Vol. XLV. No. 1895. 
NEW YORK, MAY 22, 1886. 
PRICE FITE CENTS. 
$3.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 18S6, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
THE PEERLESS GRAPE. 
« PECIMENS of the Peerless 
\ Grape, illustrated at Pig. 220, 
|> were sent to us early lost October 
’ by the originator, Geo. W. Camp¬ 
bell, Delaware, Ohio, who thinks 
it in some respects the finest 
grape he has ever produced. Al- 
** though permitted to overbear 
last season, the clusters were all perfect, or 
nearly so—neither loose nor crowded, and not 
a berry had rotted, though most other kinds 
did. As received, the color was light green, 
turning to a darker green when fully ripe. 
Skiu thin, tough, with no bad taste when eaten 
close. Seeds, from two to four—mostly three 
—small aud plump, Pulp quite large and 
firm, separating quite easily .from the seeds. 
Juice not abundant, pleasant but not rich; 
free from all foxiuess. Bunch long, slightly 
shouldered. Berries from half to five-eighths 
of an inch in diameter, adhering well to the 
peduncle. 
Burnt (Topics, 
I 
Experiment $vouiul$' of the gtural 
Rocker. 
Nitrogen. —Upon the half acre which last 
year gave an unsatisfactory crop of potatoes 
under the Rural’s trench-mulch system, there 
is now growing rye seeded to Timothy and 
clover. It will be remembered that a large 
quantity of potato fertilizer was used upon 
this halt aero of poor soil—enough, it might 
be supposed, to feed half-a-dozen crops. 
We are told that phosphoric acid and potash 
remain in the soil until taken up by crops, 
while the nitrogen is lost. As an experiment, 
nitrogeu. at the rate of 100 pounds iu the 
form of blood, nitrate of soda and sulphate of 
ammonia, was sown upon all of this laud just 
before the first heads began to show, except 
on a belt seven feet wide through the middle. 
There was no rain afterwards in 10 days, so 
that the nitrogen mixture remained upon the 
surface without any effect during that time. 
A shower then occurred wetting the soil one 
inch in depth. In 40hours afterwards it was 
noticed that all the rye, except that in the belt, 
was of a deeper green color, which, after an¬ 
other good rain several days after, was so in¬ 
tensified that the stakes marking the licit were 
no longer needed to show where the nitrogen 
was omitted. 
Monarch Rhubarb, —Two plants were re¬ 
ceived t wo years ago from the Messrs. Farquhar 
(Boston, Mass.) This year the leaf stalks were 
the largest we have ever seen, being fully 2^ 
inches iu diameter. They were extremely 
tender, less acid than the Linnaeus and fully 
as early. It is not always convenient for 
farmers to buy rhubarb roots. It is easily 
raised from seeds for 10 cents a packet. Seed¬ 
lings vary greatly in size of leaf, stalks, earli- 
uess and quality. 
Dandelion. —Seeds were received last year 
of the French (cultivated) variety of this 
plant, which, though troublesome as a weed, 
is, nevertheless, valuable as a plaut for early 
greens. Our plants, growing in clumps in the 
garden, were this year admired for their large 
flowers, many of which measured three inches 
in diameter, while they were as “double” as 
possible and as yellow os gold. The seeds 
were received from P. 8. Chase, Brattleboro, 
Vermont. 
May King. —We have already spoken 
favorably of this early strawberry. Our 
plants have wintered well and are now as 
green and strong as those of any variety, 
while they are well covered with blossoms. 
The plants were received from JonnS. Collins, 
Moorestown, N. J., August 19, 1884. 
Mammoth Verbenas.— In late Winter we 
received plants of what Peter Henderson & 
Co. call their Mammoth Strain of verbenas, 
an illustration of which appears in their new 
catalogue. In 1884 Mi - . H, raised the verbena 
“America’" which, the catalogue says, far sur¬ 
passed auy variety previously in cultivation. 
ding flower, while judging by “Century,” this 
Henderson strain is far in advance of anything 
we have ever seen among verbenas. The flow¬ 
ers remind us, at a little distance, of cinerarias, 
so large and brilliant are they. We shall 
speak of the other varieties comprising the 
set when they bloom in the garden. 
Experiments.— We have now 57 different 
kinds of new potatoes, 28 of new peas and 19 
of oats above ground. Ten different kinds of 
alleged new varieties of sweet corn and Hof 
field com are in the ground. Our cross-bred 
PEERLESS GRAPE. From Nature. Fig. 220. 
From it, seeds were obtained to raise a large 
number of plants from which the advertised 
list of 14 kinds was selected. 
One or these, “Century,” is now blooming 
with us. The color is a brilliant scarlet with a 
well defined white center a quarter of inch in 
diameter. The single flower measures a plump 
iuch in diameter. It is a great satisfaction to 
be able, us in this case, fully to support the 
claims made for new plants in seedsmen’s cat¬ 
alogues. The verbeua of old is a grand bed¬ 
wheats and hybrid wheat and rye plants are 
looking fine. We counted 40 culms from 
one root of the latter. The potato fertilizer 
experiments are favored with a fine start. 
Timely rains and warm weather have started 
the seed pieces at once, so that few will rot in 
the ground and we have now only to fear frost, 
which often visits us as lute as the 20th, aud 
drought. The trenches which received farm 
manure aud potato fertilizer are ahead of the 
others, and there are 85 trenches, all fertilized 
or treated differently. 
Notes from the Western Neio York Farm. 
FEEDING LAMBS. 
manure worth money. 
If we would maintain the fertility of our 
farms, and not be content, with crops that 
barely pay the cost of cultivation, we must in 
some way return to the soil as much of the ele¬ 
ments of plant growth as is taken out by each 
succeeding crop. Luckily in stock feeding, a 
very large share of w-liat is appropriated by the 
animal consists of those elements taken by the 
plant from the ah- or the water, so that if the 
excreta, solid and liquid, are properly cared 
for and returned to the field, but little loss is 
sustained, aud when extra foods are bought 
and fed, especially those rich in the elements 
of vegetable growth, we carry to the soil more 
than was removed in the largest crops. This 
being true, it is only fair to retain sight of the 
value of the manure made, when we are figur¬ 
ing the profits of any branch of stock feeding 
Wo are led to these reflections by a letter 
from our good friend Rieheubach, of Wayne 
County, Ohio. He says that in November, 
1884, he put iu 182 lambs at a cost of .<465; 
from that time until April 11th, IS85, Ke fed 
them hay and grain worth, at market prices, 
$508, making an aggregate of $968. At this 
time he sold the lambs for 81,008, leaving him 
a balance of $120 for care, labor and interest, 
and he asks if this should be satisfactory. He 
had kept these lambs five months; the interest 
on the cost of the food or an average of half 
that time, and the wages and board of the per¬ 
son in charge, properly chargeable to the 
lambs, would amount to about $24. which 
leaves a clear profit of 10 per cent, on the 
money invested, which should be very satis¬ 
factory. But there was in this case a con¬ 
sumption of hay and grain to the amount of 
$508; the phosphates, potash and nitrates re¬ 
maining in tbe excrements, if properly saved 
and returned without waste to the fields, could 
not be supplied in any other form at a cost of 
less than $‘180. (According to the experiments of 
Prof. Roberts, at Cornell, the manure would 
be worth $880). If we add this to the 8120, 
cash profit received, we shall have $850, of 
which, taking the cost of care, interest and 
outlay for applying the manure, we should 
have left not less than $800, or about 80 per 
cent., and everybody knows that last year was 
about the most unfavorable for feeders ever 
known. 
CAN HE DO BETTER ? 
Mi-. Rieheubach also says he put iu Novem¬ 
ber 4th last, 170 lambs weighing 78 pounds each, 
at a cost of $8.75 per hundred pounds, or $405.- 
38 for the lot. To those he has fed corn 
worth 85 cents per bushel; oats at 25 cents 
per bushel; oil-meal at $2? per ton; bran 
at $15 per ton, and bay at $7 per ton 
and he has them to weigh 105 pounds each, 
and is offered six cents per pound, lie asks 
if they would have done better with roots, and 
if he could have made more money by shear¬ 
ing them early 
He must make a fine margin of profit at 
the present Winter's prices of grain; but we 
eau not but think he would have done much bet¬ 
ter by changing his grain ration somewhat, by 
feeding roots daily, and by shearing the Iambs 
late in December or early iu January. In the 
first place, oats tit 95 cents per bushel cost $15.- 
02 1 2 per tou; corn at 85 cents, costs $13.50 pet- 
ton : bran costs $15 per ton. Now, weshould have 
fed a ration composed of 800 pounds of corn; 
100 pounds of bran and 100 pounds of new-pro¬ 
cess oil-meal. While the oats are a healthy 
food, their relative cost is too high. The new- 
process meal would have cost several dollars 
less per ton, and would have been worth 
