Jane 20, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



497 



gardener to R. Hanbiiry, Esij., Poles, Ware, is first for six 

 Orchids, and shows fine specimens of other subjects. Mr. 

 Williams sends fine Palms ; and Mr. Parker, of Tooting, has fine 

 collections of herbaceous plants ; Messrs. Jackson of stove and 

 greenhouse plants, as well as of Heaths, of which there are 

 several good exhibitions ; Messrs. Paul & Son of cut Roses; Mr. 

 Tximer, Pinks. Mr. WiUiams, Mr. Bull, and Messrs. Downie 

 and Co. sent groups of plants, many of which, being recent, had 

 certificates. 



Of Fruit, Mr. Burt, gardener to H. B. MUdmay, Esq., Seven- 

 oaks, has excellent Black Hamburgh Grapes, taking a first 

 prize, also a similar award for baskets ; Mr. Stapleton, Spring 

 Grove, being second. Pines, though few, are good, especially 

 Mr. Benham's and Mr. Baily's Queens. Mr. Jack, gardener to 

 the Duke of Cleveland, Battle Abbey, has excellent Royal George 

 and Bellegarde Peaches ; Mr. Brown, Gopsall, Royal George 

 and Grosse Mignonne. 



COTINUS AMERICAXUS. 



This rare tree was first discovered by the English botanist, 

 Nuttall, in the autumn of 1819, in Arkansas, on the high, 

 broken, calcareous, rocky banks of the grand river, a large tribu- 

 tary of the Arkansas, at a place then known to the voyagers 

 by the name of " Eagle's Nest." In this rocky situation it 

 did not rise beyond the height of a shrub, and had a yellow, 

 close-grained, fragrant wood. 



Nnttall afterwards described it, and he also has given a 

 figure of a fruiting specimen in the fifth volume of the " North 

 American Sylva," page 70. 



■ In the month of March of ISil, when on a botanical tour, 

 we found this Cotinus on the hills south of HuntsviUe, in 

 Alabama, just before arriving at the ferry across the Tennessee 

 River. It was there a large shrub in flower and fruit, the 

 long hairs of its infertile panicles giving it a gay and beautiful 

 appeai'ance, resembling much the Venetian Sumach or Smoke 

 Tree (Rhus Cotinus), common in cultivation. It was very 

 common among the rocks near the summit of the hill just 

 before we descended into the river valley. North-east of 

 HuntsviUe, on our way to Salem, m Tennessee, soon after 

 crossing the state line, we stopped at a farm house and spent 

 part of a day in the woods, where we again saw the large- 

 leaved Cotinus as a small tree, some of the largest about a foot 

 in diameter, and from 25 to .30 feet high, the bark of the trunk 

 and larger limbs of a light grey, rough and furrowed. We 

 ascended one of the trees after specimens, and found the 

 branches very brittle and easUy broken, the broken stems ex- 

 uding a yellow sap and a strong odour, which to us was not 

 pleasant, although described as fragrant by Nuttall ; but tho 

 difference ipay have been caused by the season — he found it in 

 the fall and we in the early spring, when the sap flowed freely. 

 On the trees in Tennessee its leaves were large, some being 

 6 inches in length by 3 and 4 in width, smooth, and of a light 

 green above, jjaler beneath, and pubescent along the veins. We 

 think this tree has not been noticed by any botanist except as 

 we have stated — hence it must be very rare and local in its 

 habitat. — (American Gardener's Monthly.) 



CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OF SOILS. 



CAprLLABY attraction is so constantly and powerfully at 

 work in all moist soU, that it is highly important it should be 

 clearly understood. The term, derived from capiUun, a hair, 

 is significant of the fineness of the tubes or passages in which 

 its action takes place. It may be described as a property of 

 almost all liquids to ascend or spread by attraction. In un- 

 drained tenacious land the water, as it enters the soil, sinks 

 downwards till it reaches the level of gravitation, and although 

 it finds no passage by which it may escape, yet, strictl}' speak- 

 ing, it cannot be said to be at first altogether in a quiescent 

 state, as it rises thence by attraction or capUlarity to heights 

 limited by the quality and condition of the soU. In pui-e clay 

 it has been found to attain a mean height of 3 feet, this ap- 

 parently being its maximum in any eoU, while in soil of a 

 more open textare it does not rise to more than one-third of 

 that height. A knowledge of these facts is of great importance 

 in making drains, the object of the scientific drainer being two- 

 fold — namely, to rid the soil of superfluous moisture, and to 

 keep the water-table or level of supersaturation so far beneath 

 the sm-face that a few inches may be entirely free from the 

 effects of capillary attraction, which then, instead of proving 

 hurtful, is of benefit to the crops, especially in a dry season. 



The following fact, from its bearing on the subject, is not 



without interest. One side of the cutting through the bed of 

 sandstone gravel to which reference was made at page 439, is 

 di'essed to an angle of ('A)\ and is fully exposed to the sun, yet 

 the whole of the gravel and soil above the layer of blue clay 

 continues wet even upon the sloping surface or face after 

 several weeks' exjuosm'e in bright clear sunshine, while that 

 part below the clay di'ies in a few hours, thus causing the bare 

 slope to present a singular, and to the casual observer an un- 

 accountable, appearance. Now it is very certain that the sirr- 

 face of a slope so thoroughly exposed to the drying action of 

 the sun's rays must be subject to excessive evaporation, so 

 that this is a noteworthy demonstration of the power and per- 

 sistency of capUlai'ity. Nor is this by any means a solitary 

 example, for I have seen others even more remarkable, where 

 the clay was so ii'regulai'ly disposed that iu some parts it was 

 not more than 18 inches below the sui'face, thence descending 

 abruptly to a depth of 5 or 6 feet, and so rising and falling iu 

 its entti'e course through the gravel bed, the irregular' and yet 

 connected Une being quite apparent iu dry weather by the 

 uniform wetness of the whole of the substance above it. — 



EnWiKD LCCKHUKSI. 



A PROFITABLE CALIFORNIA FRUIT R.\NCH. 



Chables Noedhoff gives the history of a successful fruit 

 ranch near- Stockton, U.S. : — 



The ranch, whose jjarticular history I am to relate, was pur- 

 chased twelve yeai-s ago by the present owner for S.5500. It 

 was at that time in pari under cultivation, with orchards old 

 enough to have trees in bearing. The house iu which the 

 owner has lived ever since was ah'eady built. The ranch con- 

 tains a section 040 acres, with a frontage of a mile on the 

 river. This whole frontage, which makes about 60 acres, is 

 in fruit of various kinds. Of this, 1.5 acres are in Grapes, 7 in 

 Pears ; the remainder is divided between Apples, Apricots, 

 Chen-ies, Plums, Peaches, Quinces, and Figs. Two years ago 

 the receipts of this ranch from aU its products aggregated 

 512,000. This year, though the jield is gi'eater than ever 

 before, the price of fruit being so much less, the net profits 

 ■n-iU not exceed §7000. I shall record the items that go to 

 make up this amount, and begin with the Pears. A box of 

 Pears contains 40 lbs. The shipping of these was commenced 

 the last of May. The Madeleine variety was the first sent to 

 market. Of these, five hundred boxes were sold at §4 per 

 box, the fruit at first selling at 7 cents per pound. Next came 

 the Bloodgood and Deai-born Seedling. There were sixty 

 boxes of these. At first they sold for $2. .50 per box, then came 

 down to §1 as the season advanced. The Bartlett came next. 

 Of these a car-load, 420 boxes, was sold to go east, at $1.50 per 

 box. In New York, they brought 36 per box. These boxes 

 contained 60 lbs. Beside these, there were two hundred boxes 

 of Bartletts sold in San Francisco at §2 per box. 



The 'White Doyenne Pear came next. There were fifty boxes 

 of these, which sold at $1 per box. Then came that little jewel 

 of a Peai', the Seckel. Three hundred boxes of these sold at 

 an average of $2 j)er box. Two hundi-ed boxes of winter Pears, 

 at §1 per box, and one hundred boxes sundries, not included 

 in the previous statement, make up the list of Pears. 



Chen'ies are generally very profitable. The jield per ton,iu 

 money, is greater than that of almost any other fruit. But 

 through misapprehension in regard to the nature of the soil, 

 which proved to be alkah, the Chenies on this ranch proved 

 almost a faUure. Had the soU been as supposed, the profits 

 of the Cherry orchard would have been some $4000 per aimum. 

 As it is, only $200 were received this year, though last year the 

 receipts were $500. 



There is something veiy strange about this alkali soU. In 

 the Pear orchard there are rows of trees extending all the waj- 

 through, in which the trees are dwarfed to half the size of 

 those that grow on each side of them, and the Pears that grow 

 on these trees are so exceedingly bitter that no use can be 

 made of them. There happened to be a streak of alkali rtm- 

 uing through the soil just there. — (Horticulturist.) 



Castle Bkomwich. — Let me advise aU the lovers of an old 

 EugUsh garden who may visit Bu'niingham to go out by traia 

 to the Castle Bromwich station, and then walk up to Lord 

 Bradford's place at Castle Bromwich. They will see such 

 hedges of Box as cannot often be seen, and terraced walks 

 from which one expects to see Watteau-like figures issuing ; 

 but here, alas ! too, the bedding-out rage has interfered, and 



