348 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 497. 



than between other Plums— at least eighteen feet when mature 

 growth is reached by the trees. The curculio seems to be 

 quite as troublesome in these new Plums as on the older 

 ones, though we had hoped much from the thicker-skinned 

 fruit. But to have clear-skinned plums the curculio must be 

 fought in early summer, when it is doing its work. We lost 

 but few from the stings, but the fruit was disfigured. 



South Lancaster, Mass. -£"• 0. Orpet. 



Notes. 



The annual meeting of the West Virginia Horticultural 

 Society, Sheep-breeders and Wool-growers' Association, to- 

 gether with the State Board of Agriculture, will be held at 

 Martinsburg, West Virginia, from Oetober 12th to 15th. 



The best cucumbers in market now are those grown under 

 "•lass near Morganville, New Jersey, the heavy rains of the 

 past weeks having injured the field crops of this vegetable. 

 Choice cauliflower, from western New York, costs thirty 

 cents a head. Small yellow tomatoes, for preserving, and 

 immense yellow cucumbers, known in the trade as mustard 

 pickles, are early fall offerings, and new Brussels sprouts from 

 Long Island. 



The sales of western fruits this summer have been excep- 

 tionally large here, and those of last week surpassed all former 

 records. Altogether, 123 carloads from California, Oregon, 

 Washington and Utah were sold. Grapes, peaches, plums and 

 Bartlett pears comprised the bulk of these shipments, which 

 included the first Zoe.Forelleand Cornice pears of this season, 

 with considerable quantities of Seckel and Buerre Clairgeau 

 pears. Two carloads of Late Valencia oranges were a re- 

 markable item in the long list of California fruits. 



The California correspondent of the New York Tribune, in 

 a dispatch to that journal a few days ago, stated that the Big 

 Star Beet-sugar mill which will start.upnext January near Mar- 

 tinez will not only make sugar from beets, but will refine cane- 

 sugar from Hawaiian plantations that are not controlled by the 

 present monopoly. It is estimated that this year's crop, which 

 is outside the influence of the trust, amounts to 200,000 tons, 

 of which a large fraction will come to this factory. Stockton 

 is also to have a beet-sugar factory, the plant of which will 

 cost over $500,000. Its capacity will be 500 tons. The soil of 

 the rich San Joaquin Valley is specially adapted to sugar-beets, 

 and tests have shown that the saccharine percentage is very 

 large. 



Plants sometimes acquire a reputation for being difficult 

 subjects to grow or flower when they may only require some 

 slightly special treatment or even a particular location. Cattleya 

 Dowiana has a reputation for miffiness, but Mr. Gerard, who 

 recently sent some of its handsome flowers to this office, states 

 that it has bloomed regularly in August in his greenhouse with 

 no special care, except that it' is grown in a basket, and is re- 

 tained as far as possible in the same situation, a place where it 

 finds much pure air and a moderate amount of light. This 

 Cattleya is one of the most distinctly colored of the family, and 

 is a pleasing change from the ordinary purple kinds. The 

 very large flowers have petals and sepals of nankeen-yellow, 

 and the large lip is a rich dark crimson, finely veined with gold. 

 The petals and lip are both beautifully fringed. 



The local receipts of apples for last week amounted to 

 11,342 barrels. Duchess oi Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Maiden's 

 Blush, Codling, Pound Sweets, Orange, Holland and Twenty- 

 ounce Pippins were the principal sorts, with some specially 

 large and showy Alexanders. The best peaches now come 

 from western Maryland and from Missouri and Arkansas, 

 although the main dependence is, of course, on the large 

 supplies of more ordinary quality from Maryland and Dela- 

 ware. Concord, Niagara, Delaware, Wyoming, Worden, 

 Moore's Early and Champion grapes are all now in season and 

 come from the interior of this stale ; three-pound baskets sell 

 for fifteen to forty cents, according to the variety and quality. 

 Hot-house grapes, nectarines and figs, apricots from Arizona, 

 and large alligator pears are among the special offerings in 

 choice collections of fruit. 



Watermelons continue plentiful, and in this city an ordi- 

 nary day's business last week comprised twenty-one carloads 

 and 43,086 melons by steamer, besides wagonloads from 

 near-by farms. Jenny Lind and other varieties of musk- 

 melons are coming in large quantities from Maryland, Virginia 

 and New Jersey. Among the most notable offerings of fruits 

 now seen are some Montreal muskmelons. These are not 

 only of immense size, but superior flavor and quality, due in 



some measure to their quick growth in the longer days of the 

 brief Canada summer, and seeds of these famous melons fail 

 to give as large and as good fruits in this region. Six of these 

 melons, with the packing of hay, fill a box which would hold 

 two bushels and a half, and $2.00 each was the price asked on 

 Saturday in the fancy-fruit stores. An exceptionally large one 

 weighed twenty-four pounds, an average weight being from 

 fifteen to eighteen pounds. Some of the so-called banana 

 melons, from New Jersey, were seen in Washington Market 

 last week, where they were regarded mainly as a curiosity, 

 though a few found sale at twenty-five cents each. These 

 melons are from twelve to fifteen inches long and three to five 

 inches through, with greenish yellow and rather smooth skin, 

 and fine-grained flesh without distinctive or rich flavor. Seeds 

 of this melon were formerly offered in the catalogues, but no 

 mention has been made for several years, owing to lack of 

 demand for them. 



In a late number of The Cultivator and Country Gentleman, 

 Mr. W. C. Rockford, of Genesee County, Michigan, gives an 

 interesting account of his experience last year in husking some 

 3,000 bushels of corn by machine. The cost of husking by the 

 usual hand method is three to four cents a bushel in that sec- 

 tion, and a saving of labor and probably of money was antici- 

 pated, since husking and shredding was accomplished at one 

 operation. A powerful machine with steam motor was used, 

 and the husking was well done, though some of the kernels were 

 shelled in the process. But the shredding of the husks and stalks 

 for fodder was the main consideration in this experiment, and 

 while the stalks were crushed and flattened, they were not cut 

 as fine as in the ordinary cutting-box operated by horse- 

 power. The stalks were allowed to become thoroughly dry 

 before husking, and the crushed fodder was stored in small 

 stacks to prevent any possible souring. No trouble was 

 experienced in this respect, although several days of heavy 

 rains occurred at the completion of the work, and the stacks 

 shed water almost perfectly. In this first year's experience 

 with this machine an average of 400 bushels of very heavy corn 

 was husked a day, and the cost, including labor and boarding, 

 amounted to nearly five cents a bushel. Mr. Rockford's con- 

 clusion is that unless a machine can be had which shells the 

 kernels less than this one did, the machine method is not prac- 

 ticable when the corn is intended for sale. There is also less 

 waste of fodder when it is more finely cut by the old method, 

 though the machine-cut stalks in some parts of the country 

 are baled and sold in cities, where there is a growing demand 

 forsuch provender at prices which compare favorably with hay. 



At the annual meeting of the American Association of Eco- 

 nomic Entomologists held in Detroit, August 12th and 13th, 

 Dr. R. O. Howard, of the Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, District of Columbia, speaking of the effect of temper- 

 ature upon the hibernation of injurious insects, stated that in 

 experiments with such insects in cold storage a consecutive 

 cold temperature proved favorable to successful hibernation, 

 while a low temperature followed by a high one with a return 

 to a low one, almost always resulted in death to the insect. 

 The conclusion is that a steadily cold winter with a tempera- 

 ture even much below the average will usually be followed by 

 an abundance of insects, and that after a winter characterized 

 by alternate cold and warm spells, fewer individuals will 

 survive. Besides a brief account of the practical work done by 

 the Gypsy Moth Commission in Massachusetts, Professor H. 

 K. Kirkland, of the Board of Agriculture of that state, reported 

 that arsenate of lead seemed to be quite as effectual as Paris 

 green as an insecticide, with cheapness in its favor, since it 

 costs but seven cents a pound, whereas Paris green costs 

 twenty to twenty-five cents. Other interesting subjects con- 

 sidered were The Weights of Bees and the Loads they Carry, 

 in a paper by Professor C. P. Gillette, and The Lac and Wax 

 from Insects, on which subject Dr. Howard said that while in 

 some oriental countries industries of considerable importance 

 have resulted from the use of these secretions, no such use has 

 yet been made of them in this country, although several species 

 of the scale insects yielding these substances exist in the south- 

 western part of the United States and may prove to have com- 

 mercial value. For example, there is an almost unlimited 

 quantity of a bark-louse of this class found upon Oaks of sev- 

 eral species in California, and chemical investigations which 

 are now being made have already demonstrated that wax of 

 good quality may be dissolved from the insect mass by chlo- 

 roform, and that an insoluble residue is left which much 

 resembles rubber in its physical proportions. These chemical 

 investigations are being continued, with much interest, for the 

 supply of rubber is said to be decreasing, owing largely to 

 waste in gathering it. 



