THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
notice. It will reqnre but a little labor now to 
put it in place. Don’t wait till it leanB six in¬ 
ches and the gate touches the ground, requiring 
much effort to swing it. A looso nut may be 
discovered by an examination, which, if left to 
itself, will result in a broak-down at a very 
inconvenient time and place. The horse’s shoe 
may be tightened now, if the necessity be ob¬ 
served, with little trouble; delay may cause 
serious injury. 
To do things promptly and at the earliest 
moment, will make just the difference of allow¬ 
ing you to drive your work ahead in accordance 
with your proposed plans—or to be driven to do 
your work at a disadvantage. If you can choose 
your time and plow a Held when it is just in the 
light condition, you gain—if you are compelled to 
plow when either too wet or too dry, because oth¬ 
er work is driving and you have no choice, you 
will lose—and so with every department of farm 
work. If yon will keep ahead, well—if not your 
work will keep ahead of you and when the season 
is over, you will have labored more and accom¬ 
plished less than your neighbor who has learned 
that delays are dangerous, and does everything 
in season. 
- +++ - 
DEPTH FOR COVERING SEEDS. 
W. J. FOWLER. 
Three times the diameter of the seed to be 
planted is the rule among market gardeners. 
And this rule in my experience holds good for 
most farm crops with tha exception that most 
farm fields are not got in so fine tilth as market 
gardeus, and therefore seeds need to be planted 
somewhat deeper than they otherwise should. 
In other words, we have to cover twice or three 
times the depth we ought, because the soil is 
stony or cloddy. Through this extra amount of 
lumpy earth the tender shoot has to push its way 
to light and air. This is the first rnovo the 
young plant makes and the chock from too 
much or unsuitable covering retards its vigor 
through all after growth. With tine, moist and 
rich earth as a covering, plants get a vigorous 
start from tho first, and are soon beyond danger 
from the ailments which pertain to stunted 
growth. Seeds planted at the right depth, which 
is shallow, start their first roots in tho proper 
place and do not need to put forth a second 
series. No matter how shallow seed is planted, 
provided the soil is in right condition, tho plant 
roots will be deep enough. I have ofteu known 
wheat, barley and oats sown broad-caBt on newly 
plowed ground and never covered except as 
rains washed the grain into tho loose soil. Such’ 
pieces never failed to make a vigorous early 
growth, and if the soil was rich enough, a good 
crop. ThiB fact has often been noted by far¬ 
mers, and yet nine out of ten think it a point 
gained if they put the seed, and especially winter 
grain, deep in the ground. They have some pet 
theory that deep drilling or deep covering of 
wheat will enablo it to resist frost better, and 
though a thousand facta contravene this theory, 
the facts are forgotten and tho notion is re¬ 
tained. Frost penetrates from six inches to 
three feet deep hero in Western New York, so 
that no depth of covering will save wheat from 
winter-killing. In point of fact, light frosts 
reaching onlv two or three inches in depth are 
much more damaging to wheat than tho steady 
cold weathor of winter, wheu the ground is frozen 
deeply all the time. 
For spring grain, and especially for barley, 
shallow coveriug is important. There is no 
frost to injure it, but the season for spring grain 
is so short, that a little more or less in depth of 
sowing makes several days 1 difference in time of 
ripening. In nearly half the barley and oats 
grown we find part that is green from unripe¬ 
ness, giving the grain a stained and rusty ap¬ 
pearance. These stained grains are ihe product 
of seed that has been delayed in ripening, and in 
almost every case by being covered too deeply. 
With oats this does not make so much difference; 
bat malsters complain of barley that is uneven 
ia ripening, and iu seasons when barloy is cheap, 
will not buy it. Thousands of dollars are yearly 
lost by farmers from this cause, rendering barley, 
in such seasons as the past, unfit for anything 
but feeding purposes. Of all crops barley 
should be sown at a uniform depth. For this 
purpose a drill set as shallow as possible, is the 
best implement. If tho soil is lumpy, do not sot 
the drill deeper, but drag across the drill marks, 
finishing with the Thomas Smoothing harrow 
aud the roller, to mellow the surface and break 
down lumps. 
Some drills have, wbat is called a zigzag at¬ 
tachment throwing every other tooth forward of 
the ouo boBide it. It is very handy in lumpy, 
atony or soddy ground, but it is a very poor 
tbiug for the crop. I never liked this way of 
putting in grain, and the more I see of it and 
think about it the more dissatisfied I become 
with it. On no account would I have grain of 
any kind put in by it. On cloddy grouud it 
Bcems very nice to soe the lumps Blipping by the 
drill tnbos instead of being dragged before them, 
but it is better to have a man follow the drill all 
day watching the tubes than to set them so that 
every alternate tube throws a ridgo of these 
hard clods over tho next row of plants. What if 
the drill “ won’t half cover ” the seed without 
beiDg set on this fashion ? What you oall “ not 
half covering the seed” is, in all probability 
about tho depth it should be put in. Follow the 
drill with the drag and roller, and the orop will 
be as good as tho soil is capable of producing. 
What is quite as important, the seed will be cov¬ 
ered a nearly uniform depth, and tho crop will 
all be ripe together. There is altogether more 
fear than noed be that farm seeds will not be 
covered deeply enough, and this zigzag attach¬ 
ment to drills ia only a device to enable shiftless 
fanners who do not get their soil in proper con¬ 
dition before seeding, to leave the field after 
drilling looking nearly as well as if it bad been 
properly prepared. What we want is not only to 
have the field appear in good condition but to 
produce a good crop of evenly ripened grain. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
lortiniltnral, 
GARDEN TALKS AND WALKS. 
The Beeches, Ma33., June 3, 18T8. 
From the 20th of May till the 1st of June was 
the Beason of Mr. Sargent’s Azalea Show at 
Brookline. I wont to see them on the 29th, aud 
a splendid show they made. They are the 
greenhouse kinds, grown in pots, and wintered 
in a cold-pit, and otherwise retarded as late as 
practicable, to bring them into bloom after other 
folks'are mostly past, and have as companions 
h8rdy Rhododendrons, Azaleas and other spring 
flowers. Conspicuous among them were decora, 
a rod-blooming kind, and a massive specimen 
some 4 foot high above the pot and (1}£ feet 
through at tho base ; Iveriana, Bride of Abydos, 
Beauty of Europe, Beauty of America, King of 
Holland, Daphne, Marquis of Lorne, Exquisite, 
Crispifiora, Variegata, Criterion, and Flower-of 
the-Day. 
But outside of the exhibition teut is an enjoy¬ 
able treat. The garden aud pleasure grounds 
comprise some 130 aores, and ere wooded, un¬ 
dulated, and planted in tasteful fashion. Where 
tho natural rolls interfered with distant views, 
they have been toned down, divided or removed, 
and graded off so naturally as to conceal arti¬ 
ficial work, and thus a finished and pleasing 
effect, is secured; and, turn where you will, a 
bird's-eye view of some distant locality issure to 
prosent itself, Tho garden is sheltered by belts 
of heavy timber, but the interior is planted iu 
groups or with isolated specimens. Somo of our 
Colorado and Western Conifers are handsome 
specimens, and beds and banks are formed of 
Japanese Retinosporas and other hardy ever¬ 
greens. English Yews and Lawson’s Cypress, 
and somo others, though hardy along the Hud¬ 
son, are tender hero ; but Mr. Saroknt winters 
them in pits and cellars, and transfers them to 
their summer quarters about tho end of April; 
and really they look as fresh as if growing per¬ 
manently where they stand. Mr. S., for trse 
planting, advocates big holes, say 10 feet wide by 
3 feet deep, filled up with the best of the old soil 
mixed with old muck, peat, or other fresh earth, 
aud afterwards annually cultivated in the sum¬ 
mer time till tho trees are several years old. 
For little trees such mighty digging may be 
laughable to some peoplo, but I aide with Mr. 8. 
in thiK case; the freon speak the result. Among 
common troes and atunba none was prettier 
or more fioriferous than Cornus florida of our 
woods; and in the shrubbery belts, the crimson- 
leaved Japaneso Maples were as telling as Oop- 
per-beechOB are among trees. 
But ouo of the most interesting features of 
this plaoo was tho Wild Garden, that ia, a 
wooded dell all growing over with vines, shrubs, 
ferns, and tho like, made the most enjoyable 
part of the garden in spring. In this place are 
naturalized boats of Crocuses, Daffodils, Jon¬ 
quils, Squills, Tulips, Irises, Euglish Primroses, 
Phloxes, aud many other spring flowers that 
come up and blossom in perfection iu spring, 
w’hile their location is open and sunny by leaf¬ 
less trees. During the summer-time they are 
sheltered, shaded and undisturbed, just as they 
prefer to be. It is not the winter’s severity so 
much as the summer’s sun that, in this country, 
proves fatal to so many European woodland 
plants. For instance, Euglish Primroses growing 
iu a shady rockery hero, live over through the 
winter aud blossom splendidlv iu spring; but in 
the open garden-border they invariably die. 
Auother noteworthy feature of this garden is 
the clumps of beautiful Rhododendrons that 
surround the lake and the masses of hardy 
Azaleas in a sheltered nook in the garden. 
Theao Azaleas aro plantod iu a largo bod and in- 
terplautod with Lilies of all kinds, and all are 
allowed to grow up unmolested together. The 
Lilies love this treatment and year after year 
strengthen and multiply; besides, they prolong 
the blooming poriod of the bed from May till 
September. 
I have also been to see the garden of Fran¬ 
cis Parkman, Esq., at Jamaica Plains, and an in¬ 
teresting spot it is. Mr.,P.is an enthusiastic ama¬ 
teur gardener, and has done considerable work 
in hybridization aud propagation, particularly 
as regards hardy herbaceous plants and shrubs. 
He showed me some lily plants—the second 
generation of hybrids, using as the female pa¬ 
rent Lilinm longiflorum var Takeaima, a beauti¬ 
ful white flowering Japanese Lily, and as 
malo, Lilium lancifolium. And still no devia¬ 
tion whatever from the female parent is tra¬ 
ceable in tho offspring, beyond some abortive 
stamens and a lees tendency to produce seedB, 
and some of the anthers changing to a trifle 
darker color. A third generation ia expected 
to bloom this year. Mr. P. also showed me a 
rose-bush, a cross between our Prairie Rose and 
a Moss-rose. It is now four years old from 
seed, has the habit of the Prairie Rose, and it 
mossy. It is full of flower-buds just now, but 
none has yet opened ; it did not bloom before. 
Clematis Miss Bateman is one of the finest and 
showiest of garden varieties with pale blue 
flowers, and blooms towards the end of May. 
Mr. P. sowed seeds of Miss Bateman and raised 
a numerous progeny. They are now in blos¬ 
som, and present all colors from the deepest 
violet purple to almost white, but not one is 
precisely like the parent in color, nor so good 
in form or substance. 
Here I also saw Forsythia Fortune! trained as 
a standard, just as if it were a Weeping Willow 
or Bird Cherry, or one of the old standard rose 
bushes of our boyhood. It is not “ worked” 
on another stock, bnt to begin with, a stont, 
clean wythe is staked erect, pinched at the re¬ 
quired hight, say five feet, and top-shoots al¬ 
lowed to form and depend, but side-shoots 
rubbed off as they apear. After two or three 
years the sterna become self-supporting, and 
stakes are dispensed with. In thia state they 
bloom, first-rate too, as tho tho old plant can 
amply testify. 
A little breeze has sprung up in American 
and English horticultural circles, incited by 
a misinterpreted statement of Mr. Thomas 
Meehan regarding the fruiting of the Wis¬ 
taria. Mr. F. showed me au old Wistaria 
hugging the stem and inter-twining among the 
branches of an old Hemlock Spruce, and which, 
last year, bore an immense quantity of fruits, 
as many of the pods still hanging can show. 
But I note that Wistarias around Boston have 
bloomed rather sparsely this spring. In a nook 
in a shady border I saw Primula Japonica and 
some Auriculas in bloom. Mr. P. tells me, how¬ 
ever, that though they stood out there last win¬ 
ter and look pretty well, they are not reliably 
hardy. 
A friend, writing to me from Dallas, Texas, 
says; “ It is a very rare occurrence to got land 
within two miles of Dallas for less than 100 dol¬ 
lars an acre; but sandy loam, some ten or twelve 
miles from Dallas and on the Dallas and 
Wichita R. It., can be bought for about 35 dol¬ 
lars an acre. The same kind of land some 
four aud a half, or five miles from Weatherford 
(w-Lich is not noar the railroad,) for five or six 
dollars an acre. Neither PearB nor Apples do 
well around here, though Pears certaiuly do 
the best of the two. Wild-Goose Plums are 
great favorites, and Grapes do pretty well. 
Most kinds of Peaches do first-rate, and the 
following kinds are most planted : Early Beat¬ 
rice, Amsden, Alexander, Foster, Hale’s Early, 
Crawford’s Early, Old Mixon, Chinese Cling, 
Stump-the-world, Crawford's Late, Heath Cling, 
and Ward's Late." 
8. Q. Lent, at p. 358, just speaks my mind 
in advocating the ornamontal garden as a farm 
requisite, and a family-refining and cementing, 
influence, And, in reference to thia ques¬ 
tion, permit me to repeat here what I once 
wrote in a frontier paper; and I assure you I 
spoke from experience;—No home of any pre¬ 
tentions should lack a few shrubs or flowers; 
tbeir very presence is the sign-board of civ¬ 
ilization and their absence tho same of back¬ 
wardness and aboriginally. Some farmers 
prefer hogs, dogs, chickens and cats, romping 
around their doors, breeding stench and insects, 
to the healthful fragrance and cleanliness of 
flowers and shrubs. The industrious, intelli¬ 
gent and educated farmer has a place for every¬ 
thing, a flower garden, a vegetable plot, an 
orchard, good crops aud good stock; whereas, 
the indifferent has none of the first, and but 
sorry proportions of any of the rest. The ex¬ 
terior of a home bespeaks the interior. Calves, 
hogs, dogs, big weeds and scrub-wood in the 
yard bid far from inviting in the house, whereas 
a few shade trees, a few shrubs and common 
flowers with neatness and cleanliness outside 
the house, bespeak health and concord, plenty 
and prosperity, education aud intelligence with¬ 
in it. Rknoclaf. 
- ■»-— ♦- 
HORTICULTURAL PROCEEDINGS IN MICH, 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
We have received a copy of the “Report of 
the Professor of Botany and Horticulture of 
Michigan State Agricultural College.” Oar 
readers have already been favored with parts of 
this plain, practical document. We select a few 
others which we do not remember to have seen 
in print. 
TREK EXPERIMENTS. 
Three years ago last spring a few Silver-leaved 
Maples were taken from the river bottoms. They 
were small, and about three to six inches in 
hight. In three years they have become thir¬ 
teen feet high and two and a half inches in 
diameter. Some of the limbs, last year and 
this, have grown, in one year, four to five feet. 
From the seed these have been twice trans¬ 
planted. They have grown one year on the flats 
and three years in the forestry. A few Catalpas, 
four years grown, are nearly as tall and nearly as 
large as tho Silver-leaved Maples, although they 
have been moved once, and have been killed 
back to some extent during two winters. Ex¬ 
periments are being made with European Larch, 
White Pine, Bine Ash, American Elm, Rock 
Elm, Red Elm, White Oak, Norway Spruce, and 
small quantities of numerous other Borts. They 
are still carrying on interesting experiments 
in the different modes of cultivating apple 
trees by mulch, manure, ashes, the plow, etc. 
They have tried these long enough in their 
orchard to become convinced that these trees 
left in grass with no manure, will not bo profita¬ 
ble. 
Last April Prof. Beal began, on two trees, to 
take off a limb on the 25th of each month of the 
year. The intention was to watch these to see 
which would do tho best after a test of several 
years. Several unsuccessful attempts were made 
to put in cions (and have them live) in which 
the buds were split. Cions of different varieties 
were carefully split through the middle of a bud, 
aud a half cion of one variety was tied to half a 
cion of the other, and the whole used in a cleft 
graft. He intends to repeat this auother year. 
ONIONS. 
One of the best points, it seems to him, to 
make improvements in our onions, is to improve 
their qualities for late keeping in spring. This 
can be done, to some extent, by continually 
selecting in spring the best keepers ouly for 
seed. He haB sent a small quantity of the seed 
to several men in the State, who will go on with 
the experiment in the same way as they are doing 
at the college. 
Our own experiments with tomatoes, together 
with the college experiments with the same va¬ 
rieties, aro given at length. 
CORN. 
Prof. B. crossed somo White Dent from one 
locality with pollen from White Dent obtained In 
a remote locality. This may add vigor to the 
race, though it will probably not otherwise 
chauga it. The plan was conceived by him about 
a year ago, and several months afterwards experi¬ 
ments of the same kind were reported on many 
species of plants by Mr. OHkRLES Darwin, of 
England; The favorable results of many experi¬ 
ments there given are quite remarkable. In a 
lecture at a Farmers' Institute last winter be 
spoke of a new way of raising seed corn ; i. e., 
in a patch by itself, where good cultivation 
should be given and all the poor Btalks should 
either be removed or have their tops cut off be¬ 
fore shedding any pollen. This he did the past 
year, aud was gratified to know that at least one 
other man thinks the experiment sensible. His 
name ia Dr. E. L. Sturtevant of Massachu¬ 
setts, the editor of the Scientific Farmer. He 
now advertises to sell seed corn raised by this 
improved method. In hia experiments, though 
half the tops of the corn were cut off, there 
seaaied to be enough pollen left to insure full 
ears on the stalks. 
gltscellattrous 
___ 
_ 
THE TEUTH ABOUT IT. 
((Under this beading, a number of articles 
have been prepared by able writers. These will 
appear from time to time. Their object is not 
at all to deal wkh **humbugs''—but with the 
n«Miy unconscious errors that creep into the 
methods of daily country routine life.— Eds.] 
SCIENCE AND PRACTICE. 
FROFESSOB W. J. BEAL. 
In these times we bear a great deal said about 
“ practical ” men, especially by those who lay no 
claim to a good education. In the minds of cer¬ 
tain persons, a thing is not practical, if they 
cannot understand it or put it in practice, or if 
they oannot see just how it will directly and im¬ 
mediately drop dollars iuto their pockets. A 
person may start out with a deficient education, 
work hard, and learn every thing by the se¬ 
verest effort, yet he may not be a very practical 
man after all. He will likely have some vague 
theories in regard to many things which he doeB 
not understand. These thoories will more or 
less influence Bis modes of action. He will have 
many incorrect notions of the development and 
habits of mseots and other animals. He will 
not understand some of the merest rudiments of 
plant physiology. On the other hand, there are 
some persons who possess much knowledge 
learned from books. If these are not careful, 
and have not tested their knowledge and have 
not learned much by experience, they may com¬ 
mit as great errors as the man ignorant of books. 
I give briefly some examples which have 
come under my observation. The number might 
be much extended. 
In case of plants, many errors are made and 
mush bad advice given by those who are con¬ 
fused on the common names of plants. Any 
one can pick up or coin a common name, but un- 
