-iHllllUlHUiUW^^ 
VOL. L. NO. 2i78 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 24, i89i 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 3.00 PER YEAR. 
THE BESSEMIANKA PEAR. 
I send The Rural a photo of a plateful of this pear—see 
Fig. 265—with a measuring tape across the fruit to show 
the exact size. This is the first year In which it has borne 
fruit in New England. In quality, as a dessert fruit, this 
pear is very good. It would doubtless be a summer pear 
in Southern New England and New York; but in north¬ 
ern Vermont it would last with a little care In handling 
all through September. 
This is the first pear that has proved itself “ iron-clad ” 
in the sense in which the term is applied to the Olden- 
burgh, Wealthy and other apples. The trees are appar¬ 
ently as hardy as a birch, very vigorous growers, and come 
to teaiirg at seven or eight years from planting. All 
that was known of this and the other iron-clad Russian 
pears, previous to actual experience since their importa¬ 
tion, in the fall of 1882, must be drawn from the reports 
and writings of Prof. Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, and Mr. Charles Gibb, of the Canadian Province of 
Quebec, who made the tour of the fruit-growing regions of 
Russia together during the summer of the above-named 
year. Of Bessemianka (the name means “seedless,” and 
the same pear is known in Germany as “Samenlose” or 
“Kernlose”), Mr. Gibb says, in the Montreal Horticultural 
Society Report, 1883, page 53 : “ This is by far the best pear 
grown in the severer parts of Russia. At Saratoff we 
found trees seven or eight inches in diameter of trunk, 
which appeared quite hardy, and were 
said to bear large crops. We found here 
an orchard of 500 large pear trees, and 
this climate is as cold as the city of Que¬ 
bec. Here the Bessemianka was con¬ 
sidered one of their best. Again, in cen¬ 
tral Russia, at Orel, we found a great 
many trees, young and old, and found it 
considered the best, because the most re¬ 
liable. The same story at Voronesh. At 
Kursh we saw large old trees, and a f 
large supply of it in the nurseries. It is 
the most widely known and most largely m 
grown pear in central Russia.” 
The places named above are all north ' 
of latitude 50 degrees. Quite a number 
of other pears from the same localities 
are included in the importations above 
referred to, and are all now growing suc¬ 
cessfully in my orchards near lake 
Memphremagog; but none of them has '^. : A 
exhibited such vigorous growth, or ar¬ 
rived so soon at fruit tge. Yet they are 
all what we should call, with our ordi 
nary pears, good growers, and all of them 
successfully resist our hardest winters THE 
without injury. The foliage of nearly 
all these Russian pears is thicker and firmer than that of 
our old kinds, and is quite uninjured by insects or fungi, 
being at this date (September 16) as green and glossy as 
when first put forth. In the importations above referred 
to were some Polish pears, one of which in particular, Lu- 
torka, is said to be almost identical in appearance and 
quality of fruit with our Flemish Beaaty, bat the tree, 
which is a free grower, is very much hardier than that 
variety here. I think these Russian pears likely to be of 
great use in our northern tier of States and in Canada. 
Orleans Co., Vt._ T. H. hoskins. 
J. M. SMITH FAILS TO BEAT TERRY. 
known since I was old enough to cultivate the soil. It 
commenced in April, and in May when the potatoes 
should have come up, the ground had become very dry. 
The result was that a great many of the small pieces never 
sprouted at all, and many others that came up were very 
feeble, and looked as if they did not care whether they 
lived or died. The ground occupied was 150 rods, or 10 
rods less than one acre. It was harrowed with a square 
steel tooth harrow, once or twice before the vines came 
up. As soon as we could follow the rows they were culti¬ 
vated. I do not know how often this was repeated, but as 
often as I thought it necessary. They were not hoed ex¬ 
cept sufficiently to destroy the weeds about the plants, 
that could not be destroyed by the cultivator. They were 
not hilled except the last time we went through them, 
when the shovel tooth was put in the cultivator, and 
threw a very little earth towards the plants, and left the 
center between the rows a little the lowest. The drought 
continued, and seemed to be absolutely merciless. 
In July, when they were setting, although I had put 
ashes on the ground, which is a great protection in 
drought, as well as a valuable fertilizer and I had cul¬ 
tivated them as often as it seemed to be of any use, yet the 
earth was like a bed of dried ashes, and the tops looked 
and acted as if they were about ready to lie down and die. 
I had not intended to give them any care or cultivation 
more than a really first-class farmer would give, and then 
mm- 
... f' ’' 
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Mmm 
. r.ji 
HR 
BESSEMIANKA PEAR. From a Photograph. Fig. 265. 
abide by the result. But I did not 1 ke to see them die 
outright on account of the drought, and I had one of my 
irrigating hose turned on them and gave them one, and 
only one moderate wetting. The drought continued with¬ 
out cessation until the latter part of August, when we had 
one nice shower. But it was too late to save them. Most 
of them ripened prematurely and there are a large number 
of small ones. We dug them last month and weighed, 
but did not measure them. Tney were dry and smooth, 
and weighed 16,200 pounds or 270 bushels—at the rate of 
288 bushels per acre. 
With such a season as either 1889 or 1890 I would hardly 
have given any one 10 cents to have warranted me 450 
MACHINE FOR TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. 
EDWARD HICKS. 
The two cuts, Figs. 266 and 267, show my last device for 
moving large trees, and I am pleaded to state that It Is 
quite satisfactory. No bruising of the trunk, breaking of 
the limbs or crushing of the roots is liable to occur when 
this machine is properly used. 
In moving large trees, say those 10 to 12 inches In 
diameter, and 25 to 30 feet high, it is well to prepare them 
by trimming and cutting or sawing off the roots at a 
proper distance from the trunks, say six to eight feet, in 
June. The cut roots heal over and send out fibrous roots, 
which should not be injured more than is necessary in 
moving the trees the next fall or spring. Young, thrifty 
maples and elms, originally from the nursery, do not need 
such preparation nearly as much as other and older trees. 
In moving a tree we begin by digging a wide trench six to 
eight feet from it, leaving all possible roots fast to it. By 
digging under the tree in the wide trench and working the 
soil out of the roots by means of round or dull pointed 
sticks, the soil falls into the cavity made under the tree. 
Three or four men in as many hours could get so much of 
the soil away from the roots that It would be safe to attach 
a rope and tackle to the upper part of the trunk and to 
some adjoining post or tree for the purpose of pulling the 
tree over. A good quantity of bagging must be put around 
the tree under the rope to prevent injury, and care should 
be taken that the pulling of the rope does 
not split off or break a limb. A team is 
hitched to the end of the draft rope, and 
slowly driven in the proper direction to 
pull the tree over. Great care is now 
needed not to pull too hard so as to break 
a large root or otherwise damage the tree. 
If the latter does not readily tip over, 
dig under and cut off any fast roots. 
Ol / \ While it is tipped over, work out more of 
jgSjk , the soil with the sticks. These do not 
'HI / bruise the roots like iron tools. Now pass 
||ot / ’ ■ . a l ar 8 e r °P®< double, around a few large 
roots close to the tree, leaving the ends 
W j W flfcfcnjVr of the rope turned up by the trunk to be 
: used in lifting the tree at the proper 
time. Tip the tree in the opposite direc- 
tion and put another large rope around 
the large roots close to the trunk; remove 
more soil and see that no roots are fast to 
the ground. Four guy ropes attached to 
the upper part of the tree, as shown in 
cuts, should be put on properly and used 
to prevent the tree from tipping over too 
far as well as to keep it upright. A good 
265 - deal of the soil cau be put back in the 
hole without covering the roots, and thus 
It can be got out of the way of the machine. The latter 
can now be placed about the tree by removing the front 
part, fastened by four bolts, placing the frame with the 
hind wheels around the tree and replacing the front parts. 
Two timbers, 3x9 inches, and 20 feet long, are now placed 
on the ground under the hind wheels, and in front of them, 
parallel to each other, for the purpose of keeping the hind 
wheels up out of the big hole when drawing the tree away; 
and they are also used while backing the hind wheels 
across the new hole in which the tree is to be planted. 
The machine consists of a hind axle 12 feet long and 
broad-tired wheels, that will not cut up a lawn or sink 
into the soft soil about the holes. The main frame is 
Might Have Watered Himself to Victory. 
My friend Terry, in a late Rural, called upon me to 
give my record with the Freeman Potatoes. I received 
from Mr. Mauie 181 pounds of the variety. The ground 
was plowed eight to nine inches deep, and unleached wood 
ashes were put upon it at the rate of nearly 100 bushels 
per acre. They were harrowed in with the Cutaway, and 
then smoothed over with the Meeker roller. No other 
fertilizer was used. The rows were marked off three feet 
apart one way, and 18 inches the other. The potatoes 
were cut to single eyes, except at the blossom ends where 
the eyes were closer together; sometimes two or even 
three eyes were left upon a single piece. They were 
planted by hand, and about three inches deep—about May 
1. The soil is a dark sandy loam, and never becomes 
baked and hard; neither does it ever become wet and 
soggy. It is surface as well as underdrained. We have 
had the most unprecedented drought that I have ever 
bushels, and I firmly believe that the yield would have 
been nearer 500 than 450 bushels. In appearance the tubers 
are very much like the Snowflake. We have tested them 
once upon the table; we all agree that they are strictly 
first-class in quality. I had a number of acres of potatoes 
grown upon what I consider good potato soil. They had 
as good care as I knew how to give them, and I expected a 
yield of at least 400 bushels per acre, and in an ordinary 
season would have had it. But Instead of that, the yield 
has been less than 150 bushels per acre. They were upon 
rented land, where I could not water them. I could have 
watered the Freeman Potatoes and kept them in good con¬ 
dition, and in that way have harvested an enormous crop ; 
but It would have proved nothing as to their real value. 
As It is, I am much pleased with them and, as far as I can 
judge from the single experiment I have made, I believe 
that this variety will prove to be an excellent addition to 
our list of potatoes, and would recommend a trial of it in 
a small way at least to all in search of promising novelties. 
made of spruce 3x8 inches and 20 feet long; the frames in 
the cuts are only 16 feet in length, which was not sufficient 
as the earth thrown out from the hole into which the tree 
was to be planted, interfered with the free movements of 
the machine till I made it longer. The braces are 3x5 inches 
and 10 feet long, and the uprights 3x9 inches and three feet 
high; these are bolted to the hind axle and main frame. 
The front axle has a set of blocks bolted together, and of 
sufficient height to support the front end of the frame. 
Into the top timbers, 3x6 inches, hollows are cut at the 
proper distances to receive the ends of two locust rollers. 
Holes can be bored through the latter, and large ropes 
from the roots can be made fast to them and by the means 
of crowbars they can be wound up and the tree lifted. I 
abandoned this plan, however, and put a windlass or winch 
at each end of the frame and now I can easily and steadily 
lift and lower the tree, the large double ropes passing over 
the rollers to the windlasses. A locust boom is put across 
the m achine under the frame and above the braces ; iron 
