48 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A \utiomil Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homex. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
lAWSON VALENTINE, Piesident. 
EOGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1891. 
Country editors frequently remind their readers 
that there is a bushel of wheat at home in the grain 
bin that belongs in the editor’s pocket. It is a just 
statement. The unpaid subscription is a debt 
which the grain would satisfy. The practice of 
putting off the payment of just debts in the hope 
of making a little interest on the money and then 
paying it without interest is all wrong. Is the 
larmer who does so justified in condemning those 
who do the same thing only on a larger scale? 
Several years after The R. N.-Y. began to urge 
its readers to plant the Japan and other foreign 
chestnuts, the Paragon was announced. The R. 
N.-Y., after comparing the wood, leaves and nuts 
with Japan specimens, expressed the opinion that 
the Paragon was of foreign (probably Japan) origin, 
while Mr. Engle, the disseminator of the Paragon, 
and other authorities believed it to be an American 
variety. On another page the story of its origin is 
told by Thomas Meehan, and, no doubt, his state¬ 
ment will settle the question. 
As the tide of immigration reaches high water 
mark at the West and begins to ripple back to the 
New England States, the South will redouble its 
efforts to turn it towards the Gulf. Will the efforts 
succeed? Does past history point that way? We 
find that the strong and healthy persons who talk 
about going South for homes have an idea that they 
must go in colonies or they will not be able to com¬ 
pete with negro labor. We speak, of course, of 
those who wish to settle in country places and 
who have but little capital and depend upon their 
own labor for their support. These are the very 
persons the South needs. It will be necessary to 
convince them that they can compete with negro 
labor. 
We have a hopeful lot of correspondents this 
week. They view the future with courage; they 
consider the prospect a cheerful one. It is a singu¬ 
lar fact that every one of these correspondents may 
be called a “self-made man.” They have all known 
what it is to be in want and trouble,and have fought 
their way up through serious obstacles to compe¬ 
tency and power. Their opinions should be worth 
something, particularly to our young men. Suppose 
these men could start again to-day at 20 years of age, 
with the stores of experience and information the 
years have brought them! Can we doubt that 
many of their ideas would be carried out by 1915? 
The young man of to-day may make use of a por¬ 
tion of their experience; they fill out the skeleton 
of his career; he must put the meat on the bones 
himself. “The world is growing better!” We 
bdP so. We have an abiding faitti in the strong 
common sense of the people. This country has not 
yet finished its mission. It must live to complete 
its work. 
The advocates of the Sub Treasury scheme claim 
that they single out grain and cotton as the staples 
to be stored as a basis for “money ” because these 
products are leading articles of export—the goods 
with which this country pays its debts abroad. The 
year 1889 may be taken as an average. In that year 
our total domestic exports were $730,282,609 Of 
this amount $237,775,270 are credited to unmanu¬ 
factured cotton, and $123,876,661 to grain and bread- 
stuffs, including flour and meal. The value of the 
flour exported was greater than that of the wheat 
The exports of iron and steel manufactures 
amounted to $21,156,077; of provisions, $104,122 444- 
tobacco and manufactures of, $22,609,668; mineral 
oils, $44,830,545; lumber and manufactures, $26 910 - 
672 and animals $18,374,805. While in that year 
grain and cotton furnished 50 per cent of our ex¬ 
ports, there is no certainty that this ratio will con¬ 
tinue. We may safely expect that the exports of 
cotton will be maintained, but how about grain ? 
The volume of grain exports has been steadily drop¬ 
ping, while exports of flour have steadily increased. 
iShouid the present ratio of increase of our popula¬ 
tion continue, the day must certainly come when 
every bushel of whole grain shipped abroad will be 
wanted at home. If shipped at all, it must go in 
the form of flour, or provisions. Our exports of 
provisions, of iron, leather, oil and lumber manu¬ 
factures are all steadily increasing. At present these 
combined fully rank with cotton in extent of ex¬ 
port, and give a sum nearly three times as large as 
the grain without the flour. Is the Alliance ready to 
give the makers of these articles the same privilege 
it would give to the makers of grain and cotton ? 
W. J. Sturgis, of Buffalo, Wyoming, was 
awarded the first prize for the largest yield of pota¬ 
toes in the second contest inaugurated by the 
American Agriculturist, early last year. The 
amount of prize money was $500, half given by the 
above journal, and half by the Wyoming Legisla¬ 
ture. The prize crop was raised by the Rural 
Trench system—a fact not mentioned in the report 
as printed in the Agriculturist. Precisely the same 
thing occurred in the potato contest of 1889, as we 
showed at the time by a letter from the prize-taker. 
In response to our inquiry Mr. Sturgis writes as 
follows : “The land was marked out six inches 
deep with a sulky plow. I then went through each 
row with a shovel plow, making the trenches to 
suit me. I considered the trenches as good as could 
be made. I think it the best way.” Thus, it ap¬ 
pears, that two of the largest crops of potatoes that 
ever have been taken from an acre or more of land, 
have been raised by the Rural trench method. 
Why the Springfield (Mass.) people who publish 
the American Agriculturist should have suppressed 
the fact, is for them to explain. 
The Vermont Commissioner of Immigration is 
reported as saying: “ The abandoned farms in' the 
State may possibly be inhabited by men who went 
West and failed, and will be glad to cultivate a bit 
of the home acre in peace.” For this statement he 
has been laughed at, but The R. N.-Y. has not the 
least doubt of its truth. We have seen too many 
disappointed New England men wandering about 
the “ Far West.” They were forced to admit that 
they were better off “back East,” and only false 
pride and a fear of being laughed at kept them 
from coming back to the old home. In a recent 
note written from one of the worst “abandoned 
farm ” districts, these words are found: “ My eon 
has wintered on the Atlantic coast, and later on 
the Pacific in southern California, but seems well 
satisfied Vvith Vermont, though he has two sisters 
in California.” We have dozens of letters from 
Western men who want to know about the cheap 
lands in Vermont and New Hampshire. The State 
of Vermont is blindly foolish in giving up its immi¬ 
gration bureau. Unless the wanderers hurry home 
soon, however, they may find the choicest locations 
already occupied by thrifty French Canadians, 
who, according to the latest reports, are preparing 
to immigrate in great numbers to the abandoned 
farms of New England. 
In a decision just rendered Judge Ingram, of 
New York, has laid down the principle that a 
lobbyist cannot recover commissions for securing 
franchises for companies from a municipality. “ It 
has been long settled,” says the Judge, “that a 
contract to exert personal influence to induce a 
public officer or member of a legislative body to do 
an official act is illegal and void, and this principle 
has been applied to all departments of the govern¬ 
ment, judicial, executive and legislative, and is 
based upon the broad ground that all contracts 
leading to secret, improper and corrupt tampering 
with official action, are void.” It has long been 
contended that lobbying, National, State and mun¬ 
icipal, is one of the most fruitful causes of tainted 
laws and ordinances, as well as of corrupt official 
action in all parts of this country. Hardly a law 
is ever passed in Congress or in any State legisla 
ture, and hardly a municipal ordinance, affecting 
the interests of any individual or class without the 
exercise of pressure on the legislators in behalf of 
those whose interests are thus affected. At each 
center of legislation there is a small but notorious 
coterie of corruptionists, known as the lobby, 
whose business it is by “ ways that are dark and 
tricks that are” not always “vain,” to influence leg¬ 
islation in favor of their clients, who pay them lib¬ 
erally for their services, besides frequently supply¬ 
ing them with means to purchase the votes of 
corrupt law makers. Farmers have long been per¬ 
sistent denouncers of lobbyists and lobby corrup¬ 
tion, and this decision should be grateful to them 
inasmuch as it tends to check an obnoxious 
practice, by rendering it more difficult for lobbyists 
to recover their pay. True, the Grange and 
Farmers’ Alliance,as well as some other agricultural 
associations propose to establish lobbies at the 
National and various State capitals; but these— 
oh, well, of course that’s altogether another story. 
Two diametrically opposite classes of farmers 
demand attention at this season of the year. One 
is represented by the man who has figured out the 
profits on some new line of farm work, some spe¬ 
cial crop that has yielded almost fabulous profits 
on his neighbor’s farm, or of which he has learned 
from some hare-brained writer who told it all. 
Already, while the frosts of winter are yet upon us, 
he has in imagination plowed the ground, grown 
the crop, realized the profits and is reveling in the 
added comforts and luxuries he is to enjoy as the 
fruits of his far seeing shrewdness. He looks down 
with a mild and charitable contempt upon his plod¬ 
ding neighbors, who are content to grow the same 
old crops of corn and potatoes, oats, barley, wheat 
and hay, and mentally resolves, even if he doesn’t 
verbally express his thoughts, that he will show 
them a thing or two; he will teach them something 
new. And he generally does, and himself, too, 
though he is generally the most surprised of all. 
Last year, hops were a fair crop; prices were high 
and any one with anything at all of a crop made 
money. Word reaches us that many farmers will 
plant hops. Many of these have no practical knowl¬ 
JAN. 17 
edge of the business. They know nothing or next 
to nothing of the manner of cultivation, of the in¬ 
sects and diseases to be encountered, of the expense 
of fertilizing and caring for the crop, of the 
methods of harvesting and curing; in short, they 
have only a general knowledge of it, and their sole 
or main reason for starting in the business is the 
fact that there was big money in it last year. There 
are many parallel cases with other special products. 
We would not discourage this striking out in new 
channels, especially as so many of the older ones 
prove unprofitable. The spirit that impels one to 
seek new and more profitable lines of work is com¬ 
mendable. The trouble is that proper judgment is 
not exercised. The cost is not counted. 
The other and more numerous class embraces 
those who are content to plod along in the same 
way as their fathers and grandfathers have done. 
It is too much trouble to change their methods to 
meet the changed conditions that confront them. 
The only extra effort they make is to grumble at 
their luck. Now, if there were only some way to 
combine these two classes ; to shake them up to¬ 
gether, as it were, and evolve a new class that would 
be progressive and yet conservative; that would 
combine the good qualities of both, what a consum¬ 
mation it would be! Reader, to which of these three 
classes do you belong ? And if you belong to either 
of the first two, will you not try to form one of the 
last ? 
BREVITIES. 
Ur tier the snow, under the snow, 
The wheat’s all right, the rye will grow, 
Covered up warm, safe from the storm. 
Roots wait for spring; then how they’ll swarm. 
Growing won’t stop, blanket on top, 
Deeper the snow, better the crop. 
Smile as you go, don’t worry so, 
Truth Is alive under the snow ! 
What's the best poor man’s fowl ? 
Your cows earn your bread as well as your butter. 
The best salve for farmers’ atlings : Stlcktoltiveness. 
If you get behind this spring, you will never catch up. 
Will people ever have too much celery ? What does it 
cost to grow a bunch ? 
If you should kill off half your hens, would you make 
more money or lose less ? 
Does Mr. Terry believe that srch a thing as an “honest 
failure” in farming is possible ? 
How would it do to define “civilization” as the art of 
upsetting the equilibrium of Nature ? 
All things fluctuate in value except the salary of the 
office-holder. That shows a constant growth. 
Oregon farmers are talking about using tiles. They 
would use them for irrigation—not for drainage. 
Don’t fail to tell us what your canning factory pays you 
for vegetables and fruit and how they “ measure.” 
J. M. Smith claims that his father put down the first 
underdrain in the country. If there’s an older one, let’s 
hear of it. 
Magnolia stellata is a charming bush variety. In early 
spring it is white with its many-petaled flowers. It is hardy 
at the Rural Grounds. 
If there is a brighter, livelier-looking evergreen tree at 
this season of the year than the Golden or Sun-ray Pine, 
we should be pleased to hear what it is. 
Many thanks to the Princess of Wales. She has made 
it public that neither she nor her daughters will wear hats 
on which birds are placed for ornament. 
Pres. Lyon of South Haven, Michigan, mentions the 
Hathaway as a very large native chestnut. It originated 
with B. Hathaway of Cass County, Mich. 
We are preparing for publication an illustrated account 
of a “ hennery ” of GOO hens. We also hope to describe a 
“ lambery,” a “fruitery,” a “calvery,” a ‘ hoggery,” and 
a “ duckery !” 
We have still another good word to speak for the Wine- 
berry or Moss Berry or Rubyberry. It is that its canes 
now in midwinter are of a beautiful dark-red color, a little 
darker than the canes of the dogwood, though quite as 
decided. 
Buy seeds of Pyrethrum roseum and cineraruifolinm 
(from which the insect powder is made) and sow them in 
boxes. They are really chrysanthemums, though the 
colors of the flowers are far brighter than those known by 
the latter name. 
Seeds of such hardy shrubs and vines as the following 
may now be sown in boxes or frames : Weigela, hibiscus, 
deutzia, hollyhock, barberry, callicarpa, calycanthus,’ 
viburnum, wistaria, Dutchman’s Pipe, grapes, roses, cur¬ 
rants, ivy, dogwood, ampelopsis, etc. 
^n a dry season it is reasonable to suppose that nitrate of 
soda would benefit the crop more than sulphate of am¬ 
monia, which acts more slowly. But as we can not predict 
with any certainty whether the season will be wet or dry 
it is safer to use a fair proportion of each. 
An Iowa subscriber writes: “Wife and I have read 
The Rural for over 30 years. With good constitutions 
and a fair amount of energy in both of us, we have made 
farming and stock growing a success, and that, too, with¬ 
out anything to commence with.” Farming pays on that 
basis. 
We have just received a single apple, named Shannon, 
from E. F. Babcock, of Little Rock, Ark. It is. in a word 
“perfection” in every way. It measures 13% inches in 
the largest circumference. The color is a golden yellow 
with a pink “cheek.” Its peculiar fragrance is so pro¬ 
nounced as to be noticeable in any part of the office. An 
illustration and description of the Shannon appeared in 
The R. N.-Y. of December 20, 1890. 
Thh writer can remember when the hard crust of the 
brown bread, baked in an old-fashioned oven, was always 
given to the “ boy ” because “ it made his teeth white to 
eat it.” Food for both man and beast was coarser and 
harder to digest in those days, and yet it seems to us that 
there were fewer cases of dyspepsia among human beings 
and less disease among stock than now. Machinery now 
does much of the work formerly left to the digestion. Are 
we better off for it ? 
Farm labor is cheap now. The ground is either frozen or 
covered with snow. Three months hence labor will cost 
more and the ground will be soft. The cost of hauling out 
manure now will hardly be noticed. In April it will rep¬ 
resent a good deal of cash. Will the manure hauled 
out now and left in piles lose enough of its fertility to off¬ 
set the difference in cost of hauling? Do not experience 
and theory coincide that it will not except, perhaps, on 
sloping ground ? Why not spread as it is hauled ? 
