4o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 8 
; Ruralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Plum Blossoms. —The illustration, Fig. 
163, well represents the profusion of 
bloom on an established Burbank plum 
tree. The photograph was taken in the 
poultry yard of Dr. D. L. Ijocg, Reading, 
Pa. The trees have only been set three 
or four years, and bore a good crop last 
season. No plum of our acquaintance 
so covers itself with wreaths of bloom 
as this excellent variety, although most 
of the Japan sorts produce their flowers 
in dense clusters. Frequently several 
fruits develop in a cluster, rendering it 
necessary to thin out in order to get 
full-sized specimens. The American and 
European plums do not usually bloom 
so densely, and the resulting fruits are 
better distributed along the branches. 
The Burbank plum is being largely 
planted by amateurs as well as fruit 
• growers, and is giving general satisfac¬ 
tion on account of its productiveness 
and reliability. The plums are of good 
size and fair quality, but very subject 
to rot unless well thinned. The spread¬ 
ing habit renders it very suitable for 
poultry yards, where it thrives exceed¬ 
ingly well. The blossoms of the plum, 
cherry and some other stone fruits are 
very ornamental, and are made popular 
objects of admiration and reverence in 
Japan. Public festivals are held during 
the blooming season, that all may enjoy 
the beautiful effects. While fruit blos¬ 
soms are not so highly appreciated with 
us the advent of the flowering period is 
looked to with the greatest interest by 
all horticulturists. It is possible to have 
a long succession of highly ornamental 
blooms by a judicious selection of va¬ 
rieties. The cool and moist weather 
has prolonged the present season, which 
has averaged at least 10 days late for 
the various sorts. On the Rural Grounds 
a Harris apricot opened its petals first, 
quickly followed by Prunus Simoni, and 
other apricots. Burbank, Wickson and 
Red June plums came next, merging in¬ 
to other Japan varieties. The American 
and European plums began to open just 
as the Japans faded. Peaches and most 
of the cherries bloomed at the same 
time. The Ro«ky Mountain, or Sand 
cherry, Prunus Besseyi, and the native 
Beach plum closed the season. They 
have been veritable clouds of bloom for 
several days, coming in with the apple 
and late pear blossoms. The Rocay 
Mountain cherry has the most sym¬ 
metrical arrangement of its blooms 
around the slender branches of any va¬ 
riety we have grown, each twig becom¬ 
ing a perfect cylinder of blossoms. Were 
it not for its great susceptibility to twig 
blight it would be a meritorious shrub 
for ornamental planting. Several beau¬ 
tiful varieties of flowering cherries and 
plums are offered by good nurseries. The 
double-flowering plum, Prunus triloba, 
has pink, very double flowers closely set 
on the slender branches. The white and 
red double-flowering “almonds,” so often 
seen in old dooryards, are really plums, 
varieties of P. Japonica, but the finest 
trees of this class are the weeping Japan 
cherries in several varieties. They al¬ 
ways arrest attention when in bloom on 
account of their graceful form and bil¬ 
lows of delicate flowers. The botanical 
name is Cerasus Japonica pendula. 
Whether the price these hothouse pota¬ 
toes should bring will compensate the 
grower is another question. Volunteer 
potato plants often come up in green¬ 
house benches, the tubers having been 
included by chance in the potting soil. 
If not disturbed they make a strong and 
rapid growth. The writer can testify to 
the excellent quality of the resulting 
potatoes, but has no knowledge of this 
useful esculent being purposely grown 
under protected conditions for use or 
profit in this country, though one would 
think glass-grown potatoes would be 
fully as desirable as beans and corn 
grown in the same manner. 
Bi-sexual Stkawberries Increasing. 
—A review of the sexual characteristics 
of the numerous varieties of strawber¬ 
ries introduced to cultivation during the 
last 30 years shows that, contrary to 
general opinion, the proportion of 
staminate or perfect-flowering varieties 
is increasing. More than half of the new 
kinds have blooms of this character, 
while the great proportion of introduc¬ 
tions during the early period in the im¬ 
provement of native strawberries was 
exactly the reverse. The older cultiva¬ 
tors preferred the pistillate varieties, as 
they secured better fruits when polleni- 
zation was effected by nearby perfect- 
blooming plants. The theory was that 
less energy was expended in producing 
perishable parts in the imperfect or pis¬ 
tillate blooms, and consequently a great¬ 
er development of the berry pulp might 
follow. The practical difficulty in secur¬ 
ing effective pollenization when large 
areas of pistillate sorts are planted has 
been sufficient to create a demand for 
good perfect varieties, and they have 
now reached a degree of development 
closely approaching the incomplete 
bloomers. While the proportion of 
staminate varieties is now greater, tak¬ 
ing all the late introductions together, 
we find pistillate flowers greatly pre¬ 
dominating among the new strawberries 
sent to The R. N.-Y. for trial. We as¬ 
sume the reason to be the number of 
seedlings submitted by amateurs, who 
are more concerned with tne size and 
table quality of their berries than the 
general hustling qualities of the plants. 
w. V. F. 
and gathering the fruit. The apple that 
is usually planted much farther apart 
36 or 40 feet each way, has plenty of 
room for several years; siil) I think the 
plan would be satisfactory, as the same 
number of trees could be planted on the 
same ground and have more advantages 
of air, light, etc. When trees are full 
grown, if anyone will observe a single 
row of fruit trees, it will be seen that 
they do better than the dense shaded 
orchard. chas. black. 
New Jersey. 
Rabbits and Fruit Trees. 
A friend in Missouri read the call for 
a device that will prevent rabbits from 
gnawing fruit trees. He sends a circular 
describing what is known as Davis’ 
wire protector. The little picture (Fig 
167) shows how it operates. The direc¬ 
tions for putting it on the tree are as 
WIRE trek protector. Pig. 167. 
follows: Begin with the lower end of 
the protector and turn the coils two or 
three times around the tree (to the right 
or left according as the protector is 
coiled), after which the anchor is forced 
into the ground and the protector taken 
bold of at the top and turned in the re¬ 
verse way around the tree until the coils 
are wound entirely around the same. 
York Imperial Apple 
Potatoes Under Glass. —An English 
gardening journal speaks of an experi¬ 
ment in growing potatoes in a green¬ 
house. The tubers, of a favorite British 
variety, were planted in 12-inch pots 
during midwinter, and only two shoots 
finally allowed to a pot, 300 of which 
were placed together in a suitable struc¬ 
ture. A mild heat, not often exceeding 
60 degrees, was maintained. At the end 
of April the tops had made a luxuriant 
gi owth and the prospect of a good crop 
of new potatoes was very evident. 
Wide and Narrow Orchard Rows. 
In response to F. W. P., on page 371, 
who wants to know if the plan has been 
tried which he suggests, for planting 
apple trees in rows that are wide apart 
east and west, but close north and south, 
I may say that it has been tried in my 
own orchards, and some others that 1 
know for more than 25 years past. The 
plan works very well. There are several 
ways of applying the principle, such as 
the hexagonal, alternate and plain 
square systems. By either of these it 
is best to fill in with temporary trees 
of such varieties as will bear early and 
bo ready to be removed when they in¬ 
terfere too much with those next to 
them. The distance I planted in Kan¬ 
sas was 33x16% feet, that of Wellhouse 
is 32x16 feet, and that of Parker Earle 
is 32x20 feet. In the Eastern States, 
where apple trees grow larger and are 
more tardy in bearing than in the West 
the distance should be increased to 40x 
18 or 50x20 feet. ii. e. van ueman. 
In answer to F. W. P., in Tile R. N.-Y. 
of May 25, for the past 10 years I have 
planted all of my pear orchards (about 
30 acres) on the plan he suggests; that 
is, 16x28 feet, the wide rows north and 
south. I think the advantages are bet¬ 
ter opportunity to cultivate crops plant¬ 
ed in the orchard while young; when of 
bearing age a freer passage of air to 
help pollination when in bloom, and 
better passage through the orchard 
when gathering and hauling the fruit. 1 
have known peach orchards planted on 
this plan which were satisfactory. This 
mode is better adapted to such fruits as 
the pear, peach and plum, that are 
usually planted at less distance than the 
apple, and soon cover the ground, ob¬ 
structing free passage of air, cultivation 
Judge Wellhouse, “the apple king,” 
says that while he has 200 acres of York 
Imperial apples, and they are very satis¬ 
factory, yet he would not discard the Hen 
Davis for them. They are handsomer, are 
of better flavor than the Ben Davis, and 
we And that under ordinary conditions, in 
reach of ordinary people, they keep crisp, 
hard, sound and juicy long after the Ben 
Davis had become mellow and practically 
worthless. Some of our orchardists are 
enthusiastic over it, and they think it the 
best apple they have. President Wellhouse 
says that the trees suffered more than 
Ben Davis during the extremely low tem¬ 
perature of February, 18yy, although they 
have at the present time recuperated. We 
lind that they come out of cold storage 
“scalded”; that is, they turn brown soon 
after coming out of cola store. I think 
this evidence that they will not stand or do 
not require as low a temperature as other 
varieties. Three years ago 1 put 87 varie¬ 
ties of apples in cold storage; they were in 
paper sacks, many kinds in the same bar¬ 
rel, so that the conditions must have been 
the same. The Dominie was the worst 
looking of all; it was as brown as a walnut 
all over, and on cutting in half I found 
that this brown color extended about one- 
fourth of an inch in depth all around the 
apple. Within this ring the apple was 
sound and of good flavor. Some other va- 
rieties, the names of which 1 have forgot¬ 
ten, were brown or scalded all over, but 
only skin deep, others again were scalded 
in spots. This proves that we must study 
each apple separately to determine the best 
temperature at which to keep it the most 
perfectly. I do indeed recommend planting 
the York Imperial, but I do not advise any¬ 
one to put his eggs all in one basket. Ben 
Davis, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Jonathan, 
York Imperial, Gano and Ralls Genet make 
a sure-enough list in Kansas. 
Kan. Hort. Society. w. h. barnes. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
“asquaredeal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
BERRY BASKETS. 
Wire-stapled Berry Baskets 
are the best in the market, 
being uniform in size and un- 
eqnaled in strength. 
Special Price on Car Lots. 
Write for Descriptive Catalog 
WEBSTER BASKET CO., 
WEBSTER, N. V. 
•Monroe Co. (Lock Box 48). 
a Dry Sprayer 
LEGGETT'S 
No Water or Plaster. 
DUSTS TREE, BUSH 
OR VINE. 
Two rows of potatoes as 
fastasyon walk,wideor 
narrownlantlng.Agents 
wanted. Catalogue and 
spray calendar free. 
Leggett & Brother, 
301 Pearl St., New York. 
Buy a Good 
Spray 
Pump 
I—don’t experiment- 
costs money. We have done 
the experimenting—used the 
common spray pumps in our 
own orchards, noted their 
defects — then invented the 
ECLIPSE. You get the bene¬ 
fit of our experience free. 
Send at once for catalogue. 
MORRILL & MORLEY, Benton Harbor, Mich. 
PARACRENE 
Is better, cheaper and bulkier than PARIS GREEN. 
“Have used Paragrene on my farm for potato 
bugs. It was perfectly satisfactory. L. H. BAILEY, 
Prof, of Horticulture, Cornell University.” Write 
for sample. FKED. Ii. UAVANBURG. Now York 
A POTATO BUG 
is most useful when he Is dead. Kill him with 
“ BOXAL,” and prevent blight by the same 
same operation. $1 buys 10 pounds. 
Catalogue No. 24 free. 
BOWKER CHEMICAL CO., Boston. 
If you want to double your crops, have 
large healthy trees and sound fruit, spray 
them with a solution made from 
Black Soluble 
Insecticide Soap 
The Greatest Success of the Century. 
Awarded Grand Prize at the Paris Exhibition, and 
Gold Medals at tbe International Exhibitions of 
Rome, Dijon and Turin; also, a Diploma of Honor 
at Marseilles. Pamphlets, prices and other Informa¬ 
tions lurnished promptly on application. 
V. CASAZZA & BKO., 
General Agents for United States and Canada, 
190-198 Prince St., New York City. 
Cyanide 
Guaranteed o8 to gg per cent., for generating 
Hydrocyanic Acid Qas 
the most effective fumigating material, to 
destroy scale insects on fruit trees and 
plants. The only positive eradicator of 
the dreaded San Jose Scale. Endorsed by 
all Agricultural Experiment Stations. “ A 
perfect practical remedy,” says Prof. W. G. 
Johnson, State Etymologist of Maryland. 
MANUFACTURED BY 
The Roessler & Hassfacher Chemical Co., 
No. 100 William Street, New York. 
1901 
THE SOUTH SIDE 
FRUIT CARRIERS AND BASKETS 
PETERSBURG, VA. 
WRITE FOR CATALOGUE AND PRICES 
A Perfect Sprayer. 
The “ SCHANCK ” 8-row will spray any 
kind of liquid poison, 
has no sm.all nozzles to stop up. 
will not spray on horse or driver, 
has no pumps, pipes, blowers nor cog-wheels, 
will do more work better and with less trouble than any other 
sprayer. Price, S56. Send for circular. 
JOHN R. SHANCLE, Mfr., HIghtstown, N. J. 
