1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
769 
EVERYBODY'S GARDEN. 
What is the best market variety of pear, 
also best varieties of peaches, late and 
early, plums, raspberries, black and red? 
Is Elberta peach good? What are the best 
varieties of grapes and strawberries for 
this market? f. R. s 
Detroit, Mich. 
If you desire hut a single variety of 
pear, it would be Bartlett first, last and 
all the time. In your market it is the 
standard, and everything which can by 
any possibility be passed off upon the 
public as Bartlett is thus named. Let 
that be your chief dependence, and if 
you desire a succession then plant in the 
order named, Wilder Early, Clapp, Bart¬ 
lett and Flemish Beauty. They are all 
choice, and will succeed in your locality. 
This is provided that you are planting 
for family use. If it is for market pur¬ 
poses entirely then use the Bartlett al¬ 
most entirely, as they come in from 
more southern localities and compete 
with our earlier varieties and keep down 
prices. The Bartlett in your locality will 
come after the southern competition is 
past, and is always sure to bring a good 
price in its season. The best extra early 
peach will be the Triumph. Following 
this the Early Crawford, Crosby and 
Late Crawford. The Elberta is an ex¬ 
cellent peach. Its flavor is sometimes 
questioned a little as compared with the 
Crawford; but its size, beauty and sea¬ 
son give it a place that we believe is not 
filled by any known variety. You will 
not go amiss on it surely. In native 
varieties of plums or those known as the 
old standard sorts, you will be safe to 
choose the Lombard, Imperial Gage and 
Blue Damson. Of the new or Japan va¬ 
rieties, Burbank and Abundance are best 
known, and will, we believe, prove sat¬ 
isfactory. As to blackberries and rasp¬ 
berries, the Lawton, Kittatinny and Sny¬ 
der will be entirely safe. The Gregg and 
Ohio black raspberries we believe will 
be safe varieties for your locality, and 
will give entire satisfaction. The Lou¬ 
don and Cuthbert for red raspberries 
will be as safe varieties as you will be 
able to find, the latter probably being 
the better on account of its great market 
features. The Concord will be your chief 
market grape; but.if you desire to plant 
a variety then there are plenty of per¬ 
fectly reliable sorts from which to select. 
The Wilder (Rogers’ No. 4) is also an 
excellent black grape, and the Worden 
as well. Of the red sorts, the Agawam 
and Salem (Rogers’ Nos. 15 and 53) and 
Delaware are varieties that will always 
stand the test and should never be 
omitted. The Niagara ought to find a 
place in every garden or vineyard, as it 
is unsurpassed as a white grape. Now 
for the strawberries; if they are for mar¬ 
ket purposes their profits are what you 
are chiefly interested in. Do not make 
the mistake of planting poor varieties on 
half starved ground. Get the best sorts 
obtainable, and fill the ground to reple¬ 
tion with manure and fertilizer. A poor 
selection on poor soil will make any 
amount of unremunerative labor, but the 
best varieties on highly fed ground with 
intensive culture will give bountiful re¬ 
turns. The Bubach is an excellent va¬ 
riety for your locality, but being pistil¬ 
late, should be alternated say every third 
row with a pollenizer like Bismarck, 
Brandywine or New York. The Marshall 
for a midseason is one of the best, at 
least so says the Hope Farm man, and 
we believe his judgment is good. Sharp¬ 
less is also good and the Gandy will be a 
safe late berry. The Seaford and Sample 
are gaining an enviable name, and it is 
predicted of them, by some good authori¬ 
ties, that they will ere long become lead¬ 
ers. There are many good sorts, but 
those above named will be safe to try. 
Reclaimed Swamp. —It is a notorious 
fact that at present thousands of acres 
of the best Michigan farm and garden 
soil are simply useless quagmires, afford¬ 
ing it may be, some pasturage, but other¬ 
wise useless, except as breeding places 
for malaria or mosquitoes. I recall a 14- 
acre swamp of this sort upon a farm 
with which I was well acquainted when 
a boy. A fire cleaned out the tamarack 
timber and huckleberry brush, and for 
years afterward it was a frog pond 
abounding in deep holes where the fire 
had burned up the mucky surface. I re¬ 
member having seen fish in the holes, 
and the owner did not consider the whole 
outfit worth bothering with. The prop¬ 
erty changed hands and the new owner 
thought he saw a useful future for the 
worthless swamp. It took labor and 
money, the owner expending over $600 
to drain the land, but then there were 
results to follow. The first year after it 
was drained 12 acres of the ground pro¬ 
duced 1,800 bushels of ears of corn. The 
next season nine acres were planted in 
corn and produced 1,500 bushels. Fol¬ 
lowing that corn crop four acres of the 
ground produced 137 bushels of wheat 
and six acres yielded 188 bushels of rye. 
As a sample of the garden qualities 16 
square rods produced 96 bushels of Prize- 
taker onions, many of which would have 
easily sold in the market as the large 
Spanish varieties. For the onion crop, 
preparations were made the Fall pre¬ 
vious. The ground was thoroughly cul¬ 
tivated at intervals of a few days until 
freezing prevented. As soon as possible 
in the Spring the cultivation was again 
resumed and kept up until the onions 
were set out. The seed was sown early 
in the Spring in a simple bed prepared 
with manure and soil and covered with 
cotton cloth. When about the size of a 
lead pencil the onions were transplanted, 
and during the entire season there were 
no weeds to bother. The township su¬ 
pervisor had the kindness of course to 
tax the enterprise and raised the valua¬ 
tion of the farm $600 the year after the 
improvements were made. That was all 
well enough, for the increase in taxes 
was only a mere item, and in the subse¬ 
quent sale of the farm the improvements 
raised the value to nearly double the 
outlay. Well, there are thousands of 
acres in the same plight, and it does not 
require a very keen mathematician to 
see that some expenditure along these 
lines would prove a better investment 
than paying the expense of a trip to the 
Klondike. 
Planting Trees. —This Fall we have 
had to wait until the leaves actually died 
of old age, for until quite recently there 
has not been sufficient frost to start 
them off from the trees. It is pretty 
late in the season now to plant them, 
but with care in setting and filling up 
well so that the water will not settle 
too much around the roots, I think they 
will do well. In a recent number I 
urged the matter of planting some trees 
this Fall, and I speak of it again so that 
we shall not forget it. We are going to 
plant some, and if each member of our 
family plants one that will perhaps be 
four trees to bear fruit for some one 
later on. If trees had not been planted 
by those who lived before us, we would 
have but little fruit now, and there 
would be very little use for the Apple 
Consumers’ League. Push the tree 
planting and the League also, and the 
world will be the better for it. Now on 
general principles I am opposed to plant¬ 
ing fruit trees especially in the Fall, but 
we can hardly do better, and so we shall 
try the peach trees. We shall be careful 
for the drainage and shall also mulch 
them well to avoid heaving, and so I 
think we can carry them safely. So let 
us all plant at least one tree, and as 
many more as we can. j. e. morse. 
Michigan. 
BOOK BULLETIN. 
Nature’s Garden: An Aid to Knowledge 
of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Vis¬ 
itors, by Neltje Blanchan. When the un- 
botanical flower lover seeks to identify the 
plant he meets in his daily walks, he usu¬ 
ally loses heart before the grim facts or 
scientific classification. Botanical families 
present as many variations of appearance 
as human kinsfolk, and for this reason a 
book that distinguishes plants first of all 
by their colors is an extremely useful one. 
Nature’s Garden does this; the flowers are 
divided into five color groups, and the va¬ 
rious popular names are given, together 
with preferred habitat, time of blooming, 
and geographical distribution. The life 
history of the plants is written simply, yet 
vividly, reminding one of the intensely 
sympathetic feeling towards plants dis¬ 
played in his writings by the late Prof. 
Thomas Meehan. The insect friends of the 
plants, and their work in ensuring pollina¬ 
tion are discussed, and will open a new 
world to readers who have never thought 
of the wonderful methods by which the 
plant kingdom is perpetuated. Nature’s 
Garden is a book of extraordinary charm, 
and one every nature lover should possess. 
Published by Doubleday, Page & Co., New 
York; price $3 net. 
FARMING IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY 
Part XV. 
Potato harvest began with us September 
23 and lasted a month. A killing frost dur¬ 
ing the latter part of August put t’he vines 
in condition to dig earlier, but digging 
never begins until the skins are set firmly. 
A Hoover and a Dowden digger are used, 
and both give entire satisfaction. From 
10 to 15 pickers were employed, averaging 
from 60 to 80 bushels each per day, depend¬ 
ing upon the yield. Men will pick nearly 
as many rows with a yield of 150 bushels 
to the acre as with a yield of 100. The 
men pick in baskets, and when filled the 
picker empties his basket in a sack, the 
sacks being distributed along the rows at 
convenient distances. Two men and a 
team, or as many rigs as are necessary, 
pick up the filled sacks and haul them to 
the cellar or pits. Those put in the cellar 
are spouted through scuttles in the roof. 
About 5,000 bushels of contracted stock 
were pitted in the field and then sorted 
from the pits. As we had an abundance 
of sacks the potatoes were left in them 
just as they came from the field, and piled 
in a long row. A foot of straw was placed 
over them when they w r ere left to sweat 
before sorting and loading. A Webster 
sorter is used, and it is truly a potato 
sorter, and not a makeshift in any sense 
of the word. The potatoes are carried over 
horizontal bars, which may be set any dis¬ 
tance apart desired, by a sprocket chain 
with slats on it not unlike a straw carrier. 
Six hundred bushels may be sorted in a 
day with this machine and four men. This 
is the first time we ever tried sorting pota¬ 
toes in the field, and with good weather 
we find it much cheaper and easier hand¬ 
ling them in this way than through the 
cellar; that is, with potatoes that are to 
be shipped immediately. 
It is difficult to obtain men familiar 
enough with the potato business to sort 
seed stock satisfactorily, and for that rea¬ 
son with a machine sorter and one ex¬ 
perienced man to pick out knobby, scabby 
and cut potatoes more uniform and better 
work can be done than by hand. Wide La 
Plata gunny bags are used for shipping. 
These bags are first filled with co»-n or 
wheat in South America, shipped to Europe 
and reach us in bales of 1,000 through the 
bag companies. They cost from five to six 
cents apiece, and hold about 140 pounds 
each. Common box cars are used for ship¬ 
ping early in the Fall while later refriger¬ 
ators are necessary. The men are paid $2 
per day and boarded, and at this rate with 
an average crop (100 bushels per acre) it 
costs us from $15 to $20 per acre to handle 
our potatoes, including the cost of seed. 
The Acme and Early Ohio yielded the best 
with us this year, while the Triumph and 
White Ohio were not up to the standard. 
The total yield from the 130 acres was 
about 12,000 bushels. Prices at the present 
time range from 25 to 30 cents (last year 
80 cents and $1 at this time), but few pota¬ 
toes will be shipped from the Valley this 
Fall at these prices. 
Southern and eastern seed houses and 
dealers receive practically all the potatoes 
grown in the Valley. The territory now 
using Red River seed extends from Canada 
on the north, to Texas on the south, and 
from Pennsylvania on the east, to Kansas 
on the west. Several years ago a grower 
in this vicinity started in the retail busi¬ 
ness, but excessive freight and express 
rates on small shipments, together with 
our long Winters (November 1 to April 1), 
make it practically impossible to compete 
with seedsmen more favorably located. 
Therefore all our energy is directed 
toward supplying the seed trade in car lots 
only. j. d. b. 
Wolverton, Minn. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
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. 
SAN JOSE SCALE. 
And other Insects can be Controlled by Using 
Good’s Caustic Potash Whale- 
Oil Soap No. 3. 
It also prevents Curl Leaf. Endorsed by Entomolo¬ 
gists. This Soap is a Fertilizer as well as Insecticide. 
50-lb. Kegs, $2.50; 100-lb. Kegs, $4.50; Half-Barrel, 
270 lbs., 3^c. per lb.; Barrel, 425 lbs., 3J4c. Large 
quantities, Special Rates. Send for Circulars. 
JAMES GOOD, 939 N. Front St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
100 Red Gross Currant 
t—one year old, by 
mail, for $1.50. 
KEVITT’S PLANT FARM, Athenia, N. J. 
President Wilder Currant Plants 
AND 
BACCHUS GRAPE VINES. 
We have a stock of remarkably fine President 
Wilder Currant Plants and Bacchus Grape Vines. 
The President Wilder with us is the most profit¬ 
able market variety and best for home use. The 
Bacchus Grape is now in greater demand than 
any other variety. Correspondence solicited. 
AV. I). BARNS & SON, 
Old Oak Fruit Farm. Middle Hope, N. Y. 
JEESS&nSZEBEr __ _ ___ _ 
200 varieties. Also Grapes,SninU Fruits etc.Lest, root¬ 
ed stock. Genuine, cheap. 2 sample currants mailed for 
10c. Dose, price list free. LEWIS UOESCU, Fredonia, M. 1. 
Fruit & Ornamental, 
Shrubs, Roses, Bulbs 
and Plants. 
Correspondence solic¬ 
ited.Valuable Catalogue free. 
49th year. 44 greenhouses. 1000 acres. 
THE STORRS & HARRISON CO.» 
Painesville, Ohio. 
The Trie of Life 
is one budded upon a branched root seedling, buds 
from bearing trees, dug by our root-protecting tree 
digger. Apple orchards that boar early. Also Small 
Fruits at AVliolesale Prices. Pear, Plum, Cherry. 
Everything in Nursery and Greenhouse Culture 
we furnish true to name. We guarantee safe delivery. 
Send for Catalogue. CENTRAL MICHIGAN 
NURSERIES, Michigan's Leading Nurseries and 
Rose Growers, Kalamazoo, Mich. 
You Will Find 
Our Fruit Trees, Vines, Shrubs, Roses, 
Palms, etc., perfectly healthy, well- 
grown and true to name. 
Send for Catalogue. 
P. J. BERCKWIANS CO. (INC.), 
Fruitland Nurseries, 
Established 1856. AUGUSTA, GA. 
Glenwood Nurseries 
Most complete assortment of choice 
Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Vines. 
Send for Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue. 
THE WM. H. MOON CO., MOURISVILLE, PA. 
60 miles from New York; 30 miles from Philadelphia. 
Trees, Plants and Vines 
That should be planted in October and 
November, are named in our free 
FALL CATALOGUE. Write for It 
to-day. 200 Acres in Fruits aiul 
Ornamentals. Stock first-class; 
prices right. Send us your list of wants 
for estimate. Call at our Nurseries, 
and make your own selections. 
T. J. DWYER & SO N, 
Orange County Nurseries, 
Box 1. CORNWALL, N. Y. 
October Purple Plum 
trees three years old. No man does his 
full duty to his family itntil he supplies 
this fruit. No waiting. Fruit next year. 
Let us tell you about it. Do you want 
Forest Trees? We bave them - 
In fact the larg¬ 
est nursery in New England, fruit and 
ornamental trees of every kind. Let us 
send you our catalogue to-day. Jxist 
send address—no money. 
STEPHEN HOYT’S SONS, New Canaan, Conn. 
TREES 
$8 per 100~^fS, 
PEAR, PLUM and PEACH; healthy, true to name 
'umigated. All kinds of trees and plants at low wholesale 
prices. Don’t buy until you get our catalogue, which is free, or send list of wants for 
special price. Address RELIANCE NURSERY, Box 1, Geneva, New York. 
TREES 
APPLE, PEAR, CHERRY, PLUM, PEACH, QUINCE 
All the leading varieties. Prices low. Small fruits a speoialty. Send for free illustrated 
catalogue. ARTHUR J. COLLINS, Moorestown, N. J. 
pus 
Srjll for the lawn and 
pleasure grounds. 
FOR FALL 
PLANTING 
Hyacinths, Tulips, Crocus, Narcissus, Lilies, &c. 
Our New Bulb Catalogue is sent free. It tells all 
about the best bu:bs; also seasonable seeds and 
plants, including our celebrated grass mixtures 
HENRY A. DREER, Philadelphia, Pa. 
With 
Either 
Fall Planting 
or Spring Planting 
the most important part of all 
is to get the kind of trees you 
buy. The name on my trees means something. It doesn’t always on others. 
The Tree Breeders. llOGEHS ON THE HILL, Dansville, N. Y. 
