February 5, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



71 



which have made themselves conspicuously disagreeable 

 during the year, and gave also the cheering information that a 

 large plant-insect, identified as a Podisus, had been found 

 preying upon the Currant-worm, a fact which encourages 

 the hope that this annoying pest may be more easily con- 

 trolled. 



TESTING VARIETIES OF FRUITS. 



Mr. C. E. Hunn, of the Geneva Experiment Station, gave 

 an interesting account of the work in this direction under 

 his charge, and the conditions under which new varieties were 

 received from originators, protected from rival growers and 

 finally reported upon. The paper concluded with the state- 

 ment that there were now under comparative trial at the 

 Geneva Experiment Station the following varieties of fnnts : 

 300 varieties of Apples, 120 of Pears, 97 of Plums, 53 of Cher- 

 ries, 151 of Grapes, 98 of Strawberries, 57 of Raspberries, 24 of 

 Blackberries, 24 of Currants, 16 of Gooseberries. These are 

 reported on as they come into bearing, with as full a descrip- 

 tion as possible. 



Of the Strawberries tested at the station in the season of 

 1889, the following were found promising: Burt's Seedling, a 

 good substitute for Wilson ; Bomba, Crawford, Daisy, En- 

 hance, Farnsworth, Hoffman, Haviland, Ivanhoe, Middle- 

 field, Augur's No. 70 and Warfield. 



For market the following are commended: Haviland and 

 Hoffman, early ; Daisy and Burt's Seedling, medium ; Bubach 

 and Crawford, late. 



For the kitchen-garden the following are promising: Bomba 

 and Haviland, early ; Ivanhoe, medium ; Farnsworth and Mid- 

 dlefield, late. 



There were fruited on the station grounds the past season 

 1,000 seedlings, many of them crosses. In the study of them 

 many interesting facts have been obtained, among which 

 are the following in regard to pollen bearing blossoms : Of 

 forty-six seedlings from Wilson all had perfect blossoms ; 

 of seventy-four seedlings from Daniel Boon, forty were per- 

 fect and thirty-four were pistillate; of fifty from Crescent, eleven 

 were perfect and thirty-nine were pistillate ; of forty from 

 Sharpless, thirty-nine were perfect and one- was pistillate ; of 

 forty from Old Iron Clad, thirty-seven were perfect and three 

 were pistillate ; of sixty-five from Crescent, crossed with Len- 

 nig's White, thirty-five were perfect and thirty were pistillate ; 

 of thirty-four from Crescent, crossed with Sharpless, nine were 

 perfect and twenty-five were pistillate. 



While the chance seedlings afford a lesson in variation, it is 

 the crosses that should be studied. It would naturally seem 

 that a variety as vigorous and well supplied with pollen as the 

 Sharpless would be more potent to carry its pollen bearing 

 quality than one of the habit of Lennig's White; but the con- 

 trary is the case in this instance, and the contrast seems too 

 sharp to be merely chance. If this potency continues to hold 

 good through other tests, it will be a great benefit to the ex- 

 perimenter in perfecting any pistillate variety, as in the case 

 of a very late pistillate kind, of rank growth, vigorous habits 

 and free blooming qualities, but blooming after all the pollen 

 bearing varieties have passed out of flower. If we can be sure 

 of a perfect variety of weaker growth, but potent to carry its 

 pollen, it will be one step toward accomplishing our ends. 



THE PLANTING OF SCHOOL-GROUNDS. 



A paper on this subject by Mr. John J. Thomas began by 

 assuming that if attractive surroundings in a home are 

 better than those which are repulsive, certainly it is better that 

 children should live under the influence of surroundings that 

 are orderly and pleasant than among those that are rude and 

 debasing. There are 5,000,000 children of school age in the 

 country, and it should be a matter of concern to know the 

 character of the place in which they spend a large portion of 

 five days at least of every week at a period of life when they are 

 most susceptible to all impressions. It certainly is better that 

 the school-house and grounds should be attractive rather than 

 unrefined and comfortless. And yet there are many school- 

 houses whose appearance and arrangements are calculated to 

 give lessons in anything else than in order and tidiness and 

 beauty. Mr. Thomas spoke of a region through which he once 

 drove where he passed two farms with brick barns which cost 

 from $6,000 to $8,000 each, and within a mile of these, on a side 

 road, was the school-house which the children of the owners of 

 these barns attended. The building had originally cost, say 

 $400, including the rail-fence which surrounded it. It had 

 never been painted. There were no shade-trees about it. It 

 stood bare and comfortless, and the only comely thing on the 

 premises was a neatly dressed school-mistress, seen through 

 the window. Now, suppose these men, who were willing "to 

 spend thousands of dollars on buildings in which their ani- 

 mals were housed, had been willing to pay a little attention to 



the ornamentation of the grounds where their children were 

 receiving instruction, is it not to be presumed that the influ- 

 ence of a pleasant shrub-bordtred lawn and some well kept 

 shade-trees would have helped in the formation of proper 

 habits of thought and a proper recognition of what is lovely 

 in nature and in art ? The decoration of school-grounds can be 

 made at a trilling expense. The ground in the beginning 

 should be thoroughly broken and harrowed and then seeded 

 to grass. It should be planted with some native shrubs and 

 trees, and the boys and girls should be made to feel an inter- 

 est in maintaining it. The play-ground proper may be in the 

 rear of the building, and if the students are furnished with a 

 cheap mower they will take pride in keeping the lawn in front 

 well clipped and tidy. Besides this, if our native trees — Hick- 

 ories, Oaks, Birches and Pines — are planted in groups, many 

 interesting lessons in botany can be drawn from them by a 

 skillful instructor. Flower-beds should be used with caution, 

 but when children are properly interested they can be intro- 

 duced to advantage, and it is certain that the influence of such 

 a pleasant ground will do something toward improving and 

 elevating taste and character. 



In the discussion which followed it was objected that boys 

 take the greatest delight in destroying everything that is planted 

 in school-grounds. On the other hand, several members 

 related their experience to prove that the interest of the chil- 

 dren themselves can be enlisted, and then the danger of de- 

 struction is small. One speaker stated that he had planted 

 the grounds of the school in his district three successive 

 times, and the trees were always destroyed ; but on the fourth 

 occasion he invited the pupils to his nursery to dig up the 

 trees for themselves. He accompanied them and directed the 

 planting, which was also done by them with some little cere- 

 mony, including music, speaking and a pleasant collation. 

 The result was that the whole school has entered heartily into 

 the garden project, and has added flowers and shrubs, which 

 they are watching with the utmost care. 



The May frost, which did so much damage to fruit crops last 

 year, did less injury to pears than to any other kind of fruit. 



There never has been a glut in the market of first-class 

 fruit. When carefully graded, the first quality always finds 

 sale. It is the mixture of inferior fruit and fruit improperly 

 prepared for market which brings down prices. 



The area of land devoted to the cultivation of the Grape is 

 rapidly increasing in Chautauqua County, and the so-called 

 "Vineyard District," which extends for forty miles along the 

 south-east shore of Lake Erie, will soon be entirely given up 

 to this industry. Last year 360 acres were devoted to the 

 propagation of the vine, and more than 10,000,000 cnttiivs 

 were rooted. 



Professor Caldwell, in speaking of the effect of fertilizers, 

 cited an instance where wines of a particularly rich bouquet 

 where made from grapes in a district whose soil was pecu- 

 liarly rich in phosphate. A long treatment of phosphatic fer- 

 tilizers was given by an experimenter to certain other lands 

 where this element was less abundant, and, after thirty years, 

 the peculiar bouquet appeared also in the wine produced' from 

 the latter district. 



A letter was read from the venerable Lewis F. Allen, who is 

 more than ninety years old and who settled in Buffalo when it 

 was a village. Sixty years ago Plum-trees were found every- 

 where and were abundantly productive. Neither the curculio 

 nor the Black Knot had then been heard of. Along the Canada 

 shores of the Niagara River were Peach-trees ten inches in 

 diameter and forty years old. The new-comers, encouraged 

 by these indications, planted many Peach orchards on Grand 

 Island and the neighboring shores, which were very profitable 

 for a time. Thirty years later, however, the yellows came, 

 and hardly a single tree is now living. 



In the course of an address on the Fruit Evaporating indus- 

 try, Mr. Michael Doyle gave some interesting facts concerning 

 "chopped apples," a dried product from inferior fruit and ma- 

 terial left after the preparation of the best quality of evaporated 

 fruit. The export trade in this product had increased from 

 small orders in 1880 to 1 1,000,000 pounds in 1888, and 20,000,000 

 pounds could have been sold in 1889. Cider was said to be a 

 staple drink in northern France, and 276,000,000 gallons were 

 consumed there annually. The chopped apples taken from 

 here, and largely used for conversion into cider, are thoroughly 

 dried, and are preferred to the home growth, being better 

 preserved and of finer flavor. There now appears room for 

 all we are able to export, although the Apple crop in France 

 was valued last year at $19,000,000 — which seems like an 

 enormous product for a single fruit. 



