January 30, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



40 



with fertility restored and good cultivation, the prospects are 

 favorable for profitable crops. 



Exhibit at the State Fair.— The exhibit made by this 

 society at the State Fair, held in Syracuse, was remarkable, not 

 alone for its extent and completeness, but for the superior quality 

 of the fruit and the attractive manner in which it was displayed. 

 Taken as a whole, it is certain that such a display could not be 

 duplicated anywhere in the United States or Canada. Great 

 care had been bestowed on the nomenclature, so that few, if 

 any, errors could be detected. The exhibit was intended to 

 show, and the oljject was well accomplished, the capabilities of 

 the genial climate and fertile soil of western New York. Few 

 who enjoy the privilege of living m this region realize the 

 advantages over those who live where fruit is scarce and hard 

 to obtain. The favored few have no monopoly ot these deli- 

 cacies here ; every one can enjoy them as freely and as abun- 

 dantly almost as the air we breathe, and these exiiibitions are 

 made with a view of showing what every landowner should 

 and can have if he be so disposed. 



School Yards. — I have on a former occasion suggested to 

 this society the importance of adopting measures by which 

 the grounds around our schoolhouses may be relieved of their 

 forbidding aspect. A little labor and expense will trans- 

 form the surroundings into delightful pleasure-grounds. The 

 trees, shrubs and plants for the purpose can be obtained in 

 any of the near-by woods. The improvement of school- 

 grounds will accomplish a double object — the taste of the 

 pupils will be cultivated, they will become familiar with many 

 charming objects which would otherwise be overlooked, and 

 the garden will serve as an example and pattern for the neigh- 

 borhood. In the selection of teachers I believe preference 

 should be given to such as are known to be lovers of Nature 

 and who will take pains to awaken an interest in a study of 

 plants. I believe that opportunities for great improvement lie 

 in this direction, and this can be brought about with little 

 expenditure of money. 



the science of tillage. 



Professor I. P. Roberts read a paper which explained how 

 cultivation in many different ways made orchards and vine- 

 yards productive and profitable. Part of this excellent paper 

 is herewith given : 



Most arable soils contain large amounts of dormant plant- 

 food ; all soils contain a small amount of plant-food which is 

 available ; some plants have the power of setting free this 

 nourishment to a greater degree than others, our common 

 Mullein furnishing a notable example of this power. It is evi- 

 dent, then, that either plants which have unusual power to 

 secure nourishment must be grown on lands which fail to 

 respond, or more nourishment must be provided if the higher 

 and more exacting plants are raised. There is enough of 

 nearly all the elements of plant-food, including potash and 

 phosphoric acid, in the first sixteen inches of ordinary soils to 

 supply crops for several generations if the plants could only 

 get hold of it. There is a greal deal of nitrogen, too ; more of 

 it in the subsoil than in the upper layers, and this is part of the 

 reason why Clover, Peas, Beans and other deep-rooted plants 

 are so valuable. 



When plants languish, if adapted to the climate, it is evident 

 that the soil has not been properly prepared, so that the plant- 

 food in it is not available, or that there is not sufficient mois- 

 ture to transfer it from the soil to the plant. Cultivation may 

 be made to obviate partly or wholly all these difficulties. 

 Plant-food which is unavailable is useless, and one of the chief 

 objects in cultivating the soil is to prepare this for use by set- 

 ting it free and diluting it with water so that it can be taken up 

 by the roots of plants, or by opening and loosening a soil 

 that is too wet or too compact to allow the plant-food to be 

 liberated by fermentation. 



If water carries plant-food downward it can also be made to 

 carry it upward from the subsoil to the feeding roots of the 

 plant. The soil-water, which in the day-time rises, not only 

 brings with it plant-food, but it enables the plant to secure 

 the nourishment already in the soil around its roots. 



Cultivation is a powerful factor in setting free plant-food. It 

 ^increases the solubility of plant-food by crumbling, rearranges 

 the particles of soil, breaks them up so that no two of them 

 are in the same position that they were before the tillage, 

 and the particles present more surfaces for the roots to act 

 upon with their living chemistry. Cultivation when properly 

 done also hastens nitrification and thus helps to prepare for 

 use the important and expensive element of nitrogen so essen- 

 tial to plant-growth. 



Cultivation greatly assists the soil in retaining its moisture 

 in dry weather. The great orchards and vineyards of Califor- 



nia are cultivated deeply many times during the early part of 

 the season, and although no rain falls from April to Novem- 

 ber, the trees and vines prosper quite as well as where there 

 is an abundant rainfall. During the winter months in most of 

 the California fruit valleys the soil is filled with water by fre- 

 quent rains. By plowing the vineyards and orchards in April, 

 when they have become dry enough to do so, and by keeping 

 the harrows, cultivators and gang-plows at work during May 

 and June, and sometimes into July, nearly all of the moisture 

 of the subsoil is conserved and made available for the growth 

 of the plants. One great object in cultivating the land is to 

 form a mulch. While in early spring, cultivation, as has been 

 said, may serve to dry the land out and open it to absorb heat; 

 later in the season, just the reverse ot these conditions is 

 desirable. When a layer ot a few inches of dry porous earth 

 is spread like a blanket over damp ground the moisture will 

 not only be kept from evaporating, but plant-food will be set 

 free and chemical action hastened. The mulch of earth made 

 by light tillage will shade the land and keep it cool in hot 

 weather, and in every way be beneficial. In California tour or 

 five tons of water, which would otherwise evaporate from 

 every acre, are held for use in the soil by this mulch of sur- 

 face tillage. 



Before the orchard or vineyard is set, the ground should be 

 plowed, subsoiled and summer-tallowed for an entire season, 

 because there is a vast amount of plant-food in the soil, and it 

 is cheaper to secure it by cultivation than to add plant-food 

 from outside sources. Then, too, the thorough preparation of 

 the soil brings it into firm physical condition, serves to aerate 

 it and also to promote drainage. Too much stress cannot be 

 laid upon the thorough preparation of the land for orchards 

 and vineyards, or any other crop that is to remain upon the 

 land for several years. After the plants have been set the sur- 

 face cultivation should go on as carefully and systematically as 

 though a crop were expected immediately. 



On most fruit-plants a light dressing of phosphoric acid (in 

 some form of bone, say), when the trees and vines have come 

 into bearing, will produce most satisfactory results, and in 

 almost all cases where plant-food is slightly deficient a dress- 

 ing of potash will be found to be extremely beneficial. A sow- 

 ing of ten or fifteen pounds of Crimson Clover to the acre at 

 the last cultivation of the orchard will furnish, unless in ex- 

 ceptional cases, all the nitrogen needed when it is turned 

 under next year. By a little observation the planter should 

 learn to know by the size and character of the leaf, by the 

 growth of bark and the amount of wood made each season, 

 the character of the plant-food which should be added. 



Mr. James A. Root spoke of the good cultivation practised 

 by the Mennonites in Kansas and Nebraska, on account of 

 which they had crops last year while their neighbors had none. 

 By thorough cultivation in a dry time we can often get a better 

 crop than the average in a wet season. 



Recent Publications. 



The forty-fourth and forty-fifth parts of the English edi- 

 tion of Lindenia, or an Iconography of Orchids, published 

 by Lucien Linden, of Brussels, has just reached us and 

 maintains in the beauty of its illustrations and the excel- 

 lence of the descriptive matter which accompanies them 

 the standard set by this important work in its earlier num- 

 bers. In the present parts there are figured Cypripedium 

 Denisianum, a hybrid between C. seligerum and C. super- 

 biens, and described as a strong grower, very proliferous, 

 and one of the inost desirable hybrids of its class ; Cattleya 

 MossifE, var. Treyeranse, a variety with broad rose-colored 

 petals and sepals and a lip covered by a bright golden-yel- 

 low blotch on which the close red streaks appear as dark 

 purple passing into maroon ; Odontoglossum Pescatorei, 

 Prince of Orange, a variety of distinctive character, due to 

 the orange-yellow^ground color of the segments and the 

 shape of the lip ; Cattleya Cupidon ; C. guttata, var. tigrina, 

 a distinct form of one of the best-known and longest culti- 

 vated species of the genus ; Catasetum macrocarpum, var. 

 Lindeni ; Cypripedium Charlesworthii ; and Wormodes Cog- 

 iiiauxii, a recent introduction from Columbia, that flow- 

 ered for the first time in P^urope last June, in the garden of 

 the Societe de I'Horticulture Internationale of Brussels, and 

 was dedicated to Monsieur Alfred Cogniaux, who has de- 

 scribed the Brazilian Orchids in ^lartius's F/ora Brasf/iensis. 



