July 15, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



289 



were so laden that the branches drooped from the weight of 

 bloom. 



The principal floral attraction of the island in June has been 

 the Rose garden. This comprises an acre of ground in the 

 form of a quadrangle, which was laid out in beds and winding 

 paths and planted with hardy and half-hardy Roses at the time of 

 the Exposition. These have been maintained, and draw thou- 

 sands of visitors during the flowering season, while the later 

 and monthly-blooming Roses keep up a succession of flowers 

 and are attractive throughout the summer. A low trellis, now 

 well covered with rambling Roses, encloses the garden, and 

 from the surrounding path it is easy to look over the hedge 

 and survey the garden and its varied colors as a whole. 



The work on the revised plan of Jackson Park has progressed 

 far enough to show how the northern end and the portion 

 between the West Lagoon and Stoney Island Avenue, which 

 forms the western boundary, will look when completed. All 

 this section is now open to the public, the drives, walks and 

 principal parts of the lawns being done, and the plantings 

 largely made. A low ridge has also been raised throughout 

 its length and parallel with the avenue. This has been planted 

 with trees and shrubs, and in time the city will be screened 

 from sight. There is now a completed driveway beginning at 

 the south-west corner and running parallel with the ridge, and 

 the lawns between the trees are substantially done. These 

 portions of the park have been the first to receive attention, 

 being the most accessible, and in part necessary to shut out 

 the view of the city. The work of the present season is made 

 plain by reference to the map of Jackson Park published in 

 Garden and Forest, May 20th, 1896, page 205. This com- 

 prises the carriage-way and walks beginning with the en- 

 trances at Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Streets, which pass south 

 of the Wooded Island and East and West Lagoons to the 

 shore of Lake Michigan, where they turn northward along the 

 paved beach till they intersect those already finished in the 

 neighborhood of the Restaurant or German building of the 

 Exposition. This carriage-way will soon be completed, and 

 the work will go on with the part lying between it and the 

 lagoons. At the present rate of work throughout the season 

 this part, taking in the sites of the Transportation, Mining, 

 Electricity, Liberal Arts and Government buildings, and some 

 outlying portions, will be mainly finished and open for public 

 use before winter. Altogether a little more than half the area 

 of the park will then be improved. 



Chicago, 111. -£•• /• -""'• 



Some American Fruit Associations. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In some ways California and Oregon fruit-growers will 

 always feel the need of better organization than do those 

 growers who are able to visit their commission men every day 

 or every week in the year. Local causes long ago led to the 

 formation of local and district unions in California. Some 

 consist of all the fruit-growers in a given valley or township 

 or county ; generally, however, those who are engaged in one 

 line of fruit-growing unite. Thus we have the Saratoga Prune- 

 raisers' Association, the Santa Paula Lemon-growers' Exchange, 

 etc. Some associations are formed exclusively for drying 

 fruit, but most of them handle the product in whatever way 

 seems at the time best. These smaller associations have now 

 trained many efficient business men fit to handle large enter- 

 prises with profit to themselves and others. Hence, we are 

 entering upon an era of very active organizations of much 

 broader scope. Mr. T. H. B. Chamblin, for instance, was 

 trained at Riverside in the difficult task of uniting the orange- 

 growers there. He has organized dozens of similar bodies 

 throughout the southern counties, and these are bound to- 

 gether by the great Southern California Fruit Exchange. At 

 this time four-fifths of the orange-growers of southern Cali- 

 fornia, embracing nearly all the growers of real standing, are 

 connected with the unions, which have proved themselves of 

 great value. 



The raisin-growers of central California, particularly of the 

 Fresno district, are now being organized on much the same 

 lines. The prune-growers of Santa Clara valley are already 

 working together. Many other classes of California fruit-pro- 

 ducers have formed associations, and in a few years more there 

 will be a State Union of much importance. The process has 

 gone further in Oregon, where problems were less complex, 

 and their Oregon Fruit Union is already cooperating with 

 Washington unions as the North-west Fruit-growers' Associa- 

 tion. All attempts to establish associations in communities 

 that are not sufficiently educated and are not ready to take up 

 the work have been entire failures. Strong and active unions 



are in existence elsewhere, notably in New York, as the 

 Chautauqua Grape-growers' and Shipping Association ; also in 

 Georgia, in Missouri and in Illinois, in Michigan, and, in fact, in 

 nearly all the great fruit-producing districts of the United 

 States and Canada. 



Last month, in response to a call, delegates from nearly all 

 the fruit unions in America met in Chicago, May 20th, 1896, 

 and organized the American Fruit-growers' Union, adopted 

 laws, elected an Executive Board and other officers and 

 opened general offices. The delegates present reported that 

 they controlled more than 50,000 car-loads of fruit. 



There are, of course, several ways to handle fruit. It may 

 be sold by the grower for spot cash, or on time to some local 

 agent or commission house ; it may be consigned for sale to 

 some dealer or association ; it may reach the consumer, 

 through the open auction-houses or through closed auctions — 

 that is, at auctions where only dealers can offer bids. I am 

 not advocating, in these brief historical notes, any one way as 

 always best for the grower, but I am certainly bound to record 

 my own impressions, which are that the more intelligent and 

 enterprising fruit-growing communities are becoming coop- 

 erative and aim to control their crops until those crops are sold. 



Leading men of the unions tell me that it is not the intention 

 to revolutionize present methods of fruit shipment, nor is it 

 their object to work in any other way than in complete har- 

 mony with reputable commission and fruit-jobbing houses. 

 They endeavor to adopt, modify and improve the present sys- 

 tems, to protect the markets, to ascertain which are reliable 

 houses, to act as general receivers of fruit and distribute it 

 wherever it is needed, and, in brief, to simplify the whole sys- 

 tem, reducing expenses all along the line. It seems certain 

 that organization of this kind, if honest and intelligent, must 

 benefit both producer and consumer, must prevent waste and 

 loss, must enable small growers, by combination, to deal on 

 better terms with transportation companies, auction-houses and 

 large buying firms. Commission-houses who buy f. o. b., ami 

 then refuse to accept the car-load, under false pretenses, be- 

 cause the market has meanwhile dropped, are not able to do 

 this with a strong state or national union employing an able 

 lawyer and ready to protect every one of their shippers. On 

 the other hand, the shippers themselves, if in fault, will be 

 taught better methods of grading and packing, and brought up 

 to the standards of the various associations and to the changing 

 requirements of the markets. 



The management of successful local unions is extremely 

 business-like and economical. Salaries are not large, ex- 

 penses are kept down, the tax of a cent or less a box which is 

 levied upon fruit passing through their hands is all accounted 

 for, and any surplus credited back; the members get all the 

 dividends. This American Fruit-growers' Union proposes to 

 take, as a maximum, one dollar a ton for its services and ex- 

 penses, and it expects to save members a good deal more than 

 this amount by contracts which reduce commissions of middle- 

 men and by systematizing distribution. 



One of the most suggestive features of all cooperation is its 

 promise of closer human alliances. The fruit-growers become 

 business men and women, which is excellent ; they learn how 

 to help each other, which is even better. In one place I know 

 of there are only three fruit-growers out of, perhaps, two hun- 

 dred who have not learned this lesson of cooperation. These 

 three claim that they make as much, or even more, by staying 

 out ; they also receive a benefit from the unions, which have 

 increased the profits of all growers. 

 Niles, Calif. Charles H. Shunt. 



Recent Publications. 



No. 8 of the third volume of the Contributions 0/ the 

 United States National Herbarium is devoted to the Flora of 

 the Black Hills of Southern Dakota by P. A. Rydberg. The 

 region is one of special interest geographically as the meeting 

 place of several different floras, those from the east, from 

 the Saskatchewan, from the prairies and table-lands west of 

 the Missouri River, and from the Rocky Mountains, min- 

 gling' here. "In the foothills and the lower parts of the hills 

 proper the flora," Mr. Rydberg tells us, "is essentially the 

 same as that of the surrounding plains, with an addition of 

 eastern plants which have ascended the .streams. In the 

 higher parts the flora is of more northern origin. Most of 

 the plants composing it are of a more or less transconti- 

 nental distribution, but often characteristic of a higher lati- 

 tude. Some can be said to belong to the Rocky Mountain 



