£^try ho 
Vol. XLII. No. 17G1. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 27, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
round, some oblong, some elliptical and others 
sharply pointed at one end. 
POTATO EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED. 
Test No. 25 Queen of the Valley was cut 
to two-eye pit es and placed in a spade-wide 
furrow or trench four inches deep. They 
were then covered lightly with soil and the 
furrow nearly filled with cut straw. On this, 
potato chemical fertilizer was strewn at the 
rate of 300 pounds to the acre and the furrow 
was then leveled with soil. The yield was 
189.40 bushels to the acre. Best five, one pound 
13 ounces. 
judging from the first season’s growth dis¬ 
tinct in several respects. They tiller more 
than any oat we have ever raised: the panicle 
is more spreading; the oats of a darker color 
and the leaves and stalks larger. They are, how¬ 
ever, rather late and may prove no grout ac¬ 
quisition for general cultivation. But we 
shall see. They grew in garden soil to a 
hight of five feet without rust. The spread¬ 
ing panicles measured from one foot to 18 
inches in length, with 70 spikelets, two oats 
each to a spikelet. From 10 tc 50 stalks grew 
from one seed. 
WILD POTATOES AND RURAL SEEDLINGS. 
We received from Mr. E. G. Mumford, of 
Portlandville, Otsego Co., N. Y., a number 
of small tubers of Solanum Jamesii, S. Fend- 
leri, and another of uncertain species about 
one inch or less long. All were planted in 
THE PYRAMIDAL OAK 
(Experiment (Braund.s of the $uvnl 
$tew-JJovket. 
Ten years ago we purchased two Pyramidal 
Oaks—Quercus pedunculata fastigiata. Both 
grew for three years with a rapidity that 
oaks as a class are not deemed capable of. The 
fourth year one was half killed duriug the 
Winter or Spring; the fifth, it was killed en¬ 
tirely. The other has nevei suffered from 
cold, insects or from auy other cause. It .is 
now 20 feet high and scarcely six feet in diam¬ 
eter in any part. The leaves, of an obovate 
shape, irregularly lobed, average four inches 
long, retaining their green color long after 
most other leaves have fallen. At a distance 
it reminds one of the Lombardy Poplar, 
though its branches are more slender and nu¬ 
merous. In this respect, our illustration—re¬ 
engraved from the Gardeners’ Chronicle of 
London, Euglaud—drawn in Winter, will 
give the reader a very accurate idea. For 
small lawns this tree is desirable, because it 
requires but little space, while it contrasts very 
pleasingly with other trees of a more round- 
headed habit. 
Oats. 
Welcome, from W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 
sown April 0, ripened July 13. with Austra¬ 
lian which they closely resemble. The aver¬ 
age was 50 spikelets to a panicle. 
American Triumph. These are late, the 
straw heavy—panicles about a foot long, 
branching. There were 82 spikelets to an 
average panicle. The oats are white and 
heavy. 
Australian, from Gen. Wm. G. Le Due 
Large and small, 49,360 to the 
acre 
Test No. 27. Same variety, planted in the 
same way as in No. 26. The pieces were cov¬ 
ered lightly with soil, then with a liberal 
spread of hen manure, which was covered 
lightly with soil; then a second spread of hen 
manure: and finally the furrow was filled with 
soil. The yield was at the rate of 705.83 bush¬ 
els to the acre. Best five, four pounds one 
ounce. Large and small, 116,160 to the acre. 
Test No. 28. Planted as above and a heavy 
spread of salt—10 bushels to the acre—strewn 
over the pieces which were first lightly cov¬ 
ered with soil. The seed pieces rotted in the 
ground. 
Test No. 29. Two-eye pieces of the Peer¬ 
less were planted just the same as in Test No. 
26, and as in that experiment mulched with 
cut straw. The yield was 907.50 bushels to the 
acre. Quite uniform in size. The largest 
weighed one-and-three-qnartei's pound. The 
best five weighed six-and-one-quarter pounds. 
Large and small 135,520 to the acre or nine-and- 
one-third potatoes to the hill. 
Test No. 30. These were manured with 
■ chemical fertilizers at the rate of 1000 pounds 
to the acre without straw mulch. The yield 
was 665.50 bushels to the acre. Best five, five 
pounds. Large and small, 101,640 to the acre 
or seven potatoes to the hill. 
Test No 31. These pieces (Peerless as in 
No’s 29 and 30) were covered lightly with soil 
jjjf and the trench filled with stable manure the 
same as No‘s 26, and 29, was filled with cut 
straw. No other fertilizer used. The yield 
* was 907.25 bushels to the acre. Best five, 
- weighed three pouuds eight-and-one-half oun- 
- os. Large and small, 21“ 800 to the acre, or an 
average of 15 to the hill. This yield was 
about the same as in No. 29, but the potatoes 
were smaller and much injured by wire- worms. 
Test No 82. These pieces (Peerless) were 
first covered with soil lightly, then salt at the 
- rate of 15 bushels to the acre, then a mulch of 
stable manure as in No. 31; then a spread of 
hen manure at the rate of ‘10 bushels to the 
acre, and finally unleached ashes at the rate of 
15 bushels to the acre. The object of this 
test was to ascertain (1st) whether a surfeit of 
manure would increase the yield, and (2nd) 
whether the salt would have any effect to 
keep wire-woruis away as compared with No. 
SI, which received only stable manure. The 
yield was 826.83 bushels to the acre. Best five* 
five pounds. Large and small, 179,080 to the 
acre, or 12V to the hill. They were eaten as 
badly as in lest .Vo. 81. 
The Peerless is a wonderful potato to yield 
and for one of its large size, it is of fine form. 
We have only to regret that the quality, in 
most places,,is inferior , that is, it is rarely dry 
or mealy. 
In tests 29 and 32 the tops remained green 
the lougest owing, no doubt, to the mulch 
having retarded their early grow th. The po¬ 
tatoes were all of them close to the stem and 
near the surface. No’s 30 and 29 bore the 
darkest colored leaves. In No's 80 and 31 the 
vines died first We have now completed our 
portraits of the different kinds of potatoes 
raised during the past season and shall begin 
with our next number to present them with 
rates as to cultivation and yield. There is no 
J other crop regarding which more interest ia 
felt than new potatoes. 
TREES AND VINES 
It was wurth going a long way to see that 
old peach tree covered with roses. A climb¬ 
ing rose (the well known Prairie Queen) had 
been plauted at the root of the tree some ten 
years ago, receiving no further attention ex¬ 
cept an occasional bucket of soap suds and an 
annual application of soot. But under the 
sheltering arms of the old peach it has flour¬ 
ished amazingly, until its branches are no less 
than 20 or 30 feet in length. It was a mass of 
inflorescence when I saw it, containing not 
less than a thousand full-blown roses, and far 
surpassing any similar display I have ever 
seen. The lady of the house informed me that 
for several years it had not failed to present 
the same gorgeous appearance with each re 
curring June. But why not cover evergreen 
trees with roses* They would furnish admir¬ 
able shelter from the cold of Winter and the 
heat of Summer, and l am sure that the roses 
against the evergreen background would make 
a pleasing contrast, filling (lie eye of the be¬ 
holder with delight. 
While on this subject I may add that one of 
the fiuest sights I remember to have ever seen 
was a hemlock tree bi r the road-side in one of 
the New’ England States, covered all over 
with a most luxuriant vine of the common 
Bitter Sweet, whose scarlet-aud-orange ber¬ 
ries contrasted finely with the greeu of the 
hemlock. 
Neither have 1 forgotten another evergreen 
—a Balsam Fir—by a road-side iu the Empire 
State, which was beautifully festooned with 
the common Virginia Creeper, in this case 
the Autumn tints, crimson and fiery red, 
blended with the green, or rather the steely- 
blue of the balsam, presented a scene not only 
rich, but indescribably beautiful. 
I know, too, of an elm by a river in the 
Keystone State, whose hirsute arms are huug 
with this drapery of the Virginia Creeper in 
a most remarkable maimer. Every branch, 
both great and small, is wreathed and twined 
iu a way which the hand of man at best can 
ouly imitate but uevor equal. In the early 
days of October, when the leaves have changed 
to crimson and scarlet, 1 must say 1 have never 
seen another elm to compare with it. I am 
confident the more we see of this plaut aud its 
associates—Clematis VIrginiana, the wild grape 
aud the Bitter Sweet—the more likely is it 
that the use of climbing vines are to be one of 
the glories of American gardening in the fu¬ 
ture. ANDREW SUEHWOOD. 
vf'AA; 
PYRAMIDAL 0AK--Re-Engraved From the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
Figure 662 
three feet tall; ripe July 13, Panicles spread¬ 
ing, averaging eight to ten inches long, aver¬ 
aging 70 to 80 spikelets to a panicle. The first 
year we sow ed these oats the seed weighed 
64 pounds to a bushel. They are now merely 
a ‘•common” white oat. 
We lmve tried first and last probably 100 
so-called different varieties, but in two or 
three years they seem to resolve themselves 
into one of these four, viz: the Uuiless, White, 
Yellow and Dark or Tartarian. 
Tuk Black Champion Oat to be sent out 
in the Rural’s next Free Seed Distribution, 
pots in the conservatory on March 11. These 
tubers were sent to Mr. Mumford by Mr. Lem¬ 
mon who, with his wife, discovered them in 
t he Rocky Mountains last year. The foliage 
aud flowers resemble those of our cultivated 
kinds. The tubers were dug Sept., 20, and 
were no larger than those planted. 
Our Magnum Bonum seedlings raised 
from seeds of the English variety of this uame 
in 1882, are, many of them, of excellent qual¬ 
ity, with smooth, white skin aud yellowish 
tlosh. Some of them are very early—some 
very late aud some intermediate. Some are 
