gntrtr of a Jltrralist 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of a Gentleman near New 
York City. 
NATIVE RED RASPBERRIES. 
Nov. 2.—At last our fruit growers are be¬ 
ginning to appreciate our native red rasp¬ 
berry. For a century we have been import¬ 
ing or raising varieties from the European 
Hubus Maun and neglecting our hardy and 
excellent native Hubus strigosus, craomtnon 
red raspberry, which is found almost every¬ 
where, from Hudson’s Bay in British America 
to the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, among the 
vast number of plants growing wild there 
are many natural varieties, and it would be 
indeed strange if some were not worthy of 
cultivation, it is true that an occasional 
variety was tried, but the foreign sorts being 
as a rule larger and to some persons of a 
more agreeable flavor, the native wildings 
were neglected, few or no attempts having 
been made until quite lately to improve 
them. 
Then, again, those who had inclination and 
leisure for trying experiments in this direc¬ 
tion appeared to overlook all other merits 
besides that of size and flavor, consequently 
they procured seed from the large foreign 
varieties instead of from our more hardy 
and fully acclimated native species. The re¬ 
sults are well known, and we can show plenty 
of seedlings of the tender, foreign species 
which arc equal in every respect to anything 
raised abroad. The Clarke, Briuckle’s Or¬ 
ange and President French arc certainly 
good enough in every respect except hardi¬ 
ness of the plants. 
After making what appeared to be rapid 
progress for several years in the culture of 
this fruit, there seems to be, of late, an in¬ 
clination on the part of its cultivators to go 
back to the native wildings and produce a 
new and more liardv race of varieties there¬ 
from. This was the point from which owr 
pomologists should have started in the begin¬ 
ning ; but as we looked to foreign countries 
for all other kinds of fruits why not the rasp¬ 
berry ? It, has taken the people of the At- , 
lantic States two centuries to learn that the ] 
foreign varieties of the grape and gooseberry 
arc ol' little value for culture here, and that 
we could produce new sores from the wild 
species possessing really superior merits. 
The idea that no good could possibly come , 
out of our native red species was so firmly , 
fixed in the minds of fruit growers that a 1 
man was in danger .if “ losing caste ” among 
learned pomologists if he happened to praise 
or speak well of any child of such parentage, j 
CAUSE OF THE CHANGE. 
The increase in our population and in the £ 
numbers of cities and villages caused an in- a 
creased demand for fruits, and experience * 
with ;the foreign varieties lias shown that '• 
they do not succeed except in very circnin- 
scribed localities. For many years New 
York City markets were supplied almost “ 
wholly with raspberries from a region of 11 
country bordering the North River in the - 
vicinity of Newburgh, while Boston and 
Philadelphia and other large cities further 
south, saw little of this fruit, except that 
which was gathered from the wild plants = 
of the woods and uncultivated fields. The 
Red Antwerp, which is the variety most 
popular for cultivation on the lianks of the 
Hudson, is scarcely cultivated elsewhere, for P 
the very good reason that it seldom succeeds a! 
outside ol' the region named and even there tl 
great care is required in giving protection in si 
winter. The bending down the canes in d 
autumn and covering with earth, is not a a 
very expensive operation, still it is an irk- c 
some task which cultivators will avoid when- tl 
ever possible. Other sorts of the same par- ti 
entage are also tender to a greater or less a 
extent, hence the desire to produce more a 
hardy sorts and get rid of the expense of it 
giving protection in winter. a 
In addition to the hardy character of our 
purely native sorts, it lias long been known si 
that they will thrive in a greater variety of d 
soils as well over a far wider range of conn- u 
try than those produced from the foreign o 
species. s! 
TOO MANY SUCKERS. tl 
One principal objection urged against ^ 
one of our native varieties, R. strigosus , is 
this peculiar habit of producing a great num¬ 
ber of suckers from the subterranean stems a 
and roots. If these suckers are allowed to o 
grow without a check through the summer, ti 
they are likely to rob the main st ool of t-lie k 
requisite amount of nutriment necessary to 
produce good, strong fruitful canes. 
In other words, the strength of the plant 
: becomes too widely distributed to insure 
productiveness; but this may be readily 
avoided by hoeing off once or twice in the 
season, as we are obliged to do with the 
t weed*. 
It Is no more trouble to keep down suckers 
than weeds, and the operation may be per¬ 
formed at the same time without any addi¬ 
tional expense ; but if weeding and removal 
of the suckers on their first appearance is 
neglected, a plantation of even the best sorts 
will soon be ruined. 
PROMISING VARIETIES. 
The Wilmington, Kitland, Pearl, and 
several other pure native sorts have either 
been thoroughly tested or promise well for 
general cultivation, wherever the raspberry 
is known to succeed. But there have been 
very few experiments made in this field of 
raising new sorts of our native raspberrries 
from seed, therefore there is a rare opportu¬ 
nity for those who feel so inclined to produce 
varieties of great value. Every fruit grower 
can afford to try, even should he not succeed 
in making any great advance upon the older 
sorts ; but the one who draws the lucky 
number is certain to be well repaid for hi* 
labor. 
A SCRAMBLE FOR A BEETLE. 
Nov. 8.—Out on the West ern plains, and es¬ 
pecially in Western Texas and Mexico, there 
is sometimes found a beetle known to En¬ 
tomologists as Amblyehelu cylcndriformis. 
It Is about, an inch or more In length and of 
a dark brown or black color, neither very 
handsome or in any way particularly attract¬ 
ive, but it is rare. Hence every beetle 
hunter is very anxlou* to have a specimen or 
two in his cabinet. A few days since several 
coleoptcrists in Now York learned almost 
simultaneously that a specimen of this rare 
insect was for sale in Philadelphia, price $15. 
As might bo expected among enthusiasts, 
there was a simultaneous rush for the nearest 
telegraph office, and a half dozen dispatches 
from as many different men went over, the 
purport of each being, “ I’ll take ir, at price 
named ; cosh forwarded by next mail.” 
Of course, first, come, first served, and a Mr. 
Fuchs won the beetle. The next day 1 hap¬ 
pened to be in New York and met several of 
the competing beetle hunters, but only one 
looked happy, and that was Mr. Fuel's. 
From appearance one might suppose the 
other genf.eleman had lost some near and 
dear friend ; they looked sad and almost 
past comforting, talking in subdued tones, 
one even hinting fhat he had been “ chiseled” 
out of the specimen by some slow going or 
blundering telegraph operator. 
If anybody ever had doubts in regard to ' 
the earnestness of our bug-hunters this should 
be sufficient to dispel them. 
Fifteen dollars for such a beetle is about , 
fifty times its weight in gold. I do not think ^ 
any great number could be sold at that price j 
but a good many might be disposed of in ( 
exchange for gold dollars, and, perhaps, a j 
larger coin of the same metal. 
Here’* a chance for somebody, and the ^ 
“Rural Purchasing Agency” will find a t 
market. 
fhtrtntf) of Httskiutrjj. 
QUESTIONS FOE PATRONS. 
The Executive Committee of Patrons of 
Husbandly of Iowa, are a wide-awake body, 
and are certainly looking after the good of 
the Order in their State. The committee 
have gathered up a number of questions for 
discussion by the subordinate Granges, which 
will give uniformity throughout their State, 
and cause hundreds of men to study out the 
truth of such questions. The lessons l'or the 
Grange schools are so important, and the 
subjects are so general, that we clip them 
from the Helper, and lay them before our 
readers. The questions for the three months 
are as follows: 
Main Question for November, 1874 : Is 
co-operation in business desirable { 
Sub Quest tons —1. Can it be made available 
among the producing classes in manufac¬ 
turing, transportation, insurance, and mer¬ 
cantile business '< 
2. What are the best practical methods ? 
Main Question for December, 1871: What 
benefits have been secured to the producing 
classes through the organization of the Order 
of Patrons of Husbandry ? 
Sub Questions —1. What benefits in the 
matter of social culture and enjoyment ? 
2. What benefits in the matter of financial 
and material advancement ? 
8 . What benefi's in the matter of such 
education as relates to methods of farm 
practice ! 
4. What benefits in the matter of such 
education as relates to public affairs, to 
knowledge of finance and to the increased 
influence of farmers as a class ? 
5. What benefits in the matter of general 
welfare i 
Main Question for .January, 1875 : lathe 
control of railways and other transportation 
companies by law correct iu principle ? 
Sub Questions—1. Is there any class of 
citizens or any interest which is above the 
law ? 
2. Has the large amount of aid, given to 
railways by the State, and by the people 
thereof, been used to carry out the purposes 
for which the same was intended ? 
The Master of the Kansas State Grange, 
M. E. Hudson, declined a nomination by a 
political convention, on the ground that 
acceptance would injure the Order. 
The first Orange was organized in Wash¬ 
ington by Mr. Saunders, Superintendent of 
the Department of Agriculture. The second 
in Minnesota, by Secretary cf Washington 
Grange. 
The object of the Grange is not to control 
political action or to fight monopolists, but 
to advance the best interests of f he farmer 
by education in agriculture and horticulture 
and to practice economy and efficiency in 
business transactions. 
k'icntifiii and Useful. 
harden. 
GAEDENEES’ NOTES. 
Keeping Celery During Winter .—A corres¬ 
pondent of the Germantown Telegraph, 
says:—“ A friend of mine has kept liis celery 
through the winter now for several year* by 
standing it in spring water about an inch in 
depth ; and kept thus it continues to grow 
and send up fresh branches, so that he has 
cut nicely blanched, tender tops two or three 
times in a winter. My trouble with the 
trench system has been meadow mice, which 
appear to Tie quite as fond of the plant as 1 
am, and make sad havoc with it. Otherwise 
it was the best way to keep it, which I had 
an opportunity of trying.” 
Keeping Onions .—The London Garden 
says, that when the Cheshire market gar¬ 
deners wish to keep their onions for an un¬ 
usual leng th of time they nail them in bundles 
on the outside of the house, and, in this waj', 
slightly protected from wet by the eaves, 
they keep, on an average, five weeks longer 
than those of the same varieties and of the 
same crop, stored in the ordinary manner. 
The Marblehead Squash , distributed first 
a few years ago, is very highly spoken of by 
our correspondents who have grown it. One 
trouble is that too few farmers take pains to 
keep it from mixing with other varieties. 
A QUESTION ANSWERED. 
The Patron’s Helper thus answers a ques¬ 
tion very frequent ly asked by non-members 
of the Grange : 
la the (I range political ? No. Is the Church 
political ? No. Neither one nor the other is 
political, and neither one more than the 
other. There are politicians in both ; we 
are sorry for it, but. we can’t help it. We 
expect there will be politicians in heaven, 
striving for the highest seats, and bnyiug 
votes with promises of influence. The poli¬ 
tician is almost the worst type of man we 
have among us, while the statesman is oue 
of the best. We might wish that our mem¬ 
bership were made up of statesmen, pure 
lived, unselfish and of broad views ; but 
that is impossible. There are few statesmen, 
there are many politicians. The Church has 
politicians in it, the Grange has politicians 
and in both alike, os every where else, the 
politicians strive in some way to help them¬ 
selves by using their fellows, and to carry 
out their own base views by log-rolling with 
other politicians equally base and equally 
self-seeking. But. that does not make either 
the Grange or the Church a political institu¬ 
tion, and it never will. The Grange is a 
social and business organization, not u politi¬ 
cal one.— Patron’s Helper. 
-- 
ITEMS FEOM THE GEANGES. 
The National Grange meets at Charleston, 
Nov. 14. 
Colorado lias sixty-five Granges and the 
cause is prospering. 
Eleven members have been expelled 
from the California Sub-Granges during the 
year. 
The members of Hope Grange, Piqua, 
Ohio, claimed to have saved $G00 this year on 
implements. 
The Producers’ Association of Rutland and 
Windsor Counties, Vt,, mean to try their 
Legislature for a Wisconsin railroad law. 
Union Grange of Battle Creek, Michigan, 
has supplied the fanners of Calhoun County 
with clover and timothy seed to the amount 
of $2,000 the present season. 
A Patrons’ Life Assurance Society has 
been incorporated in Kansas. The entrance 
fee for full membership is $2 and the assess¬ 
ment on the death of a member, $1.10. 
PERFUMES. 
It is generally supposed that all the essen¬ 
ces of flowers are produced by distillation. 
This is far from being the case ; some of 
them would be seriously injured by such a 
process, and arc caught, and fixed, as it were, 
by what may be termed a fat-trap. In the 
(lower season at Cannes plates of glass are 
thinly covered with clarified inodorous fat ; 
upon or undor this fat the flowersare placed, 
and the power this substance has to absorb 
and retain perfumes is astonishing. On these 
sheets of glass the most delicate odors are 
thus fixed almost as securely as, on the collo¬ 
dion prepared plates, the most delicate pic¬ 
tures are retained. In this way the jessa¬ 
mine, the violet, the tuberose, and orange 
perfumes travel across France, and arrive 
here as pure as the day they were given 
forth from the flowers themselves. The 
emancipation of the odor from its imprison¬ 
ment is very simple ; the fat, cut into small 
cubes, is placed in spirits of wine, and the 
delicate essence immediately deserts the 
coarse fat for the more spiritual solvent. 
Mr. Piesse, in his interesting work on per¬ 
fumery, says that, “while cultivators of 
gardens spend t housands for the gratification 
of the eye, they altogether neglect, Hie nose. 
Why should we not grow flower* for their 
odors as well as colors ?” And we may add 
that ladies may easily utilize some of our 
own waste garden perfumes. Heliotrope, 
the lily of the valley, honeysuckle, myrtle, 
dove, pink, and wallflower perfumes, such 
as we get in the siiops, are made-up odors 
cunningly contrived from other flowers. 
Yet they may be made pure with a little 
trouble, “ 1 want heliotrope pomade ” says 
Mr. Piesse in ^despair ; “ I would buy any 
amount that I could get.” And the way to 
get it is very simple. If there is a glue-pot 
in the house, and it happens to be clean, fill 
it with clarified fat, set it near the hot-house 
fire, or any other fire, just to make the fat 
liquid, and throw in as many heliotrope 
flowers as possible ; let them remain for 
twenty-four hours, strain off the fat, and add 
fresh ones ; repeat this process for a week, 
and the fat will have become a pomade a la 
heliotrope. 
The same process may be gone through 
with all the other flowers mentioned. A lady 
may in this manner make her own perfume, 
and we may add, in the words of Mr. Piesse, 
“ one that she cannot obtain for love or 
money at the perfumer’s.” 
• -- 
SKILL OF EAST INDIAN BLACKSMITHS. 
An English paper narrates some facts con¬ 
cerning the native smiths of India which are 
very interesting r—A blacksmith of ordinary 
skill at Loodiaua, Northern India, is said to 
turn out capital Boxer catridges, while the 
ironworkers of Sealkote can convert an 
Enfield into a Snider with the utmost cor¬ 
rectness. In one instance the “job” was so 
neatly done that it was difficult to detect the 
difference between a Government weapon 
and that altered by the village blacksmith. 
Aud yet the whole of the breech-piece, in¬ 
cluding springs, was made at Sealkote. The 
rifle was sent to Calcutta for Lord Mayo’s 
inspection, and Colonel Norgate offered to 
convert any number of thousands of Enfields 
within a given time at 8 rupees 8 aunaseach. 
After some deliberation, however, the Gov¬ 
ernment considered that, though the work 
was remarkably cheap and solid, yet, for 
political reasons, this was a branch of industry 
not to be encouraged in our native subjects, 
and the matter accordingly dropped. There 
is a gun-maker at Mean Meer who produces 
long rifles which fire with greater accuracy 
up to 000 yards than any our arsenals supply. 
This worthy armorer is driving a great trade 
among the Khans and Khevls of his neigh¬ 
borhood. 
