AUG \8 
520 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
without any timber protection, but the com¬ 
ing year lie will plant rows of White Willow 
around it, setting the cuttings a foot 
apart. Iu three years these will be 13 feet 
high and in ten years forty. The south n il] 
be the first side to protect from the hot winds. 
For forest planting he ranks Catalpa first 
with Black Walnut and our native Green 
Ash. The latter has a closer grain than the 
White, though not as stately a tree. 
The return made by the assessors last Spring 
showed that in the State forty-five millions of 
forest trees had been planted and were flour¬ 
ishing. This number has been largely in¬ 
creased by this year's planting. The poor 
homesteader living in a sod house surrounds 
it with trees as early as possible—Cotton¬ 
wood, the poor man’s tree, is usually the first 
on account of its rapid-growth availability. 
W alnut and the better sorts follow. 
Douglas Co., Neb. J. T. Allan. 
-♦ -»■■»- 
NURSERIES IN THE' WEST. 
A few years ago Rochester, N. Y., was the 
place where the big nurseries were supposed to 
be,but j ust now we have some here that deserve 
the name. One firm, a few counties east of 
here, set out this season 170,000 apple grafts, 
and recently requested me to sen! them some 
good budders of the peach, as they have 400,. 
000 to bud. This looks like business, and if 
there are many such, there will certainly soon 
be enough trees of these two kinds of fruit. 
But one thing is sure, that in five year’s after 
this not one-third of these will be trees, as the 
borer levies a heavy contribution on trees 
here, and people will not take proper care 
of them. 
Some years ago I think it was Mr. Barry 
that stated in an article on the root-grafting of 
apples that one whole root should be taken for 
a graft, and not little pieces. I then thought 
he was correct, and uow am sure of it. One 
such tree is worth ns much as two of the ordi¬ 
nary ones and the time will come when not 
only a whole root will be used for each graft, 
but the trees will be grafted or budded above 
ground. Then there will not only be sounder 
trees in case of many varieties, but they will 
bear better than on their own roots. 
For instance, the Yellow Bellflower is unpro¬ 
ductive here on its own rout while it is not so 
when grafted on other hardy sorts; and the 
Lawver, a splendid apple, is a short-lived tree 
when root-grafted. But so loug as multitude 
is the order, of course the roots will be cut into 
pieces. I once grafted on healthy two-year- 
old stocks, and by Fall bad fair-sized trees to 
sell; while if treated in the usual way they 
would have to remain three yearn before they 
would be fit to sell. I planted one bushel of 
apple seed this Spring, and about one in a 
thousand has come up, but they will make just 
the kind of stocks I want. I have twice 
bought root-grafts in the Spring, but they 
were uot such as would be desirable and I 
wont do it any more. S. Milleh. 
Montgomery Co., Mo. 
CONCERNING CABBAGE PESTS. 
CLEM AULDON. 
Probably the novice in farming who has 
been leading agricultural papers twelve 
months and is going to put in a crop of cab¬ 
bage the coming season, smiles complacently 
upon his more experienced neighbor who lias 
waged an unsuccessful war against the “count¬ 
less horde” of cabbage insects. He congratu¬ 
lates himself upon his self-acquired kuowledge 
aud wonders why his friend doesn’t read the 
papers. To the man who has observed the 
matter a little, one remarkable feature of the 
ease is the astonishing number of infallible 
remedies that are given to the public each 
Summer. 
Perhaps the success of a preventive or rem¬ 
edy for insects, with the man who first tried 
it, is in a great measure due to the numbers 
aud persistency of the pests. It may have 
been applied about the time the insects were 
migrating; or they may have appeared in a 
very moderate degree—not sufficient to check 
the growth of the plants or do any noticeable 
damage. They may remain on the plants all 
the time, but as the crop matures, the owner 
concludes that his remedy has held the 
“beasts” in cbevk and thus saved a crop. 
W e have here to contend against the Turnip 
Fly, or “Jumping Jack” (called by some, “Cab¬ 
bage Flea”), the Harlequin Cabbage Beetle, 
the “Greeu-worm,” or Cabbage Caterpillar, 
and the Green Cabbage “Louse.” In the 
Spring of 1883 we had a great deal of 
wet weather, and the Turnip Fly, though 
present in small numbers all the time, did so 
ittle damage that plants In the open ground 
were grown without trouble. This Spring i 
was dry and they came in such numbers as to 
completely riddle two successive sowings of 
turnips, radishes aud cabbage. They attacked 
large, cold-frame plants after bavin® been 
transplanted, and stuck to them until they 
looked worse than a “Kansas sufferer” that 
had been through two sieges of grasshoppers 
and one of dry weather. 
Peter Hendersou recommends air-slaked 
lime as au antidote for these. My experience 
has been that when they attack your plants 
in the hot-tied, by taking them in hand at 
their first appearance frequent applications 
of lime as they appear from time to time will 
bring your plants through all right. But, if 
you have au acre of plauts to look after, doc¬ 
toring them in the open field wi ll prove to be a 
very different affair. 
By the last of June comes the terrible Har¬ 
lequin Bug, that seems to wither up the young 
cabbage plant like the breath of pestilence. If 
a mau has a hundred cabbages in his garden 
that are forming heads, he can go pver the 
plants each morning with a pail of water that 
has kerosene on top of it, and remove the bugs 
from the cabbage to the vessel. This makes 
complete work of them, and it does it quickly. 
This man, perhaps, does uot care whether he 
spends five cents or 35 cents a head on those 100 
plants. What he wishes is to raise those par¬ 
ticular cabbages. He planted them himself. He 
knows they haven’t the cholera or the trichinae 
and he proposes to eat cabbage of his own 
raising. But how is it with the mau who has 
10,000 plants and is growing them for market? 
You say: “He can dose them with Pyrethium 
Powder, or give them au emulsion of milk and 
kerosene.” Certainly. But those remedies 
cost money and it takes time to apply them. 
In the operation you are liable to apply them 
only to the upper side of the leaf and the in¬ 
sect is just as likely to be on the under side 
If you are putting on a powder it will not ad¬ 
here if the leaves are dry, and if you must 
sprinkle them iu order to make the powder 
stick you may find that the liquid adheres no 
better than the powder. 
If you are going to wait for a dew you may 
be disappointed iu its appearance just when 
you stand most iu need of it. These same 
points will present themselves with whatever 
insect he has to contend against. If the gar¬ 
dener is going to get §10 a hundred for his 
cabbage, it is a point in arithmetic to ascer¬ 
tain whether it will cost eight to ten cents a 
head to fight the insects and save the crop. 
The question which interests the cabbage- 
grower is not whether the remedy is effectual, 
but rather, “Is it practical?” 
Mr. Henderson pointedly remarks: “Noth¬ 
ing is more difficult and unsatisfactory thau 
the attempt to defeat the ravages of insects in 
the open field,” and the gardener w ill find a 
solution to the problem when he finds a reme¬ 
dy that is practical where the insects are plen¬ 
tiful. 
PISTILLATE STRAWBERRIES AS THE 
PARENTS OF VARIETIES. 
In the Rural of July 14 at the foot of my 
article on the above subject, the Editor speaks 
of his experience and expresses a doubt wheth¬ 
er one perfect blossom will produce pollen 
sufficient for ten pistillate, drawing the in¬ 
ference that the fruit will develop perfectly 
without perfect seed. Feeling assured that 
such an idea is essentially fallacious, aud 
that its tendency, if so, must be to encourage 
erroneous practice, allow me to offer some 
reasons for my opinion. 
When the imperfect or pistillate bloom of 
the strawberry w’as first observed, experts 
taught that one row of staminates was ample 
for the fertilization of five rows of pistillates; 
and I have always inferred that this propor¬ 
tion was given, not as just enotigh’, but as au 
ample pro vision for waste. Unfortunately, 
so far as I know, the precise proportion 
necessary to success has never been deter¬ 
mined. 
That pistillates, however, will not always 
produce fruit without fertilization by a 
s laminate, has been pretty effectually de¬ 
termined by actual trial. A neighbor of 
mine some tw f o years siuco, procured of me 
and planted in his garden a plot of Cres¬ 
cents. These were well eared for, and have 
for two seasons produced very few berries; 
and those few quite imperfect; while my own 
plants, no better eared for except as to fer¬ 
tilization, have produced enormously. The 
few berries produced as above are to be ac¬ 
counted for H orn the fact that I have been 
able to determine by careful microscopic ob¬ 
servation that even the Crescent, which is 
called pistillate, has, now and then, a robust 
healthy-lookiug anther. 
True, it may be impossible to determine in 
advance the fertilizing ability of the pollen; 
while the same may be equally true of the 
seeds; still I venture the statement that I 
never saw a perfectly developed strawberry 
in which the seeds were not, to all appear¬ 
ance, perfectly developed also; while a de¬ 
fective berry very commonly has imperfect 
seeds accompanying such defect. I certainly 
never saw a mature berry w ithout seeds, nor 
yet a ripe one without plump, and apparently 
perfect seeds, upon the properly ripened por¬ 
tion. I am conscious that there must necessarily 
be many uncertainties about this whole subject; 
still I recollect that a failure to fertilize in the 
case of corn, gives only the rudiments of the 
kernel, while even the cob fails to full}’ de¬ 
velop. The impression is also very general 
that with the apple, pear, peach and most 
other fruits, the failure of the pollen from any 
cause, is fatal to the development of the fruit. 
Notwithstanding the supposititious charac¬ 
ter of such conclusions, T feel that the proba¬ 
bilities fully warrant me in applying to the 
process of originating new varieties of straw¬ 
berries, the rule that “blood will toll;” and 
therefore insisting that the persistent use of 
a pistillate variety as one of the parents, is 
fraught with danger to the future of this 
fruit. T. T. Lyon 
[Still we have many fruits without seeds, as 
the pineapple, banana aud often the lemon, 
occasionally apples, pears, cherries, cucum¬ 
bers, grapes, etc. We wish we could induce 
Pres. Lyon to use the word “ bisexual” or 
“perfect” iu the place of “ staminate” iu speak¬ 
ing of strawberries. Eds.] 
THE CHARLES DOWNING AND SOME 
OTHER STRAWBERRIES. 
I have been too busy the past six weeks to 
read the. Rural thoroughly, and to-day iu 
looking over back numbers, for the first time, 
I see what the Rural says of this berry on 
page 880:—“The more we see and hear of this 
variety the more we are inclined to regard it 
as, all things considered, the best strawberry 
in cultivation.” “ Great Scott!” I say to my¬ 
self, “that must have beeu written five or six 
years ago,” aud was true of the Downing at 
that time; but for the past three or four years 
it has been rapidly going down hill, as it seems 
more susceptible to rust or leaf blight thau 
any other variety I kuovv of. Starting out in 
the Spring with the promise of giving au 
abundant crop of the same large, fine-flavored 
fruit as the Downing of a few years ago, it 
will continue to look well up to the time the 
fruit begins to set, and then comes a change— 
first a little brown speck of rust is seen here 
and there ou a leaf, spreading rapidly over 
the whole plant; iu a few days most of the 
foliage is brown and dry, leaving many of the 
fruit-stalks exposed to the hot sun, aud as a 
consequence very little fruit is obtained, and 
that very inferior iu size and flavor, uot iu the 
least like the delicious Downings of days gone 
by, never to return I fear; for last year, iu 
six weeks spent iu traveling over 15 States, 
aud looking at strawberry beds almost every 
day, 1 found the same trouble to a greater or 
less extent everywhere. We grow a large 
field of the variety every year, ns there is still 
a heavy demand for the plants. We have, 
however, ceased to recommend it in our cata¬ 
logue, and whenever our advice is asked iu the 
matter, have for the past two years recom¬ 
mended the Miner’s Prolific as the best variety 
wc know of to take its place. 
Since the foregoing was begun, I notice that 
Mr. Hendrick’s experience as given on page 
442, is much the same as ours; while Mr. Par¬ 
nell, on page 451, has a good word to say for it, 
and I am very glad to learn that he can still 
grow it, as it is one of the best fur family use 
where it will .succeed. However, 1 would uot 
recommend any one to plant it without first 
being perfectly sure that, it will thrive well in 
his owu immediate locality; and even then it 
would be safer to have part of the bed of some 
other more reliable variety, 
Mr. T. T. Lyon’s article, “Pistillate Straw¬ 
berries as the Parents of New Varieties,” on 
page 411, is very interesting and furnishes 
much food for thought. I call attention to it 
for the purpose of correcting the statement 
there made, that “the Mrs. Garfield is a pistil¬ 
late.” As Mr. Lyon’s plants did not come dir¬ 
ect from Mr, Crawford, but from a friend 
having a number of Mr. Crawford’s other 
seedlings, some other variety has doubtless 
beeu mistaken for it, hence the mistake of 
calling it a pistillate; when, in fact, it is a per¬ 
fect-flowering variety with an abundance of 
strong, well developed anthers. The fact of 
its being a perfect-flowering seedling of the 
Crescent was what first led me to think it 
might prove to be a very valuable new variety. 
While fully us prolific as its parent, its perfect- 
flowering habit assures ns a crop of perfectly 
formed berries—uo irregular ones or‘*nubbins” 
such as are always found iu the Crescent. 
South Glastonbury, Couu. J. H. Hale. 
Some Early Onions. 
On July 15, 1882, I drilled some Neapolitan 
Onions, using a “ Planet Jr,” combined drill 
with the indicator set at “three.” This put 
them in about thick enough for sets. They 
were cultivated aud cared for the same as an 
ordinary crop, and on November 20, when I 
mulched my strawberries, the onions were 
covered with weeds about six inches deep. 
On the first of March the covering was re¬ 
moved, and in the last week of April we had 
fine taiile onions. Where they had stood the 
thickest they showed a tendency to make sets, 
aud by thinning these, those that remained 
grew and made ripe onions the last week of 
June. Of those which had room to grow dur¬ 
ing the Summer and Fall, about one-half 
wanted to go to seed. The Italian Onions, 
however, do not appear to be as hardy as some 
of the American varieties: and the March and 
April frosts keep the tops pinched back for a 
long time, so that the}’ make a slow start iu 
the Spring. Clem Auldon. 
Fay’s Prolific Currant. 
This currant has, the present season, been 
tested to a limited extent, It is healthy and a 
vigorous grower, making as a general rule 
fruit buds under the cover of each leaf. It is 
very productive, many of the bunches being 
five-and-a half inches in length, the upper 
half-inch of the stem being bare, hence easily 
picked from the bush. The berries can hold 
their size well to the end of the bunch. As 
compared with the Red Currant, Fay’s Prolific 
Cherry is somewhat larger in size, holding its 
size well to the extreme end of the bunch; 
color, nearly the same. Fay’s being a shade 
lighter; flavor is much less acid, while its pro¬ 
ductiveness is fully twice as great. J. b. r. 
PITHS AND REMINDERS. 
Dr. Wayland said in 1838: “Agriculture 
is the onl} - industry that thus far has bor¬ 
rowed little or no help from invention.” “How 
strange that sounds when read in 18S3,” says 
Dr, Edwards in au address on ensilage.... The 
Proceedings of the Western New York Agri¬ 
cultural Association gives a portrait of M. 
Auguste Goffart, the discoverer of the silo 
system of preserving green cattle food. 
There were those iu France, says Mr. J. B. 
Brown, who sought to rob him of the credit of 
it, knowing him to be a quiet aud retired gen- 
tleinau, but he resisted and compelled them to 
publicly acknowledge him as the source of their 
knowledge of the art. In 1875, tho French 
Government awarded to M. Goffart for his 
discover} - , the Cross of the Legion of Honor.. 
Mr. E. P. Roe, says, that, every year con¬ 
vinces him more fully that we.should be 
slow iu giving up strawberries that have beeu 
approved by loug experience and over wide 
areas of country. He can say unhesitatingly 
that the Sharpless led everything on his place 
this year and it has never failed him. The 
Cumberland Triumph, Charles Downing, and 
Seneca Queen have also done superbly, as they 
have nearly every year since lie has kuowu 
them. If he were asked what be regarded as the 
best pistillate strawberr y in existeuce.be would 
name the Old Champion or Windsor Chief, 
which when fully ripe is exceedingly rich aud 
high-flnvOred. His favorite berry over 15 
years ago was the Triompbe de Gaud, aud it 
is his fm orite still, Because it does uot thrive 
ou Jersey saud aud under a Southern sky. is no 
reason why it should lie discarded at the North 
and East. The Jueunda also at the North and 
on a soil that suits it, stands unrivaled as a 
market berry. A gardener does not begrudge 
the enriching and preparation of soil essentiul 
to a crop of cabbage. Let him prepare for 
the Triouipho do Gand aud Jueunda in the 
same way and see what they will do. 
Mr. E. P. Roe is fearful that the Manchester 
Strawberry is exceedingly short-lived though 
he deems it otherwise tho most promising 
candidate for public favor of the new kinds... 
. ..The Manchester should not bo condemned 
because so short-lived, for it does well while it 
lasts, aud is exceedingly productive of large 
uniform berries. Good plants set out now will 
give a flue crop next year.Mr. Roe thinks 
that the Big Bob Strawberry also promises 
well..Mr. Roe recognizes the fault of the 
Bidwell to be that is unable to mature the en¬ 
ormous crop thut it sets, but he thiuks this a 
fault that loans to virtue’s side..Again, 
quoting from the proceedings of the Western 
New York Agricultural Association, Mr, G. 
E. Rycbman considers coal ashes around 
plums, quinces and currants very beneficial. 
Borne say the ashes harden so that the eurculio 
and currant worms will not come up through 
them. In his lien yard he 1ms two pin , 
