422 
servations were illustrated by specimens of a 
number of the longer-keeping sorts of Ameri¬ 
can origin, and an account of their qualities 
and availability for home use and for mar¬ 
ket. A lively discussion followed, in which 
the experience of many of the fruit-growers 
present, in regard to this class of fruits, was 
brought out. It was evident that the confi¬ 
dence of all of them had of late been very 
much strengthened in regard to the practica¬ 
bility and profit of orcharding in the St. 
Lawrence valley. 
The evening session was opened with a 
paper by Mr. J. T. McBride, on “Wbat the 
Market Demands of our Apple-growers,” in 
which be severely criticised the careless vs ay 
in which much orchard fruit is handled and 
sent to market. All apples, he said, should be 
put into new barrels, thoroughly shaken and 
judiciously pressed. Early apples often pay 
Fig. 37. 
better when sent in neat baskets. It m ver 
pays to put in small or imperfect fruit. The 
supply of choice fruit t is never equal to the 
demand. He praised Montreal as a fruit mar¬ 
ket and believed that Canada has a great 
future as a fruit-prcducing country. 
The Rev. Canon Fulton followed on the same 
topic, urging the more careful gathering of 
fruit, for the sake of the trees as well as of 
the crop; ana an interesting paper on pick¬ 
ing, sorting ana pacKmg truit, contributed 
by Mrs. Annie L. Jack, of Chateauguay Basin 
(who, much to the iegret of many, was unable 
to be present), was read by Secretary Dunlop 
of the society. Mrs. Jack expressed the be¬ 
lief that growers were beginning to learn that 
only honest packing pays, and she thinks that 
if the society could employ a few honest deal¬ 
ers to handle the fruit of its members, there 
would be less imposition by middlemen, and 
less danger of the market being overstocked. 
Mr. R. W. Shepherd Jr., an extensive or- 
chardist at Como, on the Ottawa River, treat¬ 
ing the same subject, deplored the hardship 
of having his carefully selected fruit brought 
into competition with the class of apples usu- 
allysold on thelocal markttas “firstquality,” 
but which are really much under that grade. 
He spoke forcibly on the duty of each grower 
to establish a good name—the true principle 
of success in every trade. 
The morning session of the second day 
opened with a paper contributed by Mrs. 
Jack, on “Strawberries and their Culture.” 
Her list of berries ranged in the following 
order of merit for market: Wilson and Cres¬ 
cent about equal, followed by Manchester, 
Jersey Queen Sharpless, Cumberland, Wind¬ 
sor Chief, and Glendale for canning. Mrs. 
Jack does not rank strawberries very high in 
the scale of profit compared with other fruits, 
and spoke feelingly of the “ cast-iron back and 
THE RURAL NIW-Y0RR1R. FEB 28 
sun-proof skin” required by those who en¬ 
gaged in their cultivation. 
Mr. W. Mead Pattison, of Clarenceville, 
Quebec, read a brief but thoroughly good 
aud practical paper on “Summer Pruning of 
Grapes,” enforcing the importance of careful 
pinching in and thinning, to get full and mer¬ 
chantable clusters, and especially as promo¬ 
tive of early ripening in the North. In the dis¬ 
cussion following, varieties in the following 
order of market value were named: Herbert, 
Barry, Duchess, Worden, Champion, Brighton 
Delaware, Lindley, Wilder and Jewell. 
Some thought the Champion the most profit¬ 
able. The Early Victor was condemned. 
Mr. A. A. Wright, of Renfrew, Ont., read 
an excellent paper on ornamental tree plant¬ 
ing, giving the preference to the American 
Linden, or Basswood, as a street tree, follow¬ 
ing in order with the white maple, the ash, the 
sugar maple (not quite tardy, in Canada, in 
exposed spots), the elm and the oak. The ob¬ 
jection to the American elm is that it is 
often injured by sleety ice. 
The afternoon session was opened with a 
paper on “ Sod in Orchards, ” by Mr. J. C. 
Chapais, of St. Denis. Canadian experience 
had shown that trees in tilled land suffer 
greatly in severe winters. Mulched trees 
suffer less, and those in sod least of all. Mr. 
C. thought the best method to be keeping the 
ground free of grass for four or five feet 
around the trunk, covering tha space with 
mulch, and keeping the rest in sod. 
A “symposium” on Russian apples was 
then started, and Vice-President Gibb gave a 
most interesting account of his experiences 
with the later importations, illustrated by an 
exhibition of specimens of the longer keepers. 
He thought there was not much hope of get¬ 
ting very long keepers here from a country 
where the summers were so much shorter, yet 
he was able to exhibit several sorts much 
larger and considerably better keepers than 
Fameuse; but tew ot these approached very 
near to tUat variety in quality. Dr. Hoskins,of 
Vermont, suggested the importance of grow¬ 
ing seedlings from crosses between the best 
Russian and the longest-keeping American 
iron-clad apples, such as Bethel, Wealthy and 
Scott’s Winter. In this he was supported by 
President Penhallow and others. 
The question whether there is more than 
one Fameuse apple was then discussed, and 
the conclusion seemed to be that the Fameuse 
has many seedlings closely resembling it. 
At the evening session, Mr. R. W. Shepherd 
Jr., read a paper on the “Best Apples for 
Home Use, ' recommending such semi-hardy 
varieties as Dyer and Early Joe, which may 
be grown with fair success when top-grafted 
on iron-clads. Red Astracfcan, Oldenburg 
and St. Lawrence were favored for fall use, 
Fameuse and Wealth}' for early, and Golden 
Russet aud Scott’s Winter for late winter. A 
general talk on winter varieties indicated that 
in this direction much was yet to be desired 
in the cold North. After some promiscuous 
discussion, the meeting was brought to a close 
with a few well chosen remarks by President 
Penhallow, on the educative value of meet¬ 
ings such as these had been. h. 
AN EFFECTIVE METHOD OF 
GRAFTING. 
I send the Rural an illustration“(See Fig. 
37) of a Japanese mode of grafting. I noticed 
the graft among my collection of rare fruits 
imported from Japan. I find it a much more 
successful manner of grafting than the old 
way for the persimmon and all nuts, as these 
are difficult to graft. The graft is a combina¬ 
tion of a graft and cutting; the graft is kept 
alive by being partly buried in the ground 
until sap circulation is established. 
Marksville, La. j. L. norm and. 
[This method of grafting is really a part of 
the “approach” and a part of the “layer” 
systems. Eds.] 
(See page 123.) 
Among several varieties ot seeds of vegeta¬ 
bles received from Japan last spring were 
three varieties of winter squash, viz , Kikusa- 
tonasu, Cbijinu-tonasu aud Koboehia-tonasu. 
The first-named was the only one that proved 
of any special value; but it is certainly well 
worthy of mention. It is shown at Fig. 39, 
with half-section at Fig. 40, and, as the name 
indicates, it is flat and deeply furrowed aud of 
a dull yellow color. It ranges from eight to 
12 inches in diameter the largest way, and it | 
is of about one-third that diameter from stem 
to blossom end. It proves to be a good keeper 
and is of excellent quality, being much sweet¬ 
er than the Hubbard, Boston Turban, Bay 
State or Brazil Sugar, all of whicn were 
grown in the same field. The Hubbard, how¬ 
ever, continues to be the general favorite 
among old and well tried sorts. J troop. 
La Fayette, Ind. 
farm (Dcottoimj. 
ECONOMY OF TIME IN CALF 
FEEDING. 
Mr. A. J. McLeod, of De Soto County, 
Mississippi, sends us an account of his method 
of feeding calves. This plan is illustrated at 
Fig. 38. The picture needs no explanation. 
Mr. McLeod says that with this arrangement 
he can do in 10 minutes what would have re¬ 
quired two hours under the common “knock 
down and drag out” system of calf feeding. 
The R. N.-Y. speaks of feeding two quarts 
of potatoes to stock per day. I am feeding 
nearly a bushel per day to a good-sized half- 
Jersey cow and two quarts to a small horse. 
Uncasville, Conn. d. a. s. 
My wife says she cannot get along without 
the R. N.-Y. You see whenever we get into 
a debate she says the Rural says so, and she 
thinks that puts an end to it. e. m. 
Brantford, Ont. 
(Birmjtcrljm. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Dakota. 
New England City, Hettinger Co., Feb. 
ruary 4.—Less than two years ago I came from 
Massachusetts to this new settlement w r hen 
there was practically nothing here but the 
unbroken prairie aud the Cannon Ball river; 
to-day T there is a thriving community com¬ 
posed mostly of New England people, cluster¬ 
ed around areat village. All the settlers now 
here are contented aud prosperous, adding to 
their live stock and proposing to greatly in¬ 
crease the number of acres under cultivation 
the coming season. The climate is, on tLe 
whole, much more agreeable and healthful 
than that of Massachusetts. Tfce characte r of 
the soil is such that when thoroughly w et it 
holds the moisture for a leng time aud crops 
do well with a much smaller number of 
inches of rainfall than are needed in tLe East. 
During the last two seasons, that is, during 
my acquaintance with the country, there has 
been a sufficient amount of moisture, either 
from melting snow or rain, to grow good 
profitable crops of corn, wneat, oats, millet, 
potatoes and other field crops and vegetables; 
the rains come at about the right times in 
spring and summer, and there have been no 
heavy rains during harvesting to cause trouble, 
extra labor and loss. This portion cf Dakota 
has one great advantage over most sections 
of the prairie country, in its abundant sup¬ 
ply of cheap fuel in the form cf lignite coal, 
which is easily mined and costs at present 
only the labor of digging and hauling. There 
yet remains in this region a considerable 
amount of Government land, and energetic 
and thrifty people wishing to come here to 
make homes for themselves and aid in build¬ 
ing up a prosperous and law-abidiDg com¬ 
munity, may be sure of a hearty welcome. 
Success to the Rural, which I value as highly 
here as I did when I was in the East, 
D. T. H. 
Iowa. 
Des Moines, Polk Co., February 7. —In my 
last I closed with the statement that New 
Year’s Day was the prettiest ever known in 
this country. January held this record all the 
way through. The oldest settler was puzzled. 
The mercury went to zero only once during 
the month. This is a very dry winter: no 
rain or snow. Water is getting very low and 
many wells are dry; it is hard to get water for 
stock ; streams are very low. Stock is gener¬ 
ally iu good condition. In some neighbor¬ 
hoods young hogs are dying of cholera. Busi¬ 
ness of all kiDds is very didl—not much doing 
in anything. Everything is cheap and very 
little of anything is selling. Hogs are in bet¬ 
ter demand than anything else and bring bet¬ 
ter prices, and they are very scarce. Some 
corn is selling, but it is hard to get 25 cents 
per bushel. Potatoes, onions and most other 
vegetables are not worth moving; they will 
hardly sell at any price. Apples are very low; 
only 50 cents per bushel for the best choice 
varieties, and sales are dull at that. More 
potatoes aud onions were stored last fall than 
ever before in this country; then the winter 
has been so mild that not nearly so many as 
usual of either have been used. Commission- 
men are looking out in every direction for an 
outlet; but have failed to find one as } r et. 
Many farmers say they will feed potatoes. 
Choice potatoes are a dull sale at 20 cents per 
bushel aud onions are dull at 40 cents. Our 
farmers are more undecided in their plans for 
the coming season than I ever knew them to 
be. They seem to be at a loss what to plant, 
and so the seed trade is very dull as yet. 
Some want to go into fruit raising, but are 
afraid, and certainly they have good rea¬ 
son to be afraid of the fruit business, for if 
there were nothing else in the way it would 
be hard to decide where to get fruit trees that 
would be true to name. There is more in¬ 
quiry for small fruits and cherry trees aud 
grape-vines than for anything else, and the 
prospect is there will be a good trade for these 
later in the season. F. s. w. 
Kama*. 
Leon, Butler Co., February 8. —Winter 
thus far has been very mild—something like 
an old-style Kansas winter. Crops were light 
in this section though feed is abundant, and 
stock generally are wintering well. Not as 
Yv\S^V 
ONE WAY OF FEEDING CALVES. Fig. 38. 
