5i3 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 461. 



bench supports, and make an ornamental wall of foliage from 

 the Moor up the length of each side of the bench. Elsewhere, 

 Bouvardias are in full bloom ; the deep rose-colored flowers 

 of Salvia involucrata make a nice show, and the air is sweet 

 from masses of Jasminum grandiflorum. 

 Brighton, III. Fanity Copley Seavey. 



Correspondence. 



The Growth of Forest Trees. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — This is a study in which I have been deeply interested, 

 and I think there are few men who have given it longer or 

 more careful attention. From boyhood I have been a planter 

 of trees for both ornament and use. My father planted a 

 Horse Chestnut-tree on the day I was born. It is now about 

 about eighty feet high, and it requires four long arms to span 

 its circumference, breast-high. This tree was sixty-eight 

 years old the 14th of last May. I own forty acres of choice 

 woodland, mostly Maple, Birch and Poplar, but interspersed 

 with Pine, Spruce and Hemlock. Two of my Pines are over 

 a hundred feet high and perfectly sound. On my lawn, twenty- 

 two years planted, I have several Canoe Birches over one foot 

 in diameter; and in front of another house, formerly mine, 

 stand four Sugar Maples which I planted twenty-eight years 

 ago, and which I cannot span, breast-high, with my arms. 



The condition ot our New England forest-trees has always 

 deeply interested me ; and there was a time, when locomotives 

 were fired with wood and little or no coal was burned, that I 

 feared for our forests. But that period has passed, and I feel 

 able to concur with experts in woodcraft and extensive owners 

 of woodlands, who now declare that there is to-day more and 

 better standing timber in northern New England than ever 

 before since lumbering was there begun. Many seem to fear 

 that the forests are being robbed for the manufacture of wood- 

 pulp. Observation, however, will show that Poplar-trees of 

 the best size for wood-pulp can be grown in a very few years, 

 six to ten; and I think it will not be long before the growing 

 of such wood will become a regular and profitable business 

 on our rocky mountain farms. 



The growing of our native nut trees, Chestnuts, Butternuts, 

 Hickorynuts, and even Beechnuts, will, I feel sure, soon 

 become a profitable branch of farming. With proper treat- 

 ment and care these nut trees can be grown in as large quan- 

 tities by grafting, in some or all of its methods. It has long 

 been so in Europe. I am rather too far north, or too elevated, 

 for the Chestnut to succeed, but I have half a dozen fine young 

 Butternuts in bearing, from nuts planted about twenty years 

 since, and have recently planted out about fifty more. 



The management of our Sugar Maples, when tapped, is 

 being very much bettered ; small bits for boring, more shallow 

 holes, and careful after-treatment being now the rule with 

 nearly all our better class of farmers. Agricultural journals 

 are being much improved and better patronized, and their 

 instructions intelligently followed by a rapidly increasing num- 

 ber of readers. Our rural schools are yet far from perfect, 

 but they are improving, and this may be said also of ouracad- 

 emies, which are giving more and more attention to the 

 natural sciences, along with mathematics, but in all these lines 

 there remains much room for profitable advance. One of the 

 earliest pioneers in this direction was the late Dr. Ezekiel 

 Holmes, a skillful teacher, who did not despise the working 

 farmer, and was the founder and many years the editor of the 

 Maine Farmer. I had the honor and pleasure of his acquaint- 

 ance for many years, and my interest in horticulture and agri- 

 culture was greatly stimulated by his teachings. 



Newport, Vt. T. H. HoskillS. 



Utilizing Choke Cherries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A note in your columns not long ago (see page 388), 

 regarding the utilization of choke cherries, recalls the state- 

 ment of a friend that in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 

 among the jams, jellies and fruits in varied forms nothing was 

 found nicer than choke cherry jelly. The fruit is used here 

 occasionally for pies, and would be extremely popular were it 

 not for the pits. Here is room for the invention of a diminu- 

 tive cherry-stoner. With one the fruit of wild Black Cherry, 

 Primus serotina, might also become popular ; at least, when 

 other fruit is scarce. 



An industry of considerable importance in this vicinity — and 

 one which I am informed is to a great extent local — is the 



manufacture of jelly from fresh cider, which is boiled down in 

 copper pans. Sweet apples are preferred, and yield a firm, 

 clear and delicious article. Pound Sweets often refuse to 

 "jell," but Early Harvest, Golden Sweet, etc., are always in 

 demand. About two and a quarter bushels is the allowance 

 for a gallon of jelly, though sour apples hold out better than 

 sweet. About fifteen cents a gallon is charged for making it. 

 It will keep for years. It takes the place of boiled cider. 



B. L. P. 



Variety Tests in the Experiment Stations. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In a recent editorial you put many true things concern- 

 ing the worthlessness of much variety testing. It seems to 

 me, however, you overlook the value of variety testing as a 

 means of keeping the experimenter posted on the new varie- 

 ties that are introduced. I find that in my situation this is an 

 important feature if I am to meet the men interested in horti- 

 culture in this section and to teach the subject to best advan- 

 tage in my classes. For this reason I make many tests of 

 varieties each year, and know it pays me well to do so, 

 although I publish but little in this line. The testing of varie- 

 ties of apples, cherries, plums and pears in this state and sec- 

 tion is a matter of much interest to our people, from the fact 

 that we, perhaps, are more isolated in pomological matters 

 than any other part of the country, and the introduction of 

 hardy fruits into this section is regarded as a matter of first 

 importance. We are sifting out the good from a long list of 

 Russian and seedling fruits. The State Horticultural Society 

 appoints ten members, who try the fruits sent them by this 

 experiment station, and report to me direct. We also have a 

 trial station at Owatouna, on the grounds of the State Primary 

 School, devoted entirely to testing apples, plums, cherries and 

 other tree fruits. This station is managed by an able orchardist, 

 and is doing good work. There are also many bright men here 

 who are experimenting along these lines. It seems to me that 

 while the matter of variety testing can easily be overdone, it is 

 a necessary part of the work at many experiment stations. 



Experiment Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. Samuel B. Green. 



The California Buckeye. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — Mr. Purdy's reference to the Californian Buckeye, 

 /Esculus Califormca (see p. 493), reminds me to say that I saw 

 this shrub beautifully in bloom in the south of England in the 

 summer of 1895. The exact date, as I see by my note-book, 

 was July 16th. It was the first time I had seen it flowering, 

 and it pleased me greatly. The flowers were flesh-colored or 

 pink tinted, and made a fine display. 



On the same grounds I met with another Californian shrub, 

 hitherto unknown to me, Castanopsis chrysophylla. This was 

 bearing little nuts, not unlike those of our eastern Chinquapin, 

 but smaller, being no more than fourfeet high. I learn from Pro- 

 fessor Sargent s account of this Golden-leaved Chestnut in The 

 Silva of North America, that although it is a shrub at high alti- 

 tudes, and a small tree in Oregon and the lower Sierras of Cali- 

 fornia, it becomes a noble tree in the moist valleys of the Cali- 

 fornia Coast Range, where good specimens reach a height of a 

 hundred and fifty feet, with columnar trunks eight or ten feet 

 through and towering to a height of eighty feet without a limb. 

 Above this spreads the broad top, with leaves glossy green 

 above and yellow on the lower surface. 



The California Buckeye, too, in its best estate, is said to be 

 a low tree, forming a wide dense head and strikingly beautiful. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



[See Garden and Forest (vol. iv., p. 528), where there is 

 a figure of a tree of this Buckeye, with a spread of branches 

 covering a circle sixty feet across. It is not hardy in the 

 eastern states, but in the Mediterranean country, Australia 

 and in other regions where the climate is similar to that of 

 California, it will, no doubt, be planted largely in the 

 future, as it is one of the most beautiful of North American 

 trees when in flower. — Ed.] 



Insect Pests in Madeira. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Dr. M. Grabham, while lately visiting the island of 

 Madeira, wrote me (September 24th, 1896) as follows: "It is 

 distressing to see the terrible ravages of the so-called 'blights' 



