THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



275 



did not use ice. He had thoroughly 

 expei'imeuted both with and without it. 

 He built his fruit house in a coo), shady 

 place, with the door on the north, and 

 with a thoroughly drained and cemented 

 cellar, with small double windows which 

 he could open and close at pleasure. 

 In such a house he kept fall and winter 

 pears in good condition until March. 

 Apples can be kept at a lower tempera- 

 ture than pears — say thirty-four to forty 

 degi'ees. J. J. Thomas has said that 

 in such a room as this, and by admit- 

 ting air on cold nights, and closing the 

 entrances when the air is warm, he has 

 kept some yarieties of pears until 

 April, and Baldwin apples into June. 



THE VALUE OF FORESTS. 

 The importance of forestry manage- 

 ment in the estimation of older nations, 

 better skilled than we are in economic 

 administration, appears in a volume of 

 Consular Reports extending to 315 

 pages, lately published by the Depart- 

 ment of State. The reports coyer the 

 particulars of government control and 

 management of forests in Austria-Hun- 

 gary, Germany, France, Italy and 

 Switzerland, and aie full of matters of 

 great use to students of the subject in 

 this country. Consul-General Jussen 

 reports that no proper returns are pub- 

 lished in Austria-Hungary of the profits 

 of Government forests for the whole 

 empire, but for Bohemia alone the clear 

 annual profit is about 14,000,000 

 florins. The net income from the 

 Prussian State forests, Consul-General 

 Raine reports, stands at about 24,000,- 

 000 marks annually. The French net 

 annual income is about 16,000,000 

 francs, as reported by Consul Roose- 

 velt. Consul-General Alden reports 

 that it is impossible to give trustworthy 

 figures of the revenue and cost of for- 

 estry in Italy. According to Consul- 

 Genei-al Winchester, the Swiss Con- 

 federation derives no revenue from 



forests. The total value of yield froni 

 cantonal forests, however, is about 

 33,000,000 francs, and the i-etui-ns from 

 the forests of the Canton of Zurich 

 show a nearly three-fold increase of 

 profit yielded during a period of fifty 

 years of cultivation — from 31-28 francs 

 per hectare (nearly two and a half 

 acres) in 1830-40 to 90.58 francs in 

 1870-78. Returns in money, however, 

 ai-e the lightest evidences of the true 

 value of the forests. Their influence 

 upon the climate and rainfall, and the 

 consequent benefit to agricultural land 

 and to the public health, are considera- 

 tions of far gi-eater importance, besides 

 which is the provision of useful and 

 wholesome employment for numbers 

 of the population. — X. Y. Eveniny Post. 



Hscs of J:nut0. 



Next in importance to the bett modes of cultivation 

 and the selection of the choicest varieties, comes the 

 most approved methods of prepaiing fruits for use. 

 We would be ff lad therefore if the ladies, who read 

 this Journal, would make free use of this column. 

 for an interchange of ideas on this stibject. 



APPLES FOR ANIMALS. 



Prof. L. B. Arnold writes the fol- 

 lowing to the New York Tribune : 



The feeding value of apples is not 

 large; they rank with mangels, turnips, 

 cabbage, and the like. Their food 

 properties are mostly carbo-hydrates, 

 or heat producing, their protein being 

 only about one-half of one per cent., 

 and their nutritive ratio about one to 

 thirty, and hence are most eflective 

 when fed in connection with more 

 nitrogenous food, like clover, but may 

 be fed sparingly with grass. They have 

 a higher value than the weight of their 

 food constituents indicates, on account 

 of condimental qualities, and from hav- 

 ing a large per cent, of those constitu- 

 ents in a condition to be at once 

 absorbed and appropriated without 

 waiting for any special action of the 

 stomach. Using hay as the unit of 



