2 5 8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 48S. 



way as insecticides are applied to large Elm and other 

 trees. The numerous dead branches upon a victim to this 

 blight harbor the fungus, and they should be removed 

 before spraying will have its best effect. 



Considering the history of this disease, its insidious 

 nature, the large size of the trees and their almost lifeless 

 appearance, it looks as if heroic treatment with axe and fire 

 was the only way to meet this enemy. I lately saw a long 

 line of Sycamores standing as unsightly victims of disease 

 along a village roadside and thought then that they should 

 give place to trees not susceptible to such a relentless 

 enemy as this anthracnose.l „ _ .. , , 



New Brunswick, N.J. hyron D. Halstcd. 



The Durability of Pitch Pine. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — My grandfather settled in Sussex, the northernmost 

 county of New Jersey, in the year 1801, where he bought a 

 small forest clearing and lived in a log-house which was then 

 standing. Some twenty years later he built another house, and 

 since the flooring in the log-house was perfectly sound he used 

 it in part of the new house. This flooring was made of what 

 was locally called Yellow Pine — really it was Pitch Pine, Pinus 

 rigida — and I well remember as a boy, nearly half a century 

 ago, seeing the pitch fry out of the boards near the kitchen 

 stove. The original log-house must have been built when 

 nails were expensive, for the boards had in them auger-holes, 

 through which they had been pinned to the sleepers by 

 wooden pins. Half a dozen years ago the part of the house 

 where the old flooring was laid was taken away, and these 

 pine boards were perfectly solid, heavy with pitch and ap- 

 parently good enough to endure another hundred years of use. 



Deckeitown, N.J. W'.A.S. 



Exhibitions. 



Horticulture at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. 



HPHE visitors who have attended national or state exposi- 

 -*- tions in this country which aim to represent the highest 

 achievements in horticulture have usually been disappointed. 

 Of course, the perishable nature of horticultural products 

 makes it difficult to show them well, while in all the large 

 displays the classification has been unnatural and incomplete. 

 Even at the Columbian Exposition, which exceeded in interest 

 and variety previous attempts in this direction, vegetable 

 gardening and the nursery industry were inadequately repre- 

 sented, while the floricultural exhibit was not a true index of 

 the status of that industry in this country. At the Tennessee 

 Exposition the horticultural exhibit is merged into the general 

 agricultural display. This is seen in a structure three hundred 

 feet long by two hundred feet wide, with a central dome a 

 hundred feet high. Here are the state and county exhibits of 

 the products of the farms, orchards and gardens of the south. 

 The prominent feature of the pomological display is the amount 

 of fruit preserved in some transparent liquid and held in glass 

 jars. Of these state and county displays that from Georgia is 

 the most elaborate, the bottled fruit being uniformly well pre- 

 served and artistically arranged in irregular pyramids. Many 

 of the jars or bottles are of elaborate design and ornamenta- 

 tion. Various preparations are used for saving the fruit, the 

 fluid often being pure water containing a small amount of 

 sulphurous acid, salicylic acid, or corrosive sublimate. For 

 preserving berries a one per cent, solution of boric acid is 

 the most satisfactory, especially for red and black raspberries, 

 blackberries, red and black cherries, black currants and other 

 red or dark-colored fruits. The Florida exhibit contains a fine 

 display of citrus fruits preserved in sulphuric acid used at the 

 rate of about two ounces to a gallon of water. But, although 

 this preserved fruit makes a fine display, it is from an educa- 

 tional point of view of comparatively small value. The glass 

 jars exaggerate the size of the individual fruits so that they are 

 deceptive, and the method admits of no sampling, so that some 

 of the most important characteristics of the varieties are 

 entirely lost. It is just to say, however, that these exhibits were 

 the centres of attraction in the agricultural building, and that 

 Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and other states which made 

 strong competitive displays in this direction will be amply repaid 

 for all their expense and trouble. Many visitors gained broader 

 ideas of the horticultural possibilities of the south than they 

 had possessed before. 



The Tennessee June exhibit of fresh fruit, while meagre, 

 was instructive. But even here there seemed to be an un- 



written law that what was lacking in quantity or quality must 

 be made up in fantastic designs. 



The Sneed peach was one of the first large fruits to be ex- 

 hibited. It is said to be a descendant of the Chinese Cling, 

 and is thought by many to mark the introduction of a new 

 type of very early peaches. Following the Sneed in point of 

 earliness came Alexander, and unnamed peaches from various 

 parts of the state were thereafter received almost daily. 



Cherries of many varieties have been on exhibition during 

 nearly the whole of June. The earliest varieties were the 

 Dyehouse and Early Richmond, and later the sweet cherries. 

 As showing something of the range of season covered by this 

 fruit as well as the difference in latitude and the short time 

 that elapses between blossoming and maturity, it may be 

 stated that at the time the first cherries were exhibited from 

 Tennessee some varieties were still in bloom in northern Ohio. 



There were a few creditable exhibits of nuts, but no adequate 

 representation of what promises to be a profitable industry. 

 The most important and valuable displays were of Pecans, 

 and these native nuts are now seriously attracting the attention 

 of fruit growers. 



It is to be hoped that during the progress of the exposition 

 more attention will be paid to the fresh products of the orchard 

 and garden. For example, our native and introduced plums 

 ought to make one of the most varied and attractive exhibits 

 of late summer and early autumn fruit. They can be readily 

 shipped; they keep well on plates and in nearly every state 

 there are varieties that can be grown with satisfaction and 

 profit. There is a wide and growing interest in our native 

 plums, and they seem destined to play an important part in the 

 development of the horticultural possibilities of the interior 

 and southern states. Over fifty varieties were exhibited at the 

 World's Fair in Chicago, and the number has been greatly 

 increased since then. 



More attention should also be given to the products of the 

 vegetable garden. The hope of the south lies in a more 

 intensive and more diversified agriculture and horticulture. 

 Small holdings devoted to fruit and garden vegetables must 

 take the place of some of the large Cotton and Tobacco 

 plantations, and then the real economic advantages of the 

 south will not only be appreciated, but improved. 

 Columbus, O. William R. Lazenby. 



Boston Rose and Strawberry Show. 



"THE conditions for outdoor Roses have been so good this 

 -'- year that every one expected that the Rose show here 

 would excel all its predecessors, but the season was late, and 

 at the date when it was generally supposed Roses would be 

 just at their best, or perhaps going into a decline, the best buds 

 had not really opened. Still, the two hundred vases of General 

 Jacqueminot sent up from Pomfret, Connecticut, by Miss E. J. 

 Clark (John Ash, gardener) were as fresh and good as it is pos- 

 sible to grow them in the open air, and they made a mass of 

 crimson which will not soon be forgotten by any who saw 

 them. Two large tables were filled with Roses from Miss 

 Clark's garden, the best of which were such standard varieties 

 as Fisher Holmes, John Hopper, Mrs. John Laing, Baroness 

 Rothschild, Duchess of Teck, Magna Charta, Paul Neyron, 

 Marquise de Castellane, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Baron de Bon- 

 stettin, Madame Gabriel Luizet and the old Centifolia. M. H. 

 Walsh has usually brought a magnificent display from the 

 estate of Joseph S. Fay, and he had the usual number of fine 

 flowers, although there was less variety than in former years, 

 owing to the lateness of the season. The light pink Catherine 

 Soupert was superb, and his new hybrid Tea, Lilian Nordica, 

 which last year gained the silver medal, was again shown in 

 first-rate form. It is pure white and seems very hardy. It is 

 a cross between the hybrid Tea, Margaret Dickson, and the 

 pure Tea, Madame Hoste, so that it is three-quarters Tea 

 blood. W. A. Manda, of South Orange, New Jersey, exhibited 

 some of his crosses between Rosa Wichuraiana and such Tea 

 Roses as Perle des Jardins and Madame Hoste which have a 

 fine Tea fragrance and evergreen habit. 



The Orchids were unusually good. The prize-winning collec- 

 tion of six plants in bloom was that of Mr. E. V. R. Thayer 

 (E. O. Orpet, gardener), which contained fine specimens of the 

 peculiar Anguloa Ruckeri, Cattleya Mendeli in a white form 

 with a tinted labellum, Miltonia vexillaria, Cattleya gigas, Cyp- 

 ripedium Curtisii and C. superciliare. Mr. J. E. Rothwell 

 showed a superb Oncidium papillio, Dendrobium Phalae- 

 nopsis, a splendid variety of L;elia grandis with bronze sepals 

 and petals and violet lip, and excellent specimens of Odonto- 

 glossum crispum, Cattleya Mossife and Cypripedium bella- 

 tulum. W. P. Winsor (Peter Murray, gardener) had also a 



