THE RURAL WEW-YO RKER 
rb 
AUG. 48 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Practical departments 
Setters and Pointers. 101 
Hoots and Sheep, Vurlablo Opinions about. 10? 
Notes, Three. 10? 
Farm Onto, A Novel......... 102 
Krutt to Market, Sending...... 102 
Hrieflet* *. 102 
Old Wav ami tin: 1 Innovation,The. 102 
Hardy Flowers for August. Iff! 
Notes from the Rural Oroands,. 108 
Htru wherry Plants, etc., SettlUS'... 102 
Strawberry trarann. Recent Arrivals In the. 104 
Reme*. Among the. 104 
Raaphorrles.104 
Raspberry, The Philadelphia... . 104 
Correspondents' Letters, Extract* from. 104 
Talninn Sweet Apple. The........ .. 104 
Milk for Butter, Handling. 104 
Cheese Manufacture . 106 
Slieop Husbandry and the {exportation of Mut¬ 
ton. If* 
Sheen, Southdown.. 106 
Chi ok on*. U,,w to Fatten. 105 
Poultry. Killing and Dressing. 105 
Eggs ar Food. 105 
Tomatoes... 10B 
Near-sightedness. Treatment of......... 100 
Burns and Scalds. New Remedy for.. 100 
Weights and Measures, The (.'oiuiiig System of lllli 
Answers to Correspondents. no 
Notes from Sections. 10? 
Editorial Pack: 
What Next<)n the Farm?........ 
Notes-Brevities. 
Litkra kv : 
Poetry... 
Store...... 
Our Mtiso. . 
Our Correspondent in the Field 
A Moral Victory. 
‘•Poor EnuengardeI”. 
Fretting.. 
George Sand... 
Children'* Stockings. 
Miscellaneous.. 
Ladles' Portfolio.. 
Reuding for the Young.... 
Pussier. 
Bah bath Rending. 
Markets... 
Publisher'* Notices.. 
News of the Week... 
Personals... 
Humorous...... 
Advertisements. 
KIM 
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100, 111, 112 
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THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1877. 
Never before Bince it lias been cultivated, haw 
the Strawberry excited more interest than during 
the present season, and we have, therefore, pre¬ 
sented our readers with all needed information 
both as to culture and the latest varieties. 
Wo are glad of the opportunity of introduc¬ 
ing to our Floricultural readers Mr. Wm. Fal¬ 
coner, of the Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, Mass. 
WHAT NEXT ON THE FARM ? 
Tiie close of harvest, so far as the small 
grains are concerned, by no means ends 
the farm work for the year. It does, how¬ 
ever, give a breathing spell after the hur¬ 
ry, in wliich farmers may profitably ask 
themselves, “What next?” This is really 
the beginning of the new agricultural year, 
for on the amount of wheat and winter 
grains sown next month, will depend the 
farming operations of 1878. Through most 
of the country cast of the Pacific Slope, 
there has been a good wheat crop. The 
European war assures good prices, and 
there is a strong temptation to sow more 
wheat than for several years past; every¬ 
where we hear of preparations to this end. 
The danger is, that much of this increased 
acreago will be poorly prepared, and that 
the resultant crop will be made at a loss. 
The lack of money to make farm improve¬ 
ments, is responsible for the greater part 
of the failure in agricultural progress. 
To lose money on a crop, especially so 
important a crop as wheat, means busi¬ 
ness depression and the stagnation of in¬ 
dustry for the whole country. It means 
the frittering away of advantages won by 
the hard and successful toil of the past 
year—advantages which, properly used, 
might place the business of the country 
on the high road to returning prosperity. 
We have a direct personal interest in this 
matter. If we can help make the country 
prosperous, The Bubal New-Yorker 
will have an increase of a good many thou¬ 
sands in its list of subscribers and a pro¬ 
portionate amount of other business. We 
shall thus be enabled both to got and do 
more good than would be possible were 
farmers suffering from hard times, as they 
have been for several years past. 
There is little doubt that in most sec¬ 
tions farmers will make some money this 
year. It is important to almost every¬ 
body, as well as to themselves, that they 
should use this money wisely—that iR, iu 
tho way to make it produce as much more 
as possible. Thus it may be made tho 
entering wedge to open a way to better 
times. With a full view of tho responsi¬ 
bilities in this matter, we advise : 
l>o not sow tho largely-iucreased acre¬ 
age of wheat that you had nearly conclud¬ 
ed to do. it may be well enough to bow 
a little more than the average, for farmers 
are hopeful about wheat, and what is 
sown iu hope is apt to be dono well, pro¬ 
vided too much is not attempted. The 
European war will also probably create 
an increased export demand, at fair prices, 
for another year. We ought to be ready 
to meet this demand. It is better to do 
this by increasing the yield than by doub¬ 
ling the acres. It is not the gross sales 
of grain and other products which help 
the farmer’s purse. It is the profit that 
he makes above the cost of production. 
Farmers have done too much work which 
gave no profit within the last five or six 
years. It is this which makes the country 
poor to-day. 
There has not been money enough 
made tho last year to warrant speculative 
movements of any kind. It is not safe to 
put our little spare cash into any one en¬ 
terprise. If it fails, we are as badly off 
as before, and must flounder about in the 
slough of hard times till Providence sends 
another good season, with good crops and 
prices to help us out. 
Try to do a little in the way of improve¬ 
ment iu as many directions, and at as 
slight an expense as possible. During 
the past few years, we have all seen 
chances where a trifliug outlay in money 
would have surely brought largely in¬ 
creased crops. We have refrained, be¬ 
cause the trifling amount of money could 
not be easily spared. Now that you have 
the cash, use it where it will bring the 
speediest return. Perhaps it is a short 
underdrain that is needed to relieve sur¬ 
plus water from an otherwise rich field. 
Do it at once ; but leave your poorer land, 
or that which demands a heavy outlay, 
till you find that there are not other uses 
whieb will pay a better return. Try the 
commercial fertilizers—sparingly at first, 
till you find those adapted to your soil. 
When you get a fertilizer that will repay 
twice its cost in the first crop, you may 
use it as freely as if some one made you 
a present of it. You get one hundred per 
cent, over and above the cost, within 
twelve months after purchasing. 
Improve the breeds of your cattle, sheep, 
and hogs. You may at least employ thor¬ 
oughbred males if you have to hire their 
use. Iu a few years your flocks will be 
half-bloods, and except for breeding, 
nearly as valuable as thorough-breds. The 
first spare money that farmers get, ought 
to create a largely-increased demand for 
thoroughbred rams, bulls, and boars, and 
we believe it will do so. 
Above all, make your homes beautiful 
and pleasant, the centers of all that can 
please the eye and gratify a refined taste. 
Fill your grounds with flowers and fruits. 
The life is more than meat and tho body 
more than raiment. As we can live only, 
once, we owe to ourselves to get as much 
rational enjoyment from life as possiblo. 
Some spare money spent thus, wfil surely 
be profitably used. It is not any man’s 
or woman’s right—saying nothing of duty 
—to live for money-getting. We like to 
see people making money because they 
can do so much with it; more now, when 
eveiything is so oheap, than ever before. 
If you have so little money that you can 
only spare enough to buy a poach or pear 
tree or grape vine, buy those. They will 
grow r while you are sleeping, and will, ere 
you know it, repay many-fold the trifling 
cost, which is required, during the grow¬ 
ing season, to render them healthy and 
fruitful, 
NOTES. 
Large Estates and Small Farms. 
—While there are upwards of 4,000,000 of 
what may be called peasant landed pro¬ 
prietor* in France, there are not more 
than 30.000 of the same class in England. 
There the vast built of the soil is owned 
by the nobility and gentry, thirteen thou¬ 
sand of whom, according to the New 
Doomsday Book, possess four-fifths of 
the country. Of this number somo are 
counted as often as thirty or forty times, 
as they own estates or plots of ground in 
different parts of the Kingdom, so that it 
is not improbable that these thirteen 
thousand registered proprietors embrace 
only about five thousand individuals. 
The remaining oue-fifth is divided be¬ 
tween 200,000 persons, but as the same 
repetition recurs here also, these figures 
should be very considerably reduced to 
represent tho number of actual land¬ 
owners. Many of these merely own resi¬ 
dences iu the cities, and others an aero or 
two around their suburban homes. This 
aggregation of land, the tendency to 
which is on the jucrease, is now attracting 
a great deal of attention among our trans¬ 
atlantic cousins. One party claims that 
it is beneficial, inasmuch as the agricul¬ 
tural products of the country are relative¬ 
ly larger than those of auy Continental 
nation, where the laud is minutely sub¬ 
divided ; but their opponents demon¬ 
strate that this is due to the superior 
natural fertility of the soil, and show 
pretty conclusively that where thrift and 
industry are stimulated by ownership the 
yield of cereals and other products is 
greater on small farms than on large 
estates. In view of the untnaungeable 
extent of many of our Southern planta¬ 
tions, this discussion is not without 
interest among us. 
- ♦♦♦ - - 
Purchasing Plants, etc. — Now, 
when trees ami shrubs have attained their 
season's growth, and transplanting time 
draws near, let those who have trees or 
shrubs to buy, visit nurseries, gardens 
and parks, note those which are best 
adapted for the grounds to 1>© planted as 
to bight, habit and foliage, and write down 
their names, so that luter tliey shall not 
bo obliged to depend upon catalogue 
descriptions alone. Remember that hardi¬ 
ness is one chief consideration. Let a 
tree bo ever so captivating in leaf, (lower, 
or fruit—do not. select it if not hardy 
enough for your locality, or if it is sub¬ 
ject to disease or to bo preyed upon by 
insects. As regards fruit trees—in any 
hap-hazard purchase, probably a large 
percentage will prove utterly worthless. 
If one is experimenting, that is one thing. 
If one is desirous of stocking his garden 
or orchard with trees that shall bear 
fruit—that is quite another. In the 
former instance he may select with his 
eyes shut; in the latter, it is better to as¬ 
certain by the aid of Ids own eyes what 
thrive in liis locality and to purchase 
those alone. Fruit trees, more than 
what are called ornamental trees, are de¬ 
pendent upon peculiarities of situation, 
soil and climate and it is a sad mistake to 
select and purchaso varieties that, after 
being cared for from three to six or eight 
years, are found to be, for one reason or 
another, of no value. 
Fruit.—The fruit crop of England ap¬ 
peal’s from latest reports to be a failure ; 
a fact to which we call the attention of 
our owu fruit growers as affecting them 
somewhat iu the same way as the Busso- 
Turkish war is expected to affect the 
grain growers. Even apples are a fair 
crop in but a few places, while pears and 
plums are utter failures. All this is 
accounted for in part by an unfavorable 
spring, but chielly by the sunless autumn 
of last year, which was unfavorable to the 
ripening of the wood. The Loudon Gar¬ 
den says :—“Although immense quanti¬ 
ties of apples may be expected from 
America, the prices will probably bo very 
high.” Tomatoes, it seems, are received 
iu large quantities from America quite as 
early as English cultivators can supply 
them, notwithstanding which, good-sized 
fruits bring at retail eight. centB each and 
a smaller size from thirty to forty cents 
per dozen. It is true as Miss Maple re¬ 
marks under Domestic Economy—if we 
could not cultivate the tomato so readily, 
it would sell for an astonishingly high 
price, Respecting tho tomato, as respect¬ 
ing many other things, a foreign estimate 
of its merits is needed to wake us up to 
an appreciation of the fact that next to 
the apple and pear it is intrinsically the 
most valuable fruit we haye, 
Experiments with Manure. — 
Since the year 1849 Messrs. Lawes & 
Gilbert of the historical Bothamated 
farm, have been making experiments on 
the growth of beaus with different kinds 
of manure. The land was fallowed at 
intervals and during their earlier experi¬ 
ments miueral manures, particularly pub 
ash, greatly increased the product. Salts 
of ammonia were used with little or no 
effect. Nitrate of soda with decided 
effect. “ Leguminous crops, grown too 
frequently on tho same land, seem peculi¬ 
arly liable to disease. When wheat was 
g rown eight times in alternation with 
eans, it was found that the crop of wheat 
and the amount of nitrogen in that wheat 
was nearly double that gained and detect¬ 
ed in sixteen crops of wheat grown consec¬ 
utively in another fihld without manure. 
In other words, tho beans seem to have in 
some way contributed to the utilization 
by the wheat of a double quantity of 
nitrogen. ” 
-- 
BREVITIES. 
An English writer says, that of fifty varieties 
of potatoes which ho is growing at Burgbley, 
tho Alpha is tho curliest. It is also, he says, an 
excellent cropper. 
With a view to increase the wheat growth for 
1878. the Excelsior Fertilizer Works, Salem, O., 
are offering their pure ground hone, in quanti- 
titiea of one ton or less, at a reduction from mar¬ 
ket rates. See Business Notice, on this page. 
Opr fertilizer markets last week, while being 
correct as to quotations, were unfortunate in 
getting tho brands slightly mixed. The Excelsior 
Fertilizer Works whose Premium bone we quoto, 
»re in no way connected with the Buffalo works. 
Owned by Mr. L. L, Crocker, whose well known 
products are also quoted. Credits are now ad¬ 
justed sb they should be. 
Mr. D. D. T, Moon*— to whom our readers 
will scarcely need an introduction—is now in ex¬ 
cellent health, and we never saw him looking 
better. He now proposes to deliver addresses at 
various Agricultural Fairs in the Middle and New 
England .States, as in years gone by. Wo are 
right glad of it, and doubt not that the added 
experience of mature years will add effectiveness 
to his old popularity. 
Wo read 1 " Two persons in Boston, who hare 
traded in dogs for more than thirty years, one of 
whom has hud nine thousand dogs pass through 
hiH hands and the other more than that number, 
.sav that they have never yet seen a well-defined 
ease of hydrophobia." So'the lute Francis But¬ 
ler. the well-known dog fancier of Brooklyn,, 
iDied to talk. And he doubtless spoke the truth. 
But he died of hydrophobia. 
Hints for Apoost. —The first suggestion j 
would make for.this month, says J V \Y., in the 
Country Gentleman, would be for gratitude and 
thankfulness in the heart of every one to the 
Giver of all our blessings, for the bountiful and 
abundant harvest. First on the part of those 
that are the producers, because of the abundant 
surplus U^l'v will have to sell; and. second, on 
the part o) those that have to buy—the great 
crop will make it much more easy for them to 
get what they need. 
It is not often considered, we fear, that weeds 
represent above tho ground a portion of plant 
food that ought to bo in it, ready to be appro¬ 
priated by useful plants. Only so that they are 
cut dowu before going to seed, little is thought 
of the loss sustained ny the soil. And yet we 
manure ground to refurnish what these very 
weeds steal. When weeds are permitted to 
grow the best thing is to so compost them as to 
secure for further use the fertilizing properties 
they contain. Often, however, after being out, 
they are left iu tho sun to dry up before they are 
removed. 
A Mass meeting of the farmers of the State 
of New York was held at Rochester on the 21st 
day of March, at which time it was resolved to 
organize a fanners’ association for mutual ben¬ 
efit and the promotion of mutual rights and 
privileges. An organization was then effected 
under the title of tho “ New York State Fanners’ 
Alliance.” The first annual meeting will beheld 
at Syracuse on the first Wednesday of Septem¬ 
ber next, at II o’clock A. M. E. W- Stewart, 
Lake View, Erie Go., N. Y., Chairman; Ex. 
Com. C. H. Dann, Warsaw, N. Y., Secy ; F. T. 
Boot, Sweden, N. Y., Tresident. Speed the 
Association. 
Spark the Cats. —“ Nothing,” sayB an es¬ 
teemed contemporary, “will so effectually keep 
rats and mice from our premises as a number of 
good cats. They not ouly kill a great number, 
but scare away as mauy. Cats differ.” 
We agree with the above entirely, but more 
wholly entirely iu the last sentence. We have a 
goodly number of cats in the Bubal grounds. 
There is nobody there that will kill them, and so 
they have their own delightful way. Probably 
they keep rats away by killing and soaring a 
great number. There is litUe doubt about it. 
But we are positive about one thing, viz., that 
they differ ! And they differ widely! 
BUSINESS NOTICES. 
1878 WHEAT CROP-PREMIUM BONE. 
Tuial trip for Rural readers. Equal to three 
or four times its weight of adulterated or coarse 
ground. At Wholesale Prtoe —X ton, *12.50; H ton, 
*26; 1 ton, *60. Send order before 2oth. Address, 
with remittance, Excelsior Fkutilizer Works, 
Baietn, Ohio. Order no larger or smaller amount, 
aB stock Is limited. 
— M l — 
The Best Oil for Harness Is the celebrated 
Vacuum Oil, made at Rochester, N. Y., and sold by 
harness makers everywhere. 
