276 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 23 
'.-. >r I ,«i « -■> ««*■>■---- ... _ . _ .. * . . . ■ »>*<» «i ^-i«—' • ■ ■ , ■. ■■ ■ 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELKERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New Yoke. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1881 
SPECIAL NOTICE TO THE SUBSCRIBERS 
OP THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
We have sent our fi.st “Free Seed and 
Plant Distribution for 1881 to all who 
have applied up to this date. Those who 
from aDy cause have not received it, will 
please notify ns by postal card at once, 
giving the date of their application as near 
as may be, so as to aid us in looking it 
up aud protecting ourselves against im¬ 
position. We request also that the name 
and address may be plainly written. 
The applications of those who have not 
sent us their share of the postage (six 
cents) have been disregarded. As already 
repeatedly announced, however, those 
who have subscribed for the R. N-Y. in 
connection with the Inter-Ocean, Detroit 
Free Press, the Pioneer Press, N. Y. 
World, Gobe-Democrat, etc., etc., are 
not required to pay any postage, provi¬ 
sion having been made for this in the 
clubbiug combinations with the publish¬ 
ers of those journals. Those who pur¬ 
chase the Rural New-Yorker of news¬ 
stands or news agents (their names not 
being on our lists) are not entitled to our 
Distributions, aud whether they pay 
postage or not, then: applications are un¬ 
avoidably disregarded. We do not sell 
our seeds or plants under any circum¬ 
stances. 
... - - 4 » . 
Booms and Panics. —Already the 
newspaper prophets begin to tell ns to 
look out for another financial crash, 
either this year or next, “certain.” 
Well, the man who is out of debt, be he 
merchant, mechanic, or farmer, can 
sleep even with an approaching panic 
rumbling in the distance. “ Out of debt, 
out of danger.” “ Booms ” are times of 
free credit; “ panics ” are the times 
when debtors are sued up and sold out. 
Tne shrewd financier is a man who oau 
say, with Iago, “ either way makes my 
gain,” The honest, cautious business 
man is the one who keeps ofl the shrewd 
financiers track, and is not run over by 
his panic Iriin. Merchants and manu¬ 
facturers perhaps cannot always do that. 
Farmers always can. If you owe anything 
pay up, pay up without delay, while the 
limes are good. Utilize the “boom” 
to make all snug, and then let the panic 
take care of itself. This is the Rural’s 
advice, first, last and all the time, to its 
readers, East or West, North or South. 
It is adapted to ail parallels and ail me¬ 
ridians. Do it! 
“Statesmen.” —la the local phrase¬ 
ology of Westmoreland County, England, 
a man who farms his own land is oailed 
a “ statesman.” Wbat a pity we cannot 
have a few Buch statesmen in the Ameri- 
oau Congress. But then we might if we 
wanted to. We are not absolutely obliged 
to send lawyers and professional politi¬ 
cians to represent us iu the national as¬ 
sembly. Why do we? Is it for our in¬ 
terest or for the good of the country to 
take our lawmakers from the class of 
men who have been wrangling for a 
month over a few offices iu the Senate to 
the neglect of the public business and at 
a great expense to the tax payers ? Why 
d ■ the farmers submit to this ? Why do 
any of the industrial classes submit to ii? 
Those who sneer at popular government 
say it is because there is not patriotism 
or good sense enough among the “ dear 
people” to put an end to it, and that it 
will go on from bad to worse until popu¬ 
lar government is proved to be a costly 
and ruinous failure. That is just what 
it looks like now. 
-— -*■■*--*—-- 
An International Cotton Exhibition 
will open in Atlanta, Georgia, on Octo¬ 
ber 5th and last three months. From 
the starting of the project last October 
by M-. Edward Atkinson, it has been re¬ 
ceived with much favor, and within two 
months after the opening of the work a 
charter whb procured and the capital 
stock of $100,000 was promptly appor¬ 
tioned at Atlanta, New Yoik, Boston, 
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Rich¬ 
mond and other cities. The scope of the 
exposition has lately been enlarged and 
its stock increased to $200,000, of which 
this city, without n moment’s hesitation, 
contributed $25 000. The exhibits will 
include every article and process used in 
tbe production, manipulation and manu¬ 
facture of cotton and its fabrics, and the 
mann< r of using each will be practically 
illustrated in field and in factory work, 
Moreover, there will be auxiliary exhibits 
iu the interest of silk, wool, tobacco, rioe, 
ramie, hemp aud other Southern pro¬ 
ducts. As a result of the exhibition we 
earnestly trust that a new impetus may 
be given to the industries of the South, 
encouraged by an increased influx of cap¬ 
ital from tne North and East. 
A veritable Curse to the World. 
—The rumseller is universally regarded 
as an injury and a nuisance to society. 
He takes advantage of human weakness 
and folly for his own profit, reaped in 
the suff.-ring of mothers, fathers, wives 
and children. He oares nothing for ail 
the misery his traffic inflicts. He is a 
Batan in the flesh. But how does the 
rumseller differ in his motives, his ac¬ 
tions, or their results, from the usurer? 
Does he not also take advantage of hu- 
niau ignorance, weakuess and folly to 
“ make his pile ?” Those who wish to 
eDjoy before they have earned, those 
who dream of great profits from risky 
spi culations, those who kuow nothing of 
the devouring hunger of ten per cent.,— 
these and the unfortuuat s who have done 
their best perhaps, and have lost, all go 
to the usurer for “help.” He helps them 
to get rid of what they have left. One of 
them lately said to the writer, iu reply 
to the question whether one of his debt¬ 
ors could make anything on the money 
he had loantd him, “Ncl I shall have 
all the d—d fool has got in three years.” 
Keep clear of these fellows, brother 
farmers. 
-» • ♦ 
Cost of Agricultural Labor. —From 
the report of the Statistician of the Agri¬ 
cultural Department it appears that the 
decline in agricultural wages since ’79 
ha.s been followed by a slight advance in 
most places. In the country at large the 
average has increased from $20.26 per 
month, without board, to $21.75—or 7.25 
per cent. The average price of labor 
with board is $14.56. In Texas, Min¬ 
nesota and Caiifornia wages without 
board share in the general advance,- 
but with board they are lower than 
last year, owiug to the inconvenience 
of lodging and feeding hired help in 
the newer settled stations. The great¬ 
est increase has been wHere agriculture 
has paid best, as in the States bordering 
on tne Ohio and in some of the Cotton 
States, where the advance haB been six 
to ten per cent. AH kinds of labor are in 
active demand in the South Atlantic and 
Ginf States ; but there the share system 
is not working satisfactorily and the 
freedmen are becoming land owners, 
while in Mississippi and Louisiana the 
“Exodus” has made labor scarce. Ia the 
Middle and Eastern States the demand 
for trustworthy men haB increased aud so 
have their wages. Iu the Northwest Bkilkd 
labor is ohnfly iu demand, for almost 
everybody owns land, and hires help only 
in harvest time. On the Pacific Coast 
and in the Territories, except Montana 
and New Mexico, there is a good demand 
for labor, while iu Kansas the influx of 
“exodusters” from the South and immi¬ 
grants from the rest of the country and 
Europe has nearly satisfied the present 
demand. 
» « ♦- 
PROHIBITORY LIQUOR LAWS. 
The belief which has long been an “ar¬ 
ticle of faith ” among teetotalers, seems 
to be rapidly gaining oonverts from the 
public at large—that the most effectual 
way of dealing wita the liquor question 
is to treat ail intoxicants as poisons and 
prohibit tneir manufacture and sale 
wherever public opinion will support 
such a measure. The recent agitation on 
ibis question in various States is doing 
much to systematize the work and has 
created a growing tendency in many of 
the Skates to prohibit the Hale and manu¬ 
facture of intoxicating beverages by eon- 
etitutional amendments, and to restrict 
tne traffic in them as much as possible 
where public opinion is not yet prepared 
for extreme measures. 
Next to Maine, Kansas has taken the 
most decisive step by enacting a law pro¬ 
hibiting the importation, manufacture 
and sale of intoxicating liquors except for 
medicinal, scientific and mechanical pur¬ 
poses. This bill passed the legislature 
of that State by a majority of over three- 
fourths, and in it we believe the moral 
sentiment of the people is reflected. It 
is entitled to a fair trial and hearty sup¬ 
port. 
In Missouri, the Lower House, and in 
North Carolina both Houses, reported 
favorably on a similar bill. In Texas 
the Senate asserts, by a vote of twenty- 
three to seven, that prohibition is there 
needed. In Arkansas the popular branch 
favois it; and in Indiana and Pennsyl¬ 
vania the amendment goes to the people 
for ratification. Wisconsin’s “anti-treat¬ 
ing” bill, though severely criticized and 
just declared inoperative by the courts on 
account of an error in the text of the bill, 
was also a Btep iu the right direction, as it 
struck at the root of a pernicious evil— 
the custom of social “treating.” This 
widespread agitation means something. 
It means a growing belief that while 
“moral suaeiou ” is good as far as it goes, 
it ia not sufficient. It means that the 
strong arm < f the law is to be stretched 
forth to rescue the actual or prospective 
drunkard from fiis downward course, and 
to punish those who tempt him to degra¬ 
dation aud crime while threatening his 
family with disgrace and penury. The 
temperance question is to have more 
weight than it has yet had in national 
and State legislation aud politics. 
——-♦ » » 
AN OBJECTIONABLE BILL. 
The Assembly Committee that came to 
this city to investigate oleomargarine, 
was supposed to be acting in the inter¬ 
ests of the producers and consumers of 
genuine butter. True, before their ar¬ 
rival here there were some ugly rumors 
that the outcome would prove that the 
appointment of the Committee was a 
cunning advertising trick of the oleomar¬ 
garine and suine men. A year had 
passed since that festive party of Con¬ 
gressional jnuketers had given the stuff 
a puff, aud it was about time to obtain 
another from some other legislative set 
of gullible Diuoompoops. The early la¬ 
bors of the Committee appeared well in- 
tentioned and honeBt, and we gave them 
due credit therefor ; but our suspicions 
were aroused on learning that they, too, 
ended their labors by investigating the 
good cheer spread bounteously before 
them by the shrewd oleomargarine deal¬ 
ers. There were two obvious ways iu 
which the Committee could pay for their 
entertainment; first, by making a report 
favorable to the spurions products and, 
second, by so framing a bill, founded on 
the investigation, as to render its passage 
impossible. The revelations made for¬ 
bade the former course, and, either fool¬ 
ishly or shrewdly, the latter has been 
adopted. 
The bill prohibits the use of coloring 
matter in oleomargarine butter and suine 
cheese and the Bale or use by any person 
whatsoever of any such product in which 
it baa be.-n employed. It requires that 
every cheese which is not made wholly 
from pure milk shall be stamped across 
the center, and that the words “ Imitation 
Cheese” shall be sunk into it in the pro¬ 
cess of manufacture, and stenciled upon 
the opposite sides of ench cheese and the 
top and bottom of tbe containing box. 
It imposes a fine of not less than $50 or 
more than $200 or imprisonment for not 
less than 10 or more than 20 days for 
every violation of this provision. It 
makes it obligatory on common oouncils 
of cities, boards of trustees of towns, etc., 
to impose and collect license fees from 
all manufacturing, selling or dealing in 
imitation batter or cbeese, to wit, from 
each manufacturer, $3,000 eaoh for every 
establishment; wholesale dealers, $1,000 
for every store or 6tand ; retailers $500 
for every ditto, ditto. The license must 
be kept conspicuously posted under pen¬ 
alty of a fine of $100 for every package 
of the imitation product kept or im¬ 
prisonment in the penitentiary or county 
jail, not exceeding six months. There 
are also some other provisions of the 
same Draconian severity. 
Does any sensible, practical man be¬ 
lieve for a moment that such special 
legislation can be seoured ; or that if by 
some legislative freak the bill is passed 
its provisions can be enforced? We yield 
to no one in the earnest desire that our 
dairy products should be released from 
underhand competition with spurious im¬ 
itations and from the evil repute likely 
to be brought upon them by suoh imita¬ 
tive frauds, but we ixiBiat that the warm¬ 
est friends of these coLOoetions could not 
have framed a bill more to their own in¬ 
terest than the one above outlined. 
BREVITIES. 
Should we now call butter-crackers oleo- 
crackers ? 
Instbuctions as to tbe treatment of the 
Rural feeds are repeated in this number on 
page 274. 
Wanted —The date aDd place of meeting of 
afl Agricultural Fairs and Stock Exhibitions in 
this countiy for 1881. Secretaries will cinfer 
a favor by forwarding tbe eame to P. O Box 
8818. New York City, at their earliest conveni¬ 
ence. 
Suppose, according to the belief we have 
several times expressed, that it turns out that 
the Black-bearded Centennial and Golden 
Grains Wheats are the same—what then ? It 
will prove rather queer actions on the part 
of certain people 
In the Uuited States, in the year 1879. 220, 
000,000 gallons of petroleum were cousumed. 
With the exception of cotton, petroleum is the 
most valuable export of this countiy China 
and the Etst Indies alone took nearly 25,000,- 
000 gallons In 1878. 
“Galvanized” butter is the fraud which 
our neighbors of the Dominion are putting in 
eompetHiou with our “tallow" butter. The 
stuff is mainly composed of the poorest kind 
of Jard or fat of any sort, thinly plastered 
over with excellent butter. Next! 
It may be well to remember that as each fe¬ 
male potato beetle ia capable ot laying about 
1,000 eggs (so say entomologists), it is a mat¬ 
ter of considerable importance that those 
which have passed the Winter in the ground 
and appear in the Spring should be as nearly 
exterminated as possible. 
We desire to send premiums, as promised, 
to those whose names appealed in the list 
of mangel cultivators, in the Rural of 
Feb. 26 ; but only a part have sent as their ad¬ 
dresses. Will tne lolloping persons please do 
so at once ? Jasper Birnes, T Leete. W. L. 
Day, W. Moore. J. L. Scott, L. Singer, B. P. 
Moore. W. II Harter. 
Michigan has a local law requiring the 
Immediate cutting down and burning of peach 
trees that show the slightest signs of the yel¬ 
lows. Inasmuch as we are strong advocates 
of the slaughter of infected cattle to prevent 
the spread of pleuro-pneumonia by coniagion, 
we also wish, on the same principle, that this 
Michigan law with regard to peaches should 
be made general, to help to stamp out the 
yellows. 
The Lite Snowflake Potato has received ex¬ 
travagant praise from many quarters. Tout 
it is of handsome appearance; that it is 
in quality, shape and size all that can be 
desired in a potato msy be conctded. Under 
favorable circumstances, however, it has at 
the Rural Farm produced eo small a yield as 
nottopavlor the expense of its cultivation. 
Of over 60 different kinds tested last y ar this 
y^lded Lhe least. The vines were luxuriant 
and grew on without a check during the en¬ 
tire Beason. 
Vermont has a stringent law regulating the 
sale of bogus butter under its proper name ; 
and a conspiracy of rasculs now affords an op¬ 
portunity for its vigorous enforcement at St. 
Albans. In that lively town resides a butter 
buyer who ordered from Boston a supply of 
oleomargarine and sent it out among neigh¬ 
boring tanners of the game fraudulent type. 
By them It was promptly returned as Winter- 
made dairy butter. Tbe original “ fraud " then 
sold it to auothcr butter dealer, by whom it was 
disposed of to grocers, who finally distr ibuted 
it among their customers for the usual consid¬ 
eration tor prime creamery product. Pity tbe 
whipping-post docs not stand aud the ca’.-j'- 
nin%s-tails flourish in the Green Mountain State I 
A choice decoratioa for a roomy hall or 
porch is louud in some of the rare dwarf ever¬ 
greens grown in easily handled pots or boxes, 
it there are three or four, their arrangement 
can be occasionally varied and so frisbened- 
Such as will endure a touch of frost are best 
for such a risky exposure Tneir effmt, as the 
first ihiug met ou entering a house during 
our dreaiy Winters, is very agreeable. E ig- 
lbh ivy. on a wire support, aud Skimmia Jw- 
poniea (flowers and berries flu* ) endure shade 
weliand prefer it. 8o does Euonymus radi- 
cans. Goldeu Euonymus prefers light aud 
poor, dry Boil. Lauieitinns likes d»mp air. 
Orange, or myrtle, or myrtle-le&led dwarf 
orar ge may be added in moderate weather as 
a comrasl ol color und figure. 
Notices to Our Subscribers —Our readers 
are requested to send Ue,by postal or otherwise, 
interesting facts appertaining to agriculture 
or horticulture, which occur in their practice 
or of which they become cognizant. Reports 
of the condition of crops, the best varieties of 
seeds, fmits, etc., tbe price of farm produce 
are also respectfully-solicited for our “ Every¬ 
where ” Department. Sketches of farm helpB 
or contrivances of any kind intended to lacilt- 
tate farm or horticultural work, will be thank¬ 
fully received, aud it of any general utility 
will be drawn, engraved aud published. In so 
far as it is possible for us so to do, we shall 
answer ali questions as best we may either by 
mall or under our own Querist Department. 
Salicylic acid has been widely recommend¬ 
ed for the preservation of food of auy sort, 
and is no doubt largely used for that pur¬ 
pose in this country. It is, therefore, to 
be regretted that it und its derivatives 
have been found detrimental to health by the 
Committee of Public Hygiene of France, who 
have been conducting a series of experiments 
with regard to it. They decide that it is dan¬ 
gerous not only because of its direci effect 
upon the system, but also because it allows 
tbe introduction of other unwholesome sub¬ 
stances into food. M. Tlrard, Minister of Ag¬ 
riculture, has consequently inteidicted its use 
aud directed the food inspectors to Eee iliat 
commodit os submitted to them are free from 
it. Inasmuch as it has, from time to time, 
been recommended in the Rural (or the pres¬ 
ervation of canned fruits as well as of frt6h 
meat, daiiy products, etc , in hot weather, we 
we call the attention of our readers to the 
decision of the French scientists. 
