iyo 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 479. 



The New Hampshire Experiment Station finds that the 

 varieties of potato which have received the highest commen- 

 dation from all sections of that state are White Star, Rural 

 New-Yorker No. 2, American Wonder, Carmen No. 3, Gov- 

 ernor Rusk and Sir William. 



More than one of the English horticultural papers have 

 spoken this year of the good qualities of the white-flowered 

 form of Daphne Mezereum, and a correspondent from 

 Wellesley, Massachusetts, writes that it is strikingly hand- 

 some there this spring, having been in full flower a long time, 

 and much more beautiful than the common one with magenta 

 flowers. This plant ought to take high rank among our early- 

 flowering shrubs. 



Apples are still plentiful, 1 6,000 barrels having reached this 

 city last week for the local trade, besides about 2,000 barrels 

 for export. Northern Spy and Ben Davis bring the highest 

 prices, with Baldwin, Roxbury Russet and Golden Russet in 

 fair demand at somewhat lower rates. The receipts in New 

 York city at this time last year amounted to 681,002 barrels, 

 while in the exceptional season now ending 1,330,221 barrels 

 have been sold here. 



The third number of Florilegium Harlemense contains pic- 

 tures of the light rose-colored single Hyacinth, Gigantea, a 

 plant of unknown origin which appeared first some sixteen 

 years ago ; three single early Tulips, Chrysodora (yellow), 

 Canary Bird (Kanarievogel), the white L'immaculee and 

 the dark purple Wouwerman — all good varieties for forc- 

 ing or outdoor planting ; and the large and somewhat coarse 

 Crown Imperial known as Maxima. 



In regard to the complaint that Red Cedars grow slowly, a 

 correspondent writes that some small trees planted at Radnor, 

 near Philadelphia, some seven years ago, have grown in height 

 considerably more than a foot every year, while some larger 

 ones planted near have spread out rapidly into bushy speci- 

 mens. It is to be noted that these trees were set in rich 

 moist soil near water, and this indicates that the Red Cedar is 

 not at all ungrateful for good treatment. 



A series of lectures and field-meetings, for the purpose of 

 supplying popular instruction about trees and shrubs which 

 grow in New England, will be conducted at the Arnold 

 Arboretum during May and June. The instruction will not be 

 technical, and the purpose of Mr. J. G. Jack, who will conduct 

 the lectures, is to indicate easy means of distinguishing the 

 common native trees and shrubs and recognizing the foreign 

 species which have been introduced. Applications and further 

 inquiries should be addressed to Mr. J. G. Jack, Jamaica Plain, 

 Massachusetts. 



A correspondent of the April number of the Orchid Review 

 writes of a specimen plant of Dendrobium nobile at Hollin 

 Hall, near Bradford, England, which is carrying 1,134 fine 

 flowers. Five years ago the plant was in an eight-inch pot, 

 half-starved, and the bulb did not measure more than ten 

 inches in height. It is now in a fourteen-inch basket, measur- 

 ing three feet in diameter, and the longest bulbs are four feet 

 six inches high. The success of Mr. Moorby, the gardener, is 

 due to top-dressing every year with fresh sphagnum and peat, 

 which keeps the compost fresh and sweet. Another important 

 cultural point is the resting of the plants at the proper time by 

 withholding the water gradually and never allowing them to 

 shrivel. 



The cold weather last week injured vegetables in Maryland 

 and Virginia, and the asparagus, pea and bean crops were 

 affected even in North Carolina. As the season for some sorts 

 is waning in Florida, and these same kinds are not yet coming 

 from the more northern Atlantic coast states in sufficient 

 quantities, prices for new vegetables are high. For example, 

 cucumbers, from Florida, sell at the rate of three for twenty- 

 five cents ; tomatoes, from the same state, at twenty-five cents 

 a pound, and peas, the main supply from South Carolina and 

 Georgia, with the first pickings from North Carolina, at sev- 

 enty-five cents a half-peck. Asparagus costs forty to fifty cents 

 a bunch. Even French artichokes cost more now than dur- 

 ing winter, and bring thirty cents each. Bunches of a dozen 

 or fifteen small carrots cost twenty-five cents; other young 

 and tender vegetables are kohl rabi, beets and onions. Choice 

 strawberries from North and South Carolina cost forty cents a 

 box, and lower grades sell for twenty to twenty-five cents. 



No lawn is quite as beautiful as one of fine grasses, but we 

 agree with the Rural New-Yorker that a lawnof WhiteClover, 

 pure and simple, is by no means unsightly, as anyone can see 

 by examining some of the little plots about the hotels in the 



upper part of this city. This Clover will stand drought better 

 than most kinds of Grass, especially than the Rhode Island 

 Bent Grass or Blue Grass, and it can be readily and easily cut 

 by the lawn-mower, but the point made by the Rural New- 

 Yorker is that White Clover, being a leguminous plant, will 

 take up the free nitrogen of the air and transfer it to the soil, 

 and thus enrich it constantly in one of the elements of plant- 

 food. It would be an interesting experiment to see how long 

 a White Clover lawn would last if a little phosphoric acid and 

 potash were applied to it every year. 



A circular published by the Entomological Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and just issued, describes the nat- 

 ural history and habits of the Strawberry weevil, which is very 

 injurious to the staminate varieties of the Strawberry. The 

 pistillate varieties, except such as furnish a considerable quan- 

 tity of pollen, are not subject to attacks, because it is the 

 pollen of the flower which furnishes the chief food-supply, 

 both of the larva3 and the adults. This explains the preference 

 of the insect for such varieties as Charles Downing, Sharpless, 

 Wilson and the like. Crude carbolic acid, used in the propor- 

 tion of one part to a hundred parts of water, if sprayed over 

 the plants, is a good repellent. It does not kill the insect, but 

 it makes the plant distasteful so that they will not feed on it. 

 In the same way the Bordeaux mixture has proved somewhat 

 useful by rendering the foliage disagreeable to the insects. It 

 has also the advantage of being a fungicide and will therefore 

 fulfill a double purpose in plants which are in danger of infec- 

 tion by the blight. 



In a bulletin on apple-growing in New Jersey, prepared by 

 Director Voorhees, of the Experiment Station of that state, the 

 average value of the crop per acre throughout the state is set 

 down as something like $50.00, which shows that under ordi- 

 nary conditions this crop is fairly remunerative. When 

 orchards are managed with care and skill the returns are more 

 satisfactory, and as an illustration of this Professor Voorhees 

 cites the history of an orchard of thirty acres in Chester town- 

 ship, Burlington County. The soil, a sandy loam with a clayey 

 subsoil sloping to the south-west, was carefully prepared 

 before the stocky two-year-old trees were set in the autumn at 

 a distance of thirty-three feet apart each way. The practice 

 has been to seed the ground with Crimson Clover in July or 

 August, to plow this under the next May, and then to cultivate 

 the surface of the ground four or five times before seeding it 

 again. A thousand pounds of an even mixture of ground bone 

 and muriate of potash is applied broadcast every year before 

 the clover seed is sown. The trees are pruned with tops well 

 open to sun and air, and they are sprayed against insects and 

 fungi. Under this treatment they bear annually fine crops 

 of large perfect fruit, which is handled in the best manner, 

 and the average of marketable apples for some years has been 

 130 barrels to the acre. The total annual expenses for each 

 acre are $45.00, the gross returns $142.50, leaving a net return 

 of $97.50 an acre. The varieties grown are Williams' Early 

 Red, Hagloe, Orange Pippin and Ben Davis. 



Last month Sir John Gorst spoke at Girton on the question 

 of education in rural England, and told his hearers that they 

 could not successfully compete in agricultural products with 

 Continental nations, who sent many things to England which 

 ought to be grown at home. Denmark at the beginning of this 

 century was one of the poorest countries in Europe, and to-day 

 it is one of the richest, because Denmark supplies the English 

 people in manufacturing towns, and even in country districts, 

 with butter, eggs and bacon which Englishmen ought to pro- 

 duce themselves. The people of Denmark attribute their 

 prosperity to the education received in the high schools, where 

 every boy and girl is kept until fourteen years of age ; besides 

 this, there are winter and evening schools in that country 

 where any one can study until he is thirty. Sir John also 

 pointed out that the children in rural France were kept at 

 school in the same way, and that, in addition to the money 

 expended for general education, France devoted a million dol- 

 lars a year to special teaching in agriculture and horticulture. 

 Instruction in these arts, he said, was obligatory even in 

 primary schools in the country, and all over France they had 

 higher schools, schools of practice, and itinerant teachers and 

 experimental plots at convenient distances, where demonstra- 

 tions were given. There are more than 3,300 of these experi- 

 mental gardens in France. Sir John thought it was a mistake 

 to endeavor to fit country lads for third-class clerkships in the 

 cities instead of fitting them for country pursuits, since the 

 restoration of prosperity in the rural districts depends upon 

 the intelligence of the country population which furnished the 

 workers. 



