424 
JUNE 25 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER/ 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
EL BEST S. OABMAS. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1881. 
We are now preparing our Special 
Wheat Number, and we again solicit our 
readers to contribute any items in their 
observations or experience, which may 
seem of general interest. 
Sowing Timothy in the Spring. —Our 
farmers seem to be more in favor of sow¬ 
ing Timothy as well as clover in the 
Spring on wheat, instead of with wheat 
in the Fall. By this change wheat ac¬ 
quires a stronger growth in the Fall and 
is in better shape to stand the Winter. 
Wheat is often injured on our farm by 
Timothy sown in the Fall. We are con¬ 
fident of it, for the experiment of Tim¬ 
othy and no Timothy upon the same field 
has been tried. Timothy is to wheat a 
weed as much as dock, radish or sorrel, 
and robs it of needed nutriment in the 
same way. When Timothy is sown in 
the Spring, the Timothy is crowded and 
its growth retarded, while the wheat is 
benefited proportionately. 
--- - - 
When Indian com comes up yellow 
and feeble— when many plants, as in the 
present season, die owing to cold, cloudy, 
rainy weather, does it ever fully recover ? 
That is, doeB it yield as much under sub¬ 
sequent favorable conditions as it would 
have, had it come up green and vigorous ? 
We do not know. We have been told by 
farmers older and more experienced than 
ourselves that it makes no difference—in 
other words, that it may wholly recover 
from its feebleness in its early age. 
Dr. Hexamer suggested to us a few 
days ago that we plow up a part of our 
main field and plant again. In any ease 
the experiment would have proven in¬ 
structive. We could not act upon the 
suggestion, however, for the reason that 
our seed had all been planted and we care 
not to cross our corn with other seed that 
has been less carefully selected. 
--- 
Excepting only one year, the present 
has been the most favorable for the hay 
crop of any we have ever known at the 
Rural Farm. A good hay season is al¬ 
ways a good oat season and a bad one for 
corn. Many com plants have perished 
for want of sun and heat so that the 
stand is twenty-five per oeut. less than 
last year, while the second planting has not 
proven to be worth the cost of making it. 
Add to this that our main crop, planted 
upon poor land without manure, is of 
late kinds, which require a long and 
favorable season to ripen, and it will ap¬ 
pear that the Rural Farm com crop 
promises to bear a striking contrast with 
that of last year. But our wheat is 
looking better than ever before and we 
look for a heavy yield. What we have 
said as to the Rural Farm may also be 
said as to Long Island in general. An 
immense hay, wheat, oats, and we may 
add, potato crop and a small crop of In¬ 
dian com. 
-- 
Tidiness About the Homestead.— 
There is an old story to the effect that 
once upon a time there was a man in 
search of a housekeeper, and as appli¬ 
cants for the position arrived he arranged 
matters so that each one, as she entered, 
found a broom lying on the door 
in her way. All the women but one 
stepped over the broom and passed se¬ 
renely on. The one woman who stooped 
and picked it up secured the place of 
housekeeper solely from that fact. It 
was her only recommendation ; but her 
employer argued from that, that the 
woman was observant and orderly—two 
qualifications that he highly appreciated. 
Whenever you walk over sticks and 
brush and rubbish in your yard, that dis¬ 
figure its tidy appearance, instead of 
picking them up, remember that you are 
“ stepping over the broom,” and some¬ 
body will pass judgment upon you, by 
what you may be pleased to call very in¬ 
significant indices. But the judgment 
in most cases will be quite correct. If 
every man, woman and child about the 
premises were trained to pick up and re¬ 
move from view all rubbish and litter 
that he or she comes upon in walking 
about a yard or lawn, there would always 
be an appearance of ueatness and tidi¬ 
ness preserved at little cost or trouble. 
-♦- 
Boston’s Enterprise. —Enterprise in 
any just cause is worthy of honor , especial¬ 
ly if it iuvolves national interests, so we 
say “ Success to the Boston Exhibition,” 
But two things are necessary to complete 
success in the World’s Fair business, 
first, the city in which it is to be located 
should be all enthusiasm for the projeet, 
and, second, the public at large should 
realize that such an undertaking will be 
a good thing, for the industrial interests 
of the country, especially. It won’t do 
for the masses to become impressed with 
the idea that the exhibition is being run 
in the interests of any corporation or 
union of corporations. It must be cos¬ 
mopolitan. Philadelphia did nobly for 
the Centennial—that foretold success ; 
the country responded enthusiastically— 
that insured success. The lately de¬ 
ceased “ proposed ” World’s Fair of this 
city illustrated the other side of the 
question. The city failed to do its duty 
—failure was probable; the country 
“ would no more of it ”—failure was cer¬ 
tain. Now Boston has the '‘fever”! 
Every citizen of the “ Hub ” must catch 
it! Their enthusiasm must inspire the 
great public at large to render assistance; 
then we may safely invite our foreign 
friends to oome and see us, but not till 
then. 
- » ♦ ♦ - 
WORK 
And now comes the preparation for 
harvest. Happy is he who has all 
needed implements in good order ; for he 
not only enjoys the satisfaction of swift 
and thorough work, but the profit result¬ 
ing from making the most of time and 
labor. It is better to cut grass and 
clover a little too early than a little too 
late, especially where, as about the 
Rural Farm, they are in many fields 
badly lodged. 
Beans, cucumbers, sweet corn and 
peas may still be planted for succession, 
though the last-named rarely do well 
when planted so late. Celery for early 
use may now be planted out. Spinach 
may now be sown for early Fall use. 
Beets and mangels may be planted for 
stock up to “July 10, as well as beets for 
late Winter. Winter cabbages should 
soon be planted. 
■ ♦ * »- 
THE N. Y. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The above-named society, which meets 
monthly in this city, is doing a commend¬ 
able work in promoting the interests of 
horticulture. Florists and horticultur¬ 
ists, both professional and amateur, vie 
with each other in the exhibition of fruits 
and flowers, and the natural result is an 
elegant display of rich and rare varieties 
for the mutual enjoyment and profit of 
those who attend. The orchids and rho¬ 
dodendrons at the recent June exhibition 
were most attractive, though the display 
in elegant table designs, in cut flowers in 
vases, and in baskets and bouquetsof al¬ 
most endless variety was highly commend¬ 
able. The exhibition of strawberries 
was, perhaps, the chief attraction owing 
to the great variety and extraordinary 
size of the fruit. The new variety oalled 
the Bidwell received muoh attention 
from those interested in the “coming 
strawberry,” and it appears worthy of all 
the commendation it is receiving. While 
we have no word of criticism to offer, we 
shall, with our friends of the society, hail 
the day when the size of the exhibition 
hall may be Bomewhat commensurate 
with the needs of the thousands of flor¬ 
ists and amateurs who in and about this 
great oity should interest themselves in 
its progress. 
—-- 
CHARLOCK AND WILD RADISH. 
Of all the weeds which infest the 
Rural Farm, Charlock (Brassioa sinapis- 
trum) and Wild Radish (Raphanus raph- 
amstrum) are by far the worst. We have 
trustworthy evidence that laud seeded 
with these pests will produce them for 
twenty years though every plant that 
blooms may be pulled up before it forms 
seeds. We have known farmers have 
them out with the soythe while in blos¬ 
som, ignorant of the fact that every 
plant so topped would send out laterals 
from every joint left, each one of which 
would bear as many flowers as the entire 
plant if left to itself. For this reason it 
should be borne in mind that in pulling 
up the plants the work should not be in¬ 
trusted to careless hands who are indif¬ 
ferent whether they break off the stems 
or pull them up by the roots, Sncli 
labor is not only thrown away, but, as we 
have said, the cut plants will bloom 
many timeB more profusely than before. 
Field Mustard and Wild Radish have 
so taken possession of many farms 
on Long Island that oats are never 
sown. It seems to us quite inexpli¬ 
cable that after lying dormant in the 
soil for years through grass and corn, 
the seeds germinate so freely when 
oats are sown, to disappear again of¬ 
tentimes when wheat is sown, and not 
again to appear uutil the next seeding to 
oats. It seems that the only way to rid 
one’s land of these weeds is by persist¬ 
ent band pulling—the work of a lifetime, 
when once the land becomes foul. Both 
plants are annuals so that they are spread 
only by seed from year to year. 
■-- 
OUTLOOK FOR CROPS. 
The value of agricultural reports de¬ 
pends mainly upon their candor, trustwor¬ 
thiness and completeness. No one can 
read the large number of reports in this 
issue without being strongly impressed by 
their excellence in these respects. They 
are taken from about 2,000 reports, all of 
which our limits will not permit us to 
print. In making the selection our only 
guide haB been the desire to represent 
fairly all sections of the country. All, 
however, have been carefully analyzed 
and in ooming to the conclusions herein 
stated all have had due weight. Nor 
have a very large number of other 
sources of information been disregarded; 
but these have held merely a secondary 
place in our estimation, as our own re¬ 
ports are at once the latest, the most 
widespread and the most detailed. They 
all come from intelligent farmers well 
acquainted with the agricultural pros¬ 
pects and conditions of their respective 
sections; and to these our sincere thanks 
are hereby returned for the painstaking 
attention which they have given to their 
reports. 
Although corn is by far the most im¬ 
portant crop we raise, yet, like cotton at 
the South, wheat throughout the North 
attracts most attention as the great money 
crop. Judging from the present multi¬ 
tude of reports, as well as from those 
that have been published every week in 
our columns, and from a discriminating 
selection and careful study of a large 
number of other reports made either by 
the Agricultural Department, State 
Boards of Agrioultare or enterprising 
journals, wo cannot avoid the conclusion 
that the wheat crop of 1881 will be at 
least 20 per cent, below that of 1880. 
The latter has been estimated by the Ag¬ 
ricultural Department at 480,849,723 
bushels, so that, on this basis, this year’s 
aggregate crop oan hardly be far from 
the neighborhood of 380,000,000 bushels. 
For reasons heretofore given, however, 
we are strougly impressed with the opin¬ 
ion that the Department’s estimate was 
at ieast fifteen or twenty millions of bush¬ 
els too high; and should this opinion 
prove correct, a corresponding reduction 
should be made from the above estimate 
of this year's total yield. 
Winter wheat haB suffered far more 
severely than Bpring, and of the vast 
territory iu whioh this sort is raised, 
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and, probably, 
Kentucky, with parts of northern Mis¬ 
souri and southern Iowa and Wisconsin, 
have been the heaviest losers. Spring 
wheat appears to be as thrifty as last 
year, but, owing to the lateness of the 
season and the floods on bottom lands in 
the Spring wheat region, the acreage is 
somewhat less than last year’s, except in 
Northern Minnesota and the Red River 
oountry, in which a greatly enlarged acre¬ 
age has been put in, with highly promis¬ 
ing results. The harvesting of Winter 
grain has already advanced as far north 
as southern Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, 
Indiana and Ohio, bo that the recent 
rains will have come too late to benefit 
the fall-sown grain. Farther north, how¬ 
ever, they will doubtless be of considera¬ 
ble advantage. The total acreage under 
wheat this year is probably somewhat 
less than last year, as the inorease in the 
newly-settled States and Territories is 
more than counterbalanced by the de¬ 
crease in the older States. Our reports 
from the Pacific Coast havo not yet 
reached us, but, according to local pa¬ 
pers, the acreage under wheat is consid¬ 
erably smaller than last year, especially 
in the middle and northern districts, and 
the yield per acre is likely to be less. 
The character of the reports, however, 
seems to depend not a little on the quan¬ 
tity of grain still in the hands of the 
farmers in various places, the gloomiest 
forebodings coming from localities where 
most of last year’s crop is still on hand. 
The Oregon wheat crop, it is reported, 
will turn out a fair average. 
Oats are reported to be an unusually 
fine crop in all parts of the oountry, and 
with hay will probably be cheap next 
Winter. Two years ago the total crop 
was 407,970,712—about 50,000,000 bush¬ 
els less than the aggregate wheat crop. 
This year the crop of oats will, moBt 
likely, exceed that of wheat. Of 
the 44,149.479 bushels of barley pro¬ 
duced in 1879, the census returns assign 
12,578,486 bushels to California, 2,480,- 
400 to Iowa and very nearly 7,788,749 
to New York. The remainder of the crop 
was grown then, as it is this year, in 
small quantities iu the various States 
and Territories. The same remark is 
equally applicable to rye, of which an 
aggregate of only 19,863.630 bushels was 
raised in 79, a quantity to which Pennsyl¬ 
vania contributed 3,683,621, Illinois, 
3,121,689, and New York, 2,634,390 bush¬ 
els, leaving only a mere trifle to each of 
the other States and Territories. Both 
crops appear to have a full average acre¬ 
age this year and to promise an average 
yield. 
Corn, which far transcends in import¬ 
ance and aggregate yield all other cereals 
together, will be a comparatively poor 
crop this year, unless favorable weather 
until harvest shall belie present indica¬ 
tions. While the acreage is larger than 
last year, on account of the settlement of 
fresh districts on the border, and because 
not a little of the plowed-up Winter 
wheat land was planted with com, the 
stand is in most places reported poorer 
and the crop is nearly everywhere very 
backward. According to the Department 
of Agriculture, the total yield last year 
was 1,537,535,000 bushels, from which a 
deduction of fifteen per cent, would leave 
1,308,535,000 bushels as the aggregate of 
this year's crop. Inasmuch as the corn 
crop is generally made in July and Au¬ 
gust, however, there is still time for a 
great deal of improvement. 
Potatoes are generally reported a fair 
crop on a slightly increased acreage ; but 
as tiie Colorado pests are extraordinarily 
numerous, the late sorts have still a per¬ 
ilous time before them. Grass, the king 
of all crops, is flourishing right royally 
this year. Cotton, the deposed monarch, 
has extended his territory about two per 
cent, according to the latest and most re¬ 
liable accounts. The Btand is a good 
average generally, and enough labor is 
easily obtaiuable except in Texas and 
Southern Arkansas where the extraordin¬ 
ary amount of railroad construction 
aflords more remunerative employment. 
Tobacco culture has nearly doubled iu 
the decade between the census of ’80 and 
that of ’70 and the increase is continued 
the present year. The average yield per 
acre varies wonderfully, Massachusetts 
averaging 1,692 pounds per acre ; Con¬ 
necticut, 1,635; Kentucky, 755; Virginia, 
536; Mississippi, 282, and Georgia, 
219. Plenty of room for growing larger 
crops in most places whore the weed is 
grown ! The prospect before the lovers 
of fruit is of moderate cheer. Apples 
will be fairly abundant for an “off” 
year. Of pears there will be about 
enough to make their cultivation pleas¬ 
antly profitable. Peaoh loverB will have 
to pay pretty high for their favorites 
which have met with almost universal 
disaster, or eontent themselves with 
grapes and small fruits, cheap from their 
abundance. 
-—♦ ♦ » 
BREVITIES. 
How is your type-writer working now-a-days. 
Oh! J? 
When a man who haB spent a heartless, 
money-grabbing, self-absorbed life once gets 
a push down hill, it is no easy matter to stop. 
And those who Know him will smile at his 
vain straggles. 
Thb continued wet weather seems to be de¬ 
stroying the eggs of the Colorado potato beetle 
at the Rural Farm. 
Cultivate ihe corn. Do not wait for weeds 
to appear. The stirring and change, so to 
speak, of soil is as important as the destruc¬ 
tion of weeds. 
We are pleased to learn that the Japan Ma¬ 
ples in the garden of Mr. James Hogg (York- 
ville) have not been injured by the past Winter. 
We should like to hear how they have stood in 
Flushing and other places. 
Onb of oar temporary hands who was born 
and bred just opposite to the Rural Farm said 
to us a few days since, referring to our main 
corn field i “ That field is as poor as a beach. 
Did you expect to get a good yield of corn 
without manure?” 
Christmas trees, or dead evergreens of 
wostsorts.of medium size, particularly cedars, 
make sightly and excellent trelliBeB for vines, 
useful or ornamental. Trim off the branches 
to within a foot or so of the body, and plant 
the “ tree ” deep enough to receive complete 
firmness and solidity. 
Two more of our successful mangel raisers 
write us as follows concerning the gifts we 
sent them: 
Eds. Rural:— 
Accept thanks for the Aquapult received to¬ 
day per American Express. May your shadow 
never grow lees,! Yours truly, 
Mt. Pleasant. Out. James Grace. 
Eds. Rural:— 
Accept many thanks for the Keystoue Washer. 
My wife tried it to-day and says it works 
first-rate. Bbe had fled several others and 
pronounced ihem failures, but the Keystone 
does the washing well and easily. 
Very truly, yours, Wm. Moore. 
Camden, O. 
