1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
459 
The Maiden-hair Rue-Anemone. 
We have several species of Rue-Anemone, 
commonly known as Meadow-Rue, botanically 
Thalictrum. All of these have very much 
divided or compound leaves, and flowers 
without petals, but very showy stamens. 
The foliage of none of our native species 
is equal in beauty to that of the Euro¬ 
pean smaller Meadow-Rue, Thalictrum 
minus. This species is found all over 
Europe and Russian Asia, and is so ex¬ 
ceedingly variable that it is not surpris¬ 
ing that we find various forms of it in 
the catalogues under different names. 
Last spring we received from W. C. 
Strong & Co., Brighton, Mass., a variety 
under the name of Thalictrum adiantoides, 
or Maiden-hair Rue-Anemone, so called 
from the resemblance of its foliage to 
the fronds of the Maiden-liair Fern. 
Messrs. Strong & Co. have introduced 
this as a plant to furnish foliage for 
bouquets. The leaves have all the deli¬ 
cacy and grace of a fern, while they 
are much more lasting and much more 
easily produced. The engraving gives 
an idea of the form, but well-developed 
leaves are several times larger than the 
one from which the illustration was 
taken. Certainly nothing can be finer 
for bouquets or other ornamental work 
than these beautifully dissected leaves 
Being a hardy herbaceous perennial, it 
should be treated like other plants of its 
class. We grew ours in the open air 
during summer, and potted it on the 
approach of frost. It will be kept in a 
cold-pit until February, and having had 
a season of rest it will be brought into 
heat and forced like other plants of 
similar nature. The flowers of this spe¬ 
cies are not at all showy, and to get the 
best developed leaves the flower- 
stems unless it is desired to produce seeds 
should be removed as soon as they appear. 
have been so abundant that the larger part of 
the crop has rotted upon the bushes. The vine¬ 
yards in the West have been loaded with grapes, 
and the growers have found it difficult to market 
The Glut in the Fruit Market. 
The year 1872 will long be remembered as 
the abundant fruit year in all parts of the coun¬ 
try. The rains have been abundant, and almost 
MEXICO APPLE. 
without exception every kind of fruit has done 
well. The wild fruits, grapes, strawberries, 
whortleberries, blackberries, raspberries, plums, 
MAIDEN-HAIR RUE-ANEMONE. 
them at three cents a pound. Pears have been 
so abundant in the fruit-yards of our villages, 
that it has been difficult to sell them at any 
price, and for once fruit-growers of a benevo¬ 
lent disposition have been permitted to give to 
their neighbors freely without any fear of de¬ 
pleting their own purses. Apples especially are 
so abundant in all parts of the country where 
they have orchards, 
that immense quan¬ 
tities of summer 
fruit have rotted 
upon the ground. 
Trees in old pas¬ 
tures that have been 
barren for years 
have hung full. 
Dusty cider-mills, 
and presses unused 
for years, have been 
put in order, and 
the familiar squeak 
of the grinding ap¬ 
ples has been heard 
in almost every ru¬ 
ral district. The 
prophetic symbol 
of agricultural pros¬ 
perity has been 
realized in all parts 
of the laud. The 
presses have burst 
out with new wine and cider. What is 
to be done with all this abundance, and 
what is the true policy for the future ? Some 
have jumped to the conclusion that there 
is no profit in fruit-growing, and that we 
may as well cut do-wn our orchards. Cer¬ 
tainly, we ought not to plant more fruit- 
trees. This is a hasty conclusion. There 
is just as good reason for planting orch¬ 
ards, especially of winter fruit, as there 
has been for the last twenty years. 
For some years past' there have been 
serious doubts among intelligent men 
about the possibility of raising apples 
in sufficient quantity to make them pay. 
The trees would not bear. The crop 
of this year must have dissipated all 
doubt of this kind. The soil has not lost 
its fertility. The climate is not unfriendly 
to fruit. It is much to have our faith 
restored by the bountiful yield of this 
year. It is also a great good to have 
fruit so cheap that the poorest families 
in city and country can enjoy it. It has 
been so dear, in most years, tliat labor¬ 
ing men, in cities especially, have felt that 
they could not afford it. Apples at five 
dollars a barrel, and grapes at twenty- 
five cents a pound, were beyond their 
reach. A great many families have come 
into the full enjoyment of fruit this year, 
and will be good customers of the fruit¬ 
grower henceforth, as long as they can 
afford it. There can be no doubt that 
the market for fruit has been greatly 
enlarged by the bounty of this j r ear, and 
the losses of the fruit-growers, so far as 
they have made them, may be regarded 
as so much capital invested for future 
operations. Every market in the coun¬ 
try will take more fruit next year at 
paying prices, in consequence of the 
abundance of this. Those who have 
large orchards of winter fruit, of popular 
varieties, and plenty of storage room, 
will not lose money even this year. Ap¬ 
ples will not be a drug in the market 
next spring. The man who does not take pains 
to save his fruit will be sorry when he hears 
the cheerful prices of the late-keeping apples. 
The Mexico Apple. 
The illustration shows the Mexico Apple of 
the natural size of a selected specimen. It 
MEXICO APPLE—SECTION. 
originated in the town of Canterbury, Ct., and 
was widely disseminated from the nursery of 
the Messrs. Dyer all through Eastern Connecti- 
