556 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 28 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AU(L 28, 1880. 
“ They Duo their Graves with their 
Teeth.”— This was long ago the declara¬ 
tion of an eminent physician in regard to 
the majority of those who die premature¬ 
ly. Every observing physician of the pres¬ 
ent time is aware that there is a vast 
amount of diseasewhich is the direct result 
of over-eating. Part ol' this over-eating, 
perhaps a large part, is pure gluttony; 
imt there is a Btill larger proportion 
which is due to bad cooking. When our 
food is in great part indigestible, the un¬ 
satisfied craving for nutriment tends 
constantly to cause over-eating. The 
great bulk of the food thus taken into 
the stomach affords no support to the 
system. But it is not harmless. It can¬ 
not be digested, but it finds in the moist¬ 
ure, movemeut and warmth of the intes¬ 
tines all the conditions of rapid putre¬ 
faction, and this putrefaction, constantly 
going on within the body in contact with 
actively absorbent surfaces, is a mos* 
fertile cause of ill-health. Women who 
wish their husbands and children to live 
long and enjoy life should train them¬ 
selves well in the science and art of cook- 
HOW TO INTEREST THE BOYS. 
It has been a subject of frequent dis¬ 
cussion, how to interest the young folks 
in agriculture. Doubtless much of the 
importance given to this subject has been 
gratuitous and undeserved, for the natu¬ 
ral succession of the young men to the 
farms and labors of their retiring fath¬ 
ers, does not seem to go by default, ex¬ 
cepting in those places where there is 
nothing to be gained by the hardest labor 
but the hardest kind of a living from worn- 
out and infertile fields. Prom such farms 
the young men naturally enough escape 
lo the fertile West, but upon those where 
fair industry returns a bountiful reward 
and every comfort surrounds the home¬ 
stead, there the young men remain and 
continuo the work which has been begun 
by tbeir fathers. But there i'b a method 
of making farm life attractive to boys, 
and of interesting them so much in rural 
affairs, as to draw them to the farm again 
in mature life, it may be after years of 
absence while engaged in prosperous bus¬ 
iness in cities. Such a method has been 
put in practice by that exemplary institu¬ 
tion known as the Elmira Farmers’Club. 
This club lias offered prizes for the best 
plot of com planted and tended wholly 
by boys under 16 years of age. The 
competition thus entered into by a large 
number of farmers’ boys, has created 
unusual enthusiasm and may prove to 
be the turning poiut in forming the 
courses of their future lives. When 
boys of 16 attend a fanners’ club as the 
most interested of visitors, it may be safe 
to set it down that those boys will be 
farmers, and probably good, solid, enter¬ 
prising and successful ones. It is an 
example for the widest imitation. Boys 
become such men as they are made by 
the circumstances into which they are 
brought. It would be a fortunate thing 
for farmers, if there were more such ex¬ 
emplary farmers’ clubs as that of Elmira. 
-*-*-«- 
AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS IN IRELAND. 
The effects of the recent distress among 
the tenant farmers in Deland promise, or 
threaten, to reach much further than 
could have been expected. The result 
may be a radical change in the method of 
government in England at an earlier date 
than could have been thought possible 
before the late trouble fell upon that 
laud of troubles, Ireland. A temporary 
relief from utter ruin through the en¬ 
forced claims of the land-owners for rents 
due by impoverished and starving ten¬ 
ants, and from the danger of legal eviction 
from their homes, has misoarried by the 
rejection of a measure for that purpose in 
the House of Lords. The Lords are the 
chief land-owners, and they have sel¬ 
fishly claimed their rents, their “ pound 
of flesh,” as it may really have been in 
many cases, without abatement from the 
ruined tenants. In cases of non-payment 
the tenants are turned out of their poor 
cabins, and left homeless as well as pen¬ 
niless upon the world. 
Happily we in free America have no 
adequate conception of the dismay and 
utter ruin which an eviction for non¬ 
payment of rent brings to the tenant and 
his helplesfi family. Mothers and chil¬ 
dren turned out of doors have perished 
by the wayside while the father has been 
vainly looking for shelter, and none but 
that of the grave has been found. SucLi 
occurrences, by no means infrequent, 
have created the bitterest feeling, not 
only in Ireland, but in England, and the 
effect will surely hasten the time when 
the inevitable destruction of a hereditary 
and aristocratic form of government will 
be accomplished. Every popular l’eform 
has been fought out by the people iu the 
teeth of violent opposition by the House 
of Lords, and the revolutionary question 
“ Of what good are the Lords, anyhow, ” 
has been heard in England before now ; 
while now it has given place to threats 
of the destruction of this hereditary form 
of government, which is antagonistic to 
popular reforms and popular interests. 
FLYING ANTS. 
These are a great nuisance in a house, 
but we do not know that they infest 
buildings except finished in a particular 
manner and standing on a sandy or light 
gravelly soil. 
A few years ago the writer put up a 
cottage on sandy ground sloping to the 
south. The basement was a kitchen and 
cellar, open on this side, but walled up 
agaiust the bank on the north, and partly 
on the east and west sides. Sleeper's 
were laid on the ground for a floor, the 
space between them cemented, and then 
the whole boarded over with matched 
inch pine stuff. We did this to prevent 
mice or rats from getting into the rooms. 
The second year after the cottage was 
built Hying ants bred in great numbers, 
early iu July, between the door boards 
and cement, and as they could escape in 
no other manner into the open air, they 
eat their way up through the boards, and 
swarmed thickly over the whole kitchen, 
and so continued fornearly a month. We 
endured this for three Summers, thinking 
their breeding there only temporary; but 
finding it was to be continuous, we took 
out the board flooring, the sleepers be¬ 
tween the cement., and tbe cement its all. 
We then cemented the space anew, let it 
dry well, laid new sleepers on this, and 
boarded over with new boards. This 
allowed plenty of room for future ants to 
escape from under the board floor, and 
we have not been troubled with them 
since. We eaunot say whether they con¬ 
tinue to breed there, uh we do not see 
them now, but presume they do. 
At the same time we erected the cot¬ 
tage we put up a bam near-by, also on a 
sandy soil. The underpinning of this is 
two feet high, which raises the. floor that 
much with the thickness of the sleep¬ 
ers above the grouud. Auts sometimes 
appear here, but, as there is plenty of 
room for them to escape into the open 
air, they only remain a few minutes on 
the floor, and then entirely disappear, 
flyiug off. 
Twenty-six years ago wo erected a large 
building for manufacturing purposes. 
The basement lioor of this was laid pre¬ 
cisely as the first was for our cottage, ex¬ 
cept that we used two-incli oak plank for 
the flooring, instead of inch pine boards, 
but the ground on which this stands has 
a mixture of clay in it, and either for this 
reason or some other, ants have never 
appeared there. 
■-- 
THE CHICAGO CORNER IN PORK. 
For the last two or three weeks there 
has been a good deal of excitement in 
the Chicago pork market, the transac¬ 
tions in which greatly iniluenco those in 
other cities also, the Western metropolis 
being far away the greatest hog-packing 
point in the world. The prices of mess 
pork, the supply of which is necessarily 
limited, have been steadily advancing 
there of late, not a little to the satisfac¬ 
tion of the farmers in the tributary terri¬ 
tory, but much to the disgust of a 
number of dealers who had sold the 
commodity “short.” The policy of an 
operator of this sort is to sell a product 
of which he has none on hand, to be de¬ 
livered at a specified date at a fixed prioe, 
the transaction being based on the ex¬ 
pectation that in the meanwhile he will 
be able to buy the goods at a lower prioe 
than that at which he has agreed to 
deliver them. It will, therefore, be 
readily seen that in the produce market 
the interests of the man who sells short, 
or of the “ bear,” are always inimical to 
those of the producer, inasmuch as the 
former’s success depends on depression 
of prices, and that of the latter on their 
appreciation. The farmer’s sympathy 
is, therefore, pretty certain to be on the 
side of the “ bull ” in all transactions of 
this sort. 
Probably the largest “ short ” operator 
in the Chicago pork market is Asa Dow, 
who, some time back, sold 15,000 barrels 
of mess pork “ short,” at about $10 per 
barrel, and as the market advanced above 
this figure, he has been increasing his 
margins to meet, the difference between 
the ruling rate and that at which ho had 
bargained to deliver the pork. Early iu 
the week pork reached the highest price 
of the season — $16.05 lor September 
pork — and on Thursday Dow, acting 
doubtless in accord with other operators 
iu the sumo plight, refused to “put up ” 
any more margin, on the ground that the 
quoted price of pork was fictitious, the 
advance being due to the manipulations 
of a clique who had formed a “corner” 
iu that commodity. It ih estimated that 
there are not more than 150,000 barrels 
of pork iu the Chicago market,, while it 
seems probable that 400,000 barrels were 
Bold “short,” and as the prices at other 
centers have gone up iu sympathy with 
those at Chicago, the “ bears’* are likely 
to bo nipped severely, especially as the 
supply of mess pork is comparatively 
limited at other points, and the manipu¬ 
lations of the “ corner ” have most likely 
been extended to other centers also. 
The chief engineers of the corner are 
Armour Hr, Co., the largest pork packers 
iu the country, and so extensive, it is 
said, iB their control of the mess pork in 
the market that they can run up the 
prices almost indefinitely, mid thus force 
the “ bears ” to pay them and the other 
members ol' the syndicate an exorbitant, 
difference between the prices at which 
they sold “ short” and those ruling at the 
time of settlement; for in such cases tho 
goods sold are seldom delivered, the 
difference between tho ruling price and 
that for which the goods were sold being 
generally paid instead. It would greatly 
help the bears if they were permitted to 
fill their contracts with summer-packed 
pork, but the keeping qualities of that 
are generally so unreliable that it is not 
considered “ regular,” and a proposition 
to make it so last Monday was voted 
down by a large majority of the Board. 
Of course, transactions of this sort are 
of the same nature as gambling, and the 
losers never deserve and seldom receive 
much sympathy. Objectionable on this 
account as are such dealings in railway 
and other stocks, they are still more 
reprehensible in food, for in the latter 
case thousands in this and other lands 
suffer from the unscrupulous greed of 
these speculators. The reported losses 
of Mr. Keene and his associates on ac¬ 
count of their late corner in wheat, will 
probably prevent others from entering 
upon so hopelessly large an undertaking 
as to obtain control of our vast wheal 
crop ; and the lesson the “ bears ” are 
now getting in the pork market may have 
somewhat of the same salutary effect. 
-- 
BREVITIES. 
It seems that the. black rat of our ancestors 
still lives In the mansion of Dr. Lawes of Rotfi- 
amsted England. See hla note. 
Our engraving ol Mr. Al. B. Buteham is an 
excellent portrait. It was drawn from a card- 
photograph kindly furnished by M rs. Batchain 
at our request. 
Mr. H. Stewart telle us ol a cucumber 
which he has raised SO inches long. The va¬ 
riety iB that kuown as Gen. Grant. He says 
that iu addition to this remarkable length of 
the fruit, the vines are very prolific. This is 
probably owing to a very favorable season. 
Our own experience with these long cucum¬ 
bers has been that they are not wotth cultiva¬ 
tion. 
Mr. C. G. Georgeson, a graduate of the Mich¬ 
igan Agricultural College, and for the past two 
years one of the editorial stall of the Rural 
New-Yorker, has been elected to fill the chair 
of lTofessor of Agriculture in the Agricultural 
uud Mechanical College at College Station, 
Texas. Only the friendliest relations existed 
between Mr. Georgeson and his associates of 
the Rural Olficc, so that it is with all sinceri¬ 
ty that we wish him a full measure of success 
in his new field of labor. 
A wkljl-known writer and nurseryman and 
a true friend to horticultural progress, writes 
us a letter from which we take the following 
note: “1 note your editorial complimentary 
to F. L, Stewart, iu last issue. But what did 
vou think of Ohmer's article on the Gregg 
Raspberry in Rural, Country Gentleman and 
Tribune all at the same time ? This sort of thing 
bus become such a fashion of late that I hesi¬ 
tate about writing anything for the press, for 
sometimes it is impossible to do so without 
commending something and laying myself 
liable to he charged with attempting to serve 
personal interests, a desire to avoid which is 
ever uppermost in my mind. I am glad to see 
you ana Horitcolaare settling down to the facts 
on the stamina !.e question, and regret my Jot¬ 
ting could not have appeared at the same time. 
It would not look so much like ‘ following 
suit.’” 
Trb gola wave which flowed in upon us to 
such an unprecedented extent last year, Is 
again approaching a Hood. Gold is pouring in 
upon us from foreign countries this year, al¬ 
though not to so large an amount as dnrJog 
1879. With a large balance cf exports over 
imports; with abundance iu our barns uud 
granaries and with gold coming from abroad 
and an enormous production from our mines, 
it certainly does seem as though the condition 
of tbe country should be satisfactory to the 
most exacting citizen. 
A noted entomoloiilst, referring to Mr. 
Marvin’s articles on “Our Insect Enemies,” 
in the last two issues of the Rural, writes us : 
—“The subject is one of much importance 
and one in reference to which scientists differ 
widely, perhaps on account of the fact that so 
little is known about it. The art icles may be 
useful in calling attention to the topic and in 
bringing out the observed facta and opinions 
of others. The idea of one man inoculating 
the locusts witli “ yeast poison ” reminds me 
of the old lady’s attempt to keep back the 
ocean with a mop. If the Missouri ran only 
yeast it would not suffice for that purpose. 
The propagation of fungi in insects depends 
very largely on climatic conditions.” 
Loss or Large Full-Grown Animals.— It 
is astonishing that people will coutinue to 
ship those across the ocean, after tbe repeated 
losses for years past in transportation. Out 
of cloven highly valuable Clydesdale horses re¬ 
cently shipped at Scotland for the United 
States, four were lost on the voyage. This 
is only one specimen of dozens of similar 
losses that have taken place thiB year, and 
more particularly among the fat cattle 
shipped for F.uglund, As these are not so well 
stalled on board ships as horses, the percent- 
age of loss is greater among them; so great 
sometimes as to he more tliau the profits real¬ 
ized on the auimals surviving, after being 
sold in the English market. Is there no hu¬ 
manity left In the hearts of shippers for the 
poor, dumb auixualB? 
Now that our foreign grain trade has be¬ 
come so enormous and promises to maintain 
its present proportions, it becomes a very 
serious problem how the ocean carriage of 
grain can be made safer than it is. More graiu- 
hulen ships are lost than any other kind, and 
this seems to be unavoidable while grain la 
curried in balk. Theshlfimg of aeargo during 
a storm throws u vosbcI on her beam ends ; a 
leak causes the grain to swell, which bursts the 
Gap, and no art of the shipowner can stow a 
cargo of grain so as lo hold down the enor¬ 
mous weight when tbe ship rolls and pitches 
in a heavy sea. For the four years past, the 
recorded losses of graiu ships has been 32, 
with 250 lives, and l,r>00,00(l bushels of grain. 
Here is an opening for inventive genius to 
provide a secure method of loading such ships. 
Red Berkshire Swine.— 1 The National Live 
Stock Journal says that a Mr. Miller of Iowa, 
has a large herd of these, and realized in July 
for a lot of liOUead, sold in Chicago, ten cents 
per 100 pounds higher price than was obtained 
tor any other fat swine on the same day. The 
lot averaged, atone year old, 365 pounds each. 
We should like to know what authority Mr. 
Miller has for calling his swine “Red Berk- 
sliircs;” for none purely red were ever bred in 
that district of England to our knowledge ; 
hut the original Berkshires were a red ground, 
well spotted with black. Are not these Miller 
swine simply “Jersey Rudssuch as have 
abounded a long time In the State of New Jer¬ 
sey, and arc now spreading elsewhere '< These 
are marked like the original Berkshires, are 
of larger size, coarse In the bone, with great 
Hop ears. They are a thrifty, hardy race, and 
attalu heavy weights al an early age, but do 
not fully mature till two to two and a half 
years old. 
“The system of eusllage has but one enemy 
Lo fear, and that one is the scientific agricul¬ 
tural writer, who knows nothing by practice 
concerning It, but who sees a great revolution 
ip agricultural methods impending, and who 
wants to hang on lo the car of progress, so 
that when the result is achieved he may claim 
credit for advocating a new system, which his 
crude, Impractical and theoretical advice only 
seemed to delay and endanger.” Thus writes 
Mr- Jobu M. Bailey, In the columus of a re¬ 
spected contemporary, in opposition to a cor¬ 
respondent who ventures to oppose some of 
his statements. Tho “system, of ensilage 
has one” other “euemy to fear," we opine. 
It Is the statements of a man, who, riding 
upon the ensilage hobby, introduces to tho 
public Blount’s Yvbile lTolific Corn as a new 
variety of Iris own, charging three times the 
amount per bushel for whleu it can bo pur¬ 
chased in the market, and appropriating the 
Rural Nkw-Yohker's engraving as his own 
picture of this new variety, lo which without 
any right whatsoever he gives the name of 
Mammoth Ensilage Becd Corn! This reckless 
appropriation of the variety of corn to produce 
which cost I'rof. Blount no little labor and 
cafe, to say nothing Of the equally flagrant use 
of our engraving as his owu, is apt to beget in 
tbe public mind grave doubts of anything the 
offender may say with regard to ensilage. 
b'alxux in nua falfnis in omnibus is a pretty 
correct old adage. 
We publish the following, with much pleas¬ 
ure: “1 am sorry to learn that by Inclosing 
in a letter to you a brief statement or two 
in regard lo corn sugar, you have so far mis¬ 
taken my purpose and motive as to suppose 
that I intended to give yonr readers simply a 
rehash of matter which had appeared first or 
simultaneously in other papers. You do me a 
great wrong. It is true, indeed, that tho very 
brief statement whleh you published did ap¬ 
pear in three or four newspapers about the 
same time—and that it came from me; but it 
was intended to correct a tissue of misrepre¬ 
sentations and mistakes which were being 
ludustriously circulated to the, disparagement 
ol the Department of Agriculture. I deemed it a 
fitting introduction to the series of original 
articluB, which In good faith I proposed to 
furnish you for publication solely in your 
paper, and which in like spirit, I doubt 
not, you wrote me your desire to accept. 
The statement bore upon its face the evidence 
of being a copy, but perhaps I did not say so 
—aud thus blundenugly exposed myself to 
your criticism. Your remark in tho column 
of “ Brevities” is just and wholesome in its 
application to a certain scalawag method of 
advertising uccasioully prcvuleul, aud to those 
who practice it. but do me the credit of be¬ 
lieving that those remarks do not apply to 
me either In the “ present” or any other “ in¬ 
stance.” F. I,, Stewart. 
