4o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 292. 



making the l)eds, and now is the best time of all the year to 

 haul and prepare this manure before the cold sets in. There is 

 time yet to get a crop ready for the heavy winter demand. 



Mr. Eckford's Sweet Peas.— It has been a bad year for an- 

 nuals generally in England, and we are consequently poor in 

 many Howers which are usually a feature of the herbaceous 

 l)order. Sweet I'eas have been a failure at Kew and also at 

 Chiswick. Mr. Eckford, however, exhibited in their season a 

 beautiful collection of his newer varieties, which fully bore 

 out his statement that in good soil and with a regular supply 

 of water Sweet Peas are certain to succeed, however hot the 

 weather may be. I noted the following varieties as the best 

 selection, to my taste, out of some fifty named varieties shown : 

 Emily Eckford, a most lovely blue, with the faintest shade of 

 purple ; Excelsior, bright cerise, large and well-formed flow- 

 ers ; Royal Rose, bright flesh-pink, a superb flower, both 

 in form and color ; Countess of Radnor, pale mauve, shaded 

 with a darker m.auve, a delicate, very attractive, color ; Firefly, 

 very similar to Excelsior, but richer, almost blood-red ; Venus, 

 a creamy white, with a blush tinge; Lady of Penzance, rich 

 deep rose ; Orange Prince, pale orange, flushed with scarlet. 

 Mr. Eckford supplies seeds of all these in sealed packets, 

 and guarantees them to come true. ,,, ,,, 



Kew. IV. Watson. 



Correspondence. 

 American Coniferous Forests. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Having just returned from a trip to the west, I have 

 read in your issue of June 14th, page 252, Mr. Robert 

 Douglas' paper at the Nurserymen's Convention, and 

 cannot but wonder at the apathy which is shown by the 

 American people in general on the subject of the destruc- 

 tion of their forests. I have now crossed the continent by four 

 different routes, and everywhere it is the same sad story. 

 Wherever the railroads go the valuable timber is either burned 

 or wasted, and nobody but a few of the more enlightened 

 Americans seem to recognize that what Mr. Douglas says is 

 true. I traveled with a gentleman of great ability, who was 

 largely interested in lumber in the north-west, and who said 

 that the best timber was nearly all gone in Minnesota, but that 

 it was no use for lumbermen to try to save what was left, as 

 the railways were burning it down a great deal faster than they 

 could cut it. He told me that in Colorado there were no for- 

 ests worth mentioning, and when I went there I found that, 

 though from a European point of view, there were still large 

 tracts of what we should call very valuable forest, yet fires 

 were burning in all directions, and probably two-thirds of 

 the coniferous timber in sight of the railroads was already 

 destroyed. In the mountains, I learned that, owing to the 

 exceptionally dry season, water was in places getting scarce, 

 and that there was, in some cases, hardly enough in the rivers 

 to supply the irrigating ditches below. At Leadville, which 

 was surrounded by forest not many years ago, I was told that 

 mining timber now had to be hauled fifteen miles. When I went 

 across the boundary into British Columbia it was much the 

 same thing, though in the damper valley of the Columbia the 

 fcrests are less subject to burning, and notices were posted to 

 warn passers-by against carelessness. 



At Nelson, a new mining town in the Koutenay district, I 

 rode for many miles through what had been magnificent tim- 

 ber, all burned, up to an altitude of about four thousand feet, 

 except on the shady northern slopes. Along the line of the 

 Canada Pacific, east of Revelstoke, it is the same story, and 

 though much good timber is still left in places, yet on the east 

 of the Kicking Horse Pass most of it is burned, and the young 

 trees which sprang up after the first fires are again burned. I 

 saw new ties being put in which were not above six inches on 

 the face in some cases, and would not last more than five or 

 six years, and quite small logs floating down the rivers in 

 thousands to supply the saw-mills. I do not suppose that any 

 one can form a correct judgment of what will be the future of 

 all this western country, but I believe that a great deal of it 

 which is habitable now will not be so after another fifty or a 

 hundred years of such waste. 



There is, no doubt, on the Pacific coast enough good timber 

 to supply all North America for centuries, but what will it cost 

 when it has to be freighted so far ? And what will become of 

 the drier parts of the country if irrigation is only possible for 

 three or four months of the year ? Garden and Forest has 

 done its best for five years to bring all this home to the inhab- 

 itants of the United States, but as far as I could judge public 



opinion in the west is not more advanced than it was in 1887, 

 when I was last there, and it will s 'On be too late to save any- 

 thing but the most inaccessible forests from destruction. 



Last year I went to one of the principal importers of timber 

 in Gloucester, England, to see if I could get some really first- 

 class lumber for building Orchid-houses. He told me that 

 such a quality as they used to have forty years ago could not 

 now be found. It was not a question of price, as there was not 

 any. What is imported now is cut from smaller, quicker- 

 grown trees and will not last. In consequence, pitch-pine is 

 being used for horticultural buildings. 



Andoversford, England. //. y . KlwCS. 



Notes from California. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The Californian season continues backward to the last. 

 Hop-picking commenced in the Russian River fields August 

 28th, nearly two weeks after the usual time, but the crop is 

 good. All fruit showed the same tardiness, along with agreat 

 yield ; owing to the closeness of money, fruit is not bringing 

 good prices. Much less than the usual quantity has been 

 canned, as the canners are crippled for working capital. 

 Prunes are of good quality, and the crop is fair on a greatly 

 increased bearing acreage. 



In the flower-garden I have not had success with some 

 summer flowers that usually do well. Roses have also been 

 poor here. On hundreds of good flowering bushes I have had 

 few first-class roses. The bushes are healthy, but the roses 

 lack size and fullness. The autumn flowering may possibly 

 be better. I find nothing to equal the best Cannas for bedding- 

 plants in California. "They grow luxuriantly during our hot 

 summers if sufficiently watered. It is not necessary to lift the 

 roots in fall, as they winter with perfect safety in the ground. 



I tried a few Tigridias last season, and this year experi- 

 mented with quite a variety of Mexican bulbs, among them 

 Tigridias, Bessera and Amaryllis. Nearly all flowered and all 

 did well ; I shall continue the experiments another season. 

 The plantings were made about May ist in a soil largely com- 

 posed of sand. I shall not lift these this fall. The Tigridias 

 were left in the ground last year and did much better this year 

 than last. Calochortus Ronplandianus did not do well ; this, 

 I think, was due to want of proper treatment. These Mexican 

 bulbs seem to have their season for growing and their growth 

 cannot be hurried, even if warmth and moisture are supplied. 

 Lilies have done well, as, indeed, all bulbous plants. L. Harrisii 

 seems to lose its early-blooming quality if grown in ordinary 

 climates a few years. I had a quantity of L. Harrisii and L. 

 longiflorum from a reliable grower; these had been giown 

 out-of-doors in California for several years, and they appeared 

 to be identical in time of blooming and in every other respect. 

 I have seen many thrifty specimens of L. Humboldtii, but a 

 plant from a garden in the mountains here is the best which 

 has come under my observation. From the bulb planted two 

 years ago two heavy stalks were produced ; one of these was 

 injured and blighted, the other grew to a height of eight feet 

 four inches. Forty-nine blossoms were perfected and about 

 twenty-five buds blighted. I may add that the Lily is not a 

 native of this part of California. 



Ukiah, Calif. Carl Ptirdy. 



A Tropical Plant-house. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Although a tropical plant- house may more properly be 

 termed a winter retreat, it has charms in summer for all true 

 lovers of plants, notably the effects made by the proper arrange- 

 ment of choice foliage-plants. The tropical plant-house be- 

 longing to F. Simpson, Esq.. of Saxonville, Massachusetts, is 

 at this time gorgeous with handsome and finely colored foliage 

 plants, which, under the September sun and moist atmos- 

 phere, are putting on their winter dress. Crotons, Marantas 

 and Dracaenas are fast gathering their tints, and large Ferns 

 are hardening their fronds. The lovely white and red veined 

 Fittonias are spreading sheets of color in spaces set apart for 

 them under the large Palms, and Selaginellas, green, golden 

 and lustrous blue, everywhere. Among the many fine speci- 

 mens I noticed were the graceful Ferns, Microlepia hirta cris- 

 tata, Adiantum Farleyense, several huge Alsophilas and Dick- 

 sonias, as well as large plants of Dracaena Kncerkii, D. Rum- 

 phii and D. fragrans, with leaves extending to the ground- 

 level ; as well as many varieties of the beautiful tinted Dra- 

 caena terminalis. Caladiums are here very appropriately used, 

 and in a large structure, such as this, with extensive vistas, they 

 show off to much advantage. C. Cinnabarina is a delicate 

 creamy white, with light green veins and pink markings. C. 



