1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



177 



Jesuits, Juneau and others. It would be very in- 

 teresting to know further about them. Probably 

 Mr. Francis Parkman, or Mr. Conover, of Geneva, 

 who have made these subjects special studies, 

 could add something of interest to the little as yet 

 known. — Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Mulching. — In an address in January, before 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Col. Wil- 

 son discussed against the supposed advantages of 

 mulching. Some of his reasons will hardly be 

 concurred in by those who have had experience, 

 or given thought to the subject. But one sugges- 

 tion at least is worthy further thought, and that is, 

 the encouragement which mulching gives to para- 

 sitic fungi. Those who have had occasion to use 

 mulch know how " fousty " the surface of the 

 ground becomes, and it has been placed on record 

 in our pages, that a mulch of dry leaves has gen- 

 erated fungus that has afterwards seized on and 

 eaten off the stems of Rhododendrons. 



Forcing Fruits in America. — The ease with 

 which good fruit may be had from the distant ends 

 of our great country by rail or steamboat at any 

 season of the year, has been much against the 

 artificial production of the more tropical kinds. 

 But the superior excellence of fruit carefully 

 raised under glass, finds appreciation in some 

 quarters. Messrs. Christie & Findlay, of Newport, 

 Rhode Island, find it a very profitable investment. 



Injury to Fruit Crops by Birds. — Sparrows 

 eat fruit buds in the spring, when the poor creatures 

 are on the verge of starvation. In California the 

 linnet does the same. Mr Potter, of Centralia, is 

 about abandoning an orchard of apricots seven 

 years planted. In that time he has not had one 

 fruit, the birds taking all the buds. 



The Bee Nuisance. — A movement on the part 

 of fruit growers against the enormous destruction 

 caused by bees on fruits is on foot in California, 

 as we judge by the following from a California 

 paper. Bees can be easily trapped by sweet 

 liquids under inverted glasses, and it seems to us 

 the better plan would be to destroy the bees than 

 to go to law. But this is the case as reported : 



"A complaint has been filed in the Superior 

 Court of San Diego county, in which the plaintiff 

 recites the expense he has been under to improve 

 his land, and states that he is engaged in the 

 business of fruit growing ; that among other fruits 

 and vines he has about 30 acres of Muscat grapes 



raised for the express purpose of being made into 

 raisins; that in order to accomplish this object it 

 is necessary that the grapes be taken froin the 

 vine and exposed to the sun and air for about one 

 month in order to cure and dry for the market. 

 He alleges that defendant resides near Viejas, 

 about 30 miles from plaintiffs premises, and is 

 engaged in the business of keeping bees; that he 

 does now and has for two years continuously kept 

 upon a piece of Government land (embraced in 

 the railroad grant) a part of section 23 and about 

 three-quarters of a mile from plaintiffs premises, 

 several hundred stands of bees. He further alleges 

 that defendant has no interest in the land, but 

 wilfully and maliciously keeps the bees thereon 

 for the purpose of letting them eat up and destroy 

 the fruits of the labor of citizens living in that 

 vicinity, and are a great nuisance ; that during 

 the two years past the bees of defendant have 

 destroyed and eaten up large quantities of the 

 fruit to the value of $1,000, and are still engaged 

 in eating up and destroying plaintiff's said property ; 

 that during said time defendant has known of the 

 depredations, and has often been requested to 

 abate said nuisance, but has and still refuses to do 

 so. Plaintiff alleges it is his belief that the bees 

 are wilfully and maliciously maintained at their 

 present location, intending to damage and destroy 

 his property in order to compel him to pay defend- 

 ant a large sum of money to have them moved. 

 The prayer of the plaintiff is that he may have 

 judgment and decree of the Court that the keeping 

 of said bees is a nuisance and that it be abated, 

 and that he may recover from defendant, as 

 damages for injury done, the sum of Si,ooo. 



Catching Cotton Moths. — The late W. L. 

 Schaffer, President of the Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Society, had an orchard measurably free 

 from injury by the work of the codlin moth, and 

 which immunity was purchased by a persistent use 

 of sweetened liquid by which thousands were 

 annually caught. A correspondent of Vick's 

 Monthly for May has also had a similar successful 

 experience : 



" The place selected to hang the basins should 

 be open and easy of access. No more liquid 

 should be prepared than is needed for immediate 

 use, for if kept long it will lose its ripe apple or 

 new cider smell and taste. For thirty or thirty- 

 five basins take a gallon of rain water and sweeten 

 it, and then add a little vinegar to give it aroma, 

 for it is the ripe apple or cider smell that attracts 

 the moths to their liquid graves. I think Sorghum 

 molasses is best for sweetening. The time for 

 commencing the use of the bath will depend on 

 the season, somewhere from first to fifteenth of 

 May, and it should be continued until July, when 

 the first brood of moths will have been captured." 



Bees and Fruit. — The fruit growers of Fresno, 

 California, are determined to clean out all the 

 bee-raisers from that section, on account of the 

 enormous destruction to ripening fruit. 



