44 
JAN. 24 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBEI1T S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY JAN. 21, 1882. 
According to promise wc now present 
the record of the Rural New-Yorker 
for the present subscription season up to 
Jan. 12, which is as late as the lists have 
been compared. 
Increase for Nov., three subscribers over—88J$ IP c. 
“ from December l to December 19— 8 " 
•• “ “ 20 to " 31_ Even 
“ *• “ 31 to January 12....33 ?c. 
That the Rural should have gained 
less from December 1 to December 31 
than before and since is owing to the fact 
that in 1880 subscriptions, for the first 
time, were carried forward to January 1, 
so that we received no benefit from re¬ 
newals during that period. Our books 
are open in proof of the above statement. 
-♦♦♦- 
We shall be obliged to issue a four- 
page supplement next week. 
We cannot supply back numbers. 
Next to a new subscriber— a hind 
word. Remember this, Rural friends. 
The next of ou* series of articles on 
Bonanza Farming in the West will be 
given next week, with illustrations. The 
subject will be “ Breaking.” 
We call attention to the report of the 
Rural Branching Sorglium in another 
column by Mr W. H. Powner, because it 
agrees nearly with the claims we have 
made for this fodder plant. 
-- 
We can still supply any numDer of 
supplements to the Rural New-Yorker, 
which fully describe the next Seed Dis¬ 
tribution now nearly ready for the mail, 
should no untoward accident occur. 
These supplements, with specimen copies 
and posters, will be supplied gratis to all 
who apply. 
A b e there any among our readers who 
began farm life’ upon farms so poor that 
they could scarcely be made to support 
the little families that worked them, that 
now yield an ample support? If so, tell 
us the story. How was it brought about? 
How was the poor farm made profitable? 
The narration of such experiences will 
throw light upon the irrepressible ques¬ 
tion : Does Farming Pay? This is the 
sort of farm experience that the Rural 
desires to place before its readers. 
- * ♦ » 
Some of the agricultural papers are 
taking a huge quantity of credit to them¬ 
selves because they dropped the Ozone 
advertisement «s soon as they were ad¬ 
vised of its fraudulent character, while 
they are rebuking those who did not. 
We do not see that the exclusion of the 
advertisement entitles them to any credit. 
Surely it does not justify their sickening 
assumptions of excessive virtue. As to 
those journals which continued the ad¬ 
vertisement, after its character was made 
known, it is enough to say that they 
should not be supported by respectable 
people. The Rural New-Yorker was 
indebted to Professor R. B. Warder (son 
of the veteran pomologist, Dr. .John A. 
Warder) for the warning which led us to 
guard our readers against the advertise¬ 
ment after its first appearance. 
Many of our readers are inquiring 
how they may know when their subscrip¬ 
tions expire. Many write us: “As the 
Rural lias stopped coming, T presume 
my subscription lias expired.” Our 
method is a very simple one, and we trust 
all will read this explanation. Under the 
title heading of the paper and directly 
under the bull’s head is the whole num¬ 
ber of the paper. The number of the 
present issue will be seen to be 1069. 
The next will be 1670. and so on. Now, 
when a subscription is received and put 
in the printed list, 52 numbers are added 
to the •whole number and printed after 
tlie subscriber’s name. For instance, sub¬ 
scriptions received tliis week will be num¬ 
bered on the printed address label 1669, 
with 52 numbers added, making 1721. 
When, then, the whole number of the 
paper reaches 1721 then all subscriptions 
so numbered expire. Looking to the 
present time, therefore, it will be seen 
that all subscriptions expire next week, if 
the number after the printed name is 
1670; it 1671, the week after, and so on 
through the year. If there is no number 
following the address on the wrapper 
then the subscription expires not until 
end of the year. 
Light losses frequently occurring or 
constantly threatened cause far wider 
and, in the aggregate, greater injury and 
vexation than heavy losses which happen 
only seldom and to comparatively few. 
Among the most ex •spending of such 
losses in a farming community are those 
due to the depredations of fruit-thieves at 
the North and chicken-thieves at the 
South. The exploits of both kinds of 
marauders have formed the basis of many 
an amusing story in each section, but one 
is safe in saying that this amusement, has 
been confined to those who have either 
never suffered from such petty rascalities 
or whose vexation at their losses has been 
soothed by time. At the North the dread 
of the fruit-thief deters many a farmer 
from planting an orchard or a few fruit 
trees for family use, while the work of a 
fellow sometimes leads the owner of such 
possessions to cut them down, as de¬ 
scribed so pathetically by “ Horticola” in 
this issue. In the same way in many 
parts of the South, if not in all parts, the 
fear of the chicken-thief prevents many a 
farmer from keeping poultry, or consigns 
prematurely to the owner’s pot those al¬ 
ready around the homestead as the only 
safeguard against their consignment to 
the thief’s pot on some night as dark as 
himself and his deed. Legislation should 
certainly deal more severely than it does 
at present with such petty but vexatious 
depredations, but a just and outspoken 
public opinion should be the forerunner 
of such legislation. 
-- 
A NICE QUESTION. 
A question has arisen in regard to the 
right or propriety of a professor of an ag¬ 
ricultural college, and consequently an 
employe* of the public, acquiring a per¬ 
sonal property in any discovery or inven¬ 
tion he may happen to make iri such em¬ 
ployment. The facts are as follows:— 
Two of the professors of the lllinmr. In¬ 
dustrial University were employed in 
making experiments in producing sugar 
from sorghum. These experiments were 
so successful that the professors have pat¬ 
ented the processes used, in their own 
names and as their own property. As the 
question of the propriety of this course 
has arisen, the Principal of the University, 
under his own signature, has publicly de¬ 
fended it. But in the defence lie makes 
use of the following extraordinary words in 
regard to the discovery becoming public 
property: “‘Become public property’ 
sounds well; is a fine sentiment, but as a sen¬ 
timent it would be just as nice as to say the 
“ dear public” should own, as a public, all 
the property in the State,” Principal Scott 
uses an illustration which completely takes 
the ground from under his own feet; for 
the dear public do really and in fact own 
all the property in tlie State, the apparent 
owners being simply occupiers, subject to 
the eminent domain and rights of the 
State. The State can, by due process of 
law, take possession of any person's farm 
or house and put it to public uses, and m 
every grant of land to an individual this 
precedent right is reserved. Moreover, 
the State can take a person’s property and 
his person and use them for its own ser¬ 
vice when it is thought necessary by the 
State Government. The question is a 
narrow one. Mast the farmers of Illinois 
and of other States be compelled to pay a 
tax to persons who. in the course of their 
employment in a public capacity and while 
under* public pay, discover any methods 
for processes xvliicb they were employed 
to discover. These gentlemen were cer¬ 
tainly employed to experiment in making 
sugar. The cost of making the experi¬ 
ments was paid out of the University 
funds, which are public moneys. To 
whom, then, do the results of these ex¬ 
periments belong ? Is the public to be sat¬ 
isfied with a long table of figures showing 
results, while the methods of producing 
these results are kept secret and are re¬ 
served as the private property of the ex¬ 
perimenters, for which those persons for 
whom the experiments were made—the 
farmers—must pay if they desire to use 
them ? 
THE WAR IN FREIGHT RATES. 
Frequent rumors of a settlement of 
the freight-rate difficulties, -which have 
so long existed between rival lines to the 
West, have been made the past week, but 
hitherto no definite action has been taken 
by the various lines. The differences ex¬ 
isting between presidents Vanderbilt and 
Roberts, the latter of the Pennsylvania 
line, must be removed, it is quite evident, 
before the conflict shall cease. Mr. Van¬ 
derbilt’s single aim has been, as he says, 
the supremacy of New York as the ter¬ 
minus for Western freight for foreign 
shipment, and his course of action seems 
to support the statement. 
How the difficulty is to be finally settled 
does not now seem apparent. The reluc¬ 
tance of any of the trunk lines to make 
such concessions as would lie satisfactory 
to all, is one great hindrance to a peaceful 
settlement. If they cannot agree among 
themselves upon any fixed and satisfac¬ 
tory schedule of freight rates, one way 
out of the dilemma is to submit the ques¬ 
tions at issue to arbitrators, but here 
again the trunk-line managers cannot 
agree, or, at least, did not. agree when 
the names of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 
David Wells and J. A. Wright—the old 
railroad arbitrators—were submitted. It 
lias been suggested that the matter be 
left to a committee chosen by the Cham¬ 
bers of Commerce of the various sea¬ 
board cities interested, to be composed of 
three New York and two Philadelphia 
men and one Baltimorean, the six to 
choose a seventh, but this plan has not 
yet met with much favor. The great 
objection to arbitration in this case is 
thought to be that, what the presidents 
and managers cannot agree to of their 
own accord, they will naturally object to 
as the result of arbitration, and . s any 
decree of a board of arbitration has no 
binding force in law and will be sup¬ 
ported only on the ground of mutual 
self-interest, it would not prevent a re¬ 
newal of the trouble at some future date. 
However, it might help them out of the 
present unfortunate condition of affairs. 
How great the reduction in rates on 
west-bound freight has been, as a result 
of the war, may be seen by the following 
table of the rates per 100 pounds asked 
at present as compared with those of a 
year ago: 
1881. 1882. 
First class.. . 15 30 
Second class. fio 25 
Third class . 50 20 
Fourth class. 40 15 
These are simply the open rates, while 
secret rates have been still lower. A 
large contract on coffee, from this city 
to Chicago, is said to have been made at 
12 1 2 cents per 100 pounds. In grain 
the competition lies largely between the 
Vanderbilt lines and the Erie, where 
the grain has been contracted for as low 
as 10 cents per 100 pounds. The Penn¬ 
sylvania will not can y grain for less than 
20 Cents. On the 12th inst. the Michi¬ 
gan Central reduced its rates to all inte¬ 
rior points in Michigan on the basis of 15 
cents to New York. Even to points be¬ 
yond Chicago exceedingly low rates have 
been made, Eastern agents having been 
reported as contracting on heavy ship¬ 
ments from Chicago to Kansas City on 
a basis of eight cents per 100, the regular 
rate being 85 cents. 
While sueli a state of affairs is by no 
means encouraging to the stockholders of 
the wrangling companies, inasmuch as 
its continuance is sure to lessen the divi¬ 
dends from their stodc, the general 
public will be the gainers thereby, as 
it is hardly likely that public opinion 
will permit, nt the cud of the struggle, 
the enforcement of rates so high as to 
recoup for the railroads the curtailment 
of profits consequent on the virulence of 
their present competition. So grasping 
and exorbitant has the past policy of 
these huge monopolies been that the gen¬ 
eral verdict on the result of tbeir present 
squabble will be expressed by the old 
adage—“When thieves fall out honest 
men are. likely to get their due.” 
BREVITIES. 
Our next seed distribution will prove a 
heavy item in the Rural’s expenses for 1882. 
The postage alone will cost probably not less 
than Twelve Hundred Dollars. 
English advertisruents tell us that the best 
time for planting the Early Sunrise Pea in 
that country is November, December and 
January. 
We call attention to the regular Discussion 
of he Youths’ Horticultural Club on p 50. It 
is one in which every one, old or young, 
should be interested. 
A few years ago the ordinary price of fair 
land in the Crimea was $35 to $50 per desia- 
teua acres, but such land is now fetching 
from $550 to $700. The great success t lmt has 
attended the cultivation of the vine there has 
led to this rapid rise. 
Mr. C. A Green Stmt us several of the Co¬ 
lossal Raspberry last Spring. Respecting it 
we shall have nothing to say that is worth the 
sayingunt.il another Summer. The portrait 
is from a photograph sent us by Mr. Gieen. 
A meeting for the discussion of the annexed 
subjects will be held at 55 Beekinan Street, 
New York, on Wednesday, Jan. 25: The 
Most Profitable Crops to Ensilage; Cultiva¬ 
tion and Cutting; How to Build and Fill Si¬ 
los; How to Feed Ensilage: Economic Value 
of Ensilage as Compared with Other Fodder; 
Improved Farming Methods. 
We learn that a new association, known as 
the Garfield Land Improvement Company, 
has purchased 30,000 acres of land near 
Buena Vista, N. J., with the idea of 
building three “cities” on it, of which the 
principal two are to be named “ Garfield ” 
and “Oakland City.” The company is said 
to have $3,000,000 capital. Such enterprises 
enhance the value of farming land near them 
and afford a handy market for agricultural 
products. 
In the case of Trepp against the Northern 
Pacific Railroad Company Secretary Kirk¬ 
wood, of the Department of the Interior, has 
decided a pre-emption claim in a manner which 
is strongly in favor of settlers on the public 
domain. He holds that where the Pre-emp¬ 
tion Law provides for t he entry of land by a 
second settler in point of time, it does not 
mean that a railroad company can make the 
entry. There seems just now a very salutary 
disposition in Congress to check the extrava¬ 
gant claims and pretensions of these selfish, 
monopolizing organizations. 
From Front Hill, Ontario, Canada, we learn 
that a swindler has tberabout beeu col¬ 
lecting subscriptions for the Rural New- 
Yobker and other American papers with the 
intention of pocketing the money. It seems 
he presented false test imonials and by these 
means and a plausible address he succeeded 
in beguiling many of our Canadian friends 
out of their money. The rascal crossed the 
line into the United States some time back 
and here ho will probably try the same trick 
in connection with the same or other pa¬ 
pers. Established book and newspaper dealers, 
well-known, reputable subscription agents 
and postmasters are the safest people 
through whom to subscribe for newspapers 
and periodicals when the subscription is 
not sent in directly to the paper or to 
any of the papers v ith which it “ clubs.” Ir¬ 
responsible traveling agents should be 
avoided. Wo employ no traveling agents to 
canvass for subscriptions. 
The Swamp Lands Law of 1S50 gave the 
overflowed, uncultivated lauds to the States 
in which they were situated, on condition 
that the profits of selling them should be ap¬ 
plied to draining and improving them. Thus 
far seventy million acres or more of such 
swamp lands have been made over to the 
several States, and it is charged that there has 
been a great deal of fraud in selecting lands 
not properly coming under the description in 
the statute. Moreover—to put it mildly— 
it is strongly believed t hat there has beeu a 
world of rascality ai d sheer dishonesty in the 
disposal of some of the lands by at least a few 
of the States, Very opportunely, therefore, 
Senator Jones of Florida has introduced a res¬ 
olution into the United States Senate calling 
for information regarding the violation of 
the Swamp Laws. The motion was very ap¬ 
propriately made by the Senator from Florida 
because that State alone has bad over sixteen 
million acres of this land, and there is not a 
little discontent urneng a large port of her in¬ 
habitants at the recent award of some four 
million acres of ibis to the Ukwchobee Land 
Company for what is said to be a mere tithe 
of its value. 
Early in the past week a flutter of surprise 
was caused in sporting and stock-breeding 
circles by the announcement that Aristides 
Welch,whose stock farm Erdeubeim, Chestnut 
Hill, near Philadelphia, is celebrated all over 
the country as the birthplace of Iroquois, the 
late Derby winner, and other famous race¬ 
horses. had, after 20 years’ possession, sold 
out, his place together with Ids stock, com¬ 
prising 80 horses, mares and colts, to Commo¬ 
dore Kilt, son. of Minnesota, for $150,000. The 
sale was completed on Saturday, January 8, 
and possession was to lie given in 10 days. 
After the bargain had been closed, however, 
Mr. Welch’s children who had beeu born on 
the farm, although a trip to_Europe had been 
promised them, protested so earnestly against 
leaving their beloved home, one of the finest 
places in the country, that their father 
who had, it is said, sold the place in order to 
take his three sons away from evil associates, 
repented him of his action, and on Wednesday 
last appealed to CommodoreKiltson to cancel 
the contract. This the latter is reported to 
have done on the payiu nt of a forfeit of 
$3,000 bv Mr. Welsh who is again owner of 
Erdenheim. 
Says a wiseacre, writing early in the past 
week from Indianapolis, Tnd.. to one of our 
great dailies: “Gob. Porter has jeopardized 
his standing among agriculturists by alluding 
in his address this week before the State Board 
of Agriculture to carnivorous plants which 
lived on animal food. After the meeting ad¬ 
journed the Board privately discussed the pro¬ 
priety of rebuking the Governor for his insult 
to the intelligence of practical farmers.” 
Isn’t, it about time that the w. uld-be facetious 
scribblers for the political press should cease 
their jibes at rural ignorance ? Doubtless 
this fellow had in reality never heard or 
read of carnivorous plants, about which 
every farmer who takes a ^ood agrieul 
tnral paper could have instructed him. 
After the manner of his tribe, however, his 
own ignorance suggested to him the idea of 
the “ joke ” of attributing it to the farmers 
who, with his class, are the butt of many a 
stale jibe and flippant sneer; and then by in¬ 
venting the private discussion of the Board on 
the matter h > falsely “ picas out his lie with 
a circumstn noThe daily editions of non- 
agricultural papers are constantly marred by 
such crude attempts at facetiousness at the 
expense of the agricultural community, but 
their weekly editions, intended fc r circulation 
among farmers, and hashed up almost entirely 
from the daily editions, are carefully and 
prudently weeded of this bastard humor. 
