546 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 9 
Ruralisms ; 
r w ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼' v 
/VOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Tiie Best Spiraea. —Individual tastes 
and requirements vary so widely that it 
seems rather presumptuous to name any 
special plant variety as the best of its 
class, but most gardeners will doubtless 
agree that Spiraea Van Houttei is, on the 
whole, the finest of the Spring-blooming 
hardy Spiraeas. There are so many de¬ 
sirable members of this extensive genus 
—nearly 50 species are in the north tem¬ 
perate zone—that one is often at a loss 
which to plant on limited grounds, but 
this beautiful variety never comes in 
amiss if room can be given for its prop¬ 
er development. Pig. 220, kindly loaned 
by the Florists’ Review, shows a good 
specimen growing where it can show the 
characteristic arching form of its 
branches. It is one of the early bloom¬ 
ing kinds, wreathing itself with snow- 
white flowers in May, until it appears a 
veritable fountain of bloom. It is a 
handsome shrub at all times from its 
graceful form and clean bright foliage, 
and has the added advantage of being 
one of the hardiest of the Spiraeas. It is 
considered to be a garden hybrid, the 
parentage being given as S. Cantonien- 
sis and Trilobata. Both of these species 
are found in China and southern Siberia. 
They are quite ornamental in their way, 
but do not equal the offspring, and are 
now little grown. Good plants of Van 
Houtte’s Spiraea may be had of any nur¬ 
sery for 25 oents or less. When planting 
give it a bold sunny position at least 
six or eight feet from other trees or 
shrubs, so that it may display its charac¬ 
teristic form when fully developed. 
Hardy Spiraeas thrive almost anywhere, 
but are always grateful for a good mulch 
of manure in the Winter or early Spring. 
They need little pruning except an occa¬ 
sional thinning of old and weak 
branches. 
Hardy Orange Hybrids. —The follow¬ 
ing communication from G. Marti, Hous¬ 
ton, Texas, is not only extremely inter¬ 
esting in its subject, but is a most 
worthy model for the reports of enthu¬ 
siastic plant-breeders, who are likely to 
dwell solely on the apparent merits of 
their productions, regardless of possible 
important defects. The National De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, as Mr. Marti 
remarks, has also undertaken the work 
of hybridizing Citrus trifoliata with va¬ 
rieties of commercial orange, with the 
idea of breeding a hardier type of the 
latter. The Government experiments 
are well under way. Many successful 
crosses have been made, and are now 
growing in a Florida nursery, but we 
have as yet seen no account of their 
fruiting. Mr. Marti’s account therefore 
is probably the first given to the public 
on this interesting subject. We should 
think, in view of the great recent im¬ 
provement in Citrus fruits, that the 
quest for a reasonably frost-proof edible, 
orange from the hardy Trifoliate species 
is not by any means hopeless: 
As early as the year 1892 I conceived the 
idea that by infusing the blood of the 
hardy Citrus trifoliata in the common 
orange we might be able to create a per¬ 
fectly blizzard-proof, edible orange. Since 
then I learned that the Agricultural De¬ 
partment in Washington is conducting ex¬ 
periments on the same line. It was not 
until last Fall that I had the satisfaction 
of seeing the outcome of such a cross, re¬ 
sulting in three fruits. This cross was 
made upon the Satsuma or Oonshiu or¬ 
ange, a dwarfish variety of the Mandarin 
kind, thornless, pretty near seedless, and 
of the best quality. The tree is undisput- 
edfy the hardiest of all edible oranges, and 
came originally from Japan. While I made 
a good many other crosses, this is the only 
one I was able to raise of this parentage. 
So prepotent the wild species seems to be 
that the resulting cross took almost every 
feature of the pollen parent, with its 
thorns, deciduous triple leaves, and hardy 
constitution. However, the fruit differs 
widely from both parents. It is perfectly 
round, being depressed neither in its blos¬ 
som nor on its stem end; diameter both 
ways 2% inches. It has a roughish but 
even surface. The color is deep yellow or 
orange. The rind is extremely thin, mere¬ 
ly a skin, but tough, adhering closely to 
the flesh, which is of a greenish-yellow 
color. It is very juicy and sweet, having 
just acid enough to make it sprightly and 
refreshing and of far better quality than 
the average California seedling orange. 
The fruit, however, ripens late, later than 
that of any of its parents. It contained 
three and four seeds. These, however, are 
probably the result of hand-pollenization 
with a hybrid of another parentage. Left 
to itself, it. likely will be seedless, like one 
of its parents, since its blossoms seem to 
be entirely destitute of pollen. The great¬ 
est dissimilarity between the fruit of this 
hybrid and those of its parents, however, 
is to be found in the formation of the 
calyx. On the Citrus trifoliata this con¬ 
sists of five leafy, deciduous sepals, drop¬ 
ping with the petals; on the orange it 
forms a rim with five small teeth upon it; 
on this hybrid, however, there are five 
large, foliate, persistent sepals, which 
keep green, and never drop, even when the 
fruit ripens. 
By some accident I lost the original tree, 
I have, however, two healthy grafts grow¬ 
ing from it. I have other hybrids; most of 
them bloomed this Spring, but all the 
flowers turned out to be without a pistil, 
and consequently sterile. These hybrids 
are crosses of a dwarf type of Mandarin 
on Citrus trifoliata. They all seem to take 
more of the Mandarin blood than the first 
mentioned fruited hybrid. They are all 
trifoliate, but some of them proved to be 
as tender as the orange, so that in the 
memorable blizzard Winter, 1899, when the 
temperature fell down to two degrees 
above zero it nut them at once to a severe 
test, and out of about 70 trees there were 
only about a dozen which were able to 
run the gauntlet of this cold snap. All the 
others perished. There is another serious 
drawback about these last-mentioned hy¬ 
brids. Even if they would be hardy in the 
dormant state, they push out too soon in 
the Spring, and thus are subject to the 
baneful effect of late frosts. The Satsuma 
hybrid, however, is different from all of 
these in that regard. It is the latest of all 
Citrus to leaf out, later than its parents, 
and the above-mentioned cold snap did not 
have the least effect even on its most ten¬ 
der buds and extremities. It has, however, 
one fault; that is, the lack of the orange 
aroma in the rind. Instead of this it has 
the rank odor which you so fitly described 
as characteristic of the average California 
orange. These experiments so far convince 
me that, strictly speaking, by these means 
we shall never be able to get a hardy or¬ 
ange but that we can put a highly im¬ 
proved edible fruit on the hardy Citrus 
trifoliata. w. V. F. 
Work of 17-Year Locusts. —Those 
who say that these locusts will not in¬ 
jure young fruit trees should have seen 
the trees which came with this note 
from Pennsylvania: 
I send you to-day two young apple trees 
damaged by the locusts. I have a few 
thousand more like them, also a great 
many peach. I am not so concerned about 
the latter, as I can cut them off entirely 
and they will grow a new tree, but I do 
not know what to do with the apple and 
write to ask your advice. I am discour¬ 
aged. I have lost a good peach crop off 
50 acres and thousands of young trees. 
The yellows and San Jos6 scale are bad 
enough, but all this comes extra. 
No wonder our friend is discouraged. 
The trees are slit down all through the 
last year’s growth. The smaller ones are 
ruined. It will be cheaper in the end 
to pull them up and plant new trees. 
The larger ones can be cut back next 
Spring, but it will be hard even to make 
good heads on them. 
A New Orchard Company. 
A stock company has just been organ¬ 
ized and lawfully incorporated to plant a 
large commercial apple orchard near Han¬ 
cock, in’ western Maryland. The land se¬ 
lected is on Tonoloway Ridge, which is 
a spur of the Alleghany Mountains, and 
is some of the best in the Eastern States 
for the production of choice, late-keeping 
Winter apples. The few farm orchards 
there have given proof of this during many 
years past, but, strange to say, this is 
the first commercial apple orchard at¬ 
tempted. The land so far selected, about 
800 acres, is on the southeastern slope of 
this ridge, which is 12 miles long, and at 
an elevation of from 700 to 1,100 feet above 
sea level. The name of the organization 
is the Tonoloway Orchard Company, and 
those holding the stock and managing it 
are able to carry it through to final suc¬ 
cess. H. E. Van Deman, of Washington, 
D. C., is president, and general manager 
of the field work as well. T. C. Magoffin, 
of Washington, D. C., is secretary, and E. 
P. Cohill, of Hancock, Md., is treasurer. 
There are a good attorney, a civil engi¬ 
neer of first-class ability and two nursery¬ 
men also on the board of directors. The 
company has plenty of funds as well as 
brains at command. While the production 
of Winter apples will' be the main object, 
a few pears, peaches, grapes and berries 
will be grown in suitable locations for 
each. York Imperial will be one of the 
leading varieties planted, for it does re¬ 
markably well in that locality and in all 
that region. The orchards of the Miller 
Brothers in West Virginia are on similar 
land, and not many miles distant. The 
shipping facilities are the best, as the 
main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail¬ 
way has three stations within easy haul¬ 
ing distance of the company’s’ land. As 
the land is ample for the purpose it is 
expected to make it one of the largest as 
well as the best up-to-date apple orchard 
in America. 
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. 
Handy Farm Wagons 
make the work easier for both the man and team 
The tires bein g w ide they donotcutintothe ground; 
the labor of loading is reduced many times,because 
of the short lift. They are equipped withourfam- 
ous Electric Steel Wheels, eitherstralghtor Btag- 
ger spokes. Wheels any height from 24 to 60 inches. 
White hickory axles, steel hounds. Guaranteed to 
carry 40001bs. Why not get started rightby putting 
In one of these wagons. We make our steel wheels 
to fit any wagon. Write for the catalog Itlsfree. 
~ ELECTRIC WHEEL CO., BOX 88, QUINCY, ILL. 
Before Buying a New Harness 
Send 4c. postage for Illustrated Catalogue; full 
desciiption and prices single and 
double Oak Leather Harness direct 
to consumer at Wholesale Prices and 
Save Money. Address 
KING HARNESS CO., 
610 Church St., Owego, N. Y«. 
SO PAINTING REQUIRED 
Roofing. Can 
be easily laid 
as the work 
only consists of 
nailing and ce¬ 
nt e n t i n g the 
joints. Samples, prices & bookletgiving instruct Ions 
ASPHALT READY ROOFING cO. for laying sent 
136 Water St., New York. free Postpaid. 
Lumber 
AT 
Extremely 
Low Prices 
We purchased the Pan-Ameri¬ 
can Exposition at Buffalo, and 
have 33,000,000 feet of fine sea¬ 
soned lumber to offer. It consists 
of joists, timbers, flooring, sheath¬ 
ing, patent lath, and, in fact, 
anything and everything in the 
lumber line. 
IF YOU ARE ABOUT TO BUILD 
Send Us Your Lumber Bill 
FOR OUR ESTIMATE. 
We issue a catalogue. Address 
as follows : 
Chicago House Wrecking Co., 
Pan-American Exposition, Dept. 62, 
BUFFALO, N. Y. 
EPARATORS AND POWERS. 
•eon tread. Catalogue free. 
Sweep powers, 
Rakes, Cultivators, Saws, Engines—a to 2 > II.P., mounted or 
stationary. The Messlugcr Mig. Co., Tuturny, Pa. 
The Business Farmers’ Way 
Thrashes his own Grain. Has Grain ready to take 
advantage of highest price. Thrashes lor his neigh¬ 
bors. Uses power to saw wood, grind feed, cut fodder 
SAVES MONEY IN EVERY DIRECTION. 
Let us talk the matter over; will do you no harm; 
will please us. Send for our catalogue, that will be 
an Introduction. 
White 20th Century Thrasher, six sizes, 1 to 10 
horse power. Overshot and Undershot. 
Tread Powers, Lever Powers, Engines, 
Ensilage and Fodder Cutters and Crushers. 
ALL MACHINES FULLY GUARANTEED. 
Orangeville Agricultural W’ks, Orangeville, Pa. 
Straight Straw, Rye and Wheat Thrasher. 
Combined with Spike-Tooth Oat 
and Wheat Thrasher. 
Our Machine will 
thrash Rye or Wheat 
without bruising or 
l leaking the straw, and 
tie it again in perfect 
bundles Can bechanged 
in iifteen minutes to a 
spike-tooth Oiit, Wheat, 
Buckwheat, Barley and Corn Thrasher with stacker 
attached. Will thrash more grain with less power 
than any Thrasher built Seud for catalogue B to 
the GRANT-FERRI8 COMPANY, Troy. N V. 
jaDCC DHUfEDC thrashers 
ilUndb rUfltflOj and CLEANERS, 
)ne&two-liorse Thrashing Outfits. Level p||TTCDP 
Tread, Pat. Governor, Feed and Ensilage UU I 1 LMO 
ELLIS KEYSTONE AGR’LWORKS,Pottstown, Pa 
F, L. MAINE, General Agent, WiUet, N. t. 
New York State Fair 
Grand Horse Show 
Will rival anything ever given at a State Fair. 
The finest horses used for coachlDg and equestrian 
purposes will be In the show ring Many of the 
equipages shown at the New York Horse Show will 
be seen at the Fair. 
The Agricultural Exhibits 
Will bo one of the greatest attractions of the Fair. 
The fruit show will bewortb travelinga longdistance 
to see. 
The Live Stock 
The flnjst breeds of cattle, sheep and swine will be on 
exhibition. The most noted stock farms will compete 
for the prizes. The remarkable exhibit of last year 
will be greatly exceeded this year both In numbers 
and quality. Stock buildings thoroughly disinfected. 
Grand Circuit Races 
Promise to produce 6ome of the most interesting 
events of the season. The list of cutries in the early 
closing events Is very large. Tns best horses In the 
country will compete for the large purses. 
September 8 to 13,1902. 
GENERAL ADMISSION , 25 CENTS . 
Send for Prize List. S. C. SHAVER, Secretary. 
$ 
60,0 
100 
IN 
PREMIUMS 
AND 
PURSES 
$ 
60,0 
100 
