the: 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homea. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CAB.MAX. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY MARCH 11, 1882. 
NOTICE. 
Ai.l who—having applied for our pres¬ 
ent Seed Distribution inclosing two 
three-cent stamps or an equivalent—have 
not yet received it, will now kindly ad¬ 
vise us by postal card. Those who have 
subscribed for the Rural in connection 
C 
with the Inter-Ocean, Detroit Free Press, 
World, or other journals which club 
with us, are not required to pay any 
postage. We stand ready to rectify any 
and all mistakes upon notification by 
postal card. 
If the number on your wrapper after 
the name is 1676, your subscription ex¬ 
pires with this week’s paper ; if the 
number is 1677, next week, and so on. 
Seepage 172 for full explanation. 
Dr. J. B. La wes writes us that he sees 
our people are beginning to find out that 
the German tables of food values are all 
false. In manures they underrate the 
value of nitrogen and in foods they have 
erred in the contrary direction, 
Our New England readers will read 
Dr. Hoskins’s “ Fruit List for New Eng¬ 
land ” with interest and instruction. The 
list may be trusted as the most reliable 
general list that can be made out. Dr. 
Hoskins has given much time and care 
to it. 
-- .— - 
Tins children have a “benefit” this week. 
We are very much obliged to the parents 
of the members of our Youths’ Horticul¬ 
tural Club for the interest they manifest 
in it. They aid in a good, noble work. 
Let us all strive to interest our children 
in the garden and farm. 
- ♦ ♦ ♦- - 
If we have made any mistakes (as 
doubtless we have) in making up and 
sending out our Free Seed Distribution, 
we are now ready to rectify them. Our 
friends will kindly notify us by postal. 
We want to make all entirely satisfactory 
without cost to our readers, and if they do 
not advise us of any irregularities or mis¬ 
takes, it will be their fault if they do not 
give us the opportunity to rectify them. 
Before any Winter to speak of, Spring 
has come. Of course, there have been 
Winters as mild as the last, hut in this 
latitude it is not easy to recall one, and 
reports from nearly all other parts of the 
country tell of a Winter equally without 
severity. Above all others this is the sea¬ 
son to catch cold, to change clothing un¬ 
wisely, and to be caught in a shower with¬ 
out an umbrella. We also expect in a few 
days more to hear that the peach crop is 
entirely ruined. 
-»--- 
Tiie two mistakes in our recent an¬ 
swers to questions, viz., those regarding 
the amount of onion seed to the acre and 
the average quantity of shelled beans to 
the acre, have brought no less than 100 
corrections from our good friends. We 
thank them again and again. While our 
readers are thus interested in the Rural 
New-Yorker we have little fear of going 
far astray. Our subscribers see that we 
earnestly desire to be correct and trust¬ 
worthy in our advice, and they hasten to 
the rescue when they see us in peril. 
Long may they and the Rural wave! 
CONGRESS AND THE RAILROADS. 
No question now before Congress is 
more important than that embodied in the 
“ Reagan bill” introduced by Represen¬ 
tative John H. Reagan, of Texas, which 
proposes that the general government 
shall exercise a controlling power over 
the railroad lines of the country. A com¬ 
mittee of tho House has the subject now 
under investigation and delegations from 
commercial bodies and trade associations 
are strongly advocating the project, 
while the railroad companies are stren- 
ously combattiug it, publicly through the 
most influential legal luminaries, and 
doubtless privately through a powerful 
lobby. The power of our vast railroad 
tnonoplies is the greatest of our political 
and economic forces, and that in which 
far-sighted statesmen see the gravest dan¬ 
ger to our material welfare and our re¬ 
publican institutions. That these mighty 
corporations, in seeking directly their 
own pecuniary advantage, have done 
great good to the country no one will 
deny; but so vast a concentration of 
capital handled by selflsh greed un¬ 
der almost despotic control oppresses 
the people to enrich its owners. How 
to reconcile the conflicting interests of 
the public and of these huge organizations 
will demand the highest, statesmanship. 
NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON OLEO¬ 
MARGARINE. 
Several bills are now before Congress 
designed to prevent the sale of oleomar¬ 
garine and suine as genuine butter. The 
very extensive sale of these products here 
in that fraudulent guise and the large 
exportation of them without any distin¬ 
guishing mark have already done much 
injury to the dairy interests of the coun¬ 
try. According to the statistics gathered 
by the supporters of these bills the money 
value of our annual dairy products ex¬ 
ceeds that of the wheat and the corn 
crops, and is greater than that of cotton 
and wool combined, being, according to 
different statistical tables and estimates, 
between four and six hundred millions of 
dollars yearly, while from five to eight mil¬ 
lions of people are interested in the industry 
in which a capital of from four to six hun¬ 
dred millions is invested. It is hardly 
tolerable that so vast an industry, affect¬ 
ing the welfare of so large a proportion 
of our population, should l>e jeopardized 
by a handful of unscrupulous manufactur¬ 
ers who are making vast profits out of a 
product which owes its extensive sale to 
fraud. The great difficulty in enforcing 
the laws against, it is to distinguish the 
spurious from the genuine butter; and 
the great difficulty in securing appropri¬ 
ate legislation lies in the dominant influ¬ 
ence of organized capital. The most prac¬ 
tical measure sought, hy the present bills 
is the appointment of inspectors to stamp 
oleomargarine and suine with conspicuous 
marks. But what is to prevent the sub¬ 
sequent change of the stuff from marked 
into unmarked packages ? The only effect¬ 
ual preventive of fraud in these concoctions 
seems to be to mark the products by 
compelling the manufacturers to give 
them some color different from that of 
genuine butter and cheese. 
RECLAMATION OF ARID WESTERN 
LANDS. 
Next to the reorganization of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture the reclamation 
of the arid lands of the Far West appears 
to have attracted more Congressional at¬ 
tention than any other agricultural ques¬ 
tion. Representative J. B. Belford, of 
Colorado, has introduced a bill pro¬ 
viding that such lands shall be leased 
in large tracts for a long term of 
years, at a low figure, for grazing 
purposes, as an inducement to stock- 
men to bore wells to secure stock 
water. Representative G. W. Cassidy, of 
Nevada, has offered another bill provid¬ 
ing that two artesian wells shall be sunk 
ou government laud in his State at an ex¬ 
pense not exceeding $100,000. He backs 
up his bill by the report of the Surveyor- 
General of the State, who declares that 
millions of acres in the greet valleys and 
uplands can be made fruitful by irrigation 
from such wells. This gentleman sug¬ 
gests that a donation of a section or two 
of land for the discovery of water easily 
accessible by means of artesian wells 
would greatly stimulate research leading 
to the reclamation of hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of acres now worthless. Delegate 
Oury, of Arizona, has brought forward 
another bill providing that five artesian 
wells shall be bored in Arizona at a cost of 
$50,000, under the direction of the Secre¬ 
tary of the Interior. 
In addition to these House bills, Sena¬ 
tor Vest, of Missouri, has introduced into 
the Senate a bill granting to the Idaho 
Land Irrigation Company the right to 
build and forever maintain canals to car¬ 
ry the waters of Snake and Boisp Rivers 
to arid land south of them in Idaho. 
The bill grants the right of way through 
public and private lands and every alter¬ 
nate section of land that can be irrigated 
within the prescribed limits. The same 
Senator has also brought forward another 
bill giving the Utah and Idaho Irrigation 
Company the exclusive right to use the 
waters of the Beach River in Idaho and 
granting a subsidy of six sections of land 
per mile for each of the canals and 
branches. 
We have not the opportunity of study¬ 
ing the merits of these various projects, 
but some of them look suspiciously like 
monopolizing jobs. One of the most ef¬ 
fective ways of checking dishonest, or 
or tricky legislation is to disclose to the 
interested public the character of the lulls 
whose passage is sought, hence the above 
brief summary. 
A GLANCE AT CROPS AND PRICES 
FOR 1881. 
According to the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment’s latest corrected estimate of the 
production of cereals in 1881 the falling 
off from the crops of 1880 was, 31 per cent 
in corn; 22 per cent in wheat ; 27 per 
cent in rye ; and 9 per cent in bariey; 
while the yield of buckwheat and oats 
was about the same in both years. The 
aggregate product of all cereals in ’81 
was 2,063,020,571 bushels against 2.718,- 
193,501 in ’80, a reduction of 055,163,931 
bushels, or 24 per cent. In spite of this de¬ 
crease, however, the aggregate value of 
the cereal crops of 1881 was greater than 
that of the cereal crops of 1880. The 
average value of corn has advanced 
from 39.0 cents in 1880 to 63.6 cents in 
’81 ; oats from 36 cents to 46.4 cents and 
wheat from 95 cents to $1.19 per bushel. 
Corn averaged the lowest price in Neb., 
39 cents; next in la., 44 cents, and nextin 
Minn., 53 cents, and the highest price was 
in Col., $1,05; next in Nev.,and Fla.. $1 
each, and next in Ga., 97 coots. The 
yield averaged 18.6 bushels per acre for 
the entire country, being least in S. C., 
6.7 bushels per acre ; next in Ga., 8.3 
bushels ; and nextin Fla., 8.8 bushels. 
Curiously the yield was heaviest in Vt , N. 
H.,and Me., which averaged respectively 
35.7,34.2 and 34 bushels per acre, against 
19.4 bushels per acre in Illinois, 25.8 in Ta., 
and 16.5 in Mo., the three States whose 
aggregate production was the highest. 
The total yield of the three New Eng¬ 
land States was only 4.316,000 bushels; 
while that of the three Western States 
amounted to 443,093.000 bushels. 
The average price of wheat was highest 
in S. C., Fla. and Ga., being re¬ 
spectively $1.65, $1.65, and $1.63, in 
all of which the production was less than 
the consumption. In the Northern States 
of greatest surplus, the price averaged 
$1.29 in Ohio; $1.06 in Minn., and $1.27 
in lnd., each of which States produced 
more than 30,000,000 bushels. Cal. 
wheat averaged $1.03 per bushel, and 
Oregon wheat, 88 cents, the distance from 
market lowering the price of the extra- 
quality wheat of those States. The aver¬ 
age yield was 10.1 bushels per acre, being 
highest in Col., 19.8; next iD Vt.,, 18.0; 
next in Conn., 17.7;in Oregon it was, 17.2, 
while in Ohio, Minn, and Tnd., the 
three largest producers, the yield aver¬ 
aged, respectively, 13.311.4 and lO.Sbtish- 
els per acre. For oats S. C., Fla. and La, 
paid the highest price—97, 92 and 95 
cents respectively. With this cereal, as 
with com and wheat, the New England 
States averaged a heavier yield per acre 
than any other six contiguous States in 
the Union (though Minn, heads the 
list with an average of 85.6 bushels per 
acres) showing conclusively the superior 
results of better tillage and care over a 
more genial climate and a richer natural 
soil. In Ill., Iowa, Penn, and N. Y., 
whose product ranged from 66,000,000 
to 38,000,000 bushels, the average yield 
was, respectively, 33.4, 26.2, 31 8and 28.8 
bushels per acre. 
- *-*■-* - 
BREVITIES. 
We can tell our readers that the Ghent 
Azaleas are among the most beautiful of 
hardy shrubs. 
One of the greatest troubles of life is that 
every one is trying to make an easy living. 
That’s why farming doesn’t pay always. 
Our readers may take tho Rural’s word 
for it that too much salt is spread upon aspar¬ 
agus beds, it may not do any special harm; 
it surely cun do no good. 
The next question for the discussion of our 
Youths’ Horticultural Club is: What vegeta¬ 
bles are best for the young folks to cultivate ? 
The members of the Club have a “ benefit” this 
week. 
One of our enterprising seed firms offers a 
new sunflower with the name of Oscar Wilde. 
The description given is precisely that which 
would fairly describe no less than a dozen of 
our Wilde varieties. 
The Rural is merely trying to catch up. 
The two numbers comprising the Complete 
Fruit Lists for each State of the United States 
(this and last week’s numbers) will be sent free 
to all who apply, as long as the edition lasts. 
During 1881, the falling off in the value of our 
agricultural exports has been, in round num¬ 
bers: wheat,$31,000,000;corn, SIS,000,000;cot¬ 
ton. other than Sea Island, $12,006,000; horned 
cattle, over $6,000,000; bacon aud hams, nearly 
$5,000,000; tallow, nearly $3,000,000; butter, 
over $8,000,000: preserved meats, nearly $2,- 
000,000; rye, $1,000,000; wheat flour, about 
$ 000 , 000 . 
In forecasting the aggregate yield of last year’s 
wheat crop, the Rural in its Special Crop 
Number, doted June 35, ’.VO, page 424. said : 
“This year’s aggregate crop <■;> hardly be 
far from the neighborhood of 380,000,000 
bushels.” The Department of Agriculture’s 
Special Report dated Feb. 16, 1882, which 
gives the corrected estimates of last year’s 
cereal crops, snvs: “The wheat cron aggre¬ 
gates 880,280,090 bushels." 
On Thursday last the New York Live Stock 
Express Company made a trial trip on a New 
Jersey railroad with a new kind of stock cars 
for which the claim is made that they secure 
immunity from crowding and trampling, 
shorten the time of transit and deliver the 
animals in better condition than the ordinary 
cattle cars The curs arc* fitted with sliding 
partitions so arranged as to give each animal a 
separate stall and with improved appliances 
for feeding mid watering. In view of the 
great multitude of plans lately devised for 
the humane transportation of live stock, it is 
to be hoped that some of thorn will soon be in¬ 
troduced into general use on our railroads. 
Tiik buffalo Patent Grain Shovel Company 
is making strenuous efforts to secure an ex¬ 
tension of its patents on the steam grain shov¬ 
el used by all the principal elevators of Buffa¬ 
lo and by many elevators at. other grain re¬ 
ceiving centers. In 1806 Wilson, Spendelon 
and Watson, the inventors, combined and over 
since they have been receiving on elevated 
grain a royalty of 60 cents per 1,000 bushels. 
The Buffalo Board of Trade has sent to Wash¬ 
ington an earnest protest against the exten¬ 
sion of the patents in the interest of Commerce, 
and in the interest of Agriculture wo join our 
protest to theirs. Whatever increases the 
expense of handling farm products tends to 
lessen tho price the farmer receives for his 
goods. Moreover in the interest of the public 
we are firmly opposed to all extensions of 
patents. 
From a number of points in the West we 
learn that unusually active preparations are 
already being made to celebrate Arbor Day 
in April. The great advantages of extensive 
tree planting on the prairies are being annu¬ 
ally more fully appreciated, and from pres¬ 
ent indications an unusually large area will 
be planted this year. Hitherto Minnesota, 
Iowa, and Nebraska have done most in for¬ 
estry. The first has a Forestry Association, 
which has already done a good deal for the 
protection of the present timber and for the 
encouragement of t roe-planting to meet future 
wants. In support of its efforts the Legisla¬ 
ture makes an annual appropriation of 
$2,500, and tho example might well be fol¬ 
lowed in Che other scantily-timbered prairie 
States. A Forestry Convention, to be held 
at Cincinnati next April, will doubtless bene¬ 
ficial ly contribute to attract public attention 
to the urgent need of Stale and National 
legislation on the subject of Forestry, 
In the case of McAllister vs. tho Chicago, 
Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, 
McAllister’s cattle were unloaded from tue 
oars in Missouri, contrary to his directions, 
and were seized by the State officers as Texas, 
Mexican or Indian cattle, under a statute of 
the State prohibiting the introduction of such 
cattle. McAllister was arrested, summarily 
tried, convicted and fiuod $100, to which was 
added the cost of thocaseaud of caring for and 
feeding the cattle, amounting to $125. He was 
unable to pay, and the cattle wore sold to sat¬ 
isfy fine, costs aud expenses. No time wus 
allowed him to procure evidence that the cat¬ 
tle were not Texas, Mexican or Indian cattle 
—as was the fuel. Last December the Su- 
E reme Court of Minnesota, to which the case 
ad been carried, decided against McAllister, 
through Judge ltay, who -aid:—“The injur¬ 
ies complained of were the direct and imme¬ 
diate result of the arrest and seizure by third 
parties, for whose conduct the railroad com¬ 
pany is not responsible. It is clear that the 
alleged wrongful unloading was not the prox¬ 
imate cost of the arrest and loss; and that tho 
injury suffered resulted in damages too incon¬ 
sequential to justify an action against the 
company as a carrier.” 
A strenuous attempt is being made by the 
Chicago Board of Trade to suppress “bucket- 
shops.” This is the nickname given to the 
dens of those speculative dealers iu produce 
and stocks who ore not members of the regular 
commercial and financial organizations, such 
as the Produce Exchange, stock Exchange; 
etc. The members of these latter organizations 
pay heavy entrance fees and annual dues and 
their dealings are regulated by the rules of the 
respective organizations aud .-aibjoet to super¬ 
vision of the duly elected governing authori¬ 
ties, who punish members for any detected 
illegitimate transactions. Tlio runners of 
“bucket-shops” pay no fees or dues, are con¬ 
strained by no rules except the criminal laws, 
and their dealings are subject to no supervision 
except that of the criminal courts. As u rule, 
they am men without much capital of their 
own, who find abundant gains in manipulat¬ 
ing that of others deposited with them us 
“margins” in speculative transactions. While 
the regular organizations promote gambling 
in “options” among heavy operators, the 
“ bucket-shops ” foster such gam bling, with its 
ttttendeut vices, urnuug the general' public, 
accepting margins of from five dollars, aud 
sometimes even less, upwards. They are not 
confined, to the large cities, for small country 
towns often have their demoralizing presence. 
The Chicago Board of Trade is attempting to 
suppress them by causing the telegraph com¬ 
panies to cease furnishing them the market 
quotations collected on ’Change. Their opera¬ 
tions are based on these, and, deprived of 
them, they must “shut up (bucket)-shop.” 
