1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
395 
Fifteen years ago, or thereabout (as 
all of our old friends know), The R. N.-Y. 
told its readers how its great yields of 
Chester County Mammoth and Blount’s 
Prolific corn were produced—over 130 
bushels of shelled corn to the acre, six 
acres in all. Planting in drills, sur¬ 
face fertilizing, and shallow cultivation, 
made up the new method. Here is 
the gist of bulletin 33 of the Missis¬ 
sippi Experiment Station : 
Comparisons of deep and shallow cul¬ 
tivation have been made during four 
years, and the results, with a single 
slight exception, have invariably been 
in favor of the more shallow work. A 
great amount of similar work has been 
done at other stations, and in nearly 
every case the results secured have been 
the same as there. They have examined 
the records of 116 such tests made at 13 
different stations, and find that 61 tests 
of deep cultivation gave an average yield 
of 64.9 bushels per acre, while 55 tests of 
shallow cultivation gave an average 
yield of 74.7 bushels, a difference of 9.8 
bushels per acre, or more than 15 per 
cent in favor of shallow cultivation. In 
only five cases out of the entire number 
did the deep culture show the better re¬ 
sults. Corn is a plant which has a large 
number of long roots near the surface 
of the soil, and whenever the soil is dis¬ 
turbed so deeply as to cut the surface 
roots, the plant is necessarily weakened 
by having its supply of nourishment de¬ 
creased. A constant supply of food is 
just as necessary to the growing plant 
as to the growing animal, and cutting 
many of the roots when the plant is 
growing rapidly, frequently gives the 
plant a check, from which it never fully 
recovers. 
But this isn’t all, as we have insisted 
during these 15 years or more. The older 
the corn plant is, the less can it bear any 
injury to its roots. At no time during 
its life, does it need more food than just 
before the sets appear, and while the 
ears are growing. Hilling up may in a 
wet season not appreciably lessen the 
yield, but in a dry season, it is sure to 
do so. We recall vividly an experiment 
we made upon an acre of corn during 
such a season. Half of it was plowed, 
the other half surface-cultivated just as 
the ears were forming. The half plowed 
wilted in a few days and did not recover. 
This is an extreme case to be sure, but 
the results of extremes are sometimes 
effective teachers of what is the most 
judicious middle course.... 
Bulletin 38 of the West Virginia Sta¬ 
tion (Morgantown) says: “ From one 
medium-sized potato of the Carman No. 1, 
we harve&ted 13 pounds the past season.” 
The Columbian vs. the Shaffer.— 
The R. N.-Y. has estimated the Colum¬ 
bian raspberry as in every way the equal 
of the older Shaffer—no better, except 
it might be in the matter of hardiness ; 
a very important consideration. From 
several widely-separated sources has 
come the report that the Columbian is 
the hardier of the two. The Shaffer is 
a splendid berry in many ways—a vigor¬ 
ous grower, an immense bearer of its 
large, dark red berries. It only needed 
hardiness to make it a perfect berry of 
its class. Let us hope that in the Colum¬ 
bian we have that perfect berry. We 
shall speak of the comparative hardiness 
of the two rivals from our own experi¬ 
ence later. Now comes an additional 
report from Mr. E. G. Fowler, of Port 
Jervis, N. Y., who was the first to speak 
of it in print, which follows : 
Readers of The R. N. Y. may be interested to 
know the comparative hardiness of the two rival 
raspberries, the Shaffer and Columbian, as shown 
in my garden, where I have a dozen plants of 
each, planted in exactly similar conditions, and 
subjected to the same treatment. Both are in 
full bearing this season, it being the third year of 
their growth. I would say that fully 25 per cent 
of the canes of the Shaffer were dead when spring 
opened, and this is a better showing than this 
berry has usually made with me. Strange to say, 
the larger and more vigorous the growth, the 
greater the percentage of loss. Neither of them 
was pruned at all during the season. The Colum¬ 
bian has come through the winter, so far as can 
be noted, entirely unharmed. In order to test its 
capacity, I have left some plants with five and six 
canes, at least eight feet tall, and they are grow¬ 
ing beautifully from root to top. So far the ad¬ 
vantage seems greatly in favor of the Columbian, 
and if it possesses the other requisite qualities, 
which are claimed for it, my Shaffers are exceed¬ 
ingly likely to become a thing of the past. The 
weather was quite severe during the winter, the 
thermometer standing several nights in succes¬ 
sion at 10 degrees below zero. The difference in 
the appearance of the two varieties is very not¬ 
able, especially in the canes; those of the Colum¬ 
bian are of a rather bright red color, while the 
Shaffers are a dull, ashy gray. 
Mr. A. W. Wickham, alluding to our 
“ Asparagus Talk,” a few weeks ago, 
has this to say : 
You say that the shoots from the male plant 
are the largest. When the plants are in bloom 
how can you tell the male from the female, and 
what is your way of exterminating the female 
plants ? 
Our friend is mistaken in saying that we 
said the male shoots were larger than the 
female shoots. We marked a certain 
number of the largest early shoots. A bout 
half proved to be male, the other half 
female plants. Tikis was to confirm or 
to weaken the evidence of one of our ex¬ 
periment stations which found that the 
male plants gave larger shoots than the 
female. In truth, it is reasonable enough 
to guess that the female plants, weak¬ 
ened by seed-bearing, would be less 
vigorous than the males which, of course, 
bear no fruit. We did not find it so, 
however, and we presented the result 
of our trial for what it might be worth. 
The advantage we see in setting male 
i*oots, is that there will be no trouble 
from seedlings which are deep rooted 
and hard to kill. 
It is very easy to distinguish the males 
from the females. The flowers of the 
former are about twice the size of the 
latter. Five minutes of observation 
would enable the observer to distinguish 
them at a glance. To verify the distinc¬ 
tion, we may add that the anthers (of 
the stamens) of the males are fully de¬ 
veloped, while the pistils are abortive. 
The berry of the female begins to form, 
even before the little flower is fully open. 
Light Upon the Saghalin Contro¬ 
versy. —Our attentive readers are aware 
that we have had the old knotweed, 
Polygonum cuspidatum, growing in the 
Rural Grounds for about 20 years. For 
about five years, we have had the later 
introduction of Polyganum listed in cata¬ 
logues as Mountain Fleece. This differs 
chiefly from the old Cuspidatum in that 
it blooms later, and the plants do not 
grow so tall. Our Cuspidatum plants 
are now (May 22) seven feet high, though 
growing in a shade that may fairly be 
called dense. The stems are yet green 
and succulent to the bottom. The Moun¬ 
tain Fleece is now but about 18 inches 
tall. Our plants of Saghalin (set out 
in April) are a foot high. We cut parts 
of the tops of these three Polyganums, 
and presented them to two horses. Each 
sniffed at them at first as a strange food, 
and then ate them with what seemed to 
be ordinary relish, showing no partiality 
for any one of the three. 
The frosts at the Rural Grounds have 
been killing. Most of the fruit buds of 
all our grape vines have been killed; 
asparagus was frozen to the ground. 
Potato vines were blackened to the 
soil. All of our trial Lima and other 
pole beans, and all of our new trial bush 
beans (many in number) are dead. 
Again, for the fifth time, we wo aid ask 
for information regarding the heirs of 
the late James Dougal of Canada. We 
have his Dougal No. 2 gooseberry, which 
we valuehighly, 1, for its tree form; 2, for 
its freedom from thorns; 3, for its freedom 
from mildew, and 4, for the quality of 
its berries. Has The R. N.-Y. the right 
to give away cuttings ? Two or three 
years ago, a nurseryman wrote us that 
he had purchased the control of this 
gooseberry, and, in response to our re¬ 
quest, furnished us the proof. Unfor¬ 
tunately, we have forgotten the nur¬ 
seryman's name. 
Again, we have his Eliot’s Early pear, 
which we regard as the earliest, and, 
for the earliest, the best pear in cultiva¬ 
tion... 
ARMSTRONG & McKELVY 
Pittsburgh 
ANCHOR, 
Cincinnati. 
ATLANTIC, 
New York. 
BEYMEB-BAUMAN, 
Pittsburgh. 
BRADLEY, 
New York. 
BROOKLYN, 
New York. 
COLLIER, 
St. Louis. 
CORNELL, 
Buffalo. 
DAVIS-CHAMBER3, 
Pittsburgh. 
ECKSTEIN, 
Cincinnati. 
FAHNESTOCK, 
Pittsburgh. 
JEWETT, 
New York. 
KENTUCKY, 
Louisville. 
JOHN T.LEWIS & BROS.CO 
Philadelphia. 
MORLEY, 
Cleveland. 
MISSOURI, 
St. Louis. 
RED SEAL. 
St. Louis. 
SALEM, 
Salem, Mass. 
SHIPMAN. 
Chicago. 
SOUTHERN, 
St. Louis and Chicago. 
ULSTER, 
New York, 
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ONE-HOUSE DOUBLE ROW 
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Address J. W, SPANGLER, York, Pa, 
“He had an honest look.” 
You’ve heard of him. 
Perhaps you’ve seen him. 
Possibly you’ve dealt with 
him. 
And you’re sorry for it now. 
Still you’ve learned some¬ 
thing. 
You’re never going to forget 
what it was that caught you. 
It was that honest look. 
In buying your harvesting ma¬ 
chinery don’t put too much 
confidence ijn an honest look. 
M'GormigK 
light-running steel binders and 
mowers not only have the honest 
look, but they have something 
better — reputation—character. 
This they have earned by 
long years of public service. 
There’s stability in the very 
name “ McCormick ” and ma¬ 
chines having that name can 
not be sold as cheaply as 
others, because they have 
other and more intrinsic val¬ 
ue than “an honest look.” 
Seen a 
There’s 
—ask him for one. 
McCormick Catalogue? 
an agent in your town 
f WHAT WE \ 
[ SAY WE DO J” 
WE DO 
