&he  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
815 
RURALISMS 
A  Beautiful  Native  Tree 
To  be  homely  and  overlooked  is  com¬ 
mon  enough,  but  to  be  beautiful  and  ueg- 
1  eo ted  is  a  rare  condition,  for  most  of  us 
are  unite  ready  to  pay  tribute  to  beauty  in 
nature  and  in  art.  The  Etonian  who  wrote 
so  delightfully  of  the  shrubs  and  trees 
which  he  found  decorative  and  desirable  in 
his  locality,  omitted  oue  which  perhaps  he 
never  saw,  as  it.  may  not  thrive  in  his 
latitude.  It  does  in  New  England,  and  is 
by  far  the  most  desirable  small  tree  we 
have.  It  is  beautiful  in  shape,  in  foliage, 
in  blossom  and  in  fruit.  It  thrives  as 
well  in  cultivation  as  in  the  woods,  and  if 
it  came  to  its  own  it  would  be  in  all  col¬ 
lections  of  shrubbery  to  beautify  the 
lawn.  Seldom  is  it  sceu,  and  more  often 
by  the  roadside  where  birds  have  dropped 
the  seeds.  It  is  easily  grown  and  has  no 
enemies  so  far  as  known  here  but  the 
borer.  The  bark  is  smooth  aud  brown, 
something  like  that  of  the  mauzanita.  It 
grows  quickly  and  is  soon  in  bloom  and 
fruit,  and  the  tree  under  favorable  con¬ 
ditions  reaches  a  foot  in  diameter.  Its 
foliage  is  light  and  feathery  and  its  great 
masses  of  bloom  are  good  to  look  at,  and 
attractive  to  bees.  Its  fruit,  masses  of 
bright  red  berries,  like  small  cherries,  is 
so  distasteful  to  children  that  they  do  not 
break  down  the  tree  to  get  it,  and  so  lit  tie 
liked  by  birds,  that  they  leave  it  until  the 
last  extremity,  so  that  it  remains  on  the 
tree  until  late  Fall  or  early  Winter,  some¬ 
times  all  the  Winter  through. 
This  tree  is  the  native  mountain  ash,  a 
close  relative  of  the  apple,  the  pear  and 
the  quince,  so  called  because  its  foliage, 
not  resembling  theirs,  does  resemble  that 
of  some  foreign  variety  of  ash.  This  tree 
may  he  used  as  a  stock  upon  which  to 
graft  the  pear,  it  is  said,  and  it  must  be 
a  novel  sight  for  the  pear  and  bunches  of 
red  berries  to  be  seen  upon  the  same  tree. 
Attending  a  sportsman's  show  at  the 
Itangeley  Lakes,  tlie  writer  found  the 
woods  full  of  this  beautiful  tree,  which 
blooms  here  in  June.  I  dug  up  a  dozen 
little  specimens,  aud  brought  them  home, 
aud  spading  a  yard  or  so  of  garden,  set 
them  out.  The  plot  was  so  plainly  under 
cultivation  that  I  neglected  to  mark  it. 
A  small  boy,  in  search  of  bait,  pitched 
upon  this  as  a  likely  prospect,  and  up¬ 
rooted  all  the  trees  hut  one.  which  is  now 
a  line  specimen.  The  mountain  ash, 
commonly  sold  and  seen,  has  the  red  fruit, 
but  very  different  foliage,  and  is  a  round- 
headed,  more  compact  tree.  All  tilings 
considered,  the  native  tree  seems  more  de¬ 
sirable,  though  seldom  mentioned  in  the 
catalogues.  c.  >s.  paine. 
Maine. 
II.  N.-Y. — This  handsome  native  tree  is 
Pyrus  Americana,  the  European  variety 
Pyrus  Aueuparia,  the  red  rowans  of  Scot¬ 
land. 
Pruning  Wistaria 
Ou  page  055  E.  J,  M.,  Epper  Mont¬ 
clair,  N.  J.,  asks  for  remedy  for  non¬ 
blooming  Wistaria.  I  have  one.  strong 
and  healthy,  that  did  not  bloom  for  10 
years  after  planting.  One  season  we 
made  some  changes  in  well-house  that  it 
covers.  The  vine  was  trimmed  down  con¬ 
siderably.  The  next  season  the  parts  that 
had  been  pruned  were  covered  with  blos¬ 
soms.  Since,  then  we  have  pruned  the 
other  branches  and  have  plenty  of  bloom. 
The  inquirer  might  try  pruning. the  vine; 
it  may  work  out  the  same  as  ours. 
Menominee.  Mich.  c.  T.  G. 
Grafting  Cherry  Trees 
I  graft  cherry  trees  over  readily.  A.  L. 
D.,  East  Jordan,  Mich,,  can  graft  his 
cherry  trees  over  successfully  by  doing  the 
cleft-grafting  when  frost  is  still  in  the 
ground.  The  thin  bark  will  not  turn 
back  then.  He  now  can  also  cut  his 
stubs,  then  push  scions  between  wood  and 
layers  of  bark.  Cut  scion  wedge-shaped 
flatwise,  leaving  bark  ou  oue  side.  Then 
use  a  small  thin  flat  stick,  just  a  little 
larger  than  scion,  and  push  it  gently  down 
between  bark  and  wood  to  make  a  space 
for  scion.  Withdraw,  push  scion  gently 
down  and  wax  well.  Park  of  scion  to  bark 
of  tree,  wood  of  scion  to  wood  of  tree.  Do 
not  break  hark  of  stub.  Late  in  mid¬ 
summer  he  can  bud,  setting  a  bud  in  many 
branches,  rather  than  in  a  large  branch 
trunk.  Do  not  hud  nor  graft  any  cherry 
limb  over  one  to  1  %  inches.  The  cherry 
will  not  stand  the  slashing  a  peach  will 
tinder  similar  circumstances.  Let  A.  L. 
D.  go  slowly,  unless  he  has  had  consider¬ 
able  experience  in  grafting.  lie  can  try 
his  hand  this  Spring  on  one  or  two  stubs 
to  a  tree  as  above  described.  He  may  be 
able  to  find  a  careful  apple  and  pear 
grafter  in  bis  neighborhood.  Let  this  fan 
show  him.  LOUIS  It.  BUCKS  IIORX. 
Massachusetts. 
On  page  023  I  note  statement  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  graft  cherry  trees. 
My  experience,  although  very  slight,  is 
quite  the  reverse.  The  first  grafting  I 
ever  did,  about  10  years  ago.  in  Iowa,  was 
to  put  a  bunch  of  plum  scions  on  a  cherry 
tree,  and  they  grew  finely.  This  Spring, 
here.  I  wanted  some  experimental  data  on 
varieties  and  put  one  scion  each  of  Dye- 
house,  Wragg,  Burbank,  Early  Purple 
Guigne,  Lambert.  Bing,  Napoleon, 
Schmidt,  Bigarreau  and  Roe,  each  ou  a 
separate  tree  of  Montmorency  Large. 
Every  one  of  them  is  growing. 
New  Mexico.  c.  e.  t.ocke. 
Bridge-grafting  a  Loquat 
The  chickens  jumped  ou  a  loquat  tree 
and  skinned  the  bark  off  for  about  eight 
inches.  I  tried  your  bridge-graft  on  it, 
page  513.  It  appears  to  work  perfectly, 
Only  instead  of  wasting  time  tieing  the 
grafts,  I  nailed  them  to  the  trunk  with 
carpet  tacks,  which  was  both  surer  and 
quicker  aud  then  smeared  wax  over  the 
whole  thing.  You  are  the  savior  of  this 
tree,  that  I  wouldn't  take  $10  for.  as  I 
saw  the  stunt  tried  out  in  your  columns 
on  apples  and  it  looks  as  though  the  cre¬ 
dit  is  yours.  m.  b.  p. 
Alabama. 
New  Plant  Immigrants 
According  to  Bulletin  114,  issued  by 
the  Office  of  Foreign  Seed  aud  Plant  In¬ 
troduction,  the  Department  of  Agricul¬ 
ture  now  includes  among  its  uew  intro¬ 
ductions  some  of  the  hybrids  between  the 
Japanese  chestnut  and  American  chin¬ 
quapin,  which  were  originated  by  Dr.  IV. 
Van  Fleet  at  the  former  Rural  Experi¬ 
ment  Grounds  at  Little  Silver,  N.  J. 
These  have  been  grown  at  the  Plant  In¬ 
troduction  Field  Station  at  Chico.  Cal. 
The  following  description  is  given  in  flu; 
bulletin :  “Bear  at  from  one  to  three 
years  from  seed.  Good  producers  and 
quite  resistant  to  the  chestnut  bark  fun¬ 
gus.  Nuts  large,  of  fair  quality,  with 
rather  hard  shells ;  41357  and  4135S 
somewhat  larger  than  an  ordinary  Amer¬ 
ican  chestnut  and  somewhat  sweeter. 
41350  and  41360  are  much  larger  than 
the  American  type;  about  the  size  of  a 
Spanish  chestnut,  the  flavor  being  very 
sweet,  while  the  latter  is  more  tender.’’ 
A  Manchurian  crab-apple,  Malus  bac- 
cata  Mandselmrica,  is  described  as  com¬ 
mon  in  the  hills  of  Manchuria  and  Eastern 
Siberia,  where  the  thermometer  often 
drops  to  — 15  degrees  Fahr.  It  is 
remarkably  hardy,  drought  resistant  and 
of  vigorous  growth.  The  fruits  are  very 
small,  of  sharp  sour  taste  and  borne  in 
great  masses.  The  plant  often  attains 
the  size  of  a  bush  only  but  in  favorable 
localities  it  grows  into  a  tree  20  to  25 
feet  tall.  The  fruits  are  used  as  pre¬ 
serves  by  the  inhabitants  of  Eastern  Si¬ 
beria.  Of  value  as  a  hardy  stock  for 
apples,  as  an  ornamental,  and  as  a  fruit 
tree  for  the  Fpper  Mississippi  Valley  re¬ 
gions. 
Nogel  is  a  species  rtf  walnut  from  01- 
lantaytambo,  Peru,  collected  by  O.  F. 
Cook,  who  thus  describes  it :  “A  native 
walnut  cultivated  sparingly  at  Ollantay- 
tambo  and  in  the  valleys  above  and  be¬ 
low.  Its  chief  use  is  to  furnish  a  dye  for 
giving  sheep’s  wool  the  brown  color  of  the 
high-priced  vicuna  ponchos.  The  leaves 
and  bark  of  the  tree  are  used  for  dyeing, 
the  coloring  material  being  extracted  bv 
beating  and  boiling.  The  nuts  are  as 
large  as  English  or  Persian  walnuts,  hut 
the  shell  is  much  thicker.  The  tree  is 
rather  small  and  slender,  with  large  grace¬ 
ful  leaves,  reminding  one  of  a  sumac  or 
Ailantlius.  Of  possible  interest  for 
breeding  purposes  or  for  ornamental 
planting  along  the  Pacific  coast  or  in 
Florida.  Probably  a  native  of  the  valleys 
of  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes." 
This  same  bulletin  pictures  a  field  of  se¬ 
same.  carefully  pulled  out  and  stacked 
up,  which  was  photographed  by  F.  N. 
Meyer,  near  Pang  Kvvan  chon.  Shensi, 
China.  The  pods  of  the  sesame  plant  do 
not  all  ripen  at  once,  and  when  fully  ripe 
they  open  and  allow  seeds  to  fall  out  to  a 
considerable  extent ,  making  the  crop  a 
very  difficult  one  to  handle.  If  a  variety 
could  be  found  which  kept  its  pods  closed 
up.  as  the  opium  poppy  does  its  head,  it 
would  be  a  tremendous  gain  to  all  sesame 
growers.  The  oil  expressed  from  the  seeds 
is  among  the  most  important  of  food  pro¬ 
ducts  of  China  and  always  commands  a 
good  price.  The  seeds  are  used  in  pastry, 
giving  the  latter  a  rich,  nutty  flavor. 
Cascara  Bark 
Quite  a  business  has  developed  in 
Western  Oregon  in  the  gathering  of  cas¬ 
cara  hark.  There  is  a  steady  demand  for 
this  bark,  which  is  used  medicinally,  it 
being  a  favorite  laxative  in  certain  dis¬ 
eases.  The  business  of  collecting  this 
bark  began  in  1865.  For  many  years 
California  supplied  most  of  the  bark,  but 
now  Western  Oregon  and  Washington 
are  taking  part  of  the  business.  The  tree 
from  which  this  bark  is  obtained  is  va¬ 
riously  known  as  cascara.  ckittim,  and 
bearberry.  The  bears  are  said  to  be  very 
fond  of  the  fruit,  and  they  climb  the  trees 
to  secure  it.  In  .his  way  the  trees  are  so 
badly  scratched  that  it  hardly  pays  to 
peel  them.  They  are  left  by  the  bark 
gatherers,  and  those  few  seed  trees  help 
keep  the  species  alive.  But  for  the  bears 
it  is  probable  that  the  trees  would  be  de¬ 
stroyed  over  large  tracts  of  country.  This 
work  of  peeling  and  selling  the  bark  has 
kept  many  a  homesteader  going  while  his 
land  was  being  cleared  and  fitted  for  cul¬ 
tivation.  There  is  not  a  great  deal  of 
money  in  the  business,  as  the  price  now 
runs  from  3%  to  six  cents  a  pound;  still 
the  business  provides  an  income  for 
many  people  in  that  wild  country,  who 
could  not  otherwise  obtain  cash  money. 
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Gas  Engine  and  Dynamo  in  one  compact  unit — 
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fully  charged. 
Furnishes  40  to  50  lights  for  house  and  barn 
and  provides  power  for  churn,  cream  separator, 
washing  machine,  sewing  machine,  etc. 
Lights  average  home  for  less  than  5  cents  a  day. 
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Write  for  Illustrated  Folder 
Manafaglurti  ly  tlul  sa me  Company  that  makes  Delco 
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That  in  itself  is  a  guarantee  of  quality. 
The  Domestic  Engineering  Company,  Dayton,  Ohio 
General  Agents  : 
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