640 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 16, 1688. 
Who has Heige’s Prolific wheat for 
sale? 
-- 
Referring to Heige’s wheat illustrated 
on the first page, we can glean no infor¬ 
mation as to its milling properties. 
■» » ♦ — 
We now regret very much, indeed, we 
did not more urgently request our read¬ 
ers to bag some of their grapes. They 
have missed a treat that they will now be 
obbged to wait another year to enjoy. 
How marvelous the change for the bet¬ 
ter reported in the outlook for British 
crops within the last week or two. Of 
coursa the “improvement'’ cannot be due 
to the desire of British grain-buyers to 
“bear” the American market. Other 
European countries, too, appear to be 
equally fortunate in their crops. What 
says Moffatt? Why doesn’t he send us 
his monthly reports? For wbat other 
purpose was he sent across the Atlantic 
at the expense of the Agricultural De¬ 
partment? Where are thy reports, oh 
Moffatt? Hurry up, Moffatt! 
A Great Dairt Exhibition at which 
the butter and cheese men of the North¬ 
west wilt have an opportunity of dis¬ 
playing the results of their skill close to 
their own homes, will, we learn, be held 
at Milwaukee next December, from the 
4th to the 9th inclusive. The exhibition 
is to be in six departments, the first of 
which will be devoted to butter, with 14 
classifications. Class A will include 
sweepstakes premiums of $230 for the 
best five tubs of butter, made at any 
time and by any process, the amount to 
be divided into first and second pre¬ 
miums of $t50 and $100 respectively. 
The list of premiums for other sortj of 
butter, as well as for cheese, is very lib¬ 
eral, and it is expected that there will be 
a large display of these products, as well 
as of dairy implements and machinery and 
dairy cows. 
WHAT SAY FARMERS ? 
Is it judicious tor agricultural papers 
which, above all else, have the best inter¬ 
ests of farmers at heart, to state their 
candid judgment with regard to the out¬ 
look and outcome of the crops of the 
country ? If the crops are extremely 
good, as most of them are this year, and 
nearly all the others promise to be, is it 
for the real interest of farmers that their 
representative papers should tell the truth 
about the matter? Granting that they 
should under no circumstances misrepre¬ 
sent their opinions—in other words, lie — 
is it always wise to speak out one’s con¬ 
victions? If ihe knowledge that the crops 
are very heavy tends to depreciate prices, 
is it the part of a friend to boast of then- 
abundance and thus help to “bear” the 
market? If all the agricultural papers in 
this country were as si Lent as most of them 
are on this subject, would the buyers of 
farm products—those who mamly fix the 
prices for them—remain ignorant of the 
amount of each crop likely to come to mar¬ 
ket? Isn’t it the duty of a live, practical, 
honest journal to furnish its friends with 
the fullest and most truthful information 
within its reach with regard to all matters 
that affect their interests? If those with 
whom farmers deal are likely to secure 
valuable information from other source®, 
wouldn’t it be unwise, nay, culpable, for 
their own papers to withhold from them 
such information, on the ground that 
it might possibly help others, thus leav¬ 
ing them under a disadvantage in their 
dealings with those better instructed? 
FRAUDS IN FERTILIZERS, 
The gross frauds often practiced by un¬ 
scrupulous manufacturers of commercial 
fertilizers upon the users of the articles, 
are amply proved by the analyses of such 
fraudulent wares at the Connecticut Agri¬ 
cultural Experimental Station, as pub¬ 
lished under “What Others Say,” in this 
issue. A small difference between the 
cost of fertilizers per ton and their esti¬ 
mated value per ton, may easily exist 
without any dishonest intent on the part 
of the manufacturer, but when $130 per 
ton are charged for an article worth on ly 
$33.75, it is impossible for even the most 
charitable nincompoop to see in the trans¬ 
action anything but an atrocious swin¬ 
dle, that reflects shame on every one con¬ 
nected with the sale. The detection of 
such outrages on the cornu;onest sort of 
honesty is a sufficient reason for the ex¬ 
istence of the Chemical Departments of 
Experiment Stations, and stringent laws 
should be comprehensive enough to pun- 
nish every person engaged in perpetrating 
them. The Connecticut law on this subject, 
which went into effect on the first of the 
current month, holds the seller of a fertil¬ 
izer that retails at $10 or more per ton 
responsible for affixing a correct label on 
every package sold or offered for sale, as 
well as for the payment of an analysis fee 
of $10 for each fertilizing ingredient the 
fertilizer contains or is claimed to con¬ 
tain, unless the manufacturer or importer 
shall have provided labels and paid the 
fee. The law also provides that a certi¬ 
fied statement of the composition, net 
weight, etc., of each lot shall be sent to 
the Experiment Station, together with a 
sealed sample, and that every dealer in 
commercial fertilizers shall annually re¬ 
port certain specified facts to the Director. 
Just as the chemical work of the Connect¬ 
icut Experiment Station is the model for 
that of other stations, s > the laws that ren¬ 
der its functions effective should have 
weighty consideration in determining 
similar enactments in other States. We 
do not altogether approve of some of tlic 
provisions of the Connecticut law; still, 
as these were doubtless suggested by Prof. 
S. W. Johnson, they are worthy of con¬ 
sideration. The main thing is to fix 
the responsibility sharply for every of 
fense, as well as the responsibility for 
securing punishment. There is a sad lack 
of definite responsibility in our penal 
legislation as well as in most of our mu¬ 
nicipal governments, 
--- 
CURTAILMENT OF THE PUBLIC DO¬ 
MAIN. 
The report of the disposition of our 
public lands during the fiscal year ending 
June 30 last, shows a marked increase 
over preceding years in the area diverted 
to private uses The grand total of lands 
disposed of amounted to 15,699,848 acres, 
against 10,893,397 acres the preceding 
fiscal year. Of this vast area 6,347,729 
acres were settled under the homestead 
law, against 5,028,100 acres in the pre¬ 
ceding year—an increase of over 26 per 
cent., while there was an increase of 48 
per cent, in laud settled under the tim¬ 
ber culture acts. This increase is partly 
due, no doubt, to the increase iu immi¬ 
gration, which amounted to 18 per ceDt.; 
but in view of the fact that an unusually 
large number of the new-comers merely 
passed through this country to the Brit¬ 
ish possessions in the Northwest and that 
a still larger proportion took up their 
abode in the older settled States, the 
large increase in the settlement of the 
public domain under the homestead and 
timber culture laws shows that there 
must have been an unusually large move¬ 
ment of our old population upon such 
lands. 
The increase in the lands purchased for 
cash under the pre-emption, mineral, 
desert and coal land acts was as high 
as 145 per cent., the lands thus dis¬ 
posed of amounting to 3,910,212 acres, 
against 1,587,617 acres in the prtceding 
year, the Government’s income being 
$8,361,091, against $5,048,880 in the fis¬ 
cal year ending June 30, 1881. This in¬ 
crease, too, is due in some measure to the 
enormous tide of immigrants rolling on 
our shores; but probably still more to the 
speculative tendency that accompanies 
flush times, and to the unprecedentedly 
low rate of interest on money invested in 
good securities, shown by the fact that 
the Government has found no difficulty 
whatever in disposing of $250,000,000 
worth of bonds at. three per cent, interest. 
Doubtless an uncommonly large amount 
of money has therefore been put iuto land 
—a safe investment, which is sure to pay 
good interest in the long run. 
It is a curious fact that all our great 
financial panics have been immediately 
preceded by unusually large sales of the 
public lauds, and the sales this year are 
the heaviest ever made, except those of 
the three years immediately preceding the 
anic of 1857 and the two years imme- 
iately prt ceding the pauic of 1837. Is 
there a wuruing m this coincidence? 
Of the fiftecn-and-a-half million acres 
disposed of four-and-a-half million acres, 
or nearly o»*e-third, were in Dakota, while 
nearly amillion-and-a-half were in Kansas, 
and about 1.300,000 acres apiece in Ne¬ 
braska and Minnesota. Of the 37,063 
acres of mineral lands sold, 17,128 acres,or 
nearly one-half, are credited to Colorado 
and 8,913 to California. A few years ago 
mining was the chief industry in Dakota, 
but so great has been the revolution there 
from mining to agriculture that, although 
the amount of agricultural laud disposed 
of was over 3,000,000 acres more than in 
any other State or Territory, the sales of 
mineral land in the whole Territory, in¬ 
cluding the famous Black Hills region, 
aggregated only 181 acres! In view of 
the vast slices cut every year from the 
public domain, how long will any of this 
suitable for agricultural purposes remain 
for sale or settlement? 
-» -- 
FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN 
WHEAT. 
On the morning of September 5, the 
^London Times published an exhaustive 
summary of the annual review of the 
harvests of the world,issued at Marseilles 
by M. Estienne, whose conclusions are 
every year generally accepted as the best 
approximate estimates of the crops of the 
globe. The general results of a vast 
amount of figuring are thus summarized 
by the Times: 
“Never, during the time since these reports 
were collected, has the harvest, in the north¬ 
ern hemisphere been so good all round. We 
usually had to report a deficiency either in 
Europe or America. This year there is ab¬ 
solutely none. The world has over an aver¬ 
age harvest, and with such a harvest the year 
is likely to bo one of cheap abundance.” 
What effect will this general abundance 
have upon the demand, and, consequent¬ 
ly, the price for American wheat? First, 
as to the supply. In view of the generally 
good condition in which the unusually 
large yield of the Winter wheat crop of 
the Northwest has been harvested, esti 
mates of the aggregate wheat crop now 
range all the way from 500,000,000 to 
600,000,000 bushels. Judging from the 
experience of past years, and making 
liberal allowances for our increase of pop¬ 
ulation, ft r damaged grain to be fed to 
stork, for wheat to be fed to stock on 
account of scarcity of corn, for in¬ 
creased acieage to be seeded next season, 
and for the unusually large consumption 
that commonly accompanies low prices, 
it is estimated that our home demands for 
consumption, seeding, etc., cannot be 
over 300,000,000 bushels —12,000,000 
more than the estimate for last year. 
Add 20,000,000 bushels to makeup the 
now depleted reserve usually on hand at 
the end of the crop year, and there will 
still be left an exportable surplus of from 
180,000,000 to 280,000,000 bushels, as the 
actual outcome of the crop shall approx¬ 
imate the smallest, or la'gest estimate. A 
very reasonable estimate would be 520,- 
000,000 bushclB, which would make an 
exportable surplus of 200,000,000, bush» Is. 
Is it likely there will be a foreign 
market for this quantity? Judging from 
the amount of our exports ia late years 
and the abundant foreign harvests this 
year in contrast with the deficient for¬ 
eign harvests that have been the rule of 
late, we must say, No. According to 
official statements, during the fiscal year 
ending June 30 last, we exported of 
wheat and of flour reduced to wheat ut 
4J- bushels per barrel, 139,550,305 bush¬ 
els, against 186,331,614 bushels for the 
previous year, and 180,204,176 bushels in 
the fiscal year 1879-1880. These two 
yeai-9 excluded, our exports of wheat 
weie never as large as last year’s. Our 
largest exports were 186,331,614 bushels 
in 1881—a year of grevious disaster to 
British agriculture and of short European 
crops generally, and it iB hardly likely 
that so much will be taken this year 
when foreign harvests are reported 
to be unusually good. The only fa¬ 
vorable points this year in compari¬ 
son with last, are the stoppage of the 
small shipments from Egypt; the possi¬ 
bility of European hostilities, and that the 
shipments to Euiope from India, Aus¬ 
tralia and New Zealand may be inter¬ 
rupted by injury to the Suez Canal, and, 
finally, the unsually large amount of 
grain, consumed everywhere when prices 
are low. On the whole, however, it is 
probable that a considerable surplus of 
American wheat will be carried over to 
another yrar, unless sold at very low 
prices, indeed, even if the smallest esti¬ 
mate of the crop shall prove correct, and 
a proportionately larger amount as the 
crop may exceed the lowest estimate. 
Both on account of the loss by shrinking, 
etc., and the lockiug up of the large 
capital invested in the grain, such a neces¬ 
sity would be a subject of regret to the 
country at large, especially to agriculture. 
FRUIT IN THE NEW YORK MARKETS. 
FiGURATrvEi.v speaking, it may be said 
that New York is flooded with peaches. 
Such has been the case for two weeks or 
more past, and such it will be for more 
than a fortnight to come. Up to the 
present week the invoices have been 
almost wholly from Maryland, Delaware 
and other Southerly States, but now New 
Jersey is sending in some splendid fruit. 
The Hudson River country will furnish no 
peaches this year of any account, though 
it is to that section that New-Yorkers 
generally look for their October supply. 
There are some fine Late Crawfords, 
Susquehannas and Smocks now in the 
market, the last-named variety being 
highly esteemed for canning and pre¬ 
serving, although it is a yellow fruit. 
The Oldmixon is a good keeper, and 
is, therefore, in favor with both ship¬ 
pers and commission men. Although 
much fruit has been rushed into this 
market at unexpected times, there is 
little that has not returned the cost, 
though sometimes to clear it out was not 
an easy matter. 
In conversation recently with a Wash¬ 
ington Market fruit-dealer we inquired if 
the surplus of a day’s receipts could uot 
be reshipped to interior towns if it was 
in good condition. He replied that such 
used to be the custom, but. that uow this 
was useless, since fruit trains are run 
direct from the peach States to these 
larger towns, thus cutting off the New 
York dealers, through whose hands nearly 
all shipments of fruit used to pass to 
these places. Not only does it “kill” 
their surplus market, but it makes a vast 
difference in the amount of business done 
here in the regular commission trade. 
There is, however, always a rush of busi¬ 
ness the latter part of the week, owing 
largely to the fact that these outside fruit 
trains are not run late in the week, since 
they would not arrive in time to have the 
fruit disposed of before Sunday, conse¬ 
quently they are run to this market and 
fairly flood it Saturdays. Good peaches 
sold, late Saturday afternoons, as low as 
25 cents per basket. 
Pears are now coming quite plentifully, 
though their quality has been inferior. 
Hudson River Bartletts are showing up 
well, but the crop will be a light one. 
The best fruit brings as high as $12 per 
barrel, and none of fair to good quality 
will bring less than $8. After the Hud¬ 
son River crop, the muiket will be sup¬ 
plied from the West, and it is probable 
that the price will be not less than for the 
up river Bartletts and the quality may be 
inferior. 
Plum3 have been very plentiful iu mar¬ 
ket for a “scarce” season. Green-gages 
are selling at from $7 to $8 per barrel. 
Common plums are quite abundant, and 
are selling at about $1 per basket at 
Washington Market. 
Grapes are abundant, mostly Con¬ 
cords, but they find slow sale. “There,” 
said a commission-dealer, pointing to a 
pile of boxes, “there are 60 boxes of 
splendid Concords, tut there's no sale for 
them; peadhts demand all the attention; 
grapes will have to wait.” The ship¬ 
ments arc of good quality and firm, and 
in poor peach seasons would command a 
much better price. 
We speak of apples last, for they are 
least. Duly a few have yet found their 
way to market, and the quality it indif¬ 
ferent. The supply corroborates the 
early reports that apples would be a light 
crop. New York, New Jersey and Penn¬ 
sylvania will ship but few. The only fa¬ 
vorable report we could obtain was that 
Michigan would have a fair supply, which 
is contrary to our Michigan reports. Ap¬ 
ples thataie now retaihd from the stands 
at from^three to five cents apiece, are poor 
things. 
-*-*-♦- 
BREVITIES. 
On page 646 will be found a full report of 
the Ohio State Fair from our Special cor¬ 
respondent. 
From several sources we learn that un- 
? |ualifi-d praise is due to Mr. William Little 
or the admirable arrangements he made 
for the convenience of the at tendants at the 
Forestry Congress lately held at Montreal. 
We beg leave to say to our friends who are 
already sending in requests for the next Seed 
Distribution that the seeds are uot yet ready, 
but that all orders will be filled promptly as 
soon as they are. The seedB are not intended 
for sowing this Fall. Requests for premium 
lists, also will be complied with in a week or 
so. 
The honey crop will be a good one this 
year, notwithstanding the di-eouragiug pros¬ 
pects early in the season. The yield will be 
light iu Europe, and California will probably 
not h*ve much for export. Good honey, put 
up in proper shape and carefully graded, will 
find ready sales It should be marketed in 
no other way. Neat packages are attractive. 
T ME 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER, 
A National Joumal lor Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. C 1KU1N, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
