7o3 
i89i THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SURFACE DRAINAGE; THAT $100 STRAWBERRY. 
J. M. SMITH. 
I am asked to tell something more about my system of 
surface draining. 
My garden contains 40 acres. It is almost a dead level, 
though what little slope there is, is toward the south. It 
is so little, that when I came to lay out my system of 
underdrains, I found that I could have but one inch fall 
to every 100 feet. The surface drains, of cour-e, have about 
the same inclination. My land is all laid off in beds, or, 
as farmers would most likely call it, in lands. They all 
run precisely north and south. They are exactly two and 
one half rods in width, from center to center of alleys 
that are two feet wide, and run between the beds from one 
end to the other. Most of the beds are about 800 feet 
in length. We so manage in plowing that the centers of 
the beds are kept a little higher than the sides. This, of 
course, turns off the surplus water at once into the alleys. 
These so called alleys are so made that they have a straight 
slope, and each one has an outlet through which the sur¬ 
plus water can pass off immediately. My tile underdrains 
are beneath these alleys, and the surface drains are of 
course directly over the tiles. If there is no other outlet 
that is convenient, we make one into the tile beneath. 
My land is a light, black, sandy loam, and during the 
growing season is kept in just as good condition as I 
know how to keep it. The result is that the light, fine 
soil very readily absorbs all of the water it needs, and 
then the surplus begins to find its way to the alleys, which 
carry it off at once, and the result is th it it must be a very 
heavy rain that will allow one to dip up a pint cup full of 
water anywhere in the garden six hours after the rain has 
ceased. Occasionally one or more of the drains will get 
filled or choked up In some place, and hold the water back 
for a short time ; but after a heavy rain some one goes 
over the garden and examines them, and if any are stopped 
up, they are opened at once, and the water runs off imme¬ 
diately. It is seldom that we have to wait even an hour 
after the rain has ceased to fall before we are at work 
at something in the garden. One of my men told 
me only a few days since that he had lost only one quar¬ 
ter of a day since he commenced work early last April, 
and then It was not the rain or wet land that caused It. 
The tile below carries off the suplus water in the soil, and, 
between the two, I consider the land in about as good con¬ 
dition as I am able to put it, so far as drainage is con¬ 
cerned. If anybody doubts the value of a system of drain¬ 
age upon land that is in the least Inclined to be damp, he 
should not hesitate to try it, and, my word for it, he will 
find it a paying investment. 
By the way, when I made the offer for strawberry plants 
I hud no idea of the number of new varieties that, in the 
opinion of their owners, far exceed the Wilson in all re¬ 
spects. Perhaps the claims are well founded, and if 
so, all right. It is seldom that I do not have a balance 
to my credit in the bank, and the $100 will be very 
cheerfully paid for such plants as I write about. Still be¬ 
fore the money is paid over, they must be thoroughly 
tested upon my ground side by side with the Wilson. I 
cannot consent to take any grower’s word for what his 
favorite will do. I have done just that it seems to me 
nearly 100 times, but have failed every time, unless some 
of those now on hand shall fill the bill. Letters have come 
from the East, and the West, and the South, all telling me 
of the excellencies of the new varieties now ready for 
myself and the public. I have no doubt that a variety 
more desirable than the Wilson will come in due time, and 
when it does we shall have a plant that will yield from 850 
to 450 or perhaps 500 bushels per acre. I hope that such a 
variety will come soon, and that I may live to try it. 
Brown County, Wis. 
The Note Book. 
Acidity of Corn Roots —I am Inclined to think that 
all the participants in the late discussion in The Rural 
with regard to the causes of general ill success in trying to 
grow wheat on fresh corn stubble, miss the actual cause. 
We know that acids corrode and kill young plant growth. 
Apple pomace, for example, if spread in masses that con¬ 
tinue moist enough to become sour, kills all vegetition 
near it, although if dry and sweet, it is as useful a contri¬ 
bution to the surface humus as any other vegetable waste. 
Now the green roots of the corn are full of rich saccha¬ 
rine sap, and September weather especially favors its 
rapid fermentation and the development of a vinegar that 
eats off the young rootlets of the wheat plants as soon as 
it touches them. Before spring this becomes neutralized 
in the soil, and oats, barley, or spring wheat will thrive 
there then. w. g. 
Blair County, Pa. 
Setting Red Raspberry Sprouts.—As with red grapes 
so with red raspberries—they are much finer flavored than 
the black ones. But their habit of sprouting up from the 
roots so freely, and the imperfect ability of the large, fra¬ 
grant Antwerps (European sorts) to resist severe cold pre¬ 
vent many from growing and enjoying this very fine fruit— 
the finest constituent for jam preserve that grows in the 
temperate zone. The trouble of overcoming these two 
difficulties which are Imposed by Providence as the price 
of the fruit (or rather as an inducement to our taking 
some healthful exercise), amounts to almost nothing. If 
the sprouts are taken when less than a week old they snap 
off at the slightest touch of a hoe. Later they become 
tough and resist more. Another and stronger reason for 
cutting them as soon as they appear is that they rob the 
main bearing canes and roots, because they offer fresh, 
free channels for the sap, and if left to grow they will be 
the sole crop. Like the strawberry, these plants seem to 
prefer to propagate themselves by runners wherever there 
is mellow, clean giound to be occupied in that way, and If 
a full yield of the best fruit Is wanted, runners must be 
promptly and strictly repressed. I have grown raspber¬ 
ries for home use, and have thought myself quite an adept, 
and have been very satisfactorily successful; yet I had 
never discovered what I find now to be a great convenience 
In the culture, viz , the easy practicability of taking up 
green sprouts that come up so thickly around all stools of 
red raspberries and setting them out as one might straw¬ 
berry runners. We have just set out some rows, and they 
have bravely endured two windy, dry days, without flinch¬ 
ing or wilting at all perceptibly. This is a very easy, sim¬ 
ple, useful process, where the young sprouts can be car¬ 
ried in a pail from their place of origin to their new plsce 
of promotion and service. G. w. 
Wanted! “Hustlers for the Country !”—I have 
been much interested in the discussion in The Rural rela¬ 
tive to the removal of city people to farming lands. If this 
could be done to any considerable extent, it would benefit 
city and country alike, advance morality and settle some 
of the vexed questions of the day. I have for some time 
Outlet for a Drain. Fig. 252. 
felt satisfied that if our factories could be located In rural 
districts where the operatives could know and enjoy the 
full meaning of home , there would be an end of this labor 
agitation. There is in the community in which I live a 
woolen mill in which the workers receive one-third less 
wages than is paid in New York and Pennsylvania, and yet 
in more than 20 years there has never been a strike In that 
mill. Land in the neighborhood is cheap; almost every oper¬ 
ative owns a few acres on which he has his house and a gar¬ 
den that largely supports his family for eight months in 
the year. He gets fruit from his own trees, honey from his 
own hives and milk from his own cow. That mill is mak¬ 
ing 20 per cent on its capital; those operatives are happy 
and contented on wages which would not be tolerated a 
day in the big manufacturing cities. The vine-clad cot¬ 
tages and gardens around the Charlottesville Woolen 
Mills, the intelligence, morality and peace which charac¬ 
terize this community call to mind bright pictures of 
Utopia. 
But to come to the strictly agricultural question : I ap¬ 
prehend that if the same Industry, energy and intelligence 
A Georgia Product. Taken from Life. Fig. 253. 
which city life demands, were displayed on the farm, suc¬ 
cess would in most cases be attained. We need more 
“ hustlers” in the country, especially in those parts where 
Providence has done so much that man is tempted to do 
but little. If H. S. L., whose recent letter in The Rural 
I read with pleasure, has had any experience in fruit cult¬ 
ure, gardening and poultry raising he can find such a 
place as he is looking for on a farm near a thriving city at 
once. A good orchard and garden of some acres would be 
put into the care of the right sort of person, with the poul¬ 
try on the farm ; the tenant would be furnished with a 
house and fire-wood, a cow and a horse for work, and the 
profits would be equally shared. The tenant should have 
a little capital and some experience. s. B. w. 
Charlottesville, Ya. 
A Grape Talk.— In regard to the editorial calling on 
Prof. Munson to tell us his opiuion of hybrid grapes, please 
let an outsider have a say. While Mr. Ricketts’s hybrids 
proved a failure outside of a few favored localities, not so 
with other hybrids. Let’s take the veteran hybridizer, 
Mr. Rogers: have all of his varieties proved a failure ? 
Take his 39, Anffnia; has it been given the chance that 
Concord has had ? No ! if It had, it would be as widely 
known as any other native. Take the Herbert: is there 
a finer black grown to-day f No, not even the famous 
Eaton can be compared with it either for size, beauty or 
productiveness. Then where is Wilder and Goethe? The 
last crn’t be beat for a late grape where the season is long 
enough to ripen it. The question is, isn’t failure the fault 
of the grower rather than of the hybrid ? for where one 
knows how to grow grap33 a multitude do not. Such 
crude ideas have some people of the way grapes can be 
grown that if the vines were made of the best steel and each 
berry of cast iron thoroughly galvanized, they would 
most likely prove a failure, for they are so overgrown with 
weeds as to be out of sight or else so covered with dirt as 
to be scarcely recognizable. 
If I understand aright, Prof. Munson doesn’t expect his 
hybrids to succeed from Puget Sound to Key West, nor 
from Cape Cod to San Diego ; but he certainly can expect 
them to succeed with practical growers in good grape dis¬ 
tricts. The Carman, one of the finest hybrids I have ever 
seen, and which I predict will make its own way, is well 
worthy of its namesake ; but I must insist it should have 
E. S. prefixed, as there are more than one Carman in this 
country. This hybrid has more good points than any I 
have ever seen, being a splendid shipper (the clusters I re¬ 
ceived from Texas were kept 12 days in perfect condition); 
the quality is first-class, the more one eats of them the 
more he wants, and I understand it is very productive. 
Others of friend Munson’s improvements of V. Lincecumii 
are not to be sneezed at, as they have the good quality of 
b ing larger than most Lincecumii, of fine flavor and stand 
shipping well. I make the p rediction that, if Mr. Munson 
continues in his good work, at the final round-up, old 
Texas will be among the very first in the race for improve¬ 
ment. G. R. w. 
Lyndon, Ky. 
Botanical Side Issues —People sometimes ask, when 
they see a botanist tearing a flower Into bits to determine 
its name, 
“ Of what use is all this dissecting? Unless you can get 
a position to teach the science I cannot imagine what good 
it will do you to know the name of every plant you see.” 
“ Can you not see considerable satisfaction in being able 
to call these, our nearest neighbors, by their proper names?” 
queries the botanist. 
“ Not enough satisfaction to pay for all the time you 
spend searching for new 4 worlds to conquer ’ and in con¬ 
quering them when found,” responds the uninitiated. 
But there are many practical sides to the study in ques¬ 
tion and one of the more important is the knowledge 
of the medicinal values of plants. The good old Thomp¬ 
sonian practice had a thoroughly botanical basis. “Roots 
and yarbs ” were the stock in trade of its physicians, and 
modern schools use many of the simple remedies then pre¬ 
scribed, except that they are now put into the form of tinc¬ 
tures and fluid extracts, instead of being taken almost as 
Mother Earth produ ed them. Shall I take too much time 
if I mention the uses of some of the plants produced in 
New York State, which possess great value as medicines ? 
Among the alteratives are mandrake, poke root, yellow 
dock, burdock, sweet elder, blue flag, blood root, tag alder 
and black cohosh. For anodynes there are poison hem¬ 
lock, hop3 and belladonna. Of vermifuges, sage, male fern 
and white poplar, while boneset is only a little less effectual 
than quinine as an anti periodic. For spasmodic troubles 
yellow lady’s slipper and high cranberry are used, and 
wintergreen, peppermint and spearmint are among the 
best of carminatives. Culver’s root, rhubarb (that raised 
in our gardens is almost as good as the imported) butter¬ 
nut and castor oil are excellent cathartics and prickly ash 
is a good stimulant. For tonics we have gold thread, 
golden seal, American columbo, chamomile, dogwood, 
gentian and willow, and for counter-irritants horse-radish 
and mustard. Queen of the meadow is a powerful diuretic 
and May-weed, Virginia snake root, catnip and sage are 
used to produce perspiration. For nervines we have hops, 
scull-cap, pulsatilla, prince’s-pine, lady’s slipper, marsh 
mallow and the seeds of pumpkins and water-melons, and 
for narcotics henbane, Indian hemp and stramonium. 
Lobelia is one of the most vigorous of emetic3, and aconite, 
American hellebore and the leaves and bark of the peach 
tree are powerful sedatives. 
But why prolong this list ? Those who care to learn 
more about the subject will find it a mine worth working. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. s. A. little. 
OUTLET FOR A DRAIN. 
A patent has just been granted for the device shown at 
Fig. 252. It is designed to give a proper outlet to drains 
or sewers that empty into a stream or on any steep bank. 
The elbow in the pipe is kept constantly filled with water. 
This prevents animals from crawling into the drain, and 
also keeps back dirt or leaves that might be washed into 
it. It also gives an opportunity for clearing out sand in 
case it is washed into the pipe, as frequently happens. 
A TYPICAL GEORGIA PRODUCT. 
A representative of The R. N.-Y. found the specimen 
shown at Fig. 253 In a small Georgia city. The little chap 
was “ as black as the magnolia was white.” His clothes 
were in rags and in great danger of falling away from him 
every time he moved. Yet he was happy as a bird and 
readily consented to “ have his picture taken ” until he 
saw the opening of the Kodak pointed at him. Then he 
seemed to think the camera was some deadly weapon 
about to throw some big bullet at him. After much talk 
and persuasion the picture was taken as we see it. There 
are thousands of just such little chaps running at large all 
over the South. They are to be the agricultural workers 
of 1910. Unless a great change is soon made in their train¬ 
ing the work will suffer! 
