July 14, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



279 



of $12.00 and one of $10.00 for gardens stocked with native 

 wild flowers, such as Ferns, Grasses, Asters, Golden-rod, 

 native shrubs, economic plants, such as grains, vegetable 

 roots, leguminous and cucurbitaceous plants. What are 

 known as ornamental plants commonly cultivated in gar- 

 dens are not admitted into the school gardens for compe- 

 tition. In determining the prizes reliance is placed mainly 

 on the principals in charge. The names of the plants and the 

 uses actually made of them must be accurately described. — 

 Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



Mountain Climbing. Charles Scribner's Sons. New 

 York. 1897. 



In this torrid weather a table of contents, with chapters 

 on Mount Washington in Winter, Mount St. Elias and Its 

 Glaciers, A Thousand Miles Through the Alps, and The 

 Ascent of Mount Ararat, ought to have some refrigerating 

 influence. The illustrations show fields of everlasting 

 snow, with cliffs and peaks of ice, frost feathers every- 

 where, and fur-clad climbers who only seem to need 

 the exhilarating influence of a blizzard to make them 

 entirely happy. These illustrations, of which there are 

 something like a hundred, are, as a rule, unusually effec- 

 tive, although they differ very widely in character, and 

 range from those which show the delicacy, refinement and 

 finish of Mr. Jaccaci's touch to the mechanical but thor- 

 oughly good reproductions of photographs in which the 

 engraver's tool has turned the half-tone into a genuine 

 work of art. There are seven articles in all, written by 

 Edward L. Wilson, Edwin Lord Weeks, Mark Brickell Kerr, 

 William Williams, A. F. Jaccaci, H. F. B. Lynch and Sir 

 W. Martin Conway, and they have been gathered together 

 into this volume from the pages of Scribner's Magazine, 

 where they first appeared at different times. The essential 

 unity of the book is found in the spirit of the mountain 

 climber which pervades it, and this is one the world over, 

 from Ararat to St. Elias. There is the same joy of battle 

 with the forces of nature, the same exhilaration at conquer- 

 ing dangers which are by no means imaginary, the same 

 cheerfulness and good humor which is essential to success, 

 for, however querulous or pessimistic a mountain climber 

 may be elsewhere, when he is once above the clouds with 

 his life in his hands and toes he is the most genial of com- 

 rades, the most devoted and self-denying of friends. All 

 the chapters are well written, and one almost gets a surfeit 

 of panoramas of desolation, vast silences and solitudes of 

 ice, the yawning blackness of bottomless chasms, and 

 winds and storms which enjoy themselves in a wilder way 

 than they do anywhere within a mile of the sea-level. 

 Other travelers occasionally take pains to tell something of 

 the life of the regions they explore ; they make friends with 

 trees, shrubs and humbler plants, and with the animals, 

 birds and insects which they encounter ; but the mountain 

 climber scales his peak and sees little else but the moun- 

 tain and the broad features of the earth which are spread 

 out beneath his feet. This lack of scientific investigation, 

 however, can be forgiven, and, indeed, drudgery of this kind 

 seems too prosaic for these pilgrims possessed with an 

 absorbing passion. The stimulus of the mountain climber 

 is really a moral one, and anything so earth-born and 

 unimaginative as a longing for knowledge would seem to 

 be altogether too tame to make an effective appeal to his 

 adventurous spirit. Physical trials like those which face 

 the confirmed mountain climber can only be overcome 

 under such excitement as the soldier feels when going into 

 battle. Altogether, it is a pleasant book to pick up, and 

 one can hardly read a page without coming on some such 

 passage as this in Sir W. Martin Conway's chapter entitled 

 "A Thousand Miles Through the Alps" : 



The finest scenery in this part of our journey at the west 

 end of the famous Bernese Oberland was that of the glacier 

 of the great Dead Plain. We did not see it until we were on 

 its edge and the white expanse spread before us. It fills an 

 elliptical hollow some two miles long by a mile wide, and once 



on its smooth large surface the external world is shut out by 

 a ring of low mountain wall. Not a trace of human activity 

 can be seen in any direction. The largeness, simplicity and 

 seclusion of this strange snow-field make it unique. We 

 traversed its longest diameter, and the hard surface was beau- 

 tifully rippled and perfectly clean. 



Current Literature. 



An interesting monograph on the Peach industry in 

 Pennsylvania has been prepared by Professor Butz, and 

 published as Bulletin No. 2,7 of the Agricultural Experiment 

 Station of that state. The industry is only twenty-five 

 years old, and yet the area in Peach orchards in Pennsyl- 

 vania is estimated at 11,000 acres, or somethino- like 

 2,000,000 trees all told. Most of these are found in three 

 or four counties in one or another of what are known as the 

 Peach belts of the state. The largest of these sections is 

 the Juniata Peach belt, located principally in Juniata 

 County, but extending into Mifflin, Perry and Snyder coun- 

 ties, comprising together some 3,500 acres. The next 

 largest district is the South Mountain belt, lyino- within 

 Franklin County, but extending across Maryland to the 

 Potomac River. In both these belts the orchards are on 

 hills, the latter embracing the western slope of South Moun- 

 tain, where there are now planted some 400,000 trees, with 

 the prospect that the entire slope will soon be devoted to 

 this industry. There are single orchards that contain 

 from 6,000 to 8,000 trees, and one orchard contains at 

 least 10,000. 



The one hindrance to Peach growing in Pennsylvania 

 which cannot be entirely overcome by human foresight 

 and effort is the winter-killing of fruit-buds. It is not the 

 degree of temperature only which causes this destruction, 

 but several other obscure conditions, besides unripened 

 tissues and drought. A more or less complete failure of 

 fruit by winter-killing seems to happen at least once in 

 four years. While there are many insects which are 

 enemies to the Peach, the only one to be dreaded seriously 

 is the borer, and this can be controlled by careful examina- 

 tion in spring and fall, and when an attack is discovered 

 the offender is dug out with a knife. This is tedious work, 

 and it requires to be done by a trusty man, but the remedy 

 is sure. The mysterious disease known as the yellows is 

 working an increasing amount of damage. It is con- 

 tagious, and no one knows a remedy for it. Whenever a 

 tree shows symptoms of the malady, even if it is young 

 and strong, the trunk is blazed and the next winter it is cut 

 down and burned. If these things are attended to and the 

 ground is stirred every year from May to July inclusive, a 

 paying crop can be counted on. Fertilizing with potash 

 salts and phosphates, with Crimson Clover or some other 

 leguminous crop to gather nitrogen, has proved remunera- 

 tive, and, of course, the practice of thinning the fruit has 

 proved beneficial here as elsewhere, not only to the imme- 

 diate crop when quality and profit are considered, but also 

 in preserving the health and vigor of the trees. The prac- 

 tice of using smaller packages is growing, and the so-called 

 Michigan basket, with a handle, a raised lid and a capacity 

 of twenty pounds, is favorably spoken of. There are more 

 small families than large ones, and purchasers more fre- 

 quently want a peck or a half-peck than a bushel, and they 

 will therefore more readily buy a small package which they 

 can conveniently carry away than a larger one. 



Among the most profitable varieties which ripen in the 

 South Mountain belt from September 2 5th to October 17th are 

 the White Heath Cling, Sahvay, White Heath Freestone, 

 Bilyeu's October and Levy's Late. Varieties which prove 

 good on both high and low land are Crawford's Early, 

 Crawford's Late, Mountain Rose, Reeve's Favorite, Moore's 

 Favorite, Old Mixon Free, Stump, Chair's Choice, McAllis- 

 ter and Fox Seedling. Susquehanna is a variety which 

 originated with a Mr. Griffith in this state ; it is a large 

 yellow-fleshed, red-cheeked peach of superb quality and 

 ripens late in August. The tree is not a prolific bearer, how- 

 ever, and therefore it is not often planted for market. In 



