126 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



ledge of the humble tribe of Mosses, in which 

 branch of knowledge he was regarded as emi- 

 nent all over the world. The American Philo- 

 sophical Society of Philadelphia, loses one of its 

 most esteemed members in Mr. James. This 

 Society, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 

 and others which he was identified with, ha^e all 

 passed resolutions of respect to his memory ; and 

 these, in his case, were not mere matters of form, 

 for few have been more sincerely mourned. It 

 is not often that we find men giving so much 

 time freely to advance the pleasures and know- 

 ledge of other men without any thought of 

 reward but the pleasure of doing good, as did 

 Thomas P. James. 



The Lost Florist.— Robert Carey, the florist 

 and hot-house grape grower, whose mysterious 

 disappearance led to a paragraph in our maga- 

 zine recently, is believed to have been murdered 

 and thrown in the Delaware river, where his 

 body was found, partly decomposed, in the early 

 part of March. It adds one more to the num- 

 berless mysteries of great cities. 



Our Winged Friends. — This is an essay read 

 before the Pennsylvania State Horticultural As- 

 sociation by Mr. Simon R. Eby, and now pub- 

 lished in pamphlet form. It is an excellent plea 

 for the birds. There is of course another side to 

 the story, but that is not Mr. Eby's theme. The 

 birds which receive the chief friendly notices are 

 swallows, night-hawks, purple martin, king bird, 

 rock pewee, wood pewee, Baltiznore oriole, orch- 

 ard oriole, wood thrush, vireos, some warblers, 

 wren, blue bird, titmouse, chickadee, mocking 

 bird, robin, cat bird, black bird, meadow lark, 

 chipping sparrow, song sparrow, indigo bird and 

 the wood-peckers. Mr. Eby repeats the belief 

 of many ornithologists that the sap-sucker is 

 searching for insects when it makes the innu 

 merable holes, like honeycombs, on many trees^ 

 This must be a mistake. There are certainly no 

 insects in many scores of branches which are 

 riddled by the bird, and it is incredible that 

 birdly instinct should lead to the loss of time 

 and hard labor involved in the boring of thou- 

 sands of useless holes. But granting that these 

 numberless holes are for the purpose of hunting 

 for one insect it can make little difference to the 

 tree how the holes are made. They are just as 

 bad for the tree as if an insect made them. 



Pennsylvania State Agricultural Report 

 for 1881. — Pennsylvania, regarded as a very 

 "slow State," advances rapidly when once it 



makes up its mind to go forward. It is only five 

 years since it followed other States with a "State 

 Board of Agriculture," but it has done excellent 

 work since. Usually, bodies of this kind do not 

 issue their reports till nearly a year after date. 

 Here we have a huge volume of 650 pages, issued 

 within two months after the year closed. Of 

 course the admirable abilities of the methodical 

 secretary, Thomas J. Edge, have much to do with 

 the prompt appearance. Many of the papers 

 read before this body find their way through the 

 manuscripts to the public papers. The extem- 

 poraneous addresses are taken down by the State 

 stenographer and appear here for the first time. 

 Among these are the addresses of the State Bot- 

 anist — one at Williamsport on " Forestry and 

 Forests," one at York on the " Fertility of Trees 

 and Plants," and at Gettysburg on '• Farmer's 

 Gardens." Some of the best of the written essays 

 have also not been widely re-published. One on 

 ' Peach Buds and Peach Growing," especially, 

 has not had the attention it deserves as one of 

 the most thoughtful and original papers on peach 

 culture that has ever appeared. It is from the 

 pen of Mr. Sherfey, son of the owner of the cele- 

 brated peach orchard at Gettysburg, in which 

 one of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil 

 War took place. There are many beautiful illus- 

 trations of horticultural and agricultural import, 

 some of them colored, notably the Miner plum^ 

 Cumberland Triumph strawberry (too deep a 

 scarlet, we think), and in plain outline and per- 

 spective plates of apples, grapes, etc., illustrating 

 popular Pennsylvania seedlings. 



Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario, Re- 

 port FOR 1881. — If there be any one left who 

 thinks " Fruit Growers' Associations " are made 

 up of men who meet together to talk only of the 

 prospects of the fruit crop, and the probable 

 effects of the winter on prices, they should get 

 this report. Indeed there is much more of gen- 

 eral gardening matter in this than in many regu- 

 lar horticultural reports. It is an admirable 

 volume in many respects. We note they have 

 to discuss "the yellows in the peach" in Canada, 

 as well as in other places. We note also that 

 white peaches are preferred to yell ow kinds for 

 drying. 



Mulberries.— Many trees are famous because 

 of their dimensions, others on account of their 

 longevity, many are esteemed for the excellence 

 of their produce, and there are many more yet 

 that are exceptionally beautiful in regard to 



