CONIFERS 



CONNECTICUT 



363 



and weevils sap the young shoots. Bostrichi, or bark- 

 beetles, mine under the bark, mostly of trees which are 

 sickly from other causes; borers enter the wood of the 

 boles. Tortrices bore into the base of leaders and cause 

 them to break off. The best remedies against most of 

 these are preventives, namely: providing the trees with 

 such chances of vigorous growth, or satisfactory soil 

 conditions, that they are able to ward off or overcome 

 the enemies. Otherwise, watching and destroying the 

 enemies in time, and the usual remedies to kill them, 

 may be employed. Literature: Veitch, Manual of Coni- 

 fers : Carriere, Traite des Coniferes ; Beissner, Hand- 

 buch der Nadelholzkunde. g j-. p ERNOW< 



CONlUM maculatum, Linn. Umbellifer<e. The 

 POISON HEMLOCK, "by which," as Gray writes, "crimi- 

 nals and philosophers were put to death at Athens." 

 It is a rank, much-branched European herb which has 

 run wild in eastern N. America, and which is offered in 

 the trade as a border plant. It is biennial, rank-smell- 

 ing, and poisonous, and is scarcely worth cultivating, 

 although the finely cut dark foliage is highly ornamen- 

 tal. It grows from 2-4 ft. high, and has large umbels of 

 small white fls. An extract is sold in drug stores for a 

 sedative. For this purpose the fruit is gathered while 

 green. 



CONNECTICUT, HORTICULTURE IN. Fig. 537. 

 While one of the smallest states and covering but 

 one degree of latitude (41 to 42), owing to the great 

 diversity of soil and varying elevations from the sea 

 level, along the whole southern border, to 900 and 1,200 

 feet in sections of Tolland county, and 1,200 and 1,500 in 

 portions of Litchfield, Connecticut is adapted to as wide 



53'- The horticultural regions of Connecticut. 



a range of horticultural productions as any state out- 

 side of the semi-tropic fruit belt. The " season " of many 

 of the quick-maturing species and varieties of fruits, 

 flowers and vegetables is often entirely over on the 

 light soil in the Connecticut valley and along the Sound 

 shore when like species and varieties are but just be- 

 ginning to ripen on the cooler, moist soils of the hills 

 of Tolland and Litchfield counties. Strawberries and 

 green peas from East Hartford and Glastonbury supply 

 the Hartford market, while on the Bolton hills, only 12 

 miles away, the blooming vines give promise of the crop 

 that is to come after the valley season is entirely over; 

 so that "home-grown" strawberries are usually to be 

 had in the Hartford market for a period of six or seven 

 weeks. The Sound shore, Housatonic valley and Litch- 

 field hills supply New Haven, Bridgeport and other 

 cities of the state through equally long seasons. 



From the earliest settlement of the state, fruit-grow- 

 ing for the family home-supply has been a prominent 

 feature of Connecticut agriculture, the apple being 

 a main reliance. The old seedling trees scattered 

 over all our farms to-day are plain evidence that our 

 ancestors took their apple juice through the spigot of 

 the cider barrel rather than fresh from the pulp of the 

 ripe fruit of some finer variety. A hundred years ago 



every farm-house cellar wintered from 30 to 50 barrels 

 of cider, while to-day it is hardly respectable to have 

 any. ;ind probably not one family in ten now has even 

 one single barrel on tap as a beverage. Yet in quantity 

 and variety the family fruit supply has wonderfully in- 

 creased and a daily supply of fresh home-grown fruit is 

 the rule rather than the exception in most farm homes, 

 small fruits in variety, apples, pears, peaches, plums 

 (both European and Japan), cheiries and quinces, in 

 all the best standard varieties, coming to their highest 

 perfection in every section of the state where rational 

 methods of culture are followed. The topography of the 

 state is such, and soils are so varied within short dis- 

 tances, that it is difficult to district the state, except in the 

 most general way. Aside from the alluvial, most of the 

 light sandy and sandy loam lands are alongthe river val- 

 leys and the Sound shore; while in "the hill towns" and 

 alongthe ridges the soils are heavier, with more or less 

 mixtures of clay, and many of the hilltops are moist and 

 springy. Rocks are very abundant nearly all over the 

 state except in the valleys, while the natural timber 

 and semi-abandoned farm and pasture lands, growing 

 up to brush and timber, cover fully one-half the acreage 

 of the state. Acting at present as wind-breaks and cli- 

 matic equalizers, th^y will in the future furnish the 

 "new lands" for extensive horticultural enterprises. 

 Lying midway between New York and Boston, the 

 greatest horticultural markets of America Connecticut 

 is better situated than any other state in the Union to 

 realize quick cash returns from her horticulture. Every 

 farm is within driving distance of some one or more 

 of her own busy manufacturing towns and villages, 

 whose people are appreciative of choice fruits and are 

 able to pay for them. 



District No. i. This comprises the Connecticut river 

 valley and adjacent hills, along the Northampton branch 

 and the main line of railroad from Hartford to New 

 Haven, and all of the shore towns. This district con- 

 tains most of the sandy plain lands of the state, and the 

 loams and clay most free from rocks and stones. On 

 the hills back from the river, on the ridges either side 

 of the railroads, and a few miles back from the Sound 

 shore, there are many places where soil and topograph- 

 ical conditions are much the same as in districts Nos. 

 2 and 3; but, having much larger tracts of easily culti- 

 vated lands and being better located as to market con- 

 ditions, this district is more highly developed horticul- 

 turally than either of the others. Here are the great 

 market-gardens and small-fruit farms, peach orchards, 

 vineyards and melon fields. 



District No. 2. This district comprises Tolland and 

 Windham counties and all of Middlesex and New London 

 counties except Cromwell and the shore towns, and is 

 particularly well suited to apple and peach culture, ow- 

 in<r to the rolling condition of the country and natural 

 fertility of many of the hills. Every few miles are lit- 

 tle valleys and pockets suited to the production of small 

 fruits and vegetables in variety. A few townships in 

 the northeast grow apples quite extensively, while in 

 the west and southwest commercial peach orchards are 

 found to considerable extent. 



District No. 3. This district comprises western Hart- 

 ford, northwestern New Haven, northern Fairfield, and 

 all of Litchfield counties, and is somewhat similar to 

 district No. 2, except that the soil is generally heavier, 

 with rather more mixture of clay and the hills are 

 more abrupt and rocky. Some sections of Litchfield 

 county are too cold and bleak for any but the most hardy 

 fruits. 



Apples grow freely everywhere, and, while always of 

 eood quality, the brightest colors, firmest texture and 

 highest quality of fruit is produced on the rocky hills, 

 at an elevation of from 400 to 1,000 feet. Baldwin, Rhode 

 Island Greening, Roxbury Russet and Spy are the lead- 

 ing varieties, al'hough all the varieties that thrive well 

 in the northeastern U. S. grow to perfection here when 

 properly cared for. Old commercial orchards have al- 

 ways been profitable, and just at this time large plant- 

 ings are being made, the largest orchard in the state 

 containing about 4,000 trees. 



Peach culture on an extended scale is a recent devel- 

 opment. Eighteen years aero the only commercial orchard 

 in the state contained about 2,000 trees. ;uid probably 



