MUNICIPAL CAMPS IN NATIONAL FORESTS.—­The City of Fresno, California, has established a fifteen-acre camp in an adjoining national forest, providing low cost outings for the school children of that city and their parents.  Los Angeles is doing something similar on even a larger scale, and other municipalities are following suit.  Minnesota has splendid national forests, and the time may come when the state or some of the municipalities of the state may be able to make similar use of these forests for the benefit of our people who are not able to go to larger expense to secure needed summer outing.

THE APPLE CROP.—­The Department of Agriculture in its August 1st report forecasts an apple crop of seventy-one million barrels against seventy-six million last year and a yearly average for the past five years of sixty-six million.  The favored regions in apple growing this year are in the New England states and the Pacific states, the Central states showing a very large falling off in the apple crop, anywhere from four-fifths to one-fourth of previous years.

NATIONAL VEGETABLE GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION.—­It seems there is an association of this character, called “Vegetable Growers’ Association of America,” and it will hold its next annual meeting in LaSalle Hotel, Chicago, September 26-29.  Representatives of local vegetable growers’ associations’ will probably do well to get in touch with this national gathering.  If any go from this state the secretary will be glad to receive from them a report of the meeting.  Marketing, soil fertility, heating, packing, spraying and other subjects will be covered on the program.  For further information address James B. Foley, Secretary, 3100 South Spaulding Avenue, Chicago.

APPLE TREES AS A WINDBREAK.—­John W. Maher, of Devils Lake, N.D., in correspondence has spoken at two different times of the use of apple trees as one feature of windbreaks in his vicinity, using such varieties as Duchess, Patten’s Greening, Hibernal, etc.  In this connection he says “probably it is only the amateur horticulturist who sets a row of young apple trees in the stubble fields as a windbreak for apple grafts, but this has been done here and the windbreak is satisfactory.  I believe that the apple is more hardy in this kind of soil than it is generally considered to be.  If the apple tree is properly limbed so as to shade its trunk and larger limbs it is a real success.”

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY PERIODICALS.—­February, 1894, the first number of the monthly issued by this society was published and sent out to its members.  Publishing the report in this way as a monthly was an experiment, which has proved to be a very successful one indeed, and this method of publication has now for a long time been a permanent feature of the work of this society.  In 1894 the society had about six hundred members.  The increase in the membership of the association since that period has brought the roll to high water mark this year at 3,700.  At