MEVY-YORKER. 
THE SPRINGFIELD THORNLESS RASP¬ 
BERRY. 
There are numerous varieties of the black 
raspberries. The Doolittle, Mammoth Clust¬ 
er, Ohio, Gregg, Tyler, Souhogan, and 
Springfield are all said to he valuable. Why 
is the last better than the other varieties* 
1. It is a very vigorous and healthy plant. 
It uever rusts, and it never has been winter- 
killed. 2. It is very productive, exceeding 
the Tyler 35 per cent, in the estimation of 
a prominent fruit grower. 1 have found, on 
trial, that it should not be closely cut back; 
but the branches should be left from IS to 24 
inches long, 3. It ripens its fruit very early, 
“too early,” one large nurseryman says—be¬ 
fore strawberries aiegone. In 1885, several 
kinds ripened as follows: Springfield. June 25; 
Tyler and Souhegau, July 5; Mammoth 
Cluster, July 8; Ohio, July 16. Iu 1886, the 
Springfield Raspberry was sent to market 
June 21, and sold, as long as it lasted, for from 
80 cents to 15 cents per quart basket. And it 
was about ibis time t hat there was sent here 
from New York City a car load of strawber¬ 
ries which were peddled about the city and 
sold for any price that people pleased to offer. 
It was an unheard of occurrence in fruit¬ 
growing for Southern and Central New 
England berries to be ripe at the same time. 
4. The plants are entirely free from thorns 
and may be handled a« readily as basket wil¬ 
lows. Every amateur will appreciate this 
trait, not less than the gardener and the work¬ 
man who have to plant, trim, cultivate, and 
harvest the crop and layer the tips. The 
work done iu raising a crop of fruit from any 
of the bramble tribe is not a labor of love. 
Workmen will not resort to the trimming and 
dressing of the thorny varieties of black rasp¬ 
berries if there is notu. pressing necessity, and 
this explains why so many uusight.lv, un¬ 
thrifty and unprofitable, unkempt patches can 
be seen about the country. 
Nor is this the major part of my argument. 
Long experience has shown that this new 
thorule-s raspberry can be cultivated more 
closely, if desired as is frequently the case, iu 
gardens and with one-half the labor that is 
required iu growing thorny kinds. As to its 
identity, which has been called in question by 
one man only, so far as the writer is informed, 
the plant came up about 80 feet from the of¬ 
fice of the originator. A dozen or twenty 
plants were given to a small-fruit grower to 
plant and prove. Subsequently this man and 
his son became so at tached to this variety that 
they rooted up and destroyed other kinds—Doo¬ 
little. Davison’s Thornless and Mammoth Clus¬ 
ter—and planted tins now seedling (then un¬ 
named) and uo others. Neighbors tried to buy 
them, but he refused to sell any. Why did he 
destroy Davison’s Thornless and cling so 
closely to the Springfield, and plant so largely 
of it? Stronger canes, earlier, larger, sweeter, 
and more juicy berries, freedom from rust.and 
80 cents a quart, basket go a great distance to 
wards answering this question. Then, take the 
word of a mau who was born and brought uji 
ou one of the best fruit larmsiuNew Eng¬ 
land. and who has devoted 50 years to horti¬ 
cultural pursuits, and is u >w secretary of the 
Hampden County How icultural Society, and 
the originator of this new fruit. In the spring 
of 1868 he bought a stock of the Davison’s 
Thornless Raspberry, paying for the same $53 
—surely enough for a trial bed. These were 
all set out iu oue piece 800 feet south of his of¬ 
fice. Tbe soil was good and so was the care 
of them. They grew rapidly, iu slender canes 
not one-half the size of tue Springfield. The 
fruit was small, dry and seedy, The plants 
rusted somewhat. Various people bought the 
plants and some planted them largely, but all 
of the large growers have since rooted them 
out as unprofitable. Not so with the Spring- 
field .Several people who have seen the orig¬ 
inator’s beds in bearing have ordered planks 
for their own setting by the thousand; and 
this in a section where no canning is done, is 
a rare occurrence in raspberry planting. 
Springfield, Mass. I. N. A. 
SOWING GARDE > SE .DS. 
Mv way of sowing almost all garden seeds, 
such as onion, carrot, pai'suip, oeet, radish, 
etc., is as follows; 1 have a six-foot stake, an 
inch and a half wide, marked by notches cut 
on oue corner, three inches apart, and on the 
other side are black marks four inches apart. 
I sow my onion seed by the latter marks that 
are four inches apart, and radishes and early 
horn carrots, and possibly some other things, 
by the three-inch marks. Beets, parsnips, 
orange carrots, etc., I sow six inch.s apart. 
I run my line where I want the row to be; 
take a small dibble and open my drill, ami ruu 
tue notched siake aioug beside the line, and 
drop my seeds where 1 want them. I know I 
it takes a little more time to sow seed in this 
way; hut I think I get it all back again, as I 
do not use more than half the seed required in 
the old way of sowing, and I am very sure it 
is not half such hard work to thin out the 
plants later, for all I have to do is to go to 
each bunch or hill and take out all that are 
not. required. I know this method would not 
work very well in a large garden, neither 
v ould it be useful where a drill is used, but for 
a small garden where economy has to be ob¬ 
served it has its advantages, for I find in my 
own experience that I have a little more time 
to spare at sowing time than at thinning 
time, when weeds and many other things re¬ 
quire close attention. 
When I thiu out parsnips, late beets and 
orange carrots I leave ouly one plant in each 
place. Of early beets I often leave two, and pull 
them for use us soon a-s one or both are large 
enough, I treat, radishes in the same way. Of 
onions I take out all but one, two or thiee, 
according to the variety. Right, here 1 would 
like to say that for the onion maggot the only 
remedy that 1 find effective is to get right 
down on one’s hands and knees as soon as the 
Onions hegiu to show that the maggots are at 
work ou them, and draw the dirt away from 
them with the bauds down to the roots. Don’t 
be afraid of injuring the onions if they should 
happen to topple over, as they will right 
themselves again in a few days. 
There is another advantage in this way of 
sowing seed, as many times a gardener can¬ 
not find time to thin out the plants just when 
they should be; they are not so crowded as 
when sowed in a continuous row, and they 
have more air and light and still continue to 
grow and develop, h ural readers should 
try this plan on a small scale and see how 
they like it. J. n. 
Glendale, Mass. 
fbricuUnral. 
IN BLOSSOM-TIME. 
(SEE TAGE 241 OF THE SUPPLEMENT.) 
Our erratic climate gives us a good many 
surprises; none more than when 
“ Iu green underwood and cover 
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.” 
Not spring as it. appears in the almanac, but 
in Nature’s own calendar, wit h a blossom or a 
fragrant breath for each advancing day. 
Tb re is still an occasional snow wreath 
forgotten by Boreas when he whisked his 
train to arctic regions, lying perdu behind 
the fences, when the Trailing Arbutus, snug¬ 
gling close to the warm breast of its Mother 
Earth, turns its rosy, contented face to the 
soft, blue sky, and when a freezing wind, 
broken loose from its corral in the north, 
comes swooping down on our unlucky coasts, 
tbe Arbutus tucks itself under its loaves, like a 
baby cuddling away in its crib, betraying its 
presence only by its odor. By and by some 
little girl with a face just like the Arbu'us,dis¬ 
covers it, and tenderly carries it off in tri 
umph, as a sure sign that spring really is com¬ 
ing at last. 
Dowu In the swamp, where the ice has hard¬ 
ly disappeared, the shining yellow ealtlia 
makes the sodden ground avoritable Field of 
the Cloth of Gold; waxy Spring Beauties and 
Dog tooth Violets push up their soft leaves, 
and frail wind-flowers look liken make-believe 
snow-storm, with their close ranks of delicate 
bloom. 
And a single spring day is as eventful as a 
whole week at any other season. We have 
scarcely found the first shy, reluctant bud, 
uncertain whether to draw its head into the 
warm earth again, or stay out and risk de¬ 
capitation by Jack Frost—when, presto, 
change! There i* a whole brigade of petals 
and jnstils going off at once, and the trees, 
which bung back in a cowardly manner un¬ 
til the frail flower sprites show there is 
nothing to fear, take heart, and unroll their 
leaves in a subdued and gingerly way. 
How- we love spring, and how we abuse its 
changing and inconstant character, just as if 
we didn’t really love it all the more for its un¬ 
certainty. Summer showers plenty upon us 
witii lavish hand; autumn departs in a trail¬ 
ing glory of crimson ami gold; but much- 
rhymed, oft sung spring seems the season’s 
border-land, where youth and age may meet. 
Our pictured wood finds many a parallel: 
where knee-high flowers and bursting trees in¬ 
vite us, until we 
"Scarce would start, 
If from a beech'* heart 
A blue-eyed Dryad. 
Stepping forth, should say 
“Behold me, I am May. ’ " 
SEEDLING ABUTILONS. 
C. E. PARNELL. 
In former issues of the Rural New-York¬ 
er, 1 have baid considerable about the cultiva¬ 
tion of the numerous varieties of the abutilons 
or, as they are popularly called, flowering 
maples, and it may not be out of place to 
remind the readers of the paper that they can 
be readily raised from seeds, and now is the 
proper time to sow them. A packet or two 
of seeds can be readily and cheaply procured 
of any seedsman, and from a packet about 35 
or 30 plants can be secured with a little care 
and attention. These will produce quite a 
number of differentaud distinct varieties, and 
most of them will be worth keeping, although 
none of them may prove to be superior to the 
named varieties now in cultivation. Almost 
all amateur lovers of plants for the greenhouse 
or window garden like to raise their own 
plants, either from seeds or cuttings, and oi' 
all greenhouse plant* none are as easily raised 
from seeds, nor are there any that come into 
bloom as soon as the abutilons, and if the fol¬ 
lowing notes are observed little difficulty will 
be experienced. 
Sow the seed thinly iu a well drained pot or 
pan filled with light, loamy soil; cover slight 
ly and place in a warm, moist situation os 
close to the glass os possible, until the young 
plants are strong enough to handle, when they 
should be carefully transferred to two-inch 
pots filled with turfy loam. Keep these young 
plants iu a close and moist situation until they 
become well rooted and growth commences, 
when they should be removed to a lower tem¬ 
perature, and iu this grown on until the 
weather becomes warm and settled,when they 
can be planted out in a deep, moderately en¬ 
riched border. If the young plants are well 
cared for at first, they will commence to 
bloom before cool weather sets in, and this 
will afford one the opportunity to select the 
most desirable for the ensuing winter. It is 
best to bike up those desired for the winter as 
early in September as possible. In potting 
use a pot proportionate to tbe size of the 
plant, and let it be well drained. Give them 
a compost composed of two-thirds turfy loam, 
and one-third well decayed manure. Place 
them in as light and sunny situation as pos¬ 
sible, and where they can obtain a tempera¬ 
ture of from 50 to 55 degrees. After the pots 
become filled with roots frequent applications 
of liquid mauure water can be used to good 
advantage. When well grown, the abuti¬ 
lons are among the most satisfactory of house 
plants,and deserve all that can be said in their 
praise. 
Queens, L. I. 
THE “STORM KING” FUCHSIA THE SAME AS 
FRAU EMMA TOPFER. 
I was sorry to see the Rural misled in the 
praise of the new weeping fuchsia “Storm 
King;” not that the plant isuot of great value 
to the amateur; blit the Rural has unwitting¬ 
ly used its influence to aid in giving counte¬ 
nance to renaming an old plant which its char¬ 
acteristic love of fair play would not allow. 
Anybody can find the same plant in tbe cata¬ 
logues of Robert. Hnlliday, cf Baltimore, and 
Halloek & Thorpe, under the true name of the 
Belgiau originator from whom Mr. Thorpe 
got it several years ago, “Frau Emma Topfer.” 
H. N. 
pomo Logical. 
THE R. N.-Y.’S METHOD OF CROWN¬ 
GRAFTING. 
We have told Rural readers what we deem 
an easy and effective way of grafting old 
trees. If there is any easier or more effective 
method, it is not known to us. The percent¬ 
age of failure is reduced to a minimum and 
branches at least six inches in diameter and. 
in the case of pear trees, 75 years old, may be 
worked with assured success. Last year we 
mentioned the case of such a pear having been 
grafted two years before with the Kieffer.that 
gave a full crop last fall. Saw off the branch 
at right angles to the stem to be grafted, as at 
Fig. 162 a. Then cut a clean slit in the bark 
through to the wood,as shown—a slit the same 
as iu budding. Separate the bark from the 
wood and insert the cion 5, one l'or each slit. 
The number of slits for each stock will be de¬ 
termined by its size. We will suppose the 
stock illustrated to be six inches iu diameter, 
and that s,x cions are to he inserted. The 
stock after receiving the.six cions is shown at c. 
Grafting wax is not needed. A thick paper 
may be wound about the top of the stock ex¬ 
tending about one inch above it and securely 
tied with strong twine, as shown at d. The 
space above the stock encircled by the inch of 
paper may then be filled to the top of the pa- 
por with a puddle of soil and water, made so 
thin that it can lie readily poured from any 
suitable vessel. Thismud protects thesurfaee 
of the wood of the stock and excludes the air 
from the insertions. It gives every advan¬ 
tage of wax without itsobjections. Of course, 
stocks of any size may be worked in this way. 
One, two or any number of cions may be in¬ 
serted according to the size of the stock. 
« • 
Fruit Trees Near Streams.— Apple aud 
pear trees will bear annually Hue crops of 
fruit if standing close to the bunks of a living 
stream. A Flemish Beauty pear tree stands 
in a little swale, where a clour stream of water 
runs, fed by a spring a few rods distant, aud 
at all times, spring and summer, the roots on 
one side of this tree are submerged in the wa¬ 
ter. Last year we picked from this tree a 
bushel and a half of as fine pears as one peed 
to look at. They were large, of high color, 
and good flavor, and were indeed beauties. 
The tree is healthy and vig< rous, and is yet 
young. On the bank beside a larger 
stream, stand two Baldwin apple trees. They 
were two chance seedlings and they were 
grafted a few years ago. The roots of these 
extend down the bunk into the running water. 
They bear annual crops of fine, large, high- 
colored apples, free from worms or specks. 
The trees are remarkably vigorous and pro¬ 
ductive. Such a thing as an insect is uot seen 
on either of these trees. Can we not utilize 
the streams iu our oouutry by planting trees 
on the banks, thus gett ing a profit from other¬ 
wise wuste ground? c. L. F. 
Naples, N. Y. 
farm Copies. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Mv Experience with Dynamite in blow¬ 
ing out stumps, is as follows;—The stumps 
were Burr Oak, from 18 inches to two feet 
thick and deep-rooted. It would have cost 5(1 
cents to dig one out. I placed a 85 cent charge 
directly under each stump and exploded it. 
It split the stumps into three or four pieces, but 
did not blow them out. Another charge was 
needed before a team could pull them out, as 
the parts came together so closely that it was 
hard to tell they had been split. I also tried 
boring a hole iu at the surface of the ground 
aud exploding a charge there. This broke 
oue-hnlf 1 he stump off at the hole. After this 
experience, when 1 hear about men blowing out 
stumps, 1 conclude that the stumps are rotten 
and could have been pulled out by a good 
team, or else there is guessing somewhere. 
Amber, Iowa. D. a. 
After reading the Rural’s report on the 
potato crop, I decided to hold rny potatoes. 
This I did against the advice of some of my 
neighbors. I have a good buggy now to show 
as my profit by doing so. w. d. s. 
Weld Co., CoL 
Protection for Birds. —While in Balti¬ 
more recently I noticed a great number of 
robins exposed for sale, and I fear the people 
of Maryland and Virginia do uot understand 
the value of these birds to the people of the 
Northern and Middle States. The slaughter 
of birds iu transit is undoubtedly enormous, 
far exceeding the number killed during the 
nesting season or the short gunning season iu 
the North. It. is of very little use for the 
people of the Northern States to prohibit the 
killing of robins aud other migratory birds 
while they are slaughtered indiscriminately 
in the South. What wo should have is a na¬ 
tional law prohibiting the killing of our most 
valuable birds at any season or in any local 
tty, [Wouldn’t a constitutional amendment be 
needed to legalize such an enactment? If any 
law passed by Congress violates the Constitu¬ 
tion, the U. S. bupreme Court is sure to de¬ 
cide that it is invalid. The protection of 
