566 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Allgust 17 
; Ruralisms ; 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Wet Weather Effects. —The Jersey 
coast region has suffered much from the 
intense humidity generally overlying 
the Eastern States. Only two decided 
breaks in the moist conditions have oc¬ 
curred since early May, though the ac¬ 
tual rainfall has but little exceeded the 
average. The heat was sufficient to 
brown grass on exposed slopes during a 
10-days’ cessation from drizzling show¬ 
ers, but the soil has always been moist 
at the depth of a few inches, and at 
times quite saturated. This condition 
has its drawbacks, but is far preferable 
to the terrible droughts ravaging the 
Middle West. Coast vegetation natural¬ 
ly does not endure dry weather as well 
as that of the interior, and quickly 
shrivels when the surface moisture be¬ 
comes attenuated, as it does not root 
deeply in the thin soils characteristic of 
the region. It is interesting to note the 
effect of excessive humidity on some 
very diverse plants. Cherries are a total 
failure as regards fruit, and many here¬ 
tofore healthy trees have been nearly 
defoliated by the shot-hole fungus. Vig¬ 
orous young trees of both the sweet and 
sour types lost most of their leaves 
early in June, but have continued 
growth with a scanty new covering. 
Some old trees are now almost oare, and 
likely to remain so until next Spring. 
But few cherries set on account of in¬ 
terference of the rain with pollination, 
and then generally rotted or made a 
poor development, though there were 
some local exceptions. Japan plums 
also show yellowness and weakness of 
foliage, and the crop of plums will be 
light. Brown rot is developing rapidly, 
and much loss will probably ensue. 
Grapevines are making a surprisingly 
fine grow!th, the great heat being much 
to their liking, though they would get 
along still better with less humidity. 
There is certain to be a considerable loss 
from rot. Apples are as near failure as 
we have known for many years. The 
foliage is imperfect in most instances, 
and the young fruits are developing in 
a very one-sided manner. Peach trees 
look well where proper care is taken, 
and promise a tolerable yield of the late 
varieties. Blackberries are abundant 
and large, though soft in quality. Pota¬ 
toes are giving an indifferent yield, not 
at all in keeping with the luxuriant 
growth of top. The local hay and grain 
crop promised exceedingly well, but 
was seriously damaged almost without 
exception before it could be secured. 
The foliage of tomatoes blighted consid¬ 
erably early in the season, and most of 
the early blooms failed, but they are 
growing vigorously now. 
The redeeming features of an other¬ 
wise trying season are the luxuriance of 
the corn crop and the refreshing verdure 
of the fields, which never were greener in 
midsummer, and the brillancy of some 
native flowers, notably Lilium super- 
bum, the American Turk’s cap lily, and 
the butterfly weed or orange milkweed, 
Asclepias tuberosa. This lily grows in 
moist shaded lowlands, preferably on 
the banks of sluggish streams, while the 
milkweed prefers dry hillsides. Both 
are benefited by showery weather and 
have seldom bloomed more brilliantly 
than at present. Thousands of lily 
bulbs that fail to develop buds in dry 
or normal seasons now open tine pan¬ 
icles of bloom, containing at times sev¬ 
eral ranks of flowers. Few wild plants 
are so entirely satisfactory and har¬ 
monious in color effect when viewed in 
their natural surroundings, and it would 
seem almost a desecration to force them 
into extensive cultivation as long as 
they can be found in quantity in waste 
places. They ask no odds in decorative 
effect from the cultivator or plant 
breeder. 
Thb Shiro Peum. —Fig. 250, this page, 
is a fair likeness of a Shiro plum grown 
by J. H. Black, Son & Co., Hightstown, 
N. J. Shiro is one of Burbank’s produc¬ 
tions, now fairly well disseminated, and 
beginning to fruit in the East. Shiro 
is said by Burbank to be the result of a 
triple hybridization of Robinson, Myro- 
balan and Wickson, and is a handsome 
golden green plum of fine quality, about 
equaling Abundance in that respect, but 
has the advantage of resisting the 
brown rot much better. Messrs. Black 
say that the specimen illustrated is 
from a graft on a Satsuma tree which 
has never ripened a plum on account of 
rot, yet the Shiro fruits have not been 
affected in the least in two bearing sea¬ 
sons. This is a very important charac¬ 
teristic if conflrmed by extended tests. 
The Shiro tree on the Rural Grounds is 
growing vigorously, but has not at¬ 
tained bearing size. It seems well suit¬ 
ed on peach wood; a bud put in a strong 
young seedling peach is growing so rap¬ 
idly that it overtops a similar peach bud 
on the opposite side of the trunk. Most 
Japan and hybrid plums grow well on 
peach stocks, but are soon starved if 
peach sprouts are allowed to push, and 
it is rare, in our experience, to find 
plum wood keeping pace with peach on 
the same stock. Shiro is firm and car¬ 
ries well, qualities that may make it 
useful for market. 
Plants of a new thornless blackcap 
raspberry were received from James B. 
THE SHIRO PLUM. Pis. 2.50. 
Stevens, Danbury, Conn., April 25, 1900. 
They were well planted and made a sat¬ 
isfactory growth last year. They set 
an abundance of good-sized berries this 
season, but exhibited such unmistakable 
symptoms of anthracnose just before 
ripening that the plants were destroyed 
to prevent further infection of others. 
Thornless blackberries and raspberries 
are generally weak growers, and have 
never proven satisfactory. 
The McDonald Berry. —The possi¬ 
bilities of the blackberry are very invit¬ 
ing, and much progress has been made 
in improving our native species, which 
are on the whole more agreeable in 
flavor than many fruits that have been 
coddled in gardens for generations. One 
can imagine the blackberry of the fu¬ 
ture to be an immense, juicy and luscious 
fruit with a minimum number of small 
seeds, altogether transcending anything 
now grown, but we are scarcely pre¬ 
pared to credit the yield of 20 quarts per 
plant for the McDonald berry, a tree 
dewberry of Texas origin, now grown in 
California. We think two or three 
quarts to a plant a very good yield here 
in the benighted East. It is said to be 
nearly evergreen in character, the ber¬ 
ries of great size, and rich sweet qual¬ 
ity. It ripens a week earlier than even 
the earliest dewberries. We confess to 
dense ignorance of this wonderful fruit, 
which is described by a California cor¬ 
respondent. It is possible that the 
mammoth blackberry of California noted 
on page 550 is the variety meant, though 
the yield remains incredible, w. v. f. 
Baldwin Apples in New England. 
I read in The R. N.-Y. and have seen 
it copied, that the leaves of the Baldwin 
apple drop in early Fall. The writer 
uses this expression concerning western 
New York: “You will see whole or¬ 
chards which now hold their leaves until 
after heavy frosts.’’ Does not this ex¬ 
plain the difference in flavor of New 
England grown apples? Tastes differ, 
but the best experts we have at our ex¬ 
hibitions place the Baldwin at the head 
of the list of Winter apples in point of 
flavor. The Rhode Island Greening, 
when well grown, has a delicious rich¬ 
ness peculiarly its own, but the prefer¬ 
ence soon returns to the Baldwin as the 
apple to set before your friends. Re¬ 
turning to the conditions which are con¬ 
ducive to the perfect ripening of this 
apple, with its rich subacid flavor, the 
writer informs us that until spraying 
was practiced its most essential con¬ 
tributors, namely its leaves, have fj.kn 
from the tree prematurely. Is this con¬ 
dition local or widespread? Here in 
New England all apple trees hold their 
leaves so late in the Autumn as to make 
us tired, being about the last tree to 
shed ils foliage. 
A very energetic man who is not over 
strong, said to the writer: “Good health 
is everything.’’ The question arises, can 
any fruit be grown to perfection with¬ 
out healthy foliage? That it directly 
promotes the beauty of flowers and the 
quality of fruit is self-evident. Strip 
the leaves from a crimson rose and the 
blooms on such a branch will be but 
pale pink, while on the remaining 
branches they retain their full color. 
May we not justly infer then that when 
the Baldwin is grown away from its 
original home there are climatic rea¬ 
sons why its high character is called in 
question? j. w. adams. 
Massachusetts. 
Lime on Strawberries. 
I have had no experience with lime. 
Ashes show no results on our clay loam. 
On gravel or light land near us good re¬ 
sults have been obitained when used in 
connection with barnyard manures. 
Oswego, N. Y. F. J. TICE. 
From a very limited experience we 
believe unleached wood ashes a good 
fertilizer for strawberries, but from eco¬ 
nomic reasons we have depended al¬ 
most exclusively on stable manure for 
several years past. We have never ap¬ 
plied lime to strawberry vines. Our 
method of fertilizing and growing 
strawberries will not allow us to throw 
any light on the beneflt to be derived 
from the use of ashes or lime as a fer¬ 
tilizer for the strawberry crop. 
Orange Co., N. Y. w, d. barns & son. 
I have never applied lime to land just 
previous to planting strawberries, nor 
would I advise it. If the land is sour, 
or contains too much vegetable matter, 
forming undesirable acid in it, I would 
prefer to apply lime the previous year, 
and grow corn or some other crop (not 
potatoes). Wood ashes are helpful in 
many soils for strawberries, the only 
objection to it is that with us It gives 
clover, especially White, too much start. 
The most satisfactory preparation of 
soil for strawberries with us is to give 
the soil a heavy dressing of stable ma¬ 
nure one year previous to planting the 
strawberries. If the soil is clay or in¬ 
clined to be stiff apply at same time 
30 to 50 bushels of flne slaked lime. This 
v/ill put the soil in flne condition for the 
plants. I would use ashes instead of 
lime if the soil was of a sandy or loamy 
nature. It is not safe to plant on land 
that has Iain over one year in sod, it 
might be infested with the White grub, 
the larvae of the June bug. It should 
be fallowed for two years at least. 
Hightstown, N. J. c. black. 
Killing Cucumber Beetle. —Your Is¬ 
sue of August 3 shows much loss from 
Squash borer and stinkbug, as well as 
Cucumber beetle, so I give my experi¬ 
ence. After losing crops of each for 
years, though I tried tobacco, coal tar 
on corncobs placed in hills, etc., all 
proving failures, this year I used two 
lablespoonfuls of spirits of turpentine 
mixed thoroughly with one bucket of 
ground plaster, and with this mixture, 
while the dew was on plants, I sprinkled 
the roots, body of plants and each leaf. 
This I did twice. Result, magnificent 
growth of rich, dark green vines and 
bushes, and more squashes and cucum¬ 
bers than in the past 10 years together. 
Try it, next year, a. w. smith. 
Georgia. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
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