STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 131 



The similarity between the Niagara and Bradshaw has been noted 

 by some of our fruit growers, but there are others raising both 

 who claim they are distinct varieties. 



A NEW DEPARTURE IN CURRANT CULTURE. 



A writer in The Gountry Gentleman recently described his method 

 of currant culture. Whether good or not, it is peculiar and may 

 deserve more than a passing notice. He writes; "I allow each 

 year from four to six new shoots to grow from the ground surface orp 

 each bush, keeping the soil well fertilized and cultivated clean, de-- 

 stroying the currant worm when it appears b^' a careful dusting; 

 especially of the under surfaces of the leaves with powder of white- 

 hellebore applied while the dew is on When the currants are suflfi/-- 

 ciently lipened (and for perfection in making jell^- they should hardly 

 all be red or ripe) the pickers cut off with a corn-knife or grass-hook 

 every branch which is in bearing, lay the branches carefully in the 

 garden barrow, wheel them off and dump in the shade, where they 

 afterward sit and strip the branches at leisure. As all the currants 

 under this treatment grow on new wood the fruit is finer and more 

 abundant, and the dread of picking while 'squat like a toad' in the 

 boiling heat of July has vanished. After six j-ears of this appar- 

 ently severe treatment my old bushes are more vigorous than when 

 I commenced, and in better condition than the new planting which I 

 then made in the expectation of killing out the old ones and relying 

 on the new." 



THE FORESTRY QUESTION. 



I do not think that it is yet proven that forests increase the rain- 

 fall, or equalize the flow of our streams. Neither do I think it 

 proven that there is the least danger of a scarcity of wood and timber 

 in this country for the nest century-. But I do consider statements 

 upon forest subjects made in the census reports and by high officials 

 at Washington, exceedingly erroneous. If the statements made at 

 the American Forestry Congress at Boston in 1885, by the then 

 highest official authority, are correct there will be no forests in the 

 United States in the year 1894. And if the last United States cen- 

 sus estimates of the spruce timber in New Hampshire are correct 

 more than one-tenth of the whole umount standing was being cut 

 each 3'ear. So you see, that by this time our last spruce is being 



