634 
SEPT 16 
thing new in their arrangement or furnishing. 
There is a prominent me made of large 
palms, cycads, Century Plants aud hy¬ 
drangeas, in pots or tubs, studded about the 
flower gardens, along the drive-ways and 
around the residences; but they seem to be 
indiscriminately distributed. A tasteful dis¬ 
tribution of these plants consists in grouping 
them according to their kinds—the palms 
together, the cycads together, and so on, not 
In huddled clumps, but in easy gracefulness. 
But among all the gaudy show it is pleasant 
to observe that there is a growing taste for 
refined horticulture—unbroken and unpainted 
lawns aud handsome trees and shrubs. 
* * 
Fruitgrowing under glass is quite a busi¬ 
ness at Newport, both in private and com¬ 
mercial gardens, and the fact that in the case 
of fruit, as of flower-growing, more glass¬ 
houses for the purpose are being erected by 
those already engaged in the enterprise shows 
both demand and profit. 
* * 
The market growers believe Black Ham¬ 
burgh and Muscat of Alexandria to be the 
best, most satisfactory and profitable grapes 
for market, but some private gardeners are 
also loud in praise of G-olden Champion, 
Barbarossa and a few others, and Mr. Christie 
gets into ecstacy over Maddersfleld Court; 
but, unless it be a vine for experiment’s sake, 
I should advise you to be cautious about the 
last named. Of course for very late grapes 
you should add Black Alicante and Lady 
Downes. 
* * 
A few years ago the phylloxera ruined 
many a grapery at Newport, still the growers 
continue to struggle against it. It is just five 
years ago since diseased roots and mature 
i isects were sent to me from Newport, and a 
few weeks Jater that I visited there and ex¬ 
amined the vine roots. The ph\lloxera was 
there in myriads. The growers tell me they 
partially overcome it by deluges of 'water; 
even should water lodge upon the border 
while the vines are inactive, they assure me it 
does the vines no harm, but greatly destroys 
the phylloxera. The drier the border, they 
say, the greater is the insect evil. 
* * 
Peach-growing under glass is carried on 
to a considerable extent. The favorite sorts 
are George the Fourth, Walburton Admirable, 
Rivers’ Early and Early Louise. There are 
also several '* lost-the name-of ” favorites. 
One grower weut so far as to say that he be¬ 
lieved the Rivers' peaches to be the most 
desirable of all for profit. Cool or but slightly 
heated lean to houses seem to be preferred 
for peaches, and, notwithstanding the quan¬ 
tity of out door fruit in the market, the gar¬ 
deners find it more profitable to have their 
greenhouse peaches come in in August and 
September (the Newport season) thau earlier. 
They get $8 to $5 a dozen for their fruit. 
Now, why is it that these gardeners import 
their peach-trees from England rather than 
buy them from American nurserymen ? Be¬ 
cause they get exactly what they order, and 
not, as one gardener told me that he got 
from a prominent New York firm, all the 
varieties he asked for in name, but in reality 
every one, he says, was Early York, and he 
hadn’t ordered so much as one of that sort. 
Although they admit the superiority of the 
peach stock for out-door use, for gn enhouse 
work they prefer trees worked on the plum 
stock. 
♦ * 
Nectarines, for profit, are more to he de- 
sirs d than peaches. With fair treatment a 
good crop is certain; the fruit ripens well, 
looks well, sells well, and is less perishable 
than peaches. Stanwick and Downton are 
the standards. Mr. Christie tells me he gets 
$5 a dozen for his, and Mr. Findlay says he 
gets fO. Of course there is a deal of trouble 
with peaches and nectarines grown under 
glass—watering, syringing, or hosing, thin¬ 
ning and regulating the wood, also the fruit, 
ventilating aud beeping down vermin. The 
trees are not grown as standards, but spread 
out flat on frt ut and back treilises, and one 
of the chief points observed is to maintain 
the foliage in as fresh, clean and vigorous a 
condition after the fruit is gathered as before, 
as, in a great measure, on this depends the 
good condition and crop for next year. 
* * 
Mr. Findlay has quite a reputation for 
musk melons, of which he grows a large 
quantity. His In door melons have been in 
hearing for some time past, and will be suc¬ 
ceeded by bis out door patch. He has con¬ 
tracted with his customers to supply them 
with melons at a dollar a fruit the season 
through. His early crop is in a new grapery 
which is a lean to, facing south and over COO 
feet long. The melons, which are planted out 
in the inside border, have spread all over the 
ground. A good crop has been secured by 
means of artificial impregnation, and after 
the fruit had attained its full size no more 
water has been given; this causes them to 
ripen better and be of finer flavor. Well, 
this may be good enough for melons, but I 
think it is very hard on the young grape¬ 
vines. 
♦ * 
Fifty cents apiece for peaches and nec¬ 
tarines and a dollar for melons may seem big 
prices in August, when out-door fruit is com¬ 
ing in plentifully, but it must be remembered 
that first-class fruit will always sell at a first- 
class pi ice, and second-rate or inferior fruit 
at inferior prices. Besides, these Newport 
growers sell their fruit directly to the con¬ 
sumers. This expensive fruit is not an every¬ 
day table dessert, but rather a special dessert 
for special occasions, as parties, receptions 
and the like, which, by the way, are, while 
the season lasts, every-day occurrences at 
Newport. 
* * 
Here, as everywhere, roses are the princi¬ 
pal flowers that are forced for market The 
rose-houses are half-span and run east and 
west, their full sides facing south, and thus 
receiving all the available sunshine during 
the winter months. Span roofs running north 
and south had used to be employed for roses, 
but not with nearly such good Jesuits as those 
running east and west. One-year and two- 
year old bushes are preferred for forcing; 
indeed the growers say bushes over two years 
old will hardly pay. The bushes are planted 
in hedB in the greenhouses, but these beds do 
not rest upon the ground, nor are they over a 
foot deep, and often not so much as that; 
they are inclosed in broad, shallow, woodeu, 
trough-like benches, raised from the ground 
by supports like a stage, and held up a little 
higher at the back than the front. In these 
box beds the bushes are under full control, 
aud the wood can be thoroughly ripened, a 
tlvng that could hardly be so long as the bed 
rested on the clay beneath it. Most of the 
Jacqueminot houses will be “started” about 
the end of September. They will not receive 
any artificial heat to begin with, only extra 
moisture, as it is found best to start them 
very slowly. Leon. 
CH,vboviculim'al 
FORESTRY. No. 18. 
DR. JOHN A. WARDER. 
Measures of Black Locust (Robinia 
Pseudacada.) 
Situation, Soil, and Treatment of the Trees, 
Manner of Measurements. Solid Contents. 
Value Returns for the Term and Annual 
Rent Produced per Acre. 
In consequence of the great interest w'bich 
has been manifested in this species since the 
reading of some papers respecting it at the 
Cincinnati meeting of the Forestry Congress, 
the writer, who for several years has been cul¬ 
tivating this tree aad from ti me to time putting 
it into the market, now introduces some tables 
of measures and ages which were carefully 
taken in order to secure reliable data upon 
which to base calculations as to the profits 
that might be counted upon in this branch of 
agriculture. 
This is done at the risk of some repetition, 
as an article in response to inquiries from a 
Canadian correspondent was prepared some 
months since, and appeared in the Rurajl for 
March 4, on page 134) of the current volume, 
in which a rather full account of the locust 
was given. 
To make this paper complete, or rather 
sufficiently lull to be understood, the situa¬ 
tion of thp laud and the treatment of the trees 
will be given, with explanation of the tables 
and calculations as to the profits which may 
be anticipated by those who have been in¬ 
duced to plant the trees. The data as to 
profits will depend upon the demand aud on 
the market rates, which will vary ; but every 
care has been taken to present the figures at a 
fair average. 
It should be premised that the farm upon 
which these trees grew is based upon the old 
Silurian rock known as Cincinnati Blue Lime¬ 
stone. In places it is capped with a deposit 
of diluvium, somewhat sandy, or with fine 
gravel, such as is common in our drift, in 
which few azoic boulders of any size occur. 
The large proportion of th i soil, however, is 
derived from the decay of the underlying rock, 
portions of which, with its characteristic 
aluminous, shaly marls, prevail on the out. 
crops, especia lly on the hill-sides. 
The average elevation of the hills is from 
350 to 400 feet above the Ohio River, which 
fiows near by. The farm has been subjected 
to severe cropping and shallow cultivation 
since the beginning of the century; but there 
are little pockets a i ong the hills where the 
accumulations of vegetable debris have made 
u richer soil, while, on the contrary, the 
ridges and points of higher land, as a result of 
injudicious plowing and the erosion of so 
long a period, have been robbed of what 
humus they may have once possessed, and are 
reduced to the native soil or decomposed rock 
and clay which is often so bare as to be un¬ 
productive until heavily manured and fertil¬ 
ized by clover or other green crops plowed 
into it. 
Just here, however, strange as it may seem, 
the Black Locust appears to be Nature’s 
favorite restorative or cure for man’s harsh 
treatment of the land. Even in fields that 
have been thrown out of cultivation because 
exhausted and sometimes scored with fright¬ 
ful gullies that expose the rocky strata, the 
locust finds a home, springs up and clothes 
these waste places with verdure; soon its shed 
leaves decaying on the surface make a nidus 
into which the ever-present Blue Grass (our 
invaluable Poa pratensis) enters as a welcome 
guest and clothes the surface, even beneath 
the trees, with a tenacious sod that arrests 
the abrasion of the torrents and eventually 
restores the fertility of the soil. 
Situation of the Trees. 
Within a quarter of a century, on these 
old fields the locusts have sprung up almost 
spontaneously under the eyes of the beholder 
who has encouraged them for their assthe- 
tie as well as for their money value. They 
have been conserved —some of them have re¬ 
ceived cultivation, others have been severely 
let alone, according to the sites they happened 
to occupy. Some of the trees have .stood 
singly in the open fields and have been sub¬ 
jected to tillage and thus with the crops 
about them have had the benefit of manures 
applied to the land; others have had to de¬ 
pend solely upon the air and soil for their 
supplies of plant food. Some of the trees 
occur in little groves that have been re¬ 
served from the destroying ax and mat¬ 
tock of the more tidy farmer who prefers 
an open field for his operations. Of these 
some are situated on points whence the hu- 
mose soil had all been removed by abrasion, 
leaving a hard clay subsoil, or the gravelly 
remains of the drift exposed to the light— 
scald spots that w ere unproductive of tillage 
crops. Some of these trees had sprouted 
from stumps of a former generation of men 
and locusts trees; some are iu clumps of tw r o, 
tnree or more springing from a common 
origin. Many had started from a root which 
had been cut and exposed by the plow, 
which causes the production of numerous 
suckers that render this species of shade tree 
obnoxious to the farmer. The fewest have 
come directly from seeds, though these are 
abundantly produced almost every year. 
These seed are endued with a wonderful 
degree of vitality, but so closely locked up as 
to require boiliog water or the fire of a brush- 
heap to stimulate their vegetation in most 
cases. 
The conservation of these trees has con¬ 
sisted chiefly in guarding againBt injury, ex¬ 
cluding cattle from them while young, some 
cultivation where they grew in open ground, 
a little trimming with the ax and billhook; 
but of this very little is needed except where 
they stand singly, as nature provides for the 
destruction of all the side branches while 
they are small where the plants are crowded 
together. Thinning is also effected by nat¬ 
ural means, the underlings when over¬ 
powered by their stronger neighbors soon 
die, when they may be left to the slow 
processof decay for the benefit of the Boil, or 
they may be cut out and utilized for poles in 
the garden, used for fencing, or taken to the 
wood shed for fuel, which is of excellent 
quality. 
Explanation of the Tables. 
The measures here given are all taken at the 
base where cut with ax or saw, aud are 
about one foot from the ground. The diame¬ 
ters are average and do not include the 
buttress sometimes seen near large superficial 
roots, and they do not include the bark—the 
sap-wood is thin in this species. 
The age of the trees was determined by the 
annual rings of wood-growth which may 
easily be distipguised by any one accustomed 
to the study, aud though in some seasons 
there may appear to be a little confusion 
we may safely take those natural marks as 
indices of the annual increment, whatever 
may have been said to the contrary by some 
modern writers. 
By reference to the tables, it will be seen on 
comparing the number of the riugs or years 
with the diameters that in these fifty trees, 
the average, including the large and the small 
is 26 years and the diameter 10.04 inches, 
making then a growth ring with a mean 
thickness of .192 of an inch or a combined in¬ 
crement of .395 of an inch—nearly two fifths 
of inch. Growths of half an inch and more 
are often seen, making the annual increment 
more than an inch, several show an increase 
of half an inch, or even more, through the 
whole period of their lives— vide Nos. 1, 0, 
11, 21, 25, 33, and notably Nos. 36 and 37. 
Some trees that have grown up in a fence 
row, in good soil and well exposed, with an 
average of 30.5 years, had a bight of 66 feet 
and a diameter of 15 inches. Another group 
of six bad 25riogs, a diameter of 9 80 inches and 
a hight of 35 feet; these were in an open space 
but poorer soil. From a larger group covering 
eight square rods on a very thin gravelly clay 
point 15 trees were cut from the outer margin 
where they were well exposed—they averaged 
27 years, and 11.13 inches in diameter, some 
being as large as 13 and 14 iuches, but those 
within are inferior. They were 36 feet high. 
Another lot of 15 averaged 26 years and 12 
inches in diameter, while seven trees at 20 
years were 12 inches each. 
In some cases three or more sticks were 
united at the base, and its diameter was 20 
inches, while they measured separately 10, 
10 and 12 inches, as may be seen in table Nos. 
48, 49 aud 50. These, with Nos. 38 to 44 in¬ 
clusive, would have made a better showing 
had each stick been measured separately, 
since all the numbers were used in striking 
the average. 
CUBIC CONTENTS. 
These logs or spars were cut off when they 
were six inches in diameter, which was the 
limit fixed by the purchaser: they were clear 
of defects, and the amount of solid materials 
was figured by the use of Scribner’s Log 
Book, from which was derived the following 
results: Fifty trees, 26 years old, averaging 
nine inches in diameter, containing 633 cubic 
feet, at 25 cents a foot, $177.50. 
Rent 
Ylc-M. per year. 
Allowing soo per acre, at lOfeet apart. $1,065 $4l.oO 
" AM " 15 " .710 27 03 
100 “ 20 “ . 350 13.46 
To be on the safe side let us take the 200 
trees, and we have a net result that should be 
satisfactory for the usage of such land. 
It has been claimed that a good stand of lo¬ 
cust from 25 to 30 years old was worth $1,000 
per acre. This calculation was based on the 
making of fence posts, in which the selection 
need not be so close—such trees would each 
make 10 posts of regulation size and seven 
feet long, * 
300 trees per acre x 15 posts=4,500 posts at 
20 cer.ts=f900. 
The tops will furnish fence stakes and fuel 
to pay for the labor of felliDg, and frequently, 
usually indeed, if managed as coppice, a new 
crop will at once start from the stumps and 
roots. Comparison with the mulberry clump 
at 22 years shows a diameter of 11 inches, but 
this tree is always shorter, and these furnished 
but one length for posts. 
IS OH. FUN'CIS. 
HI \ METIS It 
AT SUTT. 
REMARKS. 
inches. 
Counted February 24, 1382. 
1 ... 
23 
14 
2... 
22 
V 
13- 
12) 
3... 
28 
4 .. 
29 
5... 
26 
11 
6... 
26 
13 
7... 
25 
12 
8... 
26 
8) 
9... 
26 
j y 
10... 
26 
11 ... 
26 
13 
12... 
26 
9 
13..*. 
26 
11 
14... 
26 
7 
15... 
24 
7 
1 «... 
26 
7 
17... 
26 
8 
18 . 
26 
7 
19... 
27 
9 
20... 
27 
11 
21 .. 
23 
14 
22... 
28 
It 
23... 
29 
12 } 
24,.. 
29 
13 S 
25... 
29 
11 
26... 
28 
12 
27... 
22 
HI 
2<... 
22 
10 
A group or stool. 
Av. 26yrs. 10.33 inches. 
29 ... 
25 
12 
»>.... 
25 
12 
31.... 
27 
12 
32.... 
26 
12 
33.... 
28 
14 
34.... 
24 
10 
35.... 
21 
9 ■ 
36.... 
21 
13) 
37.... 
26 
17 
38.. . 
39 
28 
as 
22 1 
40.... 
25 
41.... 
25 
•1! ... 
43.... 
25 
25 
27 and 
•14.... 
25 
15.... 
26 
12 
16.... 
26 
10 
47.... 
26 
9 
is.... 
49... 
00.... 
26 ) in 
26- 10 > 
26) 13) 
Counted February 28,1832. 
Inches. 
27 and 28 united at the butt. 
United, butt—20 Inches. 
Av'ge 20 9 75 Inches. 
Total av'e 26—HUM •: 
Mulberry stool er group same date: 
X.... 23 13 
2_22 17 This clump crew In 
3.. .. 22 16 a ravine with some 
4_ 22 5 wash. 
5.. .. 22 8 
Average, 11 
i’kliJ Crops. 
OXFORD PRACTICAL FARMERS’ CLUB. 
Wheat Growing. 
[Special Report to the Rural New-Yorker.] 
At our August meeting the timely topic of 
“ Wheat Growing” was the subject for dis¬ 
cussion. The members of our club are all 
growers of wheat, having from twenty to 
forty acres each in the crop. 
The first sub-topic, “Preparation of Seed- 
