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a 32 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 10 
“ PROCRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.” 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A NATION AT. ILLUSTRATED 
BURAL, LITERAB? AAR FAMILV KEffSPAPRE. 
D. D. T. MOORE, 
Founder and Conducting Editor. 
WM. J. FOWLER, ANDREW S. FULLER, 
Associate Editors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL LL. D., Corlland Village, N. Y„ 
EDITOn Of THE Dll'. KTMKNT OV gSEKP H *■ HL »I>HY. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Falls, N. Y., 
Emto* o» tm* Dipibtmim o» Dun Hu«b*kdbt. 
U. A. C. HARNETT, I’ublUlier. 
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■ - «♦« 
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SATURDAY, JULY 10. 1875. 
DO NOT WORK TOO HARD. 
At this season of the year farm work orotvds 
and few farmers but are hurried from one job 
to another, Hoeing, haying and harvesting fol¬ 
low each other in quick succession, if happily 
they aro not all pushing the fai nter at once. 
The days are at. their longest these Bummer 
months, and scarcely anywhere in the country 
has the eight (or oven ten) hour rule found fol¬ 
lowers. Farmers Invariably rise early, which is 
well, but too many of them keep up work al¬ 
most Incessantly, allowing only time at noon 
for a hurried dinner, and this is not well at all. 
Fourteen, fifteen and eveu sixteen hours’ work 
per day in such exhausting labors as the hay 
and harvest Held during t he hottest weather of 
the year, la too much for any constitution, 
livery season we hear of sunstrokes In the har¬ 
vest field, whereby many able, healthy men are 
dlsubled for life. If not killed. The far better 
way is to rise a* early as you please, work till 
ten or eleven o'clock aid then take two. three 
or four hours nooning during the heat of the 
day, eating a substantial dinner In the mean¬ 
time and about live o'clock have tea at the house 
or nerve a light lunch In the lleld,eating supper 
after l.bo day’s work Is done. This afternoon 
lunch is. through most of the season, not only 
a refreshing respite from work but really prof¬ 
itable fur the farmer. Men will work better 
and fool more satisfied after a bite ol'somet hing 
to eat and a cup of tea or glass of lemonade. 
Some of the shrewdest farmers say they would 
always provide this, If only influenced by eelflsh 
motives. 
At no time should work be too severe or too 
long continued, especially such severe work . 
is yet. done in the hay or harvest llol i, despite 
mowers, reapers, horse rakes and hay loaders. 
Rost a little before you are completely exhaust¬ 
ed and keep yourseif always in such good bodily 
health that work can be done with vigor and 
with real pleasure. Any really healthy man 
will know what we mean by this—that it is 
easier sometimes to work boartlly and vigor¬ 
ously than to idle and “ dawdle” away the time. 
The difficulty with most farmers and the 
cause of so much overwork is that too little 
help is employed. Not one farmer in a thou¬ 
sand hires as much labor as he ought to be able 
to profitably use, and very few employ enough 
to keep up with the work which they lay out. 
The result la that work gets ahead of them, 
weeds grow till they cost fourfold to destroy 
besides injuring the crops, and the poor farmer 
one, two or three weeks behindhand with his 
work, goe9 through the season always at a dis¬ 
advantage. “ A stern chase is a long chase,” is 
an old saying, and nowhere Is it more true than 
in farming. 
— We have not forgotten the women folk. 
Our proposal for “ lunches” between meals re¬ 
quires additional help in the house, and the 
• good farmer, if no be likewise a good husband 
and father, should see that It is amply provided. 
Farmers' wives and daughters are quite as apt 
• to be overworked as farmers themselves and, 
we suspect, rather more So. Work in the house 
is incessant and monotonous drudgery —the 
same thing, or nearly so, from year’s end to 
year's end,—while work on the farm Is always 
, varied and generally includes for the farmer a 
good space for rost and recreation during our 
long winters. We shall have more to say here- 
, after of means for lightening woman’s labors. 
- - ■ ■»« ♦ ■ 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES, 
Editorial Excursion to California. — On the 
1st Inst,., some forty Editors and others inter¬ 
ested In Agriculture, Horticulture, Ac., started 
on a trip to California, with a view of visiting 
‘‘the Yo.semile. Big Trees, Geysers, Vineyards, 
Orchards, Gardens and Pleasure Resorts of the 
Pacific Coast and the Canons of Colorado, Utah, 
Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadaa. The 
party includes several accomplished Indies. The 
programme is headed “New York and Eastern 
Editorial Excursion,” but Includes also people 
from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois. New 
York and New England are well represented. 
Among those booked for the Excursion we 
notice the names of H. T. Williams, Treasurer 
and General Manager, who represents the In¬ 
dependent and Horticulturist; X. A. Willard 
of the Rural New-Yorker; Hev. W. Clift 
of the N. li. Farmer; Cuts. L. Flint of the 
Ma h. Ploughman ; .1. It. OObOL of the Agricul¬ 
tural Department; F. D. Curtis of the N. Y. 
Fortners' Club; B. K. Bliss of New' York : and 
representatives of several prominent journals 
throughout New England, New York and the 
other States named above. The Excursionists 
intend to bo absent Borne two months, and we 
trust they will have a Jolly good time and do- 
rlve much valuable Information. Mr. Willard 
purposes sending the Rural notes of matters 
of Interest, and we doubt not his letters will 
prove both interesting and valuable to our 
readers. 
■ «♦« 
Fighting the Potato Beetle. —Two private 
letters from Western New York, received last 
week, say that few potato beetles have been 
seen yet (July 1st) and that thus far they are 
not so numerous as last year. We know how 
this is, for on some farms several weeks ago the 
beetles were already numerous and threatening 
• ho destruction of the crop. The difference is 
due mainly to the fact that in one case the 
enemy has been persistently fought and in the 
other has had hia own way until now. This 
fightlug lias been by carefully hand-picking the 
beetles and larva and not by the use of Pari 
green or any othor poison. The writer of this 
has maintained that band-picking was the pref¬ 
erable method, not alone from t he danger of 
Paris green to the operator, but from the fact 
that t he poisons would be apt to destroy lady 
bugs and other Insects which prey on the beetle 
and Its larva. For two*years we have held this 
position and been subjected to no little ridicule 
and some abuse In consequence. Now It is our 
turn to vindicate our position. This is the third 
' year that the potato beetle has been found on * 
• some farms near Rochester, N, Y., and where 
property followed up by hand-picking, at a cost 
not exceeding $3 per acre, there are fewer beet- 1 
les ibis your than in 1873 or 1874. In their stead 
are millions of lady bugs wlileh eat the egg- of 
the beetle and possibly other Insects which de- ' 
atroy the enemy in oilier stages and which wo 
do not know. The lady bugs arc beautiful ] 
creatures, and whim the potato beetle becomes 
too scarce to furnish them a good living, will * 
be of great value in destroying the green and 1 
brown lice which infest plants in late summer. 1 
— Wherever the potato beetle has beeu neg¬ 
lected and allowed his own way for two or 1 
three years, probably tin* only effectual method j 
of lighting him is by poison, lint such a neces- ' 
sityis thoresultof provious negligence of which 
no good farmer should be guilty. y. 
cated the destruction of certain noxious pests 
of agriculture. Mr. Beecher says: 
“This is exquisite! If mildew attacks my 
grapevine, it is on an errand for God, and if I 
sprinkle it with sulphur as a remedy, I put 
brimstone into the very face of God’s messen- 
ger ! When It rains—is not rain, too, God's mes¬ 
senger?— does 'Puritan' dare to open a blas¬ 
phemous umbrella and push it up in the very 
lace of tills divine messenger? When a child 
is attacked by one of‘God’s messengers’—mea- 
Blea. canker-rash, dysentery, scarlet fever— 
would It be a very’ great sin to send for a doc¬ 
tor on purpose that he might resist these divine 
messengers? There are insects which attack 
man. against, one of which we set up combs and 
another sulphur, * Nay.’say* * Puritan,’ * If they 
are sent, they are on an errand for God,' and it 
is profanity to have recourse to fine tooth combs 
and sulphurous ointments in order to defeat 
the expressed will of God.” 
Take Notes Tor Publication.—Though tills is 
the warmest and with farmers the busiest sea¬ 
son of the year, we trust those of our readers 
engaged !u any branch of boU culture will 
“ make a note ’’ of experiments of Interest and 
value and give us the results for publication. 
A little attention to this matter may prove of 
much consequence to others, and we should 
all “ teach one another," "do good and com¬ 
municate,"—or, rather, communicate In order 
to do good unto others. The great value of 
agricultural journals, after all, consists in the 
publication of facts derived from the experi¬ 
ence, observation and research of practical 
farmers, horticulturists, etc. So, good friends, 
don’t forget our request to make notes of your 
successes—yes, and failures also—and fail not to 
send them to us for the baptism of print. 
-»♦#-- 
A Second Alflicilon,—A nd now a new trouble 
le reported by some of the Western poople. 
After the grasshoppers, toads have made their 
appearance in immense numbers and the faint¬ 
hearted are terrified lest this last plague should 
prevail like the frogs in Egypt. The matter Is 
probably simple enough and need cause no 
alarm. The toads linvc probably come to de¬ 
stroy the grasshopper* and other pests of the 
Insect-plagued West. The toads come because 
their food was plenty, and there Is as natural a 
connection between the two as in the boots 
which puzzled the boy. lie had a pair both 
rights, and did not know what to do with them. 
"And what makes it worse,”said he, “down 
stair* is another pair both lefts, and both to¬ 
gether make a puzzle that is nearly the death 
of me.” 
-►••——— 
A Hair* in California,—The times aro out of 
joint in California. The State has always needed 
more population, but the sudden and large 
influx this year has caused a glut in the labor 
market and thousands of people are without 
work and beside, have uo means of subsistence. 
Probably the subsidence of the mining stuck 
excitement adds to the distress, as it has un¬ 
doubtedly taken the earnings of thousands of 
poor men and women, besides diverting their 
mind from work. Added to these calamities, 
heavy' rains have fallen (a thing unprecedented 
in June) and great damage to crops ripe and 
partly harvested, has been the result. This is 
not a good time to go to the Golden State ex¬ 
cept on a visit, as our Editorial Associate and 
many Editorial friends are now doing, 
. -«»« 
Effect* of Superphosphate—A private letter 
from Western New York, says that some barley 
drilled in with about 150 lbs. of superphosphate 
per acre on the 5lh of May, is headed out. tn 
some places where the fert il izer was not applied 
quite so heavily the barley was thinner aud did 
not head out as early by throe or four days, giv¬ 
ing the field a curious, “streaked” appearance. 
The difference was not great enough to Inter¬ 
fere with uniform harvesting, and the result Is 
a singular illustration of the effect^of super¬ 
phosphate, not only in adding to the crop but 
in hastening its ripening. We shall keep Rural 
readers posted about this crop, as well as some 
others on the old homestead farm. The barley ' 
is of the six-rowed variety. 
cattle growers will probably advance the price 
in the Texas market and diminish the compe¬ 
tition to which Western stock men are now 
subjected. 
-- 
The I’ioneer is the title of a large and hand¬ 
some folio paper published at Omaha, Neb., in 
the interest of the Land Department of the 
Union Pacific Ilailroad Co, It contains much 
valuable information respecting the soil and 
products of that region the free homesteads 
and cheap lands of the Great West—and is sent 
free to ail applicants, who address O. F. Davis, 
Land Commissioner, Omaha, Neb. 
-♦ 
AMERICAN MOWERS ABROAD. 
Eds. Moore's Rural New-Yorker In the 
last issue of the Country Gentleman we notice 
a card over the signature of Messrs. Adriance, 
Platt Sc Co., which contains the following 
statement, to wit: 
“ We have Just received Information of the 
decision given by the jury appointed by the 
National Agricultural Society of Switzerland, 
at the Important Field Trial held at, Zurich on 
the 27th of May last. 
“The First Prize Gold Medal was awarded to 
our new Model Mower; the second and third 
prizes to the Hornsby and Samuolson machines, 
which are of English manufacture, aud the 
fourth prize to the Wood Mower." 
As we had previously received information 
from the Managers of our Branch Office in Lon¬ 
don, England, that the “ Walter A. Wood 
Mower” won a first prize at the trial at Zurich 
above alluded to, we this morning telegraphed 
our London Office to send us by cable the pre¬ 
cise fact* as to the awards made at that trial. 
This afternoon we have received a cablegram 
from our London Office, as follows : 
“Zurich awards in order were hb follows: 
Buckeye, Hornsby, Samnelson, Wood, First 
Prizes—Gold Medals. Howard, Reuter, Second 
Prizes—Silver Medals. Burgess A; Key*, Sprague, 
Third Prizes—Bronze Medals. Wood's Mowers 
thus far, present season, have won In Field 
Trials twenty-four First Prizes—the most im¬ 
portant at Vlborg, Denmark, June 2l9t to 24th, 
twenty-two machines competing, including 
Buckeye." 
Comment is unnecessary. 
Very respectfully, 
Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping 
Machine Co. 
Hooslck Falls, N. Y., July 1st, 1875. 
A New relate lH*rase has made its appear¬ 
ance in England. The Cottage Gardener, Lon¬ 
don, describes It a8 a fungus which attacks the 
vine when not more than six inches high. The 
seed tuber dies and becomes a mass of rotten¬ 
ness, the young tubers aro consequently arrest¬ 
ed in their growth and the haulm withers and 
decays, l’ho disease has only been discovered 
in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural So¬ 
ciety at Chiswick, and attacks only American 
varieties. This disease la similar to, and possi¬ 
bly identical with, a “potato blight” which 
sometimes, though rarely, attacks whole fleLds 
of potatoes in Western New York under cir¬ 
cumstances which give no definite idea as to 
its cause. It does not spread from one field to 
another, rarely reappears the second year, and 
spares some varieties in the same Held while 
destroying others. We have found it worse on 
the Peach Blow potato, but it rarely does much 
in a neighborhood, though individual farmers 
may suffer severely. 
- - 
Locust Plague as a Divine Institution. — In 
speaking of the opposition which a few fanat¬ 
ical people and journals make to the extermi¬ 
nation of the Grasshopper, Prof. Riley, in the 
Tribune, quotes from Mr. Beecher in a reply 
to “ Puritan,” who accused the reverend gen- J 
tleman of “ vailed profanity” because he advo- * 
Peruvian Guano.—The Peruvian Govern¬ 
ment, being in urgent need of money, proposes 
to sell 100,000 tons of guano in the United 
States. The currency price is, for quantities of 
10 to 25 tons, $00 per ton of 2,240 lbs,, with a 
eliding scale for lower prices down to $55 per 
ton for 1,000 tons aud upward. This guano Is 
inspected by the Peruvian Government aud 
warranted to contain not less than 10 per cent, 
of ammonia. We believe this offer should in¬ 
sure good fertilizers at a somewhat lower 
price than American farmers have lately had 
to pay for guano. 
-»♦» 
Salt for the Colorado Beetle.—H. C. SMITH of 
Cockrum, Miss., writes to us that potato beetles 
made their appearance on his potatoes in large 
numbers, and at the suggestion of a neighbor 
he applied a gallon of salt on one quarter of an 
acre of vines. The next morning nut a beetle 
was to be seen. Mr. Smith thinks that this 
remedy will prove equally efficacious at the 
North, and as our season is much later, there 
will be time to try it. Will some one experi¬ 
ment and report ? 
-♦+»— . 
Texas Cattle in England.—The English stock 
company, formed last winter for carrying cattle 
direct from Texas to England, has commenced 
its operations. Steamers have commenced their 
trips, loaded at Galveston with Texas cattle. 
This direct trade of England with the Texas 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
John C. Cross of Oriskany Falls, N. Y., has 
set out 40 acres of hops this season. 
The Colgate Academy, advertised in this 
paper, Is worthy the attention of parents and 
guardian*. 
The owner of a fancy pigeou in Portland, 
Me., asked $25“boot" in exchange for a fine 
cow which the owner wanted to trade eveu. 
The cow man was so disgusted that be con¬ 
cluded to wait until that pigeon came down. 
The decrease in tobacco culture iu the Con¬ 
necticut. Valley, lias caused the price or manure 
to decline from $1(1 to $15 per cord to $7 or $8. 
Tins reduction in price gives ordinary (aimers 
a chance and will be a good thing for Connecti¬ 
cut farms. 
In one of the French departments there is a 
"Society for the Protection of Birds Useful to 
the Farmer." All nests found are reported to 
the Society and protected by it. in the past 
year the Society protected 211 neats, from which 
came U04 birds. 
Nkuiiaska set out 12,000,000 forest trees iu 
1874, and 1,000,000 apple trees. Nebraska also 
has the honor of having Inaugurated the Arbor 
Day, or tlieaetting apart a day iu the Spring for 
the planting of timber trees. Other States 
have followed the example. 
Ouh friend and occasional correspondent, 
W. D.” of Warsaw, N. Y„ w rites that he 
has tui egg 8x(JX Inches Irotu a Plymouth Rock 
hen which, with several others, has been shut 
up in a henhouse. Tin's, for a bon that has had 
no chance to “spread herself,” is rather good. 
The potato blight has appeared in some of 
the potato-growing sections of California. The 
Pacific Rural Press attributes it to a late frost 
which retarded the vinos, causing a slow and 
enfeebled growth, and thus gave time for the 
Insect, which causes blight, to 00 mm it its dep¬ 
redations. 
Some English magistrates, badly affected by 
the “cruelty to animals" mania, have fined 
farmers for clipping the ears of sheep to mark 
their ownership. It is time that this zeal for 
the rights of animals, which la well enough iu 
Its way, should have more common sense in¬ 
fused into it. 
Fields covered by young tomato plauts are 
? uite common in the London market gardens. 
t is only within a year or two, favored by warm 
seasons, that the tomatu has ripened in En- 
glauJ. Its cultivation there will increase the 
taste for it and create a larger demand for 
American canned tomatoes. 
Horned Cattle at the International Cen¬ 
tennial Exhibition are to be show'll 15 days, 
commencing Sept, 20,1870. Stalls will be pro¬ 
vided for 700 head, and those Having horned 
stock of any kind which they Intend to exhibit, 
should apply to the Chief of the Bureau of Ag¬ 
riculture, International Exhibition, Philadel¬ 
phia. 
Col. John D. Whitford. editor and pro¬ 
prietor of the Nort h Carolina Slate Agricultural 
Journal, having temporarily deserted his sanc¬ 
tum at Raleigh for a visit to Gotham, has shown 
his genial face in the Rural Office. Tne Colonel 
intends to dress up the Journal and wake up 
all the agricultural energies of his State. Long 
may he wave 1 
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