January  31,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
99 
The  Roumanian  Oak  Forests. — Roumania’s  impecuniosity  has 
led  to  the  sacrifice  of  her  peerless  Oak  forests.  A  contract  has  just 
been  entered  into  for  the  cutting  of  half  a  million  Oaks  under  disastrous 
conditions.  Every  tree  with  the  diameter  of  half  a  yard  and  above 
maybe  felled,  says  “Building  News,”  the  uniform  price  to  be  about 
12s.  per  tree,  and  the  contractor  to  have  the  option  of  rejecting 
one-fourth  of  the  trees  having  only  the  minimum  diameter  of  half  a 
yard. 
The  Value  of  Soot. — This  substance  is  employed  in  gardening 
either  as  a  fertiliser  or  to  prevent  or  cure  insect  ravages  or  with  all 
these  objects  combined.  The  fertilising  effect  of  a  top-dressing  of  soot 
is  very  decided,  and  seems  to  be  due  in  a  great  degree  to  the  presence 
of  sulphate  and  chloride  of  ammonium,  but  the  other  substances  present 
may  also  produce  some  effect.  Soot  has  been  found  to  greatly  benefit 
Potatoes.  As  a  remedy  against  those  larvae  that  lie  underground  during 
the  day  and  crawl  up  to  feed  on  the  plants  at  night,  soot  is,  says  the 
“  Farmers’  Gazette,”  especially  useful  if  laid  rather  thickly  around  the 
stems  ;  it  will  also  stimulate  the  plants  to  healthy  growth.  It  is  also 
frequently  scattered  as  a  top-dressing  or  along  the  drills  about  the  time 
when  any  crop  is  liable  to  visits  of  the  paient  insects  intent  on  egg- 
laying,  in  such  a  case  it  acts  as  a  preventive  of  attack.  Soot  is  also 
used  instead  of  hellebore  powder  for  scattering  over  plants  attacked  by 
larvae — e.g.,  sawfly  larvae  on  Currant  bushes — or  by  perfect  insects — 
e.g .,  Turnip  flea  on  Turnips — and  gives  valuable  results  when  rightly 
employed,  but  care  must  be  taken  to  avoid  applying  it  when  the  flavour 
of  the  crop  would  be  injured.  The  Onion  crop  in  particular  is  greatly 
improved  by  giving  the  ground  a  good  dressing  of  soot  previous  to 
sowing  the  seed. 
Early  Spring  at  Sew. — Visitors  to  Kew  are  astonished  at  the 
extraordinary  result  of  the  mild  weather.  The  eye  is  dazzled  with 
the  pure  white  blaze  of  the  myriad  Snowdrops — welcome  harbingers  of 
spring — nodding  their  dainty  heads  in  the  breeze,  and  with  the  rich 
golden  hue  of  the  masses  of  Aconites.  In  the  outdoor  ferneries 
Beaconsfield’s  favourite  flower  blinks  its  delicate  yellow,  and  the 
Fern  frouds  are  precociously  shooting  out  their  hairy  spirals.  But 
the  greatest  surprise,  says  a  daily  paper,  is  the  bed  of  Wallflowers 
in  full  bloom  in  the  open  near  the  greenhouse,  throwing  off  their 
fragrant  and  sensuous  perfume.  Even  the  nimble  squirrels,  as  they 
chase  each  other  along  the  trees  in  order  to  keep  warm,  stop  to  gaze 
at  the  early  appearance  of  the  sweet-smelling  Gilliflower,  and  the 
blackbirds  are  tempted  into  premature  mating.  Inside  the  greenhouse 
the  feast  of  colour  and  scent  is  bewildering,  and  the  Palm  house  is 
glorious  with  its  tropical  vegetation.  Yet  the  Royal  gardens  are  almost 
deserted  at  this  time  of  the  year,  and  the  penguins  and  foreign  birds 
stand  disconsolately  at  the  edge  of  the  lake  waiting  sadly  for  the 
visitors  who  never  come  to  feed  them. 
Utility  in  Gardening'.— A  point  is  sometimes  attempted  to  be 
made  that  while  farming  is  useful,  gardening  is  a  mere  sentiment, 
and  the  lines  between  beauty  and  utility  are  somewhat  tightly  drawn. 
But  even  those  who  use  this  argument  do  not  show  by  their  lives 
that  they  have  full  faith  in  it.  One  man  may  look  on  a  magnificent 
specimen  of  forest  tree  growth  with  admiration  of  the  beauty  in 
every  leaf  and  branch,  while  the  next  man  be  calculating  the  dollars 
he  may  make  out  of  the  lumber  in  the  trunk.  But  after  the  bank 
account  is  swollen  with  the  cash,  pure  utility  will  not  permit  him  to 
clothe  himself  in  a  coffee  sack  or  his  wife  and  family  in  garments  of 
Fig  leaves,  because  he  has  no  use  for  beauty.  He  does  not  travel  on 
a  dead  level,  dreary  plain  because  there  is  greater  expense  and  labour 
in  getting  to  a  mountain  top,  but  admires  the  grand  mountain  scenery 
as  deeply  as  the  mere  lover  of  Nature.  Indeed,  a  lover  of  any  kind  is 
more  inspired  by  beauty  than  by  ugliness,  and  a  bank-note  would  be 
less  acceptable  to  anyone  if  passed  as  a  dirty  piece  of  square  paper 
than  with  a  neat  picture  of  De  Soto  or  some  handsome  face.  To 
our  mind,  the  objection  sometimes  made  to  gardening,  that  it  has  no 
utility  in  the  economy  of  human  life,  should  be  classed  with  that 
department  of  literature  known  as  “fudge.” — (“  Meehan’s  Monthly.”) 
A  Whistling  Tree. — Theatrical  managers  are  certain  of  this 
faot.  They  will  not  use  the  Whistling  Tree,  that  is  the  Tsofar,  for 
carpentering.  In  the  “  Pharmaceutical  Journal  ”  we  are  told  that  a 
gum  is  obtained  from  it,  known  under  the  name  of  gedaref  or  Sennaar 
Gum.  It  is  a  very  interesting  tree.  According  to  Dr.  Schweinfurth, 
as  the  wind  blows  across  its  branches,  it  produces  a  sound  analogous 
to  a  flute.  This  musical  property,  wonderful  in  a  tree,  especially  a 
gummy  one,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  base  of  the  prickles  of  the 
hirsute  branches  is  perforated  by  a  certain  insect,  which  sucks  the  gum 
out  and  transforms  all  the  thorns  into  little  flutes.  Happily  we  only 
see  things  of  this  kind  in  the  south  of  Nubia. 
Growth  of  an  Old  Potato. — In  a  recent  issue  of  “  Meehan’s 
Monthly,”  a  correspondent  refers  to  a  Potato  that  had  grown  the  second 
year.  He  probably  intended  to  convey  the  idea  that  a  Potato  had 
remained  in  the  ground  a  whole  year  without  sprouting,  and  then  grew 
the  second  season.  This  would  accord  with  experience.  If  below  the 
reach  of  atmospheric  air,  or  the  temperature  too  low,  it  might  lie  several 
years  without  sprouting — any  live  vegetation  will  remain  dormant  for 
an  indefinite  number  of  years  under  ice,  or  probably  in  any  cold-storage 
vault,  as  the  late  Robert  Douglas  and  others  have  proved  by  actual 
facts.  It  would,  says  “  Q.”  in  the  same  journal,  be  a  new  and  very 
remarkable  fact  if  a  Potato,  once  sprouting,  and  giving  up  all  its  stores 
of  food  to  the  new  growth,  should  be  able  to  perform  the  same  office 
another  season. 
The  Quaint  Monkey  Puzzle. — In  making  some  references  to 
one  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester’s  lakes,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which 
guns  are  never  fired,  “E.  K.  R.,”  in  the  “Daily  Express,”  speaks  of 
Araucaria  imbricata  as  follows  : — Through  the  Golden  Gate  we  pass 
into  the  second  long  drive,  more  stately  than  the  other,  with  its  giant 
Araucariae — “  Monkey  Puzzles  ”  of  popular  horticulture — standing  in 
double  line  on  the  broad  margin  of  turf.  Quaint  fruit  the  female 
Araucaria — for  “  Monkey  Puzzles,”  like  Willows  and  Hollies  and 
human  beings,  have  their  separate  sexes — bear  in  season,  like  spiky 
green  footballs  bulging  on  the  ends  of  upturned  candelabra-like 
branches.  Many  of  the  fruiting  trees  are  showing,  by  withered  limbs 
below,  that  the  Araucaria  has  short  life  as  a  forest  tree  in  England  ; 
for  what  is  the  half  century  of  their  exotic  growth  to  the  life  of  our 
Oaks  and  Yews  that  saw  the  Civil  Wars,  and  flourish  still  ? 
Storage  of  Apples  In  Winter. — It  is  very  stale  but  oft  repeated 
advice,  to  spread  out  winter  Apples  and  Pears  on  shelves  in  the  cellar, 
and  the  decayed  ones  to  be  removed  from  time  to  time.  We  must 
wholly  disagree  with  such  a  course,  for  when  exposed  the  Apple 
rapidly  loses  its  moisture  and  becomes  shrivelled,  which  also  causes 
deterioration  of  quality.  On  this  account  Apples  and  Pears  in  cool 
storage  should  be  kept  tightly  closed,  and  they  will  open  up  plump 
and  fresh.  The  great  secret  for  keeping  Apples  and  Pears  is,  says 
a  Canadian  paper,  a  cool  temperature,  and  35°  to  40°  F.  will  be  found 
most  satisfactory.  Usually  Apples  are  left  to  hang  too  long  on  the 
trees  and  become  too  much  ripened  ;  then  they  lie  in  piles  or  stored 
in  barrels  in  hot  places,  perhaps  right  out  in  the  sunshine  for  weeks 
until  the  hot  weather  is  over  ;  then  they  are  shut  up  in  a  warm,  close 
house  cellar,  with  a  temperature  about  50°,  and  then  the  farmer  wonders 
why  his  Apples  do  not  keep.  Let  him  try  gathering  them  as  soon 
as  mature,  pack  them  away  at  once  in  a  cool  place  where  the 
temperature  does  not  rise  above  40°,  and  see  whether  the  results  are  not 
much  more  satisfactory. 
Cytlsus  Ardolnl. — This  is  one  of  the  smallest  members  of  this 
genus,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  best,  especially  for  the  rockery. 
It  is  a  small  close-growing  species,  which  rarely  exceeds  6  inches  in 
height,  even  when  oovered  with  its  dense  spikes  of  flowers,  whioh 
appear  in  April  and  May,  and  make  the  plant  a  brilliant  patch  of 
yellow  during  that  time.  It  is  a  comparatively  rare  plant,  and  is  said 
to  be  dying  out  in  its  native  habitat — the  mountains  of  the  South  of 
France,  through  the  agency  of  sheep  and  other  animals,  whioh  eat  the 
plants  down  to  the  ground.  The  flowers  are  borne  on  a  short,  erect 
spike,  3  or  4  inohes  long,  and  are  of  a  bright  golclen  yellow.  The  leaves 
are  trifoliolate  and  oovered  with  comparatively  long  silky  white  hairs.  A 
hybrid  between  this  plant  and  C.  albus  has  been  raised  at  Kew,  and 
called  0.  kewensis.  It  combines  the  characters  of  the  two  parents  in  a 
marked  degree,  the  long  slender  growths  of  C.  albus  being  united  to 
the  prostrate  habit  of  C.  Ardoini,  the  result  being  a  dwarf,  spreading 
plant  with  primrose-coloured  flowers.  It  is  a  rapid  grower  in  almost 
any  situation,  and  soon  covers  a  large  space  of  ground,  throwing  out 
its  long  branching  shoots  in  all  directions. — C. 
