28 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 360. 



Correspondence. 



A'ariety versus Monotony. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The article in the issue of Garden and Forest for 

 November 28th, signed "M.C. R.," is full of suggestion and good 

 advice, but I do not endorse the view put forward that a gar- 

 den filled with a variety of plants, aptly termed a museum, is a 

 place of weariness in comparison with the garden made up of 

 a few bold groups. The charm of the garden is (hat it is full 

 of change, and herein it differs from the forest or the park, 

 with its wide breadths of tree or shrub. When I go into a 

 garden I look for interest, not a grand effect merely, not a 

 monotone. In such places as M. C. R. prefers one may walk 

 with enjoyment, but after (he first view one's thoughts or con- 

 versation are generally of other things than those we see. But 

 in the well arranged garden, rich in its collections of plants, 

 there is a runnmg stream of interest and pleasure as one 

 passes from one object or group to another. I maintain that 

 a garden should be a museum first and a picture afterward. 

 This is also true of parts of the garden, such as border, flower- 

 bed, shrubbery or tree group. A border filled with red roses 

 only may be a grand picture, but it fails to interest as the mixed 

 border does, which we examine from end (o end. In large 

 gardens broad effects are easy, but they ought not to be repe- 

 titions of the same or a few plants. In the smaller garden 

 these broad effects are not possible, unless one wishes to be 

 thought eccentric. I sometimes walk in Richmond Park, the 

 finest of our metropo.litan parks, in which the groves of Oak 

 and Fir that Repton delighted in are a striking feature. There 

 is much pleasure in such a walk, but it does not compare with, 

 is not of the same character as, the pleasure of walking in such 

 a garden as Batsford Park, where there is both breadth and 

 great variety of garden pictures. Variety maintains interest 

 and feeds the mind in a way that monotony cannot do. To 

 compare a garden with a collection of pictures, whether would 

 it be best to have four big pictures on the four walls of one's 

 room or a collection of smaller pictures arranged with proper 

 taste ? 



London. IV. Watsoil. 



[A jjicture-gallery e.xists solely to show each of its indi- 

 vidual treasures to the best advantage, and no one thinks 

 that its contents, taken together, should also make a pic- 

 ture or that the paintings which it contains should be 

 grouped or "composed" into larger pictures. Too many 

 persons assume that a garden e.xists for its individual 

 plants, in the same way that a gallery does for its indi- 

 vidual pictures ; but there certainly can be an arrange- 

 ment of the contents of a garden which will give a very 

 complete and satisfying effect, an effect entirely different 

 from that which comes from the enjoyment of the indi- 

 vidual flowers or plants. No objection was made by 

 M. C. R. to variety, and no preference was expressed for a 

 few bold groups ; a plea for harinony is not an argument 

 for monotony. The title of the article expresses its pur- 

 pose. It was not aimed against Accumulation, but against 

 Accumulation without Disposition. It is perfectly easy to 

 have a variety of plants and yet to dispose of them so that 

 a consistent purpose will reign throughout, and the gar- 

 den will not only make a picture, but a new picture, from 

 every point of view. Every one has seen drawing-rooms 

 full of valuable furniture and objects of art which were 

 ugly and wearisome because their contents were unskill- 

 fully disposed. A skilled artist might so arrange these 

 objects that the beauty of each would be enhanced by its 

 position and surroundings, while the effect of the whole 

 would be pleasing. It is possible, however, to crowd a 

 place so full of objects beautiful in themselves that no 

 arrangement can save it from a cluttered and depressing 

 appearance, and every one can recall the impression made 

 by some simple room which contained nothing really 

 precious, and yet wore an expression at once of comfort 

 and of grace. A man may ransack the earth for vegetable 

 curiosities and rarities, and fill his garden full of them, and 

 yet it may be a spotty and and uninteresting place to look at. 

 It will certainly be such a place if he has been governed 

 by the desire for accumulation alone and gives no thought 

 to the disposition of his material. 



After all, it should never be forgotten that there are gar- 



dens of every size, and an infinite variety of tastes and 

 habits to be gratified by them. And so long as one really 

 loves his garden and finds health and comfort and delight 

 in caring for it, he is to be congratulated, even if, to the 

 critical eye, its pictorial effect is not satisfying. — Ed.] 



Sali.x balsamifera. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It will doubtless interest the readers of Garden and 

 Forest to know that Salix balsamifera, Barratt, was collected 

 in the White Mountains by the late William Boott. There is 

 a specimen of undoubted S. balsamifera in the Boott Herba- 

 rium, marked in Mr. Boott's handwriting. " Salix cordata. Lake 

 of the Clouds, Mount Washington, 12th July, 1855." 



This plant, then, was collected thirty-two years after its dis- 

 covery by Mr. Little, and twentv-four prior to its detection by 

 Messrs. Pringle and Faxon. ' . ^ , ^ , 



Bolanical Garden, Cambridge, Mass. Merritt Lyndon Fej-nal. 



Apple-scab in Nebcaska. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Last season served to illustrate in a striking way the 

 effect of climate upon fungus depredations. While the Apple- 

 orchards of New York were so overrun by the scab fungus 

 that the crop in many sections was almost a failure, Nebraska 

 was so free from it that in the vicinity of Lincoln scarcely 

 enough could be found to illustrate the effects of the disease 

 on (he fruit in lecturing to students. The early part of the 

 season in the eastern states was marked by long-continued wet 

 weather, particularly favorable to the development and spread 

 of fungous diseases. In Nebraska just the reverse conditions 

 prevailed, for the season was an unusually dry one, and at the 

 very time when crops in the east were suffering from too 

 much rain, crops in Nebraska were suffering for the want of 

 it. The chief point aimed at in the spraying experiments at 

 this station was to find whether it would be profitable to 

 cheapen the cost by weakening the mixtures used. It is need- 

 less to say that the results were entirely negative, for all were 

 alike useless, and the arsenites alone would have given just as 

 good results. Of course, the present season was unusual, but, 

 to a certain extent, the same conditions prevail every year, and 

 fungi of all kinds are much less abundant here than in the 

 eastern states, consequently the directions for spraying best 

 suited to the east do not apply here. Moreover, some of the 

 enemies which trouble eastern growers have not yet reached 

 us. It should not be inferred from this, however, that we are 

 altogether happy, for in the " blight," " rotten heart," etc., we 

 have enough to occupy our attention. For the present it does 

 not seem advisable to recommend more than two applications 

 of the Bordeaux mixture to Apple-trees in this section, and, 

 indeed, if this season were a fair sample, none at all would be 

 much better. , rxr ^ j 



Lincotn. Neb, ^rea IV. Lard. 



The Forage Problem in Iowa. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The farmers of the north-west, particularly those liv- 

 ing west of the Mississippi River, have had some valuable 

 lessons from the dry season of 1894. They have not learned 

 much about weeds or fungi, since diseased plants of all kinds 

 have never been as scarce as during the months of June, July 

 and August, and our annual weeds have suffered quite as much 

 as the perennial grasses in meadows, lawns and pastures, and 

 they will, therefore, be freer from these pests than they have 

 been for many years. The season has been of particular in- 

 terest, because of the opportunity afforded to study the forage 

 problem. Many forage plants, for example, have been found 

 wanting in their ability to stand long droughts. 



The chief forage-plants of the state are Blue Grass, Poa pra- 

 tensis ; Clover, Trifolium pratense ; incidentally also, White 

 Clover, Trifolium repens. Indian Corn heretofore in this state 

 has not been used extensively as a forage-plan(, but this year 

 it has come into prominence for this purpose. In fact, had it 

 not been for corn, live stock could not have been carried 

 through the months of July and August. This suggests the 

 important fact that the farmers of Iowa have annually been 

 wasting millions of dollars' worth of the fodder which is con- 

 tained in the Maize crop. It is a well-known fact that the corn- 

 stalk contains about tifty per cent, of the dry matter and over 

 thirty per cent, of the protein of the plant. It is not improb- 



