1895 
THE R U RAJ, NEW-YORKER 
FARMERS’ CLUB DISCUSSION . 
(CONTINUED.) 
winters with us ; I have had a very few 
plants grow the second year. There is 
a field here for some experiments. All 
the seed used in this country, so far as I 
know, is imported. I have paid from 9 
to 15 cents a pound for it. One plant 
that grew the second year, weighed 27 
pounds when cut. I shall have some 
grown in the South another season, to 
learn what it will do there, and whether 
it can be made to produce seed in the 
warmer states. 
Another Carman Potato Story. 
D. M. D., Monroe, Pa —In The R. 
N.-Y. of November 16, a subscriber tells 
about his big yield of Carman No. 1 
potatoes. Knowing that the man that 
tells the last story has the best chance, I 
will tell mine. Last spring, I received 
one of the Carman No. 1 potatoes weigh¬ 
ing less than two ounces. I cut it in 13 
pieces, dividing some of the eyes ; two 
of them failed to germinate, and one, 
though making an immense stalk, had 
no potatoes, leaving 10 productive hills. 
When dug, after the frost, I had 393^ 
pounds of potatoes, about 37 pounds of 
marketable size. Mine were also planted 
in the garden, but without any special 
fertilizer, and I can’t give the dates 
of planting or digging, as I did not 
anticipate anvthing unusual. The row 
was only 15 feet long, planted in drills 
one foot apart. How much would this 
be to the acre ? Can any one tell ? 
How Chapman Cheapens Potatoes. 
. J. S. D., Johnsonburg, N. J.—C. E. 
Chapman's potatoes are very cheap 
(10 cents a bushel), but ought not 
the crop to piy rent, or interest and 
taxes for the land ? If a hired man re¬ 
ceives board in part payment for work, 
should not each crop pay its share of his 
board ? Would it not be better to charge 
each crop with the amount of “phos¬ 
phate” that it takes from the soil rather 
than the amount we put in the soil ? 
Probably a good share of the nitrogen 
in these potatoes was furnished by the 
clover sod ; so that it is hardly fair to 
say that $3 per acre covers the whole 
expense for fertilizers. 
Why Not Pedigreed Plants ? 
C. P. B., WestChester. Pa.—I t would 
appear from the recent discussion of the 
seedling peach question in The R. N.-Y., 
that the relation between the nursery¬ 
man and planter is not always what it 
should be. So long as planters demand 
a low-priced tree, with but little if any 
stipulation as to quality beyond the 
grade as determined by the nursery¬ 
man’s rule of measurement, we are liable 
to suffer inconvenience, annoyance and 
loss similar to F. C. B.’s, page 696, and 
are in a degree responsible for the re¬ 
sult. In my opinion, we are behind the 
times and far behind at that. Live stock 
breeders have their clubs, pedigrees, in¬ 
dividual strains and animals of individ¬ 
ual merit. They exercise great care in 
mating, selecting, feeding, testing, etc.; 
in short, by every means, they aim at 
the best treatment and environment pos¬ 
sible, and systematically and intelli¬ 
gently work on lines indicated by ex¬ 
perience as likely to give the best possi¬ 
ble results. 
How are our trees propagated? Is 
there any appreciable effort made to im¬ 
prove the strain of any particular variety? 
Is it not time systematically to set about 
raising the standard of quality, to form 
a sort of “herd-book” of the orchard? 
If a man buy a Jersey bull, he doesn’t 
simply take any Jersey bull so that he 
happens to be purebred, but a special 
animal of a particular strain of that 
breed which he thinks best adapted to 
his purpose. So if a man wish to buy a 
Baldwin apple tree, he should have the 
opportunity of selecting a particular 
strain of Baldwins with a pedigree and 
record back of it, and a record founded 
on merit at that, with all the details of 
soil, culture, pruning, etc., accurately 
filled in. Trees have more or less in¬ 
8i i 
dividuality, and it certainly need not be 
either an expensive or difficult matter to 
procure and propagate the best. No 
doubt nurserymen will do this if we, as 
planters, appreciate their efforts. What 
shall we do about it? 
Use for Mustard Seed. 
C. M. G., Shamrock, N. Y.—On page 
777. under the head of “ Bugs, Mustard 
Seed and Clover,” no use is suggested for 
mustard seed. It is a valuable oil pro¬ 
ducer, and is, if well cleaned, worth as 
much as flax seed. The oil is used for 
painting, and is of prime quality. At 
one time and another I have sold several 
hundred bushels for this purpose. Before 
I began using commercial manures, this 
wild mustard bothered me very much in 
oats and barley ; but with a little fer¬ 
tilizer, the grain gets a quick start, and 
the mustard seldom heads out at all. 
Producers have always and, perhaps, 
will always make this mistake, viz., for a 
temporary gain, they ultimately lessen 
the demand for an article that has little 
other intrinsic merit beyond a captivat¬ 
ing appearance, for we are willing to 
grant that “appearance” is itself an 
intrinsic merit. We are thinking just 
now of the yellow celery which, under 
several names, commands almost com¬ 
plete possession of the celery market. 
The bunches are wide and heavy ; the 
stalks broad and thick. The bunches are 
chubby and wholesome looking. No 
other kind is more suggestive of well- 
grown, crisp, tender, toothsome stalks. 
Yet, in our judgment, it is inferior to any 
other variety in quality. This is called 
variously Kalamazoo, Golden and Golden 
Dwarf. They are, as to quality and ap¬ 
pearance, the same thing. All are tough 
and stringy. Even the central shoots 
are stringy as compared with those of 
the White and Pink Plume, the pink and 
the white varieties. But the Golden 
sorts are more hardy, more easily raised, 
and better keepers; the bunches are 
larger and more showy. Hence it is the 
market is flooded with them. Ultimately 
the people who buy of the markets con¬ 
clude that they do not care for such cel¬ 
ery, and the demand for all kinds is de¬ 
creased . 
It doesn’t matter whether it is vege¬ 
tables or fruits, the demand will increase 
or decrease just as a superior or inferior 
article is supplied. An excellent pear or 
peach or apple or grape is relished. One 
wants more of it. Its excellence impresses 
itself upon the memory which reminds us 
to buy it agaiD. And precisely the same 
we grow to care less for the inferior 
article. So it is that the LeOonte and 
Keiffer pears, California peaches of all 
kinds ; Early Ohio, Pocklington, Wood¬ 
ruff Red, Champion grapes ; Enhance, 
Henry Ward Beecher strawberries, and 
so on. readily accepted by the market 
for extreme eailiness, size or fine looks, 
really retard the demand for all fruits in 
the long run, while increasing a short¬ 
lived demand. So it happens that the 
true interests of pomology are held in 
check. 
Next season there will be introduced 
a vineless sweet potato. We are not just 
yet at liberty to state the names of the 
introducers. We are told by them, how¬ 
ever, that the vines grow upright, the 
longest being not over 14 inches. The 
vines do not cling to the ground at all 
like those of other sweets, and the hills 
may be placed more closely together, of 
course, and they may be dug as easily as 
a white potato without the bother of re¬ 
moving the vines. 
Several of the tubers were sent to us 
that we might judge of their quality. 
They were under size and not so dry as 
some other kinds, but they were sweeter. 
As nearly as we can find out, there are 
three varieties of the Vineless yam or 
sweet potato known in the jSouth. 
According to the Texas Experiment 
Station the Vineless was discovered 
among some hills of the Yellow yam in 
Mississippi in 1884. It is supposed that 
the other two were found near the same 
place and about the same time. The 
true or original Vineless is the most pro¬ 
ductive. The horticulturist of the Texas 
Station, II. R. Price, says that with 
nearly level culture he has grown nearly 
300 bushels per acre and all the tops 
could have been easily cut with a mower. 
The high value of the tops for feed has 
been proved, though, as they do not cure 
well, they should be fed when green. 
The leaves of the Vineless are different 
from those of most varieties of yams in 
that they are not “ entire,” as botanists 
say, like those, for instance, of the 
Morning Glory, but cut or clef t like those 
of White Maples. 
Viueless yams are to the ordinary 
yams what the bush Limas are to pole 
Limas. Another item in their favor is 
that the vines do not have to be lifted 
from time to time to prevent their root¬ 
ing. 
T. B. Miner raised thousands upon 
thousands of grapes from the seeds of 
Concord. Not long before his death— 
some 20 years ago—he sent us what he 
deemed the choice of his entire collec¬ 
tion. They were Carlotta, Victoria, 
Augusta, Lexington and Rockingham. 
This was before their introduction. 
They all thrived fairly well at the Rural 
Grounds, but only one—Victoria—is as 
valuable to-day as the later introduc¬ 
tions. This is one of the hardiest varie¬ 
ties we know, and gives an abundant 
crop every year. We know of no other 
vine that, yearly, gives so large a crop. 
It ripens with the Concord or a little 
later, and is of much the same quality. 
Its color is a light green. Mr. Miner’s 
grapes at that time were thought to be 
the grapes of the future. So were 
Ricketts’s, though crossed with foreign 
sorts. The best known grape authority 
of that time wrote of them as “ the 
grapes for the gods.” Both men devoted 
years of their lives to seedling grape 
culture. What was their reward ? Abso¬ 
lutely nothing for Mr. Miner. Mr. 
Ricketts sold many of his productions, 
but the best of them are capricious, and 
thrive only here.and there. 
Mr. M. Ansi.k v of Billsborough,Ontario 
County, N. Y., is kind enough to give us 
some information regarding the Idaho 
pear. He has 40 trees 2 to 2% inches in 
diameter, grafted three or four years 
ago. One of the smallest trees bore the 
past season 16 large pears. They begin 
ripening with him—and this is an im¬ 
portant part of the information we de¬ 
sired— about November 1, and were 
picked 10 days previously. Mr. jfNnsley 
likes them so well that he purposes 
planting many more trees next spring. 
The tree, he says, is a good, thrifty 
grower, so resembling the Bartlett that 
it is hard to distinguish them. The one 
pear sent to us was nearly without core, 
a peculiarity first noted by The R. N.-Y. 
before the Idaho was introduced. 
The blue Shrubby Verbena (Caryop- 
teris Mastacanthus) described and illus¬ 
trated in these columns four weeks ago, 
is reported hardy in Boston. 
The Hardy Orange—Citrustrifoliata— 
recently spoken of as it behaves at the 
Rural Grounds, is not hardy at the New 
York Experiment Station (Geneva). It 
has been grown there for three years, 
makes a thrifty growth every season 
and, as with us, is killed to the ground 
every winter. In Washington, it is re¬ 
ported hardy. It blooms very early and 
fruits abundantly. 
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Two Winter Courses begin January 3, 1896; Regular 
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