FES. 1! 
TUB 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A Rat i o n a l Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Conducted bT 
ELBERT S. CABKAI. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Ko. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY TER. 11, l»t>2. 
We want articles upon Hops and Hop 
Culture from those who can write from 
experience . 
■ •» »♦ 
It is suggested to the readers of the 
Rural New-Yorker that they do not 
make out their orders for fruit trees and 
email fruits until we publish our fruit list. 
This will be presented in a supplement in a 
few weeks. The lists are being compiled 
from our own reports and from the most 
authoritative sources available—for near¬ 
ly all parts of the country. 
Upon receiving the Rural package of 
seeds, it will be seen by our subscribers 
that there are more than enough kernels 
of corn to plant one-fortieth of an acre, 
the drills or rows four feet apart, 
the kernels being placed two feet apart. 
One-fortieth of an acre is most conven¬ 
iently laid out in the shape of a square of 
83 feet. Small or imperfect kernels will 
be found in every package. These may 
be rejected—still there will be enough to 
plant as stated above. All wc shall re- 
? uire of those who contest for the Rural 
lorn Premiums will be that the seed be 
planted within one-fortieth of an acre 
and that the number of kernels planted 
be stated in the report. 
It is computed that losses of English 
agriculturists amount, during the past 
four years, to the enormous sum of £160,- 
000,000.—nearly eight-hundred millious 
of dollars of our money. Then £18,000,- 
000 (say about $90,000,000) have been 
spent in importation of food over what 
would have been necessary had the har¬ 
vests of the United Kingdom been good 
average ones during these four years. 
These are terrible losses, and have ruined 
thousands of the, tenant farmers and 
some of the landlords ; but wo do not 
aee that the latter—except where it is dan¬ 
gerous iu parts of Ireland—indulge any 
the less in horse racing, fox-hunting, and 
yaffle shooting, which we should suppose 
in common humanity they would discon¬ 
tinue and pay over the cost of such pas¬ 
times to their suflering tenants, rather 
than expend money in such folly. 
The latest revised reports of the cot¬ 
ton crop unanimously indicate a consider¬ 
able reduction from earlier estimates. 
Elison, generally considered a good 
authority, drops from 6,300,000 bales, to 
5,600,000. Mr. John B. Lafitte of New 
Orleans, has startled the mercantile 
world by reducing his former estimate of 
6,000,000 bales to one of 5,350,000 bales, 
or less, the lower estimate being based 
“ on evidence he could not refuse to ac¬ 
cept.” The Houston (Texas) Post, in a 
double-leaded editorial article expresses 
its conviction that the cotton crop will not 
materially exceed 5,000,000 bales. Other 
papers and statisticians coincide with the 
above in the opinion that the crop must be 
smaller than estimated earlier in the sea¬ 
son. In tins city cotton merchants were 
confident, of a yield of 6,000,000 bales 
two months ago; now few if any adhere 
to these figures. It is probable therefore 
that those parties who have held on to their 
cotton will receive for it higher prices than 
those that ruled last year. 
-- 
PATENT RIGHTS. 
It is beyond all question that the patent 
laws have greatly stimulated invention, 
and that our general comfort, convenience 
and prosperity have been largely increased 
by the improvements iu the various indus¬ 
trial appliances wliich have been due to 
labors of inventors. But this question, 
like all others, has two sides, aud one is 
of far greater import and interest than 
the other. The inventor is very seldom 
benefited to any great extent by his in¬ 
ventions. To a great extent he is not 
even the patentee of his ideas. Generally 
the inventors—not to put too fine a po'mt 
upon it—a crank, as this term is now un¬ 
derstood; a man whose mind is bent out 
of the usual course, as a crank is out of a 
straight line; and his bent is invention. 
He is nothing if notan inventor, and in 
many cases his invention rarely brings 
him the comforting knowledge of where 
ho may dine to-morrow. Without busi¬ 
ness habits, with ideas of ordinary things 
all awry, without any providence, he lives 
in his brain, which neither rests nor sleeps 
until the idea conceived is matured and 
brought into shape; and then—he goes to 
work to improve upon it, or gets a fresh 
idea and starts another inventive dream. 
He thus rarely has the moDey to pay the 
costs of the patent, but gets some capital¬ 
ist to share in it and find the funds required. 
Before the patent is secured he is without 
money to complete his new affairs, and 
sells out the former invention to procure 
means to complete this, and the capitalist 
steps into his shoes. 
This is the history of nearly all the 
manufacturers of patent articles. But it 
is human nature. Very well; so it is hu¬ 
man nature to resist oppression, and it is 
a fact that the administration of the pat¬ 
ent laws through which individuals have 
the legal power—we will not say right— 
to tax the public at their own will, is a 
monstrous oppression. The owners of the 
patents, by the “ new process” of mill¬ 
ing, have put $3 a barrel upon every bar¬ 
rel of flour manufactured by their process, 
and tax the public i any millions every 
year. More money is paid by the public 
every year in this way to various persons, 
who are heaping up millions upon millions 
of dollars, than is received by the Govern¬ 
ment for the whole of the taxes. Almost 
everything we have is taxed by some un¬ 
known but irresistible power which is fast 
gathering much of the substance of the 
general public into its own possession. 
This is a vast wrong, and the persons in 
whose name it is done, the inventors, have 
for the greater part very little interest in 
it indeed. Popular feeling is aroused and 
a very bitter opposition to this grinding 
monopoly is gathering force. A few lead¬ 
ing cases are before the public. The driven 
well, the barbed-wire fences, the slide 
gates, new process milling, canning of 
meats and fruits, and some others, are 
opening the eyes of the public to the 
enormous power of irresponsible taxation 
and legalized plunder, granted by the 
laws to certain individuals, who are gather¬ 
ing a harvest which they did not sow, and 
arc heaping up vast fortunes squeezed 
from the hard toil of the industrious far¬ 
mer or mechanic. There is a remedy for 
every wrong and there is one for this, aud 
it cannot much longer be denied. 
TO OUR READERS. 
The Present Free Seed Distribution of the 
Rural New-Yorker 
The great interest in our present Seed 
Distribution will naturally rest with the 
corn and wheat, for the greatest yields 
from which our premiums are offered. 
We would gladly have sent each kind of 
corn to every applicant; but the partial fail¬ 
ure of the corn crop on Long Island would 
have made this impossible even though 
there had been no other reason to have 
prevented ug from doing so. 
Let us say to our readers, what we trust 
they nmy next Fall say themselves, that 
the variety we call the Rural Heavy Dent 
is the best dent corn we have ever seen or 
raised, whether size of ear, size of kernel 
or productiveness is considered; and of 
the Rural Thoroughbred Flint that it 
bears the longest ear and yields the heav¬ 
iest of any flint corn wc have ever raised. 
Had we uttered these praises earlier, it 
would have been thought by many—and 
reasonably so—that such statements were 
merely intended to influence subscriptions. 
Now, however, that the heaviest part of 
the subscription season has passed, and 
in view of the fact that our readers will 
soon have the opportunity of testing these 
corns for themselves, it will appear that 
we merely wish them to prize these two 
kinds of corn as their merits deserve, to 
the end that they may, one and all, give 
them a careful trial. It was stated in all 
our announcements that the Thorough¬ 
bred Flint had been raised in the Rural 
family for 26 consecutive years. The 
truth ia, though it was revealed to us less 
than a month ago, that we should have 
stated 42 years instead, and during that 
entire period the seed has been selected 
from the best ears, as gathered. The 
average length of the ear is from 10 to 14 
inches, and the average yield between 75 
and 80 bushels per acre of shelled corn. 
It has usually been planted from the 1st to 
the 10th of May in hills five feet apart 
both ways, dropping from four to five 
grains to the hill. It ripens fully from the 
1st to the 10th of September. It suckers 
from one to three stalks. The average hight 
of the stalk6 is 6ix-and-a-half feet. 
As to the Rural Heavy Dent we need 
only Bay that the engraving in our Fair 
Number represents the average ear in any 
good season; that one ear generally, some¬ 
times two and rarely three are borne to the 
stalk. It suckers scarcely at all. The 
stalks grow not less than nine feet high. 
We are fully satisfied that had this corn 
been raised last year in place of the Chester 
County Mammoth in the same field and 
under the same conditions, the yield would 
have been decidedly gieater. 
Ab has already been stated, imperfect 
kernels will bo found in every packet sent 
to applicants. These may or may not be 
rejected by those who compete for the 
prizes. There will still be enough to 
drop one seed every two feet in drills four 
feet apart on plots 33 feet square, which 
is one fortieth of an acre. All we shall 
require of those who strive for premiums 
will be a statement of the number of ker¬ 
nels planted, how planted, the manure 
used, the preparation of the soil aud the 
culture given. 
As to the Fultzo-Clawson Wheat, it is 
proposed that prize-competitors mark out 
their plots (one-fortieth of an acre as for 
the corn.i both ways with a 12-inch marker 
and plant one grain in each intersection. 
We have proven again and again that 
wheat so planted may be relied upon to 
germinate just aa surely as corn so planted, 
and the thousands of trials which will be 
made, it is hoped, will throw some posi¬ 
tive light upon the problem of thin seed¬ 
ing—thin to the extreme extent of giving 
each plant all the room and food it needs 
for its fullest development. We may fur¬ 
ther say that Fultzo-Clawson Wheat has 
given us the heaviest yield ever produced 
upon our farm; that the kernel is larger 
than that of any wheat, (except the Black- 
bearded Centennial—“Golden Grains”) 
that we know of among wheats thus far 
introduced. We had a number of kinds 
with larger grains, which we hope to send 
our subscribers in future Distributions, as 
seed in sufficient quantity is raised. Let 
us again beg our readers not to judge of 
• the size of the kernels from the wheat 
which came to us from Mr. Wysor. Mr. 
Wysor sent us this wheat with a reluct¬ 
ance only equaled by the urgency of our 
request. We had "heedlessly taken for 
granted that enough had been raised at 
the Rural Farm to suffice for our Distri¬ 
bution, and wc were enabled to make good 
our promises only through Mr. Wysor, 
who sent us all he had after reserving bare¬ 
ly enough for seed for himself. This, as 
lias been stated, owing to a very unfavor¬ 
able season, was barely half the usual 
size. 
It will be remembered thut a prize of 
but $25 was offered for the be&t five 
heads of the Surprise Wheat, Only a 
few kernels are sent to each subscriber, and 
the entire stock of this splendid wheat is 
in our subscribers’ hands except a small 
plot at the Rural Farm. 
That the Shumaker Wheat has not been 
generally distributed is to us a mystery. It 
makes a fine flour, ripens early and gave 
us last yeur the second heaviest yield of 
all our wheats which were sown upon 
considerable areas. 
As to the Little Gem Squash—the next 
kind in order Upon our Seed Distribution— 
we have nothing to add to what has already 
been stated. We merely disseminate it, 
making no claims to its introduction. It 
is for sale among the novelties of the 
catalogues of several seedsmen. As to 
the Challenger Lima Bean, regarding 
wliich we entertained “great expecta¬ 
tions,’’ we may say that it disappointed us 
in yield aDd in the number of seeds to the 
pod. But the unfavorable season should 
be taken into the account. 
To our lady friends we would make the 
request that they give their best attention 
to the “pinch” of the Rural Chnter 
Hollyhock seed we shall send them. 
The flowers will surprise them with the 
delicacy of their colors and the perfection 
of their forms. We have somewhat 
neglected our lady friends in the present 
Distribution they may think. But really 
we had nothing else that was new to offer 
them that, besides being new, was worth 
the offering. Our next Seed Distribution, 
three items of which are already settled 
upon, will perhaps make amends for our 
present shortcomings. The Rural has very 
many warm lady friends, and wc could 
not possibly long endure the feeling that 
we had merited their reproach- indeed, 
bless them, by no means 1 
♦ • ♦ 
BREVITIES. 
Wanted. —Copies of the Rural for Feb. 
12 , 19, 26, and Mareh 5, 1881. 
The Rural has received many apprecia¬ 
tive words as to its la»t year’s index. 
It ia pleasant to see that Dr. Bt.u rtevanfc is 
everywhere and by everybody looked upon as 
being the right man iu the right ‘place an Di 
rector of the New York Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. 
John Brown, Brownsville, Linn Co.. Ore¬ 
gon, writes us: “ Thanks for the present of a 
nice silver watch as the fourth premium for 
the largest five heads of wheat sent the Rural 
O ffice.” 
TV e noticed on the N. Y. market last week 
many barrels of very large, clean-skinned 
potatoes. Many of them were from five to 
eight inches long. They were Burbank 
Seedlings and the price was $8.75 per barrel. 
This is a variety of potato we have never 
tried. It is said to be medium-early and of 
good quality. 
It seems that otu* friend, the Prairie Farm¬ 
er, of Chicago, III., has not failed at all, as was 
reported by another agricultural paper iu 
Chicago. There seems to be merely a change 
of ownership and editorship, Mr. Jonathan 
Periam, an able agricultural writer, having 
resumed his old place in the latter position. 
We wish the new management all success. 
Every farmer and every gardener should 
apply for the catalogues whichureannounced 
iu our advertising columns or noticed editori¬ 
ally. The most of them will be sent free to 
onr subscribers upon application. They will 
give a great deal of information on sub¬ 
jects about which our readers are making in¬ 
quiry, and they are valuable epitomes of farm 
and garden information. Nurserymen’s and 
Small fruit growers’ catalogues will be refer¬ 
red to somewhat later. 
A SUBSCRIBER writes: “I wouldvery much 
like to see a portrait of Dr John A. Warder 
published in the Rural, in the way Mr. Dal- 
rymple’s was published, or any way, as 1 be¬ 
lieve he tias done as much good and has had 
as much influence us many whose portraits 
or biographies have been published.” We 
heartily agree with these appreciative wordy 
with regard to the venerable Dr. John A. 
Warder. We have begged him lor his photo¬ 
graph from wliich to have a portrait drawn 
and engraved; but the Doctor firmly declines. 
While we regret that, the Hon. Levi s&ock- 
bridge should have felt the necessity of resign¬ 
ing the position lie has so efficiently filled us 
President of the State Agricultural College at 
Amherst, Mass., we must acknowledge that 
he has amply earned the rent that awaits him, 
we hope, for many yea re Ol' the various 
names mentioned to succeed hum wo rejoice 
that the lot has fallen upon the Hon. Pa d A. 
Chad bourne, Whose services to the agriculture 
of the Old Bay State have already won for 
him a high and w ide reputation. In view of 
the straitened condition of t he college finan¬ 
cially, he declines any remuneration for hia 
services the first year. 
We have received the following note, under 
date of January 25: ‘ Referring to an article 
entitled * A Nice Question,” m the Rural 
New-Yorker of Jnuuury 21 I desire that a 
correction tie made. Hon. Jumes R. Scott, 
whoi-o d deuce of the two Professors who have 
patented certain processes for the making of 
sugar from sorghum you have sharply criti¬ 
cised, is President of the Illinois State'Board 
of Agricultme, und ex officio a member of the 
Board of Trustees of this Umveisuy. Without 
attempting to discuss a question which is now 
under consideration by very competent offi¬ 
cers of the State Government, the undersigned 
may be allowed to suy that the paper criti¬ 
cised does not express the views of 
Selim 11. Peabody, 
President Ulinois Industrial University. 
There is considerable discontent over some 
discrepancies just discovered in the fluui foot¬ 
ings of the Census returns at Washington. 
For instance, the Manufacturers’ Division re¬ 
ported 01,000. OCX) more pounds of flour made 
from the preceding crop thau the Agricul¬ 
tural Division rep rted pound* of w heat 
grown. The figure* of the Agricultural Divi¬ 
sion, however, have been accepted as against 
the Manufacturing Division, and the figures 
of the latter havu been cut dowu to suit the 
amount of wheat, reported grown. The flour 
reports of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Minnes¬ 
ota have in this way been cut down, that of 
Indiana alone having been reduced 6,0(M),(X>0 
pounds Other serious discrepancies are also 
being discovered as the final results ure ascer¬ 
tained, and there seems to be trouble ahead 
for the Census Bureau. 
The Michigan Slate Fire Relief Commission, 
on Jan. 31, held u consultation at Detroit with 
a number of prominent citizens from the dis¬ 
tricts swept by fire* last FalL It was declared 
that one ton ot hay per head of stock is rtquired 
for immediate needs. Then fresh supplies of 
provisions, seed* for Spring crops and many 
minor but indispensable articles muot be fur¬ 
nished. Thus far the fire-hartyussed people 
have got along pretty well, but sickness grow¬ 
ing out of their coin lit ion is on the increase, 
At the meeting it was unanimously resolved 
to petition tne Govei nor to at once call an 
extra session of the Legislature, iu order that 
the needed ruin f may be afforded by tbo 
State, it is understood that the Governor 
will respond favorably utan early day. The 
State Commission has funds enough mi hand, 
it is hoped, to supply the most pressing needs 
during the month of February. 
A TELKURAM of Feb. 2, from Springfield, 
III., says tl at uurneious reports have reached 
the Governor’s office at that place, stating 
the deplorable condition of tne inhabitants m 
the southern tier of counties, owing to the 
scanty crops of last year, aud thut despite the 
aid hitherto extended by the public ut large, 
there is still great need, of help to prevent 
starvation. Crawford, Franklin, Gallatin, 
Hamilton, Jefferson, Lawrence, Marion, Fer¬ 
ry, Saline, Union, Wabash ami Wayne, con¬ 
stituting u large proportion of Southern Illi¬ 
nois, commonly known us “ Egypt,” are the 
counties chiefly affected. The Governor is 
asked to include the subject of affording relief 
to the hu (I'm re r* in hi* call for the coming ex¬ 
tra session uf the Legislature. There i* some 
doubt whether this can constitutionally afford 
relief otherwise than by joining the Governor 
in commending piivute aid. Some of the 
" Egyptian ” papers, however, do not approve 
of the cry for i mij>, and seem to ultimate that 
“Egypt'' is trying to impose on the rest of 
the State. The matter should be investigated 
und if there is genuine distress, ho wealthy 
and public spirited a State as Illinois should 
promptly relieve it by private or public aid. 
