236 
APRIL 40 
!i 
THE RURAL UEW-Y0R8CER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duane Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1880. 
REMOVAL, 
On and after May 1st of this year the 
Rural New-Yorker will occupy its new 
quarters, No. 34 Park Row, comer of 
Beekman Street. 
-♦ ♦» 
According to the announcement in our 
Fair number of September last, our regu¬ 
lar Plant and Seed Distribution was lim¬ 
ited to all who should apply before the 
first of April this year. Our "prepara¬ 
tions were, however, so well made, that 
we have filled all orders received to date, 
substituting only one kind of the ten not 
originally or subsequently announced. 
We do not promise, however, to fill any 
further applications. Those who apply 
must take the chances. Our seeds are 
nearly exhausted. 
In reply to a letter of our,?, Dr. J. B. 
LaAves, of Rothamsted, England, says: 
“ I have received your letter iu regard 
to potato manures; but have little to say 
on that subject except that I do not think 
it will pay to use artificial manures for 
that crop in the States.” Dr. Lawes 
would greatly oblige us if he would state 
why artificial manures would not pay for 
the potato crop as well as for root crops 
or cereals. 
-- 
We take for granted that our subscrib¬ 
ers and friends will be pleased to know 
that the increase in the circulation and 
the general prosperity of the Bubal Neav- 
Yorkeb, several times alluded to in the 
earlier part of the year, have been steadily 
and fully maintained up to this time. As 
stated before, this must lie ascribed in a 
great measure to the kind Avords—to the 
influence of our readers—and we beg to 
tender them our warmest, best thanks. 
There are more forcible ways of shoAving 
appreciation of a generous support than 
by mere Avords, and it is our plain duty, as 
it is our earnest desire, to follow them. 
Much dissatisfaction has been ex¬ 
pressed by those who purchase the Ru¬ 
ral Neav-Yobker of the news stands, 
because they are not allowed to partici¬ 
pate in our Plant and Seed Distributions. 
It is plain, however, that our distribu¬ 
tions must have some limit and that we 
must have some protection against im¬ 
positions. So long as we confine them 
to applicants whose names are upon our 
subscription list, we have that protection. 
Otherwise we have none whatever. So 
far as profit is concerned, it matters very 
little to us whether readers purchase the 
Bubal of the news-dealers or send us 
their yearly subscriptions. But we do 
not see how we can secure to the former 
a participation in the Bubal’s free dis¬ 
tributions without granting the same 
privilege to anybody that chooses to ap¬ 
ply- 
Though we have many times called 
attention to the Purple-leaved Beech, 
Purple-leaved Birch and Purple-leaved 
Tapan Maple in the past, and more 
especially during the past year, they will 
not be made unduly notorious by still 
another word of praise at this general 
season of transplanting. There are 
scores of so-called purple-leaved trees 
which are purple only while the leaves are 
growing or during the spring. Those 
above specified retain more or less of the 
purple hue during the entire season, 
forming, of course, a decided contrast 
with the green foliage about them. Of 
the three, the Birch makes the quickest 
grOAvth. Its leaves, however, are smaller 
and the foliage somewhat scanty as com¬ 
pared with the others. The silvery bark, 
however, compensates for this in a meas¬ 
ure. Iu selecting hardy trees and shrubs 
fur our homes, variety should never 
be lost sight of. It’s as desirable here as 
anywhere. There is no one plant that 
combines every excellence, and if we 
would make our home-grounds objects of 
general and ever-changing interest, we 
must secure those individuals which are 
possessed of characteristic charms. The 
pleasing peculiarity of purple foliage is 
seen at its best in the three trees named, 
while as regards size, habit and leaf-out¬ 
line, they are strikingly dissimilar, 
««»- 
THE WHEAT CROP IN EUROPE. 
The outlook for the next wheat crop 
among our trans-Atlantic customers, 
while decidedly better than last year, is 
not quite as favorable as before the series 
of three or four increasingly poor har¬ 
vests that culminated in the miserable 
failure of last fall in Great Britain and 
France. The acreage under the crop in 
the British Isles is less than last year, 
both because the prospect of close com¬ 
petition with this country has to a con- 
sidera ole extent convinced farmers that 
it is not likely to pay, and because the 
winter set in with snob sudden and early 
severity that some lands destined for 
wheat have been used for other purposes. 
Nearly all the Avheat grown there is sown 
in the late Autumn or early winter, as 
only few farmers use the more tender 
white sorts in the beginning of spring 
or, oftener still, as early as the middle of 
February. The weather, hoAvever, has 
hitherto been fairly propitious, and a 
yield per acre considerably larger than 
that obtained for the last few years is 
confidently expected. In France the 
acreage is proportionately somewhat 
larger than across the Channel, and the 
outlook even more hopeful, except in 
some of the northern departments in 
which the severity of the past winter has 
injured the crop. Owing mainly to the 
protection recent legislation has given to 
home production in Germany, an in¬ 
crease of the area sown to wheat is pretty 
certain, and a somewhat larger surplus 
for exportation is probable for next fall. 
In Russia a good deal of the fall-sown 
wheat is reported winter-killed; but 
spring wheat forms a large proportion of 
the production of that country. Even a6 
far south as the Black Sea the variety 
known here as the Odessa, but which is 
called Ghirka in Europe, is a spring sort, 
whose district is one of the largest and 
most productive in the empire, extending 
principally eastward to the Dnieper from 
the town from which it derives its name 
among us. Little can therefore be as yet 
said about the probable production of 
tliis powerful rival of ours. Our meager 
information about the present wheat crop 
in Spain, Italy, Austro-Huugary and 
among our other trans-Atlantic customers 
or competitors, leads to the general con¬ 
clusion that while the foreign demand 
for wheat will probably be considerably 
less than last year among our Euro¬ 
pean customers, the foreign surplus will 
be at least fully as great among our ri¬ 
vals. It is therefore to be expected that 
the prices of wheat next fall will be 
lower—maybe considerably lower—than 
during the past and present season, un¬ 
less war should iu the meanwhile break 
out in Eur ope—an unlikely, but not alto¬ 
gether improbable contingency. 
-• ♦» 
CONDITION OF OUR WINTER WHEAT. 
Of the 400,000,000 bushels of wheat 
produced by this country, by far the 
largest amount is sown in the fall 
and known as winter wheat. The lati¬ 
tude of Chicago is generally thought to 
mark the northern boundaryof the region 
in which this sort can be successfully 
grown year after year ; though some 
place it as far north as Milwaukee. North 
of that spring-sown wheat has usually 
proved the only kind that can be relied 
on. The isothermal lines, however, do 
not always, or even generally, coincide 
exactly with the parallels of latitude, and 
therefore the line marking the northern 
limit of the Avinter-wheat region and the 
southern boundary of the spring-wheat 
belt, is irregular, here running consider- 
bly to the north of the above latitude and 
there not a little to the south. Moreover, 
there are frequent local conditions, both 
of climate and soil, specially conducive to 
the success of one sort or the other, while 
the seasons often vary so greatly that a 
variety can be successfully raised one 
year iu a section in which it will entirely 
fail in another. Despite the longer period 
of trial to which the fall-sown wheat is 
exposed, it possesses advantages enough 
to make the farmers living beyond the 
region whioh is steadily appropriate to 
its growth, anxious to test its production 
in their own districts. For the last few 
years experiments of this sort have been 
increasing, with a fair measure of success, 
which has almost invariably ended in 
failure under the exceptional climatic 
conditions of the past Avinter and the 
early weeks of the present sirring. On 
the other hand, within the northern por¬ 
tions of the regular winter-wheat area 
farmers, when from one cause or another 
their winter-wheat crop has proved a 
failure or has not been putin, frequently 
try their luck at spring-wheat. These 
remarks are amply illustrated by our 
crop reports in this issue. 
These reports have all been received 
within afew days—some of them as late as 
this morning, April 6. With a very few 
exceptions they all come from intelligent 
farmers well acquainted with the con¬ 
dition of the crops in their respective 
neighborhoods ; and without any excep¬ 
tion they are all the results of the observa¬ 
tion of men closely connected with agri¬ 
culture. The conclusions drawn from 
a careful analysis of them agree pretty 
closely with those from various other 
more local reports published in different 
parts of the country. Ours, however, 
have the merit of being the latest aud of 
covering the widest extent of territory, 
extending, as they do, over the entire 
country. Still later telegraphic dis¬ 
patches from various distant points here¬ 
in reported, show no alterations in the 
conditions mentioned, except that no part 
of the country seems now to have any 
reason to complain of drought, as the 
late rains appear to have been copious 
everywhere. 
In New England so little winter wheat, 
or indeed wheat of any kind, is grown 
that the entire product of the five States 
makes little difference in the aggregate 
yield of the country. There, as in nearly 
all the older settled States, the rotation 
of crops practiced prevents any very ma¬ 
terial iucrease in the area under wheat; 
but the usual acreage seems to have been 
sown, and the prospect for the crop ap¬ 
pears to compare favorably with that of 
other years. In the Middle States there 
is a moderate increase of acreage—prob¬ 
ably from five to seven and a half per 
cent,—and, Avith a few local exceptions, 
the outlook is highly promising. This 
is especially the case in Ohio, which we 
have includedin the Middle States which 
ought soon to embrace all east of the 
Mississippi. In a few of the most north¬ 
ern counties of New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania, the frequent alternate thawings aud 
freezings and the absence of snow, that 
have proven so disastrous in sections still 
farther north, have injured the crop con¬ 
siderably, but in the remainder of these 
States wheat has fully as good an out¬ 
look as last year, while in New Jersey and 
Delaware the prospect is even brighter. 
Indiana, which our last year’s reports 
showed to be the banner wheat State—a 
position accorded to it subsequently by 
its superior yield—this year also makes a 
fine show, both as regards the condition 
of the crop and the increase of acreage. 
In Michigan, too, the outlook is encom*- 
aging, though, with the probable excep¬ 
tion of Kentucky, the Hessian liy seems to 
have been more mischievous there than 
in any other State. Reports from the 
northern counties in Illinois, iu which 
spring-wheat is generally more extensive¬ 
ly sown than winter, are unfavorable, but 
those from the rest of the State are en¬ 
couraging except on level, undrained 
lands. The acreage under winter wheat 
throughout the State is probably only 
about five per cent, more than last year, 
while on the whole, the yield will, most 
likely, be lighter. Wisconsin is largely 
a spring wheat State, aud from it the 
reports of winter wheat are varied—badly 
-winter-killed in some parts, and very 
thrifty in others. The acreage is larger 
than last year, but the yield will probably 
be less. 
West of the Great River winter wheat 
seemB to be badly damaged iu Iowa aud 
Minnesota—ulffioet, indeed, an entire 
failure. Spring wheat, however, is the 
chief wheat crop in both States, aud 
doubtless much of the ruined l'all-sown 
wheat will be plowed up and the land 
sown to the other sort, so that the aggre¬ 
gate yield iB hardly likely to be much less 
than last year, though the acreage under 
winter wheat is greater. In some patts 
of Missouri, especially in the northern 
counties, the crop has been badly in¬ 
jured, but, on the whole, the re¬ 
ports are highly encouraging. The 
acreage iB larger than last year, 
and the yield will hardly be Jess. 
Kansas officially promises a yield of 30,- 
000,000 bushels, and the vast increase of 
acreage under the crop, together with its 
fine condition, goes a long way towards 
realizing this brilliant pledge. The cli¬ 
mate, however, is still apt to justify the 
old sobriquet, “Droughty Kansas,” and 
although telegrams from that State just 
received here, show that the fears of 
drought expressed in some of our reports 
have been removed ; still the dangers are 
so numerous until harvest that our many 
friends there would probably be content 
to compromise for a certainty of a Home- 
what smaller aggregate yield. Nebraska 
is mainly aspriag-wheat State, and though 
a somewhat larger acreage than hereto¬ 
fore was this year sowed to winter wheat, 
yet the crop has been so damaged that 
the yield of this sort will scarcely be so 
great as last year, but the deficiency may 
be made up by sowing a proportionately 
larger acreage to spring wheat. In the 
Territories east of the Rocky Mountains 
but little winter wheat is sown, except in 
Utah, and reports thence are uncertain. 
The acreage under winter wheat in Cali¬ 
fornia is considerably larger than last 
year, aud recent telegrams announce that 
the fears cf injury from drought enter¬ 
tained in many places, have been removed 
by abundant rains. 
It promises well for the South that it 
appears to he paying more attention than 
heretofore to the production of cereals 
enough for self-support. The acreage 
under wheat there Hub year is consider¬ 
ably larger than last, and the prospects 
for a good crop are battering, especially 
in Texas, several of whose northern tiers 
of counties are admirably adapted to the 
growth of wheat which can be put on the 
market from a month to six weeks earlier 
than our Northern grain. 
On the whole, judging from the re¬ 
ports of our own friends, and from many 
other accessible funds of information, 
w-e have come to the conclusion that the 
present indications of the winter wheat 
crop portend about the same aggregate 
yield as last year from a largely increased 
acreage. 
BREVITIES. 
The White Elephant. —The reader will 
naturally look for an explanation. But he 
must have patience. 
Puck's suggestion that Oleomargarine be 
colored blue, red, green or some other loud 
color with harmless dyes, would severely test its 
value—and the siueerity of the asseverations of 
the manufacturers that they desire it should be 
sold upon its merits! 
The New York World says of Teosinte:— 
“ At the North, if sown in hot-beds during the 
spring and transplanted to the open ground in 
May. Teosinte will afford a decorative plant 
for large gardens.” This Teosinte resembles 
corn so closely that until it blooms, it would 
be bard to tell one from the other. The idea 
of " sowiug” (!) this in hot-beds to be trans¬ 
planted for ornament!! 
A well-known nurseryman writes us: “It 
is with great pleasure that I tell you that trade 
thus far has exceeded my wildest anticipa¬ 
tions.” Again he says: “ Iu some things, such 
as Cuthbert Raspberry, Sharpless Strawberry, 
etc., the demaud has surpassed a rage or furor 
and is assuming the appearance ot a panic.” 
It is a panic we imagine that can do little harm. 
We trust it will continue to spread and involve 
every farmer aud gardener in its effects be¬ 
fore it subsides! 
Many people have a sort of passion for dosing 
themselves every spring with medicines. Many 
dose their farm animals in the same way. "The 
system needs clearing out at least once a year!” 
It is well to know that medicines are really 
disease producing agents, and that they can 
do us no good unless we are suffering from 
disease. On the contrary, the effect of medi¬ 
cines upon the healthy system is necessarily 
injurious. Take medicines only when sick, 
aud not then, if nature can restore health with¬ 
out them. 
At the Rural’s farm we raise a large quan¬ 
tity of rhubarb—probably enough for 20 fami¬ 
lies. We have always given it to all applicants 
and have never run short for the Rural farm 
family. Horticultural books usually say that 
the soil *‘ cannot be too rich for rhubarb.” But 
we have never seen larger or thriftier plants 
than our own and they grow In a sandy soil 
that often suffers from drought and would not, 
iu its present couditiou, grow over 40 bushels 
of shelled corn per acre. We are therefore cf 
opinion that rhubarb needs a light, well-drained 
soil rather than richness. 
We are sorry to see that members of the 
Elmira Farmers’ Club are advocating thin 
seeding and cultivation for small grains. Our 
own experiments were carefully made on win¬ 
ter wheat (Clawson), and as our readers may 
remember, the yield was less than 15 bushels 
per acre. We have further experiments under 
way this year with half-a-dozen different kinds 
of Avinter wheat. The wheat plant can be made 
to tiller just so much. If the plants grow so 
close as to occupy the entire ground, there is 
no room for thorough cultivation. If set 
f urther apart the difference in the yield, grant¬ 
ing it AVill be more, will not be enough more to 
pay for cultivation. It may be an exceptional 
ease, but our cultivated plants suffered more 
from rust than those the seeds of which were 
drilled in the usual way. 
Tqk largest sale of Short-horu cattle ever 
known in England, came off at Birmingham, 
early the past month. Nearly 400 animals 
were offered, and it took two days to get 
through the catalogue. The prices were satis¬ 
factory. being a considerable advance over 
those of last year, Avhich is quite encouraging 
to breeders, and adds a greater popularity 
throughout the United Kingdom than e,ver to 
Short-horns. We understand the principal 
purchasers were farmers, and not wealthy 
amateurs. These Avanted the cattle for the im¬ 
provement of their owu private farm stock, 
rather thun to breed from for fancy animals, 
to sell at high figures hereafter. The large 
ball where the sale came off avus densely 
crowded Avith buyers, so much so as at times, 
to make it quite inconvenient to get round 
among the crowd. We hope thie large success¬ 
ful sale iu Eugland. Avill stimulate American 
farmers to be up aud doiug in tbe same line. 
