2® 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
TABLE OF CONTESTS. 
PRACTICAL DEPARTMENTS 
View* in the Rural Grounds. 21 
Effect of Music on Plants. 22 
Ttie Versailles Currant.... 22 
An Old Orange Ti ce. 22 
Report rm the < erilennlal Dairy Display. 22 
The A merte.in Dairymen** Ass'n In Canada. 2b 
The CheaOa r V.i I ley .. 28 
Vermont. Ii.iirvnien. 28 
The IUsIntr or. Cream uffCctert liy Prevailing 
Winus... ..- 23 
Ducks with Poultry... 23 
Seasonable Hints on the Poultry-House. 21 
’ RedTailettaten Deciduous Trees. 21 
Eucalyptus in Georgia. . 21 
The Or,i pcs We Want.... 34 
Potato Knotlc Mile... 25 
Discovery In Am icultural Chetnlstry.. 25 
Beer lu Harvest Time. 25 
Pay hn You Go..... 25 
Something about Steam Power—JJo. 2. 20 
Lecture* upon the Anatomy of Animals.. 26 
The Poisonous Principle 01 Spoiled Com....... 26 
Water-Proof illacklng. 26 
Nature Printing... 26 
Cleansing Chromoa.. 26 
Money and Exchange..... 20 
North Carolina Notes. 26 
The Jerusalem Artichoke in England. 20 
Strawberry Protection . 27 
Recipes....,,.....-. 27 
Useful Hints... 27 
The Cold Water Balb. 27 
Remedy tor Asthma... 27 
Queen Bee*. 27 
Editorial paoe: 
The Present of Agriculture. 26 
Cash vs. Credit. 26 
Irrigation of the Plain*. 28 
Notes-Brevities...,. 28 
Literary : 
Poetry.29.30.81 
Story. 29 
Miscellaneous. .'id 
Recent Literature. 31) 
Sabbath Reading. 3(1 
Ladles' Portfolio. 31 
Reuding for the Young. 31 
Publishers’ Notices. 32 
New* of the Week. 32 
Markets. 33 
Answers to Corroopondents. 31 
Personals. 35 
Educational Note*. 33 
Humorous....,. 30 
Advertisements.33, 31, 35, 3U 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
ANDREW S. FULLER, Editor. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, - - Associate Editor. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Ltttle Falls, N. Y., 
Eritob of tub Dkpabtubst or Daiby Hdsbbkdby. 
G. A. C. BARNETT, Pnblisher. 
Address t 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
■within the memory of farmers who are 
yet in ih« prime of life ; and thousands 
of inland towns are now enjoying a brisk 
trade in farm produce, all for cash and 
good prices ■where, only a few years since, 
there was no sale except in barter for any¬ 
thing from the farm but wheat, beans and 
pork. 
There tire, it is true, some isolated re¬ 
gions where the farmer is experiencing 
some of the old-time hardships ; but this 
comes from pushing too far away from 
business centers, which is a disadvantage 
many learn when too late for rectification. 
Good markets and ready sale for faVm 
produce are some of the many advantages 
which the fanner of to-day enjoys over 
farmers of 50 years ago ; and he lias scores 
of labor-saving implements to help him 
at both seed-time and harvest, and where 
he once had to walk in doing his work, 
he Can now ride more comfortably than 
ever a Roman Emperor did when wheeled 
about in his royal chariot, Tf these labor- 
saving implements are worth anything to 
the farmer, ho should be able to raise his 
crops cheaper with their aid than without 
them, and then, by adding the advance 
in price of farm products, one would natu¬ 
rally suppose there was a good opportu¬ 
nity of making money in farming. But 
if we are to believe all the complaints 
which reach us, a majority of farmers are 
in an almost desperate condition on ac¬ 
count of the unprofitableness of agricul 
tural pursuits. 
There must be some cause for all these 
complainings of hard times among farm¬ 
ers, but who will dare say that it is low 
prices or short crops ? We propound the 
question, What is it ? and although it may 
be a conundrum which few will attempt 
to guess, still those who will take the 
trouble to look closely into the present 
condition of agriculture and compare it 
with that of twenty-five or thirty years 
ago, may bo able to throw a ray of light 
upon the subject. 
- » ♦ * - 
CASH vs. CREDIT. 
SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1877. 
THE PRESENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
The “Future of Agriculture” is a 
theme which has employed the pen of 
many an idealistic writer on rural topics, 
because it is, perhaps, much easier or 
more pleasant, to talk of what may hap¬ 
pen than what has, and is actually occur¬ 
ring about us. It is certainly not a labo¬ 
rious task to imagine one’s-self finding 
pots filled with gold, or that somo rich 
relative dies and leaves us a fortune ; but 
to work and earn a living and more by the 
sweat of the brow, is quite ouother thing. 
What the futuro of American Agriculture 
may be, no one can do more than guess 
at; consequently, it will be far more prof¬ 
itable to attend to the present and leave 
those who livo the longest to plow deep¬ 
est, in order to find the hidden wealth of 
the soil. Of course, we do not mean by 
this that a man should skim his land until 
no more cream shall rise to the surface, 
or waste that which might be valuable to 
those coming after him; but we would 
have him look more to what is likely to 
happen in his own lifetime than in that of 
his children or grandchildren. 
The present condition of Agriculture 
among all civilized nations, is fax in ad¬ 
vance of what it ever was before, no mat¬ 
ter how many may endeavor to persuade 
themselvos and others to think otherwise, 
and any one who may doubt this has only 
to read history to be convinced of the 
truth of the assertion. It will not bo 
necessary to go back very far, or search 
very close or long, to learn how much su¬ 
perior are the advantages the farmer en¬ 
joys to-day to those at his command twen¬ 
ty-five or fifty years ago. Railroads and 
other means of transportation and com¬ 
munication with our great cities and sea¬ 
ports have been doubled and quadrupled 
We received a circular a few days ago 
from a grocer, which read as follows : 
“ If you want to save from 15 t-o 30 cents 
on the dollar and not pay for what others 
do not pay for,.(as you do now, if you 
trade where credit is given,) trade with 
us. We keep the best quality of goods and 
buy and sel l lor cash, only. ” Perhaps the 
percentage of saving named is rather high, 
but the whole theory of this difference 
between the Cash and Credit systems is 
plainly set forth. By the one, you pay 
the dealer a fair profit on the goods you 
buy and nothing more ; by the other, you 
pay a price sufficient to cover not only 
that, but to make up your proportions of 
all losses incurred by trusting those who 
fail to par, whether from want of means 
or inclination. Beside- this, there is the 
expense of extra help, as the salary of oue 
:nan as book-keeper and collector must be 
added to the uncollectable debts, and t he 
value of the use of the money during the 
time that accounts good and collectible 
ore left unpaid. 
Ask any one of the numerous trades¬ 
men with whom you deal, what is the 
amount of his losses during a year, and 
if you have not given the matter a thought 
before, we will venture to say you will be 
surprised at the figures. We have seen 
bills made by some of the largest whole¬ 
sale houses in New York, “Terms, SO 
days—onepercent. discount if paid within 
ten days. ” That is the same as one per 
cent, for the use of money twenty days, 
or at the rate of eighteen per cent.* a year. 
There are many houses who sell, on sixty 
days’ time, who make a rule to deduct 
five per cent, for cash, which is paying at 
the rate of thirty per cent, a year interest. 
But they only get the money from their 
best customers, and it is plain that those 
who will give sixty-day notes rather than 
have the deduction £or cash, must be 
working on limited capital, and there is 
at least a possibility that at the end of 
sixty days they will take sixty more be¬ 
fore paying. 
We ore inclined to say a word relative 
to the want of strict honesty and the fail¬ 
ure to keep promises to pay in the com¬ 
mercial world, but perhaps it would be 
considered out of place. O ur thought when 
commencing this whs to induce our read¬ 
ers to look at the effect of the credit sys¬ 
tem on themselves, in their individual 
transactions, that they might see, first, 
bow they can save money by paying cash 
for their purchases, and secondly, how | 
they can save more by dealing only with 
those who, like our* friend the grocer, 
“ buy and sell for cash only.” 
--—- 
IRRIGATION OF THE PLAINS. 
A recent enthusiastic admirer of the 
great Western plains writes to a contem¬ 
porary :—“ J have no doubt but all that 
vasttregion known as the Plains, will be 
brought under cultivation. Water is the 
specific, and irrigation will do the busi¬ 
ness of fertilizing these immense stretches 
of country and make them bud and blos¬ 
som like a garden.” Now, this is all very 
pretty to imagine and talk about, but if 
that dreamer imd only told ns where the 
water was to come from to irrigate those 
thousands of square miles of dry, porous 
soil, we should have liked his talk better. 
If those who have an idea that the plains, 
to any considerable distance from the 
foot -1 1 ills, can be irrigated from the 
mountain streams, will only spend a few 
weeks, the latter part of summer in Colo¬ 
rado, and follow the waters of Clear and 
Boulder Creeks, or even those of the larger 
rivers like the Platte, out into the open 
country a hundred miles, they will, per¬ 
haps, do surprised to see tliem disap¬ 
pear into the thirsty earth, and the moun¬ 
tain torrents become little rivulets, cours¬ 
ing along over the sandy bed of what may 
have been, a few weeks earlier, a wide but 
not- very deep river. 
Of course, irrigation can be somewhat 
extended near the mountains ; but to talk 
of irrigating the entire plains, or any con¬ 
siderable portion of them, is out of the 
question, for the water necessary for this 
purpose is not obtainable. This scarcity 
of water for irrigating purposes roithese 
regions, is what, makes tillable land near 
the mountain streams, and so situated as 
to admit of irrigation, so valuable at. the 
presenttime, and theso/ire not at all likely 
to depreciate in consequence of any very 
large number of acres being cultivated 
under similarly favorable conditions. 
- +++■ - 
COMMODORE VANDERBILT. 
Th e greatest of our railroad kings, Cor¬ 
nelius Vanderbilt, has passed away, at 
the age of eighty-two. Bom of parents 
in very moderate circumstances, and with 
the merest rudiments.of an education, he 
was enabled, by industry and close atten¬ 
tion to business, helped by his natural 
talents and indomitable will, to success¬ 
fully cope with competitors innumerable 
and, at last, die the richest man in Amer¬ 
ica. He accumulated this vast wealth not 
by good luck, but through a strict atten¬ 
tion at all times to the business in hand; 
and his life may, indeed, serve as an ex¬ 
ample to the thousands of young men of 
America who are at tliis moment complain¬ 
ing of a want of funds or an opportunity 
of doing some great work. Very few men, 
indeed, will ever be able to accumulate 
such enormous wealth as did Commodore 
Vanderbilt ; still, there are not many 
w T ho canuot command a larger capital than 
his paltry one hundred dollars, with wliich 
to make a commencement Opportuni¬ 
ties for doing great things are far more 
abundant than men to grasp them. 
- +-*-+ -— 
RURAL NOTES. 
Grasshopper Day. — Arbor Day, 
which the people of several of our Prai¬ 
rie States devote to the planting of trees, 
has beeu so productive of good, that a 
correspondent of the Country Gentleman 
now proposes that in the Grasshopper re¬ 
gions of tho West there should be estab¬ 
lished a “Grasshopper Day," for the 
purpose of destroying these pests. He 
claims and, we think, with good reason, 
that prairies should not bo burned over 
until the young grasshoppers are hatched 
out next spring; then, if the old dry 
grass is set on fire, millions of these pests 
will be destroyed. If a particular day 
was named for this wholesale destruction, 
and all the farmers indhe regions named 
would observe it as “ Grasshopper Day,” 
much good might follow in the way of 
ridding the country of grasshoppers. 
Fertilizers.—Our quotations of fer¬ 
tilizers, added this week, make a valuable 
addition to our Market Reports. It will 
be seen that the important constituents of 
each article arc expressed in percentages. 
This is a new departure in quoting fertil¬ 
izers, which .is of great advantage to the 
farmer. Efforts are being made to sim¬ 
plify the question of fertilizers and to 
reduce their application to the compre¬ 
hension of men who are not so much 
versed in the knowledge of formulas, as of 
the requirements of their land. Tliis plan 
has been agitated for some time, but it is 
mainly owing to the efforts of Mr. Char. 
V. Mapes, that it has assumed a practical 
shape. We shall have more to Bay of the 
subject under its appropriate department. 
- *44 - 
Root Shows In England.—The 
Messrs. Carters and Sutton & Sons, 
celebrated Seedsmen of England, have 
been holding root shows, which must have 
been, according to the reports published, 
very grand affairs in their way. The 
aboVe-named firms offer very large prizes 
for the best display of roots grown from 
seed purchased at their houses, and this 
incites very sharp compet ition among the 
farmers. We wish something could be 
dono to induce the farmers of the United 
States to cultivate roots more extensively 
for their stock than is done at present, for 
it would promote tho health of the ani¬ 
mals and put money in the pockets of the 
cultivators. 
- - * 4 *- 
Western N. Y. Hort. Soc.—The 
Western New York Horticultural Society 
will hold its Twenty-Second Annual Ses¬ 
sion in the city of Rochester, Jan. 24-26, 
1877, commencing at 11 o’clock, A. M., 
of Wednesday, tho 21th. Delegates from 
kindred societies are cordially invited, 
also contributions of fruit are requested* 
Various questions relating to horticultural 
affairs will be discussed, and essays read 
upon practical subjects. A full attend¬ 
ance and a profitable meeting is antici¬ 
pated. 
Ducks against Hens.—Recent ex¬ 
periments conducted in Franco to ascer¬ 
tain the relative value of hens and ducks 
as egg-producers, show that tho latter are 
the most prolific. Bet ween the first day 
of January and the end of August, three 
hens laid 257 eggs and tho same number 
of ducks 402. Not. only did the ducks lay 
a greater number of eggs, but a care¬ 
ful analysis showed these to be far the 
richest in all the elements belonging to a 
good egg. 
--- 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
One pork-packing firm in Iowa exports $8,000,- 
000 worth of pork annually, 
A Western contemporary Bpells horses with¬ 
out an “r.” All for the sake of brevity, we sup¬ 
pose. 
The Vermont Dairymenls Association will 
hold its eighth Winter Meeting at Burlington 
January 17-19. 
The Winter Meeting of the State Pomological 
Society of Maine will be held at Monmouth, 
Kennebec County, January 23-24, 1877. 
The cork-oak will probably be extensively 
planted in California, as it is said to grow vigor¬ 
ously in all parts of the State where it has been 
Died. 
John D. Gillette, of Logan County, El., 
owns a farm of 12,000 acres, has 3,000 high- 
grade Short-Horn cattle, and keeps fifty teams 
and 100 hired men. 
Packing eggs for market has become of late 
years almost as important a branch of business 
as packing butter, requiring fully as much prac¬ 
tice and skill to do tho work well. 
The Chinese are said to Bettle their outstand¬ 
ing bills and pay all their debts at the close of 
New Year; and in this they are ahead of many 
other nations who call them heathens. 
Pigeon Fanciers are talking of $500 to $1,000 
a pair for breeds of some of the fancy strains, 
which sounds very much like the “ tuliponmnia" 9 
which occurred in Holland many years ago. 
Oub grocerB are complaining because Dorn 
Pedro, since his visit here, has put up the price 
of cofTee raised in his dominions sufficient to pay 
the expenses of liis visit to the Centennial. Who 
among us would not do the same thing if he 
could? 
The disease known as cancer is said to be on 
the increase in England, over 11,000 persons 
having been carried off by it in 1874. From 
this, it would appear that there was a grand 
chance for our so-called *' cancer doctors" on the 
other side of the Atlantic. 
Another bridge is proposed between New 
York and Brooklyn, starting in New York at 
Seventy-seventh street, passing over Blackwell's 
Island, thenoe to Long Island, which means more 
bonds to be issued and an increase of several 
millions of dollars city indebtedness. 
It appears that there are persons who Lave 
not fouud out whether the Colorado Potato 
beetle can fly or not; consequently, tho question 
is now being discussed in the columns of a con¬ 
temporary. We should think a glance at the 
wings of this insect would be sufficient to con¬ 
vince any one of its ability to fly, even if it 
had never been caught in the act. 
