1912. 
873 
Ruralisms 
FLORAL NOTES FROM THE CENTRAL 
WEST. 
The planting of the hardy perennials 
—which made the gardens of our ances¬ 
tors so justly famous—is growing in 
extent each succeeding year. This is 
attested not only by the annual reports 
of the seedsmen and commercial grow¬ 
ers of this class of plants, but by their 
evidence in the suburban and rural dis¬ 
tricts as noted in a ride out of town. 
It is indeed high time that the sterling 
qualities of this great class of plants 
were recognized by the flower-loving 
public. The golden Coreopsis, the snow- 
white Shasta daisy, the everblooming 
Gaillardia, the stately Digitalis, the 
lupines, Phloxes, Oriental poppies, 
Yuccas, etc., in their rampant profusion, 
impart a charm of simplicity and con¬ 
tentment to the home surroundings that 
cannot be attained by other means. The 
hardy perennial seed is comparatively 
inexpensive. August is the ideal time 
for sowing. The best method is to sow 
in flats, and in early October transplant 
to the permanent garden. With a light 
covering of straw or leaves during Win¬ 
ter, success with this class of plants is 
practically certain. 
The carnation season now being over, 
the local florists have little in stock save 
the flowers cut from the Summer 
blooming annuals which are grown 
upon the greenhouse benches and in the 
field. Perhaps the most important of 
these from the standpoint of profit, is 
the Aster. The early Asters have been 
in the market since latter June and will 
continue till early Autumn. Queen of 
the Market and Comet in the various 
colors are the favorites for early 
blooming. The late varieties, as a rule, 
produce choice flowers, the stems being 
longer and the blooms larger. The early 
Cosmos is now yielding immense quan¬ 
tities of flowers. These with their light, 
airy foliage are always popular. Lady 
Lennox is the great late variety. It 
blooms very late, however, being neces¬ 
sary at times to protect the plants from 
frost to save the flowers. Snapdragons, 
commonly called "snaps,” command a 
ready market. Their keeping qualities 
combined with their great variety of 
colors, recommend them to all classes 
of buyers. Candytuft and mignonette, 
with their sweetly scented flowers, help 
out very nicely in the dull season. 
At the recent rose show held in the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, London, a 
medal was awarded for the old favorite, 
White Maman Cochet, which is without 
doubt the best white bedding rose of¬ 
fered in the catalogues to-day. It is 
the rose for the many. It is easily pro¬ 
duced and hence cheap. It is a rapid 
grower and remarkably free from the 
attacks of insects that practically ruin 
some of the choice hybrid teas. The 
low, broad bush bears a wealth of 
blooms that are of excellent quality for 
cutting. There is but one objection and 
that is it is but semi-hardy north of 
the Ohio River. If given protection, 
however, the plants will pull through 
the severest Winters. Pink Maman 
Cochet has every characteristic of this 
rose, differing only in color. 
Of the perishable vines that are 
planted each Spring for the purpose of 
supplying shade for windows, verandas, 
etc., none is better adapted to the pur¬ 
pose than Coboea scandens. It is of 
rapid growth, and the leaves forming 
closely, exclude the light very effectu¬ 
ally. The foliage is more attractive than 
that of the moon vines or the wild cu¬ 
cumber. 
Until recently all the prepared foliage 
for wreaths and decorative purposes 
was imported from Europe. Located in 
Hammond, Ind., is an up-to-date plant 
where large quantities of prepared oak 
sprays, beech sprays, Ruscus, Magnolia 
and Cycas leaves are manufactured to 
meet the ever increasing demand for 
goods of this kind. All but the oak 
leaves are shipped in and are put 
through the process, which is one of 
cooking and dyeing. A great variety of 
color is used; Magnolia leaves are 
dyed in green and brown, oak sprays 
in red and brown, and the Ruscus in 
all colors. This firm expects to turn 
out over 300,000 pounds of the product 
this season. Twenty-five men are daily 
engaged in cutting oak sprays from' 
neighboring woods. J. M. L. 
Ohio. 
'THE RURAb 
Grape Root-Louse. 
If. E., Mogador, O.—Enclosed find a few 
grape leaves; will you tell me what it is 
on them, and what to do for them? I 
have over 25 varieties and it is on only one 
vine, Delaware. 
Ans.—T he grape leaf sent me is in¬ 
jured by the phylloxera or root-louse, 
an insect that does its greatest injury to 
the roots of the vine by forming 
nodosities on them. These in rotting 
favor the rotting of the roots, so that 
eventually in cases of bad infestation 
the vine dies. The vineyards of France 
have been nearly put out of existence 
by this pest. Some species of grapes 
are more resistant to this insect than 
others. The Vinifera or wine .grape of 
Europe is most susceptible. The La- 
brusca, to which the Concord belongs, 
is also very low in resistance. The 
Delaware, the variety in question, pos¬ 
sessing Vinifera blood, is commonly in¬ 
fested. The vineyards of France have 
been reconstituted by grafting the sus¬ 
ceptible varieties upon resistant stocks, 
as the species Rotundifolia, Vulpina, 
Riparia, Rupestris, St. George and 
others. This is the only practical treat¬ 
ment. Flooding the vineyards if pos¬ 
sible will partially control. 
F. E. GLADWIN. 
Barren Blackberries. 
J. A. R., Elver son, Pa .—I would like to 
know what is the matter with my blackber¬ 
ries. They are now about four years old, 
and have never borne any berries. The 
plants are strong and healthy looking, and 
have been covered with blossoms for the 
last three years, but berries do not get 
larger than a small pea and then seem to 
dry up. They were planted in good rich 
ground and have had two good applications 
of manure since. 
Ans. —This must be a case of some 
variety of blackberry that is not perfect 
in its flowers, and needs the pollen of 
some other variety close to it, so the 
bees can carry it to the imperfect bloom. 
There are such varieties, but, fortun¬ 
ately, they are rarely seen. It might be 
that by planting almost any other va¬ 
riety near these bushes they would bear 
perfect berries, and this is what I would 
suggest trying. It is a common fault 
with some of the best and most profit¬ 
able kinds of our cultivated strawber¬ 
ries and a few raspberries. This same 
fact is true of many of our orchard 
fruits as well, and the need of mixing 
varieties in planting is coming to be 
known and the practice followed intelli¬ 
gently by our most advanced fruit grow¬ 
ers. The bees do the most of the carry¬ 
ing of the pollen from one variety of 
tree or plant to another. All fruit grow¬ 
ers should keep bees if some one else 
does not have them near. 
II. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Landscape Gardening as a Profession. 
F. M., ■ Groveland, Mass .—What can you 
tell me of landscape gardening as an oc¬ 
cupation ? What books could I buy that 
would help me? I can do a pretty good 
job now at turning a hopeless piece of land 
into something worth while. As farming 
has been a rather precarious undertaking 
the past few years, thought 1 might do bet¬ 
ter at something else. 
Ans. —Landscape gardening is a large 
and increasing profession; over 200 
firms or persons so engaged are listed 
in a horticultural trade directory. Its 
requisites are artistic taste, practical 
knowledge of hardy trees, shrubs, vines 
and plants; surveying, draining, road 
building, grading, etc., concrete work, 
some knowledge of architecture, and 
ability to draw plans for working, and 
also illustrative of the finished planting 
scheme. In many cases a private gar¬ 
dener, who becomes a florist or nursery¬ 
man, works gradually into this line. 
Practical knowledge could be gained by 
working on a large estate, or a nur¬ 
sery largely devoted to ornamental 
plants; many nursery firms do a great 
deal of such work. No man can ever 
know too much in this business. The 
following books would be helpful: 
Roads, Paths and Bridges, by L. W. 
Page, price 84 cents; How to Plan the 
Home Grounds, Parsons, $1; Landscape 
Gardening, Maynard, $1.50; Lawn Mak¬ 
ing, Barron, $1.10; Water Gardening, 
Bissett, $2.50; Hedges, Windbreaks and 
Shelters, Powell, 50 cents. The vari¬ 
ous periodicals devoted to this subject 
should also be studied. 
Winter Nelis Pear. 
W. R., Pomona, Oa. —Would you give us 
some information in regard to tlje Winter 
Nelis pear, time of blooming and ripening 
as compared with the Kieffer? Is it an 
early and heavy bearer? It is said to be 
very resistant to blight. Is this true? 
Would it be likely to succeed in the South ? 
What is meant by double-working? 
Ans. —The Nelis pear is one of the 
, old standards, and has been tested in 
almost every part of the country and in 
other parts of the world as well, and 
,has a good reputation, generally. It has 
jits faults, however, as will be seen. The 
j trees bloom along with the main list 
NEW-YORKER 
of pears, and this is later than the 
blooming period of the Kieffer, which is 
among the very earliest, but there is an 
overlapping of a few days, when there 
would be opportunity for cross-pollina¬ 
tion, at least to a reasonable extent. As 
to being blight proof, it is as nearly so 
as Seckel and any other variety of high 
quality, but not equal in this respect to 
Kieffer and some others of the Asiatic 
class. The Nelis is a good bearer, but 
not equal to some varieties. How it 
behaves in Georgia I do not know from 
personal observation, but I feel sure 
that it would succeed wherever the 
Bartlett, Seckel and other of our best 
pears flourish, but not always where the 
Kieffer and others of that type are suc¬ 
cessful. 
As to “double working,” by which is 
meant top-grafting or budding on trees 
that have been already budded on seed¬ 
ling stocks in the nursery, I am doubt¬ 
ful of the final success of the Nelis on 
Kieffer stocks because the Bartlett and 
some other varieties that I know have 
not done well where so treated. But 
the Nelis might be different and grow 
and endure all right through the bear¬ 
ing stage, which is the trying time for 
any tree. h. e. van deman. 
Mealy Bug on Ornamental Plants. 
Can you tell us about the moth or in¬ 
sects that kill our flowers? This insect 
looks white like cotton and builds little 
nests among the leaves. It mostly attacks 
the primroses, Coleus, ferns and Begonias. 
Pennsylvania. j. a. k. 
The trouble is mealy bug, which is prone 
to attack Coleus. Primulas, geraniums and 
other soft-wooded plants; it is less likely 
to trouble ferns and Begonias. The best 
remedy is whale-oil soap; dissolve soap in 
hot water, then dilute with cold, making 
the proportion about one pound of soap to 
live to seven gallons of water. Use as a 
spray or wash ; this is a good remedy for 
plant lice and a number of other pests at¬ 
tacking greenhouse plants. In the case of 
tender plants use a soft brush and weak 
soapsuds, and brush the insects off. In a 
greenhouse a great many of these insects 
may be knocked off with" a hard stream of 
water from the hose. It is rather hard to 
get rid of a serious infestation of mealy 
bug on soft-wooded plants in a greenhouse, 
as the cottony overcoat protects the marau¬ 
der against sprays. A florist usually reme¬ 
dies mealy bug on Coleus by depositing the 
plants on the dump. 
Big Cherry Orchards. —Door County, 
Wisconsin, has the largest cherry orchard 
in the world. When this orchard reaches 
maturity in three years, it will require 
2,000 pickers, mostly women and children 
above 13 years of age, who will be taken 
from Milwaukee to Sturgeon Bay by boat, 
where they will be encamped at the orchard 
for live weeks. The orchard contains 67,- 
000 trees, and if they maintain the bearing 
record of other matured orchards there— 
five and one-fourth cases per tree—this 
orchard will produce annually 335,000 
crates of 16 quarts each. A carload con¬ 
sists of 500 crates, so that it would require 
600 cars to transport the fruit from this 
orchard. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
HOW MANY OF US 
Fail lo Select Food Nature Demands to Ward 
Off Ailments ? 
A Ky. lady, speaking about food, says : 
“I was accustomed to eating all kinds of 
ordinary food until, for some reason, in¬ 
digestion and nervous prostration set in. 
“After 1 had run down seriously my 
attention was called to the necessity of 
some change in my diet, and I discon¬ 
tinued my ordinary -breakfast and be¬ 
gan using Grape-Nuts with a good 
quantity of rich cream. 
“In a few days my condition changed 
in a remarkable way, and I began to 
have a strength that I had never been 
possessed of before, a vigor of body and 
a poise of mind that amazed me. It was 
entirely new in my experience. 
“My former attacks of indigestion 
had been accompanied by heat flashes, 
and many times my condition was dis¬ 
tressing, with blind spells of dizziness, 
rush of blood to the head and neuralgic 
pains in the chest. 
“Since using Grape-Nuts alone for 
breakfast I have been free fr-om these 
troubles, except at times when I have 
indulged in rich, greasy foods in quan¬ 
tity, then I would be warned by a pain 
under the left shoulder blade, and un¬ 
less I heeded the warning the old 
trouble would come back, but when I 
finally got to know where these troubles 
originated I returned to my Grape-Nuts 
and cream and the pain and disturbance 
left very quickly. 
“I am now in prime health as a result 
of my use of Grape-Nuts.” Name given 
by Postum Co., Battle Creek, Mich. 
“There’s a reason,” and it is explained 
in the little book, “The Road to Well- 
ville,” in pkgs. 
Ever read the above letter ? A new one 
appears from time to time. They are genu¬ 
ine, true and full of human interest. | 
START NOW TO BUILD A 
BUSINESS OF YOUR OWN 
A S profitable an investment as you 
■ can make, and the basis of a safe 
and steady business of your own is a 
BUCKEYE 
TRACTION 
DITCHER 
Hundreds of men are digging 100 to 
150 rods of ditch and clearing $15 to 
$18 a day, 9 or 10 months a year. 
Farmers want machine made ditches 
because,they are better and true to 
grade, and the work is over and out 
of the way in far less time than hand 
digging. 
A Demonstrated Success for Years 
Buckeye Traction Ditchers have been 
in use for years, all over this country 
and Canada. Many men own two or 
three machines and are always busy. 
You can do as well as they have. 
Write today for Catalog 3 and let us 
tell you the facts about what other 
men have done. 
The Buckeye Traction Ditcher Co. 
Findlay, Ohio 
$ 10 , 000.00 
Deposited With Bank 
to Protect You 
You’ll be a delighted customer if yon buy this 
Greencastle Grain Drill, or we’ll have to take 
machine back and pay freight botli ways. There’s 
no other way out of it—we’ve put up a $10,000.00 
legal bond with our bankers to refund all your 
money if this Drill isn’t exactly what we say it 
is—we would not—dare not—dispute your word 
after you’ve tried the Greencastle. Try it 80 days 
free atom- risk—sow all your seed—and if the 
Greencastle 
Grain Drill 
does not more than satisfy you, ship it back and 
we’ll return your money in full—or forfeit $10,- 
000.00. We know that this Drill is perfect—will 
sow grain, seed or fertilizer accurately and stand 
up to its work in any soil—that's why we guar¬ 
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to introduce this drill in your locality. 
HERTZLER & ZOOS CO., Box 100, Belleville, Pa. 
For real endurance 
You who really want 
your roof waterproof 
to stay waterproof— 
get 
Trinidad Lake asphalt is 
“Nature’s everlasting - water- 
proofer”, and we use it to 
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Mineral or smooth sur¬ 
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Good Roof Guide Book and 
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The Kant-leak Kleet, for 
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does away with cement in 
laps, and prevents nail-leaks. 
The Barber Asphalt Paviag Company 
Largest producers of asphalt, and largest 
manufacturers of ready roofing in the world. 
Philadelphia 
New York San Francisco Chicago 
