THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 763 
times a seven foot wide belt with vegetables 
or flowers, and in dry weather find that the 
two out^r rows never suffer so severely by 
drought as do the inner ones. This difference 
is very striking just now in the case of spin¬ 
ach, snap beans, young hollyhocks, fox-gloves 
and Sweet Williams. We dig and manure these 
belts every year, but never disturb the nar¬ 
row pathways on eflher side of them, nor, be¬ 
yond mulching annually with manure, do we 
disturb the ground immediately alongside of 
the trellis. You will observe that this in¬ 
crease of vigor in the plants of the outside rows 
coincides with Sir J. B. Lawes's views given 
on p.<xS8,regardingtheRuR*t. , s small plot tests. 
Our vineyard also rolls a little to the west. 
On this western slope the vin«»s are more af¬ 
fected with mildew than they are on the east 
side, and more defoliated, hence less useful. 
My vegetable crops there also suffer more by 
drought than they do anywhere else in the 
garden, nor is it a good place for early crops, 
it is so subject to scathing winds. But I fin d 
one crop that thrives better than anything 
else in it, and that is asparagus. But do not 
understand me as saying that asparagus pre¬ 
fers that situation to any other, as that is not 
so; on the contrary, asparagus is as sensitive 
to shelter and kind treatment as any other 
vegetable I know of. 
* * 
* 
Our Potatoes. —Part of our land is very 
sandy on a sandy sub-soil, but we manure 
unstintingly. I planted my earliest potatoes 
on a gentle west facing slope on March 37th. 
June was exceedingly dry and warm. On 
JuneStb we killed the beetles with Paris green 
in water. One dose was enough for each of 
our patches, of which we had three. By the 
end of June the potato vines were completely 
dried up, and I dug up the tuhers—poor, little, 
scabby things, with very few usable ones. A 
second patch was planted April 4th, in our or¬ 
chard; land level, as sandy as the other, and 
on account of being newer, less enriched The 
trees—apple and pear—are some eight to ten 
years old, wide apart, and neither shade nor 
impoverish the ground much. The potatoes' 
grew nicely and their vines did not ripen off 
till about July 30th; crop fair, tubers nice, 
medium, but very scabby. On April 23d, I 
planted a few more rows alongside of the last 
ones. From their first start they looked better 
than the others, kept in fair growing condition 
straight along, did notseem to suffer much by 
the June drought and did not ripen their 
vines till August. On July 81st I cleared off 
all of the April 4th planting, to make room 
for celery; but on account of their greenness 
I did not feel justified in then clearing the 
April 22nd planting. The crop of potatoes 
from the late planting was In a marked de¬ 
gree heavier, and the run of tubers larger 
and much freer from scab than were those of 
the earlier setting. All were cultivated on 
the flat system; hut on July 1st (1 couldn’t 
stand it any longer, eveu although the vines 
had met each other in the rows) I hoed up 
some earth over the rows, because there were 
so many potatoes visible on the surface of the 
ground. 
*** 
On the 35th of April I planted our potatoes 
on the farm; soil, good hazel loam, rather 
poorly treated, but well manured for the crop 
with .Now York stable manure. System, 
ordinary farm cultivation, and molded up as 
usual. 1 harvested them September 17th, 
Crop fair, tubers of good size, even run, and 
as clean, smooth and free from scab as could 
be. The Early Rose was, in all cases, the 
variety grown. William Falconer. 
Queens Co., N. Y. 
ijorticultnml. 
THE MARLBORO RASPBERRY. 
Articles have appeared in the Rural 
lately, rating the character of the Marl¬ 
boro Raspberry below that given by its 
originator. A short time since, a writer, over 
the signature of “A. B. C.,” in a half column 
describing a visit among the fruits, declared 
the Marlboro to be worthless. When a new 
fruit is offered to the country, purchasers 
have an undoubted right to investigate its 
character, and charge it with any weakness 
or inferiority in it; but no one has an honor¬ 
able right to strike in the dark, and then hide 
himself from his opponent. This anonymous 
writer we would not have noticed, had we 
not lately seen, in the editorial column of the 
Rural, an extract from a letter written by 
Charles Downing, rating the quality of the 
Marlboro lower than any one else has rated it. 
But other well known horticulturists do not 
agree with Mr. Downing. Tne Hon M. P, 
Wilder, in underscored lines, says it is “very 
good." Nathaniel Hallock, an old raspberry 
grower, to whom is attributed the com¬ 
mencement of the raspberry business on th 
Hudson River, says it is “excellent in flavor.” 
Judge Parry, of N. J., a life-long berry grow¬ 
er, says it is “excellent in quality.” P, C. 
Reynolds, of the American Rural Home, a 
horticulturist of long experience, in speaking 
of some of the finest fruits in existence, in¬ 
cluded the Marlboro. Mr. E. S. Carman, 
editor of the Rural New-Yorker, the expo¬ 
nent of new fruits, whose fearless statements 
of facts are proverbial, and who has declared 
that he would publish the truth if it “bursted 
the Rural,” has expressed his opinion at dif¬ 
ferent times to the effect that it was a deliri¬ 
ous raspberry, and later, ‘‘for a raspberry ex¬ 
cellent in every way, plant the new Varlboro.” 
Mr. Nathan Williams, an old raspberry 
grower of Highland, said before a meet ing of 
fruitgrowers, that it was the fiuest variety he 
knew of. 
We might add a thousand more testimonials 
from horticulturists and editors. In ouemore 
year this new fruit will be iu the hands of 
the people, when the making of its charac¬ 
ter will he beyond the reach of private in¬ 
terests and private opinions. 
A. J. OAYWOOD & SON. 
[We have no desire to modify anything we 
have said regarding the Marlboro from our 
present experience with it.— Eds.] 
THE NEW RUSSIAN MELONS. 
In this Province of Quebec it is not every¬ 
thing that will ripen, for Dr, Hoskins assures 
me that I could not possibly eat a Concord 
grape ripeued to perfection iu this “Cold 
North,” much less a melon, which requires so 
much of sunshine as to be always associated 
with the warm soil of New Jersey or the 
“Sunny South;” so when Mr. Charles Gibb 
sent us some seeds of melons he had brought 
from Russia, we had no faith in their ripen- 
iug; but we planted and tended them in the 
usual melon hill fashion, and waited, without 
expectation, for the ripening. On September 
8th the musk-melons were seuding forth their 
perfume, and we sent one down to the Horti¬ 
cultural Exhibition. It was all eaten by 
connoisseurs, and I heard that they enjoyed it. 
The water-melons were a week later, and I 
think in a climate where there is a chance of 
early maturity, they would be an acquisition. 
They are not large, but of fine flavor and un¬ 
usual sweetness, while as a preserve they 
really equal the citron, and we conclude that 
if planted early with a hot-bed susb over 
them, we might hope for melons from this 
variety as early us our more southern neigh 
bors. ANNIE L. JACK. 
[We have raised these melons for two years. 
They are not of superior quality, and they 
ripeu late. We have been told that they will 
keep a long time, if properly cared for after 
they are pulled from the vines.— Eds.] 
Pomo Logical 
CROSS- FF.RTI LIZ ATION. 
It seems to be well established from the 
abundance of testimony recently furnished 
through the columns of the Rural New- 
Yorker, that lu size and general appearance 
strawberries grown ou pistillate plauts, will 
resemble those grown ou the hermaphrodite 
plants that produced the pollen which impreg¬ 
nated the pistillate sorts. This principle, 
which appears to be now when applied to 
strawberries, has long been recognized with 
regard to vine truck. It is well known that 
the size and quality of wator-melons are ma¬ 
terially influenced if a few seeds of pumpkins, 
squash, or preserving citrons, be planted 
among them. May not the same principle 
hold true with other fruits under certain cir¬ 
cumstances? Let facts determine. 
About the year 1878 when planting an orch¬ 
ard of standard Kieffer Pear trees, we set a 
few dwarf Bartlett trees among them, think¬ 
ing that would be a favorable plan for having 
the blossoms on the low growing Bartlett 
trees impregnated with the pollen falling 
from the taller standard Kieffer trees in the 
natural way, which is much preferable to the 
artificial plan of mutilating the pistil in try¬ 
ing to cut away the stamens around it with an 
unsteady hand. My theory was, to plant the 
seed of the Bartletts thus subjected to shower* 
of pollen falling from the Kieffers, and wait 
the result of the new seedlings grown there¬ 
from. But this year we noticed some of the 
Bartletts had the shape and outward appear¬ 
ance of Kieffer Pears, and huug on the trees 
about one month later than other Bartletts 
grown here, and attained a larger size, meas¬ 
uring 10>y inches uround crosswise, by 11)4 
around lengthwise; flavor, and quality of 
flesh and color of skin like tho Bartlott; size 
and shape of fruit and t ime of ripening more 
corresponding with tho Kieffer. 
We have carefully planted tho seed taken 
from those supposed crosses which showed a 
marked change in outward appearance, hop¬ 
ing some of the offspring may produce fruit 
equal to that from which the seed was taken, 
und if we get a now seedling poar, or an im¬ 
proved Bartlett-, larger iu size, of the same 
quality, and throe to four weeks later in 
ripening than its female parent, tho Bartlett, 
crossed with the Kieffer, it will be of some 
value to fruit-growers, who have no retarding 
house to keep back their Bartletts. 
Another Illustration of the same principle: 
—Inst Winter Charles Parry, who lives ad¬ 
joining here, removed a standard Bartlott 
Pear tree, which had borne fruit for several 
years, to make room for moving his barn. 
Tho Bartlett treo thus removed was planted 
close by and nearly between two largo stand¬ 
ard Kieffer Pear trees. All three bloomed 
profusely, and bore an ahuuduuco of fruit 
very similar in outward appearance to Kief¬ 
fers. The Bartlett fruit was mostly double 
turbinate, pointed at both ends, like Kieffers, 
yet when cut open It had the natural Bartlett 
tuste. The Bartlett true having been recent¬ 
ly moved, which cheeked its growth and 
weakened its reproductive powers, there were 
not strength and vigor ouough to produce a 
sufficient supply of pollen to impregnate the 
pistils of the Bartlett blossoms, and they 
were in a suitable state to receive pollen from 
the moro vigorous Kieffer trees near-by, 
which furnished au abundant supply for them¬ 
selves and the Bartletts also. There were but 
few seeds in the crossed pears; some had 
none, and other? were defective. 
We have grafted the Bartlott in the tops of 
Kieffer Pears, so as to bring the blossoms 
close to each other, the most favorable posi- 
tiou for cross-fertilization in the natural way. 
Wo have likewise grafted the Lawson, the 
largest and most beautiful pear ripening in 
July, iu the tops of Manning’s Elizabeth, a 
smaller pear of excellent quality, ripening 
nearly at the same time. If wo can by this 
system of cross-fertilization obtuiu a new pear 
combining the lurge size [The specimens of 
the Lawsou that wo have seen can not be 
rated as “large;” our cut was too large.— Eds.] 
and great beauty of the Lawson with the deli¬ 
cious quulity of the Elizabeth, it, will be an 
acquisition well worth the care trad attention 
necessary to accomplish so desirable an object. 
Tw«*uty years ago I thought I was too old 
to plant pear seeds with any prospect of see¬ 
ing the fruit grown from them; but I have 
now changed my opinion,and I agree with an 
elderly gentleman, 81 years old, who came 
here some time since to purchase trees, 
and said to me while they were being dug 
for him, “Some people might think it fool¬ 
ish in me to plunt apple trees, but I like 
to do it, for they will do somebody good, aud 
it is a pleasure to be employed in that which 
will promote the wclfure and comfort of 
others.’ Five yeur.-i since that eminent friend 
of pomology, Churies Downing, sent me soma 
choice pear seeds for plunting, ami now in 
tho lawn before me stunds a thrifty pear tree 
1.0 feet high, grown from those seeds, beariug 
12 good sized, smooth, handsome pears, the 
largest of which measures 10 inches around 
crosswise. There were 35 pears on tho tree; 
but when about hulf grown 18 were removed, 
as we thought one dozen were enough for a 
tree five yours from seed, to ripen. If fruit 
growers generally would follow the excellent 
advice of our venerable president, the Hon. 
Marshall P. Wilder, often repeated in his 
able addresses before the American Pomolog- 
ical Society, to “plant the most mature and 
periect seeds of the most hardy, vigorous and 
valuable varielles, and as a shorter process, 
insuring more certain and happy results, 
cross and hybridize our finest kinds for still 
greater excellence,” there might yet be pro¬ 
duced fruits adapted to our soil and climate, 
superior to any we now have. 
Burlington Co. N. J. William Parrt. 
Remarks.— The shape of the Burtlett as 
well as that of the Kieffer varies according to 
soil, situation and thrift. Now, if we follow 
Judge Parry’s, plan wo can never be positive 
whether our seedlings uro self fertilized, or 
crossbreeds. It is the simplest mutter to re¬ 
move the anthers while immature from pear 
blossoms, without harming the pistils. We 
may then apply the pollen from the desired 
mule parent, and if successful we are positive 
as to the parentage. Iu this way we have 
uow a Kieffer Pear, the male parent of which 
is either Seekcl or Anjou— both pollens 
were applied. The tree bore three or four 
umbels of flowers (the first). The anthers 
were removed as soon as the buds could be 
manipulated, and pollen was applied every 
MIKADO PEAR. (From Nature.) Fig. 472. (See page 761.) 
