Vol XLIL No 1732. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 7, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
^TRY HOji 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1S88, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 1 
HE pear from which our faith¬ 
ful portrait was drawn was 
purchased in a Broadway 
fruit-store of this city, March 
1, for 50 cents. It was grown 
in California. The large pears 
of California have the reputa¬ 
tion of being deficient in qual¬ 
ity. Not so with this; we do not remember to 
have ever eaten a pear of finer grain, more but¬ 
tery or melting. Quoting from Charles Down¬ 
ing and John J. Thomas, we find this pear 
known under several different names—Doyenne 
d’Hiver, Bergamotte de la PentacGte, Beurre 
de Pftques, Chaumontelle tres gros, Canning, 
Seigneur d’Hiver, and others. It is largo, 
obovate, approaching oval; surface yellowish- 
green with some russet; often a broad, dull, 
raddish cheek; stalk stout, an inch long; cav¬ 
ity deep, sometimes obtuse, abrupt; calyx 
small, closed in a moderate plaited basin; 
flesh, fine-grained, very buttery, melting and 
juicy and, when well grown and ripened, of 
excellent flavor. 
It does not often mature well in the North¬ 
ern States. We have never yet been able to 
ripen a pear from the single specimen at the 
Rural Ex. Grounds. It keeps through Win¬ 
ter, as mav be judged from the splendid speci¬ 
men which we have illustrated, drawn, as 
above intimated, on March 1st. 
The growth of the tree is strong, quite up¬ 
right. It succeeds well on the quince. Mr. 
Downing states that it is considered abroad 
one of the very best of Winter or Spring 
pears; that, if packed away in boxes and 
ripened off in a warm room, it is a delicious, 
melting, buttery fruit. The tree requires a 
warm exposure and a rich soil to give fine fruit. 
The American Pomological Society gives it 
two stars for the following States: Oregon, 
Virginia, Kentucky and California: and one 
star for Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, South Car¬ 
olina, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa. Illinois, Ten¬ 
nessee, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Mary¬ 
land, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Con¬ 
necticut and Vermont. 
We find it specially commended for the 
Champlain Valley of Vermont in one part of 
the A. P. R., while in another it is deemed too 
tender for other portions of that State. 
The Ben Davis Apple. 
Referring again to the Bon Davis Apple, 
and the paragraph of your correspondent, 
“E. B. N.,” as to its evaporating quality, I 
agree with him, except that with us its percent 
of yield is uot as good as iu the case of 
many other varieties. When evaporated, 
just as iu its green state, its market value is 
kept up; it looks well, and sells well. 
Brownville, Neb. Robt. W. Furnas. 
farm Vo^ics. 
INCREASE OF CROPS BY NITROGEN 
SIR. J. B. LAWKS, F.R.S., LL.D. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of February 
10 Professor S. W. Johnson, in answer to an 
inquiry as to the chemical manure which 
would host supply nitrogen to a corn crop, has 
given a very lucid explanation of the various 
sources from which uitrogeu is to bo obtain**!, 
and I believe be is correct iu saying that the 
greater part of the nitrogen taken up by vege¬ 
tation is in the form of nitrates. 
There is, however, a further question which 
might have been put to Professor Johnson 
EASTER BEURRlf—CROSS-SECTION—Fio. 160. 
EASTER BEURRE— From Nature— Fio. 161. 
with regard to this substance, one also of 
great interest to those who live by farming, 
and that is, what increase of crop can be ob¬ 
tained from any defined amount of purchased 
nitrogen ? 
Nitrogen, as we all know, is a very costly 
substance to purchase in any of its active 
forms, such as blood, ammonia or nitrates; 
while in its more insoluble forms it is one of 
the cheapest in the world—for example, at the 
cost of a few dollars, land may be purchased 
in the States containing from 10,000 to 20,000 
pounds of nitrogen per acre; while nitrogen 
iu the form of salts of ammonia, or nitrate of 
soda, could not, I presume, be sown upon the 
land for much less than 35 cents tier pound; 
and the purchaser would naturally expect that 
the value of the increased produce would be 
greater than the cost of the manure by which 
it was obtained. 
Although I have no experience in regard to 
the growth of corn. I still prdfjose to confine 
my remarks chiefly to that cr<^ as. allowing 
for differences in the time at which they ripen 
their seeds, the cereal grain crops resemble 
each other very closely in tbeir maniietf o£_ 
taking their food from the soil. 
It may be assumed that a farmer who ap¬ 
plies so costly a substance as ammonia, or ni¬ 
trate, to his land, believes that the soil con¬ 
tains a store of mineral substances a v ailable to 
the crop, though the plants cannot make use 
of them for want of the necessary nitrogen. 
In the case which I am about to bring forward 
for illustration, I will assume that a soil pos¬ 
sesses mineral substances iu sufficient abun¬ 
dance to grow a crop of 100 bushels of corn, 
but that it will only grow 25 bushels, in con¬ 
sequence of the amount of organic nitrogen in 
the soil not producing more nitric acid than 
will yield the nitrogen contained in 25 bushels 
of corn and its straw. 
Let us say that it is desired to increase the 
crop by 50 bushels, making in all 75 bushels 
per acre. In reference to some tables on the 
composition of various crops grown in the 
States, I find that 5*) bushels of corn, and its 
equivalent of straw, amounting altogether to 
9,500 pounds, contain 76 pounds of nitrogen. 
Let us assume, in the first place, that this 
amount of nitrogen was applied in nitrate of 
soda, and that the whole was taken up by the 
plant; we should find that each pound taken 
up enabled the plant to obtain about seven or 
eight pounds of mineral matter from the soil, 
aud about 114 pounds of organic matter fro_u 
the atmosphere. 
The process which I have described as taking 
place in corn, takes place every year in my 
wheat aud bai ley crops at Rothaiusted, where 
each pound of nitrogen taken up represents 
more than 100 pounds of straw and grain. In 
my illustration of the action of nitrogen o* 
com, I have assumed that the whole of the 70 
pounds applied was taken up by the plant; in 
practice, however, it will be found that a great 
deal more than 76 pounds of uitrogeu will be 
required to produce an increase of 50 bushels 
per acre in the crop; as even if the plant were 
able to take up the whole of the uitrogeu that 
was within its reach, it is quite impossible that 
the roots could come iu contact with all that 
was applied. 
The result of our experience, as derived from 
our experiments at Rothamstead, is that eveu 
in seasous of the greatest abundance the crop 
has never taken up the whole of the uitrogeu 
applied. If, therefor©—as is certain—farming 
has to be carried on upon the basis of averayr 
seasons,a large allowance must be made forltvss. 
It is, I think, tolerably evident that if we 
applied 76 pounds of nitrogen—equal to about 
450 pounds of nitrate of soda—aud obtuiued 50 
bushels of corn, the transaction would be a 
profitable one; but if we obtained only 25 
bushels, or, to put it in another way, if we had 
to apply 900 pounds of nitrate to produce the 
50 bushels required, there would be a loss in 
stead of a gain on the transaction. 
l 
