of the old and cheap sorts,) there would bo less 
pockets fleeced and less disappointments to the 
purchaser of such. You will allow me to say, In 
answer to Doolittle's tliug at inc and my busi¬ 
ness, and self-pralso of his own, that my books 
will show no order received from him for Mi ami* 
and strawberry plants a year ago last spring, and 
that no plants have ever been sent, out from my 
grounds that were “rotten when packed.” It 
he lia6 received a bill of plants from me, and had 
notified me on their receipt of such plants being 
in the box, they would have been duplicated at 
once. 
If I thought it good taste, I might show the 
very bad success I had with, a largo bill of 
“ DoolittijB’s ” (I) (rightfully speaking of the 
“Joslyn,”) I received from him a few years 
since, allowing what the style of packing was and 
the character of the plants received. Snlfiee it to 
say, J am willing to compare correspondence 
received with him or any other party to show 
the satisfaction given to customers with plants 
seut out. At present, at Pukdy’8 Fruit Farm, 
near Palmyra, N. Y. A. M. Pur or. 
COVERING GRAPE VINES FOR WINTER 
At.t, vines set last sprimr -hould be covered 
and protected for the first muter. This is im¬ 
portant, and we know of instances where thou¬ 
sands of dollars’ worth of high priced varieties 
have been lost for lack of this simple precaution. 
It is not a question of hardiness, for vines that 
are most distinguished for this quality often 
suffer exceedingly if exposed during the first 
winter; their period of growth has not been 
long enough to establish them thoroughly in the 
soil and impart their natural vigor and eudur- 
ance. Soil is the best, cheapest and most con¬ 
venient covering material; straw, leaves, or any 
litter that may afford a harbor for mice should 
be avoided, aud in covering with dirt especial 
care should be taken to leave no holes near the 
vine or its roots, in which water may collect and 
stand. As the vines are to remain covered until 
the period of pruning is passed, this operation 
should be performed at the time of laying them 
down. Then coil the vines around the stock as 
closely as possible without injuring them, and 
cover with a sufficient depth of soil to prevent 
the storms of winter from laying them bare. It 
is not freezing which injures, but the sudden 
changes of temperature. Another advantage 
gained by covering is protection against frosts 
in the spring, as the buds are held back and do 
not push as early ns if unprotected. 
'j 
A FLORAL CURIOSITY 
Tub Alta Californian describes an “ Everliving 
Rock Rose," or, as the Mexicans term it, tiiempre 
vive," found in Lower California, as follows: 
“ There is a plant found among the rocks and 
mountain fastnesses of the interior of the Terri¬ 
tory, of so singular a character us to deserve 
special mention. It bears among the Mexicans 
the appropriate uarue of 4 Siempre wive,* (always 
alive.) It iB small, scarcely ever reaching tho 
diameter of your hat rim. It has no stalk, ex¬ 
cept when it blooms—which, I think, is but once 
a year—aud then a delicate stem rises from a 
center of emerald formed by closely lapping leaves 
which spread out uear the ground almost hori¬ 
zontally. This stem rises to the height of a few 
inches and bears on its apex a cluster of delicate 
I presume this flowers, sometimes of white and sometimes oi 
fit has not ar- 9car | C t color. Its chief singularity, however, is 
to be fouud in its wouderful vitality, which, 
makes it seem almost a sentient being. It dis¬ 
dains all terrestrial aid, and nourishes best where 
the rocks arc the loftiest aud most, precipitous, 
and where is to be found the leust quantity oi 
soil. They have but little root, which is satisfied 
witli an interstice supplied with a handful of dry 
sand. They draw their sustenance entirely from 
the air and from the dews nine months of the 
year. During the remaining three months, 
the only ones we arc favored with rain, an 
occasional shower deepens the emerald. When 
severed from the rocks they quietly fold them¬ 
selves up ‘ like the tents of the Arabs,’ and wait 
for years, if called upon, for the drop of water 
which Is to furnish their nntural sustenance. 
After lybig In a dry box for many months with¬ 
out a particle of soil attaching to their roots, 
they will unfold in twelve hours after being 
placed In a bowl of water, spread their fan-llke 
leaves, and resume their natural green.” 
APPLE GROWING-PRODUCTION, PROFITS, 
[As promised in a previous number of the Rural, 
we give below a synopsis of the opening address of 
Maj. Brooks at the Discussion on Apples, on one of 
the evenings at the recent State Fair. It is both spicy 
and instructive, and will well repay a careful perusal:] 
Maj. Bkooks prefaced his remarks by saying, 
41 If wars cease according to prophecy, if the 
conditions of health shall receive respectful 
attention from all who are not ready and willing 
to die, if doctors get into a way of curing peo¬ 
ple, tin; world will soon be very full of inhabi¬ 
tants, and itwiil take a great deal to feed them.” 
The food questiou is the pressing question df 
all times, and Bhould be considered, first, in 
reference to an abundant supply ; and, secondly, 
in reference to quality. He denied that popula¬ 
tion would ever neecssarily he 44 limited by the 
means of subsistence;” famine should not fix the 
honnderies of human life. He said God’s laws 
for the increase of our species are in exact har¬ 
mony with His laws for the development of 
sustenance. Some may shut themselves up In 
stone walls and die of starvation, hut Nature’s 
great storehouses, Ocean, Earth aud Air, are 
full to ovcrtlowing with materials fur man. It 
is our business to develop them, so that all who 
come may be fed aud clothed. This beautiful 
world - portal of the world beyond, and all (t offer*, 
—should never be closed againBt any by sloth, 
improvidence, or crime. Woe to the man who 
shuts the gates of being and of bliss ! We are 
here to work for a common interest;—all our 
titles are leases during good behavior. 1 advo¬ 
cate the enlarged cultivation of apples, because 
I believe that by no earthly process con so much 
food 1'or man or beast be extracted from four 
square rods of ground, as by planting an apple 
tree in the center and giving it good cultivation. 
If this iB so, the apple may become the great 
fruit of the future, as indeed it is of the present, 
from its ability to feed a great many people 
from a little laud. 
Maj. Bkooks next compared apple products 
with the best yields in other departments. 
Gen. Mills, on the Genesee Flats, raised forty- 
seven bushels and eleven pounds of wheat to 
the acre on eighty aereB. Capt. Scott of Cov¬ 
ington, Wyoming Co., raised in 1822, fifty 
bushels of wheat to the acre on ten acres; it 
wa6 drawn to Albany ou wagons. Simon Mc¬ 
Kenzie of Caledonia, reached about the highest 
limits possible, sixty bushels to the acre. Gen. 
Mills raised 115 and John Sheldon 11(1 bushels 
of corn to the acre, near Mt. Morris. Four 
hundred bushels of potatoes were not very un¬ 
common at an early day. Paul C. Sprague of 
Wyoming Co., on a fraction over one-eighth of 
an acre, raised one hundred bushels of potatoes, 
it being at the rate of seven hundred bushels to 
the acre. Onions have reached about the Bame 
figure, and Lyman B. Langworthy of Roch¬ 
ester, raised about tw r elve hundred bushels of 
carrots on an ucre. 
To be liberal, I will call wheat 60, corn 140, 
potatoes 700, and carrots 1,400 bushels to the 
acre. If any gentleman preseut has heard of 
bigger yields please name it. No oue speaks. 
These rates give 1% bushels wheat, bushels 
com, 173^ bushek potatoes, and 85 of carrots lo 
four rods of ground. Now see what an apple 
tree has done. Maj. Bumphrey, Rochester, in¬ 
forms me, (and he has probably acquired a babit 
of telling tlie truth , for he has not been a politi¬ 
cal editor in a great number of years,) that he 
knew a tree in Massachusetts that gave in a 
single season 75 bushels of apples; and you 
will bear iu mind that they grew on about four 
rods of ground. We have, then, seveuty-tlvo 
bushels of apples, occupying the same amount 
of land as 1% bushels of wheat, 3% of corn, 
17% of potatoes, and 35 of carrots, estimating 
these crops at about the highest yield pos¬ 
sible. Are not apples ahead? But I am not 
done yet. Colonel Hannum, a*prominent and 
reliable citizen of Genesee County says he 
picked in Massachusetts apples for ten bar¬ 
rels of cider, being eighty bushels of apples, from 
a single tree, and A. J. Downing, in his Fruit 
Trees of America, informs us that 121 % bushels 
of apples grew on a single tree, in a single 
season, in the same State! I do not believe 
there was ever a grain or root crop from the 
same amount of ground, that ever made eveu a 
near approach to that, estimating the value of 
each for food. 
MAMMOTH APPLE 'JAR PI IS, (RHODE ISLAND ORBLENINGh) 
THAT PRODUCED TWENTY - SIX BARRELS OK FRUIT THIS SEASON. 
Some three weeks ago Mr. N. R. Davis, of J IT. T. Brooks, Wyoming Co., through I. S. Woon 
Youngstown, Niagara Co., N. Y., Bent ns a pho¬ 
tograph (from which the above engraving was 
made) of an apple tree “bearing twenty-six (26) 
barrels of R. I. Greenings this season, as 
certified by the following named Committee, 
appointed to see the fruit gathered, viz: B. M. 
Root, retired physician; A. H. Skinner, prac¬ 
ticing physician; Guo. Swain, Ex-Sheriff of 
Niagara Co.; Ira Reed, Pup. Collector of Cus¬ 
toms.” Mr. Davis stated that he held twenty- 
four barrels of the fruit at $4 per barrel (having 
sold part at that price,) and two barrels of culls 
at ?2 per barrel,—making the amount for fruit 
produced in one season just $1001 
Immediately on receipt of this letter we wrote 
to Mr. Davis for further information, asking as 
to the size of the tree, its age, attention or cul¬ 
ture given it, etc.; also ordering a barrel of the 
fruit, and requesting a copy of certificate of 
Committee, in response, Mr. D. sent us a 
barrel of the apples, (very t'ak and well grown 
fruit,) and replied to our inquiries as follows: 
“ Tu reply to yours or October SO, would say that 
our Greening tree, bearing this year twenty-six bar¬ 
rels fruit, is over fifty years old. Tho trunk of the 
tree is about six feet in cireninference. It is forty- 
four feet In diameter from extremity or limbs, and 
the extremity of tho limbs is 18a feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, The tree is about twenty-six feet in height. 
Has hud fuir to good cultivation — nothing extra. 
The certificate of Committee was forwarded to Maj. 
ard, Esq., Hess Roads, Niagara Co. J 
has been forwarded to yon ere this. [It has not ar¬ 
rived.— Ed.] 
“The farm was owned by Judge DkVaux, of Niagara 
Falla, some fifty or sixty years ago. There wore 
about one hundred apple trees set, which at, that time 
was thought to bo rather an extravagant orchard. 
Most of those trees are now vigorous and healthy, 
and are very fine hearers. From ninety trees wo | 
have fealized over aix hundred barrels of apples this 
year. There are about MO trees lu this old orcliurd, ' 
some of which are not over twenty or thirty years of 
ago, and not in bearing (bis year. For tho past 1 
twelve years it bus been cared for by its preseut occu¬ 
pant, and lias been plowed and seeded either to outa, | 
peas or buckwheat; has hadafair amount of mauuru.” 
Such iB the history of the tree represented, us 
furnished us by its owner. We presume the 
statements of Mr. D. to be correct, and that the 
report of the Committee will confirm the same 
in regard to the quautity of fruit grown. 
Hence, we beg to call tho attention of our 
Special Contributor, Maj. Hhouks, to tills “ con¬ 
firmation Btrong” of bis afscrtions about the 
culture of tho Apple In Western New York, j 
(made in his address at the State Fair, and pub- j 
fished on tills page,) and to challenge apple ! 
growers iu any section of the Union to furnish 
us the figures in regard to any tree which shall ou the comparative value ot various kinds or 
equal that of Mr. Davis in the quautity, quality food, and, among other farm products, eompli- 
aud value of its fruit. | ments the cabbage thus : — “It Iibb been chemi- 
. . . --- -- i cully examined, and 1ms been found to be richer 
in red flesh forming matter than any crop wc 
grow. It contains more flbrlne, or gluten, of 
which substance tho mnsdes are made, and 
hence is richer in the materials essential to the 
Wheat con- 
THE VALUE OF CABBAGE. 
J. Thomas, 
trimming which my friend, J 
thinks is worse than no trimming. Trees have 
a tendency to produce a surplus of wood; if it 
all remains, the branches are feebly nourished, 
and some die of starvation, after robbing the 
othera. I think that most trees need to be re¬ 
newed, like grape vines, by an annual and mod¬ 
erate removal of small and superfluous branches 
—aever large ones. I will add that trees when 
young show an inclination to branch low, which, 
I think, ought to be respected. Low heads 
greatly favor picking. Mr. Francis of York, 
picked from low trees thirty-two barrels of 
apples in a day. Low branches mulch the 
ground partially, and in a degree obviate the 
necessity of plowing. 
The third great fault is the omission to fork 
over the ground, or plow it fight, often suc¬ 
ceeded by deep and reckless plowing, to the injury 
of the roots, and often the destruction of the 
tree. When I he ground Is regularly plowed 
every year or two, and at a uniform depth, the 
roots wifi establish themselves below the plow¬ 
ing, and if the soil is deep they will do very 
well. But if cultivation is omitted for several 
years, the roots indulge their natural luibit of 
running near the surface, and then deep plowing 
destroys many of the trees’ best supports. 
This is especially so on hardpun aud cold, 
tenacious sub-soils, which drive the roots to the 
surface. I beg pardon of the Pomologieal So¬ 
ciety, but I believe the roots know better where 
to go than any man can tell them. Nature’s 
method of cultivation is by covering the ground 
with leaves, at once manuring the soil, and mak¬ 
ing it light and acceptable, as no other process 
can. Mulching , where leaves and fitter cau be 
obtained, is a wonderfully cheap and beneficial 
expedient, and in my opinion may well take the 
place of plowing , and the attendant cropping, 
which has doubtless done much to render a ma¬ 
jority of our orchards unproductive. 
I am satisfied by diligent inquiry that all very 
large yields come from an unusual amount of 
nourishment; the tree, by an adroit strategic 
movement, had backed itself up against a fence, 
a wood-pile, a morass, a burn-yard, a building, 
or something that would shield one side at 
least from its remorseless plunderer, man , and 
give it something to cat. A tree in Maryland, 
standing in the yard near the house of an old 
Governor, bore sixty bushels of apples. The 
tree described by Col. Hannum, bearing eighty 
bushels, of apples, grew ulong-slde of a swamp, 
where were deep deposits. I do not recommend 
large applications of barn-yard manure, but a such course as tills was pursued will: all of the 
regidar supply, and a variety of other fertilizers, in new fruits brought out, (a large share of which 
eluding ashes, lime, plaster, charcoal, bone dust, prove worthless, or of no more value than many 
of man could ever make them. Wc should be¬ 
ware hout we rob them of essential elements by pro 
miscuous cropping. 
Whoever embarks extensively iu fruit culture 
should count the cost, lie should be deter- j 
mined to watch and destroy insect enemies, 
Bupply all needed fertilizers, prune systemati¬ 
cally and carefully, dig about his trees, plow 
shallow, or supply a dressing of leaves or other 
litter. AJ1 the land eveu in Western New York 
is not well adapted to apples. Light soils, or 
very tenacious clay, should be avoided; a strong 
clay loam iB the best. There is not a great dll'- ( 
fcrencc in the exposure, but the Southeast is 
preferable in this Rection. 
Maj. Brooks cited Bennett, Rand & Co. and 
Curtiss Co., of Boston, aud Webster & Co., 
formerly of Milwaukee, extensive apple dealer?, 
to show the superior quality of Western New 
York fruit, aud especially its keeping qualities. 
He then brought forward distinguished medical 
authorities to prove that good apples were i 
“eminently fit to bo eaten;” iu fact, should 
constitute a large portion of our daily food. 
He read letters which lie had received from 
John H. Giubcom, M. D., of New York city, 
and James F. White, M. D., of Buffalo, certify¬ 
ing that the apple, besides being nutritious, 
acted favorably upon the “ biliary and other 
digestive functions, ” was an antidote for 
dyspepsia and other ailments, and should be 
supplied in much larger quantities as food for 
the people. He quoted Dr. Jackson of Dans- 
ville, Dr? Campbell of Avon, Drs. Hill and 
Gay of Buftiilo, and Charles Downing, Esq., 
of Newburg, in favor of the enlarged cultivation 
and use of apples, aud concluded by saying: 
“The apple, by its unparalleled productiveness, 
“its patience under abuse, its value as food, the 
“small labor required iu its cultivation, its high 
“price iu market, and the remarkable adapta¬ 
tion of our soil and climate to its growth, is 
“ worthy of more extended cultivation." 
growth and strength of animal life, 
tains about, 12 per cent., beans and pens about 25, 
aud dried cabbage about 35 per cent, of this all- 
important material. It appears from careful 
analysis, that tho young plant, before being 
headed, or outside leaves of those that have 
formed solid heads, are much more valuable for 
feeding stock than the white center of the full 
grown vegetable, and therefore the moat nutrl- 
' tious, if not the most desirable, for the table. 
From the fact that it is so rich in nitrogenous mat¬ 
ter, it deserves more extensive cultivation. It 
Stands a bard frost; is very productive; for milk¬ 
ing cows, it increases the flow of milk and its 
quality, and butter made from it is free from un¬ 
pleasant flavor.” 
Xew Advertisements 
J IMPROVED CLOTHES DRYER lCENTS 
. Wantko- Bella readily lor In-duOr use—every liomie- 
erper wonts it. Agents are making #1U per day. Bend 
two 8 cent, stamps for cl re u tar or sample Dryer by Ex¬ 
press lor SI ,50. L. W. DiSBKOW, General Auem. 
Honeoye Falls, N. T. 
field, T'A mile* from Rochester, on plank road. Terms 
easy. For particulars Inquire Of tile subscriber. A. P. 
ROSS. 100 Monroe SI., Roe tie.* ter, N. Y. 
-rAvcniTV Persons in every town wanting the 
Jr | r 1 I Best Fireside Mnithly, roll of good 
Reading. Instruction, Amusement, “ Gayetic.s and tlrav- 
Itlen.' hould rand Cur tlie " HocskiioLu M i .-mi-nobb,” 
London Ridge, X. II Specimen Eight / 1171 VTII^L’ 
A Volume, post-paid, only F I F T Y \ 1 JIT II 
A «;o<U> F IRM FOIt SALE.-I Want 
to retire from farming anil offer to tell iny farm of 
175 acre.x of choice land, (known as the Jiraofeh faruj.V 
under hlvh state of cultivation, good Improvement.'!, 
forty acres of wheat ou the ground (well summer fal¬ 
lowed,) located on a good ro.vl ljs' miles from Batavia 
village, N. Y. Fay made easy, (to suit purchaser.) For 
particulars see the undersigned, on the farm, or address 
him at Batavia, N. Y. DANIEL PUTNAM. 
L aihes read thin, it is this 
best chance ever offered to I ran ns. Wo will gtvo 
any person sending Clubs hi our Great Mats Dollar Sate 
'the host in i he country) a Silk Dreys Put tern. Pair of 
Blankets, piece of Sheeting, wool Long Shawls. &c. 
Send SO cents aud receive four slips and Circular, or send 
for Circular. Agents wanted everwbere. Ladles prefer¬ 
red. Address CDTYKK * CO., 
981-Jt 81 Exchange St.. Boston, Maas. 
WANTED A GOOD KXl’ERIENCKI) Umu 
Vv vassfii ( county in the u.S. Tosneb, male 
or female, will guarantee #AW) per month. Apply at one* 
to C. RICH & CO., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 901-tt 
