June 4, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



279 



Horticultural Society of Japan. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — A meeting of this Society was held at Uyeno Park, 

 Tokio, on the 9th of March, in the building- of the Japanese 

 Art Association, with the President of the Society, H. E. Hana- 

 busa, in the chair. The hall was beautifully decorated with 

 collections of rare and showy plants and works of art, among 

 which was a model of Korakuen, a well known garden of 

 Tokio, beautifully executed, with other equally interesting 

 models, landscape designs, hedges, porcelain seats, stone lan- 

 terns, bird cages, stones of curious shape, and, in a word, 

 everything needed to make an attractive garden. Choice 

 vases for Mowers, and rare pieces for tea ceremony, were also 

 worthy of attention. Quite as praiseworthy were the flowers 

 and works in marble to represent forms of European garden- 

 ing. There were implements of gardening from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, photographs of famous European gar- 

 den-scenes, and a valuable library of reference works on 

 gardening, both Japanese and foreign. It was said that the 

 exhibition surpassed in interest the display of the Horticultural 

 Department of the Industrial Exhibition now open in Tokio. 



The first address was by H. E. Tanaka, Vice-President of the 

 Society, and one of the leading naturalists of the time. "In- 

 struments of Gardening" was the subject of Mr. Ikeda, and 

 the meeting concluded with an instructive address by H. E. 

 Enomoto, Minister of State for Public Education. H. E. 

 Mayeda, Vice-Minister of the Agricultural Department, was 

 present, and during the evening Mr. Tanaka introduced a 

 magic lantern, with many illustrations and figures relating to 

 horticulture. 



This Society promises to be a considerable factor in the hor- 

 ticulture of the country. 



Tokio, Japan. Iwablichl. 



Recent Publications. 



How Crops Grow. A treatise on the Chemical Composition, 

 Structure and Life of the Plant for students of agriculture, by 

 Samuel W. Johnson, M.A. New York, Orange Judd Company, 

 1890. 



This is a new edition of the well known and classic work 

 which appeared more than twenty years ago, and which, with 

 its companion treatise, " How Crops Feed," holds the first rank 

 among American contributions to agricultural science. Since 

 these works were originally prepared, our knowledge of the 

 processes of plant nutrition and of the other subjectsconsidered 

 in them has greatly advanced, and this revision is an exposi- 

 tion of the present condition of the science of agriculture — so 

 far as it is based on the chemical composition of plants, their 

 structure and life. As the author points out, agricultural 

 science in its widest scope comprehends a vast range of sub- 

 jects and lays under contribution almost every department of 

 human learning. It is closely concerned with the sciences of 

 geology, meteorology, mechanics, physics, chemistry, botany, 

 zoology and physiology, as well as with social and political 

 economy. The topics treated in this volume, however, are 

 those which directly interest the farmer in his daily dealings 

 with plants, soils and fertilizers, or, to quote Professor John- 

 son's words in the introductory chapter of the volume: " How 

 the plant grows — the conditions under which it flourishes or 

 suffers detriment — the mode of its construction and organi- 

 zation — how it feeds upon soil and air — how it serves as food 

 to animals — how the air, soil, plant and animal stand related 

 to each other in a perpetual round of the most beautiful and 

 wonderful transformations — these are some of the grand ques- 

 tions that come before us; and they are not less interesting to 

 the philosopher or man of culture than important to the 

 farmer who depends upon their practical solution for his com- 

 fort; or to the statesman who regards them in their bearings 

 upon the weightiest of political considerations." In this clearly 

 defined field Professor Johnson's writings have proved not 

 only of practical advantage to working farmers, but they have 

 commanded the respect of men of science, and perhaps no 

 other agency in the country has been so potent in encourag- 

 ing serious research in the sciences related to agriculture and 

 in elevating the character of agricultural discussion in the 

 periodical press. 



Perhaps one of the most important services rendered by this 

 book has been its influence in establishing the practical value 

 of science to the farmer — in showing him that genuine science 

 is not something remote and fanciful, but immediately useful 

 truth. The persons who hold that there is an essential con- 

 flict between theory and practice, and that narrow individual 

 experience is of greater value in agriculture or horticulture 

 than the wider generalizations of science, should study these 



sentences, which are taken from the introduction to "How 

 Crops Grow": "Science employs, in effecting its progress, 

 essentially the same methods that are used by merely practi- 

 cal men. Its success is commonly more rapid and brilliant, 

 because its instruments of observation are finer and more 

 skillfully handled ; because it experiments more industriously 

 and variedly, thus commanding a wider and more fruitful ex- 

 perience; because it usually brings a more cultivated imagina- 

 tion and a more disciplined judgment to bear upon its work. 

 The devotion of a life to discovery or invention is sure to yield 

 greater results than a desultory application made in the inter- 

 vals of other absorbing pursuits. It is, then, for the interest 

 of the farmer to avail himself of the labors of the man of 

 science, when the latter is willing to inform himself in the 

 details of practice so as rightly to comprehend the questions 

 which press for solution." 



It is needless to add that Professor Johnson has taken care 

 to inform himself on the points where science and practice 

 come into contact, and that the revised edition neglects none 

 of the important discoveries in physics, chemistry or biology 

 which, in recent years, have done so much to aid the farmer 

 in his legitimate work of winning from the soil at the least 

 cost the greatest possible amount of certain animal and vege- 

 table products. 



Notes. 



The new crop of sweet potatoes is beginning to come in 

 from the south. Gooseberries, too, are now found in market, 

 and apricots from California are already quite plentiful. 



A Mr. Lathan, of Eddisburg, near Liverpool, possesses a 

 gigantic Camellia twenty feet in height, as much in the diam- 

 eter of the head, and thirty inches around the stem, from 

 which he annually sells $300 worth of flowers. 



Our esteemed correspondent, Dr. Charles Bolle\ of Berlin, 

 has recently been appointed inspector of the Department of 

 Parks and Gardens of that city, a position which will enable 

 him to make available his great knowledge for the benefit of 

 the public. 



A Pine Forest Land Improvement Company with a capital 

 of $1,000,000 has been incorporated at Lakewood, New Jersey. 

 A new hotel will be built by the association, but it is under- 

 stood that it will give special attention to the preservation of the 

 Pine lands of the county and to the planting of new tracts. 



Professor Green, of the Ohio Experiment Station, recom- 

 mends the use of rubber bands in bunching asparagus as less 

 likely to injure the stalks than unclastic strings. To fit the band 

 around the upper end of a bunch the heads of the shoots may 

 be placed in a teacup, and the band gently slipped from the 

 cup around the bunch. 



By order of the court a Rhenish railroad company recently 

 paid $625 for five full grown and five young Apple-trees, which 

 stood on a bit of ground that had been condemned for its use. 

 Another company in Prussia was obliged, in the year 1886, to 

 pay $600 for a single Cherry-tree, as it was proved that its 

 product annually sold for at least $25. 



A recent issue of the Rural Pacific Press contains a portrait 

 of a remarkable specimen of Dr. Parry's Arctostaphylos Man- 

 sanita growing at Helena, California. It is a wide-spreading 

 shrub separating into several branches just above the surface 

 of the ground, where the short trunk girths eleven feet and six 

 inches. It has attained a height of from thirty to thirty-five 

 feet, the head spreading thirty-six and thirty feet in the two 

 directions. 



The Paulownia is flowering this year in the Public Garden 

 in Boston, a very unusual, if not an unheard of occurrence in 

 eastern Massachusetts, where the tree just survives, forming 

 its flower-buds sometimes in sheltered situations, and then 

 almost invariably losing them again during the winter. It 

 usually flowers well in this latitude, however, and the trees in 

 Central Park are still covered with beautiful and fragrant 

 blossoms. 



Foreign journals state that Herr Bornmuller, while exploring 

 the districts east of the Black Sea, recently discovered a new 

 Poplar, a natural hybrid between Populus alba and P. nigra. 

 It resembles the former in the large sharp teeth of its leaves 

 and in the thick white tomentum which covers the lower sur- 

 face of the young leaves and twigs, while it approaches P. 

 nigra in the three-cornered shape of the leaves, which later 

 become entirely green. 



Reports from Tittis say that the phylloxera has invaded parts 

 of the Caucasian region where hitherto it had been unknown, 



