380 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
may 27 
THE 
RURAL NLW'YORKER, 
A. National Joornal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
KLBKBT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
8ATURDAY, MAY 27. 1882. 
The Shumaker Wheat sent out in our 
Free Seed Distribution of 1881-2, is at the 
Rural Farm from four to six days earlier 
than the Clawson. 
— -- 
We do not know of a single compara¬ 
tive experiment ever having been tried 
that proves that salt has ever benefited 
either quince trees or asparagus, the two 
plants for which it is specially commended. 
That upon asparagus plants and quinces 
it does no harm, is the most that can be 
said. 
-r—-♦- 
A specimen freight discrimination out¬ 
rage is afforded by the Pacific Railroads’ 
rates on wool. The lowest rate on Cali¬ 
fornia wool from San Francisco to Boston 
is two-and-three quartor cents per pound; 
but the same railroads contract to bring 
wools from Australia to Boston, via San 
Francisco, for two cents a pound! For 
carrying domestic wool over 8,000 miles, 
from San Francisco to Boston, the charge 
is two ami-three-quarter cents; while for 
carrying foreign wool 7,280 miles by sea, 
and then over the same 3,000 miles of 
road, the charge is only two cents! 
» ♦ ♦- 
We are sorry to learn, through our cor- ■ 
respondence, that several of our readers 
have planted the so-called Scotch pota¬ 
toes. These, for the most part, are the 
well-known Champion, which is generally 
planted in many parts of Great Britain, 
because it there yields well and resists the 
potato disease better than other kinds. 
But it does not yield well here, and its 
disease-resisting power is at present of no 
service to us, though it is not impossible 
that we may, through this seed, introduce 
the disease to our potato fields. This 
potato is yellow and mushy when cooked, 
and we have yet to see one who likes it. ’ 
BOGUS PARIS-GREEN. 
A decision of no inconsiderable impor- 
tance both to druggists and farmers has 
lately been rendered by the Supreme 
Court of Texas in the case of Jones vs. 
George. The plaintiff, a cotton planter, 
finding the cotton-worm in his cotton 
then in a flourishing condition, applied 
to the defendant, a large druggist in Gal¬ 
veston, for Paris-green to be used to de¬ 
stroy the worm. The drug supplied 
was worthless and the worm destroyed 
the crop. Jones then sued George for 
the loss of his crop; but was defeated 
on the ground that he had no cause for 
action against the druggist. On appeal 
to the Supreme Court this judgment was 
reversed. In delivering the opinion Judge 
Watts said that although in the sale of 
chattels, where the. purchaser has an op¬ 
portunity to examine before the purchase 
is made, the common law rule caveat emp - 
Ur (let the buyer beware) applies with¬ 
out exception, yet where from the nature 
of the article or the peculiar character of 
the business in which it is being sold an 
examination would not avail the pur¬ 
chaser anything, there might be an ex¬ 
ception to the general rule, dependent on 
the circumstances of each particular case. 
As the general customer cannot, as a rule, 
tell one drug from another, in the pur¬ 
chase of such goods he must rely upon 
the druggist to furnish the article called 
for; for it would be idle mockery for the 
customer to make an examination when 
it would avail him nothing. The drug¬ 
gist must, therefore, be held to warrant 
that he will deliver the drug called for. 
, r ^0 the amount of damages recoverable, 
the Judge said he would be entitled tore- 
cover the actual expenses incurred in the 
purchase and application of the drug to 
- the cotton and for the loss of time in the 
operation, together with every other ele¬ 
ment of actual damages resulting to 
him as natural or legal sequences from 
the breach of warranty, As to what the 
cotton would have made had the worm not 
destroyed it, however, that is a matter of 
conjecture, depending on various remote 
aud speculative contingencies, and there¬ 
fore damages for any contingent loss 
are not recoverable in the absence of an 
express stipulation binding the seller in 
that particular. 
JAMES VICK. 
In the case of Hull vs. Sigsworth the 
facts were these: A. employed by B. 
bargained with the latter for a horse, the 
price to be paid from wages earned by 
A. The horse stayed on the farm in 
care of A. who paid for his feed and 
claimed ownership. B. was in debt and 
an attachment against him was levied 
on the horse; whereon A. brought an 
action to recover his property. Tim Su¬ 
preme Court of Errors of Connecticut, 
however, whose opinion was delivered by 
Judge Pardee, has decided against A. 
and in favor of the attaching creditor. 
Said the Judge. “ There was no visible 
ebauge in the possession of the horse, 
and the declarations of ownership made 
by A. including those made at the time 
of the attachment, must go for nothing, 
because the apparently unchanged owner¬ 
ship by B. was a constant denial of their 
truth, an I as a matter of law bore them 
down.” 
. One of the queerest things in connec¬ 
tion with the benighted tastes of city 
people is that they select bunches of white 
asparagus instead of green. “It is 
blanched, and therefore it is tender,” is 
the reasoning which •eems to guide them. 
They seem to associate it with celery, the 
green portions of which are worthless. 
The strangest part is that they do not learn, 
while eating it, that the white part of 
asparagus is worthless, and that the green 
portion is all they eat. The asparagus 
shoot grows from the tip the same as 
other plants. A mark made at the sur¬ 
face of the ground on a given shoot will 
show that that part of the stem remains 
where it is, and is never carried up as the 
shoot increases in high t. It is ulain, there¬ 
fore, that the deeper underground we cut 
the shoots oil, the older, harder, more 
stringy—woody is the stem, and that the 
nearer we cut to the tips of the shoot, the 
younger and more tender it is. We do 
not wish to imply that the shoots are tough 
because they are white. The absence of 
color is merely owing to the exclusion of 
the rays of ffie tun, without which the 
coloring principle, be it green or purple 
can not develop. If the shoots were lulled 
up as they grow , blanching would render 
them more tender. This is practiced in 
- ranee, but not in our country to any 
extent. It adds too much to the cost of 
production in labor and care. 
i .James \ ick, the widely known and 
highly esteemed seedsman and florist of 
Rochester, N. Y., died last Wednesday, 
May 17, of pneumonia, in hia 64th 
year. The news will cause surprise and 
regret throughout lhe land in thousands 
of homes brighteued and beautified by 
the results of his labors, and in which his 
name was a synonym for business up¬ 
rightness and liberality. As printer 
editor, author, publisher, farmer, botan¬ 
ist and merchant he won the esteem and 
regard of all with whom he had any deal¬ 
ings. 
James Vick was born at Portsmouth, 
England on November 23, 1818. In his 
boyhood he was an associate of Charles 
Dickens, the novelist, and the acquaint¬ 
ance continued in after years. When 
fifteen years old young Vick accompanied 
his parents to this city, in 1833, where he 
learnt the printer’s trade, working some 
time on the Knickerbocker Magazine be¬ 
side Horace Greeley, with whom he re¬ 
tained cordial relations until the latter’s 
death. After working here for several 
years Mr. Vick moved with his parents 
to Rochester where he worked as com¬ 
positor in several newspaper offices. 
About 1848 be became editor of the old 
Genesee Farmer of which he became 
publisher also in 1850. In 1853 he 
purchased the Horticulturist up to 
that date published at Albany, and 
removed it to Rochester, associating 
with himself in its editorial management 
the well known nurseryman, Patrick Barry. 
In 1857 lie began to edit the Horticultural 
Department of the Rural New-Yorker, 
then published in Rochester, ami contin¬ 
ued iu charge of that Department until 
1862. This was the last journal with 
which he was connected, aud to the day 
of his death his relations with it were al¬ 
ways very cordial. It was while engaged 
on the Rural that, about 1860, he'be¬ 
gan the business of seedsman and florist 
which has gained for him a world-wide 
reputation and to which, after severing 
his connections with this paper, he dm 
voted all his time and attention during 
the remaining twenty years of his life? 
His marvelous success was due to his 
strict integrity, genial liberality and to 
the facHhat his seed business was mainly 
carriedGn through the mail for cash, so 
that neither were any bad debts incurred 
nor were any unsold seeds returned to 
him, as is frequently the case with firms 
that sell on commission. 
Mr. Vick’s illness was of short duration. 
About two weeks before his death, while 
directing the work of extending and 
beautifying his grounds, he contracted a 
severe cold, but paid little attention to it 
until Friday, May 12, when he was pros¬ 
trated by a severe attack of pneumonia— 
a disease which has been very unusually 
prevalent and fatal all over the country 
during the last few months of changeful 
weather. Despite prompt medical skill, 
there was little hope of his recovery from 
Friday night, and he sank calmly to eter¬ 
nal rest at 7:80 on Wednesday morning. 
For many years he was Secretary of the 
American Pomological Society and also 
a corresponding member of the Royal 
Horticultural Society of England. Dur¬ 
ing his entire residence in Rochester he 
was an active member of the Methodist- 
Episcopal Church, and for 25 years Super¬ 
intendent of the Sunday School. He 
leaves a widow and seven children— 
three daughters and four sons—to lead 
the public in mourning his loss. 
-» » »- 
IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATIONS. 
I Althougjt we are not iu favor of trans¬ 
atlantic organizations formed for the pur¬ 
pose of dumping on our shores the pau¬ 
per or shiftless classes of Europe either 
for the sake ol getting rid of a burthen 
on tin; taxpayers or to give another chance 
of success in life abroad to those who have 
already neglected or misused many chances 
at home, yet we think highly of immi¬ 
gration societies organized here either for 
the purpose of disseminating special in¬ 
formation about particular sections among 
intending emigrants on the other side of 
the. water, or of diverting to particular 
sections a part of the immense hordes 
that have already arrived on this side. 
Only about seven-tenths of the immigrants 
to this country land at this port, yet in 
April 67,901 landed here—an increase of 
8,153 over the arrival! m April '81 and the 
increase for the rest of the year will no 
doubt be in the same proportion. The 
total immigration for the mouth amounted 
to 104,274, against 95,351 during the same 
month last year. Foreigu emigration 
agencies, -which receive commissions on 
the sale of tickets from steamship and 
railroad lines, influence a great many of 
the immigrants both in regard to the line 
they take and the place they settle in. 
At present this influence is exercised 
mainly in favor of the Northwest—proba¬ 
bly, in part, owing to the greater induce¬ 
ments offered by railroads running to that 
quarter—and hence the enormous immi¬ 
gration to that section. States lying away 
from the great stream of Western travel 
can hope to share but liftle in this mighty 
inrush so long as they have no agencies to 
influence immigrants in Europe and make 
no active efforts to do co here. 
Several of the States have already Im¬ 
migration Societies or Bureaus of Immi¬ 
gration, more or less effective, carried on 
either by private enterprise, as in Georgia; 
er at public expense, as in South Carolina. 
Of these the Missouri Society is probably 
the best—certainly as successful as any. 
The State Legislature last year appro- 
ariated $15,000 to aid it in disseminating 
ts publications; but in the main, it is a 
mvate organization. It has a central 
igency in London and representatives in 
Limburg, Antwerp, Bremen, Brussels, 
3 aris and some of the minor sea port towns. 
Jy means of a hand-book of the resources 
ncl advantages of Missouri, and other 
lublicatjons, translated into German and 
other foreign languages, it is able to sup¬ 
ply intending emigrants, either in Europe 
or in distant States, with a full description 
of the leading features and attractions of 
every part of the State, as an aid in de 
termining their choice of a place for set¬ 
tlement. The results of this wise action 
are shown by the great immigration into 
Missouri last year—estimated at upwards 
of 90,000. These come cot only from 
Europe, but. also from Canada and* nearly 
every State in the Union. The census of 
1880 gave Missouri a population of 2,168,- 
380 in an area of 65,380 miles, or only 33 
to the square mile, so that evidently there 
is yet room for a great many more whom 
this Society, by its judicious efforts, has a 
fair chance of securing. 
Such is the migratory character of even 
our agricultural population, and so great 
the desire of finding either a better climate ! 
or cheaper lauds, or both, that inquiries are l 
constantly being made with regard to the 1 
characteristics of various sections. During J 
the past year 232 such inquiries were re- J 
corded from New England in the Mis- ; 
souri Society’s books; 798 from the Mid- ‘ 
die States; 6,373 frem the Western States; f 
1,304 from the Southern States; 230 from „ 
Canada, besides 780 from Europe. The 6 
is number would, -without doubt, be con¬ 
siderably larger if those wbo wished for 
u information knew where to seek it; for 
le we are constantly receiving inquiries in 
d this line, which would doubtless have been 
a addressed to the various societies, did the 
it inquirers know of the addresses of such 
i- organizations or even of their existence. 
— -4 » -- 
y BREVITIES. 
y - 
d In the Rural of May 6, appeared an illugtra- 
I, tion of a Sbeaf Binder. The word 44 sheaf v 
n shiuld have been sloolc. 
In average seasons heads of rye appear May 
r 1st at the Rural Exp. Grounds, Bergen Co., 
New Jersey. This year no heads were seen 
until the 10th. 
° 
d IRE time for crossing wheats is approach¬ 
ing. Pull instructions, with illustrations, 
were given in our Wheat Special of last Sep- 
e tember 10. 
“ There are very good reasons, we think, for 
guessing that potatoes will be cheap for the 
e season of 1882 8, unless the weather be particu¬ 
larly unfavorable. 
d Have you planted your tomatoes, melons, 
sweet corn, bush beans, okra, peppers, 
squashes} Egg plants, Limas, sweet potatoes, 
peppers, may yet be planted in this climate. 
Bee to the succession of sweet corn, lettuce, 
radishes, peas. Look to the weeds. A stitch 
in time w ill gave nine. It is poor economy to 
allow weeds to get a start. 
t_ T he Potato Beetle is a wise little insect, 
though he seems so stupid. During the recent 
r w et, cold weather, we have found them col- 
n lected together in little groups about the 
e potato shoots, just underneatu the soil. Here, 
e as iu a little uuderground room, they eat, 
spark aud seem merry. We found in one of 
s these festive rooms, an inch and a half in 
diameter, nine beetles. 
Of all the florists or seedsmen of America 
we know riot of another that has through 
' many years worked more heartily to inspire 
f n love of flowers and an appreciation of 
floral horticulture than James Vick. He was 
not only just but liberal in all his dealings,and 
3 his loss will be felt by thousands throughout 
. the country and his name will live as green in 
s ri'rir memory as the plants he has so aided to 
j place in millions of homes. 
I The seventh annual meeting of the Ameri¬ 
can Association of Nurserymen, Florists and 
Seedsmen will be held in the Common Council 
Chamber, Rochester, N. Y.,on June 21st hist., 
and will continue three days. Some of the 
subjects to be discussed are “New Varieties of 
Fruits, Tree's, Plants,” etc: “Methods of Cul¬ 
ture Grading and Backing; Tranfportation 
and Taxation; Implements and Labor-saving 
Devices,” etc., etc. Papers will be read by P. 
Barry, Thomas Meehan, J. J. Thomas, C. S. 
5V atrous, S. D. Willard, C. L. Allen andjn&ny 
others. A large attendance is expected* 
Nothing in the fruit line is sent to our 
chief Northern market during the Winterand 
op this time quite so worthless as strawber¬ 
ries. They have the luscious look of straw¬ 
berries and that is all. For the rest, their 
flavor is precisely that of a drop or so of 
lemon juice in a teaspoonsful of water. During 
the past Winter and up to this time they have 
been sold from 60 to 30 cents per quart basket, 
and they have been sold in large quantities, 
too. But Winter strawberries can never be¬ 
come popular. Those who buy them and eat 
them once will not purchase again. 
J. B. Brown, Sec. of Ensilage Congress 
of 1882, announces that another convention 
will be held on Jan. 24, 1883, continuing four 
days and evenings if necessary. The object of 
this early announcement is to have delegates 
prepare accurate statements of actual weight 
and measurement of seed, fertilizers, products 
and land, and to be able to give at the conven¬ 
tion such results iu a concise form. They are 
also requested to bring specimens of farm 
book-keeping, and be prepared to discuss the 
general principles of farming and improved 
methods. 
^ Despite early assurances to the contrary, 
Com. Loriug’s interest in the promising in¬ 
dustry of growiug sorghum cane for sirup 
and sugar seems of a very lukewarm charac¬ 
ter. Lately a special committee of the Na¬ 
tional Academy of Sciences appointed to in¬ 
vestigate the matter, reported favorably on 
the work of Dr. Collier during the last few 
years, in demonstrating the feasibility of 
producing sugar from sorghum. Although 
three ex-presidents of the Society were on the 
Committee, still it seems the Comn/issioner 
ioes not think their report of sufficient im- 
aortance for publication. Possibly there are 
food reasons of public economy for this; in 
jo case can we allow ouxvelveR for a moment 
,o believe the insinuation that it is due to any 
Jetty jealousy arising from the fact that Gen. 
-e Due’s name is so iutimately connected with 
he growing popularity of this industry, 
I n response to a long series of urgent rep¬ 
resentations, the Connecticut Legislature a 
short time ago appropriated $25,000 for the 
establishment of a Stute Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station, with sufficient land for testing 
fertilizers, etc , the Station which has done 
so much good und**r the aide directorship of 
Professor 8. W. Johnson, having been alto¬ 
gether confined to laboratory work, con¬ 
ducted ini be Sheffield Scientific School atNew 
Haven. On Saturday, May 13, a piece of 
land of a bout four acres, situated on the out¬ 
skirts of New Haven, and having a two-story 
dwelling-house upon it, was bought for $12,000 
for the use of the Station. The advantages 
claimed for the place are : that there is 
ground enough for early experiments, and 
that it is handy to the citv, quiet and free 
from dust. The remainder of the legislative 
appropriation is considered sufficient to put 
the institution iu good working order, and de¬ 
fray running expenses for ttie preseat. We 
are strong advocates of the multiplication of 
agricultural _ experiment stations, national, 
State aud private everywhere. 
