847 
DEC. 25 
I HE RURAL HEW- YORKER. 
towards one another. In the current number 
of his Experiment Record, Mr. Conrad Wilson 
thus remarks upon our allusions: 
"The Rural New Yorker justly criticises 
the weak, unwise and timid policy of some 
editors, as shown by their declining to insert 
the advertisements of rival papers. There are 
a few journals that carry this principle so far 
as to refrain entirely Irons noticing, alluding 
to, or even mentioning the name of any papor 
of the same class that succeeds in making 
itself popular, or that is supposed for any rea¬ 
son to be a dangerous rival. This seems to 
us a great mistake, as it appears to imply not 
not only a lack of courtesy, but equally a lack 
of self-confidence and courage.”. 
We had supposed that our agricultural con¬ 
temporaries would have referred to our im¬ 
mense yields of corn as a mere matter of agri¬ 
cultural interest, produced as they were at a 
comparatively small cost. The weekly and 
daily newspapers and several of the magazines 
spoke of it freely. But we have yet to see any 
mention of it In purely agricultural journals. 
Touching this phase of the illiberal feeling 
displayed by agricultural editors, in general, 
towards each other, we quote the following 
(Vermont Watchman) from the pen of Dr. T. 
H. Hoskins: 
Big Crops op Cohn.— There are not many 
things more contemptible than the petty jeal¬ 
ousy that exists amongst editors. Amongst 
political editors the way in which they "run" 
politics, and the chasrn’that exists between the 
political ideas of most of them and anything 
approaching genuine patriotism or statesman¬ 
ship, demonstrates the urgent need of the pro¬ 
posed "school of journalism ” But that in 
the liberal profession of agriculture and its 
journalism a mean and petty jealousy should 
prevent the acknowledgment und ptaise of 
merit, is simply disgusting. The reason, is, 
perhaps, that most of tha conductors of agri¬ 
cultural papeiB are not farmers, and have no 
real part in or sympathy with the soul-enlarg¬ 
ing pursuit of agriculture.”. 
Dr. Hoskins goes on to state: 
The editor of the Rural New Yorker is a 
farmer apd horticulturist. We have seen his 
farm, walked about it with him and talked 
with him, and know that he understands the 
practical side of his business better than most 
farmers. He has the past season demonstrated 
thiB in various ways, but especially by accom¬ 
plishing the feat, of ralslsg. upon different 
fields, crops of 261 bushel baskets of “Blount’s 
Dent” and of nearly 300 bushel baskets of 
"Chester County Mammoth'' ears of corn to 
the acre. We have yet to see this noticed in 
any other agricultural paper on our exchange 
list. 
- - - - - ■■■ 
The Niagara Grape.— On looking over 
the Rural of Nov. 0, I notice this remark 
about the Niagara Grape, " The quality is no 
better than the Concord." Now, I have uot 
seen the "Niagara,” but 1 wish to say that If itis 
os good as the Concord, the owners of it may 
congratulate themselves for having the next 
best grape there is in the country, for there is 
none so popular as the Concord In the New 
York market. C. W. Idell. 
333 Washington St., N. Y, 
—■- i —♦ *■ * - 
Keeping Grapes —In a late Rural is an 
inquiry "How to Keep Grapes?” An easy 
and cheap way is to dip the stems of each 
bunch into melted, not hot, beeswax, and 
then wrap each bunch carefully up in cotton 
and lay away in drawers in a cool, but not 
cold, room. Care must be taken that thegrapes 
are in perfect condition. Mrs M. V. A. 
-♦♦♦- 
Almost the only demand in our large city 
markets is for new butter. New butter in 
January and February as well as iu Judo and 
September, and so far as the dairymen of the 
country cater to this want, they seem to be 
successful. Probably twice as much creamery 
or imitation creamery butter is now sold 
during Winter as of all other sorts put togeth¬ 
er, and it brings the highest price because of 
its fresh flavor. 
- ++-• - 
Mending Crack* In Stove*. 
The following recipe for mending cracks in 
stoves costs nothing and is one that 1 can 
vouch for: Equal parts of ashes and salt made 
into a paste by adding wa'er. Fill in the 
cracks and it will soon get hard, and you will 
find your stove as good as new. r. b. 
Now let the Rural New-Yorker go ahead 
in its noble work, and let other journals and 
other farmers everywhere take the hint, not 
only for coru aud wheat, but for all food 
staples, and let them take up everywhere the 
universal refrain, more food from an acre, and 
less cost for production —[Conrad Wilson in 
the Business Farmer and Experiment Record 
for November. 
dressing machine, leaves only the heaviest and 
most perfect kernels. After doing this, one is 
surprised by the large number of imperfect 
corns that have been blown out. He has 
grown his largest crops of wheat, over seven 
quarters per acre, on several occasions on those 
portions of the field sown, or rather dibbled, 
with one peck per acre, one kernel in each 
dibble hole. Wheat crops require a very high¬ 
ly fertilized soil, for, owing to its root forma¬ 
tion, Liebig tells us, that in order to produce 
one full wheat crop, there must be within 
reach of the roots, the manure elements of 100 
wheat crops. 
Again he says, quoting L'ebig, although the 
land is not sufficiently rich, or manured topro- 
duce a full wheat crop, many rye crops can 
be grown, and when ihese fail, oats, which 
possess a greater number of roots and more 
exhaustive power, can still succeed after the 
rye fails. If, then, we are to grow large crops 
of wheat (and none but large crops can com¬ 
pete with foreiga supplies and prices) it must 
be by enriching our poor lands, by means of 
a more abundant supply of manure. Land 
can never be too rich for wheat, provided we 
do not over seed. 
The Plymouth Rock is gaining a reputation 
in England. A writer iu the Agricultural Ga¬ 
zette says : “ I hear that Plymouth Rocks are 
the fowls which either do not moult iu Novem¬ 
ber, or which moult and lay at the same time. 
If so, then we have the coming bird before us, 
and we shall all hear more of the breed.” 
THE COITAQEB AND BIS LANDLORD. 
A peasant to his lord paid yearly court, 
Presenting- pippins of so rich u sort 
That he, displeased to have a part alone, 
li( moved the tree, that all might be hia own. 
The tree, too old to travel, though before 
So fruitful, withered, and would yield no more. 
The sqtiiro, perceiving- all his labor void, 
Cursed hia own pains, so foolishly employed, 
And " Oh, n he cried, M that I had lived content 
With tribute small indeed, bnt kindly meant! 
My avarice has expensive proved to me, 
And cost me both my pippins and my tree." 
—Vermont Watchman. 
A Splendid Early Pear.— Petite Margue¬ 
rite, says W. C. Barry in the Cultivator and 
Country Gentleman, is one of Mr. Andre Le¬ 
roy’s seedlings, and it was held in such high 
esteem by that celebrated French pomologist 
that he named It after the youngest of his 
granddaughters. In the year 1863 It was first 
offered in France, and in this country, it has 
been on trial several years, but not until re¬ 
cently have its merits been recognized, and its 
propagation and dissemination seriously under¬ 
taken. This shows how much time is required 
to determine the value and to raise a slock of a 
new fruit. It Is of medium size, just large 
enough to be acceptable as a dessert fruit; 
skin green, covered with grey and brown dots, 
and sometimes bronzed on the side exposed to 
the snn; flesh gieenish white, fine, melting, 
juicy, acidulous, with a pleasant perfume. 
Ripening, as it does, about ten days before the 
Bartlett, it possesses a particular value as an 
early pear. As a fruit of the very first quality 
it can be highly recommended to connoisseurs 
for the table, but it is not large and showy 
enough for market. Mr. Leroy, iu hia Porno- 
logical Dictionary, describes it as the best pear 
ripening in August. Mr. Barry believes this 
statement to be as true iu America as it is In 
France. 
Acorns for Animals. —In Saxony and some 
other parts of Germany, according to the Lon¬ 
don Ag. Gizette, considerable store is set on 
oak "mast" as a winter food for sheep, and 
where other food falls short the acorn crop Is 
looked forward to with no small degree of 
anxiety. In the New Forest in Hampshire, in 
Middlesex and in Hertfordshire, large quanti¬ 
ties of * mast" are now being gathered in. In 
the former county whole herds of pigs are 
turned loose to forage for themselves at this 
season of the year, and receive but little of any 
other kind of food. Although tolerant of 
acorns far above that of beasts and sheep, the 
practice of allowing pigs an uulimlted amount 
of unprepared “mast” is not to be com¬ 
mended. If given in large quantities for long 
periods swine become surfeited, and altogether 
indifferent to them, while at the same time 
they lose rather than gain flash, and where 
pushed too far the system becomes disordered, 
the lymphatic glands enlarge, and the balance 
of health is upset. Moreover, used in excess, 
the meat is rendered hard, stringy, and lumpy, 
and loses its brightness, succulence, and 
flavor. 
soil should be loosened up to a great depth 
and not only thoroughly enriched but if char¬ 
coal, old bones, scraps of leather, chip dirt, or 
a quantity of coarse sand are placed Bix inches 
or a foot below the top or mixed with it, it will 
tend to keep the soil loose and prevent drought 
or the drowning out by Loo much rain, and 
also enables the roots to obtain an easier cir¬ 
culation. Lightness of soil and a capability 
of receiving air and moisture are almost as 
good as fertilizers. s. s. b. 
liisttllaitfous. 
TELL KNOWLEDGE, NOT GUESSES. 
GEN. WM. H. NOBLE. BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 
Nobody has a right to put forward, in such 
a journal as the Rural, his whims und guesses. 
We don't want even thought-out opinions, un¬ 
less backed up by facts and logic. Most men 
like to see themselves iff print, however crudely 
and thoughtlessly they write. When the aver¬ 
age man spreads himself on the wants and 
ways, the goods and ills of rural life, we get 
about as many notions as Mark Twain had 
from hia friends to cure a cold. Some offered 
cures might help, but a good many would be 
sure to kill. 
The world is old in all the happenings of 
rural life, yet every little while somebody pops 
up with a small fact, lagged to a very big but 
lame conclusion. A man with a fever, drenched 
in a storm or ducked in a stream, gets well; 
right-away. This water euro is setdown as sov¬ 
ereign for fevers. Somebody kills the coccus 
or bark lice on his fruit treeH with linseed oil; 
out comes linseed oil as a cure-all for these 
pests. So through all that happens iu the or¬ 
chard or on the farm. No one has any right 
to declare what follows au eyent, is its logical 
result- Cause aud effect want a good deal 
closer studying and linking before you ask our 
faith. The seeming cure may turn out only 
" a delusion and a snare.” 
lam a little akin to the sanguine man of 
whom Col. Ingersoll says; “ Show him au egg 
and right off he sees the air full of feathers." 
I am so glad to get hold of an inscctor coccus- 
killer, that I try it at once. I went for that 
linseed oil and the coccus, and in the end I 
think "cussed” the remedy. Ail I have to 
say, is, piously, if you want to kill the coccus 
and yonr trees, too, paint them, as I did, from 
top to toe with linseed oil. 
Now, what startedme outin this foray, after 
braggart whim-whams and cureB, was the 
self-oomplaceut talk of some one about the 
woodpeckers which girt, with eyelet-hole pla¬ 
toons, our pear andappletree trunks and limbs. 
It was in some rural j onrnal. perhaps the Rural 
[No, it was not the Rural —Eds,] that ho call¬ 
ed the little fellows "sap-suckers,” and said, 
" shoot the rascals." Just which little hammer¬ 
head does this business I know not; but it was 
some branch of the family which he has thus 
doomed without judge or jury, while he left 
the rest of the breed with a good name, scot- 
free. This sentence of outlawry was backed 
up by tbe claim that the little hammer-heads 
made holes either out of pure " cussednesB,” or 
to suck the tree sap, which fancied doing got 
them a bad name. 
Now, I don’t think, of themselves, that those 
eyelet-liolu bark wound sdothe tree any goodj; 
as little do 1 believe the little fellows plant 
those platoons around the trunk, either in 
wantonnoBB or to snelcthe sap. It's a poor help 
to wisdom in the orchard to charge: a wanton and 
even a food-sucking act without close scanning 
of their doings. There may be other sap-heads 
around, that neither see nor do half as brightly 
as our lively, gray-plumaged, wintry friends. 
The woodpecker knows too much to waste his 
time sucking sap when there is none, or to 
make those holes just for thefunor the wrong 
of the thing. 
In the first place, no sap flows in the season 
when the little fellows dig these tiny wells; if 
there did thesucklng of sap would do no harm. 
The Irishman, teeing their red oaps, thought 
the little fools were hammering their heads all 
" bluggy" just for fun. Is the man much 
wiser who deems the industrious rat-tat-too, 
aud busy hammering sheer wanton ness? 
The woodpeckers are no fools. They know 
what they are about. The whole tribe are our 
best helpers iu the orchard, rapping for hollow 
spots to pick out the worms within, stickiug 
their bills under loose bark, to lance with 
barbed tongue the insect crawler or crysalis. 
Rat tat goes the bill into the rotton wood; 
down the splinters fly; out comes the worm 
that feasts on and makes decay. Through the 
currant bushes the little bird flits, and hearkens 
to the borer’s gnaw. Rap goes hts little trip¬ 
hammer and out comes the tunneling grub. 
He hunts all over. I saw one the other day 
getting a meal on a lilac, out of the enemies of 
its blossoms. 
Now, if anybody huB Btndied up this Bap- 
snoker's work, hiB motive in hammering out 
these tiny holes, let him tell us, and shame my 
ignorance. I suppose thoy are made in digging 
after insects, bnt I do not claim to know. But 
let nobody tell about this what he thinks, but 
only what he has studied and knows. If this 
Bap sucker, like the heathen Chinee, is np to 
"ways that are dark,” aud "tricks that are 
vain and peculiar," lets hoot and shoot him out 
of the orchard. But first let us kill off the bud¬ 
eating English sparrow. 
NEW AGRICULTURAL COLONIES. 
The time is fast passing away in the United 
States when land of a character and in loca¬ 
tions desirable may be had for the purpose of 
planting model communities, as Mr. Hughes 
and his associates are doing In East Tennessee. 
In this instance, also, the undertaking is on 
a scale in which only capitalists can engage. 
It requires money, and no small amount either. 
To take up several thousaud acres in Texas or 
Dakota or in other Territories is not, however, 
a difficult matter, but to carry the authority 
with it of social regulation, and, added to that, 
a company coming together with a few hun- 
hundred dollars each, willing to rough it until 
their settlement grows, cannot always be de¬ 
pended upon for good order and sobriety. 
Character, habits, education and religious 
belief are not always compatible? even if there 
would be much ot either of these. 
In America, too, few persons are willing to 
be second in any colony or settlement, as by 
far the larger number in Mr Hnghes’s New 
Rugby Settlement must always be. The high¬ 
est places must be open to competition, and 
there must be individual independence. 
Tennessee may charter this experiment of 
establishing a young aristocracy, in which one 
part of the society are "gentlemen" and the 
other "coachmen" and "gardeners,” bnt 
Bhould the latter two branches become most 
numerous, they might some fine day vote the 
“gentlemen ” out of office. 
There is nothing less than the State organ¬ 
ization practicable in America, bnronghs and 
shires and model utopias or cantons and 
duchies cannot now be made to take the place 
of universal society and good order. The 
State organization is also increasing in di¬ 
mensions and threatening to become of nation¬ 
al dimensions of industrial good order and 
good citizenship. 
This Eogli6h settlement of Rugby is, how¬ 
ever, doing a good work in directing attention 
southward, where the best climatic opportuni¬ 
ties are now presented for new settlements, 
and causing a nation-wide inquiry, besides 
suggesting to the people of the States of Vir¬ 
ginia, Tennessee and Kentucky that It will be 
a very easy thing to invite a well-to-do, intelli¬ 
gent, industrial population, as well as much 
capital to their midst, by a little judicious 
making known of the advantages awaitiDg. 
Advantages, too, which may be augmented to 
an almost unlimited extent, for no part oi the 
world has greater natural resources or a more 
delightful climate. c. b. c. 
-♦- 
WANTED, A FIRE-PROOF FRUIT EVAP¬ 
ORATOR. 
In this vicinity a new interest was developed 
this Fall in the direction of drying fruit, 
apples in particular. Three of Williams’s 
patent evaporators were erected In this coun¬ 
ty, two at Pen Yan and one at Starkey. The 
one at Starkey and one of those at Pen Yen 
ran but a few weeks before they caught fire 
and were burned. The other has done a fine 
busiuess, but at what profit. I do not know. 
At any rate the owners paid out a good deal of 
money for fruit that would otherwise have 
gone to waste. There is a job for soma in¬ 
ventor to devise some arrangement that is not 
quite so sure as this to burn up, or down. It 
must be made of something besides pine 
boards. The business is not going to be 
abandoned on account of the combustibility of 
these machines; for some genius will over¬ 
come that. The trade will demand the evap¬ 
orated fruit for a good many reasons, among 
which not the least Is its economy in use. If 
properly evaporated In the first place, and 
properly handled by the cook, it is as good as 
fresh fruit, without any of the liability to de¬ 
cay, while it takes much less room to keep It. 
By-and-by will grow up the necessity of 
grading the evaporated fruit according to 
varieties, for there is as much difference in the 
qualities of apples after drying as before, for 
no apple that is not good to cook fresh will be 
improved in the least for that purpose by dry¬ 
ing. There are a few varieties of Fall apples 
that it would be well to cultivate for early 
drying. Among the very best, I think, is 
Clyde Beauty. It is a good grower, an abun¬ 
dant bearer, and of the very best quality for 
cooking, either fresh or dried, audit IsjuBt 
perfection dried. I throw out these hints that 
those interested may profit thereby. 
Yates Co., N. Y. W. H. Olin. 
• - ♦ »» 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
In a late number of this journal we made 
bold to allude to the illiberal spirit which many 
members of the agricultural press display 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Mr. Mbchl of England says, in the Mark 
Lane Express, that those who have witnessed 
his wheat crops during the last thirty years 
must be convinced that on the poorest soils, 
such as his, great wheat crops can be profit¬ 
ably grown, under the needful conditions, one 
of them being selected seed; and this he ob¬ 
tains in all his cereal crops by a powerful 
blower, which, being used after the ordinary 
Volney Lacy, of Livingston County, Mr. 
Green says in the N. Y. Tribune, has 300 acres 
of good land, and has a reputation f or keeping 
fine cattle. " What benefit do you derive from 
keening yonr stock stabled In the Summer ?" 
asked Mr. Green. " I am at no expense for 
fences except on the Uorders. I nearly double 
the capacity of my farm for producing grain, 
as I make about twice the ordinary amount of 
manure, and leave no large range of pastur¬ 
age in the main idle, or, what is worse, a nur¬ 
sery for the most annoying weeds.” "What 
