TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
important for non-recognition by tlie Gov¬ 
ernment, It has often been claimed that 
we are an agricultural people, and that, 
the products of our soil were the basis of 
our national wealth, and that no matter 
what disasters might overtake other in¬ 
dustries, farming would still remain as a 
source of inexhaustible income. If this 
be true—and few will question it—can 
there be any good reason advanced for not 
recognizing Agriculture as an interest 
worthy of the most intimate relations with, 
and entitled to the most generous assist¬ 
ance from the Government V 
Our merchant marine has only to ask 
for coast surveys, and millions of dollars 
aro poured out in response to the call. 
The navy wants schools in which men are 
taught to kill one another, and the money 
iH forthcoming; and even the wilds of the 
far West are surveyed and carefully map¬ 
ped out at the people's expense, but for 
tho benefit of private corporations. But 
let the agriculturists, whose labors exceed 
all others in adding wealth to the coun¬ 
try, ask for aid in any form, and they are 
snubbed at the very outset, simply be¬ 
cause they have no recognized head or 
officer through whom they can reach the 
proper authorities at the seat of Govern¬ 
ment. Aro not the interests of our six 
millions of farmers equal to those of a 
handful of sailors and their tinsel-bcdeck- 
ed officer 
astuteness and, doubtless, in many in¬ 
stances thinking lie is going to get ahead 
of his more intelligent neighbor, goes 
deeper than he otherwise would. 
Time and again have we known persons 
to purchase trees and plants of utter 
strangers, who described them as origin¬ 
ating in a most mysterious and improbable 
manner and possessing merits and prop¬ 
erties equally as preposterous, while they 
had in their own neighborhood a nursery¬ 
man and florist who has spent a hfe-time 
in the study of horticulture and was fully 
informed in regard to nil such matters. 
The swindlers always avoid coming in 
contact with such men for fear of expos¬ 
ure, an act in itself which should bo a 
warning to those who have less knowledge 
on such subject*. The same rulo holds 
good in all other departments of trade, 
000,000. Surely this does not look like 
hard times, and the amount of the above 
could be readily doubled by adding other 
just aa foolish expenditures, not named in 
the above list; but a difference of opinion 
might call for a different classification. 
Practical Departments 
.Plana for Chec»e l uctory. 
SelectltiR Good Milch Cows. 
W’esteru Uuttor. 
Winter Treatment Of Horses. 
Hraftand General-Purpoan Hor*p*.... 
Kducarinp Horse*... 
BreedltiR for Qualities No. 4. , . 
How Knsrllah Howland* are Drained and Wat¬ 
ered ... 
Discovery In AKrlruKurnl Chemistry.111". 
Oats va. Corn fur Live Stock. 
Hayinir. .. 
Nove.tie* in Potatoes... ... .. 
Half an Acre of Potatoes... 
The Pol it lea Of Airrl e.ul lure. 
Australia. 
Motes from Toni i ensue.. 
Attica... 
A Good Word from Minnesota. 
Grape* and Grape Seeds,,.. 
Travelers Life untl Aoeldent Insurance .. 
A very Pair l est.. 
Art Army of Water Hals . 
‘ Up Like a Rocket,” etc.... 
Miscellanea .. 
Notes..,..■_”11 
Cut-Leaved Deciduous Trees.!" 
Wayside Tree* . 
A New Australian Wild Fruit.. 
Asbestos and Its Use*. 
About Matches. . 
Absorbing Capacity..f Bricks'."!'."'.’.;!!”; !;!” 
A 8ermon to Girl* on CookinK. .. 
Thanks, and Favors Returned.'"! 
Recipe*... 
Dislnfoclams.... 
SeH-Water vs. Obesity. 
Hygienic Notes. !!!. 
Kditorial Paoe: 
Secretary of Agriculture. 
Honors to Farmers. 
Seeking Information."d”. 
Notes—Brevities....””! 
Literary ; 
s?o% r7 ;:;;.v 6 ” 
Miscellaneous. 
Recent Literature. 
Sabbath Reading....!!.' 
Ladies’ Portfolio..... ' 
Reading for ihe Young.. 
Publishers’ Notice*. 
New* of the Week."!". 
Markets..'!.’!" 
Answers to Correspondents..!..!!.’!.'!;."";. 
Personals., . 
Everywhere.’.!. 
Humorous..’.’..!. 
Advertisements..........'.’.'.'.’.. 65.86 1!7 
A Collection of Minerals.—We 
arc in receipt of an excellent catalogue of 
minerals from A. E. Foote, M D., Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa. , who offers, at very l«w rates, 
single specimens or largo collections of 
nil'll and common species, all correctly 
named for the use of professional mineral¬ 
ogists, amateurs, or schools. His adver¬ 
tisement also appears in another column, 
and we call attention to it, believing that 
there are rnanv of onr readers who will 
cheerfully avail themselves of this oppor¬ 
tunity to increase their cabinets and ex¬ 
tend their knowledge of this delightful 
branch of natural history. 
Coe, Wetlierill & Co., the ener¬ 
getic firm of advertising agents of Boston, 
have just issued their Advertising Index 
in pamphlet form. Speaking of success, 
they say :—“ The business man should 
inquire by what means the kings of trade 
obtained their success and pre-eminence. 
Let him look at the wonderfully success¬ 
ful career, in a business sense, of A. T. 
Stewart, and inquire by what, means he 
secured the trade and reputation which 
made him the millionaire of America. He 
secured all of his patrons by advertising, 
and retained them by satisfactory and 
honorable treatment.”* 
HONORS TO FARMERS. 
have passed away. Men of various pro¬ 
fessions have been honored after death 
with such memorials, but it is to be feared 
that the farmer has come in for a very 
small share of these testimonials. Not 
because there have been no great men 
among our agriculturists or none of those 
who have conferred blessings innumer¬ 
able upon their fellow men, but because 
the culture of the soil is a peaceful pur¬ 
suit, with little of that tinkling of “brass” 
which is so likely to command the atten¬ 
tion of mankind in general. We are re¬ 
minded of this lack of honors to the mem¬ 
ory of some of our great agriculturists by 
a reference, in one of our foreign ex¬ 
changes, to the celebrated Robert Baku- 
well, who has been fittingly called the 
“great high priest" of breeders. The 
grave of this great man is found in a little 
unused and dilapidated old church of 
Dishley in Leicestershire, England. 
Our modern improved stock owe their 
grandeur of form and wealth of tleph to 
the example of Bare well, and the princi- 
ciples of breeding which he first adopted 
A writer in a late number of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, in speaking of the 
neglect of Bakewrll's grave, very perti¬ 
nently remarks :—-“Men who have spent 
their Jives xn war, are considered worthy 
of haviug their names inscribed on brass 
and marble in our cathedrals, and surely, 
the remains of such a man as Robert 
Bakewkll should be duly honored, for 
he was not only peaceful,’but a national 
benefactor. Had he been an alderman or 
a mayor of a provincial borough, his grave 
would not have been neglected." Are not 
the name remarks equally applicable to 
the memory of many a peaceful tiller of 
the soil, who has left valuable legaoies to 
the farmers of America ? 
our navy, army, or any 
other department of the Government show 
that it- has earned or produced one bil¬ 
lion, eight hundred millions of dollars, 
in any one year, aa onr agriculturists 
have? We think not; and this is why 
the agricultural interests should be re¬ 
presented in the affairs of the Govern¬ 
ment by at least one officer possessing 
equal rank and power with any one of 
the seven gentlemen at present compos¬ 
ing the President’s Cabinet. 
Farmers, we leave it to you to say 
whether your interests shall always be 
subservient to those of others whose la¬ 
bors aro not one-tenth as valuable or im¬ 
portant to the nation or the world at large 
as are yours. We may sneer at tho mon¬ 
archies of Europe, but it would be diffi¬ 
cult to find one in which the agricultural 
interest receives so little attention or pa¬ 
tronage as in the United States. 
Let us have a change 1 
Wrong- i n Credit.—In our endeavor 
to give proper credit for articles copied 
from our exchanges, we sometimes make 
mistakes as, for instance, in the Rural of 
January 6, we published an article on 
“Water-Cress Culture,” taken from the 
Toronto Globe, where it appeared as orig¬ 
inal ; but we have since learned that the 
article was written by our old friend and 
correspondent, Dr* F. M. Hexameb, and 
was first published in the Weekly Tribune 
of Sept. 3, 1873. This not only shows 
how long a good thing will keep, but how 
some of our contemporaries are inclined 
to use them as their own. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY 
ANDREW S. FULLER, Editor 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Associate Editor. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M„ Little Falls, If. Y., 
>m>» or ih* DiruTKist or Dxirr Hnusctr. 
Drive Wells.—A society has been 
organized in Minnesota under the name 
of tho “ Minnesota Anti-Drive-Well-Roy¬ 
alty Association,” its object being to re¬ 
sist the collection of royalty upon drive- 
wells, which has been, of late, claimed by 
the patentee. A very complete history of 
the tube or drive-wells, was given in the 
Rural New-Yorker of Sept, 30, 1876 
G. A. C. BARNETT, Publisher. 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City 
SATURDAY, JAN. 27, 1877. 
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, 
RURAL BREVITIES 
In Rural New-Yorker of Dec. 23, 
1876, we took occasion to advocate the 
establishment of a Bureau of Agriculture 
as a Government Department, to be rep¬ 
resented by an officer with the title of 
Secretary of Agriculture, the said officer 
and office to be placed on the same footing 
as the Secretary of War, Interior, and 
other members of tho President’s Cabinet. 
Several of our contemporaries, we are 
pleased to say, in noticing the suggestion 
agreed with us that such an elevation of 
tho agricultural interests of the United 
States wrs not only eminently proper, but 
that the subject was one of vital interest 
at this time. But it is also true that there 
is another class of agriculturists who, 
never having risen above the contempla¬ 
tion of the bread and butter on their own 
tables, sneered at our suggestion and then 
branched oft' into ridiculing the present 
Department of Agriculture, as though the 
failure of that always hampered and crip¬ 
pled institution to promote the best in¬ 
terests of agriculture, was proof positive 
that an effort in another direction must 
end the same way. 
Now our readers are well aware that 
we have never considered the so-called 
Department of Agriculture in any other 
light than a huge Government seed and 
floral establishment, kept up at public 1 
expense for tho purpose of supplying I 
Congressmen’s friends with seeds and 
their wives with bouquets while in Wash¬ 
ington. We are ready to second the mo¬ 
tion to abolish the whole thing us at pres¬ 
ent conducted; but the agricultural in- I 
The delicious South American fruit known as 
the “Cherry Moya ’ is being planted in Florida. 
The immense amount, of snow which has fallen 
throughout New York and New England States 
has made traveling very uncertain and unsafe. 
The stein of the Century Plant, or American 
Agave, is said to make the very best of razor 
strops, there being just enough silex or grit in 
it to give a Rue edge to the steel 
The New Jersey Horticultural Society will 
hold its second annual meeting at New Bruns¬ 
wick, N. J., in Geological Hall, Kutgcr’sCollege, 
on Thurrday, Fob. 1st, 1877, at 10 o clock. 
The Bnff-lo International Poultry Associa¬ 
tion will hold their sixth annual exhibition at 
the Skating ltink in Buffalo, Feb, 1-8, inclusive. 
A long list of very liberal prizes are offered. 
It is estimated that the fanners of Illinois lost 
last year if ! 5:{,5Sl worth of sheep by dogs, and 
still the canineahave it all their own w ay, beat¬ 
ing tho shepherd in the Legislature and out of 
SEEKING INFORMATION 
It is a trite old saying, that “ Birds of 
a feather flock together,” and we are fre¬ 
quently reminded of this by seeing per¬ 
sons in want of advice seeking it of others 
equally us ignorant as themselves. While 
a majority of persons would seek informa¬ 
tion on points of law of a lawyer, and of 
medicine of a doctor, there are a vast num¬ 
ber who are ever ready to take tho advice 
of the most stupid ignoramus in regard 
to many of the every-day affairs of life. 
This latter class of persona—who com¬ 
prise no small proportion of the inhabit¬ 
ants of this mid all other countries—are 
seemingly the ever-willing victims of 
swindlers of various grades and profes¬ 
sions. There is doubtless a fascination 
in the overdrawn, improbable tale which 
plain truth, however valuable, does not 
possess ; and to this element, more than 
any other, do the most nonsensical schem¬ 
ers and arrant swindlers owe their suc¬ 
cess. But while we may, in a measure, 
excuse a person for seeking unknown lauds 
or regions of country for the purpose of 
bettering his condition, attracted there 
by glowing accounts of the country and 
climate, wo are less charitable when it 
comes to patronize the charlatans who 
perambulate through the country with 
nothing else to recommend them to favor 
but a glib tongue in repeating a thousand 
times told tale. It 1 b in such matters that 
people are both slow nnd much adverse 
to seek advice where it is most likely to 
be found. There is scarcely a village in 
the whole country wherein at least one or 
more men cannot be found who are abun¬ 
dantly able to give good advice in regard 
to the hundreds of articles, valuable and 
indifferent, which are hawked about for 
sale. But, strange to say, these men are 
seldom consulted in such matters, the ig¬ 
norant purchaser, presuming upon hi/* own 
RURAL NOTES 
Short-sighted Philosophy. — A 
correspondent of the Rural World says, 
“ The Chinch bugs, in my opinion, are on 
on us a pest, and to fight the strong * arm 
above’ is, I think, a bad job.” This poor 
fellow, no doubt, believes that, the Chinch 
bug and all other insect pests were sent 
by the same “ strong arm above" to pes¬ 
ter and annoy human beings ; and we are 
really wondering whether he over drove a 
pig or cow out of his cornfield or garden, 
for ten- of going contrary to the designs 
of the same “strong arm above?” A 
lecture by some naturalist on the “ war 
of races,” would certainlv do this corre¬ 
spondent good, provided he has brains 
enough to comprehend the mighty mis¬ 
sion of mosquitoes. 
California claims to be the “ sweetest State” 
in the Union, producing more honey than any 
other. We suppose this accounts for the “ sting¬ 
ing” good times generally reported from the 
other side of the mountains. 
It is reported in a Florida paper that the pro¬ 
prietors of a marmalade factory at Jacksonville 
have an orangery containing ’ S.OOO.OOO trees. 
W ill some of our Florida correspondents tell us 
where this wonderful orchard is located ? 
We notice that the so-called “ Bohemian Oat ” 
is again offered at the rather extravagant price 
of ten dollars for fifty pounds. We doubt if 
farmers want to pay such prices for the veryWl 
“ Hulless ” oat, even under the name of Bohe¬ 
mian. 
A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, re- 
ridmg in the grasshopper infested regions of 
Manitoba, declares that those pests will pot 
touch the cultivated pea. If this be true, it 
should be known and taken advantage of by the 
farmers on the prairies. 
A correspond YET in an Eastern contempo¬ 
rary scouts the idea that birds keep bisects in 
check, and cites the grassh0pj»cT raid on the 
Western farmers a* a proof that is little or noth¬ 
ing in this direction. He has probably never 
heard of the thousands of tons of grouse’ sent to 
Eastern markets from the grasshopper regions, 
where they live almost exclusively on insects. 
Hard Times.—A high authority gives 
the following list of unnecesearies, with 
tho amount of money annually expended 
upon each of them, in this country :—Cost 
of dogs, $70,000,000; support of crimi¬ 
nals, $12,000,000 ; fees of litigation, $35,- 
000,000; cost of t obacco an d cigars, $610,- 
000,000; importation of liquor, $50,000,- 
000; support of grog shops, $1,500,000,- 
000; the whole cost of liquor, $2,200, 
