332 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 22 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
OOHDTJOTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No.!34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1880. 
Mb. H. W. Raven el, a well-known 
Southern botanist, lately found near 
Charleston a tree of Cornus florida, 
bearing reddish-purple involucres. Pink¬ 
ish involucres of this species are uot un¬ 
common. Dr. Asa Gray, in reply to our 
inquiry, said that he had never Been them 
of a decided red and requested that we 
would forward specimens. Professor 
Meehan, on the other hand, thinks that 
he has seen them of that color. In any 
event they are not offered by nurserymen, 
and those desiring to communicate with 
Mr. Raveuel with a view of introducing 
the variety, may write to him at his 
home, winch is Aiken, S. C. 
--f-M- 
PiTTOsroRUM Tobira is an evergreen 
shrub with obovate, thick, glossy leaves 
aud white, fragrant flowers iu terminal 
clusters. We have lately seen hedges of 
this beautiful plant iu the South, and for 
thuB purpose—if ornament alone is de¬ 
sired —wb know of no other more hand¬ 
some. It will bear cutting to any desired 
extent, grows luxuriantly thick, and is, 
during the entire year, of a fresh green 
color that delights the eyes. It is hardy 
in the climate of Aiken and Augusta, aud 
probably for some distance northward— 
but how far we are Dot informed. We 
urgently commend it to our Southern 
readers either for ornamental hedges or 
solitary specimens. Iu grows freely from 
cuttings. 
Shade Trees by the road side are often 
set out with much care and at a consider¬ 
able expense, then left to grow as they 
please, completely neglected. Thus they 
soon become unsightly objects along the 
road instead of adorning it. They should 
be invariably staked, if necessary, to 
keep them straight, the ground kept 
loose around them, aud, if in any dang, r 
of suifenug from drought, be well 
mulched. Above all, out away all sprouts 
as fast as they appear, for they suck out 
the life of the tree, aud are frequently 
the cause of its dying. Trim the trees 
nioely and artistically, as they grow, and 
in a lew years tney will make a grateiul 
summer shade, and a maguihcent adorn¬ 
ment of the public road. 
. - •» - 
During the writer’s late visit to the 
so-called " Thermal Belt” of North Car¬ 
olina, we were much interested in the 
operations of an old Michigan gardener, 
Mr. A. Braman, who had purchased land 
upon the south side of Tryon Mountain, 
and was cultivating many Linds of fruits 
upon oue of its •*flats” winch he had 
cleared. Among them the Grape was re¬ 
ceiving a Jarge share of his attention. 
He uses the roots of the native vines cut 
into three-iuch pieces as stocks. A slit 
is made in one eud of the root, the cion 
cut wedge-shape and inserted the same 
as in ordinary cleft-grafting. The cut 
portions are covered with wax and the 
completed graft placed in the soil of 
boxes which are kept in the cellar from 
eurly March, when the grafting is done, 
until mid-April, when they are planted 
where they are to fruit. 
Sometimes he works the cions upon 
roots in the ground. Treated in this way 
they generally fruit the first season. We 
were shown a “French” vine that last 
year (the year of grafting) made a growth 
of 40 feet and bore several bunches of 
grapes. This “Thermal Belt,” of which 
Tryon Mountain iB a part, possesses a re¬ 
markable climate. Light frosts are rarely 
known, and ireeziug weather, owing to 
the dryness of the air probably, rarely 
injures lruit buds. 
---- 
Gen Le Due reports to Congress that 
since the first discovery of gold in Cali¬ 
fornia, in 1849, this country has paid to 
foreigners eighteen hundred million dol¬ 
lars lor imported sugar, while the mines 
of the Golden State and of the other 
Western States and Territories have 
yielded only seventeen hundred millions, 
so that it has taken one hundred million 
dollars more than all the gold we have pro¬ 
duced topay for the foreign sugar we have 
consumed. If sorghum, and beets too, 
shall in the future add to our home pro¬ 
duction of sugar, even approximately as 
much as present indications promise, 
what an enormous amount of wealth that 
now goes to support other nations will be 
kept at home to enrich our own population, 
and of this no small proportion must find 
its way into the pockets of the growers of 
the crops—the farmers of the country. 
The possibility of producing sugar from 
sorghum is now as well established as 
the possibility of producing sugar from 
beets, but in both cases it still remains 
to be practically proved whether this can 
be done profitably in this country, as a 
general branoh of business. The making 
of sugar from sorghum has at least this 
advantage over the making of it from 
beets, that to do the latter profitably re¬ 
quires several hundred thousand dollars 
of capital, whereas, from all accounts, as 
many thousands are sufficient in the 
former industry. 
-- 
A joint resolution has been introduced 
into Congress instructing the Attorney- 
General to bring suit in the name of the 
United States, to cancel the letters-patent 
issued, in 1868 and 1871, to NbIbou W. 
Green, for tube or driven wells. The 
resolution is based on the ground that 
Green waB not the original inventor, and 
that this process of well making had been 
in use in many parts of the country, and 
had, consequently, become public prop¬ 
erty, for years before the success of other 
patentees of devices connected with it, 
suggested to Green the idea of claiming 
a patent for it. The groundless nature 
of Green's claims were fully set forth in 
the Rural so long ago as Sept. 30, 1876, 
in the most exhaustive article that has 
appeared on the subject, entitled “ The 
Tube Well and its History ?’’ The large 
interest the patent beneficiaries have in 
the “rights,” and the comparatively 
small tax each user of the well is forced 
to pay, can alone account for the contin¬ 
uance of this patent in force until the 
p resent day; for on this account the for¬ 
mer are ready to incur the heavy expense 
inevitable in an appeal to the U. B. Su¬ 
preme Court, an outlay rather than incur 
which the latter reluctantly pay the 
$10 royalty exacted. But though the indi¬ 
vidual tax is comparatively small—as are 
neai ly all taxes—yet the manner of col¬ 
lecting it is so odiously exasperating, and 
the aggregate exaction so heavy that 
it is full time that the public, through 
its Representatives in Congress, should 
put au end to the baseless imposition. 
POWER OF A GROWING TREE. 
The force exerted by a growing tree is 
well known to be very great. Tiiis fact, 
however, is worked to death by moral¬ 
ists, who are ever on the watch for a lit¬ 
tle fact upon which they can hang a 
moral. A worn-out example of this land 
recently appeared, we regret to say, in 
the oolumns of a respected contemporary, 
with new embellishments and additions, 
which only served to make the story the 
more ridiculous. A mill-stone 5} feet in 
diameter and seven ‘inohes thick—the 
size is extraordinary, but that only adds 
to the zest of the story—and having a 
central hole—why is it not called the 
“eye ?”—11 inches in diameter, was laid 
in an orchard aud then forgotten. A fil¬ 
bert—formerly it was a little acorn, from 
which a great oak may g ow; but now a 
little filbert, from which only a poor, 
weak, dwarf Bhrub could grow—was 
dropped by accident in the eye of the 
mill-stone. This was in 1812. As the 
trunk grew within the hole, many per¬ 
sons came and saw and pondered wisely 
as to the probability that the stone would 
be carried up iu the air by the growing 
filbert, or would the “filbert tree” die m 
the attempt. And actually in 1868, we 
are told, the tree lifted the ponderous 
stone and raised it in the air. This ex¬ 
emplifies the power of perseverance, pa¬ 
tience, pertinacity, modesty and close at¬ 
tention to one’s business, with a single 
eye to attain some great end. That is a 
very good moral. Never mind about the 
truth of the story or that it includes errors 
of fact. A Filbert is a shrub and never 
attains the thickness of 11 inches. More¬ 
over, the growth of the trunk of a tree is 
in thickness and not upwards, and the 
lifting of the stone in the way mentioned 
is an impossibility for a giant oak, much 
less for a poor, weak hazel bush. 
TARIFF REVISION. 
Last week we announced here that the 
Congressional sub-Committee on Ways 
and Means in charge of the matter, had 
in their report to the full Committee re¬ 
commended that the importation of for¬ 
eign salt should be put on the free list 
along with several other articles. Since 
then, however, the salt monopoly of 
New York, Michigan and the Kanawha 
Valley has brought such potent influences 
to bear on the Committee that the article 
relating to salt has been stricken out of 
the tariff bill finally reported to the 
House, so that the duty on it still re¬ 
mains at twelve cents per 100 pounds 
in bags, and eight cents per 100 pounds 
in bulk. From present appearances, 
however, no definite action is likely to be 
taken this session on the subject of tariff 
revision—a complete victory for the pro¬ 
tectionists. We cannot say that we are 
altogether sorry for this ; for although it 
was proposed to place a few agricultural 
implements on the free list, yet the strik¬ 
ing of salt from it greatly lessened any 
benefit the revised code might confer 
upon agriculture, while the lowering of 
the duties it proposed upon foreign wool 
and woolen goods was a very objection¬ 
able feature to the increasing industry of 
sheep husbandry among us. 
As long as a protective tariff shall re¬ 
main in force for the benefit of the manu¬ 
facturers of the country, so long shall we 
strongly protest against the lowering of 
the present dutieB on wools aud woulen 
stuffs; for while the manufacture of 
almost every article farmers use is fos¬ 
tered, to their Iobs, by protective duties, 
almost the only direct protection agricul¬ 
tural products reoeive or demand is that 
afforded to sheep husbandry by the pres¬ 
ent tariff. That this industry should 
prosper among ub is of high importance, 
not to the stock owners of the country 
alone, but to the community at large, and 
to this prosperity it is essential that the 
conditions under which it is at present 
thriving should be permanently exempted 
from Congressional meddling and mud¬ 
dling. If, in revising the tariff, Congress 
shall insist on lowering the import duties 
on foreign wools and woolen stuff's— 
almost the only duties by which the ag¬ 
ricultural classes are benefited—then 
must the agricultural classes insist on 
the lowering or entire removal of the du¬ 
ties on a multitude of other articles by 
the present high tariff on which these 
classes are seriously injured. 
--- 
DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT. 
A few days since we heard a man of 
culture, who was born in the City of New 
York, and whose life of half a century 
has been mostly spent here, remark that 
he knew more about the public institu¬ 
tions of Paris and London, of their loca¬ 
tions, surroundings and contents, than 
he did about those in New York. This 
will seem strange to many of our readers, 
but we have no doubt there are thousands 
of them who can say the same truthfully. 
Business men hav^ their business to 
attend to, and postpone visits to places 
where they can, as they say, go at any 
time, until it is more convenient, and the 
writer of this is not an exception. There 
are many places of interest in the city to 
which our first visit was made in com¬ 
pany with friends from out of town, whom 
we were glad to accompauy on their round 
of sight-seeing. So, while we may seem 
to be censuring others for negligence in 
improving their opportunities, we will 
not try to hold ourselves blameless. Ijlany 
spend a week in Washington, aud al¬ 
though that time is only sufficient to give 
a hasty look into the places of interest 
with which that city abounds, to thor¬ 
oughly study which would require 
months, they return better able to tell 
a stranger where aud how to Bee the 
sights worth seeing than they are to di¬ 
rect him to spend his time to the best ad¬ 
vantage in N aw York. 
We have a friend living in Brooklyn 
who once told us he thought that instead 
of taking his customary summer trip to 
the country, he would take rooms in a 
New York hotel, and spend the time in 
seeing the sights of the City—and he 
could do worse. The truth is we are not 
sufficiently familiar with the things right 
about us, aud this we mean to apply to 
our country friends as well as to dwellers 
in the cities. There is mauy a flower- 
garden, lawn and yard in the country 
stocked with plants and flowers of foreign 
origin, with whose names and habits the 
growers are more familiar than with hun¬ 
dreds of varieties of natives among 
which they have lived all their lives. 
Every year our florists import from Eu¬ 
rope plants that are native Americans, 
only for the reason that their merits are 
appreciated there and they are raised for 
market, and can be imported cheaper 
than they can be purchased here, because 
no one makes a business of supplying 
the market. 
--- 
BREVITIES. 
Wb have juBt received from Dr. McAboy, 
'• the man of the Thermal Belt," (N. C.) a box 
of young peaches. They are about two incbeB 
in length and three In diameter. The Dr. 
says: " I send them to Bhow you the ‘ Thermal 
Belt' stillsurvivesand in triumphant.” 
Could potato cultivators have foreseen the 
mildness of the past winter, they would have 
done well to plaut their potatoes last fall. 
Our correspondent from Waco. Texas, sends 
us the first report we have received as to the 
Rural’b Ennobled Oats. He says: “ They are 
growing finely, being now (May 5) 15 inches 
high. They tiller beyond anything I ever saw 
in a grain." That is good. We hope all re¬ 
ports may prove of the same tenor. 
Adverse comment has been made upon our 
statement that young Tulip trees may be easily 
and safely removed by catting back (or off) 
the entire 6tcm to wittiiu an inch or so of the 
neck, leaving only the neck and roots to be 
planted. It is a pity thal writers for the Bake 
of writing will obtrude Ingenious theories 
agaiDst ascertalaed facts. It is the way to 
transplant the Tulip, and the only way by 
which young trees may be removed with safety 
from the forests. We speak in this instance 
from an experience that makes us out of pa¬ 
tience with the opposition of those who evi¬ 
dently don’t know what they are talking about. 
The Editor of the Agricultural columns of 
the N, Y. Times says; " Every one who plants 
peas should select the sound ones and steep the 
rest in boiling water for a minute or two, 
which kills the weevils but not the seed." We 
think that in separating the two kinds, every 
weevil would creep out as fast as ever he 
could, and that none would remain to he killed 
by the boiling water. Again, if the weevil 
hole had not already destroyed the germ, the 
boiliug water certainly would. Finally, what’s 
the use of saving the weevil-eaten peas when 
Icbs than ten per cent, will be found to be worth 
sowing? 
The reports on growing crops throughout 
the country, during the past week, are largely 
of the same favorable tenor as those of the 
week previous, except in the more southern 
parts of the trans-Mississippi region, in which 
drought and hot winds are said to be doing 
considerable damage, especially In tbe frontier 
settlements. The effects of these are reported 
to be particularly disastrous in western Ar¬ 
kansas and Kansas, as well us iu New Mexi¬ 
co, Colorado aud southwestern Nebraska 
Throughout nearly the whole of this region 
greatdistress is reported, and treater expected ; 
but, then, the advauce guard of agriculture aud 
civilization all over tne West has always had 
to bear the brunt of a world of, hardships. 
Dr. W. B. Jones of Herndou. Ga., sends 
ua the following varieties of the Cow "Pea:” 
Tory, Little Black, Java, Red Ripper, Poor- 
land, Bluckeye Crowder, Goose, Goat, Early 
Favorite, Three-crop, Conck, and Little Lady, 
lie says Tory. Black and Red Kipper are late 
varieties—will volunteer after oais ana are 
almost as indistruclible as Vetch. The other 
varieties are earlier. The Three-crop Pea is 
said to produce three crops from earliest to 
latest planting. The Lady Pea is a table va¬ 
riety. There are varieties in Florida called 
Conck Peas which bear vines from 25 to 50 
feet in length, but they are late to mature 
and better suited to the climate of Florida. 
We were unable to give lull separate accounts 
of tbe many varieties of the Cow Pea which 
we raised la*t year, for the reason that they 
were sown too closely together. We shall 
avoid this mistake the present season. 
Last week we told here of a remarkable 
sale of orchids in this city ; on the other side 
of the comment, too, there was lately a notable 
sale ot bulbs by Carlo Gorilla. "Botanist to 
tbe Court of Brazil;’’ a man of very prepos¬ 
sessing appearance, gentlemanly demeanor and 
persuasive foreign accent, all of which readily 
gained him the confidence of a number of 
wealthy 8au Francisco ladies. To each of 
them he confided that the failure ot remit¬ 
tances compelled him to sell some rare bulbs 
of Brazilian Lilies, which he had intended to 
present to Mrs. llaycson hi»approaching visit 
to the White House. The flower wu are told, 
was to be a great scarlet boil, with ecru rueh- 
iugs on the petals, a solferino frill around the 
pistils and a whole bottle of perfumery iu each 
stamen. He sold about 50 nearly worthless 
bulbs for four dollars apiece—and those trust¬ 
ful San Francisco ladies also. 
Suipmekts from the West to the Beaboard, 
by rail, during the past foruigbt have been 
lighter than for years, owlug to the persistence 
ot the combination of railroads in kei-pmg up 
freight rates, while shipments by tbe lake routes 
have been proportionately heavy. It is con¬ 
sequently expected that tne truuk-liue mana¬ 
gers will soon be forced to lower ttieir rates in 
order to secure business enough to keep their 
rolling stock moving. It is reported that sev¬ 
eral of the south western lines are already vio¬ 
lating their agreement by maktug special con¬ 
tracts with large shippers, and ••cooking" 
fictitious way bills. Already Rail road Com¬ 
missioner Fink has wa r ued the Peoria road 
against this underhand practice; but the 
warniug is hardly likely to prove effective, un¬ 
less the general rates are soon cut. The public 
is likely to be benefited by this dissension 
among the railroads—isn’t there an adage to the 
effect that when certain classes tall out, hon¬ 
est men are likely to get their due? 
Years ago afloncullural journal was started 
in Brooklyn (N. Y.) by the seedsmen, Beach, 
Son & Co. Mr. James Hogg was made the ed¬ 
itor, though for 6oum reasou his editorship 
was of short duration. Later the Bced estab¬ 
lishment and journal moved to New York, 
where both were continued uutll a lew 
weeks ago, when the well-known firm of B. K. 
Bliss A Kodb bought them out. The first num¬ 
ber ot the American Garden, as published by 
the Messrs. Kites and edited by our esteemed 
friend and contributor, Dr. F. M. lioxauier, is 
before us. There are twelve pages in each 
number, uboul the size of those of its distin¬ 
guished namesake, the London Garden. Four 
uurnbers are issued per year, and the price is 25 
cents, or ten cents lor each number. >V e have 
no doubt at all that this Handsome little quar¬ 
terly will meet with all the success it deserves, 
and from all we know of its editor and the en¬ 
terprise of its publishers, lts deserts will prove 
of no mean order. 
