* 
572 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Pkactica l departments : 
Strawbsrrlps (Illustrated) vv . sfifi 
New t-trawbernee—Dr. F. M. Hexamer. 
81 rawberrv Cul'tire—J. C. 3' lUOuns........ .••••••• 
Strawberrles-Nute* on some of the New v arie ^ 
StroTvbf-rrU** for the Family—E. .T.Brownell.j*Z 
tiondoraed EXT'^rieliee With Strawberries. . 
Notes from tbe Rnr.tl Grounds .. ™ 
Ilolvboc*. Tho-Wni. C. UJlrew... 
Hydra-tre* Panic*Iste _— Knrslist...^..y^ s 
pTcparlntr 0round for \V Rcitl— W J- Fowler. 
Fallacies Abont Rlieep- A Slierherd-. 
Fruit Fsinlly. The-Prof. VS . J. Beal.. ?™ 
What Oik crs Say.... 
Catalogues, Ac.. Received...^ 
F$ir..... .. 44 ... » 
A New Fertiliser Attachment . Sh, 
Iron Turbine Wind-Mill, The. &KS 
Anri err a to correspondents: 
Cheap RooOng.........>, 7 n 
Water-Lilies Wanted. ? 70 
Miscellaneous...c 7 o 
Conirr.unicattoru Received........... 
JPoertfllffiere •* c-n 
Sonth-Es*tern Missouri Notes.-,-- ; ;,-. 
Watsonville, Santa Crus Co., Cal-A. C.• ••••■• • • “i” 
McIntosh P. v.. Liberty Co.. Ga-Mrs. R. 1.8... 5,0 
Davion, Moni gr-niery Co,, Ohio—0. A.’ 
Tort Howard .Brown Co., Wis—Van . 
Topeka, Kttns^s—A. r'r'ii . 670 
Dakota City. DiiltOW.Co^. Neb-C. C- B. L” 
Ryhall*. Marshall CO.. MlgS-M. C. S. 
El Dorado. FI Dorado CO., Cal—I). 
Scalding Milk for Butter—T.H. Hoskl ns, M. D.5 1 0, 5,1 
Fomse Oops for Stock- G. G.* • • ■ “if 
A Modern B»D»Cottasre (Illustrated)—L. F.Grae- ^ 
Poultry Breeding—No. t-A -M- Van A"ken 6 ‘ 1 
To Produce Ueavy. tine and White-Mesh POU) ^ 
Another ReVn’id y for Gapes—J. A- Y.& 71 
Domestic Economy: 
Summer 8'f tinRs-Anole L. Jack. ?!§ 
Domesiic ... 
queues Answered.. 
BorroHiAL Pao«: 
Get Ready for '.he Fair. 
Southern Bcourge, The..... JfiS 
Small r roll Festival. The. “i; 
Emly Autumn Leaves. “f,* 
Farm-yard Manures vs. Artificial Manures.BV2 
Brevities. 
Liturary : 
p,, e . rv . 573, 575, 578 
Story of a Letter. Tb e-Juila Kavanaeh. »>3 
Blght-Seetna In Paris—K. F. Mosby. 574 
Agricultural Products of Cyprus. 5,4 
Claodoitine .. °i* 
Ejtifs A* Food. ••••• . ?i, 
Gladstone and Beaconsfleld. ?ii 
Brlo-a-Brac...• -.?i? 
AboutCl> tbea-jacquehna........575 
What a Woman Can Do-H. B. N. 6)5 
Woman As a Kelonnatory Element In Politics— 
Frco Lance. “7b 
" Club " Is Too “ Fist.”—Lillian Marsh. 575 
Did They " Give Themselves Away 7 . o7d 
Reading tor the- Young : 
Pocket-Money for Young People—No. 16— Hec- 
.. ?ZS 
What la To Be Done?.. 
The Pussier. 6< ° 
Sabbath Reacting .* 
Newness of Life—W. .. 5T8 
News of the Week.g™ 
Markets. ?ii 
Personals. ?ii 
Advertisements. oos 
was badly worm-eaten, or had] a large 
bruise on its side, or was in some way 
defective. He who will not learn from 
such lessons, must be subject to fre¬ 
quent defeats. The objects should be 
plainly labeled with cards which cannot 
be easily removed. Be on hand to show 
the viewing committee, and answer any 
of their questions. To Becure space in a 
good position, be on the ground early, 
and apply beforehand. 
Upon thoso who manage our fairs rests 
a great responsibility. They are anxious 
to draw a crowd and to make it pay. 
These are the two chief requisites. In too 
many cases the officers resort to giving 
high prizes for the trotting and running 
of fast horses. This is thought to be a 
sort of necessary evil, For the encour¬ 
agement of those who would like to see 
this practice abandoned, we can say that 
we know of several State Associations 
and numerous smaller oneB, which have 
drawn larger crowds and have made more 
money since they dropped the prizes for 
fast, trotting. . . 
For the success of fairs it is also very 
important to secure disinterested, compe¬ 
tent and honest judges. Nothing gives 
better satisfaction. To assist the judges, 
articles must be ready in season. They 
must be placed near each other for care¬ 
ful comparison. Judges will have some 
rules or scale of points to help them in 
making a decision. 
Let every one, whether he is an exhib¬ 
itor or not, take a note-book and pencil, 
and make a careful record of anything 
which he considers valuable. In this 
way he can collect addresses of exhibit¬ 
ors ; he can afterwards study over the 
fair, and will recall many things of intor- 
est. .. , 
We cannot close without oalling the 
attention of farmers to one question. 
Who run the agricultural fairs of our 
States and counties ? 
As we glance over the long list of offi¬ 
cers with whom we are acquainted, it is 
surprising to see how small a proportion 
are farmers. This ought not so to be. It 
does not sound well. It does not look 
well. There is something wrong some¬ 
where. We think it does not lie very far 
from the farmers themselves, who have 
too little confidence in themselves, or too 
little ability to undertake responsible po¬ 
sitions. 
--»-4 - 4- 
THE SOUTHERN SCOURGE 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address rural. PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
_ ——■» 
SATURDAY SEPT. 7, 1878. 
GET READY E0R THE FAIR. 
The season for agricultural fairs is fast 
approaching. While viewing the pro¬ 
ducts, or after visiting an exhibition, we 
have often heard the expression, “ I could 
have beaten that myself, and not half 
try.” A farmer iB hardly entitled to the 
name “ enterprising” who does not show 
something, and help to su6tain the fair 
which is held nearest hiB farm. He 
should take pride in raising something 
nice, and then have enough public spirit 
to show hiB success to the world. 
For an exhibition it is of first import¬ 
ance to produce worthy articles. To 
help this along, all small and worthless 
specimens should be thinned early from 
trees or plants which are expected to pro¬ 
duce the samples. The poor or small 
pears, apples, peaches, squashes, or other 
fruits or vegetables, tax the strength of 
plants nearly or quite aB much as large, 
fine specimens. 
The effort of any person to prepare ob¬ 
jects nicely for the fair, is worth all it 
costs. Attention must be given to the 
best modes of exhibiting. This applies 
to almost anything, from a plate of pota¬ 
toes to a half bushel of wheat, from a 
coop of chickens to a few cut asters. 
Victory is not always best for any one. 
He may receive more benefit from an 
honorable defeat, than from a just prize. 
The failure may not be quite so gratify¬ 
ing to think about, but it should only 
stimulate to greater effort. 
In showing fruits, select perfect or 
nearly perfect specimens, or none at all. 
Make it a rule to select them of uniform 
size and color, with full stems, without 
bruises, and under no circumstances 
should a wormy specimen find itB way to 
he fair. 
We have seen men complaining and 
surprised that they did not receive the 
first premium, when their fruit was large 
and showy. They failed to consider that 
he speoimen which oapped all the rest, 
According to the latest advices, Yellow 
Fever is spreading disastrously throughout 
the whole of the lower Mississippi Valley. 
Many small towns aDd villages that had 
hitherto escaped the plague, even through¬ 
out former epidemics, have been sorely 
afflicted by it during the past week, and 
fears are daily growing stronger that the 
greater part, if not the whole of the 
South, will, this year, suffer from it. Nu¬ 
merous prophecies that, in accordance 
with experiences during former visita¬ 
tions, the ravages of the pestilence would 
gradually diminish after tho middle of 
August, ‘have proved entirely fallacious, 
inasmuch as this morning’s telegrams from 
all the large cities show a steady increase 
in the number of new cases as well as 
in the number of deaths. In New Orleans, 
for instance, the number of new cases, 
yesterday, (Sept. 1st) was 260, against 234 
on Saturday, while tbe number of deaths 
ran up to 88 against 48 the previous day. 
In Memphis the fatality was still heavier, 
amounting to 89 within the twenty- four 
hours ending last night— a terrible list, in 
view of the fact that all of its 70,000 in¬ 
habitants that could get away from the 
stricken city, had already done so. In the 
little town of Vicksburg, 1,600 deaths are 
already reported, of which twenty-five 
occurred yesterday. Grenada haw been 
depopulated, seven healthy persons alone 
remaining in the place yesterday, while 
the dead and dying lie side by side 
in some of the houses for hours before 
the few able to attend to the matter can 
bury the former or minister to the latter. 
Of the nurses, who in yellcw fever 
oaseB are more valuable even than doc¬ 
tors, a great number have already been 
worn out by their laborB or prostrated 
by the disease, while others have either 
fled panic-stricken from the scenes of 
death and desolation, or been called 
home to the bedsides of their own afflict¬ 
ed families. The doctors, who from all 
parts of the country have responded 
nobly to tbe calls of humanity, have been 
suffering severely for their heroism, many 
of them having already died of the pesti¬ 
lence and still more lying now at death’s 
door from the same cause. Yesterday 
there were ten physicians dangerously ill 
from the malady in Vicksburg aloue. 
More heroic than the nurses who serve 
for money, or than the doctors whose pro¬ 
fessional instincts urge them to the bed 
of sickness, are the hundreds of noble 
, men, who taking their Uives in their 
hands, minister by day and by nigbt to 
the plague-stricken strangers as well as 
to the poor and to all in need of their as¬ 
sistance in every town in which the pesti¬ 
lence has made its appearance. Quiet 
merchants, mechanics and business men 
are these in ordinary life, men in whose 
character to the oommon eye there is little 
that is h eroic, but it requires as much cour¬ 
age, and perhaps more, and that of a 
nobler kind, to face a painful death hour¬ 
ly as these do, amid the discouragements 
of squalor, suffering and misery, than to 
risk one’s life at the cannon’s mouth 
amid the crash, glory and madness of 
battle. . 
Wherever this terrible epidemic afflicts 
society, want and misery intensify tbe 
misery of fear among those of the work¬ 
ing olasses who escape its attack ; while 
the fate of the poor who are assailed by 
it, is generally sealed unless aid comes to 
them from the humane, the generous and 
the charitable. It is to the credit of 
many of those possessing means in the 
stricken localities that they not only give 
of them freely to their poorer neighbors, 
but also very frequently are foremost in 
all offices of personal service and attend¬ 
ance. Tu the midst of so widespread a 
calamity, however, tbe aid of tbe whole 
nation is urgently needed to alleviate the 
sufferings and lessen the fatality through¬ 
out the afflicted region, and it is sincerely 
to be hoped that the farming community 
will not be backward in generously re¬ 
sponding to the call equally of humanity 
and Christianity. 
--« »» -- 
THE SMALL FRUIT FESTIVAL. 
Thebe is probably no branch of horti¬ 
culture that to-day excites a greater de¬ 
gree of popular interest than the small 
fruits. Strawberries are enjoying more 
than a full share anil there is something 
of a mania among cultivators to produce 
varieties bearing larger berries than any 
so far known. But the mania is not a 
dangerous one and we shall all of us ere 
long be ready to acknowledge that an in¬ 
crease of size is a poor compensation for a 
loss of vigor, quality or productiveness. 
But we are glad of the increasing in¬ 
terest in small fruits. We know of many 
village gardens, that, though tastefully 
arrauged and planted with ornamental 
Bhrubs and trees, are yet destitute of 
email fruits, and we know of many other 
gardens in which weeds are the promi¬ 
nent plants, that could easily be made to 
produce enough of currants, gooseberries, 
strawberries, blackberries and raspber¬ 
ries to supply the tables of the improvi¬ 
dent owners during the season. Far¬ 
mers, too, if we may judge all by 
those of our neighborhood, are not alive 
to their beet interests in this matter. 
Altogether there seems a wide margin for 
the growth of small fruit appreciation, 
and we certainly hope that those who 
have cultivated the best varieties for sale, 
will realize a long and remunerative com¬ 
pensation for their zeal, patience and in¬ 
dustry. 
We have spent days in the preparation 
and collection of the articles and illustra¬ 
tions presented this week, and we have 
placed before our readers, without the 
slightest regard to whose individual in¬ 
terests are harmed or helped, all the facts 
which we have, from personal observation 
and correspondence, been enabled to 
glean. It will be observed that in more 
than one instance the statement of one 
writer contradicts that of another. Such 
seeming contradiction will always occur 
among fruit culturists. No matter how 
high the authority, his personal exper¬ 
ience can never be accepted as an un¬ 
qualified guide to others who cultivate 
the same fruit under different circum¬ 
stances of soil, climate, &c. 
SEPT. 7 
sides of the tea-kettle become incrusted 
with lime after considerable use. This 
deposition of earthy matter finally clogs 
up the cells so that they can no longer 
perform their functions. First, therefore, 
they lose their green color—the color of 
health—assuming various hues, and then 
loosened by the wind, rain or by merely 
the pressure of the axillary bud that 
has been matured for another seasons 
growth, they fall. We may, therefore 
look for autumn leaves earlier than usual 
and we may also look for an earlier fall 
of the leaf than usual irrespective of 
frosts. The leaf began its work early— 
has worked faithfully and will lie down 
to rest betimes. 
. - - 
STRAWBERRIES. 
It will be seen that Crescent Seedling 
is generally praised; that Sharpiess is 
praised by Mr. Parry, who also gives 
some interesting figures as to yield of 
other varieties. Mr. Brownell still thinks 
that Wilson “heads tbe list for hardi¬ 
ness and productiveness.” Mr. Lovett 
says the Sharpless was the largest and 
handsomest berry he fruited last season, 
and the plant is of the most robust 
growth. He speaks in high terms of 
Miner’s Great Prolific. Dr. Hexamer 
speaks a good word for Pres. Lincoln, 
and Crescent Seedling. Mr. J. C. Wil¬ 
liams believes that the merits of the 
Champion have been overlooked. There 
seems to be a general concurrence in tbe 
belief that Durand’s seedlings need spe¬ 
cial soil and cultivation.” 
EARLY AUTUMN LEAVES. 
It is not usual to sec “ Autumn leaves ” 
aB soon as the first of September. Yet 
upon Liquidambars, Sumacs, Swamp- 
Maples, Sour-gums and some others, they 
might have been seen hereabouts ten 
days ago, This was to have been antici¬ 
pated. The leaves of many trees devel¬ 
oped three weeks earlier than usual in 
the spring, and they may be expected to 
die earlier than usual. 
The fall of the leaf is not dependent 
upon frosts or other vicissitudes of the 
weather, but is due to causes which begin 
with its very formation and culminate 
when it is of no further service. All have 
noticed the lime which is deposited in 
tea-kettles where what is termed “hard ” 
water is used. Water, as it passes 
through the soil, dissolves a small quan¬ 
tity of earthy matter, and is absorbed by 
the roots of plants and thence carried to 
the leaves where as the water is exhaled 
pure, the silex, lime, potaBh, magnesia, 
Ac., are left to incrust the cells, just as the 
Farm-yard Manures vs. Arti¬ 
ficial Mauures.—From a private letter 
received from Mr. J. B. Lawes we take 
the liberty to print the following: 
“I have just been reading a discussion 
on manures in on© of your Weeklies. I 
fear this discussion which, as I under¬ 
stand it, is between the value of farm¬ 
yard manure and artificial manures, is 
not ripe for settlement at present. We 
have more evidence at our command than 
any one else, but we find extreme diffi¬ 
culty in closing experiments where dung 
has been used, owing to the slow yield of 
the residue.” 
---- 
BREVITIES. 
The meadows are yellow with Golden-Rods. 
E. P. Roe thinks the great needs of the straw¬ 
berry are good drainage and a little more water. 
Mb. M. B. Bateham believes that on his soil 
at least, bone dust and aBhes are the best fer¬ 
tilizers for the grape. 
Mb G. W. Campbell oalls Mr. J. H. Ricketts, 
the “ Champion hybridizer of grapes in Ameri¬ 
ca, if not in the world.” 
Gbowth of the American Weeping Willow. 
Fiv© yenrs 8go ft young "Willow vy&b planted in 
neighboring grounds in a high place. It is now 
fifty feet in bight. 
Jttst as we go to press we have reoeived a 
Btrawberry article from Pres. T. T. Lyon, written 
at our request. We wished to present it in this 
number but are glad nevertheless of the oppor¬ 
tunity of presenting it next week. 
Several of our patrons who knew that this 
number of the Rural would be given up largely 
to a consideration of the best varieties of Straw¬ 
berries, have favered us with their advertise¬ 
ments, which will be found iu their appropriate 
places. 
We have been eeusured by a Western journal 
for giving the following advice, which we take 
from Mr. Parry’s article on another page : 
“ Persons about to commence growing straw¬ 
berries, should try at least a dozen of tbe best 
varieties, so as to be sure »Dd get those most 
suitable for their soils and locations.” 
If we may judge from our own tastes and 
from those of others who have reported to us 
the "Beauty of Hebron ” potato is destined to 
take the place of tbe "Early Rose.” We say 
that, planted side by side with the Early Rose, it 
will prove more prolific—at least ten days earlier 
—and will be found of a better quality. Let us 
see. 
At the social festival of tbe last meeting of 
tbe Ohio Btatc Horticultural Society, the senti¬ 
ment was given : " The Ladies—the joy of our 
homes—the ablest advocates of horticulture, 
and whatever refines and elevates mankind. 
Response was made by a reverend gentleman 
who got along nicely until he altiwptcd to quote 
Toni Moore's poetry. Instead of likening the 
ladies to roses without thorns, he asserted that 
the fair ones were often sharp thorns. The up¬ 
roar which followed, obliged him to resume his 
seat. 
Professor Stockbridgo says that American 
agriculture of the pasi and present, is little bet¬ 
ter than a studied system of land plunder and 
devastation.-Chemicals are better than ma¬ 
nure. because they may be more cheaply trans¬ 
ported, handled and carried to distant parts of 
the farm, and thoroughly mixed with the soil. 
They are hotter than yard manure, because they 
not only enable ns to grow as abundant crops 
with less labor, but their supply can equal any 
demand. They also enable the farmer to con¬ 
tinually crop his land—sell tho crops, and yet 
maintain the fertility of his soil.— Ihe entire 
amount of yard manure matte in Massachusetts, 
gives but six-tenths of a cord to ouch acre of 
tilled land.-The want of the hour is the 
breaking down of all barriers between practical 
and scientific men. 
