428 
JUNE 3 
1 K fc RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
RURAL N T EW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 3. 1880. 
Subscribers of the Rural New-Yorker 
will greatly oblige us if they will promptly 
notify us of any irregularity iu the receipt of 
their papers. The many changes rendered 
necessary by our removal and an unusually 
large number of complaints make us desirous 
of rectifying any further derangements at 
present unknown to us as speedily as possible. 
Jumping at Conclusions. —How easy 
it is to arrive at wrong conclusions. 
There are two fields of corn near us, 
both upon sod. Upon one a tablespoon¬ 
ful of bone-phosphate was used in the 
hill. Upon the other, farm manure. The 
first is far ahead of the other, and the 
farmer concludes that the difference is 
owing to the superiority of the phosphate 
over the manure. In this season of 
drought we have had no rain to penetrate 
three inches below the surface. No 
doubt the farm manure, which remains 
in heated masses in the hills, has exerted 
an injurious effect upon the growing 
com, while the tablespoouful of phos¬ 
phate has exerted no effect of any kind. 
Had a tablespoonful of plaster or sand 
been placed in the hill, probably the 
effect would have been precisely the 
same. But the farmer has determined 
to use a tablespoonful of phosphate in 
the hill for his corn crop hereafter. 
A NORTH CAROLINA BONANZA. 
An extraordinary change has occurred 
in one phase of the agriculture of North 
Carolina, by which the rejected lands are 
preferred, and prices have risen from a 
dollar per acre to thirty and even fifty. 
The extension of the culture of bright 
yellow tobacco has been the cause, and 
the regions affected are the northern 
counties adjoining the Dauville district, 
in Virginia, and also the Piedmont region 
farther south and west, including the 
oounties of Alexander, Caldwell, Catawba, 
Lincoln and Cleveland. The light, gray, 
sandy soils are peculiarly adapted to this 
crop. A moderate quantity of phosphates 
and guano is used to get a quick 
growth, which the dry weather of the 
late Summer terminates, and the porous 
quality of the soil supplies from below 
sufficient moisture to make the ripening 
very gradual to a clear lemon color, and 
the curing without spot or blemish. This 
tobacco is used for plug wrappers, com¬ 
mands a very high price, audulten brings 
to the grower $500 per acre. It is en¬ 
riching multitudes, butiding houses and 
stimulating unaccustomed improvements 
and making handsome bank accounts 
throughout the favored district. It is a 
rural bonanza for many an industrious 
poor man, whether white or black, and 
still yields a golden harvest. 
AND DRINK, TOO. 
So great are the ravages of the phyl¬ 
loxera in France, that uuless some means 
can be soon devist d for arresting the pro¬ 
gress of the evil, wine-making there, 
which has long been one of the chief in¬ 
dustries, must necessarily come to an end. 
Whether this oouutry will be able to sup¬ 
ply the deficiency iu the wine supply 
tnus created, remains yet to be proved. 
If any attempt to do so shall be made, 
we shall not only have to pay even more 
attention than heretofore to the improve¬ 
ment of our varieties of grapes, but we 
sball also have to greatly enlarge the area 
of our vineyards. Iu ordinary times 
the vintage of France amounts to be¬ 
tween 1,500,000,UUO and 2,000,000,000 
gallons, wortii aoout $350,000,000. 
Since the first appearance of the 
phylloxera in France, iu 1865, it has 
spread through II Departments, entirely 
ruining the viuey aids, and despite the 
study and experiments of the best scien¬ 
tists, a id liberal rewards offered by the 
government, no remedy has yet been 
discovert d. Already the supply of wine 
from Madeira, whicii used annually to 
export an average of 460 000 gallons, has 
been cut oil' by tile destruction of the 
vines by the vine mildew—Ontiurn Tnck- 
en—while the same cause has been 
equally fatal to the vines in the Canary 
Islands, which every year used to send 
abroad 6,000,000 of Canary wine, very 
much like Madeira. In Spain, too, the 
region which supplies sherry, and in 
Portugal, that which supplies port, are, 
it is reported, both suffering from the 
phylloxera and vine diseases, 60 that a 
wine famine seems imminent in the near 
future. No time should be lost by us in 
trying earnestly to prepare for Buch a 
contingency. Already we are able to 
supply the population of the Old World 
with bread and meat; and there is now a 
fair prospect, that we shall soon have an 
excellent opportunity of supplying them 
with drink, too. 
-♦ • » — 
SMALL FRUIT IN NEW YORK MARKET. 
The strawberry season iR gone ; only a 
very few small consignments from the ex¬ 
treme northern counties of New York 
State will arrive the present week. The 
average price per quart of this fruit for 
the past three weeks may be put at about 
11 cents, though we are acquainted with 
growers who realized from 15 to 25 cents 
per quart, and we even know of a case in 
wliicn the grower has sold his berries on 
contract at a dollar a quart. But fancy 
prices of this character are not often 
reached, and they can only be obtained 
for really excellent fruit raised by grow¬ 
ers who have gained a g od reputation in 
this specialty. Next to good, fresh 
berries, the main secret in commanding 
the highest market price consists in the 
selection and grading of the fruit. A few 
small, decayed or otherwise defective 
berries iu a quart of first-class fruit will 
affect the price disastrously. Growers 
who exercise cure in this particular will 
soou get the patronage of the best hotels 
aud restaurants where the price is of less 
consequence than good, attractive fruit. 
The raspberry season for this market 
will be at its bight in a few days. Im¬ 
mense quantities of nauve or wild berries 
are txpected to arrive this week. A good 
late berry that can be put upon the mar¬ 
ket when the glut is over, is likely to 
prove most profitable. 
Cherries have been abundant here the 
past two weeks, aud still more will ar¬ 
rive during the coming week. Good 
cherries sell quite readily for 10 oents 
per pound at retail aud the price is likely 
l > be a tr.fie in excess of what the same 
quality has commanded during the past 
week. Currants are abundant and cheap, 
aud it is not probable that the price will 
rise. Upwards of fifty tons of cherry- 
currants were sold to manufacturers of 
jellies during tde past week, at from 
three to lour cents a pouml. A few 
peaches have arrived here from Delaware 
but they are sorry-looking specimens of 
the fruit they purport to be. They are 
mostly picked from dying trees and are 
consequently prematurely ripened. 
A NEEDED CHANGE IN THE HOME¬ 
STEAD LAW. 
The labors of our pioneers in coloniza¬ 
tion have done a great deal towards 
reolainung for agriculture much of the 
eastern part of what was once known 
as the Great American Desert. There 
still remains, however, stretching east¬ 
ward from the Hooky Mountains, a vast 
area so destitute of rainfall as to be en¬ 
tirely unfit for farming purposes. On 
much of the land there is a fair growtn 
of buff alo and other prairie grasses, which 
lit it to be the great grazing region of tne 
United States, and myriads of cattle and 
sheep pick up a fair livelihood in Spring 
aud Summer, a poor one in Fail, aud a 
still poorer one iu Winter on its boundless 
acres. Railroads and land agents have 
so lndustiiuusly puffed up this region 
as admirably fi t for farming purposes, 
that a great many immigrants, generally 
homesteaders, have settled on parts of it, 
but so severe has been the drought thi6 
year and last, that most of these have 
been reduced to the bnuu of starvation, 
over which many of them must have 
passed had they not been relieved by 
private and public charity, while hun¬ 
dreds of others have been forced to 
abandon their homesteads aud seek em¬ 
ployment farther to the cast. 
if ever the whole of the American 
Desert is brought under tillage, it mu6t 
be at the cost of the livelong labors of 
at least the first generation of these 
pioneers. Hardships, of the most griev¬ 
ous land must be their lot w r hilo prepar¬ 
ing the way to competence and abundance 
for their successors. While engaged in 
this arduous task special encouragement 
should be afforded them by the Govern¬ 
ment ; but, instead of such consideration, 
the provisions of th Homestead Law 
press grievously on many of those who 
nave taken up land unuer it. If, after 
having expeuded upon tiieir claims all 
their little boards and some years of 
anxious labor, a season of drought blasts 
their crops and hopes and the approach 
of starvation forces them to seek a tem¬ 
porary livelihood elsewhere, they risk 
the loss of the land on which have been 
expended their savings and their toil. 
In a country so vast as this, no general 
law can be the best for all sections, and 
special modifications should be made iu 
the Homestead Law to meet the excep¬ 
tional conditions of this region. 
SEXES IN ASPARAGUS. 
The New England Farmer tells how a 
successful grower of aspargus for mar¬ 
ket has much improved his plantation. 
He has rid out the female plants by a 
gradual process, that of pulling up all 
stalks that show berries—that is, all 
females. In thiB way he gains a double 
advantage : he retains only male plants, 
whioh are ti e most vigorous, not being 
exhausted by seed-bearing, and he has 
no trouble with thal commonest and 
worst weed in an asparagus bed—the 
volunteer seedling. Hub theory that the 
pulling up of the stalks showing berries 
would change the root they grow from, 
so that it would cease to yield female 
blossoms, is, of course, illusive. “ The 
plants that are male are wholly male, 
and vice versa. Some male plants are 
more vigorous than others, and no doubt 
the beau ideal of a bed would be formed 
by subdividing the roots of <t ohoice sort, 
just as we propagate choice varieties of 
potatoes or rhubarb. But old asparagus 
roots do not bear such division well. 
With a start made, and annual division, 
until a sufficient stock is obtained, this 
very desirable improvement might be 
attained. ” 
During the present season we have 
paid some attention to the sexes of aspar¬ 
agus, and our conclusions are somewhat 
at variance with one of the above state¬ 
ments. Upon the Rural Farm, aspara¬ 
gus grows wild, and may be 6een in 
almost every hedge and meadow. As 
soon as the plauts began to bioorn we 
marked upwards of 100, those we sup¬ 
posed to be males with a white tape, the 
others with black. The males are dis¬ 
tinctly males, and are easily determined, 
even in the bud, by the large anthers 
and by the fact that the flowers have 
neither styles nor stigmas, the pistil con¬ 
sisting of' an ovary only. But there is 
no female plant. All plants that are not 
males are bisexual or hermaphrodite. 
The flowers of these are very much 
smaller than those of the males, and the 
stamens are small and apparently impo¬ 
tent, though only apparently so, for, so 
far as we could determine, they alone 
were of service iu pollenation and fertil¬ 
ization. In proof of this we may mention 
two of several observations:— 
A siugle bisexual plant was found in 
a grass meadow, aud there were no males 
Within 200 feet. Almost every flower 
bore fruit. We also found a bisexual 
plant uear the middle of an oat field of 
five acres, the only plaut iu the field. 
This too fruited abundantly. It appears 
also that the fruit is set before the flower 
fairly opens. If our observations are 
trustworthy, the male asparagus plaut 
I ir k uo pare in the seminal perpetuation 
of its kind. 
BREVITIES. 
The Army-worm liatli disappeared from our 
neighborhood. 
Mr G. W. Hoffman staled before the El¬ 
mira Club that he planted a few seeds of Ber¬ 
muda grass. Would he kindly iuforrn us where 
he procured the seed ? 
There are few grasses which are prettier in 
bloom than Holcns lanatus (Velvet grass), now 
blooming in meadows. It is a pitv it is not as 
valuable, for law us or for cattle as it is beauti¬ 
ful and teuaciuua of life. 
We have spoken of the difficulty the Army 
worm experiences in climbing ascents, it the 
soil is dry and sandy. Millions of the worms 
in crossing the sandy roads of Long Island 
would accumulate in ’ the wheel ruts so that, 
ub we have Baid, the tires of wheels would 
often become muddy from adhering masses of 
their crushed bodieB. 
A Subscriber complains that in consequence 
of an advertisement in the Aural, he sent some 
time ago to Goddard & Co., oi this city, lor 
the “Revealer,” but since then he has neither 
heard nor received anything from them in 
return for his money. 
The advertisement alluded to was inserted 
once, for the reason that those who attend to 
the advertising department were abseut the 
day ol going to press. It was then rejected; 
not that we knew auything against Goddard & 
Co., but because the advertisement -’upouits 
lace” was objectionable. We very much re¬ 
gretted its appearance iu our columns. 
South Devon Cattle. —Till recently, these 
have generally been so much coarser aud more 
leggy than the North Devon—which is the true 
breed— that they have found no favor wiih 
purchasers outside ot their owu district. But 
latterly l iu- South Dcvou breeders have resul t¬ 
ed to the North Devons to cross ou iheir stock, 
and this 6tep, together with earelul selections, 
bae enabled them to so greatly improve the 
race, that the best specimens arc now consid¬ 
ered little, if any, Inferior iu shorter legs aud 
fine points to the North Devons. They are 
usually larger in size than the latter, which is 
an advantage to them as beef producers. 
There seems to be a prospect of a speedy 
panic in cheese in this market, and doubtless 
the depression will soon extend toother points 
also. From last Tuesday to Saturday prices 
fell cents per pound, and the bottom has not 
yet been reached. The high prices that ruled 
early in the season induced makers to over¬ 
stock the market, and now the hot weather and 
a rapid decline in the English maiket have in¬ 
tensified the customary annual depression and 
brought it on five or six weeks earlier than 
usual. It would be well for producers to lessen 
their make for the present, and to hold back 
their goods until the market, becomes steadier 
and stiffer, otherwise they will inevitably cause 
a panic by which all will suffer pretty heavily. 
Sewage or Towns—Its Value. —Professor 
Church, in a recent lecture before the Farm¬ 
ers’ Club at Rochester, Euglaud, asserts that 
this is worth from 15 cents to three dollars per 
annum for each town inhabitant, its value de¬ 
pending upon the cheapness and facility of 
applying it to crops, and the value of such 
crops when harvested. Even at the very low 
estimate of 15 cents per individual of the Uni¬ 
ted Kingdom, it wonld amount to about $7,- 
000.000 per annum. If these human excreta 
could be applied to wheat, the Professor calcu¬ 
lates they would grow enough extra over pres¬ 
ent crops to come to the value, in round num¬ 
bers, of twenty to eighty millions. Au enor¬ 
mous sum this even at the lowest estimate, to 
annually lose; and yet this waste is still 
greater in the United States of America than 
in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland. 
Decrease of Cattle —It seems to he the 
opinion of those who have examined this 
mktter pretty thoroughly, that a considerable 
decrease will be fonud iu the stock of the 
United States and Territories, after the ship¬ 
ments of this year are over. We are of the 
opinion that this may be the case in regard to 
such as are sufficiently well-bred for shipment 
to foreign markets ; but as to inferior stock, 
we question whether much, if any, deficiency 
will be louud. Yet, in any event, there will 
unquestionably be a considerable advance in 
the price of cattle auother year, as well as io 
that of sheep and swine. There are two rea¬ 
sons why thiB maybe so,—the first oi which 
i6 the greatly increased tide of immigrants 
to our country this season, who will be con¬ 
sumers instead ol producers for a twelve- 
mouth to come; and the second season is, 
so numerous are the losses sustained in Great 
Britain and Ireland during the past eighteen 
months in domestic animals, that their want6 
for this year, will, doubtless, be larger than 
the past have been. 
Large Crof& of Cohn Fodder.— Several 
correspondents in a late issue of the Country 
Gentleman, seem to have given from actnal 
weight on small patches of their fields, pretty 
reliable estimates of the amounts which were 
grown Tier acre, previous to the curing of the 
corn. They state these weights at 28,35.86, and 
45 tone, respectively, per acre. The latter was 
sowed in drills three feet apart, using three 
bnsbeU oi seed per acre, and the season was 
perfect in every respect for its growth. They 
do not state what the weather was when the 
corn was cut. or the time of day it was done. 
To be fair in such a trial, the weather ought to 
be 6unny two days before, and the stalks not 
cut till all the morning dew wai dried off Dr. 
Bailey, of Massachusetts, asserts, that he can 
grow 75 tone of corn stalks per acre. If he 
docs, we think he will have to resort to the 
Cuzco sort, of Peru, which grows there 25 feet 
high or more, and is three inches in diameter, 
or so, at the butt. This would he about as 
eatable and digestible as cord wood, uuless his 
method of ensilage can transform it to pala¬ 
table fodder. Heieuow cultivating a mammoth 
ensilage corn, of which he thinks highly. We 
hope when his crop of this huB been gathered 
aud fed o his animals, ho will give us nut 
oulv its yield per Here, hut the value of its 
fodder to his stock in comparison with the 
smaller bwccV corn. 
A vigorous effort Is now being made by 
Australia to flood this country with her cheap 
wools to the ruin of our owu sheep husbandry. 
The Colonial Chambers of Commerce are 
appealing to the Chambers of Commerce in 
our chief elites urghtg them to use their Influ¬ 
ence for the abolition or at least the reduction 
of our import duties on foreign wools. The 
Chambers of Commerce of ibis city and Bos¬ 
ton have already promised their aid and ap¬ 
pointed committees to bring the matter before 
Congress. Ills urged that the tree admission 
of this product of the Australian colonies into 
this country, would largely increase our trade 
in manufactured goods with them. We indig¬ 
nantly protest against the ruin such a meas¬ 
ure would be sure to bring upon one of the 
moBt benoficialindustries of this country, for 
the beucllt of a class thut is already receiving 
too much national support at the cost of the 
agricultural community. If a reduction is 
made in the tariff on wools, it must apply to 
Bueuos Ayres aud the rest of the world as well 
as to the Australian colonies, and in a few 
years so great would bo the impetus givcu to 
sheep raising abroud by the large market of¬ 
fered for wool iu this country, that our home 
markets would be overstocked with the pro¬ 
duct at prices which would defy the competition 
of our home raised wool. Iu Buenos Ayres, 
Banda Oriental and Australia sheep are raised 
in enormous numbers for their wool alone, uud 
it would be as impossible tor our farmers to 
produce wool as cheaply as it is raised there, 
us it would be for our iron manufacturers to 
compete with those of England or Belgium. 
Our manufacturers, however, are carefully 
•' protected" from such ruinous compctiou by 
almost prohibitory d uties on foreigu iron goods, 
aud why should not our farmers receive a 
similar “ protection ?” It Is about time that our 
legislators should be made to realize that this 
is pre eminently a farming country, one whose 
prosperity is mainly dependent on agriculture, 
and whose population is mainly made up of ag¬ 
riculturists, while mauufacturers form but a 
comparative handful, aud must be eouteut 
with a back 6cat—au honorable one, 'tis true, 
but a back one. 
