6o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 468. 



Notes. 



Almeria grapes, from Spain, may still be had for twenty-five 

 cents a pound, and four-pound baskets of Catawbas, from 

 western New York, sell for the same sum. Handsome 

 bunches of large Gros Colman grapes, from England, realize 

 $1.75 to $2.00 a pound. 



Only thirty barrels of cranberries reached this city during 

 last week, while 64,000 barrels have come since the beginning 

 of September, besides nearly 35,000 crates. Fancy grades from 

 Cape Cod sell at wholesale for $5.50, and the best from New 

 Jersey for $4.00 a barrel. 



An important announcement by the MacMillan Company of 

 this city is the publication of an encyclopedia of American 

 Horticulture, in three volumes, dated 1900. Professor Bailey 

 has undertaken the editorial oversight of the work, which will 

 contain signed articles by specialists, arranged alphabetically, 

 on all subjects relating to the cultivation of plants out-of-doors 

 and under glass. 



A correspondent of The Gardeners' Chronicle from Cape 

 Town, South Africa, writes of a new yellow-spathed Richardia, 

 which seems to be quite different from either R. Elliottiana or 

 R. Pentlandi, and in many respects an improvement on both 

 of them. The flowers are a very bright shade of yellow, the 

 spathes are large and freely borne, the plant is bold, vigorous 

 and stocky in habit, with broad leaves set on rather short 

 petioles and regularly spotted over the entire surface of the 

 blade. The plant is said to have been found in a place remote 

 from the habitat of the yellow Callas already introduced. 



Mr. John C. Lewis writes to Forest Leaves of a Buttonwood- 

 tree which has grown from a sprout planted by William Rod- 

 man about the year 1745, some two miles from the Croydon 

 Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad, at a place called Flush- 

 ing, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It seems as vigorous as it 

 was a century ago, and is still growing and bids fair to keep on 

 growing through the twentieth century. At two feet from the 

 ground the tree is twenty-nine feet six inches in girth, and 

 at six feet from the ground it measures twenty-eight feet 

 four inches. If there are larger trees than this east of the 

 Rocky Mountains we should like to hear of them. 



According to Mr. Fernow, in an address before the New 

 Jersey Forestry Association, held at Trenton on the 5th of 

 January, the people of New Jersey are sending out of that 

 state at least twelve million dollars a year for lumber, two or 

 three millions of which could be expended at home if the soil 

 fit for these crops only was doing its duty. The greater por- 

 tion of this area is almost totally unproductive, and its capacity 

 for production is decreasing every year by recurring fires. 

 One-third of it is in the northern or hilly part of the state, and 

 the remainder in the sand-barrens so situated near places of 

 active consumption that, with only indifferent care, it would 

 yield a hundred million cubic feet of wood every year forever, 

 or an annual stumpage value of at least one million dollars. 



While only a moderate quantity of fresh vegetables arrived 

 from Florida last week, there was no real scarcity. The crops 

 north of Winter Haven are said to have been seriously injured 

 by the recent frosts, but south of Tampa little damage was 

 done. Some good lettuce has come from that state during the 

 past ten days, with new beets, cabbage, eggplants and cauli- 

 flower. Many of the tomatoes have been of poor color, but 

 good ones could be bought as low as twenty cents a pound. 

 String-beans cost $1.00 a half-peck, and peas $1.00 to $1.50. 

 Escarolle, from New Orleans, costs ten cents a head, and that 

 from France commands twenty to twenty-five cents. Okra 

 and peppers come from Havana. Mushrooms continue plen- 

 tiful at fifty cents a pound. Oyster-plant, turnips and other root 

 crops are seen in large variety in local displays of vegetables. 



Messrs. J. C. Houghton & Co., importers of apples in Liver- 

 pool, under date of January 30th, state that the favorable 

 change of the previous week in prices for American apples in 

 England has continued, and that there is a further general 

 advance of one to two shillings a barrel. At that time Bald- 

 wins of choice quality, tightly packed and sound, sold at 

 wholesale at from $2.88 to $4 08 ; Greenings, from $2.46 to 

 $3.54; Northern Spies, $2.52 to $3.84, and Golden Russets, 

 $3.54 to $5.04. "Slack" barrels realized from one to three 

 shillings less than these rates. Other varieties now exported 

 from this country are Ben Davis, Phoenix and Seek-no-further. 

 Most of these apples were forwarded from Maine and Canada, 

 and the few from New York are reported as having been in 

 poor condition, Baldwins bringing but $1.68 to $3.00, and 



Golden Russets $3.36 to $3.48. In Liverpool alone 1,235,925 

 barrels of American apples were received this season up to 

 January 28th as against 329,126 barrels for the corresponding 

 period a year ago. 



Dr. John Marshall, of Philadelphia, who has his summer 

 residence in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, came home after a 

 short absence and found that a telegraph company had entered 

 his grounds against the protests of the persons in charge, and 

 cut down sixty or seventy trees and mutilated others, under 

 the pretext of clearing a space for operating a telegraph line. 

 Suit was brought in the Bucks County Court, and the men who 

 committed the misdemeanor were sentenced to pay a fine of 

 $50.00 each, and in default of payment to be imprisoned for 

 fifty days. An appeal was taken to the Superior Court of 

 Pennsylvania, and we are glad to learn from Forest Leaves 

 that the finding of the lower court was upheld. Beyond doubt, 

 the owner of the trees has also the right under this decision to 

 collect damages by civil suits in addition to the penalties 

 imposed for the misdemeanor. 



A correspondent to the London Garden says that Beet roots 

 are often spoiled in cooking — that is, the most highly colored 

 of them lose their beauty and the richest of them lose their 

 flavor. In the first place they may be injured in gathering, for 

 if the tops are cut off too close to the crown the root bleeds 

 and this is a loss, and when sent to the kitchen in good condi- 

 tion the knife is too severely used in trimming off the ends 

 before they are boiled. Besides this, they are often pricked 

 with the fork to prove that they are sufficiently soft, and in 

 this way the juice escapes into the water to the detriment of 

 both flavor and color. Experienced cooks ought to know how 

 long roots of a certain size require for their cooking, and they 

 should never be interfered with from the time they are 

 placed in the water until they are finally removed, when they 

 should be peeled and prepared for the table. 



The Trustees of the Veitch Memorial Fund have selected 

 for decoration with their medal this year the following persons 

 for distinguished service to horticulture : Mr. Norman C. Cook- 

 son, for long and successful experiments in hybridizing 

 Orchids ; Mr. Martin R. Smith, an eminent amateur, for rais- 

 ing choice varieties of Carnations, especially those in the 

 Malmaison section, and others adapted for culture in the open 

 border on account of their hardiness and beauty; Professor 

 L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, in recognition of the value 

 of his lectures and writings as a help in placing the cultivation 

 of plants on a scientific basis, and his efforts to promote the 

 extension of horticultural education, and for his efforts to 

 improve economic plants ; M. Charles Naudin, of Antibes, 

 for experiments which have advanced the theory and practice 

 of hybridization, and for his success in introducing plants of 

 great economic value; and Herr Max Leichtlin, of Baden- 

 Baden, for his eminent services in introducing to horticulture 

 a large number of interesting plants, and his sagacity and skill 

 in their cultivation. 



In writing to The American Agriculturist on Winter Work 

 Against Insects, Professor J. B. Smith calls attention to the 

 fact that many borers pass the winter as larvas either in dead 

 or dying twigs that remain on the trees or have fallen to the 

 ground. All dead and dying wood should, therefore, be 

 removed from orchards in the winter. Almost every dead or 

 dying branch contains borers in some stage, and these should 

 find their way to the brush-heap or into the stove before spring. 

 If they are put on the brush-heap they should by no means be 

 allowed to lie till the following summer, but ought to be 

 burned before the first of April. Careful inspection at this 

 season may show on Apple-trees which have been infested 

 with plant lice many very small, shining, black, oval eggs close 

 to the buds near the tips of the twigs. It is hard to kill these 

 eggs, but if there is any trimming to be done these twigs may 

 be cut off and burned before spring, and this will lessen the 

 insects for next year. The egg belts of the tent caterpillar are 

 more readily seen, and it pays certainly to cut them from 

 medium-sized trees. Burning over infested land in winter will 

 destroy the eggs of many grasshoppers and other insects which 

 lay their eggs in the leafy tissue or on the stems of grass or 

 reeds. Some insects which infest shade-trees, like the bag- 

 worm and the vaporer moth, hibernate in the egg state. The 

 bagworm can be easily cut off of the tree, especially the Arbor 

 Vitas, which is very subject to their injuries, while in cities 

 and towns the egg masses of the vaporer moth are found on 

 fences, tree-boxes and any other place where a little shelter is 

 afforded, and since each mass contains more than a hundred 

 eggs, every one gathered and burned helps to limit the injury 

 from caterpillars the next year. 



