DEC. 31 
axul all the countries under the Turkish 
dominion, seem to have retrograded rather 
than advanced. In such portions of Southern 
Asia as India, where European influences 
h ’ve been felt, the culture of the land has re¬ 
ceived much attention. But in European 
countries the beginning of the seventeenth 
century seems to have commenced a new era 
in agricultural history, and before its close 
much improvement could be seen in every 
section not only in the variety of crops raised 
but in the means employed to improve them 
and to obtain a larger production from the 
same area of land. Little by little scientific 
knowledge increased and was, cautiously at 
first, but as familiarity grew by acquaintance, 
more generally applied to agricultural pro¬ 
cesses with advantage. It was found that 
something besides the mere putting of the seed 
into the ground and waiting for it to grow 
was neeessary to insure the best result, and 
experiments, few and rinlo as they were at 
first,soon showed the intelligent that to obtain 
the best result he must combine thought with 
labor. The number who were at first able to 
comprehend this situation were few, for even 
then the majority were not easily convinced 
that the old ways were not the best. It may 
be said that the study ol' agrienltuie as a 
science commenced with the seventeenth cen 
tury, although the students were few. But 
an atom of truth once set free must at some 
time accomplish its work. Looking back from 
our present standpoint and observing the pro¬ 
cesses and the implements used by the farmers 
of the olden time, we are more inclined to 
be astonished at the results obtained than to 
wonder why they were not greater. 
As population increased the needs of the 
people increased in proportion,and civilization 
and education contributed both to increase 
those needs and add thereto many wants un¬ 
known to savagery. Needs and wants felt 
friends in the midst of his cares, and he sends 
to one and all a “ Merry Christmas” and a 
“Happy New Year.” 
limbs in such a way that although the snow 
may bend the little twigs, it cannot open apart 
the bushes. Anri tie up the retinosporas 
lightly, loosely, but firmly into conical form; 
this not only preserves them from being bro¬ 
ken by the snow, but saves them somewhat 
from tire inclemency of the weather. 
Deutzia-Parviflora is a new shrub from 
Northwestern Asia, and, my word for it, it is 
a pretty one. It has an upright growth like a 
Deutzia crenata, hut it is not quite so rank, 
and it comes into blossom at the same time as 
Deutzia gracilis, which is about two weeks ear¬ 
lier than crenata Its flow cits are white, in 
dense clusters like those of a spiraea, and, in 
fact, when in bloom, the whole plant has more 
the appearance of a spiraea than of a deutzia. 
It is perfectly hardy: indeed, with me, it is 
hardier than crenata. Very few nurserymen 
have got it for sale, but I Hud it advertised in 
Parsons’ catalogue at .'15 cents a plant. 
I have noticed during the past month, in 
different parts of the country, a faulty and 
wasteful application of manure to the apple 
orchard. In a ride of nearly a hundred miles 
I saw only one instance of its application 
with any apparent knowledge of the growth 
of the tree. The manure, in all these cases, 
except one, was heaped around the trunk of 
the tree and extending perhaps two or three 
feet from it. These orchards I should judge 
to be from 15 to 40 years old. This manner 
of applying manui'e to orchards 1 believe to 
be quite commou, and it ought to be known 
that It is wasteful and does but little good ; it 
not only does little good, but is sometime pro¬ 
ductive of evil. The feeding roots have by 
this time wandered many feet away from the 
trunk of the tree. If the manure wore mostly 
spread around and a few feet within the cir¬ 
cumference of the branches, thousands of 
hungry little mouths would be found there 
ready to take it up and convert it into deli¬ 
cious fruit and a healthy growth of leaves. 
The really proper w ay to manure an orchard 
in grass is to spread manure over the whole 
of it, using it most liberally under the spread 
of the trees. Treated faithfully in this way 
at proper intervals, we should be snared the 
doleful sight of so many orchards “running 
out” before their time. A large percentage 
of orchards die from starvation and neglect, 
and not from old age. L£ow t many farmers, 
in any part of the country, give half as much 
labor and attention to their orchards as they 
do to a crop of corn, for example i There 
are, I am happy to say, some notable excep¬ 
tions to this, and they have their reward in 
long-lived and productive orchards, and very 
handsome fruit. 
With me the variegated altbiea retains the 
whiteness in its leaves the season through, 
grows but slowly, and forms lots ol flower 
buds, but never fully opens any of them. 
If you have some choice evergreen trees, 
large or small, do not touch them, nor cause 
nor allow them to be touched in hard, frosty 
weather, else in Spring you may find that the 
parts that were handled will present a seared 
appearance, as if injured by the severity of 
the w eather, whereas it w r as the handling that 
did the mischief. 
Bermuda Grass is not hardy in the North¬ 
ern States, and I am glad it isn’t, else once at 
home 1 never could remove it. But asa hang¬ 
ing-basket plant for the window, it is “just 
lovely.” Start it in August or September in a 
pot or basket in turfy loam and manure, half- 
and-half, and never let it lack for water, and 
it will grow so rankly that it w ill not only 
hide your basket beyond view, but hang down 
past it for a foot or two. 
If your ground is poor, lay a good mulch¬ 
ing of rotted manure around your evergreens, 
as pines and spruces, and let it lie there till 
Spring, when you may fork it over into the 
soil very lightly; or, if not unsightly, let it 
remain on the surface during Summer. At 
any rate, do not dig it in. The best feeding 
roots are near the surface of the ground, and 
if you dig them up you destroy them and ma¬ 
terially hurt your trees. Pines and the like 
like something good to eat, and in vigorous 
condition well repay such care. Leon. 
I certainly admire the progressive spirit 
that characterizes the work of the Rural. 
Its principal aim seems to be the benefit and 
instruction of the people, and not only does it 
seek and publish the unreserved opinions of 
its near and distant renders, but especially 
wishes to know the dark side as well as the 
bright side of the subjects of which it treats; 
and I am sure we can all bear testimony that 
its editorial reports are exceptionally benefi¬ 
cial, they are so impartial. 
PRAIRIE CLIMATE, 
PROFESSOR J. L. BUDD. 
Most of you must be familiar with the little 
partridge berry plant that grows so abun¬ 
dantly in our woods. It is a pretty little ev¬ 
ergreen vine that forms tufts or mats about 
tree roots or in broad patches upon the ground 
under trees, and is studded over with scarlet 
berries that remain on the vines over Winter. 
Now this little plant is a first-rate window 
plant, and will grow well, like moss, on the 
surface of the soil in pots containing callas, 
f ueh-ias, or other plants; it delights to associate 
with ferns, and in a fern case thiives amaz¬ 
ingly well. 
The notes I have furnished the Rural on 
the relative adaptation of trees and plants to 
our prairie climate have elicited uu unex¬ 
pected number of queries from parties east 
of the lakes, who are looking westward for 
future homes. These letters mainly ask 
about the special climatic peculiarities to 
which we so often refer in connection with tree 
and plant growth. It is too large a subject to 
deal with in a letter or readable newspaper 
article, yet I will try to give some of the dis¬ 
tinctive features of the climate we have to 
deal with in Iowa north of the 43d parallel, 
and some of the reasons for the popular 
Eastern belief that this can never become a 
reliable fruit-growing section, 
The first thing that strikes the newcomer as 
peculiar is the absence from • ur groves and 
the timber along our rivers and streams of 
the conifers, kalmias, rhododendrons, fox 
grapes, narrow leaved crab, beech, and many 
other trees and plants of the coast and lake 
regions. He also will note the significant ab¬ 
sence of the mosses he has noticed in Eastern 
States pendent, from trees, and even attached 
to fences, shingles and the sides of houses. In 
connection with these sign-manna Is of pre¬ 
vailing aridity of air, he will notice a luxur¬ 
iant development of Indian corn and all half- 
tropical plants of an annual character, indi¬ 
cating a higher Summer temperature than is 
known east of the lakes. 
A brief residence here will give the further 
lesson that we are subject to sudden extremes 
of temperature and of atmospheric moisture. 
In Summer, after days and even weeks of 
westerly winds of desert-like aridity, which 
drink up with hungry avidity moisture from 
earth und plant surfaces, we may have a 
period of southerly winds loaded to satura¬ 
tion with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. 
In Summer such changes are only injurious 
to thin-leaved trees and plants native to per¬ 
manently moist climates. In Winter, however, 
the extreme changes in temperature and 
moisture, dependent upon a change of wind, 
are a very serious matter. In the midst of 
Winter a south wind may bring us days of 
Spring like softness. Without warning, un¬ 
less it come from the Signal Service dis¬ 
patches, we may have the premonitory howls 
of a northwestern “ down pour,” with a dry, 
biting air 3a to 30 degrees below zero. 
A longer residence will disclose the fact that 
our seasons are extremely variable as to rain¬ 
fall and variatlous of temperature und hu- 
midity. A period of three or four years may 
be so equable and mild as to permit the 
healthy growth of what we term the tender 
list of fruits. Then follows what we call a 
“ test year,” meaning an excessively hot Sum¬ 
mer with little rainfall, followed by an in¬ 
tensely cold, dry Winter. The havoc and 
destruction of the extreme yearn are the 
grand checks to the wild planting of our 
thousands of settlers who come here biased 
in favor of fruits they knew most favorably 
in their old haunts in the Eastern or 
Southern States. With this very hasty 
glance at the main distinctive peculiar¬ 
ities of prairie climate, a few notes 
on the slow advances we have been able to 
make in adaptiug fruits, trees, and shrubs to 
the prairie requirements will be better un¬ 
derstood. 
When the prairies in the interior sections 
were not dotted with a tree or a cabin, ob- 
The new Tradescantia referred to by Leon 
is a very beautiful plant. It is, however, 
less robust than T. zebrina or Buchanani. 
With me it has shown a tendency to revert 
to the green type, from which it is a sp,«rt, 
which does not yet seem to be well established. 
The green growth should bo cut off us it ap¬ 
pears, and the plant propagated only from 
selected shoots. I forget whether it has yet 
been offered for sale, but it deserves a place 
in any collection. 
ment in agricultural affairs to these causes. 
Besides, when a country becomes densely pop- 
ulated it becomes necessary, in order to raise 
food for its support, either to put more land 
under cultivation or to ingrease the produc¬ 
tiveness of that already cultivated, or both. 
It would be interesting and instructive to fol¬ 
low the progress of husbandry in different na¬ 
tions from the time of which we have spoken 
to the present, and to watch the development 
of many of the different productions of both 
the animal and the vegetable kingdoms from 
their natural conditions to those in which by 
culture, they are now found. But this would 
require volumes instead of the brief space af¬ 
forded in these columns. 
Last Summer Ihey had masses of large 
plants of Chinese Hibiscuses planted in the 
garden of the Soldiers’ Home at Dayton, 
Ohio, and they were about the show iest thing 
in the garden, Their large cerise and scarlet 
flowers were very conspicuous. Now any one 
can grow these plants. Plant them out in a 
sheltered but sunny place in the garden in 
May, and lift and pot them in the Fall, when, 
if they have grown beyond the bounds you 
can accommodate, you may cut them in as 
much as you please. You may winter them 
in the house, in alight, airy, frost proof cellar 
or pit, but at no time should they be allowed to 
get as dry asyou would have a dormant fuch¬ 
sia or lemon-seen ted verbena; they must be 
kept moist. There are many shades of red 
among them, but the glowing, velvety scarlet 
is the prettiest, and there are yellowish ones, 
too. They may be propagated by seeds and 
cuttings. 
The double flowered, variegated sweet 
alyssum, to judge from one year’s experience, 
is an improvement on the single-flowered va¬ 
riegated variety, being more strongly marked 
and a more robust grower. There are two or 
three more new sweetalyssums, Tom Thumb 
is a very dwarf, comnact grower, and blooms 
profusely. Colossus, on the contrary, is a 
strong, rampant grower, with larger flowers 
than the species. I have not yet made up 
my mind how much I shall like it, but 1 propose 
co use it as a pedestal two or three feet high, 
on the top of which to place Tom Thumb. I 
think it may at least be prettily utilized in 
that way. Horticola. 
horticultural 
The pleasant holidays have come again, to 
many, especially the young, the happiest of all 
the .year. There are few at this time whose 
minds are not more or less perplexed with 
what to select as a suitable present for father, 
mother, brother, sister, or friend. It has oc¬ 
curred to me that in not a few cases this 
perplexity might be happily overcome by 
making choice of the Rural New-Yorker as 
a useful and appropriate holiday gift. For 
example, what could be a more suitable pres¬ 
ent from a denizen of the city to his country 
cousin or friend, to whom he is indebted for 
many days (and perhaps weeks) of healthful 
pleasure, with, it may be, only a “ thank you” 
in return ? Your country c-oiisin or friend 
would be quite certain to obtain from the 
Rural such valuable hints and suggestions as 
would add increased warmth to your reception 
next Summer. That would be a substantial 
pleasure cheaply purchased. It would also 
be doing good, which is a point worthy of 
consideration. It is the nature of many pres¬ 
ents that they must be so placed that we 
see them only occasionally, and they are 
therefore only occasional reminders. If you 
send the Rural as a present, it will serve as 
a pleasant weekly reminder of your thought- 
fulnessand good will, and more than one will 
be sure to exclaim, “’t om is a splendid fellow 
for sending me the Rural,” or a feminine 
voice may be heard saying in subdued tones, 
“How good Aunt May was to send father 
the Rural,” and you are made happy in the 
consciousness of having given a useful pleas¬ 
ure. There is really a double pleasure 
in this case, and you may prolong it by 
prolonging the term of subscription to the 
Rural. So may it be. [We are greatly 
obliged to Horticola for his very sensible 
suggestion. Eds.] 
Horticola does not forget his Rural 
Ordinary roses, as Isabella Sprunt, Sa- 
frano, Bon Silene, and Eerie des Jardins are 
selling in Boston for $8 to £4 per hundred 
buds, whereas Bennett’s hybrid tea, Beauty of 
Stapleford, is fetching a dollar a dozen, and 
his Duke of Connaught a dollar and a-half a 
dozen. Some of the florists around Boston, 
declare that Duke of Connaught will be the 
most profitable rose they can grow, its fine, 
long buds and brilliant, velvety, crimson col¬ 
or render it a great favorite with customers, 
and so far it is profuse, but only moderately 
free in growth. Beauty of Stapleford fudes 
to lilac a little too quickly, but this is only 
visible in daylight; in gaslight it looks beauti¬ 
ful. It is very free and profuse. Duchess 
of Westminster, bl ight cerise, because of its 
fragrance and finely formed buds, is a favor¬ 
ite with customers, but the growers think it 
wants too much heat for them to grow it prof¬ 
itably. Jean Sisley is too double; the buds 
don’t open perfectly. 
Speaking of Arbor-vita; hedges being ren¬ 
dered bare on one side, page 810, reminds 
me of a hedge at Waukegan, Illinois. The 
branches all along the bottom on one side 
had died out or were sickly and had been cut 
out, and a row of young Arbor vitoes was 
planted right up close to the old hedge to hide 
the nakedness. They took kin<Uy to their new 
quarters and were pruned to suit the occasion, 
and when I saw the hedge a little while ago I 
did not perceive that it had been patched till 
Mr. Douglas called my attention to the fact. 
The Arbor-vitae as an ornamental hedge 
plant cannot, in my opinion, compare with 
the Hemlock Spruce. True, the Arbor-vita* 
succeeds in many places where the Hemlock 
fails. The sheers denude the hemlock of its 
beauty, but the knife will save its graceful 
form. The chumiecvparises (retinosporas) 
make, I think, the prettiest little hedges. They* 
are used at Wellesley as such and to form 
borders about a foot in hight, just as a Eu¬ 
ropean would dwarf box. The tree box makes 
a fair little hedge with me, but gets disfigured 
by red spiders in the Summer time. It is 
hardier than the dwarf one. The Norway 
Spruce is the evergreen hedge plant mostly 
used about Boston, but it is not as pretty or 
as good in this way as our native White 
Spruce, nor does it live as long. The White 
Fine, begun with early, makes a soft and 
warm-like hedge, and it endures pruning bet¬ 
ter than any of the pines I have known to he 
tried. 
I tell you what it is, Mr. Editor, it does 
me good to see men stand up, and, heedless 
of opposition, speak out their honest convic¬ 
tions. You say you never liked the silver ma¬ 
ple as an ornamental tree. Neither have I, but 
I have caught it smartly more than once for 
saying so. In a pamphlet, “ Ornamental 
Trees for Massachusetts Plantations,” by 
John Robinson, of the Arnold Arboretum, 
which was kindly sent to me by the author, I 
find : “ We have a long line of golden oaks, 
golden ashes, golden lindens, striped-leaved, 
silver-leaved, or golden-leaved varieties, hid¬ 
eous to any lover of nature. Looking upon 
these sickly plants, each seems, by turn, more 
ugly than its neighbor. All should be sent to 
the rubbish-heap together, and permanent 
natural productions planted in their places.” 
Heavy snows in Winter sometimes break 
open Arbor-vitm hedges, retinosporas, and 
other evergreen bushes. Now you can easily 
avert that. With a piece of stout cord tie the 
