<56 
THE ' BUBAL MEW-YOBKEB.' JULY 3 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal ior Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S, CtEJUN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 3J Park Row, New York. 
BArutotAy, JULY 8, i»sa. 
Tnu Black-bearded Centennial is cer¬ 
tainly the most remarkable wheat in many 
respects we have ever seen. In many, if 
not in most parts of the country, it seems 
as well suited to Fall as to Spring sow¬ 
ing. The kernel is probably larger than 
that of any other wheat. The head is 
closely set and heavy. The stems are ex¬ 
ceedingly strong, not to say wiry. It is 
at the Rural Farm very hardy and pro¬ 
ductive and the quality of the flour is, it 
appears, belter than that of Clawson. It 
will probably be several years before this 
wheat can be purchased in large quanti¬ 
ties or at a low price. 
We are sorry to report that Pyrethrum 
Powder cannot be trusted to rid vines of 
the grub (larva) of the potato beetle. For 
ten days we have every other day dusted 
our plants with this powder. The grubs 
fall to the ground and some die, but many 
of them return to the vines the next day. 
The beetles, which, as we have said, are 
killed by the powder if dusted upon them 
in any confined vessel, are not apparently 
harmed by it in the open air. We have 
shown that the Pyrpthrum plant, is hardy 
and that it will thrive anywhere, so that 
if raised extensively the powder could he 
manufactured and sold for a very low 
price. 
There is not a business in the country 
probably, that is capable of greater profit¬ 
able extension and subdivision than the 
making of draining tile. One can scarcely 
go a mile anywhere without seeing many 
places, if not entire areas, where tile- 
draining would do more for the produc¬ 
tiveness of the land, and the pleasure of 
working it than any other outlay. In the 
West they have found that in nearly all 
cases, by skillful placing of drains (and 
the selection of their positions is quite an 
art), the terrors and troubles of their 
Winter roads of bottomless mire may be 
banished. This alone will give in many 
regions a bouudless market for draining 
tile. 
— 4 ♦ - 
Farmers, in the North as well as in the 
South, may gain a lesson of wridorn from 
the remark in Commissioner Henderson’s 
statement that only the farmers in Geor¬ 
gia vt ho raise their own provisions make 
money. Corn sometimes sells there, it 
seems, in interior counties, and near the 
close of the s ason, at a dollar a bushel, 
when at the same time it can be bought 
in Iowa for fifteen cents. When a farmer 
says, ‘ ‘ 1 can buy this or that cheaper than I 
can raise it,” it is often an excuse to him¬ 
self for not undertaking the trouble. To 
place all dependence on any one cron is a 
risk that common prudence and many 
good old proverbs condemn, ne is not a 
wise man who says “To-morrow shall be 
as to-day,” or who puts all bis ventures 
in one boat, or all his risks in one policy. 
- 4 * »- 
Mutton for England from New Zea¬ 
land. —A cargo of 5,000 carcases of mut¬ 
ton arrived in England in fine order from 
the above country. The steamer trans¬ 
porting it was fitted up with refrigerator 
compartments. The mutton must be con¬ 
sumed within a day or two after being 
taken out ol the vessel, for as soon as the 
frost gets out of the flesh it becomes soft 
and flabby. These carcases are said to be 
superior to any yet received from Austra¬ 
lia or America, because they were of a 
more even size and better dressed. The 
butchers sold them to their customers as 
English mutton, and they could not tell 
the difference between this, and that fresh 
slaughtered in England. This will be a 
good hint to our flock-makers to be more 
careful about the kj.n^_gf sheep they breed, 
and the manner of (f^siing and putting 
up the carcases. 6 
- —, 
Suffering op live stock in crossing 
the Atlantic.— First and last a great 
deal h is been said both as to the comfort 
and safety with which American livestock 
are transported across the Atlantic and 
as to the cruelty and peril they encounter 
during the voyage. A few figures from 
-Ln^lish KUthoritJcs will cast some lierht 
on the controverted point regarding the 
condition of animals in transit. In 1881 
there were imported from the United 
States to the British ports of Liverpool, 
London, Glasgow, Hull. Bristol, Cardiff, 
Hartlepool. Barrow-in-Furness and South 
Shields, 473 cargoes of animals, consist¬ 
ing of 103,693 cattle, 40.223 sheep and 
1.773 swine. Of these numbers 176 cattle, 
96 sheep and 10 swine were landed dead; 
110 cattle, 99 riieep and 13 swine were so 
grievously injured that it was necessary 
to slaughter them on landing, and 3,387 
cattle, 947 sheep and 221 swine were 
thrown overboard during the voyage. In 
view of these absolute statistics of mor¬ 
tality, and of the vast amount of non- 
fatal suffering they imply, it is impossible 
to avoid the conviction that animals ordi¬ 
narily endure appalling misery in the 
passage across the Atlantic. 
No "Western “June Floods.”— The 
“June rise” of the Western rivers has 
failed to take place this year. This is 
generally due to the melting of the snow 
and ice on the Rocky Mountains and 
their elevated table-lands rather than to 
unusually heavy rainfalls in leafy June. 
Ever since May 27 telegrams from 
Yankton, Omaha and Leavenworth have 
been telling usof slight rises in the Missou¬ 
ri, but the highest of these has amounted 
to only about five Let. at Yanlcton, four 
atOmsha and less at Leavenworth. It is 
probable that owing to the backward 
Spring the snows on the great mountain 
chains have not been dissolved as early 
as usual, so that the Upper Missouri and 
its tributaries will be swollen in July in¬ 
stead of in June. Experience has shown 
that when the upper river and its afflu¬ 
ents do not rise until July, it is too late 
to cause floods in the lower parts of the 
rivers, as heavy rains are not then likely 
to increase the flow. The delay of the 
June rise is beneficial to agriculture both 
because the in jury to the crops from over¬ 
flow is escaped, and because the moderate 
rise that does take place later furnishes a 
prateful supply of water during the 
droughty season in the Missouri and 
Lower Mississippi Valleys. 
- ♦ » ♦ - 
FORE-WARNED SHOULD BE FORE¬ 
ARMED. 
Reports of ravages of the Army-worm 
have already reached us from sever'd 
parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, but so 
far the injury done to crops by this pest ap¬ 
pears to be smaller and more circumscribed 
than usual in past seasons. It must be re¬ 
membered, however, that, according to 
Professors Riley, Packard and Thomas^ ihe 
Worms are most destructive in a wet Sum¬ 
mer succeeding a dry one. Now, unfortu¬ 
nately, nearly all farmers have reason to 
remember the severity of the widespread 
drought from the close of last July till 
late in September, and most farmers, es¬ 
pecially iu the West, have had reason to 
complain of a superabundance of rain of 
late, so that the conditions most favorable 
to the spread of these pests have ap¬ 
parently existed. A droughty Summer 
dries up the swampy lands, thus afford¬ 
ing the insects a wider range for deposit¬ 
ing their eggs, and the succeeding wet 
season, while favorable to the growth of 
the pests, drives the worms from the 
flooded swamps to the high grounds ad¬ 
jacent whence they spread over the coun¬ 
try. Should July therefore prove wet, it 
is not unlikely that the Army-worms will 
be unusually numerous. At any rate, it 
would be prudent in farmers to prepare 
beforehand to fight the pests vigorously 
should they make their appearance. The 
best metluxts of combatting them have 
several times been described in the Rural. 
Whatever the weather, it seems to pro¬ 
duce enemies to agriculture- the season 
that decreases the swarms of the Chincli- 
bug increases the hordes of the Army- 
worm. 
- 44 ♦ 
(A PROPER DECISION. 
In 1881 Henry A Weber, Ph. D., Pro¬ 
fessor of Chemistry, and Melville A. Sco- 
vell, M. S., Professor of Agricultural 
Chemistry in the Illinois Induririal Uni¬ 
versity, were employed in making exper¬ 
iments in producing sugar from sorghum. 
The cost of making the experiments was 
paid out of the University funds, which 
are public moneys, and the apparatus 
for making them was supplied from the 
same source. The experiments were 
successful and the professors patented 
the processes employed in their own names 
and as their own property. In the Rural 
of January 21 last we editorially ques¬ 
tioned the right and propriety of such a 
course. The experiments were made 
for the benefit of the farmers of Illinois 
who were taxed to pay the expenses in¬ 
curred in making thrm. It seemed to 
us unjust that the public should have to 
rest content with a long table of figures 
showing the results of the experiments, 
while the method of producing these re¬ 
sults were reserved as the private property 
of the experimenters, for which the farm¬ 
ers for whom these experiments were 
made must pay if they desired to use 
them. In the Rural of February 14 ap¬ 
peared a note from Selim Tl. Peabody, Ph. 
D., President of the University, in which, 
while disclaiming approval of the course 
of the two professors, he stated that the 
question as to the propriety of their con¬ 
duct was under consideration by very 
competent officers of the State Govern¬ 
ment. We have just learnt that after 
careful and deliberate consideration the 
Board of Trustees of the University lias 
lately disapproved of the course of the 
professors and discharged them from the 
number of the Faculty. This decision we 
highly approve, nor do we think a pat¬ 
ent obtained under such circumstances 
will be supported whenever its validity 
shall come before the courts for settle¬ 
ment. 
-»-» ♦■- 
GROWTH OF FARMING. 
A census bulletin just issued, which is 
abbreviated in our Agricultural News, 
shows that the number of farms in this 
couutry has increased from 2,666,000 in 
1870 to 4,000,000 in 1880, or at the rate 
of 51 percent, in ten years! Another cen¬ 
sus bulletin, which was lately issued, 
shows that the increase of population was 
only 30 per cent, during the same period, 
so tlint, the agricultural development dur¬ 
ing the past decade is all the more extra¬ 
ordinary. The increase in the number of 
farms is most remarkable in the Southern, 
Northwestern and Pacific. States and in 
the Territories. In the South an increase 
is shown of 185 per cent,, in Texas, 129, 
in Florida; 102 in Alabama, 98 in Georgia. 
91 in Arkansas; 81 in South Carolina, 70 
in Louisiana, 68 in North Carolina, 60 in 
Virginia and 50 in Mississippi. These 
figures do not indicate so much a heavy 
immigration (except in tile cases of Texas 
and Florida), as the social and industrial 
changes that have occurred since the war, 
owing to which hundreds of great planta¬ 
tions have been subdivided into small 
farms. In Nebraska there has been an in¬ 
crease of 413 per cent, in the number of 
furms, and one of 203 per cent, in Kan¬ 
sas. Minnesota has an increase of 99 per 
cent, Iowa 59, Colorado 159, Oregon 114 
and California 51. The greatest multi¬ 
plication of agricultural industry how¬ 
ever is in the Territories where there is 
an increase in the number of farms 
of 914 per cent in Dakota, 355 in 
Idaho, 346 in Arizona, and dotvuto 13 per 
cent in New Mexico. Of course, the im¬ 
mense growth iu the number of farms re¬ 
turned by the census in the Western 
States and the Territories is obviously 
due to the rapid settlement of this part 
of the country by immigrants from Eu¬ 
rope and the older-setlled States. In 
some of the Territories, indeed, there 
were very few farms in 1870, so that 
where the number was very small an in¬ 
crease of even 900 per cent would not in¬ 
dicate a large number of farms, for if 
there was only one, an increase of 900 per 
cent would indicate only 10 in all. 
AMERICAN MANUFACTURES. 
We desire to avoid very strictly any 
subject which may touch upon questions 
of a political character, hut while the 
subject of the American manufacturing 
industries has upon one side a political 
aspect or rather leaning, yet directly it 
comes under the scope of review by a 
journal devoted to agriculture and its 
kindred industries, because as the man¬ 
ufacturing industries of a country become 
developed, encouraged and strengthened 
by whatever means it may be, agriculture 
enjoys a simultaneous and corresponding 
benefit. Facts tending to show how our 
mechanical industries are enlarging and 
succeeding and becoming subservient to 
foreign commerce are therefore of great 
interest to thoughtful farmers. The re¬ 
port of our foieign consuls may all be 
watched with great interest as they refer 
to our growing foreign trade, and the en¬ 
larged opening made lor it by enterprising 
American manufacturers. Foreign news¬ 
papers often give us interesting informa¬ 
tion upon this point. An English jour¬ 
nal, Iron, devoted to the interests of man- 
ufacturesof metals, has frequently pointed 
out how American manufactures are dis¬ 
placing English industries, as saws, cut¬ 
ting tools, files, etc., in Sheffield; small 
hardware in Birmingham; tucks, keys, 
trunk furniture, pumps, etc., in Wolver¬ 
hampton, and leather goods in North¬ 
ampton, all important seats of these 
special industries. A recent article in 
the same paper notices the numerous ar¬ 
ticles imported into Australia from the 
United States, all of which compete di¬ 
rectly with the English manufactures. 
It enumerates axes, hatchets, hammers, 
picks, shovels, knives, saws, trowels, 
wrenches, forks, hoes, scythes, hnyrnkes, 
brooms, handles, bells, wood making 
machinery, boxing machines, nails and 
tacks, bolts, nuts, traps, domestic ap¬ 
paratus, latches, lamps, hinges, locks, 
scales, artisans’ tools, pumps, hooks, 
axles, glass, wooden wares, pruning 
shears, and all kinds of these and related 
articles which we tire to mention. And 
the complimentary encouraging remarks 
are made that, all this trade has arisen and 
lives and grows because of the real excel¬ 
lence and worth of the articles, their at¬ 
tract ve finish and elegance, and their per¬ 
fect adaptability to the requirements and 
purposes. It is an example, in fact, of 
the survival of the fittest, and farmers who 
find their business in feeding the millions 
of artisans, young and old, male and fe¬ 
male, who work and live in and by these 
industries, cannot, look upon the facts 
without satisfaction and approval. 
-♦ - »«- 
BREVITIES. 
If there is one kind of work that, according; 
to our experience, is surer thnn another to 
make boys sick of the farm, it i-turning the 
grindstone for the men to sharpen their 
scythes, cutter bars and exec. See 8oe, Cham¬ 
berlain's article under “The Truth About It.” 
TnERK is no Unger any doubt, of the great 
strength of French prejudice against the 
American Hog. Durine the past wf ek a good 
deal of time was taken un in the 8enate in 
discussing a hill passed bv the Assembly ad- 
milling hog products from this eon ntrv under 
certain restrictions. M. 1 irard, Minister 
of i '■ommerce who used to be called the 
“ American Hater,” spoke strongly in its 
favor, but the bill was rejected by the 
venerable hodv of nincompoops on the 
ground that it did not offer Midi dent guaran¬ 
tees against trichinosis. It is fuff time that 
cur government should open the eyp.s of 
Frenc-haien to the transeendant merits of the 
American Hog, hv prohibiting tlu< importa¬ 
tion of adulterated French wines and fraudu¬ 
lently weighted French silks. This appeal to 
the pockets of the Gauls would doubtless 
act as a counter irritan*-, and remove the ob¬ 
tuseness of vWoti which row blinds them to 
the fine qualities of our Noble Porker. 
A dispatch from Albany, N. Y., on June 
26 gives a list of items in the Supply Bill, 
w hich Governor Cornell had just vetoed, thus 
saving the State some $S37,0(jli voted away by 
the Legislature. Among The vetoed items we 
notice one of $506 for the State Entomologist, 
and one of *151 28 for the State Botanist. 
Last year we supported the appropriation for 
the State Entomologist, believing that the la¬ 
bors of a Riley or a 'Inomas would return to the 
agriculture of the State, and consequently to 
the general prosperity, tenfold the trilling 
outlay demanded, Since then, although we 
have been looking carefully fur any return 
made to the general public fur the appropria¬ 
tion granted last year to the State Entomolo¬ 
gist, yet w e have been unable to discover any. 
Has any single farmer m the State been bene¬ 
fited by the labors for which the Entomolo¬ 
gist has been paid out of the public treasury? 
As to the Srate Botanist, who is ho and what 
duties has he to perform that are of public 
utility? 
Rkfresicntative W. D. Kelley, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, Cnairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, has introduced into the Lower 
House of Congress a bill remedying the 
blunder made iu the tariff laws by the 
omission of the word “wool” iu two 
places where it was intended to be inserted, 
as explained in an editorial iu the Rural of 
June 17. As the wool manufacturers as 
well as the wool growers of the couu¬ 
try ure suffeiers by the blundering omis¬ 
sion ol the words where it is self evident 
they should have been inserted, there ought 
to be no delay In the correcting legislation. 
Iu anticipation of the imposition ol tne specific 
duly ol fill cents a pound on knit goods made 
wholly oi - partly of wool iu addition to theucZ 
valorem duty of 35 per cent, importers ure re¬ 
ported to have sent immense oiders tor such 
eoods to Europe, so that they might be landed 
here before the imposition of the additional 
tax, and it is therefore important that this 
duty should be imposed at the earliest moment. 
As long ago as Juno 11 news reached Dan¬ 
ville, Ya., that heart reading distress pre¬ 
vailed in Patrick County, one of the most 
mountainous and inaccessible districts in the 
State. Reports said that ow ing to ibe failure 
of the scanty crops last, season at. least o.UUO 
men, women and children were starving, 
and that so an: were already dead and others 
dying for want of food For mouths they had 
been suffering the gieate.st privations before 
their deplorable condition became known to 
the general public. Some ussiitauce was 
dispat lied from the neighboring counties mid 
from Richmond, ami more would have been 
sent were it not that other reports from the 
same section were widely published, stating 
that the acc mnts given of the distress were 
grossly exaggerated, 11 was these contradicto¬ 
ry reports mat prevented the Rural, and 
doubtEss many other journals, from soliciting 
assistance lu behalf ol the suffering agricui- 
turists. Investigation, however, proves, it is 
said, that the over tavorable leports come 
from iiaid-hearted men who were making a 
piofitoutut tiie sufferings ut ihe district by 
selling food at exorbitant prioes. tViiat pun¬ 
ishment could be too severe for such giveoy 
wretches, and especially as several deaths are 
reported to have occurred trom lack of aid 
due to their lying contradictions? 
