3/8 
All the care the growing pullets get is to have the 
coops opened and the water fountains filled in the 
morning, and the doors of the coops are closed after 
the pullets have gone in for the night. About once a 
week the roofs of the coops are lifted off and the loam 
scattered over the coop floor shoveled into a wheel¬ 
barrow, which is wheeled to the garden, dumped, and 
the barrow filled with fresh loam, which is scattered 
over the floor of the coop to the depth of about an 
inch. The roof of the hopper is lifted and each side 
is filled with food, the roofs of the coops and hoppers 
replaced and secured in place, and they are left for 
another week. About here I am “joshingly” spoken 
of as the man who only feeds his chickens once a 
week, and the statement is true! By that method, 
however, I can bring White Plymouth Rock pullets to 
laying maturity soon after they are five months old, 
and then keep them steadily laying throughout the 
year by feeding by the dry-mash method. Can Mr. 
Fisher beat that result? Please, Mr. Fisher, give us 
your figures. 
I send a snap-shot of a lot of pullets being grown 
by the above method; the photograph. Fig. 146, was 
taken just after sunset, when they would naturally be 
filling up with food for the night, and yet but very 
few of them are at the hoppers. I built a new poultry 
house last Summer, of three pens 12 x 14 feet each, 
and put 75 of those pullets, shown in the picture, into 
the house early in October. Right here I “slipped a 
cog,” because the pullets should have been moved in 
by the middle of September. We didn’t get the house 
done in season for that, some of the pullets had begun 
to lay and were thrown back by the moving, and it 
was November before they got fairly settled down 
to work. They have laid splendidly since they got to 
work, and one pen, of 25 pullets, laid 492 eggs in 
December. One week’s score of that flock, (of 25), 
was: 20, 11, 23, 19, 11, 22, 18,—and that in the month 
of December. Can Mr. Fisher beat that by feeding a 
wet mash ? I doubt it. 
The record for the entire 75 pullets for the past 
four months is: November 603, December 1,082, Janu¬ 
ary 1,176, February 1,383. Possibly Mr. Fisher can 
show a better Winter egg-record than that, but, even 
if he can. look at the work I have saved myself,—and 
the health of the flocks has been of the best. There 
hasn’t been even a sneeze all Winter, and this has 
been about the toughest Winter we have had in years. 
A year ago this Winter one pullet did show symptoms 
of having taken a cold. She was breathing with a 
wheezing sound, with her mouth held open; taking 
her under the left arm I opened her bill with the 
fingers of the left hand, and with the right fore-finger 
rubbed a little carbolated vaseline about her throat 
and mouth. The next morning I was unable to tell 
which one it was that I had doctored, and that was 
the only symptom of ill-health throughout the year, 
excepting the bird that died from having an egg 
broken inside the oviduct. For that we know of no 
remedy. This, then, is what we gain by the dry-mash 
method of feeding fowls. Better health of the flocks, 
a better all-the-year-round egg-yield, and better profit. 
Massachusetts. a. *f. hunter. 
A NEW “SEEDLESS” APPLE COMING. 
The so-called seedless fruit schemers are not all 
dead yet. With the passing away in dismay and at 
least partial bankruptcy of the “Spencer Seedless ap¬ 
ple” fraud it was hoped this sort of thing would die 
down, but there is another new one trying to start up. 
The scheme is } ? et unorganized, and may never come 
to much, but it is well for the public to know of it in 
good time. Last November there was shown at the 
National Apple Show at Spokane, Washington, what 
is claimed to be an entirely new variety of apple, and 
that-it is not only seedless but coreless. In pursuance 
of my duties as chairman of the jury making the 
awards at this fruit show 1 gave the matter of exam¬ 
ination of the specimens of this apple most careful 
attention. I had assigned Mr. Geo. J. Kellogg of 
Wisconsin to the duty of judging the single plate 
exhibits although I worked in conjunction with him as 
well as with the other jurors on other classes, there¬ 
fore there were two of us taking equal pains that 
every single plate exhibit got its just dues. When 
we came to the examination of this “coreless” (?) 
variety we cut some of the specimens and almost the 
first one I tried with my knife had not only a little 
core but two seeds. The exhibitor and owner of the 
tree on which the apples grew made himself known 
just then and tried to show us that there were certain 
of the specimens that were both seedless and coreless, 
and that he could select them. We allowed him ample 
opportunity to show us, but he failed about as many 
times as he succeeded. It is very true that some of 
the apples were entirely devoid of either core or seeds, 
and had solid flesh throughout, except a little green 
spot in the center, and for all practical purposes were 
as good to eat where the core should have been as 
THE RURAL NEW-VOKaEH 
elsewhere. Such specimens were the best of all the 
so-called seedless apples that I have ever seen, and 
there are more than a dozen of them, some of which 
I have never seen and only know them by drawings 
and descriptions. The tree (for there is only one) 
stands in an orchard near Spokane, and was not 
planted by the present owner. He told me he did not 
know whether or not it is a seedling, and it may be 
one of the old freak varieties that was planted there, 
or it may be a chance seedling that came up from 
below the graft. It is not the old variety of Virginia 
origin that Spencer lied about so shamefully. It 
looks like one I know of Ohio origin, but I am not 
THE CHAMPION ALFALFA PLANT. Fig. 147. 
sure they are the same. In any case it is only an 
inferior novelty. 
And right here is where the fraud began to develop. 
We reasoned with the exhibitor that while his apple 
was the best of the novelties of this kind that we 
knew it was not entirely seedless or coreless, and of 
no real value to the apple-growing world; that it was 
only an inferior apple ripening in the Fall, when apples 
that would not keep into Winter bring a low price, 
and that his apple was nothing extra in size, color or 
flavor. I told him of John F. Spencer’s shameful 
attempt to gull the public and that he should send 
specimens to the office of the Pomologist in Washing¬ 
ton, D. C., and have them examined and put on record 
there; quietly watch the behavior of his tree and not 
attempt to make any stir about the matter. But before 
the apple show closed he had a flaming write-up in 
“DON’T FOUGHT YOUR MOTHER.” Fig. 148. 
one of the daily papers of Spokane, and the boom of 
the new fruit was launched. W hen I got home to 
Washington, D. C., I found that specimens had been 
sent to the Agricultural Department, and with the 
officials there I examined them and we found some 
seedless and coreless, some with a semblance of core 
and others with well-developed seeds. 
Not long ago one of the leading nursery firms of 
the country sent me a letter from this man, in which 
he was trying to sell them the variety, and asked my 
opinion of the matter. I could not do otherwise than 
utterly condemn the attempt to defraud the nursery 
firm and the public as well. I have a copy of this 
letter and will use it in case of need, but I trust there 
will be no public attempt to cheat that will call it out. 
Mr, r th U, 
In this letter the writer repeatedly states that the 
apples are not merely seedless but coreless, and in one 
place says, “This apple has no seed-cases nor seeds, 
and is entirely the same throughout.” This is posi¬ 
tively not so. I personally pointed out the seeds that 
my knife cut into at the apple show in Spokane and 
the promoter tried to find and cut specimens himself 
that were absolutely coreless, and could not always 
do it. Let the fruit-growing public be warned against 
this deliberate attempt to foist another humbug upon 
the horticultural world. h. e. van deman. 
A VINE-COVERED PORCH. 
When we were married and came here to live the 
porch had no protection from the sun, except a Mag¬ 
nolia rose bush on the west end. My childhood home 
on the farm was surrounded by immense maples, and 
how 1 loved the trees and their delightful shade. The 
new home faced the south, and the sunshine it receives 
is indeed a tonic. The porch was very much exposed 
to public view, so we set to work to screen it with 
nature’s own beautiful vines. First a cinnamon vine 
made rapid growth, and gave a graceful shade. Then 
we sent to one of the catalogue houses and purchased 
a Wistaria. It was planted at the southeast corner, 
and in five years it has screened that end of the porch 
to the steps. I can sit in the comfortable rocker, thus 
protected from the gaze of passers-by, and yet I can 
see all that is going on The porch-box fills up the 
open space at the floor. The Cosmos and Petunias 
in the bed below seeded themselves, and came up a 
most artistic arrangement. At the southwest corner 
are two moon plants which climb to the top of the 
porch each season, and give a profusion of white and 
purple blooms. Then too my husband has planted a 
Clematis, which is making rapid growth. We have 
also started a Dutchman’s pipe vine, from which we 
are expecting great things. The Magnolia rose is 
almost a solid mass at one end, and climbs to the 
middle of the porch in front. The house ferns which 
add ornament to the heated rooms in Winter enjoy 
the shade of the porch in Summer. A strip of matting 
placed beneath the chairs takes away the harshness 
of the floor, and pillows and reading add to one’s 
comfort and pleasure. It is so easy to have a pro¬ 
fusion of green growing things, if one will learn to 
do the right thing at the right time. 
CORA JUNE SHEPPARD. 
THE CARE OF HOUSE PLANTS. 
1. Will you give some general instructions on the 
care of house plants in the home, how to make them 
bloom in Winter instead of Summer, when to repot, etc? 
2. I have an Asparagus plumosus which is five years old, 
and has been treated as the catalogues recommend as 
nearly as possible. For a long time it has been sending 
out shoots, some of them eight or 10 feet long, which 
refused to develop leaves, leaving bare stems. These I 
cut off, after they began to wither, and have lately re¬ 
potted into a 14-inch pot in moderately rich, loose, black 
soil and keep in north window. Still it refuses to do 
better. As this is as large a pot as I care to handle or 
keep in the house I would like some advice as to further 
treatment. m. f. m. 
Indiana. 
1. In order to get flowering plants to bloom satis¬ 
factorily in a dwelling, the first essential is to have 
a sunny window, preferably one that faces the south. 
The second requisite is that the plants shall be well 
established in their pots before Winter sets in. and 
to secure this condition the plants should have been 
repotted not later than August or the beginning of 
September. A common error made by amateur cul¬ 
tivators of plants is to pot too loosely, the majority 
of plants requiring the soil to be pressed or rammed 
down firmly in the pots, and in the case of geraniums, 
for example, it is almost impossible to make the soil 
too firm, at least if one does the work with the bare 
hands. When watering the plants, give a good soak¬ 
ing, and then give no more until the soil gets mod¬ 
erately dry again. 
2. The Asparagus plumosus referred to is evidently 
in quite large enough pot, but from the description I 
am inclined to think that it is suffering from lack of 
light, that being the reason the shoots do not develop 
properly. Try it in a more sunny position, a south 
window if possible, and it should behave better, for 
Asparagus is really a good house plant. The re¬ 
potting would have been better deferred until Spring, 
for root growth is not very active during the Winter. 
• w. h. t. 
“CHAMPION ALFALFA PLANT!”—We did our 
best to make a clear engraving from the photograph 
of an Alfalfa plant—Fig. 147- The picture was dim, 
but it shows the comparative size. This is a single 
plant grown in a garden at North Yakima, Wash. It 
stood nearly six feet high and spread out over a large 
space. This shows what Alfalfa might be made to do 
as a cultivated crop. In some cases we believe it would 
pay to cultivate Alfalfa as we do corn. 
