28 
JAN. JO 
THE 
At NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BT 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duens Street, New York. City. 
SATURDAY, JAN. 10. 1879. 
As our readers are aware, for the past 
rear or so we hare made inquiries as to 
the benefit derived from the use of salt 
on Asparapus beds, so generally recom¬ 
mended. Thousands of acres of Aspara¬ 
gus are cultivated on Long Island, some 
with and some without, salt. TV e have 
been unable to learn that salt is known to 
be of any advantage whatever Ihe 
most that is known seems to be. that salt 
does no harm. It may be, however, that 
the air of Long Island, situated between 
the Sound and the Ocean, supplies all that 
*is needed and that teste to ascertain the 
value of salt would have to be made fur¬ 
ther away from the influence of the sea. 
Subscribers will please remember that 
we are only too glad to supply them 
with free specimens of the Rural New- 
Yorker at. this time to show to their 
friends. Most people are glad to receive 
and to examine such specimens, as they 
are thus enabled the more discriminat¬ 
ingly to judge whether it is advisable to 
make any changes or not m their selection 
of journals for another year. We are 
naturally anxious to increase our circula¬ 
tion as much as possible, and any good 
words or kindly acts ro our behalf on the 
part of our friends will place us under 
many obligations which we shall all the 
while endeavor to repay by making the 
Bubal more interesting and instinctive. 
Mr. Marshall P. Wilder writes us 
that onr pomologies! department keeps 
up abreast with the times and has afforded 
him much information, which is gratify¬ 
ing to ns. By the way the London 
Garden publishes our recent original por¬ 
trait of this much respected gentleman, 
with a condensed biography of ms we. 
Referring to this, to which we called his 
attention, Mr. Wilder says : “It is much 
better than the one in the Gardeners 
Chronicle some years since. 
There was a fine engraving of Mr. Wil¬ 
der, we learn, published in Ghent, some 
two or three years since in “ D. Arbori¬ 
culture &c." but the title was given as 
Le Marshal P. Wilder as if he were a 
veritable Field-Marshal. 
Professor C. V. Riley sought the 
position of Entomologist to the Agricul¬ 
tural Department. He solicited the press 
to pronounce upon his fitness for that 
position. He was appointed and—-re¬ 
signed. Probably he was surprised that 
the resignation was promptly accepted 
for he exerted his best influence to get 
back. Then he commenced and has smee 
industriously continued his denunciations 
of the Department which, even if well 
founded, come from him, under such 
circumstances, with an exceedingly bad 
^Professor Riley is generally acknowl¬ 
edged to be one of our ablest entomolog¬ 
ists and it is to be regretted that he 
should suffer his ambition and his vanity 
to run away with his discretion. 
---- 
CATALOGUES. 
The Seedsmen’s and Nurserymen’s 
catalogues of the present day are proofs 
of the advancement which lias been made 
in Agriculture and Horticulture, and 
records of wherein this advancement con¬ 
sists. Any farmer, florist or gardener 
who purchases his plants or seeds without 
having examined these work*, does himself 
injustice. He cannot expect, to keep up 
with the times. These catalogues are now 
issued by every prominent or enterpns- 
ing'establishment throughout the country, 
and most of them are sent to applicants 
either without any or for a merely nominal 
charge. Our advice to our readers is to 
send for all of them; to examine them 
carefully ; to compare them and to make 
out their lists not until they have thus 
thoroughly informed themselves. The 
trustworthiness of the firm sending out 
the catalogue ought always to be con¬ 
sidered before the price. Fresh seeds 
and well-grown plants have a standard 
value. When therefore we find certain 
kinds offered in one catalogue at a lower 
price than in the others, it would be judi¬ 
cious to learn something of the firm 
which so offers them before determining 
to send orders. Old or impure seeds or 
those not true to nama ; plants, whether 
for ornament or for fruit, that are not 
sound, well-grown and true to name, are 
always causes of very great disappoint¬ 
ment. The new catalogues for 1 &S 0 from 
all of the prominent growers of this 
country and of England, will be noted in 
their appropriate place in our columns as 
they arrive. As before intimated, we 
urge our readers to consult them freely 
before making selections, even though 
they have but a single grape-vine, a 
half dozen strawberry plants or a pint of 
early peas to select. 
NEVER SNUB A CHILD. 
That was what our minister said in hiB 
sermon a few weeks ago, and if those 
foui' words made as much impression on 
the rest of his congregation as they did 
on us, that sermon will prove of more 
real practical value than most that are 
preached, and the children of generations 
yet unborn will have good reason to rise 
up and call the preacher blessed. We 
have no idea of giving a report of that 
sermon, or even a synopsis of it. What 
we have quoted is in itself a sufficieijt 
topic for consideration, and enough to 
furnish food for thought through oue 
sitting. # 
“Never snub os child.” Mind that, 
you fathers and mothers who will read 
this ! Think for a moment what is the 
effect a hasty, thoughtless word may 
make on the child's disposition. The lit¬ 
tle one may come to you when you are 
worn out liy toil, tired from mental labor, 
engaged in reading or in conversation, or 
busied with some perplexing task, and 
trouble you with an innocent question. 
If you are vexed, don’t show it; don’t 
fret; don’t look cross ; don’t speak hasti¬ 
ly ; answer the question as well as you 
oa u—some questions that children ask 
are not easily answered—and send the 
child away kindly. Its pleasant face will 
diffuse light and love over the whole 
house and do you a better service than 
you may be aware of. A frown, a rebuke, 
even the slightest check will show its ef¬ 
fect on the child’s countenance, and you 
may be snre it goes deeper than you can 
see, and lasts longer than you may think. 
No opportunity to cultivate a child’s 
self-respect should be neglected. That 
is the foundation of true manhood, and 
he who builds on any other builds on a 
quicksand. Better that than the educa¬ 
tion of the schools or fortunate business 
connections, high birth or influential 
friends. These are all well as adjuncts, 
but altogether they are less to be desired 
than that self-respect which begets con¬ 
fidence, energy and self-reliance. 
If you want to try an experiment, take 
a dog and subject it for six months to the 
same treatment some children receive, and 
observe the effect. Our word for it, you 
will give it such a disposition that it will 
be known all over your neighborhood as 
an animal to be avoided. Somewhat like 
effects are produced on all other animals. 
There are, of course, differences. Some 
will be more easily affected than others, 
as their natural dispositions differ, but a 
harsh word is never without injury, and, 
if this is the case with animals whose 
appreciation of praise or blame must be 
comparatively small, what must be the 
result when a finely organized child is the 
subject ? 
Many bmtal instincts may, in a meas¬ 
ure, be overcome by kindness, and, on 
the contrary, humanity becomes dulled 
by undeserved reproof, even when it is 
not formulated in words. The world 
would be better if there were more kindly 
words, and many a child grows up to be 
a hard-hearted, unloving man who, if 
reared in an atmosphere of kindness, 
would have nourished the seeds of affec¬ 
tion planted in his youthful days, and in 
his maturity been a blessing to all around 
him. 
-» *--» - 
TWO QUESTIONS ANSWERED. - CONCLU¬ 
SION. 
Last week we tried to show, in answer 
to our correspondent’s question, that the 
ordinary work of the farmer will not be 
a “crucifixion” to the feelings and tastes 
of a farmer of education and refinement. 
The second part of his question, viz. : 
“Must he see an uneducated, boorish 
laborer at his table every day ?” is, as we 
intimated, harder to answer. But we 
should, without hesitation, say No. The 
question, however, opens the whole sub¬ 
ject of association with farm help, and 
how far it is necessary, and how far it 
need be degrading or distasteful to a 
farmer of oulture. There are several so¬ 
lutions, as the question is vague. A 
farm of 160 acres ” may employ oue hired 
man or twenty. We know a “farmer” 
in the “fruit belt” of Miohigan, with 
much less than 160 .acres, who, in bearing 
time, employs sometimes as many as 
seventy pickers, men, women and child¬ 
ren. He does not board them. Even his 
regular hands do not board with him, 
but in a house near by. Hie only associ¬ 
ation is that of employer with employed. 
Of some of his employes he does not 
even know the names. They come from 
the country round about, find board, 
pick by the quart, get their tickets at 
the “shipping shanty,” and he cashes 
these each Saturday evening. 
We know other farmers with not more 
than 160 acres, who pursue some speci¬ 
alty, hire several hands, have a cottage 
where all dairy work, eto., is done and 
all the hands are boarded, so that the 
farmer associates with them only as he 
works with or oversees them in the field. 
And this cottage system is fast gaining 
favor even on moderate-sized farms in 
this country. It has long been the com¬ 
mon way in other countries. It giveB the 
farmer married help, and therefore usu¬ 
ally more permanent and reliable, and 
less transient; takes the drudgery out of 
the family home or mansion, and settles 
the question of ‘ ‘ eating with boorish 
laborers.” 
But our correspondent’s question re¬ 
fers, we presume, to the more difficult 
case of a young farmer of refined tastes 
and good education but somewhat limit¬ 
ed means, who pursues ordinary mixed 
or grain farming, and keeps only one or 
two hired men by the month. Now the 
only reason a farmer should board his 
help any more than the merchant his 
clerks, or the head carpenter or other 
mechanic his journeymen and appren¬ 
tices, is that farm-houses, as a rule, are 
isolated and remote from town, and the 
farmer must in some way board his help 
or have none. Let this be granted then, 
and that this young farmer lives in a com¬ 
munity where it is customary for the 
help to eat at the same table with the 
farmer and his wife and children, and 
where he will be called “ stuck-up if he 
departs from the usual custom, and that 
for this and other reasons he does not 
deem it best to depart from it. What 
then shall he do? One thing he can 
usually do* choose his help, A wide- 
awake, progressive, educated farmer can 
make his own choice among laborers. He 
need not have boors about him at all. 
Plenty of young men—sons of neighbors, 
perhaps—knowing that they can learn 
something worth while of farming from 
such a man, will be glad to work for him 
a year or two before settling on farms of 
their own at the West Now these young 
men may not be Chesterfields in manners. 
They may even see no objection to Bit¬ 
ting at table in working boots and over¬ 
alls, and shoveling food with a table- 
knife. But, if courteously treated, they 
will be willing, nay, even glad, to learn. 
If their employer courteously says, “ I 
always remove my boots and work coat 
and overalls when I come in to meals or 
for tee night, and put on slippers and a 
clean coat or dressing-gown, and I should 
like to have you do the same while you 
live with me. "We may not notice the 
odor of the stable, having just oorne out 
of it, perhaps, but the ladies will be 
troubled by it.” Ten to one the young 
man will readily fall in with the sugges¬ 
tion, and after a few weeks wonder he 
could ever have done otherwise. For this 
at leaBt is not mere “stuck-up nonsense ” 
It is utterly impossible for a man to milk 
a dozen cows, clean their stable, or ‘‘clean 
down” a span of horses as it should be 
done, without carrying more or less of 
the odor in his clothing and on his boots, 
no matter how carefully brushed or 
cleaned. And if he wears them all to 
table daily, he daily offends and insults 
at least the lady of the house, if she is 
a lady at all. We know many farmers 
wives who bear this cross daily because 
they suppose it must be borne. 
But what about further intercourse 
with hired help in the house ? The vari¬ 
ous members of the house have their 
sleeping apartments, which should be 
sacred from all intrusion except on invi¬ 
tation. Then the large dining-room and 
the kitchen should be always warm in 
winter and be the liom© of the hired help 
and of such members of the family as 
ohoose to stay there for a longer or short¬ 
er time. But the evening home of the 
refined farmer and his family will be the 
parlor or library. Here he will read, and 
study, and write, and talk with his family 
and friends. Here will be the quiet, games, 
the piauo music and the singing. The 
rougher, noisier games will be in the 
dining-room. If the hired help have a 
taste and talent for music they will often 
be invited to liBten to it or join in it. But 
it oau easily be understood that they are 
expected in the parlor only when invited 
and only when suitably dressed. 
Another question is in regard to the 
intercourse of the fanner with his men 
while at work. Need this be degrading 
to the farmer of refinement ? Need it be 
a daily, hourly “ crucifixion ” to his tastes 
and feelings ? Decidedly not. It will 
rather be a constant, gradual education 
to his men if they are the young men we 
have described. ’The stronger nature or 
intellect will always predominate. The 
educated farmer who really understands 
and loves his work—rather his profes¬ 
sion —can constantly find in the work his 
men are helping him to do, subjects for 
conversation and instruction to the men. 
Profane or vile words and obscene stories 
will not be tolerated, no, not for a mo¬ 
ment. They will be cast out as things 
low, coarse, disgusting, not to say im¬ 
moral. The careful father will not risk 
his children even in occasional associa¬ 
tion with youDg men of vile or profane 
thoughts and tongues. He will not know¬ 
ingly have such men on his farm, and he 
will take some pains to know about this 
matter. 
And so the association of such a farmer 
■with such men will not be a degradation 
and a crucifixion to him, but, an elevation 
and a pleasure to them. They will not 
correct all their table manners in a day. 
But if they once know that by common 
consent the knife is used for cutting and 
the fork for conveying food, they will so 
use them. If they know that picking the 
teeth at table is an abomination, they 
will be more careful in that regard. And 
so on with the various gross violations of 
table propriety. 
And if the farmer uniformly treats 
them while at work with courtesy and re¬ 
spect, they will treat him at least as well. 
They will'say, “Yes, sir,” and “No, sir,” 
and “If you please,” and, in short, use 
courteous language. And his intercourse 
with them need be no more distasteful 
than that of the merchant with his clerks, 
the doctor with his patients, the Jawyer 
with his clients and witnesses, or of all 
three with their servants. 
BREVITIES. 
Our next original portrait will be that of 
Profee Bor Levi Stockbridge. 
It is a woDder that the Honeysuckle is not 
used for forcing more than it is. True, the 
flowers are not over showy, but their delight¬ 
ful perfume is reason enough. 
A Rare List of Officers —The Ohio State 
Agricultural Society for 1880 has Dr. J. A. 
Warder for Presideut, N. Ohrner for Vice-Pres¬ 
cient. M. B Batcham for Secretary, and G. W. 
Campbell for Treasurer. 
Gov. Furnas of Nebraska "has nol had 
time to get rich." But he is rich in the sense of 
having commanded, by his lifes acts, the 
respect and esteem of all who know him. 
Ah, that this sort of wealth were more allur¬ 
ing ! Our portrait is from a recent photo¬ 
graph. 
Ouu friend Mr. W- Rice tells us that the re¬ 
port of the laud department of the Union Paci¬ 
fic R. R. shows that 22,183.19 acres have been 
sold, the price amounting to $100,637 39- There 
have been 234‘purchasers, so that the average 
price per acre is $4.53 and the average number 
of acres to each purchaser, 94.80. . 
To say that we are receiving up to date a 
larger list of subscribers than wo have ever 
before received would be to say what is not 
true. We may say that we have to go back 
to 1874 V' find a list as large as that we are re- 
ctuvius up to date. Thift sccmk to bo duo iti & 
great measure to the efforts of our own sub- 
scribers. Thaukw to them. May they liv© 
long and prosper I 
During the present year this journal has 
been supplied with special reports of all im¬ 
portant Agricultural and Horticultural Socie¬ 
ties which have occurred in the North, West 
and South. New England, however, has been 
neglected. The present volumuious and ex¬ 
tremely iutercBtiug report of the Connecticut 
Board of Agriculture will go far towards aton¬ 
ing therefor. It should be read by all- 
We know not how many inquiries we have 
received as to where the Southern Cow Pea, 
Doura, Duchess Grape, aud other plants lately 
illustrated in our columns can be obtained. As 
to the Cow Pea, we are trying to place it in our 
seed distribution. But if we do, only a small 
trial lot will be sent to each subscriber. As to 
Doura, we canuot at present say. Doubtless 
we can give the information before another 
planting season arises. As to Duchess Grape: 
wo find that it is offered in our advertising 
columns. 
According to the estimate of the Encyclo¬ 
paedia Britannlca, as estimated by a writer in 
the Nation, the natural resources of the United 
States, fully developed, are capable of sustain- 
iuir & population 01 nearly 1,5£00,000,000, equal 
to the present estimated population of the 
globe. This estimate seems extravagant until 
we remember that even such a population 
would give us but three hundred and sixty- 
four persons to the arable square mile, while 
England to-day has about three hundred and 
eighty-nine. 
We must apologize. There is no gotting 
around it. Our opinion about Roses isn't 
worth a snap. But wo feel bo humbled too. 
Ob! that wc could take back what we have 
said about the American Banner Rose ! “The 
ladies waiting on the tables at the (jraat fair of 
the Seventh Regiment wore them.’ This is in 
every paper in the country. All these notices 
end: "As It can only be supplied in small 
quantities, it will cost more than its weight in 
gold 1”—And the Rural has spoken disrespect¬ 
fully of this Rose I 
