240 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 433. 



art of the gardener, and leads him to the realization of the 

 next proposition of the text, "the purest of human pleasures." 

 I look upon gardening- as one of the tine arts, and, rightly 

 understood, not one of the least difficult. The painter or the 

 sculptor makes his effects at once, and obliterates, or models 

 and remodels, until he has attained that at which he is aiming. 

 But the gardener has to consider, not what his work is now, 

 but what it will grow into ten, twenty, fifty years hence. He 

 has to take into account, not the present aspect of his mate- 

 rials, but what are their capabilities in the future and their 

 relative powers of development. If he has a background 

 ready made to his hand he is lucky, but if he has to make it he 

 has to do so with trees which are mostly far slower of growth 

 than the more immediately effective plants which it is their 

 office to set off. He has to balance questions of soil, light, 

 moisture. All this involves not only the poetic sense, but also 

 great and patiently acquired knowledge. He has no Alladin's 

 lamp wherewith to bid trees spring from the earth and form a 

 sheltering background, yet background is the soul of all gar- 

 dening, rarely, alas! seen at its best by him who has devised 

 it. If the background be unfitting all the work is thrown 

 away. Color, form, light and shade, grouping, all have to be 

 studied in the composition of one of those living pictures 

 which the gardener paints with living materials. 



Notes. 



An examination of trained and experienced gardeners for 

 positions in the New York Park Department will be held on 

 Friday, June 12th, by the New York City Civil Service Boards. 

 Application blanks may be had at the office of the Board in the 

 new Criminal Court Building. 



The people of New York city have again shown their appre- 

 ciation of open spaces in the general protest against the plan 

 to build a public bath-house in Tompkins Square, and a de- 

 tached section of the recently condemned blocks at Division, 

 Suffolk and Hester Streets has been set aside for the building 

 which would have destroyed the park-like character of Tomp- 

 kins Square. 



From September 1st, 1894, to August 31st, 1895, Sicily sent 

 to the various ports of the United States 2,047,000 boxes of 

 lemons. From September 1st, 1895, to May 31st, i896,_the 

 receipts were 2,057,000 boxes, or 10,000 boxes more for nine 

 months than for the entire previous year. During the same 

 nine months 678,000 boxes and 156,000 cases of Mediterranean 

 oranges were imported, probably 200,000 boxes less for this 

 year than for the twelve months ending August 31st, 1895. 



The New York Florists' Club and New York Gardeners' 

 Society announce a flower show, to be held at the Newsboys' 

 Home, on Duane Street, this city, June 20th. The exhibits 

 will practically be contributions, since they will be distributed 

 among some 20,000 children after the show. Many commer- 

 cial growers have arranged to exhibit bedding plants, bulbs 

 and seeds, and persons who do not care to enter into compe- 

 tition are invited to send plants and cut flowers for distribu- 

 tion. Schedules of classes of exhibits and other information 

 may be obtained from James I. Donlan, Secretary Exhibition 

 Committee, 51 West Twenty-eighth Street, New York city. 

 The express companies have generously agreed to carry the 

 exhibits and contributions free of charge. 



At the recent meeting of the New Jersey Forestry Associa- 

 tion, Mr. Fernow called attention to the fact that this state was 

 once well wooded everywhere. If at that time the virgin tim- 

 ber on such soils as were not fit to be made into farming-land 

 had been cut with care and systematically, and the fires kept 

 out, it would produce now and continue to produce forever 

 an income of not less than $5,000,000 to $to 000,000 annually, 

 giving employment to a large number of people. Now, 

 through the mismanagement of former years, the 2,500,000 

 acres of land unfit for anything but wood crops do not yield 

 $1,000,000 ot values, or less than one-tenth of what they would 

 yield under management. Few persons realize what the wood 

 crops mean in the economy of a nation. 



Hemerocallis flava, or, as sometimes called, the yellow Day 

 Lily, is still opening its pure colored flowers, and when seen 

 near a group of white Pasonies, or among the gray-blue and 

 purple varieties of the German Irises.no combination can be 

 more beautiful. This is an old plant, but one of the most useful 

 in the herbaceous border. All it wants is room, tood and sun- 

 shine to make a magnificent display. The individual lily-like 

 flowers last but a single day, but the buds will open in water, 

 so that a single stalk will last a long time. A large vase filled 

 with a mass of these long-stemmed flowers makes a really 



imposing display. Almost as good in color and form, and 

 flowering a month or so later, is II. Thunbergii, which is less 

 common, but quite as desirable. Thereare several other spe- 

 cies in cultivation of varying merit, but all are good. 



From fifty to a hundred car-loads of strawberries are 

 shipped every day from Hammonton, New Jersey, and as 

 raspberries and blackberries come into market the output will 

 be still greater. It was formerly the practice of the berry- 

 farmers in southern New Jersey to send their fruit to commis- 

 sion men individually, but under that system berries often 

 came into Philadelphia, the nearest market, when it was prac- 

 tically full, so that whole car-loads were olten dumped into 

 the Delaware River because there was no demand for them. 

 In later years, however, a cooperative union has been formed 

 here as well as in many of the other districts where small 

 fruits and orchard fruits ae grown, and all the product goes 

 through this organization. These unions keep in communi- 

 cation with all the markets of the country, and they are 

 prepared to ship the fruit where it is in most demand, so that 

 hundreds of crates are sent from New Jersey as far west as 

 Chicago, and, indeed, the largest profits are often realized from 

 these long shipments. Philadelphia is so largely supplied by 

 berry-fields close at hand that shipments to New York, and 

 even to Boston, from Hammonton are large in comparison 

 with those to the nearest important city. 



Peas from Long Island sell for thirty-five cents a half-peck. 

 Asparagus, from New Jersey and other near-by points, costs 

 twenty to thirty cents a bunch, and cauliflower from the same 

 sections fifteen to twenty-five cents a head. New beets, car- 

 rots and turnips from this state maybe had for five cents a 

 bunch. Squashes from South Carolina cost ten cents each, 

 and cucumbers from the same state are plentiful and com- 

 mand but thirty-five cents a dozen. String beans from Vir- 

 ginia sell for thirty-five cents a half-peck, and sweet potatoes 

 or yams, from Florida, at the same rate, the Vineland supply 

 being, of course, exhausted. Celery, from Florida, is suc- 

 ceeding the northern and western crops, and costs twenty 

 cents a single stalk. Okra at ten cents a dozen, and eggplants at 

 twenty-five cents each, come from Louisiana, and tomatoes 

 from Florida and Mississippi. The latter cost fifteen cents a 

 pound, the hot-house product selling for double that price. 

 The best Bermuda potatoes bring thirty-five cents a half-peck, 

 and onions from the same islands cost ten cents a quart. The 

 largest cargo of Bermuda onions received this season arrived 

 last week, when the steamer Trinidad discharged 40,000 crates, 

 and 32,000 crates were due by the steamer Muriel on Monday 

 of this week. 



Nine car-loads of California fruits were sold in- this city last 

 week, mostly cherries. The variety Royal Ann, known also 

 as Napoleon Bigarreau, brought the highest prices, and other 

 well-known sorts were the white-fleshed Cleveland Bigarreau, 

 sweet and of rich flavor ; the handsome amber-colored Rock- 

 port Bigarreau, with red markings ; Centennial, beautifully 

 marbled and splashed with crimson on a pale yellow ground ; 

 the favorite dark cherry, Black Tartarian ; the somewhat later 

 Black Republican, the excellent English variety, Black Eagle, 

 and May Duke, Queen Victoria, Purity and Governor Wood. 

 Apricots of good size and coloring now in our markets are the 

 French variety Royal, perhaps the most popular apricot in 

 California. The large, slightly oval fruit has a dull yellow skin 

 and orange cheek tinged with red. The stone is free, and the 

 firm juicy flesh has a vinous flavor. The Newcastle, more 

 brilliant in color, is also seen, and the small Pringle, valuable 

 mainly for its extreme earliness. Alexander peaches are 

 coming from California, large and attractive, and Clyman 

 plums, mottled reddish purple, with beautiful blue bloom. 

 During last week 119,700 bunches of bananas were sold at the 

 wholesale auctions in this city. Blackberries, huckleberries, 

 cherries, peaches, plums, apricots, muskmelons and water- 

 melons make an attractive display on the fruit-stands. The 

 showiest strawberries seen here in several years are immense 

 specimens of the variety Mary, from Essex County, New 

 Jersey, and a new seedling from Virginia. The former is of a 

 deep rich color, fairly regular in size, the largest measuring 

 six inches around at the stem end. Twenty ot the fruits fill a 

 quart box, and these sold on Monday at thirty cenls. The 

 seedling from Virginia was equally large, perhaps less even in 

 form, lighter and more brilliant in color and less firm. Great 

 American is another beautiful berry now in season, large, 

 remarkably even and regular in form and a rich color. These 

 berries sold for twenty cents a quart. Peaches are now coming 

 from Georgia and Florida, the latter state sending the best 

 which have ever come from that region. These sell at $1.00 

 for a box containing twenty-five fruits. 



