7o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 469. 



a bushel, a remarkable price in any season, and especially so 

 when nearly two and a half million barrels of apples have 

 been exported to Great Britain from the United States and 

 Canada since last August, and with the best Baldwin and other 

 standard varieties selling in England now for $2.50 to $4.62 

 a barrel. 



At the recent conference on the occasion of the tercentenary 

 of the introduction of the potato Professor Johnson spoke of 

 the value as a substitute for the potato of Stachys tuberifera, 

 a vegetable which is growing in favor in England, France and 

 Switzerland. Somehow American gardeners do not seem to 

 take much interest in its cultivation, although it contains eight 

 times as much nitrogen as a potato of the same weight and 

 a large quantity of a carbo-hydrate called galactan, which 

 is more digestible than starch, being allied to dextrin, and 

 therefore more easily converted by the digestive juices into 

 sugar. For this reason the tubers of this plant would be 

 especially useful for invalids and persons of delicate digestion, 

 since they bear the same relation to the substance of the potato 

 that peptonized foods do to ordinary meats. 



Tests made in California as to the shrinkage of different 

 varieties of prunes show that the small French prunes, thirty 

 of which weigh a pound when fresh require seventy-five to the 

 pound when cured, in round numbers, or, more accurately, 

 the weight of the fresh prunes is to the weight of the prunes 

 when cured as 253 to 100. In the large French prunes the 

 ratio between the fresh fruit and cured fruit is as 291 to 

 100. Of the Robe de Sargeant variety the ratio was 278 to 100, 

 while the ratio of the so-called Imperial prune of France was 

 practically the same as that of the small-sized French prune, 

 namely, 253 to 100. This Imperial prune is a trade name of a 

 very fine French product, and the only variety which comes 

 up to the standard is Imperiale Epineuse. This variety has 

 but recently been introduced into California orchards, where 

 it has proved of the very first quality. The leaves of the tree 

 endure dry weather well, but it has not been planted long 

 enough to demonstrate that it will be productive. 



Some experiments recently made at the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College by Air. Asa S. Kinney seem to show that a 

 current of electricity will accelerate the germination of seeds. 

 In a collection of seeds treated for twenty-four hours, thirty 

 per cent, more germinated under the current than in lots 

 untreated, and the seeds which received the electrical stimulus 

 gave a higher percentage of germination than others. In 

 many cases electricity seems to act a good deal like light 

 does in its stimulating effect. It must be understood, how- 

 ever, that even if we admit this we do not know the best 

 methods of using electricity upon plants in the soil, nor what 

 strength of the current will probably secure the greatest 

 growth. The range and the strength of the current which 

 accelerates germination is found to be exceedingly limited. 

 So far as these experiments go to form a basis of judgment, it 

 would appear that the strength of the current which shows the 

 greatest growth of radicles is equal to about three volts, where 

 an interrupted induced current is used. 



In the past two or three years not a few figs carried over by 

 wholesale dealers until August, when they have become dry 

 and unsalable, are then dipped into a thin syrup to freshen 

 them. They are packed in fancy splint baskets holding a 

 pound or more, enclosed with a muslin cover sewed on the 

 edges, and alluringly stamped "Turkey." If sold at once 

 before the arrival of the new crop and while yet in good con- 

 dition, they are satisfactory to the uninitiated housekeeper, 

 and are really rather improved by the harmless process. They 

 are mostly sold by grocers and at second-class fruit-stands, 

 and cost twenty-five cents a package. Kept too long they 

 become moldy and musty. Recently a similar process seems 

 to have been applied to a limited quantity of presumably 

 new-crop figs, the fruit being then readily drawn out 

 into its natural form, and labeled "pulled figs." These have 

 been sold at the exorbitant price of fifty cents for a neatly 

 packed box holding less than a dozen and a half of the fruits. 

 In this case there is no good reason for the freshening, since 

 the new-crop fruit still retains its own juices, and the effect is 

 to make it bitter and not at all the delicacy it affects to be. 



A Chicago florist has been selling fine Freesias with 

 straight, stiff sterns from eighteen to twenty inches long, and 

 large, erect flowers, at $3 00 a dozen, while the common run 

 in the market are hard to dispose of at $2.00, and sometimes 

 at $1.00. These Freesias come from the stock of ten years 

 ago, when the flowers first began to attract attention, and the 



bulbs are better than when they were first obtained. Ten or 

 twelve are planted in a seven-inch pot, and after the flowering 

 period is over the foliage is allowed to die off naturally, and 

 then the plants are treated like Callas, being allowed to die 

 down every year. When there is no longer any growth the 

 pots are set under greenhouse stages and kept perfectly dry. 

 About the first of August the bulbs are sifted from the earth 

 and selected into sizes, and those of the same size only are 

 placed in the same pot. For years they have come into flower 

 about Christmas or New Year's, and by being placed in heat 

 in succession they bloom until the end of February or the 

 middle of March. Certainly this care is well repaid, and, cheap 

 as Freesia-bulbs are, the purchase price is saved, and the 

 bulbs are always on hand for early planting, which, after all, 

 appears to be important for their successful growth. 



Oranges from Cuba now sell at $6.00 a barrel, wholesale, 

 repacked. While very sweet, this fruit is not at all showy or 

 attractive, the skin being coarse and dull-looking. The 

 Havana fruit also has poor keeping qualities and must be sold 

 soon after landing and used within a fortnight. The season 

 for Jamaica oranges is almost ended, but 250 barrels having 

 been received here during last week. Altogether, 254,080 bar- 

 rels and 23,340 boxes of this fruit have come here since the 

 first importations last September. But these heavy shipments 

 have been carried on with very little profit to steamship lines 

 and importers, and in some instances at considerable loss. Of 

 35,000 barrels of oranges which came from Jamaica in one 

 week early in the season, all of the fruit was unripe and half 

 of it spoiled from being gathered during rains and from 

 careless packing. This want of care and judgment in picking, 

 packing and shipping is said to be the cause of an unprofita- 

 ble season when the outlook was highly favorable, owing to 

 the scarcity of Florida oranges. The season for the latter is 

 also closing ; the best now sell for $5.00 a box, at wholesale. 

 Washington Navel oranges, from California, are the showiest 

 of all citrus fruits now seen here, and are especially bright and 

 clean ; $3.50 a box, at wholesale, is a fair price for this choice 

 fruit, which is juicy and sweet. Of Mediterranean oranges, 

 good Valencias sell for $2.65 and Sorrentos for $2.15, prices 

 on Mediterranean oranges and lemons having advanced fifteen 

 to twenty-five cents a box during last week. There are now 

 20,050 boxes of these oranges and 147,000 boxes of lemons 

 on the way to this port. Grape fruit from Jamaica costs $6.00 

 to $10.00, and from Florida $12.00 a box, at wholesale, 



Dandelion is now coming from the meadows of New Jersey 

 and from under glass, the forced plants being more luxuriant 

 in growth, though not more tender. Both sell for fifteen cents 

 a quart. Other offerings in collections of fresh vegetables are 

 spring onions and leeks, chives in little clumps of soil, endive, 

 chervil, fetticus, watercress, mint, escarole, tarragon, parsley 

 and sorrel. Well-grown shoots of rhubarb cost ten cents for 

 a bunch of seven ; Boston cucumbers, twenty-five cents each. 

 Okra, from Cuba, costs ten cents a dozen, and peppers five 

 cents apiece. Short plants of celery, from Rochester, New 

 York, sell for seventy-five cents a dozen, and the longer ones, 

 from California, beautifully blanched, for $1.00, while the new 

 crop from Florida commands $1.50. The best cauliflower now 

 comes from Florida, large perfectly white heads costing thirty- 

 five cents each ; those from California are yellowish after the 

 long journey, and find slight demand. Large quantities of 

 spinach and kale have been coming from Norfolk, Virginia, 

 one steamer last Saturday bringing 1,400 barrels of spinach 

 and 600 of kale, and the receipts of these two vegetables for 

 the week amounted to 11,050 barrels. These sell at twenty 

 cents a half-peck. Florida tomatoes cost twenty cents a 

 pound, and those from northern hot-houses forty cents. 

 String-beans are quite plentiful at twenty cents a quart, while 

 southern peas are scarce, and some from California have sold 

 at $1.50 a half-peck. Bright, fresh eggplants cost twenty cents 

 each, and new beets and kohl-rabi, four in a bunch, ten cents, 

 and among winter roots oyster plant and knob-celery may be 

 had for the same price. Winter beets, carrots, turnips and 

 parsnips are in regular supply. Cabbage, from Long Island, 

 costs ten cents a head, and the red sort brings fifteen cents. 

 There is also Danish cabbage in market, and new cabbage 

 from Florida. Lettuce is coming from Boston hot-houses and 

 from Florida and Cuba, and Romaine lettuce from Bermuda. 

 Onions, from Bermuda and Havana, bring thirteen cents a 

 quart. Bermuda potatoes sell for fifty cents, and sweet pota- 

 toes, from southern New Jersey, for twenty-five cents a half- 

 peck. Mushrooms continue abundant, the best costing but 

 fifty cents a pound. Hot-house asparagus is still a luxury, and 

 commands ninety cents for a small bunch. 



