THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 2? 
722 
; Ruralisms 
v 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Isabella Grape. —Despite the 
great number of fine grapes constantly 
being introduced the Rural people re¬ 
tain a liking for the old Isabella, once 
the hope of northern vineyardists when 
the Catawba had begun to fail from the 
inroads of fungous diseases. Th Isabella 
retained its commercial importance un¬ 
til it was displaced by the earlier and 
more productive Concord, nearly 50 
years ago, and is now only found about 
old establishments and in the gardens 
of occasional amateurs who like to hold 
fast to a good thing. The emancipation 
of American vineyards from the foreign 
system of training to stakes is perhaps 
due more to the Isabella than any other 
native grape. When this vigorous va¬ 
riety is cramped and close-pruned the re¬ 
sult is almost invariably a few thin clus¬ 
ters of poorly-colored sour grapes,while 
if canes from the same vines are allowed 
to extend at will on a trellis, or run 
riot over neighboring tree-tops the re¬ 
sulting bunches of fruits will, in a nor¬ 
mal season, develop in great perfection, 
and attain their peculiarly rich and vin¬ 
ous flavor. The pruning should be con¬ 
fined to cutting out slender and old 
canes entirely, and shortening the spurs 
on the long canes of bearing wood to 
one or two buds. No variety is better 
adapted for training on tall trellises, 
porches, etc., or about farm buildings, as 
its great vigor and dense foliage render 
it an attractiva object during the whole 
growing season. Fig. 275 represents a 
medium bunch of Isabella grapes, grown 
on a trellis at the Rural Grounds, the 
vine having been planted to furnish 
shade for a porch. With no special care 
or fertilization this vine is making a 
remarkable growth, some of the canes 
extending over 18 feet this season. The 
appearance of well-ripened Isabellas, 
with their heavy bloom, is very attrac¬ 
tive, and the flavor, to our taste, is not 
excelled by any of the later introduc¬ 
tions in blacK grapes, though the thick 
skin and trace of muskiness may be ob¬ 
jectionable to some. The Isabella grape 
was brought north from the Carolinas 
by Mrs. Isabella Gibbs, of Brooklyn, N. 
Y., as early as 1816, and was afterwards 
named for her and introduced to cul¬ 
tivation. Although a great improvement 
on the grapes of the first half of the 
nineteenth century, and long monopoliz¬ 
ing the attention of growers, the Isabella 
has not produced many varieties of 
merit, being in this respect, very differ¬ 
ent from the Concord, with its numerous 
and widely-cultivated progeny. Brown’s 
Seedling, from William B. Brown, New¬ 
burgh, N. Y., seems to be a descendant 
of Isabella, possessing the valuable qual¬ 
ities of early ripening, great hardiness 
and a noticeably sweet flavor. It is not 
the equal in sprightliness of its parent, 
but is the best grape of its season we 
have tasted. We received a basket of 
these grapes from the originator early 
in September, before any well-ripened 
northern grapes could be found in the 
market, and they were in excellent table 
condition. It is rather singular that a 
seedling of so late a grape as the Isa¬ 
bella should develop the feature of ex¬ 
treme earliness. 
Bucic-iiorn as a Lawn Cover. —The 
narrow-leaved plantain, Plantago lan- 
ceolata, also known as Rib-grass and 
Buck-horn, is one of the commonest 
pests in our eastern dooryards, and 
shares inis unenviable distinction with 
the common plantain, P. major, and the 
dandelion. Like many of our most trou¬ 
blesome weeds it came to us from Eu¬ 
rope as an adulteration in grass and 
clover seeds, but has become abundant¬ 
ly naturalized over the greater part of 
eastern North America. It is a tough 
and persistent perennial, forming a 
heavy crown which is but little affected 
by any stress of weather, and sends up 
its conical flower scapes with the most 
annoying regularity during the fiercest 
droughts. Like the common plantain, 
it can only be eradicated by persistent 
digging, but differs in being able to 
thrive in poor and thin soils. A neigh¬ 
boring lawn of several acres extent has 
become so covered with Buck-horn 
through years of neglect, as nearly to 
exclude the grasses originally planted. 
When a new owner took possession last 
Spring he was told he must expend a 
considerable amount in plowing up, fer¬ 
tilizing and reseeding this lawn if he 
ever expected it to present a respectable 
appearance. Being occupied with other 
alterations he did nothing of the sort, 
but kept the plot close during the Sum¬ 
mer by alternate use of an ordinary farm 
mowing macnine and the usual horse 
lawn mower. The result has been sur¬ 
prisingly good, as the frequent clipping 
and rolling caused the Rib-grass to stool 
out and nearly cover the ground. While 
the lawn would not bear close inspec¬ 
tion, the distant effect of tne close-set 
green leaves was most refreshing during 
the frequent drougnts that browned 
most other vegetation. During late Au¬ 
gust an undergrowth of urab-grass 
sprung up, filling t„e few vacancies, 
making an unusual instance of a fair¬ 
looking lawn, composed almost entirely 
of “weeds.” As Buck-horn is bound to 
stay with us any way it might be well 
to test us capacity for producing a good 
turf when untroubled by competition 
with other plants. It is said to Be oc¬ 
casionally planted in Europe for for¬ 
age in sheep pastures and nenyards. 
Petroleum as a Scale Cure. —The 
peach, pear, plum, apple and cherry 
trees we sprayed with pure crude petro¬ 
leum last Spring have since grown nor¬ 
mally in all respects except that a pro¬ 
portion of the apparently-sound fruit 
buds failed to open, and the bloom was 
more scanty than our unsprayed trees. 
The growth oi these trees has been very 
satisfactory, and most of the fruit set 
ripened very finely. The bark in many 
places is still dark and greasy, and cer¬ 
tainly does not form an inviting lodge¬ 
ment for any form of insect life. Close 
inspections made almost weekly 
throughout the Summer, have failed to 
disclose any living scales on the treated 
trees, while two or three unsprayed 
check trees rearby have been swarm¬ 
ing with the newly-hatched larvae; 
among which we are glad to find several 
species of ladybug at work The spraying 
was very thoroughly done, every twig 
and branch being well darkened with 
the oil. Within a week all the scales 
that could be found appeared dead and 
blackened. This is quite conclusive 
proof to us that fresh petroleum is a 
fairly safe and most effective antidote to 
the San Jose scale under our local condi¬ 
tions, and a more extended trial will be 
made the coming Winter. We propose to 
cut back quite severely the tops of all 
trees found to harbor living scales in 
order to reduce the surface to be treated 
to the smallest practicable extent, and 
to spray thoroughly with me freshest 
petroleum we can obtain, during late 
February, going over each tree twice in 
order to cover the entire surface above 
ground. Although this portion of New 
Jersey lias been infected with the Per¬ 
nicious scale for nearly 10 years the 
damage is still practically confined to 
nursery stock, and newly-set fruit trees. 
We have looked in vain for traces of 
damage to large bearing trees which ' 
have long been exposed to infection, but 
never have been able to find them. Some 
young peach trees which harbored a few 
live scales last Spring seem to be exempt 
from them now, proDably due to the ac¬ 
tivity of the Two-spotted ladybug, as. 
numbers of this pretty little scale-eater 
were noticed on the branches during the 
last few weeks. We did not care to risk 
the petroleum treatment on too many 
trees at once, and gave these trees the 
benefit of a year’s grace, with seemingly 
good results. w. v. f. 
Coal has advanced $1.50 per ton, but a Rochester 
Radiator will save one-half your fuel.— Adv. 
THE SUDDUTH PEAR. 
Within the past few years there have 
been several inquiries and statements, 
in TnE R. N.-Y. about the Sudduth pear. 
In some of the western rural papers 
there has been much recent discussion 
about this pear, some thinking ft iden¬ 
tical with Birkett, another western seed¬ 
ling, but this has been shown quite con¬ 
clusively to be a mistake. At least, the 
mstory of the Sudduth has been well 
established to be as follows: 
In the year 1820 Thomas Constant, 
who emigrated from Xenia, O., to near 
Williamsville, Ill., took with him some 
pear seeds, and planted them there. 
From one of them came the Sudduth. 
The farm on which it stood changed 
hands several times, at one time be¬ 
longing to Judge S. T. Logan, Lincoln’s 
law partner. Ail the owners of the orig¬ 
inal tree prized the fruit and the unfail¬ 
ing productiveness and health of the 
tree. Judge Logan sold the farm to 
Titus buddutn and from him the variety 
gets tne name. Several neighbors had 
grafted trees from the original many 
years ago, and all have been very pro¬ 
ductive and healthy; no blight having 
ever affected any of the trees, down to 
the youngest nursery trees now stand¬ 
ing, so reports say. The productivity 
of the variety is remarkable. The orig¬ 
inal tree has been known to bear 121 
bushels in one year, and this is not so 
much to be wondered at, when we con¬ 
sider that it has a girth of over 10 feet 
at the smallest part of the Dody, and a 
height of 60 feet, it bore 75 bushels for 
each of three successive years. Some of 
the younger trees have borne 40 bushels 
in one year; and those not over three 
years from tne bud, standing in nursery 
rows, have each borne several pears. 
Not long since I received three Sud¬ 
duth pears from Augustine & Co. of 
Illinois, who have control of. the stock 
of this variety. They had been four 
days in the mails, were fully ripe, and 
each had begun to rot a little. But they 
were in such condition as to enable me 
to make drawings and critical descrip¬ 
tion of tne fruit. The size is medium, 
and the shape similar to that of most 
pears, being pyramidal, with slight de¬ 
pressions at both stem and calyx, as 
may be seen in Fig. 274, page 718. The 
surface is a little uneven or lumpy, and 
the color pale green, with no sign of 
yellow or blush. On this account it 
would not be considered a very attrac¬ 
tive pear. The flesh is white, quite soft, 
but not very juicy, when fully ripe, and 
has some “grit” or hard specks mixed 
through it, especially about the core and 
calyx. Its flavor is mild subacid, pleas¬ 
ant but not rich or spicy. The quality 
I would call only medium, if the speci¬ 
mens examined are characteristic, which 
I think is true. In season it would come 
about with Sheldon or a little earlier. 
All things considered, the Sudduth may 
come to be one of our business pears be¬ 
cause of its resistance to blight and 
great bearing qualities, but it is not high 
enough in quality to take a place among 
the dessert pears. It would be well to 
test it generally h. e. van deman. 
FOOD MEDICINE 
Scott’s emulsion of cod-liver 
oil is equally food and medi¬ 
cine. 
A little of itsets the stomach 
at work on some easy food— 
that is medicine. 
How does it “set the stomach 
at work?” By making strength; 
by creating strength : by turn¬ 
ing the oil into body and life 
—that is food. 
We’ll send you a little to try, if you like. 
SCOTT &BOWNE, 409 Pearl street. New York. 
One Layer 
OF 
Cabot’s Sheathing 
Rat,IS52.:» 
is as warm as 
SIX LAYERS 
of common sheathing paper. Makes 
houses, stables, barns, poultry houses, 
etc., wind and frost proof, and costs 
less than ic. a foot. Send for a sample. 
SAMUEL CABOT, Sole Manufacturer, 
81 Kilby Street, - - Boston, Mass. 
Agents at all Central Points. 
0 GET MORE EGGS 
Your HensMustBe 
Kept Warm end Dry 
USE W • • fc? * 
NEPONSET 
ROPE ROOFING 
To keep out wind, frost, rain and snow 
from Fowl-Houses there’s no better 
low-cost roofing and siding than 
“Neponset.” Contains no tar. Given 
an occasional coat of paint it will last 
for years. Costs about a cent per square 
foot. Sold by dealers in rolls of 100 , 250 
and 500 square feet respectively, each 
roll containing necessary tin caps and 
nails. F'or a permanent roofing and 
siding use 
Paroid Ready Roofing. 
Postal Maps Booklet, samples of Xeponset ” 
and "Paroid.” also mime of nearest dealer. 
F. W.Bird k Son,East Walpole, Mass.;Chicago, III. 
Trial. 
SPECIAL PRICES 80 
Day*’ 
Guaranteed. Double 
and Combination Beam 
OSGOOD 103 Central St. 
Catalog Free. Write now. Bl N C H AMTON, N . Y. 
4 Buggy Wheels with tire on, 87.25 
with Axles Welded and Set, 11.00 
I make all sizes & grades. Send for cat. giving 
instructions for ordering. Special Grade 
Wheels for repair ivork.f 5.50. ft prepaid, if you 
write to-day. W. R. BOOB, Centre Hall Pa 
We are the largest manu¬ 
facturers of Steel Wheels 
and Truck Wagons in the 
World* Write for Catalogue. 
Havana (III.) Metal Wheel Co. 
Save 50 Per Cent 
by building your own fence 
with a SUPERIOR FENCE 
MACHINE. Yoncan build 
any kind of fence you de¬ 
sire with It. Ask your 
Hardware Dealer for one; 
if he cannot supply you, 
we will send one on receipt 
Of price. 84.75. SUPERIOR FENCE MACHINE 
CO., 182 Grand River Avenue, Detroit. Mich. 
How Do You Do 
fencing? If with wire, I’ugc ought to please you. 
L- 15. Robertson, Receiver, 
PACK M’OVKX MIRK FENCE CO., ADRIAN, MICH. 
r¥T"T“T"T"T“Tnnr 
! | j—|—i—|—r 
i—r—i 
AMERICAN 
FIELD AND HOG FENCE 
FULLY GUARANTEED. 
Best steel wires heavily galvanized. Strong, 
economical, eflicient, durable. Local agents 
everywhere. If no agent in your town write 
to the makers. 
American Steel & Wire Co., Chicago or New York. 
The Man 
With the Scoop 
knows that the best fork for 
handling potatoes, corn or 
vegetables is the 
DIAMOND 
Scoop Fork. 
Ten or twelve oval tines with 
flat points,made of onejpiece of 
solid steel. Does not bruise or 
cut the vegetables. Screens 
out the dirt. It will out-wear 
several wire or steel scoops. It 
screens coal and lime. Best for 
Hue manure. Ask dealers for 
the JUunioud. Send for free 
catalog of hoes, rakes, etc. 
We make a special fork for 
handling beets. 
ASHTABULA TOOL CO., 
Ashtabula, 0. 
