424 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 7 
<l\)t JHoultnj 
SOME FOWL HALUCENATIONS. 
I remember several years ago there was 
quite a furore amoug the gl owers ami fanciers 
of chickens for breeding them in muneuse 
flocks, and whole farms were proposed to be 
devoted to this purpose. Mr. Hoisted wrote 
long articles on t he subject for the agricultu¬ 
ral press, and great stories were told how the 
thing was done near Paris. Large buildings 
were devoted to the purpose and all the dead 
horses of Paris were boiled up for feed for 
these countless flocks of chickens. Pictures 
were made of houses huilt upon a pivot so 
they could revolve, and every part was occu¬ 
pied by chickens, and as the house turned 
round a machine located at a particular point 
forced the food down the chickens’ throats. 
Hand work being so slow, we suppose the pis¬ 
ton of an engine alone could work fast enough 
to keep this large family properly crammed. 
In conversation with Mr. Charles Delmonico, 
proprietor of the fashionable restaurant at 
the intersection of Fifth Avenue aucl 26th 8t., 
New York City, I have had all this beautiful 
vision dispelled. He tells me that Paris is not 
uearly so well supplied with poultry as is New 
York city, and that there are no celebrated 
poultry farms near that city; that old women 
raise and tend the chickens there, as they do 
here. In conversation with Mr. Darling, the 
proprietor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and also 
with Messrs. A. & E. Robbins, of Fulton mar¬ 
ket, the largest poultry dealers iu the world, 1 
was told the same thing. Mr. Robbins says 
that the poultry of this country is better thau 
that of either France or England, and as proof 
of the statement the steamship companies, as 
far as they can, buy all their supplies in this 
line on this side, and refrigerate them for use 
on the return trip. 
In describing that immense chicken farm 
that was so highly perfected in his mind, Mr. 
Halsted separated the fowls into flocks of 
about one hundred head. To each flock he 
gave a small house about ten feet square. 
These houses were on wheels, so they could be 
moved and, if I remember correctly, they 
were not to be located within less thau several 
hundred feet of each other. Being young and a 
little fresh in those days, I started a chicken 
ranch after the model and recommendations of 
Mr. Halsted. I built the houses, and, as sug 
gested, white-washed some of them plain; 
others ring-streaked and speckled, and others 
were left in wood color. The idea was not to 
have any two of the same appearance, so that 
the chickens could distinguish their own homes 
from those of their neighbors. I filled each 
house and attached pen with fowls, and after 
a week or two, thinking they had become thor¬ 
oughly accustomed to their surroundings, 
beginning late iu the afternoons, 1 let them 
out to range and they al l returned promptly 
at the approach of nightfall. I was ready to 
pronounce the experiment a success. This 
was in the Spring when hens are particularly 
attached to the nests and hen-house, and the 
cocks are more than usually devoted to the 
cares of their domestic households. As the 
season wore on, the houses were opened earlier 
in the day and the hens showed a greater dispo¬ 
sition to roam, and some of them took a great 
liking to other flocks, so that some trouble 
was experienced in returning them to their 
original homes, especially as they were all 
Light Brahmas and of similar colors and 
markings. This desire to congregate together 
at nightfall became so strong with them all 
that it required the services of every man to 
be had to help empty the house when roosting 
time came. They would .range,,apart well 
enough during the day, but at night if left 
alone,they would cro wd iu layers two and three 
deep in single houses after the perches were 
full. Iu this way great numbers were crushed 
aud smothered, and no degree of watchfulness 
could avoid the trouble. After a pretty hard 
experience I am not now a believer in chicken 
farming. I think one hundred fowls are as 
many as can be profitably handled by one 
family or on one place. 11 requires the selfish 
watchfulness that ownership brings aud that, 
prompts the owner to go after his fowl when 
it strays or ejects the stranger when it cats 
the food of his own fowls, to keep these gre¬ 
garious birds apart. L. s. H. 
fyoxiicultmaL 
A NEW STRAWBERRY. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
A note from my old friend, W. F. Basset^ 
of Hammonton, N. J., a few days ago, stating 
he had a new strawberry which he thought 
possessed several important points of superior- * 
ity over any now before the public, and invit¬ 
ing me to join an inspection party on the 12th 
inst., reminded me that the season for the 
opening of these annual inflictions was near at 
hand. The fact that so few of these recent 
introductions have utterly failed to achieve 
any thing more than an ephemeral, mushroom 
character has led me to regard their announce 
ment as of little account, and T am not alon 
in this matter, for 1 think I heard the Rural 
Editor once say he was tired and disgusted 
with trying and hearing about these marvelous 
products. 
The above iuvi 
tatiou, howevei 
coming from th 
source it did, ir 
spired a desire t 
investigate i t 
merits. On con 
suiting the rail 
road timetable, 
found I must g 
the day previoc 
or lie too late fo 
“the show.” Ad 
ing accordingly, 
met en mill 
several others o 
the same errant 
so that on ou 
arrival we nun 
bered six. W 
were met by Mi 
Bassett, aud as Atlantic.—Fig. -307. 
there were yet tw o or three hours of daylight, 
we decided to proceed “ direct to business ” in 
advance of the regular programme. We 
were conducted to the grounds of the origina- 
tor, Mr. D. L. Potter, where we found a little 
over lialf-au-acre of the uew candidate in 
fruiting. 
In reply to inquiries Mr. P. informed us it was 
a chance seedling fouud about six years ago, 
and this was the fourth season of fruiting it 
He had been so impressed with its good quali¬ 
ties on his soil that he now had growing 
40,000 plants set this Spring. 
The berry (Fig. 307) is of very regular conical 
shape, of fair size and turns up no w hite nose 
as you gather it. Occasionally one was found 
elongated in shape, resembling one’s thumb, 
yield being fully enough for the soil 
and the amount of foliage; certainly much 
better in this respect than a bed of 
Kentuckys alongside of it under apparently 
similar conditions. A lew Mauchesters iu the 
same field afforded no sort of comparison, for 
which there must be some cause; but I learned 
they were not giving satisfaction generally in 
that section this season owing to blight, or 
scald, as some term it. The soil of Hammon¬ 
ton, like that of that section of the State 
generally, is rather thin, and, I should think, 
hardly adapted to heavy crops of strawberries. 
I should expect our heavier soil to produce 
heavier crops if well eared for; but iu this I 
may lie mistaken. I suppose this variety will 
be offered this Fall and perhaps pushed for all 
it is worth; but I cannot help thinking the in¬ 
terests of the purchasing public w r ould l>e 
better served if these new' fruits could have 
more extended trials in different localities be¬ 
fore they are offered for sale. 
Having accomplished my mission, I returned 
early next morning, not waiting to attend “the 
christening,” and am not advised as to the 
view's or actions of those w ho did wait, save 
that the new bantling was named Atlantic. 
I think it worthy of extended trial in a small 
w’ay before “going in heavy'.” 
Returning 1 stopped over a train to inter¬ 
view a large Monmouth County fruit grower. 
He was just making his first picking of Mau¬ 
chesters from a setting of 16,000 plants. 
“ See,” said he, “ they will only grade No, 
2. I made a mistake iu fertilizing them with 
the Wilson. To this, together with the scald, 
I attribute my failure. See! the leaves are so 
dry they would burn.” To which I replied, 
“ That is whar. 1 know as blight-, scald, as I 
understand it, is the sunburn of the berries.” 
“ Did you know' the variety used as a ferti¬ 
lizer made a difference in the crops,” asked he t 
“It undoubtedly does, aud I know some 
growers who believe the potency of some 
varieties on the kiud feri.il ized is much more 
apparent in some cases than in others. I 
think I made a mistake in using the Wilson,” 
he said. “ This is about a fair sample of the 
Manchester hereabout; the only exception 1 
know of is in a case of a neighbor within two 
miles who hus as fine a tied of Manchester as 
you could wish to see, and he used the Sharp- 
Strawberry Seedling of Ward D. Gunn.—From Nature. Fig. 3<4. 
which suggested the thought that it might be 
some kiu to Lady Finger, Prouty or Long¬ 
fellow’, but there were no deformed monstrosi¬ 
ties; w hether high culture would produce them 
remaius to be seeu. Flesh solid, juicy, dark 
glossy crimson outside, deep red within when 
fully ripe, with little or no acidity, sweet 
enough to be palatable to most people without 
the addition of sugar, quality fair to good. 
The slight neck renders the removal of calyx 
an easy task, as compared with Miner’s aud 
such berries as have the calyx imbedded. 
Another feature of merit is that it readily 
separates from the foot-stalk when picking, 
while the Hharpless and several others often 
pull oil a branch of green fruit with the ripe 
berry r unless picked with care. 
The flow'er is “perfect,” fertilizing itself. I 
asked the commission merchant who lias sold 
the fruit iu N. Y. how it sold as compared 
with the Wilson, and if the color was objec¬ 
tionable. His reply was the color suited his 
customers, it was so glossy it gavethe fruit a 
fresh appearance. His last consignment a 
dealer took at his own offer of 25 cents per 
quart—about double the price of Wilsons'. 
He claimed also that its keeping qualities were 
such that it was not necessary to sell the berries 
at once iu order to save them. My samples 
were pretty well decayed at the end of the 
second day, but they were fully ripe when 
picked, which is uot generally the case with 
berries sent to market. 
As a cropper I considered it fair—the 
leas us a fertilizer.” 'Hie blight is attributed 
by some growers to logs, which have been pre¬ 
valent almost nightly for some weeks pust. 
Ou another farm 1 saw Manchester* and 
Aimers doing a little better, and a little bed of 
Big Bobs that was about as big a failure as 
I ever saw. Is that the ease elsewhere l Our 
Mauchesters and Hharpless are in the bight of 
perfection now; come aud see! samples free. 
Montclair. N. J., June 16, 
AMONG THE STRAWBERRIES. 
Tuesday morning June 18,'taking au early’ 
t. ain I went over to Newark aud up to Irving¬ 
ton aud ililtou in Essex Co., N. J., to see their 
strawberries. I desired to see and know more 
of the Jersey Queen, aud learn what it is doing 
at home. In this desire 1 was uot disappointed, 
for 1 saw it in several different, fields and as a 
Strong plant of unusual vigor, producing an 
abundant crop of huge lino .berries 1 think 
it about all that can be desired. It should 
have a good rich soil, be plauted and kept in 
single rows 2}4 feet by 14 inches, huvo clean 
culture and every third row should be of some 
good late bisexual variety blooming at the 
same time. Uuder these conditions there is uo 
question of its endurance, abundant produc¬ 
tiveness, great beauty aud high quality. 
But I went particularly to see Durand’s new 
variety, hitherto called the Superb; but to 
avoid the chance of confounding it with Nigh’s 
Superb, this has been rechristeued Prince of 
Berries. In color and form it closely resembles 
the Jersey Queen, being rich, uniform and 
beautiful; in size I should say it is two sizes 
smaller; in quality it is the acme of perfec¬ 
tion. Its flower is bi-sexual or “perfect,” hence 
it would go well with the Jersey' Queeu. The 
plant appeara strong, healthy aud quite pro¬ 
ductive, period of ripening late, with good 
carrying qualities, 
I think it a splendid amateur variety and its 
beauty, high quality, uniformity aud apparent 
productiveness may place it among our best 
market varieties. It is indeed very promising. 
At the Rev, Mr, Chapman’s I saw several 
new seedlings ot interesting character, some of 
which, I presume, the .strawberry public may 
wj^it to try, but i will now only speak of the 
Empress, a seedling of the Crescent. Its tw’o 
strong points are its wonderful productive¬ 
ness aud keeping qualities. Iu quality it does 
not exceed its mother fruit, the Crescent, run¬ 
ning only from fair to good. Mr. Chapman’s 
report of a single picking made me open my 
eyes, aud when I looked over the bed I was 
astonished at its wonderful load of green fiuit. 
Those w ho want quarts of fruit without regard 
to high quality, will desire to try the Empress, 
when offered. But L do uot desire to encour¬ 
age the production of second-rate fruit. The 
best is not too good for the w'orkiug man or 
his family. Let our aim be rather toward the 
largest yield of the beet fruit. 
But the great marvel of the day was yet. to 
be seeu. Mr. I, P, Brown, of Hilton, is a mau 
with the “ Great American ou the brain.’ 5 
His name was mentioned by one and an¬ 
other until my curiosity was aroused, and I 
said “Imust see AH'. Brown and his berries.” 
I w as just turning ou my heel for a walk up to 
Brown’s, when Mr. Chapman said “No, Air. 
Augur, my son (Rev. Mr. Chapman, Jr.) will 
drive you up.” So we had a most enjoyable 
ride through the green fields of Middleville up 
by the old “ Seth Boyden" place, and three- 
quarters of a mile beyond to L P. Brown’s. 
Well, I asked uo questions, but I suppose Israel 
P. means Israel Putnam aud iu strawberries 
he is au Israel Putnam. We saw iu an acre of 
emerald green a little nnny of pickers. We 
saw iu his packing shed au array of fruit 
worth the trip from New York to behold. I 
hardly dare to say more; for if 1 tell the truth 
1 shall hazard my repntatiou for veracity. 
Any one who desires to see another " Wonder 
of the World," should go out to 1. P. Brow n’s 
and see the champion acre of strawberries 
since Columbus discovered America, or,if you 
please, since Adam and Eve left Eden. “ Big 
berries aud plenty of them,” to use the trite 
words of a contemporary, are w hat we saw at 
Brown’s. Neighbors say “ $2000 from that acre 
this year.” Brown suys “Wait till we get the 
“footings;” but he speaks with some emphasis 
on footings. Well, Brown has the inside track 
and is coming in ahead. About July 15 let 
us have his footings t 
Air. Brown has succeeded iu getting ahead iu 
quantity, size, quality and price. 1 am re¬ 
minded of Daniel Webster’s saying in regard 
to the profession of law, which applies in hor¬ 
ticulture and fruit culture. “ Ordinary posi¬ 
tions all full; plenty of room higher up.” 
P. AL Augur. 
A NEW SEEDLING STRAWBERRY. 
I herewith send the Rural a few of my 
new Seedling Strawberries. No. 3, (See Fig, 
374) has for two years taken the premiums at 
the Ulster Strawberry Show', as the best seed 
ling uot disseminated, as well as the best 
variety for general cultivation and market. 
It wasiu competition this year w it h fine speci¬ 
mens and plants of the Manchester, liidwell, 
Jersey Queen, Seneca Queen, Sharpies*, etc., 
growm by nurserymen us well as by fruit cul¬ 
tivators. Its chief competitor was the Mau- 
ehester, aud the judges gave my berry the 
preference as the largest, best flavored and 
most prolific. I want to emphasize the fact 
that my berry was not represented at the fair 
by an}' person to push it, being myself kept at 
home ou account, of physical infirmity; but it 
was known by several who had seen it in bear¬ 
ing this last sousou. 1 have not named it. 1 
meant to ask tlie Society to name it. but 
neglected to do so, and now, 1 would like the 
Rural to name it—with this remark, that I 
had thought perhaps “Ulster” would do, as in¬ 
dicating its place of origin and being dissim¬ 
ilar lroui other names of strawberries. 
It is a chance seedling, found in the sod 
under an old chestnut tree, five years ago— 
undoubtedly dropped by birds. Of several 
thus found und since tested, this survives as 
the fittest, the others being defective in some 
respects, and having been therefore discarded. 
Although of seemingly pistillate character, 
it hus borne largely alone—with no staminato 
near it, and from my experience with it I 
think it may he suttieieutly self-fertilizing to 
be an exception to its class. Ward D.Gunn. 
Clintoudale, N. Y., June 20. 
Remarks.— A dozen peduncles bearing all 
the way from five to ten berries, green anil 
