of
Rhode Island trees is contemplated we
believe by Brown University. and tho enterprise
deserves sympathy and announcements
But apart from the fact that own trees, as
SINGLE specimens have no supcriors in grace, dignity
and nobility of expression and apart too from the
consideration that they more likely than eXOtcS
to have that appearance of exuiting health and
strength which is essential to the highest beauty,
a stronger argument for their more general use in
ornamental planting is that they lend themselves
more readily to the production Of broad effects. In
every attempt at landscape gardening, worthy Of
the name, the individual tree has no value of It's
1t is part of picture and its use is TO unite
with other elements in emb )dyIng the idea of the
planter and making it distinct and impressive 1t
might be supposed that trees which have developed
together under centuries of the same conditions
would have a natural adaptation to such surround
ings and to each other. As amatter of fact native
trees, when planted together, compose better
than when mingled with foreign forms, and
this assertion can be verified by any who will COM
pare the soft harmOnes of color and form in a
natural woodside with the motley and spotty look
which group of trees from different continents
usually wears. OF course it is alectatIon of
severe taste TO condemn everything but home
growths. but a rule it will he found in landscape
planting that American trees are best adapted to
American skies just truly as in economic plant
ing American trees are best suited TO American
soil and climate