October 12, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



491 



voted to Blackberry culture, and much fruit of fine flavor and 

 good size is shipped to northern, eastern and western markets, 

 as well as to New York and Philadelphia. The most serious 

 enemy to Blackberry culture is the red-necked cane-borer 

 (Agrilus ruficollis), which is yet very easily controlled by 

 cutting out the galls when pruning in spring, and burning the 

 cuttings. But of what avail is it to the intelligent grower if he 

 cuts out all the galls in his field carefully, if his neighbor allows 

 those m his field to stand ? For several years last past this in- 

 sect has steadily increased in number, and a tax of fifty per 

 cent, on the crop of the two counties is a low estimate of the 

 injury caused in 1892. On many acres the crop was not con- 

 sidered worth picking, and the fields were allowed to take care 

 of themselves. They have done that so well that early in 

 September I found many of them in which every new cane 

 was galled, and in some canes as many as ten and even twelve 

 galls were on a single cane. The host of insects that will de- 

 velop there next spring will not find canes for one-tenth the 

 females that will desire to oviposit, and they will fly to the 

 neighboring well-kept fields, and will levy their tax on the in- 

 nocent and careful grower as well as on the guilty careless 

 one. There are hundreds of acres scattered in these two 

 counties which will, next year, produce more insects than 

 Blackberries, and which, for the benefit of others, should be 

 utterly destroyed this winter. 



It is a maxim of the common law, that every man must so 

 use his own property as not to injure his neighbor or others ; 

 but it is a matter of very grave doubt whether any attempt at 

 redress under this maxim would be successful under the 

 present circumstances. Certain it is, that there is no justice 

 in allowing one careless individual to impose a heavy tax on 

 all his neighbors. A man who raised foxes and turned them 

 loose in his neighbor's chicken-yards would be brought up 

 with a round turn very suddenly. There is no reason that I 

 can see why one who willfully breeds insects to infest his 

 neighbors' orchards stands on a different footing. 



I hope you have not said your last words on this subject. 



Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. John B. Smith. 



Exhibitions. 



Fruits and Vegetables at Boston. 



THE fruit and vegetable show of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, held at Horticultural Hall in Boston 

 during the first week of this month, was, in point of exhibits, 

 a noteworthy success. The somewhat slender attendance was 

 a new proof of the lack of public interest in the efforts of 

 specialists who have given so much study and time to im- 

 proving the quality and beauty of table fruits and vegetables. 

 It is to be regretted that the efforts of our best horticultural 

 societies meet with so little appreciation. 



The fruits at the recent exhibition occupied the entire upper 

 floor of the building, and the vegetables were arranged in the 

 spacious hall beneath. Apples were largely represented, and 

 some idea of the extent of this display may be gleaned from 

 the fact than no fewer than two hundred and seventy dishes, 

 illustrating about thirty varieties, and averaging twelve speci- 

 mens to a dish, were placed in competition. The contribu- 

 tions of pears were larger still. There were two hundred and 

 ninety-five dishes, each containing twelve samples. Some 

 twenty-eight varieties were shown in their finest form, so that 

 the display was as beautiful as it was extensive. 



Grapes, especially the native kinds, were plentiful and of 

 good quality. The state Agricultural College at Amherst and 

 Mr. Benjamin G. Smith, of Cambridge, were the principal ex- 

 hibitors of domestic varieties, and these growers, with several 

 others, supplied the total of 165 plates of six bunches each. 

 The Amherst exhibit contained sixty-one distinct varieties, 

 and it afforded grape-growers an opportunity for selection 

 which comes too seldom. The first prizes for foreign grapes 

 went to Mr. J. Monteith, gardener to Geo. A. Nickerson, of 

 Dedham, and Mr. John Ash, gardener to Mrs. J. W. Clark, of 

 Pomfret, Connecticut. The former was first in four classes, 

 with Gros Moroc, Golden Hamburg, Black Hamburg, Ali- 

 cante, Buckland Sweetwater and Muscat of Alexandria, and 

 the latter in one class, with Black Alicante, in every respect 

 the best grapes in the hall. 



Mr. George S. Curtis, of Jamaica Plain, was an easy first in 

 Quinces. Some splendid orchard-house examples of the 

 Late Crawford Peach were shown by Mr. Robert McLeod, 

 gardener to D. B. Fearing, Esq., Newport, Rhode Island ; Mr. 

 N. D. Harrington, of Somerville, secured first for the same 

 variety grown out-of-doors, and a like honor was conferred on 



Mr. W. D. Hinds, of Townsend, for the Crosby. Plums were 

 of indifferent quality, and prizes were given to Mrs. Mary 

 Langmaid, of North Somerville, and Mr. E. S. Grant, of Con- 

 cord. Mr. C. Terry, of North Weymouth, was the only ex- 

 hibitor of Cranberries, and Pine-apples were contributed by Mr. 

 Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboretum. Some curiosities 

 were furnished in the form of a branch of the Sheldon Pear, 

 with a close cluster of seven fully developed fruits at the ex- 

 tremity, and in a dish of Endicott pears from a tree imported 

 from England by Governor Endicott in 1636. 



The vegetables, embracing all the best seasonable sorts, 

 were numerous and of first-class appearance. The miscel- 

 laneous exhibits included a collection of hardy flowers from 

 the Harvard Botanic Garden, some vases of creditable single 

 and double Dahlias from C. E. Josselyn, of Framingham, four 

 dishes of very fine flowers of tuberous-rooted Begonias from 

 Francis Brown Hayes, Esq. (Mr. James Comley, gardener), of 

 Lexington, and a nice group of Streptocarpus, from Mr. Wm. 

 Martin, gardener to Nathaniel T. Kidder, Esq., of Milton. 

 Mr. Kidder was successful in obtaining the first prize for a 

 collection of flowers of forty herbaceous plants, the Shady Hill 

 Nursery Company, of Cambridge, being second. 



Recent Publications. 



Dictionary of Botanical Terms. By A. A. Crozier. Henry 

 Holt & Co. 



The science of botany has developed on so many lines with- 

 in the last twenty years that there has been necessity of creat- 

 ing a great many new terms, and it is also true that many of 

 the old ones have been practically abandoned, and inasmuch 

 as it has been almost a score of years since any English diction- 

 ary of botanical terms was published there is abundant demand 

 for a book like this. The modern study of structural and 

 physiological botany is responsible for many of the newer 

 terms, but improved practice in agriculture and horticulture, as 

 well as the advance in the sciences on which both these arts 

 are based, has also made many new words necessary. This 

 book of Mr. Crozier's seems to be very complete in both the 

 practical and scientific sections and will be a welcome addition 

 to many reference libraries. 



Fruit-ciiltiire. By W. C. Strong. Rural Publishing Company. 



This little hand-book was first published seven years ago, 

 and was intended to furnish condensed and simple directions 

 for the average owners of homesteads who wish to raise a few 

 fruits for home use. So great, however, has been the advance 

 in the practical methods of protecting crops from insects and 

 fungi that a book seven years old is quite behind the times. 

 Mr. Strong has, therefore, prepared anew edition, in which he 

 has attempted in a concise way to embody the results of recent 

 experience with various insecticides and fungicides, and the 

 methods of applying them. Of course, in a brief two hundred 

 pages, nothing like extended description of varieties of differ- 

 ent fruits can be looked for. The book contains, however, in 

 a very compact form, the best methods of cultivation for each 

 separate fruit and some descriptions of the best varieties, with 

 illustrated directions for propagating trees from the seed, by 

 cuttings, by layers, by grafting, etc. The book is not intended 

 to supersede the more exhaustive treatises which have been 

 written for those who wish to grow fruit on a large scale, but 

 for the inexperienced cultivator Mr. Strong's book will be wel- 

 come and helpful. 



Notes. 



The white form of Plumbago Capensis is comparatively 

 rare, but it resembles the species in almost every respect ex- 

 cept in the color of its flowers, and the two together are ad- 

 mirable companions. 



Mr. John Westcott, who is well informed on such matters, is 

 reported in the Florists' Exchange as saying that in the neigh- 

 borhood of Philadelphia there are fifty houses full of Chrysan- 

 themums in excess of the quantity produced last year. 



A Douglas Fir was planted in the spring of 1842 at Walcot, 

 the seat of the Earl of Powis, in Shropshire. This spring, 

 after it had stood fifty years, it measured one hundred and 

 seven feet to the top of the leader, and at four feet from the 

 ground the girth of its trunk was twelve feet nine inches. 



The planting of the dunes at Blankenberghe, near The 

 Hague, in Holland, begun on a great scale three years ago, is 

 being steadily carried on. So successful has been the work 



