118 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 23 
Edward F. Dibble Seed Company, Honeoye Falls, 
N. Y.—This firm is one of the largest potato growers 
in the country. Last year, 207 varieties were grown, 
and small quantities of any of them or all of them, 
are offered at reasonable rates. For instance, one 
pound each of any 10 kinds, $2.50, express 
prepaid ; one pound each of any 25 kinds, $5; 
one pound each of any 50 kinds, $7.50 ; one 
pound each of any 100 varieties, or one pound 
each of the entire 207 kinds, 10 cents per 
pound. Special prices are given on larger 
quantities. Now, as our readers well know, 
we wish them to try the different sorts of po¬ 
tatoes in an experimental way, so that they 
may find out, what no one can tell them, just 
those varieties that will yield the largest crops 
on their farms. We all know, or should know, 
that one kind of potato may yield double that 
of another under the same treatment. We 
wish you, good readers, to learn just what the 
kind is that will give you the heaviest crops— 
which means the largest profit per acre. Mr. 
Dibble offers the chance at a very reasonable 
price. Try one pound of 50 different kinds, 
selecting those that you have reason to be¬ 
lieve will yield most, and best suit your mar¬ 
ket. The tidal would cost, for seed, $7.50. Is it 
not probable that you may be benefited more 
than that amount by the trial ? The Peerless 
Junior is a new potato controlled by this firm. Not 
more than a peck will be sold to any one person—a re¬ 
striction, by the way, that doesn’t amount to anything. 
The claim is that this Peerless Junior is a cross be¬ 
tween the Peerless and the Snowflake, yielding like 
the old Peerless with the fine quality of the Snowflake. 
Of 205 kinds tried, there was but one that ripened as 
early as the Peerless Junior, and that was the Early 
Ohio. “ All the tubers are large.” Fig. 
35 is a portrait of this new claimant. 
Attention is called to the Early Golden 
Prolific oats, the Great White Maine 
oats, and to the Dibble’s Mammoth 
Eight-rowed flint corn, which resembles 
the Longfellow. 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, 
Pa.—A catalogue of 175 pages—9x6 
inches, three colored plates, and 42 
pages of novelties and specialties. 
There are many unusual offers that 
show the enterprise and liberality of 
the firm. There are so many novelties, 
that to allude to a few of them only, 
seems a slight to the many. The Great 
Divide is a new potato noticed in the 
Catalogue Number of The R. N.-Y.,last 
year, and tried at the Rural Grounds last 
season. The sum of $50 was offered for the heaviest 
yield east of the Rocky Mountains, and also $50 for the 
greatest yield west of the Rockies from one pound of 
seed. The first prize east of the Rockies was awarded 
for 1,198 pounds. The other for 987 pounds. The test 
at the Rural Grounds was not a fair one owing to a 
most unfavorable season. Three hills yielded 15 large 
and 30 small tubers weighing 3 % pounds, or at the 
rate of 282 bushels to the acre. The vines were dead 
August 10 (seed planted April 19). The tubers are 
about twice as long as broad, cylindrical and shapely, 
and regular ; eyes not too prominent; buff skin. It 
is a mealy potato when cooked and the flesh is very 
white and of good quality. It does not fall to pieces 
when cooked. See Fig. 36. We are glad to see that 
Mr. Burpee utters a warning word against Sachaline, 
Sacaline, or correctly Saghalin, in no halting manner. 
He takes The R. N.-Y.’s view that, except for special 
purposes, it will prove of little value in this country. 
R. N.-Y. readers, try it only in an experimented way. 
Attention is called to Burpee’s Stringless Green-pod 
bush bean. We tried it last year and found the beans 
absolutely stringless, fat and of fine quality. The 
bushes, 15 inches high, were very productive, the 
beans four inches long. Attention is also called to the 
Gibralter Gigantic onion and to Early Fordhook sweet 
corn. We did not find the latter any earlier than 
Cory, but it is superior in having a longer ear, closer 
rows, larger kernels and a white cob. Of novelties in 
field corn, try Waterloo Extra Early and Smoked 
Flint, a full report of our trials of which appeared in 
The II. N.-Y. of January 12. The latter is well worthy 
of trial as an ensilage corn, as well as for its grain. 
Try the “New Danish Improved Sugar beet” for stock 
feeding. 
The Lovett Company, Little Silver, Monmouth 
County, N. J.—“ Guide to Horticulture,” a catalogue 
of 155 pages (7x10 inches), colored covers, showing 
fruits and flowers, a colored page of two special 
flowers, and another of the remarkable strawberry 
Eleanor, and 12 pages of specialties. Hitherto this 
firm has dealt exclusively in fruits and ornamental 
plants. Recently it has bought out the Massachusetts 
seed firm of M. B. Faxon, so that a complete list of 
seeds is added to the catalogue. The entire work of 
carrying on the business, even the printing of the 
catalogue, is done on the grounds of the company. We 
have told the complete story of the origin and introduc¬ 
tion of the new and perfectly distinct hybrid between 
the Japan Rubus incisus, Fig. 38 (not palmatus, as the 
catalogue states) and a red raspberry, probably the 
Cuthbert. Now the result is a hybrid which ripens at 
Little Silver “a month before the Harwell ,” that is. be¬ 
fore strawberries ripen. The berries, as shown in the 
illustration, are fully as large as the largest Cuth- 
berts, of a golden color, semi-translucent, sweeter 
than any raspberry, with seeds as small as those of a 
strawberry. We are quoting from a letter of Luther 
Burbank, of California, its originator. He says that 
the berries are rather soft, produced in abundance 
when the plants get to be three or four years of age. 
The canes are perennial, and the bushes assume the 
form of shrubs six to eight feet high. In Mr. Bur¬ 
bank’s grounds, the plants were “ impatient of 
drought, and here [Santa Rosa] thrive in the shade 
best, though they do well under our hot sun if the 
roots have moisture ; otherwise the leaves seem to 
suffer, though mine were never irrigated or mulched.” 
The one plant set out last spring at the Rural Grounds 
did not suffer in the least from the severe drought of 
last summer. One of the colored plates shows Kostel- 
etzkya Virginica (“ Pink Beauty”). Mr. Lovett re¬ 
gards this as “ one of the best floral novelties that 
has ever appeared.” The catalogue correctly describes 
it as “ a hardy perennial, blooming freely the first 
year from seed.” The plants grow the next year 
to the height of about three feet, blooming so 
profusely “the entire summer and autumn as to 
present a solid mass of pink.” The flower is about 
two inches in diameter, of a bright rosy-pink color. 
We find that this “ Pink Beauty ” belongs to the 
Hollyhock or Mallow family, and that its native 
habitat is the marshes near the coast of Florida and 
northward. The Eleanor strawberry which we have 
on trial at the Rural Grounds, is said to be “second 
to none in earliness, rivaling the Sharpless in size, and 
in productiveness, surpassing the Crescent. ’ That is 
claiming a little more than has ever been claimed for 
any other candidate for public favor. 
The Storrs & Harrison Company, Painesville, O.— 
A general catalogue of seeds and plants of all kinds— 
170 pages, 10x7 inches, the Crosbey peach. Abundance 
and Burbank plums, and Ancient Briton blackberry 
in colors on one page, the new Crimson Rambler rose on 
another. The new White Cap Yellow dent is regarded 
fully as favorably as our own report made it out 
“combining more solid merit than any other corn 
ever catalogued, being suitable for all climates and 
soils.” Particular attention is called to the “low- 
priced collections of plants,” page 56, to the new 
canna Queen Charlotte, “ the sensation of the year.” 
Roses are one of many specialties of the old firm. Crim¬ 
son Rambler is pronounced the most decided novelty 
in roses we have had in many years. “ It has been a 
source of wonder and admiration wherever exhibited; 
it is a charming pillar rose, and for covering trellises, 
there is nothing finer. The flowers are borne in great 
pyramidal panicles, each carrying 30 to 40 blooms. 
The individual flowers are from 1 to 1% inch in 
diameter, and remain in perfect condition for 
a long time. The color is a bright vivid crim¬ 
son.” See illustration, Fig. 34, on first page. 
Eleven new Tea and Hybrid Tea roses are 
announced. An illustration is given of the 
Hybrid Rosa Rugosa rose, Agnes Emily Car¬ 
man. A choice list of everblooming roses for 
pot culture and winter blooming, is offered 
for $1, postpaid. Fruit trees, grape vines and 
small fruits, are sent in dollar collections, e. y., 
14 apple trees, 60 strawberries, 10 each of six 
popular kinds, four pear trees and four apple 
trees, all different, etc., etc. All sorts of nut 
trees are offered ; also Mr. Burbank’s Golden 
Mayberry ; also seven of the Japan plums. 
Iowa Seed Company, DesMoines, la. — A 
general seed catalogue, 8x10 inches, with col¬ 
ored covers and two colored pages, the one 
showing larkspurs, petunias, sweet peas, pan¬ 
sies, pinks and nasturtiums; the other show¬ 
ing New Zealand oats, Early Harvest millet, 
and Gold Mine corn. This is a yellow dent, 
said to ripen only a few days later than Bride 
of the North. The ears are large, cob small and the 
grain, therefore, deep. Seventy pounds of ear corn 
make 60 to 62 pounds of shelled corn. The New Zea¬ 
land oats are offered this season for the first, and they 
are said to be superior in quality and yield to any 
other kind. They are a side oats ; straw very stiff, 
never known to lodge. The variety has never rusted ; 
40 pounds to the bushel; about one week later than 
ordinary kinds. Among other novelties 
of seeming merit, we would mention 
Washington Wakefield cabbage, Astro 
cucumber, Iowa Mastodon muskmelon, 
and Redfield raspberry. 
James J. H. Gregory & Sons, Marble¬ 
head, Mass.—Mr. Gregory for many 
years has given fully as much care to 
raising and comparing new varieties of 
potatoes as any seedsman of whom we 
know ; hence it is that he has, from 
time to time, introduced many valuable 
varieties—the Early Ohio for instance. 
Now he calls especial attention to the 
Prolific Rose, an unfortunate name, as 
it is a seedling, not a selection, of the 
old Early Rose, and leaves that variety 
“ nowhere as a cropper.” The vines are 
stockier. “It is,” the firm say, “the 
best cropper of all the Early Rose family. It is better 
in shape and size, and the pink color is more marked 
about the seed end. It reaches table size earlier than 
the old Early Rose, but the vines continue growing 
longer. Mr. Gregory believes that a barrel of seed 
will yield enough extra crop to pay the difference in 
price. The firm decided to offer it too late to place 
it in the novelty list. See page 69 of the catalogue. 
Mr. Gregory’s trial of the new Station pea for three 
seasons, corroborates all that we have said of this valu¬ 
able novelty. It is just as early as the earliest of the 
luird peas, such as Rural New-Yorker, Alaska and Dan 
O’Rourke. Prof. Goessman (Massachusetts Station) 
finds it four days earlier than American Wonder. 
Prof. Munson (Maine Station) finds it three days earlier 
than American Wonder. Now, while a wrinkled pea 
of the first quality, the vines grow about two feet 
high, and yield much more than American Wonder, 
while the pods are larger. The firm call especial atten¬ 
tion to three varieties of Japan millet, introduced by 
Prof. Brooks of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col¬ 
lege. Some of these are said to surpass field corn, 
growing side by side, in yield, both of grain and straw. 
We thought that Panicum miliaceum (one of the varie¬ 
ties) came from Turkey, and that Panicum Crus-galli 
was the common Barnyard grass. 
THE PEERLESS JUNIOR. Fig. 35. 
THE GREAT DIVIDE POTATO. Fig. 36. 
