LIGHTTh?$OCIETIES 



BEINQHATTER "mATDESERVES 

 - To BE WIDELY KNOWN, 



A Small but Handsome Palm. 



Cocos IVeddeliaua is the hand- 

 somest of all the small palms, 

 being very graceful and pretty 

 in its small forms. It lasts well 

 in the house and is just the 

 i'f'r^^^ thing for a fernery, table or 



(iP'ii^:^ mantel. It stands abuse better 



than many of the coarser varieties, and is cheap enough 

 to be used in quantity. — /'-'^/Za. Florists' Club. 



Let the Young Wood Mature.— The success of many 

 of our trees depends on their having well-ripened wood. 

 This ripening occurs in the latter part of the season and 

 is necessary to help the tree stand the cold of winter. A 

 second growth of the tree in the fall is injurious, as this 

 new growth does not have time to ripen before cold 

 weather sets m — Central Ills. Horti. Society. 



Rolling in Times of Drouth.— The rolling of loose soil 

 tends to increase the loss of water from the surface by 

 evaporation. This increased loss results from the ten- 

 dency of firming the ground to bring water to the sur- 

 face from depths as great as four or five feet at least, 

 causing the surface soil to be wetter than it would other- 

 wise be, and as evaporation from a wet surface is more 

 rapid than from a dry one, the ground, taking the upper 

 four feet into consideration, is rendered dryer in conse- 

 quence. When a drouth occurs at seeding-time, rolling 

 is of very material service in increasing the amount of 

 the germinating seed, and if rolling is immediately fol- 

 lowed by a light harrowing, to develop a surface-mulch 

 over the seed-bed, all the advantages of firming the 

 ground will be realized, and the excessive loss of water 

 from the surface, which rolling tends to produce, avoided. 

 — Prof. ICing, Wisconsin State Hort. Society. 



Pasturing the Orchard. — This question was fully dis- 

 cussed at the last meeting of the Central Illinois Horti- 

 cultural Society. One member spoke of turning goats 

 into orchards, but others warned orchardists against 

 them. Mr. Winn says he once turned Angora goats into 

 his orchard but they began to feed upon the trees' foliage 

 at once. Hogs are the only animals that can be pas- 

 tured in orchards. They will pick up the apples and 

 eat the worms. But perhaps it would be preferable to 

 cultivate rather than to pasture the orchards. The only 

 proper method of pasturing is to drive in the hogs, let 

 them stay in the orchard long enough to pick up the 

 apples, and then turn them out again. "Pig-power" 

 cultivation for orchards was not universally approved. 

 Professor Morrow said that whatever harm the hog may 

 do to the orchard, the orchard certainly will do much 

 good to the hog. 



Public Pleasure-Grounds for Towns.— In an address 

 read before the Wisconsin Horticultural Society, Prof. 



E. S. Goff urges the young towns and villages of the 

 west to set apart public pleasure-grounds before it is too 

 late. He suggests that every village have its park, 

 which shall be regarded from the beginning as an ad- 

 junct of the school, and be located sufficiently near the 

 school-house to make it easy of access by the boys and 

 girls. If the trees aad shrubs are labeled with their 

 common and botanical names, the park will have a 

 better educational value, and if the planting is done 

 with ceremonies in which the young people can play a 

 conspicuous part, they will take more interest in it, and 

 there will be less trouble in securing from their parents 

 the money needed to maintain it. 



The Irrigation Problem.— There are several ways of 

 obtaining a partial water-supply in case of a failure of 

 the ditch. They will cost some money and labor, but 

 when water gets to be worth as much as it is in parts of 

 California, we will not think it very expensive. With 

 the amount of wind we have in this country and an in- 

 exhaustible water-supply beneath us, there are few who 

 could not build a reservoir, get a pump and windmill, 

 and irrigate from 5 to 20 acres of orchard and "truck." 

 You say it will cost too much. What do you think of 

 an inch of water supplying five acres of land and cost- 

 ing $1,000, or $200 per acre ? Such is the case 

 around San Bernardino, Cal. There water is gold, and 

 it is conveyed in pipes to where it is wanted, and not 

 allowed to waste or evaporate. I could irrigate Western 

 Kansas with windmills cheaper than that. — Z. L. Doty, 

 before a Kansas Farme7's' Institute. 



Horticultural Exhibit in London.— Among the inter- 

 esting things shown at the International Horticultural 

 Exhibition at Earl's Court in May was the reproduction 

 of a Japanese garden, with temple and tea-houses, and 

 the Indian tea-garden, in which the visitor, after seeing 

 the tea-leaves growing on the living plant, may, in an 

 adjoining house, witness the manner in which the leaves 

 are made marketable, and then finish up by drinking the 

 beverage itself. An insectiverous house, as it is called, 

 was a standing attraction, since in it were shown the 

 plants which prey upon insects. A Tudor garden was also 

 represented, with a clever fac-simile of a house of the 

 period. There was also a reproduction of Pliny's 

 Roman villa, with its myrtles, box-trees and pomegran- 

 ates. Then follows an Egyptian garden, with scenic 

 portrayal of temples, sphinxes, fountain with lotus-flow- 

 ers, date-palms, papyrus, and the Nile in the distance. 



The Italian garden had among its flowers and shrubs 

 characteristic statuettes and vases, while in the Jacobean 

 garden we were taken back to a period when it was tne 

 funny fashion to have hedges, shrubs and trees clipped 

 into outlandish shapes. There is a fine panorama of 

 the rock of Gibraltar, which is made a background for 

 showing off such feathery and graceful plants as flourish 

 upon the Mediteranean shore. 



Hints on Mushroom-Growing. — Care should be exer- 

 cised in selecting fresh manure that is not fire-fanged 

 nor too much bleached. If it has begun to ferment, so 

 much the better. If gathered too dry and fresh, time 

 must be given to start the fermentation. Care should 



