September 13, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



381 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office ; Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — ^The Proper Work of Experiment Stations 381 



Mr. George Nicholson's Impressions of America 381 



Extracts from Letter by Dr. Wittmack Gartenflora. 382 



Late Summer in the Pines Mrs. Mary Treat. 382 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XXL (With figures.) C. S. S. 383 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 385 



Cultural Department : — Crinum Powelli F, W. Moore. 387 



Chrysanthemums T. D. H. zW 



Seasonable- Vegetable Notes W. D. 388 



Begonias R. Dale. 388 



Correspondence :— ^Treatment for a Decaying Ashtree W. T. Sanborn. 388 



Rudbeckia purpurea Ho^vard P. Arnold. 389 



The Columbian Exposition: — The Nursery Exhibits in the Midway Plaisance, 



Professor L. H. Bailey. 389 



Notes 390 



Illustrations :— Ostrya Japonica, Fig. 58 384 



Quercus dentata, in Yezo, Fig. 59 386 



The Proper Work of Experiment Stations. 



A FORTNIGHT ago we made allusion to the honors 

 which the agricultural societies of many lands had 

 just paid to Sir John Bennet Lawes for his work of half a 

 century at Rothamsted Farm. The distinguishing charac- 

 teristic of these experiments has been the persistence with 

 which the original purpose has been adhered to. Sir John 

 set out primarily to investigate some of the fundamental 

 problems relating to the nutrition of plants and animals, 

 and he realized at the outset that the work of a single year 

 would count for very little. Every season has peculiarities 

 of its own, so that the practical reply which the plant and 

 soil make to the inquiry of the investigator will vary with 

 the different conditions of frost and sunshine, of rain and 

 drought. A given test must be repeated year after year, 

 and applied under the same conditions so far as possible 

 before the cumulative results of the work give an unmis- 

 takable reply to the inquirer. Of course, no repetition of 

 an experiment can be of any value unless the entire series 

 has been started in the right direction. This implies that 

 Sir John began cautiously, and after a wide survey of the 

 field and a clear comprehension of what would be the out- 

 come of a century's experiments in a given direction. With 

 these truths in mind he has never been in a hurry to an- 

 nounce results with positiveness. Fully realizing the value 

 of time in these trials, his one work has been to hold on 

 with steadiness and with perfect accuracy of detail, both in 

 practice and in making records. It has long been a current 

 story that to a student who once made some inquiry as to 

 the probable amount of nitrogen taken from the soil by a 

 given crop. Sir John replied that he could not answer that 

 question, inasmuch as he had only been experimenting on 

 that point for twenty-one years. 



Now, our own stations are all comparatively new. None 

 of them seems to have laid out a plan for prosecuting any 

 inquiry for a long series of years. Perhaps the men who 

 direct them are not all capable of devising broad plans, or they 

 have so little confidence in the stability of the future man- 



agement of their institutions, that they cannot count on 

 any continuous work in a given line. Many things can be 

 done for the immediate benefit of agriculture and horticul- 

 ture without waiting long, but in reading over some of the 

 bulletins from our stations issued a few years ago one can- 

 not help but feel that many of them were crude and undi- 

 gested, to say the least, and at times they have been mis- 

 leading in their interpretation of the tests they have made. 

 Some of the more recent ones, too, show a waste of 

 energy, especially in their devotion to matters which 

 hardly come within their province. The excuse for the ex- 

 istence of such stations is that in agriculture and horti- 

 culture new and improved practice is essential that 

 these great industries may keep abreast of the progress 

 which is made in every other branch of human activity. 

 There is no reason why the Government should help any 

 one in a matter wherein he can help himself, but the things 

 to be learned before methods of cultivating the soil can be 

 materially improved are often of such a nature that they re- 

 quire experiments by trained observers who are skilled in 

 scientific methods. This is beyond the power of the ordi- 

 nary farmer or fruit-grower. Many of the tests require 

 time, which he cannot afford to spare ; many of them re- 

 quire expensive apparatus, which he cannot afford to pur- 

 chase, and which he could not use if he had them ; many 

 of them demand an outlay of money beyond his means. 



These are thejustifying reasons for Government assistance 

 of this character. It is in reality furnishing an education 

 which it would be impossible to obtain otherwise. Much 

 of the work, however, like the testing of different varie- 

 ties of fruits and vegetables which the stations now un- 

 dertake, might well be left to individual cultivators. 

 Several of the stations, for example, this year have grown 

 from fifty to one hundred different varieties of Strawberries, 

 and kept careful records of their treatment, of the time of 

 fruiting, of the quahty and abundance of fruit, and then 

 these records have been published and disseminated at a 

 considerable expense. It would be unjust to say that all 

 this work is worthless. It is true, however, that if any .of 

 the new varieties of Strawberries have proved exceptionally 

 good or bad at any station, that is no proof that the 

 variety would not have shown opposite results on land 

 half a mile distant from the experiment grounds, and the 

 trials give little proof of what the same plant may do 

 another year anywhere. Those who grow strawberries for 

 market, and those who grow them simply for home use, and 

 are interested in such matters, will gladly undertake work 

 of this sort, and the truth about a new variety of any fruit 

 will soon be ascertained on the trial-grounds of nursery- 

 men and others. This will be published in horticultural 

 papers and at horticultural meetings, and the originators 

 of really meritorious varieties will be prompt to advertise 

 their excellence in every way, so that really any new 

 variety will find its true place within a reasonable period 

 without any assistance from the stations. Indeed, it may 

 be questioned whether any good fruit or vegetable has 

 acquired established popularity through their aid. 



Of course, stations may do valuable work in this direc- 

 tion, but organizations of trained workers can serve a 

 much higher purpose by devoting themselves to the more 

 serious scientific facts upon which cultural practice rests. 

 Such work has not only a greater intrinsic value, but it is 

 work which the ordinary farmer or fruit-grower or gar- 

 dener cannot do for himself Sir John Bennet Lawes 

 would hardly have deserved so much gratitude or achieved 

 such renown if he had devoted half a century to testing 

 tomatoes or strawberries. 



Mr. George Nicholson, Curator of the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew, who came to this country to represent Great Britain 

 among the judges of the Horticultural Department of the 

 Columbian Exposition, sailed for home a fortnight ago, 

 after remaining two months in this country. On the eve 

 of leaving our shores he gave a reporter an account of 



