THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
835 
1891 
SPICED. 
Red has become by unwritten law the 
Bermuda trademark, and dealers in New 
York city do not care to touch a late Ber¬ 
muda potato unless it is red. Their cus¬ 
tomers, the grocerymen, say the public do 
not believe a potato is from Bermuda 
unless it is red—“that the red soil colors 
it 1”. 
Garden and Forest tells us, through a 
Bermuda correspondent, that the Garnet 
is the variety preferred... 
From now on up to February 15 the Ber¬ 
muda farmer will plant potatoes as seems 
best or convenient, and the harvesting 
from these successive plantings is kept up 
to about June 1. No one plants after Feb¬ 
ruary 15, as plantings after that date run 
to enormous tops—sometimes six feet long 
—but not a tuber will set. 
The potatoes for planting all come from 
the north, as potatoes grown in Bermuda, 
and with great care kept over the summer, 
are almost worthless for planting. Arrange¬ 
ments are made with farmers in Maine, 
the Adirondack region, Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick to grow the red potatoes 
for planting. The Early Rose come from 
New York. 
They have great trouble to make these 
seed potatoes sprout, as potatoes which 
have gone to sleep in a northern climate, 
not contemplating an awakening until 
April or May following, do not readily 
arouse; they are more inclined to rot than 
sprout, and it will not answer to put them 
into the ground until they have sprouted. 
As soon as the eyes begin to show signs of 
starting the tubers are cut into pieces with 
two or three eyes and directly planted in 
the ground. 
The method of planting, after the ground 
is thoroughly prepared with manure or an 
artificial fertilizer, is as follows: A garden 
line is stretched across the field, and a man, 
following this line, takes each piece of 
potato and pushes it into the ground some 
three or four inches. The rows are from 18 
to 20 inches apart, and the potatoes from 
four to six inches in the row. This is a 
slow, laborious process, but it is much the 
best way, as the growth of the potato there 
is somewhat different than in the North. 
Here each potato plant sends out roots in 
different directions four or five inches long, 
and on the end of these rootlets the potato 
is formed, frequently making a large hill 
full of potatoes. There the potato “ snugs 
up” close to the plant, only forming from 
one to three good marketable potatoes to 
each stalk. 
They shipped to American ports in the 
winter of 1890-1891, 80,000 bushels, and paid 
into the United States Treasury, in custom 
tax, the sum of $20,000, which the Bermud. 
ians feel to be infamous. They are looking 
forward with fear and trembling to the 
results of this winter crop. Under the 
McKinley law they have to pay into the 
United States Treasury 25 cents custom tax 
on every bushel they place in the New 
York market before they can come in com¬ 
petition with the United States farmer, 
and they fear this will so handicap them 
that the balance-sheet will show a loss. 
So, Mr. Russell Hastings, of Hamilton, 
Bermuda, declares in the article which we 
find in Garden and Forest of October 28.... 
Ground bone is in good repute among 
farmers, and many when buying complete 
fertilizers reject those brands in the prep¬ 
aration of wnich bone has not been the chief 
material used. The reasons for this action, 
says bulletin 84 of the New Jersey Station, 
may be ascribed to a lack of familiarity with 
the phosphates from other sources, the de¬ 
velopment and use of which have been com¬ 
paratively recent, and also to a more per¬ 
manent effect observed from the use of 
bone. 
That this disposition on the part of the 
farmer is understood by the manufacturer 
of complete fertilizers, is quite evident from 
the names given to brands. A mixture of 
South Carolina rock superphosphate and a 
potash salt, with not a trace of bone, is fre¬ 
quently called a soluble bone and potash ; 
and other mixtures in which the entire 
source of phosphoric acid is a mineral phos¬ 
phate, are often called ammoniated dis¬ 
solved bones. There is no doubt but that 
these names are intended to give the im¬ 
pression that bone, as the farmer under¬ 
stands it, has been used in making the fer¬ 
tilizer in question...'. 
An important consideration in the use of 
manures in certain lines of practice, and 
especially on poor land, is permanent en¬ 
richment. Bone is suited to attain this ob¬ 
ject and cannot well be replaced by other 
materials, though they may be called by 
the same name and be quite as valuable 
from a commercial standpoint. 
Some tobacco manufacturers, we under¬ 
stand, are selling tobacco stems as low as 
$6 per ton, samples of which analyze as 
follows: Nitrogen 1.70; phosphoric acid .70; 
potash 6 to 7 per cent. This gives a cheap 
fertilizer. Such tobacco stems would be 
worth $12 a ton. Stems, however, make 
a bulky manure hard to handle. 
Again, as our readers have occasion to 
write to The R. N.-Y. in the renewal of 
subscriptions, we would feel obliged if they 
would add a few notes of comment or criti¬ 
cism for The R. N.-Y.’s guidance during 
another year. Wherein can we please you 
better? What departments do you prefer, 
what would you omit? What may we add 
to increase your attachment to the paper ? 
The R N.-Y. desires to work for the best 
interests of its readers. It is its one con¬ 
stant, absorbing wish. Help us to serve you, 
friends. 
DIRECT. 
-Dr. J. B. Larnkd, in the Massachu¬ 
setts Ploughman : “ Excess of all foods 
lays the foundation of disease in pigs as in 
children.” 
“ The pig wants just what New England 
abounds in—the pasture, the orchard and 
the fresh running brook. He enjoys the 
bleak knoll. The pasture improves under 
his cultivation and the pig improves while 
doing it. It is his native place—the open 
field. Why has he been captured and con¬ 
fined in the pits and vaults where darkness, 
vile stench, and foul fluids only are found?” 
“The pig when deprived of his native 
foods, viz., nuts, grasses and roots, will eat 
whatever is given to him. He has, there¬ 
fore, become a scavenger.” 
“ The pig in his present abode, therefore 
converts filth into money. His standing in 
good society has no rating, however,” 
“ Will some humanitarian write a book 
on White Beauty—and what animal is 
more beautiful than the clean white pig ? 
—and give an outline of the outrageous 
treatment inflicted upon him in his dark 
pit away from sunshine, pure air and fresh 
water ? Will some sanitarian tell us to 
what extent the human race is annually 
depleted by consuming a meat product 
made of sewerage gas and the bacteria that 
reside among these accumulations ?” 
-P. T. Barnum : “ Strict integrity can 
no more be hidden than ‘ love, a cough, 
smoke or money.’ It commands a price 
in the labor market in proportion to its ex¬ 
cellence and rarity.” 
“ I knew of one man who lost a lucrative 
place of trust which he had held many 
years when it was found that he had his 
private account for coal incorporated in his 
employer’s bill. I myself discharged a 
valuable assistant who helped himself to 
my postage stamps for his own correspond¬ 
ence.” 
“ Large employers are obliged to sift 
careluiiy their men and reject the unre¬ 
liable.” 
-A. E. Story : “ He works easiest who 
shares work with study and play.” 
“ Something is wrong when animals 
show disliKe for their keepers. They are 
good judges of character.” 
“Exposure kills more people than hard 
worK.” 
-Journal of Commerce : “ It must be 
evident to the youngest member of society 
who has done any thinking on his own ac¬ 
count that promise and performance are 
not sufficiently intimate. They often take 
separate roads from the start and never 
propose a conjunction.” 
“ Words are cheap, and that untamable 
member, the tongue, if there is no restrain¬ 
ing conscience behind it, will make any 
number of pledges, which, on the part of 
the speaker, there is no honest purpose to 
fulfill.” 
“ No matter how much it ‘ hurts ’ to keep 
the pledge, an honorable man is not free to 
violate it.” 
“ There are many who find excuses for 
the failure to perform their vows in the 
unexpected difficulties or obstacles en¬ 
countered in the undertaking. They looked 
for fair weather and it storms.” 
“Profession and Practice, which are 
solemnly pledged to each other as partners 
in life, and bound to keep in loving fellow¬ 
ship through all the way, be it ever so long, 
or rough, or dreary, are too often leagues 
apart with no prospect of greater intimacy 
or of a closer union.” 
“ What the world most needs to-day is 
not a stronger profession of orthodoxy, 
moral, religious, social or political, but a 
practice that is hand in hand with the 
adopted standard. When all men live up 
to their professions and promises the King¬ 
dom of Righteousness will have come, and 
Truth will be on the throne.” 
-Country Gentleman: “In the matter 
of wagon roads we Americans are in the 
barbarous stage; we rank with Turkey and 
the remote parts of Russia. It is safe to 
say that the roads of the best and most fav¬ 
ored part of this rich land are far worse than 
those of the poorest part of poor and tax- 
ridden Germany.” 
“ Italy is the poorest of all highly civil¬ 
ized countries, yet has excellent wagon 
roads. She could afford nothing else; our 
roads would ruin her.” 
-Dr. Chamberlain in Country Gen¬ 
tleman: “ Some time ago the wife of a rich 
farmer died. He was an an awful worker, 
and his wife, poor woman, had to work 
still harder in proportion to her strength. 
They nad added farm to farm. The death 
happened to be announced at a little tea 
gathering. An impulsive, outspoken lady 
was present, a former neighbor to the one 
who had died. ‘ Thank God,’ she said, ‘the 
poor woman is at rest at last 1 It’s the first 
rest she has had for 30 years.’ ” 
THEY HAVE WET WEATHER IN 
ENGLAND. 
Many American farmers, especially those 
in the eastern part of the country, have been 
nearly dried up this year. Wells are dry, 
ponds and brooks are low, crops have been 
burned—everything is thirsty. In many 
parts of England farmers have been 
drenched with rain. The following extracts 
from the English Agricultural Gazette will 
serve as wet reading in a dry time. 
From Dorset.—” Never during the last 
half century do I remember the springs so 
high and the brooks so full in October; pe¬ 
destrians find it difficult to walk dry-shod 
in cross highways, and the fields are under 
water in many places. As a likely conse¬ 
quence cows are doing badly for the dairy, 
man and ‘casting’ their calves; indeed 
sheep can make very little of the sodden 
grass, and the prospect of a good lambing 
season with the ‘ Dorset ’ is jeopardized.” 
From Bkrcks.— “In order to get a bit of 
good hay, some of the latter math has been 
mown, but when dry, if ever, it will be 
but little better than straw and only fit for 
litter. The bulk of the potatoes are still in 
the field; the moment the men get to work 
the rain comes down, and they have to 
stop. For machine diggers the season is 
the worst ever known. Even on the light¬ 
est soil it has not been possible to use them 
more than a few hours at a time, and then 
not satisfactorily.” 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural. 
22 GRAPE VINES 
IOO Varieties. A1 »°Small Fruits, Trees,&c- 
rooted stock. Genuine, cheap. sample vines mailed for I»e- 
scriptlve price list free. LEWIS ROESCH. Fredonla, N.Y* 
FRUIT 
TREES 
PEACH Specialty 
A full selection of all the leailln* varieties. 
A correct descriptive I Also » full line of PLANTS and 
and finely Illustrated ORNAMENTALS. Plants 
Catalogue FREE I and Trees by mail. Address 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON & CO., 
....._a.__I__ LJ M I 
T. V. MUNSON, Denison, Texas. 
INTRODUCER Brilliant Grape and Parker Earle 
Strawberry HKAlXlUAtlTKUS. Catalogue free. 
Grape Vines, 
Fruit Trees, 
BERRY PUNTS_ 
WklVI\ ■ Small fruit plants. Large stock. 
Low prices. Catalogue free. WM. STAHL, Quincy, III* 
Pennsylvania Agricultural Works, York, Pa. 
Farqohar’s Standard Engines and Saw Mill*,' 
• Send for Catalogue. Portable, Sta. 
tiouary, Traction and Automatic Ka- 
ginea a specialty. W arranted equal or 
superior to 
any made. 
Address A. li. FARQUHAB & CO.,York, Pa. 
CLAREMONT Land Association, .SSfSrVi. 
Offers GOO choice farms; 3,000 handsome town 
lots on James River, with terms to suit purchasers 
Free circular. 
New York Trade Schools 
First Ave., 67th and 68th Sts., New York. 
liny Classes commence January 4, 1892, 
Three months’ courses of Instruction in Plumbing, 
Carpentry and Stone Cutting, $85 each; in Bricklaying 
and in House, Sign and Fresco Painting, $4U each, 
Attendance last season 589, the young men coming 
from 21 different States and from Canada. 
Circular, Illustrated with photo-engraviugs, mailed 
free on application. 
How to Multiply Plants. 
How to Graft. 
How to Bud. 
How to Seed. 
How to Inarch. 
From Carmarthenshire.— “ There is no 
really dry corn in the district. Grass is di¬ 
minishing rapidly, being trodden into the 
ground under tUe feet of the cattle. Man¬ 
gels and swedes are only middling crops, 
and under the average. Potatoes are good, 
and plentiful, but I fear they are rotting 
fast this wet weather. Cattle and sheep 
have not had their backs dry this last 
fortnight. ” 
From Lancashire.— “ In the English 
Lake district it has been fonnd so impossi¬ 
ble to secure the hay crop that farmers 
have set up poles on the German system to 
dry the grass. These poles are set up as 
tripods, bolted together at the top, and at 
intervals along the poles are hooks or pegs, 
which support stakes running laterally 
from pole to pole, and forming a kind of 
open piatfdrm, the lowest of wnich is some 
18 inches from the ground, on which the 
grass is spread, the air having free play 
through the mass.” 
From Hants.— “A dry October always 
favors the production of cream and batter, 
and increases the milk solids, but this year 
we must be content with quantity rather 
than quality, or obtain the latter at ex¬ 
tra expense. Ensilage is in favor just now, 
and many are busy carting the green, wot 
stuff from the low-lying fields where they 
are not actually under water. The price of 
hay and other winter foods has advanced a 
bit lately, and, in the face of this, the best 
policy seems to be to winter as few animals 
as may be necessary to keep up the herd or 
flock.” 
From South Devon.— “ Young stock, 
both bullocks ana sheep, do not look well; 
they have scarcely had a dry jacket for a 
month, and the storms of hall and drench¬ 
ing rain have given them a very weather¬ 
beaten appearance. Cows have not done 
well all the summer, and butter has been a 
little dearer in consequence.” 
How to Increase by Cuttings. 
How to Increase by Layers. 
How to Increase by Separation. 
How to Hybridize. 
How to Produce NewVarieties. 
How to Propagate over 2,000 
varieties of shrubs, trees and her¬ 
baceous or soft-stemmed plants: the 
process for each being fully described. 
All this and much more is 
fully told in 
The Nursery Book. 
A new book, by L. H. Bailey, 
assisted by several of the most 
skillful propagators in the 
world. In fact, it is a careful 
compendium of the best prac¬ 
tice in all countries. It con¬ 
tains 107 illustrations, 
showing methods, processes 
and appliances. 
Over 300 pages. 16mo. Price, library 
style, cloth, wide margins, $1.00; Pocket 
style, paper, narrow margins, 50 cents. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, New York. 
