430 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 348. 



Notes. 



We regref to say that by an accident the plates of the two 

 new species" of Ilex in the last issue of Garden and Forest 

 were interchanged, so that the portrait of Ilex tn'Hora appears 

 as Ilex Californica, and vice versa. 



A course of instruction in horticulture extending through 

 the months of January, February and March, and supple- 

 mented by lectures on the chemistry of plant-life, soils, fertil- 

 izers, eonomic entomology and kindred subjects, is offered by 

 the Pennsylvania State College. Such a brief tuition cannot 

 make an accomplished horticulturist, but students who find it 

 impossible to pursue a full college course of four years will 

 certainly be incited by the short one to more careful study and 

 the exercise of greater intelligence in the cultivation of plants. 

 The institution is well officered, and the number of its students 

 is increasing, many of them coming from neighboring states. 

 Its post-office address is State College, Pennsylvania. 



The early settlers of New Jersey were not slow to discover 

 the peculiar value and uses of the cranberries which grow 

 in the swampy sections of the Pines. Mahlon Stacy, writing 

 from West Jersey in April, 1680, to his brother in Yorkshire, 

 says that from " May till Michaelmas we have great store 

 of very good wild fruit, as strawberries and hurtelberries, 

 which are like our bilberries in England, but far sweeter, and 

 very wholesome," and he adds: "the cranberries are much 

 like cherries for color and bigness, and may be kept till fruit 

 comes in again. An excellent sauce is made of them for veni- 

 son, turkeys and other great fowl. They are better to make 

 tarts than either gooseberries or cherries. We have them 

 brought to our houses in great plenty by the Indians." 



Some tests of insect poisons which are used largely in Ala- 

 bama by Cotton planters have been made by the experiment 

 station in that state, and one sample of what was sold for Paris 

 green showed, upon chemical examination, an entire absence 

 both of copper and of arsenic. Tests were applied for all the 

 ordinary green coloring agents, without discovering traces of 

 any of them, and finally it was shown that Prussian blue 

 and chrome-yellow intimately mixed with each other and 

 thoroughly incorporated with a large quantity of the com- 

 monest material, such as clay and chalk-, produceda substance 

 which corresponded precisely in color to Paris green, although 

 it lacked the brightness of tint which characterizes the genuine 

 article. The counterfeit can be made tor about a cent a 

 pound, and it is entirely worthless as an insecticide. High- 

 grade Paris green frequently costs more than twenty cents a 

 pound, so that the manufacturer of the fraudulent goods, 

 no doubt, realized an enormous profit. 



In a bulletin on the "Cultivation of Orchards," lately issued 

 by Professor Bailey, it is stated, in relation to fertilizers, that 

 potash is the chief element needed in the soil, particularly 

 after trees come into bearing. This is usually supplied in the 

 form of muriate of potash, of which some 500 pounds, or even 

 more, may be used to the acre annually in mature orchards. 

 Wood-ashes is also an admirable source of potash, and forty 

 or fifty bushels of unleached ashes to the acre is a fair supply. 

 Phosphoric acid is the element of next importance, and from 

 300 to 500 pounds of plain superphosphate may be applied 

 annually to an acre. Preparations of bone, and, perhaps, the 

 Thomas slag also, furnish phosphoric acid in available form. 

 When lands are properly cropped, nitrogen can be obtained 

 most cheaply for orchards by plowing under nitrogenous 

 green manures. As nitrogen is a great promoter of growth, 

 it should be used with some caution, for orchard-trees are 

 grown for fruit rather than for timber. 



A late bulletin from the Cornell Experiment Station states 

 that the Apricot is already grown commercially to a consider- 

 able extent in western New York, and that the chief difficul- 

 ties in the way of its cultivation are the curculio and the habit 

 of early blossoming, which renders it liable to injury by late 

 spring frosts. The curculio can be kept in check by jarring 

 the trees in the same way that Plum and Peach trees are treated ; 

 while frost is best avoided by planting on high lands near a 

 large body of water, or in some other place where cold expo- 

 sure retards blooming. The Russian Apricots are somewhat 

 hardierthan the ordinary type, but the fruit is small and mostly 

 poor when compared with our standard sorts. The varieties 

 most prized for commercial planting in western New York are 

 Smith's Early, Harris, Early Moorpark, St. Ambroise, Turkish, 

 Montgamet, Royal and Moorpark. The root of the Apricot 

 itseli seems to be impatient of cold wet soils, and it is, therefore, 

 not a safe stock for grafting in central New York. Where 

 Plums flourish the common Plum is good stock ; where 



the Peach will thrive this is the best stock, and the Apricot 

 does well on it, whether nursery-budded or top-worked. 

 As the Apricot thrives on various kinds of stock it is adapted 

 to various kinds of soil. The cultivation, pruning and care 

 of the Apricot are similar to those required for the Peach, 

 and the two trees are about equally productive. 



The last Journal of Horticulture which has come to hand 

 contains the usual Rose analysis for the year, from which it 

 appears that Mrs. John Laing headed the list of Hybrid 

 Perpetuals in the number of times it was exhibited on 

 winning stands ; after which came Madame Gabriel Luizet 

 "and La France, three pink Roses. Next in order came Ulrich 

 Brunner, A. K. Williams and Marie Baumann, three red 

 Roses. Of the Roses introduced within six years which have 

 made good showings in the exhibitions Gustave Piganeau, 

 Madame Caroline Testout (Hybrid Tea), Jeannie Dickson, 

 Margaret Dickson, Marchioness of Dufferin, Mrs. Paul, Bour- 

 bon and Marchioness of Londonderry are the most note- 

 worthy. Among the Teas and Noisettes, Catherine Mermet 

 still leads, followed in order by Countess de Nadaillac, the 

 Bride, Innocente Pirola, Souvenir d'un Ami and Marie Van 

 Houtte. Of the comparatively new Tea Roses, Ethel Brown- 

 low, Madame Hoste, Ernest Metz, Souvenir de S. A. Prince 

 and Cleopatra have the best record. 



Eight or ten bulletins in regard to the Russian Thistle have 

 been already issued by the Department of Agriculture and 

 the experiment stations of Nebraska, North Dakota, Minne- 

 sota and Wisconsin, and this literature is now increased by 

 Bulletin No. 36 of the Iowa Agricultural College, and Bulletin 

 No. 35 from Professor Morrow, of the University of Illinois, 

 in which last state, as well as in north-western Indiana, the 

 imported weed seems to be already quite common. We are 

 informed by Dr. Collier, of the Geneva Experiment Station, 

 that the Thistle has been detected in this state about twenty- 

 five miles south of Geneva, and in the Country Gentleman tor 

 last week a correspondent states that he has found it beside a 

 highway near the Erie Railroad tracks, in the western part of 

 New York. Of course, a weed which is so abundant in the 

 north-west can easily be carried on railroad lines, especially 

 those lines which transport cattle. It is now pretty generally 

 understood, however, that this so-called Thistle, being an 

 annual plant, can be killed if it is only cut off at the surface 

 before it seeds. In the unfenced ranges of the west, where the 

 plant rolls before the wind, like our Tumble Weeds, it can, no 

 doubt, seed hundreds of acres very quickly. It is not difficult to 

 subdue it in cultivated farms, but, alter all, it is one more weed 

 to fight, and as it is likely to become well known throughout the 

 eastern states within a tew years, it is advisable to destroy it 

 wherever it is found. It is hardly necessary to repeat here 

 that the plant is not a Thistle and does not even look like one. 

 The seeds, like the flowers and leaves, are very small, and a 

 single plant may produce as many as twenty-five thousand, 

 and if allowed to scatter them it can infest a large area. 



Considerable quantities of a few varieties of peaches are 

 still coming from California, mainly the white Heath and 

 Honey Cling, and the yellow Salway. They are sometimes 

 offered in Jersey peach baskets at $1.50, retail. A few of the 

 late Smock peaches, from western New York, are still to be 

 had. German prunes, trom New York state, sell for $1.50 for a 

 six-quart basket. This large purple fruit and Coe's Late Red 

 are the only fresh plums now in market, although some Kel- 

 seys, Silver prunes and Gros prunes, held in cold storage, are 

 yet occasionally seen. Some Spanish pomegranates were sold 

 on Monday, and cases which contained 105 fruits brought from 

 $2.75 to $3.25. There are a few pomegranates from California 

 in the market, but evidently the growers of that state have not 

 yet learned to raise this fruit successfully — that is, if we 

 are to judge from the specimens sent to this market, which 

 are quite inferior in appearance and flavor to the imported 

 ones. The supply of quinces from California has been limited 

 this season, and the large, smooth, regular fruit now offered 

 by a few dealers commands $3.00 a box. Pears of unusual size 

 and beauty are now to be seen, and boxes of Easter Beurre, 

 which average a pound apiece, can be had for $4.00, or some- 

 thing like ten cents each, at wholesale. The first large sale of 

 Almeria grapes this season took place on Monday, when 

 1 1 ,000 barrels were disposed ot at auction. Native Concord 

 grapes bring twenty-five cents for a ten-pound basket, and 

 selected bunches, cut with a piece of the woody cane, cost the 

 same price for half the weight. Wintergreen berries are more 

 abundant in our markets this year than ever before. They 

 sell for fifteen cents a quart-box, at retail, and the price is 

 maintained by their increased use in the liar-rooms of the 

 city. 



