208 
a 
MAY 42 
fresh from the grape; they are just sprouting. 
Holcottville, N. Y., April 19. s. H. m. 
I planted the seeds of the Niagara Grape 
on March 2, and the first vinelet “broke 
ground” on April 10. There are 12 vines up now 
and more start ing. Some are au iuch or more 
high, stroug and stocky; but with ouly two 
leaves as yet. I had a glass jar with the bot¬ 
tom broken off' It was about six inches in di¬ 
ameter and 10 inches high; this I placed in a 
pie-plate and set iu a sunny south window . 
it typhoid pneumonia. For eight years I have 
kept from 75 to 125 hens. The aggregate re¬ 
sult is a considerable sum on the wrong side 
of the profit and loss. 1 have never seen a man 
who has kept a similar number who has uot 
met a similar result. The business may be 
made to pay for one or two years until yon 
have tried it for ten. My incubator was 
made by A. M. Halstead, Rye, N. Y. I 
bought it three years ago for $55 —would sell 
it now for $25. O, E. Gibbs. 
admitted to be among the finest in cultivation 
One of the keenest and most discriminating 
horticulturists in England writes to me: “ Mrs. 
Hovey Camellia is declared to be the best of 
its color by good judges here. It seems a 
noble flower.” Mis. Hovey varies in color 
from white to pink, and white, variegated 
and pink dowel’s are often produced on one 
plant at one time. But, in my opinion, C. M. 
Hovey Camellia, just the color of a Poinsettia, 
is the finest and most perfectly formed Cam¬ 
ellia extant. Leon. 
fUnatlinrhl 
■Sm 
THE POTATO STALK WEEVIL. 
S. H. IF., Upper Falls, Md.— For the last 13 
years my potato crops have been almost en¬ 
tirely destroyed by the Potato Stalk Weevil, 
except in two years, when I sprinkled the 
vines with a mixture of plaster, ashes aud 
salt, renewing the application whenever 
washed off by rain, but the potatoes were so 
watery—I suppose on account of the applica¬ 
tion of too much salt—that I discontinued the 
use of the mixture. Here is my first expe¬ 
rience with the pest in 1870: I planted on 
April 14, nine bushels of White Feaeliblows 
and one-half bushel of Early Rose, cut to one 
eye. There was a strong growth of vines; a 
great portion of them were green when I dug, 
which, I think, was in September. I had 
about six bushels, large and small, or aliout 
two-thirds of what I had planted. I could 
not account for the slioi! crop, as the vines 
had strong roots, but many of them had not 
a sign of a potato. Next Spring I planted 65 
EXPERIENCE WITH AN INCUBATOR. 
I have owned and run an incubator for 
three years. It is one of a pattern most ex¬ 
tensively advertised, and probably one of the 
best iu the market: capacity 100 eggs. It re¬ 
quires about one quart, of oil per duy to ran it, 
or five gallons for a single hatch. With ordi¬ 
nary eggs I get between 40 and 50 chicks per 
100 eggs. In three years I have used about 
1,200 eggs and have obtained 543 chicks. My 
eggs average about three cents each iu value, 
and it costs me one cent an egg to run the 
machine, for oil, making the total cost $4 per 
100 eggs. The average cost of a chick when 
hatched is nine cents. In raising the chicks I 
have thus far made almost a total failure. My 
first attempt was to put the chicks under hens 
that had been sitting about three weeks. I 
divided 70 chicks between five hens, putting 
the chicks under them after dark, removing 
Some plants of the true Deutzia scabra, 
grown in pots in a cool greenhouse at the Ar¬ 
nold Arboretum, are now in blossom. The 
flowers are white, pretty and copiously pro¬ 
duced. aud the habit of the shrub is good. It 
is a hardy shrub and one of the rarest in culti¬ 
vation. True, we often find its name quoted 
in catalogues, but Crenata is the kind that is 
usually sold for it. 1 am not aware that it is 
iu commerce. 
Starting Grape Seedlings—Fig. 192. 
The plate is kept full of water aud the soil in 
the jar is in this manner kept moist aud loose 
aud seems to suit the young seedlings very 
well. The soil used is a very porous one. It 
was pressed gently to obtain a smooth surface 
The seed was sown on flip aud slightly covered. 
Elmira, N. Y. , April 19. n. c, F. 
My Niagara Grape seeds were soaked in 
camphor aud ■water for five days, the water 
having been changed once, and planted in 2jr<j- 
inch pots on March 22. The pots were placed 
in a window near the stove. In three weeks 
one vine made its appearance and is now \}4 
inch high. The remainder are doing nicely. 
My wife, who has charge of them, thinks the 
majority of them will vegetate. She is 72 
j r ears old, but, expects yet to produce from 
these seeds the finest grape in America. [The 
Rural heartily wishes she may succeed— Eds.] 
Darien, Wis., April 16. z. h. 
I planted about half my Niagara Grape 
seeds the last week in February. First they 
were kept iu warm water about 30 hours and 
then planted in a common cigar-box, and 1 
now have plants from au inch to an ineh-and- 
a-half high. J < H - c - 
Avon, N. Y., April 16. 
On March 17 1 put the 65 Niagara Grape 
seeds in a cup of water as hot us I could bear 
my finger in, and sot them on a shelf over the 
register for three days. Then I planted them in 
sandy soil previously sifted,with horse manure 
at the bottom. I set them back in the con¬ 
servatory aud thought no more about them. 
On April 14 I found 1 had 30 plants up, the 
second leaf beginning to show itself. J.E.R. 
Boscaweu, N. H., April 23. 
Seeds of the Niagara Grape were soaked 
This has been a terrible Winter on out-door 
plants, and some young trees and shrabs that 
had survived the previous two or three Win¬ 
ters, have succumbed during the present one, 
and Mr. Dawson tells he has observed more 
destruction among his young trees since the 
first of March than during the three previous 
months. My Rhododendrons have suffered se¬ 
verely. 
On a shelf along the front of a sunny green¬ 
house and quite near the glass was a row of 
Sharpless Strawberry plants growing in 5-inch 
pots set in saucers, and heavily' laden with 
fruit in all stages f com the blossom to the ripe 
rod berries, The berries, peculiar to their 
kind, are very large aud exceptionally numer¬ 
ous. Mr. Dawson says he secured the runners 
as layers in pots as early as he could last 
Summer aud grew them on into their present 
sized pots. He had them stored in a cold- 
frame till New-year’s Day, when he brought 
them into their present quarters. The} - started 
right-away into growing and blooming, and 
have borne ripe fruit since the first of March. 
For forcing in pots Mr. D. say's he has bad 
good success with the European varieties 
grown for this purpose, but he has never yet 
found any strawberry to behave as well in 
this respect as the American Sharpiess. 
Hay Rack—See Page 295—Fig. 189. 
the dummy eggs on which they had been sit¬ 
ting. By seven o'clock the next morning 
three of the five had killed half their chicks 
and nothing could induce them to adopt the 
incubated little things. Two were uot so fas¬ 
tidious and made good mothers. I then tried 
artificial mothers but abandoned their use be¬ 
cause chickens raised in them will cost me in 
care, feed, fuel, etc., uot less thaD $1 each 
when ready for market. 
If there is a more stupid tiling in all crea¬ 
tion than a young chicken, it has never been 
my lot to meet it. It literally 4 * does not know 
enough to go in when it rains ”; hence the 
amount of car© requisite to raise chicks by 
means of artificial mothers is out of all pro¬ 
portion to the price paid for young chicks. 
You cannot entrust them to young children, 
for a degree of discretion and judgment which 
children do not possets Is required both in 
feeding and keeping the chicks warm. Chicks 
without a hen are much more exposed to their 
enemies, as the old hen makes it her first busi¬ 
ness to protect her offsprings, hence incuba¬ 
ted chickens liecome the ready prey of all the 
cate, rate, crows, hawks, etc., of the neighbor¬ 
hood. A family cat which never touched a 
chick running with a hen, got at my r artificial 
mother one night and killed 37 nice chicks. 
She evidently attended strictly to business. I 
would scarcely believe the story if I had not 
had mournful evidence of its truth. After 
three yea is of experience I have reached the 
conclusion that an incubator is poor property 
for the farmer or ordinary poultry raiser. I 
am now running a green-house growing early 
vegetables for market, with u heating appar¬ 
atus of the common brick-flue style. In this I 
am raising my early chicks with good success, 
but there are still obstacles that I do not know 
how to overcome. I started my incubator 
January 1 on 100 Plymouth Rock eggs bought 
of a dealer in choice stock. Less than ouo- 
half of them were fertilized, and I got but 10 
chicks. 
As to the prospective wholesale poultry 
raiser there are a few questions that he had 
best be sure of his ability to answer before lie 
invests in the incubating apparatus. Among 
them are: How will you obtain fertile eggs 
early in the season ? How prevent the eggs 
from becoming chilled iu the nest when the 
thermometer is running at about zero ? Will 
the profit pay for buildings, care, fuel, food, 
etc. i Do you know anything of the risk at¬ 
tending the business, from vermin, disease, 
etc. ? Last Spring I had a flock of 75 hens and 
six cockerels—Plymouth Rocks. Iu one week 
only six bens and one cockerel were left. 
People called it hen cholera. The disease was 
produced by cold and dampness—1 should call 
What glowing masses of hardy Primroses 
and Polyanthuses are in blossom now in our 
gardens. Within the past two years they have 
Hay Rack—See Page 295—Fig. 190. 
become quite fashionable, and surely I do not 
know of any r ordinary plants that will give a 
greater return in blossoms for the care they 
require than these. Whoever can grow Sweet 
Violets, Pansies aud double Daisies can grow 
these Primroses, They are easily raised from 
seed, blossom full when one year old, and their 
flowers are lovely , large, showy and of many 
colors, oftentimes fragrant, and so long- 
stalked as to be available for hand aud house 
bouquets. Get some seed now, sow them in a 
box or pot of light, sandy soil aud transplant 
them as they need it. Keep them in a some¬ 
what shady place daring Summer, either 
planted out or iu a cold-frame; give them lots 
of water at all seasons, and protect them a 
little in Winter by means of evergreen 
boughs or a cold-frame, or lift some and pot 
them to blossom in tbe house in Winter and 
Spring. At all times keep them cool and 
moist, and never divide them up in Spring. 
* * 
American Camellias not only hold their 
own in Europe, but some of the varieties 
raised by C. M. Hovey, of Boston, are there 
^oriicuUunil 
ONE WAY TO MAKE A STRAW 
BERRY BED. 
For the private garden I have found the 
following plan about as desirable for gardeu 
culture of the strawberry as auy I have ever 
tried:— 
With a turning plow throw up a bed five 
feet wide (not wider), pulverize thoroughly 
and rake off smoothly. Lay off rows with 
the point of a hoc across the bed (not length- 
w r ise), two foot opart and set the plants one 
foot apart in tho row. When the plants throw 
out runners, train them across the bod so as to 
form a matted row of plants one foot wide, 
thus leaving oue foot space between tho rows 
for cultivation. After the first year the runners 
may be cut off. Common sense anti good judg- 
My Rural Niagara Grape seeds wore soaked 
in warm water iu which u little ammonia had 
lteeu mixed, aud planted March 1. Twenty 
little vines arc now up, some of them for 10 
days. Ou Nov. 1 1 sowed some Concord seed 
