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Garden and Forest. 



[March 6, iJ 



an abandoned railroad leads the explorer into the heart of the 

 woods. Young- Pines are growing up between the rust-eaten 

 rails, and the forest is again taking possession of the right of 

 way. A mile or two from the town, at the edge of an old field, 

 also abandoned, are some very remarkable and peculiar Holly 

 trees. The trunks are densely " feathered" quite down to the 

 ground, and the whole top of each tree is a solid mass of 

 branches and foliage, wonderfully symmetrical in form, and 

 nowhere penetrable by either eye or hand. I can hardly re- 

 member any trees so pictorial as these, except some Live Oaks 

 in Louisiana, which will haunt me as long as I live. All about 

 this region, as in many other places in the southern part of the 

 state, the Mistletoe is an object of interest to visitors from 

 lands where it does not grow, and some of it is gathered and 

 sold for Christmas decorations. The fruit of the Persimmon 

 should also be added to the list of forest-products which have 

 a commercial value. It is always on sale in Philadelphia in its 

 season, and perhaps in other cities. 



Franklin Falls, N. H. J. B. HarrisOtl. 



Correspondence. 



Fruits for Cold Climates. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Lhider this title the position is taken by a correspondent 

 in your issue of January 23d, that the Russian fruits have no 

 prospective value in the Prairie States. 



Such general statements are difficult to deal with in the nar- 

 row limits of a half column, but something should be said on 

 the other side. Perhaps this can best be done by giving briefly 

 the estimate of some well-known directors or officers of our 

 Iowa Horticultural Societies, who have had much personal ex- 

 perience with the Russian fruits. 



In the northern district of the state, containing forty-two 

 counties of rolling prairie dotted with cities, villages and fine 

 homes, only four varieties of the apple are now recommended 

 for general cultivation, viz.. Duchess, Whitney, Letofsky and 

 Wealthy, and of this brief list Wealthy can only be grown 

 profitably in the most favored portions. In this trying district, 

 at the recent meeting of the Northern Iowa Society, Mr. J. B. 

 Mitchell, of Howard County, exhibited the wood of about 

 thirty varieties of the Russian Apples, as clean and white as 

 that of Box Elder, while the best specimen of the wood of the 

 Duchess he could find was colored. He also made an exhibit 

 of Russian winter Apples, of good size and quality. 



At the same meeting, Hon. R. P. Speer, Director of the Iowa 

 Agricultural Experimental Station, stated, and has since pub- 

 tished in Bulletin No. 3, that, "all of our American Apples, as 

 well as the Apples from west Europe, have proved much too 

 tender on ordinary prairie soils." After giving his experience 

 on his home farm at Cedar Falls, Iowa, with Russian varieties 

 from the Department in 1874, varieties from Mr. Tuttle in 

 1881, and varieties from the College in 1882, he says : "The 

 winter of i884-'85 was the coldest since i85S-'56. In April I 

 found that nearly all the varieties from central Russia were 

 hardy, while many kinds from western Russia proved tender. 

 I also found the severe winter and unfavorable spring had 

 killed more than 40,000 of my three-year-old trees of such 

 varieties as Walbridge, Plumb's Cider, Fameuse, St. Lawrence, 

 Wolf River, etc. My bearing orchard of 1,500 trees I also 

 found contained no sound trees except of Whitney, Wealthy, 

 and varieties which had come from Russia." 



Then follows a list of Russian varieties " which have never 

 shown any signs of blight, and which, on my grounds, seem 

 to be as hardy as Duchess." This list contains fifty-eight 

 varieties. Then follows a list of seven equally hardy sorts, 

 which have shown traces of blight in a few cases where near 

 blighting sorts. Still following are lists of sorts liable to blight, 

 or not hardy on his own grounds, containing forty-three varie- 

 ties of coast Russians or north Silesians. 



Again, W. C. Haviland, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, has tried in 

 orchard and nursery 120 varieties of Russian and north Sile- 

 sian Apples, and at the recent State Horticultui-al meeting he 

 exhibited the wood of sixty varieties as clean and white as that 

 of Duchess, and in many cases much better. 



Still again, John C. Ferris, of Franklin County, in north Iowa, 

 has had for a number of years many varieties in orchard and 

 nursery, and finds fully half of them as free from blight and as 

 hardy as Duchess. 



In addition we have over 200 experimenters in north Iowa 

 with the central Russian fruits, who report a still larger per 

 cent, of perfect varieties. 



In the central and south districts of Iowa the need of hardier 

 sorts is not so apparent on the loess and timber-ridge soils, 



but the great prairie sections east of the Missouri divide must 

 have varieties as hardy as Duchess if they prove long-lived 

 and regularly productive. 



But the final selections from the east European varieties 

 will here be made from those imported from interior south 

 Russia. Some of these, already fruited in south Iowa, have 

 proved fine winter Apples, and the reports from trial-stafions 

 show the trees to be hardy up to the forty-third parallel. As 

 an instance, Varonesh Rosy has proved as large, handsome 

 and good as Rome Beauty has in the south district, and the fruit 

 is found to keep as well as Grimes' Golden, yet its wood is as 

 bright as that of Duchess Avhen grown up to the forty-third 

 parallel. 



But your correspondent says that not one of the Russian 

 Apples has been recommended for general cultivation by our 

 Horticultural Societies of Iowa. Manifestly it would be hasty 

 to attempt a selection as yet. Not a friend of the Russians in 

 the West has urged it. It is yet promising experimental work, 

 to be undertaken from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in the 

 Southern States. 



As to unfruitfulness and low quality of Russian Apples, 

 I can say that the fault of many varieties is to overbear when 

 young. It is yet too early to decide that the sorts later in 

 coming into bearing will not prove most valuable. 



As to quality, we will grade them as Regel, Schroeder, 

 Fischer and other Russo-German pomologists have done. 

 Those listed in Russia for dessert use are proving good in 

 quality here, and those listed for cooking are prime for this 

 use alone. This holds good for the 100 varieties fruited in 

 Iowa the past year, so far as the Russian estimate is known. 



As to the Russian Pears, Cherries and Plums, the story of 

 experience is told in recent Bulletins of the Iowa Experiment 

 Station as to their prospective usefulness. ^ t n ^^ 



Ames, Iowa. j • J—- JjUuU. 



The Kentucky Coffee Tree for Street-planting. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



In your issue for February 13th you say that the Kentucky 

 Coffee-tree " is an excellent tree for street-planting, possessing 

 the merit for this purpose of not putting forth its leaves until 

 late in the spring." Will you kindly explain why you think this 

 characteristic a merit ? It seems to me that trees that must 

 often be the sole harbingers of returning summer wtucli the 

 dwellers in cities can enjoy should be of those species which 

 put forth their leaves as early as possible. In the country, 

 where a thousand minor forms of vegetation early delight the 

 eye, the leafing time of the trees may be less regarded ; but I, 

 for one, rejoice most in those city trees which earliest cover 

 themselves with green, and regard, for instance, the Willows 

 in Madison Square with a peculiar degree of affection. A tree 

 which puts forth its leaves very late hardly has a chance to 

 play its part acceptably before the sun and dust of July destroy 

 its freshness of aspect. In the unpaved streets of a village it 

 may be desirable that the ground shall dry before the trees 

 cast a dense shade. But does this argument apply m the paved 

 street of a larger town .'' y. B. K. 



New York City. 



[Perhaps not. One hardly associates street- planting 

 with bricks and mortar, trees are so rarely planted in the 

 thickly-settled parts of American cities ; and in more 

 rural regions, trees which come into leaf early keep the 

 roads and walks under them wet and muddy late in the 

 season. The heat of the sun, too, is not unpleasant when 

 it first begins to make itself really felt, and there are people 

 who object to being deprived of it by the early leaves of 

 many kinds of trees. — Ed. J 



Winter Care of Conifers. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir.— It would seem fitting that a word of caution should 

 come from Garden and Forest at this point in the season, 

 following an open winter, as to the care of Coniferse and plants 

 with the evergreen habit. I am reminded of this by recalling 

 a season not many years ago, when at this period, there being 

 no snow upon the ground, there prevailed for several days an 

 exceptionally low temperature. A severe unchecked frost 

 followed, penetrafing the ground four or five feet, and occa- 

 sioning widespread disaster to plants, such as enter into the 

 composifion of many plantafions in this neighborhood — choice 

 varieties, not always easy to get or to raise successfully. It is 

 very possible to have a recurrence of just such conditions for 

 the first two weeks in March. The snow which comes to-day 



