466 
THE BUBAL 
■V OBKEB 
JULY 46 
no doubt of its value. I kept my peace, and 
enjoyed a quiet eatiefaction. 
The Lincoln Strawberry, on the grounds of 
Mr. .Peter Henderson, bore a splendid crop of 
large berries this season. When suited in soil 
and season, the Lincoln is probably the best of 
all the very large berries. It is the largest 
berry I have ever grown. 
Speaking of large strawberries, the Shirts 
must take its place among them. It is not 
only a large, but a good berry. It is only just 
now, however, (June25'.h.) ripening with me, 
and 1 will speak of it again. I may say, in 
this connection, that another new beny was 
proposed to be called Crinoline, but the name, 
I believe, has very properly been dropped. 
Shirts is the name of the gentleman who raised 
the berry so named, and, therefore, is all well 
enough, though sadly provocative to the 
punning propensity. 
I am glad to find that the editor of the Lon¬ 
don Garden is of tnv opinion, that Exochorda 
grandiflora is one of the very finest white flow¬ 
ering shrubs tD cultivation. He calls it the 
Pearl Bush, and it certainly is a pearl among 
bushes. It seems to be rare also in England, 
and from the same cans s that obtains here, 
the difficulty of propagating it, which difficul¬ 
ty, as I have before said, nurserymen ought to 
overcome. The plant is worth having at al¬ 
most any price. 
In my allusion to Mr. Samuel Allen, I said 
he was nearly ninety years of age; but I would 
have been nearer the trutb if I had said nearly 
eighty. After much thinking I can remember 
what misled me, which was nothing less than 
one of the many humorous jokeB of the late 
Mayor Harper. 1 might have passed the mat¬ 
ter over as a typographical blunder, but the 
poor printer has enough to bear; besides, it is 
my habit always to acknowledge an error when 
I make one. 
In putting out celery plants it is a veiy com¬ 
mon practice in the garden to shade them with 
boards or otherwise. My practice for many 
years has been either to puddle them before 
planting, or to give them a thorough soaking 
Immediately after it, and I have always found 
the plants to do better than when shaded. If 
planted during or just after a good rain, the 
plants will take care of themselves. Where it 
can be done as well as not, especially during 
dry weather, it is a good plan to put the plants 
out in the afternoon rather than in the morn¬ 
ing. The night affords them time to recover 
in a great measure from the shock of removal. 
Horticola. 
Jfloricultttral. 
THE EOSE-COLOBED WEI6ELA. 
'To the late Mr. Robert Fortune we are in¬ 
debted for very many of our ornamental flow¬ 
ering shrub6, and among the finest of them, 
and one that should be found well grown by 
all who admire the beautiful, is the Rose-color¬ 
ed Weigela—Weigela rosea. A large specimen, 
eight feet high and fifteen feet iu circumfer¬ 
ence, is just now (June 9 b) in full bloom, and 
Isa “blaze of beauty,” if I may be permitted 
to use such a term. As the Rural New- 
Yorker is a journal for the suburban home as 
well as for the farm, I think a few words re¬ 
specting this charming shrub would not be out 
of place and might, perhaps, be of interest to 
some of its numerous readers. I would not 
wish to describe, or to ask any one of my read¬ 
ers to plant a tree or shrub that would not 
prove perfectly satisfactory in all respects, but 
I do know that this is a shrub that fully de¬ 
serves all that can be said in its praise. It is 
too often seen in a half-dead or halt-starved 
condition, and in this Btate no idea can be 
formed of its superb beauty. 
The Weigela, or Diervilla, rosea is a decidu¬ 
ous shrub growing about five feet high, of 
erect, compact growth with opposite, ellipti¬ 
cal, ovate leaves, producing its large rose 
colored, funnel-shaped flowers in large and 
graceful clusters from the axils of the leaves 
and the ends of the branches, in color varying 
from a pale rose to a deep pink. It belongs to 
the Natural Order. Caprifoliaceae, and was in¬ 
troduced from China by Mr. Fortune, who 
found it growing in a mandarin's garden on 
the Island of Chusan. Mr. Fortune also said 
that it was unknown in the southern provinces 
of China, and is not met with in the Chinese 
hills in a wild stato. It is therefore just pos¬ 
sible that it may have been originally intro¬ 
duced into China from Japan. ThiB, however, 
is only conjecture. It first flowered in England 
In April, 1849. 
Although it is a shrub of the easiest cultiva¬ 
tion, it requires some attention to grow it to 
perfection, and this attention should be given 
to enable it to produce satisfactory results. To 
grow it to perfection it should be given a deep, 
rich soil. A yearly dressing of well rotted 
leaf mold, or manure will answer if the mold 
cannot be obtained, and if the manure can be 
forked under so much the better. 
It should not be cut severely back so as to 
resemble a bundle of sticks, but several strong 
Bhoots Bhould be chosen for leaders. These 
will also throw out other shoots from different 
places, and when the plant comes into bloom, 
will bend to the ground from the weight of the 
large clusters of beautiful flowers. As before 
said, the boII must be deep and rich, and if not 
so naturally, it must be made so. This is a 
most essential point in the culture of this 
plant. After the flowering Beason is over, cut 
out all weak shoots and at the same time cut 
the plants back into shape. If toe leaders 
have a tendency to grow too rank, pinch them 
back so as to keep the plants in proper shape, 
but do not cut the plants back again until the 
flowering season is over. 
The Weigela can also be grown as a standard 
shrub by selecting one of the strongest shoots, 
fastening it to a stout stake so as to keep it 
erect and also to prevent it from being broken 
off while young. As soon as it reaches the 
desired bight, pinch back the shoot and re¬ 
move all the other shoots excepting those at 
tne top. As soon as those top shoots are five 
inches long, cut them back to three inches and 
continue this process for one season. After 
the second season the shoots will require to be 
pinched back occasionally during the season 
of growth so as to keep the plants in good 
shape. Care must also be taken to remove all 
suckers as soon as they are noticed ; thus 
grown the Weigela will prove to be peculiarly 
attractive and it will also admit of the grass 
underneath being cut by the mower. Propa¬ 
gation is effected by division of the plants, 
also by cuttings of the half-ripened wood, the 
latter method producing the strongest and best 
plants; but strong and healthy plants can be 
cheaply procured from any nurseryman or 
Chas. E. Parnell. 
Queens Co., L. L, N. Y. 
The Rough-Leaved Deutzia. 
I desire to cedi the attention of the readers 
of the Rural New-Yorker to the great value 
of the Rough-leaved Deutzia (Deutzia scabra) 
as a desirable flowering ornamental shrub, and 
as Ido not think it is as extensively cultivated 
as its merits entitle it to be, a few remarks 
on its culture, etc., may prove of interest. Dur¬ 
ing the last weeks of Juno we have not a very 
extensive variety of flowering shrubs to 
choose from, so that all shrubs flowering about 
that time Bhould be known to all lovers of ihe 
beautiful. The Detuzla scabra is a native of 
Japan whence it was introduced in 1833. 
When properly grown it forms an erect, bushy 
shrub, growing from seven to twelve feet high 
with ovate, acute, serrate, rough, opposite, 
dark-green leaves, its beautiful white flowers 
in dense clusters from the wood of the pre¬ 
vious season’s growth. It is a shrub of very 
easy culture, thriving in ordinary garden soil 
with but little care and attention; but to grow 
it to perfection it is necessary that the soil 
should be both rich and deep. A yearly dress¬ 
ing of well rotted manure or leaf mold should 
be given it. After the flowering season is over, 
cut out all weak and straggling shoots, also 
pinch back all those shoots that show a ten¬ 
dency to grow out of place. This is all the 
pruning that is required. If the plant be¬ 
comes too large it can be cut severely back 
during the Winter season, or after it is through 
flowering; but I would not advise any one to 
adopt this plan unless it is absolutely neces¬ 
sary. Propagation is effected by cuttings. 
Queens Co., L. I. C. E. P. 
Jarm toitomg. 
CLOVER AS A PREPARATION FOE 
WHEAT. 
PROFESSOR G. C. CALDWELL. 
It is universally acknowledged that clover 
before wheat leaves the Boil In a better condi¬ 
tion for wheat than wheat before wheat; but 
it is also true that wheat requires much assim¬ 
ilable nitrogen in the soil for a paying crop, 
while iu a crop of clover a much larger quan¬ 
tity of nitrogen is carried from the field than 
in a crop of wheat. This looks very much 
like eating our cake and having It too, which 
we have been taught from childhood up to be 
an impossibility. Can the curious fact be ex¬ 
plained, or do apparently imposssible things 
happen in the ordinary course of nature ? 
It is customary to account for this relation 
of the two cropB by supposing that clover 
gets its nitrogen largely from the air, through 
its abundant foliage, and in its large quantity 
of stubble and roots transfers the necessary 
supply of nitrogen to the soil for the wheat 
crop. Nearly all who adopt this explanation 
go no further than to suppose that only chem¬ 
ically combined nitrogen of the atmosphere, 
which exists there as ammonia or nitric acid, 
is thus carried to the soil. Ville, who is well 
known as a writer on agricultural chemistry, 
his work on chemical manures having been 
translated from the French, and who is accepted 
as authority too often simply because what he 
has to say is well presented, and the reader 
has no opportunity to verify hie conclusions, 
goes much further and affirms that the plant 
can assimilate or feed upon free or uncom¬ 
bined nitrogen. As this nitrogen makes up 79 
parts in 100 of the atmosphere, while of the 
combined nitrogen there are but a few parts 
in a thousand million, the question is an im¬ 
portant one, and it would seem that it might 
be easily answered ; but thousands on thous¬ 
ands of opinions and observations of farmers 
themselves cannot settle it; it can be solved 
only by careful experiments in which plants 
are forced to grow without any other Hitrogen 
than that in their seeds, and this free nitrogen. 
Three such series of experiments have been 
made—one by that veteran agricultural chem¬ 
ist, Boussingault, another by Ville and the 
third by Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh. The plain 
meaning of the results of the first and last 
series is that agricultural plants cannot thrive 
at all or make any normal amount ot growth, 
if confined to these two sources of supply, 
while Ville draws the opposite conclusion from 
his results. No one who knows the whole his¬ 
tory of these investigations is willing to adopt 
Villa’s conclusions. Although the last and 
most elaborate series of experiments was per¬ 
formed after bis own, by men of acknowl¬ 
edged reputation for scrupulous care and ac¬ 
curacy, and with results that tend most direct¬ 
ly to cast doubt on the reliability of his inves¬ 
tigations, he has never repeated his work, nor 
explained the discrepancy. That he still 
abides by his first conclusion 1 b shown in the 
recent translation above mentioned, where he 
affirms that free nitrogen is the most suitable 
form for leguminous plants. 
Now, if this is not true, and we insist that 
according to the best evidence it is not, the 
farmer who puts in clover to get a good wheat 
crop thereafter, is really only making some 
changes in the disposition of the nitrogen of 
his own soil, and drawing npon his stock of 
that substance both for the clover and the 
wheat, and is not adding anything of conse- 
quence to his available supply of plant nutri¬ 
ents j it is delusive teaching, for he who be¬ 
lieves l» it and grows clover much without 
manure is robbine his soil instead of enrich¬ 
ing it. Those who have given the most care¬ 
ful study to the comparative growth of clover 
and wheat find no evidence that the former 
has any notably greater power to live even on 
the combined nitrogen of the atmosphere 
than the wheat possesses. Mr. LaweB found, 
as the result of his long-continued experiments, 
that “ in soils poor in available or accumu¬ 
lated nitrogen both the growth and the after 
effect of clover were less than iu soils richer iu 
available nitrogen”—“that clover can be 
grown less frequently than cereals on the same 
soil without manure,” and that it can be grown 
continuously only where the soil is more than 
commonly rich in available nitrogen as well as 
other plant food; at the same time he has 
proved by chemical analysis that clover stub¬ 
ble leaves the surface soil richer than before 
in nitrogen. 
These observations point plainly to the con¬ 
clusion that clover, like other plants, looks 
to the soil for everything except its carbon ; 
and,in ben efiting a subsequent crop by supplying 
It with a larger quantity of available nitrogen, 
it only moves this nitrogen from one part of 
the soil to another where the cereal can get 
it more easily; it may possess a greater pow¬ 
er of transforming unavailable soil-nitrogen 
into available nitrogen. Moreover, the cereal 
makes its most rapid and almost its entire 
growth in the early part of the season, while 
clover occupies the whole vegetative season. 
Many experiments indicate that nitrates or 
compounds of nitric acid contain the nitro 
gen in its most efficient form as plant food; 
nitrates are produced in the soil throughout the 
season by the oxidation of nitrogen In other 
forms, and are most abundant in late Sum¬ 
mer and early Autumn, when clover is still 
growing, while the cereal iB either off the 
ground, or, in the youngest stages of the new 
crop, Is making comparatively little growth. 
Clover sends its roots to a greater depth and 
gets food from a larger volume of soil than 
the cereal, which is a shallow feeder. ThuB 
though the crop carried off is large, the clover 
may yet leave in its stubble and roots a large 
quautity of the nitrogen that it has accumu¬ 
lated and in the surface soil where the shal¬ 
low feeder can find it. 
Thus it is evident that the relation of clo¬ 
ver to the cereals can be accounted for with¬ 
out assuming what is contrary to the results 
of the most careful investigations—that it 
feeds on free nitrogen, or even that it feeds 
directly on atmospheric nitrogen at all, either 
free or combined. It is entirely possible to 
explain this peculiar effect of clover on the 
succeeding cereal, by referring it simply to the 
different manner of growth of the two crops. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
Jiflii Crop. 
BLUE GRASS (Poa pratensis) IN THE 80UTH- 
WEST-BERMUDA GRASS. 
W. B. HILLGARP, 
This grass is, by almost nniversal consent, 
conceded to be the grazing grass, par excel¬ 
lence, of this continent. Kentucky has man¬ 
aged to make a special reputation for it, and 
it has unspeakably redounded to her material 
prospects and advantages. Almost the entire 
civilized world has come to concede the palm 
of superiority to the “Bine Grass region ’’ of 
Kentucky for stock raising. Some mysterious 
virtue has been imputed to that soil, of which 
it is supposed to be the exclusive possessor, 
and which it seems to be thought is unattain ¬ 
able elsewhere. 
There is nothing wonderful in this. Was 
there not a time when “ Goshen bntter” had 
its day and when many thought that it could 
not be equaled elsewhere? Did not New 
Jersey, 30 years ago, arrogate to herself to be 
about the only place where good peaches could 
be raised ? Later, did not Delaware “ follow 
suit,” and with more grounds for the claim ? All 
these claims are of the past. Kentucky raises 
fine Blue Grass. Her stock is the admiration 
of the world, Her people—particularly in the 
Blue Grass region—beggar panegyric; but Bhe 
has not a monopoly of Blue Grass. I have 
ridden for days over the very choicest Blue 
Grass farms in the Blue Grass region, and 
know whereof I speak, having made two trips 
iu different years for the especial purpose of in¬ 
spection. I have carefully noted Blue Grass 
everywhere I travel, and I travel at the North 
and West much during the Summer, taking 
notes in every case in sections I have never 
before visited. 
I do not know any grass that seems to “take" 
over so wide an area as Blue Grass. I see it 
growing here in the sandy land, and, only 
yesterday I saw a vigorous growth in a seam 
of the Custom House steps, in Mobile, and 
have seen it growing on the bare sandstone on 
the southern shore of Lake Superior in North¬ 
ern Wisconsin. It can be 6een along the mov 
ing sands in Michigan, along the eastern bor¬ 
der of the lake of that name. In Central 
Delaware, even in the sandy lands, the com¬ 
monest grass of the way-side is Blue Grass. In 
Southern Michigan, in the sandy lands there, 
it is considered next to a nuisance—because of 
its Interference with wheat—under the name 
of June Grass. Along the road-beds and in 
the fields in Illinois and Wisconsin aDd in Mis¬ 
souri, superb soda are to be seen. Even in 
Eastern Kansas it is occasionally seen. In¬ 
diana claims (and with j ustice) to be a fine 
Blue Grass State. Need I mention more? 
[We have at the Rural Farm as much Blue 
Grass as any other.— Eds.] In fact, given 
sufficient rainfall and Blue Grass will do well 
anywhere. In this I do not disparage Ken¬ 
tucky; I only do justice to other States and 
to the facts. 
Nor have I lost sight of a very important el¬ 
ement, viz., the quality of the grass. I cheer¬ 
fully admit that the ingredients of the soil in 
Kentucky are contributary to the quality of 
the grass and that the former explain the fine 
frames of the Kentucky stock. The lime In 
the soil of that Stale explains the quality of the 
grass. The lime rock is rich in phosphates 
and in some localities it is rather easily disin¬ 
tegrated. Rainfall and soil are the require¬ 
ments for Blue Grass. Another important 
requisite is length of season or climate. As 
an illustration of this. Blue Grass meets with 
little consideration in Southern Michigan. It 
is there called " J une GrasB,”for the reason that 
its Beason is mainly through June after which 
it dries up. It then comes on a little in late 
Fall. In the choicest district in the Blue Grass 
region of Kentucky it is often the case that the 
Blue Grass Is burned up by droughts. 1 have 
seen tens of thousands of acres with absolute¬ 
ly uo pasture at all in July. It was so the year 
before last. Let us take these requirements of 
rainfall, climate, limestone soil and see how 
they prevail in Eastern Mississippi and Western 
Alabama. 
In these areas the raiHfall is between 60 and 
♦30 inches a year, and it is pretty evenly dis¬ 
tributed throughout the twelvemonth. Except 
along the Immediate Gulf Coast and the West¬ 
ern Pacific Coast, no country in the United 
8tates enjoys such a rainfall. Here is one ab¬ 
solute essential for tho grass at its best. The 
absence of it explains the prohibition nature 
has put upon the cultivated grasses in large 
areas of the Western plains. Again, take the soil 
in Eastern Mississippi and Western Alabama, 
in the prairie belt; it is a deep, black soil, very 
stiff and aluminous, resting upon a greenish- 
yellow, greasy clay, which latter rests upon 
rotten limestone. It is surpassingly full of 
lime, so much 8a that In new soils it will take 
the hair off the feet of stock. It is very stiff 
and close, so much bo that if it were not so 
full of lime it would, when plowed well, pack 
and bake so hard as to be almost like iron. 
