the evil effects of the attacks of phylloxera, is that their premises are wrong. So far as we can judge, New England, where the labrusca is supposed to have originated, has just as many phylloxera as any other part of the country and one would not expect to find this species differing in this respect from other species from east of the Rocky Mountains. Those who speak of this cite the somewhat fleshy roots of Concord, Diamond, and a host of other cultivated sorts. How much simpler it is to credit their more fleshy roots to the slight mixture of European blood in their composition.

The probable reason why the success of the better educated and better prepared grape breeder was seldom as great as that of his poorer and more humble competitor was that of the one's handicap in pocketbook was a positive advantage Bull succeeded because he did not have money enough to buy a greenhouse. The successful market variety is apparently one which is all native except for having the single vinifera character of perfect flowers. Hence Bull's cross of Catawba or Isabella with a wild grape hit the bull's eye. With a glass house he would merely have antedated Rogers in making simple hybrids. Ricketts and others failed because they persisted in crossing vinifera hybrids, when their efforts should have been to eliminate the vinifera blood, so far as was consistent with the retention of the one character of perfect flowers.

NOTES ON NORTH EUROPEAN HORTICULTURE® BY PROF. W. R. LAZENBY, Ohio State University, Columbus, 0. I. THE SEASON OF 1911.

Our memory of the weather when it is once past is notoriously short. We are apt to forget the past good and remember the present ills. We unhesitatingly assert that we never knew a season so early or so late, so hot or so cold, so wet or so dry as the present, when the fact is, it is only a normal or average season. It is unlikely, however, that anyone who is at all familiar with the climate of Great Britain and North Central Europe, and has lived through the summer of 1911, will ever forget the salient facts of the weather of that year. Its effects were obvious in at least three well-defined directions. First, its influence on the food supply; second, on health and temper; and third, on the national habits. I shall dismiss the last two points, in a brief paragraph. The toll of human life, especially infant life, was enormous, and that the national temper was unduly irritated. needs no proof.

*Written in Darmstadt, Germany.

Many if not most of the labor troubles which have distinguished the year were directly attributed to the heat acting upon the lowered vitality caused by excessive hours of labor, and insufficient nourishment.

A change in national habits due to the torrid weather was the universal demand for ice. More home refrigerators were sold during the year than in any previous five years and the house to house ice supply will soon be inaugurated. A physician told me that the unaccustomness to the heat had done more to inculcate the open window habit for sleeping rooms than any amount of preaching on health and hygiene could have ever done.

But more interesting to the horticulturist was the influence on the products of the orchard and garden. During the late summer and early fall there was a famine in green vegetables such as has never been known in the memory of Covent Garden. Even the usually abundant cabbage became something of a luxury on account of its scarcity. Cauliflowers were not to be had at any price and spinach was so rare and poor in quality that its use was given up by most hotels and restaurants. Lettuce easily brought four times the usual price, and squashes, onions, turnips, etc., were almost equally dear. So far as I could judge by repeated visits to various markets the carrot and the tomato were the two vegetables least affected by the drouth. The latter is usually grown under glass and water is artificially applied.

As a rule fruit suffered much less from the unfavorable heat and drouth of the past summer than did the vegetables. Seldom have fairer apples been grown in England than in the sunny year of 1911. From nearly all the apple districts good harvests of sound clean skinned fruit have been gathered.

The choicest dessert apples suffered the most, but the ordinary culinary sorts and the standard later keeping varieties were large in size and of good quality. The plum crop has seldom been more prolific, and the freedom from insect injury and fungous diseases was very noticeable. There is no fungicide equal to a hot dry summer and for some insect pests it seems to be equally efficacious.

In Germany and Belgium the orchard fruits suffered more and in many places, although promising well in the earlier part of the season, were an almost total failure. One effect was particularly evident, the poor keeping quality of the fruit produced. In some parts of Germany, especially in the valley of the Rhine, the grape crop was unusually large and of excellent quality. The apparently sterile rocks of many a slope and hillside impart a warmth to the soil and a consequent sweetness to the grape, which are otherwise found

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only under a more southernly sun, and the wine of the season of 1911 is said to be of prime quality.

One who travels through England and North Central Europe can scarcely fail to observe that the demand for good apples is rapidly growing, and thereby a great impetus has been given to its culture. In Southern England and Northern Ireland, the acreage under apple cultivation has increased very rapidly. In Germany the apple is rapidly superseding the cherry as a tree for roadside planting. For the most part these trees are of well selected varieties and are receiving the best of care.

III. NEW VARIETIES OF FRUIT.

So far as I have been able to learn, comparatively little is being done in Europe in the way of originating new varieties of fruits. Among the seedlings that I have seen exhibited there appeared to be none of special merit.

Mr. Laxton of Bedford, England, has evolved a new berry that appears to be a distinct acquisition to the list of small fruits. Some ten years or more ago when a successful cross between the raspberry and the blackberry resulted in the well known Loganberry, its good qualities were soon recognized. The increased size of the fruits, its great firmness, and the productiveness of the plants, all combined to win for it the popular favor as a commercial berry. The agreeable color and juicy acid flavor also aided greatly in gaining a ready appre ciation for the newcomer. But the Loganberry had some serious defects, among them being the hard core and the acidity which were great drawbacks for its use as dessert fruit.

Mr. Laxton conceived the idea of crossing the Loganberry with the raspberry and for ten years he has been breeding this new cross. He is now satisfied with the form the new fruit has attained and is offering it for sale under the name of Lextonberry. This new variety is an exceptionally vigorous grower and the fruit is large and has no core. It resembles an enlarged raspberry except that it is much firmer. The flavor is quite distinct, just slightly acid and very pleasant to the taste. It is said to be very prolific and to have a long fruiting seaIf it sustains itself in these qualities, the Lextonberry can scarcely fail to be a welcome addition to our bush fruits.

son.

IV. BIRDS IN THE ORCHARDS.

Birds appear to be more plentiful in the orchards of Europe than in the United States, and the abnormal summer had a peculiar effect upon their habits. The blackbirds, thrushes. green finches and sparrows, and even the almost insectiverous starlings, were forced to depart from their usual methods of gaining a livelihood. Those birds whose diet consists largely or almost entirely upon food other than that of the insect life

of the soil, were not obliged to change their habits like those whose lives depended upon the soil frequenting insects. The hardships borne by insectiverous birds during a season of prolonged heat and drouth are seldom observed. In times of frost and snow we frequently recognize the difficulty of the existence of a comparatively few species that face these conditions, but we seldom give a thought to the equal hardships of vast multitudes of birds when in a period of prolonged drouth their natural food is beyond their reach.

During such periods practically all insect life is driven so deep into the earth that it is far beyond the reach of any birds, and the struggle for life may be stern indeed although it passes almost unnoticed. The firmer and later maturing fruits of summer and early fall are not usually troubled by birds which are insectiverous by nature. In the past year, however, that has not been the case. Nearly every species of birds made a beeline for the orchards as the only means for a livelihood and great quantities of plums, apples and pears were ruined, and some orchardists were obliged to resort to drastic measures in order to save their crops. All early varieties of fruits named were gathered before they were in their best marketable condition as a matter of self-defence, otherwise they would have been a total loss. In many cases the later maturing fruits suffered severely for the skin was often broken by the birds, and the bees and wasps followed and added to the injury. The first good rain in September wrought a transformation. It brought the insect life of the soil once more to the surface, and the birds having access to their natural diet no longer troubled the fruits.

As a rule bird life is more carefully guarded in Europe than it is in America. The people of the Old World realize that the birds are their best allies in the warfare against destructive insects. Even in and during the past season, those who suffered the greatest loss seemed to remember that it was the force of unusual circumstances rather than willful mischief that drove the birds to commit injuries, so they are still regarded as good friends of the fruit grower. This is a lesson that the American fruit grower may well learn from the experienced horticulturists of Europe.