1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
383 
What  Others  Say. 
( Continued .) 
der  is  blown  is  over  three  feet  long.  By 
turning  the  crank  faster  or  slower,  the 
volume  of  powder  may  be  projected  to 
any  desired  distance  up  to  about  six  feet, 
so  that,  in  a  quiet  air,  several  currant 
bushes  may  be  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of 
dust  in  a  few  moments.  The  machine  is 
economical  and  effective . 
The  promise  of  a  fine  yield  of  straw¬ 
berries  was  never  better  on  The  R.  N.-Y. 
premises  than  it  is  to-day.  The  plants 
are  thrifty,  having  received  all  the  rain 
needed,  and  the  fruit  is  setting  abund¬ 
antly.  Not  so  with  raspberries.  The 
dread  work  of  anthracnose  has  never 
been  so  destructive  and  most  of  the  canes 
which  should  bear  the  berries  of  this 
season  are  dead.  Among  the  deaths  is 
one  of  our  seedlings — a  child  of  Cuthbert 
which,  last  year,  bore  larger  berries  of  a 
better  quality . 
Blackberries  too  have  suffered  more 
than  usual — not  from  anthracnose  ;  not 
from  a  severe  winter  surely.  It  is  hard 
even  to  guess  at  the  cause . 
The  effect  of  frost  to  open  the  soil,  that 
is,  to  destroy  the  compactness  caused  by 
the  rains  of  summer,  is  well  illustrated 
by  a  familiar  experiment,  which,  how¬ 
ever,  may  not  be  familiar  to  all  of  our 
readers.  An  officer  of  the  artillery  in 
Quebec  filled  a  12-inch  shell  with  water 
and  closed  the  fusee  hole  with  a  wooden 
plug  driven  in  as  tightly  as  possible  with 
a  mallet.  It  was  then  exposed  to  intense 
frost.  When  the  water  froze  the  plug 
was  projected  to  a  distance  of  several 
hundred  feet  and  a  long  cylinder  of  ice 
issued  from  the  hole . 
Water  reaches  it3  maximum  density 
at  39.2  degrees  and  as  its  temperature  is 
diminished  from  this  limit,  its  volume 
continues  to  increase  until  congelation  is 
completed.  When  it  passes  from  a  liquid 
to  a  solid  state  the  expansion  is  sudden 
and  irresistible,  as  shown  above . 
The  editor  of  Garden  and  Forest  says, 
with  forceful  truth,  that  the  more  people, 
and  especially  the  more  children,  there 
are  in  the  United  States  who  have  learned 
to  know  and  love  and  respect  trees,  the 
better  it  will  be  for  the  future  of  the 
nation.  Our  prosperity  is  dependent  on 
the  preservation  of  our  forests.  A  forest 
is  only  an  aggregated  mass  of  trees. 
When  we  come  as  a  people  to  know  and 
appreciate  and  love  trees  we  shall  learn 
to  love  forests,  too ;  and  once  loving 
them,  we  shall  appreciate  their  value, 
and  efforts  to  preserve  and  maintain  them 
and  make  them  useful  and  productive  for 
all  time  will  then  be  a  comparatively  easy 
task.  But  to  do  this  a  whole  generation 
of  Americans  must  be  educated.  The 
lesson  must  begin  in  the  cradle,  and  it 
must  continue  year  after  year  until  our 
people  love  trees  and  know  their  value 
as  well  as  they  know  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  and  their  rights  as 
citizens . 
Some  of  our  conlempories  are  alluding 
to  Prickly  Comfrey  as  a  new  plant . 
Isn’t  it  time  to  give  Pearl  (Cattail)  Mil¬ 
let  another  chance  ? . 
The  following  item  which  appears 
among  “  Garden  Hints”  in  a  late  num¬ 
ber  of  the  Agricultural  Gazette  (London) 
will  seem  odd  to  farmers  of  the  United 
States : 
Maize  or  Indian  Corn.— This  should  be  grown 
much  in  the  same  way  as  celery,  only  it  should  not 
be  earthed  up.  The  plants  also  require  rather  more 
space;  18  inches  should  be  allowed  between  the 
plants  in  the  rows.  If  sown  at  once  in  gentle  heat 
the  plants  will  soon  be  ready  for  planting  out . 
The  utility  and  interest  of  planting 
climbers  in  mixture  are  not  as  often  taken 
advantage  of  as  might  be  the  case,  says 
a  writer  in  the  London  Garden.  The 
gable  ends  of  his  cottage  are  fully  gar¬ 
nished  with  Virginia  creeper,  aristol- 
ochias,  jessamines,  clematis,  honey¬ 
suckles,  ivies,  tea  roses,  notably  Reine 
d’Or  and  Gloire  de  Dijon,  grown  and 
trained  in  delightful  mixture . 
The  R.  N.-Y.  during  the  past  20  years 
has  given  considerable  care  to  lilacs. 
Among  them  all,  Pres.  Gr6vy  seems  the 
best.  Its  panicles  are  the  largest,  and 
so,  too,  are  the  individual  florets  which 
are  double.  If  any  of  our  readers  know 
of  any  variety  bearing  larger  flowers  or 
longer  panicles  we  would  be  pleased  to 
hear  from  them . 
As  the  Ohio  Experiment  Station  re¬ 
ports,  nitrate  of  soda  in  combination  with 
dissolved  bone  black  or  muriate  of  pot¬ 
ash,  one  or  both,  has  produced  an  in¬ 
crease  of  crop  [corn]  in  46  out  of  48  trials, 
or  practically  in  every  case.  But  in  no 
ease  has  the  average  increase  of  crop 
from  this  combination,  in  any  one  of  the 
six  series  of  experiments,  been  sufficient 
to  pay  the  cost  of  the  fertilizer,  at  pres¬ 
ent  prices  of  corn  and  fertilizers  respect¬ 
ively . 
Prof.  W.  F.  Massey  in  Country 
Gentleman:  “  Last  summer  we  (North 
Carolina  Experiment  Station)  raised  on 
the  college  farm  a  lot  of  Soja  Beans.  They 
made  a  magnificent  growth,  and  were 
put  into  the  silo.  To-day  Prof.  Emery 
tells  me  that  since  changing  his  cows 
from  corn  ensilage  to  the  Soja  he  finds  a 
remarkable  increase  in  the  flow  of  milk. 
And  yet  The  Rural  New-Yorker’s 
Jersey  Experiment  Farm  decided  the 
Soja  to  be  a  worthless  legume  years  ago, 
and  its  editor  takes  the  station  officers  to 
task  for  daring  to  find  it  good  after  he 
had  settled  the  matter  for  them.  The 
Soja  is  certainly  the  most  formidable 
rival  our  cow  pea  has  met.  We  have 
three  varieties,  one  with  small  yellow 
seed,  one  with  large,  round,  greenish  seed, 
and  one  with  red  seed.  It  has  been  sug¬ 
gested  that  they  will  cross  with  the  cow 
pea  if  planted  near.  We  shall  test  this 
during  the  present  summer.” 
The  R.  N.-Y.  has  never  tried  the  Soja 
Bean  on  its  New  Jersey  land.  The  trial 
was  made  about  12  years  ago  on  the 
light  soil  of  its  Long  Island  farm.  We 
are  now  trying  the  three  varieties  alluded 
to  by  Prof.  Massey  on  the  New  Jersey 
land,  seed  having  been  kindly  furnished 
by  Prof.  C.  C.  Georgeson  of  the  Kansas 
Station.  We  shall  be  glad  if  these  later 
trials  may  prove  that  our  opinion  of  12 
years  ago  was  not  well  founded . 
Word  for  Word. 
- Gov.  Flower  (N.  Y.)  “  Why  should 
our  farmers  cater  to  English  taste  by  ex¬ 
porting  cheese  at  eight  cents  a  pound, 
when  there  is  an  abundant  home  market 
for  fancy  cheeses  bringing  many  times 
that  price?  ” 
“  Indiscreet  or  careless  appropria¬ 
tions  of  money  for  the  promotion  of  agri¬ 
culture  or  for  any  other  public  purpose 
do  more  injury  in  the  long  run  than 
good,  and  the  fact  that  in  four  separate 
measures  during  the  recent  legislative 
session,  three  of  which  have  become 
laws,  appropriations  have  been  made  for 
the  distribution  of  premiums  at  agricul¬ 
tural  and  industrial  fairs,  indicates  quite 
clearly  that  the  legislation  was  somewhat 
spasmodic  and  not  well-considered.” 
- Journal  of  Commerce  :  “  More  ac¬ 
tivity,  better  work  and  less  indolence  is 
the  crying  need  of  the  times  in  which  we 
live,  and  the  eight-hour  movement  is  en¬ 
tirely  in  the  wrong  direction.” 
“  A  man  or  woman  who  is  willing  to 
accept  the  first  honest  employment  that 
offers  need  not  stand  idle  in  the  market 
place.” 
“  We  were  asked  to  interest  ourselves 
in  behalf  of  an  orphan  girl  20  years  of 
age,  who,  through  the  death  of  an  aunt, 
had  been  suddenly  left  to  care  for  her¬ 
self.  She  avowed  her  willingness  to  1  do 
anything  in  the  world  ’  that  was  decent 
and  honest  to  earn  a  living.  Her  aunt 
had  kept  no  servant,  and  the  two  had 
done  all  the  housework,  but,  although 
competent  and  accustomed  to  such  ser¬ 
vice,  she  would  not  engage  as  a  domes¬ 
tic.  We  had  an  offer  to  try  her  as  a 
nurse,  but  she  disliked  the  care  of  chil¬ 
dren.  Light  woi'k  was  offered  in  a  small 
establishment  where  a  medicinal  prepa¬ 
ration  is  put  up  for  the  market,  but  she 
had  ‘  a  horror  of  being  a  factory  girl. 
After  a  while  it  was  ascertained  that  she 
had  an  ideal  situation  in  her  thought 
which  she  desired  to  fill,  but,  there  being 
no  actual  service  corresponding  to  it,  she 
could  not  be  suited.  She  soon  ran  away 
with  a  traveling  salesman  and  was  left  a 
hopeless  wreck  iu  a  far  Western  city.” 
- Lowell  Courier  :  “A  poem  that  is 
always  sure  of  a  market — the  lay  of  the 
hen.” 
- Garden  and  Forest  :  “  Great  devo¬ 
tion  to  scientific  study  occasionally  seems, 
as  in  the  self-confessed  case  of  Darwin, 
to  kill  the  aesthetic  sense.  But  this  is 
not  because  science  and  a  love  of  beauty 
are  necessarily  at  variance.  It  is  simply 
because  the  powers  of  the  human  mind 
are  limited,  and  intense  absorption  in 
one  aspect  of  nature  may  leave  no  room 
in  life  for  constant  consideration  of  an¬ 
other  side.” 
- Life  :  “  Report  of  the  wheat — a 
cereal  story.” 
- Emily  Taplin  in  American  Florist: 
“It  is  generally  asserted  by  those  in  a 
position  to  judge  that  by  another  season 
the  tuberous  begonias  will  carry  every¬ 
thing  before  them.  They  have  proved  a 
grand  success  in  bedding,  and  the  growth 
is  so  luxuriant,  the  coloring  so  brilliant 
that  they  make  a  grand  hit  everywhere. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  anything 
making  a  finer  show  outside,  and  any  re¬ 
tailer  would  find  it  a  paying  speculation 
to  plant  a  generous  bed  of  them  on  his 
own  place  this  year.  Such  an  advertise¬ 
ment,  though  not  so  far-reaching  as 
printers’  ink,  would  prove  effective  with 
every  one  who  sees  it.” 
- New  England  Farmer  :  “  Tomatoes 
can  be  ripened  much  more  evenly  and 
rapidly  by  picking  from  the  vine  after 
they  have  attained  their  growth  and 
placing  in  the  sun  upon  clean,  dry  straw 
under  an  old  sash  of  glass.  Pick  when 
the  fruit  has  changed  from  the  dark 
green  to  a  light  pea  green  color.” 
- Farm,  Stock  and  Home:  “  What  is 
home  without  a  garden?  ” 
- Prof.  S.  W.  Johnson:  “I  have 
alluded  to  a  variety  of  Soy  Bean  which  is 
able  to  stand  our  climate,  (Connecticut). 
This  I  saw  at  the  Massachusetts  Agricul¬ 
tural  College  in  September  last.  It  was 
brought  from  northern  Japan.  We  have 
had  the  Soy  Bean  on  trial,  more  or  less, 
in  Connecticut,  but  the  varieties  used 
failed  to  ripen  seed.  This  variety,  which 
I  saw  growing  in  Amherst,  yields  a  good 
crop,  and  the  seed  ripens  perfectly.  1 
look  for  a  great  advantage  from  the  in¬ 
troduction  of  this  plant  into  our  agricul¬ 
ture.” 
- Prof.  Huxley  :  “I  have  long  been 
convinced  (and  to  a  great  extent  by  per¬ 
sonal  experience)  that  what  people  are 
pleased  to  call  ‘  overwork  ’  in  a  large  pro¬ 
portion  of  cases  means  under-oxygena¬ 
tion  and  consequent  accumulation  of 
waste  matter,  which  operates  as  a  poison. 
The  ‘  depression’  of  overworked,  nervous 
organizations  is  very  commonly  the  ‘  op¬ 
pression  ’  of  some  physiological  candle- 
snuff  not  properly  burned.” 
- School  Superintenden t:  “Any 
teacher  who  has  no  taste  for  trees, 
shrubs  and  flowers  is  unfit  to  be  placed, 
in  charge  of  children.” 
- Rev.  Dr.  Wild  before  the  Fruit 
Growers’  Association  of  Ontario:  “  I 
am  greatly  interested  in  the  work  of  the 
horticulturist,  and  engaging  in  it  I  attain 
good  far  beyond  the  mere  money  profit. 
I  want  to  be  where  I  can  see  the  work 
of  the  Creator  and  stand  close  to  Him 
with  nobody  to  intervene.  The  horti¬ 
culturist  and  farmer  deal  directly  with 
nature,  and  come  close  indeed  to  nature’s 
God.  I  feel  a  sweetness  and  restfulness 
when  I  go  up  to  my  farm  on  Monday  and 
watch  there  the  wonderful  works  of 
nature.  I  think  that  my  people  are  ben¬ 
efited  because  of  my  being  thus  close  to 
God.  It  has  a  tendency  to  make  one 
earnest,  and  to  increase  one’s  sense  of 
duty  to  God.” 
If  you  name  The  R.  N.-Y.  to  our  advertisers  you 
may  be  pretty  sure  of  prompt  replies  and  right  treat¬ 
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