June 26, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



311 



If we call this labor worth $15, we can add $15 more as a good 

 allowance to be charged against the plants for firing and 

 delivery, so that $30 is a liberal estimate for the cost of the 

 10,000 plants. The same could be proved of some plants 

 raised from seed — such as Asters, Balsams, Drummond's 

 Phlox, etc., so that even with expensive structures, on land 

 where every building lot of 100 feet by twenty-five is worth 

 $1,000, there is no actual loss on certain plants even at the 

 low price mentioned when they are sold in sufficient quanti- 

 ties." 



Of course these results can only be achieved in a large way, 

 where the system is perfect, the labor skilled, and every motion 

 intelligently directed. No spade is used where a plow can work. 

 The ten acres are plowed deeply, pulverized with an acme 

 harrow and smoothed with a disk harrow, which does finer 

 work than any steel rake. Upon these acres, where the plants 

 will average one to every square foot, one man constantly at 

 work with a wheel-hoe and one day's work a week with a 

 horse furnishes all the cultivating needed, with a little hand- 

 weeding in the rows. To do this work on the old-fashioned 

 plan, with hoes, would cost five times as much, and it would 

 not be done half as well. Of course iinproved processes are 

 not confined to this establishment, and many of them were not 

 used here even five years ago. But it is true not only that im- 

 proved methods are adopted here" as rapidly as they are dis- 

 covered, but also that many items of practice, with which 

 every plantsman in the country is now familiar, originated 

 here. There is no question but that the system of packing 

 which so reduced the weight of plants, while it added to their 

 safety in carriage, was practically begun and perfected here. 

 Occasionally, to this day, one receives a huge box of plants 

 still in pots, or a package in which the plants are rattling about 

 loose, or are smothered or drowned. But perfect packing is 

 recent, and it began here, where the plants were first knocked 

 out of pots, wrapped in paper and set snugly, so as to carry 

 safely for a week. It is true also that many other practical 

 suggestions, like the " saucer system " of propagating, the 

 snapping quality of a good cutting, and even the necessity of 

 " firming the soil," which many another man may have 

 known as a part of his personal experience, were first brought 

 publicly forth and insisted upon by Mr. Henderson in some of 

 his publications, so that while improving his own work by ob- 

 servation, he has done as much as any of his contemporaries, 

 both by precept and example, to scatter the fogs of tradition 

 and introduce simpler, cheaper and more efficacious methods 

 in horticultural practice. 



Having spoken of Mr. Henderson's writings, it is worth stat- 

 ing that his "Gardening for Profit " was about the first book 

 on vegetable-gardening which was literally written out of the 

 soil, by a man who was working with practical purpose. The 

 intense methods of cultivation which the necessities of tilling 

 high-priced land developed were a revelation when described 

 in a straightforward way by one who was simply making 

 record of his daily practice and the reasons for it. It was a 

 lesson which many a farmer never forgot, when he learned 

 that the market-gardeners about New York found it paid them 

 to use seventy-five and even a hundred tons of well-rotted 

 manure on every acre of their land— found, indeed, that their 

 business only paid when they used this amount every year. 

 This book has been in print twenty years, 150,000 copies have 

 been put in circulation, and it is selling yet. A book like this 

 does good, but it also naturally advertises its author, and, in fact, 

 the name of Peter Henderson is as familiar as that of any other 

 in connection with American Horticulture. He believes in 

 printer's ink, however, and of his large catalogue alone he 

 circulates every year 200,000 copies, at an expense for postage 

 alone of $14,000. 



I add a list of the number of some of the more important 

 plants sold during the year, not so much to give an idea of the 

 volume of business transacted as to put on record the com- 

 parative-demand for these staple plants in this year of grace 

 1889. Roses led, with a sale of 400,000 plants. The sale of 

 Tuberoses reached 300,000, but they were not grown here. 

 Chrysanthemums, Verbenas, and Coleus were sold to the 

 number of 200,000 each. Then follow Geraniums, 150,000, and 

 Alternantheras, 100,000. Ipomceas of various kinds and Dah- 

 lias, double and single, sold to the number of 75,000 each, 

 while of Pansies and Carnations, 50,000 each were produced. 

 Ampelopsis in variety reached 25,000, while Cannas, Echeve- 

 rias and white-leaved plants like Centaurias amoimted to 20,- 

 000 each. Estimating together annuals from seetl and varieties 

 on tlie " general list" rather more than half a million were sold, 

 besides those named above. 3,000,000 Celery-plants is the 

 first item on the vegetable list, with 1,000,000 Cabbage-plants 

 and 200,000 Cauliflowers, about 100,000 each of Tomatoes and 



Lettuces, 20,000 Egg-plants and 15,000 Pepper plants. Aspar- 

 agus roots numbered- 300,000, but these, too, were grown 

 elsewhere, while only 5,000 i>lants of Rhubarb were needed. 

 Of Strawberry plants, mostly pot-grown, 300,000 were sold; of 

 Grape-vines, 10,000, and of Blackberries, Raspberries and Cur- 

 rants together, 25,000 plants. 



Jersey City. S. 



Exhibitions. 



The Rose and Strawberry Show of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society. 



n^HERE is little to be said of the Rose Show held in Boston 

 -*■ last week. It is many years since so poor an exhibition 

 of the Queen of Flowers has been seen at her annual festival. 

 The season has been very unfavorable for the development 

 of good Roses. Excessive heat and constant rains have made 

 the fiowers both early and small, and they have dropped 

 almost as soon as they opened. It is not surprising that the 

 exhibition, under the circunistances, was not a large or a fine 

 one. It is rather a wonder that it was as good as it was. There 

 werefew plants, or flowers besides Roses displayed, and the halls 

 looked bare and anything but attractive. John L. Gardner, the 

 Short Hills Nurseries and E. W. Gilmore, made small displays 

 of Orchids. The best plant in the first collection was a well- 

 grown, clean little specimen oi Dendrochilwii filiforine, which 

 received a first prize for the best single Orchid. The best plant 

 in the Short Hills collection was a very well-flowered specimen 

 of the handsome Trichophilia crispa from Costa Rica. The first 

 prize for a specimen plant was taken by Mr. Gardner, with a 

 good plant of Gyninogramiiia schizophylla, a lovely Jamaica 

 Fern, comparatively new to cultivation, having been intro- 

 duced into England as late as 1880. 



Edwin Shepard & Son staged a remarkably fine collection of 

 Delphiniums; and there were some interesting and attractive 

 collections of wild flowers, brought from the woods and mead- 

 ows by Mrs. P. D. Richards and Mr. E. H. Hitchings. The 

 custom of exhibiting collections of wild flowers, which has 

 grown to be a feature of all the summer shows of the Massa- 

 chusetts Society, is one of the most instructive and useful 

 things fostered by it, and has done much to make the local 

 flora known, and its beauty appreciated. 



The great collections of well-grown and tastefully arranged 

 plants which a few years ago were always seen at the princi- 

 pal Boston flower-shows, and which made them the most in- 

 teresting and instructive held in America, were sadly nfissed, 

 as they have been of late years. The halls of this Society are 

 not well suited for such displays, and the owners of the great 

 gardens near Boston are tired, perhaps, of having their plants 

 injured without any adequate return for their pains. But 

 whatever the cause of the falling off in the number and va- 

 riety of exhibits may be, the public are not the only losers, as 

 horticultural enterprise and enthusiasm must suftier for want 

 of healthy stimulus and friendly competition. 



The first special Lyman prize for Roses was not awarded ; 

 the second went to William H. Spooner, and the third to War- 

 ren Heustis & Son. For twelve distinct-named varieties of 

 Roses, three of a kind, Mrs. Francis B. Hayes took the first 

 prize ; W. H. Spooner the second, and Warren Heustis & Son 

 the third. Other prizes were taken by Joseph A. White, Dr. 

 C. G. Weld, J. B. Moore & Son and Joseph Clark. 



Larger or more beautifully-colored Strawberries have not 

 been seen in Boston. Sharpless and Belniont appear to be 

 the favorites with Massachusetts exhibitors; and these berries 

 were shown in great perfection. For the best two quarts, to 

 be judged by a scale of points, the first prize was taken by 

 Prince of Berries, shown by Thomas C. Thurlow ; the second 

 by Belmont, shown by Warren Heustis & Son, the raisers of 

 this variety ; the third for the same, shown by Isaac E. Co- 

 burn, and the fourth by Miner's Prolific, shown by Saniuel 

 Barnard. The Society's silver medal was given to Stephen 

 Hoyt & Son, of New Canaan, Connecticut, for Yale — the 

 " best exhibition of a seedling Strawberry introduced within 

 the last live years, and never having taken a prize." Parrv, 

 May King, Jessie and Jucimda were shown in good condition. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Lucui.A GRATissiMA, Bullethia dela R. Soc. Toscaiia di Orti- 

 ciiltitra, April. 



Brides expansum Leonlic, Garten flora, April 15th. 



PiCEA Alcockiana antl P. Ajanensis, Garteiiflora, April 

 15th. 



FORSVTHIA viRlDlSSliMA and F. SUSPENSA (figures of the fruit). 

 Revue Horticole, April i6th. 



