9 8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 315. 



warmest house, with a minimum of sixty degrees at night. It 

 is essentially a warm-house plant. Even when in bloom it 

 does not do to move the plants to a cooler temperature, as the 

 flowers soon spot and quickly decay from damp. Another 

 point worth noting is that a very small portion of potting ma- 

 terial is sufficient about the roots, at least until the plants be- 

 come well established. We pot them in shallow pans with 

 holes in the sides, and suspend them close to the roof glass. 

 Thrips and red spider are very partial to the young shoots, 

 but in the growing season frequent spraying will keep these 

 pests in check and benefit the plants also. 



South Lancaster, Mass. -^" C*. ^ • 



Peas.— Just as soon as the soil warms a little, a sowing of Peas 

 should be made. The wrinkled kinds are always liable to be 

 chilled during germination, but their superior table quali- 

 ties are very much in their favor. American Wonder is the 

 earliest, and for private, and especially suburban, gardens, is 

 very much to be commended, since it can be planted as closely 

 as two feet, and needs no brushing. The Chelsea, another 

 dwarf early wrinkled variety, has proved a close competitor, 

 being about two days behind American Wonder. Although 

 the pods are not quite so large, it is a heavier cropper, and, 

 apparently, is hardier. Alaska is a blue seed early Pea, grow- 

 ing three feet high, and is a trifle superior in table qualities to 

 the O'Rourke type. It ripens very evenly, and, although crop- 

 ping heavily, does not give more than two pickings. After the 

 earliest brush varieties we sow only wrinkled kinds, quality 

 being an essential always. Alpha is one of the best early 

 wrinkled sorts, and follows closely in succession. This variety 

 grows to a height of three feet. Admiral, which reaches a foot 

 higher, is a very heavy and continuous cropper, and succeeds 

 Alpha. Heroine, three and a half feet tall, is the next in suc- 

 cession, and is probably the largest-podded and the best table 

 variety grown. It crops for a long time, but not heavily at any 

 time. G. F. Wilson, of the same height, and coming into bear- 

 ing at the same time, was one of the best Peas grown here last 

 year. The pods are not extra-large, but the yield is heavy and 

 the flavor is superior. Telephone and Champion of England 

 ripen in the order named. 



Worcester, Mass. 



H. 



Correspondence. 



The Quality of Modern Process Maple-sugar. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir,— In Garden and Forest of May 3d, 1893, attention is 

 drawn to the fact that much of the maple-sugar being made 

 now is over-refined at the expense of its peculiar but agreea- 

 ble flavor. 



Born and reared within the shadow of the New England 

 Sugar-maple, I am familiar with the orchard and camp and the 

 delicious maple-sugar as produced therein fifteen or twenty 

 years ago. Times have changed ; the old open kettle has 

 been supplanted by the modern evaporator and clarifying pro- 

 cess, so that the sugar of to-day is as bleached out as the most 

 fastidious could desire. It is evident, also, that with this new 

 process the sugar has lost its savor. This may be demon- 

 strated in several ways. Those familiar with the maple syrup 

 or sugar of a few years ago were accustomed to a flavor pecu- 

 liar to the Maple only, so that both the syrup and the sugar 

 were highly relished and sought after. To-day, the so-called 

 best syrup is thin and white, and the characteristic maple flavor 

 is hardly perceptible ; the quality is lacking, as based on pre- 

 vious standards, which, to be sure, may be inferior ones. 

 However, for one, I agree with your correspondent, F. E. C, 

 when he says, " In the case of the maple, this flavor is good ; 

 it is what has given maple-sugar its value over cane-sugar." 

 It does seem singular that the market should prefer the sugar 

 on the basis of color rather than quality. 



In 1892 I purchased five gallons of maple-syrup of an Indiana 

 sugar-maker. It was made in the open kettle, and every per- 

 son who tasted any of the syrup made from it considered it 

 unusually fine in flavor and quality. It was of good color, 

 heavy, and after being placed in fruit-jars a mass of crystals 

 accumulated on the sides of the jars. During the following 

 season my friend purchased a modern evaporator, and started 

 in with a new up-to-date equipment. Later he wrote to me 

 that he was making perfect syrup, so I ordered five gallons of 

 the 1893 crop. Upon its receipt I found a thin, light-colored 

 syrup, decidedly lacking in flavor in comparison with the 

 choice product of the year before. So great was my disap- 

 pointment in its quality that I found little pleasure in its use, 

 lacking as it did the distinctive qualities of maple-syrup. 



Having some of the 1892 crop, a comparison was made in the 

 station laboratory, which I herewith give: 



1892. 1893. 



Specific gravity 1.366 per cent. 1.302 per cent. 



Polarization direct 57.6 " " 57 " " 



Polarization after inversion, . 22.2 " " 20.2 " 



Sucrose 60 .... ^g .... 



The 1892 lot was viscid, that for 1893 was not, neither were 

 crystals noticeable on the vessel containing the latter. The 

 1892 crop deposited malate of lime in fruit-jars, after standing, 

 while the 1893 crop did not. Both were standard syrups. The 

 flavor had been materially diminished by the more modern 

 method of treatment, and in this flavor lies the real delicacy of 

 maple syrup or sugar to many. 



Just what the source of this flavor is, I cannot say. In Bul- 

 letin 13, Division of Chemistry, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, on " Foods and Food Adulterants," Professor 

 H. A. Huston says: "The Price of maple-sugar, as is well 

 known, is out of all proportion to the saccharine matter which 

 it contains, and is due to its peculiar and pleasant taste, de- 

 rived presumably from some ethereal matter exuded with the 

 sap. The nature of this substance has not, to my knowledge, 

 been definitely determined. It is not wholly volatile, since it 

 remains in the sugar and molasses after they have been kept 

 for a long time at a high temperature during the process of 

 concentration. Nevertheless, a distinctly agreeable odor marks 

 the process of maple-sugar evaporation, as every one can at- 

 test who has visited the primitive sugar factories which are 

 operated in the maple-sugar industry." 



In a visit to the cane-sugar plantations of Louisiana in the 

 fall of 1892, I noticed that the open-pan molasses was much 

 superior to the molasses from the centrifugal, both in flavor and 

 quality. Dr. Stubbs, in the Government report above referred 

 to, says: "Three kinds of molasses made from sugar-cane are 

 sold on the New Orleans market. The first of these'is the 

 open-kettle sugar molasses, usually of fine color and flavor 

 and rich in sugar. The second and rapidly increasing kind is 

 centrifugal molasses. This product is much inferior in quality 

 to the open-kettle molasses." 



It is, therefore, evident that, while the standard of purity is 

 not reduced below a reasonable degree, the subtile and inde- 

 finable flavor of both maple and cane-sugar syrups is injured 

 by the improved process of manufacture, so that they are both 

 inferior in this regard to the open-kettle product. A former 

 student of this university last spring sent me a jug of open- 

 kettle maple-syrup of a delicate flavor, which it would seem 

 difficult to excel, and yet when he sent the syrup he felt called 

 upon to apologize for the fact that it was made in the old- 

 fashioned way. Are light-colored, flavorless sugars and syrups 

 preferred because they are fashionable, or is our sense of taste 

 becoming more refined ? And yet, as F. E. C. says : " If sugar 

 is wanted that is simply sweet, we can get it much cheaper 

 from cane or beets." 



Agricultural Experiment Station, Indiana. C. o. rilittlo. 



Apple-scab in Canada. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Fifteen or twenty years ago the apples grown in the 

 vicinity of Montreal were widely known for their fine appear- 

 ance and quality, and always commanded a little better price 

 than fruit grown elsewhere. In recent years the enormous 

 quantities of apples shipped to Montreal from Ontario and the 

 state of New York have greatly reduced the prices of the lo- 

 cally grown apples, although when of good quality the home 

 fruit is still preferred. The Fameuse, or Snow, apple has 

 been the favorite both for shipment and home consumption. 



Competion, however, has not lately been the chief trouble 

 with fruit-growing about Montreal. A portion of the fruit has 

 always been affected by the fungus known among orchardists 

 as the " scab " or " spot," and by botanists as Fusicladium den- 

 driticum, but the percentage of injured fruit rarely ran as high 

 as fifty per cent., and was often quite small. Within a few 

 years the fungus has become so much more abundant as to 

 discourage apple-growers here, as it has in so many other 

 places. Sometimes not five per cent, of the apples can be 

 called first-class, where once there were rarely more than ten 

 per cent, to be placed among the second and third class. The 

 affected leaves become sickly and starved, and the trees lose 

 much of their vigor. 



After waiting for some years in the vain hope that the dis- 

 ease would become less harmful, the Canadian apple-growers 

 now realize that their only hope lies in efficient treatment with 

 fungicides. Many growers about Montreal have been using 



