JULY 25 
©ORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
dfawtyn. 
SAVE YOUR OWN SEEDS. 
Several years since there was quite a 
lively discussion started in one of our lead¬ 
ing agricultural papers in regard to fanners 
and others saving their own seeds instead of 
depending upon seedsmen for an annual 
supply. One party claimed i.hat individuals 
could not afford to “putter” over a few rad¬ 
ish, parsnip, or similar seeds, when live 
cents would purchase all they required ; also, 
that men who made, a business of raising and 
cleaning seeds for market, could do it cheaper 
and better than individuals, just as a me¬ 
chanic who had learned his trade could do 
better work than the novice in such matters. 
There were certainly many good points 
made on both sides of the question, still we 
were always in favor of cultivating habits of 
independence in the seed business as well as 
in any other, consequently if a rnau can 
learn to raise and save all the various kinds 
of seeds lie requires—even if they cost as 
much as it would to purchase them—he is 
one step in advance of those who neither 
possess the requisite knowledge nor s kill 
The Rural New - Yorker has been en¬ 
deavoring to teach its readers for the last 
quarter of a century to bud, graft, and pro¬ 
pagate plants by the various known methods, 
not that it expected those who were in the 
business as nurserymen and florists would 
proilt thereby, but in the hope that the gen¬ 
eral reader might lie benefited. I do not be¬ 
lieve the honest aud skillful nurserymau or 
florist would be injured in the least if every 
owner of a garden was well informed in re¬ 
gard to all the methods of propagation and 
culture or every plant known; but the quacks 
and imposters might be killed oil, which of 
course would be a blessing instead of a loss 
to the community. The really skillful would 
be better patronized and his skill more highly 
appreciated in consequence of the superior 
intelligence of his customers. 
For the same reason, if for no other, I be¬ 
lieve the farmer and gardener will benefit 
the trade as well as himself by raising the. 
seeds lie requires and depending as little 
upon others as possible. Habits of indepen¬ 
dence are worth something to any man ; but 
still greater are the pleasures of certainty, 
neither of which will foil to the lot of those 
who depend entirely upon seed purchased at 
a seed store. Of course, I am not supposing 
that our seedsmen, as a class, are more dis¬ 
honest than men in general, or in other call¬ 
ings, but they are likely to be cheated in 
purchasing their supplies : for, be it known, 
very few have seed farms of their own or 
raise the seeds they sell. Then again, it must 
be remembered that sometimes large quan¬ 
tities of eertaiu kinds are left over from year 
to year, and there is a great temptation to 
do a little mixing of old with new, for to 
throw away costly imported kinds is like 
throwing away gold, which few men have 
honest nerve enough to do. 
To illustrate the provoking uncertainty 
of “boughten” seeds, a short chapter from 
ray experience this spring will suffice. As 
the drouth last yea r cut off the crop of late- 
sown vegetables, I commenced a littJe earlier 
than usual, and being so handy to seed stores, 
the saving of seeds of a few kinds were neg¬ 
lected and a fresh supply had to bo pur¬ 
chased. Among others I purchased some 
carrots and parsnips, and not a plant appear¬ 
ed, although sown in good ground with a 
seed eower aud, I will venture to say, in a 
proper manner. I reported the fact to my 
seedsman, and he replied that lie thought 
the seeds had been sown a little too early and 
the heavy rains caused them to rot in the 
ground. I obtained some more of the game 
lot, and sowed again this time during propi¬ 
tious weather, warm rains and hot days fol¬ 
lowing, but with no better results. My neigh¬ 
bor across the road purchased seed of the 
same vegetable, but of another seedsman, 
and he has a line show of plants, while I have 
none. Now, had I raised my own seeds, all 
this vexation and loss would have been 
avoided. 
Having a dozen or more varieties of melons 
in my garden, last year, I feared that some 
of the varieties had become mixed, as one or 
two sorts were planted rather too close to 
insure purity. One day, when in the city, I 
bought a package of Ward’s Nectar musk- 
melon and one of the Gipsy watermelon. 
On my return home I planted a row of each. 
Not one of the former came up, while the 
latter are gro wing finely, although both were 
planted the same hour and in the same man¬ 
ner. Melons, cucumbers and squashes usually 
retain their vitality for a number of years, 
but unfortunately seedsmen know it as well 
as other people. 
The cost of seed is a mere bagatelle com¬ 
pared with the provoking position one is 
placed in if they fail bo grow. The “ Sermon 
on Dead Seeds,” preached in the Rural 
New-Yorkkr of July 4 by Jacobus Blanc, 
leads me to believe that I am not alone in 
my misery over “boughten seeds.” Save 
your own seeds and the best of everything, 
buying only when there is a chance of ob¬ 
taining improved sorts, is my advice to those 
who would escape total or partial failure. 
Near New York. n. l, r. 
-M-*- 
THE STRAWBERRY. 
I wish to urge upon every one of your 
readers who commands a rod of ground to 
set a strawberry bed ; the care of one is quite 
as interesting to little folks and the ladies of 
the household as the care of flowers; and 
what a substantial result and reward for 
labor when June comes round t It is a 
beautiful plant, and it is useful, crowning 
the board for many days with a luxury none 
can afford to dispense. Its mild acid is just 
wlmt tho system requires when the heats of 
summer begin to tell upon us. A box of 
ripe strawberries is better than a cargo of 
•patent, purely vegetable, sugar-coated 
pills’ —pleasanter to take, all will allow— 
better for the stomach, all will confess who 
have tried both. 
If any of your lady readers would devote 
half the time they now give to nursing sick¬ 
ly plants with unpronounceable names to 
the cultivation of a small bed of some choice 
variety of this most excellent fruit, I think 
they would proudly admit, at the year’s end, 
that they had been following most excellent 
advice. 
Many suppose that it takes a great amount 
of labor to get a very few berries. Such is 
not tho fact. Tho strawberry will thrive 
under conditions where many garden vege¬ 
tables, so called, would perish. Then there 
are men with half their garden dovoted to 
weeds, who gravely inform me that they 
haven’t an inch of ground to spare for a 
strawberry patch. Let such keep on raising 
bitter weed and parsley ; verily they shall 
reap what they sow, a larger and finer crop 
of weeds next year. 
Plants taken up carefully, with a portion 
of earth adhering to the root, may be set 
now (July) with good results ; but if you 
cannot get plants thus carefully taken up, 
wait until September before you set. Now, 
dear readers of the Rural New-Yorker, 
let me induce some of you to take the trowel 
and the spade and inaugurate a strawberry 
bed. Your wife, your wife’s mother and all 
the little boys and girls, I most confidently 
predict, will bless you fervently next year 
over their strawberries and cream. p. 
--- 
GARDENER8’ NOTES. 
About Lawns. —I read the advice of some 
to sow Sweet Vernal grass upon the lawn 
when they depreciate Orchard grass. I wish 
they knew what they were, writing about; 
for of my knowledge, the Sweet Vernal grass 
is as coarse and rank in its growth as the 
Orchard grass, and its introduction as a lawn 
grass seed curae only because in England, 
where it was advised and where wo first, 
without thought of our climate and people 
and the cost of labor in keeping up lawns, 
took the record. All this of grasses for the 
luwn depends—aye, depends—not so much 
upon the variety of seed as upon the soil, the 
command of water to sprinkle or moisten, 
and the labor the owner has to expend. If 
the owner of a lawn lias a low, rich ground 
naturally, aud lias time to mow it weekly, 
he may sow Orchard or Sweet Vernal grass; 
but if liis soil is a sandy, dry loam, and his 
command of means to keep it in order limit¬ 
ed, let him confine himself only to Red Top, 
Blue grass and White clover.— k. 
A Long-Lived Beet. —I wish to ask, How 
long will a beet grow and remain sound } I 
have one that might be called Everlasting. 
It is growiug now the third season. The seed 
were first sown in 187:2 ; in the fall the beet 
was pulled and saved for seed ; in the spring 
of 1873 it was put out for seed and raised a 
good supply. Last fall it was pulled again 
and found to be sound. I was also very care¬ 
ful to examine it again this spring. It was 
found to be sound and was again put out for 
seed, and at the present time it lias as good 
a growth of seed as last season. Can you or 
any of the readers of the Rural beat this 
beet i If so, I will give up as beaten.— John 
W. Lounsbury, Cmnon’8 Station, Conn. 
Take note of the garden vegetables. Save 
such seed as you can of those that are valu¬ 
able, and rely less on seed stores, 
<>i}l0rii!itltw[stl. 
PROPAGATING ROSES BY CUTTINGS. 
W. P. Massey, Chestertowu, Md., furnishes 
the American Agriculturist the following ; 
The best time to commence the propagation 
of Roses, especially the everblooming sort 3 , 
is about the last of August. The best cut¬ 
tings are taken from plants which have been 
grown in beds under shaded glass during the 
summer, but if the weather is moist, and the 
plants out of doors are in a vigorous state of 
growth, as good cuttings can be procured 
from the open border as from plants under 
glass. 
Prepare a bed of clean, coarse sand, not 
less than four inches deep, either on the 
benches of a greenhouse or in a cold-frame 
out of doors. Tho cuttings will do as well in 
one place as the other, but if a greenhouse is 
available the bed will be more convenient to 
work at. This sand bed is then to be soaked 
with water, and never afterward allowed to 
get dry. For cuttings, select shoots not more 
than a week or so old. Tho slender, wiry 
shoots of the month y roses which just begin 
to show a blossom bud are the best. Avoid 
the rank, pithy young shoots which frequent¬ 
ly sprout from the base of the bushes : these 
will root, hut not so readily as the more 
slender shoots, nor do they make so good 
plants. Cut off the soft tip of tho shoot, and 
divide the remainder into cuttings of not less 
than two eyes .The top of the cutting should 
be cut at least three fourths of an inch above 
an eye, and the leaf at this eye should re¬ 
main on ; the base of the cutting should he 
about a half inch below the second or third 
eye, the leaves from which should be stripped 
off. If the wood buds in the axils of the 
leaves on the lower part of tho shoot are fully 
developed, it is an indication that the wood 
at that point is too ripe to take root easily, 
and should not be used unless cuttings arc 
very scarce. In short, the cuttings must not 
be so soft as to present no woody fiber in 
outting, neither must the wood bo hard ; a 
little experience will soon indicate to a close 
observer the exact state which is best. 
Having your cuttings all prepared and 
your sand bed ready, take an old knife or a 
piece of hoop iron and, using a lath or other 
straight edge as a ruler, ent a line at tho end 
of the bed across tho sand, going completely 
to the bottom. In this lino orgroove set the 
cuttings nearly up to the leaf at the top and 
about half an inch from each other in the 
row. Turn tiie leaves of the cuttings all in 
one direction, so as to be out of tho way in 
setting the next row, and also to present a 
neat appearanco. When the first row is 
filled, press the sand tightly toward the row, 
and about three inches from this first make 
a second row and fill it in with cuttings in 
the same manner, turning all the leaves to¬ 
ward the Unit row. Proceed In this way un¬ 
til the bed is filled or your cuttings exhausted, 
then sprinkle the bed thoroughly w/ilh clear 
water. The glass over the bed must be sha¬ 
ded with a thick coat of whitewash, aud the 
house or frame kept quite close. If in a 
cold-frame, the sashes may be slipped down 
an inch or so at the top during the heat of 
the day. The frames should slope north, 
and not south as usual. If the bed is in a 
greenhouse there should not be any ventila 
tion given overhead ; a little air from the 
doors or side ventilators is sufficient. If the 
thermometer rises during the day to 100" or 
over, it will not hurt if the bed is kept 
watered and the house moist aud shady. 
The cuttings will be rooted sufficiently to 
pot in about four weeks, and the process of 
propagation may be continued as late as 
good cuttings can bo had from the open 
ground, provided some means is at hand for 
heating tho bed when the weather grows 
colder. When rooted, pot off into 2>y inch 
pots, using decomposed sods and woods-mold 
in about equal parts with a very small por¬ 
tion of well-rotted manure. Water thor¬ 
oughly and keep shaded until they start to 
grow. When well-established in the pots, 
plunge them in a cold-frame or pit for the 
winter aud protect from freezing. In spring 
plant out where they are intended to flower. 
If wanted fore sale in spring, shift them into 
three-inch pots in January and place them 
in a greenhouse where the night temperature 
does not exceed 50', aud by the last of April 
most of the ever-blooming sorts will show 
flowers and make fine plants for the market. 
This method of propagation is more es¬ 
pecially applicable to the tender varieties 
such as Teas, Noisettes, Bengal, and Bourbon, 
as the wood of these sorts is usually in the 
proper condition in autumn, but any roses 
can be rooted in the same way if shoots can 
be had of the proper age. During the past 
fall the writer has propagated thousands of 
Moss roses in this way, which he was enabled 
to do by the favorable weather which kept 
the plants in vigorous growth. Moss-rose 
cuttings should be almost as tender as the 
green shoot of a sen riot geranium. In this 
condition we never have any difficulty in 
rooting them. The above method can be 
used by almost, any one, while the propaga¬ 
tion of roses during winter and spring can 
only be practiced by florists who have houses 
adapted to the purpose. 
c#icld Ojjuap. 
MY POTATO CROP, 
Having at different times noticed articles 
relating to the potato crop, and having as 
yet seen nothing that beats my own, I have 
therefore concluded to give you a statement 
of a crop of tliis tuber which I raised and 
harvested in tho summer and fall of 1872. 
My soil is a sandy loam ; not a very good 
crop of hay taken from it in the summer of 
1870 ; plowed in the fall, sowed in the spring 
of 1871 with peas and buckwheat, about 
equal parts; rolled down and plowed it at 
full bloom. Plowed again in the spring of 
1S73 ; planted to potatoes. Quantity of land 
a little less than seven acres, say six and 
three-quarter acres; hoed twice; plastered 
immediately after first hoeing, nearly 150 
bushels of seed to tho whole piece; seed part 
cut, mostly whole; planted in hills three feet 
between rows, two or two and a half be¬ 
tween hills in the row, Kinds of seed plant¬ 
ed, Garnet Chilies, Early Rose, Rocky Moun¬ 
tain, English Whites, old-fashioned flesh col¬ 
ored potatoes, and several other sorts, the 
names of which l do not know. My entire 
crop was 1,768 bags, filled as full as we could 
tie them. Bags were the common two bushel 
bags, part seamless cotton, tho balance linen. 
I weighed about one-fourth of them and 
averaged the rest by those that were weighed 
at one and a half bushels to the bag, making 
twenty-Bix hundred and forty-nine bushels 
from tho whole piece. W. H. McIntyre. 
RooklifTo Farm, Hoad Renfr ew Co., Ont. 
-- 
CLOVER AFTER POTATOES. 
The Maine Farmer says:—We were long 
since reluctantly convinced that clover will 
not flourish nearly as well following a crop 
of potatoes, as it will after most other farm 
crops. Experience has taught us—and a 
somewhat extended observation has proved 
t hat our experience is not exceptional—that 
a well set, thick field of clover is rarely to be 
met with following a grain crop after pota¬ 
toes. Indeed, so fully have we been con¬ 
vinced of this, that wo have at times thought 
the statement would be safe, that such could 
not be found. The results are differenl, 
without doubt, on different soils, and on the 
same soil when under treatment; still the 
rule, we are confident, holds good. Since 
our attention was called to this matter we 
have carefully observed results. We had 
under observation last year a large field of 
uniformly strong soil, previously plowed and 
manured alike and at the same time, all 
sown with wheat when seeded to clover—a 
part of which had been planted with corn 
and a part to potatoes. When the grass— 
mostly clover—was cut, that on the portion 
where corn was grown was judged to be 
double that where potatoes were grown. 
The past winter clever was not killed at all, 
and at the present time the difference prom¬ 
ises to be as great as last year. 
-- 
FIELD NOTES. 
A Productive Winter Wheat Wanted .— 
Samuel Ferguson of Pennsylvania, wants 
to know where he can obtain, and at what 
cost, “the best and most productive winter 
wheat.” Wants to change seed. If our 
readers have any in formation as to “ the best 
and most productive winter wheat,” we shall 
be clad to publish it. All business informa¬ 
tion must seek our advertising columns, 
however. 
Nitrogen in Clover. —It is a well-known 
fact that clover has the singular property of 
being able to extract from the atmosphere, 
without the aid of manure or stimulants, 
nitrogen sufficient for its own proper growth 
and nourishment. The straw and roots of 
the clover contain a large amount of nitro¬ 
gen, and these, when plowed down, are 
therefore as valuable to the next crop sown 
as a copious supply of guano. 
Grass for Name. —Will you please name 
the enclosed grass through the Rural New- 
Yorker. 
Velvet grass (liotcus tannins ) a very 
pretty species, but almost worthless for pas¬ 
ture or hay. It is a foreign inteloper which 
our farmers might well be rid of. 
