-YC 
SEPT 23 
THU 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Joumal fior Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
KLBERT 8. 01BK1S. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 33, 1882. 
We have an ear of the Rural Thorough¬ 
bred Flint 15j inches long. Who will 
send us a longer ear? Going at 151! 
Who will say 16? 
We have just taken a little run through 
our held of Rural Thoroughbred Flint. 
This is certainly a remarkable corn, as 
must soon appear. We pulled three ears 
which averaged 151 inches in length! 
They are, of course, eight-rowed. The 
kernels are very broad and wide, though 
never deep, averaging 62 to the row. If 
any of our friends find ears an inch or 
more longer than the above we shall feel 
grateful if they will inform us. 
Dr. Lawes, of Rothamsted, England, 
in a private note, under date of Aug. 20, 
says: “I have just cut my Winter oats—a 
magnificent crop, the straw over six feet 
high.” Again he says: “All the crops 
are good, except wheat. The straw is 
enormous, but the yield will not be good 
—possibly an average; but this I cannot 
tell until I begin to thrash. Anyhow we 
shall want 15 to 16 million quarters from 
somewhere. The country was never more 
bare of old English-grown wheat than it 
is at present." 
after oil to the value of about $1,750,000 
has been expressed; a considerable num¬ 
ber of them are used as fertilizers just as 
they are caught, a single fish of common 
size being considered equal in richness to 
a shovelful of barnyard manure; and the 
“scrap,” or refuse, enters largely into 
the manufacture of many of our com¬ 
mercial fertilizers. The fishery has lately 
been prosecuted so vigorously that the 
number of menhaden that visit our shores 
is growing seriously less every year, and 
accordingly the food fishes that prey upon 
the menhaden—which are too oily to be 
palatable—are also, it is said, becoming 
scarcer every year. Moreover, large 
numbers of the latter are caught in the 
seines with the menhaden and are taken 
to the factories to be used as fertilizers, 
instead of to the market to be used as 
food. In one case ten tons of fine weak- 
fish were caught with the menhaden, and 
less than one ton of them reached market, 
the rest having been too much battered 
and broken to be fit for sale. Efforts are 
therefore being made to place restrictions 
on the fishery of menhaden for the sake 
of increasing the number of food fishes in 
our markets. 
TEXAS-KILLED BEEF FOR NORTHERN 
MARKETS. 
Three weeks ago, in speaking of the 
probable aggregate wheat crop of the 
country, we stated that from a careful 
comparison of all the best reports, we be¬ 
lieved the total crop would be from 515 
to 520 million bushels. In view of the 
fine condition in which the Winter wheat 
crop of the Northwest had been harvested, 
we said last Saturday that a fair estimate 
of the aggregate crop would be 520,000- 
000 bushels. A couple of days later the 
report of the Department of Agriculture 
for September estimates the crop at 520,- 
000,000 bushels. 
-» 
In view of the large number of moths 
and other insects that are constantly 
hovering around the glass globes of elec¬ 
tric lights all the night long, even in large 
cities like New York, where sucb insects 
are comparatively scarce, it seems to us 
that this brilliant light might be used 
with advantage as an insecticide in the 
hop-yard, the tobacco field and o.ther 
places on the farm where night-flying in¬ 
sects are especially numerous and destruc¬ 
tive to crops. Where the lights are un¬ 
protected by crystal globes, we have seen 
the pavements under them littered in the 
morning with the remains of insects that 
had committed suicide in the dazzling 
heat during the night. We certainly 
think that electric lights may yet be made 
useful to the insect-tormented farmer. 
After visiting Chicago and Boston, a 
delegation of prominent Texas cattle men 
have during the past week been in New 
York and Philadelphia for the purpose of 
studying the system of transportal ion, 
slaughter and distribution of Western and 
Texas beef. Should their investigations 
warrant it, a stroog company will be 
formed for the purpose ol slaughtering 
Texas cattle close to their pastures and 
transporting their carcasses direct to the 
East in refrigerator ears. They claim 
that the low estimation of Texas beef in 
the market is, in a great measure, due to 
the hardships the cattle have to endure 
during the long journey; that the animals 
lose a large amount of weight in transit, 
and that the expenses of transportation 
on the hoof are excessive. By shipping 
dressed carcasses the meat will reach 
Northern markets in good condition, the 
saving in freight and other transportation 
expenses will much more than counter¬ 
balance the outlay for refrigerator cars, 
and while the producers will get more 
for their cattle the consumers will pay 
less for their meat. A few experimental 
shipments of Texas-killed beef to the 
Eastern markets have already been made 
with satisfactory results. The trade in 
dressed meat between Chicago and the 
Atlantic cities is steadily increasing, and 
already step* are being taken towards sup¬ 
plying interior points in the same way: 
Chicago capital, we learn, is about to 
erect cooling-houses at once as distribu¬ 
ting depots in Albany and Troy, and 
doubtless other large interior towns east 
of the Alleghanies will ere long have sim¬ 
ilar establishments. 
I tuch time as might be needed to inform 
' himself of its character. One who, with¬ 
out any necessity, so misplaces his con¬ 
fidence ought not to be beard to claim 
that the paper he is in consequence misled 
to sign should be taken out of the rule 
protecting commercial paper. 
-- 
ENGLAND’S IMPORTED FOOD. 
The growing dependence of the United 
Kingdom on foreign countries for its 
supplies of food is clearly shown by some 
elaborate statistics lately published there 
in tabulated form. From these it appears 
that during the fifteen years between 
1867 and 1881, the population has in¬ 
creased five millions, or about one-sixth, 
necessitating a proportionately larger im¬ 
portation of foreign food; but in addition 
to this, the consumption, per head, of im¬ 
ported food products which are also 
raised iD the United Kingdom, has in¬ 
creased as follows: The consumption of 
bacon and hams per head of the popula¬ 
tion increased from 1.92 pounds in 1867 
to 13.93 pounds in 1881; that of butter, 
from 4.19 to 6.86 pounds; of cheese, from 
3.32 to 5.77 pounds; of eggs, from 13.19 
to 21.65; of potatoes, from 5.10 to 12.85 
pounds; and of wheat and flour, from 
140.24 to 216.92 pounds. The small in¬ 
crease of only about 50 per cent, per 
head in the use of imported butter is 
doubtless due to the fact that it is a per¬ 
ishable article and that the home produc¬ 
tion has increased owing to the substitu¬ 
tion of dairy farming for grain growing in 
many cases under stress of foreign compe¬ 
tition. In spite of the exportation of pota¬ 
toes to this country early this year, imports 
of potatoes, it will be seen, had increased 
tenfold per head in fifteen years. As we 
import large numbers of eggs from Can¬ 
ada, there is little prospect of our being 
able to share in the growing demand for 
these in the United Kingdom, which re¬ 
ceives its foreign supplies in this line 
chiefly from the thrifty peasantry of 
France. Much of this great increase in 
imported food products is, no doubt, due 
to a more generous dietary among the 
people rather than to a serious diminution 
in home production. 
HOPS. 
-»♦< 
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SIGN. 
The Signal Service Office has lately 
announced that it will telegraph warnings 
of injurious frost to the tobacco-growing 
parts of the country during the remainder 
of this month and for the whole of Octo¬ 
ber. It is urged that such admonitions 
should be promptly disseminated from 
the various telegraph statiom. at which 
they are received, so that tobacco raisers 
may have time to protect their crops by 
covering them or in any other way which 
judgment or experience may suggest as 
efficacious. The frosts that seriously in¬ 
jure growing tobacco, it is said, are sel¬ 
dom, if ever, due to local cold weather, 
but are the result of “cold waves” which 
travel from the extreme Northwest, and 
whose course can therefore be foretold. 
Such frosts occur usually not before the 
end of September in Virginia, Tennessee, 
and North Carolina, and a trifle earlier, 
perhaps, in the more northern States. 
Will these warnings be the first install¬ 
ment of that large measure of practical 
benefit which has been predicted for the 
agriculture of the country from the labors 
of the Signal Service Bureau ? 
A Congressional Committe has lately 
been investigating the menhaden fisheries 
along the New England coast and that of 
Long Island. What has this to do with 
agriculture? A great deal more than one 
might at first think. Some 50,000 tons 
of “guano," or “fish scrap,” are yearly 
made from the “catch” of these fish 
A common mode of swindling farmers 
is to induce the victim to sign a prom¬ 
issory note under the mistaken idea that 
that it is an order or receipt for goods. 
Scarcely a week passes without the ap¬ 
pearance of notices of such swindles in 
the papers. The note is soon transferred 
by the sharper to “innocent" parties, 
and generally the first intimation the 
farmer has of his folly is a demand for 
payment of the note at maturity. Fre¬ 
quently he refuses to pay and stands a 
suit. When the case comes before a jury, 
that body sympathizing with the victim— 
now and then on account of personal ex¬ 
perience of the same sort of hardship— 
often returns a verdict in favor of the de¬ 
fendant, but as a rule, such verdicts are 
set aside on appeal to the higher courts. 
In the case of Mackey vs. Paterson, lately 
appealed to the Supreme Court of Minne¬ 
sota, the maker of such a note set up as 
his defence that he had signed the note 
supposing it to be a receipt fora plow sold 
him by the person to whom the note was 
made payable, that the latter had assured 
him it was simply a receipt, and so be¬ 
lieving, he had made his signature. The 
Court, however, speaking through Chief 
Justice Gilfiillan, decided that the de¬ 
fendant must pay the note. Said the 
Judge, in substance:—Where a party, 
through neglect of precautions within his 
power, affixes his name to that kind of 
paper without knowing its character, the 
consequent loss ought not to be shifted 
from him to an honest purchaser of the 
paper. Tested by this rule, the facts 
which defendant offered to prove would 
have been no defence. He signed the 
paper voluntarily. He was under no con¬ 
trolling necessity to sign without taking 
Hop-picking, which is somewhat late 
this year, is now enlivening the hop fields 
of the country with the presence of hun¬ 
dreds who flock from the neighboring 
towns and villages in search of health, 
relaxation, and money. At 35 cents a 
box and board, nimble fingers can make 
grod wages in the hop-field, and blind¬ 
ness is the only disqualification. Prices 
for hops are still booming, ranging from 
53 to 55 cents per pound, and hop-raisers 
are jubilant. According to the Census 
there were, in 1879, 9,765 hop-growers 
in New York, who cultivated 89,072 
acres in the crop, yielding 21,628,981 
pounds. This year the quality of the 
crop is reported to be very good, and the 
shortage only from 18 to 20 per cent. 
Next to New York came Wisconsin with 
a hop area of 4,438 acres, and a product 
of 1,966,427 pounds. The acreage this 
year is reported much smaller than for¬ 
merly, as many growers have become dis¬ 
couraged and plowed up their yards; in 
what is left lice are reported to have 
done much damage, and not much over a 
quarter of a crop is expected to be 
gathered. After Wisconsin came Cali¬ 
fornia, with 1,119 acres and 1,444,077 
pounds, and then Washington Territory 
with a crop of 703,277 pounds, while 
Oregon yielded 244,371 pounds. The 
condition of the crop on the Pacific Coast 
is reported to be fair this season. Michi¬ 
gan yielded 266,010 pounds in 1879, and 
this year a moderate crop is expected. 
In New England Vermont took the lead, 
with 263 acres under hops, yielding 109,- 
350 pounds; Maine came next, with a 
crop of 48,114 pounds; and then New 
Hampshire, with 28.955 pounds, and 
Massachusetts, with 9,895 pounds. We 
have no reports of the condition of the 
crop in these States the present year. 
Only 18 States raise any hops; and of these 
five raise less than 10.000 pounds each. 
The high price of hops now is due less to 
the small shortage here than to the great 
deficiency in England and Germany. 
-- 
HOW BEST TO DETERMINE WHEN A 
WATERMELON IS RIPE. 
W hat is the best way to determine when 
a watermelon is ripe? Thumping is a 
very good way, but one cannot by this 
method determine different degrees of 
ripeness with certainty, because the 
sound varies somewhat* not only with 
different varieties of melons, but with dif¬ 
ferent shapes of the same variety. For 
instance, a long Cuban Queen will give a 
deader sound when ripe than a short, 
thick one. The drying up of the tendril 
is also a good indication, but by no means 
an unfailing one. Some melons are 
too green to eat when the tendril is with¬ 
ered; others are ripe when the tendril is 
still green. In many melons the skin 
turns to a rich creamy-yellow, where it 
rests upon the ground, when they are 
ripe. But it is dangerous to roll the 
melon over to ascertain the color, because 
one is liable to injure the stem. The 
cracking sound when pressed is proof 
that a melon is ripe or ripening. But the 
rind and flesh of some melons are so firm 
that the latter will not yield to ordinary 
pressure, and we have examined melons 
the present season whose flesh would not 
crack at all. Besides, melons are injured 
in this way. There is, we believe, a way 
of determining when a watermelon is ripe 
by its appearance only, which is far more 
trustworthy than any of the above 
methods and far easier as well, since it is 
not necessary to stoop or to handle it in 
any way. It is by the Hoorn, Melons 
have bloom the same as grapes, and its 
color changes as the melon ripens. In 
some varieties it disappears altogether 
when they are ripe, as if dissipated by the 
sun’s rays. In others it changes to a more 
mellow tint, losing its frosty or glau¬ 
cous hue. The bloom of melons varies 
with different varieties, and we cannot 
write any rules that will enable the reader 
to apply them unfailingly. Where frost 
has not yet occurred, let our readers ex¬ 
amine the bloom of fully ripe, of ripen¬ 
ing and of green melons, so as to ascer¬ 
tain the several phases, and we think they 
will agree with us, after a little study, that 
it is the easiest and best of all methods 
to determine when the watermelon should 
be plucked from the vine. 
BREVITIES. 
In certain parts of New Jersey potatoes are 
rotting. 
This has been a fine season for grapes at 
the Rural Grounds. We shall give an ac¬ 
count, with illustrations, of many new 
kinds later. 
Reports from our special correspondents 
at the New England Fair and the Vermont 
State Fair, will be found on pages 662 and 553 
respectively. 
The sum of $1,000 in cash is offered by 
the State Fair Association of Arkansas for 
the exhibition of the best bale of bottom or 
upland cotton. The fair will be held at 
Little Rock. October 16-21. Send to R. V. 
Yeakle, Secretary as above. 
Next week we shall announce the prize 
winners in the Huckleberry contest of the 
Rural Horticultural Club. The prizes are 
given by Mr. E. S Goff. Horticulturist of the 
N. Y. Experiment Station. 
The Delaware peach growers are drying 
large quantities of peaches now, which bring 
on an average 25 cents per pound when they 
have been well dried. They get from the or¬ 
dinary peach basket about three pounds, or 
75 cents per basket at borne. 
Mr. E. Williams, of Monclair, N. J., 
sends us specimen bunches of some of our 
earliest black grapes. Worden is to our taste 
better than Concord, while the berry and 
bunch are fully as large. It is at least 10 
days earlier. Cottage bears smaller bunches 
and berries; is two weeks earlier than Concord 
and of about the same quality. Champion is 
of poor quality but one of the earliest of black 
grapes. 
The Vermont Watchman, in its ably con¬ 
ducted Agricultural Department,acknowledg¬ 
ing the receipt of the Fair Number of the 
Rural New-Yorker, says: “This wonder¬ 
fully able and successful journal now confess¬ 
edly stands at the head of the agricultural 
newspapers of the world. No other approaches 
it in the value of its articles, the abundance, 
variety and excellence of its engravings, or in 
the relative cheapness of its price.” 
From reports made at the second annual 
meeting of the Illinois State Farmers’ Alliance, 
just held at Chicago, it appears that there are 
175 chartered local alliance® in the State, and 
2,130 alliances, with a membership of over 
AjO.OOO, in the entire country. They are scat¬ 
tered through New York, Indiana, Michi¬ 
gan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Ne¬ 
braska, Dakota, Kansas and Tennessee, all the 
State organizations being subject to the 
National Alliance which will shortly convene 
at St. Louis. Railroad and patent monopolies, 
high taxation, swindles on farruersand similar 
abuses are the chief evils the Alliance combats. 
We call especial attention to the series of 
articles on drainage by W. I. Chamberlain. 
There are few, if any, men in the country 
better fitted by practice and study for dis¬ 
cussing the subject, thoroughly and intelli¬ 
gently than this writer. We trust our read¬ 
ers will read the articles carefully, and that 
those among them who do not keep the Rural 
on file will clip these articles out for future 
reference. All are invited to ask for full 
information w ith regard to any point which 
may not be sufficiently clear to their minds; 
aud also with regard to any special difficul¬ 
ties or uncertainties attendant up in the drain¬ 
age of their own lands. Our wish and that of 
Mr. Chamberlain is to render the articles as 
full, clear, practical and useful as possible to 
every reader For thu sake of obtaining early 
answers, questions may be sent direct to Mr. 
W. I. Chamberlain, Secretary of Ohio State 
Board of Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio. 
