50 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 364, 



Notes. 



Experiments conducted at the Alabama Experiment Station 

 with Ragi Millet. Eleusine coracana, and Kodo Millet, a spe- 

 cies of Paspalium, both obtained from the Madras Presidency, 

 seem to prove that tliese plants will make good pasture crops 

 for cows and other stock, and also be profitable hay-producing 

 plants in the southern states. 



A Tennessee paper states that Mr. Thomas L. Walker, 

 seventy-five years ago, planted four walnuts on his father's 

 farm, near Knoxville. Mr. Walker died ten years ago, when 

 the four Walnut-trees grown from the seed he planted aver- 

 aged four feet in diameter, and their value, if cut and sawed, 

 would have been not less than $400 a piece. 



The Pacific Rural Press gives an illustration of the Calla 

 Snowflake, which is one of Mr. Burbank's new creations. It 

 is a seedling of the dwarf variety Little Gem, but its flowers 

 never o-row half as large as those of that variety, and the leaves 

 are also much smaller. The flowers are snowy white and 

 gracefully moulded, and it is altogether the smallest Calla yet 

 produced. 



We have received the first number of the New Jersey 

 Forester, which is a bimonthly pamphlet devoted to the de- 

 velopment of the forests of that state. It contains twelve 

 pao-es of instructive matter, and the leading article, by Mr. 

 Feniow, gives the best kind of advice to the owners of New 

 Jersey woodlands. The pamphlet is the official organ of the 

 South Jersey Woodmen's Association, which was organized to 

 protect the forests in that section, to insist upon the enforce- 

 ment of laws m relation to forest-fires, and to encourage such 

 management ot woodlands and waste lands as will help to 

 conserve the water-supply, protect game and insure a con- 

 tinued supply of forest products. 



The Southern Lumberman says that mahogany logs from 

 the east coast of Africa have got as far west as Louisville, 

 Kentucky, and adds that it is much cheaper than the mahogany 

 from Central America and Cuba. From these Mahogany 

 forests in Africa it is said that twelve million feet of lumber 

 have already been cut and exported, and they promise to yield 

 an immense revenue to the British and French colonists who 

 have seized upon the territory. The wood has a tinge of pink 

 in contrast with the somewhat reddish color of the American 

 variety, and some of the squared logs which have been 

 imported are two by three and a half feet in size. We may 

 add that this African mahogany is the wood of Khaya Senegal- 

 ensis, a tree which belongs to the same family as the true 

 Mahoo'any, and is closely related it. It is not so desirable a 

 cabinet-wood as the Mexican or Cuban Mahogany, but is more 

 like the Central American wood. Occasionally there are logs 

 richlv figured, and these have been manufactured here into 

 very attractive veneering. 



At the late meeting of the Ohio Horticultural Society, Pro- 

 fessor Green, of the State Experiment Station, in a report on 

 new fruits, stated that Eldorado promises to take a place 

 amoni'' standard varieties of Blackberries. It has endured a 

 temperature of twelve degrees below zero, and is certainly 

 hardier than Lawton or Erie, which it nearly equals in size of 

 berry, and probably is as hardy as Snyder or Ancient Briton. 

 Of larger-fruited fjerries, Minnewaska is about the hardiest. 

 Among Raspberries, the variety Ebony bears black berries, 

 which present a beautiful appearance in a basket. It is of 

 medium size and season. Eureka commences to ripen early, 

 and bears very late, covering the entire season of Palmer and 

 Gregg, and yielding about as much as both together. The 

 Gault seems to be an exception to the so-called ever-bearing 

 varieties, which are generally worthless, in that it is vigorous 

 and exceedingly productive. The main crop begins to ripen 

 with the Gregg. The berries are large and firm, and the plant 

 bears through a very long season. 



A correspondent of the Strawberry Culturist writes that he 

 last year tried the so-called trench system which he heard was 

 practiced at the Bryant Nurseries, in Ouincy, Illinois. The 

 plan is to dig trenches sixteen to twenty inches deep, leaving 

 a space of but six to eight inches wide at the top between 

 them. The trenches are then filled with straw and coarse 

 manure, which is trodden and pounded firmly. The plants 

 are set on the ridge between the trenches, and the litter is 

 said to retain water enough from the early rains to carry the 

 crop through the dry summer. The claim is that larger and 

 more berries are produced, and by cutting the runners along 

 the edge of the straw the same rows may be kept for years, 



with only a narrow strip to weed. Certain difficulties in the 

 mechanical construction of such beds at once suggest them- 

 selves, and there seems to lie no good reason why water will 

 remain so much longer in straw than in earth. Weshould coun- 

 sel novices to proceed slowly if they propose to make any 

 experiments with the new method. 



A correspondent of the Gardeners' Magazine writes of his 

 success in raising plants of Pteris, Adiantum and other Ferns 

 from spores in the following way: With a hammer and 

 chii-el he cut a basin three-quarters of an inch deep in the 

 wide side of a brick, leaving a ridge around the edge. Into 

 the bottom of this depression he placed a thin layer of finely 

 pulverized brick-dust made from the particles which he had 

 chiseled out of the cavity. On this layer he sowed the spores 

 ot the Ferns, and then covered the brick with a sheet of glass 

 which rested on the edges of the basin. He then set the brick 

 in a shallow dish or saucer in which water was constantly 

 kept, and the whole was placed on the top of a pipe under a 

 stage and properly shaded. The house had a flow and return 

 pipe only, but, of course, all that is needed is some position 

 where proper warmth and shading can be given. The porous 

 brick will take up from the little water kept in the saucer 

 enough to supply the needed moisture to the spores, and when 

 the voung Ferns are ready to prick out, the layer of dust makes 

 their removal simple and easy. The writer thinks that 

 amateurs sometimes fail in raising Ferns from spores by 

 keeping the temperature low, when too much water sours the 

 soil, or too little cakes it and kills the spores. 



Raffia, which is the cuticle of the leaf of the Madagascar 

 Palm, has been tor some years dexterously plaited in ladies' 

 hats, although most of the wearers have been innocent of the 

 material which formed their head-dress. In the same way 

 bast, or the inner bark of Hibiscus elatus, another fibrous sub- 

 stance which gardeners use for tying, has been pressed into the 

 service of the milliners after being bleached and dyed, and 

 when it is so treated, and twisted or braided, it forms a very 

 light lace-like material. The bark of the Baobab, Adansonia 

 digitata, after being well bleached, is also used for the same 

 purpose, but many of the milliners' materials are so com- 

 pletely changed by the different processes which they under- 

 go, that it is hard for an expert to determine their botanical 

 origin. Split willow wood, which under the name of chip was 

 largely used thirty or forty years ago for hats and bonnets, is 

 once more bleaclied and dyed and plaited for this purpose, 

 while single fibres of the Sisal Agave and Manilla Hemp, Musa 

 textilis, are placed side by side and united by means of gelatine 

 into a tape-like form and submitted to a heavy pressure, which 

 not only gives a thin material like flattened straw, but one 

 with a remarkable gloss, due to the pressure. The varieties 

 of design in which these Sisal and Manilla plaits are used are 

 endless, and there is a great demand for them all over the 

 civilized world. 



Besides potatoes, Bermuda is nov\' sending limited quantities 

 of onions, beets, lettuce, string beans, spinach, parsley, car- 

 rots, peppers, kohl-rabi and strawberries, and small lots of 

 beans, onions and okra come from Cuba. The importations 

 of potatoes from Europe since the first of October have fallen 

 short of those received last year by 150,000 bags, while the 

 receipts of domestic potatoes during the same time in this 

 city has been increased liy about the same amount. The 

 first rhubarb of the season in this market is from Long Island 

 hot-houses, and sells at retail for twelve and a half cents a 

 bunch. Catawba grapes are occasionally seen in fair condi- 

 tion, a small basket costing twenty-five cents. Selected Spitz- 

 enberg apples are quoted as high as $6.00 a barrel at whole- 

 sale. Greening, Northern Spy and Baldwin apples ranging 

 from $3.00 to $4.50. A few Bellflower apples find ready sale 

 in the fruit-stores at thirty cents a dozen, sliowing that they are 

 considered choice fruit here, although in Philadelphia markets 

 they are esteemed more highly. Some of the showiest and 

 best Newtown pippins seen here this winter are now coming 

 from Vermont. These bring from sixty cents to $1.00 a dozen, 

 or $8.00 a barrel. The last Beurre d'Anjou pears, from 

 Rochester, are now in the market, along with large and showy 

 Easter Beurre pears, from California, which have been carried 

 along in cold storage. The latter cost $1.00 a dozen. Winter 

 Nelis, Comice and P. Barry are in fair supply, and bring from 

 forty to seventy-five cents a dozen. There is nothing to add 

 to what has already been said about the destruction of the 

 orange crop in Florida. The scarcity of all citrous fruits will 

 probably have a tendency to hurry forward the supply from 

 California, and a few small sample lots have been reported 

 already. 



