85o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 22 
; Ruralisms ; 
vy r r ▼ 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Tiie Last Flowers. —The late Autumn 
weather has been so mild, notwith¬ 
standing the lateness of the season, that 
the Rural Grounds have not yet been 
without outdoor blooms, though sharp 
frosts have lately cut down all the more 
tender plants. There have been almost 
as many last flowers of the reason as 
“positively last apperances’’ of popular 
prima donnas. The dandelions, Aconi- 
tums and hardy Chrysanthemums held 
out nobly, but ceased to develop buds in 
late November. Everblooming roses are 
still green and growing slowly, but the 
blooms no longer open. Even pansies 
and violets have reached a practically 
dormant stage, but a wild dwarf golden- 
rod (species not known) has developed 
brilliant second blooms this December 
8, and some St. Brigid Anemones, 
grown from seeds planted last April are 
still expanding handsome flowers in 
bright scarlet, maroon, sky-blue, pink 
and white, some marked with many 
stripes and mottlings. The St. Brigid 
Anemones have been sent out from Ire¬ 
land quite recently, and were developed 
fiom the tuberous-rooted, poppy- 
flowered Anemone, A. coronaria. They 
grow about eight inches high, with very 
handsome fern-like foliage. The single 
and semi-double flowers are from two to 
three inches across, shaped much like a 
poppy, and of various brilliant colors 
and divei’se markings. The stems are 
firm but succulent, absorbing water so 
readily that the flowers last well when 
cut. These Anemones are very hardy, 
but are benefited by a covering of some 
light material when the ground freezes 
to prevent heaving and consequent ex¬ 
posure of the tubers. 
Cleaning up the Garden. —The first 
killing frost is often the signal for an 
outbreak of excessive neatness on the 
part of amateurs who have neglected 
their garden during its gradual decline. 
The surface is raked bare to be exposed 
to the beating rains of Winter, and all 
leaves, weeds and waste materials 
burned or carted to the compost heap. 
This thorough “cleaning up” cannot al¬ 
ways be an unmixed benefit. It is a 
question whether the soil is not injured 
in its mechanical properties by such 
complete exposure to Winter storms.. If 
there is much slope the surface is quite 
certain to wash badly when heavy rains 
occur while the surface is thawing. Of 
course it is well to remove weeds with 
ripening seeds, but these should never 
be permitted to develop to such an ex¬ 
tent. While perishable articles, likely 
to be damaged by exposure, should be 
removed to safe storage, it is cer¬ 
tainly better to allow Nature’s covering 
of ripened vegetation to remain in great 
part as a soil cover. Much of it is par¬ 
tially decomposed, and ready for plant 
assimilation in the course of an average 
Winter, and the remainder is quickly 
removed at the first advent of pleasant 
weather in the Spring. If grasses or 
weeds are allowed to reach maturity be¬ 
fore frost, their presence on the soil will 
do little further harm and the protection 
is often beneficial. The ideal way is 
so to cultivate the garden during its de¬ 
clining weeks that little objectionable 
growth remains to offend the eye during 
Winter. Those having large or small 
plots of level land not subject to storm 
washing may advantageously have them 
plowed or forked up roughly, as the 
action of frost may at times prove bene¬ 
ficial to some soils by breaking down 
the hard lumps. 
Tomatoes in the Greenhouse. —The 
Rural glasshouse tomatoes will not 
come in as early as last sason. There 
has been much dull and cloudy weather, 
and the continued mild temperature 
makes it necessary to keep the fires at 
the lowest point consistent with their 
burning at all. Then too, our soil mix¬ 
ture does not seem to be as happily 
balanced as heretofore, and the pros¬ 
pect seems none too good for early 
fruiting. The plants are making a 
sturdy growth, and will doubtless give 
a good account of themselves later on, 
when a higher average temperature can 
be maintained without injury to other 
plants of special interest. Tomatoes are 
regarded as a “warm” forcing plant, and 
the proper temperature is given at 60 to 
65 degrees at night, and 10 degrees 
higher during bright days. The Rural 
tomatoes get between 50 and 55 degrees 
at night, which is quite a difference, yet 
they grow as lustily as any we have 
seen, but the setting of the fruit is cer¬ 
tainly delayed by low temperatures and 
dull weather. w. v. f. 
Japan Golden Russet Pears. 
Visitors at fruit exhibitions have 
noticed a few specimens of a pecul.a.- 
looking pear. It has a dark brown 
color and a peculiar round, “squatty” 
appearance. Several specimens have 
been sent us, and there appears to be in¬ 
terest enough in the fruit to warrant us 
in printing a picture of a fair specimen. 
This is shown at Fig. 328, page 847. A 
friend who lives on Long Island fruited 
his trees this year, and sent specimens 
to the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington. Prof. Taylor’s reply is 
given below. Our friend feels sure that 
the San Josd scale worked on all his 
fruit trees except these Japan pears: 
The specimen fruits sent are Japanese 
peays. These are probably fruits from 
trees imported or grown from seed in 
this country, for use as stocks upon 
which to bud our common pe rs. Sev¬ 
eral varieties of this type have been 
named and are propagated to a limited 
extent. While their fruit never becomes 
suitable for dessert use in the fresh 
state, some of them, such as Japan 
Golden Russet, are of fairly good quality 
for canning. This species seems less 
subject to injury by San Jose scale than 
our common pears, but it cannot be con¬ 
sidered exempt from the attacks of that 
insect. You can secure seedlings of this 
type from almost any dealer in fruit 
tree seedlings under the name Japanese 
pear seedling. wm. a. taylor. 
Acting Pomoiogist. 
Pears in Idaho. —There are two Idaho 
pear trees in my variety orchard, five 
years old, which have not yet borne, 
while four Bartletts of the same age 
yielded a bushel this year. Some Winter 
Nelis, Seckel, Flemish Beauty, Clapp’s 
Favorite bore a few pears this season, 
but the remaining trees in the block, 
Keiffer and Beurred’Anjou, did not fruit. 
Some of the difference in the fruiting 
ages of these varieties is doubtless due 
to the varying amount of pruning the 
trees have suffered, but the Bartlett has 
proved to be the earliest Dearer in this 
section, and is hard to beat. I saw some 
fine Idaho pears last Fall, but did not 
test their quality. Pears from this 
State were marketed as far east as Chi¬ 
cago this year, and I suppose Idaho was 
among them. l. m. n. 
Peaches on Rich Ground.—M y plan 
has been to plant peach trees on the 
richest ground I had, but not to put on 
any barnyard manure after the first 
year. I have used 400 pounds of ground 
bone and 100 pounds of muriate of pot¬ 
ash to the acre. I do not think that the 
ground can be too rich for peaches. 1 
have two orchards of 10 acres each, one 
four and the other two years old, and 
have had good success with them with 
the exception of the drought, and some 
trees were killed during the hard Win¬ 
ter of 1898. I think the cause of many 
failures of peach growers is lack of 
thorough cultivation, not fertilizing 
heavily enough, and neglecting to cut 
back the growth of the previous year. 
I should think a man could raise peaches 
on land worth $100 per acre with more 
success than he could raise beans or 
other crops. I intend setting another 
orchard next Spring and shall apply 800 
pounds of muriate of potash, ground 
bone and rock to the land, before set¬ 
ting the trees. jay e. allis. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
PRUN/NGS. 
I have noticed, this year, that Hosford's 
Mammoth, claimed by some to be the same 
as Eaton, has done better than any other 
grape in my vineyards—better than it ever 
did before, while all other varieties have 
not done as well as usual. 
THADDEUS SMITH. 
The Idaho pear has no standing in north¬ 
ern Idaho nor in eastern Washington; in 
fact, I have never seen any pears of that 
variety that were worth picking, neither 
have I ever seen any that were soft enough 
to eat, no matter how long kept. We ap¬ 
plied a heavy rope and tackle and a good 
team of horses to about 450 trees of the 
Idaho variety last Spring, pulled them out 
of the ground and burned them. They 
were more subject to blight than any other 
variety in the orchard. t. r. 
Moscow, Idaho. 
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>'v.V 
Fall Planting.— About planting the 
peach and plum in the Fall, I would say 
that but very little is done in that line in 
northeastern Massachusetts. I saw one 
orchard planted to peach and plum in the 
Fall of 1899. it was well planted, trees 
banked well with earth and everything done 
to protect the trees from the Winter. I 
visited this orchard October 29 last, and 
the trees were mostly dead, and the owner 
told me he should take the remainder out 
and reset next Spring, it is the general 
belief in this section that trees of all kinds 
should be set in Spring. A small orchard 
of pear and apple near me were set in 
heavy clay loam in the Fall of 11199, which 
are doing very well, but have not made as 
good growth as many others set in Spring 
of 1900. s. r. w. 
North Leominster, Mass. 
New York Orchards.— I am glad to say 
that the article on impressions on the 
Apple Industry of Western New York, 
winch was inserted In your paper recently 
for the express purpose of bringing out 
suggestions and ideas on the orchard 
cover-crop question, has accomplished its 
purpose very satisfactorily. 1 have had 
several very valuable letters. They have 
not all been confined to this State. I write 
this to say that although a number have 
been received, I would like to get many 
more. In fact, on this cover-crop business 
we want a general experience meeting, 
and we wish to sift out of the difiiculties 
presented and suggestions offered a line 
of experimental work which we can put 
into operation next year. Let us hear from 
those who have been cultivating their or¬ 
chards, and who have not received the re¬ 
turns they think their labors deserve. It 
is well to describe soil characters and gen¬ 
eral environmental conditions of the or¬ 
chard. JOHN CRAIG. 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
Sweet Potato Sprouts.— In old times, 
say in the forties, it was the custom here 
to plant sweet potato slips; that is, small 
roots broken into pieces about an inch 
long, and they (mother) very frequently 
grew to be quite large, and were edible, 
in 1849, I planted the first sprouts I ever 
used, which was in the way of experiment, 
the main part of my crop being planted 
with slips, and in hills. I watched closely 
the result, and found there was one 
marked difference in the yield. The pota¬ 
toes growing from the sprout were all 
bunched together like a lot of quail tied 
by their necks, while those emanating from 
the slip, grew wildly all through the hills, 
and sometimes farther. In the amount of 
the product, or size of the roots, there was 
little difference. The great advantages of 
the sprout system are the great saving of 
seed and the bunchy compact way in which 
they grow, by which digging is facilitated, 
and the cutting of the potatoes is almost 
entirely obviated. It is all moonshine to 
say that good and large sweet potatoes 
can’t be raised from slips; at ldast, in 
southern Maryland. j. e. c. 
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