OCT. 28 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCT. 39, 1881. 
We would remind those who kindly 
propose to solicit their acquaintances to 
subscribe for the Rural New-Yorker 
for another year, that the present is really 
in some respects a more favorable time 
for such endeavor than later in the season. 
The weather is now generally more pleas¬ 
ant than in December and January and 
the competition from professional agents 
far less keen. We beg to say that we 
shall at all times be very glad to send 
posters and specimen copies for this pur¬ 
pose (including the Fair Edition) free of 
all charge to all who apply. Moreover, to 
each new subscriber for 1883, who sub¬ 
scribes before New Year’s Day, we will 
send theRuHAL New-Yorker free for the 
remainder of 1881, beginning with the first 
issue after the receipt of his subscription. 
-♦- 
If the Rural New- lorJeer is not received' 
promptly when it is due, suhsanhers will 
confer a favor by notifying us at once. 
■ ■■+ » * - 
The Rural New-Yorker will be sent 
from now until January 1st., 1883 for 
§3.00. Our new posters for 1883 are now 
ready and will be sent gratis to all appli¬ 
cants. The Fair Number which fully ex¬ 
plains our Free Seed Distribution umf con¬ 
tains our Premium List will also be sent 
to all applicants, free of charge. 
Of six grape-vines all planted in the 
same soil and same situation and treated 
alike, Niagara has made the most wood 
and the heaviest main stem; Concord 
next, Moore’s Early next, Brighton next 
and two seedlings of our own least. 
Moore’s Early was the first to lose its 
foliage, the two seedlings second, Brigh¬ 
ton third, Concord fourth and Niagara 
last. ° 
•-- 
We have now completed the measure¬ 
ments of our special corn plots; of the 
Benton corn manured and unmanured ; of 
the Chester Co. Mammoth grown upon 
the same laud upon which the Blount’s 
was raised last year, and finally of an¬ 
other plot (about three-quarters of an 
acre) of Chester Corn grown upon low 
land and manured with concentrated fer¬ 
tilizers. The reports will be presented 
in due time. 
Of late months, we rarely present an 
original engraving of a fruit, plant or 
animal that does not elicit inquiries, which 
shows there is a misapprehension ’on the 
part of advertisers regarding the object 
of such illustrations. Wc have never 
asked or received any compensation 
whatever for the cost and presentation 
of these engravings. Our object is 
to bring before our readers in the most 
prominent manner the latest improve¬ 
ments in fruits, grains, ornamental plants, 
farm implements, etc., or the finest speci¬ 
mens of thoroughbred stock with the 
besthnd most trustworthy information we 
can glean respecting them. To provide 
materia) for such illustrations and the in¬ 
formation derived from actual tests are 
among the main objects of the Rural’s 
Experiment Grounds. 
dealer near this city, who said they had 
come from “ Ohio.” About a week after 
their arrival they began to sicken and die, 
and a fortnight afterwards the last of 
them perished. But before its death the 
home herd had begun to show the results 
of bad company, two of them having be¬ 
come sick. Siuee then others have been 
prostrated and several have died. A 
neighboring farmer had also bought 10 
head from the same dealer, out of the 
same Ohio drove, and at the time of our 
friend’s visit to Monmouth County three 
had been buried aud more were sick. 
This case affords an excellent illustra¬ 
tion of the manner in which contagious 
diseases are spread among stock all over 
the country—not hog cholera alone but 
pleuro-pneumonia also and all other ail¬ 
ments of that sort. In the absence of 
efficient legislation for the protection of 
our stock, each farmer must individually 
adopt the best possible precautions to in¬ 
sure the safety of his cattle, sheep and 
swine, yes, aud of his poultry, too. 
Whenever economically practicable, every 
farmer who desires to keep his domestic 
animals clear of contagion should breed 
his own stock. By doing this he will not 
only stand an excellent chance of escap¬ 
ing losses from contagious diseases among 
them, but with care aud good judgment 
lie will, in a few years, secure a herd or 
flock especially suitable to his circum¬ 
stances and surroundings and therefore 
especially profitable. If this is impossi¬ 
ble, then he should buy only from farms 
which he Jennies to be free from contagious 
ailments, and the animals he thus pur¬ 
chases must be transported to their des¬ 
tination in special cars or steamboats, 
for the ordinary cattle cars are, in many 
cases, among the worst disseminators of 
disease. The adoption ol’ these precau¬ 
tions will, doubtless, always necessitate 
some extra outlay; but the neglect of them 
will often entail serious loss. 
GAMBLING IN FARM PRODUCE. 
HOW DISEASE IS SPREAD AMONG 
STOCK. 
A well known veterinarian of this city 
a frequent contributor to the Rural, was 
summoned a week ago to a farm in Mon¬ 
mouth County, N. J., to investigate the 
cause of sickness and death among the 
swine on the place. On his arrival lie 
found that four had already died and 
three more were sick. A post-mortem ex¬ 
amination showed that the trouble was 
due to hog cholera. The owner had 
originally possessed 10 hogs, and on Sep¬ 
tember 32, had bought 14 more from a 
Gambling in grain and other farm 
products, especially when it has assumed 
the form uud proportions of a “ corner” in 
any commodity, is attracting a great deal 
of attention everywhere of late, but par¬ 
ticularly at the West. This is due to the 
unusual frequency and magnitude of such 
speculative movements, brought about 
by the manipulations of wealthy specu¬ 
lators who have lately introduced into 
the produce markets the tactics which 
they formerly practiced chiefly in the 
stock markets. A special impetus was 
the other day given to the discussion of 
the subject by the charge of Judge Jame¬ 
son of Chicago to the Grand Jury of Cook 
County, in which lie called attention to an 
almost forgotten Illinois statute making 
such gambling an offence punishable by 
fine or imprisonment or both. This law 
is directed against dealing in “ options;” 
"forestalling the market” aud "corner¬ 
ing the market or trying to do so.” The 
"options’ here referred to, however, are 
not the ordinary "options” quoted in 
market reports contracts to deliver or 
take a commodity at a fixed price at any 
time optional with the buyer or seller 
within fixed limits in the future -but 
what is commonly known as " puts” and 
"calls,’’ which are privileges bought and 
sold entitling one to either sell or buy so 
much grain or other commodity within a 
certain period—transactions made only 
to a limited extent and not recognized by 
the Board of Trade in any market. By 
"forestalling the market” is meant, ac¬ 
cording to the Illinois Statute, "spread¬ 
ing false rumors to influence the price of 
commodities sold therein.” “Cornering 
the market” Judge Jameson defines thus” 
"A party securing a contract for the future 
delivery of some commodity in the mar¬ 
ket, making it impossible for the other 
party to complete his contract except by 
purchasing of his adversary at his own 
price or paying in cash the difference fixed 
by such adversary.” This the Judge 
characterized as "a process of driving un¬ 
suspecting dealers in grain, stock and 
the like, into a corral and relieving 
them of their purses.” This is hardly 
fair, however, so far as the regular 
operators are concerned, for each party 
is trying to get the best of the other, aud 
the "unsuspecting dealers” who are 
shorn to-day were probably among the 
shearers yesterday and will bo again to¬ 
morrow, for the "bear” of one month 
is not uufrequently the “bull” of the 
next, aud the one is “relieved of his purse” 
about as often as the other. 
There is uo doubt that it is grossly un¬ 
just, uay, downright dishonest, to exact 
the delivery of a commodity the entire 
supply of which is under the control of 
the party making the exaction. But be¬ 
yond this individual injustice, a grievous 
public injury is done by such a monopoly, 
for the unlawful rise in price due to the 
fictitious value set upon the “cornered” 
commodity, has, as a rule, to be ulti¬ 
mately paid by innocent parties who 
had no chance to win by the gambling 
transaction. Moreover, the regular course 
of business is impeded or blocked by such 
gigantic speculations which have a de¬ 
moralizing tendency on the entire commu¬ 
nity. 
The great obstacle to putting an end to 
them by legislation lies in the difficulty of 
proving the offense: for among the over¬ 
reached speculators there exists a strong 
disinclination to “squeal.” The gambler 
in grain or in other commodities, like 
most of the gamblers in cards, does not 
seek protection from the law. In fact he 
can protect himself by refraining from 
gambling, and the dividing line between 
gamblers in produce and legitimate deal¬ 
ers is fluctuating and by no means clearly 
defined. The Boards of Trade and Ex¬ 
changes can, if a ma jority in each so wills, 
suppress the pernicious practice more ef¬ 
fectually than any legislation, and it is to 
be hoped that for the sake of their own 
reputations and the public welfare they 
will take vigorous action to this end. 
So far as the farmer is concerned, "cor¬ 
nering a product is an advantage, in that 
it raises the price of it, thus affording him 
an opportunity of selling it at a very profit¬ 
able figure. On the other hand, however, 
it tends to foster a spirit of gambling in 
him, also, leading him to hold back his 
crops in ordinary times in expectation of 
getting for them the higher prices ob¬ 
tainable during the cornering processes, 
though to do so he has often to borrow 
money on mortgage to carry on his legiti¬ 
mate business. Not unfrequently, too, 
this spirit of speculation is so strong that 
during the rise due to the corner he elings 
to his produce for still higher prices till 
the corner has culminated either in success 
or failure, after either of which issues 
prices rapidly sink, often fora time below 
the legitimate level. Duringsuch periods 
of fictitious depreciation, the shrewd 
farmer will never market his products, but 
will always wait until the reaction has set 
in, which in such cases is sure to occur 
in a few weeks. 
BREVITIES. 
Send for the Fair Number of the Rural 
New -1 orker and the new poster for 1882. 
Both will be forwarded gratis to all appli¬ 
cants. 
The Jersey bull, Prospect, whose likeness 
graced thu firat page of our Fair Number, 
died about a fortnight ago from drinking too 
much water at his home on the Messrs. Rowe's 
Co operative Stock Farm near Fredrieksburg 
Va. 
Remember this: Wait until a severe frost 
that freezes the ground at least two inches in 
depth before covering strawberry beds. Then 
use straw or coarse manure to cover. Straw 
is better because it contains no weed seeds. 
Cover lightly but as uniformly as possible. 
Sticks of anv kind may be used between the 
rows to hold the covering. 
In the case of Maddox vs. Brown, the 
Supreme Court of Maine lias decided that the 
owner of a horse and wagon, who has lent it, 
is not responsible for injuries caused bv the 
negligence of the borrower. In the above 
case Brown’s son, aged 17, was using the 
wagon on his own business, under a general 
permission given by bis father, when his care¬ 
lessness caused the injury to Maddox for 
which he claimed damages from old man 
Brown. 
Of the 441 female graduates ot the Hart¬ 
ford, Conu.. High School since 1848 only 147 
have been married: a poor show for marriage 
among highly-educated females. A tv they too 
independent to seek male help, or too shrewd 
to be saddled with male selfishness i Or, is 
their ideal hero so perfect that lie is rarely 
met with 1 Or is it that the males are afraid 
of so much learning and independence, or do 
they believe that a masculine education unfits 
for feminine duties I On the other hand, of 
those 447 highly "finished” females only 25 
have died: tin excellent proof of the sanitary 
value of education—or of single-blessedness. 
Apologetic. — We have received the fol- 
owing note: " Please give me credit for the 
wrong name which now partially attaches to 
the new Black-cap, Souhegan. Mr. Downing 
requested me to find the name on the map or 
in the post-office directory, but not discover¬ 
ing it in either, T naturally supposed that it 
was intended for the more widely known In 
dian name Skowhegan—a post-village on the 
Kennebec River, Maine. The creek men¬ 
tioned by Messrs. Hale is but little known out¬ 
side of its locality, and hence so far as there is 
error, it is exclusively mine. A. A. Bknsel. 
Newburgh, N. Y. 
Farmers and the Signal Service.—W e 
have noticed an article going the rounds of the 
agricultural press stating that the Signal Ser¬ 
vice wasabout to make arrangements whereby 
fanners in the vicinity of Signal Service Sta¬ 
tions could be informed of the probable condi¬ 
tion of the weather 04 hours or so in advance. 
This was to be done by setting off colored 
rockets during the evening of each day. In 
order to getat the facts in the case, we referred 
the statement to Gen W. B. lluzen, Chief of 
the Signal Service Department, who replies 
that he has never entertained the project 
of informing farmers, or others, of the weather 
indications by means of rockets. 
The Commissioner of the General Land 
(Hlice in his report just sent out to the Sec re- 
tnry of the Interior, speaking of the delay of 
business duo to the insufficient clerical force in 
his office, says that in a single division of pub¬ 
lic lands there are now over <50,000 entries and 
legal notice* ol' settlement, and claims nil posted 
on the tract books and unoxatuined, and 
about 1,800 contracts unexamined. Other di¬ 
visions are as much or more behind from the 
same cause. Delay in this department of the 
public service often entails much inconven¬ 
ience and loss upon those least able to en¬ 
dure either—the settlers—homesteaders, and 
others—along our Western frontier. We trust 
therefore, that the deficiency here will bo 
promptly supplied—a thing that can be econ¬ 
omically done by drafting to this office some of 
t he very supemumeni ry clerks in some of the 
other departments at Washington, 
A NUMBER of wholesale importers of hay re¬ 
cently brought a test case at Albany, N. Y., 
e.gainst the United States, to recover an al¬ 
leged excess of duty. It was claimed that the 
duty of 20 per cent, collected pursuant to the 
United States custom laws was illegal, in that 
hay was a raw material while 20 percent, duty 
was churgoable on it only as a manufactured 
article. The Government, claimed thatthe pro¬ 
cesses of cutting, drying and curing grass, as 
they converted the starch and gluten therein to 
sugar, made hay a manufactured article, anil 
called experts to prove it. The jury, however, 
gave a verdict in favor of tlie plaintiff' for 
83,000—the excess of duty collected. It is said 
that should the duty ou imported hay be placed 
at 10 per cent.—the amount chargeable on it 
as raw material—the Government will lose 
from 8500,000 to *1,000.000 a year. The case 
is to be apt tea led to the United States Supreme 
t ourt. 1 lie decision will bo of importance to 
our farmers in the States along the Canada 
border, and to Canadian farmers, who are sure 
to increase their imports of bay should the 
Court decree in favor of the lower rate of 
duty. 
The estimates made by the Department of 
Agriculture of the wheat and corn crops of 
last year have been revised on the basis of the 
Census returns of the crops of 1879. Many 
returns to the Department of last year’s 
crops stated that the crops of 1880 were “ such 
or such” a percentage below or above the 
crops of 1879, and the aggregates were worked 
out on this basis. It turns out, however, 
that the Department's estimates for 1879 
w ere below the figures given by the Census, 
so that if lias been found advisable to alter 
t he yields of wheat and corn iu the various 
States, According to the new estimate just 
published, last year's total wheat crop 
amounted to 498,549,8(58bushels instead of the 
480,849,783 bushels previously estimated—an 
increase of 17,700,145 bushels. The revised 
estimate also puts the total corn crop of 1880 
at 1,717,434,548 bushels, instead of the 1,537,- 
535,000 of the previous estimate—an increase of 
179,890,548 bushels. Of course, all estimates 
of this year’s wheat and corn crops based on 
the correctness of the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment’s figuring on last year's crops will have to 
be revised on the basis of these revised esti¬ 
mates. 
The American Humane Association held its 
fifth annual meeting at Boston last week. Rep¬ 
resentatives were present from Maine, New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Illinois, Ne¬ 
braska, Georgia, aud Nova Scotia, It pro¬ 
poses to have agents in every town and city 
at a cost of from 818,000 id S30,000 a year, 
which is to be collected by voluntary subscrip¬ 
tions. Already this humane league is said to 
be represented in the 83 States and Territories, 
its object is to prevent and punish cruelty to 
dumb animals. The chief end at present cn- 
gaging its attention is the proper transporta¬ 
tion of stock on our railroads. To further this 
the Association offered, some time back a 
prize of #5,000 for a satisfactory stock car iu 
which animals can rest and lie fed and water¬ 
ed while iu transit. In comjietition for this 
prize700 designs were sent in by representatives 
of every State and Territory except Washing¬ 
ton Territory and New Mexico. Canada, 
England, Switzerland and Russia wore also 
among the competitors. Not a little, no doubt, 
to the disappointment of every one of the 700, 
Mr. E. L. Brown, of Chicago, who preside. 1, 
announced that not one of the designs had so 
complied with the requirements as to deserve 
tlie prize. This is, therefore, still open to com¬ 
petition among the inventive geniuses of this 
and other countries. 
A centfry-and-a-ualf ago—or. to be pre- 
vise, 140 years ago, in 1735—a number of Bul¬ 
garians, too haughty longer to brook or too 
hasty longer to beat Turkish insolence aud 
outrage, fled to Hungary. Adam delved and 
Eve span and the exiles were mostly of the 
same honorable vocation sis their remote ex¬ 
iled ancestors, and, Like the subjects of the 
Pharaohs, their children have mostly followed 
the craft of their fathers. Wrenched from the 
crushing Ottoman grasp by the fierce mailed 
hand of Ruasia during the late Turko-Musco- 
vite war, the Fatherland the other day Invited 
the descendants of her children, exiled by 
tyranny, to share in her newly acquired free¬ 
dom, offering them a largo area ot land near 
Sistovaon very easy terms. Twelve thousand 
of them were eager at ouce to exchange their 
loug-accustomed hardships for the ease which 
distance of time and place rendered all the 
more alluring. The contracts for the farms 
which several generations of them had ex¬ 
pended their hard, dull lives in tilling, had 
now expired, and they were all the more joy¬ 
ous to start. The Magyars, however, the 
liberty-shrieking compatriots of Kossuth, like 
those other tyrants of old, refused to let the 
people go. Passports were denied, and orders 
«ire reported to have been issued for tlie use of 
force to prevent tlie exodus, should force be 
necessary. No sea. Red, White or Yellow, 
unfortunately, separates Hungary from Bul¬ 
garia; Moses, too, alas! is dead, even he who 
freed our "niggers”; and, more’s the pity, 
the rod is nowadays considered an instru¬ 
ment of oppression, not of freedom. 
