488 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 458. 



but, having very large bulbs and luxuriant foliage, they occupy 

 considerable space. The Pancratiums, as a rule, are not so 

 large, but produce strong spikes of fragrant flowers, most of 

 the species being white. Neither Crinums nor Pancratiums 

 are specially fastidious in regard to soil, though responsive to 

 good cultivation, and they absorb large quantities of water 

 while in active growth. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Taphn. 



Yucca Gloriosa.— For the first time, so far as I can ascer- 

 tain, this plant has flowered perfectly here. It blooms 

 late in the season, and until this year every attempt it 

 has made to flower has been frustrated by freezing 

 weather. This year a slight covering at night has suf- 

 ficed to protect it against the lowest temperature yet expe- 

 rienced, and for three weeks or more its large panicle of flow- 

 ers has been a novel and attractive spectacle. The warm 

 weather has permitted every flower to expand, and although 

 it is now (November 20th) past its best, it is still an object of 

 much interest. It has a second branch almost ready to flower, 

 but it is too much to hope for more flowers with winter at 

 hand. I know only one or two more examples of this arbo- 

 rescent Yucca in Philadelphia. They are quite hardy here, 

 and, no doubt, if they were planted in a warm, sheltered place 

 the flowers would often expand in spite of their late appear- 

 ance. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



Iris macrosiphon. — The experience of Max Leichtlin in grow- 

 ing this pretty Iris successfully, as given by Mr. Gerard in a 

 recent issue of Garden and Forest, is valuable to growers. 

 Herr Leichtlin states that at Baden-Baden they start into 

 growth in May. This is interesting as showing how quickly 

 plants adapt themselves to changed conditions. In its native 

 home, here in the northern Coast Range, I. macrosiphon lies 

 dormant during the dry, rainless season, from May to October. 

 The first light rains start a root-growth, the old roots pushing 

 out rootlets and new spongy rools forming at the base of the 

 growing end of the wiry rhizome. The leaves soon start. Its 

 growth is here a winter growth, and with its flowering in May 

 begins the ripening, to be followed by the long summer rest. 

 At Baden-Baden it would seem to take a winter rest and make 

 growth in summer. Otherwise, my experience corresponds 

 with Herr Leichtlin's, in that the best time to move the plants 

 is just as they begin to start. Examination of a bed of several 

 hundred collected plants moved October 15th shows that they 

 are now (November 16th) making a vigorous root-growth. 



Ukiali, Calif. Carl Purdy. 



Correspondence. 



Notes on the Vermont Apple Crop. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The American apple crop, taken as a whole, is very 

 large this year ; but northern New England seems to have a 

 proportionally larger excess than any other section in Canada 

 or the United States. The crop here is nothing less than phe- 

 nomenal. The actual commercial crop is probably twice as 

 large in the apple growing regions of Vermont as it has ever 

 been known before. This is largely due to the favorableness 

 of the season ; but partly, also, to the considerable number of 

 young trees coming into bearing. In fact, the present remark- 

 able supply of apples calls attention to the fact that, in the 

 apple-growing sections of the state, orchard planting has 

 been steadily going on for some years. In contrast to this, in 

 those parts of the state where apples are not commercially 

 grown a young apple-tree is a curiosity. 



The crop in Vermont is not only large, but is much better 

 in quality than usual. This, of course, must be credited largely 

 to a favorable season, for, with the very large crop carried by 

 all trees, it would not have been surprising to gather small 

 and poorly flavored apples. The summer was comparatively 

 dry, without being disastrously so, and the damage by the 

 scab-fungus was therefore reduced to a minimum. Thorough 

 spraying, now generally adopted in this reeion, contributed to 

 the same result. This year's spraying, fortified by good spray- 

 ing in preceding years, has also practically eliminated the factor 

 of loss by the codling-moth. There is thus an unusually large 

 proportion of first-class fruit. 



Prices have been low here as elsewhere. This misfortune 

 has been aggravated in many neighborhoods by proportion- 

 ally large pickings of early fall fruit, mostly Fameuse (Snow). 

 These early apples have been pressed upon all buyers to the 

 temporary "disadvantage of the later varieties. A few growers 



are prepared to store their winter apples. The winter varie- 

 ties most grown for market are Northern Spy, Rhode Island 

 Greening, Baldwin, King and Golden Russet, with a consider- 

 able number of young Ben Davis coming into bearing. The 

 Arctic is a new commercial variety of great promise, now just 

 beginning to bear. 



Although prices are low, the crop will be sold at a profit, 

 and commercial apple-growing on the shores of Lake Cham- 

 plain will receive substantial impetus and encouragement. 



Vermont Experiment Station. F. A. Watlgh. 



Dendrolene as an Insecticide. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Among other things which have been sent to us for 

 trial the past season was a package of Dendrolene, sent by 

 the Bowker Fertilizer Company, of Boston, Massachusetts. 

 They asked that it be given a thorough trial on various kinds 

 of fruit and shade trees, for the purpose of determining its 

 effectiveness in keeping out borers and other noxious insects, 

 and also as a protection against mice and rabbits. 



The material was applied to a number of young, healthy 

 stock trees of Champion, Crosby and other varieties of Peach, 

 and also to a number of the same varieties bearing their 

 first crop of fruit. A number of young Apple-trees, just trans- 

 planted, were also coated. The material was applied in May, 

 according to directions, by coating the trunks of some trees from 

 the ground to the lower branches, and others only about half- 

 way up. On examination, about the middle of August, it was 

 found that several of the young Peach-trees were beginning 

 to drop their leaves and to show signs of general debility. A 

 little later the older trees began to show signs of trouble, and 

 on making a careful examination of the trees about the first 

 of September it was found that the material had been ab- 

 sorbed by the bark to such an extent as to shut off the circu- 

 lation of sap completely, and that the inner bark, or cambium, 

 had turned black and apparently dead. The same was true 

 to a somewhat less extent in case of the young Apple-trees, 

 so that a month later every Peach-tree and most of the Apple- 

 trees to which the material was applied were dead. 



As it is not always safe to draw conclusions from a single 

 experiment, it was not deemed advisable to publish these 

 results until the material had been given a further trial, inas- 

 much as it had been carefully tested in New Jersey under the 

 direction of Professor J. B. Smith, one of the most careful and 

 competent entomologists in this country, and found to work 

 very successfully (see New Jersey Experiment Station Bulletin 

 hi, also Garden and Forest, vol. viii., p. 470). But in look- 

 ing over the September number of the Wisconsin Hortiacl- 

 turist I find an article by Professor E. S. Goff on the same 

 subject, and giving similar results, except that his losses were 

 much greater than ours, as he " had it applied to the trunks of 

 nearly one hundred trees." And he adds, " Many of the trees 

 to which it was applied are already dead, and the indications 

 are that few, if any, of them will ever leave out again." It 

 seems a little remarkable that the results obtained in Wiscon- 

 sin and Indiana should be so different from those obtained in 

 New Jersey, but these are the facts, which I am at present 

 unible to explain. It would seem, however, that we are safe 

 in saying this much, that the material in its present form is not 

 safe to use on young Peach-trees in this section, and I would 

 not recommend its use on any tree until further trial. 



Experiment Station, La Fayette, Ind. J. TfOOp. 



Recent Publications. 



American Highways : A Popular Account of their Condi- 

 tions and the Means by which they may be Bettered. By 

 N. S. Shaler. New York : Century Company. 



In the preface of this excellent book Professor Shaler 

 modestly recounts some of the personal experiences which 

 have helped to educate him for its preparation. He states 

 that during the civil war he was called upon to study the 

 significance of wheehvays in the critical work of cam- 

 paigns ; that ever since the war he has been interested in 

 road-making in connection with geological work ; that he 

 has been actively engaged for four years as one of the 

 Massachusetts Highway Commission in developing a plan 

 for the betterment of the roads of that state ; that he has 

 helped to lay out and construct a hundred roads, having 

 made a special study of the relations of road-building ma- 



