485 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
tion to its cost, it is the most valuable tool on 
the farm. Try it. e. w. m. 
horticultural. 
PEA NOTES. 
Tfie following table shows the comparative 
earliness, quality and productiveness of the 
different varieties of peas grown in my gar¬ 
den during ’84. The figures in the first column 
represent the number of days from planting 
until the first pods were ready for market. 
In the column of ‘•quality'’ and "productive¬ 
ness” 10 Is the highest mark of excellence. 
Name. 
Pick¬ 
ed In 
| 
Qua¬ 
lity. 
i 
Pro- 
d u c- 
11 ve- 
ness. 
Cleveland’s Rural New-Yorker. 
58 
♦ 
9 
Tom Thumb. . 
6U 
6 
6 
American Wonder. 
61 
9 
8 
Blue Peter. . 
61 
7 
5 
First and Best. . 
63 
6 
s 
Horsford’s Market Garden. 
63 
* 1 
7 
Little Gem,.. 
69 
8 
7 
Advancer . 
71 
9 
9 
Stratagem. 
80 
10 
10 
Bride (>f the Market. 
80 
8 
9 
Yorkshire Hero. 
82 
to 
8 
‘ Quality not tested. 
The peas were planted April 21st, in a rich 
sandy loam, three inches in depth, with a Mat¬ 
thew’s Drill, and the soil was firmly pressed 
down on the seed with a hoe. It is my im¬ 
pression now that Cleveland's R. N -Y. will 
prove very satisfactory as an extra-early pea. 
The Market Garden is but a little earlier than 
the Advancer, and is not as large or produc¬ 
tive as that variety. 
1 am glad the Rural is going to send out 
the Stratagem this year; it is the most satis¬ 
factory pea that I have ever raised; the vines, 
which grew about two feet high, were loaded 
with mammoth pods—from four to seven 
inches in length—that were well filled with 
enormous peas. It is certainly the pea for 
everybody. H. c. w. 
Forestburg, D. T. 
pomcldgical 
HYBRIDS. 
C. M. DOVEY. 
I was somewhat surprised to find the 
Rural so incredulous as to doubt the -ac¬ 
curacy of the following, which appears in its 
columns of Dec. 15 :—"We learn that a hor¬ 
ticulturist in Rochester has crossed the straw¬ 
berry upon the blackberry, and that the 
seedlings (not yet fruited) vary marvelously. 
Some look like black raspberry bushes [thim¬ 
ble berries]; some a trifle like blackberry 
bushes, and one like a small tropical tree. 
Of course, it will be time enough to believe 
that the plants are really hybrids when they 
fruit. Until th6U we may be excused for be¬ 
ing incredulous.” 
Yet in auother column of the same issue I 
fiud the following: 
“It seems to be will established from the 
abundaut testimony furnished through the 
columns of the Rural New-Yorker, that in 
size and general appearances, strawberries 
grown on pistillate plants, will resemble those 
grown on the hermaphrodite plants that 
produced the pollen which impregnated the 
pistillate sort.” [The Rural begs to say that 
the above was uot an editorial remark. Eds.) 
And once more; 
“We have now a Kieffer Pear the male 
parent of which is either Seckel or Beurrd 
d Anjou. Both pollens were applied. The 
tree bore three or four umbels of flowers (the 
first), the anthers were removed as soon as the 
buds could be manipulated, and pollen was ap¬ 
plied every day until the pistils began to 
wither. Three fruits set, two of which fell 
off. The pear is NOT diekerknt in shape 
from many other Kieffers we have seen." 
And, more than nil this, it actually goes to 
the cost of figuring an odd shaped apple, 
which it is stated was produced in this way; 
“The tree on which it grew, and which pro¬ 
duced several other apples like It, was one of a 
row of Early Strawberry Apples * * The raw 
was so situated that the tree which bore the 
pear-shaped specimens stood at the end, and 
djoiuiug a Bartlett Pear tree, aud very close 
•o it, and for some reason the apple aud pear 
trees blossomed at the same time.” [Again, 
we beg to say that the above was not an edl- 
toral s’atement.— Eds ] Now, what are we 
to believe are the Rural’s real beliefs in this 
transmogrification of fruit, and why should 
it be incredulous about a possible thiug and 
ready to credit an impossible one? [We 
have merely to reply that our respected 
trieud has mistaken the statements of contri¬ 
butors for those of the Rural.—Eds.] Tree 
strawberries are no new thing at all. The 
cunning Frenchmen, who come along every 
year or two with the novelties, to gull and 
astonish the New York aud Boston amateur 
cultivators, always bring along their tree 
strawberry plants, which produce marvel¬ 
ously large fruit and plenty of it, as their 
magnificent colored plates represent. Even 
Mr. Kieffer felt it his duty to go before a 
justice of the peace and make a statement 
that he raised the Kieffer Pear ffbm seed, 
a statement which nobody that I know of ever 
doubted, but his raising of it did not make it 
a hybrid, or any different from the old 
Shah-lea of the London Horticultural Society 
half a century ago, or very unlike, as you say, 
your Mikado of 1884. 
A detail of the failures iu cultivation are 
almost as instructive as the successes, for 
they tell us of the errors to be avoided; and 
real failures, with the reason for such failures, 
teach us to keep clear of the methods which 
lead to disastrous results. But the detail of 
impossibilities with almost an assurance 
that they are natural results of certain man¬ 
ipulations, only leads to mistakes and error. 
Not many years ago, the grand |>anacea for 
the destruction of the cauker-wormaad other 
insects injurious to fruit trees, was to bore a 
hole iu the body of the tree, near the ground, 
with an inch auger, and to fill this hole with 
sulphur, which impregnated the whole tree 
rendering the foliage obnoxious to all Insects. 
A late Chairman of the Fruit Committee of 
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society told 
me he had tried it, and believed it an effectual 
remedy. Perhaps it was; as I bad not tried 
it I could not dispute him. 
Mr. Parry tells that he planted small Bart¬ 
lett pear trees under tall Kieffers, so that the 
pollen might drop on the Bartletts; and this 
year he was startled to observe that some of 
the Bartletts iu size and shape were Kieffers, 
while in flavor, quality aud color, they were 
Bartletts! His experiment is as remarkable 
as Prof. Lazeuby’s. 1 have the old BeuriA 
d’Aremberg Pear grafted with Clapp’s Favor¬ 
ite; the suckers on the main stem produce 
plenty of pears every year, but I never saw 
the least change iu the d’Arembergs; so I have 
the Dana’s Hovey on top of a Vicar, but never 
was there a Vicar unlike its true character, 
or one “iu flavor, quality and color” the 
Dana’s Hovey. I only wish this could be so. 
* If his experiment is reliable, I will graft all 
the tops of my Hovey trees with Kieffers, 
that they may attain the size of the latter 
pear and preserve the delicious flavor. Yet 
I can believe this, and a great deal more of 
the same kind, quite as readily as I can the 
changing of the fruit (so-called) of a straw¬ 
berry by impregnation, only through the seed. 
Shakespeare says there is a "divinity which 
shapes our ends,” and a diviner than he has 
said "of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of 
a bramble bush gather they grapes.” 
No, there is a limit to our progress in the 
wrong direction. We can raise mules, but 
there the thing ends. We cannot produce a 
hybrid from the cherry and pear, or the 
peach and apple, certainly not from a black¬ 
berry and strawberry. They all belong to 
the great natural order of Rosacese, and there 
the closeness of affinity ends. Even the Po 
tentilla, so nearly resembling the strawberry 
ingrowth, foliage and dower, cannot, be im¬ 
pregnated with the strawberry. We have 
also the Fragaria Indica, which is now in 
fruit iu my green house, but I much doubt b 
even that could be crossed with the eataM< 
strawberries. At any rate, those who have 
the leisure and wealth to try such an experi¬ 
ment cau readily do so, and settle the question 
tow nearly related plants can be fertilized. 
But I need not pursue the subject further. 
If we can do what Prof. Lazenbv says he has 
doue. then we shall have the very great grati¬ 
fication of producing new strawberries every 
year, without, purchasing the high priced 
novelties, which surpass all others—haviug 
only to change the impreguators to get long 
or short, round or angular, large or small, red 
or white, sweet or sour, or soft or hard straw¬ 
berries. 
THE KIEFFER PEAR, AND ‘-CROSS-: 
ING.” 
In the Rural of the 3d of January, I see 
you give the good advice from Prof. Badd, 
not to “fool away your money ou the Kieffer 
or auy crosses of the Sand Pear, if you live 
near or north of the 42d parallel.” I would 
go even further than this, aud advise every 
one who wants a pear that is fit to eat, on 
whatever parallel he may be, not to "fool 
away” any money on the Kieffer. I live very 
nearly on the 40th parallel, and find this pear 
much injured by the Winter, and fully as sub¬ 
ject to blight as any variety I have. Its in¬ 
jury has been, for the past two severe Win¬ 
ters, as great as that of the peach, aud both 
have suffered seriously. In this locality, the 
tree is not as hardy as the Bartlett, nor do I 
think it will come earlier into bearing or prove 
as productive. Handsome specimens of the 
Kieffer were exhibited at the annual meeting 
of the Ohio State Horticultural Society, ap¬ 
parently in as perfect condition as the pear 
could be; but no one who tasted it wanted 
any more than one very small piece, and the 
quality was unanimously regarded as the 
poorest. In southern, or mild climates, it 
may have some value for cooking or canning; 
but according to my taste, it is utterly worth¬ 
less auy where for eating in its naturaUstate. 
and of no value for any purpose, in this lati¬ 
tude. The cross which you have made, with 
Seckel or Anjou, will doubtless be interesting, 
and perhaps valuable: but the le3s there is of 
the Kieffer in the cross, the greater will be 
the value; for the Seckel is a far healthier 
ana nardier tree than the Kieffer; and I 
think the same may be said of the Anjon. I 
cannot see what possible benefit can result 
from crossing iu this way, and I believe seed¬ 
lings from either Seckel. or Anjou, or Bart¬ 
lett. would be more likely to be valuable with 
the Kieffer left oat. G. w. Campbell. 
Delaware, Ohio. 
KERR’S GREENING. 
It is about as difficult to find at the South a 
good apple that will keep late in Spring and 
retain its good quality, as to find one hardy 
enough to endure the severe changeable cli¬ 
mate of the North west; but the numbers fitted 
for both extremes are being added to from 
time to time. About the first of February we 
received from Mr J. W. Kerr of Caroline 
County. Maryland, a box of apples which he 
has named Kerr’s Greening. Iu answer to 
our request. Mr, Kerr wrote us that it was 
a chance seedling found several years ago on 
clearing up an old thicket upon his farm, on a 
very light, sandy soil. 
The tree is a vigorous, straight grower, 
with a somewhat spreading head. The young 
shoots are of a reddish-brown. It is a regular 
bearer, and as the tree gets older, he claims,the 
fruit, gradually improves in size and appear¬ 
ance. The fruit is of medium size and consider¬ 
ably flattened,as shown at Fig. 110. The stem is 
short, (three-eights of an inch) slender and set 
in a duej) broad, regular, slightly russeted 
cavity so deep a At the si.: in tail* by V inch 
to come level with its rim. The calyx is en¬ 
tirely closed n a very broad, deep, striated 
basin, considerably corrugated. Color yel¬ 
lowish-green somewhat mottled with darker 
green and thickly sprinkled with brown dots; 
core very small, containing a few large 
seeds shown ia the s», 
Flesh very firm, of a yellowish-wi • I;. r , 
fine grained, mild subacid and of a very high 
spicy flavor; quality very good. Eaten Feb¬ 
ruary 11. Season said to be from February 
to May. 
THE YELLOW TRANSPARENT APPLE. 
I was pleased with Prof. Budd’s note on the 
Yellow Transparent Apple (on p. 119) Judg¬ 
ing from what I saw of it when visiting Dr. 
Hoskins last August, I can fully indorse the 
Professor's opinion of it. A row of four-year- 
old trees of tins variety, loaded with bright, 
yellow fruit—nearly a bushel in some instan¬ 
ces—was very pretty indeed. Although I 
have eaten Early Harvests that were to my 
taste better than these, the quality was very 
good, the fruit smooth and the tree evidently 
a fine grower. The Early Harvest does- not 
do well generally in this valley, and should 
the Transparent succeed as well here as at 
Newport, it will eventually, I think, be the 
early market apple for this location. 
Shelburne, Yt. w. h. r. 
£l)C ^cnJsimw. 
OUTRAGEOUS CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
HUGH S. BROOKS. 
Could not the jurisdiction of Henry Bergh, 
protector of animals, be extended to our West¬ 
ern States and Territories? Cruelty to ani¬ 
mals iu the City of New York, in its extent 
and enormity, compares with cruelty to ani¬ 
mals in the great West as an infant's breath 
compares with an arctic blizzard. Millions on 
millions of cattle, warm-blooded, sensitive_ 
that jump at the prick of a pin—are turned 
out by the remorseless owners to gather scant 
herbage where snows and frosts and fierce 
winds make life a protracted agony. Does 
anybody doubt that domestic animals s niff er 
intense paiu when exposed, without protection, 
to an atmosphere five to fifty degrees below 
zero, very often furiously agitated? Nobody 
Kerr’s Greening. From Nature. Fig. 110. 
Kerr’s Greening. Half Section. From Nature. Fig. 111. 
