HORTICULTURE 



October 7, 1905 



horticulturb: 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAM LTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone, Oxford 292, 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



The notes on cyclamen culture, by the 



A new grower whose wonderful productions 



contributor sliown at the spring exhibitions of the 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society for 



the past few years have astonished all who have seen 



them, will repay a perusal. We shall have other valuable 



articles from Mr. Stuart's pen from time to time. 



Looking from our window across a stretch 



Nicotiana of lawn to where Nicotiana Sanders 



Sanderae sparkles in the irregular herbaceous border 



and rockery we arrive at the conclusion 



that never before has that bit of garden been so beaittiful. 



Pencilled in carmine against a dark foliage back-ground 



its color intensified by an occasional contrasting galaxy 



of. satiny white boltonias and softened with clouds of 



gypsophila the effect is simply charming and we are 



duly grateful to the man who added Nicotiana Sanderge 



to our list of garden gems. 



The State law enacted to put a stop 

 Berkshire fern to uncontrolled and wanton raids on 

 picking the ferns in the Berkshire hills of 



Massachusetts, at first regarded with 

 api)rehension by the dealers, now proves to have been to 

 the advantage of these people and beneficial to the fern 

 industry as well as the farmers and others on whose 

 territory the ferns abound. The picking season is now 

 on and picking is largely done by the local country 

 people instead of the hordes of Greeks and Italians from 

 New York and elsewhere whose devastation of the wood- 

 lands was .the primary cause of the demand for the 

 restrictive law. 



Instances of injury to and destruc- 

 The menace (ion of trees by gas from defective 

 of tiie gas main mains are much too frequent. One 

 of the most deplorable is the loss of 

 the wavsido trees — elms and lindens said to be sev- 

 enty-five or eighty years old — on one of the most historic 

 highways in an old New England village, presumably 

 from leaking gas. The worst feature of such a case is 

 that it is impossible to re>^toro or adequately pay for the 



damage done. The mere replacing of the old by young 

 trees, even if it is shown that the latter will not die from 

 the same cause, is not compensation enotigh. If it can 

 be proven that the cause of the death of the trees is as 

 charged the penalty should be severe enough to ensure 

 greater vigilance on tlie part of the gas companies in the 

 future. 



Notices of daldia shows from many 

 The rise of places come to us and give emphasis to 

 the dahlia the many proofs of growing popularity 

 for this gorgeous garden fiower. Per- 

 liaps the dahlia shows may not excite the widespread 

 fascination that the chrysanthemum shows did, through 

 lack of the sensational character the latter enjoyed as 

 an effect of the wave of oriental sentiment on which they 

 were borne, but the dahlia may, nevertheless, put the 

 chrysanthemum into the background as a people's 

 favorite, affording, as it does, a much more brilliant and 

 wider range of color and its cultural requirements being 

 so simple that all who so desire may compete for exhibi- 

 tion prizes. There will be plenty of room for the expert 

 grower as well. Pot-grown dahlias well-trained and full 

 of bloom are a possibility of future exhibitions and 

 should furnish plenty of scope for cultural ability as 

 well as material for unique decorative effect. 



Eecent legislation by Congress has 

 A new placed the power in the hands of Secre- 



forest policy tary Wilson to adopt and put in oper- 

 ation a comprehensive, intelligent, 

 forest policy based upon the methods in force in Euro- 

 pean countries where many years' expert investigation 

 and control have developed a thorough knowledge of 

 woodland preservation. Not only will the forests be 

 protected against spoliation and water storage preserved, 

 but, in the development of the timber of the vast gov- 

 ernment reservations, it will be possible to make the 

 work self-supporting by the marketing of surplus lum- 

 ber. The awakening of national, state and local author- 

 ities to the grievous menace of forest devastation has 

 been a slow process and much yet remains to be done 

 before the mania for "clearing the land" and the dense 

 stupidity of a large proportion of the people as to this 

 subject have been removed.. 



The fact that many carnation 

 Experience versus growers, after a trial of the much- 

 imitation lauded sj'stem of summer cultiva- 

 tion under glass, have gone back 

 to the old method of field culture is interesting as show- 

 ing how far we are (and are likely to continue) from 

 any exact system in such matters that will be of equal 

 value to all, regardless of environment or local circum- 

 stance. The return of certain observant rose growers 

 to the bench method after a trial of so-called solid beds 

 gives rise to a similar train of thought. It does not fol- 

 low that because one grower gets best results from fol- 

 lowing a certain course another grower will liave the 

 same experience. The intelligent cultivator will, in 

 time, ascertain the methods which yield most satis- 

 factorily in his own case. Cultural instructions have a 

 value up to a certain point but there comes a time when 

 every grower must think for liimself and on his intelli- 

 gence and good judgmcui will depend his ultimate 

 succes. 



