JULY e 
THE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
September. Not wishing to plow and plant 
so much, I was at a loss what to do with it. 
The olover I was satisfied would not amount 
to much this year, as it rarely does the second 
season. Some advised summer fallowing and 
sowing with wheat in the fall; but the field 
was clean from weeds and it seemed a pity to 
lose the use of it for the year. The early days 
of April were bright and warm, so, putting in 
a three-horse team in a twelve-acre field, I had 
it nicely turned under in a week’s time. I used 
the jointer plow, leaving a good mellow seed¬ 
bed on top. This was well harrowed, taking 
about half as much time as the plowing, and 1 
drilled in 2 },4 bushels of barley on the 19th 
and 20th of April together with about 100 lbs. 
of phosphate and 100 lbs. of gypsum mixed, 
per acre. The field was in good heart, and the 
growth of barley is all that could be desired. 
The seeding was thick and the plants have till¬ 
ered until the stalks stand about as close as they 
well can. No one who sees it can doubt that 
the barley roots are now feeding on the olover- 
sod whose decay is hastened by the concen¬ 
trated fertilizer as also by the dense mass of 
barley leaves on the surface. The manure 
has also given the barley a good send-off, and 
enabled it to sooner reach the sod. I doubt 
not that the barley crop will be doubled by the 
fertilizer applied. Good judges estimate it at 
fifty bushels per acre. 
Undoubtedly much of this favorable result 
is due to the moist season we have had; but 
in any weather, I believe that clover sod, well 
plowed, will insure a good barloy crop, if a 
little fertilizer is applied with the seed. The 
olover decaying in the soil, keeps it moist, 
and this year also keeps it warm as well. After 
a week of dry weather we are having a fine rain 
which insures snilicient moisture till it is ready 
to cut. The joints are formed and, in a few 
days, heads will be pushed up, and the ground 
will keep moist from this rain until they are 
filled. It is of the Bix-rowcd variety, which in 
a good season and on rich soil will yield more 
than the two-rowed, though the latter is safer if 
soil and season are unfavorable. 
This fall I shall re-turn this sod, and sow with 
wheat, with phosphate and gypsum as before. 
The clover sod will be decayed enough to fur¬ 
nish just the pabulum which wheat roots de¬ 
light in, and next spring I can re-seed with 
olover. •! shall have an advantage in this, as a 
good many clover seeds were dropped last fall 
and turned to the bottom of the farrow. When 
the barley stubble is turned under, these will be 
brought up and will grow next fall or next spring, 
I have known good clover on fields from the seed 
scattered after a seoond crop of clover. Uuless 
left very near the surface, clover seed will re¬ 
main in tho soil for years. 
This plan of sowing barley on clover sod avoids 
the labor and expense of so many hoed crops, 
hut it is only adapted to soils free from weeds. 
It has a very important advantage oyer the old- 
fashioned rotation of wheat and summer fallow 
after clover each alternate year. It gives one 
more year for clover roots to grow; and only 
takes one wheat crop in three years, instead of one 
every other year. In an average of seasons,I think 
too that the spring grain will be worth as much 
as the wheat, so that this rotation nearly dou¬ 
bles tho profit in a course of three years. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
RUSSIAN APPLES IN AMERICA, 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Few, perhaps, think or remember, when read¬ 
ing of the " Colossus of the North," in these 
days of Eastern warfare, that nearly the whole 
of the great Russian territory, both in Europe 
and Asia, lies north of the parallel of 45°, the 
northern boundary of New York and Vermont. 
Yet this is the fact, as a reference to the map 
will show. Moscow, the central city of the Em¬ 
pire, lieB just below latitude 56°. 
Europe is not as cold, on the same parallels, as 
our Atlantic States; but the most thickly settled 
aDd riohest parts of Russia have a winter tem¬ 
perature quite as severe as any part of New 
England or Canada. Yet orchards are abundant 
there, and the apple-trees moat healthy and pro¬ 
ductive ; while in Northern Vermont, New 
Hampshire, Maine, New York and Lower Can¬ 
ada, with slight local exceptions, the apple pro¬ 
duction is quite insufficient for home consump¬ 
tion, and the business of fruit-growing is 
considered precarious and unprofitable. 
Borne thirty or forty years ago, trees or cions 
of some Russian Apples were brought to this 
country, and their beauty and productiveness 
have rendered them popular in many localities. 
One, the Red Astr&ohau, is largely planted from 
Louisiana to Canada. The Duchess of Olden¬ 
burg is the “stand-by” for hardiness and 
productiveness in Minnesota, Wisconsin and 
Northern Maine. The Emporor Alexander is 
marked as a profitable Apple to grow for market 
in Lower Canada. The Tetofsky is regarded as 
the hardiest of all Apples in Minnesota, the 
ooldest State of the Union. Beauty, productive¬ 
ness and hardiness are the marked character¬ 
istics of these Russian Apples. In quality they, 
uoneof them, rank with the best, and not one of 
them is a keeping apple. The latest, the Alex¬ 
ander, keeps only until November. 
The necessity for a strain of apples, the trees 
producing which should have a greater resisting 
power against severe winter oold than the pop¬ 
ular sorts of the Middle Btates and Southern 
New Eugland, led to the introduction of the 
Russian varieties into all the coldest parts of the 
country. The demand for winter apples not be¬ 
ing suet by them, our Department of Agrieul- 
ure, in 1870, imported from St. Petersburg a 
quantity of cions, nominally embracing 251 dis- 
tinot varieties. These cions were distributed 
about among fruit-growers, mostly in the colder 
sections. A considerable number were sent to 
Vermont. Mauy of these cions, being grafted 
into large trees, have already borne fruit, which 
has been tested and exchanged among the grow¬ 
ers with a lively interest. Tho greater number 
of these are plainly summer and fall fruit; and 
a great deal of disappointment has been experi¬ 
enced on that account by growers, who forget 
that many remain yet unfruited, and that usually 
the early Apples are the first to produce fruit, 
and that later kinds will probably be more nu¬ 
merous among those which will bear their first 
apples in 1878 and successive seasons. 
The list sent out by the Department along 
with the cions, was but a bare schedule of names, 
without a particle of description, or the convey¬ 
ance of any idea in regard to the season or 
quality of the fruit, save what the name itself 
might convey. So far as the writer knows, 
no account of this important importation, — 
whence or by whom it was gathered, what were 
the characteristics of the fruit of each, as grown 
in their native localities, their seasons, qualities, 
or relative esteem and market value where 
known,—has ever been made public by the De¬ 
partment. If there are any data from which 
such an account, however brief or imperfeot, 
could be drawn up, now is the time for it to be 
put forth, that growers and experimenters may 
compare its statements with their experience 
with tho new fruits as they are developed. 
The writer has Been and tested tho fruit of 
some thirty varieties of these new Russian Ap¬ 
ples,—a few from his own trees, and the re¬ 
mainder seat to him, as a connoisseur, from dif¬ 
ferent parts of Vermont and the North-west. It 
is not my intention to go into an extended de¬ 
scription of any of these now. I reserve the 
subject for another time, when the added expe¬ 
rience of one or two more seasons will give both 
fuller material and an opportunity for a revision 
of j ndgments based only on single tests. I will 
simply indicate a tentative opinion that among 
early summer Apples of this class, No. 834—Yel¬ 
low Transparent—and 344—Sultan Apple—de¬ 
serve to be tested alongside of Tetofsky. Among 
those a little later, No. 342—Charlottenhaler—is 
very largo, and of quality comparable with Cole's 
Quince. No. 336—White Transparent—resem¬ 
bles the Early Harvest in fineness of texture and 
freedom from the “sour-water” quality of jnice, 
that seems characteristic of too many of the 
early Apples of this class. It has substance and 
richness, united to a mellow quality. No. 317— 
White Pigeon Apple—is down in my notes as of 
medium size, yellow, with delicate carmiue 
streaks \ flavor neutral, almost sweet, with an 
indescribable spicy mingling of apple, pear and 
banana flavor. No. 368—Sugar Barbel—is a 
good early sweet. The only winter variety that 
appears valuable, so far, is No. 402—BoredoiL 
This seems to be a long-keeping winter apple of 
finest quality; size rather large, oblate, ob¬ 
scurely ribbed; akin smooth and glossy, green 
with brownish-red cheek; flavor much lik6 
Peck's Pleasant. 
Orleans Co., Vt., May 24. 
FRUIT TREES FOR ORNAMENT. 
SAMUEL B. BAUSONS. 
Fob lawns and landscape effect the only essen¬ 
tial things are variety in form and color and 
taste in grouping. There is generally an im¬ 
pression that these cm be obtained only by 
means of what are termed ornamental trees and 
shrubs ; hence fruit trees are planted in straight 
rows for bearing, rarely in groups for landscape 
effect. 
While the best results are produced by the finest 
ornamental trees and shrubB, it is a mistake to 
suppose that no landscape effects can be obtained 
with fruit trees and shrubs alone. Those who 
are familiar with tho country in May and Juue, 
know the great beauty of the orchards when 
Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums and Peaches are 
a sheet of bloom of various shades of color. 
There is also great variety in form ; the round- 
headed Apples which generally prevail, are occa¬ 
sionally varied by a pyramidal form like the 
Lady Apple or the more dwarf habit of the Si¬ 
berian Crab. In PearB the Buffum is almost as 
pyramidal as a Lombardy Poplar, while other 
varieties are graded from the rouudest head of 
the largest trees to the more dwarf Seckel or 
Manning’s Elizabeth. Iu Cherries and Plums 
there is the same difference iu form, and one 
familiar with them soon learns to note it. 
So it is in color; the shades are varied, and 
an ordinary workman will soon recognize each 
sort by its tint. 
Thu 8 it is possible to obtain with fruit trees 
alone those contrasts which aid to make a pic¬ 
turesque lawn. The Purple Peach is almost as 
dark as the Purple Beech, aud occasionally dot¬ 
ted among other varieties, gives a good picture 
effect. Tuen the blossoms of Peaohes are of all 
shades, from snow-white to carmine. Nothing 
can be more ornamental than the American 
Chestnut, with its tall, pyramidal form, aud its 
abundant racemes of flowers, while the round 
head of the Spanish Chestnut is very different. 
The darker Hickory is stately and sturdy, aud 
always valuable for its Shellbark varieties. The 
very dark purple-leaved Hazel contrasts strong- 
J ly with the common sorts, while the different 
shades of Currants, Raspberries, and small fruits 
can fonu the Blirnbbery. 
Were I making a country home, I would ap¬ 
propriate five acres of land, or ten acres if my 
ambition were larger, in tho middle of which I 
JAPANESE FARM ON T11F TROCADEIIO. 
