15° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 477. 



Mr. Roehrs, such as flowering Almonds, Deutzias and Spiraeas, 

 but their blooming season is short, so that it is difficult to have 

 them at their best at exactly the right time, and then they do 

 not keep longer than a few days in the buyer's hands. The 

 lateness of Easter this year has had a favorable effect on the 

 plants, which have been forced gradually, with no hurry, and 

 it is always easier to hold plants back from flowering than to 

 urge them in advance. 



New York. 



M. B. C. 



Notes. 



New-crop limes from Jamaica, small and green, may now 

 be had at fifteen cents a dozen, or Si. 25 for 100. 



A consignment of 180,000 Easter lilies arrived in this city 

 on Sunday by the regular steamer from Bermuda. 



Trailing Arbutus, from woodlands in Massachusetts and 

 other neighboring states, is the newest offering in the up-town 

 flower-stores, and a compact little bunch costs but twenty-five 

 cents. 



It must not be considered that the few western Senators 

 who make most of the noise in Washington against President 

 Cleveland's forest reserves represent the best public opinion 

 of their section. The Senators and Representatives of Cali- 

 fornia all support the reservations, and on the 27th of March 

 the Sierra Club of San Francisco passed a series of resolutions 

 which endorse the action of the state's delegation in Congress, 

 favor the reservation principle and urge that as far as possible 

 the forests thus set apart shall be policed by the army. 



Professor Roberts, of Cornell University, is sending out 

 circulars to notify whom it may concern that under the 

 Agricultural Extension Bill the college of agriculture of that 

 university has undertaken to assist, free of expense, all teachers 

 who wish to introduce what is called "nature studies" into 

 the public schools. Nature study means nothing more than 

 seeing familiar things in a new light, and the Cornell faculty 

 wish to encourage the investigation of common objects so as 

 to teach accurate observation and the power of clearly ex- 

 pressing what is seen. 



Mr. F. W. Burbidge, in an address on the culture of hardy 

 bulbs in England, said that 100,000 Hyacinths or Narcissus may 

 be grown on an acre of land, 115,000 to 120,000 Tulips, while of 

 smaller plants like Crocuses, Snowdrops, Squills, Anemones, 

 Winter Aconites, etc., the number runs up to 200,000 and 

 300,000 an acre. He believes that any hardy bulb which brings 

 more than one pound a thousand in the market can be culti- 

 vated with profit in many parts of England. Professor W. F. 

 Massey, of North Carolina, has long been of the opinion that 

 the cultivation of bulbs could be made a successful industry 

 in that state. 



Mr. Wilhelm Miller, who is a special student of horticulture 

 in Cornell University, has prepared a bulletin on Dahlias, 

 which is published by the experiment station, and which is 

 much more than a mere test of varieties although it gives the 

 habits, form and relative value of some 350 different named 

 varieties which were grown at Ithaca last year. In the first 

 place, there is an interesting history of the plant and of its 

 evolution to its present freedom and grace of outline and 

 poise since the introduction of the Cactus Dahlia. The illus- 

 trations show some of the best forms of the flower which 

 recent crosses have produced, and the thirty-five pages which 

 make up the bulletin are all filled with interesting and instruc- 

 tive matter. 



Professor Morse, of the New Hampshire Experiment Station, 

 writes to the press of his state that ashes are now delivered in 

 car-load lots at railroad stations at $10 a ton. This low price, 

 however, is accompanied by a deliberate reduction in the 

 quality of the ashes. Buyers should look with suspicion on 

 lots which appear excessively moist, for in such cases the 

 potash is seldom equal to the proportion in the average 

 product. Certain samples analyzed were from burned rub- 

 bish, principally of waste paper and refuse lumber. It is a 

 fact which should be generally known, that ashes from paper 

 are as valueless as ashes from coal, because the soluble 

 mineral matter has all been leached out of the paper stock 

 during the process of manufacture. 



We have already spoken of Professor Halsted's experiments 

 with Potatoes with reference to the disease known as the scab, 

 Oospora scabies, and a recent bulletin gives interesting details 

 of the work of the last year. It seems to be proved that the 



soaking of the seed potato in a solution of corrosive sublimate 

 will not greatly check the disease if the soil itself is infected, 

 although if the poison is added to the soil it will check the 

 scab. Sulphur maintained its position as the best remedy, and 

 its wholesome effect on the soil remains undiminished 

 through the second year, and no one knows how much 

 longer it will prove useful. Kainit, besides being a good 

 fertilizer, has been proved to have a considerable fungicidal 

 value. 



The Saghalien Knotweed is a strong perennial herb with 

 creeping root-stocks, and it has been cultivated for twenty-five 

 years in the botanical gardens of Europe. A few years ago, 

 in time of drought in France, it was discovered that cattle 

 would eat the leaves and tender branches of this plant, and the 

 suggestion was made that it might prove valuable as a fodder- 

 plant. In a year or so extravagant accounts of the value of 

 this Polygonum Sachalinense appeared in some American 

 seed catalogues, but the Director of the Maine Experiment 

 Station issues a renewed warning against trusting it. It is 

 not probable that American farmers will realize the hopes 

 which have been raised by the glowing descriptions of this 

 plant from Europe. We should be very glad to publish the 

 experience of any one who has tried it. 



The sweet or saccharine Sorghums are now successfully 

 grown in almost every state and territory of the Union, and 

 although there has been a decrease in the acreage of these 

 Sorghums planted for the manufacture of sugar and molasses, 

 the acreage sown for forage has increased very materially. Mr. 

 Thomas A. Williams, the Assistant Agrostologist of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, has prepared a bulletin on Sorghum 

 as a Forage Crop, which in the scope of twenty pages groups 

 together the results of experiments in many of the stations and 

 elsewhere throughout the Union. Among the facts brought 

 out are that Sorghum endures drought better than Corn, and 

 will do better on thin soils, being a stronger feeder ; that the 

 early varieties are preferable for forage ; that the seed should 

 not be sown until the ground becomes warm, and then plenty 

 of it should be used in a well-prepared bed ; and that irrigation 

 should be practiced where it is possible. It is good practice to 

 plant Cow Peas or other Legumes with the Sorghum, not only 

 to improve the quality of the forage, but to leave the land in 

 better condition. The crop can be used for soiling, pasture, 

 ensilage or hay, and the best quality of hay is obtained by cut- 

 ting the plant shortly after it begins to bloom. For soiling it 

 can be cut profitably as soon as the heads are formed, while 

 for silage it is best cut when the seed is in the "dough." Sorghum 

 is a native of the tropics, but it is a most adaptable plant, and 

 varieties have been developed which are perfectly hardy as 

 far north as Canada, and every one who has a farm and reads 

 this bulletin will be tempted to experiment with it as a forage 

 plant. 



Above 51,000 packages of fresh vegetables from the south 

 were received in New York during last week. Besides 20,000 

 barrels, crates and boxes of new cabbage, peas, beans and 

 tomatoes, there were thirty-four packages of cucumbers, 728 

 of lettuce, 17,318 of spinach, 12,195 of kale, 4,051 of radishes 

 and 1,394 of asparagus. This does not include receipts of 

 vegetables forwarded by express, but the general shipments by 

 steamships and ordinary passenger and freight trains. Besides 

 these domestic products, there were onions from Bermuda, 

 Spain and Turkey, and potatoes from Scotland, Germany, 

 Bermuda and Cuba. Asparagus now comes from North and 

 South Carolina and Virginia, and the first cuttings are being 

 shipped from Maryland. The white shoots cost forty-five 

 cents, and the tender green stalks fifty-five cents a bunch in 

 Washington Market. Beets, from Florida and South Carolina, 

 bring ten cents a bunch, and cabbage, from the same state, 

 ten cents a head. Celery comes from California and Florida, 

 and cucumbers from the latter state and from Boston hot- 

 houses. Eggplants from Florida command twenty to twenty- 

 five cents. Kale comes from Maryland and Virginia, as does 

 spinach. Peppers are supplied by Florida, as are string-beans, 

 lettuce, squashes and tomatoes ; the latter now sell for twenty- 

 five cents a pound. Peas, from Georgia and South Carolina, 

 sell for seventy cents a half-peck. Radishes come from Vir- 

 ginia, and parsley from Bermuda ; 26,500 crates of onions came 

 from these islands last week, also 800 barrels of potatoes, 

 which bring fifty cents a half-peck at retail. Sweet potatoes, 

 from southern New Jersey, cost twenty-five cents a half-peck. 

 Dandelion gathered from fields and commons brings ten cents 

 a quart, and that which is cultivated and blanched realizes 

 twice that price. Okra costs ten cents a dozen, and mush- 

 rooms fifty cents a pound. 



