418 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 1C 
Ruralisms > 
MOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
'Crimson Clover and Cow Peas. —We 
are pleased to note the bright gleam of 
Crimson clover blossoming in nearly all 
orchards and fruit gardens in the vicin¬ 
ity of the Rural Grounds. Six years ago 
this invaluable plant was a curiosity 
hereabouts, and a plant in bloom caused 
much wondering comment. Now it is 
seen on every side, and is being more 
and more relied on to enrich the soil by 
restoring the humus and nitrogen lost 
through over-cultivation, and, generally, 
with the happiest results. Cow peas are 
still a novelty, and are being tested in 
a gingerly manner, though apparently 
the soil and climatic condition are 
favorable to the development of the 
earlier varieties. But little notice has 
been taken of the powers of reproduc¬ 
tion and survival of Crimson clover 
where not disturbed. Five years ago a 
neighboring hill-slope of poor, stony 
land was thinly sown to Crimson and 
Alsike clovers, together with some Tim¬ 
othy and Orchard grass. The sowing 
was made at the last cultivation of corn, 
which had been given a fair fertilization 
on the more exposed slopes. Nothing 
whatever has been done to the field 
since harvesting the corn, except to pas¬ 
ture it occasionally in midsummer. A 
tolerable sward covers it now, among 
which the glowing spires of Crimson 
clover stand quite thickly in many 
places each recurring season. Gullying 
by storm water has been quite effectual¬ 
ly prevented, and it is possible mat the 
soil has gained in fertility during the 
four idle years, at the same time afford¬ 
ing considerable pasture just where it is 
most needed. Evidently Crimson clover 
seed in the hulls, either self or inten¬ 
tionally sown, will germinate and live 
under conditions too unfavorable for 
clean seed to grow at all. 
'Some Handsome Shrubs. —By the last 
of May we get pretty well down the list 
of blooming shrubs, though some of the 
finest gems, such as Deutzias, late 
Spiraeas and Altheas are yet to come. 
Azalea amoena has been particularly fine 
th'is season, some large clumps on neigh¬ 
boring grounds being covered with a 
blaze of color, astonishing for its min¬ 
gled intensity and delicacy. Rosy-qiur- 
ple is scarcely one of the tints commonly 
associated with delicate effects, but the 
purple of this hardy Chinese Azalea, 
wnen lighted by the sun and seen from 
a moderate distance, can most fairly 
merit the claim. Azalea amoena is not 
commonly grown, and is sparingly listed 
by our nurserymen, but is a most meri¬ 
torious dwarf shrub, succeeding well in 
almost any situation if some attention 
is given to mulching the roots dating 
Summer. The Japanese snowball, Vi¬ 
burnum plication, really a native of 
northern China, is another very hand¬ 
some shrub, which seldom fails to give 
satisfaction. It excels our native snow¬ 
ball, V. opulus sterilis, in habit, hand¬ 
somer foliage, whiter and more delicate 
blossoms, and especially in freedom 
irom aphides or plant lice, which so 
commonly infest the native form. 
A Good Bug Gun. —The Dewey spray¬ 
er, maue by Leggett & Bro., New York, 
proves a most efficient little implement 
with which to combat these same trou¬ 
blesome aphides. Some hybrid climbing 
honeysuckles have been so infested with 
aphides for several seasons that we were 
about to destroy them, when the Dewey 
sprayer came to hand. It is an ingeni¬ 
ous instrument for spraying kerowater, 
a mechanical mixture of kerosene and 
water in varied proportions, at one op¬ 
eration. The oil and water are contain¬ 
ed in separate receptacles, and are 
forced out in a mixed spray at each 
stroke of the piston. The proportion 
of oil can be graduated very nicely by a 
sliding valve. We have used the kero¬ 
water spray on a variety of plants, in¬ 
cluding the aforesaid honeysuckles, to 
the great discomfiture of the aphides. 
We find eight per cent of oil effectual 
against most soft-bodied insects, and 
practically harmless to the foliage. A 
few tender rose leaves show a little 
browning of the edges from the effects 
of tiie oil, uut the damage done is much 
less than the parasites would effect. 
When charged, the Dewey sprayer may 
be laid aside, and is always ready for 
instant use whenever a colony of the 
pests is discovered, without the trouble 
of making up an emulsion, which is an 
uncertain affair at best when attempted 
on a small scale. The sprayer works 
very well when Paris-green and other 
insecticides are added to the water, thus 
becoming doubly effectual. 
Nut-Grass Tubers in Potatoes. —On 
page 354 we gave an account of a tuber 
of Yellow Nut-grass, Cyperus osculen- 
tus, found embedded in a sound potato. 
This was a novelty to us, and even to 
the experienced botanists of the Na¬ 
tional Department of Agriculture. The 
following clipping from an Australian 
paper, however, shows that this Antipo¬ 
dean country is not exempt from the 
pest, which has there contracted the 
potato habit in a wholesale way. Pos¬ 
sibly the tubers may belong to another 
species of Cyperus: 
To demonstrate how easily a serious pest 
may be unconsciously introduced into llie 
district a local farmer called at tills odice 
recently and exhibited several seed pota¬ 
toes, at first glance all apparently excellent 
tubers. Un dividing them, however, with 
a knife, they were all found to contain 
Nut-grass, the kernels of this dread pest 
lying perdu in the heart of the potato. Out 
of a large quantity of these potatoes which 
he had obtained for planting, our visitor 
informed us that fully oO per cent were 
similarly affected, and, needless to say, he 
did not risk the experiment of using them. 
WHY SEEDLING FRUITS VARY. 
Part I. 
The Law of Heredity. —The question 
is frequently asked, why do not seed¬ 
lings come true to the type of the parent 
tree or vine? Why is it that like does 
not produce like in our cultivated fruits 
as well as in our wild fruits? For in¬ 
stance, why should not a Baldwin apple 
tree, growing where no other apple tree 
is near enough to shed its pollen upon 
the Baldwin flowers, produce seedlings 
that would be true Baldwins? To an¬ 
swer these questions in short, I would 
say, because cultivated varieties are not 
purebred. They are all sports from the 
normal types of the species to which 
they belong. They are variations that 
have no fixity of type within themselves. 
'The great law of heredity is almost as 
clearly shown in plants as in animals, as 
we Shall see by a littRi study into the 
subject. The multitude of species of na¬ 
tive trees and plants as they are grow¬ 
ing on the earth to-day, are the product 
of thousands of generations of natural 
selection. They have bred in-and-in un¬ 
til the type is fixed in most of them. 
The variations are generally reduced to 
the lowest limits within the bounds of 
vigorous growth and reproductiveness. 
These lowest limitations constitute what 
are called species in botany. A single 
species is generally thought to be fertile 
only within its own limits: that is, its 
flowers are perfect within themselves 
and not outside the species. And it is 
true that their pollen is usually not ef¬ 
fective upon the stigmas of other species, 
nor is foreign pollen potent upon theirs. 
This, however, is not always the case, 
for different species,have been crossed, 
and different genera, too, in a few in¬ 
stances. A genus is the next more com¬ 
prehensive group to a species; several 
species forming a genus. 
Horticultural Variations. —Below 
the limits of a species botanists rarely 
recognize the divisions of plant life; a 
few, however, being called sub-species. 
This is where the botanist leaves off 
classifying and the horticulturist begins. 
The work of the latter is far more in¬ 
tricate and difficult in a large part of 
the cases with which he has to deal. 
The variations are often so slight that 
only a person of the most acute percep¬ 
tion and wide experience can detect 
them. Varieties they are called, and 
varieties they are in truth, and there arc 
countless millions of them. In the case 
of certain species, the Individual trees or 
plants composing each are almost as 
near alike as two peas in all essential 
particulars, each being true to the nor¬ 
mal type; but there are other species 
within whose limits, separately, the in¬ 
dividuals vary greatly. This proneness 
to variation is the basis of almost all 
progress in the improvement of our cul¬ 
tivated fruits. There is scarcely one 
variety of our really good fruits that is 
not a variation from the type of the 
species to which it belongs. Many of 
them have such a long line of successive 
generations back of them since their 
first departure from the original type, 
that they have almost no resemblance to 
it. The choice varieties of the apple, 
peach, plum and banana are examples of 
this kind, so far as their fruits are con¬ 
cerned. Their leaves, and the whole 
habit of the trees are also often changed 
to a most remarkable degree. The same 
is as true in flowers and vegetables as in 
fruits. Even the forest trees have been 
found to be subject to considerable va¬ 
riations. We have purple-leaved maples 
and beeches, and yellow-leaved ever¬ 
greens, besides very many others of dif¬ 
ferent hues and variegations as to form 
as well as color. The underlying prin¬ 
ciple of all these variations is the ten¬ 
dency to sport from the normal type. 
The further the departure from the nor¬ 
mal type the greater are the possibilities 
of still further variation. Their hered¬ 
ity is not so deep seated as that of some 
others. It would take many generations 
of the closest in-and-in breeding to fix 
the type so that there would be none 
but black grapes in the species, Vitis 
laibrueca, to which the Concord belongs 
There are found in the wild state varie¬ 
ties with red, green, and yellow fruit, as 
well as with black fruit. If the seeds oi 
the Concord are planted there will be 
varieties produced bearing all of these 
colors. Concord is not a purebred va¬ 
riety. The same is true of the Grimes 
apple, which is deep yellow, but its seed¬ 
lings are often red. The Early York 
peach has down on it the same as most 
peaches; yet I have grown seedlings 
from it which were as free irom it as 
any plum. They were what we call nec¬ 
tarines: for a nectarine is only a peach 
without fuzz on the skin. I have also 
grown peaches with the normal amount 
of down on them from nectarine seeds. 
None of them was purebred. A Bald 
win apple is only the product of a sport, 
and is a sport itself, and it would be 
unreasonable to expect the seedlings to 
come true to the parent type, unless w<> 
consider that the parent type is a varia¬ 
tion in itself, as it really is. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
PAGE DAIRY FENCE, 9-50, 
linn nine horizontal wires and Ih 50 Inches high. 
I*AGK WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., ADRIAN, MICH. 
DRILLING 
Machines 
Over 70 sizes and styles, fordrillliiK either deep oi 
shallow wells In any kind of soil or rock. Mounted 
oil wheels or on sills. With engines or horsepowers. 
Strong, simple and durable. Any mechanic car 
operate them easily. Send for catalog. 
WILLIAMS ItKON., Ithaca, N. Y. 
RAVIN 
with our daw patent 
Kerosene Sprayers 
i* dimple Indeed. Keroeene emulmon 
made while pumping. 12 varieties 
sprayers. Bordeaux and Vermorel 
Nonlea, the “World’* Bent.” 
THE nEMINOCO., SALEM, 0. 
Western Agent*, Hellion* Iluttiell. 
Chicago- Catalogue and formula* free. 
COMPRESSED AIR 
... SPRAYER — 
HOLDS FOUR GALLONS, 
ONLY TAKES A MOMENT TO 
PUMPII* THE AIH .NO MORE 
LABOR REQUIRED. 
COMPLETE.SENT TO ANY AO- 
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D.B.5MITH UQ,UTICA,N.Y. 
BERRY BOXES and BASKETS 
Poach Packages— 
Grapo Baskets— 
Fruit and Vegetable 
Packages Of ovory kind 
Mend Tor catalogue. 
NEW ALBANY BOX & BASKET CO., 
New Albany, Ind 
The New | 
SMALLEY 
□ Cutter 
8UCCESS is iissiirod if you uho 
N ow .Smalley Cutters with Hl-llli 
circlecurrierH for cutting ami 
elevating ensilage. They have 
aiiloiiiuf i<; nclf feed, aiso 
' orn Shrcdttiny and Corn lliiskim/ 
attachments when desired. 
Mounted on 4 wheel trucks for 
easy moving A strictly ■* up-to- 
date" machine. 1900 booklets 
mailed free. “ Yankee silo 
.SVri*.,” and 'Forming on Jlusinei a 
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troduction prices on Smiil- 
ley and “Itnlllc (reek” 
Woon Saws, Ckinihno Mills, 
Bah Cohn Oiiuuiikiis; also 
OWKKP Til K A I) ANIl STKAM 
Powkhs, stating goods you wish 
to purchase and naming paper in 
which you saw tills advertise¬ 
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makes 
the 
Silo 
pay 
Six 
Sizes: 
Nos, 12. 14, 
16. 18. 20, 
and 26. 
THE ROSS 
ENSILAGE MACHINERY 
cut* itll kinds of gruun and diy 
fodder and ensilage, faster and 
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cutting many lengths. Swivel, 
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length. Send for Catalogue No. HO. 
^The E.W. KohsCo. Springfield,0. 
Wilder’s Knsihige 
Machinery. 
A fill! 11 no of Feed 
Knsi Inge Cut 
, Fodder Shred¬ 
ders, with Self-Feed 
Kiihilage or Plain 
Tallies. Straight 
away orSwlvol Carriers. 
Send for Catalogue and 
prices to 
J. K. WILDISH & SONS, 
Monroe, Mich, 
For Pumping or Driving 
Cream Separa¬ 
tors or other 
machines re¬ 
quiring light 
power but ab¬ 
solutely steady 
motion, 
BUY A 
ttciinncrcc” one-horse 
OUUullOO TREAD POWER. 
It ha* a governor which regulates the walk of the horses to a nice- 
tv and ilcllvi rH an absolutely stmdy and even motion to the ma¬ 
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APPLETON MFG. C0 M 27 FAKG0 ST. BATAVIA. ILL 
1,000 SAMPLES FREE 
of our new SucoesM fence ratohet 
which tightens any wire fence, new 
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Clr. free. W. H. MAHON a CO., Box 67, Leesburg, O 
KEYSIONt 
MF6 CO 
SICRIING 
, 111 
Hay 
Three Feed 
New in principle! Has three feeds to every round of the power giving Sift per eentgreater eupuelty with * 
power and help. Superb nil steel anil Iron construction. Press always stands on wheels. Hiicotly worker in 
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telling how the Keystone saves money. 
KEYSTONE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, «4 Kiver Srteet, STERLING, ILLS. 
