(868 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
388 
and a constriction of woody tissue, which is 
materially obviated by cutting the “corset 
strings.” 
But my purpose at present is to direct atten¬ 
tion to the Miner Plum as a stock for the 
cherry in the West. 
Ames, Iowa. 
THE MONTREAL APPLE. 
On February 12th. 1886, we received by 
mail from our friend M. E Park, of Cornwall 
County, Ontario, Canada, a verv beautiful 
apple, of which we show a cut at Fig. 210. As 
will be seen, it is large, flatfish, considerably 
irregular. The color is a yellowish white in 
the shade, a deep crimson red in the sun and 
between these are all intermediate shades, 
broken up into irregular blotches. In color 
no apple could be more attractive. Stem, 
medium in length (% inch), slender, a little 
curved and set in a deep, quite regular cavity 
slightly ruiiseted; calyx, large, open, the seg¬ 
ments recurved: basin, deep and corrugated; 
core, not large, quite open, as shown in the 
cross-section at. Fig. 211, with numerous small 
seeds; flesh, white, tender, quite acid, juicy. 
A fine cooking apple, perhaps a little too acid 
to suit most tastes as a dessert fruit. 
Mr. Park wrote us, in reply to our request, 
that, the tree is a seedling about ten years old. 
It originated in the county of Vaudreuil, 
Province of Quebec, in latitude 45 degrees 
north, which is the same as that of Montreal. 
The tree is a vigorous grower, branches 
very open, formiug a good head, and has 
never been pruned. The bark is verv smooth, 
of a light green. The leaves are large, dark- 
green and verv glossy. In 1883 it fruited for 
the first time, hearing quite a number of 
specimens. In 1884 it, bore two barrels, and 
the cut shows an average specimen. It ap¬ 
pears to he a good keeper—as late as March at 
least. The sample we bad was eaten Febru¬ 
ary 26th, and was in fine order. This is an 
extremely beautiful and promising young 
apple, and we only hope that in age it will 
fulfill its present promise 
^orticnlhirut. 
gan, Mr. Cay wood, of New Yorfir, propounded 
the above question, which was suggested by 
the closing lines of the essay. 
President Earle asked; “How shall we get 
rid of worthless new fuit8?”andthegistof the 
answers is here given: 
Mr. Wilcox, of California,said: “About 20 
years ago, l was in what had been called the 
‘Garden of California.’ I tried various new 
fruits that were highly indorsed, and failed 
nearly every time; so I thought it best in 
future to takB those not indorsed by anybody. 
I bad there but one plant that was good every¬ 
where, and that was the Kittatinny Black¬ 
berry.” He also alluded to the cultivation of 
soft-shell almonds as being most interesting. 
Mr. Hollister, of Missouri, said with regard to 
market varieties: “Htaud by at the market, 
and see how buyers talk about the different 
kinds, and what prices they would pay.” Mr. 
Roe, of Wisconsin, spoke of the Bidwell 
with Mr. Munson generally. “Let ns keep on 
sifting out the poor sorts,” said he, “and sav¬ 
ing the good, each one for himself in his own 
locality. Such has been my practice for 
years.” Mr. Ohmer, Ohio, said local socie¬ 
ties should be auxiliary to State and National 
societies. He believed in organizing more of 
the former. These working together harmo¬ 
niously would accomplish much toward a 
practical solution of this vexed question. 
Prof. Lemmon, California, wanted to speak 
as a botanist on this subject. “A plant is al¬ 
ways ready to change its place of growth for 
a better one. This has never been explained 
until recently. The old belief was that a 
plant would grow best where it was found in 
nature. This fact is very pertinent. Plants 
are found not where they want to be, but 
where they are forced to be.” Dr. Makay, 
Mississippi, commenced planting fruit in 1860, 
in Southern Kentucky. He knew little of va_ 
MONTREAL APPLE. From Nature. Fig. 210. 
WHAT IS A SPORT? 
In a recent issue of the Rurat, you quote 
me, as defining, “A sport is au effect, without 
a causo.” This is by no means a correct defi¬ 
nition, or one which I ever entertained as my 
oron opinion. The paper from which the quo¬ 
tation was made aimed to employ the expres¬ 
sion, in a parenthetical wuy, as conveying a 
very common notion of a “sport.” When one 
of these strange forms, entirely out. of the or¬ 
dinary channel, occur*, u common way of ex¬ 
plaining (?) it. is to say, “Oh, that is a sport or 
freak of nature.” by which we are to under¬ 
stand the one who uses the expression to mean 
that “a sport is an effect without a cause.” or 
that, at best, it has a mysterious or supernat¬ 
ural cause. 
I am fully aware that there is no effect 
without an adequate cause. Many so-called 
“sports” are evidently cases of atavism, just 
as similar reversions to ancestral types occur 
in the cuse of our domestic animals. Others 
are the results of a new combination of causes, 
as the “oak ball” and other gall-growths upon 
vegetation, caused by insect irritation in com¬ 
pany with continued coll formation by the 
plant uround the excrescence. Others are the 
results of accidental hybridization.as are sev¬ 
eral most peculiar-looking trees. I have seed¬ 
lings of Wild-goose Plum hybridized with 
peach, and such crosses arc by most people 
regarded as “sports,” as their “theory” does 
not permit plum and peach to hybridize. 
Others come from other causes still not known, 
but undoubtedly existing, as wheu w^see a 
fine double rose put forth a shoot from its cen¬ 
ter, or chickens batched with four logs, etc., 
etc. T. V. MUNSON. 
HOW CAN WE GET RID OF WORTH¬ 
LESS NEW FRUITS? 
IMPORTANT DISCUSSION AT NEW ORLEANS. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
Tins subject came up incidentally at one or 
the sessions of the Mississippi Valley Horticul¬ 
tural Society (to be known in future a* the 
“American Horticultural Society"), held at 
President Earle’s temporary residence on 
Carondalet St., New Orleans. After the read¬ 
ing of a very interesting paper on “Associa¬ 
tion of Horticulture,” by T. T. Lyon, of Mich- 
Strawberry, which he had planted largely, 
meeting with an utter failure at the end. Mr. 
Williams, of New Jersey, often found that 
the best market fruits would not grow 
at all on his particular soil. He had 
much troublo about deciding upon the 
best strawberries to grow there. Mr. Beatty, 
Kentucky, knew of oue way only: “Let all 
attend the horticultural meetings, run over 
the lists of fruits carefully, and cease to give 
prominence to sorts unworthy of cultivation.” 
Mr. Evans was glad to fully indorse the views 
just expressed. “I hope,” said he, “that 
neither this society nor any others will ever 
undertake to invite anyoue to bring a collec¬ 
tion of 200 varieties to compete for one pre¬ 
mium. As to strawberries, no one can tell 
his nearest neighbor just which kinds to plant.” 
rieties then,and consulted a neighboring nurse¬ 
ryman, who was working land similar to his 
own; he found him honest, and his trees did 
well. He thought there were many more 
honest nurserymen in various parts of the 
country. “We mint ignore tree peddlers aud 
their fancy colored plates,” said he, “and keep 
out the worthless sorts. Let us grow only 
those that do best with and around us. A 
great mistake is to plant too mauy kinds; ten 
to one are of no value.” Mr. Smith, Wiscon¬ 
sin, approved of the remarks of Dr. Makay. 
“If each one should turn to experimenting 
with fruits, what a heaven on earth it would 
be for these tree peddlers! I have paid $1,000 
for experiments in strawberries, and to-day I 
have not cue variety which I consider worth 
cultivatiug. I have been provoked and dis¬ 
Cross Section of Montreal Apple. Fig. 211. 
President Earle thought there was a certain 
educational advantage iu having large collec- 
tious of fruits at such exhibitions; pomologista 
were benefited by the examination. But for 
the profitable growiug of almost uuy fruit, the 
smaller the number of different kinds the bet¬ 
ter. Mr. Munson, Texas, said it seemed that 
the only way to get rid of the worthless sorts 
was to attempt growing them. Every body 
should huvo an experimeutal plot on his farm 
for testing new kiuds. No two soils are alike. 
Right around him in Denison, Texas, the soil 
varies greatly. In his own soil the Wilson 
Strawberry does not succeed at all, while his 
neighbor does well with it. 
Mr. Vaudermau, Kansas, said “Every fruit 
we now have has once been new, und often 
pronounced a humbug, perhaps.” He agreed 
couraged beyond measure. A fellow recently 
came to me with a large Sharpless Straw¬ 
berry, claimiug it to he a wonderful new 
variety. As a matter of fact. Sharpless is 
among the most worthless I have just now.” 
Mr, Munson said all could not afford to ex¬ 
periment. He thought nurserymen should 
atteud to that business. Mr. Roe spoke of two 
classes of purchasers, one boloug to the class 
humbugged by Baruum. aud the other always 
wanted to send away to some distant nursery¬ 
man or dealer for their stock, thinking it must 
be better coming from a distance, though they 
had a reliable nurseryman near at home. Mr. 
Cook, Michigan, speaking of a large variety 
of fruits, said,taking Summer aud Fall fruits, 
200 sorts might easily be showu. He said or¬ 
chards in Michigan are largely starved to 
death by planting more than can be proper¬ 
ly taken care of. Mr. Smith, in speaking of 
his strawberries, said he should have excepted 
some new varieties be was now trying, Mr. 
Hoffman, Kansas, had not yet heard any defi¬ 
nite answer to the question, under discussion. 
He suggested a plan pursued by a neighbor— 
when an unprofitable tree i3 found, he turns 
his back aud tells the woodman to lay the ax 
at the root. 
Mr. Smith, New York, said it is a very dif¬ 
ficult matter to decide which are the worthless 
sorts, owing to the differences of soil and 
locality. He thought nurserymen should 
cease propagating worthless kinds. Mr. Kel- 
log, Wisconsin, said that in order to weed 
the worthless fruits out of his State, all they 
had to do was to let the mercury go down be¬ 
low zero; fruit trees could easily be got rid of 
in that way; but with 3mall fruits it is differ¬ 
ent. He said: “the only winter apple of value 
we have in Wisconsin is the Golden Russet, 
and we cannot depend upou that. ” (Laughter). 
Mr. Cassell, Mississippi, said there were many 
nurserymen present, and yet he thought none 
of them would grow varieties they knew to be 
worthless in their several localities. He 
thought, however, they should experiment 
more carefully; local experiments are much 
needed. 1 H. H. 
The Department of Agriculture. —The 
New York World says that Commissioner 
Column finds that the funds for the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture are practically exhausted 
and that it will require the closest of manage¬ 
ment to pay ordinary expenses between now 
and the close of the fiscal year. Congress 
appropriated $50,000 for the use of this De¬ 
partment in making experiments in the man¬ 
ufacture of sugar from corn. All this money 
has been used in the putting on of extra clerks 
for the friends of tlie late civil-service reform 
Commissioner, Dr. Loring. and the chief clerk 
Gen. Carman. It has been found that 10 of 
the clerks upon the pay-roll in this Depart¬ 
ment had performed no work for some time, 
and never visited the Department except upon 
pay-day. 
It is certain that an investigation of this 
Department would show a worse condition 
of affairs in its past management than any 
other oup of the bureaus of the Government. 
The condition of affairs in this bureau up to 
the time of the change of the Administration, 
had reached the same scandalous pitch to 
which the affairs of the Bureau of Engraving 
and Printing had reached some years ago 
when Congress investigated the bureau and 
ordered a change of its management from top 
to bottom- The class of women who have 
been employed from time to time in the Agri¬ 
cultural Bureau do not belong to the class 
which can be pointed to with pride, even by 
the most enthusiastic of civil-service reform¬ 
ers. 
E. M., in Southern Live Stock Journal, 
says that as a permanent meadow grass for 
the South, it does not believe Johnson Grass 
has an equal, considering quantity and qual¬ 
ity of hay. Its personal experience teaches 
that it is absolutely necessary upon its land to 
plow the meadow at least every two years. 
When the grass is thick euougb on the ground, 
and the hay cat at the proper stage, the char¬ 
acter of feed is first class. There is no hum¬ 
bug about the value of this grass. The editor 
frequently sees statements that this grass is 
not only drought proof, but flood proof also. 
The latter statement is misleading—it is not 
flood-proof. Any excess of water is death to 
it. He speaks not only from observation, but 
personal experience. The land must be mo¬ 
derately dry or the grass will uot give the 
most satisfactory results. As to its compara¬ 
tive value with Alfalfa or Lucerue, Messrs. 
Page & Morton, of Tulare County, Cal., say 
they have 250 acres of Johnsou Grass, which 
they consider of tuoro value than 500 acres of 
Lucerne in another field. 
TnE good Major H. E Alvord, of Houghton 
Farm.haviug traveled West and South to study 
the present condition and future prospects of 
Americau agriculture, writes to the editor of 
the N. E. Farmer some interesting notes. He 
says that the waste, neglect and shiftlessness 
are appalling, as well as the disregard of the 
condition of the laud in later years. The 
plantation system of the Soiuh is hardly bet¬ 
ter than the scratching and cropping of the 
prairies, which oufcht not to be dignified by 
the name of farming. In the South a change 
is coming, smaller areas in owner«hip and 
greater variety in crops. But the old ideas 
aud methods prevail. In the West, there 
seems to| be, as y«t,!xio idea that the natural 
