520 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 6 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal lor the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBEBT 8. CARMAN. 
Addrees 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 6, 18S1 
We again request that any reader 
having heads of the so-called “ Golden 
Grains” Wheat will please forward speci¬ 
mens to ns. 
-- 
Many farmers use a spoonful of bone 
hour to each hill of corn. This is at the 
rate of at least a bog or barrel—200 
pounds—per acre. The spoonful can 
only help the corn plant while very 
young. We should much prefer to sow 
the 200 pounds broadcast, which would 
exert an influence ujyon the plants daring 
the eutire season. 
--- 
We have a little patch of Bermuda 
Grass growing at the Rural Farm. It 
grows in a very dry, sandy place and is 
beautifully green now when all other 
grass—except it may be Quack—is burnt. 
The color is a blueish-green like our 
Northern Blue Grass, Poa compressa. 
We shall give an illustration of this grass 
and its singular growth in due time. 
We may now (July 26) state positively 
that, not one of several kinds of Sorghum 
or Doura sent to us from various seeds¬ 
men and others, thought to be the Rural 
Branching Sorghum, proves to be s,\ 
Three specimens were sent from Califor¬ 
nia, one from the South, and three from 
Eastern seedsmen. The best of these 
show but three branches, or tillers, or 
suckers, from one seed, which, if cut 
back, make no further growth of any 
account, while the Rnral Branching, if 
out just above the ground, seems to grow 
faster than before and to produce addi¬ 
tional branches. Our subscribers are 
now asked to try the experiment. 
•- ♦ « ♦ - 
Next to Spring, August is the best 
time to set strawberry plants. Several 
announcements of Bmall-fruit growers’ 
catalogues appear in this number, which 
will be sent free to all of our subscribers 
who apply to those who annotmoe them. 
Pot-grown plants, if properly pot-grown, 
will produce nearly a full crop next 
Spring. All things ooneidt-red, however, 
we prefer those which are not so prepared. 
Those who order strawberry plants and 
receive them in bad order, should return 
them to the seller at once. It is his duty 
to Bend out healthy, vigorous plants and 
he should be held to it, the same as any 
merchant is bound to furnish merchant¬ 
able goods when they are bought and 
paid for. 
Since last speaking of the experi¬ 
ment corn field at the Rural Farm, the 
corn has been growing finely and now 
promises a fair yield. We have, however, 
to fear the drought and then, should this 
be safely passed through, that the season 
will not be long enough for it to ripen. 
The manured acre is far ahead of the 
rest, and is easily distinguishable without 
any need of guidance from the stakes 
which mark it out. The specially ma¬ 
nured plots of one-twentieth of an acre 
each are very variable. Some seem to 
be harmed by the fertilizers applied ; 
on others they seem to have produced no 
effect and on still others a marked bene¬ 
fit. The advantage of flat cultivation 
and having the plants stand a foot apart 
instead of crowded together in hills, is 
very apparent daring this drought. The 
leaves up to this time have curled far 
less than those of neighboring fields. 
• — 
ILLITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Interested as we are in whatever af¬ 
fects ihe welfare of the country and the 
millions who inhabit it, we do no less 
than our duty in calling the attention of 
our readers to some facts on education, 
which were elicited at the recent Univer¬ 
sity Convocation at Albany. TheeenBus 
of 1870 revealed the fact that there were 
in the United States, 1,580,000 illiterate 
voters, of whom 1,128,000 were in the 
Southern States. This would leave 457,- 
000 for all ti e other StateB, which, though 
a comparatively small proportion, is yet 
in reality a large one where educational 
institutions are our boast. Of these < 
457,000, New York has 77,000 and Penn¬ 
sylvania 67,000, while the other States, < 
with fewer great oities, have a less num- < 
ber of illiterates. Ten years ago one 
voter in five eonld not read the ballot- he 
cast into the box, and now advance sheets 
of the census reports show that this illit¬ 
eracy has been greatly on the increase, 
and that over 21 per cent, of the 9,297,- 
000 votes at the last general election, 
were cast by the illiterate. 
These facts are sufficient to show that 
there is great need of extending the priv¬ 
ileges of the common schools, and of en¬ 
forcing attendance, if need be, upon those 
for whose benefit they are established. 
The rapid growth of cities and a corre¬ 
sponding increase of illiteracy are un¬ 
favorable omens for a people such as 
ours, whose welfare depends on the right 
use of their privileges, the greatest of 
which, it may be, is now threatened by 
misuse. It is gratifying to know that 
these facts are being considered by the 
people, and the sooner the General Gov¬ 
ernment aids the several StateB in this 
matter of popular cdueatiou, according 
to the illiteracy in them, the better it 
will be. This, too, is a question in which 
the farmers of the country should have a 
deep interest, and they Bhould not deem 
it sufficient that their sons cau read the 
ballot they deposit, or think that a very 
common education is all that is neces¬ 
sary. Mach depends on the education 
their sons reoeive in enabling them to 
counterbalance by their intelligence the 
vast and increasing power of the illiterate. 
-- 
A MONOPOLY OF RIVER TRANSPORTA¬ 
TION. 
A company, it seems, has just been or¬ 
ganized in this city for controlling the 
freight transportation on the Mississippi, 
Missouri and Ohio Rivers. Sixty-three 
steamers and 120 barges, it is reported, 
have already been bought at their actual 
value. The purchasers claim that they 
can run them at a reduction of $800,000 
a year from present expenses. Mr. James 
R. Keene, widely known as an extensive 
manipulator in “corners” of wheat, pork 
and other farm products, as well as a 
bold speculator in railroad stocks, iB said 
to be at the head of the oompany. Its 
projectors say they are now completing 
arrangements by which grain and pro¬ 
visions can be shipped to Europe at little 
more than half the prices now ruling via 
rail and the Atlantic ports. The com¬ 
pany, it is said, has already bought all 
the warehouses on the three rivers except 
those owned by the railroads, and others 
are to be at once built by it at New Or¬ 
leans and other points. It is expected 
that a vigorous competition will be at 
once begun with the railroad companies 
in transporting the surplus of our pres¬ 
ent harvest to foreign markets. In spite 
of the objections that can always be 
urged against a monopoly, this new com¬ 
pany is likely to be of considerable ben¬ 
efit to agriculture in the way of cheapen¬ 
ing freights on farm products from points 
at which water and rail transportation 
oome into competition. The large capi¬ 
tal at the command of the company will 
probably develop the former within a 
few months to an extent it might not 
otherwise have attained in as many years, 
besides enabling it to fight against 
mighty railroad corporations with better 
chances of success than oould be hoped 
for by punier organizations. From the 
contention of these powerful monopolies 
the public is pretty sure to be the gainer, 
on the principle that “when rogues fall 
out, honest men are likely to get their 
due.” 
- ♦ -- 
THE SIBERIAN PLAGUE. 
This disease which has lately occa¬ 
sioned great fatality among cattle and 
horses as well as many deaths among the 
human inhabitants of several Russian 
provinces, and especially in villages near 
St. Petersburg and along the railroad 
line thence to Warsaw, has been identi¬ 
fied with malignant anthrax, or oarbuncu- 
lar erysipelas, various forms of which are 
commonly known as black leg, black quar¬ 
ter, black tongue, charbon, bloody mur¬ 
rain, etc. This disease Exodus tells us con¬ 
stituted the 5th aud 6th plagueB from 
which the Egyptians suffered in the days 
of Pharaoh—plagues there described as 
“a grievous murrain,” and as “a boil 
breaking forth with blains upon man and 
upon beast. ” In the true sense of the 
term, it never becomes epidemic so far 
as the human race is concerned, but it 
not uncommonly becomes epizootic among 
flocks and herds, especially sheep, goats 
and c imels in Eastern Europe aud Asia, 
especially in the Russian possessions. 
It is essentially a disease of the lower 
animals, appearing in man only in spo- 
radio caseB, and only among those that 
come in oontaot with infected matter. It 
has caused considerable fatality, how¬ 
ever, among the wool sorters in England, 
especially in the West Riding of York- 
i shire, the chief seat of the worsted man¬ 
ufacture, where it is known as the 
“ wool-sorters’" disease. In the Spring 
of 1880, the Local Government Board 
ordered a medical investigation into the 
nature and cause of the malady, and the 
Inspector who conducted the inquiry Imb 
lately reported that it is due to the im¬ 
portation of infected wool and hair, chief¬ 
ly from Asiatic Russia. It has its origin 
in a low parasitic vegetable organism, 
called Bacillus anthracis, which soon 
dies on its removal from living blood, 
but its spores or germs may, in ordinary 
circumstances, retain vitality and power 
of development for an indefinite time. In 
one form or another this disease causes 
more deaths toan any other among the 
flocks and herds of this country. 
RIVAL WATER ROUTES. 
Probably there is no question, politi¬ 
cal, social or commercial, that now agi¬ 
tates the West, and especially the trans- 
Mississippi region, so deeply as that of 
transportation. All over the ‘broad West¬ 
ern country farmers, merchants and 
business men generally are alike alive to 
its importance, and politicians of all 
parties are already shaping their policy 
with reference to it. The belief in the 
oppression of railroads is earnest and 
widespread, and the prospect of success¬ 
ful competition by water routes is hailed 
with hope and exultation, not, however, 
as a fioal settlement of the grievance of 
railroad extortion, but as a beneficial 
makeshift until appropriate legislation 
shall have curbed such exaction. While 
the whole Western country is, however, 
unanimous as to the desirability of water 
transportation to the seaboard, there is 
some difference of opinion in regard to 
the most desirable ronte. St. Louis, 
Hannibal, Burlington, Keokuk and other 
towns below Rock Island and west of the 
great river favor the Mississippi route, 
while Davenport, Dubuque and the upper 
river towns prefer the propoeid canal 
from Rock Island to Hennepin, thence 
by the old canal to Chicago, and thence 
by the lakes and the Erie Canal to this 
city or by the lakee and the Welland Ca¬ 
nal to Lake Ontario, and thence, by the 
Bt. Lawrence and the short canals that 
circumvent its rapids, to Montreal, 
which, though 600 miles from the mouth 
of the River, is the great sea-port of 
Canada. The bugbear that until lately 
frightened off traffic from the Mississippi 
route, was the notion that grain would 
heat in transit—a delusion now exploded. 
Not only does this route communicate 
directly with numerous parts of the 
mighty Mississippi Valley by natural 
channels, but below Bt. Louis it is seldom 
frozen up, while its northern rivals are 
closed by frost for five months in the 
twelve. The Boufch and West are constant¬ 
ly making demands on the whole country 
through Congress, to improve the river 
route by removing obstructions to naviga¬ 
tion, building levees and straightening 
channels; Canada is now spending $30,- 
000,000 in improving the Welland Canal 
and those along the river, and showing a 
disposition to reduce rates as low as com¬ 
petition may require; while New York 
has already abolished tolls on westward- 
bound freight on the Erie Canal, and 
initiated a movement for amending the 
Constitution so as to permit all tolls to 
be done away with. Doubtless before 
long, too, the requirements of commerce 
and competition will force this State to 
enlarge her great water-course—a meas¬ 
ure which has already been strongly 
urged upon the Legislature. This great 
competition of rival water routes to tho 
seaboard is destined not only to greatly 
reduoe freight charges by rail and water, 
but also to influence the direction of 
traffic, and consequently tho relative 
growth and importance of the chief ship¬ 
ping ports on rivers, lakes and seboard. 
BREVITIES. 
Give your babies ripe blackberries; give 
them to your children and eat them your¬ 
selves. 
If no other work presses—plow, now that 
harvest Is over. It will equalize farm work, 
destroy weeds, give a better fitting for wheat 
or rye, and, finally, will assist farmers to bow 
earlier. 
After a heated struggle of several months' 
duration the Irish Land Bill has at length been 
passed by the British House of Commons with¬ 
out any very material alteration from the 
shape in which it was originally introduced 
by Mr. Gladstone. It is now before the House 
of Lords, who will hardly dare to make any 
gruve changes in it, acid thus enter into dan¬ 
gerous contention with the popular branch of 
Lhe Legislature. 
At the late great cattle aud dairy show at 
Birmingham, England, the silver medal for 
the be6t cheese was borne away by Jubal Webb, 
who has been styled " the Cheese Fiend,”on ac¬ 
count of his Indefatigable exertions in procu¬ 
ring the very best American cheese. That 
which obtained the prise was one of the larg- | 
est cheeses ever made, weighing three-quarter 8 
of a ton, and it came from Iowa. 
Tomatoes, cabbages, etc., growing in gar¬ 
dens or plots that are likely to be injured by 
drought may be carried tbrough by the fol¬ 
lowing simple method: — Hoe the earth 
about each plant so that the hollow thus made 
will hold half a pailful of water. To the water 
a pint of liquid manure may be advantageous¬ 
ly added. As aeon as the water has disap¬ 
peared, hoe the ground nearly level, leaving it 
about the stem slightly concave, and cover 
with salt hay or something of the kind. 
T he Rural Farm and the country there¬ 
abouts is Buffering from dry weather. Corn is 
curling. It received too much rain when rain 
was not needed, and gets none at all now that 
it Is in tassel and needs it moat. Fodder corn Is 
beyond help. Blackberries are drying up; 
peaches shriveling. The leaves of many trees 
are turning yellow and falling. Pastures are 
brown and clover is burning up. Still, im¬ 
mense hay, oats and wheat crops have been 
harvested and farmers, even though the corn 
crop fall, Bhould not complaiu, 
It will be remembered that last year Con¬ 
gress made an appropriation of 325.000 for 
boring artesian wells on tne arid Colorado 
lauds, to see if by their means water could be 
obtained in sufficient quantities to supply 
stock or for irrigating purposes. Reports 
from Washington declare that this appropria¬ 
tion has been entirely expended, while not a 
drop of water has jet been got out of the eoli- 
tarv well which Gen. LeDuc sank to the depth 
of 450 feet near Fort Lyou. Another appro¬ 
priation of 310,000 was made at the last ses¬ 
sion of the Forty-sixth Congress to continue 
the experiment, and Commissioner Loring, 
warned by the failure of his predecessor, has 
employed Prof. C. A. White of Greeley. Col., 
and Prof. Samuel Aughey, of Lincoln, Nebras¬ 
ka, to explore the dry region and locate the 
best place to sink the well, the work at Fort 
Lyon being suspended until these gentlemen 
make their report. 
Some doubt has existed as to the light in 
which Commissioner Loring views the sorghum 
sugar making business of the country: but a 
late letter of his to the Hon. S. H. Kenny, 
President of the Minnesota Amber Cane Asso¬ 
ciation, removes any apprehension of luke¬ 
warmness on his part in promoting the welfare 
of this promising industry. After promising 
his hearty co-operation, so far as practicable 
with the moans at his disposal, in the Associa¬ 
tion’s efforts to extend and perfect the manu¬ 
facture of sugar from sorghum, he Bays, 
“The production of sugar in this country thru 
Bhall successfully compete with foreign mark¬ 
ets, and supply the constantly increasing de¬ 
mand, is an opject of commercial, as well as 
agricultural, importance, and may well en¬ 
gage the attention of our farmers. * * * Such 
encouragement, therefore, as is compatible 
with other interests and legitimate obligations 
of this department, it will give me pleasure at 
all times to extend to your praiseworthy pur¬ 
suit.” 
Tub newly appointed Cattle Commissioners 
will hold their first meeting, to arrange a plan 
of action, at Saratoga, N. Y., on the 10th 
inst instead of assembling at Washington on 
the 1st., us at flret designed. Judge French, 
Asst. Secretary of the Treasury, who has al¬ 
ways tuken a deep interest in the subject aud 
chiefly through whose instrumentality the ap¬ 
propriation of 315,000 for the commission was 
made, has charge oi the matter on behalf of 
tho Treasury and willslt with the Commission- 
ers and assist in framing the rules. The ob¬ 
ject of these will be to discover precisely 
where contagions pleuro-pnenmonia exists 
In thiB country; to take measures for stamp¬ 
ing it out there aud for preventing it from 
spreading to other places; and to iusure that 
no affected cattle shall be exported. The fact 
that ail American cattle imported into the 
United Kingdom must now be slaughtered at 
the port of debarkation 14 day* after landing 
causes a Iobs of from 310 to 325 per head—a 
Bcrions lose to raisers and shippers of cattle 
here. It is pretty confidently expected that 
on account of the precautions to be taken here 
for the shipments of sound cattle exclusively, 
the order of the British Privy Council on this 
subject will soon be greatly modified so as to 
allow the animals to he fattened after landing 
and to prevent the frequent necessity for forc¬ 
ing their sale on an over-stocked market, but 
In view of the growing demand across the 
water, for the " protection " of home indus¬ 
tries, we do not share, to any great extent, in 
this confident expectation. 
That 200-acre experimental tea farm of the 
Department of Agriculture at Summerville, 
near Charleston S. C., seems to be a poor in¬ 
vestment even at the rental of $1 a year. Mr. 
Sanders, of the horticultural brauch of the 
Department, who was recently sent south by 
Commissioner Loring to examine it, has re¬ 
ported that It is an exhausted plantation lit¬ 
erally worn out by successive crops taken from 
it without care or fertilization. The boiI, ae 
cording to report, is poor, hungry sand, some 
portions of which might once have been classed 
as poor sandy loam, hut It now supports only 
the scantiest sort of vegetation, and there is 
scarcely a trace of loam. On the place there 
is an old ramshackle mansion formerly oc¬ 
cupied by the governor of the State, and so 
far the Congressional appropriation of 315,000 
seems to have been mainly spent in the par¬ 
tial removal of this old structure preparatory 
to rebuilding it, and in laying out an avenue 
through the grounds. The report states that 
at present about 3300 per mouth are expended 
for the supervision of 360 worth of labor, and 
that the climate Is too cold to grow strong tea. 
Mr. SanderB recommends that the farm be 
abandoned, one person being retained to take 
care of the tea plants ulroady there, and ad¬ 
vises that experiments iu tea culture, if they 
are to be continued by the government, should 
be carried on iu Florida. As we have several 
time-B stated, while tolling our readers what 
is known about tea culture, we have never 
had much faith In the profitable cultiva¬ 
tion of the plant Iu this country under the 
present condition of the labor market, and we 
shall not therefore bo inconsolable should 
Commissioner Loring decide altogether to 
abandon the experiment. 
