234 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 486. 



Cherries are below the average, particularly the large, 

 light-colored varieties, such as Royal Ann. Peaches are 

 difficult to report upon, because districts vary so greatly, 

 but the crop is thought to be only an average one. Pears, 

 Plums and Prunes promise a fair crop in a few places, but 

 seem to be short in many orchards. Los Gatos, San Benito 

 and Solano districts report the prune crop as from one-third 

 to one-half of the average season. The pears, also, have 

 fallen badly. In fact, it is too early to determine exactly 

 the prospects for either pears or prunes. Apples seem to 

 be in good condition. Walnuts are up to the average. The 

 grape crop, so far as reported, is better than usual. 



In most cases under my own observations, more injury 

 was done by the failure of late rains and by the hot days of 

 early April than by frosts. But in the parts of the state 

 subject to frosts there has been much injury to deciduous 

 fruit-trees from "sour-sap," which, as Professor Woodworth, 

 of the University of California, recently explained, consists 

 in the fermentation of the sap of the plant by apparently 

 the same organisms that cause the souring of milk. Root 

 sour-sap occurs after very wet winters, in badly drained 

 soil, and the smaller roots rot away. Sour-sap in the trunk 

 and branches of trees occurs when late frosts, after warm 

 days, rupture the growing cells, so that decay organisms 

 find entrance. One orchard association has reported the 

 loss of a thousand large trees from this sour-sap. 



Taking a general view of the fruit industry of California, 

 as should be occasionally done so as to prevent people 

 from making unprofitable investments, the outlook is not 

 very encouraging except in a few limited directions. Of 

 course, reports of large profits made by persons engaged 

 in fruit growing still continue, but at present they should 

 be believed only after careful judgment. The average 

 orchardist has not made any money to speak of for three 

 seasons past, and some of the leading men in the business 

 have become bankrupt. Some orchards have been cut 

 down and many have been regrafted. This is particularly 

 true of Almonds, which have been grafted over to Prunes. 



There is now a general feeling in California that the 

 fruit industry ought not to have much, if any, expansion 

 for several years to come. Perhaps one fruit grower in a 

 hundred will find orchard extension profitable, but nearly 

 all will lessen their area and specialize their products. 



The wiser residents regret to see sales of colony lands at 

 high prices to non-residents for orchards which must be 

 planned, planted and cared for by agents or by those who 

 sold the land. California offers many and great induce- 

 ments to persons who are able to buy land, live on it, and 

 begin work there, supporting themselves by plain, old- 

 fashioned, mixed farming until they have learned how to 

 specialize. And this kind of pioneering, of growing up 

 with the country, appears needful to later contentment. 



One colony in this state boasts that it has more than a 

 hundred non-resident investors, most of whom will not see 

 the land they own until it is covered with bearing vines 

 and trees. For five or six years they have paid for the 

 planting and care, hoping to find their orchards and vine- 

 yards profitable. But such tracts, managed by syndicates 

 and associations, have never been satisfactory, even from 

 a financial standpoint, while the poor installment-payers 

 are without that homely attachment to trees that one has 

 planted, and to gardens that one has created, which is really 

 the only salvation. Thousands of acres of these alien and 

 hireling orchards are likely to go back to pasture and wheat 



Niies! c.iiit. Charles H. Shin n. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



THE annual exhibition of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society was held this week in the Temple Gardens, 

 and, notwithstanding somewhat unfavorable weather, it 

 was an unqualified success. The exhibits were, on the 

 whole, of superior quality to those of previous years, while 



the company was greater. Her Royal Highness the 

 Princess of Wales visited the exhibition on the opening day 

 and expressed her delight with it. 



Orchids. — The collections sent by Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 Baron Schroeder, Mr. W. S. Ellis, and by Messrs. Sander & 

 Co., Low & Co., B. S. Williams & Son, Cypher, Lewis & Co , 

 Charlesworth & Co., and Messrs. Linden, of Brussels, were 

 remarkable for their extent and excellence, both as to speci- 

 mens and variety. The enormous plant of Ccelogyne 

 Dayand, bearing twenty-four racemes of flowers a yard 

 long, was a feature for about the fourth time, proving that 

 good cultivation alone, and not, as was at first suggested, 

 imported vigor was the cause of its flowering so freely. 

 The rare Cypripedium callosum Sanderae, bearing two 

 flowers, Bulbophyllum barbegirum with two spikes, Hex- 

 isia bidentata, a charming Dendrobium-like plant with 

 scarlet flowers, Lselio-Cattleya Digbyana-Mossiae, a big 

 specimen of that most delightful of Dendrobes, D. Loddi- 

 gisii (pulchellum), a group of well-flowered specimens of 

 Vanda teres, and, of course, numerous choice varieties of 

 Odontoglossum crispum, were among the most attractive 

 of the plants in Baron Schroeder's group. Sir Trevor Law- 

 rence always sends many Orchids of botanical interest, 

 and in this respect this year was no exception. Passing 

 over the big and perfect specimens of Cattleya, Dendro- 

 bium, Cypripedium and Odontoglossum, we may note the 

 pan of Neottia Nidus-avis with its brown flowers, Tricho- 

 caulon longibracteatum with white flowers stained with 

 crimson on the front and side lobes of the lip, Dendrobium 

 Auguste- Victoria with tall pseudo-bulbs and spikes in the 

 way of D. stratiotis, D. signatum aureum with flowers of 

 pale sulphur-yellow color, in form like those of D. litui- 

 florum, Eria ornata with a long hairy scape of large yellow- 

 brown bracts and green flowers with orange lip, Epiden- 

 drum Mooreanum, a rather new species in the way of E. 

 virens, with crimson blotches on the lip of the greenish 

 yellow flowers, Lycaste jugosa, Microstylis macrocheila and 

 a grand plant of the tiger-flowered Maxillaria Sanderiana. 



Messrs. F. Sander & Co. were, as usual, liberal exhibitors. 

 A large plant of Cattleya Reineckiana, bearing thirteen 

 flowers and buds, was shown ; also a new hybrid called 

 Lselio-Cattleya the Queen, Cattleya Rossii, raised from 

 C. intermedia and C. Leopoldii, bearing three spikes and 

 eighteen flowers, which were like those of intermedia, but 

 spotted and tinted as in Leopoldii. Dendrobium Dal- 

 housieanum was represented by large specimens carrying 

 dozens of spikes of its large yellow and crimson flowers, 

 and Ancectochilus Sanderianus, one of the most charming 

 of the genus, Sobralia Veitchii with large blush-white 

 flowers splashed with yellow in the throat, and Stenoglottis 

 longifolia, and a pure white-flowered form of it revealed 

 the charm of this pretty Cape terrestrial Orchid. 



Messrs H. Low & Co. sent some rare Phalaenopsis, 

 Ccelogyne asperata, C. pandurata and a beautiful form of 

 Odontoglossum crispum named Queen Victoria, to which a 

 first-class certificate was awarded. It has medium-sized 

 flowers, rose-tinted, with a large crimson-brown blotch on 

 each segment. Messrs. Linden's group consisted almost 

 wholly of Odontoglossum crispum varieties and forms of 

 Cattleya Mossiae, the latter being superior to any that I 

 have seen. They also sent a gigantic-flowered form of 

 C. Schilleriana, to which a first-class certificate was 

 awarded. The three choicest Orchids, sent by Messrs. 

 Charlesworth, of Bradford, were Sophro-Laslia Marriottiana, 

 raised from S. grandiflora and L. flava, Lselio-Cattleya 

 Lady Wigan, to which a first-class certificate was awarded ; 

 it is a hybrid between L. purpurata and C. Mossia?. The 

 third plant was a beautiful variety of Odontoglossum excel- 

 lens named R. Ashworth. The most admired Orchid ex- 

 hibited was a form of Odontoglossum crispum named 

 Starlight. It bore a spike of six flowers nearly four inches 

 across, with broad sepals and petals colored rose-purple 

 and peppered all over with red-brown. It was sent by 

 Mr. Broman White, and was awarded a first-class certifi- 

 cate. Connoisseurs bracketed with this truly lovely plant 



