834 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 1*> 
Ruralisms 
MOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
About the Gladiolus. —A reader 
wishes The R. N.-Y. to select a list of 
the most desirable varieties of Gladiolus 
for amateur planting, from the great 
numbers offered in the catalogues of 
certain bulb growers. Our opinion, based 
on trials of almost every known species 
and variety, during the past 18 years, 
is that all the named kinds now offered 
in trade catalogues in this country are 
well worthy of cultivation, if one has a 
fancy for this superb Summer-flowering 
plant, but contrary to general opinion, 
the very best ones for ordinary garden 
cultivation are often the cheapest in 
price. Indeed, the varieties usually 
found in the “10 for 50 cents” collec¬ 
tions annually offered may, in one sense, 
be considered the cream of the list, as 
they have proven themselves by their 
inherent vigor best adapted to the 
American climate. These varieties, or¬ 
iginally sent out at $2 or $3 apiece, can 
be increased so rapidly and certainly 
tnat they can be bought by the hundred 
for prices scarcely higher than are still 
asked for novelties not exceeding them 
in beauty and much more difficult to 
propagate in quantity. Many Gladioli of 
great beauty when originated, rapidly 
deteriorate if planted in uncongenial 
soils and situations until the stock runs 
out. Others succeed well in Europe, 
and are very popular, but always fail to 
give satisfaction in our comparatively 
hot and dry climate. Some of the choic¬ 
est named kinds propagate so slowly 
that they always remain high-priced, 
while others, just as fine, soon become 
so plentiful that they can be profitably 
handled at a small price. A striking ex¬ 
ample of the former class is Abricote, a 
beautiful variety, having large, round 
flowers of a fresh apricot yellow. Al¬ 
though it has been in commerce over 
20 years it cannot be bought to-day for 
less than $30 to $40 per 100, and is cor¬ 
respondingly high at retail, yet it is so 
unique that it has never been superseded 
in its color or class. The following va¬ 
rieties will be found handsome and re¬ 
liable in their respective colors: Red; 
Africaine, flamboyant. Grand Rouge, 
Meyerbeer, Mr. Baines. Pink and rose; 
Ali, Bicolore, Duchess of Edinburgh, 
Eugene Souchet, Mile. Marie Mies. 
White and variegated; Amalthee, Car¬ 
nation, Diamant, Fleur de Lys, Sceptre 
de Flore, Snow White. Yellow; Isaac 
Buchanan, Canary Bird and Clirysolora. 
The above have all been produced from 
G. Gandavensis, and are known as 
French hybrids in the trade. There are 
many splendid varieties m the Lemoine 
or “butterfly;” the Nancieanus and 
Childsii classes, some of remarkable 
size, but they do not succeed over as 
wide a range of territory as the Gan¬ 
davensis strain, and many individual 
trials must be made in order to select 
those suitable for a given locality, 
though as with the Gandavensis varie¬ 
ties, it is best to begin with the low- 
priced ones. 
Growing the Crop. —Gladiolus grow¬ 
ing has been largely transferred from 
Europe to the eastern United States dur¬ 
ing the last 1 j years, and more and bet¬ 
ter bulbs are produced each season along 
the Atlantic seaboard than in the rest 
of the earth put together. Fine strains 
are also cultivated in Ohio and Canada 
within the climatic influence of the Great 
Lakes. A few years ago a great surplus 
of seedlings of indifferent quality was 
accumulated by over-ambitious grow¬ 
ers, and an attempt was made to find 
out whether the bulbs, by which term 
the solid corm-like roots are commer¬ 
cially known, possessed any economical 
value. Quantities of them were sent io 
various chemical laboratories for an¬ 
alysis, but nothing of special value was 
discovered, though they are not without 
slight medicinal action. The next move 
was to create a speculative demand by 
means of inflated advertisements, ex¬ 
ploiting the great profits to be made by 
everybody growing Gladioli for the gen¬ 
eral market. This was quite successful 
and millions of bulbs were unloaded on 
the credulous buyers, who soon found 
that it required a congenial soil and 
some special skill and knowledge to in¬ 
crease their stock to the extent of pro¬ 
ducing a regular marketable surplus, 
and that practically no demand for these 
low-grade, unnamed seedling varieties 
existed. Anyone can grow and bloom 
Gladioli which have been developed in 
the proper soil and locality, but to in¬ 
crease the stock and keep it in good 
health is another matter. The commer¬ 
cial growing of Gladioli has some com¬ 
pensations when it can be successfully 
carried out, but it requires a consider¬ 
able investment in proportion to the 
profits, which are realized slowly, as it 
requires about three years to grow a 
blooming bulb, either from seeds or the 
little bulblets produced at the base of 
the parent corm. A Gladiolus farmer, 
however, within shipping distance of a 
large city, can often realize a portion 
of his running expenses from the sale 
of the cut spikes of bloom as a by-pro¬ 
duct. They are gathered in the early 
morning, when the flowers have expand¬ 
ed, the cut ends placed in tubs of water 
in a cool, dark place for 24 hours, and 
shipped in boxes containing 500 to 1,000 
each. The average price in the New 
York market does not exceed $5 per 
1,000 throughout the season, though the 
very early and late blooms bring much 
larger prices. The picture on page 831, 
Fig. 322, was taken on the grounds of 
Arthur Cowee, Berlin, N. Y., a most suc¬ 
cessful grower, and shows a force of 
cutters at work in a field of blooming 
plants. It is a nice crop to handle, but 
excessive care is needed to keep to the 
high standard of blooms the public now 
calls for. The workers on the Rural 
Grounds have grown about naif an acre 
of Gladioli each season for over 15 years 
in the effort to breed new strains to sup¬ 
plement certain defects in the older va¬ 
rieties. While a very few excellent 
things have turned up, the real problem 
seems as far off as ever, but a certain 
expectancy has been developed which 
does not diminish with repeated fail¬ 
ures. Beside the products of surplus 
bulbs and flowers we find the stems cut 
from the ripened bulbs an excellent Win¬ 
ter mulch or covering for tender plants. 
They are light, but rigid enough not to 
be easily displaced by high winds, and 
decompose so rapidly in the Spring that 
they are scarcely in the way of cultiva¬ 
tion. Cows will eat the young stems 
and flower spikes greedily at times, and 
we have never noticed any bad results 
when a considerable quantity was con¬ 
sumed. To encourage the growth of the 
bulb it is best to cut the spikes as soon 
as developed, as it prevents the forma¬ 
tion of seeds, and if a market cannot be 
found for the flowers, some cows at least 
will eat them with avidity. 
A New Rhubarb. —Luther Burbank, 
of Santa Rosa, Cal., is sending out a 
new forcing rhubarb, under the name 
of Australian Crimson Winter. He does 
not say how it originated, but claims 
that it is a practically perpetual grower, 
only taking a reluctant rest during the 
dry California Summer, starting to grow 
in October and producing marketable 
stalks of the highest quality six months 
before the ordinary varieties. He thinks 
it will grow perpetually if kept moist 
and shielded from freezing temperatures, 
and that it should be extremely valuable 
for growing under glass in cold North¬ 
ern States. It is very hardy, and with¬ 
stands frosts which would destroy the 
older kinds. The stalks are oi medium 
size, averaging 12 to 18 inches long, and 
three-fourths of an inch in thickness. 
of a pale, greenish-crimson color, turn¬ 
ing, when cooked, to a light, clear crim¬ 
son and of unexceptionable table qual¬ 
ity. The plants are more likely to “run 
to seed” than varieties now cultivated, 
but that can easily be remedied by top¬ 
ping. As earliness is the main consid¬ 
eration in rhubarb growing Mr. Burbank 
thinks that the Crimson Winter is ex¬ 
ceedingly valuable, and its utility is fur¬ 
ther enhanced by its capacity to produce 
stalks for 30 weeks instead of the month 
or so in which the eastern product is 
utilized. The R. N.-Y. scarcely thinks 
rhubarb will ever be much used after 
strawberries and other fruits come in, 
but any substantial gain in earliness is 
highly desirable. w. v. f. 
NOTES ON GRAPES. 
THOMP 
CRASS 
Sows all clovers an dan v other 
grass, no matter how chaffy. 
Special Hopper for 
wheat, oats etc. 
Weighs only 40 lbs. 
LASTS IN- 
DEFINITELY. _ 
SON’S 
SEEDER 
Sows 20 to 40 acres a day. 
Beats the wind and wet. 
Don’t buy a seeder until 
you ueud tor our free illus¬ 
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O.E.Thompson & Sons, Yp /i' i l r * 1 ""’ 
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SPROUT, WALDRON & CO., Box 13, Muncy. Pa. 
Noticing Mr. Munson’s comments on 
the report of L. Blood, of Menard Co., 
Ill., I am also surprised that Mr. Mun¬ 
son places H. Jaeger as among the 
“poorest in quality” in Texas. Here, on 
account of its freedom from pulp, 
abundance of juice and good flavor 1 
count it among the best. It is a favor¬ 
ite with me, but I find it hard to propa¬ 
gate from cuts. It is not so productive 
as America and some others, but much 
better in quality as I taste it, and I do 
not see how Mr. Munson can rate it so 
low. Herman Jaeger does fully mature 
here in latitude 40, and even j. ern and 
Laussel ripen, but probably with not so 
good a flavor as if maturing in the hot¬ 
ter Summer weather in place of cool 
Autumn. It seems as though the mere 
matter of latitude is not all there is to 
be considered. 
In Bulletin No. 48 from the Texas Ex¬ 
periment Station, in which notes from 
Price, Ness and Hildebrandt were com¬ 
pared with “20 years of notes from Mr. 
Munson,” Delaware and Brighton, as 
well as Poughkeepsie, are called “pur¬ 
ple” grapes. Champion ripens with 
Delaware June 25, while Moore’s Early 
is three weeks earlier. Here tlie latter 
is a long week later than Champion. 
Also, the bulletin makes Cottage later 
than Concord and much later than Clin¬ 
ton and Delaware. New Haven, which 
here ripens about with Moore’s Early, is 
placed as maturing July 26, and Concord 
at July 13. To say nothing of the Gal¬ 
veston storm Texas weather must be 
very peculiar, and I for one do not 
pretend to understand it. Mr; Munson 
is doing a wonderful work in grapes, the 
value of which will be more and more 
appreciated as time goes by. Such work 
should be, but seldom is, well paid for. 
Several varieties, which I supposed were 
only half hardy, have been unhurt by 
severe Winters here, and some that were 
not very fruitful at first have proved 
very reliable and productive; not con¬ 
sidered even more so than the Concord. 
Whether the public will take to the pe¬ 
culiar flavor which the Post-oak blood 
gives to some of the varieties, to the 
supplanting of the old favorites is yet a 
question. benj. buckman. 
Illinois. 
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