50 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 414. 



ers," the car-load is sold as a whole, and the pay is made 

 pro rata according to the number of baskets, so that coopera- 

 tive shipping has disadvantages as well as advantages, and it 

 is the skilled grower who suffers — that is, he does not reap the 

 full reward of his superior knowledge. 



Notes. 



Since October ist, 792,431 barrels of domestic potatoes have 

 been offered in the markets of this city, 296.031 barrels in 

 excess of the supply a year ago. During the past week there 

 were received 30,934 barrels of the home crop, besides small 

 shipments from Europe, Bermuda and the West Indies. 



The first Florida strawberries of the season may be had at 

 $1.00 to $1.25 for a quart box. The only Tangerine oranges 

 now available are tiny specimens from California, and these 

 cost the excessive sum of $10.00 a box, wholesale. The few 

 Mandarins offered are from Italy, and thirty-four half-boxes 

 of this fruit from Sorrento, landed on Monday, sold for $5.50 

 on the dock. 



Another part of the important Flora of Nebraska, edited by 

 members of the Botanical Seminary of the University of 

 Nebraska, already noticed in these pages, has been issued. 

 It is part 21 of the whole work, and is devoted to the Rosales, 

 the author being Mr. Axel Rydberg. In this group are treated 

 Rosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Mimosaceseand Papilionaceae, these 

 three families being formed from the Leguminosa? as limited 

 by Bentham, the Saxifragaceee, Crassulaceae, Hamamelidacece 

 and Grossulariaceas. The editorial committee of this impor- 

 tant work, Professor Charles E. Bessey, Roscoe Pound and F. 

 E. Clements, announce that part 8, devoted to the Fungi Im- 

 perfecta is approaching completion. 



Formerly Cuban and domestic cigar boxes were all made 

 from the wood of the Spanish Cedar, a species of West Indian 

 Cedrella, but now the demand for boxes to hold cheap domes- 

 tic cigars is so great in this country that other woods, stained 

 to resemble Spanish Cedar, are largely used for the purpose. 

 The wood of the Tulip Poplar, Liriodendron, is considered 

 the best of the North American woods for this purpose, al- 

 though chestnut, butternut, elm, basswood and cottonwood 

 have been tried. Cigar boxes are also now very largely made 

 in the United States with veneers of Spanish Cedar cut in thick- 

 nesses of from eighty to one hundred and twenty sheets to 

 one inch and mounted on cheap American woods like cotton- 

 wood or basswood. 



A report of the importations of bananas into the United 

 States during 1895, issued by Bennett, Walsh & Co., of this 

 city, shows that 186 cargoes of this fruit have been landed. 

 Jamaica furnished more than any other country, 4,108,620 

 bunches coming from that island. Bocas del Toro, a port of 

 the United States of Colombia, and Bluefields, each sent out 

 more than 2,000,000 bunches, and a like total came from 

 Belize, Livingston and Honduras, and also from Banes and 

 Cabanes, with nearly as many from Port Limon. These, with 

 importations from minor ports, amount to 16,720,127 bunches. 

 Of this grand total 5,088,119 bunches arrived in New Orleans, 

 4,548.57 2 > n New York; Mobile comes third with 2.449,618, fol- 

 lowed by Philadelphia with 2,026,780, Boston 1,637,802, Balti- 

 more with less than a million, and Charleston with only 41, 000 

 bunches. 



Well-blanched celery from California sells at $1.10 for a 

 bunch of a dozen stalks ; that from Rochester brings $1.00 a 

 dozen, and, while less white and showy, is considered of higher 

 quality. Small heads of cauliflower from California cost thirty 

 to sixty cents each, and larger heads from France bring sev- 

 enty-five cents. Brussels sprouts from the latter country sell 

 for twenty-five cents a pound, and artichokes for the same price 

 each. New string beans, beets and egg-plants come from 

 Florida, besides tomatoes. The latter sell for twenty cents a 

 pound, the price, also, of California tomatoes, the hot-house 

 product, bringing thirty-five cents. Peppers, from Cuba, cost 

 forty cents a dozen. Other vegetables no w in season in our mar- 

 kets are celeriac, new leeks and onions, Spanish onions, sweet 

 potatoes, Savoy and Danish cabbage, the green Hubbard and 

 yellow squashes. Tender blades of sorrel and dandelion, 

 grown under glass on Long Island, are in considerable de- 

 mand, and sell, respectively, for fifteen and twenty-five cents 

 a quart. 



Currants are grown successfully at the Geneva Experiment 

 Station on a southern slope with soil of rather a heavy clayey 

 loam and a clay subsoil. This is well drained by lines of tiles 



two rods apart. The bushes are set four feet apart in the rows, 

 and the rows are from six to seven feet apart. A forkful or two 

 of stable manure is thrown around each bush in autumn and 

 turned under, but not deeply, in spring. The ground is culti- 

 vated two or three inches deep near the plants, and rather 

 deeper midway of the rows at the first cultivation, after which, 

 by shallow tillage, the surface is kept stirred and free from 

 weeds until August. In fall the five-year-old canes are cut 

 away with the broken branches with all those that droop to the 

 ground, and all but one or two new shoots of one season's 

 growth. No unvarying rule can be followed in pruning, but it 

 is thought that generally a cane reaches its greatest produc- 

 tiveness during its fourth or fifth season. If a cane still 

 appears vigorous after its fifth year's growth and well filled 

 with buds it is allowed to remain longer. Under this treat- 

 ment the bushes make enough wood and yield abundantly. 



The council of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment 

 Station has passed a series of resolutions which have been 

 sent to the stations of the different states, relating to the injury 

 done by the introduction of scale and other insects from the 

 West Indies and Central America into the southern states. 

 After setting forth the fact that some of these insects may live 

 over a large portion of this continent, as does the West Indian 

 Diaspis Amygdali, which is now attacking Peach-trees as far 

 north as Washington, and that experience in California has 

 proved it possible to prevent by inspection the introduction of 

 many pernicious insects, it is recommended that quarantine 

 officers be appointed by the agricultural experiment stations of 

 the several states, and paid out of the funds of these states, to 

 be stationed at Key West, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston and 

 other ports, to examine plants introduced, to destroy those 

 found infested and to issue a certificate for those which have 

 been passed. It is also recommended that a skilled entomolo- 

 gist be appointed by the Department of Agriculture to travel 

 in Mexico, Central America and the West Indie9, make collec- 

 tions of injurious insects, investigate their habits and transmit 

 his collection, with report, to the National Museum. 



A writer in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, speaking 

 of Formosa, states that the clearing of the forests of Camphor- 

 trees there is going on at a very rapid rate. Many of the trees 

 are cut up for making camphor ; others are sawn into planks 

 and knees for the building of boats. For over thirty years 

 there has been a constant demand for camphor, and yet the 

 Chinese Government has done nothing to prevent the reckless 

 waste of these forests, and has taken no steps for the replanting 

 of the tracts which are useless for cultivation. It is said that in 

 the mountains of the interior Camphor-trees are still abundant, 

 and there is no immediate fear that the supply will run short ; 

 but the increased demand for camphor in tiiese days of smoke- 

 less powder will hasten the destruction of the trees, and it is 

 therefore to be hoped that under the administration of the 

 Japanese Government, which as a result of the war with China 

 has come into possession of this territory, care will be taken 

 to insure a future supply by planting these waste lands. The 

 trees grow very rapidly and reach a height of forty feet in 

 twenty years, and probably trees which are fifty years old will 

 be large enough for all the ordinary purposes to which the 

 timber is applied. To secure the camphor, distilleries of mud 

 bricks some ten or twelve feet long, six feet wide and four 

 feet high, are built on the hillsides, with five to ten fire-holes a 

 foot apart and the same distance above the ground in each. 

 An earthen pot full of water is placed over each fire-hole, and 

 above it a tube a foot in diameter passes through the structure 

 appearing above it. The tube is capped by a large inverted 

 jar with a packing of damp hemp between the jar and the 

 cylindrical tube, which is filled with chips of wood, about the 

 size of the little finger, resting on the perforated lid covering 

 the jar of water, so that when the steam rises it passes up to 

 the inverted jar or condenser, absorbing the resinous material 

 from the wood on its way. While the distillation is going on 

 an essential oil is produced and is found mixed with the water 

 on the inside of the jar. When the jar is removed the beady 

 drops solidify, and crude camphor, crystallized like newly 

 formed snow, is detached by the hand, placed in baskets lined 

 with Plantain leaves and sent away to the nearest town for sale. 



Publisher's Note. 



A portion of the issue of Garden and Forest last week was 

 printed on paper of a different color from that ordinarily used. 

 Subscribers who return such copies will be furnished with 

 others printed on our regular paper. 



