“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 
MOORE'S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED 
CORAL, LITERACV AMI RAHIL! NEIVSPAI’KE. 
D. D. T. MOORE, 
Founder and Conducting Kditor. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW S, FULLER, 
A HHOolate Editom. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL, D., Cortland Village, N. Y., 
Editor or Til# I>kfahtmarvt or Sum*I* I UN ;aKdhv. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y., 
EolTOR or Till* Dk|'AKTMK?sT »'F PaII'.V 
G. A. C. BARNETT. Publisher. 
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r^^ra 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 38, 1874. 
THE OUTLOOK FOE SPRING, 
“What is the Outlook for Spring? How 
about business, and wliat is your advice to tlie 
farmers of t he North and West and the planters 
of the South? What is going to bo done, and 
who is going to do It?“ 
These questions, and others of like import, 
wo heard asked on tbn morning of Washing¬ 
ton's birtli-day,or, rather, ou the morning t!J3d) 
that it was celebrated, the anniversary coming 
on Sunday this year. And wo listened to sev¬ 
eral answers. One level-headed man of sevent y 
—who long ago acquired a competency and re¬ 
tired from active business said: “Tell the 
readers of the Rural Nkw-Youkkk, who are, 
I believe, scattered all over the Continent, that 
they must not depend upon Congressional or 
State legislation for relief, but that Faith and 
Work must be their reliance. While some be¬ 
lieve in and labor for an inflation of t he cur¬ 
rency. and others the reverse, what, is needed 
by business men aud the people at large—In¬ 
cluding farmers and other producers—Is faiih 
in Uw future,, and corresponding action or work! 
Congress and Htate Legislatures are doing little 
or nothing to relieve the people or country, 
and it would be far better to have biennial or 
triennial sessions of both ourNational and State 
law-makers than such farcical proceedings us 
are now in vogue, or taking place in most of 
our legislative bodies. No—tell the people not 
to depend upon relief from legislation, but upon 
their own effort*—for, after all, there is nothing 
like industry,.pluck, perseverance, and u firm 
faith in Goo and Humanity, added t o seif-re- 
liapoe, to help people out of financial troubles." 
Another answer was in this wise:—"What 
our people most need is Hope and Faith in the 
Future. Confidence must, be restored and Work 
done. Many of our people are like the man in 
the Castle of Despair, and each should, like 
him, take the Key of Hope and thus unlock the 
door aud escape. To me" (continued our | 
friend,whoisa countryman and farmer, though j 
formerly a Now York business man,) “the 
Spring Outlook Is encouraging. What wo most 
need is Work, Economy and Hope. We can 
neither depend upon legislative aid nor specu¬ 
lation. The evil effects of the panic which j 
swept over the whole country, ruining tens 
of thousands who were wealthy arid seriously 
affecting ten hundreds of thousands of Qth&rs, 
can only be averted and rgPQyered frQm fay 
careful economy and indomitable energy and 
industry. We muxt,, in fact , teork out our own 
salvation, financially, as the Scriptures enjoins 
us to do spiritually. To me the skies look 
bright, the prospect encouraging, if the People 
will euly Work in Faith and hold fast to the 
Key of Hope.” 
— Such are, substantially, the responses of 
two (one a New-Yorker and the other a coun¬ 
tryman.) to the interrogations at the head of 
this article. We think both views of the Out¬ 
look, though made from different standpoints, 
arc sensible and worthy of consideration. For 
surely Work, Economy, Hope and Faith In the 
Future must be our reliance. The Industrial 
Classes of the whole land should not only rec¬ 
ognize, but. act and rely upon the axiom that 
“All labor is honorable, but the talk of the lips 
tendoth only to penury." The truth is that we 
have lived too fast—too extravagantly—during 
the past decade, and must not only “come 
down a peg," but several of them, in order to 
insure individual and national success and 
prosperity. 
-♦-*->- 
REPRESENTATIVES OF SPECIALTIES. 
Fault is found with Congressmen tha they 
1 are the representatives of special interests. 
This is not the fault of Congressmen ; nor in¬ 
deed is It a fault at all unless the fact prevents 
equitable legislation. It la not only not n fault 
but It is impossible that any other result can be 
obtained in a Representative Government. It 
is a misfortune to the people, however, If there 
js a preponderance cf representation In favor 
! of any specific class. If railway monopolies 
! control the Legislature and Congress through 
their ospeeial representatives—as they have and 
do—it is an evil which the people alone can 
correct and which they should be interested in 
correcting. If the banking Interests of the 
country ore largely represented so that they 
can control legislation upon whatever affects 
their functions and purposes, then such repre¬ 
sentation may bo and often Is an evil. If agri¬ 
culturists get control of legislation by securing 
a working majority in the Legislature or Con¬ 
gress, the same evils may result as in the other 
cases. 
| Safety and equity in legislation depend upon 
the careful balancing of these Interests and 
[he con* creative adjustment of representation. 
We suffer in this country to-day because of the 
undue preponderance of representation of 
special interests and of tbo consequent special 
legislation in behalf of these interests. The 
remedy is being applied. The use of power 
does not moan its abuse. Special interests 
should be represented for riieir protection Just 
as localities and populations require represent¬ 
ation. But ali attempts at speculative legisla¬ 
tion should be promptly met with the repro¬ 
bation of the public and the most vigorous 
protest, on the part, of the people. Wheu legis¬ 
lation becomes special and speculative It Is 
certain the rights of certain classes arc to lie 
Invaded by other classes and that venality is 
involved in Its Issues. Bargain and sale is a j 
natural consequence. This has come to be so ■ 
much a recognized fact in this country that, it 
is generally believed by lobbyists that every 
legislator has his price and may be “influenced" | 
in some way, either by exchange of votes or by 
out-and-out bribery, to sell his vote. Bargain , 
and sale, barter, exchange and all other tech¬ 
nical commercial terms are thus Involved in 
legislative nomenclature. It is wise to face 
this state of tilings and instead of condemning 
the men who are sent to represent public and 
special interests, lay the ax at the root of a 
system of representation that renders such 
abuses possible. 
-♦♦♦- 
FABMEBS ABE MONOPOLISTS. 
If they are not, t hey may be. If they do not | 
become such is it because they have so much 
conscience—such a high sense of moral equity 
—that they cannot wrong their neighhur? We 
hope so! A farmer said lu our hearing the 
other day. “Well show these men (middle¬ 
men, railroad companies and politicians) that 
there is a Got) in Israel! We do not propose to J 
be hewers of wood and drawers of water all our 
days!" Certainly the Rural New - Yorker 
ha* no objection that a “God In Israel" should 
be shown to all the wicked aud unbelieving 
and uiircgenerate. Nor does it desire that any 
man should continue to hew wood and draw 
water who can do anything hotter; nor does it i 
helieve that any such man will do so. But it 
does protest against such meaningless twaddle. 
It does no good. It. does not elevate the work¬ 
ing farmer one lota in the good opinion of in¬ 
telligent men. It does not. nerve him to higher 
and nobler accomplishment. It does not dig¬ 
nify Ids profession. J t is an utterance that em¬ 
braces more of passion, prejudice and threat¬ 
ening than of good, level, common sense and 
dignified and worth) purpose. If there are 
wrongs, use all legitimate means to right them ; 
but, Men and Brethren, wo pray you do sooit’- 
thing beside threaten! 
- * »» - 
WEALTH DIVIDED UNEQUALLY. 
There is complaint among reformers that 
wealth is divided unequally. So are muscle 
and brgins. Nor can every man have just as 
good a farm as his neighbor. There is an un¬ 
equal division of forests, and rocks, and min¬ 
erals, and intervales, and prairies; and it fre¬ 
quently happens that two men who planted an 
equal number of pumpkin seeds do not get an 
equal number of pumpkins; nor do men who 
have an equal number of apple trees get an 
equal number of apples. It Is also noteworthy 
that men who have the same number of mares 
in foal do not. get an equal number of valuable 
colts. Of course, things are all awry. This 
world was made wrong—on wrong principles. 
It is a bad state of things nod should be righted. 
We have greater hopes that It will be righted 
now that wc have a class of modern reformers, 
par ctccllcnec, who so plainly see the inequality 
of things. But the Burai. New-Yorker does 
not advise any of its readers to remain idle, to 
refuse to do a thing until these inequalities are 
reorganized into equalities. It will be too long 
to w ait! 
-- 
RURAL NOTES AND OUERIES. 
“ On Its Merits Alone,” — Our article under tills 
I beading, some weeks ago, wherein it was de¬ 
clared that “ We ignore chromos and all other 
cheap colored pictures, preferring to put. our 
money in the paper. etc., has elicited many 
indorsements of the sentiment. Among others, 
for example. C. W„ of Peterboro. N. II., in re- 
I newing his subscription for the Buka i., writes: 
" I am greatly pleased that you do not go into 
the * ehromo' business. Would rather pay a dol¬ 
lar extra per year than stand the implied * ver¬ 
dancy' that must attach to every person who 
accepts a fifteen cent foreign daub, made by 
machinery, as an elegant, and tasteful work of 
art—rivaling the old masters' highest effort-. 
And I think seriously of stopping my religious 
, paper, much as I like it, because into this smutl- 
[ fry lottery business of giving ‘chromos.’ Suc- 
! cess to the Rural, and every other honest, in¬ 
trepid Journal that has courage to put itself on 
its own int rinsic merits as a basis of success." 
-►+» . — 
Books o. Experience.- In the several agri¬ 
cultural societies, and in jinny other places 
where farmers assemble, there has been of late, 
much discussion about what is contemptuously 
called “ book-farm lug." While we arc willing 
to admit that practical experience is a great 
teacher, we can say, with quite as much em¬ 
phasis, that the knowledge obtained from 
| books which contain the experience of genera- 
i ions of practical men must bo invaluable to 
any person desirous of working on sound prin¬ 
ciples. For example, who has an experience in 
Dairy matters so extended and complete as 
may be foand in "Willard's Praetlral Dairy 
Husbandry?" Books arc experience in a con¬ 
densed form, and the work we have named is 
repleie with the results of the best experience 
ou the subject, both in Europe and America. 
What person can boast of an individual ex¬ 
perience equal to this? The same is true of the 
work on Sheep Husbandry, by Dr. It AND all. 
who is an author of acknowledged authority in 
Europe and America. In the same category 
we may mention Lewis’s Practical Poultry 
Book. An examination of our hook list, pub¬ 
lished on another page, can hardly fail to dis¬ 
close the title of some work which will be of 
j inestimable value to such of our readers as 
have a desire to get the benefit of tbe experi¬ 
ence and knowledge of others as well as their 
own, and we have few readers who have not 
I such a desire and who would not be benefited 
by Its gratification, 
-*♦*- 
Chinese Yam in Canada.—We smiled a smile 
just now, when we opened the Farmers’ Advo¬ 
cate (Canada) and saw under the heading ” The 
Chinese Northern Yam," a statement by tlie 
Editor that " a Dr. Prince has brought to this 
country an entirely new plant to us bearing the 
above name. One of our readers has forward ed 
us one of these yams IS inches long, weighing 
14 lbs." The Editor proposes to give a set, or 
tuber, to any person who will Send him one 
subscriber. Then he admits an article by the 
grower of the above-named yam, who an¬ 
nounces it “ to be the most important, esculent 
food for man which Goo and Nature, in their 
bentgn provision for our race, have planted 
upon our globe!" Our Canada contemporary 
is hereby Informed that the Dr. Prince who 
introduced this yam into this country, is dead : 
but the Chinese yam died as a humbug long 
before the good Dr. P. shuffled off liis mortal 
coil. We hope the Advocate will get a sub¬ 
scriber for every tuber it sends out; but we do 
not hope that the receiver of the tuber will go 
into raptures over his acquisition, after culti¬ 
vating it, because there is nothing in Its history 
in this county to base such hope upon. 
>»«- 
The Congressional Printer and Electrotypes. 
—Hitherto, the electrotypes of animals, fruits, 
building plans, &C., published in the Report of 
the Department of Agriculture and other pub¬ 
lic documents, have heen f jruished to outside 
publishers at a sum covering cost of electro- 
typing, Ac. The agricultural papers have profit¬ 
ed by this arrangement, which enabled them 
at reasonable cost, to give their readers what 
otherwise might be confined entirely to public 
documents which do not reach more than one- 
tenth—perhaps not one-hundreth—Of their read¬ 
ers. But Congress having decided that the 
proceeds of tHe sales of such electrotypes shall 
hereafter be covered into the Sinking Fund of 
the Treasury, the Congressional Printer refuses 
to furnish copies of plates to outsiders, because 
he loses the time ffud material used in doing 
B i. The result of this action of Congress and 
the Congressional Printer, is to ent irely prevent 
the use of Government plates outside of public 
documents. Congress better try again. 
-M4- 
Babbit Fever In Japan.—Mr. B. Pike, San 
Francisco, Cal., writes to a nontemporary of 
this city" It may or may not be news to the 
fanciers on your side of the continent to know 
that, the Japanese have the rabbit fever to the 
extent that the chicken fever seems tame In 
comparison. Every steamer which has left tills 
port for Japan for some weeks, past has taken 
from 500 to 1.000 head, which have sold here 
for all sorts of prices. I have the word of the 
first officer of t.lie steamer Great Republic that 
he saw twelve hundred (1-300) Mexican dollars 
counted down up n the ship's dock for one 
rabbit! How is that for high ?" 
Free OiHtrlbuiion of Public Documents.—Of 
course, we do not expect electioneering Con¬ 
gressmen will ngreo with us: but we happen to 
be opposed to the free distribution of any pub¬ 
lic document. Those to whom they are of value 
should at least pay their cost. Into the public 
Treasury, whence the money is derived for 
their publication. The w hole people pay for 
the publication of such documents; the few 
get the little benefit derived from their distri¬ 
bution, at t lie public's expense. This is unjust. 
Wc commend this monopoly to the attention 
of Agricultural Reformers. 
- - 
Tlie Importance of the Kmomologlcnl Division 
of the Department of Agriculture is dwelt 
upou at some length by the Commissioner In 
his Annual Report to the President. Of the 
fact that the work of ihe Entomologist should 
begin at home, and with the learned Commis¬ 
sioner, there can be tio doubt, since, in the 
very paragraph where bo pleads its importance, 
ho talks of the Colorado potato beetle as “ the 
Western potato bug!” Shades of science! 
GDOVBtt, please show Hie Commissioner the 
difference between a bug and a beetle, will you ? 
—-- 
BUBAL BREVITIES, 
W. E. Stitt. Col imbus, Wis., .-ends us his 
Catalogue and Price-List of Pure-Bred Poultry’. 
W. A. Fuller, Glen, N. Y„ sends us liis Illus¬ 
trated Descriptive Circular of Pure-Bred Fancy 
Fowls. 
Rojikkt Burst, Sen., Philadelphia, Pa.,favors 
us with his Select Catalogue of Plants and Bulbs 
for 1874. 
I We have Schleokl, Everett & Co.'s (Bos¬ 
ton, Mass.,) Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower 
Seeds, &c. 
Hon. Geo. Geiidem. the well-known agricul¬ 
turist of Onondaga Co., N. Y., was sixty-five 
years old Fob. 14. 
Peter HendkroON & Co.'s <35 Cortlandt St., 
N. Y. City.) Seed Catalogue for 1874 Is received, 
and is worth sending for. 
Pktbu Henderson, 35 Cortlandt St., N. V. 
City, sends us an elaborate and complete Cata¬ 
logue of New, Rare and Beautiful Plants for 
1874. 
The publication of the Farmer and Gardener, 
Augusta. Ga.. which our friend 1*. J. Bkrck- 
mans has helped edit ns a labor of love, is sus¬ 
pended, the publisher finding it don't pay. 
from Hovus Sc Co., 63 North Market 8t., Bos¬ 
ton, Mass., we have their Illustrated Guide to 
the Flower and Vegetable Garden and C'ata- 
| loguo of Seeds for 1874. It Is very complete. 
Crosman Bros.' Illustrated Catalogue and 
Guide to the Flower and Vegetable Garden for 
; 1874 is entirely creditable to their enterprise 
1 and taste. Their address Is Rochester, N. Y. 
Tun Illinois Central E. It. Co. offers to carry, 
free of charge, European Larch on all lines of 
ils road, if to be set fa their vicinity. It is pro¬ 
moting the planting of this tree wonderfully. 
James A. Whitney, who has long been con¬ 
nected wit h theN. Y. Press, has issued a neat 
publication called “The Inventor's News-Let¬ 
ter," devoted to the interests of inventors and 
patentees. 
Some of the Mississippi Granges, in order to 
induce white men to settle in that State, have 
promised to furnish every white family coming 
into tlicir respective counties with forty acres 
of land, rent free, for five years. 
The Agricultural Laborers'Union of England 
has already shipped two or three shiploads of 
laborers and tlicir families to New Zealand, 
and in spring, we are told, tens of thousands 
will be transported to Canada and elsewhere. 
Tnonxisuno Sc McGinnis, Woodstock Va., 
send us a circular describing a “ fertilizer 
spreader," which, it is claimed, spreads all 
kinds of fine manure. We mention St because 
some of our correspondents have asked for 
such an implement. 
Dr. Philips of the Southern Farmer gives 
t liis good advice to Southern Patrons: “ Bead, 
think,improve brains on the farm, and worry 
less about bales. Buy less and starve out ex- 
t ortloners. Borrow mil, pay cash, and be a to- 
lend-on-safc security." 
ErkaTUM.—I n our last issue, by a blunder of 
the cempositur, Peter Hkrdekson & Co., were 
made to offer their Blood and Bone Fertilizer 
fur 865, which might be read either as an ab¬ 
surdly extravagant price, or ridiculously low'. 
II should have been $65. 
By rea.sou of the rush of advertisements 
under our new rates, one column for the in¬ 
side was crowded out, and must lie over till 
next week. Those who wish to be sure of hav¬ 
ing their advertisements inserted must send 
copy early. “ First come, first served.” 
BUSINESS NOTICES, 
LYONS MUSICAL ACADEMY. 
Instruction by the best methods In Instrumental 
and Vocal Music and In Musical Tneorv. Students 
fitted for teachers. Send for Catalogue, giving full 
particulars, to the Principal, O. S. ADAMS, 
Lyons, Wayne Co., If, Y, 
