1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
879 
Ruralisms. — Continued. 
tree  in  a  small  yard  fairly  breaking 
beneath  the  weight  of  fruit.  The  reason 
may  be  found  in  the  protection  given  to 
the  trees  and  also  in  the  richer  soil  they 
usually  grow  in. 
Quinces  have  been  a  success  with  Mr. 
Barry.  The  quince  always  brings  a  very 
fair  price,  but  it  requires  to  be  picked 
and  handled  very  carefully  in  order  not 
to  be  bruised;  quinces  can  also  be  shipped 
and  sold  in  small  quantities  to  advant¬ 
age.  They  are  the  most  easily  damaged 
of  all  fruits  by  careless  handling. 
The  apricot  is  peculiarly  liable  to  in¬ 
jury  from  curculio  ;  and  the  fruit  is  lost 
for  that  reason  ;  hence,  cultivators  are 
not  encouraged  to  plant  it.  Still,  in  vil¬ 
lages  near  Rochester  there  are  trees  that 
have  borne  every  year  for  many  years. 
The  trees  have  grown  old  in  fruit  ser¬ 
vice.  So,  too,  in  Rochester  there  are 
trees  which  bear  abundantly  every  year. 
All  things  considered,  the  currant  is 
one  of  the  most  profitable  of  small  fruits, 
for  the  reason  that  the  fruit  can  be  used 
in  so  many  different  ways,  and  the  de¬ 
mand  for  it  is  so  steady  and  so  great. 
The  currant  is  so  largely  used  for  making 
jelly  that  there  is  hardly  a  year  when 
the  supply  is  equal  to  the  demand.  But 
the  fruit  must  be  well  grown. 
Mr.  Barry  is  opposed  to  planting  and 
making  a  vineyard  consist  of  only  one 
variety.  He  thinks  that  the  failures 
which  we  hear  of  can  be  traced  to  large 
plantings  of  only  one  kind.  A  vineyard, 
like  an  orchard  of  fruit,  should  embrace 
a  variety,  because  every  year  the  varie¬ 
ties  vary  as  to  production  and  quality, 
owing  to  peculiarities  of  the  weather  : 
hence  where  there  is  a  sufficient  number 
of  kinds  grown,  if  one  kind  fails  another 
makes  up  by  its  excellence  for  the  loss 
sustained. 
A  few  months  ago,  as  we  learn  from 
Garden  and  Forest,  Robert  Douglas  and 
son  visited  the  Siskiyou  Mountains  of 
California  in  the  hopes  of  obtaining  seed¬ 
lings  and  seeds  of  the  Weeping  spruce, 
(Picea  Breweriana).  The  beauty  of  these 
trees  far  surpassed  their  expectations. 
They  have  the  true  spruce  form,  tall  and 
symmetrical,  with  horizontal  branches, 
and  a  beautiful  green  color.  In  their 
general  features  they  resemble  a  well- 
grown  Norway  spruce,  but  their  disting¬ 
uishing  beauty  is  in  their  long,  pliant, 
pendulous  branchlets,  which  hang 
straight  down  from  the  branches  to  a 
length  of  six  or  eight  feet  on  the  older 
trees,  while  they  are  no  larger  round 
than  a  lead-pencil.  They  have  a  stately 
grace  in  calm  weather,  but  their  charac¬ 
teristic  impressiveness  is  seen  only  when 
the  long  flexible  branches  are  undulating 
in  a  light  breeze  or  streaming  before  a 
gale. 
The  bark  of  this  spruce  is  thin,  smooth 
and  reddish  in  color;  the  wood  is  white 
and  very  tough.  The  tree  felled  several 
years  ago  by  Mr.  T.  S.  Brandegee  for  the 
Jesup  collection  shows  no  sign  of  decay 
as  yet.  The  largest  tree  in  this  grove — 
if  grove  it  can  be  called,  where  the  trees 
are  scattered  over  a  space  of  50  acres, 
mixed  with  firs  and  incense  cedars — they 
found  to  be  by  actual  measurement  121 
feet  6  inches  high,  with  a  trunk  2  feet  11 
inches  in  diameter  7 M  feet  from  the 
ground.  Below  that  height  the  trunk 
swelled  to  a  much  greater  size. 
They  collected  800  pounds  of  cones 
out  of  which  they  may  get  20  pounds  of 
clean  seed,  the  first  ever  collected. 
The  American  Belle,  which  we  first 
saw  exhibited  at  the  New  York  Chrys¬ 
anthemum  show  is  much  like  American 
Beauty  of  which  it  is  a  sport  first  noticed 
in  1889.  As  regards  fragrance,  large  size 
and  free  blooming  habit,  it  is  the  same. 
But  its  color  is  deep  pink  which  never 
changes  to  that  tawdry  purplish  color 
which  so  depreciates  from  the  value  of 
the  Beauty.  In  growth  the  Belle  is 
somewhat  less  vigorous,  while  the  leaves 
are  narrower  and  somewhat  darker  in 
shade.  Plants  will  not  be  sent  out  be¬ 
fore  next  spring  when  the  prices  will  be 
$60  per  100,  in  2% -inch  pots. 
Soil  formation  is  ever  going  on.  That 
excellent  book  “  Soils  and  Crops ’’says 
that  the  forces  of  nature  are  every  day 
making  available  plant  food  in  the  soil 
of  materials  which,  heretofore,  were  un¬ 
fitted  for  use  by  plants.  Sometimes  the 
process  of  manufacture  of  available  food 
goes  on  faster  than  the  food  is  used  by  the 
crops  grown.  Then  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  increases  and  we  do  not  need  to  use 
manure  or  fertilizers.  Sometimes  the 
new  supplies  of  available  food  are  fur¬ 
nished  more  slowly  than  the  crops  grown 
and  removed  by  the  farmer  make  use  of 
such  food.  Then  the  land  becomes  less 
fertile  and  tends  to  become  exhausted. 
It  must  be  replenished  with  plant  food 
through  fertilizers  or  manure. 
The  weight  of  a  cubic  foot  of  dry  loamy 
soil  is  estimated  to  be  about  100  pounds. 
The  more  sand  and  gravel,  the  heavier 
the  soil ;  the  more  vegetable  matter,  the 
lighter  it  will  be.  Some  peat  soils  weigh 
as  low  as  30  pounds  per  cubic  foot.  Few 
soils  ordinarily  cultivated  will  weigh  less 
than  75  pounds  per  cubic  foot.  The  soil  on 
an  acre  (43,560  square  feet),  to  the  depth 
of  one  foot,  will  weigh  about  3,000,000 
pounds  or  1,500  wagon-loads  of  one  ton 
each. 
Can  potatoes  be  improved  in  shape  by 
selecting  the  shapeliest  specimens  for 
seed  year  after  year?  Since  it  has  been 
shown  that  the  yield  may  be  increased  by 
selecting  seed  from  the  most  productive 
hills,  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  shape 
might  be  improved  by  selecting  the 
best  formed  seed.  But  is  there  any 
proof  of  this?  None  has  ever  been  noted 
by  the  writer  of  this  note.  But  we  have 
had  some  experience  as  to  another  phase 
of  the  question.  The  tubers  from  a  single 
seedling  plant  vary  in  shape.  Kindly  un¬ 
derstand  that  we  allude  to  the  tuber- 
product  from  a  single  true  seed.  It  is 
not  unusual  that  such  product  consists 
of  long,  short,  round,  much  and  little 
flattened  tubers.  Some  have  many,  some 
few  eyes.  The  color  of  the  skin,  too, 
varies  oftentimes.  Some  are  more,  some 
less  colored.  These  differences  in  shape 
do  not  seem  to  be  owing  to  any  physical 
causes  such  as  being  crowded  in  the  hill, 
the  proximity  of  stones  or  arrest  of 
growth  from  any  cause.  The  variations 
seem  to  be  due  to  seminal  causes,  the 
same  as  twin  animals  differ  in  shape, 
size  and  color.  Now  what  we  have  re¬ 
peatedly  found  is  that  each  tuber  will  re¬ 
produce  itself  in  a  greater  or  less  degree. 
If  we  propagate  the  seedling  from  the 
ill-shaped,  many-eyed,  much-colored 
specimens,  we  shall  establish  a  variety 
less  shapely,  with  more  eyes,  etc.,  than 
if  we  propagate  from  the  more  perfect 
tubers  of  the  seedling  hill. 
The  originators  of  new  kinds  of  pota¬ 
toes,  instead  of  selecting  the  best  tuber 
of  the  seedling  hill  as  the  parent  of  a  new 
variety,  use  several  or  all  the  tubers  of 
the  hill.  And  to  this  cause,  as  we  be¬ 
lieve,  is  due  the  marked  variations  in  the 
kinds  placed  upon  the  market  from  year 
to  year.  This  is  merely  The  R.  N.-Y.’s 
assertion  of  its  own  experience.  Surely, 
the  subject  is  well  worth  the  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  experiment  stations.  As  to 
whether  the  shape,  etc.,  of  a  potato  may 
be  improved  by  selection  after  the  first 
year  we  have  no  experience  and  no  opin¬ 
ion  to  offer. 
Prof.  I.  P.  Roberts  of  Cornell  Univer¬ 
sity,  says  that  if  the  dairymen  were  to 
use  a  tithe  of  the  skill  in  raising  dairy 
calves,  that  the  horsemen  show  in  raising 
their  colts  we  would  long  since  have 
doubled  the  average  product  of  our  dairy 
cattle.  Dairy  calves  should  be  fed  liber¬ 
ally  on  concentrated  food  such  as  corn- 
meal,  cottonseed,  etc.  The  calf,  like  the 
trotting  colt,  should  be  given  its  life 
work  very  young.  At  first  thought  it 
would  appear  that  the  calf  should  be 
matured  before  it  is  allowed  to  pro¬ 
duce  young,  but  in  practice  it  is  found 
wise  to  let  her  drop  her  first  calf  at  not 
more  that  two  years  of  age.  While  this 
calf  is  in  the  uterus  the  heifer  will  be 
somewhat  fleshy  but  this  flesh  should 
rapidly  disappear,  if  she  has  the  dairy  in¬ 
stinct,  as  soon  as  she  begins  to  produce 
milk.  The  first  year  of  the  dairy  cow  is 
the  most  critical  of  all  her  life. 
Mr.  J.  II.  Hale  advises  farmers  and 
fruit  growers  to  become  specialists ;  to 
grow  one  or  two  varieties  and  do  it  well, 
and  make  a  name  on  those  brands.  Put 
your  eggs  in  one  basket  and  watch  the 
basket.  The  climatic  conditions  of  Mas¬ 
sachusetts,  he  says,  are  somewhat  trying 
to  plants.  It  is  astonishing  what  varia¬ 
tions  in  frost  there  are  in  places  only  a 
short  distance  apart ;  frost  will  run  down 
hill  like  water.  Steep  hillsides  with  a 
ravine  nearby  are  favorable  for  fruit 
growing.  The  apple,  peach  and  plum 
need  rich  soil  well  cultivated  ;  the  quince 
and  pear  will  not  stand  much  cultivation 
so  well  and  do  better  with  mulching.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  plant  an  apple  orchard 
and  set  out  something  else  between  the 
rows.  If  the  rows  are  straight  and 
spaces  are  even,  one  can  get  much  more 
satisfaction  in  seeing  his  trees.  Have 
faith  in  yourself  and  markets  ;  grow  the 
best,  pack  honestly. 
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