40 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 309. 



him trees free from blight and sun-scald, but the experiment 

 has only been in progress about two years. He now finds that 

 in a field of four acres, in which 150 of these holes have been 

 dug, the underlying clay is very much softened, so that holes 

 can be dug much more easily than formerly. This he con- 

 siders to be due to the action of the water which has thus been 

 allowed to permeate through and beneath this hard stratum. 



Notes. 



Although Nebraska stands the lowest among the prairie 

 states in the proportion of woodland to farmland, yet the for- 

 estry exhibit at Chicago last year demonstrated the capacity of 

 the state for growing timber. The largest specimens of White 

 Elm, Hackberry, White Cottonwood, White Maple, Box Alder 

 and planted Catalpa were shown by this state, and larger speci- 

 mens of planted timber-trees than those from any other state. 



Colonel Philo Hersey, at a recent convention of California 

 fruit-growers in San Francisco, stated that enough Prune-trees 

 are now planted in that state to produce, after a few years, 

 100,000,000 pounds of cured prunes annually. An immediate 

 question in relation to prunes is, whether they shall be graded 

 according to size alone, or as is largely the practice in the 

 Santa Clara valley, according to their saccharine contents. 

 The richest prunes, from lack of irrigation and other causes, 

 are often smaller than the insipid fruit grown on wet lands, or 

 under other conditions favoringsize at the expense of quality. 



The Rural New Yorker has gathered a number of opinions 

 concerning the Horticultural Lima Bean from various sources, 

 and the testimony seems to be that it is earlier than other Pole 

 Beans ; that it is hardy and productive. It can be used as a 

 snap bean, but it is neither as good nor as early as some of the 

 bush varieties for this purpose, but as a green shell-bean it is 

 of excellent quality, although it has the fault of a dark disa- 

 greeable color when cooked. The Bean originated with Mr. 

 J. H. Hodges, of Vermont, in 1885, and it is supposed to be a 

 cross between the Challenge Lima and the old Horticultural 

 Pole Bean. 



The January number of the Bo tanical Magazine, which be- 

 gins the one hundred and twentieth volume of this work, con- 

 tains a figure (t. 7335) of the north China Prunus humilis, which 

 was first described as long ago as 1733 by a French missionary 

 in China, Dominicus Parennin, under the name of Oolana, the 

 Mongolian and Manchurian name of this plant. Prunus hu- 

 milis is an old inhabitant of the Arnold Arboretum, having 

 been first raised there from seed sent from Pekin by Dr. Bret- 

 schneider. Sir Joseph Hooker retains Bunge's name of Pru- 

 nus humilis, while pointing out the fact that it had been 

 changed by Walpers to Prunus Bungeion account of an earlier 

 Cerasus humilis, a native of Sardinia, and now thought to be 

 a variety of Prunus prostrata. Prunus humilis, or Bungei, is a 

 dwarf and exceedingly hardy shrub that blooms profusely 

 every spring and bears abundant crops of bright red fruit, 

 rather less than half an inch in diameter. 



Since it has been found out that the peculiar muck-soil of 

 certain swamp-lands is especially adapted to the cultivation of 

 Celery, an increased acreage of such land is devoted every 

 year to raising that vegetable for market, and in some places, 

 especially in Michigan, its cultivation has become a very large 

 industry. When this plant was first introduced, and raised 

 only here and there, few insects attacked it, but many of our 

 native insects have acquired a liking for it, so that the species 

 which attack Celery have rapidly increased in number and in 

 the severity of their attacks. Bulletin 102 of the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station of Michigan, which is devoted to these in- 

 sects, will, therefore, be especially welcome to all commercial 

 growers as well as the owners of private gardens. A very 

 complete history of the various insects which have been found 

 to injure Celery, together with the most available methods of 

 preventing their ravages, are here set forth in about thirty 

 pages of carefully illustrated text. 



The season's shipments of raisins from California up to 

 the 1st of January amounted to the enormous total of 

 64,000,000 pounds, which, estimated on the basis of 20.000 

 pounds to a car, would show that 1,000 more car-loads were 

 shipped last year than the year before, when the crop required 

 2,200 cars for removal. It is estimated that from 350 to 400 

 car-loads of raisins yet remain on the Pacific coast, where they 

 are held for higher prices. The hopes of an increase of price 

 are stimulated by the fact that there are very small supplies 

 of foreign raisins now in the hands of importers here, and 



they will hardly be imported in quantity at present prices. It 

 may be added here that while the California Fruit Union re- 

 ports a large increase of shipments of all kinds of fruit from 

 California last year, the receipts were not so large as they were 

 the year before. To show the great cost of handling fruit, it is 

 stated that on sales amounting to $2,046,404 the expenses for 

 freight, refrigerator service and commission were $1,127,497. 



In December last (see Garden and Forest, vol. vi., p. 516) 

 we gave an account of some experiments by Professor Lazenby 

 at the Ohio State University, setting forth the advantages of 

 applying water under the surface of the soil in forcing-houses 

 and hot-beds, and of using a similar system of irrigation and 

 drainage combined for the outdoor garden. Experiments in 

 the same direction have been made in the West Virginia Agri- 

 cultural Station, and the result is recorded in Bulletin No. 33. 

 The practical conclusions are that, with good judgment on the 

 part of the operator, sub-irrigation will be found preferable to 

 watering on the surface. Some points gained by this system 

 are that the soil does not become hardened on the surface, 

 nor does it bake and dry out on the bottom ; time and labor 

 are both saved, less water is needed, and the soil can be 

 worked at any time ; good drainage is secured, and the soil is 

 free to admit air, and therefore does not become sour or stag- 

 nant. In the West Virginia experiments Spinach matured 

 earlier ; Lettuce, Radishes, Tomatoes and Parsley were bene- 

 fited ; the plants attained more even size, and fungus diseases 

 were not so prevalent. 



Mr. Edwin Molyneux has published his annual analysis of 

 the relative positions of the varieties of Chrysanthemums 

 grown for exhibition in England, and it appears in the current 

 issue of the Journal of Horticulture, the flowers being ranked 

 according to the number of times they were shown at the exhi- 

 bitions of the National Chrysanthemum Society for the last 

 nine years. The first fact prominently brought out is that the 

 Japanese varieties have grown much more rapidly in favor 

 with exhibitors than have the incurved sorts. Of this lat- 

 ter class the old favorites still lead the list. The Empress of 

 India is still number one, followed by the Queen of England, 

 Lord Alcester, Golden Empress of India, with Madame Darier 

 for the fifth, a variety which was not sent out until 1890. This 

 new variety was shown oftener last year than any other of the 

 incurved kinds, except Jeanne d'Arc, which stands sixth on the 

 list, and is followed by the Golden Queen of England, Princess 

 of Wales, Mrs. Violet Tomlin, Miss M. A. Haggas, Lord Wolse- 

 ley and Alfred Salter. Old favorites in the Japanese section 

 are more rare, and they seem to be more rapidly replaced by 

 the newer kinds. The leading variety in this class is Viviand 

 Morel, which was introduced as late as 1891, and was the sen- 

 sational flower at the exhibition in the next year. The list con- 

 tinues in the following order : Edwin Molyneux, Avalanche, 

 Sunflower, Etoile de Lyon, Florence Davis, William Tricker, 

 Colonel W. B. Smith, W. H. Lincoln, Gloire du Rocher, Mon- 

 sieur Bernard and Stanstead White. 



The importations of bananas during December were un- 

 usually large, and this fruit then sold on the dock as low as 

 twenty cents a bunch for No. 3 size. Only eight steamer-loads 

 arrived during the first three weeks of this month, and with 

 the market clear of old stock, bunches of the first grade sold 

 as high as $1.22 at the vessel's side, No. 3 bringing from forty 

 to sixty cents a bunch. During the early part of January 

 oranges were leaving Florida at the rate of 35,000 boxes a 

 day, as many as 98,000 boxes coming to this city in one week. 

 Prices have been so low as to net the growers only fifty 

 cents a box. Desirable sizes of good Florida oranges are $1.50 

 to $1.75 a box at wholesale, and the best Navel oranges are but 

 $3.00. The first California oranges of this season reached 

 New York last Friday. Bright Riverside Navel fruit of good 

 quality is offered at wholesale at the same price as Florida 

 oranges of the same grade. A number of car-loads of California 

 oranges are in transit, so that this fruit will soon be fairly on 

 the market. Among vegetables, lettuce of ordinary quality 

 hardly brings enough to pay expenses, while the finest from 

 Florida and Charleston is worth $2.00 a basket, and the best 

 Boston hot-house lettuce is seventy-five cents a dozen heads. 

 Cauliflower from California, chicory from New Orleans, new 

 beets from Florida and Bermuda, green peas, string beans and 

 egg-plants from Florida, cucumbers from Key West, tomatoes 

 from Havana and Florida, and kale, spinach and radishes from 

 Norfolk are among the common offerings in the midwinter 

 market of this city. A few strawberries, from California, of 

 not the best quality, were seen here during the holidays, and 

 within a few days past the first pickings of the new crop in 

 Florida were sold here at $2.50 a quart. 



