6o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 311. 



corroborated by the experience of Mr. George T. Powell in his 

 berry shipments to the World's Fair. Mr. Hale argues that 

 more intelligent care should be devoted to the cultivation of 

 apples. It is the opinion of good judges that apples are too 

 much neglected and that new orchards are not being planted 

 with sufficient rapidity to take the places of old ones and keep 

 pace with the increasing demands. Apples are coming to be 

 less common, even in northern markets, than oranges. 



The sum of the discussions about spraying was that it can- 

 not be relied upon as a complete remedy for the curculio in 

 stone-fruits ; that the Vermorel nozzles are the best for gen- 

 eral purposes; that the Bordeaux mixture of half the strength 

 of the original formula is the best general fungicide. The ex- 

 periments of Professor Beach in preventing the cracking of 

 Seckel and White Doyenne pears, Mr. Waite's success in anni- 

 hilating Pear-leaf blight, and Mr. Lodeman's experiments in 

 checking the apple-scab on fruit and foliage, were noted as 

 the leading recent achievements in the spraying of orchards. 



Notes. 



Fifteen million spools were made last year by a single com- 

 pany in Michigan. 



The Rural New Yorker commends Nott's Excelsior Pea as 

 the best of the dwarf varieties. The plants grow twenty inches 

 tall, with abundant and vigorous foliage, and they are more 

 prolific than American Wonder or Little Gem, being as early 

 as the first-named variety and of the same quality. 



The delicate little sweet-scented flowers of Chionanthusfra- 

 grans are already open out-of-doors in latitudes south of Phil- 

 adelphia. As its specific name shows, the flowers of this 

 shrub are noted for the penetrating and yet delicate quality of 

 its perfume. A few sprays of it will scent the air of a large 

 room. 



A correspondent of Science writes that there is a variety of 

 Nymphsea odorata growing in a mill-pond at Hyannis Port, 

 Massachusetts, which is an exact copy of the type, except that 

 it is in miniature. Flowers of this little Water-lily are only 

 half an inch in diameter, and the leaves, while they are perfect 

 in shape, color and venation, are only an inch and a half 

 across. 



Not long ago we noted the fact that Coe's Late Red plums, 

 from California, in fair condition, were selling at midwinter on 

 the fruit-stands in this city. We now learn from the Grocers' 

 Re-view, of London, that these plums were on sale during the 

 holiday season in Glasgow, having been shipped thither from 

 New York, where they caused much favorable comment on 

 account of their freshness, beauty and flavor. 



In last week's issue, in an account of Professor Beach's ex- 

 periments quoted on page 49, the removal of a decimal point 

 one place to the left divided by ten the increased value of 

 the fruit on Pear-trees that were sprayed for scab over those 

 that were not treated. This means that the gain in the value 

 of the marketed fruit to every hundred trees, over all expenses, 

 was $423, instead of $42, in one case, and $562, instead of $56, 

 in the other. 



An English horticultural journal speaks in high praise of 

 Linum flavum as a plant for winter bloom in the cool-house. 

 Some of these plants in flower in the show-house of the Bir- 

 mingham Botanical Gardens are said to be very effective 

 among Bouvardias, Cyclamens, Cinerarias and other plants. 

 It may be added that this is one of the very best of winter- 

 flowering plants for window-culture, as it requires little special 

 care and furnishes flowers of a beautiful yellow, a color which 

 is highly appreciated at this season. 



Under the name of Gyrophora esculenta, the edible Lichen 

 of Japan, known as Iwatake, is described in the Botanisches 

 Centralblatt. The commercial value of this Lichen is due to 

 the great amount of starch and some gelatinous substance 

 which it contains, which give it a value in cookery. It is ex- 

 tensively used in Japan as a condiment, as it has a pleasant 

 flavor. In some parts of the island, especially in the mountain 

 districts, it completely covers the moist granite rocks. It is 

 dried and sold in this state in the towns, and large quantities 

 are annually exported. 



A Chicago correspondent of the American Florist speaks in 

 high terms of the pink Carnation, Madame Diaz Albertini. 

 The flowers have a rather deeper color than those of Day- 

 break ; they are very large and double, of perfect shape, and 

 have no tendency to burst the calyx. The stems are very 

 strong, which is an important point when we consider the 



extra weight of the flower. Mr. J. T. Anthony considers this 

 one of the very best varieties for those who sell flowers of 

 extra quality, for although the plant does not bear so abun- 

 dantly as some other pink varieties, as, for example, William 

 Scott and Mrs. Elizabeth Reynolds, they always bring high 

 prices and command $1.00 a dozen when the commoner sorts 

 sell for fifty cents. The flower is specially fragrant. 



The Saw-mill Gazette gives the following illustration of the 

 amount of timber which is wasted in sawdust, a waste which 

 seems slight when one observes the cutting of a few logs into 

 plank, but which amounts to an immense loss when we con- 

 sider the number of mills at work all over the country. If a 

 fourteen-inch log is to be converted into boards five-eighths 

 of an inch thick, twenty boards can be sawed from the log, if 

 the saw cuts but one-sixteenth of an inch between each plank. 

 Eighteen boards can be made if one-eighth of an inch is sawed 

 away, and if three-sixteenths are lost, only seventeen boards 

 will be obtained. That is, the loss in the first case is nine per 

 cent., in the second seventeen per cent., and in the third 

 twenty-three per cent, of the timber. If the log is twelve feet 

 long the waste in sawdust will range from one and one-half 

 cubic feet to nearly fourtubic feet, and a single saw-frame, 

 which cuts up fifty logs a day and works 250 days in a year, 

 would convert from 20,000 to nearly 50,000 cubic feet of tim- 

 ber into sawdust every year. This large amount at twenty-five 

 cents a cubic foot, which is a fair average for pine, will repre- 

 sent in money $12,287. Thin saw-blades, with carefully sharp- 

 ened teeth, are therefore great factors in saving material, and 

 every year the need for such saving is becoming more urgent. 



During the festivities which precede the Lenten season there 

 has been a brisk demand here for flowers of good quality. 

 Among roses, Meteors, Catherine Mermets, Brides and 

 Bridesmaids, with long stems and luxuriant foliage, are worth 

 six dollars a dozen, and American Beauties have sold from 

 fifty cents to a dollar and a half each for exceptionally well- 

 grown flowers. Although there is a temporary scarcity of 

 violets, they have been so abundant until the past few days 

 that the price has fallen. Beautiful and fragrant sprays of 

 orange-blossoms are for sale in several of the stores, not only 

 for use at wedding ceremonies, but to meet the demand of 

 residents from the south, who hold them in regard for associa- 

 tion's sake. The supply is irregular, and the price uncertain, a 

 bunch of four or five small sprays now commanding two dollars. 

 Roman hyacinths are beginning to be replaced by the flowers 

 of the Dutch hyacinths, and pink tulips are in special favor. 

 The carnation, Storm King, still sells here at the highest price. 

 The new striped variety, Helen Keller, which seems to have 

 made a furore in some other cities, has not proved so capti- 

 vating here, and sells at the price of other good carnations, 

 seventy-five cents a dozen. Among the shrubs which have 

 been forced into flower, Deutzia gracilis is by far the most 

 abundant, and a bunch of a few small sprays brings seventy- 

 five cents. Jonquils are worth a dollar a dozen, and beautiful 

 freesias cost only fifty cents for twenty-five sprays. 



Among the foreign vegetables in our markets now is cab- 

 bage from Denmark, which sells wholesale for ten dollars a 

 hundred heads. These heads are much more firm and heavy 

 than any home-grown cabbage, although the native product 

 is said to be sweeter. Beautiful new potatoes have been 

 coming from Havana for a week and bring six dollars a barrel; 

 old potatoes from Bermuda bring the same price. Scotch 

 magnums still sell at higher prices than our native potatoes, 

 being of larger size, more regular in form and more evenly 

 selected. They are considered better than the potatoes from 

 either England or Ireland, but not so good as those from Ger- 

 many. At present prices, which are one-third less than they 

 were last year, after the cost of sacking, transportation and 

 duty is deducted, the returns to the Scotch dealer can be 

 hardly more than fifty cents a barrel. Last month 40,000 sacks 

 of these potatoes arrived, but the market is so dull that many 

 of them are still kept in storage. From France we are receiv- 

 ing Brussels sprouts at twenty-five cents a pound, and cauli- 

 flower at forty to fifty cents a head. Corn salad, chives and 

 escarole from the south, make the markets green. Florida is 

 sending peppers, egg-plants, okra, beans and peas, the last of 

 which command as much as eight to nine dollars a bushel 

 crate when of the first quality. A few bunches of Charleston 

 asparagus, the first to arrive here this season, sold last week 

 at a dollar and a half a bunch, but the quality scarcely war- 

 ranted this extreme price. Apples still remain scarce, although 

 they are held in considerable quantity in the interior of the 

 state. Northern Spies, Baldwin and Greenings bring six dol- 

 lars a barrel, while it is hard to get Kings even at eight 

 dollars a barrel. 



