688 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
mals and plants exposed to their full rage. 
Against these winds, forests thus located act as 
a screen or shelter for farms and homesteads, 
checking the force of the blast, breaking its 
direet current and thus practically elevating 
its temperature to a point at which it is not in¬ 
jurious. 
In extensive forest tracts, both the soil and 
the air, are warmer in winter and cooler in 
summer than the soil and the air of the open 
country. Therefore when the country is var¬ 
ied by field and forest, great extremes of tem¬ 
perature are ameliorated. In winter, the 
forest warms the frigid air of the open country, 
making it more tolerable, and in summer it 
tones down the torrid heat, and acting as a 
condenser, lessens the loss of soil water by 
evaporation. Forest soil has a covering of 
leaf mold many inches or feet in thickness, 
which acts as a mulch to prevent freezing and 
evaporation, and is capable of absorbing and 
holding more than its own weight of water. 
In cold weather when the earth is not covered 
with snow', the bare fields are frozen to a great 
depth, but forest lands little if any. On hills 
and inclines of the open fields, a large propor¬ 
tion of the rain water, at all times runs from 
the surface to the streams j u the valleys, but 
this is especially true in winter; then the fro¬ 
zen ground in a hilly country is like the roof 
of a rnany-pinnacled house. The falling rain 
passes immediately to the gutters, or valleys, 
and increasing its volume by additions from 
every emiueucc aud gulch, rushes onward to 
the lower levels a devastating flood, but leav¬ 
ing the lauds from w hich it came so dry that 
vegetation in summer is soon parched. In the 
forest, however, the soil, summer and winter, 
is open and porous. This condition and the 
mold retain the water of great rains aud pre¬ 
vent a large proportion of the sin-face-wash, 
allowing it to percolate gradually to the source 
of the springs. This retardation of the water 
of excessive rains aud meltiug snow in its 
course to the valley outlets, aud its gradual 
drainage therefrom, make the springs, brooks, 
and rivulets among the hills perennial, instead 
of being, at times, rushing torrents, and again 
dry water-conrses. 
In these ways, forests though they do not 
create certain climatic conditions, serve a most 
important end in regulating and equalizing 
them. Efforts should therefore be continued to 
preserve the wood-lands we now have, and to 
increase their area by planting. In this con¬ 
nection, several important questions arise, 
such as; what lauds should be planted to for¬ 
est; what kinds of trees should be planted; 
and the part the Government should take in the 
work ; but time now forbids their discussiou. 
Agricultural College, Anihei-st, Maas. 
Jflorintltural, 
FLOWERS FOR A SMALL GARDEN. 
JAMES TAPLIN. 
These few notes are intended for the unpro¬ 
fessional readers who require a few liowers 
during the hot months, both as ornaments to 
the garden, and also to afford a few cut flowers 
for a friend. We usually see quite a number 
of flowering shrubs, Paeonies, and other hardy 
plants, which make the garden gay in the 
early part of the summer, but after July there 
i6 too often a scarcity of liowers; thisisnottobe 
wondered at with the professional florist, there 
being but little demand for flowers at that 
season, the buyers of liowers being then at the 
watering places and other hot-weather resorts. 
Many lovers of flowers, with limited incomes, 
live in the country during that season, and 
should have a good display of flowers at that 
lime with very little trouble and at small cost. 
There are but few autumn flowering shrubs, 
but one of the best is the Hydrangea paniculata. 
This plant, unlike most of the genus, is per¬ 
fectly hardy and a fast grower. We have a 
plant, not more than five years old, with oyer 
two hundred large panicles of bloom. It will 
grow in any garden soil, but should be planted 
iu a moist place, or receive abundance of water 
when in flower. It commences to flower early 
inJuly, and the flowers last into autumn, and 
jhen make a welcome addition to the collec¬ 
tion of dried Ferns and grasses, and are also 
among the most charming flowers to skeleton¬ 
ize. 
I have no doubt most Rural readers keep a 
few Geraniums and other tender plants through 
the winter, and also buy a few Coleuses and 
other things for garden decoration; but, 
although these plants are showy and make a 
good display, they arc of little use for cut 
flowers. A few Heliotropes are useful, but few 
manage to winter them successfully, without a 
greenhouse; hut the plants are so cheap, and 
grow so fast that two or three will give cut 
liowers until frost. A few seeds of the fine 
varieties of German Stocks and Asters are ex¬ 
cellent for both decoration aud cut flowers; 
Double Zinnias, also, and Dahlias are showy, 
and the roots can be kept in the cellar with 
potatoes and Cannas. A pinch of Mignonette 
and annual Candytuft are nice, and the Drum¬ 
mond Phlox will flower all the season. I am 
glad to see the Gladiolus planted in more small 
gardens than formerly, but many of the vari¬ 
eties are very poor. This should not contfhue, 
as good mixed varieties can be bought for a few 
ccut6 each. By making several plantings at 
intervals of two or three weeks, these may be 
had iu flower irom June to October. 
The Japau Lilies are also very showy and 
Quite hardy. These bulbs should he planted in 
the fall, and not less than six inches deep. A 
plant of the Pampas Grass is very ornamental 
on a lawn but it requires protection in wiTiter, 
which is easily given it by means of some bay 
or loaves. Monthly Roses will give liowers all 
the season, if planted in rich ground, well- 
watered and kept free from iuseets and mil¬ 
dew; of course, they require a little protection 
in winter, but the killiug of a portion of the 
top does little harm, if the bottom is safe. The 
so-called hybrid perpetual Roses of the Euro¬ 
pean grower seldom flower ofleuer than once 
in the seasou in this climate, but the plants are 
quite hardy if on their owu roots. The grafted 
plants are of little use, the stock not being 
suitable for this climate. 1 have wondered that 
Borne one has not tried grafting on the Prairie 
Queen class of Rose. 
Maywood, N. J. 
D onto logical. 
PRINGLE’S SWEET SIBERIAN. 
The name of Cyrus G. Pringle, of Charlotte, 
Vt., has become pretty well known to the 
farmers and horticulturists of this country, 
and even abroad, by bis contributions to the 
list of new and valuable varieties of garden 
and field plants. His Snowflake, Alpha and 
Ruby potatoes; his Couqueror and Little Gem 
tomatoes; his Champlain and Defiance wheats, 
have been widely disseminated and generally 
approved. But while in these easier, or at 
least more rapid, lines of improvement this 
skillful aud patient hybridist has made a 
strong mark, it is probable that the future has 
in Btore for himstill greater successes. His ex¬ 
periments with grapes have resulted iu the 
production of several varieties of decided 
merit, which are now undergoing the severe 
test of general trial. His endeavors to improve 
the apple, with the special aim of developing 
hardiness adequate to the enduranco of the 
severe climate of the northern portions of his 
owu State, promise valuable results. He was 
stimulated to these latter experiments many 11 
years ago by the complaints of the writer re¬ 
garding the difficulty of fiudiug any kind of 
apples except those of Siberian origin, that 
were hardy in northern Vermont. Mr. Pringle, 
in reply to my remarks that he would be a 
very polite man who would accept for eating a 
second Siberian apple, said he thought he had 
a Siberian that even I would eat, not only a 
second but a hatful of, if 1 were hungry. I 
said I should be iudoed glad to eee and try 
such an apple, aud the following September 
he sent me a box of the fruit illustrated here 
as “ Pringle’s Sweet Siberian." Subsequently 
he seut me cions from the tree, aud I now 
have a number of trees, 10 years old from the 
root-graft, which have been bearing profusely 
for the last three years. 
PRINGLE’S SWEET SIBERIAN. 
The Pringle Sweet was a chance seedling, an 
accidental hybrid, which came up in Mr. 
Pringle’s garden, and is regarded as probably 
a cross between the Siberian Crab aud the 
Northern Sweet. The originial tree had 
recently come to bearing at the time of the 
above-noted conversation, and the goodness of 
the fruit set Mr. Pringle upon the track of 
crossing the Siberian Crab with pollen from 
our best aud hardiest apples. The results are 
not yet, of course, thoroughly worked out, but 
I have confidence that they will be far from 
abortive. 
In size Pringle’s Sweet is below the medium, 
but runs very even, few specimens being 
less than six inches and few more than seven 
inches iu circumference. In color it is a deep, 
russetty yellow, with bright crimson splashes 
on the sunny side. The season is early Sep¬ 
tember. Flesh, yellow; core, small; flavor, 
a rich sweet, with no astringency when fully 
ripe. Tree, a remarkably thrifty, upright 
grower, extremely productive in alternate 
seasons, and as hardy as any Siberian Crab. 
In this latter particular it is much superior to 
Van Wyck’s Sweet, which, though also of 
Siberian parentage, is not sufficiently hardy 
for the severest localities. In fact, the Pringle 
is the only sweet apple of its season that 1 
have found entirely hardy and at the same 
time of fair size and good quality. Though 
small, its excellence, especially as a baking 
apple, causes it to be highly valued in my 
family, where hardly less than a peck a day 
is baked for the table as loug as the supply 
lasts. T. H. Hoskins. 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
--- 
A LARGE PLUM. 
The accompanying cut was made from a 
plum sent us by G. H. and ,T. H. Hale, of South 
Glastonbury, Conn. The fruit is Uncommonly 
large, and it seems to be a distinct variety, as 
it has not as yet been identified with any other 
plum. The above-named firm sends us the 
following notes concerning it: 
teution during the past few years. The fruit 
sent you, is of about the average size for this 
year, but much smaller than the average last 
year, when the largest Bpecimcu was 4| by 
2J inches In diameter. The history of the 
tree is as follows : About ten years ago it was 
purchased from Rochester, N. Y., with a lot of 
other trees, as a Pond Seedling; but on com¬ 
ing into fruiting, the fruit was found to be 
much larger and darker than those of that va¬ 
riety. At the meeting of the American Porno- 
logical Society in Baltimore, in 1877, we com¬ 
pared it with some fifty varieties exhibited 
there, but could find nothing iu any way like 
it. We called it a Pond Seedliug, but all the 
experts there said it did not beloug to that 
variety, but they could not tell what it was. A 
prominent pmnologist thinks U might he a 
possible instance of a bud variation, a single 
bud upon a Pond Seedling having sported, as 
it is no more strange that a single bud upon a 
tree should sport, iu the way of beariug enor¬ 
mous fruit, than it is that a peach bud should 
sport to produce a Nectarine or the reverse, 
both having occurred. Wo have been testing 
it by budding on other trees, and have one of 
them in bearing this year and it produces tha 
same fruit as the original tree. We have saved 
the fruit from the curculio this year, by cover¬ 
ing the whole tree with a largo hood made of 
mosquito netting, which does very well for a 
single tree; but for a whole orchard we think 
the jarring process the best and certainly the 
least expensive." 
-*-*-♦- 
INFLUENCE OF STOCK ON GRAFT. 
The article iu the Rural of August 16. by 
S. B. Peek, on “ The Influence of the Stock 
upon the Graft,” was read by me with much 
iuterest. Some 25 years ago, I wrote a brief 
article upon the subject, which was published 
in the Transactions of N. Y. State Agricultural 
Society, but it is only within two or three, years 
that I have seen the subject noticed by others. 
I think, as I wrote in that article in the Trans¬ 
actions, that the Giiliflower Apple is aB sensi¬ 
tive to the influence of the stock as any there 
is, and I would suggest that Mr. Tyler, men¬ 
tioned by Mr. Peck as experimenting, try cions 
from a good and juicy Giiliflower in a juicy 
sour stock, and also in a dry, sweet stock, cut 
cions from these grafts and regraft on the same 
tree for two or three years in succession; also 
cross-graft from one to the other; then, aB 
they begin to fruit, submit them to experts 
aud let them observe the difference. 
Conventions discuss regarding the flavors 
OCT. 4 
and qualities of apples with much zest, but do 
they ever think how much the specimens they 
are discussing may have been improved or de¬ 
teriorated from the Influence of the stocks in 
which the grafts were set ? In many cases the 
disputants arc like the two knights who saw 
different sides of the same shield. 
I am very glad that this subject is attracting 
attention and that discussion is being had, aud 
think some experiments may be made, which 
will restore many old favorites to their former 
popularity. E. J. JIuling. 
Crops. 
WHEAT IN ILLINOIS. 
W. B. DERRICK. 
The Winter Wheat Crop 
of Illinois for 1879, is the largest and best ever 
produced in the State. According to the report 
of the State Department of Agriculture, the 
acreage of winter wheat was 2,410,809. This 
was exceeded by the wheat acreage of 1863, ’67, 
’68, ’69, ’74 and ’75; but the total yield, 45,447,- 
661 bushels, is the greatest, being over eleven 
million bushels more tbau in any preceding 
year. The value of the present crop, nearly 
forty millions of dollars, at the low average 
price of 87e. per bushel, August 1, will not re¬ 
turn the producer as large a number of dol¬ 
lars as the crops of 1864, ’66 and ’67, but as our 
money has appreciated in value, and will pur¬ 
chase more goods of all descriptions tbau 
during the times of general high prices, the 
Illinois farmers will derive more benefit from 
their present Winter wheat crop than from 
any preceding one. 
The Average Yield Per Acre 
is given in two estimates, one of 18J bushels, 
and the other of 19ij bushels per acre, for the 
State from the general averages of all the 
different counties. The yield varied consider¬ 
ably iu different parts of the State, the average 
in some counties being much higher than in 
others. Iu Ogle county, the average yield is 
25 bushels, aud iu Stephenson county, which 
joins Ogle on the north, and is one of the ex¬ 
treme northern counties of the State, the 
average is 24 bushels per acre. These estimates 
are as nearly correct a3 is possible, us the 
actual yield on thrashing the crop demon¬ 
strates. In this locality the acreage was not 
large ; as until the last three years, winter 
wheat has not done well here—tills being the 
spring wheat region. The present average 
yield throughout the State is the largest on 
record, and is especially largo in the northern 
counties. Secretary Fisher, in his August re¬ 
port of the State Department of Agriculture, 
says:—“The extra care in seeding last fall lias 
amply repaid the grower for the additional 
expense and labor in the largely increased 
yield reported in such cases. The exceptionally 
large average yields reported generally, con¬ 
sist of new varieties of wheat recently intro¬ 
duced.” There is a lesson in this worth 
remembering in the East as well as in the fer¬ 
tile West, that extra care in seeding will bring 
an increased reward. 
The Varieties of W heat 
that produced the best iu this section the past 
seasou, are the Fultz and Tappuhannoek. The 
Clawson was also grown to a limited extent 
and proved satisfactory, aud the Silver Chaff 
was again tried, hut it blighted somewhat and 
will not be largely sown here this fall, but 
enough will he put in to give it another trial. 
I trust the objections raised agaiust the Fultz 
and Clawson wheats by some of the Eastern 
millers will finally bo overcome by the im¬ 
provement of the quality of the wheat through 
cultivation, or 6oine improvement iu the mills 
for the manufacture of flour, which will save 
these productive varieties from being discarded. 
Winter Wheat Seeding 
is now mostly finished in this section. Some 
commenced sowing Lhc last week of August, 
and that which was first sown is up and looks 
well. A large amouut has beeu sown among 
the standing corn, and cultivated in with a one- 
horse cultivator or drill, betweeu the rows of 
corn. As the corn is never—or “hardly ever"— 
cut. off here, as in the East, bat is husked from 
the stalk, the standing stallcs prevent the snow 
from blowing off iu winter, aud the wheat is 
thus protected. There is a large increase here 
in the acreage of winter wheat this fall, and if 
the crop again proves successful, it will take 
the place of most of the spring wheat hereafter. 
Spring Wheat In llllnolx. 
The report of the State Department of Agri¬ 
culture says: "The acreage of spring wheal 
(303,736) is but little In excess of that of the 
previous year (802,048). The average yield 
per acre (11 bushels) of spring wheat, is much 
below that of winter wheat (19} bushels). The 
drought during the growing season, aud the 
injury in many localities by chinch bugs, have 
reduced the yield much below that of a good 
average. The quality is good iu counties 
where the crop was not injured by chinch 
bugs and unfavorable weather. The spring 
wheat crop of 1878 was 3,870,251 bushels; the 
