150 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 424- 



beautiful than the first one. It is very large, of a perfect yel- 

 low, with pencilings of scarlet on the two inner petals so faint 

 as to be hardly visible. Whether these flowers will have suffi- 

 cient substance to be valuable for out-of-door bedding remains 

 to be proved, but, beyond all question, they are superb when 

 grown under glass. 



The blanched tops of Swede turnips are much used as a 

 vegetable in England, but when they are grown with offensive 

 surroundings, as is occasionally the case in old mushroom 

 beds, of course they are inferior. A correspondent of The 

 Gardeners' Chronicle writes that untrimmed turnips placed 

 close together in a box, the bottom of which is covered with 

 a few inches of damp sand and then loosely covered with a 

 mat, will soon show a small forest of shoots of perfect flavor 

 and free from the objectionable "turnipy" taste. Many per- 

 sons consider them quite superior to the best grown sea kale. 



Linseed-oil meal is rich in plant-foods, and if these were 

 rated at their cost as obtained from nitrate of soda, dissolved 

 bone-black and muriate of potash a ton of linseed-meal would 

 have a fertilizing value of $18.00, and would be worth for fer- 

 tilizing purposes about $26.00 as the ordinary mixed fertilizers 

 are sold. A late bulletin from the Ohio Experiment Station 

 calls attention to the fact that inasmuch as this meal is now 

 selling at $16.00 a ton the farmers who are buying fertilizers 

 can get plant-food in this way at reasonable cost. The oil 

 meal is so rich in nitrogen that fertilizers containing consider- 

 able phosphoric acid and potash should be mixed with it. By 

 actual experiment in the Ohio station it was found that half a 

 ton of oil meal worth $8.00 gave as much increase on an acre 

 of Wheat as a compound commercial fertilizer which cost 

 $11.00. 



The Association for the Improvement of the Condition of 

 the Poor in this city, under whose auspices the system of 

 vacant-lot farming was conducted last year, have arranged for 

 a series of lectures and object-lessons in different parts of 

 Westchester County, of this state, with the view to the im- 

 provement in methods of horticulture and agriculture. Pro- 

 fessors from the different agricultural colleges and experts in 

 dairy practice and cultivation of different crops speak in the 

 different towns on such subjects as Strawberry-culture, Apple- 

 culture, Insects Injurious to Fruit, How to Suppress Epidemic 

 Diseases among Plants, etc. This is practically an extension 

 of the institute work and schools of horticulture which have 

 been conducted in other parts of the state with signal success, 

 and it is hoped that this new venture will prove equally helpful 

 as an educating force. 



At a late exhibition of flowers before the New York Farm- 

 ers' Club, Mr. W. A. Manda, in connection with an interesting 

 display of Orchids, delivered an address in which he said that 

 many of these plants do not require so much moisture as is com- 

 monly supposed, watering once or twice a day and syringing the 

 leaves daily being sufficient for them. He added, that at least 

 twenty-five species and varieties could be grown as easily as 

 Palms, and that a good place for some of the cool Orchids in 

 summer is out under an Apple-tree. He named Dendrobium 

 nobile and D. Wardianum, Cypripedium insigne, C. villosum 

 and C. Boxalii as varieties which could be grown in any win- 

 dow. Even Dendrobium Calceolus, of which he had on exhi- 

 bition a magnificent specimen, he pronounced a plant which 

 could be perfectly well grown in an ordinary window. The 

 cardinal point in Orchid culture is that they must certainly 

 have a season of growth and a season of rest, which are in 

 their homes seasons of rain and seasons of drought, and this 

 indicates the proper treatment. The more growers learn 

 about Orchids the more fresh air they give these plants. 



The past week or ten days has probably been the most dis- 

 astrous term of the season to fruit merchants, owing to unfa- 

 vorable weather and dull sales. The prices of Mediterranean 

 oranges fell twenty-five to fifty cents a box, and of lemons ten 

 to twenty-five cents. California oranges were affected by this 

 decided drop, and some car-loads of Navels were withdrawn 

 from sale toward the end of last week on account of unsatis- 

 factory prices. Lighter receipts of the Sicily fruits are expected, 

 and delayed spring weather hoped for, when better prices are 

 anticipated. Sicily oranges of the highest grade and desirable 

 sizes sold last week to wholesale merchants for $2.50 to $3.00 

 a box, Valencias at $2.75 to $4.00, and California Navels at 

 $1.20 to $3.50. A small shipment of Cayenne pineapples, large 

 and of extra quality, came from Florida during the past fort- 

 night. They were grown under glass, near Orlando, and sold 

 at $1.50 apiece in the fruit shops. It is between seasons now 

 for this fruit, the first of the new crop, some 350 barrels, being 

 due to-day from Cuba, but there will be no regular shipment 



of this fruit from Havana for two weeks. The season for 

 Bahama pineapples opens about the middle of May, and for 

 those from Florida in June. The first pineapples from Cuba 

 in 1894 arrived here April 10th, and last year April 15th. It is 

 feared that shipments from Cuba will be interfered with by 

 the war there, although importers depend upon more general 

 forwarding from all over the island, so that any deficiency 

 from particular sections usually depended upon will thus be 

 made good. Even a more serious drawback is the injury to 

 the crop by storms over a year ago, and more recently by lack 

 of winter rains and unusually cold weather and strong winds 

 during March, conditions which have prevailed generally 

 throughout the West Indies, and which have made the crop 

 late. The season for strawberries in Florida is nearing an 

 end, and the best berries now coming from that state, smaller 

 and less luscious than the perfect fruit of a week ago, cost 

 forty-five cents iar a quart box at retail. 



The flower-stores of this city made a meagre sidewalk dis- 

 play, in comparison with that of former years, on the day 

 before Easter, owing to windy and cold weather. Some of the 

 best establishments made no outside sign of the great floral 

 festival. Occasionally a line of pyramidal Box-trees stood out 

 in wind-break fashion, but even double rows of these gave 

 way before the sharp blasts. Indoors the plants were more 

 fully and perfectly flowered than ever before in this market, 

 though to an onlooker buyers seemed very few. Among the 

 most beautiful and satisfying effects were plants of Lilac just 

 beginning to open, the light and graceful thyrses singularly 

 dainty in the unfolding of the flowers above the tender foliage. 

 Genistas abounded in small plants a foot high for house use, 

 and in tall, spreading specimens for church decorations. The 

 long drooping wands of the closely flowered clear yellow 

 Cytisus Canariensis was particularly satisfying in contrast with 

 the muddy color and more rigid form of C. racemosus. 

 Lilies and Azaleas were, of course, foremost in quantity, and 

 there were Hydrangeas and Spiraeas, the old form with its open 

 and airy habit being more attractive than the newer variety known 

 ascompacta. There were strong shrubby little plants of Kalmia, 

 bright and striking dashes of color in spikes of Metrosideros, 

 fruiting Otaheite Oranges, plants of Andromeda speciosa, the 

 branches thickly strung with the delicate white bells ; vigorous 

 large bushes of Acacia, the straight thick spikes often a foot 

 anil a half long and densely covered with globe-shaped 

 feathery clear lemon flowers to within four or five inches of 

 their extremities. Heaths were more abundant than ever 

 before, while occasional forced specimens of Spiraea Cantoni- 

 ensis and S. Thunbergii were seen, covered with snowy 

 bloom. Cinerarias were happily missed, with their usually 

 decided and coarse colors; although not yet common, 

 the new dwarf Bougainvillea is proving that it is a good 

 plant for Easter flowering. Vigorous plants of Magna Charta 

 Roses in promising bud and dainty pots of Moss Roses were 

 among the scarcer plants. With the usual display of bulbous 

 flowers gay and cheery beds of Pansies were pleasing and 

 appropriate, and an occasional pot of well-flowered Primroses 

 came as a pleasant relief to the more striking colors. Among 

 the less common cut flowers there were Orchids in unusual 

 variety, considerable quantities of anthuriums, spikes of 

 gladiolus, stems of white snapdragon and tight bunches of 

 trailing arbutus from the south. The real phenomenon of the 

 Easter trade in this city was the hideous attempt at decorating 

 the flower-pots with crtjpe paper and ribbons. The result was 

 more than grotesque — it was absolutely vulgar. In one win- 

 dow off shades of red, blue, purple, pink and yellow, besides 

 white and parti-colored papers, with ribbons of conflicting 

 tints, and arranged with no reference to the colors of the 

 flowering plants, made a most offensive display. Presuma- 

 bly well-grown plants were disguised in crimped and ruf- 

 fled swaddling clothes, which reminded one of the attempts 

 of a rural dressmaker to revive the full-skirt styie of i860. 

 A few color combinations noticed were Genistas in bronzy- 

 yellow paper, with pea-green ribbon shown against the 

 glaucous foliage ; pink Azaleas surrounded by broad ribbons 

 of the bright shade known as American Beauty, and dull pur- 

 ple-flowered Rhododendrons shrouded in long gowns of white 

 crepe secured by belts of dull purple ribbon. Occasionally 

 the better taste and deft hand of some woman was seen, as 

 where long boxes containing single yellow narcissus with rich 

 blue-green foliage were simply covered with a band of yellow 

 paper and a spare use of yellow ribbon of the same shade to 

 match the flowers. Carnations were in meagre supply, 

 one dealer, for example, being able to secure but 7,000 

 flowers to fill orders amounting to 10,000. Prices for these 

 flowers ranged from $1.00 to $2.00 a dozen for the ordi- 

 nary sorts, $3.00 being asked for the popular Helen Keller. 



