THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
from expecting too much; sometimes from 
giving it too strong a soil, too much man¬ 
ure, not protecting it in Winter and al 
lowing it to bear too much fruit. On all these 
points it is very sensitive. I speak from the 
standpoint of the Michigan Fruit Belt, the 
eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in the lati¬ 
tude of Milwaukee and where the Catawba 
never ripens, the Isabella and Liana seldom, 
but where the Delaware, Concord, Clinton, 
some of Rogers’s and Eumelan prosper—soil 
a lightish sand but evidently abounding in 
potash and lime. I should advice to prune 
early in the Fall, lay the vines down as flat 
as possible, lay a light covering of brush over 
them (I use branches of asparagus), and lay 
pieces of wood as weights to keep all in their 
places. I do not believe in covering with 
earth. The two past Winters mine have been 
left on the trellises. In the Fall of 1880 I 
had a big crop but they were not w r ell colored. 
The crop of 1881 w r as small, many of the 
canes were killed down, but the few I had were 
perfect, so much so that on the twelfth of 
September I sent a sample, with samples of 
nine other kinds, to the meeting of the Amer¬ 
ican Pomological Society at Boston, which 
exhibition is said to have done high credit to 
our State. 
A word, in passing, as to the Israella, a con¬ 
temporary of the Iona: With all the care I 
could ever give it I could never induce it to 
bear a decent crop. Like the Dutchman’s 
horse, it has one bad fault—it is “good for 
nothing.” It has the peculiarities of the Iona 
as to habitat, etc., “ only more so.” 
The differences in reports coming from dif¬ 
ferent persons showing different results from 
experiments on the 'same fruits, are probably 
mostly the effects of local causes. There are 
so many different plans used in pruning and 
training, and oven in planting and cultivating; 
all possibly have their effects for good or ill, 
and so many that are hardly practicable 
without daily watching through the Summer, 
that one gets discouraged and perhaps dis¬ 
gusted with his own efforts to steer clear of 
mistakes and failures. If he finally gives up 
and relies solely on his own experience and 
judgment, lie is as likely to be successful as 
those who follow set rules. It is most certain, 
however, that there are natural tendencies of 
the vines that must tie in a measure indulged, 
and certain others that must be curbed in 
order to produce the best results. 
Muskegon Co., Mich. 
Scientific. 
OZONE” AS A PRESERVATIVE FOR 
MEATS, VEGETABLES, ETC. 
PROFESSOR R. B. WARDER. 
A company has recently been organized, 
with headquarters in Cincinnati, which an¬ 
nounces the use of “ ozone” for preserving all 
perishable articles, animal and vegetable, 
from fermentation and putrefaction, retain¬ 
ing their odor and flavor. The process ap¬ 
pears to be simple and inexpensive. The ar¬ 
ticles are placed in an air tight chamber and 
a small quantity of the “ ozone-generator” is 
burned, by which the active gas is produced. 
Samples of mutton, eggs, apples and vegeta¬ 
bles are exhibited, said to have been kept 
some two or three months already, without 
undergoing any marked change; but juicy 
fruits and vegetables are sometimes kept un¬ 
der “ ozonized water” to prevent drying up. 
The agents of the company politely invite 
those who show an interest in the new (?) pro¬ 
cess to test it by bringing in such articles as 
they may wish to have “preserved” free 
of charge ; and we may not blame them for 
not keeping a lunch always ready in proof 
of their claims of unchanged flavor. 
To the practical fruit grower or shipper 
the chemistry and histology of a preservative 
process may seem to be of little importance. 
Yet if a process is proved to be totally dif¬ 
ferent from what is claimed, he should invest 
with caution: if it is old instead of new, he 
may save himself the expense of a costly 
patent right; and if the materials are known, 
he may purchase them at market price, in¬ 
stead of putting large profits into the hands 
of a limited company. 
For these reasons, the writer has taken 
pains to examine a sample of the “ozonized 
water,” which is a partly saturated solution 
of sulphurous acid. When sulphur is burned, 
the suffocating gas called sulphurous oxide is 
produced, which is very readily absorbed by 
water, forming sulphurous acid ; and this is 
evidently an essential part of the process of 
malting the “ozonized water.” Sulphurous 
oxide is diametrically opposite to ozone in 
its chemical properties, the former being a 
reducing agent, the latter an oxidizing agent. 
Moreover, ozone is practically insoluble in 
water. Whatever else may have been pres 
ent in the so-called ‘ * ozonized water,” ozone 
is evidently absent. Fuller chemical papers 
on this subject may appear in scientific jour¬ 
nals ; but in the meantime any would-be in¬ 
vestors who have been attracted by the glow¬ 
ing language of the circulars, are invited to 
consider the following facts : 1st. In the so- 
called ozone process, the fumes of burning 
sulphur are the active agent, rather than 
ozone, 2nd. Sulphurous oxide has already 
been used as an antiseptic for many years. 
3rd. The use of fumes from burning sulphur 
is said to ha ve been patented as early as 1808 ; 
the validity of any more recent patent claim for 
like process may well be questioned. 4th 
Those who have invested $2.00 in a sample 
package of the “ ozone generator” in order 
to test the claims of a “ new” process, will 
find it instructive to make a counter test with 
two cents' worth of sulphur. 
xcit 
a 
L 
THE YAMABUKI—Rhodotypus kerrioides 
[See page 829.] 
This is a beautiful, hardy, deciduous, white¬ 
flowering shrub from Japan; the Japanese 
call it Yamabuki. It is of recent introduc¬ 
tion to America, and still quite rare in our 
gardens and nurserymen’s catalogues. It be¬ 
longs to the rose order of plants and is nearly 
allied to the kerria, a Japanese shrub with 
yellow flowers, that is vary common in our 
gardens. With us it comes into bloom in 
May, about the same time as kerria, haw¬ 
thorn, blish honeysuckles and choke berry, 
and lasts for more than a month in good flow¬ 
ering condition. The pure white flowers are 
large, pretty and of good substance, and 
nestling closely to the leaves, as represented 
in the accompanying illustration, terminate 
every little twig. The Yamabuki is not so 
profuse as spirmas, deutzias or diervillas, but 
it is profuse enough, when coupled with its 
graceful habit, to be really pretty. Further¬ 
more, not only does it bloom in the Spring 
and early Summer, but a few straggling 
flowers may lie found upon it all Summer 
long. And somewhat ornamental is the mul¬ 
titude of glossy black “ seeds ” it bears. Many 
of these drop off towards Fall, but a lot of 
them stay on the bushes till Christmas, and 
we find some young plants—self-sown seed¬ 
lings—are springing up around our parent 
plant. The Yamabuki is perfectly hardy with 
us. A warm, free soil, and sheltered, sunny 
situation, no doubt, will suit it best. The en¬ 
graving, Fig. 548, is from a specimen growing 
at the Rural Experiment Grounds, where, on 
November 21, the leaves were still green. 
CATALOGUES, ETC. 
Journal of the American Agricultural 
Association. —Nos. 3 and 4 combined in one, 
the last of Vol. 1st of the American Ag. As. 
sociatinn, is now before us. As we shall have 
occasion to quote from its columns, we need 
only add, to what has already been said of it, 
that a copy should be in the hands of all who 
are interested in agriculture. It will hereafter 
he published quarterly (January, April, July 
and October), under the name of the Agricul¬ 
tural Quarterly and Journal of the American 
Agricultural Association. Each [number will 
contain 150 to 200 pages. The terms will be 
$2.00 per year and, after January 1 st, 50 cents 
per copy. Three dollars sent now will pay 
the annual dues for this year and next and en¬ 
title the new member to all the issues of the 
Journal for both years. Inquiries should be 
addressed to the Secretary and Editor, Joseph 
H. Reall, 127 Water Street, New York. The 
present Journal comprises300 pages, 230 being 
filled with excellent articles by able writers, 
30 with the thoughtful notes of the editor, and 
the rest with advertisements. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
Mr. A. M. Purdy writes us that if we pro¬ 
nounce the Lost Rubies Raspberry distinct 
from Naomi, he is confident we have not the 
real Naomi. That may be. Our statement is 
that if we have the true Naomi and the true 
Lost Rubies, then they are distinct, for the 
one has purple, the other green, canes. 
This we have from Secretary Garfield:—“I 
am now ‘ digging away ’ at m 3 ’ portfolio for 
1881. Well, 1 must say this about your Tree 
and Shrub Number, and hope it won’t ‘sot you 
up’ any. I just wanted to place the whole of 
it in my volume J'or ’81. It was a rare num¬ 
ber, indeed. Over here in Michigan the * com¬ 
mercial idea’ is uppermost in the minds of the 
people, and I like to have that kind of a paper 
thrown in among them to lead them for a few’ 
moments to a higher plane of thought.”. 
As effectual a way as any to preserve 
gladiolus corms or bulbs is to keep them in 
bushel baskets in a temperature above freez¬ 
ing and less than 50 degrees. As to tuberose 
bulbs we have never yet know n them to suffer 
by being kept toe warm or dry. Canna and 
ealadium bulbs should be thorough!}’ cleaned 
and dried and placed in dry sand and pre¬ 
served in a dry air. 
If we were going to plant a vineyard either 
for home use or market, we should not select 
the Concord with which to stock it, With 
many kinds of fruit very little real progress has 
been made during the past 10 years, though 
scores of new var ieties have been announced 
from time to time as far superior to the old. 
Not so with the grape. Our progress has been 
real, and two or three years more will make it 
apparent. It is probable that we shall never 
have a grape that is at once more hardy, more 
prolific and adapted to a greater range of 
country than the Concord. But we believe 
among the grapes of recent origin are several 
that w ill equal it in those essential respects, 
while they are of decidedly better quality- 
E. & O. Ward, New York commission 
merchants, tell us that to insure highest market 
prices for poultry they must be well fattened, 
the crops empty when killed, They should be 
killed by bleeding, but the head should not be 
removed. They should be well picked; the skin 
not broken or torn; the entrails should nob be 
removed; they should be thoroughly cooled, 
but not frozen. Back in boxes, with a layer 
of clean straw (rye straw being the best) be¬ 
tween each layer of poultry, in the same pos¬ 
ture in which the}’ roost. Mark each box, 
specifying what it contains. Send the invoice 
by mail. Ship to reach their destination about 
the middle of the week. They should never 
reach market so late in the week as on Satur¬ 
day... 
The vigor of strawberry plants can per¬ 
haps be as well ascertained by their appear¬ 
ance now as at any other season of the year. 
Plants which cannot stand the Summer sun, 
or which have been injured by the grubs, are 
dry and brown. while those which have outi 
grown all harmful effects are green and 
thrifty. Of these the Manchester, Piper’s 
Seedling, Sucker State, Hart’s Minnesota, 
Sharpless, Duncan, Miner’s Prolific and Bid- 
well are the most conspicuous. 
We are pleased to know that the Horue- 
Farin, of Maine, is an assured success. Maine 
has long needed a bright, original agricultural 
paper, edited by one who is in full sympathy 
with the farming community, and it now has 
such a journal in the Home-Farm. 
Our friend “Edgerton” sends the Rural 
the following:— 
Said farmer Drown, as to his wife he turned, 
" Each season brings Its lesson to be learned. 
The last w<- had It most exceeding dry, 
And now we llud corn rules outrageous high ; 
Now, If we only had the corn to sell. 
This state of things might all bo well, 
But, somehow, when a product's awful high, 
It mostly happens that we have to buy. 
And this Is why no money wc have made— 
Our idans have always been but poorly laid. 
Now I'll lay down u rule this very morn. 
That when the season's dry raise stacks of corn, 
And so with almost any other truck— 
We’ll make a note of this and change our luck— 
When any article Is scarce ami high 
We want that article to sell, not buy. 
How strange we never thought of this before! 
No wonder we have always kept bo poor! 
Our knowledge we too often dearly earn ; 
But then, you know, we have to live and learn.” 
The answer to the query as to which is the 
sweetest or highest flavored strawberry seems 
to have been mixed. To say that a berry 
“ has sweetness and flavor” and is at the same 
time “ simply flat” sounds odd enough. The 
true Burr’s New Pine is remarkable for its de¬ 
licious, spicy flavor and at the same time is 
sweet—much like a Seckol Pear. The mistake 
was made evidently by a transposition of the 
type lines.......... 
To the very many inquiries we have had 
as to where seeds of tiie Rural Branching 
Sorghum can be purchased for next season’s 
use. we must reply that we do not know. The 
crop raised from the seed sent out in the 
Rural’S last seed distribution has in many 
sections of the country matured seed—but the 
quantities so raised must necessarily be small 
—too small to offer for sale except at a very 
high price. We are fearful that inferior 
kinds of Sorghum will be offered under the 
name of Branching, so that for the present, 
it would seem desirable that the name of the 
“ Rural Branching Sorghum” should lie pre¬ 
served. We have received several fine heads 
of seeds from California, Kansas, Florida, 
Nebraska, New York and Minnesota. 
It is with much satisfaction that we an¬ 
nounce the publication of a series of original 
illustrated articles on “Bonanza Farming,” 
Mr. Oliver Dairymple is an exceedingly re¬ 
tiring, modest man and has refused many ap¬ 
plications for his portrait (as we happen to 
know) from the enterprising journals both 
East and West that have endeavored to pro¬ 
cure it. The articles are written from notes 
taken on the ground and furnished by Mr. 
Dalrymple himself. 
Dr. J . B. Lawes in a private note remarks : 
' ‘ I shall th ink you find some difference in your 
crops of corn this year as compared with those 
of last. Climate has a most decided influence 
upon the yield of our crops and it is this vai'y- 
ing influence which makes it so difficult to 
settle what is the real influence of our various 
manures. I know of no other process to set¬ 
tle these questions except by the continued 
growth of the same crops with the same man¬ 
ures upon the same land.”. 
The results of our corn experiments will be 
presented early in the new year. We have 
only to say now that, considering the drought 
—the severest, without exception, known to 
our oldest farmers—our yields of corn both on 
the manured and unmanured land, have 
proved to be greater than was anticipated. 
Concentrated fertilizers on high lands, were 
used without good effects, while the corn 
manured with farm dung was the first to 
bum... ..... . 
---- 
THE EXPERIMENT FARM OF THE 
” RURAL NEW-YORKER.” 
[From the Journal of the American Agricultural 
Association, just published, we copy the following 
article, which, though the gist of it In different Ian 
guage may have appeared in our columns under 
Notes from the Rural Farm, we feet confident will 
prove of Interest to our readers.— Ens. Rural New- 
Yorker.] 
SPECIAL WHEAT AND CORN CULTURE. 
The farm of the Rural New-Yorker is 
situated in Queens County, 20 miles from 
New York City, near the ocean. The soil is a 
sandy, sometimes gravelly, loam, with a 
gravelly sub-soil. The farm is conducted for 
the purpose of testing all new plants or seeds 
of promise which are offered to the public, 
the results being published as soon as arrived 
at; of originating new varieties; of improv¬ 
ing old varieties by selection; of ascertaining 
the best methods of cultivation; and, finally, 
of comparing the effects of farm manure 
with those of concentrated fertilizers. 
We propose at present to confine our re¬ 
marks to com and wheat. Twelve years ago 
Mr. A, E, Blount, now Professor of Agricul¬ 
ture in the State College of Colorado, began 
the improvement of a kind of white dent 
corn, with the special object of rendering it 
as prolific as possible. The land was well pre¬ 
pared and manured; the best ears only, from 
those stalks which bore two or more, were 
selected for seed, preference being always 
given to the topmost ear, which he usually 
found to be the best developed. By such 
means, and by others to which we shall allude 
further ou, this strain of corn, as it may be 
termed, was changed, so as to ripen earlier, 
to bear a greater number of ears to the sta'Jk, 
while the cob was made smaller and the grain 
of uniform size and color. Four years ago it 
was first raised on the Rural Farm. A plot 
of a quarter of an acre was planted, the 
grains 11 inches apart, the rows four feet, the 
cultivation fat. The yield was 18 bushels of 
shelled com, or at the rate of 72 bushels to 
the acre. Several stalks bore six ears. The 
best of these were selected for the next year's 
seed-plot, while Prof. Blount’s entire stock 
was purchased for free distribution to all who 
applied to the Rural New-Yorker. What 
is meant by seed-plot may now be explained. 
A plot of land—perhaps one-fortieth of an 
acre—(33 feet square)—is spaded up, fertilized 
and raked. Rejecting the butts and tips of 
the best cal's of the stalks bearing five oars or 
more, as above stated, the largest kernels left 
are planted 18 Inches apart, the rows not less 
than four feet apart. The surfuce is kept 
mellow by shallow, flat cultivation, and, as 
soon as the sets appear, the tassels of all stalks 
not bearing a certain number—let us my Jive. 
—are cut off. It will appear then that the 
silk of all the sets must receive pollen only 
from the most prolific stalks. The corn plant 
is monoecious (the same as the chestnut, older, 
piue, spruce, castor-oil plant, melon), the 
male organs, or staminnte, being contained 
within the flowers of the tassel, the female 
being the silk or pistils of which the fertilized 
ovary becomes the kernel or grain. It is 
plain, therefore, that if we desire to increase 
the number of ears to the stalk, it is just as 
essential that the seed to be planted should 
have had a fertile male as that it should have 
had a fertile female parent. When it is con¬ 
sidered that all the varieties of com—flint, 
dent, gourd-seed, pop—whether black, white, 
red, y’ellow, streaked — whether the plant 
grow two or fifteen feet in bight—whether 
it requires 00 or 100 days to mature—have all 
sprung from one kind, it will be seen how 
sensitive this plant and its fruit are to 
changes of climate and soil, and how reepoai 
