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THE RURAL 
I 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBKBT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Paek Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1882. 
We desire to call special attention to 
the Japan Spruce—Abies (Picea) polita—as 
not only an ornamental tree of the first 
value among evergreens, but as one excep¬ 
tionally well adapted for hedges. It is 
of slower growth, certainly, than many 
other spruces, but its leaves are very 
sharp—as sharp, indeed, as the spines of 
locusts and nearly as unyielding—while 
through seven years it has proved in the 
trying climate of the Rural Grounds the 
hardiest of conifers. Here we have a 
rare combination for a hedge—hardiness, 
beauty, and protection against animals. 
WESTERN PROGRESS. 
An example of the wonderful growth 
of the Western States is given in the last 
quarterly report of the Kansas State 
Board of Agriculture. This report in ad¬ 
dition to statistics showing the great and 
rapid increase in the settlement of the 
land and the productions of the farm, 
gives some figures which exhibit the 
thriving condition of manufacturing in¬ 
dustry. In it we find there are 298 flour¬ 
ing mills in the State having a capital of 
$3,000,000; 90 saw mills, nine agricultural 
implement manufactories, 27 cheese facto¬ 
ries, 40 wagon and carriage factories, five 
woolen mills and two paper mills. There 
are also several large sorghum-sugar fac¬ 
tories, mines of coal, zinc and lead, salt 
works and other industries connected 
with the minerals. The sheep industry 
is developing in a most extraordinary 
manner. The fine natural pastures are 
rapidly being occupied and sheep have 
doubled in number each year since 
1879. From 420,000 in 1880 the flocks 
have increased to over 1,500,000 in 1882, 
and this before a lamb had been dropped. 
The extention of railroads has also 
largely added to the industries of the 
State in the way of car building and ma¬ 
chine-making and repairing. And this is 
but one indication of the wonderful in¬ 
dustrial progress of the West. 
OUR NEXT FREE SEED DISTRIBUTION. 
We propose to do our very best as re¬ 
gards our next Seed Distribution. Every 
year it assumes larger proportions, and 
the preparations made, which beforehand 
seemed ample, always prove inadequate 
in one respect or another. It may surprise 
some of our readers to know that for the 
last regular seed distribution—not to speak 
of the supplementary ones—we put up in 
the Rural office 104,000 packets of seeds. 
Then the various kinds were selected to 
make up each collection and put in the 
mailing envelopes. These latter, of course, 
had to be directed, stamped and mailed. 
The entire work has become a business in 
itself, and requires intelligent supervision 
and capable clerks to carry it on. In 
order to give it this attention, it is now 
proposed to carry on the entire work at 
the Rural Experiment Grounds, where 
there will be no need to intrust it to inex¬ 
perienced hands. The seeds selected (all 
except the potato) are such that they may 
be put up before the end of the year, so 
that all may receive them early in January 
or the middle of February at the latest. 
As to the kinds of seeds, the announce¬ 
ment will be nude, as usual, in the Fair 
Number. We need only say here that 
no thought, trouble or, within reasonable 
limits, expense, lias been spared in order 
to render the entire collection acceptable 
to our subscribers. 
THE ARMY-WORM AGAIN ON LONG 
ISLAND-THE REMEDY. 
The Sharpless Strawberry displays this 
season more prominently than ever before 
its failing to ripen the tip. We get more 
berries of the largest size from Sharpless 
than from any other, and yet it cannot be 
called very prolific. Forborne use Charles 
Downing and Cumberland Triumph suit 
us best. 
We are glad to know that so many mem¬ 
bers of the Youths’ Horticultural Club are 
interested in experimenting with the 
huckleberry, and that Mr. E. S. Goff’s 
suggestion has been so generally adopted. 
Already nine different States and Canada 
are represented in the contest, and we 
have no doubt but that the list will be in¬ 
creased much more. It is a good thing 
for the young people to become interested 
in such a work, and they should have the 
hearty co-operation and encouragement 
of their parents and friends. 
Again the Army-worm has appeared on 
Long Island. The main wheat field of 
the Rural Farm is alive with them. To 
proffer assistance to those who may be 
similarly unfortunate, let us mention a 
method for their extermination, which 
was very successfully employed by one of 
our subscribers, Mr. M. C. Jessup, of 
Long Island, during their march two 
years ago. Two furrows are plowed on 
the side of the field so that the loose soil 
shall be on the side towards the field or 
fields to be protected. Then go through 
the furrows -with a spade, cleaning out the 
bottom, so that it is hard and smooth. 
Then dig holes, as for posts, the full width 
of the spade, 18 inches deep, from 25 
to 30 feet apart. The Army-worms, un¬ 
able to ascend the loose soil of the fur¬ 
row-side, travel along the smooth bottom 
and fall into the holes. Here by their 
struggles they crush or disable one anoth¬ 
er. When these holes become filled with 
the worms, or nearly so, a little earth is 
thrown upon them and pressed down with 
the foot, and other holes dug. Mr. Jes¬ 
sup tried, as he tells us, “ burning and 
everything else,” without avail. “But 
this is really an easy, efficient remedy, and 
I hope you will inform your readers at 
once,” he earnestly concluded. 
The method is not entirely new, as we 
remember similar suggestions from one 
of our entomological writers, Prof. Cyrus 
Thomas, we think. Still we are glad of 
the evidence of a practical farmer who 
has tried it thoroughly and so fully en¬ 
dorses its efficacy. 
THE CAUSES OF AGRICULTURAL 
FAILURES. 
The Rural New-Yorker has fre¬ 
quently and earnestly presented to its 
readers the advantages of economy and 
the unwisdom of injudicious expenditure; 
but, more than all, the dangers and mis¬ 
fortunes resulting from debt. Time and ex¬ 
perience exemplify more fully the cautions 
that have been repeatedly given. But a 
good thing bears repetition, and we feel 
that it is a good thing to continue to harp 
upon this subject; for there are questions 
of the greatest import to the well-being of 
mankind, that may be reiterated and dis¬ 
cussed over and over again. Very briefly, 
we would request attention to a fact of 
much interest in this regard. 
We hear of failures and distress very 
often, aod these misfortunes have become 
so common as to fall under the careful 
notice and calculations of the statisticians, 
who can tell us precisely how many men 
out of a thousand fail in business; but 
there they stop. We ought to know why 
they fail. To a great extent it is no se¬ 
cret that most of these misfortunes come 
from reckless expenditures and misuse of 
credit. 
Men are much the same everywhere, 
and the farmers of Bavaria are no worse 
on the average, than American farmers, 
and what happens in that country may be 
a lesson for us. The Government of Ba¬ 
varia has been investigating the causes of 
the failures and distress among farmers 
in that country, and has only rehearsed 
“ the old, old, story.” Forty per cent, of 
these failures have been found to be due 
to injudicious purchases or reckless mort¬ 
gaging; 34 per cent, are found to be due 
to personal causes, as inefficiency, vice, 
and other faults, and but 13 per cent, to 
purely business causes, as mistakes, mis¬ 
management, or accidents which may 
carry no blame with them. 
Don’t let it be forgotten that a debt is 
a mortgage, as truly as a mortgage is a 
debt, and the owner of a farm can no 
more escape the payment of the one than 
he can that of the other. And yet, how 
many farmers will contract a debt without 
the least hesitation when they would suffer 
the greatest inconvenience rather than 
sign a mortgage on their farms! The fact 
is, that the farmer who pays as he goes, 
will never become a subject of the probe 
or the dissection of the statistician who 
turns his attention to business failures 
and misfortunes. He will be safe all the 
time and whatever may happen. 
THE TUBERCLE PARASITE. 
Tnn investigations of Dr. Koch into 
the nature and character of the parasite 
which accompanies and is supposed to 
produce tuberculous diseases, or pulmon¬ 
ary consumption, promise to have a very 
important and interesting relation to the 
feeding of our farm animals, some of 
which suffer so seriously from this class 
of diseases. It has been learned that the 
embryonic form of the tubercle, or the 
bacillus or vegetable cell which causes 
consumption, is precisely the same as that 
of the vinegar plant; and that its manner 
of growth is also similar. The peculiar 
tough, gelatinous mass which forms in 
vinegar and is called the “mother of vine¬ 
gar,” is well known. This mass is made 
up of an aggregation of smaller masses 
of cells of a peculiar form, which is known 
as the vinegar plant. This plant is found 
wherever farinaceous substances are under¬ 
going the acetic or alcoholic fermentation. 
It has been shown, too, that this vinegar 
yeast can be traced in the bloo i of ani¬ 
mals that have been fed upon farinaceous 
or starchy food in a condition of acid or 
alcoholic fermentation. Some very con¬ 
clusive experiments have been made, to 
show this important fact; 246 swine fed 
upon fermenting food were examined and 
the vinegar yeast was found in their blood 
and secretions, and 104 of the animals 
were discovered to be affected with tuber¬ 
culosis or pulmonary consumption. In a 
well-known case which occurred some 
years ago, in which some men were fed 
upon sour food, they became sick; the 
blood was found, upon examination, to 
contain the vinegar yeast, and consump¬ 
tion of the lungs began. It is a well- 
known fact that tuberculosis is a frequent 
disease in dairy cows that are fed upon 
distillery slop and other sour food, and 
that in such cases the peculiar parasitic 
and infectious germ is found in the milk. 
The whole question is of the greatest 
importance, because of the infectious char¬ 
acter of this disease, which yearly carries 
off one-seventh of those persons who die. 
and further, it is of great interest in con¬ 
nection with the popular practice of ensi¬ 
lage, in which the fodder undergoes this 
acetic and alcoholic fermentation. This 
is a stage of decay, and decay induces 
decay consecutively, wherever its products 
are carried. The question then occurs, 
are we, when we feed ensilage or other 
food in a state of acid or alcoholic fermen¬ 
tation, producing tuberculosis in the cows 
and risking the infection of those persons 
who may use the milk or the butter so 
produced? The indications are all in favor 
of such a result. 
COMPOSITION OF THE TARIFF COM¬ 
MISSION. 
At length the President has appointed 
and the Senate has confirmed the nine 
members of the Tariff Commission which 
is to make an investigation with a view 
to furnishing a basis for a revision of the 
tariff. As long ago as June 7, the Presi¬ 
dent nominated a full list of names; but 
of these W. A. Wheeler, of New York, 
and J. 8. Phelps, of Missouri, declined 
to serve, and it is only during the past 
week that two other men have accepted 
nominations and been confirmed in their 
places. It is generally reported that the 
Commission was created, not so much to 
prepare the way for a thorough reform of 
the tariff in the direction of greatly les¬ 
sening import duties, as to stave off action 
for the present, and to obtain a report 
more or less favorable to our present pro¬ 
tective system. The composition of the 
Commission certainly affords no ground 
for the belief that any radical change of 
the tariff will be recommended in the re¬ 
port which the Commissioners are to make 
to Congress at its next session, lasting 
from December 1 to March 4. In antici¬ 
pation of the creation of the Commission 
by Congress, we insisted, in the Rural 
of April 22, that, in view of the grave 
influence its conclusions might bring to 
bear on the industries of the country, the 
various branches of agriculture—by far 
the most important of them all—should 
be adequately represented, and having 
learnt, with other farmers, that agricul¬ 
ture should be thankful for small favors, 
we do not feel inclined to complain about 
the composition^ the Tariff Commission. 
John L. Hayes, of Massachusetts, will 
be chairman, ne is about 60 years old, 
Secretary of the National Wool Manufac¬ 
turers’ Association, editor of a Boston 
journal devotea to the interests of wool 
growers and manufacturers, one of the 
highest authorities in the country on the 
woolen industry in all its branches, a close 
student of the tariff question, and a man 
who has won the esteem and confidence 
of the sheep raisers as well as of the wool 
and cotton manufacturers of the country. 
Wool-growing is the chief and almost the 
only agricultural industry favored with 
protection, and high duties on the raw 
material have been obtained as an offset 
to the still higher duties on manufactured 
woolen goods. Mr. Hayes is a trusted rep¬ 
resentative of both the wool-growing and 
wool-manufacturing industries. Henry 
M. Oliver, of Pennsylvania, is an Irishman 
by birth, about 45 years old, a “self- 
made man,” who employs about 3,800 
hands in manufacturing iron at Pittsburg. 
He is a man of fine executive ability, a 
hard worker, and will represent the iron 
industries, always clamorous for protec¬ 
tion. Austin M. Garland, of Illinois, is 
an extensive agriculturist and sheep raiser 
near Springfield, and president of the 
State Grange. He is about middle age, 
and has never held or sought a public 
office, although he was pressed for the 
places of both Senator Logan and Senator 
Davis. 
Jacob Ambler, of Ohio, an ex-member 
of Congress, is 53 years of age, and a law¬ 
yer by profession. He is a strong protec¬ 
tionist, being the representative of the 
iron and woolen manufacturing interests 
of his State, and the special candidate of 
Mr. McKinley, who demands “a tariff for 
protection with incidental revenue.” 
Robert P. Porter, of Washington,an Eng¬ 
lishman by birth, under 40 yeais of age, 
is an accomplished statistician in financial 
and industrial questions, lie was a jour¬ 
nalists the West for 10 years, and is now 
one of the editors of the International 
Review. Pic is a hard worker, with pro¬ 
tective tendencies, and is said to be sup¬ 
ported by the iron-masters of Pennsylva¬ 
nia. John W. II. Underwood, of Georgia, 
is nearly 70 years old, was admitted to 
the bar in 1834, and is now Judge of the 
Rome Circuit. He is an uncommonly in¬ 
telligent man, a moderate protectionist, 
and represents the cotton-growing inter¬ 
ests. Duncan F. Kenner, of Louisiana, is 
the oldest member of the Commission, 
being upwards of 70 years of age. He 
is a native of the Pelican State, and one 
of its most extensive sugar planters. He 
is a clear-headed, broad-minded man. 
While favored by the sugar-growing in¬ 
dustries of the country, he is objection¬ 
able to the sugar importers. These seven 
were among the first, nominations made, 
and after several others had declined to 
fill the vacancies left by Messrs. Wheeler 
ami Phelps, the list has just been com¬ 
pleted by the addition of Alexander R. 
Boteler, of West Virginia, who is report¬ 
ed to be a farmer with a strong protective 
regard for the pig iron and coal interests 
of his State; and William H, McMahon, 
of New York, an appraiser in the Cus¬ 
tom House in this city, and the possessor 
of a thorough practical knowledge of thv. 
operations of the tariff laws. 
BREVITIES. 
Dr. Loring (Com. of Ag.) tells us he has 
raised Hungarian Grass for 12 years and val¬ 
ues it highly. He cuts it just as it is passing 
out of bloom. 
Sow Hungarian Grass—we sow not less 
than a bushel to the acre—upon well-harrowed 
laud and harrow it in. It will be ready to 
cut the latter part of August. 
We have seen it stated by an eminent phy¬ 
sician that “boiled milk is unfit for use.” Can 
any of our readers tell us why? We have 
often thought that the use of raw milk from 
cows which are permitted—indeed obliged—to 
drink impure water, might be a cause of ma¬ 
larial diseases. 
The apple trees in the neighborhood of the 
Rural Grounds, though covered with blossoms, 
have set very little fruit, owing no doubt to the 
cold nights which prevailed. We hear the 
same report from many other quarters, so 
that the bearing year may not produce so full 
a crop as has been predicted. 
The following from the American Manu¬ 
facturing Co., Waynesboro’, Pa., may serve 
to show the estimation in which our Crop 
Special is hold by many readers: 
“ Allow us to congratulate you upon the 
wonderfully lull and exhaustive reports in 
“ What Will the Harvest Be?” To us it is of 
much interest and value. 
Mr. Henry Stewart tells us that, be watched 
for several minutes a Yellow Bird (Sylvili- 
ca a-stiva) feeding upon the lice (aphides) 
which collect upon the under sides of leaves, 
which are becoming one of the most destruc¬ 
tive enemies to fruit aud many kimls of orna¬ 
mental trees. This beautiful bird is common 
iu most parts of our country, and if fos¬ 
tered and protected as English sparrows were 
?') years ago, might prove an effectual exter¬ 
minator of the lice. 
The importation of American lard cheese 
has at length been brought to the notice of 
the British Government. Last Tuesday the 
f Home Secretary was asked in the House of 
Commons what measures the government 
intended to adopt to guard the people’s 
pockets against the fraudulent sale of this 
adulturated product. The reply was that the 
provisions of the Adulteration of Food Act, 
already in force, were deemed sufficiently 
stringent to prevent t.he sule of the article 
under a false name. Oh, for such an Act here I 
