VOL. XLVIII. NO. 2o7 2 . 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 12 , i889. 
Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 1889 , by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.J 
Uotc.a' fvom the plural <£vouwte. 
ture and ashes. I have found the following 
formula a good one for com: 
Tankage. 500 pounds. 
Ground bone. 500 “ 
Dissolved bone-black. 500 “ 
Muriate potash. 250 “ 
Sulphate ammonia. 250 “ 
_ it 
2,000 “ 
I buy my materials early in spring and 
do the mixing on the barn floor on stormy 
days. The tools I use are shovels and a 
screen. The cost of mixing I place at $1 
per ton. This is low, but there is little in¬ 
door work for my men at that season. 
There are at least five of our prominent 
farmers in this town who mix their own 
fertilizers. No two of them use the same 
formula, but all are pleased with home 
mixtures and will probably continue to 
mix in the future. 
New Haven County, Conn. 
FROM DENNIS FENN. 
The study of the Connecticut Station Re¬ 
port led me to mix my own fertilizers, for 
the reason 
that in the 
early history 
of our station 
fully one-half 
of the goods 
analyzed were 
above cost; 
but as compe¬ 
tition became 
stronger, so 
much money 
was not made, 
and the valua¬ 
tion began to 
drop off until 
mostly all 
were below 
cost,and I con¬ 
cluded that 
we were pay¬ 
ing too much for what we got, so I 
began to investigate and concluded that 
my land did not need as much nitro¬ 
gen as some others, while it was more defi¬ 
cient in phosphoric acid and potash, and I 
based my calculation of ingredients on that 
theory. The most of my cultivated land is 
a sandy loam and for that reason I use a 
good proportion of organic nitrogen. Cold, 
clay land, in my opinion, requires some¬ 
thing more warming and stimulating in 
its effect. My experiments were mostly on 
corn and potatoes, but as I grow some seeds 
I saw practical results in those. 
As to tools, they are very simple. A 
shovel and garden rake are all that I need." 
Until this season I ran the stuff through a 
small mill that I had for crushing toma¬ 
toes, which helped in breaking the lumps. 
The labor was performed at odd times and 
on rainy days, when we could not do any¬ 
thing else, so that I make little account of 
labor. I think the practical results so far 
are in favor of home-mixing. One reason 
is, that I now use a good deal of fine ground 
bone in place of dissolved bone-black, 
which most of the manufacturers use, and 
which, I think, is taken out with the first 
crop, while the other remains in the soil for 
succeeding crops and as the mechanical 
condition is such as to carry out the first 
crop there is still some left for future use. 
If manufacturers used ground bone the 
price would be necessarily proportionately 
higher, while by its use we would get an 
article of higher value, more lasting in its 
effect and one costing no more at any time, 
and sometimes less, thereby saving money 
and value as well. In my judgment, intel¬ 
ligent farmers are going to take this matter 
PROGRESS OF THE R. N.-Y.’S HYBRID 
ROSES. 
O hybridize other 
roses upon Rosa 
rugosa was un¬ 
dertaken five 
years ago, more 
as a matter of 
curiosity than in 
the hopes that 
anything of real 
value would ever 
come out of it 
should the at¬ 
tempt be successful. The R. N.-Y. could 
not learn through inquiry of those who had 
made roses a 
study, that 
this cross had 
ever been at¬ 
tempted or, at 
any rate, if at¬ 
tempted, that 
any seedlings 
worthy of in¬ 
troduction 
had ever been 
produc ed. 
One year af¬ 
ter our first 
crosses, Mad. 
Georges Bru- 
ant was an- 
nou need—a 
cross between 
R. rugosa and 
the Tea Som- 
breuil. Little, is known of this Tea-rugosa 
as yet. It has the wrinkled leaflets of R 11 - 
gosa, showing that it is, without any ques¬ 
tion, a true hybrid, and bears, as we are 
told, a semi-double flower nearly white in 
color. Two plants, in pots, were ordered 
last spring, one from Ellwanger A- Barry, 
the other from Robert Scott A Son. They 
have made a fairly vigorous growth. Nei¬ 
ther has bloomed. Whether it is hardy in 
this latitude is not, probably, known as yet. 
Our first cross, as has been repeatedly 
stated, was with Harrison’s Yellow upon 
R. rugosa. Of something like a hundred 
seedlings as the result, but nine survived. 
Three of these are much alike both in foli¬ 
age and in flower. It has always seemed a 
strange thing to the writer that these three 
roses should bear flowers almost the exact 
color of Jacqueminot, having for parents a 
yellow male and a liglit-pitik female. Of 
the three, the illustration is photographed 
from the one that promises to be most val¬ 
uable. The plant is wonderfully vigorous 
and bears more flowers during June and 
July than any other rose ever cultivated 
here; the stems were, in truth, wreaths of 
roses. The earlier blooms resemble those 
of Jacqueminot in size and fragrance as well 
as in color. Later in the season they grow 
smaller and less double. In this respect it 
has disappointed us. It seemed as if the 
bush would bloom itself to death. Proba¬ 
bly the real worth of this rose, as, indeed, 
of the others, will not be known until it 
lias been propagated, either by layers or 
budded on other stock. We tire told that 
Rugosa cuttings do nut strike freely, and it 
is thought that these seedlings will probably 
resemble the mother plant in this respect. 
the fact that extra applications of 200 
pounds per acre in addition to the usual 
fertilizers, when applied to potatoes, do not 
give any increase in yield. This has been 
tried repeatedly with both the muriate and 
sulphate. A series of experiments with 
potatoes under the charge of the experiment 
station have been carried out on my farm 
this year. The experiment consists of a 
dozen plots, each fertilized alike with phos¬ 
phoric acid and nitrogen, but with varying 
quantities of potash—from none to a very 
heavy application. The crop has not been 
harvested yet; but it will not probably 
prove much, for blight and rot have sadly 
interfered with the crop. There was no ap¬ 
parent difference in the growth of vines on 
the different plots. 
I have used Formula 2,239, in the Con¬ 
necticut Station Report for 1888, for three 
years on potatoes with excellent results, 
using 1,000 pounds per acre with no other 
fertilizer. I have tried other standard 
brands of fertilizers in comparison with 
this and found the home mixture the best. 
The illustration shows the leaflets per¬ 
fectly, and the unfolding bud was selected 
as a fair average specimen. 
farm Camxmiij. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER’S ROSA RUGOSA HYBRIDS. 
A Bud Just Unfold'ng. Fig. 252. 
learned somewhat of the needs of my farm, 
but yet 1 do not suppose I have found the 
best combination of fertilizers. Applica¬ 
tions of dissolved bone-black, which sup¬ 
plies little beside phosphoric acid, give me 
a large increase in grain crops. I have often 
used this alone for rye. Muriate and sul¬ 
phate of potash do not seem to be required 
on my farm except possibly in small quan¬ 
tities. This seems to have been proved by 
I. have not the analysis of what the station 
bulletin of this year calls my corn mixture 
at hand: but owing to a mistake in mixing, 
it contains more than double the amount 
of potash it should have for corn. The 
analysis gives it a very high valuation, but 
judging from the corn now maturing, 
something is wrong in its composition. I 
have, however, a fine crop of turnips grow¬ 
ing on a field fertilized with this corn mix¬ 
HOME-MIXED FERTILIZERS. 
On* page 551 of the present volume, the R. 
N.-Y. gave an account of the samples of 
home-mixed fertilizers analyzed by the 
Connecticut Experiment Station. This sub¬ 
ject is one in which Eastern farmers are 
becoming greatly interested. In order that 
its readers might know more about the 
value of these home-mixed fertilizers, the 
R. N.-Y. wrote to a number of the farmers 
who provided the samples for the Connecti¬ 
cut Station. The following replies open 
the discussion of the subject: 
FROM GEORGE F. PLATT. 
By experiments which I have tried I have 
