The Gem state rural. [volume], December 15, 1896, Image 1

About The Gem state rural. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho) 1895-1910

Image provided by: Idaho State Historical Society

                
THE GEM STATE RURAL
VOLUME 2.
CALDWELL, IDAHO, DECEMBER, 1896.
NUMBER 4
Mach In Little.
Two convincing examples of
what can be done in the way of
fruit and vegetable culture on
city lots, are found in Caldwell.
Uncles Jim Patton and Francis
Moore, have two or three 25 foot
lots each and on these they grow
an an astonishing amount of gar
den truck and fruits. Mr. Pat
ton has soldas high as a thousand
pounds of tree fruits in a season,
consisting of apples, cherries and
peaches, besides having an abun
dance for his own use and to give
to friends. Mr. Moore is an ex
pert gardener and raises his own
garden truck as well as small
fruits, like currants, gooseberries,
raspberries, pieplant, &c. He
also produces more than enough
for family use. In addition to
these they grow a variety of
shade trees and ornamentals and
have very comfortable and attrac
The home of Dr.
tive places.
DcLano of Payette is another
similar example of what it is pos
A sible to accomplish on a limited
These are ' 'object
which should not be
town space,
lessons
ci looked.
» >
They show the
possibilities of the home acre.
Poisonous Plants.
The Department of Agricul
ture at Washington is shortly to
publish an illustrated report on
poisonous plants.
It will show the dangerous
character of many common gar
den shrubs and plants,
will embrace many of the laurels,
rhododendrous, lambkill, kidney
bean root, jimson weed, water
and meadow hemlock, flowers
and bulbs of daffodils, bark and
seeds of the laburnum, bark of
the common elder, lobelias, wild
horse
The list
lady slipper,
parsnip,
chestnut, lily-of-the-valley (said
to be fearfully poisonous) jack
in-the-pulpit, poke root, autumn
, the leaves and flowers of
the oleander, the bark of the ca
onkshood and fox
crocus
talpa, the m
<rlove as well as
varieties
many
of mushroom, some of which are
' 'toad
known
The berries of the po
commonly
stool.
tatoes are extremely poisonous,
as
5 }
the leaves and stems of potatoes
have narcotic properties and the
skin of old and sprouted potatoes
contain a specific poison
as ''solanin.
known
Young and
5 5
un
ripe potatoes are also poisonous
raw, but cooking makes them
harmless. Flowers of the jon
quil, snowdrop, and white hya•*
cinth are dangerous, the narcis
sus buib is classed as very deadly
if eaten, while the juice of the
leaves is an emetic. The berries
of the Yew have killed many peo
ple. Sorrel in salads has caused
distressing results. The state
ment is made that it is not safe to
eat many peach pits or cherry
kernels at once. The depart
ment list will embrace a large list
of poisonous plants and many
valuable suggestions concerning
them. It is constantly making
tests and analyses with a view to
accounting for many of the mys
terious deaths reported every
summer from eating unknown
plants or roots. The report
should have a wide circulation.
Treatment of Stone Fruit Pits.
Prof. J. L. Budd of the Iowa
Station, describes his way of
treating the pits of the stone fruits
so as to insure early sprouting
and a full stand.
First the pits
are washed and thoroughly clean
ed, and mixed with eight times
their bulk of sand, and put away
in the cellar until the advent of
cold weather. The sand is then
w r et thoroughly and the boxes
buried just below the surface
outside where the whole mass
will freeze solidly. In the spring
he drills in the sarid and seed to
With this treatment and
are
gether.
very early planting, he always
gets a full stand of plants. From
experiments made, Prof. Budd
finds that pits of the cherry,
when thoroughly
plum, etc.,
dry, will not sprout the first
, but if soaked for a
frozen and planted in
spring, they will germinate vig
orously the second spring.
often plants the pits when only
inches of the surface of fall
sea
week,
early
son
lie
two
plowing is thawed out.
Oregon and Washington Apples.
A recent number of the Rural
list of
New Yorker publishes
apples for O
ton, and other suggestions upon
the subject, from Henry
Dosch and Professor Balmer re
and Washing
re iron
E.
spectively, of those two states.
The lists furnished as adapted to
Eastern and Southern Oregon
and Eastern Washington, would
apply very well to the lower alti
tudes of Idaho, although it might
be somewhat enlarged. The re
ports say:
As Horticultural Commissioner
I have given the growing of the
best marketable varieties of fruits
much thought, and have tabulat
ed the following list for northern
and western Oregon :
burg, Gravenstein, Northern
Spy, Spitzenburg, Baldwin and
Ben Davis, or substitute Jonathan
and King of Tompkins Count}'.
For eastern and southern Ore
Olden
Gravenstein, Wealthy,
gon:
Baldwin, King of Tompkins
County, York Imperial, Yellow
Newtown Pippin, Wagener and
Ben Davis, or any four of them.
All apples in western Oregon
mature much earlier than the
same varieties do eafct of the
mountains, both eastern Oregon
and Eastern Washington, as well
as with you on the Atlantic sea
board, and pur apples do not
keep very long unless put in cold
But eastern Oregon
storage.
grown apples keep fully as long
a« those grown anywhere, and
are, perhaps, finer flavored than
with us.
Our fruits are so juicy
on account of our humid atmos
Henry E. Dosch.
phere.
Oregon.
Washington is a peculiar and
wonderful state, and has a great
variety of,climate. Apples rec
ommended for the warmer val
leys of the Yakima, Walla Walla,
Wenatchee, Columbia or Snake
w r ould be almost useless
rivers,
for such localities as the Palouse
Valley or the Big Bend country.
And apples that are fairly suc
cessful west of the Cascades, are
sometimes considered of no ac
count on the cast side. So, there
list of three apples that
is no
would be adapted to every part
of the state.
The highest-col
ored, best-keeping apples grown
the state, are in orchards
in
whose altitude is above 2,000
But the most of our or
feet.
chards are at a much lower al
titude—600 to 1,200 feet.
The best late-keeping, winter
a yellow one— Y ellow
The best
apple is
Newtown
Pippin.
three red winter apples in the
warmer valleys of Eastern Wash
Rome Beauty, Eso
ington, are
pus Spitzenburg, and Delaware
Red Winter. The best red ap
ple west of the Cascades, is Bald
win. In the higher altitudes,
fall apples become winter apples,
and the list would include King,
Wealthy and Wagener, In a
country so preeminently adapted
to apple growing as many parts;
of Washington truly are, three
apples make too short a list to in
clude the best.
John A. Balmer,
Horticulturist, Washington Agri
cultural College.
Horticultural Society Committees
Nampa, Idaho,
Dec, 12. 1896.
Ed. Gem State Rural—
Dear Sir:
In compliance with*
your request for the list of stand
ing committees for the year 1896
of the State Horticultural Society
I send the list as below:
1. Orchards—Prof. C. P,
Fox, Moscow; A. McPherson r
Boise; V. D. Hannah, Weiser.
2. Prunes—Rev.
Gwinn, Caldwell; J. W. Har
rell, Boise; J. H, Lowell, Ros
well .
R. M.
3. Needed Legislation—Rev.
R. M. Gwinn;
ney; S. A. Swanger, Weiser;
A. McPhersen.
W. G. Whit
4. Vegetables— J. G. Petrie,
J. D. Riggs, Boise; Peter
Pence, Payette.
5. Entomology—A. McPher
son; Robert Milliken; Prof. J.
M. Aldrich, Moscow.
6. Packing and Marketing:
Fruit—V. D. Hannah; N. A.
Jacobson, Payette; L. A. Por
ter, Lewiston.
Mc
Nomenclature—A.
7 -
W.
Pherson, V. D. Hannah,
G. Whitney.
8. Flowers—Mrs. Sarah Gor
ric, Weiser.
Shade and Ornamental
-I. P. Marcellus, Boise;
9 -
Trees
F. G. Cottingham, Nampa.
10. Botany and Vegetable
Milliken,
Petrie, Boise;
W. J. Boone, Caldwell.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Milliken,
Physiology—Robert
Nampa; J. G.
Rev.
Secretary.
The new State Administration*
takes hold Monday, January 4th,
and the legislature convenes at
the same time.
Y . '