270 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 384. 



Notes. 



Japanese Irises are more than usually aliundant and beauti- 

 ful in the florists' windows this year. 



Very striking objects in the landscape just now are theChest- 

 nut-trees witli theirgreatdome-likeheads covered with cream- 

 colored flowers. In distant woods, where there is an occa- 

 sional tree of this species, tlie mass of flowers, surrounded by 

 the green foliage of other trees, has a singularly beautiful 

 effect. Chestnut-trees seem unusually full of blossoms this 

 year, and young ones not more than ten feet high are flower- 

 ing freely. The odor of these flowers is borne a great dis- 

 tance on still summer evenings, and the fragrance from 

 remote trees is delightful. 



Celery is already coming from Long Island, and four stalks 

 bring thirty-five cents. New crop celery, from Kalamazoo, 

 costs fifty cents for a dozen stalks. Chicory, escarolle and Ro- 

 main lettuce come from near-ljy farms, and besides taragon, 

 chervil, chives and mint, catnip and tansy are kept in stock by 

 the best dealers. Large quantities of these herbs are bought 

 by the saloon-keepers for use in fancy summer drinks. Solid, 

 well-colored tomatoes are coming from Mississippi in refrig- 

 erator cars, as many as 4,000 crates being sold at auction by 

 one house on Monday. They bring twenty-five cents a quart 

 at retail. 



There are few of our wayside thickets or neglected fence- 

 rows, especially where the ground is rich and moist, which are 

 not beautified now by the flowering of the common Elder, 

 Sambucus Canadensis. Its abundance justifies the epithet of 

 Common, and, indeed, it is so familiar that its merits are 

 overlooked by the great mass of people who value plants ac- 

 cording to their rarity. But the graceful way in which the 

 broad cymes of white flowers are borne above the smooth 

 and always healthy leaves, and the beauty of its abundant dark 

 purple fruit, make it really one of our most attractive shrubs. 

 Fortunately the birds keep planting it year after year, and it is 

 sturdy enough to take care of itself, so that those who appre- 

 ciate it will always be able to find it, although no one ever 

 thinks of planting it. 



The few strawberries now in market come from western 

 New York and Connecticut, and cost twenty-five cents a quart. 

 Blackberries are plentiful ; they come principally from North 

 Carolina, though a few of the small-berried early sorts have 

 already been received from as far north as southern New Jer- 

 sey. The best huckleberries have been coming from the 

 Carolinas and Virginia, but good ones are now coming from 

 tlie Shawangunk Mountains. Raspberries are coming from 

 Maryland and the coast country up to Lake Champlain, and 

 cost ten cents for a small cup. Muskmclons from South Caro- 

 lina cost thirteen cents apiece, the red-fleshed Christina melons 

 costing twenty to twenty-five cents each, while large heavily 

 netted melons from New Orleans command forty to seventy- 

 live cents. Closely fruited bunches of Niagara grapes have 

 been here from Florida and southern Georgia for nearly a fort- 

 night, and sell now for twenty-five cents a pound. The Alex- 

 ander and Early Rivers peaches from Georgia are now being 

 succeeded by the somewhat later varieties, as Tillotson, 

 Mount Rose, Lady Ingold, a good yellow, somewhat earlier 

 than Early Crawford, and Amelia. These Georgia peaches are 

 lietler this year than ever before. Along with the tew remain- 

 ing P. Barry pears of last year, which sell for ten cents each, 

 the street fruit-stands now display new Bartletts, Seckels and 

 Buerre Giffards from California, and Le Conte pears from 

 Georgia. Some of the Peach plums from California have 

 brought as much as $5.20 a crate, a higher price than any 

 other plums command. 



At the Geneva Experiment Station, in this state, the forcing 

 of Lettuce in pots has been tried with considerable success, 

 and the details of the practice are given in a late bulletin. 

 Seed is sown in flats as usual, and the seedlings when two 

 inches high are transplanted into two-inch pots, which are 

 plunged into soil on the bench, so that the pots are covered 

 with about half an inch of the earth. The soil in the pots is 

 the same as that used in the benches, except that it is sifted, 

 and both consist of three parts of loam by measure, one of 

 rotted manure and one of sand. The lienches are six inches 

 deep, the lower three inches being filled with manure upon 

 which the roots feed after they grow through the hole in the 

 l>ottom of the pot, which they soon do to some extent, al- 

 though a little drainage material is put in the bottom of each 

 pot. The pots are set about ten inches apart, although the dis- 



tance varies with different varieties, and when they are filled 

 with roots the plants appear to make a compact growth and 

 head more quickly than when grown in beds where the root 

 system is unchecked. One advantage of tliis method is that the 

 plants are moved but once, and so escape the check of growth 

 which comes from the second transplanting. When ready 

 for market the plant is knocked out of the pot, and since the 

 ball of earth containing the roots is undisturbed it remains 

 inoist for a long tinie, so that the liead keeps fresh and crisp 

 much longer than when the roots are disturbed. As soon as 

 a pot is removed from the bench another can immediately be 

 set in its place without waiting to clear the bench, and in this 

 way the method proves economical both of time and space. 

 Cultivators are counseled to avoid sudden fluctuations of tem- 

 perature, which should he kept at from fifty to sixty degrees 

 during tlie day and five or ten degrees lower at night, as 

 a higher temperature tends to give a spindling growth, a 

 lack of compactness and greater liability to attacks from 

 aphides. The plants should have plenty of fresh air, especially 

 on sunny days when the temperature is high outside. When 

 watered overhead it is best to select a time when the foliage 

 will quickly dry, and they should never be watered so late in 

 the day that they will not dry before night. Before the pot is 

 plunged in the soil it is turned upside down and the under sides 

 of the leaves are dusted with tobacco to prevent the attacks of 

 aphis. The upper sides of the leaves are then dusted, and 

 about a week later the plants are dusted again, especial care 

 being taken to apply the tobaccco thoroughly at the centres of 

 the growing plants. 



A comparatively new pest of fruit-trees is the insect called 

 the cigar-case-Iiearer, which last year probably ranked next to 

 the bud-moth in New Yoik in destructiveness. In a bulletin 

 from the Cornell Experiment Station, Mr. Slingerland says that 

 it has probably been present in limited numbers in the orch- 

 ards of this slate for many years, but public attention was not 

 called to it until 1888, when Mr. Patrick Barry found it boring 

 holes in newly set pear-fruits. In 1892 Dr. Lintiier received 

 some apples from Oswego which had apparently been bored 

 by this insect, and in 1894 specimens were received at the ex- 

 periment station of Ithaca from a great number of places, 

 showing that it was present in alarming numbers. So far the 

 insect has been recorded only from New York and Canada, 

 but it will probably be heard from soon over a much wider 

 range of country. Owing to its small size and peculiar habits 

 the insect in any stage will be rarely noticed by a fruit-grower, 

 and yet the second one of the curious suits or cases which the 

 little caterpillar wears is conspicuous enough to reveal its 

 presence to the casual observer. The first suit is manufactured 

 in the fall, to be worn all winter, but about the 15th of May the 

 half-grown caterpillar finds this too small, and proceeds to make 

 a summer suit which resembles a miniature cigar in shape and 

 color. These cigar-like objects can be seen moving over the 

 leaf of a plant, although scarcely more than one-fifth of an 

 inch in length, and when disturbed the little creatures retreat 

 into them. The first indication of the insects' presence occurs 

 on the swelling buds of Apple, Pear or Plum trees. Two or 

 three have often been seen on a single bud busily at work eat- 

 ing holes into them no larger than a pin. The work on the 

 expanded foliage is seen in skeletonized dead areas, which 

 have near their centres a clean-cut round hole through one 

 skin, usually on the under side of the leaf. The caterpillars 

 also often attack the growing fruit. The bulletin gives the life 

 history of this most interesting insect, from which it appears 

 that it is only practicable to fight it while in the caterpillar 

 stage, and then it is so well protected in its case as to render 

 its destruction impossible unless the work is very thorough. It 

 can probably be kept in clieck by two or three thorough spray- 

 ings with Paris green, if used at the rate of one pound to two 

 hundred gallons of water. The first application, which may 

 be effectively combined with the Bonieaux mixture for the 

 Apple-scab fungus, should be made as soon as the little cases 

 are seen on the "opening buds. A second, and perhaps a third, 

 application maybe necessary at intervals of from four to seven 

 days on badly infested trees. These sprayings will also check 

 the bud-moth. It has been also found in Canada that a kero- 

 sene-emulsion spray applied at the same time as directed for 

 Paris green is a still more eft'ective check upon the case- 

 bearer, and will probably be so on the bud-moth. In Pear- 

 orchards this insect and the psylla can be checked by a spray 

 of the same emulsion when the leaves are opening. It should 

 be remembered that a fruit-tree ought never to be sprayed 

 when in blossom, and that success in any case will depend 

 almost entirely upon the thoroughness with which the work is 

 done. 



