FEB 9 
THE 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER. 
Address 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN# 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 1884. 
The notes on new fruits, by Dr. Stay- 
man, form a part of an essay read before 
the Missouri State. Horticultural Society, 
held at Carthage, Mo., December 14, of 
last year. The engraviugs were drawn 
from penciled sketches kindly furnished 
to us by Dr. Stayman. The notes and 
illustrations will be concluded in another 
number. 
- ♦ »■» - - 
We have never been more surprised 
than at the great number of competitors 
tor the Rural Prize Essays. We already 
have more than we can publish in two 
years. We are sorry that there is not a 
premium for all. The 99 out of every 100 
who will not draw prizes must console 
themselves that they wrote in a good 
cause and that their efforts may do great, 
good to the thousands of readers of the 
Rural New-Yorker. 
In a recent letter to Prof. C. V. Riley, 
as he informs us. Lord Walsingham, of 
Thetford, England, who was the first to 
try the ensilage system there, and who 
finds it a great success, writes as follows 
of a forage plant which grows wild in the 
United States, and is looked upon as a 
weed: “We are having great success 
with Spergula arven sis here. It suits light 
soil, requires little or no manure, makes a 
thick crop, is most palatable and whole¬ 
some for sheep and cuttle, and makes the 
most perfect ensilage I have yet seen.” 
This is Corn Spurrey. 
----- 
OUR FREE SEED DISTRIBUTION FOR 
1884. 
We have so far progressed with the 
Rural Seed Distribution that we may 
now speak confidently ot several matters. 
1st. The postage that the Rural will 
have to pay on every package will average 
over six cents, twice as much as subscribers 
are charged. This item alone will cost 
notless than $1,000. Eighteen thousand 
packages will be provided, each containing 
<>ioht different kinds. For all subscribers 
who take the Rural in connection with 
other journals which advertise to send 
the seed distribution, we are obliged to 
pay the entire postage, and the postage to 
Canada is 10 cents. When it is con¬ 
sidered that the postage alone costs 
$1,000, our readers may form some idea of 
the cost of the undertaking. Not less 
than nine bushels of seeds are required 
for Garden Treasures alone; 30 of corn, 15 
of the Rural New-Yorker Pea, 16 of the 
rye, oats, etc. 
Of the Garden Treasures, maDy of the 
seeds are common enough—many worth¬ 
less. But we have seemed seeds from 
subscribers and friends from every part of 
America—some from England, Australia, 
Africa, and other countries. Florists are 
solicited to test them carefully. While 
assured that a major part of them will 
prove “common, ” some of them, they may 
be equally assured, may prove very choice 
indeed. Sow them carefully, we tell you, 
friends of the Rural. Package aftei 
package of seeds has been received which 
we Mow to be most rare and choice. Save 
every plant until you know what it is. 
We do not hesitate at all to place the 
value of each package of the present Free 
Seed Distribution of the Rural New- 
Yorker as worth at the least retail esti¬ 
mate $2.00, while most of the kinds mak¬ 
ing the package cannot at present be pur¬ 
chased at all. 
that our Seed Distributions are offered as i 
I ^ 
a premium in any sense. Let us say that 
we have no evidence that the same I 
amount of money invested in advertising j 
would not bring us twice as many sub¬ 
scribers. It is merely one method the ] 
Rural has adopted of introducing new 
seeds or plants that their value may be 
ascertained by the farmer or gardener 
without cost to himself. That we have 
in this way benefited the interests of agri¬ 
culture, we have merely to mention the 
Beauty of Hebron and White Elephant 
Potatoes, Blount’s Corn, the Cuthbcrt 
Raspberry, various kinds of wheats, oats, 
forage plants and flower seeds, while on 
the other hand we have sent out many 
loudly advertised seeds, offered at a 
high price, that have proved utterly 
worthless. So the Rural subscriber has 
been enabled to ascertain for himself, 
without cost, what to invest in—what to 
let alone. We beg of the public to dis¬ 
tinguish between earnest endeavors to 
promote the good of agriculture, and the 
efforts of those who offer worthless seeds, 
trinkets and gew-gaws merely to gain a 
circulation for so-called farm journals 
which are in no wise calculated to benefit 
the farmer or his family, and which are 
conducted merely for the money that, 
during a brief life, is extracted from the 
farmer’s pocket. 
There are a number of sterling, good I 
rural papers published in our country. It 
is the good farmer’s duty to patronize 
them and to help them in every way, 
while it is equally his duty to avoid as he 
would a pestilence the cheap lottery, 
swindling papers, that are everywhere 
springing up like toad-stools among us. 
Think you we are merely writing in our 
own interests, good reader? Oh, no. We 
have no reason to wish to help ourselves 
at the cost of other good rural journals. 
We pray for their success, and that they 
may become better and better, more and 
more fearless in exposing the impositions 
that every year seem to multiply and live 
like leaches and parasites upon the farm¬ 
ers of the land. We have experiment sta¬ 
tions to expose fraud in chemical fertiliz¬ 
ers ; we have various organizations to ex¬ 
pose other frauds. Meanwhile the grossly 
fraudulent advertisements of thoroughly 
unprincipled journals appear in all of our 
religious press and in many farm journals 
of reputed respectability as well,to deceive 
the farmer, his wife and children, with¬ 
out reproach, protest or remedy. 
may seek to enlighten it on this important 
learn that this bill will provide that 
the General Government shall prosecute 
the inquiry as to the existence of disease 
and regulate and pav for inspections. 
After the existence of disease in any 
place shall he ascertained, the States are 
to take action by laws providing regula¬ 
tions for quarantine and the condemna¬ 
tion of infected animats, paying one-half 
of the cost, of the proceedings. Under 
this plan the States would he expected to 
pay about one-third of the whole expense 
of carrying out the proposed general and 
State legisl ation. It is thought that objec¬ 
tions to Federal interference on the ground I 
of “State rights” will thus he avoided, 
and that a more hearty co-operation by the 
State authorities will be secured by di¬ 
viding the expenses and work than if the 
whole" undertaking were in the hands of 
the General Government. It is estimated 
that less than $300,000 will be required 
to carry out- this plan, instead of the 
$500,000 it was originally intended to 
ask Congress to appropriate. We are as¬ 
sured that careful attention will be given 
to framing the bill so as to insure the 
greatest efficiency at the least cost, and 
that suggestions and objections of value 
will be duly considered in making amend¬ 
ments while the measure is before Con¬ 
gress. 
One of the most serious dangers to be 
avoided is the creation of a number of 
Commissioners whose very existence must 
depend on the existence of disease, and 
who will therefore have an interest in ex¬ 
aggerating its extent, severity and peril. 
It may be alleged that honorable men 
only will be appointed, and that honor¬ 
able men would not be guilty of such 
practices. We shall merely say.that past 
experience with other Oomtnissioners up - 
pointed to deal with these very diseases 
shows there is no little danger in this di¬ 
rection. Some efficient means of prompt 
relief should also be provided. We have 
hitherto bad a great deal of investigation; 
let us now have a little remedial action. 
-- ♦ » -- 
forfeited land grants. 
Last Thursday was a memorable day in 
the' National House of Representatives. 
For the first time since immense land 
grants were first made to States and cor¬ 
porations to assist, in building railroads, 
Ihe House declared a forfeiture of a num¬ 
ber of grants for failure to fulfill the con- 
i ditions on which they were made. Until 
1874 it was thought that, the law9 pro¬ 
vided a forfeiture of a grant if its condi¬ 
tions were not complied with in the time 
specified; but in that year the Supreme 
Court decided that Congress had not legis¬ 
lated as it had intended and that when a 
grant was once made it could not be forfeit¬ 
ed except by an act of Congress, even H the 
fulfilled. Since then 
CONGRESS AND CONTAGIOUS DIS¬ 
EASES OF LIVE STOCK. 
Last Tuesday the committee appointed 
by the National Live Stock Association 
at its meeting In Chicago last November 
presented to Congress a “memorial” 
recommending that laws be enacted that, 
will relieve our cattle and meat products 
from unjust suspicion; that steps be 
taken to stamp out plcuro-pnemnonia by 
slaughtering all infected cattle and 
disinfecting alt infected premises, and 
that “a rigid system of inspection of all 
meat products for foreign exports be pro¬ 
vided for and enforced, the expense of 
such inspection to be borne by the ex¬ 
porter.” The “memorial” is instructive, 
frank and lengthy. Among the 6,000 or 
more bills hitherto introduced into the Up¬ 
per and l ower Houses of Congress, several 
hear on the subject of contagious diseases 
among stock, and these have been referred 
to the Committees on Agriculture. The 
House Committee itself will urge the pas¬ 
sage of a bill of its own, framed in ac¬ 
cordance with the best information and 
suggestions obtained from the other bills 
and the “memorials,” “addresses,” 
vl nersous that have sought or 
conditions were not fulfilled. Since then 
a number of efforts have been vainly made 
to induce Congress to pass acts of forfeit¬ 
ure Immense tracts of fine land have 
been withheld from settlement, or farms 
were bought in good faith or taken up by 
genuine settlers only to find there was a 
cloud on the title, which Congress only 
could remove, but which it obstinately re¬ 
fused to meddle with. 
The present House, however, is evi¬ 
dently in a mood to right this wrong 
in all cases, although a powerful railroad 
lobbv, including C. P. Huntingdon, has 
been working hard to prevent such action. 
When last Thursday, Mr. Cobb, of Indi¬ 
ana, Chairman of the Public Bands Com¬ 
mittee. called up the bill forfeiting the 
o-rantsto eight corporations in the South¬ 
ern States, the measure was passed by an 
almost unanimous vote. These, were old 
grants, some of which were made before 
the war. No work whatever has beeu 
done on some of the roads, and none of 
them has been completed. areathus 
restored to the public, is over 5,000,000 
acres. Then Judge Pay son called before 
the House the bill forfeiting the notori¬ 
ous Texas Pacific grant, involving the 
title to nearly 16 , 000,000 acres, much of 
which is splendid land. A great deal of 
excitement agitated the House, but the 
bill was promptly passed by a vote of 25. 
to one—Barr, of Pennsylvania. By 
Thursday’s work about 21,000,000 acres 
of fine land were wrested from monopo¬ 
lizing corporations and restored to the 
public; for it is highly improbable that. 
the Senate will refuse to pass the acts in 
the face of so emphatic an expression ot 
opinion by the direct representatives of 
the people. ___ 
CHANGING PLACES WITH THE HIRED 
MAN. 
Quite often we hear a farmer express 
in terms something after this fash¬ 
ion: “I do not see any use in trying to 
make anything at farming. I might about 
as well change places with my hired man. 
If he were as careful and as economical as 
I am, he could save just as much money, 
and he does not have half the worry and 
trouble that I have.” See here, my good 
friend! your reasoning is very bad. You 
are looking at only one side of the ques¬ 
tion. You could not afford to, and would 
not be willing to change places with your 
hired roan. Let us look for a moment at 
the things which you have, that he has 
not. You have a house to live, in, from 
which, unless you are severely involved, 
no man can turn you out. You can work 
six, eight or ten hours a day, as you 
choose, and no man can grumble or dis¬ 
charge you. You do not have to go about 
hunting for a place. You can go a-visit- 
ing when vou please, and your income 
does not stop. You have, provisions 
enough in your granery and cellar to keep 
you for a year. Your home and family 
aie growing up about you, and providing 
a place of rest and comfort for your old 
I ™. Even if what you say were true, 
rou are talking foolishty. But let us see 
f it is really true. Your young stock 
md your young fruit trees are a year older 
han they were last Winter, and conse- 
niently are worth much more than they 
ivere then. Very likely the land about 
s rising slowly, but surely in value. You 
ire gaining each year by the experience of 
the past. Your children are growing 
stronger, and will soon be able to help 
you more. Are you not laboring under a 
fit of despondency ? 
--- 
BREVITIES. 
Which of the hardy evergreens is greenest 
in mid-Winter ? 
One subscriber bids us to send his paper in 
future to Lorraine P. O. Henrico Co., Va. 
But he fails to sign his name. 
Friends of the Rural, you can do good 
by assisting to in crease fcb© Rubai/s ciicula- 
tion, thus increasing its power to do good. 
We have pleasure in acknowledging a box 
of beautiful apples from Mr. J. T. Allau, of 
Omaha, Neb., selected from the State ex¬ 
hibition at its Winter meeting. The names 
are Roman Stem. Missouri Pippin, Milam, 
Northern Spy, Wine Sap. Rainbo, Domme, 
Smith’s Cider and Peck’s Pleasant. M e rarely 
see finer specimens. If we could always get 
Smith’s Cider of the quality of those sent, we 
should much prefer them to Baldwins. 
The agitation among farmers who supply 
cities witli rni’k has reached Bostou. Last 
Tuesday, January' 20. about WO representa¬ 
tives of the New England Milk Association, 
interested in the milk trade of the Hub. met 
there to consider the best means of protecting 
their interests. After several excellent ad¬ 
dresses. 154 new members were added to the 
roll. Resolutions were adopted sustaining the 
present laws and Board of Health, protesting 
against local inspection, urging the milk pro¬ 
ducers for the Boston market, to join the asso¬ 
ciation, sinking all petty local jealousies for 
the general good. It is chiefly through as¬ 
sociation that farmers can make their influ¬ 
ence properly felt, and we earnestly urge the 
organization and increase of such associations 
everywhere. 
Senator Vorhees, of Indiana, no doubt 
with excellent motives, has introduced into 
the U. S. Senate a resolution “to inquire into 
the propriety and expediency of admitting all 
newspapers, periodicals and other printed 
matter to the Unil.Nl States mails free of 
charge.” Something of this sort, is introduced 
every yeat into the Seriate or House, u a 
have noticed no complaints among newspaper* 
of the present charge for postage, nor is the 
public clamoring for free postage on ' printed 
matter. ” Papers that, can’t afford to pay ttaei r 
legitimate share of the public burdens should 
cease to appeal for public patronage If news¬ 
papers are carried free by the mads, why 
shouldn’t editors and publishers be carried 
free by the railroads? Tn both cases the cost 
of transportation would ultimately have to 
be home by the public. We are opposed to 
dead head ism of all sorts. We arc not. beg¬ 
gars nor do we wish to have alms forced 
upon us. “ Printed matter" should pay rea¬ 
sonable postage. 
The National Academy of Sciences put in 
an excellent word for glucose the other day 
in its report to the Commissioner of Internal 
Revenue. It maintains that the processes 
which are employed in its manufacture are 
unobjectionable and leave the product uncon- 
taminated; that the starch sugar thus made 
and sent into commerce is of uuexceptiouable 
purity and uniformity of competition and 
contains no injurious substances; that though 
having at best only about two-thirds the 
sweetening power of cane sugar, it is in no 
way inferior to that article in healthfulness, 
there being no evidence tliat maize starch, 
either tn its normal condition, or fermented, 
has a v deleterious effect upon the system 
even when taken in large quantities. Such a 
report from such a source is valuable, and we 
protest against the nickname of National 
Academy of Glucose bestowed upon the 
learned body by several of our irreverent 
daily contemporaries. In this country this 
industry employs 29 factories and a capital oi 
*5,000,000, consuming 40.000 bushels of corn a 
day, and producing nearly $10,000,000 worth 
ol‘ glucose a year. Borne months ago the 
Academy also made a very favorable report 
on the sorghum sugar industry, so that it. de 
veil of the fanning community. 
