ISii 



(;i,i':.\NiN(;s IN nv.i: cn/irui' 



shipiiKMit cost iiK' in Now York l". iMs. ])rr Ih., 

 ;m(l 1 can easily put il in '+-II1. ])acka,L;(.'S and 

 sell Ihetn for 7 cts. each, or a wliolc onc-jiound 

 tin can for 'J'2 els., and wc can furnish ahso- 

 UUcly pure Paris iijreen at this ])rice. Now, I 

 am not nicnlioninij this to advertise it, but to 

 advise you to purchase it al your nearest drui,^- 

 store. Show this article to your druj^ri^isl, and 

 I think lie will at^ree to furnish it at these 

 prices, and I will tell him where to buy il if 

 lie wishes me to do so. 



• In the Rural Xr7i.'-)'or/:cr I notice some 

 discussion as to why the bugs are worse on 

 some varieties of potatoes than on others. The 

 /xiiral says, and with much truth, that the 

 bugs pitch into the potatoes latest planted. 

 This is.tnie until you come to potatoes planted 

 in July, that come on after the worst of the 

 Inig season is over. I have seen acres of such 

 jwtatoes with not a bug to be found. By the 

 way, there is a good prospect that the great 

 raid of bugs is going to make potatoes scarce 

 and high-priced; at any rate, it will pay the 

 potato-grower to watch his vines closely. With 

 a good gun (or bellows), and plenty of good 

 Paris green, it is not a very expensive job to 

 keep the bvigs off entirely; and if you kill 

 them thoroughly one season you will find it 

 much easier to fight the tiattle the season af- 

 terward. One thing more: 



There are certain varieties of potatoes that 

 are much less liable to be troubled with bugs, 

 and I believe it is, as a rule, the rank strong 

 growers, especially among the late potatoes. 

 Manum's Enormous and Craig are troubled 

 but little, comparatively. Years ago we no- 

 ticed that the Rural New-Yorker was not 

 troubled nearly as much by bugs as the other 

 kinds. I am sorry to say that the Thorough- 

 bred seems to be especially picked out by the 

 bugs. ' , 



MV GOOSEBERRY STORY. 

 Gooseberries have been rather slow .sale now 

 for two seasons ; yet we have sold quite a few 

 this summer at cents a quart. I thought at 

 first this was a rather low price, and was ques- 

 tioning whether it paid, so I made a little in- 

 vestigation. Two or three years ago I thought 

 I should like to see what gooseberries would 

 do down on our very rich creek-bottom land, 

 where eVery- thing goes to vines and foliage. 

 So I moved seven or eight gooseberry-bushes 

 down there and watched for results. Last 

 year one of the bushes grew taller than my 

 head, and bore a pretty fair crop of berries. 

 This season it was once more loaded with ber- 

 ries. In fact, the tall Vnishes bent clear over 

 and rested on the ground. This bush has al- 

 ready given us a peck of berries, and there is 

 certainly another good peck to be picked. I 

 think the variety is the Houghton, but the 

 bushes are very tall and spreading. There 

 are no thorns on the bush or on the berries; 

 and this is a matter of some moment also, 

 because, where there are no thorns in the way, 

 you can hold a basket under the branches and 

 strip the berries right off. I think one could 

 easily strip off every berry in this way in half 

 an hour. In fact, it ought not to take more 

 than a quarter of an hour. But we will esti- 

 mate the crop from the one bush at half a 



buslKl,_and the cost of picking at ■") cts. Tliat 

 leaves ?;') cts. profit for a single ero]) on one 

 gooseberry-bush. This seems almost incred- 

 ible; but there is the bush with half of its crop 

 remaining. B '.sides the ]rjck that has already 

 been j)icked 1 have helped my.self (juito liber- 

 ally, and advised my friends to do the same, 

 several times. They are just now ripe enough 

 to eat. I begin to think om reason why we 

 have not sold our goos-.-berri :s better is be- 

 cau.se we have not sold them cheap enough. 

 If a market can be found for them when can- 

 ned, there is a tremendous chance for a goose- 

 . berry-farm. They are not perishable ; and 

 there is .so little danger of brui.sing in handling, 

 that, when they are gathered green, they 

 might be sent to market in a bag; and the 

 bag, if it did not contain too many berries, 

 might be carried on horseback. Then there 

 is an opening for gooseberry jam and goose- 

 berry jelly . Can anybody tell us more about it ? 



^rl . Root: — I should like to have Dr. Miller tell 

 whether .sweet clover doe.s as well if sown in the fall 

 as in the spring; also your opinion, and whether it has 

 to be sown every two years, as some claim. 



Luce, Mich., July 2^." Wm. Craig. 



I can only answer for nij-self, that I know 

 nothing about it ; but I know that the seed 

 that drops off in the fall comes up the follow- 

 ing spring. We have not sowed any sweet 

 clover aiiA-where for a good many years, and 

 we never sowed any along the fence-corners 

 and waste places, although we have been many 

 times charged with so doing. Will Dr. Miller 

 please answer ? 



Special Notices in (he Line of Gardening, etc. 



By A. I. Root. 



A "DARLING" STRAWBERRY-PLANT FOR EVERY DOL- 

 LAR SENT US FOR GLEANINGS. 



As we think the Darling is sure to please, and as we 

 want all of you to see one of our " new-process " pot- 

 ted strawberry-plants with the jadoo fiber, we have 

 decided to send one plant free, postpaid by mail, to 

 every one who sends a dollar for Gle.anings during 

 the month of August. Here is what the originator, 

 M. T, Thompson, Rio Vista, Va., says about the Dar- 

 ling: "If there ever was a berry that would produce 

 UXX) bushels per acre, it is this one. It is a seedling of 

 Michel's Early, and has fruited for us two years. 

 Price of plants^ $:^ per dozen." 



standard strawberry-plants. 



We are now prepared to furnish the old standard 

 varieties of layer plants at our old prices as follows: 



10, lo cts.; 7.') cts. per 100; S6 per 1000, If wanted by 

 mail, add 5 cts. for 10, 2.1 cts. per 100, for po.stage. The 

 varieties that we now have ready to send out are Jes- 

 sie, Pai-ker Earle, Michel's Early, Warfield, Bubach, 

 Edgar Queen, and Haverland. Please notice we are 

 not yet prepared to .send these out in quantities during 

 the 'present month larger than 10 or perhaps 100 of 

 each kind; and if many orders should come in, yours 

 is likely to be delayed until they get to be better root- 

 ed. These older varieties can 'be potted by the new 

 process at a cost of one cent each extra, and a delay 

 of ten days or two weeks of time, for we shall pot the 

 old standard varieties only after they are ordered. 



government agricultural report for 1896. 



The Year-book for the Department of Agriculture 

 for lS9(i is the mo.st valuable publication I have ever 

 come across among the government reports. It is a 

 book of nearly 700 pages, profu.sely illustrated with 

 beautiful pictures touching upon niany points of in- 

 ten,se intere,st to farming, gardening, and other 

 branches of agriculture. Among the subjects treated 



