76 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1907 



Farm and Garden News 



r T , HE latter part of September will witness 

 a most remarkable aggregation of conven- 

 tions at Jamestown, Va. The opportunity 

 afforded by the Jamestown Exhibition has 

 been seized by the executive bodies of the 

 many national organizations to hold their 

 annual conventions during the period of its 

 running. It has been figured out that by 

 far the great majority of us will visit the ex- 

 hibition anyhow, and that if the society in 

 which we are most interested is also holding 

 its annual gathering at the same time, we 

 should be able to kill two birds with one 

 stone. This thought having occurred to 

 several, the result has been that arrange- 

 ments are concluded for the coincidence of 

 several conventions during the last week of 

 September, with the result that we shall be 

 able to kill not only two, but four or five 

 birds with one stone. Only, how the indi- 

 vidual will be able to attend simultaneously 

 conventions of more than one society is some- 

 what of a puzzle. 



The gathering which dominates in its 

 importance is that of the Biennial Session 

 of the American Pomological Society fixed 

 for September 24th, 25th and 26th. This 

 organization embraces in its membership 

 the leading fruit growers, orchardists and 

 scientific horticulturists of the country. 

 The valuable service rendered to commercial 

 horticulturists in its old-fashioned aspects, 

 that is, fruit production, has been untold. Of 

 recent years the program of the various 

 sessions has shown a very curious tendency 

 to drift away from what might be generally 

 regarded as the strict subject of the Society's 

 interest and tends towards intricate prob- 

 lems of horticultural research. In other 

 words, it has become more scientific. 

 .^ 



The Society of Horticultural Science 

 announces its fifth annual meeting for the 

 same days as those of the thirty-first bi- 

 ennial meeting of the Pomological Society, 

 and the membership of this society is formed 

 exclusively of scientific investigators and 

 workers in horticulture, and is much more 

 specialized than that of its older sister from 

 which it is an off-shoot. At this year's ses- 

 sion, the single topic of plant breeding will 

 be discussed. 



The National Nut Growers' Association 

 having its headquarters at Poulan, Ga., has 

 also fallen into line and announces its session 

 as continuous from the Pomological Society. 

 It will meet on September 26th to 28th. 

 This little society is really exercising a very 

 marked influence in Southern States, and has 

 been very effective in the rapid develop- 

 ment of the nut-growing industry, especially 

 in pecan nut-growing regions. Nut trees 

 should appeal very strongly to the farmer 

 in almost any part of the country. The trees 

 are multi-valuable; not only is their annual 

 crop worth while, but the trees themselves 

 have a timber value, and the hickory, walnut 

 and chestnut, from this latter point alone, 

 should be well worth planting by the farmer. 



The National Council of Horticulture, 

 which was organized as an off-shoot of the 

 Society of American Florists for the direct 

 purpose of stimulating public interest in 

 horticultural matters of any sort, will also 

 meet during the horticultural convention week 

 at Jamestown (September 23d and 24th). 

 This body was organized for the purpose of 

 stimulating horticultural interest through the 

 public press and by means of other organ- 

 ized agencies. It cannot be doubted but 

 that its work has been productive of real 

 good during the couple of years it has 

 been in operation. 



Beginning September 30th and on the 

 first two days of the following month, an 

 international convention on the important 

 subject of Plant Hardiness and Acclimatiza- 

 tion will be held in New York, under the 

 auspices of the Horticultural Society of New 

 York. This meeting is planned along lines 

 similar to those of the very successful Second 

 International Plant Breeding Conference in 

 1902, organized by the same Society. It 

 gave a great stimulus ' to serious study of 

 plant breeding in this country, resulting 

 ultimately in the formation of the American 

 Breeders' Association, which also includes 

 the study of farm animals. 



This last body, by the by, has announced 

 its next convention at Washington, D. C, on 

 January 28th to 30th, 1908, simultaneously 

 with the meeting of the American Carnation 

 Society which has been advanced on purpose 

 to accommodate the national organization. 

 ■^ 



The Fifteenth National Irrigation Congress 



which meets in Sacramento, Cal., September 



2d to 7th, is a gathering which will attract 



a great deal of attention throughout the 



Western half of the continent, the purposes 



which it serves being to draw attention not 



only to the necessity of irrigation, but to the 



methods of redeeming vast tracts of unwatered 



land that exist in the Western States, a 



matter of much more than local importance. 



It has a bearing of the greatest economical 



importance to the nation at large. The four 



prime objects of the congress in the official 



statement are to "save the forests, store the 



floods, reclaim the deserts and make* homes 



on the land." Surely a sufficiently gigantic 



undertaking for any congress. 

 .^- 



Study nasturtiums now! The time has 

 come for intelligent flower lovers to- stop 

 planting mixed nasturtiums and study the 

 named varieties, for the nasturtium is the 

 "coming flower" among annuals and is being 

 bred to as high a pitch of perfection as the 

 sweet pea. It is the most easily grown of 

 all desirable annuals; gives most for the time 

 and money expended; is excellent for cutting; 

 has no color discords as yet; blooms longer 

 from a single sowing than any other flower, 

 viz., from July to September; and is excellent 

 for salads, capers and pickles. Visit a good 

 collection now and note which vou like best 

 among the 28 named varieties of Tom Thumb, 

 24 Lobbianum, 25 Tall or Majus, 3 Lilliput, 

 3 Dwarf Ivy-leaved, 5 Tall Ivy-leaved and 



3 Marbled. The cool nights of September 

 bring out the largest flowers of nasturtiums 

 when most gardens begin to fail. 



The pecan to which the city market has. 

 become accustomed is an article of really 

 very poor quality when compared with some 

 of the more recent introductions, which are 

 larger, thinner shelled, better flavored and in 

 every way superior. Especially in the Southern 

 States, the gardener and farmer should look 

 into the merits of these newer varieties and 

 see whether it would not pay him to con- 

 vert a grove by grafting it over into the 

 newer kinds. 



-*- 



The ginseng boom of a few years ago- 

 seems to be gradually coming down to 

 a more reasonable level. It is a good thing 

 for the average cultivator to keep away from. 

 The only money that has ever been made 

 from ginseng, except in one or two very 

 special exceptions, has been made by 

 people who sold plants and roots to 

 others who wanted to try their luck in grow- 

 ing it. A recent consular report shows that 

 American clarified ginseng to the value of 

 $14,673 was imported into one Chinese 

 port by way of Hong Kong last year. This 

 is three times the value of the previous year. 

 The ruling price was a little less than six 

 dollars for one and one-third pounds. There 

 is very good reason to believe that a great 

 deal of this, though American-named gin- 

 seng, had never seen this country. This 

 peculiar fact about ginseng should always 

 be borne in mind — that the more perfectly 

 cultivated the article is, the lower its price 

 in the fancy markets of the East. 

 .«- 



The Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station 

 has been conducting some experiments into 

 the use of the various miscible, or water-solu- 

 ble oils that are offered as remedies for scale. 

 The ease with which these preparations are 

 used makes a strong appeal to many garden- 

 ers, and it is a fact that even though they 

 may cost a little bit more than some of the 

 other more cumbersomely prepared articles,, 

 the money value cuts no figure whatever. 

 Convenience is always worth a great- deal 

 of money to most of us. The effect of these 

 preparations as reported was variable, and the 

 bulletin concludes that ordinarily not enough 

 scale was destroyed by the oils when used at 

 the rate of one to twenty-five parts of water 

 as recommended by most of the manu- 

 facturers to warrant their use. On the other 

 hand, we know that such orchardists as 

 George T. Powell have used these oils at the 

 rate of fifteen to one, and have reported them 

 as thoroughly desirable. Many of the public 

 parks and some botanical gardens have used 

 them in this ratio and also report them all 

 thoroughly satisfactory. Lime-salt-sulphur 

 may be an ideal preparation to kill the 

 scale, but it is certainly the most trouble- 

 some of any spray to date, and where these 

 miscible oils can reasonably be used, they 

 are certainly worth a trial. In private gar- 

 dens and on country estates, the oil is dis- 

 tinctly advantageous. 



