300 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 335. 



itself rather than as an adornment of life. The one book 

 has an indolent Old World charm inseparable from the 

 story of a mansion whose life has been connected with the 

 history of many generations of men, while the other 

 breathes throughout the fresh and bracing atmosphere of a 

 new world, where antiquity is less impressive and op- 

 pressive. Mr. Austin does not seem to have that simplicity 

 of character which enables a writer to be personal without 

 a touch of egotism, nor the rich sense of humor which can 

 often render even egotism itself delightful, but he has an 

 observant and sympathetic eye for outdoor beauty, and the 

 reader will find many delightful passages which show the 

 touch of true poetic feeling. Here is one : 



Autumn, I grant, knows the art of gardening to perfection, 

 and possesses the secret of careless grace even beyond the 

 spring. There is an orderly negligence, a well-thought-out 

 untidiness about autumnal forms and colors no other season 

 can match. Even to the garden proper, the cultivated plots of 

 man, autumn adds such wonderful touches of happy accident, 

 that when it comes — really comes— a wise man leaves his gar- 

 den alone and allows it to fade and wane, and slowly, pa- 

 thetically pass away, without any effort to hinder or conceal 

 the decay. Indeed, it would be worth while having a culti- 

 vated garden if only to see what autumn does witli it. 



Notes. 



According to a dispatch in The Tribune of this city, a 

 small seedless grape, known as Lady de Coverly, and said 

 to be very sweet and refreshing, is the first variety which has 

 been shipped from the Pacific coast. Some of these started 

 eastward last week from Palm Springs, a valley on the edge of 

 the Colorado desert. They would have been shipped a fort- 

 night ago but for the railroad strike. 



According to the Weekly Press, of Pretoria, in South Africa, 

 forests are being as ruthlessly destroyed in that region as in 

 our own country. "The destruction of trees for fuel," we are 

 told, "has been carried on so long, and with such a reckless 

 disregard for the future, that there is now good cause for 

 alarm. The timber in the Waterberg districts is not nearly so 

 thick or of such value as a casual observer would believe, 

 and the cutting here and in the Woodbush is going on 

 so promiscuously and without any replenishment that the end 

 of the splendid timber-supply in the northern districts must 

 soon come." 



■It is estimated that 52,236 tons of teak-wood were cut in 

 lower Burma in 1889. The Teak forests of the upper part of 

 the province, however, are more extensive and important, and 

 in 1889 produced not less than 139.500 cubic tons of teak. 

 The trade shows no signs of diminution, notwithstanding the 

 many rival materials with which teak-wood has now to con- 

 tend, so varied are the purposes for which it is adapted. Teak 

 is used in ship-building for decks and lower masts, railway 

 carriages, the construction of bridges, for furniture and house- 

 building. It is found particularly well suited to back the metal- 

 plates on iron-clads, the resinous matter which it contains act- 

 ing as a preventive against rust. 



A correspondent of The Country Gentleman writes from 

 Delaware that among Red Raspberries grown there a local 

 variety known as the Miller is finding great favor. In size the 

 berry averages about as large as that of the Cuthbert, which is 

 the main market variety in that section, but it has a smaller 

 core, and therefore bears shipment better. It ripens with 

 Thompson's Early, and will bear twice as many berries at 

 each picking, and it continues longer in fruit. Besides its lack 

 of productiveness, Thompson's Early yields berries which 

 crumble easily, and Royal Church seems to possess the same 

 bad quality. The cane of the Miller Raspberry is quite hardy, 

 and from the present accounts it seems to be the most de- 

 sirable market berry which has yet fruited on the peninsula. 



The Department of Agriculture has sent out a circular con- 

 cerning Hungarian Brome Grass, Bromus inermis, which 

 contains a figure of the plant and such facts as are known of 

 its habits and value. Inasmuch as the plant is of compara- 

 tively recent importation the circular is accompanied by ques- 

 tions, the answers to which, it is hoped, will furnish the 

 department with a record of the experience of persons who 

 have tested it, so that its adaptability to various sections and 

 different purposes in this country may be better understood. 

 It is said to be good for holding the banks of ditches and 



strengthening the turf on sandy soil, and in regions subject to 

 extremes of heat and long drought and in light soil, or where 

 the land is not adapted to the growth of finer grasses, the 

 plant is cautiously recommended for trial. It might have a 

 real value in a permanent meadow or pasture, and especially 

 in the south, for winter grazing. On lands where frequent ro- 

 tation is practiced or desired, care should be taken that it does 

 not become a weed almost as troublesome as the Couch 

 Grass. 



In the third volume of The Industries of Russia, translated 

 by John Martin Crawford, United States Consul-General to 

 Russia, a Turkestan garden is described as a portion of land 

 surrounded with a high clay loam wall, along which are planted 

 Poplar and Willow trees. The land is devoted to Lucerne, 

 Melons, Water-melons, or more rarely vegetables, or it may 

 be planted with Grapes, Apricots, Peaches, Mulberries, and 

 more rarely Quince, Pear, Plum, Apple and Fig trees, all 

 these being seF without any fixed plan. A large plantation of 

 Poplar or Willow if very often to be found in gardens, where 

 these trees are grown for the sake of their timber, as well as 

 for the fuel they furnish. Under the thick foliage of the older 

 trees, the Elm, the Plane, the Apricot and the Mulberry tree, 

 the natives are wont to fence off a small space where carpets 

 are spread on hot days and where they take their rest or siesta. 

 The selection of flowers which are occasii arally grown in these 

 gardens is very limited. Sweet Basil (Ocimuni basilicum), the 

 favorite plant throughout Central Asia, garden Balsam, from 

 which is prepared a red dye for the nails, the Mallow, the 

 Marigold, the Lady's Comb (Celosia), and more seldom Dog 

 Grass and the Aster, are plants almost always found in the 

 garden. 



The market season for raspberries is practically over, and 

 the few which remain are of small size and low quality, as 

 are blackberries and huckleberries also. The widespread 

 drought has brought the supply of these small fruits to an un- 

 timely end, while currants, and even large orchard fruits, such 

 as apples, have been seriously affected. The leaves of Corn 

 are curled, and gardens over a large part of the northern 

 Atlantic states, where irrigation is not practicable, are parched 

 so that vegetables as well as fruits show the effects of drought 

 in poor quality and diminished quantity. A few fine goose- 

 berries sell for twenty cents a quart. The first Delaware 

 grapes have arrived from South Carolina, and they brought 

 thirty-five cents a pound. Peaches from Maryland, Delaware 

 and the few coming from New Jersey are altogether inferior, 

 but owing to the scarcity of all truits hereabout and the total 

 absence of the supply from California for nearly a month, 

 prices are very high, and peaches, which in other seasons 

 would hardly "have been considered marketable, now bring 

 two dollars and fifty cents a basket, while those of a larger 

 size, from Georgia, sell in the fancy-fruit stores at two 

 dollars for a box holding a dozen and a half. A few Bart- 

 Iett pears are coming from Virginia, evidently picked to 

 reach a bare market as early as possible. Wild goose plums, 

 from Delaware and Maryland, sell at twelve to fifteen cents a 

 quart at retail. A chance car-load of Peach plums and 

 Tragedy prunes came through from California last Friday, 

 and although the fruit was in poor condition from the pro- 

 tracted journey, the car-load realized above$3,ooo. Sweet Bough 

 and Astrachan apples, from Long Island, are becoming more 

 plentiful and cheap. Muskmelons are abundant, but good 

 ones are costly, some Jenny Linds of first quality, from Mary- 

 land, commanding two dollars and fifty cents for a basket of 

 eighteen melons. Two hundred and forty car-loads of water- 

 melons came from Georgia and South Carolina during last 

 week. In fact, watermelons are so abundant that wholesale 

 prices are quoted by the car-load as often as they are by the 

 hundred. A good car-load brings as much as $250. New 

 limes are coming from Jamaica, and there are small supplies 

 of grape-fruit from the same island. Besides the Rodi 

 oranges, which constitute the main summer supply, an occa- 

 sional box of King of Siam and other late oranges arrive from 

 Florida, and, of course, bring excellent prices. The large 

 number of 125,000 boxes of lemons were sold in this city last 

 week at fair prices, and bananas also continue to arrive in 

 enormous quantities, the receipts this month being even 

 heavier than in June, when more than half a million bunches 

 were received in this city. The season for bananas from 

 Cuba begins with March and closes in October. Nearly half 

 of the supply now comes from that island, principally from the 

 port of Gibara, the winter supply coming from more southern 

 latitudes. An effect of the general scarcity of fruit is noticed 

 on the streets, where fruit-stands are less numerous and less 

 bountifully supplied than in recent years. 



