626 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
September 15 
Ruralisms • 
W ? Y T'V TT T Tt 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Older Japan Plums. —It is 
scarcely a dozen years since the first 
Japan plums were disseminated, and a 
much shorter interval since the con¬ 
fusion of names incident to their first 
introduction has been cleared up, but 
so many new hybrid varieties, contain¬ 
ing blood of the Japan Prunus triflora, 
are now being brought forward that it 
seems allowable to refer to Abundance, 
Burbank, Ogon and Satsuma, the kinds 
most widely planted, as the older 
Japans. Kelsey, it is true, was the first 
Japan plum imported, and fruited in 
California as far back as 1876, but as its 
range of successful culture is restricted 
to the Pacific Coast and the extreme 
South, it may be omitted from present 
consideration. Abundance and Burbank 
and interesting new fruits that such is 
the case. The single fact that they are 
not seriously harmed by the curculio 
will always recommend them, and their 
intrinsic merit will do the rest. If a 
skin more resistant to the rot fungus can 
be bred into them by Mr. Burbank, or 
any other hybridizer, a service of real 
value to horticulture will have been 
performed. 
Foreign Novelties. — A German 
seedsman sends us a preliminary report 
of an astounding new garden pea he is 
about to introduce. It is named Ath¬ 
lete, which is certainly appropriate if 
his accounts of its vigor prove true. It 
makes a thick stem and grows to the 
height of three feet or more, bearing a 
profuse crop of fine peas. As the pods 
on the main branch begin to fill 
branches start near the root and rapidly 
grow to a greater length, in turn bloom¬ 
ing and bearing their full crop of peas. 
He says that one pound of Athlete seeds 
equals 30 pounds of other varieties in 
producing capacity. This phenomenal 
pea will be disseminated Dy a reliable 
a large deep magenta variety resembling 
some of the older garden varieties, but 
vastly superior to any of them. 
have been fruiting for the past three 
years on our Trial Grounds, ana this 3 house ; i and , wewm ^ e P our eye upon 
season have been so loaded as to require 
careful thinning. Owing to the great 
heat and humidity at the ripening pe¬ 
riod, the brown-rot fungus was particu¬ 
larly active, but did least injury where 
thinning was thoroughly carried out. 
it until well-tested. The new Pea-aphis 
would find a lively victim in this active 
pea. 
The Mahdi is a new raspberry-black¬ 
berry hybrid exhibited recently in 
London by Veitch & Sons, Exeter, Eng- 
Our Satsuma tree was also heavily load- land, and was favorably received by the 
ed, and suffered a much greater loss horticultural press. It has been made 
from rot than the other varieties. Ogon the subject of some extravagant state- 
lias not yet fruited with us, the trees men ts by English newspapers, which are 
evidently not accustomed to tne con¬ 
sideration of startling “new creations 
THE CROTHERS PEACH. Fig. 228. 
being quite young, but is well known to 
be a yellow freestone plum with dry, 
meaty flesh, of rather low quality. 
Abundance and Burbank have been 
planted so extensively that considerable 
interest is manifested at their behavior 
under normal conditions. Abundance 
ripens with us quite early in August, 
and when perfect is of the very highest 
quality, sweet, rich and juicy. It has a 
great tendency to overbear, and unless 
thinned so that the fruits hang two or 
three incues apart, will not reach full 
size or flavor. The curculio has but 
little effect on it, as many plums reach 
perfect development bearing many 
marks of their incisions. It is rather too 
soft for canning or culinary uses, al¬ 
though the product is of excellent flavor. 
The best plums for eating sold in New 
York in this phenomenal year for plums horticulture. It has much the habit 
were well-grown specimens of Abun- anc * taste of the blackberry, though the 
dance from Georgia and other southern raspberry flavor can be detected. The 
points. Buroank is a much better mar- fruit is large and juicy, and of a deep 
ket plum than Abundance, as it is firm- claret color when ripe. The Garden¬ 
er, generally larger, and of a higher er s Chronicle thinks that in The Mahdi 
color. The quality is usually described least one good thing has been se¬ 
as better than Abundance. The flesh is cui 'ed out of the frequently-repeated 
yellow and meaty, but to our taste is not cr °ss between the raspberry and black- 
so acceptable as the sugary Abundance, berry. It ripens in England just as the 
The spreading growth of the tree makes raspberries are failing. It is interest¬ 
thinning and picking the fruits compara- to note that the Loganberry is meet- 
tively easy. As the plums usually set in with some favor over there, and 
clusters it is imperative that thinning that the wineberry, Rubus phcenicol- 
should take place early enough to antici- asius, has recently been exhibited in 
pate the rot, if any considerable portion fruit at a meeting of the Royal Horticul- 
of the crop is to be saved. tural Society. 
Once fairly colored Burbank plums New Ferenniai, Phloxes. —The newer 
will hang a long time on the tree with herbaceous Phloxes are certainly among 
but little loss, and it is a particularly the most showy of our hardy plants. 
THE CROTHERS PEACH. 
The old saying that “there is always 
room up higher” is as true in pomology 
as in the professions, and there is a 
peach called Crothers, now almost un¬ 
known, that is worthy of a chance to 
show its merit to a place among the 
best peaches of the country. When I 
lived in Kansas I had in my orchards 
about 150 of the best named varieties of 
the peach then known, but I saw a new 
one at a local fair that, for its season, 
surpassed any that I knew. I found it 
to be a seedling growing on the farm of 
a Mr. Crothers, near Neosho Falls, Kan., 
and his reports of the good habits of the 
tree, together with my opinion of the 
specimens, induced me to get buds and 
put it in my trial orchard. I also sent a 
few to Prof. T. V. Munson, of Denison, 
Texas. He has been so much pleased 
with the variety, that he mentions it in 
his catalogue of rarely good peaches, as 
without an equal of its color and sea¬ 
son combined. It has also been fruiting 
at the Experiment Station at South 
Haven, Mich., for several years, where 
it is much liked. The tree is a very 
abundant and regular bearer, strong 
growth and somewhat drooping form. 
The fruit is of medium size; nearly 
round in shape, not pointed, and has a 
slight suture on one side; color, creamy 
white, with a bright red cheek, making 
a handsome appearance; flesh, creamy 
white, red at pit, very juicy, melting; 
flavor, rich yet mild, vinous and very 
pleasant; seed, rather large, rounaish 
oval, free from flesh; season, the last of 
September and early October in south¬ 
ern Michigan. It meets the want of a 
late, red and white freestone of high 
quality; entirely superseding Ward 
Late, which has long been about the 
only peach of that character. See Fig. 
228. All lovers of a good peach should 
get buds or trees and test the Crothers. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
good keeper after picking. Satsuma 
seems to be quite variable in its crop¬ 
ping capacity, and the trees do not 
seem to bear when as young as some of 
the other varieties. The Rural Grounds 
tree set an immense crop this season, 
most of which succumbed to the rot. 
The unaffected plums have reached a 
large size, and are very fine in appear 
ance. The deep blood-red flesh is very 
firm and sharply acid. They are very 
useful for culinary purposes, but too 
sour for most palates in iheir natural 
state. They will never find a place on 
the fruit stands from their eating qual- 
Most of them are dwarf and very com¬ 
pact in growth, and carry enormous 
heads of bloom. The flowers have been 
enlarged to almost two inches in di¬ 
ameter, and the colors wonderfully 
cleared and brightened. One does nor. 
find the dull and faded purples so char¬ 
acteristic of the older kinds. Three 
varieties sent us for trial by Henry A. 
Dreer, Philadelphia, Pa., seem particu¬ 
larly meritorious as they bloom in the 
Rural Grounds, though many others 
have their special claims. F. G. Von 
Lassburg is pure white in color, the 
flowers immense in size, and produced 
TRIUMPH GOOSEBERRY AGAIN. 
We note what you say in a recent R. 
N.-Y. about the Columbus and Triumph 
gooseberries, also Mr. Abner Hoopes’s 
remarks thereon. We have grown the 
Triumph and Columbus for several 
years past, procuring our stock (100 
plants) of Triumph from its introducer, 
George Achelis, West Chester, Pa. Our 
stock of Columbus we received from its 
originator, J. T. Thompson, Oneida, N. 
Y., the introducer of the Columbian 
raspberry, consequently both ought to 
be correct. After carefully examining 
them in growth and fruit, and compar¬ 
ing them together every possible way, 
even to their leaf and fruit venation, 
etc., we have satisfied ourselves long ago 
that they are identically one and the 
same variety. This in itself, however, 
does not detract in the least from their 
value, as we believe it (them) to be 
perhaps (Chautauqua however excepted) 
the best white gooseberry for the ama¬ 
teur and market grower. 
Its (we speak of it in the singular as 
it is one variety under two names) 
growth is robust, its productiveness re¬ 
markable, and its quality of the best. 
Our senior partner was the first to call 
attention to the identity of the so-called 
two varieties, and which is now ac¬ 
knowledged to be correct by all good 
judges. The Triumph, we believe, was 
disseminated a little in advance of 
Columbus. We wish Mr. Thompson 
would give us the facts in connection 
with the advent of his Columbus, as 
many would be interested by its recital. 
We do not believe that the stocks of 
these “are mixed,” rather that they ap¬ 
pear through culture and treatment 
slightly different in one place from an¬ 
other, through such causes, such dif¬ 
ferences, however, being more fancied 
than real. If only one variety we con¬ 
sider that the name of the first intro¬ 
duced should be the name adhered to, 
the other given as a synonym, making 
it better than under two names for one 
variety. We regret that Mr. Burbank 
thought fit to name one of his recent 
plum introductions The Sultan, when a 
really good variety under that-flame was 
introduced by the late Mr. Thomas 
Rivers. john ciiarlton & sons. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
The Bean Weevil.— On page 123 of The 
I i. N.-Y., Mr. Morse gave an interesting 
account of his experience with the bean 
weevil; but seems to think that they will 
not attack beans after they have been 
dried and stored away, which, I think, is a 
mistake. Bast year in July I harvested Mo¬ 
hawk, Dwarf Horticultural, and Best of 
All beans, which were spread in the sun 
all clear days until the latter part of Oc¬ 
tober; they were then put into ordinary 
grain sacks and moved to where I now 
live, and placed in a room on the second 
floor of an old log building to which Insects 
had free access through openings between 
the logs. At tnis time they showed no 
signs of the weevil, but on examination in 
January we found the Best of All about 
destroyed, while the other two kinds were 
all right. When we sacked those beans 
we concluded to try some preventives, 
which proved good. The Mohawks had 
air-slaked lime stirred among them in 
sufficient quantity to prevent the breath¬ 
ing of insects. The sack in which the 
Dwarf Horticulturals were, was sprinkled 
with spirits of turpentine, while the others 
had nothing on them at all. In the same 
room, we found a basket containing some 
fine, large, white beans, to which camphor 
nad been applied (in the liquid form, 1 
suppose, as there was no gum to be found). 
These have been there since harvest time, 
1898, and are sound yet. Beans treated 
with camphor or turpentine, would, of 
course, not be fit for table use; while those 
treated with lime would be all right for 
either seed or table use. a. j. n. 
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ity, yet we would not willingly dispense on very strong branching panicles. The 
with them in their season. It has been habit is very dwarf. It will probablY 
repeatedly declared that the Japan take the place of other whites now 
plums were of no practical value as com- grown, as none we have seen approaches 
pared with varieties previously in culti- it is size of bloom or purity of color. H.. 
vation, but it will be hard to convince Hassack is very bright orange scarlet, 
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