FOREST AND STREAM. 



503 



known in different parte of the country as jack snipe, English 

 snipe, gray snipe, big anipa and ball'* a dozen atl 

 Wctodoocte are called in some, parts mud snipe, big headed 

 Ruffled grouse are partridges in some States and 



pheasants in others. Now that we have got » fair start, let, 

 ee to call these new birds by their right name, mi- 

 gratory quail, and that is just what they are. 



Yours, M. G. E\EKT3. 



• •'■< :i'/r,(s.—&D.] 



LniKEAK Booiett.— The meeting of December 88 was, as 

 usual, well attended, and four new members were elected. 

 Air. H. B. Bailey read a paper giving a description of the 

 breeding habits of the various species of the wood warblers, 

 genus De.ndrw.ai, as observed by him at the LTnbagog Lakes, 

 Maine. Their habits there were compared with those in other 

 localities. The chestnut-sided warbler, B'.jpennsylvantca, in 

 Maine builds in the tops of high trees, while near Boston it 

 assumes more the habits of the yellow warbler, J). cBstiva, in 

 building in low bushes. Mr. Merriam reported this same 

 species as building on the ends of limbs of young saplings 

 only a short distance from the ground, in Lewis County, N. Y. , 

 where he had taken a number of nests. The blackpoll war- 

 bler, Zh striata, is found there, and it was reported as abund- 

 ant and breeding at Grand Menan by Messrs. Pearsall and 

 Osborne, and at the Richardson Lakes, Maine, by Mr. Thos. 

 B. Stearns. II Maekburnias is abuudant in Maine, but its nest 

 is rarely found, owing to its habit of building in the almost 

 inaccessible lops of the tallest trees. The nesting of the Cape 

 May warbler, O. tiyrina, is almost unknown, and is an inter- 

 esting subject for investigation to collectors. Mr, Wyekofl 

 followed with an interesting article on " Ocean Currents and 

 Temperatures," in which he cited the different views ex- 

 pressed in regard to their effect upon the land or continents 

 lying contiguous to them. The renewed and increased in- 

 terest taken during the last few years iu the study of meteor- 

 ology tended in a great measure to solve the problem of the 

 laws of faunal distribution and the migration of animals and 

 birds j a subject which holds a leading place in the present 

 study of natural history, The paper was full of interest and 

 elicited a great deal of discussion. Dr. Coue3' recent work on 

 the : ' Birds of the Colorado Valley'' was examined and dis- 

 cussed, and its value as a work of referenco, both scientifically 

 and bibliographically, highly appreciated. 



For "difficult of construction," in concluding sentence of 

 jast week's report, read "difficult of identification." 



TEXAS LANDS. 



lUriDS City, 111., January 10, 1879. 

 Editou Fohkst and Stbeam ; 



In your issue of January 2 Prof. Buckley gives some very 

 interesting information about Texas. Let me alBO say a good 

 word for tier. The " Lone Star," and she will go it alone with 

 a full hand, when settlers, stock-raisers, etc., ouce find out the 

 fine lands she contains. Mr. Robbins may not know that he 

 can buy only every other section ef that 10,000 acre ranch at 

 a cheap price. The other sections are held at $1.56 per acre 

 for the benefit, of the schools. Texas owns her own land— all 

 of it. No ''Government" laud; and to get 10,000 acres and 

 close it, will cost something for land. Better buy four sections 

 of State, and then eight of other at 35c. to 75c. per acre, and 

 get it cheaper. I thought of buying a big lot, but it costs 

 money. Best take a trip through there and you will be amply 

 repaid. Take a team and camp out ; go through two or three 

 Texas storms and get acclimatized ; be able to get wetter 

 thau a drowned rat, and dry off without making you sick, 

 leaving your clothes on and drying off as the sun conies out. 

 It can rain down there, even if it is a dry country, and every- 

 thing is fresh as a peach after a rain. One must go there to 

 enjoy it. Coninguaai. 



THE ORANGE IN TEXAS. 



Chicago, January 15, 1879. 



Editor Foekbt and Stkbam: 



You correspondent, " N. A. T," of Houston, Texas, asks 

 " some Florida reader " to inform him how many degrees of 

 frost the orange tree will stand without injury, etc. A3 no 

 resident of Florida will be likely to inform him correctly— 

 lest said informant should be driven from the Stale for telling 

 what might be damaging to the supposed interests of it — 1, 

 who have passed ten winters is Florida, and have some ex- 

 perience in orange growing on both Pacific and Atlantic coasts, 

 volunteer to say that there is no certain degree of cold above, 

 aay ten degrees Farenkeb., which can be named as necessarily 

 kitting to (be tree; its effect depending — besides other condi- 

 tions of locality, cultivation and age— upon the state ami 

 place of the sap in tree at the time, and upon the temperature 

 after, autt especially before, the frost. 



The cold that killed all the orange trees, old and young, in 

 Eastern and Middle Florida some thirty. five or forty years 

 ago was fatal to that, degree, because it followed a warm spell 

 of spring weather, which bad moved the sap and swelled the 

 buds. Since that lime no frost squally killing has been known, 

 although in every winter there of the ten mentioned, the ther- 

 mometer has been down to 20 dogs.; four of them to 10 degs.j 

 once 14 degs. , at Jacksonville— tow enough to cut down or 

 kill nioBt of the youug unprotected trees. The old trees, 

 however, most generally stood it, though many were nipped, 

 and lost branches or leaves. They stand, too, under other- 

 wise favorable circumstances, great and sudden extremes of 

 temperature, if not too long continued. On the Wlh and 19th 

 Jan., 1857, at St. Augustine, there was a change of 00 clegs. 

 of temperature iu the thirty hours (the people and books will 

 tell you the range of them is only 35 to 30 degs. in the year), 

 and this without serious injury to the full grown trees. 



Tour Texas friend will have difficulties, and had better not 

 give much heart or capital to the experiment. The orange 

 may be grown, with care and good fortune, in a climate liable 

 to frosts ; but the tree is only safe, and the fruit hue, in what 

 I call banana climates, i. e., localities exempt from frost, as 

 Western Florida, south of Indian River, and the Balize, La. , 

 where, if the Creoles and meteorological tables are to be 

 trusted, there has been ice but once in forty years. lie may 

 meet, too, a worse enemy than cold in the coccus or scale in- 

 sect found largely on the Oleander, which is now on its travels, 

 and which, after killing the groves, made it impossible for 

 twenty years before 1803 again to grow the orange in Florida. 



T. D. L. 



Window Flow fr- Boxes.— The care necessary for the suc- 

 UltivatiOB of pot plants in the house is often so 

 irksome as to offset in a measure the pleasure afforded by 

 the flowers. Window-boxes beiug larger require less care, 

 the evaporation of the moisture is hot so rapid, and the 

 miniature garden has adecidedly more pleasing effect than the 

 pots. A writer in Vick's Magazine gives these directions for 

 a home-made window-box: 



If properly started with a good porous earth, mixed with 

 sand or sawdust, they require slight attention,' and will con- 

 tain a most astonishing number of plants. They have, as 

 usually fixed in the windows on brackets, the great disad- 

 vantage of being unwieldy and taking up too much needed 

 space in our few sunny windows. To utilize every inch of 

 this apace I have this season devised 3 stand which seems to 

 meet the requirements, furnishing room for box and pots and 

 accommodations for upright, trailing, and climbing plants, 

 and, being mounted on castors, it may be readily reversed or 

 moved when desired. As the cost is really nothing to one 

 whs has access to any wood lot, except a few hours rather 

 pleasant work, I have thought it might interest some flower 

 lovers. It is perfectly simple and easily put together with a 

 few ordinary tools, and by any one who can drive a nail and 

 use a screw-driver. 



The box is made of rough boards, one-half or three-fourths 

 of an inch thick (a very good size being two feet long by nine 

 inches wide and eight inches high), nailed tightly together. 

 It will be well to put a long screw iu each corner, to bold it 

 securely agaiust warping. This may be lined with zinc, or 

 will do as well if coated over inside with rooDng pitch. If 

 you cannot compass either of these use it plain, only he care- 

 ful to make your earth light and porous. Cover the outside 

 of the box with thick, coarse bark, tacked on with brads, and 

 sawed off after tacking the top and bottom. If you can pro- 

 cure a long woody viue, like the. bittersweet, to wrap around 

 the box horizontally, it will make a good finish. 



Make the stand high enough to rise about three-fourths of 

 the height of the box above the bottom of the window sash, 

 proceeding by cutting saplings; say an inch or an inch and a 

 half in diameter, selecting straight or moderatelv straight 

 pieces for the four legs, Screw to each pair of these, at the 

 top, a long cross piece to reach six inches beyond each end of 

 the box, and at about three inches from the bottom other 

 pieces of lengths required. The two pieces may now be 

 fastened together by temporary cleats, while the cross-bars 

 and braces are adjusted to their places. All should be made 

 tight and fine with screws and nails. About half-way up the 

 legs I fasten crotches for baskets, to which I nail long cross 

 pieces, and tacking small twigs across these I make a useful 

 shelf. Nail twigs also across the braces in the lower part of 

 the stand and across the projecting top braces. 



For the trellis, nail au upright to each corner of the box, 

 and cross pieces slanting up to the centre, where they are 

 fastened in pairs with screws, and braced with a cross piece 

 at the top of each upright. With a brad-awl pass two pieces 

 of soft wire through small twigs to make a round pot cover or 

 holder for a four-inch pot, and secure this wTlh wire between 

 the corner pieces of the trellis. Fasten small twigs across the 

 trellis with brads. A set of common iron castors should be 

 fastened to the legs before the trellis is commenced. 



On such a stand as this I have on the bottom shelf pots and 

 boxes of vine, as English and German ivy, maurandya and 

 smilax, to train over the trellis, which is crowned with a pot 

 of that prettiest of all droopera, Coliseum ivy. On the end 

 shelves 1 have oxalis, etc., and on the front ones carnations, 

 young fuchsias, and such like. The box contains a general 

 assortment of foliage and flowering plants. 



The Nut-Pike Forests of Nevada.— Every mountain, 

 however far it swells into the sky, seems utterly barren. Ap- 

 proaching nearer, alow brushy growth is seen, strangely black 

 in aspect, as though it bad been burned. This is a nut- pine 

 forest, the bountiful orchard of the red man. When you 

 ascend into its midst you find the ground beneath the trees, 

 and in the openings, also, nearly naked, and mostly rough on 

 the surface. A succession of crtvmbliug ledges of lava, lime- 

 stone, slate and quartzite, coarsly strewn with soil weathered 

 from them by storms and sunshine ; here and there a bunch of 

 sage or linosyris, or a purple cluster or tuft of dry bunch 

 grass. The harshest mountain sides, hot and waterless, seem 

 Beat adapted to its development. No slope is too Stei p, none 

 too dry; every situation seems to be gratefully chosen, if only 

 it lie sufficiently rocky arid firm to afl'oid secure anchorage for 

 the tough, grasping roots. It is a sturdy, thick-set .hi- .l ; i 



usually about fifteen feet high when full grown, and al 



broad as high, holding its knotty branches well out iu every 

 direction in stiff zig-zags, but turning them gracefully upward 

 at the ends in rounded bosses. Though making 

 mass in the distance, the foilage is a pale grayish gfeen, 

 in stiff, awl-shaped fasicles. When examined closely 

 these rounded needles seem inclined to be two-leaved, hut, they 

 are mostly held firmly together, as if to guard against evapo 

 ration. The bark on the older sections is nearly black, so that 

 the boles and branches are clearly traced against the | 

 gray of the mountains on which they delight to dwell. 



The value of this species fa Nevada is not easily overesti 

 mated. It furnishes fuel, Charcoal, and timber for the mines, 

 and together with the enduring juniper, so generally associ- 

 aten with it, supplies the ranches with abundance of firewood 

 and fencing. Many a square mile has already been denuded 

 in supplying these demands, but so great is the area covered by 

 it, no appreciable loss has as yet been sustained. It is pretty 

 generally known that this tree yields edible nuts, but their im- 

 portance and excellence as human food is infinitely greater 

 than is supposed. In fruitful seasons like this one, the pine 

 nut crop of Nevada is perhaps greater thau the entire wheat 

 crop of California, concerning which so much is said and 

 felt throughout the food markets of the world. The Indians 

 alone appreciate this portion of nature's bounty, and celebrate 

 the harvest home with dancing and feasting. The coues, 

 which are a bright grass-gr.en iu color and about two inches 

 long by one and a half in diameter, are beaten off with poles 

 just before the scales open, gathered in heaps of several 

 bushels, and lightly scorched by burning a thin covering of 

 brushwood over them. The rosin with which the cones are be 

 draggled is thus burned off, the auts slightly roasted, and the 

 scales made to open. Then they are allowed to dryin the 

 sun, after which the nuts are easily threshed out and are 

 ready to be stored away, They ace 'about, half an inch long 

 by a quarter of an inch in diameter, pointed at the upper end, 

 rounded at the base, light brown iu general color, and hand 

 somcly dotted with purple, like birds' eggs. The shells are 

 thin, and may be crushed between the thumb and finger. 

 The keruelB are white and waxy-looking, becoming browii by 

 roasting, sweet and delicious to every palate, and are eaten by 



birds, squ'm els, dog,-, horses and men. When the crop is 

 bring in large q.Uai i \ then 



■ enarou ■■. n Irei - in the State, and -. ;i 



■ itun . to ion 



in the way ol food 

 little Drtunati fv For the Indians and wild ani- 



mals that gather around nature's board, this crop is nol i tali 



barvw - loliaine way. if it. could be gathered 



like wheat, the whole would; le earned away- and dissipated 

 k, towns, leaving the brave inhabitants Of these wild-, to 

 starve. Long before the harvest time, which is in September 

 and Oc ober, the Indians examine the trees with keen discern- 

 ment, and, inasmuch asthecones require two years to mature 

 from the first appearance of the little red rosettes of the fer- 

 tile flowers, the scarcity or abundance of the crop may be pre- 

 dicted more than a year in advance. Squirrels and' worma 

 and Clark crows make haste to begin the harvest. The In- 

 dians make ready their long beating poles; baskets, bags, 

 rags, mats are gotten together. The squaws, out among the 

 settlers at service, washing and drudging, assemble at the 

 family huts; the men leave their ranch work; all, old and 

 young, are mounted on ponies, and set off in great, glee to the 

 nut lands, forming cavalcades curiously picturesque; flaming 

 scarfs and calico skirts stream loosely over the knotty ponies, 

 usually tw-o squaws astride of each, with the small baby mid- 

 gels bandaged iu baskets slung on their backs or balanced on 

 the saddle bow, while the nut baskets and water jars project 

 from either side, and the long beating poles, like old-fashioned 

 lances, angle out in every direction, Arrived at some central 

 point already fixed upon, where water and crass are found, 

 the squaws with baskets, the men with poles, ascend the 

 ridges to the laden trots, followed by the children; beating 

 begins with loud noise and clatter; the burrs t fly right and 

 left, lodging against stones and sage brushes ; the squaws and 

 children gather them with fine natural gladness; smoke 

 columns speedily mark the joyful scene of their labors as the 

 roasting fires are kindled ; and, at night, assembled in circles, 

 garrulous as jays, the first grand nut feast is begun. Suffi- 

 cient quantities are thus obtained in a tew weeks to last all 

 winter. '1 hey also gather several species of berries and thy 

 them to vary their stores, and a few deer and grouse are killed 

 on the mountains; besides immense numbers of rabbits and 

 hares : but the pine nuts are their main dependence— the staff 

 of hfe, their bread. —San Francisco Bulletin. 



Tkdmansbubq Pouxtbv Suovr.—Trumarisburg, iV. F,, 



Jan. 15. — Editor Forest and, Stream : In accordance with 

 the advertised programme, the Union Poultry and Pet Stock 

 Association opened its annual exhibition in Opera Hall, on 

 Wednesday, Jan. 1st. The number of entries was much 

 larger than had been even hoped for. The display of JJau- 

 tam fowls and fancy pigeons was remarkably tine, the num- 

 ber of entries being larger than is usual outside of the great 

 cities. Of game fowls there were fifty coops, twenty-five of 

 them being exhibited by one man, Mr. John Harmeston, of 

 Trumahsburg. The K. B. red games were a very choice lot. 

 Every variety of games was shown, and the whole display 

 very excellent, exceeding in number any other class on ex- 

 hibition. Ducks and geese were largely represented, among 

 them a fine lot of Pekin ducks. The light Brahmas were a 

 splendid collection, Mr. F. F. Preston, of Candon, winning in 

 this class 1st and 3d premiums and all specials. A few 

 coops of dark Brahmas were shown, but a fine lot, Messrs. G. 

 W. Chidsey, F. F. Preston and John Fall by being the exhibi- 

 tors. In white Cochins the display was remarkably line : a 

 large number of entries. A large and handsome exhibit of 

 buff Cochins, by Mr. James Brooks, of Trumansburg, at- 

 tracted attention, The white crested, black and white and 

 spangled Polish were also a splendid lot. In this class, Mr. 

 Amos O. Day, of Ithaca, won 1st and 3d and all the specials. 

 Of Plymouth Bocks there was a large number, too numerous 

 to specify the exhibitors. The display was a credit to them 

 all, however. The number of entries of Houdans, black 

 Spanish, Hamburgs, Javas aud Creve Cceur was small, but, 

 the specimens were first-class. There were also a few coops 

 of White and brown Leghorns, line birds. It seems invidious 

 to particularize where there was so much excellence, aid to a 

 lover of fancy poultry the exhibition must have been a treat 

 indeed. The amount of regular premiums offered by l he as- 

 sociation was §357, and the citizens of Truman: i 

 friends of the society contributed in special premie 

 more, making in all a total of §409. Sassaous. 



jfachtiitg and flouting. 



YACHTING NEWS. 

 Florida VAonr CtUB. — The Florida Yacht Club of Jack- 

 sonville, fla., held a reception hop to the Commodore 

 Wednesday evening, January 15. The gathering was a very 

 sociable one, and the oeea -ion a most agreeable one. 



Lb Yacht.— Our esteemed French contemporary Le. Yacht 

 has come out in a new dress for its second year and has bean. 

 enlarged Irom eight to twelve pages. Wo congratulate its 

 is&nterprlng staff upon their success in the past, and hope they 

 will not weary of the worthy atlempt tliey'are making to 

 popularize and raise to a higher standard the sport in Franco. 



Warwick (R. I.) Yacht Club. — The following officers 

 have been elected for 1879 i Com., Andrew Robeson; Viee- 

 Com., Fred. P. Sands; Reac-Com,, John K. II. Nightingale; 

 Bee, Howard L. Clark ; Treas., W. C. Rhodes; Meas.,' 

 James N. liar! ,• Regatta Committee, S. (J. BlOdgett, Jr YV r ' 

 G.Koelker, H. 0. Allan, C. V. Chapin, E. O. Earned and W. 

 C. Rhodes. 



The SHAnriE, E. Q Tatlob.— We are all mortal, and 



compositors sometimes too much so. They made pi 



respondent, "O. ,1. R.," say the sharpie Tayt 

 had no centre-board, when it should have been to centre- 

 boards, one forward and the other abaft of the caoin 

 leaving the room below entirely clear. Her foremast is 35it, 

 Gin. long. 



Yacht BUILDING CM Boston. — There is comparatively lit- 

 tle building going on in the neighborhood of iNew York, and 

 a pleasing contrast lo the dullness reigning hen; is nff, .rdeii by 

 the activity among the builders in Boston and neigh u Hi a 

 Lawley Ss (ion, of that city, are finishing the two schoo&egg 

 before noticed in these columns. Pierce Bros, have 

 in hand, both for Mr. Burgess, out of Hi, an a keel feloop. 

 Smith, of South Boston, is geltiug out the plans for a schoon- 

 er for Mr. John Ward, of the Bos ... and other 

 builders have a fair amount of work on hand, Boston may 

 claim to have taken the lead Bona New York in the matter Of 

 Corinthian cratt aud sailors. 



