1803 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Mr. T. B. Terry, in the Practical 
Farmer, says that the Freeman stands at 
the head in the matter of quality. As 
to size, it is owing, he thinks to how one 
plants them. He has grown them alto¬ 
gether too large, by planting one eye 
every 32 inches each way, on rich soil. 
Seed heavily and they will average small. 
One-eye pieces 12 inches by 32, last year, 
gave him a crop of fair size. But this 
year he has planted about 1(5x32, and 
hopes he has them about right. The 
Freeman, and all other potatoes of the 
Snowflake class that he has tried, pro¬ 
duce a good many small, unmerchant¬ 
able tubers. This is the only fault he 
has found with the Freeman. With thin 
seed ; ng, however, this trouble is greatly 
reduced. The complaint has been made 
that they grow too widespread in the 
hill. This is not the case with Mr. Terry. 
Mr. Terry's experience with this hand¬ 
some pots to of excellent quality is sim¬ 
ilar to our own, except that we have 
made no comparative trials as to heavy 
and light seeding. Our seed was procured 
from Mr. Maule, the introducer, the first 
year, a few tubers only. We saved 
from the crop enough seed to give the 
variety a fair trial the next (last) season. 
The crop of each season gave two kinds 
of potatoes, the one of perfect shape and 
the other of very good but of a notably 
different form. Has Mr. Terry noticed 
this? 
Last week we sprayed a part of our 
seedling potato vines with lime and what 
we assumed to be sulphate of copper, 
using a quarter of a pound of each to 
every gallon of water. The supposed-to- 
be copper sulphate was taken from two 
small packages, one of which proved, as 
we afterwards found, to be sulphate of 
iron. The contents of the second lot 
were used because there was not enough 
in the first. The effect was to injure the 
vines seriously. Some may die. 
Some contend—Mr. T. Greiner was the 
first—that it is the sulphur alone in the 
copper that makes it an effective fungi¬ 
cide. But there is a mighty difference, 
whether this is a fact or not, what the 
sulphur is combined with. We have used 
plaster and Paris-green for years to kill 
the potato beetle. Plaster is lime and 
sulphuric acid. But this form of sulphur 
seems to have little or no power to pre¬ 
vent blight or other fungoid diseases. 
About six years ago, we tried sulphate 
of iron on corn and potatoes to prove or 
to disprove the assertion then positively 
made that it would increase the crops. 
The effect in both cases was, as our read¬ 
ers of those days may remember, to lessen 
the yield. 
Dispite the late season and the scar¬ 
city of good help, the Rural Experiment 
Grounds were never in better shape and 
the growing crops never looked better. 
The many kinds of field and sweet corn 
are looking well. The asparagus plot 
(it is something less than a fortieth of an 
acre) has yielded enough for family use 
and to give away. This is its fourth year 
we believe. The small fruits, large fruits, 
seedling chestnuts and trial ornamental 
trees are growing thriftily. The hybrid 
wheat crop never looked better. Two 
of the varieties which are distinctively 
neither rye nor wheat and which we 
have more than once despaired of ever 
fixing, seem at length fully fixed. The 
heads are very long and narrow and the 
culms stiff and covered with a dense, 
velvety down for two inches under the 
heads. One variety is bearded, the other 
beardless. Otherwise they seem alike 
and sprang from the same parents. The 
two kinds have been fixed by selection 
during at least six years. The kernels 
are flint-like with scarcely any starch. 
Ax experiment we are this season 
carrying on is to determine just how 
much more the trench system will yield 
than the ordinary way of drill or furrow 
planting. The drills or furrows and 
trenches alternate. All receive the same 
kind and weight of high-grade chemical 
potato fertilizer (Mapes in this instance) 
spread during a perfectly quiet day with 
all possible care. The planting was done 
May 15. The amount of fertilizer applied 
1,320 pounds to the acre. At this writ¬ 
ing (June 6) the tops of the potatoes of 
the drills or furrows are from three to 
six inches high, while the sprouts of the 
trenches are but just breaking through 
here and there. 
Juxe 5, our seedling potatoes were 
sprayed with the diluted Bordeaux, viz., 
cne-eighth of a pound each of copper 
sulphate and lime to every gallon of water. 
We were mistaken when the s ! atement 
was made that one-quarter of a pound 
each of copper and lime to every gallon 
was The Rural’s recipe. The stations, 
or some of them, are using the above pro¬ 
portions, but one-eighth of each to the 
gallon has been found strong enough to 
prevent potato blight at the Rural 
Grounds, and it is not proposed to use a 
stronger solution until the weaker one 
fails. 
Ox June 2 the first ripe slrawberries 
were picked from Racste. ; on June 3 
from Michel; Rio and Gen. Putnam next. 
Ix April of last year a few strawberry 
plants were received from the Cleveland 
Nursery Co., of Rio Vista, Va., numbered 
9. The variety has since been named 
Rio. They began to ripen .Tune 5, within 
two days of the earliest of our collection, 
viz., Racster and Michel. The remark¬ 
able thing is that the berries are of large 
size and excellent quality, characteristics 
not common to the earliest varieties. 
The following note explains itself and 
i ets at rest the origin of the Horticul¬ 
tural Lfima bean : 
I write to correct what appears to be a mistake in 
regard to the Horticultural Lima bean. I think Mr. 
D. C. Hicks, of North Clarendon, Vt., has the honor 
of having originated that variety, as he sent me sam¬ 
ples to test here two sears ago. 
The cross made by myself In 1872 was no doabt the 
tlrst of the kind, but, as all seemed to return to the 
old Horticultural type in most respects, their cultiva¬ 
tion as a separate variety was discontinued. I can¬ 
not think of a more desirable cross among beans. 
LbTU&HBCJKBANK. 
Mr. Wakrixgton says, in the London 
Agricultural Gazette, that the Rotham- 
&ted soil, after bearing 50 crops of wheat 
in succession without manure, still con¬ 
tains two-fifths of the nitrogen which is 
present in the old pastures which have 
been in grass for centuries; and this 
wheat land is still capable of yielding a 
crop which, though less than half the 
average produce in England, is not far 
removed from the average produce of the 
world. 
Mr. J. M. Smith says, in the Massa¬ 
chusetts Ploughman, as a food supply, 
he gets more food per acre from his as¬ 
paragus beds than from any area of the 
same size in the entire garden. 
Hexry Stewart comments on the 
fact that some of the experiment station 
teachers declare that culture by plots 
cannot be depended upon for accurate 
results, and that experiments made on 
such plots are not of general value. This 
comes as a most unsatisfactory comment 
on the 50 years of experimenting that 
has been going on at the Rothamsted 
Station in England, where Sir J. B. Lawes 
and his assistants have accumulated such 
an enormous mass of invaluable informa¬ 
tion that has been accepted everywhere 
as standard law for farmers in every 
civilized country. In fact, there is little 
other information of the kind available. 
We regard all such declarations by the 
station people as mere evidence of 
“youngness.” Experience will teach 
them better. 
One cent will mail this paper to 
your friend in any part of the United 
States, Canada or Mexico, after you 
have read it and written your name 
on the corner. 
Abstracts. 
-Farquhar: 
Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend 
To mean devices tor a sordid end. 
Courage — an Independent spark from Heaven's 
bright throne, 
By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, 
alone. 
- Rev. Thomas Dixon : “ So called 
high society is a certain coterie or clique 
of people in every great city who arro¬ 
gate to themselves the title.” 
“ The so-called high society of our 
great cities is in its pretentions a hum¬ 
bug, in its customs the incarnation of 
vulgarity, in its standard of life essent¬ 
ially immoral and corrupting.” 
“The question of brains, of capacity, 
of talent, of power in manhood and 
womanhood does notenter into the ideals 
that govern this coterie of men and 
women.” 
“ Thhse facts are evident in the dissi¬ 
pations of this so-called ‘ society.’ ” 
“ That such people who lead such lives 
should arrogate to themselves the title 
of society is a piece of ‘cheek’ whose 
sublimity atleast must elicit admiration.” 
-New England Farmer: “Does 
farming pay ? is a fool question.” 
-Farm Journal: “A husband’s 
wrath spoils the best broth.” 
-North American Review: “The 
most rational modes of keeping physical 
decay or deterioration at bay, and thus 
retarding the approach of old age, are 
avoiding all foods rich in the earth salts, 
using much fruit, especially juicy, un¬ 
cooked apples, and by taking daily two 
or three tumblerfuls of distilled water 
with about 10 or 15 drops of diluted phos¬ 
phoric acid in each glassful.” 
“The powerful solvent properties of 
distilled water are well known. As car¬ 
bonate of lime exists in nearly all drink¬ 
ing water, the careful distillation elimi¬ 
nates this harmful element. As a bever¬ 
age, distilled water is rapidly absorbed 
into the blood ; it keeps soluble those 
salts already in the blood and facilitates 
their excretion, thus preventing their 
undue deposit. The daily use of distilled 
water is, after middle life, one of the 
most important means of preventing se¬ 
cretions and the derangement of health. 
As to diluted phosphoric acid, it is one of 
the most powerful influences known to 
science for shielding the human system 
from the inconveniences of old age.” 
If you name The Rural New-Yorker to our 
advertisers, you may be pretty sure of prompt 
replies and right treatment 
| | A DISTURBANCE 
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This is just where Dr. Pierce’s 
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