June 24, 1916 



HORTICULTURE 



855 



GETTING READY FOR BAR 

 HARBOR. 



All indications point to a record crowd 

 going from Boston with the Sweet Pea 

 Society to Bar Harbor, Me., on Friday 

 evening, July 14. It is expected that 

 those traveling from West and South 

 will converge at Boston and join with 

 the general party leaving Boston for 

 Rockland, Me., on the Bangor steamer 

 at 6 P. M. on that day. Some may pre- 

 fer to go on Thursday evening. But in 

 either case sleeping accommodations 

 should be engaged in advance for this 

 all-night cruise on the open Atlantic. 

 The Gardeners' & Florists' Club of 

 Boston have secured fifty staterooms 

 and these are at the disposal of appli- 

 cants as long as they last. Write to 

 W. N. Craig, Sec'y, Faulkner Farm, 

 Brookline, Mass., or apply to the East- 

 ern Steamship Corporation, Bangor Di- 

 vision, Boston. 



The harbor of Rockland, Me., is one 

 of the most beautiful in the world and 

 as approached on the steamer in the 

 early morning presents a picture which 

 once seen is never forgotten. Rock- 

 land is the gateway to the scenic won- 

 ders of Penobscot Bay, one of the 

 grandest and most romantic beauty 

 spots of North America. Here is the 

 starting point for the fleet of smaller 

 steamers which carry the passengers to 

 all points on the Maine coast. Here 

 we transfer to the Mt. Desert steamer 

 and are soon under way. The visitor 

 will find a never-failing interest in the 

 rugged shores, rocky promontories, cliffs 

 and precipices backed by blue hills and 

 clothed in unchanging green. We stop 

 at Vinal Haven, North Haven with its 

 busy little harbor and summer cottages 

 away up on the heights. Stonington 

 with its great granite quarries. South- 

 west Harbor, Northeast Harbor and 

 Somes Sound — a veritable enchanted 

 land — Seal Harbor, and thence along 

 close to the surf-washed shore with 

 palatial villas perched on the spruce- 

 clad heights above, an ever-changing 

 panorama, and five hours after leaving 

 Rockland the boat swings in to Bar 

 Harbor and here again there is much 

 to see, of which more later on. 



The Metropolitan Line express steel 

 steamships, Massachusetts and Bunker 

 Hill, are now using the Cape Cod Canal 

 on their dally trips between New York 

 and Boston. The distance between 

 New York and Boston, around Cape 

 Cod, is 337 miles and via the canal it is 

 260 miles, the trip between the two 

 cities befng thus lessened by 77 miles. 

 The steamers now depart from New 

 York and Boston at 6 P. M. and are 

 scheduled to arrive at either destina- 

 tion at 7.30 A. M. This all-the-way-by- 

 water trip between the two cities has 

 been popular all along and the adop- 

 tion of the canal adds a new interest to 

 a route which is one of the most fas- 

 cinating on the Atlantic coast. Should 

 the visitors from New York and south- 

 ward, bound for the Sweet Pea meet- 

 ing and exhibition at Bar Harbor, de- 

 cide upon this mode of travel to Bos- 

 ton, which wc strongly recommend, it 

 will be quite essential that stateroom 

 accommodations be secured well in ad- 

 vance as the travel northward is very 

 heavy in July. This plan would give 

 opportunity for a full day in Boston 

 before the departure of the steamer 

 for Rockland at G P. M. 



Should the weather in the interim be 

 favorable it Is expected that the show 



of sweet peas at Bar Harbor will be 

 by far the finest ever put up on this 



Mt. Desert's Rugged Co.vst. 



continent. Many entries from a dis- 

 tance are booked and the local con- 

 tributions will be very extensive. In 

 the peculiar cool and moist sea air of 

 Mt. Desert all garden flowers assume 

 a dazzling brilliancy of color which is 

 not found inland or farther south. 

 Sweet peas and. in fact, all annual 

 flowers as well as hardy perennials in 

 Bar Harbor come closer to substantiat- 

 ing the glowing color descriptions given 

 in the seed catalogues than in any 

 other place we have ever visited. 



A CAPE COD NURSERY. 

 Down at West Barnstable. Mass., 

 with the waters of the .\tlantic wash- 

 ing the shores a few miles away on 

 either side of the long sandy arm 

 known as Cape Cod, an interesting 

 demonstration has been going on for 

 the past three years. Here a ninety 

 acre nursery has been established by 

 R. & J. Farquhar & Company, of Bos- 

 ton, for the gi-owing of certain spe- 

 cialties which for one reason or an- 

 other are not always satisfactorilv 

 handled in nurseries having the typi- 

 cal New England climate and envir 

 onment. The soil is a sandy loam, rich 

 in leaf soil and one of the particular 

 purposes for which it was chosen if 

 the growing of young hybrid rhodo- 

 dendrons. 'There are many thousands 

 of these under cultivation at present. 



and judging from their general vigor 

 and sturdiness they find this location 

 very much to their liking. Quite a 

 large percentage of them are seedlings 

 from crosses made by James Farquhar 

 some years ago, and in the wide varie- 

 ty of form and tint one finds many 

 promising sorts, especially in soft 

 pinks and clarets. A field of ten 

 thousand seedling Rhododendron (Aza- 

 lea) Kaempferi is an inspiring sight, 

 the largest plantation of this grand 

 species in existence. 



There are lots of rare and new 

 things in the way of conifers from 

 China from the collections of Wilson 

 and others which seem to fairly revel ' 

 in the pure salubrious air of this 

 region. Looking them over we were 

 particularly impressed with a lot of 

 Abies recurvata. It is a beauty. A 

 plantation of twenty thousand young 

 Lilium auratum absolutely free from 

 any trace of disease or weakness is 

 perhaps one of the most hopeful feat- 

 ures seen on this interesting place, 

 for the establishment of the lily in- 

 dustry here may mean the return of 

 this magnificent species to our gar- 

 dens. No lily will thrive out of doors 

 for long in rich soil and here they ap- 

 pear to find ideal conditions. The 

 nursery is under the care of James 

 Littlejohn ever since its inception 

 and he has it in admirable condition. 



