November 4, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



449 



Many farmers are afraid to plant Artichokes because they 

 think they cannot be eradicated. My experience of five years 

 proves that they can be destroyed by plowing under when the 

 plants are one foot high. At this time the old tuber has 

 decayed in giving life to the new top, and no small tubers are 

 yet formed. A more simple way is to put the hogs in the 

 patch somewhat late in the spring, and they will find every 

 one. The tubers are much more round than the common 

 kind and have no deep eyes ; the flesh is pure white, very 

 brittle and sweet. Many farmers in Newaygo County are 

 growing Artichokes extensively as a general farm crop. No 

 insect, blight or rust has yet attacked them, and the tops make 

 a fodder superior to Corn when properly handled. Last winter 

 they were tested at the creamery at Fremont with the best 

 results. For table use they are richer and preferable to the 

 type in every way. 

 Fremont, Mich. J. H. Van Ness. 



October in Kentucky. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The foliage effects in the Blue Grass region of Ken- 

 tucky and along the Kentucky and Ohio rivers this year are 

 marvelously beautiful. The indigenous Ash, Beech and Hard 

 Maple trees at historic Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, 

 stand in golden grandeur among the picturesque Pines that 

 were transplanted there in the times when no nurseries ex- 

 isted west of the Alleghanies and there were no means of 

 shipping nursery stock to the then western wilds. In those days 

 these seedling Pines were brought down from the highland 

 forests of Kentucky by hardy mountaineers and sold from 

 door to door in Lexington, as village people are now some- 

 times supplied with pot plants from a tlorist's wagon. At 

 Ashland these trees are seen against a background of rolling 

 land, smooth and free from undergrowth and carpeted with 

 the famous Blue Grass sward of Kentucky. All this combines 

 to make a characteristic scene quite unlike any to be found 

 elsewhere, and most impressive by its simplicity and perfec- 

 tion. Some immense Catalpas are among the Ashland trees, 

 with several handsome old American Hollies. The bulk of 

 the indigenous growth is made up of Ash, Sugar Maple and 

 Beech, but in a retired corner of the farm a group of Sour 

 Gums flame like a bonfire. 



The high bluffs of the Kentucky River, near Frankfort, 

 were fairly dazzling, as seen from the train or the well-kept 

 pikes that in places traverse mere shelves cut out of the 

 face of the rocky bluffs, with only a frail board fence 

 between the roadway and a sharp incline down to the 

 waters of the river. Besides the prevailing Ash and Maple 

 there were Dogwoods by the thousand, standing singly and 

 in groups, making splashes of crimson. Sweet Gums, Liquid- 

 ambar, their sharply cut leaves setting them apart from other 

 species even at quite a distance, were here as bright in tone as 

 the Dogwoods, and these took on that rich purplish crimson 

 tone peculiar to themselves. Indescribably vivid were the 

 hues of the Sour Gums, or Tupelo, while here and there 

 among the foliage that sweeps up the steep and lofty river 

 hills magnificent Scarlet Oaks stood like exclamation points 

 in the landscape. A foil to this varied splendor was fur- 

 nished by a background of the living green of the Red 

 Cedar, and behind all this the broken, but symmetrically lay- 

 ered, limestone through which the river here cuts its bewil- 

 dering way. To stand at the grave of Daniel Boone, on the 

 top of an abrupt bluff, some 250 feet above the water, and note 

 the landscape up and down the stream is to realize that small 

 rivers have a picturesque beauty that no larger waterway can 

 rival. 



The autumn weather, scenery and roads of this part of Ken- 

 tucky offer a field for bicycle excursions that would seem 

 unrivaled, especially when the historic interest of the state is 

 considered and the cordial hospitality of her inhabitants is 

 borne in mind. 

 Brighton, ill. Fanny Copley Seavey. 



Autumn Color of the Liquidambar. 



To thlPEditor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Among the deciduous trees whose leaves turn to bright 

 colors in autumn the Sweet Gum, Liquidambar styracillua, 

 stands decidedly in the front rank in this locality. The rich 

 crimson coloring, combined with their beautiful form and 

 glossy appearance, together with the length of time they re- 

 main on the trees, makes this one of the best for planting 

 where autumn effects are desired. Among shrubs, the red 

 and orange shades of Berberis'Thunbergi and Spiraea pruni- 



folia are most conspicuous, while the Privets are the last of all 

 to shed their leaves, and they remain green and fresh-looking 

 long alter other shrubs have become bare. In the hardy-plant 

 border the most attractive-colored leaves were to be found 

 among the low-growing Polygonums. P. repens is the best we 

 have ; the bright red leaves make it a most conspicuous 

 object in the fall. P. Chinensis and its varieties, Thunbergi- 

 aimni and scabrum, are well worth growing for the sake of 

 their autumn colors. 



Botanic Garden, Northampton, Mass. Edward J '. Canning. 



Recent Publications. 



/^\N page 2ooof thecurrent volumeit wasstated thatProfessor 

 ^-^ John B. Smith, of the New Jersey Experiment Station, was 

 about to make a journey to California to study the character 

 of the lady-bird beetles, which feed upon scale insects, in order 

 to see whether it was probable that the importation of any of 

 these species into New Jersey would help in ridding the fruit- 

 trees of that state of the San Jost* scale. Professor Smith has 

 returned and made his report in a bulletin which has been 

 recently published. He explains that south of San Francisco 

 the scale has been kept in check by natural causes, while north 

 of that latitude the fruit growers themselves have had little 

 assistance from natural enemies of the insect, but they have 

 controlled its ravages by persistent efforts of their own. In 

 southern California the twice-stabbed lady-bird and a chalcid 

 parasite, together with climatic conditions, have kept the scale 

 down. Both of these insects occur in New Jersey, but the 

 lady-bird, so effective in California, survives the winters here 

 in small numbers and does not appear on the trees until shortly 

 before the scales begin to reproduce, so that the trees are cov- 

 ered with their larva? before the beetle larva? do any effective 

 work, and from that point on, the scale outruns the lady-birds, 

 breeding at least a month after the predaceous insects go into 

 hibernation. The chalcid parasite forms a small factor in the 

 history of the insect on the eastern coast. In California the scale 

 does not begin to multiply until May, and the lady-bird breeds 

 continuously and feeds upon the scale for from six to eight 

 weeks, at least, while it is dormant. In January and February 

 the scales are already preyed upon by the chalcid, and one full 

 brood of the parasite matures upon the dormant scale and 

 produces an enormous second brood when the scales begin to 

 breed, eating up the majority of the young, and clearing out 

 all but a small percentage before they reproduce in turn. 

 Besides this, the intense heat, sometimes reaching no degrees 

 in the shade, often kills the larva? and the recently set San Jose" 

 scales. Of course, these climatic conditions cannot be dupli- 

 cated in New Jersey. There is no evidence whatever that the 

 Australian lady-birds introduced into California have had any 

 inlluence in controlling the San Jose scale in that state. 



The conclusion is that fruit growers of New Jersey must 

 follow the example of those in northern California, and fight or 

 lose their orchards. The California way is to treat the trees in 

 the winter with a lime, sulphur and salt wash. Professor Smith 

 gives a formula for several of these washes, but, unfortunately, 

 they cannot be recommended as satisfactory in the east. A 

 wash made of two pounds of good whale-oil soap to one gallon 

 of water, thoroughly applied, has been successful in many cases 

 in New Jersey. Since whale-oil soap varies in character, a wash 

 consisting of concentrated lye, three and one-third pounds ; 

 water, seven and a half gallons, and fish-oil, one gallon, which 

 makes a caustic soap, may prove useful. The lye should be 

 dissolved in boiling water and the fish-oil added to the boiling 

 solution. The whole is boiled for two hours, and then allowed 

 to cool. This soap should be used at the rate of two pounds 

 to a gallon of water, with a little lime sometimes added to 

 make the treated part of the trees prominent, so as to insure 

 thorough work. This soap should be dissolved in hot water, 

 and is more effective if applied quite warm ; the application 

 should be made while the trees are dormant. There is much 

 interesting matter in this Bulletin No. 116, issued by the New 

 Jersey Experiment Station, to which we have not alluded, anil 

 it is worth careful study by all fruit growers in the east who 

 wish to make anything like an effective stand against the 

 dangerous San Jose 1 scale. 



Notes. 



After the first form of this paper had gone to press we re- 

 ceived the following note from Mr. Davenport relating to the 

 hybrid Fern described and figured on pages 444 and 445 : " I 

 have just found two more plants of the type form of Aspidium 



