3io 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 440. 



ance with the latest researches, so that the teachings of the 

 book can be trusted as sound. 



A thoroughly successful text-book on agriculture, for the 

 use of public schools, is not an easy work to produce, for 

 its author needs much more than a knowledge of the sub- 

 ject. The facts should be presented to young minds in 

 such a way as to arrest attention and make their journey 

 through these new fields attractive at every step. It would 

 seem that pictures and an abundance of illustrative exam- 

 ples are features which could not be dispensed with. 

 Abstract statements are dry to young people when concrete 

 examples may be full of life. Mr. Voorhees is going over 

 ground where comparatively few authors have trodden, 

 and he has not many examples for his warning or profit. 

 No doubt, experience will show where this book can be 

 improved, and when one better adapted to its purpose ap- 

 pears it will probably differ from this one not so much in the 

 range of subjects treated as it will in a more vivacious and 

 pointed way of stating facts and greater care in leading up 

 to them by natural and easy stages. 



Notes. 



The apple export trade has already begun, and on last Sat- 

 urday a shipment of Summer Queens and Alexanders was 

 made from this city to Liverpool. 



Black Republican and Royal Ann cherries are still coming 

 from Oregon, but there is little demand for this fruit now, 

 when it is no longer at its best, and when eastern fruits are 

 abundant and in large variety. 



The pineapple season is now nearly closed, 2,500 barrels 

 having arrived from Havana last week and about 400 barrels 

 during the early part of this week. Small supplies of this fruit 

 will continue to come from Florida during this month and 

 August. 



The sale of the first car-load shipments of California fruits to 

 England this season occurred at Covent Garden, London, last 

 Friday. In the absence of French fruit good prices were anti- 

 cipated, but, although the California fruit was in sound condi- 

 tion, it was not of the requisite quality to command the highest 

 prices. Not a few of the Bartlett pears in 3,800 half-boxes 

 comprised in the shipment were small, and prices ranged 

 from eighty-seven cents to $2.62, while plums realized $1.87 a 

 crate. Prices in this city last week ranged from seventy-five 

 cents to $2.10 for Bartlett pears and from sixty-five cents to 

 $2.15 for plums. 



The pomologist of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture writes to Meehans' Monthly that the true name of the 

 apple Rawles' Janet is Ralls' Genet. The apple was said to 

 have been named for Monsieur Genet, the Minister of the 

 French Government to this country during Washington's 

 Administration. Monsieur Genet had apples of this kind sent 

 from France for his own use, and Mr. Jefferson so admired 

 them that he procured scions and gave them to Caleb Ralls, a 

 nurseryman of Virginia, for propagation, who introduced the 

 tree under the name of Genet. The apple has also been called 

 the Jefferson Pippin, which authenticates in a measure the fact 

 that Jefferson was connected with its introduction. 



In Belgium, and in some other parts of Europe, the young 

 shoots of the Hop-vine are cooked and served in the same 

 way as asparagus. The shoots used for this purpose are 

 blanched while passing through a mass of leaves or litter with 

 which the stock is covered when they are to be used in this 

 way. It is said that Hop-shoots have been used as a vegetable 

 in England, although they have never been utilized as an arti- 

 cle of commerce as they are in the Low Countries. There is 

 nothing new about this, for, as a writer in Tin- Gardeners' 

 Magazine reminds us, Gerard speaks of the practice in his 

 Herball, published three hundred years ago. We are not aware 

 that hops have ever been used in this way in America, and we 

 should hardly expect them to compete successfully with 

 asparagus. 



In reply to many inquiries addressed to the Cornell Experi- 

 ment Station, Mr. E. G. Lodeman has collected as much as 

 possible of the scattered experience of those who have grown 

 dwarf Apples. The fact is, however, that these trees have 

 been so sparingly and so carelessly grown that very little defi- 

 nite evidence of any value has been obtained. It is probably 



true that apples on dwarf trees are handsomer and of a better 

 quality than those grown on standards, so that the dwarf trees 

 may, perhaps, be profitably used for growing varieties for 

 fancy or dessert use. Such trees can be easily sprayed and 

 the fruit can be easily thinned. Paradise stock is evidently the 

 best to use, but Mr. Lodeman concludes that he cannot advise 

 the planting of dwarf Apple-trees for any commercial reward. 

 Experiments with these trees are worth making even for this 

 purpose, and they certainly are for other purposes. 



The so-called late blight has been very destructive to Pota- 

 toes for some years in many parts ot New England, but 

 Bulletin 38, issued by the Rhode Island Experiment Station, 

 declares that it can be kept in control by the proper use of 

 Bordeaux mixture. It does not seem to be necessary to treat 

 the plants before the outbreak of the blight, whose presence 

 can be recognized easily by the sudden blackening of large 

 patches on the mature leaves and the peculiar Odor given off 

 by the decaying tissue. When the blight appears the plants 

 must be promptly treated, however, and all their parts thor- 

 oughly covered with a film of the mixture in order to save 

 them. The coating can be seen after the leaves have dried 

 off, and if it is found imperfect the machinery and method 

 should be inspected, changed if necessary, and the operation 

 repeated until the job is well done. Spots of the liquid upon 

 scattering leaves may do a little good, but spraying all the 

 plants completely is the only assured safety. 



- In his report on the flora of Wyoming, Professor Aven 

 Nelson remarks that the power to withstand frost which has 

 been so remarkably developed in mountain floras is an un- 

 ceasing cause of wonder, and the great beds of Phlox, Mer- 

 tensia, Gilia, Actinella and other plants which he saw blooming 

 treely when the night temperature fell to from five to twenty 

 degrees below the freezing-point, suggested questions which 

 are difficult to answer. Protessor Nelson thinks that reduced 

 atmospheric pressure plays an important part in preventing 

 injury to plants, for the same species at lower altitudes would 

 certainly perish in such cold. As an illustration of this he 

 states that late in August, 1890, he noted a plot of Potatoes in 

 full blossom at an elevation ot some 9,000 feet. For three suc- 

 cessive days he watched these plants, which then showed no 

 trace of injury, although every night there were heavy frosts 

 and ice formed in exposed water-pails. Such a degree of 

 cold would, of course, have killed Potato plants, growing at 

 the sea-level. 



In Paris, where wood has been, to a large extent, substituted 

 for asphalt and other paving material, southern pine is very 

 largely used for blocks. These are laid on a concrete founda- 

 tion, and, as is well known, the streets are less noisy and the 

 pavement is considered more durable than any other. It would 

 seem that if yellow pine pavement is the best for Paris, where 

 public works are constructed with a view to the greatest 

 economy, combined with utility, the same material could be 

 used in America, especially in our southern cities. Experi- 

 ments with wood pavement in New York and Chicago have 

 been discouraging, but it may be that the fault was as much 

 in the construction as in the material. In a climate where the 

 ground freezes to the depth of three or four feet the founda- 

 tion of the road would be unsettled to a degree unknown in 

 London or Paris, and this upheaving may suffice alone to 

 account not only for the stability of roadways, but of walls in 

 England which endure for centuries, while they crumble and 

 tumble here when only a few years old. 



It is claimed by some persons that Cottons grown in India 

 and Egypt are superior to the ordinary varieties grown in the 

 south, and owing to the increasing importation of the staple 

 into this country the experiment stations have been cultivat- 

 ing several varieties of Cotton from India and Egypt in order 

 to compare their properties with our native forms. Of course, 

 nothing definite can be determined about these plants until 

 they have become acclimated by some years of careful culti- 

 vation. At Auburn, Alabama, experiments have been made in 

 naturalizing these plants with the effort to secure the best 

 results, so tar as the health of the plant is concerned, that the 

 soil and climate will permit, and cross-fertilization was then 

 tried in order to unite the best properties of the foreign Cot- 

 tons with those of the superior grades of American varieties 

 to produce an exceptionally good plant. Last year several 

 hundred crosses were made between American and foreign 

 species, and from the seeds gathered the station has been 

 quite successful in growing these cross-bred plants. Of course, 

 it is too early to pronounce with definiteness the final results 

 of these trials, but they will be watched with interest. 



