FRUn AND I'EGE TABLE NOTES. 



35V 



suggesting the fancy that their curious sacks hold the 

 archives of the forest and memorials of a people that a 

 careless civilization has well-nigh forgotten. 



The robe that midsummer wears in New Jersey is per- 

 fumed with sweet herbs and the flowers of white alders, 

 and broidered with blue-bells and pogoaia, sundew and 

 hoary pea, foxglove and spirea, polygala and purple star- 

 wort blossoms. Tawny tiger-lilies bloom on upland 

 slopes, and in meadow-pools we see the white barges of 

 pond-lilies afloat with their freight of gold. Clematis- 

 blossoms make beautiful the hedges, gerardias in roseate 

 vestments bend for recognition, and meshes of golden 

 dodder are tangled across meadow-paths. The tidal- 

 water of this level country is an open sesame to the finny 

 tribe. Bright, iridescent creatures swim above beds 

 scooped in the shining sand, and darker forms lurk in 

 shadowy places where arrow-head and pickerel-weed 

 grow. 



Autumn adds many beauties to our list of wild-flowers. 

 The cardinal-flower here lights its torch and flames along 

 the ditches, and the meadow-beauty blooms near the 

 water's edge. Finely-developed species of goldenrod 

 give an August glow to our waste lands ; bur-marigolds 

 make gay the creeks and ditches and blue gentians bloom 

 along wood roads. 



Even the winter season in New Jersey is a delightful 

 one for being outdoors. One finds innumerable tiny- 

 leaved plants with but a touch of russet, despite the frost 

 and cold. Evergreen cedars, pines and laurels brighten 

 the brown and gray tints of winter, and even December 

 has some gay bits of color. The scarlet berries of the 

 black alder blaze like forest-fires in gray and leafless 

 thickets, masses of dark green privet are abundant, and 

 cranberry and sand-myrtle prove as hardy as they are 

 beautiful, in the ordeal of winter's cold. Trailing its 

 long red runners over mosses, green and gray, the swamp- 

 blackberry still holds its pretty leaves, and winter-green 

 with its glowing crimson berries brightens the southern 

 side of the swamps. 



When the swamps are denuded of foliage, the winter 

 season discovers in the world of lichens and mosses a 

 life beautiful and unique. Over old trunks these forms 

 run riot in tufted silvery lace-work, or hang in weird 

 gray festoons from branches of trees. One occasionally 

 sees serious-looking owls perched about among the 

 lichens and mosses in winter. On western New Jersey 

 borders winter birds are plentiful ; and with so much of 

 the beauty of bird and plant-life left us, winter does not 

 seem bleak or long. 



Glouccstci- Co.. X. J. K.^TE Cle.ment. 



FRUIT AND VEGETABLE NOTES. 



PRACTICAL HINTS BY PRACTICAL MEN. 



"^■gAST SPRING, after my grape-vines had 

 made a growth of about six inches, 

 they were severely cut by a late frost. 

 Most of them started out again, but 

 made only a sickly growth, and by fall 

 those that did survive were not as large 

 as they were the year before. A fact 

 that made this all the more vexatious 

 was that among them were quite a num" 

 ber of new varieties sent me for testing. I had hoped to 

 make a report of these next fall. The advantage of ele- 

 vation was well shown in this case. The two upper rows, 

 which are about 50 feet higher than the valley, were but 

 little hurt ; while the next row, only seven feet lower, 

 and all rows below it, were frozen. 



Some people have an idea that at a certain elevation 

 grapes will not rot. I had an acre of Concord vines 500 

 feet above the level of the Missouri river, and expected 

 they would escape the disease; but after bearing two 

 crops of sound fruit they rotted as badly as any on low 

 ground. Now that we have this disease under control 

 by spraying, grape-growing will be plain sailing for some 

 cultivators, but not for me ; to make sure of the fruit I 

 must bag the clusters. There are 100 swarms of bees with- 

 in as many yards of my old vineyard. The birds, w-asps 

 and yellow-jackffits puncture the skins of the grapes, and 

 then the bees go to work and soon suck the sweet juice 

 out. I have had a row of 20 Martha grape-vines cleared 

 of fruit in two days. There were probably 200 pounds 



of grapes on the vines in the row. How much honey all 

 this fruit made I cannot say ; but I did get some of the 

 honey after paying for it in grapes and again in cash. 

 There are two reasons, however, why I do not murmur 

 about this : First, I love the bees, and consider them en- 

 titled to all they can get, as they are workers and honest. 

 They are the property of my sons, who have quitted hor- 

 ticulture for bee-keeping. Second, I give credit to the 

 bees for the successful crops of cherries we have gathered 

 since their advent — a treat we seldom had before they 

 came. — S. Miller, Missouri. 



SMALL FRUITS IN NEW ENGLAND. 



A favorable season and thorough cultivation produced 

 very satisfactory results in New England during 189 1. 

 I find by consulting the reports of experiment stations 

 that the conclusions arrived at in regard to some varieties 

 of fruits vary so widely that no definite idea of the fruits' 

 real merits can be gleaned from them. This, perhaps, is 

 mainly due to differences in locality, nature of soil and 

 peculiarity of season, and goes to show the importance of 

 individual tests for ascertaining what varieties are best 

 adapted to certain soils and localities. One trial, how- 

 ever will not suffice for forming an intelligent opinion of 

 the value of varieties tested. 



My soil is rather dry for strawberries, and I find that 

 long-rooted, vigorous varieties, like Cumberland, Glen- 

 dale and Jessie, are best adapted to it. Gregg and Sou- 

 hegan seem to be the standard varieties of black raspber- 



