MOORE’S RURAL WSW-YORKER. 
IE? . 
Jmtosfpl §fo$ii[ss. 
among the farmers of western 
NEW YORK. 
FROM the valley of the Oatka eastward the 
first mile is a steep ascent. As we rise we 
look back upon a beautiful tree-embowered 
village, the capital of Wyoming County, 
extending quite across the valley. At our 
right, on the brow of the hill, nearly 300 feet 
above the village, is a white paling, inclosing 
the reservoir from which the villagers are 
supplied with water. The great pressure 
renders firo-engines unnecessary—a hose at¬ 
tached to a hydrant in any part of the vil¬ 
lage throwing water as high as any building. 
The country papers are printed by power 
derived from the same source. 
The farmers are generally at work in their 
barley fields, mowing, heaping up or draw, 
ing. The abundance of heaps indicates a 
good crop. Now and then we seo a field of 
wheat which has stood or lain out during 
the last ten days of wet weather. The sea¬ 
son has been a moist one. and pastures and 
meadows look fresh and green. Oats look 
well and are nearly ready to cut. Potatoes 
do not appear to have been injured by the 
potato beetle. 
Near Burke Hill we spend an hour at a 
pleasant farm house, the early home of 
Senator J. W. Booth of New York. His 
aunt, Mrs. Booth, with whom he was 
brought up, still resides here with her 
youngest daughter. The next older daugh¬ 
ter is preceptress of a State normal school. 
The twi older daughters are living on fine 
farms in the neighborhood. The only son is 
James Booth, Esq., of Rochester. 
At Perry Center we passed the night at the 
early borne of Prof. E. A. Sheldon of the 
Oswego State Normal School. His parents, 
a brother and his wife and a maiden sister 
are still living here. His mother, eighty- 
seven years of age, is a lady of great intelli¬ 
gence and rare conversational powers. She 
still r^ains her position in the Sabbath 
school as teacher of the adult Bible class. 
We were shown the first four numbers of a 
series of school readers edited by Prof. 
Sheldon and published by Messrs. Scrib¬ 
ner, Armstrong & Co. The beautiful and 
striking delineations of country life with 
which they are illustrated show that the au¬ 
thor is at home with nature. 
Here is the farm of Assemblyman Tewks¬ 
bury, with its fine orot ards. Apple trees, 
old and young, are abundant, but apples are 
scarce. Almost every pear tree we see Is 
loaded with fruit. Mr. TEWKSBURY has one 
tree from which ho expects to gather four 
barrels of Bell pears. Some farms have no 
roadside fences, the land being tilled to the 
very track—a double profit, saving the cost 
of fence and gaining a crop. Here is a farm 
which has in the place of tte customary un¬ 
sightly fence a low, well-trimmed hedge of 
honey locust. Within and without the land 
is cultivated quite up to the hedge. This is 
beautiful and practical. The corn fields 
along the whole route excite our admiration. 
Much of the corn was lute-planted, but it is 
uniformly good. 
At Perry we found our friend Olin of the 
Silver Lake Nurseries, with his men, cleaning 
a block of young everg.eens. He showed us 
a block of fine standard pears and plums, 
blocks of apples of different ages from one to 
four years, some well-loaded grape vines of 
choice varieties, four acres of hops from 
which he has received .38,000 in four years, a 
greenhouse containing many fine stock plants 
and a variety of hardy ornamental stock. 
On the "Genesee Flats, near Mount Morris, 
are the apple and pear nurseries of Messrs. 
Hexner & Parker. Here are thousands of 
apple and pear trees in all stages of growth. 
A gang of hands under the supervision of 
Mr. Parker are budding apple trees. Di¬ 
rections such as the surroundings suggest 
for raising fruit' trees from the seed may in¬ 
terest young farmers of small means. By 
beginning at once and doing the work well a 
farmer may raise a bearing orchard of 1,000 
trees without expense as soon as one who 
buys his trees, thereby doubling the value of 
the land occupied. 
Select this fall a'barrel of fair apples from 
vigorous trees. During the winter take out 
the cores, crush them without bruising the 
seed, wash out the seed, select that which is 
plump, and keep it well till spring. As early 
as the ground can be worked prepare a strip 
of rich garden soil by working it deep and 
fine and raking it smooth. Drop the seed 
about two inches apart in ro <vs about fifteen 
inches apart, cover with half an iuch of fine 
J soil, and roll, Keep the ground clear of 
weeds through the season. In October pull 
up the young trees, tie them in bunches of 
fifty, set the roots in boxe3 of moist sand on 
the cellar bottom. Examine occasionally 
during the winter to see that they do not 
become dry, nor too wet, so as to mold. In 
early spring shorten the roots to four inches, 
cut off the top, leaving only two or three 
buds, and plant them out in well prepared 
land, eight inches apart in the row, and in 
rows four feet apart. Set by a lino with a 
dibble or sharp stick, crowding the dirt 
against the root. Finish by treading both 
sides of the row. Leave only the buds above 
ground. Keep the ground clean and mel¬ 
low. The latter part of July or the.first 
part of August, when you find that the hark 
is loose, bud close to the ground, with such 
varieties as you wish, all the stocks that are 
large enough, one • fourth inch or larger, 
leaving smaller ones till the next year. The 
next spring cut off all above the bud. The 
bud will make a shoot from two to four feet 
the first season. The next spring, when the 
buds ha ve started enough to rub off readily, 
remove all except a few at the top. These 
will make branches and furnish leaf-surface 
for this year's growth. After these branches 
have become six or eight inches long, select 
the most upright one for the leader and nip 
the ends of the others to check their growth. 
In March following with a sharp knife trim 
off all these branches smooth and cut the 
leader back close to a strong bud. This bud 
will again make the leader, and a few below 
it may be left again for branches. If the 
ground was in good condition at first and has 
been kept clean and mellow, you will have 
for planting out in orchard the coming fall 
or spring fine three-years-old trees, t he best 
size for transplanting. If they are not of 
uniform size, the lai’gest may be planted out 
and the rest worked another year where 
they are. If you do not understand the bud¬ 
ding process, you may learn it from previous 
numbers of the Rural New-Yorker, from 
Barry’s or Thomas’ Fruit Book, or by visit¬ 
ing the nearest nursery in budding time. It' 
you prefer, you may store cions the first fall 
and graft into the roots of the seedlings in 
the winter, instead of budding in summer, 
planting out the grafts in the spring. 
Warsaw, N. Y. C. H. Dann. 
§u[kricttltural. 
ENGLISH IVY. 
The usR of English ivies for the purpose of 
decorating living rooms is more extensive 
every year aud cannot he too highly com¬ 
mended. Being very stroug, they will live 
through anj' treatment ; but study their pe¬ 
culiarities and manifest will inguess to gratify 
them and they will grow without stint. Many 
houses are too hot for thorn, as indeed they 
are for their owners. Neither plants nor 
people should have the temperature over 65° 
Fahrenheit. Take care nob to cnfeenle your 
ivies by excessive watering or undue heat, 
and you will see they will not seem to mind 
whether the sun shines on them or not, or in 
what position or direction you train them. 
Iadeed, so much will they do themselves to 
render a room charming, that we. would 
rather have an unlimited number of them to 
draw upon than anything in nature or art. 
Do you wish the ugly plain doors that shut 
off your tiny entry to be arched or curved, 
like those in the drawing-rooms of your 
richer neighbor ? Buy a couple of brackets, 
such as lamps for the burning of kerosene 
s,re placed in and screw them in the sides of 
the door. Put in each a plant of English ivy, 
longer the better ; then train the plants over 
the top, against the sides—indeed, any way 
your faucy dictates. You need not buy the 
beautiful (but costly) pots the fiower dealer 
will advise ; common glazed ones will answer 
every purpose, for by placing m each two or 
three sprays of Coliseum ivy, in a month’s 
time no vestige of the pot itself can be dis¬ 
cerned through their thick screen. 
The English ivy growing over the wali3 of 
a building, instead of promoting dampness, 
as most persons would suppose, is said to be 
a remedy for it, and it is mentioned as a fact 
that in a certain room where damp had pre¬ 
vailed fora length of time, the affected parts 
inside had become dry when ivy had grown 
up to cover the opposite exterior side. The 
close, overhanging, pendant leaves prevent 
the rain or moisture from penetrating to the 
wall. Beauty and utility in this case go hand 
in hand .—Journal of Horticulture. 
-♦+«-- 
Tree Planting will soon be In order again, 
in orchards, gardens, lawns, etc., and we 
trust our readers will provide both the use¬ 
ful and ornamental accessories of the farm 
or suburban residence, 
dbrnkit. 
MARKET FOR PICKLED CUCUMBERS. 
An Ohio subscriber to the Rural New 
Yorker asks ns to inform him what city 
furnishes the best market for pickled cu¬ 
cumbers, also what is the best manner of 
putting up, and what style of packages sell 
most readily. Pickled cucumbers are most 
largely grown around Now York and other 
large cities, where the price is generally 
low, 18 to 25c. per 100 being the usual range. 
As a rule, the larger the city the better it is 
supplied with vegetables of all kinds and the 
lower the price. Not only pickled cucum¬ 
bers, bub all vegetables which will bear 
transportation are shipped widely from New 
York markets and sold often at double or 
treble New York rates to villages 20 to 100 
miles distant, The market for p : cbled cu¬ 
cumbers varies very widely, according to 
season. After such a moist season as the 
present they will probably rule very low, as 
vines bear more freely, though we suspect 
that the vine borer is more lively and de¬ 
structive. in moist weather. There is ulso a 
great difference in price of cucumber pickles 
at different times in the same year, the price 
advancing after pickling, and especially after 
putting in vinegar. We have known green 
cucumbers to be a drug in Rochester, N. Y., 
in August, at 25c. per 100, and eight mouths’ 
later be scarce at 31 per 100 in brine, and 
81.15 to 81.25 in vinegar. 
We can’t tell our correspondent where his 
best market is to be found. His method will 
be to make h : s own market — go to the vil¬ 
lages' nearest him and offer cucumbers so 
cheaply that every one will be tempted to 
buy ; then put up what he cannot readily 
sell according to methods recommended in 
the Rural New-Yorker, and sell the bal¬ 
ance iu winter and spring in suit, or better 
still, iu strong vinegar, ready for use. By 
thus making a market l'or his crop, he need 
not trouble himself about fashions in the 
way of pickling, size, or stylo of packages. 
It will be slow work at first cieating a mar¬ 
ket, but It is work that needs to be done, 
and will pa.y for doing. Iu partial compen¬ 
sation for slowness of sales, the Introducers 
of vegetable novelties may rightfully charge 
higher prices than would he possible if a 
market were already well-established. The 
success of Now York market gardeners is 
not due bo high prices, for nowhere in this 
country arc vegetables so cheap as in New 
York markets. They succeed because they 
understand every point in growing vegeta¬ 
bles cheaply, and ulso because they have 
created a ready market for all they can 
grow. The people of New York eat more 
vegetables per capita than those of any other 
city. Most American villages and small 
cities have miserable supplies of vegetables, 
and it is truth to say that the demand is 
equally iasignifleanb. What wa need is that 
people everywhere shall be educated to the 
use of as many vegetables as any people now 
do. When this result is reached we shall 
have no further difficulties from over-pro- 
ductiou of the few leading staples which 
American farmers now produce. 
-♦ » » 
ONION SETS. 
The Vermont Watchman refers to a prac¬ 
tice of some market gardeners of the Middle 
States, who sow onion seed late in the fall 
and leave it in the ground during the winter 
for an early crop the next year. Our con¬ 
temporary remarks that the severe winters 
in Vermont would interfere, with such a 
practice, and advises instead sowing onion 
seed so late iu the fall that it will not germi¬ 
nate until the next season. A much bettor 
plan, and the one generally adopted by mar¬ 
ket gardeners near New York, is to sow the 
onion seeds very thickly in a poor piece of 
ground in September, and grow seta for 
planting the' following year. The ground 
should be free from weeds and not rich, as 
the object is to secure sets as small as pos¬ 
sible,’ the tendency being, if too largo, to run 
to seed instead of becoming bulbs. The 
onions from these sets are very early, and as 
they are planted in rich, mellow sod, the 
labor of caring for them is much less than 
it would be if they were left in the ground 
over winter or grown from seed iu the 
spring. The thick seeding in the fall is im¬ 
portant, nob only to secure a small size of 
sets, but for economy iu land aud water. A 
few feet square thickly sown will produce 
an immense number of sets, which are gen¬ 
erally worth from 86 to 812 a bushel in the 
New York market, and some tunes even 
more, The smaller the size the greater the 
value per bushel, These sets are easily win¬ 
tered, and all who wish early onions next 
spring should prepare now by sowing seed 
for sets. 
- - - 
GARDENERS’ NOTES. 
For the Onions .—I notice that a corre¬ 
spondent in Rural New-Yorker of July 3 
asks what t5 do for onion maggots. I would 
say that hen manure, diluted with water, 
but made very stroug and poured on the 
onions, will kill the maggots aud make the 
onions grow. Hope ho will make the trial 
and report to Rural.—E. P., Borne, Oneida 
Co., N. Y. 
Strawberries .—Do not sow your strawberry 
patches with plaster. The great growth of 
clover which it will cause will ruin the plants 
in u single year. Nov/- that the strawberry 
season is over, it is a good plan to mow the 
patch, cutting weeds and berry vines to the 
ground; (hen cultivate, aud the plants will 
start and grow with renewed vigor. 
(Momologtntl 
SECOND BROOD OF THE TEN-LINERS. 
Many of our farmers about New York 
City paid very little or no attention to the 
first brood of Colorado Potato beetles which, 
appeared early iu the season. In a few in¬ 
stances they wero picked off by baud, there 
being comparatively few ; others did nothing 
towards destroying tin's peat. The conse¬ 
quences are, as might have been expected, 
an immense increase In the second brood 
which has appeared during the past two 
weeks. Early varieties are beyond injury, 
but the late sorts are far from being out of 
danger, and the beetles or the larva-, literally 
swarm over many fields where few or none 
were seen a few weeks earlier. Now if this 
late breed escapes destruction, a still greater 
number of these beetles will appear next sea¬ 
son, and every farmer who has the least re¬ 
gard for his own or neighbor’s interest in 
potato culture, should make war upon the 
insect in whatever stage he happens to find it. 
Every one who neglects to destroy these 
insects as they appear upon his premises, is 
guilty of a neglect of duty ; for one niau in a 
neighborhood who fails to do his part in this 
matter thwarts, in a great measure, the ef¬ 
forts of others in ridding a locality of this 
pest. It does not sound well for a farmer to 
say, “ My potatoes are out of danger, and 
other folks must look out for themselves,” 
for tills disposition would soon annihilate all 
the little amenities of life which, in a great 
measure, make up the pleasures of mankind 
mid rat-6 us above the level of brutes. No 
true gentleman will shrink from doing his 
part in lighting a common enemy, no matter 
iu what form it may appear; and those who 
do, should at once be made to feci the pen¬ 
alty of a willful neglect of a plain duty. 
Where a “sloth” in this matter of lighting 
Colorado beetles is discovered, his neighbors 
must act in concert in compelling him to 
clear his own grounds. It is also quite prob¬ 
able that an act of the Legislature of each 
State will yet be necessary to force the stu¬ 
pid, indolent members of society to do their 
part in destroying this pest. 
-- 
I A HANDSOME SPHINX MOTH. 
Ella Dalson of Michigan City, Indiana, 
sends us a very pretty sphinx moth, which 
she captured during a morning ramble, and 
asks ils name. The comtnou name of the 
group to which this moth belongs are called 
“ Sphinges,” or Sphinx, because their larvas 
or caterpillars have a habit of holding their 
heads erect, assuming a somewhat fanciful 
resemblance to the Sphinx of the Egyptians. 
But they are more commonly known in this 
country by the name of Humming Bird 
moths, for in their flight aud mode of extract¬ 
ing honey from flowers they resemble the 
Humming Birds. 
There are a great many species of these 
moths, but the one you sent is known to En¬ 
tomologists as Phitampelus aehemon. The 
caterpillars of these moths feed upon the 
leaves of grape vines and other closely-allied 
plants, and this suggested the generic name 
FMlampdus, which signifies “lover of the 
vine,” or as Mr. Harris translates it, “I 
love the vine.” 
-#-*-*-- 
Cut-Worm among the Tobacco.— A York 
(Pennsylvania) paper says ’ Tobacco grow¬ 
ers are troubled very much thi3 year by the 
cut worm. One man in Lancaster County 
put out 2,700 plants, and In twenty-four hours 
all but three were destroyed. A ring of 
wheat brau placed around each plant will 
protect io from the worm. The bran being 
sweet, the worm will eat it in preferetce to 
the tobacco. After eating, the worms be¬ 
comes sick and many of them die, while thi 
others can be easily killed,” 
