Odg lesson of the drought, so to say, is so 
universal, that it would seem to be almost en- 
tiiely overlooked, and that is the want of 
water, strange as it may seem to say so. I 
heat a great deal about the drought, but very 
little about the want of water. All, in some 
form or other, pray earnestly for ram; but 
very few say anything about ihe want of water 
ou ihrir farms. Nearly all arc looking for 
water from above without labor, and very few 
consider how they might get it abundantly 
from below. Jf it be true (as it doubtless is) 
that rhe Lord belp3 those who help themselves, 
it seems plain that we should first go to work 
and bore wells, build cisterns, and other stor¬ 
age lor water, put gutters to our dwellings, 
burns. &c. (which are by no means common in 
the country), and then, in a time of need, we 
might, with some sort of fitneBB, ask for help 
from above. The fall of water is nearly al¬ 
ways sufficient for our needs if it were prop¬ 
erly stored. 
1 have been much interested in the Japan 
pears. C recently saw Mr. Force’s collection 
at Newburgh, N. Y., which is perhaps the best 
iu the vicinity of New York, The fruit is not 
of good quality, but still all that are 6cnt to 
maiket sell quickly. They are somewhat 
asumgent, and would no doubt make a good 
jelly. Tbs tree presents a fine ornamental ap- 
11 :t ranee, and would not be outof place on the 
lawn. The. lar ge, thick, glossy leaves remind 
out- of the Camellia. They may prove to have 
a value also for* grafting other kinds on, and 
loi crossing. They are now grown mostly at 
the South, but do quite as well here; in fact, 
the first trees were grown at the North. 
In England the electric light is just now 
being much talked about a6 an aid to horticul¬ 
ture. From experiments recently made by a 
scientist it is inferred by some that, with the 
aid of the electric light, plants may be kept 
growing during the night quite as well as by 
sunlight during the day. They will probably 
be disappointed unless they succeed in chang¬ 
ing the nature of plant life. Plants come to a 
puny end when submitted to forcing of this 
kiud, if long continued. It was demonstrated 
In New York more than thirty years ago that 
ilie growth of plants was increased by the di¬ 
rect application of a currentof electricity, and 
plants are probably constantly more or less in¬ 
ti uenced by this mysterious agent much in the 
usame way as mankind are. It is no new thing 
that plants are excited to renewed and contin¬ 
ued action at night under the influence of a 
stiong light; oinl I apprehend that the marked 
action prod aci d by the electric light is due, not 
to the fact the t it Js an electric light, but to the 
fact that it ie a light of great intensity. Any 
other light as Intense would doubtless produce 
the same res a Its. Under the influence of a 
etroug light J nave often kept open during the 
night fio wei s that would otherwise have closed 
in the shades of evening and remained so. It 
is worth waile, however, to continue the ex¬ 
pel imentt as there may be some peculiar 
viituein \hc electric light not yet apparent; 
only, thus far, no results have been obtained 
that have not been yielded by other light in an 
intense form. 
-- — - 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Ot the two extremes, drought and too much 
rain, we prefer the former for these grounds. 
Though the lawn and flower-plots present a 
sorrowful sight, shrubs and trees arc rarely 
injured—while grapes, raspberries, black- 
leines, currants, gooseberries, and all kinds 
ot vegetables are sufficiently protecte^ by 
careful cultivation. 
Raspberries the present season, which is 
one of exceeding dryness, bear an abundant 
and luscious crop. Turner is always here, as, 
indeed, in many parts of the country, one of 
our best varieties, Hardy, fruitful—the ber- 
lics are of large size, of a bright-red color and 
oi excellent quality. We have had this berry 
for years—have written of its superior quali¬ 
ties persistently, and are now glad to find that 
it is in a fair way to excite the general interest 
it so highly deserves. Of red raspberries, our 
lilends, as a general thing, cau do no better 
than to plant Turner for early and Cuthfeert 
lor late. 
Greg#—T he new canes of the Gregg, are 
wonderfully strong and stocky—the berries 
which are clustered together are large and 
delicious. This is our second year with this 
new ffiaek-cap and we can freely add our tes¬ 
timony to that of many iu the West where it 
originated (Indiana) that it promises to be all 
that is there claimed for it. We may now 
acknowledge that our engraving of the Gregg, 
given in the Rural of March 13, was, indeed, 
unfair as regar ds the average size. The branch 
from which it was drawn was Bent to us by a 
friend and accurately reproduced. It Is a 
truth, moreover, that illustrations, though of 
the exact size of the originals, appear distinctly 
smaller in print—a fact for which a too liberal 
allowance is made by small fruit growers, as 
shown by the colossal cuts of their catalogues. 
We do not wish to intimate that Belle de 
Fontenay and Henrietta are not identical. We 
cannot distinguish the one from the other. It 
is worthy of note, however, that a Henrietta 
is now ripeniDg fruit upon a large healthy 
plant, while a Belie de Fontenay, growing 
within 13 feet of it, was so injured by the past 
Winter that it will bear no fruit. This, as evi¬ 
dence against their identity, is very slight in¬ 
deed. The failure of B. de F. may be due to a 
dozen different causes that do not affect Hen¬ 
rietta. 
This raspberry, whether Henrietta or Belle 
de Fontenay, should find a place in every gar¬ 
den for family use if not for market. The 
berry is very large and as fragrant of the odor 
and as rich in the characteristic raspberry 
flavor as any kind that we know of. It may 
also be mentioned that it bears a Fall crop of 
berries which, of course, are borne on the 
canes of the same season’s growth. 
The Caroline was sent to ns last year by Mr. 
Carpenter of Rye, N. Y. This is a yellow rasp¬ 
berry and thought to be a cross between 
Brinckle’s Orange and Catawissa. It has, thus 
far, proved hardy here. It is very prolific, 
firm, of medium size and first-rate quality. The 
New Rochelle (also originating with Mr. Car¬ 
penter, we believe) is 8aid to be exceptionally 
hardy. It is also said to be very productive. 
The berries are purple, acid in flavor and not 
very firm. Acidity, however, is no detriment 
to a raspberry. Better that, which may be 
remedied by the use of a little more sugar, 
than the insipidity of a Thwack, Brandywine, 
Highland Hardy, or Philadelphia. 
Improved Hollyhocks— The showiest, al¬ 
most the prettiest sight we have ever looked 
upon in these grounds is a double row of Clia- 
ter’s hollyhocks extending nearly across the 
garden. We do not wonder that the old- 
fashioned hollyhock fell into disuse years ago. 
But the comparatively dwarf improved kinds 
are wreathed wiib large double flowers that 
cover from two to three feet of the stems. 
Every flower is a perfect rosette of petals that 
arc frilled, crimped and crowded together as 
closely as possible. The colors are pure white, 
lemon, pearl, lilac, salmon and all shades of 
pink and red until a vivid crimson is reached. 
Imagine then the brilliancy of this display and 
be not surprised if, when seen and known, the 
despieed hollyhock, in its new belongings, will 
again find a welcome place In every garden. 
The growth of Salix pentandra (cuttings of 
which the Rural has lately distributed among 
those subscribers who applied) is sometimes 
discouragingly slow for several years. One 
tires of wailing, especially as the youug plant 
shows very little of the beauty which charac¬ 
terizes it in later years. We have one speci¬ 
men at the "Rural Farm” that is now in its 
third Summer that has not giown two feet. 
The leaves are small and many of them have 
turned yellow and fallen from the effects of 
the drought. Yet, in a hotter and more sandy 
situation here, older trees thrive to perfection. 
As we make this note we involuntarily ask 
Randall (the Rural gardener) pointing to a 
specimen before us: "Did you ever see a 
finer tree?” And he replies: "No, I do not 
think I ever did.” Though bnt five years old 
from the cutting, it is a thicket of large, 
glossy leaves that, swaying in ihe breeze, reflect 
the sunlight as so many mirrors. 
-• ♦ •- 
STRAWBERRY NOTES FROM. CHEMUNG 
COUNTY, N. Y. 
The Star of the West has not proven de¬ 
sirable on first trial, being only moderately 
productive and the fruit small in Bize. 
I have tested other varieties, bnt. as they 
have not proved of value, I will not mention 
them. The Crescent, as 6een on a neighbor’s 
grounds, I pronounce wonderfully productive 
though deficient in size and flavor. 
Elmira, N. Y. o. a. o. jr. 
Jiflto Crop, 
The strawberry season in this locality is now 
over, and the crop has been proven to be an 
abundant one. I offer my opinion on a few 
varieties which I have tested this season. 
The Col. Cheney, which I place at the 
head of the list as a berry for a near market, 
continues to give great satisfaction both to 
producer and retailer. • It is a large, showy 
berry that we can place upon the market at a 
price which will warrant a ready sale. This is 
owing to its great productiveness, which has 
not been surpassed by auy variety on our 
grounds. 
Tne Monarch of the West is a large, 
showy berry and of excellent flavor, bnt is not 
sufficiently productive to make it a first-class 
market variety. It bas valuable qualities, how¬ 
ever, the berries holdiug out iu size to the 
end, and it is firm enough to stand up well, 
the lack of such firmness being the great fault 
of the Col. Cheney. 
The Cumberland Triumph is a good mar¬ 
ket berry, being large and moderately produc¬ 
tive, yielding with me somewhat better than 
the Monarch, and, as the berries color np more 
evenly, 1 consider it the more desirable ot the 
two for market. In oar market (Elmira) 
flavor has little to do with the sale of straw¬ 
berries. If the fruit Is large, flue in appear¬ 
ance and cheap, that is all that is required to 
make it sell readily. 
The Forest Rose Is a good variety, though, 
like the Wilson, the berries dwindle In size 
after the first few pickings. 
WHEAT NOTES FROM VIRGINIA. 
The wheat harvest in this county began 
on June 10—some two weeks earlier than us¬ 
ual—and ended on the 15tb. Looking back to 
the usual time of seeding in the Fall, and ex¬ 
tending our observations up to harvest, it will 
be noticed that this season has presented some 
remarkable peculiarities The Fall was so 
dry that the grain lay in tLe ground for weeks 
before it germinated; much of it sprouted and 
perished for want of moisture, and at the be¬ 
ginning of Winter (be 6tand was very thin. 
If the Winter which followed had been an or¬ 
dinary one, few plants would have remained 
on the ground by Spring. Fortunately, the 
Winter was exceedingly mild, the plants tillered 
finely, and covered the ground. Then from 
the middle of April till the first week in Jane, 
we had a drought which wa3 most severely 
felt in many parts of the country, burning up 
the grasB and the fields of wheat on the up¬ 
lands. From the first of June the rains have 
beeD abundant. The result has been that 
while the wheat crop has not equalled the 
expectations which were entertained of it, 
yet so far ae I have been able to ascertain, it 
is considerably above an average. Many 
promising fields have been seriously damaged 
by the black rust for weeks before harvest, 
the leaves of nearly all the wheat were yellow 
with the red rust (Uredo rubigo), and the 
farmers were prayiDg, in the language of 
Ovid. 
“ 0 blighting ruoigo spare the com plants. 
Suffer the crops which have bein nourished by the 
propitious 
Stars ot heaven, to prow until they Become fit for the 
sickle" 
This red rust should not be confounded with 
the black (Puccinia grandnis). Of itself, it 
does no serious injury, but it may be, and 
often is, the precursor of that other and more 
destructive kind. Much injury hue also been 
done in many places by the maggots of the 
^European wheat fly, which I have observed 
nere for the first time this season. The pollen 
of the grain is frequently eaten up by them, 
60 that the grain never forms at all. or the 
kernels shrink from the loss of milk abstracted 
by these maggots. 1 have found as many as 
four or five of them within a single glume. 
Late-blocming varieties of wheat, and such 
as have square-shaped ears, like Arnold’s 
Gold Medal, are particularly subject to be at¬ 
tacked by them. I have one field of the Gold 
Medal containing eight acres, which, princi¬ 
pally for this reason, will not yield over 35 
bushels. On the other hand, I have a field of 
Fultz of 20 acres which will give an average 
of 15 bushels per acre. It would now seem 
that hereafter we shall lie between two fires. 
If we sow our wheat very early in the fall, it 
will have to encounter the depredations of the 
Hesslau fly ; if late, it mnst suffer from the fly 
above noticed. It Is worthy of note that the 
bearded Mediterranean varieties are lreer 
than others from diseases of all kinds, seldom 
or never taking the rust. They have, in every 
instance, made the best crops here this year. 
Besides, the millers say that these red wheats 
make the best flour. 
Another fact which has come under my ob¬ 
servation is, that seed wheat which comes 
from south of the grower will do better than 
that coming from north oi him. Of 15 varie¬ 
ties of wheat distributed by the Department 
of Agriculture iu the last ten years and brought 
mostly from Michigan, Canada, and Northern 
Europe, not one, if we leave out the Fultz, 
which originated in Pennsylvania, has proved 
& real acquisition here. The wheat grower 
of New Ycrk, for instance, when he wishes to 
change his seed should procure it from Virginia 
and the Virginian should bring his from 
still farther Bouth. Varieties from North¬ 
ern localities are always later than the old es¬ 
tablished sorts. 
My Experimental Plot. 
I notice that in the Rural Special Reports, 
this is put down as 27 aeres, of which one- 
half an acre was Fnltzo Clawson, i intended 
to write that the plot contained two acres 
and a half, of which one and one-fourth 
acre was Fultzo-Clawson. I And, however 
ou actual measurement that the area is as 
follows:—Fultzo-Clawson, one acre; German 
Amber, half an aertf; Boughton, half an acre; to¬ 
tal two acres. I shall make a report of the man¬ 
ner of planting, yield etc. when the wheat is 
thrashed. 
Dwarf Wheat. J 
I have for several years entertained the 
opinion that American varieties of wheat grow 
entirely too tall to bear cultivation on a highly 
enriched soil. I am more than confirmed in 
this opinion by one result of my experiments 
this year, of which mention will be made in 
my report. It will, perhaps, be remembered 
that, though all the grains came up and grew 
off finely, they became a prey for the rabbits, 
that kept them bit Into ihe very earth, no 
other wheat being planted at that time to help 
divide their attention. I then drove stakes 
around the plot to keep the rabbits out, bnt 
they would squeeze through the cracks. These 
stakes afterwards became indirectly a worse 
enemy to the plants than the rabbits which 
they were intended to keep out, for in the 
Spring the house sparrows and other birds 
made perches of them and nearly devoured 
the whole plot. All but five of the plants were 
destroyed before Winter. The five survivors, 
on account of having to repair the damage 
sustained from the rabbits, bloomed rather late, 
and for this reason, and because of the wheat 
fly, the ears either did not fill at all or have 
only a few shrunken grains. The point about 
the whole matter, however, is that there were 
three varieties of wheat among the flfye plants 
(there would probably have been eight or ten if 
the whole twenty had remained), and one of 
these plants produced 15 ears, not one of which 
exceeded two feet in hight, although the plot 
had been heavily manured with chicken man¬ 
ure. The stal ks from the other plau ts grew about 
four feet high. The stalks of Boughton 
growing near by and manured in the same 
way, grew to a hight of five and a half teet. 
1 have entered into the above particulars, 
not in the way of a complaint against ill-for¬ 
tune, but to show the difficulties which are to 
be encountered when one attempts to get an 
available quantity of wheat with a start of 
only a few grains. 
The Eldorado wheat, illustrated in the Rural 
of Jane 19, is nothing more, I think, than the 
old Egyptian, which, Johnston says, was known 
in Germany 240 years ago. When grown in 
unfavorable soils and climates the branches 
of the spike are not evolved and it then as¬ 
sumes the appearance of ordinary wheat. 
The grains arc said not to yield so large a 
proportion of flour as those of any of the 
other species, and the flour is not very su¬ 
perior to that of the best barley. I believe this 
wheat has once or twice been distributed by 
the Department of Agriculture, which is per¬ 
haps the way it reached Colorado. 
Pulaski Co., Ya. Hugh L, Wysob. 
-+- 
VARIETIES OF WHEAT. 
PROFESSOR A. E. BLOUNT. 
It may be interesting to the farmers who 
read the Rural, and especially to those who 
visit the office, to know a little more about and 
examine a few samnlcs of their own wheats 
after they have been raised in this great "Amer¬ 
ican Desert.” Of the G6 varieties I am now 
cultivating on these grounds, I send you 32 
kinds of spring wheat all the seed from which 
they came having been obtained from the 
Middle States. It is very doubtful If some of 
the most extensive wheat gtowers in N. Y. 
can recognize the varieties from that section. 
This climate aud our soil have such a bleach¬ 
ing, renovating effect upon all small grain as 
well as on the Btraw that Eastern people visit¬ 
ing our fields cannot identify the sorts with 
which they have always been acquainted. 
Every variety does belter, yields more, pro¬ 
duces whiter grain and that of finer quality 
than in the Eastern States. For instance, in 
one season the old Mediterranean has become 
a shade or two lighter in color, is more plump 
aud makes better flour. 
Among these varieties I have made 10 success¬ 
ful hybrids by crossing the Diehl upon the 
Golden Straw, the Champlain on the Rio 
Grande, the Australian Club on the Oregon 
Club, the Lost Nation on the Touzelle, the 
Russian on the Improved Fife, the .Sonora on 
the Odessa, and others. Several of these are 
now two and three years old, growing nicely 
and promising well. 
The wheat question Is becoming the most im¬ 
portant one, not only to the farmer, but to 
everybody. To be remunerative it must be 
raised at less C 06 t and with fewer failures. To 
raise It at less expense is a problem quite 
easily solved. If farmers would, for one sea¬ 
son, study the demands of the plant and feed 
it at the proper time and with proper food, 
Bave and select geuuine seed, and cultivate it 
In conformity with itsmodeof growth. The far¬ 
mer, too, must reduce his acreage or increase 
his foree. One man can " put in " a hundred 
acres of wheat, but be cannot harvest it alone. 
Should he put in 10 well (scientifically) and as 
It should be, iu nine cases out of tea he will 
mukc more than he would on the 100. The 
cost of preparing the ground, seed sowing, 
harvesting aud marketing, cannot be covered 
by 10 bushels per acre or by an average of 15 
all over the country at the present prices. [The 
prices of wheat in the season of '78—’79 were 
on the whole lower than those in ’79—80, and 
averaged lower than even the present prices, 
