225 
4585 
may break through and steal.” It has never 
a worm to mar its substance or disgust you 
by its prosence, which so detracts from the 
ordinary quince. 
I see not why this quince may not be im¬ 
proved by hybrids of the common kind, as so 
many fruits are bettered by crosses with their 
kindred. And why, by judicious selection of 
such seed, may we not have a quince partak¬ 
ing of the better qualities of each? An acre, 
planted with this quince, will hold about 
800 trees, and will yield, at a low figure, fully 
100 bushels. These can be gathered with the 
utmost ease, and not oue needs to be thrown 
aside as refuse, and they ought to bring $2 a 
bushel or #200 to the acre. No special culture 
would be required more than running a culti¬ 
vator between the rows perhaps once or thrice 
a season. 
This fruit cooks with the greatest ease, is 
made tender easily by boiling, requires very 
little manipulation and turns into beautiful 
jelly and marmalade with very little waste. 
W. H. N. 
HORTICULTURAL ADVANCES. 
PROF. J. L. BDDD. 
A few additional notes of talks and discus¬ 
sions at our horticultural meetings may have 
some interest. 
New Cherry. —At the Iowa meeting much 
was said in regard to the hardiness and merits 
of a cherry grown in Dallas County, Iowa. 
It seems that in the early days of prairie his¬ 
tory a new settler from the East bought of 
Ellwauger & Hurry, of Rochester. N. Y., 
quite a large bill of fruit and ornamental 
trees to plant on his new place in Dallas 
County. While the bulk of the stuff soon 
went, out in their uow prairie home, this 
cherry and some plants of Elmagnus horten- 
sis stood as lessons iu climatology for present 
study. At that time Ell wanger & Barry grew 
cherry trees of some of the Griottes and 
Weichsels of North east Germany, of which 
this is one. It is a small grower, with light, 
pendent shoots and thicker leaves than those 
of our common Richmond and English Mo- 
rello. The latter sorts of labs have been sub¬ 
ject to mildew' of foliage, from w hich this sort 
has been mainly free. The fruit is about the 
size of the English Morolio, but rounder, 
lighter in color and richer in grape sugar. 
The lesson taught is that we should long ago 
have Introduced the Amarels and Griottes of 
North-east Europe. 
Hardy Reaches.— Four years ago I intro¬ 
duced several varieties of peaches, said to be 
of line quality, from Pekin, China. Homo of 
them were obtained from the hill section 
northwest of Pekin. On the College Farm at 
Ames, the} - have not stood perfectly the three 
past severe Winters; but they have proven 
fully 20 per cent, hardier than Hill's Chili or 
Wager, Iu Southwest Iowa, and at the 
Missouri Agricultural College, they have 
proven perfectly hardy in tree, and all who 
have grown them are pleased with their firm, 
thick, dark-green foliage, with peculiar purple 
glands, and their habit of perfectly ripening 
their wood in Autumn. If they prove equal 
iu quality to our best sorts, they will rank as 
great acquisitions on the border-land of suc¬ 
cessful peach culture, aud their inherent vital¬ 
ity will make them a desirable foundation for 
seedling production where the yellows has ap¬ 
peared. Iu this connection, it may bo well to 
udd that seedlings of the peach grown from 
pits from Houlh Russia, show marks of varia¬ 
tion in leaf and habit of ripening from our 
common Persian Peach; hence, we may con¬ 
clude that some one should take up the work 
of introducing, or originating by crossing, 
varieties hardier in wood and fruit than those 
now grown. 
Shaffer’s Colossal.— This new raspberry 
attracted much attention during the last 
Summer ut the West. It is a rampant grow er 
on our rich, black soils; yet the wood stands 
the test winters well, and surprises every one 
with the load of big fruit that is neither red 
nor black in flavor. The fruit sells well on 
account of its size and color, and is not bad 
for home use, us it is best for cauuing and fair 
for dessert use. It seems that it has come to 
stay. We are all anxious to know its pedi¬ 
gree. I saw such berries uud such looking 
canes in North Silesia. Was the seed, or the 
original vine, imported? I hope some one 
will tell the Rural readers all about it. 
Crah apple Seed —At our uieetiugs the 
new trade in French crab-apple seed has been 
discussed pro aud con. It is a good subject 
to think over. Beyond reasonable doubt, Dr. 
Bturtovant Is right in assuming that the seeds 
of fruits degenerate us the pulp increases in 
bulk and quality. The seed of the primitive 
apple will every time produce the strongest 
and best seedling. But at the West we are 
often troubled with the root-killing of our 
trees. W ill the seed of the French crab prove 
hardy with us? Judging by past experience, 
Bhoulrt say not. Wh v should we continue to 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
trade wtth France in getting our seed- and 
stocks? We have just received 200 pounds of 
pear and apple seed from Reutlingen, in Wur- 
temberg. At this inland point, above the 
48th parallel, the Swabian Alps are covered 
with a peculiar race of wild pears. The trees 
attaiu large size and can be distinguished 
from afar by tbeir silvery leaves, like those 
of the White Beam. The. fruit is borne iu 
great quantity, but is small in size and worth¬ 
less except for perry making. On the same 
foot-hills are grown great quantities of a primi¬ 
tive crab, the fruit of which is mixed with the 
pear, to improve the quality of the perry. 
Heuce, in washing the seeds from the pomace 
we get a certain proportion of crab seeds with 
the pear. In this section American growers 
of stocks may secure any desirable quautity 
of seed better for use in any part of the 
United States than that from Western France. 
Ames, Iowa. 
A HOME-MADE FIELD ROLLER. 
There are few more useful implements than 
the roller, and there are few, if any, whose 
use is more generally neglected. It is one of 
those implements that may be had with very 
little outlay, as any farmer who can use a saw. 
chisel and a hammer cau make oue. Or the 
many kinds now in use. it is difficult to decide 
which is the best, yet that roller that will 
most effectually do its work at the least ex¬ 
pense, is the one tbat interests us most. The 
one which I have used, and which drawn at 
Fig. 127 was made upon the farm, aud entirely 
by myself, except the small amount of iron¬ 
work which was made up by a blacksmith at 
a moderate cost. It is a roller consisting of 
three parts equal in all respects, joined end to 
end, A roller thus divided is'mueh easier to 
turn, as each section turns independently of 
the other. In the engraving. Fig. A. is a plauk 
two inches thick. andTlO inches wide in front 
of roller; B. is a plank in rear of roller, two 
developed at the line of permanent moisture. 
In the first place, there is no such line. True, 
we have permanent moisture in the soil, but 
meteorological conditions have such a great 
influence upon it, that it would be impossible 
to preserve such a. fixed liue as he mentions. 
Persons with fair reasoning powers will read¬ 
ily see this, in comparing the condition of the 
soil when a drought is in its infancy, and when 
in its last stages. 
I present at Fig 128 three young plants, a, 
b, c, the drawings of which were from nature. 
The drawings illustrate the relative positions 
of the seed and roots, and the horizontal line 
represents the surface of the soil, showing tbe 
depths to which the seeds were sown. A is 
from a sweet corn seed, and b and c from 
Tuscarora. Planted at various depths, there 
seemed to be much variability iu the length of 
tbe first iuternode. Seeds sown as near the 
surface as practicable had but little space be¬ 
tween node and seed; planted at a greater 
depth, the variations were very marked. In 
some instauces, at the depth of five inches, 
the first uode was even nearer the seed than is 
shown in a, while as a rule, the internode was 
of about tbe length sbowu in e. 
The space between the first node and seed, 
although producing small root fibers, does so 
only to a very small extent, while the number 
of roots sent out at the first node in all the 
specimens I have grown and examined, has 
been very small, as is illustrated in a, b , and 
c. Although not acknowledged as such by ho 
tanists, corn is strictly a tap-rooted plant, as 
careful search will show. We have here, in 
the Station herbarium, a number of very fine 
young corn plants, with tap roots, which in 
some cases are thYee or four inches long. 
From this tap root is sent out a large number 
of fibrous roots, which in time form a perfect 
mat, and upon which the young plant depends 
for food and water to a large extent. From 
many scores of flint, dent, Tuscarora, pop, and 
sweet corn seeds planted, and all carefully ex¬ 
cavated from the soil and examined with the 
young plants, when the latter were sufficient¬ 
ly developed, the above drawings and notes 
were made. The drawings are correct, and 
G V 
inches thick seven inches wide; C. is the axle; 
D. the end piece of the frame, three inches by 
four inches; E. is the support for the axle; 
F. is a felloe: G. is a stave 2V* inches on top, 
two inches thick. In forming the circle, the 
lower edges of the staves should be beveled iu 
order to get a good joiut on the outside I first 
purchased six old rnowiug machine wheels (of 
course they must be all of the same diameter), 
and in order to get a more desirable size, I 
sawed out some felloes three inches thick and 
holted them on to the wheel. The staves are 
then nailed on with 12-penny nails, a hoop of 
band-iron 1}•£ inch wide heiug firmly driven 
on to each end; the section is then complete. 
The supports passing between the sections are 
the cutter bars of two old mowers flattened 
at each end aud punched to receive the bolts, 
Fig. 128. 
and a hole punched in the center for the axle 
to pass through. Furnishing the lumber (all 
oak) myself, the entire cost of the roller was 
#9 80, and it is acknowledged by nil who have 
seen it to be the most complete roller they 
have ever seen. a. mcd. 
farm (Topics. 
ROOT GROWTH IN CORN. 
With an eudeavor "to make matters plaiu- 
er,” I beg leave to accept the invitation of L. 
E. B.,in the Rural of November 18, 1884,and 
indulge in a bit of “criticism.” L. E. B. is 
theorizing without studying, I fear. The first 
node of the young corn plant is not always 
differ from those in the Rural of the number 
referred to, in that the first nodes are not all 
ou, what L. E, B calls, a liue of permanent 
moisture, but are shown just as developed. I 
cau carry this matter further, but I have of¬ 
fered enough in endeavoring to show the er¬ 
roneous ideas of L. E. B., which is the pur¬ 
pose of this article. 
As far as I have been able to learn, and as I 
also am iuformed through two of our leading 
economic botanists, but little is yet known re¬ 
garding the development of tbe inter node, 
and the point of formation of the first node, in 
our grasses. There may be writiugs extant 
giving the desired information ou this sub¬ 
ject, hut if so, they are not generally known 
to agricultural and botanical students. 
chas. s. plumb. 
Agl Exp. Statiou, Geneva. N. Y. 
AN ENORMOUS POTATO YIELD. 
Mr H. C. Pearson, N. Y., had the good 
fortune to win the first prize offered by the 
Bradley Fertilizer Company for the largest 
quantity of Dak )ta Red Potatoes, and the 
honor probably of raisiug the largest quantity 
of potatoes ever grown from a single pound. 
At our request, he furnishes us with a descrip¬ 
tion of the method by which he was euabled to 
produce such au enormous yield. He savs, “I 
purchased one pound of Dakota Reds from a 
Rochester, N. Y, t seed dealer. They were al¬ 
lowed to remain in the cellar and start‘some’ 
before cutting. They were then cut to siugle 
eyes, and the eyes were divided aud subdivid¬ 
ed. some of the stronger eyes into seveu or 
eight parts. By this method I was able to ob¬ 
tain sets enough for over 200 hills. The soil— 
a clover sod—was a sandy loam, in a high 
state of fertility; having been previously ma¬ 
nured, it was dressed with ashes aud 200 
pounds of Bradley’s fertilizer broadcasted; it 
was then put in perfect order for planting, by 
using a wheel harrow, Holes for the hills 
were then dug by hand four feet apart each 
way. One quart of a mixture of equal parts 
of Bradley Fertilizer, plaster and decomposed 
hen manure was then placed in each hole, per¬ 
fectly incorporated with the soil in and around 
where the hill was to be, oue week previous to 
planting. In the soil thus prepared the sets 
were planted ou May 17, about two inches 
deep. June and the first week in July being 
very dry, I watered them twice a week, for 
five weeks, with liquid manure, made by put¬ 
ting eight quarts of sbeep manure and four 
quarts of the fertilizer in each barrel of 
water, using iu all of water 35 barrels. They 
were cultivated as needed and hoed three 
times, making very broad, flat, concave hills. 
Before hoeing the last time, 1 scattered in and 
around the hills 200 pounds of the fertilizer, 
mixed with 200 pounds of plaster, per acre. 
Early iu Jnly the ground was covered perfect¬ 
ly with a mass of large, healthy vines, stand¬ 
ing from three to four feet high; some of the 
stalks measured four inches iu circumference. 
Paris-green mixed with plaster, and sifted on 
through a coarse sack, was used to destroy the 
bugs. The last time they were dusted, I se¬ 
cured the sack to the end of a long pole, for it 
was impossible to go through the patch with¬ 
out doing damage to the vines. They were 
dug September 24th. From one htll I dug 19 
pounds I weighed several potatoes that 
turned the scales at pounds each; and 
there are over 1,000 potatoes in the lot, that 
will weigh 1,000 pounds. I pulled up three 
potatoes on one stalk that weighed 5>£ pounds, 
including the vine, and there were eight more 
in the hill that weighed eight pounds, in all 13 
pounds on one stalk, or vine. The yield was. 
of cleaned potatoes, 2,558 pounds, or 42.63 
bushels. H. C PEARSON. 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Major Alvord is right in this idea—that a 
cross of Jersey and Ayrshire blood will make 
excellent cows. I have had a number, using 
a Jersey sire upon an Ayrshire cow. The off¬ 
spring will give more milk than the average 
Jersey, and it is of better quality than the 
Ayrshire milk usually is. If I were to breed 
a cow for the family, or to make a family 
breed, this would be the cross. A Jersey is 
exactly suited to the butter dairy, or to fur¬ 
nish the best of butter and cream for the 
table; but for a kitchen or nursery cow the 
Jersey-Ayrshire will make just the one 
wanted. She is handsome and, w ithal, hardy, 
compact and easy to keep, showing the Jersey 
more in the markings, the Ayrshire being ex¬ 
hibited in the form. There ought to be enter¬ 
prise enough in America to found such a 
breed—the Family Breed. Such cows in my 
town have gone to the top of the list for profit. 
The crossing of blood always gives stay- 
ing qualities and carries profitable wearing 
with it. Cross-bred animals have strong 
vitality and development, and these are good 
foundations to build ou. I speak of iuherent 
strength, but not of special typical features, 
as these are found ouly in thorough-bred ani¬ 
mals. 
The income tax, since it has been established 
on tobacco iu this country, has averaged over 
#28,000,000 every year, so says Dr. J. R. 
Dodge. People who are now worrying about 
hard times, and people who are not, can see 
w here a big saving can be made in money aud 
nerves. 
Clark Pettit claims, iu his last catalogue, to 
have “the original exclusive breeding herd of 
Jersey-Reds,” aud yet his best stock, he says, 
are made up of the progeny “of the imported 
Don from Portugal.” These half-Portugese 
hogs are recorded in his Jersey Red Associa¬ 
tion, of which he is Secretary, as he tells us; 
and he says he is also Treasurer. His hogs, 
he Miys again, wuu, last September, the entire 
list of special prizes offered by the Nationa 
Jersey Red Swiue Breeders’ Association.” Of 
course they did. Were these the National 
Jersey-Reds or the Portugese hogs? The 
American Duroc Jersey Swiue Breeders’ As¬ 
sociation, of which he is not the Secretary or 
Treasurer, does not record the progeny of “the 
imported Don,” nor of any other doubtful 
foreigu-born hog. 
Oue March day, when the wind blew so 
cold that everybody was shivering, I met a 
neighbor who asked me if 1 thought half a 
day was long enough for his cows to be out iu 
the baruyard to get exercise. He used to 
leave them out ell day, but, said he, ‘ it seems 
as though in such weather as this, a half day 
ought to be enough.” There was hope for this 
