August 22, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



339 



in British India has been based upon forestry as it had de- 

 veloped in France and Germany, and it is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that good forest-management in America will 

 be built up upon the same foundation. 



Bonn/German/ Dietrich Bramhs. 



Meetings of Societies. 



Agricultural Science in Brooklyn. 



THE Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science 

 held its fifteenth annual meeting in Brooklyn last 

 week, at which Professor William Saunders, Director of the 

 Experiment Station System of the Dominion of Canada, 

 was re-elected President, and Professor William Frear, of 

 the Pennsylvania State College, was re-elected Secretary. 

 Dr. Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture, 

 is associated with these gentlemen as the third member of 

 the Executive Committee. The following are brief notes 

 of some of the more interesting papers which were read at 

 the sessions of the society : 



Professor John B.Smith, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, 

 read a paper on " Nurseries as Factors in the Distribution of 

 Insect Pests," and after showing how complicated the business 

 of fruit-growing had become, he explained that nurserymen 

 were compelled to search the world over in order to secure 

 varieties suited to different locations and different markets, 

 ■ and to find trees which are proof against blight and insects. 

 The last thing that occurs to an exporter or importer of trees 

 is an examination to ascertain whether they are free from in- 

 sects, and in this way many destructive and troublesome 

 species have been introduced into the United States by nurse- 

 ries, and have been distributed from one part of the country 

 to the other. As an' example of this. Professor Smith said 

 that in their search for curculio-proof Plums, two New Jersey 

 nurseries obtained some eight or nine years ago some Japa- 

 nese varieties from California, and also some Idaho Pears 

 from another Pacific coast nursery. Both the Plums and 

 Pears were infested by the San Jose scale, Aspidiotus perni- 

 ciosus, and they multiplied unchecked in their new surround- 

 ings. Plums and Pears were grafted and budded from this 

 stock, and the insects were propagated as well. Trees left to 

 o-row and bear were speedily overrun and served as distribut- 

 ing centres, infecting, the nursery stock sent out to customers, 

 and in less than half a dozen years this scale has been spread, 

 principally by two nurseries, over the entire eastern United 

 States from New York to Florida. Plant diseases are even 

 more generally spread by nurseries than insects, and in the 

 discussion of this paper it appeared that the Peach-yellows and 

 the leaf-curl of the Peach were both disseminated in this way. 

 There would be little difficulty in preventing the distribution 

 of insects by nurseries on trees under proper supervision. It 

 would be more difficult to arrest the spread of plant diseases, 

 but it would seem that it might be a legitimate duty of experi- 

 ment stations or of other institutions to look after this matter. 

 Professor B. T. Galloway, of the Department of Agriculture, 

 read a paper on "The Growth of Lettuce as affected by the 

 Physical Properties of the Soil." An especially good quality of 

 Lettuce is forced in the greenhouses about Boston, where a 

 strain with uniform, compact heads, yellowish white within, 

 and light yellowish green without, free from rot or burn, 

 is produced. Of course, in order to grow perfect plants, 

 there must be a proper degree of light and of heat, pure seed 

 and general skill ; but, after all, an essential factor is the 

 physical properties of the soil. First-class Lettuce cannot be 

 grown under any conditions unless the soil has certain phys- 

 ical properties, which, together with the relation of the soil to 

 circulation of air, moisture and heat, control the development 

 of the crop. This paper was the result of some investigations 

 into these properties of the soil, and it was an attempt to point 

 out some of the differences between a soil that will grow good 

 Lettuce and one that will not. The soil in which the best Let- 

 tuce grows — that is, Lettuce of the type found about Boston 

 and Providence, where two hundred acres of specially con- 

 structed greenhouses are used in forcing this plant — was here 

 described and a mechanical analysis given. On comparing it 

 with gneiss-soil of Maryland it was shown that the Boston soilcon- 

 tained but 3.10 per cent, of clay, while Maryland soil contained 

 28. 82 per cent. The Boston soil contained 14.59 of silt - and tlie 

 Maryland 34.92. Although the Boston soil may be called 

 sandy, its capacity for moisture is remarkable, as was shown 

 in a graphic illustration, which gave the daily moisture-content 



for Boston and for Maryland soils in March, 1894, the first 

 averaging twenty-eight per cent, of water, and the latter six- 

 teen and a halt per cent. Again, the Boston soil contains 

 more air, as was shown by an actual determination of the 

 empty space, and as was evidenced by the development of the 

 roots. Professor Galloway went on to detail some interesting 

 experiments with prepared soils, one with a mixture of two 

 parts of drift-sand and one of greenhouse-soil, another of 

 greenhouse-soil alone, and the third with Boston soil and de- 

 composed manure. Without going into figures, it is enough 

 to say that the bed of drift-sand and greenhouse-soil and the 

 bed of Boston soil both gave results much superior to those 

 obtained from the second bed. Altogether, a most interesting 

 field of research was opened by this discussion and the publi- 

 cation of Professor Galloway's paper, with its illustrations and 

 tables," will be welcomed by every one interested in scientific 

 agriculture. 



Professor Beal read some notes on the "Vitality of Seeds 

 Buried in the Soil." Fifteen years ago he had buried twenty 

 lots of fifty seeds each of twenty-one species, mostly weeds, 

 the seeds being mixed with damp sand and placed in eight- 

 ounce bottles. After the end of five years, and again at the 

 end of ten years, these seeds were tested, and now at the end 

 of fifteen years an additional test has been made which shows 

 that many of the seeds still retain their vitality. They were 

 sowed this spring and are still coming up. The seeds of some 

 weeds belonging to the Mustard family, like Shepherd's Purse 

 and Pepper Grass, all retain their germinative power, while 

 those of May Weed (Anthemis Cotula), Evening Primrose, 

 Purslane, Narrow Dock and Mullein are still very much alive. 



In another paper on the "Vitality of Clover Seed," Dr. Beal 

 stated that some twelve years ago he selected from a second 

 crop of Red Clover the seeds of fifty good heads from five 

 plants, which were placed in a glass bottle and exposed to the 

 light. On the first of June of this year fifty seeds of each lot 

 were tested, and a month later a second lot was tested, which 

 showed that an average of thirty-six per cent, germinated. As 

 a practical matter farmers may, therefore, rest assured that if 

 their Clover-seed is well cured and kept free from insects and 

 vermin there is little danger but that it will germinate for at 

 least five years. 



Professor W. E. Stone, of Purdue University, gave an ac- 

 count of some investigations of the oil of the Black Walnut, 

 from which it appears that the actual amount of oil contained 

 in this nut is titty-five per cent, of the weight of the kernel. 

 The oil extracted by pressure was a pale straw-color, with a 

 faint but agreeable taste and odor characteristic of the nut, 

 and after standing six months the sample remains free from 

 unpleasant taste and smell. The oil belongs to the class of 

 "drying oils," and a sample exposed to the air some days 

 steadily increased in weight and became hard and varnish-like, 

 a property also characteristic of the oil of the English Walnut. 

 One of the valuable properties of the oil of the English Walnut 

 is its adaptation to the manufacture of an exceptionally fine var- 

 nish. So far as can be ascertained short of a practical test, our 

 Black Walnut oil possesses all the qualities for a similar appli- 

 cation, and undoubtedly is capable of many practical uses if 

 occasion demands. 



Professor L. R. Jones gave a new method of combating the 

 minute flea-beetle, which is very often destructive to the 

 Potato crop, since these insects appear suddenly and in great 

 numbers, and in a few days completely skeletonize the leaves 

 of the plants. In spraying with the Bordeaux mixture, to pre- 

 vent the Potato-blight, it was found that the mixture was quite 

 as effective against these insects as against the spores of fungi. 



Professor E. V. Voorhis gave an account of some experi-' 

 ments with Crimson Clover in New Jersey which go to prove 

 that this is an admirable crop to sow in orchards, where it 

 helps to increase the nitrogen supply, and can be plowed un- 

 der, or may be allowed to stand and reseed the ground, acting 

 meanwhile as a protective mulch. 



Dr. Veranus A. Moore, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, made an inquiry into the alleged relation existing 

 between the Burrill disease of Corn and the so-called Corn-stalk 

 disease of cattle, with the result that he found no clinical or 

 experimental evidence sufficient to show that the disease of 

 Corn is responsible for the disease in animals. There are, on 

 the contrary, many facts to support the assumption that there 

 is no causal relation whatever existing between this malady 

 and the so-called Corn-stalk disease of cattle. 



Professor B. D. Halsted spoke of the weather in relation to 

 injurious fungi. Professor F. H. King presented some inter- 

 esting observations on the " Rate of the Percolation of Water 

 from a System of Tile Drains." Professor L. H. Pammel, of 

 the Iowa Agricultural College, read a paper on " Climate and 



