8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 
Ruralisms 
Incombustible Christmas Trees.— 
A consignment of 60 carloads of young 
evergreens for Christmas trees—one of 
the most important lots likely to reach 
New York City this year—is said to 
he the speculative side line of a Wall 
Street broker! One cannot feel that 
the Christmas spirit has much to do 
with this transaction. The pittance paid 
the distant foresters who cut and pack 
the thousands of thrifty young trees 
is doubtless very welcome, but the dif¬ 
ference between this trifling first cost 
and the prices received for the trees 
that actually are sold must be great 
indeed to meet loss and charges and re¬ 
imburse the speculator for his gamble. 
A sentiment is growing in all civilized 
countries against the use of promising 
young trees for such a transient, al¬ 
though worthy purpose. If every young 
conifer cut for the holiday market 
would really be used to delight children 
at Christmas celebrations there would 
be less objection, but in most instances 
only a few of those shipped for the 
purpose can be sold—the others are 
burned or cast away. There could be 
little criticism of the trade in specially 
cultivated or nursery grown Christmas 
trees, but such stock is too limited in 
amount to make a feature of the mar¬ 
ket. The great majority are cut from 
natural forest lands where reproduction 
is most vigorous. Practically no timber 
thinnings are used, as only perfect 
specimens growing where there is ample 
space for developmei t are wanted. 
Unless cut from land about to be 
cleared for agricultural or building pur¬ 
poses there appears little justification 
for the Christmas tree trade in its 
present condition. There is natural re¬ 
luctance to interfere with commercial 
ventures even if they imply the destruc¬ 
tion of trees of such great potential 
value for trifling immediate gain, but 
there are indications of the diminu¬ 
tion of this particular traffic in the 
growing reluctance of the fire authori¬ 
ties of some of our largest cities to 
allow the setting up of large and high¬ 
ly inflammable natural Christmas trees. 
It is possible that they will in future 
be forbidden. Householders are becom¬ 
ing aware of the danger of appalling 
accidents, which is however lessened by 
the use of incandescent electric lights 
instead of illumination by tapers, lamps 
or gas, and their attention has been di¬ 
rected to artificial and practically in¬ 
combustible substitutes that are now 
imported in increasing numbers. These 
artificial trees originated in Germany, 
one of the most forward of forest 
culture countries, where millions of 
evergreens are annually planted, and 
among people most deeply observant of 
Christmas usages. The Germans find 
no difficulty in reconciling their Kris 
Kringle observances with the use of 
non-inflammable gift trees, and we can 
doubtless do the same. Colorado, and 
we think others of the States with lim¬ 
ited forest areas, have gone to the root 
of the matter by forbidding entirely 
traffic in natural Christmas trees cut 
within their limits. 
American Breeders' Association.— 
The fifth annual meeting of the Ameri¬ 
can Breeders’ Association is to be held 
at Columbia, Missouri, January 6-8, 
1909, in connection with the chief agri¬ 
cultural associations of the State that 
have arranged meetings at the same 
place and dates. This Association has 
grown in power and importance until 
it fully represents the great national 
movement for directine and utilizing 
the forces of heredity in the continual 
improvements of all forms of plant and 
animal life. Among its 1,000 members 
may be found the most successful prac¬ 
tical breeders of farm and fancy live 
stock, of economical and ornamental 
plants and the most proficient students 
of evolution of our day as well. The 
essays, discussions and addresses at 
the annual meetings are of absorbing in¬ 
terest, replete with the latest and most 
accurate obtainable information on the 
various topics that are discussed. The 
proceedings, when published, form a 
400-page volume—a treasury of refer¬ 
ence concerning the practical and scien¬ 
tific breeding work of the Nation for 
the year. This* is' obtainable bv for¬ 
warding the annual membership dues 
of $2 to the secretary, Hon. Willet 
M. Hays, Washington, D. C. All 
persons interested in plant or animal 
development are eligible and will be 
welcomed into membersl ip. More 
than 40 committees in charge of inves¬ 
tigating every phase of animal breed¬ 
ing are to report at the Columbia, Mo., 
meeting, and besides speakers promi¬ 
nent in investigations of all problems 
of heredity in plants and animals and 
in practical breeding will take part in 
the programme. All should attend who 
find it possible to do so, and those too 
distant should secure the proceedings 
when published. 
The Scope of tiie Work. —Secre¬ 
tary W. M. Hays, who is also Na¬ 
tional Assistant Secretary of Agricul¬ 
ture, is the founder and one of the 
most efficient workers of the Breeders’ 
Association, thus states its object and 
possibilities: 
The American Breeder’s Association rep¬ 
resents a part of America’s great policy of 
conservation of natural resources. Heredity 
in plants and animals is a great resource; 
it is a source of marvelous utility. An 
idea of how important is the undeveloped 
heredity in the occasional plant or animal 
which can project its higher efficiency into 
a new strain may be had by considering 
the following facts: The United States 
produces $7,000,000,000 of plant and ani¬ 
mal products annually. Of this amount 
$5,000,000,000 comes from crops and ani¬ 
mals, the heredity of which we n*i.v under¬ 
take to improve. Now, it is conservatively 
estimated that over 10 per cent can be 
added to the value of these crops and 
animals by breeding, at a cost of one per 
cent of the increase, or at a rate of ten 
thousand per cent profit. In other words, 
by improving American breeds of cattle, 
horses, sheep, swine, field crops, fruits and 
other plants, $500,000,000 clear profit can 
be added to Uncle Sam’s annual income, 
or $5,000,000,000 every ten years. 
As a further aid in working out the 
scientific laws and best methods of 
breeding and putting into oneratioa the 
most efficient agencies for breeding 
crops and animals and thus securing 
to the people of America these poten¬ 
tial billions of wealth the Association 
hopes to establish a magazine that will 
carry to its wide membership the de¬ 
sired information without the delay in¬ 
cident to the collection and publica¬ 
tion of the annual proceedings. 
A Big New Grape. —J. T. Macomber, 
Grand Isle, Vermont, sent us October 
13, clusters of a seedling grape raised 
by him 15 years ago. The grapes were 
considerably injured in transit, but an 
average bunch is shown in natural size 
in Fig. 4, page 3. The color was dark 
red, skin thick and firm, pulp tender 
and juicy, containing several large 
seeds. The flavor was sweet and high; 
quality excellent. Mr. Macomber savs: 
I notice some of the berries are inclined 
to drop, a Ihing that lias never occurred 
to this grape in previous years. The 
bunches are unusually small and the berries 
are a little under size, all owing, I think, 
to the drought. Many of my vines dropped 
their leaves before the fruit was ripe. 
The quality of the samples 1 think is about 
normal. The vine is a good bearer when 
growing near other good pollen-bearing 
sorts. It will stand our Winters and bear 
without protection, but I know of no good 
grape that is not improved in earliness, 
proiificness and quality by Winter protec¬ 
tion here, not even the Concord. 
This grape greatly resembles Red 
Giant, a large-berried Labrusca vari¬ 
ety that originated in Pennsylvania 
about 30 years aeo. It was healthy 
and productive when pollinated by 
Ives, but was infertile when growing 
alone. Mr. Macomber’s seedling pos¬ 
sibly is a descendant of Red Giant, but 
is greatly superior in qualitv to the 
older variety as we remember it. 
There is only a trace of the musky 
flavor so prominent in Red Giant. 
Starting Eucalyptus Seedlings.— 
While some of the Eucalypts are able to 
propagate by natural seeding, the es¬ 
tablishing of a grove under California 
conditions is a cultural process need¬ 
ing as much care as any prospective 
money crop. Seedlings are grown in 
flats of sandy soil in partial shade. 
They must be well watered and care¬ 
fully weeded. Seeds are sown in June 
or July and generally mulched with old 
redwood sawdust. The usual trouble 
with the “damping off” fungus, com¬ 
mon to forest tree seedlings all over 
the world, is not unknown, and neces¬ 
sitates great care in avoiding surplus 
moisture in dull weather. Seedlings 
are transplanted when two inches 
high into similar flats or boxes, 
spacing them two inches apart. When 
ready to set out they should be eight 
to 10 inches high with a well-developed 
root system. They are planted out on 
good soil, freshly worked and thor¬ 
oughly fined, setting them from five to 
eight feet apart according to the spe¬ 
cies, the character of soil and the neces¬ 
sities of irrigation. Transplanting in 
the dry Pacific coast climate requires 
much care and a liberal amount of 
water to each plant to secure good 
stands. The work is naturally most 
successful if it can be done when the 
soil has been well moistened by rain. 
The groves must be well cultivated and 
cared for from the time of setting 
if reasonable success is anticipated, 
though fair results are had on land too 
rocky or hilly for cultivation. While 
Eucalypts are little subject to disease 
and insect pests young trees are killed 
in considerable numbers by rabbits and 
gophers, and some are destroyed by 
excessive climatic variations, so that 
a good deal of natural thinning oc¬ 
curs in thickly planted groves, but this 
is supplemented by methodical prun¬ 
ing and thinning for the purpose of 
obtaining the maximum clean, upright 
growth for the purpose wanted, whether 
for firewood, stakes, telephone posts, 
ties or lumber. It is profitable to cut 
some plantings at five years for wood 
or stakes, while others should grow for 
10 to 20 years for posts, ties or timber, 
the thinnings being utilized for minor 
purposes. w. v. f. 
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