) 
[J % 
Agricultural Department at Washington as 
new and valuable Russian varieties, smacks 
largely of egotistical nonsense. But lest my 
impressions were likely to be lmsty and not 
best ways is to cut tun a depth ol four 
inches and eight inches diameter, or square, 
reverse them and place in a frame; then 
plant a hill on each turf, covering with good 
by the case, the grower, ot course, having 
out of it to paj r commissions, freights, &c., or 
selling, as some did, direct to the jobbers at 
two cents less. 
with an abundance ot sun and air, exercises 
a beneficial influence, while a deep, mellow 
soil, yet light and rich in itself, from the pre¬ 
vious year’s manuring, is far better than soil 
Slew vu. Old O-mgr Seed.—A correspondent 
asks us how old seed of Osage Orange it will 
answer to plant. It should he of last season s 
growth, and should not have been heated in the 
pomace. 
Bornological. 
GORIN'S RUSSET. 
Mu. F. Tt. Elliott writes us that this ap¬ 
ple was exhibited by A. L. Woodson, Wood- 
Bonville. Ky., at a recent meeting of the 
Ohio Pomological Society. lie says:—Of 
this I wrote Mr. Woodson, and receive re¬ 
ply' in eilect as follows:—“ Of this Russet I 
have never seen the tree nor the young wood, 
and cannot describe it. The tree is repre¬ 
sented as spreading. I regard the apple as 
a valuable keeper. It. was obtained from 
.Tames Gokin, Hartford Co., Ky., and is 
known as Gorin’s Russel.” I made from my 
specimens drawing and description as here¬ 
with; and whether this prove new or old, if j 
it is to be distributed under the name of 
Gorin’s Russel, it limy perhaps be well to 
know what style of apple that, name calls for. 
My experience is of many years among 
fruits, and I have had not a little acquaint¬ 
ance with one and the same variety grown 
in various States, climates and soils, and 
have at times been so deceived, that 1 hesi¬ 
tate to call any apple or pear new, when 
brought to me as such, until I have very 
carefully examined and noted it, or the 
grower can give its true history from seed. 
So with this Russet, apple. While even a 
careful examination of it docs not associate 
it truly with any known named sort, yet I 
am unwilling to believe it a seedling new to 
the world until it has been so proved by a 
knowledge, made public, of its history. The 
description of the fruit as 1 make it, will 
read us follows: 
Fruit, medium, roundish oblate, slightly 
oblique ; rough, dull cinnamon russet; stem, 
short; cavity, deep and open ; calyx, nearly 
or quite closed; basin broad, open and dec*]); 
flesh yellowish, crisp, lender, juicy, subacid, 
rich; very good, if not best ; core, medium ; 
season, winter. 
POMOLOGICAL GOSSIP. 
Fruit l/iois for Wisconsin. 
The Wisconsin Slate Agricultural Socie¬ 
ty, at its recent meeting, recommended the 
following lists of fruits as hardy and worthy 
of general cultivation: 
Apples— First List of Five Hardy Varic- 
ricties to which no member should object— 
Red Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, Fa- 
mouse (or Snow,) Tallman Sweet, Golden 
Russet. 
Second List of Ten Varieties, hardy and 
worthy of General Cultivation — Sops of 
Wine, Fall Stripe, Si. Lawrence, Fall 
Orange, Plumb’s Cider, Utter, Blue Pear- 
main, Seclwio-further, Ben Davis, Willow 
Twig. 
List for Commercial Orchards—Red As¬ 
trachan, Haas, Faincuse, Utter, Ben Davis. 
List for Family Use—Sweet June, Sweet 
Pear, Bailey Sweet. 
Peon'S .—Only the Flemish Beauty was 
recommended. 
Plums. —No variety was recommended, 
but the Society voted to call the Chickasaw 
plum generally known as Miuer, (and by 
other names,) Ilinckly. 
Grapes. — Delaware and Concord were 
recommended for general cultivation. Rog¬ 
ers Nos. 3, 5, 9, 15, 88, 43, and Salem were 
highly commended. 
Raspberries. —For General Cultivation for 
Family and Market.—Doolittle, Mammoth 
Cluster, Davison’s Thornless. For home 
use and near market, Philadelphia and Clark. 
Strawberries. — For general cultivation, 
Wilson ; for near market, Green Prolific. 
Boyden’s No. 30 was highly recommended 
by many members. 
Fruits in Culliouu Co,, III. 
From a report of the Fruitland Horticul¬ 
tural Society, received from S. E. Wili.rts, 
we learn that the horticulturists there have 
been attempting to determine “ the relative 
of fruits” for that locality. Very few facts 
and figures arc furnished, based upon expe¬ 
rience. One gentleman estimates the* cost of 
an orchard in full bearing at, $?5 per acre ; 
that each tree will bear two barrels, and fifty 
trees per acre, at seventy five cents per bar¬ 
rel, will yield ten per cent, per annum with 
the Itest real estate securit 3 r . But we don’t 
see it clearly iu that light! Another gen¬ 
tleman counts chickens before they are 
hatched in this way. He estimates (does 
not say lie has grown) blackberries to yield 
two hundred bushels per acre, and sell at 
§3 to per bushel, or be made into the 
very best medical wine for which, it is as¬ 
serted, there is an unlimited demand. This 
whole discussion, ns furnished us, is a good 
deal “ too thin.” It seems to be designed 
as an advertisement of a locality, with only 
the vivid imaginations of the speakers to 
supply the base of operations. We want 
facts, gentlemen. 
Xow Russian Apples. 
To me the sending out of grafts by the 
just, I asked of some of my correspondents, 
who wrote me of having received grafts un¬ 
der numbers, to write for names. I have 
some replies, and I find White Astrachan, 
Kostocker, Reinette, Muscat and Red Cal- 
vllle, &c. f are of the so called new sorts, 
which the people are desired to test. Ail 
intelligent fruit men know these old sorts as 
valueless, they having been tested for years. 
—A. Thorn. __ 
AkIicm oh Strawberry Plnutw. 
Will you please inform me if wood ashes 
(leached) could be applied to a common loam 
soil. Do this some ten days earlier than it 
will do to plant outside, and transplant to 
the garden just as soon as weather will ad¬ 
mit, covering, if cold at night, with an old 
newspaper held down at one side by a stone, 
peg or lump of dirt.— e. 
Beets in Lfidil Soils. 
Yes, I have had my own experience with 
growing the Long Blood and the Sugar beets 
in light soils, and I have years of observa¬ 
tion of others’ practice and results in such 
soil. I Imve had no difficulty in growing 
the Long Blood to as large size as I consider 
GORIN'S JtirssrcT. 
soil with benefit, in preparing it for straw¬ 
berries? If so, with any other advantage 
except that realized from other manures? 
IIow much should he used, &c. ?—E, R. G., 
Akron, 0. 
AsnEs are beneficial to all kinds of plants, 
and the strawberry is not an exception to 
this rule. They arc more valuable on loam 
ami sandy soils than on clay; and there is 
Jillle danger of applying in loo large quanti¬ 
ties, particularly those that have been 
leached. They may be spread broadcast be¬ 
fore the plants are set out, and merely har¬ 
rowed In. One hundred bushels per acre 
would make a good, liberal dressing; but 
less will be beneficial, and more than this 
quantity will do no harm. 
The Croton Grape. 
I have just—this 25lh of February—been 
examining my Croton Grape vines. They 
stand in a bleak exposure, clay soil, not nn- 
derdrained; bore a few bunches on each 
vine last year for the first time; have had 
no protection whatever, and 1 now find the 
wood and buds as fresh and perfect as the 
best, or as any grape grower could wish. 
Their quality is well known as of the best, 
but the hardihood of the vine having been 
questioned, therefore this item is written.— 
p. it. E. 
RuBBinn Apples. 
J. C. Niff of Ohio writes that among his 
varieties of Russian apples—grafts received 
from Washington—he bus White Astrachan 
and Red Calville, and asks us to tell if they 
are valuable. We can reply that after trial 
of over forty years in this country, both 
have been pretty generally condemned, and 
no intelligent fruit grower at this day would 
plant either of them in his orchard— e. 
Fetich Crop of South Illinois. 
Sometime since the peach crop of South 
Illinois was announced as destroyed. Now 
the Alton, Ill., Horticultural Society publish 
the fict that investigation has proved the 
prospect for a good crop of peaches the com¬ 
ing season, excellent. 
he (Ewrirntfr. 
GARDEN NOTES. 
ILiina Ilenii Culture. 
Is not this talking of, or advising, to place 
the bean with the germ downward in the 
hill, all moonshine? I believe it is, for 1 
have grown lima beans over forty years suc¬ 
cessfully without any such practice. I only 
want my ground in good order, it having 
been twice or thrice plowed and wanned 
up; and then I want it fresh plowed as 1 am 
ready to plant. I want, good seed; put four 
to five in a lull, and cover just about as 
deep as for corn. I don’t believe in auy 
necessity for muck and sand mixture in a 
hill; nor for a shovelful of manure in the 
hill as a necessity for success; nor do I be¬ 
lieve I can grow good lima beans in a hard, 
stiff clay that will bake and crack, no matter 
how or when worked, for I have tried my 
hand in such soils two, three, several times, 
and failed; but I have never failed with 
good seed in any kind of light loam, whether 
of sandy or clayey texture. 
For a few hills of early limas, one of the 
desirable, and have just now, as I write, vis¬ 
ited my cellar a nd measured a dozen dr more, 
finding them from sixteen to twenty inches 
in length, and from three to four and a-luilf 
inches in diameter, two-thirds of their length, 
and free from any straggling forks or fingers. 
The Sugar Beet, or the Mangel Wurzel, J 
rarely grow; but one of my neighbors does, 
and in u clear, light, but well prepared, san¬ 
dy soil, lie has yearly success.—F. r. e. 
ffbc ilhtnuirtr* 
TRAINING GRAPE VINES. 
As you seem to he agitating the question 
as to grape pruning and training, will you 
please keep it up for the benefit of those 
who do not. und^^.d the science of either 
pruning or training the vine, like myself, and 
give us what you regard the best system to 
he followed in both instances? Which of 
the two systems do you regard the best—the 
spiral or trellis? and how should a vineyard 
he treated, on the trellis system or on the 
spiral ?—Amateur. 
Our advice to von (and all other amateurs) 
is to purchase Husmann’s Grape and Wine 
and Fuller’s Grape Culturist, (see our book 
list,) and read these works, and then make 
up your minds us to the system preferred. 
The Fan, Arm and Spur systems of training 
are both good, aud established upon well- 
known principles which govern the growth 
of the vine; and any man can, by a careful 
perusal of the works named, fully under¬ 
stand how to train and prune grape vines as 
they should he, and the information will cost 
him hut a trifling sum. 
-- 
THE GRAPE TRADE OP 1870. 
Tiie article of “Now and Then,” in the 
Rural New-Yorker of Jan. 21st, is one 
of interest, as showing the value of New 
York city as a profitable or unprofitable 
market for the sale of the grape. As stated 
in that article, the price of the season has 
ruled low; also, the reason given that the 
crop has supplied the local demands over 
the country, and hence, the New York 
market has been a dernier resort for disposal 
of a surplus. If this were so the past year, 
may wc not look for its repealal next sea¬ 
son ? for all know that the cultivation of the 
grape has been steadily increasing, and each 
year adds its thousands of new hearing vines 
to the supply, while the older ones are not 
a whit reduced. It may be, that the past 
season can be set down as an unusual oue 
in favor of the grape, but it should also be 
remembered that, in the past ten years the 
majority of varieties of the grape Lhat have 
been planted are such as mature iu seasons 
unfavorable to the older sorts like the Isa¬ 
bella and Catawba. But he this as it may, 
the record of” Now and Then” is valuable, 
and to it I would like to see that of Boston, 
Philadelphia, &c. 
From what I gather, the ruling price in 
St. Louis was, for the Ives, about six cents; 
for Concords, about eight cents; and for Del¬ 
awares, ten cents. Chicago market, per¬ 
haps ranged a cent a pound higher, while* 
Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo ranged about 
with St. Louis—these being jobbers’ prices 
Catawbas rated at about the same as Con¬ 
cords, until toward the close of the season, 
when, of course, they advanced, because their 
keeping qualities are the most reliable. The 
charges, by express, for conveyance of this 
as well as other fruits, induced some grape 
growers along the Lake Shore region this 
past season, to club together, charter and 
load cars to he drawn on regular freight 
trains, and the result was highly satisfactory, 
both as to time, damage in handling, and 
lessened cost. 
Another item was introduced profitably, 
viz., the substitution of flat baskets, holding 
about one-third of a bushel, into which the 
grapes were gathered direct from the vine, 
covered with netting, and sent to market, in 
place of the old practice of packing and rc- 
hamllimr into boxes. Frank Amon. 
FLORAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Another New I.lly. 
Last year we were treated with a glimpse 
of a new Tiger Lily, with double flowers. It 
is not very handsome, as the flowers have a 
lagged appearance, hilt the novelty of the 
thing will make it popular. We learn that 
another new double lily is about making its 
appearance, and with a very long name, viz., 
Lilium Thunbtrgiaiiilra jlorc-plc.no. It was 
obtained from Japan among some bulbs of 
the more common single variety. From 
present appearances, double lilies will soon 
he as common us double roses, but we fear 
not quite as beautiful. 
Reseda (idolltlfl, or Sweet Mianonette. 
Tins mignonette is a well-known and 
popular highly fragrant flower, and no 
flower garden should he without it. For 
bouquet making it is indispensable. Any 
new introduction or improvement, there¬ 
fore, is worthy of mention. The accompa¬ 
nying engraving was furnished us by Messrs. 
Briggs & Buo., Rochester, N. Y., and repre¬ 
sents the Giant New Crimson - flowered 
Mignonette. This is the first season of its 
introduction in this country, and is described 
RESEDA ODORATA. 
as a new and distinct variety, very robust in 
Habit, with very large spikes of handsome 
flowers of exquisite fragrance, and a free 
and perpetual bloomer. 
SnnieiliiiiK of Gladioli. 
TnE Gladiolus, whether for the gratification 
of self or to exhibit to friends, has few compet¬ 
itors, comparatively, considering its cheap¬ 
ness, the ease and simplicity of its culture, 
and the beauty of its blooms. An open space, 
in which fresh manure has been just applied. 
The one will give immediate and continuous 
stimulus to the bulb, while the btlier will af- 
| ford an overdose in June and early in July, 
failing therewith as dry August and early 
September comes, and it will not again re¬ 
cover until the bloom is over and gone. 
It is not only that the soil should be good, 
but it should be so also at a good depth be¬ 
low the base of the bulb; for thereby its 
roots will get food and carry it steadily and 
firmly forward through the hot season to its 
period of blooming. 
Bulbs planted in light, dry, thin soils, or 
with fresh manure for support, generally 
burn tip and die out in midsummer with the 
heat. If bulbs are already on hand and 
your soil not ready, pack them in moss wet 
with tepid water and lay them, not in the 
sun, but in a warm room a few days, or until 
your ground is fitted. The earlier a bulb is 
started the better its bloom. 
When planting, it is a good practice to 
surround the bulbs with clean sod ; but un¬ 
less the soil is of a rather heavy or clayey 
nature, such practice is not absolutely essen¬ 
tial to success. Plant the bulbs two to 
three inches deep—the lighter depth for 
heavy soil—and at distances of about eight 
inches apart each way. 
Arboriculture. 
'o 
ABOUT APPLE TREES. 
I AM about to increase my orchard about 
lliree acres. The soil is light gravel, the 
first table above river bottom land. The 
timber was hard maple, beech, oak, bass¬ 
wood, soft maple, black walnut and scatter¬ 
ing pines. What wyiter apples would he 
the most profitable to place on such soil, in 
such a location ? Iam convinced that, cer¬ 
tain apples are adapted to certain soils* 
some do best on heavy soils and some on 
light soils. I am recommended to set out 
Golden Russets, but I desire further en¬ 
lightenment.—A llegan. 
We publish the above inquiry for the pur¬ 
pose of showing how inconsiderale an in¬ 
quirer may he. Special information is de¬ 
sired upon a special subject; but the one 
who asks for it neither gives his name, 
post-office, comity nor State, or other clue 
which would aid us in determining his 
place of residence. It may be in Georgia or 
Michigan, and we believe with him that 
“certain apples are adapted to certain soils,” 
and, we will also add, to certain localities 
and climates; and until these conditions are 
known, it would be useless to name or 
recommend varieties at random. 
ORANGE TREES. 
Will some one who has had experience 
in the culture of orange and lemon trees as 
house plants give the readers of the Rural 
New-Yorker the result oT their experience. 
I have some, eight or ten iuches high, and 
would like to know if they are large euough 
to graft, and what time of the year it is hast 
to take them to the nursery, also please give 
some idea of the expense and the kind of 
soil required.— A Country Girl. 
The orange trees are large enough to bud 
or graft, and may be carried to the nursery¬ 
man or florist at almost, any season of the 
year, as the condition of the stocks and the 
trees from which the cions are taken will 
determine the t ime of performing the opera¬ 
tion. Early spring or late in fall are the two 
seasons when orange trees are usually grafted 
when grown under glass. We cannot tell 
what the grafting will cost, as one man may 
charge more for such work than another. 
The best soil for orange trees is a sandy 
loam aud old rotten cow manure, mixed 
together several months before used. 
HICKORY NUTS RECEIVED. 
I send you by to-day’s mail, a sample of 
some hickory nuts which grew in Grassy 
Cove, Cumberland Co., Teuu. The roots 
were taken from small trees which grew on 
rich bottom lands and surrounded by plenty 
of other hickory trees which produce the 
ordinary kind of nuts. Cannot these nuts 
he cultivated with profit, and would they 
succeed if grafted on common hickory trees? 
—H. H. Stratton. 
TnE nuts are very large, but of little or 
no value on account of their very thick 
shell. This species of hickory (Carya sul¬ 
cata) is quite abundant in most of the West¬ 
ern States, and we have seen nuts even 
larger than those just received, but seldom 
or never with any thinner shell. The hick¬ 
ory tree can he propagated by budding and 
grafting, but it requires considerable skill to 
make the operation a success, and we would 
not advise the novice iu such matters to 
undertake it, for the chances are one to one 
hundred against him. 
