424 
FEB. 24 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duane Street, New York. 
8ATURDAY, FEB. 81, 1880. 
A NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS. 
Attention is called Co the several articles 
upon the Kinver Globe Mangel an illustration 
in section of which is presented on our first 
page. From our own crop raised last Beason, 
we cannot speak of it too highly. It is very 
firm, solid, and at the same time sweet and ten¬ 
der, while its form is always shapely and the 
skin smooth. We had intended to send our 
subscribers a small quantity of this seed for 
trial, but were dissuaded for two reasons, viz., 
it is now offered by seedmen. and, second, 
we were informed that Vilmorin & Co. of Paris 
offered a yellow mangel that, as regards pro¬ 
ductiveness and solidity, is superior to the 
Kinver. 
We thereupon ordered of the new kind a 
quantity large enough to be placed in our pres¬ 
ent Seed Distribution, which we are now mak¬ 
ing as fast as possible. Our obiect in thus 
calling special attention to this mangel is that 
we deem it worthy of a careful trial, to secure 
which premiums of some value for the best 
specimens will be announced in due time. 
-- 
TO NEW SUBSC * AS. 
We find tl i.t i).any of our new subscribers 
have no* t di our Free Plant and Seed Distri¬ 
bution supplement and consequently know 
nothing as to its terms. We will therefore send 
this supplement free to all who apply until 
further notice. 
-■*--*-*■- 
As announced In our late issues, we can no 
longer supply back numbers of the Rural 
New-Yorker. Papers will be sent for one 
year from the date ol the receipt of all sub¬ 
scriptions. 
We should like to see in round num¬ 
bers the cost per year of supporting the 
standing armies of the world. Suppose 
that all the armies were disbanded and 
that this sum were devoted to agricul¬ 
tural interests —what a change would 
come over the spirit of the world’s 
dreams ! Then let an International Con¬ 
gress be appointed to settle all interna¬ 
tional quarrels or civil discords. 
We regretfully surrender so large a 
part of our space this week to Professor 
Riley’s reply or defence. Yet it seems 
but just to him that we should do so. We 
print two affidavits that a letter solicit¬ 
ing the Rural’s opinion of his fitness for 
the position of Entomologist to the Dep’t. 
of Agriculture was received at this 
office. Such proof will, no doubt, sat¬ 
isfy the general reader. If Professor 
Riley deems it insufficient, we Bball be 
pleased t-o give him additional proof, if 
he will call at this office. 
The holders of the patent for the Cook 
Evaporator are pressing hard upon Con¬ 
gress for an extension of the patent. Al¬ 
ready they have succeeded in their efforts 
before the House, and the measure is 
now before the Senate for decision. The 
patentee gets no benefit from such an ex¬ 
tension, the manufacturers have already 
had the benefit of one extension, and 
there is no valid reason why they should 
obtain a second. In view of the large 
increase of sorghum cane culture in 
the near future, both for sirup and sugar, 
it is a matter of general importance that 
all appliances needed in the processes of 
manufacturing these products, should be 
procurable at the lowest prices consistent 
with excellence. This cannot be the case 
so long as any device is made a monopoly 
by being covered by a patent. While 
willingly conceding that the talent and 
labor of the inventor should be rewarded 
by the profits resulting from such a mo¬ 
nopoly for a certain period, there seems 
to us neither consideration for the in¬ 
ventor nor justice to the public in con¬ 
tinuing the monopoly solely for the 
benefit of the manufacturers. Farmers, 
through their olubs and granges, all over 
the West, are sending to Congress peti¬ 
tions against this extension, and we 
strongly urge upon farmers everywhere 
to follow this wide-awake example. No 
time should be lost; what is advisable in 
this matter should be done at once, by 
each grange and farmers’ club straight¬ 
way forwarding protests against this in¬ 
jurious measure to the Senators represent¬ 
ing their respective States and the Rep¬ 
resentatives of their respective districts. 
There ift no subject relating to the in¬ 
ternal eoonomy of this country that de¬ 
serves and is receiving so much attention 
at present as our enormous railroad sys¬ 
tem, The matter is now being investi¬ 
gated by Congress and several of the 
State legislatures, and is one worthy of 
the thoughtful consideration of every 
citizen who has the present prosperity 
and the future welfare of the country 
at heart. What legislation, State or 
national, is likely to conduce to the best 
results from these mediums of vast bene¬ 
fits to the country aa well as of intolerable 
injustice and oppression to the individual, 
is a problem of difficult solution. One 
thing only seems certain—some change 
from the "present course of mismanage¬ 
ment, unfair discriminaton, and unscru¬ 
pulous greed must booh be made. Stock¬ 
holders in the companies, shippers by 
them, employees of them—in a word all 
who have any dealings with them, out¬ 
side of those enjoying the loaves and 
fishes of high salaries, patronage, or fa¬ 
voritism, are deeply and justly dissatis¬ 
fied with the present system, and eager 
for a change, confident that almost any one 
must be for the better. Besides the vex¬ 
ations and hardships imposed on the pub¬ 
lic by the arbitrary rules and tariffs of 
these vast corporations, their wealth and 
influence are becoming dangerous to the 
prosperity of the nation through the cor¬ 
ruption of it6 legislators, and sometimes, 
it would seem, of its judges. Some check, 
some restraint, some limit must be set to 
the rapacity, caprice and unscrupnlous- 
ness of these mighty bodies, and it will 
require the best thought of the nation to 
decide upon the most beneficial legisla¬ 
tion to this salutary end. 
PRESERVING SPECIMENS OF PLANTS AND 
FRUITS. 
We are often at a loss how to preserve 
specimens of fruits and other agricultural 
products. We have tried to keep an un¬ 
usually handsome bunch of grapes or a 
“prize” apple, but have found that it 
shriveled up, changed color, or was 
otherwise spoiled. 
Dr. Nesaler, of the Experimental Sta¬ 
tion at Karlsruhe, has been very suc¬ 
cessful with a solution containing a little 
acid—sulphite of lime in 20 per cent, 
spirits of wine. Alcohol alone has long 
been employed as an antiseptic, but when 
strong enough to prevent decay, it will 
usually affect the color or otherwise alter 
the appearance of the specimen. The 
fruit or plant should first be moistened 
with the alcohol and one to 10 drops of 
an eight-per-cent, solution of the sulphite 
added. The specimen is then covered 
with the alcohol. In preserving leaves 
and other substances liable to change 
color, not more than one or two drops of 
sulphite to every four ounces of the 
alcohol should be used. For roots, 
tubers, etc., which are liable to turn 
brown or grow dark-colored, three or four 
times the above quantity may be em¬ 
ployed. 
With this preparation, specimens of 
white and green grapes, of green leaves, 
and of roots have been kept for years in 
a light room without any visible altera¬ 
tion. This liquid will also prevent wines 
from turning brown and check fermenta¬ 
tion. It can also be employed to pre¬ 
serve insects, fish, or small animals. 
--*» 
PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS. 
With the exception, perhaps, of doc¬ 
tors and schoolmasters, no class of the 
oommunity is so familiar with manifesta¬ 
tions of heredity as farmers, or so well ac¬ 
customed to think of, and allow for, it 
practically as a most important natural 
force. But it is noteworthy that in this 
matter the farmer and stock-breeder are 
much more familiar with the bright side 
of the picture than with the dark. They 
habitually take more or less care, it is true, 
not to breed from weak, vicious, and un¬ 
promising animals; but the very fact of 
their doing so often prevents them from 
seeing the results which would be arrived 
at in case such animals were bred from. 
But in our criminal courts there is no 
lack of examples of results obtainable by 
breeding from bad stock; and it will be 
well for the community at large when the 
farmers take this matter to heart, in their 
capacity of citizens and legislators, for no 
class of men are likely to comprehend it 
more clearly than they or to act npon it 
more judiciously. 
A story is even now going the rounds 
of the newspapers of an instance of hered¬ 
ity in crime furnished by a Massachusetts 
thief from the vicinity of Fall River, who 
appeared as a witness in a burglary trial, 
having turned State’s evidence. He is 
the great-grandson of a notorious crimi¬ 
nal, who was in State prison with seven 
of his sons at one time. The grandfath¬ 
er’s ancestry is traced back to a noted 
pirate of colonial times, and his branch 
of the family has for over a century fur¬ 
nished noted criminals in every genera¬ 
tion. 
The question what shall be done with 
the possessors of traits and tendencies 
thus peculiar and obnoxious to society, 
has been less fully debated than would 
be well. The criminals have been harsh¬ 
ly enough treated in all conscience at one 
time and another. But until quite re¬ 
cently the subject has seldom been en¬ 
quired into in a cabn and judicious spirit, 
aud from the scientific point of view. In 
England, not so very many years ago, the 
custom was to hang criminals of almost 
every grade, whenever caught; and it 
will be noticed that this practice was not 
essentially unlike the familiar agricultu¬ 
ral habit of sending to the butcher the 
cullings of the herd. There can be little 
doubt, for that matter, that the death 
penalty, which is still retained for crimes 
of deepest dye, is in some part an expres¬ 
sion of the popular belief in the workings 
of heredity; and a determination that, in 
so far as society has the power, this force 
shall cease to work in certain particular 
cases and directions. 
The indiscriminate slaughter of crimi¬ 
nals of all sorts, turned out to be a grave 
mistake, however, since it made the dan¬ 
gerous classes heedless and desperate, 
and increased the gravity of crimes by 
teaching the lesson that “one may as well 
be killed for a sheep aB a lamb.” With 
the advance of civilization, transportation 
to Botany Bay, or some other penal colo- 
ony, was substituted by the English for 
the death penalty, except in extreme 
cases; but now that the colonies have be¬ 
come settled with reputable people, they 
refuse to receive any more criminals, and 
the only means of disposing of them seems 
to he perpetual imprisonment. This view 
of the matter has been extremely well 
Btated by the noted English Judge E. W. 
Cox, who died a few months since. He 
says, “There ought to be very little diffi¬ 
culty iu dealing with professional crimi¬ 
nals* educated to crime, living by crime. 
They commit crime systematically, delib¬ 
erately, with malice aforethought, calcu¬ 
lating carefully the proportion which the 
chance of profit bears to the risk of de¬ 
tection, capture, trial, conviction and 
punishment—all of which are taken into 
the account.” A professional criminal is 
never, or very rarely, reformed. In hiB 
mind crime is no sin ; no self-reproach 
follows him ; no conscience pricks him. 
It is his business. He fights with jus¬ 
tice and its officers as his natural enemies 
whom to defy, to evade, to defeat, is a 
boast aud not a shame. He weighs the 
value of his prize against the risk of pe¬ 
nal servitude, and if ho is caught, callB 
it his ill-luck and hopes for better luck 
next time. He calculates on spending a 
certain proportion of his life in jail and 
adapts himself to that condition, making 
his prison residence as comfortable as he 
can by good behavior while there and 
compensating for his forced temporary 
abstinence by reveling in every sensual 
pleasure when he is again at large. Re¬ 
formation with such a man is hopeless. 
Punishment, at least such as it is now, 
does not deter him because it is his busi¬ 
ness to hazard it—precisely as the soldier 
does not shrink from the service although 
he knows that he must face the chance of 
wounds and death. It is his profession 
to risk his life and he does it. It is the 
profession of the thief to risk his liberty 
and he does it. 
When, therefore, the Judge is satisfied 
that the prisoner is a professional crimi¬ 
nal, his course is plain. Mercy is wasted 
on such a man. Leniency is of no ad¬ 
vantage to the convict, and it is an injus¬ 
tice to the community. The effect of a 
short imprisonment is merely to send 
back the plunderer to prey upon society 
for a time, to be. again returned to the 
dock after he has run up a new score of 
offences and probably educated a new 
race of thieves to assist and to succeed 
him in his business. Penal servitude 
should be inflexibly awarded to a convict 
of this class, the object of such a punish¬ 
ment being to restrain him for the long¬ 
est possible period from the exercise of 
his nefarious calling and to make it more 
difficult for him to follow it after his re¬ 
lease. We may be assured that, let free¬ 
dom come when it will, his profession of 
preying upon the public will be resumed 
with double zest after so long an abstin¬ 
ence. The only care required in these 
cases is that the Judge should be fully 
assured by due inquiry that the prisoner 
is really a “professional” criminal. 
This fact may be ascertained both by in¬ 
quiry and by considering the character of 
the offence. There are certain crimes, 
such, for example, as burglary effected 
with hnrglarious instruments, and pocket¬ 
picking dexterously done, which require 
an education for their successful accom¬ 
plishment, aud therefore the presumption 
is that the practitioner of them is a pro¬ 
fessional criminal. It will bo well for the 
progress of civilization when society de¬ 
termines soberly and definitely that, in 
simple justice to itself, the breeding of 
this kind of animal must be checked by 
every possible means. 
•4 » «.- 
BREVITIES. 
Notices of many valuable catalogues are 
crowded out of this issue of the Rural New- 
Yorker They will be presented uext. week. 
The Rural suggested some time ago that 
we needed a word that should comprise both 
agriculture aud horticulture—one that could 
be easily spoken and of self-evident meaning. 
A correspondent suggests " Landculture," and 
the suggestion is not a bad one. 
Several subscribers who take the Rural with 
the Inter-Ocean have sent ns stamps for plants 
and seeds. We would state that our arrange¬ 
ments with the Inter-Ocean are such that all 
who forward their subscriptions through that 
journal are not required to pay postage on our 
“FreePlant and Seed Distribution.” 
We shall give next week the first of a series 
of articles by Mr. Chamberlain, entitled West¬ 
ern Farming. The series might equally well 
have taken the title of Comparative Farming, 
the object being to see what can be learned by 
a careful comparison of the different modes 
of fanning in different parts of the country, 
more especially at the West. The articles will 
appear each week or alternate week. 
Mr. J. B. Chapman, 2d, acknowledges the 
receipt of his corn premiums a6 follows: 
Ovid, N. Y., Feb. 9th, 1880.—I send you many 
thanks for Corn Premium (I hear that the 
corn sheller is at the railroad station). Also 
many thanks to Sandwich Manufacturing Co. 
of Sandwich, TU., for corn sheller, and for 
their liberality in giving it as a premium. I 
will also complimeut you highly for the fair 
and impartial manner in which you awarded 
the prizes. 
In view of the recent heavy advance In the 
price of white paper, newspaper publishers 
generally have three alternatives: An increase 
in tlielr prices for subscriptions and advertise¬ 
ments; a reduction iu the size of their papers 
or bankruptcy.—Commercial Advertiser, Chi- 
eago. 
Speaking for ourselves, we do not at present 
propose to advance the price of the Rural 
New-Yorker, though we may possibly for 
1881. We do not propose to reduce it iu size. 
Wc no propose that the Rural shall he better 
in every way for the present year tbau it has 
ever been before, whatever the cost or loss to 
ourselves. The udvauco In the price of paper 
affords no shadow of excuse why journals 
should not fulfill every promise made to the 
public during the subscription campaign. 
In an extremely interesting paper on Amer¬ 
ican Roses by H. B. Ellwanger, to which we 
desire to make further reference, we find the 
following: “American Banner Rose. Sent 
out by Peter llcuderson in 1878. A sport of 
Bon Silene. Growth moderate, foliage quite 
small und leathery; flowers carmine, striped 
and white. It will perhaps be popular as a 
novelty, but It has no intrinsic merit to make 
it valuable, and we cannot commend it.” We 
eopy the above to show that the luu we have 
poked at this Rose has uot been without a 
show of reason. The phrases that “ went the 
rounds" that its “ budB were worth their 
weight in gold,” ifec., were published. It may 
be supposed, as u complimeut to its well- 
kuowu introducer, (or we arc positive that 
conscientious editors could never have pub¬ 
lished such from any knowledge they may 
have possessed of the Rose itself. 
The Rural is receiving an unusually large 
number of inquiries as to commercial fertili¬ 
zers aud many readers ask ns, “ Which kind 
would you advise, us to purchase ?" We would 
be glad, indeed, if we could give valuable 
answers to such queries—hut we cannot. 
Upon our own farm fine bone Hour has, we 
think, thus far produced the most marked ef¬ 
fects, while upon other farms, its effects have 
not been noticeable. The same may be said of 
other special fertilizers as, for instance, ni¬ 
trate ol soda, sulphate of potash, etc. Special 
oat, corn and wheat fertilizers are usually 
what are termed “perfect’’ fertilizers, like 
home-made manures, except that they are sup¬ 
posed to supply the necdB of those plants as 
ascertained by chemical analysis. It will ap¬ 
pear, however, that if one’s land does not need 
phosphoric ucid or potash, the money spent 
forthose ingredients is poorly invested, though 
fine crops may result from the use of the fer¬ 
tilizer as a whole. We repeat our advice, so 
often given, that farmers will purchase small 
quantities of commercial fertilizers for the 
purpose of ascertaining what their soils most 
stand iu need of, and apply them to small 
plots. In the mean lime, should they need 
concentrated fertilizers, they can do uo better 
than to purchase the special oat, corn, wheat, 
etc., manuroB offered by such establishments 
as Baugh and Sons, Baker and Brother, Mapes, 
Crocker, and many others. 
