Vol XLI. No. 1694. 
NEW YORK, JULY 15, 1882. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
$2.00 PER TEAR, 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the Rural New Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
dental rather than permanent; and that it 
might be chargeable to peculiarity of soil or 
climate. Indeed, the circumstance of such 
alleged variability was considered so far 
paradoxical, botanically speaking, that the 
whole subject underwent a protracted and 
somewhat heated discussion through the hor¬ 
ticultural press of the period. 
Notwithstanding the general recognition of 
the fact that, for all practical purposes, the 
blossoms of many varieties of the straw¬ 
berry may be said to be pistillate: or, 
speaking more accurately, destitute of 
stamens, and hence incapable of self-fertiliza¬ 
tion, such is very rarely, I think I may 
say never, absolutely true. 
Some varieties, like Wilson, Charles Down¬ 
ing, Bldwell, Marvin, Longfellow and others, 
produce an abundance of robust stamens and 
anthers; and are hence, in common parlance, 
designated as staminale\ while others pro¬ 
of very moderate power, will show a very 
considerable number of short stamens with 
accompanying anthers. These may, very 
probably, be abortive, so far as the capacity 
to produce pollen is concerned—a supposition 
the more probable, since such apparently fee¬ 
ble stamens seem ever to be accompanied by 
correspondingly small or feeble petals, both 
springing from the same presumably feeble 
source. 
Very few of the varieties usually designated 
pistillate, show as marked an absence of 
stamens as those named; while there is a 
steadily rising gradation from these up to the 
robustly staminate sort heretofore named. 
Some of these occupy a position so nearly 
intermediate between the two classes that it 
becomes a matter of no little difficulty to de¬ 
termine to which to assign th^m. Among 
these we name the well known Crescent, 
which, in classifying_for catalogue purposes, 
v 
HEAD OF DOURA, FROM EGYPT.—[From Life.]— Fig. 218. 
fiftij Crops. 
EGYPTIAN CORN. 
Mr. J. C. Birdsell on his late return from 
Egypt presented us with a head of Egyptian 
Corn which he procured there, and which was 
the origins! for the accompanying engraving. 
It varies little from tile heads raised at the 
Rural F,x. Grounds yeurs ago when many of 
the chief kinds of this sorghum were tested. 
There are essentially three classes of the Egyp¬ 
tian Corn or D >ura—viz: (1) those kinds which 
bear white and (2) those which bear brown 
seed-,all .ending up as a rule but one stalk from 
a seed—and <3) the one kin!—so far as known 
—which sends up many stalks from a single 
seed, as shown in the Rural Branching Sor¬ 
ghum. The drooping head can no longer be 
considered as a specific diff renoe, and Sor¬ 
ghum cernuum may be wiped out of botanies 
and remembrance Whether the grain is white 
or brown; whether the head is droop'ng or 
upright; whether one stalk or many proceed 
from one seed, doubtless thev are all varie¬ 
ties of Sorghum vulga r e which like our In¬ 
dian corn—Zea Mays—gives hundreds of 
variations according hi climate, culture or 
selection. It is very evident that this species 
of sorghum is becoming more and more 
popular in many parts of our country. 
Some varieties endure drought well 
an 1 are becoming prized in droughty 
sections in lieu of other fodder plauts which 
suffer from dry weather. Other kinds bear an 
immense qnautity of grain for which uses 
have already been found and for which 
others doubtless w ill be found as the chance 
or the necessity presents itself. It is already 
valued as a chicken food and we have heard 
of its being fed to swine and cattle. “It 
combines,” says a valued contributor from 
Arkansas “ th° properties of corn and wheat 
—does not need shelling and all animals are 
fond of it. For family uses,” he continues, “it 
cannot be too highly recommended, and 
while it resembles neither corn-meal, buck¬ 
wheat nor Graham flour, it will t^ke the 
place of either. The meal makes delicious 
mush after the style of oat meal; light, ten¬ 
der pancakes, and excellent hot bread made 
with egg, sour milk, a little shortening, salt 
and soda, like the Northern johnny-cake and 
Southern “egg bread.” Sweeten and flavor 
the same mixture, and it is a delicious plain 
cake. It is also as nice as cracked wheat 
cooked in the same manner, and equals rice 
in soup, but will not cook as quickly as the 
latter.” Our friend’s experiments in the way 
of preparing it were cut sh< rt by the loss of 
the meal in a fire which destroyed his house 
and nearly its entire contents; but he does 
not doubt it would be equally good raised 
with yeast and mixed with rye for bread. 
He never bad it ground into flour—only 
meal; the miller says twice as much can be 
ground in the same time as corn. It was the 
white variety, which bears considerably 
less and ripens later than the red, but is pre¬ 
ferred for household use, because it is light- 
colored no doubt. 
SEXUALITY AND HARDINESS OF THE 
BLOOM OF THE STRAWBERRY. 
PRES. T T, LYON. 
For many years t.be fact has been recog- 
n zed by American growers that the blooms 
of the strawberry are often sexually imper¬ 
fect. When this circumstance first came un¬ 
der observation, it was suspected, at least by 
some persona, that such deficiency was inci¬ 
ducing few anthers, carryiug little if any pol¬ 
len, but with an abundan eof pistils, are des¬ 
ignated as pistillate. Those destitute of pis¬ 
tils must of course prove hop>l-ssly sterile. 
Of the pistillate varieties, we shall find no 
mote characteristic illustration than the well 
kuown Champion, and its other self, the 
Windsor Clief, which, to the casual observer, 
appear to be absolutely destitute of pollen- 
producing organs. A careful examination of 
the bloom of even this variety, however, by 
a good eye or with the aid of a iniscroscope 
we have felt compelled to des'guate as ob¬ 
scurely staminate, although it is very gener¬ 
ally considered as pistillate. Of others com¬ 
ing under my observation, which occupy a 
comparatively intermediate posllimi, 1 may 
Dame the following, designating them as P, 8., 
or S. P., to accord with the preponderating 
qualification: Sitin Gloss, S. P., Huddle¬ 
ston’s Favorite, P 8 . Kmney's Eclipse, P. S., 
Garden, S. P , Success, S. P., Louella, P. S., 
Bockef, P. S. 
It must be considered as a surprising cir¬ 
cumstance that, among these sorts with im¬ 
perfect bloom, are foun l many of our most 
vigorous and productive varieties when 
planted in the vicinity of other staminate 
plants. 
The, to U3 in this region, vary unusual ex¬ 
perience of he present season, in the loss of 
a small percentage of the earliest blooms of 
the strawberry by frost, has afforded op- 
portuidtv to observe that the death of the 
germ, with the accompanying pistils, doe 
not generally prevent the development of 
the petals, nor even that of the stamens; but 
that, on the other hand, the latter, often¬ 
times at least, develop with even more than 
their usual vigor; an apparently instinctive 
effort of nature to repair even an incurable 
injury. 
With the strawb°rry, as with most, if 
not all, other classes of fruits, the experiences 
of the present Spring seem to indicate a con¬ 
siderable difference in varieties, in their 
ability to withstand the in^uence of frosts, 
With most varieties the blossoms that were 
open at the time of the cold weather, early 
in May, were killed. These, in the case 
of the great ma j >rity of kinds, were 
a very small portion of the whole. In 
the case of Belle Bordelaise, Ljs Quatre 
Siisons, and one or two other Alpines 
however, the loss seems to be far more 
general, embracing very many of the unde¬ 
veloped blooms. The Early Canada also has 
lost far more than its relative proportion of 
bloom from this cause, although I am un¬ 
able to assure myself that the effect may 
not be due to its greater precocity. 
On the other haad. Trinity (of the origin of 
which I am uninformed,) and Neunan’s 
Prolific, (the popular Charleston, 8. C., va¬ 
riety.) together with a number of others, have 
wholly escaped, apparently in consequence of 
their habit of bloomin ; at a very late period. 
Dairi) ijnshaaiinj. 
SHAM AND REAL. 
PROFESSOR J. P. SHELDON, ENGLAND. 
Can any man tell what dairying is drifting 
to? We hear of all sorts of queer monstrosi¬ 
ties, from lard cheese to cotton-oil butter. No 
man knows what he eats, if he buys it. Sim¬ 
ulation is the spirit of the age, and no end of 
science and skill is employed to deceive. A 
clever imitation is what men prefer to pro¬ 
duce, and the public are led to devour. The 
simplicity of genuineness is out of the run¬ 
ning, as things go in the world. The pub¬ 
lic must eat what is given them, asking 
no questions The oleomargarine men have 
done a terrible lot of mischief, and offal is the 
god whom they delight to honor and exalt. 
At all points they aim to circumvent the 
dairymen and to swindle the public. The 
taste of the people is degraded by sham but¬ 
ter and chee-e, which seems to be real. 
Men’s stomachs, now-a-days, are sepulchres 
for strange abominations, which they igno¬ 
rantly rather than innocently swallow. This 
sort of thing is leading them they know not 
whither, and posterity will pay the piper. It 
is no longer that which cometh out of, but 
that which goeth into, the mouth that defiles. 
Meats and drinks of many kinds are not what 
they pretend to be, and there is a good 
deal of “tricks that are dark,” in what passes 
for dairy goods. 
Whose fault is this? Well, in a great part, 
the dairymen’s, for they have spoilt good 
milk so loug that anything serves for milk. 
They have given an opening for the shoddy 
men of the dairy, who are growiog rich out 
of offal. The law complacently lets men sell 
what they like, and call it what they like, and 
tne sham article,is olten enough better than 
