S78 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 12 
; Ruralisms 
The Pe-Tsax, or Chinese Cabbage.— 
The recent severe drought has given a 
very good opportunity to test the prac¬ 
tical value of this little-known Cninese 
vegetable. For a number of years, I 
have grown plants of the Pe-Tsai in a 
seed-bed or box, and transplanted them 
in the usual manner of ordinary varie¬ 
ties of cabbage, giving the same space 
and cultivation in the field. The result 
was a number of immense loose heads, 
making excellent greens when cooked, 
but maturing at the same time as the 
Wakefield and other extra early cab¬ 
bages, and costing about the same per 
head to produce. When planted late for 
Fall use, their competition with cab¬ 
bages is even more marked, and the con¬ 
clusion seemed justified that there was 
little place for this interesting Oriental 
vegetable in American gardens. 
This season, however, the seed was 
sown in early April in drills like 
spinach, and given the same treatment. 
The result has been most satisfactory, 
the plants held up well through the ex¬ 
cessively hot anu dry months of May 
and June, and afforded at least three 
close cuttings as against one of spinach, 
all the plantings of which, except the 
earliest, having totally failed in this lo¬ 
cality. For ease of culture and abun¬ 
dance of product the Pe-Tsai cannot be 
excelled by plants of its class, but it is 
not as satisfactory in texture for fancy 
cooking as the best varieties of spinach. 
Sown thinly in drills, about 30 inches 
apart, in good soil, it would seem to in¬ 
sure the farmer a most plentiful supply 
of material for excellent boiled dinners 
with a trifling outlay of expense. 
The Loganberry and Strawberry- 
Raspberry have now been under ob¬ 
servation in this locality for five years, 
and quite curiously, the original esti¬ 
mates of their respective horticultural 
values might be reversed. It was con¬ 
fidently predicted that the Loganberry 
(a raspberry-blackberry hybrid), would 
prove a market fruit, on account of the 
size, good quality and earliness of its 
remarkable dark red blackberry-shaped 
fruit; but it is found that the plants fail 
rapidly in vigor and productiveness after 
the third year, and prove much more 
susceptible to cold and fungous diseases 
than was at first imagined. The berries 
cling to the thorny stems, and are not 
easy to pick until overripe. The fine 
quality and appearance of the berries 
will, probably, always render them de¬ 
sirable for garden culture. Hybrids of 
the Loganberry pollinized with the best 
varieties of red raspberries and black¬ 
berries have, so far, shown no satisfac¬ 
tory advance in my hands, the resulting 
.seedlings having usually imperfect or 
sterile flowers, and in many cases feeble 
vitality. A cross with the Kansas black¬ 
cap shows much vigor in plant, but has 
not yet fruited. 
The Strawberry-Raspberry (Rubus 
sorbifolius, from Japan), has developed 
characteristics as the plantings become 
more thoroughly established, that prom¬ 
ise some permanent value, for amateur 
planting, at least. A few short rows set 
in 1894, in rather moist, loamy soil, have 
formed a dense mat several times the 
original area, holding their own against 
all weeds and other growths, and pro¬ 
ducing annually a really immense crop 
of the strikingly beautiful fruits. They 
receive no fertilization and practically 
no cultivation, as the innumerable suck¬ 
ers have long since blockaded the fur¬ 
rows. Just at this season (July 20), the 
brilliant scarlet berries are so numerous 
as to give the patch a considerable re¬ 
semblance to an equal area of Crimson 
clover in full bloom. Though at first 
the berries strike one as insipid and 
worthless, a taste for them has been ac¬ 
quired by several individuals of my ac¬ 
quaintance, and I must own to an in¬ 
creasing personal liking for them when 
served at the table with the standard 
varieties of blackberries and raspberries. 
When cooked with sugar in the usual 
way of preserving small fruits, the 
strawberry-raspberry develops a pleas¬ 
ing characteristic flavor, and is liked by 
all. I have raised a number of seed¬ 
lings, fertilized with various rasp¬ 
berries and blackberries, and find 
they vary widely in appearance from 
the type, some producing upright 
canes bearing thq ordinary foliage of 
their pollen parents, but being herba¬ 
ceous or dying to the ground at the ap¬ 
proach of cold weather, like the mother 
plant. All that have fruited resemble 
an imperfect strawberry-raspberry. I 
am aware that this most novel berry has 
been almost uniformly condemned as a 
worthless weed by those who have 
planted it, but I am convinced that hasty 
observations on single plants are very 
misleading, as they seem to fruit much 
better when established in a consider¬ 
able clump. When planted on thin up¬ 
lands, the growth is weak and skimpy, 
and the plants quite barren. 
I may sum up personal conclusions as 
follows: Merits: 1, absolute hardiness in 
this latitude; 2, great vigor and perma¬ 
nence when established in favorable lo¬ 
cations; 3, ease of culture, requiring but 
trifling care; 4, productiveness, and 
beauty of fruit and plant. 
Defects: 1, lack of generally agreeable 
flavor; 2, berries too soft for transporta¬ 
tion when fully ripe; 3, early blooms 
much marred by Rose chafers, causing 
imperfect setting of fruits; 4, difficulty 
of extermination when once established 
in the soil. 
A Promising New Rose. —The enter¬ 
prising foreign growers send us a con¬ 
siderable number of new roses every 
year, each being praised in the most 
lavish manner. While most varieties 
have beauty, very few indeed prove 
adapted to the exactions of our climate. 
Among the recent importations, a Ger¬ 
man variety under the very unhandy 
name of Grass an Teplitz shows great 
promise, though so far, it has been 
grown only under glass for propagating 
purposes. It is a constant or everbloom- 
ing Hybrid Tea of climbing habit, of 
quite astonishing vigor and rapidity of 
growth. The foliage is profuse and 
luxuriant, and the finely-formed dark 
crimson blooms are most freely pro¬ 
duced ringly or in clusters of three to 
five. They are finely scented, and pre¬ 
sent a most graceful appearance at the 
end of the rapidly-growing sprays of 
fresh young foliage. Its hardiness in 
the open air is, of course, problematical, 
but if it should stand our Winters, Gruss 
an Teplitz would be likely to replace 
that old but uncertain favorite Reine 
Marie Henriette. w. v. r. 
TALKS ABOUT FRUITS. 
Mr. H. L. Fairchild, of Nichols, Conn., 
has an excellent collection of fruits. In 
a recent note, he speaks of two Japan 
plums: 
The Japan plum Wasse Sumomo, ripened 
here July 10. It is a bright deep red, with 
violet tinge in the sun, with rather heavy 
bloom of light color, and is % to 1^4 inch in 
diameter in large specimens. Flesh yel¬ 
low, not very juicy, sweet with slight 
noyau flavor, increasing in overripe speci¬ 
mens. Wasse Botankyo is four or live days 
later, not so high color, slightly larger. 
Yellow flesh with greenish tint somewhat 
sour, more juicy and more noyau flavor, 
not nearly so good. Both are earlier than 
Berger or Lovett. Wasse Sumomo com¬ 
pares favorably with Berger in quality. 
Under the heading, “The Prunus Simoni 
Plum,’’ in The R. N.-Y. of July 29, page 
544, second column, you say. “We are won¬ 
dering why crosses with it and the native 
and Japan plums have not been made.” In 
Burbank’s Catalogue of New Creations, 
page 4, 1898, you will find that he has been 
experimenting 12 years in this line, and 
offers the results of such crosses both there 
and in the 1899 catalogue. 
The Rutter Pear. —Mr. H. L. Wyson, 
of Newbern, Virginia, wants to know 
how the Rutter pear is generally re¬ 
garded. He says: 
Several years ago, I had several trees of 
it, and found it a more reliable bearer than 
any other variety known here; but the 
quality I thought so inferior that I had 
the trees retopped with Prest. Drouard, 
thereby exchanging the devil for a witch. 
I have since come to the conclusion that I 
took off the pears much too early, pulling 
them in early September. The Starks class 
the Rutter as later than Lawrence, which 
we take off in October. For market, the 
Rutter’s color is against it, being a dull, 
unattractive green. 
The Rutter pear is generally consid¬ 
ered rather poor in quality. The earlier 
it is taken from the tree, the poorer it 
is, but it is never fit to be compared in 
quality with Lawrence or any really 
good pear. There are poorer pears to 
eat, but so long as there are better ones, 
people will prefer them, and buy them. 
However, some growers have found it 
quite profitable. For family use, we 
would much prefer the Lawrence, 
Winter Nelis, and Krull. The latter 
much resembles Lawrence, and is fully 
as late. Bose is superior in quality, but 
is not so late as the others mentioned. 
The Rutter has the redeeming quality of 
being a dependable bearer. 
Anthracnose in Raspberries. —Chas. 
Mills, of Fairmont, N. Y., says that this 
disease can be greatly checked by care 
in setting the plants. He has practiced 
for several years removing all the stalks 
from the plants when setting, and cov¬ 
ering the plants completely with earth. 
This can best be done early in the 
Spring, or by setting in November. Set 
new beds as far from old beds as possi¬ 
ble, or destroy the old beds and start 
with new, clean stock. Rank-growing 
varieties like the Columbian, Kansas 
and Gregg resist the disease better than 
the slower-growing varieties. Dipping 
the plants in Bordeaux Mixture will help 
to make sure that one is not propagating 
the disease. He has had no trouble with 
anthracnose since using care in setting 
plants, and in destroying the bushes 
after picking three crops. 
Currants and Gooseberries. —In Ru- 
like to ask whether any readers have 
noticed any such signs of weakening 
vitality in their Japan varieties. 
Milford, Conn. h. c. c. m. 
Human and Plant Cancer. —The fol¬ 
lowing dispatch has been cabled to the 
leading daily papers: 
Paris, July 19.—Interesting details are 
published concerning Dr. Bra’s recent can¬ 
cer researches. Dr. Bra found parasites 
similar to that of the cancer in fragments 
of diseased wood, particularly apple wood. 
He obtained the Government’s permission 
to inoculate forest trees at Meudon with 
cultures of human cancer, and six months 
later, he found spots of dry rot in these 
trees. The trees were principally beeches, 
maples and sycamores. One elm tree died 
of cancer so communicated to it. Dr. Bra 
does not conclude that animal and vege¬ 
table cancers are caused by one specific 
fungus, but he is convinced of the extreme 
similarity between several diseases of 
plants and animals. 
If it be true, it opens a new chance for 
our scientific friends to frighten the 
public. Prof. Paddock, of the Geneva, 
N. Y., Station, has made a very careful 
study of the Apple cancer. His com¬ 
ment on the above is as follows: 
“According to a recently published 
article, Dr. Bra has succeeded in isolat¬ 
ing a fungus from human cancer, and 
has succeeded in producing a similar 
condition by inoculating with the fun¬ 
gus. To be sure, there is a similarity 
between parasitic diseases of animals 
and plants, and a number of our com¬ 
mon contagious diseases are produced 
by germs that are capable of multiply¬ 
ing on decaying vegetable matter. How¬ 
ever, we would hardly expect to be able 
to produce typhoid or malarial fever in 
trees by inoculation, and that part of 
the clipping which refers to the trans¬ 
ferring of cancer from human subjects 
to trees, we may put down as being pre¬ 
mature, to say the least.” 
44 A Gentle Wind 
of Western Birth” 
ralisms of July 8, you gave an interest¬ 
ing comparison of currants, and with 
your permission I will add a few notes 
on my experience with several varie¬ 
ties: 
Fay, productive and fine, superior to 
Cherry. 
Red Cross, on trial, promising. 
Wilder, on trial. 
White Imperial, on trial, promising. 
White Grape, large, prolific, best for 
dessert. 
North Star, small, sour, unproductive, 
worthless. 
Gooseberries: 
Pearl, large, very productive, best. 
The following are all productive and 
good: Downing, Smith, Transparent, 
Houghton. Industry succeeded for sev¬ 
eral years, then succumbed to mildew. 
Red Jacket, worthless. s. j. m. 
Somerset Co., Pa. 
Weakness.of Japan Plums. —At this 
date (July 20), the Willard Japan plum 
is ripening with me, and proves to be a 
very good plum for so early a variety. 
Medium size, dark red and of pretty fair 
quality, especially good when cooked—I 
think it is far better than Ogon, the yel¬ 
low plum of the same season. The only 
point against the Willard is the poor 
growth of tree; after being planted two 
or three years, the foliage takes on a 
reddish cast, and the tree makes a weak 
growth, portions of it finally dying and 
having to be removed. The remainder 
of the tree keeps on growing. This is 
my experience with the variety, but the 
killing back of trees is not confined to 
this one variety of the Japans; trees of 
Ogon and Burbank have, this season, 
succumbed after attempting to put out 
leaves in the Spring, and even after 
blooming and setting fruit; some of 
these were on peach stock, and some on 
plum. The cause is not, apparently, 
either borers or winterkilling. I would 
Tells no sweeter story to humanity than 
the announcement that the health-giver 
and health-bringer, Hood’s Sarsaparilla, 
tells of the birth of an era of good health. 
It is the one reliable specific for the cure 
of all blood, stomach and liver troubles. 
Rot=Proof Creosote Paint.'' 
r A preservative paint that looks well, wears^ 
r well, costs only 50 cents per gallon, and preserves^ 
^woodwork better than any oil paint. It costs veryj 
Jittle to try it, and nothing to get a color- 
k.card. Send for one. 
kSAMUEL CABOT,5/Kilby St., Boston, Mass.- 
•\ 
lervesX^ 
ts very m 
>lor- j 
[ADAM 
THE FENCE MAN 
Makes Woven Wire 
Fence that“Stands 
Up.” Cannot Sag 
1 Get his new catalogue. It 
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D m Fence Made 
1 
W. J. ADAM, Joliet, 
NO STAMP REQUIRED 
when you just express your opinion that repairs 
on Pmre Fences don’t cost much. Ever notice it? 
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We will mail you a sample 
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Showing Wire 
Wound On. 
