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THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
A National Journal for the Country and Suburban Horn*. 
PU BUSHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
2I.8EBT S, CAB Milt. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCT. 15, 1881. 
If the Rural Hew- Yorker is not received 
promptly when it is due , subscribers will 
confer afavorby notifying ns at once. 
Put your name and address upon the 
box or package or parcel, friends, when 
you send us grapes, apples, pears, insects, 
flowers, or anything. Please bear in 
mind that we receive many such, and that 
we cannot place t.he letters or postal cards 
which Li y arrive, days before or after, 
' h the parcels, unless the address is 
written upon them in full. 
-- 
“A farmer who places his corn in a 
silo should clearly understand that in do¬ 
ing so he destroys a considerable amount 
of the food which the corn contained 
wnen introduced.” See Dr. Lawes’s arti¬ 
cle, page 705. 
-*-*-♦- 
Thanks —thanks for a gentle little rain 
that has invigorated our drooping wheat 
plants. Wo could have sacrificed our 
main wheat plots without loud murmurs; 
but our little plots—our specialties that 
we have worked so hard to get together— 
our pets, we could not spare them. Their 
loss would be irreparable to us—indeed 
to our readers. 
-- 
We find that our reproduction of the 
Shropshire Ram “Dudmaston Hero,” 
Fig. 476, page G69, is presented without 
credit to the Londou Agricultural Gazette, 
in which the original engraving appeared. 
We should have made this aekuowlege- 
ment to any paper, under any circum- 
* stances, hut we are the more anxious to 
reproach ourselves for the oversight to the 
Agricultural Gazette, because that journal 
is always scrupulously careful to give 
credit where credit is due. 
-» ♦ *■ 
Latest.— The first frost occurred at the 
Rural Farm, Oct. 5. The drought is 
not yet broken and the farmers cannot 
plow for wheat. Some of the wheat 
sown at the Rural Farm about Sept. 20, is 
dying. The lower the roots of the young 
plants extend the less moisture they find. 
What little moisture there is in the soil 
seems to be confined to within a few 
inches of the surface. It is safe to predict 
thus early that the wheat crop in this 
section of country for 1882 will be light* 
We find the following item in our re¬ 
spected contemporary the London Agri¬ 
cultural Gazette, the first farm journal of 
England: ‘‘And an American contem¬ 
porary which lias just arrived (the Annual 
Fair edition of the Rural New-Yorker) 
is brimful of the same teaching. It gives 
long accounts of comparative trials of 
cereals; stating the average length of ear, 
of straw, the yield in bushels, and weight 
per bushel, with a minuteness of detail 
of which, except at Rothamsted, we have 
no parallel in Great Britain.” 
A prominent member of the Illinois 
State Board of Agriculture said to our 
Western agent a few days since, that our 
Wheat Special was worth $10,000 to the 
farmers of Illinois alone, and that the 
State would do a good thing if it would 
appropriate $10,000 for subscriptions to 
the Rural New-Yorker— said papers to 
be sent to prominent farmers througnout 
the State so that they could get the bene¬ 
fit of our Experiment Station, as the 
great State of Illinois is too mean to run 
one for itself. 
The average ear of the 12 ears of the 
Rural White Dent, which took the first 
premium at the Mineola Fair, is 12j 
inches long, has 16 rows and 52 kernels 
to the row. All were well filled out at 
both ends; the kernels arc large and 
placed as closely as possible. This well- 
marked variety shrinks far less than the 
Chester Co. Mammoth and is, judging 
by the past most unfavorable season, the 
best white deut corn we have ever raised 
or seen. The illustration in the Fair 
Number of the Rural as the typical ear, 
is not at ail exaggerated. 
National Finances. —The financial af¬ 
fairs of the Government are in a very 
prosperous condition, judging from the 
debt statement for the first quarter of the 
fiscal year, which closed on die 30th ult. 
The aggregate receipts for that time were 
over $107,000,000; for the same time 
last year they were $1)8,000,000, or an in¬ 
crease of $9,000,000, which isn't so had, 
after all! Should the reduction of the 
public debt continue for the three quar¬ 
ters ensuing, in the same proportion, the 
total amount of reduction July 1. 1882, 
would be, in round numbers, $148,000,000, 
as the estimate for the first quarter is 
$37,000,000. However, we should be 
content if that magnificent sum is not 
quite reached. 
The Weather.— Until the 5tli inst. 
we had not fully realized that Autumn 
had come, so long had Summer prolonged 
its stay, but the frost of Tuesday night 
served as a reminder. There is uothing 
phenomenal in the coming of frost at this 
time of the season, except its suddenness, 
for last year, according to the Signal 
Service reports, frosts were recorded as 
early as Aug. 16 in Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania, 
while by Sept. 15 they were quite general. 
From our news columns it will be seen 
that nearly every section of the country 
was visited with frosts last week, and 
that considerable damage was done to 
ungathered fruits and vegetables. In 
Pennsylvania grapes were frozen on the 
vines, while in the most northern tobacco- 
raising States the “weed’’was much in¬ 
jured. The prospects now are chat a 
warmer wave is approaching and that, we 
may yet enjoy our usual Indian Summer. 
The Michigan Relief Fund has 
grown to nearly a quarter of a million 
dollars, but it is estimated that at least 
five times this amount will be needed to 
keep the people of the afflicted region 
from absolute want during the coming 
Winter. In the time of Ireland’s distress, 
a couple of years ago, America generously 
seut food and money to relieve the famish¬ 
ing and clothe the ragged. Shall America 
be less liberal to her own children than to 
her neighbors? The contributions to the 
fund for Mrs. Garfield have already 
amounted to over $35(1.000, and with the 
insurance on her husband's life, the liberal 
appropriation in her behalf which Congress 
is sure to make, and her present posses¬ 
sions, it is estimated that she will have at 
least $500,000. Many of our most influen¬ 
tial papers are therefore suggesting that 
all future contributions which the gener¬ 
ous and philanthropic may feel disposed 
to make, should help to relieve the deplor¬ 
able need of thousands in the burnt dis¬ 
trict rather than further swell the. Gar¬ 
field fund, already large enough to meet 
all reasonable wants or wishes. We 
liope that thousands of our readers have 
already contributed the price of that 
“Michigan Bushel” of wheat towards 
helping their co-workers, and those who 
have delayed doing so we would remind 
that he doubles his gift who gives it 
promptly. 
-- — 
THE RURAL CROP FORECASTS AND 
H OUTCOME. 
In our Special Crop Nunibet of June 
25 last, in summing up our conclusions 
drawn from upwards of 2,000 reports 
sent to us from all parts of the country, 
we ventured to predict that the total 
wheat crop of 1881 would be 20 per ceut. 
below that of 1880. “The latter," said 
we, “has been estimated by the Agricul¬ 
tural Department at 480,849,723 bushels, 
so that, on this basis, this year’s aggre¬ 
gate crop can hardly be far from the 
neighborhood of 380,000,000 bushels,” 
Furthermore, for reasons previously given, 
we expressed an opinion that the Depart¬ 
ment’s estimate was from fifteen to twenty 
million bushels too high, and that, there¬ 
fore, a corresponding reduction should be 
made on the above estimate of ours. 
This would make the aggregate yield this 
year from 360,000,000 to 365,000,000 bus. 
This estimate was made six weeks be¬ 
fore the average harvest time. After 
the harvest has been completed, Brad- 
street’s has made a careful investigation 
of the aggregate yield of wheat and corn, 
and from 3,000 trustworthy reports esti¬ 
mates the total yield of wheat at 368,- 
962,000 bushels—or within three million 
bushels of our estimate nearly four mouths 
earlier. 
Of the corn crop of 1881 we said in the 
same issue: “Acecording to the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture the total yield last 
year was 1,537,535,000 bushels, from 
which a deduction of 15 per cent, would 
leave 1,308,535,000 bushels as the aggre¬ 
gate of this year’s crop. Inasmuch as 
the corn crop is made in July or August, 
however, there is still time for a great 
deal of improvement,” or, of course, of 
injury. With anything like an ordinary 
season for making the corn crop our esti¬ 
mate of the out-turn of this would, wc 
have uo doubt, have proved comparatively 
as close to correctness as our estimate of 
the wheat crop, Owing to the very un¬ 
usual drought that afflicted most of the 
country during the critical period for 
corn, the injury to the crop has been 
greater than could have been foreseen at 
the date of our report, Brudstreet's esti¬ 
mates this year’s total crop at 1,193,041,- 
000 bushels, or about 115,000,000 bushels 
less than our estimate—by no means too 
high an estimation of the loss from the 
widespread severity of the drought. In 
the shorter interval between our estimate 
of the wheat crop and the harvesting of 
it, the weather was ordinarily favorable 
for wheat, and therefore our conclusions 
approximated very closely to the truth; 
in the longer interval between our estimate 
of the coru crop and the harvesting of it, 
the weatlnT was unusually unfavorable 
for corn, and therefore our original esti¬ 
mate of the shortage was too low; but 
since then we have several times revised 
our original views us the drought ex¬ 
tended its ill effects. 
-♦ -» +- 
THE RURAL’S PRETENSIONS. 
WnY is it that so little attention has 
been paid to the improvement of our ce¬ 
real crops—the most valuable of the 
world ? It is hard to answer, unless it is 
that we are so prone to overlook the great 
problems of life while wasting our ener¬ 
gies upon those trifles that can yield no 
substantial benefit to mankind. Suppose 
that Charles Darwin, instead of spending 
years upon the investigation of so-called 
carnivorous plants, had devoted his incom¬ 
parable talents to the improvement of 
those plants immediately serviceable to 
man, what might we not have looked for 
as the results 1 Until of late years, no 
systematic, scientific labor has been be¬ 
stowed upon the corn plant; which, we 
cannot doubt, is destined, at no distant 
day, to stand first among America’s farm 
crops. And yet no other plant is more 
susceptible to improvement by careful 
crossing and selection. And with wheat 
—who, until within a few years past, has 
attempted its improvement ? Amoug the 
Experiment Stations of this country, the 
Rural Farm stands almost, if not quite, 
alone in its endeavors to originate and 
disseminate superior varieties of grain. 
We have now 25 different kinds of wheat 
which have originated at the Rural Farm, 
nearly all of which, in its sandy soil, 
promise to far excel the Fultz and Claw- 
sou which—as if there were no other 
wheats—are the reigning favorites of our 
country. 
In our present Free Seed Distribution 
we send out Mr. Wysor’s Fultzo-Clawson 
and Surprise Wheats, after testing them 
for several years. This is the beginning 
of the dissemination of improved cross¬ 
bred varieties, and ere the merits of these 
have become well known, we hope to be 
ready to distribute other kinds of our own 
origination, which shall succeed at least 
where those fail. 
The Rural New-Yorker has naturally 
beeu looked upon as seeking merely to 
advance its own interests through its Free 
Seed and Plant Distribution. The truth, 
however is becoming felt. The amount 
of money expended in our work of the 
past four years, and the earnestness with 
which that work has been conducted be¬ 
gin to tell their own story, viz., that the 
Rural has merely been selected as a me¬ 
dium—and an excellent one—of testing 
over a wide extent of country the seeds 
and plants which ill its Experiment 
Grounds have given high promise of supe¬ 
riority, and of giving to them a quick and 
just celebrity or death. But decidedly 
improved kinds of plants can not always, 
or generally, he. determined in one year or 
five, and we make bold to state our be¬ 
lief that the five years to come will afford 
our good readers far better evidence of 
the efficiency of our work than the past 
five years have done. 
The Rural has received little encour¬ 
agement from its brother agricultural 
journals. They have made no reference, 
as a class, to the corn, oats, wheats and 
other plants we have cultivated and dis¬ 
seminated over the country purely at our 
OAvn expense, and without the faintest 
knowledge as to whether it would add a 
name to our subscription list or a mite to 
our income. As a matter of good faith 
to our readers; as a proof of the justice 
of our pretensions, we have in every case 
refused to sell a plant or seed to our sub¬ 
scribers, since to have done so would 
at once have impaired the reasonableness 
of our claim that “ we are working in the 
interests of agriculture as our foremost 
aim. ” 
But, as avg have intimated, the truth is 
beginning to be felt. Our subscribers 
confide in us because we are consistent. 
The seeds and plants we have sent them 
according to their OAvn testimony have 
in many cases proven more valuable 
than the cost of ms y suberiptions to 
this journal. Our subscribers—thanks to 
them—are beginning to do our motives 
justice ; and our friends of the big-heart¬ 
ed agricultural press will follow them 
some day. It is a long lane that has no 
turning; but the longest lane will be 
found for f hose who profess a benevolent 
interest in any class or community merely 
to secure a livelihood to themselves. May 
the truth prosper; may ive be successful 
in providing the means of doing good to 
farmers and gardeners according to our 
deserts; for there are few greater privi¬ 
leges or pleasures in life to those who 
have studied vegetable nature. 
BREVITIES. 
If the Rural, New-Yorker is not received 
promptly when it is due, subscribers will con¬ 
fer a favor by notifying us at once. 
We have never seen California pears so 
abundant and cheap as during the present 
season. 
If the Rural New-Yorker is not received 
jiromptly when it is due, subscribers will con¬ 
fer a fa vor by notifying us at once. 
Mr. Lovett's colored picture of the Manches' 
ter Strawberry in his < atalogue, by no means 
does the size of that berry justice, as it grew at 
the Rural Grounds the past season. 
At the New York State Fair there were 20 
Clydesdales and 20 Perclierou horses. A 
special prize of £100 was awarded to the 
Clydesdale stallion. Brown Glancer, whose 
portrait appeared in the Fair Number of the 
Rural New-Yorker. 
The cabbages along the route to and from 
our farm present a deplorable sight. They 
are literally eaten up bv cabbage worms. Cab¬ 
bages are being peddled about the country for 
from 10 to .20 cents for poor heads. Would 
it not pay Western gardeners to ship to New' 
York ? 
All of our young friends who desire to re¬ 
main active members of our Youths’ Horti¬ 
cultural club, are requested to send in their 
names and addresses before December 1st., 
We have selected a certain kind of seed to 
distribute among the members for another 
year and premiums for the best yields will be 
offered. 
A new use for broom-corn is announced from 
Sutter Country, California, w here a consider- 
erable amount of it is raised. A process is 
said to have been lately discovered by which 
“the finest and most •delicious flour can lie 
made from the seed” to the extent of half its 
weight, leaving the remainder a valuable eat 
tie feed. It is predicted that the discovery 
will at no distant day "revolutionize the 
breadstuff's of the world.” 
The Seckel at the Rural Farm this year 
ripens two weeks earlier than the Seckel at the 
Rural Grounds. No rain, to speak of, has fal¬ 
len in either place for about the same length of 
time. The soil of the Rural Kami, where the 
land is level, is sandy. That of the Rural 
Grounds, situated in a valley, is clayey. The 
Shekels of the latter are fully one-third larger 
than those of the former. We mention these 
particulars to show hotv a popular fruit may 
vary in localities separated by only 40 miles. 
During the year ending January 1st 1881 
we imported 56,000 bales of jute, worth $20 
each. This was principally used for bagging, 
and came all the way from British India, pay¬ 
ing a freight, of $13 per ton: in addition to 
which the government levies an import duty 
on it. Jute culture has lieen successfully 
tried in Louisiana a nil Florida, and we learn 
from Jacksonville that the Okeechobee Land 
Company which has contracted to construct 
a canal across tho Florida Peninsula and to re¬ 
claim a vast tract of swamp land by draining 
Lake Okeechobee, intends to experiment with 
jute culture on a large scale next year. 
So much importance has the Illinois Cen¬ 
tral Railroad attached to the article, " Rye to 
the Rescue,” written by our contributor B, F. 
Johnson and published in our Wheat Special 
of September 10. that the President, W. K. 
Ackerman, has had it republished in pamphlet 
form and is sending it to all ihe officers and 
agents of the road with the following note: 
" I send herewith a number of copies of an 
article which appeared in the Rural New- 
Yorker, h short time ago, on the cultivation 
of Winter Rye. At the present juncture I 
think the suggestions in the article are well 
worth consideration, and shall be glad if you 
will circulate the pamphlet among the farm¬ 
ers in your vicinity, and said copies also 
to the newspapers." 
In the case of Bliss vs. the New York 
Central Railroad Company, tho facts were 
these: An engine drawing a cattle train was 
driven through the water on the track, al¬ 
though it was evident the engine fires would 
lie extinguished ami the cattle could not be 
taken out.; and when the conductor was urged 
to telegraph for an engine to a town fortv 
miles away, he refused to do so. The plaintiff 
recovered for injury to the cattle caused by 
the unusual confinement, and the company 
appealed. In delivering the opinion of the 
New York Court of Appeals, Judge Finch 
said that whether or not there was gross 
negligence in failing to send for the engines 
was for the jury to decide, and that it was 
negligence in the company not to supply suf¬ 
ficient motive power to move the train. 
