1912. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKEB 
1289 
Ruralisms 
FLORISTS’ STOCK. 
Among berried or fruited plants of¬ 
fered for Christmas, imported holly and 
Japanase Aucuba are the largest and 
most expensive, but the demand for 
them is limited. The pot-grown hollies 
imported from Europe are symmetrical 
in form, pyramids or round-headed, well 
berried, and include golden and silver 
variegated foliage. The Aucubas have 
large shining leaves, dark green or with 
golden mottlings and large bright red 
fruit somewhat like rose heps in shape. 
The most popular berried plant is Ar- 
disia crenulata, which makes a neat pot 
specimen, large or small, with shining 
dark green leaves and abundant red 
berries. It is an excellent house plant, 
and the berries hang on until it blooms 
ior the next crop, and often longer. 
The old-fashioned Jerusalem cherry, 
Solanum Pseudo-Capsicum, is a great 
favorite with those who want a mod¬ 
erate-priced berried plant, and thare are 
several small-fruited pepper plants that 
are now popular. They make a great 
show, and are sufficiently tropical, if 
tasted, to warm up the coldest Christ¬ 
mas weather. Well-fruited Otaheite 
oranges are also seen, and are very 
decorative. Apart from fruiting plants 
the Poinsettia, which seems to have 
come to the front as an American 
Christmas emblem, is enormously popu¬ 
lar in pots and baskets. It is used so 
much on Christmas cards and imitated 
in crape paper and other materials, 
until everyone is familiar with it. The 
showy pink Begonia Gloire de Lorraine, 
Cyclamens, Chinese primroses and Aza¬ 
leas are all popular. Gloire de Lorraine 
is a little uncertain in dwellings, suf¬ 
fering from gas or dry heat; we have 
handled plants that did very well, but 
sometimes it flags immediately owing 
to uncongenial environment. It has to 
be packed very carefully for Winter 
delivery, with a wrapping of cotton 
batting beneath the paper. Among 
foliage plants Crotons (properly Co- 
diaeums) with their vivid variegations 
of gold and red, and Dracaena (botani- 
cally Cordyline) terminalis with rose 
and bronzy green foliage, are much in 
use. The Norfolk Island pine, Arau¬ 
caria excelsa, which looks like an arti¬ 
ficial Christmas tree, so thick and regu¬ 
lar is its growth, is a perennial favor¬ 
ite. An increasing demand for pot 
plants at Christmas has been noted for 
several years, not only individual speci¬ 
mens, but also composite baskets ar¬ 
ranged for artistic effect. E. t. r. 
Chemicals With Hen Manure. 
W. II., Deer Parle, N. Y .—What chemicals 
should be used and the amount to use per 
ton to make fertilizer, using hen manure 
as the bulk, for corn, pickles and tomatoes? 
I get the droppings from 2,200 chickens a 
week. This is a sandy loam soil; it is in 
rye now, to be turned under in the Spring. 
Would this manure be as good as horse 
manure when it is mixed with chemicals? 
Ans.— -First of all be sure the hen 
manure is kept dry. It should be well 
mixed with land plaster as collected, 
and stored in a dry place. It will dry 
into hard chunks. In the Spring these 
are to be crushed or ground and sifted 
so as to mix well with the chemicals. 
For the crops you mention the following 
mixture will be useful: 800 pounds mu¬ 
riate of potash, 700 pounds acid phos¬ 
phate and 200 pounds nitrate of soda. 
Such a mixture will be superior to horse 
manure. 
Sawdust on Heavy Clay. 
C. L. F., Weis l. Pa .—Will new sawdust 
help a heavy clay soil by spreading and 
plowing in in Spring? Are coal ashes 
better than sawdust? I-Iow much to the 
acre ? 
Ans. —Fresh sawdust should not be 
used in the soil in this way. Such saw¬ 
dust contains an acid which will injure 
such soil if heavily used. Well-rotted 
sawdust, or after it has been fermented 
with manure or well soaked with liquids, 
will help, but we would not plow it 
under. Better plow, then spread the 
sawdust and harrow thoroughly. This 
will mix it well all through the soil 
where it is needed. Coal ashes have 
little plant food value, but they are bet¬ 
ter than fresh sawdust because they 
are not sour and, being finer, will mix 
better through the soil. You can use 
six to eight tons per acre if they are 
thoroughly mixed with the soil. The 
object is to mix the fine part of these 
ashes all through the clay. A good 
dressing of slaked lime would help such 
soil, as the effect of lime on clay is to 
open it or partly prevent its packing 
hard. 
NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS. 
Bulletin 78, from the Office of Foreign 
Seed and Plant Introduction, U. S. Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, records the receipt of 
seeds of so-called Blue grass from Aus¬ 
tralia, which will be disseminated later. 
Mr. Breakwell of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, Sydney, N. S. W., thus describes 
it: “Queensland Blue grass. Very wide¬ 
ly distributed in Australia. A most palat¬ 
able grass to stock. Grows over three feet 
high on good soil, and never less than one 
foot on the worst of soils. Keeps green all 
the year round, and is little affected by 
drought or frost.” Another Australian 
grass is a species of Panicum called spider 
grass, of which Mr. Breakwell says: “New 
South Wales has for two years been suf¬ 
fering from a most severe drought, about 
one inch of rain having fallen in six 
months in some places in the interior. This 
grass, in spite of the droughty conditions, 
remained green when other vegetation was 
completely dried up. As it is a most pal¬ 
atable and nutritious fodder it is of great 
promise.” 
Sudan grass, received from Khartoum, 
Egypt, is thus described: “The plant is 
an annual closely resembling in appearance 
ordinary Johnson grass, but entirely lack¬ 
ing the rootstocks which make the latter 
undesirable. Sudan grass is apparently the 
wild or half-domesticated form of our culti¬ 
vated sorghums, and it crosses readily with 
the various varieties of sorghum. It has 
a much finer stem than Amber sorghum, 
and slightly coarser than Timothy.” 
Seeds of the Queensland nut, Macadamia 
ternifolia, have been received from Bris¬ 
bane, Australia. This is a slow-growing 
tree of northeastern Australia suitable for 
tropical culture. It begins to bear at 
six to seven years almost spherical nuts 
the size of a large marble, which have a 
very agreeable rich taste resembling that 
of the Brazil nut, but sweeter and not so 
oily. The shell is harder than tl;e shell of 
a hickory nut, but the white kernel is more 
like the kernel of a hazel nut. The price 
per pound in Australia is about one shill¬ 
ing, and they have proven very profitable 
as a nut crop. The tree is an evergreen 
with leaves in threes or fours and creamy 
white racemes of sweet-scented flowers. 
From previous introductions it appears 
probable that this tree will thrive in Cali¬ 
fornia and Florida at least. It is pictured 
as growing in Klysian Park, Los Angeles, 
Cal., where it has reached a height and 
diameter of 15 feet. It grows to be 60 
feet high. 
Plants of an interesting perennial rice 
from Senegal, West Africa, have been pre¬ 
sented by the director of the Colonial Gar¬ 
den, Nogent-sur-Marne, France, who says: 
“In the Itichard-Toll region in North Sen¬ 
egal, Mr. Paul Ammann has discovered a 
rice that differs from all other African 
rices in that it has rhizomes, and multi¬ 
plies thus without depending on seed. This 
rice is considered so superior to other rice 
that at Saint Louis, Senegal, the natives 
exchange one calabash of it for three of 
imported rice. The stalks of perennial rice, 
especially when green, constitute a forage 
of excellent quality. It grows in rather 
light soils, rich in potash and nitrogen but 
poor in phosphoric acid and lime. These 
soils contain also about 0.1 per cent of 
sodium chloride, so that this rice would 
probably grow in saline soils, and might be 
cultivated where the soil is too salt for 
other crops, or in those soils from which it 
is desirable to remove the salt in order to 
grow cotton or other plants.” 
These bulletins usually contain very in¬ 
teresting notes from foreign correspond¬ 
ents. Rev. T. W. Mitchell, writing from 
Chenehow, Hunan, China, has this to say 
regarding the Tung shu or wood oil tree: 
“The Chinese knock the nuts off or pick 
them off and pile them up in piles and then 
take off the outside covering by hand and 
dry them in the sun. They are then (after 
sun drying) taken to a mill either driven 
by water power or cow power. The mill 
is only a crude track made of wood or 
stone over which a small iron wheel runs 
and grinds the nuts into a powder, which 
is then taken out and put into cakes. 
The press is a tree usually hollowed out 
and pressed by wedges which are struck by 
a big swinging club, and the oil oozes out 
into a bucket held below the press. The 
process is very crude and slow, and the oil 
is very dirty. This is also the process 
used in extracting the tea oil. The refuse 
is used as fertilizer. The Chinese use it 
for killing the insects in their rice fields, 
and they also say it is good fertilizer. The 
trees vary in size, but a well-grown tree 
will yield about two bushels of the nuts 
after the hulls are taken off. I don’t know 
really what the average yield is, but it is 
considerably less, I imagine, than the above 
figures. I have inquired the age of the 
tree, and old men have told me that they 
live and bear for several tens of years, as 
they put it. I have inquired concerning 
the leaves being poisonous and all say 
they are not.” 
A correspondent at Tunky, Nicaragua, 
gives some idea of the difficulties of travel 
there. He says the rainfall is about 185 
inches per annum. “Communication be¬ 
tween here and the Pacific side is very 
difficult, involving a dangerous journey by 
mule-back of from 12 to 18 days, and a 
journey rarely made by a white foreigner. 
In fact, it is much longer and harder than 
a journey to the United States. Commu¬ 
nications with the “interior” (Pacific 
Slope) are generally had by going to the 
sea, coasting down to San Juan del Norte 
and over the route of the Nicaragua Canal 
with many changes of steamers, or else by 
Panama, or even by New Orleans and San 
Francisco.” 
Reeves Favorite Peach. —I read with 
interest your article giving the history of 
the Carman peach, and would like the ad¬ 
vantage of your advice and information as 
to Reeves Favorite. It seems to be little 
known here. Is it considered a Rood peach 
to plant for a commercial orchard? Our 
soil is described in the Government soil 
survey of the county as Dunkirk fine sand, 
and has been found admirably suited to 
peach growing. I find very little in the 
books and publications giving the informa¬ 
tion desired. j. s. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
Give your plants all 
the sun 
You can do so by simply using the SUNLIGHT DOUBLE* 
GLASS SASHES on your hot-beds and cold-frames. A 
°8-inch layer of dry air between the layers of glass 
affords ample protection. No mats or other cover¬ 
ing ever needed. 
They let in ail the light and all the heat that the 
sun’s rays carry. But they never permit the stored 
heat to escape or the outside cold to enter. 
With these sash half the labor and cost are saved; 
and far better and earlier plants secured. They give 
you flowers and vegetables when they are luxuries. 
Many Thousands Giving Perfect Service 
for Hot-beds 
and Cold-frames 
Get These Two Books 
One is our FREE Catalogue; the other is Prcf. 
Massey’s Hand-Book of Cold-, 
frames and Hot-beds, sent for 
4 cents in stamps. 
Sunlight Double 
Glass Sash Co. 
924 E. Broadway, Louisville, Ky. 
SPRAYERS NECESSARY 
Some States make you spray now; others will 
iollow soon. # But you must apply right solu¬ 
tions, at the right time, in the right way. You 
ne ^d a Sprayer with best pumps 
and adjustments for your purpose. 
IRONM 
Build from this to 
SPRAYERS 
1 have these advantages. 40 com- 
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barrel, 1 ractionand Power Spray- 
e I?. $300. Pumps outside, 
will not corrode; handle any solution 
bprayers in units, complete or in parts to build uo 
1 those already In use. Ask your dealer a * 
to show them and write for new booklet, 
J “Spraying Vines, Trees and 
I Tushes. ” We also make full line I 
1 potato machines, garden tools, etc. 
BATEMAN M’F’G CO. " 
Bo* 1U2N 
^Grenloch, N. J. 
this at any time. 
APPLE 
GROWING 
The healthier the tree, the 
better the fruit. The longer 
trees are sprayed with 
“SCALECIDE” the more 
. . beautiful, healthful and 
fruitful they become. “SCALECIDE” is the 
acknowledged leader of all soluble oils—the only one 
containing distinctfungicidal properties. “SCALE- 
CiDE will positively kill all soft-oodied sucking in¬ 
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statements. Send today for free booklet "SCALE- 
the ,,? Ve0 Saver -” Address B. G. PRATT 
CO., Mfg, Chemists, 50 Church St., N. Y. City. 
GREAT CROP RESULTS 
1 " Personally I believe your High Grade Potato 
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more potatoes and better stock than three-fourths 
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Manufactured chiefly of materials from our own 
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Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
FARM 
CUSHMAN 
Power to Run 
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A powerful little 4 h. p. engine. It 
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spraying. r.fef“free 0 
Original 
Binder W 
En $ in * m 
Get this 
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Churn, run the separator, grind, 
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Consumes fuel according to work; 
no waste. Speeds to 5 h. p. when nec- 
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We also build 6-8 and 20 h. p. heavy 
duty engines. Tell us your needs when you 
write for the book. Address 
CUSHMAN MOTOR WORKS 
2091 N St., Lincoln, Neb. 
GET THE BEST 
A Good Spray Pump earns 
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THE ECLIPSE 
is a good pump. As 
practical fruit growers 
1 we were using com¬ 
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and invented the Eclipse. Its 
success forced us to manu¬ 
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You take no chances. We 
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MORRILL S MORLEY MFG. C0. t Box 5, Benton Harbor, Mich. 
THU BALDWIN LAMP 
I rojecta a 14-candle power light 
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Weight, 6 oz. ; height. 3K in. No 
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15Q Leonard Street Now York City 
SOMETHING NEW 
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SPRAYERS 
Gets twice the results r — —... 
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Flat or round, line or coarse sprays 
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IBS BROADWAY. Rochester, N. V. 
San Jose Scale Killer 
KIL-O-SCALE is the most reliable 
remedy for Scale. Ready for use 
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Lime sulphur and Spraying Out¬ 
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HOW TO GROW 
ON YOUR FARM OR COUNTRY ESTATE 
FARMOGERM INOCULATION 
Standard throughout the world 
letn "?! 
youi Com. This is practical information of value to every farmer. * b g 07 1563,118 or other legumes wit] 
K3.3U 
EARP-THOMAS FARMOGERM CO., Bloomfield, N. J., U. S. A 
Our New Book No. 54 ready January 1st. Sent Iree . 
