536 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 13 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for the Country and Suburban Home. 
PUBLISHER EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ILBEBl 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
Saturday. aug. 13. issi 
We have decided to have the Wheat 
Number follow the Fair Number. The 
latter will reach our subscribers Sep. 3. 
the former Sept. 10. 
See page 542 for annual Fair List of 
the Rural New-Yorker, 
Fair Trade instead of Free Trade is 
becoming Great Britain’s maxim. After 
preaching Free Trade for 35 years to her 
peers among the Nations and forcing 
the practice cf it with the bayonet down 
the gullets of the Chinese and other 
helpless races, she is now beginning to 
become a pervert to her own Faith so 
soon as her interests seem to be endan¬ 
gered by adherence to it. 
- - ■ - »♦ »- 
The severity of the drought on Long 
Island may be understood when we state 
that peaches, pears and grapes are shriv¬ 
eling aDd drying up upon the trees and 
vines. To save the fruit of our experi¬ 
ment grape-vines, we have hoed the sur¬ 
face soil from each vine leaving it in 
circular ridges about each stem, then 
applied five or six pails of water, re¬ 
placed the earth and covered with salt- 
meadow hay. All plants may be carried 
through droughts in this way. 
-- - 
We have made such arrangements for 
the coining subscription season that we 
hope to escape all errors which have hith¬ 
erto originated in this office. Last year 
we were so cramped for room that onr 
assistants stood in each others' way and 
all worked at a great disadvantage. * This 
year we shall have plenty of room and all 
the assistance required. We shall en¬ 
deavor to supply our seeds in the order 
in which the applications are made and 
to close the Distribution early enough 
to satisfy our Southern friends. Those 
who subscribe for other papers with 
which the Rural may club are promised 
on our part prompt and careful attention 
to their orders. 
■■ ■ - 
A Visiting Texan. —We hear much 
about the superior qualities of thorough¬ 
bred Jerseys, Holsteins, Devons et al. 
but when you want a first-class sensational 
scare, let a long-horned bristly-backed 
Texan, fresh from the prairies get loose 
in the Btreets, and all the fancy breeds 
are nowhere. That is the Texan’s pe¬ 
culiar forte. A while ago one of these 
foreigners started out to see the sights 
in New York, soon after he landed. His 
line of march was up Seoond St, and 
shortly, he met a man who tried to per¬ 
suade a cessation of hostilities but the 
Texan “ drove him to the wall" or rather 
through a doorway, and went on. He 
then advanced on a flagman who at¬ 
tempted to turn him back with a flag, 
but this is considered a challenge to bat¬ 
tle by unscrupulous Texans, so he pur¬ 
sued the fleeing flagman who suddenly 
felt himself elevated in position, and 
when he again reached terra Jirnia he 
was some fifteen feet from Id'b starting 
point, and slightly bruised. After this 
little fiasco the steer changed his coarse 
colliding with various peanut stands un¬ 
til he waB finally “ cornered” by a lot of 
carts, lassoed and carried to the abattoir 
on a truck. 
4 ♦»- - 
A Device tor Discovering Subter¬ 
ranean Water. —Witch Hazel has long 
been used by “ oommon people" to dis¬ 
cover subterranean water, to the amuse¬ 
ment or contempt of the scientist skepti¬ 
cal of its virtue. The latter, however 
has at lengtn hit upon a device of his 
own for accomplishing the same object. 
Our readers are aware that the micro¬ 
phone is a newly discovered device by 
means of which the volume of sound is 
enormously increased, so that sounds 
otherwise inaudible to the most sensi¬ 
tive ear, are heard with marvelous dis¬ 
tinctness. This is the means which lias 
lately been successfully used to discover 
undei ground water. Count Enzenberg 
has an estate in the Tyrol, which has 
suffered severely from lack of natural 
moisture. From the formation of the 
hills and the density of the woods it had 
long been suspected that there were on it 
a number of hidden springs. Along the 
foot of the bills the Court placed several 
microphones and oonnected them with 
an insulated telephone and a small bat¬ 
tery. At night, when the vibrations of 
the soil and all other noises are fewest, 
he listened for subterranean ripples, and 
already he has thus been enabled to 
discover several springs which he has 
turned to practical purposes. Could 
not the learned Professors who are now 
hunting for underground water on our 
Western plains, utilize the same device, 
or, at any rate, test its utility under un¬ 
favorable conditions? 
The Rain Tree (Tamai oapst) seems 
to be in most respects the opposite of 
the Eucalyptus. The latter absorbs great 
quantities of moisture from the ground 
and exhales it into the air, thus drying up 
surrounding marshes; the former ab¬ 
sorbs great quantities of moisture from 
the air and lets it drip on the ground be¬ 
neath, thus converting the surrounding 
soil into a veritable marsh. The French 
consul at Loreto, Mexico, says the tree 
grows to the bight of 60 feet with a di¬ 
ameter of three feet at itB base ; that it 
possesses the power of etrougly attract¬ 
ing, absorbing and condensing the hu¬ 
midity of the atmosphere, and ‘that 
water is always dripping copiously from 
it s trunk, especially in Summer when the 
rivers are all nearly dried up and the 
tree is most active. Lately some trav¬ 
elers in traversing an arid and desolate 
tract of country in South America, were 
struck by a strange contrast, says Nature : 
on one side was a barren desert; on the 
other a rich and luxuriant vegetation 
which was due to the presence of the 
Rain Tree. Why should not the admira¬ 
ble qaulity said to be possessed by this 
tree be utilized on our arid Wt stern 
plains? We commend the investigation 
of the subject to the Commissioner of Ag¬ 
riculture. A part of the money uselessly 
suuk in a “ dry hole” near Fort Lyon, 
might have been usefully expended in 
planting this tree in the arid parts of 
‘‘The Great American Desert,” if what 
is said in its favor approximates the 
truth. 
-- 
RENOVATE THE WHITE HOUSE. 
We do not assume to advise those who 
are in governmental authority over us, 
but we simply suggest that it is high 
time that some process of renovation be 
undertaken at the Presidential Mansion 
whereby the malarial influences may be 
counteracted. The recent statement of 
one of the President’s attending physicians 
that certain rooms ami closets were so 
poorly ventilated, and the air and gases 
therefrom were so infected with disease 
germs, as to be positively injnrious to 
health, is a statement which should 
have weight. Those who have occu¬ 
pied the White House for the last few 
years have felt these injurious effects 
and there should ue no longer auy delay 
in thoroughly renovating and reconstruct¬ 
ing, if need be, the entire building. 
We are terribly shocked when our Pres¬ 
ident is brought near death’s door by 
the hand of an assassin, but let us not 
nourish in parlor and drawing-room the 
very germs of a disease which is far 
more to be feared than the wicked de¬ 
signs of ah the crazy men in Christendom. 
■ 4 44 - 
WELLS AND CESSPOOLS. 
The fact that in New Haven, Conn., 
about 500 wells have been lately aban¬ 
doned on account of their proximity to 
cesspools and other sinks of disease, calls 
attention to the necessity of building 
wells and cesspools at as great a dis¬ 
tance as possible from each other. One 
of the most, if not the most, prolific 
sources of disease is the foul matter with 
which our drinking water becomes in¬ 
fected, and yet how little is done to pre¬ 
vent such infection. Now Haven peo¬ 
ple are beginning to realize their danger, 
and we do not think New Haven an ex¬ 
ceptional place for impure wells and cis¬ 
terns. In every city or village and on 
many farms disease is generated by just 
such means, and yet we wonder why we 
become sick, and are satisfied when the 
physician pronounces it a widespreading 
“ malaria.” As long as the farmer’s well 
emits no unpleasant odor, and the quality 
of the water is not positively bad, no notice 
whatever is taken of it, albeit a cesspool 
is not ten feet away. Let us not “go to 
destruction” when we have the means of 
prevention in our hands. 
— 444 - 
ARBITRATION vs STRIKES. 
There is sound good sense in the way 
all difficulties as to wages, are settled be¬ 
tween a large firm in this city and their 
1,500 employes, and the policy should be 
adopted wherever there is any tendency 
for labor and capital to conflict. A 
Board of Arbitration, composed of nine 
members, five of whom are workmen, 
consider all questions of advance in 
wages, hours of labor, etc., on the ground 
of mutual confidence and justice. An 
election of arbiters among the workmen 
is attended with almost the excitement 
and interest of an election to public office, 
great care being taken to get the best men 
for the ■ laoe. Fifteen representative men 
are chosen and they, in turn, chooRe five 
out of their number to serve on the Board. 
The Board has been in existence two 
and a half years, and all differences have 
been adjusted with complete satisfaction 
to both employers and employes. By 
this means wise counsel and peaceful 
deliberation take the place of inconsid¬ 
erate action and fierce passion and the 
system has brought the firm and their 
workmen into the best of relations. The 
adoption of such a course wherever many 
laborers are employed would, in eight 
cases out of ten, be attended with the 
most satisfactory results. 
4 * 4 
AMERICAN WINES. 
If there were needed any sufficient 
reason for Americans to look with favor 
upon the products of their own native 
vineyards and with disfavor upon for¬ 
eign wines, the fact that our wines are 
the pure juice of the grape and foreign 
wines impure and sophisticated abomin¬ 
ations should furnish that reason. Amer¬ 
ican wine manufacture is a new art, but 
even at this early day our product has 
reaohed to one half of our consumption. 
Last year we made six million gallons 
and imported precisely the same quan¬ 
tity. Unfortunately, so persistently 
prejudiced are the American people in 
favor of imported foreign products, that 
the greater part of the American-made 
wines are sold as choice foreign kinds, 
with false brands upon them. The bulb 
of the real foreign wines is vastly infer¬ 
ior. But “who hath believed our re¬ 
port ” when we have reiterated time and 
again this fact ? And now we have some 
fresh evidence of the same sort, only, so 
to speak, “more so.” It comes from 
foreign parts and is imported direct from 
Paris and should therefore be received 
at least with as much confidence as the 
Frenoh wines themselves. This report, 
taken from statistics of the Paris munic¬ 
ipal laboratory, where the food analyses 
required by law are made, bIiows, among 
other facts, that in the month of June 
455 samples of wine were examined, and 
of these but 14 were found to be good ; 
123 were reported tolerable, and 318 bad. 
Of 465 samples but 14 were good ! If the 
French people thuB treat themselves, 
what consideration might a foreigner ex¬ 
pect, and how many samples of real im¬ 
ported wines (excluding the American 
sold 1 or foreign) might be found to be 
even tolerable and without any distinot 
shade of goodness at all ? 
■- 4-44 - 
FRENCH IMPORTS OF AMERICAN FLOUR 
Lately the Flour Commission of the 
Society of Agriculturists of France re¬ 
ported that the agricultural and milling 
interests were greatly disturbed at the 
enormous increase in the importation 
of American floor into western Europe. 
This increase amounted in France to 53 
per cent in 1879, and since then impor¬ 
tations have been steadily increasing. 
English millers are also greatly “exer¬ 
cised” on the same account, but they 
have not hit upon the ingenious French 
theory to account for our growing ex¬ 
portations of flour instead of wheat. 
According to our astute Gallio friends, 
we have substituted flour for wheat with 
the direct purpose of annihilating the 
Euglish and Frenoh milling industries in 
order in this way to bring about the ruin 
of the agricultural industries in both 
countries also; for farmers no longer 
finding any purchasers for their grain, 
would be forced to discontinue its pro¬ 
duction, giving us shrewd, far-sighted 
Americans a permanent market at prices 
limited only by our own moderation and 
generosity! 
To say nothing of the gr^at reduction 
of freight Beoured by sending abroad 
flour instead of wheat, the 30 per cent, 
of bran and inferior flour thus kept in 
this country is as great a benefit to onr 
own farmers as it is a disadvantage to 
those of England and France, as it en¬ 
ables us to keep more cattle and other 
stock, while it forces them to keep less, 
thus giving us an advantage in the com¬ 
petition in the European meat markets. 
Of course, the chagrin of our French 
friends is quite pardonable, but then 
their recommendation to impose an im¬ 
port duty of 10 francs per setter (2£ bush¬ 
els) on all products manufactured from 
cereals is carrying their chagrin really a 
trifle too far. 
- 4 ♦ » . 
BREVITIES. 
It will be remembered that laBt year from 
about 70 different kinds of potatoes, we did 
not succeed in finding one seed ball. This year 
several kinds (new seedlings) fruit quite freely, 
A great deal of compl&iut was last year 
made as to the rotting of tomatoes when half- 
ripe, This year the same trouble exists. We 
fitul that the tomato worm la caueing much of 
this. Sometimes this disgusting worm prefers 
the green frnit to the leaves and eats a small 
portion, retnrning to the leaf. Every tomato 
so harmed will rot. The best way to destroy 
these pests is to go over the vines with scissors 
in hand and cut them in two. 
A paragraph haB been “ going the rounds” 
of the paperB stating that the Italian govern¬ 
ment has offered a large reward for a remedy 
against some parasite or disease which dam¬ 
ages orange and Jemon trees. The Italian 
Legation in Washington has been receiving 
hundreds of inqnrieu from ail parts of the 
country on this eubject, and as ft Is impossi¬ 
ble to answer all correspondents, individually, 
Count Campoieale, Charge d’ Affaires of Italy, 
announces that so far nothing whatever of 
such a reward is known to the Legation. 
Frrdbrjck Martin has the reputation, 
among our English cousins, of being a per¬ 
fect encyclopedia of information. Some of 
our Western friends, however, may possibly 
think that this encyclopedia, like most others, 
is sometimes misleadiug. In the “ Statesman’s 
Year Book” for 1880, after giving a good deal 
of statistics of the area and population of this 
country, he adds: “Thu States and Terri¬ 
tories here enumerated do not occupy the 
whole area belonging to the United States. 
Tuere arc, besides, vast tracts of land de¬ 
scribed as “Kinsae,” “Minnesota,” “Ne¬ 
braska,” '• Oregon” and the “Indian Coun¬ 
try,” not as yet organized.” 
Db. John A, Warder, the eminent pomolo- 
eist and President of the Ohio State Pom. 
Society, reminds members and others that the 
Summer meeting will bo held on Wednesday 
evening. August 21, at the time of tbe 8tate 
Fair, at Columbus. All are invited to bring 
specimens of new fruits, and also contributions 
to the Batbiiam Memorial Fund, as the com¬ 
mittee desire to report. We trust that all our 
Ohio readers and those, indeed, in other 
States also will testify their appreciation of 
tbe earnest services of our late contributor, 
M. B. Butebam, to the cause of horticulture 
and agriculture, by generously contributing to 
the above fund. 
In view of its importance we once more in¬ 
form our readers that the 18th session of the 
American Poinological Society will t * held at 
Boston on September 14th, 15th and lfith. The 
exhibition of large collections of fruit is not 
desirable, but the show should be confined to 
new or rare varieties and remarkable speci¬ 
mens. Intending contributors should give im¬ 
mediate notice of what quantity they desire to 
exhibit. Three specimens of each variety will 
lie quite enough. Packages of fruit, with the 
names of the contributors, may be addressed as 
follows:—“American Pomological Society, 
Boston.” Freight and express charges should 
be prepaid. A limited number of Wilder 
Medals will be awarded to the objects of special 
merit. Any other deBired information will be 
furnished by the Secretary, Mr. Robert Man¬ 
ning, Salem, Mass. 
The era of agricultural depression in Great 
Brbaln and Ireland has borne very hard not 
only on tenant farmers and their laborers, but 
also on small land-owners. Even before the 
troubles began, an investment in farm lands 
did not bring, on an average, more than 24 per 
cent., and the income from it in Great Bntian 
is much lesB to-day, while in Ireland the 
smaller landlords can often obtain absolutely 
nothing from their tenants. Many of them 
are suffering severely and a few have been 
brought to absolute want owing to their in¬ 
ability to collect rents or to find a purchaser 
for their property. Among this class In Eng¬ 
land the land is being mortgaged as heavily 
and commonly as that of our own Western 
farmers a few years ago; but owing to the dis¬ 
turbed state of Ireland, money cannot be raised 
on land there except at a ruinous interest. It 
is expected that the number of small land- 
owners most soon be considerably diminished, 
and that the Squire’s oldest son, instead of 
being a ‘ man of pleasure ’ while waiting for 
his father’s shoes, must attend an agricultural 
college and go to work as a practical farmer 
or overseer. 
In announcing, last week, the reported 
formation of a monopoly of river-transporta¬ 
tion, we were careful to introduce each state¬ 
ment by such qualifying phrases as “it Is 
said,” “It is reported,” inasmuch as we could 
hardly think it likely that so vast a transaction 
ehould have been carried on so expeditiously 
and quietly that the public should know noth¬ 
ing about it until itB close. Our suspicions of 
the trnth of the announcement are confirmed 
by a dispatch from St. Louis which Bays that 
the warehouse and river transportation people 
there think that the alleged purchase of all the 
barges and warehouses not controlled by the 
railroad companies on the Mississippi, 
Missouri and Ohio, is quite impracticable, as 
the owners of these wish to buy rather than 
to .sell, aud would have refused to break up 
their established business, the volume of which 
is as large »b they can manage with the present 
facilities. From New Orleaus we learn that 
there are now In tbe transportation of grain 
on the Mississippi five bargu lines, employing 
16 tow boats and 103 barges capable of trans¬ 
porting 4 805,000 bushels per month, while 
there are in process of construction 21 more 
barges which will curry up the transportation 
to 6,000,000 bush, a month, Very naturally the 
voracious pike, Monopoly, would like to 
swallow all the smaller fish in the rivers, but 
veiy naturally, too, somo of these object to be 
victims to the glutton’s Insatiable maw. 
