516 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 192. 



present year a probable saving, from the ravages of grass- 

 hoppers, due directly to the advice of entomologists, of not 

 less than $400,000. This saving was accomplished by fall 

 plowing and the use of "hopper-dozers." An estimate that 

 has been generally accepted is, that about one-tenth of the 

 agricultural products of the United States is annually destroyed 

 by insects. 



A recent writer notes the fact that the German botanist, 

 Dillenius, who, early in the eighteenth century, devoted him- 

 self to the study of mosses, and was the first to distinguish 

 them from the fungi, found, in the neighborhood of Giessen, 

 where he lived, 200 species of mosses, of which 140 were new 

 to science, and 160 fungi, of which 90 had not previously 

 been known. 



In Mr. E. W. Hervey's " Flora of New Bedford and the 

 Shores of Buzzard's Bay," he says of Gaylussacia resinosa : 

 " A white variety of this species is occasionally brought from 

 neighboring towns for sale, but in small quantities. A small 

 tract of land in Berkley, about fifty feet square, has borne an 

 annual crop of perhaps a quart of white huckleberries for forty 

 years or more. A few bushes bearing the ordinary black huckle- 

 berry are interspersed with those bearing the white variety. 

 The white variety has also been found in East Fairhaven." 



In some notes on the Flora of the Lake Superior Region, 

 published in recent numbers of the Botanical Gazette, Mr. E. 

 J. Hill says that in Minnesota blue and red flowers are espe- 

 cially bright in color, while white flowers reveal, in a more or 

 less well-marked degree, a tendency to coloration. He thinks 

 that these facts are probably due to the clear bright weather 

 that prevails in Minnesota, as contrasted with those neighbor- 

 ing regions where more moisture exists in the air, and ex- 

 presses a desire that others may record their observations 

 upon the subject. 



In an article in the Independent, among the growing indus- 

 tries of Florida, that of bee-keeping is named. The profusion 

 of flowers the year round, and the absence of winter, does 

 away with the necessity of feeding, a matter of great expense 

 in the north. There are now many large apiaries in the state, 

 notably one upon the Appalachicola River, that contains 1,200 

 stands of Italian bees. This apiary produces about 10,000 

 gallons of honey per year, which is extracted and sent to mar- 

 ket in barrels, bringing about fifty cents per gallon. Put upon 

 the market in attractive shape, the net income might easily be 

 increased fifty per cent. 



In an article called " Does our Indigenous Flora give Evi- 

 dence of a Recent Change of Climate ? " published in Bul- 

 letin No. 7 of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, 

 Mr. J. Vroom discusses the question whether the subarctic 

 plants of this country " have lingered here since the glaciers 

 receded, or have once passed on in their northern migrations 

 and been again driven southward to replace less hardy spe- 

 cies, and whether a general movement in either direction is 

 now going on." His conclusion appears to be, that within 

 recent geologic times our climate has constantly improved, 

 and that the general tendency of plant migration is steadily 

 northward. 



The frequent want of taste we display in the environment 

 of park statues, a theme which was recently discussed at 

 length in our editorial columns, is well illustrated by the pres- 

 ent appearance of the Seward statue on Madison Square. 

 The figure itself is a poor one, and rising, as it now does, from 

 a little forest of tall, variegated, foliage plants, its aspect is 

 nothing short of ridiculous. Not a great deal better looks the 

 figure of Washington on the Riverside Drive, for, although 

 here the beds of Coleus and higher plants do not immediately 

 encircle the statue, yet, as one approaches from either direc- 

 tion, it seems to be rising from their midst. A comparison of 

 these effects with that of the Webster statue in the Central 

 Park, partially draped to its top with Japanese Ivy, instantly 

 shows the superiority of vines in such situations. 



The credit of originating what is known as the " Landscape 

 Lawn Plan " for rural cemeteries belongs to Adolph Strauch, 

 who was born in Germany in 1822, studied landscape-garden- 

 ing, chiefly in the famous gardens of Austria, traveled widely 

 and eventually emigrated to this country in 1851. Three years 

 later he took charge of Spring Grove Cemetery, in Cincinnati, 

 and, after encountering much opposition, succeeded in laying 

 it out in accordance with his own new ideas and thereby set a 

 pattern which has been more or less intelligently imitated all 

 over our country, to the unstinted admiration of European 

 visitors. It is interesting to learn, upon the authority of an 



address republished in one of the reports of the conventions 

 of the American Association of Cemetery Superintendents, 

 that Strauch " was stimulated by the glowing descriptions of 

 Chinese cemeteries in Humboldt's 'Kosmos'" and largely 

 owed to them the idea of introducing kindred effects into 

 American cemeteries. 



A correspondent of the New York Sun, writing from New 

 Orleans, says that, *' under the auspices of the State and the 

 Louisiana Agricultural and Scientific Association, a sugar 

 school has been established in this city, and will go into opera- 

 tion here next month, for the purpose of educating all who 

 desire to take the course in the culture of cane and the manu- 

 facture of sugar from it. The school is equipped with a corps 

 of five professors — of sugar agriculture, sugar chemistry, an- 

 alytical chemistry, sugar mechanics, and sugar-making respec- 

 tively. It has a plantation attached with a small sugar-house 

 on it, but one thoroughly equipped with the latest and most 

 improved machinery, a library containing all the books and 

 journals on sugar, and everything necessary to teach this in- 

 dustry. The course will be one of two years, at the end of 

 which time the student will be turned out a thorough sugar- 

 maker, a chemist prepared to carry on a sugar-plantation in 

 the most scientific manner." 



Mr. J. H. Hale writes to the Country Gentleman that, in his 

 opinion, the Excelsior Peach will help to extend the cultivation 

 of Peaches at the far north. In central Connecticut, a hundred 

 miles north of a limit of safe peach-growing on the Atlantic coast, 

 it is possible to struggle against borers, insects, the yellows 

 and other discouragements with fair success, but the serious 

 obstacle in the way of profitable Peach-culture is the killing of 

 the fruit-buds by extreme frosts in winter, so that varieties like 

 Late Crawford give only one full crop and two partial crops in 

 twelve years. Oldmion, Stump, Keyport, White and Smock 

 have given three full crops and as many partial ones in the 

 same time, while Hill's Chili and Pratt have fruited nearly 

 every year. Hill's Chili, however, is unattractive in appear- 

 ance, and the Pratt rots badly on the tree. Mr. Hale has seen 

 Excelsior fruit in New Hampshire when there was not another 

 Peach in all New England, and he is satisfied that it is a variety 

 which can be trusted to bear every year. The tree is of the 

 Hill's Chili type, although rather more dwarf in growth, but 

 the fruit is much larger, richer and of brighter color, and with- 

 out the "wool" which is so .objectionable in Hill's Chili. It 

 sells as well as the Crawford, and for family use is of better 

 quality. 



It would be hard to imagine a more charming garden-scene, 

 or one more artistically portrayed than the Primrose-garden in 

 Surrey, which is the subject of one of the illustrations in a 

 recent issue of The Garden, of London. It represents a Avood 

 walk lined with a few picturesque Birches, under which are 

 great masses of the Yellow Primrose in bloom ; and as this 

 plant, the true English Primrose, is hardy in our northern 

 states, with a little protection, we can endorse the views of The 

 Garden when it says that " no flower better deserves a garden 

 to itself than the Primrose. It is so old a favorite, and has 

 been cultivated in so many forms, that any one determined to 

 have a Primrose-garden may choose the kind he likes best and 

 set to work accordingly. There are the single-stalked Prim- 

 roses, the earliest of all, flowering from the middle of March 

 onward, while some may be had in bloom as soon as the end of 

 February. They range in color from pure white to deep prim- 

 rose, and from palest pinky lilac, through strong red-purples, to a 

 color nearly approaching blue, and there are also rich reds of 

 many shades. The grand Primroses for garden effect are the 

 large bunch-flowered kinds, white, yellow and orange-colored, 

 red, crimson and rich brown ; of infinite variety in form, tex- 

 ture, habit and coloring ; easy to raise to any amount by seed, 

 as also by division of the older buds." The garden which our 

 contemporary illustrates was formed a few years ago "by 

 making a cutting, about seventy yards long and varying from 

 ten yards to fifteen yards wide, through a wild copse of young 

 Birch-trees. The natural soil was very poor and sandy so it 

 was prepared by a thorough trenching and a liberal addition 

 of loam and manure, which has to be renewed every year. 

 No formal walks are made, but one main track is trodden 

 down, about two feet wide, about the middle of the space, 

 dividing into two here and there where a broader clearing 

 makes it desirable to have two paths in the width. The whites 

 and yellows are kept at one end of the garden and the reds at 

 the other, the deepest yellows next to the reds. The white 

 stems of the Birches and the tender green of their young 

 leaves help to make a pretty picture, which is at its best when 

 illuminated by evening sunlight." 



