5oo 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 459. 



A correspondent of Meehans' Monthly speaks in praise of 

 our native Ceanothus Americanus, or New Jersey Tea, as one 

 of the plants which make an excellent low hedge, never 

 grow beyond bounds, and look well at all seasons. It 

 will endure dry weather well. It puts forth leaves and stems 

 in early spring, and is soon covered with its feathery blossoms, 

 and when the leaves have fallen the erect red stems are still 

 handsome. In the north the winter sometimes kills back the 

 young growth, but, in any event, the plant only needs one 

 shearing in the spring. 



We observe that Michaelmas Daisies grown in pots have 

 been largely used this year for the embellishment of the 

 greenhouses at Kew. Our native Asters grow in such abun- 

 dance everywhere that we never heard that the experiment of 

 growing them under glass had been tried in this country, and 

 yet if plants with flowers of the best form and color were 

 selected, some of them would certainly make beautiful spe- 

 cimens, and, no doubt, when flowering under glass, the 

 individual heads would be more perfect than they are when 

 blooming out-of-doors in our windy autumns. 



In a recent volume of the Linnsean Society on Orchids in the 

 Malay Peninsula, Mr. Henry Ridley writes that in the hill 

 forests Orchids become more abundant as one ascends, and in 

 exposed rocky slopes as the jungle becomes thin a great 

 variety can be found. Species which in the low country in- 

 habit the tops of the loftiest trees, here grow on the ground or 

 low on the stems and branches of bushes and small trees. 

 Thus, on Kedah Peak, at about 3,000 feet elevation, the ground 

 is thickly carpeted with plants of Bulbophyllum, Ccelogyne, 

 Dendrobium, Platyclinis, Eria, etc., so that one is up to his 

 waist in them. 



In a road bulletin published last month by the Ontario De- 

 partment of Agriculture it is stated that money appropriated 

 and applied to the improvement of roads in the Dominion is 

 rarely used under any economical system. It sounds almost 

 like a description of the road-work in some of our states, when 

 we read that ditches are dug without providing outlets ; gravel 

 is applied without forming the road-bed ; roads are graveled 

 without having been drained ; then draining is undertaken, 

 and the gravel is covered over with the excavated earth, which 

 necessitates a repetition of the graveling ; there is no discrimi- 

 nation between good material and bad for the road-surface, 

 and it is composed chiefly of sand ; temporary sluiceways are 

 built ; work is done without proper machinery ; and, in show, 

 the principles of scientific road-making are generally ignored. 



Duchess, Keiffer and Lawrence pears, from this state, held 

 over in cold storage, are still seen in collections of fruits. The 

 brilliantly colored Forelle pears from California are the most 

 showy fruit of this class now in season, and cost $1.25 a dozen 

 for the best. Cornice, Winter Nelis and Sheldon bring $1.00 

 to $1.25 a dozen, and the same price is asked for Beurre Oris, 

 a large russet pear of medium quality and an excellent keeper. 

 Rich, spicy Winter Seckels, also from the western coast, cost 

 fifty cents to $1.00 a dozen. Some of the large green Spanish 

 melons noted during autumn are still occasionally seen, at 

 $1.25 each. Small round melons, smooth and almost golden 

 in color, are displayed among hothouse products in one of the 

 fancy-fruit stores. These are from Long Island and sell at 

 fifty cents a pound, the average weight of one of them. Prickly 

 pears, pomegranates and immense globular shaddocks are 

 among the more showy exhibits. Strawberries, from Califor- 

 nia, sold last week at seventy-five cents a pint. Florida pine- 

 apples of the largest size, with luxuriant tops, sometimes 

 lavishly decorated with broad bows of satin ribbon, make a 

 striking show in the fruiterers' windows. These cost as much 

 as $1.50 apiece, and smaller fruits, also specially cultivated 

 under shelter, sell for sixty cents and upward. Coe's Late 

 Red, the long-keeping California plum, is yet in stock, and 

 being the only plum in market now has a special value in giv- 

 ing variety to fruit baskets. Japanese persimmons are com- 

 paratively plentiful and cost fifty to sixty cents a dozen for 

 good ones. Brilliant little Lady apples, which were never 

 more handsome, sell for fifteen cents a dozen. Quinces are 

 a regular offering in the markets at seventy-five cents a half- 

 bushel basket. There is a wide choice in kinds of oranges 

 now in season, and Tangerines, from Florida, give variety to 

 the large range of citrus fruits. 



In this phenomenal apple season, when more than 2,000,000 

 barrels have already been shipped from American ports and 

 sold at remarkably low prices, the so-called Albemarle pippin, 

 usually a principal export apple, is hardly in the trade at all, 

 the season being an off year for apples in Virginia. The entire 

 crop of this variety in that state is said to amount to only 



about 1,000 barrels, and the quality is not up to the average of 

 other years. A wholesale dealer here, who makes a specialty 

 of this choice fruit, has this year handled but one car-load of 

 221 barrels, whereas his trade last year comprised 30,000 bar- 

 rels. York Imperial, another American favorite in the Eng- 

 lish markets, is not seen at all this season. An average price 

 for Albemarle pippins in England a year ago was $4.00 at 

 wholesale, quotations ranging from fifteen to twenty-five shil- 

 lings. The few barrels now for sale here are held at $8.00 at 

 retail, and as much as thirty-four shillings was realized at 

 wholesale auctions in Liverpool several weeks ago. Newtown 

 pippins, of which the Albemarle pippin is generally considered 

 a synonym, are fairly plentiful in the Hudson River district. 

 Barrels of this northern apple, which is a better keeper than 

 the southern fruit, sell here at $6.00 for the best, but much 

 of the stock is inferior, and the prices for lower grades are no 

 higher than for ordinary varieties of apples. In Liverpool 

 tightly packed barrels of selected Newtown pippins brought 

 thirty-two shillings, in wholesale lots, at recent sales. The 

 cold weather a week ago urged many shippers to hurry apples 

 forward from the interior of this state so as to save them from 

 freezing in transit, and the result was an overstocked market 

 and a further drop in values. A fair wholesale price at way- 

 side stations is eighty cents a barrel by the car-load, while 

 ordinary quality apples bring but sixty to seventy-five cents, 

 and the best $1.25 to $1.35. The barrels cost twenty-five cents, 

 freight from points in this state about as much more, with fif- 

 teen cents for packing and ten cents for commission, all of 

 which the grower pays, so that the only gain in an unprece- 

 dented crop seems to be to the consumer, especially if he 

 buys by the barrel. Choice apples cost the retail buyer $1.50 

 a barrel and upward. The storage houses have been crowded 

 with apples, and new warehouses have been built, but thou- 

 sands ot bushels are unhoused, although every available cellar 

 in the apple districts has been pressed into use. In the town- 

 ship of Greece, New York, for example, the apple crop 

 amounts to over 200,000 barrels. There are ten drying houses 

 and five cider mills in the town, and almost a thousand men 

 and women engaged in this work, though the total population 

 is only about 4,000. 



Ernest GustavusLodeman, Instructor in Horticulture in Cornell 

 University, and Assistant Horticulturist to the Cornell Experi- 

 ment Station, died by his own hand during an attack of acute 

 melancholia in Mexico, Oswego County, New York, on the 2d of 

 December. Mr. Lodeman was born in Neufchatel, Switzerland, 

 on May 3d, 1867. When he was two years old his parents came 

 to this country, and in 1870 his father became Professor of 

 Modern Languages in the State Normal School of Michigan, 

 from which institution the son graduated in 1889. In 1890 he 

 began in Cornell University the professional career which 

 proved remarkably useful and fruitful. In 1895 he received 

 the degree of Master of Science from the university, and 

 his thesis, "The Spraying of Plants," was subsequently 

 published as one of MacMillan's Rural Science Series, 

 making a book of some four hundred pages. At the date 

 of his untimely death he was a candidate for the degree 

 of Doctor of Philosophy, having taken up for his thesis a 

 philosophical and botanical study of the cultivated Begonias, 

 and he had collected a greater number of species and type 

 forms of the genus than exists in any other American collec- 

 tion. In the college he had particular charge of classes in the 

 propagation of plants, spraying, greenhouse construction and 

 pomology. In connection with the experiment station work 

 he prepared many important bulletins, and the spray-calendar 

 idea which originated with him is now an established type of 

 publication. When the station was asked to extend its work 

 directly among horticultural communities Mr. Lodeman threw 

 himself enthusiastically into the work and soon became a per- 

 sonal favorite among the fruit growers of western New York. 

 All the work upon grapes and strawberries, two large indus- 

 tries in the state, was entrusted to him, together with the treat- 

 ment of certain plant diseases. His last journey made to 

 Oswego County was to inspect experiments in fertilizing straw- 

 berry fields, and here under some impulse induced by the 

 strain of overwork he methis tragic end. Personally, Mr. Lode- 

 man was tall and well-knit, and he usually enjoyed excellent 

 health. He had the modesty and patience of the true student, 

 and although at times he felt a depressing distrust of his own 

 ability, he was prosperous and happy in his work. He was 

 an excellent linguist, speaking French and German fluently 

 and having a useful knowledge of other languages. His pri- 

 vate life was spotless and he had a sweetness ot temper and 

 true manliness of character which endeared him to all with 

 whom he came in contact. 



