248 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 28 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Piesident. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1891. 
IMPORTANT! 
What high priced novelties have you bought and 
cultivated—whether of small fruits, large fruits, 
ornamental shrubs, trees or seeds of any kinds — 
that proved to be either old varieties , no better than 
old varieties, or more or less worthless f And of 
whom did you purchase them f We would be glad 
to hear from our readers at once. We propose to 
ventilate the important subject thoroughly. 
It may be said that the average bushel of un¬ 
leached ashes as it comes from the farmers fire¬ 
place or wood stove, weighs 45 pounds and aver¬ 
ages four pounds of potash. This potash is 
worth at least six cents the pound, which 
gives a bushel of such ashes a value of 24 cents, 
not considering the lime. Then, too, they con¬ 
tain about PA per cent of phosphoric acid, which 
would increase the value of a bushel at least five 
cents. Such ashes may be considered cheap at 30 
cents per bushel of 45 pounds. 
The American Legation in London has just noti¬ 
fied the Department of State that since March, 1889, 
over 200 American claims to vast estates in Eng¬ 
land have been referred to it. Doubtless a much 
larger number have been confided to the care of 
sharpers who have succeeded in securing large 
sums from their dupes. None of the cases investi¬ 
gated by the legation presented ‘ ‘ even an element 
of probability.” American claimants are warned 
that English and American swindlers are trying to 
secure subscriptions from them to prosecute claims 
whose sole foundation lies in the mendacity of the 
sharpers and the credulity of their dupes. 
As a matter of history it may be stated that 
The R. N.-Y. was, so far as known, the first to pro¬ 
duce a cross between a hardy (Austrian) rose and 
Rosa rugosa; that Bruant was the first to produce 
a cross between a Tea and Rosa rugosa; that Prof. 
Wm. Saunders was the first to announce hybrids 
between the blackberry and raspberry—the plants 
were destroyed before fruiting-that The R. N.-Y. 
was the first to fruit hybrids between the black¬ 
berry and raspberry j that The R. N.-Y. was the 
first to produce hybrids between Rubus phoenico- 
lasius and Rosa rugosa and also the first to produce 
hybrids between the blackberry and Rubus phoeni- 
colasius. The development of the last two will be 
watched with interest. 
Legislation of a particular character often has 
an indirect and unlooked-for effect. The removal 
of the tariff on sugar which is expected to cheapen 
it, is said to have an unfavorable effect upon the 
manufacture of glucose. The extremely high price 
of corn has materially reduced the profit, and the 
cheapening of sugar with which it competes will 
lessen the inducement for manufacturers of confec¬ 
tionery, etc., to use the substitute. This will 
naturally conduce to greater purity in the manu¬ 
factured goods, and will inure to the benefit of the 
consumers. How will it affect the consumption 
and price of corn ? Was enough of this cereal used 
in the manufacture of glucose to have any material 
effect upon the supply of corn ? 
One of the hitherto ungetoverable troubles that 
The R. N.-Y. has experienced in growing plants 
from seeds in the house or under glass, started in 
February or March, has been the accumulation 
upon the surface soil of mold and various green¬ 
ish fungoid growths which cause the tender 
seedlings to “ damp off.” No matter what kind of 
soil has been used, whether from the garden, woods 
or fields; no matter how prepared, mixed or com- 
S osted, the evil has been modified only in degree. 
•uring the present season, the difficulty, up to the 
present time, has been entirely avoided by sifting 
over the seeds after planting them, soil to which 
powdered sulphur has been added and intimately 
commingled in the proportion of one part of sulphur 
to 15 or 20 of loam. It may be thought that blow¬ 
ing a film of powdered sulphur over the surface 
soil would have the same effect. It does not, how¬ 
ever ; perhaps for the reason that the film of sul¬ 
phur is washed off or accumulates in streaks or 
patches when the boxes or pots are watered. 
Whether there is anything new about this The 
R. N.-Y. is not aware. New or old, our readers, 
many of whom, no doubt, encounter the same dis¬ 
couraging conditions, are advised to give the 
method a thorough trial. 
“ This year's test of new varieties shows that 
some of the seedsmen are practicing what would be 
considered in larger matters a state prison offense. 
A large portion of the new varieties are only old 
ones renamed , and as they are brought out with ex 
travagant representations, and at a price from two 
to four times as great as is charged for the same 
thing under its proper name , it looks as if a clear 
case of obtaining money under false pretenses could 
be made out of it." —L. R. Taft, Horticulturist of 
the Michigan Experiment Station. 
There’s a stalwart yet growing sentiment abroad 
in regard to the necessity of a fairer apportionment 
of taxation. On this subject the Old Bay State Leg¬ 
islature once more leads the van in one important 
direction. Its Committee on Taxation has just 
unanimously reported a bill limiting the amount of 
property exempt from taxation to five per cent of 
the total value of any town. After the limitation is 
exhausted no further exemption is to be granted to 
literary, benevolent, charitable or scientific institu¬ 
tions or to churches or even agricultural societies. 
These are all admirable institutions, but should they 
on account of their merits be the cause of unfair 
burdens for others ? 
The first of the enormous obligations of the 
Pacific Railroads to the government matures in 
1894, and the courts have decided that the govern¬ 
ment is powerless against them till then. Over 
$60,000,000 of the people’s money is now held by 
Stanford, Huntington and other Pacific Railroad 
magnates; while the roads are paying interest on 
$80,000,000 worth of water. All over the country, 
but especially in the West, the Farmers’ Alliance 
appears determined to have justice meted out to 
the plunderers as soon as the government’s hands 
are free. Aspirants for both Houses of Congress 
are likely to be henceforth severely catechized on 
their views in this matter, and it is not impossible 
that some of the monstrous fortunes of the railroad 
millionaires may suffer a wonderful shrinkage 
before the big debts of the bond aided railroads are 
settled. 
According to the most liberal estimate, the 
volume of money in circulation in this country is 
not over $1,400,000,000. and a fair estimate would 
doubtless put it at aoout $1,000,000,000. This is 
practically inflexible: it doesn’t expand with the 
expansion of business or contract with its contrac¬ 
tion. The gross annual output of manufactures of 
all kinds is about $500,000,000, and their distribu¬ 
tion is practically uniform throughout .the year. 
Suppose all these commodities changed ownership 
between the manufacturer and consumer three or 
four times; the demand for the use of money in the 
whole year, would not be more than $2,000,000,000. 
The gross annual value of all agricultural products 
is about $7,500,000,000. If one-third of this amount 
is used for seed and home consumption, two-thirds 
will be marketed, practically during the last three 
months of the year. Suppose this changed owner¬ 
ship only twice, it would cause a demand for the 
useof $10,000,000,000 in three months! Even a quar¬ 
ter of a century ago the money crops of the country 
were harvested and marketed much more slowly 
than now. The development of the railroad sys¬ 
tems and the introduction of rapid labor-saving 
machinery have substituted the mower for the 
scythe, the twine-binder for the sickle or the cradle, 
the thrasher for the flail, the railroad train for 
the ox-cart and the telegraph for the courier, and 
cut down the marketing season from ten to three 
months. The consequence is that, in spite of the 
great acceleration in the circulation of money dur¬ 
ing the busy season, and the vast expansion of the 
credit system then due to speculative enterprise, 
there is a disastrous contraction of the currency in 
proportion to the volume of business during the 
brief season when agricultural products are hurried 
to market. While statistics show that the normal 
ratio of supply and demand in the currency during 
the rest of the year is about one-half, it is over 40 
per cent less when a larger proportion is most 
needed, and statistics ranging from 1868 to 1887 
demonstrate that there has been an actual decline 
of 40 per cent in the prices of farm products in the 
same season from the average prices for the rest 
of the year. The producer, of course, is the loser. 
The consumer pays a nearly uniform price the year 
round, and so obtains little or no benefit. The 
speculator or middleman is the only gainer. Small 
wonder that there are so many new-made million¬ 
aires in his line. How can the flexibility of the cur¬ 
rency be best increased so that it can better accom¬ 
modate itself to the violent fluctuations of modern 
trade ? If the Sub-Treasury scheme of the farmers 
is impracticable, can the financiers furnish a 
better ? 
All over the country, but especially in the 
South and West, many movements are on foot 
among farmers looking to combined action in the 
purchase of merchandise, the sale of their pro¬ 
ducts and other economic measures. Such associ¬ 
ations are, as a rule, viewed with little favor by 
the other classes, and are especially obnoxious to 
the long line of middlemen, to many of whom they 
mean starvation. The partisan press, whose 
patronage lies almost exclusively among trades¬ 
men and operatives, and which sees in the new 
movement a growing danger to the old parties, is 
particularly bitter in its ridicule and denunciation 
of such combinations. Because farmers have vigor¬ 
ously denounced the tyranny and oppression of 
manufacturing, transportation and mercantile 
trusts, these papers appear to think it a monstrous 
inconsistency on their part to combine to resist 
the intolerable hardships, and any new association 
of the kind when first announced is at once vili¬ 
fied and derided and hailed with “ghoulish glee” 
as “another farmers’ trust.” Even the mere 
conception or discussion of the thing is treated by 
these carpers as a tangible realization, for the pur¬ 
pose of vilification. From the earliest ages organ¬ 
ized oppression against a large and intelligent 
class of citizens has begot organized resistance. 
What are farmers’ trusts but efforts of the op¬ 
pressed to successfully combat their oppressors ? 
Who ever heard of the use of dishonest, cruel or 
tyrannical methods by any of them, to coerce un¬ 
willing brethren into its ranks ? Who ever heard 
of any effort on their part to wring dishonest gains 
by tyrannical means from the pockets of the public? 
Farmers’ trusts are shields, not swords; they are 
for defence, not for attack; for protection, not for 
oppression. They are the latest safeguards of the 
weak against the immemorial rapacity of the strong. 
Even were they what their bitterest deriders falsely 
charge, isn’t the worst of them better than the best 
of the others ? In the unscrupulous rush for quick en¬ 
richment in these days, why should farmers, above 
others, be debarred from any legitimate avenue to 
competence and wealth ? And 
“ Why leave the best tunes to the devil ?” . 
Or the best of the crops to the rats ? 
Or be so eternally civil 
As to leave the fat trusts to the ’crats ? 
BREVITIES. 
The successful fruit grower is one who gets rich selling 
water. 
The sweet apple folks are not afraid to speak out for 
their favorites. They make a good case. 
Now then, you manufacturers of poultry breeds, people 
want a rooster that won’t crow. Breed off the voice 1 
Do the institutes reach the poor farmers who have mort¬ 
gages on their farms or only those who are well-to-do and 
can afford to take life easy ? How can we connect with the 
farmers who most need waking up ? 
How do you vote on that Adirondack Park question ? 
Should the State maintain the park ? As a farmer and a 
citizen of New York State, what do you think about it ? 
Now is the time to think and to talk. 
There is a fastigiate or pyramidal form of the Maiden 
Hair Tree (Salisburia adiantifolia) now offered by nursery¬ 
men. The objection to the species is that it is wide- 
branching and, even though cut back, not at all inclined 
to form a tree of compact, symmetrical growth. 
The legislature of California has had a United States Sen- 
atorship for sale for $120,000, and offered it to the high¬ 
est bidder with a shamelessness beyond that of the infam¬ 
ous Pretorian Guard putting up the Imperial Purple for 
sale in the days of proud Rome’s corrupt decadence. 
The R. N.-Y. has talked of the Pendulons Sweet Pea 
Shrub (Desmodium penduliflorum) for six years or more. 
Now it is being boomed for all it is worth and it is worth 
a place in every garden. The roots are perfectly hardy, 
and the branches are laden with purple pea flowers in the 
autumn. 
OUR readers ought to be familiar with the California 
Privet, so-called. Why it is so called we do not know, 
since it is not a native of California and its proper name 
is Ligustrum ovalifolium. There is a green and golden 
variety of this shrub, which is as hardy as the species, and 
one of the best of variegated shrubs. 
Instead of buying the old Golden Bell, Forsythia vir- 
idissima, buy F. Fortune!. Its flowers are larger and the 
} >lant taller growing and more symmetrical. F. suspensa 
s a fine plant to graft upon a single cane of the old Golden 
Bell, or, when on its own roots, to train up a trellis as if 
it were a vine. Remember this. 
Is much gained by selecting seeds from the tomatoes 
that first ripen as compared with those selected late in the 
season ? Three years of trial by the Michigan Experi¬ 
ment Station seem to show that the plants raised from 
the two classes ripen their fruit at about the same time, 
the difference being less than two days as the most favor¬ 
able showing. 
In spite of the work done and the money spent in trying 
to exterminate the Gypsy Moth in Massachusetts, there 
are many who believe that the insect has been more wide¬ 
ly distributed than was at first thought, and that within 
a few years it will cause great daniage. The work of the 
commission has shown how to fight the insect where it 
can be found. 
The scheme of a township stone-yard to furnish employ¬ 
ment for the unemployed which was referred to last week 
in an editorial note, was adopted at the town meeting. The 
township to make this experiment is Galen, in Wayne 
County, N. Y., and we shall watch the outcome with con¬ 
siderable interest. We may add that the idea of the 
scheme originated with a lawyer. 
The R. N.-Y. has tried the First Early Peas of seedsmen 
so often that it has grown tired of the profitless work. 
The strains of the leading firms are so nearly alike in 
earliness and productiveness that it is a matter of little 
moment which is selected. Our chief care would be to 
select from those firms who have some regard for their 
reputation and who do not issue catalogues which are 
stuffed with grossly exaggerated illustrations and mani¬ 
festly fraudulent claims. 
“Can Lawyers be Honest?” is a query propounded by 
the North American Review and going the rounds of the 
papers. The general drift of opinion is that It isn’t a 
question of ability but of inclination. Lawyers are a 
clever, ingenious class of men, and there is really little 
doubt that if they bent their energies in that direction 
they could be ordinarily honest. But wouldn’t the effort 
interfere with the usual nature of their calling, and 
wouldn’t a lawyer without guile be as strange a phenome¬ 
non as a farmer with it ? 
Senator-elect Palmer, of Illinois, has promised to ad¬ 
vocate a constitutional amendment providing for the elec¬ 
tion of Senators directly by the votes of all the people of 
the various States, instead of indirectly by the votes of a 
handful of sometimes very corruptible legislators. Any 
change in the mode of election of the members of that 
“close corporation of plutocrats and their hired agents” that 
will bring them Into closer touch with popular sentiment, 
and lessen the risks of their corrupt election, would be an im¬ 
provement on the present system. To effect it, however, 
their own votes would be needed before the necessary 
amendment could be submitted to the people, and who 
can imagine a lot of sleek gobblers voting for their own 
sacrifice even to grace a nation’s Thanksgiving ? 
