23o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 12 
abundant bloom, and its profusion; but who 
that has seen it has not wished—only wished 
—that the flowers were larger? The same 
may be asked concerning SusanneBlanchet, 
perfection in color and shape, very delic¬ 
iously perfumed, but not of largest size. 
Pierre Guillot, healthy, vigorous, and 
constant, one of the handsomest and most 
valuable, is of a bright dazzling crimson, 
passing to brilliant carmine, and has flowers 
that are immense, very double and full, and 
highly scented. 
La France I Who does not fancy that 
constant-blooming Hybrid Tea ? What 
is prettier than its lovely shade of peach 
bloom, and what rose is there that blooms 
so sweetly, so continuously, so freely? Who 
would idolize it were it small ? Who does 
not idolize it because its buds and 
flowers are immense globes of beauty ? 
Perle DesJardins is another favorite be¬ 
cause of its size. It is the finest yellow 
rose ever introduced, and constantly grows 
in favor as its merits become better known. 
Nothing is more magnificent than its large, 
solid golden bud, unless it be the flower it¬ 
self when fully expanded. 
It may be argu ed that color has a good 
deal to do with the matter, but no one will 
say so if that peerless white rose, the Bride, 
be thought of. Appropriately named, if 
ever an appropriate name was given to a 
rose, its fine, large, pointed buds are curved 
backward slightly, giving it a very chaste 
and elegant appearance. 
Another example is afforded by the new 
American Beauty, a seedling 
which originated in the celebrated 
Newport grounds of George Ban¬ 
croft, the historian. It is the 
first time that a rose of large, 
size, having the ever-blooming 
qualities of the Tea rose, with the 
delicious perfume of the Moss or 
Damask rose, has been brought 
out. Its deep and brilliant pink 
shaded toward the center with 
rich carmine, will win for it much 
admiration which would not be 
given were it small. 
Mr. Warner may think differ¬ 
ently, and may be in love with 
the Fairy and other small- 
flowered varieties, but if one 
were to ask me what roses to 
plant in order to get the best 
of satisfaction and the most 
unalloyed pleasure, I should 
recommend the large flowering. 
Perhaps I am undnly preju¬ 
diced, but I believe that the 
consensus of opinion is opposed y 
to Mr. Warner’s ideas. 
FLORA 
FRUITS FOR THE HOME. 
(Concluded jrom Last Week.) 
CHARLES A. GREEN. 
Is your locality a good one for fruit¬ 
growing ? It is claimed by those well in • 
formed that Western New York is one of 
the most profitable regions for fruit grow¬ 
ing in the world. Those who live in Michi¬ 
gan think that they have the best fruit 
lands on the globe, and the people of many 
other States hold the same opinion regard¬ 
ing their localities. But there is no doubt 
whatever that we in New York are greatly 
favored in this respect; hence the lack of 
wisdom in any person who lives in this 
favored locality in not having a good supply 
of the products that can be so bountifully 
provided at so little cost. 
If you conclude to make a fruit garden or 
plant an orchard, do not do so until you 
have fully counted the cost and made up 
your mind to plant it in the best manner, 
after the most careful preparation, and to 
take the best possible care of it forever 
after. Of all unprofitable things few are 
so unprofitable as a fruit garden poorly 
managed—one in which the weeds are al¬ 
lowed to grow as high as a man’s head, 
which is never pruned, never enriched. 
Such a fruit garden will never pay. You 
should look for information on the sub¬ 
ject of fruit-growing, read books and 
papers devoted to the subject, or get advice 
from practical fruit-growers by visiting 
their grounds. You are aware that the 
breeds of cattle, sheep and swine have 
been greatly improved, and that those 
breeds that were grown when you were a 
boy would not now be considered profitable 
to keep on your farm. Are you aware that 
the different species of fruits have been 
equally improved, and that the grapes, 
berries, apples and pears which were con¬ 
sidered profitable when you were a boy 
would no longer be grown by a well-in¬ 
formed fruit-grower? In early days the 
grapes ripened too late: there were no early 
varieties. We now have varieties ripening 
a month earlier than in past years. The 
improved raspberry is as great an improve¬ 
ment on the wild raspberry as the Jersey is 
on the scrub cow of past years. 
Learn how to train the different fruits in 
the most attractive manner. Your rows of 
black and red raspberries and blackberries 
should be trimmed back with a long pair 
of hedging shears, something as you would 
trim back a hedge. This cutting should be 
done on the new succulent shoots in June 
and again on the sprawling canes in the 
winter after the growth has been made. 
This induces the plants to form a hedge¬ 
like growth, low and compact, taking up 
much less room than they would ordinari¬ 
ly, and affording additional attractiveness. 
Few things are more beautiful than a row 
of raspberries thus pruned. In blossom, 
they attract thousands of bees; later the 
berries turn to bright crimson, almost 
as beautiful as the roses; later they 
gradually darken, at which time there 
is a combination of all colors. The 
rows of grapes may be trained on a low 
wire, not over four or five feet high, and 
permitted to trail over toward the ground, 
also forming a hedge-like row which is 
very attractive and desirable for the fruit; 
or they can be trained to stakes or to a 
higher trellis in any of which positions 
they are remarkably attractive in foliage 
and fruit. The peach trees should be cut 
back at the tips (the past season’s growth) 
every year, if desired to be kept in round, 
compact heads, which are quite attractive; 
otherwise they make a long, scrambling 
growth of branches, which is not desir¬ 
able. A very little attention in pruning 
will make an acre of fruit garden one of 
the most attractive places on the farm. A 
man can prune an acre of raspberries or 
blackberries, at the proper season, in a few 
hours. The work is rapidly done. One 
day each year should suffice for the prun¬ 
ing of the one-acre garden. 
“How shall we keep the boys on the 
farm ? ” is a question that is often asked. In 
my opinion it is no wonder that they leave 
farms when they fiud few things there to 
attract them. I know of nothing that will 
tend to tie the young people to the farm 
more than a bountiful supply of fruits at 
all seasons. If this, in connection with 
making the home bright, cheerful and 
happy, will not keep them there, better let 
them go; for their desire to leave indicates 
that they are by nature better calculated 
for some other position in life. I do not 
claim any special grandeur for my home, 
and yet my children are attached to it. 
During the past winter we spent several 
weeks in the city; we had a very pleasant 
home, and the young people enjoyed them¬ 
selves remarkably well for a time, but at 
the end of a week they inquired when we 
were going back to the farm, and from 
that time onward were very impatient to 
get back to the place where they had spent so 
many happy hours. We tried in every way 
to make them happy and contented in the 
city: they went to places of amusement, 
visited their young friends in their city 
homes, had everything, apparently, that 
their hearts could desire, and still they 
longed for the old farm, even in the winter 
when it was least attractive. 
Washington Irving, one of the greatest 
of American writers, has painted a very 
pretty picture of a rural home. He was in¬ 
vited by a young married man to take din¬ 
ner at his home, unexpectedly to the young 
man’s wife. Arriving at the home, they 
caught sight of the bride dressed in 
white, picking berries in the garden. Un¬ 
observed by her, they entered the house, 
and soon the bride appeared with a dish of 
dainty berries as beautiful as her rosy lips 
and cheeks. When the table was spread, a 
dainty dish of red and golden raspberries 
was placed opposite each plate; and it is a 
noteworthy fact that the great author, in 
speaking of the brightness and happiness 
of this home, should dwell with so much 
interest upon the fruits that the young 
bride had gathered, and that the husband 
had planted and protected. Could these 
berries have been purchased at the city 
grocery more cheaply ? Alas ! had they 
been thus purchased the great Irving would 
not have deemed them worthy of a second 
thought. Are there not both poetry and 
common sense in this suggestion ? 
Rochester, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—What Mr. Green says about 
the increased value which a bountiful sup¬ 
ply of fruits gives to any farm is very true. 
Even the purchasers who would be most 
careless in supplying a fruit garden for 
themselves always look for one when they 
talk of buying a home. The value of fruits 
as food can hardly be estimated. Chemical 
analysis indicates that they are largely 
water, and yet every fruit farmer knows 
that when fruits are supplied in abundance, 
the billformeats and other so called “solid” 
foods is at once reduced. 
ASPARAGUS CULTURE. 
CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 
I HAVE just been invited to prepare an 
article on the culture of asparagus for 
the next volume of our horticultural so¬ 
ciety, and, in running over my gathered 
scraps on the subject, find the following 
note which closes an article written for the 
R. N.-Y. by a Bucyrus, Ohio, correspon¬ 
dent about six years ago: 
“The probability is that Mr. Garfield 
will, after a year or two, find his crop 
yields thin, spindling, grass-like stalks in¬ 
stead of stems as thick, at least, as his 
finger. His asparagus will probably grow 
well at first, and he will imagine he has 
beaten the. books; but in the end he will 
find he has beaten himself; and will find, 
when too late, that he had better have fol¬ 
lowed the books notwithstanding what he 
denominates their ‘ fussiness.’ ” 
This item of criticism was made upon 
reading an article written at the request of 
the Rural on how I planted my asparagus 
bed. I cannot recall what I wrote; but the 
spirit of the communication was that writ¬ 
ers on asparagus culture had made too 
“ tough a job ” of putting down an aspara¬ 
gus bed; and that I had ignored the “fussi¬ 
ness of the books,” taken good corn land 
with a dressing of twelve cords of rotted 
manure and 10 cords of cow dung per acre, 
and planted my roots confidently expecting 
fair results. 
I did not answer my critic because a fel¬ 
low’s backsight is a heap better than his 
foresight, and evidently he had the advan¬ 
tage. I should have entirely forgotten to 
vindicate myself had I not, a few moments 
ago, found the little newspaper scrap. 
Pardon me for narrating in a few words 
the results of years of experience with my 
acre-bed of asparagus. It is the logic of 
events, not like the other, a hypothetical 
forecast. It was planted four feet by three, 
and I began cutting two years from the day 
it was planted out. It has furnished an 
average of 400 dozen bunches per year of a 
very excellent product. I have marketed a 
great many bunches in which the stalks 
overran the regulation size, and spindling 
shoots are unknown. A knife is never em¬ 
ployed in gathering the product, so that not 
a fraction of an inch of the stems need be 
wasted by the consumer, and the quality 
of the product is the very best. I have 
given a dressing of the best quality of dung 
biennially and have not abused the plants 
by late picking. 
By waiting the six years, it seems to me I 
may not be criticised for saying that the 
preparation of my kind of soil—sandy loam, 
—for a Timothy seeding is good enough for 
asparagus. The plants are not as deep 
feeders as any of the grains and grasses, 
but they are gross feeders within their own 
jurisdiction. A liberal supply of available 
plant food on the surface and worked in 
above the crowns of the plants will get 
where it is needed, and I am not afraid to 
use unfermented dung for the purpose. 
The elaborate preparation of soil to a 
depth of two feet, as recommended by many 
of the writers upon asparagus culture, is 
entirely unnecessary on a soil well suited 
to the growth of the plant. The very best 
quality of product in finest form, 
and abundant quantity can be se¬ 
cured without it. This is said after 
taking a squint backward over the 
six years of my experience. On the 
other hand, at a very early day 
in my career I put down a garden 
bed of asparagus after the most 
approved plan of deep trenching 
and heavy manuring. Years later 
I assisted in planting a bed of 
larger proportions at our agricul¬ 
tural college. I have grown a 
larger, finer product by my field 
culture than by the more elabor¬ 
ate processes. 
One difficulty that has shortened 
my income each year I hope to 
overcome the coming spriug. My 
soil is early and I have lost two or 
three full pickings from frosts 
every season. I have during this 
winter spread a covering of long 
manure over the field. We have 
had a good deal of rain and the fer¬ 
tilizing material has been well 
washed into the soil. The strawy 
portion I shall leave between the 
rows and as the buds peep above 
the surface, I can, upon a sud¬ 
den depression in temperature, draw it 
over them as a protecting mantle, above 
the plants. The work on the acre can be 
done each time for 15 cents and may save 
as many dollars’ worth of marketable pro¬ 
duct. One other trial which I have not 
surmounted yet, is the destruction of a 
picking by blowing sand ; a rapid wind will 
drive particles of sand through the epider¬ 
mis of the shoots, and check the growth on 
that side, producing quantities of crooked, 
gnarled sprouts entirely worthless for the 
market. These winds, in April, are usually 
from the southwest, and had I dreamed of 
the damage they could do, a protected loca¬ 
tion might have been chosen ; but as an as¬ 
paragus bed is put down for a life-time it 
looks as if a remedy now was to be pre¬ 
ferred to a change of base. There is no ex¬ 
cuse for any farmer who has not the luxury 
of an asparagus bed. It is cheaply made, 
occupies little land, may be utilized as an 
ornamental feature of the premises, adds 
greatly to a good living and one planting 
for each generation will fill the bill. 
Kent County, Mich. 
A SUMMER OUTING IN THE NORTH 
CAROLINA MOUNTAINS. 
XI. 
“ IIoq and hominycoffee; tobacco: 
“ dipping; ” mountaineer manners; 
native complacency. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
The food supply of the natives seemed 
from what testimony I could obtain, to 
comprehend chiefly, corn-bread, hog-meat 
and what went for coffee, of which they are 
inordinately fond. Added to these are oc¬ 
casional rations of chicken, which they kill 
at most tender ages, trout from the 
SATSUMA (JAPAN) PLUM. From a Photograph. See First Page. Fig. 67. 
