562 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 18 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Rathbun Blackberry. —On page 
594, volume for 1899, a brief account is 
given of the behavior of a field of Rath- 
bun blackberries, planted two years be¬ 
fore on quite unfavorable ground. The 
showing this season is gratifying in the 
extreme. Although this field of about 
three acres was planted on a rough, 
stony slope, where another variety had 
previously failed from starvation and 
attacks of Orange rust, the Rathbun is 
producing an immense crop of fine, mar¬ 
ketable berries, and the new growth is 
noticeably strong and thrifty, although 
the block has received only ordinary 
care, and no fertilization since planting. 
The illustration, Fig. 194, page 559, gives 
a fair representation of the clusters of 
berries grown on a foot of bearing cane. 
The clusters were detached and brought 
together in the photo to save space, and 
the specimen was scarcely exceptional, 
as thousands as good or better could be 
found throughout the field. The largest 
berries in the picture were ripe at the 
time of photographing, and give a fair 
idea of the size attained, while the 
smaller ones were all green and imma¬ 
ture. The crop on this planting is not 
harvested -at this writing, August 4, but 
1,000 to 1,200 quarts per day have been 
picked for the last three weeks; an 
average of four pickings being made 
each week. The full crop will amount 
to more than 15,000 quarts, which is not 
a phenomenal yield for a fully estab¬ 
lished field of similar extent under high 
culture, but must be eminently satisfac¬ 
tory to the owner, considering the char¬ 
acter of the soil and the scant attention 
he has given the plants. 
The Rathbun was introduced by Jas. 
Vick’s Sons several years ago, but not 
much has been heard from it since, and 
the notices given it in recent publica¬ 
tions have been quite brief. It is plain¬ 
ly a hybrid between the blackberry and 
dewberry, belonging to the same class 
as Wilson and Wilson Jr. The canes 
grow high and strong when established, 
but droop when young, and root occa¬ 
sionally from the tips. The berries are 
borne in loose, scattering clusters all 
over the canes. They are large and 
juicy, with a fine dewberry flavor when 
thoroughly ripened. They color deeply 
when very firm, and are excellent ship¬ 
pers, but the flavor is, of course, sacri¬ 
ficed by early picking. When cooked 
the Rathbun berries are better, to our 
taste, than any other variety. The Mer- 
sereau blackberry is also bearing well 
in this vicinity. Some of the first 
fruits are larger than the Rathbun, but 
noticeably softer at the same stage of 
ripeness. The flavor is very good when 
fully ripe. The berries are easily picked, 
as they grow well at the top of the 
canes. The Mersereau here has better 
soil than the Rathbun, so that a fair 
comparison cannot be made, but it is 
evidently a meritorious variety. 
A Good Bean. —Henderson’s Bounti¬ 
ful green bush bean comes right up to 
the claims made for it as grown in our 
Trial Grounds. For some reason busn 
or string beans rust badly with us, and 
seldom produce a good crop. The Boun¬ 
tiful, however, started off to make a 
record, and has borne us more beans of 
excellent quality than we have hitherto 
secured from the same space. They are 
vigorous, extremely prolific, and the 
pods devoid of fiber until the beans are 
fully developed. The Rural people have 
always preferred the yellow-podded va¬ 
rieties, but this green one is good 
enough if it keeps up to the standard. 
The “ Gooseberry-Currant.” — For 
several years a thornless, small-fruited 
gooseberry has been offered as a goose¬ 
berry-currant hybrid by several dealers. 
One catalogue man says that the plant 
in question is a form of the Missouri 
Flowering currant (Ribes aureum), and 
offered it under the name of Crunells. 
Plants have been fruiting on the Rural 
Grounds for several years, and appear 
to be a practically thornless form of 
the native gooseberry of the Allegheny 
Mountains, Ribes rotundifolium. The 
plants are strong and erect growers, 
with a very few short spines on the 
older branches. The fruits are freely 
produced, and vary in size from a mar¬ 
rowfat pea to that of a small Houghton 
gooseberry. They are dark red in 
color, and of a mild, agreeable flavor 
when ripe. This would appear to be a 
more promising type to breed from than 
the thorny and sprawling Ribes oxya- 
canthoides, so common in the woods of 
the northern and eastern States. R. 
oxyacanthoides, which is the species 
commonly referred to as “wild goose¬ 
berry” has given rise to the Houghton 
and Downing by the intermixture of 
blood from the foreign varieties, and is 
occasionally preserved in old gardens in 
its purity under the name of Pale Red 
or American Cluster. It is safe to say 
there is no trace of currant in any of the 
Gooseberry-currants sent out. 
A Confession. —An examination of 
the two fine volumes of the American 
Cyclopaedia of Horticulture, by L. H. 
Bailey and others, so far issued, brings 
to mind the time when the writer, then 
a boy with a great love for, but a vast 
and profound ignorance of horticulture, 
remitted some of his earnings to a Hol¬ 
land dealer for tubers of Boussingaultia 
baselloides. The description, if we re¬ 
member correctly, was “Beautiful climb¬ 
er, flowers white, hawthorn scented.” 
There were many desirable items in the 
catalogue from which a sparing and 
economical selection was made, but our 
hopes were centered on the vine with 
the resounding and mouth-filling name. 
When at last the package came, the 
Boussingaultia parcel was quickly open¬ 
ed, but the tubers within bore a wofully 
close resemblance to those of the Ma¬ 
deira vines we had been growing in 
abundance for years. With much mis¬ 
giving they were planted, and proved in 
very truth to be Maderia vines, the bo¬ 
tanical name of which we had no op¬ 
portunity of ascertaining previously. 
With something like the Cyclopaedia 
now being issued, as a book of reference 
in every public school and library, chil¬ 
dren and others desiring exact informa¬ 
tion on botanical and horticultural sub¬ 
jects need never be at fault. 
SEL F-FER TIL I ZING FR US TS. 
Planting Ben Davis Alone. 
While nearly more than half of all 
apples that are planted in commercial 
orchards in this, the northern and west¬ 
ern limit of the Ben Davis, we find we 
have much to learn. It grows to per¬ 
fection, and is a large reliance here. As 
to self fertility, much depends here on 
conditions. During a range of seasons 
it is perfectly reliable as a self-fertilizer, 
then we have other conditions that 
make it not reliable. Our extremes of 
weather have something to do with this. 
When the Ben Davis is growing on our 
bluff and thinner hill lands it is more 
regular as a bearer. In such locations 
it bears better, and has more fertile 
bloom, with a maximum amount of 
rainfall. On the leveler prairie lands, 
where there is more humus and wood 
growth, the variety is weaker on this 
point. During the great drought year, 
1894, the first one that ever gave this 
section a total failure in farm crops 
from time of settlement, it was so severe 
that many orchards that were planted 
thickly suffered severely, many trees 
dying outright from lack of moisture. 
That year a neighbor had three Ben 
Davis on his place; one was so situated 
it had a cesspool vault near its roots. 
The bloom on this remained persistent, 
and apples set heavily and developed to 
large size, while the leaves increased in 
size. The two other trees were a num¬ 
ber of rods away, and the trees suffered 
severely from the drought, most bloom 
dropped, and though some apples re¬ 
mained, there was continuous dropping, 
and the few apples that matured were 
hardly worth gathering and caring for. 
This shows that fertility of bloom is a 
matter largely governed by the food the 
trees get, cultivation, moisture, con¬ 
stituents in soil, their availability. 
This is further shown also by the 
Miner plum, widely grown in the West. 
There are series of seasons in which it 
will self-pollinate, and then two and 
sometimes three seasons will pass with¬ 
out any cropping. The Wild Goose 
plum, in my section, and over an area 
of many counties in western Iowa, will 
not bear more than one and two crops 
in five or six years. If it is top-worked 
on some of the Americana varieties it 
does fairly well. In much of Missouri 
it will bear well without any pollinating 
variety, but is always improved by near¬ 
ness to others. Here it is absolutely 
worthless. It is safe to take least 
chances and mingle the Ben Davis with 
other varieties. Here in the West the 
Jonathan, Grimes Golden and Winesap 
are considered good. We use here the 
Jonathan and Grimes generally. Make 
orchards half Ben Davis, alternate with 
the others. Here the Baldwin, King and 
Spy are in a strange country, as well as 
all the Russets. All these are not suffi¬ 
ciently grown in this State to make 
them an object lesson even. If your 
readers have our western sorts miuer 
observation they can use them as a 
comparison ot standard. But if long- 
range advice is asked we would plant 
King, Baldwin and Ben Davis, one-third 
each. Plant a little close, and alternate 
in row with Ben Davis, and this will 
admit of removing them later if you do 
not want them. w. m. bombekger. 
Harlan, Iowa. 
Notes About Ruby Queen. 
I have been much interested in caring 
for and watching the growth of the rose 
Ruby Queen, which came to me in April. 
I put the plant in a three-inch pot, and 
sunk it in our cold frame, giving it the 
temperature roses like. Can anyone tell 
of more growth than this I have? One 
branch ds nine inches long, one eight, 
one four. I have put it in the open 
ground, where everything seems favor¬ 
able for perfect development. Please 
say whether me rose is to be left in the 
ground this next Winter. 
Kingston Mass. (mrs.) l. r. f. 
R. N.-Y.—The Ruby Queen rose has, 
so far, proved entirely hardy, and may 
be left in the open ground without fear 
wherever peach trees can survive the 
Winter. Slight protection the first Win¬ 
ter, until established, will be of advan¬ 
tage, though not absolutely necessary. 
We have received hundreds of letters of 
praise for the excellence of the Ruby 
Queen plants sent out, and hope this 
bright and sturdy visitor will survive to 
beautify every country home. When 
established in good soil, Ruby Queen 
will grow as many feet as our corre¬ 
spondent’s plant has inches in the same 
time. 
The Stringfellow Planting. —From 
Mr. Stringfellow’s statement of setting 
trees in two-inch holes, it is evident that 
the trees were very young, and under 
favorable circumstances I think a large 
portion of them would have lived in 
Illinois or New York, while root-grafts 
would have failed. These trees were 
practically cuttings with a root forma¬ 
tion already established, and, as the 
Editor of The R. N.-Y. says, the cli¬ 
matic condit ons in the South are more 
favorable to the growth of cuttings than 
in the northern States. The nurseries 
at Huntsville, Ala., advertise Kieffsr and 
Sand pears raised from cuttings, and I 
could never make one grow in Illinois. 
In California, where there is no rain, 
and scarcely a cloud for eight months, 
thousands of acres of vineyards are 
planted with cuttings instead of rooted 
plants, and nearly all live. In my back¬ 
yard in Stockton, I stuck a straight four- 
foot cutting of a fig tree in the soft 
adobe, and the next year it bore fruit, 
and in four years grew to be 10 feet high. 
I raised all my Tea roses there in the 
open ground from long cuttings, but I 
could never make pear or apple cuttings 
take root. All the orchards of almond, 
peach or apricot that I saw there re¬ 
ceived a shallow cultivation, but as the 
surface is so dry during the Summer, I 
think the feeding roots are below the 
cultivation. The peaches, however, are 
short-lived, probably due to excessive 
pruning. g. w. 
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