iunipuM^a 
Vol XLI. No. 1712 
NEW YORK, NOV. 18 1882. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
#2.00 PER YEAR. 
[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.] 
4 
ground and thoroughly harrowed it. After 
this I took a team and went over the ground 
and hauled off all the weeds and then drilled 
in the seed. My neighbor sowed his seed 
broadcast on the same held that he used two 
years ago, it having been in corn this Spring 
and Summer. It wa* really more foul with 
weeds and Crab Grass than ever before. His 
land may be a little richer than mine; but not 
much—he claims that his success is due to the 
fact that weeds and Crab Grass he leaves on 
the ground act as a mulch and protect his 
wheat during the Winter, keeping it from 
freezing out and giving it a more vigorous 
growth; while, as they lie close to the ground, 
they are no impediment to it after it starts to 
grow in the Spring. N. J. Shepherd. 
Miller Co., Mo. 
lot grown by one plant. There is often a 
marked difference in the color. 
In some the seeds are nearly all light-yellow; 
in others, nearly all dark, while in others 
almost every seed has some light and some 
yellow on the surface. In no instance were 
all the seeds of a plant alike in color. The 
seeds from a single head sometimes showed 
variation in color. Most of the seeds of any 
one plant examined were alike in color. 
Probably most light-colored seeds are grown 
on plants with light-colored foliage, and dark 
seeds on dark-leaved plants, bat this is not 
always the case. 
Chr IHimjariX 
Experiment with Potatoes. 
I tried an experiment this year with 82 
kinds of potatoes on a small plot in order to 
MULCH FOR WHEAT. 
TWO DAYS AMONG THE HUDSON 
RIVER VINEYARDS. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
Notes and Impressions by the Way. 
Two years ago I noticed a man sowing 
wheat broadcast and harrowing it in. The 
land had been under corn the previous year 
and was very weedy with a full crop of Crab 
Grass, and after the corn had been cut off it 
had been poorly plowed, or the weeds were 
poorly turned under, leaving bunches of Crab 
Grass and weeds all over it. After he had 
sowed the wheat and finished harrowing, the 
field was covered with weeds and Crab Grass, 
the boy who did the harrowing having failed 
to take any pains to clear the harrow, allow¬ 
ing it to fill up and scatter as it happened. 
Having been always in the habit of putting 
SECOND DAY. 
Having accepted Mr. Rogers’s invitation 
to visit his vineyard of Niagaras, early next 
morning a quartette of our party were wend¬ 
ing their way to the Niagara farm. W® 
found Mr. Rogers out in the vineyard to wel¬ 
come us and show us over the acres of young 
vines. It was difficult to conceive of the ex¬ 
tent and laborious character of his operations 
without seeing them. Here field after field 
had been cleared of stone and set to vines, the 
rows in one field being in continuous lines 
with those in another over hills, fences, val¬ 
leys and roads, as far as the eye could discern 
the stakes, and still the work goes on, huge 
boulders and masses of rock being subjected 
to the power of dynamite before subjecting 
them to the physical force employed for 
their removal. The labor and expense of 
preparing such unpropitious and uninvit¬ 
ing fields for vineyard purposes would 
appall almost any one with less means, forti¬ 
tude and faith than Mr. Rogers possesses. His 
pluck and energy are to be admired, and his 
success will ba hailed with pride and satisfac¬ 
tion by all who are cognizant of his stupen¬ 
dous undertaking. If all goes well for a year 
or two, this vineyard alone will be worth a 
journey of miles to see. With our best wishes 
for his success, we bade Mr. Rogers adieu and 
returned to our hotel for breakfast, after 
which we wended our way to the ferry and 
crossed the river to Poughkeepsie, where we 
took a train for Fishkill. 
On our arrival there we found Mr. Burrow 
in waiting to show us the vine-clad hills of old 
Dutchess County, and the fiist one visited was 
his own mountain home, a very elevated spot, 
one we should think very favorable for the 
growth of the vine under ordinary circum¬ 
stances, though he insisted he had nothing to 
show us, as the drouth and thrlp had injured 
his vines badly this season, which we found to 
be too true, the foliage on some vines being 
sere and yellow from these causes. 
Query: Are thrip and drouth inseparable ? 
No. 100, an unnamed seedling, from Con¬ 
cord and Black Hamburgh, was the first 
grape that attracted our attention here: 
Vine strong and vigorous, bunch large and 
double-shouldered, berry of the shape of Ham¬ 
burgh, color of Concord, pulp tender, flavor 
good. Under tbe circumstances, we should 
regard it as a promising variety. 
Minnehaha, a small sweet, white variety 
of fine quality. 
Ricketts’s No. 97: from Concord and Black 
Hamburgh; black; bunch and berry, large 
and handsome; quality not tested. As seen 
N u m b e r, 
W 6 k * 8 
especial care. Not all of our Blush pota¬ 
toes are so Bliapely as this portrait, 
or anything like all. But this was selected 
as the typical shape and average size of 
the best. We never exptct to disseminate 
a better early potato than the Beauty of 
Hebron, or a better late one than the White 
Elephant. Should the Blush succeed as well 
as t>n intermediate, we shall be right well 
contented. As has already been stated, this 
was selected last year because it yielded more 
than any other of 16 new varieties among 
which it was cultivated, while the quality and 
keeping properties proved to be unexcelled. 
The season was very dry and the vines died 
early as compared with this year, when they 
were late in dying. We have tried the variety 
in three different soils and locations: first, in 
light, sandy soil; second, in stony, clay loam ) 
the field being Bituated upon the top of a high 
hill sloping to the West; third, in our garden 
soil which is inclined to elay, and moist. 
Except that the yields in the first aud second 
cases were very satisfactory, we are not pre¬ 
pared to speak of them at present, as the land 
measurement has not as yet been taken. In 
the third case we have to report as follows:— 
A light spread of farm manure (about 10 tons 
to the acrei was strewn upon the surface and 
spaded under. Then Mapes’B “Light Soil 
Complebe” fertilizer was broadcasted at the 
rate of 500 pounds to the acre. Furrows were 
then made four inches deep and the pieces 
(two eyes each) were pluced one foot apart in 
these furrows as measured by a knotted cord 
stretched over the drills, a contrivance which 
we can commend as saving labor and time 
where exact measurements are required. The 
pieces were covered with soil, and another 
dressing of the same fertilizer was made upon 
tbe covered pieces in the furrows at the rate 
of 500 pounds to the acre. Then the furrows 
were raked full of soil and ridged op a little 
so that as the eartli settled an even surface 
would be preserved. Hand drills alone were 
used in cultivation and all hilling up avoided. 
They were harvested September IS, and the 
yield was at the rate of 726 bushels to the 
acre. The number of potatoes to the acre, 
large and small, was 232,820. The best average 
five weighed three pounds nine ounces. 
In another part of the garden, in soil rather 
heavier and treated in the uame way,the yield 
was 614,31 bushels, to the acre. The number 
of potatoes to tbe acre was 179,520; the Leit 
average five weighed three pounds. We say 
treated in the same way—the pieces in this 
test were first rolled in plaster. 
Of this Blush Potato we shall send in our 
approaching Seed Distribution to all of our 
subscribers who apply, one of medium size or 
two little ones. We should advise our friends 
to place it,or them,w hen received, in dry sand 
in a well-ventilated cellar where the temper¬ 
ature ranges between 31 and 40 degrees as 
nearly as may be. 
THE BLUSH.— The New Intermediate, Drought-resisting, Long-keeping Potato. 
[Prom Nature] —Fig. 433. 
light and some dark seeds were tested side by 
side. Three lots of 50 each of dark seeds and 
three lots of 50 light seeds were tested and 
germinated as follows: 
Dark. 
Light. 
49 
41 
48 
42 
43 
41 
140 
124 
In 1881, other tests were made giving the fol¬ 
lowing results: 
Of 250 dark seeds 244 germinated. 
Of 250 light seeds 240 germinated. 
These tests illustrate the folly of attempting 
to draw general conclusions from a few ex¬ 
periments. In the Spring of 1881 two beds, 
each about six feet square, were sown to Red 
Clover. In one bed dark seeds only were 
sown; in the other, light seeds. These were 
picked from the same lot of seeds. For a 
time, at first, we thought the dark seeds did 
the best; but, after a little, no difference 
could be seen. As a rule, no difference could 
be seen in the color of the foliage of the plants 
in the two beds. A single plant in tbe bed 
sown to dark seeds was unusually dark in 
color. The leaves were thick, smooth and 
destitute of the light spot so often seen on 
leaflets. I have shelled out the seeds from 50 
heads of Red Clover from eight plants, each 
my wheai; ground in the best possible condi¬ 
tion, I did not expect to hear of very large 
returns from a field so carelessly put in. 
My own wheat ground had been well 
plowed with a 16-inch sulky plow, the weeds 
and grass having been all turned under ; then 
the ground bad been dragged and then har¬ 
rowed twice, after which I drilled in the 
wheat. My land was prairie and his had been 
timber, which had been chopped off, leaving 
the stumps still iu the field. The next year 
was at best a very poor one for wheat, but he 
got fourteen bushels to the acre, while I 
got only seven. 
Last year on part of my ground—corn 
ground—I cultivated the corn in July and cut 
it off clean in August, the chinch bug and 
dry weather having ripened the corn very 
early. After barrowiug the land thoroughly 
I drilled in my wheat. The remainder I 
plowed the same as usual, harrowed well and 
drilled. My neighbor sowed again on a piece 
<of corn land fully as foul as that he had used 
the year before. Ha sowed very late—about 
the first of November—iu the same apparently 
careless maoner. My corn land this year 
yielded eight bushels to the acre; the other 
land six; while my neighbor’s yielded nearly 
16. This year I have sown altogether on corn 
land, having cut and hauled the corn off the 
see which would give the largest yield—soil a 
strong, rocky loam broken up in July of last 
year and sown to buckwheat. The potatoes 
were planted on Juoe 8. The furrows were 
opened with a double mold-board plow and 
a fair dressing of old yard manure was spread 
in the furrow. The piece was hoed twice. 
When I dug the potatoes I weighed the best 
five hills of each kind; this of course is not a 
fair way to do, as some kinds run more 
evenly than others, but the kind that gave 
the largest weight ran more evenly than most 
of them. The potatoes run all the way from 
three pounds to fifteen and one-half pounds 
for five hills. Tbe size and looks of the tops 
were no indications of the yisld. The kind 
that did the best was the Mammoth Pearl, 
but in the same Said, some 20 rods distant, 
the W T hite Elephant did very much the best 
of all I raised. On my soil the Early Ohio does 
very much better than the Beauty of Hebi on. 
North Paris, Maine. A. j. a. 
IS DARK-COLORED CLOVER SEED 
B JiTTER THAN THAT OF A 
LIGHT COLOR? 
PROFESSOR W, J. BEAL. 
Dark-colored, bright-looking seeds are 
generally considered the best. In 1877 some 
fiflij Crops. 
