1 84 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 165. 



" Cetteboisson est non-seulment fort nourissante maisfortifie 

 l'estomac. ... La plupart des femmes blanches qui veu- 

 lent entretenir la fraicheur de leur teint en prennent en decoc- 

 tion, et s'en lave la peau du visage."* 



Besides the interest of a new cosmetic, this passage indicates, 

 at this date, a supply of maple sugar corresponding to that of 

 the cane. 



Though this record of evidence is limited, it seems clearly 

 to show that the Indians understood and made use of the sap 

 of the different Maples, and perhaps of the Beech, before the 

 advent of the European ; and that, before the discovery of 

 the Mississippi, the making of maple sugar must have been 

 an established industry among their tribes. The narrative of 

 James Smith indicates that the making of sugar was not 

 known by the Pennsylvanians as late as 1656. 



Providence, R. I. William D. Ely. 



M' 



Two Studies for House Plantings. 



OST American suburban houses stand naked in naked 

 enclosures. The ugly fact has been pointed out, and the 

 obvious remedy has been suggested in previous numbers of 

 this paper. (See papers on " How to Mask the Foundations of a 

 Country-house," vol. ii., pp. 350, 362, 386 and 409.) It has been 

 shown that even in the smallest house-yards one helpful thing 

 can be easily accomplished — the building may be connected 

 with the ground and the appearance of nakedness removed 

 by massing shrubs along the bases of the walls or piazzas. In 

 almost every situation, be it among sea-side ledges or amid 

 fertile lawns, some planting of this sort is required, the ar- 

 rangement of the plants and the selection of sorts being care- 

 fully adapted to the character of the site and the style of the 

 building. 



In the suburbs of northern cities a square, stiff, high-studded 

 and somewhat pretentious house is very common. Such 

 houses are often surrounded by piazzas or verandas. In sum- 

 mer beds of gaudy Geraniums or foliage-plants border the 

 piazzas or flaunt in scattered circles or half-moons. In winter 

 the windows look upon bare beds of loam. This is a style of 

 planting which costs much trouble, but its results are never 

 permanent, and seldom tasteful. It works with herbaceous 

 plants, and these chiefly of tender sorts. 



The style of planting which uses permanently effective 

 shrubs and hardy perennial herbs is illustrated by the diagrams 

 and lists on page 185. Two houses of the stiff suburban type 

 of twenty years ago are distinguished in the drawing by being 

 numbered 1 and 2. Both houses are half-surrounded by 

 roofed piazzas, the floors of which are several feet from the 

 level surrounding ground. House Number 1 is inhabited the 

 year round. Number 2 is not occupied in winter. Each house 

 is shown twice in our drawing, for the purpose of presenting 

 alternative planting schemes, prepared by two professional 

 designers of plantations, one of whom submits the diagrams 

 lettered A, and the other sends the schemes marked B. 



In very briefly comparing these two schemes it must first be 

 noted that both designers have planned continuous masses of 

 plants, broken only at the piazza-steps. Undoubtedly the level 

 character of the two sites and the formality of the buildings 

 combined to compel them to this essentially stiff arrangement. 

 Irregular buildings on broken ground would be planted in a 

 very different manner. Here, in the schemes marked B, the 

 formality is a little less pronounced than it is in the others, 

 for the outline of the planted space, which is the edge of the 

 grass, is a gently flowing line, whereas in the schemes marked 

 A. it is a line drawn strictly parallel to the edge of the sur- 

 rounding drives and walks, leaving a grass strip two feet wide 

 throughout. 



As respects the massing of plants within the spaces thus out- 

 lined, the A schemes are again a little more formal than the Bs. 

 The masses of each kind are here arranged so as in a measure 

 to correspond to the openings between the roof-posts of the 

 piazza, while in the B schemes this symmetry seems rather to 

 be shunned. The writer must record his feeling that the 

 designer of the A schemes might well have gone a step 

 further in his chosen direction and have secured a more 

 symmetrical balancing of masses at the sides of the several 

 flights of entrance steps. In cases like these, where formality 

 is almost a necessity, pronounced symmetry is generally more 

 effective than any half-way measures. 



As respects the choice of plants with which to make the 

 masses determined upon, there is little to choose between the 

 two schemes. This, which is commonly considered the chief 

 problem in planting, is really subordinate to the more funda- 



*Noveaux Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, pp. 237-8. Amsterdam, 

 '777- 



mental questions of outline, form and ultimate altitude. 

 Plants must not be chosen simply for their prettiness ; they 

 should be selected for their fitness to produce the desired 

 outlines and masses. Both designers have evidently been 

 guided by this principle. Thus, in diagram i A, the author has 

 set a dwarf Magnolia opposite a certain corner of the piazza, 

 not so much because he adores Magnolias as because he 

 wants, at that point, something distinct and forcible. Similarly, 

 in diagram i B, the creeping Cranberry is freely used in the 

 front edges, not because it is fashionable or gorgeous, for it 

 is neither, but because it will perform a service of importance, 

 namely, the covering of the ground in the edges near the 

 grass. 



Further comment could only emphasize the lesson that 

 even house planting should be regarded studiously. Its prob- 

 lems, like those of larger planting, are real problems in 

 design. It must be so regarded if our house-grounds are to 

 cease to exhibit the monstrous forms of decoration which are 



now so common. 



Boston. 



Charles Eliot. 



Notes on Some Insects and Insect Remedies. 



T N the second volume of Garden and Forest, p. 461, there 

 -*■ was given a notice and figure of a troublesome Elm pest 

 (Gossyparia ulmi), an insect related to, and having many 

 of the habits of, the scale insects. During the last two years 

 the pest appears to have spread over a much wider territory, 

 and to have attracted attention in various places besides the 

 localities where it was first noted. In the Report of the Vermont 

 State Agricultural Experiment Station for 1889 it is reported as 

 quite common on Elms, and doing much damage to them at 

 Burlington, where it is said to have existed for several years. 

 While the injuries caused by this insect are slow and not 

 immediately disastrous, the effects of large numbers on the 

 trees prove very disagreeable and detrimental to the beauty of 

 their appearance, and the vital sap taken from the tree eventu- 

 ally results in loss of vigor. 



Some natural aids may ultimately be of assistance in keeping 

 the pest in check, and meanwhile we have to depend on 

 artificial remedies to clean the trees. 



Where they are large it will be almost impossible to clear 

 the Elms of these insects, but the nuisance may be mitigated 

 by one or two sprayings of kerosene emulsion. Young trees 

 recently planted out show more quickly the injurious effects 

 caused by the insects sucking their juices. It is possible to de- 

 stroy all of these pests on such small trees by giving every limb 

 a thorough wash of whale-oil soap dissolved in the proportion 

 of one pound of soap to a gallon and a half to two gallons of 

 water, and applied in early spring just before the buds open. 



When the insects are in an active state the spraying by 

 kerosene emulsion may be most effectually applied against 

 them. In this vicinity the chief active periods occur in the 

 latter part of April and early in May, in the last of June and 

 early July and again in August. As some inquiries have been 

 made regarding the emulsion, the following is given as a good 

 standard. It is the formula recommended as the best by Pro- 

 fessor Riley. 



Dissolve half a pound of common or whale-oil soap in one 

 gallon of boiling water. While still hot add this solution to 

 the kerosene and vigorously churn the mixture. This may 

 be done in five minutes by means of a force-pump and spray- 

 nozzle. The emulsion, if perfect, forms a cream which 

 thickens on cooling, and should adhere without oiliness to 

 the surface of glass. Before using, dilute, in the proportion of 

 one part of the emulsion to nine parts of water, the three gal- 

 lons of emulsion, thus making thirty gallons when diluted. It 

 is best applied by means of a force-pump and fine spraying 

 nozzle, of which there are numerous styles in the market. The 

 Riley or Cyclone nozzle is considered one of the best, and it is 

 not patented. 



The emulsion, much less diluted, may be used as a wash, 

 instead of whale-oil soap, on the stems and branches before 

 the leaves expand. 



Professor Fernow's notice regarding " Insect Lime for the 

 Gypsy Moth," in Garden and Forest for March 25th, offers 

 some valuable suggestions, and places before our notice a 

 remedy or preventive which may prove very useful against 

 certain destructive insects. If better, it promises to take the 

 place of printers' ink or the expensive oil-troughs as a band 

 around trees to keep the female Canker-worm moths from 

 ascending to deposit their eggs in autumn and spring. 



The merits of its recommended use against the Bag-worm, 

 Fall-web worm, Tussock Moth and Gypsy Moth do not appear 

 to be so generally understood. The female Bag-worm moth, 

 like that of the Canker-worm, is wingless, but it undergoes all 



