456 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 8 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal (or the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
KLBKBI S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 9 1881. 
A SECOND NATIONAL HORROR. 
Just as the Nation is preparing on this 
bright gladsome Saturday to eelelrate 
with wonted joy and thankfulness the 
signing cf the Declaration of its Inde¬ 
pendence, a horror strikes the national 
heart and conscience such as thrilled the 
country only once before in itB history, 
when the lightning flashed all over our 
broad land the news of the horrible 
tragedy that closed the late conflict. 
The assassination of President Lincoln 
it was hoped would be, like the strife 
that led to it, the solitary horror of its 
kind in the history of the Union ; but 
alas ! the cable has just flashed hither 
the newB of President Garfield’s foul 
assassination. With only the meagerest 
news of the dreadful fact as we go to 
press, we can only express our utter 
abhorrence of the dastaidly crime, our 
regret at such a mournful close of a 
bright career, and our heartfelt sympa¬ 
thy with the widow and children so sadly 
and awfully bereaved. 
-- 
Let us again express the hope that 
those of the Rural Club to whom the 
pyrethum seed was sent will tend their 
plants carefully and save all the seed. 
Notice to those sending us speci¬ 
mens of wheat.— Those competing for 
our wheat premiums will please send the 
five heads as soon as ripe. Write the 
address and name of sender upon the 
parcel or box in order to avoid mistakes. 
The value of feeding substances is a 
subjeot of the greatest importance to 
farmers, but it is by no means studied as 
it should be. In the article on “ Farm¬ 
ing for Boys and Girls,” (page 462) will 
be found a list of comparative values of 
food substances, to which we call the at¬ 
tention of older farmers and those 
correspondents who so frequently write 
for special information upon this subject. 
In the table given will be found all those 
waste products of which heretofore very 
little information has been giveD, but 
which are of general importance in ag¬ 
riculture. 
— _— -- 
A Word of Caution. —It is no un¬ 
common thing in the country to hear of 
the injurious effects of cold-water drink¬ 
ing in extremely hot weather. Some¬ 
times ice-water is taken to the harvest 
field which, when drank excessively, as 
is apt to be the case, is injurious, and 
even the cold water from the “ north 
side of the well” is harmful. It is bet¬ 
ter by far to drink moderately cool water 
frequently, than to take a large quantity 
when one is very thirsty. Sometimes 
some such beverage as Ginger Beer or 
Root Beer satisfies thirst quite as well. 
Almost every family has its favorite re¬ 
cipe for making “ Summer drinks,” and 
we advise them to make use of such dur¬ 
ing the hot weather. 
-♦♦♦- 
Stages of oats if carelessly put to¬ 
gether are often destroyed by exposure. 
Every farmer may know that the heads 
of bundles—of every bundle—should be 
kept higher than the butts or straw end. 
But indifferent hands often place the 
heads lower, or at. least on a level with 
the butts, thus inviting mildew and decay. 
If oats are to be saved for seed, it is best 
to wait until they fully ripen before cut¬ 
ting. If the straw and leaves are to be 
used for food, it is best to out while the 
oats are in the dough state and while the 
leaves and stems are still green. Oat 
straw so harvested is thought to be very 
much more nutritious than com fodder, 
and nearly equal to Timothy. Many, 
indeed, cut and house oats the same as 
hay, and believe it to be fully as valuable. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
The International Cotton Exposi¬ 
tion. —A telegram from Atlanta Ga., 
dated June 28, says an important change 
has been made in the policy of the In¬ 
ternational Cotton and Industrial Exposi¬ 
tion to be held there next October. Di¬ 
rector-General Kimball had just returned 
briugiug heavy subscriptions to the Ex¬ 
position stock from Chicago, Louisville, 
St. Louis and other cities. These with 
those already obtained assure the finan¬ 
cial safety of the enterprise. Accordingly 
the Executive Committee voted unani¬ 
mously to admit desirable exhibits of 
every kind of industry from all parts of 
the world without any charge for floor 
room, the financial outlook justifying 
this new and important change of pro¬ 
gramme. The Treasury Department, 
at Washington, has just issued a circular 
to Collectors of Cufcoms and others in re¬ 
gard to the importation of merchandise 
to be shown at the Exposition. All ex¬ 
hibits of machinery and other goods from 
abroad arriving at the ports of Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia or Beaufort, 8. C., 
will be kept in a part of the Exposition 
building specially reserved for them, in 
charge of a custom-house officer. Should 
the owners or their agents sell any of 
the foreign goods so bonded, jiermission 
for their withdrawal will be given on pay¬ 
ment of the assessed import duties, and 
license to re-export goods not sold will be 
granted after the close of the Exposition. 
-» » ♦- 
THE COMET. 
The appearance of a wandering vis¬ 
itor in the northern heavens is causing 
much excitement among the “ common 
people” who are anxious to know what 
good or evil, if either, it portends, and 
amoDg the astronomers who, wish to 
know when, if ever, it was here last ; 
and when, if ever, it will visit the solar 
system agaiD. Comets have always 
caused wonder and excitement and there 
are a few people still living who are su¬ 
perstitious enough to think that some 
dreadful event will accompany the comet 
of 1881. What if it touches the earth ? 
Perhaps we can answer more correctly 
after such an event takes place, but we 
don’t imagine it will interfere with our 
terrestrial affairs in tbe least—since it is 
now moving away from the Earth’s orbit 
—and if it did, we are quite confident it 
would get the worst of it. The oomet of 
1770 got tangled up in the satellites of 
Jupiter, but they were not affected by it, 
and after a social visit of four months it 
bade them adieu. 
The point which is perplexing the as¬ 
tronomers now, is to find whether it is a 
new comet or an old one. This fact will 
be settled when ilie nature of the orbit of 
the comet is ascertained ; then if that 
corresponds with any one of the 300 
comet-orbits on record, it may be confi¬ 
dently asserted to be an old one, since no 
two comets ever travol in exactly the 
Bame orbit. The latest conclusions ar¬ 
rived at concerning the orbit of the 
present comet are that it is quite similar 
to that of the comet of 1807, though it 
varies from it a little. The difference 
however, may be due to some miscalcula¬ 
tion, but it is generally considered by 
astronomers to be a new one. At this 
writing the oomet is computed to be 
about 43,000,000 miles distant from 
the Earth. On the whole, its coming 
was a noteworthy event, as it is probably 
no ordinary celestial tramp, but gives 
evidence of belonging to a first-class 
family of comets, and it will receive as 
much attention as Donati’s of 1858. 
-♦- 
THE NEW YORK EX. STATION MIX-UP : 
HOW IT STANDS. 
At a meeting of the officers of the N. 
Y. Ex. Station in March, it was decided 
at once to buy a suitable farm, A com¬ 
mittee was appointed to examine and re¬ 
port. It was soon whispered that the 
Comptroller had better be seen and on 
calling upon him it wob learned that he 
had doubts of the constitutionality of 
the appropriation, and that he would 
submit tbe question to the Attorney - 
General. After waiting two months for 
an answer, a committee called upon him 
again and found that he had not yet ob¬ 
tained the desired opinion, but he then 
further said, before a committee of four 
persons, that he would abide by the opin¬ 
ion when given. Mr. Swan, the presi¬ 
dent of the Board, then called upon 
Judge Folger and submitted the law to 
him, and after careful consideration he 
said that, although the phraseology of 
the bill was a little peculiar, he had no 
doubt of its constitutionality. In a few 
days the Attorney-General gave an opin- 
iouagreeing with Judge Folger’s. Gen, 
Curtis tlen called upon Comptroller 
Wadsworth and was told that the opinion 
had been rendered and it was in favor 
of the Station. Mr. Curtis at once called 
a meeting of the board on June 16th. 
Again an intimation was given to the 
Board that they had better see the Comp¬ 
troller, and on calling upon him they 
were again told that, although these opin¬ 
ions had been rendered, he had consul ted 
his own private lawyer who, had given 
him an opinion adverse to the bill, and that 
he should act on his advice and refuse to 
pay over the money. 
A meeting was then held at which the 
conclusion was arrived at that it was bet¬ 
ter to try and get an amendment to the 
law through the Legislature than to try 
to compel the Comptroller to pay the 
appropriation by legal means, and accor¬ 
dingly a bill was brought before the Leg¬ 
islature and seems to be in a fair way to 
pass. These are the facte, but we can’t re¬ 
sist the conviction thatthe politicians have 
something to do with this notion. It 
seems that they do not mean to let this 
money be used so as to be of benefit to 
the farmers unless by some means they 
themselves can have the first sucking of 
(he orange. 
We may be wrong in this, but there 
are many things that force such couvic- 
lionsuponns. Let us hope a law may 
be passed helping the matter out of its 
dilemma, but it may be feared when 
this trouble is settled we may still find 
something else in the way, for an un¬ 
willing mind is usually fruitful in ob¬ 
jections. 
-♦♦♦- 
CROPS AND THE WEATHER 
The timely rains in late May and early 
June followed by favorable weather in 
most parts of the country, have bene¬ 
fited growing crops almost everywhere 
to au extent that could hardly have been 
anticipated by the most sanguine, two or 
three weeks ago. Winter wheat in 
the northern parts of the region in which 
it is grown, and Spring wheat every¬ 
where have thriven exceptionally well 
under those kindly influences. The har¬ 
vest of Winter wheat is now in full tide 
in Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Vir¬ 
ginia, the southern parts of Illinois, In¬ 
diana, Ohio, andMaryland, and although 
the change of weather came too late to 
greatly help the crop in this belt and 
south of it, the lastest reports speak con¬ 
siderably better of the outcome than 
earlier reports did of the outlook. 
Through most of this region not much 
over half a crop was anticipated, but the 
probability now is that there will be 
nearly 75 per cent, of a full average crop 
where least was expected, while iu Mis¬ 
souri and Kansas the aggregate yield will 
most likely be over last year’s. From most 
parts of the Northern Spring Wheat re¬ 
gion and in nearly all parts of the Winter 
wheat area reports have wonderfully 
brightened with the brightening pros¬ 
pect. 
Where the crop was most backward 
and where it suffered most from drought 
up to the beginning of Juue and from 
excessive rains for a short time thereafter, 
the late improvement is most conspicuous. 
It must not be supposed, however, that 
there are no gloomy reports, for there 
are still very many of them, and from 
large sections, too, but the general out¬ 
look in every State where the wheat has 
not been harvested, is much—very much 
—better than it was even three weeks 
ago. The widespread storms of the past 
week, while doing much local injury, 
are not likely greatly to affect the total 
outcome. It is only a short time since 
the wheat orop of Ohio was estimated by 
the observant Secretary of the State 
Board of Agriculture, at eighteen per cent 
less than last year’s total yield, whereas 
by the latest report he now puts it at 
6,000,000 bushels more. Even in Michi¬ 
gan, Illinois and Northern Indiana where 
the wheat prospect was the most cheer¬ 
less, late bright weather has dispersed 
much of the gloom. Oats, rye, barley, 
potatoes, corn -and all growing orops 
lave also been correspondingly helped 
jy the influences that have done so much 
or wheat. Great as the improvement 
ias undoubtedly been, however, the most 
exultant reports come, not from the farms 
of the country, but from the newspaper 
offices of the cities. 
—-- 
HOPS AND 8KUNKS. 
This is an age of so-called rehabilita¬ 
tion. It was only the other day Mr. 
Froude showed the falsity of the general 
opinion that Henry VIII. was a tyrant 
and a rather bad husband ; another his¬ 
torian proved—conclusively to himself— 
that Nero was as excellent a man as he 
was a fiddler ; while an essayist demon¬ 
strated what a simple-minded, loving, 
faithful soul was Judas Iscariot. Modern 
literary research and ingenuity are doing 
a good deal to pull down the honored and 
loved characters of olden times and to lift 
up the despised and abhorred. It has 
been notioed by sociologists that certain 
characteristics broadly distinguish all 
classes of the community in certain ages 
—the impulse to them is in the air and 
affects alike the learned and the un¬ 
learned, the city-man and the country¬ 
man, each manifesting the special pecu¬ 
liarities of his era in reference to his sur¬ 
roundings. Thus the impulse that led 
the essayist tbe other day to find virtues 
in Iscariot, led one of our legislators last 
week to find merits in the skunk. The 
genius so deeply imbued with the spirit 
of his age is Mr. J. Stanley Browne, of 
Schenevus, Otsego County, New York. 
So strongly was he convinced of the ad¬ 
mirable qualities of the animal that, on 
June 27, be introduced a bill into the 
Legislature of this State making it a 
misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of 
§10 for each offence, for any person 
at any time to kill any—well—polecat, 
or to sell, offer for sale or have in his 
possession the pelt of such 'an animal. 
Afterwards he amended the bill by ex¬ 
empting all the counties in the State, 
except those interested in hop-growing ; 
for, according to him, every r -k that 
visits a hop-yard is worth §50 to the 
owner. A large grub to which the pole¬ 
cat is a destructive enemy, is doing a 
world of damage to the hop-growiug in¬ 
dustry of this State. Quitting their 
holes at night, the skunks visit the hop- 
yards in search of this pest which they 
devour “ by the millions.” The intro¬ 
duction of the bill was met with a storm 
of ridicule and disapprobation, probably 
on account of the appositeness of the 
malodorous subject to the recent conduct 
of the Legislature. The friend of the 
skunk, however, persisted, and the bill 
was referred to the Committee on Agri¬ 
culture, who reported it favorably. It is 
to be hoped our legislative Solons will 
suspend their wrangling long enough to 
pass this measure for the benefit of the 
growers of hops and the drinkers of 
beer, and that others equally imbued 
with the same spirit of the age will be 
equally successful iu finding virtues in 
their particular “ skunks” as Mr. J. 
Stanley Browne has been in finding vir¬ 
tues in his. 
i BREVITIES. 
I 
> _ 
Harvest over, it will pay us to give good 
attention to cucumber and other pickles, Lima 
beans, late sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, 
cabbages, watermelons and rnuekmelons. 
We have just received the following note 
from a traveling agent who visits all the chief 
manufacturers of agricultural implements 
throughout the country r “ Your crop reports 
must have been very accurate, as all the imple¬ 
ment men say they correspond with the reports 
from their agents, and that wherever you re¬ 
port the wheat crop bad, they have had to call 
in their reapers, etc., and send them to those 
places where the crops were reported good in 
the Rural." 
Dr. G. B. Loring, our new Commissioner of 
Agriculture, says he will discontinue ex-Oom- 
missioner Le Due’s experiments in tea culture 
and most of the seed distribution, and devote 
the main effort of the Department to examina¬ 
tion of the agricultural value of government 
land in tbe West; to the study of insects pests 
and of climatic changes ; to the collection of 
careful statistics about agriculture In this and 
other lands, and especially to forestry which 
has hitherto been greviously neglected. 
Of laBt year’s total wheat crop, amounting 
to 481,000 000 bushels, it was estimated that 
400,000,000 bushels were Winter wheat,aud only 
81,000.000 bushels, Spring. The Winter wheat 
crop this year is acknowledged by almost all 
to be Bhort in acreage and yield; the urea of 
the Spring wheat crop is eertaluly not larger 
this year than last, and however excellent the 
stand may be now, any increase of total yield 
will hardly counterbalance the decrease in the 
aggregate of Winter wheat—the vaticinations 
of many market reporters notwithstanding. 
Our present 11 Old Probabilities " had better 
resign! He can’t see 34 hours iuto the future 
with a double, back-action telescope! One 
day last week we feared to commence cut¬ 
ting Timothy and clover, on account of the 
threatening aspect of the clouds. But on ar¬ 
riving at the office we found that the weather 
report declared “ fair and warmer to-day.” 
and " to-morrow the 6ame conditions will pre¬ 
vail," so we telegraphed to the Rural Farm, 
“ Out.” It began raining within an hour! 
We were “victims of misplaced confidence,” 
and wanted much to sue the “old man” for 
damages. 
The crop reports from across the Atlantic 
are still as favorable as last week except those 
from Great Britain, where the weather has 
been less propitious. In estimating the prob¬ 
able effect of the European harvest upon 
prices of American cereals, however, it must 
be borne in mind that Europe is now living, to 
a great extent, from hand to mouth, the stock 
of breadstuffs being unusually low owing to 
the short crops of last year and the disinclina¬ 
tion to pay our prlccB lor our products except 
under the stress of necessity, This scarcity 
Beems to be greater just now on the Continent 
than in the United Kingdom, as shipments to 
the foimer, contrary to custom, are fuliy as 
heavy as those to the latter, and most of the 
cargoes consigned to “ports of call’’—ports 
to which orders are sent t y cable or t-learner to 
await tbe arrival of raffing vessels—have lately 
been diverted to Continental ports. Buyers of 
breadstuffs for the Continent, too, arc not 
limited to such low figures here as are those 
who purchased for the British markets—John 
Bull seems to have laid in a fair supply. 
