Rural Ardbitcrtitrf 
% 
altogether with me it is not worth growing. 
The old 
Champion of England 
needs not a word said, and yet as I have 
heard words asserting that it seems to be de¬ 
caying, i. e., that the pods are not as large as 
formerly, nor the vine as perfect, I write it 
to know if others have so observed. It has 
stood a long time without a rival; but in my 
grounds, this year, a variety received under 
the name of 
Yorkshire Hero 
has outborne it, and the pods, while per¬ 
haps not so large as the Champion, have 
been so full and all the peas so large and 
plump (as shown in the pod herewith) that 
when they came to he shelled the resultwas 
more of shelled peas to the bulk of pods than 
t hose of any other sort. 
The vines are strong, about two to two 
and a-hnlf feet, short jointed, and the pods 
in couples at each joint, as shown in the 
sketch of a vine and pod on a reduced scale. 
1 might write of many more sorts, but 
think my present, article sufficiently long for 
one time on such a subject. 
to a question as to the cause of blight, he 
said that trees which bore heavily one year 
were especially subject to it the next; did 
not know of any remedy. Had no faith in 
Dr. Ilium's theory of root pruning as a 
specific, 
RuHBlan Apple* iii Minnesota. 
Wk see it stated that Col. Robertson, 
Professor of Agriculture and Horticulture 
in the University of Minnesota, has received 
seventy-five varieties of fruit trees (apples 
probably) from the Imperial Gardens of 
Russia. 
TnE foregoing paragraph is going the 
rounds of the papers as something worthy 
of note, ns it is; for we are glad to see that 
Minnesota fruit growers are looking vigi¬ 
lantly to their own interests. But this gives 
us an opportunity to slate that Dr. Charles 
Siedhof, of Hoboken, N. .T., has one hun¬ 
dred and twenty-five varieties of these Rus¬ 
sian apples, many of them new and never 
yet disseminated even in Europe. These 
will probably be widely distributed in this 
country, as Dr. B, works for the good of the 
public rather than his own pocket. And 
we happen to know that Andrew B. Ful¬ 
ler, two years ago, sent a large number of 
varieties, received from the Imperial Gar¬ 
dens at St. Petersburg!), to J. S. Stickney, 
Wauwatosa, Wis. In exchange for these 
Mr. Fuller forwarded to the Imperial Gar¬ 
dens one hundred varieties of our best 
American apples. 
Apple I.i*i* for Eu»ti<rn lowu. 
At a recent meeting of the Eastern Iowa 
Horticultural Society at Iowa City, the fol¬ 
lowing apple list was recommended for 
general cultivation, the varieties being 
named in the order of ripening:—“Red As- 
tradian, Red June, Sweet June, Duchess of 
Oldenburgh, Bononi, Maiden’s Blush, Cole’s 
Quince, Snow, Autumn Strawberry, Lowell, 
Bailey’s Sweet, Jonathan, Dominie, Tail- 
man Sweet, Minkler, Rawles’ Janet, Ben 
Davis, Willow, and English Golden Rus¬ 
sell,” __ 
Cnvrant* natl Currant Worm*. 
J. J. J. asks if the fruit on currant bushes 
that have been defoliated by currant, worms 
is poisonous. We have repeatedly eaten 
stu li fruit. In order to divest yourself of 
all fears put the fruit after it is gathered in 
a colander and pour water over It copiously 
ami then we should take the risk without a 
tremor; indeed we should take the risk with¬ 
out this precaution. 
A FARMER’S HOME, 
FRUITS, IN KENTUCKY 
C. A. Bennett writes:—I enclose a plan 
of a farmer’s home to you. It may give 
some farmer an idea if he intends to bum! \ 
house of this kind. It is neat, convenient, 
and is not too large. I think every tarmei 
should have every convenience possible in 
his house. In this plan I have placed a 
BY HENRY T. HARRIS, STANFORD, KY 
Tins season, here in Central Kentucky, 
the small fruit crop has been enormous. 
Timely rains all through April, May and 
June perfected the crops. 
YViUou’s Albany Strawberry 
gave a tremendous yield of large, solid, 
showy fine fruit, it is, beyond aU cavil, the 
best market berry yet propagated. 
Green Prolific Strawberry* 
all large, beautiful and attractive,and almost 
equal in productiveness to Wilson. Foliage 
better than any other variety. For home 
use and near market, I esteem it above, all 
kinds. 
French Strawberry, 
not so productive as the two above named, 
hut with me its flavor is better than either. 
I “can’t afford to do without it” yet. 
Triompbo Do Gantl, 
fine flavor, but with me it is a failure on the 
best land. 
J lieii mlii. 
A very mammoth in size, choice flavor, 
and a real curiosity. Some of the berries 
measured over live inches around. 1t is poor 
farmer’s home—elevation. 
copper boiler, capable of holding twenty or 
thirty gallons, which is supplied by a tank 
situated in the attic and 'connected by a 
lead pipe. The water is heated by iron 
pipes running around the stove. These arc 
pipes running down to the wash-room from 
the boiler, supplying it with hot water. 
CELERY CULTURE—STORING, 
LAYTON’S SUPREME. YORKSHIRE HERO. 
Tom Thumb, Liilli) Ucm,, Dun O’Kourkc, 
Prince Albert, Etc,, 
are all good, but as compared with Carter 
they are not valuable in regard to earlincss. 
and for a second pea none equal. 
VV;illo’» Ournctncua, 
which, planted at same time with Carter, 
follows it immediately, with huger pods full 
of good sized peas; vines productive, and so 
filling that, the second picking will enable 
one to clear t he ground if desired. It is, all 
tilings considered, perhaps the best early 
market sort grown. 
Mellonn’s Advancer. 
follows Caractacus, and, for a wrinkled mar¬ 
row, early and good ; should lie grown by 
amateurs, hut it is not profitable as a mar¬ 
ket sort. I may perhaps safely say the same 
for 
Mcljcnn’s Premier, Epicurean and Wou- 
drrf'ul. 
All of which in my grounds are good, 
but when they come to he compared as 
market peas for profit with Champion of 
England, Yorkshire Hero, &c., it is about 
Nicuuor. 
With me does not fruit. Plants set re¬ 
motely from other varieties did not even 
bloom. Was the plant spurious? They 
throw out runnel's sparsely. Set over 
eighteen months ago, they have never yet 
borne a single berry, 
PenU’n Emporov. 
Much like Agriculturist—good flavor, pro¬ 
duction very large. 
Kirtlnnd Raspberry. 
Early, delicious, good; hut leaves sun 
scald. 
l)nn)illie Raspberry. 
Prolific, excellent; rapid, strong-growing 
canes; desirable. 
Antwerp Raspberries, 
The best flavor of all the red family; 
shy bearer. 
Davison's Thornless Raspberry. 
Not productive, but. good flavor, and de¬ 
sirable on account of being thornless. 
Purple C'nne Raspberry. 
Enormously productive; quite good; with 
me a sine qua non. 
Philadelphia Raspberry. 
The most prolific of all red berries; flavor 
quite fair; berries large and showy; canes 
very hardy. 
Clnrite Raspberry. 
I find this n poor fruit with me, and not 
worth the price asked for the canes, 
niammoib (Maslov* or McCormick. 
The largest of all llie Black-Caps; flavor 
uuequaled, and parties who saw them on 
my ground pronounce them superb. They 
yield enormous crops; from five canes 1 
gathered over two and a-half gallons of the 
choicest fruits. These canes grew from 
rooted tips set in the spring of 1869. 
Clinton Grope* 
Rotting badly this season, as it did the 
last. Except for this, I esteem it the wine 
grape for the million. 
Catawba Grape. 
Growing finely ; not an unsound berry on 
my vines; crop tremendous. 
Isabella Grape. 
Same as the Catawba. 
The Concord Grape 
is growing well; some little sign of rot. 
„ The Delaware Grape 
promises a line yield, and is the best table 
berry we have. 
Ives' Seed I ins Grape. 
The best wine grape extant; sure, hardy; 
free from rot or mildew. 
at the bottom. Formerly, trenches were 
made eighteen to twenty inches deep. They 
should be four feet apart, from outside to out¬ 
side. lu the trench, set the plants about 
eight inches apart in the row, and in two 
rows, quincunx. They may be set, in quite 
warm and dry weather, by covering the 
trenches with boards until they are well es¬ 
tablished. 
The largest and most successful growers 
at. present, raise almost exclusively the dwarf 
varieties, as being more easy and less expen¬ 
sive to grow and winter, and possessing a 
superior nutty flavor. With this variety, no 
trench is necessary,except a furrow with the 
garden plow. Into this the compost is 
worked, and the plants set in rows six inches 
apart, care being taken to set them well. 
These rows should be three and a-half to 
four feet apart. In the deep trenches, as the 
plants grow, keep them free from weeds and 
loo many suckers, and fill in as they grow, 
when the soil and plants are dry, but not to 
cover the heart of the plant. If they grow 
higher than the bank of the trench, plow be¬ 
tween the rows and earth up, as being less 
labor and expense than deep trenches. 
With the dwarf varieties the plowing 
and earthing up are the only method of 
blanching, and this is preferred to trenches 
as less labor, the result being quite as sat¬ 
isfactory. 
We recall to mind some acres of dwarf 
celery growing in a reclaimed swamp, in 
which water was present in each ditch, be¬ 
tween the rows of celery, in September, and 
few cultivators have better success. Celery 
requires much moisture, though none in ex¬ 
cess. While earthing up, if the weather 
and soil are dry, water occasionally and it 
will bleach white and niee. 
Cultivators complain of the most diffi¬ 
culty in storing it for winter and spring use. 
Severe frosts injure its keeping qualities; 
it should therefore he taken up before it lias 
been injured. It keeps very well removed 
to a dry cellar with the roots next the wall, 
in alternate layers of celery and soil, cover¬ 
ing the top layer with soil. It may also be 
kept safely if set in trenches in dry soil and 
earthed up, the soil packed firmly, roof 
fashion, to near the tops of the celery. 
Over this make a roof of two wide boards 
as protection from rain. Frost, if not too 
severe, makes it more tender. The Ger¬ 
mantown Telegraph gives another method 
as follows:—“ Sink barrels into the earth, so 
that the tops are two or three inches below 
the surface, then fill them compactly full of 
celery, without any soil, but with close or 
tight covers upon them, so as to exclude 
moisture, and then a couple of inches of 
soil. By this mode, somewhat more trou¬ 
blesome than the other, it keeps well until 
late in the spring. 
arb oner 
PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR. 
A, living room, 12 by 10, 3 windows two 
feet from the floor. B, dining-room, 12 by 
16, one window and one window door. C, 
hall 1% feci wide, one window door; stairs 
four feet. wide. D, store-room, one window. 
E, kitchen, 14 by 16; G, stove; II, sink; I, 
boiler; J, a stationary table; F, F, pantries— 
one supplied with drawers and the other 
with shelves. K, piazza about on two sides 
of house. Right of ceiliug, nine feet. 
NOTES ON PEAS 
BY F. R. ELLIOTT 
Some time since I read in the Rural 
New-Yorker some notes of the compara¬ 
tive values of peas in North Carolina, and 
as il, is by comparison of notes that wo learn, 
1 have thought perhaps a transcript of my 
observations and the season’s results might 
assist toward the next year’s planting and 
crop; therefore,Here they arc! 
I am, perhaps, a pretty rough cultivator, 
for, as 1 have it, ail to do with my own hands 
—the plowing, planting, cultivating and 
harvesting or picking—and as I do not like 
work beyond my capacity to do well, I put 
in my peas in a very different manner from 
most of my acquaintance. 
First, of my land. It is not rich ; some 
say it is pool'; and yet my crops are better 
than most of my neighbors—with all respect 
to them and their feelings, it is a gravelly 
clay whereon 1 plant, my peas, and as 1 try 
to select from my acre garden patch that 
portion for peas on which, the previous year, 
1 have grown corn, potatoes or root crops; 
it is not very weedy. Having it raked off 
and lightly plowed in the autumn of the pre¬ 
vious year, as soon as the frost is out in 
spring 1 go on with my horse and a Hol¬ 
brook plow, and my seed collected from all 
the best seedsmen of the country. 1 plow a 
furrow about four inches deep. Then I take 
my Carters, Tom Thumb, Little Gem, &c., 
and sow them in order—about titty feet, of 
each—along in the furrow. Then I plow 
again, turning my furrow on to the peas, 
and so covering thorn. When I have plowed 
PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR. 
A, upper hall, 1% feet wide and twelve 
feet long. B, bed-room, 12 by 10 feet. C, 
bed-room, 12 by 15 feet. D, bed-room, 12 
by 8 feet. Higlit of ceiling 8% feet. F, F, 
F, F, closets. 
Cost of house $1,500 to $1,800. 
YORKSHIRE nERO—REDUCED. 
the same as the comparing the Hooker with 
the Wilson Strawberry. 
liuxiou’a Prolific Loim Pod 
lias proved a good pea, a good bearer, but 
not sufficiently in advance of Champion to 
make it worth continuing except for va¬ 
riety. 
l.nxioa’s Supreme 
has grown well, but while it forms large 
and handsomely rounded pods, the filling is 
very imperfect, as shown in the pod here 
represented. 
The pea is also void of sweetness, and 
SHALL I BUILD MY BARN? 
To you I fly in every trouble ; you know 
everything; please help me it you can. I 
have commenced a barn; have got the base¬ 
ment dug out, intending to have it for my 
stock while I use the ground story for the 
storage of grain, hay, Ac. An old, intelli¬ 
gent farmer comes along aud says: 
«• That will never do. An underground 
stable is unhealthy for stock, and it will nut 
do to have grain and hay over them, toi the 
POMOLOGICAL GOSSIP 
When to Prune Apple Tree*. 
Arthur Bryant, Sen., Princeton, III., an 
experienced orchardist, in a recent discus¬ 
sion in Iowa, stated that he preferred Sep¬ 
tember and October for pruning—considered 
spring the worst time, for then the loss of 
sap lessens the vigor of the tree. In answer 
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