76 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
PRACTICAL DEPARTMENTS: 
Flower Pictures. 
Bulbs for the Flower Garden. 
Seed Exchange.. 
Apple Trees and Fruit.. Diseases‘>r. 
SlUtlnB the Rark of Hide-bound Trees. 
Slitting " Hide*Bound Trees,” About. 
Pinna Ajaeabuite. 
Osage Orange Tree, The. 
Apples, Some New Hardy ,. 
Peach, About the. . 
Adulteration and Testing of Seeds. 
Fruit Growers In Oouticil. ... 
Fruits of 1877, New. 
Butter-Worker, A New. 
Siftings from the Kitchen Fire. 
Recipes..... 
Rural Special Reports.. 
Experiment t How Shall We.. 
Cabbage Butterfly, Exterminating the. 
Skimmer. Ah to the. .... 
Tandem Driving, Ac.. 
Edward Fowler's Sale of Channel Island Cattle 
(10 
09 
70 
70 
70 
71 
71 
71 
7! 
72 
72 
72 
72 
7.1 
74 
74 
74 
74 
75 
Editorial part.;* 
A Move In the Right Direction. 76 
What Makes the Difference?. 76 
Osage Orange . 76 
To Bridge Over. 76 
Western N, Y. Hort. 8oe. 76 
For Discussion. 76 
Brevities. . 76 
Literary : 
Poetry...77,79. 61 
Her Mother's Secret... 77 
On the Kattenaese . 77 
Ancient Modes of Embalming the Dead.. 78 
Respect for the Aged. 78 
Prosperity and Adversity. 78 
Brle-a-Rra« ... 79 
For Women. 79 
Vest, Collar and Cuff. 79 
Tlie Baby Show. 79 
Dancing. 79 
Chaos. 79 
Answers to Correspondents. HO 
News of the Week. SCI 
Publisher’s Notices. SI 
Various. gj 
Markets. 81 
Reading for the Young. 82 
Playing Cards. 82 
Letters from Boys and Girls. 8 'i 
Pussier. 82 
Sabbath Heading. 82 
God’s Book Infallible. 62 
Bashan—Shepherds Leading their Flocks. 82 
Personals. 83 
Wit and Humor. 8 t 
Advertisements.81, S3, 84 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
178 Duane Street New York City. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1878. 
We earnestly request that all letters containing 
money, or any communication intended for the 
Business Department of the paper, he arlxlressed 
to the Editor, the Publisher, or The Rural New- 
Yorker, and not to any individual. We cannot 
otherwise guarantee the prompt entry of names 
upon our books, or the acknowledgment of money. 
A number of our subscribers have written ub 
that they have seeds of the Shell Flower (Mo- 
luccella Itevis) raised from the seeds which we 
sent them. Wo would feel obliged to such sub¬ 
scribers if they would state the quantities they 
have, and the prices at which they may be pur¬ 
chased. 
We announce to our readers with unusual sat¬ 
isfaction that B. Tickman Mann, the distin¬ 
guished Entomologist of Cambridge, Mass., will 
contribute regularly to our entomological col¬ 
umns. Since his return from Brazil, where, 
with Agassiz’s recommendation he was commis¬ 
sioned by the Emperor to investigate the injury 
caused to the coffee plantations by insects, he 
has devoted himself to Entomology as a pro¬ 
fession, and his connection with many of Die 
foremost societies of this country, has given 
him exceptional opportunities of keeping 
a-breast with the latest developments of that 
science. 
The MSS. of “ Horticulture and Eduoation,” 
by Prof. I. P. Roberts, No. IV., reached us too 
late for publication this week. We present our 
readers, therefore, with the essay of Prof. Thos. 
J. Burrill, upon Diseases of Apple Trees and 
Fruit, already alluded to. This is the tenth of 
the essays, announced last year, by the Profess¬ 
ors of our Agricultural Colleges, which we have 
published up to this time. It is valuable alike 
to the scientific and to the practical farmer. 
A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. 
While confident of the excellence of a 
man’s intentions, it is a thankless task to 
point out their impracticability, as we 
had reluctantly to do of late with regard 
to the project of cultivating tea in this 
country, advocated by our enthusiastic 
Commissioner of Agriculture. Another 
subject on which he is even more earnest, 
is a more extensive cultivation of sugar¬ 
cane in those districts adapted to its 
growth. In this matter we fully sympa¬ 
thize with his efforts, and very sincerely 
trust they may be successful. There is 
within the limits of the Gulf States an 
area suitable for the profitable production 
of this crop, large enough to yield not 
only a sufficiency for our domestic wants, 
but to furnish a considerable surplus for 
exportation. To utilize this, will keep in 
the country the vast sums now exported 
to enrich other nations by the purchase 
of this necessity of modern civilization, 
afford a remunerative investment to much 
of the capital now lying nearly uesless, and 
needed employment to thousands of the 
starvelings now compulsorily idle in every 
part of the country. 
Presidents, Senators, and Representa¬ 
tives from time to time, graciously avow 
that the agricultural interest of this coun¬ 
try, is the most important interest in it— 
important alike to its progress and pros¬ 
perity; and having patronizingly made 
this concession, these official worthies 
seem to think they have generously done 
all the agricultural community has any 
right to expect from them. For years 
the lawyer, the banker, the railroad spec¬ 
ulator, and the politician, have shaped the 
policy, controlled the offices, and expended 
the revenues of this country mainly for 
flieir own interests, while the farmer has 
borne in silence and without influence, 
the heaviest part of the burden, and will 
continue to do so until he asserts his own 
manhood, and insists as a matter of right, 
upon an influence in governmental mat¬ 
ters proportionate to the importance of 
his avocation. 
The Commissionership of Agriculture, 
the Rural has more than once insisted, 
should be a Cabinet Office, as it is in the 
most advanced European countries. In¬ 
deed it is not improbable that the atten¬ 
tion of the nation would have been long 
ago directed to the necessity for this, had 
the incumbents of the office been men of 
energy and resolution. Despite some 
minor failings, we are glad to notice that 
the present Commissioner is zealous and 
earnest, that he seems to have a just ap¬ 
preciation of the position his office should 
hold, and while his efforts are as untiring 
as they seem to be of late, we shall not 
cavil at small blemishes, but heartily 
aid him to promote the best interests of 
the body he represents. 
■ ■ ■ - 
WHAT MAXES THE DIFFERENCE 1 
Some persons often express surprise 
that their neighbors are enabled to suc¬ 
ceed better than they do. Smith com¬ 
plains that he works as many hours in the 
day and as many days in the year as 
Jones does, but somehow things don’t 
seem to get ahead with him, while Jones 
evidently keeps his farm and buildings in 
as good condition, and saves money every 
year. 
If we will observe these two men a 
single day, we shall doubtless be able to 
discover the screw that is loose—for cer¬ 
tainly there must be something wrong 
somewhere. 
If we visit Jones’ tool-house, we find 
everything in good order and in its proper 
place. When he is ready to commence 
his day’s work, he can lay his hand at 
once upon ax, shovel, or hoe. 
Smith has no tool-house; when he 
wants anything, he tries to remember 
where he left it when he last used it, and 
the half hours he spends in this way, 
amount to many full days in the course 
of the year ; and beside, there is a great 
difference in the condition of the tools 
when found. One set is bright and sharp 
—the other ruBty and dull. With his 
sharp ax, Jones will fell a giant of the 
forest in much less time than Smith can 
with his dull one, and with the expendi¬ 
ture of much less strength. 
Jones makes intelligent observations 
of the weather. If it promises to be dry, 
he plows low lands, and if wet, he makes 
calculations accordingly. He determines 
what crop to plant or sow with judgment, 
and after mature deliberation ; he never 
makes a move for which he cannot give a 
reason. 
Smith works mechanically and with 
little judgment. He plants and sows 
without regard to present state of the 
market or the prospects for future de¬ 
mand, and wonders how it is that some 
folks are always luoky. He is a believer 
in fate or fortune, while J ones works iu 
the belief that Providence helps those who 
help themselves. 
Has Jones a quantity of fruit to pre¬ 
pare for market, he selects the choicest 
and ships that by itself and the less de¬ 
sirable, in another lot after rejecting en¬ 
tirely the poorest. In this way he re¬ 
ceives quite as large a price for his second 
rate, as Smith does for any, while his 
best being extra, bring the highest rate 
the market commands. He has learned 
by experience that a few small, inferior 
apples in a barrel give a bad repute to 
the rest, and that it is more profitable to 
feed them to stock or even to throw them 
away, than to use them to help fill the 
barrel—and it is the same with every¬ 
thing. Jones finds the time spent in 
keeping things neat and in order, most 
profitably employed. Smith thinkB it 
time wasted. The result is, everything 
about the one place is attractive and 
pleasant while the other is slovenly and 
neglected. The neighbors see why it is 
that Jones is successful, while Smith, 
with as good advantages, accomplishes 
so little with much more labor. 
It is not the horse that takes the most 
steps that travels furthest in a day, nor 
the man who labors the most hotu-s that 
accomplishes the greatest amount of work. 
A little energy properly directed often 
attains results sought in vain by muscle 
without mind, and a little judicious plan¬ 
ning is of more real service in overcoming 
obstacles to sucoess, than the mere 
worker has any idea of. When intelli¬ 
gence and physical force come in compe¬ 
tition it is easy to predict which will win. 
TO BRIDGE OVER. 
Walks about the house and through 
the garden, to the barn and to all much 
frequented places are of as much conse¬ 
quence as anything else that adds either 
to comfort, tidiness, utility or beauty. 
It is of little consequence how well ar¬ 
ranged or elegantly kept everything else 
is out-of-doors, there is that about soft 
walks that disturbs the best of tempers 
and, though the sun shines brightly and 
the aii- is bracing, one takes to the house 
as, between it and the muddy walks, the 
lesser evil. 
Dry walks in the winter are dependent 
upon conditions which cannot always be 
controlled. If the land slopes from the 
house in every direction, they may be 
formed at a small cost. Sand or gravel 
or both, with enough of coal siftings to 
bind, are the main requisites. But if the 
land is flat or nearly so, a system of 
drainage is the first necessity and even 
then the walks, to be dry in winter, had 
better be dug out to a depth of a foot or 
so and filled in according to directions 
which have often been published in these 
columns. 
At this time we had it in mind simply 
to suggest to those who are begirt with 
muddy walkB now that little can be done 
to better them, that hemlock planks laid 
double, side by side, leaving two or three 
inches between and placed upon cross¬ 
pieces two or three inches square, will 
bridge over the difficulty at a very small 
cost. In the spring, after the ground 
has become settled, they may be utilized 
according to the needs of the premises. 
-♦♦♦- 
OSAGE ORANGE. 
Mr. Falconer, in one of his articles 
this week (p. 71) mentions that Osage 
Orange trees in the gardens of Gen. 
Sargent are growing luxuriantly where 
anything else would starve. We have 
them growing in parts of our grounds 
which are so sandy and dry that the grass 
burns iu early summer and, though but 
three years planted in their present posi¬ 
tions, they promise to eke out a comfor¬ 
table existence. Such facts are worth 
remembering. We know of grounds up¬ 
on which large sums have been expended 
in the purchase of trees and shrub-, in 
great variety, a considerable proportion 
of whioh—in spite of the best of care- 
have died, are dying or are so dwarfed 
and distorted that they are not worth the 
ground they cover. Had the proprietors 
known at the time of selecting and plant¬ 
ing what trees were suited to a sandy, 
bottomless situation, the expense and 
trouble to that extent might have been 
avoided. 
To the lover of shrubs and trees, it is a 
sad Bight and a provoking one to find 
after planting and years of waiting and 
watching and pruning and doctoring and 
hoping, that there is naught to show for 
FE®. 2 
it. It lessens liis interest in the home 
he tried so hard to beautify. 
Better an Osage Orange that will 
respond to one’s labors than a Purple 
Beech or a Golden Oak that, after one or 
two blinks of promise, is snuffled out by 
the first relentless drought. 
— - -- 
NOTES. 
Western N. Y. Hort. Society’.— 
We have given iu our practical columns a 
liberal space to the report of the reoent 
meeting of the Western New York Hor¬ 
ticultural Society and have only to regret 
that we could spare no more, a"s the pro¬ 
ceedings were of unusual interest. Presi- 
dentBARRY remarked that instead of being 
discouraged by the obstacles to fruit cul¬ 
ture which seem to be constantly increas¬ 
ing, we should simply be incited to 
greater vigilance. “If fine fruits could 
be grown without effort, they would soon 
be of little value. ” This is true, but it is 
also plaiu that the cost to make the 
needed efforts must not be greater than 
the value of the fruit when so produced. 
But after reviewing the ravages of Dory- 
phora upon the potato—of the Hessian 
Fly upon the wheat crop, etc.—he con¬ 
cludes that the horticulturist and fruit¬ 
grower have no more than their share of 
obstacles to contend with. He thinks 
the prospects of the orchardist in West¬ 
ern New York were never more encourag¬ 
ing than at the present and advises the 
planting of the apple, “ under proper 
conditions ” with as much confidence as 
ever. 
- 444 - 
For Discussion—Sanitary laws for 
our homes—What farmer’s gardens are 
and what they should be—Small fruits for 
family use—Trees for the lawn, the farm, 
the roadsido—The adaptation of fruits to 
soils—The best evergreens for home deco¬ 
rations—The best trees for small grounds 
—The value of experiments in the farm 
and garden—The value of botanical stud¬ 
ies to country children—are among the 
topics whioh we think worthy of discus¬ 
sion at our farmers’ clubs, agricultural 
and horticultural conventions, and in the 
family circle. 
■ 4 ♦ ♦ 
BREVITIES. 
Gen. Grant noted during his ascent of Vesu¬ 
vius that, when the lava had rested for a long 
time, and become mingled with tho soil. “ good 
crops sprang up." 
The Herald says that Vesuvius smoked a 
little during Gen. Grant’s call upon it, which was 
tho only honor paid our ex-president by the 
haughty volcauo. 
Quail served on toast, cost a restaurant pro¬ 
prietor twenty-five dollars, a day or so ago. We 
wish that the fine for supplying game out of 
season were twice aB much, and that those who eat 
it might bo fiued as well as those who sell it. 
We regret to hear of the death of Mr. Horace 
Gilbert of Auburn, N- Y., who died of heart 
disease. He was one of the must ofliolout agents 
the Rural had in the locality, and was esteemed 
and respected by an unusually large circle of 
friends. 
When a soedmau offers his catalogue free to 
all applicants it is a very good guarantee that he 
at least haB faith in it. Wit. H. Carson, 125 
Chambers street, T. M. TlIOBUUUN & Co , 15 
John street, both of New York, and J. B. Miner, 
Linden, N. J., thus offer thoir catalogues and wo 
advise our friends to avail tliomsulves thereof. 
Me. Cruzan's article upon tho much discussed 
Chiucso Yam (Diuscorira batatas) shows how 
widely tastes and experiences differ. Very few 
of the many who have given it a trial, entertain 
any other opinion than that it is valuable chielly 
to the amateur who does not measure very care¬ 
fully tho relationship between labor and its re¬ 
sults. For ourselves, wo can only say that wo 
value it highly as an ornamental vine. 
We think that all good Christiaus — even 
though they were holding grain in anticipation 
of an appreciation in the price, on account of 
the Russo-Ttirkish war, should give thanks that 
terms of peace have been arranged. It has not 
been a feather n the hat of our Christianity 
that we have talked less of the terrible suffer¬ 
ings that this war has caused and entailed, than 
of the effect it was likely to have upon our grain 
markets. 
Mr. H. B. Ellwanoeu, in an address before 
the Western N. Y. Hort. Hoc,, very aptly puts 
the irrepressible longing after novelties, mani¬ 
fested by many lovers of flowers: *' Among the 
devotees of Flora, there is a class of people of a 
roRtless, enthusiastic n .tore, who, not oonteut 
with the good tilings they already have, are ever 
craving for something new : they aro not satis¬ 
fied with adding to their store, from time to time, 
such novelties as have been subjected to trial 
and found valuable, but aro ovor ready to bo off 
with the old love and on with the new." But 
there are other devotees, besides those of Flora, 
who are too ready to give up thoir old, tried 
friends iu favor of those they know little about. 
BUSINESS NOTICES. 
See Mr. Miner’s adv’t of White Grapes and other 
fruits—something new and valuable. 
