AU6 47 
tinidia polygama. First: In the herbarium 
above alluded to we have another and quite 
different Actinidia, known to the Japanese as 
Matatabi (pronounced with a very slight ac¬ 
cent on the third syllable—Mar-tar-tar-bee ) 
to which the name Actinidia polygama is 
given. Second: Dr. Rein in his work on Ja¬ 
pan, volume 1, page 148, mentions Matatabi— 
Actinidia polygama. Third: Prof. Kinch, 
now of the Cirencester (Eng.) Agricultural 
College, formerly in the Komaba Agricultural 
College, in Tokio, Japan, in an enumeration 
of the food plants of JapaD, includes Mata¬ 
tabi—Actinidia polygama. (Transactions 
Asiatic Society of Japan; Vol XL, p. 6.) 
These dry details concerning names will 
not, however, interest the majority of the 
readers of the Rural, who may be inclined to 
ask: “"What’s in a name?” 
What, if anything, concerns them is the 
fact that there is more than one Actinidia and 
that the statements published concerning each 
be accurate. What the editor writes concern¬ 
ing his own observations of the Kokuwa—the 
plant figured—is perfectly correct. It is only 
when he applies to the plant the statements 
taken from the Japanese book alluded to, 
that he falls into error. [Our plant was re¬ 
ceived from the nursery as Actinidia poly¬ 
gama, which we assumed to be the correct 
name. The quotation from the Japanese 
book referred to this species. The R. N.-Y. 
merely pointed out wherein the Actinidia of 
the book differed from the Rural specimen 
as evidence either that ours was incorrectly 
named or that the book was in fault. Eds.] 
This I do not wonder at in view of the con¬ 
fusion in scientific names which I have en¬ 
deavored to clear up, and in view, further, of 
the fact that the Japanese writer himself 
seems to have confused the two species. 
The statement: “It often stretches across 
ravines or climbs about and entangles the 
tops of trees,” can be true only of the Kokuwa 
—Actinidia arguta. The true Actinidia poly¬ 
gama is a far less rampant grower and usual¬ 
ly climbs only over clumps of bushes. This 
plant it is, and not the one illustrated in (he 
Rural, which has “snow-white leaves” at 
the ends of shoots, a fruit of a “ reddish yel¬ 
low color” of the size of the “ top joint of the 
little finger,” and of the stems and leaves of 
which “ cats are exceedingly fond.” No won¬ 
der the Rural Gats displayed “ utter indiffer¬ 
ence” when presented with Kokuwa leaves 
and stems. They proved themselves accurate 
botanists, not to be taken in by false “cat¬ 
nip. 
The Kokuwa never has white leaves, and its 
fruit, which is far more abundantly produced 
on fertile plants than is that of the Matatabi, 
is larger, and, even when ripe, of a green 
color. The size is very variable, but on a 
vigorous plant the fruit will on an average be 
as large as the Green Gage Plum. Its skin 
is astringent, but the pulp, which is readily 
pressed out at the stem end, is delicious. The 
seeds are numerous and scarcely so large as 
those of the swamp blueberry. The fruit is 
extremely laxative when eaten freely. It 
would be unfit to eat dried, as the skin could 
not be separated and would soon make the 
tongue and throat sore. It is readily made 
into a most delicious jam, the skins being 
sifted out in the making. I brought home 
with me a number of cans made by my Japan¬ 
ese cook, of which I will send the Rural a little 
sample. I believe that this plant will prove 
valuable here for its fruit; but it will be nec¬ 
essary to propagate it by cuttings from fertile 
vines as it is polygamo-dioecious, and from 
seed would produce a large number of barren 
plants. For ornamental purposes I have no 
great opinion of it except, perhaps, as the 
Rural suggests, by implication at least, in 
parks to “form pretty arbors and wild en¬ 
tanglements” from “tree to tree.” It is far 
too rampant to plant near houses or as a ver¬ 
anda climber, as has been often done here. It 
requires too much pruning and training, and 
is too liable to displace eave-spouts or to 
strangle other shrubs and trees. 
For ornament the cats’ favorite, the Mata¬ 
tabi—Actinidia polygama—is much to be pre¬ 
ferred. It is, though vigorous and hardy, far 
less rampant than the Kokuwa, and the feat¬ 
ure alluded to of developing snow-white 
leaves at the tips of shoots, adds much to its 
beauty. The flowers are almost like those of 
the Kokuwa, though more fragrant and less 
abundant; but as the plant grows, the flowers 
of both species are too inconspicuous and 
short-lived to amount to much from an orna¬ 
mental stand-point. These vines are desir¬ 
able, if at all, for the beauty and health of 
their foliage. 
I send the Rural dried leaves and also 
green shoots of both species. One of the dried 
leaves of the Actinidia polygama was a white 
one. The herbarium specimen from which I 
took it had six of these white leaves, instead 
of the “ two or three ” the Japanese author 
speaks of. The green shoot of this species— 
iB from one of two or three living plants 
which I brought from Japan last fall. As 
the Rural will see, it shows no white; this 
color is not, I think, produced on leading 
shoots, but on flowering laterals, and probably 
not on very young plants. Vines planted in 
my garden in Sappow had not developed this 
characteristic after three summers. The dif¬ 
ferences between the two species will be suffi¬ 
ciently evident from an examination and com¬ 
parison of the specimens sent; and the Editor 
will see that his vine is like the Argrta and 
not the Polygama. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
STRAWBERRY NOTES. 
FROM WILLIAM FALCONER. 
As soon as we had finished picking—this 
year about the end of June—I had the ground 
well cleaned and the roughest of the strawy 
mulch taken off ; then with sharp four-pronged 
hoes we unfastened the soil between the rows. 
This was to cultivate the land, readily admit 
air and moisture into the soil and help exclude 
drought, and to form genial rooting ground 
for the runners. The runners now are strong, 
healthy, well-rooted and fit for transplanting. 
1 am now preparing ground for a new plan¬ 
tation : it has just been cleaned of root crops. 
It has been heavily manured and subsoiled 
and marked off into rows two feet apart. I 
will set two plants close together in the hill, 
and the hills 18 inches asunder in the row, and 
any more runners these newly-set-out plants 
may make this season will be cut off as soon 
as noticed. If short of ground elsewhere, I 
will grow a row of small lettuces, radishes, 
Horn Carrots or other small crop between the 
strawberry rows ; but if I have plenty room 
elsewhere, I will not crop between the rows, 
but, instead, keep them well cultivated so as 
to strengthen the plants. In December I will 
scatter some well rotted manure broadcast all 
over the strawberry patch: then some salt hay 
or sea thatch thinly over the plants to protect 
them from sun and wind in winter. 
From the strawberry plants I set out each 
year in this way about the end of July or in 
August, I get a capital crop of fruit the June 
following, and always our largest berries. 
The chief trouble of fall-planted strawberry 
plants is that they are set out too late to be¬ 
come large and well-established before winter 
sets in, hence they get heaved by frost a good 
deal and many of them killed. I am hot 
troubled in this way, as our young plants are 
just as firmly established as are the old ones. 
A farmer with plenty of land perhaps can 
afford to plant in spring, but a gardener can¬ 
not very well do this. We never could afford 
to keep our ground occupied for a whole year 
with a crop that has not borne us any fruit. 
I never do. Every rod of ground has to 
produce something every year. And if there 
is an unproductive crop in the ground, such 
as asparagus the first year or young fruit 
trees, we get catch-crops enough off the land 
to hardly make the presence of the unproduc¬ 
tive crop felt. 
FROM F. C. MILLER. 
Nearly all kinds did well. For productive¬ 
ness and good size Bubach, Jessie, Haverland 
and Crawford stand at the head. One picker 
in two hours picked twelve quarts of Jessies 
of superior size and quality. We sold over 
300 bushels from a little over au acre 
and lost by rotting not less than 100 bush¬ 
els. The Bubacns were immense in size, 
but the Haver ands out-yielded them. Craw¬ 
ford is the foremost and best in quality of 
all. The largest berry grown was a Craw¬ 
ford, but it is not quite as productive as I 
would like. W arfletd is well liked ; Burt not 
so well. I am greatly pleased with Bomba. 
It is productive, firm and of good quality. 
Monmouth was good and firm. The plants 
are not strong enough to mature all up to 
size. Gandy is a grand berry, but there were 
too few of them : all like its size and quality. 
Logan did well. 
New Philadelphia, O. 
Separating Stock for Feeding.—On the 
farm where the only incubator used is the old 
reliable hen, the flock of chickens is usually 
composed of birds of various sizes. Where 
they are fed together, as is generally done, 
the late-hatched and consequently the 
smaller and weaker ones are so crowded and 
run over by the larger, that they do not get 
their proper share of feed, and consequently 
make little if any gain. It is but a short job 
to make a covered pen of lath, old baTrel 
staves, or strips^of board, with spaces of suf¬ 
ficient width to admit the smaller chicks, and 
exclude the larger ones. Here they may be 
fed, and will soon learn to eat in peace and 
quietness. The extra gain made will well 
repay the slight expense. 
Grading Up.— Farmers are rapidly learn¬ 
ing the importance of improving their horses, 
cattle and other stock, either by selecting the 
most desirable animals for breeders, or by 
crossing with pure-bred males, or both. The 
same princ pies should be applied in the poul¬ 
try yard. The average farmer wants a hen 
that will lay a goodly number of eggs per an¬ 
num ; that will hatch a good brood of chicks 
under adverse conditions, and that furnishes 
a good carcass for the table. If he continue 
to breed in year after year, his stock will run 
out. To keep up the vigor and productive¬ 
ness of his flock, new blood should be intro¬ 
duced. The best hens should be selected for 
breeders, preferably hens one year old; then— 
as the male is half the flock—buy a full-blood 
cockerel, (or more if the flock be large) of 
some desirable breed. Now is the time to at¬ 
tend to this matter. The flock needs culling 
now; breeders are anxious to sell their surplus 
stock at this season. Many times cockerels 
with some defect of plumage or coloring can 
be bought at low prices, and are just as good 
as “ standard ” fowls for improving common 
stock. This is the cheapest and best method 
for those who do not care to keep pure-bred 
fowls. 
The hens should have extra care and feed 
during the moulting season if they are ex¬ 
pected to do their best afterward. 
Put some clover in the silo for winter-feed 
for the hens. A tight barrel or large box 
will do, if the clover is tramped down tightly 
and well covered. 
For winter-layers, the early pullets and 
early-moulting hens are most valuable Eggs 
are usually worth most in early winter, and 
then is the time when we wa-t the hens to 
lay. 
Raising Capons seems to be a growing 
business, and there are many inquiries in re¬ 
lation to the process of caponizing. This is a 
cruel operation to say the least, as is evi¬ 
denced by the fact that from 10 to 25 per 
cent, of the birds are said to be killed by it. 
No one should undertake to perform it but an 
expert, and then only when provided with 
the best instruments obtainable. 
Milk and butter-milk are excellent for both 
laying hens and growing chicks. 
Eggs, if perfectly fresh, may be packed in 
salt, bran, oats, etc., and kept in good condi¬ 
tion until mid-winter. Pack so that they will 
not touch each other, keep in a cool, dry place, 
and turn the package every few days. They 
will keep better if the hens have no male com¬ 
panions. 
If the nests haven’t received attention, it is 
more than likely that they are swarming with 
mites. The nests should be movable, so that 
they can be carried out-of-doors Pour a 
little kerosene over the straw, or other nest- 
material, touch a match to it and let it alone. 
It is good for the hens, although rather warm 
for the mites. Do you know that nice, new, 
clean nests encourage hens to begin laying? 
Fact! 
(£vzvn\w\)aL 
VERMONT NOTES. 
Decadence nf sheep husbandry; butter tests 
and prices, hay; wood for fire; bee-keep¬ 
ing; no “ quid pro quo u stone-walls; 
happiness on slim mec.ns; the spruce as an 
ornamental tree; scarcity of evergreens 
and young men about farm houses. 
“The sheep on a thousand hills ” where, oh! 
where are they? The hills are here; even the 
sheep-paths may be traced along their sides, 
but the sheep have disappeared; gone I fear 
never to return. The primitive forest is grad¬ 
ually reclothing the land reclaimed from it 
by the early settlers. The “ bush ” so recently 
driven far up the mountain sides is again cov¬ 
ering the valleys and is working its way slowly 
toward the villages. What is to be done 
about it? Some say the tariff on wool is too 
high; others say it is too low, and a few think 
it would be better to have no tariff at all. I 
am inclined to think that the temperate 
climate and rich grass of North Carolina and 
the South Western States with the low-priced 
laoor, give rise to too strong a competition in 
the production of wool for northern New Eng¬ 
land, with its long, cold winters and high- 
priced labor. It pays so much better to haul 
and cut marble than it does to raise sheep 
that there is little hope of a revival of the 
sheep growing industry. 
Corn came up badly and will not be over 
two-thirds of an average crop; but with meal 
from the Wes selling, at this season, for $18 
per ton, it would seem to make but little dif¬ 
ference whether the crop was a failure or not. 
The remarkably low price of butter is work¬ 
ing serious injury to the average farmer. I 
notice that many farmers attribute i his to 
the modern system of co-operative creameries. 
They say that creameries have ruined the sale 
of home made butter and lowered the price of 
the product of the factories, but of course 
there is nothing for them to do but to grin 
and bear it. Shall cream be paid for accord¬ 
ing to its bulk, or shall its value be determin¬ 
ed by the oil-test churn? This is the question 
which is seriously disturbing the minds of the 
patrons of the creameries. It is evident that 
all cream is not alike; that given bulks of 
Guernsey and Holstein cream will nob pro¬ 
duce the same amount of butter. The ques¬ 
tion is, will th9 oil-test churn determine ac¬ 
curately the actual amount of butter which 
each will produce? Some experts say it will; 
others say it will not-. At any rate the oil- 
test churn is coming into very general use 
and is giving very good satisfaction. 
The hay crop is enormous, but the extreme¬ 
ly wet weather has prevented its curing in 
good shape. In many cases it was left stand¬ 
ing too long. The markets must be glutted 
during the coming winter with poor, discolor¬ 
ed hay. The new hay presses enable the Ver¬ 
mont farmer to send hay to New York and 
Boston and compete with the local farmers. 
This relieves the home market somewhat and 
it is probable that there will be a ready mar¬ 
ket for the surplus hay; but at very low 
prices. Some of the farmers are holding on 
to their cattle and think it will pay to feed 
out the surplus fodder. 
The old New England custom of attaching 
the carriage-house and wood-shed to the 
dwelling-house is not without its advantages 
even at this season. The housewife is pretty 
sure of plenty of good dry wood without go¬ 
ing out-of-doors for it. The horses, too, get 
better care than they would if they were a- 
quarter of a mile away. Wood-burning en¬ 
gines seem very odd, yet it is a positive pleas¬ 
ure to ride behind them. The smoke at times 
is a trifle unpleasant, but they are vastly more 
agreeable to the traveler than the soft-coal 
engines so common in the South and West. 
It is astonishing how the supply of fire-wood 
on the hills of Vermont holds out. In fact, 
the supply of wood seems to be increasing in- 
steap of diminishing. 
Bee-keeping is becoming quite an important- 
business. Unfortunately the weather has 
been most unfavorable this spring. It is 
hoped, however, that high prices will prevail 
since the demand for honey is on the increase 
A good many farmers have taken what are 
ca led “fresh-air children” during the hot 
season. It seems very odd for a wealthy,city 
like New York to accept for its cnildren the 
hospitality of the comparatively poor farmers 
of New England. How many wealthy New 
Yorkers would open their brown-stone man¬ 
sions during the winter to the poor country 
children? 
Miles and miles of stone walls, representing 
months of haru labor adorn (?) the hills to no 
purpose. In many cases they only serve as 
boundary lines and are not of the slightest use 
or value. The most docile animal can walk 
through them almost auywhere. Being built 
of stone, these fences, if such they may be 
called, will remain lasting monuments of the 
folly of a past age. 
How do the people in the poorer parts of 
the State get a living? They cultivate only an 
acre or so of ground, and keep but one horse 
and possibly two or three cows. In the 
winter they earn a little money cutting fire¬ 
wood. So the years come and go without 
their handling perhaps $50 in cash during the 
whole year; and yet these people are in most 
cases contented and happy. In fact, I believe 
there is more happiness per capita in the 
State of Vermont than there is in the city of 
New York. 
Some of our landscape gardeners might 
learn a valuable lesson in the hills and val¬ 
leys of the State. The spruces never look so 
handsome as when scattered over their 
native hills. Let him who criticises the rough 
and hardy spruce, see it as it grows wild 
among the rocks of New England. It is 
utterly beyond criticism; it makes the finest 
landscape effect to be found anywhere in the 
world. It is graceful in shape and beautiful 
in color, but its chief attraction is the unique 
way it has of growing with the utmost aban¬ 
don and in the oddest sort of places. 
Strange—isn’t it ?—that in localities where 
such beautiful evergreens as the arbor-vitoe, 
Hemlock-Spruce and the White Pines grow to 
perfection along the hillsides and river bot¬ 
toms, they are seldom seen about the farm 
houses. 
Where are the young men ? It is very sel¬ 
dom we see any but old men and boys at 
work in the fields. Will foreigners buy the 
old homesteads when the old peopleware dead 
and continue the work, or will the laud grow 
up with brush,audjthe houses and outbuildings 
go to decay ? rambler. 
