756 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCT. 24 
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, President. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
and these small audiences are the people that rum 
sellers will hear from later. So thoroughly is this 
work of home education being done that we con¬ 
fidently believe that within 20 years the rum shop 
will be driven into the larger cities and penned 
there. In that case the respectable citizens will be 
obliged to stamp the evil out of their midst or go to 
the country to live. When slavery was driven into 
a limited area and held there, it developed features 
so horrible to dwellers in the free States that it could 
not live—it had to be destroyed. It will be so with 
this liquor business. It is sure to be driven to the 
cities and there cornered. Go on with the work of 
educating boys and girls to hate the rum seller and 
his work. / 
in the way of success will be the treaties between 
Germany and several other European countries, 
which guarantee to the latter the most favorable 
conditions of trade granted to any other nation. 
Whatever concessions may, therefore, be made to 
the United States must be made to them also. This 
would, of course, lessen the advantage to this country 
as it would have to compete with the others on the 
same footing. It is, however, doubtful whether 
Germany is at present in a temper to expose her 
own citizens to such wide competition with those of 
other nations, within her own b )rders, however 
anxious she may be to preserve her splendid market 
for her beet sugar makers, on this side of the 
Atlantic. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1891. 
The request is made that all plants and 
seeds for trial or specimens for identification 
be sent to the Editor, River Edge, Bergen 
County, N. J. _ 
Rest of this year free of charge to any subscriber 
ordering the paper now for 1892. 
The improvement of tomatoes is a subject which 
is at present near to The R. N.-Y.'s heart. Is 
there much room for tomato improvement ? Oh, 
yes ; the tomato of to day is a mere baby. 
The R. N.-Y. Potato No. 1 will be introduced in 
a year or so. In more than one respect it is be¬ 
lieved to have no equal. It is a seedling of 1888. 
We regard it as a fitting companion to the No. 2, 
being much earlier. Then we want a No. 3 to com¬ 
plete the set—as valuable as a late potato as the No. 
2 is as an intermediate or the No. 1 as an early. 
For years the honest advocates of greater purity 
in the making and administration of our laws have 
been loud in their denunciations of the bare-faced 
bribery of executive and legislative officers by 
the free distribution of railroad passes among them, 
and no other class has been so emphatic as farmers 
in their reprobation of this abuse. Some time ago 
a measure providing stringent penalties for 
granting or accepting free railroad passes was in¬ 
troduced in the Georgia Legislature, which is abso¬ 
lutely controlled by the farmers’ vote; but, in spite 
of much outside pressure, the Solons of the Empire 
State of the South have obstinately refused even to 
take the matter up. They are pusillanimously afraid 
to make a disgraceful record on the subject, and 
greedily unwilling to forego the bribes. It is boldly 
charged, and not denied, that every one of them has 
a free pass in his pocket, yet not one of them has 
failed to draw his mileage from the State treasury. 
Out upon such shameful tergiversation 1 Doesn’t 
such despicable conduct afford a plausible pretext 
for much of the jeers, sneers and ridicule the parti¬ 
san papers are always ready to pour upon “ Hay¬ 
seed in the Legislature ?” 
The Georges Bruant Rose—a cross between Som- 
breuil and Rosa rugosa—to which The R. N.-Y., 
has often alluded—will not engage the affections of 
rose lovers as soon as its peculiar charms entitle it 
to do, because it is somewhat difficult to propagate, 
while there has been no control over it in this coun¬ 
try to make special advertising profitable. Its 
march and victory will be slow but sure for the 
reason, (1) that it is really beautiful and (2) that its 
beauty is quite different from that of any other 
rose. Somb^euil, the male parent, is a Tea intro¬ 
duced in 1851—the queen among white Teas in our 
opinion—the queen for its buds and large, white, 
fragrant flowers; for open-air culture ; for vigor; 
for freedom from mildew. In Georges Bruant we 
have the flowers of Sombreuil (though less double) 
and the grand foliage of Rugosa with the only draw¬ 
back that it mildews in some situations. Besides, 
the plant has thus far proved quite hardy. An¬ 
other charm is that it blooms profusely not only 
early in the season, but it continues to bloom with 
some freedom until frost. The Rural does not pro¬ 
fess to be a rose authority ; but it does profess to 
have “roses in its heart” and from this point of 
view presumes to regard Georges Bruant as not 
only one of the most conspicuous triumphs of the 
hybridizer’s art, but one of the most charming 
hardy roses in cultivation. 
From figures given on another page it appears 
that the Drink Question is the greatest issue before 
the country to day—considered either from a moral 
or a financial point of view. Thoughtful men may 
well ask themselves—What progress is being made 
towards mastering this evil ? The Prohibition party 
seeks to cure the drink evil as it would cure wrongs 
of taxation or remedy mistakes in financial legisla¬ 
tion. If one may judge by its party vote for Presi¬ 
dent or for State officers, this party is not gaining 
in strength as the justice of its cause or the prophe¬ 
cies of its leaders would warrant. But there is an¬ 
other side to the matter. The party is not gaining 
many votes from the present generation perhaps, 
but it is capturing the coming generation at a rate 
that is astonishing. One cannot help observing how 
many of the best women in rural districts are in¬ 
terested in temperance work. Most of them are 
satisfied with an audience of their own children, 
One of the quickest ways to “ cool off ” the body 
is to dip the wrists into cool water. The veins and 
arteries in the wrist and forearm are close to the 
skin, and cold applied here is felt all over the body ; 
and heat applied here soon makes itself felt, too. 
Hold a hot, boiled egg in the palm of each hand 
and see how the heat is felt all over the body. Our 
grandmothers recognized this fact and acted on 
scientific principles when they knit thick wrist¬ 
lets for the younger members of the family. Now, 
if this part of the body is so susceptible to changes 
of temperature that add to our bodily comfort, it is 
quite evident that it also affords a fine chance for 
a “cold” to take possession. Many children are 
eculiarly susceptible to colds. Our experience 
as been that few things more directly invite these 
colds than unprotected wrists and ankles. The prac¬ 
tice of wearing short-sleeved undergarments up to 
the time that thick clothing is needed has injured 
many a child more than its parents can realize, be¬ 
cause the effect of such a cold may develop long 
after in diseases of the throat, nose or ears. Watch 
the wrists and ankles and let them be well pro¬ 
tected. 
What England is doing to enable Irish tenant 
farmers to purchase their holdings by lending them 
the necessary funds from the National Treasury, at a 
low rate of interest, on the security of the land, was 
done by Prussia as long ago as 1850, with excellent 
results. The State established numerous land banks 
which advanced to the peasants the sums necessary 
for the purchase of the old landlord rights which 
were in each case commuted for a definite sum. 
The advance thus made constituted a first charge 
on the land and was represented by debenture 
bonds for small amounts. The owner of the land 
had the right to pay to their credit, at whatever 
time and in whatever sums he was able, install¬ 
ments towards their redemption, but was bound 
to redeem them all fully inside of 50 years. Within 
a generation similar reforms have been carried out 
in other German States, and by their means large 
estates in extensive sections of the country have 
been transferred from reckless nobles who wrung 
from them the means of profligate extravagance by 
oppressing the wretched tenantry, to thrifty peas¬ 
ant proprietors who draw from their small hold¬ 
ings the means of virtuous comfort by the cheer¬ 
ful labor of their own hands. Between national 
loans of this kind and those sought by Senator 
Stanford’s land-loan scheme is the radical differ¬ 
ence that in the former case the total loan was mod¬ 
erate in amount and made for the purchase of land 
which remained as security for the advance ; while 
in the latter the money to be lent would be almost 
illimitable in amount and could be used for any 
purpose for which the borrowers might choose to 
employ it. _ 
Negotiations now pending for a reciprocity treaty 
between this country and Germany are exciting a 
good deal of attention throughout the country and 
are of special interest to farmers. The chief import 
from Germany at present is beet sugar and the trade 
in this has enormously increased since sugar has 
been put on the free list. During April, May and 
June 1891, 287,161,328 pounds were imported from 
the Fatherland, on which the duty, at the old rate, 
would have been over $5,000,000. Estimating on 
this basis for the whole year ending March 31, 1892, 
the duty would amount to upwards of $20,000,000. 
This duty the President is empowered to reimpose, if 
in his own mind Germany places upon agricultural 
or other products of the United States duties or 
other exactions which are reciprocally unjust and 
unreasonable. Now, Germany charges a duty of 
32 cents per bushel on American wheat and nearly 
30 cents on rye. The duty on flour and corn meal 
is over one cent per pound, and that on butter, 
cheese and all kinds of meat is upwards of two cents 
per pound. In view of the value of these articles, 
this duty is evidently onerous, and constitutes a 
barrier to the importation of American agricultural 
products into Germany. Indeed, the total exports 
of all sorts of merchandise from the United States 
to Germany in the year ended June 30, 1890, 
amounted to only about $4,000,000. This aggregate 
of trade cannot adequately compensate our govern¬ 
ment for the loss of duties amounting to $20,000,000 
a year on beet sugar alone. Accordingly the Presi¬ 
dent insists that the duties on certain agricultural 
products of this country must be repealed or greatly 
reduced under penalty of the reimposition of the 
former duty on German sugar. Owing to the 
meager crops in central Europe, this is considered a 
favorable year for pressing this demand. In view 
of the shortage of her own crops, Germany could 
take 100,000,000 bushels of American wheat alone 
before next harvest. Probably the chief difficulty 
BREVITIES. 
There are lots of tribulations in this world—a chap must be 
A sort of a philosopher to keep his temper free: 
For a feller stands ’most anything If only he can say, 
“I have up and done my duty as 1 saw It, anyway,” 
But sometimes there comes a trouble that you just cannot endure, 
When the children tret to cutting up. they cut your heart up, sure, 
When you’ve babied ’em and fostered ’em and just given up your life, 
As you may say. to go homeward and attempt to teil your wife 
That, in spite of her devotion, John or Benny’s turned out bad, 
When the children get to cutting up, l tell ye things are sad. 
But you mustn’t stop your loving when they stumrde on the track. 
Then they need you more than ever, only love can bring them luck. 
Stay'right by them—love and cherish, keep your hand held out all through. 
When your children get to cutting up-it cuts your heart up too. 
Can you sell berries by the pound ? 
He only goes ahead who grows ahead. 
Has your hired man earned his wages this week ? 
French-Canadians frequently call ensilage, conserve— 
a good word for it. 
The force with which your horse hauls on the reins 
doesn’t help the load a bit. 
Folks are astonished to see what a hide grows on the 
Galloway’s beef-pasted side. 
“ A Grumbler ” grumbles in a good cause on page 754. 
We request our readers to study his suggested “scale of 
joints” for judging potatoes, and improve it If possible. 
Would not you be better off to-day If half the time 
spent In teaching you to write and two-thirds of the time 
spent on your geography, had been spent teaching yon to 
draw ? 
If your fat old scrub hen sat a-loaflng ’round when she 
ought to have been at her work, we hope you have caught 
her and led her to slaughter—short life for the lazy-boned 
shirk ! 
Put Rover and Jack and the whole lazy pack of dogs in 
the dog power—it’s best; make them work off their fat, 
and to pay you for that, they will stay around home for 
their rest. 
Some folks seem to talk shout corn and cob meal as 
though it were a new thing. For years the people down 
on Cape Cod used grain and cob ground together for 
making brown bread ! 
Many clergymen have, we are told, written warm con¬ 
dolences to “ Deacon ” White on his losses In the late corn 
corner. What Is the difference between losing money in 
gambling at cards and In corn ? 
“The discussion on sowing wheat after corn brought out 
facts, and this habit of securing facts makes The R. N.-Y. 
a necessity,” writes an Ohio friend. Farming without 
facts as guides, certainly "don’t pay.” 
It’s just wonderful bow much some papers and persons 
know about the Devil, his actions and intentions. Though, 
as a rule, they profess to be among his bitterest enemies, 
they appear to know more about him and his doings than 
if they were his most intimate friends. 
When Winter lingers in the lap of May, Indoors to 
nurse our colds we stay, while May rubs up her knees 
with care to cure the rheumatism there; but when, as 
does this season hap, gay Summer sits In Winter’s lap, 
she only chills herself—his nose seems all the colder when 
she goes. 
Henry Hales has found 19 distinct sounds or combina¬ 
tions of sonnds used by poultry to communicate with one 
another. Certain sounds are always used for a particular 
purpose. Hens can talk. Their vocabulary will always 
be a trifle limited, but for all that they make themselves 
understood. 
The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals has lately prosecuted one man for sending a dog 
up In a balloon, and another for sending up a bear, though 
neither was killed. It has taken no step, however, to dis¬ 
courage the ascent of balloonists and parachutists, prob¬ 
ably through reluctance to interfere with the Fool-Klllei’s 
business. 
One correspondent mentions the fact that the fattening 
of steers long since proved unremunerath e. True, but 
with the advanced prices of all meats and with new mar¬ 
kets opening up for our meat products, isn’t there a good 
prospect that this aforetime unprofitable Industry may 
again give satisfactory returns? The outlook for profit¬ 
able live stock hasn’t been so good in years as now. 
The poultry man who can get green bones for nothing 
is in luck, for with a bone cutter he can turn them Into 
hen food, equal, pound for pound, to corn. There are 
many places where such bones are thrown away. They 
will have a value up to $35 per ton when the poultry 
feeders in the neighborhood learn how they can be util¬ 
ized. Knowledge is power and—in this case—price. 
Some of our statesmen must be shocked at the “pater¬ 
nalism” advocated by some of our sister governments. 
In northern Canada, for example, so great is the desire to 
encourage farmers to build silos, that some of the local 
governments propose giving prizes or bounties to those 
who will be first to build and fill a silo in their voting 
district. As one speaker puts it, this bonus “ is a reward 
for being smarter than your neighbor.” 
Hurrah for the microbe 1 Heretofore it has taken 
several months to rot flax straw so that the fiber could be 
separated ; but it has just been discovered that microbes, 
which can be artificially bred for this purpose In myriads, 
will cause rot in a few hours. This discovery, we are 
told, Is likely to boom flax culture and greatly cheapen 
linen. Even the deadly microbe can, It seems, he bene¬ 
ficially utilized by the ingenuity of this marvelous age. 
The District Court of Dallas, Texas, has just decided 
that the Alien Land Law passed at the last session of the 
legislature, Is unconstitutional, mainly because it Is In 
violation of various treaties between this and other coun¬ 
tries. The case has been appealed to the State Supreme 
Court and is pretty sure ultimately to reach the Supreme 
Court of the United States, unless the law is soon repealed. 
It has shut millions of dollars of foreign capital out of 
Texas, and caused the withdrawal of millions already in¬ 
vested. Several months ago The Rural predicted that 
the courts would rule against it, and chiefly on the 
grounds for the present decision. 
