622 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 253. 



year, but they have gained even more in " average aljility " of 

 their members and in dignity of behavior. Their committees 

 are eminently alile in these days to urge desired reforms upon 

 legislatures and clianges in freiglit-rates upon railroad compa- 

 nies. Tlie politicians of the cheaper sort are beginning to be 

 afraid of the fruit-growers, who come straight from their 

 orchards twice a year, often with tlieir wives to help, and sit in 

 council with members from every other district in the state. 

 Berkeley, Cal. Cluxrlcs Howard Shitiii. 



Early and Laic Strawberries. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The account of Mr. Blacknall, on page 570, in his ef- 

 forts to get the ideal early Strawberry by cross-fertilization, re- 

 calls my efforts to obtain a late Strawl)erry by tlie same metliods. 

 Until a few years ago, only the very largest of Maine straw- 

 berry-growers shipped their crops to Boston and New York, 

 and even now this industry is young and growing slowly be- 

 cause of irregular shipments, high commissions, and the 

 damage to the fruit in transit. 



The season for cheap strawberries in New York and Boston 

 begins about May 15, and extends to July 4, after which rasp- 

 berries and blackberries are in the market. In Maine, how- 

 ever, our Wilson Strawberries begin to ripen about June 20, 

 and the Sharpless on July 4, so that we have strawberries from 

 the vine as late as July 15. I find that by setting plants in low, 

 mucky land, covering them deeply with straw and brush, and 

 keeping them covered until June i, or later, the ripening can 

 be delayed until nearly August i, when I have a monopoly of 

 the big cities. 



What we need here is a late, rank-growing, hardy plant, 

 with fruit the size of the Sharpless, the color and firmness of 

 Wilson's Albany, and as prolific as the Crescent. In my efforts 

 to get such a plant, I have moved fully 2,000 seedlings, and of 

 these I am wintering but seventeen. It is a slow, hard task. 

 The rank-growing plants, as a rule, are not hardy, while the 

 dwarf varieties are too early for my use. A type that is almost 

 perfect when in pots takes to sporting and goes back to its 

 original form as soon as set out in the ground. And so I have 

 thrown away my pets one by one until not a score remain. 

 Meanwhile, I shall keep crossing and experimenting until I 

 get the right kind, after which Mr. Blacknall's earliest and my 

 latest will furnish the people of New York, Philadelphia and 

 Boston with cheap strawberries for six months every year. 



Brewer, Me. H. A. Eaton. 



Desecration of Natural Beauty. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I wish to thank you for the editorial article on the De- 

 facement of Scenery, which appeared in a recent issue of your 

 paper. Thoughtful persons have long noted and deplored the 

 rapid destruction of the landscape beauty which the slow pro- 

 cesses of nature have been unfolding through centuries of 

 growth and change, but they have kept silent because protest 

 seemed useless. It seems now that the desecration of high, if 

 not of holy, places, by the paint-brush of the advertiser, has 

 awakened some indignation ; and if this indignation has found 

 a louder expression than that which has been called forth by 

 the blasting work of the railroad, the oil-well, the charcoal- 

 furnace or the mine, it is only because there seems some hope 

 of redress in the first case, while the widespread desolation 

 from other causes has appeared to be the costly, but inevita- 

 ble, sacrifices which the spirit, or the demon, of material 

 progress demands. 



Your suggestion that our heritage, the beauty of the world, 

 is a trust for coming generations, places the matter on its 

 proper footing. "Man cannot live lay bread alone," and the 

 material prosperity gained by the destruction of pure and no- 

 ble forms of beauty may prove in the end a national calamity. 

 It certainly will be such a calamity if it is true that landscape 

 beauty is a vital necessity to the mental and spiritual health of 

 a people. In a thoroughly enlightened society the conserva- 

 tion of natural beauty would be regarded as a national duty 

 just as truly as the protection and development of- any other 

 natural resource which makes for the public wealth or health — 

 an obligation as binding as that which leads a government to 

 keep its river channels clear or its harbors safe or its forests 

 productive. Governments build libraries and establish uni- 

 versities and galleries of art to cultivate men's higher nature. 

 They have no right to permit the destruction of what the 

 Almighty has already prepared to serve the same high purpose. 



Orange, N.J. _ H. M. A. 



New Cypripediums. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — The following hybrid Cypripediums have recently 

 flowered for the first time at the United States Nurseries, 

 Short Hills, New Jersey : 



Cypripedium Barteti angustum.— This disfinct variety was 

 obtained by crossing C. barljatum Warnerii with C. Insigne 

 Kimljallianum. Growth very compact ; leaves narrow, three 

 to four inches long, pointed. The dorsal sepal long, narrow, 

 yellowish green at the base, shaded and spotted with brown ; 

 petals narrow, purplish at the ends ; lip long and narrow, 

 shaded heavily with brown. 



Cypripedium Niobe Shorthillense.— A beautiful and dis- 

 tinct variety of a great merit ; flower large, well-proportioned, 

 having the vinous purple lines reaching nearly the top of the 

 dorsal sepal, and washed over on the sides ; the yellowish 

 green portion in the lower part is also much brighter. The sepals 

 and the lip are very dark, brown-purple, with a broad mid- 

 vein of vinous purple through the petals. 



Cypripedium Nioke magnificum.— Differs from the type in 

 its large dorsal sepal, which is pure white with the exception 

 of the purplish line through the middle, and the brown and 

 green portion in the lower part, as in C. Spicerianum. The sepals 

 and the lip large, color the same as the type. 



Short Hills, N.J. Joseph Manda, Jr. 



Plantago media. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — It may be of interest to some of your readers to know 

 that the Plantain mentioned in your issue of November i6th, 

 page 550 (Plantago media), has been growing in Providence 

 for at least three seasons. It was collected by me in i8go, and 

 specimens of that date are in Brown University Herbarium. 

 I secured a few more specimens at the same station last June. 



If memory serves me correctly, one of our local collectors 

 obtained specimens of this same Plantain in i8go, and I had 

 always supposed he sent specimens to Harvard Herbarium 

 at that time until I read the letter in your columns. 



Providence. R. I. J . Franklin Collins. 



Meetings of Societies. 



The Kansas State Horticultural Society. 



■T^HE twenty-sixth annual meeting of this society was held at 

 -•- Winfield, which is in Cowley County, one of the southern 

 tier of Kansas counties, just east of the Arkansas River. 

 It is one of the best fruit-growing regions of the state, and its 

 productive capacity is only just beginning to be understood. 

 Some of the leading points brought out in the papers and dis- 

 cussions are herewith given : 



Apple Orchards. — For the eastern and northern portion of 

 the state the uplands were considered preferable to bottom- 

 lands for orchard purposes, and northern and eastern ex- 

 posures were recommended, since the trees in such locations 

 are less subject to sun-scald and the influence of Jieated winds 

 during the drier months. In the Arkansas valley, on the con- 

 trary, the bottom-lands were recommended for orchards, there 

 being along the Arkansas River and its tributaries much land 

 where the sub-flow water is reached at a depth of only a few 

 feet. It was believed that Apple-tree-roots penetrated deep 

 enough to drink this moisture, and growth was, therefore, 

 much greater and the trees longer-lived. Thorough and deep 

 preparation of the soil was advised, and where the subsoil is 

 of a stiff, refractory character, such as is found underlying 

 much of the prairie country, the use of the subsoil-plow found 

 many advocates. The too common practice of setting the 

 tree in a hole dug in the hard ground, instead of loosening up 

 the whole area, was believed to cause the early death of many 

 young trees. The discussions brought out the fact that sev- 

 eral large commercial orchards had been planted in this sec- 

 tion, one of over 600 acres in Greenwood County ranking 

 second only to the great Wellhouse orchard of Leavenworth 

 County, with its 75,000 trees. Growers in the eastern counties 

 have in years past found a considerable market in the western 

 portions of the state, but their sales are cutoff more and more 

 each year by the crop from younger orchards further west. 

 First the home-demand is supplied, and then the fruit finds its 

 way to the west, till there are nt>w few localities in the eastern 

 half of the state not supplied with home-grown fruit in a favor- 

 able year, and a partial supply is grown well out to tlie one- 



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