88 
T1IE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Pot 
lrunrv 
; Ruralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Irish Cobbt.kr a Jersf.y Potato.— 
Whik' endeavoring to trace the origin of 
the successful Irish Cobbler potato some 
time ago, we were surprised at the gen¬ 
eral ignorance concerning it among seeds¬ 
men and growers. All claimed they knew 
of it only as a not very new commercial 
early variety in greatly increased demand. 
One widely known originator and potato- 
seed grower, who might be supposed to 
be familiar with every known variety, 
wrot< that he simply knew of the exis¬ 
tence of a potato called Irish Cobbler, 
but had never seen it, and had no idea 
of how or where it came into existence! 
Later and apparently authentic informa¬ 
tion, however, places the origin of this 
money-maker in Burlington County, New 
Jersey. It appears that about 30 years ago 
an Irish shoemaker grew a plot of local 
early potatoes in his garden and noticed 
some weeks before the time of expected 
maturity, that the tops of several hills 
had died to the ground. He supposed 
the plants had blighted, or there were 
grubs at the roots. When dug, however, 
they proved t’o be well-filled with hand¬ 
some, good-sized “spuds” of very fair 
quality. Several tubers were saved and 
planted the following season, exactly re¬ 
producing themselves-—extra earliness, 
yield, vigor and other good qualities. 1 he 
variety soon became of local celebrity, and 
was later exhibited at the Mount Holly 
Fair and named “Irish Cobbler,” in honor 
of the originator. Seed tubers were sent 
to New York State and later to Aroos¬ 
took County, Maine, for propagation, and 
thence arose the impression that the vari¬ 
ety originated in New England. It ap¬ 
pears to have first’ come into prominence 
as a commercial early in Connecticut and 
Long Island, and has only lately taken its 
place as the most profitable early kind in 
Monmouth and other north Jersey coun¬ 
ties. Several false Irish Cobblers are 
said to be extant. Most or all of them 
have light pink skins. The t'rue Cobbler 
is white, but has pink sprouts. A por¬ 
trait of a good market tuber was given 
in The R. N.-Y. for October 26, 1900. 
Irish Cobbler owes its popularity mainly 
to its fine cropping qualities under good 
culture, coming in about with Early Ohio, 
but outyielding it almost two to one. 
The “Rot-Proof*’ Eldorado. —One 
prominent seedsman has the nerve to offer 
the record-breaking English potato El¬ 
dorado, which sold during the British po¬ 
tato boom two years ago for the aston¬ 
ishing price of $1250 a pound, for trial in 
this country as a rof-proof variety. It 
may be rot-proof, but such immunity can¬ 
not well be proved in a season or two. 
We grew last year a few hills of Eldo¬ 
rado from single eyes, planted in early 
June. The stems were strong, vigorous 
and well clothed with dark green foliage 
that showed no blight infection until if 
yellowed from maturity in October. The 
yield was disappointing, only a tuber or 
two not larger than an ordinary lemon 
in each hill. The trial was made on 
loamy soil of ordinary fertility enriched 
with a good commercial fertilizer at the 
rate of 1,000 pounds to the acre. The po¬ 
tatoes are roundish, smoothly netted, with 
rather deep eyes, white in color and of 
very good looking quality. If Eldorado 
is really rot-proof and will demonstrate 
it in times of stress it may prove a boon 
to growers with heavy land, provided it 
is able to yield a tolerable crop under 
ordinary culture. It has, of course, lost 
all speculative value in Europe, but is 
regarded as the most promising of the 
endless series of new kinds thrown on 
file market during the late potato fever. 
The seedsman in question does not offer 
Eldorado for sale, but single tubers as 
premiums for seed orders. In this manner 
the variety is likely to get an extended 
trial, which should be very desirable. 
The Uruguayan Potato. —Solanum 
Commersoni, and its much exploited vio¬ 
let variety had fair trial last Summer. 
Neither appeared to develop any charac¬ 
teristics that would render them desir¬ 
able except that Commersoni is a really 
ornamental (lowering plant, neat in habit 
and showy in flower, while it is at the 
same time fragrant and a most persistent 
bloomer throughout the growing season 
The tubers are few and small, light’ yellow 
in color and round in form. They are 
bitter and disagreeable in flavor when 
cooked, but are said to be readily eaten 
without harm by stock. Commersoni has 
been cultivated for many years in various 
parts of Europe without undergoing any 
appreciable modification except in the 
hands of M. Labergcrie, Vcrrieres. 
France, where it sported fo a strong- 
growing productive variety with violet- 
colored tubers. Some wonderful accounts 
have been published of the yield and im¬ 
munity from disease of this violet variety, 
and American growers welcomed an op¬ 
portunity to test it. If came last year 
when the potatoes were first offered here 
for $1.00 the pound. Our trial, which 
was reported in a late issue of I he R. 
N.-Y., showed a vigorous plant with dark 
foliage and purple blooms, with no signs 
of disease during growth, but yielding 
only a few crooked, prongy tubers of mod¬ 
erate size, with greenish flesh but fine 
cooking quality and flavor. English and 
German potato experts claim that Com¬ 
mersoni Violet is nothing but the old 
Blue Giant, a healthy but unproductive 
variety of the common potato. M. Laber- 
gerie and other French experimenters, on 
the contrary, stoutly maintain Commer¬ 
soni Violet originated as claimed and that 
it is a superior and highly promising break 
from the species. Perhaps we got Blue 
Giants to experiment with instead of the 
new kind, but the disseminator used every 
care to procure the true Commersoni Vio¬ 
let. As the matter stands it is a rather 
pretty puzzle, but there can be little doubt 
that the variety distributed in this country 
last season, whether true or false, is of 
little practical value. 
Difficult to Hybridize. —Solanum 
Commersoni has never been successfully 
hybridized with ordinary commercial po¬ 
tatoes, though innumerable attempts have 
been made. Seed balls or fruits readily 
form after application of foreign pollen, 
but they do not contain viable seeds. We 
hoped we had accomplished the trick last 
Summer, when nearly 30 plump balls 
formed after careful pollenrzation, but on 
maturity they were all found to lie seed¬ 
less. This occurs whether Commersoni is 
used as the seed or pollen parent. As a 
thousand failures in plant hybridization do 
not demonstrate impossibility it may be 
that crosses will yet be made, but enough 
is now known of the Uruguayan potato to 
show it very intractable in t'hc hands of 
plant breeders. 
Freesia Purity is again in bloom in 
the Rural Grounds’ glasshouse, and is 
even better than last year, all the plants 
grown from the larger conus carrying 
from Go to 05 buds and blooms each. 
Planted three in six-inch pots, they grow 
over 20 inches high under ordinary cool 
greenhouse treatment’, and form veritable 
hanks of bloom at this season. Fig. 34, 
page 70, represents a raceme of flowers in 
natural size, but utterly fails to convev 
an idea of the purity of color. There is a 
touch of yellow in the throats of some 
of the blooms, but the general effect’ is 
that of translucent, alabaster whiteness 
Very good specimens of commercial Free¬ 
sia refracts alba, pro wing near, look cheap 
and tawdry beside Purity, but have more 
fragrance than the latter. 'I he comnier 
cial Refractas generally have hut five fo 
seven blooms in a raceme, while those of 
Purity often open nine to 11 large flow¬ 
ers. The production of such a strain by 
prolonged breeding within the species is a 
meritorious horticultural achievement 
The originator, Mr. Rudolph Fischer 
Great Neck, L. I., is still endeavoring to 
perfect his strain, and spares no effort to 
keep it up to its present high standard. 
w. v. F 
RHODES DOUBLE OUT. 
PRUNING SHEAR 
RHODES MFC. CO. 
Cuts from 
both sides of 
limb and does 
not bruise 
the bark. 
We pay Ex¬ 
press charges 
on all orders. 
Write tor 
circular and 
prices. 
Dcpi. >;a. 
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 
MAPLE EVAPORATORS 
Most Durable, Most Economical, Cheapest 
Syrup Cans anti Map l’ails. 
McLANE-SCHANCK HDW. CO., Llnesvllle, Pa. 
Also, Mfns. of the “Sunlight” Acetylene Gas Machine 
GARDEN TOOLS OF ALL KINDS 
needed by the home or market gardener. A 
special tool for every purpose. 
MATTHEWS’ un.VI^sal 
Hand Seeders and Cultivators 
for every condition of truck growing from 
drill and hill seeding to last cultivation. 
Free Booklet on planting and cultivating 
the garden; gives fFfft? TOfj* The E»sy Running 
full description. (Hill I"Iff 
Write for it. “ 
Line 
AMEB PLOW CO., 64 Market Bt„ Boston, Mass. 
MORE MAPLE SUGAR 
From your Hugnr bush with the mime labor and with • 
out injuring your trees, by using Post’s Improved 
Eureka (Sup Spout*. The reason why Is the "air 
trap, - - n special patented feature 
POST’S 
Improved 
Eureka 
sea tlie flow when' 
every minute counts. 
Each genuine Post’s 
I Spout, has signature 
1 on label thus: ’’0. O. 
1'ost.” Look for it. It 
protects you. No. 1, Jilt 
in. long, per 1UU, 11.71; 
No. 2.3 1 ! In. long, per 100, IL&O^ 
More Sap 
Every Day 
for More 
(lays and 
Make You 
More Money 
SAP 
SPOUTS 
Sample! of 
earh,6c, lot! 
of 300 <lo- 
livcredf.o.b. 
paid on 
roceipt of 
price.Agunt! 
wanted. Cat¬ 
alogue f roe. 
C. C 8TKLLB, Role H’fV, 76 Fifth At*., Brooklyn, N Y. 
IF YOU CAN’T GtT 14 MORE SAP WITH 
GRIMM SAP SPOUTS 
I’LL REFUND YOUR MONEY 
I knew whit niy Sup Spouts will do, so I c»n afford to 
guarantee them to produce X more sap with less Injury to 
the tr*»*H than others. 
The old-fnehioned, g«l- 
vAtiiced iron spouts nro 
true killrm. But the 
Grimm Spoilt® more 
than p*iy their cont in 
one Benson. I’erinit (frimm B])mit No. 6, 
practical returnng. and w ith or without hook, 
use of u practical 
lluc\ ct Cover. If you use them yon 11 have to buy four In- 
Htead of three gallon syrup cans. MY ItKIflllT CHAKCOA1, 
TIN (A N 8 cost no more then the cheap,leaky Coke Tin Cane. 
Mine are honeet mcniUTe, do not lruk and I 11 deliver them 
F. O. B. your Htution in lot® of 60 or more at 110.00 per 
luo cash. Sample spout FREE. Sample can 14 ct*. Let me 
Bund you catalog of T.vutiorotoTfl and ull flriJt-cl®®B maple 
sugar making uteiiBilH. Ank for print 
G. H. GRIMM. KHutland, Vfc 
Spraying Made Easy 
By Using 
STAHL’S 
Excelsior 
Spraying Outfits 
and Prepared Mixtures 
Save your trees, vines and plants 
from I he ravages ot scale, fungi 
and worms by spraying, and thus insure mi increased 
yield. Every farmer, gardener, fruit or flower 
grower should write at mice for our free catalog, 
describing Excelsior ,■'praying Outfits, and con¬ 
taining inueli Information on how to spruy fruit 
and vegetable crops. 
WM. HTAllI, Hi’ltAYKIt CO., Ilox 30.0, (piluey, 111. 
GET THE BEST 
A Good Spray Pump earns big 
profits and lasts for years. 
THE ECLIPSE 
is a {rood pump. As 
practical fruit growers 
we were using common 
sprayers in our own orchards 
•—found Ibeir defects anti 
invented the Kclipse. Its 
success forced us to manu¬ 
facturing tin a large scale. 
You take no chances. We 
have done all the experi 
menting. Large fully illustrated Catalog and 
Treatise on spraying FREE. 
MORRILL & MORLRY. Benton Harbor, Mich. 
CAHOON 
is the name of the most accurate and dur¬ 
able Hand Heed Sower on the mar- 
pit. Hows 4 to 5 acres per hour. 
.Write for new booklet, ’ Ho wing 
for Results” and50th anniver¬ 
sary souvenir. „ 
GOODELL COMPANY 
14 Main St., Antrim, N. H.. 
MORE 
'and better ones, earlier to mature 
' and using less seed, when you plant 
with our 
Acme Hand Planter 
[ Deposits seed at just the right depth in 
I moist soil. Neither seed nor soil can dry 
out. Seed grows at once. Cheapest and 
easiest way to plant. Works well In any mil, 
, Bod or new laud. If your denier can’t fur¬ 
nish it, send Cl and his name; we will 
ehlp charges paid. Wrltefor booklet, 
“The Acme of Potato Profit," Freo 
Potato Implement Co. 
Box 525, 
f Traverse City, 
Mich. 
The Deyo Air Cooled 
POWER SPRAYER 
No Water Required. Hundreds in Use. 
Write for 
Spraying; 
Catalogue 5 
Simple 
Durable 
Economical _ 
It. II. DEYO & CO.,Iilnghamton, New Y ork 
,^Save Y our T rees^\ 
Kill Sar Jose Scale and other destructive 
parasites wit h a spraying solution of 
Good’s' 
Soap No. 3 
aCaustlc Potash ( 
Whale-Oil 
Sure death to Insects. No sulphur, salt, 
mineral oils, or any substance harmful fo 
plant life. Endorsed by IJ. K. Department 
of Agriculture. Pocket Manual of cause, 
treat ment and cure of t ree diseases, free. 
Write to-day. JAMES GOOD, Original 
Maker, 945 North Front St.. Philadelphia. 
A 
DESTROY 
SAN JOSE 
SCALE 
before it destroys your trees. The 
tine absolutely sure way to eradicate 
this pest entirely is by using SAI.I- 
MINK—tlie host, Safest, cheapest, 
concentrated spray on the market. 
Tlie original 
TRADE 
SALIMINE 
MARK 
is tlie result of ten years "At It" and 
‘‘Know How." It is a Lime, Salt, Sul¬ 
phur, and Caustic Potash solution. 
Recognized by all experimental sta¬ 
tions as the best insecticide for thor¬ 
oughly eradicating scale. One gallon 
mixed witli cold water makes 2(1 gal 
Ions of the standard solution. Write 
to-day for free circular with prices. 
Monmouth Chemical Works 
Dept. A. SHREWSBURY, N. J. 
Horse-Power Spramotor 
Will pay for itself the first season 
in removing wild mustard from 
your fields. 
Automatic in action throughout; 
everything under control of driver 
without stopping. 
Machine automatically stops at 
125 lbs. pressure, starting again at 
100 lbs. 
Tell us your needs. You will 
get expert advice. 
Our 86-page I realise D free. 
Agents wanted. 
SPRAMOTOR CO., 
BUFFALO, N.V, LONDON, CAN. 
PRATT’S 
66 
SCALECIDE 
99 Soluble 
Petroleum 
WILL POSITIVE!LY DKSTKOY 
SAN JOSE, COTTONY MAPLE SCALE, PEAR PSYLLA, ETC. 
Without Injury to the Treed. Samples, Trices ami Endorsement of Experiment Stations on Application. 
13. G. PRATT CO., Dept. A., XI Broadway, PiTBW YORK CITY. 
