3?8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 500. 



like the picture of an Hepatica, do not give a true idea of 

 the plant. His drawings of birds lack character and deli- 

 cacy ; and the many landscape views are far below the 

 average to which the eye of the public has grown accus- 

 tomed in the pages of our illustrated magazines. 



Notes. 



Miss Maria Audubon is translating from the French for 

 publication the hitherto unpublished journals of her distin- 

 guished grandfather. 



Among seasonable vegetables are cranberry-beans, the large 

 rose-colored pods enclosing fleshy white beans splashed with 

 pink. These sell for forty cents a half-peck. Tomatoes of 

 perfect form and color and of high quality with respect to 

 texture and flavor, are coming from the vicinity of Chicago. 

 These are the choicest offering of this vegetable in the New 

 York markets now, and bring fifteen cents a quart. 



Limes from the West Indies are among select fruits now in 

 season, and occasionally a bunch of red bananas is seen ; the 

 latter cost sixty cents a dozen, a price considerably in advance 

 of that asked for the best yellow bananas. Owing to the effect 

 of the war in Cuba on trade with that island none of this red 

 fruit has been seen in our markets during the past year, and 

 a cargo of many thousand bunches of yellow bananas from 

 ports in Central America may include only one or two bunches 

 of the red fruit. Among other imported fruits are Alligator 

 pears, from Venezuela ; these sell for twenty-five cents each. 

 The large, smooth, oval fruits known as Spanish melons in the 

 trade and which come from Italy, find a limited demand at 

 fifty cents apiece. 



In an account of the present condition of the artificial silk 

 industry in the Revue Industrielle it is stated that patents have 

 quite recently been taken out by Dr. Lehner, of Switzerland, 

 for the manufacture of an artificial silk made with wood-cellu- 

 lose, or, more simply, with sawdust. This product is, how- 

 ever, highly inflammable and more costly than real silk, so 

 that there is opportunity for improvement in the new industry 

 in the way of economy and safety. Among other substitutes 

 for genuine silk is mentioned a cotton fibre treated so as to 

 have the lustre of silk by a process patented by Monsieur 

 Oswald Seyfert. This Seyfert cotton is said to be on the mar- 

 ket in competition with other artificial silks, and at a fairly 

 reasonable price. 



Hardy Bamboos are beautiful in the Royal Gardens at Kew 

 at this time, and every year seems to reveal new attractions in 

 habit, sheath, curve of culm, etc. In writing of these Bam- 

 boos, Mr. Watson says they do not flower, or if they do so 

 much the worse for them, but they have variety enough to be 

 of perennial interest without flowers. They have to be watched 

 to prevent their outrunning the space allotted to them, but in 

 almost every one of the numerous species grown at Kew 

 there is a vigor and persistency of growth shown which sug- 

 gests much usefulness in the large garden and park, particu- 

 larly in the neighborhood of water. They are not known yet, 

 and those who know least about them are apt to decry their 

 merits. But they are essentially plants for general use. Two 

 new species have lately been added by Mr. Freeman-Mitford, 

 namely, Arundinaria metallica, which is intermediate between 

 A. Veitchii and A. humilis, and Phyllostachys f ulva, a near ally 

 of P. nigra. These are both from Japan. 



In a recent article in which reference is made to the influ- 

 ence of forests on farming, the Boston Transcript says that 

 soil, moisture and heat are the three servants of the farmer. 

 The soil he can regulate by culture and fertilizers, but moisture 

 and heat seem out of his control. These are not out of the 

 control of the woods, however, and the farmer by judicious 

 management of his tree-lot can bend them to his ends. He 

 can prevent or temper the effects of atmospheric changes, he 

 can avoid the disasters of excessive rainfall, and he can manage 

 the water to his own benefit. It is explained that the snows of 

 winter are conserved by the shade of the trees and do not rush 

 away at the earliest moment of sunshine to swell the spring 

 freshets ; the loose soil of the woods, not hardened by the 

 impact of the raindrops, holds the water and lets it percolate 

 to the springs below; the tree-covered area catches more of 

 the snow, and the shaded surface does not give up its moisture 

 in evaporation ; there is more water there and means are 

 present to prevent its waste so that the subsoil distribution is 

 better and stronger, and it is the subsoil waters that are the 

 farmer's standby in case of need. 



The first Japanese persimmons of this season, from Florida, 

 are now seen in choice collections of fruit, and cost fifty cents 

 a dozen. Grape-fruits are another novelty just received from 

 the same state, and sell for $2.00 a dozen. Bartlett pears of the 

 largest size are showy yet, although their rich yellow color 

 lacks the bright marking of the smaller fruits seen earlier in 

 the season. These sell for from sixty to seventy-five cents a 

 dozen in the fancy-fruit stores, together with selected speci- 

 mens of Duchesse d'Angouleme. Seckel pears, from the Hudson 

 River district, are in demand for their rich, spicy flavor, and 

 the best cost twenty cents a dozen. Even the most ordinary 

 fruits are arranged with taste and displayed to the best advan- 

 tage, and three-pound baskets of Concord grapes are made up 

 of short sections of the vine with two or three bunches of the 

 fruit attached. Crawford peaches of immense size are seen in 

 the best markets, which have been cut from the tree with 

 a bit of the branch and a leaf or two, and a basket holding 

 twenty-four of these handsome fruits sells for $1.25. The first 

 Cornichon grapes, from California, sell for fifty cents in five- 

 pound packages. It is surprising to see huckleberries shown 

 so late in autumn, and after cranberries are regularly in season. 



Stockbridge, Massachusetts, claims to have been the pio- 

 neer in the organization of the Village Improvement Societies 

 now existing in many states, and the work of the Stockbridge 

 Society, which is called the Laurel Hill Association, has steadily 

 broadened out. It now has district committees to care for the 

 different sections of the town, and also special committees 

 charged with the supervision and improvement of parks, 

 squares, street sprinkling, street lights, the removal of snow, 

 the care of cemeteries and other special matters. One of its 

 members has recently suggested a combination between all 

 similar societies in Berkshire County, or, if possible, in a still 

 wider area, to work for rural improvements and for the pres- 

 ervation for public enjoyment of places of great natural beauty 

 or historic interest. Of course, efforts toward the latter end 

 have already been made in many localities, but the combination 

 of small local bodies would further this good movement and 

 awaken popular interest in it. Such cooperation would tend 

 to effect, along deserted farm fronts in the country, tree-plant- 

 ing, weed-cutting and the making and preserving of openings 

 through brush or trees for a passing sight of beautiful scenery. 

 As has been said by one of the members, it would mean good 

 roads everywhere, tidiness in the villages, the doing away with 

 flaming circus posters and patent medicine advertisements. 

 After a time no farmer would build his unsightly barns across 

 the road from his house, or put his cattle-shed between his 

 windows and a beautiful landscape. Ugliness and neglect 

 would be looked after between the towns, a common recrea- 

 tion-ground would be established and a reservation of the most 

 wild and beautiful spots would be effected. 



Concerning local adaptability of varieties to certain soils and 

 climatic conditions, T. V. Munson, in a recent number of The 

 Rural Neva -Yorker, states that adaptability or non-adaptability 

 applies more to the species than to cultivated varieties. As an 

 example Mr. Munson cites the fact that not one or a few varie- 

 ties of the Muscadine species of Grapes, but all the vines of 

 this species, succeed well in good soils in the south, but never 

 in the north. All Mustang Grapes do well in almost all soils 

 and situations in the dry soutii-west, but fail entirely in the 

 cold, damp north-east ; no other species is so generally suc- 

 cessful in Texas. But on all upland, sandy soils, known as 

 Post-Oak lands, the Post-Oak Grape, Vitis Lincecumii, suc- 

 ceeds perfectly if in well-drained soil, but fails in seepy 

 and bottom lands. Vinifera varieties almost always suffer in all 

 the southern states east of the one-hundredth meridian with 

 mildew and rot in foliage and fruit, as well as with phylloxera 

 at the roots, showing clearly that the species is a native of very 

 arid regions, where these diseases do not exist, and agreeing 

 with the accredited habitat of the species as being in the arid 

 regions of Persia and other central southern Asiatic regions. 

 The native Grapes of Arizona invariably suffer severely from 

 mildew and rot when moved into the Mississippi valley. In 

 black, waxy, very limy lands in Texas the Labrusca class of 

 Grapes almost always fail, and do poorly anywhere in the in- 

 terior south-west ; their inability to endure appears to be in 

 their having masses of fine surface roots, and no ability to 

 push deeply into the soil, as do the southern species. In New 

 York varieties of no other species succeed better than those of 

 Labrusca. Examples of local adaptability are given also of 

 other fruits and of vegetables and trees, and it has been Mr. 

 Munson 's experience that if species which do best in a pecu- 

 liar soil and climate are taken to a different locality and new 

 varieties are grown there, these new varieties will do better in 

 the climate and soil where their parents came from. 



