5^8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 409 



One of the most pleasing features of the last Boston show 

 was a group of Japanese Anemone-flowered sorts, shown by 

 Mr. Brydon, gardener to John Simpkins, Esq., of Yarmouth- 

 port. It is safe to say that these attracted more attention than 

 the largest blooms exhibited. Dr. G. C. Weld (Kenneth Find- 

 layson. gardener) also showed a striking lot, including Gaza, a 

 beautiful white ; Yellowhammer and Judge Hoit. Mr. Simp- 

 kins' group contained some immense blooms. Rider Haggard 

 being especially noteworthy on account of size, but these large 

 ones were not as beautiful as several smaller forms, among 

 which may be mentioned George Hawkins, yellow ; Ida 

 Strickland, bronzy ; Enterprise, light pink ; Mrs. F. G. Dexter, 

 crimson and yellow ; Mrs. Robert Owens, white ; San Joaquin, 

 large pure white, and Satisfaction, chrome-yellow, with 

 notched and twisted petals, an elegant flower. Mr. Howard, 

 of Winter Hill, Somervjlle, had a neat lot of Pompons in one 

 corner of the hall, and there never was a time when one could 

 not see three or four elderly persons, usually ladies, admiring 

 them and talking of bygone days in the old garden at home. 



Wellesley. Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Viburnum Lantana. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Viburnum Lantana well deserves the commendation 

 which you give it. When in England, last summer, I saw 

 quantities of it growing wild, and most beautiful it was. It 

 was invariably growing on the lop of chalk cliffs, as I found it 

 where chalk was close to the surface. Near Brading, in the 

 Isle of Wight, there are great elevations, like small mountains, 

 called downs, which are composed almost wholly of chalk, 

 and on the summit of these, sometimes with not six inches of 

 soil above the chalk, this Viburnum grows in quantities and 

 in most vigorous condition. It was in July when I saw 

 them, and the bushes, which were from six to eight feet high, 

 were loaded with fruit, which was just turning from green to 

 red. In the hedgerows adjacent, and elsewhere in the island, 

 were many bushes which had sprung up from seeds dropped 

 by birds. About the same time of the year, at Henley-on- 

 Thames, I saw the shrub in thickets, and here, too, chalk was 

 abundant. 



As I write, in the middle of December, there are small 

 seedling plants in Germantown with their leaves still alive, 

 though severe frosts have occurred ; but small seedlings of 

 many species retain their foliage later than larger plants do. 



Germantown, Pa. Joseph Meehan. 



Irrigation in New Jerse}'. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The note in Garden and Forest, December nth, 

 page 496. under Cultural Department, giving Mr. Hale's 

 method for irrigation, leads me to send a few words 

 concerning irrigation as carried out during the past season at 

 the College Farm. 



The water used is from the reservoir which supplies the 

 city of New Brunswick. The field upon which the water was 

 applied has a slight incline, and the water was carried to its 

 upper side by means of underground pipes which end — -three 

 of them — in uprights provided with faucets and surface iron 

 pipes. To the faucets inch garden-hose was attached, and the 

 water thereby applied to the surface of the ground. 



The piping was not in place until past midsummer, and was 

 not employed until the dry spell of autumn. 



A crop of Wax Beans was planted in August, and to a por- 

 tion of the area thus occupied water was applied between the 

 rows. Upon one one-hundred-and-twenlieth of an acre 1,685 

 gallons were applied during a period of three weeks, from Sep- 

 tember 17th to October 5th, when the beans were harvested. 

 The average yield of the non-irrigated belts, in good-sized 

 pods, was seventeen pounds, while upon the irrigated land it 

 was forty-five pounds, or nearly three times as many ; besides, 

 the pods were larger-sized and of finer color and quality. 



To another area of the same size 1,830 gallons of water was 

 applied to Peppers. The average yield upon the non-irrigated 

 belts was 717 fruits, but upon the irrigated land it was 1,277. 

 In weight the difference was greater, for the non-irrigated land 

 gave 80 pounds, while where water was applied the weight 

 was 147 pounds. The latter fruit was much better in color 

 and quality, and would sell at the highest price. 



A crop of Celery was grown after Beans, the plants being set 

 August 6th. The rows were four feet apart, and each alternate 

 row received water from September 17th until October 28th. 

 The total weight of celery produced was 465;^ pounds, Z-'^Yz 

 pounds being in the irrigated rows and 136 pounds in the rows 



receiving no water. In round numbers, this is two and a half 

 times as much celery upon the irrigated as the non-irrigated 

 land. These figures do not indicate the full difference of mar- 

 ket value. The largest yield for both the irrigated and non- 

 irrigated belts was upon one of the two to which the Bordeaux 

 mixture had been applied, and this was therefore selected to 

 determine the relative amounts of refuse. After the plants were 

 prepared for market, by removing worthless outside leaves 

 and the roots, the weight of the irrigated plants was reduced 

 from forty-two to thirty potmds, while that of the non-irrigated 

 rows fell from 17 to io'< pounds. In short, the difference 

 in marketable products of the two rows is as three to one, but 

 when the actual selling price is considered it is not far from 

 eight to one in favor of irrigation. 



The method of applying the water, the dates and amounts 

 for each crop, the cash and other details of this irrigation ex- 

 periment with garden crops will soon appear in a bulletin 

 from the New Jersey Experiment Station. 



New Brunswick, N.J. Byroii D. Halsted. 



Meetings of Societies. 



Irrigation for Kansas Farms and Orchards. 



'X'HE twenty-nmth annual meeting of the Kansas State Hor- 

 -'• ticultural Society was held at Lawrence, the centre of a 

 large fruit-growing interest in the eastern part of the state and 

 the seat of the Kansas University. The subject of greatest 

 interest to a largely attended assembly was irrigation as applied 

 to fruit-growing, with the allied subject of subsoiling. Perhaps 

 the most interesting paper on the programme was by George 

 M. Munger, of Eureka, Greenwood County, on Irrigation with 

 Storm Waters. Mr. Munger owns the largest farm irrigated 

 in this way in Kansas, if not in the United States. His orchard 

 comprises over five hundred acres, principally Appleand Pear 

 trees, besides two hundred acres of forest-trees and other 

 land not in orchards. His reservoir now covers sixty acres, 

 but is designed to cover eventually a hundred acres, the water 

 in the deepest part being now seventeen feet. The dam which 

 holds this water is made across the mouth of a broad, shallow 

 valley, and is constructed entirely of earth. It is ten feet broad 

 at the top, so that teams can be driven over it in making re- 

 pairs. In building the dam the surface soil was first removed 

 and the subsoil, which is a stiff clay, was used in its construc- 

 tion. It was put on in thin layers, say a foot in thickness, so 

 that it was thoroughly tramped by the teams. The surface soil 

 was used on the faces of the dam. Two drains, or ditches, 

 filled with broken rock, were put in the bottom of the dam, 

 running lengthwise of it, to carry oft' the seepage water. This 

 Mr. Munger considers very miportant in preventing the dam 

 from becoming soft and thus allowing the formation of leaks. 

 The spill-way must not be through or over the dam, which 

 must be built so high that the spill-way can be carried over the 

 original surface, around one end of the dam. This is an impor- 

 tant point, in Mr. Munger's opinion, when heavy rains come, 

 especially when, as is apt to be the case, the water-shed drained 

 is too large for the reservoir. The water from Mr. Munger's 

 lake is pumped by a steam-engine and a centrifugal pump to 

 a reservoir on the highest point of the farm, from which it is 

 distributed by ditches. Situated, as the plant is, in the eastern 

 third of the state, the experiment will be watched with interest 

 by all who believe, as many now do, that in any part of our 

 state, and, indeed, of most other states, there will be periods 

 of drought in almost any season when it will pay to apply water 

 to crops. 



In speaking on orcharding in western Kansas, Mr. Long- 

 streth, of Lakin, Kearney County, which is in the extreme 

 western part of the state, brought out a point which is of in- 

 terest in connection with Professor Waugh's article in a recent 

 number of Garden and Forest on the "Western Apple 

 Crop." Mr. Longstreth has an orchard of seventy acres, set in 

 1886, principally Apple-trees. Since the orchard came into 

 bearing he has had but one failure, and that was from the 

 effects of a late frost. During the past season, when apples 

 were falling so badly all over the state, he has had no trouble 

 whatever in that way. In fact, he never raised a larger crop of 

 finer apples. He irrigates twice a year — once in February and 

 once in July — flooding the land, and using about ten inches of 

 water each time. He finds that watering heavily a few times 

 gives better results than more frequent and less copious 

 watering. 



Professor Haworth, geologist at the Kansas University, gave 

 an interesting account of some researches made last summer 

 in regard to the underflow, so-called, in the western part of 

 the state. He found that water-bearing strata underlie most of 



