53° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 462. 



matter are constantly sent to the Department of Agriculture, 

 and although there is nothing in the situation to encourage 

 any extravagant expectations, it is certainly one worthy of 

 study in these times when the rewards of agriculture are so 

 small, and when it would be a great advantage to the 

 farming population, especially of the south, to add another 

 one to their small list of profitable crops. 



Notes. 



A correspondent of the Strawberry Culturist says that he 

 treated a lot of Strawberry-plants in matted rows which were 

 badly rusted, by spraying them with borax lye, a material used 

 for soap-making, using one can to a forty-gallon barrel of 

 water. This arrested the rust and kept the plants growing, so 

 that berries were picked from these beds ten days after the 

 unsprayed plants had quit bearing. 



Two years ago a florist near Boston exhibited a variety of 

 Antirrhinum majus which was conspicuous for its long 

 stems, furnished throughout with flowers of a singular 

 pure white and large size. We believe it is the same plant 

 that is now called Giant White, and it blooms as freely out-of- 

 doors as any of the Snapdragons, but when grown in pots for 

 winter decoration of windows and conservatories it is a singu- 

 larly useful plant. The flowers are fragrant. 



A recent number of The American Agriculturist gives a 

 picture of a cluster of the McPike Grape, of which we have 

 spoken in a previous number. The photograph shows that 

 the berries are of the largest size, while they are said to be of 

 better quality, finer flavor, and with fewer seeds than the 

 Worden, of which this Grape is a seedling and which it resem- 

 bles in general appearance. The foliage is said to be large 

 and the joints shorter than in the parent plant, and the clusters 

 ripen very evenly. 



The number of species of plants which have become extinct 

 is very large, and yet generic groups rarely die out. Compar- 

 ative researches show that much the greater proportion of 

 plants whose remains have been preserved in a fossil condition 

 from earlier geologic periods belong to the genera which are 

 represented by plants now living, although many of these 

 existing plants differ specifically from the earlier ones. From 

 this it seems that new types are outgrowing the old ones con- 

 stantly and take their place in the general scheme of life. 



Mr. W. H. Bristol, of San Bernardino County, California, has 

 now five acres of Logan berries, and before a late meeting of 

 the Southern California Farmers' Institute he showed photo- 

 graphs of the fruits, which were larger than any blackberry. 

 The plant has a trailing habit like that of a Dewberry and 

 grows sometimes fifteen feet in a single season. The berry 

 is of a bright dark red, with a flavor which can hardly be 

 described in words, but is said to be something like that of a 

 red raspberry, though more tart and sprightly. For jellies 

 and jams it is altogether unsurpassed. 



In recent years about sixteen per cent, of all the bananas 

 brought to this city came from Cuba, twice as many from 

 Jamaica, and the remainder from Aspinwall, Port Limon and 

 other Central American ports. During the last five months none 

 of this fruit has come from Cuba, since foreign vessels are not 

 allowed to visit interior ports of the island, and the bananas, 

 brought in carriers and transferred to steamships at Gibara, 

 on the northern coast, were badly bruised and unfit for trans- 

 portation. The imports for 1896 are, however, as heavy as 

 those of last year, when more than four and a half million 

 bunches were sold in this city. The shipments of this fruit 

 from Jamaica are much larger than heretofore. The rich red 

 bananas which formerly came from Baracoa, Cuba, are now 

 entirely out of our markets. Bananas from Port Limon now 

 command the highest price at wholesale, bunches of the largest 

 size selling for$i.2oeach by the truck-load, those from Jamaica 

 for $1.15, and from Aspinwall for $1.00. 



During the fortnight before Christmas, West Street, for a half 

 mile above the Fall River boat-landing, was packed with 

 eighty-five car-loads of Christmas trees, the majority being 

 Balsam Fir, with some Spruce. Although the Spruce trees 

 are more bushy and handsome, the Firs are in greater demand, 

 because they are more open and so require less decoration. 

 About thirty-five car-loads came from the Catskills and fifty 

 from Maine, besides two thousand bundles carried on a 

 schooner. The demand was this year fairly good, especially 

 for the smaller sizes. Seventy-five cents was the average price 



for bundles of trees six, eight and ten feet in height, there 

 being two or three of the larger trees in each package, and as 

 many as five to seven of the shorter ones. Large, shapely trees 

 sold at from $5.00 to $30.00 apiece, and trees thirty-five feet 

 higli brought $35.00 each. The prepared trees are hauled to 

 the railways in hayracks, where they are loaded on platform 

 cars and cost nine cents a hundredweight for freight to New 

 York. 



A correspondent of the Springfield Republican calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that many wealthy men in various parts of the 

 country are getting possession of large blocks of forest land, 

 either as permanent investments, as game preserves or piaces 

 of summer residence. Leaving aside the immense tracts set 

 apart by the National Government and by the state of New York 

 in the Adirondacks and the Catskills, clubs and private indi- 

 viduals now own nearly a million acres of forest preserves in 

 this state, while in Maine, especially in the Rangely Lake 

 country, in the upper White Mountains of New Hampshire, 

 and along the tributaries of the Connecticut and Androscoggin 

 rivers there are many large preserves. Blue Mountain Park, 

 which was established by Austin Corbin in the south-western 

 part of New Hampshire, covers thirty-two square miles, while 

 the estate of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, of Biltmore, contains 

 a forest of 100,000 acres, which will be the field of systematic 

 experiments in practical and scientific forestry. Of course, there 

 is no guarantee that these great tracts will remain permanently 

 in forest, and yet the reservation of forest land as such, whether 

 by single owners or by associated membership, is a hopeful 

 sign of the future. 



Selected Spitzenburg apples, and a limited supply of New- 

 town pippins, from Vermont, are now the best varieties seen 

 in the fancy-fruit stores, where highly flavored and showy red 

 apple sells for thirty-five to fifty cents and the more costly 

 pippin brings seventy-five cents a dozen. The cold weather 

 of the past week seriously interfered with the fruit trade here, 

 all sidewalk and other outdoor stands being closed. The whole- 

 sale apple market has been crowded, too, with stock that in 

 milder weather would have remained on the docks. Whole- 

 sale prices for large lots range from seventy-five cents to $2.00 

 a barrel for fair, prime and fancy quality New York State fruit 

 of such varieties as Greening, Baldwin, King, Northern Spy 

 and Spitzenburg. The market abroad is even more depressed. 

 Messages received last Monday from dealers in Glasgow, Liv- 

 erpool and London by Otto G. Mayer & Co., of this city, 

 exporters, slate that thousands of barrels of American apples 

 have been left on the docks in England for ten days past. 

 Many have been sold for as little as a shilling a barrel, and four 

 shillings is all that can begot for the best fruit. Canadian and 

 Boston apples have suffered most, but the glut is unprece- 

 dented and ruinous to all American shippers. 



Sir Henry Dering, one of the diplomatic officers of Great 

 Britain in Mexico, has made an interesting report to the For- 

 eign Office in regard to the economic plants of that country. 

 Ginger, Zinziber officinale, which was introduced into America 

 as early as 1540, is now found, according to Sir Henry, grow- 

 ing wild in many parts of Mexico. Not only are the dried 

 rhizomes used as a spice and a medicine, but the fresh or 

 green rhizome, washed, scraped and preserved in syrup, or 

 cut in pieces in candied sugar, is well known as a sweetmeat. 

 The plant is propagated by division of the rhizomes, each 

 piece being planted three inches deep and cultivated like a 

 potato. The sets are covered with well-rotted manure, over 

 which a thick layer of leaves is placed to retain moisture and 

 give extra nourishment to the growing plants. Ginger is an 

 exhausting crop, and therefore the land is kept thoroughly 

 weeded and highly manured. The plant flowers in autumn, 

 and in January the rhizomes are forked out of the soil and 

 average from two to three ounces in weight. When lifted 

 from the ground and cleaned of adhering dirt they are plunged 

 into boiling water to destroy their vitality and then dried in the 

 sun, when they present a brown wrinkled surface. To pro- 

 duce the so-called uncoated ginger the epidermis is scraped 

 from the rhizome, which is subjected to some bleaching, 

 generally from the fumes of sulphur, and much of the com- 

 mercial ginger is practically whitewashed to give it a better 

 appearance. This often, however, covers an inferior quality, 

 and can be detected by the ease with which it rubs off. Good 

 ginger, when not whitewashed, is of a pale buff color, breaking 

 with a short mealy fracture and presenting bristly fibres on the 

 surface. Uncoated ginger is considered the best for ordinary 

 use. The returns from an acre of land vary, of course, but, 

 under favorable circumstances, the crop ought to be 4,000 

 pounds or more. 



