170 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 426. 



ering are hardly six inches long, but the flower-stems are a 

 foot or more in length, and each one bears in succession three 

 to six flowers. The bulbs increase rapidly, and a colony of 

 the plants at this season is one of the most interesting features 

 of the herbaceous garden. 



A circular has been sent out by the Division of Forestry of 

 the Department of Agriculture which calls attention to the 

 recent forms of legislation against forest fires and summarizes 

 the existing acts now in force in the different states. The most 

 complete law is said to be that of Minnesota, which is quoted 

 entire, while the provisions of the Maine law are given with 

 some detail. 



It has been often argued that when orchards are sprayed 

 with arsenical poisons while the trees are in blossom a great 

 many bees are killed. The bees are not only useful as honey 

 gatherers, but they are very helpful in fertilizing the flowers. 

 Some experiments made last year at the Ohio Station show 

 conclusively that bees maybe killed in large numbers by spray- 

 ing while the flowers are open, and since this practice is never 

 necessary at that time for the destruction of injurious insects 

 it should be avoided. The trees should be sprayed just before 

 flowering and as soon as the blossoms have fallen, but never 

 while they are in bloom. 



The American Architect and Building News speaks appreci- 

 atively of the timber tests made by the Forestry Division of 

 the Department of Agriculture, and adds very justly that when 

 engineers, architects and builders are expending hundreds of 

 millions of dollars every year for timber, that the collection 

 of accurate information as to the qualities of our different 

 woods is a matter second only in importance to the preserva- 

 tion of the forests. It is to be hoped that Congress will not be 

 so short-sighted as to adjourn without making an appropria- 

 tion for continuing the tests which have been going on now 

 for several years. Of course, the value of such work depends 

 largely on the number of experiments made. Only when tests 

 are made in large numbers and under many conditions can 

 we have confidence in the trustworthiness of the accumulated 

 data in regard to the range of strength and other qualities of a 

 given species. 



The unusually hot weather during the second week in April, 

 when the thermometer rose to ninety degrees, Fahrenheit, 

 has hurried all spring-flowering shrubs into bloom. Before 

 the hot weather began — that is, up to the 10th of April — no 

 shrubs were in bloom in this vicinity, except occasionally a 

 Daphne Mezereum, and Mr. Joseph Meehan wrote that Prunus 

 Davidiana was flowering in company with the Daphne in 

 Philadelphia. Last week, however, Magnolia stellata had 

 burst into bloom, and is now much past its prime, and M. 

 conspicua and M. Soulangeana were hardly a day behind it. 

 The Forsythias and our native Spice Wood opened about the 

 same time, and with them Cornus mas and the early bush 

 Honeysuckles. Before this paper is read the Peach-trees 

 will be in full bloom as the result of a week of August 

 weather in the middle of April. It will be unusually good for- 

 tune if we are not visited by a severe freeze before another 

 paper is published. 



Mr. J. H. Hale, President of the Hale Georgia Orchard Com- 

 pany, says, in the current number of the Fruit Trade Journal, 

 that from personal examination of the Peach orchards in that 

 state he finds the prospects better even than last year, when 

 Georgia had the best peach crop on record. The frosts that 

 occurred during blooming time this year thinned out the pro- 

 spective crop considerably, but it is difficult to find anywhere a 

 single tree that is not now carrying a fair crop of fruit, while 

 there are many trees so overloaded that ,if two-thirds of the 

 fruit would drop off there would be more than enough left for 

 a full crop. In the orchards in which Mr. Hale is directly in- 

 terested, comprising 100,000 trees, Elberta is stated to be the 

 only variety that is not greatly overloaded. The total crop of 

 the state is estimated at fifty per cent, larger than that of last 

 year, allowing for the first crop of several hundred thousand 

 young trees in the Fort Valley section. The season is fully ten 

 days in advance of last year. Mr. Hale concludes that good 

 Georgia peaches of the Alexander type should be plentiful in 

 northern markets by the 15th of June. New York fruit mer- 

 chants are anticipating the first Florida peaches before the 

 close of April. 



Asparagus is now coming from as far north as Charleston 

 and Norfolk, and the New Jersey crop is looked for any day. 

 Fifty to seventy-five cents a bunch is the price at this time. 

 Beans from Charleston cost twenty-five to thirty cents a 

 quart, and peas from the same section seventy-five cents 



a half-peck. New white turnips, from Virginia, may be 

 had for ten cents a bunch. Well-grown white squashes from 

 Florida cost ten to fifteen cents each, and southern tomatoes 

 twenty-five cents a pound, the northern hot-house product 

 bringing forty cents. Hot-house cauliflowers cost thirty-five 

 to fifty cents each, lettuce ten to fifteen cents a head, and 

 cucumbers twenty cents each — those from New Orleans filling 

 out the needed supply at slightly lower prices. Mushrooms 

 sell for ninety cents a pound. 



Bulletin No. 59 of the Indiana Experiment Station treats of 

 the bacteriosis of Carnations, an almost ever-present disease 

 of these plants. It is easily detected, now that the cause is 

 known and has been studied, but for years the leaves of the 

 plants turned yellow and dried up before the cultivator's eyes, 

 and not until half a dozen years ago was the true cause of the 

 trouble known. Investigation has shown very plainly the 

 presence of a true parasitic bacterium in the leaves of the 

 Carnation ; the germ has been separated and cultivated, and 

 other plants have been artificially infected with it, so that there 

 is no question as to the correctness of the diagnosis. This 

 bulletin, which has been prepared by Professors J. C. Arthur 

 and H. L. Bolley, gives a full history of the germ, which is 

 called Bacterium Dianthi, and explains how it enters the plant 

 and how it acts to destroy its host. It seems that no variety 

 of Carnation is entirely exempt from the disease, but weakly 

 varieties like Buttercup, Sunrise and La Purite are most 

 affected. Poorly grown plants more readily succumb than 

 those well grown, and partly starved or stunted plants are 

 especially liable to attack. As it is necessary that there should 

 be sufficient moisture on the leaves to enable the bacteria 

 to move about and enter the pores, and thus gain access 

 to the inferior of the leaf, it is plain that keeping the foliage 

 dry will prevent the disease. The trouble is that in this case 

 the red spider might be as fatal as the bacteria. Dry foliage 

 is in a direct line with the requirements of the plant, which is 

 by its structure adapted to a dry atmosphere ; its thick, smooth 

 leaves and firm epidermis, and the waxy bloom of its surface, 

 are all devices for conserving moisture. The true treatment, 

 therefore, is to water the ground between the rows of Carna- 

 tions with a stream of water, beneath a wire netting which 

 is so arranged as to lift up the foliage. Spraying overhead 

 should be practiced only occasionally, and on bright days, when 

 the water will dry off quickly, and the water should contain a 

 small amount of ammoniacal copper carbonate, as the germs 

 cannot live in even a very weak solution of this compound. 



The sudden change twelve days ago from persistent cold and 

 rainy weather to midsummer temperature has affected the 

 fruit market here in many respects. Oranges, for example, 

 during last week declined fifty to seventy-five cents a box. 

 Some 1,100 barrels of Jamaica oranges, variously known in the 

 trade as Late Bloom and New Crop, are a part of the regular 

 offerings. The quality of this crop, which appeared early this 

 season, is unusually fine. Besides the usual receipts of Medi- 

 terranean oranges, California Navels continue plentiful. Ex- 

 ceptionally large specimens of the latter, sixty-four to the box, 

 desirable mainly for decoration, sell at $3 00 a box wholesale, 

 while those of average size, 112 fruits to the box, and the yet 

 more desirable size, 126 to the box, command $3.50 to $4.00. 

 The hot weather caused an advance of fifty cents a box in the 

 prices of lemons. Grape-fruit is still seen in the collections 

 of retail dealers, but the extremely high prices of the past few 

 months are not maintained by these belated specimens. Two 

 cargoes of new-crop pineapples, altogether 2,500 fruits, reached 

 this port from Cuba during last week, and somewhat larger 

 invoices are expected during this week, the quantity in the 

 corresponding periods of last year having been two or three 

 times as great. The price now ranges from ten to twenty- 

 five cents each, at wholesale, whereas a year ago the same 

 grade brought six to eighteen cents. The first California cherries 

 of the season reached here on April 16th from Vacaville. The 

 variety, Early Purple Guigne, was of fairsize, but lacked the deep 

 rich color of fully ripe fruit. They sold at retail for $1.2 5 a pound. 

 Although strawberries continue to come from Florida, and 

 the first shipments from North Carolina are already in our 

 markets, prices are higher than they were several weeks ago. 

 Last Saturday good strawberries sold for seventy cents a 

 quart box by the crate, and some exceptionally fine fruit 

 brought the remarkable price of ninety cents a quart at whole- 

 sale. On Monday seventy-five cents was the lowest price 

 asked for a single box of choice fruit. The probable reason for 

 higher prices for southern strawberries so late in the season is 

 the increasing demand from buyers for hotels and restau- 

 rants. 



