BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



745 



which the shelter of glass would ward off. Often the 

 flowers of hyacinths and daffodils are wilted and droop- 

 ing from the effects of a freeze which a sash would have 

 prevented. True, we can grow all these 

 flowers, with pansies, sweet alyssum, 

 mignonette, candytuft. Phlox Drum- 

 mondii, verbenas, etc. , in simple cold- 

 frames, but it is often cold comfort en- 

 joying them. If some of our winter- 

 resort hotels would only put up big glass 

 winter gardens, and have them stocked 

 and planted by some one who knows 

 plants and their needs, they would find 

 them paying investments. Such houses 

 would be peculiarly attractive and bene- 

 ficial to the invalids who are their most 

 numerous winter guests, and who often 

 wish for some such place when it is too 

 inclement to sit or walk outdoors. We 

 throw out the hint to some of these men, 

 and hope there may be among them 

 some shrewd enough to put this idea in 

 practice. — W. F. Massey, N. C. 



Plants Need Rest.— Those who ap- 

 preciate the unity of vegetable and ani- 

 mal life when traced back in evolutionary 

 lines to the cell, know that not the 

 animal alone needs rest. It is a curious 

 study for those who honor nature to 

 watch the prompt obedience paid hy 

 trees and plants to sanitary laws. In 

 1891 there was an enormous develop- 

 ment of fruit. This country has rarely 

 even seen so large a crop of all sorts of fruits of the 

 rosaciae family. In vegetables we were somewhat stin- 

 ted owing to general drouths ; but of fruits we had 

 an enormous overflow. I do not remember that there 

 was a deficiency in a single species. There were apples, 

 pears, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, quinces, and 



oranges, small-fruits, berries of every sort, grapes and 

 currants enough for the million. So great was the har- 

 vest that glass jars gave out, and the factories for the 

 first time could not meet 

 the demand. No one was 

 too poor to eat Crawford 

 peaches, Niagara grapes, 

 B u b a c h strawberries. 

 Northern Spy apples and 

 Sheldon pears. It was a 

 great year for educating 

 the taste of the people. 

 They learned to reject a 

 good many poor sorts of 

 fruit that they had been 

 accustomed to eat without 

 complaint. This education 

 has gone on for some years, 



FIG. 3.- 



Newport. 



Lapageria alba. 



Queen Isabella. 



but more particularly 

 last year. The Wilson 

 strawberry finds critics 

 now in very poor homes. 



This immense over- 

 bearing of our orchards 



and gardens had causes and consequences. Trees and 

 vines had not borne heavily for a couple of years, and 

 after the comparative rest were full of vigor. But it is well 

 known that if you check growth you stimulate fruit pro- 

 duction. The drouth of 1891 was almost universal. It 

 set in just after the flowers were well pollinated, and 

 forced all vigor on the line of fruit development. It 

 was not severe enough to spoil any crop, except in 

 some sections the strawberries, but it checked the de- 

 velopment of wood-growth, and left the fruit-buds for 

 1892 stimulated for premature unfolding. So it came 

 about that in the late autumn there was an extraordi- 

 nary display of second flowering and second crops in 

 our gardens. I never saw so many November rasp- 

 berries. Had the frost held off for a couple of weeks 

 longer I should have been able to pick several crates of 

 Cuthberts, Shaffers, etc., but the frost nipped most of 

 them. Here was the first consequence— half-grown canes 

 and forced flowering. Flowers are always developed in 

 proportion as you check vitality. Girdle a barren or- 

 chard or prune the roots, and you will get good crops, but 



