780 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 1 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
Practical Departments: 
Snmrottr Cottage, Thousand Islands, N. T—(Illue- 
lrut.nd) Fiilllser.I’allieer & Co.773 
A Hat-Proof Crib—T. M. II. 773 
Hint* About Work-tV. .1. Fowler..773 
Sllrrirm Hie soil In a dry tune—Is it an advantage 771 
Moisture In thn toll . 774 
.Totting* at Kirby HoiDeoteiid — Ool. F. D. Curtis 774 
Van’s Views..,,,... 774 
How Ninety-Seven BustiWs of Corn Per Aore 
Were Raised-Daniel Sleek.776 
I-iOSt Nation Spring Wheat.. 77ft 
A Few Words About Pears—Gen. W. H. Noble.. 776 
King Of the Pippin*. 776 
Kverv-day Notes—Samuel Parsons. 776 
How Fast Young Forest Trees Grow—Prof. W. J. 
Real . 776 
Henrietta Raspberry Once More—Hale Bros.777 
Extracts from Correspondents’ Getters.......777 
What Other* 8uy. 777 
Catalogues Hnnelvod. . 777 
What Is UutterY-T. H. Hoskins, M. D.778 
Which Breed forrhe Dairy —L. 8. Hardin. 778 
Profit In Keeping Sbeep-W. J. F. 778 
Experiments With Boos in California — R. F. 
Bingham. 778 
Everywhere : 
Fruit Crop Report for the San Jose Valley— 
Chan. H. Shinn.778 
Seneoa. Kan . 779 
Walden. N. Y. 779 
lliOivcvllle.N. Y. 779 
Bear Luke, Minn... 779 
Earned, Kan. 779 
Melrose, Fla. t?79 
Rockford. Ill,. 779 
Perkins. N. Y........... .. 779 
Ithaca, N. Y. 779 
Dunnsvllle, Vu. 779 
Foster's crossing, Ohio. 7"9 
Gallon, Ohio. 779 
Amity city. Minn. 779 
Naples,N. Y. 7*9 
New Hampton, N Y.779 
Augusta, Gn. 779 
Elm Point. Ill. 779 
Garrettsvllle, N. Y. 779 
A nsxners to Correspondent* : 
Utilizing Bones. 779 
Donnelly's Early Champion and Tolman Grapes. 779 
Remedy for I,ice on Cattle and Hogs. 779 
Apples for Virginia . 779 
Fish Pood.i. 779 
Privet Berries. 779 
Pulling Beans. 779 
Miscellaneous... 779 
Communications Received.779 
Domestic Economy ; 
Pen-Thoughts from Every-day House—Annie L. 
Jack..784 
Copperas—Mrs. M. G. R. 781 
Domestic Recipes. 784 
EDITORIAL PACK! 
Skilled Labor.„.. 780 
Purchasing Horses. 780 
The Un»cientittc Temperament. 780 
Howto Eat Milk. 780 
Brevities. 780 
Litbraut: 
Poetry.. . 781 , 786 
Weaker Than a Woman. 781 
Malta Do Vere. 782 
ClaraMorrls and Her Husband. 782 
Recent Literature. 782 
Magazines.... 783 
Sclenilde and Useful. 783 
Woman's Club. 783 
Arau»cment ror the Little Folks-Fern Leaf. 783 
Uselul and Useless Husbands—Johu Lynn.783 
Life’s cheery Autumn Ruth. 783 
One Henson why some Women Accomplish more 
than Others Goolu.783 
A nomn Char-^I. E. It . 783 
Give Your Girls a Chanoo-Aunt Flora. 883 
Reading tor the Young : 
Bponges. 
Pack of Ragamuffins.... _ 
Duties of Scholars—A Cousin 
The Dodo.... 
Sabbath Reading : 
Conscience Void of Offence... 
The Little Orphau. 
News of the Week—Herman.., 
Markets. 
Personals. 
Wit and Humor. 
Advertisements. 
. 786 
. 786 
. 786 
. 786 
.786 
.786 
.781 
.785 
.787 
.788 
785. 787. 788 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLI8HED KVKRY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY DEC. 7, 1878. 
Oua readers are particularly requested to read 
the particulars of our free seed distribution on 
p. 785, under publisher's notices, before ordering 
seeds. We thought we had made the postage 
particulars very plain—but many are sending ns 
too many stamps. A one-oont stamp suffices 
for all except three —the Beauty of Hebron re¬ 
quires a two-oent extra stamp, and the Defiance 
Wheat and Pearl Millet, together, require a two- 
cent extra stamp. 
SKILLED LABOR. 
American agriculture is undergoing a 
rapid change. The oapital invested in it 
is increasing more rapidly than in any 
other industry. The cheap lauds with 
poor dwellings, occupied by the pioneers, 
have become well tilled farms with build¬ 
ings costing three times as much as the 
original value of the land. The sickle, 
scythe and cradle have given plaoe to the 
mower and reaper. Most farm operations 
are done by machinery whioh requires 
Borne meohuujcal skill to manage. The 
evident tendency is to work larger farms, 
the operations of which the owner oan 
only superintend, the labor being almost 
wholly nired. It ousts less, in propor¬ 
tion, to work two hundred than one bun- 
dreii acres, and still less as the farm 
grows larger, provided the labor is skill¬ 
fully directed. And themore machinery 
is substituted for ha:.d labor, the stronger 
will be this tendency to absorb the 
smaller into the larger farms. This has 
been the result in Great Britain, and it is 
not likely to be avoided in the United 
States. We believe it would be better 
for the individual independence of the 
farmers if the small holdings might con¬ 
tinue, instead of their being aggregated 
together, and the present proprietors, 
more or less, becoming laborers. This 
result cannot be avoided, except by co¬ 
operation in the purchase of machinery 
to work small farms, a plan fox whioh we 
may soon point out in another article. 
But this change is strongly demanding 
the substitution of skilled labor on the 
farm for the very unskilled labor at pre¬ 
sent employed. One of the greatest im¬ 
pediments to successfully carrying on 
farming on a large scale, is the fact that 
there are no skilled laborers in the mar¬ 
ket. Farming has been carried on, in this 
country, so much at haphazard, and 
witn bo little order and system, that a 
laborer, when he can find uothing else to 
do or succeeds in nothing else, offers his 
services to the farmer. On the farm he re¬ 
gards success as certain. The consequence 
is that the laborers are entirely unskilled 
in the parts they are performing, and un¬ 
less directed by unusual activity and 
knowledge, the work must be badly done. 
It requires skill everywhere in farming— 
skill to lay out a field for the plow, to 
turn a fine straight furrow, to put it in fine 
tilth for the seed, to sow the seed accu¬ 
rately ; skill in cutting and curing grass, 
in harvesting grain ; still greater skill in 
raising and feeding animals; skill in 
milsing and managing cows; skill in all 
the operations of the dairy. Indeed, 
what operation in agriculture doeB not 
require skill ? And yet a large part of 
all these operations is carried on by 
laborers new to the business, and who 
perform them in the clumsy way of novi¬ 
ces, at wages whioh in Europe are only 
paid to Bkilled mechanics. Perhaps thiB 
explains why the farmers’ profits are all 
gone, when he hires the labor to carry on 
his farm. 
The manufacturer never carries on busi¬ 
ness with such unskilled labor. His 
workmen have served a regular appren¬ 
ticeship at the various branches of his 
manufacture, and he can estimate with a 
reasonable certaiuty the profit upon each 
workman. The Euglish farmer stands on 
as favorable ground as the manufacturer, 
having skilled laborers at his command, 
and oan make a reasonably certain calcu¬ 
lation upon the result of their labor. 
The English plowman serves an appren¬ 
ticeship at this most important specialty 
from the time he is old enough to reach 
the plow-handles till he becomes an ex¬ 
pert ; whilst the American farm-hand 
thinks he can perform this skilled opera¬ 
tion without any previous practice ! The 
American farm hand makes up in assur¬ 
ance what he lacks in practical knowl¬ 
edge. But assurance, however import¬ 
ant in desperate enterprises, will never 
lay a straight and even furrow. The 
American farmer is, no doubt, saved 
from even greater losses through un¬ 
skilled labor, because a large percentage 
of his labor ib done by machinery, which 
works much more perfectly than the un¬ 
skilled hand. But the cost of wear and 
tear of machines operated by unskilled 
hands, is much greater than if they were 
run by experts. 
It is evident that the ohanged condi¬ 
tion of our agriculture must soon compel 
the employment of skilled hands, and 
these skilled hands must be educated be¬ 
fore they can be employed. Agricultural 
laborers are composed too largely of a 
floating, unsettled class, and this must be 
changed before amendment in the degree 
of skill oan be expeoted. They must be 
composed of a class with Bottled and de¬ 
finite ends and aims, who are educated to 
the business as earnestly as mechanics. 
With suoh assistance agriculture will at¬ 
tract capital, and afford it a safe invest¬ 
ment. Skilled labor is the immediate de¬ 
mand of the future in agriculture. 
- 
PURCHASING HORSES. 
Few persons who purohase and use 
horses are able to make a selection of an 
animal with a sufficient knowledge of 
what they are buying. It is rarely that a 
hors© is bought except upon faith in the 
declarations of the seller, and a haphaz¬ 
ard sort of dependence upon luck. The 
oonsequenoeis that when a man is very fre¬ 
quently “ stuck ” in his bargain, and when 
ne suBpects or discovers it, Le thinks it 
no harm to put off the beabt upon some 
other purchaser in the same way that it 
was palmed off on him. “Is he all 
right?” asks the would-be purchaser. 
“ Well, I bought him so, and so far us I 
know, he is all right,” replies the seller, 
tryiDg to make believe to his own con¬ 
science that he really knows very little, 
although he may think a great deal. 
Now, it is very easy for any person of 
judgment to learn to know, when he is buy¬ 
ing a horse, whether the animal is sound 
or not. Blemishes speak for themselves, 
but unsotindness requires a close inspec¬ 
tion and some knowledge, for its detec¬ 
tion, The feet are the most usual seat of 
unsouudness in work horses. From the 
general careless habit of caring for horses 
and the reckless manner of using them, 
there is a large proportion of them un¬ 
sound in the feet. But disease of the 
feet is easily detected, although there may 
be no apparent lameness. An intending 
purchaser should have the horse brought 
out before bim, and watch the animal as 
he stands at rest. If the owner is contin¬ 
ually starting the horse into motion and 
urging him to “show off,” something 
may be suspected ; because it iH when the 
horse is at perfect rest that his weak 
points are divulged. If the horse is 
sound, hewill stand squarely on his limbs, 
without moving any of them, the feet 
beiDg placed flat upon the ground and all 
the legs plumb and naturally posed. If 
one foot is thrown forward with the toe 
pointing to the ground and the heel raised, 
or if the foot is lifted from the ground and 
the weight taken from it, disease of the 
navicular bone may be suspected, or at 
least tenderness, which is a precursor of 
disease. If the foot is thrown out,the toe 
raised and the heel brought down, the 
horse has suffered from lamnitis—found¬ 
er— or the back sinews have been sprain¬ 
ed, and he is of little future value. When 
the feet are all drawn together beneath 
the horse, if there has been no disease, 
there is a misplacement of the limbs at 
least, and a weak disposition of the mus¬ 
cles. If the horse stands with his feet 
spread apart, or straddles with the hind 
legs, there is weakness of the loius and 
the kidneys are disordered. When the 
knees are bent and the legs totter and 
tremble, the beast has been ruined by 
heavy pulling and will never be right 
again, whatever rest and treatment hemay 
have. Contracted or ill-formed hoofs 
speak for themselves. 
If the eyes are of a bluish or milky 
cast, they constitutionally tend to opthal- 
mia and there will be certain trouble 
there. If the ears are thrown backwards, 
the temper is bad ; if they are thrown 
forward and the horse starts nervously at 
every movement or sound, he will prob¬ 
ably be a shier and unsafe to drive. If 
the hind legs are scarred, he has been a 
kicker. If the knees are blemished, he is 
apt to stumble. If the skin is rough 
and harsh and doeB not move easily and 
smoothly to the touch, the horse is a heavy 
eat.Ar and has poor digestion. When these 
peculiarities are absent and there is nothing 
to cause suspicion in any other way, the 
horse may be taken to be all right so far 
as soundness of foot, limb and digestive 
organs are concerned. Disease or imper¬ 
fection of the respiratory organs may be 
discovered by pinching or holding the 
throat, by observing the behavior of the 
horse when he is speeded, or by placing 
the ear at the side of the chest, when any 
sound heard other than a clear, resonant 
one, is indicative of trouble. 
■-« » » 
The Unscientific Temperament. 
Men who form their opinions hastily 
and adhere to th«-m tenaciously, are un¬ 
fitted by the very constitution of their 
minds for scientific investigations. Usu¬ 
ally the less substantial are the grounds 
for such a person’s opinions, the more 
violent is he in the expression of them, 
and the more intolerant of other views. 
We have too many writers of thiH type 
in agricultural journalism. They will 
give no attention to facts that oppose 
their preconceived ideas, and have no 
other method of opposing the propound¬ 
ers of such facts but by a weak scornful- 
ness. Truth cannot be put down in that 
way, but its progress may be hindered 
when those who find pooh - poohing ! 
more convenient than reasoning occupy 
conspicuous places. The history of all 
progress shows the enoounters of truth 
with this false conservatism, which stands 
in the way of progress as snow obstructs 
a railway engine. Sometimes it is packed 
in drifts so hard that it haB to be shoveled 
out. But though hindered, truth makes 
its way out at last. 
- ♦♦♦■- - 
How to Eat Milk. — There are 
many who say, “ I like milk, but milk 
does not like me,”—that is, it does not 
agree with them. The reason for this, in 
must oases, is, that the milk coagulates in 
the stomaeh in too firm a curd to be easily 
digested. But many who cannot drink 
milk, or eat bread and milk, find no diffi¬ 
culty in digesting a bovri of baked apples 
and milk. Upon this hint tbe experi¬ 
ment has been successfully tried, by a 
physician of large experience, of telling 
his* patients who could not digest milk to 
use apple-sauce as a concomitant, taking 
u spoonful of apple alternately with a 
spoonful of bread, crackers, or pudding- 
and milk. The apple prevents the for¬ 
mation of a solid mass in the stomach. 
and its juice also aids digestion, so that 
no distress or sense of heaviness follows 
after a meal thus taken. This informa¬ 
tion is given for the benefit of Rural 
readers, and we think it will be worthy of 
trial, though, perhaps, not successfully 
in every case. 
BREVITIES!. 
We are now laying down and covering up our 
grape vines and raspberry canes. 
Mb. Templin thinks there is as much in pedi¬ 
gree in corn as in horses or cattle. 
In a Bbort time wo shall present our readers 
with a poultry number of the Rural. 
Faumebb are liable to forget the necessity of 
pure water for their stock during winter. 
Uncover the celery during warm days, or 
when the temperature is above freezing, and re¬ 
cover at night. 
Ask youraelf: "What can I do now that 
would otherwise have to be done in the spring 
when time iB twice as valuable,"—and do it. 
We are now preparing articles and illustrations 
for a poultry number of the Rural New-York- 
kr. Any hints or suggestions from our readers, 
the outcome of experience or observation, will be 
welcomed. 
Within a few weeks wo have had three well-to- 
do city gentlemen apply to us for the names of 
intelligent fannerB who would take their sons'oii 
their farms and bo willing to instruct them and 
give them their board and bed for their ser¬ 
vices. 
Speaking of Catalpa Bpeciosa in last week’s 
issue, speciosa ought to have boon given as a 
variety instead of a specific name. The correc¬ 
tion was made in the proof but overlooked. It 
is claimed that Catalpa biguonioides speciosa 
is hardier than the spccieB. 
We have heard it stated more than once that 
Bridgeport, (Conn.) is indebted to Palliser, Pal- 
iiser <fe Co., more than to all other architects for 
its beautiful suburban architecture. We present 
this week the second or an origiual series of 
elevations and plans whioh they have prepared 
for us. 
It seems to us, from a oaBual notice of re¬ 
turns, that the average yield of Clawson wheat 
is far higher than that of any other variety. It 
is now well known that this wheat should be 
well seasoned before it is ground. Wo find, also, 
that the bread made now is better than that 
made earlier from Dour ground at the same 
time. 
Tbe price of the Bubal New-Yorker is now 
two dollars to all. Those, therefore, who can¬ 
not get up clubs, or who do not live near club 
agents, may send ns the money direct, feeliug 
assured it is the lowest price. While those who 
spend time in getting up clubs are unquestiona¬ 
bly entitled to pay, it has long Boomed to us that 
all are entitled to reoeive the paper at the same 
prioe. 
There are few plants more BliOyvy in appro 
priate places than the American Aloe (Agave 
Americana). The plants grow very fast and in¬ 
crease by Huckors whioh are readily separated 
from their parent plant. All may be wintered 
by covoring the roots with soil and keeping them 
where the thermometer does not sink below 28°. 
We do not know of a line plant that may be 
wintered with less trouble, or that will stand 
more neglect. 
We would suggest to those of our good friends 
who can afford to do so, that The Rural New- 
Yorker would prove, to those interested in its 
departments, a more suitable present than many 
otberB which are thoughtlessly selected. Wo 
have well-grounded hopes that the Rural for 
1879 will prove more stirring, more instructive, 
more independent, moro earnest than ever be¬ 
fore. Ah this year we have inaugurated several 
new features not promised, so we desire for 
next year to please our readers beyond their ex¬ 
pectations. 
Mr. Thom ah, i of erring to what Mr, Lovottsays 
respecting the identity of F.arly Andrews with 
Highland Hardy , of Norwalk with Naomi and 
Franconia; and of Henrietta with Hollo de 
Foutenay, says that a single season or single ob¬ 
servation is hardly sufficient to determine 
questions of this sort, the same variety often 
differing more under inilnences of seasons and 
soils than others well known to be unlike, and 
vice versa. The seedling from any sort may ap¬ 
pear very much like the parent and be pronounc¬ 
ed identical, while really a diBtiuot variety. 
It is a singular fact, strikingly illustrated 
within the past ton yoars in the case of real es¬ 
tate, that people are readiest to buy when the 
article is at its highest prioe. Thousands of 
people made fortunes by holding real estate and 
selling it at the right time, it is true; but tens of 
thousands have been reduced to poverty by not 
Belling. There is little doubt that real estate is 
now below its real valuo. Yet there are no buy¬ 
ers, because there Is uo immediate prospect of an 
appreciation. Bat for this impatience for imme¬ 
diate returns, farmers would give more thought 
to planting timber trees. There iH a sure mar¬ 
ket in the future and those who sow now will 
then be the fortunate reapers. 
-» • » - 
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 
paokage, and alBO, because tbe seeds may be for¬ 
warded at any time regardless of the weather, 
while the potatoes may be injured by frost. We 
mention tliis 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 
ageutH’ ontfitH will now be forwarded free to ail 
who apply. 
Our Free Seed Distribution will remain open 
to all subscribers who may apply until further 
notice. 
The Rural New-Yorker is invariably discon¬ 
tinued at the end of the subscription term. 
