1266 



PENNISETUM 



PENNSYLVANIA 



typhoideum, Rich. (PeniciUAria spicd-fa, Willd.)- 

 Pearl Millet. Culm 3-8 ft., bearing a close cylindri- 

 cal spike li-iO in. long, % in. thick, pubescent below 

 the spike: Ivs. long and broad. Native country un- 

 known. Occasionally grown in the southern states. 

 where it ripens seed. May be grown farther north for 

 forage. — A luxuriant annual long cult, in the Old World 

 for forage and more or less for the fruit, which is used 

 as food. 



Jap6nicum, Trin. (P. compresxum, R.Br. Gymndthrir 

 Japdnica, Kunth.). A low annual with long narrow 

 Ivs. cult, for ornament. Culm 2-3 ft., .scabrous, espe- 

 cially under the dense cylindrical spike; bri.stles une- 

 qual, naked. Australia. 



inacroilrum, Trin. {Oijmnbthrix candAta, Schrad.). A 

 tall perennial with stout culm bearing a dense pointed 

 spike about a foot long. Bristles naked. South Africa. 

 — Cult, for ornament. 



latildlium, Spreng. (Gi/mnbthrix latifblia, Schult.). 

 An ornamental perennial. Culm 3-4 ft., bearing several 

 nodding spikes 1-2 in. long: Ivs. lanceolate, H in. broad : 

 bristles short, naked. Argentine Republic. R.H. 1890, 

 P- 5i(i. A. S. Hitchcock. 



The fine plumy grass known to gardeners as Peniii- 

 setiim lont/istylum is much used for bedding. It is, per- 

 haps, the finest dwarf grass which is grown chiefly for 

 its flowers. It sometimes survives the winter at Wash- 

 ington, D.C., but should always be treated as a tender 

 subject. Plants raised every year from seed are satis- 

 factory if seed is sown early enough, but divisions of 

 old plants will give larger pieces which flower sooner 

 and require less attention than seedlings. The old plants 

 may be wintered anywhere out of reach of frost. About 

 February 1, in the latitude of Washington (a month later 

 North), cut off the old leaves to within 6 in. of the 

 crowns: divide the clumps into small pieces, trim the 

 roots so that they will ultimately go into 3- or 4-in. 

 pots, and place the pieces thickly together in boxes of 

 sandy soil in a greenhouse with a temperature of about 

 60°. As soon as new roots have started pot the young 

 plants. They may be removed to a coldfranie long be- 

 fore the soft bedding material demands all the available 

 indoor space. 0. ■«•. Olivek. 



PENNSYLVANIA, HORTICULTURE IN. Fig. 1712. 

 During the past century l*eunsylvania has been promi- 

 nently before the world because of its mineral wealth. 

 The ruins of many iron works located in rural districts 

 are now reduced to the primitive stone masonry of the 

 smelting furnace, but mark the places of great activity 

 previous to 1850. Later, these industries were concen- 

 trated in towns and cities, where, with improved ap- 

 pliances, new methods of transportation and greater 

 facilities for handling labor and capital greatly lessened 

 cost of production and increased the capacity of fur- 

 naces. Now, at the close of the nineteenth century, a 

 vast majority of the once profitable iron-ore beds is 

 exhausted or forsaken because of richer fields discovered 

 in other states. Coal, both bituminous and anthracite, is 

 still most actively mined, and extensive areas are sac- 

 rificed by farmers to the coal digger in the western 

 counties and in the anthracite region in the northeast. 

 The same may be said of the northwestern section, 

 yielding petroleum and gas. 



The forest operations in Pennsylvania have long ago 

 passed the high-water mark of their activity. The white 

 pine forests of the Alleghany mountains, the stretch of 

 hemlock spruce which covered the belt of counties 

 touching the western slope of the Alleghany mountains, 

 and the groves of cherry and black walnut are fast dis- 

 appearing. Formerly Pennsylvania stood first among 

 the states in the output of forest products. Originally 

 the state was essentially covered with forest, but now 

 Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Forestry Commissioner of Pennsyl- 

 vania (Report of 1895), declares that less than 36 per 

 cent of the area of the state is in timber. 



Pennsylvania has an area of 45,215 square miles, 

 nearly rectangular in outline — 157.76 miles broad be- 

 tween the northern and southern boundaries by an aver- 

 age length of 285.85 miles running due east and west. 

 This area is crossed slantwise by the broad band of 



Appalachian mountains, making three distinct topo- 

 graphical regions. 



The eastern region comprises all that territory lying 

 southeast of the Kittatinny niountains, or a line drawn 

 from Franklin to Northampton counties. It is gently 

 undulating, rising in places to great hills which assume 

 the proportions of a mountain in the South mountain 

 range. This region was first settled and is now mostly 

 cleared and cultivate<l. The richest lands of the state 

 are found in this section. 



The central or mountain region is a belt about 50 

 miles broad, made up of parallel mountains and nar- 

 row valleys comprising one-fourth the area of the state. 

 The western boundary of this region is the Alleghany 

 mountains, the greatest of them all. The valleys are 

 covered for the most part with excellent grain land, 

 but the hills and mountain slopes are stony and more 

 or less barren. 



The western and largest region has an area of 24,861 

 square miles, or about 55 per cent of the entire state. 

 It is essentially a high plain, marked in the north, 

 where the elevation is greatest, by deep-seated streams 

 or canons, some of them 500-800 feet deep. The eleva- 

 tion gradually decreases toward the southwest. There 

 is much land so recently cleared that no attempt has 

 yet been made to utilize it for agricultural or horticul- 

 tural purposes. There is no question, however, but that 

 much of it could be easily put into condition for fruit 

 culture. 



The stati.stics of 1890 .show that Pennsylvania has 18 

 seed farms, covering an area of 6,066 acres. The seeds 

 extensively produced here are beans, cabbage, carrot, 

 field corn, cucumber, lettuce, parsnip, onion sets and 

 potatoes. Several of the largest seed houses of the 

 United States are located in Philadelphia, that of David 

 Landreth having been established in 1784. There were 

 reported for 1890 311 nurseries, with a total area of 

 6,598 acres, representing a value of more than $3,000,000. 

 The stock chiefly grown is made up of apples, cherries, 

 peaches, pears, plums, deciduous and evergreen trees 

 and shrubs. In the cultivation of ornamental plants and 

 the production of cut-flowers Pennsylvania takes a 

 promint'iir ptat-r, Tlie census of 1890 was the first to take 

 notice of this industry and shows 544 establishments, with 

 a total of 6.066,141 square feet of glass, being second only 

 to New York. The size of these establishments ranges 

 from 300 to 100.000 square feet of glass. The largest 

 number of roses was propagated in Pennsylvania in the 

 year these statistics were gathered. The largest total 

 values of plant sales were respectively in New York, 

 Pennsylvania and California; and the largest total val- 

 ues of cut-flower sales were respectively in New York, 

 Illinois and Pennsylvania. In truck farms Pennsylvania 

 joins with New Jersey and New Y'ork in forming the 

 most important district of America. This district ex- 

 cels all others in the production of beets, cabbage and 

 tomatoes, and has large acreages in asparagus, beans, 

 celery, cucumbers, melons, peas, Irish and sweet po- 

 tatoes. 



The fruit interests of the state are not as great as 

 they should be. Apples are grown successfully in the 

 larger part of the territory, but mainly for home or 

 local consumption. A few orchards of commercial ex- 

 tent have been planted in the last quarter century. The 

 best varieties for market are York Imperial, Smith 

 Cider, Fallawater (all of Pennsylvania origin), Baldwin, 

 R. I. Greening and Ben Davis. Peaches are now grown 

 extensively in two sections in and abotit Franklin and 

 Juniata counties, known respectively as the ".South 

 Mountain" and the "Juniata" peach belts: each belt 

 reports an area of 3,000 acres devoted to peaches. 

 W. G. Waring has observed that "peach trees in Penn- 

 sylvania grow to a much larger size and greater age 

 than along the Atlantic shore." Plums and cherries are 

 not extensively grown. Grapes are adapted to this state, 

 but nowhere except in Erie county has the extension 

 of vineyards been rapid, and there it was due to the in- 

 fluence of the Chautauqua grape belt of New York, of 

 which the Erie county vineyards form a part. More 

 attention was given to pears 40 years ago than now on 

 account of the present fear of the "fire blight." Penn- 

 sylvania has contributed some of the most valuable vari- 

 eties of pears now in cultivation, such as the Seckel, 



