284 
THE RUHAb NEW-YORKER 
commission man, or storing for better prices, all have 
their advocates and their disadvantages. We should 
have a fair per cent of what the consumer pays. Two 
illustrations will serve well here. Apples have sold 
in the orchards here, either for immediate use or stor¬ 
age, for $1.75 per barrel of 11 pecks. In Chicago, 
A CHERRY-PLUM HYBRID. Fig. 85. 
about 100 miles away, 60 cents per peck has been a 
common price to the consumer for ordinary stock. 
And we often wonder how many pecks are sold from 
a barrel. So high that the consumer must use very 
carefully, and the producer not getting enough to 
warrant a man with a job taking the risk of growing 
apples on rented orchards. 
The other illustration (and I shall give name and 
address of the man, who is 87 years old and still a 
boy) Uncle Dave Woodward of Clinton, Michigan, 
sold his crop of apples at $3 and $4 per barrel and 
$2 per box of 45 pounds direct to the consumer; had 
orders for the crop before picking time, got his money 
and put the fruit where it goes into immediate con¬ 
sumption. Has he not solved the problem ? With 
the possible advantage of sending samples through the 
parcel post, the use of any of the grading machines 
so the shipment will stand up to the sample, the 
greater freedom people are feeling of purchasing 
where it suits them best, perhaps the best asset an 
orchard renter may possess is the ability to create 
and manage a mail order market for his stock. 
Hillsdale Co., Mich. w. s. pullen. 
UNCLE JOHN SPENCER’S CHERRY ORCHARD 
Thousands of farmers at Grange meetings and 
farmers’ institutes know of “Uncle John” Spencer’s 
efforts to bring poetry and romance into everyday 
farm work, and his longing to interpret scientific 
methods and terms in a simple understandable way. 
Thousands of people who are familiar with his work 
at Cornell University know of him as a pioneer in 
the movement for children’s gardens, but only a very- 
small number are aware that in still another direction 
he has helped to blaze a path for others. 
The basis of operations for this little-known work 
was his farm in the heart of the Chautauqua grape 
belt. The land belonged to his father before him, 
and at one time was partially set out to grapes, but 
Uncle John, a man of initiative and ideas, could not 
be content to do just what his neighbors were doing. 
So while they raised grapes, he grew cherries—for 
profit of course, but also as the exponent of a theory. 
Having watched the history of the district from the 
time wh$n it became so grape-crazed that orchards 
w«ere cut down and, like the fields, were turned into 
vineyards, he came to believe that in their enthusiasm 
for grape growing, the farmers of this region were 
overlooking other valuable sources of profit. He was 
convinced that by growing the smaller fruits in a 
scientific manner, the grape farmer may obtain a 
better income from a small acreage, with the added 
advantage of having ready money available from his 
early fruit crop to finance the grape harvest, instead 
of depending upon credit until the season is over and 
the returns have come in. He had the insight to 
realize the splendid business opportunity open to 
the man in such a district, who specializes in some 
new line. His story of the cherry orchard from the 
time that the idea first came to him was told in a 
very characteristic manner to a visitor last Summer. 
“It was one morning in July about 20 years ago, 
that 1 first thought of it. I was up in a cherry tree— 
one of those down near the house. As I picked I 
began to think. I estimated the number of cherries 
I had gathered, thought of the time it had required, 
and considered their value in the market. That gave 
me my first idea of growing them for profit. I kept 
at it in my mind until in the Spring of 1896—the year 
that McKinley was nominated for President; I set 
out a few hundred trees. Since then I have kept 
adding to the number. Now there are about 2,000 
trees on the 14 acres, but some of them have not yet 
come into bearing.” 
“ ‘How long does it take before they begin to bear ?’ 
Anywhere from five to eight years. Before that 
you may get enough for a cherry pie, but if you 
want them to pay the interest you’d better wait at 
least that long.” 
“The sour cherry is the cherry,” said Uncle John 
as he drove close under a tree and pulled down a 
branch where the bright red fruit hung in clusters 
among the green leaves, like great Christmas holly 
berries strayed into Summer time. “That is, if you 
are going to market them. The sweet ones do notj 
keep well and are worth little for shipping. These 
bright red ones are Early Richmond. After them 
come the Montmorency, the gem of them all. The 
last to ripen are the English Morello, but they give 
more dollars to the acre, for they love to bear. With 
half a chance they bear copiously, but they are very 
sour.” 
After a cheery greeting to the 26 pickers half hid¬ 
den among the trees Uncle John turned back toward 
the house again and his guest ventured a question 
as to the financial returns from such an orchard. 
“Yes,” said Uncle John, and lie spoke as if each 
tree were an intimate friend, “they give a man a good 
income. Last year I had about $3,300 from them. 
They are a fine thing for a man in his old age when 
he does not want to have to look after a big farm 
such as would give him equal returns. They are good 
where they have a friend, and will give him on an 
average $300 to the acre. The whole secret lies in 
being a friend to the trees.” 
By being “a friend” to the trees Uncle John re¬ 
ferred of course to attending to their culture, but 
the words seem to have a deeper significance as well. 
In fact they hold the key to all of his success, with 
the farmers, with the children, and with his cherry 
trees. He was their friend. clara e. espey. 
New York. 
HOME IMPROVEMENT. 
“If you wish to sell your house paint it.” This is 
a rule that invariably succeeds, and so I would add, 
if you wish to increase the value of your farm hun- 
HILL OF v SOUTH DAKOTA POTATOES. Fig. 86 . 
dreds of dollars, mow the yard, trim the old rose 
bushes, plant one or two new ones and make the 
place attractive. Putting aside all thought of the 
actual increased value in dollars and cents, the in¬ 
creased value to your children is untold and cannot 
be figured. Being proud of one’s home is the best 
of anchors in stormy weather, and the mind picture 
of a clean well-kept yard bright with flowers will 
bring the children back to the farm in years to 
come. But planting time on the farm and planting 
time in the yard come at the same time; which must 
come first? The farm of course, but a few moments 
after supper will cut the dead wood out of the old 
rose bush, and five minutes more will spade the earth 
about it, while 10 minutes with a lawn mower will ac¬ 
complish wonders. And you hardly recognize the 
place. 
Then the tree man comes along, and we want to 
add a bush or two. What shall it be? There are 
three rules to be followed in all planting of this sort. 
First, plant nothing but what is hardy, you have not 
time to coddle your plants. Second, plant but a few 
bushes with plenty of room for them to grow. Third, 
give them at least help enough to keep the grass 
from choking them. Ask the tree man for one or two 
Spiraea Van Houtteii for the corner by the porch, and 
plant them well out from the drip and about four 
feet apart. In a couple of years they will fill the 
corner and be a mass of white in the Spring and 
a beautiful green the rest of the season. 
Then that sunny end of the porch, where you would 
like to sit on a hot Sunday afternoon, if it was 
shaded; for that get a Clematis paniculata and give 
it a piece of chicken wire to grow on. This will give 
you a dense shade, and beautiful fragrant flowers in 
late Summer. That shady end of the porch is the 
place for a bed of pansy plants, while a bush honey¬ 
suckle, Tartarian, would cover that ugly corner of 
the fence, and a Dorthy Perkins rose will cover many 
feet more and make the fence a thing of beauty. 
These are just suggestions, but I am a farmer myself, 
March 1 
and sometimes find it hard to take the time for the 
front yard, but it pays so well that I make myself 
do it. It pays better than any other part of the farm 
by increasing the value of the whole place many dol¬ 
lars per acre. a woman farmer. 
A SPRINGTIME MUSHROOM. 
The picture shows two mushrooms to be found 
late in April or early in May in apple orchards or 
open woods, and much sought after as a delicacy. 
They are miscalled truffles by some, their right ap¬ 
pellation being morels, Morchella esculenta of the 
botanists, and are but remotely related to the truffles 
which are native to Europe. The picture shows the 
mushroom about one-half natural size and clearly 
shows the spongelike cap. There is no danger of mis¬ 
taking these mushrooms when once known, and their 
location of growth and time of appearing are a 
further means of identification. Mushrooms produce 
no seed but are propagated by means of spores, which 
are produced in the cavities of the spongelike cap 
of this variety, and when mature the spores fall to 
the ground and germinate, producing a radiating mass 
of white thread-like roots called mycelium. This 
mycelium grows and stores up food material for next 
Spring, when warm, moist weather causes the spore 
bodies or mushrooms to develop at certain nodes or 
centers. The growth is very rapid, the mushrooms 
pushing up and attaining full size over night. There 
are three varieties of morels which differ principally 
in shape of the cap, and all of them are quite palata¬ 
ble, when properly prepared. The usual method is 
to soak them in salt water after splitting them open, 
and fry like oy r sters; or they may be prepared as 
are the common mushrooms. w. e. duckwall 
Ohio. 
CHERRY-PLUM HYBRID. 
I send you to-day in another enclosure a few plums, 
apparently an interesting novelty, evidently a hybrid 
resulting from a cross between a cherry and a plum. 
Before it fully ripens it has the stronger flavor of 
the sweet cherry, and when well ripened the flavor 
of the plum is more pronounced. Some years ago 
there grew closely side by side an Ox-heart cherry tree 
and a tree supposed to be a Bleeker’s Gage plum; 
both bore fruit for a number of years; finally they 
decayed and died. From the spot where one or both 
the roots of these old trees were came a young tree, 
either from the root of one of the decayed trees 
or a seedling. It has born abundance of fruit regu¬ 
larly for some years past, such as the samples I have 
sent you. They are not attacked by the curculio or 
black knot, and the tree grows to a large size. While 
the cherry and the plum are somewhat related, I have 
had the impression that they could not be crossed by 
budding or grafting, yet here seems a distinct hybrid, 
a result of chance growth. johi^ tiernan. 
New York. 
There is a possibility that the cherry and plum 
might be crossed through their flowers and a hybrid 
of value produced in this way, but it could not be 
done by budding or grafting. The latter are only 
methods of propagating known and desirable varieties 
and not used with any attempt at crossing. The 
pollen of a species that is very closely allied to an¬ 
other may be, in some rare cases, artificially or acci¬ 
dentally transferred to the stigmas of that species 
and be potent and produce a true cross that we call 
a hybrid. There are several such things in existence, 
both in nature and as the results of artificial means. 
TWO WELL-KNOWN SPRING MUSHROOMS. Fig. 87. 
The hickans are wild crosses of the hickory and 
pecan, the latter really being only one species of the 
genus Hicoria that is called pecan. The Loganberry 
is an example of the artificial crossing of the black¬ 
berry and raspberry, and is a very valuable fruit on 
the Pacific coast, where it succeeds better than else¬ 
where. H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
