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By L. F.JGraether, 
VOL. XXXVI. No. 1«.> 
WHOLE No. 1447. f 
_NEW YORK CI TY. OCT, 10 , 1877 . _ 
[Entered according to Act of Couktchs. In the year 1877, by the Brand Publishing Company. in the office of the Librarian of CcmgreM at Washington.] 
(PRICE SIX CENTS 
( 12.50 PER YEAR. 
I^rtorinrlteral, 
LLRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA, 
Kura i. grounds, Oct. ti. 
Repeat the above name a number of times, 
good reader, and tell us, has it not a most agree¬ 
able sound ? If all botanical names wore but 
half so pleastng, we should leas frequently be 
confounded by a dozen or more of “common” 
names which in different places are applied to 
the same plant. 
The tree itself is well worthy of its pretty 
name. For many years the Rural has had a 
good deal to say of the Tulip Tree, and has 
warmly advocated its many claims to a first rank 
among trees, whother for the road-side, home- 
grounds or parks. Hut any description, be the 
words never so well chosen, will 
generally fail to convey even a 
tolerably accurate idea of the tree 
described. As the leaves of trees 
constitute their chief charm, even 
a single leaf accurately drawn, 
may at a glance convey a more 
comprehensive portrait than de¬ 
scriptive language, the first part 
of which—unless the reader is at 
the outset deeply interested—will 
have faded from the memory be¬ 
fore the last will have been road. 
Those of our readers who are 
familiar with the Tulip Tree will, 
we think, agree with us that the 
accompanying sketch is one suffi¬ 
ciently true to nature to show at 
a glance its very distinctive fea¬ 
tures. It was one of many taken 
from the forest and cut back 
to within a few inches of the roots 
and plaoed with the others in nurs¬ 
ery rows. The Tulip by this meth¬ 
od bears transplanting as well as \ 
a Maple, a fact it is worth the 
reader's while to bear In inind— xffljyjj 
since treated as other trees are, it 
will die after removal oftener 
than it will live. 
After remaining in the nursery 
row for several seasons and when Nqjgj 
the main stem had grown to the 
bight of five feet, it was, three s" 
years ago, placed in its present "vS 
position in these grounds. It is 
now sixteen feet high though it 
has been severely cut back each 
season, to which circumstance is 
due its oonieal form and to which 
we attribute its densely luxurious 
growth. 
TLe leaves vary in size aooor- 
ding to situation, soil and age. 
In young, hearty trees with 
enough of the right kind of food 
to gratify their appetites, we 
have found them as large as eight 
inches long and ten inches wide— 
while in old, starved trees they are 
scarcely larger than those of a 
silver maple. 
There is just thi« about the 
Tulip Tree r if left to itself, it is 
not at all suited to the lawn—the 
forest is its place. There it soon , / )r-' sy' 
loses its lower branches and its 
tall, straight stem shoots up to 'kiN 
the higbt of a hundred feet or 
more. But if cut back, year after * vjV\j 
year, so as to be restricted within 
certain limits, it is one of the 
moat perfect ornamental trees we 
have ever seen. 
In Autumn, if frost is long de- Prom t ... 
layed (as in the present delightful season), tho 
interior leaves turn yellow, tho outer onos still 
remaining green. Hard frost, however, turns 
them black and they dry up and fall without any 
of the variegation peculiar to Llqnldambars, 
MaploB and many others. They bloom whon 
about five years old, the individual (lower in form 
resembling thoso of Magnolias, to which it is 
closely related, or the Tulip from which resem¬ 
blance it is generally known as the Tulip Tree. 
Bnt the (lowers, owing to their greenish-yellow 
color, are not conspicuous, and we might admire 
a tree, in fnllbloom, as we have known several to 
do, without discerning a flower, so closely do tho 
lloral tints resemble those of the foliage. 
The loaves, which have the quaintest way of 
unfolding, appear from tho middle to the latter 
part of April.before thoso of any of the Magnolias. 
It should be transplanted in the spring, and 
we shall live in hopes that many of our frleuds, 
influenced by the accompanying faithful portrait, 
and, shall we say ?—by our words of praise, will 
find place for at least one Lir-i-o-den-dron tulip- 
i-fe-ra. 
We gave a sketch of the fruit, with all needed 
details of culture in our issue of April 14. 
$arm (ftonomij. 
ECONOMY IN UNDERDRAINING. 
BT WM, J. FOWLER. 
There will be a good deal of underdraining 
doue this fall, and in many instances the work 
has already begun. Farmers are well along 
with fall work ; they have sold or are selling ex¬ 
cellent crops at fair prices, and really feel as if 
they could do more iu the way of farm improve¬ 
ment than for several years past. It is truo, too, 
that almost all heavy land needs to have its sur¬ 
plus water removed, and it 1 h a hopeful sign to 
see farmers inclined to expend spare money and 
time in this way. I don’t like to object to so 
good a work ; but, advocate of t borough under- 
draining as l am, I must suggest that this is a 
poor time to do any large amount of this kind of 
work. This fall tho ground is dry and bard to a 
great depth. The weather that has been 
favorable for fall work lias parched the soil and 
made deep digging, except in swamps, almost an 
impossibility. A man will not, by the hardest 
work, dig more than a third as much now as he 
will when the ground is soft and friable in 
spring. Of course, whoro springs prevail, or 
great quantities of water seek an 
r j outlet, a dry time must bo selected 
■JfUjff to do tho work ; bnt tho bulk of 
SI underdraining needed is on land 
that is flooded a few weeks in 
WSI/ early spriug and gradually bakes 
hard and dry during the summer. 
In fact nnderdrainiug is not so 
well understood as it should be. 
Its object is not so much to re¬ 
move surplus water iu spring 
for the damage wliieh it then 
does, as to prevent the greater in¬ 
jury to tho crops from having it 
slowly dry out during tho Bum¬ 
mer and leave the soil dry and 
hard during the growing season. 
We underdrain not only to make 
wet land dry; but to keep it 
moistor in droughts than it would 
otherwise be. Tho principle is 
the same as that on which so 
much whisky is drank—to keep 
men warm in winter and cool in 
summer. 
Underdraining is a measure of 
farm economy, and it is in every 
way important that it should be 
done economically. If made to 
needlessly cost twice as nmch as 
it ought, it will pay only half the 
profit it should, and the farmer 
is proportionately discouraged in 
his good work. By being careful 
to dig when tbo ground is in tho 
best condition, doing as much as 
possible with horse-plows and 
subsoil ditchers, the cost of 
making underdrains may he 
reduced to the smallest possible 
amount. I like to have under¬ 
drains fully three feet deep 
wherever a good outlet can be 
got for that depth, us this places 
the tiles beyond all possible dan¬ 
ger from frost; but with plows 
and scrapers I have often loos¬ 
ened the soil so that only a few 
inches at the bottom will need to 
be dug with pick and spade. A 
good way, wherever possible, is 
to begin the previous plowing by 
making as deep a dead furrow as 
possible where you intend to lay 
the underdrain. After plowing 
out all that (he plow can remove, 
follow with a subsoiler which will 
break the hard subsoil so that 
it is comparatively little work to 
remove it with the spade. This 
can be done best when the sub¬ 
soil is moist in spring. At this 
time of the year the subsoil plow 
would hardly go very deep and 
the work of loosening the subsoil 
must be mostly done with the 
