286 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APR IT 
that of any I have eaten this season. If on 
further trial these qualities are confirmed, 
there is reason to expect that it will super¬ 
sede other sorts. 
YIELD AND PROFIT. 
One hundred bushels to the acre I consider 
a very poor crop. Ouce I had just 300 bush¬ 
els on three acres and scarcely any of them 
were of good merchantable size. A fair crop 
should be placed at 150 bushels or more. At 
$1 a bushel as I have known them to average, 
they make a paying crop, but now with the 
increase of all vegetables, North and South, 
they frequently bring only 50 to 60 cents, but 
even at these prices they pay as well as other 
farm crops or better. 
MANURING. 
My belief is that land in good condition is 
preferable to that manured at the time, al¬ 
though I have not experimented in this di¬ 
rection. Some plow a furrow, fill it with 
manure and throw the ridge on top of it. 
Since the foregoing was written I have had a 
letter from a large and successful grower, in 
which he says that his land has a stiff clay 
subsoil. I presume it must be well drained. 
He remarks that on strong land in a wet 
season, the potatoes run to vine, while on thin 
land a good crop is made, but that, on the 
other hand, the latter would make a poor 
crop in a dry season. 
jtysxikulinxaL 
A LITTLE OF PEA HISTORY. 
JAMES J. H. GREGORY. 
Why it may be wise to have the same pea 
sold under different names ; an experiment 
withpeas ; comparison between the yields 
of some standard varieties. 
Those old English sorts known by our fathers 
as “Early May,” “Early Kent,” “Early June,” 
one or all of them gifts of the Mother 
Country, were doubtless the original parents 
of all of our numerous varieties of early hard 
peas which are now catalogued under a score 
or more names, usually having, as a prefix, 
the name of some seedsman. I have no ancient 
catalogue at hand, but will venture a guess 
that Early Kent may be found to have been 
the original ancestor of the numerous prog¬ 
eny. Those who have tested all these early 
sorts side by side, have found a difference of 
two or three days in earliness in some of the 
varieties, a slight difference in size of pod, a 
greater inclination to bear twin pods in some 
cases and a slight difference in yield, with 
the habit of yielding all the crop at a single 
picking rather more fixed in some of the sorts. 
All these differences count for value among 
marketmen, yet in some instances the differ¬ 
ences between those bearing different names 
are, if they exist at all, so infinitesimal that 
a question very naturally asked is “Why 
have so many names ? Is there not far 
more distinction than difference in the whole 
matter of naming first early peas ?” I have 
never sent into the market early peas bearing 
my name as a prefix. I think my good friends 
will concede that I can have no axe to grind 
when defending this practice among my fel¬ 
low-seedsmen j The argument, in brief, is 
this.— 
As it is found in practice that either from a 
tendency among early varieties to sport, or 
from carelessness in thrashing or cleaning 
them, degenerating impurities are apt to creep 
in, there is and can be no better protection 
for the public than follows from seedsmen 
giving their names to their first early kinds, 
for this compels them, out of regard for their 
reputation, to have such care exercised in 
the raising and cleaning of seed that if all 
impurities are not eliminated they are reduc¬ 
ed to as low a percent, as is practically pos¬ 
sible. The history of the early pea named 
Dan O’Rourke offers a good illustration of 
the individual responsibilty to keep an early 
pea from degenerating. When first sent out 
it was an excellent strain, but after a few years 
it became worthless as an extra early, losing 
its early habit and maturing unevenly. An 
effort is being made to recover its lost reputa¬ 
tion, but it needs the name of some respon¬ 
sible firm whose reputation will thereby be in¬ 
volved, to insure the public that sufficient care 
will be exercised in selecting and perpetuating 
first-class seed stock. In all my experiments 
with peas, extending over many years and 
sometimes including 70 varieties annually, I 
have yet to find an earlier sort than Carter’s 
Early, but it had the defect common to 
two or three extremely early sorts (and this 
means an advance of but two or three days) 
that the pods were small though numerous. 
A careful test of three seasons has, in each in¬ 
stance, demonstrated that the Alaska is not 
quite so early as other older sorts. 
A word as to the comparative yields of a 
few well known varieties. Last spring I 
planted about an acre and a quarter of good 
pea ground to Hancock, Maud S, Earliest of 
All, Kentish Invicta, American Wonder, Ad¬ 
vancer, Market Garden and Stratagem, with 
the object of getting facts as to their com¬ 
parative yields. The land was remarkably 
even in its composition and lay, sloping gent¬ 
ly to the south. It was manured the fall be¬ 
fore with unleached, hard-wood ashes, at the 
rate of 250 bushels to the acre (by mistake of 
my foreman, twice as much as I intended) and 
after this had lain awhile and had been 
very thoroughly r harrowed in, eight cords of 
barn manure were spread broadcast and left 
over winter at the surface. I went over the 
piece two or three times to see if there was any 
ammonia escaping, just after slight rains, 
but could detect none. In early spring it was 
plowed deep, furrowed out at a good depth 
with the furrows three feet apart; 500 pounds 
per acre of a fertilizer suitable tor peas (one 
not rich in ammonia) were mixed well in the 
furrows by one of Spangler’s distributing ma¬ 
chines, and the peas were planted by a plant¬ 
ing machine. They were not dropped as 
thick as I would have liked by one-third. 
They were run over when a couple of inches 
high by a New Hampshire implement called 
Universal Weeder, made of a series of long 
steel teeth set within a couple of inches 
of each other. This was run right through 
tne rows, length-ways with good effect, 
destroying most of tbe weeds while 
doing but very little harm to the peas. At 
picking time by some oversight the crops of 
the very early varieties were mixed so there 
were no means of comparing them. 'I he peas 
were planted in rows of equal length, several 
rows of each. The following is the average 
yield per row. 
Market Garden-4 bushels 2 pecks 5 quarts. 
Advancer. 4 “ 0 “ 4 “ 
Stratagem.2 “ 2 “ 6 “ 
Kentish Invicta... 2 “ 2 “ 4 “ 
American Wonder.2 “ 1 “ 1 “ 
Three hundred feet of the rows of the Strat¬ 
agem were brushed—none of either of the 
other kinds were, to compare the yield with 
an equal length of unbrushed. The former 
yielded one-eighth more and ripened a few 
days earlier—a difference that did not begin 
to pay for the ext-a labor required. As the 
\merican Wonder would probably have done 
as well proportionally, had they been planted 
one-third nearer, I incline to add a half to 
their yield, which gives a fair measure 
of what they are capable of. It should also 
count in their favor that they are much easier 
to pick tnan any of the other varieties named 
—one half more in the same time would be a 
fair allowance. The Advancer gives a hand¬ 
somer and better filled pod than the Market 
Garden, and sells better: coming with us 
about the Fourth of July it can be sold with 
very little effort, as the market at that time 
is eager for all that it can get. The Strata- 
gem' is a very large pea with pods correspond¬ 
ing; it is of excellent quality and therefore 
desirable for the family garden. 
Marblehead, Mass. 
CANADIAN NOTES ON SMALL FRUITS. 
My locality is near Toronto, Ontario. The 
cfimate is slightly milder than that of North¬ 
ern Massachusetts or Milwaukee, Wis, but 
colder than that of Boston or Chicago. The 
area kept under small fruits by me is three 
acres. Time under cultivation, eight years. 
Soil, stiff clay, mostly low-lying. 
Grapes. —Worden is the best black I have 
tried. Wilder is finer and more prolific, but 
once in three or four years it is too late. 
Moore’s Early yields but poorly. Champion 
is not fit to eat. Brighton is the best red I 
have tried. Jefferson and Iona have ripened 
perfectly only once in four years. Lindley is 
good, but sometimes the berries drop. The 
other Rogers’s reds are sometimes late. Wy¬ 
oming is the prettiest, but insipid. El Do¬ 
rado is the best white I have thoroughly 
tested. It is early and fine-flavored; has very 
large bunches, nearly equal to those of the 
Lady Washington though the berries are 
much smaller. Pocklington is large, beauti¬ 
ful, strong-flavored and fairly prolific though 
a slow grower; but it drops its berries, and is 
rather late in ripening thoroughly every 
year. Niagara and Jessica I have scarcely 
tested. I find it pays to lay down the vines 
in fall, though others do not do so here. 
Strawberries. —Seneca Queen is by far 
the most prolific of the largest berries. Jer¬ 
sey Queen is large but won’t bear. Sharpless 
is watery. Downing is good. Bidwell would 
be the same if it would ripen to the tips. 
Manchester rusts. Mount Vernon is second 
to Seneca. Of the others, some are good; 
some so worthless as not to be worthy of note. 
Blackberries. —Agawam is the best in 
quality among hardy sorts. Taylor is next. 
The others tested—a full dozen varieties— 
were too tender. Snyder I did not think 
worth trying to grow. 
Raspberries. —Turner is the best hardy 
red, very good but only fairly prolific. Cuth- 
bert is not hardy, but would be on a drier soil. 
Hansell is almost worthless,being small,of poor 
flavor, a light cropper and no earlier than the 
Turner. Marlboro, Crimson Beauty, and sev¬ 
eral foreign sorts are worthless here, but 
Hudson River Antwerp and Herstine are 
fine. Shaffer is all that is claimed for it. 
SouhegaD is the best black. Gregg is tender 
and unhealthy. 
Gooseberries —All the English varieties 
succeed here. Mildew is scarcely known. 
Downing is the best native. 
Currants. —Blacks of all varieties have 
been failures. Reds thrive and bear but there 
is little demand for them. White, ditto. 
Prices. —Grapes, three to six cents per 
pound; strawberries, six to 10 cents per quart 
box; raspberries, seven to 10 cents; blackber¬ 
ries, 10 to 12 cents; gooseberries, $2 to §3 per 
bushel for English and $1.50 to $2.00 for na¬ 
tive. Currants, five cents per quart for red 
or white, and 10 to 12 cents for black. 
w. J. MCKINNON. 
EXPERIENCE, WITH'SMALL FRUITS. 
E. C. BRINSER. 
As a small fruit grower of 'some years ex¬ 
perience, I delight in testing new varieties, 
more especially strawberries. The improve¬ 
ments in new varieties over old have certainly 
been very great; but when I confine myself 
to the last decade of years I cannot see such 
marked improvements as the glowing cata¬ 
logues would make us believe. While some 
varieties are great advances in one point,they 
lack in another, or doing well in one locality 
they partially or utterly fail elsewhere. 
Having fruited a number of new and highly 
recommended sorts in the last few years, I 
have found a few which succeed so well in 
my locality and soil that l am inclined to 
think they will supersede some of our older 
staple kinds. 
Strawberries. —Among ‘these the Jessie 
strawberry is very large, of high quality, 
very firm and productive, vigorous in 
growth of plant, and free from rust or 
blight; but I cannot see in it any 
pariicular improvement over the Sharp¬ 
less which seems at home with us, unless 
it be in two points—first, its even ripening, 
showing no white tips; and, second, its hardi¬ 
ness of blossom, as it bears a greater degree o? 
cold without injury than the Sharpless and 
can be grown successfully where the Sharp¬ 
less fails on the latter account. Bubach I 
find to be all I see it recommended for, being 
a good and strong grower, and healthy, and it 
has produced more exceedingly large berries 
than any other sort I have ever seen; but it is 
not so firm or of such high quality as one 
could wish. Did it contain quality aud firm¬ 
ness in as high a degree as Jessie or even 
Sharpless, I would put it down as a decided 
improvement on all. Gandy’s Prize I am 
now inclined to think will supersede the Man¬ 
chester, which wo plant here for late. It is 
later, a luxuriant grower, healthy, and free 
from rust which so much affects the Man¬ 
chester some seasons. The fruit is larger, 
of better quality, and more firm. If it 
holds its qualities and proves productive 
enough, it will be a decided improvement 
on the Cumberland. This is.with me the best 
early (old) berry I have yet had. While some 
others are a little earlier, they are either de¬ 
ficient in size or quality, so that if a few boxes 
can be sold at a greater price the balance 
must be sold for less. Sharpless (old), our 
midseason berry, is or seems at home here. 
Of course, it has defects, but these are no 
more marked than those of any other variety. 
Manchester (old) is ^planted here for a late 
crop and were it not for rust and blight—its 
main troubles—it would be held to eclipse all 
others for a late berry. I could mention 
many more, but I consider these the leading 
new and old varieties 1 for my locality, all the 
rest being so deficient in some respect that I 
shall drop them from my list. 
Raspberries.— Souhegan for early; Ohio 
for medium, and Gregg for late are ray lead¬ 
ing black-caps. Any improvements that have 
been made on these remain to be ascertained 
through tests. Nemaha is as large and good 
as the Gregg, but is no improvement on it, un¬ 
less it be in hardiness, which as yet remains 
to be proven with me, this winter having 
been too moderate thus far for test. Hansell 
for early and Cuthbort for late in reds are my 
leading varieties. Marlboro is a failure, and 
Rancocas not a favorite. 
Dauphin Co., Pa. 
form (Topics. 
BUCEPHALUS BROWN’S NOTIONS AND 
IDEAS. 
On Maple Sugar.— We have just been 
gathering our buckets, after a very good sea¬ 
son. It is rather interesting to note the pre¬ 
vailing ideas among consumers about the su¬ 
gar and sirup they buy, especially those who 
have never lived in the country, and know 
nothing about the matter. It seems to be 
an ineradicable notion, among at least the 
older purchasers, that the fine, light-colored 
sugar and sirup have been “extended” with 
sirup from refined cane sugar, or glucose. 
They declare that it does not have the “good 
old maple taste,” and they “ know it is adul¬ 
terated,” and it is “no use to tell them differ¬ 
ently.” This must be terribly provoking to 
our 2,000 to 4,000 tree men, who have been to 
eo much expense to get the nicest apparatus, 
and are so very particular to protect their 
sap from contamination or change, from the 
tree to the finishing off. 
But Little Adulteration.— Undoubted¬ 
ly the many car-loads of maple sugar sent 
westward are used in preparing a composite 
sirup; but among the farmers themselves I 
have never known of a single case where 
adulteration has been practiced; and I do 
not see how there can be any profit in it. The 
city people, who often pay as high as 25 cents 
a pound for maple sugar, may wonder at this 
statement, but when they understand that 
the average farmer has rarely seen the time 
when he could get at the stores more than an 
even exchange of his maple sugar for granu¬ 
lated, they will see that it must be so. 
Dealers are offering only six cents for tub 
sugar in our markets to-day. 
The Maple Taste.— What is it? Is it the 
taste of sugar? No. The nearer sugar comes 
to absolute purity, the less taste it has, other 
than pure sweetness. The brown sugars made 
from cane have a peculiar taste, not the 
same, but quite as distinct as that from the 
maple. The maple taste is produced by some¬ 
thing in the sugar which is not sugar. Is it 
an impurity? In a chemical sense it Is; but 
in the ordinary sense it is not. The sap as it 
runs from the tree, white and clear as it 
seems, like purest water, is not pure water 
and sugar. The sap is the tree’s blood, and 
contains dissolved in it, all the substances 
which go to build up the tree, just as our 
blood contains the elements of all the tissues 
of our bodies. It is the presence of these 
things that are not sugar which give the pure 
maple taste. 
The True Impurities.— Very few people, 
however, compared with the whole number of 
those who consume maple sweets,have ever eat¬ 
en sugar and sirup having only the pure maple 
taste. They are accustomed to a sugar which 
contains many outside impurities, having or 
causing other flavors, which modify the pure 
maple taste. These impurities consist, first, of 
the many things, moss, dead leaves, bark, 
etc., etc , that tall or blow into the sap in the 
buckets, and stay there long enough to have 
some of their flavor dissolved out of them. 
Besides these outside flavors, there are flavors 
arising from imperfectly cleaned or sour 
buckets, from changes in the sap from the ad¬ 
mixture of snow or rain water, or from sour¬ 
ing, or from being smoked or burned in 
boiling. All these things together, added to 
the true maple taste, have had their part in 
making up a compound flavor which the great 
majority of consumers, accustomed to more 
or less badly made sugar and sirup, have 
come to recognize, and even to demand, as 
“ the good old maple taste.” The good old 
taste is really rather a “ woodsy ” taste. It is 
not bad, generally, unless where there has 
been positive souring which has “ inverted ” 
the sugar, and sometimes even disorganized 
it, so that it will hardly grain at all. 
The “Niter” in Sugar.— There is one 
thing that for a long time was a great mys¬ 
tery in the manufacture of these wild-wood 
sweets. No matter how great the care taken 
to bring the sap to the evaporator, when in 
boiling it reaches a certain degree of concen¬ 
tration, there will often settle out of it a 
whitish sort of sand, which has the name of 
“niter.” The necessity of getting rid of this 
sand, to avoid its presence in the finished 
product,requires that when that certain degree 
of concentration is reached, the thin sirup 
must be allowed to cool, and the “niter” to set¬ 
tle out of it before the boiling can be finished. 
Chemical analysis reveals the fact that it is an 
organic salt of lime, usually the malate. On 
land containing lime a portion of that miner¬ 
al is always dissolved in the water of the soil, 
making it ‘‘hard.” It is taken up by the 
roots, and in the tree assumes this peculiar 
form, very anuoying to sugar makers. 
