140 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 319. 



wood. One variety known as the sap-wood timber-worm 

 comes from eggs deposited in the crevices of the bark of the 

 Yellow Poplar or Tulip-tree, Basswood, Buckeye, Chestnut 

 and Black Walnut, and where logs are allowed to lie with bark 

 on them has caused a loss of from five to ten per cent, of 

 what would otherwise be good lumber — that is, every thousand 

 feet of injured sap-wood means a loss of from fifteen to twenty 

 dollars. Most of the insects which cause defects in the sap- 

 wood of logs and dying trees attack only those with the bark on, 

 and the proper method of prevention is to strip the bark from 

 logs and felled trees which are cut between October 1st and 

 April 1st, when they are to lie more than one month after the 

 later date before they can be converted into lumber, and from 

 all logs cut between April 1st and October ist, unless they can 

 be converted into lumber directly after the trees are felled. 

 These dates are given because the eggs are laid during the 

 months of April, May, June and July. Larger tunnels, known 

 as worm-holes, are caused by the so-called carpenter-worms, 

 the pine-sawyer and other grubs, and any worm-hole or pin- 

 hole may become enlarged by decay or by the work of ants 

 and other insects, so that the value of otherwise clear lumber 

 is depreciated, causing great loss to producers and dealers. 

 Besides this, premature decay results from the moisture and 

 fungous germs which find lodgment in the wood of trees and 

 in manufactured timber products through these entrances 

 made by insects, and thus causes loss to both producers and 

 consumers. The amount of this loss varies in different kinds 

 of timber and in different localities from five per cent, to fifty 

 per cent, of the total output, and sometimes is sufficient to 

 reduce the receipts of an investment below the cost of produc- 

 tion. Professor Hopkins gives an account of the precautions 

 which should be used in managing standing and felled tim- 

 ber against these insects, the methods of preventing their 

 attacks and the methods of destroying the insects themselves ; 

 and since insects which do this damage have not all been care- 

 fully studied and it is a difficult matter to become familiar with 

 their life-histories, it becomes important that the appearance 

 of any new pest of a threatening character should be reported 

 as soon as possible to a competent entomologist, so that the 

 proper remedy may be at once applied. This bulletin will be 

 of great value to all persons who deal in wood products, and 

 will interest every intelligent reader. 



Notes. 



Mr. Frank Lamson-Scribner, Director of the Tennessee Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station, has been commissioned by the 

 Department of Agriculture to collect and impart useful infor- 

 mation regarding our Grasses. 



At this season, wherever any planting is done for beauty or 

 for use, a little ground should be set apart for the children in 

 every home. The possession and cultivation of a miniature 

 garden will do much to cultivate habits of observation, turn 

 the attention to the mysteries and beauties of plant-life and 

 develop a taste which will be a fruitful source of pleasure in 

 after life. 



Mr..S. D. Willard considers unleached wood-ashes the best 

 fertilizer for the Plum-orchard, but when that cannot be ob- 

 tained he uses some potash salt, usually the muriate of potash, 

 with a guaranteed analysis of sixty-seven per cent. Bone-meal 

 is applied to furnish phosphoric acid. The abundant use of 

 barn-yard manure produces a rank growth which is too easily 

 winter-killed. 



Where the kerosene emulsion is needed only in small quan- 

 tities the methods recommended, which are usually for large 

 supplies, are cumbersome. A correspondent of the Farm 

 Journal gives the following plan : Put in a demijohn, jug or 

 large bottle two ounces of any hard soap, shaved fine, then 

 pour in a quart of hot water to dissolve it, and while hot add 

 half a pint of kerosene. Shake the bottle violently until a 

 milky fluid is formed, with no free oil visible. Before using 

 this dilute it with twice its bulk of warm water. 



Any one who desires to identify the birds found in the 

 northern states east of the Rocky Mountains will find substan- 

 tial aid in the little Pocket Key compiled and published by 

 Professor A. C. Apgar, of Trenton, New Jersey. The few 

 technical terms used in the book are defined in a brief vocabu- 

 lary, but it is written throughout in the plainest language, and 

 .the most conspicuous external parts of the bird are used to 

 help in the determination. The book follows the same ad- 

 mirable plan which Professor Apgar has used in his key of the 

 trees and shrubs of this region. 



To illustrate the possibilities of improvement by selection, 

 Mr. Brill, of Hempstead, Long Island, in an address before a 

 farmers' institute, stated that one of his neighbors began ten 

 years ago to secure a strain of Asparagus by selecting white 

 shoots with the purpose of establishing a fixed variety which 

 would produce nothing but white asparagus. Fully ninety per 

 cent, of his plants now come true, and for every bunch sold 

 he receives a substantial advance over the market price, and 

 every pound of seed which he saves is worth three times as 

 much as ordinary Asparagus-seed. 



Mr. R. T. Titus, of Westbury, Long Island, who exhibited 

 thirty-four varieties of potatoes at the Wold's Fair, tested one 

 hundred varieties last year, and found the most productive to 

 be Rural New Yorker No. 2, which yields a tuber of fine shape 

 with few small ones in the hill. Rural Blush, a very large late 

 potato, but liable to rot, followed next in amount of yield ; 

 American Wonder is recorded as of the best quality and free 

 from disease ; Michigan Rose is called the favorite in the New 

 York markets, and good in every particular, while King of the 

 Roses is noted as early, a good cropper and strong grower and 

 of excellent quality. 



In a trial of twenty-five different varieties of Blackberries at 

 the New York Experiment Station last year the old Dorchester, 

 which was introduced forty years ago, yielded the greatest 

 amount of fruit, of medium size, good color, sweet, juicy and 

 of good flavor and quality. Ancient Briton was next in pro- 

 ductiveness, followed in order by Early Harvest, Agawam and 

 Kittatinny. Of the Black Caps, Mills No. 7 was the most pro- 

 ductive variety, followed by Mills No. 15, which was the most 

 productive of all the late-fruiting varieties. Carman is noted 

 as a desirable early sort. Of the Red Raspberries, Pomona 

 wan the most satisfactory early variety, and it also gave good 

 pickings later in the season. Royal Church and Cuthbert are 

 pronounced the best for late picking. 



The sudden and severe cold which followed the warm 

 weather of early March has not probably done serious damage 

 to the fruit in this latitude, but farther south it has been a 

 serious disaster. In this city the effect was immediately felt in 

 the increased price of such early vegetables as were coming 

 from Savannah, Charleston and North Carolina. Professor 

 Massey writes that in Raleigh everything had advanced to ex- 

 uberant growth. Peaches and plums were well set, and Apples 

 were in full bloom, while in the gardens the peas were set in the 

 pods, and Beans, Melons, Tomatoes and Corn were growing 

 in the open ground. On Easter Monday the roofs showed a 

 hoar-frost as white as snow ; the next day the mercury stood at 

 twenty-two and a keen wind was blowing. Peas, Cabbage, 

 Radishes, Lettuce, Potatoes and everything in the garden were 

 blackened and killed. It seems hardly possible that any 

 Peaches or Plums will escape, and Grapes will probably make 

 no crop. Everything was in full sappy growth and everything 

 has suffered, so that the loss throughout the south is enor- 

 mous. 



One of the most serious enemies with which the fruit-grow- 

 ers in California have had to contend against is the San Jose 

 scale, Aspidiotus perniciosus. Last year it was first discovered 

 in the eastern states near Charlottesville, Virginia, and the 

 Board of Agriculture of that state and the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture have just completed a series of fumi- 

 gating operations which it is hoped has destroyed it in that 

 locality. It has recently been discovered, however, at De Fu- 

 niak Springs, Florida, and in Charles County, Maryland, where 

 an orchard of three hundred Peach-trees and Apple-trees is 

 severely injured. It has probably been brought eastward upon 

 nursery-stock imported from California, and if this is true, 

 similar diseased stock has probably been brought to other 

 parts of the east. It is important that fruit-growers should 

 make an immediate examination of their orchards to ascertain 

 whether or no this insect has made its appearance, for if it is 

 allowed to spread the evil will be a serious one. The insect is 

 a small, flat, round scale, rather lighter in color than the bark 

 of a tree, and is most abundant on young limbs and twigs. At 

 this season it is about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and 

 there is in the middle of each scale a small elevated, blackish, 

 rounded point. The wood underneath it is apt to be discol- 

 ored. Where the insects are abundant the bark is completely 

 hidden, and the scales are then hardly distinguishable by the 

 naked eye. Fruit-growers discovering this scale should at 

 once notify the Department at Washington and send speci- 

 mens. An emergency bulletin is being prepared which will 

 give a full account of the insect, together with the best means 

 .to be used against it, and it will be sent to all applicants as soon 

 as it is published. 



