370 



W I ND FALLS. 



darker than the Cuthbert ; size and shape, about the 

 same as the Gregg. Owing to its non-suckering habit 

 and its great productiveness, the Merkel bids fair to sup- 

 ersede all the other red varieties. — John F. Rupp, Pa. 



The Loquat in Southern Louisiana. — The descrip- 

 tion of the loquat by Professor Georgeson in the Janu- 

 ary American Garden (page 14) is interesting, and gives 



Louisiana Loquats. 



one a clear idea of the characteristics of this very pecu- 

 liar fruit. The season for fruiting, as given, may be 

 modified to suit the different localities where it is grown. 

 Here, on the Louisiana peninsula, south of 30°, the 

 tree commences to bloom in the latter part of August 

 and continues blooming until Christmas, when, if no 

 severe frosts have occurred, the trees are covered with 

 the clusters of green fruit in the various stages of 

 growth, some of which will commence ripening with 

 the first few days of mild weather. Usually some of 

 the fruit is ripe in February and continues ripening until 

 the latter part of April. Heat sufficient to push the 

 buds on orange trees ripens the fruit. The present 

 season there were ripe plums (so called) when the buds 

 for orange bloom were the size of pin heads. The first 

 shipment of ripe fruit was made on the seventh of Feb- 

 ruary. 



The loquat has been cultivated in southern Louisiana 

 for many years, so many that the history of its intro- 

 duction seems to have been lost. Tradition has it that 

 the seeds were brought by a ship captain and sold at 

 fabulous prices. 



The trees are all grown from the seed, causing more 

 or less variation in the quality and size of the fruit. 

 However, there are only two distinct varieties recog- 

 nized as such, namely, the white fleshed and the yellow 

 fleshed. The trees are ornamental, are vigorous and 

 quite hardy for this latitude, have no insect enemies, so 

 far as known, and grow to a large size. They produce 

 heavy crops of fruit annually, the bulk of which, if not 

 cut off by severe frost, which sometimes happens, finds 

 a ready market in New Orleans, where large quantities 

 of it are consumed. The retail price in New Orleans 



ranges from 50 cents per pound when scarce, to 5 cents 

 per pound when very plentiful. 



Like many other light colored fruits, a bruise soon 

 turns black, injuring the appearance of the fruit and 

 depreciating its value. There are no orchards exclu- 

 sively of its fruit ; trees are seen here and there, in 

 orange groves, about the houses and elsewhere, no per- 

 son having more than 100 trees. They are quite as 

 profitable as the orange, but as the season for gathering 

 is necessarily protracted, and the more care in packing 

 that is required, will, no doubt, account for their no 

 being grown more extensively. — W. S. Reddick. 



[Mr. Reddick sends us a fine lot of loquats, a sample 

 of which is shown three-fourths size in the illustration.] 



An Enormous Orchard. — Probably the largest 

 orchard in the world is the famous Bidwell orchard of 

 California. An exchange describes this orchard as fol- 

 lows : 



"It lies in the open valley of the Sacramento, in 

 Butte county, and covers two and a-half sections, or 

 1,500 acres of land. Its owner, General John Bidwell, 

 is one of the early pioneers, having crossed the plains in 

 1841. He was an associate of Sutter and Fremont, and 

 his life in those early times was replete with adventures 

 among savage Indians and wild beasts. 



"He has more than a quarter section of land, in 

 fact, nearly 200 acres, planted to peaches alone. He 

 has over 100 acres set to plums and prunes. The latter, 

 when dried, are superior to the finest of the imported 

 French prunes, while the plums are truly magnificent, 

 including the Yellow Egg, Washington, Columbia 

 Pond's Seedling, Coe's Golden Drop, Duane's Purple, 

 Peach Plum, and still other varieties. Several thousand 

 pear trees form a grand orchard in themselves. While 

 many varieties are grown, yet the Bartlett leads all 

 others. The Seckel, Flemish Beauty and the Kieffer 

 are among the most profitable varieties. There are 

 some 5,000 apple trees, which include most of the stand- 

 ard varieties. It is noticeable in this warm climate that 

 what are known as fall apples in the Atlantic states are 

 summer apples here, while those known as winter apples 

 there, ripen early in the fall here. 



"The apricot orchard includes between sixty and 

 seventy acres, and the best varieties only are set out. 



"There are 2,357 cherry trees, and these make a 

 wonderful growth and bear prodigiously. One magnifi- 

 cent tree, a Napoleon, measures sixty feet high, seven 

 and a-half around its trunk and bore in one season 

 1,750 pounds of fine fruit. The cherries were picked 

 and weighed under the most careful supervision, so that 

 no errors could occur. At the prevailing price that this 

 tree returned to its owner there was a greater profit than 

 in ten acres of land planted to wheat. 



"There are great numbers of almond, which reaches 

 a state of high perfection in this warm climate, many 

 fig, nectarine, orange, olive, quince, walnut, chestnut, 

 pecan and other kinds of trees, but it would be useless 

 to here specify the number of each. 



"The vineyard covers 200 acres, and the varieties 



