BUDS. BLOSSOMS. FRUITS. 



497 



tween the pickings. With abundance of moisture the 

 plants furnish from 12 to 18 crops during the season. 

 Thus pickings are continuous, and the manufacturing 

 machinery is constantly employed. In dry climates 

 only a very few pickings could be secured during the 

 season. For long periods the machinery of manufacture 

 would be idle, while the product would be inferior ; the 

 leaves would be hard and woody, as compared with the 

 thin juicy leaves produced in warm climates saturated 

 with moisture. Irrigation would be indispensable in 

 any attempt to grow tea anywhere in the United States 

 to commercial advantage, independent of considering 

 the cost of manual labor here as compared with that of 

 Asiatic countries. For these reasons no effort is made to 

 encourage investments in the culture of tea, but from 

 five to ten thousand plants are distributed annually in 

 districts where a zero cold rarely if ever obtains, and 

 where tea can be prepared for domestic use by simple 

 methods of drying and roasting the leaves. Hundreds of 

 families avail themselves of this mode of securing a de- 

 lightful beverage, and samples have been received here 

 of more than ordinary quality of teas prepared by those 

 simple methods that are available in most households." — 

 William Saunders. 



The Hardy Orange. — (Page 430 ) Mr. Purfield's 

 letter in your July number reminds me to say that it is 

 probable that I am responsible for the advertised state- 

 ment that Citrus trifoUata is hardy at Ann Arbor, as I 

 believe he planted his trees at my suggestion, and I had 

 understood that they came through all right. I am glad to 

 learn, however, that they survived two winters there even 

 in an injured state. The fact satisfies me that this plant 

 will, as I have said, prove to be the ideal hedging-plant 

 over a large part of the United States. I am inclined to 

 think that even in Michigan the trees will get hardier 

 with age, though, as Mr. Purfield says, their habit of 

 making a late fall growth is against them. I would sug- 

 gest that he pinch back this late growth as soon as a 

 few inches are made, and try to induce ripening in this 

 way. Such shoots here in the latitude of Raleigh, 

 N. C, get ripe enough to suffer no injury, and usually, 

 far north of this they get through the winter all right. 

 — W. F. Massey. 



Public Highways.— (Page 321.) In recent years the 

 tendency has been growing among residents of cities, to 

 spend a portion of the summer in the the country, these 

 people being governed, in the selection of locality, in a 

 great degree by the beauty of natural features and gen- 

 eral attractiveness of the landscape. Some come as 

 temporary boarders, others purchase a place and con- 

 vert it into a summer residence. In this way many a 

 quiet hamlet is growing into importance. "While natural 

 attractions, such as beautiful views of distant hills and 

 vales, lakes or other bodies of water, have their charms, 

 they are not the only consideration with city people in 

 the selection of even a temporary summer home. They 

 are strongly attracted by tidy farms, well-kept buildings, 

 and especially by roads in good repair, and suitable for 

 pleasant travel. In an out-of-the-way place that has a 



rough surface, stones and boulders thrown promiscu- 

 ously by the roadside may have a rustic and pleasing 

 appearance, and perhaps even add to the natural charms 

 of the place ; but when, in another and tamer location, 

 stones and boulders are thrown by the roadside in front 

 of a finely cultivated field or clean meadow, the effect is 

 altogether different. Yet such careless disregard of 

 effect by the road-repairer is often seen. There should 

 be cooperation in this matter between the land-owners 

 and the road-master. It is a pleasure to ride over roads 

 the sides of which are as neatly kept as the adjoining 

 fields. The pleasure becomes intensified when such 

 roads are brought in contrast with roads through rougher 

 sections with appropriately rougher roadsides. Such 

 drives, which divert the mind from thoughts of business, 

 attract the city residents to the rural districts. The effect 

 may be made still greater by careful roadside planting. 

 Shade-trees and flowering shrubs and plants, together 

 with well-kept roads, will attract pleasure-seekers from 

 all directions. The line of public travel for pleasure 

 always takes courses that lead by pleasant homes, where 

 lawns are well-kept, and plants are always in bloom. 

 These thoughts are suggestive and should inspire coun- 

 try people to put forth all the efforts in their power for 

 the improvement of their roads. Good roads and at- 

 tractive roadsides will bring travel, and with travel 

 comes refinement and wealth. At the same time such 

 attractions will keep the children at home, in the purity 

 and sweetness of country life, and stem the tide which is 

 fast sweeping them beyond its influence into crowded 

 cities. — WiM. H. Yeomans, Conn. 



Destroying the White Grub. — (Page 190.) It is 

 strange, considering the depredations of this pest, that 

 more attention is not given in this country to its exter- 

 mination. It has been rapidly increasing in numbers in 

 this neighborhood for the last few years. Two years 

 ago large portions of the lawns about here were de- 

 stroyed, and great ravages made in herbaceous borders 

 and gardens. We then began fighting the beetles, by 

 setting tubs of water about every evening at the time 

 they began flying, and suspending lanterns over each 

 tub. In this way we caught great numbers of them ; but 

 finally gave this up, and began gathering them from the 

 bushes and shrubs on which they swarmed after dark, fill- 

 ing basket after basket with them each evening. As the 

 grub lives three years in the ground before emerging 

 into the perfect beetle, and as the latter seems to live and 

 fly only for a few nights, it would seem that all efforts at 

 destruction should be aimed at the beetles before they 

 have had time to enter the earth to deposit their eggs. 

 Of course there may be ways to get at the grubs also, by 

 application to the soil or otherwise. The kerosene emul- 

 sion, I believe, has been used with good effect on small 

 lawn areas. There is need for greater effort and for 

 concerted action against the pest, and many readers of 

 American Gardening would be grateful for hints given 

 in its pages as to the best practical methods of destroy- 

 ing the grub. Let us hear from other practical horticul- 

 turists on this subject. — E. B. A., Rhode Island. 



