November 28, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



471 



Here villa-architecture, properly so-called, is more appropri- 

 ate — houses which shall be neither city residences of the 

 usual pattern nor true country houses, but midway between 

 the two. No one can find fault if a Newport house, no mat- 

 ter how small its grounds may be, is itself large and costly. 

 It must be this, in very many cases, or it will not fulfill its pur- 

 pose. But it is a mistake to imitate in its fasliioning either 

 an English type of country house, which needs a stately pari: 

 about it, or the boldly picturesque shape of some American 

 country home which commands a wide prospect over 

 picturesque acres of its own. Dignity is required, and, to a 

 large extent, symmetry also ; an air of sumptuousness and gen- 

 erous accommodation combined with a certain reserve as of a 

 building near its neighbors and near the public gaze. The " col- 

 onial " style, whicli of late has been so e.xtensively revived in 

 many parts of the country, seems to offer, perhaps, the best type 

 for such a house. And it seems as thoug"h here of all places 

 we might e.xpect to find it used, as the old town of Newport 

 was one of the chief centres of colonial art. Nevertheless, 

 new " colonial " houses are conspicuous by their absence. 

 The only one 1 noticed is apt to be overlooked by the transient 

 visitor, lying, as it does, in one of the older streets, half hid- 

 den by trees. This is the beautiful brick house built not 

 long ago by IMessrs. McKim, Mead and White for Colonel 

 Edgar. It is as entirely appropriate to its place as is Mr. 

 Goelet's house, and the difference between them is all the 

 more instructive since the same hands designed the two. 



The back of Mr. Fiske's house on Ochre Point is charming 

 in both form and color — a happy relief in its lowness and its 

 quiet browns from the towering outlines and strong tones 

 which too often meet the eye. But its best feature is the 

 wall of beautiful pinkish stone which connects it with the 

 stable and the street. It was a wholly fortunate idea to edge 

 the base of this wall with a narrow border of bright-hued 

 plants, as they enliven the prospect but do not disturb it, be- 

 ing thus closely connected with arcliitectural forms. And 

 this simimer the vines had grown upon the wall, as upon the 

 house itself, to exactly the right extent — softening and adorn- 

 ing but not wholly concealing the surface. Tlie great trouble 

 in some places is to make vines grow ; the great trouble at 

 Newport is to keep them within bounds. The recent intro- 

 duction of the so-called Japanese Ivy has already meant in 

 many places the entire concealment of the forms beneath it. 

 When these are bad the result is a happy one — a seeming 

 wall of verdure is certainly to be preferred to an ugly fence or 

 foundation story. But when the forms and colors are good, 

 then their concealment detracts from beauty, while the vines 

 themselves look best with a visible background. On Mr. 

 Fiske's house, and on Mr. Goelet's as well, it will be a pity 

 if the vines are ever allowed to exceed their present estate. 

 On many other houses one might wish them to grow to the 

 very chimney tops. 31. G. Van Rensselaer. 



New York. 



The Japanese Plums — The Satsuma. 



SINCE 1 wrote of the Kelsey Japan Plum, Batankio (or Batan- 

 kin, as some call it), last month, 1 was so fortunate as to 

 find youngtreesof that mostcurious of fruits, theSatsuma Phmi 

 of Japan, or, as it is now quite generally known, the Japan 

 Blood Plum, in fruit in the grounds of the University of Cali- 

 fornia at Berkeley. The tree is a much stronger, smoother 

 grower than the Kelsey ; leaves smoother and more lanceo- 

 late, wide in the middle and narrowing to eacli end ; twigs 

 stout, long and smooth. The fruit is round, with a deep 

 suture on one side ; dark dull red, with bloom, flesh dark, 

 bright crimson or cherry red; skin very thin, with no acerbity; 

 flesh or pulp very fine grained, very juicy, abundant free 

 blood red juice; when fully ripe, melting and delicious. We 

 may say, first Ijest in quality to eat from hand when fully ripe. 

 The Plum, when first mature, is quite firm, and will prove a 

 good long shipper. When over-ripe, it becomes very soft, but 

 still juicy, and not mushy. In size, the Plums examined were 

 about the size of the native Plum known as Miner, or about 

 the size of the well-known Green Gage, but it is said to grow 

 much larger. The stem is longer and more slender than that 

 of the Kelsey, which is very short and thick for a Plum. The 

 pit of the Satsinna is quite small for the size of the fruit, 

 roundish, somewhat pitted and corrugated. 



This Satsuma very closely resemliles in tree, leaf and growth 

 a Plum tree sent east from California under the name Ogon, 

 which proved quite hardy with me in Illinois in our severest 

 winters, much more so than the Kelsey, and it may be that 

 some of these fine fruits may do well in the great north-west. 

 Since I wrote of the Kelsey last month I had some of them 

 stewed for sauce, and found them very nice served in that way. 



Many young orchards in different parts of this state of the 

 Kelsey have fruited for the first time in quantity this year, and 

 all report them very productive and profitable. The keeping 

 qualities of these Plums are truly remarkable. I have before 

 me a very large specimen of the Kelsey, gathered when 

 fully mature, one month ago yesterday. It is yet perfectly 

 sound. 



That the Kelsey is quite near to the Peach in many of its 

 peculiarities is plain to any one who will examine it critically, 

 h has the stem and pit of the Peach. The pit is corrugated, 

 pitted and shaped like that of the Peach, and the kernel has 

 the same skin and flavor, and fully bears out the view that I 

 had long ago formed from observation, namely ; That we may 

 expect, and that we now have, hybrids between nearly all the 

 different species of the Almond family, and that we may look 

 for very valuable future results from such hybrids. 



Hybridism brought about by skillful artificial means should 

 be continually striven for, though we may have 10,000 faihu'es 

 for each success. Given our fully hardy native Plums as a 

 base — they lacking somewhat in self-pollenization, making 

 them easy to experiment with in this line — should give the 

 north-west in time some good, fine hardy fruits. 



The high mountain regions of northern California have 

 some fine native Plums that may prove of value in this work. 

 But it is best for those who work for the great north-west to 

 stick pretty close to the wild Plums of the northern part of 

 that region. Some of them are really fine, valuable fruits 

 in their wild state and capable of endless improvement. 



The Plums proper, those of the European type, are not 

 proving as profitable in California as the other members of the 

 Almond family. They nearly all do finely and bear enormous 

 crops of magnificent fruit, but are too acid when canned or 

 dried, except the Prune section. Of these the sweet, raisin- 

 like Frencli Prune, the Petit Prune de Agen, is grown in great 

 quantities, and is still being more largely planted than an)- 

 other fruit. The tree is a strong, healthy, handsome grower, 

 wonderfully productive ; the fruit very sweet and easily dried 

 into the Prune of commerce. The crop is very regular and 

 certain. An item before me gives the yield of an orchard in 

 Tulare County, only four years old, at 300 to 500 pounds to the 

 tree. At the lowest price Prunes have sold at on the tree this 

 season, a cent and a quarter a pound, and at the lowest figure 

 of product as given, to wit, 300 pounds, we would have a net 

 return from this orchard of $375 an acre, and this in Tulare 

 County, which, twelve years ago, was considered a worthless 

 arid desert. 



But give the exceeding rich soils of these so-called deserts a 

 little good water from the mountains and we have at once the 

 fruit growers' and fruit tree and vine paradise, where nearly all 

 the fruit-bearing trees and plants will grow and thrive wonder- 

 fully, and where great commercial fruits, such as the Raisin 

 Grape, Prune, Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, Fig and Pear, can 

 be perfectly dried in the open air cheaper and better than any- 

 where else in the world where they can be grown with suc- 

 cess. And this is not all. In the hot, dry, even morning air 

 of the great Joaquin Valley, but very few of the insect ene- 

 mies, so injurious to fruits, can propagate, and none — yes, we 

 may say none — of the destructive moulds, blights and rusts, 

 so destructive in moist climates, can there exist. Sun- 

 dried fruit there is as perfect, from these reasons, as the very 

 best evaporated fruit east. 



Over 500,000 acres have just been redeemed from the sway 

 of the Jack rabljit in Merced County, by the great Crocker and 

 Heffman canal, costing a million and a half of dollars. This 

 adds that amount of the very best of soils in one of the 

 best fruit regions in the state, in a fine, healthy climate. 



D. B. Wier, in American Florist. 



" Gardening,' in the perfection to which it has been lately 

 brought in England, is entitled to a place of considerable rank 

 among the liberal arts, — it is an exertion of fancy, a subject for 

 taste ; and being released now from the restraints of regularity 

 and enlarged beyond the limits of domestic convenience, the 

 most lieautiful, the most simple, the most noble scenes of na- 

 ture are all within its province ; for it is no longer confined to 

 the spots from which it borrows its name, but regulates also 

 the disposition and embellishments of a park, a farm, or a rid- 

 ing ; and the business of a gardener is to select and to apply 

 whatever is great, elegant or characteristic in any of them, — to 

 discover and to show all the advantages of the place upon 

 which he is employed ; to supply its defects, to correct its faults 

 and to improve its'beauties. For all these operations the ob- 

 jects of nature are still his only materials."— From Thomas 

 Whately's " Observations on Modern Gardening." London, 

 1770. 



