652 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT.42 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Practical Departments : 
LadyCnrew, 3d—(Illustrated). 645 
Montclair Raspberry—(Illustrated). 645 
Montclair an<1 other Raspberries—J. C. Williams. 645 
Herstinc-Gllimr.rntedl. ... 646 
Outhbert and Belle he Kootenay ,T. T. Lovett 646 
Newer RaspbetTlfl* In Ohio—M. B. Bjuehstn.. .. 646 
Plant Raspberries in the Pall—Rev. E. P. Roe— 646 
Small Frill's in California-W. C. L. Drew.646 
Raspberry Notes irmn the Rural Grounds.647 
Berry Culture In Texas Q. Marti.. 647 
Raspberry Items.647 
Blackberries M. Oskey. 647 
Cultivation of the Blackberry.641 
Blackberries In Arkausas, &o.’. 647 
Gul den Talks and Wnlks-Reuoolaf.... 647 
Cabbage Ptm»ia—G. H. French. 648 
Outdoor Fernery—Kiln Rodman Church. 648 
Native Flowers and Kerns of the United States.. 648 
A bout I flexes - B. pickmnn Mann..618 
WbHt Others Say.. —.... 618 
Sanitary Ar antfemeuts for the Homestead—A 
Jersey Farmer. 650 
Van’s Views...660 
Notes from the Rural Karp ..660 
Pennsylvania State 6 'ftlr—K. 650 
Illinois Stale Fair—W.B. Derrick. 650 
Tolland Co. (Conn.) Pair—W. H. Yeomans.651 
Answers to Correspondents : 
Queries About Flowers. 649 
A Novel Btrawherry Bed. 649 
Miscellaneous. 619 
Communications Received.6.9 
EverywJiere : 
Waukesha Co.. Wts..—H. F. 8 . 951 
Van Boren. Ark.,—R, G. 651 
Southern Minnesota—D. B. E. 651 
Chatham CV,Ga.—Chas. Collins... 651 
Lincoln, UK-W. 661 
Warren Co., N, C. M. B. P. ... 661 
Houston Tex < 4 . M . 651 
Harris Farm Truck, (Illustrated). 651 
Editorial Page: 
What is the Matter?. 662 
Responsibility for Advertisements. 662 
Insufficient Proofs.652 
Covered Yards. 652 
Horns. 662 
Cheap Bone-dust..652 
Brevities.652 
Domestic Economy: 
Mop-Handle Papers—Mo. 5—May Maple.656 
AHousekeeperS Dreamlngs—Ante L. Jack. 666 
Domestic Recipes.656 
Literary : 
Poetry.653. 665. 658 
Room Decorations—Howto Prepare Dried Grass¬ 
es for—J. J. Heinrich—(Illustrated).653 
Discarded Daughter—Ellen Hunter. 653. 654 
Hygienic Hints.. 655 
Breaking Ground—B. C. D.. 656 
Our Daughters—Shall They be Protestant or 
Catholic. 656 
Items for Correspondents—^The Editor.655 
Reading for the Young: 
The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership.658 
Three Bunnies’ Queer Mamma. 658 
New Game for Children. 668 
Sabbath Reading: 
The Trial of Jesus. 658 
News of the Week—Herman. 656 
Markets. 667 
Personals. 659 
Wit and Humor. 660 
Advertisements.657, 669, 660 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERT SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY OOT. 12, 1878. 
We offered, some time ago, to sell the cuts 
used in this Journal for ten cents the square 
inch. Many have requested us to send proofs 
of our cuts. As we have upwards of ten thou¬ 
sand, we could not undertake to do so. Persona 
wishing to purchase, must Belect from files of 
the Rural New-Yobker. 
"WHAT IS THE MATTER! 
There is a reason for everything, and 
there is doubtless a reason why more 
than 500,000 (it looks more formidable 
in figures) working men are unable to 
procure work, and at the same time so 
much money is lying idle in the banks 
that it is loaned out at the rate of one 
or two percent, per annum. Why 
cannot these laborers, and this idle 
capital, which is the mainspring of the 
machinery by which labor is made 
active and profitable, be brought togeth¬ 
er? What hinders it? This seems to 
be a question which no one can solve, for 
of all the attempted solutions offered, 
not one finds that general acceptance 
which would at once be given to a plain 
truth. The trouble seems to be based 
more upon a general restlessness and dis¬ 
satisfaction amongst the working people 
themselves, than upon any actual con¬ 
dition of things which could account for 
it. Strikes and threatened strikes and 
murmuringB deep if not loud, exist on ev¬ 
ery ban d. The present low' com pensation 
for labor, and the hours of labor—which, 
in fact, are really the same thing as the 
question of wages—on the one band, 
and the absenoe of profit or of a cer¬ 
tainty of profit from the use of the labor 
by the employment of capital at any 
higher rate, on the other baud, seem to 
k>ep the two elements of social prosper¬ 
ity apart. 
It is certain that working people are 
dissatisfied with the present Beale of 
wages; and equally certain that those 
who have money to use in supplying 
labor, fear to embark in any enterprise, 
lest as 6oon as they begin they may be 
met with demands they cannot satisfy. 
And so they hold aloof. Half a million 
working people represent, perhaps, a six¬ 
teenth part of the whole population. 
With sixteen per oent of the nation idle, 
and unable to purchase the necessaries of 
life, a large inroad is made upon the con¬ 
dition of all the remainder; and the pur¬ 
chasing and consumptive, as well as the 
employing power of these, is seriously 
curtailed. Consumption bemg reduced, 
production of course must be decreased 
in proportion, and prices fall with it. 
Thus our present condition seems to be 
far from unaccountable, if we take into 
consideration the large unstable and dis¬ 
satisfied element which has appeared 
among the working classes. It seems 
that the prevalent uncertainty of what 
may happen is the principal cause of our 
trouble, rather than any real adverse con¬ 
dition of things. The misfortuue at the 
bottom of it all may be that there is much 
ignorance and unreason existing among 
the laboring people, which is inflamed by 
self-seeking agitators who turn a popular 
misunderstanding into a general griev¬ 
ance, causing bitter feelings, and false 
hopes of something better to arise from 
changes, that would effectually destroy 
any possibility of escape from the pres¬ 
ent difficulty. An employer cannot fix, 
permanently, the rate of wages ; if he 
could, why was it that during the war 
laborers were paid two-and-a-half or 
three dollars per day, and the wages 
gradually increased up to that point 
without strikes or demands on the part 
of the laborers. Farmers could as 
easily fix the price of their produce. 
But this they cannot do. They take 
what they can get, and are fain to be 
content; although they may grumble 
about it. If only a similar disposition 
were exhibited by working men, and pa¬ 
tience be exercised under adversity of 
business, confidence would be restored ; 
and with that the wheels would hum, and 
business be active once more. 
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. 
Never in the history of the Rural 
New-Yorker has there been, in the 
judgment of its present proprietors, so 
much care bestowed on the exclusion 
from its columns of all advertisements of 
articles which are not in reality what they 
are represented to be. We hold our¬ 
selves just as much responsible for a truth¬ 
ful presentation of what appears in our 
advertising columns as we do for t]\e gen¬ 
eral accuracy of the matter published in 
the rest of the paper. Just as we are 
always ready to correct mistakes or con¬ 
trovert erroneous statements inadvert¬ 
ently admitted into other departments of 
the Rural, so we are always ready to re¬ 
ject any advertisements just as soon as 
we may learn that they are calculated to 
mislead or defraud our readers. While 
a trustworthy advertising department is 
a desirable feature in any journal, it is 
especially important in a rural paper, be¬ 
cause its readers have fewer facilities thau 
city folks for examining personally the 
articles they may feel inclined to pur¬ 
chase, and are therefore disposed or 
forced to place more reliance on the rep¬ 
resentations made in advertisements. 
In our opinion they have a right to ex¬ 
pect that the conductors of the papers 
which solicit their patronage should see 
to it that these papers should not be 
made the vehicles for fraud upon them or 
misrepresentation. Iu full view of this 
opinion, if we admitted advertisements 
which we knew to be deceptive, we 
should consider ourselves guilty of beiDg 
voluntarily instrumental in defrauding 
our own friends. Despite our scrutiny, 
however, it may happen that a false repre¬ 
sentation of an article may rarely find its 
way into onr columns, and, in such an 
event, we would thank any of our readers 
who would notify us promptly on dis- 
oovering the cheat. A trustworthy ad¬ 
vertising department is a twofold benefit 
—a benefit to the intending purchaser 
who can confidently rely on the genuine¬ 
ness of the articles advertised, and a 
benefit to the honest advertiser, because 
the very fact of his advertisement having 
been inserted is a fair evidence of the 
excellence of the article thus brought to 
the notice of the public. 
-*-*-♦- 
INSUFFI CIENT PROOFS. 
If we apply protection to rose-bushes, 
to grape-vines, to the wheat field ; and 
the bush, vine or wheat survive the 
winter, we give credit to the “protec¬ 
tion" for saving the plant. If we ma¬ 
nure our com with bone and a fine 
crop ensue, the boue did it. If we cut 
potatoes to single eyes and a larger crop 
than usual follow, it was because we 
cut the “seed” to single eyes. If we 
scrape the “trunks” of onr apple trees 
this fall and a better crop than usual be 
harvested next season, it is because the 
“trunks" were scraped. How prone we 
we to attribute any improvement in onr 
crops to whatever we happen to do to 
them a little out of the usual way ! How 
do we know the protection saved the 
bush, vine or wheat ? Were there others 
beside them not protected—and did they 
die ? How do we know the bone benefit¬ 
ed our corn ? Was there beside it au 
unmanured plot that did not yield half so 
much ? Did we plant whole or half po¬ 
tatoes beside those cut to single eyes, and 
did they not yield as well ? How do we 
know that scraping the bark increased 
the crop of fruit ? Were there other 
trees not scraped of the same age, grow¬ 
ing under precisely the same conditions, 
that did not do half as well ? 
Probably we made none of these com¬ 
parative teste, but we write out our 
“ experience " as if we had done so, and, 
after consciously or unoonsoiously color¬ 
ing our account a little for the good of 
the public, the statement appears in print, 
and, if told in a “taking" way, the story 
goes “the rounds.” Thus it is that 
errors are propagated and the “ truth 
about it” is hard to find out. 
-- 
Covered Yards.—Few farmers in 
America have yet considered the value 
and use of a covered cattle yard. In 
England such are not uncommon, and 
they are coming daily more into use, 
both there and upon the Continent. In 
this country, where building material, 
especially wood, is more abundant and 
cheaper, we feel convinced that their 
adoption would, in many cases, be found 
to pay. Properly constructed, they pro¬ 
tect the cattle from the inclement weath¬ 
er, and allow of their being turned out 
many more days in the year than would 
be otherwise prudent. They also make 
the yard more comfortable and cleanly for 
the cattle to lie down ; and they protect 
the manure from leaching or washing by 
rains. In this way alone a roof would 
often pay a good percentage on its ooat. 
If to the roof we add also a pavement, 
with a covered cistern in the center, into 
which all surplus moisture is conducted, 
we shall then have completed one of the 
most valuable improvements that a dairy 
or stock farm can possess. 
Horns.—High breeding of neat stock 
is almost universally acoompauied by a 
decrease iu the size and strength of the 
horns. Iu the Short-horn and Jersey 
breeds they have become very insignifi¬ 
cant, and might easily be made to disap¬ 
pear by taking a cross from one of the 
pulled breeds most nearly allied in desir¬ 
able qualities to each. We believe that 
an effort iu this direction will pay, and 
pay well. It would be far better if these 
offensive weapons were made to disap¬ 
pear, now that our cattle no longer need 
them as a protection against wild beasts. 
For want of such legitimate use they are 
too often turned into instruments of mu¬ 
tual Hunoyance and injury by the more 
vigorous members of a hero. We have 
no doubt that a “tunk” in the flank from 
the horn of another cow is more often 
the cause of abortion than many think. 
Cheap Bone-Dust.—Nearly every 
farmer has surplus apples, or some oth¬ 
er fruit, that the boys of the neighbor¬ 
hood, and especially of the neighboring 
village, long for. Tell them you will 
give them a peok of apples for a bushel 
of bones, and you will have plenty of 
customers. Then, late in the fall, take a 
little waste wood, pile it with the bones 
in a heap, and hum them until they are 
white and can be pulverized with the 
back of a shovel. This gives you what 
is called bone-ash, a powerful fertilizer, 
and just what is wanted as an ingredient 
of the compost heap. It is the cheapest 
way both to get and utilize the waste 
bones, thousands of bushels of which 
lie around in every community. 
BREVITIES. 
The Hornet is not to be trusted. 
Muck is excellent for Raspberries. 
Delaware is foi id of the Brandywine. 
The only shares that yield a certain dividend 
—plow-shares. 
A good raspberry plantation should yield 
sixty bushels per acre. 
The more you cut it, the better it likes it— 
Couch-grass, Trilicum re pens. 
The Western Triumph Biackbeiry is a favorite 
in Indiana. It is useless with us. 
A plantation of Raspberries should be re¬ 
newed, as a rule, every five years. 
The beBt way to exterminate rats is, like 
weeds, to prevent their germination. 
Carrots or potatoes may be grown between 
the rows of Raspberries for the first year. 
We may call this onr Raspberry and Black¬ 
berry number for 1878. We hope to live to 
give another about this time iu 1879, and to be 
able to tell that many varieties (of Raspber¬ 
ries at least) now under test, are improvements 
upon the well-known sorts- 
Secretaries of fairs over the country will 
accept our best thanks for their invitations to 
attend. 
The Beauty of Hebron potato took the first 
premium at the Fair of the Fairfield Co., N. J., 
Ag’l Society. 
The safest way for this climate, with all the 
foreign sorts of Raspberries or their seedlings, 
i» to bend down the canes and oover them with 
earth. 
Mr. E. P. Roe says: One of the evils of the 
day is the extravagant praise or sweepiug cen¬ 
sure of the various fruits before the public at 
the present time. 
Raspberries are easily raised from seed. 
Wash the pulp from the seed and preserve in 
rather damp sand. Sow half an inch deep in 
fine soil. They will begin to bear in two or 
three years. 
Thackeray advises the choosing of disagree¬ 
able friends. “Though it is a bard and cruel 
thing to say, I would urge you to beware of tak¬ 
ing pleasant fellows for your friends. Choose a 
good, disagreeable frieDd, if you are wise,— a 
surly, steady, economical, rigid fellow.” 
Speaking of hardy Raspberries, there is really 
no such tbiog. 8ome will endure cold, some 
heat, some drought. But there is not one that 
will stand all. Hence it is that in some years 
what we believe to be the hardiest varieties are 
harmed or even cut down to the ground. 
A friend of ours wrote to another friend liv¬ 
ing in a ‘‘malarial neighborhood:” “I hope 
you are all over the painful eflccts of drawing in 
poison with every breath and that yon have re¬ 
solved to move before you have to be moved.” 
We repeat this advioe to those similarly situated. 
Who was it that asked, “ O 'ght not the peo¬ 
ple who say they cannot afford the time and 
money required to supply their tables with small 
fruits, and in ooDsequenoe psy ten times the 
amount in doctors’ bills, to be placed in lunatic 
asylums?” Pray tell us who said that. There 
is something in it we believe. 
A friend sends u« from Lawrence, Kansas, 
a head of Pearl Millet as a sample of what 
Kansas can do in that lino. He gathered over a 
bushel of well ripened heads from a row about 
two rods long. The specimen received by ua 
measures seventeen and a quarter inches in 
length and three and a half in circumference. 
It should always be borue in mind that it is 
only that part of the soil that can be dissolved 
by "water thst is available as plant food. The 
soil may contain an abundance of plant food, 
hut if it Is not ready for use, it might as well 
not be there. Plants can not live on promise 
and the future fertility of the soil is naught to 
them. When they want their dinners tho din¬ 
ners should be ready. 
We agree with a well-known gentleman who ia 
also, rather strangely a minister, a novelist and 
a Binall-frnit cultmist, when he says: “If the 
men are incorrigible " (about small-fruit culture) 
“ let the ladiea of the household take the matter 
in hand. A tithe of the attention bestowed upon 
their bonnets would enable them to master tho 
science of small-fruit raising for all practical 
purposes.” But tho trouble seems to bo with 
many ladies that they think more of that “ tithe’’ 
than they do of smili fruits 1 , 
Extraordinary Longevity. —The list of deaths 
published in the Hartford (Ct ) Weekly Courant, 
Sept. 19, 1878, shows an average longevity 
greater, we presume, than that of any other 
ordinary death record ever printed. The aggre¬ 
gate amount of the ages of the forty persons, 
whose deaths are there recorded, is 2,701 yearB— 
the average being over 67 years. The youngest 
was 21, and the oldest “ more than 100.”— 
Classified, we find those whose ages were be¬ 
tween 20 and 30, 3 ; 30 and 40. 7 ; 40 and 50, 2 ; 
50 and 60. 8 ; 60 and 70, 1; 70 and 80, 6; 80 and 
90. 10; 90 and lOu, 7; “more than 100," 1. 
This last was an old negro man, supposed to be 
105 or 106 years old. 
The proposition that an abnudance in the 
supply of one portion of the food for plants does 
not compensate for a short supply of another 
equally important portion of the food, is aptly 
illustrated bv Mr. Tanner. “A builder,” he 
says, “ may have plenty of stone for the con¬ 
struction he intends to ireot, but if he has little 
mortar his progress is soon stopped for want of 
a further supply. It would not assist him if 
lie increased hia supply of stone. He wants 
something else, and unless this is ready for his 
UHe, he can make no progress.” It is the supply 
of plant-food, which cxi-ts in the smallest quan¬ 
tity, that determines the crop. If, therefore, 
your soil wants potash, all the “ phosphates" in 
the laud are not going to add a head of wheat. 
It is well for all to know that most of the cul¬ 
tivated Raspberries are derived from three spe¬ 
cies. Rubus Idwas, Is the European garden 
Raspberry The stems are tall and erect, and 
the prickles straight and Blender. This species 
increases by suckers. Brinclde’e Orange, Claike, 
Franconia, etc., are examples The Biaek-oap 
varieties, like Davison’s Thornless, Catawissa, 
Mammoth Cluster, etc., have recurving steins, 
the tips of which take root in the ground. 
These are from Rabus occidentnlis. the wild 
black Raspberry The stems are armed with 
hooked prickles. The Philadelphia, Brandywine, 
Kirtland, Herstine etc., are varieties of Rubus 
strigosus. the wild red Raspberry. Thii has up¬ 
right stems, which are beset with bristles. The 
canes are Luoveaaed by suckers. 
You who have trees, shrubs, Lilies, Tulips 
Hyacinths to buy tins fall—bny them now and 
plant them —the sooner the better. Pelargo¬ 
niums (Geraniums) will stand light frosts with¬ 
out any serious harm. If cuttings were made 
and rooted a month or two ago, the old plants 
might better be given away to appreciative 
neighbors who cannoi afford to buy them. Dah¬ 
lias, Tube-roses, Gladioli, etc., may now be 
taken up, dried aud stored away—a dry, frost¬ 
proof cellar fer the first; a warm place for the 
second, aud a cool, dry room for the last. Re¬ 
move the bulblete from the Gladioli bulbs or 
corms, and place them iu thin muslin bags, to 
those who have more plants thau they have 
room for, we would say; Dig a square hole la 
well-drained ground six or seven feet deep. Line 
the sides with hemlock boards, and put the 
plants in this. They will winter nicely. Sashes 
will be needed, of course, to oover the top, upon 
which mats or carpets may be thrown in very 
cold weather. 
