676 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCT. 9 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELDKRT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCT. 9, 1880. 
Silver Chape Wheat.— We have 
now thrashed our Silver Chaff wheat. 
This it will be remembered wrb of all 
kiuds that most injured by the Army 
Worm. It was upon this plot that our 
chickens were turned which, while feast¬ 
ing upon the worms, destroyed also a 
good deal of the wheat. The yield of 
two plots of Silver Chaff—together less 
than two - thirds of an acre—was but 
ten bushels. Nevertheless our own im¬ 
pression is that under the same favora¬ 
ble conditions, it would have yielded 
more grain than any of the others. Act¬ 
ing upon this we have sown Silver Chaff 
instead of Claweon whioli for six years 
had been our choice, as it is at the pres- 
sent time that of three-quarters of the 
farmers of Long Island. We regret that 
the press of our own farm work did not 
enable us to commend this wheat to our 
readers earlier in the season. 
The Apple Crop.— This is unprece¬ 
dentedly large this season, and thousands 
of bushels of the early crop are said to 
be rotting on the ground at the West, as 
they are not paying there even as stock- 
feed, or to be made into cider. If prop¬ 
erly gathered, packed, and shipped, the 
larger sizes of fair, smooth Winter fruit, 
may find a good market abroad. The 
English Magazine of Pharmaoy says, if a 
soft kind of tissue paper is soaked in a 
solution of salicylic acid, and dried be¬ 
fore it is used, and each apple be en¬ 
veloped in three or four folds of this, and 
precaution be taken to prevent the bruis¬ 
ing of the fruit in gathering, storing, pack¬ 
ing and shilling, the salioylicated tissue 
paper envelopes assist much in preserv¬ 
ing the fruit and retaining its fresh, aro¬ 
matic taste. This tissue paper is very 
cheap, and the method of preparing it is 
very simple. It has only to be dipped 
once in the solution and then dried. 
DRILL BROADCASTING WHEAT. 
At the solicitation of one of our im¬ 
plement friends, we were induced to try 
a set—or rather part of a set—of drill 
tubes so constructed as to sow wheat 
broadcast. The tube is spread out at 
the lower end V-like, while a round cen¬ 
ter piece and a wire are bo fixed as to 
scatter the seed as it falls. This it does 
with more evenness than it could possi¬ 
bly be sown by hand, while the 6eed is 
deposited as deep as need be and well- 
covered. Five of those tubes were put 
in the place of the ordinary tubes, leav¬ 
ing four of these. Thus, it may be seen, 
ten of the broadcast and eight of the old 
tube drills would alternate in the field. 
Thus far we are only enabled to note 
that the seeds sown by the old tubeB were 
the first to germinate. The tfieory of the 
broadcast drills seems to us a very rea¬ 
sonable one. It seems to combine the 
advantages of both drill and broadcast 
sowing. Our test has been upon a four- 
acre field, and we shall in due time re¬ 
port results. 
ANOTHER OLEOMARGARINE FRAUD. 
For a considerable time the convic¬ 
tion has been inevitable here among 
dealers in butter and others interested iu 
honest transactions in agricultural pro¬ 
ducts, that a large amount of oleomargar¬ 
ine was annually exported under the 
name of butter. Every day the stuff is 
fraudently sold in hundreds of stores iu 
this and other cities under this name; 
and it was only natural to suppose that 
those who, reckless of exposure and pun¬ 
ishment, barefacedly perpetrated this 
fraud upon their fellow-citizens would 
not hesitate to repeat the swindle in for¬ 
eign markets in which their cheating 
would subject them neither to disgrace 
nor chastisement. Investigation has 
fully confirmed this supposition. and lately 
President Parker, of the Produce Ex- 
change, in behalf of the butter dealers of 
this city, and indirectly of the dealers 
and producers of butter all over thecoun- 
try, wrote toSeoretary Bherman c mplaiu- 
ing of the lack of discrimination between 
butter and oleomargarine in the statistics 
of exports from this port. 
In reply to this letter, Mr. Joseph 
Nimmo, Jr., Chief of the Bureau of Bta 
tistios of the Treasury Department, writes 
that the statistics of domestic exports 
now give the quantities and values of 
butter separately from those of oleomar¬ 
garine, and that the acknowledged ex¬ 
ports from the port of New York during 
the year ending June 30, 1880, amounted 
to 31,061,610 pounds of butter, valued at 
$5,179,071; and 19,883,320 pounds of 
oleomargarine worth $2,581,317. These 
figures make the butter average only 
about 16;} cents per pound, and the oleo¬ 
margarine a trifle over 13 cents. Even 
this margin, however, is amply sufficient 
to induce such unscrupulous men as some 
of the oleomargarine dealers, to ship 
their concoction as butter, so as to get 
butter prices for it. 
The law under which our export 
statistics are at present obtained give 
ample opportunities for such fraud¬ 
ulent transactions, inasmuch, as they 
merely require that the “manifests” of 
the exports shall be sworn to, before a 
clearance shall be granted for a foreign 
port, without providing for any examin¬ 
ation of the merchandise to verify the 
correctness of the representations made in 
the manifest. Accordingly, the difficulty 
in obtaining the correct statistics of the 
exports of these two products—one of the 
dairy and the other of the shambles— 
lies not in any culpable carelessness in 
the Customs officers, but in the fraudulent 
description of oleomargarine as butter in 
the sworn manifests. To remedy this de¬ 
fect, it snould be provided that where- 
ever any doubt exists of the character of 
goods exported, they should be examined 
by experts before shipment, just as, un¬ 
der like circumstances imports are fre 
quently examined to prevent impositions 
upon the revenue. 
THE GREATEST YIELD OF IN¬ 
DIAN CORN ON RECORD, 
Produced under I tiexpenafve Cultivation, without 
Farm Manure ! (!) 
OVER 150 BUSHELS OF BLOU.VTS CORY 
(SHELLED) TO THE ACRE ! 
No less titan 300 bushels of Chester 
Co., Mammoth Corn (ears) per acre ! 
(The following dispatch from the Rural 
Farm comes to us as we go to press. Eds.) 
Rural Fakh, Oct., 2nd. 1880. 
We were prepared for a great yield of 
Chester and Blount. But the yield is so 
remarkable that we shall not ask our 
readers to accept our statements alone, 
but shall have them examined and cor- 
robated by well known agriculturists 
whose testimony cannot be doubted. 
The Chester Co. must yield, from esti¬ 
mates thus far made, not less than 300 
bushels of corn in the ear to the acre. 
We have holies it may yield as high as 
325 bushels. The Blount, judging from 
what we have already measured, will 
yield over 150 bushels of shelled corn 
per acre. Readers will bear in mind 
that these estimates are not based upon 
the product of 6inall plots which have 
been richly manured and carefully tended. 
We speak only of the yield per acre. 
The field upon which the Blount corn 
has been raised, has received no farm 
manure in seven years. It had been 
mown and in pasture during that time. 
The sod was plowed under in early Win¬ 
ter and and this Boring was thoroughly 
harrowed and rolled. The corn was 
drilled iu twelve to fifteen inches apart, 
the drills four feet three inches apart. 
One dressing of concentrated corn fertil¬ 
izer at the rate of 300 pounds to the acre, 
was given previous to the last harrowing. 
When the corn was several inches high, 
it received another application of the 
same fertilizer, at the rate of 100 pounds 
per acre, and when eighteen inches to two 
feet high, another of 100 pounds of con¬ 
centrated potato manure. The field was 
cultivated four times—twice with culti¬ 
vator, twice with hoe—always flat, all 
hilling up whatever having been oareful- 
ly avoided. 
The field under Chester we have always 
considered the poorest of the farm. It 
had not been cultivated in fourteen years. 
The sod over a portion was quite worn- 
out and the soil, which is gravelly, was 
as hard as a briok-bat. This was plowed 
and only 300 pounds per acre of corn fer¬ 
tilizer sown (all iu one sowing), no farm 
manure of any kind being used. Like 
the field under Blount, it was thoroughly 
harrowed and rolled, the seed drilled in, 
the drills three and a-ha If feet apart. It 
was cultivated the same as the Blount 
field in all respects. Whether the Blount 
or Chester will yield the more shelled 
corn has not yet been determined. Rural 
readers, when all the facts of this im¬ 
mense yield are presented, may judge for 
themselves to what it is due. It is 
apparent that it is not due to rich soil or 
high manuring. The kinds of corn, 
method of planting, and cultivating, 
alone remain to be considered. 
THE RAILROAD POWER. 
The West has a vital interest in the 
strict guarding of the growth of the great 
railroad power of the nation. To curb 
or restrain that power there are two 
methods which may be used. The first 
is to enable the country to become as 
far as possible independent of these grow¬ 
ing institutions of wealth and power, and 
seoond to create such a competition as 
will regulate traffic to some extent in 
the interest of those having goods to 
be transported. In the last instance the 
railroads become a great middle power, 
living out of the profits between the pro¬ 
ducer aud consumer no less than before, 
although their profits may be dimm¬ 
ish ed. 
In the first instance, so far as each 
section may become self-contained aud 
independent, so far may the profits be 
kept at home, or not paid to a power 
living upon producer and consumer, but 
producing nothing and consuming but 
little. 
Aud here the whole question of rail¬ 
roads is opened. There is no doubt of 
the benefit of the railroads, both to the 
far-apart sections of a country, and to 
the morelocal traffic. But the prosperity 
of a railroad is in the necessity one local¬ 
ity has for the products of another, aud 
of each for the markets of distant sections. 
Did each section produce all it con¬ 
sumed, it would pay no profits to rail¬ 
roads. Did each section consume all it 
produced, it would not be obliged to 
search for markets abroad. The ques¬ 
tion then arises, does each section so 
produce and consume as far as is practi¬ 
cable? We think not. as is illustrated 
all the time in the growing of new man¬ 
ufactories all over the interior, rendering 
the transportation of raw material and 
provisions to the seaboard less and less 
necessary, and also causing less demand 
for the return of manufactures. 
Ills steadily becoming more and more 
aparent that it is better to move the ma¬ 
chinery and the consumer to the raw ma¬ 
terial and the provisions, and to export 
the surplus manufactures, than to carry 
the raw material and provision to the 
machinery aud consumer aud then return 
the product. Bo far as this economy is 
practised so far the country is independ¬ 
ent of railroad traffic. 
Whether it is for the interest of the 
nation to create and support a gigantic 
railway system of long transportation, 
for the sake of the division of labor, and 
the greater number of consumers thus 
provided, with the market for iron and 
mechanical labor thus afforded, is for 
the public to decide, but that decision 
will no doubt be iu favor of the greatest 
economy to each section. Did the East 
raise its provisions, and did the West 
use up its raw material of various kinds 
and in so doing make its manufactures 
and consume a large portion of its pro¬ 
visions, the dependence upon railroads 
would be reduced to a minimum, and 
this is the influence gradually but stead¬ 
ily at work threatening the supremacy of 
the railroad power which would other¬ 
wise amount to a monopoly. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
A THREATENED HORSE DISTEMPER. 
It depends very much upon the condi¬ 
tion of the season, whether we shall be 
discommoded by a prevalent epizootic 
among our horses. Indications that an 
outbreak of this kind is immiment are 
already appearing in this city where up¬ 
wards of 4,000 horses are now sick. The 
distemper has also appeared in Boston 
aud in other cities, and some rural dis¬ 
tricts. There is little doubt that this 
disease, a true influenza, is malarial; or 
what is understood by that term. It iB 
epizootic because the couditious which 
produce it are prevalent and affect all 
those animals whose systems are pre¬ 
pared for it by a previously enfeebled 
or abnormal condition. This has been pro¬ 
duced by the rigorouB heats and dryness 
of the past Summer; and now if the fall 
Beason should turn out changeable, 
from warm to sudden oold, with rain 
storms and damp weather, we shall have 
every physical and atmospheric condi¬ 
tion favorable to the development of this 
disease, which is a catarrh of the mu¬ 
cous membranes of the respiratory organs 
accompanied with a low fever of ty¬ 
phoid type. 
There is no doubt that this disease, 
like all those which are known as epi¬ 
demic or epizootic, are prevontible by 
good sanitary precautions. It is well to 
be forewarned, “ItiB in the air” al¬ 
ready, and the precise moment when half 
the horses in a wide locality may be 
prostrated as by a sudden blow, every¬ 
where instantaneously effective, cannot be 
indicated. To strengthen the animals 
and put them in a condition of robust 
health iu the first thing to be done ; the 
weak and worn need rest and good nurs¬ 
ing ; the plethorio and strong require 
to be cooled by laxative and antiseptic 
medicines. Every stable needs to be 
cleansed, ventilated, disinfected and 
drained. Generally stables are too warm 
and close and the abundant puugent 
vapors constantly irritate the tender 
membranes of the throat, nose and luugs. 
and prepare these in the readiest man¬ 
ner for the attacks of disease. This de¬ 
fect requires immediate attention. 
When exposure to storms cannot be 
avoided, water-proof covers should be 
provided for the horses, and good care be 
taken to rub the coat dry after returning 
to the stable, and by careful attention 
prevent chilling of the body. Such 
chilling is wonderfully productive of 
what are known as malarial diseases. 
The germs and causes of these diseases, 
we believe, enter not so much through 
the luugs, as through the pores of the 
skin, or rather, beiug already in the 
blood, are prevented from escaping 
through the infinitely numerous pores in 
the perspiration by its sudden stoppage, 
through a chill. The sudden stoppage 
of this excretion through the skin throws 
a large quantity of poisonous matter 
brought to the surface for ejection, back 
again into the circulation, and also pro¬ 
duces all the febrile aud congestive re¬ 
sults. Our domestic animals are so much 
exposed, by our thoughtlessness, to these 
evils that the wonder is, not that they are 
sometimes stricken down suddenly and 
without warning, but that they escape 
diseases so well. 
The present opportunity is one that 
may well be used to impress upon our 
readers this fact, and to urge its careful 
consideration upon them. 
BREVITIES. 
The White Elephant potatoes, six in num¬ 
ber, displayed at the Queens (Jo.. Agricultural 
Fair, weighed eight and a-half pounds. 
Prof. Blount: You advise in selecting seed 
corn to select ouly ihe topmost ear when there 
are more ears than one. Suppose the topmost 
ear is not so large; the kernels not 60 perfect 
as the others—would yon still select it ? 
We read very favorable accouuts of the 
Beauty of Flebrou Potato in the agricultural 
press of many different sections. We hope 
our second venture in the dissemination of new 
potatoes may prove as gratifying as the first. 
Of the 13 ears of Chester County Mammoth 
Corn, grown at the Rural Farm, which took 
the first premium at the Queens County Agri¬ 
cultural Fair, five of the best weighed eight 
aud a quaiter pounds. They bear 4,984 kernels 
or an average of 99(5 4 5 each. They are from 
16 to 22 rows and average one foot in length. 
The longest is lity inches. 
October 1st.—VVc have to-day completed 
the sowing of 61 different varieties of wheat— 
for the most part new varieties or those very 
little known. While indebted to many of our 
subscribers for specimens sent, onr first thanks 
arc due to the farm Superintendent of the Ohio 
State Agricultural College, Mr. Thorne; Prof. 
Tracv of the Missouri Agricultural University, 
and Prof. Blount of the Colorado Agricultural 
College. 
A remedy for itching tails and manes of 
horses is to wash the parts thoroughly with 
strong carbolic soap-suds as hot as the hand 
can well bear. If this, repeated two or three 
times per day for a few days, does not effect a 
cure, then dress the parts with petroleum lamp 
oil. But if the itching iu the tail comes from 
worms in Ihe rectum, then inject strong salt 
water into it and rub the outside of the same, 
directly under the tail. 
An excellent way of disposing of some of 
our superabundant apple crop is attainimr ex¬ 
tensive dimensions. Last Saturday the iieet of 
steamers leaving this port for Europe took 
out the largest quantity of apples ever ex¬ 
ported in one day. Of the vessels bound for 
Liverpool one had on board 7,5(K) barrels of 
apples and another 5,000. The low price at 
which the JruLt can be sold in Europe must ob¬ 
tain for it a largo sale, and its fine quality once 
known is sure to maintain for it iu future a 
profitable market. 
Major Freas advises to pack apples iu dry 
barrels, aud keep them under a rin d, protected 
against rain or moisture, to remain there until 
late in November and freezing weather ap¬ 
proaches; then to remove them toaco)d,dry cel¬ 
lar, aud hoaded-up the barrels, iB as good a any 
way, where the quantity on hand in ia>ge, and 
the purpose is to keep them over winter for 
Spring sales. In tact, he has known apples 
put up in this way, that have been preserved 
souud and good into June ! 
Mr. John Clat. Ob., of the English Agricul¬ 
tural Commission, which visited the Uuiied 
States last year, says in his report: "The 
splendid herds showed an immense wealth 
among the farmers, and the labor of years in 
improving these will result undoubtedly In a 
great financial success, and a lasting benefit to 
the country, because we have always observed, 
that a country which abounds in flocks aud 
herds supports a well-to-do race of people.” 
These remarks are no less true than encourag¬ 
ing to our live stock breeders of all kinds. 
