66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 



think of it that he named it in honor of Mrs. Ames. It has 

 again flowered, and the flower is even more brilliant in color 

 than it was last year, and is, indeed, the richest in color of any 

 Masdevallia I have yet seen. The plant was described last 

 year by Dr. Kranzlin (Gardeners' Chronicle, ser. 3, xiii., 740). 



Masdevallia Henrietta. — This is a hybrid between M. 

 ignea and M. caudata, var. Shuttleworthi. The flowers 

 are intermediate in form between the parents, although 

 much larger than either. It flowered for the first time in 

 January, 1S93, and ten plants of the same cross have 

 already flowered, no two of which are exactly alike. Some 

 flowers are striped, more are beautifully spotted, some on 

 a light yellow, and some on orange and some on rose- 

 colored ground. It is of easy culture and flowers freely. 

 One plant is carrying fourteen flowers, and it is not yet 

 five years old. Dr. Kranzlin described this plant last year 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle, I. c. 



Masdevallia, Mary Ames. — This is a hybrid between 

 M. ignea x M. Gairiana. The perianth tube is orange- 

 red ; upper sepal triangular, contracted into a slender tail, 

 one inch long ; orange, with reddish tips ; lateral sepals 

 connate to the middle, gradually terminating with a short 

 tail. The color is orange, margined with deep red. The 

 dorsal-sepal is almost upright. This hybrid flowered first 

 in December of last year. It is of compact habit, the flow- 

 ers rising just above the foliage. 



Selenipedium Helena. — This new hybrid, bet ween Selenipe- 

 dium Wallisi X S. leucorrhodum, bears a flower whichshows 

 the influence of both parents. The upper sepal is yellow, 

 tinted rose ; lower sepal yellow ; petals drooping, yellow, 

 tinted rose ; lip yellow, slightly suffused with rose; infolded 

 lobes creamy white ; staminode creamy white, fringed 

 with blackish purple hairs. The influence of S. leucorrho- 

 dum preponderates in the shape of flower and foliage. This 

 hybrid flowered in twenty-five months from the seed. 



North Easton, Mass. William Robi)lSOn. 



Cultural Department. 



The Conservation of Water for Orchards. 



THE following paper, by Professor I. P. Roberts, was 

 prepared for the fruit-growers of western New York, 

 but the doctrine it contains will be found of general appli- 

 cation : 



Water carries all of the food of plants and animals into 

 circulation and all excreted material out of circulation, so 

 there cannot be abundant growth and vigorous healthy life 

 without there is an abundance of water always present in the 

 tissues of growing organisms. Most living plants contain 

 from seventy-five to ninety-five per cent, of water, but, not- 

 withstanding the great need of plants for a liberal supply of 

 water, the soil may easily contain so much as to injure or even 

 destroy them. Superfluous water in ordinary cases may be 

 carried off by surface and underground drains, but the problem 

 of supplying water cheaply to plants when there is a lack, is a 

 difficult one. 



In most localities in the eastern and middle states, surface 

 irrigation is found to be impracticable (1) on account of lack of 

 water, and (2) because on many soils surface irrigation injures 

 the land. Clay lands, unless most thoroughly underdrained, 

 become puddled, sour and reduced in productive power when 

 thus irrigated. Only on certain classes of soils, usually found 

 in arid countries, does surface irrigation become fully success- 

 ful. Sub-irrigation is the ideal method, but it is so expensive 

 that it can only come into use where large amounts of very 

 valuable products can be secured on small areas. 



With few exceptions, all cultivated plants have to depend on 

 the water stored in the soil. How to make a great store-house 

 for water in the soil without saturating it, and how to get the 

 water near the surface for the use of the plant without letting 

 it escape during dry weather, are, therefore, subjects of prime 

 importance to every plant-grower. 



An acre of soil one foot deep will weigh about 1,600 tons, 

 and may contain, when in good condition for growing crops, 

 thirty-two per cent, of water, say, 500 tons or 4,000 barrels per 

 acre. If the soil is too compact or too loose, not more than 

 half this amount, sometimes not more than one-quarter, will 

 be contained in the interstices of the land. Soils vary greatly 



in their power of holding water without being saturated. A 

 friable clay loam has the power of storing water to a much 

 larger degree than heavy clay or loose sandy soils. Heavy 

 rains in the fall and spring tend to puddle the land — that is, fill 

 the interstices which are between the particles or molecules of 

 earth, thereby diminishing to a great extent the storage ca- 

 pacity of the land. Otten about the only object of deep culture 

 is to overcome the effect produced by heavy beating rains and 

 to enlarge the capacity of the soil for holding on to moisture. 

 There is a large amount of water stored in the first twelve 

 inches of the surface soil, and we know that a large additional 

 amount is found in the subsoil. In some cases it is far more 

 than is found in the surface soil, although usually that is not 

 the case. 



The question arises, how to make the best use of and how 

 to conserve this stored-up water, which finally contains all the 

 nutritious material which enters into the circulation of the 

 plant. Thin seeding assists materially in the conservation of 

 moisture. Plants usually suffer in the middle and latter part 

 of the summer when they are trying to produce fruit. If too 

 many plants are growing upon the surface the land will already 

 have been robbed of its moisture before the fruiting season, 

 and a failure to produce satisfactory seeds and fruits is inev- 

 itable. 



Another method of conserving moisture is to shade the 

 land, but if this is done with growing crops, as clover and the 

 like, the amount of water which is evaporated from the leaves 

 is greater than that which is conserved by the shading. So, 

 where the object is to conserve the moisture for the use of the 

 tree when it is fruiting, it is not wise to have growing crops in 

 the orchard. 



Mulching of the soil with straw or other coarse material can- 

 not be practiced in any large way, and, therefore, little depen- 

 dence can be placed on this method. In bearing orchards this 

 should be done, if at all, about the last of June. The conser- 

 vation of moisture by surface cultivation has been found 

 eminently successful. The enlarging of the capillary tubes at 

 the surface prevents the water from rising; the loose upper 

 layer shades the land and keeps it cool, thereby preventing to 

 a large extent surface evaporation. 



Some experiments conducted during the winter in a warm 

 room out of the direct rays of the sun, gave the following re- 

 sults : 



(1) On plots cultivated about one and a half inches deep, 

 less water by 2,000 pounds evaporated daily from an acre of 

 soil than from plots of a similar character and under identical 

 conditions, which had not surface culture. (2) On a heavy clay 

 soil the evaporation from the cultivated plot in a day was 4,000 

 pounds less per acre than from the uncultivated plot. (3) On 

 a clay loam evaporation was 4,400 pounds less in a day. (4) On 

 a light garden-soil it was 2,500 less than on the cultivated plot 

 per acre than on that which was not cultivated. 



It will readily be seen what a vast influence the daily cul- 

 tivation had on the moisture of the soil. Some experiments 

 conducted several years ago with a mixture of equal parts by 

 weight of salt and plaster applied to the land at the rate of 

 4,000 pounds to the acre conserved the moisture of the first 

 four inches to the amount of fifteen tons of water per acre — that 

 is to say, the soil which had been treated with this mixture 

 contained, about two weeks after the mixture had been sown, 

 fifteen tons of water per acre in the first four inches more 

 than the adjoining plots which were not treated. This amount 

 of water, it is true, is not large, but it was large enough during 

 a drought, when the experiments were conducted, to furnish 

 enough extra moisture to the growing Oats to be easily dis- 

 cernible by the growth of the plant. There is not the slightest 

 doubt that a weekly surface cultivation of orchards, from 

 June until the last of August, helps materially to save the 

 water in the soil, while at the same time culture sets free plant- 

 food and keeps the lower strata of the soil cool and moist. 

 Wherever the conditions do not forbid surface cultivation it 

 should be practiced extensively in orchards for the threefold 

 purpose of conserving moisture, preparing plant-food and 

 shading that portion of the soil which is occupied by the roots 

 of the growing plants. 



Grapes in January. 



WITHOUT special precautions beyond storage in a cool 

 cellar, I find that I can have the following grapes for eat- 

 ing in midwinter: Pocklington, Diana, Herbert, Duchess, 

 Amber, Iowa, Jefferson, Lady Washington, Vergennes, Goethe, 

 Isabella, Catawba, Niagara, Hayes, Diamond, Gasrtner and 

 Worden. Concords have kept well with me as late as the end 

 of December. The grapes were carefully handled in picking, 



