§84 
AU$. 44 
IKfe BUBAL MEW-V©BBEB. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
KLBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 14 1880. 
A Public Loss and Private Grief.— 
Willi sincere regret, in which we know 
all lovers of horticulture will join, we 
have to announce the death of our friend 
and contributor, M. B. Bateham, of 
Painesville, Ohio. He died August 5th. 
We shall furnish an excellent portrait 
and sketch of his life probably next 
week. 
-- 
A Misstatement Corrected. — We 
have seen circulars sent to certain seeds- 
meu from Mr, Mold, of England—him of 
“ Eunobled ” grain notoriety, setting 
forth that our “ Minister of Agriculture” 
reports great success with his (Mold’s) 
red and white winter wheats in this coun¬ 
try. Gen. Le Due informs us that, ex¬ 
cept in California, this grain has not 
proven a success, and that Mr. Mold’s 
statement is unauthorized. 
-» ♦ ♦- 
The Flax-seed Crop. —From the pres¬ 
ent outlook this year’s flax-seed crop will 
bo the biggest ever known. Ibwa, Illinois, 
and Kansas have raised extraordinarily 
large crops. At the outset, however, 
there has arisen a serious difficulty in 
transporting the product to market. 
Owing to the great loss in transit, due to 
its extremely slippery nature, the rail¬ 
road companies are refusing to carry the 
seed in bulk unless shipped in cars made 
unusually tight for that special purpose, 
and there are no cars of that sort. Coun¬ 
try buyers are writing for bags to com¬ 
mission men in Chicago and other large 
centers in the West, but it is said there 
are not bags enough there to move half 
the crop. 
-—-- 
The Yellow Scum on Milk. —A lady 
friend has just related to us an iucident 
which is too good to be lost. It illus¬ 
trates what some New-Yorkers know 
about milk, and may amuse our readers. 
The friend owns a handsome country-seat 
on Long Island, and keeps flue Alderney 
cows, which, as almost anybody knows, 
yield very rich milk. The place adjoin¬ 
ing hers was hired by a New York family 
for the season, and they begged her to 
furnish them with milk, which she con¬ 
sented to do. In a few’ days, however, 
her man brought her word that the new¬ 
comers had concluded not to take any 
more milk from her cows. They said 
they didn’t like the “ yellow scum ” they 
found on it every morning! 
-*-M- 
Uncertainty as to the Parentage 
of Seedling Potatoes. —Of over sixty 
varieties of potatoes (more or less— 
we have not counted them) we have 
thus far failed to find pollen upon 
one of the flowers which have bloomed 
up to this time. One object in planting 
so many kinds was that we might make 
crosses, and thus be enabled to raise 
cross-bred seedlings another year. Hun¬ 
dreds of new seedlings are now presented 
every year, with both parents given as a 
matter of fact, and “hybrid” seeds are 
sold in packets for—considering the la¬ 
bor and time involved in producing them 
—a very low jiriee. We are beginning 
to believe that the parentage of many of 
our new potatoes and the hybridizing of 
these “hybrid” seeds, are merely guessed 
at or are altogether fictitious. Of course, 
“seed balls ” do form and in such cases 
there must be pollen. But to find this 
pollen and to apply it so that a cross is 
known to have taken place is a task that 
very few have either time or patience to 
accomplish. 
—-- 
A Lesson from the Circus.— We 
don’t highly approve of circuses, yet we 
have no doubt there may be “ good in 
everything ” if we know bow to get it 
out. Last year a “Grand Combination ” 
exhibited in a field which lies sloping to 
the west., opposite the window where we 
now write. That field was mown two 
weeks ago, and those two weeks have 
been weekH of drought and heat. The 
whole field is dry and brown, except four 
parallelograms at equal distances, each 
about 25 by 40 feet, which are of a vivid 
green. These spots are where the horse- 
tents of the circus stood for about twelve 
hours. What a marvelous illustration 
they are to our mind of the value of 
manure as a protection against the effects 
of drought. The top-dressing given by 
the 100 horses that stood under those 
tents for a short half day made all this 
difference between a total arrest of growth 
under a .July sun and a close and thrifty 
aftermath. If the drought continues, 
these patches may be all the living grass 
left in that field next year. 
-*-*-♦- 
Prices of Hops. —Hop-growers should 
not he too ready this season to dispose of 
their product except at good figures. At 
this time last year there were in the 
country about 60,000 bales of old hops; 
to-day the most reliable information says 
that there is not h quarter of that amount 
in all hands, while many trustworthy 
persons maintain that there are not over 
5,000 bales in the hands of dealers all 
over the United States—less than half 
the average monthly consumption—while 
brewers, on the whole, have but a small 
surplus to fall back upon should prices 
of new hops be high. In this State the 
first of the new crop, “Palmer Seed¬ 
lings,” will probably be marketed from 
the middle to the end of this month, and 
will hardly be more than 150 bales. The 
“ Humphrey,” the next, will, most likely, 
be ready to pick during the last week in 
August, and now promises a yield of from 
700 to 800 bales, most of which will be 
probably exported, as usual; so that by 
the time the regular crop comes into 
market the supply of old and early will 
be very small. The consumption of beer 
the past year has been greater than ever 
before in a like period, and is rapidly 
increasing. The most trustworthy ad¬ 
vices from abroad declare that the grow¬ 
ing crops will be below rather than 
above an average, so that while the de¬ 
mand will, almost certainly, be greater 
than heretofore, the stock on baud is 
unusually low aud the foreign supply is 
hardly enough for home consumption* It 
would seem, therefore, that growers are 
in a position to fix the prices during the 
early part of the season, provided they 
do not lend a credulous ear to agents 
paid to buy hops at the lowest possible 
figure. 
-♦♦♦- 
“ 8TAMINATE ” STRAWBERRIES. 
If “pistillate,” as applied to straw¬ 
berries, means that the variety possesses 
hut oue set of generative organs, why 
ought not “ stuminate ” to mean that the 
variety possesses the other set aud that 
only '? But the latter word is often used 
in the piacc ol' “ perfect,” which is just 
as far from stuminate as it is from pistil¬ 
late. That is to say, a “perfect” flower 
is posse sst d of both sets of generative 
organs, viz., both stamens aud pis¬ 
tils. We hope that our small-fruit 
authorities will eschew the use of the 
word stamiuate in Iota as meaning per¬ 
fect bisexual or hermaphrodite flowers. 
We have no use for it at all. 
Hr. Gray defines pistillate or female 
flowers as those in which the pistils are 
present and the stamens absent; and a 
stamiuate or male, as one in which the 
stamens are present aud the pistils ab¬ 
sent. Why, then, when we have bi¬ 
sexual or perfect, either of which is just 
exactly the word needed, should we use 
stamiuate, which is well established by 
the best authorities aa having a significa¬ 
tion the reverse of that which it is desired 
to convey. 
To show that many of our writers upon 
small fruits use the words “ perfect ” and 
“stamiuate” interchangeably, we quote 
from Mr. Itoe's new and elaborate work, 
page 93 : 
“ When both stamens and pistils are 
found in the same blossom, it is called a 
perfect flower or starninate. 
- 
BLOUNT’S CORN AT THE RURAL FARM. 
We measured our Blount’s Corn Aug. 
7, and found the average bight to be folly 
eleven feet. The highest is twelve feet 
aud the lowest ten. But uniformity in 
the bight is one of the remarkable fea¬ 
tures of this remarkable variety of com. 
All of our visitors who have seen it Bay 
that it is the finest field of corn they have 
ever seen, and the yield at present prom¬ 
ises to be over 100 bushels of shelled 
corn per acre. The average number of 
ears per stalk is not less than three, 
while many bear six and seven, a few 
eight, and several nine. The ears will 
be small, certainly, especially the lower 
ones of those salks bearing a great num¬ 
ber. But, small as they are, we find that 
there are generally as many as forty-five 
kernels in a row, while the rows run from 
ten to fourteen. There has been no 
“ fancy ” cultivation or fussing with this 
acre of corn. No barn-yard manure and 
only about 350 pounds of concentrated 
corn fertilizer was used, which was 
applied at three different times—once 
before the corn was planted; then when 
it was three inches high, and last when 
one and a-half foot high. Should the 
yield fulfill its present promise, we shall 
give the particulars of its cultivation 
hereafter. 
It will be remembered that we raised on 
one-quarter of an acre, last year, at the 
rate of 72 bushels of shelled corn per 
acre. But this was under unfavorable 
circumstances, the chief of which was 
the stinging frost of June 10. This year 
everything has been favorable, and one 
acre or more (the exact measurement haB 
not yet been taken) is being raised, so 
that there will be no “ at the rate of ” 
about it. The yield, whether great or 
small, will be a fair index of what 
Blount’s w’hite Prolific Corn will do on 
Long Island. 
-- 
RESTRICTIONS ON AMERICAN CATTLE 
IMPORTATION. 
In England, on August 5, Mr. Arthur 
Arnold, Liberal Member of Parliament 
for Salford, offered in the House of Com¬ 
mons a resolution that in the opinion of 
the House the regulations regarding the 
landing of fat stock from the United 
States restrict the supply and increase 
the cost of food, and in view of the free¬ 
dom from disease of the cattle-producing 
States of America, the House deems it 
desirable that the government should 
consider the restrictions with a view to 
their modification or removal. The first 
part of this resolution closely follows one 
offered in 1878, for which twenty-four 
members of the present government 
voted, so that it certainly has consider¬ 
able support now in the administration. 
From the first we have strongly pro¬ 
tested against the restrictions placed on 
the importation of cattle from this coun¬ 
try into the United Kingdom, on the plea 
on which those restrictions were founded, 
while earnestly urging the removal of 
even a pretext for such restrictions by 
the entire suppression of pleuro-pneu* 
monia among our herds, 
Investigation conclusively proves that, 
eveu after the hardships of a long voyage 
and of an antecedent long journey by 
rail, American cattle are landed in Eng¬ 
land in a state more healthy on the 
average than that of the cattl9 of the 
United Kingdom. Last year 76,117 head 
were imported from the United States, of 
which only 137 were affected with pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, eveu according to the state¬ 
ments of the examiners at the ports of 
landing, and considerable doubt has been 
thrown on the correctness of their diag¬ 
nosis. Of this vast number 68,000 were 
conveyed in vessels in which no disease 
was found. The expense to which the 
United Kingdom w r as put by these ob- 
noxion8 restrictions was double the cost 
of suppressing the most virulent out¬ 
break of the plague among native herds 
some years ago, the former amounting to 
sixteen million pounds sterling, and the 
latter to only eight millions. 
In reply to the resolution, Earl Spen¬ 
cer, Lord President of the Council by 
whose orders the restrictions were im¬ 
posed, dwelt strongly, as the chief cause 
for their unmodified retention, on the 
law regulating the transport of cattle in 
the interior of this country, stating that 
he had been informed that it was illegal 
to stop the free importation of cattle 
from one State to another within the 
Union. 
As a matter of fact, the importation of 
cattle from New Jersey into this State 
was some weeks ago rigidly prohibited 
by Gen. Patrick, who haB been commis¬ 
sioned by the Governor to suppress 
plenro-pnenmonia among the herds of 
New York State, and the legality of the 
prohibition, which was due to the preva¬ 
lence of the plague in some sections of 
New Jersey, we have never heard called 
in question. As this condition of our 
laws was assigned as the principal cause 
for not making any distinction between 
ports of shipment in the United States, 
we trust that, the practical proof to the 
contrary thus offered by the authorities 
of this State, will lead at least to the 
speedy exemption from the restrictions, 
of cattle shipped from sections and ports 
entirely free from the plague. 
-» 
BREVITIES. 
We learu from Aiken, S. 0., that the Rural 
Branching sorghum, in Bpite of excessively dry 
weather, is making flue growth. From the 
same source we learn that the *’Cuzco” corn 
has now some “half a dozen nubbins of ears.” 
We learn that Mr. Dunham sent his brother 
out to France last June for fifty Percheron 
stallions, but his trade has since been so en- 
couraeing that he has bought ninety-eight, all 
of which he expects to arrive in the steamer 
Greece, now due in New York. 
As a good specimen of the care and Industry 
bestowed on their reports by many—very many 
—of our friends, we would refer bur readers to 
the “ Everywhere” from Burlington, Coffey 
Co., Kansas. To an intending emigrant, such 
a full account of the products of that sec¬ 
tion must be useful; to others, at least 
interesting. 
Without the slightest disposition to write 
an “ alarmist" article, says the Mark Lane Ex¬ 
press of latest date, we must reluctantly come 
to the conclusion that the harvest of 1880 can¬ 
not now be the means of saving any considera¬ 
ble proportion of sinking farmers from the 
ruin which threatens them. We sadly fear 
agricultural depression has not reached its 
lowest points. 
This from the letter of a friend iust. received: 
"*Hordeola’ has pulled my latch string, and 
he told me such a ‘ whopper ' about yonr corn 
which he saw last week at the Rural Farm (12 
or 14 feet high and six to ten ears to a stalk!) 
that I—I—I— felt ashamed of our tail corn and 
consoled myself with the idea that there was 
room enough on the stalks for all the ears 
that were inclined to grow. If yon have such 
stalks yon had better exhibit a few at the vari¬ 
ous fairs.” 
It is usual among gardeners to save the 
seeds of the first tomato that ripens, do matter 
how small or ill-shaped. It is better to wait a 
few days and Belect seeds from the largest, 
firmest specimens and those which ripen fully 
about the stem. We want tomatoes that will 
keep longer than any now cultivated, To this 
end, it would be well to save as many as could 
be spared and, exposing all iu the same man¬ 
ner, select seeds only from those which remain 
firm and sound the longest. 
We have occasionally referred to a dwarf 
catalpa under the name C. Kjempferi. It 
is a very distinct-looking shrub, the large 
leaves, of a bright, cheery-green color, grow¬ 
ing so thickly as to completly conceal all 
branches. The form which this bash takes 
reminds one of a small balloon completely 
covered with foliage. Well, it appears that 
instead of calling it C. Kwropferi, it is probable 
that it is a dwarf variety of the American 
Catalpa, C. biguonioldes. 
In many lowlands and low-lyiug woods, 
thousands of racemes of a pretty white flower 
may now be 6een. It is the Clcthra alnifolia— 
a name which generlcally and specifically tells 
of a resemblance to the alder. But it is iu the 
leaf not in the flower. Though found, for the 
most part, in swamps, it grows vigorously in 
dry uplands. It belongs to the Heath tribe 
of plants. Mention is made of the Clethra at 
this time, so that our readers may have their 
attention called to the shrub while in bloom, 
which may induce them to find a plaee for it 
in their gardens at a suitable time for trans¬ 
planting in the Fall. 
Among the friends well known to agriculture 
or horticulture, who have the present season 
visited the Rural Farm, we may mention Sam¬ 
uel B. Parsons. Gen Le Due, Henry Stewart, 
Mason C Weld, F. W. Bruggerhof (Thorburn 
& Co..) W. H. Gleason (R. H. Allen & Co.) 
Samuel Parsons Jr, and Peter B. Mead. The 
interest they manifested in our tests and the 
growing crops, aud the pleasure which they 
seemed to derive from examining them were 
very gratifying to the folks of the Rural Farm. 
The Meat Canning Business is growing to 
vast proportions In this couutry, especially in 
Chicago, which now has in operation more 
eauuing factories than the whole of the rest of 
the country. Prices at the factory are 20 cents 
a pound for cooked beef and 25 cents a pound 
for cooked and pressed tongues, the canned 
goods, of course, consisting entirely of good, 
nourishing food. This kind of food should be 
used in many more households than it is at 
present. In couutry places where the butch¬ 
er’s cart is seldom seen, what greater conve¬ 
nience can there be them that which enables the 
housewife at a moment’s notice to place on the 
table the best of beef, tongue, ham, bacon, 
chicken or turkey. 
From the best data at present attainable 
this year’s wheat crop will amount to about 
290,000,000 bushels, and over and above the 
amount required for Beed and home consump¬ 
tion, we shall have a surplus of about 180,- 
000,000 bushels for export. If our wheat pro¬ 
duction is to be kept up at anything like its 
present magnitude it Seems not unlikely that 
wo must be willing, at least at the outset, to 
sell at prices which will force many of our 
foreign competitors to withdraw from an un¬ 
profitable branch of industry. From the latest 
European advices, however, it seems that 
the crops across the water, especially in Eng¬ 
land, are so poor that we shall find a much 
better foreign demand than we had reason to 
expect some time back. 
It has been generally supposed that to bury 
the body of an animal that had died of an¬ 
thrax, or black-leg. was an effective mode of 
preventing coDtagion from the carcass. In 
a paper read by M. Pasteur, the celebrated 
scientist, before the Acadamy of Sciences, 
Paris, on July 13, it was shown how the com¬ 
mon earth-worm may be the means of propa¬ 
gating the disease under such circumstances. 
When putrefaction advances the parasites 
that generate the malady are destroyed, but 
some infected blood and other liquid matter 
escape into the earth surrounding the body 
producing germs that may remain Inactive 
tor years, bnt which contain life capable of 
producing anthrax whenever the opportunity 
presents itself. Often the germs appear at the 
surface of the. ground over the body of the 
animal, and Pasteur Bays they seem to get 
there through the agency oI earth-worms that 
carry them in their alimentary canals. When 
the dust of this earth brought up by the 
worms dries, it is blown upon the plants eaten 
by the animals which ihns become affected. 
Germs of other diseases, it is thought, may be 
conveyed in like manner. 
