December i8, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



509 



and the courses given have been, in general, notably suc- 

 cessful. 



In the first place, we have reached the men we desired to 

 reach. The audiences and classes have been made up almost 

 wholly of farmers, the large majority being between twenty- 

 five and thirty-five years of age. The attendance, too, has 

 been good, running as high as 119, and averaging sixty for all 

 the courses. This has involved drives over country roads of 

 long distances, as much sometimes as twelve miles each way. 



Again, a serious purpose has been unmistakable. Almost 

 the entire number in attendance remains for the second hour, 

 and the discussion of practical applications of the different 

 subjects has proved the most interesting part of the exercises. 

 The majority have made diligent use of the syllabus, and a 

 large number of the younger men have taken up the collateral 

 reading in earnest. We should not naturally expect mature 

 men engaged in active business to be willing to submit to an 

 examination, yet not less than thirty-two persons, nearly all 

 men, have, at the end of the six weeks' course, taken an exam- 

 ination on the subject treated, and twenty-nine have been 

 successful in passing and have received the regular Extension 

 credits. 



The purely educational results, though difficult to estimate, 

 are the most important. The practical results are easier to 

 specify and could be detailed at considerable length. I limit 

 myself, however, to one or two. After a course, before a 

 Fruit Growers' Association, on The Food of Plants, a com- 

 mittee of farmers was appointed to purchase fertilizing mate- 

 rials in accordance with formulas furnished by the lecturer, 

 instead of the prepared fertilizers already mixed, and on one 

 hundred tons purchased a saving of $1,500 was made. In one 

 case a permanent agricultural society which meets for the dis- 

 cussion of agricultural topics and has charge of the arrange- 

 ment of Extension work from year to year, is the direct out- 

 growth of one of our courses. In general it may be said that 

 the most important practical result is that many individuals 

 throughout the state have been drawn into closer relations 

 with the experiment stations. 



All this is entirely distinct from the work of the Farmers' 

 Institutes, where a very large number of single lectures are 

 delivered each year, and it proves clearly that the methods of 

 University Extension may be made useful in spreading the 

 knowledge and practice of scientific agriculture. 



Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. Loilis Bevier. 



certainly prove stimulating and helpful. The series is 

 edited by Professor L. H. Bailey, and we shall look forward 

 with much interest to the volumes which are to follow. 



Recent Publications. 



The Soil : lis Nalure, Relations and Fundai?ienlal Princi- 

 ples of Management. By F. H. King, professor of Agricul- 

 tural Physics in the University of Wisconsin. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. 



It was a happy thought to issue a series of handy mono- 

 graphs on agricultural subjects in which the problems of 

 rural economy should be discussed in the light of the most 

 recent discoveries in science. This first volume, relating 

 to the soil, presents its history, showing how sun and air 

 and water and various forms of life have been working 

 through long cycles of geological time and are working 

 still, not converting it into a mere inert assemblage of 

 chemical particles, but developing it into a scene of life, a 

 storehouse of energy, a laboratory where invisible organ- 

 isms are constantly building up and tearing down and 

 shaping it in a hundred ways for future use. The book 

 aims constantly to lay down principles as the basis of prac- 

 tice rather than to offer a collection of rules to be learned 

 by rote. A very considerable amount of science is set forth 

 in a popular, but in a clear and logical, way, and this will 

 not only furnish justifying reasons for most of the ordinary 

 processes of horticulture and agriculture, but will, of 

 course, suggest experiments looking toward the discovery 

 and adoption of new and improved methods. Such sub- 

 jects as the physical effects of tillage and cultivation, 

 drainage, irrigation, soil-water and its conservation, the 

 temperature of soils, the distribution of roots, etc., are all 

 treated with fullness and clearness. The book is written 

 in a pictorial, though sometimes in a rather inflated, style, 

 but it cannot but fasten the attention of any intelligent 

 reader who is not familiar with the facts presented, and the 

 interest is sustained from end to end. If it could be read 

 aloud to a circle of young students of rural affairs it would 



Maladies des Plantes Agricoles. Vol. I. By Professor 

 Ed. Prillieux. 8vo, 420 pp., and 190 figures. Firmin- 

 Didot, Paris, 1895. 



This compact and handy volume forms one of the series 

 entitled Bibliotheque de I' Enseignement Agricole, which in- 

 cludes a number of practical treatises on different subjects 

 relating to agriculture. We have in recent years received 

 from Germany a number of general works on plant diseases, 

 and the present volume is a welcome addition to the 

 American student of vegetable pathology, for it offers in a 

 condensed and copiously illustrated form a presentation of 

 the subject from the French standpoint. The author, Pro- 

 fessor Ed. Prillieux, of the Institut National Agronomique, 

 has the talent, characteristic of his nation, of writing in an 

 interesting manner, and has given a simple statement of the 

 subject, wisely avoiding lengthy discussions of disputed 

 questions. The present volume includes the diseases of 

 cultivated plants as well as those of fruit and forest trees 

 vi'hich are caused by vegetable parasites, beginning with 

 those caused by bacteria. A second volume, which we 

 presume is to include diseases caused by non-vegetable 

 parasites, is announced to appear soon. 



Notes. 



Varieties of the European Holly with yellow berries are not 

 uncommon, but we never happen to have seen one of our 

 native Hollies with clear yellow berries until we receivedsome 

 specimens from Professor Massey, of the North Carolina Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station. Professor Massey says the 

 trees are not common there, but there are a considerable num- 

 ber of them. It is rather remarkable that so little has been 

 heard of them and that they have not been propagated for 

 commercial purposes. 



The parts of Engler & Prantl's rjlanzenfaiiiillien from 120 to 

 125, inclusive, have recently reached us, and are devoted to 

 the Loganiaceae, by Solsreder ; the Gentianaceje, by Gilg, and 

 the Apocynaceae and Asclepiadace^e, by Schumann. Part 123 

 is accompanied by a most instructive and interesting illustra- 

 tion from a photograph made in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, 

 showing in the foreground masses of the tall stems of the Old 

 Man Cactus, Cephalocereus senilis, and large specimens of the 

 spherical Echinocactus ingens. 



The leaves of the Japanese Grapevine, Vitis coignetiae, were 

 killed in the Arnold Arboretum this year by the frost before 

 they assumed their autumn colors. Generally they take on 

 hues of great brilliancy, and tliey make a wonderful display in 

 the forests of Japan where they climb into the upper branches 

 of the loftiest trees. We have received recently from Mr. A. 

 Blanc, of Philadelphia, some leaves of this vine which were 

 intensely scarlet, and a large plant covered with them would 

 certainly make a striking display. V. coignetije ought not to 

 be overlooked by any one who is planting with a view to 

 autumn effect. 



Not long ago Professor Bailey told one of his classes that he 

 was impressed more and more with the fact that persons who 

 know nothing about horticulture to begin with often become 

 most successful when they once enter the business. This 

 simply means that these men start without any prejudice and 

 with everything to learn, full of entluisiasm, and with minds 

 open to accept any new teaching which commends itself to 

 them. Not long ago he visited one of the largest and most 

 successful establishments for growing mushrooms and forcing 

 vegetables in the country, where the inanager but a few years 

 ago knew nothing whatever of the business. Perhaps many 

 of the best farmers of the future may be those who have not 

 been brought up on farms of the present time. 



Among the nuts exposed for sale we have lately observed 

 for the first time in our fruit shops the Souari, or what are 

 known as butternuts in the English market. They are called 

 here cream-nuts, which name is really descriptive of their rich 

 meat, and African nuts, althougli really they come from South 

 America, where they are borne on a tree known to bota- 

 nists as Caryocar nuciferum. They are somewhat kidney- 



