the formation of stagnant pools. So 
would sun-flowers, willows and hundreds 
of other plants if they they could be 
made to thrive in suoh situations. We 
have an abiding faith that the above is 
the whole story and that in a short, time 
the Eucalyptus, as possessing wonderful 
powers over malarial atmospheres, will be 
heard of no more forever. 
and February. About the year 46 B. C., 
Julius Caesar ruled that, the year should 
be the portion of time that, the earth re¬ 
quired to perform one revolution around 
the sun, which was then fixed at365J days. 
Most of the ancient nations commenced 
their year at the autumnal equinox, about 
Sep temper 22. The Jews dated their 
civil year from that time, but their eccle¬ 
siastical year commenced March 22. The 
year of Noma commenced at the winter 
solstice—about December 22—but was 
changed by Julius Oachar to begin with 
January. This arrangement was not uni¬ 
versally accepted by the Latin Christian 
nations, and for a long time there wei-e 
sever different dates for commencing the 
year, varying from throe months later to 
nine months sooner than at present. In 
England, before the change from old to 
new style in 1752, the legal year com¬ 
menced March 25. It took considerable 
time for the people to become accustomed 
to this change, and it was customary to 
give double dates to events that occurred 
between January 1 and March 25—writ¬ 
ing both the old and the new year—thus 
176;. This custom was prevalent in New 
England, and is often seen in old records 
and on monumental inscriptions in an¬ 
cient burial grounds. 
The God Janus, a corruption of Dianus 
or the sun was believed to preside over 
the beginning of everything and was in¬ 
voked at the commencement of most 
actions, even at the worship of other gods. 
He was represented as having two faces, 
one before and one behind, enabling him 
to look both at the past and at the future. 
Hence the first mouth of the year was 
named in his honor. 
11 is well, for more than chronological 
purposes, that this division of time is 
made. Although tlie day that closes a 
year is not really different from any other, 
there are few who are not thereon im¬ 
pressed with a solemnity not usual with 
them. Amid the hurry and bustle of 
life there should be seasons when we can 
commune with ourselves. At twelve 
o’clock each day the careful navigator 
takes his observations and calculating 
earefully therefrom notes bis position on 
bis chart, marks from his log-book his 
route during the preceding day and 
determines that for the one to come. 
So we at stated times should review 
our past, and resolve upon our future, 
and what time is more appropriate than 
the closing of the old year and the begin¬ 
ning of the new ? 
Nothing stands still. We are constantly 
changing. If we are no better than a 
year ago we are worse, and the change is 
not only with us, but every one with 
whom we come in contact is affected by 
us. Every man is but an atom in the 
hotly politic in which, as in the physical 
body, no part can be diseased without the 
whole. On the other hand the good 
actions of a man do not redound to his 
own benefit only but to that of his family, 
his neighbors, the church and the State. 
Let us then at this time ask ourselves 
seriously if the world is better or worse 
for our having lived the past year and 
whatever be the answer our consciousness 
gives, let us resolve that in the next year 
we will work for progress—giviug a word 
of encouragement and a helping hand to 
everything that is good. 
terms what our readers might expect for 
the New Year. We shall fulfill every 
promise therein made or implied, if we 
live; and in view of several projects 
(yet too crude to be entitled to auy other 
mention) we barely hope to present them 
with an agreeable surprise or so before 
the New Year shall have entered its third 
quarter. 
Never before in its entire career has the 
Bubal been circumstanced so as to work 
with more effect. It. commences its 29th 
year with a corps of contributors and 
correspondents that few journals of its 
class can boast and with extensive experi¬ 
mental grounds which, if intelligently 
managed, can scarcely fail to prove of 
practical value to its readers. Aud finally 
we claim above all else to be influenced 
by au earnest desire to do all the good in 
our power. In short we are favored with 
all inrrhanivot means necessary to make 
the Bubal New Yorker The Perfect 
Family Paper for the Bural or Suburban 
Home, wh ich is our aspiration. It only re - 
mains to hr seen if we have the hruins 
to avail ourselves of those means. 
Let us now make our affectionate aud 
sorrowful adieus to those of our old read¬ 
ers who for any reason whatsoever may 
not renew their subscriptions for another 
year—while to our new friends, we would 
say, may we prize each other’s acquain¬ 
tance the more as lime passes on. To All 
we heartily repeat our wish of a very 
Happy New Year. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
PllACTlrAL DRPARTMENTS 
I’iriUB Massouiana Vsriegata . 
Muck and its Trentinent. 
Food. Cooking. 
Debt fur it Fur id ? Js it Wise to Bun into 
Brleltet. 
Topics. Burn 1....... 
Tools. Buy the Children Some.. 
Jottings Irolll My Book...... 
Jerseys. Charles I., Sharpies*’. 
Horse , sod CnitA-. Trefitment of. 
Bone. Sulphate of Lime. Ac.. Ground. 
Grasses. Ac.. Variegated......... ......... 
Soil. Tin-. . 
Uuta B.ita—Use? ami Cultivation.... 
What sii ,ii it !><• i aiicii?. 
Tomutnn*. Tile Bust. 
Garden Notes.. 
Plants for Booin’-. A Fear Good. 
Bulbs for the Flower Garden., .......... 
Coreii- MucDoua.dlie. New Uses for. 
Catalogues, in.. Received. 
AnlhiTleum Viiriflgatum. 
Lawn Papers.. .. 
Siftings from the Kitchen Fire.. 
PumI’kln Pies. 
Cocoa-nut Pie.... ... ..... 
Gab bilge. It iw... 
Blue and Beil. To Color. 
Soup. 
( un ne tVnnii, ; In). 
Notes from Texas.. 
Rural Special Reports..*... 
Dairying ... .... 
Whims and Facts. 
Method, That improved.. 
Dairy Products... 
Ilia lima Fowl, The . 
•• Mote Baud,dn Grape Notes”. 
" Bob 1 . 
Kditohxal Page: 
Happy New Year '! . 
The One Tiling that Remains to be Seen 
Notes—Brevities. 
The Lady Grape.—We have a 
single vine of the Lady Grape. It 
fruited the past summer for the first time. 
If we were to judge of all Lady Grapes 
by this, we should pronounce it, so far 
as our knowledge extends, as the best 
white grape in cultivation. The vine is 
as vigorous as its parent the Concord— 
the bunches aud berries of medium size, 
the color that of a pea or of any green 
grape just before it begins to ripen. 
The taste is nearly that of the Concord, 
yet there is a difference in its favor that 
enables one to eat first one and then the 
other and to determine which is which 
with his eyes shut. They ripen during 
the latter days of August. 
Luculia gratissima.—The most 
gloriously-{lowered greenhouse shrub we 
know of at present is Luculia gratissima, 
at Such’s nurseries, South Amboy, N. 
J. It is planted in a bed in the camellia 
house, is some Beven or eight feet high, 
and has 105 immense heads of large, 
beautiful, rose-colored flowers that are so 
fragrant as to perfume the whole estab¬ 
lishment. 
Liter A by : 
Poetry.....,,423 
Her A' i’tiler’s Secret. 
Nntiling the Baby...,,, 
A Dream..... 
The l'brue Sons.. 
Fretting over Trifles.... 
Brlc-o-Ur.u!. 
Recent l.lieriitiire. 
.Magazine Note*... 
Items . .... 
Book* Received. . ........ 
For Women ... 
Alter the Honeymoon . 
Win tin v Fu i n IHitogs,. 
Home Culture lor Country Women.. 
Reading for the i mm. 
lluw Tory and Tilly Changed the Bad Sous 
“ TIiouSbuH Not Suml”... 
The Mali-.. 
Letters from Boys anil Girls. 
Puzzler. 
S.ibt ill tt Reading. .. 
Golden .Maxims . . 
Puollslier's Notions... ... 
Various. .. ... 
>! iti‘U.. .. . . 
Answers to Correspondents. 
News of the Week... 
Personals...j 
Wit and Humor. 
Advertisements..... ...427 
NOTES 
BREVITIES 
An Enthusiastic Official.—Hum¬ 
drum apathy has for some years back 
characterized the general conduct of those 
who have held the Commissionership 
of Agriculture, but a lack of enthusiasm 
cannot certainly be laid to the charge of 
the present incumbent of the office. This 
laudable trait has already been mnuif ’sled 
on more than one occasion, aud is now 
again prominently displayed in his zeal 
that the agricultural products of f.liis 
country should lie suitably represented 
at the approaching French Exhibition, 
The space assigned therein to the whole 
United States is only 100 by 400 feet and 
this cannot possibly be increased, yet 
our enthusiastic Commissioner is reported 
to have already arranged for an exhibition 
of agricultural products that would fill 
more than that space. lie has sent cir¬ 
culars to the Governors of the different 
States recommending that each should 
make arrangements to have samples of 
the staple productions of his State packed 
and labeled for shipment and forwarded 
to New York in time to be sent on by the 
1st of February. It is intended that the 
exhibit should be complete in every re¬ 
spect, and the Commissioner is bestirring 
himself energetically to carry out this in¬ 
tention. We trust that these praise¬ 
worthy efforts will meet with the prompt 
assistance they deserve alike from the 
agricultural population of the country 
aud from the different Legislatures whose 
liberal co-operation is necessary to the 
full success of the project. 
If the apple peddlers about New York City 
wore to bold an Apple election, they would elect, 
by an immense majority, the King of Tompkins 
County. 
Bark lice usually coniine themselves to un¬ 
healthy or stunted trees. This past fall they 
have appeared upon the healthiest pear trees in 
our grounds. 
Tn k proprietors of dining saloons in New York 
City are asking why entomologists are so fond of 
exploring the Rocky Mountains aud Colorado ? 
They think they can furnish all sorts. 
The breeding of the trotting horse is like 
catching a good wife in Paris—wbicn has been 
discribod us like grabbing for one eel in a bucket 
of snakes. Proceed'd Mass. Board of Ag. 
Mu. Henry Hales brings us specimens of the 
Roxbury Russet Apple as large as walnuts, which 
are a second crop of the past season. Tins i* 
quite unusual fur apple trees in Bergen, Co. N. J. 
Thf. Western New York Horticultural Society 
will hold its twenty-third annual meeting, in the 
city of Rochester, commencing Wednesday, Jau. 
23, 1378, at 11 A- M. All interested in horti¬ 
culture aro cordially Invited to attend, aud ex¬ 
hibit. their products. P. Barry, President. 
P. C. Reynolds, Sec. aud Treas. 
A rad New Year is this at Maplewood Farm, 
where the only child—as sweet a little girl as 
ever gladdened a parent's heart, and, bright as 
a simueaiu, enlivened the whole house—has 
gone to join kindred spirits, leaving aching 
hearts behind her. The news, received just as 
we go to press, elicits our warm sympathy for 
the sorrowing parents, 
George Barnes A Co. Syracuse, N. Y. aud 
Whitman, Mills A Co., Akron, Ofiio, who con¬ 
solidated last fail under the sign of the Whit¬ 
man & Barnes Manufacturing, Co., have just 
completed negotiation* for the establishment of 
a bra nub huu.-. in Boston. This house does the 
most extensive business in the manufacture of 
mowing machine knives and sections. 
Graduates! of Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
led k. in those timoB when every farmer is 
watching lo see what the graduates of our Agri¬ 
cultural Colleges are doiug, it may be interesting 
to sav that at a late meeting of the State Porno- 
logical Society papers wore presented by seven of 
them, and turee others were in attendance. 
Some served on important committees ; one was 
Secretary of the Society, one a member of the 
Orchard Committee, one a Professor, and one an 
Assistant in the College, one Superintendent of 
Pomologieal Hall at the late State Fair. Sev¬ 
eral ol mem have since its organization, taken 
a prominent part at its meetings. 
The second volume of the American Berk¬ 
shire Record is about to bo issued by the A. B. 
Association at Springfield Ill. Of the import¬ 
ance of such works we have frequently had oc¬ 
casion to bpeak in no doubtful terms. Experi¬ 
ence has conclusively demonstrated tbat the 
only oerLiiu mean* ot improving the quality of 
all kinds ol stock, consist* in the use of pure¬ 
bred sires, and that impure blood will inevitably 
shotv itsea sooner or later, in ill-bred animals. 
Aline outward appearance alone, is no guaran¬ 
tee of excellent progeny : authentic pedigree is 
the only certain security for obtaining the desir¬ 
ed results in breeding from any animal. Such 
works as the present, therefore, compiled with 
care and reseated, and ottering au exhaustive 
record of the pedigrees of pure-bred Berkshire 
swine, is a valuable convenience to all interest¬ 
ed in this branch of agricultural industry. 
BURAL NEW-YORKER 
GJBUSH El) EVERY SATURDAY 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
8 Duane Street, New York City 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1877 
We earnestly request that all letters containing 
money, or any comm un ication intended for the 
Business Department of the paper be addressed 
to the Editor, the /'ublisher, orTnv. Rural New- 
Yorker. and not. to any individual. We cannot 
otherwise guarantee the prompt entry of names 
upon out books, or the. acknowledgment of money 
We call attention to Prof. Real's Tomato ex¬ 
periments made with a view to ascertaining the 
earliest, most prolific and, ail things considered, 
the best. Our own experiments will be published 
later. 
Instead of encroaching upon our u.,ual space, 
we furnish a cover for the last number of the 
Rural New Yorker lor 1877. upon the two last 
pages of w hich our semi-annual index will be 
found. 
Y\ e would state tbat the free seed distribu¬ 
tion ceases with this date until next summer, when 
we hope to oiler a still better list to our friends. 
Variegated - Leaved Plants.— 
Many liave observed tliat variegated- 
leaved plants in certain soils and situa¬ 
tions, incline to lose their variegation 
more than in others. Hy recent experi¬ 
ments, it has been shown that the ash of 
white and green leaves differs very much 
in its chemical composition. According 
to these experiments, it has been shown 
that the ash of white leaves of Acer Ne- 
gundo contained 45.05 of potash, while the 
green contained but 12.61. The white 
leaves contained 10.89 of lime—the green 
39,93. Quantitative analyses upon He- 
dern helix and Hex aquifolium, show 
about the same proportion of difference 
between the variegated and green leaves. 
We may infer, therefore, that if we wish 
to preserve or increase the variegation in 
plants, they must be fed a maximum of 
potash and' a minimum of lime. If varie¬ 
gation is a disease, it is too bad to force 
food upon the patient for the purpose of 
aggravating the malady. 
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! 
This is the last time we shall greet our 
readers during the present year. Before 
another week has passed, we shall write 
‘■January 1, 1878,” and a new year will 
have commenced. We embrace this op¬ 
portunity to wish our friends, one and 
all, most heartily—a Happy New Year ! 
As the year is only an arbitrary divis¬ 
ion of time for convenience of reckoning, 
the period fixed for its beginning is also 
arbitrary, and differs with different na¬ 
tions—although most have now accepted 
the lioman Calendur introduced by Ro¬ 
mulus 738 B. C., and amended succes¬ 
sively by Numa Pompiuus, Julius C.e- 
sar, and I'ope Gregory. The year of 
Romulus consisted of 304 days, divided 
into ten months ; Numa Pompilius, his 
successor, added two months—January 
THE ONE THING THAT REMAINS TO BE 
SEEN. 
The Bural New Yorker has received 
compliments during several months past 
from men whose well-earned reputations 
are a sufficient guarantee that they do not 
compliment idly, and who seem to have 
been prompted by a. simple desire to en¬ 
courage us m our present course. These 
gratifying words we had preserved and 
placed together with a view to their pub¬ 
lication at this time. But a good, strong 
second thought has determined us not to 
do so. Will our readers think the less of 
us ? 
In last week’s issue we stated in plain 
Eucalyptus Globulus.—The wide¬ 
spread interest that the Blue Gum tree 
or Eucalyptus globulus has excited, 
shows to what an extent the popular 
mind will seize upon the smallest nucleus, 
if it only has a captivating tail. The 
Eucalyptus as a plant is pretty for its 
delicate bloom and square stems. It is a 
rampant grower and its roots will imbibe 
an immense deal of moisture. If planted 
in low grounds, no doubt it would dis¬ 
pose of rain-water fast enough to prevent 
A successful Paper.— The Youth’s Compan¬ 
ion of Boston is one of the most enterprising sheets 
in the country. It has twice the circulation of any 
similar publication, and unquestionably merits its 
success. 
