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Vol XLI. No. 1691. 
NEW YORE. JUNE 24. 1882. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
$2.00 PER TEAR, 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1832, by the Rural New Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
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WILD ROSSIS IN WILD PLACES. 
In the face of such lovely flowers as our 
garden roses, so large, so brilliant, so double 
and of so many forms, kinds, and colors, it 
seems almost inconsistent to advance a plea 
in favor of our wild roses that bloom so pretti¬ 
ly and lavishly on the dry hill-side where the 
Prostrate Savin and the Wooly Mullein grow, 
and in the swamps with Blue Flags, Clammy 
Azaleas, Swamp Huckleberries and Winter- 
berry as their companions, or skirting the 
timber belt along the prairie edge, where 
with the wild blackberries they form uncivil 
thickets, and leave their bushy friends and 
climb up high among the branches of the 
neighboring scrubs and trees, so that their 
slender arms may stretch beyond, recline in 
fountained grace, and in full sunlight there 
display their glowing wreaths of clustered, 
rosy flowers. Our garden roses need a nurse’s 
eye, but wildings take care of themselves. If 
the artist wants a rose to paint, he does not 
select the brilliant Jacquiminot, the huge 
Malmaison or other of our garden sorts, bu*i 
seeks the early wild rose or the Swamp Rose 
or perhaps a cluster of the Prairie Rose—at 
any rate, a single rose. 
Look at our illustration and see how easily 
and gracefully the wild rose has taken posses¬ 
sion of the old tree stump and then think, is 
there around us any wierd or unsightly ob¬ 
ject, as a backward-growing tree or wind- 
broken Btump, that can be converted to a 
thing of beauty by such simple furnishing as 
some wild climbing rose. Our Pi'airie Roses 
are well suited as vines to scramble over 
bushes, bide unsightly banks or walls, lean 
over fences, train to posts or pillars, clothe 
arbors, form veranda screens, and serve in 
other ways for which vines may be desired. 
The Sweet Briars, too, are as available and 
serviceable, and, being so highly fragrant, 
are preferred by many. Who has ever seen 
the Cherokee Rose at home in the Gulf States, 
as hedges, banks or scrambling vines, so dense, 
so glossy and so evergreen the whole year 
through, and in the Spring a mass of snowy 
wreaths, without admiring it? A goad com¬ 
panion for the Cherokee Rose, tender in the 
North but hardy at the South, is the Banksia 
Rose. 
Now, iu a neighborhood where wild roses 
grow it i 9 an easy m itter to have all the roses 
that we want, either to plant in masses here 
and there where most adxnissable upon our 
lots and farms, iu the outer portions or the 
garden. We may- go into the waste places 
and the swamps at any time and dig them up, 
and if we lift them with good roots, keep 
them moist till planted, cut them back severe¬ 
ly at the time, and in planting p ink the soil 
firmly about the roots, there is little danger 
of failure at any ti ne. And when they have 
become established, if we so desire it we may 
bud them with the choicer gai'deo forms. This 
is axx easy and inexpensive svay of furnishing 
oor gardens with beautiful roses, for many a 
friend an i neighbor would give us bads of 
handsome roses, who could not spare us 
plants. _ 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
(S. prunifolia flore pleno) is at the present 
time, (May 25th) in full bloom. This pretty 
species is a native of Japan and is perfectly 
hardy, and of the easiest culture. It is of 
strong growth with small roundish, glossy 
green leaves which in the Autumn assume a 
beautiful color. The flowers are of a pure 
white color, perfectly double, and are, more¬ 
over, freely produced. 
Prunes Sinensis flore roseo pleno is a rather 
long name for a very beautiful shrub. This 
Double Red flowering Plum (or Almond as it 
is more commonly called,) is ddseiwing of a 
place in all collections. It flowers about the 
last week in May, In color its blooms are of 
a beautiful rose. In size the siugle flowers 
resemble a small rose; they are produced 
before the leaves appear. 
Prunus trilobata, the Double-flowering 
Plum is also a very desirable hardy shnib. It 
is a charming species of vigorous growth with 
semi-double pink flowers each averaging an 
inch in diameter. The flowei’s are very fin ely 
creeping vine and one that is entirely distinct 
from all the members of the genus. On 
account of its finely cut foliage one would 
suppose it to be rather tender and of delicate 
growth. Such, however, is not the case. It 
is perfectly hardy and of vigorous growth 
and is an excellent plant for covering walls, 
the tranks of trees, etc. The compound pin¬ 
nate leaves in Autumn assume beautiful tints 
of crimsou and gold. It is at the present time 
a rather scarce plant but is deserving of being 
brought prominently into notice, I see, how¬ 
ever, that some of our florists say that it is a 
distinct species, while others say that it is 
a variety of our Virginia Creeper, A. Quin- 
quefolia. 
When you purchase climbers do not forget 
to obtain a plant or two of Clematis flammula 
— this is one of the best climbing plants we 
have, being perfectly hardy, of robust habit, 
producing its white sweet scented flowers in 
the greatest profusion. Chas. E. Parnell. 
Queens, L. I. 
-» ♦« - 
Last Fall we potted two of the Rural car- 
$l)eey j^nsbaniirij. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
Those persons who have endeavored to 
force lettuce this season have been very much 
annoyed by the Iofuce mildew, which iu some 
coses has almost, destroyed the entire crop. 
Both sulphur nnd lime have been tried as a 
remedy, atxrt with some benefit; but how to 
remove the lime or sulphur, when the lettuce 
is ready for use is another fact to be considere 1, 
for it is almost impossible to remove all by 
washing, and lettueo dusted with lime or 
sulphur is not very desirable for tuble use. 
The Double flowering Plum-leaved Spiraea 
WILD ROSES IN WILD PLACES. After Robinson's Wild Garden.— Fig. 189. 
produced on the slender branches about the 
end of May r . 
Azalea Iudica—Flag of Truce—is I think, 
the most beautiful double azalea in cultivation. 
The flowers are of a large size averaging two 
inches in diameter, double, and of a pure white 
color, while, iu addition, we have a plant of 
healthy, vigorous growth and profuse flower¬ 
ing qualities. 
Ampelopsis bipinnata is a veiy beautiful 
A. B. ALLEN. 
nations for houseplants.and during the Whit r, 
for several weeks, their blossoms cheered us 
by their fragrance and beauty. The other 
plants were left in the gi’ound, covered slight¬ 
ly with straw, expecting that as usual Dame 
Nature would pile her snowy blankets over 
them, but she was strangely niggard in her 
provision for their safety, and it was with 
many misgivings that we raked away the 
mulching when Winter was gone. But they 
came out all right, proving perfectly hardy, 
and most of them are now budded, [e. k. b 
It is not my purpose in this article to 
describe any particular breed of sheep or 
method'of rearing or disposition of them; for 
such has been so often done of late years in 
the agricultural journals of our country, as 
to have become wearisome to their readers. 
Instead of this, what we most want now to 
leara is how to select and breed thi se sheep 
which may prove the most suitable aud profit¬ 
able for the various climate®, soils and ex¬ 
posures where they are to be kept and reared. 
In order to do this properly, time and ex¬ 
perience will be required. If we have none 
already exactly fitted to a district of the 
country, then by crossing different sorts 
together we can so modify their produce as 
to make a new variety perfectly adapted for 
the situation. Great Britain has furnished us 
with the most numerous and best examples of 
such, and we shall do well to study them 
thoroughly for hints before making our own 
attempts. After this we should commence 
practice, and then depend upon ourselves to 
accomplish the desired ends. Some of these 
experiments will prove failures; others a suc¬ 
cess; we must then drop the former and ad¬ 
here only to the latter It will require con¬ 
siderable time to establish new breeds of 
sheep, or eveb suitable modifications of those 
already existing; but with skill, care and 
patience, the whole thing may xiltimately be 
judiciously accomplished. 
The most important and desirable im¬ 
provements yet made in sheep of the United 
States have been made in the Merino. Here 
the size of the original Spanish has been much 
increased, the weight of his fleece in many 
inst nees more than doubled, greater vigor 
has been given to its constitution, and it has 
been mad e to mature a year earlier than for¬ 
merly. It was not necessary to increase the 
fineness of the fibers of wool as existing in 
some paxts—for example, as over the shoulders 
—but it was decidedly important to obliterate 
all the long, coarse white hairs scattered 
through the fleece, called kemp, and to render 
the whole as even as possible in quality, 
length of staple, density and elasticity. 
Black, pitchy gum outside, and white or yel¬ 
lowish concrete inside of the fleece, and an ex¬ 
cess of yolk have been lessened, which has 
added value to the wool, and made it more 
desirable for the manufacturer. For delaine 
fabrics, too, the length of the staple has been 
increased to three inches or more, and the 
wool fiber has been decreased considerably in 
diameter. It is now r sxiitable for combing. 
Other improvements greatly needed iu my 
judgment remain to be accomplished. Of 
what benefit, I would xespectfully ask the 
breeders of Merino sheep, are the great 
wrinkles and huge dewlaps of the skin ? I 
have never heard but one claimed for these, 
and that was that they increased the weight 
of the fleece. Suppose they do ? In my 
opinion this extra weight can be got in a 
cheaper and better way. I presume that all 
the wool shorn from the wrinkles and dewlaps 
of fifty sheep would not more than equal a 
good fleece of a single one. Then w hy not add 
this on© to to the flock of an Improved fifty, 
bred witbout wrinkles or dewlaps? It would not 
cost any more to keep the former than the 
latter nurnbex*, for it takes an excess of food 
to grow ihe wrinkles and dewlaps, and when 
done, the wool on them is not usually of so 
long a staple and good a quality as the rest of 
the fleece; and, moreover, it takes thrice as 
long to clip it, and in doing so the shearer is 
often liable to cruelly cut the skin. 
Another great improvement is required, 
