562 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 5 
; Ruralisms ; 
Pod Corn. —How many of our readers 
have tried it? What does it amount to? 
In Moore’s R. N.-Y. of March 3, 1877, 
appeared a lifesize engraving of an ear 
with portions of the husks. In The R. 
N.-Y. of Jan. 1, 1881, appeared a picture 
of the tassel, which differs from ordi¬ 
nary tassels in being denser, bunchier, 
and in having interspersed an occasional 
podded kernel, which is always round, 
as it is not compressed during its growth 
by other kernels. 
A few years after old R. N.-Ys tell 
us that we had planned to cross this 
with other kinds, sweet, flint and dent. 
But the writer of Ruralisms has but a 
dim remembrance of having carried out 
the plan, or what was the outcome, if it 
were carried out. 
This year we have a few plants of the 
“Wild Corn of America,” as it has been 
called, growing in the Rural Grounds be¬ 
side several other late kinds, notably a 
so-called “prehistoric” variety. We 
shall cut off the tassels of the Pod corn 
as soon as they appear, and pollenize 
the silks with several sweet kinds, as 
well as with the “prehistoric.” 
The late Dr. Sturtevant, as we learn 
from a pamphlet issued in 1884, had it 
in mind to carry on a similar lot of ex¬ 
periments. Whether he did or not, his 
Geneva Experiment Station successors 
may be able to tell us. This seems, and 
indeed is, like going back to first prin¬ 
ciples upon which to work for better¬ 
ment. But it is not wise to assume that 
to begin at the beginning again will as¬ 
suredly lead us to the same end. Many 
roads may start from the same center, 
but whither they lead will depend upon 
the necessities of our present refinement 
and culture, and the skill with which we 
retard or promote them. 
A Word About the Japan Plums.— 
There are better plums, but if one can¬ 
not raise them because of the curculio, 
he may be glad to select the best Japan 
sorts, which, in the Rural Grounds, at 
least, defy the curculio. Nearly every 
plum shows the mark, but what be¬ 
comes of the Little Turk, or why his 
thrust does no harm, is inexplicable. 
Ogon was planted in October of 1894. 
The tree is hardy and healthy, and is 
now bearing a fair crop in spite of the 
past Winter, the severest known to the 
Rural Grounds people. It is a yellow, 
roundish plum, averaging 1*4 inch in 
diameter, with a small free pit; the 
quality is fair, being meaty and dry. 
The objection is that most of the plums 
crack open as they ripen. Its season of 
ripening begins July 10, and it, there¬ 
fore, has a value because of its earliness. 
Willard is worthless—sickly as to 
tree, and of little value as to fruit, ex¬ 
cept for canning. It may be ranked as 
among the earliest and poorest of the 
Japs. 
Hale, planted in April of 1895, is a 
rapid grower. It is already a large tree 
—15 feet high, and nearly as broad as 
high. It is twice as large as Ogon, 
though planted later. This year, it does 
not bear, the buds having been killed, it 
may be conjectured, during the Winter. 
It ripens, ordinarily, a week later than 
Burbank, or in early September. It is 
claimed to be “one of the best of Mr. 
Burbank’s productions.” We have not 
found it so, thus far. 
Satsuma is a wonderful producer. We 
have never seen anything to equal it. 
The tree is a marvel of vigor, and its 
branches so droop with their load of 
fruit that propping is necessary to keep 
them from breaking. We have just 
counted 38 plums to a running foot of 
stem. We cannot agree with the cata¬ 
logues in rating the quality as “fine.” 
It is fine for preserving, but rather too 
acid to eat raw. 
Abundance. —It will be remembered 
by some of our readers that the first 
specimen of this plum planted at the 
Rural Grounds was killed by the use of 
dendrolene. The tree was sent to us, be¬ 
fore it was offered for sale, by Mr. J. T. 
Lovett, of Little Silver, New Jersey, who 
introduced it. The story of its good be¬ 
havior is before our readers in back vol¬ 
umes of The R. N.-Y. Another from Stark 
Bros., Louisiana, Mo., was put in its 
place during December of 1897. It is 
now 10 feet high, of pyramidal shape, 
and bears one plum. At the same time, 
a Burbank Japan plum from the same 
firm was planted, This is now about 
the same height, but widely branching, 
and bears about 50 plums. It will be 
seen that both varieties bear the second 
year. We may not as yet speak from 
experience with the Wickson, October 
Purple, Juicy, Gold, Earliest of All, 
Splendor, Chabot, Red June, and others 
of lesser promise, but we have them for 
trial. 
October Purple, controlled by Ste¬ 
phen Hoyt’s Sons, of New Canaan, 
Conn., is pronounced by Mr. Burbank as 
the best of his Japan plums. The fruit, 
which ripens from the middle to the last 
of September, is round in form, reddish 
purple in color, the flesh yellow and of 
superb quality, the stone small, and in 
size, as judged by Mr. Burbank’s speci¬ 
mens sent to the Hoyts, “a trifle over 
seven inches in circumference.” The 
tree is a strong, erect grower. The 
above is a condensation of what is said 
in the advertising announcement, the 
truth of which we cannot, as yet, either 
vouch for or invalidate. In fact, guided 
alone by personal observation, we would 
not care to recommend, at this time, ex¬ 
cept for trial, any of the Japan plums 
except the Abundance and the Burbank, 
although there seems little doubt that 
several others will prove themselves 
worthy of being added to the list. 
There is one piece of advice that we 
presume to tender to our readers: Do 
not select early Japan plums because 
they are early. The markets have been 
for two weeks flooded with California 
plums of fine appearance and fair qual¬ 
ity, which have sold for prices too low 
to be remunerative to the producer. 
The latest plum novelties produced by 
Mr. Burbank are the Climax and Sultan. 
The latter is said to be a cross between 
Wickson and Satsuma, “two inches in 
diameter, nearly round, red or garnet in 
color. In quality it is a delicious sub¬ 
acid.” It is the favorite plum of our 
friend, Mr. H. E. Van Deman, and his 
say-so should carry a long way. The 
Climax is a cross between Simon’s and 
the Botan. The plums measure “6% to 
1-/2 inches in circumference, heartshape, 
ripen in early July, quality sweet with 
a pineapple fragrance.” As we have be¬ 
fore commented, it is odd that such a 
magnificent plum should be the child of 
such parents. 
The Iceberg Blackberry. —The fol¬ 
lowing note, dated July 17, from Jackson 
& Perkins Co., of Newark, N. Y., needs 
no explanation: 
Thinking that you will be interested in 
seeing some fruit of Mr. Burbank’s new 
blackberry, Iceberg, we send you by ex¬ 
press two quart boxes ot the same. The 
variety has been in fruit for some time, 
proving to be very much earlier than we 
had expected. It commenced to ripen a 
few berries as early as a week to 10 days 
ago, but there is a large quantity of green 
fruit still upon the bushes, which will ex¬ 
tend the period of bearing for a long time. 
The variety seems to be a remarkably 
heavy bearer, the fruit being borne in 
large clusters, some of them so heavy as 
to bend the canes over half way to the 
ground. It seems to us that this new berry 
is an exceedingly desirable one as a dessert 
fruit. We are highly pleased with it. 
This berry was first noticed in The R. 
N.-Y. of June 9, 1894. Its parents, it is 
claimed, are Lawton and Crystal White. 
The berries were described by Mr. Bur¬ 
bank as “snowy white,” and so trans¬ 
parent that the seeds, which are very 
small, may be seen in the berries when 
ripe. The berries were described of the 
size of Lawton, earlier, sweeter and 
more tender. 
The two quarts received from Jackson 
& Perkins Co., through some delay en 
route to the Rural Grounds, were half 
decayed, and so fermented that we could 
not justly determine the real quality of 
sound Icebergs. In size they were like 
Early Harvest berries, or about seven- 
eighths inch long, with small druplets 
and tiny seeds, the color being a dull 
white, much like that of white currants. 
Altogether, they resemble white mulber¬ 
ries. A single plant of the Iceberg was 
sent to us by the Ford Seed Co., of Ra¬ 
venna, O., last Spring. It is growing 
vigorously, the leaflets being narrower 
and smoother than the Lawton, there¬ 
fore, more like those of the white 
parent. We question whether the earli¬ 
ness of the Iceberg will add to its value, 
since most persons, we fancy, would 
prefer raspberries (black and red; ripen¬ 
ing at the same time. 
HIGH-PRICED GRAPES. 
Grapes that sell for $1.50 to $3 a pound 
suggest an Aladdin-like vision to those 
grape-belt growers who reckoned their 
net returns at but a few cents a basket. 
These aristocratic fruits, however, are 
greenhouse grapes of select European 
varieties. They are sold only to wealthy 
buyers, and though the market is lim¬ 
ited, it is not by any means over¬ 
stocked, since we import a quantity from 
England every season. 
Most of these grapes are planted out 
in permanent beds, in grape houses, 
usually so built that the roots may ram¬ 
ble into an outside border. Well trained 
and cared for, such vines grow to a 
great size, and produce enormous crops. 
We saw recently, however, pot-grown 
vines, which were giving fine results. 
The varieties were Bowood Muscat, a 
white grape, and Black Hamburg, which 
is generally regarded as the most reli¬ 
able black grape under glass. These pot 
vines, which were grown by H. H. 
Stevens, of Essex County, N. J., were 
only one year old, and were fruited in 
16-inch pots. The fruit began to be cut 
about the middle of April, and the 
weight of grapes averaged 12 pounds to 
the pot. 
The pots in which the vines were 
grown were plunged nearly to the rim 
in earth upon greenhouse benches, and 
the vines trained up near the glass. The 
soil is well-rotted sod broken up with 
cow manure; sometimes a little charcoal 
and lime rubbish are added. The vines 
in question were brought from a cellar, 
where they had been kept in a dormant 
condition, in me beginning of December, 
and started witu a temperature of 40 
degrees. As the buds swell, the tem¬ 
perature is increased to 45 and 50 de¬ 
grees; then when buds are fully opened, 
the heat is increased to a steady tem¬ 
perature of 65 degrees, rising 15 or 20 
degrees higher on sunny days. The pot 
culture gives an early crop which 
reaches the markets when the late crop 
is over. The bunches are often thinned, 
especially in the case of certain varie¬ 
ties, that the bunch may be well-shaped. 
Great care is needed while the fruit 
swells and colors, to avoid blemishes, 
which will diminish its value, and as 
each variety has peculiarities of its own, 
which must be studied individually, ex¬ 
perience is required to grow first-class 
fruit successfully. One of the newer 
black varieties of greenhouse grapes, 
which seems to be making a strong im¬ 
pression, is Gros Colman, which pro¬ 
duces beautiful bunches of large, sugary 
fruit. 
Alleged coffee berries formed of gum, 
dextrine and starch were a recent seizure 
on the part of French municipal authori¬ 
ties. They were beautifully molded to re¬ 
semble the real berry, but were entirely 
artificial. 
Acetylene gas, which was described in 
The R. N.-Y. last week, is used in some of 
the newest bicycle lamps. It makes an in¬ 
tensely hot flame, which soon heats the 
metal of the lamp, requiring care in hand¬ 
ling, but a brilliant light is given. 
Dr. R. C. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agri¬ 
cultural College, says that vinegar of good 
quality can be made from watermelons. 
One of his former students went to Texas, 
and last year found a surplus of melons, 
or a quantity of melons too small to put on 
the market. Dr. Kedzie advised him td 
squeeze the juice from the melons, and add 
a quantity of common yeast. After this 
had foamed, he was to add either some 
“mother” of vinegar or some pure vinegar, 
and then to handle the same as he would 
cider. This process resulted in a fine speci¬ 
men of vinegar with a good flavor and 
odor, and over five per cent of acetic acid. 
Pears in Virginia.— The Bose is a grand 
variety here, in every way, being a reliable 
and productive bearer, of the largest size 
and highest quality. I notice that the 
Rogers Nursery Co. and Mr. Powell are 
budding it on Kieffer in order to secure a 
more vigorous growth. It remains to be 
seen whether this will do. I have had it 
grafted on Le Conte, which is a more vig¬ 
orous grower here than Kieffer, but after 
growing finely for a few years, it seems to 
kill the stocks, or, at any .rate, they die. 
For me, it makes as rapid a growth as is 
desirable on European stocks. Stark Bros, 
say that the tree is too tender in the West, 
but here in the great freeze of March 21, 
1894, it was the only tree unhurt. Hardiness 
of tree is of no particular importance here, 
but what is a matter of the first considera¬ 
tion is that a tree should put out late in 
the Spring, both wood and fruit buds. This 
is just what the Bose does. Anjou, which 
is a great variety with you, is utterly 
worthless here, and I should say anywhere 
in Virginia. It is so tender in blossom that 
I have never had a crop on trees 20 years 
old. Occasionally there have been a few 
scattering pears. The fruit is fine, but 
what of that, if we never get any? 
Newbern, Va. h. l. w. 
“Little Strokes 
Fell Great Oaks. 
tt 
The giants of the forest must yield at 
last to the continual blows of the woods¬ 
man. When the human blood has become 
clogged and impure the little drops of 
Hood's Sarsaparilla, properly taken, will 
fell the oak of bad blood. 
Never Disappojn ts 
FOR A GOOD FENCE 
One that embodies all tho 
correct principlesin weight 
strength, size of mesh, 
height, etc., buy the 
...PITTSBURG... 
WOVEN WIRE FENCE. 
It’s a perfect wire fence at 
a moderate price.ltisstrong, 
durable, handsome and 
harmless to stock. Agents 
make money selling it. We 
want good agents in every 
locality. First order secures 
township agency. Circulars free. 
Pittsburg Woven WlreFencsCo. 
15 Penn. Av., Pittsburg, Pa. 
WE DON’T KNOW 
how long I*age Fence will last. J. W. Dewey, 
Cambridge, Mich., hits some 13 years old. Says he 
thinks It good for 50 years more. 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., ADRIAN, MICH. 
SHEEP FENCING 
THREE-INCH 
MESII 
WOVEN WIRE 
Galvanized after Weaving, making it strong and 
durable; put up in rolls 150 feet long. 
24 inches wide.. .181.25 BO inches wide...#1.75 
BO inches wide.. 1.50 42 inches wide.. 2.00 
We can ship from Colchester. New York or Chicago. 
Send for Price-lists of fencing for Cattle, Sheep or 
Poultry. CASE & CO., (Box 211), Colchester, Ct. 
NewYork State Fair, 
SYRACUSE N Y , 
September 4 to 9, 1899. 
$25,000 in Premiums 
New Buildings, New Water Plant. 
Great Attractions. 
Premium lists now ready. Apply to 
.JAS. 11. DOCHARTI, Sec’y, Albany, N. Y. 
Special Railroad Facilities. Reduced Rates, and all 
exhibits unloaded from cars on 
the Fair Grounds 
