Strawberry Growing In England

Strawberry growing by the hundred acres was surely an American invention, but our English cousins are fast following in our wake. Gardening Illustrated says that H. E. Vinson & Co., of Swanley in Kent, have 500 acres, which yielded about 1,000 tons last year. They employ about 1,000 hands in the marketing season, 300 being pickers. These live in tents, scattered over the fruit farm. The worst fruit is not sent to market, but is made into jam on the spot.

Disease Of The Peach In New Zealand

A serious trouble has become prevalent among peach trees in New Zealand. It is akin to our •' curl." The leaves fall soon after flowering, and minute orange blotches appear on the twigs. Usually the branches die; but sometimes a second growth appears in the summer. But the weakened trees usually die wholly the next year.

Gladney Apple

We do not need large apples for the dessert table. Small ones are far preferable. The Lady apple is popular chiefly because it is small and pretty. It is not remarkable for superior flavor. We have often wondered why Gladney was not taken up for this purpose. About the same size, just as pretty, keeps well through the winter; and yet far more sprightly and agreeable to most tastes.

Spotted Leaf In Pine Trees

The spotted leaf, the work of a fungus, AEcidium Pini, is proving seriously injurious to some forests of Scotch pine in France.

American Woods

The strongest wood in the United States, according to Professor Sargent, is that of the nutmeg hickory of the Arkansas region, and the weakest the West India birch, Bursera. The most elastic is the tamarack, the white or shellbark hickory standing far below it. The least elastic and the lowest in specific gravity is the wood of the Ficus aurea. The highest specific gravity, upon which in general depends value as fuel, is attained by the bluewood of Texas, Con-dalia obovata.

Water Rights

A Scotch court has decided in effect, that no one has a right to pollute a stream so that it shall be unfit to drink by a party below; but if water has not been used for general drinking purposes for forty years, the drinking rights of parties below have been forfeited.

The Papaw Tree, Carica Papaya

Mons. de Nobele, in an article on this tree in L'Horticulture Beige, says the name Papaya is derived from the Caribbean word Ababaye.

Mr. M. H. Lester

Some months since we noted that Mr. Lester had left New Orleans and would re-engage as gardener with any one in need of such services. But a desire to visit the great exposition at Antwerp, led him to postpone his wishes in that respect. Having returned, he may now be found, by addressing him in care of Mr. W. R. Smith, Botanical Garden, Washington, D. C.