March 31, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



129 



shade the ground, which reduces its chance for reproduction 

 in spite of its considerable shade endurance. 



Not special care, but merely giving an even chance for 

 reproduction, is needed to recuperate the White Pine. To be 

 sure, being our most useful timber, it deserves to be given 

 even a better chance by removing such of its competitors as 

 are less useful. 



That the explanation of the rotation of forest crops lies 

 mainly in the relative shade endurance of the species and the 

 variation in light conditions produced either by the action 'of 

 man or of nature, is too well established to require any other 

 exDlanation. 



Washington, D. C. B. E. FemOW. 



The New Forest Reserves. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Will you allow an Englishman, who has seen with his 

 own eyes in many western states the frightful devastation of 

 the most magnificent heritage of the American people, to 

 congratulate you, as editor of Garden and Forest, on the 

 success of your patriotic and wise efforts, continued for many 

 years, to preserve some part of those unrivaled forests in a 

 state of nature. I do not think that any act of the late Presi- 

 dents will have such good and lasting results as this, if effectual 

 measures are taken to protect the new reserves from fire, 

 grazing and the reckless slaughter of game, which has been 

 so detrimental to them. 



I cannot help thinking that until a permanent staff of com- 

 petent forest officers can be trained and appointed you will 

 find that detachments of the regular army under selected 

 officers will prove the most effective and honest guardians of 

 the reserves, and though the areas defined are small enough 

 in comparison with the vast areas which are already either 

 wholly or partially ruined, yet the step just taken is one which 

 goes beyond what could have been expected at the present 

 moment. There still remain, however, some regions in 

 which similar reserves seem to be almost as much wanted. 

 Among them 1 might mention a district in north-western 

 Colorado, and another in western North Carolina. It may be 

 too late, but, as an illustration of what we are reduced to here, 

 I may say that our Government is at last obliged to purchase 

 a large tract of land on Salisbury Plain simply because there 

 was no area of open land in southern England large enough 

 for military manoeuvres. 



Colesborne, England. H. T. Flives. 



Exhibitions. 

 Spring Flower Show at Boston. 



A LL the visitors at the exhibition of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 -**- ticultural Society last week agreed that this was, upon 

 the whole, rather better than any spring show yet held by the 

 society, one reason being that such fine weather prevailed at 

 the time of opening that exhibitors had no fear that their plants 

 would be injured by the cold, and therefore they took the best 

 they had. The classes were usually well filled, although there 

 were no competitors for the group of Orchids covering forty 

 square feet. It is rather odd that in the schedule of prizes a 

 date should have been selected for the largest premium on 

 these plants just between the season of their winter and sum- 

 mer bloom. The great masses of Cyclamens, Cinerarias and 

 the varied exhibition of forced bulbs were the leading features 

 of the show as a popular spectacle. The shrubs in flower were 

 also good, although the Indian Azaleas were not up to the 

 highest standard of excellence. There were a few other hard- 

 wooded plants in flower, good Acacias, Epacris, etc., but none 

 of great interest, except from a cultural point of view. There 

 never was so fine a competition of Carnations at a spring show, 

 and the hundred blooms of no less than six varieties, with their 

 foliage, for which William Nicholson took first prize, were 

 exceptionally good, and so were the vases of Ferdinand Man- 

 gold, William Scott, Daybreak, Hector and Eldorado, with 

 which Mr. Nicholson took first prize for the best five flowers 

 of a crimson, a dark pink, a light pink, a scarlet and a yellow 

 variety. A new white flower called Freedom, shown by Peter 

 Fisher, was a fine flower, and so was the Niveaof H. A. Cook. 

 The Cyclamens were far in advance of anything previously 

 seen in Boston, and by the great mass of visitors were consid- 

 ered the most interesting of the plant exhibits. There were some 

 fifty plants in twelve-inch pots which took the first prize in vari- 

 ous classes grown by John Barr, gardener to Mrs. B. P. Cheney. 

 They were superb examples of culture. The bulbous plants 

 were unusually numerous, conspicuous among which were the 

 Trumpet Narcissus, Tulips and Jonquils of Elwell & Son. In 



the fine display of cut flowers of hybrid Roses one shown by 

 David Nevins, called La Rosiere, was as perfect in its color 

 (crimson) as Prince Camille de Rohan, but of better form and 

 fragrance, and it adds another one to the very short list of 

 common Roses which can be satisfactorily forced. Other con- 

 spicuous Roses were those of American Beauty, Meteor 

 and Souvenir de President Carnot, for which F. R. Pierson 

 received the first award, besides Bridesmaid and Bride, with 

 which W. H. Elliott took the same rank. A finely flowered 

 specimen of the Crimson Rambler Rose was in the large dis- 

 play of forced shrubs from the Bussey Institution, which 

 included Daphne Cneorum, Lilacs, Kalmias and the like. 

 Noteworthy specimen shrubs were John L. Gardner's fragrant 

 Boronia megastigma and Dr. Weld's Acacia Drummondii, 

 Boronia elatior and Erica Cavendishii. The cut flowers of 

 Camellias from Mr. Joseph H. White were much admired, and 

 they took the mind back to the time when a display of these 

 flowers was indispensable to every spring exhibition. There 

 were about a hundred flowers exhibited, each one with a spray 

 of its own foliage. A cut spray of the double-flowering Japa- 

 nese Cherry, exhibited by James Comley, was exceedingly 

 beautiful, and received a silver medal from the society. It 

 seemed to be a form of Prunus Pseudo-cerasus, but it differs 

 from any now known in cultivation. 



Besides the prize-takers already named, the chief awards for 

 plants were made to Dr. C. G. Weld, the Bussey Institution, 

 Jackson Dawson (for Crimson Rambler), John L. Gardner, 

 James L. Little and J. W. Howard. There was an interesting 

 display of fruits and vegetables, and Jackson Dawson received 

 a special award for some well-fruited Strawberry-plants. 



Notes. 



Winter beets, turnips, cabbage, carrots and onions are gradu- 

 ally giving place to the new crops of these vegetables from the 

 southern states, Bermuda and the West Indies. Eggplants are 

 coming in considerable quantity from Florida and Cuba, and 

 lettuce from the southern Atlantic coast states. Spinach and 

 kale, from Virginia, are plentiful and cheap. The best out-of- 

 door tomatoes come from Florida, those from Key West being 

 rather inferior in quality. Heavy stalks of Colossal asparagus 

 in full-sized bunches, from North and South Carolina, sell for 

 fifty cents. No cucumbers have come from Florida since the 

 heavy frost there in January until now, when a few crates 

 are being forwarded. Celery finds ready sale, and a choice is 

 afforded in the varying kinds from Florida, California and the 

 interior of this state. Peas and string-beans, some of choice 

 and others of indifferent quality, still come from Florida, the 

 best being hurried northward by express, while the cheaper 

 grades come by freight. One of the most costly field vege- 

 tables now in market is Bermuda potatoes ; large ones of the 

 new crop cost $9 00 a barrel at wholesale. 



Mr. Robert Simpson, writing to The American Florist, says 

 that it is a mistake to feed Roses under glass or other plants 

 of this class abundantly in autumn or early winter, while the 

 plants are small and soft and while the soil is still rich in plant- 

 food, with comparatively few roots to use it. But in the spring, 

 when the soil is full of roots, the sun powerful and the growth 

 rapid, unless nutriment is furnished just as fast as it can be 

 consumed by the plants, small shoots and smaller flowers will 

 be the result. Of course, we cannot take fresh manure from 

 the stable into the greenhouse and use it as a mulch. It should 

 have been heaped up last summer, turned over once or twice 

 in the autumn, and stored before cold weather in a shed or 

 other dry place where it can be reached and handled at any 

 time. In this season of growth the surface of the benches 

 should be sprinkled over with a dusting of finely ground bone 

 or wood ashes, or, better still, with a mixture of both, and this 

 should be covered with a mulch an inch thick of the well- 

 rotted manure and soil mixed in equal quantities. Liquid 

 manure may be omitted for a week after the mulch is spread, 

 otherwise it should be attended to faithfully and regularly, 

 giving it frequently in a very diluted form. 



A serious cane-blight of the Currant, which has been 

 attributed to poor soil and hard winters, is really the work of a 

 fungus which is described in Bulletin 125 of the Cornell 

 University Station. The first effect of the disease is seen in 

 wilted foliage and premature coloring of the fruits. Then the 

 leaves dry up and fall away, the "berries shrivel and fall, 

 and the bare canes die rapidly. Sometimes the plants die 

 before the leaves unfold, so that unopened buds are seen on 

 the dead branches, and in the worst cases the roots die with 

 the canes. Without giving any detailed description of this 

 fungus, to which allusion has already been made in these 



