. 1 
THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
gard to Blount’s corn. It is, no doubt, Irue 
that this corn is too late for the latitude of New 
York [It is not too late with us.—Eds.], as I 
gather from the reports of the correspondents 
of the Rural in that State, but that it will not 
succeed in New York is no reason that it will 
not succeed in other parts of the country. It 
is also true that the coru grows unreasonably 
tall, especially when the smallness of the ears 
is considered ; but, nevertheless, I think it will 
be found that it will yield more here, and in 
the greater part of the West than any other 
variety. Professor Blount assorts that the 
higbt to which it has grown this season, is 
owing either to the over-enrichment of the soil 
by those contending for your premiums, or else 
to its being planted ou alluvial land. 
From my own experience, I am driven to the 
conclusion that it is owing, in far greater part, 
to the nature of the corn itself. I have twelve 
acres of the Blount, which grew on river bot¬ 
tom—no manure or other fertilizer having 
been used—to an average bight of twelve feet. 
On a small plot of the same character of land 
in a much higher condition and manured be¬ 
sides, coru of the sort commonly grown here 
reached a hight of not more that seven feet. 
This tallness is a serious objection to the coru 
iu more way6 than one. For one thing, it occu¬ 
pies too much space, as, in order to give it 
room enough, it should be planted four feet 
each way. Then, it is more apt to be blown 
down by high winds. In this connection, I 
notice it remarked in the Rural Brevities that 
it stood up better than other sorts. Unques¬ 
tionably it has a Ann hold of the ground, but 
I suspect that the Rural has already found 
that as it approaches maturity, the stalks be¬ 
gin to break down afoot or more aboveground. 
Other sorts, when they are blowu down, are 
turned over from the roots, but this is snapped 
off or bent down in the manner described. The 
6talks are too soft, as the stubs of many of 
them can be uiashed iu the hand, as soon as 
the upper pari has been cut away. Finally, it 
is necessary to cut the corn nearly two feet 
from the ground, and even then it is impossible 
for an ordinary man to tie the shocks suffi¬ 
ciently near the top to make them stand well. 
It appears to me, then, that Professor Blount, 
in the further improvements of his corn, should 
direct liis efforts principally to increasing the 
size of the ears, lowering the stalk, bringing 
the ears nearer to the ground, and hardening 
the stalk. 1 have set forth my objections to 
this corn, its merits will appear iu the report 
I have to make of its yield with me this year. 
As already stated, I plan ted,twelve acres on 
May 1st, the harvesting of which was finished 
the 18th of last September. It is now nearly 
ready to go in the crib. The average number 
of ears to the stalk is three, mauy stalks hav¬ 
ing six. I have already husked enough to as¬ 
certain the yield with a very near degree of 
accuracy. Eight acres of the twelve will yield 
HK) bushels per acre, the other four having 
been injured by the white saud which was 
thrown on them by the flood of last year, will 
average 50 bushels. The average for the whole 
will be a little over 80 bushels per acre. 
This yield has been made in the face of a 
drought which lusted six weeks at a time when 
the corn was iu a critical stage of its growth— 
in silk and tassel. It is remarkable, too, how 
few unsound cars arc iu the whole of it. There 
is hardly one damaged ear iu a hundred. This, 
together with the weight of the grain, will 
make up iu a great measure for the smallness 
of the ears, as the large gourd-seed varieties 
are chaffy aud mauy of the ears immature. 
Blount’s corn will probably weigh 60 pounds to 
the measured bushel, the gourd-seed not over 
the standard. 
Pulaski Co., Va., Oct. 13, 1879. 
INFLUENCE OF STOCK UPON GRAFT, ETC. 
S. B. PECK. 
I avail myself of my first leisure hour to 
accept the Rural's offer, of Aug. 16 last, to 
continue this subject, not so much for the pur¬ 
pose of persuading any one to believe in this 
theorem, as to open another subject in pomo¬ 
logy, to wit: the manner of raising commer¬ 
cial fruit trees. 
I consider the fact as pretty well established 
that the stock does have au effect upou the 
product of the cion inserted in it, an effect per¬ 
haps not always apparent, hut always liable to 
produce a deleterious or beneficial effect. Down¬ 
ing admits that the stock lias sometimes au 
effect on tliu quality of the fruit. B. Ilath- 
away, a leading pomologist of Michigan, 
says:—“The results of my own experience 
and observation go clearly to show that the 
Btock has an influence iu determining every 
character of the fruit.” 
Further evidence to the same point is not 
lacking, but 1 proceed to the other question :— 
Does or does not the ordinary mauuer of pro¬ 
ducing nursery' trees tend to shorten their 
lives, diminish their fruitfulness, weaken their 
constitutions, make them more liable to dis¬ 
ease and less able to overcome the injuries of 
insect enemies? P. Barry says:—“Half of 
the maladies of trees originate in the negligent 
or vicious system of propagation.” The com¬ 
mon practice, as I understand, with propa¬ 
gators is to take the seeds promiscuously from 
the pomace at the eider mills, and, after one 
or two years’ growth, to graft into the whole 
or a part of the root the cions of the variety 
desired, or to bud into the stock in the fall. L. 
11. Spier, of Vermont, says:—“ Trees grafted 
in the root, as is practiced in many Western 
nnrseries, will not flourish here, being too con¬ 
trary to nature for onr climate.” “ As good 
trees and as good fruit can be raised here as in 
any State in the Union.” Downing says 
•* Budded trees usually have much better roots 
than root-grafted ones.” J. J. Thomas says: 
'* A single root will sometimes make but one 
graft; but more commonly two or three.” C. 
W. Dickcrman, author of the Farmers' Book, 
says:—“The seedling root is cut off at the 
crown.” Barry says :—“The graft is always 
made at the collar.” The last two evidently 
do not admit the propriety of making several 
trees from one seedling root. A man. whose 
name I cannot give and whose words I cannot 
quote, related, iu a pomologieal meeting, his 
experience in grafting the Wageoer Apple. 
He said substantially that cions set in the upper 
part of the root, bore fruit soonest. 
This brought to my mind my own experience 
with regard to five Wageners, bought and 
planted at the same time, and treated iu every 
way alike ; yet one fruited three years before 
the rest. Of two Talman’s Sweets, also, planted 
two rods apart in 1862, treated iu precisely the 
same way and looking to-day almost exactly 
alike, one has borne six to ten times as much 
fruit as the other. Two other trees, on the 
• ame acre, of like age, soil and culture— 
(American Golden Russet and Red Astrachan), 
always bear full crops biennially, while some 
others, seventeen years planted, have never 
shown a blossom. Others—and some of them 
covering an area of 20 feet, in diameter—have 
not borne enough to identify their variety, 
not enough to satisfy the cravings of the early 
crop of codling-moth larvse. All the above, 
except the Wageners, are on one acre of level, 
uniform soil, planted at the same time (1862), 
and always treated alike. About two-thirds 
of them succumbed to the hard winter of 1874. 
the rest now appear healthy. Others planted 
near by in 1864 and ’65 from the same nursery 
(which, I think, is now extinct), have behaved 
in about the same way, while seedlings from 
seeds planted about 1864 and replanted at the 
proper age, have borne every other year all I 
could expect. 
I wage no war with nurserymen. I know 
that there are men of that profession as hon¬ 
orable as any in the world, men possessing, 
besides superlative honor, the requisite indus¬ 
try and care to secure their patrons against 
loss and disappointment. That there are other 
nurserymen of precisely opposite qualities and 
habits, the eight varieties of apples which my 
trees have borue. that were never either 
ordered or billed to me, afford abundant proof, 
to say nothing of the failure to raise from them 
a single specimen of Red Russets or Baldwins, 
the trees of which I ordered most aud which 
were quite plentiful in the bills seut me. It is 
not of tree peddlers or professional agents that 
1 I complain; my dealings have, in the main, 
been directly with proprietors through corre¬ 
spondence, aud I have not told a quarter of 
my grievances. I have only spoken of apple 
trees, as I am more familiar with them than 
with other fruit trees. I do not claim to be 
able to say how trees should be raised iu the 
nursery, to insure the best results to the or- 
chardist, but I feel sure that there are faults in 
their propagation somewhere. If we plant a 
seedling tree, we have confidence that, with 
proper culture, it will at a proper age blossom 
and bear fruit. In my boyhood, say from 1810 
to 1820, my principal fall labor was gathering 
apples and making elder. Our trees were all 
natural fruit, and Beldom any two trees bore 
fruit alike. There were great differences in 
the bearing qualities of the trees; many of 
them bore profusely, but I think we never 
had a barren tree of proper bearing age. 
My object, in this article, is to obtain light 
on this dark subject. I write in the hope that 
the science and perseverance that have quin¬ 
tupled the productiveness of the Strawberry 
and the size of its fruit, tripled the quantity of 
corn per acre, given us luscious fruits, instead 
of the crabbed, acrid ones which nature once 
provided, may, by the application of profound 
study, experiment and persevering industry, 
yet produce fruit trees that the orckardist, by 
giving them judicious care, can rely upon for 
productiveness and the possession of that pe¬ 
culiar flavor and aroma which belonged origi¬ 
nally to the variety. That such trees cannot 
be raised for the paltry prices now obtained, I 
am well aware, and that purchasers and fruit¬ 
growers must be more liberal in the prices 
they will pay, is also certain, if they would 
have evidence of greater perfection in the trees 
purchased. 
The advantage of the selection of perfect 
seed from which to breed, is becoming every 
year more apparent. We have examples of it 
in the two farm products corn and potatoes. 
Every good farmer selects for the former his 
best ears, and to this cause I impute the great 
increase in product, while It is quite common 
to plant of the latter what has been discarded 
for the table, and, Instead of 200 to 400 bushels 
of sixty years ago, we now average less than 
100 . 
Muskegon Co., Mich. 
-- 
THE WHITE WINTER CALVILLE APPLE 
OF ABBOTTSFORD, QUEBEC. 
The following description is abbreviated 
from the Reports of the Montreal Horticultural 
Society for 1876, and of the Abbottsford Fruit¬ 
growers’ Association of 1875: 
“This fruit, though smaller, yet strikingly 
resembles the Calville Blanche d'Hiver, of 
France. It wa3 brought to Abbottsford from 
St. Hilaire 20 years ago, though, strangely 
enough, the St. Hilaire apple-growers have 
not, so far, recognized it. At Abbottsford it 
has proved hardy and vigorous, and in pro¬ 
ductiveness very nearly equal to Fameuse. 
Fruit medium, yellowish when ripe, with a 
blush on one side; flesh firm, crisp, juicy, 
mildly sub-acid; its only fault is its color, 
which shows bruises and prevents its being a 
first-class market fruit; otherwise, it bears 
carriage well and keeps until April." 
If this apple is the French one mentioned 
above and described by Downing as of inferior 
quality when grown iu the United States, it 
has iu Canada retained its high quality while 
decreasing in size. I have found, by recent 
inquiry among Canadian orchardiscs, that it 
ranks among the best for profit, preferably 
for a near market; and I have ocular demon¬ 
stration of its abundant fruitfulness. I think 
it well worthy the attention of orchardists In 
the "cold belt.” 
Orleans Co.. Vt. T. H. Hoskins, M. D. 
THE WHITE WINTER CALVILLE APPLE 
OF ST. HILAIRE, QUEBEC. 
Says the Montreal Horticultural Report for 
1876 : “ This seedling originated in the orchard 
of the late Jean M. Ducharme. The original 
tree was bearing in 1822, and still bears. It 
bears heavily, but not young. Fruit, large, 
roundish, whitish, blushed iu the sun. Flesh, 
tender, juicy, and of a pleasant sub-acid. This 
apple is attractive, but its tender flesh and 
delicate color cause it to be easily bruised and 
injured.” I was favorably impressed by what 
I saw of this apple iu the Canadian orchards, 
but it was evident that it does not stand so 
highly in the esteem of growers as the Calville 
of Abbottsford, elsewhere described and fig¬ 
ured. But it excels that variety in its delicate 
beauty, with a skiu of ivory and rose leaves, 
a circumstance which makes it the peer, if not 
the superior, of any known apple for decora¬ 
tive use, while its quality for the dessert, does 
not disappoint the expectations excited by its 
remarkable appearance. T. h. n. 
cfarra Qsxortomy. 
A GOOD HARROW. 
Mr. J. Bundy, of Belmont county, Ohio, 
contributes the accompanying diagram of a 
harrow which he asserts is the best he knows of. 
It can be easily made by any blacksmith and 
is not expensive. Each of the three sides of 
the frame consists of two bars of iron two 
inches wide by one-quarter inch thick, aud 
WHITE WINTER CALVILLE (ABBOTTSFORD). 
WHITE WINTER ClLVtLLE (OF 8T . HILAIRE). 
