740 
THE RURAL T NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 6 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New Yoric. 
SATURDAY, NOV. 6, 1880. 
Now that the end of 1880 draws near, 
let us say to those of our subsreibers who 
do not wish to renew for another year, 
that they need not trouble themselves to 
write us to that effect. All names pass 
off from our subscription list when the 
subscription term expires. This is our 
invariable rule. The number on the 
printed address of every subscriber is a 
constant reminder of the end of the sub¬ 
scription term. 
-» ♦ ♦ 
The fact is that canned tomatoes are 
just as good iu every way as fresh toma¬ 
toes. Properly cooked they cannot be 
distinguished. It matters, in point of 
fact, very little which is the earliest 
tomato—whether the crop is great or 
small it is always greater than the de¬ 
mand—or what are trilling differences 
between varieties. Canning establish¬ 
ments prefer large, smooth tomatoes— 
and herein the requisites for home use 
and the market agree. 
- -♦♦♦ - 
Every one admits that in the wind 
power of the country blowing to waste, is 
a source of all the power that could be 
wished, could it be curbed or harnessed 
into service. The windmill is the best 
and only thing yet for utilizing this 
power, but supposing a man, instead of a 
dam and pipe and turbine wheel should 
simply set a float wheel out in mid¬ 
stream and depend npon the natural sup¬ 
ply of water 1 , sometimes less and some¬ 
times a flood, what would be said of him ? 
Is there no means by which the winds 
may be directed to a certain purpose? 
The field is as promising a one as many 
others were when inventors and dis¬ 
coverers began their labors. 
-- 
Keep accounts and know precisely 
what is done, and is doing, and how 1 the 
business of the farm is paying, in what 
particular it is paying, and where it is 
losing. Panning does pay. It is the 
most profitable business in the world. 
The loose and careless manner in which 
it is generally carried on would utterly 
wreck any less profitable business. There 
was once a man who made certain attach¬ 
ments for looms known as “pickers,” 
and prepared the raw hide from which 
they were made himself. But he thought 
it was a more cleanly and belter business 
to buy the hides and merely cut them up 
and make the pickers. So he bought the 
hides from a neighbor, and the first year 
he was overwhelmed with debt and sold 
out, and Iub neighbor became rich by 
curing hides. The unfortunate man made 
money so fast before, that he never 
troubled himself how it was made, and 
only learned too late that one part of his 
business was profitable and the other was 
not; but then he had given over to his 
neighbor the profits and kept the losses 
for himself. It is much the same with 
farming, for no one can tell where he is 
losing or making money, without ac¬ 
counts. Just now is a seasonable time 
to consider this matter and to begin a 
new and more reasonable and safe system. 
TO INCREASE THE PROFITS OF THE CORN 
CROP. 
We do not claim that our yields of 
Blount and Chester are the greatest ever 
before produced, but that they are the 
greatest yields produced upon consider¬ 
able areas and afc so little expense. 
We do not know what useful informa¬ 
tion is gained by trials of farm plants on 
small plots when treated in a way not ap- 
licable to ordinary field culture. It is 
nown that at the rate of over 200 bushels 
of shelled com per acre has been raised 
on fractions of an acre, which have been 
richly manured and hoed and raked as if 
they were garden plots. Dr. Chamber- 
lain, who took the first prize for Blount’s 
Corn offered by the Bubal, raised at the 
rate of 190 bushelB per acre on a plot 33 
feet square. But the plants were treated 
to liquid manure, and otherwise an amount 
of labor was given to the plot whioh cost 
more than the corn was worth. We do 
not want to know how much corn, wheat, 
oatB or potatoes can be raised to the acre 
regardless of Cost, but how much we can 
add to our present yiekJn with less than 
a proportionate addition to the cost of 
producing them. Since to ascertain that 
we may greatly increase the yield of our 
crops only as the cost of production is 
increased is of no practical value to the 
farmer, we must ask, are there simpler, 
less expensive methods by which we may 
increase them ? That this question may 
be answered in the affirmative, our late 
yields of com are offered in proof, pro¬ 
duced as they have been at a cost no 
greater than that with whiek ordinary 
yields of 60 bushels are produced and by 
a system of planting and cultivation quite 
different from those adopted by good 
farmers generally. 
♦♦ ♦- 
COMFORT FOR THE CONQUERED. 
Writtno before the settlement of the 
political struggle what can be read only 
after its outcome will be known to all, 
our words here can have no special refer¬ 
ence to either party. To the victors, to 
whichever side they may belong, we would 
merely counsel moderation in their first 
hour of exultation ; to the vanquished 
we would offer a few words of consola¬ 
tion. A comparatively small number of 
them, however, will be downcast because 
their aspirations for office have been dis¬ 
appointed ; for these words have no 
solace, and if they had a superabundance 
we would not offer a monosyllable. The 
depression of the vast bnlk, however, will 
be due to an honest belief that the pros¬ 
perity of the country, if not mined, will 
be at least jeopardized by the sucoess 
of their opponents. Out upon such a 
conceit! Which of us is unpatriotic 
enough to tolerate such a reflection on a 
republican form of government? Hav¬ 
ing an abiding faith in the American 
People, we cannot for a moment imagine 
that the triumph of either of the great 
factions whose struggle for supremacy is 
now agitating the country, can make or 
mar the prosperity of the nation. That 
is a blessing the People will always place 
above partisan success, and woe to the 
faction which in the time of its sway 
shall threaten the continuance of that 
prosperity or check its increase—its 
day of ascendency will be brief and its re¬ 
turn to power long-deferred. If the fear 
of the Lord and the love of country 
shall not prompt our rulers to wisely 
foster the welfare of the nation, the Uar of 
the People and the love of office are 
pretty sure to restrain them from foolish¬ 
ly injuring its prosperity. Cheer up, 
then, oh ye down-hearted! The nation 
is safe, and your day of triumph may 
come round—four years hence. 
-♦« « - 
FOUR YEARS' RE8PITE, 
By the time this shall have met the 
eyes of our readers the battle at the polls 
will have decided the issue of the political 
campaign. The lightning will have flash¬ 
ed the conqueror’s name to every corner 
of the land, and details of the victory alone 
will be waited for. The prophetB on one 
side will be jubilant at their foresight; 
those on the other exasperated at the per¬ 
versity of things iu generaL The victors 
will be temporarily wild in the first Hush 
of their triumph afc having saved the 
country; the vanquished momentarily 
depressed at their having failed to do so. 
On one side congratulations will be loud 
on the skill of the leaders and the ear¬ 
nestness of their followers. On the other, 
recriminations will not be silent on the 
blunders of the officers and the lukewarm¬ 
ness of the men. The oratorical and edi¬ 
torial “mud-slin'gers” will have suspended 
their unworthy work until the next local 
or national election, and the foul stuff' will 
have already begun to drop readily from 
the objects of their assault unless a pre¬ 
vious smirch of their own formation has 
given it a congenial sticking place. The 
rancor and bitterness of party warfare 
will have begun to subside into the friend¬ 
ly civility of neighborly intercourse. The 
banners, torches, transparencies and 
other gaudy paraphernalia of marching 
turmoil and partisan excitement will be 
on their ignoble way to the lumber room or 
j unk shop. The wheels of business, hav¬ 
ing passed safely over the quagmire of a 
political crisis, will roll with their usual 
ease along their customary tracks which¬ 
ever party is roadmaster. The men who, 
selfishly or disinterestedly, have been for 
months spending their tune in clamorous¬ 
ly attending to the affairs of the nation, 
will have begun to take thought of quiet¬ 
ly attending to their own. Yes, when 
our friends shall read this page the vic¬ 
tory will have been won, “ the country 
saved/’ and common sense and routine 
will have begun to resume sway. 
--- 
A GLANCE AT OUR COMPETITORS, 
Some idea of who our chief competitors 
are in the European wheat markets may 
be formed from the following statement 
of the amount of wheat on passage to the 
United Kingdom on Oct. 14, ’80. The 
heaviest amount on the way was from 
California and Oregon—3,912,000 bush¬ 
els. It must be remembered, however, 
that the voyage from the Pacific Slope to 
Great Britain, like those from some of 
the other places mentioned below, is very 
long, and that wheat is nearly always 
transported from such distant poinLs in 
sailing vessels, so that the amounts at sea 
at any one time from such countries and 
from places not so far away from which 
wheatis generally carried in steamers, form 
no criterion of the relative exports from 
the countries in the course of the year. 
The quantity on passage from the Ameri¬ 
can Atlantic* ports—including the United 
States and Canada—was 3,497,600 bush¬ 
els; of thiB the Canadian contribution 
must have been a comparative trifle. 
From Australia and New Zealand there 
were on the way 2,688,000, and from Chili 
864,000 bushels. All, or nearly all, the 
wheat from these places is carried in sail¬ 
ing ships, and the voyage is long and 
tedious. Egypt and British Xudia con¬ 
tributed 944,000 bushels—most of it 
doubtless from the land of the Pharoes. 
Bussia’s quota was unprecedentedly small 
for that date—only 144,000 bushels, of 
which 48,000 had left Taganrog and the 
other ports on the Sea of Azov and 96,800 
were from Odessa. All other countries 
combined contributed only 124,000 bush¬ 
els, making au aggregate of 12,173,600 
bushels on passage to the United King¬ 
dom. Many of the vessels, however, call 
at British ports only to receive orders as 
to the places at which they must deliver 
their cargoes, so that all this wheat will 
not necessarily be converted into British 
brawn and muscle. 
-- 
IS IT A MISFORTUNE 1 
No International Dairy Fair will be 
held this year here or elsewhere in this 
country. Has an International Dairy 
Fair ever been seen here ? Well, we shall 
not now argue whether the name under 
which the dairy show was held here in ’78 
and ’79, was or was not a misnomer—we 
merely mean that that sort of an Interna¬ 
tional Dairy Fair will not be repeated 
anywhere tlris Fall. True, this has beon 
a foregone conclusion for some months, 
but the official announcement was not 
made until last Monday afternoon, when 
a very small handful of the officers and 
managers of the moribund or defunct in¬ 
stitution met here to make up a plausible 
reason for the intermission. The Presi¬ 
dential election offered them the desired 
pretext, and itwas accordingly proclaimed 
that no fair would be held, because to 
hold it in the heat of the Presidential 
canvass would be to insure failure; or, 
barring this, to subject those interested 
in its success to trouble and expense 
for which no amount of success could 
compensate them. Back of this ostensi¬ 
ble reason, however, is the real one. The 
two former fairs were got up incidentally 
for the benefit of dairymen, but primarily 
for the advantage of a couple of rival salt 
dealers, and these having come to logger- 
heads, refuse to co-operate with each 
other, and so the Great International Dairy 
Fair has collapsed—at least for the pres¬ 
ent. Moreover, farmers everywhere, but 
especially at the West, have begun to be 
a trifle doubtful whether the benefit they 
obtained from the display of an array of 
packages of butter and cheese before 
sight-seeing city folks compensated them 
for the injury done to their business by 
the advertisement given to oleomargarine 
by exhibiting it at the same time. Well, 
by this time twelvemonth our farmers 
may have become enterprising enough 
to take a deeper interest and a more prom¬ 
inent part in the management of an exhi¬ 
bition peculiarly their own ; the rivalry 
of the salt men may have become less 
wrathful; the venders of oleomargarine 
may be less audacious, and— But among 
all the obstacles to an International Dairy 
Fair this year, one only will oertainly be 
absent next season—there will be no Pres¬ 
idential election. 
-- 
OH, FOR A PROPHET! 
In spite of the fact that the aggregate 
wheat crop is somewhat larger this year 
than last, the stock in the bauds of dealers 
is considerably less. • On Oct. 23 last the 
visible supply of wheat, comprising the 
stocks in granaries at the principal points 
of accumulation at lake and seaboard 
ports and the shipments by rail from 
Western lake and river ports, amounted 
to 17,480,091 bushels against 25,691,228 
bushels on Oct 25, iu ’79, or a decrease 
tins year of 8,211,132 bushels. The great 
rise in the price oi wheat last year, after a 
large part of the crop had left the hands of 
the producers, has led farmers to hold on 
to their wheat this year in the hopes of a 
like advance. Moreover, last year the 
indebtedness of the farmers was consider¬ 
ably heavier than it is now aud conse¬ 
quently more of them wereforcedto realize 
ou their crops at the earliest moment, to 
lift mortgages or pay interest on them, 
to meet other liabilities and often to ob¬ 
tain moueyforhouseholdexpenses. Iu the 
absence of pressure from this cause dur¬ 
ing the present season, many of them are 
anxious that a part at least of the great 
profits from their product, that went into 
the coffers of the dealers last season, 
should go into their own pockets this 
year. It should bo borae in mind, how¬ 
ever, that the rise last year was largely due 
to the most gigantic wheat speculation this 
country has ever witnessed, whioh proved 
ultimately disastrous to the managers 
of it. At present there are no signs of a 
similar movement, on the part of dealers 
this season, so that this factor in the pos¬ 
sible advance of prices will probably 
.have to be eliminated this year. In a 
Bhort time, too, navigation will have 
closed and the railroads are sure to raise 
freight rates, while iu Spring our wheat 
will have to meet competition from the 
surplus of all the wheat-growing nations 
of the world, some of whose harvests 
occur about the end of our Winter. On 
the other hand, the latest advices with 
regard to European crops show, at the 
best, no improvement on former reports. 
The average yield iu the United King¬ 
dom is reported considerably less on a 
somewhat larger acreage than we men¬ 
tioned week before last, making the ag¬ 
gregate yield about the same as that given 
by us. The quality of our wheat, t jo, is 
put down at 10 per cent, better than last 
year on the Pacific Coast, and from 12 to 
15 per cent, better in the rest of the coun¬ 
try. There is an opportunity for realizing 
a large fortune before the man who can 
accurately foretell the prices of wheat 
during the coming season. 
■■■ 
BREVITIES. 
All competing for our Golden Ovoid Man¬ 
gel little premium will,now send in Hie weights 
of the three largest roots at <»uce. We may 
call for them to be sent to the Rural office by 
express at our expense. 
If the rows of our Blount’s Corn had been 
uearer together ; if they had been three feet 
six inches instead of four feet three inches— 
would the yield of corn have been greater or 
less? Who can tell? Were we to act upon 
our present impressions and were we again 
planting corn for a great yield, we should 
choose three foot nine inches as promising 
a better yield than either of the other dis¬ 
tances. 
Justus this issue of the Rural is going to 
press, we are saddened by the news of the f-ud- 
den death, on Sunday night, Oct. 24, of Mr. 
R F. Johnstone, the able editor of the Michigan 
Farmer. While hie manly character endeared 
him to a large circle of friends, his indefatiga¬ 
ble labors and sterling honesty in the editorial 
chair make his death a heavy loss to the agri¬ 
culture of the country, and especially of his 
own State. 
It Is said that the fashionable dames of the 
City of London alone spend XI00.000 (say 
about half a million of dollars) on (lowers 
during the season; wlaut, then, must be the 
aunualcostof flowers for the whole Kingdom! 
Florists in the vicinity of London pay from 
$30 to $70 rent per acre for the land they cul¬ 
tivate, and yet many of them make small for¬ 
tunes iu the course of a few years in growing 
flowers. Violets alone have netted from $500 
to $ 1,000 per acre, and other flowers in pio- 
portion. But sometimes there is a glut iu the 
market, and little or no profit is then realised. 
Of laveudar water, about 28,000 gullous are 
annually distilled iu England. Of hyacinths, 
tu.lps. crocuses, tuberoses, pelargonium-, Lily 
of the-valluy, roses, bouvardiau, gardenias, 
fuchsias, myrtles, hydrangeas, mignonette, and 
some other flowers, such quantities are pro¬ 
duced that it would be impossible to give an 
account of them. 
Late advices from California indicate that 
in view of the great decrease in the wine pro¬ 
duction of France, owiDg to the ravages of the 
phylloxera, foreigners are already looking to 
that Si&to for a supply of wine. A leading 
German wine merchant has written to his 
San Fraucisco correspondent that he thinks 
the pure, unadulterated red wines of the 
Golden State will bo better appreciated in 
Europe lhau the Spanish wines of the same 
class, and inquiries have come even from 
Egypt as to thu character and extent of the 
vintage there. This is unusually large, amount¬ 
ing to about 10,000.000 gallons; yet this pro¬ 
duction is but a tilde iu comparison with the 
vintage of Franee before the ravages of the 
hylloxera bad seriously injured her vmeyatds. 
or the 18 years immediately preceding the 
French revolution of '48, the annual product 
averaged 800 000 000 gallons. Dmiug the Em¬ 
pire It .apldly Increased until in 181111 it 
was 1.865,000,000 gallons. In 1870 the dep¬ 
redations ot tnu phv lixera began to be se¬ 
riously fell, yet in '751 the vintage reached its 
highest point—2,330,000,000 gallons. Since 
then, however, there has been a steady decline 
to 1,120,000,000 in ’76; 1.506,000,000 in '77; 
1,306,000,000 iu '78, aud 600,000.000 iu ’7'J-just 
about the same product as half a century ago, 
There iB a standing offer of a reward of $60,000 
made by the French Academy of Sciences for 
the discovery of a letuedy .gainst tne pest, hut 
hitherto the only hope has been in tbe plautiug 
ol American vines, the roots of which appear 
to offer a greater resistance to the insect than do 
the native vines of any European country. 
