m 
MAY 14 
Oleomargarine. —It seems that it is 
impossible to distinguish by taste good 
oleomargarine from butter. Is it un¬ 
reasonable to suppose that there will be 
improvements in its manufacture, and that 
ultimately—possibly in the no distant 
future—it will entirely take the place of 
butter from milk? Displeasing as the 
thought of such a possibility may bo, no 
harm can arise from looking at the 
contingency squarely in the face. Greater 
changes have happened in other indus¬ 
tries, and in the face of the bitterest op¬ 
position at the outset have finally been 
accepted as steps of legitimate and whole¬ 
some progress. We have opposed oleo¬ 
margarine from the beginning, and, wisely 
or otherwise, eannot overcome an in¬ 
tense prejudice against the “stuff.” All 
should insist that it be sold under 
its real name; that it stand upon its 
own bottom and rise or fall according to 
its own worth or worthlessness. If it is 
a healthful article of food and the peo¬ 
ple like it—there is nobody who can say 
them nay. But at present while it would 
appear that a great majority of the peo¬ 
ple of cities are eating oleomargarine 
there are few who would purchase or eat 
it knowingly. 
--- 
FRAUDS TN THE MAIL SERVICE. 
Irrespective of all party bias the 
Postmaster- General is doing a creditable 
work in bringing to light long concealed 
frauds in the Star Route servioe. The 
Star Routes over which mailB are carried 
by means other than the railways are con¬ 
tracted for by men at a certain price and 
they, in turn, oontract. with others who 
perform the actual service of conveying 
the mails from place to place. The way 
frauds are perpetrated by these contrac¬ 
tors is somewhat as follows : Bids are 
advertised for a line with slow service 
and infrequent trips. These sharp con¬ 
tractors, who are in the ring, bid very 
low and the lowest bidder, of course, 
gets the oontract. In a few months pe¬ 
titions are gotten up for more frequent 
trips and more rapid service, and the 
contracter tbeD, without competition, on 
his own affidavit, renews the contract at 
about his own terms. In this way one 
Miner, contracted, at first, for a route of 
310 miles, one trip a week, for $2,350. 
Two monthB later he was fortunately or¬ 
dered to run three trips a week for which 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
he received $32,650 more, and in August 
of the next year, six trips a week brought 
him $35,000 more. 
In this way a route in Colorado, 31 
miles long, waB raised from $317 a year 
to $2,812 ; in Idaho, one 52 miles long 
from $720 to $3,360; one in Wyom¬ 
ing from $11,777 to $78,266, and one in 
Dakota, 250 miles long, was raised from 
$2,350 to $67,650 a year. The recent in¬ 
vestigations show that there has been an 
addition of over $2,000,000 to the expen¬ 
ses of this one branch of the Government 
service without any explanation or appar¬ 
ent cause. A thoroughgoing reform is 
needed, and we hope that no guilty man 
will be allowed to escape. 
--— 
PREPARING FOR OUR NEXT CORN CROP. 
Various have been the surmises as to 
the special cause or causes of our great 
corn yield of last year. We would be 
very glad if it were possible to ascertain 
to what extent the commercial fertilizers 
used assisted in the production of that 
crop. We have now prepared a six-year- 
old grass field of about seven acres for 
corn. No manure of any kind has been 
spread or sown except upon one meas¬ 
ured acre, 132x330 feet, and upon this we 
have sown 600 pounds of com fertilizer, 
the analysis of which is as follows : 
Ammonia. .... 4.60 to 5 oo per cent. 
Phosphoric acid.ltfcbO to 1*4 00 “ " 
Potash.6.00 to 7.00 “ “ 
Now if this one acre should produce a 
deoidedly heavier yield than the rest of 
the field, it would be reasonable to at¬ 
tribute the excess to the fertilizer, since 
the measured acre as to fertility seems 
to be a fair average of the field, in so far 
rb it may be judged by the eye alone. 
We have no remembrance that this field 
has been manured since we have owned 
the Rural Farm, a period of fourteen 
years. The sod was plowed under in late 
March. It has been harrowed thorough¬ 
ly, rolled once and again harrowed (east 
and west) and is now being marked out 
(north and south), so that the drills will 
be three feet and ten inches apart. The 
same method of cultivation in all respects 
as last year will be followed this. 
Presuming that onr agricultural con¬ 
temporaries are more or less interested 
in agriculture, we must suppose that the 
reason why they have not alluded lo our 
corn crop of last year was that they 
doubted the truth of the reports that 
were made. This year, should we again 
be favored with immense yields, we shall 
invite the proprietors of our esteemed 
contemporaries to come and see for them¬ 
selves, so that they need not thereafter 
entertain scruples as to placing the facts 
before their readers. 
-♦ ♦- 
WHEAT PKOfcPECTS. 
The conclusions with regard to the 
wheat crop, here briefly condensed, are 
the result of a careful comparison of the 
crop reports in our own columns with a 
much larger number that have appeared 
within the past week in various papers 
scattered throughout the country, sup¬ 
plemented by condensations of still 
later reports telegraphed yesterday from 
Chicago and other important points in 
the West. From all these sources we 
gather that fall-sown wheat has been 
much injured in Ohio, Illinois, Wiscon¬ 
sin and Iowa ; yet even there the damage 
is somewhat less than was anticipated be¬ 
fore the late mild spell had helped to in¬ 
vigorate feeble growth. Kansas will 
have an enormous wheat crop this year 
unless drought between now aDd harvest 
shall blast present hopes and indications. 
Winter wheat has there generally sup¬ 
planted Spring sowing. Missouri also 
has almost abandoned Spring for Winter 
wheat, and the outlook there is highly 
promising. Reports of the Winter 
wheat in Michigan, however, are 
very disoouragiug. In the Middle 
States complaints of injury to the crop 
are considerably diminished, but it is 
hardly likely that the yield there will 
equal that of last year. On the whole, 
it is not unlikely that the increase in 
aoreage under Winter wheat this year 
•will go a good way towards making good 
the damage by winter-lulling so far as 
regards the country east of the Rocky 
Mountains. In California the rainfall 
has been excessive and considerable in¬ 
jury has been done by floods in low-lying 
valleys, while the area under wheat this 
year is less than last, so that the aggre¬ 
gate yield is snre to be smaller. Owing 
to low prices the past BeaBon on account 
of inadequate ocean transportation, a 
large quantity of ti e crop of 18*0 still 
remains in the State, In the North¬ 
western States—the chief spring-wheat 
region—the weather has been very favor¬ 
able for seeding, which has been in pro¬ 
gress for two or three weeks, most of it 
being now completed, Where the plant 
is already no it looks bright and thrifty. 
The ground is generally moist and in 
fine condition. In some of the bottom 
lands, however, Hoods have so thoroughly 
soaked the soil as to render wheat raisiug 
impossible. In Minnesota, Nebraska 
and Dakota, where Spring wheat is raised 
almost exclusively, the outlook is excel¬ 
lent and there is a large increase in the 
acreage. In Illinois. Wisconsin and 
Iowa reports of the Spring wheat are 
conflicting, ranging all the way from 
“very good” to “very poor.” The 
acreage generally is much smaller than 
last year, as farmers have found that 
Fall sowing is better than Spring. There 
is a good deal of difference of opinion as 
to the area that will be planted, some 
maintaining it will be smaller than last 
year, while others think it will be great¬ 
er. Probably it is too early yet to decide 
the matter. On the whole, the outlook in 
the Spring wheat regions of the North¬ 
west is highly encouraging. It is by no 
means likely, however, that the aggre¬ 
gate wheat crop of 1881 will be larger 
than that of 1880, though it it is hardly 
probable it will fall much below it. 
THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY CON¬ 
FERENCE. 
Representatives from 15 nations, in¬ 
cluding Messrs. Evarts, Thurman and 
Howe from this country, are now in ses¬ 
sion at Paris with the primary object of 
securing an international agreement that 
silver shall be considered an unlimited 
legal tender, side by side with gold. To 
accomplish this object it would, of course, 
he necessary that all consenting nations 
should coin silver in unlimited quantity, 
and should fix upon some common ratio of 
value between gold and silver. The mar¬ 
ket value of the former here to-day is 
about. 18) times that of the latter, while 
the Bland Bill of 1878 makes the weight 
of the coined silver dollar 412 grains, or 
16 times the weight of the gold dollar; 
and in France, Germany, Switzerland and 
nearly all other European countries the 
present ratio is 15) of silver to one of 
gold. It will thus be seen that while the 
commercial ratio between the two met¬ 
als is about 18) of silver to one of gold, 
oar government puts it at 16 to one and 
France and the other members of the 
Latin Union at 15) to one, thus giving 
to silver a value considerably higher 
than its due. 
Inasmuch as the annual production of 
silver and that of gold do not bear any 
fixed ratio, the relative market value of 
the two metals must, it seems to us, vary 
from year to year according to the greater 
or less production of either of the metals, 
despite any conventional standard agreed 
upon by any number of governments. 
As a matter of fact, during the 116 years 
between 1760 and 1876, according to the 
Report of the United States Monetary 
Conference, published a few years ago, 
the ratio of value between silver and 
gold charged 107 times, the extremes 
being 13.64 and 17.83 of the former to 
one of the latter. In that period the ra¬ 
tio of value remained the same for three 
years only once, and for two years only 
nine times. Yet it is proposed by the 
present Conference to fix it now interna¬ 
tionally at 15) to one until 1900—for 19 
years ! Less than three years ago a sim¬ 
ilar Conference, held at the same place, 
dispersed without accomplishing any¬ 
thing, and we greatly fear the issue of 
this will be equally abortive. 
This unsatisfactory outcome is likely 
to be brought about, not only by the dif¬ 
ficulty of deciding upon a fixed ratio of 
value, but also because France and the 
United States, by whose persistence the 
Conference was assembled, are the only 
countries deeply interested in securing 
the objects for which it has come to¬ 
gether. France, having given a fictitious 
value to silver, has found that other 
countries in which it is cheaper have 
been paying her for her wares in that 
metal, while: draining her of gold for 
the goods they have sold her. Accord¬ 
ingly while the Bank of France, in 
1876 held, in round numbers, $300,000,000 
in gold, and only $125,000,000 in silver, 
the proportion at present is about $100,- 
000,000 of the former, and $250,000,000 
of the latter. What, then, can be more 
natural than that, being anxious to stop 
this excessive influx of silver and out¬ 
flow of gold, she should endeavor to 
persuade other nations to adopt her 
ratio of value, use their silver at home 
and thus remove the cause of her 
trouble. The United States, being one 
of the greatest silver-producers iu the 
world, is also naturally auxious to in¬ 
crease the market for it by inducing the 
whole of Europe to place no limits on its 
coinage. At present India is the chief 
market for the silver of the globe, that 
country, where it is the only legal tender, 
having taken two-thirds of the $1,800,- 
000,000 produced between 1835 and 1875. 
Moreover, of the $84,000,000 minted here 
since the passage of the Bland Silver Bill 
in ’78, two-thirds lie still in the Treasury 
owing to the impracticability of getting 
it into circulation, and it is thought that 
this could be more easily accomplished 
if other nations used silver freely. 
BREVITIES. 
If any of our subscribers who are entitled to 
it have not received our present Plant and Seed 
Distribution, we must insist it i6 not our fault. 
Every application has been filled. 
A telegram just received from W. I. Cham¬ 
berlain, Secretary of the State Board of Agri¬ 
culture of Ohio, says of the wheat crop in that 
State :—“ Condensed reports from 1,000 town¬ 
ship correspondent a give the prohable out¬ 
come of last year’s wheat crop at 85 per cent, 
of a full crop. The probable total yield, with 
an average season till harvest, will he 45,000,- 
000 bushelB.” 
Vantli a or Seneca Grass blooms this year 
at the Rural Farm May 5. This is botanically 
Hierochloa borealis, the generic name, from t wo 
Greek words meaning sacred grass, it being 
usual in the North of Europe to strew It before 
places of worship on certain festival or saints’ 
days. Its odor, which is between that of clover 
aud vanilla, is powerful—a few panicles suf¬ 
ficing to perfume a room. It Lb said to be of 
little value for cultivation, for the reasou that 
it has “ powerful, creeping roots and very 
slight Spring foliage." It seems, however, to 
make very slow progress at the Raral Farm, 
though it has a congenial situation to apread 
over, viz., moist meadows. 
Week before last the remark was made iu onr 
Agricultural News Department that out of .821 
students at the Vermont University and Agri¬ 
cultural College, 132 were medical students, 
leaving only 78 to study classics and agricul¬ 
ture. We have since been Informed, however, 
that not a single student in the University Is 
now studying agriculture, and that there have 
been only two stndents in the agricultural de¬ 
partment since its establishment sixteen years 
ago. The agricultural part of the University 
was started and has been kept up merely to ob¬ 
tain and ret on the Congressional appropriation 
for a State Agricultural College What would 
be tbe fit characterzation tor such a trick, ac¬ 
cording to the ordinary code of morality ? 
Corn Yields—A Correction of a “ Heed- 
less Statement."— We have just received the 
following note from Professor E. W. Stewart: 
“I was surprised at seeing, over the signature 
of Professor I. P. Roberts, on page 802 of the 
Rural, that ' Professor E. W. Stewart states 
in an article on coru which appeared some 
time ago in the Rural, that 100 bushels of 
corn per acre are an easily possible crop, 
and Professor Roberts properly speaks of such 
a statement as a great exaggeration, and that 
* the science of agriculture can never progress 
rapidly in the face of such wild inaccuracy.’ 
But attributing this to rue Is a greater * inaccu¬ 
racy ’ still, since I never made such a state¬ 
ment in the Rural or in any other paper. I 
presume my friend did not intend to misrepre¬ 
sent me, and let ns hope that he Is more care¬ 
ful of his facts in instructing his classes. This 
statement is the more annoying to me, since 
within a year I have written a number of ar¬ 
ticles to show the harm done by such loose esti¬ 
mates of the corn crops, and especially with 
reference to GO to 90 tons of green corn to the 
acre." 
A couple of weeks ago we expressed an 
opinion on this page that the provisions of the 
anti-oleomargarine bill introduced into the N. 
Y. Legislature were too severe to be passed or 
enforced. Since then the investigating com¬ 
mittee, through Mr. Fenner, has wisely reduced 
by about one-half the license fees to be re¬ 
quired from manufacturers aud dealers of the 
product. Last week we expressed doubts, here 
also, of the existence of foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
eases among the American cattle landed at 
BirkeDhead, Eoglaud, and since then the cable 
informs us that the report was unfounded. 
Greater care in such mutters is needed among 
either the tram-Atlantic veterinarians or news- 
gatherers. It is to be hoped, however, that 
the alarm the false report caused on this side 
of the water, will give rise to a stricter quarar- 
tine of all Imported cattle 60 as lo reduce to a 
minimum the danger of spreading the disease 
among our vast herds from any infected im¬ 
portation. Onr remarks here last week with 
regard to the objectionable character of that 
project of the “ Freed men’s Oklahoma Laud 
Association.” have been since emphasized by a 
telegram from Wichita, Kansas, daicd last 
Tuesday, announcing that '* Oklahoma " Payne 
had just received news there of the unfavor¬ 
able result of his trial before the United States 
Court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, for having 
started a similar project. The Bill which 
created such a commotion before the Legisla¬ 
ture of tills State last week, giving f2 000 a 
year to the Slate Entomologist, wa& taken 
down from the shelf last Friday and passed. 
It is satisfactory to see that our Slate Solons 
are not so pacyderuiatoie as to be Inseuslnle to 
a good pen-lashing. The dispute over the 
duty on ‘‘knltgoodB,” we commented on here 
last week, has since been temporarily settled. 
The Supreme Court has granted leave to file a 
petition for a retrial of the suit on tho decision 
in which the late ruling of the Treasury De¬ 
partment was based; and accordingly the 
Secretary bus now revoked his order changing 
the rate of duty. This re-establishes the specific 
duty o( 50 cents uponuil on all "knit goods” 
in addition to 85 per cent, ad valonm; and as 
it must lake a considerable time before a de¬ 
cision can he reached, the manufacturers need 
nm, just, yet carry out their threat of packing 
off to Canada Meanwhile there will be ample 
time for Congress to remove all doubt about 
the proper taxation by passing a law im¬ 
posing the higher rate, thus "protecting ’ 
alike the manufacturers and raisers of wool. 
