THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MAY 7 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT B. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1881. 
Forest Fires. —A dry Spring, like this 
and the last, seems pretty certain to 
cause disastrous forest fires. About a 
twelvemonth ago a vast amount of loss 
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania was due 
to this cause, and during the past week 
destructive fires have already been rag¬ 
ing in both States. The Bureau of For¬ 
estry estimates that as much timber is 
aunually wasted by such fires throughout 
the country as is cut for all useful pur¬ 
poses—an estimate that can hardly be 
thought exaggerated ou considering the 
great extent of some of the conflagra¬ 
tions in unsettled regions where dense, 
virgin forests afford ample fuel. In the 
old-settled States, at the recent rate of 
denudation, it will not take many years to 
clear the country east of the Alleghanies 
of forest trees. Cannot some means be 
devised, at least in the thickly settled 
States, for preventing or checking such 
disasters ? If the underbrush is kept 
down and the timber kept open enough 
to prevent the accumulation of dry leaves, 
fires cannot travel far, so that the clearing 
of our forests seems a safeguard. 
-- 
Why not? We certainly strongly ad¬ 
vocate the measure. In these days, when 
every dairy product is liable to be adul¬ 
terated by dishonest producers or dealers, 
every honorable preventive of such an 
abuse shall receive from us a hearty sup¬ 
port. If the honest manufacturer finds 
it to his profit to obtain a trade-mark 
which shall distinguish his goods from 
rivals of an inferior make, why should 
not the honest dairyman, as well as the 
honest manager of a creamery or cheese 
factory, find a like practice proportion¬ 
ately profitable ? We are therefore de¬ 
cidedly in favor of a bill now before the 
Legislature of this State the object of 
which is to enable any dairyman to as¬ 
sume for his goods a trade-mark which 
shall be distinctive and which no one will 
have a right to erase or the liberty of 
imitating without incurring legal pen¬ 
alty—the privilege of taking such a mark 
to be confined to full-milk and genuine 
dairy goods. The honest dairymen of 
every State in the Union might profit by 
such a measure. 
- - -- 
Last week we mentioned the project of 
the “ Freedmen’s Oklahoma Association,” 
of St. Louis, to settle 10,000 freedmen in 
Oklahoma with a promised grant of 
160 acres to each adult settler. A tele¬ 
gram from Washington announced last 
Thursday that the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office had pronounced the 
project illegal—a decision about whioh 
there could be no reasonable doubt from 
the Btart. J. Milton Turner, Ex-Minis¬ 
ter to Liberia, tne head of the enterprise, 
might easily be engaged in a more repu¬ 
table business than this attempt to ille¬ 
gally intrude au ignorant crowd of his 
race,without business training or capital, 
into a wild w r aste where poverty and dis¬ 
aster would certainly await them, even if 
they succeeded in evading or overcoming 
the United States forces that must bar 
their way. When Captain Payne, a few 
mouths ago, attempted to start an “Ok¬ 
lahoma boom,” we strongly reprobated 
the projected occupancy of the Indian 
Territory, and we are not a whit more 
tolerant of misconduct in a colored “man 
and brother ” than in a white mao. The 
Government prevented the intended out¬ 
rage by the former, and there is little 
fear of its intention and ability to pre¬ 
vent that by the latter. 
-- 
Forty Pounds or Butter a Week 
from one Cow are reported to be 
sold by a petty farmer who owns only a 
single bovine near Elgin, Illinois. Jersey 
Belle of Sbituate is said to have given 
705 pounds of butter a year, and Euro- 
tae, 778 pounds in eleven months and six 
days, while Gold Thread is modestly 
credited with 18 pounds a week, but 
what are these reported yields to that of 
Ibis nameless Western marvel ! Forty 
pounds of butter a week from a single 
cow J Great Milky Way!! It is also re¬ 
ported, however, that this “owner of 
one cow ” buys butterine at the rate of 
about forty pounds a week and, judging 
from the alleged practices of some of his 
neighbors, it is more than suspected that 
his large weekly sales of butter are con¬ 
nected, otherwise than through the cow, 
with his large weekly purchases of butter¬ 
ine. Indeed, it is currently reported East 
and West, and in the intermediate coun¬ 
try, too, that “honest,” “simple” farmers 
are among the best customers of the 
manufacturers of butterine and similar 
concoctions. Of course, the number of 
rural rogues who palm off such stuff on 
their customers as genuine butter must 
be comparatively small, but, inasmuch as 
they are dishonestly injuring their own 
class and calling, every legal penalty 
should be more stringently enforced 
against them than against other rascally 
dealers in bogus dairy products. The 
Green Mountain State is not the only 
one in which the cat-o'-nine-tails should 
make intimate acquaintance with the 
bare backs of such rascals. , 
---- 
A HEW DANGER TO OUR CATTLE. 
A cablegram from Liverpool, on April 
28, announces that foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
ease has just been discovered among the 
cattle landed at Birkenhead from the Brit¬ 
ish steamer, Lake Manitoba, which left 
Portland, Maine, on April 16th and ar¬ 
rived in the Mersey on April 26th. As 
this disease, owing to its extremely con¬ 
tagious nature, is more dreaded than any 
other by English farmers, stringent pre¬ 
cautions, we are needlessly told, were at 
once taken to prevent it from spreading. 
During the last six months we have heard 
of a couple of cases in which this disas¬ 
trous disease was supposed to have made 
its appearance among our native cattle ; 
but in each instance investigation decided 
that the report, was unfounded and, a short 
time back. Professor Law, our best vet¬ 
erinary authority, wrote a lengthy article 
proving that no well authenicated case 
had ever been found here. A few months 
ago we announced the arrival at this port 
of a herd of infected Jerseys which were 
quarantined on the discovery of this dis¬ 
ease among them. Have other infected 
animals brought from the United King¬ 
dom or the Continent, been allowed to 
pass without having been subjected to the 
detention authorized by law ? We have 
had occasion, more than once, to oensure 
the carelessness shown in such matters, 
aDd if the disease is in reality among onr 
herds, its presence there must be due to 
this carelessness. But is the d isease here ? 
Mindful of the nature of the evidence on 
which the existence of pleuro-pneumonia 
among imported American cattle was an¬ 
nounced at Liverpool two years ago, and 
also of the eagerness of the British ag¬ 
ricultural interest to discover some pre¬ 
text for the enforcement of a more strin¬ 
gent embargo on importations of live cat¬ 
tle from this country, we are not pre¬ 
pared to accept the announcement of the 
Birkenhead veterinarians as conclusive 
proof of the nature of the malady discover¬ 
ed in the shipment by tbeLake Manitoba. 
Should their diagnosis prove correct, 
however, and should the disease have 
really established a foothold among our 
herds, it is not improbable that a vigor¬ 
ous agitation will be promptly started 
across the Atlantic looking to the entire 
exclusion of importations of live cattle 
from this country. Considerable as 
would be the consequent injury to our 
cattle interests, it would be a mere trifle 
in comparison with the loss from the 
spread of the disease among the vast herds 
throughout the country. 
- - — - 
SORGHUM. 
With regard to the several kinds of 
sorghum illustrated in our pages this 
week, little can be said as to their rela¬ 
tive value for the production of sugar 
and sirup in the Middle and Northern 
States. The sorgho industry has not 
yet progressed far enough. Experiments 
are needed. Though none may prove 
better than the well-known “ Minnesota 
Early Amber” or the “ Orange” cane, 
yet further crosses may show that there 
is a wide margin for further improve¬ 
ment. The relationship of these canes 
to what is variously known as Dliouro, 
Lurra, Doura, Guinea Corn, Jovaree (in 
Iudia), Nagar (in China), Chicken Corn, 
Bice Com, Egyptian Bice, etc., is very 
close. That illustrated—on page 302— 
with a drooping panicle, is evidently a 
variety of Sorghum carnuum whioh itself 
is probably a variety of S. vulgare. The 
spreading, compact, large or small, up¬ 
right or drooping forms of the heads, as 
represented, are not sufficiently distinc¬ 
tive to entitle them to be considered dis¬ 
tinct varieties, much less species, since 
we have seen in our own plants, raised 
from the seeds of the same head, differ 
ences approaching to those which appear 
in the engravings. We may therefore 
presume that this common sorghum va¬ 
ries the same as Indian com varies or 
perhaps even to a greater extent. The 
different sorts also vary greatly in sac¬ 
charine properties. Most kinds sent 
up but one stalk from a seed, though 
it often branches, developing several 
seed heads differing in size from the 
smallest of those illustrated to a foot or 
more in length and weighing two pounds. 
Heads of this weight are not unusual in 
California, a specimen of which lies be¬ 
side ns, sent to this office by Mr. Saunders 
of that State. 
The saccharine properties of the variety 
which we have called the Bural Branch¬ 
ing Sorghum are not ascertained. The 
surprising amount of stalks and leaves 
produced from a single seed would, how¬ 
ever, give it the preference over all other 
tried kinds even though less rich in su¬ 
gar ; while for ensilaging we know of no 
other forage plant that promises to be of 
more value since in this climate it may 
be cut twice and thus produce a heavier 
yield than any of which Indian Com is 
capable. That, also, it will luxuriate on 
poor soils; that the stalks are rarely 
(never, we should say) broken or lodged 
by the wind, and that they are sweeter, 
less woody, more succulent than those of 
maize are further items to its credit. The 
only item to its debit that we have been 
able to discover is its sluggish growth in 
the early part of the season and the ne¬ 
cessity, therefore, of raising it upon clean 
land. We shall await with a keen inter¬ 
est the reports of the thousands to whom 
we have sent trial packets. 
-- 
NO MEDDLING WITH THE TARIFF ON 
WOOLS. 
The United States Supreme Court re¬ 
cently decided that imported worsted 
stockings are legally liable only to a duty 
of 35 per cent, on their value,* instead of 
the compound duty of 35 per cent, on 
their value and 50 cents a pound oa their 
weight, which had previously been charg¬ 
ed on them according to rulings of the 
Treasury Department. Basing its action 
on this decision the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment, under date of March 29, issued a 
circular directing Customs offioers in 
future to assess duties of only 35 per 
cent, ad valorem, instead of 35 per cent. 
ad valorem and 50 cents per pound, on 
what are technically known as “knit 
goods,” including caps, gloves, leggins, 
mitts, socks, stockings, woven shirts and 
drawers, and all similar articles made on 
frames, of whatever material they may 
be composed, except silk and linen. This 
ruling has given rise to a great deal of 
well-founded agitation among the manu¬ 
facturers of this class of goods in New 
England. They say that the removal 
of the 50-eents-a-pound tax on imported 
articles will enable foreign countries to 
undersell them in onr home markets, 
and that, should the ruling ba maintain¬ 
ed, they will have to sacrifice their estab¬ 
lishments here and go to Canada to 
make their goods, because there, owing 
to the low price of the materials, they 
can manufacture the wares so much 
more cheaply that by importing them 
into this country they can make a much 
better profit, after paying the import 
duty of 35 per cent, ad valorem, than 
could be realized by manufacturing the 
goods here. They insist that the great 
cost of Buch goods made here is mainly 
due to the high tax—averaging 70 per 
cent.—ou all imported fine wooIb enter¬ 
ing into their production, and that near¬ 
ly all the wool employed in making 
“ knit goods” is foreign, and most of it 
necessarily so, owing to the inadequate 
supply of domestic wool of that sort.. 
They declare that they cannot continue 
to give employment to thousands of 
hands in this country unless either the 
former tax on imported knit goods is re¬ 
imposed, or the duty is lowered on the 
imported fine wools necessary for their 
manufacture. The Supreme Court's de¬ 
cision related to worsted stockings only, 
and there is grave doubt whether it cov¬ 
ered other Boris of knit goods, as the 
Treasury Department has assumed. Ow¬ 
ing to the vigorous remonstrances of the 
manufacturers, theSecretary of the Treas¬ 
ury has suspended his late ruling and 
will give a final decision on the ques¬ 
tion in a few days. Should this decision 
admit the goods at the lower rate of tax¬ 
ation, then we insist that the tariff shall 
be promptly revised in the direction of 
imposing a heavier duty on imported 
knit goods, for we cannot for a moment 
consent to any lessening of the duty on 
imported fine wools to the injury anddis- 
couragement of American wool producers. 
Many of the political papers are urging 
such a measure, and their arguments 
are not without weight, but they would 
be equally powerful if directed against 
any form of protective tariff, and so 
long as this exists we shall insist that it 
shall protect the wool raiser as well as 
the wool manufacturer. 
BREVITIES. 
Fbom good seeds only can good crops grow. 
The Army-worm has been fonnd at the Rural 
Farm aud In its neighborhood several times 
during the Winter. 
Those abont to plant our Argenteuil and 
Datch asparagus seeds are advised to read 
Mr. Goodell’s note in another column. 
Poa annua, the Dwarf or Early Meadow 
Grass, blooms this year April 23d. This can 
never become valuable for pastures, we pre¬ 
sume, but it is the first to lighten up lawns in 
the early Spring. 
Bees should be high-priced this season, as 
the past Winter has destroyed a great number 
of colonies in all parts of the country, accord¬ 
ing to a large number of reports gathered from 
a multitude of onr “ exchanges.” 
One oleomargarine dealer declares that good 
oleomargarine is better than a medium grade 
of butter. Well, why not sell it as oleomarga¬ 
rine and color it blue, red, green—anything 
but golden yellow. Then it would have a fine 
chance to popularize itself upon its own merits. 
In the monthly report of the New York Hor¬ 
ticultural 8ociety for April appears an interest¬ 
ing essay on the cultivation of mushrooms, by 
Mr. Samuel Henshaw. We regret that we 
cannot find space to republish it in our col¬ 
umns. It is probahle that the obliging Secre¬ 
tary, Mr. James Y. Murkland. 12 Cortland 
Street, N. Y., would furnish copies to those of 
our readers specially interested in mushroom 
culture who apply, inclosing stamp for post¬ 
age. 
The American fanner has gained as a dairy¬ 
man the trifle he has hitherto lost as a hog- 
raiser by the European trichinosis scare. With 
short rations of American perk our trans- 
Atlantic customers arc bound to have full ra¬ 
tions of American cheese—hence a large in¬ 
crease in our exports of that commodity. Dur¬ 
ing the month of March onr exports of it were 
worth $455,563 against $196,450 in the same 
month last year, and for the three months end¬ 
ing March 31 we sent abroad the worth of $2.- 
358,473 against, $1,458,200 in the same period 
in 1880. 
Last year the appropriation made by the 
Legislature of thi» State for the support of the 
State Fish Commission failed for lack of the 
Governor’s approval, aud we expressed our 
regret at the unwise policy that withheld it. 
The same .misfortune is likely to occur again 
from the same cause this year, and regard for 
the best interests of the farming community 
as well as of the public at large, makes us Btill 
more emphatic in disapprobation. Rarely has 
public money been appropriated to an object 
so beneficial to the people as in this case. If 
properly supported, the labors of the Commis¬ 
sion must soon render large tracts of un¬ 
productive water as profitable, acre for acre, 
as the richest land, and add to the diet of the 
people in all parts of the State a healthful aud 
palatable variety of food. Strong advocates 
as we are of the most rigid economy with the 
people's money, we are decidedly of opinion 
that a failure to grant the present appropria¬ 
tion would be an unwise aud short-sighted 
parsimony. 
In the struggle between the American Hog 
and the governments of Europe the American 
Hog is very likely soon to prove victorious 
through its own multitadinou« merits, the vig¬ 
orous diplomacy of its friend, Secretary Blaine, 
the good sense and love of its traus-Atlantie 
admirers and the rashness and inconsiderate- 
ne6s of its traus-Atlantic defauiers and antago¬ 
nists. Already the French lovers of good pork 
are "crying for” the American article and 
vilifying their government, as only Frenchmen 
can, for having deprived them of the luxury. 
Already Austria has been taken sternly to task 
for excluding hog products from this country, 
while admitting those from other lands, despite 
the treaty obligations to place this country, 
commercially on the same terras as the " most 
favored nation.” Hints at claims for damages 
to our trade through violations of treaty ob¬ 
ligations may soon become demands, not with 
regard to Austria alone but other countries 
also that have in the same way rashly declared 
war against the American Hog. 
Last Thursday that dignified body, the Sen¬ 
ate of this State, grew really unbecomingly hi¬ 
larious over what was facetiously Btyled a bill 
about " Bugs and Humbugs.” For years it has 
been customary to put into the Sapply Bill an 
appropriation for the work of an entomologist 
in the State Museum of Natural History at Al¬ 
bany. The duties of the position have for a 
long time been quietly performed by Professor 
Lintoer, and to make the position permanent 
a bill was this year introduced by lawyer Fowl¬ 
er providing for the office of Slate Entomolo- 
ist with a salary of $2,000 per annum. Sel- 
orn has an appropriation of $1,000,000 aroused 
such a manifestation of fueling Lawyers, 
manufacturers, store-keepers, aud all the non¬ 
descript tribe of “ politicians ” began at once 
to harangue vociferously, if not wisely, ou 
the agricultural interests of the State, while 
some of the veterau leaders of the Senate, ac¬ 
cording to immemorial custom whenever the 
welfare of the farming community is discussed, 
showed their wit and humor by appropriating 
antiquated jib* and atale jokes about ento¬ 
mology, its multitudinous classifications, ees- 
quepidalian nomenclature, hifalulin' oreteu- 
slons aud inadequate performances. Finally, 
the debate waxing personal aud political, 
agrlcnlture aud Us needs were forgotten, and 
the bill was shelved. What a fuss is always 
made over any trilling agricultural appropria¬ 
tion, not In this State alone but in others also 
and by the General Government, while millions 
are constantly voted for all sorts of other 
purposes witiout a murmur 1 
