THE RURAL HEW-YCMfR 
APRIL 28 
er, bearing flowers as large as a rose should 
ever be, and so continuously as to justly en¬ 
title it to the name of a perpetual bloomer. 
The flowers are a deep rose-color, deliciously 
fragrant, full, and of such substance as to 
make them very enduriug. It forces very 
kindly. The American Beauty has come to 
stay, and the readers of the Rural should 
not forget it. 
* * * 
1 SEE that the Messrs. Thorburn & Co. 
have catalogued seeds of the charming little 
Freesia refracts alba It may not be gener¬ 
ally known that flowering bulbs may be pro¬ 
duced the lirst year from the seed; that is to 
say, seeds sown now will produce bulbs that 
will bloom next winter. Everybody should 
grow it. I regard this Freesia as the most 
valuable flowering bulb for popular use that 
has been introduced during the past SO years, 
at least. 1 am inclined to think it is nearly or 
quite hardy. 1 wish some of the readers of 
the Rural would sow the seed in the border 
and let some of the bulbs remain there during 
the winter, to test the question of hardiness. 
I intended to plant some of the bulbs outside 
last fall, but was away at the proper time, 
and on my return the ground was frozen as 
hard as a rock. This spring 1 shall turn two 
or throe potfuls into the border and let them 
remain there. Two years ago a pot of grow¬ 
ing Freesia was accidentally' frozen without 
injury. Since then 1 have taken pots when 
the plants were a foot high and frozen them 
as hard as bullets, and so far from being in¬ 
jured they seemed to like it. That is why I 
think the Freesia is hardy. 
* * * 
The new ornamental plum, Prunus Pissardii, 
has proved to he hardy, and is a desirable 
plant for the lawn, not, however, in a mass 
of shrubbery, but as a single specimen by it¬ 
self. The bark and leaves are both dark pur¬ 
ple. The color of the leaves deepens with 
growth, and is retained throughout the season. 
It is a decidedly handsome plaut, and on a 
small lawn might take the place of the Pur¬ 
ple-leaved Beech (var. purpurea Riversii). 
The fruit is small, and of no value, except, 
it may be pickled as the J apanese do it. Buy 
a small plaut rather than a large one, if you 
can get it, and grow it in tree form, with a 
single stem. The plants now sent out are most¬ 
ly large,and have been sadly hacked for propa¬ 
gating purposes. 
* * * 
Messrs. EUwaugcr & Barry send out a new 
shrub with which I am very much pleased. It 
is a Dogwood, Cornua Sibirica (foiiis albo- 
marginatis, or Red Siberian Dogwood. The 
bark is bright red in winter, like the Red- 
twigged Dogwood, and the leaves are very 
prettily margined with white. It is a con¬ 
spicuous object at all seasons of the year, and 
will make a handsome addition to shrubs for 
the lawn. 1 think it is much the prettier of 
the shrubby dogwoods. 
* * * 
I am surprised that our native winter berry 
or black alder (Prinos verticiliatus) is not 
grown as a lawn plant. If it has a superior 
or even an equal, as a berry plant, I do not 
remember what it is. In winter it is simply 
grand. In the country I have two or three 
times seen it in the farm-house door-yard, 
where, with rare good taste, it has been trans¬ 
ferred from the woods; but I do uot remem¬ 
ber ever to have seen it on a lawn, except it 
has been placed there at my own suggestion. 
Some time since I sent a paper of Prinos-seeds 
to Japan, where berry plants are much ad¬ 
mired. Borne years hence plants from these 
seeds may be sent here from Japan as some¬ 
thing beautiful and new, when everybody 
will grow them. Something like this has 
happened before. 
* * * 
I will here add a few words about a couple 
of plants that, are not new, but rare, and as 
beautiful as rare, I allude to Ipomoaa rubra 
coerulea and its lovely bride, alba. These, as 
it seems to me, are the most beautiful of all 
the Morning-glories, The white is as pure as 
the driven snow, and the blue a perfect reflec¬ 
tion of our summer sky when seen aT, Its best. 
The flowers are large and produced in profu¬ 
sion. The plant is perennial. If I were going 
to “write a composition,” as the children say 
over at our district school, I should want no 
better subject than these Ipomoeas; and now' 
I think of it, I will send them some of the 
flowers for this very purpose. If I should stop 
here, probably not one iu a hundred would 
succeed in growing these ipomoeas in a satis¬ 
factory manner. I will therefore add some 
brief directions for growing them for winter 
blooming. The seeds may be had of Messrs. 
Thorburn & Co., New York, and perhaps of 
some others;— 
Sow the seed in a shallow pan or box and 
transplant into small pots as soon as the plants 
are well out of the seed leaf, or sow the seed 
singly in small pots, and plunge the pots, to 
prevent rapid drying oil’. Repot as often as 
the pots become root-bound, In the fal > 
just beforo taking indoors, give a generous 
shift. The plants may be grown in the pots 
during the winter, or turned into a border or 
bed. Tie the shoots to the rafter or wall with¬ 
out crowding. The proper way is t • train on 
vines. The plants will be in bloom when 
taken in, and will bloom all winter, and as 
much longer as you choose to let them. New 
plants may be made from cuttings, if desired. 
A word of caution is necessary here. You 
will find that the pestilent little red spider 
loves this Ipomiea (as he docs all the rest of 
the family) as much as you do. Knowing 
this, syringe the plants freely from the begin¬ 
ning and you will have him. Neglect this 
till he has webbed himself in, and he will 
have yon. 
* * * 
This is getting long, and there is still quite 
a crowd of pretty faces looking at me In a 
beseeching sort of way, and each sayiug, in its 
peculiar manner of speech, “ Please say some¬ 
thing nice about me; won’t you?" But there 
stands the editor, with a warning look, and l 
can only answer, “N^xt time, my little dears." 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
NOTES ON RURAL OF APRIL 9. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
It is a splendid number and “ehuck”-full of 
excellent information for the farmer, gardener 
and planter, whoever he may be. 
Fuchsia “Storm King" the same as F. 
“Frau Emma Topfer,” The latter name may 
be the original one, but I believe “Storm 
King” has come to stay. 
Training Peach Trees.— We have peach 
trees trained in many ways—espaliers, oblique 
cordons, diamond cordons, fan and fancy 
forms, letters and others. Some are ou plum 
and others on peach stocks. I cannot too 
strongly or emphatically denounce this sys¬ 
tem of peach-tree training for outdoor work. 
We have about a hundred trees in this con¬ 
torted state, and there isn’t a healthy plant 
among them. 
Filberts. —In a partially sheltered thin 
wood of oaks and red cedar we have a clump 
of hazel-nut bushes, including several of the 
best European varieties. They seem to be 
hardy enough, and boar lots of nuts. They 
like shelter; indeed, such a place as the 
southern margin of a wood would be nice for 
them. 
Kasmpfer’s Iris.—Y es, plant it in good 
garden soil, the moister the better; but don’t 
plant it in a dry, sandy or gravelly soil. The 
plants grow freely from seeds, and two-year- 
old seedlings are blooming plants. 
Choice Lilies. —If after Brown’s Leicht- 
lin’s and other seemingly refractory lilies have 
done blooming and the stems have “ripened 
otf," you lift the bulbs and keep them in sand 
in a cool place—house, shed, or elsewhere—till 
next. March or April and then replant them, 
I think you will succeed in keeping them con¬ 
tinuously. Indeed, instead of keeping them 
over till spring, you may plant them in No¬ 
vember, with fair assurance of success. Very 
few of the charming narcissuses now in culti¬ 
vation live along year after year in our gar¬ 
dens; but if the bulbs be lifted and {treated 
as above advised for lilies, we can preserve 
them 
The Norway Spruce.— Here I would not 
plant it for two reasons: I wouldn’t do so as a 
shelter against cold, bleak winds, because it 
has proved much inferior to the White or 
Blue (Picea pungens) Spruces, or Austrian or 
Scotch Pines; nor would I plant it as an orna¬ 
mental tree, because it isn’t good enough. In 
the West, however, it has many firm friends. 
The Dwarf White Pine —This is one of 
the loveliest trees in our arboretum—solid and 
dense from the ground up. Beside it, how¬ 
ever, Dawson’B Dwarf is but a baby. 
Daphne CNEORUM is very hardy and bears 
a full crop of pink, fragrant flowers in spring, 
a scattering few in summer and a middling 
crop towards autumn. It is grateful for a 
tbiu Bhading from warm suushiue, especially 
in winter. 
Golden-plume Japan Cypress (lletinispora 
plumosa aurea).—The past winter, although 
a long and dreary one, was not very severe 
so far as hard frost was concerned, aud all the 
reteuisporas lived through it well. But this 
kind, which is one of the hardiest of its rooa, 
suffered considerably owing to the northwest 
winds, indeed, much more than did R. squar- 
rosa, filicoides, lycopodioides, fllifera pendulu, 
auy of the obtusas, or others. Also snow 
spread it apart more than it did any of tho 
other kinds. 
The Umbrella Pine.—A gem for u small 
garden, perfectly hardy, stiff, upright, col 
umnar to pyramidal in form, branched and 
leaved from the ground to the crown, striking 
in appearance, and the easiest plant to trans¬ 
plant I ever handled in the way of choice 
evergreens. 
Peabody’s Golden Arbor-Vitas:.— De¬ 
cidedly golden all winter long, and the most 
golden of all our arbor-vitnes except one mark¬ 
ed No. 1,473, which we had two years ago 
from the Arnold Arboretum. It is now more 
golden than is Peabody’s. 
Spir.eas, —Among early-growing Spirieas 
I wish you lmd included Van Houtii; it is a 
fine form of 8. trilobata. 
Xanthourros Sorbifolia—I f wo had a 
simple pretty name for this shrub it would 
become popular in our gardens. Its horrid 
name militates against it. Plants raised 
from seed and grown on unchecked will bloom 
when two years old; plants less than u foot 
high will bloom freely; plants less than two 
feet high will bear and ripen good seed and 
that too without apparent injury to them¬ 
selves. Have you observed, in raising seed¬ 
lings, bow some of the seeds will germinate in 
two weeks aud others lie dormant for nearly a 
year? This has been the case with me, from 
seeds gathered at the same time from the same 
plant, and sown or treated in every way 
alike. 
Abies or Picea ?—You call a spruce Abies 
and a fir Picea. I follow Prof. C. S, Sargent 
who calls a fir Abies and a spruce Picea. 
True, we have high authority fo both ways. 
LWo accept theuew way, though reluctant¬ 
ly. Until catalogues make the change, how 
ever, we should merely perplex our reader by 
calling the fir Abies, aud the spruce Picea. 
—Eds.] 
Grass Seed for Lawns. —In the case of 
new lawns, l too prefer clean Red Top and 
Blue Grass, hutiu repairing patches aud bare 
spots in old lawns, I use also a middling pro¬ 
portion of Italian Rye Grass, uot so much for 
permanent use as for quick effect, and to help 
check the incorrigible Crab Grass later in the 
summer. 
Some Spruces mentioned on page 242.— 
There are two forms of the Himalayan 
Spruce, one much more tender than the 
other, but even the hardiest likes shelter from 
wmd. The Orieutal Spruce is somewhat dif¬ 
ficult to transplant. A hedge of the Tiger¬ 
tailed Spruce would exclude the small boy 
from the orchard. 
Queens Co., N. Y. 
“CONCERNING THE AGRICULTURAL 
COLLEGE.” 
the other side. 
Apropos of the Hon. Parker Earl’s defence 
of the university Bystem under which a large 
portion of the fund derived from the national 
land grant of 1842 given for the educational 
purposes, is administered, I collate the follow¬ 
ing statistics from the last annual report of 
the Ohio State University. These statistics 
show that of the 93 persons who have gradu¬ 
ated from that institution, 37 have taken the 
degrees of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of 
Philosophy, 27 that or Bachelor of Science, 
27 that of Mining, Mechanical or Civil Engi¬ 
neer, and two that of Bachelor of Agriculture. 
Of the 75 who graduated previous to tHKii, 3 
were women. The present occupations of tho 
67 men may bo classified as follows: 23 engi¬ 
neers, architects, draughtsmen, mining or 
manufacturing chemists, electricians, sur¬ 
veyors, signal service attaches, etc; 12 law¬ 
yers and law students; 11 teachers, seven mer¬ 
chants and book-keepers; four journalists; 
four physician or medical students; two cler¬ 
gymen; one post-graduate student, ouo sol¬ 
dier; one farmer and one fruit grower. Mr. 
Eurlo claims that 15 per cent of the graduates 
of the University of Illinois are fanners, and 
his claim is supported by the statistics pub¬ 
lished in the catalogue of that institution for 
1883-4, which enumerate 47 fanners in a total 
of nearly 300 male graduates whose occupa¬ 
tions are given, and also 43 lawyers, while 
the engineering pursuits there, as at the very 
similarly couducted Ohio State University, 
are greatly in the lead. 
Mr. Earle regrets that the “agricultural 
courses in all of our colleges have less attend¬ 
ance than the engineering, mechanical or the 
purely scientific aud literary courses,” and 
again he complains that it is “along lime 
since” he “has read one line of general praise 
and commendation of any of our agricultur¬ 
al colleges on tho editorial page of any agri¬ 
cultural paper,” uud yet lie reads “a great 
many papers.” 
Apparently Mr. Earle does not include the 
agricultural colleges of Michigau, Kansas, 
Mississippi m his list; for from them comes 
no complaint of lack of students in tho agri¬ 
cultural departments, and certainly there has 
been no lack of praise of these colleges in the 
agricultural press. The catalogue of the 
Miehiga i Agricultural College l'or l g 85-3<4, 
shows a total attendance of 295 students, and 
these are all students of agriculture and the 
mechanic arts—not of the liberal urts, Hie 
mechanic arts or agriculture—while of tho 
graduates of this college, more than half are 
engaged in agriculture or kindred pursuits, 
and this notwithstanding the fact, that many 
of the students at this college enter with the 
avowed intention of not following agriculture 
as a business. 
The difference between the tone of the agri¬ 
cultural colleges of Michigan, Kansas and 
Mississippi and the Universities of Ohio and 
Illinois is simply that the latter perfunctorily 
teach “such branches of learning as relate to 
agriculture,” while Iu the former these 
branches are taught in their relations to agri¬ 
culture. Were the great farms of tho Ohio 
and Illinois Universities made as truly aud 
completely laboratories for the personal appli¬ 
cation, by the student, of the principles of 
science taught in the class-room as are their 
magnificent mechanical laboratories, and were 
the trustees and professors of the two institu¬ 
tions themselves iu that hearty sympathy with 
the life of the farm that is manifested in the 
agricultural colleges named, the disparity be¬ 
tween the number of students and graduates 
iu the arts aud engineering courses on the 
one side and the agricultural courses on the 
other of these universities would soon grow 
very much smaller. c. K. thorne. 
Springfield, Ohio. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must he aceomiianled by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asklnif a quesilou, please see If It Is not answered in 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put queatlous on a separate piece of paper.] 
BLACK-HEART IN APPLE TREES; WORKING AP¬ 
PLE TREKS IN THE “COLD NORTH.” 
J. G. II., Lewiston, Me .—My lately-set ap¬ 
ple trees have done well, except those whose 
bark has turned black; these grow very 
little aud soon die. This appears to bo caused 
by cutting off branches at the wrong time of 
the year. In a late Rural Mr. Falconer says: 
“Prune apple trees whenever you feel like 
doing so,” and this is according to tho general 
opinion on the matter, though some say the 
best time for pruning is June and the worst 
March. Is tho black-bark disease caused by 
trimming at the wrong season? Tho heart 
also turns black. Ts there any remedy? 
ANSWERED BY T. H. HOSKINS, M I). 
“Blank-heart,” iu apple trees, is caused by 
excess of winter’s cold beyond their point of 
resistance. Every variety has its exact limit 
in this particular, and at a certain tempera¬ 
ture its wood is disorganized by the rupture of 
its cells The young wood (outer layers) has 
considerably greater resisting power than the 
older, consequently a degree of cold that will 
disorganize the latter does not kill the former, 
and a tree so injured may go on for years, 
growing and bearing fruit, though with a 
more or less unthrifty appearance. These 
ruptured cells, not bciug able to retain their 
fluid contents, will allow them to run out 
wherever they are cut across, as iu pruning, 
at any season when the sap is sufficiently fluid. 
This escaping sap runs down upon the bark, 
turns black, and seems to have a corrosive 
effect, unless it is frequently removed by 
washing with soap and water. There is no 
season wheu limbs of any considerable size 
can be removed from a black-hearted tree 
without causing an escape of sap i.i this way. 
If, however, the pruning is done after the 
trees are well in leaf, there may not be much 
escape of sap at the time. But from a cut 
that does not, heal over within tho year sap 
will run at any subsequent season when it is 
sufficiently fluid. If a tree which bleeds in 
this wuy is cut down and worked up for fire¬ 
wood, the whole process of tho destruction 
and disintegration of the wood may be dis¬ 
covered It was said above that this destruc¬ 
tion is the consequence of cold below some 
exact point, and this is shown by the fact that 
the injury is uot equal on all sides, or in every 
part. The older wood invariably suffers 
worse when the whole tree is not killed. The 
writer of this, who lives In Northern Vermont, 
has been burning the wood of black-hearted 
apple trees in his office stove all winter, and 
has taken considerable interest in improving 
tho opportunity to study the matter carefully. 
For 20 years lie has been not iug the effects 
upon the trees iu nursery und orchard, and 
long ago found that entirely hardy varieties— 
“iron-dads”—the wood of which is never dis¬ 
colored, also never exhibit this phenomenon 
of “bleeding.” In Southern Maine (of which 
the writer is a native) orchardlsts liuil it very 
