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Ruralisms 
Hardy Dwarf Irises. —There are 
many charming dwarf flags or Irises, 
that are rarely cultivated in American 
gardens. Some are of recent introduc¬ 
tion, but others have been known for 
generations. With scarcely an exception 
they are hardy, long-lived and of easy 
culture, well meriting the attention of 
gardeners fond of unusual flowering 
plants. The most familiar of dwarf 
flags, usually abundant in old gardens, 
is Iris pumila, growing only four or 
five inches high. Several related species 
are usually confused with Pumila, but 
the typical one forms neat, compact 
masses or borders, as the case may be. 
The flowers are of good size, bright 
lilac in color and produced with much 
freedom in May. They are commonly 
referred to as early blue flags. There 
are several handsome varieties of I. 
pumila that are rarely seen here, 
though much used abroad for natural¬ 
ization in borders and rockeries. The 
blooms vary in colors through white and 
yellow to purple and brown. All are 
desirable, but perhaps the best is 
Azurea. The color is a rare and deli¬ 
cate shade of light blue, and the habit 
very dwarf and compact. Many hybrids 
between Pumila and the later blooming 
Irises of the Germanica group have 
been raised. The best of these come 
from the Island of Guernsey, and bloom 
about two weeks later than the type, 
growing six or eight inches high and 
bearing large, showy flowers of many 
distinct colors, mostly quite fragrant. 
We have grown a number of these at¬ 
tractive new kinds, and find the follow¬ 
ing very meritorious: Josephine, pure 
white; Haydn, porcelain blue, light 
yellow beard; Bridesmaid, white, yellow, 
blue and purple; Florida citron yellow; 
Meteor, red-purple, yellow beard; 
Charmer, cream-colored, and Stewart, 
pure golden yellow. These are excellent 
for cutting in their season, and potted 
clumps taken up after freezing in early 
Winter may quickly be forced into pro¬ 
fuse bloom in the greenhouse or window 
garden. They retain their foliage until 
late Summer, making beautiful groups 
or edgings for the herbaceous border, 
and are readily propagated by division 
of the root stocks before growth starts 
in early Spring or later as blooming 
ceases. They may also be grown from 
seeds, as they come fairly true to col¬ 
oring and bloom the second year after 
germinating. There are other types of 
these desirable hybrids that grow nearly 
as tall as German flags, but bloom a 
week or 10 days in advance. They are 
catalogued as Intermediate Irises, and 
possess a fine range of colors as well as 
the merit of being more than ordinarily 
free in bloom. 
Early Blooming Species. —Besides 
these fine hybrids of the Pumila type 
there are several very desirable species 
that are dwarf in growth and come 
early into bloom. One of the distinct 
kinds is Iris Statellae, supposed to be a 
garden form of the purple and yellow 
I. lutescens. Statellie forms a strong 
clump with broad leaves nearly a foot 
high. The flowers are very numerous, 
appear early and are uniform light 
creamy yellow in color, borne on tall 
straight stems, making them very useful 
for cutting. They are very neat in form 
and lasting in texture. 
Iris Straussi is quite dwarf, the 
leaves seldom being more than three 
inches high at flowering time. The 
blooms are large, borne one on a stem, 
deep purple in color with conspicuous 
white beard. It is hardy and easily 
grown, but is still rare in cultivation. 
It is one of the first to bloom. 
1. balkana is another dwarf purple- 
flowered species, but there is usually a 
tinge of copper or lilac in the coloring. 
The flowering stems are about eight 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
inches high. It blooms the latter part 
of May. 
I. suaveolens has rather small light 
yellow flowers carried on stems about 
six inches high. They are intensely 
fragrant, but not as showy as those of 
many other kinds. It' is a hardy little 
species growing well in shade or sun, 
and holding its own with grass and 
weeds if by chance neglected. 
I. biflora gracilis. —This is thought 
to be a hybrid rather than a botanical 
species. It is often catalogued as a 
variety of Pumila, but appears to have 
little affinity with that species. Biflora 
gracilis is one of the most abundant 
bloomers of the early kinds, and has 
curiously mottled gray and purple flow¬ 
ers on rather tall stems. It is of vigor¬ 
ous growth and quickly forms a fine 
clump in ordinary soil. 
I. Bloudovii is a very bright and hand¬ 
some dwarf Iris from Siberia. The 
flowers are lemon yellow in color, 
borne on stems eight inches high. They 
have a pleasant vanilla-like fragrance. 
It is supposed to be a variety of the 
better known I. flavissima, and is still 
scarce and comparatively high priced. 
I. aphylla, flowering toward the end 
of May, has very fine deep red-purple 
blooms, borne two each on slender 
stems. It is hardy and vigorous, but 
has the disadvantage of dying down 
quite early in Summer. 
I. Cengialti. —This is a gem among 
the early-flowering Irises. It has thick 
and prominent rhizomes that grow on 
the surface of the ground. The flower 
stems average a foot high, each carry¬ 
ing several large blooms, bright blue- 
purple, with long waving “falls” or 
lower petals. Easily grown and pro¬ 
fuse in bloom. Useful and beautiful in 
any situation. 
I. obtusifolia. —This rare species, 
which is perhaps not very dwarf when 
fully developed, bloomed on the Rural 
Grounds for the first this season. The 
leaves are a foot or more high, and 
nearly two inches broad, very obtusely 
rounded at the tips. The flowers are 
clear yellow in color and of good size. 
It is said to be native to the south shore 
of the Caspian Sea. 
Native Dwarf Irises. —Three dwarf 
growing Irises of great beauty are na¬ 
tive to the Eastern States. Two have 
lately found their way in gardens, but 
the third, confined to the upper lake 
region, is almost unknown. 
Iris cristata and I. verna are both 
inhabitants of woodlands from the 
Carolinas westward to Tennessee, and 
are generally found growing near the 
banks of small rapid streams. Cristata 
forms a broad mat of pale green foliage, 
four to six inches high, and in May 
produces a long succession of lovely 
violet and gold crested blooms, two 
inches across. Though hardy in almost 
any situation, plenty of moisture is 
needed in Summer to insure a good 
bloom the following Spring. One 
strong clump gave us this season nearly 
300 fine blooms. 
I. verna is more exacting in its needs, 
and must have some shade to do well. 
The leaves are upright, often reaching 
eight inches in height, and the flowers 
resemble brilliant purple and gold 
crocuses more than Iris blooms.- It is 
very handsome and distinct, well merit¬ 
ing all the care needed to make it thrive. 
I. lacustris is the rare little species 
from the shores of Lake Superior. 
While it is known to be absolutely 
hardy we prefer to grow it in a well- 
drained pan of peaty soil and winter it 
under a frame rather than expose it to 
our alternations of frost and thaw. The 
flowers and foliage are much like those 
of I. cristata, but constructed on a 
smaller scale. The color is deeper vio¬ 
let, while the yellow is of a paler shade. 
Our specimen blooms freely in May and 
again in September. It thrives best 
with abundant moisture and some shade. 
w. v. F. 
Windmill for Electric Power. 
V. T. C. y Proctorville, O .—I expect to 
have a high pressure tank in the basement 
of my house and pump water into it, and 
hope to have water on tap at all times. I ex¬ 
pect to pipe for gas and put in an artificial 
gas machine of some kind. You have given 
some good articles on electricity from water 
power. A friend of mine said we would 
have plenty of wind on top of the hill 
where we are building, and he thought we 
could generate enough for lighting with a 
windmill. Do you know of such being done, 
and at a cost to compare with water 
power? I thought the present plants for 
lighting and heating are too costly witfi 
gasoline engine, and if it is probable that 
such power can be had in the near future 
at much less cost it might be best to 
wire the house for electricity while build¬ 
ing. 
Ans. —I am afraid that in our pre¬ 
sent state of knowledge, the scheme of 
electric light from a windmill is not 
feasible. The fundamental difficulty lies 
in the irregular and intermittent charac¬ 
ter of the power. Above all other ma¬ 
chinery electric generators must run 
at uniform speeds, although special de¬ 
vices have been installed to permit of 
some speed variation. If winds were 
uniform when they did blow, we might 
consider the question of a storage bat¬ 
tery for periods of calm, but while 
wind does well for pumping water and 
even for sawing wood, it can hardly 
be applied to running a dynamo. Of 
course it would be possible to pump 
water into an elevated reservoir and 
then use it to run a motor, but this would 
be a bigger engineering proposition than 
any farmer would be likely to under¬ 
take. Still, we may remember that the 
potential energy of the air over our 
farms is well nigh infinite. 
JARED VAN WAGENEN, JR. 
July 25, 
FERTILIZER 
Tankage an ideal Fertilizer for Wheat, and the 
permanent enrichment of all soils. Free from sul¬ 
phuric acid or other injurious chemicals. Licensed 
for sale and analysis gnarantoed under the laws of 
the State of New York. Sold direct from factory 
to farm. $15.00 per ton delivered freight prepaid 
to any railroad station in New York State. 
AMERICAN REDUCTION COMPANY OF 
PITTSBURGH, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
FUMA 
Prairie Dogs, 
“ m m Woodchucks, Gophers, 
and Grain I nsects. 
“The wheels of the gods 
grind slow but exceed¬ 
ingly small.” So the -weevil, but yon can stop their 
^i”h “Fuma Carbon Bisulphide ” are doing. 
EDWARD R. TAYLOR, Penn Yan, N. Y. 
“Poor man! Have you always been 
blind?” “No. mum/ answered Tired 
Tiffins unthinkingly. “Last week I wuz 
lame, but dere wuzn’t enuff in it.”— 
Louisville Courier-Journal. 
“For the Land’s Sake use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it.”—Adv. 
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CREAMERY 
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220 West St., Rutland, Vt. 
u .-.■.p.the 
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ough SHOO-FLY to profect200 cows. Name express of¬ 
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Shoo-Fly Mfg. Co.. 1317 N. lOth St.. Phlla.. Pa. 
Compressed Pure-Salt Bricks 
tent holders is the approved way of animal 
ig. Animals help themselves. Take just 
in, just as wanted. Refined dairy salt, cheap, 
in patent holders is the aj 
saltins 
enough . 
convenient. Write for free salting book. 
BELMONT STABLE SUPPLY CO.. 
Station C, Brooklyn, NT. Y, 
WHY NOT USE 
HUBBARD’S FERTILIZERS? 
Send lor Hubbard’s Fertilizer Almanac 1908, telling all about them. 
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Middletown, .... Connecticut. 
$250.00 For a Prize Story 
The Rural New-Yorker offers $250.00 for the best story of 
AMERICAN FARM LIFE 
of about 50,000 words, submitted by September 15, 1908. We 
want a strong, wholesome story depicting the highest ideals of farm 
life. We invite the competition of the fiction writers of the world 
with or without experience. These stories will be judged solely on 
their merits by judges who will have no knowledge of the authors 
of the manuscript. We prefer to have the copy in typewriting 
though this will not be necessary. Send full name and address on 
separate sheet accompanying the manuscript. Manuscripts not 
winning prize will be paid for separately or returned for which 
postage should be sent. This competition is open freely to all who 
may desire to compete, without charge or consideration of any kind. 
Prospective contestants need not be subscribers for The Rural 
New-Yorker in order to be entitled to compete for the prizes 
offered. Address copy to 
PRIZE STORY DEPARTMENT, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 409 PEARL ST., NEW YORK. 
