472 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 46 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
BLUEST S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 16 1881. 
Our picture of Iroquois published last 
week was re-engraved from the original 
which appeared in a late number of the 
Illustrated London News. 
The Bubal is not a Bepublican— 
neither is it a Democrat. It takeB no part 
in politics and politicians. But we do 
sincerely rejoice that hopes may be en¬ 
tertained of President Garfield’s recovery. 
» * *■ - ■ — 
Friends of the Bubal, we give time¬ 
ly notice. Beserve one-twentieth of an 
acre at least of your best land for our 
next Free Seed and Plant Distribution. 
Besides the interest which attaches to 
testing novelties presumably good, we 
are in hopes to render our next Distri¬ 
bution peculiarly attractive. Hence the 
above notice. 
- ♦ ■ 
As we go to press a specimen of a new 
variety of oats is brought us from the 
Bubal Fabm, which is, as yet, unnamed. 
It consists of one root and five stems ; 
the stems, or stalks, averaging five feet 
and five inches in flight, and fully one- 
fourth of an inch in diameter up to three 
feet in hight. The leaves average three- 
fourths of an inch in width. There are 
90 spikelets on a stem, or in one panicle. 
Those competing for the Bural Wheat 
Prizes for the largest and heaviest heads 
will please send five heads of each va¬ 
riety. It is best to pack them in suita¬ 
ble paper boxes of any kind and send by 
mail. The postage is but one cent per 
ounce, if the box is not sealed. Our 
friends will not forget to write on each 
box their full name and address, other¬ 
wise we cannot'place the wheat sent with 
the name of the sender. 
-- 
Such notes as the following are very 
gratifying to the Bubal. 
Prudence Island, B. L, July 8, ’81. 
Please accept my thanks for the gift of 
a root-cutter, received this day. What 
with choice seeds, big mangels, the gift 
of a machine to out them]with, and, above 
all, good advice, I cannot but regard my 
subscription to the Bubal as my best in¬ 
vestment. Bespectfully, 
E. Fabnham. 
- ’ — -»» ♦ 
Hebe is a chance for the thousand 
and one tramps who complain that they 
can find nothing to do! The Denver and 
Rio Grande Railroad Company has ad¬ 
vertised in Great Britain for ten thou¬ 
sand laborers, to whom a two years’ con¬ 
tract is offered on their presenting them¬ 
selves at the Company’s office. It is a 
pity that workmen cannot be found in 
this country, especially in these days 
when hordes of able-bodied men with 
nothing to do are arriving daily at our 
ports. One week’s accession of immi¬ 
grants could be disposed of to good ad¬ 
vantage out there where labor is in such 
great demand, and a few car-loads of 
country tramps would serve quite as 
good a purpose there as they do here in 
the EaBt. lying under fences or begging 
from door to door. 
- — 
The Telephone Pea.—T his, as our old¬ 
er readers will remember, was dissemina 
ted by the Bubal New- Yorker in its dis¬ 
tribution of 1879. As grown at the Rural 
Farm the present season, it is the most 
valuable pea we have ever raised. The 
stems are so strong that although they 
grow to the hight of four feet, little sup¬ 
port is necessary. The vines are mar¬ 
vels of productiveness and luxuriance 
the pods very large and well-filled,— 
pc as of the first quality. Sown at the 
same time with McLean’s Advancer and 
Extra Early Alpha, they are ready to 
pick nearly at the same time, being but 
two or three days later. Except where 
extreme earliness is an important item, 
we commend the Telephone to our rea¬ 
ders as among the very best peas in cul¬ 
tivation. 
--- 
The comet, of which we spoke editor¬ 
ially last week, seems determined that 
the events of the terrestial sphere shall 
not attract unto themselves all the atten¬ 
tion, so last Wednesday night it blew up, 
it was said by prominent astronomers, 
and two distinct comets were formed. 
But it had a precedent for so doing. It 
wasn’t at all original. People say there’s 
nothing original nowadays, but origi¬ 
nal sin. Biela’s oomet did the same 
thing in 1845, when two distinct bodies 
with coma, nucleus and tail were formed, 
and side by side, in brotherly compan¬ 
ionship they traveled, with singular in¬ 
terchange of luster, and in 1852 they 
were again both visible in the same field 
of view. Now the astronomers will have 
the pleasure of determining the nature 
of new orbits, for the parts separated 
with such swiftness that their motion 
was visible 85,000,000 miles away. We 
hope this beautiful theory will not be 
overthrown by the discovery of a spider’s 
web across the object glass of some 
sleepy astronomer’s telescope. 
THE RURAL BRANCHING SORGHUM. 
We find that not over 15 per cent, of 
the Rural Branching Sorghum seed has 
germinated. This is, no doubt, owing to 
its inferior quality. Our friends will 
not reproach us, however, since our en¬ 
tire crop in South Carolina very nearly 
proved a failure, and we deem ourselves 
fortunate in having procured enough 
seed, though indeed of poor quality, to 
supply all applications. This will at 
least enable ail to try it and test its 
value. The claim has been made by sev¬ 
eral of our California readers that they 
have this Branching Sorghum and they 
have sent us fair, plump seed, thrice the 
size of that we Bent out, to try. We have 
sown the several samples which germin¬ 
ated freely and the plants are now far in 
advance of those from our own seeds. 
While we have doubts that they may 
prove the same, it is to be hoped they 
will, for an abundant supply of seeds of 
the best quality would thus be fully as¬ 
sured. I 
-—>- 
A GREAT DELIVERANCE. 
As we went to press last week, this city 
was saddened by the intelligence that the 
wretch Guiteau had accomplished his 
nefarious object, the President having 
just died. The news agitated the crowds 
that all the day long congregated before 
the bulletin boards of the newspaper of¬ 
fices, and spread sorrow through the city 
as the yelling young hawkers of “extras" 
of the evening papers bore it far and 
wide. Out of a heart full of grief and in¬ 
dignation we spoke a few fitting words 
in announcing the calamity to onr rea¬ 
ders. Providence, however, has been 
merciful to the oouutry and to the family 
of the sufferer in preserving the former 
from the horror and shame of a second 
presidential assassination, and the latter 
from the loss of its honored head. The 
President still lives and has been im¬ 
proving steadily in health ever since the 
favorable turn of the crisis a few hours 
after the news of his death had been 
wired from Washington. All present in¬ 
dications point to his assured recovery, 
and although his doctors still hesitate 
officially to proclaim him out of danger, 
it is evident from the tone of this morn¬ 
ing’s telegrams that a sense of the grave 
responsibility of an official declaration 
of the fact alone witholds them, for a 
brief space, from gladdening the nation 
with the announcement. 
Political assassination has always been 
the resort of heavily oppressed national¬ 
ities debarred from an outspoken expres¬ 
sion of their grievances. It has never been 
characteristic of any part of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, and, least of all, of that branch 
of it which has flourished so vigorously 
and freely on this continent. The first 
crime of the kind among us was the work 
of a madman with a hereditary taint of in¬ 
sanity; the late attempt was the outcome 
of a low grovelling, semi-insane, vain, 
vagabond life on the part of the would- 
be assassin. The crime was utterly un- 
American. 
-» ♦ ♦- 
CROPS AND MARKET8. 
According to yesterday’s cablegrams 
the Italian Minister of Agriculture had 
just reported that the weather through¬ 
out the country had been very favorable 
to all growing crops, except that some 
local damage had lately been done by 
hail-storms. In the central and north¬ 
ern provinces the harvest is expected to 
be abundant; that in the Southern prov¬ 
inces less so. Recent rains had greatly 
benefited maize which is in excellent 
condition. Vines and olives are heavily 
laden, forage promising; but fruits and 
hemp leave much to be desired. In 
France crops are reported fine in the 
central provinoes—the great wheat-grow¬ 
ing region, while this season’s vintage 
will be the best for the last fifteen years. 
From Spain crop reports are contradic¬ 
tory ; favorable reports, however, consid¬ 
erably predominate. In the United 
Kingdom the recent favorable weather 
has improved the outlook, but there is 
still much doubt of such crops as were 
common before the late era of agri¬ 
cultural dieaster. Even with an average 
yield per acre, however, the aggregate 
yield must be less than formerly owing 
to the smaller area under wheat.* Cable¬ 
grams from St. Petersburg announce 
that the crops will be good throughout 
the Empire, and extra good in the south¬ 
ern provinces. In Germany crops are 
fair on the whole; but reports yet are 
more meager from that broad country 
than from any of the other prominent 
producing nations. 
With regard to the wheat crop of this 
country we see no reason to make any 
noteworthy alteration in our estimate of 
the aggregate yield as about 20 per cent, 
or 97,000,000 bushels less than last year’s 
total crop. True, nearly all the chief 
newspapers East and West still persist 
in maintaining that the crop of 1881 will 
fall little, if at all, behind that of’80, but 
all trustworthy reports in other agricul¬ 
tural papers, as well as those by various 
State Boards of Agriculture favor our 
opinion. Secretary Chamberlain, of Ohio, 
correcting an error in our last issue, into 
which we were led by a contemporary, 
usually very reliable, estimates the yield 
in Ohio at 77 per cent, of last year’s) and 
says that, according to official and private 
sources of information, the prospects for 
the crop in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois 
and |Iowa promise only 50 per cent, of 
last year’s totals. The demand for wheat 
in Europe is certain to be considerably 
lees this year than last; but our export¬ 
able surplus is also sure to be considera¬ 
bly less, and the prospect is that, after 
harvest, prices will probably be as 
good as last year, and that it will be 
highly unwise for those who can afford 
to hold their wheat, to rush the new crop 
to market, unless they obtain satisfac¬ 
torily remunerative prices for it. 
-- 
COTTON SEED PRODUCTS. 
Of all the agricultural products of the 
South, it is doubtful whether any has 
been so much wasted or misused as cot¬ 
ton seed until of late, and even now, 
taking the whole country, probably 
more of it is used to little effect than to 
the best advantage. At the late Cotton 
Crushers’ Convention at Cincinnati, a 
Louisiana planter Btated that he had 
found cotton-seed meal scarcely inferior 
to guano as a fertilizer, while an Ala¬ 
bama planter claimed that by its use be 
had increased the production of a given 
area of poor land from 18 to 145 bales of 
cotton, and a Connecticut farmer de¬ 
clared that it was the best fertilizer he 
had ever used for tobacco lands, tripling 
their productive capacity in three years. 
As a cattle food its merits received the 
strongest sort of indorsement and are 
yearly growing in public appreciation 
at home; abroad it has long been held 
in high estimation in Great Britain, Swe¬ 
den, Norway and several ot her European 
countries. The European demand for oot- 
ton-seed oil, too, is growing rapidly. Until 
of late years, this oil had entered into our 
trade with Europe only in small quanti¬ 
ties, and was used chiefly inthe manufac¬ 
ture of coarse soapB. About half a dozen 
years ago, however, manufacturers suc¬ 
ceed in so improving the quality of the 
article that even experts could hardly 
distinguish it from olive oil, with which 
it seems to have so close an affinity that 
when both are mixed the adulteration can 
with difficulty be detected by the most 
s ki ll f ul. At once the exportation of 
this superior oil increased so rapidly, 
especially to Italy, that it excited no 
small surprise until it was discover¬ 
ed that it was largely uBed for the 
purpose of adulterating the much high¬ 
er-priced olive oil produced in the 
Italian and Spanish Peninsulas, but 
particularly in the former. So difficult 
did detection of the adulteration prove 
there that, to assure their customers, some 
of the largest houses in the oil trade 
had to guarantee the purity of their 
brands on the ground that they bought 
directly from the peasants. The gov¬ 
ernment inspectors indorsed their state¬ 
ments, yet it was afterwards proved 
that these very oils have been adulter¬ 
ated by the peasants who had themselves 
bought cotton-seed oil to mix with 
them before selling them to the whole¬ 
sale dealers. Instead of attempting the 
difficult task of punishing the guilty, the 
government lately increased the duty on 
imported cotton-seed oil from $1.15 to 
$3.85 per quintal and placed a tax of 
$1.70 per quintal on that made in the 
country. For a time this excessive im¬ 
port duty will doubtless somewhat injure 
our trade in this product; but hitherto 
the high price of olive oil has almost en¬ 
tirely debarred the lower classes from its 
use—a severe deprivation throughout 
Southern Europe where oil is au import¬ 
ant article of food—and now that they 
know that cotton-seed oil is as healthful 
and resembles the more expensive sort 
so closely in all respects, they are 
sure to use it extensively should the gov¬ 
ernments of Italy, France and Spain not 
place a prohibitive import duty on it. 
Already Consul Gould of Marseilles re¬ 
ports that most of the cotton seed oil im¬ 
ported into that city is used by the pop¬ 
ulation in its pure state with the full 
knowledge of the consumers, who prefer 
to use it at a reasonable prioe than to 
pay a much higher figure for olive oil 
which they cannot distinguish from it. 
BREVITIES. 
The Bidwell Strawberry, this year, has con¬ 
tinued in frnit thirty-one days, beginning the 
flrBt of June. 
Not an Army-worra has been seen at the 
Rural Farm this Summer. This is in accord 
with the Rckal's prediction that sections last 
year infested would not again be infested this 
year. 
A branch of the Highland Beauty apple,ten 
inches long, sent to ub by Mr. E P. Roe. bears 
100 apples. In their present green condition 
they measure from one to one-and-a-quarter 
inch in diameter. 
The Rural requests that auy of its readers 
who have a head of the so-called “Golden 
Grains.” will send it to the Editor by mall. 
We believe this to be the Black bearded Centen¬ 
nial and have so expressed ourselves In these 
columns more than once. But the Rural does 
not tolerate inlustice and desires to confirm 
Its opinion or retract it. 
The Atlanta Cotton Exposition is to open 
on October 5, and close on December 31. 
Director General II. I. Kimball says that, as 
no charge will be made, io exhibitors, for flooi- 
room, every merchant, mechanic or manufac¬ 
turer in the civilized world can now enter his 
wares for exhibition by sending aformal appli¬ 
cation and a check for the entrance fee—$25. 
Gen. Harding, speaking for Tennessee, con¬ 
sidered Hungarian Grass to be the best fore¬ 
runner of Timothy. He recommeudstbat this 
be sown in Sommer and harvested in August 
or early September, and that Timothy be 
sown upon the stubble and harrowed in. The 
Hungarian Grass, he thinks, destroys all 
weeds and gives a certain compactness to the 
soil, necessary to secure a good stand of Tim¬ 
othy. 
It would appear that this season's crop of 
strawberries has been the greatest ever raised 
in this country. Aud yet, as a rule, they have 
sold for good prices. Large berries of a bright 
color have always readily sold at from 25 to 
SO cents per quart basket. At the fancy fruit 
stores of Broadway extra sized berries brought 
from 40 to 60 cents, and, Btrange to say, most 
of them were Great American. There is no 
doubt that this variety, however it may fail 
here, there and almost everywhere, succeeds 
admirably in sotne places. 
There have been on exhibition at the rooms 
of the Decorative Art Society, in this city, 
some pieces of needle-work, which, when 
suspended against the wall, resemble water- 
color paintings, and one viewing them at a 
distance might pronounce them as such. Our 
lady friends can, donbtless, appreciate the 
wonderful skill displayed in selecting, blend¬ 
ing and working the various hues of the ma¬ 
terial used in order to produce such interest¬ 
ing effects. What the artist does with the 
brush has been well imitated by Mrs. O. W. 
Holmes, Jr,, who has some twenty pieces of 
needle painting on exhibition, representing 
various Winter and Summer scenes. This 
is, indeed, the sublimation of embroidery, aud 
something which onr good grandmothers of 
forty years ago would have classed with the 
things impossible. 
The Cincinnati Price Current, June 30, stated 
that the Secretary of the Ohio State Board of 
Agriculture estimated the wheat crop of this 
year for that State at 6,000,000 more than last 
year's total crop. From a condensation of the 
official report made on July 7, given In our 
Agricultural News Department, It appears that 
thiB statement was erroneous, inasmuch as the 
aggregate wheat yield this year is estimated at 
12,000,000 bushels less than last year's yield, 
instead, of 6.000,000 bushels more. This esti¬ 
mate approximates correctness all the more 
closely in that it has been made after nearly 
the entire crop had been secured in good order. 
Our estimate of the wheat crop of the country 
put It twenty per cent, less than last year’s 
crop; Ohio's appears to be twenty-three per 
cent, less by the present estimate. Some other 
large wheat-producing State, however, will 
doubtless make up for this slight difference. 
Among the crop reports lately received was 
one from Pennsylvania of which the following 
is an extract:—“ Wheat acreaga about a quarter 
lesB than usual owing to the early setting in of 
Winter which prevented Fall sowing. Fully half 
the crop was entirely winter-killed, plowed up. 
and the ground devoted to other crops, mostly 
corn. More than a tenth was destroyed by the 
drought in May and about a fifth by several 
very severe storms that have visited this sec¬ 
tion. The chinch bnga and other inject pests 
have taken a good deal of it—probably an 
eighth, and even with favorabl- weather till 
harvest there cannot be one half un average 
crop.” A little figuring will 6bow that, accord¬ 
ing to the. above account, out-flfih more of 
the crop was destroyed, in one way Or anoth¬ 
er, thau grew, on au average, so that it Is hard 
to see how it could produce even half an aver¬ 
age crop, after a deficiency of one-fourth of 
the area of au average crop, aud the destruc¬ 
tion of thirty-seven lorlietha of the yield on 
the remainder In various ways. 
