33Q 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 338. 



Notes. 



A correspondent inquires how much land it would require 

 to furnish strawberries enough to supply an average-sized 

 family. We should say that such a family might have in an 

 average year all the fresh berries needed during their season, 

 besides a few for canning, if five or six rows of plants a hun- 

 dred feet long were set out and cultivated with rather more 

 than average care. 



A wine syndicate has been incorporated in California for the 

 purpose of maintaining the prices of grapes and putting an 

 end to the ruinous competition which has forced the price of 

 wine below the cost of production. The new association, 

 which is composed of the largest wine makers in California, 

 has secured options on four-fifths of the entire vineyard area 

 of the state. No wine will be sent out unless it comes up to 

 a certain standard. 



The celebrated pond in Bordentown, New Jersey, where the 

 so-called Egyptian Lotus was first naturalized, is now in its 

 greatest beauty, and the growth is unusually fine this year. 

 Mr. E. D. Sturtevant writes that during the last week in July a 

 thousand flowers could be seen expanded at one time. In 

 some instances the flower-stems rise to a height of more than 

 eight feet, and a tall man wading in the shallow water through 

 this miniature tropical jungle is entirely hidden from view. 



In most of the eastern states this has been a trying year for 

 new plantations on account of the protracted drought and 

 heat, and yet, out of several thousand trees and shrubs trans- 

 planted in the Arnold Arboretum, very few have succumbed. 

 Indeed, the plantations have rarely looked better, and Mr. 

 Dawson attributes this success to a very careful preparation of 

 the ground. Cultivation, to keep the surface soil loosened, 

 has helped, but the principal factor was deep and thorough 

 trenching beforehand. Only when ground is prepared in this 

 way are newly planted trees and shrubs enabled to resist suc- 

 cessfully long periods of drought. 



A dispatch to the Tribune of this city states that a train-load 

 of fresh California fruit will be sent to London every week 

 until the end of the season, and that the first shipment of this 

 year is now on the way. An experiment of this kind was made 

 two years ago, but freight rates were so high that the venture 

 was a losing one. But with rates reduced to present figures 

 a fair profit ought to be realized. It is estimated by competent 

 authorities that California has lost $1,500,000 by the railroad 

 strike. This means not only that much fruit was lost, but that 

 prices have been greatly depressed by the present glut in eastern 

 markets. Since the strike as many as 108 car-loads of fruit have 

 been shipped eastward from Sacramento in one day. The San 

 Francisco fruit market is flooded with choice Bartlett pears 

 and Crawford peaches, and street peddlers are selling sixteen 

 large pears or peaches for five cents, a price which does not 

 pay for picking and packing. 



A writer in the American Agriculturist states that from six 

 to eight thousand acres of land in Wayne County, New York, 

 are devoted to the cultivation of Peppermint. The average 

 yield is about a ton of wilted plants to the acre, and this will 

 produce some twenty pounds of oil. The yield runs down 

 from this to ten pounds, and even less, and has been known 

 to go as high as forty-five pounds of oil to the acre, the price 

 of which has varied within a few years from $1.35 to $5.25 a 

 pound. The prices received by different growers depend 

 largely on the freedom of the Mint from weeds, which are the 

 great enemy to success. The habit of the Peppermint is such 

 that its profitable cultivation is impossible upon foul land. 

 Low, rich, mucky land is selected, and in April portions of the 

 old plants are strewn in furrows thirty inches apart. The 

 ground is kept clean until the plants, by tillering, take entire 

 possession of it. After this hand-weeding must be resorted 

 to. The land is cropped two, and sometimes three, years, but 

 it then becomes so weedy that the oil will not be good enough 

 to pay for harvesting. Of course, the first crop is best. The 

 Mint ripens when about two and a half feet high, is cut with 

 cradles in the latter part of August, raked into cocks, wilted, 

 and then taken to the still which extracts the oil. 



Students of palaeontology will be interested in an article by 

 Mr. Lester F. Ward, published in the July Bulletin of the Tor- 

 rcy Botanical Club, and entitled "Recent discoveries of Cyca- 

 dean Trunks in the Potomac Formation of Maryland." In 

 1859 two ' ar g e fossilized Cycad-trunks were discovered in the 

 iron-ore region of Maryland, and recently Mr. Arthur Bibbins, 

 Curator of the Museum of the Woman's College in Maryland, 



has found thirty-five additional ones, all good, and many of 

 them "extraordinarily fine" specimens, some showing fully 

 half the original trunk of the tree. This the writer regards as 

 " one of the most important events in the history of palaeon- 

 tology in America, as it brings together such a body of facts 

 relative to the Lower Cretaceous in Maryland that it will now 

 be possible to give something like a complete history of that 

 type of plants." The numerous and valuable specimens were 

 not unearthed by Mr. Bibbins, but were found in the posses- 

 sion of rural residents of the iron-ore districts, having been 

 discovered long ago. Their curious aspect then attracted at- 

 tention, and they were preserved as curiosities, perhaps in the 

 hope that they might prove of pecuniary value ; and, there- 

 fore, in addition to the specimens that Mr. Bibbins actually 

 obtained, there remain quite a number which are known to 

 exist, but which for the present cannot be found. 



The Duchess of Oldenburg, Holland and Twenty-ounce 

 Pippins, and Maiden Blush have been added during the week 

 to the list of apples now on sale here, and these bring as high 

 a price as Nyack Pippins, $3.00 to $3.50 a barrel at retail. 

 Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey peaches are still high and 

 in moderate supply, the best selling for $2.50 a basket, and 

 even more, to the retail buyer. Moore's Early and Champion 

 grapes are now coming from as far northward as Delaware, 

 Virginia contributing most of the supply at this time. Belle 

 Lucrative, Flemish Beauty and Catherine pears have arrived 

 from New Jersey and from the Hudson River district. But 

 the main factor in the fruit-market is the enormous quantity 

 of California fruit now arriving. Whereas sixty car-loads a 

 week is a normal supply for this city, and eighty car-loads the 

 limit of sales at fair prices, as many as one hundred and thirty- 

 five car-loads were sold here last week. Nearly 40,000 boxes 

 of Bartlett pears alone have been sold at prices that little 

 more than pay actual shipping expenses to the grower. The 

 fruit is of fine quality, and this is especially true of the peaches, 

 which this year are of a flavor that compares well with eastern 

 fruit, while the nectarines, which began to arrive last week, 

 although small, are beautifully colored and of unusually high 

 flavor. Canteloupes and Jenny Lind muskmelonsfrom Mary- 

 land and Virginia sell at $2.00 and $2.25 a barrel at wholesale, 

 while only the best grade of an uncommonly large supply of 

 the yellow-fleshed Christina melon brings as much as $1.50 a 

 barrel. Probably there have never been as many watermelons 

 in this market before. Last week, after thirty-one car-loads 

 had been unloaded on one of the railroad docks in this city 

 and added to a large quantity already on hand, forty-eight car- 

 loads remained standing in Jersey City awaiting room on this 

 side. Those quoted as "prime" sell at $12 to $15 a hundred. 



Under the act of Parliament which gave Covent Garden 

 Market its charter in 1828, it was divided into eight sections, 

 the smallest of which, containing twelve small stands, was 

 devoted to trade in flowers and plants. In 1S48 the old place 

 had become inadequate and a separate flower-market was 

 built. With increased facilities for trade the demand grew, 

 and as plants and flowers were better grown and better known 

 they were more appreciated, and the present large market 

 was founded, and already this is filled to overflowing, so that 

 bedding-plants for gardens and window-boxes are accommo- 

 dated outside. No flower-show in the world can equal this 

 market in the morning, either in the abundance of its material 

 or its average excellence. The plants are of a size suitable for 

 the purpose for which they are to be used, and they are perfect 

 examples of good cultivation. More perfect specimens of 

 Pelargoniums, or well-flowered Fuchsias, or finer pots of Mig- 

 nonette, some of them carrying six or eight giant trusses, or 

 Ericas of different varieties cannot be seen anywhere. The cut 

 flowers are quite as good as the growing plants. They come 

 not only from near-by points, but they come by the thousand 

 from France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, the Channel 

 Islands, Scilly Islands, and every nook and corner of Great 

 Britain. As an indication of the amount of business done here 

 it is stated in a recent article that a single grower often sells in 

 one day eight hundred large baskets of double white daffodils, 

 each basket containing a dozen bunches ; while another dis- 

 poses of $300 worth of violets in a morning. As an instance 

 of the enterprise which keeps up with all attractive novelties, 

 it is said that one grower already sells daily two hundred dozen 

 flowers of the new variety of Carnation, Uriah Pike. Some 

 estimate of the enormous quantity of flowers sold in this mar- 

 ket can be made from the following figures for one morning 

 in May last : 268 large vans were loaded with flowers ; there 

 were 114 smaller loads, besides 370 stands with every availa- 

 ble shelf packed to overflowing, gangways blocked and the 

 entire floor space filled. 



