i 
JAN. 28 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Joumal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY JAN. 28, 1882. 
Many of our readers living in parts of 
the country where Spring wheats alone 
are sown, have written us that the several 
wheats of the present Seed Distribution 
of the Rural will be of no use to them. 
This is a problematical view of the case. 
It is to be hoped they will sow the seeds 
in Spring just the same as if they were 
Spring wheats. As the plots needed to 
test them will be but 33 feet square, 
little can be lost by making the test, and 
we hope that all of our farmer-readers 
will make the trial. 
We cannot supply back numbers. 
Attention is called to the article. 
“Favorable Experience with Ensilage” on 
page 54. 
We can still supply any number 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 friend writes us from San Angelo, 
Cal., that the progeny of the Cotswold on 
Merino prove too long-legged,and are quite 
troublesome to herd. The offspring of 
the South Down and Merino, on the other 
hand, are shorter-legged, very thrifty, 
make excellent mutton, shear a good 
fleece, and are easily herded. This ren¬ 
ders the latter crpss more popular there 
than, the former and it is" consider¬ 
ably on t're increase. There is nothing 
like careful experiment in order to find 
out what pure breeds or what crosses of 
them best suit particular districts, and 
are the most profitable to rear, and 
we are glad to see this plan pursued, and 
shall willingly make a note of the same as 
often as reported to us by the Western 
breeders. 
-- 
Many of our readers are inquiring 
how they may know when their subscrip¬ 
tions expire. Many write us: “As the 
Rural has stopped coming, I presume 
my subscription has expired.” Our 
method is a very simple one, and we trust 
all will read this explanation. Under the 
title heading of the paper and dirertly 
under the bull’s bead is the whole num¬ 
ber of the paper. The number of the 
present issue will be seen lo be 1670. 
The next will be 1071, 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 
the subscriber’s name. For instance, sub¬ 
scriptions received this week will be num¬ 
bered on the printed address label 1670, 
with 52 numbers added, making 1721. 
When, then, the whole number of the 
paper reaches 1722 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 
1671; if 1672, 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 
the end of the year. 
-*-*-♦- 
A Committee of three appointed last 
Winter by the New York Legislature 
to investigate the affairs of the Erie Canal 
, has just made an exhaustive report the 
chief points of which are here briefly sum¬ 
marized ;—In the absence of other water 
routes from the West to tide-water this 
State could manage the canal as it pleased ; 
but with the St. Lawrence and the Missis¬ 
sippi routes as competitors, there must 
be a change of policy or the canal will 
cease to be used and that part of its great 
traffic not taken up by the railroads of 
New York wall be lost to the State and 
this city. The route, the committee in¬ 
sist, should be made free and the depth 
of water should be increased by two feet. 
This would reduce the cost of transport¬ 
ing grain from Lake. Erie one cent a 
bushel, and would counterbalance the 
great natural advantages of river ways. 
To obtain the additional depth of water 
it would be necessary to deepen the canal 
only one foot, for the earth taken out 
would raise the banks another foot. The 
committee recommends that a constitu¬ 
tional amendment be promptly submitted 
to the people abolishing all tolls. The 
proposed change of policy will be of 
special advantage both to tins city, by en¬ 
larging its traffic and securing it on a firm 
basis against competition from other water 
routes, and also to Western farmers whose 
harvests will find their way to foreign mar¬ 
kets at less cost if the proposed measures 
are adopted. 
CATALOGUES. 
For reasons which we have before set 
forth, everyone of our readers should ap¬ 
ply for the seedsmen’s and nurserymen’s 
catalogues soon to be announced in their 
appropriate place. These valuable books 
wliieb now-a-days are either sent with¬ 
out any charge whatever or for a stamp 
or so, contain a great deal of information 
which every farmer or gardener needs. 
Besides the lists of seeds, bulbs, plants, 
implements etc., etc., careful instructions 
are given as to the construction and care of 
hot-beds, sowing seeds and much other 
information which the agricultural and 
gardening papers no longer print, as tbeir 
presentation in the catalogues which 
have so wide a circulation renders it un¬ 
necessary. Our readers should collect 
and preserve the catalogues of the most 
trustworthy seedsmen as they appear from 
year to year, and compare them together 
before making out their orders for the 
coming active season of farm and garden 
work. Most of the catalogues of to-dav 
are profusely illustrated, which enables 
both young and old so to study the plants 
that it is easy to recognize them when 
seen growing in the ground. In this 
way the catalogue often creates a fond¬ 
ness for gardening pursuits and becomes 
an important factor in horticultural edu¬ 
cation. 
-«- 
THRIFT. 
English educationists are giving par¬ 
ticular attention of late to the early incul¬ 
cation of habits of saving—of “thrift.” 
To give money or food to a suffering 
creature who lias never learned any les¬ 
sons of prudent care, is real charity, but 
not the best work that charity can do; 
for it is but a palliation of a* suffering 
that will return on the morrow, like the 
craving of the drunkard or of the tobacco 
or opium eater. To begin with measures 
of prevention before bad habits of waste, 
carelessness, tippling, or smoking have 
begun ; to guide young feet into better 
ways—into paths of safety comfort and 
usefulness, is a nobler, better charity. 
The chief inspector of factories in Eng¬ 
land, Mr. A. Redgrave, has forwarded 
to employers generally a placard, to be 
posted up in their works, entitled “ How 
to Begin to Save.” The penny savings 
banks are described in it, and the facili¬ 
ties they offer to the poorest who can 
save even a little, of making that little 
bring more in the shape of interest, while 
itself rests in guaranteed safety. The new 
post oifiee savings banks are still more 
convenient and universal. At any post 
office postage stamp forms can be had 
containing 12 squares on each, to be filled 
with stamps as pennies can be saved to 
get them. When filled the form is taken 
or sent to any post office, and the shilling 
will be paid if wanted, or an account will 
be opened, and the depositor can draw 
there or at any other office, with sixpence 
interest added to every pound. If ten 
pounds sterling are accumulated, the de¬ 
positor can become a fundholder. Hab¬ 
its of waste and extravagance are preva¬ 
lent among us, and some timely and gen¬ 
eral counter action is greatly needed. 
City life engenders them both by exam¬ 
ples and allurements, and by the circum¬ 
stance that money comes in, when it 
comes at all, more or less in lumps. The 
“ fortunate farmer” as Horace calls him, 
is far less exposed to wasteful temptation, 
bis money comes literally grain by grain, 
and is as naturally saved up till dimes 
make dollars. 
♦ ♦♦ 
SHEEP WITH BARE FACES AND LEGS 
In the Northern and Eastern United 
States, in breeding sheep of all kinds the 
chief object is to get just as much wool 
upon them as possible. This has been so 
assiduously cultivated, more especially 
perhaps in ease of the Merino, that the 
latter is now thickly wooled down its legs 
to the very toes, and on the face to the 
tip of the nose, rendering the animal 
scarcely able to see out of its eyes, the 
wool growing so long and close around 
the lids. 
Owing to the Needle Mesquite Grass in 
California shedding its leaves in July, 
these are caught in the wool on the face 
and legs of such sheep as bear it there, 
penetrate to the flesh, and render the af¬ 
flicted animal lame and blind. In con¬ 
sequence of this, sheep with wool on the 
face and legs are discarded in those parts 
of California where the Needle Mesquite 
Grass grows, and the bare-faced and bare¬ 
legged sorts only are kept by the fiock- 
masters. This shows that certain points 
in animals highly desirable in one section 
may be quite the contrary in another, and 
each should carefully select that best 
suited to his particular circumstances. An¬ 
other difference in breeding Merino sheep 
exists between the sheep raisers in the 
Atlantic and Pacific States, and in this 
connection we think the practice of the 
flock-masters of the Pacific Slope highly 
commendable. They are getting rid of 
the dark gum and ugly wrinkles of their 
fleeces as fast as possible. The sheep 
skins there ate now smooth and even over 
the bodies, like those of a South Down, 
and the outside of the fleece is clean and 
nearly white. 
It is astonishing that any Merino 
breeder anywhere will keep sheep with 
the great, ugly folds and wrinkles which 
so disfigure them. They make the fleeces 
much more difficult to shear, and the 
wool on Ihese wrinkles is not nearly 
equal in value to that which grows on the 
smooth surface of the body. Another 
tiling they ought to get rid of as fast as 
possible, is the horns of the rams. They 
are a great nuisance, injurious to them¬ 
selves and hurtful to all that surround 
them. 
■- »» ♦- 
NATIVE SUGAR. 
A vast industry or a great product was 
never yet born in a day, nor without 
lapse of time for its slow perfection. 
Even the potato, that indispensable vege¬ 
table, remained for a hundred years and 
more in a neglected condition alter its in¬ 
troduction to European agriculture. We 
need not then be surprised that the pro¬ 
duction of sugar from sorghum ihould be 
slow in its course of perfection, or that 
experts should be found who declare that 
it is an impossibility, and that we must 
ever depend upon the Southern cane un¬ 
less we use the beet as a substitute. But 
it required a great many years and the 
whole efforts of a strong paternal and 
despotic government, that of the first 
Napoleon, and the very stress of want, 
to make the manufacture of beet sugar a 
practical success, and yet sorghum is 
working its way along uuder numerous 
disadvantages and without the help of 
any intiuental or rich friends. 
We see no reason to despair of success 
in this new and promising industry. 
The sugar-cane can be grown with the 
greatest ease and an excellent sirup can 
be made from it. Tlie only difficulty in 
the way is a problem in chemistry; but 
the art which produces the brilliant and 
varied aniline colors from gas tar, im¬ 
pelled to the work by merely seeing these 
colors in a film as the tar spread itself 
upon water, is surely able to extract the 
sugar which is known to be in the cane, 
from its grasp. So far a great deal has 
been done. The experiments made the 
past season at the Illinois Industrial 
University have been so successful as to 
induce the chemists in charge of them 
to take the questionable course of secur¬ 
ing a patent for the process for themselves. 
This, however, is a side issue which will 
solve itself in time. The Kansas people 
are bound to succeed in making sor¬ 
ghum sugar, if success is possible, from 
the way they are going about it. Last, 
year there were 45,628 acres of cane 
planted and nearly 4,000,000 gallons of 
sirup made from the product, the value 
of which was over $1,750,000. Sugar 
mills are being built where a few years 
ago buffalos ranged the prairies and a 
vast amount of energy is enlisted in the 
attempt to make Kansas a sugar growing 
State. Success seems to be only a ques¬ 
tion of time and when success is achieved 
there, every Northern farmer may add 
sugar to the list of his products. 
THE PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF 
AGRICULTURE AND STATISTICS. 
A bill was introduced into Congress 
last Monday, by Mr. Money, of Missis¬ 
sippi, to make the Department of Agri¬ 
culture an executive department whose 
chief shall have a seat in the Cabinet, and 
to enlarge its duties and powers, The 
measure provides for the appointment of a 
Secretary and Assistant Secretary w : ho 
shall be practical agriculturists; that the 
new Department, in addition to the pres¬ 
ent functions of the Agricultui^l Depart¬ 
ment, shall embrace a Bureau of Educa¬ 
tion and Labor whose duty it shall be to 
collect information concerning education, 
wages of labor, price of products, the 
cost of living of the working classes 
here and abroad, and all information that 
may conduce to the welfare and advance¬ 
ment of the industrial classes; that it 
shall especially collect all information con¬ 
cerning the rural work of women, that 
shall enlarge the sphere of labor and 
lighten the burdens of the families of the 
agricultural population. The bill also 
provides for a Bureau of Geological Sur¬ 
vey, a Bureau of Transportation to collect 
information concerning the moving of 
agricultural products, merchandise and 
passengers, and a Bureau of Manufac¬ 
tures, all to be included in the new r De¬ 
partment of Agriculture and Statistics. 
We have already foretold the introduc¬ 
tion of this bill ; we have also mentioned 
a few r of the grave reasons why the farm¬ 
ers of the country should oppose its pas¬ 
sage. The agriculture of the United States 
is of importance enough to our prosperity 
to entitle it to a separate Department in 
the Government. The present Depart¬ 
ment, however insignificant, has the merit 
of having to do with agriculture exclu¬ 
sively. When its functions shall be so 
efficiently discharged as to merit commen¬ 
dation for the help it has rendered the 
farmers of the nation, there will then 
be ample time to discuss the enlargement 
of its scope. The proposed additions to 
it include a part of the functions of the 
French Ministry of Commerce, a part 
of those of the Ministry of Public 
Works, and a part of those of the Minis¬ 
try of Public Education and Worship in 
addition to the whole of those of the Min¬ 
istry of Agriculture. Why should all 
these duties be here included in one De¬ 
partment? Why not create an additional 
Department, leaving to the Agricultural 
Department the promotion of the interests 
of agriculture :.lone, proper attention to 
which will give ample employment even 
to Dr. Loring ? If the other duties men¬ 
tioned arc entailed upon it, then the tail 
is sure “ to wag that dog”—the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and Statistics will 
be so busily engaged in its other 
functions as to pay, or have time to pay, 
but little attention to the agricultural in¬ 
terests of the country. 
One feature of the Money Bill, however, 
we can heartily indorse—it provides for 
the establishment in each State of one or 
more Experimental Stations for the pur¬ 
pose of testing valuable plants, seeds, fer¬ 
tilizers and agricultural implements 
“■with reference to soil and climate.” 
■ ■ ■ ■ • •-»- 
BREVITIES. 
The Querist Department beginning on page 
59 is continued in the Supplement. 
C. H. Elms semis us well ripened seed of 
the Rural Branching Sorghum from Hillsdale 
Co., Mich. 
We thankfully acknowledge the gift of 100 
Cuthbert Raspberry vines from John Rein- 
hard, of Lafayette County, Missouri, as an¬ 
other premium for the best yield of the Rural 
Dent Com. 
Professor Beal from the tests made at 
the Michigan Agricultural College esteems 
very hie 111 }- the follow ing potatoes for yield 
and quality: Beauty of Hebron, Early Peach 
blow, Burbank’s Seedling, White Elephant. 
We give a respectful, if not altogether dig¬ 
nified notice that (life spared) we are just go¬ 
ing to make the Rural Utizz this year. Let 
all subscribi rs who love horticulture and ag¬ 
riculture send ns notes of their experience; we 
do not care how short they may be. 
The seventh annual meeting of the Ameri¬ 
can Berkshire Hwine Association came off at 
Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 5, and was well at¬ 
tended. The benefits attained through this 
association have been considerable since its 
first formation. It has established a Herd 
Record as a reference for the pedigrees of 
pure-bred swine, of which the fifth volume is 
about to be published It has much improved 
the sanitary condition ol' bogs at the West 
and greatly lessened losses among them from 
various diseases; it has increased the demand 
for American pork and bacon abroad; Light¬ 
ened its character among consumers, and in¬ 
creased its price. Surely all these ob jects are 
worthy of effort, to say nothing of their pe¬ 
cuniary benefit to the breeders of swine 
throughout our country. 
Swindlers of farmers seem to be unusually 
busy just now. A dispatch on the 15th from 
Quebec, Canada, tells of a new dodge which 
will doubtless be tried in the “ States ’’ also. 
Last Fall u well dressed sharper, under the 
pretext of being a grain dealer, visited farm 
after farm in St. Anne, Riviere Quelle, St. Denis 
and Kamournska parishes, and contracted for 
large quantities or oats at 50 cents per bushel, 
to l*e delivered in January, Contracts were 
signed in duplicate und those left in the pur¬ 
chaser’s hands were nothing but promissory 
notes, which have been transferred to “inno¬ 
cent” parties, and these now demand immedi¬ 
ate payment. Over 82 car loads of oats were 
ready lor shipment, and the astonishment and 
indignation of the farmers own hardly be ex¬ 
aggerated on learning that instead of their 
oats it was they themselves who had been 
sold. Ten to one none of the victims sub¬ 
scribed for a live agricultural paper. 
