THE ttyftAl NEW-TORK£tt. 
DEC H 
iso 
1 LU- 
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all 
house or a conservatory is Allamanda Hen- 
dersonii. I have in mind a plant of it that 
well deserves to be called perpetual bloomer, 
for it has not been out of flower for a day 
during the past four years. It has not only 
bloomed continuously, but profusely. Its 
large golden flowers are not fragrant, but 
they are strikingly beautiful. It makes a 
good winter blooming plant grown in a large 
pot; but to have it at its best it must be 
turned into a border. If the old flowering 
wood be retained, and the long, new growth 
shortened in at least twice a year, I do not 
see why it will not go on blooming a dozen 
years; for the plant seems to be perpetually 
active when grown under favorable condi¬ 
tions. It is a good substitute for Begonia 
venusta, as it grows freely witLi less beat, and 
it is a much cleaner plant. It is easily propa¬ 
gated from cuttings. 
* * * 
Oxalis vers ! eolor is a very neat and pretty 
little flowering plant for the holidays. It 
may be had in flower at this time, by not 
planting the bulbs till the middle or last of 
October. The plants will grow stouter and 
flower stronger by being left out of-doors till 
there is danger of freezing. The bulbs are 
small and should be planted close together. I 
place the bulos about half an inch apart, and 
fill out the pot, whatever its size may be. 
Planted at intervals of a week to 10 days, 
they may be had in bloom nearly all Winter 
I shall make my last planting about Christ¬ 
mas. The flower opens only when the sun is 
out; but it is pretty, open or closed. 
* * * 
I am getting to like Alyssum, “Tom 
Thumb,” so much that I have nearly given 
up the old kind. It is decidedly better as a 
pot plant, but, perhaps, not so good for cut 
flowers. I find that too much dryness at the 
roots is apt to throw it out of bloom. In that 
case I shave it off close (cut it in) with a pair 
of scissors, and it soon renews itself. In this 
way it is easy to make a new plant out of an 
old one. 
* * * 
We should find much more system and or¬ 
der in the field and in the garden if more 
thought was given to the subject duriog the 
Winter. Thinking and planing are too gen¬ 
erally put off till it fs time to act. It should 
bd evident to the average mind that fore 
thought and system are two of the most im¬ 
portant factors in successful farming an< 
garden.^ There should be method in 
our doings. It not only lightens labor, bui 
goes far toward in'"ring success. Look ahead 
and anticipate every work to be done, I have 
found it to be a good plan to have a map of 
the farm drawn to a scale, with every lot 
accurately iined, and all the trees in the or¬ 
chard numbered and named. With such a 
map before one, he can sit by a warm stove 
in the Winter and lay out his work for next 
Summer, and thus avoid most of the hurry 
and worry incident to the common slip shod 
way of putting off thinking about plans till it 
is time to execute them. It is very much as 
if a man shou'd undertake to build a costly 
and convenient dwelling without a plan. 
These are merely brief hints, which the 
reader can work out and amplify to suit his 
own case. 
* * * 
The chief drawback to the successful cul¬ 
tivation of plants in rooms is the dry air. 
This used to be much less when wood-burning 
stoves were in common use. We could at 
that time grow certain kiuds of plants in 
rooms with a good degree of success, which 
now prove to be utter failures. The best plan 
that I have tried to meet this difficulty is a 
table the size of the wiodow, with strips 
three inches wide nailed on the edge of the top, 
and lined with zinc. The top of the table is 
filled up with clean sand, which catches the 
drip when the plants are watered, and is 
always wet enough to yield a certain amount 
of evaporation, which diffuses itself among 
the plants, and goes far to keep them in good 
condition. Besides, the floor of the room is 
never soiled. I will prepare a plan of such a 
table, drawn toa scale, if the editors will have 
it engraved. [Send drawing; we will be glad 
to present it. Eds.] It would be useful to our 
country cousins as well as others. Being an old 
grower of plants in rooms, I am often amused 
when I see the kinds of plants frequently re¬ 
commended by Borne of the professional 
florists. They sometimes, with the best in¬ 
tentions, go very wide of the mark. 
* * * 
I believe in making home cheerful at all 
times, but especially during the holidays, 
which, for the children’s sake at least, I would 
make the gladdest time of the whole year. 
The weather may or may not be gloomy with¬ 
out, let it be your task to make everything 
cheerful within. That yon live ‘way back” 
in the country is no reason at all why you 
should not indulge good taste in ornament¬ 
ing the “best room.” As far as they can do 
so, let the little ones help you. You will often 
get a good hint from them, and the sparkle in 
their bright eyes will be something to remem¬ 
ber. Those of you who live near woodlands 
can always get an abundance of autumn 
leaves, ground ivy, club mosses, etc., to orna 
ment the mirror, picture frames, doorways, 
etc., and pretty leaves can often be gathered 
in the orchard, in the garden, and by the 
roadside; and these, being sewed together, 
make very pretty festoons. For a Christmas 
tree, almost any small evergreen will do, ex¬ 
cept a pine. There are few better than a 
small Red Cedar or thetop’of a large one. The 
tree can be ornamented with presents for the 
children, mottoes, bits of colored paper rolled 
into balls, and anything else suggested by 
good taste. Your decorations and your tree 
will not equal those of the metropolitan in 
costliness, but they may excel them in simple 
good taste, and afford you a purer and less 
selfish pleasure. hokticola. 
tarm (topics. 
EXPERIENCE O N A RU N DOWN FARM. 
A well conditioned farm generally a prefer¬ 
able investment; cheaper to buy improve- 
ments than to make them ; when a run-down 
farm might be the. better investment; poetry 
and prose of farming. 
CHARLES A. GREEN. 
From ray experience would I recommend 
others to purchase a run down farm? In re¬ 
plying, I must consider the circumstances of 
the case, if you have from $10,000 to $15 000 
in cash with which to buy a farm, and can 
find location, soil, buildings and grounds that 
suit you as they now stand, and they can be 
bought at a reasonable price, I would advise 
you to buy such a place in preference to one 
that is run down, though the latter may be 
bought for very ranch less money. As arule, 
improvements can be purchased cheaper than 
they* can be made. A farm that is well 
drained and fertile, and which bag been kept 
in good heart; while the house, barn3 and 
fences arc in good repair, and the wells, cis¬ 
terns, and other conveniences near at hand 
and ready for immediate use, cannot usually 
be sold for its real value, for the reason that 
on such a place much money has been expend¬ 
ed that is not visible to the observer, or appre¬ 
ciated. A thousand doliars may have been 
spent on a farm for drainage, and yet not ond 
purchaser in a hundred would take this mat] 
ter fully into account. For this reason, and 
the further inducement of sacred associations 
connected with the homestead that has been 
in the family for several generations, lam 
heartily in favor of buying a farm with the 
intention of makiDg it the home not ouly of 
the purchaser, but of bis children, and grand¬ 
children, •ami greatgrandchildren for hun¬ 
dreds of years to come. This idea is so fixed 
in the minds of our Eugiish cousins that their 
estates are entailed so that they cannot be 
sold, but must be continually owned by the 
family. It is pleasant to think that the oaks 
and maples that you are planting, aod perma¬ 
nent improvements you are making are to 
benefit your family for ages to come, and 
that the band of the ruthless destroyer will 
not tear down that which you have built up. 
[Yet the entailment of real estate in the 
United Kingdom is now usually considered 
one of the abuses that are crying aloud for 
reform. Like its allied evil, primogeniture, 
it is generally conceded that its day is nearly 
over. Why shouldn’t the folly and sins of the 
children entail the same disasters with regard 
to landed property as with regard to other 
property transmitted from shrewder and more 
acquisitive ancestors?—E ds.] 
On the other band, if you have but little 
ready cash and desire to get a larger farm 
with less expenditure of capital, and can find 
soil and location that are satisfactory, and the 
price is low enough to correspond with the 
dilapadated condition of the place, it may be 
well to make such an investment. In such a 
purchase, this consolation can be offered:— 
There are few farm homes, buildings and 
grounds which are arranged to suit critical 
tastes; therefore if you are original in your 
views of landscape gardening, or of rural 
architecture, you will be inclined to make 
many changes, although you buy a place that 
is in good condition on your arrival. Consid¬ 
ering this point, yon might as well make your 
changes in a dwelling that requires repairs as 
to make them on one that is already in good 
condition. These remarks apply also with re¬ 
gard t.o the grounds. A landscape gardener 
would prefer no plan tiug on the home grounds, 
but simply an opeu field, rather than planting 
without system, merely Ailing up space as is 
usually done in many of our country homes. 
There is a pleasure In having made a borne 
attractive by your own personal efforts. If 
you purchase a piece already improved, you 
are enjoying what has been accomplished by 
others. If you purchase that which has not 
been improved, and by your own attention 
and taste make it a thing of beauty, you have 
a better appreciation of its charms for having 
wrought them by your own skill and industry. 
We are also, as individuals, differently con¬ 
stituted, and it would be impossible for oue 
individual to lay out and perfect a rural home 
that would entirely please another. I have 
known people who have bought rural homes 
that appeared to be desirable and complete in 
their surroundings, aud yet, after a few years, 
one change would follow another until the 
most marked transformation had been made, 
and much money expended. Thus there is a 
fascination about the purchase and occupation 
of aruu down farm. 
When I left the city, if I had been given my 
choice between a farm in perfect order and 
one that had been run down, it seems to me 
now that I would have choseu the run down 
farm, for the reasons indicated, and yet much 
of the poetry of the affair has worn off with 
actual experience. As we sit and dream in 
our pleasant office of removing stumps and 
rocksthat encumbe.r an other wise fair field, 
the whole operation is done with one vast 
sweep; but in practice we may dig and sweat 
and pry at one stump for days at a tin e. 
Those huge holders, that have held their posi¬ 
tion in the field through so many ages, are 
loath to move without a hearty tussle. Yon¬ 
der marshy field may be drained in imagina¬ 
tion in a winking of an eye, and yet in prac¬ 
tice how many shovels of earth, how many 
bard pickings at the flinty soil, how many 
back aches, thumps and bruises, how much 
mud clinging to soggy boots and clothes ere 
the job is finished 1 
In theory it is not a difficult thing to clear 
a field of Quack Grass, thistles, or other pesti¬ 
lent weeds. When you start a big plow and 
turn the Quack Grass far out of sight, you 
congratulate yourself on haviug given it a 
severe blow; but when you find the vigorous 
blades pushing up freely a few days after¬ 
wards, you conclude there is much yet to 
accomplish. Day after day, month after 
month you cultivate this Held, aud still the 
Quack Grass does not yield. You cannot 
plow again at once—the sod already turned 
over has not rotted. You rake off the dis¬ 
turbed roots and burn them aud continue to 
cultivate as before. As Winter approaches, 
you again plow the field and leave the roots 
exposed to the frosts all Winter. Another 
year, if you continue the battle, you may be 
victorious. With Canada Thistles the warfare 
is often more severe, and yet in theory it 
would not seem difficult, to destroy a growing 
plant in open fields where the plows and cul¬ 
tivators have full sweep. I offer these re¬ 
marks in the way of caution to those who 
may have theories about improving a run¬ 
down farm with small expenditure of labor 
or capital. There is a satisfaction in the 
work when well done, but the enterprise 
should be undertaken with due consideration 
of tbe hardships to be encountered. 
Monroe Co,, N. Y. 
COMET AND KLEFFER PEARS. 
The Comet a splendid humbug! Profit not 
quality the criterion of merit! Its looks sell 
the KieJI'er. Excellent for stocks. Both 
profitable! 
The Rural New-Yoiikkr has improved 
much of late years, and is now, in connection 
with its experimental farms, fully up in 
value to any agricultural publication in the 
United States. The circulation has, or should 
have, increased very much, andas its readers 
increase, aud place confidence in its teaching, 
its responsibility as an adviser of what to 
plant and wbat to cut down, will increase. 
The Rural’s circulation, no doubt, is and 
will continue to be among the producers and 
among tbe growers of fruits, etc., rather than 
among the over fastidious consumers. I notice 
in a late number two severe strictures as to 
the value of two varieties of pears in which 
I am particularly interested in planting and 
growing the fruit for market—the Comet in 
one paragraph, and the Kietfer in another. 
The Comet Pear a humbug! If so it is a 
splendid one, the prettiest I ever saw in the 
shape of a pear, ami if so I am getting bum- 
bugged to the extent of an orchard of at least 
25 acres, closely planted for fruiting. The 
quality is good for au early summer pear- 
good enough for a market pear. Any variety 
of pear that grows strong and vigorous, bears 
good, annual crops of fruit that sells, as the 
Comet has done from year to year,at from $4 
to $8 per bushel, is no humbug. I have no 
doubt that friend T. T. Lyon hits as wide of 
the mark in speaking of the quality of the 
Comet as he did in stating that it ripens with * 1 
the Sterling, as the latter will form a good 
succession, ripening after the Comet is 
marketed. 
1 have nothing to take back, no apologies 
to offer for any praise I ever gave to the 
Kieffer. It newer did better then it has done 
the past season. 1 marketed the fruit by the 
wagon load at prices averaging $3 to $3 per 
bushel, it did not concern me what was 
done with the pears, whether they were sold 
for their good looks, or good quality. I have 
planted over 100 acres of tbe Kieffer in or¬ 
chard form, the trees closely planted, not 
averaging over 12 by 20 feet apart. Twenty- 
five acres of these I have budded in part and 
intend to change into Comet, and a few acres 
into Sterling and other varieties. I regard 
the Kieffer as an excellent foundation on which 
to rebud or graft other varieties. If 1 had 
taken the advice of the Rural, I would have 
planted not over six trees of Kieffer, and 
would now cut them down; bub instead of 
cutting down one tree, I would rather plant 
100 more, and I consider the land now planted 
Id Kieffer worth double as much as before. I 
do not know in wbat way I could have plant¬ 
ed the ground in any sort of fruit that would 
bemore profitable in the near future. I 
marketed this year Bartlett pears that I had 
kept late in cold storage, and with them 
windfall Kieffers, and the latter sold at 
higher prices. J s. collins. 
Moorestown, N. J. 
THE VICTORIA AND SOME OTHER 
GRAPES. 
The specimens of my Victoria grapes, the 
receipt of which was acknowledged in a late 
Rural, were from the same vines which the 
Rural pronounced genuine Victorias last 
year, but this season they ripened earlier than 
ever before, and were very ripe when sent to 
the Rural office and, as you say, they had a 
peculiar honeyed sweetness which they never 
had before. This is the first time 1 ever had 
them in such perfection, aud their present ex¬ 
cellence shows what they will do in a favor¬ 
able place and season. Indeed, I would have 
been in doubt myself about their being Vic¬ 
torias had I not picked them myself—I think 
this perfect ripeness has also misled the 
Rural. My Victoria was purchased from 
Mr. Miner, by me, and answers in every par¬ 
ticular your description of Victoria. It is 
the best white Concord seedling yet raised. 
I think, and its many good qualities will yet 
place it in the front rank f >r market, etc. As 
the vine becomes older, the bunches and berries 
become larger, and of better quality. The 
vine is immensely productive of large, perfect 
bunches, and the berries are very large with 
few or no small or imperfect ones. Like Mar¬ 
thas, they ripen very evenly. The skin never 
cracks and they never rot, and.the vine is per¬ 
fectly hardy and healthy. 
1 also had the Carloiti from Mr. Miner, 
but it is entirely different from the Victoria. 
It is a large white grape of much better q ml 
ity than the Victoria, but it is a very poor 
grower, and the berries drop from the bunch 
when ripe; this the Victorias do not do. 
I fruited Poeklington this year, and with 
me it is a poor grower; the fruit is of very 
poor quality and drops from the bunch when 
ripe. Niagara grows well and looks promis¬ 
ing, but 1 have not yet fruited it. The Cen¬ 
tennial with me is a failure; so is the Lady 
Washington. L, o. m. s. 
Nyack-on Hudson. 
[The berries sent seemed to ns more foxy 
than any Victorias we had ever raised.— Eds. 
LyCRETIA DEWBERRY. 
GEN. WM. H. NOBLE. 
This fruit now comes to the front as a new 
and wonderful addition to the blackberry 
family. Fouud in the wood, was it/ This is 
an odd place to find a fruit which rejoices and 
disports itself in the opeu field aud on unshad¬ 
ed bill-sides. Dewberries cover such old pas¬ 
ture ground aud sort of waste places all over 
New England, and I presume elsewhere north. 
But I have never seen among them a berry 
worth much picking, or any but of very 
cramped dimensions. But on the march from 
Gettysburg after Lee, soon after he eswped 
across the Potomac into Virginia, dewberries 
lined the march of tbe 1 Hh corps. Tiie soldiers, 
fed on pork and hard tack, so hungry for acids, 
could hardly be kept from straggling to 
pluck them. The berries—larger and finer 
than any high-bush blackberries I ever 
saw—were from au inch to an inch aud 
a-half in length, and a half inch and 
more in diameter. The flavor and sweet¬ 
ness were, as it seemed to any then craving 
