12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 202. 



and that the demands for wood material are to be satisfied in 

 a legal, equitable and simple manner, while at the same time 

 keeping up supplies by protecting them from fire and waste 

 and by securing their reproduction, it is believed that all 

 bona fide opposition will cease, and the boon, which such 

 reserves promise, will be welcomed by all persons interested 

 in the steady and prosperous development of the western 

 states. 



After naming and describing several tracts for reservation, 

 the memorial concludes : 



At the same time this Associafion does not believe that the 

 best results in forest-preservation and management can be 

 attained by partial reservations, but after mature deliberation 

 desires to again record its firm belief that only by the with- 

 drawal of all public timber-land unfit for agriculture, and a 

 complete and independent bureau for its management, can 

 the question of forest-preservation be solved. 



The principal papers read were by B. E. Fernow, Chief of 

 the Forestry Division ; J. D. W. French, of Massachusetts ; 

 Gifford Pinchot, of New York, and President Adams, of Cor- 

 nell University. We hope to publish extracts from them in 

 future issues. The officers elected for the year were : Presi- 

 dent, William Alvord, San Francisco, California ; Treasurer, 

 H. M. Fisher, M.D., Philadelphia ; Recording Secretary, N. H. 

 Egleston, Washington, D. C; Corresponding Secretary, Ed- 

 ward A. Bowers, Washington, D. C. 



Notes. 



I\Ir. R. J. Hinton's Progress Report on Irrigation in the United 

 States says that irrigation was practiced by the Indians in 

 Mexico and Arizona at least five centuries ago, and that among 

 ourselves it seems to have been first practiced by the Mor- 

 mons in their Great Salt Lake settlement. 



A correspondent of the American Florist commends the 

 new pink Carnation, Grace Battles, as superior even to Grace 

 Wilder, and predicts for it a greater popularity. The flower is 

 said to be larger and a trifle lighter in color. It is borne on a 

 stout stem, and does not burst its calyx. The new plant is one 

 of Mr. Edwin Lonsdale's seedlings. 



On very cold nights window-plants are best protected Ijy the 

 homely plan of hanging one or two newspapers between them 

 and the glass. The air between the layers of paper is an ad- 

 mirable non-conductor, and when high winds accompany a 

 low temperature this simple device will often make a differ- 

 ence of ten degrees at the point where the plants stand. 



In regard to the danger of sterilizing the soil by applications 

 of the Bordeaux mixture, Professor Halsted writes that he has 

 seedling plants and cuttuigs growing in soil which contains 

 one per cent, of copper sulphate, and they are as vigorous as 

 similar plants in soil entirely free from copper. It would re- 

 quire a century of spraying on the approved methods before 

 the soil of a vineyard or orchard would contain a like propor- 

 tion of copper. 



A dispatch to The Tribune announces that the state fruit- 

 inspectors of California, last week, seized diseased fruit-trees 

 from the east valued at $5,000. Among these were Peach- 

 trees, with yellows and curculio, and Plums, Prunes and Apri- 

 cots, also diseased and infested with insects. Eastern nursery- 

 men made vigorous protests, but the inspectors paid no 

 attention to them. The nurserymerf do not assert that the 

 trees are free from pests, but they declare that the diseases 

 will not develop in California, a statement which fruit-growers 

 there consider an error. 



A prune-grower in Santa Clara Count)', California, one Gor- 

 don, has just refused an offer, it is said, of $30,000 from a 

 Bordeaux firm that wished to buy his fruit and sell it as the 

 French product. The price ottered for the prunes was satis- 

 factory, but the stipulation was made that the prunes should 

 be shipped in sacks. The only inference from this was that 

 the Bordeaux firm would pack them as French prunes. Mr. 

 Gordon would not consent to this, as he believes, if California 

 growers use the same care and skill in packing that the French 

 do, they will soon contest the prune industry with them. 



At this season in extensive shrubberies, like many of those 

 in Central Park, beautiful effects are produced by the haze of 

 soft color which hangs over them. This comes from a fusion 

 of the various tints of the bark on the branches. The most 

 casual observers are familiar with the ashen gray of some of 

 the Thorns, the crimson of the Dogwoods and the yellow of 



the Willows. But each species and variety of shrub and tree 

 has a color of its own, and as these combine on a bright 

 day ever)' mass of branchlets, at a little distance, is enveloped 

 by a luminous mist, which adds much to the charm of a winter- 

 landscape. 



" There is very little forest left in this state," recently said 

 the Pittsburgh Dispatch, "which is worth anything for lumber, 

 and meantime the railways are consuming all the hard-wood 

 large enough to make a tie, so that there is no prospect of a 

 renewal of our hard-wood timber in a century, and the Pine 

 and other persistents do not readily reclothe the wastes. But 

 worse than the loss of timber, for which substitutes may be 

 found, is the fact that since the denudation of the forests our 

 climate has become so uncertain that, even with the aid of the 

 Signal Service, no business calculations can be based on the 

 weather, and birds and animals have not yet acquired new 

 instinct such as will enable them to serve us as barometers. 

 Even the hoot-owl misses it as often as the Weather Bureau. 



In an address before the Wisconsin State Horticultural So- 

 ciety on plants as affected by cold, Professor Goff stated that 

 whatever we can do in the way of treatment of the soil or of 

 the plant that will induce early maturing of their growth, will 

 tend directly to increase their hardiness. A well-drained soil 

 that warms promptly in spring and retains its warmth late in 

 autumn, and is at all times free from excessive water, is one 

 of the essential requisites to well-matured wood in plants that 

 incline to late growth. Nitrogenous manures tend to stimu- 

 late growth, and hence should be avoided, as should cultiva- 

 tion late in summer, since by increasing soil-moisture it tends 

 to a succulent condition of the wood. The growing of some 

 crop that has a large leaf-surface, as Buckwheat, late in the 

 season is of advantage, since it tends to reduce the water-con- 

 tent of the soil, and thus to hasten maturity. Pinching the 

 tips of the growing shoots at the beginning of autumn acts as 

 a check to growth, and thus tends to ripening of the wood. 

 Removing the leaves from young trees that incline to grow too 

 late promotes the same end, and in late varieties of the Apple 

 it is found that a prompt gathering of the fruit has a tendency 

 to promote wood-maturity. 



At the meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural Society at 

 Easton, Maryland, the Committee on Small Fruits say in their 

 report that old beds are not the ones that pay the grower, and 

 future years will find them fruiting their Strawberry-beds but 

 once, Raspberries not over four times, and ^Blackberries 

 not more than seven or eight years. It has been shown that 

 fall or winter plowing is the best for the Strawberrv-beds for 

 spring planting, and the old theory that they should never fol- 

 low a clover-sod has been so completely exploded that we 

 now know that there is no other preparation so good as to 

 turn a young clover-sod one or two years old at the most, and 

 this is equally true for all the berry crops. It has even been 

 found that the mulch for Strawberry-beds may be grown right 

 on the patch, and if the ground is strong and the weeds have 

 been thoroughly kept under, no harm appears to result from 

 ceasing all work on the beds about August i. The growth of 

 Fall-grass, Crab-grass, etc., which will follow, is all killed by 

 the first heavy frost and, left on the ground, makes an excel- 

 lent mulcli for the berries. Experiments arc now going on 

 that promise to harness the Scarlet Clover to the work of im- 

 proving our Ijerry-patches, as has been ilone with larger 

 fruits. This may be sown after the fruiting season on Rasp- 

 berry and Blackberry fields, and a good crop of green manure 

 will be ready to turn under in April, this furnishing nitrogen 

 to the soil and improving its mechanical condition at the same 

 time. It has been shown that potted Strawberry-plants set in 

 August will give a crop of the best fruit the following season, 

 and we believe that as good results may be obtained from 

 layer-plants set out about the time of our early August rains, 

 thus making it possible to grow a good crop of the best ber- 

 ries at a greatly reduced cost for cultivation, and to have a 

 crop of Clover growing during April and May decaying 

 through June and July in the soil that is to grow our Straw- 

 berries the following spring. 



Catalogues Received. 



Ferris Nurseries, Hampton, Franklin Co., Iowa ; Small Fruits, 

 Fruit and Forest Trees. — Fred. W. Kelsey, 145 Broadway, New 

 York ; Choice Hardy Trees, Shrubs, Roses, etc. — F. B. Mills, Rose 

 Hill, Onondaga Co., N. Y.; Flower and Vegetable Seeds. — Orl.\ndo 

 Nurseries, Orlando, Fla.; Sub-tropical Fruit Trees and Ornamental 

 Plants. — Pitcher & Manda, United States Nurseries, Short Hills, 

 N. J. ; Orchids and Cypripediums. — Russell Bros., Highlands, Maeon 

 Co., N. C; Native Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Plants. 



