PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
S2.U0 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, NOY. 25, 1882 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
sends us a bunch each of Highland, Lady 
Washington, and Naomi, the first two of 
which ripened with us perfectly this season, 
as until Nov. 8d we had no frost. The ber¬ 
ries of the Highland bunch were large and 
showy, but sour. As to the Lady Washing¬ 
ton, there is nothing remarkable about it as 
to quality. The Naomi is a green grape, 
without bloom or color. Its flavor is pecu¬ 
liar, but not bgreeat le.— Eds. 
The Highland Grape, 
agara has proven itself to be, can fail to pro¬ 
duce some child worthy of its parentage, and 
superior to all others; and he who is so fortu¬ 
nate as to be the lucky planter, and who suc¬ 
ceeds in vetting a grape superior in every way 
to the Niagara, will have something better 
than a gold mine, and will be remembered 
much longer aad more favorably than he 
who conquers a kingdom. 
The course of the Rural in sending out new 
and valuable seeds free, has already added to 
the wealth of this country many hundred 
times all that has ever been paid for the paper 
in subscriptions and to-day thousands and 
thousands of families, all over the land, are 
I am not sure but we should review, and 
perhaps modify our opinions abiut the High¬ 
land Grape, as, when quite ripe, it loses its 
objectionable acidity, and as it has no foxi¬ 
ness, it may be, for southern regions and wher¬ 
ever the Catawba will ripen, a desirable 
grape. It is unfortunate that its psried of 
ripening has been so misrepresented, for many 
have doubtless planted it ia northern locali¬ 
ties, where it will never ripen. Thi9 has been 
an unusual season, and many grapes have 
been a full month later in ripening than in 
other more favorable seasons; but I oannot 
XPERIENCE 
have never 
^ ' grapes raised 
there, from any variety whatever, until the 
last season. Three years ago this Fall, a vine 
of the Niagara was sent to us and planted at 
the Rural Farm, in a little vineyard of new 
grapes, among which were several seedlings 
of our own which have not yet fruited. It 
made a very strong growth the first Summer, 
and duriug the second bore fruit which was 
destroyed by young poultry, which were per¬ 
mitted to run at large, as we were building a 
new poultry yard. The past season the vine 
bore 41) large, handsome bunohes of grapes, 
and 25, more or less imperfect bunches. One 
of the former is shown in the engraving, which 
is as true to life as our artist could mike it. 
(Scores of new grapes, many of them un¬ 
questionably superior bo the best of our older 
varieties, in some respects, are being intro¬ 
duced. But in so far as we are capable of 
judging, the claims made foi most of them are 
greater than their merits will warrant. Until 
recently, we have feared that the Niagara 
would prove no exception to th seexaggerated 
claim;. But we have now seen a great deal 
of this grape, and we have made many in¬ 
quiries of those who have also seen much of 
it, and who have no motive, any more than 
we ourselves have, for praisiog it be> ond its 
deserts, aud our opinion is that, except it may 
be in quality, it is in all respects superior to 
the Concord, As to quality, our impressions 
have scarcely changed, though many better 
judges hold that its quality also is better than 
that of the Concord. 
The method of distributing the Niagara, 
adopted by the company, struck us, as it did 
others, in the beginning, as being a very 
strange proceeding, and we think that grave 
doubts may still be entertained whether the 
company will realize the immense amounts 
which may be easily figured up upon paper, 
when the possibilities of slips and failures 
which the future may reveal are not taken into 
the account. But this one thing is plain, viz: 
that whatever may be the ultimate profits or 
losses to the Niagara Company, they show by 
their acts that they believe the Niagara Grape 
to be superior, as a market grape at least, to 
any other at present known, else they would 
not be stupid enough to plant extensive vine¬ 
yards in many different States aud in Canada, 
to be paid for from the fruit which it is sup¬ 
posed they will yield. 
We have received the following letter from 
the Niagara Grape Company: 
“ The Niagara seeds promised for the Free 
Seed Distribution of theRuRAL Na w-Yorkkr, 
are beiag now carefully saved from perfectly 
ripe, first-class Niagaras, aud those receiving 
them may be perfectly sure they are getting 
nothing else. It will be a wonder if many 
who plant these seeds do not succeed in pro¬ 
ducing some grape much better than any we 
now have. It can hardly be possible that a 
parent so healthy, so hardy, so vigorous and 
productive, so beautiful and good as the Ni- 
ChtCAiicmai 
Some of them have thus far been failures, 
without doubt; they have failed to give a full 
and satisfactory course of instruction in 
branches belonging to agriculture, or closely 
connected with it; or else, though apparently 
fully equipped for giving such instruction, 
they have failed to attract a large body of 
students. Mr. B. F. Johnson, in a recent note 
in the Rural, appears to imply that this 
unfortunate result is due chiefly to the ap¬ 
pointment of men to preside over these insti¬ 
tutions who, however eminent in other 
branches, are not practical and scientific agri¬ 
culturists. But the man who has now for 
several years filled the president’s chair in 
what is generally supposed to be the most 
successful agricultural college in the country, 
was not a practical and scientific agriculturist; 
and I very much question whether he would 
call himself such even now; he proved to be 
the right man In the right place, because h© 
knew how to get the right sort cf men about 
him. On the other hand, there was at least 
one agricultural college whose president was 
a thoroughly scientific ani practical agricul¬ 
turist; but for many years the college had 
very little agricultural study. If it was a 
success, it was not as an institution where 
young men were educated to be themselves 
practical aud scientific farmers, but only as 
a second-rate scientific and literary college, 
where boys were made to work at very 
ordinary farming, its faithful president killed 
himself by carrying too heavy a burden in 
his earnest efforts to build up a true agricul¬ 
tural college in the face of two most formid¬ 
able obstacles—very scanty means, and still 
more scanty encouragement from the farmers 
themselves. Had Dr. Pugh been spared to 
fight longer, he might have won the battle; 
but not half so much because he was a prac¬ 
tical and scientific agriculturist, as because of 
his indomitable will aud unflagging zeal. 
It is a trite saying that you may lead a 
horse to water, but you cannot make him 
drink; and if he has a will of his own and 
does not want water, you may not be able to 
get him up to the trough at ail. This is a fair 
representation of the state of mind of at least 
ninety nine hundredths of the farmers of 
this country in regard to agricultural educa¬ 
tion; they do not see any use for it either for 
themselves or their children; and whoever 
may be at the pump handle, whether a “liter 
ary feller ” or a learned and eminent man in 
their own profession, they will neither go 
near the cjllege nor send their sons there. 
Mr. Johnson, iu my opinion, ignores a very 
weighty reason, if indeed he does not begin at 
the wrong end altogether, in his explanation 
of the failure of so many agricultural colleges 
iu this country to meet the expectations of 
their friends. It is the disheartening apathy 
of ihose for whose benefit the colleges are 
supposed to be established, which has forced 
so many of them to work to a greater or less 
extent m other educational directions than 
that originally laid out for them. With empty 
THE NIAGARA GRAPE. 
AS GROWN ON THE LONG ISLAND OCEAN COAST. Tecs To Nature.—Fio. 437. 
ie fruits and growing improved believe the Highland should be classed as an 
and grains, that would have noth- early ripening grape under any circumstances 
:ind were it not for the liberality It is healthy and vigorous in growth, and the 
■ise of the Rural. a clusters are unusually large and handsome, 
nd especially the younger readers aad I think, from my experience with it this 
j Rural, take a lively interest in year.it will be found at least “goed” in 
interprise, being assured that not quality for southern planters and for all 
profit, but the gratitude of suo- places where it will ripen perfectly, 
irs awaits him who shall be suo- Delaware, Ohio. G. W. Campbell. 
J. 8. Woodward, Sec’y. Remarks.—W ith the above Mr. Campbell 
