BESa 3 
T H E 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER, 
▲ National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBE ET S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL XS W-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, DEC. 31, 1881. 
ANNOUNCEMENTS. 
The Bonanza Farm series of articles 
aid illustrations will be begun early 
in January, beginning with the por¬ 
trait of Mr. Oliver Dalryinple and a sketch 
of his life. The portrait will be printed 
upon heavy supercalendered paper as a 
supplement. The second of the series of 
illustrations will be Breaking; the third 
Backsetting; the fourth, Seeding; the 
fifth, liarrowing; the sixth, Harvest¬ 
ing, and the last Thrashing. Mr. Dal- 
rymple informed our special corres¬ 
pondents that this is the first time 
he has ever given comprehensive notes of 
his methods of farming to the public, and 
that all other writings upon the subject 
have been from desultory information, 
and most of it wide of the truth. 
We take much pleasure in announcing 
to our readers that the distinguished 
American horticulturist, Dr. John A. 
Warder, is preparing a series of articles 
for the Rural New-Yorker on Forestry. 
The following subjects will be specially 
treated: 
Water-Supply of a Country—How af¬ 
fected by Forests ; Results of Clearing. 
Torrents; Overflows. 
Where to Plant—Preparation of the 
Land. 
Planting -What and Ilbw ; Massing; 
Mingling; Grouping. 
Cultivation—Protection—Fencing— 
Fires. 
After-Trantment—Thinning, &c. 
Felling—Harvesting. 
Systems of Management. 
Secondary Products—Bark, Pitch, etc. 
Conservation or Planting Anew. 
Natural Reproduction. 
Coppice Wood—Management ; Time 
for Cutting. 
Cheap and Hardy Trees—Pioneers for 
the Prairies. 
Soft-Woods—Poplars, Willows, etc. 
Catalpas. 
Hard-Woods—Oaks, Hickories, Wal¬ 
nuts. 
Maples, Ash, Cherry, Elms, Button- 
wood. Beeches, Birches, Iron-woods, Al¬ 
ders, Honey-Locust, Ailautlius, Black- 
Locust, Chestnuts, Magnolias, Tulip-Tree. 
Sassafras, Sumac, Thorns, Plums, Crabs, 
Viburnums, Mountain Ash, etc., etc. 
Miscellaneous and Novelties from 
Abroad. 
Conifers and Evergreens. 
Our Pines; Spruces; Firs; “Ceda:s;” 
Larches; Cypresses; Thujas, etc. 
Undergrowth—Dogwood, Hazel, etc. 
Insects and Enemies. 
Local Plantations already started— 
Larch' Dale, Illinois; Messrs. Fay’s Es¬ 
tates in Massachusetts; Pine Forests of 
Cape Cod; Scofield's, Elgin, Illinois; 
Larch Wood, Iowa; Col. Whiting’s, Iowa. 
Shelter Belts—Wind-Breaks. 
Black-Locust Groves of Ohio. 
Dr. Warder’s Experiments, etc., etc. 
Professor A. E. Blount will com¬ 
mence early in the New Year a series of 
articles on Colorado farming, wheat 
growing, etc. 
Mr. Waldo F. Brown, the veteran 
farmer of Butler County, Ohio, will short¬ 
ly begin a series of articles in the Rural 
New-Yorker upon the following topics: 
How to Raise Pigs—Illustrated. 
How to make Cheap Pork, adapted 
especially for the corn farms of the West. 
Breeds and Crosses. 
Recollections of Hog Driving. 
Mr. Henry Stewart, as has already 
been announced, will begin his farm nov¬ 
el, founded on fact, entitled “The Story 
of Stouy Brook Farm,” as soon as our 
present story closes. 
The well-known Professor A. J. Cook 
begins with the New Year a series of ar¬ 
ticles on bees and honey. Professor Cook 
has for 14 years been an earnest student 
of apiculture, carrying forward for the 
entire period experiments that had for 
their object the development of the sci¬ 
ence and improvement of the art. For 
the past thirteen years he has been a lec¬ 
turer on bee-keeping at the Michigan 
Agricultural College, Superintendent of 
the College Apiary, which has paid from 
100 to 500 per cent, on the capi¬ 
tal invested ; President of the Mich¬ 
igan State and of the National Bee- 
Keepers’ Associations. He is the author 
of what everywhere is acknowledged is 
the most complete work ou apiculture in 
the world, and his Manual of the Apiary 
is thought, both in Europe aud America, 
to be the most complete work extant on 
this subject. 
-♦♦♦- 
WE DID NOT DO AN INJUSTICE. 
In t he Rural of November 12, in com¬ 
menting on Gov. Cullom’s restrictions on 
the importation of cattle into Illinois from 
certain scheduled districts in the Atlantic 
States, we said : 
"The Treasury Cattle Commission at first recom¬ 
mended that the ent Ire States shun lit he scheduled in 
any part of which the disease existed : wo protested 
RKainst such an embargo as too sweeping, ami we are 
pleased to see that Gov. Cullom has prohibited Im¬ 
portations only from the Infected counties, thus 
greatly diminishing the embargoed area.” 
In reference to these remarks the follow¬ 
ing note from Mr. J. II. Sanders, Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury Cattle Commission, 
appeared in our issue of November 26. 
11 Referring to your paper of Nov. 12, page 7tH, hot- 
tom of last column, permit me to say yon are greatly 
mistaken as to what tills Commission recommended 
to the Governor of i litmus, and your article does us 
injustice. U r recommended to the Governor Just 
what he has done, no more and no less. We never 
thought of urging him to schedule any state entire.” 
In the editorial in which this note was 
published we pithily stated our action 
with regard to the laudable desire of West¬ 
ern men to protect tlieir herds from pos¬ 
sible contagion, and we concluded the ar¬ 
ticle with the same inquiry with which it 
began—“Have we done an injustice V 7 
Curiously enough two of the Commission¬ 
ers who, of all men, know best what meas¬ 
ures were really recommended to the Gov¬ 
ernor, have decided that we were not 
guilty of an injustice in the above state¬ 
ment, aud these two are Prof. James Law, 
the President of Commission and Mr. J. 
H. Sanders, its Secretary. In the issue of 
Dec. 15 of the Breeder's Gazette, owned 
and edited by the latter, is a long article by 
the former on “Contagious Pneumonia— 
Cattle Owners and Congress. ” On page 55, 
first column, iu speaking of the impossi¬ 
bility of impressing those in authority with 
the stringency and comprehensiveness of 
the measures needed to suppress the dis¬ 
ease, Prof, Law says : 
"liven Gov. Cullom. of Illinois, who, at the instance 
of tin* Treasury Cuttle Commission so nobly came 
out with i proclamation t'orl.i.iiilng the introduction 
of cattle Into his Slate from the Infected counties in 
the East, yet l ulleil to see the Importuned of proscrib¬ 
ing an area wider limn the Individual counties infect¬ 
ed. * * • Had he, us lUletsed by the Com¬ 
mission, proscribed all parte or the infected States 
lying east or the Alleghauics, or if that Is illegal, the 
whole area of each infected State, he w ould have in¬ 
stituted a sound protective measure." 
Mr. J. II. Sanders, Secretary of the Com¬ 
mission, indorses this statement of the case 
by allowing it to appear in his own paper 
without the protest which, had Prof. Law 
misstated the case, he would certainly, un¬ 
der the circumstances, have editorially 
made, especially as particular attention is 
called to the article in the leading edito¬ 
rial, on page 60, of the same issue. If 
the omission is due to courtesy, absence, 
forgetfulness, oversight, carelessness or 
policy, then the statements made by the 
President and Secretary, of what meas¬ 
ures were really recommended to the 
Governor, differ so widely that it will not 
be easy even for the acknowledged ability 
of these gentlemen to reconcile them; if, 
on the other baud, the omission is due to 
a clearer comprehension or a better recol¬ 
lection of the recommendations made, 
then we are certainly exonerated from the f 
inconsiderate charge of having done an in¬ 
justice to the Commission whose appoint¬ 
ment and composition we approved. 
• ■ ♦»» 
OUR INDEX FOR 1881. 
With this issue we present the index 
to the Fortieth Volume of the Rural 
New-Yorker, which is brought to a 
successful close this month. We hardly 
need to speak of the convenience of such 
an index in a journal like the Rural. 
Any periodical devoted to the considera¬ 
tion of practical or scientific subjects is 
sadly incomplete without a carefully ar¬ 
ranged index by the aid of which the 
reader may turn at once to the subjec t on 
which he seeks information, and thus the 
tedious, aud often hopeless, task, of look¬ 
ing through an entire volume, is avoided. 
But there is a difference in indexes. A 
properly arranged index is of the first 
value in facilitating the search for a par¬ 
ticular article, while one hurriedly and 
carelessly thrown together may be quite 
as bad as none at all. 
The one \#hich accompanies this issue 
of the Rural we can confidently say 
belongs to the former class. The compil¬ 
ation of it, as of those of the past three 
years, has required a great deal of pains¬ 
taking labor, and it has been thus conven¬ 
iently and carefully arranged by an expert 
ho for four years has had this matter in 
charge. Few journals give such atten¬ 
tion to their annual indexes, and we feel 
assured that our endeavors to give our 
readers stu h a means of ready reference 
will be appreciated by them, and, if so, 
we shall feel that whatever skill and labor 
it has demanded will be amply rewarded. 
We have devoted the entire index space 
to the practical departments only, inas¬ 
much as the contents of the literary and 
other departments cannot have for the 
farmer the permanent value which the 
consideration of practical topics possesses, 
aud we have aimed to classify the sub¬ 
jects discussed in each article rather than 
the mere title of the same, and whenever 
it lias seemed necessary to promote ease 
of reference or to avoid ambiguity, the 
same topic has been placed in the index 
under more than one heading. 
Iu the above remarks we have gone 
on the supposition that most of our 
subscribers preserve the numbers of the 
Rural as they come to them from week 
to week and, in some way, bind them for 
use. In what book could so much and so 
authentic information on so large a variety 
of farm topics be found as in a single vol¬ 
ume of the Rural 1 It is as a work of 
reference, as, ill brief, an encyclopaedia of 
agricultural and horticultural facts, 
theories and experiences that the Rural 
is especially valuable, and as such it should 
find a permanent place ou every farmer's 
book-shelves. 
OUR UNUSUALLY HIGH TEMPERA¬ 
TURE. 
Last Tuesday the Signal Service reported 
a “warm wave” averaging 3(W to 40 1 - 1 above 
the mean temperature of the month and 
extending to the south and east from its 
central position iu Dakota and Minnesota. 
This “warm wave” is only one of a 
series which have recently been developed 
in that “weather manufactory” Manitoba, 
Montana and Dakota. On the 6th inst, a 
“ warm wave moving in a southeasterly 
track entered the United States from 
Dakota and Montana.” Again, on Decem¬ 
ber 17, a “warm wave” extending from 
Dakota “to the south and east ’’ was an¬ 
nounced with it temperature20° above the 
average for the month in Minnesota and 
Iowa, and 80° above the average in 
Dakota. This anomalous weather has ex¬ 
tended nearly all over this country, and 
appears to have extended even to Europe. 
From all quarters come predictions of an 
exceptionally mild Winter, and there cer¬ 
tainly is a hopeful prospect that the 
“ clerk of the weather n will verify the 
“weather seers’” cheering vaticinations. 
“ Cold waves ” will no doubt soon altern¬ 
ate with “warm waves,” but the persist¬ 
ency of the latter implies the existence of 
very unusual causes of heat, the influence 
of which will probably be still felt even 
through January. This protracted spell 
of warm weather is likely to be very bene¬ 
ficial to the Winter wheat crop, enabling 
it to attain a good growth before severe 
cold, although owing to the drought it 
was sown unusually late in most parts of 
the country. With a snowfall sufficient 
to cover the crops and a moderate mean 
Winter temperature, the grain crops of 
the United States bid fair to reach an un¬ 
usually high aggregate next harvest. 
Judging at this time we shall enter up¬ 
on the New Year with a full measure of 
encouragement. Though, for various 
causes, many of our old readers drop out 
of our lists with every recurring subscrip¬ 
tion season, we yet hope the great mass of 
them will continue with us through 1882 
and, indeed, for many a year thereafter. 
With every reason to feel thankful; with 
every reason to feel deeply grateful to 
our readers who have so heartily sup¬ 
ported us in the past, we extend to all a 
Happy New Year and we promise our best 
endeavors to make the Rural New- 
Yorker for 1882, the thirty-second year 
of its age, as trustworthy, as original, as 
enterprising as it has ever been during 
any preceding year, while we shall aim to 
surpass all previous efforts. 
Those who wish to ascertain the true 
value of ensilaged food should read the 
second article on this subject with which 
Dr. Lawcs has favored us. It will be 
found ou page 877. lie concludes this ar¬ 
ticle as follows: " As regards ensilage 1 
must confess that I do not altogether like a 
process which appears to be so destructive of 
food.” We have as yet no reason to re¬ 
gret the conservative course the Rural 
New-Yorker has followed regarding the 
ensilage craze. 
We have received a reply from the 
Prentiss Preserving company to Prof. 
Warders’s strictures upon the Ozone ad¬ 
vertisement. The reply is not satisfac¬ 
tory, and so the advertisement is rejected. 
♦ ♦♦ ■ - - 
Owing to the fact that the holidays are 
this year celebrated on the days we go to 
press, the numbers for Dec. 31 and Jan. 
7. will be mailed a day later. 
Our readers will bear in mind that 
we do not promise to furnish back numbers 
of the Rural New-Yorker for any part 
of the new year. 
4 ♦ +» - 
Seven Yearly Subscriptions with 
$14 ENTITLE THE SENDER TO TIIE RURAL 
New-Yorker for one year free. 
BREVITIES. 
The Rural New-Yorker is very careful 
to exclude all advertisements of an uncertain 
or fraudulent character from its columns. Our 
readers would oblige us if they would mention 
the Rural in all correspondence with our ad¬ 
vertisers. Our chief reason for making this 
request, is that our advertisers may know how 
W'ell it pays them to patronize a trustworthy 
agricultural journal. 
According to the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture’s report of the cotton crop, just received, 
the condition of the crop is lower than iu any 
season since 1866. The general average of the 
condition of the crop in October, which, with¬ 
in certain limitations, affords the best indica¬ 
tion of the ultimate product, was 66. The 
nearest approach to this condition in 15 years 
was in 1874, when the average was 72. In 
June and July the crop was within five points 
of the standard of last year, but when rains 
came, after the drought, the second crop was 
too late to produce much fruit. Boll w orms 
and caterpillars also did some injury. In view 
of all the reports of the season up to December 
1 . indications point to an aggregate crop of 
4,1)00,000 bales, with a possibility of a slight 
increase on this estimate. 
In the case of Carr vs, Bartlett the facts 
were these: Certain persons subscribed to 
build a cheese factory, subscriptions for which 
purpose were made ’payable to the building 
committee who w'ere named in the subscrip¬ 
tion paper and w ho wore also subscribers. 
One of the subscribers having refused to pay 
after some of the subscriptions had been paid 
in, the building committee sued him. The de- 
fondant pleaded that the committee had no 
authority to sue, and also that, as the sub¬ 
scription was voluntary, he was under no 
legul obligation to pay' it. The Supreme 
Court of Maine in giving judgment ugainst 
him the other day, through Judge Peters, said 
that while the undertaking was incomplete it 
was not binding on the defendant; it was 
without consideration ; for it was not a suffic¬ 
ient consideration that others had joined in 
the same promise, relying on his promise. The 
defendant might then have withdrawn from 
the project, or he could continue in it until it 
wtts completed and subscriptions paid in, as 
in titis case, but then lie would be bound. The 
building committee were competent to sue for 
the subscription, Under the agreement they 
were to be paid, and, being themselves sub¬ 
scribers, they represented the association. 
The Commissioner of Agriculture in his 
annual report to the President says that on 
assuming office on July 1. last, he found an 
elaborate plan of operations for the year al¬ 
ready laid out by his predecessor. Such of 
the investigations as he thought valuable he 
has been pushing forward. The Commissioner 
says :—“ Provision had been made for investi¬ 
gating the agricultural condition of I lie Pacific 
coast; for continuing the work on the artesian 
wells in Colorado ; for proceeding w ith the ex¬ 
periment in the cultivation of tue ton plant ; 
for concluding the investigation into the manu¬ 
facture of sugar from sorghum ; for observa¬ 
tions of the existence or pleuro pneumonia 
and other contagious diseases of animals, both 
in this country aud in those English ports to 
which American cattle are exported ; for con¬ 
tinued examinations into the necessities and 
opportunities of American forestry ; for tests 
of textile fibers, both animal and vegetable ; 
for a scientific investigation of the habits of 
insect* injurious to vegetation, and of the best 
methods of destroying them and for the usual 
work of the various divisions of the Depart¬ 
ment for which appropriations bad been made 
by Congress.” All these subjects have re¬ 
ceived careful attention, and the Commissioner 
is also resolved to make the crop reports more 
accurate and exhaustive than heretofore. 
