386 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 31 
Ruralisms • 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Ornamental Fruit Trees. —The floral 
beauty of our various fruit trees is uni¬ 
versally appreciated. No feature of 
rural life is more likely to awaken sen¬ 
timent than a blossoming orchard, yet 
comparatively few trees of this class are 
so placed as to he seen to the best ad¬ 
vantage from country dwellings. The 
rapid-growing sweet or heart cherries 
are often used as shade trees about 
dwellings in country towns, and are very 
handsome and satisfactory until the 
abundant fruit tempts marauders to 
break them down. Less frequently we 
find a crab-apple planted as much for 
ornament as fruit. Some of the flower¬ 
ing crabs are specially desirable. Bech¬ 
tel’s double-flowering crab is particu¬ 
larly fine, looking as if covered with 
pink roses. Parkman’s double crab has 
very dark foliage and double dark rose 
blooms, retaining their color a long time. 
There are several other desirable varie¬ 
ties, mostly quite sterile as regards fruit, 
but the Many-flowered crab, Pyrus Ma- 
lus floribunda, freely bears fruits which 
are very ornamental in late Summer. 
There are also some beautiful flowering 
cherries, the best in popular estimation 
being the Japan weeping rose-flowered 
cherry. It is most graceful in outline, 
and the delicate rose-colored blooms ap¬ 
pear before the leaves, completely 
wreathing the branches. Several spe¬ 
cies of cherry have large double white 
flowers. Oue of the best of these is the 
Ranunculus-flowered cherry, Cerasus 
eaproniana ranunculiflora, shown at 
Fig. 383. The cut is stiff in outline, and 
does not indicate the grace of the flow¬ 
ers, which cover the whole tree. Sev¬ 
eral flowering plums and almonds are 
frequently grown in' dooryards and 
shrubberies for the beauty of their early 
blooms, but they are too dwarf in stat¬ 
ure to be considered among trees. The 
various red, white anu rose double-fiow- 
ered peaches make a bold group when 
planted together, and often reach fair 
size under good conditions. 
The Japan Golden Russet pear takes 
high rank as an ornamental tree in fo¬ 
liage, fruit and flower. It is a strong, 
upright grower, but less rank than the 
Kieffer. The leaves are large and 
glossy, making an attractive appearance 
until late Fall. The flowers come in 
great clusters, and are succeeded by fair, 
symmetrical fruits, looking like very 
bright Golden Russet apples. They hang 
well into October, and have always at- 
ti acted much attention on the Rural 
Grounds. They are almost worthless 
for culinary purposes, as the texture is 
hard and quality insipid. Long baking 
with sugar develops a pleasing flavor, 
which is likely to cloy the palate if free¬ 
ly indulged in. We recommend this 
handsome pear for purely ornamental 
plantings, when fruit quality is no con¬ 
sideration, but a horticultural idea is to 
be carried out. The fruiting Japan 
quince, Cydonia Maulei, bears profusely 
and is very brilliant, though the orange- 
scarlet of the blooms is not as generally 
pleasing as the clear scarlet of the ordi¬ 
nary species. The fruits are quite use¬ 
ful for preserving. These quinces are 
classed with shrubs, as they grow only 
three to six feet high. Our native plums 
are more pleasing in bloom than the 
European and Japan types. The latter 
are very profuse bloomers, but the flow¬ 
ers have a creamy shade when seen in 
mass, and soon become dingy, while 
many native sorts add a tinge of pink 
to their usual pearly whiteness, and keep 
If you want a harvesting machine that 
is reliable—one that will work success¬ 
fully in all conditions of grain—buy the 
McCormick.—*4 <lv. 
in good condition for many days. The 
variety Aitken, belonging to the Nigra 
group, is the best example we now have 
of blooming age, though Cheney is said 
to be better. Golden Beauty is of grace¬ 
ful habit and bears very attractive pure- 
white flowers, while everyone knows 
the snowbank effect of the innumerable 
blooms of the Beach plum, Prunus mari- 
tima. The Domestica plums are not es¬ 
pecially attractive in bloom, though an 
occasional cluster of their flowers is 
charming enough. We are inclined to 
rank Summer Snow as the most decora¬ 
tive of the fruiting peaches. The large 
blooms are pure white and borne in 
great profusion, showing off well on the 
green branches. The peaches are white 
to the pit; sweet and good, the only 
fault being the persistent clinging of the 
flesh to pit. It is hardy, healthy and a 
certain cropper. Many of the North 
China peaches have large, showy pink 
blooms, among which the new Carman 
is most conspicuous, but none seems as 
effective in bloom as Summer Snow. 
Among all apple trees the Greening 
pleases us best when in bloom. From 
these rambling remarks it will be seen 
that good ornamental effects may be 
had from several fairly useful orchard 
trees if attention is paid to their bloom¬ 
ing qualities, when planning the home 
grounds. 
Some Effects of Volcanic Disturb¬ 
ance. —The horribly destructive vol¬ 
canic eruptions in two populous islands 
of the West Indies will probably lead 
to the abandonment of cultivation in the 
devastated districts for an indefinite 
period, though most volcanic countries 
eventually recover a high degree of fer¬ 
tility after the acrid chemicals have been 
washed and leached away. The region 
about Mount Vesuvius in Italy has been 
repeatedly desolated, yet cultivation al¬ 
ways returns as the soil recovers its 
capabilities. The human microbe is 
very peristent, and active memory of 
these elemental disasters does not long 
endure. Last year this volcano was 
quite active and discharged great clouds 
of steam charged with mineral acids, 
while heavy rains were falling. The 
acids were absorbed by the descending 
rain, and greatly injured the growing 
crops, burning the young shoots of 
vines, hazelnuts and other important 
local crops. Although these steam 
clouds have been emitted for centuries 
there is no record of similar extensive 
injury, and it is probable the exact at¬ 
mospheric conditions never happened to 
exist before. The money crops for the 
season of 1901 were practically ruined, 
yet Nature has since given this same 
blighted district a strange compensation 
in the form of a heavy sand storm, ac¬ 
companied by rain from the neighboring 
coast of Africa. The rains were very 
copious, aud precipitated the fine sand 
in the form of a blood-red gritty mud, 
staining the soil and buildings, which are 
nearly always white in southern Italy. 
On analysis this mud was found to con¬ 
tain a large proportion of valuable phos¬ 
phates, thus automatically spreading a 
fertilizing layer over a great extent of 
country which is likely to derive con¬ 
siderable benefit from the unexpected 
visitation. From chemical similarity the 
dust is supposed to have been gathered 
by high winds from the rich Nile Valley 
in Egypt. _ w. v. f. 
Free Nature Study. 
The advauced class in the Graven- 
hurst (Ontario) high school recently had 
a practical lesson in horticulture. About 
25 boys and girls with their teacher, Dr. 
Muldow, visited the grounds of J. P. 
Cockburn, a R. N.-Y. reader. Mr, Cock- 
burn gave a little talk on fruit and bees. 
Then—to quote from the Toronto Sun: 
After a short lecture on pruning and 
showing the use of the fruit spurs, the 
company adjourned to where there were 
several small trees. Here was a good op¬ 
portunity for all to try their skill in prac¬ 
tical work, as Mr. Cockburn had provided 
grafting wax and the necessary tools. 
After a sample graft had been placed all 
examined it; the class divided in pairs, and 
each did their work carefully, making neat 
joints, and doing excellent work. Each 
pair labeled their work, putting on the 
name of the variety, the day of the month, 
and their own names, to see what measure 
of success will attend their first effort in 
grafting. The pupils will return again for 
further lessons. In the meantime, some of 
the boys are trying their hands on some 
of the stocks to be found in the large 
high school grounds. 
That is a very sensible way to interest 
pupils in the public schools. We wish 
there were more people to take an active 
interest in such study of nature. The 
teacher cannot do it alone. There must 
be men - like Mr. Cockburn to cooperate 
with them. 
THE END OF THE “ENDLESS CHAIN.’’ 
The R. N.-Y. was the only agricul¬ 
tural paper to advise its readers not to 
write the famous “fountain pen” let¬ 
ters! Now that the “incident is closed,” 
the reasons given by the Government 
for deciding that the scheme is a hum¬ 
bug will interest many who will never 
see their “wages.” The Assistant At¬ 
torney-General thus outlines the 
scheme: 
By this system at least two weeks’ work 
must be given each patron of the scheme 
to fulfill the promise made, which entails 
an expense of $5 for salary and $3 for post¬ 
age, etc.; total, $8. The income from this 
patron is but $2.50. The whole scheme re¬ 
solves Itself into this proposition: For a 
consideration of $2.50 and the writing of 
120 advertising letters Van Kirk and Robins 
promise to give a pen and $8, an impossible 
proposition, inasmuch as the letters all 
hold out similar promises, and if returns 
are received therefrom it means other 
promises similar to the above for the small 
consideration named. The only gain the 
promotor receives either from a theoretical 
or practical standpoint as shown by th< 
explanations I have received is from per¬ 
sons who pay $2.50 for the pen and the work 
and subsequently decline to perform the 
work. This would be very unusual, inas¬ 
much as the principal inducement in th< 
advertisements is the work—not the pen. 
But how did such a game ever start? 
This bit of history is given: 
The company was established about Feb¬ 
ruary 1 last, and has been doing busines.- 
actually only about nine weeks, during 
which time it has, by its own showing, de¬ 
livered about 19,000 pens, and has failed to 
fill a considerable number of orders by 
reason of its inability to obtain the pens 
from manufacturers. This period has been 
too short to test the outcome of the 
scheme, but it has been long enough to 
show that it has received about $47,500 
while it has agreed to pay $152,000. Admit¬ 
ting its statement to be true that it in¬ 
tended to make payments to this extent, 
it is but a simple problem in arithmetic 
that its loss would have been $104,000 in this 
operation. There is ample reason to believe 
that they never had funds on hand to meet 
these outstanding obligations; but even if 
they had, how long could they continue 
doing business at this rate? 
The plea put up by these dealers was 
that they intended to carry out all their 
agreements. To this the lawyers reply: 
Inasmuch as the element of intent is not 
essential in constituting guilt in such a 
case it should not be taken into considera¬ 
tion. The intention of the promotors of 
this scheme may have been ever so good, 
yet, if it is evident upon the face of the 
papers, that they could not perform theii 
obligations, this department is justified In 
concluding that in the language of the law 
it is a scheme devised for the purpose of 
obtaining money under false and fraudulent 
representations. The best intentions of 
the parties in this case would not relieve 
the person defrauded when he came face 
to face with the fact that he was defraud¬ 
ed. As the spirit of the law is protective 
and as it devolves upon the Postmaster- 
General the duty of interposing its condi¬ 
tions to prevent damage to the citizen, it 
follows, in my judgment, that the duty of 
the department is to issue a fraud order 
in this case. 
Poor 
Soils 
are made rich¬ 
er and more 
productive and 
rich soils retain 
their crop-pro¬ 
ducing powers, 
by the use of 
fertilizers with 
a liberal percentage of 
Potash 
Write for our books—sent free — 
which give all details. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 
93 Nassau Street, New York City. 
NITRATE OF SODA 
THE STANDARD AMMONIATE 
FOR 
Money Crops 
Sugar Beets, Fruit, W heat, 
Corn, Grass, Truck. 
You get YOUR share of the profit when you use this 
ideal predigested Aumionlate as plant food. 
For Intrinsic value costs 20 per cent less than other 
ammonia tes. 
Send post card for formulas and free bulletins. 
WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director, 
12 It Joint Street, New York. 
COSTS LITTLE 
EASILY LAID 
LASTS YEARS 
RUBEROID 
(TRAbt-i/IARK REGISTERED) 
BOOKLET “K” • . 
THE STANDARD PAINT CO. 
102 William St.. New York. 
OS r-tr HYDRAULIC 
Klrt engine 
is without question the engine for the 
f arm or country residence. Pumps more 
water than any ram and does it without 
attention. Never stops. It 
pumps 30 ft. high for every 
foot of fall. Sold on 80 days 
trial. Send for free catalog. 
POWER SPECIALTY CO., 
126 Liberty St. % New York. 
Before Buying a New Harness 
Send 4c. postage for Illustrated Catalogue; full 
desciiption and prices single ami 
double Oak Leather Harness direct 
to consumer at Wholesale Prices and 
Save Money. Address 
KING HARNESS CO., 
CIO Church St., Owego, N. Y. 
Handy Farm Wagons 
make the work easier for both the man and team. 
The tires being wide they do noteut into the ground; 
the labor of loading is reduced many times,because 
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White hickory axles, steel hounds. Guaranteed to 
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All harness, old or new, Is made pliable and easy—will look better 
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The finest preservative for leather ever discovered. Have* 
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Mule by STANDARD OIL CO. 
