540 
AUG. §4 
THE BUBAL 13 EW-YO BIKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 31, 1880. 
One of our neighbors raises his toma¬ 
toes in the family asparagus bed. The 
plants soon cover the ground, subduing 
the weeds, and yet they do not noticeably 
retard the growth of the asparagus. The 
vines and green or half-ripened fruit are 
killed by the first frosts, affording a 
mulch through the Winter and some fer¬ 
tilizing material in the Spring. 
■» 4 ♦- 
In reply to questions which we always 
receive at this season of the year or a 
little later, let us say, transplant fruit or 
ornamental trees as soon in the Fall as the 
leaves begin to drop or change iu color. 
This is sufficient evidence that the leaves 
are no loDgor of any service to the plant 
and the sooner it is then removed the 
better, for it will have a longer time to 
become well fixed in its new quarters be¬ 
fore severe frosts occur. Spring is with¬ 
out doubt the best time to transplant 
evergreens. 
■ - - 
Why do the Sleepers of Buildings 
Bot Bapidly?— There are two reasons 
for this: The first is, because the stone 
or brick under-pinning is not made suffi¬ 
ciently high to keep them well clear of 
the ground; and the second is, when a 
continuous wall is laid all around for the 
sleepers to rest upon, the mason does 
not leave openings enough in it on the 
four sides for a good circulation of air 
underneath the floor. If this is done, 
and they are properly placed, sleepers 
will last nearly as long as the beams of 
the building overhead. 
-- 
The Bubal New-Yorker has intimated 
that prizes would be awarded to those 
who raise the heaviest mangolds from 
Yihnonn’s Golden Mangold, the seeds of 
which were sent to applicants for our last 
distribution, We now request that all 
who have raised extra-heavy roots from 
this seed will give us the weights of three 
of the heaviest. The leaves are to be 
cut off’ even with the tops of the man¬ 
golds, and not included in the weight. 
Those who take the prizes may be called 
upon to send the specimens to this office 
by express—at our expense, of course. 
-- 
The Pig the Most Honored of all 
Animals. —Are our readers aware that it 
is all the fashion at present in France— 
which of course will be soon followed 
everywhere else—for ladies to wear a 
jeweled sucking-pig on an armlet, a 
neck-chain, or a shawl-pin and other or¬ 
naments? To call a Frenchman a hog 
was formerly considered the greatest pos¬ 
sible insult to him. If we now call him 
a pig, we suppose he will consider it one 
of the greatest of compliments. No 
doubt if our largest swine merchants at 
the West were to emigrate to France, 
they would get ennobled there, and be 
made princes, dukes, marquises, counts, 
etc., the rank being conferred according 
to the number of swine each one annu¬ 
ally handled. Well, after all, we prefer 
to see a jeweled pig gracing a lady’s arm 
or neck, than a snake with fiery ruby 
eyes, and sparkling forked tongue. 
1 
The great Chicago wheat corner has 
just beeh closed out with a loss, it is said, 
of several million dollars to its organ¬ 
izers and participants. It will be remem¬ 
bered that this was inaugurated about a 
year ago, James B. Keene and Jesse 
Hoyt being the originators. Their chief 
associates were Perry H. Smith, George 
L. Duniap aud Nathan Corwin, of Chi¬ 
cago, and Z. G. Simmons and Judge 
Howe, of Kenosha. Keene had a half 
interest in the syndicate, Hoyt a quar¬ 
ter, aud the others another quarter be¬ 
tween them. The end in this city as¬ 
sumed entire direction of the deal. 
Angus Smith, of Milwaukee, though not 
one of the clique, made an agreement 
with them to be guided in his operations 
by their directions, in the expectation of 
thereby reaping a rich harvest. At one 
time they had on hand, or subject to their 
control 16,000,000 bushels of wheat. They 
proposed to close out the deal in May; 
but the condition of the market then 
caused them to defer doing so until June, 
and meanwhile they decided by renewed 
purchases to force up prices, just before 
unloading. For a week or two it looked 
as if they might succeed, but the persist¬ 
ently low prices across the Atlantic soon 
made things look gloomy, aud Hazleton, 
Hoyt’s partner in this city, began to sell 
right aud left, and so tumbled down 
prices still lower. Now almost all the 
stock of wheat has been sold and shipped 
and the Chicago gamblers are heavily 
mulcted; Smith, of Milwaukee, is out 
from a quarter to half a million dollars, 
and the losses of Keene and Hoyt can 
only be guessed at, those of the former 
being estimated at all the way from one 
to two million dollars. 
■-♦•*-*- 
THE VALUE OF WATER. 
An extraordinary exhibition, as all our 
readers well kuow, has recently been 
made in the City of New York. A person 
has undergone a complete fast from food 
for 40 daj8 and has succeeded iu passing 
through this severe ordeal without any 
serious damage, further than a loss of 
weight amounting to nearly one pound 
per day. Whether it has any importance 
in a physiological sense or as an aid 
to medical science need not here be dis¬ 
cussed. One thing in connection with 
the trial is unquestionably instructive. 
This is the absolute necessity of water 
and that absolutely pure, which has been 
proved by it. A lew days’ abstinence 
from water brought the fasting man to 
the verge of death, The use of the im¬ 
pure city water immediately after this 
abstinence caused a dangerous nausea 
and feverish symptoms. The loss of 
weight during this abstinence was exces¬ 
sive and alarming. After nine days it 
was clear that without water the man 
would soon succumb. With the use of 
pure water, procured from a spring, all 
the disagreeable symptoms disappeared 
and a notable gain in weight was made 
during the next few days. The fast then 
progressed to completion, aud at the end 
of the 40 days the faster took frequent 
meals of milk, beefsteak, watermelons, 
peaches and apples with impunity. The 
lesson that concerns us is this : pure 
water is an absolute nutriment and sus¬ 
tains the body for a time even in the ab¬ 
sence of solid food. How seldom is this 
fact considered by farmers; and more 
especially that part of it which relates to 
the purity of the water used. This les¬ 
son is applicable not only to ourselves, 
but to our domestic animals. It is cer¬ 
tain that we are too neglectful in regard 
to the water supply for our live stock. 
The majority of farms are deficient iu 
this regard, and if water is scarce it 
occasions less concern than if fodder is in 
short supply. But water is of more im¬ 
portance than the fodder, and the great¬ 
est care should be taken that the supply 
of this indispensable nutriment should 
not only be ample but excellent. 
-- 
THE GROWTH OF THE WEST. 
The marvelous progress of the great 
West is made apparent by the growth of 
the great State of Illinois. This State 
has been the fourth in population in the 
Union for some time, and there is a 
chance that the present census may 
prove it to be the third in rank as to the 
number of its inhabitants. But in agri¬ 
cultural products it claims to stand first, 
and its claim deserves respectful recog¬ 
nition. The State covers 50,000 square 
miles of land which in point of fertility is 
not surpassed perhaps anywhere in the 
world. The crops there grown include 
every agricultural product from cotton, 
through all the grains, to grass and its pro¬ 
ducts of the dairy, and beef, mutton and 
pork, not forgetting fruits and vegetables 
in every variety. Its people are enter¬ 
prising and its farmers skillful and ener¬ 
getic, as may be shown by the fact that 
100 tile factories are employed in furnish¬ 
ing the tile to lay 10,000 miles of drains 
every year in the lowlands hitherto either 
uncultivated or only half worked. 
The profitableness of this enterprising 
farming is illustrated by the fact that the 
first crop taken after draining repays the 
whole cost of the improvement. Twenty- 
five years ago Illinois was a new State. 
Last year its crops amounted to 306 mil¬ 
lion bushels of corn ; 45 million bushels 
of wheat; 2* million tons of hay; 54 mil¬ 
lion bushels of oats; 2,700,000 hogs; and 
a vast number of fat beeves, together 
with a large quantity of dairy products. 
The com crop was one-fifth and the 
wheat crop one-tenth of the total product 
of the whole ceuntry. In these crops 
Illinois surpassed every other (State. The 
value of the Hliuois com crop for the past 
six years equaled 470 millions of dollars, 
which is but seven million dollars less 
than all the gold and silver produced in 
the United States and Territories in the 
same period. What has been effected in 
Illinois, is being done in many other 
States of the West; and what will be 
done in the next 25 years will undoubt¬ 
edly surpass all that has been done in 
any previous quarter of a century. 
If we look for a solution of the ques¬ 
tion whieli naturally arises, why should 
the great West advance so rapidly in 
population aud wealth, while some parts 
of the East are losing population aud 
going back to a condition of almost prim¬ 
itive solitude and wildness, we must at¬ 
tribute it, first, to the opening of the 
country by one of the most complete 
railroad systems in the world ; for Illinois 
has a greater mileage of rails than any 
other State, and some other compara¬ 
tively new States arc not mueh behind 
her; then the wonderful fertility of the 
soil, and, last but not least, the not less 
fertility of the people in energy, industry 
and enterprise. Truly the West is a re¬ 
markable country, and the Western peo¬ 
ple are as remarkable as their country. 
-- 
A PROSPECTIVE CHANGE IN EUROPEAN 
AGRICULTURE. 
The vast development of agriculture in 
the West and Northwest has already 
wrought a great change in the farming 
of New England, and must inevitably 
iu the near future have even a greater 
effect upon that of the British Isles, and, 
indeed, of western Europe generally. 
Our Eastern farmers, driven to a great 
extent by Western competition to aban¬ 
don the production of grain, have wisely 
taken to the cultivation of vegetables, 
fruits, dairy products, etc., which cannot 
so conveniently be brought from the 
eheap West, and for which there is a 
profitable market iu our large Eastern 
cities. The productive capacity of this 
country is far greater than its consump¬ 
tive capacity, and is being developed 
very much more quickly, in spite of the 
extraordinarily rapid increase of our pop¬ 
ulation 
Owing to the unexhausted condition of 
the soil, the nearly universal use of the 
best labor-saving devices, the absence of 
rent charges, and the comparative mod¬ 
eration of taxation, the net cost of pro¬ 
ducing grain crops in the great West, 
even with the present transportation 
oharges, defies the competition of the 
farmers of the United Kingdom under 
the prevailing agricultural conditions 
there. But here the rapid development 
of our railroad system, the keen compe¬ 
tition between the various lines, aud the 
greater economy in running expenses, 
are all the time slowly but steadily reduc¬ 
ing freight charges. Last year nearly 
4,000 miles were added to the railroad 
mileage of the country, and it is esti¬ 
mated that 6,000 miles will be built this 
year, and every mile constructed tends to 
cheapen grain at the seaboard. In 1869 
the average charge on a ton of merchan¬ 
dise from Chicago to the tide-water was 
$24; now it is only $8, and the charges 
on grain and meat arc considerably less. 
West of Chicago freight charges are still 
very disproportionately high, and iu all 
that vast region there is broad margin for 
reduction, which must soon take place 
through the development of the country, 
the force of increased competition, the 
influence of public opinion, and if neces¬ 
sary, the power of legislation. 
Witii a reduction of transportation 
charges through this productive section 
will come a still greater reduction of 
prices here at the seaboard, and conse¬ 
quently beyond the Atlantic. Moreover, 
improvements in the construction of 
ships, and greater economy in the gene¬ 
ration of motive power, must soon mate¬ 
rially lessen the expenses of ocean voy¬ 
ages, and consequently the charges on 
ocean freight. The amount of coals 
used by ocean steamers every twenty-four 
hours now, is considerably less than one- 
quarter of the quantity employed to gen¬ 
erate the same power a quarter of a 
century ago, and economy in this direc¬ 
tion aud improvements in the models of 
freight-carrying vessels are progressive. 
In view, then, of the rapid increase of 
the production over the consumption of 
grain crops iu this country, of the steady 
dtjorcase in the expense of transporting 
otti- surplus to foreign markets, and of 
the conditions under which foreign far¬ 
mers must at present compete "with us, it 
seems certain that a revolution must soon 
occur, first, in the agricultural conditions 
of the United Kingdom, and, perhaps, 
afterwards, longo intervallo, in those of 
our Continental customers and competi¬ 
tors. The chief features of the new 
state of things will be the ownership of 
the land by the tillers thereof, and the 
substitution of other crops for those of 
grain. 
--- 
BREVITIES. 
Tue stickiest thing on the face of the earth, 
Prof. Sheldon tells us is London clay. 
Thanks to a friend for beautiful specimens 
of Australian and Defiance wheat. The donor 
would oblige us by giving name aud address. 
A farmer friend writes us : “The great ob¬ 
jection that farmers have to agricultural 
papers is that they use terms they cannot un¬ 
derstand." 
Dk. Hoskins writes us: “ I have grown 
American Wonder and Little Gem side by side 
for three years and find the former one week 
earlier with not half the growth of vine of the 
latter." 
In “ Horticola’s” notes of this week, it will 
be observed that the lightning struck the vine 
trellis -'itbin twenty yards of the dwelling. 
Mr. Williams tells us that the dwelling was 
“covered with lightning rods.” 
The pear, Rousselet Stuttgart, Is small, of 
greenish skin with a brown check. It ripens 
in mid-August iu this climate, It is juicy, 
aromatic and sweet. Were it not that it some¬ 
times rots at the core we should prize it 
among our very best Summer pears. 
We should like to hear from auy of our 
Western contributors who have made com¬ 
parative tests how much seed-wheat they 
would advise drilling iu to the acre, and how 
much if sown broadcast. We ourselves have 
settled upon from one aud a-balf to one and 
three-quarters bushel for the former as being 
the quantity best adapted to our soil. 
A COUPLE of typographical slips in our last 
issue need correctionon page 520 £ instead 
of fs before 222,706 quintupled the aggregate 
losses of the Royal Agricultural Society by its 
40 previous exhibitions. Again, on page. 524, 
this year’s total wheat crop in put down at 
290.000.000 inttead of 490,000,000. In both 
cases the context showed the slip, however. 
A valued regular contributor writes us as 
follows ; “I think 1 am the only one of your 
writers who keeps wiihiu the bounds in re¬ 
spect to length. It is easy to write long ar¬ 
ticles, but not to write so as to say everything 
in half the usual space. I suppose that is the 
reason why folks spread out.” We propose, 
even at some sacrifice, to shorten our regular 
correspondence. 
In the way of fruit, one of the showiest ob¬ 
jects at the Rural Grounds at this time is 
the Alexander apple upon the French Paradise 
stock. The tree is not over five feet high and 
bears eight apples ol the largest size. They 
are streaked with bright red and seem, in size, 
out of ail proportion to the diminutive tree. 
Unfoi tunately the Alexander’s beauty is its 
best trait. Still beauty in apples, as in human 
beings, covers a multitude of sins. 
The United States are fast coming to supply 
the world with oil. The yield of flax seed is 
the largest ever produced, while thu yield of 
eotton seed oil for the present ‘cotton year," 
cudiug September let, is believed to be fully 
200,000 barrels, the larger part of which has 
been, or will be, exported. This la not the whole 
product of the crop of the cotton seed, or even a 
tenth part of it, as the growers have not yet 
had their attention directed to It. The supply 
of castor oil is also steadily increasing from 
the Southwest and the crop is a profitable oue. 
Fresh Butter at a Lo w Price —The beet 
qualities of this are selling at so low a price 
just now, we would suggest to the producers 
of it whether it would not be better to salt it 
down in jars or firkins for Winter, than to 
daily force so much of it on the market. The 
probability is that from November on, it will 
rise rapidly in value, and from mJd-Wintcr till 
January command 50 per cent, more iu the 
market than it is now selling at.. We speak, 
only of such butter as is well made aud sure to 
keep sweet, for what is likely to become 
frowy or rancid during Wiuter, had better be 
sold now at any price to bo obtained. 
Too late to prevent its publication In the 
Rural, we learn that Mr. F. L. Stewart, is 
sending to other journals eopies of his article 
on Corn Sugar which appears elsewhere in this 
issue. There are a few men in the country 
who resort to such methods of obtaining free 
advertising by leading each paper to which 
they may send their lucubration to believe that 
the article was written especially for its col¬ 
umns. A man of this kind may succeed once 
In palming off his wares on the most wide¬ 
awake editor, but he will hardly do so a sec¬ 
ond time. TIub method of advertising ought, 
we respectfully submit, to be discouraged by 
the agricultural press. It la not fair to those 
who advertlsein the regular way, and pay their 
bills. These remarks may uot apply lo Mr. F. 
L. Stcwait except lu the present instance. 
A friend wrltek us: “lam now growing 
seedlings of coleus, gladioli and geraniums." 
He could riot have selected three kinds of 
plants for seedling cultivation which are more 
interesting. Seedling geraniums (that is, pel¬ 
argoniums properly) will prove thu least com¬ 
pensatory. There ia u chance of obtaining 
flowers equal to, or better ibuu, any known. 
But the chance is wry slight. Ninety-nine 
out of every hundred will prove Inferior 
to those in the inurket. We have spent 
more time over erossiug pelargouiurns. than 
auy other class of plants whatever and, if we 
throw what we learnt cm of the question, have 
nothing to Bhow as the results. Seedling 
gladioli are often beautifully marked and will 
generally more than repay Lire trouble of 
raising them. As a rule, conns from seed 
bloom the third year. Tue new and beautiful 
strains of seedling coleus show that there is 
in thei recultivation a good deal to hope for. 
