1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
783 
HONEY PERSIMMON. Fig. 300. 
A TALK ON PERSIMMONS. 
Among our native fruits, not yet much planted for 
home use or the market, is the American persimmon. 
Nearly all who have been accustomed to the fruit 
from their childhood, as it grew in its native thicket, 
are ardent admirers of the flavor of a ripe persimmon. 
But a green fruit stands for the essence of all that 
is astringent and puckering in every place it has been 
tested. So far as I know little improvement has been 
made in this fruit except by selection. Until lately, 
at least, there has not been much attempt to improve 
by crossing with the Japan type, which is really a 
very superior fruit, but unfortunately too tender for 
this climate, if a hybrid could be obtained which 
would add hardiness to the good qualities of 
the best Japan kinds we should have a fruit 
but little if any inferior to the peach tree, 
much longer-lived, more reliable and just as 
productive. But this is a work for the fu¬ 
ture. As it now stands, quite a number of 
seedlings have been selected from the wilds 
where they grew, and named. Considering 
the time and work taken no very bad show¬ 
ing has been made. Probably fully 25 va¬ 
rieties have been named, fully half of which 
are well worth planting by the farmer, and 
even, pernaps, by the commercial grower. 
Most kinds have too many seeds, but a few 
are nearly seedless—that is, the smaller ones 
have no seeds, the medium ones from none 
to one, and the largest from one to two seeds. 
However, the so-called “seedless" varieties 
are usually only medium or under in size. A 
few varieties ripen mostly before frost here, 
but the large majority later—some of the 
wild ones hanging to the trees until Christ¬ 
mas. For home use soft fruits may be tol¬ 
erated—these are the juiciest or have the 
fewest seeds; but to carry and sell the fruit 
must have a reasonable degree of firmness. 
Usually this firmness is given by the seeds, 
but sometimes by dryness of flesh. If the 
flesh can be rather dry and at the same time 
good in quality there is a great advantage in 
marketing. Some otherwise good varieties have a 
dirty yellow or watery color. These, of course, are 
all right for home use, but are poor sellers; the deep 
but bright yellow ones, with a blush cheek, if pos¬ 
sible, are the sellers. 
Among those that meet the market eye is the Early 
Golden, which is productive, of above medium size, 
round, fine yellow with sometimes a blush, rather dry 
and firm, yet of very good quality, and as its name 
indicates, ripens early before the wild ones come into 
market. It has too many seeds but not more than the 
average. Honey, oblate in form, is larger, later, 
sweeter and better in quality, just as many seeds and 
decidedly softer. It has the watery yellow color. 
Among the so-called “seedless” ones I know of none 
more promising, from a short acquaintance, than one 
fi’om Morgan County, of this State. It is scarcely of 
medium size, but firm and fair in quality. In a 60- 
rod row of seedlings on my place two are large and 
good, but “go to mush” on falling from the tree, and 
therefore worthless for commercial purpose. The 
market for this fruit is improving and soon there 
will be a steady and increasing demand. The per¬ 
simmon is not particularly difficult to propagate, and 
transplant. It is reasonably hardy and very produc¬ 
tive; the tree is as hardy as the average apple. Seeds 
planted in the Fall as peach pits, will make a foot 
growth above ground and two feet at least below. I 
have grafted in early Spring by the ordinary cleft 
method, tying with cotton yarn and using not wax, 
applied with a brush, and in a series of years prob¬ 
ably 80 per cent of tUe grafts have lived. Some bpd 
with success. If the roots are taken out to the depth 
of 18 inches when transplanting and replaced prop¬ 
erly early in the Spring, there need be but little loss 
in setting an orchard, at the outside say 10 per cent. 
Illinois. BENJ. BUCKMAN. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Buckman has covered about all the 
necessary features in the selection of native persim¬ 
mons for propagation. There is little doubt that this 
excellent wild fruit will be wonderfully improved in 
the course of time. Of the varieties received from 
Mr. Buckman, Honey, Fig. 300, is the best in flavor, 
but too soft for distant shipment. Early Golden, Fig. 
302, came in fine condition and made a neat appear¬ 
ance, but was slightly astringent in flavor. The Ken¬ 
tucky “seedless,” though small in size and dull in color 
was very satisfactory in flavor. These varieties are 
all better in quality tnan any of the Japan sorts that 
can be bought in our city markets, and if large size 
and firm flesh can be added without great deteriora¬ 
tion in flavor the persimmon will become a fruit of 
real importance. _ 
SOME FACTS ABOUT POTATOES. 
GREEN MANURE FOR SCAB.—Possibly some 
readers of The R. N.-Y. may recall a statement which 
I made about a year since regarding an effort made to 
mitigate the ravages of scab fungus on potatoes, if 
not destroy it, by turning under green crops, acting 
on the principle that an acid soil is fatal to the germs 
of scab. A piece of ground was selected in the month 
of August, 1898, from which potatoes had just been 
dug; this piece (about two acres) was sown to rye, 
and the following Spring sown to cow peas the last 
week in May. It was fertilized with half a ton per 
acre of good potato fertilizer, the idea being to give 
the peas a chance to elaborate the plant food con¬ 
tained in the fertilizer into a more easily assimilated 
form for the potatoes. This crop was turned under 
while still green the first week of September, 1899, 
and again sown to rye. April 26, 1900, this crop was 
plowed down and the ground planted to potatoes. The 
varieties were White Bliss Triumph, second-crop seed 
from North Carolina, for the most part, and a va¬ 
riety called Junior Pride, a seedling of the above, sent 
me for trial by the originator, Edwin F. Harrington. 
I supposed I would have seed enough to plant the en¬ 
tire patch with those varieties, but owing, perhaps, 
to the fact that I cut the seed too large, I could only 
plant 1% acre, from which we dug July 16 to 20, 
538 V 2 bushels. The experiment, so far as scab was 
concerned, while something of a disappointment, was 
not without its compensating advantages in the les¬ 
sons taught, that seed free from scab on soil treated 
in this way, that is, in itself free, will produce a 
crop of clean tubers. This is evidenced by the fact 
that whereas the second-crop seed was badly infested 
with scab, and the greater part of the product was 
more so, the Junior Pride, from Mr. Harrington, was 
quite free from the disease, and the resultant crop 
was not disfigured in any way by scab. 
VARIETIES, SOIL, DIGGING.—This variety, by the 
way, so far as my experience has gone, is very much 
superior to White Bliss Triumph; while the average 
yield is less, the quality is vastly superior, and, be¬ 
sides, with me it was marketable 10 days before the 
Triumph. The fact is, my trade has rebelled against 
the Triumph to such an extent that I don’t think it 
a safe variety for me to plant. I have tried to ex¬ 
plain to our merchants that it is owing to a lack of 
training; that they should educate their trade to over¬ 
come their prejudices, but they retaliate by throwing 
back at me the oft-quoted remark of the modern phil¬ 
osopher, who said, “What’s the use of knowin’ so 
much, when so much you do know, ain’t so.” An¬ 
other conclusion I have reached is, that in spite of all 
that has been said to the contrary, well-kept, north¬ 
ern-grown seed is the best for me. Two years ago I 
bought a lot of second-crop seed from a grower in 
Newbern, N. C., and also some of the first-crop from 
Jerrard, in the State of Maine; planted them in ad¬ 
joining rows, and the northern-grown was more vig¬ 
orous from the start, and more productive. Remem¬ 
ber I am not establishing a principle, only stating a 
fact. Another lesson I have learned has been that 
soil so completely filled with decaying vegetable mat¬ 
ter can produce a good crop with very little rain. In 
the neighborhood of our farm we have not had a rain 
to wet plow-deep since plowing began last Spring, and 
yet I feel perfectly safe in saying that the poorest 
acre we dug gave us a trifle more than 150 bushels. 
But the cost of digging by hand was such that I was 
in a manner compelled to purchase a Hoover digger, 
and that was a revelation. In common with many 
others, I suppose, I have grown somewhat dissatisfied 
with the reckless statements made by parties inter¬ 
ested in the sale of machinery through the medium 
of circulars, etc.; they frequently try to create an im¬ 
pression, as one of our fellows expressed it, as though 
“they had the world by the tail and a down-hill pull.” 
Not so with the Hoover people; they said substan¬ 
tially, “Give our digger a fair and satisfactory trial; 
if it doesn’t do the work send it back.” That tool is 
here to stay. 
SELLING POTATOES.—I have been not only inter¬ 
ested, but somewhat amused with some of the articles 
in The R. N.-Y. for October 27, page 719. There 
seems to be considerable dissatisfaction witn 
prices, commissions, etc. Seems to me that 
the Editor himself has had something to say 
earlier in the season regarding the down¬ 
ward trend of prices, especially of potatoes. 
I suppose the partial solution of this is 
found in the fact that somewhat an extensive 
second-crop grown at the South, is buried 
in the field where grown, and shipped North 
at the proper time as early potatoes; the im¬ 
mense quantities thus thrown on the market 
»n early Spring ana Summer tend to depress 
prices. But while farming generally may 
never become an exact science, certain it Is 
that the ability so to manipulate combina¬ 
tions of capital as to buy farm produce low 
and sell high has been brought the last few 
years about as near an exact science as pos¬ 
sible. These conditions often remind me of 
the experience of good Father McGlynn, who 
for the benefit of his health took a few days 
outing last Slimmer to one of the beautiful 
lakes for which northeastern Pennsylvania 
is noted. While recuperating at this quiet 
retreat the thought came to him one day 
that he would like to see whether fishing 
with pole and line had the same charm for 
him as when a boy he lured the finny crea¬ 
tures from their native habitat. One of the 
first things by way of preparation was to ob¬ 
tain a supply of bait, from a local expert, who occa¬ 
sionally frequented the hotel. The good man had 
no trouble in obtaining a quantity of bait such as the 
boys call “devils.” Late in the day the party who 
supplied them with bait happening to discover them 
made the remark: "Well, Father McGlynn, what luck 
are you having?” "None at all, my friend, none what¬ 
ever! there seems to be no affinity here at all, abso¬ 
lutely none. With a ‘devil’ at one end, and a very 
poor preacher at me other, what sort of luck could 
you expect?” m. garrahan. 
EARLY GOLPF.N PERSIMMON. Fig. 302. 
THE PRINCESS LOUISE APPLE. From Life. Fig. 301. 
See Ruralisms, Page 786. 
