402 
JUNE 48 
■weather; and now this dry soil near the sur¬ 
face, in my opinion, acts as a mulch in that it 
prevents moisture from passing off from below; 
but admits it free y from above. As proof of 
the correctness f this theory, let any one dig 
down a foot in w»*ll cultivated soil and see if it 
is not more moi-t than at the same depth in 
soil which has been allowed to become hard 
and baked A. w. 
The building in which the American Pome- 
logical Society had its birth has just been raz“d 
to the ground, and ire dust was covering the 
tables and desks of the Rural's office when I 
was last there. It stood at the corner of Nas¬ 
sau and B-ekman Streets, New York, and 
years ago was known as Clinton Hall. I was 
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangement 
and Reception, and I remember remaining in 
the hall more than half the night unpacking 
fruit and gelling things ready for the morrow, 
for the fruit was more, than was ever before or 
since seen on exhibition in New York, and 
continued to arrive all the next morning. 1 
remember, too. what efficient aid I received 
from Mr. Samuel AUcd, the father of your cor¬ 
respondent, Mr. A. B Allen. He was a most 
amiable and estimable gentleman, full of good 
works, and was then, I think, nearly 90 years 
old ; but, notwithstanding his great age, no 
other member of the committee for weeks gave 
me anything like the help he did. I was then 
but a young mau, aud felt that we ought to 
change places on the committee; but that 
would only have increased hie labors. I have 
a'wsys cherished hie memory kindly as one of 
the real fathers of the Society, not only assist¬ 
ing at the birth, but in the preparations for it. 
It has always been thought meet and proper to 
preserve the memory of the spot where great 
men were born and died; then why not so with 
the spot where a great society was born ? As 
to its death, i hope ji may so live that its death 
can OHly be recorded by some odo in that remote 
future ul which no one now living can have 
atty conception. Lit me add, too, my kindly 
wishes for my old iritnd, its venerable and re¬ 
spected President. May his latter day6 be as 
peaceful as his long life has been useful. 
Dobing a brief visit at the beautiful country 
s=iatoi Mr. H. W. Collender I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of becoming acquainted with a novel and 
quite original method of growing strawberries 
in pots. Mr. Collender last Fall ordered from 
a traveling agent (Goldie by name), claiming 
to represent a Rochester firm, quite a large 
number of pot-grown Btrawberry plants; but, 
for some reason, they were not delivered till 
this Spring. It was evident, on examination 
by Mr. C. and his gardener, that the plants had 
not been grown in pots, and investigation de¬ 
veloped the fact that the plants, jnst be¬ 
fore beiDg delivered, had been molded 
in pots with wet earth. This, however, 
had been so imperfectly done as to be¬ 
tray the trick by the falling away of the 
earth, and exposing the doubled-up roots. 
Moreover, there are parties who claim to have 
seen the thing done. It is not to be supposed 
that any respectable house in Rochester was a 
party to such a transaction. Mr. Collender, 
then, paid the additional price for pot-grown 
plants (and that, too, in the Spring) without 
reaping any of the benefits to be derived from 
them. He will hereafter do as I have before 
advised the readers of the Rural to do—buy 
his pot-grown plants directly of responsible 
firms, aud let traveling agents severely alone. 
I am more than ever surprised this 8priDg to 
see how few understand the usual directions 
for sowing seed. When it is directed to “ sow 
in drills half an inch deep,” the drill is made 
half an inch deep, and the seed, when covered, 
is scarcely even a quarter of an inch deep. The 
phrase is taken in its literal sense, and it is a 
pity that any one should be led astray for thus 
giviDg a phrase Us legitimate meaning. By 
usage among seedsmen and others, however, 
and a sort of uncouth antiphrasis, the sentence 
is intended to mean that the setd should be 
sown half an inch deep in drills. To accomplish 
this, the drills should be nearly or quite an 
inch deep, as they are commonly made, as the 
hoe throws the earth up at least half an inch 
above the level of the soil, aud sometimes 
more. Complaints of bad seeding are very com¬ 
mon, but a very large percentage of failures 
in the growth of seed may be imputed to bad 
sowing rather than to bad 6eed. Being too 
near the surface, in a loose bed of earth, the 
bud burns off the germ on its first appearauce ; 
and this is especially the case in dry weather 
when no pains are taken to bring the seed and 
the soil in contact with each other. The pea 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
will bear, and even needs in our climate, deeper 
covering than almost any other seed ; and yet 
the covering in some cases is so shallow that 
many of the seed are pushed out of the grouud 
in the act of germination, of which I have iuet 
seen a marked instance in the garden of a new 
subscriber to the Rural. People who seed the 
pea in this way seldom or never get much of a 
late crop; it is neither peas for themselves 
nor peace for the seedsman. My observation 
has taught me that too shallow sowing, with 
neglect of pressing the earth to the seed in 
dry weather, is a much too common cause of 
failure in the germination of seed. Shallow 
sowing will do very well when the soil is suffi¬ 
ciently moist; but it is better not to trust too 
much to this. 
How are the potato beetles this Spring at the 
Rural Farm ? [Never more flourishing —Ens.] 
Did anybody ever before know these pestB to 
begin their destructive work so early in the 
season ? I have been down along the Dela¬ 
ware River, and there the beetles were sitting 
in the fields in companies, waiting for the po¬ 
tatoes to come up, and a shoot was pounced 
upon the moment it appeared above grouud. 
The beetles seem to be more numerous than 
ever. 
[Wb beg to make a remark. Everybody has 
said, •• Destroy the old beetles as fast as they 
appear in the Spring. Hand-pick them. If 
the old ones are destroyed, there will be no 
young ones,” etc. Last year we went over our 
potatoes almost daily and destroyed the old 
beetles. The leaves were also carefully exam¬ 
ined and all eggs destroyed. We watted to 
make our woi k thorough—to test the utility 
of this destruction of the parent beetles. Ntv- 
erthelesB the grubs appeared in quantities 
never before so great. These were destroyed 
by Loudon-purple. This year there are more 
old beetles—two to one—than ever before. 
They ate the shoots when, and as, they first 
appeared. But in a few dsya they began to 
mate, and then ceased to eat. At this writing 
our vines are '* alive ” with old beetles, and the 
orange clusters of eggs appear on many leaves. 
We shall wait a few days until the eggs are 
mostly hatched and then shower the vines with 
Paris-green or London-purple. We believe 
that this is the easiest aud most effectual 
method of dealing with the potato beetle. The 
theory of destroying the parent beetles seems 
quite reasonable. The Rural has given the 
same advice for years. The fact is, however, 
they cannot be destroyed ty poison because 
they eat so Jittle, aDd haud-picking, if ever so 
thorough, seems scarcely to lessen their num¬ 
bers, while it lakes an amount of time which 
farmers cannot aff >rd.—Eos ] 
In a recent ride on the Central Railroad of 
New Jersey to Trenton Junction I was sur¬ 
prised to find, between Elizabeth and that 
place, not more than half a dozen apple or¬ 
chards in Bight from the cars. The peach 
Beems to be considered more profitable. Of 
corn there is no end. Potatoes are also largely 
grown, and in every field I saw boys aud girls 
engaged in picking beetles in tin pails. This 
is better, if not cheaper, than Paris-green, 
London-purple or any other dangerous poison. 
The boys aud girls are paid so much a quart 
for the season, and, I was told, do the work 
thoroughly. Wheat is more common than rye 
along the road, and looks well, except some 
fields on low ground, which looked patchy 
from winter-killing. I saw veiy few oats. 
Dairy farming aud the breeding of choice cat¬ 
tle seem to be greatly on the increase. Mr. 
Farley has recently purchased a fine farm near 
Trenton, in addition to his farm at Cresskill, 
aud has just added some choice animals to his 
fine herd of Jerseys. I find this to be the fa¬ 
vorite breed of cattle in this part of the 
country. _ 
Much has been said, and justly, in praise of 
the superb roses grown at Madison, N. J.; but 
even the Madison roses have not surpassed, 
except in quantity, the splendid roses grown 
at Baronald, Orange Mountain, the beautiful 
residence of Mrs, William Barr. The Niphetos 
aud Perle des Jaidius were simply the finest 1 
have yet seen. The Mardchal Niel blooms, too, 
were very large and as pretty as pictures, and 
fine oues at that; besides, they were grown on 
old plants, and that is the point 1 wish to bring 
out. Complaint# of the fickleness of the Mare- 
chal come literally from all parts of the world, 
and have for years. It surprises me, however, 
that it fails so soon in our Southern States, 
rarely surviving a few years. The cause I do 
not propose to discuss just now. I will state 
my belief, however, that our Southwestern 
friends will never succeed with it as an out¬ 
door plant. 
I wish to state briefly the manner in which 
the Niel is grown at Mrs. Ban ’s, which may be 
useful to rose growers generally. Having two 
old plants of Laraarque, they were budded near 
the stock with Marshal Niel. The buds took 
kindly, and the growth was everything that 
could be wished for, without being rampant. 
The growth has remained healthy and the 
flowers have been abundant, large and perfect. 
I counted 142 expanded buds the last time I 
saw the plant, and a basketful bad been cut the 
dav before. The house is not large, hut it has 
a natural earth floor, with an abundance of 
moisture, aud a temperature somewhat above 
that of the average greenhouse. The pitch 
of the roof iB low, and the plant is trained 
about 20 inches from the glass. On a lead¬ 
ing shoot of one of the Lamarque plants buds 
of the Niphetos were put in about 20 inches 
apart, took well, and produce splendid flow¬ 
ers of that fine rose in the greatest abun¬ 
dance. Further aloDg on the same shoot buds 
of the Perle des .Jardins were more recently 
put in, and have done even better than the 
Niphetos. As I looked at the flowers produced 
from these buds I thought the Perle one of 
the most beautiful roses 1 ever saw. Here, 
then, are two roses commonly thought to be 
intractable (the Niel and the Nlpbetoe) grow¬ 
ing in a most acceptable manner grafted on 
the Lamarque, the Niel being quite free from 
the ordinary slow deeay which often over¬ 
takes it while still young, and the Niphetos 
blooming in quite an off-hand manner. It is 
no new thing, of course, to bud roses id this 
way; but the experiment of the Niel on an 
old but healthy Lamarque, with abundant 
moisture from the natural soil, and something 
more than the common greenhouse tempera¬ 
ture, is worth a trial by all lovers of that splen¬ 
did rose. 
Thk Siyrax Japonica, I am veiy 9onv tOBay, 
was killed to the snow line la6t Winter. It ts 
so really handsome in all respects that I had 
hoped it would prove to be hardy during our 
coldest Winters; but 19 degrees below zero 
seems to be a little too much for it. Briow 
the snow line it was not injured in the least. I 
should like to bear from others in regard to 
the hardiness of this fine shrub, for I am very 
loath to give it up. 
I have peen no 6hrub tbiB season more beau¬ 
tiful than Exochorda grandifloru (Spiraea gran- 
diflora of some catalogues). It is not only beau¬ 
tiful, but stately and picturesque. It should 
be better known than it is. I find but few who 
have ever heard of it. Why will not nursery¬ 
men tiy to overcome the difficulties of its 
propagation, aud put the price down to a rea¬ 
sonable figure ? I know it can be growu from 
the green wood ; but the rule is now too com¬ 
mon to grow only those things which can be 
propagated easily, and this may be because 
people are unwilling to pay for a little extra 
trouble. 
At Newburgh the Cercis Japonica, I find, is 
not quite hardy in a Winter like that just past. 
C Silrquastrum was unharmed. C. Japonica, 
with me, had an inch or two of the last growth 
killed, but in other respects was uninjured, 
and flowered as grandly as ever. It is a little 
beauty. 
I have at present about 150 varieties of 
strawberries, and of these the Garden will be 
the first to ripen, Burr’s New Pine the second, 
and Erebus the third. I have at this time (June 
6 ) berrieB on each of them nearly ripe. The 
Duchess, about eight feet off, has not yet be¬ 
gun to color. The Bidwell, right beside it, 
looks as if it mhrht ripen first. The Bidwell, 
by the way. is showing an immense crop. 
But wait a few days. 
The Cuthbert and the Montclair have now 
(June 6) only a few flowers out. The Caro¬ 
line, near by, is nearly done blooming, has 
berries as large as Marrowfat Peas, and is a 
mass of fruit from the ground to a hight of 
nearly eight feet. The New Rochelle is not 
much behind it. 
I wrote “delicious Teltow Turnip,’’ not 
yellow turnip. The Teltow is not that kind. 
Hohticola. 
-- » ■ - 
GARDEN HINTS. 
I find eternal vigilauce iB the price of suc¬ 
cess in gardening. The turnip fly has done 
more damage to my cabbage plants this year 
than ever before, and I have to keep them well 
dusted with wood ashes. 1 raise cabbage 
plants to sell, and furnish moBt of the farmers 
In thisviciniiy. For varieties, I sowed this year 
one ounce of Early Wioningstadt, twoouuces 
of Filder'eKraut, four ounces of Fotler Drum¬ 
head, four ounces of Premium Flat Dutch. This 
I consider a very good list of varieties. Cab¬ 
bage plants are greatly improved by being 
transplanted into other beds, three or four 
inches apart. After being bo treated they may 
be taken to the field and set out almost as well 
in dry as in moist weather. 
I have just finished brushing peas, and I am 
not sony. I have what would make a contin¬ 
uous row 240 rods long, all thoroughly brushed. 
It was quite a job to brush them, but it will 
pay in the picking alone. For varieties, 1 
planted 24 quarts of Laxton’s Alpha, 12 quarts 
of Champion, and 6 quarts of Yorkshire Hero. 
By the way, these last are a very fine pea. 
They grow about three feet high, with very 
strong vines, and require but very little brush, 
and for quality they are unsurpassed. For 
brush I use mostly beech, as this is usually 
fan-ffiaped. I set the brush on each side of 
single rows. I have not found double rows 
desirable, as in that case the peas are not usual¬ 
ly planted deep enongb. Peas should be plant¬ 
ed at least five inches deep, and the soil left 
light upon the seed—not pressed down as in 
case of shallow planting; and if from heavy 
rains the soil becomes crusted before the peas 
are up. a rake may be drawn lengthwise of the 
rows with benefit. Adklbert Wakefield, 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
[Several years ago we tried the experiment of 
planting peas at various depths from one to 
six inches. Those planted at a depth of three 
inches were most productive.— Eds ] 
Jficli) Crops. 
ABOUT POTATOES. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
Top, or Eye Ends, vermin Butt, or Stem Ends. 
Some people assert that there is no differ - 
euce in the yield of either end; others are 
equally positive to the coutrary; others, 
again, go so far as to reject the butt ends as 
useless, regarding the eye or top end only aB 
fit for planting, i have tested the matter sev¬ 
eral times during the last dozen years, chiefly 
with Early Rose and Ohio, and the results 
have always been in favor of the butt ends, yet 
I should not discard either eud as unfit to UBe. 
Seeing a statement last Spring by some 
would-be authority to the effect that there 
was no difference, or, if auy, it was iu favjr of 
the top ends, induced rue to try once more to 
prove the correctness of my position. I U6ed 
Early Ohio and Beauty of Hebron with the fol¬ 
lowing results, as my notes show : 
The butt ends were ahead in strength and 
vigor the season through. The difference was 
so apparent that auy one could see it at a 
glance. On the first trial of the Otiios the 
butt row gave the best yield. Again, July 2S, 
during “ Horticola's ” visit, further trial was 
made for his inspection, with the same result. 
On August 4th. a part of the butt end row gave 
51J pounds, while the same length of the top 
end row alongside gave 41 pounds—a further 
confirmation of all previone trials, so that I 
am willing to regard the fact as established 
respecting I his variety at least, and 1 am not 
ready to except the Early Rose until an equal 
number of trials result difft-iently. 
Now comes the Beauty of nebron which 
seems to take the negative side of the question. 
On August 24 the same length of rows as of 
Ohio were dug alongside the latter, the butt 
row giving 74 pounds and the top row 81J 
pounds. Again, on September 13th au equal 
length of Beauty of Hebron rows was dug with 
the following results: butts, 63i pounds; tops, 65 
pounds, the excess iu each case being in small 
potatoes. With this variety the difference is 
slightly iu favor of. the tops aud if further 
trials should result similarly it would Beem 
that varieties vary iu this respect and this may 
account for the different opinions entertained 
in this matter. The facts are valuable as facts, 
even if unimportant in other respects. 
I have grown the Early Ohio ever since its 
introduction, even before it was christened (it 
was first sent out a9 Early Reese or Reese’s 
Early), and I have yet to find a better early po¬ 
tato or an earlier one. It lacks productiveness 
with me, but there are comparatively no small 
ones. Some have claimed th at it is as pro¬ 
ductive as the Early Rose or more so, but I do 
not find it 60 . The BeauIy of Hebron is nearly 
or quite as good, not quite as early but more 
productive and a valnable acquisition. Thanks 
to the Rural for doing so much towards dis¬ 
seminating it. I hope the White Elephant 
will prove as valuable, but “Jerusalem!” 
what a name for a potato; it is a load to carry 
of itself. I sappose thoneauds of Rural 
readers are in a fair way to realize what it ia 
to have an elephant on their hands. Potato 
bugs are unusually numerous. Fight them 
early and often ; to destroy the first crop of 
beetle^ is the most important step, as they are 
the advance guard and main army combined. 
Montclair, N. J. 
- 
CORN FERTILIZATION. 
A note on page 341 of the Rural attracts 
my attention somewhat. It is with reference 
to the pollenutiou of corn. It is very difficult 
to show how so many varieties intermix. It 
can be clearly and easily shown how three or 
four standard (fixed) kiuds may mix and how 
the tassel of a single stalk will produce no 
grain uuluss fertilized by the pollen of another. 
Corn is monoecious—having the staminute 
(male) and pistillate (female) In different 
flowers on the same plant. If one kernel each 
of a standard white dent, yellow dent, sweet 
and pop corn be planted close together and all 
