42 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 362, 



so accustomed to seeing- injuries of this sort that they 

 never thought of examining one of the marauders to see 

 what it lool^ed like. Pear-trees have been dying for half a 

 dozen years in Essex and Union counties, New Jersey, and 

 it was not until last year that one out of the scores of men 

 who saw their orchards wasting away thought of sending 

 one of the destructive borers to the experiment station to 

 be identified. The wood leopard moth must have been 

 ravaging the shade-trees of the city of New York, Jersey 

 City and Nevi'ark for years before the year 1887, when the 

 Irrst specimen was accidentally found in a spider's web, 

 and yet there are more collectors of insects in this one 

 region than in any other portion of the United States. The 

 story of the pear midge and the red-necked blackberry 

 borer has been told in these columns more than once, and 

 we have given examples of other insects and diseases 

 whose ravages at the first could have been arrested by the 

 prompt action of some one in authority, but which have 

 gone on conquering without check until they are almost 

 hopelessly beyond control. 



Experience has amply shown that many of the most 

 disastrous outbreaks of our insect enemies could have been 

 easily quelled at the outset. To meet such emergencies it 

 is necessary that the machinery for repressing them should 

 always be ready. There should not only be enactments 

 authorizing constituted authorities to enter the field at 

 once, but means and penalties should be provided to in- 

 sure the enforcement of the law. As the knowledge of 

 insects and their ways is necessarily limited, these means 

 of precaution and suppression should be always in the 

 charge of skilled entomologists. More than all, every 

 known method of popular education should be employed 

 through the press, through farmers' institutes, through the 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and through 

 the public schools, if need be, to instruct the people as to 

 the magnitude of the loss which these enemies to plants 

 may cause, so that the officers whose duty it is to act will 

 have the moral support of the entire community. 



An Old Bridge and a Long-lapsed Thoroughfare 

 in Massachusetts. 



NOT long ago a Boston paper contained an account of 

 the old Indian trail which led between Boston and 

 Plymouth, and which was, for a considerable period, the 

 thoroughfare between the capitals of the two leading New 

 England colonies. This old trail traverses from one border 

 to the other Boston's fine Franklin Park, and for a considera- 

 ble distance its course may still be traced, though the 

 improvement of the park has, to a certain extent, obliterated 

 it. The claim that this old path is the Indian trail to Ply- 

 mouth evidently rests upon traditions in the families who 

 have owned land in this neighborhood from the period of 

 the first settlement, and it is undoubtedly very good evi- 

 dence, as far as it goes. 



These early trails and roads are a very interesting fea- 

 ture of many eastern towns, and should be, for that 

 matter, of western towns as well. Many of them, of 

 course, have developed into modern thoroughfares, and 

 have thus lost their interest as relics of the past. In many 

 cases, however, the exigencies of modern traffic have 

 caused the construction of entirely new roads, and left the 

 old thoroughfares to lapse, first into cart-roads and then 

 into footpaths, and at last, no doubt, to be almost totally 

 obliterated by up-springing woods. But it is astonishing 

 how long an old road may be traced through the woods, 

 even after every sign of human interest in it has been lost. 



In the old town of 'Wrentham, Massachusetts — a place 

 saturated with traditions of King Philip's war, and where 

 the stump of an old Oak is pointed out as the tree in which 

 the famous Indian chieftain successfully concealed himself 

 when the whites were pursuing him — there is a beautiful 

 and most interesting old stone bridge which now serves to 

 carry across Mill Brook a path leading from a dwelling- 

 house to a spring. No road whatever now crosses this 



solid old arch ; but the path which goes over it bears many 

 signs of having once been a thoroughfare. It leads from a 

 locality now called Glenwood, where there is a lonely 

 shoddy-mill, to a locally famous ledge called Indian Rock. 

 Here there is very good evidence that a band of thirty 

 Indians who had participated in the Medfield massacre 

 .were waylaid and slain by the whites during Philip's war. 



The old bridge is shown in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion (see page 43), and is from a photograph taken in the 

 summer of 1894 by Miss Helen Chamberlin. It is built 

 wholly of a slate-like stone, which now possesses a beau- 

 tiful purplish tint. It has a covering of turf; it is almost 

 completely overgrown with a luxuriant mass of mingled 

 Poison Ivy and Virginia Creeper, and the stream beneath 

 it, which just above issues from Whiting Pond to join the 

 Charles several miles lower down, is here choked with all 

 manner of water-plants. The region about it is an utterly 

 wild one — scarcely tamed at all by the shabby and solitary 

 little shoddy-mill which stands near. No one about the 

 neighborhood seems to know the history of the bridge. It 

 is certainly extremely old ; it must have taken a great deal 

 of toil to build it ; and manifestl)' it once carried a thorough- 

 fare over the little river. 



Gardening a Good Outlet for American Vitality. 



IT is sometimes asked why there is so much more 

 interest taken by the English clergy and country gen- 

 tlemen in gardening than is manifested by the correspond- 

 ing class in the United States. Why is it that in our country 

 parishes we do not find that enthusiasm which has given 

 us so many charming books about gardens from reverend 

 gentlemen in England who have rendered practical service 

 to floriculture .-' It was to the experiments of the Honora- 

 ble and Reverend William Herbert, in 1836, that we owe 

 some of our earliest knowledge in hybridization. Indeed, 

 his efforts were so coolly received by contemporary bota- 

 nists that he complains that their answer to his curious 

 specimens was "we do not thank you for your mules." 

 We have an attractive picture of Sydney Smith working to 

 beautify the grounds about his various forlorn rectories. 

 And who does not relish his practical joke in honor of a 

 coming guest, for whom he made the parody of a park in 

 his domain by tying oranges to the glossy leaved shrubs in 

 the garden, and fastening horns to the two donkeys peace- 

 fully grazing on his tiny lawn that they might play the part 

 of deer ? 



The Reverend Charles Kingsley made quite a little para- 

 dise out of a damp and most unpromising situation at 

 Eversley. He drained ponds, and planted and beautified ; 

 turned a wretched chicken-}'ard into a grassy court bor- 

 dered with flower-beds, and trained Roses, scarlet Honey- 

 suckles and Virginia Creepers to climb over the wall between 

 the house and stables. His borders were always gay with 

 Phloxes, Larkspurs, Pinks, Pansies, Roses and Carnations, 

 and his rare trees and blossoming vines afforded him great 

 delight, and transformed a neglected spot into a charming 

 garden. We all know how enthusiastically Dean Hole has 

 worked to interest the British public in flower-shows, and 

 what his single efforts have done for the development of 

 floriculture all over England ; and these well-known names 

 are only a few among many who have taken, and still 

 take, the keenest interest in this beautiful pursuit, and find 

 in it their solace and delight. 



Of course, the English rector or vicar has a peace of 

 spirit from the permanence of his position which the 

 American clergyman, dependent upon his popularity with 

 an exigent congregation, cannot enjoy. "The calm supe- 

 riority of district visiting is quite another thing from the 

 weary social duties of a country parson in a Yankee vil- 

 lage ; but there must be something besides this to explain 

 why more ministers here do not put their spare time into 

 their gardens, and so gain at once health and enjoyment 

 by wholesome labor. 



The climate, of course, goes for a great deal, for Eng- 



