72 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 155. 



Grape has been worth at least $50,000,000 to the country. He 

 added that the improvement in Strawberries had been most 

 marked, and at an exhibition of seedlings at the Geneva Experi- 

 ment Station last summer there were hundreds of varieties of 

 such a high average excellence that a grower might safely 

 have taken plants at random and secured a good collection. 

 Our wild fruits offer a tempting field for experiments. It is 

 only a few years since the Black Raspberry was domesticated ; 

 the Juneberry and High-bush Cranberry are already on trial. 

 Dried elderberries are now sold at the groceries, and the fresh 

 fruit was sold in the streets at paying prices last year. 



Last year Mr. George Ellwanger gave the Society $i,ooo, with 

 the provision that its annual income be devoted to prizes open 

 to members of the Society. The committee to whom the mat- 

 ter was entrusted reported the establishment of the Ellwanger 

 prize, which is to be awarded to the owner of the best main- 

 tained private place, special reference being had to the plant- 

 ing and general treatment of the grounds. The Barry medal, 

 costing $50, will be awarded to the originator of the new fruit, 

 ornamental tree, shrub or herbaceous plant or vegetable 

 which, in the opinion of the committee, shall have the highest 

 value. 



In the report of the Grape Committee, Mr. W. C. Barry 

 named as the six varieties which possessed the most decided 

 value for western New York : Lady, Niagara, Barry, Concord, 

 Worden and Gaertner. 



Notes. 



Professor S. T. Maynard states, on the authority of the En- 

 tomological Division of the Department of Agriculture, that 

 the loss to the farming interests, including all its branches, for 

 the past year from insects and fungi amounts to four hundred 

 millions of dollars. 



A comparison made at the Ohio Experiment Station for two . 

 years between male Asparagus-plants and female plants show 

 that the former are earlier and more productive, and have a 

 higher market value on account of the larger size and finer 

 appearance of the shoots. 



The fact that Grape-vines suffer from disease in so many 

 parts of the world seems less surprising than the fact that they 

 ever are in health when we read, on the authority of Von 

 Thuman, a German expert, that 323 species of Fungus para- 

 sites have been recognized on Vitis vinifera. 



The death is announced at Lyons, in his eighty-seventh 

 year, of Jean Sisley, one of the most famous French horti- 

 culturists of the century, and known wherever plants are culti- 

 vated for his success in the production of new varieties of 

 Roses, Tree Carnations, and especially of Cannas. More than 

 any one else he made Lyons one of the centres of horticulture 

 in Europe. 



Elwes' Snowdrops have been in bloom in open borders for 

 a fortnight, and their appearance is most grateful in this wild 

 February weather. They were three weeks earlier in the ex- 

 ceptionally mild winter a year ago. Plants of Galci7ithus 

 nivalis Imperati we have also seen flowering in a cold ex- 

 posure. In a warmer border they would have been nearly as 

 forward as Galanthus Elwesii. 



A recent issue of Le Jardin contains a portrait of Victor 

 Lemoine, the famous horticulturist of Nancy, with a list of the 

 principal plants which he has originated in his long and suc- 

 cessful career as a hybridizer. The list includes the double- 

 flowered Portulaca which he raised in 1851, and many Clematis, 

 Begonias, Lilacs, especially the double-flowered varieties, and 

 Gladioli. M. Lemoine, who was born in 1823, is still active, and 

 is as enthusiastic and eager in his favorite pursuit as at any 

 time in his long career. 



Governor Tuttle, of New Hampshire, recently called atten- 

 tion to the work of the Commissioner of Immigration, in con- 

 sequence of which "more than 350 abandoned farms have 

 been repopulated, mainly by Americans, and the business of 

 summer entertainment has largely increased." The Legisla- 

 ture of the state has been asked by the Commissioner for an 

 appropriation to pay for the preparation and circulation of a 

 pamphlet describing and illustrating the attractions of New 

 Hampshire as a summer resort, saying that "from the best 

 statistics at our command there have been left in the state by 

 summer tourists during the year more than $5,000,000," and 

 that " a large portion of this has been left with the farmers." 



It may now be considered as a well-established fact, says the 

 Botanical Gazette, that vegetation exerts a definite and easily 



demonstrable drainage action on the soil. Ebermayer's earlier 

 researches have shown that more water penetrates the soil of 

 shaded regions than into that of naked fields. By some recent 

 researches he shows that, while the surface portions of the 

 soil in a forest is moister than open fields, this is not true of 

 the deeper parts within the range of the roots of the trees, for 

 this is distinctly drier. For example, at a depth from eighteen 

 to twenty inches in a Fir forest of sixty-year-old trees the per- 

 centage of water is 15.12, as against 19.89 in naked soil. He 

 has also determined that in soil covered with young trees (six 

 years old) the loss of water by transpiration is intermediate 

 between that from soil covered by mosses and that covered 

 by grass. 



The Brooklyn Society for Parks and Playgrounds has issued 

 a circular calling attention to the law of this state under which 

 it is incorporated and which makes it possible for the citizens 

 of any town to associate for the purpose of providing recrea- 

 tion grounds for children and others. An association has 

 been formed in this city, and it is desirable that similar ones 

 should organize in other parts of the state. Ample and well- 

 planted school-grounds, which will not only afford space for 

 play but will insure abundant air and light in the school-build- 

 ing, are of vital importance to the health of the young, and 

 liberal space should be provided in anticipation of the rapid 

 growth of our towns and the increasing school population. 

 We have already given the provisions of this law, but all persons 

 who desire fuller information will receive a copy by address- 

 ing the Secretary of the Society, Mr. E. O. Ball, 43 Lee Avenue, 

 Brooklyn, New York. 



Mr. John Thorpe delivered a practical and interesting address 

 on Chrysanthemums before the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society last Saturday. He said that if the production of fine 

 blooms was the chief object aimed at, the plants should be 

 grown under glass continuously ; they should be started in 

 May, grown on in pots until they are planted on benches in 

 late June or July. Recognizing the greatly increased number 

 of varieties offered yearly, die urged the necessity of much 

 greater restrictions in the matter of awarding prizes and cer- 

 tificates for seedlings. Out of the 120 American seedlings to 

 be distributed this spring he thought it probable that only 

 twenty-four of them would take rank with the best when the 

 flowering season comes round again. Early-flowering varie- 

 ties were considered very desirable, but the lecturer expressed 

 the belief that, with very few exceptions, the early sorts which 

 afford so much satisfaction in Europe would not succeed here. 

 It was his opinion that if early varieties suitable to the Ameri- 

 can climate are to be had they must be raised in this country. 

 He does not consider a blue-flowered Chrysanthemum outside 

 the range of possibility, and argued that a sport may produce 

 it. One of his hearers having attributed the decline of the out- 

 door cultivation of Chrysanthemums to the ravages of insects 

 which render good growth impossible, Mr. Thorpe stated that 

 the pests can be held in check by syringing the plants, while 

 growing outside, twice a week with a solution of one ounce of 

 bitter aloes in four gallons of water. 



Catalogues Received. 



Joseph Breck & Sons, 51, 52 and 53 North Market Street, Boston, 

 Mass. ; Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Agricultural Implements. — Wil- 

 liam Bull, 536 King's Road, Chelsea, London, S. W., England ; Select 

 Flower and Vegetable Seeds, Bulbs, etc.— A. D. Cowan & Co., 114 

 Chambers Street, New York; Garden, Farm and Flower Seeds. — 

 De Lamater Iron Works, 21 Cortlandt Street, New York ; Ericsson 

 Hot Air Pumping Engine, The Improved Rider Compression Pump- 

 ing Engine. — Ellwanger & Barry, Mount Hope Nurseries, Roches- 

 ter, N. Y. ; Wholesale Catalogue of Small Fruits, Fruit and Shade 

 Trees.— V. H. Hallock & Son, Queens, N. Y.; Flower and Vegetable 

 Seeds. — Herm. A. Hesse, Weener, Hannover, Germany ; Nursery Nov- 

 elties. — George S. Josselyn, Fredonia, N. Y. ; American Grapevines 

 and Small Fruit Plants.— John R. & A. Murdoch, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; 

 Flower and Vegetable Seeds, Fruit and Ornamental Trees, etc. — Wil- 

 liam Parry, Parry, N. J. ; Small Fruits, Fruit and Ornamental Trees.- — 

 Phcenix Nursery Co., Bloomington, 111.; Wholesale Catalogue of 

 Trees, Shrubs, Roses, Bulbs, etc. — Pitcher & Manda, United States 

 Nurseries, Short Hills, N. J. ; Souvenir and Descriptive Catalogue of 

 the Great Flower Show held at Madison Square Garden, New York, 

 Descriptive Catalogue of Chrysanthemums and Single Dahlias. — Dr. 

 H. Shroeder, Bloomington, 111.; Grapevines, Fruit Trees, Small 

 Fruits. — William Stahl, Quincy, 111. ; Fruit Trees, Plants and Vines, 

 Excelsior Sprayer and Spraying Pump. — W. Thompson, 34 and 36 

 Tavern Street, Ipswich, England ; Choice and Rare Flower Seeds. — 

 Thomas S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, London, England ; 

 Novelties in Dahlias, New Chrysanthemums, Vegetable and Flower 

 Seeds. 



