466 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 7 
Ruralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Thinning Tiiee Fruits. —The Japan 
plums first planted, Abundance, Bur¬ 
bank and Satsuma, are loaded with half- 
grown fruits; the Burbank and Satsuma 
in dense clusters, and Abundance in a 
more regular distribution along the 
branches. They were all pretty well 
peppered with the curculio, despite reg¬ 
ular jarring, but as only a moderate 
number has fallen, it has been de¬ 
sirable to thin by hand, which we are 
trying to do in such a manner that no 
two plums will touch when ripened, and 
that no branch shall carry a burden too 
great for safety. Now this is a very nice 
and easy resolution, but it takes some 
determination to carry it into practice. 
You find so many fine plums just where 
they should not be. Experience has 
shown that these new stone fruits have 
a dangerous propensity to overbear in 
favorable years. If carefully done, thin¬ 
ning improves the quality, and by in¬ 
creasing the size of individual fruits, 
scarcely diminishes the quantity to be 
gathered, while a great burden is lifted 
from the tree. It does not draw so heav¬ 
ily on the vitality to ripen 100 pounds 
of large fruits, with their great percent¬ 
age of pulp and flavored water, as a 
similar weight of small ones with the 
increased number of seeds. 
A Prague of Cutworms. —Cutworms 
have never been so bad in this locality, 
but they are always to be reckoned with 
when setting out early plants. We tried 
to clear the ground before planting with 
balls of bran, molasses and Paris-green, 
'but the numbers did not seem to be 
much diminished thereby. Where the 
ground was kept entirely clear of weeds 
the damage was greatest, as the worms 
were forced to devote their attentions 
exclusively to the young crop, and it ap¬ 
peared io be good policy to allow the 
charlock and other weeds to divert their 
attention to some extent. We put out 
a block of tomatoes and cabbages with 
strips of newspaper wrapped aroqnd the 
stem, and found the paper about several 
of the plants perforated each successive 
night, and the stem eaten off. An eight- 
-^per-cent kerosene-water spray was 
finally used on the stems and papers, 
proving very effective, no plants being 
cut afterward. The worms ceased to 
trouble just as we decided to use the 
kerosene spray as a repellant, without 
the paper wrappings. We shall make a 
careful trial next year. Some practical 
method of circumventing this erratic 
and troublesome pest is badly needed. 
Rainy Weather. — Several heavy 
showers have visited us since the middle 
of May, and we have also experienced 
the rather unusual feature at this season 
of a full day’s drizzling rain. The in¬ 
terference with work plans is more than 
compensated for in the green luxuriance 
of even the most sterile places. Give us 
a rainy Summer every time for comfort 
and plenty, even if the weeds do grow 
lustily. Strawberries made a fine crop, 
although the quality was doubtless low¬ 
ered somewhat by the excess of mois¬ 
ture. All the bush fruits promise well 
at this writing, blackberries in particu¬ 
lar being heavily loaded with half-grown 
fruits. 
A Year of Roses. —Never in the 
recollection of the Rural people have 
garden roses bloomed to better advan¬ 
tage. Dooryards, cemeteries and parks 
have been gay with masses of flowers, 
and redolent with fragrance for weeks. 
The cultivation of hardy roses was sup¬ 
posed to be on the decline lately, but 
the brilliant show of blooms this season 
makes it evident that extensive plant¬ 
ings of Hybrid Perpetual and other 
hardy roses have been made during the 
last five years. The great output of 
cheap mailing rose plants by some of 
our enterprising growers may account; 
for this. While many of the little plants 
fail, a good proportion seems to pull 
through, and in time make fine bushes. 
It is likely that an added impetus will 
be given to rose planting by the fine dis¬ 
play this year, and with our better 
means for controlling diseases and in¬ 
sect pests we may expect the interest to 
continue. 
A Reliable Strawberry. —On our 
first page we reproduce, in Fig. 150, 
exact size, a cluster of Gandy strawber¬ 
ries grown under ordinary garden con¬ 
ditions by Mr. T. J. White near the 
Rural Grounds, at Little Silver, N. J. 
Our own Gandys were very satisfactory, 
but none came up to this specimen. It 
can easily be seen by this example, 
which can be equaled or excelled by any 
careful grower, that most catalogue and 
trade pictures are not really exaggera¬ 
tions, in the sense that they exceed the 
possibilities of the plant represented, 
when grown under congenial conditions. 
If the original cuts of the Gandy straw¬ 
berry had been as large as this speci¬ 
men, it would have been regarded as 
entirely misleading. The Gandy forms 
one of a trio of reliable berries, includ¬ 
ing the Sharpless and Bubach, that have 
not been superseded by any of the very 
numerous recent introductions. They 
hold their place in public estimation by 
sheer excellence and wide adaptability 
to varying conditions. One or all of 
these familiar and long-tested varieties 
will be found in the collection of every 
practical grower, and the most promis¬ 
ing of the later seedlings generally re¬ 
fer their parentage to at least one of 
the three. Gandy is grown on account 
of its inherent vigor of constitution, 
making strong plants and bearing good 
fruit under the most ordinary circum¬ 
stances, its extreme lateness, really 
closing the season in any given locality, 
and its fine crop of fair and perfect fruit, 
which always sells at the best price the 
market affords at the time. Cocks- 
combed berries like the largest in the 
plate are not often produced by the 
Gandy, the form being quite regularly 
conical, the second berry in size well 
representing the typical form. The color 
is rather light red, well spread over the 
whole berry, and the quality distinctly 
good, though somewhat acid. It will re¬ 
quire a most excellent all-round straw¬ 
berry to displace the Gandy, and it will 
require some time to do it. 
THE STAYMAN APPLE. 
Much interest is now being taken in 
the Stayman apple, because of its good 
qualities and adaptability over a wide 
territory, so that a full description and 
history of it is desired by several cor¬ 
respondents. I have also been asked re¬ 
cently by Dr. J. Stayman, of Leaven¬ 
worth, Kan., wbo is the originator of 
the variety, to publish his earnest de¬ 
sire that the apple be called Stayman, 
and not Stayman’s Winesap. The latter 
name was first given to it by him, but, 
owing to the shortening and simplifying 
of the names of fruits, in accordance 
with the rules of the American Pomo- 
logical Society, now being urged on all 
sides, and put into general practice, he 
cut off the last word of the name, and 
the possessive from the first one. Ob¬ 
jection has been made by one person to 
the shortening of the name, because of 
supposed danger of much confusion with 
three other seedlings originated by Dr. 
Stayman, namely: Stayman’s Sweet and 
Stayman’s No. 1 and No. 2. This, how¬ 
ever, seems improbable, in view of the 
fact that they are in the hands of but 
very few experimenters as yet, and that 
they must, and will, be given entirely 
different names, in case they prove 
worthy of general trial. This latter is 
thought probable by some. There should 
be, and will be, but the one variety bear¬ 
ing the name Stayman, and that should 
be as simple as possible. This is Dr. 
Stayman’s expressed desire, and he has 
the prior right to give the name, ac¬ 
cording to the approved rules of pomol¬ 
ogy. 
The variety under discussion was 
grown by Dr. Stayman from seed of 
Winesap about 30 years ago. He gave 
scions to a very few for testing about 
20 years since, and myself among the 
number. I grafted them into bearing 
trees, and produced fruit which greatly 
resembled that of the parent variety, 
the Winesap. I did not then appreciate 
the true value of the variety, because I 
did not then know the superior charac¬ 
ter of the tree, nor the size of the fruit. 
Since I have seen it in other places, 
where the fruit had good chances to de¬ 
velop on trees grown in the usual way, 
I am fully convinced of the superior 
value of the variety. Both in the East¬ 
ern and Western States it is proving to 
be as good as Winesap in flavor, color, 
and as a keeper, and many say it is 
larger. But there is another very im¬ 
portant point in which it excels the 
Winesap, and that is in the vigor and 
habit of both root and top. The roots 
grow more evenly and deeper, and the 
top is more upright, and not with strag¬ 
gling and interlocked branches, which 
are faults of the parent variety, popular 
as it is. 
The illustration on page 462, Fig. 
151, was made from an average speci¬ 
men of the crop of 1899. For either 
home or market use there are few of 
the standard varieties uiat will equal the 
Stayman in the great apple-growing re¬ 
gions from ocean to ocean, souu. of the 
line of New York. It should be exten¬ 
sively tested. ii. e. van deman. 
Behavior of the Gladstone Strawberry. 
The Gladstone strawberry has not proved 
to be an early-ripening sort here. With 
us it ranks as a medium, or late variety. 
1 have not had sufficient experience with 
it yet to say much about its other qualities. 
Ohio Exp. Station. w. j. green. 
Gladstone certainly is not an early sort 
here. On our small plots Michel’s Early 
gave six quarts before the Gladstone had 
a single ripe berry, and nine quarts before 
the latter gave a half pint. We haven’t 
the Sharpless in the same patch, but in 
another place, not far distant, it is ahead 
of the Gladstone by at least two days. 1 
do not call the Gladstone a productive sort, 
it seems to have good color, and, I think, 
will carry well. a. t. Jordan. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. 
Gladstone ripened quite late in the season 
here, about with Sharpless, which it much 
resembles. We think the plant is stronger 
and the berry a little larger and more pro¬ 
ductive than Sharpless. Our Success is the 
best, largest and most productive early 
strawberry we have found. The Gibson 
and one or two of Mr. Black’s new berries 
show well. A new berry grown by one of 
our neighbors has, however, been the most 
striking thing that we have seen. As 
grown by Mr. Baker it is the largest berry 
in average size we have ever seen, also the 
most productive; has carried well to mar¬ 
ket, and sold to a special trade in Dover, 
where it is regarded as extra good for table 
use. Perhaps the novelty of eating berries 
that have to be cut in two before putting 
on the table has something to do with the 
matter. a. w. slaymaker. 
Delaware. 
A very attractive hardy plant now in 
flower is the Rose campion (Lychnis). It 
has clusters of flowers which in shape and 
size resemble the individual florets of a 
single geranium, the color being a brilliant 
velvety Petunia crimson. The foliage is 
silvery gray-green. The campion is quite 
an old-fashioned flower, and a very beauti¬ 
ful one. 
Canker Worm.— I read in The R. N.-Y. 
about the female Canker worm getting on 
the apple trees, although the tree is pro¬ 
tected by a tarred paper. I read some time 
ago in a German paper that some extra 
strong-winged males take the female and 
carry her over the obstruction; if this 
should be so perhaps some of your read¬ 
ers would like to know it. e. k. 
Hingham Centre, Mass. 
My father says Dr. Jayne’s Expectorant saved my 
life when 1 was a baby, and I regard it as the best 
remedy in the world for all diseases of the Throat 
and Lungs.—A. T. BOWLING, Merchant, Elvira, 
Ky., December 5, 1890. 
Aid digestion with Jayne’s Painless Sanative Pills. 
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