222 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
One Hundred Cities. 
In examining and comparing sundry figures from the 
Census Reports now being made up for 1880, and making 
some calculations, we collected the facts and items be¬ 
low, which will interest many readers of the American 
Agriculturist .—Our country lacked but one of having just 
One Hundred Cities containing Twenty Thousand Popu¬ 
lation and upward, and this one only needed 257 to reach 
the score of thousands, which is now doubtless attained. 
Finding that many of the reports published in the news¬ 
papers disagreed materially, we obtained direct from the 
Census Bureau the latest official revised figures, from 
which the items here given are made up. The table 
below gives the names of the cities with the population 
of each, in the order of their size.—Their total popula¬ 
tion ten years before (1870) was only 6,661,905 against 
9,101,057 in 1880, an increase of 2,439,152, or 36} per cent, 
while the increase in the whole country was only 30 per 
cent, showing an unhealthful tendency to crowd into, 
and indeed over-crowd the cities, especially by new 
comers, as shown below. The largest per cent of in¬ 
crease was made by Denver, Col. (from 4,759 in 1S70 to 
35,629 in 18S0); the next by Bay City, Mich. (7,064 to 
20,693). One city exceeds a million population ; Four 
exceed 500,000; Ton exceed 200,000; and Twenty 
exceed 100,000. 
Of the total population in these 100 cities in 1880, over 51 
per cent (or 4,645,239) were females, and less than 49 
per cent (4,455,818) males.— Of the whole, the foreign 
born numbered 4,872,521, or over 53} per cent; and the 
native born, 4,228,533, or under 46} per cent. This is a 
remarkable fact. The total foreign population of the 
United States was, in 1880, only 6,679,943, or about 13 
per cent of the whole 50,155,173. Again: Of this total 
foreignborn population 4,872,521, or nearly 73 per cent, 
are crowded into the 100 cities, leaving only 1,807.419, or 
27 per cent of them in all other cities, villages and the 
country. That is, outside of the 100 cities, 21 out of 
every 22 were born in this country. 
1880 . 
1 New York, N. Y. ..1,206,299 
2 Philadelphia, Pa... 847,170, 
3 Brooklyn. N.Y_ 566,663 
4 Chicago, Ill. 503,185, 
5 Boston, Mass. 362,839 
6 St. Louis, Mo. 350,518, 
7 Baltimore,Md. ... 332,313 
8 Cincinnati, Ohio... 255,139 
9 San Francisco. ,233,959 
10 New Orleans, La... 216,090, 
11 Cleveland, Ohio.... 160,146, 
12 Pittsburg, Pa. 156.389 
13 Buffalo, N.Y. 155,131, 
14 Washington, D. C.. 147,293 
15 Newark, N. J_ 136,503 
16 Louisville, Ky. 123,758 
17 Jersey City, N. J .. 120,722 
18 Detroit, Mich. 116,310 
19 Milwaukee, Wis.... 115,587 
20 Providence, R. 1... 104,857 
21 Albany, N.Y .... 90,758 
22 Rochester. N. Y... 89,366 
23 Alleghany, Pa. 78,682 
24 Indianapolis, Iud... 75,056 
1880 . 
51 Oakland, Cal. 34,555 
52 Utica, N. Y. 33,914 
53 Portland, Me. 33,810 
5! Memphis, Tenn_ 33,592 
55 Springfield, Mass.. 33,340 
56 Manchester. N. H.. 32,630 
57 Saint Joseph, Mo.. 32,431 
58 Or. Rapids. Mich.. 32,016 
59 Hoboken, N. J. 30,999 
60 Harrisburg, Pa ... 30,762 
61 Wheeling, W. Va... 30,737 
62 Savannah, Ga. 30.709 
63 Omaha, Neb. 30,518 
64 Trenton, N.J. 29,910 
65 Covington, Ky. 29.720 
66 Evansville, Ind_ 29,280 
67 Peoria, Ill. 29,259 
68 Mobile, Ala. 29.133 
vx xuuiauuipoun. JUU..I 
25 Richmond, Va. 63,600 
26 New Haven, Ct_ 62,882 
27 Lowell, Mass. 59,475 
28 Worcester, Mass.. 58,291 
29 Troy, N. Y. 56,747 
30 Kansas City, Mo... 55,7-5 
31 Cambridge, Mass.. 52,669 
32 Syracuse, N. Y. 51,792 
83 Columbus, 0. 51,647 
34 Paterson, N. J. 51,034 
Elizabeth, N. J.... 28,229 
70 Erie, Pa. 27,737 
71 Bridgeport, Conn.. 27.643 
72 Salem, Mass. 27,563 
73 Quincy, Ill. 27,268 
74 Fort Wayne, Ind.. 26,880 
75 N. Bedford, Mass... 26,845 
76 Terre Haute, Iud... 26,042 
77 Lancaster, Pa. 25,769 
73 Somerville, Mass.. 24,933 
79 Wilkesbarre, Pa... 
80 Des Moines, Iowa- 
81 Dubuque, Iowa.... 
82 Galveston, Texas- 
83 Norfolk, Va. 
84 Auburn, N. Y 
40 Nashville, Tenn.... 
41 Reading, Pa. 
42 Wilmington, Del.. 
43 Hartford,Conn... 
44 Camden. N.J... 
23,339 
22,468 
22,254 
22,248 
21,966 
21,924 
21.915 
49^984 86 Augusta,’ Ga. 21,891 
48,961 !87 Davenport, Iowa.. 21,831 
46,887 88 Chelsea, Mass. 21,782 
- - - - - - 21,656 
21,420 
21,213 
35 Toledo, 6. 50J37 85 Holyoke, Mass, 
36 Charleston, S. C... 
37 Fall River. Mass.. 
38 Miuneapolis, Minn. , . 
89 Scranton, Pa,. 45,850 89 Petersburg, Va_ 
43,350 90 Sacramento, Cal,.. 
43,278 91 Taunton, Mass. 
42,478 92 Oswego, N.Y. 21,116 
42,015 93 Salt Lake City. 
41,659 94 Springfield, Ohio.. 
44 Camden. N.J. 41,ban ,91 bpnngnetu, omo.. 
45 St. Paul, Minn. 41,473 95 Bay City, Mich. 
46 Lawrence, Mass. 
47 Dayton, O 
39,151 96 San AntoniOj Tex.. 
38,678 97 Elmira, N. Y 
■ C 14 UJ toil) .. let 
48 Lynn, Mass. 38,274 98 Newport, Ky. 
49 Atlanta, Ga . 37,409 99 Po’keepsie, N. Y. 
50 Denver, Col. 35,629 ,100 Springfield, Ill. 
20,768 
20,730 
20,693 
20,530 
20.541 
Newport, Ky. 20,433 
" 20,207 
19,7-13 
Total, 9,101,057.—Average, 91,010. 
A Boy’s “Book Plot.” 
In another part of this paper it will be seen that the 
boys in Delaware State are all invited to compete for 
prizes for the best quarter acre of corn. Several other 
similar local offers are made. One was announced for 
Orange County, N. Y., last month (page 145). We pro¬ 
pose another plan which can be put in operation all over 
the country, and we see no objection to letting the boys 
invite their sisters to join them. It will not hurt them a 
bit to assist in weeding and watching the growth, but 
will help put a healthful glow on their cheeks. The 
plan is this:— 
Let every boy of 7 or 8 years old and upward, ask 
father to let him have just one-quarter of an acre of 
ready plowed ground, all to himself, and promise to 
tend it at odd moments. On this ground plant corn, or 
if corn will not grow well, plant it to beans or something 
that will do well. Study from the American Agricul¬ 
turist, and inquire from others, what kind of corn for 
example will grow best. Unless the land is very fertile, 
see if some waste lots of manure are not left about the 
barn, or some black earth soaked with water from the 
yard, or some poultry droppings, cannot be gathered, and 
some ashes put in the hills with the soil, but not right 
on the seed. Study all these ways of making the corn 
grow as thriftily as possible. Any enterprising boy can 
readily put in and tend such a plot, and not let one weed 
grow on it, without neglecting his other work. 
What will be the result?—It will be very poor land and 
poor cultivation that will not yield 10 bushels on a 
quarter acre. We believe most boys will get 20 bushels 
of good corn, but if the yield be on the average only 16 
bushels, and the corn will sell for 40 cents a bushel, it 
will be worth $6.40 ; or if it sells for only 25 cents a 
bushel, it will bring $4.00. Now, there are not less than 
Two Hundred Thousand boys who read the American 
Agriculturist, and we believe that after leaving out the 
village and city boys who have no land (though most of 
the village boys can rent a quarter acre near by to work), 
there are at least a Hundred Thousand of our boys 
(those who read this paper) who can carry out the plan 
this year. If they get $5 worth of corn each, this will 
make half a million dollars' worth! 
There are a great many useful ways to expend the corn 
money, that can be adopted, but we suggest the follow¬ 
ing:-Let this plot of ground be called the “BOOK 
PLOT,” and expend the money obtained in good books. 
(We will tell by and bye a variety of books we would re¬ 
commend). We have lived so long and watched so many 
boys grow up, that we are very sure every boy who does 
the above, and buys and reads the books, which will be 
all the more prized because he earns them himself, will 
be a great deal better man for it; and his chances of 
success in life in any calling will be largely increased. 
The fact that he, himself, plans the planting, fertilizing, 
studies the results, etc., will be of untold advantage. 
To IVIake S’osts Uiirable.— J. C. Johnson, 
Ohio. The “ kyanizing ” process you inquire about, is 
not practicable on the ordinary farm. The following is 
simple and effective: Burn the part of the posts to be 
set in the ground including the bottom end, just enough 
to leave a thin layer of charcoal all over the surface, and 
then dip them in hot tar or asphalt. The charcoal is in¬ 
destructible by air and moisture ; the tar or the asphalt 
fills the cracks and interstices, and thoroughly protects 
the interior wood. A barrel of tar or of asphalt is readily 
obtainable in any large city, costs but little, and will* 
furnish a dip for several hundred posts. The heating 
can be done in any large iron kettle, with care not to 
have the material take fire. The charring can be done 
by building a large fire of waste brushwood and putting 
on the posts, turning them to prevent too deep burning 
in one place. Ordinarily the cost of labor and material 
need not be over 2 to 4 cents a post, while such prepara¬ 
tion will three or fourfold their real value. As posts 
decay soonest just at the ground surface, “ between 
wind and water,” as the sailors say, it is best to 
have the coating extend half a foot above ground, and 
where looks are of no account, the whole post may be 
similarly treated, which will make them almost inde¬ 
structible by decay. 
Tlie Cut Worms. —A subscriber in Indiana 
writes us that the corn in his section was seriously 
damaged by the “grub-worm” and wants to know how 
to prevent a repetition of the evil. By “ grub-worm ” 
our correspondent evidently refers to what are more 
accurately known as Cut-worms, of which there are 
about a dozen different kinds, the larvae of as many 
species of moths. As those which attack corn are much 
alike in their habits, they may be treated as one. Sev¬ 
eral plans for preventing the depredations of the cut¬ 
worm have been proposed. Some of them are applicable 
only to small fields, and none of them have proved fully 
successful. As these grubs do not attack the grain, but 
merely prey upon the stalk, it is evident that soaking 
the seed in solutions, rolling it in lime, or the use of fer¬ 
tilizers containing materials supposed to be disagree¬ 
able to them, will be of no value except in hastening the 
development of the plants beyond the stage at which 
these pests prove destructive. The methods which have 
been found most useful are : giving the land one or two 
extra plowings (one of them in the fall, if possible), in 
order to expose the grubs to the attacks of the birds 
which are their natural enemies. Going over the fields 
with a pair of wheels which have been fitted with spur¬ 
like projections which will make holes three or four 
inches deep in the soil when the wheels are turned. The 
worms follow the smooch tracks made by the rims of the 
wheels, fall into the holes from which they are unable 
to escape, and in which they are killed by the heat of the 
sun. A similar method on a smaller scale is used in the 
garden. A piece of scantliug a foot or two long is fitted 
with a handle. On the lower side of this several pegs 
are attached to make holes in the soil when the imple¬ 
ment is pressed down. In the morning, the same tool 
may be used to crush the worms that have fallen into, 
or taken refuge in these holes. Fires built in the fields 
occasionally on summer evenings, from the middle of 
June to the last of July, when they are most abundant, 
will attract and destroy large numbers of the moths 
which are the parents of the worms. It is important to 
kill the insect whenever found, in either of its stages of 
development. In this way the ravages of the individual 
are checked and the production of multitudes prevented. 
About Maps.—How Large is Slesico ?- 
The map makers sometimes give us very erroneous im¬ 
pressions of the size of countries. Our geographies put 
down our own country on a large scale and spread single 
States over great folio pages, where they occupy as much 
space as the whole of Europe, and most foreign countries 
are inserted towards the end of the book, in small size. 
We were not a little amused when in Europe to find 
their maps got up on a similar plan. In a German book 
of maps, we found even a little Duchy, not so large as 
Rhode Island, covering more space than was given to 
the United States of America, and the latter was at the 
end of the book. But we minify places on our own 
continent. Mexico, for example, usually occupies a 
small lower left-hand corner of our maps. But its actual 
area, which is 743,948 square miles, is almost exactly as 
large as all of the twenty-five States east of the Missis¬ 
sippi River, leaving out only Illinois and Wisconsin. 
But the total population of Mexico (9,391,371) is barely 
twenty five thousand greater than that of the two States 
of New York and Pennsylvania 1 
Slioulder-Straps for a Wheelbarrow.— 
We have long seen in occasional use, and long used a 
^simple arrangement for relieving the hands and arms in 
carrying loads upon the ordinary wheelbarrow, and in this 
as with many other simple devices, it did not occur to 
us that everybody did not know of it. A letter from an 
intelligent correspondent, Mr. Marsh, of Danbury, Conn, 
—a State so noted for notions and devices that one 
would almost say, 11 what a Connecticut Yankee does not 
know about devices is not worth knowing”—says it is 
new to him, and is so convenient and useful that every¬ 
body ought to know of it. And. by the way, we want 
to say right here, that almost every one of our readers 
knows of some labor-saving, labor-helping devices that 
not half of the world knows anything about, and we 
earnestly invite all to send us descriptions of such things, 
however simple and common they may seem to them¬ 
selves. Send rough pencil or pen sketches when prac¬ 
ticable. With our artists and engravers we can usually 
make them plain to the eye and understanding. Please 
do this to day, and next month, and all along through 
this year and the next.—But to the case in hand. A 
strap, of webbing or of leather, or of any strong fabric 
(we have seen bed-ticking used) of suitable length, 
has loops in the two ends to slip over the wheelbarrow 
handles. This is thrown over the shoulders, and to them- 
may be transferred a part or the whole of the weight. It 
can be provided in a few minutes, and will be found of 
decided advantage. The engraving explains the ar¬ 
rangement.—A buckle a foot or more from one end of 
the strap would allow the length to be changed as 
desired, 60 as to be “ short enough for a boy, or long 
enough fora long man.” The wheelbarrow is one of 
the handiest implements on the farm, and no place 
should be without one. 
Separating; Honey.— A correspondent, who has 
not hives enough to warrant the purchase of an “Extrac¬ 
tor ” asks how he can separate the honey from the comb 
without one. There are two methods. One is to break 
up the combs and place them on a colander, and allow 
the honey to drain from them into a pan, occasionally 
stirring the mase. Another is to place the combs in a 
vessel and gradually heat. The wax will melt and rise 
to the top : when cool, this may be separated from the 
honey below, as a solid cake. At the same time any im¬ 
purities will settle to the bottom of the honey from, 
which it should be carefully poured. 
