LETTERS FROM PROF S. B. GREEN. 299 
work in the nursery and learn to train trees as espaliers and in various 
curious forms. Here are currants and gooseberries gowing on the same 
stem, three to six feet from the ground, in tree form. When we were there 
the proprietor was away at Paris with an exhibit of his trees. The people 
here seem to take great interest in training trees as espaliers and in other 
curious forms and know very little about the raising of fruit on a large scale 
as a business. Strawberries and cherries are generally sold by the pound 
and are used in comparatively small quantities and are marketed in a clumsy 
way, as arule, However, here at Dresden, they are offered in boxes in much 
the same way as with us, but this is the first place I have seen where the 
custom is at all general. In fact, the agricultural and horticultural methods 
in Saxony are well developed, and I am inclined to think from what I can 
see and hear that this is the garden spot of Germany. 
After “doing” Stuttgart, which is a very nice, progressive, business-like 
and beautiful place, we came to Munich, where, after locating Mrs. Green 
comfortably, I went with our party to the Bavarian Alps, near the Austrian 
frontier, where we were among snow-capped mountains and saw the forests 
and people of a remote and rather inaccessible district of Germany. Here 
we saw a country dance famed as a “‘schule plattel’” and got pretty wet in 
an Alpine midnight thunder storm. This storm, by the way, was fully equal 
to the best Minnesota variety. We were able to get dry beds about 12:30 
a.m. The scenery here is very nice and famed for its beauty and grandeur. 
This section was first settled something over 200 years ago by the monks, 
who in order to induce settlers to come in gave them perpetual rights to 
timber for their houses, barns, fences, etc., and to cut for fuel and to pasture. 
These rights still exist and are sold with the farm and add much to the 
difficulty of carrying on the best forest practice. The oberforster showed me 
one house covered with tile that he had had covered with tile at his own 
expense, and even paid a little bonus to do it, as it was believed more to the 
advantage of the forest administration than to furnish new shingles. Here 
most of the houses are covered with wooden shingles, which are not nailed 
on but are held in place by strips of wood, which are weighted with stones. 
These roofs are generally renewed once in three years. I must add my testi- 
mony as to the high coloring of Alpine flowers, so far as I have observed, 
and they are very beautiful here. Many naturalists have noted this. 
After finishing up this trip I went with Mrs. Green and her niece, who 
joined us here, to Oberammergau and saw the Passionspiel. 
We were nicely entertained at Miinchen by Prof. Mayr, of the University 
at Nuremberg. We were much interested in the old walls and towers and 
moat, which are kept in a good state of preservation and are still the pride 
of the city. The old moat has been planted out and made into a pictur- 
eque park of much interest, as is common with many of these old cities. 
Here we visited a large German farm of a friend and noted the work with 
much interest and had a delightful visit, and made many notes. We spent 
two days in Erfurt, where I was especially interested in the seed farms and 
where I was given every attention and learned much. 
Kindly remember me to our mutual horticultural friends when you meet 
them, and I trust that you and they are all prospering. 
Striped Bug on Cucumber Plants.—I mixed a gill of coal oil with four 
quarts dry earth and scattered it thickly on the ground about the plants. 
The bugs soon disappeared. 
