THE 
* 
APRIL 22 
HEW-YORSCER 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. St Park Row, New York. 
(SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1882. 
Personal correspondence of a pressing nature may 
be addressed to the Editor at River Edge, Bergen Co., 
New Jersey, for the present season and until further 
notice. 
In justice to our friends who so kindly 
send us seeds and plants to be tested, we 
must now say that we have received all 
that we can attend to for the present 
season. 
Several weeks ago a farmer called at 
the office, to ascertain the name and hab¬ 
its of a worm, a bottle half full of which 
he had brought with him, The clover 
hay of a neighbor was, be said, infested 
with it, and cattle refused to eat the bay. 
Never having seen the pest before, the 
bottle was forwarded to Pi of. Riley for 
identification, and his answer, which may 
prove valuable to many farmers, is pre¬ 
sented in another column. 
Accordino to promise, we may now 
render our last report as to the increase in 
the circulation of the RuralNew-Youkeu 
for 1881 82, a& the subscription season is 
now drawing to a close. Our last report 
was rendered up to Feb. 7. From Feb. 
7 to April 1st, the increase has been 1G 1-5 
per cent. The increase for February was 
nearly 22 per cent. It must be borne in 
mind, also, that the increase of circula¬ 
tion last year was greater than that of 
any preceding year uuder the present 
management of this journal. We desire 
in every way to show our appreciation of 
this continued good fortune and, with re¬ 
newed thanks to all who, by word or act, 
have assisted U9, we shall exert our best 
efforts to please aud instruct our readers, 
while we hope to aid in the great and 
good work of agricultural progress. 
We beg to call the attention of our 
friends to'thcgood results of potting their 
tomato plants as soon as they grow in the 
seed-box to the bight of about three 
inches. A three-inch pot is large enough, 
and twenty-five pilants will supply the 
needs of a small family. The pots can 
be preserved for years. The advantage of 
potting the plants is that they receive no 
check when thumped out into the open 
ground, and they will bear earlier and 
more fruit. We have mule the test of 
this method beside purchased plants and 
also plants raised from seed in the open 
ground. The potted plants bore the most 
and the largest fruit. There is less differ¬ 
ence than might be supposed between the 
yield of purchased plants and those raised 
from seed sown in the garden. If we 
desire to have strong, healthy tomato 
plants, we must give them a vigorous 
start. Plants raised in frames are always 
more or less drawn and enfeebled, while 
those potted as we have described are 
given plenty of room and sun, are stocky 
and vigorous. 
GRASS SEEDING. 
We have received this Spring more 
questions than usual relative to the quan¬ 
tity of grass seed to sow to the acre. It 
must be plain to our friends that the quan¬ 
tity must be changed to suit very many 
conditions. Timothy by the farmers in 
the neighborhood of the Rural Farm on 
Long Island (N. Y.), is usually sown foui 
quarts to the acre, when clover is also 
sown in seeding wheat. The quantity of 
clover is usually five quarts. Red top for 
pasture is sown variously from one to two 
bushels ; Orchard Grass as high as three- 
and-a-haif bushels; Kentucky Blue Grass, 
two bushels. 
Seeding failures are ofteuer caused by 
sowing upon land that is not well fitted 
for seed than by sowing too little or too 
much. We know from our own expe¬ 
rience that in some cases a peck of Timo¬ 
thy, sown on wheat in the Fall, would 
not have been too much, while in other 
cases, three quarts would have been ample. 
This difference is strikingly exemplified in 
the casa of clover. If the land is fertile 
and in good tilth, clover is as sure to 
catch in favorable seasons as any of the 
grasses. If not so well fitted, we must sow 
more seed. 
Again, the quality and weight of seed 
are seldom considered. A few days ago 
we saw Red-top so clean that it would 
weigh 40 lbs. to the bushel, while usually 
it weighs 13 lbs. to the bushel. Orchard 
Grass seed is also very light usually, as 
found in the market, and hence a larger 
quantity is required. 
When land varies upon every farm ; 
when every field is prepared differently ; 
when the same amount of seed purchased 
from different seedsmen will vary greatly 
in weight and purity, it. is evident that the 
quantity to be sowu should be varied ac¬ 
cordingly. If these points were better con¬ 
sidered, we should hear fewer complaints 
aR to failures in seeding. 
TOO MANY HOURS. 
There is one painful aspect of farm 
life that calls for a change. No reform 
in politics is needed more. It. is that 
farmers work too many hours They know 
this as well as we do; but it is one of 
those latent scraps of knowledge that is 
never permitted to assert itself, and the 
farmer plods on as if in a deep rut that it 
is impossible for him to get out of. 11 1 am 
working for all day," said a hired hand 
to us ; il you work only as the fancy 
seizes you.” There is a lesson in this. 
Suppose the slow, weary walk of the 
working farmer were quickened; suppose 
lie rushed all of his work the same as me¬ 
chanics rush theirs ; suppose, in a word, 
he accomplished in ten hours the work 
that now employs him frem sun-up till 
sun-down, and then passed a pleasant 
evening with his family, would not he in 
the end accomplish more work and more 
effective work ? Would net his life be 
happier and more worth the living '< 
The half starved, dog-trot of many of 
the farmers about us; the listless, lifeless 
manner in which they perform their drawn- 
out labors are the necessary outcome of 
labor too long-continued without change. 
It is as if the farmer had a journey of 
twenty miles to walk every day of his life 
over the Bnmc dreary road, with precisely 
the same object in view. At its comple¬ 
tion he is tired, and has no spirit either 
to enjoy social intercourse or to improve 
hia mind by reading. lie has no energy 
left for thought, lie falls asleep at once, 
if he attempts to read. And so it is; the 
long hours of work deprive farmers of 
their best aid in passing not only happy 
lives, but successful ones. I'/ierc, ix no oc¬ 
cupation on earth, that ix better united to 
render nun happy and intelligent than life 
on the /am, if rightly purxwl, and there 
is no other pursuit that is more abused to 
destroy man's ambuion, energy and happi¬ 
ness. We want farmers to lie the rulers 
of the nation, aud that is what they are 
entitled to be. We want them to be the 
happiest, most vigorous and intellectual 
of men. They enjoy, more than others, 
the free air of heaven ; “agriculture is 
the most healthful, most useful aud most 
noble employment of man.” Then why, 
instead of availing himself of the oppor¬ 
tunities that are ever present, docs the 
farmer choose a dull, mechanical routine of 
work that, while it yields a support, takes 
away from life its sparkle and usefulness '{ 
The writer of this cannot be accused of 
knowing little of farm life. A part of 
every pleasant day is speut in some kind 
of out-door labor in the field or garden, 
and this has been the case for many years. 
His experience has taught him that con¬ 
stant work from sunrise tilt dark inca¬ 
pacitates him for effectual work, and that 
what is gained in actual labor is more than 
lost in au incapacity to direct others and 
to work with the best results himself. 
As soon as we make farm work simply 
laborious, we lower agriculture to the level 
of any ditch-digging, stone-piling, hod- 
carrying business that needs but a thimble- 
full of brains to guide the brawn and 
sinew that do the work. We love and 
respect intelligent farmers above any other 
class of men. But we despise those grovel¬ 
ing caricatures that make agriculture the 
means of a scanty living, at the cost cf 
degrading themselves, their wives and 
children. 
- - - , 
INFLUENCE OF OLEOMARGARINE 
SALES ON PRICES OF BUTTER. 
Although we have always been strong¬ 
ly opposed to the sale of oleomargarine 
in the guise of genuine butter, and have 
vigorously advocated stringent legisla¬ 
tion for the punishment of such fraudu¬ 
lent sales, yet with regard to the honest 
manufacture and sale of the product we 
have always felt inclined to believe, with 
progressive moralists, that there is no such 
thing in the world as an uumixed evil. 
While the free introduction of this sort of 
food in our home markets has almost en¬ 
tirely ruined the sale of rancid and poor 
butter, a glance backward over our mar¬ 
ket. reports shows that it has affected the 
sale of good butter favorably if at all. 
Last week’s Bradstreet contained the fol¬ 
lowing table of the average wholesale 
prices for the best butter in January and 
July of each year for the five years pre¬ 
ceding the war, when there was no oleo¬ 
margarine and when gold prices prevailed: 
1S5T. 1S5S. 1S59. I860. 1801. 
January. 215c. 2le. 25c. 20c. 21c. 
July.. 22 19 18 14 In 
Average 30c. 21J<c. 19c. )8e. 
The wholesale prices of the same sort of 
butter for 1877 to 1881 inclusive, during 
which period oleomargarine was an active 
rival, were as follows: , 
January. 
July. 
Average. 
1ST?. 
1878. 
1879. 
1880. 
1R81. 
80c. 
30c. 
20c. 
30c. 
28C. 
20 
17 
14 
23 
24 
25^C. 
83«C. 
17c, 
36c. 
2Ce. 
Thus it appears that while the average 
price for the former five years was 20 2-5c... 
the average for the latter five years was 
23 3-5, and the comparison is all the fairer 
as it does not embrace the last six months 
of 1881, during which the severe drought 
and consequent scarcity of feed caused 
butter to be exceptionally liigh-prieed, 
tlic best quality reaching 42c. per pound 
in December 1881. 
At present the wholesale prices of prime 
butter here are very high, ranging from 
40c. to 42c. per pound, and the demand 
is considerably in excess of the supply, 
although the amount of first-quality but¬ 
ter now sent to market is very much 
greater, in proportion to the quantity of 
all sorts made, than before the competi¬ 
tion with oleomargarine, for the deprecia¬ 
tion in the price of poor butter due to 
this competition, compelled unskilled 
dairymen to send their milk to the cream¬ 
eries. whose number lias therefore rapidly 
increased, thus increasing the production 
of good butter, which always commands 
a good price. A fair quality of butter 
costs here now, at wholesale, from 25c. to 
35c. per pound, and at retail even this 
would cost at least from 35c, to 45c. per 
pound. Now in the whole city not one 
family in five, perhaps not one in ten, can 
afford to pay even the lowest of these 
figures for the butter for daily use; hence 
it is easy to adc unit for the enormous 
salts of oleomargarine and kindred pro 
duets which are retailed at from 20c. to 
25c. a pound, and which, as a rule, are so 
well made, that ninety-nine persons out 
of a hundred cannot distinguish them 
from genuine butter. There are very few 
economic questions which, viewed from 
different standpoints, do not present dif¬ 
ferent appearauees, and to guard ngainet 
a narrow-minded, pre judiced, unjust con¬ 
ception of matters affecting both the ag¬ 
ricultural and other interests of the coun¬ 
try, the considerate farmer will occasion¬ 
ally view them from other standpoints 
than from his own granaiy, dairy, pig¬ 
pen or tiuck patch. 
-♦ ♦- 
THE TARIFF COMMISSION AND 
AGRICULTURE. 
All indications point to the passage, 
by both Houses, of the Tariff Commission 
Bill now before Congress. In case the 
bill becomes law, the President will have 
to appoint nine Commissioners from civil 
life to investigate the influence of the 
present tariff upon the various industries 
of the country, aud recommend to Con¬ 
gress what changes ought to be made 
therein. The proper apportionment of 
these nine Commissioners among our 
weakly, struggling and robust industries 
will be a matter of no slight perplexity to 
the President and of no small imporiance 
to the general welfare. The selection 
should fairly represent the industries of 
the couutry in proportion to their magni¬ 
tude and importance, A Commission 
constituted on any other basis will 
fail to satisfy all the interests and in¬ 
dustries of the nation, and the adop¬ 
tion cf its recommendations, instead of 
settling the tariff question for a deeadeor 
more, will be very likely to lead at once 
to renewed agitation and specJy change. 
On this just basis at least four of the 
Commissioners should represent agricul¬ 
ture, which, whether we take into con¬ 
sideration the numbers engaged in it or 
its influence upon the fortunes of the 
Union, transcends all other industries com¬ 
bined. 
This is preeminently an agricultural 
country. During the list fiscal year, end- 
ing June 30, IHbl, the total value of all 
our exports of domestic merchandise was 
|883,1)25,947. Of this aggregate t he total 
value of the exports of agricultural pro¬ 
ducts waB $729,050,010, or 82.55 per cent. 
In addition to this, our agriculture fed 
and, with a little needless foreign aid, 
clothed our population of 50,000,000. In 
the last three or four years it has lifted 
the couutry out of the deep distress into 
which headlong speculation, excessive 
manufacturing production and reckless 
extravagance had plunged it. So long as 
agriculture flourishes, the entire country 
is prosperous; when agriculture languish¬ 
es, the entire country suffers. Abundant 
harvests, thrifty stock and remunerative 
markets for both, set the looms through¬ 
out the country whirling, the hammers 
clanging, the miners delving and blasting, 
the trains speeding—commerce, trade, 
transportation and manufacture are all 
busily and profitably employed. Good or 
ill fortune to any one of all our other mul¬ 
titudinous industries affects a very small 
proportion of our population ; but good 
or ill fortune to our agriculture affects 
every one of our own citizens, from the 
milltonaiic to the beggar, and the stranger 
that is within our borders. Nor are its 
effects confined even to our own wide 
limits; they extend all the civilized world 
over. 
The present tariff on manufactured im¬ 
ports is injurious to agriculture, by enab¬ 
ling our manufacturers to compel farmers 
to pay unduly high prices for nearly every 
agricultural implement and every pur¬ 
chased household convenience, as well as 
for every yard of clothing worn in the 
family; the proposed removal of duties 
on imports of raw materials would also 
hurt agriculture by either greatly lessen¬ 
ing the profits or causing the complete 
ruin of several thriving or promising agri¬ 
cultural iiulustrhs. On tin se and other 
accounts, therefore, agriculture should lie 
fully represented on the Tariff Commis¬ 
sion, and, in view of its vast extent, at 
least four out of the nine Commissioners 
should be trustworthy representatives of 
this superlatively important American in¬ 
dustry. 
BREVITIES. 
Professor Blount, whose first article of a 
promised series appear; d last week, writes us as 
follows: Have just finished sowing 158 kinds 
of wheat, many of them from foreign countries 
and islands. Y shalL make a big show next 
year. 
The Champion Potato is extensively raised 
in Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, 
France, and elsewhere in Europe, It is gen¬ 
erally prolific, and always disease-resisting. 
No doubt many of the European potatoes now 
1 eing imported into this country are Cham¬ 
pions. We have never tried this potato, for 
the reason that, others who have, have told us 
that it does not yield well here. 
Several years ago, it will be remembered, 
we distributed seeds of the Yucca filamentosa 
—Adam’s N<-edle. It is one of the most satis¬ 
factory evergreens in cultivation and is en¬ 
tirely hardy m the climate of Chicago and 
New York, aud we know not how much 
further north. The Jong, sword-shaped leaves 
remain green through the YV inter, and the 
creamy white bell flowers, a couple of inches 
in diameter, and borne on tall, blooming stalks, 
are often two hundred or more in number. 
We have found that any soil suits them. 
There is a good deal of grumbling now-a- 
daysat the increase in the production of glu¬ 
cose, on account of the facility thus afforded 
to dishonest dealers in sugars, honey and other 
edibles for adulterating their wares with this 
lower priced product. The matter is not 
without interest to farmers, inasmuch as this 
comparatively new industry affords a grow¬ 
ing market for Indian corn. Recent statistics 
go to show that the capacity of glucose facto¬ 
ries now running, or ready to run, in this 
country, is 11.000,000 bushels of corn a year. 
The deci-ion rendered in Iowa a couple of 
months ago by Judg" McCrary agamst the 
validity of one of the Ccoley Creamer patents, 
is, we Yearn, likely to be reversed ; at any 
rate, Judge McCrary has granted a rehearing 
of the case, and the patentees express full 
confidence of their ability to prove the patent 
a valid one. aud their determination to carry 
the case to the United States Supreme Court 
should the Circuit Court decide against them. 
There is no doubt that the introduction of the 
system of cream raising covered by the Cooley 
patents has added greatly to the profits of dai¬ 
rying throughout the woi Id. It is alleged that 
the system is old, but. it certainly was not 
generally practiced. The case appears to have 
been line that of Columbus and the egg—the 
thing could have been done from the starting 
of the dairy business, but it wasn’t. 
The fraudulent land entries and forgeries 
of Robert E. Linday and bis fellow conspira¬ 
tors to w hieh we have several times alluded, 
appear to have tainted Ihe titles to 6,000.000 
or 0 , 000.000 acres of land in Southeast Mis¬ 
souri. A largo a mount of this area has passed 
into the hands of innocent poisons who have 
spent most of ibeir money and manv years of 
their lives in improving the property, and to 
dispossess them now would cause great and 
unmerited hardship. The frauds, as we have 
before sl^nvn, were perpet-ated through the 
rascality “f subordinates in the Land Office, 
aided by the culpable cftrelessno-s of higher 
officials. It would therefore be oppressive, 
nay, unjust, to make those who paiu for the 
land in good faith, and w ho have sp.nt money 
a d time upon it, to surrender it now. From 
Washington learn that the General Gov¬ 
ernment intends to begin proceedings for the 
possession of the land; while a telegram from 
St. L< uis announce* that Gov. Cj ittenden, of 
Mo , has gone to the national capital to urge 
the Representatives of bis State to induce 
Congress to legalize the possession aud owner¬ 
ship of these lauds so far as they are held by 
innocent, parties. We earnestly urge the 
justice and expediency of this on the Repre¬ 
sentatives of this and all other States also. 
