5o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 467. 



dant yellow flowers in midsummer. Meehans 1 Monthly adds 

 to this commendation that in the fall of the year its rich 

 crimson foliage vies with that of many of our American trees 

 which have been celebrated in this respect. We should like 

 to hear from correspondents, especially from those living south 

 of this latitude, whether the leaves of these trees with which 

 they are familiar take on this rich autumn color. We have 

 not observed it in trees about here. 



A cold wave has once more left the northern part of Florida 

 covered with ice. So far as can be learned at this time the 

 disaster to Orange groves was not nearly as sweeping as the 

 great freeze two years before. Indeed, there were compara- 

 tively few trees in bearing, although in the old groves which 

 were cut to the ground, root-sprouts have already reached a 

 height of ten to fifteen feet. Prudent growers early in the 

 winter wrapped the stems of these young trees with Palmetto 

 leaves, straw and burlaps, which must have proved a great 

 protection ; and those who had not already taken this precau- 

 tion had ample time to protect their groves after the weather 

 bureau had warned them of an approaching cold wave. For- 

 tunately, the low temperature was only of short duration. The 

 extreme of cold was reached at six o'clock of last Thursday 

 morning, and by nine o'clock the weather was rapidly mod- 

 erating all over the state. No doubt, exposed buds and foliage 

 were frosted, but let us hope that next year's crop will not be 

 sensibly diminished. The blow was most severe upon the 

 growers of early vegetables for northern markets. Through- 

 out the northern part of the state truck-farms will need to be 

 generally replanted. 



Professor Georgeson, of the Kansas Agricultural College, in 

 offering to send samples of the Soy bean to farmers of that 

 state, gives in The Industrialist some account of the experience 

 with this crop, of which several acres have been grown on the 

 college farm for the past six years. Even in the years of 

 severest drought the crop has not failed completely, and last 

 year a yield of sixteen bushels an acre was harvested on the 

 31st of August, from ground seeded on the 19th of May. 

 This crop is especially valuable since it can be grown on 

 stubble-ground from which wheat and oats have been har- 

 vested and a fair yield secured. In feeding value the Soy 

 bean takes precedence of linseed-meal, and is more valuable 

 than any other concentrated food that can be found in the 

 markets except cotton-seed meal, and this is sometimes poi- 

 sonous when fed to pigs. The Soy bean contains two and a 

 half times as much protein and five times as much fat as wheat 

 bran, and it contains a greater percentage of protein than 

 linseed-meal, and twice as much fat. Soy Beans are planted 

 in rows thirty-two inches apart, and they are cultivated a few 

 times to keep down the weeds and retain the moisture in the 

 soil. Altogether this bean is one of the most promising of the 

 additions to farm crops for the middle west, and it is likely to 

 be more and more valued as its virtues are understood. 



Last year three species of Xylina, commonly known as 

 green fruit worms, large, light green caterpillars, did a great 

 deal of damage to the apple crop by eating holes into the sides 

 of young fruit in May and early June. These caterpillars are 

 from an inch to an inch and a half long, and they have not 

 appeared in dangerous numbers in the region infested this 

 year since 1877. They begin to eat one side of the fruit, and 

 continue until something like half of it is eaten, and then go to 

 another one, thus injuring several fruits. They are not found 

 on the trees after the middle of June. Fortunately, these cater- 

 pillars are inviting to the birds, and they suffer from parasitic 

 insects, so that it is not certain that they will appear in danger- 

 ous numbers another year. Their attack would have been a 

 serious matter last year but for the unusually heavy crop of 

 apples throughout this state. After they begin to eat the apples 

 there is little use in spraying them, but if the trees should be 

 sprayed at least once, as is always advisable, with Paris green 

 and Bordeaux mixture before the blossoms open, some of the 

 worms might be killed. After the fruit sets the only suc- 

 cessful and practical way of fighting them is to jar them off 

 into sheets, as is done with the curculio. The soil should then 

 be thoroughly cultivated during the summer, for this will 

 kill many of the insects which are undergoing their transforma- 

 tion. Bulletin No. 123 of the Cornell Experiment Station, by 

 Professor Slingerland, is devoted to this pest. 



Newtown pippins, at forty cents to one dollar a dozen, are 

 seen in some of the fruit-stores. Winter Seckel pears may be 

 hail for sixty to seventy-five cents a dozen, Winter Nelis at 

 seventy-five cents to one dollar, and Easter Beurres for $1.25. 

 Large and bright-colored hot-house strawberries find buyers at 



$2.00 a cup, and well-grown Lady Thompson berries, from 

 Florida, neatly laid in oblong splint baskets holding more than 

 a quart of the selected fruit, cost $1.00. Most of the Florida 

 strawberries have been immature, lacking in color, and with- 

 out much demand. Some forty boxes of mangoes were 

 recently received from Jamaica by a wholesale merchant. 

 Retail sales are almost entirely confined to former residents in 

 the West Indies, though the distinctive fragrance of this stringy 

 fruit tempts occasional buyers to try it as a novelty. New 

 limes are coming from the Bahamas. A novel display in one 

 of the fruit-stores was a bunch of grape-fruit, six of the heavy 

 fruits closely clustered together on one stem. Florida Russet 

 oranges now sell at wholesale for $4 00 a box, and " brights " 

 for $4.50, though higher prices are occasionally asked by some 

 foresighted dealers as the end of the season is approaching. 

 Florida grape-fruit, in the desirable sizes of fifty-four and sixty- 

 two fruits to a box, costs as much as $13.00, or nearly twenty- 

 five cents each, to the retail dealer. The same sizes of 

 Jamaica grape-fruit are quoted at $8.00 to $9.50 a box. Very 

 large and extremely small sizes bring much less, especially the 

 latter, which are prematurely gathered. 



The snowy, sunless days of last week were accountable for 

 a large stock of cut flowers of second and third quality, which 

 were offered by the street venders on Saturday, when milder 

 weather set in. Roman hyacinths and lily-of-the-valley, look- 

 ing chilled and drooping, sold at ten cents for a bunch of less 

 than a dozen stalks, three or four Meteor roses also brought 

 ten cents, and small bunches of violets cost twenty-five 

 cents. But these low-grade blooms are at best an unsatisfac- 

 tory suggestion of the fresh and delightful flowers shown in 

 large variety in the stores. White snapdragon, great spikes 

 of mignonette and smaller ones of ordinary varieties, pan- 

 sies, candytuft, jessamine and strikingly beautiful blooms of a 

 large strain of Marguerites were displayed in one of the 

 Broadway windows on Saturday, together with cut branches 

 of the delicately foliaged and flowered Acacia dealbata. Single 

 hyacinths of graded shades of lilac and purple, pansies, forget- 

 me-not and the yellow variegated Bouton d'Or carnations, 

 white and purple lilacs, and the orange and scarlet fruits of 

 Bitter-sweet were all represented. The double flowers of 

 Marie Louise violets sold for $1.00 a bunch, and the large sin- 

 gle California violet, of rich color and fragrance, in bunches of 

 twice as many flowers, was in demand at $1.50. Bridesmaid, 

 Bride, Meteor, Mrs. Pierpont Morgan and Madame Cusin 

 roses sold for $2.00 to $3.00 a dozen, and perfect buds of 

 Souvenir du President Carnot for $4.00 to $6,00, with specially 

 well-grown ones at $8.00. Plants of Azalea, densely flow- 

 ered, are becoming conspicuous features in the show win- 

 dows. 



There will doubtless be a scarcity of green vegetables 

 during the next few weeks, owing to the frozen" crops in 

 Florida, but California, Bermuda and Cuba have already been 

 drawn upon for string-beans, and other new vegetables will 

 soon come from the southern Atlantic states. On last Monday 

 southern supplies were greatly shortened and prices had 

 advanced considerably. Bunches of new kohl rabi and 

 beets, from Florida, cost ten cents each, string-beans were 

 twenty cents a quart, and tomatoes twenty cents a pound. 

 Peas have doubled in value within a week, and now command 

 $3.00 a peck. The last consignments of southern lettuce 

 realized ten cents a head, but the hot-house supply of this 

 vegetable, from Boston, is abundant, and prices have been as 

 low as fifty cents for a dozen heads within the past few days. 

 New carrots, from Bermuda, cost ten cents a bunch ; parsley, 

 peppers and Romaine lettuce come from the same islands, as 

 do onions and potatoes, the latter worth forty cents a half- 

 peck. Cauliflower comes from California by the car-load, and 

 retails at twenty-five to thirty cents a head. Okra, from Cuba, 

 costs ten cents a dozen. Small French radishes, grown under 

 glass near by, bring five cents a bunch ; hot-house tomatoes, 

 forty cents a pound, and forced rhubarb, fifteen cents a bunch 

 of a half-dozen stalks. Boston cucumbers readily bring thirty 

 cents each in the entire absence of the southern product, and 

 in some of the high-class fruit-stores they are each wrapped 

 in oiled tissue-paper. Hot-house asparagus is also carefully 

 wrapped, and that from the west sells for seventy-five cents a 

 bunch, while the stouter and longer stalks from New Jersey 

 cost $1.00 for a bunch of about twenty shoots. French arti- 

 chokes come from Europe regularly each week, as do Brussels 

 sprouts, the latter costing twenty-five cents a pound, while the 

 native sprouts cost twenty cents a quart. Mushrooms have 

 been unusually plentiful and cheap, the best selling at sixty 

 cents a pound. 



