466 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 298. 



of by the b"est judges, who describe it as large-flowered, 

 free-blooming, light salmony pink in color, not unlike La 

 France, but superior in form and color ; Madame Pernet- 

 Ducher is a rich yellow- flowered variety, charming when 

 in bud, and a good decorative flower when expanded, the 

 centre being of a deeper yellow shade ; La Fraicheur is a 

 large free-flowering variety, long and pointed when in bud, 

 expanding into a full, well-formed flower of a rich rose 

 color, with a slight tinge of yellow. This also was raised 

 by Messrs. Pernet and Ducher, and sent out in 1891. 



Orchid Collecting. — It is reported that Rajah Sir Charles 

 Brooke, British Representative in Sarawak, Borneo, has is- 

 sued an order prohibiting the collection of natural-history 

 specimens in the country under his control As Sarawak 

 is the home of a number of very choice garden Orchids, 

 besides many other garden-plants, this order, if allowed to 

 stand many years, will have the effect of rendering the 

 plants peculiar to that country rare, and some will proba- 

 bly disappear entirely from cultivation. If such a law were 

 to be enforced throughout the tropics of the British Empire 

 it would cause considerable consternation among Orchid 

 importers. The authorities at the Cape of Good Hope 

 found it necessary to forbid the collecting of Disa grandi- 

 flora on Table Mountain to prevent its complete extermi- 

 nation by the vandal exporter. Similar protection is, I be- 

 lieve, given to the Double Cocoanut in the Seychelles, the 

 value set upon the nuts threatening to lead to its extermi- 

 nation from the small island of Praslin, where only this 

 Palm is found wild. 



The Botanical Garden at Oxford, the oldest " Physic 

 Garden " in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 

 1632, is rich in rare and interesting specimens of hardy 

 trees and shrubs, notwithstanding its limited area, and, in 

 some respects, untoward conditions. Steps have lately 

 been taken to bring it in line with more modern institutions 

 of similar character and purpose, and already several of 

 the very old plant-houses have been replaced by houses 

 better adapted to the requirements of indoor plants. These 

 are a Palm-house, stove, succulent-house and propagating- 

 house, and houses for aquatics, Ferns and Orchids are 

 shortly to follow. The Ave principal university towns of 

 the Kingdom, namely, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, 

 Glasgow and Dublin, possess botanical gardens of con- 

 siderable richness and interest. 



Mr. James H. Veitch, of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, 

 has caused considerable excitement in Dunedin, New Zea- 

 land, according to an antipodean newspaper, as he has col- 

 lected an enormous number of rare native plants to bring 

 with him to Chelsea. The plants fill twelve Wardian cases, 

 each of which when packed weighed half a ton. It is not 

 surprising to any one here who is acquainted with the 

 beauty of many New Zealand plants, and especially Ferns, 

 that Mr. Veitch has decided to try and introduce them into 

 English gardens. 



London. 



W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Raspberries and Blackberries. 



BULLETIN No. 57 of the Horticultural Division of the 

 Cornell Experiment Station contains some useful 

 notes on raspberries and blackberries as a farm crop, pre- 

 pared by Mr. Fred. W. Card. Many of the points are of 

 quite as much interest to those who grow these berries for 

 home use as they are to those who grow them as a market 

 crop. Some of the most interesting of these we give below : 

 Black Raspberries. — The fact that a given variety yields a 

 comparatively dry berry, like the Ohio, does not prove that the 

 crop when evaporated will be the heaviest. Some tests made 

 by Professor Goff show that tiie smallest and juiciest berry 

 sometimes yields the most dried fruit. With some of the best 

 growers the Gregg is supplanting the Ohio, although it is not 

 so universally hardy as the latter berry. In some tests made 

 by the Ohio Experiment Station the Gregg yielded the greatest 

 amount of food-value to a bushel of green fruit of any variety 

 dried. 



Cultivation. — Among growers the most popular fertilizer 

 is stable-manure, wood-ashes rankmg next, and ground bone 

 and the so-called complete fertilizers next. Thorough cultiva- 

 tion is becoming more and more to be known as one of the 

 best means of supplying fertility to crops. Red Clover grown 

 on land by itself, cut when in blossom, and applied along the 

 rows as a mulch while the centre space between the rows is 

 kept thoroughly cultivated, has been most successfully em- 

 ployed. With severe pruning and careful attention this method 

 has given some phenomenal yields. It is probable that the 

 general verdict in favor of stable- manure depends on the fact 

 that this is a material which growers are most likely to have at 

 hand. It contains usually an excess of nitrogen in proportion 

 to other ingredients, and it may be with profit supplemented 

 by potash and phosphoric acid. Spring-planting is always to 

 be preferred for Black Caps, but if it is desirable to secure the 

 plants in the fall they can be set in shallow furrows and 

 mulched well through the wmter, and then set in a permanent 

 place after the young shoots have made a growth of a few 

 inches in spring. This ensures the weeding out of poor plants. 

 The plants should be set in the bottom of a furrow, covered 

 lightly at first, and gradually filled up until the roots are, at 

 least, from three to four inches deep. 



Pruning — It is a false notion that Black Cap canes ought to 

 be allowed to produce fruit at once. They should be cut back 

 hard, for any fruit obtained the first year is at the expense of 

 the vitality of the plant. Plants which are not cut back nearly 

 to the ground when they are set do not readily throw up canes 

 from the root, but are apt to branch out from the old stalk. In 

 pruning, the young shoots should be nipped back low, when 

 they reach the desired height ; that is, they should not be 

 allowed to grow higher and then be cut back. If pinched well, 

 the plant at once throws out vigorous branches near the 

 ground and makes a well-balanced bush. When it is allowed 

 to grow high, and is then cut back, only the weak buds are 

 left, and only three or four of the upper ones start at all, and 

 produce a top-heavy plant. 



Blackberries. — In the cultivation of this fruit the prefer- 

 ence is also for low pruning, but some varieties show lack of 

 uniformity in their manner of bearing fruit. At times most of 

 it will be found close to the main stalk, and at other times it 

 will be well out on the laterals. Early Harvest, Early Cluster, 

 and Lovett's Best behave in this way. It is better to leave such 

 varieties until the blossom-buds show before pruning in order 

 to guage the amount of fruit which should be produced. 

 Wilson's Early sets fruit-buds thickly near the base of the lat- 

 erals, and should consequently be pruned closely on the side 

 growths. Early Harvest requires a longer pruning of the 

 laterals. 



Red Raspberries. — Some of the best growers are in doubt 

 about the propriety of pinching back Red Raspberries, and it 

 is probable that it is better to do no summer pruning of them 

 after the first year or two, unless in the case of very strong- 

 growing kinds. If pinching is done at all the work should be 

 done early, and the plant should be pinched as soon as it 

 reaches the height of eighteen inches, so that it will branch 

 low. If this is neglected until the plant is three or four feet 

 high it will send out a few weak branches near the top, most 

 of which will be injured by the winter and it will make an un- 

 satisfactory bush. The only objection to low branching is the 

 liability to breaking from the settling of heavy snows, but this 

 danger is slight. 



Hardiness of Immature Canes. — Some growers believe 

 that canes grown late in the season are hardier than those 

 which have the whole season to grow in. To test this, early in 

 July, 1892, all the young canes were cut from part of a row of 

 Snyder Blackberries, Cuthbert and Shaffer Raspberries. The 

 canes thrown up after that date were allowed to go unpruned 

 until the next spring. On examination in spring the Cuth- 

 bert canes of late growth were found in better condition than 

 those which grew the whole season. They were further ad- 

 vanced and more uniformly green. The late-grown canes of 

 the Shaffer plants also came through in excellent condition. 

 In the Blackberries, all were badly winter-killed, the late-grown 

 ones, perhaps, more than the others. These late canes are 

 smaller, but they produce fine fruit, although the yield is prob- 

 ably less than on those of longer growth. How their superior 

 hardiness is to be accounted for is a question. It may be that 

 since they start late in the season and make a less rapid growth 

 they make firmer wood, which is really in better condition to 

 withstand the winter than the more vigorous and succulent 

 early growth; that is, instead of being less mature, they are 

 really better matured than the canes which started earlier. 

 Possibly, however, the early canes become weak, dry and 

 somewhat lifeless before the approach of winter. 



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