130 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 318. 



Hill, and then it did become the churchyard ; but the fact 

 that only five grave-stones exist here, bearing dates earlier 

 than 1700, shows that the custom of laying the dead to rest 

 in the lands whereon they had lived still persisted ; and, 

 indeed, as Mr. Bliss remarks, "the custom of burying in 

 the homestead land still exists in New England." 



Notes. 



Among the cut roses in market last week were exception- 

 ally good flowers of Anne de Diesbach, Baroness Rothschild, 

 Mabel Morrison and Paul Neyron. These hybrids have hardly 

 been seen in the florists' windows before this season. 



A bulletin has just been issued by the Tree-planting and 

 Fountain Society of Brooklyn, New York, in which Mr. L. 

 Collins, the secretary of that society, has collected a great deal 

 of useful information in regard to street-trees, such as what va- 

 rieties to plant, how to plant them and how to care for them 

 after they are planted. 



Cornus mas we have recommended as an admirable shrub 

 on account of its early blooming, its good foliage and its orna- 

 mental fruit. In this country sometimes it attains to the pro- 

 portions of a small tree, but we hardly expect that in our cli- 

 mate it will ever reach the size of a specimen in Fulham, Eng- 

 land, which is said to have a dense head twenty feet in diameter. 



The first new potatoes of the year came from Havana early 

 in February, with the Bermuda crop a close successor, and 

 last week new potatoes from Florida made their appearance 

 here. These sold for as much as nine dollars, No. 1 size from 

 Bermuda reaching as high a price as ten dollars a barrel. Peas, 

 for the first time this season, came from as far north as 

 Charleston, and the first pickings commanded double the price 

 of the same vegetable grown further south. Strawberries 

 from Charleston are now here. 



Some time ago the London papers contained alarming arti- 

 cles to the effect that a child had been poisoned by eating 

 American apples. After a careful investigation the govern- 

 ment analyst has been able to find no poison whatever, and a 

 piece of the Baldwin apple which is alleged to have poisoned 

 the child was fed to a mouse, which suffered in no way. It is 

 not improbable that these tales of the dangers which were said 

 to threaten those who ate fruit from orchards which had been 

 sprayed with arsenites against the codlin-moth were invented 

 by interested dealers in order to depress the price of apples 

 from this country. 



Inasmuch as olive oil is mainly a hydrocarbon and its constit- 

 uents come from the air, it follows that if the pomace and all 

 the other offal from the trees are returned to the land it is 

 hardly possible to exhaust the soil. The virgin soils of Cali- 

 fornia are rich in lime and potash, and these are two of the 

 constituents which the Olive-tree likes. Mr. Edward Cooper, 

 of Santa Barbara, in that state, has trees growing, without irri- 

 gation, in black adobe, on stony hill-sides, on table-lands with 

 a clay subsoil, and they seem to thrive equally well. Where 

 the fruit is pickled, certain mineral ingredients are taken away 

 which should, of course, be returned to the soil. 



Among the varieties of Crozy Cannas distributed last year 

 not one is more striking than Charles Henderson, which 

 proved itself admirable tor outdoor bedding on account of 

 its sturdy, although dwarf and compact habit and its large and 

 erect spikes of bloom. We lately saw many specimens of 

 this plant flowering in the greenhouses of the F. R. Pierson 

 Company, at Tarrytown, where they proved that it is even 

 better as a pot-plant than it was for outdoor use. None of the 

 varieties so far sent out excel it in its dazzling crimson color. 

 The individual flowers are very large and of admirable form, 

 and the yellow marking in the centre adds to their attractive- 

 ness. A house of well-grown plants of this variety in full 

 bloom makes a spectacle which the beholder will not soon 

 forget. 



The practice of issuing poster bulletins from the Experiment 

 Stations is becoming somewhat general, we are glad to know. 

 Professor L. R. Taft, of the Michigan Agricultural College, has 

 just sent out one upon the Potato-scab, which contains direc- 

 tions for the proper treatment of the tubers with corrosive 

 sublimate, and an illustration of the potatoes from treated and 

 untreated seed. Bulletin No. 2 follows the excellent example 

 set by Professor E. G. Lodeman, of Cornell, in giving a calen- 

 dar for spraying different trees against insects and fungi. 

 These bulletins are both printed on card-board, with attach- 

 ments for hanging them up, and they contain in a brief com- 



pass all that the farmer needs to know to enable him to use 

 efficiently the best devices and remedies which science has 

 yet discovered for the prevention and cure of the most dan- 

 gerous plant-diseases and for the destruction of insects most 

 injurious to crops. 



Florida orange-growers are beginning to invent machines 

 for improving the appearance of their fruit. One machine 

 keeps the oranges revolving in a cylinder containing sawdust, 

 which by friction scours off the smut and scale from the rind. 

 Worked by hand-power, this machine will turn out forty boxes 

 a day, all cleaned and ready for packing. A larger machine 

 consists essentially of two cylinders enclosed in sheep-skin cov- 

 ered with thick wool. The cylinders revolve in opposite direc- 

 tions, wiping and polishing the fruit, which turns over and 

 over, so that every part of the surface is made smooth and 

 glossy. The machine is so thoroughly padded with wool that 

 the fruit is said to escape any injury, while its color is bright- 

 ened up materially. A car-load of oranges can be treated with 

 this machine in a day, and the oranges fed through a hopper 

 can pass on to the sizing-machine without any additional 

 handling. 



To the subscriber in Morristown, New Jersey, who has been 

 advised to sow some Grass-seed on his lawn, which is getting 

 thin, and who inquires when the seed should be sown, we re- 

 ply, sow it immediately. It is good practice to sow some seed 

 of Blue Grass and the finer varieties of Rhode Island Bent 

 Grass upon lawns every spring just as the frost gets out of the 

 ground, and before they are rolled down. Some of the seed 

 sold as Red Top produces rather coarse grass, but the ma- 

 jority of it will make a good lawn if it is kept cut close. A 

 light dressing of bone-meal and ashes, or some good salt of 

 potash, is useful on the lawn at any season ; and now is the 

 time to use cautiously a little guano or nitrate of soda. To 

 have their best effects nitrogenous fertilizers should be given 

 in small doses, and often, up to midsummer. Nitrogen in 

 soluble form, when applied in autumn, will leach out during 

 the winter. There is little danger of this in the case of the pot- 

 ash and phosphates. The soil will catch and hold them. 



Everybody admires and loves the Daffodil, but compara- 

 tively few people in this country grow more than a dozen or 

 so of the varieties of Narcissus, and even at our spring flower 

 shows we rarely see anything like an adequate representation 

 of the different groups into which the cultivated Narcissus is 

 divided. No one who has not given attention to these flowers 

 can realize how many distinct varieties it is possible to pro- 

 duce with the different forms and colors of the perianth or 

 saucer, and of the tube or trumpet. Specialists in Europe are 

 now bringing out hybrids, and although it is not to be expected 

 that any of them will be more beautiful than the types we 

 already have, we may expect to have a long list of varieties 

 which are sufficiently distinct to suit every taste. The last 

 number of the Gardeners' Chronicle contains a picture of a 

 new hybrid obtained by crossing Narcissus cyclamineus, one 

 of the group with a long cylindrical tube and narrow reflexed 

 segments, with the Tenby Daffodil, Narcissus obvallaris, and it 

 plainly shows the blood of both its parents. The color isa rich 

 yellow. 



Just now the planting of trees and shrubs is in full progress 

 in this latitude, and, no doubt, a considerable percentage of all 

 that are set out will be lost. When failures occur the blame is 

 usually attributed to the nurseryman, and, no doubt, he is 

 sometimes in fault ; but, on the other hand, it is true that very 

 few people who receive nursery stock have the adequate ex- 

 perience and knowledge for planting it properly. Too 

 many people, who think they understand this matter com- 

 pletely, actually need the advice of some one of experience to 

 ensure against failure. There is no more excuse for putting a 

 tree or shrub into soil that is not properly prepared than there 

 would be for a farmer to sow wheat on a field that has not been 

 plowed. The stock to be planted has come from a nursery 

 where it has been tenderly cared for, developed in fine rich 

 soil which has been carefully cultivated and kept absolutely 

 free from weeds. It is folly to expect that a young tree with 

 such a history can be taken from all these beneficent condi- 

 tions and then make any vigorous growth after having its 

 roots cut back or doubled up to fit a post-hole into which 

 it is thrust, especially when the hole is filled in with bits of 

 sod. Too much care cannot be taken of young trees and 

 shrubs after they are received. They will certainly be injured 

 by exposure to sun and wind, and they will be sure to disap- 

 point the planter if they are not set at a proper depth in well- 

 prepared soil with their roots in a natural position and the earth 

 firmly tramped about them. Any tree or shrub that is worth 

 planting, is worth planting well. 



