8o 



Garden and Forest. 



[NUMKER 365. 



We have received from Messrs. Siebrecht & Wadley several 

 flowers of the Rose Belle Siebrecht, which has already been 

 described in these columns. We only need to add that care- 

 ful observation of these flowers proves the truth of what has 

 been claimed as to their lastiritj quulitiesand as to the singular 

 purity of their color under artihcial light. 



Experiments at the station in Kingston. Rhode Island, con- 

 firm former tests and show conclusively that air-slacked lime 

 tends to increase the disease known as the scab of potatoes. 

 The natural acidity of soils tends to diminish the disease, and 

 the reason why barnyard-manure aggravates it is attributed to 

 its alkaline action in overcoming the souring of the soil. 

 Barnyard-manure, where stock is fed on uncooked potatoes or 

 beets which have the disease, may carry the germs to the soil 

 and increase the disease. 



A correspondent of the Baltimore Cactus Journal advises 

 that when Cacti are repotted, the most suitable time for this 

 being February or March, the soil used should neither be 

 damp nor dust-dry, but it is best to err on the dry side. When 

 turned out of their pots most of the soil should be shaken 

 from the roots of the plants, and the roots should be well 

 spread out when they are shifted, and good drainage should 

 certainly be secured. A handful of sand put directly under 

 the plant is in all cases beneficial. 



At this time of the year branches of spring-flowering shrubs 

 and trees, when placed in water, readily open their buds, 

 and in one of the up-town flower-stores, where a specialty is 

 made of this kind of decoration, among the plants treated in 

 this way were Crab-apple, Japan Quince and Forsythia. Flower- 

 ing sprays of different species of Acacia, Chorozema and Jessa- 

 mine are also occasionally seen, and among potted shrubs in 

 bloom now are Cytisus, Azaleas, Ericas and double-flowering 

 Almonds. Among the commonest herbaceous potted plants 

 in flower and on sale are Cinerarias, Pansies, Primulas and 

 Cyclamens. Cut flowers of white camellias, which have been 

 practically banished for a long time from the markets, seem 

 to be slowly gaining a foothold. Oi course, there are quanti- 

 ties of hyacinths, tulips and daffodils, with poet's narcissus, 

 which seem to be popular tor button-hole bouquets. Cattleyas 

 are very abundant, and retail readily at fifty cents each. 



Unless Strawberry-plants are shipped very early in the sea- 

 son, there is much danger that they vi'ill heat in transit. This 

 is especially true when they carry a considerable quantity of 

 heavy green foliage, which has probably been warmed up in 

 the middle of the day before the plants are packed, and packed 

 closely, as is often necessary. Mr. J. H. Hale writes to the 

 Florists' Exchange that specialists in Strawberry-plants put on 

 large numbers of men to dig them early in the morning, and 

 carry them at once into cool cellars, where they are trimmed 

 and packed. But even where no digging is done in the mid- 

 dle of the day, unless they are very carefully handled, the 

 plants are in danger, and, therefore, an experiment now in 

 progress in Delaware will be watched with interest. A nur- 

 sery firm there has built a cold-storage house, in which all 

 the Strawberry-plants are put as fast as they are packed, and 

 cooled through before they are delivered to the transportation 

 companies. The expectation is that with this treatment there 

 will be no trouble from the heating of the plants. 



Mr. John N. May writes to the American Florist \.\\dX because 

 Roses are coarse and gross feeders many persons make a 

 mistake in giving them, when grown under glass, too much, 

 or, at least, too strong liquid-fertilizer. It is never sate to use 

 more than half a pound of nitrate of soda, for example, to fifty 

 gallons of water, and an application of this once in twenty-five 

 days is often enough. Old plants, which have been growing- 

 two or three years in the same soil until it is a mass of roots, 

 will take liquid-manures ottener, especially when the days are 

 getting longer, the sun brighter and the vital forces of the plant 

 more active. The safest method, however, is to feed lightly ; 

 that is, to make the liquid fifty percent, weaker than is usually 

 considered the proper proportion, and when the plants are in 

 proper condition for being watered to give them a good soak- 

 ing with this diluted food. The roots can then take it up at 

 once and the plants will feel the effect immediately. Liquid- 

 nianures of all kinds should be used with great discretion, and 

 Mr. May never applies any liquid which is so much discolored 

 that he cannot see through it. 



Small quantities of lettuce which have escaped the frost in 

 Florida are now in market, but, except that which is grown 

 under glass, most of it now here comes from Bermuda. A few 

 new potatoes are also coming from Florida, but the supplies 

 of fresh vegetables from our southern seaboard has practi- 



cally stopped for the present. Such hardy plants as Straw- 

 berries will, no doubt, put out new blossoms and bear a crop 

 of fruit later on, but tliere never has been in this country so 

 great a destruction of garden crops by frost as that caused by 

 the recent cold weather in our southern states. All the string 

 beans we have are now coming from Bermuda, and Havana 

 is sending us tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplants and onions. 

 It has been a rich harvest for those who have grown vege- 

 tables under glass. The market has readily taken at good 

 prices all that has been offered. Long, slender green shoots 

 of forced asparagus sell for $1.50 a bunch of a dozen stalks. 

 Cucumbers bring twenty cents each, lettuce fifteen cents a 

 head, new carrots ten cents a bunch, ordinary red tomatoes 

 seventy-five cents a pound, and a fancy yellow variety which 

 comes in small quantities from Hackensack conimands $1.00 

 a pound. 



A bulletin just issued from the United States Department of 

 Agriculture gives a concise description and history of the 

 I-'eanut, togetfier with notes on its cultivation and uses. As is 

 well known, this is not really a nut, but, more properly, a 

 ground pea. Analysis gives the peanut a high rank as to its 

 food value, since it contains twenty-nine per cent, of protein 

 and forty-nine per cent, of fat, and it should be classed with 

 such concentrated foods as the soja-bean and cotton-seed, 

 while the vines are superior to Timothy hay as feeding stuff, 

 and, of course, would be equal, or superior, to Clover hay if 

 any considerable percentage of nuts were left on the vines. 

 The average yield of peanuts in Virginia is about twenty 

 bushels to the acre, and, in Tennessee, thirty-two bushels, but 

 fifty to sixty bushels ought to be an average crop, and one 

 hundred bushels not an uncommon yield. Fair Peanut-land, 

 when properly treated, should produce fifty bushels to the 

 acre, with one or two tons of excellent hay, in ordinary sea- 

 sons. Four million bushels are annually raised in this coun- 

 try, which is only about one-seventh of the crop of the world. 

 Millions of bushels are used in the Old World tor the produc- 

 tion of oil, in which these nuts are very rich. 



No more beautiful flower grows in New England than the 

 Sabbatia, and at Plymouth, where it is especially profuse and 

 luxuriant on the borders of the ponds so characteristic of that 

 part of eastern Massachusetts, it is held in peculiar affection, 

 and, one may almost say, reverence. It is locally called " the 

 Rose of Plymouth," and during its brief season of bloom is 

 sold in quantities in the streets of the town and used in the 

 adornment of houses and cliurches. Its name comes from 

 that of an early Italian botanist, Liberatus Sabbatia ; but this 

 well-established truth is totally disregarded by local tradition. 

 Almost every one in Plymouth firmly believes that the title is 

 due to the fact that the Pilgrims of 1620 first saw the flower on 

 a Sabl)ath-day, and, entranced by its masses of pinkish lilact 

 color, named it for the holy day. Indeed, this belief is so 

 deeply ingrained in the Plymouth mind that, we are told, 

 strong objections are made if any other flowers are irreverently 

 mingled with it in church decoration. Yet the legend was 

 invented not more than twenty-five years ago by a man whose 

 identity is still well remembered ; and thus it is of even more 

 recent origin than the one, still more universally credited, 

 which says that the Pilgrim Fathers landed upon Plymouth 

 Rock. 



Large areas of Pine-lands in lower Michigan, from which 

 the timber has been cut, have passed back to the control of 

 the state on account of the non-payment of taxes. The pur- 

 chasers have thought that this sandy soil, especially where it 

 has been burned over, will not produce a second growth of 

 Pine for a long time, and it is, therefore, abandoned as a per- 

 petual wilderness of deciduous coppice-wood, valueless for 

 timber. The editor of the North^uestern Lumberman quotes 

 the opinion of Mr. Carey, special agent of the Forestry Division 

 of the Department of Agriculture, who has been making 

 investigations throughout the slate, and he has arrived at the 

 conclusion that this land can again produce as fine a growth 

 of White and Red Pine as ever grew on this continent. All 

 that is necessary, he says, is to keep out fires, browsing sheep 

 and cattle, and in forty years the second growth of Pine will 

 make profitable cuttings, as it has done in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire and other parts of New England. It will be a fortunate 

 thing for Michigan if this hopeful view proves correct. In 

 any case, it is worth while for the state to take these lands in 

 hand, and begin at once not only to pass laws for protecting 

 their young timber-growth, but to enforce these laws with 

 vigor. We should expect to find that lands which have been 

 burned over and over again have lost much of their original 

 timber-producing power. But this is a good reason for hus- 

 banding all the fertility that remains. 



