ot-A.S 
Vol. XLV. No. 1889. NEW YORK, APRIL 10, 1886. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1836, by the Rural New-Yorker in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
THE HAWTHORNDEN APPLE. 
The Hawthorudon, show'll at Fig. 148, with 
a cross-section at Fig. 149, (p. 234.) is a well- 
known Scotch apple originating in the town 
after which it was named. The tree is a strong 
grower, upright, spreading, though somewhat 
pendulous while In bearing. According to 
the latest Am. Pom. Report, it succeeds fairly 
well in New’ Hampshire, Rhode Island, New 
York, Ontario, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Utah, California and Alabama. It 
has not, as yet, received double stars in any 
State. The fruit is somewhat flattened, taper¬ 
ing to the calyx, stem,seveu-eigbthsofau inch 
long, slender, set in a small, deep, regular cav¬ 
ity which is nearly covered w ith a delicate 
russet. Calyx very small, firmly closed and 
deeply planted in a small, corrugated basin. 
Colox-, a beautiful waxen white nearly over¬ 
spread with a faint blush, deepening to a 
bright red in the suu. The surface is studded 
with small, transparent dots which appeal' to 
show through the outer skin. The apple is 
very fragrant and a good shipper. Core 
small, with small brownish seeds, rather long 
and slender. Flesh white, tender, fine-grained, 
mild subacid, juicy, not high-flavored, but 
pleasant; quality good. Eateu Sept. 18th, iu 
good order, but perhaps a little past its prime. 
IOWA FRUIT LISTS. 
PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
Experience in different sections; gloomy re¬ 
ports; causes of mishaps; root-grafted 
trees perish; top-grafted on hardy stalks 
survive; experiments with hardiest Russian 
fruits. 
The Rural asks for an approved list of 
the orchard fruits found hardy and profitable 
iu Iowa. The query is a difficult one to an¬ 
swer. On the lacustrine soils of Southwestern 
Iowa such common varieties as Ben Davis. 
Willow,Roman Stem, Crimes'»Golden, and in 
many cases even the Maiden's Blush, Jona¬ 
than, and Dominie were reported perfect 
in tree, and the yield of perfect fruit the past 
season was unusually good. Again, the por¬ 
tion of the Missouri slope farther north,and the 
loess soils iu all parts of what is known as the 
central and southern districts, are favorably 
reported as to condition of fruit trees and the 
perfection of the fruit crop. With these ex¬ 
ceptions, the reports from at least four-fifths 
of the counties are gloom}* in the extrome, 
and the wholesale destruction of the varieties 
which have been recommended by our local 
societies, has extended not only over a large 
part of Iowa, but over an area of rich prairie 
in Wisconsin, Illinois, and even Indiana, large 
enough to make three or four of the small 
kingdoms of Europe. The present feeling of 
the orclmrdists north of the 42nd parallel in 
Iowa, may be guessed from the fact that the 
committee appointed to revise the fruit lists 
of what is kuowu as the rt North District,” 
gravely reported, “We recommend for general 
culture, of the old lists, only the Duchess, 
Whitney’s No. 20, and Tetofsky.” The re¬ 
port from the prairie districts of the central 
and many parts of the southern districts are, 
iu reality, not much better with regard to 
root-grafted trees. 
As a rule, the trees in orchard and nur¬ 
sery were killed by rupture of the lark 
of the stems, while the terminal points 
of growth were often iu good condition for 
use as cions. With less hardy varieties the 
damage included the whole tree. This state 
of things has created quite a boom in favor of 
top-grafting, as in every case the varieties 
killed by stein injury have stood well and 
borne fair to good crops the past season when 
top-worked on Duchess, Tetofsky, or Gros 
Ponder stocks. Our wholesale losses of root- 
grafted trees at this time on the rich prairie 
soils, where the same varieties stood perfectly 
on iron-clad stems, seem to support the well 
settled views on this subject, which we found 
common to all the rich prairie districts north 
and east of the Carpathian Mountains in 
Europe. The art of root-grafting is there 
well known; yet the universal practice is to 
top-graft, or bud all orchard fruits on stocks 
known to be exempt from sun-scald or other 
stem injury. Over large areas of the prairies 
many now believe orcharding may be made 
profitable iu this way with a few of the old 
varieties. 
In the meantime, wo are experimenting 
with the most promising results with the 
apples, pears, cherries and plums from the 
home of the Duchess. All of the inland varie¬ 
ties of Russia seem true iron-clads as root 
grafts, and the varieties fruiting with us are 
by far exceeding the fondest hopes of many 
in size, appearance, quality and varied season. 
Again, we are making every effort to secure 
crosses combining the hardiness of tree of the 
Russians with the quality of fruit of the 
Grimes’s Golden or Jonathan. With the lib¬ 
eral aid of our legislature wo have just per¬ 
fected the list of premiums for the encourage¬ 
ment of the production of seedling fruits. 
Already we have bearing trees of the hardiest 
known varieties from Russia, which will be 
pollenized this Spring iu many places with 
our best late keepers. 
Though w*e have had many reverses in our 
attempts to acclimate the fruits grown east 
of the lakes, we expect in the very near future 
to conquer the situation, and to raise the 
standard of fruit growing in Iowa as high as 
that of our sister State of Michigan, which is 
supposed to be on the right side of the great 
lake. 
Ames, Iowa. 
A POMOLOGICAL FREAK. 
At Fig. 143 is shown an apple, half Russet 
and half Canada Red. The apple from which 
our engraving was made came from C. L. 
Jones, of Newark, N. J., who received it last 
October from G. S. Eyre, of Vinceuttown, in 
the same State, together with two others of 
the same kind. They all grew on a branch of 
a Cauada Red, which interlocked with a Rus¬ 
set, and all three were distinctly marked as 
shown iu the cut. The Russet marking was 
only skin-deep, however, for when cut, the 
appearance and quality of the fruit declared 
it to be a Canada Red. 
THE PEAR FIGUE D’ALENCON. 
A NUMBER of these pears (Fig. 150, with cross- 
section at Fig. 151, p. 285.) were sent to us by 
Gen. W. H. Noble, of Bridgeport, Cornu They 
were received in flue condition in December, 
as we remember. The fruit is obovate-pyri- 
form or nearly Buffum-shaped. The variety 
originated in Alencon, France. The tree is 
vigorous and productive. The fruit averages 
large, and is greenish-yellow, sometimes with 
a brownish cheek partially russeted. The 
stalk, as shown in our illustration, is short 
and stout: calyx open; basin small, shallow 
and uneven. The flesh is greenish-white, juicy, 
melting, sweet and vinous. Its season is from 
October to December. As we ate these pears 
the question occurred to us, why is this pear 
cultivated so sparingly and so little known? 
PROLONGING THE SEASON OF THE 
WINTER NELIS. 
AN IMPORTANT SUGGESTION. 
In ’82 I put cions of Winter Nelis into four 
pear trees that had been in bearing about 10 
years. Three were Flemish Beauties, the 
fourth a Bloodgood. Last October I gathered 
about three pecks of fine Winter Nelis pears 
from the Bloodgood, and about a barrel from 
the Flemish Beauties. There was no percep¬ 
tible difference in size ’or fairness, but those 
gathered from the Bloodgood were green, 
while the others were yellow-brown. The 
two sorts were kept separate. The Flemish 
Beauty Winter Nelis all ripened before the 
end of December. The Bloodgood Winter 
Nelis kept through January. In other words 
the season of this delicious war was prolonged 
a full month. In the grafting about oue-third 
of each tree was changed. I had previously 
noticed that in a list of 25 varieties, the Flem¬ 
ish Beauty was the first to stop growth and 
drop its leaves, while the Bloodgood continues 
growing and holds its leaves very late. My 
experience, unless exceptional, points to an 
easy way of prolonging the seasons of choice 
late pears, and possibly of earlier ones. 
Amherst College, Mass. a. d. morse. 
THE RITSON PEAR. 
This pear, see Fig. 148, (p. 235) with a cross- 
section at Fig. 147, is of Canadian origin, and 
is introduced by Stone & Wellington, of To¬ 
ronto. The original tree still stands on the 
grounds of Mr. Wellington’s grandfather, at 
Ossawa, 30 miles east of that city’. It is from 
seed planted by his grandmother, 60 or 70 years 
ago, and bears good crops yet. Several other 
trees in the same neighborhood, grown from 
suckers of the Ritson. like the origins I bear 
large annual crops, and iuno instance has any 
tree of this variety failed from disease, though 
other sorts plaured beside them have, at one 
time or another, succumt>ed to blight or other 
maladies. The tree is a good, though not rank 
grower. It is quite hardy, iron-clad indeed, 
as, we are told uo specimen has ever been in¬ 
jured by the severe Winters of the region. 
The fruit is of medium size, conic, resembling 
Tyson in shape, pyriform; skin a greenish- 
yellow, more or less russeted ou oue side 
towards the calyx eud. Stalk, one inch long, 
slender, inserted in a fleshy protuberance, ca¬ 
lyx open in a very small basin, very regular. 
Flesh fine-grained, melting, juicy, somewhat 
buttery, not of the highest flavor, though good 
and pleasant, sweet. Eaten Oct. 22, iu good 
condition. 
E. P. POWELL. 
Last year brought in a line of improve¬ 
ment in almost all products. Let us take the 
most notable iu order. 
GRAPES. 
Empire State probably stands first, or as high 
as any of the varieties most recently pronoun¬ 
ced upon by good judges, Mr. Campbell, of 
Ohio, whose judgment is always safe aud care¬ 
fully considered, says the variety cannot be 
too highly commended. It has stood every 
HALF RUSSET APPLE. From Nature. Fig. 143. 
HAWTHORNDEN APPLE. From Nature. Fig. 148. 
