488 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 23 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal lor the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. OABMAK. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1881. 
All advertising copy for the Fair 
Number must be received by August 15. 
Our next portrait will be that of Dr. 
James Bennet Lawes, of Bothamsted, 
England. Several years ago the Bubal 
presented a portrait of this distinguished 
scientist and farmer ; but it was not sat¬ 
isfactory. The next thereafter will be 
one of liis associate, Dr. J. H. Gilbert. 
-- 
It is, we judge, quite too much to say 
that the pollen of the tassel of a green 
stalk of corn never fertilizes the ear of 
that stalk. This is undoubtedly true of 
some kinds, but not of all. We find that 
several varieties of sweet corn now grow¬ 
ing at the Rural Farm are self-fertilizing 
—that is to say, that the pollen is ripe at 
the same time that the silk is ready to re¬ 
ceive it upon the same plant. 
— -■ - »*4 - 
A Day of Thanksgiving. —In response 
to suggestions of Gov. Foster of Ohio, 
that a day of general thanksgiving be 
observed for the recovery of the Presi¬ 
dent, as soon as the happy event shall be 
definitely determined, the Governors 
of nearly all the States and one Territory 
have, up to this writing, signified their 
hearty approval. If the President shall 
finally reoover, as now seems probable, 
the whole land will unite in heart-felt 
thanks to the Ruler of nations for having 
spared to ours the man in whom, as 
President, are centered the affections of 
a great people. Snob a day will unite 
more firmly all individuals, organizations 
and States, and will show to other lands 
that we, the youngest nation, have based 
our hopes for the present and future of 
the Republic on no uncertain foundation. 
-»-*-♦- 
Some more stringent laws should be 
passed for the protection of farmers liv¬ 
ing near towns and cities from the depre¬ 
dations of Sunday excursionists. Besides 
the unseemly uproar created ou the Sab¬ 
bath in quiet country places by these 
unwelcome visitors, many of them con¬ 
sider it the chief part of their legitimate 
“fun” to injure fences, destroy flowers, 
chase or pelt cattle and other stock, rob 
fruit gardens and orchards, and make 
themselves nuisances generally. Of 
course, there is no objection to the deni¬ 
zens of crowded cities seeking health and 
fresh air in the open country whenever 
they have an opportunity, but at the 
same time restraint should be placed on 
the vagaries of many of them, who seem 
to think the wide freedom of the country 
means license to mischief. They, like 
others, Bhould be taught that the rights 
of one man end just where those of an¬ 
other begin, and that dwellers in the 
country have some rights which even the 
rabble of the cities are bound to respect. 
» • ♦- 
Hungarian Grass. —We have always 
heard that Hongarian Grass needs a 
good, if not a rich, soil; that it should 
be sown late, and that if the ground is 
either too wet or too dry at the time of 
sowing, the grass will fail. On May 12 
we sowed it upon a twentieth of an acre 
of poor soil, without manure. It was 
plowed and harrowed—the seed covered 
with a rake. This grass is now in bloom 
and we are cutting it for chickens and 
horses. Another plot of two-fifths of an 
acre was sown npon similar land, with 100 
pounds of “Soluble Pacific Guano,” May 
24. Of this we shall speak later. Hun¬ 
garian Grass is valuable in many ways. 
As a green manure it would seem to be 
especially valuable, as two crops oonld 
be turned under in ore season. All stock 
are extremely fond of it. It tillers freely, 
though the roots grow near the surface 
and take so feeble a hold upon the soil 
that the plants are readily pulled up by 
hand. We ar% merely giving our first 
impressions of Hungarian Grass, never 
having raised it until the present season. 
-- 
THE RECALL OF CHINESE STUDENTS 
It may not be known to all that there 
have been, for the past few years, sev¬ 
eral Chinese students in some of the 
American colleges, but such is the fact. 
Yung Wing, who is as thoroughly Amer¬ 
ican in education and habit as one born 
out of the country can be, saw how, in 
the education of his countrymen, he 
might bring his race to a much more ad¬ 
vanced civilization both in national and 
religious matters. But this purpose he 
did not reveal to his home Government, 
nor did the high functionaries there sus¬ 
pect that a few years’ education of young 
Chinamen here would so liberalize them 
and imbue them with a spirit essentially 
American. However, the action which 
the Chinese Government has recently 
taken in recalling the students and abol¬ 
ishing the Chinese Educational Commis¬ 
sion in this country, has been under con¬ 
sideration for several months, and prob¬ 
ably arises out of a fear that the progress 
made by these students, outside of the ed¬ 
ucational advantages proper, will not be 
to the advantage of the future of China. 
It is a wonder that this system of educa¬ 
tion should be allowed to run so long, 
but the Chinese Government has not 
until now fully realized the meauing of 
having Chinese youths educated in a coun- 
tryiwhere social and political notions are 
at variance with those of the Celestials. 
But it is a compliment to our educational 
methods and to the civilizing and pro¬ 
gressive spirit of our institutions that 
the Chinese Government should have 
taken this decisive step, if, as is possible, 
the cause for the action lies in the fears 
they entertain for the non-progressive, 
arrogant policy of the ruling classes in 
China. 
-» ♦ 4 - 
STORAGE FOR CEREALS. 
In all the great receiving centers of 
cereals much inoonvenience and not a 
little loss have of late years been caused 
by insufficient storage capacity in late 
Fall and early Winter, when the bulk of 
the oropB is hurried to market. San 
Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore were 
conspicuous in this respect last year, and 
the trouble was also felt, though less 
grievously, at Philadelphia, New York, 
Milwaukee, St. Paul and St. Louis. In 
some parts of the country, especially of 
the West, farmers, however hard pressed, 
found it impossible, sometimes for weeks, 
to sell their grain, except at a sacrifice, 
because all the storage room at the ter¬ 
mini of the railroads and at the local 
stations was over-crowded. The pro¬ 
duction of the country had outran the 
capacity for handling the products. Ow¬ 
ing to the probable diminution of the ag¬ 
gregate yield of cereals this year, and to 
some late enlargements of the storage 
room in most of the above cities, the 
risk of similar trouble this year is gen¬ 
erally less than last. The grain trade of 
St. Louis, however, haB bo greatly in¬ 
creased within the twelvemonth and is 
likely to increase even more rapidly in 
the course of the next six months, that 
there is great danger of a grain blockade 
at that city and of oonseqnent trouble in 
the tributary country. Foresight in mat¬ 
ters of this kind is very needful for the 
welfare of any plaoe. Owing to the 
blockade at Baltimore last Winter not a 
little of the grain traffic that would have 
gone to that point, went elsewhere and 
took with it much trade that would have 
cheered the hearts and added to the pro¬ 
fits of the merchants of the Monument 
City ; for the market in which products 
are* sold, is chiefly that m which goods 
are bought A dozen years ago a prom¬ 
inent merchant of St. Louis, in answer 
to the inquiry “ What iB the great need 
of your city ?” replied, “ Half a hundred 
first-olass funerals. ” From the increased 
energy and enterprise lately shown there, 
it is not unlikely that a few of the somno¬ 
lent, wealthy old fogies who were con¬ 
tent “to let well enough alone,” have 
since been buried in first-class style, but 
a good many more similar funerals seem 
to be still necessary for the proper devel¬ 
opment of the trade of a city so advan¬ 
tageously located. A dispatch just re¬ 
ceived announces, it is true, that the con¬ 
struction of an elevator of 1,000,000 bush¬ 
els capaoity is to be begun tbiB month, 
but it will not be completed iu time for 
this year’s trade—and it is to be built by 
Eastern enterprise and capital. More- 
ever, just across the Mississippi on the 
Illinois side, the capacity of the elevators 
is to be doubled rightaway, giving an ad¬ 
ditional storage capacity of 3,000,000 
bushels of grain. 
-♦♦♦■-■—— 
GFNER08ITY, NOT “GUSH." 
According to this morning’s Washing¬ 
ton telegrams, President Garfield may 
now be said to be “out of danger,” al¬ 
though it may be many weary weeks or 
months before he will be able to “feel 
himself again.” There is no doubt but 
that the dastardly attempt ou his life has 
given him a muoh stronger hold than 
he previously had upon the affeotions of 
the American people, and thus increased 
his chances of that re-election which has 
been the ambition of all those who have 
once been elected to the presidential 
offioe. Whatever may be the outcome 
of this ambition, certain it is that an 
unusually prosperous career lies before 
Gen. Garfield. In the first excitement 
of his danger a movement was started in 
this city to raise a fund of $250,000 for 
Mrs. Garfield, as the apprehended death 
of her husband would leave her and her 
family, it was understood, in not very 
affluent circumstances. At first, while 
the President’s life was in imminent dan¬ 
ger, contributions i oured in rapidly, but 
later on, as his recovery advanced, the 
donations grew fewer and smaller, so 
that although upwards of $100,000 were 
spontaneously promised the first day or 
two, not half that sum has since been 
obtained even by solicitation. It is cer¬ 
tainly desirable that the families of the 
Chief Executives of the Republic should 
be placed beyond risk of want, or even 
the ueed of close economy, and therefore 
we heartily support this provident move¬ 
ment. Mrs. Garfield, no doubt, is a very 
estimable lady, and her conduct as mis¬ 
tress of the White House has been 
admirable both before the attempt on 
her husband’s life and during the trying 
period when that life hung in the balance. 
Many people, however, gushingly insist 
that her attention to her wounded hus¬ 
band deserves this recognition of national 
gratitude, as something grand and exem¬ 
plary. While fully alive to the high mer¬ 
its of Mrs. Garffeld as a wife, however, we 
cannot see anything exceptionally noble 
in her conduct, in view of the fact that 
there are tens of thousands, aye, thank 
God, hundreds of thousands of other 
American wives who would be equally 
devoted to their dying hnsbands stricken 
down by an assassin’s treaoherous hand. 
How many devoted wives, in all parts of 
the country, faithfully and lovingly watch 
over their ailing husbands witnout the en- 
couragementof public commendation, and 
often even without the ordinary convenien¬ 
ces of a sick room, and that, too, although 
the husbands, unlike our wounded Presi¬ 
dent, are anything but patient in their 
suffering, and frequently have done 
nothing in their previous UveB to win the 
admiration of their wives. By all means 
let Mrs. Garfield have this money, if 
there is a probability that she will ever 
need it, but for the honor of American 
women, do not insist that there is any¬ 
thing exceptionally tine in her oondnet, 
noble as it undoubtedly is. 
- 4 <» 
OUR FOREIGN HEAT TRADE. 
To every owner of live stock in this 
country there are two important ques¬ 
tions with regard to our export trade in 
live stock and dressed meats—will the 
traffic be continuous and are there other 
countries whioh from their position, soil 
or climate, may compete closely with us 
in supplying the European markets. 
From some elaborate statistics lately 
compiled by Dr. Yon Neuman, it appears 
that since i850 the number of food-ani¬ 
mals has actually decreased in Great 
Britain, France, Austria, Italy, Belgium 
and Switzerland, while the population 
has been steadily increasing in all these 
countries; and the increase of food ani¬ 
mals in the other European States is only 
sufficient to make the increase for the 
whole of Europe less than two and-a-half 
millions of cattle, sheep and hogs during 
twenty*five years. 
In some countries, however, the actual 
decrease in the number of food-bearing 
animals, does not show the- proper de¬ 
crease in the amount of meat food, for, 
in these, breeding has received so much 
attention that the average weight per 
head of the animals is considerably great¬ 
er now than formerly. For instance, in 
France oxen have increased in weight 21 
percent, since 1840; calves, 40 peroent.; 
and sheep 50 per oent. ; but outside 
France and England few people have 
obtained such valuable results from 
breeding for meat. When the number 
of animals, however, is compared with 
the number of people at different dates 
in the present century, it is seen that 
the amount of meat pruduoed per head 
has assuredly decreased. The following 
table shows the population of Russia, 
Austria - Hungary, France, the United 
Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, 
Norway, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, 
Switzerland and Portugal at various 
dates and the number of cattle, sheep 
and hogs, per thousand, of population : 
Years. Pop. of States. 
1833. about. 216,000,1)00 
1867, “ 24-l.OOO.OUO 
1809, “ 278,000,00(1 
At the present time 294,000,000 
Number of animals 
per l.ooo pop. 
Cattle. Sheep. Hogs. 
m 764 197 
366 724 166 
331 700 162 
310 682 166 
As the years have gone by the people 
there have been consuming less and less 
meat, not because their taste for it has 
changed, but simply because its growing 
price has put it beyond the daily reach 
of the laboring classes, and forced even 
the moderately well-to-do to be sparing 
in its use. With the advent of cheaper 
meat from this and other foreign coun¬ 
tries, however, the demand for beef, mut¬ 
ton and pork must continue largely to 
increase, benefltiug the native population 
by the U8e of a more nutritions diet, and 
foreign countries by insuring for them a 
permanent market for their surplus meat- 
beariDg stock. 
The number of food-animals in tbis 
country in proportion to population is 
far away greater. For every thousand 
of our population, in 1878, there were 
653 cattle, 764 Bheep aud 690 hogs, an 
enormous difference over the Europe¬ 
an ratio, except as regards sheep, and 
the high average of these across the At¬ 
lantic arises from the large numbers in 
Denmark, Servia, Roumania, Spain and 
Greece, where the wool is of more im¬ 
portance than the meat. It is evident, 
therefore, that the United States is well 
able to furnish a large supply of meat to 
Europe at present, and it has ample 
range and capacity for greatly increasing 
its surplus, bat what is the prospect of 
other countries competing successfully 
with us in the trans-Atlantic markets ? 
South America, and the Southern colo¬ 
nies of Australia seem admirably adapted 
to cattle raising, while Servia, Rouma¬ 
nia and Austria-Hungary export large 
numbers of food-animals to neighboring 
countries, and northern Africa furnishes 
France with large amounts of meat. As 
iu cereals, however, Russia is our strong¬ 
est rival, and were it not for the dense 
stupidity of the lower orders, the mis¬ 
management of the government and the 
undeveloped condition of the country’s 
resources, there is no doubt but the Em¬ 
pire of the Czar would prove a very for¬ 
midable competitor. The latest compar¬ 
ative statistics are those of 1877, and 
these give the following figures of the 
trade in meat, according, to a late issue, 
of Bradstreet’s:— 
VALUE tN DOLLARS OP EXPORTS. 
Live animals. Meats. Total. 
United States.$4,498,000 
Argentiue Republic. 3,173,000 
Australia. 
Uratruay.... . 667,250 
Russia. 12,668,000 
Roumaula. 4,976,600 
Austna-Hunirary.... 1,690,325 
Servia... 4.611,750 
$69,759,000 $74,257,000 
2,724,500 5,897.500 
2.157.750 2,157,750 
1.903.750 2,461,000 
2.335.750 14,993,750 
.1,957,600 
28,750 1.728,075 
. 4,511,750 
Since 1877 our cattle aud meat exports 
have largely increased, but even then it 
is seen that we controlled two-thirds of 
the export trade in meats, and, consid¬ 
ering our favorable position, our vast 
commercial relations witli Europe, and 
the energy, ingenuity and goaheadative- 
ness of our citizens, there is no reason to 
fear that, in the absence of hostile legis¬ 
lation, we shall lose any of our hold on 
our foreign meat markets. Let us, there¬ 
fore, be Btill more earnest iu following 
the admirable example of Franoe in im¬ 
proving our stock by careful breeding 
and judicious management, certain that 
an assured reward awaits us. 
♦- 
BREVITIES. 
Three bushels of buckwheat for seed to the 
acre, as stated in last week’s Rural Brieflets, 
should have been pecks. 
Of the 13 different kinds of sweet corn grow¬ 
ing at the RnralFarm, Early Narragansett and 
Minnesota were the first to bloom and to set 
ears. Planted May 9, the sets were in silk 
JnlylO. Oar tests with these kinds of sweet 
corn are being made in rather a poor Boil 
without manure. Moore's Early Concord was 
the third to bloom viz., July 15. 
Dr. Loring, Commissioner of Agriculture, 
we are informed, has not yet definitely decided 
to discontinue the Departments'experiments in 
tea culture. He is about to send Mr. Saun¬ 
ders, chief of the horticultural department, to 
South Carolina to make a thorough investiga¬ 
tion of the question and to institute an exami¬ 
nation of the tea farm established there by 
Gen. LeDuc. The future action of the Com¬ 
missioner on tea culture will depend on Mr. 
Saunder’s report. At the Department has 
about 140 acres of sorghum growing and a 
cane mill of sufficient capacity to test the 
practicability of sugar-making from sorghum 
as a profitable industry, experiments in this 
direction will be continued at leaBt for the 
present year, with the aid of experts in the 
business from Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas 
and Illinois. 
During the past week there has been a very 
severe cutting down of the passenger rates on 
the great trunk railroad lines to the West, and 
freight rates have largely shared in the reduc¬ 
tion. From Chicago VO New York rail freights 
have been as low as from 12 to 16 cents per 100 
pounds, and rates from the Other chief centers 
in the West have been correspondingly low 
The rates by fife Jakes and canal from Cnicago 
to this point are 8 to 8J cents on wheat per 
bushel of 60 pounds, and a shade ices on corn 
per 56 pounds. It will, therefore, be seen that 
just now competition between the railroads has 
lowered rail rates as low as those by water, or 
even lower. Ocean freights on grain closed 
here on Friday at 4Jd. per quintal by steam 
to Liverpool 6Jd. for Glasgow, 
