59o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 3, 
] Ruralisms 
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NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
A Lovely Native Iris —A little culti¬ 
vated, but most decorative native plant is 
Iris hexagona, growing wild in moist 
lands from Florida to Texas and Missouri. 
It is one of the more vigorous species of 
the genus, attaining three feet or more 
in height in congenial situations. The 
leaves are broad and graceful, light, cool 
green in color, while the blooms, which 
are freely produced in late June, are usu¬ 
ally five inches in diameter and singular¬ 
ly harmonious in their coloring of sky 
blue, orange and pale green. The flower 
stems are long, rather tortuous in form 
and drooping or prostrate in habit, so 
that the richly colored blojoms nestle 
amid the foliage instead of overtopping 
it, as in many other Irises. Flower heads, 
much reduced in size, are shown in Fig. 292, 
page 587. The fruits or seed capsules hang 
by flexible stems and are conspicuously 
six-angled, giving the plant its specific 
name. Though a moisture-loving species, 
Iris hexagona grows well in ordinary 
garden soil and may be successfully cul¬ 
tivated in any bed or border of sufficient 
fertility for common herbaceous flower¬ 
ing plants, but free watering at blooming 
time and an after-mulch of cow manure 
will be well repaid in increased vigor of 
the clump. In the South it is called blue 
flag, a name indifferently applied to all 
the blue or purple flowering wild Irises. 
A pure white variety of much beauty is 
known and offered, together with the 
type, by a .Florida nursery that describes 
the latter as “the loveliest flower of the 
whole South,” comparing it to the rarest 
orchids. In truth, there is as great 
beauty and greater refinement in Iris 
hexagona flowers as in the finest Catt- 
leyas, but the Iris blooms are short-lived, 
not enduring more than 48 hours, while 
the orchid flowers, when properly han¬ 
dled, remain effective for nearly a month. 
The extreme southern forms of Hexa¬ 
gona are of doubtful hardiness in the 
North and are generally considered ten¬ 
der in Europe, but a Missouri form dis¬ 
tributed some years ago by J. N. Gerard, 
Elizabeth, N. J., under the varietal name 
of La Mancei, appears entirely reliable. 
It is somewhat more dwarfish in growth 
than the southern plants and the blooms 
range smaller in size, but the coloring is 
richer blue. As a whole, it is a more 
desirable and manageable garden plant. 
Clumps on the Rural Grounds were not in 
the least affected by the severe Winter 
and late, cold Spring, blooming with the 
greatest profusion at about the usual 
time. 
A Japanese Ally —The nearest old- 
world ally of Iris hexagona appears to be 
I. albo-purpurea, recently imported from 
Japan. This uncommon species has cer¬ 
tain structural peculiarities that place it 
very close to Hexagona, but it has erect 
stems, bearing heads of large, showy 
blooms, bright purple, marbled and spot¬ 
ted with white. The flowers rival in 
showiness and size those of the familiar 
Japan Iris, I. laevigata or Kaempferi, but 
the plant, though undoubtedly hardy, is 
a comparatively weak and slow grower, 
requiring abundance of moisture. 1 he 
foliage is tall, light green and so weak 
that many leaves fall over. Albo-pur¬ 
purea is not in commerce and can only 
be obtained from collectors for botanic 
gardens. 
Making Seedless Fruits— Our read¬ 
ers still bear in mind the great claims 
made for the Spencer Seedless apple and 
California or Miracle pitless prune. Both 
are realities, but while they may be actual 
improvements on similar kinds known 
for centuries, they do not appear to 
promise commercial success. The apple 
is of ordinary size and distinctly low 
quality, retaining the objectionable core 
even when the seeds are absent, while the 
plum is said to be unsatisfactory in tree, 
though the fruits are of excellent quality 
and generally without pit or stone. In a 
review of commercial seedless fruits in 
The R. N.-Y. for March 25, 1905, it was 
pointed out that with the exception of 
tropical pineapples and bananas the 
Washington navel orange and currant 
grapes only are of acknowledged value. 
This does not indicate that the effort to 
eliminate or reduce seeds in useful fruit 
varieties is hopeless. It is likely that sys¬ 
tematic plant breeding and experimenta¬ 
tion may from time to time favor the 
production of highly valuable kinds with 
few or no seeds, where seeds are now 
far too plentiful. Prof. B. D. Halsted of 
the New Jersey Experiment Station, who 
is doing excellent work in breeding mar¬ 
ket vegetables, reports a nearly seedless 
tomato of most desirable characteristics 
and other novelties of this kind may crop 
up anywhere that breeding work designed 
to induce great individual variation is 
carried on. 
Direct Production of Seedless 
Fruits—A German scientist, Dr. Richard 
Ewert of the Proskau Pomological Insti¬ 
tute, relates some interesting experiments 
in the direct production of seedless or¬ 
chard fruits by painting the stigmas of the 
blooms before pollination can naturally 
take place with a liquid of his own inven¬ 
tion, which prevents the possibility of 
pollen grains germinating on the stigma 
and thus fertilizing the ovules or incipient 
seeds. The development of the ovary 
into the fruit in favorable subjects goes 
on by inherent natural, growth termed 
parthenocarpy, and a more or less per¬ 
fect fruit, without seeds, but with the 
usual core or carpels, may result. The 
ingenious doctor used dwarf cherry, 
pear and apple trees, 100 or more 
blooms being treated on each tree, all 
others being cut off before opening. It 
was found that if only part of the flow¬ 
ers of a tree were sterilized and the 
others allowed to remain, no seedless 
fruits were secured, as they were out¬ 
grown by the others. The best results were 
attained with the pear Beurre Clairgeau, 
which gave a crop of 85 per cent totally 
seedless fruits. Other pears with unpro¬ 
nounceable German names also gave 
good results. Cherries did not take kind¬ 
ly to the process, while the only apples 
bringing their seedless fruits to maturity 
were Winter Golden Pearmain, Cellini 
and Charlamowsky, the latter evidently 
a Russian. In every instance the horny 
cores remained, though seeds were sup¬ 
pressed. Dr. Ewert thinks that perfectly 
seedless and coreles* pears and apples of 
good quality would bring sufficiently high 
prices in the market to compensate for 
their artificial and expensive culture, but 
he is not sanguine as to getting rid of 
the cores. He thinks, however, that his 
demonstration of parthenocarpy or virgin 
fertility in common orchard fruits may 
lead to the planting of varieties capable 
of developing fruits, without pollen, as 
then the grower will be less dependent 
on suitable weather conditions and the 
services of bees and similar winged in 
sects at blooming time. Certainly varie¬ 
ties able to dispense with pollination 
would have proved a boon this chilly 
Spring, when a bee among the fruit blos¬ 
soms was a rarity. w. v. F. 
Preparing for Alfalfa. 
E. N. G., Knox, Pa .—I am fitting up three 
teres of ground for Alfalfa; had intended to 
,ow the seed about August 1, hut think now 
will wait another year. Soil sandy loam 
Tom four to 10 inches deep, underlaid with 
ough clay. Clover freezes out in Spring. I 
lave it sown to Canada field peas, which I in¬ 
end to plow down and sow to rye, and next 
•ear plow that down and sow to Alfalfa about 
tugust' 1. Now about ditching. After hay- 
ng is over I shall put a ditch through centeo 
if field and put laterals in. How close shall 
have to put in lateral to avoid ground 
leaving and freezing out clover? I had the 
'round in sowed corn, cow beets, potatoes and 
'arrots. I used commercial fertilizer at rate 
if 900 ’to 2,000 pounds per acre last year; 
his year 400 pounds of lime with nothing 
else. Bo you think I shall need any more 
fertilizer? I intend to use about 500 or COO 
pounds of lime when I seed again where I 
sow Alfalfa, and I intend to sow about half 
a bushel of seed to the acre. I want to get 
the best results. 
Ans. —It will be useless for E. N. G. to 
sow Alfalfa on land which allows clover 
to be lifted out by freezing. If he could 
turn this land upside down and have a 
part of the tough clay on top, and the 
land under it, he would have much less 
expense in getting it in shape for Alfalfa. 
As it is he will have to tile-drain. If he 
has had experience along this line fitting 
land to grow clover he will learn by ex¬ 
perience that Alfalfa will require about 
twice as much drainage as clover. In 
growing clover it is only necessary to 
tile-drain sufficiently to keep the clover 
from freezing out the first Winter after 
sowing, but the Alfalfa must stand the 
vicissitudes of many Winters. In drain¬ 
ing this farm the drains were laid to 
make the land safe for wheat or rye, 
clover and corn. The drains were laid 
four to six rods apart as necessity seemed 
to require, but when I came to grow 
Alfalfa I found all would better have 
been laid four rods apart. Then by divid¬ 
ing this space with another drain, mak¬ 
ing the drains two rods apart, they were 
about as near right as they could be made, 
while dividing a six-rod space made the 
distance between drains three rods, which 
was most too great. In my own experi¬ 
ence I found that it takes on this farm 
about twice as much drainage to make 
Alfalfa a success as was required for 
clover. The greater part of my two Al¬ 
falfa fields, 11 and 10 acres in area, have 
as much as 50 rods per acre down. But 
a farmer cannot tell just how much will 
be needed till the trial is made; land is 
so variable in its make-up. E. N. G. 
might try a five-inch main through the 
center of his field, and use three-inch 
for laterals. If lie thinks the laterals four 
rods apart will do the work, lay them 
this distance apart, and if he finds this 
will not do, divide the space. My own 
impression is, from what he says, that it 
will be the safer plan to lay the drains 
two rods apart at the start. Had I done 
this it would have been a most excellent 
investment, but I would not have had the 
grit to do it then. But since I have 
learned the value of the crop the tile 
has been going down where the Alfalfa 
showed the need of it. 
The preparation E. N. G. is making is 
all right with one exception. I would not 
like to risk plowing down a crop of rye 
the last thing before sowing the Alfalfa. 
If I did plow under rye I would not 
want it to be more than a foot high when 
the plowing was done. I do not think 
I would use any more fertilizer before 
sowing the Alfalfa. It can be used after¬ 
wards as deemed necessary. I have 
never sown over 15 to 16 pounds of seed 
per acre. I feel that it is a waste of 
seed to sow at any time over 20 pounds 
per acre. I saw a field to-day sown at 
the rate of 15 pounds per acre. It is 
just coming up; if one-half the plants sur¬ 
vive it will be plenty thick for the most 
satisfactory returns. John m. jamison. 
Ross Co., O. 
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