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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEB. 28 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BT 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duane Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEB. 28. 1880. 
Ah announced In our late Ihhuos, we rail no 
longer Hiipply back nuinberH of the Rural 
New-Yorker. Papers will be ncnt for one 
year from the date of the receipt of all sub¬ 
scriptions. 
Competitors for the book premiums offered 
by the Farmers’ Publishing Co. for the 
heaviest weight of Blount’s Prolific Corn from 
seed scut out by the Rural New-yorker, 
should send us their reports without further 
delay. We simply want, a certified statement 
of the actual weight of the corn, weighed 
three months after date of harvesting; the 
weight per bushel is not required. 
Not limp since we received through a 
Western Newspaper Agency, among 
others, an advertisement of the Voltaic 
Belt Company, of Marshall, Mich., a- 
monnting to $1 GO net. Later, and upon 
reliable information, we learn that the 
Company is untrustworthy, and hereby 
warn our readers against sending for any 
of their goods. Their advertisement has 
been thrown out, and we hope none of 
our readers will have been swindled be¬ 
fore this warning roaches them. 
- ♦ ♦ ♦- 
We have stated more than once that the 
Rural New-Yorker’s Plant and Seed 
Distribution is not only free to our yearly 
subscribers who apply, but that (in the 
present instance at all events) we should 
share a part of the postal charges. Our 
subscribers will kiudly note upon the re¬ 
ceipt of their plants and seeds whether or 
not we have done so. We would also ask 
them to compute (estimating our circula¬ 
tion as they may) the aggregate cost to 
ns of such postage. 
-» ♦ ♦- 
Oh, yes; undoubtedly James Gordon 
Bennett “gave that $100,000 as an ad¬ 
vertisement,” and the starving poor of 
Ireland wish there were more just, such 
advertisers.—Boston Post. In this con¬ 
nection we beg permission to make a re¬ 
mark : If per sc there is nothing disre¬ 
putable about advertising, why should so 
many papers sneer at Mr. Bennett’s ad¬ 
vertisement, Avliicli, besides advancing the 
interests of an enterprising newspaper, 
puts food into thousands of hungry 
mouths ? 
-4-4-4—-- 
We hear nothing of Miner’s Grapes. 
We mean the late T. B. Miner, of Linden, 
N. J. But we venture to predict that 
some of them will prove more valuable 
than many of the hybrids now so much 
talked of, and adapted to a wider range 
of country. We have six kinds of these 
seedlings, a majority of which bid fair to 
fruit next year, that were sent to the 
“Rural Grounds” by Ml-. Miner to be 
tested about a year previous to his death. 
They have made a sturdy growth, and no 
appearance of mildew has presented itself, 
while one vine of the “ Lady ” and another 
of Ricketts’s ‘ ‘El Dorado, ” growing within 
twenty feet of them, were badly mil¬ 
dewed. 
4 « 4 - 
Elkuorn, Wis., Feb. 16th, lsso. 
Editor of Belt a a New-Yorker,— Dear 
Sir: —Wishing to express my gratitude 
to you for the Silver Gup offered to the 
Wisconsin Dairymen, I ship you to-day, 
one 22-pound package of creameiy but¬ 
ter, the same as won the Silver Cup. We 
valu the cup very highly, not on account 
of its intrinsic value, but for its rare and 
elegant bounty, as well us because it was 
honorably Avon. Trusting that the ac¬ 
ceptance of the butter will afford you as 
much pleasure as is given me in the pre¬ 
sentation, 1 am 
Very Respectfully Yours, 
Sam’l Lytle. 
[The butter is beautiful—of excellent 
quality, and we retarn our best thanks. 
Eds.] 
-»♦ ♦- 
We desire to remind our readers who 
seem to take for granted that our agricul¬ 
tural prosperity has only begun, that 
they do not attaeli enough importance to 
the extreme agricultural depression dur¬ 
ing the past yoar in England and other 
European countries as an essential cause 
of our prosperity. Such a combination 
of bad seasons and failure in crops abroad 
iB unlikely to occur this year again, and it 
may reasonably be feared that our farm¬ 
ers may find it a difficult matter to sell 
the immense yields of wheat wliich are 
promised by its present condition and 
greatly extended acreage, at remunerative 
prices. Wo hazard the prediction that 
the present wheat craze will have passed 
its zenith in a rapid decline, ere the crop 
of 1880 is well harvested. 
The action of the New York State 
Dairymen's Association in selecting its 
officers for the current year from among 
the farmers of the State is worthy of imi¬ 
tation by Agricultural Societies every¬ 
where. Farmers have been much too 
often represented in nearly all their associ¬ 
ations, as avcII as in the State and National 
legislatures, by outsiders who have bad 
but little personal concern in agricultural 
matters, and whose individual inter¬ 
ests have sometimes been inimical to 
those of their constituents. There are 
among us, the farmers of the country, an 
abundance oi men capable by education, 
intelligence and probity, of adequately 
representing their co-workers, aud it's 
about time that these should come or be 
pushed to the front. 
-» ♦ » 
With its wonted vim the West is open¬ 
ing Avar against oleomargarine. Wide- 
aAvake Chicago and drowsy St. Louis, 
and a host of towns between and around 
them, are insisting that thoso who use 
the stuff 1 should kuow what they swallow. 
So skilled have the manufacturers of the 
concoction become that its rivalry is no 
longer confined to the poorer sorts of 
genuine butter, but, puffed up by its 
fraudulent success, it now aims to compete 
Avitk our choicest grades. The fat fac¬ 
tories of Cleveland are turning out every 
day nearly as much “ Western Reserve ” 
butter as the old Reserve itself. From the 
slumsits use has risen toboarding-kouseB, 
tlienoe to small hotels, and it is now mak¬ 
ing its way, like a “dead-beat” guest, to 
the tables of our best caravansaries. A 
prompt exposure of the fraudulent guest 
for the benefit of mine host ! and of the 
frauduient “butter” for the benefit of 
his honest guests and the public! Against 
oleomargarine as oleomargarine, we make 
no complaint here, but oleomargarine as 
butter we denounce as a fraud pest. 
- ♦ ♦ »- 
In planting new orchards, or even sin¬ 
gle fruit trees, we hope our readers the 
coming spring will avoid the error of 
manuring the ground, even though the 
soil is quite impoverished. The second 
year, when the trees are Avell established, 
they may be maunred with advantage. 
The growth of a newly transplanted tree 
the first summer is but little and the 
trees need but little food. To furnish 
rich food is really to invite disease. A 
newly transplanted* tree may be regarded 
as an invalid—that is, its growth and "vigor 
have suffered a severe cheek, and nature 
at once sets to work to supply all that 
was lost iu the removal, as in the case of 
an injured person she endeavors to heal 
the Avotind. Surely at such times strong 
food is not to be recommended. The 
most and best that we can do is to supply 
mellow earth and to see that the roots 
and fibers are placed in contact with it, 
and in case of drought to spread over the 
earth, a little further than the roots ex¬ 
tend, a layer of hay or straw, bo that some 
littla moisture may be retained. 
4 >4 - 
4 “It is rumored in newspaper circles that 
negotiations are afoot for the consolida¬ 
tion of the American Cultivator (Boston) 
and Land and Home with the Rural 
New-Yorker. ‘ The survival of the fit¬ 
test ' is the inexorable law as to agricul¬ 
tural journals, however it may have been 
Avith our individual ancestors.’ So says 
the New England Homestead. What a 
strong team that would make ! Noav will 
the Homestead please inform us as to the 
particulars of the combination aud the 
name of the resulting paper ?” 
We copy the above from a paper re¬ 
cently started in this city, called Land 
and Home. 
During the past eighteen months, it is 
true,the Rural Neav-Yorker has received 
not less than five distinct propositions from 
certain agricultural journals to the effect 
that they should be merged into the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker, we, of course, to con¬ 
trol the new combination. Our reply to 
all has been that our hands, heart and 
head were all sufficiently engaged fully 
to satisfy our love of Avork, our affections 
aud our ambition. We have never, there¬ 
fore, given the slighest intimation which 
could have been construed into the rumor 
to which the New England Homestead 
alludes. It is but fair to state that we 
have never received any proposition from 
the American Cultivator or Land and 
Home, the former of which we know only 
as one of our exchanges and the latter 
only as a fresh, hard-working aspirant 
for public favor. 
4 4 4 - 
Whenea'er any outlay, State or Na¬ 
tional, is proposed for the benefit of the 
supreme industry of the country—agri¬ 
culture—journalists and politicians are 
ever ready to denounce the project on the 
ground that other industries receive no 
Governmental aid, and therefore that agri¬ 
culture has no right to expect it. But 
does not every branch of our home manu¬ 
factures receive a subsidy from the Gov¬ 
ernment to the extent of the import 
duties levied for its protection upon sim¬ 
ilar wares made in other countries ? 
Though the farmer suffers from this 
shutting out of foreign competition on 
favorable terms with domestic manufac¬ 
tures, by the higher prices he has to pay 
for his goods, yet he receives no equiva¬ 
lent aid in his own special calling. It is 
not our object here, however, to dis¬ 
cuss “free trade,” but to call special at¬ 
tention to Avhat seems to us a flagrant 
instance of over-protection by which 
thousands of our friends are injured. 
The toll for a boat-load of 240 tons of 
foreign salt over the 345 miles between 
Troy aud Builalo, is $414, or at the rate of 
$1,721 per ton. A boat-load of domestic 
salt of the same weight over the same 
distance pays only $82.80, or at the rate 
of $34 i per ton. Tu other words, the tolls 
on foreign salt over the Erie Canal are 
five times as great as those on domestic 
salt, on the same weight and for the same 
distance. The object of this discrimina¬ 
tion is to “ protect ” the Onondaga salt 
manufacture, and its victims are chiefly* 
the farmers of the West and Northern 
Middle States who consequently have to 
pay higher prioes for the salt they use in 
their dairies and for numerous other 
purposes. It must also be remembered 
that this extra charge on foreign salt is 
imposed by New York State in additon to 
the import duty exacted by the National 
Government. 
- 4 4 4 - 
ELEVATE THE AGRICULTURAL DE¬ 
PARTMENT. 
A bell will soon be brought before 
Congress by the Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture proposing the elevation of the Agri¬ 
cultural Department at Washington to a 
level Avitli the Departments of Interior, of 
War, etc., and to place a Secretary at its 
head, who, like the other heads of Depart¬ 
ments, shall have a seat in the Cabinet. 
A step of great importance is this, and 
eveiy effort should be made to secure the 
passage of the bill. This is pre-eminent¬ 
ly an agricultural couniry, and whatever 
tends to elevate and develop agriculture, 
tends to elevate and enrich the nation, 
and from this view the measure should be 
supported, fostered aud cherished by all 
true patriots. The bill will undoubtedly 
meet with much opposition. City Rep¬ 
resentatives and other Congressmen, the 
majority of Avhose constituents are en¬ 
gaged in mercantile pursuits, have but 
little sympathy with affairs directly re¬ 
lating to agriculture. They fail to see 
how the Government can influence its de¬ 
velopment, aud claim thataDepartmentof 
Agriculture is of uo more importance than 
would be Departments of mining ami en¬ 
gineering, of manufacture, or of any other 
prominent industry. Let such reflect 
that one-half the population of the United 
States live on farms, while the other half 
subsist by hundreds of distinct occupa¬ 
tions. The wealth of the nation lies in 
her agriculture. If the laud and im¬ 
provements of each of the 4,000,000farmB 
in the country be valued at $2,600 on the 
average, the total fixed capital amounts 
to $10,000,000,000, besides a floating cap¬ 
ital of about a quarter of that sum. 
Viewed in the light of these figures, the 
importance of agriculture may be more 
apparent. 
Other nations have long found it neces¬ 
sary to have Ministers of Agriculture. 
Our Canadian cousins furnish us with 
perhaps the best, certainly the nearest, 
example of this kind, as their agriculture 
resembles our own more closely than does 
that of European countries. If they in 
thyir experience find it necessary thus to 
elevate agriculture, may not we find it 
equally advantageous ? 
Efficient as the Department is, its in¬ 
fluence for good may be vastly increased. 
Under its present organization it is mere¬ 
ly a Bureau of the Interior Department, 
aud its ability to develop the industry, 
to promote whioh was the object of its 
creation, is limited to the little encour¬ 
agement th&t experiments and the dis¬ 
tribution of useful seeds and plants may 
impart. Invested with the dignity and 
rank proposed by the committe, its influ¬ 
ence will be increased in the same ratio. 
Tito Secretary will be entitled to a voice 
and vote in the Cabinet, and in this posi¬ 
tion will be better able to advocate and 
execute whatever measures he may find to 
further the industry. Congress will have 
a higher respect for the Department, and 
the farmers throughout the land, feeling 
that their culling receives just promi¬ 
nence, will gain greater confidence in 
themselves and their vocation. 
BREVITIES. 
It may be well to bear in mind, as to the 
injurv which shrubs and trees may still sustain, 
that many experienced nurserymen deem Feb¬ 
ruary and March the most trying of any season 
iu the year. 
From Mr. Meehi’R (England) balance sheet, 
it appears that the most profitable item is his 
culture of peas and the utilization of the leaves 
and stems, made into hay while green, being 
In this state far more valuable as fodder than 
if allowed to ripen. 
Mr. .T. B. Armstrong, editor of the Daily 
Republican, of Hauta Rosa, Ual., regards the 
Pacific Rural Press as one of the leadimr agri¬ 
cultural authorities in this country. Wo see 
no reason why the Press should not have a 
wide circulation In the East as avcII as in the 
far West. 
Mr. William ITaliitt, of Canada, writes us as 
folloAvs: “ I am going to give yon some infor¬ 
mation. In place of hellebore for the currant 
or gooseberry worm, try plaster-of-Paris. The 
worm only needs to eiawl through it. Recom¬ 
mend it to your readers. If it don’t succeed, 
stop my paper! 
8 evkkal subscribers who take the Rural 
with the Inter-Ocean have sent ns stamps for 
plants and seeds. We would state that our 
arrangements with the Inter-Ocean are such 
that all who forward their subscriptions 
through that journal are not required to pay 
postage on our “ Free Plaut ana Seed Distri¬ 
bution.” 
Attention is called to “Notes from the 
Rural’s Experiment Grounds” on page 134. 
Instructions — which we cannot repeat at 
length—are there given relative to the treat¬ 
ment of our seeds and plants. Wc wish our 
friemis good success with them and hope, 
when they bloom, that they will forward us 
specimens of auy that are peculiarly striking 
or pretty. 
Wb are constantly receiving applications for 
the seeds of our regular seed distribution of 
last year. We beg to state that wc cannot 
supply them. Many of them are now sold by 
seedsmen in general—such, tor example, as 
the Rural Golden Tomato, Rural Bronze Ri- 
ciuuB, Voorhls Watermelon, Blount’s corn. 
Beauty of Hebron potato, etc. We beg further 
to state that we never sell see<ls or plants under 
any circumstances whatever. 
Mr. Joseph flarris tells us, through his cata¬ 
logue, of a very original method of testing the 
purity of an Essex pig. He says: “A large, 
well filled bed of choice annual flowers is the 
delight and admiration of all beholders. Even 
an Essex pig, should he accidentally flud his 
wayiulo the garden, must lack that refinement 
tor which the breed is so preeminently dis¬ 
tinguished if he does not, while he iB cracking 
the cherry stones under the trees, stop to ad¬ 
mire a beautiful bed of l’hlox, Verbenas or 
Petunias ; should he disturb them there would 
be just grounds for distrusting the purity of 
his breeding. The roughest man in a village 
must feel the refining influence of u beautiful 
flower garden.” 
The Kibffkr Pear.—M r. William Parry 
writeB us as follows; " I have observed in the 
Rural a paragraph, of which I much approve, 
advising caution to the purchasers of Kieffer 
Pears. I have myself expressed the baruo sen¬ 
timent on other occasions knowing that fruitB 
do not generally Bucceed equally well in alL 
localities, and when new fruits are Introduced, 
it is prudent to test them gently. Plant half a 
dozen trees or less, aud see how well they are 
adapted to the soils and climates. Thus expe¬ 
rience may be obtained, worth more to the 
lanter than the reports from other sections, 
advise parties to try half a dozen first; would 
much rather they should bo thoroughly tested 
iu all parts of the country, than that any one 
Bhould plaut largely of them on the credit of 
what the original tree has done standing where 
it grew from 6oed. 
Of theCuthbert Raspberry, the RuhalNew- 
Yomkeu remarks that “its weak point is not 
yet discovered.” Mr. Roe says he has seen it 
“ killed to the ground." 
The above is from the New York Tribune. 
We cannot suppose that Mr. Roe desires to 
Imply tuat the Cuthbert is not a very hardy 
Raspberry—but rather that there is no variety 
of Red Raspberry that is entirely hardy m this 
climate. Mr. Roe, iu reply to an inquiry of 
ours, wrote as follows, July 25th of last year: 
Cornwall-on-Uppson, Jun. -35,1880. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker ;— I best express 
my opinion of the Cuthbert by statiug that I 
planted, last spring, five times as many of this 
variety as of all others together, ana that after 
seeing it in fruit once more, I am so pleased 
with it that I shall plant few other Raspberries 
this fall. Snell definite, practical action counts 
for more iban a whole dictionary ol words. 
As far as 1 can now judge, It seems to me tbe 
moBt valuable Raspberry that has been well 
tested. I have taken pains to observe this 
Raspberry very closely. It is rather late in 
maturing, if this Is a laulL and it may develop 
others, I state wy opinion oulv up to the 
present time. *• P. Rob. 
We liaA'c tested this Cuthbert at the “Rural 
Grounds" for two years and have uot thus far, 
known it to be injured ill the least by the se¬ 
verities or changes of winter and spring. It 
will be granted that the Ruual New-Yorker 
has created the present furore over this re¬ 
markable Raspberry, aud we shall feel exceed¬ 
ingly chagrined to find that extended tests do 
not support the opinions wo have so confident¬ 
ly expressed. 
