822 
FHE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 7 
; Ruralisms ; 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Dksiraut.e Nkw Gannas. —Seven new 
Gannas were received in May from J. G. 
Vaughan, Ghicago, Ill. Varieties of both 
European and home origin seem to have 
been included in the collection. They 
were established in pots under glass and 
planted out early in June. The soil and 
cultivation was favorable for Gannas, 
while abundant Summer rain gave them 
a good chance to develop. 
David Haiu .m; over four feet high. 
Good bronzy foliage, flowers rather 
small, but very numerous, borne in 
branching spikes well above foliage; or¬ 
ange scarlet in color. Makes a good ap¬ 
pearance all through the season. Fo¬ 
liage has a fine spreading habit. 
Rkd Indian; four feet, large purplish- 
bronze foliage, medium sized blood-red 
flowers, standing up well on profusely 
branching spikes. A fine variety but 
sutt’ered more from storms than some 
others. 
N. .lATiuY Desi.oges; Wi feet. I^arge, 
tough green leaves, good-sized scarlet 
flowers in rather narrow stiff spike. 
Gomparatively a shy bloomer. 
L. Patuy; four to five feet, medium 
flowers, of flimsy make-up, rather scat¬ 
tering and partly covered with the up¬ 
right green foliage; salmon scarlet in 
color. 
Dwarf Feorence Vaughan; similar 
to the well-known tall variety of that 
name, but very dwarf, scarcely reaching 
three feet. Foliage very green and 
glossy. The yellow, crimson-spotted 
flowers are freely produced and carried 
well, but a little too near the foliage. A 
valuable sort where a dwarf Ganna is 
wanted. 
Vi( i'oky; three to four feet; fine broad 
tough green foliage, handsome in form. 
Good large trusses of scarlet flowers 
with satiny finish, mottled and bordered 
with yellow. Seems to have characteris¬ 
tics of the orchid-flowering section. A 
profuse bloomer, and to our taste, the 
best Ganna of the lot. 
Souvenir de Mme. de Nardy; seven 
to eight feet, large green foliage but with 
a slender effect from its height. Makes 
a huge clump; flowers carried high up, 
and none too profuse; scarlet, spotted 
with lemon yellow. It will be noticed 
that the best varieties of this collection 
do not have the longest foreign names. 
A Neglected TROincAL Fruit. —One 
of the most common and neglected fruits 
of warm climates is the guava, scarcely 
known to northern residents except as 
the base of guava jelly, a delicacy im¬ 
ported from tropical countries. The 
species producing edible fruits foi-m 
small shrubby trees with hands ime 
laurel-like evergreen foliage, and are 
found growing abundantly in thickets 
about inhabited places in tropical and 
even sub-tropical America. Thougli na¬ 
tive to this continent guavas are now 
quite abundantly naturalized in warm 
places in Asia and in South Africa. The 
most common species, Psidium pyri- 
ferum, bears abundantly small pear- 
shaped fruits, of a russet yellow when 
ripe, containing a pinkish pulp in which 
are embedded many flat bony seeds. It 
is the source of the guava jelly of the 
West Indies which has been an article 
of commerce almost since the time of 
Golumbus. The guava is one of the few 
tropical fruits containing enough pectin 
to make a firm jelly. As found in fancy 
groceries it has a pleasant but scarcely 
a distinctive flavor, though the raw 
Send us a club of four subscriptions with 
$4 and we will advance your own sub¬ 
scription one year free. New yearly sub¬ 
scribers will now get the paper from 
the time subscription is received until 
January 1, 1903. Get rip a club at once. 
fruits are agreeably acid, and have a 
quality that greatly improves on long 
acquaintance. Guavas are easily raised 
from seeds, suckers and cuttings, and 
often begin bearing when two years old. 
The flowers are of good size, white with 
a greenish tinge, and contain many 
curiously twisted stamens, and are so 
numerous as almost to cover the plants. 
The trees grow so readily and persist¬ 
ently in tropical countries as to become 
annoying weeds, especially in rich moist 
soils. A larger fruited species, P. Gua- 
java, the Lemon guava, is cultivated to 
some extent in Florida and southern 
California, and though it is too tender 
to bear much frost, and is at times cut 
to the ground, it springs up rapidly and 
frequently bears the following year on 
the new wood, like a peach tree. There 
is another species of excellent quality 
in the highlands of Brazil, known as P. 
Araca. The writer can testify to the 
superior flavor of this species in its na¬ 
tive habitat, and is glad to find it offered 
by a few dealers in tropical fruit plants. 
The fruits are rather large, greenish 
yellow in color, with white flesh and 
comparatively few seeds. Several other 
new types, most of them being horticul¬ 
tural varieties, have been brought to 
notice by the explorers for the United 
States Department of Agriculture, but 
have not yet been disseminated. The 
best known guava in the North is the 
Cattley or Strawberry guava, P. Cattlei- 
anum, which has been extensively sold 
in two varieties, red and yellow fruited, 
as window plants by mail plant dealers 
during the last five years. The fruits are 
an inch or more in diameter, and nearly 
round in shape, deep red with pink pulp 
in the one case and larger yellow fruits 
with white pulp in the other. They form 
attractive pot plants, of easy culture, 
bearing abundantly after two or three 
years’ growth from the cutting. Fig. 
;169, first page, represents a fruiting twig 
of the yellow Cattley variety about nat¬ 
ural size ripened in the Rural glass¬ 
house. The plant is three years old, 
and is established in a seven-inch pot. 
It set 138 fruits in May, which were sub¬ 
sequently thinned to 60. These have 
ripened thoroughly, but the later ones 
grew larger than those first picked, 
showing that more severe thinning 
would have been better. The flavor is 
quite agreeable to most persons who 
have tasted them, and there is a notice¬ 
able strawberry-like fragrance which is 
transmitted to the jelly and preserved 
fruits. The former takes some time to 
harden when made in the ordinary way, 
and is almost transpai-ent from the lack 
of coloring matter in the fruits. The 
mild acid is very refreshing, and the ap¬ 
pearance quite attractive. After ripen¬ 
ing the fruits these potted guava trees 
become quite dormant if kept cool, and 
may be stored in a light warm cellar 
like an oleander until Spring. When in 
bloom it is best to keep them outside 
so that the bees may get at the flowers. 
Both varieties are desirable, and make 
good companions, but if only one is 
grown we should prefer the yellow- 
fruited Kind. It is probable that the 
guava may be much improved in the 
future, when its needs have been better 
studied. Though of limited impor'tance 
now, it is conceivable that larger-fruited 
varieties may be produced in time, and 
the number of seeds much lessened. 
Now that we have included tropical isl¬ 
ands in our territory popular interest 
in such products may be expected to in¬ 
crease. w. V. F. 
A Supposed Pecan and Walnut Hybnid. 
Fig. 370, page 818, is a reproduction 
of a cut appearing in a late number of 
the Observer, Fayetteville, N. G., repre¬ 
senting an immature nut from a young 
tree grown from a Japan walnut, sup¬ 
posed to be pollinated from a nearby 
pecan tree. The originator, J. H. Breece, 
of Fayetteville, furnished the following 
account of its origin to his home paper: 
In the Spring of 1894, a Japan walnut, 
standing 20 steps north of two bearing 
pecans, was observed to produce one clus¬ 
ter of pistillate flowers after the usual 
blooming season was past, but while the 
pecan trees were still in bloom. One nut 
resulted from the walnut blossoms, which 
was supposed to have been poller.ized by 
the flowers of the pecans. The tree grow¬ 
ing from this nut is now not more than 
five feet high. In 1S95 I removed all the 
staminate flowers from the walnut, and 
although there were a considerable number 
of pistillate flowers only one nut was pro¬ 
duced. The tree from this nut is vigorous, 
and would have yielded a lot of fruit but 
for the removal of its staminate flowers for 
the purpose of re-crossing with the pecan. 
As a consequence one nut only was pro¬ 
duced, and is here exhibited in contrast 
with the nuts of its parent tree. No other 
bearing walnut tree was within a quarter 
of a mile except a small Bnglish walnut 
opposite the dwelling house. The Japan 
walnut tree has had its staminate flower 
buds removed each season, and since 189‘J 
has produced from 40 to 70 nuts each year. 
All the nuts have been planted, and the 
trees are mostly vigorous. It is intended 
to destroy the Japan walnut tree this time, 
and hereafter cross the hybrids with the 
pecan. Such work is interesting if it had 
no more substantial object. The result al¬ 
ready attained of an increase of 200 per 
cent in size is the most remarkable that 
might have been anticipated. If these 
characteristics can be blended with the 
pecan’s quality of fruit and toughness of 
wood, it will be desirable. 
The large nut at the right is the sup¬ 
posed hybrid, the smaller one on the left 
being a normal nut from the seed parent 
—the Japan walnut. 
Subsequent correspondence with Mr. 
Breece develops the information that the 
nut, on examination after thorough rip¬ 
ening, has an outer hull and shell like 
the native Black walnut, though it was 
attached to the branch like the Japan 
walnut instead of by a distinct stem, as 
in the Black walnut. As the nut was to 
be planted the flavor and form of the 
kernel was not ascertained. It thus 
seems probable that the hybrid in ques¬ 
tion is really a cross between our Black 
walnut, Juglans nigra, and a Japan spe¬ 
cies, J. Sieboldii, or cordiformis, though 
in this case Mr. Breece says the pollen 
must have come from a distance as 
great as one-fourth of a mile, as no trees 
of the native species are growing nearer. 
There is apparently no physiological 
reason why genera so closely allied as 
Juglans, the walnuts, and Hicoria, the 
hickories and pecans, should not hybrid¬ 
ize, though the relationship is more 
remote than between the various species 
of either genus, but it is not at all cer¬ 
tain the union has been accomplished 
in this case. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s P^er- 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.—.U/r. 
Horse Owners! Use 
GOMBAULT’S 
Caustic 
Balsam 
A Safe Speedy and Positive Care 
The Safest, Best BLISTER ever used. Takes 
tne place of all liniments for mild or severe action. 
Removes Bunches or Blemishes from Horsea 
SUPERSEDES ALL CAUTERY 
OR FIRING* ImposaxbUto produce scar or blemish. 
Every bottle sold Is warrapted to give satisfaction 
Price $1.50 per bottle. Sold by druggists, or 
sent by express, chargea paid, with full directions 
for its use. Send for descriptive circulars. 
THE LAWRBNCE-WIX.LIAM8 CO., Cleveland 
’ — 
r-^- J 
'V' '" 
.'T 
1 *:* .Aav 
Corn 
removes from the soil 
large quantities of 
Potash. 
The fertilizer ap- 
plied, must furnish 
1 -llM 
enough Potash, or the 
land will lose its pro¬ 
ducing power. 
Read carefully our books 
on crops—sent /ree. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 
93 Nassau St., New York. 
YOU CAN AFFORD 
to use PAGE FENCE. It costs US more, but not 
YOU. Why not try a piece and be convinced? 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., ADRIAN, UlCH. 
THE MIETZ & WEISS 
Kerosene Engines 
Cheapest and Safest Power 
Known. For pumping and 
electric lighting, grinding 
corn, separating cream, 
sawing wood, and all power 
purposes. Send for Catalog. 
A. MIETZ, 
128 Mott Street. New York. 
Gasoline Engine 
f T C* r* r\ Place 
IlShll My Any One 
^ For Any Pnrpose 
Stationariea, Portables, Enyinea 
and Pumps, Hoisters 
Send for Illustrated Catalogue and 
Testimonials. State your Power Needs. 
Charter Gas Engine Co., Box 26, Sterling, III. 
ICE PLOWS 
®12. Also Ice Tools. 
W’rlte for discounts. 
H. PRAY.No.Clove.N.V 
Imperial Ice Plows. 
Best and Cheapest, 
from $12 up. 
.1. S. WOODHOUSE, 
191 Water Street, NewYork. 
eCE CUTTING requires fast work- 
Wrlto 
OH for 
Free ('atalog 
of all kluds 
ICK 
TOOLS. 
iug tools at li^bt 
time. RED, WHITE AND BLUE ICE PLOW ha 
first class, keen, fast cutter, having our Patent 
Clearing Teeth. Specially adapted to the useof 
Dairymen, liutehers^ 
Hotels,Farins,ete. Two 
sizes. Cuts and 9 ins. 
PLOW COMPANY. 
54 MarketSt.Boston.Mass 
Made 
In three 
•Izes. 
la so essential during 
the Summer, that no one 
should be without it. 
BOKBOII Double Kow 
ICE PLOW cuu faster, easi. 
er, and with leai expense than any 
other plow made. Cuts any size cake and 
depth. Pays for itself in two days. For Eastern States we ship 
direct ft’om Albany, N.Y. Ask iot catalogue and prices. 
JOHN DORSCH & SONS,226 Wells St..Milwaukee,WIs. 
BEFORE BUYING 
A NEW HARNESS alogue glv- 
lug full de¬ 
scription and prices of all kinds of single and 
double harness and save 25 per cent. 
King Harness Co. 510 Church St., Owego.N.Y. 
Two 
Feet in 
Comfort 
It will be a guarantee of 
lasting comfort if you insist 
on getting your heavy rubber.s, 
rubber boots, wool boots aucl 
socks with the lied Ball in the 
trade mark. There are no goods 
made that give half the comfort or 
anything like the durability of the 
** Ball-Band** 
Insist on getting them. There are inniations. 
The proved merit of tlie “Riill-Rand’’is the 
hardest iirgunienr for unsenipulous com¬ 
petitors to overcome. Look fertile 
Ited Itull in the trade mark. 
Hold everywliere. Get them 
from your dealer. 
MISHAWAKA WOOLEN 
CO., Mishawaka, Ind. 
