22 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January iO 
; Ruralisms ; 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Thk Discontinuance of Meehan’s 
Monthly. —Every lover of intelligent 
gardening will regret to learn that 
dainty and straightforward periodical, 
Meehan’s Monthly, is discontinued with 
the current, December, number. For 11 
years its successive issues have present¬ 
ed faithful colored portraits of interest¬ 
ing native plants, accompanied by 
charmingly written descriptions of the 
subject, as well as interesting articles 
and comment on all branches of horti¬ 
culture and gardening. Meehan’s Month¬ 
ly has been a powerful factor in creating 
a love for the beauties of nature and in- 
.creasing interest in horticulture, espe¬ 
cially in its more ornamental aspects, 
and has done inestimable good in pro¬ 
moting a general desire to improve the 
surroundings of country homes. The 
great increase in the nursery business 
left by the late highly respected Thomas 
Meehan has made it difficult for his suc¬ 
cessors to give the needed attention to 
the magazine, and its discontinuance 
has therefore been decided on. 
A Good New Potato. —A few tubers 
of a “sport from Blue Victor potato” 
were received April 14, 1902, from W. 
P. Wilson, I.akeside, Wash., and imme¬ 
diately planted in our trial plot. The 
soil is a medium loam, and grew a fair 
crop of Early Black cow peas last year, 
which was allowed to remain until 
plowed under in the Spring. The only 
direct fertilization was about a quart of 
hen manure compost incorporated with 
the soil of each hill before planting. 
The season was quite favorable, and re¬ 
liable varieties generally yielded a good 
crop unTler the same conditions. We 
are not acquainted with the Blue Victor 
except that it is known to be quite a fa¬ 
vorite on the Pacific coast, but this 
white-skinned “sport” proved to be a 
vigorous, healthy grower and gave the 
best yield of any variety on the plot. 
The tubers were set thickly in the hill 
and averaged large in size, with a very 
small proportion of unmarketable ones. 
They are round, slightly flattened, 
smooth and with shallow eyes. They 
cook dry and well-flavored, and in evei'y 
way merit another trial. Mr. Wilson 
wished the cooking quality tested before 
and after maturity, but it seemed a pity 
to disturb such fine plants while in full 
growth, and the point will be looked in¬ 
to another season. 
Ca'I'ali'a GnowiNO in the West.—• 
Bulletin No. 37 of the Bureau of For¬ 
estry, United States Department of 
Agriculture, is devoted to studies of sev¬ 
eral great commercial plantations of the 
Hardy Catalpa in the Middle West and 
an exhaustive treatise on the few dis¬ 
eases of this most valuable native foi’- 
est tree. There are 58 pages of text and 
over 30 full-page plates for illustrations. 
The Catalpa has been most largely 
planted in southern Iowa, Nebraska and 
eastern Kansas. The principal planted 
forests here described in much de¬ 
tail, were started 12 to 25 years ago in 
Kansas by a railroad company and pri¬ 
vate individuals solely for the commer¬ 
cial growing of posts and ties. The 
areas in some cases extend over 400 
acres, and cover a great variety of soils. 
Wherever there is a deep rich loam the 
growth has been most satisfactory, but 
on hard, shallow clays and intermediate 
soils of low fertility a proportionally 
meager development has resulted. The 
Catalpas as a rule were planted about 
4x4 feet apart and cultivated like a corn 
• crop for two or three years, or until an 
average height of six feet was attained, 
after which they were left to the re¬ 
sources of nature until large enough for 
the first thinning, with the exception of 
keeping fire-guards plowed around each 
block of 40 or more acres. Nine or 10 
years after planting a thinning was gen¬ 
erally made by cutting one-fourth of 
tbo trees, taking the poorest individual 
in each block of four where all were 
living. The average cost of this thin¬ 
ning is about 60 cents an acre when 
done on a large scale by contract. The 
cost of planting and cultivation is not 
far from $25 per acre. The trees are 
marketable for posts, stakes and tele¬ 
graph poles in 18 to 20 years, and the 
average values of these products is not 
far from $400 an acre as against a total 
cost for the period of growth of about 
$125 an acre, if rent of land is charged 
at $2 an acre yearly. Other items of ex¬ 
pense included in the $125 are cost of 
marketing product, about $35, and 
superintendence, about $15 per acre for 
a 20-year period. Of course these fig¬ 
ures vary somewhat in the different 
localities, but in all it has been fairly 
well demonstrated that on rich loam 
good profits may be expected, while 
nard clays and poor light sandy soils 
will give inadequate returns. Under best 
conditions in the forests studied the 
trees make a growth 20 to 35 feet high 
and from four to nine inches in diameter 
in 20 years. There are many trees of 
less size and scattering ones running to 
50 feet in height and nearly 12 inches 
through. 
Should be Gkown in a La,rge Way. 
—There is little to encourage Catalpa 
planting on a small scale in this timely 
report. Good profits appear certain to 
corporations and capitalists who may 
go about the work in a thorough man¬ 
ner and be content to wait a quarter 
century for returns, but except for the 
furnishing of shade and wind protec¬ 
tion the Catalpa does not promise much 
for the small planter. As with most 
forest trees rich land and close plant¬ 
ing are needed to force a tall, straight 
growth and freedom from persistent 
branches which invite by their slow de¬ 
cay a soft rot of the heartwood of the 
growing tree, about the only serious 
disease the Catalpa is subject to. When 
cut for timber the Catalpa is one of the 
most durable woods known, posts and 
stakes lasting over 50 years, and in rail¬ 
road ties until actually worn out by the 
pressure of the rails, without the slight¬ 
est decay. The wood develops in sea¬ 
soning an antiseptic quality that effect¬ 
ually wards off decay, but during life 
yields readily to httack of two or more 
peculiar fungi. They gain access 
through wounds, especially in the cavi¬ 
ties left by branches falling away, and 
feed on the living heartwood, convert¬ 
ing a vast area into a brittle pulp, thus 
totally destroying the tree which finally 
breaks down from wind pressure. The 
only preventive except close planting 
which suppresses side branches while 
young is close hand trimming, which is 
of course quite expensive. There is no 
practical way to get rid of the rot after 
the tree is affected, but the usual rapid 
growth will cover close-pruned limb 
stumps before infection takes place. 
After growing a long time and destroy¬ 
ing the interior of the tree the fruiting 
bodies of the fungus form on the outside, 
looking like very ordinary “toadstools,” 
and from the spores thus liberated the 
disease is perpetuated. 
The Right Kind of Catalpa. —The 
claim is frequently made by advocates 
of the Catalpa that much of the seed 
furnished is not from the best species. 
Catalpa speciosa has always been rather 
rare and local even in its native habitat 
along the lower Wabash and Ohio riv¬ 
ers, while the common, wide branching 
and crooked growing kind, C. bignoni- 
oides, is widely distributed over the 
Southern States. C. speciosa is a large 
and lofty tree, sometimes reaching 100 
feet in height, and bears its seed pods 
in a sparse and scattering way, while 
the low-growing Bignonioides produces 
them so profusely and is commonly so 
low that they may be pulled off in great 
quantity by a garden rake. One may 
imagine there has been much substitu¬ 
tion in the past and consequent disap¬ 
pointment, but Catalpa seed buyers are 
now becoming critical, and demand the 
true species whenever obtainable. 
W. V. F. 
If you use Grain-0 in place of 
coffee you will enjoy it just as 
much for it tastes the same; yet, it 
is like a food to the system, dis¬ 
tributing the full substance of the 
pure grain with every drop. 
TRY IT TO-DAY. 
At grocers everywhere; 15c. and 25c. per package. 
Saj-“Send Help” 
And I’ll Send It. 
No money is wanted—just a postal. 
Tell me the book you need. 
I will mail you an order—good at any 
drug store—for six bottles Dr. Shoop’s 
Restorative. You may take it a month 
on trial. If it succeeds, the cost is $5.50. 
If it fails, I will pay the druggist my¬ 
self—and your mere word shall decide 
it. 
Don’t think I can’t cure because oth¬ 
ers have failed. I have a way that no 
other man knows. Let the remedy it¬ 
self convince you. 
At least you know this: If I failed 
very often the offer would ruin me. No 
sick one need pay, if he cannot pay 
gladly; yet 39 out of each 40 pay. 
If you need help, don’t wrong your¬ 
self by waiting. My way is almost sure. 
It will certainly cure any case that is 
curable. 
I have spent a lifetime in learning 
how to strengthen weak inside nerves. 
My Restorative brings back that power 
which alone operates the vital organs. 
I treat a weak organ as I would a weak 
engine, by giving it the power to act. 
My w'ay always succeeds, save when a 
cause like cancer makes a cure impos¬ 
sible. And most of these chronic dis¬ 
eases cannot be cured without it. 
You’ll know this when you read my 
book. 
simply state which 
book you want, and ad- 
dr ss Dr. Shoop, Box 
.')70, Kaclne, Wis. 
Book No. 1 on Dyspepsia, 
Book No. 2 on the Heart, 
Book No. 3 on the Kidneys. 
Book NO. 4 for Women, 
Book No. 5 for men (sealed). 
Book No. 0 on Rheumatism. 
Mild cases, not chronic, are often cured by one or 
two bottles. At all druggists. 
Cider Machinery.—Send for catalogue to Boomer & 
Boschert Press Co., 118 West Water St.,Syracuse.N.Y. 
BARNS 
—How to build. Send stamp 
for book. FRANK BRYAN, 
129? Hamlet St., Columbus,O. 
The Old Reliabe 
CAHOON 
BROADCAST SEEDER 
seed, time, strength, 
all the seeds. Always 
The stand-by for 44 
years. 
Sower's Manual Free. 
Wbst, when, bow mnch to tow. Corert 
all toedlDf BubjecU. Krerj fsrmer tbould 
hftTo It. Writo for It tonltj. 
GOODELL CO., 
14 Slain Streat, Antrim, N, H. 
V ~ « 
V, *1 
Our money winning books, 
written by men who know, tell 
you all about 
PotocsK 
They are needed by every man 
who owns a field and a plow, and 
who desires to get the most out 
of them. 
They are /ree. Send postal card. 
GEKM.VN KALI WORKS 
93 Nnssnu Street, New York 
THE LIGHTNING SEED SOWER 
Guaranteed to Wom- fiO Acre* per Day of 
Clover,Timothy,MilleL Flax, etc. Will be 
sent to any Postal 
Office on receipt of y I • “ v 
If not satisfactory, money 
refunded. Circulars free. 
AGENTS WANTED. 
W. J. BUSS, r- 53 Day St., Golden, III. 
We recommend the Lightning Seed Sower 
the best sower made. They forced all others 
out of the market here. Farmers useonly the 
UghtnlDg. It will do all that is claimed forit. 
H. H. EMMINGA, Banker, Grain and Seeds. 
M. L. A A. E. SELBY, Hay, Grain and Seeds. 
TENHAEFF & REYNOLDS, Stock Dealers. 
MoCRAY & THOMAS, Implement Dealers. 
THE KELLY FE'’E“D'’‘iSFL 
does perfect work 
grinding ear corn. 
In husk or out, mixed 
feed In any propor¬ 
tions, with or without 
clover, cotton seed, 
Kaffir corn, or any 
grain thatgrows. Has 
duplex 
grinding 
surfaces, 
andshows 
a greater 
capacity, 
per unit, 
of driving 
power than any 
o t li e r mill. 
Glvesuuuiform 
grist for stock 
feed of any de¬ 
sired fineness. 
Every machine 
tested and guaranteed. Send for our new catalogue 
and Prof. Milos’ essay ‘‘The Economy of Ground 
Feed,’’free. THK O. S. KKLLY CO., 
Dept. X. 8 priu);tieUl, Ohio. 
The 22-2[Oand ^ 8-55 MARLIN 
cartridges are now loaded with High Power 
Smokeless powder, combining high veloc¬ 
ity and flat trajectory with great smashing 
and killing power. This ammunition is 
only for use in Marlin rifles having Spec¬ 
ial Smokeless Steel” barrels. Black pow¬ 
der can be used in the same rifles as the 
twist is right for both. A straight shell is 
better than a bottle neck and a big bullet 
assures you a big hole, gives a paralyzing 
shock with quick and copius bleeding. 
Don’t wound but kill. In close quarters 
you can rely on a Marlin. 
tZO-page catalozae, 300 illustrations, cover 
in nine colors, mailed for 3 stamps. 
THE MARLIN FIRE ARMS CO., NEW HAVEN. CONN. 
INCriE^TER 
«NEW RIVAL” 
FACTORY LOADED SHOTGUN SHELLS 
Give these shells a thorough trial, and you will find them to be as 
nearly perfect as experience, ingenuity, brains and equipment can 
make them. They are made with the Winchester patent corrugated 
head, which has made Winchester “Leader" and “Repeater” 
Smokeless Powder Shells so popular and satisfactory. Winchester 
Factory-Loaded “ New Rival ” Shells are thoroughly waterproof, 
and are loaded by exact machinery with the standard brands of 
powder, shot and wadding which makes them uniform and reliable. 
8hoot Them and You’ll ^hoot Well 
