MARLBORO RASPBERRY IN CONNECTICUT. 
The experience with the Marlboro on the 
Rural Grounds is similar to my own. Being 
one of the original shareholders of the berry, 
I received with the young plants from Mr. 
Caywood, half a dozen extra plants with 
earth on the roots. They were planted out 
with care and boro some extra line fruit the 
next season, and made a tine strong plant 
growth; even more vigorous than that of 
the Cuthbert. In the season of 1884, what 
few plants we left for fruiting were well 
loaded with fruit that ripened early, was of 
fine large size, bright color and firm. 
Last year the plaut growth was weak and 
sickly, and the fruit crop a failure. This sea¬ 
son the plant growth is even poorer than last, 
and, side by side with a dozen or more red 
varieties, new and old, the Marlboro is the 
poorest of the lot, the plant growth not being 
equal to that of the Hansell, which is a very 
poor grower. 
Mr. C. C. Hort, of Southington, reports 
that the Marlboro is in much the same con¬ 
dition with him. And on a recent trip 
through the West, I failed to find a single 
plant of it showing the health and vigor of 
which it gave promise two years ago. Mr. C. 
A. Green and some others report that it is 
doing remarkably well near Rochester, New 
York; while F. H. Hillenmyer, of Lexington, 
Ky., told me that, side by side with Turner 
and Cuthbert, it was much inferior to either. 
brick arch at the bottom will hold the fire. 
This can be put up and taken down at short 
notice. It will not be in the way when not in 
use, and you cau lend it to the neighbors if 
you desire so to do. 
figures of any other dealer. It is the agent of 
a large number of cattle companies and 
barons on the Western ranges, and it proposes 
to deal exclusively with the producers of the 
West and the consumers of the East. Oliver 
Sumner Teall, Presideut of the company, is 
also president of nearly all the Western com¬ 
panies that supply the meat. General Mana¬ 
ger Hammond has been extensively engaged 
in the dressed meat trade for years, and the 
company has already in successful operation 
13 large shops in Baltimore, aud has leased for 
five years three large depots in this city, in¬ 
tending to open more so soon as the growth 
of the trade shall demand the extension. 
The prices will not vary with the seasou, as 
the Compauy believes that a fixed rate the 
year round will prove more satisfactory to its 
patrons. The Companj will also supply mut¬ 
ton, lamb aud pork as well as beef, anti also 
poultry and everything else found in first- 
class butchers’ shops. The concern has already 
constructed enormous slaughter-houses for the 
use of the combined cattle companies at Me- 
dora, Dakota; Kansas City, Mo,; Silver City, 
New Mexico; aud Victoria, Texas. The cattle 
will be taken from the ranches of the various 
companies to the slaughter-houses, and the 
dressed meat will be promptly forwarded to 
this city in refrigerator ears, the transporta¬ 
tion takiug from five to eight days. 
It is said by the large butchers here, as well 
as by the representatives of the C hicago ship¬ 
pers of dressed meat, that the new enterprise 
must speedily fail. There are now three dif¬ 
ferent grades of beef iu this market, aud they 
say the far Western article will be a fourth. 
THE DUMAS PEAR. 
Belle Epine Dumas is the long French 
flame for this pear. Iu size it is medium; 
iu shape, pyramid and obovate, gaining its 
full swell about midway between the stem 
and calyx. At maturity it takes on a brill¬ 
iant yellow tinge, with usually a red cheek. 
Its flesh is white, melting and pleasantly aro¬ 
matic. The portrait, Fig. 293, with a cross- 
section at Fig. 293, is correct. The pear ripens 
gradually through November aud December. 
Except for its lateness, it would not be sought 
because ouly medium iu size. The Seckel, the 
Ott, the Dearborn’s Seedling are the ouly 
small pears that people hunger for. Only 
large aud luscious pears, as a rule, find ready 
r>u rchasers. W. h. noble. 
THE DUVAL PEAR. 
I fully agree with Hon. Marshall P. 
Wilder, the venerable bead of the American 
Pomological Society, as to the quality of 
this pear—good to very good. The very good 
comes iu in this, as in a great many pears, 
by the care you give to the growing, to 
thinning on the tree and to keeping. Not 
every pear shows, like the Seckel, excellence 
in its very nubbins. A good many only gain 
their best estate when thinned so as to 
average full size and get a complete develop¬ 
ment^ Long keeping and reluctance to decay 
are qualities which should always call for 
choice in good or very good pears. These the 
Duval has espial to almost any one I know. 
It never takes on that inveterate rot to 
which some pears are “as prone as the sparks 
to fly upward.” w - noble. 
RASPBERRIES IN 1886. 
Highland Hardy Raspberry showed the 
first ripe fruit this season on June 26. 
Michigan Early followed two days later. 
This proves to be hardy at the Lake Shore, aud 
fairly productive. The fruit is of medium 
size, aud of rather bright color, but not, so 
far, earlier than at least half a dozen others. 
In flavor it is poorer than almost any other 
variety I know. I see no reason to be flatter¬ 
ed by the prefixing of Michigan to the name; 
nor do I understand why this is done, since, so 
far as I am informed, it is unknown in this 
State, coming to us from the East. 
Queen is a variety without a sponsor, so far 
as I am informed. Although not attractive in 
color, it is of good size and excellent flavor, 
producing an abundant crop of very perfect 
berries. A desirable berry for the family 
garden. 
SURPRISE (history unknown), Crimson 
Beauty, Superb, Brandywine, Cuthbert, Tur¬ 
ner, Reder all ripened nearly together within 
the next three or four days. 
Hansell I shall abandon, as not earlier 
with me than several others, while it is com¬ 
paratively unproductive, small, and not of 
high quality. 
Superb may be confidently recommended 
for the family garden, for persons who desire 
high quality, since it is very large and abun¬ 
dantly productive, although too dark iu color 
for market, and the berry is inclined to crumble 
iu picking. It produces plants but slowly. 
Surprise and Crimson Beauty are very 
similar iu both plaut aud fruit. The former, 
however, has the young shoots clothed with 
purple spines; while those of the latter are 
greenish-white. In fruit, both these are quite 
THE DUMAS PEAR. Cross Section. Fig 293. 
THE DUMAS PEAR- From Nature. Fig. 292. 
face are drawn down, aud he looks careworn 
and unhappy. He lives on the dark side of 
farming, and no sunshine brightens his heart 
aud lightens his lat>or. He is a good, honest, 
truthful, kind-hearted man, for whom one 
cannot help being sorry, aud the pity of it is 
that most of these easy-going, unhappy men, 
who are their own enemies, really evoke our 
sympathy, aud while wo see their faults we 
are sorry for them and want to advise with 
them and remonstrate with them. And this 
we should do by a word in season, by kindly 
expostulation, and especially by example and 
act, which 
"Some forlorn aud shipwrecked brother, 
Seeing, may take heart again.*' 
I am sure we must look beyond the Marlboro 
for a valuable early market red raspberry. 
South Glastonbury, Ct. J. h. hale.;. J 
THE DARK SIDE OF FARMING.—IV. 
HENRY STEWART. 
“All delays are dangerous” says one au¬ 
thor, aud another says “delays have danger¬ 
ous ends.” This is especially true of farming— 
of all work, of sowing and reaping, and in re¬ 
gard to live stock and the dairy, and all 
domestic arrangements. Disappointment, 
loss, vexation and infinite trouble come to the 
man who procrastinates, and his family suf¬ 
fer with him. Surely a man of this character 
is a misfit, aud being unfitted to his work and 
place, everything goes on harshly and dis¬ 
agreeably and brings misery. There is no 
darker side of all the infinitely varied sides of 
life than such a one as this to the man who 
lives in this manner. To him and his it is 
‘•Dark. dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon," 
and everything in nature—the blooming 
Spring, the kindly, genial sun, the gentle 
rains, the singing breezes, the Winter’s snows, 
the storm which howls out of doors aud makes 
the warm, well-lighted and snugly-draped 
parlor of the successful farmer all the more 
cheerful and pleasant by the contrast, and 
which pleases this man when he thinks of his 
work all done outside and his stock all warmly 
sheltered iu good barns aud beds and well fed, 
and he draws to the blazing fire aud sees with 
pleasure and contentment his happy, learning 
wife, and the girls and boys, with their books 
and pajsirs, nil enjoying the warmth and the 
bright light, in their happy home, while the 
snow boats musically on the window-pane and 
rattles on the shutters—all these make the 
other man wretched, simply because they 
come to him when he is unprepared,aud inter¬ 
fere with his belated work. When he wants 
dry weather for his spring plowing, it is rain 
THE MEAT SUPPLY OF NEW YORK, 
Souhegan, Tyler, Doolittle, Hopkins, and 
several others among the cap varieties, have, 
this season, ripened very nearly together; 
while Shaffer is two or three days later, and 
Gregg several days later yet. 
Of all the newer candidates for popular 
favor of this class, 1 regard the Hilborn as the 
most promising, whether for home use or mar¬ 
ket. Almost as large as Gregg, it is clear, 
glossy black, iu flavor rich and juicy, aud 
decidedly less seedy than any other black-cap 
I know, with the possible exception of the old 
Miami. Beebe’s, like all the other “goldens” 
I know, although very productive, becomes 
offensive when a little overripe, on account of 
its dirty brown color, as well as its loss of 
flavor. Brinckel’s Orange and Caroline are, 
bo far as I am aware, the ouly exceptions to 
this rule. T. T. LYON. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Peter Henderson & Co., 35 &37Cortlandt 
St., N. Y.—A summer catalogue of celery, 
cabbage, cauliflower uud pot-grown straw¬ 
berry plants, with a list of turnip seeds, and 
etc. The celery plants will be supplied iu any 
uantities up to August 25; the {Kit-grown 
strawberry plants up to September. The uew 
strawberry Crimson Cluster is offered for the 
first time. It has beeu fully described iu tht 
