38 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 18 
A New Hybrid Apple. —'The British 
gardening journals are advertising a new 
apple, Rival, said to be the product of 
the hybridization of Peasgood Nonsuch 
with Cox’s Orange Pippin. It has been 
awarded a certificate of merit by the 
Royal Horticultural Society, and the 
usual great claims of superiority are 
made for it by the introducers. The 
seeds were sown in the Fall of 1884 and 
the 17 years that have elapsed are about 
the usual period needed to determine the 
value of a seedling apple. The fruit is 
of good flavor and very handsome, being 
clear yellow, with a bright red flush on 
the side exposed to the sun, and the tree 
of good growth as well as a heavy crop¬ 
per. The pollen parent, Cox’s Orange 
Pippin, is most favorably known in this 
country for its fine quality, but is as yet 
sparingly planted. Peasgood Nonsuch 
is a very popular English market va¬ 
riety, but cannot be said to be grown 
over here at all. The price asked for 
young trees of the hybrid is now five 
shillings or $1.25, which is certainly 
enough for a new apple. 
The main interest for Americans con¬ 
nected with the announcement of a new 
fruit that may never be of the slightest 
value to us horticulturally is the addi¬ 
tion to the very small number of apples 
really produced by intentional hybridi¬ 
zation. The only native commercial 
apple known to have originated in this 
way is the Ontario, highly valued in 
Canada and raised by the late Charles 
Arnold, of Paris, Ontario, from seeds of 
Northern Spy crossed with Wagener. 
The Walter and Hastings, claimed to 
have much merit, were produced by hy¬ 
bridization 'by another Canadian grower. 
We have also the very promising crosses 
of Newtown Pippin exhibited at the 
January meeting of the Eastern New 
York Horticultural Society last year by 
S. E. Underhill, of Croton Point, N. Y., 
and described on page 161 of the volume 
for 1901. These fine varieties were not 
produced by hand pollination, but the 
seeds were selected from apples growing 
on trees exposed to the influence of pol¬ 
len of other choice varieties, and the 
characteristics of the resulting fruits 
leave no doubt that union has been ef¬ 
fected between the Newtowns and the 
Rhode Island Greening, Northern Spy, 
Russet and others. Several experiment 
stations, including the Canadian one at 
Ottawa, have been growing hybrids of 
hardy crab apples, and we now have 
some of the latter under trial on the 
Rural Grounds. It is probable that many 
crosses between standard apples have 
been made within the last five years by 
growers who are quietly waiting for 
their pets to develop, and doubtless more 
experiments would be made were it not 
for the many years needed for tne trees 
to come to maturity. Most modern 
apples are probably the result of inter¬ 
pollination by natural means, but since 
the planting of grafted trees has become 
almost universal very few chance seed¬ 
lings are allowed to fruit, and it is not 
likely that useful additions to the list 
of varieties will be so numerous in the 
future. The breeding of new kinds of 
this most important fruit by the well- 
considered cross-hybridization of the 
best varieties now in existence is surely 
an important and interesting occupa¬ 
tion. The Rural Grounds workers have 
made a start in this line which is to be 
extended as the equipment of varieties 
and types comes into bearing. 
Passionflower Fruits. —The fruits of 
several species of passionflowers are 
eaten in South America and other tropi¬ 
cal countries, though it can scarcely be 
said they are grown for the purpose. It 
is usual to meet with plants of the best- 
liked edible species in botanic gardens 
and collections of economic plants, yet 
the writer has never known anyone 
really to enjoy the rather insipid gela¬ 
tinous pulp surrounding the seeds, which 
is the only part eaten. Passiflora edulis 
is probably the best. The fruits have a 
hard shell and are as large as a good- 
sized lemon, yellowish green dotted with 
purple when ripe. The pulp is fragrant 
and quite pleasant, but the large seeds 
are much too numerous. P. quadran- 
gularis produces fruits as large as a 
muskmelon, yellowish-green in color 
and well-filled with rather tasteless 
pulp, which has been compared to cold 
sago pudding. It is often grown in 
greenhouses. P. alata has yellow fruits 
four to five inches long, of a fragrant 
and pleasant quality. P. laurifolia, 
known in the West Indies as Jamaica 
honeysuckle and water lemon, has small¬ 
er yellow fruits, also of fair quality. The 
list could be greatly extended, as the 
genus is a large one, but the most famil¬ 
iar passionflower fruit north of Florida 
is the Maypop, P. incarnata, hardy and 
common enough to be considered a weed 
in the South. Fig. 17, page 35, is an im¬ 
mature Maypop fruit picked in early 
September from a plant of the improved 
form known as Southern Beauty, grown 
from seeds started in April under glass. 
The fruits are yellow when ripe, slight¬ 
ly fragrant but not edible. It makes a 
strong climbing vine, quickly covering 
an arbor or trellis, and bears profusely 
purple and white flowers having all the 
curious arrangement of organs asso¬ 
ciated with passionflowers in general. It 
is fairly hardy as far north as Balti¬ 
more, and the strong roots may be win¬ 
tered over in higher latitudes with good 
protection. The earliest fruits generally 
ripen before frost, and explode with a 
light report when stepped upon, a char¬ 
acteristic which gives the popular name. 
The passionflower most commonly 
grown in the North is Constance Elliott, 
a variety of the Brazilian P. ccerulea. It 
was widely advertised as hardy several 
years ago, and can be grown without 
protection in California and the South, 
but will not endure cold as well as the 
Maypop. The numerous flowers are 
large and white, tipped with blue. The 
typical species has light blue and pur¬ 
ple blooms, and is readily grown from 
seeds. Constance Elliott and other va¬ 
rieties of P. coerulea are chiefly useful 
for growing under glass in the North. 
Wanted, Cow Pea Hybrids.—F. W. 
H., Warren, Maine, says: 
Has anyone tried crossing the cow pea 
with a more hardy northern plant? Can¬ 
not this be done, and give a hybrid with 
a season about like the Yellow-eye bean 
and a foliage like the cow pea in northern 
New York? Such a plant would be a fine 
thing here in the cold North. 
We agree with the above estimate of 
the theoretical value of such a plant, 
but our own many failures to effect hy¬ 
bridization between cow peas and vari¬ 
ous bush beans have impressed us with 
the difficulty, if not impossibility, of ac¬ 
complishing such a union. Trials were 
repeatedly made both under glass and 
in the open with careful attention to all 
details, but no seeds resulted. The cow 
pea, though apparently nearest the 
beans, is quite distinct botanically from 
all our cultivated beans and peas, be¬ 
longing to a distinct genus. It is a na¬ 
tive of China, and the species grown in 
America is known as Vigna Catjang, 
while our garden beans and peas are 
placed in the genera Phaseolus and Pi- 
sum respectively. The differences in the 
make-up of the essential floral organs 
are so great that successful hybridiza¬ 
tion does not appear probable, yet a few 
score failures does not prove its impossi¬ 
bility, and a practical cross-bred va¬ 
riety may yet appear. Meanwhile the 
cow pea in its early dwarf-growing va¬ 
rieties is a splendid thing for all but the 
most northern localities, and by repeat¬ 
ed selection a variety early enough to 
mature right up to the Canada line may 
in time be developed. w. v. f. 
The Bethel Apple. —In the numerous 
fruit notes in The R. N.-Y. one seldom 
sees any allusion to the Bethel apple, 
and why so good a variety should be 
ignored is a mystery to me. It origi- 
na/ted In Vermont, near the town from 
which it takes its name. It is hardy, a 
free grower and an annual bearer of 
above medium-sized red apples of good 
flavor, and with good keeping qualities. 
Sound and eatable specimens were in 
evidence last July 4, and no extra care 
given them. They were picked and put 
in shallow bins or shelves, in a cool dry 
cellar exposed to light and air, not con¬ 
ditions recommended by experts as most 
favorable for long keeping, in sections 
where it thrives it should be planted for 
home use at least, for it is a fine cooker, 
as well as a dessert fruit. m. t. w. 
Washington Co., N. Y. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R- N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
Soft 
Harness 
You can make your har¬ 
ness as soft as a glove 
and as tough as wire by 
using EUREKA Har- 
ness Oil. You can 
lengthen Its life—make it 
last twice as long as it 
ordinarily would. 
EUREKA 
Harness Oil 
makes a poor looking har¬ 
ness like new. Made of 
pure, heavy bodied oil, es¬ 
pecially prepared to with¬ 
stand the weather. 
Sold everywhere 
in cans—all sizes. 
Made bj STANDARD OIL CO. 
FREE. 
This booklet tells how 
to make money on the 
farm and outlines our 
course of home study in 
MODERN 
AGRICULTURE. 
Conducted by Wm. P. 
Brooke, Ph. D. (Mass. Agr. 
College), Head of Dept. 
Text-books free to our 
students. 
There’s independence, __, 
comfort in farming, and wealth, too, 
if you farm intelligently. To enter 
any trade, profession, business, one 
must study — then why not study farm¬ 
ing from those who teach? 
Send for this 36-page booklet free. 
THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE'SCHOOL, 
•s Springfield, Mass. 
?r/. or S , ^For Easy Gardening 
nothing has ever been made to equal 
Matthews’ New Universal Seed Drill. 
Sown all kinds of garden seeds right. 
We also make single and double 
- ivheel hoes, and combined 1 and 2 
wheel cultivators and drills. Suitable for every class of work. 
Write for our new 1 { J02 catalogue of lateststyles. We mail it free. 
AMES PLOW CO., 54 Market St.. BOSTON, MASS. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
$10 SECURES $480 LOT 
IN GREATER NEW YORK. 
The Astors’ Way of Making Money Made 
Possible for Every One. 
Every one knows that the Astors made 
their money in buying and holding New 
York City real estate,—that, as the city 
grew, their property increased in value, so 
that today the Astors have one of the 
largest fortunes in the world. 
New York City is now growing faster than 
ever, and the present time represents one 
of the best times in which to buy property. 
It is not necessary to have a great deal of 
money to buy real estate under our plan. 
$10 down and $1.50 a week will buy a $480 lot 
within thirty-five minutes of New York 
City Hall, which lot is guaranteed to in¬ 
crease in value 20 per cent, within one year 
after purchase. If this is not proven to be 
a positive fact, your money will be refund¬ 
ed and six per cent, interest added. 
Upon investigation, you will find this to be 
stronger, safer and far more profitable than 
a savings bank. 
We offer a free trip to New York City and 
return to intending purchasers. Send to us 
for particulars. 
Send to us for our maps, details of infor¬ 
mation and full particulars. It will only 
cost you a postal card to post yourself 
thoroughly. 
Write to Wood, Harmon & Co., Dept. 178, 
257 Broadway, New York. If you will write 
immediately, we will give you the choicest j 
selection of lot. 
Fruit. 
Its quality influences 
the selling price. 
Profitable fruit 
growing insured only 
when enough actual 
Potash 
is in the fertilizer. 
Neither quaiitity nor 
good qua lily possible 
without Potash. 
Write for our free books 
giving details. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS. 
93 Nassau St., New York City. 
THE 
OLD 
■■a 
CAHOON 
Broadcast 
improved and perfected, 
is really the most prac¬ 
tical seeder made. 
Saves 46 the seed, 4-5 
the labor. Examine it 
at your dealer’s. Take 
no other. Sendfor 
circulars. 
GOODCLL 
CO. 
14 Main St., 
Antrim,N.H. 
IPPLEY’S 
COOKERS. 
Bell from *6.00 to *16.00. Made of 
boiler steel. No flues to rust or 
leak. Can’t blowup. Guaranteed to 
. cook 25 bu. feed in 2 hours, and to 
heat water in stock tanks 200 feel 
ew-« v. Will heat dairy rooms. 
Mall 2c. stamp for Breeders' 
v SupplyCatalogue. RippleyHard- 
U ware Co , Box 223, Grafton, Ill. 
The WEBER 14 H. P. 
Gasoline Engines 
for running 
grinders, shred¬ 
ders, cutters, 
threshers, etc. 
Free catalogue 
gives all sizes. 
Weber Gas & 
Gasoline Engine 
Co., Box 102 
Kansas City, Mo. 
CHARTER 
Gasoline Engine 
I Ifrrv Any Place 
I \r|| By Any One 
vULL/ For Any Purpose 
Stationaries, Portables, Engines 
and, Pumps, Bolsters * 
Send for Illustrated Catalogue and 
Testimonials. State your Power Needs. 
Charter Gas Engine Co., Box 26, Sterling, III. 
Cider Machinery.—Send for catalogue to Boomer & 
Boschert Press Co., 118West Water St., Syracuse.N.V 
IT'S NO DREAM 
this selling apples at$7 a bbl. It is 
tlieactual result of careful spray¬ 
ing of trees with the wonderful 
HARO IE SPRA Y PUMPS 
They are suited to every condition and all 
fruits. Strong, durable and last indefinite¬ 
ly. Eu dorsed by beat fru it growers Send 
for free Catalog and Sprayiug Formulas* 
THE IIAIIDIK SPIUY PLMPMFO. CO. 
74 LarnedSt., Detroit, Mich., U.8.A. 
LY 
SPRA 
EMPIRE KING. 
This is the only hand pump hav¬ 
ing a mechanical automatic agi¬ 
tator with a brush for keeping the 
suction strainer clean. This Co. 
also make the Garfield Knapsack and 
Orchard Monarch, and call furnish 
the New Process Lime, which requires no slack¬ 
ing or straining. Valuable book Bent free. 
FIELD FORCE PUMP CO., 
2 Market St., Lock port, N. Y. 
PROFIT or loss? 
That’s the Question 
THE ECLIPSE 
SPRAY PUMP 
Will settle that in your 
orchard. With it you 
CAN make a profit, with¬ 
out it what do you get ? 
Send for Catalogue. 
MORRILL & M0RLEY, 
BENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN. 
