Remarkable Mortality of Evergreens.
From Virginia to the Canadian shores, and from the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic, the evergreens are dead or dying. Millions of dollars' worth of hardy plants, that have for years withstood our northern winters, now show the ravages of the zero weather of the last season. Norway spruces, pines, arbor vitæ, junipers, rhododendrons, dwarf and standard roses in public parks and private gardens have “put on the sere and yellow leaf,” their symbols of decay. Long Island has suffered severely. In the gardens at Astoria, where immense numbers of evergreens were growing for sale, the loss is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rows of arbor vitæ, containing thousands of plants, are absolutely valueless. Prospect Park and the private gardens in Brooklyn have not been spared in the general disaster, and the gardeners at the Central Park, New York, pronounce the loss in those grounds almost irreparable. At Flatbush, L. I., and in Westchester County, the loss has been very great. Some of the nurserymen have lost their entire stock. In other places the effect has been peculiar. Plants of the same age and apparent health, growing in long rows, have been touched at intervals of a few feet. The first dozen in the row are dead, and the next half dozen are well and thrifty. In Brooklyn, the plants on the north and east side of the houses have suffered most. In New Jersey, the horticulturists have noticed that plants which are shaded from the winter sun have escaped the worst effects of the season, and may be saved with much trouble and time. The report from the vicinity of Boston and further east, confirm the sad tidings of what was only rumor a few weeks ago, and from the great nurseries at Rochester, the Ohio valley, and even further west, the words come to us, “Our evergreens are dead.” The causes assigned for this unexpected loss are various, but from among them the following may be taken as having in them most of probability: First, it is said that the warm days of February gave the plants an early start, as if the spring had really opened, and then when all were swelling with the new life, the weather changed again to hard winter, freezing with the cold, March winds. Another view is, that the plants were killed very early in the winter. There was not a gradual diminution of the temperature as in former years, but the season came suddenly upon the plants before they were properly shielded, or prepared for it. Their color changed slightly, but not enough to cause alarm, and although the plants remained green, they were dead. Only when the warm weather of the last few weeks startled the other plants into general activity was the damage to the evergreens visible. In support of the first theory, it is observed that in one place on the Hudson in a private garden there were several fine specimens of the golden-bark arbor vitæ. They had been covered nearly all of the winter. During the warm days of February they were exposed, and seemed remarkably vigorous. They have not been covered since, and are now dead. Where the new supply will come from, is as yet a matter of conjecture. Nurserymen are afraid to purchase the few plants offered for sale until the season is more advanced. Many think they could save some of their stock by carefully nursing it for two or three years; but the ground is too valuable to be used for that purpose, and evergreens will be cut down and cast away. There are many sorrowful faces among the nurserymen, and some of them will be sorely tried in the effort to recover from the losses inflicted by the death of the evergreens.—Journal of Commerce.