572 
SEPT. 41 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. SEPT. 4, 1880. 
We have made several statements 
against Dr. John M. Bailey, of Bel- 
lerica, Mass., of a very grave nature. 
If true, he is a man unworthy of 
trash If there is even a possibility that 
we may be wrong, Dr. Bailey should 
have the benefit of the doubt. We there¬ 
fore invite him to controvert our state¬ 
ments if he can, and ask our readers 
meantime to suspend their judgment. A 
marked copy of this will be sent to Dr. 
Bailey. 
--- 
Percherons for Shall Farms. —The 
West appears to be taking all the Per- 
cheron horses. But it seems to us that 
they are just what the 10 to 50-acre 
farmers of the East want for a horse of 
all work. A one-horse team is sufficient 
on a small farm, if the right kind of a 
horse is choseu—heavy, yet active; do¬ 
cile, yet spirited ; a good walker, yet 
able to trot at a brisk gait; strong, well 
broken, willing and safe. It is easy to 
make just such horses of the Percherous. 
In fact they are all that, but the break¬ 
ing, by nature. Such a single horse on a 
small farm is better for nearly every pur¬ 
pose than a pair of light horses. On a 
truck farm he fills the bill in every par¬ 
ticular, except for running the horse-hoe 
in narrow rows ; and if a second beast is 
needed for that use, a small mule, well 
trained, is better than any horse. We 
think a lively demand for Percherous 
wall spring up among the small farmers. 
Let Percheron breeders keep this in 
miud in training them. 
Save Yourselves While You Mat.— 
The duty of getting out of debt and keep¬ 
ing out of debt which the Bural has 
pressed upon its readers has, we have 
reason to believe, been acknowledged and 
acted upon by many of them. But still 
the farmers are to be counted by the 
hundred thousand whose financial man¬ 
agement is exactly of the sort of the 
“Western river character ” quoted by 
Mr. Chamberlain iu his “Western Fann¬ 
ing.” The returns of farming have, in 
most parts of the country, been excep¬ 
tionally large the present season. Three 
extra seasons have followed one another 
and enriched the country, though by no 
means always the farmer. It is more 
than likely that we may now have a 
similar succession of poor or moderate 
crops. Take time by the forelock, there¬ 
fore, O, indebted farmer! “Agree with 
thine enemy quickly whilst thou art in 
the way with fiim.”' Every creditor ap¬ 
pears like an enemy to the debtor who 
cannot pay. Buy nothiug you do not 
need—absolutely need—while a debt re¬ 
mains that may trouble you if next year’s 
crop should prove a failure. So may 
fearful disasters be averted, the home 
protected, and comfort in old age be se¬ 
cured. Settle up. 
A FORCIBLE COMPLIMENT. 
• _ 
One of oux friends sowed side by side 
a quantity of seeds of both the Early 
Minnesota Amber Cane, and what we 
call the Bural Branching Sorghum. 
Some time ago he reported te us that the 
Amber Cane was beating the Branching 
Sorghum all to pieces ,• that it averaged 
twice as many stalks to a seed ; that it 
was more leafy ; that it would continue 
to grow in a remarkable manner after 
being cutback ; that, iu short, it was not 
only a far better fodder plant than the 
Branching Sorghum, but the best fodder 
plant he had yet tried. We were much 
perplexed and a little mortified that our 
favorite sorghum should thus be so to¬ 
tally eclipsed, especially as the report 
came from one whose judgment and ac¬ 
curacy were not to be questioned. In 
due time the Amber Cane began to show 
its fiower panicles, when it was at once 
evident that the labels of the one had 
been given to the other and that what he 
took for granted was the Early Amber 
was in fact the Bural Branching Sorg¬ 
hum. 
•-♦- 
A HAY DRIER. 
A machine for drying hay has been 
used to some extent in England this sea¬ 
son, and in that extra-wet climate is 
found to answer a good purpose. It con¬ 
sists of two parts, both running with 
wheels for the purpose of taking it on 
to the meadows with facility. 
The first machine is a frame about 30 
feet long and 12 feet wide, supporting a 
sheet-iron reciprocating trough, along 
which the grass is slowly pressed as cut, 
and dried by hot. air. This is supplied 
from a furnace on another machine, the 
fan of which for the hot air is driven by 
an ordinary portable farm engine. Al¬ 
though still imperfect, the machine has 
worked quite satisfactorily. It dries 
about an acre of heavy grass per hour, 
and the extra labor required for this over 
ordinary suu-drying is only that of two 
men. In “catching” weather it would be 
cheaper to use the machine than to under¬ 
take to dry the grass without it. 
Where the rain ha8 destroyed so much 
grass after cutting, by mold*and rot, the 
two past seasons, as in England, and, in 
fact, as it does this more or less every 
year, a hay-drier becomes an important 
harvesting machine there, and at times 
might be found very useful for us here. 
We recommend the matter to the at¬ 
tention of our mechanics. We do not 
think it would require so much ingenuity 
on their part to get up a hay-drier as to 
make a grain reaper and binder, although 
it would be something more expensive. 
— ♦ »»- 
THE DROUGHT AND THE CORN CROP. 
For some weeks back an extremely se¬ 
vere droll gilt lias been doing very serious 
damage to the corn crop in many parts 
of the West and Northwest. Indiana, 
Illinois, especially the southern districts' 
Wisconsin and Kansas have suffered most 
severely. Last year these four States 
produced 075,800,000 bushels of oorn, 
and early in July, at the time of our crop 
reports, the prospect was unusually fav¬ 
orable for a still heavier crop this* year. 
The stand then waB remarkably fine 
while there was a large increase of acre¬ 
age iu Missouri and especially in Kansas. 
Good judges in various parts of these 
States now estimate that the drought will 
there cause a reduction of fully 30 per¬ 
cent., or about 200,000,000 bushels. In 
Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Kentucky and Ten¬ 
nessee, which last year yielded 432,000,000 
bushels, showers have from time to time 
averted the injury to the crop, which has 
been constantly threatened, and it is now 
probable that in these Slates last season’s 
aggregate yield will be obtained. The 
total com crop in all the States in ’79 
amounted to 1,544,899,000 bushels, and 
deducting from this the aggregate yield 
of the above-named States, the entire 
crop of the remainder of the Union 
was only 437,099,000 bushels. Tt is 
hardly likely that this amount will be 
materially augmented this year, especially 
as the increase of acreage has been 
mainly in the Western States where the 
crop has been seriously injured, or 
chocked enough to pi event an increased 
yield. It is likely, therefore, that the 
aggregate corn crop of ’80, despite the 
early promise of an immense yield, will 
turn out somewhat less than that of ’79, 
and already the rise in price of corn, both 
here and in Europe, portends that contin¬ 
gency. In the West, too, the prospect of a 
short crop of this indispensable cereal is 
already forcing on the market lean hogs 
and leaner cattle. The shortage in our 
hay crop will be all the more severely 
felt in the presence, of a deficiency in corn, 
Avhich, if abundant, would have proved a 
cheap and handy supplement or substi¬ 
tute. 
-- 
HINTS TO DAIRYMEN. 
less his butter is so well made and 
packed that it may be kept over for 
weeks or months without injury. Our 
readers may find frequent suggestions iu 
our columns from capable correspon¬ 
dents who are experts in dairying, and 
who are in no way adverse to giving the 
fullest iu structions to other dairymen ; 
and these suggestions will be found of 
much use to those who desire to avail 
themselves of every advantage that may 
help to make their business more profit 
able. 
It iH timely just now to call the atten 
tion of dairymen to the frequent practical 
articles on dairying which appear in our 
columns and which are specially applic¬ 
able to the subject under consideration. 
Last winter we published a series of 
articles written by a Winter butter 
maker which might now be read with 
benefit in reference to Fall packing. 
Fall-trade butter, from the fresh growth 
of grass which is now beginning to spring, 
as the cool, dewy nights and seasonable 
showers occur, is of as choice a quality as 
any. The success of the dairy business 
depends upon excellence of product and 
sales made when the highest prices are 
current. Doubtless the mere suggestion 
of these points will draw mature con¬ 
sideration to them from our interested 
readers. 
WHICH IS THE BEST 1 
The most enterprising and successful 
dairymen carry on what is known as 
Winter dairying. Every one cannot 
make butter in Winter, and the majority 
of dairymen aro compelled to do then- 
business in the Summer season. But no 
one is obliged to sell his product as soon 
as it is made, unless it is so made that 
immediate sale is necessary to preserve 
it from deterioration. If butter is well 
made and well packed it may be kept for 
six months with perfect safety, and some 
experts are convinced that the best-made 
butter ripens and improves in flavor by 
keeping, because the particular essential 
oils which give the aroma to good batter 
become slowly developed when the latter 
is perfectly well packed and preserved 
from the atmosphere. 
Manufacturers of goods rarely or never 
crowd their products on tho market as 
soon as they are ready for sale. They 
watch the markets, and the selling of 
their goods is one of the most important 
parts of their business. Their profits 
depend in a great measure on selling at 
the right time and holding oil' at the 
wrong time. It should be so with the 
dairyman. But he cannot hold off un- 
The extreme differences of opinior 
which exist in regard to important ques^ 
tions, of all kinds, are very remarkable, 
As regards agriculture and horticulture 
and the practical operations connected 
with these, these differences are as wide 
as in any other questions. One asln 
which is the best method, the best kind 
or variety of seed, of plant, root, animal 
or implement, and one says this and 
another that; and to ask such a question 
brings out a mass of contradictory opin¬ 
ion, whieh is disheartening to one who 
seeks for information with the hope of 
profiting by it. There is abundance of 
opinion but scarcity of evidence in re¬ 
gard to most of the questions which 
come up for solution. A farmers’ club 
spends two hours discussing some matter 
iu dispute, and at the end the men 
separate, each having the same opinions 
which he had before. One asks for in¬ 
formation and he gets a mass of conflict¬ 
ing statements of what has been heard 
or perhaps may have been done under 
widely differing circumstances and which 
are therefore perfectly uncertain and 
useless as specific evidence. Or one 
writes to his favorite paper and pro¬ 
pounds some problem, ami he is either 
answered iu a careful or cautious way 
that “it is probable so and so may be 
thus and thus," or some kind correspon¬ 
dents give their contradictory views in 
a way that is tantalizing and bewilder¬ 
ing. 
Truly facts are very scarce, because 
few seem to take pains to definitely fix 
the preliminaries of auy observation or 
accurately count, measure or weigh the 
results. You ask a farmer for some fact 
iu regard to some interesting occurrence, 
such as a fine yield of wheat, or how he 
made his premium butter, and he can 
rarely say how many acres there are in 
the field, how much seed or manure he 
had used, how much the crop cost per 
bushel, and if it was profitable or not; 
or bow much milk was set for a pound of 
butter, or tell anything in regard to it 
with certainty. 
It is too much to expect unanimity, 
even in regard to so simple a matter as 
the best kind of wheat or the best dairy 
cow. In truth, there is no one tiling 
that is best under all circumstances for 
any use ; but there are conditions and 
circumstances whioh are typical of a 
large number of cases, in which the simi¬ 
larity of requirements is such as tc 
bring all of them within a certain rule, 
and yet for want of exact knowledge, 
there is no precise information to guide 
an inquirer in regard to anything. We 
might here pertinently remark that this 
applies very forcibly to the proposed 
Experiment Station in the State of New 
York, or indeed to any other. There is 
no one place that is the best to carry on 
a set of experiments. There should, in 
fact, in anyone State, be duplicate or 
triplicate seta of experiments made on 
differing soils and in differing localities. 
Experiments repeated strictly in the 
western, central and eastern parts of any 
State under different circumstances would 
be far more vauable and useful than 
would one only made in one locality. 
--— 
BREVITIES. 
Farmers— now is your time to be happy, if 
ever. Wear smiling faces at the fair and 
let everybody see that you are in fact, as you 
ought to be, the most contented class of peo 
pie on the earth. 
We are glad to learn through English jour¬ 
nals that further and very decided improve¬ 
ments have been made in Sweet Williams, 
always to our view one of the prettiest of our 
garden herbaceous ornaments. 
We learn that C. A. Dana last Fall spent 
about three thousand dollars In the construc¬ 
tion of a cave for the cultivation of mush¬ 
rooms. He has employed a professional mush¬ 
room grower to tuko charge of itand naturally 
anticipates, it may be supposed, after so liberal 
a provision, that the results will prove com¬ 
pensatory, 
Members of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science now in session at 
Boston, have taken the iuitiatory steps lor the 
establishment of a Scientific Agricultural As¬ 
sociation of scientific men. Prof. W. J. 
Beale, of Mich., was elected President, and 
Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, Secretary. The 
meetings will be at the same time and place as 
those of the American Association of Science. 
A wei.t.-known seedsmau of this country— 
we may be pardoned for omitting his name— 
sent Beeds of -• A new Chinese Fodder Plant” 
to the Rural Farm. Much Interested iu all 
new plants of this character, we planted and 
labeled them with unusual care. From germi¬ 
nation until the formation of seed heads, the 
grass bore a familiar look which is now iden¬ 
tified as that of an old frieud Panieum milia- 
ceum millet. 
The annual importation of some $25,000,- 
000 iu flax and flax goods would naturally lead 
to the inquiry as to what is being done in this 
country to supply that demand at home. The 
crop of flaxseed increases each year, and so 
docs the importation of flax, fs there no 
profitable medium place In flax growing where 
the seed and the fiber may both be made a 
more profitable business than seed-growing 
alone? 
The Governor of this State has informed 
the Board of Control of the New York Exper¬ 
iment Station that the appropriation of $20,- 
000 will not be available until May next, and 
a committee has been appointed to examine 
affairs and recommend what should be done. 
No Chemist or Director has been appointed. 
The Board of Control will keep the manage¬ 
ment and employ 6uch chemist and others 
under their charge as may be necessary. 
Tub remarkable statement that the receipts 
from customs for the year ending June 30, 
1S80, are-$50,000 000 greater than for the year 
ending June 30, 1870, leads to the considera¬ 
tion of the fact that the United States must 
have sout away to the value of $200,000,000 
more for the purchase of foreign goods thau 
during the nreviousyear. Thi6 should stimulate 
capital and labor to discover these needs and 
to enter uew ventures in an effort to supply 
this demaud, 
Florida is an illustration of what can be 
done to aid the prosperity of a State where a 
systematic effort is made for that purpose. 
Soon after the close of the war special effort 
was made to advertise the advantages of soil, 
climate and products of that State, and the re¬ 
sult is an increase of 00 per cent, in the popu¬ 
lation in ten ycarB. There is no State or lo¬ 
cality in the Union but what has some interest 
or advantage for some purpose, and a care¬ 
fully prepared description of such advantages 
will be sure to bring its returns. 
At the late meeting of the American Asso¬ 
ciation for the Advancement of Science at 
Boston an organization of agricultural chem¬ 
ists was perfected. Dr C. A. Goessinann was 
elected president, and Dr. A. Ledoux, secre¬ 
tary, Drs. Jouson, Atwater, Caldwell, Shep¬ 
herd and another were appointed a commit¬ 
tee to revise by experiment and otherwise the 
methods now employed In America and Eu¬ 
rope In the analysis of commercial fertilizers, 
the report to be published and probably to 
form a standard for American chemists in 
these analyses. 
Early in the season, our most promising 
field of wheat was Silver Chaff. A heavy crop 
of clover aftermath was plowed under. Three 
loads of hog manure were spread upon the 
plot (half nn acre) and 100 pounds of lime 
superphosphate drilled in with the seed (Sep. 
20) three-quarters of a bushel being used. It 
was harrowed twice and after the seed was 
sown, rolled. Up to the time that the Army 
Worm appeared, we had never seen a hand¬ 
somer piece of wheat. This was one of our 
plots—as already noted—nearly destroyed by 
this pest. The yield could not have been over 
five or six bushels. 
From our own experience we advise farm¬ 
ers to sow wheat for this latitude about Sep. 
15. It Las been shown by many experiments 
that drilling in the seed will produce a heavier 
yield than broadcasting. Drill in not over 
oneauda-balf bushel per acre and boue flour 
at the rate of 250 lbs per acre. Roll the 
field only when the surface soil Is dry, whether 
it be sandy or clayey. A thorough preparation 
of the soil is—more than the amount of seed 
sown per acre—that which determines the 
yield. We should be gratified if those of our 
readers who have raised unusually large crops 
of wheat would write us as to their experience 
in the above particulars. 
Sale of Oxford Down Rams—M r. John 
Treadwell, of Wiebendon, Eugland, bad a sale 
of 50 of them on the 4th of August. Notwith¬ 
standing the low state of the sheep inter ?st in 
all breeds at present throughout Great Britain, 
these Oxford Down rams brought mostly a high 
price—$100 to $200 each of our money. The 
first 20 out of the 50, averaged nearly $90 
each. Wc observe that Mr. Cooper, of Coopers- 
burg, Penn., purchased two or three rams at 
20 and 32 guineas—($150 and $1(30) We have 
no donbt this will be a good tbiug for him, as 
Oxford Dowds are destined to become as pop¬ 
ular soon in America, as they now are in Eng¬ 
land. It will unquestionably be one of the 
best and most profitable sorts of sheep for us 
to breed for exportation. 
