March 2, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



107 



the tree market. It is " everything Ijy turns, and nothing long," 

 in CaHfornia. In 1875 my fatlier Ijurned thousands oi Apricots 

 because every one wanted Clierries ; a tew years later people 

 could not be persuaded to plant Cherries, but they had much 

 faith in Bartlett Pears. Almost every year the demand changed. 

 Almonds have been favorites of planters perhaps three or four 

 seasons in the last twenty years. So many were set in unsuit- 

 able soil that the years of heavy planting have added little to 

 the profitable orchard area. The Almond will grow in many 

 places where it will not fruit. The reason why Prunes and 

 Almonds lead this season is probably because the product is 

 so easily marketed. Dried fruit, nuts and raisins cost less 

 freight, and freight is one of the most expensive items in Cali- 

 fornia farming. 



Some recent observations upon Fig-trees at the four outly- 

 ing e.xperiment stations of the State University are soon to he 

 published. They show that the University has fifty-one varie- 

 ties of Figs growing at the stations, and that a great difference 

 exists among the varieties in point of hardiness. A new variety, 

 Dor6e Narbus, withstands with ease eighteen degrees of frost, 

 while the well-known California Black, introduced by the Span- 

 ish priests more than a century ago, is badly frozen. Asa rule, 

 a temperature of twenty degrees is as low as the Fig can safely 

 endure, but there is a greater range of difference among the 

 leading varieties than in the case of most other deciduous 

 fruits. Fig-growers, to be successful, will have to study tables 

 of climate more carefully than heretofore. 



Every year new light is thrown upon the climate of Califor- 

 nia, as signal service observers increase in number. It has 

 been shown that a difference of a few feet in elevation or a 

 few hundred yards in distance makes a vast difference in the 

 climate. The Coast Range, for instance, though usually spoken 

 of as one great mountain-chain, is really composed of many 

 groups, isolated or linked closely together, all with valleys, 

 high plateaus, river systems, canons through which fogs and 

 winds may sweep, and sheltered places of semi-tropic warmth. 

 In general, it may be truthfully said that the areas of equable 

 climate are limited ; much of the foot-hill country is subject to 

 more sudden changes and greater extremes of heat and cold 

 than is generally shown by the misleading mean-tempera- 

 ture tables which sometimes appear in the newspapers. 

 Land-speculators have sold thousands of acres as frostless, 

 on which no horticultural skill could ever grow the orange, 

 lemon and fig with profit or on a commercial scale. Hardly 

 one-third of the trees of more tender species planted by hope- 

 ful land-owners are brought to successful bearing ; the rest 

 represent the inevitable waste of ignorance and folly. It is be- 

 ginning to be understood in California that every orchardist 

 should own a maximum and minimum thermometer, and that 

 some one in every town, village and district should keep care- 

 ful climatic observations. 



The prospects for a satisfactory display at the Chicago Fair 

 are still uncertain. There are hundreds of applicants for po- 

 sitions, but few of them seem to be practical outdoor men 

 with comprehensive ideas of securing and displaying an 

 adequate exhibition. In the line of orchard products the state 

 will probably be well represented, particularly in oranges, 

 olives and other semi-tropic fruits. Unless a better spirit of 

 organization is shown, we shall fail in the scientific assembling 

 and classifying of our products. 



On the 27th of January the most noticeable flowers bloom- 

 ing in the garden at Niles, Alameda County, were Camellias, 

 Catalonian Jasmine, Magnolia stellata, Japanese Apricot, 

 Paper White and Chinese Narcissus, Tartarian Honeysuckles, 

 Roman Hyacinths and some late Chrysanthemums. Among 

 Roses the Papa Gontier and Safrano are perhaps the most flo- 

 riferous at this season. Lamarque and Rosamond are also 

 worth especial mention. There are Violets, Heliotropes, yel- 

 low Oxalis, and no end of Geraniums. The Daffodils are 

 blooming, and in a week more the Japan Quince will be in 

 flower ; so will the double Cherry, Peach and Almond from 



Niles,' Cal. Charles H. Shuiii. 



Trees and City Officials. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The ignorance of the average American municipal 

 official as to even the money value of trees was rather strik- 

 ingly illustrated in Philadelphia some twenty years ago. The 

 Legislature having shown its appreciation of the use of small 

 parks in a city by enacting that one of our few squares should 

 be occupied by the new city hall, and the voters having se- 

 lected for immolation the largest open space within the old city 

 limits, it became necessary to remove the trees. Bids for the 



job, which was required to be done in ten days, were adver- 

 tised for, and a farmer living near the city tried his luck with 

 the other bidders. He at first thought of offering to buy the 

 trees for $100, but experience suggested asking $100 for re- 

 lieving the city of its superfluous shade. After much entan- 

 glement in municipal and political red tape, he obtained the 

 contract, which netted him over $1,000 by the sale of the wood, 

 in addition to the $100 agreed upon. This gift of city property, 

 with a ten per cent, bonus into the bargain, seems odd enough, 

 but as the next bidder asked $4,500 for the same work, the 

 city's loss was at all events not as great as it might have been. 

 This was, it is true, twenty years ago, but to judge from the 

 annual tree-butchering, miscalled trimming, in our streets, and 

 from the neglected look of the trees in many parts of Fair- 

 mount Park, especially the Wissahickon woods, we would 

 seem to have advanced but little as yet in our comprehension 

 of how best to use these gifts of nature either for pleasure or 

 profit. 

 Mount Airy, Philadelphia. Charles C. Binney. 



Recent Publications. 



Our Trees. By John Robinson. Published by the Essex 

 Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1891. 



The articles of which this little book mainly consists were 

 published originally in the Salem Gazette. Some additional 

 matter has been introduced, and they are now offered in a 

 neatly printed volume of one hundred and twenty pages. 

 The book is strictly local, and is intended as a popular account 

 of all the trees to be found in the streets and gardens of Salem 

 and of the native trees in Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem 

 seems to be a very good field for such a work as this, for ninety 

 per cent, of all the trees native to New England may be found 

 within the city's limits. The sketch is not confined, however, 

 to native trees alone, for all the more important introduced 

 species that are used in ornamental planting are named and 

 described. The trees are taken up in botanical order and in- 

 troduced in family groups, and the reader is directed to differ- 

 ent parts of the city, or its immediate neighborliood, where 

 examples of each species may be found and observed by any 

 one who may care to do so. We do not remember any other 

 guide-book of this kind, and its value is apparent when we 

 consider that persons with some botanical knowledge, and fa- 

 miliar even with the rarer wild flowers, have often only a slight 

 acquaintance with our trees — that is, they do not know them 

 well enough to distinguish the different Oaks or the different 

 Pines from each other, or to separate the Birches and Horn- 

 beams, or to tell which cultivated trees are imported 

 and which are native. If the young people of Salem, and 

 the older ones for that matter, would take this book for a 

 guide and study the various trees which are pointed out 

 throughout the year, they would become pretty familiar 

 with a great number of species, and they would acquire 

 habits of observation which are a valuable part of mental train- 

 ing. The book contains many historical facts of local interest, 

 besides the descriptions of the trees, and, altogether, the city 

 of Salem is to be congratulated upon the possession of such a 

 manual. It would be a benefaction to many other towns if so 

 competent an observer as Mr. Robinson should give similar 

 accounts of their trees, and if such treasuries of information 

 were common they would help to remove the reproach that 

 there are few American people who know even the names of 

 the trees that grow in the streets through which they walk 

 every day. 



Notes. 



The sixth annual Orchid show, under the direction of Messrs. 

 Siebrecht & Wadley, will open on Wednesday, March 2d, at 

 the Eden Musee, in this city. 



One of the English papers states that some old bulbs of 

 Cyclamen Persicum, kept in a cold Peach-house, were sub- 

 jected to such a low temperature not long ago that the soil in 

 which the bulbs were growing was frozen quite hard for sev- 

 eral nights ; and yet this did not seem to injure the plants 

 appreciably. 



Miss Mary E. Banning has presented to the State Museum 

 of Natural History at Albany a list of the fleshy fungi of Mary- 

 land, which describes 179 species, fourteen of which are stated 

 to be new. The manuscript, accompanied by 175 colored 

 plates, has been bound in a large volume, and will doubtless 

 be of much service to botanists. 



At the Experiment Station at Kingston, Rhode Island, where 

 there has been some study made of the disease known as the 



