306 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 25, 1890. 



Europe see more frequently. This is due, in part, to the 

 fact that it has been planted everywhere along the lines 

 of railroads to hold the soil on the embankments, and be- 

 cause it is the favorite tree for the embellishment of the 

 grounds surrounding the stations. 



Long cultivation of this tree has given birth to many 

 varieties, and of these the one known as the Parasol 

 Acacia, with a dwarf, compact, spherical head, usually 

 grafted as a tall standard, is one of the most popular orna- 

 mental trees in Europe, where it lines countless miles of 

 roadside and adorns innumerable villa-gardens. 



The great value of the Locust-tree is found in the wood 

 which it produces. This is heavy, exceedingly hard and 

 strong, very close-grained, and capable of withstanding for 

 a long time the effects of decay when placed in contact 

 with the ground. This makes it one of the best woods 

 known for fence-posts ; it has many uses in ship-building, 

 and is preferred to the wood of all other trees for tree-nails, 

 for which purpose it is largely used. It grows rapidly from 

 seed, which is produced in the greatest profusion, and it 

 will adapt itself to almost every kind of soil. The rapidity 

 of its growth is great, and thanks to the lightness of the 

 shade cast by its compound leaves, it does less injury than 

 most other trees to crops growing beneath its branches. 

 The Locust is a good hedge-plant, too, and the fragrant 

 white flowers are very beautiful. These are the qualities 

 which have made the Locust popular, and were it not that 

 it is so liable to the attacks of insects, the planters of the 

 present day would be able to endorse all that Cobbett 

 claimed for it. 



An illustration in a recent issue of The Garden, London, 

 indicates what delightful effects can be produced by natur- 

 alizing hardy spring-flowering plants in the grass. It 

 represents a forest-scene in the grounds of Dunrobin Cas- 

 tle, with the turf about the trunks of the old trees thickly 

 studded and completely carpeted with Snowdrops, which 

 have been growing there from time immemorial. 



There is certainly no more delightful and satisfactory 

 form of gardening than that which naturalizes hardy plants, 

 especially the plants which flower in early spring when 

 every flower is doubly valuable. A thousand bulbs of the 

 Poet's Narcissus, of the Snowdrop, or of the Squill, or of the 

 Crocus, will produce infinitely more pleasure if they are 

 planted in some wild spot by the edge of a wood or of a 

 wood path, than the same number of plants are capable of 

 giving in a formal flower-bed or border. Wild gardening, 

 if the term is a permissible one, is the easiest and most 

 economical of all forms of the gentle art. Once the plants 

 are established in the proper soil and in the right situation, 

 they require no further thought or care. All they need is 

 to be let alone and to be allowed to go on growing and 

 increasing and producing their flowers year after year. 



The earlier in the autumn bulbs which produce their 

 flowers in the spring can be set in the ground, the sooner 

 they will become established and the better the results 

 which they will give. This is the time, therefore, to study 

 the lists of the dealers in plants of this sort, to determine 

 which are to be planted and to order the bulbs. 



There are a few rules which can be safely followed in 

 gardening of this character. The most important of all is 

 to select only such pieces of ground for planting with 

 spring-flowering bulbs as need hot be mowed until they 

 have thoroughly matured their leaves, as the early cutting 

 off of the leaves will weaken and finally destroy the bulbs. 

 The turf of a lawn cut early and regularly with a lawn- 

 mower is not, therefore, a suitable place for bulb-growing. 

 If the grass is not cut until after the middle of June the leaves 

 of nearly all the spring flowering species, even such late 

 blooming ones as the Poet's " Narcissus and the Wild 

 Hyacinth, will be ripe enough to cut without injury; so 

 that such plants can be naturalized in ordinary hay-fields, 

 if it is desirable to do so, with perfect safety. Some judg- 

 ment, too, must be used in selecting the plants to be em- 

 ployed in this sort of gardening. Those unchanged by 



cultivation are better suited for the purpose than plants 

 which the gardener has long worked over. The double 

 Daffodil looks out of place by the borders of a wood walk, 

 while all the single Narcissus appear perfectly at home in 

 such a situation. The wild Hyacinth and the other Squills, 

 the Snowdrops and the Crocuses, never appear too fine for 

 any bit of natural scenery, while a garden Tulip or a gar- 

 den Hyacinth, gaudy and beautiful although they be in a 

 formal parterre, spoil with their artificiality the simple 

 beauty of a woodland glade or of a smiling meadow. In our 

 climate, where the enjoyment of the earliest spring-flower- 

 ing plants is often interfered with by melting snow and by 

 the mud of late March and early April, few wild plants can 

 be used with more safety and with a greater prospect of 

 pleasure than the Poet's Narcissus and the wild Hyacinth 

 \Scilla campanula/a). The two flower at the same time and 

 the blue bells of the latter make the most charming con- 

 trast with the pure white flowers of the former. They 

 flow r er here simultaneously, too, with many of the native 

 plants which are most desirable in the garden, such as 

 the Trilliums, the Phloxes and the earl)'' Lady's Slippers. 



So, to the owners of gardens we can only repeat what has 

 been said so often before in these columns, that if they want 

 to obtain the greatest amount of pleasure with the smallest 

 outlay of labor and money, let them plant hardy bulbs, 

 and the more the better; and the sooner their plans are 

 laid and their plants ordered, the better will be their 

 chances of success. 



The Kecskemet Heath. 



HEATH — Hcidc — is in Germany a generic term for any 

 stretch of sandy, uncultivated country, whether it be 

 covered only with grass and scrubby, low vegetation or more 

 or less generally with poor trees. Such a heath formerly 

 stretched for many miles around the town of Kecskemet, in 

 Hungary — an apparently limitless expanse of grass and shifting 

 sand, which gave rough pasturage for herds of long-horned 

 cattle and plethoric swine, guarded by peasants who, summer 

 and winter, wore their characteristic sheep-skin coats, with 

 the wool outside, and by the huge wolfish Hungarian sheep- 

 dogs. A writer in the Illustrirle Gartenzeitung, of Vienna, 

 tells, however, of the transformation which this semi-desert 

 has undergone in recent times. Even in approaching Kecs- 

 kemet by the railroad, he says, one is struck by this trans- 

 formation, the road running for miles between embankments 

 beyond which, instead of the former waste of drifting sand, 

 bare of trees or shrubs, now extend luxuriant gardens, giving 

 evidence of the most careful cultivation, vineyards and orch- 

 ards succeeding on each other, or, most often, mingling their 

 allied products. Closer observations only increase the sur- 

 prise of the visitor. A half hour's drive from the suburbs in 

 any direction takes him into real forests of fruit-trees, which 

 cover many thousand acres of land, and, in their little clusters 

 of farm-houses and peasant inns, sustain a population of 

 20,000 persons of the true ancient Magyar stock. 



This great steppe, whose soil was of the coarsest sand, was 

 to a large extent the property of the town, the municipality 

 owning sixteen square miles — more, says our author, than the 

 area of some of those little principalities into which the Ger- 

 man kingdom was formerly divided. In order to redeem this 

 district, the town, some thirty or forty years ago, granted a 

 portion of it to its inhabitants on condition that it should be 

 cultivated, recommending especially the planting of orchards. 

 Now Kecskemet fruit is famous not only in Austria but in 

 Russia, and in a good year brings the dealers of the town a 

 profit of half a mfilion dollars. Broad highways run for miles 

 in all directions from the town, planted with hedges and ave- 

 nues. It is interesting to note that the only trees our author 

 mentions in this connection are of American origin. The 

 Locust, he says, is most generally employed, but the Gledits- 

 chia (Three-thorned Acacia) is also much used, having proved 

 an excellent protection against the storms which sweep over 

 the heath and the drifting of its sands. Apples form the chief 

 crop, although apricots are grown in such quantities that 

 whole trains filled with them are dispatched during the season 

 to various parts of Germany and Russia. Pears are likewise 

 grown, and cucumbers, melons and paprikas, of which a great 

 specialty is made. But the grape vies with the apple in im- 

 portance. The vines are grown in the way usually adopted in 

 southern Germany as well as in southern France, being closely 



