552 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 20 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for tho Country and Suburban Homa. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
elbebt b. cabman. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 20, 1881 
Wfl have received a hundred or more 
samples of wheat sent in competition for 
our wheat premiums, whioh cannot be 
plaoed with the letters of those sending 
them. It seems that oar requests that 
names and addresses should be written 
on the parcels, have been overlooked or 
forgotten. We regret that so many have 
thus been deprived of their chances in 
the little contest. 
- ♦♦ ♦ - 
Friends are now invited to send for 
the Fair Number, which will be dated 
September 8. The Wheat Number will 
immediately follow the Fair Number, and 
the prizes for the best heads of wheat 
will be announced in it as originally in¬ 
tended. We have received many beauti¬ 
ful specimens, which we wish our read¬ 
ers might have the opportunity of exam¬ 
ining. 
-. ♦ » ♦- 
We are now, from further observa¬ 
tion, fully convinced that the tomato rot 
is caused by the tomato worm. This 
green, reptile-looking pest often turns 
from the leaves to the young tomatoes, 
eatiDg a part of the flesh and then re¬ 
turning to the leaves. The injured por¬ 
tion of the tomato coon turns black and 
rot commences. Every instance of rot. 
among our tomatoes, the present season 
at any rate, has been thus caused. 
■» ♦ ♦- 
The Soja Bean is being tested at the 
Rural Farm. It is growing in very poor 
soil and grows thriftily. It is now about 
two feet high, with many hairy leaves 
and upright stems. We have given it to 
onr cattle and horses and they eat it with 
a relish. This plant has been praised by 
Prof. Cook as highly nutritious, and as 
promising to excel the Cow Pea, both 
for fodder and as a renovator for worn- 
out lands. We shall tell the whole story 
later as it reveals itself at our farm. 
■ ■ ■ 4 »♦ 
We are glad to receive many favor¬ 
able reports as to the Bussian White Oats 
which were extensively advertised and 
sold daring the past season. Their early 
growth, it will be remembered, at the 
Rural Farm, was not snch as to inspire 
ns with much hope as to a heavy yield. 
In this we have been happily disap¬ 
pointed. They ripen later than most 
kinds which bear spreading panicles— 
as late, indeed, as Mold’s Ennobled Oats 
sent out several years ago in the Rural's 
Distributions. We shall give a more 
definite report when we come to consider 
onr oat experiments. 
Fabmers are frequently induced to 
sign promissory notes in payment of wire 
fenoeB, lightning rods, patent rights, etc., 
on fraudulent representations, and there 
seems to be some difference of opinion 
among the judges in different States as 
to whether these notes can be collected. 
The other day we recorded an adverse 
opinion of a Wisconsin court, and now we 
learn that on J uly 19 a decision contrary 
to this precedent was rendered by Judge 
Adams, of the Supreme Court of Iowa, 
in the case of Scofield vs. Ford. The 
maker of the note admitted he had made 
it, but said it was procured from him by 
fraud. The Judge said the maker could 
not successfully defend the action on this 
account, as the plaintiff had purchased 
the note for value and in good faith be¬ 
fore its maturity, relying on the promise 
therein set forth, as he had a right to do. 
THE YORK! OWN NAVAL RECEPTION. 
The Secretary of the Navy has issued 
orders to the North Atlantic squadron to 
prepare for the reception of French visit¬ 
ors at the Yorktown oelebration of Octo¬ 
ber next. There is only one drawback to 
our making a grand naval display on that 
ocoasion, and that is, we haven’t got any 
navy—or hardly any. We have an “ele¬ 
gant sufficiency” of naval officers, but if 
they ever wish to exhibit their proficien¬ 
cy in naval tactics, they will have to 
chat ter a few ferry boats and an old scow 
or two, to do it. And then what if we 
should have an occasion to go to war 
with foreigners ? We pause for a reply! 
After all, a naval reception can just as 
well be held on land. The Frenchmen 
are kindly disposed and can haul their 
triremes up on the shore when they 
arrive and then repair to a hall some¬ 
where when our Admirals, Commodores, 
et cetera, will be delighted to welcome 
them. All we wish is to create a good 
impression on our French naval cousins, 
and this we can best do at a distance 
from onr “ noble fleet,” where their at¬ 
tention will not be distracted from the 
glittering tinsel and golden epaulets of 
our offioers by our iron-clad monitors. (!) 
Then when the Frenchmen get ready to 
go home onr offioers cao delegate some 
“ middies” to kindly assist them in 
launching and they will go home with 
exalted ideas of the great American navy 
and its immense “reserved power.” 
-- 
GO TO THE PAIR. 
There are a few farmers in almost 
every community who never attend 
their county or local fair, and of course 
take no interest in them. In pursuing 
this policy they are losers, though it 
would doubtless be diffiault to make 
them think so. There is much for every 
intelligent farmer to learn at these fairs, 
and if he would keep abreast of the 
times it is his plain duty, rather highest 
privilege, to seize every opportunity 
which shall give him a more extended 
knowledge and a greater familiarity with 
everything that pertains to agriculture 
and horticulture. 
At suoh times he can “ compare notes ” 
with his brother farmers and in relating 
his own experience with certain fruits, 
grain, etc. ,and in noting the experience of 
others with the same, he may impart, as 
well as gain, some useful bints which 
shall he of use in the future. There is 
no better place for suoh discussion and 
such “ experience meetings ” than at the 
fair. It also gives him an opportunity to 
examine the latest improved machinery 
and to get, on the spot, the unprejudiced 
opinions of his farmer friends, to guide 
him in purchasing for himself. 
There is machinery on exhibition every 
year, especially at our State Fairs, which 
some farmers would never see at all if 
they absented themselves from these ex¬ 
hibitions. 
Not only should every one go to 
the fair but he should contribute, from 
his farm aud garden products, in mak¬ 
ing the fair a success. Almost every one 
has something “unusual,” some novelty 
which will add to the attractions, there¬ 
fore we say to every farmer “ Go to the 
fair, and do all in your power to support 
and to elevate it.” 
- -•- 
A PUBLIC BENEFACTOR, 
What Jenner did for the human race, 
Pasteur has done for the lower animals 
eb Sir James Paget, one of the most re¬ 
nowned of England’s great physicians, 
said in thanking the eminent scientist 
last Monday, in the name of the Inter¬ 
national Medical CoDgress now as¬ 
sembled in London. Pasteur’s address 
on his latest researches in animal vaccina¬ 
tion, delivered before the Congress, is, 
according to cablegrams, creating deep 
interest in medical as well as in agricul¬ 
tural circles because of the prospect it 
affords of reducing cattle diseases to a 
minimum. France, said the Professor, 
every year loses animals to the value of 
20,000,000 francs by splenic fever, better 
known in this country by one or other 
of the names of the numerous forms of 
anthrax. As mentioned by ns a couple 
of months ago, he has lately, after a 
world of experimenting, discovered a 
form of vaccine which protects the vac¬ 
cinated animals, whether horses, cattle, 
or sheep, from splenic fever as effectually 
as Jenner's vaccination protects the 
human subject from small-pox. To 
publicly demonstrate its efficacy the other 
day he vaccinated twenty-five of fifty 
sheep plaoed at his disposal. A fortnight 
afterward the whole fifty were inoculated 
witb| the'most virulent “ anthrtecoid mi¬ 
crobe ”—the infectious germ of anthrax. 
The twenty-five vaccinated sheep resisted 
the infection; the twenty-five unvacci¬ 
nated sheep died of splenic fever. Small 
wonder that within 50 hours of that 
time his energies were taxed to meet 
the demands of farmers for supplies of 
the vaccine, or that within 25 days he 
and his assistants vaccinated more than 
20,000 sheep and a large number of 
cattle aiid borses in the departments 
surrounding Paris. Two other kinds 
of virus attended with Bimilar re¬ 
sults have also been discovered by him, 
and all his experiments will soon be 
communicated to the public. So great a 
benefactor of the public deserves tUe 
thanks of all classes and all nationalities, 
and among the first we hereby inscribe 
ourselves, in our own name and that of 
the American agricultural community, 
the grateful admirers of Professor Louis 
Pasteur. 
FANCY STOCK AT THE FAIRS. 
We were at an agricultural fair when 
a farmer and his young wife were pass¬ 
ing some cattle pens where a herd of 
fine cows were on exhibition. “ Oh 
John ! do look at these beautiful cows,” 
said the wife, arresting her husband and 
leading him to one of the pens. “ Isn’t 
she a beauty ? What a bag she has ; and 
what beautiful yellow skin. Why could 
we not have some cows like that. ” “ Oh, 
come along," replied the young farmer, 
those oows are not for ns ; they are fancy 
stock only good for show.” 
There the young farmer made a griev¬ 
ous mistake. Everything to be seen at 
the fairB is for the farmer. Bat he must 
not be misled by the appearance of the 
amimals on exhibition. They are made 
to look their best by every art of the 
breeder. The tails are often tied up at 
night in wet straw bands to make them 
appear thin, the horns are scraped and 
sand-papered and waxed; the hide is 
washed with colored water to make the 
skin yellow and the hair is washed and 
oiled to make it shine. The cows and 
bulls are fed plenty of rich feed and come 
to the show in “show condition.” This 
is all reasonable and unobjectionable. 
A fair is intended to please by its at¬ 
tractiveness, and we expect to see every¬ 
thing put on its very best appearance. 
Besides it is important for farmers to see 
how fat beef stock, pigs and sheep that 
are intended for fattening purposes can 
be made, because this is the chief end for 
which this stock is kept and iB valued. 
But farmers should be informed of the 
real actual value of the improved stock 
exhibited at fairs. A difference in the 
yield of milk of four quarts a 
day, even at two etints a quart is equal 
to §24 a year, whioh is the interest at six 
per cent, on $490. A difference of 100 
pounds of butter in a year is equal to 
the same amount. With ten cows, this 
counts up pretty fast. A pure-bred 
Ayrshire or Jersey cow will easily make 
this difference in the value of the yearly 
product, as there is no extra cost for the 
keeping, the increase is all profit. 
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 
It sounds a tritle sensational to say 
that at the present rate of settlement the 
agricultural portion of onr public domain 
lying within the arable region, will be all 
taken up within three years. Yet that is 
E recisely the estimate of the the Public 
iand Commission which has just com- 
pletedits labors and made its report whioh 
cannot, however, be printed for public 
distribution until Congress shall have 
made an appropriation for the work. The 
Land Office tells ue that in 1879 the sur¬ 
veyed arable agricultural lands capable 
of cultivation without irrigation or other ( 
artificial modes of watering and subject to 
entry under tbeHomestead Act, embraced 
not more than 25,576,900 acres made up 
of comparatively small sections in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Washington Territory, and 
Oregon and still smaller areas in some of 
the other States. In addition to this, 
the estimated area of vacant surveyed 
public land is 15,180,256 acres in the fol¬ 
lowing Southern States : Florida, Ala¬ 
bama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and 
Arkansas. These are the only States for 
which there is a general act of sale ac¬ 
cording to whioh all these lands are open 
to private entry at §1.25 per acre, except 
some “ mineral tracts ” in the Huntsville 
and Tuscaloosa districts, Alabama. Al¬ 
together of surveyed and unsold public 
lands there still remain, it is estimated, 
189,622,455 aores, most of which, how¬ 
ever, is either “ mineral ” or “ coal ” or 
“timber” land, and therefore not included 
in the “ homesteadable ” area, or else 
barren land or land suitable for grazing, 
but not included in the “arable limits.” 
The total area of public domain yet to 
be disposed of is estimated by the Land 
Office at 1,163,946,438 aores. This large 
estimate includes not only all the agricul¬ 
tural lands within the arable limit, as 
well as the public domain in the South¬ 
ern States and the surveyed but unsold 
Western lands, but also the vast area of 
partially unexplored aud totally unsur¬ 
veyed laud west of the Mississippi, in¬ 
cluding the 369,529,600 acres of Alaska. 
During the fiscal year of 1880, 7,000,- 
000 acres of the public domaiu were | 
entered for settlement, and at this rate 
of absorption it is estimated all available 
agricultural land within the arable region 
would bejtaken up before June 30, 1883j; 
while the total area of unsold public 
domain would furnish 7,274,665 [home¬ 
steads of 160 acres each. 
■»»»-. 
BREVITIES. 
The Wall Street brokers divide themselves 
into two great classes—hulls and bears. There 
ought to be a third—jackasses. 
Our first page cut of Messrs. Eagelman, 
Sargent & Skinner of last week, was re-en¬ 
graved from the London Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
The latest news respecting the President’s 
condition, as we go to press, are dishearten¬ 
ing. A poor night with continued nausea and 
a higher temperature is the gist of the report. 
We have received from a friend, a panicle 
of " Russian White” Oats which measures 18 
Inches in length and bears 122 spikelets. 
This is longer than any we have seen in our 
own crop. 
Irrigation for the West.—I t is said that 
Commissioner Loring will form a commission 
of thoroughly skilled engineers and scientific 
men to consider the feasibility of artesian 
irrigation for the Western plains. He will 
do well to consider this. Large tracts of 
land worth millions of dollars may, by a 
successful method of irrigation, be rendered 
yet more valuable and productive. We im¬ 
agine that there la no way the Commissioner 
can letter work into the good graces of the 
farmers of the great West than this; so now is 
his opportunity. 
Prohibition has been defeated in North 
Carolina by the negroes, by tbe very people 
for whom it would be the be6t. Uader the 
influence of United States marshals and others 
for whose interest it is to make the receipts 
from the sales of liquor as large as possible, 
thenegrovote was thrown against prohibition. 
The best element in the South was in favor of 
it, but as it happened the decision was made by 
the votes of those who had been deceived, 
and led to believe that prohibition meant that 
their rights as citizens were to be taken away. 
Since the French decree issued last February 
against the importation of American hoe 
products, there has been a falling off of from 
12 to 15 per cent, in importations of American 
meats into Switzerland. Into the cantons of 
Berne and Zurich American meats are intro¬ 
duced ODly under invoices that make it appear 
they came from Germany, the local buteners 
having influenced the cantonal authorities to 
refuse admission to American bacon and hams, 
on the unofficial certificate of a private in¬ 
spector. It is only in these two cantons, how¬ 
ever, that any discrimination is made 
against American meats. 
Recent investigations show that the follow¬ 
ing is a fair statement of the degree to which 
the hogs of the various places mentioned 
are affected with trichinae ;—** Of native Swiss 
pork, one piece in 2 000 is affected ; of pork 
from Berlin and northwestern Germany, one 
piece in 250 ; of Westphalian pork, one piece 
in 200. Among the hogs In Brunswick, one 
in 5 000 is affected; of those in Gotha, 
one in 1,800; in Schwerin, one in 550; in Kiel, 
Prussia, one In 200; in the Lower Ruine 
Valley, one in 100; and in some parts of 
Sweeden. one in 63. It seemB that our govern¬ 
ment ought rightaway to prohibit all 
European importations of hogs and hog pro 
ducts—especially German sausages—In order 
to preserve onr citizens from that dreadful 
European disease, trichinosis. 
In the caee of Kimball ns AdamB, tried be¬ 
fore the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in May 
10, the facts were these: Kimball had built a 
permanent fence by mistake on land adjoining 
his own. The land was Bold by the owner to 
Adams who took up the fence aud put it to 
some other use. When the fence was built 
there was no agreement as to its removal, and 
Kimball brought an action against Adams for 
its value as personal property. The Court, 
through Judge Cassoday, decided that the 
building of a fence upon land as a permanent 
structure, in the absence, of any agreement 
that it might be removed “ will necessarily con¬ 
vert the material of which it is built from per¬ 
sonal property into reality.” Tbe jadgeadded 
that the fence in question having become a 
fixture and tbe title to it having passed to 
AdamB with the title to the land, it followed 
that he had a legal right to pull it down and 
dispose of the material as he pleased. 
Tub returning prosperity and the prom¬ 
ises Of better times, have la a measure turned 
the heads of the public; and too many people 
are misled into the hope of making themselves 
rich at a stroke by some fortunale speculation. 
Does it ever occur to a speculator that no one 
ever made a dollar by any speculation, that 
some other person did not lose ; that no 
value is added to any property by buying 
or selling it, and that the prices of most 
speculative property are utterly fictitious? 
We have no desire to “ run down* railroad or 
mining property, or to make it appear that it 
is of no value, bat it is a fact that is undenia¬ 
ble, that the greater part of the stocks that 
are dealt in by speculators have no basis 
of value at all; that the railroad stocks 
known as the fancies are overwhelmed with 
bonds and mortgages and that the greater part 
of the mines which are now especially favorite 
investments lor speculation are ‘’stocked” 
at amounts enormously greater than any 
real value that the wildest estimates could ap¬ 
proach. But yet the sharpers who thrive by this 
business are continually engaged in inveigling 
farmers and country people into their nets of 
speculation, and fleecing them of their hard- 
earned money. The amount of money that is 
constantly flowing into the pockets of stock 
brokers is amazing. It is to bo reasonably 
estimated at a yearly sum larger than the rev¬ 
enue of the United 8tates government. It has 
contributed to the vast wealth of the so called 
magnates of Wall 8.reel, who sum up their 
riches by millions and some by scores of bul¬ 
lions ; every dollar of which has been made 
by no process of honest productive industry, 
but by speculations in which they have gained 
what thousands have lost. 
