December 17, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



613 



when well grown its quality is certainly very good. It has, 

 however, been to a great extent superseded by the Graven- 

 stein, and growers call it an unprofitable apple in competition 

 with that variety. 



Primate. — There is no better late fall and early autumn 

 apple than the Primate, and it is easily grown. 



Red Canada. — It is hard to find fault with the old " None- 

 such," and they still grow it large and fair in some parts of 

 Michigan. But it is an apple very apt to " go back " on the 

 planter. In New England and generally in the east it is a sad 

 failure. 



Spitzenberg. — This (Newtown) Spitzenberg is much 

 more to my taste than its brother of Esopus. The tree is 

 more healthy and productive in the long run, and the fruit is 

 not only rich, spicy and vinous, but it is tender and crisp. 



Summer Rose.— Here is a nice little apple, not much larger 

 than the Lady Apple, and quite as good in its season, but no 

 more worthy a place in a select list. 



Swaar. — A noble apple truly, as Downing calls it. No one 

 will object to the Swaar ; but few have the soil to grow it in 

 perfection. It ought not, therefore, to be recommended for 

 general cultivation. 



Wagener. — A good tree and a choice apple, provided the 

 fruit is severely thinned. It is only so that it can be entitled 

 to the place assigned it. As usually grown it is unprofitable 

 and its high quality much obscured. 



Let me conclude shortly with the query, Whether the time 

 has not come to revise, prune and possibly somewhat to en- 

 large this list of America's " best" apples ? 



Newport, Vt. 



T. H. Hoskins. 



The Grape Market. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes that "he does not understand 

 why grapes should be so cheap when there is such a 

 scarcity of other fruits." One reason for these low prices I 

 attribute to over-production. This idea is often characterized 

 as ridiculous, but that the supply exceeds the demand, except 

 at the lowest prices, is evident to all observers. The area de- 

 voted to grape culture in New York State during the last decade 

 has been immensely increased, and it is from this region that 

 New York and the surrounding cities receive their chief sup- 

 plies, and notwithstanding serious damage to the crop in 

 some parts of the state from rot and mildew our markets have 

 been flooded the past autumn with this fruit to an extent 

 never before known. 



Another agency in depressing prices is the immense quan- 

 tity of unripe and inferior fruit sold. Purchasers become dis- 

 satisfied and disappointed after a few trials of such fruit, and 

 many refuse grapes altogether on this account. Growers 

 injure themselves and the market by putting out such fruit. 

 The desire to be early in the market so as to command the 

 highest prices often overreaches itself, unless the fruit is of 

 excellent quality. 



The growers are not always responsible for this inferior 

 quality of their products, for it is a well known fact that soil 

 and climate are important factors in this matter. New Jersey 

 fruits as a rule are more highly colored and better flavored 

 than the same kinds produced in western New York. The 

 Concord, most widely disseminated of all our grapes, is of 

 much higher quality grown here than there. It seems to im- 

 prove, not only in this respect, as it comes farther south, but 

 also loses its foxiness. This change holds good with other 

 fruits, and is doubtless due to our longer season, and perhaps 

 to the presence of more iron in our soil. I once took some 

 Baldwin apples to a meeting of the western New York Horti- 

 cultural Society which were so highly colored that some of the 

 experts there questioned the correctness of their name. 



This difference in the quality of fruits grown in different 

 localities is apparent to persons of critical tastes who have 

 given any attention to the matter. It is worth while to quote 

 the results of six chemical analyses of Concord grapes made in 

 1885 by Professor G. C. Caldwell, of Cornell University : Three 

 samples of New Jersey Concords showed an average of 16.09 

 per cent, of sugar in the juice, and three of New York Concords 

 an average of 13.54 per cent, of sugar. The grapes found in 

 our markets would doubtless show a much wider difference if 

 submitted to the same test. 



A few years ago, when the Niagara Grape Company began 

 to solicit purchasers for their vines on the terms they had 

 adopted, the plan met with a good deal of criticism. People 

 who accepted those terms were laughed at for their folly in 

 allowing strangers to get a mortgage on their lands in this way, 

 and it was predicted that Niagara grapes would soon be as 

 cheap as Concords. The lapse of time has proved these prophe- 

 cies true in part. Most of these so-called lunatics who bought 



the vines early have realized a handsome profitfrom their ven- 

 ture. The past season, however, has developed the fulfill- 

 ment of the prophecy as to the price, as Concords and Niagaras 

 have sold at the same price ; and in fact these cheap Niagara 

 grapes were not as good as good Concords. The commission 

 merchant who sold my Niagara grapes told me that it was 

 hard to hold up the price when they could be bought on the 

 same block at thirty cents for a five-pound basket. I bought 

 one of these baskets which came from a vineyard in central 

 New York. The clusters were of good size and compact, and 

 the berries full and large, but a single taste was enough to 

 show that for table grapes they were dear at thirty cents a 

 wagon-load. It is little wonder that many Niagara grapes have 

 been sold in this market for from fifteen to twenty cents a 

 basket, although when expenses for commission, freight, ex- 

 pressage, packing and picking have been deducted the margin 

 of profit for the grower must be very slender. It is grapes of 

 this quality which depress the market and- tend to ruin the 

 reputation of any variety. Merchants do not regard quality as 

 much as they should, and buyers generally try to force the 

 best down to a level with the cheapest. It seems, therefore, 

 that the only remedy for the present low prices is to increase 

 the percentage of fruit of the first quality and reduce the pro- 

 duction of inferior grades. When consumers find they are 

 getting a fruit that is palatable and healthful they will buy 

 abundantly. As it is they have reason to be suspicious of any- 

 thing in the shape of a grape. 

 Montclair, N. J. E. Williams. 



Cattleya Percivaliana alba. — One of the few plants in existence 

 of this rare and beautiful variety is now in full bloom in the 

 collection of Mr. Hicks Arnold of this city, and it carries three 

 handsome flowers well formed and of snowy whiteness except 

 a rich orange stain in the throat. Each sepal is broad and 

 flat, the petals round and furnished with a fine fringe. The 

 lip also is broad and delicately frilled. The plant occupies a 

 basket, and is suspended near the glass throughout the year. 

 The ordinary form of C. Percivaliana is now enriching many 

 collections with its showy blossoms, and is gaining popularity 

 among florists as a useful and free-flowering species for cut 

 flowers. It is very easy to cultivate, and in its native home is 

 found growing at 4,000 to 5,000 feet elevation on rocks fully ex- 

 posed to the sun. Three, four and sometimes five flowers 

 make their appearance on a spike and remain a month in good 

 condition. It will thrive well either in a pot or basket in a 

 compost of good fibrous peat and a small portion of clean 

 sphagnum with ample drainage. After the flowering period 

 is past water should be sparingly given to ripen the new bulbs. 

 During the summer months, the growing period of the plant, 

 it should have a temperature of sixty-five degrees. A few 

 degrees higher will prove beneficial, and a gradual reduction 

 of water as the new growths approach completion will induce 

 them to flower. 



Summit, n.j. A. Dimmock. 



The Forest. 

 Value of Mountain Forests. 



THE first and most important function of mountain forests is 

 the preservation of the mountains themselves by clothing 

 them with soil. The relation of mountain forests to the soil 

 out of which they grow is curious and interesting. The soil 

 now produces the trees, but the forest has produced the soil 

 which now nourishes it. There was a time when there was 

 no soil on the mountains of New Hampshire, nor on any por- 

 tion of the Appalachian System — when the mountains' were 

 only ridges, slopes and summits of bare rock. They were 

 composed wholly of mineral substances, of matter entirely 

 inert and incapable of supplying food to vegetable organisms. 

 There was not an atom of soil on the rocks of the whole re- 

 gion, and no vegetable growth of any kind. Then, when 

 conditions permitted, Nature began a new order of things 

 here with some of the lowest forms of vegetable life, resem- 

 bling the lichens of our time. Some of these could grow here 

 and there on the rocks, and whatever could grow would die 

 and decay, but would not wholly perish. Some slight particles 

 of its fibre or substance would remain undestroyed through 

 all the changes of decomposition, and in the course of cen- 

 turies or thousands of years a thin film of soil was accumu- 

 lated here and there sufficient to nourish vegetation of a little 

 higher character and organization than had belonged to the 

 pioneer organisms. 



How great the distance from that far beginning to the first 

 •trees ! And very poor and inferior trees the earliest ones 

 were, when they did appear, compared with those which make 



