May 16 
334 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
TREES AND SHRUBS FOR A HALF-ACRE LAWN 
Fruits and Ornamentals Required. 
THE QUESTION. 
There are certain large fruits, ornamental shrubs and trees, 
that, like the Concord grape, will thrive almost anywhere. For a 
lawn not less than one-half acre in area, what five plants of the 
following would you select, could you have but five of each : 
Pears, plums, apples ; ornamental shrubs and trees, deciduous 
and evergreen ? In other words, will you please tell our readers 
what trees and shrubs they may safely plant for good effect on 
the lawn ? 
THE ANSWERS. 
A List for Michigan. 
In making out the following list of varieties, an 
endeavor has been made to include such as will, in 
the case of the fruits and shrubs, furnish a succession 
throughout the season. While the fruits are not of 
the highest quality in all cases, I have included only 
such as will be most likely to succeed in this State 
under ordinary conditions. Apples : Red Astrachan, 
Keswick Codlin, Shiawassee, Hubbardston, Northern 
Spy. Pears: Bartlett, Howell, Seckel, Anjou or 
Angouleme and Lawrence. Plums : Washington, 
Lombard, Shropshire, German Prune, Bavay. Ever¬ 
greens ; Norway spruce, Dwarf pine (Pinus pumilio), 
upright form, hemlock, American arbor vital, Siberian 
arbor vital. Deciduous trees ; Norway maple, Wier’s 
Cut-leaved maple, Cut-leaved birch, White ash and 
Van Geert’s Golden poplar. Shrubs : Spinea triloba, 
Philadelphus coronarius, Lonicera tartarica, Hydran¬ 
gea paniculata grandiflora and Golden elder. 
L. R. TAFT. 
Recommended for Wisconsin. 
It is difficult for me to name five varieties of pears 
that I could recommend for our own State. I gener¬ 
ally confine my recommendation to one variety, viz., 
Flemish Beauty. I could recommend no variety of 
peach to succeed in Wisconsin. Of plums, I would 
name Lombard, Moore's Arctic, De Soto, Rollingstone 
and Forest Garden ; of apples, I would name Olden- 
burgh, Wealthy, McMahan, Northwestern Greening 
and Talman Sweet. Among ornamental trees, I would 
name of evergreens, the Norway spruce, Siberian 
arbor vital, Colorado Blue spruce, hemlock, Mountain 
pine and Scotch pine. Of deciduous trees, the Hard 
and Silver maple, American elm, American linden, 
Cut-leaved Weeping birch and European larch. Among 
shrubs, 1 would suggest Van Houtte’s spirma, the 
Large Panicled hydrangea, Prunus triloba, Tartarian 
honeysuckle and Golden elder. [prof.] e. s. goff. 
What Nebraska Farmers May Plant. 
From present knowledge, I would name five varie¬ 
ties of each for this region, about as follows : Pears 
are a practical failure here. Plums : Wyant, Cheney, 
Rollingstone, Wild Goose, Lombard. Peaches : Alex¬ 
ander, Early Rivers, Hale’s Early, Hill’s Chili, Wright. 
Apples : Duchess, Roman Stem, Grimes’s Golden, 
Winesap, Ben Davis. Shrubs: Sand cherry, lilac, 
Rosa rugosa, Philadelphus coronarius, Amur Tamarix. 
Deciduous trees : Elm, White ash, Honey locust, Rus¬ 
sian mulberry, Soft maple. Evergreens : Pinus pon- 
derosa, Austrian pine, Scotch pine, Red cedar, Bank- 
sian pine. This list is arranged wholly from the 
standpoint of eastern Nebraska. For New York or 
Pennsylvania, it would, of course, be entirely differ¬ 
ent. For this section, cherries certainly ought not to 
be omitted. Early Morello, Early Richmond, Large 
Montmorency, English Morello and Wragg succeed 
well, but no sweet varieties. As yet, we know com¬ 
paratively little as to what ornamentals are best 
adapted to our condition. fred w. card. 
A List for the East Discussed. 
Many sorts of trees and shrubs that are as hardy and 
enduring as the Concord grape, and have also the 
other required merit of making a good figure on the 
lawn when young and leafy, are likely to lose this lat¬ 
ter character, after they have borne the burdens of 
blooming and fruiting for some years. This damage 
can be much relieved, however, by judicious annual 
pruning with the object of maintaining good shape, 
and of removing all weakening branchlets as soon 
after they have bloomed or fruited as may be, in order 
to favor young, healthful wood to take their places. 
Keeping hardiness in first view, and admitting noth¬ 
ing of a low scale of excellence, I would name, of 
pears, Sheldon, Seckel, Nelis, Wiest, and Bartlett. 
The Bartlett last, but not least, by any means ; but, 
on severe trial, not quite so hardy as others. The 
Wiest is not much grown. The fruit is not large, and 
plain green in color, but as juicy and rich as any 
peach, and the tree is of good figure and at the very 
head as to hardiness. Plum trees suit a back yard 
better than a lawn, and are less troubled by curculio, 
the shy insects being oftener disturbed there. If set 
on a lawn, pruning must be deftly done to prevent 
unsightly scragginess as the trees become old. I name 
Lombard, Wild Goose, Miner, and leave the other two 
to local choice. The Japans are promising. Pissard 
is a beautiful and rare lawn object when pruned 
closely every year ; but that leaves little chance for 
fruit, of which, at the best, it yields but little. Of 
apples, the following will please in trim, erect figure, 
and in fruit: Red Astrachan, Early Joe, Ewalt, Win¬ 
ter Sweet, Paradise, Jonathan. 
Of the taller-growing shrubs, or low trees, I name 
the Viburnum plicatum, the lilacs, Mock Orange, 
Hydrangea paniculata, Double-flowering hawthorn 
and a climbing rose on a suitable frame, which may 
be hinged at the ground so as to lie flat, and so pre¬ 
serve the annual young flowering shoots under the 
snow in severe climates. The rose being the queen of 
flowers, merits this extra care. The Baltimore Belle, 
or Queen of the Prairie or the new Crimson Rambler 
would suit. They show best from some rather distant 
point of view. The common elder, selected for large 
leaves and fruit, and kept well pruned, is well worthy 
of place. Among small shrubs, there is a crowd of 
qualified competitors. I name Spirae Bumaldi, Cornus 
elegantissima (albo marginata). Variegated snowberry, 
Flowering almond (or the Variegated corchorus), and 
such a rose as La France or the dwarfer Clothilde 
Soupert, both to be mulched over the roots with ma¬ 
nure, and the tops wrapped up as a measure of security 
—doing this towards Christmas after the surface soil 
freezes. Of deciduous trees, not over large and reliable 
up to latitude 42 degrees, a good native mulberry, 
Paragon chestnut, Richmond cherry, Japan lilac. 
Catalpa speciosa, Dyehouse cherry or Montmorency 
would serve here, or a choice of Siberian crabs. Of 
evergreens, Abies Nordmanniana and White spruce, 
Swedish juniper, Siberian arbor vitae, and the Tree box 
would make a varied collection, the Box being safest 
in some shaded corner. If the shrubs are grouped to¬ 
gether in a corner bed, or otherwise out of the way of 
lawn mowing, the dwarfest to the front, many bright 
herbaceous plants may be placed among them, and 
on the outer line, such as sorts of paeonies, phloxes, 
woodruff, lilies, Japan anemones, hollyhocks, violets, 
ranunculus, dicentra, veronica, etc. w. G. 
A MODEL STABLE FOR COWS. 
PURE AIR THROUGH A NEW ENGLAND WINTER. 
With the present agitation for better hygienic 
stabling for dairy cows, the consequent remodeling 
of many old stables, and the building of new ones by 
progressive dairymen, anything in this line that has 
the advantage of being both healthful for the occu¬ 
pants, and convenient in caring for them, is especially 
GROUND PLAN OF COW BARN. Fig. 107. 
timely. A model cow stable of this kind is one 
designed and built by Mr. Geo. L. Clemence of South- 
bridge, Mass. Having now been in use for several 
years, it has proved to be exceptionally well adapted 
to the use for which it was designed—the healthful 
stabling and economical keeping of a herd of cows 
kept for the production of a wholesome milk supply 
for a retail trade in the neighboring village. 
Fig. 106 shows the stable and old barn to which it 
is attached on the south side. The length is 80 feet, 
width 40 feet; it has eight-foot posts, and a monitor 
roof which has windows on both sides of its entire 
length. At the south end, is a glass door opening to 
a feed floor 10 feet in width, and running the whole 
length of the stable, where there is another door 
opening on to the floor of the main barn. Fig. 107 
shows the floor plan of both stable and barn. Where 
the stable and barn join, there is a stone partition 
wall 14 inches thick, and extending the whole height 
and width of the stable. The sliding door through 
this partition, being covered with shee t iron, the 
whole is designed as a fire check in case the main barn 
should take fire from any cause, thus giving time to 
run the cows out through the doors at the other end 
of the stable. 
Fig 108 gives a view of the interior of the stable 
looking south from the door opening into the main 
barn. The floor from stanchion to stanchion is 13 
feet in width, the mangers occupying 11% feet on 
each side, leaving a clear floorway of 10 feet in width. 
The width of each side from the stanchions back is 
13 feet, divided into a five-foot floor for the cows to 
stand, a two-foot gutter for manure, and the rest for 
a walk. There is a passageway at present at the 
center, where one stanchion is left out. The sides of 
the stable are studded, boarded, sheathed with build¬ 
ing paper, and clapboarded on the outside ; on the in¬ 
side, it is sheathed up about four feet high, then 
lathed and plastered. The rafters are 2x8 lathed and 
plastered on the under side over the cattle, and the 
roof is double-boarded, with a three-inch space be¬ 
tween the boarding filled with sifted coal ashes to 
keep out the heat in summer and the cold in winter. 
The roof of the stable is covered with steel roofing. The 
roof of the monitor is sheathed on the inside as shown 
in Fig. 108. The round holes in the ceiling are the 
openings into the galvanized iron ventilator which 
are always kept open. The windows in the sides of 
the monitor, are hung to swing open as shown in Fig. 
108; they are held shut or open at any angle, by elbow- 
jointed irons, as shown, which are operated with a 
long staff from the floor. 
Each one of the round-headed posts at the front of 
the manger divisions, is hollow, and has four or five 
tliree-fourths-inch holes opening on the side facing 
the floor; the bottoms of these posts are connected 
with a tight wooden spout running through under 
the floor, and having an opening through the outside 
walls of the building. This spout is provided with a 
trap, so that, in very windy days, the supply of air 
passing up through these posts can b e regulated With 
this arrangement, and the swing ing windows, the sup¬ 
ply of air, as well as the temperature, is regulated. 
In winter, the aim is to keep the temperature at as 
near 56 degrees as possible. 
Under the stable, is a cellar for manure, and under 
each manure gutter, is a wooden conductor so placed 
as to catch and carry off into a brick tank built for 
the purpose, most of the liquid manure. 
Between every other pair of studs in the sides of 
the building, is a ventilating shaft running up from 
an opening in the cellar near the sills, up through the 
roof between the rafters, and opening into the iron 
ventilators. The warm air passing up through these 
creates a draft which carries off all smells from the 
stored manure in the cellar. The cows stand upon a 
raised platform about six inches higher than the bot¬ 
tom of the manure. This platform is made next the 
stanchions, where the forefeet of the cows come, of 
short pieces of boards and plank, all cut of a length 
and set on end on the under plaDk floor, the first 
course being nailed to the side of the bottom stanchion 
timber, and the next to the first course, breaking 
joints, and so on until the whole extends back 18 
inches or so ; the whole, when finished, resembles the 
end of a bunch of shingles. The rear end of the plat¬ 
form is made of plank laid flat, as shown in 4, Fig. 109, 
while 5 shows a sectional view of the platform. 
The first floor plank on the back edge of the manure 
gutter, see 6, Fig. 109, is hinged so as to turn back, 
as it is at A, 7, to allow of the manure being easily 
scraped through into the cellar below with a common 
garden hoe. The hinge is made of cast iron, and is a 
complete half circle, so that, when the scuttle, is 
closed down, it is down out of the way of the cow’s 
feet, and also back where the urine does not get at it 
so as to cause it to rust. 
The small additions at the angles where the stable 
joins the main barn, are covered stairways from the 
stable to the cellar under the main barn, and were 
originally intended for the cows to pass through to 
the cellar for exercise. But it was found in use to be 
too much of a change in temperature, from the com¬ 
paratively warm stable to the damp cellar, and a 
tight-covered shed, with glass roof, has been built 
this winter, adjoining the southeast end of the stable, 
where the cows can be turned for exercise. 
The cows are tied in the Smith swing stanchion, 
and watered with the Buckley watering device, the 
water supply being pumped to a tank with a wind¬ 
mill, and passing from the tank through a supply 
pipe that is coiled around the steam heater in the 
dwelling-house cellar, which warms it to about 80 
degrees. The main barn now has a common pitched 
roof, but Mr. Clemence intends next year, when it 
needs reshingling, to put on a roof as shown in Fig. 
