8 THE RURAL HEW-YORKEB. JAN 5 
THE 
w'URAU NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1884. 
A CHANGE. 
We now club with the Inter-Ocean, in¬ 
cluding the Free Seed Distribution, for 
$2,65. With the Detroit Free Press and 
Household for $2.75. 
With the New York Times, including 
Free Seed Distribution, for $2.75. 
Subscribe through the Rural New- 
Yorker. Send to the above journals for 
free specimen copies. 
The Seed Distribution will be ready to 
send out very early this year, and it will 
be sent out precisely as announced, a 
thing we have never before been able to 
effect. 
Advertising patrons are again re¬ 
minded that our advertising rates as pub¬ 
lished elsewhere are invariable. There is 
no use whatever to write us with any view 
to modify these rates. 
---- 
We are sorry that grape authorities 
make so much of “foxiness” in grapes. 
Nine out of ten do not know what “foxi¬ 
ness” is, and 19 out of 20 do not object 
to it. “Foxiness” iu grapes that are good 
every other way is really no objection at 
all. Now do we raise grapes to please the 
one or the 19? 
—-‘ — 
The carp sent to the Rural by the l r . 
S. Fish Commissioner resemble in shape 
what is popularly known as the Sun Fish. 
But the markings, though darker, are 
more brilliant. They were about, six 
inches long. The card accompanying 
them said that 16 had been sent; but four 
were received. They arc shipped in or¬ 
dinary covered tin kettles with two holes 
in the top for the admission of air. 
-- ♦ » ■ ■ ■ 
We beg to say that we do not. know 
where cuttings or roots of the true Vic¬ 
toria Grape can be procured. We have 
given away every cutting we have, only 
reserving the twenty cuttings for the time 
essay. We beg further to say that the 
only way roots of the Rural New-Yorker 
Grape can he procured at present is 
through the prize essays. It will not be 
offered for sale in several years, either by 
the originator, Mr. D. S. Marvin, or by 
those who may purchase; the stock of him. 
- ♦ - - 
( God give us men! We have grown rich, 
powerful, learned, cultured, but we have 
lost manhood. We want, not creatures, 
but men in the pulpit, in the sanctum, on 
lecture platforms, before courts, on judi¬ 
cial benches, in legislative bodies, in ex¬ 
ecutive chairs. Yes, we want men on the 
farm, in the workshop, in our counting 
rooms. We need vurn everywhere. Men 
who have backbone, and grit, and snap, 
and fire. Men who are honest and honor¬ 
able, fearless and determined, able and 
just. God give us men! 
“ WE HATE THE RURAL AND ITS ED¬ 
ITOR.” 
A gentleman, quite well known as a 
writer and pomologist, called at the Ru¬ 
ral office a week or so after returning 
from the late American Bornological Con¬ 
vention held in Philadelphia. We were 
talking of the Kicffer Pear and other new 
introductions which the Rural had from 
time to time opposed, when lie said, in a 
matter of course way, as if there were no 
secret about it. “ These men just hate the 
Rural New-Yorker and its editor as 
well.” The words “these men ” referred 
to certain prominent fruit nurserymen 
who had been injured, cr w r ho had faucied 
they were, by our candid statements as to 
the value of certain fruits they bad intro¬ 
duced, or were introducing, which we had 
curefully tested, and respecting which we 
had expressed unfavorable opinions. 
Though somewhat prepared for this, 
the harsh words, “ hate the Rural and its 
editor ,” were a trifle startling, and we 
dwelt upon them for hours afterwards. ‘ ‘Is 
that just?” we asked ourselves. Is it pos¬ 
sible that anybody who reads the Run at. 
attentively can fail to see that our reports 
are impartial, and that we arc guided 
merely by a desire to guide our readers as 
t o what is worthy of their patronage .md 
what is not? Can it be possible that these 
prominent fruit-growers care only to sell 
the new plants in which they have inju¬ 
diciously invested their money, without 
any regard to the interests of those who 
are to purchase them? What is the object 
of an agricultural paper, and of test or 
experiment grounds? Are they merely to 
serve as a mouthpiece for those who use 
them as advertising mediums, and is the 
editor to praise things according to the 
value of the advertising patronage of 
those who offer them for sale? We should 
feel ashamed of ourselves if, in one single 
Instance, we permitted ourselves to think- 
less of anybody because be candidly dif¬ 
fered from us in Opinion, and that is the 
feeling we entertain towards those who 
“hate the RURAL and its editor.” We 
hope they may live long enough to know 
that a rural journal may do great good by 
testing new fruits and plants aud publish¬ 
ing, without favor, the results; while it 
may do great harm by indiscriminate 
praise, merely to invite the good-will of 
an advertising patron. 
-♦♦♦- 
FRANCE AND THE AMERICAN HOG. 
On November 27 President Gn'vy signed 
a decree abolishing the prohibition of the 
importation of American hog products 
into France, and the following day it was 
pi omulgated, to the great satisfaction of 
all lovers of our noble hog. Last Wed¬ 
nesday, however, the Chamber of Depu¬ 
ties refused to confirm the decree by a 
vote of 272 to 200, and by a vote of 280 
against 221 adopted an interpellation, 
made by M. Paul Bert, demanding a sus¬ 
pension of importation until a special bill 
on the subject should be discussed. In 
consequence of Hus adverse vote, a decree 
has just been issued again prohibiting the 
importation of American “salted meats,” 
except at Havre, Bordeaux ami Marseilles, 
where meats now in transit will be received 
subject to rigid inspection up to January 
20, after wliich date all importations of 
American hog products into France will 
be absolutely forbidden. In urging his 
motion, M. Bert laid special stress on a 
report, made to our Agricultural Depart 
merit by Dr. II. J. Detmers of Chicago, 
in which he asserted that, “diseased hogs 
passed his House daily, and that they ware 
sold cheap and shipped to Bordeaux and 
Havre,” apparently with the express pur¬ 
pose of poisouing Frenchmen. Dr. Dct- 
mers, however, charges M. Bert with mis¬ 
representation, demagogism and false¬ 
hood. It appears that the report referred 
to was made five years ago, and in it Dr. 
Detmers simply called attention to the 
fact that diseased hogs passed his door, to 
be slaughtered for the rendering tanks, 
not for the packing-houses. lie thought 
that this use of them might tend to 
spread hog-cholera, which was then very 
prevalent -in 1878 and 1879. The trichi¬ 
nosis scare had not then arisen, and of 
course no reference was made to trichime. 
As long ago as December 11 Mr. Town¬ 
send introduced into the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives a joint resolution in regard to 
the action of Germany concerning Ameri¬ 
can hog products, authorizing the Presi¬ 
dent “to prohibit the importation of any 
goods w hich, upon the advice of experts, 
he shall hold injurious to health, from 
those countries which, upon the same 
ground, prohibit the importation of Amer¬ 
ican products.” This resolution is broad 
enough to cover adulterated French wines 
so largely imported into this country. 
The resolution should be passed at once 
and promptly and rigidly enforced, 
- » ♦ «- 
PROPOSED LEGISLATION AGAINST 
AGRICULTURE. 
According k> the President’s late mes¬ 
sage to Congress, the ordinary revenue 
from all sources for the fiscal year ended 
June JO last, amounted to $898,287,581.95, 
and for the same period the ordinary ox pen 
ditures amounted only to $265,408,187.54, 
leaving a surplus revenue of $182,879,444, 
41, which was applied to the payment of 
the national debt. As a result, the only 
bonds now outstanding, which arc redeem¬ 
able at the pleasure of the Government, 
amount to only about $805.000,090, the 
remainder of the debt not being payable 
until 1H91 and 1907. Of the amount pay¬ 
able now at the Option of the Government, 
bonds to t he sum of nearly $200,000,000 are 
on deposit in the Treasury to support the 
national bank circulation, and it is not 
thought advisable by the President that 
these should be paid, as “such an exten¬ 
sive retirement of securities which are the 
basis of the national bank circulation 
would be such a contraction of the vol¬ 
ume of t he currency as to produce grave 
commercial embarrassments;’ 1 yet unless 
the revenue is greatly reduced, either by 
the lessening or removal of internal tax¬ 
ation, or of duties on imports, the sur¬ 
plus revenue will be large enough to re¬ 
deem the whole $805,000,000 within four 
years, in spite of the fact that Inst Con¬ 
gress reduced the annual tax and tariff re¬ 
ceipts of the Government “to the extent 
of at least fifty or sixty million dollars.” 
This excess of revenue is an embarrass¬ 
ment to the Government, which hardly 
knows how to dispose of it; an incitement 
to all sorts of extravagance and jobbery, 
for a teeming Treasury is an irresist ible bait 
to all who are disposed to seek private gain 
under the pretense of public service; and 
a grievous hardship to the great body of 
tax-payers who are forced to contribute 
towards the objectionable surplus. We 
are therefore strongly in favor of dimin¬ 
ishing it ; but we arc equally strongly op¬ 
posed to diminishing it in the ways advo¬ 
cated by several bills brought into Con¬ 
gress within the last two weeks, and 
by other schemes which, we are told, will 
soon be introduced. Most of these objec¬ 
tionable measures are totally unfair to the 
farmers of the country, as they seek to re¬ 
peal t he import duties on the raw materials 
which t he farmers produce, w hile retaining 
the heavy import duties which keen up the 
prices of the manufactured goods they use, 
Thus, while the prices of many things 
which farmers have to sell are to be re¬ 
duced by competition wjtli lower-priced 
goods from other countries, prices of goods 
which fanners have to buy are to be kept 
up, by the maintenance of the import du¬ 
ties on foreign goods that would compete 
with them. 
The last Congress reduced the duty on 
foreign wools, much to the just discontent 
of the sheep owners of the country, for 
owing to the reduction they received for 
this year's wool clip, on an average, five 
cunts a pound, or a total of $15,000,000, 
less than they would have received 
under the former tariff, and u bill 
now before Congress provides for a still 
greater reduction. It is true, another 
bill is before the House, seeking to restore 
the old duties on wools; but in flu* present 
temper of that body, the measure is hardly 
likely to meet with favor, unless the farm¬ 
ers of the country speak emphatically 
on the matter. A project which will 
doubtless soon be embodied in another 
bill, is to repeal entirely the duty on 
sugar, thereby diminishing the revenue 
by about $40,000,000 a year, and as a sop 
to agriculture to give a subsidy of two 
cents a pound to American sugar produc¬ 
ers, which would take about $10,000,000 
more, annually, from the revenue. The 
proposition to abolish the duty altogether, 
however, finds many more advocates than 
does the offer of a direct subsidy, which 
is opposed as unconstitutional and likely, 
if adopted, to establish a dangerous pre¬ 
cedent. 
THOUGHTS FOR FARMERS. 
There are no more important social 
questions now under consideration than 
those relating to the interests of the agri¬ 
cultural industry, and the position of the 
farmers in society. The main points at 
issue are involved ill the fundamental 
principle that ours is a “government of 
the people by the people.” It is essential¬ 
ly a reoublie, which word means literally 
an affair or business of the people. The 
word is derived from the Latin words, rex, 
a matter or concern, and //libitcos, pub¬ 
lic. This should be clearly understood 
in thinking over public matters; because 
it is tin* custom to compare American af¬ 
fairs and conditions with those of other 
countries, in which the people arc “sub¬ 
jects” of a governing class or of one man. 
A governing class is an aristocracy; a gov¬ 
erning individual is an autocrat or a des¬ 
pot. There is no other country in the world 
which has a government like ours except¬ 
ing Switzerland, although there is a little 
republic consisting of a few thousand peo¬ 
ple which has existed for centuries in Eu¬ 
rope, but it is a community rather than a 
government, and the republic of Mexico 
ns well as those of South America are not 
stable enough yet. to he worthy of com¬ 
parison, so that Americans ore very apt 
to lose sight of this fundamental priu 
eiple of their social fabric, aud in doing 
so submit to the loss of some of its advan¬ 
tages, in favor of a class not entitled to it, 
by reason of inferior numbers and actual 
influence and power. 
But numbers do not count. A flock of 
a thousand sheep are routed, oppressed 
and destroyed by a single dog or wolf, 
when they could trample it to pulp by the 
very force of numbers, had they the spirit 
and intelligence to do so. And so a thous¬ 
and men are swayed and led by one man, 
and very often to their serious detriment. 
The reason of this is that, this one man has 
a power which the thousand have not, and 
that is intelligence and persuasiveness to 
lead nnd to control the force and weight 
of that large number; or a certain instru¬ 
ment by which he can control this force 
and weight, as for instance, great wealth. 
So that the greatest dangers to the peace 
and happiness of the people in a republic 
actually spring from the very two causes 
which, were they rightly used, could only 
add to the enjoyments of these blessings; 
and these sources of threatened danger are 
surpassing intelligence and great wealth. 
But these cun only he wrongly exercised 
by persons w ho arc tempted by ambition or 
some other passion to oppress the people, 
and to rise to positions of still greater in¬ 
fluence by means of this oppression. Hu¬ 
man nature, however, is weak, and men 
are not to he trusted very often with such 
extreme power as would enable them to 
oppress their fellow men. 
A most conspicuous example of this 
danger is the existence of combinations 
among persons, who, singly, could not 
exert sufficient power to control the pub¬ 
lic, but who in combination may have 
sufficient influence to coerce the whole 
people and actually enslave them; for 
slavery is simply such oppression as will 
take from a man the fruits of his labor 
without compensation; and although not 
absolute, but only in degree, is still slav¬ 
ery of the most abominable and injurious 
kind. And this is now Hie really alarming 
danger which confronts the American 
people. An aristocracy of intelligence 
and wealth, unscrupulous and tyrannical 
in regard to the means by which they 
would perpetuate their control over the 
public, are rapidly growing into a vast 
power and force in our social and political 
affairs, and threaten to bind and enchain 
the people. And the people look on, and 
while they feel the bonds, yet submit, and 
will not exert the power they possess to 
escape from this actual, real, slavery. On 
the one hand, t here arc a few men combined 
into vast systems of monopolies, and on 
the other hand twenty millions of persons 
engaged In. or subsisting upon, agricul¬ 
ture, and twenty millions more, who 
live by labor in the various other indus¬ 
tries. And these few men are able to con¬ 
trol, if not to make, the laws by which the 
forty millions arc governed. If this is not 
an aristocratic government, then what is 
it ? And if our republic is not already an 
aristocracy, why is it not ? If it is not, it 
is simply not so, because the farmers are 
quietly submitting to this invasion of their 
rights, believing it will be only temporary, 
and that the monopolists do not intend or 
wish to utterly subvert their freedom; and 
knowing their power to change it all, arc 
waiting until things become insufferable 
to sweep it all away with a breath. But 
there is danger in this course, and a long 
submission would only make the remedy 
exceedingly costly and difficult, w hen now 
it might be applied effectively and easily. 
BREVITIES. 
Turn over u new leaf. 
Did you learn anything during 1888 that 
will heip you during 18841 
Are you studying over what varieties of 
potatoes to plant next Spring? 
We are ready to feel very grateful to all of 
our old subscribers who will kindly seud us 
one new subscriber ft>r this year. 
Did you take the Rural’s advice and save 
potato balls lftst Fall? It. will soon be time to 
sow the seeds in {Hits, Every farmer should 
raise seedling potatoes. 
It is very plain to us that a rural journal 
cannot sell the seeds or plants or farm imple¬ 
ments that are announced in its advertising 
columns and at the same time inspire full con¬ 
fidence in the minds of its readers as to the 
disinterestedness of its views. Trade jour 
nals are nil right in their place. The Rural 
New t -Yorker has never in any case sold any 
article whatever, except the Rural New 
Yorker itself. 
Wk earnestly wish to impress it upon our 
readers that the present season is the time to 
think. Have yon i ruit i reee to buy In the 
Bpring ? Have you grape-vines or small fruits 
to buy? Have you grain, root or grass seed 
tobuyf if so, ran'! you improve upon your 
seed of lost, year? Or whom do you propo. a 
to purchase your fruit plants? Is lie trust 
worthy? Are you sure you will get the kinds 
you order, and not find out years lienee that 
you have been cheated, when years will he 
required to repair the damage? We shall 
rood beginjto announce the Seedmen’s and Nur 
seryim n’s Catalogues for 1884. We cannot but 
repeat our udvice to send lor tin m and core 
fully compare the one with the other, that 
you may order the seeds or plants best adapted 
to your land or climate, and that you may ol¬ 
der of those who will semi what you buy. As 
a rule, cheap seeds aud plants ure inferior. 
