IO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 410. 



and several days during the holiday week. Of course, Chick- 

 weed, which is another immigrant, was showing its white 

 flowers, but it does this almost any day in winter when the 

 thermometer is above the freezing point where it is in a 

 sheltered and sunny position and is not covered with snow. 

 During the past week, however, the flowers have been unusu- 

 ally abundant, the bright green foliage of the prostrate stems 

 being starred all over with little white blossoms which look so 

 delicately beautiful that one almost forgets that the plant is 

 a disagreeable weed. 



Several varieties of the European Chestnut have come into 

 cultivation in this country during the past few years, among 

 them the Numbo, which is sometimes said to be an offspring 

 of our native Chestnut and sometimes of the Japanese species, 

 but it is really European. The burs are usually single, and 

 this is, perhaps, one reason why the nuts are so large. The 

 Numbo will weigh two or three times as much as the so-called 

 Spanish chestnuts, and it is, therefore, more popular. The 

 Paragon will average about twice as large as our ordinary wild 

 chestnut, and it is a most promising variety. 



The New York Gardeners' Society was regularly organized 

 in this city on December 21st by representative private gar- 

 deners from Long Island and many other sections of this state, 

 New Jersey and Connecticut. The following officers were 

 elected to serve one year: J. M. Logan, president; William 

 Plumb, Charles Webber, Peter McDonald, vice-presidents ; Wil- 

 liam Anderson, treasurer ; J. I. Donlan, secretary. A committee 

 to draft rules and by-laws was formed, with William Falconer 

 as chairman. The next meeting will be held on Saturday 

 evening, January 4th, at 51 West Twenty-eighth Street, when 

 all private gardeners who care to join an association for mu- 

 tual advantage and the advancement of horticulture are 

 invited to be present. Such an association ought to be useful 

 in many directions, and it ought especially to be helpful in giv- 

 ing variety to future flower shows in this city, which have 

 hitherto mainly consisted of plants and flowers exhibited by 

 commercial growers to the exclusion of the rarer plants and 

 well-grown specimens which are alone to be found in private 

 collections. 



But 2,000 boxes of Florida oranges have reached this city 

 thus far against 500,000 boxes during the same term a year ago, 

 when the crop of that state was estimated at 6,000,000 boxes. 

 With half the crop frozen on the trees the season closed 

 abruptly early last February, whereas the previous season 

 Florida oranges were in our markets nearly the year through— 

 from September 20th, 1893, to August, 1894. The few now 

 offered cost $3.50 to $5.25 a box at wholesale, fully double the 

 prices of last year. The main portion of the West India crop, 

 amounting altogether to 400,000 barrels, has already been sold 

 in the United States. Jamaica oranges are now commanding 

 prices so high as to make rather slow sales, $4.50 a box being 

 asked for the best repacked fruit by wholesale dealers. "The 

 crop of the Valencia district, in Spain, is variously estimated 

 at 3,000,000 to 6,000,000 cases, which contain 420 to 714 oranges 

 each. This fruit has recently been in unusual demand here, 

 large lots selling readily for $5.50 a box, while Sicily fruit, 

 rather immature and unsound, brought about one-third as 

 much. The Sicily crop is said to reach fully 10,000,000 boxes. 

 Car-loads of Navel and seedling oranges are now coming from 

 California, and, although some of the fruit is as yet lemon- 

 colored and tinged with green, it is of good weight and quality 

 and promises well for the ripe fruit later on. The total pro- 

 duction in California is estimated at three and a half to four 

 million boxes. 



The California fruit-growers who ship their products to San 

 Francisco complain that they made no profit last year because 

 of low prices, although fruit at the commission-houses and 

 retail stands has been dearer in that city than it was in New 

 York or any of the large eastern cities. They complain that 

 when the market is glutted tons of choice fruit are dumped 

 into the bay by commission men to maintain prices, so that 

 California really produces hundreds of tons that are never mar- 

 keted. In New York the truck-farmers and market-gardeners 

 are making this same complaint against the middlemen. One 

 of them lately stated to a correspondent of The Tribune that 

 Long Island celery, for which they received from sixty cents 

 to a dollar for a dozen bunches containing six roots each, are 

 sold at retail for a hundred per cent, profit, and the same is 

 true of cauliflower, turnips and other vegetables which come 

 into the Gansevoort market in hundreds of wagons every night. 

 The complaint of the farmer is that the greengrocers combine 

 and hold off from buying until the farmers are forced to accept 

 any offer, so that they can return home for another load, and 

 that the expenses for stands, for stabling, etc., eat up all the 



profits. On the other hand, thegrocers lay stress on theirhigh 

 rents, losses through credits, and particularly on the deteriora- 

 tion of vegetables on their hands, since they are so perishable 

 that in summer the losses from wilting and decay amount, per- 

 haps, to twenty-five percent, of what they sell. There is no ques- 

 tion, however, that for such perishable articles as fruit, vege- 

 tables and milk, consumers in cities pay extravagant prices when 

 compared with those which the producers receive. The wasies 

 and expenses of distribution are enormous, and it is a fact that 

 the consumer could pay much less for what he uses and the 

 producer receive more for what he raises, while a reasonable 

 profit would still remain for the middleman. 



There is much uncertainty about the origin of the Apple 

 now known as Tompkins King and formerly called King of 

 Tompkins County. Some people hold that the original Tomp- 

 kins King tree stands at Jacksonville, six or seven miles 

 north-east of Ithaca, and in a recent lecture to one of his 

 classes Professor Bailey showed a picture of the tree, now 

 about sixty years old and two feet in diameter at the ground. 

 It was plain, however, that the tree had been grafted, and, 

 therefore, it cannot be the genuine seedling. It was brought 

 from Dutchess County to Rockland County by the early 

 settlers, where it was known as the Flat Spitzenburg, and 

 it came originally from New Jersey, though from just what 

 point no one knows. In Tompkins County the tree became 

 best known, where the fruit is large and showy, and would 

 rank ten in the scale of quality in any apple exhibition. It does 

 not thrive, however, over as great an extent of territory as many 

 other apples. The tree is broad, the apples are heavy and they 

 are likely to fall in heavy winds. It is not as productive as 

 the Baldwin and some other varieties. The fruit is borne on 

 the outside of the tree, so that when it comes to be picked it 

 does not fill so many barrels as other varieties do which make 

 less of a show. The trees, too, are short-lived. They begin 

 to die at the base and the bark peels off in strips. Professor 

 Bailey has observed in some places where Baldwins and 

 Greening trees are just in their prime that the Tompkins tree 

 is already going to pieces. It is not so short-lived, however, 

 in Tompkins County and in the adjoining region as it is in 

 other parts of the country. Professor Bailey is not prepared to 

 say whether this failure is due to climate or some varietal 

 weakness, but the fact is that it is an apple of comparatively 

 local merit, and is most profitable in this particular section of 

 New York state. It is almost entirely unknown south of 

 Mason and Dixon's line and west of Michigan. 



The showiest pears now offered in the choicest collections of 

 fruits are Forelles, from California, known also as German 

 Trout pears. They are of medium size, a clear yellow, with 

 brilliant red cheek, and sell for fifty cents to one dollar a dozen. 

 Another pear sure to attract attention is Block's Acme, speci- 

 mens of which weigh as much as two pounds each and 

 measure fourteen inches around. These immense pears are 

 uniformly pyriform, crisp, sweet and slightly musky in flavor. 

 The sun-ripened fruit shows a glowing red on the exposed 

 side, but these midwinter specimens, which were gathered 

 before they were ripe, are olive and russet colored. They cost 

 $3.00 a dozen. Winter Nelis, Winter Seckel, Easter Beurre and 

 Beurre d'Anjou are also seen in the best shops. Catawba 

 grapes from the Lake Keuka district, this state, fresh-looking 

 as when gathered more than two months ago, cost but twenty- 

 five cents for a box holding nearly three pounds. Cornichon 

 and Emperor grapes, from California, are becoming scarce, 

 and command thirty-five cents a pound for the best. Heavy- 

 shouldered bunches of rose-tinted Almerias, weighing two 

 pounds and more apiece, sell for thirty-five cents a pound. Lus- 

 cious-looking GrosColman grapes, from England, the immense 

 clusters cut with a section of the woody vine, sell for $2.25 a 

 pound. Other beautiful fruits which now add to the rich and 

 attractive displays are hot-house Mandarins, from Hacken- 

 sack, three to five on a stem, with fresh-looking foliage, and 

 costing $2.50 a dozen. Oranges from Jamaica, with stems and 

 leaves, bring $1.50 a dozen. Beautiful pineapples, from 

 Florida, with luxuriant-looking tops, are $1.00 each, and per- 

 simmons still come from the same state. The choicest vege- 

 tables are no less delicate and bright than the fruit. Hot-house 

 tomatoes are coming from Pennsylvania, and slender stems of 

 asparagus about as long as a finger, from along the Hudson 

 River. Asparagus is also being received from California. 

 Domestic and foreign nuts in large variety increase the interest 

 of high-class fruit-stores, such as that at the corner of Sixth 

 Avenue and Fiftieth Street, where, besides well-known and 

 rare nuts in the shell, the meats of almond, hickory and pecan 

 nuts are kept in stock. These all cost seventy-five cents a 

 pound. 



