47o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 456. 



enriched science with an establishment of the first class, 

 the Museum Boissier-Barbey, in which are admirably 

 housed the vast herbarium and the library collected by 

 Boissier. The herbarium is growing steadily by purchase 

 and by collections made in different parts of the world by 

 travelers sent out by Monsieur Barbey for the purpose, 

 while to the library are added all the new works of descrip- 

 tive botany. 



N or.es 



The autumn hereabout has been unusually mild and open. 

 Nasturtiums were blooming unlil they were chilled by the fall 

 of temperature last Friday night, and plants of Daphne Cneo- 

 rum are still opening their fragrant flowers as cheerfully as if 

 it were May. 



No one who has a Currant-bush needs to buy plants of a 

 nurseryman if he wishes to increase his stock. All that is 

 necessary is to take cuttings of the new wood before the ground 

 freezes and set them rather deeply and about three inches 

 apart firmly in the ground where they can remain for a year. 

 Grapes and Gooseberries can be propagated in the same way. 



An agricultural experiment station has been established at 

 Usambara, in German East Africa, for the purpose of investi- 

 gating the agricultural character of that region and discover- 

 ing its adaptability to various crops. Both native and intro- 

 duced tropical plants are now under test at different altitudes 

 to decide which ones are best suited to cultivation, and when 

 these points have been determined both the plants and seeds 

 will be supplied in commercial quantities to settlers. 



Tiny young onions are coming from New Orleans, and cost 

 ten cents tor a bunch ot two dozen. Cultivated sorrel, from 

 Long Island, sells tor seven cents a quart ; large, well-grown 

 heads of cauliflower bring fifteen cents each, and Brussels 

 sprouts fifteen cents a quart. Watercress is coming from Vir- 

 ginia, as are peas and string-beans. Florida is aiso sending 

 the latter vegetables, with eggplants and cucumbers. There 

 are at present no field tomatoes in market, and the hot-house 

 product costs from forty to fifty cents a pound. 



Fruits of the well-known Ground Cherry, Physalis pubescens, 

 have recently been in considerable demand in our markets by 

 persons who like their distinctive flavor, for preserves, twenty 

 cents a quart being the price. Husk Tomato, Dwarf Cape 

 Gooseberry and Strawberry Tomato are other familiar names 

 for this plant, while paper-shell tomatoes is the local trade 

 name for the small yellow fruits. Professor Bailey's experi- 

 ments with species of Physalis, published in a bulletin several 

 years ago, were referred to in Garden and Forest, vol. v., 

 page 108. 



Mr. William Falconer, who has successfully conducted the 

 semi-monthly horticultural journal, Gardening, through a 

 hundred issues, announces in the last number of that paper 

 his resignation as editor. Mr. Falconer's reason for retiring 

 is that his time is thoroughly occupied in preparing and car- 

 rying out plans for the improvement of the Pittsburg park 

 system, of which he is superintendent. It will be a difficult 

 matter lor the proprietors of Gardening to find a successor 

 with as wide a knowledge of plants and as varied an experi- 

 ence in all branches of horticulture as is possessed by Mr. 

 Falconer. 



At a recent meeting of the Biological Society of Washing- 

 ton, as reported in Science, Dr. Irving F. Smith described a 

 bacterial disease of Potatoes, Tomatoes and Eggplants which 

 is caused by a new micro-organism which he names bacillus 

 solanacianum. Dr. Smith thinks this is the cause of a large 

 part ot what is rilled the potato-rot in the United States. The 

 organism is probably transmitted from diseased to healthy 

 plants by means ot insects, and in the greenhouse under 

 strictly controlled conditions successful infections have been 

 obtained by means of the Colorado potato-beetle. A bulletin 

 which gives an account of this parasite will soon be published 

 by the Department of Agriculture, and its appearance will be 

 looked tor with interest. 



Pomegranates, from Spain, as bright-colored as Baldwin 

 apples, are seen in many of the best fruit-stores, and cost from 

 fifty to seventy-five cents a dozen. The last Japanese persim- 

 mons of the season sell for forty to sixty cents a dozen. 

 Jamaica grape-truit of good quality may be had at eight to 

 fifteen cents each, and selected oranges, from the same 

 island, cost forty-five to sixty cents a dozen. Several hundred 

 boxes of oranges, from Punta Gorda, Florida, brought $4.50 a 



box, wholesale, last week, when $3.00 a box was an extreme 

 price for Jamaica oranges. Concord, Catawba and Delaware 

 grapes are still quite plentiful, and range from fifteen to 

 twenty-five cents for a four-pound basket. Showy Lady- 

 apples, small and of even size, bring twenty cents a quart ; 

 quinces, sixty-five cents a half-bushel ; Crab-apples, seventy- 

 hve cents for the same quantity ; and Seckel pears, from Boston, 

 sell for twenty-five cents a quart. 



In an article on the " Physiological Role of Water in Plants," 

 by Professor Edmond Gain, ot the University of Nancy, France, 

 and published in the Experiment Station Record, among other 

 practical applications of the subject, we are told that when a 

 given soil produces vigorous plants whose transpiration is very 

 active, and young plants whose organs are less developed, the 

 roots of the first will take up the humidity of the soil with 

 greater force than those ot the second. It, therefore, the soil 

 does not contain enough water for both, the weaker will suffer. 

 This is the case with Clover seeded with Wheat which suffers 

 in a dry spring, while Clover seeded alone makes a good 

 growth. Farmers continue to sow their forage seed with 

 cereals under the mistaken idea that the cereals are beneficial 

 as a shade. If they would seed their torage plants alone they 

 would not only secure a greater yield, but in dry countries 

 would stand a better chance of producing a crop. 



A good illustration of the fact that a variety of fruit may be 

 valuable in one place and comparatively worthless in another 

 is found in certain expert opinions gathered by The Rural New 

 Yorker in relation to the Crosby Peach. So good an authority 

 as Mr. J. H. Hale says that in Connecticut the Crosby has 

 special value in the hardiness of its fruit-buds and its late 

 blooming, which enables it to escape spring frosts better than 

 others ; that it is inclined to overbear, but that when thoroughly 

 thinned the fruit is ot medium to large size, and in 1895 the 

 largest peach grown in Connecticut was one ot this variety. 

 Its flavor is better than that of any yellow peach he knows, 

 and is the best keeper which he has shipped from Georgia. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Charles Wright says that it is not as 

 hardy in Delaware as many other varieties ; that it is too small, 

 even when thinned, to be of any value ; that it ripens with 

 Reeve's Favorite and Oldmixon, both of which bring better 

 prices, and that therefore there is no place lor it in the Peach 

 orchards of the Peninsula. 



The Michigan Agricultural College has issued a circular 

 offering to young men and women who cannot spare the time 

 and money tor a long college course, special instruction in certain 

 branchesof agriculture tor six weeks One of these courses, de- 

 voted to truit culture, embraces instruction in the propagation 

 ot plants by various methods, the care and management of 

 orchards and kindred subjects ; and another is devoted to 

 floriculture and the forcing of winter vegetables. This 

 last includes tuition in the construction and heating of 

 greenhouses, the propagation of all the leading commercial 

 plants, with lectures on botany, entomology and chemistry. 

 Students will tiave the advantage of competent and enthu- 

 siastic teachers, the great college library, the forcing-houses 

 and laboratories of the college, and the fee will only be $2.50 

 to cover incidental expenses. Inasmuch as board can be had 

 near the college for $3.00 a week, an opportunity is offered 

 for instruction at a nominal cost, and with such an environ- 

 ment as ought to give any young person an inspiration in his 

 work and yield returns a hundredfold in every way. 



The crown forests of Sweden comprise more than one- 

 quarter ot the entire wooded area of the country and are man- 

 aged with scrupulous care. The increase alone is cut, so that 

 a productive forest is to stand forever on all crown lands 

 that are unsuitable for cultivation. More than this, the Gov- 

 ernment has entered upon an extensive system of planting 

 trees on desolate and uncultivated areas, and these object- 

 lessons have induced owners of private forests, especially the 

 larger proprietors, to manage their timber lands so that they 

 will become permanent sources of income. These facts were 

 communicated to our Department of State by Hon. H. W. 

 Thomas, United States Minister to Sweden, and they are of 

 particular interest, not only to Sweden but also to the United 

 States and to Canada, whose lumber meets the Swedish prod- 

 uct as its greatest competitor in the markets of the world. 

 Since the forests in Sweden grow slowly it has generally been 

 supposed that the immense quantities exported would grad- 

 ually exhaust this most important source of the nation's wealth, 

 but from the facts stated it appears probable that the forty- 

 seven million acres of forests in the country will continue to 

 be a source of income for all future time. The products of 

 the forest now comprise nearly one-half of the total exports of 

 the country in value. 



