364 



GARDENING. 



Aug. 15. 



extensively at Council Bluffs, explained 

 his methods. He plants on soil not the 

 richest, since the most fertile land grows 

 too rank a cane, which is more likely 

 to winter kill. He prefers land which has 

 been run to farm crops for a number of 

 years, and lost a little of its first fertility, 

 and plants in rows nine feet apart. His 

 crops average from 150 to 200 twenty- 

 lour quart crates per acre. He thought 

 they would pay well at $1 per crate. This 

 vear his fruit is bringing from $1.25 to 

 $1.75 per crate. Snyder is the best com- 

 mercial variety. Other growers were 

 careful not to allow their matted rows 

 to be more than eighteen inches in width, 

 and all agreed on the necessity for thor- 

 ough surface culture for the retention of 

 moisture. One gentleman would have 

 his fruit house cooled by sub-earth venti- 

 lation with the idea of reducing the high 

 temperature from sun heat before ship- 

 ping. 



A paper read by L. D. Stillson, of York, 

 president of the Beekeepers Association 

 of the state, on the influence of the bee on 

 the fruit crop, highly commended their 

 work in pollination. This called out 

 considerable discussion, all in favor of the 

 bee as an active friend of the horticultur- 

 ist. Hon. R. B. Spear, of Cedar Falls, 

 la., gave a very instructive and interest- 

 ing address on the two most important 

 conclusions in fifty years experience and 

 experiments in horticulture Mr. Spear 

 has been connected many years with the 

 experiment station work in Iowa, and 

 has given various horticultural proHlems 

 a great deal of careful study. He urged 

 that twenty varieties were very much 

 more profitable than 150, that ten were 

 better than twenty, and for the commer- 

 cial man five were better than ten. He 

 urged the importance of maintaining the 

 fertility of the soil, such cultivation of 

 the soil as would retain moisture, and in 

 particular to keep up the supply of humus 

 in the soil, for this purpose using mam- 

 moth clover, sweet clover, or other nitro- 

 gen gathering crops, with a view to 

 increasing the stores of nitrogen and 

 humus in the soil. 



M. J. Graham, of Adell, la., gave a 

 resume of his experienceof fifteen years in 

 Iowa pear growing. On certain soils he 

 thinks success may be achieved, particu- 

 larly with varieties like Longworth, 

 Ivriill, Alamo, Lexington, and Koonce as 

 standards. As dwarfs hefavors Duchess, 

 Howell and Beurre d'Anjou. His soil is 

 cleared timber land. He has planted 

 about 1000 dwarfs and has a small 

 orchard of standards. 



After the discussion of other papers of 

 interest to horticulturists the meeting 

 adjourned that all might visit the expo- 

 sition. A committee was appointed to 

 arrange for a joint meeting to b° held 

 next summer in Iowa. The feeling was 

 general that joint meetings were interest- 

 ing and profitable, and the fine samples 

 of apples grown in '97 and the summer 

 fruits ol '98, with which the tables were 

 covered, added much to the interest of 

 the meeting. E F. Stephens. 



Miscellaneous. 



BULB GROWING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



I am still at work endeavoring to 

 demonstrate the adaptability of our soils 

 and climate here to the production ot 

 flowering bulbs on a commercial scale. It 

 has been hard for me to get those in con- 

 trol to realize that there is any import- 



ance to our people in anything beyond 

 corn, potatoes and cotton, and hence my 

 work has been retarded by lack of means 

 for putting the work on a scale sufficiently 

 large to attract the attention of the trade. 

 But we have done enough to demonstrate 

 that we can grow here with perfect suc- 

 cess most of the bulbs now imported for 

 winter forcing. In the case of Lilium 

 candidum we have grown bulbs which 

 were vastly superiorto those from France 

 and the same can be said of the Roman 

 hyacinth. Last fall I tried a small lot of 

 small sized and badly diseased bulbs of 

 Lilium Harrisii. They grew healthily and 

 though the bulbs are still small we feel 

 sure that the matured crop will be fine 

 and healthy. More than this, we feel 

 certain that we can produce these in full 

 time for early forcing. Narcissus Tazetta, 

 the Chinese sacred lily, made bulbs here 

 that bloomed more quickly in water than 

 the imported ones. White Italian hya- 

 cinths make bulbs that look like Dutch, 

 and much larger than the Dutch we have 

 been getting lately. Dutch hyacinths are 

 this year larger and finer than any that 

 will be imported if the accounts from 

 abroad are correct. We are hoping to get 

 the Department of Agriculture at Wash- 

 ington interested in this matter so that 

 we can get them to divert a little of the 

 money now wasted in common garden 

 seeds to experiments that may establish 

 a new industry here. We have, we 

 believe, demonstrated that the true bulb 

 soil of our state is the medium sandy 

 upland near the coast and not the deep 

 sand of the sand hills where we have 

 made some experiments. They sutler 

 there too much from drought. We have 

 here a vast area of good soil in a fine 

 climate in our lower coast region, and 1 

 am trying to get some of the northern 

 colonists at Chadbourn to take an inter- 

 est in bulbs. The great difficulty here, 

 aside from lack of experience, is the fact 

 that it requires some expenditure of 

 capital to get started on a commercial 

 scale and our people are poor and indis- 

 posed to take risks. If some of the north- 

 ern dealers would put a large lot of stock 

 here the matter could soon be settled, 

 and the industry put on its feet. That 

 we can produce the bulbs I am satisfied 

 beyond a doubt, and that we can grow 

 them at a profit to the growers we feel 

 quite certain. W. F. Massey. 



Raleigh, N. C. 



NOTES FROM GERMANY. 



( hie of the best fuchsias for hanging 

 baskets which I have seen is that known 

 as Trailing Queen. Some very effective 

 plants of this variety are now to be seen 

 here and there, and so far as known, they 

 require no special treatment. A single 

 cutting makes a plant three feet in diame- 

 ter within twelve months. 



In Samthamnus scoparius we have 

 here a fine flowering shrub, and it is now 

 in full bloom in the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 den. When this plant is grown near the 

 sea, it attains a height of from twelve to 

 fifteen feet, and during May it is so 

 thoroughly covered with its large yellow 

 flowers that not a leaf or twig is to be 

 seen. In the interior the plant is killed to 

 the ground by the severe frosts which 

 occur about once every three or four 

 years. It likes a sand3' soil. 



A new forget-me-not, Myosotis alpes- 

 tris stricta, sent out by F. C. Heineman 

 of Erfurt, is attracting considerable 

 attention, and it was awarded a silver 

 medal at the last meeting of the Berlin 

 Horticultural Society. The plant is erect, 

 eight to ten inches high, and densely 

 branched. Each individual specimen 



measures about three inches in diameter, 

 a mass of bloom from bottom to top. 

 There are three forms of the plant, vary- 

 ing in the color of the flowers, which are 

 either blue, white or rose. 



Besides the common calla lily (Richardia 

 .■Ethiopica), many other aroids with dark 

 spathes are now cultivated quite exten- 

 sively. These "black callas," are much 

 esteemed by some amateurs, although 

 their odor in most cases is not altogether 

 agreeable. A good plant of this class is 

 Ischarum eximium, with small lance- 

 shaped leaves. Arum Discoridis, how- 

 ever, from Asia Minor, is much more 

 worthy of attention. In general appear- 

 ance it resembles the white calla, but the 

 spathes are deep purplish, spotted with 

 green at the apex. 



Orange blossoms for wedding decora- 

 tions cannot be had here during the win- 

 ter months in sufficient quantity, and to 

 meet the demand Staphylea Colchica, is 

 forced as a substitute, providing abund- 

 ance of white flowers which in appear- 

 ance and fragrance so closely resemble the 

 genuine article that the laity cannot tell 

 the difference It is said, also, that the 

 flowers of Primus Chinensis are made to 

 do duty for those of the m\-rtle. Staphy- 

 lea Colchica is a shrub which thrives 

 very well in the open air and blooms here 

 during May, some timebefore ,S. pinnata, 

 the flowers of which are much like those 

 of the lily of the valley. 



For shady situations there is now used 

 a new material, viz., Cetraria Islandra, 

 the Iceland moss, which gives good 

 results when used in the right way. I 

 have seen this plant in the yards of hotels, 

 surrounded by large buildings, where one 

 ray of sunshine hardly every penetrates, 

 and it produces a fine effect with the 

 grass and gravel. A good turf is only 

 possible in such situations when renewed 

 Frequently; flowering plants must be 

 replaced weekly, and only such plants as 

 Phoenix Canariensis.Arauearia imbrica ta, 

 etc., will survive for any considerable 

 time. But the Iceland moss seems to 

 prefer these conditions. 



Tulipa Greigi is by far the most elegant 

 plant of the genus in cultivation, distin- 

 guished as well by the immense size of the 

 flowers as by the brownish tint of its 

 leaves. It is said that the bulbs make no 

 offsets with us, so that it is necessary to 

 import new stock every year from Central 

 Asia. Whether this be true or not, once 

 imported and properly planted, the bulbs 

 supply a profusion of excellent cutting 

 material for many years without further 

 attention. This is one of the parents of 

 many desirable hybrids, all of which are 

 easily recognized by the tinted foliage of 

 T. Greigi. It is a pity that many of these 

 fine bulbous plants from Central Asia, 

 collected by the famous traveler, Dr. 

 Albert Regel, are not more generally cul- 

 tivated. 



Experiments have shown that the best 

 fertilizer for fruit trees is a mixture of 

 nitrate of potash and phosphoric potash 

 in equal parts. It should be applied to 

 the ground underneath the trees at the 

 rate of four ounces to each ten square feet 

 of space. This fertilizer is now much used 

 in orchards as well as in vineyards and 

 tobacco fields. Some other artificial fer- 

 tilizers under various names are used in 

 this country successfully, but all are man- 

 ufactured after Prof. Wagner's formula — 

 twelve to fourteen per cent phosphoric 

 acid, twelve per cent nitrogen and 

 twenty per cent potash. This compound 

 has a remarkable effect on the flavor of 

 fruits. Pears, for example, which under 

 ordinary circumstances have only a low 

 culinary value, are equal to the best table 



