786 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV 48 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homos. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
t Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park Row, New York. 
BAi'UrtJJAY, NOV. 18 1882. 
Will Mr. Green kindly inform us as to 
the origin of the James Vick Strawberry? 
Mr. P. Barry writes us, “Our apple 
crop is the worst failure I have known 
here (Rochester, N. Y.), in 40 years. 
We are getting splendid (but poor) Ben 
Davis apples from Missouri.” 
--- 4 »♦—--- 
Wk have so many potato reports to 
make that we shall first present, separately 
those of which portraits have been 
made and, at length, print all of our re¬ 
ports together, that the reader may judge 
of the comparative yields. 
■ -- 
Now that the busy subscription season 
is upon us, we beg our friends to make 
Rural Seed Reports and reports of crops, 
etc., complete^in themselves, so that they 
may be separated without obliging us to 
copy them. Give the name and address 
to each, please. 
Champion Quince.— Contrary to our 
expectations 13 quinces have ripened 
upon our Champion quince bush, as the 
usual September and October frosts did 
not occur. The outline sketch presented 
on page 783 shows the size and profile of 
the average quince. 
The retail fruit stands of large cities 
often give valuable hints to inquiring 
horticulturists. A few days ago the pro¬ 
prietor of one of these stands said to the 
writer that he was selling two barrels of 
Ben Davis to one of any other kind of 
apple because “they are the only kind 
not worm-eaten.” 
In renewing subscriptions we earnestly 
request our readers to write their names 
plainly and give their addresses in full. 
Where the renewals are made before the 
subscription expires, please say “extend.” 
If our friends only knew how much 
trouble and confusion the granting of the 
above request would save us they would 
certainly respect our w ishes. 
We must ask the indulgence of many 
subscribers who have sent us grapes, 
apples, plums, plants, wheat*, etc., in 
order to elicit an expression of our opin¬ 
ion regarding them—as well as of many 
others whose questions have not been 
answered. The duties of the season 
which have never before been so numer¬ 
ous or pressing, have prevented us from 
giving these matters the prompt atten¬ 
tion which we should have been glad to 
give them. 
Any of our friends who have ears of 
the Rural Thoroughbred Flint, 16 inches 
or more long, will oblige us if they will 
send such ears by mail to this office, 
wrapped in heavy card-board paper, or 
tied in strips of wood. The senders will 
please write their names and full ad¬ 
dresses on the outside wrapper (which is 
now permitted by the po3t-office authori¬ 
ties), so that we may know from whom 
the ears come and so that we may return 
the amount of postage. We merely de¬ 
sire these ears so as to secure the best for 
an engraving. We will return the ears 
if desired. 
-» ♦ •- 
Twenty-two live ostriches arrived here 
from the Cape of Good Ilope the other 
day for breeding purposes, Dr. Prothre, 
the owner, says—more probably, how¬ 
ever, for selling purposes. As the Doctor 
has been ostrich farming at the Cape, he 
must know that the business there has 
been greatly overdone, and that quite a 
large number who had engaged in it have 
abandoned it, after incurring heavy losses. 
A couple of months ago hundreds of birds 
were sold for one-fourth of what they 
had cost a short time before, and the 
eneral verdict was that ostrich farming 
idn’t pay. A word to the wise is enough 1 
-- - -♦»» 
One of the most interesting questions 
in agricultural circles in the South is that 
of the value of commercial fertilizers. 
According to the recent biennial report 
of the Commissioner of Agriculture of 
Georgia, the consumption of these fer¬ 
tilizers has risen from 48,648 tong in the 
season of l974r-5 to 127,427 tons in the sea¬ 
son of 1881-2; but the largest consump¬ 
tion of phosphates was in 1880-1 when 
152,404 tons were used. Commercial 
fertilizers were first classified in Georgia 
in 1875, and in the season of 1874-6, 6,499 
tons of acid phosphate or superphosphate 
were used, wbereaB 20,602 tons were used 
in 1881-2 and 22,036 tons in 1880-1 — 
the largest amount of these materials 
ever consumed in the State. Gforgia 
makes a greater use of these fertilizers 
than any other Southern State; but all the 
Atlantic-coast Cotton States use them ex¬ 
tensively, and while their employment 
undoubtedly greatly increases the yield 
of cotton, their purchase keeps the 
planters constantly in debt. 
The Supreme Court of Iowa and that of 
Illinois are at variance with regard to the 
constitutionality of the anti-discrimina¬ 
tion railroad law of the latter State. In 
the case of Carter vs. the Illinois Central 
Railroad the plaintiff shipped freight over 
a railroad from a point in Iowa to a sta¬ 
tion in Illinois, and 6ued the company for 
damages because it had discriminated 
against him in the charge for transporta¬ 
tion in violation of the statute of the 
State; but last July the Supreme Court 
of Iowa dismissed the complaint, on the 
ground that the statute was unconstitu¬ 
tional, as being an attempt to control the 
commerce between the States, which is 
exclusively within the power of Congress. 
On the other hand, the Supreme Court of 
Illinois, in the case of The People vs. Wa¬ 
bash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad Com¬ 
pany, on a like question, decided last 
September that the statute of Illinois was 
valid because, though it might be held 
to interfere incidentally with inter-State 
communication and trade, yet it is within 
the power of the State to make such a law. 
-M-«- 
The Treasury Cattle Commission and 
the Collectors of the ports at Portland, 
Boston and Baltimore have already se¬ 
cured land in each of these districts for 
the purpose of establishing cattle quaran¬ 
tine stations. The land in each case 
will be leased by the Government, for one 
year with the right to renew the lease 
from year to year afterwards at a reason¬ 
able rent. The Government will fun.isb 
shelter and water, but the owners will 
have to provide for the care and feeding 
of their stock. For the Boston district 
a farm of about 90 acres has been se¬ 
lected at Waltham on the Fitchburg 
Railroad, on which suitable buildings are 
now being erected. It is to be hoped 
that the stations at New York and Phila¬ 
delphia will also be soon selected and 
put in proper condition at the earliest 
moment. Already many American im 
porters of stock who have hitherto im¬ 
ported their cattle through Canada on 
account of the greater facilities afforded 
there, are making arrangements in Europe 
to import directly through American ports. 
- » -4 - 
During the last session of the New 
York Legislature a bill was introduced 
legalizing the sale of skim-milk in this 
city; but the measure was defeated mainly 
through the earnest opposition of the 
New York Board of Health whose presi¬ 
dent stated, with emphasis, that the pas¬ 
sage of the bill would be equivalent to 
signing the death warrants of thousands 
of infants and young children in this 
city and Brooklyn. lie insisted that 
skim-milk was not only unfit food for the 
young, but also unwholesome for adults; 
though his opposition to its sale here was 
based fhainly on the conviction that if 
admitted at. all, it would certainly be 
fraudulently sold by milk-dealers as food 
for children in the poor quarters of the 
city. Several of the daily papers contro¬ 
verted the assertion that skim-milk is 
unwholesome, and several physicians of 
no mean repute publicly coincided in this 
opinion, and advocated the sale of such 
milk as a public benefaction. This opin¬ 
ion of the question was supported by Dr. 
F. H. Storer, an eminent authority, in 
last week’s Rural, and it is again, inde¬ 
pendently, enunciated in this issue by 
Mr. Henry Stewart, who haB bestowed 
no little thought and study on the sub¬ 
ject. What is the truth about it ? 
--- — 
The number of illegal and fraudulent 
entries and pre-emptions of the public do¬ 
main, or, at any rate, the number of such 
cases brought to the notice of the Interior 
Department, has of late been unusually 
great. As the area of eligible land be¬ 
comes smaller, the desire to occupy the 
choicest locations grows BtroDger, and 
those who are in search of such land are 
more apt to contest cases of illegitimate 
occupancy now than when a larger terri¬ 
tory lay open for settlement. Moreover, 
the number of those who have lately en¬ 
gaged in 6tock raising has greatly in¬ 
creased, and, as has long been the case in 
California and Texas, stockmen are rapa¬ 
cious of wide ranges and entirely unscru¬ 
pulous in crowding out the shepherd and 
barring out the agriculturist. Accord¬ 
ingly a great deal of land has been ille¬ 
gally occupied by this class; but it seems 
likely that a check will be put to the 
practice in all cases brought to the notice 
of the Interior Department. Last Friday 
a large class of such esses were passed up¬ 
on, the Acting Secretary of the Interior 
announcing that “ the occupancy of the 
public lands with cattle for grazing pur¬ 
poses does not constitute a * residence 
so as to give the owner of the cattle a prior 
right which will defeat all subsequent 
claims.” 
-- 44-4 - 
Professor Baird and his assistants 
are busily engaged in preparing thousands 
of young carp for their journey to differ¬ 
ent parts of the country. A part of the 
old Armory building at Washington is de¬ 
voted to the purpose, and presents a busy 
scene. During the last two weeks about 
40,000 of these fish have been shipped. 
The first lot of 25,000 was distributed as 
follows: 1,000 to Pennsylvania; 2,000 to 
New York; 6,600 to Massachusetts and 
other New England States; 1,200 to Co¬ 
lumbus, O.; 12,400 to Kentucky: 1,600 
to Virginia and the remainder mostly to 
Maryland. The last lot of about 15,000 
were sent mainly to Iowa and Minnesota. 
There are still in the Armory tanks about 
27,000 carp. Prof. Baird thinks he will be 
able to distribute about 100,000,in all, this 
Fall. Since the Commission began itswork 
from 12,000 to 15,000 carp-ponds have 
been stocked, and there are now on tile 
about 10,000 applications, and new ones 
are being received at the rate of from 
50 to 100 a day. Tiu buckets having a 
capacity of about one gallon, fitted with 
a cover pierced by two small holes, are 
used for transporting the fish, each bucket 
holding abt ut 20 fish. As the value of 
the carp for food, their rapid growth, 
and the ease with which they are kept 
become more generally known, the de¬ 
mand, of course, increases rapidly. 
The Surplus rev knur for the first 
four months of the current fiscal year has 
been $60,000,000—or more than a dollar 
for every man, woman and child in the 
country. This unnecessary tax on the 
industries of the nation has been applied 
to the extinction of the public debt which 
at this rate will be cleared off before the 
close of the present century—all for the 
benefit of succeeding generations. Has 
not this generation already done enough 
for those that are to follow ? Has it not 
moistened the laod with its blood, ridged 
it with its graves, and spent its money 
like water for their welfare ? This 
superabundance of revenue is the source 
of much corruption and extravagance 
in the public service. It was the sight 
of the teeming public treasury that 
led our National Legislators to place 
on the people's back the enormous bur¬ 
den of pensions that must press sorely 
in this generation, as well as the River 
and Harbor extravagance of last Con¬ 
gress. Let the payment of the public 
debt be reduced to the minimum required 
by the sinking-fund law, and remit to the 
people the rest of this enormous surplus 
by lightening the taxes on the necessaries 
and comforis of life. With the increase 
of our population and the development 
of our resources, the payment of their 
share of the national indebtedness will be 
a trifle to future generations who should 
be grateful to this for what it has already 
done for them. 
The Constitutional Amendment, passed 
by an overwhelming majority last Tues¬ 
day, making the canals of this State free, 
must prove of considerable benefit to 
Western farmers, inasmuch as it will less 
en the charges on the transportation of 
their products to the seaboard as well as 
the freight on all machinery and other 
goods from the East to the West. What¬ 
ever may be the extent of this benefit, 
however, a greater one has been secured 
by establishing the water route as a per¬ 
manent check upon the greed or the rail¬ 
road lines. These left no means untried 
to defeat the amendment. The agricul¬ 
tural sections of the State were littered 
with pamphlets and papers of all sorts, 
sent out by them, exaggerating the evils 
that must overwhelm New York farmers 
owing to the severer competition with 
Western agricultural products that must 
result from the passage of the amend¬ 
ment. Had the measure been defeated, 
there is little doubt that the canals would 
soon have been appropriated as railroad 
beds—a project already broached by 
some of the railroad magnates, who by 
“ tricks that are dark” and ways tha 
are seldom vain, generally persuade the 
legislatures in the long run to grant them 
whatever concessions they may have set 
their hearts upon. An effort will now be 
made to enlarge the Erie Canal, and fit it 
for steam navigation, so that, instead of 
bemg simply a regulator of transportation 
charges, it will be a dictator of justrateB. 
Some of the daily papers of Chicago 
have lately been exposing the objection¬ 
able character of a good deal of the meat 
Bold to the poorer classes in that city. 
Animals that have been hurried to market 
on the appearance of the first symptoms 
of disease or in anticipation of the out¬ 
break of some malady, and which have 
arrived at the stock-yards in a dying 
condition, are bought “for a song” by 
a certain class of butchers, slaughtered 
aud sold at low prices to the “ multitude.” 
Beasts that were sound when shipped 
but which have been injured to death’* 
door in transit, are similarly disposed of; 
and so are cattle reeking with fetid sores, 
which have to be transported in trucks 
from the stock-yards to the shambles. 
So long as a spark of life remains in the 
lank, battered or diseased body when 
sold from the stock-yard, the beast be¬ 
comes human food. Now that Chicago 
has started in the business of supplying 
the East with dressed meat, the question 
has naturally risen: How much, if any, 
of this objectionable sort of meat is sent 
to other markets? Particular attention, 
too, has lately been directed to the quali¬ 
ty of the vast amount of meat canned 
there, atid here again the question inevita¬ 
bly presents itself: How much of this foul 
stuff finds a hiding-place in the cans scat¬ 
tered broadcast over the world? In view 
of the extensive use of Chicago canned 
meats in this and other countries, and of 
the boasted outlook for the new traffic in 
dressed meat shipped from the great 
Western metropolis, it is a matter of great 
importance that these questions should 
receive satisfactory answers. 
BREVITIES. 
Wk have lately received five bunches of the 
Niagara Grape weighing three pounds six 
ounces. Not a cracked skin or a berry imper¬ 
fect in any way was to be seen. 
A mkrk postal-card application Ar the Ru¬ 
ral Poster will receive prompt attention. 
Friends of the Rural would greatly oblige 
us by displaying these in their barns or car¬ 
riage-houses. The now Rural Premium List 
will also be sent promptly to all applicants. 
Good judges estimate the craaberry crop 
of Massachusetts this year to be not over half 
an average, so (hat our friend, the Washing¬ 
ton Market fruit dealer, may be right in the 
prediction that cranberries will be $5 a crate 
by Christmas. Just think of the enormous 
consumption of cranberries, meanwhile, with 
turkeys at Thanksgiving! 
Henry Winturop Sargent, one of Bos¬ 
ton’s most prominent citizenB, died on Friday, 
Oct. 10, at his Summer residence at Woden- 
ethe, near Fishkill-on-the Hudson, at the age 
of 72 years. He was a neighbor and friend 
of Mr. Charles Downing and of his brother the 
late A J. Downing whose work on ‘'Land¬ 
scape Gardening” Mr. Sargent revised and en¬ 
larged—a task for which his extensive knowl¬ 
edge of horticulture and tree culture well 
qualified him. 
Hops are reported to be “cornered.” Prices 
now are: ft.15 for choice; $1.05 for medium 
and 97 to 98c. tor low grades; white old hops 
bring as high as $ 1.10, and the topmost price has 
not yet been reached. Borne brewers, unable or 
unwilling to pay the current prices, have been 
casting about for substitute *, and have pur¬ 
chased large quantities of camomile flowers 
and caluniba root, and the extra demand on 
the ordinary supply of these articles has sent 
the prices extraordinarily high. As the prices 
of these too, advanced, some of the brewers 
have been securing large quantities of aloes, 
and doubtless these aud other substitutes of 
greater or less merit or demerit will be ex¬ 
tensively u«ed instead of the high-priced hops 
in which there i* an estimated domestic and 
foreign deficiency of 55,000.000 pounds, the 
consumption of the world being over 170,000,- 
000 pounds. In 1877 there was a surplus of 
70,000,000 pounds, hence the quotations of 
three to eight cents « pound at that time for 
hops in the United States. 
The exports of Western grain by way of 
the Mississippi River and New Orleans are 
increasing rapidly. The receipts and ship¬ 
ments of bulk wheat during the past Sep¬ 
tember and October have been much larger 
than those for the 12 months of the pre¬ 
vious season. In September 29 vessels left 
the Crescent City with 1,778,124 bushels of 
wheat against 807,124 bushels for the same 
month last year, while in October 27 vessels 
bore away 1.028,458 bushels against 54,715in 
October, 1881, For the two months, therefore, 
the shipments amounted to 2,801,579 bushels 
against 2,474,581 bushels during the preceding 
12 months, uud 807,988 during the correspond¬ 
ing period In 1881— an increase of nearly 700 
per cent. When Western shippers first availed 
themselvesof the cheap river transportation of 
gram for export to Europe, prophecies were 
loud that the business would come to a speedy 
end—the grain would heat, etc., etc., but, in 
spite of the prophets, the trade, it appears, has 
developed In a marvelous way. 
