784 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 30 
TABLE OF OOHTEHTS. 
Practical Departments : 
Convenient Dairy Barn—(Illustrated.).....767 
Laree Crops of Corn... 757 
Potatoes as a Form Crop—W. J. Fowler. 758 
gome Mistaken Ideas... 758 
Moisture-retHlntng Power of the Soil..... 758 
KarmlnK In Kansas I,. J. Templin... 758 
The Apple Orchard—No. 3—Clinton. 759 
Facts About the Japanese Persimmon— Chas. H. 
Sblnn . 759 
Tests of Garden Seeds—g. Kufus Mason. 769 
The Old-Man Cantus. 759 
Eulalia .laponica VarleRatn— Jus, Taplin.759 
Catulpa Bpeclosa. (?) 8. T- F. 76i 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 8tatlon.... TfiO 
Notes of ourrent Events. 700 
A Texas Homestead.70U 
Maiutitmunt and Diseases of the Dog. 700 
Whit Others gay. 701 
Malay Saw. 701 
Catalogues Received .701 
New Convertible Mill.701 
Soapstone as a Lubricator .701 
International Fair—An Opportunity for Cheese- 
Makers—Prof. L. B. Arnold..... 702 
Milk Record. 702 
Everywhere: 
California Notes—*' Specs”. 
Crop Note* fromNortheastern N. Y. 
gt-. Marks. Fin. 
Henrico Co.,V«. 
8t. Joseph, Mich. 
Roselle. N. J. 
Florence, lovra .. 
Marshal I town, Iowa. 
lola, Kansas. 
Granville, N. Y. 
Stark Co.. Fla... 
Belle Plain, Iowa. 
Hendemon, Va... 
Danvers. Ill. 
East Hamilton, N. V. 
762 
702 
702 
762 
702 
703 
703 
7(33 
703 
703 
703 
703 
763 
703 
763 
Answers to Correspondents: 
Salt as a Fertilizer on Sandy Soil. 763 
Thoroughbreds and Grades. 763 
Large Yield of Hungarian Grass Seed. 763 
Keeping Celery In Winter.703 
When and Howto Plant Seeds of RURAL Free 
Seed Distribution.703 
Miscellaneous.703 
Communications Received. 763 
Mandrake— J.Smuffcr. 768 
Hand Labor and Machinery. 763 
Domestic Economy : 
The Dreadful Dish-Washing — Mary Wnger- 
Flsher.768 
Behind the Curtain—Eva E. E .768 
Scientific Cookery—Sairey Gump. 708 
Domestic Recipes. 708 ft 
KMTOUIAL Pag* : 
Drugs us Food and Prink.-.. 
Observation the Key to Success 
The Movement of Grain. 
Our Plant and Seed Exchange. 
Effects of Manure...... 
Brevities.. 
704 
703 
7(31 
7(34 
704 
Literary : 
M o«try. 706, 770 
Fancy Articles for Christmas Gifts—(Illustrated) 705 
Weaker Than a Woman. 766 
An Essay on Foods.... 707 
A Rival for Edison. 767 
Recent Literature.707 
Magazines. 767 
Reacting for the Young : 
Our Schools. 770 
A New Departure. 770 
Letters from Boys and Girls. 770 
Punier,...,. 770 
Sabbath Reading: 
Progressof Religious Ideas Through Successive 
Ages. 770 
News of the Week—Herman. 708 
Markets. 709 
Personals.. 771 
Wit and Humor. 772 
Advertisements. 769, 771. 772 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY 8ATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY NOY. 80, 1878. 
Our readers are particularly requested to read 
the particulars of our free seed distribution on 
p. 769, under publisher’s notices, before ordering 
seeds. We thought we had made the postage 
particulars very plain—but many are sending us 
too many stamps. A one-cent stamp suffices 
for all except three —the Beauty of Hebron re¬ 
quires a two-cent extra stamp, and the Defiance 
Wheat and Pearl Millet, together, require a two- 
cent extra stamp. 
Our readers who apply will have the Beauty 
of Hebron potato sent to them separately, be¬ 
cause to send this with seeds makes an awkward 
package, and also, because the seeds may be for¬ 
warded at any time regardless of the weather, 
while the potatoes may be injured by frost. We 
mention this for the reason that our friends re¬ 
ceiving the potato only, may think the rest of 
their selection has been overlooked. 
Our new Premium Lists, specimen copies and 
agents' outfits will now be forwarded free to all 
who apply. 
Oub Free Seed Distribution will remain open 
to all subscribers who may apply until further 
notioe. 
The Rural New Yorker is invariably discon¬ 
tinued at the end of the subscription term. 
DRUGS, AS FOOD AND DRINK. 
Whin the tomato was beginning to be 
introduced as an article of diet, many 
years ago, it was extolled, not so much as 
a wholesome fruit, but as an excellent al¬ 
terative medicine, “ acting on the liver 
like calomel,” and, strange as it may 
seem, there is no doubt that this recom¬ 
mendation had a powerful effect in iutro- 
dnoing the tomato into the gardens of the 
people. So general did the idea of its 
medicinal virtues become that the patent- 
medicine men took it up, and for a while 
tomato syrups and bitters were for sale 
in all the apothecary shops. But famili¬ 
arity soon bred oontempt, and for a long 
time we have heard nothing of the medici¬ 
nal virtues of the tomato. But recently the 
poor tomato has been cried down as muoh 
as it was once cried up, and all the coun¬ 
try papers have heralded the ridiculous 
statement that the use of the tomato 
caused cancer! And as the fools are by 
no moans all dead yet, a good many be- ' 
lieved the story! The simple truth is, 
that the tomato is no more a medicine, or 
a drug, than apples and pears. If it 
were, that is, if it bad any disturbing ac¬ 
tion upon any of the functions of the 
body—which is the true mark of a medi¬ 
cine—it ought to be rejected from every 
garden, and used only under medial ad- 
vioe, in suitable cases. 
There is no instance where any drug 
has come into common use, that injury, 
and often great injury, has not resulted. 
To say nothing of alcohol and opium, the 
popular use of nervines, like tobaooo, tea 
and coffee, has been most baneful to the 
public health, and the noteworthy in¬ 
crease of insanity and nervous diseases is 
justly attributable to them more than to 
any other cause. 
And now another harmless garden vege¬ 
table is being pushed as of a won¬ 
derful medicinal value. Celery, that 
delicate adjunct, of the dinner - table, 
is heralded to us as a cure for “ner¬ 
vousness ” and “ palpitation of the 
heart.” One wiseacre tells us that he has 
known many men and women who, from 
various causes, had become so muoh 
affected by nervousness that when they 
stretched out their bauds they shook like 
aspen leaves on a windy day, and by a 
moderate daily use of the blanched foot¬ 
stalks of celery as a salad, they became as 
strong and steady in limbs as other peo¬ 
ple. He has known others so nervous 
that the least annoyance put them in a 
state of agitation, and they were in con¬ 
stant perplexity and fear, who were also 
effectually cured by a moderate use of 
blanched celery as a salad at meal time. 
He has also known others to be oured of 
palpitation of the heart. Everybody en¬ 
gaged in labor weakening to the nerves 
should, according to his opinion, use 
celery daily in the season, and onions in 
its stead when not in season. 
Onions, too 1 How the materia rncdica 
is being enriched! 
Now, if there is any region of the coun¬ 
try where “many” men and women 
can be found diseased as this person de¬ 
scribes, it is probably the result of their 
already excessive use of drugs affecting 
the nervous system, and the cure is not to 
add another to the list, but to leave off 
those they are already using. They need 
not, on that account, forbear the flavorous 
celery, or the still more flavorous onion. 
These are good victuals, and for that rea¬ 
son they cannot serve as medicines. 
They will neither harm nor oure; but 
they will gratify and nourish, and, with 
tbfl tomato and all other good fruits and 
vegetables, will prove as promotive of 
health as fresh air and pure water—be¬ 
cause they will not acl upon any of the 
organs of the body to disturb their func¬ 
tions, as all drugs and medicines will.. 
-- 
OBSERVATION THE KEY TO SUCCESS. 
by a proper system of observation, they 
ought to settle, in a few years, most of 
the vexed questions that now distract our 
agriculturists. Yet we know that twenty 
farmers in discussing any question in 
agriculture, will give about as many 
opinions as there are persons in the dis¬ 
mission, and this arises from a want of ac¬ 
curate observation—taking in all the cir¬ 
cumstances and giving proper weight to 
all the points of variation. 
But we see that whenever the same 
aocute observation is brought to bear 
upon the facts of agriculture as upon 
mechanical inventions, results equally 
important are obtained. Let us refer to 
the breeding of Short-horns by the Ool- 
lingB and Bates, of Long-horns and Lei¬ 
cester sheep by Bakewell. Their sucoess 
beyond the breeders before them was the 
result of closer observation of the facts 
concerning animal growth, and they fol¬ 
lowed these hints by experiments which 
settled the accuracy of their judgment. 
Rarey subdued the wildest passions of the 
horse that no other had been able to curb 
or guide, by putting in practice the sim¬ 
plest observations. 
The habit of accurate observation, to 
be developed among the mass of farmers, 
is really the one thing now most needful 
to the future progress of agriculture. 
Every farmer is surely capable of adding 
something to the general stock of knowl¬ 
edge belonging to his occupation. We 
should be very glad to be the means of 
inducing some thousands of farmers to 
begin a system of oloae observation of all 
the facts established in their practice. 
The agricultural journal must be the 
chronioler of the best practice of its time. 
Its highest aim can only aspire to be the 
medium of communication between those 
who know and those who want to know. 
We are extremely anxious to inorease the 
number of both these classes. 
The Rural New-Yorker takes in the 
whole field of agriculture, and wishes to 
instruct its readers in all departments. 
There is, therefore, no fact or experiment 
in the wide range of agricultural activity 
that does not interest its readers. We 
wish every reader to take a special inte¬ 
rest in all the other readers of this paper, 
and show his interest by oommnnicatiug 
some fact or experiment that has oome 
under his own observation, or been 
worked out by his own hand. He need 
not be particular about the phraseology 
in which he states his foots—let him give 
them to ns in the simplest and plainest 
words that oonvey lus meaning. We are 
only anxious that the facts necessary to a 
full understanding of the case should be 
given. 
Soils are almost infinite in variety of 
texture and situation, and an account 
of an experiment with a given crop, to be 
of any value to the distant reader, must 
give a description of the soil, the fer¬ 
tiliser used, the latitude or temperature, 
the aspect, the prevailing wind, &o. If 
he is writing about tests in feeding ani¬ 
mals, let him state the age, the food—kind 
and quantity—the time fed, and the re¬ 
sult in gain, &o. We wisli to turn all 
farmers into observers and reporters—in¬ 
to agricultural scientists, who shall quite 
understand the management of their own 
business. 
-- 
In looking over the broad fields of agri¬ 
culture, its successes, difficulties and fail¬ 
ures, the first thing that strikes the in¬ 
vestigator is the want of observation— 
accurate observation —in the farming 
class. It is as if the traveler should 
never learn the road ovor which he is 
traveling every week of his life. In every 
walk of life we often attribute to genius 
what is merely the result of observation. 
The law of gravitation exhibited itself to 
all mankind befora Newton, yet his eye 
took in the whole philosophy on observ¬ 
ing the fall of an apple. To the mind of 
Watt the forcible ejection of Bteam from a 
tea-kettle suggested that embodiment of 
power—-the steam engine. Yet this ac¬ 
tion of steam had been before the eyes of 
all men for thousands of years. 
A German workman in a gypsum stone 
quarry traveled across a meadow in go¬ 
ing to and returning from his work; a 
clergyman of the name of Meyer, who 
saw this field every day, observed the 
greater luxuriance of grass on each side 
of this path than elsewhere in the field. 
This simple observation laid the founda¬ 
tion for the extensive use of plaster as a 
fertilizer for the last hundred years. But 
how many thousands of farmers travel 
the same road year after year, like the 
German workman in the gypsum quarry, 
without seeing anything on either side, 
leaving all practical instructions to be 
drawn by outside observers ? 
What an immense field for observation 
agriculture presents ! and what an over¬ 
whelming oorps of observers the six 
minion of fanners ought to make I Why, 
THE MOVEMENT OF GRAIN. 
The receipts of grain at the ohief ports 
for the past two years for the ten months 
ending Nov. 2, 1878, were as follows : 
Cities. 
New York. 
Boston. 
Port'and. 
Montreal. 
Philadelphia. 
Baltimore. 
New Orleans. 
1877. 
61,023.466 bu. 
11,625 427 
889,843 
11,876 728 
17,621,969 
23 056.384 
6,246.327 
1878. 
107.071.411 bU. 
15,691,430 
1.003,932 
12,487,420 
33,236,701 
84.167,000 
9,152,961 
Total: 
184,088,123. 214,260.615. 
The inorease of 1878 over 1867 is 60 per 
oent and equal to more than 80 millions 
of bushels. The vastness of the business 
of transporting and shipping all this grain 
is almost beyond our comprehension. An 
aggregate of 700,000 carloads or 2,300 
every day of the year, goes to make up the 
grand total which represents a line of 
oars which plaoed end to end would reach 
from Chicago to London or Paris, or a 
distance of more than 4000 miles. 
The result of all the labor and iudustry 
involved in the production and disposal 
of this quantity of grain, reaches into the 
midBt of every family in the land ; there 
are none so low and none bo high, but 
their interest have been favorably af¬ 
fected by it. That this beneficial influ¬ 
ence baa been enlarged 60 per oent the 
past year, will go a great way towards 
accounting for the improved oondition of 
affairs ; the more so, as it is true that the 
fact we are considering relates to but a 
small fragment of the whole business of 
the oountry, which begins with agricul¬ 
ture, which rests upon it, and which is 
supported by it. For many years there 
has not been so auspioions a prospect for 
the closing year, nor for the opening of a 
coming one; and at this season of thank¬ 
fulness when men’s beartB bound with 
gratitude for favors received, it is some¬ 
thing even for the stony-hearted Grad- 
grinds, that we can give them figures 
whereon to rejoice. 
-- 
Our Plant and Seed Exchange. 
—Last year and the year before we 
offered the use of our columns to our 
friends for the purpose of facilitating the 
reciprocal interchange of plants, bulbs 
and seeds. 
If A. had more than he needed of cer¬ 
tain sorts and wished to exchange his sur¬ 
plus stock for others of which he was de¬ 
ficient or destitute, the announcement of 
the nature of the kinds of which he had a 
superabundance, and of those in which 
he was lacking, put him into communica¬ 
tion with those whose means and desires 
would lead to an exchange of floral and 
other treasures. After a trial, however, 
we are regretfully obliged to discontinue 
this “Exohange.” Of course, if the an¬ 
nouncement is made for one, it must be 
made for another. Now, we have discov¬ 
ered that the multitude of names thus 
made public were UBed for improper pur¬ 
poses, while others, in making announce¬ 
ments, had business axes to grind, etc. 
Accordingly, we are forced to put an end 
to this business, although there are up¬ 
wards of one hundred announcements 
, laying in our pigeon-holes. | 
- * • ♦ 
Effects of Manures.—A Tribune 
correspondent says that certain parts 
which were manured heavily with stable 
manure thirty years ago, now yield far 
more wheat than the other parts of the 
same field. This is an important foot. 
It will be remembered that Mr. J. B. 
Lawes wrote us that the difficulty of com¬ 
paring the effects of commercial fertili¬ 
zers with those of stable manures was 
owing to the Blow action of the latter. 
BREVITIES. 
f - 
Clawson beats Fultz in Michigan. 
We have not beard much this year about Iq- 
dian Summer. 
Well shaped potatoes of medium size are the 
best to save for seed. 
A. L. Murdock, of Mass., says, “Two-thirds 
of our potatoes are Early Rose and mostly dis¬ 
eased. 
The distinctions made between the results of 
scientific training and practical skill are hard to 
understand. 
We are working at our seeds as hard as ever 
we can, so as to be ready to begin the distribu¬ 
tion this year. 
The pomological article by “Clinton” tells 
nothing new. But it tells all that needs to be 
told, in a plain, forcible way. 
Mr. Taylor, of London, says that Amerioan 
potatoes do not retain their good qualities long 
after leaving their native country. 
The members of the Appropriate Committee 
of the Mich. State Agricultural Society are con¬ 
vinced that Michigan is second to no State in 
the Union in making good butter and cheese. 
We state an impression only when we say that 
we believe the Seokel pear has paid those who 
have sent it to the New York market the past 
season better than any other variety, or, exclud¬ 
ing Bartlett, better than any other two varieties. 
Many of our subscribers are asking ub to give 
instructions as to the planting and culture of 
the seeds we offer. We will do so after they are 
distributed. But really all of them will germi¬ 
nate and grow so easily that “ instructions ” are 
scarcely needed. 
How to keep plantB in the house is a subject 
about which many persons inquire every year. 
The advice given too often makes a mountain 
out of & mole-hill. The whole story may, we 
think, be told in a few words. Use sandy loam 
—keep the pots clean ; give them sun and frosh 
air. For tne mealy-bug use alcohol, for green 
lice (aphides), tobaooo fumigations. 
Pruninos from desirable sorts of Grapes may 
now be easily obtained. Make cuttings a foot 
in length, set them in tronohes a foot in depth, 
six inohee apart, and fill in with loam, pressing 
it firmly from time to time, then oover the 
trenoh with some light material, Buoh as straw 
or leaves. Many of these will form roots next 
spring and may be transplanted in the fall. 
Thus everybody having land, may have grape¬ 
vines at a small oast. 
--- 
We earnestly request that all letter's containing 
money, or any communication intended for the 
Business Department of the paper , be addressed 
to the Editor , the Publisher, or The Rural New- 
Yorker, and not to any individual. We cannot 
otherwise guarantee the prompt entry of names 
upon our books, or the acknowledgment of money. 
-♦»+--- 
We offered, Borne time ago, to sell the outs 
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 oonld not undertake to do bo. Persons 
wishing to purchase, must select from files of 
the Rural New-Yorker. . 
