22 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 14, 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
A Promising New Potato. —Forty 
years ago the well-known seed house of 
J. M. Thorburn & Co., New York City, 
introduced the widely popular White 
Peachblow potato, long a standard for 
profitable yields and exquisite table qual¬ 
ity. The Peachblow in its day was uni¬ 
versally admired for the delicate flush of 
its pale, rosy skin, and the floury white¬ 
ness of its flesh when boiled. In time 
it was displaced by the new and vigor¬ 
ous Early Rose and its horde of de¬ 
scendants, but connoisseurs in potato qual¬ 
ity have always retained a hankering for 
the Peachblow type, and it has here and 
there been carefully retained. Now Thor¬ 
burn & Co. offer Noroton Beauty, a seed¬ 
ling in the second degree, raised in Ver¬ 
mont, of the famous White Peachblow. 
Great claims are made for this newcomer 
as the earliest and best highly productive 
variety. Planted in northern New York, 
May 14, they were in splendid condition 
for the table July 14. It seems to be an 
unusually good keeper for so early a vari¬ 
ety, holding its fine eating quality through 
Winter and Spring far into the next 
Summer. We can testify to the fine 
flavor and crisp sparkling texture of this 
potato, either baked or boiled, even when 
kept so warm as to start growth and 
shrivel the skip. Fig. 11, page 18, shows 
a tuber of average size and characteristic 
roundish form. The color is white, some¬ 
times light russet, slightly splashed with 
pink, with pinkish eyes. 
The British Potato Boom. —The Brit¬ 
ish boom in potato novelties apparently 
remains at fever heat. It is of course im¬ 
possible to keep up the extraordinary 
prices received for certain new kinds, 
amounting in one published instance to 
$800 for a single pound, but a host of 
new kinds is offered for trial at an average 
of $5 the pound. So plentiful are the 
newcomers that the London Fruiterer and 
Market Gardener has a continued series 
of descriptions, running through many 
numbers like a serial story. Almost every 
potato virtue is claimed for the new kinds 
in the way of vigor, yield and freedom 
from disease, but nothing is said about 
the quality, for the very good reason that 
nobody can afford to try them—they are 
too expensive to eat until they become 
more plentiful. Northern Star, one of the 
high-priced novelties of last year, has been 
tested for cooking quality by disinterested 
experts and found quite tolerable. It is 
now offered in quantity at $50 to $60 a 
ton. El Dorado, the kind that brought 
the record price, as above stated, is now 
quite plentiful, as every form of intensive 
propagation and culture was used to in¬ 
crease the stock. There are no reports of 
its quality, and dealers, while endorsing 
its great productiveness, are shy about 
publishing prices. The yields of this 
variety as reported run from 150 to 300 
pounds from the pound of seed tubers 
under the best cultural conditions. One 
grower reported 1,400 pounds from one 
pound of seed of El Dorado, and another 
the astonishing yield erf 1,700 pounds from 
one pound of the American (Vermont) 
Gold Coin. 
"Intensive” Propagation Not So Bad. 
—Most of the growers of these costly new 
varieties apparently believe, or at least 
would like to believe, that no great in¬ 
jury is likely to come from the extreme 
methods of cultivation employed to gain 
increase of plants and promote heavy 
yields. Every method known to expert 
gardeners, such as propagation from slips 
or “draws” and cuttings of the young 
shoots have been largely employed, and 
some experiments reported tending to 
show that little or no apparent weakness 
or degeneration of vitality is noticed as 
the result of a single season’s intensive 
propagation and culture. They claim that 
when a variety is young—only a few 
generations from the seed—there can be 
little harm from forced and rapid multi¬ 
plication, but as the varieties age more 
conservative methods will be needed, and 
will naturally follow. This is not particu¬ 
larly convincing in the light of the im¬ 
mense experience acquired by propaga¬ 
tors of all sorts of plants grown by arti¬ 
ficial division. It seems to us that very 
premature senility is likely to follow 
such wholesale overstimulation of plant 
life. 
Beans for Poultry. —Some experience 
with beans as poultry food will be found 
on page 15. It is to be expected that 
beans or peas, with their high percentage 
of digestible protein, should be especially 
adapted for egg-production when fed to 
hens in fair proportion with the neces¬ 
sary fat and heat-producing materials, 
but as a rule they are too scarce and 
costly to be widely used for the purpose. 
Marketable beans and peas will usually 
sell, weight for weight, for two or three 
times the price of corn or even wheat. 
If fair quality cull beans or peas can be 
had at anything near the price of grain 
there can be little doubt of their useful¬ 
ness. The Rural Grounds fowls have 
never acquired a liking for ordinary large 
dry beans or peas, but will readily eat 
them cooked in a mash. They have, how¬ 
ever, learned to harvest cow peas and 
Soy beans, both small-seeded Asiatic 
beans, with much enthusiasm, and invari¬ 
ably with a welcome increase in egg out¬ 
put. While it is problematical if the or¬ 
dinary kinds of table beans can profitably 
be grown for poultry food, we feel sure 
it pays to grow cow peas or Soy beans 
in congenial localities for the double pur¬ 
pose of soil improvement and hen feed¬ 
ing. Several notes to this effect have 
appeared in Ruralisms in the past years, 
but evidently failed to make impression. 
The last three Summers have been too 
cool in our locality to grow such heat- 
loving plants to advantage; nevertheless 
we have not omitted annual plantings. The 
hens get the benefit of the protein in 
the seeds, and the soil that of the nitro¬ 
gen in the stover and root tubercles. 
Aside from the intrinsic food value of the 
beans our fowls get much wholesome ex¬ 
ercise in shelling the tough pods, an oper¬ 
ation not so easy for the beak of a hen 
as might be imagined. They haunt the 
sowings during their exercise hours from 
the appearance of the first ripe pod until 
the last bean is secured, often far into 
Winter. Had we more space for these 
excellent soil improvers and forage plants 
we would store the ripe stover, beans and 
all, for their Winter scratching material. 
Our planting this season was limited to 
about 100 feet of Iron cow pea, put in 
late in May to fill out a vacant row among 
bulb trials. They grew with considerable 
vigor, making a fine show of the blue- 
green foliage characteristic of this variety, 
which seems to endure low temperatures 
better than most other kinds. A sudden 
increase in egg production in October led 
us to look over the foraging ground of the 
hens, and we found them methodically at 
work, splitting the ripening pods to get 
at the coveted beans. Water must be 
freely supplied to hens during these cow- 
pea forays, as the dry seeds are verv ab¬ 
sorbent, and quickly induce thirst. Poul¬ 
try keepers having access to good land 
where cow peas or Soy beans will grow 
will make no mistake in planting these 
crops for the benefit of laying hens. Both 
have their merits, but the cow pea suits 
our soil and locality the better, w. V. F. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
Red Chief 
Combined Corn 
and 
Pop-Corn Shelter 
(Patented) 
Best hand sheller 
made. Closed hopper, 
can’t pinch fingers, 
adjusts for any size 
ear. 
SHELLS EVERY GRAIN 
and cracks none. Always throws cob outside the vessel. 
Clainps to barrel, keg or straight edge box. Pop-corn 
attachment quickly applied, shells perfectly. Small 
extra cost. Special farmers’ offer and circular free. 
BRINLY-HARDY CO., 253 Main Street, Louisville, Ky. 
A MAN SAVED 
BY USING A FOLDING SAWING MACHINE. 
On. man can aaw more 
wood with it than two 
In any other way and 
do it easier. O CORDS 
IN 10 HOURS. Saws 
any wood on any 
ground. Saws trees 
down. Catalog free. 
First order secures agency. 
Folding Sawing Mach. Co., 16 So. Clinton St., Chicago, Ill. 
I Med R S ’MEND-A-RIP" 
r with I Does all kinds of Light and Heavy Stitching 
“ — Does all kinds 
light and 
heavy riveting 
^Will Save tub Pbici of Itself 
Many Times a Year. A Perfect 
Hand Sewing Machine and Riveter combined 
To Show it Mean* a Sale. Agents 
make from $8 to $15 a day* One 
___ agent made |20 first day and writes to hurry 
more machines to him. Write for special agents’ prioe. 
JMJ.IToote Foundry Co., Fredericktown, O* 
The Great Agents Supply House . 
CURES WHERE ALL ELSE FAILS 
Best Cough Syrup. Tastes Good. 
Use in time. Sold by druggists. 
CONSUMPTION 
INDRUROID 
ROOFING 
Krrquires no Coating or 
Paint. 
Acid and Alkali Proof. 
JBlastic and Pliable 
Always. 
Strong and Tough. 
Absolutely Water Proof. 
Climatic Changes Do Not 
Affect It. 
Practically Fire Proof. 
Can IJn Used on Steep or 
Flat Surfaces. 
Any Workman Can Put 
It On. 
No Odor. 
Will Not Shrink or Crack 
Light iu Weight. 
Does Not Taint Water. 
Write for samples, prices and 
circulars. 
H. F. WATSON CO. 
KRLE. PA. 
Chicago, Poston. 
Mention R.N.-Y. 
’of the BEERY BIT 
TOUR OITS IN ONE 
Cure. Kickers, Kunawaye, Cullers, 
shvcrs, efe. Send for Bit on ten 
Pay.’ Trial and circular showing 
the four distinct ways of using it. 
A Lady can hold hitn. Prof. J.Q. Beery, Pleasant Hill, Ohio. 
50, 
ARE 
CORN 
GOLD 
FIELDS 
FIELDS 
to the farmer who under¬ 
stands how to feed his 
crops. Fertilizers for Corn 
must contain at least 7 
per cent, actual 
Potash 
Send for our books—they 
tell why Potash is as necessary 
to plant life as sun and rain; 
sent free, if you ask. Write 
to-dav. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS 
93 Nassau Street. New York. 
swn 
For quail, par¬ 
tridge or trap 
work the new 
Marlin 16 Gauge 
Repeating Shotgun 
is the ideal gun, and the lightest 
(6/4 lbs.)and smallest efficient re¬ 
peater made. It is not a 16 barrel 
on a 12 action, but a very fast hand¬ 
ling, finely balanced gun of great 
accuracy. Our cylinder bore gun 
for brush shooting has no equal. 
The full choked barrels are bored for 
either smokeless or black powders, and 
take heavy loads. They target better 
than 240 pellets in a 30 inch circle at 
35 yards, using one ounce I'/z chilled shot. 
You ought to know this gun. Write for full 
catalogue description. 3 stamps postage. 
The Marlin Fire Arms Co. 
157 Willow St., New Haven, Conn. 
There are only ttco classes of Root Cut¬ 
ters. There is only one in the first 
class. That one is the 
BANNERS,. 
It’s the one with the self-feed-1 
lug, shaking grate—shakes 
outall dirt,gravel,etc. Saves 
the knives and makes clean, I 
wholesome stock food. It lit- I 
erally makes ribbons of all 
roots and vegetables. 1’re- ! 
vents all choking, ltcuts fasti 
and turns easy. Thousands In I 
j Vuse and not a single com- J 
plaint. We make the Banner 
In 7 sizes for hand and power. 
Our Illustrated Catalogue j 
I tells the whole story. Ask for it- It’s Free, o 
|0. E. THOMPSON & SONS, Ypsilanti, Mich. 
Largest Root Cutter Makers in the World. 
MAPLE EVAPORATORS 
Most Durable, Most Economical, Cheapest. 
Syrup Cans and Sap Palls. 
McLANE-SCHANCK HDW. CO., Llnesvllle, Pa. 
Also, Mfrs. of the “Sunlight” Acetylene Gas Machine. 
Last year field trials were made for me, 
by i,ooo farmers, on fertilizing crops with 
Nitrate of Soda 
(The Standard Fertilizer) 
These trials show that the yield 
can be increased enormously 
by using Nitrate of Soda as a 
top dressing. 
I want i,ooo farmers to make 
trials for me this year on a por¬ 
tion of their wheat fields, I 
will supply the Nitrate of Soda 
Absolutely Free, 
if the farmer will pay transpor¬ 
tation charges. The increase in 
grain and straw will return this 
outlay many times over. 
If you cannot make the expe¬ 
riment, at least send for my bul¬ 
letin, “Food for Plants,” con¬ 
taining most valuable informa¬ 
tion on the use and value of 
fertilizers. Send name and ad¬ 
dress on POST CARD. 
WILLIAM. S. MYERS, Room 148 
12-16 John Street, New York. 
J 
OUR NEW CATALOGUE 
“HUBBARD’S FERTILIZERS FOR 1905” 
will be ready for distribution next month. It will be sent free to any address. 
ITT* YOU iVITE GrOIUGr TO USE AKTY 
COMMERCIAL 
FERTILIZERS 
next SF*R.I3\TGr, tills Book will interest you. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., 
HUBBARD’S 
MANUFACTUKEKS OF 
“BLACK DIAMOND” 
Middletown, Conn. 
FERTILIZERS 
