604 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT. 21 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Practical Departments i 
Anthropoid Apes—(Illustrated). 557 
Hint" for the Season... 658 
Jottines it*. Kirbv Unmestead-Cot. F. D. Curtis.. 698 
Hints by the Roadside—Houeta Handle.. 2!*8 
Courage on the Farm. Ac,—Gen. \V. H. Noble.... 598 
Notes from North western Illinois—W. B. D. 699 
The Susar Beet.699 
Teaching n jiany—Prof. W. J. Beal.699 
Jicpanex 1 Snowball./. 6K) 
Garden Talks and Walks—Renocluf ... 690 
Maiden's Blush. 600 
Yellows. I lie. 600 
N. Y. State Fall . 600 
Implements at N. Y. State Fair. ... 601 
Lime Burning— N. W. Bliss. 002 
The Great. American Desert—It. H. Crane...602 
What Other*Bay..... 6|’0 
Catalogues. Ac., Received...608 
What BeOuniHi) of the Insects—S. B. Peck. 608 
Why Horses Become Blind. 608 
Notes iroru the Broome Co. N. T. Fair..608 
Answers to Con'esuondents : 
Treatment of Various Flowers, 
Queries About Fruit.. 
To Exterminate Crab Grass. 
Miscellaneous,... 
Communications Received. 
Everywhere: 
Hugo, III...... 
| Kochf'Bter. N. Y. 
Woodcock, Pa. 
1 Shedd, Oregon. 
Sherman, N. V. 
Lamartine, Pa..,,. 
Whitney’s Point. N. Y. 
L OkoUma, Miss... 
002 
602 
602 
602 
602 
.. 602 
.. 602 
.. 60 2 
.. 602 
.. 602 
.. 60 2 
. 602 
.. 602 
EDITORIAL PAGE! 
Hints to Correspondents.604 
Skilled Dairying.604 
Muck . 804 
Home Again. 694 
Ornamental Grounds... 601 
Versa 1 liaise or Cherry?. 604 
Brevities.... .. 601 
literary : 
Poetry. 660.607,610 
Story of a Locket...... 605 
Vintage Time in Germany. 605 
Quiet People... 606 
Hotv to Learn to Switn...... 605 
Recent Literature. <06 
Bric-a-Btac. 60S 
Letter to Yon tag Mothers.. 607 
Fashions- (Illustrated).Wft 
The Carpel Pest. 607 
A Womnn’s Plan tor Making Hogs “ Keepers at 
Home.".6”7 
Married Women’s Rights tn the Eastern States.. 607 
Reading tor the young t 
Pocket Monev-W. F. Alan. 610 
What Is lo be Done— Storey Gamp. Olil 
The Cockroach anti its Enemy. 6IU 
Potato Beetles—S, XI. R. dtO 
Puzzler. . 610 
Sabbath Reading : 
Shall We Have a Sabbath?. 610 
“ Would" Misused.... 610 
News of the Week—Herman. 608 
Markets. 609 
Personals. 611 
Wit an.l Humor. 612 
Advertise utiiis.609, 611, 612 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERT SATURDAY. 
Address 
RfJltAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY SEPT. 21, 1878. 
HINTS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Not the least interesting part of a live 
agricultural paper consists of the letters 
from different parts of the country tell¬ 
ing of the condition of crops, the local 
markets and other particulars concerning 
the districts in which they are written. 
By this means each reader of the paper is 
put into communication with a host of 
correspondents in every State in the 
Union, all giving the latest account, of 
the business which to him is the most 
interesting, because it is Lis own. Un¬ 
der its present management, the Rural 
has been fortunate enough to secure a lar¬ 
ger number of such correspondents than, 
perhaps, any other paper in the eouut-ry ; 
but it is those who are doing well who 
are always most anxious to do better, and, 
acting on this rule, the Rural wishes to 
suggest a method by which such corre¬ 
spondence, while increasing its interest, 
would add greatly to the valuable infor¬ 
mation it furnishes. 
This desirable object would be accom¬ 
plished if our friendly correspondents in 
stating the condition of their different 
kinds of crops, would also particularize 
the varieties of wheat, grasses, fruit, etc., 
embraced in their reports as well as the 
comparative merits of each sort in their 
neighborhood. To do this would doubt¬ 
less entail a trifle more trouble, but, en¬ 
tirely apart from the greater importance 
of their communications, they would soon 
find that this extra trouble would be 
amply rewarded by the additional infor¬ 
mation they would themselves acquire m 
the investigation. It would, also, be well 
to mention the nature of the soil which 
proves most suitable to each variety as 
well as any special treatment which 
might, have produced exceptionally good 
results. Another point, which with the 
above would enable readers to form a 
clear conception of the conditions most 
favorable to each sort of crop, is the ex¬ 
posure of the land in whioh it is planted. 
If grown in a valley, does this valley 
stretch north and south or east and west, 
and if the latter, on which side of it are 
the crops planted ? 
ManyfarmerB hesitate about sending to 
their favorite paper valuable information 
through distrust of their own powers of 
expression. They are afraid their com¬ 
munications may be rejected on acoonnt 
of grammatical errors, or lack of style. 
Such fear6 should never deter our friends 
from promptly sending us all items of in¬ 
terest, as it is such items we want regard¬ 
less of the form in which they may be 
expressed, for it is part of an editor’s duty 
to clothe in suitable verbal garb all infor¬ 
mation he may deem of sufficient impor¬ 
tance to admit into the columns of his 
paper. 
SKILLED DAIRYING. 
Dairying is perhaps the greatest agri¬ 
cultural interest of New York. It trans¬ 
cends any other single agricultural indus¬ 
try. This State is credited with 1,500,000 
cows and if we estimate the income per 
head at only §40—which is below the av¬ 
erage of the last five years—it gives an 
aggregate of §60,000,000 annually. This 
represents about one-seventh of the dairy 
interest of the United States. We shall 
therefore be pardoned for frequent refer¬ 
ence to this great industry. Dairy pro¬ 
ducts are now depressed below any point 
reached since 1861. But this is also the 
fate of almost every other agricultural pro¬ 
duct with, perhaps, the exception of the 
best beef animals on foot. All mechani¬ 
cal industries are alike at the bottom pri¬ 
ces. Shall all these industries, therefore, 
be abandoned or largely reduced ? Cer¬ 
tainly not. Dairy products stand at the 
head of household necessities. No 
housekeeping, worthy of the name, can 
be carried on without them. This is the 
time for the application of skill. Skill 
must win. When a certain class of pro¬ 
ducts bring a high price, and are eagerly 
sought as soon as they reach market, the 
producers are apt to be careless of qual¬ 
ity since remunerative sales are so easily 
made. But when the market becomes 
heavy and prices fall below remunerative 
rates, the producers having the requisite 
courage and determination to succeed, 
study how to improve the quality of the 
article, and thus give an exceptional val¬ 
ue to it and an extended market. They 
well know that a superior quality has 
fewer competitors, and the grades below 
it are not in competition. The highest 
quality creates a market fox itself. 
Acting on this principle those shrewd 
Quakers, near Philadelphia, have made 
for many years the famous brand of Phila¬ 
delphia’ butter, which has brought from 
one dollar to twelve shillings per pound. 
They now easily command four times the 
price of ordinary butter. And this all 
comes of skill —of regarding butter-mak¬ 
ing as a fine art, which appeals to our 
most refined sensibilities—the high art of 
living. The food that supports the hu¬ 
man body is of the highest consideration 
to civilized and refined society. It is 
more and more sought for in the highest 
state of perfection. Cream contains the 
most refined and delicate oil UBed as hu¬ 
man food. In its natural and best condi¬ 
tion, it is more relished and easily di¬ 
gested than any other food oil. This 
shows what great opportunities nice ma¬ 
nipulators of milk have for remuneration, 
even in these depressed times. The prac¬ 
tice of this fine art in butter-making iB 
not necessarily confined to locality, as 
was once supposed, for the milk, contain¬ 
ing cream with all the delicate aroma and 
flavor of the Quaker butter, flows in many 
States. The milk exists in thousands of 
places, but the skilled operators are few 
It really costs no more to make this 
fine butter than the poorest that comes to 
market. The skill consists in a know¬ 
ledge of the nature of milk, and in follow 
ing very simple and easy rules in hand¬ 
ling it. These rules, however, must bs 
strictly followed, and cannot be set aside 
to suit the convenience of any body. It 
requires the milk to be kept at or below 
a certain temperature ; the cream to be 
removed at just the right time, when the 
milk first turns sour; the cream to be 
kept at an even temperature, not above 
60 degrees, till churned ; the butter to be 
worked with great care and kept at a tem¬ 
perature below 60 degrees, till sent to 
market. The atmosphere of the milk- 
room must be absolutely pure, and the 
cows well kept, and in a cleanly condition. 
Milk is extremely sensitive to all odors, 
and easily tainted, after which, the best 
butter cannot be made. Any one of close 
observation could determine all these 
things by experiment in a few mouths. 
The dairyman has everything depending 
upon the skill he uses in the produc¬ 
tion and handling of his milk. Let him 
study his business with the same care be¬ 
stowed by a skillful mechanic upon his, 
and he will find his remuneration ample 
and certain. 
MUCK. 
A gentleman living less than two miles 
from us, has bottomless sandy land. 
He would like at least two good rains 
every week. During severe droughts, 
his crops are next to worthless—his 
shrubs and trees die. He has used 
muck extensively and likes it not. It has 
never benefited his land that he knows 
of. Our own land is rather clayey than 
sandy. We suffer mote from too much 
rain’than from too little. Grope have 
seldom been injured by drought. We 
have used muck extensively, also,- and we 
like it. It has been spread upon our 
garden land in large quantities. Our 
trees and shrubs have been planted in it 
—in muck pure and simple—hundreds of 
them in great variety, and their thrift is 
the remark of all who see them. At our 
farm, the upland is seemingly like the 
land of the neighbor above referred to— 
sandy and dry. We need rain there 
weekly, else the grass is burnt and the 
crops suffer. But we have used muck 
quite extensively and the land seems to 
have been benefited thereby. Upon the 
lowlands we have raised potatoes, corn, 
wheat, buckwheat, timothy, clover, mel¬ 
ons, pumpkins, squashes, beets, mangels, 
beans, peas, turnips, <fco., Ac., and we 
have never yet failed of a good crop. 
What does it all prove? That our 
muck contained plant-food whioh otit soil 
needed. But all muck is not the same in 
manurial value, as has been shown time 
and again by chemical analyses. As soils 
also vary, it is not to be wondered at that 
different mucks will produce different 
effects on different soils. There is little 
sense in advocating its use just as if its 
manural value were in all oases known 
and invariable and, for the same reasoD, 
there is absolutely no sense in con¬ 
demning its use in toto. It is well that 
the farmer should take for granted that 
muck, at least when easily accessible, 
might prove of great value to his land. 
Then he will be the more likely to ascer¬ 
tain its value from experiment, whioh is 
the only trustworthy test. 
Meantime we call attention to the forc¬ 
ible article of Gen. W. H. Noble, on an¬ 
other page. 
- ♦♦♦ - 
HOME AGAIN. 
2 A private letter from Professor I. P. 
Koberts tells us he arrived from Europe, 
on the ship “ P. C aland” from Rotter¬ 
dam, Sept. 7, bringing with him for How¬ 
ard G. White, of Syracuse, N. Y., seven 
Holstein cattle, selected in Friesland, and 
four Percheron horses—two stallions and 
two mares—selected in the ancient Pro¬ 
vince of La Perche. The animalB were 
selected without any reference to price, 
the only instructions given him having 
been to bring the best that could be 
found. He tells us that Smith and Pow¬ 
ell, of Syracuse, imported on the same 
steamer, twelve young Holsteins; and 
that James Nelson, of Brunswick, N. J., 
brought eight cows and heifers, and one 
bull. 
While abroad, he visited not only the 
Exposition, but the Agr’l College of 
France, the great horse districts about 
Chartres, andNogent le Rotron, and many 
other places of less note. He traveled all 
over Holland, and visited the great farm of 
Haarlem Mere, situated fifteen feet below 
the level of the Bea. He also saw consid¬ 
erable of Belgian agriculture, though he 
did not spend much time there. He in¬ 
spected personally about fifty of the best 
grain and stock farmB of England, includ¬ 
ing a great sewage farm, Mechi’s, Lawes’, 
and the farm connected with the Sohooi 
of Agriculture. 
-- ♦■»+ - 
Ornamental Grounds by Moon¬ 
light.—The effect of ornamental grounds 
as seen during bright moon-lit nights 
for the firet time, is deceptive. It is par¬ 
ticularly so if the trees are still young, 
and have not attained much size. The 
deeper shade whioh they cast, gives them 
the appearance of being double their 
actual size, and of forming vistas that do 
not exist. Seen again by daylight, one is 
surprised at his previous magnified im¬ 
pressions. There is this to be learnt, 
however, from viewing grounds by moon¬ 
light, viz., that plants may be so distri¬ 
buted or grouped as to imitate during the 
day, the deep shadows of the night. 
—-- 
Versailiaise or Cherry?—When 
the difference between two plants is so tri¬ 
lling that nobody can tell positively oue 
from the other, what is the use of wasting 
words over it? The Yersaillaise and 
Cherry Currant are in this category, and 
yet pomologists, as if there were no sub¬ 
ject of greater importance to demand 
their attention, must, like little children, 
year after year, re-assert their several 
views. All agree that they are closely 
similar—a majority that they ai» identi¬ 
cal. It is strange that sensible men can 
waste their time over such profitless^, 
senseless discussions. 
♦«» - 
BREVITIES. 
The Fairs— the fairs! 
Db. Williams' confirms our report of Acme 
tomato. 
The Michigan Agricultural College has had, 
for five years past, from fiftv to one hundred and 
fifty species of grass and forage plants, all in 
plots and labeled. 
Charles W. Garfield says that T. T. Lyon 
is the best Strawberry experimenter in “ our 
State”—that is, Michigan. His strawberry 
article appeared last week. 
The farmer who bears in mind the oft-qnoted 
words, “ the tine investigation of nature leads 
to God,” should be moved to Btudy and to 
observation Su his chosen pursuit. 
No doubt the present season will be .favorable' 
for transplanting trees. They will mature earlier, 
on account of the early spring, and will have a 
longer time, after transplantation, in wb.’cb to 
become established in their new places bi^hne 
heavy frosts. 
Any honest, industrious man can earn not only 
a living, but enough to enablft him to lay up ■ 
money for a time of sickness or old age. Yet 
there are many honest, industrious men who do 
not. One reason is improvidence at home ; an- • 
other indulgence in strong drink. 
Dr. Zadrusktr, a well-known physician of 
Westwood, Bergen Go., N. J.. tells us that he has 
used with much success the fluid extract of Grin- 
delis squarrosa for malarial fevers, in dosea of 
twenty drops, administered every two hours dur¬ 
ing the intermission of the fever. As a preven¬ 
tive, twenty drops throe times % day havo proven 
effectual. 
We said that we could not find any animals 
that would eat out Prickly Compfrey. The 
editor of the Indiana Farmer meets with better 
success. “ Our cow,” he Bays, “ will not touch 
it at present, while on good pasture , probably* 
she might be starved into eating it after grass is 
gone. The grasshoppers like it so well thsdtthejy 
have riddled the leaves with holes.” 
There is no doubt about it that Clawson is 
one of the most bardy and prolific varieties of 
wheat cultivated. We have raised this wheat 
for rbroo years past, and have eaten bread made 
therefrom during that period. The bread is not 
so white as that made from some other wheats, 
and does not no tickle the pride of the bread¬ 
maker, but it tickles the palate of th® bread- 
eater quite as well. 
A. 8 . Wilson, an English scientist, has made: 
an elaborate calcul&tibn to show the marvelous, 
industry of bees. Starting with the ascertained t 
fact that 125 heads of olover yield approxi¬ 
mately 15.482 grains of sugar, and that the pro- - 
i portion of sugar in honoy may be roughly esti¬ 
mated at seventy-five per cent., he finds that 
2,500,000 olover flowers must be visited by bees 
to obtain one pound of honey from that source. 
L. L. Polk, the Com'r, of Agriculture of N. 
0., says, and we hope it will be heeded : “ Dr. 
D. E.’Salmon, of Charlotte, 5f. C., is one of the 
commission appointed by the Government to 
investigate Hog Cholera, and I earnestly ask 
our corresponponts and other citizens to com¬ 
municate to him their knowledge of any diseases, 
and their extent among swine. This is a gratiuv 
itous effort to secure our people against the> 
heavy losses they sustain annually, if possible:. 
Term of the Commission will expire Oct. 15th,. 
and it is therefore impoitant that early attention 
be given to the subject.” 
The editor of the Germantown Telegraph has 
said from the beginning that Prickly Comfrey 
was a “fraud.” So it has proven to be. But it 
was worth a trial to find this out. The editor 
may reply that that was found out many years, 
ago. But people forget—then they mint learn, 
the lesson again. We are in hopes that those, 
who have made mouey out of this fraud will— 
conscienoe-smitten- invest it for the good of r 
the agricultural public in tho dissemination of. 
Pearl Millet, for instance, respecting which we 
Bhould like to learn the opinion of the editor-' 
of the Germantown Telegraph. 
Senator Blaine says that tho fanners of the 
republic will control its destiny. Agriculture 
furnishes the conservative element in society, 
and, in the end, is the guiding, restraining, con¬ 
trolling force in government. Against storms of 
popular fury: against fiensued madness that 
seeks collision with established order; against 
theories of administration that have drenched 
other lauds in blood; against the spirit of an¬ 
archy that would sweep away the land-marksi 
ami safeguards of Christian society ami ret/ubli<- 
oan government, the farmers of the United! 
States will stand as the shield and the bulwark— 
themselves the willing subjects of the law, aud 
therefore its safest and strongest administrators. 
To get angry over trifles is childish ; to rave 
urlously is brute-like; to cherish wrath is akin 
j the ways or devils. But to suppress an angry 
upulse is manly—it is wise and altogether 
jvely. Many of uh entertain a sort of a notion, 
hat we approach more or less nearly to- the 
haracter of angels; while angels, possibly, look, 
t us as approaching more ot less nearly to the 
haracter of devilB aud brutcB. When a man. 
;icks a good horso in the belly with his heavy, 
loots, what shall we call him! When a man 
urses the laziness of his “ hands’ because 
tey favor themselves during Urn heat of our 
lottost days, though the hay or the gr»iu sufier, 
b he a devil, or a brute ? When a man vents 
ipen hiB good wife ami children the anger 
vhicb has been aroused by a combination of ag- 
'ravating circumstances in t he field, he is botn. 
[’here are two grand errors which we revel in as 
f they were spring water in midsummer: One 
s our unwillingness to extend to others the con- 
lideration we demand from them; the other, 
hat we are more interested in the faults of 
lthera. than in OUT own. 
