542 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 16, 
Ruralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
T he Strawberry Season. —The local 
strawberry season of 1904 must be regard¬ 
ed as unsatisfactory. The yield was gen¬ 
erally light, and the ripening period short, 
delayed beyond the average date of begin¬ 
ning by cool, cloudy weather, and hurried 
to its close by unusual heat and shortage 
of rain. Plants suffered much from the 
severity of the Winter, and it is probable 
that much of the bloom this season was 
developed from secondary buds in the 
crowns rather than from those first pre¬ 
pared by the plant for fruiting. Many 
blooms were small and weak, and pollen 
none too abundant. The quality of the 
berries was generally very good, some or¬ 
dinary varieties turning out quite palatable 
fruits. 
The Best Market Varieties. —Really 
profitable strawberries are few and far be¬ 
tween. Wm. Belt led all others in the 
combination of yield and good quality. It 
is gaining in favor each year, and is 
known among growers as almost the only 
berry that is really “good to eat,” and 
at the same time a profitable cropper. The 
season came as near suiting it as any of 
the newer varieties. Grower and con¬ 
sumer are alike satisfied where Belt suc¬ 
ceeds. The local sport of Wm. Belt 
grown by T. M. White, Little Silver, N. J., 
shows great improvement this year. The 
yield is far better than any variety grown 
on his place, and the berries more shapely 
and of best quality. Wm. Belt was intro¬ 
duced 10 years ago by M. Crawford, Cuya¬ 
hoga Falls, Ohio, and has steadily gained 
in favor in many eastern localities, though 
we do not hear much in its favor from the 
West or South. It has staminate blooms, 
is a good pollenizer for other kinds, and 
is likely to be increasingly grown where 
it succeeds. It seems to grow better every 
year. 
Dornan or Uncle Jim bore a fine crop 
of large, early berries, brightly colored 
and of attractive round form. They are 
rather soft, but excellent for near market. 
Glen Mary is now a standard money¬ 
maker. In some places the foliage rusts 
considerably. It has perfect blooms and 
sets a large crop. For several years it has 
been counted among the most profitable 
of the early ripening sorts. '1 he first ber¬ 
ries are large and showy, bringing good 
prices, but it falls off in production at the 
close of the season. 
Sample. —This variety has succeeded 
well in many places, but does not seem 
adapted to our conditions. It makes a 
vigorous plant. The blooms are pistillate 
and need a good pollenizer nearby. The 
berries are conical, bright red in color, and 
of good quality. They run of fair size 
through the season. It seems a good one 
for average market purposes. 
De Wet. —Pistillate; from T. C. Kevitt, 
Athenia, N. J. Makes a large bushy plant 
with little inclination to produce runners. 
Berries medium to large, long, conical and 
very uniform in shape. Bright scarlet in 
color. Quality very good. Midseason; ap¬ 
pears more than usually productive under 
good treatment. 
Van Fleet. —Staminate; from Jos. H. 
Black, Son & Co., Iiighstown, N. J. This 
is the second year’s fruiting of this deeply- 
colored variety on the Rural Grounds. 
Fig. 233, first page, shows a fair average 
cluster from a strong plant. The color is 
very dark red, with prominent bright yel¬ 
low seeds. Flesh deep red all through. 
Quality best, ranking with Marshall and 
similar fancy varieties. No strawberry is 
more eagerly sought by birds. We are 
obliged to cover all plants with netting to 
secure really ripe fruit. It is highly pro¬ 
ductive, firm and showy. For fancy cul¬ 
ture or home and amateur use it seems 
worth trying by those who like dark-col¬ 
ored berries. 
President. —Pistillate. Another season 
has confirmed our estimate of the value of 
this large and showy variety. It is the 
most promising new kind that has come 
to the Rural Grounds for many years. It 
needs good loam and liberal culture, but 
is likely to reward the competent grower 
with a most profitable crop of extra large 
and attractive berries. The quality is bet¬ 
ter than that of most, large varieties, and 
appears to improve each season. All the 
even if taken in the glasshouse in Decem¬ 
ber, so that nothing is gained by start¬ 
ing them early. If no glass is available 
the stratified seeds may be sown in Octo¬ 
ber in boxes of soil three or four inches 
deep, covered with wire netting and 
plunged flush with the surface in a shel¬ 
tered part of the garden. It is well to 
cover the boxes with boards during Win¬ 
ter to keep off drying winds. In Spring 
the boxes are placed in some sunny, shel¬ 
tered place where they may be regularly 
berries set are brought up to a good finish watered, and the seeds will come up about 
and the last ones are nearly as large and 
attractive as the first. Should be planted 
near a strong, perfect-flowering variety 
like Wm. Belt, Gandy or Nick Ohmer. 
A little pollen goes a long way in produc¬ 
ing large berries on the President, as has 
been determined by glasshouse forcing 
trials at various experiment stations, but it 
is well to have a plentiful supply in ordi¬ 
nary culture. 
Mrs. Fisher. —This excellent bright red 
variety was sent us by Jos. 11. Black, Son 
& Co., five years ago, and has held its own 
by sheer merit against scores of much- 
praised newcomers. As grown here it is 
productive, handsome and of good average 
quality. The plant is healthy and hardy, 
bringing to perfection a fine crop every 
season. In size the berries run from me 
dium to very large. There are few cocks 
combed fruits and no runts or nubbins 
It is a good box-filler, and carries in at 
tractive condition to nearby markets. We 
regard it as firm enough for shipment, but 
have never tested it in that manner. We 
think it would make a profitable main-crop 
market berry. 
Bramble Fruits from Seed. —Black¬ 
berries, raspberries, dewberries and the 
Oriental Rubus fruits are so readily in¬ 
creased by suckers, tips and root cuttings 
that only the hope of superior new varie¬ 
ties should induce one to grow them from 
seed. The tendency toward reversion to 
wild types from which most cultivatec 
bramble fruits are little removed is strong 
ly marked, and the vast majority of seed¬ 
lings are inferior to their parents, from 
the gardener’s standpoint. The most com¬ 
mon defect is sterility or lack of fruitful¬ 
ness. Few intentionally raised Rubu: 
fruits have proved worthy of commercia 
propagation; the bulk of the varieties 
grown for profit are chance seedlings hav¬ 
ing superior merits that attracted the cul 
tivator’s attention. There is always ; 
chance, however, of growing something 
really good from selected seeds. The 
plant breeder’s art will as surely modify 
and improve the bramble fruits 'as other 
useful plants, though the early steps may 
seem slow and halting. One must work 
over a wide range and carefully select the 
best from a multitude of failures. The 
brambles are among the most desirable of 
Summer fruits, and merit careful atten¬ 
tion. 
Preparing the Seeds. —The berries for 
seed should be selected from the best ac¬ 
cessible plants, and should be perfect spec¬ 
imens of the variety. They may be crushed 
on thick paper, dried carefully in the 
shade, and stored in paper boxes until 
October, or the pulp may be washed out 
in water, the cleansed seeds mixed with 
moist sqnd, placed in a flower pot or 
wooden box, and buried in the soil out¬ 
side, guarding them from vermin by fine- 
mesh wire netting. We use small bags 
of strong muslin, into which the sand and 
seeds are placed, and the bags packed in 
sand in a large flower pot which is guard¬ 
ed with netting and kept in a moist place 
in the cellar. An occasional watering 
keeps it from drying out. We attach a 
copper-wired wooden label, on which the 
name of the variety, or both parents in 
case of hybridization, is written to each 
bag before packing. When freezing nights 
occur the seeds are exposed to frost for 
several weeks, keeping them always moist, 
and then sown in flats or pots in the green¬ 
house, or held over until April and start¬ 
ed in a frame. Raspberry and dewberry 
seeds often germinate in a few weeks 
after being placed in warmth, but black¬ 
berries seldom come up until May or June, 
as well as if under glass. When large 
enough to handle they are transplanted to 
pits or boxes, and later to their fruiting 
beds, planting them in rich well-manured 
soil in rows five feet apart, two feet apart 
in the row for raspberries and not less 
than three by seven feet for blackberries 
and dewberries. With a good start mosi 
raspberries will fruit the second year, but 
a season or two more is needed for full 
development. Blackberries seldom fruit 
to any extent until they are three or four 
years old, though they may make an enor¬ 
mous growth the second year. Dewberries 
and the Asiatic Rubus fruits, such as the 
wineberry, are more prompt in coming to 
development than blackberries. Such seed¬ 
lings are very interesting and often orna¬ 
mental in bloom and foliage, but the indi¬ 
viduals producing good crops of superior 
fruits are few and far between. 
w. v. F. 
UBEROID 
* /*»*** *eo/$Tr*iro) 
O OPING 
RUBEROID ROOFING 
has been the standard pre¬ 
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Lasts longer and costs less 
than metal or shinp-les. 
Any handy man can apply 
it. No experience required. 
Contains no tar. Positively 
■weather-proof and fire- 
resisting. 
Send for Booklet “ K.” 
THE STANDARD 
PAINT COMPANY, 
Sole Manufacturers, 
100 WILLIAM STREET 
New York. 
STEEL 
WHEELS 
with wide tires double the use¬ 
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We furnish them any size to 
fit any axle. Cheaper than re¬ 
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EMPIRE MFG. CO., Box 70 E Quincy, I1L 
PINELAND 
INCUBATORS 
hatch grkatkst numhkk 
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HAVE NEVER BEEN EQUALED 
FIDELITY FOOD 
FOK YOUNG CHICKS. 
Used everywhere by practical poultrymen and 
specialists fanciers with unfailing success. Insures 
perfect health and promote s rapid growth. 
Concise Catalogue from 
PINELAND INCUBATOR & BROODER CO., 
liox K. Jamesburg, N. J., U. S. A. 
“BE GOOD” 
TO YOUR HORSES 
USE FRAZER’S AXLE GREASE 
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pnraif 
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Recognized as the STANDARD 
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Many Thousand Tnbs of this Grease are sold 
weekly to the Truckmen of New York City, their 
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time and money is made, one greasing lasting 
two weeks or longer. 
Ask your dealer for FRAZER’S with Label on 
It saves your horse labor and you too. 
SOLI) EVERYWHERE. 
Frazer LubricatorCo.,83 Murray St.,N.Y 
potato 
and 
BLIGHT. BOXAL kills both. 
Dust on or spray on. Book free. 
BOWKER INSECTICIDE CO, 
N. Y. f Boston & Cincinnati. 
BORDEAUX MIXTURE V c r ° a n t c e e d n i 
To 1 gal add 49gallonsof waterand ready for spravint! 
CONVENIENT and EFFECTIVE. Cost only $1 
MONEY ORDER, KEGISTEREI) LETTEK or CHECK 
SMEDET CHEMICAL COMPANY, 
8. E. Cor. 11th and Master Streets, Philadelphia, Pa. 
uu- 
0 
RCHARD PROFIT 
depends upon working all the 
fruit into a salable product, 
cider for instance. If clear and 
pure it sells readily at a profit. 
The best Is produced by a 
HYDRAULIC 
Bade In varying sices, hand or 
power. Catalogue free. 
HYDRAULIC PRESS MFC. CO. 
39 Cortlandt St., Na*> York. ' 
IDE 
MACHINERY 
Beat and cheapest 
Send for catalogue. 
ROOMER tc BOSCHERT 
, , PRESS 00., 
118 W«.t WaUr 8b, - 
anucvM, ». i. 
Rural Mail Man y new routes will go In this year. We 
La • " want name and address of every man who 
sends in a petition. DAV |TPCI? to first onc sending 
We will send a DU A ilftt us full information. 
BOND STEEL POST CO., ADRIAN, MICH. 
SAFETY FRUIT PICKER 
The Latest and Hest FRUIT 
PICKER on the market 
No Bruising of Frait. 
No Breaking of Branches. 
No Banger to Life or Limb. 
Better Fruit for the Market 
Better 1 “rices for the Pro¬ 
ducer. 
Cheap in Price and 8imple in 
Construction. 
Order one by Mail at once, to insure delivery in time for crop. 
Price, $2.50. 
LIVE AGENTS WANTED. NONE OTHERS NEED APPLY. 
Pat. Granted. YOU HAVE WAITED LONG. HERE IT IS. 
Address, SAFETY FRUIT PICKER CO., Rochester, N. Y. 
HUBBARD’S FERTILIZERS 
ARE 
THE 
BEST ON EARTH. 
Manufactured by THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., Middletown, Conn. 
Hubbard’s Fertilizers for 1904,” sent free to any address. 
