636 



BOOKS AND BULLETINS. 



"This shows for nearly four months an average of 

 1.85° in favor of hot water, and a coal consumption in 

 the steam heater of 21.5 per cent, greater." Of course 

 these tests do not demonstrate that hot water is prefer- 

 able to steam in all cases, yet they are strong indications 

 of it. We understand that Professor Taft expects to 

 make a similar test the coming winter with other heat- 

 ers ; this should be made upon some large area of glass 



Bulletin No. 9, Maryland Experiment Station. 

 Strmvhen-it's. By IV. H. Bishop. Pp. ji. This bulle- 

 tin gives, in tabular form, the results of observations as 

 to sex, origin, date of introduction, time of blooming, 

 maturity and weights of 20 berries of many varieties of 

 strawberries. Descriptive notes are also added of some 

 sorts. No succinct conclusions are drawn. Tests were 

 made upon the relative merits of mat- 

 Strawberries ted row and hill culture. "Comparing 

 in IMaryland. the results of the two methods of cul- 

 ture, it is found that in nearly all varie- 

 ties the matted rows gave the larger yield and generally 

 larger fruits. It has often been said in the past that 

 cutting off runners, and so confining each plant to a 

 single stool, resulted in giving larger berries, although 

 fewer in number. Careful weighings of a given number 

 of berries from nearly every picliing of each variety this 

 season give the advantage in size of fruit in nearly every 

 case to the matted rows, and the (generally) marked in- 

 crease in yield from this system leads us to believe that 

 the matted row plan is greatly superior to the other, ex- 

 cept with a very limited number of varieties. It is 

 probably true that for success with the hill system, very 

 rich soil and high culture are necessary ; even then it is 

 doubtful if anything is to be gained by it." 



Bulletin No. 7, Virginia Experiment Station. 

 Variety Tests with Strawberries. IVin. B . Alwood. Pp. 

 16. Illustrated. The strawberry is coming to be an 



important fruit in Virginia. It was found last season 

 that mulching the vines is decidedly beneficial, even in 

 Virginia, where such protection has been supposed to be 

 unnecessary. Tables are inserted giving 

 the salient points of many varieties, and Strawberries 

 descriptive notes are made of the leading in Virginia, 

 sorts. Of the new kinds, Bubach No. 5, 

 Crawford, Eureka, Haverland, Miami and Parry are 

 considered the most promising for commercial purposes. 

 A selection of any three or four varieties of the follow- 

 ing list are "recommended for home growers": Bel- 

 mont, Bomba, Bubach No. 5, Crawford, First Season, 

 Haverland, Jessie, Parry and Sharpless. 



Plant Diseases, Injurious Insects and Remedies. 

 Several investigators have recently issued reports upon 

 comparatively well known diseases and insects, with the 

 most approved remedies for them. These reports are 

 invaluable to anyone who grows a plant, and are as fol- 

 lows : Treatment of Plant diseases, ex- 

 tracted from Journal of Mycology; B. T. Fungi and 

 Galloway, Department of Agriculture Insects, 

 (grape diseases, pear scab and leaf-blight, 

 powdery mildew of apple, peach yellows, mildews under 

 glass, cranberry fungi, apple scab, copper salts as fun- 

 gicides, smut in cereals). Rusts, Smuts, Ergots and 

 Rots, New Jersey Board of Agriculture, and also separ- 

 ately printed; B. D. Halsted, New Brunswick, N. J. 

 Fungicides, Bulletin No. 102, Connecticut Experiment 

 Station ; Roland Thaxter. The Treatment of Certain 

 Fungous Diseases of Plants, Bulletin C, Tennessee Ex- 

 periment Station ; F. Lamson Scribner. Insecticides, 

 Bulletin No. 58, Michigan Experiment Station ; A. I. 

 Cook. Insecticides, Bulletin No. 15, Alabama Experi- 

 ment Station ; George F. Atkinson. Entomological 

 Notes, Bulletin No. g, Florida Experiment Station ; J. 

 C. Neal. L. H. B. 



Where the Opopanax [.-Icacia Famesiana) Grows. — 

 The following extracts have been taken from letters 

 which have been received in answer to the questions re- 

 garding .Acacia Far}iesiana, asked by " K. " in the Janu- 

 ary American Garden (page 58) ; 



From C. II. Dorset, Savaiziuih, Ga.: "1 want to say 

 that Savannah is the home of the opopanax. In our 

 garden here there are large trees covered with it." 



From IV. B. Cotmrd, Sharon Hill, Pa.: "The' 

 opopanax mentioned in The American Garden is de- 

 scribed under the head of acacia, both in Johnson'' 

 Gardeners' Dictionary and Nicholson's Dictionary of 

 Gardening. Generic and specific names are given. 

 Nicholson says that it is a native of ' St. Domingo 

 (1656).' I saw it growing, trained on the wall of a build- 

 ing near Santa Barbara, California, during the winter 

 of i888-8g, and should think it would grow anywhere 

 out of doors in southern California. The seeds are like 

 others of the family, but larger, and if planted while 

 fresh germinate readily." 



From S. IV. Horsey, Charleston, S. C. : "I have no 

 trouble in raising the young trees. I have now about 

 100, started this season. To insure success, the seeds 

 should be thoroughly soaked, planted in wet earth and 

 kept damp until the young plants are two feet high. It 

 is altogether a mistake that it will not grow in South Car- 

 olina outside of Charleston, Beaufort, and Waterboro. 

 During the flowering season of this charming shrub, 

 from S5 to $8 per day can be made filling northern 

 orders. The plant will stand a fair amount of cold, but 

 frost is emphatically fatal to the stamens." 



From Mrs. Heldenfels, Beeville, Texas.: "Unless I 

 am very much mistaken, the Acacia Famesiana, or 

 opopanax, grows here. It is usually in the form of a 

 shrub, but by trimming to one stem, it can be trained 

 into beautiful small trees, say 15-20 feet high. In the 

 last mild winter the foliage was not shed. The young 

 growth is killed back some distance by heavy frosts. 

 This plant grows in great profusion here. Further west 

 it is used for shade trees, and nobody notices it because 

 of its commonness." 



