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THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
July  2 
the  lines  employed  should  be  strong  that  no  risks  may 
be  taken.  A  wiry  and  steady  team  should  be  hitched 
to  the  draft  line,  and  at  the  word  from  the  master  of 
ceremonies  it  should  start  slowly,  raising  the  spar 
without  a  jerk.  A  guide  line  will  be  necessary.  This 
is  fastened  to  the  belt  rope,  and  kept  in  the  hands  of 
one  or  two  stout  men.  Others  bear  on  the  butt  of  the 
pole  to  make  the  tip  rise  the  faster.  When  it  begins 
to  assume  a  vertical  position,  several  10  to  15-foot  poles 
with  spikes  in  one  end,  should  be  ready  to  brace  against 
it  and  hold  it  steady.  After  the  pole  is  suspended  and 
is  ready  to  lower,  a  plucky  team  will  hold  it  there 
while  a  brief  prayer  or  some  dedicatory  remarks  are 
made.  Then  the  horses  should  back  slowly  and  the 
spar  descend,  not  drop  to  its  bed.  Several  guy  ropes 
must  support  the  post  during  the  effort.  These  may 
be  tied  to  adjacent  trees  or  to  heavy,  short  posts  set  at 
an  angle  of  45  degrees  some  distance  from  the  staff 
Site.  HOLLISTER  SAGE. 
A  Brief  Visit  to  the  Rural  Grounds. 
SOME  OF  THE  EXPERIMENTS  CONDUCTED  THERE. 
Many  readers  of  The  Rural  New-Yorker  have 
voiced  a  wish  at  times  that  they  might  have  the  pleas¬ 
ure  of  visiting  the  Rural  Grounds  at  River  Edge,  N.  J., 
and  of  scanning  the  work  there  going  on.  This  pleas¬ 
ure  was  mine  a  few  days  since,  and  I  should  like  to  tell 
my  fellow  readers  of  some  of  the  interesting  things  I 
saw  there.  Every  facility  was  given  me  for  examining 
the  many  interesting  experiments  there  being  car¬ 
ried  on. 
A  few  words  about  the  grounds  surrounding  the 
house  may  not  be  uninteresting.  The  editor  has  re¬ 
sided  here  about  21  years,  and  every  tree,  vine  and 
shrub  on  the  place  he  has  planted  during  that  period. 
The  collection  is  a  bewildering  one  to  any  save  an  ex¬ 
pert  botanist.  I  can  readily  imagine  that,  under  these 
circumstances,  the  family  must  be  greatly  attached  to 
their  home.  Everything  points  to  that  conclusion,  for, 
save  his  regular  visits  to  The  Rural  office,  the  editor 
seldom  goes  away. 
How  the  Newer  Strawberries  Look. 
As  this  was  the  time  of  strawberries  and  as  I  was  in 
search  of  information  on  this  particular  topic,  we  were 
soon  in  the  trial  bed,  where  some  75  varieties  were  in 
bearing.  The  soil  is  a  mellow  loam,  easily  cultivated 
and  readily  responsive  to  fertilizers.  The  following 
are  notes  made  on  the  ground  on  some  of  the  varieties 
noted  : 
Iowa  Beauty :  Of  medium  size,  symmetrical  and 
uniform  in  shape,  fairly  productive  and  of  high 
quality.  Vine  a  thrifty  grower,  bisexual.  The 
foliage  reminds  one  of  the  Jucunda,  and  there  is  also  a 
resemblance  in  the  quality  of  the  fruit. 
Saunders :  Regular  in  shape,  medium  in  size,  very 
solid,  rather  late,  but  below  the  average  yield. 
Pacific :  Resembles  the  Sharpless  in  shape,  but  not 
as  sweet.  In  no  respect  better  than  its  prototype. 
Woolverton  :  Seemed  to  be  prolific  and  the  berries 
of  good  size.  Early,  ripened  June  10,  goocl  quality. 
Gov.  Hoard  :  Very  early,  but  of  poor  quality. 
Tippecanoe  :  Pistillate,  good  quality,  fair  size,  early. 
Beder  Wood :  Very  early,  fairly  productive  and  of 
average  quality. 
Gen.  Putnam  :  Early  and  very  good  quality. 
Parker  Earle  :  This  berry  has  been  the  recipient  of 
much  attention.  We  were  most  favorably  impressed 
with  it,  never  having  seen  it  fruiting  before.  It  has  a 
perfect  blossom;  the  fruit  is  large,  not  so  large  as 
Sharpless,  regular  in  shape — a  shape  that  I  have  al¬ 
ways  admired,  oblong  with  a  neck.  It  is  certainly  a 
most  productive  varietjL  In  quality  it  is  fair,  its 
single  fault  being  that  it  is  a  little  soft  for  long  dis¬ 
tance  transportation. 
Clara:  Nearly  pistillate,  having  but  very  few  sta¬ 
mens — not  enough  to  render  it  safe  planted  alone.  It 
is  rather  late:  fruit  large  and  irregular  in  shape;  very 
productive,  but  rather  poor  in  quality. 
Eureka :  Nearly  pistillate,  large,  fairly  productive, 
berries  irregular  in  shape,  good  quality,  a  little  past 
medium  in  season,  foliage  only  fair. 
Beebe  :  This  berry  was  quite  noticeable.  The  fruit 
was  all  large,  no  small  ones.  Irregular  in  shape: 
quality  good,  with  very  handsome,  vigorous  foliage 
and  perfect  flowers. 
Yale  :  This  is  a  rather  late  berry.  The  fruit  is  large, 
dark  red  in  color,  and  of  good  quality.  Its  flavor  is 
distinct  from  any  other,  having  a  sort  of  apple  flavor 
as  nearly  as  can  be  described.  I  should  think  it  a 
desirable  variety. 
Timbrell  :  This  is  a  berry  not  yet  disseminated.  It 
originated  at  Unionville,  N.  Y.,  a  few  plants  only  were 
sent  to  The  R.  N.-Y.  for  trial.  It  is  a  pistillate,  with 
vigorous,  thrifty  foliage,  rather  late  in  season.  The 
berries  have  a  patchy  sort  of  appearance  until  fully 
ripe.  The  fruit  is  large,  with  a  regular,  but  char¬ 
acteristic  shape,  short,  conical,  dark  crimson  in  color, 
of  the  best  quality,  exceeding1'  any  that  the  writer 
knows  of  in  general  cultivation.  It  seems  to  be  a 
good  bearer.  It  will  doubtless  be  heard  from  ifi  the 
horticultural  world.  [There  is  little  doubt  of  it. — Eds.] 
Lovett’s  Early. — A  berry  of  fair  qualty,  not  early, 
as  its  name  indicates  ;  but  of  medium  season,  a  good 
grower,  firm  and  productive.  The  fruit  is  very  at¬ 
tractive  in  appearance,  being  fairly  uniform  in  shape 
and  of  a  dark,  glossy  color. 
Brandywine  :  A  late  berry,  large,  regular  in  shape, 
of  good  quality  and  with  a  very  thrifty  foliage. 
There  were  many  others,  but  the  above  are  those 
which  interested  the  writer  most.  Noting  that  each 
stake  indicating  the  variety,  had  also  a  number  on  it, 
I  inquired  as  to  its  significance. 
Some  Curious  Horticultural  Experiments. 
“  All  these  berries,”  said  Mr.  Carman.  “  are  marked 
1,  2,  3  or  4,  which  refers  to  the  size  of  the  blossoms, 
one  being  the  smallest,  four  the  largest.  This  is 
designed  to  answer  the  question,  ‘  What  relation,  if 
any,  has  the  size  of  blossom  to  the  size  of  fruit  ?’  Thus 
far,  one  thing  has  been  observed — that  the  flowers  of 
the  perfect  or  bisexuals  are  larger  than  those  of  the 
pistillates.  One  would  naturally  expect  the  reverse 
would  be  the  case.” 
“  What  is  that  plot  ?”  said  the  writer,  pointing  to  a 
small  plot  which  looked  something  like  wheat  or  rye. 
“That  is  a  plat  of  hybrid  rye-wheat  plants,  planted 
early  in  the  spring,  one  seed  in  a  place,  a  foot  apart 
each  way.  They  made  a  vigorous  growth  until  about 
a  foot  in  height,  nearly  covering  the  ground.  Since 
then  the  foliage  is  rusting  and  an  air  of  decline  has 
come  over  them.  They  give  very  little  promise.” 
“That  tree,”  said  Mr.  Carman,  pointing  to  a  thrifty 
pear  tree,  “illustrates  one  of  the  tribulations  of  a 
horticulturist.  Ten  years  ago  I  planted  it — it  was  a 
Keiffer.  As  soon  as  I  ascertained  that  the  fruit  was  of 
Ready  to  Lower  the  Pole  in  Place.  Fig.  192. 
no  value  here,  I  grafted  it  to  a  dozen  Japan  pear  seed¬ 
lings  which  had  been  started  from  seed  two  years 
before.  They  all  fruited  for  the  first  time  last  year. 
The  tribulation  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  has  taken 
me  10  years  to  find  out  that  a  dozen  seedling  pears  are 
wurthless,  decidedly  inferior  to  the  Keiffer.  Not  one 
of  them  has  any  merit  at  all,  except  it  may  be  for 
canning.” 
Potatoes  on  Tomato  Vines. 
“  Why  have  you  planted  those  tomatoes  so  far 
apart  ?” 
“  That  is  an  experiment.  We  all  know  that  wild 
potatoes  produce  very  small  tubers,  but  are  very  flori- 
ferous,  bearing  large  crops  of  seed-balls,  or  the  true 
fruit.  As  we  cultivate  these  wild  varieties,  the  seed- 
balls  become  fewer  and  the  tubers  larger,  until,  as  at 
present,  49  out  of  50  varieties  fail  to  produce  any  fruit 
whatever.  Now,  the  tomato  is  structurally  nearly  the 
same  as  the  potato,  that  is,  a  tomato  and  a  potato  ball 
are  structurally  similar.  Is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose, 
therefore,  that  if  we  were  to  remove  all  the  buds  of  a 
tomato  as  fast  as  they  appear,  a  tuberous  growth 
might  be  induced  upon  the  roots  of  the  tomato — that 
is  to  say,  swollen  stems  ?  That  is  what  I  am  trying  to 
accomplish  with  these  plants.  If  such  a  root  swelling 
should  be  produced,  I  would  propagate  it  the  same  as 
if  it  were  a  tuber  and  continue  the  disbudding  process 
until  tomato  tubers  were  produced.” 
This  idea  struck  me  as  being  both  novel  and  interest¬ 
ing  and  I  commend  it  to  the  notice  of  our  experiment 
stations,  who  may  see  in  it  something  worthy  of  inves¬ 
tigation. 
Near  these  plants  my  attention  was  called  to  some 
of  the  hybrids  between  the  blackberry  and  raspberry. 
These  are  very  interesting,  though  thus  far  they  give 
no  promise  of  utility.  One  which  specially  attracted 
my  attention  was  absolutely  thornless.  It  had  large, 
dark  foliage,  intermediate  between  its  black  and  red 
parents,  resembling  the  raspberry  specifically  in  the 
whiteness  of  its  leaves  on  the  under  side.  Some  of 
these  hybrids  looked  like  the  dewberry  and  had  a 
trailing  habit  and  most  of  them  showed  a  feeble'consti- 
tution. 
Among  the  most  interesting  experiments  being  car¬ 
ried  on  at  the  Rural  Grounds,  in  view  of  their  probable 
results,  are  those  with  tomatoes. 
“  Don’t  you  think  we  have  about  reached  the  sum¬ 
mit  with  tomatoes  ?  ”  said  the  writer. 
“  It  is  not  well,”  said  Mr.  Carman,  “  to  assume  that 
the  tomato  cannot  be  any  further  improved.  It  is  bet¬ 
ter  to  assume  that  its  improvement  is  in  its  infancy. 
Here  we  have  over  200  crosses  made  last  year,  using 
for  pollen  parents  the  most  popular  kinds  of  the  day, 
and  for  pistillate  parents  the  crosses  of  the  two  pre¬ 
vious  years.  The  foliage  of  these  crosses  rarely  bears 
a  distinct  resemblance  to  the  mothers,  while,  strangely 
enough,  in  no  case  is  the  potato  foliage  apparent.  I 
am  hopeful  in  regard  to  this  phase  of  our  work.  It  is 
at  least  most  interesting  and  curious.” 
Wheat-rye  Hybrids  ;  Asparagus. 
The  cross-bred  and  hybrid  wheat  and  rye  plants  are 
a  capital  illustration  of  Mother  Nature’s  capacities  in 
the  way  of  variety.  There  are  about  100  different 
varieties,  all  of  which  were  bred  from  a  common 
mother,  the  Beardless  Armstrong  Wheat. 
“  What  is  that  ?  ”  said  the  writer,  pointing  to  a  plant 
which  looked  like  neither  rye  nor  wheat. 
“  That  is  one  of  the  rye-wheat  hybrids,  and,  as  you 
see,  it  looks  more  like  barley  than  either  rye  or  wheat. 
There  are  others  having  the  same  peculiarities.  Some 
have  long,  narrow  heads,  unlike  either  parent.  Some 
have  very  slender,  some  very  heavy  stems.  Some  tiller 
remarkably,  others  send  up  only  two  or  three  feeble 
culms.  Some  of  these  culms  are  very  heavy.  The 
kernels  differ  from  those  of  wheat  in  being  harder, 
having  very  little,  if  any,  starch.  These  varieties,  if 
we  may  so  call  them,  which  differ  in  a  manner  from 
rye  or  wheat,  are  very  difficult  to  fix.  They  sport  from 
year  to  year.  I  hope  that  a  few  of  them  will  be  suf¬ 
ficiently  fixed  to  be  sent  out  for  propagation  the  pres¬ 
ent  year.” 
A  large  bed  of  asparagus,  in  which  were  Dreer’s 
Eclipse,  Barr’s  Mammoth,  Palmetto,  Conover,  Moore’s 
Hybrid  and  Smalley’s  Defiance,  was  looking  vigorous 
and  healthy.  The  asparagus  beetle  has  done  much 
damage  in  many  parts  of  the  country  this  season,  but 
there  were  no  traces  of  its  ravages  there.  Interrogated 
on  the  subject,  Mr.  Carman  said  “  It  is  easy  to  keep  the 
asparagus  free  from  that  pest.  The  small  but  con¬ 
spicuous  black  eggs,  which  are  deposited  at  right 
angles  on  the  stems  are  rubbed  off.  Going  over  the 
plot  two  or  three  times  suffices  to  keep  it  clear  of  the 
grubs,  which  are  so  destructive  to  the  foliage  in  many 
places.” 
I  fear  I  must  close,  lest  I  take  too  much  of  your 
valuable  space.  I  should  like  to  speak  of  other  work 
there  being  carried  on,  but  we  shall  doubtless  be  told 
of  it  in  due  season.  Let  me  close  by  saying  that  the 
opinions  of  the  strawberries  seen  are  my  own,  formed 
on  the  spot  and  Mr.  Carman  is  in  no  way  responsible 
for  them.  L. 
Oswego  County. 
A  Milk  Organ  Instructed  About 
Milk. 
If  we  are  correctly  informed  the  New  York  Milk 
Exchange  will  not  allow  the  case  to  go  by  default,  but 
will  fight  to  the  bitter  end,  and  carry  to  the  court  of 
last  resort. 
Its  members  believe — and  those  who  best  understand 
the  matter  agree  with  them — that  nullifying  its 
charter  would  be  a  calamity  which  neither  dealers  nor 
producers  can  afford.  Where  or  to  whom  any  benefit 
would  accrue  is  something  no  one  can  explain.  The 
suit  referred  to  was  commenced  by  a  Delaware  County 
man,  and  we  doubt  whether  he  has  any  more  practi¬ 
cal  knowledge  of  the  working  of  the  milk  business,  or 
of  the  New  York  Milk  Exchange,  than  a  hog  has  of 
Heaven. 
He  has  been  egged  on  by  parties  who  are  trying  to 
teach  others  how  to  conduct  the  milk  business,  while 
