THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 4 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Practical departments : 
The Action of United Forces (Illustrated).341 
Getting Rid of the Cut-Worm...34} 
Azalea Amentia—Samuel Parsons. 341 
Parts Exhibition. The-'J'nreber. 342 
Western N. Y.nort. Society. Extracts from the 
Proceedings of..3’; 
Flower Pots, Soluble. . "43 
Cottage, A Small-U. K. Graetber (lllustriited)... 313 
Jottings at Kirby Homestead-Col. F. D. Curtis... 343 
Van's Views. 34" 
A Grange Agency. Is it Exceptional ?. 341 
Custer Co .. Col., From—II. H. Horton.. ■ . 344 
Teamster's Vade-Mecum — It. H. Crane (Illus¬ 
trated). 34} 
Binghamton Farmers' Club, Excerpts from.344 
Michigan Fruit Growers, Meeting of.. ■ 341 
Russell A Co. |44 
Western N. Y, Hort. Society.. •— .............. 345 
Can We Have Better Fru!t?-Gen. W. H. Noble.. 345 
Humea Elegiu's Purgureit—W. C. L. Drew....34o 
Rheumatism, Chrome—Dr. Goodenough....34o 
Answers to Correspondents: 
Peppermint. Spearmint and Bergamot.34fi 
Effect of Colored L.lght on Plants. 316 
A pples, Barreling. 
Dog, An Ailing. 3™ 
Cow yielding Thick Milk. 310 
Miscellaneous Answers.34b 
Evert/where : 
Eastern Shore of Maryland, Notes from.346 
Swan. .. 346 
Harlan Co . Neb. 34b 
Newport, Vt."}' 
Carroll Co.. Ky. 34 1 
Carlton. Wls. "47 
Windham. .. 347 
Owensburg, Ky.gj; 
Whitney’s Point, N. Y.317 
Reynolds, 111.34' 
Wlnnesheik, Kas... “4, 
What They Say of II. 347 
Domestic Economy -• 
Piths. 352 
Cooicin«.....*.*.. 
Ornamentation Carried Too Far.352 
Paste. An Excellent.."52 
Domestic Recipes... 
Markets,.... 353 
EDITORIAL PAGE: 
Exportation, An Unwise. 348 
I“wa . gjj 
Smoker’s Car, The.343 
Tbe Frost. 348 
It is Different. 348 
Ice-Houses, Cheap.•■••• «« 
Brevities.. 
tilTKRAUV: 
F’oeiry.....349,352, 35* 
" Bonnrhs and Hats”. 34*.) 
COra.. 
Mauaztne Notes. 3i0 
Brio-a-Brae. .35(1 
Newsof the Week... 352 
Rmdhvj TOr the Young: 
Pocket-Money for Young People: No. 4—Prof. 
Wm. R. Brooks. 3o4 
School Chllaren. A Plea for the-May Maple... 354 
The Man Everybody Dikes—M. E. Stone.354 
Russian Merchants... 
Sabbath Reading: 
A Step BJCk out of Error.354 
Personals. .. 355 
Wit and Humor.“56 
Advertisements.347. 353,3oft, 356 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERT SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1878. 
This illustrates the importance of the 
finishing process, and shows the folly of 
exporting lean cattle to Europe to be fat¬ 
tened. The time has come when Ameri¬ 
can agriculturists should study every 
branch of their business that they may 
reap their just reward. We are glad to 
find that every year seeB less corn, pro¬ 
portionally to our production, exported 
and more meat, and trust that this will go 
on till we shall export little grain, except 
that used for human food. 
--♦♦♦- 
IOWA. 
According to the remarks of Mr. Shaf¬ 
fer, the Secretary of the Iowa State Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, 1877 was a sad year 
for that State, although the Report does 
not very well sustain it. He say s: 
‘ ‘ There never lias been a time in the his¬ 
tory of the State when there was so great 
a depression of business of all kinds ” as 
at the date of the report (January last). 
This was owing, in part, to “ incessant 
rains and impassable roads ” which laid 
an embargo on all sorts of trade. The 
curious spectacle was presented of an in¬ 
ter-state railroad suspending its freight- 
trains because no products could be 
hauled to depots. Corn rotted by thou¬ 
sands of acres in tbe field and thousands 
of bushels in the crib. Wood, so largely 
used for fuel throughout the State, could 
not be taken from the forests where cut, 
so that prices were higher than for years 
before. Those who depended upon hogs 
and cattle and corn to meet obligations in 
bank, saw only failure staring them in 
the face. No new manufacturing enter¬ 
prises were inaugurated, and those al¬ 
ready in operation were ourtailed as far 
ae possible. The erection of new build¬ 
ings and the progress of such improve¬ 
ments did not supply half of the skilled 
laborers with work, who sought it at 
nominal figures. 
From this report the rapid progress of 
corn-growing is shown. In 1863 the 
area planted was 1,733,503 acres, yielding 
63,883,911 bushels, an average of nearly 
thirty-seven bushels per acre. Iu 1875 
there were 4,019,738 acres, yielding 146,- 
993,570 bushels. Assuming the same 
ratio of increase as that in previous years, 
there must have been 5,063,685 acres in 
cultivation last year. The fact is pointed 
to that over 5,000,000 cans of corn were 
paoked in the State of Maine, giving a 
revenue of about $1,000,000, and furnish¬ 
ing employment to nearly ten thoutvmd 
persons during the packing season, hviti 
the suggestion is offered that an invitiDg 
field for the capitalists of Iowa might ex¬ 
ist if this “tide of export” were 
checked and home manufacture estab¬ 
lished. 
AN UNWISB EXPORTATION. 
We learn from our foreign exchanges 
that a new experiment is being tided in the 
importation of lean cattle from the United 
States to be fed on the rich pastures 
from Schleswig-Holstein. The steamer 
Schleswig is mentioned as having brought 
322 cattle, 15 horses and 46 swine from 
New York, They are highly commended, 
as “well-grown, strongly built,” and 
ready to make good progress on proper 
feeding. “ The pigs were well and active, 
well-fed, etc.” They are submitted to a 
rigorous quarantine of two weeks. 
We chronicle this as news, but with the 
purpose of deprecating such enterprise 
on our part, as resulting in wasting our 
resources instead of making the most of 
them. The most expensive part of the 
production of beef is in raising these lean 
animals for the final feeding period. They 
can hardly be sold at a remunerative fig¬ 
ure at that stage, and it cannot be wise 
for our stock farmers to sell such expens¬ 
ive unfinished animalB when a few months 
would complete their fattening for a bet¬ 
ter market. The cost of transportation is 
even more per hundred weight than for 
well-fattened animals, because the lean 
ones occupy more Bpace proportionally. 
It cannot be national thrift to send these 
unfinished animals from our country of 
cheap food to be fattened on much dearer 
food. The profit must be made on the 
finished animal. It is true that thiB may 
not be quite so bad as exporting our cat¬ 
tle foods to be used in growing foreign 
beeves, but it is the same policy as 
far as it goes. We can grow beef, pork, 
and mutton cheaper than any other coun¬ 
try, save perhaps Australia, and it be¬ 
hooves us to study the transportation 
problem, and to export only the most 
concentrated product. The last 200 or 
300 pounds put on a Bteer draws a much 
larger compensation than any other like 
amount. As a stocker of 1,100 or 1,200 
pounds it is worth, say, iu our present 
market, 3$ cents or $42, but as a well- 
fattened 1,500 pound bullock it is worth 5i 
cents, or $82.50, so the last 300 lbs. near¬ 
ly doubles the value of the animal. 
The report estimates that the State had 
a surplus of 30,040,000 bushels of wheat 
for shipment after allowing for increase 
of population, or ten bushels to each 
person. This would give a revenue of 
$26,285,000 at the average price of the 
crop in the State, ■eighty-seven and a-half 
cents per bushel. Such figures ought 
surely to be gratifying, as at least illus¬ 
trating the capacity of the “ virgin soil ” 
of Iowa to produce this prime element in 
the food product of the world. The re¬ 
port hero utters a word of caution. 
“How long can this wonderful produc¬ 
tion be continued?” “Must not there 
be fertilization?” Or in a few years 
“ will not the wheat area be removed 
from Iowa as it has been from States far¬ 
ther east ?” 
Iowa ranks fifth in the number of milch 
cows. There were 665,300. The prod¬ 
uct iu butter and milk, it was thought, 
would not fall short of $30,000,000, or 
nearly $20 to each inhabitant. The 
large infusion of good blood from the 
Jerseys and Short-Horns and the general 
improvement of cattle on the farm, have 
doubtless tended largely to an increase 
not only in the product but in the interest 
everywhere manifested in matters per¬ 
taining to the dairy. 
The report deems that not enough re¬ 
gard is paid to the grass crops: “ They 
are worth mare than the corn and wheat 
and all the fruits put together; that is, 
they represent a greater money value, 
and there is no year when this has not 
been a fact, and such a year may never 
come. All waste places can be utilized 
and by judicious management can be 
made to yield a large return for every 
dollar expended in fencing, draining and 
planting trees for shade and protection.” 
While the present price of hogs is so 
low as to be discouraging, the report 
takes for granted that good hogs always 
bring a fair price—“ while for breeds of 
indifferent blood there is no sale at all.” 
Iowa, as a hog-producing State, exceeds 
any other in the Union by 513,200. The 
abatement of hog diseases, so prevalent 
in former years, is thought to be due to 
a more “thorough system of care and 
protection from the storms of winter and 
the heat of summer.” After mentioning 
some startling figures, showing the an¬ 
nual loss by diseases of hogs, the report 
says: “The State of Iowa should ex¬ 
pend some money in the investigation of 
the diseases of animals generally, and of 
swine especially. All that is published as 
to the cause, is a tissue of absurdities. 
All substances that are prescribed as rem¬ 
edies are empirical and often nonsensical. 
What Iowa wants is an appropriation suf¬ 
ficient to buy the intelligence and skill 
and worth of some man, or set of men, 
who will find out the fountain and origin 
of these diseases, and thus suggest a rem¬ 
edy, and save the State from losses that 
annually reach up into the millions of 
dollars.” 
The remarks respecting sheep are es¬ 
pecially interesting and instructive. 
The number of sheep luTowu lu 1867 was 1,598,226 
«4 *• i« 1675 '• 724,204 
« “ <* 1877 “ 318,439 
This shows a loss of one million, two 
hundred and seventy-nine thousand, sev¬ 
en hundred and eighty - seven in ten 
years. The cause of this decrease is at¬ 
tributed first of all to dogs. In the 
matter of dogs legislation seems to have 
failed in Iowa as elsewhere. The senti¬ 
ments, “Love me, love my dog,” and 
“ Every family should have a dog,” have 
perpetuated and increased the number of 
dogs and steadily diminished the number 
of sheep. The remedy suggested in the 
Report is to “ educate the public to be¬ 
lieve. that a sheep is better than a dog, 
and that it does not cost so much to keep 
the former as the latter. Some of the 
loss is attributed to wolves ; and some to 
inexperience. 
The quality of oats was better than for 
several years, and the crop larger. Two 
hundred thousand acres of barley were 
raised, with an average yield of twenty- 
six bushels. With such a commingling 
of success and failure, there was no 
“lack of food.” There was no one 
hungry of necessity. “None suffered 
from lack of clothing and shelter exoept 
the negligent and the imprudent.” 
We trust that this season may fulfill 
the prediction of the Report that “From 
this dark (?) oiulook all may confidently 
expect that light will break forth, and 
prosperity once more gladden all hearts.” 
--- 
THE SMOKER’S CAR. 
Reader, have you ever, either by acci¬ 
dent or design, been in the smoking-car 
of a railroad train well under way ? If 
not, we beg of you to improve tbe first 
opportunity to do so. It will enable you 
to see life in a new phase, and you may 
possibly learn a lesson from it. 
We think we are safe in saying there is 
no life, either animal or vegetable, less 
tenacious than that of man, which could 
continue long within its smoky precincts. 
Thirty, forty, and sometimes as many as 
fifty pipes *and cigars of all kinds and 
conditions, in full blast, are giving off 
their clouds of poisonous smoke, which 
fills the entire capacity of the car. 
Fumigation so thorough would soon 
clear an infested ship of rats and other 
vermin. Plants subjected to its influence 
would be poisoned to death in a short 
time. A child would be soon suffocated, 
and strong men, who have not been accus¬ 
tomed to such an atmosphere, would suc¬ 
cumb to its poisonous influence. 
The human physical organization iB 
of wonderful endurance. We have only 
to notice the vast amount of poisons, ad¬ 
ministered by medical advisers in their 
daily practice, which the system rejects, 
always with more or less injury, to be 
convinced of that fact. Without going 
to extremes for illustrations, we see how 
tea, ooffee, pepper, spices, and other 
things not natural to man’s appetite, or 
beneficial to his system are, after constant 
and moderate use, not only received by 
the system without opposition, but finally 
a hunger is induced which they alone 
can satisfy, or which at least it is difficult 
to overcome. The same may be said of 
the use of spirituous liquors, arsenic, to¬ 
bacco in its various forms, opium, and 
many other forms of poisons. Perhaps 
man was so constituted, expressly to en¬ 
able him to -withstand the poisonous at¬ 
mosphere of the smoking-car. 
The smoking-car may be taken as an il¬ 
lustration of man’s moral as well as his 
physical nature and tendencies. If the 
doctrine of total depravity, as once taught, 
was true, we might suppose ourselves 
born in a spiritual smoking-car, whose 
cloudy contents were in exact consonance 
with our unholy condition, and amid 
which we should revel with the highest 
enjoyment. 
But in these days of more liberal views, 
we are taught that men are only naturally 
inclined to evil ways, and readily believe 
that in our individual eases the iuclina 
tion is so very little from the perpendicu 
lar that there is no danger of a fall Our 
neighbor, who indulges in a whole pipe- 
full of sin, may be in danger, but our lit¬ 
tle cigarette can work no harm. In fact, 
we see no reason why we should not be 
allowed to smoke it if we choose. 
The little sins are but blossoms of 
which the larger ones are the fruit, and 
the season of growth is sometimes exceed¬ 
ingly short. One wrong thought or ac¬ 
tion'is followed by another as readily and 
inevitably as is tlie cigarette by the cigar. 
The confirmed sot had his first glass of 
wine, and he who stands lowest in the 
moral scale, his first departure from the 
paths of righteousness. 
We are all journeying on Life’s Rail¬ 
way, and on each train there is a smoking- 
car. Those who enter it do so from choice. 
They may be urged or influenced by 
others, but the decision, the yes or the no, 
is with them. More or less of the dust of 
the road will be found on each one of us. 
We shall not run into the terminal station 
with our apparel fresh and clean, let ns do 
the best we may ; but we can show that 
we have striven to avoid contamination, 
and that we have at least kept clear of 
the abominations of the Bmoking-ear. 
---- 
Tlie Frost.—The frost, to which we 
referred last week, perpetrated more 
harm in the Rural Ground than we were 
aware of. The new shoots of many bal¬ 
sams and spruces were killed, the effect, of 
which will be more apparent later in the 
season in the disfigurement of the trees. 
Many grape-vines were killed. We had 
supposed that only the new and tender 
shoots were harmed. But the early buds 
and growth seem to possess much of the 
vitality of the plants, so that when frozen, 
the entire plant receives a check—a shock 
from which it cannot recover. Had these 
same shoots been rubbed off, we doubt 
not, though weakened, the plants would 
have pushed other buds and survived. A 
greater proportion of seedlings than of 
others was killed—for the reason, we pre¬ 
sume, that the new growth as compared 
with the old wood was greater than in 
older vines. 
Comparing such vines as Rogers’ No. 1 
(Goethe) with the Concord, it was plain 
that the latter had sustained the greater 
injury, though the hardier variety of the 
two. But the Concord had made twice as 
much growth. The panicles of buds 
in the Concord were all killed. Half 
of those of the other escaped. For this 
locality—as for any other visited by severe 
frosts—there is a “ marked difference ” in 
the reward likely to be offered to the 
“ Early Bird ” and to the “ Early Spring.” 
It is Different.— There is no ac¬ 
counting for tastes. Some people don’t 
like the looks of trees that are white¬ 
washed. Some people admire the con¬ 
trast between the white stems of the Cut¬ 
leaved Weeping Birch or of our White 
Birch and its green leaves, or the deep 
purple leaves of the Blood Birch, a vari¬ 
ety of the European White Birch. But 
if we should take our common Black or 
Sweet Birch and whitewash the stems 
occasionally, would not the contrast be 
as fine ! 
--*♦*- 
Cheap Ice-Houses.—Bore two or 
three holes in a hogshead and cover with 
a wire netting. Then place a layer of 
saw-dust. Fill in with ice and the spaces 
with saw-dust. One hundred pounds of 
ice may thus be made to keep for a week, 
and this is sufficient to supply a smalJ 
family. Ice is at present delivered to 
country homes by butchers and others at 
forty cents per hundred. For those who 
have neither refrigerators nor ice-houses, 
what is the objection to this method ? 
.—- . •»»*---- 
BRKY1TIEB. 
To keep up a uniform flow of milk the year 
round, feed cows a oouple of quarts eaoh per 
day of meal, adding shorts in winter. 
In sowing grass seed sow a variety and sow a 
plenty of it. As a rule we do not sow seed 
enough; and this year, when it is very oheap, it 
is a good time to sow more. 
Wk do not believe the oouutry—take it any¬ 
where and everywhere ever looked finer or gave 
a better promise of splendid crops of all sorts 
thau at the present time. “ But there is many 
a slip,” etc. 
We oaught a sparrow in the act of eating our 
first ripe strawberries. The sparrows are not 
to be blamed for liking strawberries better than 
caterpillars—only they ought to have some re¬ 
spect to the conditions of the hospitalities ex¬ 
tended to them by this oountry, 
C. L. Flint of Massachusetts says that every 
farmer knows that he is by no means sure of 
“getting a catch” whou he sows his grass seed 
with oats, or even with wheat or barley; and 
there is pretty good evidence that, if wo are go¬ 
ing to raise wheat on a piece of land this year 
and grass next year, we shall do better by Bow¬ 
ing the wheat alone, and after it is cut turning 
over the stubble and sowing our grass seed in 
the fall or early next spring. This plan may re¬ 
quire a little work, but it will give more hay. 
