i8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 4 1 



proved methods of planting and care determined after long; 

 and expensive experience, which pioneers in the industry 

 lacked. The details of preparing the ground, selecting: the 

 nursery stock, pruning, cultivating and fertilizing are all im- 

 portant. For instance, many growers heretofore have headed 

 their trees at least four feet above the ground, simply because 

 a tree of that shape looked better to them. But it has been 

 proved that trees which are allowed to branch only a foot or 

 eighteen inches above the ground produce much more fruit, 

 especially in the early years. The Orange-tree begins to bear 

 near the ground ; as it grows older the upper branches be- 

 come stronger and gradually put forth fruit, and the new 

 growth of this year bears oranges next year. Therefore a tree 

 should be headed low and given as many strong limbs as it 

 will carry, with care in preserving new wood and in pruning, 

 so that sufficient light and air may penetrate the foliage to 

 mature the fruit on the inner branches. The more skillfully 

 it is pruned the nearer will the tree finally approximate to the 

 ideal of bearing oranges from top to bottom the entire length 

 of the branches. The use of suitable commercial fertilizers, 

 even on young orchards, is repaid by many times its cost, yet 

 it has been taken for granted by many inexperienced planters 

 that the virgin soil of southern California, which is principally 

 decomposed granite from the mountain ranges, requires no 

 fertilizing whatever for many years. Inexperience and mis- 

 conceptions in these matters have frequently caused disap- 

 pointment in the yield of bearing groves. 



Many people who plant orchards with an imperfect under- 

 standing of these conditions and, perhaps, with purses too light 

 to stand the strain of such incessant and long-continued de- 

 mands grow weary of the struggle and offer their properties 

 for sale below their cost. Good orchards in favored locations, 

 from four to six years of age, may be had to-day at from $500 

 to $8oo an acre. Many growers, too, commence without an 

 understanding of the competition which they are likely to meet, 

 and later become alarmed when they read about the millions 

 of Orange and Lemon trees that have been planted in southern 

 California. 



These are the prices of the best groves, in a few of the 

 districts which have the greatest natural advantages, such 

 as freedom from frost and certainty of water supply. They 

 were based, perhaps, too largely upon the prices obtained for 

 oranges several years ago when the total product of the state 

 was only a few hundred car-loads, and they should now be 

 revised with reference to the fact that southern California now 

 has a million and a quarter Orange-trees in bearing, and a mil- 

 lion and three-quarters planted but not yet in bearing, with a 

 quarter of a million Lemon-trees in bearing, and a million 

 planted and coming into bearing. This makes the astounding- 

 total of four and a quarter million Citrus-trees of these two 

 kinds which will soon be producing, an increase which the 

 wildest boomer of six years ago would not have predicted. 

 Competition will doubtless bring down the price of oranges, 

 and consequently the value of the groves. There will be an 

 increasing competition from the groves of Florida. It is an 

 open question whether these groves will be worth as much 

 five years from now as they are worth to dav. 



The nearly half a million acres of Citrus fruits in southern 

 California represent investments of probably $35,000,000, and 

 the holders of these properties think that they are now impor- 

 tant enough to be worth protecting. The amount of protec- 

 tion which will be asked for has not been decided, but it 

 will not be less than fifty cents upon each box of oranges, 

 lemons or limes holding two cubic feet, and an equal rate upon 

 these fruits by weight or bulk in other packages. The fruit 

 industries of northern California, which run more largely to 

 canned and dried fruits, will have similar requests to make. 

 The outcome will be awaited with anxiety by a little army of 

 fruit growers in all parts of the Golden state. 



Redlands, Calif. William M. Tisdale. 



Need of Instruction in Experimental Plant 

 Physiology. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In making up the report of the section on horticulture 

 and botany for the recent meeting of the Association of Amer- 

 ican Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, one of the 

 questions asked, in a circular letter sent out to the horticultu- 

 rists and botanists of the various states, was, " What attempt 

 is made to teach experimental plant physiology ? " The replies 

 indicate that[in more than half of the institutionsjheard from 

 little or nothing is being done along this line. This, of course, 

 does not mean that there is no incidental class-room instruc- 

 tion or mention of topics falling under this head, but it does 



mean that no course is offered in which the student makes it 

 his especial aim to get at the functions ot plants by means of 

 experiments carried on by himself. In the report made before 

 the Association this matter was emphasized, and it was urged 

 that this subject ought to be pushed to the front and so 

 arranged that students who expect to deal with living plants 

 should have the opportunity to get instruction in such matters. 



Without any knowledge of this report of the chairman, Dr. 

 G. E. Stone, of Massachusetts, presented a strong paper, in 

 which he emphasized the importance of the same subject. 

 The term plant physiology is one which has been vaguely 

 used, and Dr. Stone called attention to the limits which should 

 be placed around it. As commonly accepted, plant physiology 

 embracesthefollowingsubdivisions : (1) Nutrition ; (2) Growth ; 

 (3) Physics of vegetation ; (4) Plant movements ; (5) Repro- 

 duction. The latter subject manifestly occupies a somewhat 

 different position from the others and is now being given over 

 to the domain of ecology. It is evident that in the subjects of 

 nutrition, growth and physics of vegetation, which include 

 the relations of the plant to heat, light, moisture, etc., we deal 

 with problems of the greatest practical moment to the hor- 

 ticulturist. The discussion which followed the paper above 

 mentioned showed that the horticulturists present appreciated 

 this fact and were anxious to secure better training for their 

 students along such lines, and some of them have tried to 

 supply such teaching themselves. To urge the need of such 

 knowledge to the horticulturist when his success or failure 

 depends upon his being able to aid the plant in carrying on 

 these functions, or to provide it with such surroundings as will 

 enable it best to do this, seems superfluous. Yet little attention 

 has been given to this kind of instruction, and least of all to 

 the particular class of students who are most in need of it. If 

 these things are essential to the commercial horticulturist, 

 how much more are they needed by tiie horticultural teacher 

 and experimenter ? Scarcely an experiment connected with 

 practical cultural problems can be completed without com- 

 ing in contact with just these questions which it is the 

 province of physiological botany to elucidate. In order 

 to put this statement to a practical test I turned to the 

 outline of our own horticultural experiments for the past 

 season, anil ran over the topics there represented. Thirty 

 of these would either directly or indirectly deal with ques- 

 tions falling within the domain of plant physiology, while 

 sixteen apparently would not, although even here it would not 

 be surprising to find such problems creeping in at unexpected 

 places. The value of this work, therefore, cannot be ques- 

 tioned, and the botanists will, no doubt, stand ready to do their 

 part it they but recognize that there is a real demand and 

 need for such instruction. Let me here emphasize the word 

 experimental, as connected with the title. To be of real value 

 to the student he must prove all tilings as he goes. He must 

 not merely take the statement that things are so, nor stand by 

 and see the professor prove that they are so. This, of course, 

 means study and thought on the part of the teacher, and it also 

 means apparatus and expense, but the results will justify the 

 cost. In order that the work shall be of most value it is 

 evident that the student should have had some previous 

 instruction in other lines of botany, yet this may not be abso- 

 lutely essential, and if it is possible that instruction can be ar- 

 ranged which is so simple that it can be followed with profit 

 by the farm boy who comes but for a hasty sip of knowledge 

 during the midwinter months, much will be gained. I fear 

 that many horticulturists, like myself, feel the need of these 

 things more from want than from the possession of them. 

 Many desirable things must be omitted from every education, 

 but is it not reasonable to believe that a knowledge of the 

 functions of lite of the few plants with which he deals is of 

 greater importance to the horticulturist than a knowledge of 

 the name and classification of the many plants which he 

 seldom or never sees ? 



University of Nebraska. Fred W. Card. 



Chrysanthemums Out-of-doors. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I nole in your issue of December 9th the record of an 

 attempt by one of your correspondents to mass Chrysanthe- 

 mums as a feature of landscape-gardening. This is not an 

 easy problem, because the Chrysanthemum Mower is so large 

 and conspicuous. If we mass dozens of the same colors, 

 attempts to blend them agreeably are futile, because the quan- 

 tity of each color is too overpowering. The shrubs mentioned 

 by your correspondent as bearing bright berries and growing 

 among the Chrysanthemums, and shrubs retaining foliage 

 very late, would make the best material for uniting them, and 



