842 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 24 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLI8HBD EVERY 8ATURDAY. 
Addroat 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY DEO. 21, 1878. 
We will be pleased to send one or more copies 
of the Rubai, New-Yobkeb free to any of our 
subscribei-s sufficiently interested in Us welfare 
to be willing to hand them to their neighbors for 
inspection. An intimation by postal card will 
suffice. 
PARTICULAR KOTICE, 
Applicants for seeds will please observe that 
the postage on any possible selection of ten 
sorts of seeds, is neves more than five cents. 
A one-cent stamp suffices for any selection of 
ten varieties exclusive of the Beauty of Hebron 
potato, Heart Millet and Defiance wheat. If the 
first of these three is included in the list, then a 
two cent extra stamp is needed, and if the sec¬ 
ond and third are included, an extra two cent 
stamp is also required. 
Ous 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 
forwarded at any time regardless of the weather, 
while the potatoes may be ii>j ured by froat. We 
mention this for the reason that our friends 
reoeiving the potato only, may think the rest of 
their selection has been overlooked. 
| The social character of Christmas-tide 
observance is also worthy of commenda¬ 
tion. Americans have too few holidays, 
and should not fail to properly improve 
all they have. Christmas should be a 
holiday and more, in that it gathers to¬ 
gether families who by Bocial intercourse 
on this annual meeting, keep the feeling 
of kinship bright and active. Let care 
be gone and mirth and merriness prevail. 
Let the old be young again, and the 
young feel their companionship and 
pleasure, while all unite iu best endeavor 
to make it truly a Merry Christmas. 
When or where the custom of making 
Christmas Gifts was introduced, it may 
be difficult to determine. We read that 
the wise men who journeyed from the East, 
following the star that finally stood over 
Bethlehem, brought gifts of gold and 
frankincense and myrrh. It is a happy 
conceit that this was the institution of 
Christmas gifts, although it may not boar 
strict examination. Wherever it origi¬ 
nated, the practice is one worthy of ap¬ 
proval, although, like many other good 
customs, it can be abused. It is not the 
expensiveness of the gift that gives it its 
chief value. Unless love goes with it, 
the riohest present is best unbestowed, 
but love gives to the meanest thing a 
quality above valuation. Remember this 
in your choosing and you will not choose 
unwisely. 
Even good wishes are not, we trust, 
without effect in adding to the amount of 
happiness in the world, and with this end 
in view, we most sincerely wish our 
readers, each and all—A Merry Christ¬ 
mas. 
■■ ■ -»♦+ 
TO OUR READERS. 
nals, to themselves, and to the com¬ 
munity that support them. The pub¬ 
lishers themselves would resent it as an 
unpardonable insult were they personally 
accused of lying, of stealing or of swind¬ 
ling—and yet that is just what they in¬ 
directly do when they knowingly lend 
their columns to the encouragement of 
such frauds—especially as the friends 
who support their journals are the very 
people to be defrauded. “Readers have 
eyes and experience and judgment,’' says 
the publisher. “They can judge for 
themselves.” But the fact that these ad¬ 
vertisements pay the advertisers and that 
thousands of well-meaning people are 
swindled out of their money every year, is 
proof that many do not judge for them¬ 
selves, and it is as much the mission of the 
press to guard the public against sack 
well-to-do swindlers as against those who 
have not the means to pay for advertis¬ 
ing in “respectable journals.” In fact, 
a publisher by knowingly admitting 
fraudulent advertisements to his columns, 
enters into a partnership with the swind¬ 
ler, inasmuch as the money paid him for 
the advertisement is in reality his share 
of the plunder out of which the confed¬ 
erates have cheated their dupes. 
It has been said that it is impossible to 
determine in all cases whether or not the 
advertisement is what it professes to be. 
This is true. It is not, however, the less 
a publisher’s duty to make a reasonable 
amount of inquiry, just as he would to 
determine tho responsibility of those who 
ask for credit. With all due diligence, we 
are aware that the publisher cannot always 
acquaint himself with the business or in¬ 
tentions of the advertiser. It is against 
a class of disreputable advertising, so 
glaring that he who runs may read, that 
we are speaking, and the publication of 
which is proof conclusive that the pub¬ 
lisher cares not one whit for the well¬ 
being of the readers he professes to serve 
and to enlighten. 
“But see here,” remarks a friend; 
“you advertise that you will distribute 
twenty-five thousand dollars’ worth of rare 
seeds among your subscribers who apply. 
That is your advertisement. Is it 
honest ? ” We reply—Yes, it is. We 
have a right to presume that twenty thou¬ 
sand of our readers will apply for our seeds 
before the distribution is discontinued. 
We promise to send from twenty varieties 
a choice of any ten. That would make 
more than two hundred thousand packets, 
for we do not know whieh of the twenty 
will be selected. Now we know that the 
seeds we offer, if they could be obtained 
at all, would cost an average of twenty- 
five cents per packet at retail. They do 
not cost vs that, and there is no pretence 
made that they do, even if we make an 
extravagant aocount of our labor for 
several years past in raising the plants, as 
well as of the seeds we are obliged to pur¬ 
chase. But two hundred thousand pack¬ 
ets at twenty-five cents each would 
amount to fifty thousand dollars, which 
is twice the amount which we announce. 
This “free seed distribution” is offered 
to all of our subscribers the same as the 
distribution of the outtings of Pelargo¬ 
niums and of the beautiful willow, Salix 
pentandra, which we have made during 
the year, Even the postage upon these 
has been divided with our friends, or not 
charged at all, so that it could not be said 
by over-shrewd people that this was made 
a partial souroe of compensation. So it 
is with our present seed distribution. 
The postage costs us (as those receiving 
the seeds may see) more than we ask. 
For instance, we charge two oents’ post¬ 
age on the Beauty of Hebron. Every 
envelope will be found to have a three 
cent stamp upon 'it. We charge but one 
cent for the choice of ten varieties of 
seeds excluding Pearl Millet and Defi¬ 
ance Wheat, while we are obliged to pay 
two cents’ postage. The postage on tho 
Defianoe Wheat and Pearl Millet costs 
ub the same as we charge, viz., atwo-eent 
stamp. The entire collection of seeds 
whioh we are now preparing for the mail 
would well fill a room twenty-five feet 
square, while we have already received 
from the manufacturers fifty thousand 
envelopes, and the work is probably not 
one-quarter done. It is work of this kiud 
—work, too, in whioh we delight—that 
verifies the words of the Scientific Farmer 
that “the Rural New-Yorker is estab¬ 
lishing a new era in agriculture, and 
bringing farming out of the rut of the 
commonplace.” We want our readers to 
plaoe confidence in the Rural, and we 
mean to be worthy of it. Doing more 
than we promise to do and exoludiug all 
advertisements whioh are calculated to do 
harm are among the methods which we 
have adopted, and whioh, if life be spared, 
we propose to continue. When our acts 
and our professions are not in reasonable 
aocord, we hope our best friends will give 
us up. We have only now to add that 
We earnestly request that all letters containing 
money, or any communication intended for the 
Bubiness Department of the paper, be addressed 
to the EdUor, the Publisher, or Tee Bubal New- 
Yobkeb, and not to any individual. We cannot 
otherwise guarantee the prompt entry of names 
upon our books, or the acknowledgment of money. 
Oub readers are particularly requested to read 
the particulars of our free seed distribution on 
p. 817, under publisher’s notices, before ordering 
seeds. 
MERRY CHRISTMAS. 
The early settlers of Virginia were ad¬ 
herents of the Church of England with 
all its forms and ceremonies, its fasts and 
its feasts. Those of Maryland were 
Catholics. In both States Christmas was 
observed as in England and on the Conti¬ 
nent—with religious aervioes, decorations, 
illuminations, fasting, merry-making and 
the exchange of gifts. Here as there, 
“ On Christmas Eve the bells were run?. 
On Cbnaunas Ere the mass was suu«.” 
On the other hand, we find the early 
sottlera of New England so averse to fol¬ 
lowing the customs of the Church that, 
not only were Churoh festivals ignored, 
but they strove to make their customs in 
all ways as dissimilar as possible. As 
proof,of this, instance the fact that prayers 
at funerals were not made until many 
years after the first settlement of Plym¬ 
outh Colony. 
But the breaking down of sectarian land¬ 
marks and the smoothing of the most an¬ 
gular of Puritanic notions once commenc¬ 
ed have never oeased. Year after year, 
fresh inroads were made, and now there 
is scarcely a village in New England 
where some of the inhabitants do not, to 
a greater or less extent, remember the 
return of Christmas Day and enjoy its so¬ 
cial and religious observances. 
It is the liberal-minded people of any 
community, that break away from old as¬ 
sociations and make for themselves homes 
in new sections. The early settlers of our 
Great West, were, for the most part, New- 
Englanders—but of that class who could 
not be bound by the strict discipline of 
their fathers. They would not reject that 
which was good, simply because it was 
received by others; hence we see the cel¬ 
ebration of Christmas almost universal 
in our Western States, 
But why do we commend the observ¬ 
ance of Christmas ? 
First for its religious character, on 
which account we would make its ob¬ 
servance universal. From every house 
of worship of every sect, we would have 
sung, “For unto you is born a Saviour 
who is Christ the Lord," On this day 
we would not stop to split hairs of theo¬ 
logical differences. Christ was born; 
than him no one has ever lived more 
worthy to be called Lord or Master, and 
all are ready to sing Christ as a Saviour. 
One may believe he saves in one way, and 
the next in another—one by example, an¬ 
other by precept and a third by vicarious 
suffering on the cross. Let each be fully 
satisfied in his own mind as to the meth¬ 
od, while agreeing that the final result in 
the same. 
The Rural New-Yorker is now gen¬ 
erally conceded to have reached, under 
its present management, a degree of ex¬ 
cellence never before attained by any 
other agricultural or horticultural journal 
and to have secured for its columns the 
most powerful combination of writers in 
the world. Its record for the past year 
is, perhaps, the best guarantee for the 
next year. Among our present contrib¬ 
utors, we may mention the following 
names, taking lor illustration all that our 
space will permit: 
Charles Downing, Professor W. J. Beal, 
J. B. Lawes (Rotham- Prof. Levi Hiockbrldge, 
sted), Pres. T. T. Lyon, 
Rev. A. w. Mangum, Sec’y C. W. Garfield, 
Gen. Wm. H. Nublo, Hon. B. Rickman Mann, 
Prof. G- C. Caldwell. Thomas Meehan. 
William Falconer. Sarn'i B. Parse us, ^ 
Professor 1. P. Roberts, Samuel Parsons. 
Ex-Gov. R. W. Furnas, Col. M. V. Weld, 
Professor E. M. Saelton, Dr.T. n. Hoskins,’ 
Rev. E, P. Roe, Professor L. B. Arnold, 
Henry Stewart, Hon. X. A. Willard, 
Col. F. D. Curds, Dr. V, iS. Ilexamcr, 
M. B. Baloham, Nelson Ritter. 
Prof. K. C. Carpenter, “ Hector Bertram,’’ 
S. Rufus Mason, Professor E. W. Stewart, 
Lester A. Roberta, B. 8. Williams (London, 
J. J. M eohl (Tlpiree-llaU England), 
Farm, England;, Professor A, J. Cook, 
II. E, Salmon, D. V. M. George Such, 
Professor G. E. Morrow, A. M. Halstead, 
James Taplln, J. B. Armstrong, 
L. 8. Haraln, W, I. Chamberlin, 
E. R. BHUngs, Jonathan Talcott, 
L. J. Tempun, 8. B. Peck, 
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, Professor J. P. Sheldon, 
Mary Wager-Fisher, (Cirencester, England.) 
W. C. L. Drew, J. Stauffer, 
Annie L. Jack, j. B. Oleott, 
Lorenzo Rouse, M. Oakey, 
ltev. R. H. Crane, Professor 8. M. Tracy, 
Professor Elhrldge Gale, M. B. Prince, 
G. Maid, A. M. Van Auken, 
W. H. White, Jane Gray swlsshelm. 
Let us now say to our readers that we 
have many new projects for another 
year. We shall try, as hitherto, to please 
them in every way, and would respectfully 
ask for their influence in the Rural’s 
behalf. Such assistance would enable us 
the better to please them. Nevertheless— 
iu spite of all words—the Rural New- 
Yorker MUST SPEAK FOR ITSELF. We 
ask no aid based upon what it is going 
to be, but what it is to-day. Examine it 
and examine other periodicals before 
subscribing for another year, and if the 
comparison be not favorable to us—how 
eau we consistently ask for your support! 
We do ask, and tiiat only, that you will 
take the pains to examine it impartially 
and then—for the benefit of agriculture 
and horticulture—for the benefit of the 
oountry home— subscribe for the best. 
A QUESTION OK SO. 
‘ ‘ Disreputable or untrustworthy adver¬ 
tisements: ought conscientious publish¬ 
ers to admit them to their journals ? We 
Bay no.” Thus we expressed ourselves 
in this office in a conversation upon this 
topic with a well-known Eastern pub¬ 
lisher, a few days ago. “ But,” said he, 
“a majority of our most influential jour¬ 
nals, both religious and secular ” (and 
he named some of them), “do admit 
them. To do so is repugnant to every 
good man. But we alone cannot afford 
to reject theml ” 
That wealthy, influential journalists 
should acoept—yes, even solioit—such 
advertisements is a disgraoe to their jour¬ 
this business of admitting fraudulent ad¬ 
vertisements to family journals which are 
supposed to hold a high plaoe in the 
public esteem, is becoming a dread 
source of evil. “ They all do it,” con¬ 
veys the vilest excuse that ever was 
uttered by a well-disposed person, and 
we call upon our rural people at this time, 
when they are about to subscribe or to 
resubscribe for their papers, to reject all 
those whose advertising columns show 
that they need this demoralizing apology. 
Au Objection Answered.—“I’d 
certainly like to take an agrionltural pa¬ 
per with such a reputation as the Ru- 
bal deservedly has, but really just now 
times are so hard that I.cannot spare the 
money,” is a remark repeated to us by a 
correspondent, as coming from a neigh¬ 
bor whom he has solicited to become a 
subscriber. On the other hand, an old 
friend of the paper writes to us by the 
same mail, “ Times just now are so hard 
hereabouts that we oauuot do without 
the Rural ; for, besides the pleasure and 
instruction it affords the whole family and 
frequent visitors, the hints and detailed 
information it furnishes every week save 
us many a dollar during the year, almost 
without our being aware of it; and, 
moreover, it enables us in a hundred 
ways, to make a little more money than we 
should without it, on account of the im¬ 
provements it is constantly suggesting in 
the use of fertilizers and the method of 
doing every kind of farm and household 
work. If times were a little easier, we 
might be able to dispense with it; but as 
we are very hard pushed, please continue 
to send it for another year. 
- 
BREVITIES. 
Fowls want sunshine. 
Vary the food of fowls. 
A few good hens well cared for will egg on the 
owner to keep more. 
Fifty fowls kept well are more profitable than 
one hundred that take oare of themselves. 
Thebe is no advice whioh poultry writers re¬ 
peat oftener than 4 ‘ Provide pure water daily.” 
Pbevention of Roup.— Don’t compel fifty 
birds to roost where there is room for only 
twenty-five. 
The engravings which we present to our 
readers in the present number, are taken, for 
the most part, as will be seen, from life. 
Dr. Kendrick, of Washington, D- 0., lately 
sold his two-year-old Jersey bull “ Elmwood,” 
No. 2322, to Major Decamp, of Liverpool for 
$2000. 
In two weeks we hope to present the Rural 
in a new dress. We do not need it at present, 
but the New Year is a good time to turn over 
new leaves. 
Flour of sulphur for the uosts ; whitewash 
for the houses ; kerosene for the perches; vari¬ 
ety of food and clean runs for confined poultry, 
are the secrets of successful management. 
There ia no interest that batter or more uni¬ 
formly holds its own than the poultry interest, 
and there is none on tne farm more slighted. 
That neglected as it is, it should still pay, ia 
good proof that it deserves more attention. 
We have heard it stated that fifteen well-bred 
fowls well taken oaro of, will put more money 
into the farmer's pooket than a good oow. We 
cannot support the statement by our own expe¬ 
rience, thongh our birds are well bred and w ell 
taken oare of. 
No doubt if the truth were known, success in 
poultry keeping is due more to good manage¬ 
ment than to particular breeds of fowls. Many 
who give first-rate care to their birds attribute 
to the breed what is due to their oare. There is 
uo breed so valuable that it will “ do wonders ” 
under bad treatment. 
Contributions, always weloome to our “ Ev¬ 
erywhere" department, have so multiplied of 
late months, that by taking out dividing spaces 
and rules, we shall be able to give the same 
amount of matter in a smaller space. We invite 
our friends to incorporate any valuable items 
of their experience and to make the department, 
more than ever before, a medium of exchanging 
views. 
“Goino against Nature,” with a big N—is there 
not just a little more than a trilie of cant about 
this expression ? Isn't culture of the earth and its 
inhabitants, stock as well as men, really “ going 
against Nature ?” There is a lot of cant phrases 
of this stripe, glibly used to convey a very loose 
indefinite meaning. Is the doctrine of “ total 
depravity ” altogether false, and if there is still 
some truth in it, isn’t it man’s duty to “go 
against Nature? 
Many of our snbrortbers write us: “If I am 
entitled to any of the seeds, please send &o.” 
All of our subscribers are entitled to a choice of 
any ten, and highly welcome to that choice. We 
hope that these seeds will give great satisfaction. 
Many of them have never boon offered before, 
and, indeed, it has not been generally known 
that several of the hardy shrnbH mentioned, 
could be raised from seeds at all by inexperienced 
oulturists, or, perhaps, by others. 
In the last issue of Wallace’s Monthly, is an 
artiole under the caption, •* Why Horses Go 
Blind,” credited to " The Farmer," but whioh 
originally appeared in the Rural New-Yorker 
of September 21. As there are half-a-dozen 
different " Farmers” with various cognomens, 
and as the article was extensively copied, it ia 
impossible to determine which of them appro¬ 
priated it as an original contribution to its 
columns and thus stole the credit due to this 
journal. Thefta of the same kiud, however, 
happen so often that wo call attention to this one 
merely to poiut out that through such dishones¬ 
ty even so excellent a periodical as the Monthly 
may unintentionally bo led into an injustice. 
