388 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 501. 



College, has joined the staff of the Boston Park Department as 

 chief of the Planting Division. 



The first carload of California raisins for the season of 1897 

 was shipped from Fresno in that state on September 3d. 



The hops in this state and on the Pacific coast are now all 

 picked. Estimates of the yield in New York place the 

 crop at from fifteen to twenty-five per cent, smaller than that 

 of last year, and it is said the output in the western states will 

 hardly exceed 110,000 bales. These figures indicate a shortage 

 and higher prices than have recently prevailed. 



In the Middlesex Fells and Blue Hills reservations near Bos- 

 ton, foxes have of late become so abundant that the question 

 how to lessen their numbers has become a pressing one. 

 They already do much damage in destroying the grouse, quail 

 and other ground birds whicti inhabit the reservations, while 

 no natural enemies exist to prey upon them in their turn. 



Madame Gastellier, the earliest white Chrysanthemum, this 

 season proved to be the first among all colors in this section, 

 and flowers of this variety were sold here on September iStli. 

 During last week there were also in trade flowers of the 

 French variety, Marquis de Montmort, a pleasing pink re- 

 sembling Viviand Morel, and of the English variety, Lady Fitz 

 Wigram, a white sort. 



Mr. E. D. Sturtevant writes us from Los Angeles, California, 

 with reference to Dendromecon ngidum, that this plant, in Cali- 

 fornia, is considered one ot the finest native shrubs. The 

 flowers are of the brightest pure yellow color, about two inches 

 across and produced tor a long period. The foliage is a pecu- 

 liar grayish green, but the flowers are so beautiful that this 

 may well be overlooked. Unfortunately, it is difficult to trans- 

 plant, but it successfully moved it grows well in gardens there. 



Not only has the Missouri peach crop been remarkably large 

 this year, but all truits have been abundantly produced in ttiat 

 state, and are of excellent quality. In the six leading counties 

 in the Missouri fruit belt the acreage of bearing Peach- 

 trees is now five thousand acres. Apples, by reason of high 

 color, superior flavor and good shipping qualities, will com- 

 mand extra prices, and every variety ot apple has done well. 

 Missouri pears are selling as high as $4.00 a bushel. Colonel 

 J. R. Rippey, secretary ot the State Board of Agriculture, esti- 

 mates this season's fruit crop to be worth $25,000,000. More 

 orchards have been planted in Missouri during the past two 

 years than in any other state, and thousands ot acres are being 

 set in Grapes. 



Lima beans, from New Jersey, now sell at thirty cents a half- 

 peck, and peas and string-beans cost forty cents for the same 

 quantity. The best sugar corn commands fifty cents a dozen. 

 Choice heads of cauliflower, from Long Island, cost twenty- 

 five cents each, eggplants from ten to fifteen cents, and sweet 

 potatoes thirty cents a half-peck. The cooler weather of the 

 past ten days has stimulated the demand for celery, which is 

 coming from near Rochester, in this state, and from Long 

 Island and New Jersey. Cucumbers of uniform and desirable 

 size, from Shelter Island, sell for five cents each ; tiny cucum- 

 bers from near-by fields, for pickling, bring thirty cents a 

 hundred, and green tomatoes, used tor the same purpose, 

 forty cents a half-peck. Small okra costs forty cents a hun- 

 dred. Tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, kohl-rabi, squashes and 

 pumpkins are fairly plentiful, and radishes, carrots, turnips, 

 parsnips, beets, horse-radish, salsify and celeriac are among 

 the root crops now in season. 



Crisp Red Callahan apples, from New Jersey, and the soft 

 and more showy Alexanders, from Vermont, are choice table 

 fruits at this time. Siberian crab-apples sell at thirty-five 

 cents, retail, in ten-pound baskets, in New York markets, and 

 large smooth quinces, from near-by gardens, cost $2.00 a 

 hundred. Although berries are no longer offered, a bewilder- 

 ing variety of truits is still shown. On one stand in Washington 

 Market are watermelons and muskmelons in plentiful supply 

 at summer prices ; large Japanese persimmons, from Florida ; 

 immense white Rareripe peaches, from New Jersey ; nec- 

 tarines, from California ; fresh figs, from Virginia, in quart 

 boxes, at twenty-five cents ; Almeria grapes, from Spain, a 

 portion of the first importation of this season ; choice Black 

 Morocco grapes, from California, nearly as large as plums, 

 seven pounds costing sixty cents, besides Flame Tokays and 

 other varieties from California, and Concord, Delaware and 

 Niagara grapes, from Lake Keuka ; Seckel, Bartlett and 

 Cornice pears ; Green Gages, Reine Claude and Damson 

 plums, from this state ; Hungarian and Italian prunes, from 

 Idaho, and Silver and Kelsey plums, from California ; new 

 grape-fruit from the Bahamas, and oranges from California 

 and Italy. To this partial list of seasonable fruits must be 



added chestnuts, the first shipments of which reached this city 

 on September 23d from Ridgeiy, Maryland, and from culti- 

 vated groves in New Jersey. These large and handsome nuts 

 sell for thirty cents a pound. Of course, lemons, bananas and 

 pineapples are offered here, and cocoanuts. Of this latter fruit 

 no fewer than 421,000 were received at this port last week. 



A recreation pier, the second now established in this city, 

 was opened to the public on last Saturday, and contracts for 

 building three more are about to be let by the Board of Dock 

 Commissioners. The first pier, at the foot of Third Street, on 

 the East River, has been in use since early in July, and during 

 the summer has been visited each day by from 1,500 to 6,000 

 persons. The new pier at Twenty-fourth Street extends 720 

 feet into the East River, and on its two floors can accommo- 

 date 14,000 persons. Music is provided every evening of the 

 week, and it is worth going a long way to see the enjoyment 

 of the residents of these crowded sections of the city in their 

 use of these spacious gathering places. Seats are provided 

 along each side. Promenading and singing the choruses to 

 the airs played by a brass band are the main pastimes, while 

 vociferous calls for encores of specially popular songs seem to 

 give no small satisfaction to otherwise orderly boys. Toothers 

 the water view and the shores outlined with electric street 

 lights and the colored lights on ferryboats and steamships are 

 the greater delight. Dancing proved objectionable after a 

 short trial, in bringing together a disorderly class of people, 

 and is not now permitted. In addition to officers of the Dock 

 Department, matrons, in neat uniform, are in attendance. It 

 is the intention of the Dock Commissioners, if they can get the 

 necessary authority, to inclose the pier in glass and have it 

 properly heated, so that it can be used all the year through 

 instead of during the warm months only. The Park Board 

 now has under consideration a proposition to stock the pier 

 with flowers and plants, and the Board of Education will be 

 asked to provide a courseof tree lectures for the winter months. 



Farmers' Bulletin No. 58, just published by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, contains information about the 

 Soy Bean, Glycine hispida, which is of practical interest to 

 agriculturists. This Bean, of which there are some sixty varie- 

 ties, is a native ot south-eastern Asia, and has been cultivated 

 in Japan and China for many centuries. Professor Georgeson, 

 of the Kansas Agricultural College, made some experiments 

 with the Soy Bean as long ago as 1891 (see Garden and For- 

 est, vol. v., page 60), and in more recent tests carried on at 

 several of the Experiment Stations its great value as a crop in 

 this country has been clearly proved. In Europe, where suc- 

 cessful experiments were made in 1875 an d succeeding years, 

 it has as yet tailed to become a staple crop. The plant is an 

 erect annual, with branching, hairy stems, trifoliate, more or 

 less hairy leaves, rather inconspicuous pale lilac or violet col- 

 ored flowers, and broad, two to five seeded pods, covered with 

 stiff reddish hairs. The seeds vary in color from whitish and 

 yellowish to green, brown and black, and in shape from spheri- 

 cal to elliptical and more or less compressed. Under favorable 

 conditions the plant may reach a height of four feet or more. 

 In the extensive series of experiments carried on by Professor 

 Haberlandt in Austro-Hungary, the plants each bore about 

 200 pods and 450 seeds, and though this is probably consider- 

 ably above the average it shows this Bean to be remarkably 

 prolific. The flowers are self-pollinated, so that the yield is 

 entirely independent of insects, and this fact renders the Soy 

 Bean free from an important obstacle in the way of the intro- 

 duction of many legumes into new regions. A crop of seed 

 is insured wherever conditions are such as to allow the plants 

 to make proper vegetative growth and reach maturity. This 

 useful bulletin includes a description of some of the best varie- 

 ties, the conditions of growth, methods of culture, and chap- 

 ters on the time for harvesting, amount of forage yielded, the 

 chemical composition of the various parts used for feeding 

 purposes, its digestibility, its value and uses as a soiling crop, 

 a silage crop, a hay crop and as a pasture plant and soil renewer. 

 In the latter connection it is stated that the Soy Bean is highly 

 valued in Japan as a nitrogen gatherer, and is extensively 

 grown there in rotation with cereal crops. When first intro- 

 duced into the United States this plant did not form root tuber- 

 cles, owing to the absence of the tubercle organism in the soil, 

 and it has been grown for several years in some localities 

 without the appearance of any tubercles. In other cases they 

 have developed in great abundance after a short time, and an 

 illustration of the roots of a plant grown at the Massachusetts 

 Experiment Station show them produced in great numbers. 

 The purpose of the bulletin is to shows the value ot the Soy Bean 

 as a forage crop, and an appendix is added by Dr. C. F. Lang- 

 worthy, explaining its value as food for man. 



