§9o 
December ?, 
NOTliS FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
The Siberian Iris. —One of the most 
distinct, attractive, and possibly the eas¬ 
iest to grow of the many species of her¬ 
baceous Iris is I. Sibirica, growing in its 
wild state in moist places over a vast 
range of territory, from Central Europe 
to eastern Siberia, and even Korea. It is 
thoroughly hardy, and thrives well every¬ 
where, under the most ordinary garden 
conditions. The flowers are small, but 
of elegant form, as shown, about half 
natural size, in Fig. 451, page 887. They 
are borne on long, graceful stems, much 
overtopping the elegant, tufted, grassy 
foliage, which, in vigorous specimens, is 
often two feet long, and are produced in 
such profusion that hundreds are open at 
the same time. The prevailing color is 
bright violet purple, with veinings of 
white and gold. There are several quite 
distinct botanical forms, the best being 
sold as Orientalis. It is very strong in 
growth, forming clumps as tall and large 
as a good-sized sheaf of wheat. The 
blooms are larger than the type and of 
more circular outline, deep blue-purple in 
color, but are scarcely as lasting. The 
young leaves and the spathe valves about 
the unopened blooms are reddish in color, 
and contrast well with the deep green of 
the stems and older foliage. This fine 
form is said to abound chiefly in Man¬ 
churia. Koreana is dwarfer in growth, 
but exceedingly floriferous, the blooms be¬ 
ing of a particularly pleasing shade of 
violet blue. Alba is a white-flowered va¬ 
riety, slight and graceful in form. The 
flowers are small and lightly veined with 
brown and pale purple. Alba maxima 
produces much larger blooms, white with 
very faint blue reticulations on the “falls” 
or horizontal petals. The gem of the 
white-flowered kinds, however, is Snow 
Queen, which appears to be allied, in its 
robust habit of growth, to Orientalis. The 
foliage is tall and broad for the species, 
while the blooms, which are remarkably 
broad and full, are clear white with gold- 
yellow blotch at base of falls. Blue King 
and Grandis, on the other hand, have 
just as large flowers, deep rich blue, 
blotched with bronzy yellow. The plants 
we have grown under these names are 
quite similar—perhaps Blue King is the 
better of the two. There are other freak¬ 
ish but interesting forms, such as Acuta, 
with narrow twisted petals, blue and 
white; Compacta, dwarf and grassy in 
habit, but bearing profuse light blue 
bloom on crowded stems, and Flore-ple- 
no, a dark blue double-flowered variety, 
and one with variegated foliage. All are 
of easy culture and useful for cut blooms 
as well as decoration of the garden. The 
varieties for sale in this country cost 
from 20 to 35 cents each. They may 
readily be increased by division after the 
clumps have attained strength, and seed¬ 
lings can be grown without difficulty, be¬ 
ing usually quite true to type. Several 
hundred cross-bred seedlings, blooming 
last Summer on the Rural Grounds, made 
a brilliant display and developed a few 
pleasing new varieties. 
Delavay’s Iris. —A comparatively new 
and very ornamental ally of the Siberian 
Iris is I. Delavayi, from the province of 
Yunnan, China. It is named in honor of 
the noted missionary and explorer, Abbe 
Delavay, who first brought it to notice. 
It is of easy culture, but appears to re¬ 
quire more moisture in the soil. It forms 
a strong dense clump, two or more sea¬ 
sons after planting. The narrow leaves 
are nearly three feet long, and the nu¬ 
merous flower stems occasionally rise to 
a height of five feet. These stems are 
hollow, like those of I. Sibirica, all other 
Irises having solid stems. The blooms 
are deep violet in color, two inches and 
over across, and very elegant in form, the 
falls being pointed, and bordered with 
violet-and-white spotted wings. Dela¬ 
vay’s Iris appears hardy on the Rural 
Grounds, surviving the last two Winters 
without protection. It seems close enough 
to the Siberian Iris to hybridize with the 
latter, but our trials were not rewarded 
with fertile seeds. The blooming time 
is late June, filling in the interval be¬ 
tween the German and Japan Iris va¬ 
rieties. 
A New Jelly Plant. —Hibiscus sab- 
dariffa, otherwise known as Roselle or 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER- 
Jamaica sorrel, a botanical relative of the 
cotton and okra plants, and a native of 
tropical Asia and Africa, is being recom¬ 
mended for culture in the warmer parts 
of the United States as a substitute for 
the cranberry. The portion used is the 
flower calyx, which does not wither like 
those of cotton, gumbo and other mallows 
as the seed pods form, but remains and 
turns dull red, finally becoming thick and 
fleshy. The seed pod never becomes edi¬ 
ble, but these fleshy calyces are picked 
when mature, yielding when cooked gen¬ 
erous amounts of rich red jelly of keen, 
pleasant acid flavor, closely resembling 
that made from the familiar cranberry 
and used for similar purposes. Roselle is 
apparently the only known plant having 
an edible calyx. In other food plants the 
leaves, stems, seeds, pods, fruits, roots 
and tubers, as the case may be, are freely 
used, but Roselle stands alone in its pe¬ 
culiar jelly-yielding blooms. They are 
abundantly produced after the plants 
have gained sufficient strength, and are 
thought to be well worth growing where 
climatic conditions allow. The Roselle 
plant cannot endure frost, and, in fact, 
thrives best in hot dry localities where 
there is a growing season of seven 
months or more. It has been cultivated 
with considerable success in Florida and 
California, having been introduced about 
15 years ago from the West Indian Isl¬ 
ands, but attempts to grow it inland have 
generally failed. The writer tested plants 
in Central Tennessee in 1898, and though 
they made a good growth, blooms came 
so late in the season that no calyces of 
the characteristic fleshiness were formed. 
The Roselle plant much resembles a giant 
okra, growing six feet high, with palmqte 
foliage and yellow, red-eyed flowers. 
Jelly and jam may also be made from the 
reddish leaf stems and tender branchlets, 
but the quality is hardly equal to that 
made from the ripe calyces. Roselle is 
likely to be of commercial value in only 
a limited portion of our country, but in 
view of a possible future shortage in 
cranberries, that can only be cultivated in 
favorable swamp areas from Wisconsin 
and Maine, to West Virginia and New 
Jersey, it may be well to experiment with 
it where the conditions appear to suit. 
Roselle jelly is easily made—there are no 
seeds to strain out—it is agreeable in ap¬ 
pearance and flavor and is claimed to 
keep remarkably well. It is said to be 
entirely healthful, having almost identi¬ 
cal chemical composition with the cran¬ 
berry ; is more easily grown in suitable 
climates and may in time become a for¬ 
midable competitor to that indispensable 
accompaniment to Thanksgiving turkeys. 
An expert of the National Department of 
Agriculture has been trying, by seed se¬ 
lection, to enlarge the yield of the Roselle 
plant, and with some apparent success. 
An account of the experiments, together 
with all available information about this 
hot-weather cranberry appears in Farm¬ 
ers’ Bulletin 307, which may be had with¬ 
out charge from the Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture, Washington, D. C. 
Apple Trees for China. —Recent con¬ 
sular reports from China give account 
of the successful introduction of western 
orchard fruit trees in China by the for¬ 
estry department of Kiao-Chau, the new¬ 
ly-acquired German territory. Besides 
planting large areas with forest trees, 
such as Acacias, oaks and pines, the de¬ 
partment has distributed over 66,000 ap¬ 
ple, pear, cherry and plum trees of the 
most promising varieties to the native 
Chinese farmers, all being eagerly taken 
for trial. The apple and pear trees were 
imported from Germany, and the cherries 
and plum from Pacific Coast nurseries of 
the United States. The Chinaman is us¬ 
ually an ardent vegetarian, but not a great 
fruit consumer, probably for the reason 
that his native orchard fruits are of poor 
quality. Good peaches and apricots are 
grown in China, but the more important 
pome fruits have never been well devel¬ 
oped. The Germans find that the north¬ 
ern Chinese take kindly to high-class 
western apples, and are likely to enroll 
themselves as enthusiastic members of 
the Universal Apple Consumers’ League 
when good fruits can be produced in 
quantity at home. They hope to make 
the province of Shantung a great fruit 
exporting country in time, as the natives 
are clever cultivators when they can be 
brought to see the advantages of new 
crops. Germany’s seizure of the Kiao- 
Chau peninsula may not be defensible in 
international ethics, but if it results in 
the introduction of the best occidental 
fruits into China, the end may in time be 
held to justify the means. w. v. f. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll set a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
You must know 
what a roof is 
made of, if you 
want to be sure it 
will last. 
You know Gen- as'-co Ready Roof¬ 
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You don't know how long “secret 
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afford to buy what you don’t know 
about. Refuse all substitutes. 
Write for reasonable Book 10 of 
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THE BARBER ASPHALT 
PAVING COMPANY 
Largest producers of asphalt in the world 
PHILADELPHIA 
New York San Francisco 
Chicago 
BIGGER PROFITS 
Cook the food you feed your horses, cattle, pigs and 
poultr y and the result will he increased productive¬ 
ness. It’s cheaper tlian feeding raw food. A 
Farmers’Favorite” 
Feed Cooker and Boiler 
is all that’s required. This is the 
best cooker made, inexpensive, 
economical, and it will last a 
long while. Can be used for 
many purposes. Write for illus¬ 
trated descriptive circular and 
prices. 
LEWIS MFG. CO., BOX c , CORTLAND, N. Y. 
LET US TAN 
YOUR HIDE, 
Whether Steer, Bull, or Horse Hide, 
Calf, Dog, Deer, or any kind of hide 
or skiu with the hair on, soft, light, 
odorless and moth-proof for robe, rug, 
ooat or gloves, and make them up when 
so ordered. ... , , , 
But first get our illustrated catalog, 
with prices, shipping tags and instruc¬ 
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animal skins in the world. 
We make and Bell Natural Black 
Galloway fur coats and robes, Black 
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THE CROSBY FRISIAN FUR COMPANY, 
116 Mill Street, Rochester, N. Y. 
THE DEYO 
POWER SPRAYER 
Mounted complete with mechanical agita¬ 
tor. Better than ever. New air-cooled engine. 
Other new features, all important to the man 
/who sprays. Write for new catalog 19—just out. 
K. H. DEYO 6 CO., Binghamton, N. Y. 
GET THE BEST 
A Good Spray Pump earns big 
profits and lasts for years. 
THE ECLIPSE 
is a good pump. As 
practical fruit growers 
vve were using common 
sprayers in our own orchards 
—found their defects and 
invented the Eclipse. Its 
success forced us to manu¬ 
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You take no chances. We 
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MORRILL & MOBLEY. Benton Harbor, Mich. 
XSAN JOSE SCALER 
KILLER 
KIL-O-SCALE is the most reliable remedy 
for Scale. Ready for use by simply mixing 
with water. We also sell Spraying Outfits. 
Write for catalogue. 
HENRY A. DREER, - - Philadelphia, Pa. 
COOK YOUR FEED and SAVE 
Half the Cost—with the • 
PROFIT FARM BOILER 
With Dumping Caldron. Empties its 
kettle in one minute. The simplest 
and best arrangement for cooking 
food for stock. Also make Dairy an* 
Laundry Stoves, Water and Steam 
Jackot Kettles, Hog Scaldera, Cal- 
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D. R. SPERRY & OO.. Batavia, lli 
kk 
FUMA 
■ ■ kills Prairie Dogs, 
77i 
Woodchucks,Gophers, 
and Grain Insects. 
•‘The wheels of the 
gods grind slow but 
exceedingly small.” So the weevil, but you can stop 
theirgrlnd “f^g BiSUlptlide”are doing" 
EDWARD R. TAYLOR, Penn Yan, N\ Y. 
Don’t Stop 
to ask your neighbor to help lift a 
heavy load, stretch your wire fence, 
lift your injured or sick animals, 
butcher, or lift wagon-boxes—use a 
Burr Self-Locking Tackle Block 
and save your time and the labor of 
I two or three men. Capacity 600 to 
6000 pounds. .Ask dealer or write 
I Burr Mfg. Co. 170 Viaduct, Cleveland, O* 
TANKS AND TOWERS 
made by Caldwell have the dura¬ 
bility of Cypress and strength qt 
steel, making them wear a Jile- 
time and stand any storm. 1 hey 
make your water supply secure 1< >r 
all time. They are doing it for 
hundreds of others, many near 
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catalogue for the asking. 
\Y. E. CALDWELL CO., Louisville, Ky. 
Tanks (“MS?) Towers 
Wind Mills, Pumps, Gas Engines 
DRILLING & 
PROSPECTING MACHINES. 
Fastest drillers known. Great money earners t 
LOOMIS MACHINE CO.,TIFFIN, OHIO. 
Well 
IT 
J flarlin 
LlERE’S good news for the boys and the grown- 
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* Pn h has fiie popular sliding fore-end or “pum D ” action, has all the 
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The rifle shoots the inexpensive .22 short cartndge, but 
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The “ 77larfirt Book” Is full of live information 
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it. Send for ittoday. FREE for 3 stamps postage. 
77ie7ffar///i firearms Co.> 
157 Willow St., New Haoen ’ Conru 
Sure Death to San Jose Scale 
It’s cheap and effective. Easy to use. Non-corrosive and non-clogging. 
“SCALECIDE” contains more oil and less water than any other commercial 
spray. We can prove it. 50-gallon barrel at your station, if east pi the Missis¬ 
sippi and north of the Ohio River, for $25 cash. Smaller packages if you wish. 
Write now for Special Booklet N It’s free. 
B. G. PRATT COMPANY. Mfg. Chemists, 11 Broadway, New York City. 
