Notes and Gleanings. 339 



The Effect of Sod in keeping Soil cool. — A contemporary must 

 have astonished its readers, by copying in its July number the following from 

 Johnson : — 



" The effect of sod on the temperature of the soil was studied by Malaguti and 

 Durocher. They observed that it hindered the warming of the soil to about the 

 same extent as a layer of earth three inches deep." We have some hope that 

 our contemporary will now tell its readers, that in America, the writers for the 

 Gardener's Monthly have found still more striking results than these Italians 

 found. The difference here is a six inch, instead of three. 



Gardener'' s Monthly. 



Certainly, we wil: tell our readers ; we will do almost anything to oblige the 

 Gardener's Monthly. But the difference between the observations in Italy and 

 those in America leads us to ask whether the effect of the sod covering may not 

 vary in different parts of this country, and in different seasons in the same part 

 of the country ; and whether the effect is the same in cold, heavy soils, as in 

 light, warm ones, and in damp soils as in dry ones, The Gardener's Monthly 

 knows everything, including the Mexican Ever-bearing Strawberry — will it be 

 so good as to enlighten us on these points, and also to inform us what is the 

 exact temperature of the soil best adapted to the roots of pear and other trees at 

 different seasons of the year ? We woiild also like to be informed whether or 

 not the aggregate surface of the leaves of a piece of grass when kept short is 

 greater than that of the ground on which they grow, and whether the grass or 

 the soil evaporates most moisture. 



The Gardener's Monthly thinks we must have astonished our readers by copy- 

 ing the paragraph from Johnson. We do not know why they should be aston- 

 ished, and we don't think they were. Certainly we have never denied, and we 

 never heard of anj-body who denied the effect of sod in keeping the soil cool ; 

 and the Gardener's Monthly, which, it it does not directly charge us with such 

 a denial, at least implies it, is, in so doing, guilty of a want of fairness, which, we 

 regret to say, is too characteristic of .that journal. There are many well authen- 

 ticated instances in which pear tr^es have done better in grass than in tilled 

 soil ; one such will be found mentioned in our Volume VII., page 232. But after 

 all, the fact remains, that the best pears exhibited before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, which are, to say the least, as good as any raised any- 

 where in the United States, are grown in well-tilled soil — " hot sun-roasted earth," 

 for all the sod there is to hinder it — if that description suits our contemj^rary 

 better. We have no objection in the world to seizing this horn of the dilemma. 

 We have nothing further to say on this subject at present, except to express the 

 wish that the editor of the Gardener's Monthly were as amiable in his journal as 

 he is in personal intercourse. 



Palms on San Bernardino Mountain. ^ The Angeles Star (Cal.) says 

 it is not generally known that a species of native palm grows luxuriantly in the 

 canons on the eastern slope of San Bernardino mountain. It bears a small black 

 fruit, of a sweetish taste, and which is highl}' prized by the Indians as an article 

 of food. The fruit grows in a single cluster, about the size of a bushel basket. 



