November 18, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



549 



in a basket or pan suspended near the glass. A remarkable 

 characteristic of this Cattleya is that its blossoms do not pre- 

 sent themselves from the apex of the pseudo-bulb, but after 

 each new bulb is completed, a growth appears from its base, 

 which afterward sends forth the flower-spike ; when the 

 blooms are past, this develops into a new bulb. Good fibrous 

 peat and very little sphagnum is the best compost, with am- 

 ple drainage. „ _. , 



New York. A. DimmOCK. 



Damping Off. — The conviction is growing in my mind that 

 the trouble that propagators style "damping off" is a generic 

 one, with a long list of species. If seedlings fall away on ac- 

 count of a decay which appears at or near the surface of the 

 soil it is a clear case of this malady. The portion of a young 

 stem that is most exposed to fungous attacks is that near the 

 soil. Not only does the soil furnish the required moisture for 

 the most rapid development of the fungus, but it also provides 

 the fungus itself in nine cases out of ten. This seems to be 

 true of seedlings, and therefore the precaution should be to 

 have the soil as free as possible of the germs or filaments of 

 the destructive fungus. And, furthermore, any remedy that 

 may be suggested should contemplate a more healthful soil 

 instead of looking toward the cure of a plant that is already ail- 

 ing. For damping off, therefore, the remedy is not for the 

 plant, but the medium in which the plant is attempting to 

 grow, and from which it receives both its sustenance and the 

 enemy that seeks its life. There are possibilities that the seed 

 itself may be affected, and in such cases the trouble is to be 

 met, if at all, before planting by soaking the seed in some 

 fungicide. This I have tested at length during the past season 

 with Beans, and have determined that the disease, which ap- 

 pears quickly upon the seedlings, was already in the seed be- 

 fore the beans were placed in the soil. It was also shown that 

 by soaking such affected seeds in a solution of carbonate of 

 copper the amount of the seedling trouble could be greatly 

 reduced. While this is not known under the name of damp- 

 ing off, it does not differ from some of the forms of fungous 

 disease called by that general name. 



Again, the destructive agency we are considering may pre- 

 vail among cuttings, and perhaps the amount due to outward 

 conditions about balances the damping off due to a fungus 

 already in the wood when it was placed in the sand. If healthy 

 cuttings damp off, then it is assumed that the soil is greatly 

 at fault ; but if the wood is unhealthy, it does not matter much 

 what the soil may be so long as it furnishes water and keeps 

 the lower portion of the cutting wet, the latter will decay at 

 the surface of the soil. I have in mind a bed of Abutilon cut- 

 tings which failed almost entirely because there was a fatal 

 fungus in the stock used. It showed itself slightly in the foli- 

 age of the large plants, and only when the cuttings were placed 

 in the moist earth did the fungus obtain the best conditions 

 for growth, and damping off followed as a natural se- 

 quence. There is little or no hope of a preventive in such 

 cases, unless the soil-water be impregnated with an effective 

 fungicide, which again only shows that, even with unhealthy 

 cuttings, the soil is the medium for treatment. 



Rutgers College. Byron D. Halsted. 



Correspondence. 

 In the Shore Towns of Massachusetts. 



-II. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The town of Rockport has no public holding of any 

 kind available as a place of public resort, no park or common 

 or right on the shore, except, perhaps, a landing or two. 

 There are two or three beautiful headlands here, very con- 

 venient for picnics and out-of-door assemblies. They should 

 be secured for public uses, as this region is certain always to 

 h'ave throngs of visitors. Unless steps to this end are taken 

 very soon these specially attractive sites are likely to be taken 

 up for dwellings by people of means. Pool's Hill, near the 

 village of Rockport, affords a very extensive view of the ocean, 

 of the shore regions, and of some points far inland. It is 230 

 feet high. The clerk of the town, Mr. Calvin W. Pool, has for 

 several years found his chief recreation in the effort to distin- 

 guish and identify the various features of the landscape visi- 

 ble from this eminence. Several years ago he discovered 

 that Mount Washington can be seen from here, and I saw 

 letters from the officers of the United States Coast Survey and 

 other eminent scientific men confirming Mr. Pool's triangula- 

 tions and conclusions. The hill ought to be public property. 



Rafe's Chasm is a wild, rocky canon on the shore, a little 

 below Norman's Woe, at the entrance of Gloucester Harbor. 



It is an interesting place, and attracts many visitors and picnic 

 parties. It is dangerous in the present undefended condition 

 of the ledges. There should be railings along the steepest 

 places. One fatal accident, which occurred many years ago, 

 is commemorated by an iron cross fixed in the rock, and if 

 the chasm remains unguarded there will probably be other 

 monuments erected here in time, as the number of visitors 

 increases. There should be a small public reservation here. 

 The view of the sea and of a wide expanse of the shore country 

 is very attractive, and the public should have a right to come 

 and enjoy it ; but the adjoining land is likely soon to be put to 

 use as the site of a fine house, and the chasm will then be 

 included in the owner's private grounds. 



Not far from Rafe's Chasm there is a Pine grove, which is 

 very pleasant and convenient for picnics, and has long been 

 used as a place of public resort by the people of the region. 

 Some years ago it was purchased by a public-spirited woman, 

 who is interested in the objects for which the Trustees of Pub- 

 lic Reservations were incorporated. She is especially desir- 

 ous that the people of the adjacent country shall have access 

 to pleasant and interesting places by the sea/and wished to pre- 

 serve this tract and the Pine grove for that purpose. She 

 gladly gives the use of it to all comers, asking only that the 

 trees shall not be injured, and that fires shall not be left burn- 

 ing to endanger contiguous property. She has had some 

 rather discouraging experiences. The picnic people mutilate 

 the trees, leave fires burning, tear down the notices which 

 request caution, and show such a spirit of disregard and mis- 

 chief that the owner is compelled to employ some one to care 

 for the grove much of the time during the picnic season. This 

 is an unreasonable burden, as the grounds yield no income or 

 profit. It is probable that the abuse of the privilege here en- 

 joyed by the public will lead to its withdrawal. A similar state 

 of things exists in many places where the people are not suffi- 

 ciently enlightened and public-spirited to make a proper and 

 rational use of parks and open spaces for public resort. 

 Among an orderly population the expense of caring for sylvan 

 reservations of this kind is very slight. 



Manchester has several open spaces of various kinds which 

 are the property of the town, and are used as places of public 

 resort. One has an area of perhaps seven acres, and is used for 

 picnics. There is also a picnic ground at Tuck's Point, one- 

 fourth of an acre, which is a town landing, used as such since 

 1730. There is a building here, fifty feet by twenty, for tables, 

 etc., and the town provides a janitor. This feature I have not 

 observed elsewhere. There are several other tracts — seven 

 acres on the plain, bought with the idea of having the town 

 Poor Farm there, but not used for that purpose ; Old Neck 

 Beach, more than half a mile long, with adjoining land, of 

 varying width, running up the shore ; Lobster Cove Landing, 

 two hundred yards of shore, and the ground the powder-house 

 stands on. The people talk of selling some of these, as they 

 think the town has more land than it needs, or can afford to 

 keep. One of the most valuable and interesting of the public 

 holdings of the town, and highly appreciated by the people, 

 consists of a belt of land along each side of the highway be- 

 tween Manchester and Essex. This was purchased a few years 

 ago in order to preserve the woods along this road, which 

 were then about to be destroyed. Their preservation is the 

 result, chiefly, of the efforts of a few thoughtful women in the 

 neighborhood. The title to the property is vested in the town, 

 and the deeds have been deposited in the'office of the Town 

 Clerk. 



The only public holding of importance in the town of Bev- 

 erly is West Beach, which belongs to the West Beach Associa- 

 tion, incorporated by a special act of the Legislature in 1852. 

 This corporation is composed of all the resident inhabitants of 

 the East Farms School District in Beverly, and of the people 

 of a designated portion of the West Farms School District, and 

 it is authorized to take and hold all that portion of the sea- 

 shore, beach and flats of Beverly Farms which is included in 

 the limits defined in the act of incorporation. There may be 

 five or six acres of the land, but, I think, scarcely so much. 

 Nobody appears to know how much there is. It is part of the 

 land, beach and flats originally granted by the town of Salem 

 to John West in 1666, and the title has ever since then been in 

 him and his heirs and legal successors. The members of the 

 corporation may use and occupy this piece of sea-shore for 

 boating, bathing and gathering drift-stuff and sea-weed, and 

 they are required to keep in good repair a certain small piece 

 of road or causeway for public travel and a few rods of sea- 

 wall, not a difficult or costly requirement. I find nothing in 

 the act of incorporation requiring the association to take care 

 in any other way of the property to which they are thus given 

 title, and it has a neglected and unattractive appearance on the 



