594 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 1 
uralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Evergreens in Summer.— One might 
suppose that evergreen trees would be 
little appreciated in Summer, when at¬ 
tention is diverted by the countless 
forms of beauty and shades of rich color 
among the native and exotic plants in 
full growth and bloom. This is true to 
a certain extent regarding the more or¬ 
dinary conifers, and yet they have their 
own charm in sharpness of outline, and, 
during the period of new growth, in 
many tender shadings of quiet color. 
The Colorado Blue spruce, however, 
stands out as a most pleasing excaption. 
A well-colored specimen is a strikingly 
handsome object in all seasons and as¬ 
pects of weather, but it is a question 
whether it is not more pleasing when 
viewed against a background of bright 
green foliage than standing out in relief 
from the bleak snows of Winter. There 
are many fine specimens now growing in 
cultivation, some of which have attained 
large proportions without losing their 
charm. Fig. 207, page 590, shows a fair 
young specimen growing in the grounds 
of Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y., 
but of course can give no indication of 
the rich sage blue color of the foliage, 
which is persistent and unchanging. 
Only a small percentage of the seedlings 
of the Blue spruce come highly colored; 
fully 95 per cent having dark green fo¬ 
liage and are commercially identical 
with the Douglas spruce, which is found 
in the same mountain ranges as cue Blue 
spruce. R. Douglas & Sons, of Wauke¬ 
gan, m., make a great specialty of these 
fine native spruces and have recently 
made pilgrimages to the Colorado moun¬ 
tains for the purpose of gathering the 
genuine seed. Last Fall they sent the 
Rural Grounds two beautiful specimens 
of the Blue spruce among oiner choice 
evergreens. The box miscarried, and 
laid around in the dry storage of city 
freight stations for several weeks before 
it was recovered. Although pretty well 
dried out when planted they came 
through the Winter in good shape and 
are now well established. 
Summer Apples. —July brings almost 
a surfeit of fruits, small and large, but 
the firsi ripe Early Harvest apple gives 
one a thrill of real pleasure. The sharp 
and aromatic flavor is sure to recall the 
boyish days when a run was made to 
the apple orchard between the rounds of 
sheaf-gathering, after the old-iashioned 
reaper. It is true the Harvest apples 
soon grow flat and mushy, but the first 
tang of the mellowing fruits in early 
July is most grateful. A close second is 
the Sweet Bough, eatable but rather 
flat as the seeds begin to color, but 
ripening into honey-like richness in the 
later specimens. Sweet Boughs no 
longer sell well in the New York mar¬ 
ket, but find ready and appreciative 
takers in Boston. The entire output of a 
large block of Sweet Bough trees, in 
central New Jersey, has been regularly 
shipped to Boston for many years. The 
Red Astrachan is still planted in home 
orchards, but is no longer profitable for 
market. One winces at the memory of 
the sharp acid of the deep crimson As- 
trachans with their heavy plum-like 
bloom, but nothing better has been 
brought forward for early culinary uses. 
Trees of me Yellow Transparent have 
been sparingly planted lately, and some 
trees are now coming into bearing. It 
is well-liked by those who have used it. 
A Handsome Late-Blooming Shrub.— 
Clethra alnifolia, the Sweet pepper-bush 
of the Atlantic coast region, is just now 
the prettiest native shrub blooming in 
the Rural grounds. It is not seen nearly 
as often as it should be, as the dark 
glossy foliage and numerous spikes of 
creamy-white flowers, with their lively 
fragrance, make a most attractive ob¬ 
ject. This pepper-bush can be trimmed 
into a very compact form, the multitude 
of wiry branches arranging themselves 
into symmetrical order, though a sea¬ 
son’s bloom may be lost if cut back too 
severely. The bloom of the aweet pep¬ 
per-bush comes at a welcome time, as its 
only companions in the shrubbery are 
the Althaeas, the hardy Hydrangea and 
possibly a few belated Spiraeas. 
Ripe Fruit. —After all comparatively 
few people get a chance to eat really 
ripe fruit. The fruit stands in the cities 
have never been so well supplied with 
fruit, large and beautiful to the eye, but 
sadly indifferent to the taste. This is 
the direct result of imnroved methods 
of packing and transportation. The 
fruit is picked as soon as it begins to 
color while still hard and immature,and 
gets to market in shape to stand up a 
long time, but is usually a delusion *o 
the palate and digestion. We are sorry 
to say many country people do not fare 
much better. Their home fruit is 
picked as soon as it attracts the atten¬ 
tion oi the remorseless small boy, before 
it has acquired its true flavor, and the 
result is altogether unsatisfactory. 
Then, too, many otherwise good house¬ 
wives have a mania for putting up green 
and immature fruits because they handle 
easily, and make a good appearance in 
the cans and jars. The Rural people l..ce 
their fruits ripe and luscious, and let 
them hang on tree and bush until Na¬ 
ture’s chemistry is perfected. We would 
rather have one can of properly-ripened 
peaches or plums in their nectar-like 
juice, even if edges of the pieces look a 
trifle frayed and feathery, than a dozen 
cans of the tasteless green quarters or 
halves that look as if they might be 
stamped out of celluloid. The difference 
of palatability in the fresh fruits is even 
more marked. Of course, some varieties 
of apples, peaches and pears ripen well 
off the tree if picked at hard maturity, 
and are even improved thereby, but 
other fruits lose at once in flavor and 
texture by being picked too green. 
A KANSAS APPLE GROWER. 
Our readers have noticed reference to 
Fred Wellhouse, of Kansas, who is 
known to many as “the apple king.’’ 
Secretary F. D. Coburn, of Kansas, tells 
the story of Mr. Wellhouse and it reads 
almost like a romance. Twenty-five 
years ago Mr. Wellhouse found himself 
without capital, but with a clear knowl¬ 
edge of tree-growing and orcharding. 
Better than this, he had full faith in 
the future of Kansas as an apple State. 
A Leavenworth man, named L. D. 
Wheat, owned 427 acres of land which 
were not at that time profitable. In 
some way tue land owner and the land¬ 
less expert were brought together. The 
result was a contract. Mr. Wheat fur¬ 
nished the capital and the land, and Mr. 
Wellhouse furnished the trees and the 
plants and cultivated them until they 
came into bearing. Mr. Wellhouse was 
to get all the grain grown between the 
trees and to pay taxes for the first nve 
years. After five years, Mr. Wheat paid 
the taxes, and each party paid one-lialf 
the expense and received one-half the 
income. This basis of division was en¬ 
forced until Mr. Wellhouse received 15 
bushels per tree for as long as the trees 
might bear. The orchards began in 
1880, and up to 1895 have produced a 
total of 410,417 bushels. This meant a 
net income of $104,000, and $52,000 for 
each partner during the 15 years’ active 
life of the orchards. Mr. Wellhouse and 
his son did not stop with planting these 
orchards. They now own 1,220 acres of 
younger orchards. About one-third of 
these are now laden with fruit, and the 
year’s crop is valued at about $5,000. 
Their largest crop was 80,000 bushels in 
1890. The year’s expenses amounted to 
$13,000 and the gross receipts for apples 
$52,000. 'l ne next year’s crop was 63,698 
bushels. One would naturally expect 
that an apple king would select the King 
apple for his planting. The king apple 
in this case is our old friend Ben Davis; 
nearly one-half of all the trees are of 
that variety. The other varieties se¬ 
lected as the result of long experience 
are Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, Gaynor 
and York Imperial. Their trees are set, 
when two years old, in trenches instead 
of holes, 16 feet apart in rows north 
and south, and the rows 32 feet apart. 
There are three main reasons for adopt¬ 
ing this plan: 1. With the trees so close 
together tney form their own wind 
break, making hedges or belts of timber 
unnecessary. 2. The dense shade makes 
the evaporation of moisture from the 
soil less rapid, and the danger from sun- 
scald of the trunks and branches less 
imminent. 3. It is easier to secure a 
good permanent stand by close planting, 
and the excess of trees, if there is any, 
can be removed as may be desirable. 
Evolution in Sunflowers. —The 
western native sunflower has for untold 
ages been a single-flowering plant, mak¬ 
ing a growth 10 to 20 feet high, bearing 
a flower nearly at each leaf. This makes 
a sea of sunflowers where they are al¬ 
lowed their freedom, but in the last six 
years a change is overcoming their habit 
of single flowers. The first year 1 no¬ 
ticed two double sunflowers by the side, 
in a drive over the prairies, and each 
succeeding year I have seen more. It is 
the first blossoms that come double, and 
later on the same plant the others are 
single. The number of double flowers is 
two or three to a plant, and the number 
of double ones is on the increase in all 
directions. What should cause this 
change from the old long-established 
type I am at a loss to account for. Some 
one suggests a streak of prosperity, but 
the reverse might seem more reasonable, 
as the double ones are mostly on smaller 
plants, not always. There is not the 
great growth everywhere present as 
there used to be years ago; they seem to 
give way to other weeds or grasses. 
Kansas. a. h. griesa. 
The Cumberland Raspberry. —On 
page 514 of The R. N.-Y. a correspond¬ 
ent pays this berry a well-deserved 
compliment, but seems to think that the 
quality is not quite equal to that of 
some of the older varieties. Either tastes 
differ, or else the flavor of the Cumber¬ 
land is not as good on his soil as on mine. 
1 consider it not only one of the best 
(if not the very best) for market pur¬ 
poses, but the very best in quality, and 
1 have grown and tasted about all of 
them. We can no others, and they out¬ 
sell all others on the market, and are 
very hardy and productive and large, 
and fully as good keepers and shippers 
as the Gregg. Eureka is our best, first 
early red. It is a much stronger grower 
■than Loudon and not nearly so suscep¬ 
tible to injury from root gall, and a 
very bright, firm, productive berry. 
Munger was about two pickings later 
than Gregg this year, and I am planting 
it in place of that old standard variety. 
Ohio. W. W. FARNSWORTH. 
PlCQUET AND SALWAV PEACHES.— In the 
article by Mr. Stubenrauch on page 509 a 
mistake was made as to peaches. The 
type made Mr. Stubenrauch say that 
Picquet and Salway peaches are clings. He 
writes: “Will take it as a favor, if you will 
kindly make correction. A man in the 
South not knowing that Picquet and Sal- 
way peaches are freestones, would better 
quit giving out knowledge on peaches.” 
1 have just returned from St. Louis, and 
while there I was at Alton, Ill., and saw 
the wonderful McPike grape in vineyard 
with Concord, Worden, Moore’s Early, 
Niagara, Catawba, Woodruff Red, Eaton, 
Salem, Bright, Campbell’s Early, Goethe, 
Virginia Seedling and many others, and I 
must say that the McPike overshadows all 
other varieties to as great an extent as 
Niagara Falls overshadows other falls of 
like nature. The green berry now on the 
clusters, many of them, measure one inch 
in diameter and the clusters nine or 10 
inches long, weighing VA pound. The 
Eaton grape, under the highest state of 
cultivation in the same vineyard, is but 
very little more than half the size of the 
McPike. s- w. 
a 
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