THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 11 
176 
MERSEREAU BLACKBERRY. Fig. 67. 
Catalogues for 1899. 
THE R. N.-Y.’S ANNUAL REVIEW. 
Novelties and Standard Varieties. 
Jamhs J. H. Gregory & Son, Marblehead, Mass.—A 
catalogue of home-grown seeds, and one which it has 
been our pleasure to mention for many years. The 
squash has always been a favorite vegetable with this 
firm, and it now offers $100 reward for an accepted 
name for a new variety which is portrayed in colors 
on the last cover page. Fuller’s Early field corn has 
proved, with Mr. Gregory, superior in two important 
respects to the best strains of Early Canada, viz., 
earliness and size of the ears. The stalks grow to 
about 43^ feet in height, each bearing two ears. The 
catalogue claims that the Sample is the biggest straw¬ 
berry and the greatest cropper among over 200 varie¬ 
ties tried. The firm claims that Gregory's Surprise 
pea is the earliest of all the wrinkled sorts. It is very 
close to the Station pea as compared at the Rural 
Grounds two years ago, but whether they are the 
same or not, we would advise our readers to try this 
pea, whether bought under the name of Surprise or 
Station. As to the identity of the two peas, we shall 
have more to say next week. 
A. T. Cook, Hyde Park, Dutchess County, N. Y.—A 
catalogue of 25 pages of garden seeds “selected es¬ 
pecially for critical buyers.” We are glad 
to note that Mr. Cook offers the true potato 
seed, i. e., the seed from the ball. Raising 
seedling potatoes has always been, for The 
R N.-Y., a most interesting pursuit. Mr. 
Cook charges 10 cents per packet. Now is 
the time to sow it in boxes of rich soil, 
which may be placed in any sunny window. 
Wiley & Co., Cayuga, N. Y.—A catalogue 
of large and small fruits, trees and shrubs, 
vines, roses and potatoes. There are several 
features in the catalogue to which we take 
pleasure in calling attention. One is the 
Mersereau blackberry sent to us by J. M. 
Mersereau, of Cayuga, N. Y., during the 
Spring of 1896. It is now controlled by 
the Wiley Company. The plants are re¬ 
markably strong growers, the canes being 
a greenish color like those of Taylor. The 
berries are about as large as those of the 
Kittatinny and, as a rule, of a somewhat 
more conical shape than those which are 
shown in the illustration, Fig. 67. On August 
30, we made the following note: “Berries 
large and glossy, as large as those of Minne- 
waski and of better quality. The canes have not as yet 
been in jured by frost.” The points of superiority which 
Wiley & Co. claim, as compared with the Snyder, 
which is supposed to be the parent of it, are, first, 
extreme hardiness ; second, larger size and greater 
productiveness ; third, less tendency to turn red after 
HYBRID WALNUT ROYAL. Fig. 64. See Page 177. 
PARENTS OF HYBRID WALNUT ROYAL. Fig. 65. 
being picked; fourth, delicious quality; 
fifth, it remains in bearing as late as Sep¬ 
tember 1 to 10. One of the firm's remark¬ 
able offers is this: “Three orchards, apple, 
pear and peach, for $13.25 The trees are, 
40 apple, 50 pear and 60 peach.” 
Peter Henderson & Co., 35 and 37 Cort- 
landt Street, New York City.—Manual of 
Everything for the Garden, being the main 
catalogue issued by this firm. Besides 
colored covers, there is a colored page of Hen¬ 
derson’s Peerless collection of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, a colored page of new varieties of 
Asters, one of Henderson’s Rocky Ford musk- 
melon, one of the Bountiful bean, Golden 
Heart rutabaga, Freedom tomato and Tri¬ 
umph radish. We want to say a word about 
this last pleasing little novelty. The skin 
is pure white, striped horizontally with 
scarlet. It matures in about 21 days from 
the date of sowing the seed. The radish is 
round and small; the tops dwarf and com¬ 
pact; the flesh is crisp and solid, and it 
grows so rapidly that the flavor is mild. 
The catalogue says of the new tomato, 
Freedom, the following : “Its value, how¬ 
ever, lies not only in the actual time of 
ripening its first fruit, but that such enor¬ 
mous quantities of fruit should be gathered 
while all other so called ‘ earliest ’ varieties 
are ripening only a few.” The firm intro¬ 
duced, this year, under the name of Hen¬ 
derson’s Bountiful, which last year, they 
sent out on trial as No. 1, a green bush bean, 
and the claims are made that it is the first 
in Spring, the last in Fall, absolutely 
stringless, an enormous cropper, and deli¬ 
cious in flavor. The Prosperity pea prob¬ 
ably has no equal as a first early wrinkled 
pea of large size. The Hendersons still re¬ 
gard the Bovee as the earliest of the early potatoes, 
and as outyielding all other earlies, while the 
quality is about perfect. Henderson’s Pink Plume 
celery is “the most beautiful celery that ever 
graced a table ; delicious flavor, crisp and nutty ; solid 
and free from stringiness ; the first and the last celery 
that is fit to use.” A beautiful colored page consists 
of the following hardy roses under the name of Hen¬ 
derson’s Aurora collection : Souvenir de Wootton, Mrs. 
Robert Garrett, White Maman Cochet, Souvenir du 
President Carnot, Germaine Trochon, and La France. 
It is a beautiful collection. Then there is another 
full colored page of Henderson's Prize Winner collec¬ 
tion of sweet peas. 
Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Cal. 
—Mr. Burbank, in his catalogue for this year, an¬ 
nounces four new plums : The Climax, across between 
Botan and Simoni; Sultan, a cross between Wiekson 
and Satsuma; the Bartlett, a cross between Simoni 
and one of Mr. Burbank’s older hybrids, the Dela¬ 
ware, and Shiro, a combination of Robinson, Myro- 
bolan and Wiekson from seed of Wiekson. The new 
plum, the Climax, was described by Prof. Van Deman 
in The R. N.-Y. as ripening before Willard or Red 
June. Mr. Burbank says of it: “Productive as the 
Burbank, about four or five times as large, two or 
three weeks earlier, and much more richly colored. 
The most wonderful plum ever grown.” See illustra¬ 
tion, Fig. 68. Our friends must turn to Mr. Burbank’s 
catalogue for a description of his other plums, except 
the Bartlett, about which we quote from the cata¬ 
logue as follows : “ This plum, in quality, flavor and 
fragrance is exactly like the Bartlett pear.” It is 
further claimed that the “ Bartlett plum is so much 
superior to the Bartlett pear in its own peculiar fra¬ 
grance and flavor, that no one will ever eat the pear 
if the plum is at hand. It bears the second season, and 
will produce more fruit in 10 years than the 
Bartlett pear will in 20.” A new quince 
named Pineapple, it is claimed, will cook 
as tender in five minutes as the best of 
cooking apples, and with a flavor never be¬ 
fore equaled. 
C. S. Pratt, Reading, Mass.— An illus¬ 
trated catalogue of the Sunnyside Nurseries. 
A group of favorites, as shown by illustra¬ 
tions on the first page, are the Sample, 
Clyde and Glen Mary strawberries, the 
Columbian raspberry, the Abundance and 
Burbank Japan plums, and the Vermont 
Beauty pear. The Sample strawberry is 
praised as very few other varieties have 
been praised. “ It is the best berry that has 
been introduced to the public,” says Mr. 
Pratt. “After growing and testing nearly 
every berry in cultivation, we can truthfully 
say that we have none that can compare 
with it for fine berries, for productiveness, 
for strong plants with leathery, healthy 
foliage.” The Rathbun blackberry, the Co¬ 
lumbian and Loudon raspberries are also 
favorites of Mr. Pratt. Among a short list 
of grapes, Campbell’s Early is offered. Shrubs, vines, 
roses and Dahlias close the catalogue. 
W. Atlee BuRrEE & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.—The 
form and get-up of their 1899 catalogue are much 
like those of preceding catalogues, with about the 
usual number of novelties and minor changes. The 
last page of the cover shows a partial view in colors 
of their Fordhook farms which, it is claimed, are the 
most extensive trial grounds in America. These 
CLIMAX PLUM. Fig. 68. 
