THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 46 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
BI.BKKT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, Kb* Yon* 
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1881. 
The best advice we can give onr read¬ 
ers for the season is to prepare the land 
for crops better than ever before. It 
will pay yon, good friends, to do so. 
Try it. Use less manure if you will; 
but harrow the plowed ground until it 
is smooth, and mellow. 
It is very generally taken for granted 
that salt is an excellent if not a needed 
fertilizer for quince trees, asparagus 
plants, etc. Many tell us how much 
they have applied “ without doiDg any 
harm.” Did it do any good ? Who can 
tell from actual experiment? 
In reply to continued inquiries we 
would say that we advise none of our 
readers living 7iort.h of Iowa City, Chica¬ 
go, Toledo or New York to plant Chester 
Co., Mammoth Corn. Last year was an 
especially favorable one for corn and 
this variety needed all of it to ripen fully. 
- ♦♦ ♦—--- 
The first announcement that Ricketts’s 
“ Secretary ” Grape was a failure as test¬ 
ed at the Rural Grounds, was made in 
these columns two years ago. The sec¬ 
ond announcement that we have seen 
comes from Mr. W. C. Barry, who says :— 
“ It has turned out to be a great failure. 
The fruit is small, of medium quality, 
not so good as Clinton. The vine is a 
miserable grower and the foliage poor.” 
-- 
We have tried the effects of commercial 
fertilizers of liquid manure, of old stable 
and barn-yard manure on various crops 
with which we desired to exoel. But the 
very best results have been obtained 
from a mixture of thoroughly decompos¬ 
ed loaves, stable manure and muck—that 
is, so decomposed as to form a soil of 
these substances. If any of our readers 
wish to grow prize vegetables of any 
kiud, let them try it. 
Melons and Cucumbers.— For early 
melons or cucumbers many plant the 
seeds on inverted sods cut about four 
inches square. The sods are placed in a 
frame of any kind and covered to the 
depth of half an inch with mellow, rich 
earth. The plants root firmly in these 
sods the same as they would in small 
flower-pots and may saiely be transplant¬ 
ed as soon as the weather becomes settled 
and warm. For melons this is an excel¬ 
lent plan, since our seasons are scarcely 
long enough to ripen them before the 
cool nights of Autumn, when the seeds 
are planted in the ground in the usual 
way. Late melons are never sweet. 
--— 
Not an American Among Them.— 
The shipments of grain from this port 
last month amounted to 6,645,712 bushels, 
including 4,043,1143 bushels of wheat; 
2,514,036 bushels of corn and 88,336 
bushels of rye. To transport this vast 
hulk the services, in whole or pait, of 
one hundred and seventy-three vessels 
were needed—ninety-two steamers, twelve 
ships, sixty-eight barks and one brig. Of 
these, one hundred and four were Brit¬ 
ish ; nineteen, Norwegian; seventeen, 
Italian ; eight, Austrian ; six, German ; 
six, Belgian ; four, Sweedish; four, 
French; two, Danish ; two, Dutch ; one 
Portugese, but there wasn’t an American 
among them ! 
Is it Thrift or Parsimony ? — The 
establishment of an Experiment Sta¬ 
tion in connection with the agricul¬ 
tural college at Amherst, is strongly ad¬ 
vocated by the farmers of Massachusetts. 
That objections should be made in the 
Old Bay Slate to the trilling cost of so 
obviously beneficial an institution is, in¬ 
deed, a matter of surprise. That the 
favorite abode of intelligence, enterprise 
and culture should be ignorant of, or in¬ 
sensible to, the advantages its struggling 
agriculture must derive from such a" sta¬ 
tion, cannot for a moment be suspected 
in view of the fact that States with much 
more modest pretentions to these virtues 
are wide-awake to the benefits derivable 
from such institutions. That Massachu- 
•atts is also the favorite abode of thrift 
on this side of the Atlantic, may account 
for her hesitation in making a liberal 
appropriation for the station ; but her in¬ 
telligence must surely soon apprehend 
that such thrift is of the penny-wiBe-and- 
pound-foolieh sort. 
- ♦ ♦ ♦ ■ ■ - - 
OnEAP Homestead Adornment.— 
Farmers, strive to make your homes 
homelike, We do not ask you to spend 
money beyond your means for shrubs 
and trees, flowers and vegetables. But 
do what you can while not permitting 
the more pressing interests of the farm to 
suffer. Plant a few trees and shrubs, 
even though they be taken from the 
woods or fields. Plant grape-vines even 
though you go to a neighbor for cuttings. 
Sow the seeds of apples and pears for 
stocks upon which to graft the finest 
kinds that are cultivated about you. 
Plant currant and gooseberry cuttings, 
if you cannot procure the plants. Try 
a few rows of celery - a plot of aspara¬ 
gus. All this and more may be done by 
any farmer who desires to make his 
home homelike ; to attach his children 
to it. He will at the same time be set¬ 
ting a good example to indifferent 
farmers and in the end he will find that 
he has materially added to the sum of 
his happiness. 
- ■ ♦ ♦» ■ 
The Season. —All over the North and 
over a good deal of the South, too, tbc 
season is Btill backward, ranging behind 
the average for a decade of years from 
seven to 14 days in States bordering on 
the Ohio to fully a month in Northern 
Minnesota. At the end of last week the 
Signal Service reported the temperature 
over the Northwestern States at about 
freezing point except in Minnesota where 
it still averaged below zero. Even there, 
however, it is expeotod that the grouud 
will be fit for seeding to begin by April 
20, though in the lied River Valley it will 
be later, while in Dakota it is expected 
to begin about the 10th. In Iowa and 
Wisconsin the prospect is that it will be 
as late ns the 16 th, and that owing to the 
tardiness of the season and tho curtail¬ 
ment of Fall plowing by tbe early advent 
of wintery woatber, there will be a 
diminished acreage of small grains. 
In Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio 
reports with regard to Winter wheat are 
variable, although tho majority arc fa¬ 
vorable for a good crop. Missouri and 
Kansas are still rejoicing overtbeir pros¬ 
pects of an unusually fine harvest. Last 
Spring seed sown after April 17 through¬ 
out tho Northwest, made a much better 
crop than that sown a month earlier, and 
various published records for a mries 
of years go to show that late-sown wheat 
has done the best. This fact together 
with the consideration that Winter can’t 
last all Summer or even all Spring, must 
afford some solace even in the bleakest 
quarters. 
Opposition to the introduction of 
American live stook and cereal products 
is rapidly growing among the agricultu¬ 
ral cJasees in every European oonntry. 
Iu Germany the chief agricultural socie¬ 
ties have been earnestly beseeching Bis¬ 
marck to proteot home industry by lay¬ 
ing a strongly protective if not a prohib¬ 
itive import duty on grain and “pro¬ 
visions” from this country. The Great 
Chancellor, finding their prayer in ac¬ 
cordance with bis owu predetermined 
policy, has graciously already imposed 
a considerable tax on imports of onr pro¬ 
ducts and may yield to the farmers' late 
entreaty to increase it. In Franco sim¬ 
ilar petitions have been addressed by the 
farmers to the Government, aud last 
Tuesday the Secretary of Agriculture 
promised that in order to leave the Min¬ 
istry complete liberty to tax imported 
cereals and cattle, these should not be 
iuoludod in commercial treaties. In the 
United Kingdom farmers and their spe¬ 
cial organs in the press are constantly on 
the outlook for some plausible pretext for 
iusistingou restrictions on importations of 
agricultural products. Despite the hard¬ 
ships brought upon them by successive 
bad harvests ftnd close competition with 
cheaper foreign meats aud breadstulls, 
the agriculturists of the country have 
hitherto been restrained from boldly ad¬ 
vocating the imposition of protective du¬ 
ties on these products by the conscious¬ 
ness that a protective policy could not bo 
consistently adopted in their favor by the 
foremost, or, rather, the only advocate of 
free trade, among the natious. Should 
another bad harvest, however, aggravate 
their distress, it would cause ns little 
surprise to find the British farmor giv¬ 
ing loud expression to his present, taci¬ 
turn belief in the right and expediency 
of a protective tariff, at least on goods 
that compete with his own. 
ABOUT THE FREE SEED DISTRIBUTION. 
As the Free Plant and Seed Distribu¬ 
tions of the Rural New-Yorker are not 
offered a* premiums but mainly for the 
purpose of introducing, without cost to 
our patrons, new plants which promise to 
prove of moro value than thoso in gener¬ 
al cultivation, the question may have 
arisen in their minus, why wo do not 
bear the entire cost of postage as well as 
of the Beeds and the expenses attached to 
putting them up. We have this answer 
to make. A considerable proportion of 
our readers are not so situated astobe able 
to give the seeds a trial. Many others 
read tbe Rural for the information de¬ 
rived from special departments, such as the 
poultry, swineherd,^ herdsman, querist, 
implement departments, ete. Tbe seeds 
and plants are of little value to such 
readers. If, therefore, wo sent our Dis¬ 
tributions to all of our subscribers, 
whether they applied or not, we should 
put ourselves to the great and useless ex¬ 
pense of sending them to thousands who 
do not care for them. The reputation 
which the Rural has established of 
testing all novelties, naturally induces 
persons who have novelties of high 
promise to introduce to send them to ns 
for trial. In this way as in many others, 
our Distributions, tho 11 N-Y. itself, and 
our Experiment Grouuds work admirably 
together. If the seeds, fruits or plants 
of whatever description provo inferior to 
old kinds, we are enabled to state tbe 
fact to our readers aud thus save them 
the expense and disappointment of ascer¬ 
taining it for themselves. If, on the 
other hand, they prove superior to old 
kinds, we at ouco set to work to secure a 
crop large enough to enable us to distri¬ 
bute them among our readers. 
Attended as they necessarily are with a 
deal of vexation, we are, nevertheless, so 
well satisfied that the work is good aud 
that we are pleasing our friends aud 
serving the interests of agriculture and 
horticulture, that we Hball apply our¬ 
selves to our next Distribution in the 
hopes that it may utterly eclipse any of 
its predecessors. 
We are now well through with the 
present seed distribution except as to 
those who are still applying from day to 
day. We may now the more fully devote 
ourselves to our crowded columns and 
endeavor to Rhow to our kind friends 
that we are deeply grateful to them for 
tbe prosperity which the Rural New- 
Yorker enjoys to-day. 
THREE DISASTROUS FLOODS. 
Floods are just now devastating vast 
tracts of country, terror before and death, 
ruin and desolation behind them. In 
Hungary the river Theiss, which destroy¬ 
ed most of Szegeden last year, is again 
threatoniugtherebuiltcity witha like fate, 
having, owing to the bursting of a dam, 
Hooded over 150,000 aores of the adjoin¬ 
ing country and risen even higher than 
in ’80. Many deaths are reported and 
four batallions of the army have been 
sent to combat this terrible foe. Nearly 
all the low lands of Southern Spain have 
been submerged by late storms and enor¬ 
mous destruction of cattle, crops and even 
human beings bus saddened the laud. 
Worst of all the floods there, is that in 
Audalusia where the Gaudalqniver has 
engulphed a vast area of thickly-settled 
country and driven the terrified inhabit¬ 
ants of Simile to the highest stories of 
their houses for safety. Several detaoh- 
meuts of engineers aud sailors from the 
fleet, as well as the king aud high officials 
have carried encouragement and relief to 
the afflicted region. Mighth at of the 
floods, however, is that whioh the muddy 
Missouri lids been pouring over its broad 
bottom lauds, and whioh has already 
swept from Fort Benton nearly to Kansas 
City—more than 2,000 miles. Early iu 
the Winter au enormous quantity of snow 
fell in Montana ; aud for the last five or 
six weeks, the weather there has been 
extremely warm—almost summer-like. 
The rapidly melting snows have swollen 
the upper Missouri as well as the Milk 
River, Yellowstone and its multitudinous 
other tributaries to an extraordinary 
highfc, and the aggregate waters have 
swept down with a mass of accumulated 
ioe upon the frozen lower part of the 
river at aud below Yankton, creating 
huge ice gorges that in several oase-i 
have diverted the river from its regular 
course for miles at a stretch. Tho broad 
valley between Yankton and Sioux Oity 
is the oldest settled part of Dakota, and 
here the lately prosperous farmers have, 
in most oases, been entirely ruined by 
the flood. 
All the towns on the River from Bis¬ 
marck to Council Bluffs have suffered 
severely, but along the bottom lands the 
loss and suffering must be far more ap¬ 
palling. In Europe the flooded country 
is so thickly-settled that help is always 
at hand, and the inhabitants have only 
water to encounter ; but along tho Mis¬ 
souri the homesteads are often so far 
apart or so hidden in “clearings” 
among timber, that neighborly aid is 
impossible, while huge masses of ice, 
drift-wood and wrack add to the horror 
and danger of the rushing waters. 
- ■ - 
EUROPE’S WAR ON THE AMERICAN 
HOG 
During the year ending Juno 30, 1880. 
onr exports of hog products amounted to 
$84,838 242. This vast trade has lately 
been seriously threatened by the action of 
seven European Governments in forbid¬ 
ding importations of American pork 
through alleged fear of trichinosis. With 
six of these our trade was so small that 
its discontinuance can have little effect 
on our aggregate exports; but last 
year France took upwards of $17,000,- 
000 worth of pork and ham, and the loss 
of the growing trade with that country, 
if permanent, would be a serious injury. 
In England some interested parties in 
and out of Parliament endeavored to in¬ 
duce the Government to imitate the un¬ 
friendly aetiou the Continental powers, 
but they have mot ivith a prompt rebuff, 
so that our annual exports of 700,000,000 
lbs. of hog products to the United King¬ 
dom are in nodanger of being diminished 
by hostile legislation. 
Both individually aud collectively 
Americans eat moro pork than the in’ 
habitants of any other nat i n, and nearly 
every pound that is eaten here is home- 
raised, yet the deaths from trichinosis 
throughout the oonntry in the course of 
the year are probably fewer than those 
from lightning. Tho few deaths that are 
known to have recurred from the dis¬ 
ease in a aeries of years, have in uearly 
all cases been among Germans, Norwe¬ 
gians or Swedes, and have been duo to 
tho imported custom of eating raw ham 
and sausage or imperfectly cooked pork. 
Owing to the prevalence of this habit in 
Germany, Norway and Sweden the dis¬ 
ease there is much more common than 
here, nor is Rowing to tho use of imported 
American pork, for the native hogs are 
pretty badly infested with trichina? ac¬ 
cording to the published statement of a 
German professor who found the follow¬ 
ing results of microscopic inspection in 
various cities. In Brunswick trichina? 
were found in one hog in 5,000 ; in Hallo 
tho proportion was one in 1,500; Gotha, 
one in 1,800; Schwerin, one in 650; 
Copenhagen, one in 165 ; Stockholm, one 
in 266 ; in Kiel, Prussia, one in 260, and 
in Lieukepiug, Sweudeu, one iu 63. 
In veiw, then, of the fact that trehi- 
nosis is almost unknown both in this 
country, where in proportion to the popu¬ 
lation more pork is oaten than in any 
other nation, and iu the United Kingdom 
where vastly more American pork is used 
than iu the whole of Continental Europe, 
there seems no valid reason why the use 
of Amerioan liog products should be 
considered especially productive of trichi¬ 
nosis. 
—--- 
BREVITIES. 
Sir Edward Thornton calls Trichina 
spiralis an insect, which is a mistake, it being 
no more an insect than is the tape-worm or 
any other entozoon. 
Several years ago we spoke of the value 
of Red Top Grass seed for lawns —Red Top 
alone. Oue of the finest lawns we huve ever 
seen was sown with this only. Three bushels 
of BeedB to the acre for lawnB are not too 
much. 
Mb. W. C. Barry calls attention to the 
Melon Apple as having no superior as a des¬ 
sert apple, if, indeed, it has any equa). 
Though the fruit is so tender that it will not 
bear handling or long carriage and though the 
tree is not vigorous enough to render it a 
profitable kind for orchard culture, yet it is 
so desirable a fruit for family use that it 
ought to be included in every collection. 
The present excitement about trichinosis is 
sure to be productive of fresh discoveries, not 
only in relation to that disease, but also with 
regard to internal animal parasites in general. 
Already microscopic research, by post-mortem 
examination, has found that an organism 
closely resembling Trichina spiralis, yet funda¬ 
mentally distinct from it, is generated iu mus¬ 
cular and viscerul tissues of defunct animals 
at a temperaluie of 85° to Fuh. in the 
course of from 34 to 48 hours, and earlier if the 
animal waB suffering irorn fever before death, 
or if the air is moist as well as hot This mite is 
called the “death vibrio," and Is about the same 
size as the trichina, from which an ex pert only 
cun distinguish it, chiefly by the circumstance 
that it has never been found encysted, while 
the trichina Is generally met with in lhut con¬ 
dition. No doubt one has often beau mistaken 
ior tho other. It is supposed to bo a nearly 
universal phenomenon of animal decomposi¬ 
tion, and to bo often generated in hams, 
sauBuges and preserved meats iu which post¬ 
mortem changes have not been completely 
arrested. A good dual of gastric disorders and 
septic fever is attributed to it, the eyiuptoms of 
diseases eaused by it and by trichina being very 
similar and the ratio of deaths about the same. 
