JUNE 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YOR 
fmologintl. 
CAN WE HAVE BETTER FRUIT.—No. 2. 
OEN. W. H. NOBLE, BRIDGEPORT, OT. 
In my late partial answer to this question, I 
told of the only two ways yet revealed for bet¬ 
tering the kind of animals or plants, namely: 
breeding in-and-in and cross-breeding. Van 
Mons’ method with fruits, essentially breeding in- 
and-in, I gave in fall detail. The overshadowing 
and more lasting results of cross-breeding, and 
the little known of his wondrous work, seemed 
to call for a rehearsal of its routine. I have 
strong hope that its study will disclose hidden 
ways and new helps to better fruits. About this 
I shall Bay something beyond. 
The other way, that of cross-breeding, was the 
method of Thosias Andrew Knight, President 
of England’s Great Horticultural Society. Ho 
was a contemporary of Van Mons and the peer 
of any to whom we owe due fruits. Before his 
time the skilled breeders of Eugland had stocked 
her pastures with the finest domestic animals in 
the world. Judicious mating and cross-breed¬ 
ing were the secrets of their success. That 
method’s wondrous and unfailing work Mr.. 
Knight applied in plant life to the raising of 
fine fruits. The best varieties in each kinu were 
orossed with their like, through the sexuality of 
their flowers, by ways familiar to all adepts. 
You out off the stamens from that plant which 
you desire to have mother of your fine fruit; 
then at the first opening of its blossom, dust on 
its pistil the pollen of the paternal flower; and 
next, in some way, shut out all chance of mix¬ 
ture from the pollen of other blossoms. The 
fruit from such crops, ought in theory to yield 
you kiuds bespeaking their parentage, and of 
improved quality. But somehow the results of 
such crossings do not tally very closely with our 
theory. Either in mating our kinds we are too 
careless about their purity and high score in 
qualities essential to a perfeot fruit, or nature’s 
ways, through which come our fine chance 
seedlings, are not “ yet found out in oar philoso¬ 
phy." We shall yet by study reach the mystery, 
which baffles our hopes and in some degree veils 
from us sore pathways to more perfect fruits. 
Yet, in face of all this uncertainty, the world has 
rightly settled down on cross-breeding' as the only 
reliable method for continuous improvement in 
animals or fruit. Through it, Mr. Knight and oth¬ 
ers siuce his time, have presented ns many choice 
varieties. The theory of cross-breeding was not 
original with him, as was with Van Mons the 
special method of his work; but Mr. Knight so 
thoroughly tested cross-breeding, as a sure path 
to enduring and higher excellence in fruits, that 
sinoe his time it has been the one hope of the 
garden or the orchard. 
Yet I do not believe the best estate of animals 
or plants is to be gained by the exclusive use of 
either in-and-in or cross-breeding. The law 
that like produces like rules either plan. 
To in-and-in breeding, rigorously following a 
single line of parentage with special purpose up 
to a certain point, we owe the first signal lift 
toward excellence. Up to that point for a time 
it helps with wondrous force and change. At 
any stage, in skillful bands, it’s a sure method 
for any special betterment in the offspring. Yet 
as a system, it does not follow out its early 
promise. Beyond a oertain point, it has always 
begotten feebleness, and ofttimes a drift back¬ 
ward, toward the rude types from which im¬ 
provement sprang. 
Tn animals especially, both flesh and spirit 
flag from too closely breeding in-and-in. Stamina 
and gains aro only kept and pushed by crossing 
the fittest family strains, each in its kind. But 
I think the unlike sexual nature in plants and 
animals, somewhat relieves the former from 
strict compliance with rules essential to bring 
better specimens to the herd. The great law of 
like to like, while it ooucorns either, does not so 
strenuously demand diverse families of like in 
fruits whose impregnation follows very different 
conditions. 
But neither in animals nor fruits has oareful 
orosB-breeding met like signal failure, or any 
stay or limit to improvement. This means, of 
course, judicious mating of the best blood and 
qualities. It demands in the orchard both upon 
tree and product, a dose watch on the best 
estate and choice of parentage. The tree must 
be healthy, vigorous and resistant to alt the ills 
that its kind is heir to. The fruits chosen as 
the parents and progenitors of a large planting 
should score up lo the highest standard of 
merit, in size, season, keeping qualities and 
early ripening. Through careful crosses of suoh, 
thuB forecasting a likely progeny, there seems 
hardly a limit to our advance. For example, 
why not have pears in every season, rivaling in 
size the Duchesse d’ Angouleme, and vying in 
texture and aroma with the lnsoious Seokel ; 
peaches, not only like so many of to-day, look¬ 
ing close back upon “ winter lingering in the 
lap of spring," but greeting us with a Merry 
Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have had 
them without care, large, juicy and delicious, 
crowning the festive board at the November 
l hauksgiving." I think they would have held 
good for weeks longer. 
Now though croBs-breeding is the one ac¬ 
cepted way for better fruits, the possible con¬ 
ditions of impurity therein deserve our heed. 
It would be well to ask how true a cross that is, 
from whose seedlings we expect fine Trait. 
Whether some hindrances, or hidden taints, do 
not bo mix things in our mating that we get 
but a lot of mongrel crudeness oftener than 
ancestral likeness or excellence. The secret of 
fruit-tree life and growth, so studied and dis¬ 
closed by Van Mons, deserves most careful note. 
The mighty part which the root plays in the life 
and quality of the tree and its product, should 
never be slighted as a motor toward either 
deterioration or bettorment. There iH, down 
in its laboratory, some seoret alchemy, distilling 
excellence or crudeness, which borne np to the 
seed-germ on the vital current of the sap, gives 
to it a divine quickening, or a sorry taint. 
Though oar eeedling may rejoice us by its 
great advance, yet when in the progression 
of our crosses, we graft its cion on some crude 
though thrifty stock, how do we know that 
the base blood from the root has not left in 
its seed-genu a taint which that germ will re¬ 
produce ? Thus, or in some other way, as in 
the young of animals, some slumbering race- 
taint, dating away back to a careless or stolen 
cross, may crop out, to disappoint and dis¬ 
hearten trial. 
Though we know much about how better fruits 
have come and should be sought, we have not 
yet found out all the faculties and vital forces 
of the fruit tree. They await to be unmasked 
by some new Van Mons or Knight. Such may 
define unerring laws through which better binds 
may progressively and surely follow crosses. 
Now, Van Mons never forgot how much the 
root had to do with the seed above it and its 
fruitage. No root-taint from a crude and puck- 
ery pear, was ever run by him into his trials. 
Through all his life-work, he never planted a 
seed which grew not on its own roots. To this, 
in part, we should ascribe the rapid improve¬ 
ment of his seedlings. 
Your recent correspondent, Mr. D. S. Marvin, 
in his able article on grape improvement, marks 
a new feature in this root power. His sugges¬ 
tive trialB are worthy of all praise, and are full of 
hope. We rarely find a mind so instinctive as to 
method, and so patient in practice. He is in grape 
onlture a new Van Mons. I have seen nothing so 
original in American Horticulture. Yet it is a sim¬ 
ple following of nature’s ways and laws. Like 
all great truths, they are plain and easy, when 
once you have reached their measurement and 
work. In their present stage of his development, 
they deserve close Bean, and brighter hopes in 
the vineyard. His sanguine expectations are 
warranted by all we know about how the root 
shapes the life and produot of the plant. An 
intense interest awaits the results which Mr. 
Marvin seeks. We watch in faith and hope for 
better grapes. In oven these early years of 
American horticultural lire, the American grape 
has oome close np to the excellence, for which 
the Old-World species, haB had the work and 
ohauce of all man’s life on earth. 
Now for a marked example of the way that 
fruit crosses “ gang awry.” The Clapp’s Favor¬ 
ite Pear claims parentage from the Bartlett and 
Flemish Beauty. But it is unlike, and I think 
inferior to either. Such fruits should have 
yielded us a child of higher excellence. Bat 
how true a cross of pure parental blood was the 
CLAPr ? It may bo that the flowers were skillful¬ 
ly mated, with due care that no other than the 
parental pollen Bhould mix therein. But how 
about the root ? Surely no Bartlett or Flemish 
Beauty roots were likely to have nourished the 
seed whioh grew up to be the Clapp, or bore the 
pollen which impregnated its germ. If Van 
Mons and Marvin are right about what the root 
has to do with the seed and fruitage, what is the 
Clapp’s Favorite but a chance seedling, though 
the flowers of each were carefully mated with 
the purpose of a oross ? Did there no old taint or 
newer crudeness crop ont in these seedlings? 
Now, is it not plain from all this, that the foot¬ 
steps of your Bearch for better fruits must fol¬ 
low the laws of plant-life and its schools of trial ? 
Otherwise you are but groping in the dark after 
results, whose reality may mightily disappoint. 
In this hope and search for better fruits, there 
is more bound up than the beauty or luxurions- 
ness of their harvest. There is health and comfort 
and refinement in frnit treoB loaded with their 
glowing and bounteous crops. There is joy in 
the home. Thtre is pleasure at every meal and 
at every stop. The sight and memories of 
heaped-up fruits in the orchard, and a winter’s 
store in the cellar, dwell with us through life. 
The plentiful offering of luscious fruits at the 
social hours and on the family table, and their 
unstinted use alt throughout every avenue of 
life bring joy and blessings to all the walks 
and markets and marts of men. Their full 
measures brim with comfort and content. They 
who gain for us better kinds ; they who show how 
better to raise and keep them; they who study 
out, and dofend against the ills and the insects 
that harm the fruit tree or its product; they 
who largely plant and make plentiful fine kinds ; 
they who year by year study and tell ns what and 
how to cultivate for a hotter fruitage, are great 
human benefactors. 
Our people hunger for finer fruits. Every 
new one promising qualities desired, or so 
heralded, is eagerly bought. An endless oppor¬ 
tunity stretches in the future beyond our com¬ 
paratively brief trials. No people can boast 
such a sun, soil, climate and atmospheric con¬ 
ditions, unitedly auspicious of a glorious repast. 
Hardly a fruit grown on earth, but somewhere 
in our territory finds a congenial home. Over 
the great majority of onr States, every product 
of the temperate latitudes rewards onlture. 
Many share with the tropics their luscious 
fruits. The orange, banana, lemon, citron, 
gnava, plum and peach, flourish side by side in 
Florida. The new fruits of Japan will doubtless 
find congenial homos far north of New Orleans, 
where the new persimmons have grown crops 
for years. The field is unlimited, the promise 
bright, the reward sure. All who would here 
push on the work of Van Mons and Knight to a 
more glorious fruitage, find everything apt, and 
a people eager to second their thorough exhaus¬ 
tion of the possible in pomology. Therein 
sleep secrets, wonders and glories towards 
whose revealing, those great pioneers were only 
Livingbtones and Stanleys, in the realm of 
fruits. 
But the question is: how can the work and 
search best be done to hurry up surely and 
grandly the better fruits ? Something more 
than individual enterprise is needed; some 
thing beyond the chance and stretch of individual 
life; something more continuous and concen¬ 
trated than the grand work of our National 
Pomological 8ociety, Time, place, and the men 
must be had to hold fast patient trials, and 
crown them with finer tested fruits. The need 
is of tireless skill, with well appointed help 
through years of trials and triumphs. This work 
must be so hedged about with an authority and 
trust, that it will command the faith of those 
seeking better fruits. 
In the feverish hurry of onr American life, 
infecting as well the nursery as other marts! 
there are neither means, time, spaoe, nor 
patience, to face the needed trial and delay. 
The business of ready gain, is the great end 
there. Give them a better fruit, and in print 
and tinted picture, the world will sood know all 
its deserts, if not much more. It is discovery of 
fine fruits, not them Bale, we seek. The work of 
Van Mons and Knight was not done at a com¬ 
mercial nursery, but under the ease and patience 
of delay, in well-endowed institutions. I know 
that many fine frnits have come from such as 
Leroy, and Reeves and Poiteau, But as a 
rule, you need not hope for a commercial nursery, 
right along, to plant the well-bred seed, and 
patiently wait its fruiting, under all the condi¬ 
tions essential to success. 
I hope some fruit-loving capitalist will, by 
and-by, endow a fruit garden, devoted to rais¬ 
ing and testing new kinds, and new ways of 
infusing into the germs a drift toward the 
better sorts at every new trial. I know already 
of one enthusiastic lover of fine late winter 
fruit, who proposes to devote in some way $10,- 
000 to encourage the raising of pears, whioh 
will stretch with the apple almost and even quite 
round the year. It is a bright idea on the line 
of a needed advance. Suppose ten or more 
such men should each give therefor like sums, 
and somewhere, in Virginia say, organize a 
Horticultural Garden to originate and test new 
fruits, or, what seems to me better still, let the 
Government endow suoh an institution, ac¬ 
cepting individual gifts and help, and admit¬ 
ting individual direction. What more paternal 
or divine governmental work could be devised ? 
The Agricultural Bureau, which covets the dig¬ 
nity of a Department, might then be lifted from 
its desk-work and seed distribution, by some 
stout Horticultural help. 
At any rate, our National Pomological Society 
should no longer delay the duty of harnessing 
into enduring and pensioned search for bet¬ 
ter fruits this divine climate of ours, and the 
manifest leaning of our seedlings to improve¬ 
ment. I commend this work and duty, to the 
venerable and very able President of that So¬ 
ciety. It would grandly wind up his valued ser¬ 
vice as its head, and crown years full of honor 
and respeot, to engineer the foundation of such a 
national institution. Let it be endowed bv Gov¬ 
ernment and by individuals as a branch of 
either the Agricultural Department, or of 
the Smithsonian Institute, admitting directors, 
trustees and management outside of politics. 
Jftorintltural, 
HUMEA ELEGAN8 PURPUREA. 
W. 0. L. DREW. 
This graceful biennial rnaji be used to great 
advantage to give bight and lightness to the 
centers of flower beds and garden vases, its 
showers of drooping, grass-like blossoms, making 
it oharnungly adapted to such situations, serving 
the same purpose as do ornamental grasses in a 
bouquet. It can also be used most effectively 
as a baok-ground to beds of standard Fuchsias 
and other tall flowers, where they skirt piazzas 
and the walls of the house. 
It would be useless to plant the Humea for 
show purposes; for, though its minute blossoms 
are fascinatingly pretty when closely examined, 
they are not at all showy in form or color, and 
apart from its undeniable grace, the plant has 
few qualities to recommend it to favor. But, in 
connection with more highly-colored favoritieB, 
its mellow rnaset, wrought of tiny specks of 
brightest hues, gives the effect of Persian 
fabric toning and blending to a rich and pleasant 
harmony, the sometimes startling contrasts of 
the garden. 
The Humea is propagated by seed. This 
should be sown in a moderate hot-bed in the 
spring; then pot off or plant in the border until 
cold weather, when the plant must be removed 
to the greenhouse, to await its final setting out 
in the garden bed daring the spring of the 
second season, for as it is a biennial, it will not 
mature the first season. If the plant is grown 
in a pot the first season, it will be well to repot 
it several times, at each time using a pot a size 
larger. This will so greatly increase its strength 
and vigor as to amply repay the additional 
labor. To keep up a succession, it will be neces¬ 
sary to start a new supply from seed every 
sprmg. 
The Hnmea is a native of New South Wales, 
Australia. In suoh situations as those men¬ 
tioned no more desirable subject can be planted. 
El Dorado, Cal. 
jpienit information. 
CHRONIC RHEUMATISM. 
M. Veldlmis, Allegan Co., Mich., asks whether 
there is any specific cure for rheumatism. His 
father, who has been afflicted with the ailment 
for two or three years, has tried the nostrums of 
several doctors and quacks in vain, and he in¬ 
quires whether the Rural can give some good 
remedy. 
ANSWER BY DB. GOODENOUGH. 
There is no specific remedy for acute or ohronio 
rheumatism, nor can there well be until some¬ 
thing more definite is known about the cause 
and nature of the pains whioh are attributed to 
thiB disease. The term rheumatism has a very 
vague meaning, being applied to affections of 
the joints and musoleB, with their tendons and 
fascese, or coverings, and which are due either 
to a chill or to causes which, with our present 
knowledge, cannot be ascertained, and which 
therefore are generally assumed to be atmos¬ 
pheric. In fact, all pains that do not admit of 
being defined, are called rheumatic. Formerly 
neuralgia, catarrh, goat and several other mal¬ 
adies, now considered distinct diseases, were in¬ 
cluded under the term rheumatism ; but when, 
within the last century, the progress of medical 
science revealed the nature and speoifio treat¬ 
ment of these, they ceased at once to be included 
in the number of ailments which our present 
ignorance confound under this general designa¬ 
tion ; for there is little doubt but that the future 
will show that there are still included under this 
name various diseases profoundly unlike each 
other, and of radically different natures. 
Various remedies have been tried with va¬ 
rious degrees of success in the treatment of this 
malady. The prescription, however, which has 
proved highly beneficial or even curative in one 
case, has often been of little or no value in an¬ 
other. Many of these so-called remedies are em¬ 
pirical—merely experimental—in each indi¬ 
vidual case. They may succeed, or they may 
fail, but as they are harmless in any case, and 
as no certain remedy exists so far as we at pres¬ 
ent know, the chance of a cure should beget a 
willingness to give them a trial. A few of those 
whioh according to personal experience and the 
indorsement of the best medical authorities, are 
generally the most efficacious, are the following: 
Lemon juice taken liberally, which is gener¬ 
ally of service in acute articular rheumatism, is 
also often beneficial in the chronic form of the 
disease. 
Colchioum, iodide of potassium, bicarbonate, 
acetaie, tartrate, and citrate of soda and sev¬ 
eral other alkalies as well aB diuretics have also 
been found beneficial; but as the quantity of 
these to be administered and the length of time 
they should be given must depend in each case 
on special circumstances, it would be useless 
certainly, and might be hurtful to give a pre¬ 
scription here. Poor and hard-worsing people 
are the chief victims of chronic rheumatism, and 
nourishing, strengthening diet has proved high¬ 
ly beneficial in these cases. Cud-liver oil, as 
well as preparations of iron and quinine, would 
generally bo found as curative as any form of 
medicine. For local applicationsTaint the 
affected joints with iodine ; rub them with aloo- 
hoi, ammoniacal or camphorated liniments with 
opodeldoc or tnrpenu -e. Warm baths are ex¬ 
cellent, general or local, especially the former 
The water may be tiuotimid with mustard or 
other irritants in either case. Lately in Ger¬ 
many, very favorable results have been obtained 
by mixing mack or peat with the warm water • 
and this is very highly recommended. 
Chronic rheumatism lasts often for months or 
years or a life-time and is always apt to return in 
an aggravated form. Even in the most satisfac¬ 
tory cases, it nearly invariably terminates in an 
imperfect recovery—imperfect either because 
it doeB not extend to all the affeoted Joints, or 
because the process of repair is arrested at a 
particular point, and in all a oertain amount of 
thickness and stiffness permanently remains. 
