222 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 2i 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Rural asks if I consider Goethe a grape of superior 
quality. When ripened it is one of the finest grapes in ex¬ 
istence. Like all the very late grapes, it will grow sweeter 
and better after picking. I once asked Mr. Husmann of 
Missouri, which of Rogers’s Hybrids he ranked first. He 
answered Goethe. It is not easy to ripen it. Give it a very 
warm location, cover it in winter and it will pay to grow 
one vine as far north as this. 
Speaking of Rogers’s Hybrids, I am more than ever 
in love with Herbert. Excepting Worden, I class it as the 
finest black grape in my list of 60 sorts. I have now on my 
table—February 14—several bunches still good. It is very 
hardy, a noble bearer and a large bunch and berry. But all 
the Rogers’s grapes should have for neighbors good fertil¬ 
izing or pollinizing varieties. 
What we need is a very careful grape experiment station. 
I do not believe that one station for all sorts of vegetation 
and fruits can do us the best service. As for the catalogues 
of our very best grape vine growers, they are biased in 
some cases by stock on hand ; or their reports are made 
commercially on too sparse data. I have planted the Em¬ 
pire State on the authority of that excellent man and able 
Prince Albert is a 
late variety and 
there are others of 
the same class; but 
there is no advant¬ 
age in growing 
them. Any of our 
currants, especially 
the white sorts, 
will hang on a long 
while if grown with 
abundant foliage. 
The Cherry is a 
variety that should 
now be discarded. 
It is of poor quality 
and bears but 
meager crops,taken 
year by year. Then 
the stems are short 
and the fruit falls 
early. 
Select for market 
three- fourths of 
Versaillaise, if you 
can get the genuine 
sort, and Fay. 
Make the other 
fourth White 
Grape. For home 
use reverse the pro¬ 
portions. When 
marketing be pa¬ 
tient. The call is 
quite as great for 
currants late in the 
season as early. 
After mine are all 
gone I have still a 
demand for more. 
Black currants I 
have at last discarded. Some people like them; but as a 
market fruit one gardener can grow enough for a whole 
county. The old Black Naples is not quite so fine as 
Lee’s. There is, however, very little preference for the 
latter. The new “ Crandall ” is only a selected native 
Rlbes, of the sort found in Missouri and west of 
there. It is a sprawling affair, and not far from a hum¬ 
bug. I hear that a new black of fair size and quality is 
soon to be placed on the market. Certainly as yet the 
black currant is open to great improvement. Every one 
should experiment with currant as well as berry seedlings. 
We shall after a while get [currants 1 of all colors quite 
superior to the present stock. E. p, p. 
horticulturist George W. Campbell. I believe he now be¬ 
gins to falter in his liking for it. It is a total failure in 
comparison with the Niagara, Pocklington, Diamond, 
Hayes and other white grapes. I have just laid down a re¬ 
port that speaks of the Jessica as one of the high quality 
grapes. The Rural New-Yorker has persistently told 
the truth of this grape. It has by comparison not one re¬ 
deeming quality; bunch and berry small; half seeds, not 
hardy, a poor grower and not as early as represented. 
Our great battle for 1891 must be with the anthracnose, 
not only on the grapevines but on the apple trees and else¬ 
where. We must be prompt. I believe the copperas rem¬ 
edy is the right one applied before the leaves appear; and 
some of it should be allowed to settle about the roots. I 
fear this disease more than black rot. The disease ap¬ 
pears to be spreading with unusual virulence all over the 
country and is likely to be very destructive unless some 
simple and effective remedy is discovered and applied. 
My Select Fruit Lists.— Pears; Tyson, Sheldon, 
Anjou and Josephine. Apples ; Sweet Bough, Summer 
Rose, Autumn Strawberry, Porter, Fameuse, Belmont, 
Rhode Island Greening, Spy, Roxbury Russet, Wagener 
FROM WHEAT TO BEANS. 
The heart pot succeeds the flour barrel in western New 
York; makes a better rotation and pays better; cul¬ 
ture and prospects. 
One of the leading crops grown by western New York 
farmers is beans. The increase in the culture of this crop 
began with the decline in the value of wheat. Western 
New York or, as it was known to the pioneers, “ The Gen¬ 
esee Country,” is generally admirably adapted to wheat¬ 
growing ; and as a soil that is good for wheat is also good 
for beans, the latter are taking the place of wheat which 
is less profitable than beans at the prices of the two 
of late years. Wheat, of course, is still grown, but after 
oats or barley instead of upon fallowed ground, as was the 
custom when wheat was king. Although the return, from 
a money point of view, is small, wheat will continue to 
be grown somewhat for two reasons: 1. It can be sown 
when there is no other pressing farm work to be done, and, 
2, there is no crop comparable to wheat for seeding land to 
grass and clover. Beans have also almost wholly sup¬ 
planted corn in western New York. Farmers find it more 
profitable to buy Western corn and raise beans. 
The principal 
varieties of beans 
grown here are 
four, viz.: small 
white (Pea and Me¬ 
dium), large white, 
or Marrow, and the 
Red Kidney and a 
very few White 
Kidneys. The best 
preparation for 
beans is a clover or 
Timothy sod or.bet- 
ter still, an old 
sheep pasture. If 
the sod can be given 
a good coat of barn- 
yard manure, all 
the better; but by 
all means apply this 
in the winter or 
early spring. The 
bean is a quick¬ 
growing plant and 
unless the manure 
is applied some time 
before plowing and 
planting and a 1 - 
lowed to leach and 
permeate the soil, 
it will benefit the 
crop very little. If 
the field has a clay 
soil and no manure 
is to be applied, it 
had better be plow¬ 
ed in the fall and 
fallowed well in the 
spring, as the freez¬ 
ing and thawing 
during the winter 
will ameliorate the 
soil. Gravelly or 
loamy land will do 
better if plowed in 
the spring, and if 
very foul,the earlier 
the better, so that 
t can be well 
spring-fallowed. 
The best time to 
plant is during the 
last days of May or the first week in June. Since the in¬ 
troduction of bean-pulling machines, beans are planted 
mostly in drills with a common grain drill, in rows two 
feet four inches apart. Half a bushel of small Pea beans 
is required to plant an acre, and three pecks of the large 
Pea to the acre; and of Mediums three and one-half pecks, 
and of large white or Marrow and Red Kidneys from one 
to one and one-half bushel to the acre. 
THE BAILEY GRAPE, From Nature. Fig. 77. 
See First Page. 
and Jonathan. Cherries ; Dwarf Early Richmond, Wind¬ 
sor, Governor Wood, May Duke and Montmorency. Plums; 
Green Gage, Shropshire Damson, Bleecker’s Gage or 
Lombard. Strawberries: Bubach, Cumberland, Haver- 
land, Sharpless, Eureka, Mrs. Cleveland, Crawford and 
Summit. Blackberries: Agawam, Taylor and Minnewaski. 
Raspberries: Cuthbert and Golden Queen; for blacks, 
Palmer and Hilborn. Grapes: Worden, Diamond, Ni¬ 
agara, Brighton, Herbert, Gaertener and Hayes. Cur¬ 
rants: Versaillaise, White Grape and Fay. 
New things I propose to test: The Green Mountain 
Grape; the Idaho Pear; Thompson’s Early Red Rasp¬ 
berry ; the Moyer Grape also the Winchell. (The Winchell 
is the Green Mountain.— Eds.) I must also test the 
Margaret Carnations, which I suspect are only our old 
clove pinks; but if so all right. Hallock’s collection of 
perennial phloxes will also be tested. 
A few things I have to get rid of are: Russian Apricots ; 
Jessica, Prentiss, Poughkeepsie Red and Woodruff Grapes, 
and, I am sorry to add, the Empire State. Then come 
the Industry Gooseberry; Hansell, Marlboro and Crim¬ 
son Beauty Raspberries; the Lucretia Dewberry (at last); 
and an assortment of extraordinary strawberries; with 
the Kittatinny and Early Wilson Blackberries. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. E. P. POWELL. 
The cultivation after planting is similar to that of corn 
—with a horse and hoe. After the pods begin to form it is 
best to cease all cultivation except hand weeding. The 
labor after planting depends largely upon the cleanliness, 
of the soil We have known fields that were free from 
weeds to make a good crop without any cultivation after 
planting. Until within a few years beans were harvested 
wholly by hand. The vines were pulled out of the ground 
and inverted in small bunches to dry. This was a slow, 
laborious and costly operation. To pull half an acre is 
considered a good day’s work for a man. Now, with the 
exception of steep hill sides, beans are pulled with a ma¬ 
chine. Men follow and pitch the little windrows left by 
the machine into bunches of about a forkful. When dry 
they are hauled to the barn and thrashed by steam with 
a thrasher manufactured especially for the purpose. 
Beans are more liable to get damaged by wet weather 
than most grain. A wet fall, as in 1889 and 1890, causes 
great damage, especially to late planted beans. Continued 
rain discolors both vines and beans, and ofttimes when 
the weather is both hot and wet causes them to sprout in 
the pod. Discolored or sprouted beans are only fit for 
sheep feed. Bean vines and pods make excellent fodder 
for cattle and sheep, the latter eating them with greater 
avidity than the best hay. With clover hay they make a 
perfect ration for sheep. Being of a slightly oily nature, 
they keep their bowels in healthy condition, and are also 
considered excellent food for producing a good growth of 
wool. Beans yield under favorable conditions from 20 to 30 
bushels per acre, or about the same as wheat. When the 
CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES TESTED. 
Of the varieties for home use there is but one truly 
superb table currant, the White Grape. It is far ahead of all 
the reds and is quite large enough for any purpose. The 
white currants are sweeter and richer than the reds. They 
make a bright, red jelly, handsomer than that from the 
reds, provided the fruit is scalded before it is pressed. I 
think the White Dutch is a little sweeter than the White 
Grape; but it is more seedy and not so large or handsome. 
On the whole, for home use the White Grape is the best of 
all; but for market it must, except in certain localities, be 
planted sparingly. The popular cry is for reds. The people 
are educated slowly in the matter of fruits, and go 
by color and appearance. I find, however, quite a change 
going on, as the jelly makers learn that it does not require 
red currants to make red jelly. 
Next to the White Grape the best currant is the genuine 
Versaillaise; Fay or Fay’s Prolific is so nearly like it that 
most growers would see no difference. I never could get a 
genuine Versaillaise until I procured a stock of E. P. Roe. 
It bears huge clusters of long stems of large, bright, red 
fruit. It makes but little difference which of these sorts 
you plant. They 
are fine for table 
and excellent for 
market. 
Red Dutch is an 
old standard that 
gives fine crops; but 
the fruit is not 
much over half the 
size of Fay and Ver¬ 
saillaise. 
