July 24, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



299 



ing here in matted rows, after the severe weather such as we 

 have never known before, of perfect flowering plants, are 

 Lovett, Splendid, Enhance and Parlver Earle ; and of pistillate 

 plants, Haverland, Warfield, Crescent and Bubach. These 

 recovered best of any after the frosts, and if we could have 

 had plenty of rain would have yielded perhaps half a crop. 



Of the thirty-six best kinds planted in 1894 and kept in hills 

 of five plants each, each plant being allowed to make only 

 four runners, after three icy mornings in May and one heavy 

 frost on iVIay 27th, which did more damage than the colder 

 nights, Sadie and Swindle, both pistillate plants, gave more 

 than a quart to the hill. Neither of these varieties is profit- 

 able in matted rows. Warfield came next, and Gandy was 

 behind twenty otliers. 



Janesville, Wis. Gt-Ort^e J. kt-llogg. 



Poison Ivy. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — ^That the poisonous principle of Rhus Toxicodendron 

 resides in the bark as well as in the leaves is proved ]>y the 

 fact that men who have to deal with logs and lumber suffer 

 from the poison when they work in the woods in winter. IVIy 

 father has been severely poisoned by handling logs in the mill- 

 yard with dry vines attached after they had been cut several 

 weeks. The volatile character of the poisoning is proved by 

 the well-known fact that susceptible persons are affected Ijy 

 passing to the leeward side of this Rhus. A neighbor of mine 

 undertook to kill out some of the plants by pouring boiling 

 water over tliem, and the vapors arising carried a sufficient 

 infusion of the poison to produce a very serious case of poi- 

 soning. A workman in olu' garden, whenever he has occa- 

 sion to meddle with the Ivy, always pulls one of the small 

 leaves and eats a piece of it, asserting that the workmen on 

 the railway along wliose embankments the plant abounds 

 always do this as a preventive measure, and with success. 



Geneva,©. S. F. Goodrich. 



Common Plants. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The Mullein in this country is such a disagreeable 

 evidence of bad husbandry that no one would think of plant- 

 ing it for beauty or ornament. In England it is not so univer- 

 sally considered a pestilential weed, and is cultivated for deco- 

 rative effect. A well-grown specimen is really a magnificent 

 plant, and a bed of them in the Kew Gardens is much ad- 

 mired. Their great velvety gray-green leaves and soft yellow 

 blossoms were a revelation to me, though I had been familiar 

 with them all my life in the pasture-fields at home. Germans 

 call the plant the Kaiser-kerze, the Emperor's taper, and a 

 pretty and appropriate name it is. 



At a church festival a few years ago the ornamental value 

 of one of our commonest wild flowers was shown. One end 

 of the large hall was shut in by a rustic fence elaborately deco- 

 rated vi'ith vines, Roses and a mass of creamy-white flowers 

 that were wonderfully dainty in their effect. On the tables 

 inside were offered for sale bouquets of many kinds of rare 

 flowers, and conspicuous among them bv its delicate loveli- 

 ness were cymes of the same creamy-white blossoms. " What 

 do you call them ?" asked a gentleman, lifting an artistically 

 arranged cluster from a vase of sparkling glass. "Sambucus 

 Canadensis," answered the young girl in charge, with a faint, 

 mischievous smile dimpling the corners of her mouth ; 

 "named from an ancient musical instrument that was made 

 from the wood." And Elder blossoms they were, fragile and 

 sweet as the choicest exotics there. 



A plant in a costly jardinit^re in a luxurious dining-room was 

 the admiration of all who saw it. The leaves were a rich 

 green, with finely cut and curled edges, and it was generally 

 supposed to be some rare Fern. Its owner, when asked its 

 name, called it Pastinacasativa. I caught a twinkle in her eye 

 one day. My suspicions were aroused. I examined it more 

 closely and discovered it to be Parsley — just a fine, graceful, 

 well-cared for bunch of Parsley, such as is grown in every 

 kitchen-garden in the land. 



In our search after beautiful vines we have overlooked one 

 of the choicest ones of native growth. Our English cousins 

 are more discerning, and in many places in that snug little 

 island may be seen Vitis labrusca, our northern Fox-grape. 

 Any one who has seen it trained over an arbor, or spreading 

 its thrifty and abundant foliage over rough rockeries and 

 masses of roots, will not soon forget the impressioji it gives 

 of wild grace and beauty. It woukl be difficult to find its 

 equal ; yet how few appreciate it ! It seems as if nothing short 



of a celestial vision, such as Peter had, will open our eyes to 

 the beauty of the common things aliout us. 



Emienton, Pa. '' yl/. 



Southern Pines (North Carolina) Experimental Farm. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest -. 



Sir, — The establishment recently of an experimental farm at 

 Southern Pines is a matter of real importance to the fruit- 

 growers of the long-leaf Pine district. 



There are hundreds of thousands of acres in the south on 

 which all the timber has been destroyed by the turpentine 

 workers, lumbermen and fires, and which are now great des- 

 olate wastes. The sandy soil is for the most part the favorite 

 habitat of the long-leaf Pine and has been regartled as unfit for 

 agricultural purposes. No wonder people in the south have 

 argued that the land was not good for raising crops of Cotton 

 or Corn. And so nothing was done to improve the soil, and 

 many thousand acres in the long-leaf Pine region were, and 

 are to-day, practically abandoned. 



Such was the condition of the country, in Moore County, 

 about Southern Pines, when Dr. Von Herff, of New York, 

 began buying large tracts of land. Pie early saw the necessity 

 of making experiments to determine the requirements of this 

 sandy soil, especially in the way of fertilizers best suited for 

 fruit-growing. It is entirely through his efforts that the ex- 

 perimental farm was established at Southern Pines. 



The farm is under the auspices of the State Horticultural 

 Society in cooperation with the North Carolina Experiment 

 Station. Dr. H. B. Battle, of the Station, is interested in the 

 success of the experiments now under way, and has freely 

 given his time and attention to various details. In this he has 

 been assisted by Professor W. F. Massey and Professor Irby, 

 both of the Agricultural College, Raleigh. 



The chief object of the managers of the farm will be to find 

 out the requirements of the soil, especially for fruit-growing. 

 The problem is to determine the proper fertilizers to be used. 

 Alany analyses of the soils all through the south show that 

 they are deficient largely in potash. Hence, experiments are 

 now being made to measure the need of potash in connec- 

 tion v/ith nitrogen and phosphoric acid. 



A number of fruit-crops have been planted on the farm, 

 which comprises about sixty acres. The area lor each crop is 

 divided into plots of equal size — " experimental plots," as they 

 are called. These are all treated with different kinds and 

 amounts of fertilizers. The results obtained from all the plots 

 will be collected and studied separately in order that correct 

 conclusions can be drawn. 



New York. L. J. Vailce. 



Recent Publications. 



We have received the first part oiThe Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns 0/ New South Wales, with special reference to their eco- 

 nomic value, by J. H. Maiden, Esq., of the Technological 

 Museum, Sydney, assisted by W. S. Campbell. This work is 

 intended to make known the principal flowering plants and 

 Ferns of the colony, and each part is to contain figures and 

 descriptions of two forest-trees of economic value and of 

 two shrubs or smaller plants, selected on account of 

 their beauty or scientific interest. In the first number 

 are well-executed colored plates, with sufficient analytical 

 detail, of Telopea speciosissima, the Waratah, a stout, erect, 

 glabrous shrub, with crimson flowers in dense ovoid or 

 globular heads about three inches in diameter. The name 

 Telopea, from the Greek telopos (perceived from afar), was 

 given to this plant on account of the conspicuous crimson 

 flowers, and Mr. Maiden tells us it has come to be recog- 

 nized as the national flower of New South Wales. 



The second plant that is figured is Eucalyptus corym- 

 bosa, the Bloodvvood, a tree which owes its popular name 

 to the fact that it Exudes an abundance of resinous gum, 

 which has, when fresh, the appearance of blood. It is a 

 fine timber tree, attaining the height of from one hundred 

 to one hundred and twenty feet, with a trunk from two to 

 four feet in diameter, producing a dark red-juirple durable 

 inflammable timber, which is difficult to saw on account of 

 the large quantity of gum that it contains. 



The other plants figured are Actinotus Ilelianthi, the 

 Flannel F"Iower, an erect perennial umbilliferous plant, 

 curiously like a Composite in general appearance, with 



