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THE GARDENEB'S MONTHLY 



[September, 



we know of no firm in the Union whose efforts 

 deserve more praise than the firm of Smith & 

 Powell.— Ed. G. M.] 



OBSERVATIONS IN NORTHERN TEXAS. 



BY H. E. VAN DEMAN, GENEVA, KAN. 



Owing to the call of business, I have been spend- 

 ing the greater part of the past two months (May 

 and June, 1876) in the northern counties of Texas. 

 It is possible that a short sketch of the horticulture 

 of this region as it appeared to a Kansan may be 

 somewhat interesting to the readers of the 

 Monthly. The soil is principally of two classes 

 called "black land" and "sandy land." The 

 hlack land is a composition of the richest allu- 

 vium, and lies in hills partly prairie and partly 

 timbered. Since the wild fires have been check- 

 ed by settlements, the timber growth is greatly 

 increasing and will soon obliterate many of the 

 smaller prairies. This black land is the natural 

 home of the Osage orange or Bois d'Arc, pro- 

 nounced Bo-dark by the natives. This tree fur- 

 nishes the most durable wood that I have seen. 

 Even the oldest trees lying dead in the forest are 

 not decayed. The elements slowly wear away 

 the particles of wood, but there are no signs of 

 rot as in most kinds of timber. Fence rails 

 made 30 years ago show no signs of even rotten 

 splinters. Another species of elm called there the 

 Cork Elm grows on both black and sandy lands, and 

 extends north quite half-way tln-ough the Indian 

 Territory. The leaves are only one to one-and- 

 a-half inches long, and of the usual shape of the 

 other elms. This foliage is very neat, and with 

 the graceful weejiing habit of the branches 

 makes a charming ornament. There are two 

 narrow ridges of corky bark J -inch high, oppo- 

 site each other on the two-year-old branches 

 that look very odd and give it the name Cork 

 Elm. 



The almost exclusive timber growth of the 

 sandy land is the Post Oak. 



In no country have I seen the Pear growing 

 with such vigor and freedom from blight, except 

 the " grand traverse region " of Micliigan. It is 

 true that I saw slight indications of blight on 

 both pear and apple, but in such small degree 

 that nothing serious may be looked for. Pear 

 trees 30 years old are sound as a silver dollar, 

 and (although this year prevented from bearing 

 by a spring frost) since coming into bearing have 

 not failed to produce abundant crops of fruit. 

 Upon the black land the apple does not seem to 



flourish. The cause is not apparent to me; 

 some say it is excess of lime in the soil. There 

 is a great abundance of this mineral in the soil 

 in places where the apple does poorly, but 

 whether or not the lime hurts the tree is a puzzle 

 to me. I might have stated before that the 

 whole area covered with this black land is under- 

 lain with a sort of magnesia limestone (?) that ia 

 sawed into blocks for chimney Building, <fec., as 

 easily as if it were wood. Exposure hardens it, 

 and by heating gradually will stand in fire-places 

 for a lifetime. Its color is gray, and in some 

 quarries almost white, ^yhere this rock is near- 

 est the surface, and in decomposing fragments in 

 the soil the apple seems to prove the most un- 

 suitable. Some of the geologists and chemists 

 ought to look up this matter. The farmer and 

 fruit-grower may have very mistaken ideas of the 

 causes of failure. Some that have tried it say 

 that by digging large holes and putting sandy 

 soil in them, brought from some neighboring 

 sandy country, the apple will grow, if planted 

 therein, although the surrounding soil be ever 

 so black. Another character of the black soil is 

 that it is very waxy, and when dry weather 

 comes on, in August and later, great cracks ap- 

 pear that will admit of a fence rail being thrust 

 in endwise its entire length It is dangerous to 

 ride a horse across the country then, they tell 

 me. Under such circumstances, the soil dries 

 in some cases to the depth of ten feet. And yet 

 these same persons tell me that crops on this 

 same soil Avith.stand the drouth two weeks later 

 tlian on tiic sandy land. 



Although the sandy land seems fixr better for 

 the apple than the other, yet the pear, peach, 

 quince, grape and all the berries seem to do 

 equally as well as on the former, in fact, exclud- 

 ing the apple and the currant, I never saw a btt- 

 ter soil and climate for fruit-raising than the 

 counties of Texas along the Red River. 



Oh, such roses as they grow in Texas ! The old- 

 fashioned town of Bonham, in Fannin Co., has 

 been one grand rose garden all the month of 

 May, and the perpetuals were yet in bloom when 

 I left, the last of June. The tender Tea roses, 

 like Marechal Neil, glory in the balmy air, and 

 with common treatment yield a profusion of 

 flowers almost the whole year. The carnation 

 thrives admirably. A gentleman there (Mr. 

 Peters) has growing some splendid seedling 

 carnations that would grace Horticultural Hall 

 at the Centennial, were he able to show them 

 there. 



