March 17, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



109 



It was realized, however, during the discussions that reason- 

 able protection only was contemplated by the persons inter- 

 ested, and that, after all, the objects sought to be obtained 

 were for the ultimate benefit of all concerned. Nurserymen 

 and fruit growers were interested on the same side, and finally 

 every section of the bill was adopted without a dissenting vote. 

 The legislative committee was continued, with power to ap- 

 point an executive committee, and the officers of the conven- 

 tion, Mr. Cushman, of Ohio, being elected president, were 

 given power to call further meetings in case it proved neces- 

 sary or desirable. 



The title of the proposed bill states that it is an act to pro- 

 vide for inspecting and treating plants, buds, cuttings, nursery 

 stock and fruit imported into the United States or grown within 

 the United States and becoming a subject of interstate com- 

 merce. Section 1 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, at 

 the expense of the owner of such imported stock, to retain it in 

 quarantine at designated ports, where inspectors appointed by 

 him may examine it to ascertain whether it is affected by any 

 dangerously injurious insect or disease, and provide for its 

 treatment when necessary. Section 2 provides that when 

 such plants, etc., are found infested they shall be treated at the 

 expense of the owner or shall be destroyed when their condi- 

 tion warrants destruction ; but an appeal from the inspector's 

 decision may be made to the Secretary of Agriculture within 

 three days after the inspection, and the Secretary's decision 

 shall be final. Section 3 provides that if imported plants, fruit, 

 etc., are apparently free from dangerous infection a certificate 

 to this effect shall be issued to the owners by the inspector, 

 and this certificate shall release the plants from further re- 

 striction, either at the port of entry or in interstate commerce. 

 Punishment by fine and imprisonment is provided against 

 counterfeiting, altering or defacing such certificates. Section 4 

 provides that when the Secretary of Agriculture is convinced 

 that proper inspection and treatment for exported plants are 

 furnished in any foreign country, he may by proclamation 

 accept such inspection and treatment in the place of that per- 

 formed by his own officers. Section 5 provides for the proper 

 inspection and treatment at the expense of their owners, and 

 before their shipment, of all plants, buds, scions, etc., which 

 are subjects of interstate commerce, and are about to be 

 transported from one state into another. Section 6 provides 

 that this examination shall be made under rules prescribed by 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, and that plants found free from 

 danger and properly certificated may be released from further 

 quarantine and restriction in interstate commerce, and it pro- 

 vides for the punishment of persons who counterfeit or destroy 

 these certificates. Section 7 makes it a misdemeanor to transport 

 from state to state any plants, buds, cuttings, etc., which have not 

 been examined in accordance with Sections 5 and 6, or which 

 have been declared by inspectors to be dangerously affected. 

 Section 8 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to accept an 

 inspection by any state, territory, corporation, firm or person 

 which he may consider proper and competent, in lieu of in- 

 spection by his own officers. 



Recent Publications. 



Vegetable-growing in the South for Northern Markets. 

 By P. H. Rolfs, M. Sc, Professor of Horticulture in the 

 Florida State Agricultural College. Richmond : Southern 

 Planter Publishing Co. 1896. 



This manual consists of what were originally lectures 

 delivered to classes in horticulture, but in process of revi- 

 sion they have lost their fragmentary character and the book 

 has assumed the form of a systematic treatise. The reader 

 must understand that earliness in the production of veg- 

 etable crops for northern markets is a matter of prime 

 importance, so that the directions for cultivation, fertilizing 

 and the like are given largely with this end in view. 

 Nevertheless, the concise discussions on soils, their com- 

 position and character, the reasons for their exhaustion and 

 the methods of restoring and enriching them, are useful to 

 any one who has a vegetable garden or truck farm. In 

 the list of vegetables described northern readers will be 

 interested in such kinds as collards, for example, which the 

 people of the south prefer to either cabbage or cauliflower ; 

 in goobers, which look like large one-seeded peanuts; in 

 yams, which have never made serious inroads on the pop- 

 ularity of either the Irish or the sweet potato, although it 

 was thought at one time that the Chinese and the Cuban 



yam might replace them. By way of exemplifying the 

 difference in garden practice at the north and the south a 

 brief account of the southern method of cultivating Celery 

 may be interesting. The seed is sown in July or August 

 and in a cold frame, although, of course, this is not for pro- 

 tection against low temperature, but so that the young 

 plants can be shaded from the hot sun. Very rich soil is used 

 and plants are set out in October or November when the 

 seedlings have leaf-stalks about three inches long. The 

 great bulk of the cultivation is done in the seed-bed, and 

 the plants are only hoed once or twice after the setting out, 

 and then the earth is drawn up to the rows in an A-shaped 

 ridge for bleaching, although this is sometimes done 

 by banking with boards. The crop is ripe at the season 

 when visitors are abundant in the south, so that very little 

 of it comes to the northern seaboard markets, which are 

 supplied largely from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and other 

 northern points where the celery is kept stored for winter 

 use. Spinach is sown in September or October. The seed 

 of Kale is sown in October or November in cold frames, 

 like Celery, and it is sent to northern cities during March, 

 April, or even earlier. Peas are planted the last of October 

 or in November, and so on. 



The methods of transplanting, watering, fertilizing and 

 cultivating are given with great detail for all the various 

 kinds, and there are specific directions about making crates, 

 packing, marketing, shipping, raising seed and preserving 

 it for home use. The book contains 250 pages and it is 

 written in a clear style, with as little use of technical lan- 

 guage as possible, so that any one of ordinary intelli- 

 gence can understand it. Altogether, it can be thoroughly 

 recommended to any one interested in the growing of 

 truck and vegetables in our southern states, and we may 

 add that northern growers will find it singularly suggestive 

 from the very fact that the methods of culture recommended 

 are so strikingly different from those needed here for the 

 same class of plants. If, for example, a certain crop is 

 known to thrive here under one treatment, and in Florida 

 under quite another, it will be comparatively easy for an 

 observing student to judge what conditions are the essen- 

 tial ones needed by the plant and what points are of minor 

 importance. 



Notes. 



Some of the lumber-trade journals are writing in favor of 

 soft elm for the interior finish of buildings and assert that 

 wherever it has been used in the western cities it has proved 

 very satisfactory. It has long been used in the manufacture 

 of furniture, where it has taken the place of plain oak, which it 

 much resembles in grain, and there seems to be no reason 

 why it cannot be used to good advantage in this new field. 



In some of the fancy-fruit stores are seen considerable quan- 

 tities of Sapodilla plums, the fruit of Sapota Achras. These 

 so-called plums are as large as an ordinary apple and have a 

 rough dull russet skin. Those now offered in this city were 

 evidently picked when very unripe and are yet hard and 

 uneatable. The fruit is only fit for use when it begins to decav, 

 as it then loses its acrid milk. The skin becomes marked 

 with black blotches and the flesh is a dull yellowish tint, soft 

 and exceedingly sweet. 



In a bulletin on the timber lands of Minnesota, prepared by 

 Professor Green and Mr. H. B. Ayres, after it is shown that as 

 the lumber business is now carried on in that state, the forest 

 as a resource is constantly diminishing, it is estimated that 

 the normal yield of the present forest area in its best condition 

 and protected from fire would be about 2,000,000,000 feet, board 

 measure, every year. That is, this supply, which could be main- 

 tained indefinitely, and perhaps even increased, is nearly twice 

 as much as is now cut in the state. 



A correspondent of The Garden, writing from the north- 

 western coast of Spain 'in the middle of February, speaks 

 of Magnolia conspicua in full flower, and Camellias as past 

 their best. Chinese Azaleas, Acacias of various forms, espe- 

 cially A. dealbata, Spiraeas, Flowering Currants, Ribes san- 

 guineum, were in full bloom in the gardens, while the hedges 

 and banks were blue with flowers of Lithospermum prostratum. 

 Primroses were open along the banks of streams, and in slid- 



