THl RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 43 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
XLBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 13. 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 
-♦ • ♦ 
Of tlie 76 Senators in Congress 57 are 
lawyers and one is a farmer, and of the 
293 Representatives and Delegates 197 
are lawyera and 11 are farmers. Thus 
out of 369 Congressmen 251, or over two- 
thirds, belong to the profession of law, 
and a paltry dozen to the profession of 
agriculture. As regards the importance 
of the two vocations to the general wel¬ 
fare, or the numbers engaged in them, 
which deserves the larger representation ? 
It is fair to suppose that the grape vine 
can he grafted as easily as the apple or 
pear—only the method has not yet been 
discovered. Grafting below the ground 
or just above it and covering first with a 
flower-pot, tin can or something of the 
kind and then with foil, is not a method 
which grape growers can afford to ado t. 
We have been making some careful ex¬ 
periments in this matter of gracing grapes, 
which, should anything come out of them, 
we shall gladly place before our readers. 
We believe it to be a mistake to plant 
Lima Beans two inches deep, as most books 
and writings instruct us to do. The Limas 
love warmth and it is therefore worse 
than useless to plant them either while 
there is danger of frosts or deep in the 
ground, which excludes them from the 
first warmth of the soil and induces many 
to rot. One inch is deep enough. Plant 
the eyes down and four about each stake, 
making the four points of a square. Let 
the stakes be set firmly , using a crowbar 
for the purpose, four feet apart each way. 
Spread a small forkful of fine manure in 
each hill and cover with soil. Then plant 
the beans, as we have said, one inch deep 
and no more. 
The earliest shipment of new wheat 
that ever reached St. Louis arrived there 
on Saturday April 29, from Johnson Co., 
Arkansas, and sold for $4.50 per bushel; 
the highest price ever paid there. There 
were 100 sacks. It was a little damp, 
but plump and bright, and was just one 
month ahead of any new wheat that ever 
reached that place. Here in New York 
new wheat was shown on ’Change on 
Tuesday May 2. It was harvested in 
Georgia on April 17 and thrashed on 
April 21. The kernels were of good 
quality. Although in many parts of the 
country, notably in the extreme North¬ 
west, the season is very backward in 
spite of the very mild Winter, yet in 
most sections it is fully abreast or ahead 
of the average. 
Last Year's Meat Exports. —Last 
year the exports of fresh beef from this 
country advanced to 63,000,000 pounds, 
as against 61,000,000 pounds in 1880, and 
44,000,000 pounds in 1869. The total 
value of last year’s exports was nearly 
$ 6 , 000 , 000 , showing that the average was 
a trifle less than 10c. per pound. On the 
other hand, the exports of salt beef de¬ 
clined from 83,000,000 pounds in 1880, 
to 28,000,000 pounds in 1881. In bacon 
and ham, too, there was a falling off 
from 513,000,000 pounds in ’80 to 
491,000,000 pounds in ’81; but owing to 
the higher price last year the aggregate 
value of our exports war $74,000,000 
against $61,000,000 in 1880. Thus it 
will be seen that last year our exports of 
bacon and ham averaged a trifle unaer seven 
cents per pound. Of live beef we exported to 
the value of $16,000,000 represented by 
448,000 head against 500,000 head in 1880. 
Last year therefore our exports of beef 
cattle of all kinds averaged 8,035 a week 
and $35.71 per head. Of the $16,000,000 
worth exported, $ 6 , 000,000 left this port. 
A FUNNY COINCIDENCE. “ BESSARA¬ 
BIA SEED CORN.” 
this note with a small package of corn as 
a present to be tested in the Rural 
Grounds. I have raised it on my farm 
for the last twelve years in succession, and 
it has always matured when other corn 
matured. Last year it was planted on 
the 20th of May and matured perfectly in 
100 days. You will find this corn to be 
a little mixed. * * + That I send 
you was shelled from 30 ears—all choice 
ones. I am also sending a package from 
the Bame ears to a Mr. Wm. F. Fowler, 
No. 742 Seventh Avenue, New York.” 
As we had on hand a package of the 
“ Bessarabia Seed Corn,"—the great 
“Imperial Corn of Russia”—we compared 
the two samples and found them so near¬ 
ly alike that the grains of one could not 
be determined from those of the other, 
both being mixed together. No doubt 
Mr. Fowler was impressed by the similar¬ 
ity when he examined the package from 
our Illinois correspondent. They are so 
nearly alike, indeed, that, should Mr. 
Fowler sell all of Ins “ limited quantity” 
of the real, genuine “ Bessarabia,” we 
think he would please his patrons just as 
well as by substituting the Illinois corn. 
FLAX CULTIVATION. 
As our population and our national 
wealth increase, there are new and urgent 
demands for fabrics superior to cotton 
and wool in strength and cheap enough 
for general use. According to the Statis¬ 
tician to the Department of Agriculture, 
the importation of flax products costs, 
with duties thereon, the sum of $ 20 , 000 ,- 
000 per annum. Instead of t his importa¬ 
tion, the United States should export an 
equal amount, and yet, what are we doing ? 
With a present demand for 35,000,000 
yards of cotton bagging we are throwing 
away or burning up flax fiber enough to 
supply that demand. This is not good 
economy ! 
There are two reasons at least why flax 
raising has not been made more of an in¬ 
dustry in the United States. Tn the first 
place, there has been no market where the 
fiber could be disposed of in large quantity; 
hence no dealer has considered it advisa¬ 
ble to make it a specialty. Again, a msjn- 
rity of the farmers of West and Middle 
States have not been sufficiently familiar 
with the proper methods of cultivating 
flax for fiber, its cultivation thus far hav¬ 
ing been mostly for seed production. In 
a recent pamphlet on the subject, Mr. 
Koelkenbeck, of Chicago, has pointed out 
one way of overcoming the difficulty. He 
recommends the organization of a com¬ 
pany which shall import and supply the 
farmer with the purest foreign flax seed, 
or shall furnish him the American seed, at 
a minimum profit. The use of pure seed 
is a matter of the highest importance, 
since much that has been sown heretofore 
has been mixed with noxious weeds find 
the flax crop cut short in growth. Mills 
for the preparation of the flax fiber for 
market should also be erected at conve¬ 
nient points, and when thus prepared a 
market for it should be made either at 
home or in foreign countries. This would 
insure greater attention to this really profit¬ 
able industry on the part of the farming 
community. While it is highly probable 
that the home demand, instituted either 
by American or foreign capital, would be 
sufficient for all the fiber produced for 
some time to come, still Great Britain 
would furnish a ready market for our sur¬ 
plus production. At present her annual 
imports from Russia, Belgium, Germany 
and Holland are over 100,000 tons, valued 
at $22,700,000, and yet the demand is not 
fully supplied. 
The area annually devoted to flax cul¬ 
ture (chiefly tor seed) in the Western 
States, may be generally estimated at 
1 , 100,000 acres; and taking as a basis the 
production of flax in Russia, where the 
yield per acre is lowest of any European 
country, we should produce annually, at 
least, 125,000 tons of flax fiber worth $25,- 
000 , 000 , and with careful cultivation the 
yield could be still more increased. 
antiseptic shall turn out true, it is impos¬ 
sible to overestimate the revolution its 
use will bring about in feeding the world. 
Mutton is worth two cents a pound in 
Australia, and less than that in Buenos 
Ayres. Beef is worth fourernts a pound in 
Texas and half that, price on the llanos of 
South America. By the new process it is 
said that Devonshire cream has been de¬ 
livered at Zanzibar as fresh as when it 
left the English dairy, and that meat has 
been preserved for months even in the 
tropics; why then could not the mutton 
of the antipodes and the beef of the 
pampas feed the dcniz> ns of London or 
New York— if the marvelous reports of the 
new discovery shall prove correct ? Tn such 
a case of course the prices will rise 
greatly in those out-of-the-way places, 
but they will certainly fall greatly in 
the thickly settled world. Even the do¬ 
mestic economy of every household 
throughout the civilized world will 
be affected by boroglyceride. Refrige¬ 
rators will be no longer needed ; the 
farmer can kill his sheep or even steer and 
by the use of this wonderful compound 
preserve the whole of it for his own use. 
The Ru : mermilk can be kept for Winter 
use, uncondensed. All kinds of fruit 
will be fresh the year round. “The 
harvest of the. sea" can be eaten cheap 
and fresh in the sultriest weather in the 
remotest inland district. Moreover, the 
revolution will not be confined to house¬ 
hold economics—it will affect great na¬ 
tional issues. Brought into competition 
with the much cheaper products of new 
countries, the farmers of the Old World 
will be unable to pay rents, and the death 
blow will be given to the preseut land 
system, not of Great Britain alone, but of 
the whole of Europe. The British and 
most other aristocracies are founded on 
the present land system, and in monarch¬ 
ical countries the present forms of gov¬ 
ernment are inextricably bound up with 
the aristocracies, so that from a change in 
the land system a change must follow 
both in the aristocracies and forms of gov¬ 
ernment. What a marvelous sequence of 
possibilities from so apparently small a 
d ; =cnvery — if what is said of the discovery 
t true! 
ORGANIZED EMIGRATION. 
A NEW FOOD PRESERVATIVE. 
One of our friends in Illinois—for ob¬ 
vious reasons we do not give the aidress 
more definitely—in the course of a letter 
states as follows : “I will accompany 
In a late communication to the London 
Society of Arts, Professor Barff has de¬ 
scribed a new antiseptic compound which 
will keep food perfectly sound and sweet 
for mont hs. It is formed by heating boracic 
acid with glycerine, the chemical formula 
being BO 3 Cg H5 and the name boro¬ 
glyceride. Several lengthy experiments 
have been made to test its preservative 
effects on various kinds of food, both solid 
and liquid, and the results are said to 
have been uniformly highly satisfactory. 
Better still for its general introduction, it 
is reported that it can be produced at a 
price which will place it within reach of 
all. If what is confidently said of this new 
From English papers we learn that a 
considerable number of municipalities in 
Great Britain, a* well as some philanthro¬ 
pic associations, are forming organizations 
for the purpose of forwarding unemployed 
workmen to America and the British Colo¬ 
nies in Australia, New Zealand and the 
Cape of Good Hope. In many cases it is 
proposed to form colonies, and in nearly 
all it is expected that the emigrant will 
repay the whole or at least the greater 
part of his expenses. Judging by the 
prospectuses, this, at first sight seems an 
easy way of getting rid of paupers and of 
transporting labor from where there is an 
excess of it to where there is not enough 
of it—of bringing together supply and 
demand. It is said that at an expense of 
$40 or $50, a half-starved laborer can be 
transported from the slums of London, 
where he can’t get 50 cents a day, to the 
prairies of Manitoba, where he can get 
$3 to $4 a day. The municipalities who 
expect to get back any of their outlay are 
pretty sure to be disappointed; for expe¬ 
rience has amply shown that if the immi¬ 
grant is speedily successful, he is, as a 
rule, very forgetful of 6 ueh obligation, 
and if he is not speedily successful, he is 
sure to forget all about it before he is rich 
enough to consider himself able to pay it. 
The only exceptions to this rule are the 
Italians and. Chinese, a large proportion 
of whom are brought hither on specula¬ 
tion by others, who pay their way, and 
overcharge enormously for their outlay. 
The class who get $8 and $4 a day in 
the Far Northwest, too, are not ordinary 
workmen, but the pick of the most active, 
vigorous and enterprising youth of Canada 
and “ The States,"and even these get such 
wages only in the busiest season, while for 
nearly half the year little is earned during 
the dreary period of snow «nd flood. The 
bulk of the shiftless emigrants sent out by 
charity or municipal thrift would soon sink 
to the bottom in such a society, in which 
every man strains muscle and brain to the 
utmost, to overcome the hardships insepa¬ 
rable from pioneer life Theoretically, the 
establishment of immigrant colonies has 
1000 points in its favor; practically, ex¬ 
perience has Bhown that 999 of them 
“won’t work.” Dissatisfaction, discour¬ 
agement and wrangling are sure, ere long, 
to cause the disintegration of such socie¬ 
ties, except, perhaps, when they are held 
together by some religious bond. Canvas 
all the immigrants who annually reach 
this or any other country, at the close of 
the first year, and the probability ia strong 
that the majority of them will express dis¬ 
appointment at the results of their change 
of abode. Even now, while the immigrant 
tide is pouring in at the rate of nearly 
10,000 a week, the Russian and other 
foreign consuls at this and other Atlantic 
ports, are “plagued to death” by penni¬ 
less compatriots who beg and supplicate 
them to seud them home, despairing of 
success here, after a few weeks or months 
of shiftless efforts. The class of men sent 
abroad at other people’s expense will, as 
a rule, become abroad what they were at 
home—a thriftleis, spiritless, helpless nui¬ 
sance. 
BREVITIES. 
Secretary Chamberlain’s article under 
“ The Truth About It” will please the candid 
reader immensely. 
Hunoarian Grass is too much praised as 
to its drought resisting powers. Those who 
sow this seed as a late soiling crop for the 
first time will find themselves disappointed, 
should a very dry spell follow. 
We wish to call the attention of our read¬ 
ers to the proposition made to the Rural 
Horticultural Club by Mr. Goff, Horticulturist 
of the New York Agricultural Experiment 
Station. We trust that parents will en¬ 
courage their children to aid in the work 
proposed. 
In January and February $21,565 worth of 
European cabbages were landed at this port 
on which an ad valorem duty of 10 per cent 
amounted to $2 156 50. In the first three 
months of the year there were also imported 
here 241,363 bushels of beans, valued at $386.- 
209, the* 1 duty” from which at 10 per cent ad 
valorem amounted to $58,620.90, so that the 
Government received $40,777.40 from these two 
little items alone. Raurlcmut to the value of 
$61,598, was also import ed, duty free. Consider¬ 
able quantities of these commodities w ere also 
imported at Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, 
ntid Baltimore. While these importations 
have prevented an exhorbitant riBe in prices at 
this side of the Atlantic, they have materially 
raised prices on the other side, thus benefiting 
the consumer here and the producer there. 
Here is a chance for American inventive in¬ 
genuity—a telegram from Havana has just 
announced that the government of the Island 
of Guadaloupe offers a premium of 100,000 
francs (somewhat over $19,000) to the inven¬ 
tor of a process for extracting from sugar-cane 
IS per cent of Its weight of sugar as the mini¬ 
mum yield. That such a process will be dis¬ 
covered by laborious experiment or hit upon 
by lucky chance within the next decade is 
pretty certain, and should any of our readers 
be the fortunate “ inventor,” the offered $19,- 
000 will be a small item in his profits, for by 
patenting the invention in this and foreign 
sugar-producing countries, be could easily ob¬ 
tain a larger income than that every year. 
To know definitely what is wanted, is the 
main step towards securing it. 
The agricultural interests of Illinois are 
about to suffer a loss by the resignation of 
Professor Cyrus Thomas as Entomologist of 
that State, in order to accept a position to 
which he has been appointed in Washington, 
The resignation, we learn, Is to date from the 
first of next July. Professor Thomas's annu¬ 
al entomological reports have been full of the 
results of intelligent research and honest work, 
expressed in lucid style, which has made them 
practically useful to every farmer fortunate 
enough to secure one. He has also liberally 
contributed from his great stores of entomolog¬ 
ical information to tho farmers of the whole 
country through the agricultural press, as our 
readers aro aware from his numerous contri¬ 
butions to our columns. A cultured, earnest, 
honorable gentleman, he carries with him to 
his new field of labor the best wishes of thou¬ 
sands of friends throughout the country, 
among whom we are certainly enrolled. In 
deciding upon a successor to him as State En¬ 
tomologist, we trust that due consideration 
will be accorded to the merits and fitness of 
Professor G. H. French, who 1ms already had 
a great deal of experience in the duties of the 
position 
Owing to the high price of beef in this mar¬ 
ket last week, an unusually large number of 
cattle arrived here last Monday. During the 
week ending with the previous Saturday 
(April 29) only 11.242 head had arrived at 
the two cattle yards; whereas on Monday 
alone the arrivals reached 5,951 head, or nearly 
half the total of the entire previous week. A 
large number of Western cattle intended for 
Philadelphia were pushed ahead to this point. 
Even in this market, in which there is a de¬ 
mand for home consumption for about 2,000,- 
000 mouths in this place and the neighboring 
cities which serve as lodging-places for New 
Y ork business men and their families, and also 
a large export demand, this great inrush 
caused a fall in prices of dressed meat from 
50c. to $1 per 100lbs,, say, from 13Kc. to 12>^e. 
per lb. The same quality of beef was whole¬ 
saling a year ago at nine cents per pound. 
A good many losses are yearly incurred by 
farmers all over the country from occurren¬ 
ces of this sort. The announcement goes 
abroad that some particular commodity is 
scarce in some village, town or city, and 
consequently that the price for it is high. 
As soon as possible the tributary country 
hurries forward the high-priced article from 
all sides; the market it soon overstocked and 
instead of getting unusually high figures the 
sellers must often rest content with very low 
prices. The smaller the town, of course, the 
more easily is the market overstocked, and 
the greater the tumble in prices. In large 
pl&ces like New York, 01 ie can al ways get rid of 
a staple commodity at prices a mere trifle be¬ 
low the regular rates, but in small places if 
the supply is much greater than tho demand, 
the goods can sometimes scarcely be “given 
away. ” It would often be money in the pockets 
of our friends to remember this law of trade. 
