898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 16, 
' NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
The Top-Notch. —The unusual suc¬ 
cesses in distant lands of Gladiolus prin- 
ceps, originated 10 years ago on the Rural 
Grounds, have been from time to time re¬ 
corded. The great size, beauty and dis¬ 
tinction of its blooms, and its unexampled 
vigor of constitution, enabling it to suc¬ 
ceed under diverse conditions, have made 
it a favorite subject for exhibition in all 
localities, and appear to have secured for 
it everywhere the highest honors. The 
list of certificates, honors and awards, in¬ 
cluding that of a gold medal at the late 
St. Louis World’s Fair, is now too long 
for publication. Possibly we most appre¬ 
ciate, as originators, the First Class Cer¬ 
tificate of Merit, recently awarded by the 
Societe Nationale d’ Horticulture de 
France, regarding it as about the top- 
notch of foreign commendation. Not that 
the French National Horticultural Society 
is more distinguished than similar bodies 
in other countries, but that France may 
usually be considered the very fountain of 
all that is novel and exquisite in the gar¬ 
den Gladiolus, thus pitting Princeps 
against the keenest possible competition. 
Most of the numberless named varieties 
now in commerce first came to light in 
the famed nurseries of Souchet of Ver¬ 
sailles and Lemoine of Nancy. The breed¬ 
ing of the Gladiolus in a large way, as a 
garden decorative plant, runs back in 
France more than 60 years, and with rare 
exceptions the world’s choicest new varie¬ 
ties still come from French growers. We 
take it as high honor, indeed, that such 
appreciation of our product should come 
from this source. More Gladiolus bulbs 
of good quality are perhaps grown in the 
United States than any other country, but 
few desirable varieties originate here. 
Great Britain and Germany also produce 
Gladioli in quantity, but all fall behind 
France in the actual development of this 
most popular of Summer-blooming bulb¬ 
ous plants. 
A Brilliant Autumn.— The copious 
rain of November 29 apparently terminates 
the most remarkable Autumn drought we 
have experienced in New Jersey. Sep¬ 
tember and October were almost rainless, 
and it remained for the extreme closing 
days of November to bring a precipita¬ 
tion sufficient fairly to moisten the soil. 
This long interval has been a practically 
continuous succession of brilliant sunny 
days. The usual October gales passed us 
by, allowing corn to stand upright to the 
last, and our slim crop of late orchard 
fruits to hang to full maturity. Owing to 
the complete saturation of the soil in Au¬ 
gust by heavy and continued rains there 
has been little local inconvenience from 
the drought, though elsewhere wells and 
springs have failed, and cattle have suf¬ 
fered for lack of water. There has. of 
course, been some interference with Fall 
seeding, but the few transient showers 
came in so timely that the wideawake 
farmer suffered small inconvenience. It 
is pleasant to note the firm and gradual 
ripening of tree and plant growth. Young 
peach and apple trees held their foliage 
until the second week in November, not¬ 
withstanding frequent sharp frosts and 
temperatures, on two occasions as low as 
14 and 18 degrees above zero. The new 
growth, now that the twigs are finally 
bare, looks firm and bright. 
Strawberry Plants Well Matured.— 
The continued dry. cool and sunny 
weather has matured strawberry plants 
to an unusual degree for the season, 
coloring the foliage deep crimson. There 
has been marked absence of late and un¬ 
timely blooms, so that we may regard the 
crowns as being in the best possible con¬ 
dition for their Winter rest. Successful 
growers all mulch heavily, but greatly 
prefer coarse manure from city stables to 
the local supply, as being less likely to 
contain weed and grass seeds. This is 
applied as soon as the ground is well 
frozen; not that growers generally con¬ 
sider early covering harmful, but to avoid 
cutting up the beds with team and heavily 
loaded wagon. There was a consider¬ 
able loss of old plants from excessive heat 
following the ripening of the berries in 
early July, as noted at the time, but the 
vacancies were tolerably well filled by 
new layers during our rainy August. The 
conditions have seldom been more favor¬ 
able for fall nursery work, and the trans¬ 
planting of trees, shrubs and hardy plants 
generally. There was sufficient moisture 
in the deeper iayers of the soil to safe¬ 
guard dormant trees and plants when pro¬ 
perly and firmly set. while the continuous 
fine weather and relative absence of dry¬ 
ing winds made the work exceptionally 
pleasant and effective. The present soak¬ 
ing rain should well settle the soil about 
the roots of new plantings, and favor the 
healing of wounds and the starting of the 
necessary new root growth. 
Too Bright For Vegetables. —The ex¬ 
cess of sunlight, while altogether favor¬ 
able for outside work, has been rather 
trying to glasshouse cultivators, pushing 
their crops ahead too rapidly. Roses, 
carnations and violets have grown and 
bloomed splendidly under the stimulating 
sunshine and fuel bills have been corre¬ 
spondingly reduced, but this is pre¬ 
eminently the Chrysanthemum season and 
the market for other and choicer blooms 
has not been the best Vegetable glass¬ 
house growers have been at even worse 
disadvantage, as their first crop of radish¬ 
es, lettuce, spinach etc., are usually timed 
for Thanksgiving week, when demand and 
prices promise good returns. These crops, 
in many instances, had to be marketed 
before the middle of the month, and in 
many cases failed to show much 
profit, although the cost of production 
was unusually light. Tomatoes, cucum¬ 
bers. bush beans and similar sun-loving 
plants have hugely profited by the bril¬ 
liant weather, and are in splendid condi¬ 
tion where well cultivated. Bush or 
string beans are rarely grown under 
glass for market in this locality, but most 
private greenhouses put in a bench or two 
during the Winter for home use. The 
greenhouse Aleyrodes or white fly is now 
generally prevalent, and greatly troubles 
growers of the above broad-leaved plants. 
Fumigation with tobacco and spraying 
with weak solutions of laundry soap are 
partial cures, but hydrocyanic gas fumi¬ 
gation seems the only really practical 
remedy. 
The Isabella Grape.— Fig. 410, page 
895, shows the decorative effect of an 
Isabella grapevine trained on the rear of 
a cottage on the Rural Grounds. This 
vine was planted 11 years ago, and made 
strong growth from the start, producing 
a few bunches of grapes the third year, 
and over 150 pounds the sixth season. 
Since then the annual crop has not been 
weighed, but is estimated at 200 pounds, 
two families freely using the grapes from 
the time they color in late September 
until the last and highest clusters are 
picked about November 1. Two years 
ago it was necessary to close-prune the 
vine and lay it down to repaint the 
dwelling, and the opportunity was uti¬ 
lized to cover the clapboards with good 
quality cedar shingles so that paint and 
rough treatment to the vine will not be 
needed in the future. The highest cane is 
something over 20 feet from the ground 
and, having a western exposure so that 
the fruits are well baked by the afternoon 
sun, always bears the sweetest and best 
flavored grapes. No fertilizing or cul¬ 
ture has been given this vine since planting, 
the base, now several inches in diameter, 
being allowed to grow in sod, but an 
explanation of its vigorous and continued 
growth may be found in the unusually 
thorough preparation of soil before plant¬ 
ing. The excavation for the cellar was 
not symmetrical, and when the foundation 
with its accurately square corners was 
laid up a crevice, varying from six to 20 
inches wide and six feet deep, centering 
at the southwest corner and extending 
some distance along the side and end of 
the building, was left outside the wall. 
This we filled from the bottom with good 
topsoil, mixed with about one-fifth old 
manure and several quarts of ground bone. 
A half bushel of large old bones and a 
barrow load of wood ashes and burned 
earth were put in as the filling progressed, 
and the vine, a good two year specimen 
with the roots freshly pruned, was firmly 
planted. The soil is sandy loam of mod¬ 
erate fertility with coarse sandy subsoil 
running down to water, 28 feet below. 
The vine probably gets some benefit from 
the small quantity of fertilizer occasionally 
applied to the lawn, but must chiefly rely 
on the gathering powers of the extensive 
root system developed by the deeply 
worked soil. 
If there is a better grape for the pur¬ 
pose of continued shade, decoration and 
fruit bearing in this locality we do not 
know it. We have many varieties, but 
Isabella carries the ripening season of 
first quality grapes to the period of hard 
freezing, and bears more than any 10 
other kinds planted at the same time. 
Isabella is not flawless in vine or fruit. 
Occasionally some leaves mildew, black 
rot gets at the shaded clusters, and white 
“skippers” have prematurely browned 
portions of the foliage during dry 
Autumn weather. All grape lovers are 
not fond of the distinctive Isabella flavor, 
but when the berries are well grown and 
thoroughly ripened by the reflected heat 
of south or west walls, we prefer them to 
those t of any other variety, native or 
exotic.- It is useless to expect good 
Isabella grapes from close-pruned or low 
trellised vines. Let the canes run high 
over walls, roofs or trees, pruning only 
enough to remove weak and useless shoots, 
and to bring the actual fruiting spurs 
down to three or four buds. w. v. F. 
REEN PEAS should be treated 
with a fertilizer containing a 
high percentage of Potash, in order 
to get the healthiest, fullest pods. 
“Truck Farming” and “Plant Food” 
are two practical books for the farmer, 
which we mail free of any cost or ob¬ 
ligation to those who write for them. 
They contain valuable facts about 
truck-gardening as a profitable business. 
Address. GERMAN KALI WORKS, 93 Nassau St., New York 
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