3Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 465. 



Notes. 



Under an act of the Legislature the College of Agriculture, at 

 Cornell, offers to give farmers the advantages of the University 

 Extension movement. Any farmer may address Professor 

 Bailey and receive a plan for a course of reading for winter 

 evenings upon topics relating to agriculture, and after reading 

 there can be a discussion with the college. As the spring 

 opens, some simple experiments will be suggested to all read- 

 ers by which they can test the truth of the principles taught, 

 and there is no expense connected with the work. 



An examination for gardeners will be held by the Civil Ser- 

 vice Board on January 29th, at the office of the Commission, 

 at ten o'clock, A. M. All persons who desire to try for the posi- 

 tion of gardener in the public parks of this city should make 

 application to S. William Briscoe, Secretary of the New York 

 City Civil Service Commission, for blanks, the filling of which 

 will entitle them to examination. Persons who have large 

 experience in general gardening and nursery practice are 

 desired, and every candidate will be required to give letters of 

 recommendation from previous employers. 



The American Florist reports that from all the important 

 cities during the late holiday season there was a general in- 

 crease in the sale of plants for holiday gifts as compared with 

 that of cut flowers, and the tendency seems to be more toward 

 the arrangement of plants rather than of cut flowers for the 

 decoration of tables and mantels. This change is attributed 

 partlv to the excessive price of flowers which are held in cold 

 storage for holidays and other occasions when there is a 

 large demand for them. Perhaps, however, a sufficient rea- 

 son will be found in the fact that for many purposes entire 

 plants are a great deal more effective, as they certainly are 

 more enduring. 



Mr. George Monro, a fruit dealer in Covent Garden, writes 

 to The Gardeners' Chronicle in reference to a statement made 

 in that paper, that the bulk of the fruit sold in England is 

 foreign-grown, to say that while this is quite true as applied to 

 apples and oranges, there never were so few foreign grapes 

 sold in the English markets. Almeria grapes used to be the 

 staple article for Christmas trade, but English growers now 

 furnish a better article in such quantities as to make con- 

 sumers of the best class quite independent of foreigners. Mr. 

 Monro adds that for four days preceding Christmas he sold 

 four thousand baskets of English grapes, weighing twenty-two 

 tons and a half, and he adds that English growers are now 

 turning the tables on foreigners by sending regularly to Amer- 

 ica, and almost daily to the Continent, consignments of cucum- 

 bers and grapes. 



The city of Los Angeles has just come into possession of 

 land which may become one of the most interesting pleasure- 

 grounds in the world. The tract of three thousand acres is 

 situated along the Los Angeles River about a mile north of the 

 city limits, and comprises a rich diversity of soil and surface. 

 It has been known as the Rancho los Feliz, the property of 

 Griffith J. Griffith, Esq., who has presented it to the city of his 

 adoption with the single restriction that if a charter is granted 

 for a railroad to the park from the town a single fare shall be 

 limited to five cents. Part of the land lies within what is called 

 the frostless belt, and it rises over foothills and a mountain 

 slope from whose summits there is a magnificent view, includ- 

 ing the city and the sea. Altogether it is a royal gift, and it is 

 to be hoped that the city will appreciate it and see that the 

 natural beauty of the place is not marred by the handiwork of 

 unskilled park makers. 



As attractive and toothsome as any of the many table luxu- 

 ries in the stock of high-class fruiterers and grocers are such 

 choice dried fruits as Malta dates. These come neatly packed 

 in fancy boxes holding a pound of the fruit on one stem, and 

 cost fifty cents. Small boxes of stuffed dates, the kernel of a 

 Pecan nut being substituted for the seed, cost twenty-five 

 cents. Large Smyrna figs, tightly pressed into wooden boxes, cost 

 thirty cents a pound. Carefully selected "pulled figs," known 

 as Royal Locoum, from Turkey, their natural form retained, 

 cost thirty-five cents a pound, and extra-large pulled figs, sixteen 

 of the fruits to a pound box, sell for fifty cents. Square pack- 

 ages, holding four pounds of choice layer figs in attractive silk 

 covers, cost $1.50. Extra-sized California prunes may be 

 bought for fifteen cents a pound ; choice French prunes, 

 esteemed for their rich flavor and more tender skin, cost 

 twenty-five cents a pound in bulk and forty cents in glass jars. 

 Wiesbaden stuffed prunes, the seed space filled with the flesh 



of other prunes, are regular articles in trade. Malaga cluster 

 raisins of the high grade known as Five Crown, cost $1.60 for 

 a five-pound box, or thirty-five cents for a single pound, while 

 the best California raisins cost twenty cents a pound. 



General C. A. Andrews, Chief Fire Warden of Minnesota, in 

 an address before the Forestry Association of that state on 

 January 14th, said that during the dry weather in 1895 and 1896, 

 all hough the seasons were not as dangerous as that of 1894, 

 there were many forest fires, most of which were soon under 

 the control of the fire wardens. He thinks that, owing to the 

 number of new settlers going into the forest regions to open 

 farms, the danger of fires will increase, and the important thing 

 will be to prevent any of them from becoming serious. He 

 argues that it is easy to prevent forest fires in Germany, be- 

 cause every one there is taught in the public schools enough 

 of forestry to give him a knowledge of the value of forests to 

 the country ; and inasmuch as forest preservation is best pro- 

 moted and forest fires most certainly prevented by diffusing a 

 knowledge of forestry and creating an intelligent interest in it, 

 he suggests as a good plan that some of the elementary prin- 

 ciples of practical forestry be taught in all the public schools 

 of the state. 



In a Farmers' Bulletin on " Irrigation in Humid Climates," 

 by Professor King, it is stated that although the total rainfall 

 in western and southern Europe is materially less than it is in 

 the eastern United States, we must bear in mind that our sum- 

 mer temperature and amount of sunshine are both higher, 

 that the air is less moist, and that under these conditions water 

 is lost from the soil more rapidly by evaporation than it is in 

 Europe, and, no doubt, irrigation might be practiced to as 

 good advantage here as there. In Europe there have been 

 irrigating canals since the invasion of the Moors, and in Eng- 

 land there are water meadows so old that no one seems 10 

 know their origin. In those places where water is artificially 

 supplied it is thought that the fertility added to the soil is the 

 chief advantage derived from the practice, and for this reason 

 large volumes of water are run over the land during the win- 

 ter or when it is not occupied by a crop; and, no doubt, it is 

 true that in river water there is much matter of fertilizing 

 power, and that it is more valuable, pound for pound, than 

 solid fertilizers which we buy, because it is already in solution 

 and ready to be taken up immediately. The water meadows 

 of England have been in service without rotaiion and without 

 the application of fertilizers of any kind for probably five hun- 

 dred years and they are as productive to-day as ever. These 

 lands are valued very highly because they can be watered for 

 less expense than it would cost to haul manure upon them, 

 even if this could be had for nothing. The crops are abso- 

 lutely certain, and with from twenty to forty acres of such mea- 

 dows unirrigated lands can be maintained in a high state of 

 productiveness through the use of the manure made from the 

 product of the meadows. 



Among dainty flowers for house decoration displayed in the 

 best shops are branches of white-flowered Almond, the neat 

 little flowers densely set among delicate new leaves. Flowers 

 of the pink variety of the same shrub are also offered, and of the 

 more showy Japan Quince, with masses of Forsythia profusely 

 covered with its yellow bells. Glossy brown shoots of Pussy 

 Willow, dotted with mouse-colored, downy catkins, are shown, 

 and, less freely, apple-twigs in blossom. A well-furnished 

 vase of branches of any one of these forced flowers costs $5.00. 

 Carnations are now in splendid form ; among large, vigorous 

 flowers of many varieties those of the comparatively new 

 Lillie Dean are strikingly handsome ; the irregular arrange- 

 ment of the broad white petals, dashed with red, forms a large 

 bold flower, and the calyx is remarkably good. These sell for 

 $1.00 a dozen, the price for other varieties ranging from fifty 

 cents to $1.00. Orchids are lavishly used in some of the window 

 arrangements of first-class floral establishments, but the dis- 

 play is not so extravagant as it appears, since the same flowers 

 which win the admiration of passers-by in the fashionable 

 promenade hours of the day are used in dinner decorations in 

 the evening. Cut flowers of Cypripedium insigne and Den- 

 drobium nobile cost twenty-five cents each, and of Cattleya 

 Gigas twice that amount, and sprays of Odontoglossum maxi- 

 mum $2.00 to $3.00, according to the number of blooms car- 

 ried. Flowers of Amaryllis, Lilium Harrisii and L. auratum 

 are offered at $3.00 a dozen, and Calla lilies cost $1.00 to $1.50. 

 Among the roses excellent flowers of General Jacqueminot are 

 occasionally seen, but, of course, Bride, Bridesmaid, Meteor 

 and American Beauty are the principal varieties sold, and, like 

 all other flowers, large lots have been selling at remarkably 

 low prices. 



