434 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 10 
planted during April of 1887, is nearly 
dead, the first Winter it has been harmed. 
Diamond, too, for the first time, is seri¬ 
ously injured. The vines were planted 
during May of 1889. It ranks among 
our very best white grapes. Nectar 
First of the Pernicious San Jose (A. J. Cay wood) planted in 1888, ie killed 
Scare at the Rural Grounds. —It is except near the soil. Esther, one of 
necessary for the writer to spend nearly W. Bull’s white seedlings, planted in 
eight months of the year—October to ^ a y of 1888, is not harmed. Early Ohio, 
the middle of May—in New York City, growing beside it, was badly hurt. We 
and this has been done for the past eight are g^d, too, to find that the Green 
years. The Rural Grounds, meanwhile, Mountain (Winchel) is sound from top 
are in good hands—a trusty, experienced to toe. Good for this pure-flavored little 
man and his wife who have been with us white grape. 
for about 12 years, and who follow the We have always regarded Victoria, 
directions they receive about as carefully the best of the white seedlings of the 
and intelligently as if we were on the late T. B. Miner, as among the hardiest 
spot to give them personal guidance. varieties in our collection. We have 
The day we returned, John called n °w, for the first, occasion to regret 
attention to a Pissard plum, a purple- that it is making a feeble start, while 
leaved variety to which Tub R. N -Y. EOm e canes are quite dead. The vine 
has often alluded as holding its color was planted during 1878. Ilosford’s 
during the entire Summer, better than Mammoth, (1890) which we can not dis- 
any other of the colored-leaved class of tinguish from Eaton, is slightly cut 
Ruralisms 
trees. It was dead—dead in every part. 
A close examination showed that it was 
so covered with the San Jos6 scale that 
not a quarter of an inch of clean bark 
could be found. This tree was planted 
three years ago to take the place of 
another Pissard plum that died because 
the stem had overgrown and choked the 
stock on which it had been grafted many 
years ago, when this variety was first 
introduced. A queer thing about it is 
that the tree seemed in perfect health 
last Summer. It may be presumed that 
there were a few scales upon it when 
first planted, but that up to and includ¬ 
ing the second year they had not in¬ 
creased fast enough to weaken it per¬ 
ceptibly. 
This is the first case of San Jos<$ scale 
that has been noticed in the Rural 
Grounds in so far as we may say after a 
careful search upon other trees (chiefly 
of the Rose family). 
Inquiries about the neighborhood 
were astonishingly and discouragingly 
fruitful. One neighbor a quarter of a 
mile distant discovered the scale, more 
or less abundant, on about 40 trees, a 
part of a lot he had bought of a nursery¬ 
man about five years previously. Before 
this season, he had known of the San 
Jos6 scale only by its pernicious reputa¬ 
tion. Besides his plums (all Japs) and 
pears, the scale had attacked several 
black currant bushes. We have heard 
of the black currant being attacked once 
before, but Pissard’s plum seems a 
favorite, if we may judge from having 
read of three instances in which the 
Pissard was attacked and killed, though 
there were many other plum and pear 
trees not far from them that were not 
touched. 
We are in hopes that all of our readers 
who have fruit trees will go over them 
carefully whether they have occasion to 
suspect that they are infested or not. 
Our advice is to burn every tree—young 
or old—upon which the pest is found, 
and see to it that every portion is 
burned, since we are told that a single 
female may produce something like 
three millions of progeny. The various 
remedies — whale-oil soap, kerosene 
emulsion, etc., — may be effective if 
every scale is touched ; but it is hard to 
be sure of this. 
A Test Winter. —Such a severe Win¬ 
ter as the past, has occurred just once 
before in the Rural Grounds country 
during the 20 years we have lived there. 
It gives, therefore, a test of the hardi¬ 
ness of later shrubs and trees that have 
been planted, which previously had 
passed the Winters without injury. 
Among grapes, we are rejoiced to find 
Campbell’s Early alive and thrifty to 
the very tips. The new red grape, Alice, 
back. About 50 varieties on trial—not 
yet named, or if named, not introduced— 
suffered seriously. 
One can not readily account for the 
dissimilar ways in which shrubs and 
trees are affected by exceptionally cold 
Winters. The California privets in 
northern exposures are dead to the 
roots ; in close southern exposures, they 
are far less harmed. The new privet, 
Ibota, the hardiest of the privets, in so 
far as the writer is aware, is killed on 
the south side and not hurt on the north 
side. Several similar illustrations could 
be mentioned. 
It is worth noting that the Golden¬ 
leaved California privet in a northern 
exposure, is injured far less than the 
species in southern exposures. 
Have any of our readers found the 
San Jose scale upon rose bushes ?. 
Two valuable hardy vines that are as 
yet but little known, or, at any rate, 
but little written about, are Actinidia 
polygama of the catalogues (A. arguta 
properly) and the Climbing Hydrangea, 
which, since its first introduction to this 
country about 12 years ago, when it was 
no less highly than justly praised, seems 
to have been almost forgotten by com¬ 
mercial florists. We hope to write about 
these two vines which, for certain pur¬ 
poses, are unexcelled if equaled, next 
week. Meanwhile, let us hope that this 
advance note may induce those of our 
friends who may speak from experience 
to let us know how they regard them. 
For 50 Gents 
THE RURAL NEW- 
YORKER will be seat to 
any address for the re¬ 
mainder of this year for 50 cents. Tell your neighbor, 
and send us his subscription. For your trouble, we 
will send you that great historical romance, Quo 
Vadis The price of the book Is 25 cents 
HARDINESS OF PLANTS. 
NOTES FROM ILLINOIS. 
The damage to plants from the past 
severe Winter can now be more readily 
seen, and it may be interesting, and pos¬ 
sibly instructive, to note the behavior of 
the different fruits, varieties, etc. In 
some cases, the outcome is entirely in¬ 
explicable, and this is written more to 
ask for an explanation than to give one. 
I have in my front yard a single plant 
commonly known as “Umbrella Mag¬ 
nolia” (Magnolia tripetala) It was 
planted in 1885, and has always been 
more or less damaged when the mercury 
.passed the 12 to 15-degree below mark, 
and cut to the ground at 20 degrees below. 
This Spring, every terminal bud is per¬ 
fect after 25 degrees below zero, and it 
will show its fine white bloom, and give 
forth malodorous scent, as never before. 
About the same may be said of the 
Japan walnuts, except that, heretofore, 
they have been a little hardier than the 
Magnolia. Their slender, fine red tassels 
or plumes show in profusion at the ex¬ 
tremities of nearly every limb on two of 
my three trees, while on the third, the 
branches are all cut back from two to 
six feet by the Winter. No cause for 
this difference is apparent to me ; the 
damaged tree stands in a line between 
the other two, and was not injured by 
insects or in any other way, so far as I 
know. 
Yet in face of the above, apple varie¬ 
ties in the nursery row, both root and 
stem-grafted, one, two and three years 
old, have been killed as never before 
since 1884-5. But this may, possibly, be 
accounted for by the presence of root- 
lice, the injury from which can not, per¬ 
haps, be estimated. Also, these young 
trees were wrapped with the “ veneering 
tree protector ”, which may have been 
injurious instead of beneficial, although 
it is not evident to me why this should 
be the case. 
Bearing apple trees, even reputed ten¬ 
der varieties, were not killed at the tips 
or bark-bursted, but lately have shown 
much blossom or twig blight, especially 
on heavy bearing varieties, like Wealthy, 
Stanard, Jones Seedling, Kentucky 
Streak, Missouri Pippin, etc. 
Whether this is the result of the Win¬ 
ter’s cold, or a weakening caused by the 
disposition to heavy fiuiting, I cannot 
say, probably the latter, for Wealthy 
may not be accused of lack of hardiness 
here. This is the stage of blight which 
is said to be distributed by bees and 
other pollen - gathering insects. It 
is, perhaps, the same germ that kills 
pears, most of the Russian and many 
other varieties of the apple, but with 
some varieties, as Wealthy, Stanard and 
B Davis, badly affected at first, this first 
or blossom blight disappears, and the 
tree usually recovers and remains 
healthy during the rest of the season. 
The Longworth pear presents a similar 
example among the pears 
Grapes have also behaved curiously. 
Goethe has always been counted by me 
as the most reliable of the Rogers kinds. 
This year, all my vines of this variety 
are badly damaged, some killed outright. 
The numbers 32, 17, 13, 5 and 3 (Mas- 
sasoit) are in similar condition, but some 
of the others were injured only slightly. 
Among the Munson grapes, Reagan, 
Rommel, Brilliant and H. Jaeger show 
badly, while Irving, Triumph, Maxa- 
tawney, Senasqua, Brighton and Black 
Eagle seem about as much damaged as 
the southern Herbemont and Cunning¬ 
ham—or mostly dead. 
There are just a very few peaches left, 
and the Iowa “ Bailey ” does show some 
better than the ordinary varieties, not¬ 
withstanding what I wrote before. 
The Passiflora, known in the South as 
Maypop, froze out completely, although 
mulched about as heavily as strawber¬ 
ries usually are. It sprouted and spread 
so rapidly last Fall that I was afraid of 
a pest, and was planning to eradicate it 
this Fall. Last Autumn, it showed con¬ 
siderable bloom, and one specimen 
(scarcely ripe) of fruit, the seed of which 
I have planted for further test. 
“Coral berries”, received last season 
from California, and of which I know 
very little, were killed to the ground— 
evidently very tender. But they have 
sprouted far and wide, and will, no doubt, 
have to be eradicated soon. I would first 
like to see the fruit, if possible. 
I am glad to note that Mr. Burbank’s 
crosses of the Black walnut with the 
California walnut, seem hardy. I have 
a half dozen of the seedlings, and they 
are all growing from near the tips. If 
they prove productive here, and as com¬ 
paratively large here as the illustration 
shows, they should be valuable. 
I notice that some of the experiment 
stations still praise the Dwarf Rocky 
Mountain cherry. I scarcely know of a 
fruit so worthless here, and I cannot 
imagine how it can be of value anywhere 
—yet the world is wide. 
At last my Elsseagnus edulis multi¬ 
flora [?] has shown the white feather. It 
bore heavily last year, and now seems 
about dead. The fruit, as I taste it, is 
of about the same quality as the high 
bush cranberry—not so good as the ordi¬ 
nary cranberry—but it may have a place 
and worth. bknj. buckman. 
Sangamon County, Ill. 
LOOK AT HIS TEETH. 
Don't take the Auctioneer's word, but look in the 
horse’s mouth. 1’aire Fence is fifteen this spring, 
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