ally raising a full supply of both currants and 
quiuces by the following methodEarly iu 
the Spring (and it should be done quite early) 
I dig the borders and clear out all grass and 
weeds and apply coal ashes as a mulch. These 
are of such a nature that worms will not 
crawl over or through them, and they pack 
quite closely on the surface aud act as a good 
mulch, and being so firm the larvae of the cur¬ 
rant worms can’t come up through them. The 
result is there are very few to attack the 
leaves, and then as the bushes are coming iuto 
full leaf, 1 dust them once with hellebore, 
aud there is no further trouble with the 
worms, and 1 harvest plenty of currants, 1 
also apply coal ashes to my quince trees with 
the following good results: I am not troubled 
with the borers, the ashes keep the roots moist 
and cool, and I harvest a good crop of fruit; 
but as the “proof of the pudding is in the eat¬ 
ing,” I advise all to try the coal ashes. 
Geneva, N. Y. ROBERT J. swan. 
fctural topics. 
©xpffimettt (Svcundis at thf lUtval 
POTATO TESTS CONTINUED. 
Peerless. This potato (of which we give 
a true portrait at Fig. 129) has been raised 
here for several years. It is an immense 
yielder, and the average size is probably as 
large as that of any other potato. The qual¬ 
ity is generally considered coarse and infe¬ 
rior. The present test, with six others already 
reported, was made to ascertain which would 
yield more, the seed or stem end. The pieces 
were planted in poor, light soil in our usual 
manner, and potato fertilizer, at the rate of 
500 pounds per acre, was strewn in the 
trenches after the pieces had been covered 
with an inch of soil. 
Test 01 V. Seed-end. Yield373.71 bushels 
to the acre. Large and small, 103,840. Five 
heaviest weighed two pounds and one-quarter 
ounce. 
Test 62 V. Stem-end. Yield 428.00 bush¬ 
els. Large and small. 104.500. Five largest 
weighed two pounds eight ounces. 
Beside these plots, Vick’s Prize was raised, 
the yield of which in our “A” plot has been 
given. The yield was at the rate of 373.00 
bushels to the acre, Large and small, 119.700. 
Best five weighed two pounds four ounces. 
This was eaten November 20, and found to be 
not very dry. The flesh was sometimes dark 
iu places. 
Corliss’s Matchless in the next plot, with 
300 pound- of Lister's potato fertilizer, yielded 
at the rate of 361.10 bushels to the acre. Large 
and small, 91.260. Best, five weighed one pound 
10 ounces. With 600 pounds of the same fer¬ 
tilizer, the yield was at the rate of 812.54 
bushels. Large and small. 94,880 to the acre. 
Best five weighed two pounds one-half ounce. 
This completes our potato tests for 1883. 
tests for 1884. 
Up to this time (April 15) we have sown or 
planted the following: 
Oats; American Triumph (second year); 
Race-liorse; Short Fly-foot; Australian (fourth 
year); Welcome (second year); Challenger; 
Probsteier (raised years ago at the Rural 
Farm); Black Belgian; California (from Vil- 
moriu, Andrieux& Co., France), and several 
kinds without names. 
Potatoes: 69different kinds, including Rural 
seedlings. 
Peas: American Wonder (fourth year) for 
comparison: Yellow Dwarf Vermont Wonder 
(Hoskins); “Probably a sport” from Canada; 
Laudreth’s Extra Early (for comparison); 
Brack’s Excelsioi, Cleveland’s Rural New- 
Yorker (for comparison); Landretb’s Kentish 
Invicta; Laxton’s Earliest of All; Reedlaud; 
three R. N.-Y. varieties; Telephone (fourth 
year); Stratagem (third year); Pride of the 
Market (third year); Alexander's No. 2; Ever- 
bearing. Abundance (second year); Laxton’s 
(England) new varieties not yet offered for 
sale, six different kinds; Culverwell’s Giant 
Marrow; Emerald Gem (second year); Alex¬ 
ander’s No, I field pea; a kind from S. A. Law¬ 
rence of North Carolina, and six different 
kinds from Vilmoriu, Andrieux & Co., of 
Paris, France. 
Strawberries: The following kinds havebeen 
planted within a year or so, and have not yet 
been reported upon; Arnold’s Pride, Nigh s 
Superb, Big Bob, Mrs, Garfield, Walter, Iron¬ 
clad, Atlantic, Crawford’s No. 6 aud 1 and 
Cornelia, Daisy, Ladies’ Pine, Junior Queen, 
Hathaway’s Nos. 3, 5 and 9, Daniel Boone, 
Prince of Berries, Splendid aud Jewell. 
Gooseberries; Industry, Orange, James 
Dougall’s (Canada) several varieties, and sev¬ 
eral new seedlings without names. 
Raspberries: Reliance, Everbearing, Crim¬ 
son Beauty, Meredith Queen, Imperial (said to 
be by some the same as Crimson Beauty), 
Rancocas, and several unnamed new r sorts. 
Blackberries: Wilson Jr., Early Harvest, 
Taylor, Lincoln, Stone’s Hardy, and several 
unnamed new kinds. 
Grapes: Empire State, Jessica, Irving, Am¬ 
ber Queen, Early Dawn, John Burr’s seed¬ 
lings Nos. 1, 2, 3. 4, 7 aud 9, Grein’s Golden, 
Rickett’s No. 1 (Downing), and 240 (Reliance); 
Ulster Co. Prolific, Poughkeepsie Red, Am¬ 
ber, Elvira, Faith, Pearl, Transparent, Demp¬ 
sey, Owasso, Rural New-Yorker, Oberou and 
several kinds of which we are requested not 
to speak. 
an important series of tests for 1884. 
We have cause to feel exceedingly happy 
over a series of potato experiments, the pre¬ 
liminaries of which have just been completed 
in a most satisfactory way. They are de¬ 
signed to test the effects of the various con¬ 
centrated constituents of which commercial 
fertilizers are composed, separately, and in 
various combinations. The soil of the plots 
selected is a worn-out sandy loam. There was 
no air stirring to interfere with the even dis¬ 
tribution of the fertilizers; the soil was mel¬ 
low aud moist without being wet, aud with 
ample assistance, the entire work of sowing 
the fertilizers, planting and finishing the plots 
was accomplished between seven in the morn¬ 
ing and sunset. 
The seed li^d been cut several days pre¬ 
viously, the White Star having been selected 
as, by its season of maturing, keeping qual¬ 
ities and vigor, well suited to such tests. Po¬ 
tatoes of nearly the same size were cut in 
halves lengthwise, the seed end of each having 
been cut off and rejected. The seed conditions 
were made still more equal by using the same 
weight of seed pieces to each plot. Trenches 
had been dug several days previously, two 
(not one, as in our past tests) spades wide and 
six iucbesdeep—the trenches .via: feet apart so 
that the roots of one trench should not reach 
and feed upon the fertilizer of tbe adjacent 
trenches. Later, two inches of soil was raked 
into the trenches and upon this the pieces 
(cut-surface down) were placed one foot apart. 
Two iuclies of soil were raked over them, and 
the fertilizer applied as follows: 
Plot 1 Nitrate of Soda at the rate of 200 pounds per 
acre. 
Plot 2. Sulphate of Ammonia at tbe rate of 120 
pounds per acre. 
Plot S, Dissolved Bone-black at the rate of 400 pounds 
per acre. 
Plot 4. No fertilizer. 
Plot 5. Sulphate of Potash at the rate of 800 pounds 
per acre. 
Plot 6. Plaster at the rate of 400 pounds per acre. 
Plot 7, Lime at the rate of 2.000 pounds per acre. 
Plot 8. Nitrate or Soda 200 pounds; Dissolved Bone- 
blaek, 400 pounds. 
Plot 9. No fertilizer. 
Plot 10. Nitrate of Soda 200 pounds; Sulphate of 
Potash 30u pounds. 
Plot 11. Dissolved Bone-black 400 pounds: Sulphate 
of Potash S00 pounds. 
Plot 12 Nitrate Soda 210 pounds; Dissolved Bone- 
black 400 pounds; Sulphate of Potash 800 pounds. 
Part 19. Raw bone, Hue, 1,000 pounds per acre. 
Plot l«. There are no plots between 13 and 111. No 
fertilizer. 
Plot 17. Mapes’s Potash Fertilizer 800 pounds to 
acre. 
Plot 18. Farm manure, two years old, 20,000 pounds 
to acre. 
Plot 19. No fertilizer. 
Plot 20. Sifted coal ashes, two years old, 4(H) bushels 
to the acre. 
Plot 2l, Kalnlt. 880 pounds to the acre. 
Plot 22. Kalnlt, 1,700 pounds to the acre. 
Plot 23. No fertilizer. 
Plot 2-1. Unlenched asbes from burnt brush, 41^ 
bushels to the acre. 
Plot 25. Hen manure, 55 bushels to tbe acre. 
Plot 26. No fertilizer. 
Whatever maybe tbe results of these experi¬ 
ments, it would seem that they cau not fail to 
interest our readers. We hope to be able to 
present them in the next Fail- Number of the 
R. N.-Y. 
RASPBERRIES. 
April 12.—The season has been kind to 
raspberries. The following varieties are all 
of them, unless injured by insects, alive 
to tbe tips: Marlboro, Hansel!, Reliance, 
Superb, a new kind from E. J. Brownell, 
Lost Rubies (not desirable), a new Yellow-cap 
from E. Nixon of Iowa; Shaffer’s Colossal, 
Ohio Black-cap, Souhegan and Gregg. 
Christine is injured. Caroline should be 
called “Caroline the Hardy.” Turner is 
always here, the first to put forth its leaves. 
Beans, Sweet Corn, etc. 
I have found Borne of the W hite Wax Beans 
very productive in the gurden, but have never 
planted them in larger quantities than three or 
four quarts at a time. That might be a large 
quantity for a farm garden, but mine is part¬ 
ly a market garden, and I have been experi¬ 
menting to find tbe best kind to raise here, for 
profit. For early beaus last Summer I was 
better pleased with the Lemon-Pod Wax than 
with any other, aud some of my neighbors 
whom I f uruished with seed bear tbe same tes¬ 
timony. I tried a few of the Tree Beans, aud 
was much pleased with them. They bore 
well, and are the best dry beans for cooking 
I ever raised. 
I have found the Eclipse Beet the best to 
raise for market and table and the Bassano 
next. 
The Marblehead Early and the Egyptian 
are my favorite varieties of sweet corn. The 
American Wonderjfor early, and the Yorkshire 
Hero for late, are the peas I select. 
With me the Perfect Gem Squash was very 
productive and of fine quality. 
The Canada Victor aud Essex Hybrid To¬ 
matoes did best last year; the Victor for early 
and the Essex for later. J• 
Wilton, Conn., Feb. 28. 
Shcqi 
WOOL GROWERS AND CONGRESS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The wool growers are getting somewhat 
aroused, but not to the extent that they should 
be. Fanners are queer people, and will en¬ 
dure more imposition than any other class. 
They might rule this country but they don’t. 
One glib-tongued lawyer or the adroit, pol¬ 
ished manufacturer seems to have more 
potency in politics and legislation than a 
county full of farmers. When, after a vast 
amount of coaxing, the Committee of Ways 
and Means iu the House of Representatives 
finally set a day for a hearing of the wool 
growers of this great country, how many, do 
you suppose, were there? About adozeu. The 
sheep-owners in the United States are estim¬ 
ated at 1,030,000, and there ought to be enough 
more so that we would not have to send 
abroad for a pound of wool. It is to the credit 
of this enterprising dozen that they did not 
employ a lawyer to talk for them; but told 
their own story as best they could. Did they 
make any impression ? I happened to be there, 
and wish to say, I fear the opinions of the 
majority of that committee were not changed 
in the least. Ohio was strongly represented, 
and so was Pennsylvania, aud the claims of 
Vermont and New York were presented; hut 
one little commercial or manufacturing inter¬ 
est would be more largely and forcibly repre¬ 
sented than this great, industry. So long as 
farmers are willing to send lawyers, manufac¬ 
turers, or anybody to Congress, except some¬ 
one wliu will represept their intetests, they 
will be left out, and deserve to be Tbe sheep 
men seem to be the most feebly organized and 
to possess the least influence of any branch of 
animal industry in this country. Even the 
swine breeders have got ahead of them. 
What will come out of the National Con¬ 
vention of wool growers called to meet in 
Chicago, May 7, 1884, remains to be seen. It 
is to be hoped there will be such an atten¬ 
dance that its power may be felt and appre¬ 
ciated in Washington. At the least let. a 
foundation be laid for a structure that shall fos¬ 
ter and maintain this important industry. I 
have the impression, somehow, that there has 
been too much narrow-miudedness and selfish¬ 
ness among the sheep men in their local organ¬ 
izations to place this interest on that broad 
foundation which should characterize an in¬ 
dustry in which the whole country is inter¬ 
ested. Liberal and united action alone will 
command influence that would be powerfully 
felt. _ 
ppmfi Logical 
THE GREATEST IS VIGOR. 
Each variety of fruit has a peculiar quality- 
belonging to itself. It may be in flavor, size, 
beauty, or firmness of fruit, or productive¬ 
ness, hardiness, or vigor of plant. It is sel¬ 
dom that all these excellences are combined in 
a single variety. A fruit may be luscious, 
handsome, large and prolific; but if the plant 
lacks vigor, the production of perfect fruit is 
at once in jeopardy, the variety becomes only 
the pet of the amateur, to be ultimately aban¬ 
doned and forgotten. Vigor includes healthi¬ 
ness, hardiness, and rapidity of growth, as 
well as tbe power to recover from overbearing, 
and to withstand the attacks or insects and 
fungi, also to endure climatic changes uniu 
jured. 
Our most vigorous aud prolific varieties sel 
dom possess the highest and most delicious 
flavor; yet perfection in ripening and fine ap¬ 
pearance usually compensate therefor. There 
is pith iu the saying of an eminent German 
pomologist, “Vigor must be reduced iu order 
to gain flavor,” giving rise to a rule, with ex¬ 
ceptions, that those varieties that produce 
fruit of the highest excellence lack in vigor 
and hardiness,aud are a ready prey to injurious 
insects aud diseases, thus disappointing the 
rose-tinted expectations of the plauter. 
In the van of trusty apples, the Baldwin 
presents us with a full measure of vigor, re¬ 
sisting the peel fungus better than most kinds. 
Red Astrakhan, Canada Baldwin, Duchess of 
Oldenburgh and Ben Davis have great vigor, 
and win popular favor. Such fine-flavored 
apples as Esopus Spitzeuburgh, King of 
Tompkins County, Spy, Swaar, Early Harvest, 
and Newtown Pippin must be classed as mod¬ 
erately vigorous. They- are much infested 
with fungus, while their willowy branches are 
puuctured much by tbe tree-cricket. 
Many of the old sorts of pears, like Vir- 
galieu and Seckel, are always liable to the 
attacks of the peel fungus; hence the cracking 
of their skins. Bartlett, through its healthy 
vigor and other merits, has long ranked high, 
though Duehesse d’ Angoul&tne is more vigor¬ 
ous and less subject to blight. The Kieffer 
is certaiu to win a rank in this respect. 
Peach trees having little vigor be¬ 
come the special prey of the borers 
and bark bettles. If these are not the origin 
of the “yellows,” they at least pro¬ 
duce uufruitfulness and slow death. It is 
difficult to find an orchard infested with yel¬ 
lows, which does not also contain bark beetles. 
The Crawford, Salway aud Wheatland are 
good, strong, vigorous sorts. 
Among plums as well as peaches slow-grow¬ 
ing varieties are to be avoided, and none 
planted but rapid growers. Most surely this 
is the best preventive of the black-knot. The 
Shipper’s Pride must be classed w-ith the 
healthiest and most vigorous, being equaled 
by r few, while its large, firm fruit aud its pro¬ 
ductiveness must make it a favorite. Lom¬ 
bard, Bavay’s Green Gage, Hudson Gage and 
Quackenboss are vigorous aud px-oductive. 
Many kinds of grapes, as the Iona, Adiron¬ 
dack, Isabella, Eumelau, Rebecca, Allen’s Hy¬ 
brid, aud Creveling, have high merits, but 
lack vigor, and are subject to fungi and in¬ 
sects to such an extent that few attempt their 
culture. The Delaware aud Wilder, from lack 
of vigor, seldom entirely recover from the ef¬ 
fect of having overborne. There was a time 
when the Cliuton alone held the palm of 
vigor, in combination with an approach to 
the better qualities. Then came the Concord, 
and now the Niagara. None cau approach 
the latter in vigor, productiveness, and hardi¬ 
ness. The flavor of the fruit is ahead of that 
of the Concord, while it vies with any in ele¬ 
gance and firmness. 
In raspberries tbe vigorous kinds, such as 
the Cuthbert, Mammoth Cluster, Gregg, aud 
evidently- the Marlboro, have secured us from 
the ravages of the red rust. 
The Wilson and Crescent Straw-berries 
seem never to fall a prey to weather, disease 
or insects, ani the Crescent, hardly to Quack. 
The Jas. Vick is an excellent variety also. 
That excellent feature of the Rural in giv¬ 
ing numbers specially devoted to an elucida¬ 
tion of the true status of the newer varieties, 
comparing them with those which are stand¬ 
ard, compiling the freshest opinions from the 
most trustworthy aud practical growers aud 
testers, places within reach of all the best pos¬ 
sible aid for forming u correct opinion. The 
searcher for new and reliable varieties must, 
however, note all of the modifications of the 
words and sentences used in the descriptions 
aud opinions, aud from these judge for him¬ 
self. w. L. deverkaux. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
We have had quite a large number of in¬ 
quiries about the Shepherds’ National Journal 
and Rural Era, of Zanesville, Ohio, aud the 
German method of preserving eggs, a recipe 
for which it promises to forward, gratis, to 
all who may subscribe for it. The commer¬ 
cial ageucies know nothing about the concern; 
neither is it meutioned in any of the news¬ 
paper directories, nor has it sought an ex¬ 
change with the Rural, a thing every news¬ 
paper of any standing always does. We can¬ 
not, therefore, recommend our friends to have 
anything to do with the concern. As to the 
recipe, it is no better than, if as good us, those 
which are frequently seen iu agricultural 
papers. A large wholesaledeuler aud importer 
of eggs here, laughed It to scorn when asked 
about its special merits. 
The Cincinnati Ledger Loan Co., which 
off era to leud money at four per cent., and re¬ 
quires security- only for the interest, is a 
humbug. 
Last February we warned our friends 
against the Farm, Field and Fireside, a Chi¬ 
cago paper seeking to scoop iu subscribers by 
offeriug 106,006 premiums, ranging in value 
from $5,000 to 26 cents. It has been adver¬ 
tising extensively all over the country through 
the mail and iu the press, and some reputable 
papers have admitted its puffs into their col- 
