'I' H tC KUKAL NEW-YORKER 
1091 
RURALISMS 
Grafting the Dogwood. 
I wish to put some weeping dogwood 
heads upon standard stems, the variety 
being in both eases Cornns florida. How 
shall I proceed? l. r. p. 
Ohio. 
The dogwood may be grafted and bud¬ 
ded successfully if done with care and at 
the proper time. Either the cleft or 
tongue method may be employed in graft¬ 
ing. The larger stocks will of necessity 
have to he worked by the cleft method. 
In either case, the work should be done 
early in the Spring, the best time being 
the beginning of the flow of sap. Shield 
budding in late Summer is also quite suc¬ 
cessful, and is considered by some nurs¬ 
erymen as being superior to grafting. K. 
The Dasheen. 
Are they making flour from dasheen 
tubers? Is it as good as wheat flour? 
New York City. a. c. w. 
I have been growing the dasheens for 
three years in the effort to increase them 
and get some large tubers, hut so far 
in this climate they have not amounted 
to much. I have not cooked any of them, 
and so far as I can see I would prefer 
the ordinary Caladium esculentum for 
food, since it makes a far larger tuber. 
Whether any attempt has been made 
to dry and pulverize the dasheen into 
flour or not I cannot say, as I have not 
heard of any such thing. They are 
cooked like Irish potatoes. They may 
have some value from South Carolina 
southward, hut north of that I cannot 
think they will ever be of any value at 
all. W. F. MASSEY. 
Propagating Gooseberry; Blight on Currants 
1. Can the Industry gooseberry be 
propagated like other varieties? I am 
told they are grafted and will not pro¬ 
duce from cuttings. Is this correct? 2. 
My currants blighted this season and the 
leaves all dropped at fruiting time. Had 
a fine crop; sprayed with lime-sulplnir. 
Will a lime-sulphur spray be of any good 
this Fall? What shall I do? The varie¬ 
ties Red Cross. Perfection and London 
Market did not blight. ,t. r. 
1. All the varieties of American blood, 
as a rule, strike readily from hard-wood 
cuttings, made in the late Summer or 
Fall, which may be planted in the cut¬ 
ting bed or kept, in a cool cellar in moist 
sand or sawdust until the following 
Spring; and planted out as soon as ground 
is in good working condition. The Eng¬ 
lish varieties are almost entirely propa¬ 
gated from green wood cuttings in early 
Summer, by what is known as the mound 
or stool system. This is accomplished by 
drawing a mound of earth five or six 
inches high up around the stems of the 
plants, to be allowed to remain for two 
years, when all the shoots so covered will 
have made a good root system and may 
be separated and planted in nursery row, 
or planted to their permanent place, but 
the young plants are all the better if given 
a year’s cultivation in the nursery row. 
2. It will do no harm and may do good 
to apply the lime-sulphur spray to the 
Red Cross plants this Fall but it is sel¬ 
dom of much use to spray for leaf blight 
when the plants are in a dormant state; 
would advise that you clean up all leaves 
and other decaying matter from around 
the plants this Fall and burn or other¬ 
wise dispose of them. By this means the 
living spores of the blight will be re¬ 
moved and if spraying is commenced 
early next season the blight will probably 
fail to get a foothold. K. 
Early Daisy and Vergennes Grapes. 
Would you let me know what the Early 
Daisy grape is like; also the Vergennes 
grape? Thomas claims it to be an amber 
color and early; others state that it is red 
and late. Which is correct? 
Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, w. s. k. g. 
The Early Daisy grape as grown in 
Southwest New York, is one of the 
earliest of our 200 or more varieties. The 
clusters are short but very compact. The 
berries are of medium size and black in 
color. The quality is very good when 
compared with the early maturing varie¬ 
ties. It is considerably better than Moore 
but not the equal of Worden. In vigor it 
is comparable with Moore. Vergennes is 
a grape of very good quality. It is in¬ 
clined to overbear in some seasons. When 
it carries a normal crop it ripens about 
with Concord but in the seasons of ex¬ 
cessive yields it will not ripen until two 
weeks or more later. It cannot be classed 
with the early varieties but is a mid-sea¬ 
son to. late one. Its color ranges from 
light to dark red. f. e. G. 
Late Cherries for Maryland. 
As you know most of northern Mary¬ 
land cherries ripen a little before or dur¬ 
ing harvest (the last of June). Is there 
any variety that ripens late July or 
August? If so give variety, name, pro¬ 
lificacy. and quality of fruit and any¬ 
thing else of interest. Northern fruit 
journals name these late dates, but I 
have never seen them at that time. 
Parkton. Md. j. h. m. 
You will find the following late varie¬ 
ties of cherries. Of the sweet Bigarreau 
class Mezel or Great Bigarreau, Pow¬ 
hatan, Downer's Late, Napoleon and 
Sweet Montmorency, the last approaching 
the Morello class, but differing from the 
sour M ontmorency, and not so good 
either. Of the Morello class the Belle 
Magnifique is probably the latest. But 
the latest will not be later than mid-July. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
Everlasting Strawberries. 
On page 1012 I note Prof. Massey’s 
comment on the wisdom of removing 
blossoms from everbearing strawberries. 
Your Connecticut correspondent on page 
936 wanted advice on the best methods to 
use for securing a maximum yield of 
plants. I advised removing blossoms as 
fast as they appeared. I am quite sure 
this pays when a crop of plants is the 
chief consideration. For the man who is 
after berries I would advise removing 
only the first blossoms that form after 
the plants are set. This is to enable the 
plant to become well rooted, so it can 
mature the fruit that sets a few weeks 
later. 
When everbearers first appeared many 
advocated removing blossoms until Sep¬ 
tember. This at once created prejudice 
in the minds of commercial growers and 
I find many who still retain that pre¬ 
judice to such an extent that they will 
not investigate the possibilities of the 
berries for themselves. With the varie¬ 
ties that were first put out this removing 
of blossoms might have paid. With Su¬ 
perb and Progressive I am convinced that 
it does not pay the commercial grower 
to remove any bloom except the first lot 
that appears when plants are set. 
This Spring we set about 4% acres of 
everbearing strawberries. The varieties 
planted were Superb and Progressive. 
They were planted and have been treated 
exactly as we do Gandy, Chesapeake, or 
any other standard sort. The only differ¬ 
ence now is we are picking ripe fruit 
right along from the everbearers and not 
one single berry from the standard sorts. 
To date (August 16) we have picked 23 
crates (32 quarts to each) from this 
block of 4 1 /} acres, part of which has 
been badly injured by wet weather. The 
outlook is favorable for berries right on 
to November. Last year our best pick¬ 
ings were in September. We pay Ital¬ 
ians 2*/j cents a quart for picking. They 
make good wages at that rate. The fruit 
is selling wholesale at 15 cents a quart. 
This is just about half what it was 
last year, but with potatoes at 20 cents 
a bushel and tomatoes at eight cents a 
basket we feel the berries are doing all 
that can he expected in a season such as 
this. 
As to varieties: Progressive gives the 
largest number of berries and fruits very 
freely on the young runners. The berries 
are only medium in size but that is more 
than made up in the number produced. 
The Superb does not fruit so freely on the 
runners, but produces large, bright red 
berries in abundance on the parent plants 
and first set runners. This variety makes 
a splendid Spring crop that rivals the best 
of the standard sorts. We consider it 
worth planting for the Spring crop alone 
and count the the Fall crop as a bonus 
thrown in for good measure. For the 
home garden either or both of these va¬ 
rieties are desirable. For the commer¬ 
cial grower I believe Superb will be 
found most satisfactory. 
TRUCKER, JR. 
It was at a funeral, and a somewhat 
lachrymose old minister was officiating. 
Referring to his long acquaintance with 
the deceased, he said: “Ah, brothers and 
sisters, many a time have I dandled this 
corpse on my knees.”—Credit Lost. 
Vertical Farming 
PROVED 
BY 
Effects of 
Orchard 
Blasting 
W1 
ith 
IN DUG HOLE 
RED CROSS 
FARM POWDER 
These cuts are made from photos 
showing comparative growth of pear 
trees from Spring of 1913 
to Aug. 1,1914, Bellemont 
i Orchards, Inc., Norfolk, Va. 
BLASTED GROUND 
ALL progressive farmers and orchardists know that trees planted 
in blasted ground grow much faster than those planted in the 
old way and bear fruit earlier. 
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