786 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 24 
< Jk.Jk.JhM 
; Ruralisms ; 
*0r£S FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
A Warm Autumn. —The weather at 
the Rural Grounds continues unusually 
warm at this writing (November 7). On 
the elevated portions frost has scarcely 
appeared, and even in the most exposed 
places such tender plants as marigolds, 
geraniums and Salvias are still bloom¬ 
ing brightly, but, of course, not as pro¬ 
fusely as when the days were longer. 
Even the Coleus and Dahlias scarcely 
show any signs of the advance of Win¬ 
ter. The latest berries to ripen are 
plump and juicy specimens of the Straw¬ 
berry-raspberry. They are of better 
flavor than those ripened in hot weath¬ 
er, and make a fine appearance, crown¬ 
ing the dense and glossy foliage. The 
unusual warmth is affecting Winter 
apples unfavorably. Windfall Russets, 
Newtown Pippins and Greenings are al¬ 
ready taking on the golden tints and 
something of the flavor of full maturity, 
and even the hand-picked specimens are 
softening at a rate that precludes late 
keeping. They are apparently as far ad¬ 
vanced as is usual at the end of the year. 
If cold storage in a small way could only 
be made practicable it would prove a 
boon to the producer in many ways. The 
forest leaves are dropping from sheer 
maturity, having scarcely taken on their 
usual Autumn tints. The lawns are as 
green and bright as in early June. A 
few strawberries are opening blooms, 
and the buds on some varieties of early- 
blooming shrubs are swelling as in 
Spring, but the growing length and cool¬ 
ness of the nights will probably put 
them to sleep again. Persimmons have 
ripened into full richness, and chestnuts 
have colored brown and opened their 
burrs with scarcely a touch of frost. 
Taken all in all, we much prefer an Au¬ 
tumn of this character, but a lurking 
dread of injury from sudden cold later 
on prevents one from enjoying the mild 
weather to the fullest extent. 
A Beautiful Annual Grass. —Purple 
fountain-grass, Pennisetum Ruppelia- 
num, is one of the finest annual grasses 
we have grown. We have been acquaint¬ 
ed with it for years, and last Summer 
tried it again from seed furnished by 
Peter Henderson & Co., New York. It 
starts rather slowly, and should be sown 
inside, in March or early April, for the 
best results. When established in the 
garden, in good soil, it rapidly forms a 
fine clump of long, narrow leaves, arch¬ 
ing from the center to the circumfer¬ 
ence like a well-formed fountain. From 
the middle of July until freezing weath¬ 
er, large plumy purple flower-heads are 
freely produced, bending over on their 
slender stalks until the whole plant is 
veiled in silvery purple. The plants 
grow over two feet high, and always at¬ 
tract much attention when grouped in a 
border or grown in large pots. 
Dwarf Verbenas and Portulacas.— 
These trailing plants are of such low 
stature at all times that the term 
“dwarf” can only indicate a specially 
compact and short-stemmed strain. Por- 
tulaca grandiflora compacta is a fine ex¬ 
ample of this type. It is sold under the 
trade name of new Cushion Portulaca. 
It forms a very neat and compact bush 
five or six inches high and less than a 
foot in diameter. The single flowers are 
large and well-opened and of the usual 
range of rose, crimson, orange and yel¬ 
low. The fleshy leaves appear smaner 
than the usual type. They make very 
pretty plants, and to our taste are pre¬ 
ferable to the rambling form. The new 
“Bush,” or miniature Verbenas, tried by 
us, are very similar in growth to the 
Cushion Portulaca, the plants covering 
a circle less than 16 inches in diameter. 
The flowers are rather small, of various 
shades of red, with white eyes. The fo¬ 
liage is narrow, and has a starved look, 
the whole plant presenting a dyspeptic 
appearance. The alteration in habit ap¬ 
parently comes from an inherent lack of 
vigor in the plants. The newer large 
flowered Verbenas, on the other hand, 
are very fine, indeed, and a really sweet- 
scented strain seems within the bounds 
of possibility. 
Tanned Keiffer Pears. —There is 
some discussion in the horticultural 
press concerning the possibility of pre¬ 
serving such fruits as apples and pears 
by dipping them in Bordeaux Mixture 
or a similar germicide to rid the surface 
of the various rot-producing fungi and 
bacteria. The supposition is, however, 
that many of these germs are already 
inside the fruits at the time of picking, 
ready to develop as the changes caused 
by full ripening go on. The Bordeaux 
Mixture treatment is likely to get a 
thorough test during the coming Win¬ 
ter from several readers of The R. N.-Y., 
as reference was made to the matter on 
page 768 in last week’s issue. A young 
fruit grower near the Rural Grounds 
had 20 or more barrels of Keiffer pears 
recently stored in an outhouse, which 
became infested with mice and nu¬ 
merous insects, attracted by the ripen¬ 
ing fruit. In order to clear out the pests 
and possibly at the same time destroy 
the germs of decay in the pears this 
bright young man burned a big lot of 
sulphur in the building. The result was 
disastrous to the mice, the insects and 
the pears as well. No doubt the bac¬ 
teria on the surface of the pears were 
killed, as the astringent fumes tanned 
the skins into a kind of tough, brown¬ 
ish leather, entirely destroying the ap¬ 
pearance and eating qualities of the 
fruits. This is another example of over¬ 
doing a good thing, as a moderate ex¬ 
posure to sulphur gases does not affect 
fruit or vegetables unfavorably, though 
the flavor and aroma of ripening fruits 
are too delicate to be submitted to the 
action of such powerful chemicals with 
impunity. w. v. f. 
THE PRINCESS LOUISE APPLE. 
Princess is now dropped, and the apple 
is called Louise only. This fair new 
apple originated on the north slope of 
the mountain ridge near Grimsby, Ont., 
on the farm of L. Wolverton, secretary 
of the Ontario Fruit Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion. There stood there, for a number 
of years a lot of old Snow apple trees, 
and often much of the fruit was allowed 
to decay on the ground. One Fall, about 
1876, Mr. Wolverton noticed a young 
tree, evidently a seedling, among the old 
Snow trees, with a crop of very fine 
large showy apples. He showed speci¬ 
mens in 1879 at the Winter meeting of 
the above society, which from their 
beauty and fine quality attracted much 
notice. Unfortunately, in propagating 
this new fruit nurserymen have got it 
mixed with McIntosh, and very many of 
the trees sold for Louise have proven, 
when fruited, to be simply this old va¬ 
riety. It is true that they resemble each 
other, as most likely both are seedlings 
of the Snow, but the resemblance is 
much more in flesh and quality than in 
outside appearance. Its shape is well 
shown in Fig. 301, page 783. The skin of 
McIntosh is almost wholly covered with 
a bright dark red, while that of Louise 
is of a greenish yellow ground with a 
crimson cheek, not as dark as the red 
of McIntosh and never covering the 
whole apple. The basin of McIntosh is 
very smooth, and very regular; that of 
Louise, on the contrary, is considerably 
pleated. With me the Louise is remark¬ 
ably beautiful and in quality equal to 
the Snow, and although this is its first 
year fruiting with me, I judge it will 
keep until February. I think that, like 
the Snow, it is somewhat subject to the 
scab, but not near as much so as its 
parent, and us size, beauty and quality 
will make it worthy of a little extra care 
to grow. The wood is rather long and 
willowy, with a good leaf, and judging 
from its behavior on three-year grafts 
it will prove fairly productive. But mine 
are on a dry, gravelly soil, and it may 
be like the Maiden Blush, very much 
changed by the character of the soil on 
which it grows. I would not advise any 
one to rush wildly into planting a large 
orchard of Louise, but would recommend 
that it be fully tested, for there is a 
large and growing market for first-class 
fruits, and surely the Louise is such an 
apple. J. 8. WOODWARD. 
JAPAN PLUMS AT THE SOUTH. 
After testing for years Abundance, Bur¬ 
bank, Berckmans, Chabot, Kelsey, Ogon, 
Berger, Yosobe, Mikado, Yeddo (or Nor- 
mand), Wickson, Hale, Red June, Willard 
and Simon, only the following are profit¬ 
able here: Red June, Abundance, Burbank 
(doubtfully, on account of rot and short¬ 
lived tree), Chabot, Normand, named in 
order of ripening. The Hale is poor color, 
poor quality, too soft and subject to rot. 
Normand is very similar to Mikado, large 
yellow, but later, less subject to rot, better 
quality, and immensely prolific. Of the 
newer hybrid plums, the Gonzales, an ac¬ 
cidental hybrid of Abundance with some 
Chickasaw variety originating in Gonzales 
County, Texas, has given most satisfactory 
results. The fruit is large, spherical, 
dark rich red, quality very fine, prolific, 
little troubled by rot, tree thrifty, upright, 
very healthy. The varieties that have 
steadily been sure and profitable, named in 
order of ripening, are Milton, Abundance, 
Gonzales, Clifford, Whitaker, Wooten t.syn. 
Poole Pride), Chabot, Yeddo (Normand), 
Miner, Wayland, Newton. Clifford and 
Gonzales sell most readily, owing to their 
brilliancy, quality and size. None of the 
European (P. domestica) species of plums 
and prunes has proved of much value; 
Giant Prune and Coe’s Golden Drop, both 
very late, have done best of this class. 
The earlier varieties of this species are so 
much injured by curculio and rot that they 
are profitless. A number of the newer 
hybrids are very promising, but not yet 
sufficiently tested to mention to any ad¬ 
vantage. It should be noticed that nearly 
all the northwestern varieties of P. Ameri¬ 
cana which are so hardy and successful in 
Iowa, do little good, and are short-lived 
here. A few of such are De Soto, Forest 
Garden, Wolf, Rollingstone, Hawkeye, 
Rockford, Cheney, Yosemite, etc. Newton 
is of this class, but a native of southwest 
Kansas, and endures our climate quite 
well. It is among the largest and the finest 
of this species known to me, and a firm- 
fleshed freestone. We have tested many 
varieties not named here. 
Texas. t. v. munson. 
* * - ► 
!! Two Big Pains 
seem to be tne heritage of the 
Vi 11 tv, n m fnmi hr f 
human family everyw 
Rheumatism 
and 
Neuralgia 
but there is one sure and 
prompt cure for both, viz: 
!! St. Jacobs Oil:: 
How to Drain Land Profitably. 
On every farm there is probably some land 
that could be made more productive by under¬ 
drainage. Properly drained land can always 
be worked earlier, and more profitably. The 
best and most 
economical way 
to drain is ex¬ 
plained in the 
book, “ Benefits of Drainage and How to Drain,” 
which is sent free by 
JOHN H. JACKSON, Third Ave., Albany, N. Y. 
4 Buggy Wheels with tire on, »7.B5 
with Axles Welded and Set, 11.00 
I make all sizes & grades. Send for cat. giving 
instructions for ordering. Special Grade 
Wheels for repair work, $5.50. ft prepaid, if you 
write to-day. W. R. BOOB, Centre Hall Pa 
WE SELL DIRECT 
to farmers, through reliable Farmer Agents. 
L. B. Robertson, Receiver, 
Agricultural Botany, by John Per- 
cival, Professor of Botany at the Agri¬ 
cultural College, Wye, England. New 
York: Henry Holt & Co. A very com¬ 
pact volume of more than 700 pages with 
many clear and correct illustrations. 
The first portion, which is divided in 
several parts, gives a most lucid and in¬ 
teresting explanation of the anatomy 
and the physiology of plants. Succeed¬ 
ing portions give the classification and 
special botany of crops useful on the 
farm, including most of the fruits, vege¬ 
tables, grain and grasses grown in Eu¬ 
rope, the weeds of the farm and various 
farm seeds. The closing parts are de¬ 
voted to a consideration of the very im¬ 
portant subject of the various fungi and 
bacteria affecting the welfare of the 
farmer. Though intended for a text¬ 
book in schools this well-written vol¬ 
ume, the first of its kind, ought to find 
a place in the library of every intelli¬ 
gent farmer. Many a bright country 
boy would find it as interesting as fic¬ 
tion, and the knowledge gained by its 
careful reading could not fail to be of 
immense practical benefit. American 
readers will regret that some of our im¬ 
portant staple crops, such as maize, cot¬ 
ton and tobacco, are scarcely mentioned 
in the text. 
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American Steel & Wire Co., Chicago or New York. 
Before Buying a Mew 
will insure the best re¬ 
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1 cents in stamps for 
catalogue of 100 
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to the consumer 
wholesale prices. 
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Send for free sample and catalogue of Cabot’s Sheathing Quilt. Agents at all central points. 
SAMUEL CABOT, Sole Manufacturer, - 81 Kilby Street, Boston, Mass. 
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