84 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



MISCEGENATION OF GRAPES AND 

 APPLES. 



LA NATURE, a French periodical, men- 

 tions a remarkable case of cross- fertil- 

 ization. Whether it is true or not, we can - 

 not say, but this is the yarn : A grapevine 

 stood near a large russet apple tree, and 

 a bunch of twenty-nine apples formed on 

 the grapevine and grew to considerable 

 size, even if they did not mature, which 

 latter fact is not stated. The "grape- 

 apples " were wedged so closely together 

 that they were "sharpened to a point," 

 somewhat like grains of corn on a cob. 

 The blossom end of each fruit, however, 

 was found to be as perfect as in any other 

 apple. The matter has been taken up by 

 the Imperial Pomological Society, and it 

 is to be hoped that valuable facts may be 

 established from the discussions incident 

 thereto. 



ZINC TREE LABELS. 



JD. EASTER writes to the Redlands 

 Citrograph : "Your issue of the 

 20th contains a paragraph concerning 

 ' An Indestructible Tree Label ' which I 

 can commend as trustworthy, from many 

 years' experience. I was taught this by a 

 nurseryman thirty years ago, and have 

 practiced it ever since, with satisfactory 

 results. For ordinary use it is not neces- 

 sary to write on the zinc with chloride of 

 platinum, or any other costly fluid. Clean 

 the slip of zinc thoroughly and write on 

 it with a steel pen dipped in ordinary 

 black ink. The ink will soon corrode the 

 zinc so that the writing will be perfectly 

 legible, no matter how much it may be 

 exposed to the weather. I have labels on 

 fruit trees in my yard which were made 

 two years ago. The ink has disappeared 

 long ago, but the names are there to stay. 

 How they would resist being buried, I do 

 not know, but labels are not usually in- 

 tended for this purpose." 



State Floivers. While many States 

 have struggled, more or less unsuccess- 

 fully, with the momentous question of 

 selecting a " State flower," and have put 

 in nomination all sorts of ugly weeds with 

 horrible names, it is a pleasing piece of 

 news that the school children of Delaware, 

 by an overwhelming majority, selected the 

 peach blossom as a State flower. That 

 shows a degree of horse sense for which 



every Delawarean kid should have an extra 

 hunk of gingerbread and a slice of water- 

 melon, besides the usual allowance of 

 peaches and cream. The following is the 

 list of State flowers already adopted by the 

 votes of the public school scholars of the 

 respective States : Alabama, Nebraska 

 and Oregon, the golden rod; Colorado, the 

 columbine; Delaware, the peach blossom; 

 Idaho, the syringa ; Iowa and New York, 

 the rose ; Maine, the pink cone and tassel ; 

 Minnesota, the cypripodium or moccasin 

 flower ; Montana, the bitter root ; North 

 Dakota, the wild rose ; .Oklahoma terri- 

 tory, the mistletoe ; Utah, the lego lily 

 and Vermont, the red clover. In addition, 

 Rhode Island and Wisconsin have adopted 

 a State tree, the made being selected by 

 both. 



Feeds Eggs to the Calves. J. W. 



Rutherford, of Sumner county, is very 

 enthusiastic on the subject of alfalfa, cows 

 and creamery. It is not all theory, either. 

 He has had three years' experience with 

 alfalfa and has been one of the largest 

 patrons of the creamery since last fall. 

 He has sold horses and wheat machinery 

 and invested the proceeds in cows. A 

 great many farmers say there is more 

 profit in feeding the milk to calves than in 

 selling it to the creamery, but Mr. Ruther- 

 ford says he has had fine success with 

 feeding skimmed milk from the creamery 

 to his calves. He thinks he can raise just 

 as good calves on the skimmed milk, and 

 has about $5 for each cow per month for 

 the cream. He also says he stirs an egg 

 into each feed of skimmed milk, and his 

 calves are sleek and fat. He has made a 

 close study of dairy papers and has got 

 all the information he could from friends 

 in the dairy business in Pennsylvania. 

 Exchange. 



Cultivate Rather than Irrigate. It 



is easier to turn on water to wet the hard, 

 baked soil than it is to cultivate, but the 

 man who does it will never be apt to reap 

 a heavy reward for his labor. Every such 

 wetting is a positive and permanent injury 

 to the land, putting it into a mechanical 

 condition that makes it difficult to culti- 

 vate satisfactorily ever after. Give the 

 soil deep saturation when you do irrigate, 

 and cultivate it as quickly as the teams 

 can be got on, and while it works without 



