1889* 
CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW AT THE 
UNITED STATES NURSERIES, 
SHORT HILLS, N. J. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
A fine show; its arrangements; some 
choice orchids; fancy prices; bewilder¬ 
ing chrysanthemums; Mrs. Alplieus 
Hardy; the Snowball; Shasta; blooms 
of great size; Lacroix, and other fine va¬ 
rieties ; red sorts .make a poor show; 
duration of the exh ibition extended. 
I F all the members of the R. N.-Y. family 
could have seen the orchid and chry¬ 
santhemum show given by the United 
States Nurseries, Short Hills, N. J., Novem¬ 
ber 4th to 9th, instead of having but a bald 
report, with all the brightness and beauty 
left out, they might have considered them¬ 
selves most fortunate. 
The exhibition was arranged in four long, 
continuous greenhouses with the climax at 
the farther end. As the visitor entered the 
orchids firstcliiimed attention. The houses 
were filled down the center with ferns, 
palms, anthuriums, and the like, bordered 
with Zebra-striped Marantas and line 
grasses, and banked at the ends with masses 
of blooming orchids. Around the sides 
were cypripediums, or lady’s slippers, of 
which the firm catalogue about 400 varie¬ 
ties. Only a few sorts of these showed 
bloom, though some of the few were quite 
rare. . 
Among the more showy orchids were 
some fine plants of Phalasnopsis, with large 
narcissus-like clustered blooms. The pale- 
yellow clusters of Oncidium varicosum re¬ 
called the touch-me-not of our swamps ; 
while O. ornithorhynchum showed large 
clusters of fine, pinkish-mauve flowers, uot 
at all showy, but of such rare fragrance 
that the single plant filled the house with 
its delightful odor. More conspicuous than 
any of these, though less beautiful, was a 
large plant of Vanda Sanderiana, claimed 
to be the finest now in the States, and 
valued at $1,000. But most charming of 
all were some sister plants, Vanda coeru- 
lea, with large bouquets of delicately-veined 
or spotted blooms, of pale lavender-blue 
with darker centers. 
At the foot of the stairs leading to the 
chrysanthenuiui-house, a dazzling scene 
met the eye. The entire center of the loug 
house was filled with an oblong bed of the 
famous $1,500 chrysanthemum, Mrs. Al¬ 
pheus Hardy, which was one sheet of feath¬ 
ery, frost-like bloom. To see this was 
alone worth the trip. The entire circumfer¬ 
ence outside the walk was banked with 
plants of great variety and innumerable 
colors. Most of them were grown in the 
beds, but all spaces were filled with plants 
iu pots, to make a complete mass of color. 
Prominent on one side toward the center 
was the Snowball, a perfect white variety 
of first size, with broad, twisted petals. 
Across from it was Shasta, a very free- 
blooming white Japanese, with drooping 
tubular petals and of immense size. 
The variety that could show a measure¬ 
ment of less thau four inches was “no¬ 
where,” and, indeed, very few such were 
seen. In the first tour around the house, 
about 20 prominent varieties were noted, 
none less than six or seven inches across, as 
large as pa-onies, but delicately shaded in 
color, and perfect in make-up. Ordinary 
blooms of Mrs. A. Hardy were from four to 
five inches across, and last year this was 
about the limit; but now a few strong 
plants that had been grown for exhibi¬ 
tion blooms showed flowers that must have 
measured over seven inches I Perhaps the 
largest of all was Philippe Lacroix, having 
a thick bloom of pale (link, with twisted, 
drooping petals ; two other fine pinks were 
Excellent, a huge Chinese incurved, of a 
pale lilac rose shade, and Lillian B. Bird, 
an exquisite creamy shell-pink Japanese 
sort of immense size. 
Three fine yellows of first size were M. 
Constant Vat-in, and La Fortune, golden 
yellow, and Mrs. H. Cannell, primrose yel¬ 
low, “ one of the best.” California is stili 
paler, a beautiful shade, but the blossom is 
not quite so full. A huge, flufi'y, blush- 
white, very beautiful, first sent out by the 
proprietors* is known as Sunny-side. A 
creamy-white, Tacoma, is called the best 
for general planting because of being very 
profuse and a rank grower; it is not quite 
so large and perfect as some sorts. 
But these huge show varieties have little 
use for florists’ work, or for personal wear. 
Three fine, white sorts for this purpose are 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
783 
Alaska, Narragansettand Belle Pointevine. 
Jeanne d’Arc is a perfect white, having 
the outer tips just touched with pink. A 
second, and a third trip around failed to 
show a single red variety worthy to rank 
for beauty with those already mentioned. 
Many were large and of fine shape, but the 
colors are all shades of magenta or of brick- 
red. and are very ugly. Mrs. Andrew Car¬ 
negie, from which so much’ was hoped, 
proved disappointing, the petals curving 
to show only the dull side. The nearest 
approach to a pretty red sort was Bras 
Rouge, which has its petals rolled into 
tubes which show the dark-red prettier 
side. 
The courtesy of the firm in providing re¬ 
freshments and carriages for its guests is 
worthy of note, and was well appreciated. 
It was decided to hold the exhibition open 
for another week. c. S. VALENTINE. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
1 * T^vISHORNlNG.” This is the title of 
Bulletin No. 10 from the Missis¬ 
sippi Experiment Station The first sen¬ 
tence in the book is as follows : 
“ For this spelling the reader is respect¬ 
fully referred to all the dictionaries and 
encyclopedias.” 
The R. N.-Y. would like to inform “the 
reader” before he starts out that this ex¬ 
amination of “all the dictionaries and en¬ 
cyclopedias” will result in a wild-goose 
chase. Analogy with regard to the forma¬ 
tion of other words with the same prefix, 
however, would lead us to prefer dehorning 
to dishorning. Thus Webster gives the ob¬ 
solete word dehusk. Dr. Phares, the author 
of this bulletin, has prepared the most con¬ 
cise and practical treatise on the subject 
that we have yet seen. “ Mr. Haaff, the ori¬ 
ginal dehorner,” seems to know all about 
the subject, but his teaching is conducted 
in such a hammer-aud-tongs style that he 
fails to convince many people wno ought to 
be convinced. Dr. Phares is a man of long 
experience in the treatment of cattle dis¬ 
eases as well as in the management of 
stock for the dairy or shambles. The fol¬ 
lowing extracts give an idea of the plan of 
the bulletin: 
“ The operation, may be performed on 
animals of any age with little danger of 
serious injury. So far as pain and dauger 
are concerned, the section may be made at 
any distance from the skin. But other 
considerations determine the place of sec¬ 
tion. As a rule, the nearer the head the 
better. Notwithstanding the assertions of 
many that the operation never injures 
the animal and never endangers life, 
we have too much testimony from the best 
surgeons and have had too many calls for 
assistance to accent the statement. 
in some instances the hemmorrhage has 
been very large, extremely prostrating and 
requiring most active and skillful treat¬ 
ment to arrest it and save life. Fever has 
followed loss of appetite and flesh, with 
slow recovery. It is true such cases are 
rare, yei as they do occur, every care and 
precaution should lie observed to give the 
animal the best chances. We are convinced 
that we have seen instances iu which, if 
death has uot been absolutely caused, it 
has at least been hastened by tne operation. 
Without great loss of blood, there have 
been many cases in which there have 
been some fever, nervousness, dimin¬ 
ished appetite, flesh and milk. It is not a 
very rare thing for some suppuration to oc¬ 
cur after operation; and more rarely caries 
of the boue gives trouble lor mouths, with 
offensive discharges. Hemmorrhage is 
from one artery—rarely two—situated at 
that part of the stub near the ear. Hence 
it will be perceived that plugging the sinus 
through which one sees some inches down 
into the head is worse than useless for stop¬ 
ping the flow of blood. But solution of 
persulphate of irou (Monsel’s solution) 
thrown into the artery or introduced with 
a glass point instantly forms with the 
blood a firm clot or plug. The flow may 
sometimes be arrested by compress and 
baudage around the head above the ears. 
When a large horn is removed a fright¬ 
ful, large raw surface is left, and in its 
middle a huge cavern extends down into the 
head. One may see into this cavern several 
inches ; the polished white walls reflecting 
the light well illuminate its interior. 
Some operators have mistaken this white 
surface for brain, and declare that they cut 
oil' the horns down to the brain ; others 
within an inch of the brain, exposing that 
important organ to view. Tnis, it true, 
would be horrible, and render the operation 
many thousand fold more dangerous and 
cruel. 
A moment’s glance at the anatomy of the 
head will show the absurdity of such asser¬ 
tions, and that a belt three iuches broad, 
including the entire top of the head may be 
removed without touching the brain. 
Equally absurd is the twaddle about the 
cruelty of cutting through the exquisitely 
sensitive marrow of the horn core. Noth¬ 
ing could be more useless or out of pla»e 
than marrow iu the ox horn. The lor- 
rnation of the core has been explained. 
Now a word about its covering—the 
horn proper. This is of about the same 
character, chemically, as hair, hoof or 
nails, it is secreted or formed in about 
the same manner. In the horn of the 
calf, when but two or three inches long, 
elongated bundles resembling masses of 
agglutinated hairs are as readily perceived 
as the bundles of fibers in boiled lean beef. 
A number of organs are wisely formed with 
little or no sensitiveness, as liver, lungs, 
heart, brain, because in these sensitiveness 
would be much worse than merely useless, 
—absolutely pernicious. So the horn 
possesses no great degree of sensitiveness, 
being intended for • great exposures, for 
hard usage and violent blows. There is no 
need, then, no place for the morbid, maw¬ 
kish sentimentalism so much affected by 
writers and talkers on the subject of dis¬ 
horning. 
Horns are often lost by various accidents. 
Not long ago, in the herd of the writer, a 
beautiful cow made a vicious charge with 
all her power upon another, who received 
the shock in such a way as to suffer no in¬ 
jury, while at the moment of collision a 
horn of the assailant was snatched off in¬ 
stantly, leaving the entire core uncovered. 
In a few weeks it was recovered with a lay¬ 
er of horn, but deformed. The next day 
another cow lost a horn in the same way. 
In some instances both horn and core are 
knocked off: and cases have been seen in 
which both horn and core were broken some 
inches from the head and required surgical 
aid. 
In many instances horns are ornamental, 
and in some countries, in a state of nature, 
useful to protect against the attacks of 
beasts of prey. But in domestication, pro¬ 
tected from these dangers, the horns are 
well-nigh or wholly useless to the animal. 
In a herd as a whole they are injurious, be¬ 
ing employed to injure each other. They 
are often injurious to the individual. Find¬ 
ing that he has weapons with which he can 
assail others he neglects his legitimate 
business of grazing, browsing, taking 
water, and wastes time in teasing others 
and keeping them away from food and 
drink. He is all the time more or less ex¬ 
cited and uncomfortable, so that his own 
well-being is impaired by having horns. 
Deprived of them he becomes quiet, not 
liable to violent excitement, eats, drinks, 
sleeps, enjoys contentment and grows fat. 
So much trom his own standpoint. 
From the proprietor’s standpoint: The 
horns of the stronger are a terror to the 
weaker a-.imals, which are deterred iro n 
food, drink, rest; persecuted, gorel, 
bruised, excited in a tyrannical, cruel n aa- 
ner, appealing powerfully to the pity of 
the merciful owner for relief. “ For the 
righteous mau regardeth the life of his 
beast.” These considerations justify the 
removal of all horns. 
But mau is financially interested in the 
matter. Since dishorning is really a mer¬ 
ciful procedure, he should have no scruples 
about resorting to it to protect his 
property and promote his interest. He 
prevents these animals from wounding 
and bruising and famishing one another, 
saves a vast amount of time in hand¬ 
ling, of room in sheltering, and of 
feed stuff. His beeves are fatted for market 
with much less expense of feed and in less 
time. They go into the markets, as attest¬ 
ed by the dealers at the great cattle depots, 
in much better condition, having whole 
hides and unbruised flesh, both of which 
sell more promptly and at better prices, 
while the cost ot transportation of the live 
animals is much less, because a large num¬ 
ber can be packed in each car. For like 
reasons the milk, cream and butter products 
are increased in quantity and improved in 
quality. It is true that the product is in 
some instances slightly reduced for a few 
days after being dishorned, but after the 
excitement passes off and the wounds heal 
the beneficial results are permanent. 
The operation should be performed when 
the animal is in good, sound condition and 
plenty of good, wholesome food and water 
and good quarters accessible. The 
dealing should generally be complete in 
from three to eiglit weeks according to size 
of the wounds. Usually no application to 
the raw surface is necessary except pine 
tar.” 
Preventing The Injuries of Potato 
Rot. —This is the most interesting topic 
discussed by Prof. Weed in Bulletin No. 0, 
volume 2 of the Ohio Experiment Station. 
Some weeks ago the R. N.-Y. referred to 
the results claimed by Prof. Weed. These 
results are now repeated for the purpose of 
emphasizing them. All through the East 
rot and “ blight ” have done a great 
amount of damage this season and potato 
growers are anxiously looking for some way 
of fighting these diseases. Here are the 
conclusions reached by Prof. Weed : 
“ So far as a single experiment can be re¬ 
lied upon, the results here reported seem to 
me to indicate the correctness of the follow¬ 
ing provisional couclusious : 
(1.) That a large proportion of the in¬ 
jury done by the potato rot can be pi event¬ 
ed by spraying the vines with the Bordeaux 
Mixture. 
(2.) That this treatment apparently di¬ 
minishes the amount of scab affecting the 
tubers. 
(3.) That by adding London-purple to 
the mixture the same treatment may be 
made effective in preventing the injuries 
both of rot and Colorado Potato Beetle.” 
Although the R. N.-Y. has repeatedly 
given the formula for the “ Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture,” we quote what Prof. Weed has to 
say about it 
“ The solut ion used was what is commonly 
known as the “Bordeaux Mixture,” the 
standard formula for which is as follows: 
"Dissolve six pounds of sulphate of copper in 16 
gallons of wa.er. iu another vessel siake f ur 
pomei a fresh lime In six gallons of water. Wheu 
the lime mixture has cooled to the temperature of 
the ah , pour slowly iuto the copter solution, mixing 
the fluids thoroughly l>y constant stirring.” 
As this formula seemed to be rather ex 
pensive on account of the large amount of 
copper sulphate required, 1 diluted it about 
one-half, using six pounds copper sulphate 
and four pounds lime to 50 gallons water 
instead of 22 gallons, as ordinarily recom¬ 
mended. We usually made it by filling 
our Nixon barrel machine, which holds 50 
gallons, nearly full of water, and then add¬ 
ing three or four gallons hot water in 
which the six pounds of copper sulphate 
crystals had^been dissolved. The freshly 
slaked lime was then poured in, and after 
a thorough stirring the mixture was ready 
for use. Sometimes instead of the crystals 
we used powdered copper sulphate, in 
which case it was not necessary to heat 
water to dissolve it, the powder being 
simply put in the barrel of clear water and 
was soon dissolved. When we wished to 
add London-purple, we simply put it in 
either before or after the mixture was 
made.” 
Those of our readers who are of an in¬ 
vestigating turn of mind are respectfully 
requested to add this experiment to their 
list for next year. 
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