432 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 3r, i8 



According to Professor N. S. Shaler, the value of the arti- 

 ficial manures manufactured in this country from mineral 

 phosphates already amounts annually to $30,000,000, and the 

 industry is but at its beginning. 



The oldest Rose bush of which there is any authentic record 

 is growing against the old chmxh at Heldersheim, in Ger- 

 many. Eight hundred years ago, it is said, Bishop Hepilo 

 caused a trellis to be erected to support it. The main stem is 

 thicker than a man's body. 



The extraordinary force exerted by growing Fungi was well 

 shown the other day in a New Hampshire village. It was no- 

 ticed that a cone about seven inches in diameter was rising in 

 the middle of an asphalt walk. Beneath it a Mushroom was 

 discovered, which had cracked and raised a solid stretch of 

 asphalt two inches in thickness. 



Five new experimental stations for the study of Sorghum 

 and its manipulation are being organized by the Agricultural 

 Department in Washington. One of them will be in New Jer- 

 sey, one in Louisiana and three in Kansas. The appropriation 

 for the work exceeds by $100,000 that of any previous year. 

 Dr. Neale, of the Agricultural Station at New Brunswick, N. J., 

 has spent the past summer studying European methods of 

 sugar manufacture. 



Vilmorin cS: Co. recently exhibited before the Societe Na- 

 tionalc d' Horticulture de France the fourteen varieties of 

 Gladiobis Gandavensis, which long experience shows to be 

 the latest blooming of tlie innumerable varieties grown in the 

 neighborhood of Paris. They are named : Abricote, Atlas, 

 Beatrix, Coq\iette, Docteur Fontan, Gallia, Mt^dicis, Etna, Mi- 

 mos, Rosini, E. Souchet, Eugene Scribe, Sceptre de Flore and 

 Aml;>roise Verschaffelt. 



Two of the three huge and ancient Oaks which have stood 

 for centuries near the "Bush Mill," in the neighborhood of 

 Frankfort-on-the-Oder, have recently perished through the 

 effects of storms. The last to fall measured over twenty-one 

 feet in circumference. Its top was blown off by the wind, and 

 although the trunk was still sound, the Forestry authorities 

 decreed that it should be felled. The one which remains has 

 a circumference of twenty-three feet. 



The large Bald Cypress (Taxodium diatichuiii) in the old 

 Bartram Garden, West Philadelphia, is still alive, though ap- 

 parently near its end, as but a few live branches exist near its 

 top. A recent measurement of this tree, at four feet from the 

 ground, gave twenty-seven feet as its circumference. At a 

 distance of about twenty feet from the trunk, along the ground, 

 appear numerous "knees," which always excite curiosity in 

 those who have not seen the trees in their native places. 



The Covmtess of Kenmare has planted a large collection of 

 Australian trees in her beautiful grounds near Killarney, in 

 Ireland. As a proof of the mildness of the climate in this 

 region, it may be noted that a Draccrna australis flowered 

 this season near Cork, after having been grown in the open 

 airfor seven years, and reached a height of fifteen feet. The 

 head of bloom lasted in all its beauty for two months, and 

 measured three and one-half feet in height by three feet in 

 breadth. 



The bad taste sometimes displayed in this country in the 

 conception and arrangement of floral designs is quite as often 

 and as conspicuously shown in other lands. For example, 

 among the set pieces recently exhibited at a horticultural 

 show in Cologne, there was one which represented a life-size 

 baby in swaddling clothes, and another in which a swan was 

 figured by means of the detached petals of Water Lilies. Be- 

 yond this last, misplaced ingenuity could hardly go ; for, to 

 dismember the flowers employed, is, of course, to deprive a 

 result of all title even to the name of a floral arrangement. 



The fruit growers of Sutter and Yuba Counties, California, 

 after twenty-five years' experience, do not speak favorably of 

 irrigation. At a recent meeting of the Sutter Horticultural 

 Society many of them bore testimony against the practice. 

 Instead of the use of water, they urged the use of cultivators 

 and pulverizers in orchard and vineyard, which was regarded 

 as better, cheaper, healthier, and certain to produce richer, 

 sweeter and better flavored fruit than artificial moisture. The 

 fruit grower, like the wheat grower, must plan to meet aver- 

 age conditions. He cannot plan for extraordinary seasons, or, 

 in other words, he cannot create costly irrigation works that 

 may not be needed once in twenty years. Besides, the driest 

 hills and vales will not produce a bountiful crop of fruits with 

 the most abundant artificial water supply every year ; kind 

 nature will have her rest occasionally. 



Professor Maynard, of the Massachusetts Agriculture Col- 

 lege, finds the Worden by far the best Grape to plant for profit 

 in New England. It is equally hardy, productive, and of as 

 good quality as the Concord and more than a week earlier. 

 \Ve find it a decided improvement on the Concord in quality. 

 Professor Maynard pronounces the Brackman more vinous in 

 cpiality and nearer the perfect Grape than any variety except 

 lona. It ripens with the Delaware, but is not quite as sugary. 

 In foliage it resemljles the Clinton and it has not mildewed. 

 The fruit of the lona is of excellent quality, but it is tender, 

 with foliage liable to mildew and fruit to rot. If suljsequent 

 experience confirms the last two seasons' trial of the Brack- 

 man, which so closely resembles it in fruit, this Grape will 

 prove a valuable addition to New England vineyards. 



One of the finest gardens in India is that of the Nizam of 

 Hyderaban in the Dekkan. The horticultural skill of the country, 

 developed by centuries of experience and lavish expense, has 

 been taxed to the utmost to produce the labyrinths of shade, 

 the lirilliancy of color and the clouds of perfume which all 

 Orientals love. Thick plantations and shrubberies are com- 

 bined with gorgeous designs, composed of bright-colored 

 flowers, which, we may believe. Oriental taste has made more 

 beautiful than those we commonly see in western countries ; 

 and a large use is also made of small plants in pots. An idea 

 of the magnitude of the garden and the expense of maintain- 

 ing it may be gathered from the statement that it contains six 

 million potted plants, each of which is watered every day. A 

 natural arrangement seems to have been adopted for the 

 most part, as a recent writer in Harper s Magazine speaks of 

 " miniature lakes . . . laughing nooks, now a bit of 

 jungle and now a broad and beautiful open space, where the 

 distant view was enchanting." 



The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, states, on the authority 

 of our consul at San Salvador, that the fibre of the Banana is 

 one of the valuable products of the soil which is now largely 

 suffered to go to waste. This fibre, which may be divided 

 into threads of silken fineness, extends the length of the body 

 of the tree, which grows without a branch from ten to fifteen 

 feet high, and has a circumference at the base of two and a 

 half to three feet. In Central America, the fibre, with no 

 preparation except drying, is used for shoe strings, lariats and 

 cords for all purposes. In its twelve months of existence, the 

 Banana trees bear only one bunch of fruit, but from two to 

 four or ten trees spring from the roots of the one that has 

 fallen. At home the bunch of Bananas is worth fifteen cents, 

 and the dead tree nothing, though, if the supply were not in- 

 exhaustible, the latter would be worth ten times the value of 

 the fruit to a cordage factory, paper-mill or coffee-sack 

 maker. The Banana leaf, with stems of the toughest and 

 finest threads, is from two and a half to three feet wide, and 

 ten to fifteen feet long, and serves the native women of San 

 Salvador as an umbrella in the rainy season, a carpet on which 

 to sit, and a bed on which to rest. 



Bulletin No. 39, from the Department of Entomology of 

 Michigan Agricultural College, contains an admirable account 

 of the summer's experiments with insecticides. It has been 

 demonstrated that it pays to spray Apple-trees with London 

 purple to protect the fruit from the codling moth. The spray- 

 ing should begin as soon as the blossoms have fallen. If the 

 poison is applied earlier it endangers bees and other insects 

 which help to distribute the pollen, and it maj' do harm to the 

 honey. One application is enough imless a heavy rain fol- 

 lows, when it is well to spray a second time. One pound of 

 the purple to 100 gallons of water is strong enough mixture, 

 and the second application should be weaker. Several good 

 pumps and spraying nozzles are descriljed It is found that 

 the same poison applied two or three times is of advantage 

 against the curculio. There is a probaljility that lime-water 

 will accomplish the same result, as has been explained in this 

 journal. If so, this will be preferable to the arsenites, as it 

 does no damage to the leaves, and it is better to avoid the use 

 of poisons when we can. It has been found that air-slacked 

 lime, to which has been added some crude carbolic acid, will 

 repel the attacks of curculio. Professor Cook substituted plas- 

 ter for lime, and found it more convenient, as it did not fly so 

 badly as the lighter lime. He used one pint of the crude acid to 

 100 pounds of plaster, and with this both Cherry and Plum trees 

 were dusted from a tall step-ladder. The mixture should be 

 applied just as the calyx is falling from the fruit, or just as the 

 curculio Ijegins to lay its eggs. The Plums and Cherries on 

 the trees thus treated were practically free from worms, and 

 tlie application did no harm to the trees. The same remedy 

 would probalily prove successful ag'ainst the curculio on Pears 

 and Apples, but it would hardly prevail against the codling moth. 



