466 



Garden and Forest. 



[September 25, it 



away and finally perish outright. The causes of failure he 

 attributes to our imperfect acquaintance with their native sur- 

 roundings, or the dit'liculty of approximately imitating in our 

 houses the climatic conditions under which they grow. Doid)t- 

 less this view is the correct one, and the enormous advance 

 made during the past quarter of a century inspires the hope 

 that many of those which still remain refractory subjects will 

 yet prove amenable to cultivation as the conditions under 

 which they grow become better understood. Let us hope so. 



London. CalypSO. 



Vegetables under Glass. — Market gardeners usually have a 

 plant-house, and din-ing the fall and the early winter it is 

 practically empty, with the exception of the cuttings in the 

 forcing benches and the stock plants to be kept over winter. 

 It is possible to use this vacant space for two or three months, 

 especially with vegetables for salads, without detriment to the 

 plants. I have a span-roof house thirty-three feet long and 

 twelve feet wide, heated with a smoke-flue under the benches, 

 which are four feet wide on each side of the house, with a 

 path down the centre. The soil used for vegetables is loam, 

 eight inches thick, on benches ; into this is dug fine horse 

 manure. Lettuce should be set six to eight inches apart on 

 the benches. A good variety for this purpose is the Grand 

 Rapids Lettuce, a new kind which does well in green-house 

 benches ; Lettuce will not make perfect heads in the cool win- 

 ter months, but for home use very nice plants can be raised. 

 The house should be fumigated once a week with tobacco 

 smoke, to kill the green aphis that would soon destroy all 

 growth if not kept down. 



Water-cress grows nicely in the bench, from slips of plants 

 in their natural home. They should be dibbled in the benches 

 about four inches apart each way, and, of course, watered well. 

 A luxurient growth of tender cress can be had in about six 

 weeks, and when this is broken off a new growth will start, 

 and this can be repeated as long as wanted. Mint roots will 

 grow here nicely. Chives also do well, and fresh cuttings 

 can be put in as often as they are removed. Seeds of French 

 Breakfast Radish, sown in rows five inches apart, will produce 

 edible roots in about six weeks from the time of planting. 



If you have no garden Dandelion growing, go to the fields 

 and gather roots of the common variety, digging them up full 

 length, if possible, or at least not breaking them off within six 

 inches of the leaf. They should be placed in boxes of earth 

 with the tops imcovered, and not too closely cut. It is better 

 to defer the digging till the ground is ready to close up for 

 winter, and the roots can be kept in the box till February, in a 

 place not cold enough to allow the earth to freeze, but cold 

 enough to prevent the plants from making any growth. They 

 should be kept damp, but not wet. About four weeks before 

 Dandelion greens are wanted, the roots should be set in the 

 benches in rows, and the growth will be a matter of surprise 

 and pleasure. They grow quickly, especially when the house 

 is kept warm. They will yield but one cutting, and the roots 

 must then be thrown out. Parsley roots can be set in the 

 benches in the same way, and will give cuttings all winter. 



W. Springfield, Mass. W. H. Bull. 



Chrysanthemums. — This is a busy time with fanciers of 

 Chrysanthemums, who must now be looking forward to the 

 storing of plants inside at the first indication of frost, to the 

 final training of specimen plants, and the thinning of the buds, 

 besides the general care incident to the opening of another 

 campaign. I have my specimen plants in quarters where they 

 can be covered with sash in ten minutes. It may be that we 

 shall not have frost enough to hurt the buds before the middle 

 of October, but it is wiser to be on the safe side. The final 

 housing of specimens will depend upon the conditions of the 

 weather. Early-fiowering kinds may be left out-of-doors a 

 week longer than the later kinds, provided they can be pro- 

 tected during frosty nights. The final touches should be 

 given to specimen plants as early as possible, for after the 

 buds are set, and the wood begins to harden, all tying looks 

 rough and unkempt. The thinning of flower-buds is of the 

 greatest importance for specimen bloom. Three Howers are 

 deemed sufficient on a single-stemmed plant, while on speci- 

 men plants three fiowers should be left on each leader. Even 

 when plants are grown in the ordinary way the flower-buds 

 should be severely thinned. Of plants on which I am 

 growing flowers for market I take from eight to twenty buds 

 from each shoot, according to the variety. It is a mistake to 

 think that thinning reduces the amount of color-effect. On the 

 contrary, it augments it. All plants will require judicious 

 watering when first taken in from out-of-doors. For the first two 

 or three days it is best to be on the dry side, as, seemingly, 

 the plants are much affected by their sudden confinement. 



Weak liquid manure of any kind should be given at every 

 other time of watering. 



Carnations. — It is time that Carnations for winter-flowering 

 were housed, and the planting, whether in pots or on- open 

 benches, should be done well and firmly. Any light, friable 

 soil seems to suit the Carnation. A thorough watering should 

 be given as soon as the planting is complete, and then on very 

 sunny days the plants should be slightly syringed two or three 

 times, the last time early enough to allow the plants to get dry 

 before dark. The watering, after the first soaking, should be 

 done very carefully, so as not to have the bed saturated for a 

 week at a fime. It is well to remember that each day, from 

 now until the ist of February, evaporation grows less and less. 

 Carnations should be staked neatly as soon as potted or 

 benched. The ties should be neat, and they should not be 

 very tight around the body. 



Pearl River, N. Y. Johtl TJlOrpe. 



Caryopteris Mastacanthus. — In the first volume of GARDEN 

 AND Forest (p. 20) Max Leichdin calls attention to this beauti- 

 ful and interesting plant of the Verbena family. To the same 

 enthusiastic botanist and collector of new and rare plants the 

 Arnold Arboretum is indebted for a specimen of the plant 

 which is j ust now, and will continue to be as long as frost does not 

 interfere, the most attracfive flowering shrub in the coflection. 

 This plant was kept in a pit last winter, so that its hardiness 

 has not yet been tested here, but it is well worth a little trouble 

 and care. The small lavender-blue flowers are borne in large 

 clusters at the axils of the opposite leaves, and as the branches 

 grow, new flower-buds continue to develop with each pair of 

 leaves, so that the plant would bloom for a long period if not 

 checked by frosts. It was originally found in China by Robert 

 Fortune, but it is also a native of Japan. If introduced from its 

 most northern habitats it may be as hardy as Vitex incisa, 

 which does very well here, without artificial protection, in 

 some favorable situations. J. G. J. 



Correspondence. 

 Forests and Civilization. — VIII. 



To the Editor of Garden and Poorest : 



Sir. — Since the publication of my report on forestry matters 

 in Pennsylvania was begun in Garden and Forest, I have 

 had many letters from all parts of the country inquiring 

 whether cutting off the woods had any effect in aggravating 

 the recent great floods in that state, or in causing the disaster 

 at Johnstown. Some of the writers think the catastrophe 

 should be made use of at once as a most impressive lesson 

 regarding the consequences of forest destruction, and various 

 things which have been written since the occurrence indicate 

 that some vital considerations have not been adequately recog- 

 nized. We have reached a stage in the discussion of forestry 

 subjects in this country when discrimination, moderation of 

 statement, and dependence upon actual investigation by com- 

 petent observers are more and more desirable. 



It is certain that the destruction of forest conditions over 

 any considerable portion of a water-shed causes the water 

 from rainfall or melting snows to reach the channels of the 

 streams in a shorter time. The water runs down the slopes 

 more rapidly, and there is, consequently, more of it at any 

 particular point in the course of the stream at one' time, and 

 the stream is higher than it would' be if the water descended 

 more slowly to the river-bed from the hills. This is one of 

 the most important principles of the subject of forestry, and 

 it should be familiar to all intefligent persons. Its truth may 

 be easily ascertained by direct observation in any mountain 

 forest region, where considerable areas have.been entirely de- 

 nuded by the effects of pasturage or fire following the removal 

 of the trees. But cutting off the forest does not, in itself, de- 

 stroy forest conditions. If the ground is protected from fire 

 and from pasturage the forest-floor is not destroyed, and the 

 trees will soon grow again. Water will not run any faster 

 down a hill-slope which is still covered by the sponge formed 

 by the network of living root-fibres, decaying leaves, and the 

 accumulation of vegetable matter usually found on the floor 

 of a forest, merely because the trees have been cut off. Forest 

 conditions are still maintained if the land is so proteeted that 

 another generation of trees has a chance to grow. It is not 

 the cutting off of the trees that causes mischief, but the break- 

 ing up of the forest-floor, and of the succession of the forest, 

 by fire or pasturage. 



During my recent examination of the mountain forests of 

 Pennsylvania I had excellent opportunities for observing the 

 effects of very heavy rainfall, and of comparing the rate of 

 descent of the water over hill-side areas covered with forests. 



