January 24, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



39 



This is an idea which I have long held. Many circumstances 

 seem to me to co-operate in this direction. These are : 



(1) The low figure at which even untouched virgin forest- 

 land can be bought in certain places ; (2) the steadily advancing 

 price of timber; (3) the diminishing rate of interest; (4) the 

 rise in the price of labor, which will be intensified by the re- 

 strictions placed upon immigration ; (5) the growing desire to 

 establish family property on a permanent basis. 



The increasing price of labor has already begun to make 

 agriculture difficult, and it will become more so, except on 

 virgin or exceedingly fertile soils. Forests require much less 

 labor. 



All these facts tend to make it not unlikely that proprietors 

 in some parts of the United States may, eventually, invest 

 their money in forest-land, with a view, under regular man- 

 agement, of getting a moderate annual income, of steadily 

 increasing the capital value of their estates and of eventually 

 getting a large annual income. It seems to me that the man 

 who first succeeds in setting the example in this respect, on a 

 sufficiently large scale, will be the leader in what is destined 

 to be a great movement. 



Bonn, Germany. 



Dietrich Brandis. 



Meetings of Societies. 

 The Nebraska State Horticultural Society. 



THE twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Nebraska State Hor- 

 ticultural Society was devoted almost entirely to a discus- 

 sion of the various phases of Apple-culture. In the opening 

 paper on the " Botany of the Apple-tree," by Dr. Charles E. 

 Bessey, it was stated that all of the varieties in cultivation, to 

 the number of 4,000 or 5,000, have been produced from Pyrus 

 sylvestris and the two botanical varieties of P. Malus. P. pru- 

 nifolia has produced the Transcendent and Hyslop Crabs, and 

 P. baccata, the older small Crab-apple of the garden. The 

 Soulard Crab is the offspring of the American species, P. 

 Iowensis. Some of the species of the genus are of value 

 only as ornamental trees, but several of them are even more 

 promising in the wild state than the wild forms from which our 

 common varieties have been derived. These offer a good field 

 for experiment in determining their future possibilities. P. riv- 

 ularis, of the Pacific coast, is especially promising in this re- 

 spect. The fruit is about one inch in diameter in its wild state 

 and possessed of a pleasant flavor. Although so widely dis- 

 tributed over the globe, no Apples are indigenous south 

 of the equator. 



Under the heading of the Tree in Health, attention was called 

 to the matter of evaporation from the leaves, and emphasis 

 laid on the fact that the escape of moisture from the leaf is 

 purely accidental, and not a physiological function, as so com- 

 monly taught. The skin of the leaf is designed to retain mois- 

 ture, just as the oiled-paper which a florist wraps around 

 plants retains their moisture. The stomata, or breathing-pores, 

 of the leaf are for the purpose of absorbing gases from the'air. 

 In doing this they allow the escape of moisture simply because 

 the leaf can't help it. 



Under the discussion of the Tree Diseased, the term disease 

 was used in a broad sense and made to include starvation and 

 other enfeebled conditions, as well as the effects of parasitic 

 fungi. A tree may be just as truly starved in a fertile soil 

 which is too hard for the roots to penetrate, or which is too 

 dry, as in a soil deficient in plant-food. Too wet a soil, where 

 the roots are submerged in water, may also induce starva- 

 tion. Besides unfavorable habitat, unfavorable atmos- 

 pheric conditions are also a cause of disease. For example, 

 the severe droughts of the plains often injure trees. The 

 exposed trunks may reach a dangerously high tempera- 

 ture in hot summer days. The extreme cold of winter is also 

 doubtless injurious in many cases. Quick alternations are 

 usually fatal. Sun-scald is probably due to this. Mechanical 

 injuries are a third cause. Wounds, whether made purposely 

 or otherwise, often afford means of access to bacteria and 

 fungi. Every wound is a serious menace to the life of a tree. 

 A tree may even perish from starvation, owing to a loss of 

 leaves from insect-attack. 



Parasitic fungi may cause : (1) Diseases of roots. The dis- 

 ease known as "root-rot," which is often quite serious in the 

 west, is probably due to some of the toadstool fungi. 



(2) Diseases of the trunk. One of the most serious of these 

 is " rotten heart," probably due to one of the ear-shaped 

 fungi found growing on the side of tree-trunks. This fact 

 is not fully demonstrated, but the injury corresponds to the 

 nature of that fungus, and it is known to cause just such in- 

 jury in other parts of the world. The speaker had also found 



threads which looked like those of this particular fungus. The 

 disease known as "black heart" was also mentioned with 

 the statement that the cause is wholly unknown. Sun-scald, 

 although so common, is not fully understood. 



(3) Diseases of branches and twigs. The most important 

 of these is blight, which affects all parts of the tree, including 

 trunk, twigs and flowers. 



(4) Diseases of leaves. These include powdery mildew, 

 scab, rust and brown spot, a disease known to be very destruc- 

 tive in Virginia. 



In a short paper on Apple-seedlings, D. U. Reed men- 

 tioned the importance of sowing the seed at a uniform depth, 

 since a seedling will grow only to a given height and then perish 

 if not above ground. He sows one inch deep, and prefers to 

 sow in February or March in this section, sowing the seed dry, 

 just as it comes from the seed-houses. If it is to be sown later it 

 should be first soaked, then dried enough to sow with a drill. 

 Especial emphasis was placed on the importance of frequent 

 surface-cultivation to hold and accumulate moisture. 



A paper on "Experimental Orcharding in Nebraska," by 

 Peter Youngers, Jr., showed forcibly the unprofitableness of 

 planting many varieties. Of sixty varieties planted nineteen 

 years ago the majority have failed, principally from blight. 

 He now keeps his experimental orchard away from his main 

 orchard in order to avoid spreading this disease. Forty Ben 

 Davis trees have averaged ten bushels per tree four times 

 since planting. He wouid not recommend over ten varieties 

 for general planting. These are Early Harvest, Duchess and 

 Cole's Quince for summer, Wealthy and Snow for fall, and Ben 

 Davis, Winesap, Grimes's Golden, Missouri Pippin and Janet 

 for winter. The Early Harvest does not bear young, but it is 

 hardy and improves with age. 



The subject of propagation was treated by G. J. Carpenter, 

 who recommended root-grafts with a two-inch piece of root 

 and a six-inch cion, planted seven inches deep, in order to 

 throw the tree on its own roots. Budded trees are objectiona- 

 ble on account of throwing up many sprouts ; they are not so 

 good as root-grafts in the west. Practically, no whole root- 

 grafts are used. Several years' experimenting has shown no 

 difference between collar-grafts, middle cuts and low cuts. The 

 past season, the best growth was from the lower cuts of No. 2 

 seedlings. Ben Davis, Gros Pomier and Whitney are admira- 

 ble stocks for this region. Gros Pomier, in regions where it 

 matures early, will hasten the maturity of the variety grafted 

 on it. 



On the subject of "Commercial Orcharding," President Ste- 

 phens stated that the key to success lay in cultivation. He be- 

 lieves that we have never secured all the possible advantage 

 of cultivation in conserving moisture. Tillage should be re- 

 peated every ten days at least from May 15th to August 15th. 

 Cultivation very nearly takes the place of irrigation in parts of 

 California. This is also true in Nebraska in nursery work, and 

 is no reason why it may not also hold true in fruit-growing. 

 In the discussion of this paper, the significant fact was 

 brought out that in collecting fruit for the Chicago Exhibition 

 it was only from those men who were giving thorough cultiva- 

 tion that any apples could be obtained. Some prefer to keep 

 cultivating as long as the weeds grow. Mr. Stephens has 

 gathered 1,000 bushels per acre several times. His practice is to 

 plant close, and thin out after the trees have borne several crops. 



Professor Sweezy, of Crete, presented an interesting paper 

 showing the relation between the apple crop and the rainfall 

 during a number of years past. His estimates of the apple 

 crop of various years were obtained from a number of growers. 

 Charts, with lines representing the abundance of a crop in the 

 different years, showed a very close resemblance to the lines 

 representing the annual rainfall of those years. If only the 

 total rainfall during the growing season, from May 1st to Sep- 

 tember 1st, is considered, the correlation is almost perfect. 

 While other causes must influence the crop to a certain extent, 

 the rainfall appears to be the most important factor in south- 

 eastern Nebraska. It demonstrates forcibly the necessity of 

 conserving all the moisture possible by thorough and per- 

 sistent cultivation. The statement is frequently made that the 

 rainfall of the state is increasing with the increase of cultiva- 

 tion and timber-planting, but the weather records do not show 

 this to be a fact. 



Mr. I. N. Leonard, of Lincoln, gave a report of progress on 

 an interesting method of tree-planting first suggested by him. 

 Much of the soil about Lincoln, and in some other parts of the 

 state, is underlaid with a hard pan of clay so dense that the 

 roots of trees will not penetrate it. Mr. Leonard's method is 

 to dig large holes four to six feet deep, or through this stratum 

 of clay, if possible, then to fill these holes with good surface- 

 soil, and there plant his trees. Thus far this method has given 



