May 13, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest 



199 



usual, the bulk of the sugar having been made up within ten 

 days. By April 15th most makers had finished, and by the 

 20th all were through. 



The crop is probably below the average in quantity, but is 

 said to be considerably above the average in quality. Constant 

 improvement in methods and facilities of manufacture of 

 itself tends to raise the quality of the product year by year. 

 The use of improved evaporators gives cleaner and lighter- 

 colored sugar than could be made in the old-style kettles ; and 

 the prejudice against the lighter-colored article is rapidly dis- 

 appearing. It is probable that, without reference to this year's 

 crop, the quantity of maple sugar made in Vermont is on the 

 increase. The increase comes both from the working of a 

 larger number of trees and from better methods of manu- 

 facture. 



The prices realized for sugar and syrup vary greatly in dif- 

 ferent parts of the state and at different seasons. Some of the 

 first sugar put on the market brought the makers sixteen to 

 seventeen cents a pound, while a great deal was sold in the 

 country markets at seven to ten cents. Probably the bulk of 

 the crop sold up to date brought the makers ten to twelve 

 cents. Syrup sold generally at from sixty to ninety cents a 

 gallon, though many makers put their best product up in one- 

 gallon cans and sold on private markets at $1.00 a gallon. 



The Vermont farmer feels that his sugar orchard is one of 

 his best pieces of property. It has been estimated that such 

 property pays an annual dividend of ten to twelve per cent, on 

 the investment. Whereas a few years ago there was quite a 

 tendency to cut Maple-trees and clear away the sugar orchards, 

 the present feeling is rather to encourage the extension of the 

 maple-sugar industry. Vermont is proud of the high standing 

 which her maple sugar has achieved in the market, and she 

 gives hearty support to the laws which enable her to give con- 

 stant assurance that the standard will be maintained. 



Last year's run of sugar was also somewhat below the aver- 

 age, which is probably about 15,000,000 pounds, not counting 

 syrup. This is greater than the output of any other state in 

 the Union. 



There are a great many Red Maples throughout the state 

 which are sometimes tapped without distinction between them 

 and the true Sugar Maples. Some makers are really unable to 

 distinguish the two species. Others consider both equally avail- 

 able as sugar producers. Still another faction consider the 

 sugar of the Red Maples inferior and do not tap the trees, though 

 they may be thickly intermixed with the true Sugar Maples 

 which are being tapped. The preponderance of opinion seems 

 to be against admitting the Red Maple to a full equality with 

 the Sugar Maple as a sugar producer. 



University of Vermont. 



F. A. Wait eh. 



Trees and Shrubs in Flower at Germantown. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — I am writing on the 8th of May, and trees and shrubs 

 are much farther advanced than usual at this date. The first 

 Pear-blossoms rarely open before the 5th of May. Now the 

 petals have all fallen and the fruit is quite perceptible. The 

 various varieties of the common Lilac, Syringa vulgaris, are 

 now at their best, but this is little in advance of their usual 

 season. The plant here that most deserves special mention, 

 however, is Ungnadia speciosa, the Spanish Buckeye, which is 

 now flowering here, and perhaps it has never flowered out-of- 

 doors before so far north as this. Our plant came from Texas 

 some ten years ago, and it has been killed almost to the ground 

 every year, although it started up again vigorously each spring. 

 For some reason it went through last winter without any pro- 

 tection, and is now flowering finely. The rose-colored Mowers 

 are large and handsome, opening in pairs, with two or three 

 pairs clustered together. Unlike other Buckeyes, its leaves are 

 pinnate, and the young shoots remind one of the Walnut as 

 they burst forth. It becomes a tree of considerable size in 

 some parts of Texas, and, no doubt, with some protection it 

 could be made to flower in this latitude every year. Other 

 trees and shrubs in flower which attract attention now are the 

 Paulownias, the beautiful Magnolia Fraseri, the Silver-bell 

 Tree, some of the Thorns, our native Crab, the Flowering Dog- 

 wood and its varieties. Viburnum Lantana, Xanthoceras, the 

 rare Neviusia from Alabama, Exochorda, sometimes called 

 the Pearl Bush, a near relative of the Spineas ; Rhodotypus, 

 Kerria, Spirsea Thunbergii, which is almost past its best ; 

 S. prunifolia and S. Van Houttei, which is just in flower; the 

 Tartarian Honeysuckle and some of the early-flowering Tam- 

 arisks and the hardy Azaleas. The list, however, could be 

 made twice as long. _, , , ,, . 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Median. 



Recent Publications. 



Hand-list of Conferee grown in the Royal Gardens at Keiv. 

 — Students and cultivators of coniferous trees will find this 

 hand-book a helpful guide to the plants cultivated in the 

 Royal Gardens, and a useful key to the synonymy and 

 geographical distribution of the species of this most impor- 

 tant order. Two hundred and twenty-seven species, with 

 340 varieties, belonging to thirty-seven genera, are enumer- 

 ated. In the preface, which was prepared by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, who for more than half a century has devoted 

 special attention to the study of these plants, we learn 

 somethingof the increase of knowledge with regard to them. 

 Of the Abietinese, Linnaeus, in 1753, knew but ten species, 

 all of which were included under his genus Pinus. In 

 1789, when the first edition of Alton's Horlus Kewensis 

 appeared, the number of known species had increased to 

 nineteen; in 1841 the number had increased to fifty-two, 

 and in 1866, when Parlatore published his classical mono- 

 graph of the Conifers in De Candolle's Prodromus, one 

 hundred and sixty-two species of Abietineae are described. 



Among some of the interesting plants in the old Kew 

 Pinetum is a specimen of Ginkgo biloba, introduced in 1754, 

 and originally trained against a wall like a fruit-tree. The 

 Deodar, Cedrus Deodara, was introduced in 1831. It 

 has not proved satisfactory at Kew, and has disappointed 

 the expectations formed of it, while the Mount Atlas 

 Cedar, Cedrus Atlantica, grows with great rapidity. One 

 of the most conspicuous trees in the garden is a speci- 

 men of Pinus Laricio, planted in 1825 and still in good 

 condition. 



The value and interest of the Kew collection of conifers 

 is greatly increased by the facilities afforded by the tem- 

 perate house for growing to a large size representatives of 

 genera which are not hardy in the English climate, like the 

 Araucarias, the New Zealand, Malayan and New Caledo- 

 nian species of Agathis, a genus related to Cunninghamia 

 and Araucaria, and the Tasmanian Arthrotaxis, Tetraclinis, 

 Callitris and Actinostrobus, Widringtonia Whitei, the Milanji 

 Cypress, from the mountains of eastern equatorial Africa, 

 an interesting timber-tree probably of great economic 

 value, the Fitzroyas of Tasmania and Patagonia, and sev- 

 eral others. 



Some idea of the richness of the Kew collection in hardy 

 conifers will appear in the fact that twenty-six varieties of 

 the common Picea excelsa, or Norway Spruce, are culti- 

 vated, while of the ordinary Yew no less than thirty-seven 

 garden varieties are enumerated. The arrangement of the 

 genera and the names and synonymy are those now gen- 

 erally adopted by Dr. Masters, the learned editor of The 

 Gardeners' Chronicle and the English authority on conifers. 



The value of the Hand-list, which is sold in the Royal 

 Gardens for threepence, is very greatly increased by a full 

 index of the names and synonyms of all the plants which 

 it enumerates. 



Notes. 



Professor William Saunders, Director of the Experimental 

 Farm in Ottawa, has received the degree of Doctor of Laws 

 from Queen's University for work done in ad vancingagricultural 

 science and for work of a similar character in connection with 

 the Royal Society. 



Now is the time for beginning work against the Elm beetle, 

 and all persons who have any responsibility for trees in public 

 grounds or private places should prepare at once for an active 

 campaign. The Town Improvement Association of Plainh'eld, 

 New Jersey, did a timely thing last week by inviting Mr. 

 Southwick, Entomologist of the New York Park Department, 

 to deliver a lecture, with illustrations of the most dangerous in- 

 sects and the most approved machinery for holding them in 

 check. If the people of Plainfield follow Mr. Southwick's 

 plain directions they will not be lamenting over the defolia- 

 tion of their street-trees this year. 



The early- flowering bush Honeysuckles, like Lonicera 

 Standishii and its near ally L. fragrantissima, whose odorous 



