1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
651 
“ What chief mistakes have you made ? ” 
“ Couldn’t begin to tell them all, as we had every¬ 
thing to 1 arn. There are two things sure. If we were 
starting again, we would not pay so much for old hens. 
We would buy a few sitting hens and get eggs of a 
good strain. To buy laying hens at §1 each does not 
pay ; our figures sho v that we, can raise them cheaper. 
Again, we shall not try to raise chickens under hens 
again. The hens killed too many of the little things. 
We propose to make a brooder like that of Mr. Chap¬ 
man shown in The R N.-Y. The ben does not make 
a good nurse with us.” 
The figures in this little chicken business are of par¬ 
ticular interest to new beginners with poultry. There 
is no “ big story ” here yet, but a first-rate stock on 
which to grow the facts for one. n. w. c. 
BAGGING OUT THE ROT. 
MONEY IN A HOME MARKET. 
Does bagging grapes prevent black rot ? As I have 
seen a number of articles in The Rural on this sub- 
WHO DOWNS THE MORTGAGE? 
Will Carleton sings : 
Worm or beetle, drought or tempest, on a farmer’s land may fall, 
But for first-class rulDatton trust a mortgage 'gainst tnem all. 
Ard Brother Carieton rarely misses the plain truth. 
Who doesn’t know the man that is wrestling with a 
mortgage twice as big as he is ? Who hasn’t seen the 
strong young man and brave hearted young woman 
join their forces and valiantly attack a bn mortgage, 
and after a discoureging struggle extending over long 
years, go down, crushed by its weight ? Who hasn’t 
seen the bronzed and sturdy yeoman do battle with 
one for a few years and then flee to the wilds of the 
West to escape its insatiable maw? 
And again, who hasn’t seen the quiet, cool-headed, 
slender little fellow with steel-blue eyes and deter¬ 
mined j ;w, calmly meet a mortgage like a mountain 
and utterly annihi’ate it in a very short time? A 
little chap that couldn’t shoulder a sack of wheat to 
save bis life ; who uses the smallest sized hand tools ; 
who seems to be forever on the move ; who gets the 
seeds into the ground and harvests great crops with 
are too numerous ! ” And the same may be said of the 
ways of annihilating a me rtgage. One of the little 
fellows referred to above paid his by pract : cing the 
most rigid economy. Another paid his with hogs but¬ 
ter and poultry products. .Anet er by the exercise of 
pure brawn. H> was b ; g and st'ong and he fairly 
wrested the funds from the soil by main strength. 
Anothi r raid his with hogs ah n Q : and I ought go on 
almost indefinitely. Each of these m< n bent every 
effort toward paying a portion of the principal every 
year, and the debt melted easily away. 
If the mortgage is not bigger than the farm, it can 
be lifted without much difficulty if the farmer will 
firmly make up his mind to get right down to business 
and lift it. He should settle on some definite p an and 
sti k to it. If it will require the economy of the deni¬ 
zens of the dugout, he should get down to that basis 
at once. He had far better do that right where he is 
and save his farm, than to pick up a few traps and go 
West to begin anew in a country he knows nothing 
about. There are successful men in the neighborhood, 
and if he will do as they do, there is no reason why he 
ft? 
ject. my experience will not be out of place 
Several years ago when I first started in grape cul¬ 
ture here in Georgia, there was little doing in that 
branch of horticulture near the Macon market, there 
being only one or two vineyards, whose products were 
mostly worked up into wine. The grapes taken to 
market were carried in boxes of all sizes and shapes, 
and retailed out by 
the pound or p'ck. 
I conceived the iWW fcu 
idea that those \ 
who were able to ' 
buy grapes were ^ IB 
able to buy what ' Vhllh ri 
I cculd put up in %/' // 
a neat 5 pound W 
basket I started lift I 
out on that line 
as soon as my vine- yMl 
yard began to bear \J| 
a sufficient quan- rj 
tity.Then I wanted 
my grapes to look 
clean and showy. 
I soon found that 
to prevent injary 
from birds and in¬ 
sects. something would have to be done. (There was 
no fungous disease in my vineyard up to that time.) I 
read of a grape grower in Tennessee who was bagging 
20 acres of grapes to prevent black rot. The result 
was that I began to bag, using what is called the 
Standard half-pound and 2 pound bags, and have been 
bagging my entire crop ever since, and would do so if 
I had 50 acres under grapes. The first year after I 
had begun to bag, I sold 5 pound baskets, holding 
about four pounds, at 75 cents per basket. There are 
now 10 000 vines in this county, where there were 
only 100 at that time, and, of course, the competition 
is greater in the local market. This year I had the 
inclosed printed card pasted on the covers, showing 
how the grapes were protected. [Here is a copy of 
it.— Eds.] : 
FROM 
FAIR VIEW FRUIT FARM, 
Rutland, Bibb Co., Ga. 
EXTRA PACKED. 
These grapes are grown and ripened in paper 
bags, are perfectly free from duet and insect 
/-S 
HmJ 
|1A 
should not be successful also. If he is 
I ‘‘unlucky,”he should go to some ‘ lucky ’ 
I man and learn why he is so His theo¬ 
ries may be all right, but his practices 
all askew. If that is the case, he should 
ask the “ lucky ” man to steer him—give 
him a pointer occasionally. Above all 
things, he must make up his mind to drop 
\ the hit-or miss guess-work, and to recuce 
^ his farm to a certainty Then he will 
\ soon discover the means of ridding his 
I j farm of its mortgage, 
m Christian County, Ill. fred. grundy. 
Ill NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
IvHtt CLEMATIS DAVID1ANA. 
m Two years ago we received fnem Henry 
nwT A. Dreer, of Phi adelphia. Pa., one plant 
of this interesting and beautiful hardy 
clematis. Mr. Dreer c pealcs of it as 
follows : 
“ This new Japanese clematis is des¬ 
tined to be one of the finest of hardy 
plants, and indispensable to all collec¬ 
tions. It is a shrubby, upright plant, 
from two to four 
r feet high, with 
fresh, bright foli- 
age; the leaves 
grow in whorls 
around the stem. 
The flowers circle 
and cluster in the 
greatest profusion 
arourd each whorl 
of leaves, making 
several tiers (four 
to six) of clusters 
extending, one above the other, f ora near the 
ground to the top of the, foliage. The flowers are 
lonm, tubular, bell-shaned, and of a deep lavender 
color ard delicious fragrance.” 
The above deseript/on we find to be all right as far 
as it goes, but it does not go far en'ugh by a long 
shot. Tt is a magnificent hardv, nea^y herbaceous 
shrub that blooms from ea/Hv summer unti fro t. It 
doesn’t bloom here and there, as do the autumnal- 
dirt. The hleb reputation of onr fruits win 
be maintained, as we pack nothing but select 
bunches. 
Variety. 
The fruit showed for itself, being 1 free from dirt and 
dust. I sold 5-pound baskets at from 25 to 35 cents, 
10-pound baskets holding about eight pounds, at 00 
to 75 cents, according to varieties, such as Duchess, 
Lindley, Progress, Delaware, Brighton, Prentiss, 
Worden, Niagara and a dozen others. Now the ques¬ 
tion is, had I better sell in our local market to a trade 
that I have built up for fine fruit, at those prices, or 
ship to New York and pay commission and S3 50 per 
100 pounds expressage, all rHl, and SI per 100 DouDds 
per Savannah steamer ? [We should say—stick to the 
home market.— Eds ] 
Now as to fungous diseases : I don’t say that bag¬ 
ging will prevent black rot altogether, but if one gets 
good bags and puts them on as soon as possible after 
the grapes get cut of bloom, there need not be a loss 
of 50 pounds to the acre. This year I comm°nced 
marketing on July 10, and finished abou + August 10. 
During that time it was extremely wet three weeks 
out of the four, and 10 pounds would be about all in¬ 
jured by black rot. I have bagged a c'ubter of grapes 
affected with the disease and stopped its further 
development, and have done the same with others 
affected with aDthracnose. Next year I shall try 
spraying for the foliage, but shall keep up the bag¬ 
ging as my trade demands fine clean fruit. 
Bibb County, Ga. c. w. morrill. 
Clematis Davidiana. Fig. 210. 
method and precision that seem marvelous; who 
makes no noise ; is never sec n in town except on busi¬ 
ness, and whose word is as good as a doubly secured 
note. Almost everybody has seen him and wondered. 
A great 200 pound, six-foot, brawny son of the soil, 
speaking of one of these spindling but successful 
little fellows, said: 
“How do you suppose that little whipper snapper 
managed to pay off that big mortgage and fix up his 
farm the way he has ? Why, I could sling him over a 
house, and I’ll be dogged if I wasn’t downed by a 
mortgage not half as big as his’n ! ’ 
Said another, a solidly built hustler : 
“ I’ve done more work in a week than G. ever done 
in a whole month, but I’ll be shot if I can get along 
like he does! He started in after I did, and owed 
more money, yet he’s paid out and is now putting up 
some good buildings, while I am still a-paying interest 
on the old mortgage. I can’t see how a little snipe 
like him ever done it! ” 
A city gentleman who v as out “ recuperating ” on 
his dear cousin’s farm, asked : 
‘ How do you country people make butter, anyway? 
I have bought some country butter that was excellent, 
and seme that had a very nauseous flavor. How is 
country butter made. Su6ie ?” 
‘ I haven’t time to tell you just now,” replied the busy 
Susie, “because the ways of making ‘country butter’ 
blooming roses. for example. but it is a mass of bloom 
and leaves not far from equally divided. 
In early August our plant was four feet lugh and 
as many broad of a round form with abundant fo¬ 
liage, heaviest near the soil. The leaves, which are 
obovate and irregularly and b-oadlv toothed and in¬ 
cised are in threes and of a deep gree color Every 
shoot has clusters of sessile blossoms in eve-y axil. 
As the leaves are opposite, the clu‘W s are oDpos'te, 
and it is no exaggeration to say th ‘t there are in 
many of them as many as 50 buds and fl iwers. 
The flower is t ibu 1 ar for an inch and th c n the four 
petals, which are half an inch broad, recurve just 
like those of the large-flowered hyacinths In color 
they are a sky-blue rather than “ lavender.” as Mr. 
Dreer describes them, with a light- r shade running 
through the middle It is a grand olant perfectly 
hardv, and m're valuable because during the later 
season of its profl’gate bloom there are few other 
shrubs that bear it comnany The flowers are as 
sweet as those of the “Cinnamon vine,” Dioscorea 
Batatas. __ 
Most of the Terra CoDa tomatoes are as liv^e as 
ordinary kinds, say the Acme. Their softness to the 
touch is not due to a tender skin—this is firmer than 
that of ordinary kinds It is due as we have before 
said, to the fact that there are air spaces between the 
flesh and the skin. The fleih is exceedingly terde>, 
and of a quality all its own ; there i6 never any core. 
