<Jht RURAL NEW.YORKER 
931 
Rural isms 
Growth of Asparagus Stalks 
Can you inform me if the cut end of 
an asparagus sprout heals over to form 
a new bud which will produce a new 
shoot? I have understood that if a shoot 
were cut or broken off above ground the 
end would dry up and that particular 
shoot would die. while if it were cut off 
below the surface the cut end would de¬ 
velop into a bud which grew out as a 
shoot, and which would continue to do so 
as long as it was cut below the surface 
of the ground. I remember one root 
which threw one freak shoot for. several 
years. This shoot was about l 1 /^ in. wide 
and Vi in. thick, and a peculiar yellow 
color. When cut this freak shoot would 
send up another in the same place. I 
never saw more than one shoot of this 
shape at one time, and it always came 
through the surface at the same place. 
My neighbor claims that when once a 
shoot is cut it ceases to grow, and that 
another bud starts out from the crown of 
the root and forms another* shoot. 
Milford, Con. A. N. B. 
The shoots of asparagus alt come from 
buds on the crown of the roots.' These 
buds may be very close at the base of the 
cut stalk, but the cut stalks, whether cut 
above or under the ground, do not shoot 
again. The stump left from cutting will 
dry up in any event. The proper treat¬ 
ment of an asparagus bed after cutting 
stops will increase the strength and num¬ 
ber of the eyes left for the next crop. Let 
part of a bed grow up in weeds and part 
cultivated and fertilized till frost, and 
the next season’s crop will show a great 
difference in favor of clean cultivation. 
An asparagus root has a wonderful vi¬ 
tality. I once know an asparagus plant 
that waved a single stalk year after year 
on top of an old brick chimney in Mary¬ 
land. I saw that stalk year after year 
for nearly 10 years till a man bought the 
old house and remodeled it, tearing dewn 
the old chimney. The asparagus plant 
had loosened many of the bricks and grow, 
but never made but one stalk. 
w. r. M ASSET. 
A Crop of Catnip 
Will you give some information in re¬ 
gard to the raising of catnip? We use 
several tons a year, and as we have the 
ground that we could use for raising it, we 
thought of experimenting with it. We 
have a rich chocolate ground that is per¬ 
fectly level, and we want to pro luce cat¬ 
nip with the most odor. Where can we 
get the seeds, and does growing catnip on 
the ground spread to adjoining folds, and 
does it damage the ground? II. B. B. 
Fredericktown, O. 
Catnip will grow on any fairly dry 
soil; a deep, heavy soil is not suited to it. 
The seed may be sown in Autumn or 
Spring where it will remain, or be sown 
in a nursery bed to be transplanted later. 
If in a garden bed. the plants should 
stand 18 to 24 inches apart. The plants 
will do well for several years in the same 
place with no attention except the re¬ 
moval of weeds. We sometimes find it 
growing as a weed in old gardens, but our 
experience is that rank plants in such a 
place are not as rich in the characteristic 
odor as that from an open, sunny po¬ 
sition on drier soil. We cannot find any 
seedsman now offering the seed of catnip 
(Nepeta Cataria). It may be procured 
from botanic druggists who handle such 
material. 
As you would harvest the plants, for 
any use, before they had ripened seed, 
there seems no reason to fear that they 
would get beyond control. Cultivation 
and close cutting before seed ripens pre¬ 
vent the spread of catnip. 
Propagating Lilac; Rhubarb from Seed 
Will you tell how to p 1 agate the lilac 
bush or shrub, also how to raise rhubarb 
from seed to get plaats for forcing? 
Mound City, Kan. o. w. s. 
Lilacs may be propagated by seed, 
who'ch is sown in Spring. This method 
is usually practiced only with the com¬ 
mon types. Varieties and rarer kinds are 
usually propagated by green wood cut¬ 
tings under glass in June, by hard wood 
cuttings, by grafting, suckers and di¬ 
vision. They are also propagated by lay¬ 
ers, and this is a convenient method for 
the amateur without glass. For this, a 
branch is bent down to the ground, and 
a portion of the tip rooted by cutting a 
shallow heel in the bark, and pegging this 
firmly in place, covering this place with 
soil. The principle involved is the same 
as a cutting, only the cutting is not sev¬ 
ered from the parent plant. By the fol¬ 
lowing Spring a good root should be 
formed, when the tip should be severed 
from the parent plant, and the rooted 
cutting planted like any other. 
Sow rhubarb seed in early Spring, not 
over one inch deep, in rows a foot apart. 
Thin the plants to stand a few inches 
apart in the rows, and give clean cultiva¬ 
tion. They often make very good growth 
the first season, and may be set in the 
permanent patch in the Fall 1 , or following 
Spring. Seedlings, however, are very 
variable, and one often gets some poor 
woody types among them ; division of the 
roots is the only way to perpetuate a cer¬ 
tain type. Strong roots are required for 
forcing, usually crowns three to five years 
of age, though satisfactory results are ob¬ 
tained from strong one-year roots grown 
on rich land. 
Bull’* Head or Water Chestnut 
The Missouri Botanical Garden Bulle¬ 
tin for February says that recently visit¬ 
ors to the garden have brought for identi¬ 
fication seeds purchased in St. Louis and 
represented to be those of a large-flowered 
water lily, equal in size to the Easter 
lily, and having either white or pink 
flowers. This has been identified a§ 
Trapa bicornis, or bull’s head, a species 
most interesting from the standpoint of 
mimicry, the seeds closely resembling a 
bull’s head in shape. 
This i>lant is indigenous to the shallow 
rivers and undrained marshes of China, 
where it is cultivated very extensively as 
a substitute for corn. In the young state 
the plant is submerged, the seeds germi¬ 
nating in the muddy bottom of a stream 
or lake. The primary shoot or radicle 
appears between the horns, and from this 
the roots extend, penetrating the soil and 
attaching the young plant to the mud. 
The foliage consists of two distinct types, 
first, the submerged leaves, which are 
linear and somewhat resemble roots in 
shape; second, the floating or air leaves, 
which appear when the plant reaches the 
surface of the water. The latter < are 
rounded, about three-quarters of an inch 
across, the upper surface of a light green 
color, the under side purple and hairy. 
The petioles, which support the leaves, 
contain spongy pith, which makes them 
buoyant. The flowers are small, solitary, 
of a pellucid white color, comprised of 
four petals about an inch in width. The 
peduncles wl ieh support them bend 
when the flower drops, thus allowing the 
seed to ripen under water. The basal 
portion of the seed, which represents the 
mouth of the bull, is the connection be¬ 
tween seed and plant. Therefore, in 
Seed of Bull's Head or Water Chestnut 
ripening the horns are reversed. The na¬ 
tives of China call the seeds “ling.” 
In 1781 oolander introduced the South¬ 
ern European speeies, Trapa natans 
(water caltrops) into Northern France, 
and attempted to bring it to fruit in the 
open air, but failed. At a later date 
Lambert of Boy ton, England, succeeded 
in ripening seeds under greenhouse treat¬ 
ment. The genius was named by Lin¬ 
naeus from calcitrada, or caltrops, an 
instrument of ancient warfare, on ac¬ 
count of the resemblance of the seed to 
that instrument. Other common names 
are water chestnut and Jesuit’s nut. In 
some parts of Europe the seeds are 
ground into flour and used in bread-mak¬ 
ing. Roasted or boiled, they are used 
also as a dessert in much the same man¬ 
ner as the Spanish chestnut. 
Summer Pruning of Grapevines 
What Summer jn'iining is advised for 
the grape? From one source I learn it 
is best to pinch back the runners after 
the grapes have set. From a grower of 
hothouse grapes I am advised that the 
proper way is to let the leader alone, but 
to pinch back the laterals. F. p. B. 
For the commercial grower of grapes 
the writer has never seen the practicabil¬ 
ity of Summer pruning of grapes. These 
conclusions are based on two important 
considerations. First, the added cost, and 
second, it is not desirable to further the 
development of laterals which are seldom 
utilized for fruiting purposes with the 
principal commercial varieties. 
Ini the home garden it is a different 
matter. Some of the earlier grape fan¬ 
ciers have concluded that certain varie¬ 
ties, these largely of no commercial value, 
produce best on the laterals from one- 
year canes. If this be true, then perhaps 
Summer pruning of these varieties in the 
garden may prove worth while. The 
writer has yet to see that the fruit from 
laterals with these varieties is in any 
way super ~r. 
Laterals with American varieties rare¬ 
ly develop, except when the growing shoot 
has been pinched off, or this has come 
through accident. If the shoot be stopped 
early by pinching, it may be necessary to 
later pinch in turn the laterals when they 
have reached the desired length. As a 
rule laterals will not be long enough to 
require pinching back, Summer pruning, 
unless the main shoot has been thus 
treated. f. e. gladwin. 
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