448 
JULY \% 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
tofore regarded as free from knot, is now 
going with the rest. 
Lovers of window gardening who were 
thoughtful enough in the early Spring to pur¬ 
chase seeds of Chinese Primrose, carnations, 
geraniums, pansies, etc., in choicest variety, 
plauting them carefully in a gentle hot-bad, 
may now rejoice in the possession of a collec¬ 
tion of charming little plants, some of which 
may already be in bloom. I regard this 
as an excellent plan to secure floral treasures 
for the sunny window* In Winter. Many 
entirely new Borts can thus be obtained at 
comparatively Binall cost, and with a large 
percentage of interest and pleasure thrown in. 
From a dollar packet of the finest double prim¬ 
rose seed I now have a dozen beautiful plants, 
all of which are likely to bloom early in the 
Winter. There is no more charming window 
plant to ray mind than the Chinese Primrose. 
Of course, all such seedling plants should have 
been carefully Dotted singly, according to the 
catalogue directions, at the proper time. 
Small pots are best. Then a cold frame, par¬ 
tially shaded from the sun, If the soil is not 
allowed to become too dry is a good place to 
prepare the plant* for business. 
Yes, friend Rural, you are right in frown¬ 
ing upon these mutual-admiration fruit pow¬ 
wows, where everybody gets a free ticket, free 
lunch, and free wines and cigurs. They are 
humbugs pure aud simple, and the people who 
pay for what they got, must eventually pay 
for these sprees, which too often result in 
swindling them. Hut if you editor* will refuse 
to print the many graphic reports which these 
complimentary gentlemen send you concern¬ 
ing those brilliant pow-wows, the main object 
of their inception will be gone, and the now 
fruits will have to depend more largely' upon 
positive merit. But the people are becoming 
more careful on this subject—they read more. 
The farmer or fruit grower of the present day 
is a more Intelligent and better equipped man 
every way, than ho of 00 or even 10 years 
ago. and to swindle him requires greater inge¬ 
nuity and sagacity. h. h. 
Kingston, N. Y. 
- ♦ » ♦ 
USE AND ABUSE OF WATER IN 
HORTICULTURE. 
For the Michigan Horticultural Society’s Bay City 
meeting, June lath, ISSl. 
J. S. WOODWARD. 
A BAKERS dozen covers the eutire number 
of elementary constituents entering into the 
growth and full development of plautlife, aud, 
as strange os it may seem, plants yielding the 
deadly strychuine, the stupefying morphine, 
and the wholesome staff of life, thrive in pre¬ 
cisely similar soils, aud feed and flourish upon 
the same elements. 
Of those 13 elements, four only enter largely 
into, and form the bulk of plants—namely, 
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen—aud 
of these two, hydrogen and nitrogen, are de¬ 
rived largely, if not exclusively, from water; 
and every one of the 13, whether needed in 
large or small quantity—except it may be car¬ 
bon—can enter only through the narrow gate¬ 
way of the root pores, and in this way only 
when in the most perfect solution in water. 
Notwithstanding that water is the source of 
two of the four abundant elements of plants, 
yet water, simply water, constitutes from 60 
to 05 per cent, of the weight of every growing 
plant; it is the vehicle which takes up and 
carries into, and conveys t hrough the sap ves¬ 
sels to the remotest extremity, the nutriment 
required for the continued growth of stem, 
leaves, flowers and fruit. Should we load the 
soil with food suitable for the most perfect 
development, the plant languishes and dies, 
starves to dcath.uuless vvuter in abundance is at 
hand to dissolve these food elements and carry 
them into the circulation. This same water 
carries the crude elements of pluul growth 
upward through the sap-wood til. they reach 
the leaves, and when there digested and pre¬ 
pared for use, it carries them downward, be¬ 
tween hark and wood, allowiug every part to 
select that which is adapted to its growth and 
development, even to the extending of the 
minutest rootlets into fresh soil in search of 
a farther supply of this food-bearing water. 
No matter how bright the sun shines, or how 
fierce his burning rays, the plant looks him 
full in the face aud laughs and revels in the 
blistering heat so long as an abundant supply 
of water is witblu reach of its roots: but once 
the water fails, it hangs its leaves in distress 
and soon succumbs to the blighting, burning 
influence, and dies. 
Did God desire to makeacountry desolate; to 
write Desert upon its face, He bad but to “with¬ 
hold the early and the late rains,” for without 
water no green herb or tree can beautify its 
surface, uo bird can warblo in its shady 
groves. Is man able, by diverting a river, 
or by any other means, to furnish the needed 
moisture, so potent is its influence that at 
once the desert is clothed in verdure, blossoms 
in beauty, and groans beneath an abundant 
harvest, 
Really, the whole life of the plant, from the 
unfolding of its tiny seed leaves to maturity, 
age and death, is spent in sucking water from 
the noil aud evaporating it from its leaves, 
extracting and retaining in its wonderful 
structure such food as will contribute to its 
growth and fruitfulness. Thus we see how 
very important an abundance of water is to 
the horticulturist. It is doubly so to the 
pomologist, as it not only enters so lurgely 
into the growth of plant and tree, but it en¬ 
ters more largely into the composition of the 
fruits. Of the royal apple, the king of fruits, 
no less than 8 1 per cent, is water. The pear 
has about the same proportion, aud the peach, 
aside from its pit and seed, contains over DO 
per eent. Of the berries, some contain more 
and some less; but the queen of berries, the 
strawberry, contains even more than the 
peach. Not only are the size und appearance 
of the fruit dependent upon the abundance 
of water; but so is the quality also; all know 
that fruit grown in a severe drought is dry, 
corky and tough, and locking the juiciness 
and high flavor of the best fruit, and selling 
for only an inferior price. 
The horticulturist is dependent upon three 
things for success in producing the best re¬ 
sults aud highest profit,: heat, a supply of 
plant food in the soil and an abundance of 
water. The sun famishes freely a bountiful 
supply of the first; it is man's business to see 
to the second, and the rainfall abundantly 
supplies the water, could we but regulate the 
fall, or store the surplus of one season, to be 
used as needed during the year. Of course, 
where the water of river* can be diverted aud 
used, the person so situated becomes inde¬ 
pendent of the weather, and can use the wuter 
In producing the finest fruits. 
But in so very few of our Eastern Btntes 
can the rivers be utilized or can reservoirs be 
constructed so as to obtain sufllcient water 
for irrigation, that it is hardly worth our 
while to spend time in the consideration of 
the methods by which such a water supply 
could l»e made available. How to so prepare 
and cultivate the noil as to best conserve the 
natural rainfuil for use through the year, is 
the pertinent and profitable question for our 
consideration. 
This important fact should be impressed fix¬ 
edly upon the mind of the horticulturist; that 
soils receive and retain water, in suspension, 
in proportion to their porosity or mellowness, 
in proportion to the amount of vegetable mat¬ 
ter in the form of humus which they eoutnin, 
and in proportion to the depth to which they 
are worked and mellowed. A hard, compacted 
soil, oue that has been saturated during a part 
of the year aud thou dried, becomes as hard as 
a rock almost, aud absorbs water during rams 
very slowly, and dries out very rapidly on ex¬ 
posure to sun or wind. As an experiment, 
take u flower pot and fill it with soil made as 
fine as dust, pour ou water from a sprinkler 
os long as you please; if the draiuage is per¬ 
fect, the soil will be found to remain loose and 
friable; but stop up the drainage and contiuuo 
to pour on water till the soil is saturated and 
it appears above the surface; when permitted 
to dry, it will be found us hard and firm “as a 
brick.” A mellow surface takes in the rain 
as fast as it ordinary falls, and if kept flue, 
evaporation is very slow from it thereafter. 
Hence wesee the great importance of thor¬ 
ough under-drainage of lauds for bortteultn 
ral uses, unless naturally so situated that they 
shall never become saturated or flooded. We 
also learn another lesson of great practical im¬ 
portance—that a mellow, friable surface soil 
forms the best of all mulches, because while it 
prevents evaporation as well as any, it allows 
the water of showers to puss freely through 
to the mellow soil about the plant roots, in¬ 
stead of absorbing and retaining it, as do 
mulches of manure, moss or tan-bark. 
Thus briefly has been show n some of the 
uses of water to the horticulturist, and how 
to make the most of the supply. I will point 
out a few of its abuses. One of the most com¬ 
mon and most dangerous is such location of 
the grounds and neglect of drainage, that 
for a part, of each year, the soil is filled and 
the roots of the trees and plants are for days, 
weeks, or months, soaked in a cold water-bath, 
and when we consider that most plants are 
almost as sensitive to the ill effects of wet 
feet as are human beiugs, can we wonder that 
so many' are diseased aud feeble ? Lf the laud 
is not naturally dry, or it is not made so by 
systematic uuderdraining. better by far not to 
plant at all. Another serious abuse is in ap¬ 
plying water, wheu necessary to water plants, 
by pouring it upon the surface about the 
plant, thus flooding it, and when it has dried 
away rendering the ground hard and cracked, 
increasing rather than mitigating the evil. 
The ouly proper w r ay to apply water is this: 
remove two or three inches of the surface 
soil, leaving a little hollow- just about the 
stem, into this pour the water with as little 
force as possible, and be sure to apply 
enough to suffice for the season—nothing is 
worse than watering a little and often—after 
the water has soaked well into the soil, re¬ 
place the surface soil no matter how dry it 
may be. 
It is useless to claim that water is of para¬ 
mount importance to the horticulturist, for no 
matter how insignificant, any element or how r 
stnull the quantity entering luto the growth, 
that little is of vital importance, and the with¬ 
holding of it is death; yet we may claim that 
an adequate supply of water is more difficult 
to maintain, at all times, and that its absence 
is the cause of nearly all losses and disappoint^ 
meuts which he has to suffer, and he who can 
at all times command an abuudance of this 
cheap but essential fluid, is most sure of 
success. 
CULTIVATION OF ASPARAGUS. 
I have grown this successfully for the past 
13 years, on a poor, light, gravelly soil, and 
with nothing like the elaborate preparation 
and expensive fertilizing that your Bucyrus 
correspondent gives it, as related on page 393 
of the Rural. 
Early in October, 1871,1 plowed open a long 
wide furrow about 15 inches deep, in my gar¬ 
den. luto t his I put w’ell-littered fresh stable 
manure six ineheB deep, covered it six inches 
or so with the poor soil turned out from the 
furrow, then planted the asparagus roots one 
foot apart, covered them well with soil, trod 
down hard, and early in December gave the 
row a dressing of manure of t he same kind as 
that used when planting. This was spread 
about three feet wide over the row, and at the 
rate of not more than 13 cords per acre. Early 
in Spring this manure was forked in over the 
asparagus and ou each side of it, spreading 
18 inches wide from directly over the short 
stalks of the roots. Late in November, ever 
since, the same quantity of stable manure of 
the same quality, has been spread over this 
row and forked-in the following Spring as 
soon as frost was out of the ground, which, in 
my climate, is usually early in March. 
The third Bpring that i*, 2% years after 
planting—we began a moderate cutting of 
the asparagus, and ever since then have 
cut it closely into the middle of June, aud 
sometimes later. The yield has been abundant, 
the spears tender, sweet, and as thick as the 
fingers of a stout man's hand. Stalks are left 
to grow up to seed about one foot apart in the 
row, nearly all the other spears are for eating. 
Early in the Spring of 1878, another long 
row of asparagus was planted in the same 
manner as in 1871, In the Spring of 1881, we 
began cutting from this. I have continued 
to do so closely till the present June. These 
beds are in excellent condition, aud I do not 
see why they may not continue to produce 
bountifully for a long time to come. 
One question I have asked cultivators over 
and over again, but us yet have not got a satis 
factory answer, and t hat, is, which is the bettor 
plan—to cut off the stalks as soon us seeded 
and carry them away to be burnt, so that the 
seed may not vegetate anywhere, or leave the 
stalks to cover the row all Winter, and then 
clear them off iu the SpriDg. 1 have tried 
both ways, and find no difference in the yield 
or quality of the crop the following season. 
Tin- seeds falling during Winter, scarcely ever 
propagate iu the rows. a. b. ai.len. 
[Our friend, Mr. Allen, should visit the im¬ 
mense asparagus fields of the south side of 
Long Island. We know of a 20 acre field upon 
which asparagus has been raised for 30 > ears, 
that did not receive over 10 tons of manure per 
acre in the beginning ami has never received 
uny since. The field continues to yield a large 
crop of very good asparagus. There is no 
doubt that larger stalks are produced by the 
immense amounts of manure generally spread 
at first—but it is spread at a great loss. Eds.] 
MAMMOTH SAGE. 
I have raised this sage for several years, 
aud fiud that it beats auythiug in the sage 
line I have ever seen. Oue single plant grows 
from four to five feet in diameter, and one 
plant yields as many leaves as a dozen plants 
of the brood American kind. The leaves are 
three times as big and strong, and can be 
picked half a dozen times through the Sum¬ 
mer. The plants should be set out from five 
to six fact apart each way, or they will be 
crowded. One plant will yield enough sage 
for a large family. The Mammoth Sage is 
very hardy; it stands the severest Winters 
without protection. It blooms, but bears no 
seed. The leaves look very showy, and are 
very ornamental to the garden. 
I have raised the Americau Broad-leafed 
Sage for 15 years, but since I have raised 
this monstrous sage, I do not want to raise 
any other, because it saves so much time and 
labor, aud, besides, it is better flavored than 
the common kind. The ground should be 
made very rich, and the plants increase m 
size every year. It is quite a task to pick half 
a dozen plants in a day. The person has to go 
all around the plant to get it picked, because 
he cannot reach across the plant. 
Cedar Co., Nebraska. c. d. 
THE JAMES VICK AND MANCHESTER IN 
VERMONT. 
Stawberries are ripening now. James 
Vick and Manchester blossomed at about the 
same time, and also ripened together. CJf 
course, the crop i* not yet wholly matured; 
but one can form some idea of them already. 
The Vick appears to be the larger yielder of 
medium to small berries, which are somewhat 
sour when first ripened, but of good flavor 
when fully ripe. The only fault with it, judg¬ 
ing from this season, is that it may be too 
small for market. The Manchester is larger, 
and, on the whole, I think it the better berry 
for this locality. The Vick would make a 
good variety to plant for fertilizing the Man¬ 
chester, as it blossoms at nearly the same 
time, and uppears to be a healthy and strong¬ 
growing berry. w. H. R. 
Shel bourne, Vt., June 31. 
FRUIT AND GARDEN NOTES. 
Cleveland's R. N.-Y. Pea. planted April 
13, is to-day (June 16) far enough along for 
table use It is no earlier with me than the 
American Wonder, unless the fact that it hangs 
fuller be considered a mark of earliness. I 
have marked Crescent, Lacon and Ray’s Pro¬ 
lific Strawlierries as ripening June 8. Ray's is 
extra for an early berry, being quite heavily 
1 muled with smooth, good-sized and well 
flavored berries, not so acid as the Crescent. 
Lacon, very prolific, firm, meaty, fair-sized. 
Glendale aud Kirkwood are just beginning to 
ripen, while Jersey Queen is still blossoming. 
For the third season this latter “royal berry” 
gives promise of a crop equal to that of the 
Crescent in bulk; far sweeter, handsomer aud 
latest of all; even Jumbo has ripened ahead 
this time. c. n. s. 
Polo. ill. 
t'iclt) Crops. 
BEETS AND BEET SUGAR. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Circumstances alter cases, and it may be 
well to give a clear statement of the special 
circumstances which alter the case of growiug 
sugar beets and making beet sugar in the 
United States aud Canada, as efforts have 
been made, but unsuccessfully, to introduce 
the double industry in that country. This is 
desirable, if for no other purpose than to pre¬ 
vent farmers from being deluded into subscrib¬ 
ing money for the establishment of sugar fac¬ 
tories under the pressing, but exceedingly false 
promises made by some persons, who evidently 
are entirely ignorant both of the culture of the 
beets and the intricate process of their manu¬ 
facture into sugar I am very much iu favor 
of growiug roots as a farm crop, or at least I 
have been, but having made but one good 
crop iu seven years, every other one having 
been destroyed in the severe dry and hot wea¬ 
ther which has prevailed iu May and June for 
several years, I have concluded that Ameri¬ 
cau farmers can make more money growing 
corn than by cultivating roots, aud especially 
beets aud mangels, which need a good deal of 
moisture in their tender and weakly early 
stage of growth. But if common beets and 
mangels ore difficult to grow, sugar beets are 
infinitely more so, as their culture is more 
laborious, and their quality is so much affect¬ 
ed by the character of the soil. I kuow a good 
deal about this question, having personally in¬ 
vestigated it both in Franco and Germany 
some years ago, and having grown the beets 
for five years myself, which, 1 think, is more 
than has been done by uny other person in 
America, or ut least as much. The following 
are the special points I would call attention to: 
First, sugar beets are very different from 
other beets, and require special au<l more costly 
culture, and yield very much less iu weight of 
crop. The average weight of the root desired 
by the factories is less titan two pouuds (oue- 
and-one-fourth to two), and as the parts of the 
roots that maybe exposed to the light are very 
poor iu sugar, it is necessary that the roots 
should be covered with soil to the neck. The 
average yield is ouly from eight to 13 tons 
per acre, and this small quautity is produced 
ouly by liberal manuring and a very great 
deal of hand labor, which is possible only 
where labor is very cheap. I have seen a 
unique team plowing in a Bohemian beet 
field, consisting of an ass and a cow, tandem, 
and a woman with a strap across her breast 
pulling at tlxe side of the cow. The manure is 
very often carried out in baskets on womens’ 
heads, aud girls spread it iu the drills. Women 
and children do the hoeing and manure spread¬ 
ing, as a rule, even on tiie large French and 
German farms attached to the sugar factories, 
aud I have seen hundreds of them of all ages 
