1013. 
757 
Ruralisms 
MISSOURI NOTES. 
Never do I remember seeing a Spring 
more auspicious for the general plant 
kingdom. The grass, clover and all their 
tribe have made a vigorous and timely 
growth. The soil is loose, friable and 
moist and readily lends itself to the work 
of farm implements. Wheat looks well, 
conditions are favorable for the planting 
of corn both on low and high land and 
for once nature has fairly succeeded in 
stopping the mouth of the chronic grum¬ 
bler. Apple trees, after their heavy 
bloom, failed to set heavily and so did 
pears, but peaches, plums and cherries 
are in good quantity. Peaches especially 
promise a record crop for late years; 
every bush of a tree is loaded and thin¬ 
ning will be urgently called for. The 
Early Richmond cherry is taking a rest, 
but the trees of the Montmorency have 
come back with another large crop, con¬ 
firming the conclusion of an old neigh¬ 
bor that the latter is the more valuable 
variety here. At this time, 10 days be¬ 
fore cherries are ripe, flocks of the cherry 
bird, cedar bird or wax-wing, as it is 
variously called, are to be seen in omin¬ 
ous numbers, sustaining themselves on 
the half-green mulberries until their fa¬ 
vorite fruit is ready. We have an ever- 
bearing mulberry near the house, and all 
through the day this tree is visited by 
these birds. Firing at them with a shot¬ 
gun has little effect. Apparently the birds 
WATTS BLACKBERRY. Fig. 266. 
come from a district where they are un¬ 
molested, for they show small fear of 
man. Singly they are beautiful with 
saucy topknots, soft gray breasts, brown 
backs, with tip of tail dipped in bright 
sulphur yellow and a touch of sealing- 
wax red on ends of lower wing feathers, 
liy the time the cherries are half picked, 
they begin to disappear for the rest of the 
year but, according to their numbers, 
they are capable of great destruction. 
Blackcap raspberries that have not 
been favored with the shade of trees have 
died back, as usual, until their produc¬ 
tion is unprofitable, but those along tree 
rows are loaded with fast maturing fruit. 
Blackberries present the grandest sight of 
all the small fruits. Never have I seen 
a more flattering prospect, I was much 
interested in the conduct of the hybrids 
from Texas, the McDonald and Iiaupt, 
which are called imperfect bloomers. It 
is true that during the two years they 
have bloomed here, they have failed to 
set but very few perfect berries, but an 
examination of their flowers under a 
microscope reveals stamens and pistils in 
about the same number as in the self- 
fertile varieties. Either the anthers must 
lack in pollen or it is deficient in po¬ 
tency. This year, however, I have all 
the tribe of bloomers that prove effective 
as pollenizers in Texas, such as the 
Sorsby and Dallas blackberries and 
Mayes dewberry, and so far as can be 
seen, their presence will insure a large 
number of perfect berries. I am still of 
the opinion that if a good fertilizer can 
be found for these hybrids, they will 
mark a new era in berry growing. How¬ 
ever it may be in Texas, the McDonald 
began to bloom a week before the Early 
Harvest and several days before the 
earliest of its compeers. Both it and the 
• Iaupt which begins blooming a week 
biter, have a remarkably long flowering 
period of about three weeks. While still 
many of their flowers were open a half 
dozen of the standard kinds of blaekber- 
nes opened out and there was certainly 
e\ery opportunity for the pollination of a 
good proportion of the fruit. I remark 
uith pleasure that last Winter’s tem¬ 
perature of five degrees above zero 
i iiled to kill the Mammoth blackberry 
ll!, i the Himalaya of California and for 
’ 11 f u.st time they will be seen in fruit- 
''r- 1 ' here. i he Mammoth blooms with 
others of its kind, but the Himalaya is 
TC'JHCE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
still in close bud now when the late black¬ 
berries are almost done flowering. 
The rust is more prevalent this Spring 
than ever seen here before, although last 
year it was cut out promptly. So many 
of the large plants that promise a great 
yield of berries are affected in their new 
shoots that we are cutting out only these 
latter and leaving the bearing canes until 
their fruit is gathered. The rust, as all 
know, first shows in the Spring sucker 
plants and allows the old wood to ripen 
its crop without injury, but it is running 
a grave risk to abstain from applying the 
grubbing hoe to the whole hill at the 
first sign of disease, for the suckers will 
renew themselves almost weekly, and un¬ 
less regular and frequent examinations 
are made, some of them will be overlooked 
and the rust permitted to ripen its spores 
and begin its work of new infection. The 
two varieties that are yielding most read¬ 
ily to the rust are the Mersereau and the 
Watts, and most unfortunately, for these 
two kinds are superb in all other re¬ 
spects. They are huge growers and great 
yielders of the largest and most luscious 
of blackberries, but it is certain that 
here they will have to be consigned to the 
limbo of the Kittatinny. A very little 
rust has been found among the Early 
Harvest and the Early King; one bush in 
the Ward row, none in the Erie, Taylor, 
Snyder or Eldorado. I never did see a 
rusty cane of either Snyder or Taylor. 
We find that a search for rust should be 
made at least once a week from the time 
the new shoots begin to appear. The ex¬ 
perienced eye easily detects it by the pe¬ 
culiar crimped appearance of the leaves 
of the terminal bud. Every precaution 
should be taken to prevent the ripening 
of the spores which is indicated by a deep 
red on the under part of the leaves. 
L. B. JOHNSON. 
Cape Girardeau Co., Mo. 
PRODUCING NEW POTATO VARIETIES. 
Is there any other way to get new va¬ 
rieties of potatoes other than through the 
seed ball? w. H. B. 
Massachusetts. 
The only practical way to raise new 
varieties of potatoes appears to be by 
growing the seeds produced in the seed 
ball or fruit of the potato plant. Each 
seedling is a distinct individual resulting 
from the fusion of a pollen cell from the 
same or another potato plant with an 
ovule or seed germ, and carries with it 
certain variations from the parent plant 
or plants, that may or may not appear 
desirable to the grower. If the new 
qualities are such as he desires further 
propagation is by divisions of the tubers, 
which are merely swollen root stocks or 
parts of the original seedling plant, and 
transmit the same characters through an 
indefinite number of propagative genera¬ 
tions. Occasionally, but with excessive 
rarity, a bud sport or mutation appears 
in the hill, and a tuber varying from the 
parent type is developed that may breed 
true from sprouts or cuttings and thus 
a distinct new variety be produced. This 
occurs most frequently with dark or mot¬ 
tled potatoes which may produce albino 
or self-colored tubers capable of continu¬ 
ing the variation when propagated in the 
usual way by division. While this is 
known to have happened, it is safe to say 
that no valuable commercial variety has 
yet been found as a “sport.” A third 
method has been suggested, that of split¬ 
ting and grafting together the eyes or 
sprouting buds from different potatoes, or 
transplanting the eyes from tubers of one 
variety to those of another in the hope 
that the active young growing cells from 
the two kinds would become mixed to¬ 
gether in vital union, and growing on in 
company might produce a true graft-hy¬ 
brid or new individual, combining the 
useful characteristics of both parents. 
This is claimed to have actually occurred 
under extremely careful experimental 
conditions, but so far the process has not 
been instrumental in producing useful 
new varieties, and the chances of failure 
in such careful surgical work are known 
to be infinitely greater than of success. 
Potatoes are easily grown from seeds 
taken from the fruits or seed ball, requir¬ 
ing about the same treatment as tomato 
plants, and in the endless variations that 
ensue useful varieties are often found. 
Few modern commercial potato varieties 
produce seeds freely, as the blooms ap¬ 
pear to be progressively growing sterile, 
but balls may occasionally be found at 
maturity, containing seeds that may prove 
exceedingly useful. But little progress 
has been made iu artificial hybridization 
or hand pollination of the cultivated po¬ 
tato, but undoubtedly natural cross- fer¬ 
tilization occurs in the field when differ¬ 
ent varieties are grown near together. 
Many potato blooms are deficient in pol¬ 
len, though possessing receptive stigmas 
and ovules, and in consequence are self- 
sterile, though capable of being impreg¬ 
nated from another plant should the pol¬ 
len be carried to them. Bees and flying 
insects rarely visit potato blooms, but 
minute pollen-feeding thrips and other 
small crawling insects pass from flower 
to flower on various plants, and may thus 
become active agents in effecting cross¬ 
fertilization. Even without natural or 
artificial crossing potato seedlings uni¬ 
formly show wide variation, and form by 
far the readiest means of securing new 
forms of horticultural merit. v. 
Sherwin-Williams 
“One-Man” Spray Pump 
A Spraying Combination. 
Would you ask Prof. Gladwin whether 
I can combine Bordeaux, arsenate of lead 
and “Black Leaf 40” in one spray to use 
against fungus, root-worm and leaf- 
hopper in vineyard, without impairing 
the efficacy of any? I used this combi¬ 
nation once last year, and results were 
positive except as to root-worm, though 
I added molasses. Do any of the chemi¬ 
cals stated neutralize or make any the 
less effective the others? F. B. T. 
Visalia, Ky. 
The combination of Bordeaux, arsenate 
of lead, “Black Leaf 40” and molasses 
for root-worm, leaf-hopper and powdery 
mildew is impracticable, for the reason 
that the Bordeaux neutralizes the at¬ 
tractive effect of the molasses. It is very 
doubtful that the three troubles can be 
controlled by one spraying. A mixture 
of Bordeaux and lead should be thor- 
You can spray without the aid of another man 
or even a horse with this pump. It* light, sim¬ 
ple construction makes it easy to operate and 
pull or push from one spot to another. It 
takes but a few moments to compress with 
sufficient air to spray 15 or 20 minutes at a 
time. Its ease of operation enables you to 
devote more time to the actual work of spray¬ 
ing, thereby insuring thorough work. The S-W 
Pump is far better than the pump-and-spray 
bucket or barrel pumps. 
Write for further information and our reasonable 
price for a complete machine. 
Sherwin-Williams 
INSECTICIDES 
A product for every purpose. AH are guaranteed under 
the Government Insecticide Act of 1910, Serial No. 57. 
Use S-W New Process Arsenate of Lead. S-W 
Lime-Sulfur Solution, S-W Paris Green and S-W 
Bordeaux Mixture. 
Our "Spraying Calendar and Guide" tells 
when, how and what to spray with. It's free. 
oughly applied as soon as the root-worm 
beetles emerge, care being taken to cover 
all the foliage. Then a second spraying 
of Bordeaux, lead and “Black Leaf 40” 
should be made when a goodly number 
of young hoppers are on the underside of 
the leaves. The spray should be directed 
so that the undersides are hit by the 
mixture. At the same time the clusters 
will be coated and protection from mil¬ 
dew obtained. The molasses is only [ 
recommended for use with the lead and 
then when the weather is warm and 
dry. If rain follows shortly after its 
application, it being very soluble in 
water, will wash off and the needed pro¬ 
tection will not be obtained and another 
spraying will be necessary. If these 
conditions can be met it will kill the 
root-worm. The efficiency is lost when 
molasses is combined with the Bordeaux, j 
F. E. GLADWIN. 
Apple Sauce.— After reading “The 
Welcome Apple,” page 639, I feel like 
giving your readers another way to make 
apple sauce. ()ne of the largest restaur¬ 
ants on the “West Side” of New York 
City had a great reputation for this 
article, so much so that the proprietor re¬ 
fused for a long time to tell me the se¬ 
cret, but finally did, and we have made it j 
this way at home for many years. With¬ 
out peeling the apple, after washing and 
cutting out the stem and bloom cavity we 
cut into four pieces, and after stewing 
down run through a colander to take out I 
the cores and seeds, with part of the 
peeling. Then sweeten to taste. The 
best part of the flavor is in the cores and I 
skins of most apples. a. c. WORTH. 
The Sherwin-Williams Ca 
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635 Canal Road Cleveland, Ohio 
Profit by Spraying 
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28 Jay Street _Rochester, N. Y. 
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