420 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 451. 



tiful when closely examined, although they make little show at 

 a distance. This Tricyrtis, or Toad Lily, as it is sometimes 

 called, is perfectly hardy, and it likes rich soil and partial shade. 



Mrs. Wilhelmina Seliger writes in the Hartford Times that if 

 the berries of the Mountain Ash are dried they will keep well all 

 winter and make a very good variation in the diet of pigeons 

 and domestic fowls of all sorts. Poultry are very fond of them. 



Frosts are shortening near-by supplies of the more tender 

 vegetables, and peas and string-beans are already coming 

 from Virginia and South Carolina to supplement northern crops. 

 Field mushrooms from western Pennsylvania sold on Monday 

 for filty cents a pound, and the cultivated product, of more 

 compact substance, tor $1.15. 



Campbell's Early Grape receives nothing but commendation, 

 so far as we know, from all who have tried it in widely dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. Its good qualities seem to be 

 hardiness of vine, healthiness of leaf, large bunches and good- 

 sized individual berries with a thin but very tenacious skin, 

 which helps them to endure transportation well. 



Professor Halsted writes, in relation to the Asparagus rust 

 of which we spoke on page 394, that from the replies elicited 

 by his circular this disease is probably contined to a tew locali- 

 ties, although future reporls may show that it is doing damage 

 on a wider scale. It is worth while tor observers to make a 

 careful examination of Asparagus beds in every section of 

 country to see whether or not they are infested. In any case, it is 

 important to burn over every infected field before this destruc- 

 tive disease is more widely disseminated. 



The last number of The Southern Farmer publishes an illus- 

 tration of a dewberry which is called Austin's Improved. It 

 is certainly ot the largest size, and is said to be not only very 

 prolific, but of the most tempting flavor. The berries seem 

 three times as large as a specimen ot the Early Harvest black- 

 berry, which is photographed on the same plate, and it may 

 readily be believed that the blackberry is ot the average size, 

 if the statement is correct that htty-three of these berries 

 quite filled a quart box. The berries were grown at Pilot Point, 

 Texas, by J. W. Austin, and we should like to have them tried 

 in a more northern latitude. 



Mr. Charles H. Shinn writes to The Independent that a large 

 beet-sugar factory has just been established at Salinas, Cali- 

 fornia, and some thirty thousand acres ot land there will be 

 devoted to this crop. There are three other factories in the 

 state, two ot them very large, and the land devoted to beels in 

 thirty or forty acre tracts last year is said to have yielded farm- 

 ers about $40 an acre proht. There are large areas ot land in 

 California which have been mapped out by the agriculmral 

 department ot the university ot that state as profitable tor beet 

 culture, and the advantages offered tor this industry in Califor- 

 nia are principally a long working season and a high sugar 

 percentage in the roots. Fuel, however, is not cheap, and water 

 is not always abundant. It California is to produce enough 

 beet sugar to supply the piesent demand ot the United States, 

 it will require 1,840,000 acres ot land to turnish beets tor 460 

 factories, each with a working capacity ot 350 tons of roots a 

 day tor the season, and, directly and indirectly, employment 

 would be given to halt a million persons. 



As illustrating changes of vegetation, Mr. Hemsley, in 

 Knowledge, reters to the rugged island ot St. Helena, with its 

 area ot 36,000 acres, rising 3,000 feet above the Atlantic, at a 

 distance ot 1,000 miles trom Atnca and nearly 2,000 trom the 

 nearest point ot the American continent. When discovered it 

 was entirely clothed with forests, but the hogs and goats which 

 were left on the island to provide lood tor chance visitors mul- 

 tiplied to such an extent that tney destroyed the vegetation, or, 

 at least, prevented the seedlings trom growing. The island 

 was not botanized until the beginning ot the present century, 

 when some ot the native plants had probably disappeared 

 already, and in 1875 an account of the flora showed that less 

 than half a dozen ot the sixty-five known species ot indigenous 

 flowering plants and Ferns collected at the beginning of the 

 century were actually exunct, but, with the exception of a few 

 scattered individuals, the remains ot the original flora were 

 high up on the central and inaccessible mountain ridges of the 

 island. Ot trees which once covered hundreds of acres only a 

 few individuals, and in some cases only a single example, 

 remained. Large areas once covered with vegetation were 

 bare, since the rains had washed the soil from the rocks. 

 Other parts had been completely possessed by introduced 

 plants trom various parts ot the world, among them many 

 British species, the common Furze being the most abundant 

 shrub. Among the trees the British Oak was the most thor- 



oughly naturalized, growing to a great size and producing 

 acorns in profusion, and the Scotch Fir and other conifers had 

 been planted to the extent of two hundred acres, so that the 

 whole surface of the island has been completely altered, and 

 many of the original plants will soon be extinct because they 

 succeed nowhere else in a wild state, and in cultivation they 

 are difficult to preserve. 



Not even excepting apples, no fruit is at present seen in our 

 markets in so large variety as grapes. Five-pound baskets of 

 large-berried Concords cost but fifteen cents, while twenty 

 cents is the price for the same quantity of Delawares and 

 Catawbas, and Niagaras command twenty-five cents. Of 

 thirty-six car-loads ot California fruit sold here during last week 

 the greater part was Muscat, Black Morocco, Black Prince, 

 Cornichon and Flame Tokay grapes ; these sell for from sixty 

 to seventy-five cents a basket. Almeria grapes, the first of the 

 season having been offered last week, cost twenty cents a 

 pound. GrosColman and Muscat grapes, grown in hot-houses 

 in this country, sell for $1.25, and the handsomer fruit of the 

 same varieties, trom England, fur $1.75 a pound. Selected 

 Jamaica oranges retail tor thirty to sixty cents a dozen, medium- 

 sized grape-fruit for $1.00, and handsome smooth-skinned 

 limes, as large as a medium-sized lemon, are seen in the best 

 fruit-stores, tor twenty-five cents a dozen, ordinary small ones 

 costing ten cents. A few large shaddocks recently came trom 

 the West Indies, but there is little demand tor this pmk-fleshed 

 fruit, which, though juicy, is lacking in flavor. Tangerines, 

 from the same islands, cost seventy-rive cents a dozen. The 

 last Bartleit pears, firm and well-colored, bring titty cents to 

 $1.00 a dozen, and Cornice pears from seventy-five cents to 

 $1.50 a dozen, according to size and quality. Baskets ot Mary- 

 land peaches holding thirty fruits may yet he had tor $1.00, the 

 same price asked tor somewhat smaller baskets ot Salway 

 peaches trom California. Exira-large specimens of this west- 

 ern fruit find buyers at seventy-five cents and $1.00 a dozen. 

 Spanish melons cost twenty-five to forty cents each ; persim- 

 mons, from Florida, fitly cents to $1.00 a dozen ; prickly pears, 

 from Italy, filty cents a dozen. The Chinese Lychee nuts cost 

 twenty-five cents a pound. Plump, fair-sized chestnuts from 

 New Jersey, bright and of rich color, sell tor twenty-rive cents 

 a pound, and very large cultivated nuts from the same state 

 tor titty cents a quart. 



A correspondent of The Country Gentleman explains how 

 any one who lives in a village or city where a sunny space 

 three feet square is available can have fresh strawberries ot 

 first-rate qualuy in their season. The outside ot a strongly- 

 bound barrel is marked into tour-inch squares, an inch hole is 

 bored in the centre ot every alternate square corresponding to 

 the black squares in a checkerboard. Well-enriched garden 

 soil is placed in the barrel to the level of the first row ot holes, 

 and then Strawberry plants are inserted through the holes, 

 with the roots rather higher than the stems to allowtor settling, 

 when more soil is put 111 and firmly packed. This layer is then 

 sprinkled wilh water and the process is continued until the 

 barrel is filled with soil and a plant is set in each hole. An 

 ordinary linseed oil barrel will contain about 135 plants. The 

 barrel should be set on a box, or something to utt it above the 

 ground, so that the foliage can be sprinkled occasionally and 

 insects kept trom the berries. The barrel is covered to pre- 

 vent the escape ot moisture, and in watering the plants a few 

 holes are made through the soil with a stick and water or 

 liquid-manure is poured in as the plants need it. They can be 

 set in spring, or it this is done as late as August a fair crop will 

 be borne the nexl year, and this will be repealed tour or five years 

 without renewal. Three or four bushels to a barrel is an ave- 

 rage crop of berries, and five bushels is the maximum, although 

 the yield depends on the variety and management. In winter 

 in localities where there is a low temperature a light covenng 

 of straw should be thrown over the barrel. Sharpless and 

 Crescent — that is, a combination, of pistillate and bisexual 

 plants — do well, and so do Bu bach and Marshall, and other varie- 

 ties will undoubtedly flourish. The berries will do fairly well 

 in partial shade, although, of course, a sunny place is prefer- 

 able. Since no runners will grow, the strength of the plant 

 goes more directly to the fruit, and clean berries are secured 

 without any trouble of cultivation or weeding. The Straw- 

 berry barrel is highly ornamental at any season, and particu- 

 larly so when the plants are in bloom and in fruit. We have 

 never seen this tried, although we have often heard of it and 

 should like to have the result ot some one's experience. It is. 

 said that some nurserymen have been selling barrels turnished 

 with plants for six or eight years, and more than one thousand 

 of them have been sold in New York state, many of them in 

 Brooklyn. 



