THE BOBAL MEW-YORK 
ABCH 24 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Pit .4 CTICAL 1 >i:i'A KT M ENTS 
Xanthocerafl Sorblfolia. • 
Can.. J 
A Womnn’K Acre—No.3....... 
Spirant Horbl folia ... 
rinnlinic Ktruwherrlns... j 
Sending Berries to Market... | 
Notes. ' 
The National Butter, Clioese arid Kjjk Associa¬ 
tion ...<••••• 
Distillers Slop 'i'lie Milk flom Hwlll-feil ('own. 
Annual Meetlnx ol tin- N. Y. State Dairymen's 
Association an<! Board ol Trade,.. 
To Exterminate Parasites... 
I'acts anil Fallacies In Hcr-KeepiiiK. 
N. .1. State 1 loruciilunal Society. 
Fight ins tile tliussbnptiers.... 
tins Dime for Tufa In Fly.. 
Arrriciilliiial Chemistry... 
A tjooij Cement ...... 
Views as to Die Fnvinul Ion, Arrangement anil 
Pluming ol urnamental I > round*. 
Aunt, l.nu': Chat with Yon mi Housekeepers— 
ltow Rico Should be Cooked. 
Recipes. ... 
A cn insl Vaeelnation... 
Belladonna for Asthma. 
Sulphur for Scarlet Fever. 
t'ollcc as an In vigors tor..... 
UmTOIUAI. PAGE: 
Coniptllsory Education.. 
The Locust Plague... 
Is It Cowardice?. 
Notes—Brevities... 
LITERARY: 
Poetry.189, JflO, 191 
Story. JM> 
Recent l.ltcruture. Hi) 
Sabbath Reading. 190 
Dailies’ Portfolio. 11*1 
Reading lor llie Y.mng. 191 
I’uliltaber’s Notices. 193 
News of the Week... IT? 
Markets. 193 
Answers to Correspondents. I'd 
Personals.... .. • • • 195 
Humorous. ?*”! 
Advertisements. 187,193, 194, 195, 190 
T H E 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVEItY SATURDAY. 
ANDREW S. FULLER, Editor. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, - - Associate Editor. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M„ Little Falls, N. Y., 
Enron or ran Dkp.iiitmiint or Dim* Hu*Bii>i>Bv. 
BARNETT, Publisher. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, MAItCli 24, 1877. 
COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 
1 
The security of the State is in the in¬ 
telligence of its citizens. This is a truth 
so self-evident, as to require no argument, 
and being admitted at once, gives rise to 
the question, In what way shall the State 
best insure general intelligence ? To this 
is the ready reply, By establishing and 
sustaining the best system of schools for 
the free education of the people. And 
when these schools are established, has 
the State a right to iusist upon the at¬ 
tendance thereat of all of proper age with¬ 
in its limits ? Most certainly, unless it 
can be shown that stieh compulsion in 
relation to the whole people of the State, 
is productive of more evil than good. 
In considering this matter, wo must 
keep in miud the fact that society is sus¬ 
tained only by the surrender ol' personal 
rights—is based on compromises between 
man as an individual and man as one of 
many ; and that, the welfare of the whole 
is to be secured, if uecessary, at the ex¬ 
pense of the few. This much as regards 
the right of society to compel the educa¬ 
tion of its members. As to the policy of 
doing it, strange as it, may appear, a doubt 
still seems to remain in the minds of some. 
We do not suppose that the possession 
of a common school education must nec¬ 
essarily remove from any child immoral 
or dishonest propensities that have be¬ 
come a part of his nature by heredity, but 
that it will have a tendency in that direc¬ 
tion there is no doubt. From the mo¬ 
ment n child enters a school-room he 
begins to feel the influence of order. 
Obedience to laws becomes to him a duty. 
To do certain things because it is incum¬ 
bent on him to do them, or to refrain from 
doing others because to do otherwise 
would lie a violation of a rule, soon be¬ 
comes easy to Irim, and he soon begins to 
see for himself that certain regulations 
and restrictions are necessary for the 
proper government of the little worid of 
which he is one, and to 1;now as he grows 
older, that in the great world, in the man¬ 
agement of the affairs of which ho will 
soon be allowed to have a part, the same 
regulations are necessary for its well¬ 
being. 
When the plan of compulsory educa¬ 
tion—7. obliging every child between 
proper ages to attend some school a cer¬ 
tain number of weeks in a year—was first 
proposed, much was said about the inter 
fcrencc with the rights of the parent and 
the invasion of the sacred precincts of 
home, as if that was the first time the arm 
of the law had been extended for the pro¬ 
tection and welfare of the child. Ever 
since law has existed, it has interfered in 
the child’s behalf against personal vio¬ 
lence on the part of the parents, and made 
it obligatory on them to furnish proper 
food and clothing. Why not, go fur¬ 
ther and insist on the child’s being per¬ 
mitted to take the education freely offer¬ 
ed, which must be of incalculable benefit 
in riper years. That children may not, be 
overtasked, many of the States have pro¬ 
vided that they shall not be kept at labor in 
mills or manufactories beyond a specified 
number of hours in a day, or days in a 
year, thus assuming the right to interfere 
with the physical welfare of those who, in 
a few years, will constitute the. State. 
The plea sometimes made that the serv¬ 
ices of the children are necessary for the 
support of the parents, is not worth con¬ 
sidering. In the great majority of eases, 
examination has shown that the plea is 
entirely without foundation ; and if there 
should bo instances where it is true, it 
would bo much better to contribute to the 
necessities of the parents from the public 
purso than to deprive the child ol' the op¬ 
portunity of laying the sub-structure on 
which may rest his future success. To 
make an argument showing the benefit of 
education to all, would be assuming a de¬ 
gree of ignorance and stupidity on the 
part of our rentiers at which they might 
very properly take offence. We believe 
iu education for the whole people. We 
believe most decidedly iu the right and 
the duty of the State to enforce it, and 
trust the time is not far distant when in 
all parts of the Union every man who can¬ 
not read the English language under- 
standingly and write it with sufficient, 
readiness to communicate his ideas, will 
be made to pay a penalty for his ignor¬ 
ance by being deprived ol' the right to vote. 
trouble, however, to look into the matter, A. \Vist‘ ( oimimmlor. —lliere is a 
they might discover that it only appro- Farmer’s Club in Freedom, Outagamie 
priiites one-ludf the land along the line of Co., Wis., which has been discussing the 
the road and then doubles the price of “Newspaper Question,” and in the report 
what is left, to make itself whole iu the of the same, as published in the Wiscou- 
transactiou, compelling the settler to foot sin Farm Journal, we learu that the com- 
the bill. Thus it becomes, as the lawyers mander ol' the club said that he believed 
would bby. nttrlieem crhninU. provided in taking and reading newspapers and 
there is anything really criminal in the 
operation. 
In this matter our Government is iu the 
same position sis a man with a litter of 
pups which he would like to sell, but, not 
possessing the facilities fordoing so, gives 
away one-half the number, with the under¬ 
standing that the man who receives them 
shall by advertising or other means, laud 
magazines. One of his first acts after he 
was twenty-one years old, was to subscribe 
for a newspaper, lie takes the same paper 
yet— The Rubal Nhw-Yobkeil He has 
more than twenty years’ Non. of them 
complete iu his house ; his children read 
them now. It, is a rare treat for them to 
get out their lather’s old papers. His 
bound Harpers make a library by them- 
their merits sufficiently to create a demand selves. lie thought newspapers were as 
for the entire lot at a proportionately iu- necessary in a family as bread. Did not 
i • i i i-i i i____ r ___ 
creased price. Some of the monarchical 
Governments on the other side of the At¬ 
lantic, commission an officer under the 
title of “ Minister of Agriculture,” whose 
duty if is to attend to such matters as the 
invasion of insects, cattle plagues, and 
similar enemies of agriculture ; but in- 
this great, glorious and free Bopublic, the 
mere suggestion that such facts should be 
investigated by competent, men at the 
public expense, is met with a storm of 
abuse by political demagogues. 
Give us a Secretary of Agriculture. 
IS IT COWARDICE? 
An acquaintauce remarked in our hear¬ 
ing, a few days since, that the hard times 
and stagnation in business were more the 
result of cowardice than anything else. 
The more we have thought of this asser¬ 
tion, the more have we become convinced 
that it contains a good deal of truth. 
“ Nothing risked, nothing gained,” is a 
trite old saying, and there is no gtxal rea¬ 
son why it should not be as pertinent in 
. .if.. i» r__ i l.* „ 
see lioNv anybody could bring up a family 
of children"without them. 
-m*- 
Hardy Grasshoppers. —It has been 
asserted that the young grasshoppers 
which happened to hatch out during thaws 
in winter, would perish if cold, frosty 
weather followed ; but we now find this 
flatly contradicted in the St. Paul Pio¬ 
neer-Press. A Mr. B. Yates, writing 
from Medailia, says :—“Two years ago, 
Messrs. Flanders, Wadsworth, and oth¬ 
ers, hatched out ’hoppers here iu their 
offices by t he stoves, and when they were 
about one-fourth of an inch long, put 
them out on the sidewalk aud subjected 
them to fifteen and eighteen degrees below 
zero. When taken iu, the next day, they 
were as good as new, and a trifle hungrier. ” 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
Landais, in his work on “ Voices of Animals, ” 
claims that ants possess a vocal speech by which 
they are enabled to exercise their meutal facul¬ 
ties. 
The three healthiest States iu the Union are 
Vermont, Iowa aud Wisconsin. Florida ranks 
•: .. I'.nnllw r,r n VOnUtJUl, J.UWO. »UU IIIKUIIMU. riw.u,. 
the ordinary transactions of .i family ui a f our tj, j n ip e ii H t; at least, so savs a Florida 
neighborhood, us in more extensive com- j, aper 
mercial operations. Of the one luel there A NEW Asbestos mine has been discovered in 
can bo but little doubt, that money IS the Man Jacinto Mountain, California. Tito ledge 
cheaper to-day than ever before in the thirty feet wide, a mile long and of unknown 
history of this nation ; and if there is a depth. Fire-proof roofing Hliould now be in 
stagnation in its circulation, it must- be order on the Pacific Slope. 
THE L00UST PLAGUE, 
Even with the great number of reports 
mode from the Grasshopper or Locust- 
iufuHted regions of the West in regard to 
the quantity of eggs deposited last fall 
and their condition at the present time, it 
is still diflicult to arrive at any satisfac¬ 
tory conclusions as to the prospects of 
saving the crops the coming season. In 
some localities it, is thought that the warm 
weather, a few weeks since, which caused 
a portiou of the eggs to hatch, may result 
in the destruction of vast numbers of these 
pests, aud it is only to be hoped that these 
“ Hutefuls” may be swept away iu this 
manner. The general Government will 
eventually be compelled to take this Lo¬ 
cust question in hand, hut wo fear, not 
until the importance of our Agricultural 
interests is more fully recognized than 
it is at the present time. The Gov¬ 
ernment aided, abetted aud encouraged 
either iu consequence of a lack of confi¬ 
dence in the stability of onr prosperity or 
through cowardice on the part of the pos¬ 
sessors of menus to engage tu active busi¬ 
ness. Doubtless manyof our capitalists 
are like a “ burnt child —afraid of the 
fire but this can scarcely be the condi¬ 
tion of actual producers of necessary arti¬ 
cles for which there is a never-failing de¬ 
mand at some price, whether highly or 
bare! y remunerative. 
The fluctuations iu the prices of such 
articles as are classed as necessaries, are 
the result of variations in supply and de¬ 
mand although, doubtless, many of our 
renders think otherwise, especially if these 
fluctuations affect the products of their 
own farms. If the prices of butter, eggs, 
cheese anil similar articles go below what 
the producer thinks a fair figure, he is 
ready to declare that a combination has 
been formed among buyers ; but this cau 
very seldom, if ever, successfully occur 
iu a country so extensive as our own, as 
many Lave learned, to their cost during 
the past few years. The man who has but 
little to sell, may say, “What I have will 
make no difference, so I will hold for a 
rise,” forgetting that copious showers are 
made up of little drops of water. Thus 
one by one each holds back, not daring to 
risk his capital, be it little or much, to 
keep trade and business brisk. Is not 
this a species of cowardice? Perhaps 
not; but certainly it lias the appearance 
of it, to say the least. 
---- 
RURAL NOTES. 
lie ware. — Scovill, Lewis k Co. have 
tried to start a new Dairy Association. 
The Regular State Association assumed 
the settlement of the Grasshopper regions proportions hardly commensurate with 
and lias, or is to receive pay for the the genius of this firm and they resolved 
land from the purchasers ; hence, we be- to secede. The most unfortunate part of 
lieve the latter are entitled to some con- this business is, that the firm have drawn 
sideration and protection from the same one or two respectable, well-intentioned 
source people with them. Mr. Scovill lias been 
Doubtless, if our Government officials of use to the Dairy interests ol this State 
were approached on this subject, they heretofore and may he again, it he will 
would endeavor to throw the rcsponsibil- turn over a new leal and drop his coiiupt 
ity of luring people to settle in these pee- associations and ideas. Harris Lewis 
tiferous regions upon some railroad cor- too, lias been of infinite benefit, with lus 
poration ; but this will not do so long as cordial, genial ways. Lut why is it that 
the general Government enters into the a popular and bright mail should desire 
transaction as an equal partner with these to rulo-or ruin ? Dairymen want lnstruo 
oorporations. It is true that thousands tion, not contests. Imagine a new Dany 
of persons are led to believe, by the bom- Convention iu the hands of Lewis bhoit- 
baafc of politicians, that our Government Horns, Scovill’s Experimental Stations, 
actually gives away the public domain to Hawley’s Salt and. Llandings Architec- 
build railroads. If they would take the ture ! Ministers of Grace, defend us . 
A new Asbestos mine has been discovered in 
the Han Jacinto Mountain, California. The ledge 
is thirty feet wide, a mile long and of unknown 
depth. Fire-proof roofing should now he in 
order on the Pacific Slope. 
We learn that the Andre King Oats were 
awarded a diploma at the Fair of the American 
Institute last fall. This may bo considered a 
good recommendation for this now variety now 
being offered by the originator, J. H. Andiie. 
A Michigan farmer is reported to have hold 
on to 800 pounds of Wool since lht>3, because the 
price at no time within that period has suited 
him. He is like a great many others who cannot 
he made to believe that an article is worth just 
What it will fetch in market, aud no more. 
TnEHE Is an effort being made to get up an 
excitement, in silk-worm culture in Australia; 
hut we notice Unit some of the old inhabitants, 
who probably remember the Morns Multieau- 
lis” fever of years ago, caution their young 
friends and tefl them to “ keep cool” and not ho 
too sure of success. 
The yeast plant is scientifically called. Snccha- 
romycKS cerei.'isior . therefore, when a woman 
secs her bread rising, she may know that tho 
sporea of the Rarrharumi/t:<« arc sprouting and 
growing rapidly, which they will do eveu if the 
scientific name thereof is not known to the baker 
or maker of bread and calces. 
Tue Oregon Cultivator lias been consolidated 
with the Willamette Farmer, and the reason for 
this move is stated to be that there was only 
room lor on© ngrioulturHrl journal in Oregon at 
present. A similar merging of agricultural pa¬ 
pers iu many other localities would be beneficial 
both to publishers and subscribers. 
A SEW disease has broken out among the hogs 
iu Holland, for winch no remedy lias as yet been 
discovered. The animals turn hi lie after death, 
and although bad potatooti aru BUBpGCtod to bo 
l.ho uauwo of thJH malady, it may bo that tho 
“Tblue glass" excitement ou this side of the At¬ 
lantic has had something to do with it. 
A Mrs. L. F., of Vermont, calls upon the 
women of tho State to “raise a united cry for 
i ustice ” in buying and selling eggs by the pound; 
but she fails to toll us how eggs are to he cut up 
or divided to get at Hie exact weight required. 
We will take a half or three-quarters of a pound, 
just to please the groeeryman when he is in a 
hurry, in order to get a glimpse of the serene 
exiiression of his countenance while weighing 
them out- 
r PHE Worst Coucihs are cured by Dr. Jayne’s 
Expectorant, a good remedy also for Pains in 
the Breast and Soreness of the Throat. MjX. 
BUSINESS NOTICES._ 
ASK your merchant to furnish you the “ Phrcnix 
Brand Purr Whirr Lead, manufactured by FcK- 
etein, Dills & Co., Cincinnati, O., wliioh is corroded 
hy the “Old Hutch Process, the only true method, 
uml 1 b not only sola with the poHitivo assurance id 
absolute purity, but la whiter, liner, has more body 
und covering capacity than most other White Leads 
in the market, and Is sold as cheap as brands of in¬ 
ferior quality. Bold, hy Paint Dealers generally. 
--- 
The Best Oil for Harness is the celebrated 
Vacuum Oil., made at Rochester, N. Y., and sold by 
harness makers everywhere. 
