262 



Garden and Forest, 



[May 29, li 



" Give God thy heart, thy hopes, thy gifts, thy gold ; 

 The day wears on, the times are waxing old." 



" Haste, traveler, the sun is sinking low ; 

 He shall return again, but never thou." 



" May the dread book at our last trial. 

 When open spread, be like this dial ; 

 May Heaven forbear to mark therein 

 The hours made dark by years of sin ; 

 Those only in that record write 

 Which virtue, like the sun, makes bright." 



For Lady Abney at Newington, Dr. Watts wrote the follow- 

 ing : 



" So rolls the sun, so wears the day. 

 And measures out life's painful way 

 Through shifting scenes of shade and light. 

 To endless day or endless night." 



But much prettier is the following, a modern imitation of the 

 style of old mottoes, designed for a dial in a flower-garden, 

 with which we must close our brief list : 



" I stand amid the summere flowers, 

 To tell the passage of the houres; 

 When winter steals the flowers awaye, 

 I tell the passinge of their daye. 

 O man, whose Hesh is but as grasse. 

 Like summere flowers thy life shall passe. 

 Whiles tyme is thine laye up in store 

 And thou shalt live for evermore." 



Here and there in old American gardens sun-dials may still 

 be seen, although it is doubtful whether any are erected at the 

 present day or whether a skillful professor of " gnomonics " — 

 the art of dial-setting — could be found in America. It would 

 be interesting to know whether any inscriptions worth quota- 

 tion exist on this side of the ocean. 



Correspondence. 



Arbor Day at Michigan Agricultural College. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — I have been much interested from time to time in the 

 sensible comments of Garden and Forest on the modes of 

 observing Arbor Day. Where a programme is devised by per- 

 sons who have little knowledge of botany, horticulture or for- 

 estry in its true and broad sense, there is great danger that the 

 exercises may accomplish as niuch harm as good. We have 

 had quite enough of mere unadulterated sentiment on this 

 very important subject. 



After such comments it may be venturesome to send a few 

 notes on the observance of Arbor Day at this place. One 

 hour was occupied by the writer and nearly sixty students who 

 were introduced one after the other, each to present some se- 

 lection from a reliable source, or to produce original notes : 



(i) Reading the Arbor Day proclamation ; (2) the origin of 

 Arbor Day (in Nebraska) ; (3) verses from the Bible on trees, 

 by the President of Y. M. C. A.; (4) quotations from Shakes- 

 peare; (s) uses of Arbor Days, Garden and Forest, p. 13, 

 vol. ii.; (6) selection from Nebraska's Arbor Day book, B. E. 

 Fernow ; (7) " The Planting Season is at tiand," A. J. Down- 

 ing ; (8) "Cherish Trees," A. J. Downing ; (9) " Plant Trees," 

 A.J. Downing; (10) "What to Select," A. J. Downing; (11) 

 "Plant Home-grounds," from Nebraska's Arbor Day book, 

 Professor L. H. Bailey; (12) "Plant School-grounds next," 

 L. H. Bailey; (13) "Plant the Roadsides," L. H. Bailey; (14) 

 "What Shall We Plant?" L. H. Bailey; (15) "Plant Many 

 Shrubs," L. H. Bailey; (16) verses; (17) "Plant a Tree," 

 verses by Edith M. Thomas; (18) "Plant a Tree," Ex-Gov. 

 Larrabee, of Iowa ; (19) " Plant in Memory of Some Friend ; " 

 (20) " A Tree is a Valuable Possession," Garden and For- 

 est, p. 37, vol. ii.; (21) " A Love for Trees," A. J. Downing ; 

 (22) "Tree-planting," Dr. O. W. Holmes ; (23) " How to Take 

 up a Tree ; " (24) " How to Set a Tree ; " (25) " Don't," a series 

 of precautions ; (26) " Value of Trees," Whittier ; (27) " Beau- 

 tiful Trees," A. J. Downing; (28) " The Beautifid in an Orna- 

 mental Tree," A. J. Downing; (29) "The Tree as Im- 

 proved (?) by the Tree-pruner," A. J. Downing ; (30) "Beauty 

 of Autumnal Foliage," A. J. Downing ; (31) "Proud Monarch 

 of the Forest," verses; (32) "The White Oak," Dr. O. W. 

 Holmes; (33) "Peculiarities of the American Elm;" (34) 

 " Management of our Forests," Garden and Forest ; (35) 

 " Needs of American Forestry," Garden and Forest, p. 13, 



vol. ii.; (36) "Needs of American Forestry," Garden and 

 Forest ; (37, 38 and 39), extracts from Garden and Forest, 

 on " Providing for the Conservation of oiu" Forests," 



Two years ago a portion of the day was given up to com- 

 ments by some of the professors in a lecture-room, where 

 students and others had assembled. Each class and society, 

 including the girls, planted a tree with some ceremony. The 

 trees were publicly accepted by the president of the college, 

 and good care guaranteed. At the last Arbor Day, reports were 

 made stating the species of the tree, where it was located, how 

 much the upper branches had grown last year, what care it 

 had received and whether any insects had injured it. The 

 statements brought out facts, showing that it is vastly easier 

 to plant trees than to give them proper care afterwards. Not 

 one of the entire number had made satisfactory growth, and 

 only one had received any cultivation ; none had been 

 mulched, but they were left in the grass where, in several 

 cases, the soil was too thin to guarantee thrift. Of the twelve 

 trees one was dead, two others nearly so, one had been cut 

 down and was sprouting up again, several others were hav- 

 ing a severe struggle with grass and a thin soil and a lack of 

 moisture. Several had been damaged by borers. 



The last two classes planted trees this year and made re- 

 ports. 



The quotations above indicate that your journal is making 

 some impression in at least one school of agriculture. 



Agricultural College, Mich. W. J. Seal. J 



The Newtown Pippin. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I was much interested in the letter of Mr. Robinson, 

 the editor of The Garden. He had evidently been eating an 

 Albemarle Pippin, a strain of the yellow Newtown Pippin, 

 which the Americans, he quotes, probably never saw, for few 

 of them stop on this side of the water. Doubtless the great 

 majority of American Apple-growers have Apples better than 

 the Newtown Pippin is with them, for there is no Apple grown 

 which is so fastidious as to its location. Even here, where it 

 reaches its highest perfection, it is utterly worthless a mile 

 away from a mountain-side. And yet the lands, which of all 

 others, produce this Newtown Pippin in the highest perfec- 

 tion, the mountain coves and slopes of the Blue Ridge in Albe- 

 *marle. Nelson and Green Counties, of Virginia, can to-day be 

 bought at very low figures. Here in Albemarle few growers 

 of Mountain Pippins ever think of gathering and packing their 

 own fruit. The agents of the English shippers come all 

 through the hills, buy all the Apples at a set price, and at the 

 proper time bring their barrels, gather and ship the fruit. 

 Occasionally a large grower packs and ships his fruit direct to 

 Liverpool, and makes largely by so doing. Last fall Apples of 

 all kinds were very abundant and low in price, and yet the 

 Liverpool shippers paid here for the fruit on the trees $2.50 a 

 barrel and furnished the barrels and packed them. The year 

 before the price was $4.50. It is well known that the Albe- 

 marle Pippin always leads in price Pippins grown elsewhere, 

 and some are disposed to question its identity with the yellow 

 Newtown Pippin. The great majority of us, however, are 

 willing to admit their identity, but adhere to the name of 

 Albemarle Pippin as expressive of the choicest Pippins sold. 

 Crozet, Va. W^ F. Massey. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I do not think the Newtown Pippin is unduly neglected. 

 It is not a profitable market variety for the northern States, 

 and is entirely eclipsed for profit by the Baldwin at the East 

 and by the Ben Davis at the West, both of which are inferior 

 in quality, especially the latter. Our people in this country 

 well understand where to find the best returns, and with this 

 view the Newtown Pippin has been generally discarded at the 

 North as a market fruit. It is still cultivated both East and 

 West as an amateur variety. 



I have not had an opportunity of comparing the Albemarle 

 with the Newtown Pippin, but have always taken ilforgranted 

 from the examination of others who are competent pomolo- 

 gists, that they are identical. 



In some localities further south the Newtown Pippin suc- 

 ceeds better than here. I have examined specimens from the 

 neighborhood of Cincinnati which were larger and smoother 

 than we have them. In some parts of Virginia (not on the low- 

 lands) it has succeeded well and has been largely raised for 

 market. In other places it has entirely failed. It was formerly 

 more extensively raised in New York than at present, bi:t its 

 liability to become scabby was a severe drawback. R. L. Pell, 

 who formerly had a large orchard of this Apple in Ulster 



