442 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 26, 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Fischer’s Purity Freesia. —Last year 
Rudolph Fischer, Great Neck. L. I., of¬ 
fered under the name of Purity a new and 
particularly free-flowering Freesia. evi¬ 
dently developed by long selection from 
the commercial Freesia refracta. so ex¬ 
tensively grown by florists for Winter 
bloom Corms were procured in August 
for trial on the Rural Grounds, and potted 
up about the end of the month, placing 
three each in six-inch pots of rich but 
very light compost. The pots were kept 
outside, exposed to the weather until frost 
threatened, receiving no care further than 
weeding and regular watering. Sprouts 
appeared in November after housing under 
glass in an average temperature of 60 
degrees, and the plants grew so vigorously 
that at blooming time in January they 
were over 20 inches high, with many 
branching flower scapes. The three plants 
in the best pot opened 218 perfect blooms, 
and none fell below 195 blooms to the 
pot. Some of the best branches had 11 
fine blooms, though the average Freesia 
does not often bear more than five or 
six to a branch or axis. The individual 
flowers were large, well-rounded and of 
a very good white color, with scarcely a 
trace of the common and objectionable yel¬ 
low in the throat. The fragrance was 
pleasing, but much fainter than in most 
florists’ Freesias. The strong growth and 
extreme abundance of bloom makes this 
a very desirable variety, though it is 
scarcely' as pure in coloring, nor as rich¬ 
ly fragrant, as best strains of the usual 
type. The originator says that Purity may 
be grown to cut stems two feet long. The 
effect of the long sprays of graceful 
blooms is very pleasing. There is little 
doubt concerning the value of this fine 
new Freesia for greenhouse use and for 
the window garden as well. 
Freesias, Old and New. —The Freesia 
is native to the Cape of Good Hope and 
has been in cultivation nearly 100 years, 
being always much appreciated for the 
distinct horizontal manner its pretty little 
trumpet-formed blooms are carried, and 
their pleasing apricot perfume that appears 
to be liked by everyone. Quite a number 
of varieties have been developed by culti¬ 
vation from the original Freesia refracta, 
which appears to have often been of un¬ 
pleasing greenish or sulphurous shades, 
and to have few flowers on a raceme or 
axis, and these much bulged in the tube 
or twisted about so as to point different 
ways. The effort in breeding always 
has been toward pure white, symmetrically 
formed and fragrant blooms, evenly ar¬ 
ranged on the axis. The best results of 
this long and rigid selection are sold 
under the general name of F. refracta 
alba. Millions of the tooth-shaped bulbs 
or corms are grown in Italy, Holland and 
California and sold during late Summer 
to florists for Winter blooms. There is 
always a tendency to revert to the original 
yellow, which, indeed, can usually be 
traced in the form of a more or less pro¬ 
nounced orange blotch in the throat of 
even the whitest specimen. California- 
grown corms appear to be the greatest of¬ 
fenders in this line, the per cent of off¬ 
color blooms rising quite high even where 
carefully grown. The strong Pacific Coast 
sunlight is blamed for this persistence of 
objectionable coloring, but at any rate the 
foreign stocks appear more reliable_ in 
this respect. A very vigorous yellow-tint¬ 
ed variety, known as F. Leichtlini, was 
discovered some years ago in an Italian 
botanic garden, and is now quite a fa¬ 
vorite in the mail trade for window gar¬ 
den purposes, but is seldom used by flor¬ 
ists, who want the whitest blooms they 
can get. F. Leichtlini has many and large 
blooms, though not highly perfumed, and 
being of good constitution is easily grown. 
F. atirea is almost distinct enough to be 
considered a separate species. It is a 
small plant, producing rather bell-shaped 
orange or lemon yellow, scentless blooms, 
much twisted about on the axis. It has 
been used with good effect in producing, 
by hybridization, clear yellow varieties oc¬ 
casionally offered by seedsmen. Italian 
growers catalogue pink, purple and rose 
varieties of F. refracta. We have im¬ 
ported and grown about all, and find the 
colors too faint and washy to be attrac¬ 
tive. 
A New Pink Species. —Up to four 
years ago botanists regarded all known 
varieties of Freesia as belonging to the 
one variable species, F. refracta. but a 
very distinct pink or lilac-flowered kind 
having been found in Cape Colony, it was 
given the name of F. Armstrongi. It 
is still very scarce, small corms costing 
75 cents each in Europe. Some speci¬ 
mens were received at the Rural Grounds 
from a Holland dealer, but they turned 
out to be diseased, and never started into 
growth. Later two corms, fresh from an 
African collector, were sent over by the 
dealer, and one started its first leaf in 
February, opening its blooms late in April. 
It makes a neat plant, about a foot high. 
The leaves are small and darker green 
than those of F. refracta. The flowers 
are considerably smaller in size and of a 
bright and pleasing rosy lilac with yellow 
throat and blotch. The fragrance is char¬ 
acteristic. but much less pronounced than 
in our familiar varieties. This plant bore 
32 blooms on five branches, many were 
open at the same time, and made a good 
decorative effect. We pollenized the flow¬ 
ers with the best examples of F. refracta 
at hand, but this crossing has already been 
made in Holland, and the offspring has 
even been exhibited under the name of 
Freesia Tubergeni. The hybrid is said to 
be very fine; the blooms large and freely 
produced, of a very acceptable pink shade 
with conspicuous yellow throat, while the 
rich fragrance of Refracta is well re¬ 
tained. Florists say colored Freesias are 
never likely to be useful for their pur¬ 
poses. but they will certainly be wanted 
by amateurs and window gardeners. 
Freesia Armstrongi is a very welcome ad¬ 
dition to our short list of fragrant Winter¬ 
blooming plants, and its hybrids are cer¬ 
tain of great appreciation, if they are real 
improvements on the species. 
A Superb Clematis. —Fig. 175, first 
page, though much reduced in size, gives 
a good idea of the effect of a cluster of 
large-flowered Clematis blooms in almost 
any light-colored variety. The illustra¬ 
tion is of Clematis lanuginosa, variety 
Henryi, one of the oldest and most gen¬ 
erally successful of the hybrid group. C. 
lanuginosa is a native of China, and with 
the exception of C. caerulea, of Nippon. 
Japan, has given rise to more really desir¬ 
able varieties than any other of the very 
numerous Clematis species. Imported 
plants are often infected with the trouble¬ 
some Clematis disease, but home-grown 
plants, propagated by cuttings instead of 
grafting on succulent-rooted species, are 
usually healthy and reliable. They should 
be planted where possible, in cool, moist 
loam, well-enriched and deeply worked. 
Care should be taken to spread the roots 
out well, and work the soil between them. 
Jamming the brittle roots into a bunch re¬ 
sults in almost certain failure. After-care 
consists chiefly in training the young 
growth on a suitable trellis and applying 
every Fall a liberal mulch of stable ma¬ 
nure that may be allowed to remain all 
Winter. Do not bother about the compli¬ 
cated direction for pruning different varie¬ 
ties of Clematis that appear in florists’ 
papers. Cut out all dead or obviously 
weak wood when growth has well started 
in Spring, and you will be rewarded with 
fine blooms if your plants are strong and 
healthy. Henryi is very desirable to plant 
as a relief to the gorgeous but somewhat 
funereal deep purple C. Jackmani. 
_ W. v. F. 
Killing Chickweed. —I have a piece of 
nice corn land that is getting overrun with 
chickweed. Frost does not kill it. It will 
grow till the weather gets very cold in the 
Fall. It looked green and thrifty till Christ¬ 
mas this year. The seed are very small and 
lots of them and they all grow. What can I 
do to kill this weed? l. b. 
Massachusetts. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y and you'll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
DISTRIBUTE 
INSECTICIDES 
IN DUST FORM 
saving Fruit and Vegetable Crops when other 
methods fail. 
Leggett’s Dusters 
NO BARREL OF WATER TO HAUL 
lFGGETT’S Two Acres of Potatoes 
dusted per hour. 
CHAMPION Several styles for 
GARDEN, 
FIELD 
OR 
ORCHARD 
Our spray Calendar Kives concise information regarding 
Dusters and Materials. Mailed on request. 
Leggett & Bro., 301 Pearl St., New York. 
SPRAY MATERIAL 
BERRY BASKETS 
AND CRATES. 
Everythin!! for planting, 
growing, harvesting and 
marketing truit. Write us 
to-day and let us quote you 
a special price on what you 
need. The Powerful Rarrel 
Pump shown here can be at¬ 
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only $4.95. Send for our 
catalogue of trees, plants, 
vines and everything need¬ 
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of Green’s Big Fruit Grower Magazine. 
GREEN’S NURSERY CO., 
105 Wall Street* 
Rochester, N. Y. 
Spray Your Potato Vines 
INCREASE THE YIELD AND DOUBLE YOUR 
PROFITS BY KEEPING THE GROWING 
PLANTS FREE FROM BUGS AND BLIGHT. 
The Aspinwall Row Sprayer 
possesses every requisite for effective work; it is substantially made, 
has a wide range of adjustment and is up-to-date in every respect. 
We are acknowledged headquarters for 
POTATO MACHINERY 
THE WORLD OVER. We have 
made a specialty of the manufac¬ 
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the past twenty-five years, making 
a full line, consisting of 
CUTTERS, 
PLANTERS, 
SPRAYERS, 
DIGGERS, 
SORTERS. 
Write for our Catalogue. 
ASPINWALL MFG. CO., 
159 Sabin St.. Jackson, Mich. 
U. S. A. 
rs 
Spraying Easy 
In addition to our famous line 
of chain driven and gasoline en¬ 
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two new styles for 1906. 
Style N is our model low priced 
outfit, used in connection 
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Style N. 
is the regular Wallace 
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We are in position to quote low prices 
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our Standard and Duplex Sprayers which 
cost nothing for operating power. Write 
for book of details. Address. 
WALLACE MACHINERY CO., Champaign, Ills. 
Style M. 
HURST 
POTATO 
SPRAYER 
on FREE TRIAL 
The Hurst Sprayer “Srays RTerjthinp,” Potatoes, Truck, etc., 4 rows at a 
time, 20 acres a day. Even 2-acre growers say, “Pays itself lirst season" as it 
has iomany uses. Can be adjusted to spray anything, a3 the spray arms can be 
raised or lowered, or set at any angle desired. Can easily be adjusted for Or¬ 
chard Spraying, by simply removing spray arms, and you have a very conven¬ 
ient Orchard Sprayer that can be wheeled anywhere. 
All the working parts are made of Brass. Has High Pressure, and delivers 
a Fog like spray that penetrate* to every part of the foliage. Has perfect agita¬ 
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pattern Strainer Cleaner, which keeps strainer clean at all times, and prevents 
clogging. Fitted with Vermoral Nozzles. 
Runs very easy, a Boy 16 years old can operate it with ease. Horse Hitch 
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Mr. Peter Speer, of Allwood Fruit Farms, Passaig, N.J.,under date of June 7, 
writes: “I am very much pleased with >our PotatoandOrchard Sprayer,and its work. 7t is a great machine for the farmer 
and Fruit Growers, as it is adapted to E\ery Kind of spraying and you have itall in one machine." 
FIRST ORDER where we have no agent gets Wholesale Price, or we will take extra yield one acre our pay. Sent 
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locality can be easily earned by giving us a little of your help in advertising. Write today for our most liberal terms. 
Est. 12 Years H. L. HURST MFG. CO., 1530 North .Street CANTON, O. 
^Auto-Spray 
4 gal. tank, brass pump, operates by 
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cleans nozzle every time used; saves 
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Catalog free. Good agents wanted. 
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28 Jay St., Rocheater, N. Y. 
The Deyo Air-Cooled 
MOUNTED SPRAYING OUTFIT, 
lVs and H. P.. light in weight, no water required to 
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Write for Catalog No. 5. 
H. H. DEYO & CO., Uingtmiulou, New York, 
The 
WATSON 
Four Row 
Sprayer 
>vers 30 to 40 acres per 
. Straddles 2 rows, 
at a time. Wheels 
different widths, 
gearing of pump to wheel of 
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Self-contained, simple, light, pract¬ 
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200 Depot St. 
SALEM, OHIO. 
