250 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 434. 



increase the interest in the same and lead to further efforts 

 in similar directions. 



Forestry Division, Washington, D. C. 



B. E. Fernoiv. 



Notes. 



On St. Mary's, one of the Scilly islands, whose flower-farms 

 furnish the supplies for the London market, it is reported that 

 900,000 Narcissus bulbs alone were planted this year. St. 

 Marv's is but nine miles in circumference. 



A correspondent of the London Garden speaks of the beauty 

 of a mass of Rhododendron Vaseyi which was flowering in the 

 Azalea garden at Kew. When it is remembered that this plant 

 was discovered only ten years ago the record that it has already 

 made on both continents as a good shrub is quite remarkable. 

 There is reason to hope that by hybridizing it with other spe- 

 cies a new race of early-flowering Azaleas will be established. 



A preliminary meeting of citizens of New York interested in 

 tree-planting in the residence portions of the city was held 

 May 22d, and it was proposed to regularly organize the asso- 

 ciation and elect officers on Thursday, June 25th, at 3.30 P. M., 

 in the rooms of the Wool Club. Mayor Strong has consented 

 to the use of his name for President, and many well-known 

 citizens have signified their intention to become members. The 

 annual dues of the society will not exceed $5 00, and the receipts 

 will be used to publish pamphlets and in disseminating in- 

 formation to the public on the best methods of planting shade- 

 trees on streets, the best sorts for this purpose, etc. Applica- 

 tion for membership may be made to Cornelius B. Mitchell, 

 64 and 66 White Street, this city. 



Peppers, eggplants and muskmelons, grown under glass by 

 students in the Department of Horticult'ire, Cornell University, 

 were on sale in New York last Saturday, along with the same 

 vegetables grown in the open in southern states. The peppers 

 were extra-large, firm and crisp, and brought seventy-five 

 cents a dozen, those from Florida and Louisiana realizing 

 twenty-five to fifty cents. The melons, while small, were of 

 good substance and excellent flavor, and commanded forty to 

 fifty cents, those from the south bringing fifteen to thirty-five 

 cents each. Owing to the continuous supply of southern egg- 

 plants during the winter and spring, their abundance during 

 the past fortnight, and the consequent lack of novelty, the egg- 

 plants found almost no demand ; those from Florida cost ten 

 to twenty cents each. 



Seven hundred and seventy-five members have already 

 enrolled themselves in the Audubon Society established a few 

 weeks ago in Boston and already commended in these 

 columns. The object of the society is to preserve our native 

 birds by discouraging the use of their feathers in personal 

 decoration. Among; the vice-presidents of the society are the 

 senior Senator of Massachusetts, the President of the Massa- 

 chusetts Historical Society, the President of the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, and many other well-known 

 citizens and a numberof women distinguished for their artistic 

 and social attainments. Any one can become a member of 

 the society by agreeing not to purchase or wear the feathers 

 of wild birds and paying $1.00. The Secretary, to whom all 

 communications should be addressed, is Miss Harriet E. Rich- 

 ards, Boston Society of Natural History, Boston. There are 

 no annual dues. 



At the meeting of the General Federation of Women's Clubs 

 recently held in Louisville, Kentucky, the following resolution 

 was adopted: Resolved, that whereas there is nothing of more 

 paramount importance to the welfare of state and nation than 

 the preservation and economic development of our national 

 resources, and whereas it is everywhere apparent that the 

 wicked and wasteful destruction of our forest cover is a direct 

 robbery of these resources and should be checked by every 

 measure both of private endeavor and of legislative enact- 

 ment, and whereas it is self-evident that if these threatening 

 conditions are realized and public sentiment aroused an incal- 

 culable benefit would be conferred on our entire nation, be it 

 resolved that, as federations of women's clubs and as indi- 

 vidual clubs, as far as possible we pledge ourselves to take up 

 the study of forest conditions and resources and to further the 

 highest interests of our several states in these respects. This 

 measure, presented by members whose intelligent inlerestand 

 energy have already definitely furthered forestry work in sev- 

 eral states, was ordered printed and circulated among the 1,500 

 clubs in the Federation in the United States, and it is pro- 

 posed to follow up this beginning with pamphlets and lectures. 



The market for string-beans last week is said to have been 

 the poorest of any in the experience of produce dealers in this 

 city. The enormous quantity of nearly 65,000 packages was 

 received, many of which were barrels. The remarkably low 

 price of thirty to fifty cents a barrel prevailed on Monday, and 

 with stock coming in faster than it could be disposed of from 

 North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey, 

 any offer sufficient to cover the cost of freight was accepted 

 later in the week. Twenty to twenty-five cents became the 

 rate for Norfolk shipments, and those from North and South 

 Carolina, less fresh, owing to the longer journey, brought but 

 ten to fifteen cents a barrel, not enough to make good the cost 

 of transportation. Many thousands of barrels were placed in 

 cold storage, but the experiment is hardly likely to prove profit- 

 able, as on the first indication of better prices fresh stock 

 will be hurried in from Maryland and New Jersey fields. There 

 is also a surplus of cabbages, cucumbers, tomatoes and other 

 vegetables. This condition is caused by the prolonged drought 

 in the south and consequent delay in the maturing of crops, 

 so that the southern produce is now coming in at the same 

 time with vegetables from near-by states. On last Friday 

 15,000 bushels of cucumbers reached this city, and these sold 

 for forty to seventy-five cents a bushel. On the same day 7,000 

 bushels of tomatoes were received, which realized but seventy- 

 five cents a bushel at wholesale. 



Red currants, from Maryland, on Saturday sold for fifteen 

 cents a pound, and raspberries, also the first of the season, 

 brought ten cents for a pint of the black fruit and fifteen cents 

 for a cup holding a third of a quart of the more delicate red 

 berries. Huckleberries, from North Carolina, have been quite 

 plentiful, and so have blackberries from thesamestate and from 

 Maryland and Delaware, costing eighteen cents a quart. Straw- 

 berries from Maryland and Delaware are becoming scarce, and 

 some of the best varieties from New Jersey, like the Gandys, 

 have passed out of season. The dry weather in April and 

 early May caused short crops in this slate, and most of 

 the berries are small. Some fancy strawberries from Hilton 

 and Irvington-on-the-Hudson were in special demand last 

 Saturday. They were extremely large, of rich color and 

 lustre, and with choice specimens of the variety known 

 as Mary, from Essex County, New Jersey, brought sixty-five 

 to seventy-five cents a quart. Prices ranged from fifteen to 

 twenty cents for small, ordinary fruit, twenty-five to thirty 

 cents being an average price for good fruit. Supplies have 

 beencomingfrom western New York in small lots until last Sat- 

 urday, when the refrigerator-car service began, insuring a fair 

 supply for this week. Watermelons, from Georgia, are already 

 plentiful and cheap enough to be common on fruit-stands 

 and in greengrocery stores in the poorer sections of the 

 city, anu the largest selected melons can be bought for 

 forty to fifty cents. Thirty car-loads arrived here during last 

 week. 



We have spoken before of the damage the extreme cold 

 weather in western New York last winter did to fruits. A cor- 

 respondent of The Agriculturist, writing from Genesee County, 

 where there are tens of thousands of trees of the Duchess 

 Pear, says that most of the oider dwarf trees escaped with little 

 injury, though many were killed. They flowered, but the 

 bloom was sickly and the pears failed to set. The foliage is 

 now withering and adventitious buds have started out on the 

 large limbs and trunks until they are in some cases almost 

 covered with leaves. Within a year or two past many of these 

 old Duchess trees have been grafted with Clairgeau, which is 

 less liable to disease, but probably seventy-five per cent, of the 

 grafted trees are killed to within two or three inches of the 

 ground. Trees of Bartlett, Howell, Anjou and Seckel show 

 healthy foliage, but are carrying no crop. They have proved 

 their ability, at least, to endure cold that kills the Duchess and 

 Clairgeau. From a half to two-thirds of the Peach-trees of all 

 varieties are dead. Green Gage and German Prunes show a 

 few blossoms, the other varieties not one, while on Coe's 

 Golden Drop, Bavay, and even the old Damson, much of the 

 wood is killed. Half of the trees of the sweet varieties of 

 Cherries are already dead. The old sour Morello bloomed 

 and a small crop set. Among the Grapes, the inferior Clinton 

 is unhurt. Worden, Cottage and Martha are very little injured, 

 while Duchess, Prentiss, Jefferson and Victoria seem dead to 

 the root. A vine of the Lindley, which seems to have been one 

 of the writer's favorites, was destroyed, with the exception of 

 one branch which lay on a roof and was covered with snow. 

 This is now making new wood. Altogether, this shows that 

 fruit which will endure climates where the mercury often falls 

 to ten, and occasionally to fifteen degrees below zero, cannot 

 endure such a degree of cold as thirty degrees below. 



