403 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 18 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal lor the Country and Suburban Home, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
EX.BKBT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. JUNE IS 1881. 
Of all the raspberries at the Rural 
Grounds, Caroline, strange to say, bids 
fair to yield the most fruit. We are 
glad indeed to have commended this va¬ 
riety so warmly to our readers. It will 
be remembered that this is a yellow berry 
of excellent quality. 
--- 
We are this season experimenting with 
a nnmber of grasses new to the Rural 
farm. Among them are Meadow Fescue 
(Festuca prater sis) ; Orchard Grass 
(Dactylis glomerata) ; Alfalfa (Medicago 
sativa) ; Italian Rye Grass (Lolium 
Italicum); Tall Oat Grass (Arrhenathe- 
rum aveuaceum). Most of them are 
sown with oats. 
- 
We have three specimens of the Dwarf 
Oatalpa. All were killed nearly to the 
ground by the past Winter. Near one 
of these grows the gulden Oatalpa, a va¬ 
riety of the Common Oatalpa, C. biguo- 
nioides. This was not injured in the 
least; while not far off the species was 
cut back several feet. Near this h s': i3 a 
specimen of the Oatalpa speciosa ; which, 
like the Golden Oatalpa, was not harmed 
in the least-. 
A beautiful shrub—quite neglected 
m our special shrub and tree number— 
is the Lilac Josikoea. The leaves do not 
resemble the common lilac at all, being 
longer, more pointed, less heart-shaped 
and glossy. They quite resemble the 
leaves of the Fringe Tree—Ohionanthus 
Yirginica. It bears its flowers not un¬ 
til the other lilacs have passed away— 
being now, as we write (June 10), in full 
bloom. The shrub is quite shapely in 
growth and extremely hardy. 
-♦'♦*♦ - 
We present a fine portrait of Geo. B. 
Loring and a sketch of his life by Levi 
Stockbridge, president of Massachusetts 
Agricultural College. The Rural has 
no personal acquaintance with Dr. Lor¬ 
ing and can therefore have as little to 
say in his praise as against him. We do 
but express the fervent hope that he will 
not disappoint the jnst demands of our 
farmers and that he will fully appreciate 
the great good which a faithful administra¬ 
tion of nis tffice may confer upon the first 
interest of our country. 
— - - - 
Dr. La wes tells us in another oolumn 
thathis experiments at Rothamsted (Eng¬ 
land) lead him to the conclusion that the 
influence of one dressing of dung may not 
be entirely at an end for 20 or 30 years 
or perhaps even a longer period. Again 
he says : “On the whole, as regards the 
question of economy, I am therefore in¬ 
clined to advise that the dung should be. 
carted from the yards to the field, and 
there be left in a heap until required for 
application; or that it should be applied 
direct from the yards. All labor expend¬ 
ed upon da ^ dds certainly to the cost, 
but does not aad with the same certainty 
to its value.” 
-- 
The only use that has heretofore been 
made of the hulls of cotton seed, as they 
come from the oil presses, is as fertilizers. 
Experiment, however, shows that they 
may be substituted for cotton waste in 
packing journal boxes, especially of rail¬ 
road cars, with great advantage, not only 
making a great saving to the company in 
the cost of the material, but also it is 
claimed, in the oil necessary, as well as 
rendering the heating of boxes impossi¬ 
ble. We understand the officers of many 
of the principal roads in the oountry 
are giving the hulls experimental trials 
with a view, if satisfactory, to their gen¬ 
eral adoption. 
The National Debt. —The financial 
affairs of our Government are in good 
condition, and no particular noise is 
made about it either. Last month the 
national debt was reduced $11,150,721 
and a further reduction thiB month of 
$10,750,000—which will probably be 
made—will make the total decrease for 
the fiscal year ending June 30 th a round 
hundred million. It is a satisfaction to 
know that, amid all the hurly-burly of 
politics, there is a wholesome work going 
on in the financial department of the the 
Government, and the splendid record 
which the United States is making in re¬ 
ducing the public debt so largely is some¬ 
thing of which we may well be proud. 
Add to this the fact that in three months 
over $745,000 have been saved to the 
Government by discontinuing unneces¬ 
sary mail routes, and we get some idea 
of what may be done by thorough-going 
officials. If we mistake not, there is 
still much to do in this work of reform, 
if we can judge from what has already 
happened. 
♦ » - . — 
The Insect Plague.— Insects are on 
the march again sweeping all before 
them. This year the loenst reappeared, 
and from the South comes theory ; “ The 
woods are full of’em.” In North Carolina, 
Alabama and Georgia they come in clouds 
and swarms, making so loud a noise as 
to drown an ordinary conversational tone. 
In Central Illinois the Chinch bng and 
Hessian fly are doing much damage to 
Winter wheat, and the farmers are plow¬ 
ing thousands of acres of it nnder, and 
planting with corn. The market gar¬ 
dens of New Jersey and various parts of 
N. Y. State are suffering from the rav¬ 
ages of the Army-worm. Indeed in the 
vicinity of Watertown several fields of 
grain have been destroyed and hundreds 
of acres of pasture have been stripped of 
everything green. The Colorado beetle 
also is doing even more than usual dam¬ 
age iu many sections of the country. We 
hope to have no discouraging reports 
from the Northwest at any rate. They 
have had theirshare of trouble from snow 
and floods. 
-4-M- 
The Outlook fob Honey.— The past 
Winter has been an exceedingly severe 
one on bees, large losses having been 
suffered in nearly every part of the coun¬ 
try. NothwithBlauding this fact, the 
outlook for a good honey-crop, as far as 
can now be ascertained, is quite favora¬ 
ble. Colonies have built up rapidly since 
warm weather came ou, and those apiar¬ 
ists who have been fortunate enough to 
carry their colonies through with little 
loss, may look for good yields and remu¬ 
nerative prices. In the Northern, Cen¬ 
tral and Northwestern States a heavy 
Summer harvest may be expected if noth¬ 
ing unfavorable arises later, but in Cal¬ 
ifornia the prospect is not as good, some 
of the best^honey-yielding blossoms be¬ 
ing a failure m many localities. In Los 
Angeles County it is thought that little 
or no surplus honey will be produced. 
Foreign reports say that Europe will pro¬ 
duce scarcely honey enough this year 
for local consumption, so we may find a 
market for much of our surplus over 
there. 
Abstemious Cattle. -One of the Amer¬ 
ican officers in the Egyptian Service, 
Major Prout, reports that the nomadic 
Bedouin tribe known as Bagarra, who 
roam over an arid district in Kordofan, 
have large herds of cattle which have de¬ 
veloped a remarkable capacity to live 
with little water. It is said that they 
require drink only every second or third 
day. As Major Prout puts it, the graz¬ 
ing area around each drinking place is 
consequently limited by the distance 
which cattle, grazing, can go in a day and 
a half. This power of withstanding thirst 
is a fact of no Bmall interest from the 
physiological point of view, and it may 
possibly come to have in the future a 
practical bearing upon the question of 
the utilization of some parts of our 
“ Groat American Desert*” The Bagarra 
cattle are of the humped variety and are 
reported to be both docile and beautiful, 
thoagh, naturally enough, the cows give 
bat little milk. The bulls are commonly 
trained as saddle or pack animals. 
BEST SEASON OF THE YEAB FOR COWS 
TO CALVE. 
With cows for the ordinary purposes 
of the farmer, March into May, according 
to the climate, is the best season to calve. 
For the dairyman who wishes to make 
Winter butter, September and October 
are the proper months. With the high- 
priced improved breeds, there is a differ¬ 
ence of opinion as to the best time for 
them to drop their calves. Some prefer 
Spring, as the young then have six 
months before them of warm weather in 
which they grow more rapidly than in 
cold ; and as the Winter approaches they 
get sufficient size and strength to enable 
them to go through its rigors without 
check, and come out lusty yearlings. 
Others, however, prefer Autumn, as they 
contend the calf gets a finer, thicker 
coat of hair, and turns out a hardier ani¬ 
mal, for having its first few months of 
growth in cold weather. These maintain 
that if they provide warm shelter and 
good, dry bedding for the calf, and feed 
it properly, the Winter will not check its 
growth, and at three years old it will get 
as large a size as if dropped in the Spring. 
But then, we may ask, with all this warm 
cosseting, how can it acquire extra hardi¬ 
ness more in Winter than in Summer ? 
Another argument in favor of Winter 
rearing, is that the calves are not tor¬ 
mented with flies as in the Summer, 
whioh pests often check their growth. To 
this we answer, that during the day in 
those months when insects are most an¬ 
noying, we shut up our calves in roomy, 
well aired, darkened stables, where flies 
do not enter, and let them out into a 
grass pasture for feeding and exercise 
during the night. In this way we keep 
them from being tormented and insure a 
rapid, steady growth. 
-- 
PRICE8 OF IMPROVED CATTLE. 
If rather an extraordinary price is paid 
at any time for a superior bull or cow, a 
great hue and cry is set up against it on 
the part of many, and a person thus in¬ 
vesting his money is stigmatized as fool¬ 
ishly extravagant, although in so doing, 
he may not only benefit himself, but, 
what is much more important, greatly 
enricli his country by the subsequent 
highly valuable produce of these animals 
being disseminated over it. At the same 
time these people who so sharply criti¬ 
cise such investments, turn ronnd and 
pay perhaps much more extravagant 
prices for jewelry, pictures, statuary, 
bric-a-brac, luxurious furniture, and 
many other things which are of no real 
utility, and which, instead of adding to 
the wealth of the country, tend rather to 
impoverish it. 
For a century past or more, the most 
intelligent and enterprising breeders of 
domestic animals in Great Britain, have 
been in the habit of paying five to ten 
times as much for superior stock as the 
breeder of other European countries. 
Now see the wealth derived from so 
doing. The whole intelligent stock- 
breeding world is their customer. Con¬ 
sider the United States, and what high 
prices our intelligent breeders have paid 
abroad in the first instance for superior 
animals, and the large profits they are 
now deriving from the rearing of their 
produoe. 
We began upwards of a century ago 
with the importation of blood horses; 
next came Merino sheep ; then followed 
Short-horn and other choice breeds of 
cattle, together with mutton sheep and 
improved swine. Now look at our enor¬ 
mous exports of fine carriage and road¬ 
ster horses ; improved cattle, sheep and 
swine, together with their freBh and salt¬ 
ed meats. Had we not first imported the 
originals of these, although obliged iu 
many instances to pay exorbitant prices 
for them, and Binoe bred and reared with 
intelligence and care, we could at this 
moment be exporting scarcely a dollar’s 
worth, instead of the many million dol¬ 
lars’ worth we bow send abroad; nor 
oould we be able to feed and clothe our 
people as comfortably and well as it is 
done at the present time. 
-»♦» - - — 
BREVITIES. 
Attention is called to the communication 
of C- E. Thorne of the Ohio State University, 
as possibly of great importance to our farmers 
in the near future. 
The veteran editor, Mr. A. B. Allen, says, 
"The Cattle Number la superb, and makes 
the Rural worthy of distinguished and honor¬ 
able mention the countiy over.” 
The Russian White Oats so extensively ad¬ 
vertised the past season are behind any of the 
other ten kinds growing at the Rural Farm. 
They may, however, yield better. 
Oub specimen of the new Magnolia hvpo- 
lenca five feet high was killed back three feet. 
Soulange’s Magnolia, growing within 30 feet, 
was not harmed in the wood, though all of the 
flower buds were killed. 
In the ground plan of the Friesian farm 
house and cow stable in last issue, the follow¬ 
ing explanation should have been inserted:— 
A. A, cow stables; B. B, B, B, B, living-rooms; 
C. wagon house; D, horse stable; E, brick 
sidewalk. 
The Black Foiled Angus is not the only 
polled breed that “ nicks ” well with the Short¬ 
horn ; at the last fa!-stock 6bow in London the 
Prince of Wales took the cup for cross-bred 
Bteers with the produce of a Short-horn bull 
and a Red Polled Norfolk cow. 
Attention is called to the fact, as stated in 
the Notes from the Rural Grounds, that of all 
the kiDdB of grapes growing there, Victoria, 
a Concord seedling of the late Mr. T. B. MU 
ner, was the only kind not harmed by the 
past trying Winter. 
The Rural Farm is looking for an almost 
complete failure in its Indian corn crop this 
season Incessant rains or cloudy skies and 
cool weather prevent any growth. The plants 
are email, tender and yellow. Many are dyiDg 
from rot—or what florists might call " damp¬ 
ing i ff." 
Mandrake is recommended by the Mark 
Lane Express of London, for the destruction 
of the liver fluke in sheep. This Mandrake is 
botanical! y Podophyllum peltatum found al¬ 
most everywhere ip rich woods. It is sold by 
all druggists and from ten to twenty grains, 
mixed with meal, are recommended for a dose. 
That adversity has its uses for nations as 
well as individuals is shown by statistics re¬ 
ferring to the expenditure for Intoxicating 
drinks iu Great Britain- During the year 1880, 
the expenditure was 122.279 378 -pounds ster¬ 
ling, which is lees by 5.804,555 pounds than in 
the previous year, when the country was more 
prosperous, and the history of Great Britain 
in this respect, has for many years shown that 
the amount expended for intoxicating drinks 
has invariably been in proportion to the na¬ 
tional prosperity. It is a fine method of dis¬ 
playing gratitude. 
Salt for Cattle is absolutely necessary 
for their health, and if theydo not get It pretty 
regularly they are liable to disease. The very 
best kind of suit for cattle is the Liverpool 
r«ek. It comes in large lamps and can be 
broken up to any convenient size for use, 
When in stable alwayB keep a lump of this in 
the feed box for each animal to lick at pleas¬ 
ure, and when the cattle are turned oat to 
pasture put a large block of salt into an open 
box for their use. Rain does not dissolve it. 
If fine, common salt is put Into a trough for 
them, rain dissolves it aud the cattle are apt 
to take too much at a time ; but of the rock 
salt they lick Just as much aB is necessary for 
them and as required for their health. 
We have now, for the purpose of testing it, 
600 feet of barbed wire fence—three wires— 
making 1,800 feet of wire. The posts are set 
11 feet apart. The coat for wire and labor was 
$14.00. The fence runs along a little ereek in 
which the cows iove to stand in hot weather. 
On the other side of the fence is a wheat field. 
The first day after completion, p. young Jersey 
cow made her way between the wires into the 
wheat field, causing several wounds upon her 
back, which, though they bled freely, did not 
prove very Berlons. We do not presume that 
she will do so any more; but it Is to be hoped 
that farm animals in general may learn the 
efficacy of barb-wire with less liability to seri¬ 
ous accident*. That the cow escaped with in¬ 
juries so slight is a mystery to us. Her hair 
was found on five different hart-points. 
What the “ Derby” race is in England the 
"Gi and Prix ” is in France. Each is the 
great race of the year in its own country. To 
win the "Derby ’’ is the highest ambition of 
every British lover of horse-flesh, commoner, 
lord or prince, and next to winning the " Der¬ 
by,” to win the "Grand Prlx"ls the highest 
ambition of eveiy French horse lover. Within 
a fortnight the Honor of winning both these 
races has fallen to Americans, Mr. Lorillard’s 
Iroquois having, the other day, borne off the 
"blue ribbon ” of the English turf, and Mr. 
Keene's Foxhall having yesterday carried off 
the " bine ribbon" of the French turf. Al¬ 
ready America had beaten "creation” in 
breeding choice cattle, and now it seems it 
has done the same in breeding the highest 
equine type—the thoroughbred. As a nation 
of producers seeking markets everywhere, 
whatever serves to advertise American enter¬ 
prise and skill is of advantage to us, and 
these two victories, following each other 
closely, cannot fail to force the admiration 
of foreigners for the products and producers 
of this country. 
A financial and agricultural society has 
just been formed in Paris with the professed 
object of seeking in this country compensation 
for the losses French agriculture has suffered 
by competition with our breadstuffs and meat. 
The prospectus of the company tells some 
won de if a I "yarns” sb an inducement to the 
gullible to take shares—yams almost as mar¬ 
velous as those in some of the prospectuses of 
mines in the Far West. The company has 
purchased 100 000 acres of land in Texas for 
the modest price of $25 an acre, from which it 
expects a yearly return of $40 per acre. It 
seems that there are two seasons in the Lone 
Star State. "From November to May is the 
season for wheat, and from May to November 
is the season for corn. The country is of sur¬ 
prising fecundity and is traversed by the great 
railroad of San Francisco.” Texas is yet in its 
infancy, the projectors say, but this is just the 
"psychological hour” for investing money 
profitably there; first, because the profit on 
wheat is to amount to $2L per aero while the 
corn fieldB are to return $20 75 per acre ! ! ! 
The French consuls in Texas or the French 
Minister at Washington should investigate 
this agricultural El Dorado, which, the pros¬ 
pectus says, is situated in “ Parker and Palo 
Pinto ” counties. The map places these coun¬ 
ties away in northwestern Texas, a region that 
is subject to *' vexation” from Indian incur¬ 
sions. Unimproved laud in these two counties 
should be worth from 25c. to *8 50 an acre. 
Is no place on the globe is such nicely dis¬ 
criminating attention given to the quality of 
meats as in the London market. Accordingly 
the prices paid there for the beef of different 
breeds of cattle form a fair criterion of its ex¬ 
cellence. The cattle brought to the Smithfleld 
market arc of two kinds, according to the sea¬ 
son—grass and stall-fed. In the first class are 
included a small supply of West Highlanders, 
slow to mature, but affording such choice 
joints that they generally make prices above 
the ordinary top figures. These have never 
been introduced into this country, but in view 
of their extreme hardiness and the gamey ex¬ 
cellence of their flesh, they ought to " pay ’’ in 
bie&k mountainous sections where they would 
have to work hard for a living, as they do in 
their native home. Next comes the Hereford 
bullock, which comes to market onlv as grass 
beef in late Summer and Autumn. The supe¬ 
rior quality of grass-fed Hereford beef, and the 
top prices for it in the London market are 
doubtless not the least among reasons for the 
growing popularity of this breed on the West¬ 
ern plains, where grasB iB the only, or almost 
the only, feed and, whence a great deal of the 
best beef goep to the English maiket. Devons, 
Short-horns (tf grass, Welsh cattle and those 
from the Netherlands and ti e Spanish Penin¬ 
sula follow in order. From Cbrbtmas to Jane 
the supply is of Btall-fed beasts, and of iheie 
the first cross between the Polled Angus and 
the Short-horn—long a favorite sort in the 
Smithfleld market—brings the highest price, 
followed by the Polled Scot, the Devon, Short¬ 
horn and imported stall-fed cattle. 
