220 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
■*fi 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
our manufacturers -would be doing exe¬ 
cution on both sides. A few Russian 
I*1!\CT1CAL DEPARTMENTS: 
g.Tpa Plant aDd its Products. 
Notes from Maplewood Farm..... 
Farm Notes..... 
Exhaustion or Soils. 
B Wild Plants as Garden Flowers... 
Notes from tlie Rural Grounds.... 
Rural Special Reports. 
Thomas Kakc.... 
The Coquliard Wiiiton. 
Jottings from Kirby Homestead. 
i Lloe Exterminator. 
Cattle Sale 
Catalogues Received. 
Foreign Catalogues. 
JlAnswers to Ooi respondents. 
Hatching Chickens. 
Our Native Nuts... 
EoitOIi tA >j Park: 
European War Cloud The. 
Tillage. 
Convict Labor. 
About Strawberries. 
Farmers to the Front. 
Pear Blight. 
Brevities. 
Lit BEAKY 
Poetry....,. . 
My Step Son. 
Cora. ... 
Ladies' Washing Day. 
To be or Not u»oe.............. •• 
Turkish Wives. 
The Hearts of the Lowly. 
Freckles.... 
Just Like the Sex. 
Domestic Economy. .... 
Peiaouals...... 
News. 
Markets.... 
Reading for the Young. 
A Memorial..... 
Comments. 
Pussier .. 
Sabbath Reading. 
Abraham’s Prayer.. . 
The .Magazine. 
Formation of Character. . 
Rose and Thorn . 
Jn'daeuce of Lillie Things. 
A ci vertiseitieats. 
Wit and Humor.... 
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214 
215 
216 
217 
217 
217 
217 
215 
218 
218 
218 
218 
218 
218 
219 
220 
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219, 225. 227 , 228 
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THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, APRIL. , 1878. 
The original article announced two weeks ago 
from the pen of Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, 
England, who has thrown more light uponjprao- 
tical agriculture than any other man, living or 
dead, is presented in this number. 
THE EUROPEAN.** "WAR-CLOUD. 
“ A soft answer turnetb away wrath ” 
though au adage coming from high 
authority, is not always true, and is nota¬ 
bly untrue in the dispute that is rapidly 
coming to a belligerent issue between 
Great Britain and Russia. How admira¬ 
ble the blandness with which Prince 
Gortsohakoff agreed, some weeks ago, 
to the assembling of a Congress to discuss 
the settlement of the Eastern Question ! 
How plausible his reasons for deferring 
its meeting until his countrymen had 
settled the matter in accordance with their 
own wishes ! How benignant his con¬ 
cession that thiB adjustment should not 
stand in the way of the proposed Con¬ 
gress ! How suave his permission that 
the plenipotentiaries to it might discuss 
unimportant points and approve the 
treaty ! Aud how courteous his firm decla¬ 
ration that in case any difference of opin¬ 
ion arose, Russia was resolved to have 
her own way, and that on this condition 
only would she accept the Congress! 
Yet in spite of all this refiued urbanity 
Great Britain is a-blaze with anti-Russian 
wrath from Land’s-Eudto John O’Groats 
and there now remains but little doubt 
that the baleful conflagration must be 
quenched in blood. Austria also seems 
deaf to Muscovite blandishments, aud 
the hereditary enmity between the Maygar 
and the Slave is likely ere long onee more 
to assert itself in arms. It is by no 
means improbable that our next issue 
will record either the actual commence¬ 
ment of another European conflict to 
which that just closed was merely a pre¬ 
lude, or the adoption by one disputant or 
the other of some measure that will render 
such a bloody arbitrament inevitable. 
Financially such a catastrophe would 
be beneficial to this country. By sealing 
the graneries of Southern Russia and the 
Danubian Provinces it would afford a 
profitable market for our heavy grain 
crops; the arms whose sale would enrich 
Alabamas would once more drive under 
the Stars and Stripes a great part of the 
commerce lost during the late “onpleas- 
antnesB while the numerous recruiting 
stations along the Canadian frontier 
would soon drain from this country much 
of the surplus labor that adds to our 
burdens and thousands of the stalwart 
tramps that add to our miseries. 
We refer to these contingent advan¬ 
tages, not as matters for selfish congratu¬ 
lation, but as a sort of consolation for the 
sorrow all good men must feel at the 
prospect of widespread death and desola¬ 
tion among kindred and friendly nations. 
TILLAGE. 
“What is the first essential in good 
agriculture?” “ Good plowing.” “What 
is the second?” “Plowing.” “And the 
third?’. “Manuring.” Such were the 
questions propounded and answered two 
thousand years ago by Cato, among whose 
many claims to the esteem of his fellow 
citizens not the least was his proficiency 
in farming. The advice was good then 
with regard to the rich lands about Rome, 
and practical experience during the inter¬ 
vening centuries as well as scientific re¬ 
search during the last, both go to prove the 
paramount nature of the advantages de¬ 
rivable from the thorough tillage of the 
soil implied by the aucient philosophers 
reiterated counsel. 
All soils contain immemorially more or 
less manurial ingredients whose quantity 
and quality are dependent on their geolog¬ 
ical formation—on the varying propor¬ 
tions of disintegrated rocks of which they 
are mainly composed. Moreover, in 
many of them, there is an admixture of 
animal aud vegetable remains still rich 
in fertilizing properties. Iu both cases, 
however, these properties are imprisoned 
in an insoluble form aud the action of 
water and air, greatly facilitated and pro¬ 
moted by liberal tillage, is one of the 
most efficacious means of setting these 
manurial treasures at liberty and so fitting 
them for plant-food. The abundant 
character of this natural supply of nutri¬ 
ment has of late been strongly exemplified 
by means of an accurate experiment made 
by Mr. Law t es at Rothamsted, England. 
For thirty-four successive years he has 
grown a crop of wheat on t he same piece 
of land, without the application of any 
artificial manure, and although the crops 
have had to gather all their inorganic ele¬ 
ments, year after year, from the store of 
plant-food which nature had accumulated 
in the soil, yet in the yield there has been 
no decrease which could be clearly attrib¬ 
uted to any exhaustion of the Bnpply. 
Thorough tillage, however, had extirpa¬ 
ted all weeds—those greedy gluttons of 
stolen food—and thrown the way open to 
the liberating chemical action of moisture 
as well as of the carbonic acid,oxygen and 
nitrogen of the atmosphere upon the im¬ 
prisoned fertility of the Boil. 
By good tillage, subsequent rains more 
readily pass through the loosened tilth 
and penetrate the underlying soil where 
they remain in reserve against the time of 
drought. The air penetrates the ground as 
far as the staguant water has been drawn 
off, and the finer the pulverization of the 
soil, the freer the atmospheric circulation, 
and the greater the amount of surface ex¬ 
posed to its beneficial chemioal action. 
Moreover, when the earth is cooler than 
the air above it, the latter is chilled on 
entering the ground, and in this state, be¬ 
ing unable to hold in suspension so much 
moisture, parts with some of it to the soil, 
which also absorbs its ammonia as well 
as some of its carbonic acid and other 
gasses. Besides the liberating effect these 
have on the fertilizers locked up iu the 
soil, they are, some of them, notably am¬ 
monia, immediately available as plant- 
food, while without the presence of air no 
seed-bed can be in a healthy condition. 
To roots of all kinds air is essential, for 
if deprived of oxygen for a short time, 
they die. Iu heavy soils winter wheat of¬ 
ten looks yellow iu spring, because its 
roots have perished on account of the 
access of oxygen having been prevented 
by the excess of water in the soil. 
The nature of the tillage to be bestowed 
on different kinds of soil should vary in 
accordance with their texture. Recent 
experiments made by Professor S. W. 
Johnson, at the Connecticut Agricultural 
Station, show that while on cluyey lauds 
deep tillage is generally best—to conserve 
the water of a loose-textured soil, its main 
tillage should be shallow, so that the bulk 
of the earth remains compact enough to 
hold the rain and to transmit bottom-water 
steadily, by capillary attraction, from the 
subsoil upwards to the roots of the crops. 
In such soils the surface only should be 
loosened whenever it forms a crust. For 
the same reason, summer tillage also, ac¬ 
cording to his deductions, should not ex¬ 
tend to the roots except in clayey soils to 
compel them to develop lower down and 
nearer the w ater supply, for in unstirred 
clay soil they can only penetrate a little 
way and suffer or perish when drought 
comes. As with fertilizers, so with til¬ 
lage, the safest guide is experiment. 
This aloue will tell with certainty the 
depth and frequency of cultivation that 
will most benefit each sort of crop on all 
kinds of soil. Careful observation iB the 
foundation alike of scientific theory and 
intelligent practice, and that farmer will 
secure the largest measure of success who 
most accurately notices and records for 
future reference the relations that exist 
between his land and its produce under 
various kinds of treatment. 
CONVICT LABOR. 
“If a man will not work, neither shall 
he eat,” has been considered a wise and 
just saying from time immemorial. That 
every man should perform some labor, 
and as producer, exchanger, transporter, 
or teacher, give an amount of service 
commensurate iu value with the food he 
eats and the clothes he wears, seems to be 
a self-evident proposition, and he who 
does not this, is, as a rule, looked upon 
with contempt by all right-thinking peo¬ 
ple. There are thieves who steal, tramps 
who beg, and confidence men who can be 
looked upon in no other light than thieves 
who steal with permission. There are 
heirs who inherit fortunes and spend 
them, leading lives worse than those of 
mere idleness—and gamblers who take 
advantage of the weakness and folly of 
mankind—to enrich themselves at their 
expense ; all who take without giving in 
return forming one great class of which 
society might well be rid. N o man should 
live at the expense of his neighbor unless 
in some way he can benefit that neighbor 
sufficiently to discharge the debt. 
It was something in this way we re¬ 
flected a while since, on our way home 
from a visit to Blackwell’s Island where 
we saw more than a thousand able-bodied 
men prisoners, clothed, fed ami guarded 
at a large expense who are not permitted 
to do profitable work ; thut is, any work 
from which the county derives a revenue. 
They are made of service in making walls, 
keeping roads iu repair, and have aided 
iu tbe erection of some buildings. They 
also make most of the shoes used on the 
island, and have recently built some 
wagons used by the Commissioners of 
Charities and Corrections, but nothing 
that they might, could, would, and should 
make is allowed to be be sold. 
Naturally one looks for the reason of a 
rule so apparently unreasonable, and on 
inquiring is told that certain classes of 
our population object to the manufacture 
of anything by convicts that will be put 
in competition with honest labor, and 
argue that whereas the convicts must be 
supported at any rate, the articles manu¬ 
factured cost the county nothing but the 
material used, consequently the county 
can put them in market ut a price ruinous 
to manufacturers who pay for their labor. 
The same general argument is used when 
it is proposed to hire out the convicts to 
manufacturers. The wages paid are small 
because the services rendered are not 
those of skilled workmen—but small or 
large, it makes no difference with the ob¬ 
jectors—who are of the class that can 
see nothing which does not seem to pro¬ 
mote their own interests; who would de¬ 
stroy all machinery, because it comes in 
competition as they think with their labor. 
An effort is now being made in the 
State of New York to pass a law for the 
prisons of the State similar to the one 
now in force on Blackwell’s Island, It 
will be readily supposed we do not favor 
such a law. The expenses our criminal 
population entail upon us in various ways 
are enormous without adding the cost of 
food and clothing which every able-bodied 
man should be allowed and obliged to 
provide for himself. 
- * ♦» ■ — 
ABOUT STRAWBERRIES. 
At this season of the year horticultural 
papers are every day asked questions as 
to what varieties of strawberries to plant. 
Many of them venture specific answers. 
But when it is considered that the same 
variety varies from first-rate to next to 
worth less in different soils and conditions, 
it will appear that there is but one ans¬ 
wer, viz: plant those varieties which 
from trial are found to succeed best. 
Each must experiment for himself. Such 
experiments may be made with so little 
trouble or expense that it is the fault of 
the cultivator and not of the strawberry if 
everybody does not raise upon his own 
grounds those sorts that will thrive best. 
Now for one dollar plants of ail the best 
varieties may be purchased. Planted in 
good soil this spring and labeled, their 
value and adaptability to a particular 
place may be ascertained next spring. 
After that, there need no longer be any 
doubt or disappointment. Selecting those 
which prove in size, flavor, vigor, produc¬ 
tiveness, the most desirable, every family, 
with no more trouble than is required to 
keep down weeds, and form new beds as the 
old ones wear out, may bo supplied with 
this enjoyable fruit, as far superior to the 
great bulk of market strawberries as a 
banana or orange plucked lipo from the 
plant is superior to those that, plucked 
green, are left to ripen and decay simul¬ 
taneously, several weeks afterwards. 
The qualities of new varieties of straw¬ 
berries are now-a-days so puffed up, that 
those who purchase new plants entertain 
a vague expectation that the berries will 
prove sweeter, larger—the vines more 
fruitful and hardy than any others here¬ 
tofore known. But experieuce with the 
strawberry, as with every other fruit, will 
demonstrate that man’s power of really 
improving it is very limited, and that he 
never will be able to combine the best 
qualities of all in any one variety. 
Most of us are very ready to be capti¬ 
vated by size, though size and the charac¬ 
teristic qualities which make a fruit val¬ 
uable are generally inimical.. We some¬ 
times see strawberries nine and ten inches 
in circumference. They are curious aud 
pretty. They are nice to pick. They are 
charming table ornaments. One of them 
is as large as a dozen wild strawberries. 
But, just for eating, which had you rather 
have? 
Farmers to the Front. —No Con¬ 
necticut legislature in late years has had 
bo large a proportion of farmers and so 
very small a proportion of lawyers as the 
present; yet it seems the nearly unani¬ 
mous opinion throughout the State that 
it has accomplished more work of a prac¬ 
tical, needed kind than any of its prede¬ 
cessors in recent days. There has been 
less “ chin-chin,” less useless verbiage, 
less discussion of fine points of no practi¬ 
cal importance, aud less prophecies about 
possible contingencies, than usual, but 
more of the work for which legislators 
are elected and paid. This is a thorough¬ 
ly utilitarian country aud what the vast 
bulk of its inhabitants want is plain, 
practical common sense, in word and 
deed, not fine-spun theories or elegant 
verbosity. 
--- 
BREVITIES. 
Thebe is no part of the year when cellars 
in which vegetables are stored, need ventila¬ 
tion oftener than the present. If the cellars 
cannot bo thoroughly aired every day, the vege¬ 
tables should be removed. 
The American Dairy Fair Committee of the 
American Dairy Association have selected New 
York City us the place fur holding the fair, 
next autumn. The time will soon bo definitely 
fixed by the Bub-couimittee appointed to per¬ 
fect arrangements. 
Mb. -J. B. Lawks in the able article he has 
written for us, says that the materials do not 
at present exist which would enable him to 
treat tbe subject as he should wish to treat it. 
He expresses tho rather startling opinion that 
the “destruction of weeds aud moro careful 
cultivation would be quite as effioaoions in in¬ 
creasing the produce of the State of New York 
crops as tho employment of artificial manures.” 
Unprecedented.— Last night we had a high 
wind and a light shower of rain. To-day I baw 
a field of wheat that wa» badly lodged. The 
greater part of our wheat is more than a foot 
iu height, which is something never before 
been iu this vicinity, at this MeaHon. We have 
had summer weather for a mouth—have finished 
planting potatoes and sowing oats, and are 
plowing for corn. Peach trees are m full bloom 
To-day there is a regular “Norther" and the 
indications aro that wo are going to bavo^ a 
cold snap.—S E. H. Milton, Trimble Co., Ky. 
March, 29. 
The great horse sale, under the auspices 
and direction of Hark. Comstock— Mr. Peiku 
Kellchio— took place on the 27th and 28th that, 
at the Ahionoou Institute Bunding, in this City. 
Tue highest price reulized the first, day wad 
brought by Kentucky Prince, $10,700. On the 
second day, BoausU-e by Rv’bdvk'n Hatubleto- 
niau brought $5,150 ; King Philip by Jay Gould, 
$2,900, and inheritor, (Urn Lucy, atre Goo. M. 
Paichen, $1,850. The total sales for the two 
days amounted to $51,425. and the average of 
the 98 head sold was $552,95. The gi and ail air, 
tho best conducted that haH ever taken place 
here, terminated greatly to tho satisfaction of all 
parties. 
