480 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 353. 



well as ornamental, vote, that any person being an inhabi- 

 tant of this town that shall injure or destroy such trees 

 shall pay a fine not exceeding- twenty shillings for every 

 offense, for the use of the poor." Such books of local in- 

 formation as this one, which was inspired by and modeled 

 on Mr. John Robinson's excellent Trees of Salem, can but 

 increase the knowledge of trees and the affection and 

 respect with which they are held in the community, and 

 more of them ought to be written. 



Notes. 



Grape-vines laid down on the ground will endure the winter 

 much more safely, even without any covering, than they will 

 when exposed to the wind, as they are on a trellis. It is safer, 

 however, in this climate to give them a light covering as freezing 

 weather comes. 



It is stated in a bulletin of the North Carolina Agricultural 

 Station that green tomatoes can be satisfactorily ripened if 

 they are gathered when a sharp frost is imminent, wrapped 

 separately in paper, packed in boxes and stored in a place just 

 warm enough to keep them secure from frost. If brought out 

 a few at a time, as they are wanted, and placed in a warm 

 place, they will ripen in a few days. Tomatoes of good quality 

 have been ripened in this way as late as the middle of 

 January. 



A correspondent of the New England Farmer writes that 

 parchment paper can be used with good effect in a small gar- 

 den as mulch. Brown paper, dipped in sulphuric acid and 

 made tough and water-proof, is used for this purpose, and it 

 is said in time of drought to have proved effective in checking 

 evaporation and keeping down weeds. Experiments with this 

 paper may be worth trying in a small way, but we should sup- 

 pose that a thicker layer of some more porous and permeable 

 substance would be preferable. 



The wine-makers of California have organized an associa- 

 tion which is said to represent five million gallons out of the 

 eight million gallons which it is necessary to control in order 

 to establish a fair price for the wines of that state and extend 

 their sale in the east. Although it costs fifty cents a gallon to 

 import French wines, California producers have been com- 

 pelled this year to accept ten cents, and in many instances as 

 low as seven cents a gallon for good wine, prices at which 

 there is an actual loss to the grower of wine-grapes. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman objects, with 

 some force, to the practice of removing young trees from the 

 nursery rows in autumn before they have completed their 

 growth. It is a common practice to strip the leaves off from 

 these trees, which does no hurt if the wood is matured. 

 They will then come off easily, but if this is done while the 

 tree is still growing it often shrivels, and suffers in conse- 

 quence. For orchard planting the writer prefers small well- 

 rooted trees. These are cut back low to the ground the next 

 spring, and they will then grow rapidly, need no staking, and 

 the ample root-system will insure a good top. 



At a recent meeting of the Indiana State Horticultural Society 

 a bill was prepared for presentation to the next Legislature, which 

 authorizes the creation of a Bureau of Forestry, Horticulture 

 and Irrigation, and provides for an annual tax of five mills 

 upon every hundred dollars' worth of taxable property in the 

 state for the purpose of establishing an arboretum and a farm 

 for experimental grounds in forestry and horticulture. Another 

 section makes it lawful for townships, counties and cities to 

 purchase and hold in fee simple lands which can be devoted 

 to forest-planting, or to experiments in horticulture, or irriga- 

 tion, or for public assemblies, or for military encampments. 



A correspondent of the Agriculturist finds that she can get 

 Sweet Peas early by sowing the seed in October. A bed is dug 

 up deeply, made fairly rich, and the peas are put in only about 

 two inches deep, although after they come up a little earth is 

 sprinkled over the rows. They are three or four inches high 

 before cold weather sets in, when a simple cold frame, twenty 

 inches high at the back and twelve on the front or south 

 side of the row, is put on and old sashes laid over this. Dry 

 leaves and manure are heaped against the frame on the out- 

 side, and the plants keep growing a little all winter long. On 

 warm days the sashes are lifted for a few hours, and by the 

 first of April the plants are a foot high and ready for brush. 

 Emily Henderson, Blanch Ferry and Dorothy Tennant under 

 this treatment will be in bloom before spring-planted Peas are 

 fairly up and growing. 



Mr. S. D. Willard, in the Rural New Yorker, states that 

 nothing is better for covering bruises on trees than oil shellac, 

 with, perhaps, a little flower of sulphur and a few drops of car- 

 bolic acid, which last ingredient should be used very sparingly. 

 The mixture can be applied with a paint-brush. For the ex- 

 clusion of air from wounds, it is suggested that a grafting wax, 

 made of four parts of resin, two parts of beeswax and one of 

 tallow, melted together, poured into water and immediately 

 worked and made up into half-pound rolls, is convenient to 

 have ready for use. Held in the hand so that it is softened, a 

 small lump of it may be spread over a wound, and it will re- 

 main for some time and keep out air and germs of dis- 

 ease. If the wound is large the application may need to be 

 repeated. 



None of the new crop of Pignolia nuts have yet arrived, but 

 what remains of last year's crop sells for twelve and a half to 

 fourteen cents a pound at wholesale. These nuts come from 

 Italy and the Levant, and are the seeds of Pinus Pinea. They 

 do not keep well in summer-time and have to be held con- 

 stantly in cold storage. They are used mostly for making 

 confections. The edible seeds of our own Nut Pines of the 

 Pacific coast are known as Pifions ; they are borne by Pinus 

 Parryana, P. edulis, P. monophylla and P. cembroides. These 

 smaller native nuts furnish the Indians with a valuable article 

 of food, and are agreeable to the taste, but they have not 

 gained any place in commerce here. Of the foreign product 

 more than 100,000 pounds are disposed of in our country in 

 a year. 



But nine car-loads of California fruit reached this city last 

 week, mostly grapes, and as these supplies have diminished, 

 prices of bananas and Florida oranges have increased from 

 fifteen to twenty per cent. Nearly 40,000 boxes of Florida 

 oranges arrived last week, and in riper condition than the 

 earlier receipts. A limited stock of the showy Japanese per- 

 simmons — the best that have come here this season from 

 Florida — may now be had, and these cost from sixty to sev- 

 enty-five cents a dozen. Small lots of these persimmons from 

 California are also in the market. Strawberries, in refrigera- 

 tor boxes holding 105 pint cups each, have been received from 

 California during the past week, and sold at retail at seventy- 

 five cents a cup. Large fancy varieties of cranberries com- 

 mand as much as twelve dollars a barrel. 



Only a short time ago it was made public that a beautiful 

 tract of land, containing nearly one hundred acres, in the west- 

 ern part of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, which had be- 

 longed to the late C. M. Pond, had been bequeathed to the city 

 for park purposes, and $180,000 were added to buy more land, 

 if it was needed, and to help in improving it. Eighty acres more 

 in the south-western part of the city were afterward offered by 

 Colonel Pope, and it is now stated that by the will of Mr. Henry 

 Kenny, who died last week, a sum amounting to more than 

 half a million dollars has been left in trust to purchase suitable 

 land in the northern quarter of the city for park purposes. If 

 these tracts of land are connected by broad tree-lined avenues, 

 as is likely, the result will be a continued stretch of eight miles 

 of park and parkway, sweeping in a semicircle half-way round 

 the city. Hartford will be fortunate if the most is made of these 

 inviting opportunities by some designer of taste and experi- 

 ence. 



At the late meeting of the Association of Economic Ento- 

 mologists there was some discussion as to the value of an 

 implement which has been devised by Professor Goff, by 

 means of which kerosene is mixed with water at the instant of 

 passing through a spraying nozzle, so that there is no need of 

 making an emulsion previously. It is claimed that the ma- 

 chine is so arranged that the piston draws on both the water 

 and the kerosene supply and mingles the two fluids in correct 

 proportions. A machine constructed on this principle has 

 been put on the market, but some of the members of the asso- 

 ciation who had tried it had found it unsatisfactory. Mr. Mar- 

 latt, of the Department of Agriculture, stated that the practical 

 working of the machine with him had rendered any applica- 

 tion of the oil dangerous to plants since it was impossible to 

 foretell the percentage of oil used. It would seem, therefore, 

 that this would be a dangerous implement to put in the hands 

 of horticulturists, and until some more certain plan of insur- 

 ing uniformity in the ratio of the water to the oil is devised, 

 it will be much better to adhere to the standard emul- 

 sions, which, after all, are not difficult of preparation, and have 

 the advantages, beyond the mere attenuation of the oil, of 

 giving the mixture consistency, which extends its action. Be- 

 sides this, wherever the spray collects in drops free oil will 

 always separate in sufficient amount to injure the foliage. 



