4AN 29 
THE 
RURAU NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBKRT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1884. 
All essays competing for the Rural 
prizes should be sent to us by February 15. 
Tbc prizes will be awarded March 15 oi 
thereabouts. 
-- ♦♦♦• - 
OUK NOTICES OF CATALOGUES WILL BE 
found on page 58. It. is to. hoped that 
our subscribers will send for every one 
of them as well as for those which will 
be noticed in early subsequent num¬ 
bers. Compare them—study them. Let 
your children look them over. 
A respected friend says: “Some pub¬ 
lishers think that the business of a paper 
is to make money—a shamefully low 
standard in my way of thinking." 
- - -- 
Now, send for the catalogues—every 
one. Examine them; study them so that 
you may compare the one with the other, 
and order the best goods of the best houses 
and at the lowest prices. Remember that 
the beat seeds are never sold at low rates. If 
we desire a good article we must pay the 
price. _ ^_ 
“If a man has money he can not be 
convicted of any crime.” This has come 
to be a common reproach of our laws and 
courts. It is justifiable. Blackstone says 
that courts of justice are established to 
protect the weak. If he lived in America 
to-day he would say that they were to 
shield the rich and convict the poor. 
--- 
With all the praise that the Rural’s 
Blush Potato has received, we do not be¬ 
lieve it will ever become a very profitable 
market variety because it is not smooth 
enough, and because also the tubers often 
straggle in the hill. Unquestionably it is 
a heavy yiclder in many places, and the 
quality* has in all cases been reported to be 
excellent. 
-» » 4 - 
Probably a picture has never before ap¬ 
peared in any journal which so accurately 
shows the various breeds of poultry as 
that on our first page. The picture was 
drawn from a photograph—the photo¬ 
graph taken from a painting. We regret 
now that it was not printed on a supple¬ 
ment of heavy paper so that our readers 
might have it framed. 
Domestic Milling.. —In some of the hilly 
districts of New England, notably in Ver¬ 
mont, where the land is full of “laughing 
brooks”—such as seemed to Mr. Evans so 
out of place in a country where the law 
makes it an “ actionable offence to divert 
a rivulet”—the traveler will often see lit¬ 
tle door-yard water-wheels arranged to 
drive the family wood-saws and churns. 
It is a curious illustration of the rule that 
like causes produce like effects that a nre- 
cisely similar custom prevails in some parts 
of Japan. Travelers in that country tell 
of seeing a great many small household 
water-wheels iu the villages whereby the 
numerous brooks are utilized for every 
kind of domestic labor. The water-power 
is said to be applied in very ingenious | 
ways to the most varied purposes, among 
others to carpenter's work, to the husking 
and grinding of rice, the driving of silk- 
looms, etc., etc., etc. 
A friend whom we have great cause to 
respect writes us as follows: “You are 
doing good work in the Rural, generally 
on the side of truth and the laboring 
classes; but I always grieve to see in your 
columns any line favoring ‘protection,’ 
so-called, but which truly is an influence 
that everywhere and always builds up 
monopoly against the suffering poor. I 
am a free-trader, out-and-out, and the 
time is coming—I hope we may both live 
to sec it—when that reform against cry¬ 
ing evils will win in this country as in 
England. Even the. wool-growers are ill- 
advised iu their short-sighted, selfish and 
time-serving demands for ‘tariff.’ I am 
sad as I think of the heartlessly cruel few 
who feed on the life of the suffering and 
oppressed. But depend upon it, ‘there 
is a God in Israel’ (as General Butler once 
remarked, and as a greater than Butler 
has said) and ‘He will repay.’ It is gen¬ 
erally to your credit that ‘these men’ do 
‘hate’ you. It is a source of delight to 
me whenever I see you stand for the peo¬ 
ple against the 'idol-worshippers—the 
lovers of money ” 
Work hard friends, when you do work. 
Isn’t it better to do a certain amount of 
work in one hour than in two? Suppose 
you can spread a certain amount of 
manure or sow a certain quantity of seed 
between breakfast and dinner; isn’t it 
better to do so and rest or read during 
the afternoon than to take the whole clay to 
the same amount of work? Promptness, 
system, enthusiasm and a jolly spirit, are 
not seen ofteu enough among farm peo¬ 
ple. “Iam obliged to work from sun¬ 
rise to sunset, ” is too often the feeling 
that oppresses the farm hand. And so 
labor is diluted, diffused, watered, as it 
were, to make it go further We say, 
work with a will, and quit work early. 
Go to bed early and without the feeling 
that life is merely a routine of drudgery. 
We do not believe there is any real econ¬ 
omy in working one’s-self tired; in going 
to bed worn out and in rising with the 
dread upon one that the same tedious, 
mechanical drudgery is again to lie re¬ 
peated. If farmers could but bring them¬ 
selves to believe that it is as much a duty 
to mingle physical and intellectual occu¬ 
pation with 'social intercourse, it would 
be better for them in every way. 
-- - 
The injustice of the present system of 
State and local taxation was strongly set 
forth by Governor Leon Abbett, ol New 
Jersey, in his inaugural address at Tren¬ 
ton last Tuesday. “Our tax laws,” said 
he, “ demand immediate and radical 
reform. They impose unequal burdens. 
The only true rule in taxation is equal¬ 
ity. All property should hear its equal 
share of the public burdens.” Although 
most of the State revenue of New Jersey 
is derived from the railroads, $677,557 
having been contributed last year from 
that source against $140,000 from all 
others, yet there are many corporations 
in the State, that hold property which, 
under charters granted by previous 
Legislatures, enjoy to a great degree im¬ 
munity from taxation. The courts have 
decided that these charters are valid con¬ 
tracts, and that the State has surrendered 
its sovereign right over taxation. The 
Governor insists that though the State 
cannot violate the alleged contracts, it 
can assume its right of taxation by com¬ 
pensating the corporations, and he ad¬ 
vises that it should buy its way out of 
these old blunders, and, mrthermore, he 
proposes a constitutional amendment ren¬ 
dering it impossible in future for the 
Legislature to sell or surrender the State’s 
sovereign rights. New Jersey is one of 
' the oldest of the States; yet it has bar¬ 
tered away its rights to such an extent 
that it is commonly said to he owned by 
a few wealthy corporations. Its present 
_ condition should l>e a warning to the 
,, younger States in the West, which should 
’ never permit a corrupt or negligent Leg¬ 
islature to sell or surrender their sov- 
f ereign rights to the most dangerous of 
all our American institutions, nionopoliz- 
5 ing corporations. 
doubt hundreds, a9 in past years, will 
write to us reproachfully that they ap¬ 
plied but did not receive the seeds. But 
the names of those who do apply inclos¬ 
ing the stamp, are at once so entered, and 
those who do not receive the seeds may 
feel confident either that they did not 
scud the stamp or that the seeds have mis¬ 
carried. We are perfectly willing in the j 
latter case to duplicate as soon as we learn 
the fact. The distribution of the seeds | 
will be begun from the 10th to the 20th of | 
February. ' _ _ _ _ 
FIGHT FOR THE AMERICAN HOG. 
The bill introduced into Congress, as 
mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, 
retaliating on those nations that discrimi¬ 
nate against American products, has been 
favorably reported in the House by the 
sub-committee of the Committee on For¬ 
eign Affairs, to whom the consideration of 
the subject was assigned. This measure 
meets with general approval. The Cham¬ 
bers of Commerce of Chicago, Boston and 
several other large cities have requested 
the Senators and Representatives of their 
respective States to co-operate with and 
urge upon other members of Congress to 
pass the bill. The press in all quarters 
has spoken favorably of it. Nearly a 
dozen bills bearing on the subject have 
been introduced into Congress by Repre¬ 
sentatives from various States, a remarka¬ 
ble evidence of the unanimity of senti¬ 
ment over a wide section of country in 
favor of immediate action in the matter. 
Mr. Frelinghuyaen, Secretary of State, 
however, advises a little delay to see what 
effect the introduction of so many resolu¬ 
tions into Congress may have on the for¬ 
eign powers that discriminate against us, 
as well as the effect of the strong repre¬ 
sentations made to them by the Depart¬ 
ment of State. Already Bismarck has di¬ 
rected that an inquiry should he made as 
to whether the “exemption laws” which 
allow 7 the “free” cities of Bremen and 
Hamburg to provision ships w ith Ameri¬ 
can pork, should not be extended to 
Prussian ports. Prof. Virchou, the emi¬ 
nent German scientist, regards the em¬ 
bargo on American pork into Germany 
and France as “utterly illogical, unneces¬ 
sary and unjustifiable for sanitary reasons,” 
and declares that not a case of trichina? in 
American pork has been proven to exist 
in Germany for 10 years. These views 
he has embodied in an answer to a letter 
of inquiry from the French Assembly. 
The French Medical Commissioners sent 
to Germany to investigate the subject, 
have discovered no reuson for the prohi¬ 
bition of American pork. Many of the 
: French papers are urgent in favor of the 
immediate removal of the embargo. The 
Chambers of Commerce of several of the 
’ large seaboard cities of France have pro- 
tested against it. The German manufac¬ 
turers of woolen goods, of which we im- 
1 port about $7, (too, 000 worth a year, have 
' requested Bismarck to. cease his fight 
1 against the American hog. They fear an 
: embargo on their goods, the an aline colors 
I of which are more unhealthful than Arner- 
can pork. The wine-makers of France 
galling yoke. Even now, they have 
begun to say to the farmers and planters 
of the land: “Sell us your wheat, corn, 
meal, wool, cotton, rice, and other 
products at the prices we please to 
name or you shall be forced to keep them 
till they rapidly deteriorate or perish on 
your hands.” ' Thus obliging the pro¬ 
ducers to sell at their dictation on their own 
terms, they turn sharply around, after pos¬ 
session add a large percentage to the cost 
of these products, and then dispose of 
them to consumers at greatly enhanced 
prices, and pocket the gains they have so 
unjustly wrvmg from their victims. 
To put an end to monopolies and rings 
the people have thus far mostly asked 
their legislators to pass severe laws to re¬ 
press them. But the legislators have been 
slow and remiss in meeting these requests, 
and when partial concessions have been 
made, some loop-hole has been found in the 
law through which the oppressors could 
crawl unscathed to repeat their plundering 
exactions with impunity. Now, instead of 
depending on legislators, courts, and ex¬ 
ecutors of the laws, w T ho are often cheaply 
bribed to refrain from doing their duty, 
let the people take redress into their own 
hands, which with proper resolution and 
united, untiring action, they can easily do. 
In the formation of large general Granges 
they have already secured the means for 
their protection to a considerable extent, 
and they have now only to multiply them 
in a smaller way over the whole land to 
utterly crush and stamp out in a short 
time every monopoly and ring that is tri¬ 
umphing in its ill-gotten plunder and in¬ 
terest. To act with force and harmony 
delegates must, be chosen from town 
Granges to form a State Grange, and dele¬ 
gates again from this to form the Nation¬ 
al Grange. The latter would then be 
backed up by such an overwhelming num¬ 
ber of the people as to induce Congress to 
listen to the justice of its requirements 
and grunt them without delay. If this 
were not done, then let the people resort 
to political action and elect to every town, 
county, State and National office such per¬ 
sons only as would proceed forthwith to 
abolish all monopolies and rings. 
WILL YOU KINDLY READ THIS? 
Many of our subscribers say “Send the 
seeds;” but they inclose no stamp. Others 
say “Please find stamp for seeds;” but the 
stamp has been forgotten. Our readers 
will pardon us for saying that we are 
obliged to have a rule in this matter. 
Were no stamp required, there is no doubt 
that, we should receive more application* 
for the need distrihutions than me have ,v/h- 
\crib&rs. Now these seed distributions are 
too valuable to be thrown away or to be 
sent to persons who do not think them 
worthy of being planted and cultivated. 
The" distributions have never been made 
as a so-called premium , as all of our older 
readers are aware. There is uo charge or 
condition made for them except that our 
subscribers apply and send us a throe-ccnt 
stamp or its equivalent, which is less than 
the postage the Rural will have to pay. 
Inasmuch therefore as it would he unfair 
t,o those who do send the stamp if we were 
to send the seeds to those who do not, 
we have adopted the rule, which we shall 
not depart from, of sending them only to 
the former. 
There is but one exception to the above, 
viz.: those who subscribe for the Rural 
New-Yorker iu connection with other 
journals which club with it offering the 
seed distribution, need not apply. The 
seeds will be sent to them without applica¬ 
tion. 
At the close of the seed distribution no 
and Germany are also getting anxious 
with good reason, for very little foroigu 
wine that is free from injurious adultera¬ 
tions, is imported. If foreign govern¬ 
ments do not act promptly in this matter, 
we insist that our own Government should 
do so. ___ 
MONOPOLIES—RINGS. 
History informs us that the granting of 
a monopoly of any commodity to a favored 
few T , has ever been one of the most per¬ 
nicious measures that unprincipled des¬ 
pots who ruled with a rod of iron, could 
adopt against the general interests of their 
people. Monopolies are in effect nothing less 
than specially favored legal robbery; and 
rings, as now’ formed in the United States, 
are akin to them; and if both were thus 
always characterized, they would be fully 
understood by the community, and looked 
upon with that detestation they so justly 
and properly merit. Monopolies and rings 
render the people little better than slaves 
to vile, monied associations, whose 
whole study is to see how much can be 
extorted from their victims by a tyrani- 
cal persistanee in ill-doing. No pity is 
there for the poor and suffering; high¬ 
handed robbery is their creed, and to this 
they will adhere till a suffering com¬ 
munity rises in its strength and puts an 
end to their oppression. 
Monopolies and rings, we deeply re¬ 
gret. to say, during the past few years 
have obtained a favored footing iu our own 
free and independent country, and they 
are rapidly extending their evil influences, 
and if not checked at once, will soon 
override and subject the people to their 
BREVITIES. 
It is rather objectionable that we should 
have the same name for different vegetables, 
as, for example, Mayflower Tomato and May¬ 
flower Potato. 
J G. Bukbow' writes us that he has had 
people visit his part of the country fFisbkill, 
N. Y.) who have traveled the continent over 
and who say thev never saw anything to com¬ 
pare with the vineyards—not even those of 
California. 
Coke says that a “corporation cannot be 
excommunicated because it bath no soul 
It is true that corporations are soulless. We 
are very readv to admit that. But, neverthe¬ 
less we think the shade of Coke will look down 
with plea sure some of the.se days to see a good 
many corporations iu a bad fix. 
In reply to very many inquiries as to where 
the genuine Victoria Grape can be procured, 
wo would name Mi'. Geo. W. Peck, of Roselle, 
Union Co.. New Jersey. He has two vines, 
und might be willing to supply a few cuttings. 
He writes us that he "helped to lift them 
from the original row as planted by Mr. 
Miner.” 
After all, Secretary Folger has revised his 
former decision with regard to the import 
duty on Sumatra tobacco at the urgent solici¬ 
tation of the louf-tobbaco growers of Connect¬ 
icut. As cigar wrappers Sumatra tobacco is 
so much better than our home-grown leaf that 
its value is put at *1.75 a pound against SO 
cents for the domestic product. The law in¬ 
tended that, the import duty on the superior 
article should be 75 cents a pound, but the 
clause is so ambiguously worded, that the im¬ 
porters by puttlug it up in a certain way, 
sought to evade the intention of the law and 
lately induced the Secretary to decide that it 
must be admitted on paying a duty of only 
35 cents a pound. Ho now decides that the 
higher duty must be charged, and the to¬ 
bacco-growers who still retain their last crop 
are jubilant at the prospect of an advance in 
price; while those who have sold their pro¬ 
duct during the depression arc inclined to 
profanity—the ungodly ones only, of course. 
Huntington is very likely to fuil in his at¬ 
tempts to secure the Texas-Pacific land grants. 
The House Railroad Committee has reported 
adversely to his eluitn. The grant includes 
14,000.066 acres, worth, it is estimated, $40,- 
000 ,000, and Lluutlagton and his confederates 
have done absolutely nothing to earn it. His 
letters to Colton have greatly injured his 
cause, and it is reported that a large number 
of the spiciest of them have yet to be made 
public. The more the letters are studied, the 
more glaring grow the cupidity, imscru- 
pulouKtieas and audacity of the man. Among 
the ancient Athenians a man deemed danger¬ 
ous to the republic was banished from the 
State for a limited period, even though he 
were us upright and patriotic as Aristides, the 
Just. If ostracism prevailed here, what a 
large number of our wealthiest citizens would 
be in danger of being forced to leave the coun¬ 
try for the country’s good, and what a very 
small proportion of them would have the slight 
est claim to the title bestowed on Aristides! t j 
