1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



209 



The Mann Apple.— The tree is full as hardy as 

 the Duchess of Oldenburgh, and the fruit will 

 keep as long as the Ro.xbury Russet. Mr. Moody, 

 •of Lockport, has kept the Iruit in good order 

 until the first of July in an ordinary cellar. 

 Downing describes the fruit as follows, viz.: 

 "Fruit medium to large, roundish oblate, 

 nearly regular; skin deep yellow when fully 

 ripe, often with a shade of brownish red where 

 exposed, and thickly sprinkled with light gray i 

 dots, a few being areole ; stalk short, rather 

 small: cavity medium or quite large, sometimes 

 slightly corrugated; tlesh yellowish, half fine, 

 half tender, juicy, mild, pleasant sub-acid. Good 

 to very good." 



The Durn Str.\wberry. — This is an Alpine 

 Strawberrj' raised in France, and bearing all the 

 year round. It is believed to be one of the best 

 of the Alpines. It must be remembered that 

 Alpines are scarcely worth cultivating in low 

 elevations or warm countries. As the name 

 implies they are adapted only to cool or special 

 culture. 



The Phylloxera in Europe. — In order to 

 guard against the introduction of the Phylloxera, 

 Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Italy and Por- 

 tugal have entered into a joint convention and 

 "resolved" on the most absurd enactment. It 

 is remarkable that while we are continually hesi- 

 tating about what to do, while wondering what 

 the mother countries will say about us, they 

 offer us such silly examples. The London Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle likens the results of this conven- 

 tion to the man who, with one foot frozen, burns 

 the other. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Peaches. — On May 11th, came to hand some 

 forced Peaches from Mr. Charles Black. Hights- 

 town, N. J. Saunders, Amsden and Wilder, were 

 all about the same size, about \L\ ounces in 

 weight, very much alike in general appearance, 

 but Saunders' dark rose, Amsden lighter, and 

 "Wilder paler than the rest. There was also a 

 Hale's, which weighed 2>\ ounces, approaching 

 double the size, but the quality was much in- 

 ferior to the other three. Forced peaches are, 

 rarely of the highest excellence in eatiiig quali- 

 ties. In this case few would think highly of the 

 Hale's, but the other three were rich and juicy, 

 and certainly enjoyable. The Hale's is a pure 



freestone, and this is some advantage ; the others 

 being clings are at a disadvantage for a table 

 fruit. They are not so completely clings as some 

 of the late kinds, but they must be classed with 

 cling-stone peaches. There is room yet for some 

 one to znake a fortune on a first-class early free- 

 stone peach. 



Since writing the above, the following has been 

 received: "We send you a box containing four 

 Peaches, grown in our orchard house (formerly 

 belonging to Isaac Pullen), one each of Hale's, 

 Amsden, Saunders and Wilder's. The Hale's 

 Early is forced up by girdling the branch on 

 which it grew ; all others on the same tree are 

 very green and not over half grown. The Ams- 

 den and Saunders are just as they grew and 

 ripened. We picked the first (Amsden) on the 

 30th of April. Alexander is so similar in every 

 respect that it is impossible to detect any differ- 

 ence. We began to force them about January 

 1st, and the early peaches maintain their charac- 

 ter of earliness full as much as out-door. The 

 Amsden, Alexander and Saunders are fully 

 twenty days in advance of Hale's Early. By gird- 

 ling the branches below the peaches, they are 

 forced very much both in size and time of ripen- 

 ing, as you will see by the specimen sent. All 

 other Hale's in the house are small and green 

 yet, and will take ten days or two weeks to 

 ripen. The Saunders sent is below the average 

 size, the Amsden a little above as grown in our 

 house. We send you these, thinking ripe 

 Peaches not yet plenty, and to show the effect of 

 our experiment of girdling upon the Hale's Early." 



Swamp Muck. — B. H., Woodbury, K". J., sends 

 in the following, and asks what we think of it: 

 " Some time ago we remarked that an acre ol 

 swamp muck of good quality, three feet deep, was 

 actually worth $25,000 (twenty-five thousand 

 dollars). No doubt such a statement is sur- 

 prising — so was the statement of Dr. Lawes, of 

 England, that a ton of bran fed to cows returned 

 more than its cost, in manure. Swamp nuick 

 free from sand, contains 2 per cent, or 40 lbs. of 

 nitrogen to the ton. Nitrogen is worth in the 

 market 25 cents a pound — so that a ton of swamp 

 muck is actually worth $10 for the nitrogen in it. 

 All that is needed is to work up the muck so as 

 to make the nitrogen available. An acre of 

 swamp muck three feet deep contains 2500 tons, 

 and would require eight months to draw out at ten 

 loads per day. Few persons realize the value of 

 the fertilizing elements of common waste matter 



