440 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JULY 2 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBEBT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. JULY 3, 188]. 
The most, profitable method of rearing 
cattle is to give tbem all the food they 
can digest well from their birth up to the 
day of their slaughter, if reared for bul¬ 
locks. Byt if for making oxen and bulls 
and cows for breeding, then feed no more 
than to keep them in prime working and 
breeding condition. An ox may be too 
fat or too poor for good work, and so may 
a bull to get first-rate offspring or a cow 
to do well in the dairy or as a breeder. 
♦ »» 
There is one promise we made to our 
subscribers in connection with the seed 
distribution that we did not keep. It was 
to send off the seeds in the order in which 
the applications were received. Por this 
we apologize to our readers, many of 
whom have justly complained of ueglect. 
Those who first come should be first 
served, and we shall endeavor to make 
the promise good iu our next distribu¬ 
tion at least, which, beyond asking for¬ 
giveness, is the best we can do.' The 
kinds for our next Distribution are al¬ 
ready nearly settled upon, and we have 
reason to hope will j^lease our friends 
better than any of our previous efforts in 
this direction. Most of the kinds are now 
growing at the Rural Farm, so that there 
will be less chance of delay and disap¬ 
pointment. 
— ■> ♦♦ - — 
To Regulate the Bearing of Apple 
Trees. —This is a perennial subject of 
discussion, but no suggestion in regard 
to it has ever been made practical except 
the one which dictates careful attendance 
and the moderate animal pruning of the 
trees, with high fertilization of the soil. 
All the famously productive apple trees 
on record have stood in a rich soil, moist, 
but not wet. Careful pruning, manur¬ 
ing and mulching will, as nearly as pos¬ 
sible, secure good annual crops from ap¬ 
ple trees of any variety worthy of culti¬ 
vation, Under this system a small orch¬ 
ard of William’s Favorite near Boston is 
the chief support of a family. Thirty- 
eight trees of Fameuse in a city lot of 
about half an acre in Montreal, produced, 
in 1879, fruit that sold for $800, and the 
crop is rarely much less. These facts 
point to the remedy for the shy or inter¬ 
mittent bearing when the variety is natu¬ 
rally productive. 
-- 
The Goose Fish.— The ichthyopha- 
gists (short for fish-eaters j reveled in lux¬ 
uries of razor elams, horse-shoe crabs, 
water-snakes and other delicious tidbits 
at Starin’s Glen Island on the 26th. An 
especial feature of this ichthyophagous 
lunch was the goose-fish, one of the ug¬ 
liest living things ever modeled by na¬ 
ture, yet a delicacy in which the ichthy- 
ophagists especially delight. It is a large 
fish, some four or five feet in length 
and weighs sometimes 75 ponnds, but it 
is none too large for the name it bears, 
Cuvier called it Pfc tor ales pediculati, 
an acanthopterous fish of tne lophoid 
family, but “common folks” call it sim¬ 
ply goose-fish, sea-devil or wide-gab. 
The latter name is most applicable if we 
consider that entire sea-fowls, such as 
gulls and ducks, have been found within 
its “bosom.” We hope the “thing” 
can be appreciated by Borne one—we pre¬ 
fer shad. 
• -♦ ■» »- 
Crops. —From the great number of 
“crop reports” received from our kind 
friends during the i ast week, we present 
elsewhere to our readers a few speci¬ 
mens mainly from those parts of the 
country that wero unrepresented in our 
regular Crop Number of last week. 
Neither these nor the many others we 
have since read, however, make any 
material difference in our expressed esti¬ 
mate of the approaching harvest; for in 
it we made considerable allowance for the 
beneficial effects of the late rains. From 
all reports the advantages from these 
have been very great to the growing grain 
and grass crops, especially in the Spring 
wheat region of the Northwest, whence 
glowing accounts of the outlook for har¬ 
vest are now promising a yield per acre 
even larger than that of last year, but it 
is not denied that the aggregate acreage 
is less. The outlook for corn, however, 
has decidedly improved. 
Pressure for Ensilage in Silos._ 
One matter of inconvenience in ensilage 
is the loading down of the ensilage with 
heavy stones or other weights which ne¬ 
cessitate a great amount of hard labor. 
It has seemed to us that some device for 
giving the required pressure might be 
originated which would do away with the 
6tone weight system, and we understand 
that Mr. George T. Powell, of Ghent, N. 
L, is about to make the trial with screw- 
power. In the long walls of the silo 
eight one-and-a-lialf-inch iron screw's 
have been built, each having a thread 
four feet in length and furnished with a 
suitable nut. The ensilage will be first 
covered with planks, across which, and 
parallel to the long walls, two or more 
timbers will be placed, and at right 
angles with these, timbers with holes near 
the ends, for receiving the iron rods men¬ 
tioned, will be screwed down far enough 
to furnish the required amount of pres¬ 
sure. Row the device will succeed re¬ 
mains to be seen; at any rate we do not 
predict failure. 
Watering Horses. —One thing in the 
treatment of work-horses in hot weather 
we are disposed to deprecate, viz. : the 
custom of watering them three times a 
day and no more. It is simply cruelty 
on the part of man towards his beast, to 
compel the team to plow or mow from 
early morning until noon, or from noon 
until night without allowing it the privi¬ 
lege of a refreshing draught. It is in¬ 
convenient, many times, to water the 
team during the forenoon or afternoon, 
and we are apt to think the time thus 
taken, lost, but when the farmers’ mil¬ 
lennium eomes, there will probably be 
drinking troughs in every field, supplied 
from some elevated spring or from a run¬ 
ning stream. In the meanwhile, time 
“lost” in doing good, even though it be 
in behalf of the dumb animals, is well 
“ lost”—it may be regained. Could they 
speak it might be to say that they would 
like to be treated, iu the matter of limes 
for food and drink, somewhat as we— 
their wise masters—are accustomed to 
treat ourselves. 
IMPROVED BUCKWHEAT. 
It is said, in Christy’s New Commer¬ 
cial Plants, that the Tartarian Wheat 
(Polygonum Tartaricnm) ripens more 
quickly, has a hardier habit, and is less 
liable to suffer from the inclemency of 
cold summers, or of mountainous exposed 
districts, than the common buckwheat 
(Polygonum Fagopyrum), and when 
grown as forage, is also more productive 
and more nutritions. It also nourishes 
on poor, or badly prepared, or light, 
sandy soils. It produces more foliage, 
larger seeds, and agrees better with ani¬ 
mals fed on it, than the ordinary kind. 
It can also be sown both earlier and later 
in the season than the common buck¬ 
wheat. It largely increases the flow, 
and adds to the richness of cows’ milk ; 
while it fattens pigs and poultry of all 
kinds rapidly, and imparts to the latter 
when served np on the table, a delicious 
flavor. When fattened on this, mixed, 
half and half, with some other grain, a 
few days previous to killing, poultry 
always brings an extra price. 
We wish our seedsmen would import 
some of this Tartarian Buckwheat, and 
disseminate ft over the country, as it 
would be particularly valuable to culti¬ 
vate on the poor, sandy soils of our sea- 
coast, in mountainous districts, and the 
more northern latitudes of America, 
where the seasons are short and pre¬ 
carious. 
-- 
• FRANCE AND ITALY. 
The present diplomatic relations be¬ 
tween France and Italy are greatly 
strained; and should war not immedi¬ 
ately result from the hostile feeling it 
will be mainly due to the consciousness 
of Italian statesmen that unaided Italy 
cannot hope for success in a struggle 
with her formidable neighbor. The lat¬ 
ter’s occupation of Tunis, despit© the 
machinations and protests of the former, 
has bitterly exasperated the public sen¬ 
timent of the entire Peninsula, and al¬ 
ready the government has had to take 
measures for suppressing turbuleut pub¬ 
lic manifestations of hostility. Although 
both belong to what is called the “Latin” 
race, it is doubtful whether there 
are any other two countries now m Eu¬ 
rope, or indeed on the globe, whose sen¬ 
timents are so mutually inimical as those 
of these two rivals on the Mediterranean. 
Frenchmen may hate the Germans as 
heartily, but this hate is tempered with 
a dash of fear or respect, whereas their 
hatred of Italy, which owes its existence 
as a nation to French arms and which 
ungratefully went against France in the 
hour of her distress, is embittered with 
contempt, Italians, too, may hate Aus¬ 
tria, their old-time oppressor, as fiercely, 
but from Austria they have nothing at 
present to deprecate or dread, whereas 
France has just humbled their pride and 
is still threatening their influence by the 
virtual annexation of Tunis. In Great 
Britain and Germany where public sen¬ 
timent is moderate in its expression, war 
is the result of government deliberation 
and decision ; but in ardent Italy there 
seems considerable danger that the popu¬ 
lar exasperation may force the govern¬ 
ment into hostile action. In any event, 
the danger of a European conflagration 
has shifted from Turkey to Italy. 
THE RURAL’S EXPERIMENT CORN CROP. 
Quite a number of our good readers 
and friends condole with us that our 
maiu field of corn (that of which a dia¬ 
gram was given in a lato number) is like¬ 
ly to prove a comparative failure. But 
we are scarcely ei titled to any sympathy. 
If the results of experiments were known 
before they were tried, there would be 
little use in trying them. Experiments 
which are far removed from ordinary 
methods imply risk, and we look for fail¬ 
ure oftener than for success, though as 
we have bofore shown, success is some¬ 
times met with when least expected. We 
knew that the soil of that field was very 
poor; that the “sod” to be plowed under 
was hardly entitled to the name; we 
knew, in short, that we had to depend in 
the main upon superior cultivation for 
our crop of corn. It is unfortunate that 
the season has been so exceptionally un¬ 
favorable, for many will be unwilling to 
concede to thorough cultivation the half 
of what it is richly entitled to. 
Our manured plots of corn elsewhere 
on the farm are looking well for the sea¬ 
son, though in them the stand is bad and 
we have no expectation of anything like 
the yields of last year. 
The plots (one-twentieth of an acre 
each) in the unmunured field, upon which 
were used different kinds of concentrated 
fertilizers, show a marked difference in 
the size and color of the plants. One of 
the experiments in this field to which we 
look with interest is, whether the acre 
manured with 600 lbs. of special fertili¬ 
zers will yield enough more grain than the 
rest of the field to pay for its extra cost. 
The staDd is, in this acre, no better than 
in other parts of the field, so that the use 
of chemical fertilizers sown broadcast 
and harrowed iu, has little effect to insure 
a better stand. Had it been drilled in, 
possibly it might have been otherwise. 
Our implement manufacturers should 
devise a machine that would drop a ker¬ 
nel of corn every three inches and sow 
concentrated fertilizers at the same time. 
is admirable and still later cablegrams 
confirm the statement. For the first time 
since America began to supply the defi¬ 
ciency of French crops, there is a fair 
prospect that France will produce more 
than enough of wheat to supply do¬ 
mestic consumption, and all other crops, 
too, seem to be doing fairly. 
In Germany the wheat and rye crops 
are likely to torn out an average, and the 
latest advices, both telegraphic and mail, 
from Austria-Hungary, the Spanish Pen- 
insnla, Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and 
Roumauia, all speak in enthusiastic or 
hopeful terms of the outlook for the har¬ 
vest. Of all European countries, how¬ 
ever, the prospect in Russia seems the 
most favorable. Reports from Odessa, 
Taganrog, Sebastopol, Nicalaieff and 
Carkow, all unite iu prophesying a bet¬ 
ter wheat crop in Southern Russia this 
year than in the last twenty. Some time 
must yet elapse before the European 
harvest, however splendid, can come into 
market, and the needs of the various 
countries must until then, be supplied 
mainly from this country. It is there¬ 
fore not improbable that the earning 
harvest has assumed a brighter hue both 
from contrast with tho lute gloomy ones 
and from a not unnatural desire to lower 
the prices of the breadstuff’s that may be 
waufced from abroad before the days of 
plenty, by showing how slight mil be 
the demand for any foreign surplus when 
once the home harvest has been gathered. 
After having made all reasonable deduc¬ 
tions, however, on the score of exaggera¬ 
tion, it seems highly probable that al¬ 
most the only European market for our 
surplus breadstuff's next Fall and Winter, 
will be in the United Kingdom, and while 
tho need of foreign supplies will be some¬ 
what less there thau last year, the com¬ 
petition between foreign surpluses from 
Russia, Egypt, India, Australia. New 
Zealand, South America, the United 
States and Canada, will be keener than 
ever before. 
BREVITIES. 
CROP8 IN EUROPE. 
Whoever has watched the late Euro- 
ropean cablegrams concerning the con¬ 
dition of the crops must be convinced 
that the greater part of them embody 
mere rumors circulated by speculators, 
principally on this side of water, to raise 
or depress prices in the interest of their 
own schemes. The only way to determine 
the degree of credit that should be ac¬ 
corded these announcements is to com¬ 
pare them with the regular weekly crop 
reports published in European agricul¬ 
tural papers. True, these usually reach 
this side of the Atlantic from ten to four¬ 
teen days later than the cablegrams, but 
as it is highly improbable that any very 
material injury or benefit should occur to 
crops generally in that interval, when 
any great difference is reported, it is safer 
to trust the agricultural papers, which 
are nearly always honest, than the cable¬ 
grams, which are often “meant to de¬ 
ceive.” From a careful study of all at¬ 
tainable reliable sources of late informa¬ 
tion, we have come to the conclusion that 
Europe this year will be more nearly 
self-supporting than it has been at any 
time since the recent enormous increase 
iu the production and exportation of 
American oereals. Although the produc¬ 
tion of breadstufis in tho United King¬ 
dom will not be as great as it was before 
the present era of agricultural depression, 
yet it seems now certain that the harvest 
there will be at least moderately good. 
The latest reports, both by mail and 
cable, while still speaking despondently 
of tne agricultural condition as a whole, 
give strong assurance of a condition of 
crops loss unsatisfactory than at the cor¬ 
responding season within the last five 
years. 
The present condition of the growing 
wheat in France, according to the latest 
received issue of the Semaine Agricole, 
In Osceola, Mich., a froBt occurred ou the 
31st and 33d ult. It did little damage our cor¬ 
respondent informs us, 
And yet again: 
Dear Rural: L received the Charter Oak 
Plow yon sent us as a mangel premium, all 
right. Piease accept my sincere thauks for 
the same. Yours, truly. 
Maitland, Ontario. ‘ Edwin Khblkh. 
The wheat crop of the United States for 
18PJ, according to the report of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, was 448,756,080 bushels 
grown on 32,545,950 acres, whereas, according 
to the late eemins. it was 459,591,093 nushels 
grown on 35,487,065 acres—an increase of 10 ’ 
834,463 bushels and 2,941,115 acres. 
Many extremely interesting reports have 
been received from our readers iu various 
parts of the country for which we shall be 
unable to find space. We thank them all the 
same j beg their indulgence and ask tbefu to 
favor us occasionally iu the future. We would 
say also to our regular contributors that it is 
beyond our control that the Special Rural 
New-Youkkrb should interfere with the timely 
presentation of their articles. 
Ruiuhng the muzzle with Barbadoes tar has 
proved au effectual preventive against foot- 
and-mouth disease in cattle in every instance 
reported on lately in England. This is a very 
cheap and simple remedy, and we hope when¬ 
ever cattle may be thus affeoted in our own 
country it will be tried. Wn know that com¬ 
mon tar applied to the nostrils of sheep keeps 
off the destructive gad fly (<E*tris avis) ; it, is 
also beneficial for various aliments, applied 
alone or mixed with sulphur. 
Mr. Langster died tho other day— Mr. 
Langster, originator of Langster’s No. I Pea, 
better known as Daniel O’Rourke. It is now 
29 years ago since ho entered the pea for 
trial at Chiswick, in 1853. That year the 
celebrated race-horse Daniel O’Rourke won 
the Derby, andiu commemoration of the event 
Mr. Langster gave the name of the winning 
horse to Langetor’s No. 1. Since then this ex¬ 
cellent pea and its dark green, vigorous vine 
have become highly prized on both sides of 
the Atlantic, while few have known even tho 
name of its originator. 
A Great Profit in the Purchase ok a 
High-priced Short horn Bull,— At a lunch¬ 
eon preceding the Siddington sale of Short¬ 
horn cattle in Englaud, Lord Fltzhardingu, 
who presided, alluding to his purchase a few 
years ago of a 8hort-horn bull for 4,500 gui¬ 
neas (♦33,500), said people thought lie wub a 
fool for doing sobut he was happy to add 
that up to lust year in sales aud cervices the 
animal bad earned hitu 7,000 guineas ($35,000). 
besides getting him stock which the exhibits 
Irom Berkley Cattle Farm (his residence) 
showed had never been beaten. 
Reduction ok Letter Postage.— The Post¬ 
master General is doing a commendable work, 
and the country is to be congratulated on hav¬ 
ing so efficient an officer in that place; but if 
he wants to strike the chord that " makes the 
whole world kiu ” he will use his beat energies 
to secure a two-cent or even om-cent leiter 
postage. If a postal caid can be delivered for 
one cent, a letter can be for two, and that, loo, 
to any part of the United Stales. There is a 
growing public demand for such a change, aud 
we predict that it will come to pass in the no 
distant future, if tbePostmastei-Qeueralsuc¬ 
ceeds in reducing the cost of tho postal service 
a million of dollars by July 1st, as he expects 
to do, it will be a long step toward other 
needed reforms, among which the reduction of 
postage may be reckoned. 
