^TRY HOj4 
VOL. XLVIII. NO, 2034. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 19, 1889, 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered According to Act of Congres*, in the Year 18S9, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congresa, at Washington.] 
fyoxsmm. 
SHIRE HORSE, AGRICOLA. 
HIS excellent English Shire 
stallion is owned by Messrs. 
Galbraith Bros., of Janesville, 
Wis. He is a noble specimen 
of this famous breed, which is 
becomine very popular on this 
side of the Atlantic. That Ag¬ 
ricola ranks among the very 
best of the breed, is shown .by the following 
record: “ Agricola 
has won, among 
other prizes, first at 
the Royal Manches¬ 
ter and Jiiverpool 
Show in 1882; first 
and champion over 
all ages at the same 
show in 1883; first at 
the Lancaster Spring 
Stallion Show; first 
at Ley laud; first at 
Nelson, and first at 
Skipton, all in 1886. 
In 18o7 he won first 
at Ormskirk Spring 
Stallion Show, third 
at the Roy a) Society’s 
Show at New Castle; 
first at Ormskirk, 
Southport, and 
Bootle Shows, and 
champion prize for 
best stallion in the 
show-yard. He has 
been exhibited only 
twice in America, 
viz: at the American 
Horse Shows of 1887 
and 1888. In the for¬ 
mer year, his stable 
companion, Caracta- 
cus, won first, the 
well known Holland 
Major second, and 
Agricola third. At 
the last show, how- 
ever, Agricola 
turned the tables on 
Holland Major by 
winning first place 
in the strongest class 
of Shire horses ever 
seen in America.” 
A picture of Agri- 
cola is shown at 
Fig. 9. 
flmcultural. 
THE ROSE FRANCOIS MICHELON. 
(See page 34.) 
Just as among men there are always some 
few who tower head and shoulders above their 
fellows, whether physically, intellectually, or 
morally, and are universally considered 
“ great men,” so amoug roses there are some 
varieties w r hose claims to be accepted as 
“great roses” are undisputed. Moreover, as 
in the world of men, although there are plenty 
of good aud useful, not to say indispensable, 
members of the community, the number of 
really great men is small, so in proportion 
to the infinity of beautiful roses m cultivation 
the really great roses, such as General Jaque- | 
minot, Charles Lefebvre, Marie Baumann, 
Alfred Colomb, La France, Baroness Roths¬ 
child, Louis Van Houtte, Marquise de Castel- 
lane, A. K. Williams, Madame Gabriel Luizet 
and Ulrich Brunner, are by no means numer¬ 
ous. 
So writes our esteemed contemporary, the 
London Garden, from which our portrait of 
the rose, Francois Michelon, is re-engraved— 
see Fig. 7. This rose is no less esteemed here 
than in England. In the list of really great 
roses, it must be admitted that this is well 
entitled to a place. It was produced by Levet 
in 1871, a seedling of La Reine. The color is 
a dark rose, tinted with lilac. It is of large 
size, very full and of globular form. It is 
fragrant aud free-blooming. The habit of 
the plant is upright; the thorns are not nu¬ 
merous. In England it rarely blooms in the 
fall. In this country it blooms as well in the 
fall as any of the hybrid remontants, while it 
continues to bloom later in the summer. 
farm Ccatiamij. 
A NEW FERTILIZER. 
Extraordinary results are reported from 
the use of sulphate of iron, or the common 
copperas of commerce, when it is used in con¬ 
nection with the potash and phosphate fer¬ 
tilizers. The Marquis of Paris, who is more 
of a successful fruit grower than a nobleman, 
and more of an extensive market gardener 
than either, has been the first to recommend 
and employ it extensively. His practice is, 
after applying other fertilizers, to sow cop¬ 
peras at the rate of about one ounce to the 
square yard of surface, for all garden crops, 
and for tree and shrub fruits as well, and he 
reports very good results. Not long ago, a 
scientist of some reputation experimented 
with copperas, and came to about the same 
conclusions ; but as these experiments were 
conducted on the usual minimum scale, noth¬ 
ing valuable was established and nothing 
came of it, Ibecause it has come to be recog¬ 
nized by practical men that the personal force 
and belief of the experimenters provoke the 
wished-for results. But in the case of the 
Marquis-gardener, the beneficial influence of 
copperas when used in connection with other 
fertilizers was demonstrated, and the fact 
will be accepted and adopted by his profes¬ 
sional brethren. In the relations of these 
circumstances our scientific agriculturists may 
perhaps read a useful lesson, and to this effect: 
that if the average farmer and fruit-grower 
suspects the integrity of unusual results ob¬ 
tained on a minimum scale, and perhaps 
rejects their teachings altogether, he at once 
takes off his hat and pays the tribute of re¬ 
spect to acres of successful demonstration. 
B. F. J. 
[Our) friend may not be aware that the R. 
N.-Y. has made four experiments in the use 
of sulphate of iron on corn and potatoes. 
The yield was less in every case where the 
copperas was used.—E ds.] 
THREE-HORSE POLE. 
(See page 85.) 
Mr. Terry’s recant statement of the ad¬ 
vantages of a three-horse pole has called out 
several letters from those who desire to know 
how such an arrangement can be fitted to the 
wagon. At Fig. 8 we show a form much em¬ 
ployed on heavy wagons in this city. 
^orticuitural. 
POTATOES FOR SEED. 
WM. FALCONER. 
There is a general impression among farm¬ 
ers and gardeners hereabout that potatoes 
raised by ourselves 
are not as good for 
seed as are those 
raised in Maine or 
Nova Scotia, and a 
large business is done 
here in potatoes 
grown far north. My 
own experience is in 
favor of Maine seed 
potatoes; but this is 
because I do not grow 
potatoes purposely 
for seed. Still, in the 
case of our earliest 
potatoes, I have to 
use home-grown 
seed, because I ex¬ 
pect to have our ear¬ 
liest potatoes planted 
before the ice in the 
Maine harbors has 
broken up enough to 
admit of shipping the 
potatoes from there. 
True, this can be 
overcome by getting 
our seed potatoes in 
the fall instead of in 
the spring. At the 
same time it is a well 
known faetthat 
some of our truck 
farmers always grow 
their own seed pota¬ 
toes. Mr. Hallock, 
of Suffolk Co., who 
grows Early Ohio in 
large quantity for 
the Boston market 
tells me that he al¬ 
ways selects, saves, 
and grows his own 
seed, and prefers it 
to any that he can 
get anywhere else. 
Mr. Abram Van 
Sicklin, of Jamaica,'Queens Co., who is one 
of the largest and most successful truck gar¬ 
deners around New York, saves his own pota¬ 
toes for seed; but he tells me “there is a point 
or two in this potato seed business not gener¬ 
ally known.” He plants his potatoes that are 
to be reserved for seed very late; this year it 
was the second week of June before he planted 
them. The potatoes from these late plantings 
don’t average as large tubers, or as heavy a 
crop as those from earlier plantings; but they 
don’t sprout in winter as do tubers saved over 
from early plantings. These last have to be 
sprouted once or maybe twice during winter; 
hence they are deteriorated to a considerable 
extent for use as seed, for the first sprout is 
always the best, and makes the healthiest and 
most prolific plant. But the tubers from the 
late plantings, like the Maine-grown potatoes, 
if properly kept, do not sprout in winter; 
hence when planted out their growth is first- 
sprout growth with its advantages. Mr. Van 
Sicklin tells me that no matter how good a 
white-skinned potato may be, his customers 
ENGLISH SHIRE STALLION, AGRICOLA. Fig. 9. 
