3 8o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 343. 



Notes. 



One of the plants of the Victoria Regia, in the Lily ponds of 

 Messrs. Tricker & Co., Clifton, New Jersey, last week had 

 seventeen leaves, two flowers open and seven visible buds. 



The first chestnuts of the season appeared in this market 

 last week. They came from the high lands in Ulster County, 

 this state, where it is said there had been a frost which 

 opened the burs. 



For the first time this year the large Spanish onions are in 

 the market. They retail at five cents each, but since there 

 are between 60,000 and 70,000 crates now on the ocean, des- 

 tined for this port, they are likely to be even cheaper. 



Notwithstanding the dry weather this summer, the Scarlet 

 Thorns are fruiting with unusual abundance in the neighbor- 

 hood of this city, and many of the trees are so bright with 

 ripened fruit now that they make a conspicuous display in 

 roadside thickets. 



We have received the leaves of a Hickory-tree which are 

 prematurely browned in patches, and Professor Halsted iden- 

 tifies the trouble as a parasitic fungus, Gleosporium Carya?, 

 which is quite common. We recently observed three Hicko- 

 ries standing in a row, and so close that their branches 

 touched. The middle tree was so badly affected that the 

 leaves all seemed dead, while the trees on either side of it were 

 perfectly healthy. It is possible that in such cases the affected 

 tree may have some constitutional weakness. 



The eighth annual convention of the Association of Amer- 

 ican Cemetery Superintendents was held last week in Philadel- 

 phia. The meeting was successful in point of attendance and 

 in the character of the papers read, and it was made particu- 

 larly interesting by visits to Fairmount Park, Laurel Hill and 

 West Laurel Hill Cemeteries, and to Harleigh Cemetery, in 

 Camden, New Jersey, which is conducted in accordance 

 with advanced modern methods and is considered a very 

 satisfactory work. O. C. Simonds, of Chicago, was elected 

 President for the ensuing year; George W. Cressy, of Salem, 

 Massachusetts, Vice-President, and Frank Eurich, of Toledo, 

 was re-elected Secretary. The next meeting is to be held in 

 Richmond, Virginia. 



To a correspondent who inquires as to the proper amount 

 of fertilizers to be applied to Peach-trees we can only say that 

 different amounts are needed in different soils. In some good 

 orchards in New Jersey one hundred and fifty pounds of mu- 

 riate or sulphate of potash and three hundred pounds of 

 ground bone to the acre are applied broadcast every year. 

 Professor Voorhees, of the New Jersey Experiment Station, 

 does not recommend the application of fertilizers until the 

 trees come into bearing. This direction presupposes that 

 good cultivation has been practiced from the beginning. 

 Where nitrogen is not supplied by turning under Crimson Clover 

 or some other leguminous crop, nitrate of potash is some- 

 times used at the rate of one hundred to one hundred and fifty 

 pounds per acre every year. 



Very rarely does one see such a rapid transformation in 

 scenery as that which took place within three or four days 

 after the recent rains in this vicinity. The rainfall was abun- 

 dant and thoroughly soaked the hot ground, while the close, 

 moist air which succeeded produced exactly the conditions 

 which prevail in a propagating house, and the grass blades 

 started from the roots with unusual energy. Four days after 

 the rain the burned lawns of Central Park were as green as 

 they ever were in May, and Mormngside Park, where the turf 

 had been to all appearance absolutely dead, was carpeted with 

 tender green, even to the verge of the rocky ledges. The 

 change strongly enforces the argument for providing a water- 

 supply which we made last week. These public grounds 

 could have been made to smile with the same beauty all 

 through the long drought if adequate means for irrigation had 

 been provided. 



Two or three correspondents have written about the Morn- 

 ing-glory known in California as Heavenly Blue (Ipomcea 

 rubro-ccerulea), to inquire whether it can be grown in this 

 latitude. There seems to be no trouble about this, and 

 although Mr. Sturtevant stated that it begins to flower late, 

 we have seen plants in Jersey City which have been producing 

 flowers in abundance since the 1st of September. The seed 

 should be sown under glass in small pots in March, and the 

 plants should be carefully hardened off before setting them 

 out-of-doors. This should not be done until the ground is 



thoroughly warm — that is, not before the middle or latter part 

 of May in this latitude. If the plants have become somewhat 

 pot-bound they will be all thebetterforit. When thefiot weather 

 comes they will make a rampant growth, and soon climbup 

 twenty feet if they have a chance, and every morning they 

 will produce numbers of flowers of the rarest blue, and from 

 three to three and a half inches across. The rich green of the 

 foliage of the plant and the depth and purity of the color of its 

 flowers make it a striking object at this season. 



The effect of heavy rain and wind storms in New Jersey ten 

 days ago is seen in an oversupply of windfalls, and the lessen- 

 ing stock of good peaches from that state. The grades known 

 in the trade as small, common and prime find a slow whole- 

 sale market at from thirty to seventy cents a basket, while 

 grades known as best line and fancy range from seventy-five 

 cents to a dollar and a half a basket, which means, considera- 

 bly higher prices for the retail buyer. The season for Bartlelt 

 pears is also coming to a close, and later varieties, as Anjou, 

 Bosc, Louise Bonne and Sheldon, are now offered. Receipts 

 of California fruits are becoming smaller, fifty-one car-loads 

 constituting the supply in this city last week. Among some 

 twenty distinct varieties of California peaches noted in the 

 markets are Crawford's Late, Lemon Cling, the popular and 

 showy Susquehanna, Ward's Late, a white peach, juicy and of 

 rich flavor, Picquet's Late, a yellow free-stone, and George's 

 Late, a large yellow peach, striped and splashed with bright 

 red and counted among the best peaches for shipping. Gros, 

 Hungarian, Kelsey, Silver and Fellenberg prunes are among 

 the latest varieties of this fruit seen here, with Coe's Golden 

 Drop plum, a favorite for canning. 



In the branch of the Florida Experiment Station which has 

 been established at Fort Myers, in Lee County, many experi- 

 ments are now being made to test the value of tropical products 

 in that climate. It is stated in a report just published that that 

 part of Florida produces larger and finer Pineapples, Avocado 

 Pears, Sapodillas and Guavas than are grown in Cuba and 

 other tropical countries. The reason for this may be due to 

 the fact that the rainy and dry seasons are neither of them so 

 severe as they are within the tropics and that the cooler win- 

 ters give a longer season of rest, after which the plants grow 

 off vigorously like northern vegetation with the return of 

 spring.' The experiments made with the Cocoanut at this 

 place have been very encouraging, and the superintendent 

 asserts that he can see no reason why that part of Florida 

 should not produce all the cocoanuts needed for supplying the 

 United States. Other fruits that are giving promise of success 

 are the Cherimoya, the Star Apple, the Date Palm, the Span- 

 ish Lime, which is not a citrus fruit, but, botanically, Melicocca 

 bijuga, the Sour Sop, the Cashew-nut and the Tamarind. Thus 

 far the Mango and the Mangosteen, the Mammee Apple, the 

 Sapota and the Bread Fruit have not given much promise of 

 success. 



A bulletin which has just been sent out by Professor Mark 

 W. Harrington, Chief of the Weather Bureau, gives the 

 opinions gathered from many shippers of perishable products 

 throughout the country in relation to the proper protection of 

 fruits and vegetables by heat and cold during transportation. 

 These men generally concur in the statement that the danger 

 in transportation from freezing has been eliminated by modern 

 methods. The so-called lined car, which has a partition of 

 tongued and grooved boards at the sides and ends, placed so 

 as to leave an air-space of about four inches, answers for 

 spring and autumn and during most winter weather, while 

 the Eastman heating-car in extreme weather has proved a 

 perfect protection. Perishable goods can be shipped with 

 safety in ordinary freight-cars when the outside temperature 

 is twenty degrees, Fahrenheit, and in refrigerator-cars when it 

 is ten degrees. Fruit wrapped in heavy brown paper will 

 endure fifteen degrees more cold than if it is not so wrapped. 

 Dampness is very injurious, and products which are shipped 

 in a dry condition can endure a much lower degree of tem- 

 perature without injury than under moist conditions. It 

 should always be remembered that the kind of packing which 

 keeps out the cold will keep in the heat, so that there is often 

 more danger from heating by process of decomposition than 

 from injury by the cold. When a north wind is blowing on 

 the prairie, cars which contain fruit are often covered with 

 canvas on the north side. Oranges that have been frozen may 

 be thawed without injury by putting them in cold water or in 

 tight barrels immediately after arriving, allowing them to 

 thaw out gradually. These are some of the points picked 

 almost at random from what is altogether a most instructive 

 circular. 



