July i8, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



251 



Hardy Fruit Trees. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Under tliis heading- I have read with care the suggestive 

 paper, by Mr. F. W. Burbidge, in tlie Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 and the editorial notes on it in Garden and Forest. The ar- 

 ticles are timely and well meant, but the whole facts as to the 

 character of the fruits of the Volga, and their singular capacity 

 for adapting themselves to exceedingly varied climates, are 

 not given. 



As to the si/.e, l)eauty and quality of the Apples of the Volga 

 from Kazan to Sarepta — a distance by the river of near one 

 thousand miles — I will only say that they will surprise the hor- 

 ticultural tourist who examines and tests them as we did in 

 the autumn of 1882. If we were confined alone to the many 

 varieties of the Oldenburg, Aport and Skanka famihes they 

 would give a list difficult to equal in England, though in quality 

 they are far excelled in the United States. 



As to their adaptation to varied climates a few examples 

 may be profitably considered. Taking up the latest edition of 

 Hogg's Fruit Manual, we find that ten varieties of the Russian 

 Apples, several of them from the ^^^lga, are declared to be 

 perfectly satisfactory in tree, foliage, habits of bearing and 

 character of fruit in England^viz., Borovitsky, Sugar Loaf 

 Pippin, Alexander, Constantine, Peach, Malakovna, Red 

 Transparent, Red Astrachan, Court Penduplat, White Astra- 

 chan and Muscovy. Again, at Pomona, in south California, 

 I found five varieties of Russian Apples — some of them from 

 the Volga — perfect in tree, foliage and fruit, standing among-, 

 so-called, A)nerican sorts that were dwarfed and scrubbv in 

 tree, and imperfect in foliage and fruit. Their thick foliage 

 and pubescent fruit seemed to perfectly fit them to endure the 

 great summer heat and the great ciianges in ten-iperature of 

 the day and night. In the upper valleys of California we also 

 find the Sweet Anis of the Volga — perfect in tree and fruit — 

 growing beside the Orange and the Fig. 



Still again, so far as tried, the Russian Apples, Pears and 

 Cherries stand the summer lieat of Alabama, Florida and 

 Texas better than any other varieties except those of China. 



To all this we must add that, next to the Siberian Crabs, the 

 Apples of the Volga endure the trying summers and winters 

 of Minnesota, north Dakota, and even Manitoba, niost perfectly. 

 J.L.Budd: 



Recent Publications. 



Agriculture in some of its Relations with Chemistry. By F. 

 H. Storer, S.B., A.M., Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in 

 Harvard University. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. 529 and 509. New 

 York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



The lectures comprised in these volumes were delivered 

 originally to small classes of students who represented two 

 distinct types ; (i) young farniers and the sons of farniers fa- 

 miliar with ordinary farm practice, but desirous of acquiring- 

 some knowledge of the sciences upon which the art of agri- 

 culture rests, and (2) city-bred men, often graduates of the 

 academic department of the University, who intended to 

 establish themselves upon farms, or to occupy country-seats, 

 or to become landscape gardeners. The lectures, therefore, 

 were not prepared for advanced students in chemistry, and the 

 most abstruse of them are easily within the coni prehension of 

 one who has a fair elenientary knowledge of that science. 

 This does not imply that the more profound problems in agri- 

 cultural cheniistry are ignored, for these are clearly and ex- 

 actly stated, and the results of the most recentand trustworthy 

 investigation, both in Europe and America, are set forth with 

 ample detail. Indeed, we know of no otiier work in which 

 those fundamental problems of chen-iical science, upon which 

 the practice of agriculture is based, are moreskillfully grouped 

 and presented. And this fact makes it the most instructive 

 and helpful manual that has appeared in this country since the 

 publication of Professor Johnson's " How Crops Grow " and 

 "How Crops Feed." Naturally enough the subject of fertilizers 

 with their modes of action ujjon various soils and crops occu- 

 pies large space, but this does not exclude the careful treat- 

 ment of such subjects as Tillage, its Purposes and Processes ; 

 The Movements of Water in the Soil ; The Atmosphere as a 

 Source of Plant Food, and The General Relations of the Plant 

 to Soil and Air. This means not only that the lectures are of 

 interest to farniers and gardeners, but to all persons who are 

 attracted by the mysteries of vegetable life which are con- 

 stantly going on about them. 



There are few forehanded farmers who do not read some 

 agricultural paper, and the teachings of the best of these jour- 

 nals are usually abreast of the advance in scientific discovery. 

 But in addition to these indispensable aids we can think of lio 



better book to keep lying within easy reach than this one of 

 Professor Storer's. Every day the thoughtful farmer is con- 

 fronted by difficult proljlems in actual practice, and for nearly 

 every one of these will be found a reference in the verv com- 

 plete index to these volumes. The book has, to our knowl- 

 edge, proved of signal service in just such cases as a manual 

 of daily practice. It woidd be a great advantage to every coun- 

 try home if its owner would place himself in just such rela- 

 tions to this book. If the true requirements of plant-growth 

 were better understood we should see fewer hungry lawns, 

 and spindling trees, and sickly shrubberies, and famished gar- 

 dens generally. Some of the students to whom these lectures 

 were delivered were in coiu'se of training for the profession of 

 landscape gardeners, and knowledge like that imparted here 

 should be an essential portion of the equipment of every artist 

 of this kind. This knowledge, however, should not be con- 

 fined to landscape gardeners or to those who till their acres for 

 profit only. Country life loses half its charm to those who take no 

 inquisitive interest in the processes and conditions of plant-life 

 and development. The owner of a country-place who cannot 

 give intelligent directions on methods of enriching his land with 

 plant food and making that food available, or on the best me- 

 chanical preparation of his soil for a given purpose, or on the 

 kind of cultivation best adapted to special cases, may derive 

 some pleasure from his possession, as may the owner of a yacht 

 who has no skill to sail her. But the keenest delight in a rural 

 home only comes from an intimate acquaintance with the soil 

 itself and an intelligent appreciation of its possibilities of pro- 

 duction. To sucli a one the lawn, the pastiu'e, and even the 

 kitchen garden, offer fields for experiment and study that are 

 ever fresli, and a new interest is added to every plant that 

 grows for ornament or use. No safer guitle in the wliolesome 

 studies aliove alluded to can be found than this manual, so 

 that it can be commended not only to thoughtful farmers, but 

 to all others who find recreation of mind and body in the 

 abounding vegetable life of the fields and in searching for the 

 laws under which this life is ordered. 



Periodical Literature. 



In the May numlier of The Portfolio is given the first install- 

 ment of a long description of Charlecote Hall in Warwickshire, 

 the courtyardof which was pictured in Garden and Forest 

 a few weeks ago. The text is partly architectural, partly his- 

 torical in character, and the illustrations are nunierous and 

 pretty. The largest among them will especially interest our 

 readers, as it gives the reverse of the view with which they are 

 already familiar, showing the house from the terrace-walk be- 

 yond the courtyard wall." The second installment of the article 

 does not ajipear in the June rumiber of the n-iagazine, but will 

 doubtless not long be delayed ; and in it we hope to find a 

 description of the park which Shakesperean legend has made 

 so famous. 



In Good ff 'orrfj- for June Mr. Grant Allen writes a pleasant 

 chapter on "The Breadstuff of the Desert." His subject is of 

 course the Date Palm, and in a lively and popular way he 

 gives niuch information with regard to its manner of growth 

 and the multifarious uses to which it is put. As he explains, 

 this tree does much niore than furnish the Arab of the desert 

 with his chief — almost his only — article of food. " He eats it," 

 says Mr. Allen, " he drinks froni it, he lives under it, he burns 

 it, he buys with it whatever he needs from other regions. It 

 is his all, his estate, his heritage, his banker." Fortunately for 

 him it grows best where no other tree will thrive ; antl by one 

 of nature's seemingly deliberate economies, it ceases to grow 

 well where other trees begin to flourish. The article is ac- 

 companied by a luuiiber of illustrations, but no one of them 

 reveals the full beauty of the Date Palm as it stands in the 

 memory of all who have been fortunate enough to see it in its 

 African'home — at once majestic and lovely, noble in its sim- 

 plicity of forni, yet consunimately graceful in the way it yields in 

 varying degree to the varying touches of the wind. A north- 

 ern tree which is sturdy enough to be called, under any con- 

 ditions, stately and majestic, always keeps its sturdy air, pre- 

 serving an almost unyielding trunk even in the strongest 

 wind. But the trunk of the Palm is superbly dignified in its 

 apparent rigidity when a light wind tosses its feathery crown, 

 yet bends deeply to a stronger wind, gaining grace for the 

 inornent by some sacrifice "of majesty. It is this constant 

 change in air and expression, this alternation of the effect of 

 strength with the effect of |ili;uicy, this look as of now dor-n- 

 inating the elements and now being dominated by them, 

 whicli makes the Palm so attractive to the traveler's eye and 

 does so much to compensate it for the fact that it finds fio 

 other tree in the wide, level landscape, 



