3io 



Garden and Forest, 



[Number 493. 



We do not know that any persistent efforts have been made in 

 this direction, but every year confirms our original belief as 

 to its value. The shrub almost invariably yields a full crop 

 early in July in this latitude, and its mild acid flavor is agree- 

 able to aimost every one. Indeed, many persons prefer it to 

 the currant. 



Among the choicest grapes from eastern states now seen 

 are Delawares, and Niagaras from North Carolina ; Champion, 

 Ives and Moore's Early also come in southern shipments. 

 Apricots in five-pound baskets are coming from the interior of 

 this state, and Chelsea plums, in eight-pound packages, from 

 North Carolina. Le Conte, Keiffer, Bell and Catherine are 

 among the pears received trom neighboring states. Water- 

 melons, from Virginia and the Carolinas, and muskmelons, 

 from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, are plentiful. 



The current number of Science contains an article by Pro- 

 fessor Bradley M. Davis describing types of plant-life in the 

 hot springs ot Yellowstone Park, and explaining in an interest- 

 ing way how this minute vegetation helps to build up the 

 deposits of various crystals. Not only do these algffi aid in 

 forming rocks, but the most beautiful sculpturing and coloring 

 of the Mammoth Hot Springs, the peculiarities of the columns 

 and moldings and the capitals, as well as the rich browns, 

 olives, oranges and greens with which they are painted, are all 

 directly due to the presence of these plants. 



Lilium Henryi, which was discovered a few years ago by 

 Dr. Henry in China, has been called the orange Speciosum, 

 but really the Chinese Lily is a nobler plant, much more 

 graceful, and only resembles L. speciosum in the form ot its 

 flower. Mr. A. Herrington has sent to this office a spike from 

 Mr. Twombley's place in Madison, which is five feet high, 

 although it is from a bulb planted last autumn. The stalk is 

 covered with leaves throughout its entire length, and the 

 poise of the flowers at the ends of their long slender stems 

 gives the plant a most elegant and distinguished air. 



The leading cut flowers on the street stands now are China 

 asters and gladioli, since sweet peas have passed their prime 

 and are rather short-stemmed. Coreopsis continues to furnish 

 good flowers, as it has done all the summer through, being 

 really one of the very best of plants for the production ot 

 yellow flowers. Tuberoses, once the most popular of street 

 flowers, is again occasionally seen, and seems to be growing 

 in popularity on the east side of the town. Of course, there 

 are always carnations and mignonette, but at no other season 

 do the stands of the sidewalk venders show so little variety as 

 they now do. 



Seventy-six carloads of California fruits received here last 

 week included one car of selected Valencia oranges, an unus- 

 ually late shipment of this fruit. Nectarines are among the 

 scarcer fruits from the west. Bartlett, Souvenir du Congres, 

 Beurre Clairgeau, Duchess and Clapp's Favorites comprise 

 the pears in season, and the first Flame Tokay, Chasselas de 

 Fontainebleau or Sweetwater, White Muscat of Alexandria and 

 Thompson Seedling grapes are now offered. Bartlett pears 

 are especially good this year, and 21,300 boxes of this fruit 

 were sold here last week, with 17,000 boxes of peaches and 

 19,700 crates of plums. 



The food markets of the foreign colonies have a unique 

 interest among the more uncommon phases of life in Ameri- 

 can cities. In our own city, on turning into the foot of 

 Mulberry Street, off the Bowery, a complete change of scene 

 is at once realized, especially on Saturday morning. Except 

 from children on the streets or in the popular little Mulberry 

 Bend park, no English word is heard, and besides now and 

 then a Chinese laundryman bent on buying some bunch 

 onions at a close bargain, Italians only are seen. Even the 

 experienced New York produce dealer would here find new 

 and strange vegetables, not to speak of bread and cheese and 

 meat in surprising shapes and sizes and colors. At this season 

 popular favor of the buyers seems to rest with greens for 

 salads, onions, sweet peppers, tomatoes, the unfamiliar fruits 

 of many cucurbitaceous plants and string-beans in the order 

 named. There are strap-leaved lettuces, true chicory leaves 

 tied in bunches, not the endive which is usually sold here 

 under that name, enormous leaves of Swiss chards, bunches 

 of celery tops and of strong plants of dandelion with coarse leaves 

 more than a foot long, tender young plants of aromatic fennel 

 with finely dissected leaves, fresh Bee Balm, creeping thyme, 

 marjoram, hyssop and many other unidentified plants of the 

 Mint family. Stems of our common Mallow, with their leaves 

 and cheeses, are recommended by the venders for infantile 

 stomach pains. Among odd forms of the cabbage family are 



stalks of cauliflower fifteen inches long, and sold for eight cents 

 a bunch. The crinkled Savoy cabbage is much in evidence, 

 and small heads of ordinary varieties of cabbage are measured 

 by the quart and sold for five cents. Inferior quality is most 

 apparent in stale eggplants, and especially in tomatoes, many 

 of which are unfit for food. Tomatoes show the effect of the 

 recent wet and sunless days perhaps more than any other 

 vegetable, and the better grades now in our markets at fifteen 

 cents a pound are of comparatively poor flavor and color, so 

 that some idea can be had of the kind sold on Mulberry 

 Street for two cents a pound, and these are not the poorest 

 seen there. The economy practiced with potatoes, which are 

 generally very small, is more reasonable, and three cents a 

 quart is the prevailing price — less than half that asked for 

 larger ones in better markets. On the other hand, large size 

 counts with peppers, and immense ones sell at the rate of two 

 for three cents. The stock is offered from push trays along the 

 curbs and counters on the sidewalk along the house fronts, 

 while there are occasional shops with medleys of garlic, dried 

 leaves and herbs for flavoring, dried peas, lentils, and beans 

 of many sizes and colors, some large brown ones being 

 parched and encrusted with salt. Olives, black and green, 

 and prunes and capers in oil are exposed in tubs, and an 

 unhusked grain, some form of millet from Italy, is shown in 

 barrel lots, at ten cents a quart. Watermelons, whole and in 

 sections, are almost the only fruit offered here. Many of the 

 staple vegetables come trom the wholesale markets, while the 

 salad greens and gourds are grown by the venders and by other 

 Italian farmers in New Jersey. 



Very interesting is a little bulletin of a dozen pages issued by 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station at Berkeley, California, 

 and giving an account ot the researches of C. W. Woodworth 

 in relation to the vine hopper. The vineyards of that state 

 are injured in the first place by the mysterious Anaheim 

 disease, which has so far baffled all investigation and destroys 

 vineyard after vineyard, with nothing to arrest its progress. 

 Then come phylloxera and the mildew, for both of which there 

 are remedies which at least hold these ravages in check. 

 Lastly is the vine hopper, which is not so serious in itself, but 

 against which all remedies formerly used have proved un- 

 availing. It seems that the life-history of this insect has hith- 

 erto not been understood. A great deal of time and money 

 has been spent every year in attempts to destroy the eggs in 

 winter, when, in fact, the insect does not pass the winter as an 

 egg. Much trouble has been taken also to kill the insect in the 

 soil, but it does not pass the winter in the ground. The vines 

 have been sprayed in winter under the supposition that the 

 bark is full of eggs, or that the insect is hiding beneath it, but 

 the insect does not pass the winter on the vine. Neither does 

 it pass the winter in fallen leaves, so that the money spent in 

 destroying these leaves has been wasted. The fact is, that 

 during the winter the perfect insects are feeding on all sorts of 

 green plants, but they only take food enough to meet their 

 present needs, so that their ravages are not noticed. It is in 

 the spring when they begin to grow, and food is needed to 

 produce their eggs, that the young Vine-leaves find them 

 waiting. Spraying the leaves with poison is of no avail, for 

 they suck the juices from the inside of the leaf with their 

 probosces. They are small insects, it is true, and they take 

 but little. But in the drier parts of the year they stop the 

 growth of the leaves and kill them. There is no occasion here 

 to give any further sketch of the history of the insect nor to 

 quote the various remedies which have been used, together 

 with the reasons why they have been ineffectual. Suffice it to 

 say that in the spring-time jarring, as we treat Plum-trees in 

 the east, is useful. A so-called hopper dozer is a contrivance 

 similar to fly-paper, against which the insects are made to leap 

 and stick fast, and this is also to a certain extent effective. 

 Better still is a palm-leaf fan and a can of the sticking mixture 

 large enough to dip it into. Skillful men working in pairs can 

 do great execution. And finally a common conical bag-net 

 attached to a handle is often found effective early in the morn- 

 ing all summer long. It is useless to try to exterminate this 

 pest. The treatment recommended is based on the fact that a 

 considerable number of hoppers do little injury to the crop. 

 The problem is how to reduce their numbers below the 

 danger-point. Whenever the Vine grower finds that these 

 pests are appearing in dangerous numbers, if he sets his nets 

 going at once he can probably destroy enough to save his crop 

 at a cost of from fifteen to twenty cents an acre. If the Vine 

 grower can develop a judgment which can be trusted as to 

 when the insects are appearing in dangerous numbers, the net 

 and the palm-leaf fan are the most promising means of defense 

 against their ravages. 



