348 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



yNovembei', 



and the result was that they fell to competing 

 among themselves, and the Toronto Globe says, 

 never in all Canadian history was the market 

 so glutted with all kinds of vegetables, and, as a 

 consequence have prices ruled so low. 



Precisely has been the experience in the Uni- 

 ted States. Heavy foreign houses crushed out 

 home competition and controlled the markets, 

 keeping prices high ; but as soon as they were 

 kept oft", home firms competed with one another, 

 until prices fell below what they were in olden 

 times. And yet this is not what we learned of 

 "political economy" in our 3^ounger day. 



Good Gardeners. — When in Boston we did 

 not get the names of the gardeners to whose 

 good management Forest Grove Cemetery and 

 Mount Auburn Cemetery owe so much of their 

 good keeping. Mr. Farquhar is at the former, 

 and Mr. Collins at the other. 



Papers before the American Associa- 

 tion. — The Scientific American with its usual 

 enterprise, is giving in a supplement to its gen- 

 eral edition, what it regards as the most interest- 

 ing papers read before the recent Sai'atoga meet- 

 ing of the American Association. The number 

 for the week ending September 16th, contains the 

 paper by the Editor of this magazine on the 

 " objects of sex and of odors in flowers." 



Microscopic Fungi Infesting our Ce- 

 reals.— This paper, read before the Philadel- 

 phia Academy of Natural Sciences, by Professor 

 Barbeck,has been published in full bythe^mer- 

 ican Naturalist for October. It is a paper that 

 will deeply interest the fruit grower and horti- 

 culturist generally. 



The Kotes and Queries.— Without doubt 

 most of our readers highly appreciate the 

 " iNTotes and Queries" of our correspondent 

 " Jacques." Modern literature, even the best 

 of newspapers contain little that minister to the 

 wants of intelligent people who are in love with 

 rural life. Gardening, properly understood, 

 brings one into contact with every department 

 of art and science, and throws a charm around 

 existence in this enlarged condition that few 

 other occupations can supply. " Jacques " is 

 himself a country gentleman of the old school. 

 In various walks of literature he has distin- 

 guished himself ; and, besides a successful busi- 

 ness career, he has been long noted as a leader 

 among amateur horticulturists. In his retire- 

 ment from business he finds increased delight 

 in his early love for horticulture, and freely 



gives to our readers such little bits of experi- 

 ence as he picks up in his daily walks through 

 his grounds, or among the books and friends he 

 loves so well. 



N. C. Meeker, in charge of the Indian 

 Agency at White River, who is among those 

 massacred in the recent out-break, was one of 

 the many self-made men of whom our country 

 may well be proud. He first became known to 

 the writer while working a farm at Dangola, in 

 Southern Illinois. Through some letters to the 

 New York Tribune, he attracted Mr. Greeley's 

 notice, and became attached to the Tribune. 

 The letters were tersely and vigorously written, 

 and had the rare merit of being full of news of 

 general interest, and of ending when the writer 

 had nothing more to tell. Horace Greeley, with 

 his well-known faculty for detecting useful asso- 

 ciates employed him as a regular correspondent, 

 and his traveling letters through the West did 

 much to make the Weekly Tribune popular. On 

 the retirement of Solon Robinson, Mr. Meeker 

 assumed the editorship of the Agricultural De- 

 partment of the Tribune in which he was very 

 successful. He was strongly imbued with much 

 of the social philosophy which moved Horace 

 Greeley, with whom he was quite a favorite. In 

 his agricultural studies he had become much 

 impressed with the value of irrigation as in use on 

 the plains of Lombardy, and was very anxious to 

 carry out a similar plan in American agriculture. 

 With the encouragement of Mr. Greeley, he 

 made a tfip to Colorado, and decided on the 

 adaptability of a small mountain stream known 

 as the Cache la Poudre, as being favorable to 

 the establishment of a colony in which agricul- 

 ture by irrigation should be the chief foundation 

 stone. The colony was formed, — the total ban- 

 ishment of all intoxicating drinks from the set- 

 tlement being also one of its peculiar features. 

 He also established a newspaper called the 

 Greeley Tribune, which, with the city he founded 

 under the same name has proved a great success. 

 During the past few years he has been engaged 

 in teaching farming to the Ute Indians, under 

 and with the encouragement of Chief Douglas ; 

 and all who knew Mr. Meeker would have no 

 more faith in human nature, if his mission was 

 not honestly and faithfully performed. He has 

 had no end of trouble in getting them to work, 

 but in spite of all obstacles was able to boast 

 when last the writer heard from him, that he 

 had caused them to dig several miles of the 

 main irrigating canal, and hoped the coming 



