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Garden and Forest. 



[NuMBER'419. 



two hundred pounds of muriate of potash can be added to the 

 acre. For the supply of phosphoric acid ground bone in some 

 form is unexcelled. 



Do not be in a hurry when the first warm days come, in 

 March and April, to take the litter from the Strawberry beds. 

 This blanket should not be entirely removed until the growth 

 of the plants actually begins, although it is well to lift it up and 

 loosen it with a fork after the snow has gone, so as to allow the 

 ground to dry out sooner and to give the plants light and air. 



At the late meeting of the American Carnation Society in 

 this city, Mr. E. G. Hill declared that he felt assured, from ex- 

 periments with different varieties, that arsenic will check the 

 dreaded rust on Carnation plants, and in some cases eradicate 

 it. He began by using arsenic at the rate of one pound to 

 forty gallons of water, but, of course, since the arsenic would 

 not dissolve this is not a satisfactory way to apply it. He finally 

 used Fowler's Solution, at the rate of one ounce to eight gallons 

 of water, spraying the plants with it in the usual way. 



An inventor in California has perfected a machine for mak- 

 ing fruit-cans which can be operated by a child, and which, 

 according to the accounts, is very effective. Sheets of tin are 

 fed into the machine at one side and sixty-four cans of 

 any given size are turned out every minute at the other. All 

 the joining of the seams and soldering are done by the ma- 

 chine, and a California dispatch says that a few of them in one 

 factory would be able to supply all the cans used on the Pacific 

 coast for fruit, vegetables and fish at one-tenth of the present 

 cost. 



Professor Troup, of the Indiana Experiment Station, writes 

 in The North American Horticulturist that sixty-seven trees of 

 Missouri Mammoth Quinces near Indianapolis, and ten years 

 old from the graft, yielded last year 140 bushels of the finest 

 selected fruit. Quinces of this variety are said to ripen ten 

 days earlier than Orange quinces ; they are much larger, of 

 firmer texture and quite as highly flavored. Professor Troup 

 adds that the failure of a Quince-tree to produce a good yield 

 is more often due to neglect than to any deficiency of soil or 

 severity of climate. 



The sixtieth year of the existence of the Hamburg Garten- 

 bau-Verein is to be celebrated in 1897 by an international expo- 

 sition devoted to gardening in all its branches, and lasting 

 from the end of April until September. There will be a spring 

 exhibition of about five days' duration early in May, a summer 

 exhibition lasting a week in June, and an autumn exhibition 

 extending over ten days in September, with several exhibitions 

 arranged for intervening periods in addition to such features 

 as can be maintained continually throughout the season. It 

 is to be hoped that American growers and dealers will be rep- 

 resented at this exposition, not only by displays of decorative 

 plants, but by those of commercial value and interest. Roomy 

 conservatories are promised, and an adequate list of premiums 

 and medals will be issued. All persons interested in this 

 project are invited to communicate with Professor Dr. E. 

 Zacharias, Hamburg, Germany. 



Since the 20th of January the weather in California has been 

 extremely warm, and practically no rain has fallen. The rains 

 in December were unusually heavy, but their effects have 

 all disappeared since then in the heat and drought that has 

 followed, so that not only the Wheat growers of the San Joa- 

 quin valley and the southern counties are threatened with 

 serious loss, but the orchards are already suffering from lack 

 of moisture. For twenty years past there has been no Feb- 

 ruary when the temperature ranged so high and the rainfall so 

 low. Almonds were in bloom a week ago and Apricots are in 

 full flower, the orchards being as far advanced as they usually 

 are in the latter part of March. If frost should come, as it 

 sometimes does at this season, the crop of peaches and other 

 fruits would suffer seriously, and preparations are being made 

 on a large scale for protecting vineyards and orchards against 

 sudden falls of temperature to the freezing point. The plan 

 most generally recommended is to kindle slow fires and then 

 use water in a very fine spray. 



In speaking of the city-lot farms which have been made the 

 subject of an editorial article in our present issue, Mr. Kjel- 

 gaard, the superintendent, recently stated as an interesting 

 feature of the work last year that the most successful farmers 

 were women. This year lots will be furnished to any woman 

 who deserves them, so that if her husband is earning small 

 wages she can help to support the family. One woman who 

 was especially successful last year, when applying for a lot for 

 next season, reported that she had still some potatoes left 

 which she hoped to sell, and vegetables enough to carry her 



through the winter. Last year when she applied for work her 

 husband was employed on a small salary and they were very 

 poor ; now she has $200 in the bank. It may be added that 

 there have been many applications from the country, not 

 only from New York, but Massachusetts and Connecticut, by 

 landowners who want the services of these city farmers, and 

 some of them are now arranging to accept these offers and 

 take up farming as their occupation. 



Five-pound baskets of Catawba grapes, from western New 

 York, are still seen in the fruit-stores in fresh condition, and 

 sell for thirty cents. There have been no hot-house grapes in 

 the city for a week or longer, and the last importation from 

 England commanded the extreme price of $4.00 a pound at 

 retail. Besides a small shipment expected during this week, 

 the dependence for choice grapes will be mainly upon Al- 

 merias until April, when the graperies of Rhode Island will 

 supply this luxury. The favor in which grape-fruit is held is 

 shown by the keen competition for the limited quantities now 

 arriving from Jamaica. On Monday of this week $30.00 a bar- 

 rel was the average price realized at a wholesale auction sale 

 in this city. Large shaddocks sell at retail for fifty cents each, 

 the same price asked for smaller grape-fruits, and the invoice 

 of a Kingston steamer which landed here a few days ago included 

 one hundred and twenty-six barrels of Forbidden Fruit. Any 

 form of citrus fruit which can possibly be marketed as grape- 

 fruit is being collected and shipped in this time of scarcity. 

 The market is now clear of California oranges which were 

 injured by frost in the last days of December, and California 

 Navel oranges of really excellent quality are now offered at 

 sixty cents a dozen. A good grade of Jamaica oranges, re- 

 packed, sells for $8.00 a barrel in wholesale lots, and the less 

 desirable Cuban fruit, from groves neglected until the failure 

 of the Florida supply, brings $7.00 a barrel for selected 

 oranges. The recent cold weather has prevented shipments 

 of apples from the interior of the state, and less than 12,000 

 barrels reached this city during last week, besides about 2,000 

 barrels for export. The highest grade of Winesap apples, 

 from Virginia, commands the readiest sale at high prices ; 

 these cost $5.50 a barrel. York Imperials may be had for fifty 

 cents less, Northern Spies, Ben Davis and Baldwins following 

 in the scale of prices, with choice Greenings selling at $4.00. 



While most of the pineapples sold in the United States have, 

 within recent years, come from Cuba, the cultivation of this 

 fruit in Florida has rapidly increased, and last season 50,000 

 crates were shipped from sections in that state other than the 

 Keys. The output from the central and northern part of the 

 state this year is estimated at 35,000 crates, while, but for the 

 damage to new plantations by freezing a year ago, a crop 

 amounting to 250,000 crates was counted upon for the next few 

 months. The Bahamas formerly furnished the main supply, 

 which was carried in small sailing vessels taking four to five 

 days to reach this port, while unfavorable winds made a voy- 

 age of twenty days not unusual. Most of the pineapples now com- 

 ing from Nassau and other ports of this group are consigned 

 to Baltimore, where they are canned. As many as 5,500,000 of 

 these pineapples have reached that city within the past four 

 years, and large quantities are canned on the islands. Nearly all 

 the Cuban pineapples come to New York, 200,000 barrels and 

 more constituting the imports for a year. These pineapples are 

 all grown near Havana, and shipments continue throughout 

 the entire year. The season begins, however, in the middle 

 of March and continues at its height for four months, while 

 the Bahama season is a month later in opening. Some of the 

 choicest pineapples have in recent years come from the Indian 

 River section of Florida, and exceptionally large and high- 

 grade fruit comes from Porto Rico. The comparatively small 

 supplies from Jamaica include some excellent varieties which 

 are in special demand. The delay of a day in the transporta- 

 tion of this perishable fruit may mean a heavy loss, and 

 twenty-four hours of warm, damp weather may injure a cargo 

 to the extent of fifty per cent, of its original value. No vessels 

 specially fitted for carrying pineapples are yet in service, and this 

 tender fruit is closely packed in steamers carryingsugarand other 

 heating articles. Quick transportation in steamers equipped 

 with improved ventilation and the best storage facilities, as 

 are already in regular use in the banana trade, would open 

 up new possibilities for this department of the fruit trade. At 

 this time when, besides the shortage caused by the loss in 

 Florida, the trade in Cuba is affected by war, prices have been 

 high. The grade known to wholesale merchants as Havana 

 XX, thirty-five pineapples being required to fill a barrel, now 

 commands $9.00 a barrel, and this is also the importers' price 

 to wholesale buyers for barrels holding forty-five and ninety 

 of the fruits. 



