753 
THE RUKA.L» NE'WA'UKKEK 
RURALISMS 
Quick-growing Shade Trees. 
Will you advise me what tree grows 
quickest for shade purposes? c. j. n. 
Stanfordville, N. Y. 
I am desirous of obtaining some shade 
trees as soon as possible, and would like 
your advice on quick-growing trees. What 
would you plant for quick shade? Is 
Carolina poplar desirable? Is it long- 
lived? ir. t. r.. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
The Silver-leaved or soft maple (Acer 
das.vcarpum) is extensively planted. It 
is of very rapid growth, a handsome tree 
and very desirable for quick effect. 
Wier’s cut-leaved maple (A. Wierii lacini- 
atum) is also of very rapid growth, and 
is one of the handsomest shade trees in 
cultivation. It is a most remarkable and 
beautiful tree; its cut or dissected foliage, 
its slender, drooping branches, give it a 
habit almost as graceful as the cut-leaved 
birch. No one will make a mistake or 
have any after regrets in planting this 
tree. Both these maples are quite at 
home in almost any location, and any 
kind of soil. They will succeed well in 
thin and rather poor soil, but growth 
will not he so rapid as in strong soil, 
(liven good soil they will grow into large 
and tine specimens in a remarkably short 
time. 
All the poplars are of very rapid 
growth, but have objectionable features 
that really make them unfit for general 
planting as shade trees. While young the 
Carolina, Lombardy and Bolleana pre¬ 
sent quite a handsome appearance with 
their long upright branches and bright 
glossy foliage. Bolleana somewhat re¬ 
sembles the Lombardy, but is of more 
compact growth and a longer-lived tree. 
All three are valuable for planting in sec¬ 
tions where much coal smoke and soot 
prevails, particularly in the coke manu¬ 
facturing districts. Their smooth glossy 
foliage offers a poor lodging place for soot, 
||ind in consequence suffers less injury 
from the effects of coal smoke than any 
other species, in fact the poplars are 
about the only tree that will live any 
length of time under such conditions as 
exist in the coke manufacturing districts. 
But for street or lawn planting generally 
or where the maples and other handsome 
trees will thrive, poplars should not be 
thought of. None of them retains its 
beauty for long, as the habit of growth 
sends the branches upward, with but lit¬ 
tle spread, and the close compact growth 
soon causes more or less of the branches 
to die off. After the trees attain a height 
of -10 feet or so. it is impossible to cut out 
the dead branches, and the tree in a few 
years presents a most untidy appearance. 
These trees are also very had for litter¬ 
ing the lawn with their leaves, at a sea¬ 
son of the year when they should look 
their best. From and after the first of 
July the leaves begin dropping, making it 
necessary to rake the lawn under them at 
least once a week up to the first to the 
middle of October, when they are entirely 
nude of foliage, the tops resembling huge, 
old-fashioned splint brooms, with enor¬ 
mous handles. k. 
Concerning Mushrooms. 
Can you recommend any reliable dealer 
in mushroom plants? Is there much 
profit in that class of product? Could 
\ou give me any information regarding 
literature on this subject? w. a. w. 
Mushrooms, like other fungi, are pro¬ 
duced by. mycelium or “spawn,” which is 
sold by most reliable seed dealers. The 
spawn is the vegetative portion of the 
mushroom, spreading through the soil in 
the form of delicate whitish threads. The 
spawn is sold commercially in the ma¬ 
nure used as a growing medium, which 
is dried and pressed into bricks, or left in 
flakes. English spawn is usually in 
bricks, French in flakes; American spawn 
is also prepared. 
1 To fits from mushroom growing are 
' ery variable, and the business should be 
entered upon cautiously. Crop failures 
are not uncommon, and a desirable mar¬ 
ket is not always accessible. The past 
" returns were poor, and there was 
a general complaint of market conditions 
from experienced growers. The demand 
for mushrooms is not so great as to re¬ 
lieve a glutted market. For this reason 
we advise caution in attempting commer¬ 
cial mushroom growing, though there is 
always pleasure in growing mushrooms in 
a small way, and adding this luxury to 
the family table. If successful, there 
may be local opportunities for sale of the 
product. 
The New York Experiment Station at 
Ithaca issued in March, 1905. Bulletin 
227, “Mushroom Growing for Amateurs,” 
which will be found very helpful. The 
IT. S. Department of Agriculture, Divi¬ 
sion of Plant Industry, issued Nov. 15, 
1905. Bulletin No. 85, “The Principles of 
Mushroom Growing and Mushroom 
Spawn Making.” by B. M. Duggar. which 
goes into the subject very thoroughly. 
The Krull Pear. 
On page 623 a correspondent inquires 
about the Krull pear. My tree of Krull 
grew so vigorously and gave such a nice 
crop the second year after planting that 
I thought it was one of Oriental origin, 
and was surprised when I found a mel¬ 
low one to learn it was of very good 
flavor of similar texture to Bartlett, but 
better flavor, one of the best pears of 
its season. If C. II. G. can induce his 
tree to bear he may find it better than 
anything he would graft it to. r. l. G. 
Keansburg, N. ,T. 
Pear Varieties and Blight. 
I have thought several times of late 
that it would be a good thing to know the 
degree of resistance of apples and other 
fruits to scale insects, and of pears and 
grapes to blight. There is a great dif¬ 
ference among varieties, as I remember 
several years ago being shown a young 
orchard of different kinds planted to¬ 
gether, and all given the same treatment 
and some were about free from scale and 
other varieties beside them were badly af¬ 
fected. The nursery catalogs might be 
of more use in this regard, but instead 
most of them devote their energies to 
praise with such abandon that it is quite 
bewildering. What I would like to see 
is a list on this order: Pears, Bartlett, 
very fine flavor, does not bear as well as 
Duchess, liable to blight; Duchess, pears 
large, flesh often granular, good flavor 
when properly ripened, almost blight-free, 
heavy bearer. Seckel, fruit small, but 
very sweet, resists blight, but not as well 
as Duchess. My experience being limited, 
I can not do it very well, as all state¬ 
ments in regard to fruit must be compara¬ 
tive and not absolute. A tree of one va¬ 
riety in clay soil cannot rightly be com¬ 
pared with another variety in sand. 
This makes me wonder if Mr. Morrell is 
sure of results when he says on page 
129. “We are eliminating the blight on 
5,000 Bartletts by top-working Kieffer 
stocks.” We have a Seckel pear tree at 
the edge of our garden, and about 18 
feet south of it, a Bartlett. The trunk 
of the Seckel is nine inches in diameter 
and the Bartlett six inches, and their 
branches touch. As the Seckel bore more 
than we wanted, my brother set several 
Bartlett grafts in the top, a few years 
ago. This past Summer the Bartlett was 
thoroughly infected with blight, which 
I at first attempted to keep cut out, but 
as new centers kept appearing, I gave it 
up. The grafts in the Seckel blighted 
just as seriously, almost all leaves turn¬ 
ing black, while the Seckel showed only 
a few twigs affected, but it contributed 
none of this resistance to the Bartlett 
grafts. w. J. MILLER. 
()hio. 
R. N.-Y”.—A good suggestion for the 
nurserymen. Would their ideas about 
blight resistance vary as their estimates 
of quality often do? 
Flowers Used as Food. 
Bulletin 101 of the Office of Foreign 
Seed and Plant Introduction describes 
the use, in India, of the edible flowers 
of the mahua tree. This tree has a va¬ 
riety of uses. A gum is produced by the 
hardening of the milky sap which flows 
from incisions on the stem ; the bark is 
used in dyeing; the flowers, oil and spirit 
from them and the bark, are used medi¬ 
cinally, and the wood is excellent tim¬ 
ber, though the trees are too valuable 
to be cut for that purpose. 
^ “The mahua shows its leaves from 
February to April. The cream-colored 
flowers appear in great clusters (of 30 to 
50) near the ends of the branches, from 
March to April, and are soon followed 
by the young leaves. Preparatory to the 
harvest of flowers the people clear the 
ground below the trees by burning the 
weeds and smoothing the soil. About 
March the flowers begin to come to ma¬ 
turity. and every morning just after sun¬ 
rise the succulent corolla tubes fall in 
showers to the ground. This continues 
till the end of April, each tree yielding 
from two to four maunds (214 to five 
bushels) of flowers, but usually the fall 
from a single tree is complete in about 
seven to 10 days. A drying-floor is pre¬ 
pared in a position central to a selected 
batch of trees. The ground is smoothed 
and beaten; on this the flowers as col¬ 
lected day by day are spread out to dry 
in the sun. In a few days they shrink iii 
size, change in color to a reddish brown, 
and their peculiar sweet smell becomes 
more concentrated and the resemblance I 
to that of mice more intense. But the I 
mahua that is intended for sale is not 1 
dried to the same extent as that set apart 
for home consumption, and naturally so, ! 
since the loss in weight is considerable. J 
But mahua is eaten extensively while 
fresh—in the dried form it is cooked and 
eaten along with rice and other grains or i 
food materials. Before being eaten the 
dry corolla tubes are beaten with a stick 
to expel the stamens; the quantity re¬ 
quired is then boiled for six hours or so 
and left to simmer until the water has 
been entirely evaporated and the mahua 
produced in a soft juicy condition. Tam¬ 
arind or sal (Shorea robusta) seeds and 
gram (chick-pea) are frequently eaten 
along with mahua. By the better classes 
it is fried with ghi (butter) or with 
mahua oil. It is extremely sweet, but 
the power to eat and digest’ this form of 
food is an acquired one, so that few Eu¬ 
ropeans are able to consume more than 
one flower without having disagreeable 
after effects. Sometimes the mahua is 
dried completely, reduced to a powder, 
and mixed with other articles of food. 
In that condition it is often baked into 
cakes. Sugar may also be prepared from 
the flowers or they may be distilled and 
a wholesome spirit prepared, the chief j 
objection to which is its peculiar pene¬ 
trating smell of mice. Nicholls estimated 
that in the Central Provinces 1.400,000 
persons use mahua as a regular article 
of food, each person consuming one 
maund (one and one-fourth bushel) per 
annum, an amount that would set free 
about one and one-half maunds of grain 
or about 30 per cent, of the food necessi¬ 
ties of the people in question. This at 
the lowest estimate comes to one quarter 
of a million pounds sterling which the 
trees present annuallv to these pro¬ 
vinces.” 
When you write advertisers mention 
The R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick 
reply and a “square deal.” Se* guaran¬ 
tee editorial page. : : : ; 
GOOD SHOES 
and the right sort of shoes means more to 
you Mr. Farmer than to men in other walks 
of life -to do your best work your feet 
must be comfortable, protected from all 
obstructions and help the ankle and arch 
bear the strain. The shoes you lmy should 
also be pliable and at the same time tough 
—a,H these requirements, and more, are 
filled by 
BASS SHOES 
tanning of the leather to the last stitch of 
the finished product. They are as nearly 
waterproof as any leather shoe can be 
\\ e cannot tell you all the good features of 
he «\e. Ask your dealer for 
BASS SHOES, and take no others. If votir 
dealer does not carry them, drop us a card 
and we will tell you how you can easily 
get them. 
G. H. BASS 6 CO. 
Wilton, Maine 
Makers of 
famous Bass 
Moccasins 
T Y0UR1DEA9 
$9,000 offered for r-ertain invert- 
-_ I!ook ‘Howto Oh lain a Patent” 
ana What to Invent” sent free. Send 
roiiprh sketch for free report as to patent¬ 
ability. Patents advertised for sale at 
our expense in Manufacturers’ Journals. 
CHANDLEE & CHANDLEE, Patent Atfy’s 
Kfllalilisliett 16 Year* 
057 F. Street, Washington, O. C« 
Good and Bad Street Trees. 
Prof. R. W. Curtis, of the landscape art 
department of the New York College of 
Agriculture, has issued a list of desirable 
and undesirable trees. lie describes as 
undesirable those that are rapid growers 
and those individually conspicuous. 
Under the rapid growers he includes 
weak-wooded and short-lived trees such as 
poplars, soft, maple (sometimes known as 
silver or white maple), box elder or ash¬ 
leaved maple, sycamore maple, willows, 
birches, Catalpa, European ash. and Ail- 
anthus. 
Among the conspicuous trees those 
which have flowers and fruits which 
would invite injury through vandalism 
are undesirable. Such trees are horse 
chestnut, catalpa, flowering dogwood, 
magnolia, mountain ash. hickory, and 
chestnut. 
For streets from 60 to 70 feet between 
buildings. Pin oak, Oriental plane or 
sycamore, and Norway maple, are said to 
be desirable. The Norway maple is tough 
and hardy, has few insect enemies, but 
has the disadvantage of being broad and 
low-headed, so that it does not allow of 
the passage of wires where overhead 
wires are in use. In order to provide 
ample growing space the trees should be 
planted 40 feet apart. For wide streets 
where there is more than 90 feet between 
buildings the American elm, red oak, and 
sugar maple are advocated. For these 
trees the space should be not less than 50 
feet between trees, and where possible 
they should be planted well inside of the 
curb line. The sugar maple is particu¬ 
larly attractive and desirable, but it 
needs a good deal of moisture. Pin oak is 
excellent for both narrow and average 
streets, and is also desirable as individual 
specimens for the lawn. American elm is 
said to be the handsomest and most satis¬ 
factory shade tree in this country, mainly 
because of its high arching branches 
which shade but do not smother, allowing 
free passage of air beneath the tree itself. 
Some objection has been made to the elm 
tree because of the depredations of the 
elm leaf beetle and other insect pests, but 
this can be readily overcome by spraying. 
A-B-C Of Gardening, by Ebon E. 
Itexford. A compact little volume for the 
amateur ? rdener, dealing with both out¬ 
door and indoor plants. General in¬ 
struction is given on the treatment of 
annuals, bedding plants, bulbs, vines, 
etc.; the Winter window garden is dis¬ 
cussed, and the treatment for plant ene¬ 
mies. Published by Harper & Brothers, 
New York; 115 pages; price 50 cents. 
Some visitors who were being shown 
over a pauper lunatic asylum inquired of 
their guide what method was employed to 
discover when the inmates were sufficient¬ 
ly recovered to leave. “Well,” replied he, 
“you see, it’s this way. We have a 
trough of water and we turns on the tap. 
We leave it running and tell ’em to bail 
out the water with pails until they’ve 
emptied the trough.” “How does that 
prove it?” asked one of the visitors. 
“Well,” said the guide, “them as ain’t 
idiots turns off the tap.”—Boston Post. 
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livestock farmers. .Write. Booklet and informa¬ 
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Board of Trade,218 Ga« Bldg.,Tampa, Fla. 
616 ACRES, Fronting One Mile on Railroad 
Land is level and fertile; r>00 acres in cultivation• 
old dwelling. A real bargain at $15.00 tier acre 
RICHMOND-WASHINGTON FARM AGERCT. lee.. FREOERICKSBURG. VA. 
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