OctOitR It, 1893.1 



Garden and Forest. 



429 



States, especially in the west. This Knotweed is not only per- 

 fectly hardy in central Iowa, so far as cold is concerned, but it 

 stands the dry weather remarkably well. We have had no rain 

 to speak of since the latter part of July, but this plant is as 

 green at the end of September as it was early in July. The 

 root-stocks of this plant are sent out deeply in all directions. 

 The original plant has been in a dry place for many years, but 

 in all this time it has not once been killed back. It is a re- 

 markable grower. Early in June many stalks were fourteen 

 feet in length. It will probably never supersede Indian Corn, 

 as the editor suggests, but what is needed in the west is a 

 plant that can be used in August and September, when pas- 

 tures are nearly always short. If the first and second crop 

 could be used for the silo the crop in August and September 

 would be excellent for immediate use. Rape is now used to 

 some extent, but the Saghalen Knotweed would be easier to 

 grow, as it does not need replanting every year, as Rape does. 



Iowa Agricultural College, Ames. -^. J^- rcimmel. 



Proper Work for Experiment Stations. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — While I fully agree with you in the editorial in your 

 issue for September 13th, 1893, that most of the varietal tests 

 so commonly practiced at the experiment stations are of little 

 general importance, still the stations were organized to dis- 

 tribute information among the farmers, and the varietal tests 

 are often of local value. But there is, doubtless, a great deal of 

 wasted time and labor in a great many of them, and there is 

 another line of work which in this section has seemed to me 

 to be of great importance. Long tabulated statements of sci- 

 entific investigations, while of great value to us who are en- 

 gaged in similar lines of work, are seldom, if ever, read by 

 farmers, who want the practical application of the results of 

 scientific investigation. At our station we have, therefore, 

 taken up the work of distributing what we call educational bul- 

 letins. These give the methods of cultivating certain crops, 

 and embody all the latest results of scientific investigation. 

 One of this series now about to be issued gives the results of 

 investigations in vegetable growth as applied to the propaga- 

 tion, cultivation and pruning of fruit-trees ; the diseases and 

 insects that attack them ; what is known of remedies for them ; 

 and methods of packing, shipping and preserving fruits. Of 

 course, there are books accessible upon these subjects, but 

 how many farmers buy them ? We hope the effect of this se- 

 ries of educational bulletins will be to create a desire to read 

 more, and hence to buy larger works. This scattering of in- 

 formation among farmers I esteem one of the most efficient 

 lines of work in which the stations can engage. 

 Raleigh, N. c. W- F. Massey. 



The Columbian Exposition. 



Cacti. 



CACTUS-LIKE plants are well represented at the Fair. 

 Every visitor is interested in the Giant Cactus, Cereus 

 giganteus, which is shown in a dozen good specimens in front 

 of the Horticultural Building. The tallest one is seventeen and 

 a half feet high. Some of the specimens are well branched, 

 and one comprises a clump of two trunks, and another of 

 three. These Cacti were collected in Arizona by William 

 Reed, of Tucson, the expense being paid by the Territorial 

 Board, and the transportation given by the Southern Pacific 

 and Santa F6 Railroads. 



There are some good Cacti from Arizona in front of the 

 Territorial Building, which belong to Arizona, Oklahoma and 

 New Mexico. Among these is one of the collection made by 

 Mr. Reed, a Cereus giganteus, or Sahura, as the Mexicans call 

 it, some fifteen feet high, and which has a fasciated or cristate 

 top some four feet broad. There are also many fine speci- 

 mens of the Bisnaga or Nigger-head, Echinocactus Wislizeni, 

 the hooked spines of which are sometimes used by the Mexi- 

 cans and Indians for fish-hooks. Opuntia fulgida, known as 

 Cholla ; O. arborescens, or Tasajo ; O. acanthocarpa, O. fru- 

 tescens, and the Rat-tail Opuntia, O. Klenia, are represented by 

 large plants. The Tasajo stands alone, and forms a tree-like 

 bush about five feet high and as many broad. Other interest- 

 ing Arizonan plants are Cereus Fendleri, Yucca elata, Agave 

 Palmeri, A. Mexicana, or Mescal-plant, the Soap-plant and 

 Fouquiera splendens, or Ocotillo. Arizona also has some 

 large pot and tub specimens of Phyllocactus and Cereus stand- 

 ing in front of the propagating-houses in the rear of the Horti- 

 cultural Building. 



The largest exhibitive collection of Cactus-like plants is made 

 by A. Blanc & Co., under the auspices of the Pennsylvania 

 State Commission. The collection occupies the two parterres 

 of the horticultural terrace which lie immediately in front of 

 the pavilions, each of which is 117 feet long and about twenty- 

 five feet wide. The plants are disposed in irregular raised 

 beds throughout the sod area. Unfortunately, none of the 

 plants are labeled, and the educational and technical value of 

 the exhibit is largely lost. There are various Yuccas, Agaves, 

 Euphorbias and other stiff or succulent plants in the collec- 

 tion besides the true Cacti. The plant which Blanc & Co. sell 

 as Euphorbia candelabra is represented by a specimen which 

 is grown in perfect tree form, and stands as high as a man. 

 Some rare or otherwise interesting Cacti in the display are 

 Echinocactus Le Contei, six feet high, and thought to be over 

 150 years old ; E. Wislizenii, over five feet high ; E. Pfeifferi, 

 nearly five feet in circumference ; good specimens of E. Grus- 

 soni ; Pelecyphora pectinata, P. asseliformis and Astrophytum 

 myriostigma. There are also various cristate and monstrous 

 forms. Mr. Blanc has a small collection of Cacti with the Penn- 

 sylvania plants under the dome of the Horticultural Building. 



In the south wing of the Horticultural Building Mrs. Anna B. 

 Nickels, of Laredo, Texas, has a large and excellent exhibit of 

 Cacti. Two hundred and eighty-seven species were brought 

 to the F"air, but some of them have been lost because the 

 building is not adapted to their cultivation. Mrs. Nickels has 

 been interested in Cacti most of her life, and for about twenty 

 years has collected them for sale. Some seventeen years ago 

 she issued a price-list, which was the first catalogue of Cacti 

 published in this country. Mrs. Nickels has collected Cacti 

 over a wide range of country in many journeys, in one season 

 gathering with her own hands 60,000 specimens within two 

 months' time. All the plants in her collection at the Fair are 

 wild specimens, freshly transferred from their native soil, the 

 purpose being to show the species in their indigenous forms. 

 There are some remarkably fine specimens of Echinocactus 

 pilosus, four feet high ; E. cylindracea, E. Grussoni, Cereus 

 Dumortieri, C. Nickelsii, a species which in its native soil 

 grows to a height of thirty feet without a branch ; C. Passacana, 

 C. pugioniferus and its variety geometrizans, C.Thurberi, Pilo- 

 cereus Houlettii and P. Hoppenstedti, and Anhalonium pris- 

 maticum. This exhibit excels in the long or upright Cacti of 

 the Cereus type, a characteristic mark, apparently, of the Cac- 

 tus flora of her region. 



In contrast to this collection, the display by Mexico, in the 

 north wing of the Horticultural Building, shows a decided pre- 

 ponderance of the round or globular Cacti. Here, Echinocactus 

 Grussoni is displayed in all its glory. It is a beautiful plant, 

 with its almost perfect globe-form and interlocking armature 

 of long lemon-yellow spines. About fifty balls of this Cactus 

 are in the collection, some of them between two and three 

 feet in diameter. There is one cluster containing eleven plants 

 of perfect form and color, and measuring, together, some four 

 feet across. To the Cactus fancier, however, the most inter- 

 esting species in the exhibit is the very rare Leuchtenbergia 

 Principis, a monotypic Mexican Cactus, which is seldom seen 

 in cultivation. The plants are small and not in bloom, and as 

 almost none of the specimens in the collection are named, they 

 attract little attention. Other conspicuous Cacti are a good 

 bush of Cereus pugioniferus, var. geometrizans, a very straight, 

 slender Cereus Columna-Trajani, over eight feet high ; Astro- 

 phytum myriostigma, clumps of Echinocactus conglomeratus, 

 Cereus Posacana, small round specimens of Echinocactus 

 pilosus, and many small Pelecyphora plants. These Mexican 

 plants are wild specimens, collected by Gustave Schreibe, of 

 the City of Mexico. 



Adjoining the Mexico exliibit is a small collection of Cacti 

 and Cactus-like plants from the United States Botanic Gardens 

 at Washington. Prominent plants iiere are Fouquiera splen- 

 dens, Cereus Peruvianus, var. monstrosus, Opuntia glauces- 

 cens and Euphorbia grandicornis. The Women's World's Fair 

 Society of San Diego, California, shows an interesting small 

 collection of Cacti, containing some good bushes of Opuntia. 

 The Candle-Cactus (Opuntia lurida), Opuntia Ficus Indica,var. 

 Minor, and a large Tuna Cactus are the most conspicuous plants. 



Two of the booths under the dome of the Horticultural 

 Building offer Cacti for sale. One sells the "Rainbow Cac- 

 tus," which is a good species of Echinocactus. It is ordinarily 

 called E. candicans, but it is a question if it is not rather 

 E. rigidissima. The other booth sells the "Columbian Cac- 

 tus," which is a small Mamillaria, and for which two colored 

 plates of an Amorphophallus serve as representations. The 

 Director-General has been advised of this traffic, but he de- 

 clines to interfere. 



Chicago, III. L. H. Bailey. 



