48o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 189. 



which have been proposed for this and other fungi, and we 

 are prepared to test them fully and report to you the results. 

 During this last season I have sprayed faithfully with carbonate 

 of copper, as recommended by your department, but there has 

 been scarcely an appearance of the apple-scab in our orchard, 

 whether sprayed or unsprayed, and, consequently, we are un- 

 able, as yet, to judge of its effectiveness. 



Concerning Russian apples, we are scarcely willing to con- 

 demn them wholesale, for we are finding among them some 

 which we think will be suitable to the cold north ; for instance, 

 the Golden White, which has been tested in the province of 

 Quebec, is exceedingly promising. Among native varieties, 

 we think highly of the Wealthy, which has been tested faith- 

 fully in the county of Renfrew, and some of the members of 

 our association looked upon it as the very best variety that 

 has ever been tried in that section. Samples were sent to me 

 last fall from there, and also some from farther south, but 

 those grown at the north were far superior, both in size and 

 color. Of Canadian seedling-apples of promise the Princess 

 Louise and the La Rue are worthy of notice. Renaud's Seed- 

 ling is a winter apple which appears to be very promising. It 

 is a chance seedling, found growing on the farm of Mrs. 

 Renaud, at Grenville, forty-five and a half degrees north 

 latitude ; should it prove equal to its promise in size, beauty, 

 productiveness and hardiness, it will be a great boon to that 

 section of country. 



Notes. 



Several of the Ginkgo-trees in Central Park are bearing fruit 

 this year, and one of the trees in the avenue which leads up to 

 the Department of Agriculture in Washington is literally loaded 

 with fruit which, hanging at the end of the long stems, adds 

 much to the beauty of the tree. 



In New England, about 1635, Woods says : " The ground 

 affords very good Kitchen Gardens, for Turnips, Parsnips, 

 Carrots, Radishes, and Pumpions, Muskmillions, Isquonter- 

 squashes, Cowcombers, Onyons, and whatsoever growes well 

 in England, growes as well there, many things being better 

 and larger." 



At the late meeting of the Pomological Society in Washing- 

 ton, in speaking of Currants, Mr. John Saul stated that he had 

 yet to find the equal of the true Red Dutch, which is not only 

 the most productive variety he knows, but makes the richest 

 jam and jelly. He, however, accepted the suggestion made 

 by Mr. T. T. Lyon that the true White Dutch Currant was quite 

 as good. 



A good late-flowering shrub for latitudes south of New York 

 is Clerodendro7i trichotomum, which is still blooming well in 

 Philadelphia and Washington. It will live as far north as 

 Massachusetts, but is usually injured by the winter, so that it 

 does not flower freely. In sheltered places it will do well 

 about New York. It becomes a large spreading shrub when 

 well grown, and the branching cymes of white flowers in red 

 calyces, held well above the foliage, make an interesting pic- 

 ture at this season. 



A schedule of prizes for the Chrysanthemum show which is 

 to be held under the auspices of the New York Florists' Club 

 at Madison Square Garden, in this city, from November 2d to 

 the 8th inclusive, has been published. Six thousand five hun- 

 dred dollars are offered in premiums, besides prizes for 

 Orchids, Roses, Carnations and miscellaneous plants. Special 

 attractions are advertised for each day of the exhibition. The 

 Garden offers 30,000 square feet of floor surface, and the dis- 

 play ought to be one of exceptional interest. 



An interesting feature of the Transactions of the Indiana 

 Horticultural Society for last year, which has just come to 

 hand, is a catalogue of the birds found in that state. This 

 catalogue is illustrated with cuts from Coues' " Key to North 

 American Birds," and it will enable the young people of 

 Indiana to identify any of the species which come under their 

 notice, and no doubt will encourage among -them the delight- 

 ful study of ornithology. The last session of the Legislature 

 of Indiana passed an act to protect birds, their nests and 

 their eggs. The indiscriminate slaughter of our wild birds 

 has much to do with the increase of injurious insects, and 

 farmers and gardeners in all parts of the countryare interested 

 in protecting these true friends of man. 



Schubertia grandiflora is proving itself very useful as a sum- 

 mer climber. A plant two or three inches high set out last 

 May should now be twenty feet high. We recently saw a plant 

 trained to a fence only six feet high, and it has now spread out 

 so as to cover fifty square feet, and its score of trusses of glit- 



tering white flowers against the dark green of the foliage 

 makes a striking picture. The flowers, when open, are more 

 than two inches across. They are of a thick waxen texture, 

 and are as glossy as if they had been varnished. The indi- 

 vidual flowers remain open a long time, and very often all of 

 the flowers on a truss, some five or more, are open at once. 

 It is said that the plant will survive the winters in southern 

 California. If this is true, a well-established plant there would 

 be very effective. 



It is well known that the foreign varieties of Gooseberry are 

 rarely cultivated with any success in this country, although 

 there are skilled growers here and there, like Mr. Benjamin G. 

 Smith, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who succeed with this 

 fruit. The great difficulty has been that the plants mildew 

 badly. Many preparations have been used to combat this dis- 

 ease, but, perhaps, the most promising is the one which has 

 been applied at the New York Experiment Station, in Geneva, 

 successfully for the past three years. The fungicide used there 

 is potassium sulphide, or liver of sulphur, half an ounce of 

 which is used to one gallon of water. The sulphide dissolves 

 readily in hot water, and as it costs only fifteen or twenty cents 

 a pound, and a gallon of the mixture is sufficient to spray ten 

 or twelve large bushes, it will be seen that the expense is 

 trifling. If the spraying is done with a syringe the amount 

 will need to be increased. At Geneva, this year, the foreign 

 varieties have been kept entirely free from mildew, and the 

 plants were loaded with clean bright fruit, each plant yielding 

 over ten pounds of berries. The practice at the station is to 

 commence spraying as soon as the young leaves begin to un- 

 fold, and to continue at intervals of from eighteen to twenty 

 days, except in case of heavy rains, when it would be neces- 

 sary to spray the plants more frequently. 



For three years past the chemists of the Kansas Experiment 

 Station have been endeavoring to improve Sorghum as a 

 sugar-plant, by seed-selection. Their plan has been to select 

 the seed from stalks which show an exceptionally high sugar 

 content, although other good points, such as size of stalk, 

 amount of glucose and yield of juice, have not been neglected. 

 The variety known as the Orange and Amber Cross gave 12.7 

 per cent, of cane sugar in r888 ; 14.8 per cent, in 1889 ; 14.6 

 per cent, in 1890, and 16.5 per cent, in 1891. The best stalks 

 in these years contained 14.2, 17.5, 16 and 18.2 per cent, re- 

 spectively. These figures indicate gradual advancement, and 

 so does the sugar from seed of three stalks planted separately. 

 The product from the seed of last year's richest stalk is the 

 richest this year. As Professor Failyer suggests, it would be 

 rash to do more than point to the indications of these results. 

 Other causes than seed-selection may have helped in securing 

 them. The apparent improvement may prove to be apparent 

 only, and another season may see the quality revert to its 

 former stage. The improvement of four per cent, in three 

 years is probably too great to be permanent. But if Sorghum 

 can be grown with a juice containing an average of even 

 fifteen per cent, of crystallizable sugar of an average purity of 

 eighty, the profits of sugar factories are assured. At all events, 

 it is worth while to continue the experiment of seed-selection 

 for some years at least. 



It is stated in Science that, sixteen years ago, Professor Rein, 

 the well-known authority on Japanese art and industry, planted 

 in the Botanical Garden at Frankfort some specimens of the 

 Lacquer-tree {Rhus tiernicefera), from which the Japanese ob- 

 tain the juice employed in the production of their famous 

 lacquer-work. According to the Times, there are now at 

 Frankfort thirty-four healthy specimens of the Lacquer-tree, 

 thirty feet high and two feet in girth a yard from the ground ; 

 and the young trees, which have sprung from the original 

 tree's seed, are in a flourishing condition. It seems to be 

 proved, therefore, that the Lacquer-tree is capable of being 

 cultivated in Europe, and it only remains to be seen whether 

 the juice is affected by the changed conditions. The Times 

 says that, to ascertain this, Professor Rein has tapped the 

 Frankfort trees, and has sent some of the juice to Japan, 

 where it will be used by Japanese artists in lacquer-work, who 

 will report on its fitness for lacquering. In the mean time, 

 some of the most eminent German chemists are analyzing 

 samples of the juice taken from the trees at Frankfort, and 

 samples of the juice sent from Japan ; and should their reports 

 and the reports from Japan be favorable, it is probable that the 

 tree will be largely planted in public parks and other places in 

 Germany. In course of time a skilled worker in lacquer would 

 be brought over from Japan to teach a selected number of 

 workmen the art of lacquering wood, and in this way it is 

 hoped that a new art and craft maybe introduced into Europe. 

 Professor Rein has been conferring with the authorities at 

 Kew as to the results of his experiment. 



