THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Buds, 
By constant care and cleanliness aud fre¬ 
quent scalding of utensils the flavor and color 
may be maintained till the tree buds start and 
not simply during the “ first run," as is com¬ 
monly supposed. And such a flavor! It is ob¬ 
tained with uo other apparatus, unless it be in 
very small quantities by evaporating rapidly 
on the stove in a tin pan or porcelain kettle. 
But when the maple buds begin to swell, this 
fine flavor is gone, aud in its place is a differ¬ 
ent one, not very strong bnt rather sickish to 
most persons. I would willingly give a thou¬ 
sand dollars or more for the exclusive posses¬ 
sion of any simple process that would remove 
this flavor and restore the real sprightly maple 
flavor to the sirup; for ofteu our best run in 
Ohio comes after the buds start a little, and 
the sirup canuot be used except for second 
quality. 
Cost and Proflta. 
For a bush of 1,000 trees (buckets) the cost 
of equipment will be about *500, or 50 cents 
per tree. This includes a decent but not expen¬ 
sive sugar-house aud shed. At present prices 
for “strictly prime" sirup, when sold to con¬ 
sumers direct, one year’s gross receipts will 
about pay for the outfit. 
The cost of runuiug the bush is not heavy in 
cash. The work comes at a sea¬ 
son when little other work can 
be done profitably and when help 
is cheap and abundant; and the 
usual farm force,with little extra 
help, will do the work. 
When the trees stand thick, 
so that a thousand buckets eau 
be huug ou ten or twelve acres 
of grouud, that piece of ground, 
if rightly managed, will probably 
yield more net cash than auy 
other of the same size on the 
farm. Whatever is made is clear 
gain. Moderate tappiug does not 
injure the trees or retard their 
growth perceptibly, unless begun 
when they are too young. I 
am astonished to see so many fine maple 
groves unused. The profits, however, will 
come chiefly from the best quality of sirup 
used as a table luxury or delicacy; and 
the more the supply of this is increased and 
brought to notice, the greater will be the de¬ 
mand. There is no fear of overstocking the 
market, as with strawberries. The plauts of 
the latter can be grown iu a year; of the former 
in fifty years. 
Finishing (Jp. 
As soon as the buds really swell, the buckets 
may as well be gathered, washed, scalded, 
wiped and stored for the uext year’s use. 
Every thing about the works should be now 
put iu readiness for uext year’s use, even to 
storing the wood. Refuse wood stored uow 
under cover is better than green wood cut uext 
spring. And if any part of this work is defer¬ 
red till after we begin the regular spring farm- 
work, it is apt to be crowded out till too late 
in the fall for the wood to season properly. 
Horticultural, 
THE RASPBERRY. 
GEN. WM. U. NOBLE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONN 
Hardy canes essential; different species ; varie¬ 
ties to be crossed—not species ; objection to hy¬ 
brids ; native kinds more hopeful than for¬ 
eign ; a hardy cane, and a perfect berry ; a 
hardy cane among the A ntwerp tribe : the 
proper aim of selection and culture. 
I ought, in good faith, to have taken part 
in the Rural’s raspberry tournament, but 1 
think I have bettered myself by waiting for its 
record. That interesting array of “ mauy men 
of mauy minds,” gets us a good way down to 
hard-pan sense abont the Raspberry. It is 
plain that there are some bottom facts aud 
essentials iu the make-up of Us perfection, that 
should guide our choice aud vote. 
There are, too. no eud of whims, interests 
aud opiuious about kinds aud qualities, and 
the excellence of favorites. Through their 
noisy tangle you must work, to reach in each 
species, the make-up of a perfect fruit and 
caue. The uue is nearly as essential as thu 
other to all but the amateurs, who eau bury 
aud protect their little patches. However big 
aud luscious a berry you may raise, it must be 
borne upou a hardy cane, before it fills the 
score of a rightful Raspberry standard. Un¬ 
less it is in wood about as euduriug, uuder 
rude haudliug, as a Currant, ere long your big 
berry must go to the wall. The mass of those 
who plant for home or for the market, either 
will not, or canuot, afford the time aud toil 
needed to protect either the little patch or the 
acres to which the great public look for their 
supply. 
As Downing aud the Rural’s Raspberry Num¬ 
ber say, there are at least three species of this 
fruit: The Rubus Idieus, or the Antwerp tribe, 
European immigrants and their descendants' 
which make up a largo family. The Rubus 
occidentalis, which is the old Black-Cap and 
its improved varieties, the Mammoth Cluster, 
Gregg, etc. The Rubus strigosus, the old Red- 
caue family aud its progeny, the Philadelphia, 
Brandywine, etc. Each of these species has 
distinctive traits of excellence, which I hope 
will not be lost iu crosses, but tasted in its own 
lineage of larger, firmer and more luscious 
berries, borne ou hardy canes. 
I hold to breeding new varieties within each 
species : uo hybrids till iu each a perfect berry 
is reached. The hope of developed excellence 
lies in mating the choicest of each species with 
the like of its family, till the progeny register 
a higher score of the essentials to a perfected 
fruit. Curb your longing to look upon the 
outcome of hasty crosses between diverse spe¬ 
cies, till iu each, a perfect berry, borne on a 
.perfect cane, has come to stay. 
There is a great rage for hybrids about these 
days. I have less faith than some iu their last¬ 
ing betterment Df fruit. They do well awhile, 
but after a time, the commingled blood fails to 
hold the high hopes flushed by its earlier prom¬ 
ise. If there is a defect in fruit or leaf, or a ten¬ 
derness of caue in ouc of the parents, it is 
pretty sure to crop out sooner or later iu the 
progeny. It may shift over one generation, 
but not always. When a thing lives as long 
as a vine or cane can lie reuewed. the lurklug 
taint is pretty sure to show itself iu some sad 
mildew, or winter-kill, or other ail. 
I would quench no hope of a brighter future 
out of crosses between tbe species of this fruit, 
after each is brought up to a standard of per¬ 
fection. The wondrous feats of fruit develop¬ 
ment from rude uodules, began by chance, and, 
helped by human wit and toil through joyous 
years, promise yet bolder triumphs. To trials, 
guided by a close study of the laws which lift 
vegetable races to higher planes, whocau mark 
the limit of possible glories in tbe garden? 
The marvels in pomology seen iu this century, 
especially during the last thirty years, and in 
our own land above all, warrant the most 
sanguine hopes. Still I hold that among fruits, 
as iu animal life, the true path to the highest 
excellence is through mating in each species 
those which come closest to the essential na¬ 
ture ot its kind and the purpose of itsgrowing. 
Now as to the Raspberry; shut out uo for¬ 
eign kiud of merit. Welcome and perfect it; but 
before offering wedlock to our natives, let It 
develop within its own varieties, not only the 
excellence of a perfect berry, but the stamina 
of a perfect caue. Until it can boast both these, 
let it be a little modest about high promise 
through such mating. When we deal out to 
our own a patient justice toward their best iu 
caue aud berry, keeping close to hardiness and 
large aud firm fruitB, our climate will soou 
make them the peers of any. 
Besides, there are unlike tastes aud a love of 
change, which at times prefer the native ber¬ 
ries. The luscious Antwerp cloys, aud we long 
for the high, spicy, wildy flavor of our- own. 
These distinctive traits we should foste. aud 
refine till they reach a kiud, the peer of auy 
Raspberry. Till such grows iu each species 
aud repeats its high quality till both mates 
register all the points of a perfect berry aud a 
perfect cane, take no thought about crossing 
the species. 
Perhaps some oue says : “ It’s the berry we 
want, the luscious berry; the eaues we can 
protect with earth.” Such unheed of tender¬ 
ness in caue may do for the owner of a little 
patch, or for him who stints neither time nor 
money, nor toil, in his grounds and garden. 
But the mass who own their little or large plan¬ 
tations, either will not, or cannot, afford the 
luxury of a berry which they must protect. 
As to the broad acres plauted for the mar¬ 
ket, however large and firm-fleshed the berry, 
the need aud cry are for a hardy cane. No 
new kiud bursts upon the world with loud 
ado, that does not claim a caue that never wiu- 
ter-kiUs. That kind of oane, then, Is the one 
thing needful for the Raspberry. 
Now wb at is a hardy cane? It is oue that 
will stand unflinchingly the wind and frost and 
the freeze, and thaw of our variable winters, 
and tbe drought aud sooreh of the summer. 
Before a Raspberry reaches the highest stand¬ 
ard, it will on just such a oane, bear a perfect 
berry of its class. 
Aud what is a perfect berry in each class. 
It is a Raspberry the equal in size of any; 
that holds a pulp, luscious, yet firm and close- 
knit enough to keep shape upon the table, 
and to bear the jolt of a journey to market. 
The home needs a firm berry just as much 
as the great public who buy. A soft, mushy 
berry is as much a discomfort on the table, 
as in the stalls. However large aud well-fteshed 
a berry may be, you like to see and taste its 
plump and melting form, well held together. 
You revolt against a fruit that soon melts into 
an unctuous mass, that wHl hardly bear dish¬ 
ing and haudliug, without losing all its full- 
nosB and shapeliness of form. 
Now the Rubus Idieus, or the Antwerp tribe, 
has uot yet put out a perfect cane. Many of 
its American descendants have gained m hardi¬ 
ness upon the old type. I have tried a great 
many but only one of this tribe has with me 
proveditself ahflrdykiud. I believe I have a good 
Antwerp berry upon a perfectly hardy caue. 
T found it growing in the garden of a very old 
Connecticut home. Its berries were upon the 
table of my friend fully teu day s before my 
Autwerps, forty miles South, showed an 
eatable fruit. I looked at the canes in their 
garden ; they had not been shot-toned in. and 
were bearing to the very tips. They uever had 
any protection in winter, though they stood 
ou the north side of a feuee or shed. 
I transplanted some of these to my home on 
Long Island Sound. Its exposure is death to 
auy tender thing. It faces the northern blast 
sweeping down through ten mile* of au un¬ 
broken drift. Lots of plants, hardy far north 
of here, will not staud the ordeal on my 
grounds. Iu its most unprotected spot, on the 
brink of a bank facing the northwest, under the 
full rays of the sun aud without a shelter, these 
berries have never lost a cane or shirked a 
crop. The fruit is of fair size, about two-tUirds 
that of the largest Antwerp Raspberry, of good 
firmness, aud in shape, color aud taste, that of 
the old Antwerp. Let me add to this uotice of 
my Raspberry, that I have none on sale, and 
have only raised them for an early family 
supply. 
Now, about the upshot of all this writing is, 
that in each of these species of the Raspberry, 
we should strive for the largest and finest fruit, 
on the hardiest eaues. That in this strife for 
excellence, we should keep them distinct. 
Only cross-breed, when each has reached about 
tbe bighesi standard of a perfect berry on a 
hardy caue. 
A bright aud promising future is before our 
natives. They have iu a very few years of pur¬ 
posed trial or ehauce-planting, reached near 
to an excellence which it has taken all these 
generations to give the Old-World sorts. 
Each gain from the hard and seedy berry of 
those old wildings . each better new cane or 
better new fruit we raise, drifts us further 
from the aboriginal type, and makes sure an 
unfailing advance. 
But while looking for that good time coming, 
of hardy canes and splendid fruits, how are 
the mass to know amid the crowd aud noisy 
heralding of kinds, what they shall choose ? 
Whom shall they trust among all who have on 
sale, ••The biggest aud hardiest Raspberry 
out?” Iu this berry race and regatta, we want 
some right aud impartial judges whose huinesss 
and love it is, to try aud their verdict give, 
amidcouflieting claims. We have pressing need, 
uot only of such a tribuual, but *£ a national 
pomological gardeu, where not ouly this, but 
every fruit, cau have a just aud fair test of its 
merits. Without this the many, eager to have 
the last and best, are stuck with some worth¬ 
less, teuder, suckeriug torment, proclaimed as 
in its line, the pride of the world, great acqui¬ 
sition, etc., etc. 
^ontological. 
THE CAUSES OF PEAR BLIGHT, AND 
MEANS OF PREVENTION. 
M. B. BATEHAM. 
At the annual meeting of our State Horti¬ 
cultural Society, each year, we endeavor to 
elicit all the new facts that have been observed 
during .the season in relation to pear blight 
and grape rot—the two worst hindrances to 
fruit-growing in Ohio. We have paid but 
little attention to theories, for in most cases 
they are not fully sustained by the facts. We 
think, however, that some progress has been 
made towards the solution of the problems as 
to the causes of these maladies and the means 
of their prevention. At our recent meeting, in 
Dayton, little was said that was really uew; but 
mauy previous observations were confirmed. 
Mr. Ohmer, of Dayton, gave an 
interesting account of his long 
experience iu pear culture. He 
is the most extensive aud suc¬ 
cessful pear grower in Ohio. He 
has several thousand pear trees, 
standards and dwarfs, many of 
the former more thau twenty 
years old, and he has lost very 
few from blight, especially of 
late years, since he discarded a 
few varieties that were most lia¬ 
ble to the disease, on account 
of their rapid growth, and since 
he leas adopted the practice of 
keeping his orchards in clover 
after a few years of cultivation, 
to give the trees a good start. 
But the main secret of Mr. Ohmer’s success, 
is, undoubtedly, the peculiar excellence of his 
soil. It is au,elevated table of clayey, calcare¬ 
ous loam, the sub-soil of similar nature, per¬ 
vious to the roots of trees, aud several feet in 
depth, resting on limestone gravel which 
affords natural drainage, In this soil the pear 
roots deseeud so deep as to avoid injury from 
drought, aud consequently the trees are not 
affected with leaf blight. 
It was reported, at our meeting, that much 
less pear-tree blight thau usual had occurred 
the past season, aud this was, no doubt, at¬ 
tributable to the mildness of the preceding 
winter. Iu a majority of our pear orchards, 
the trees, when bearing, are overtaken by 
drought aud more or less of them shed their 
leaves prematurely—in August, Then, when- 
the fall raius come on, the sap starts anew, and 
buds swell and sometimes push out uew leaves 
and even blossoms. Iu such cases the trees 
are full of watery sap when winter sets in aud 
hard freezing occurs. Then, if the mercury 
descends below zero, mischief is commonly 
doue to the young shoots and branches, as may 
be seeu by discoloration beneath the bark and 
in the wood when cut. Trees thus Injured 
ofteu start to grow in the spring, as though no 
serious damage had beeu doue : but in tbe hot 
weather of mid-summer they will be pretty 
sure to die of blight. This has been called, by 
some, frozen sap blight; but it only differs 
from what is termed fire blight in Its predispos¬ 
ing eausc ; the latter occurring in trees that are 
not seemingly injured by the wiuter. and such 
as are of thrifty growth. 
CAUSES OF THE MALADY. 
Accepting the fact as established, that the 
blight is of a fungus nature—aud iu a sense 
this fungus may be said to be the cause of the 
blight of the tree, just as a fever may be said 
to have caused the death of a person—I claim 
that we ought to go farther back, and inquire 
what are the causes of this attack of the 
fungus or of the fever, so that we may learn 
how to guard against such diseases. 
By many years of observation and the gen¬ 
eral testimony of others, I find that pear blight 
almost invariably becomes visible soou after 
raius during hot, sultry aud cloudy weather, 
with low barometer aud absence of winds, 
when fungus growth of all kinds is most active, 
as may be seen in-doors by mildew on bread 
aud ou shoes and gloves in closets. Exactly 
the same weather brings mildew on grape¬ 
vines and rotting of the grapes. The causes 
of these diseases I believe to be the same; but 
I do not care to speak of the grape maladies 
at this time. 
My theory on this subject embraces little that 
is really new, though 1 believe it has not been 
distinctly stated before. I put it forth at this 
time with the request that pear growers will 
test its eorrectuess by their observations the 
comiug season, and if it shall appear that the 
facts do uot sustaiu my conclusions, I shall be 
quite willing to abandon them. 
The weather being hot and the ground wet, 
as above stated, of course the flow of sap is 
quite active, while at the same time the action 
Figure G. 
