IU 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
64 
number of plants tn stakes and did not mulch 
’them. I had some very fine fruit, from those 
plants. The varieties were Mayflower and 
Livingston's Favorite. Both of those are 
first-class with me. The Trophy is nowhere 
compared xvith them. Some of my plants 
I let grow naturally on the ground, and 
mulched them to keep the dirt from the fruit. 
The fruit did not ripen until several days 
after those that 1 did not.mulch. I have fhcre- 
NOTES ON .SOME Op THE NEWER 
BEANS. 
Kentucky Wonder remain in edible ootid i • 
tion fora longtime. Both varieties are tall 
growing pole sorts. 
Thk Bean of the Holy Spirit (Haricot 
du St. Esprit of the French, or Adler Bohne 
of the Hermans.) is a curious and perhaps 
valuable variety sent from Europe. It gets 
its name from the fancied resemblance of the 
markings about the eye to the skeleton of a 
man. Others see in the markings the resem¬ 
blance to a bird with outstretched wings, 
whence the Herman name, Eagle Kean. In 
its more important characteristics it. closely 
resembles our White Kidney. 
The Rose Bean, sent out as new a year or 
so since, is undoubtedly the same as the old 
Canadian Wonder. I have grown them side 
by side for two years, and have failed to de¬ 
tect the slightest difference. 
TheHaleoa, said to lie a descendant of the 
Refugee, is a very prolific variety, and is well 
worthy of its reputed ancestor, which it 
closely resembles. It is perhaps rather more 
prolific than the parent variety. 
The Golden Butter Wax. though not 
new, is worthy of mention. It is the earliest, 
the most prolific and most dwarf of all the 
dwarf “ Wax ” varieties, and is also of excel¬ 
lent table quality. It is one of the best, if not 
the very best, sort for market gardeners. 
H. H. WING. 
Having grown for the past two seasons all 
the varieties of beans that, were obtainable, a 
few observations on some of the newer sorts 
may not be without interest. 
The Mexican or California Tree Bean 
was extensively advertised by seedsmen last 
year. It proves to be merely a much-branehed 
eaicor or r.n^ r>. v . rMin, it. will he remem 
bered, would not credit our statement that 
we had the true Bermuda Grass ^rowing at 
the Rural Grounds from seed, or that the seed 
was for sale in New York city. He now states 
as follows: 
“ So tn r ns known Bcrmu>la Grass docs not produce 
scei) in the Southern States, although it docs seed In 
other count ries. from which It In occasionally Intro¬ 
duced as a novelty by seedsmen." 
All editors are liable to make mistakes. 
But when the mistake is proven, it is their 
duty to acknowledge it fully and freely. 
Farm editors who do not experiment them¬ 
selves should be all the more careful how they 
contradict those who do. Books of reference 
are all very well, but they cannot be rewrit¬ 
ten every year. 
Magnolias. —Were we asked which of all 
our magnolias we should part xvith last we 
should answer Lenny's—Magnolia Lenuei, It 
is a grand little tree—not quite hardy enough 
to grow into its natural proportions, but still 
large enough to fill the demands of a small 
lawn. The flowers are of a claret-purple out¬ 
side and nearly xvhite withiu. The leaves are 
of an obovutc sh n pe large enough to cover 
the tree with a scarcely less than tropical 
luxuriance. The tree rarely fails to give us 
two crops of flowers—one in the early Spring 
just as the leaves begin to push: the other in 
late Summer. The fruit, so ornamental in 
Acuminata and other species, is always de¬ 
formed, thus showing it to be a hybrid va¬ 
riety. 
Next to LenntSi.we would choose M. Soulan- 
geaua and next to this the shrub M. stellata, 
which bears its fragrant xvhite flowers in 
great profusion. But this is a shrub. Among 
trees. M. maerophylla is desirable for its im¬ 
mense leaves, sometimes 18 inches long, and 
so far as the size of leaf is concerned, M. 
tripatala should be chosen next. If you want 
a sym uotrical magnolia, choose the M. acu¬ 
minata and cut it back for two or three veai-s 
after it is once fairly established. 
Maiden-hair 1'rke —Elex’en years ago, ac¬ 
cording to the positive instructions given by 
some book or other, we cut our Salisburia 
adiantifolia (Maiden hair Tree) back severely 
so as to give it a closer aud more vigorous 
growth. I’he next year the tree shoxved such 
evident signs of weakness that it nearly died. 
It lingered on from year to year, and not 
DAIRY NOTES FROM ENGLAND 
PROF. J. P. SHELDON 
ON MILKING BREEDS OF COWS 
PRIDE OF THE WEST POTATO, 
From Nature. 
AVith you in America the Dutch, or, as you 
term them, Holstein cattle, stand in the very 
front rank of milch coxvs, andare not equaled 
or eveD approached in your estimation—or, 
at least, 1 have been so informed—by anv other 
breed of cows whatever, save only the Jerseys 
and the Ayrshire*. This is all very well so 
far rs it goes, and l as an Englishman am not 
much disposed to quarrel with it, though I 
may be allowed to remark that your taste in 
milch cows, supposing it to be as I have said, 
is not quite comprehensive enough to com¬ 
mand my entire approbation. 1 go with you 
as far as you go yourselves in this thing: but 
when you pull up -Karp at the breeds I have 
named—the Jerseys, the Ayr*hires, and the 
Dutch—well, I have nothing loft to do but to 
go forward without you. In those three 
breeds you have picked out one, the Dutch, 
that yields more milk than any other: another, 
the Jerseys, whose milk is richer than that of 
any other breed whatever, in quality, color, 
and flavor: and yet another, the Ayrshire, 
which, taking them for all in all. xvith the 
single exception of beef making, are the best 
dairy cow's one can mention, particularly 
where the soil and the rlimate arenone of the 
best. 1 -hall have more to say about them 
presently. 
But, before going further, I wish you to un¬ 
derstand that in excluding from your list of 
dairy cows, as such, several others of our Brit¬ 
ish breeds, which I shall refer to shortly, you 
do an injustice to those breeds, and gratuit¬ 
ously deprive yourselves of the chami which 
comes of variety. 1 am penetrated with a 
suspicion that you make a profound mistake 
iu limiting yourselves to a simple trinity, so to 
speak, of dairy cows, or breeds of dairy cows, 
placing alt others low down in the calendar 
for milk. Many changes, as a matter of fact, 
may lie rung on a peal of three bells; but we 
in this country prefer a wider peal than three. 
AA e like six, to say the least, and six we have 
or more. It would not be becoming on my 
part to dilate very much on the merits of the 
Jerseys and the Ayrshires. because you un¬ 
derstand them quite as well as we, and I am 
not sure that you do not appreciate them 
even more than we. This is all very well! 
AVe are not at all jealous of it. AVe can well 
afford that you should value two of our 
breeds quite as much as. or even more than, 
we x'alue them ourselves, AA'hat we do not 
quite fancy is this: that you should show so 
much partiality for two. when there are 
others which are entitled to a groat deal of ad¬ 
miration. You are. of course, at liberty to do 
so, if you like, aud we are equally at liberty 
to insinuate that you make a mistake iu 
doing it. 
It is not competent for as to say how far 
a change from the British to the American 
climate tuay affect ouc or two of our breeds 
of coxvs more thau it affects the others—so 
far, I mean, as the giving of milk is con¬ 
cerned—but in this may possibly be found the 
reason why (Short-horns and Devons, aud 
Herefonis and Red Polls have lost, while 
Jerseys and Ayrshires have gained, in rep¬ 
utation for milk, in your country. That the 
change in climate is not inconsiderable I 
and prolific form of the old-fashioned Navy or 
Pea Bean. It is also much later; with me it 
only ripened about half a crop. [\Y e said this 
two years ago from tests then made — Eds ] 
The Improved Green Flageolet or Hari¬ 
cot Ftn.fff.olet. n Grain Vert of the French, is a 
bean that has been recently introduced into 
America. 1 have grown it for the past two 
years, and although the imported seed was of 
a light pea-green color, the resulting crop 
was entirely xx'hite, and not to be distinguished 
from the AVbite Flageolet— H. Flar/eolet 
Wane of the French. In our climate it does 
"of, ap|iear to be a -table variety. 
The Marshall is one of the most prolific 
I>eans grown by me. It is a rank-growing 
ixde bean aud requires tall poles for its proper 
support. My vines went to the top of 10-foot 
drought setting in, as the mulch keeps the 
ground too cool. Tomatoes need the heat to 
ripen them to perfection. I also noticed that 
the color and Hax'or of the mulched tomatoes 
were both inferior, while those that xvere 
grown on the staked plants were of beautiful 
color and fine flavor; in fact, they were the 
finest tomatoes I ever had. 
I think the rot is developed within the fruit, 
lot, as Mr. Goff says, it can bo traced to the 
center. I hax-e seen them rotting at either 
end, and think this disease ha- nothing to do 
with the cracking of the fruit, or rife rerun. 
Is not this cracking caused by too much 
moisture at the roots I believe there is not 
the least doubt about the rot affecting the 
I was very much interested in reading the 
article by Mr. E. S. Goff in the Rural of 
December 23, aud find that my experience in 
raising tomatoes coincides with his iu many 
respects. I have had plants that rqiened their 
fruit earlier than others of the same variety. 
1 would like to ask if this differeueein time 
of ripening is nut caused by the first bunch 
of blossoms being Injured iu some way, 
possibly they might not have set at all. 1 
have noticed another curious fact—l have 
had ripe fruit from the second or third bunch 
before those ou the first hud hardly began to 
color. Last season I also had pluuts of the 
Mayflower that bore very imperfect fruit. 1 
ascribed the cause to a possible mixture of 
the pollen of some inferior plant by bees 
with those from which the seeds were saved. 
Ibis idea may be a mere theory; but 1 think 
it is worth testing. Lust season 1 trained a 
PRIDE OF THE AYEST POTATO 
From Nature. 
pole-. In shape it much resembles the old 
Case-knife Bean, but in color it is alight vel- 
loxvish-brmvn xvith bright yellow stripes more 
or less concentric xvith the eye. It requires 
a favorable 8 ason to reach complete maturity. 
I succtoded iu fully ripening it iu 18&J. but 
the past sensou was so unfavorable that only 
about one-third of the crop was ripened. It 
is to be regretted that I have been unable to 
test its edible qualities. 
The sJoi’THKHX Prolific and the Ken¬ 
tucky Wonder, two similar though distinct 
varieties, ai e worthy of meutiou. Both fur¬ 
nish in abundance excellent "snap” beans; 
the pods are long, fleshy, and, when young, 
nearly cylindrical in form. Those of the 
through the seeds of plants as well as through 
the offspring of auimuls. Some of my plants 
lost their leaves by blight, while others, right 
besnle them, xvere not or did not seem to be 
affected, especially the Holden Trophy, which 
grexv so rank that l had to cut the viues back 
to keep them somewhere withiu bounds. The 
Golden Trophies seemed to rot atiout as badly 
as any of them; still I think they are more 
apt to rot xvhen the plants lose their leaves. 
1 shall try to observe these matters a little 
more next season, aud will report xvhen th*- 
season is over. James hunter. 
Berkshire Co., Mass, 
