may he live to see his prediction fulfilled, 
and to spare to his thousands of friends, 
all the world over, the sorrow that must 
await upon the departure of so great a 
benefactor to his race, however full of 
years and honors his life may have been. 
We shall present a full report of the pro¬ 
ceedings of the meeting at an early date. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
a device that saves a great deal of labor and 
half the expense of hauling fodder corn from 
the field to the silo. 
It has been nearly 10 weeks since rain has 
fallen at the Rural Grounds, though showers 
have occurred here and there within a few 
miles. 
The grape crop this year promises to Ire an 
unusually good one. Along the Hudson 
thousands of tons will be marketed, a very 
large proportion of which will be taken from 
Concord vines. The reports from other grape- 
growing sections are also very favorable. 
Eliutick sold Barnes, in England, a horse 
on trial of eight days • the animal died within 
that time through no fault of either party and 
the seller sued for the price agreed on; but the 
Court of Queen's Bench decided that the plain¬ 
tiff could not recover, since the sale was con¬ 
ditional not absolute. English legal precedents 
A National Journal lor the Country and Suburban Home, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
JSUBKBT S. CABMAN, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York, 
nature of the calamity. Fresh discoveries 
of the corpses of victims are daily oecur- 
ing; hundreds of the survivors wander 
miserably about, or writhe groaning in 
temporary hospitals scorched, wounded, 
blinded or crazed. The suffering and de¬ 
vastation are widespread aqd terrible. At 
a low estimate 12,000 people have been 
rendered homeless, foodless, penniless by 
the. disaster—and Winter, a long, bleak 
Michigan Winter, will soon add to their 
sufferings. Among the black, smouldering 
desolation of a lately cheerful country, the 
voice of mourning everywhere arises for 
fathers, mothers, children, husbands, 
wives and relatives lost in the whirl¬ 
wind of smoke and flame. Governor 
Jerome of Michigan has appealed to the 
generosity of the other States to co-operate 
in relieving the dire distress which is too 
great for his own State to meet alone. As 
usual, this city heads the long list of 
towns that have grandly responded to his 
appeal, having already contributed near¬ 
ly $4.1,000 for the relief of the afflicted. 
Other places, notably Boston, Phila¬ 
delphia, Chicago, and St. Louis, are noblv 
emulating the liberality of New York. 
Shall the country, the rural districts, alone 
remain hard-hearted iu the presence of 
such suffering and tight-fisted before such 
generosity? Out upon so base a supposi¬ 
tion ! 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 24, 18S1 
During several days past we have 
planted 11,200 grains of wheat. The land 
was marked both ways nine inches apart, 
and a single grain placed two inches deep# 
in the intersections. 
The Inter-Ocean, Detroit Free Press, 
and New York World are the only papers 
with which we club for 1 SH 1 2 . The prices 
of these clubbing combinations are us low 
as they can possibly be made, and the 
postage of the free-seed distribution is in¬ 
cluded. We promise to give our prompt 
attention to subscriptions for any one or 
more of the above journals in connection 
with the Rural New-Yorker, and have 
made ample provisions for doing so. 
A PROPOSED WESTERN EMBARGO 
ON EASTERN CATTLE. 
The Treasury Cattle Commission, in an 
official communication to Gov. Cilllum of 
III , calls attention to the great danger, 
directly to the cattle interests of that State 
and the West generally and indirectly to 
those of the whole country, by the west¬ 
ward transportation of calves from the 
Eastern States some parts of which are 
now infected with contagious pleuro-pneu- 
monia. It seems that Eastern calves to 
the value of $1,500,000 have been sold 
in the Chicago stock-yard, in the last 
fifteen months, and that, although the 
trade is almost entirely confined to the 
Fall months, 7,000 head have been there 
disposed of the present season. Large 
numbers are also sold in East St. Louis, 
and considerable numbers elsewhere in 
the West. A very large proportion of 
these consist of pure-bred stock which are 
scattered among breeders and farmers 
throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Min¬ 
nesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Ne¬ 
braska, thus endangering the herds of all 
these States. They are largely purchased 
by thrifty, poor persons who have often to 
mortgage them to secure t he purchase 
money,and therefore shrink from promptly 
reporting the disease should it be de¬ 
veloped, thus concealing its existence 
The Railroad War. —The strife of 
the great lines to the West is getting 
warmer and warmer. Mr. Vanderbilt is 
found to be a “hard man to beat,” his 
latest statement being that he is prepared 
to sacrifice $ 10 , 000,000 in support of his 
position. The reason for this is said to 
be his desire to “ choke off M financial aid 
for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis 
road which is being built in close proxim¬ 
ity to the New York Central and Lake 
Shore, whose securities are now on the 
market. It is a “scare-’em-out” policy, in 
other words. It is thought the war will 
last until after the close of navigation on 
the lakes: at any rate, there are no 6 igns 
of peace as yet. In the meanwhile busi¬ 
ness men and tourists will continue to en¬ 
joy this era of low rates without a mur¬ 
mur. 
THE SOUTH AND THE ATLANTA 
SHOW. 
Apart from Texas, the Southern States 
have hitherto benefited very little from 
the mighty stream of immigration pour¬ 
ing into the country, scarcely a tiny rill 
having meandered from it in that direc¬ 
tion. Many of the new-comers have 
doubtless been deterred from going to that 
section through dislike to come into com¬ 
petition with negro labor ; but the great 
majority of those who might otherwise 
settle there are kept away through igno¬ 
rance of its many great advantages in the 
way of climate, soil, mineral riches, and 
varied natural and artificial products. 
Many, also, having heard of the unwhole¬ 
some climate of the region exposed to the 
visits of yellow fever, confound this lim¬ 
ited, low-lying area with the vast upland 
South, iu which the climate is as whole¬ 
some as that in any other part of the coun¬ 
try. The attention drawn to that section 
by the International Atlanta Exposition, 
affords a fine opportunity for laying be¬ 
fore the world the great resources of the 
country, the genial character of its cli¬ 
mate, and the wide field there offered for 
the profitable investment of labor and 
capital. In most of the Southern States 
vast tracts of fertile land suitable for 
every form of agricultural industry, can 
be purchased at low prices. The Southern 
railroad system has, of late years, been 
greatly improved and extended, thus af¬ 
fording ready communication with the 
world, and prompt transportation to profit¬ 
able domestic and foreign markets. The 
prejudices bom of the war and of slavery, 
the incitement to it, are fast dying out,' 
and a judicious show of its "resources 
An Old Story.— Yes, its an old story; 
but some good farmers seem to have never 
heard it! If your machinery looks old, 
rusty and out of order when harvest comes, 
it is a pretty sure sign that it has been 
exposed to the elements too much, and 
that, instead of caring for it. the “hired 
man ” left it where last used, and there 
the sunshine, rain and, possibly, *now 
have worked a “ marvelous change ” iu 
its appearance. A thrifty farmer gives 
his farm implements good care, and is well 
paid therefor. We have now in mind 
a man who bought a mowing machine in 
1862, and has used it until this season to do 
the mowing on a farm of about 100 acres, 
which, has been largely devoted to grass, 
but that machine was stowed in the imple¬ 
ment shed as soon as haying was done each 
year; Farmers, it pays! 
To butter from cream, “ butter” from 
caul fat, and “butter” from lard, must 
now be added “butter” from cotton-seed 
oil. Very appropriately the manufac¬ 
ture of this new product has hitherto been 
confined to New Orleans, where the 
small amount of home-made butter is so 
wretched in color, consistency and flavor, 
that bogus “butter” that cannot excel 
it must be abominable stuff indeed. Like 
all other well-wishers of the South, we 
are strong advocates of home manufac¬ 
tures there, but this advocacy certainly 
docs not extend to the production of bogus 
“butter.” Cow butter, bullock butter, 
hog butter and vegetable butter—surely 
every palate and pocket should now be 
suited in the way of butter. The new pro¬ 
duct boasts of being higher in quality than 
genuine butter, and lower in price than 
any of the other spurious concoctions. 
plus of the State at 950,000 tons or nearly 30,- 
000,000 bushels, exclusive of the quantity on 
shipboard in the harbor. Grain dealers think 
this estimate too low. They say the season’s 
wheat surplus approximates (>40,000 'tons. 
Just 622,124 tons or old wheat were on hand 
July!; since then there have been exported 
183,011 tons, leaving » balance for shipment of 
1,078,302 tons or 34,788,935 bushels Thus it 
will bo seen there is a difference of about four- 
and-threc>iu« rtor million bushels between the 
dealers’niid the farmers' estimates—a mere 
bagatelle when it is considered that it. is to the 
interest of the former to exaggerate the stock 
in order to cheapen the product, and that of the 
latter to belittle the amount in order to raise 
the price. 
Dressed beef lately transported in a Tiffany 
refrigerator ear from Chicago to Boston in six 
days, arrived in as fresh and bright a condi¬ 
tion as if bought at the neighboring slaughter 
houses lit Brighton. The meat was shipped 
when the outside temperature was 8(1°, while 
that inside the ear ranged (hiring - the journey 
from42© told- 1 . A large proportion of the 
meat used in the East is obtained from West¬ 
ern stock, and if the meat killed at Chicago or 
St,Louis can lie brought tothe sea board in prime 
condition, just os good as that killed here, the 
price of meat here must lie lowered, as the 
freight on it must lie considerably less than on 
live cattle. As meat is taken from here to 
Great Britain in excellent order after 10 to 12 
days, why cannot if be brought hither from 
the West in a condition equally good in half 
that time { The low prices would be a boon to 
consumers; but stock owners could hardly 
consider them an immixed blessing. 
FRENCH IMPORT DUTIES. 
Greatly to the dislike of French manu¬ 
facturers, and, indeed, of a majority of the 
French people, Napoleon the'III. at the 
hight of his fame formed a free-trade 
treaty with Great Britain, in 1860; but as 
Gladstone said in 1866, there was not a 
man that breathed on the earth who could 
have effected such a measure except 
Richard Cobden, the apostle of Free 
Trade, and the negotiator of the treaty. 
Cobden in the flush of liis popularity 
“joined the majority” in I 860 , and Napo- 
lean, shorn of fame and empire, followed 
him, in 1873, having lived to see his free- 
trade policy abandoned by Republican 
France, in 1872, when a mild protective 
policy was adopted in its place. Since 
then public opinion in France lias become 
still more outspoken in favor of heavier 
duties on importations of most foreign 
products, and in obedience to its dominant 
demands, a stronger protective tariff 
has just been adopted. In American 
The eighteenth session of the Ameri¬ 
can Pomoiogical Society was held at Bos¬ 
ton, Mass., on September 14th, 15th and 
16th, under the presidency of Marshall P. 
Wilder, the venerable President of the 
Society. For more than thirty years he 
has been elected to this position, and 
there is not to-day on this continent or 
elsewhere a name more honored among po- 
mologists, or a man w ho by earnest effort 
for a life-time has done so mucli to ad¬ 
vance the art to its present high position 
in this country and to open the way for 
its further development. At the age of 
four-score and three his address was full 
of congratulation for past achievements, 
and of hope and encouragement for still 
brighter successes in the future. Long 
Dr. La wes’s article on the first page will 
bear reading at least twice over. 
The Cuban Queen watermelon succeeds 
well with us and is, the present season, of ex¬ 
cellent quality. 
An interesting article on “ Tree Trunks as 
Water-conductors,” by Professor Storer, will 
be found on page 662. 
Professor I. P. Roberts’s article discusses 
TT 
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f; . 
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