452 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 8 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARRIE, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1884. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
We have now filled all applications for 
seeds received up to last Saturday. All 
those who, having applied previous to that 
date, have, not yet received them, will 
please notify us by postal card- at once, 
and another packet will be sent at once. 
All whose names are upon our subscrip¬ 
tion lists are entitled to apply for these 
seeds, no matter when the subscription ex¬ 
pires or whether it is the intention or not 
of the subscriber to renew. They are not 
premiums. 
Our object in charging a part of the 
postage to subscribers is that we may not 
have applications from those who are not 
interested in farm or garden pursuits. 
All persons who subscribe for the 
Rural New-Yorker in connection with 
other journals which publish the combi¬ 
nation advertisement offering the seeds, 
need not make application. The seeds 
will be sent to them without application 
except in case of oversight or miscarriage. 
For example: The Inter-Ocean and the 
Rural New-Yorker (with its seed distri¬ 
bution) are offered for $2.75. Whether 
the Inter-Ocean is subscribed for through 
the Rural, or the Rural is subscribed 
for through the Inter-Ocean, the sub¬ 
scriber to both papers is entitled to the 
seeds without application. The same may 
be said of the Detroit Free Press, New 
York Times, Tribune, Sun, Mail (Canada), 
etc., etc. 
Some of our seed packages require six 
cents for postage—but most of them five 
cents—except to Canada, where the 
postage is 10 cents. But our subscribers 
are desired to send us but three cents. The 
Rural New-Yorker pays the rest. 
-- 
We should be pleased to send our col¬ 
lection of seeds to all the agricultural 
colleges and stations that may apply. 
In the hopes of catching up with our 
answers to questions we shall issue a 
Querist Supplement next week. 
A large-sized, excellent portrait of P. 
J. Berckmans, the well-known Southern 
pomologist, will appear next week. 
-♦ «■ ♦- 
Advertising patrons, to insure the ap¬ 
pearance of their announcements in a 
given number at this season, should send 
their copy two weeks in advance. 
-- 
Poultry articles from the pen of Henry 
Hales will be begun in a few weeks. He 
writes from the experience and the very 
careful observation of many years. 
-- 
It is all very well to talk of staking to¬ 
mato plants. They do look more neat 
and trim. But it doesn’t pay, and all 
those who have fairly tried both methods 
know it. 
- 
In reply to many questions we would 
say that the “Thousand-Fold” Rye and 
Crossbred “Diehl-Mediterranean” Wheat 
of the Rural’s Free Seed Distribution are 
strictly Winter varieties. 
-» — » 
What we want is to be ready with our 
originality, ingenuity and ready sense 
when the occasion or emergency requires 
them —just then ! Any of us may overflow 
with wisdom that can’t serve any useful 
purpose whatever—posthumous wisdom 
we may call it. 
We received 13 Wyandotte eggs on 
February 5. They were put under a 
staunch Plymouth Rock hen on the 7th. 
On the 26th we examined the eggs and 
found all but one addled. The way of 
the experimenter is hard. But we shall try 
again. The eggs are small and brownish. 
-«« » 
We bad a curiosity to know the mean¬ 
ing of the word “Jumbo,” and applied to 
Mr. P. T. Barnura for informat ion. Here- 
plied : 14 Jumbo is the Fetish name for the 
devil all along the west coaBt of Africa.” 
We may therefore, without violating good 
taste, say that it is a devil-of-a-name for 
the potatoes and strawherries to which it 
has been given. 
Every year the Rural New-Yorker 
grows more discriminating as to the class 
of advertisements admitted. Both the 
extent and high character of its circula¬ 
tion render it the best medium for reach¬ 
ing the best farmers. In order that ad¬ 
vertising patrons should be enabled to 
appreciate this fully, we respectfully so¬ 
licit our readers to mention the Rural 
New-Yorker when corresponding with 
them. The request seems a just one to 
make, since readers, advertising patrons, 
and the Rural itself are measurably bene¬ 
fited by the courtesy. 
Do you realize how close upon you is 
the busy farm season? If your Winter 
has been spent wisely, you will be pre¬ 
pared to do better and more effective 
work next Spring and Summer. A man 
who is progressing in something else be¬ 
sides age, has reason to feel satisfied, 
while those who merely make ends meet 
by the same old, long, dreary pull are apt 
to take a morose view of things. We 
want our farmer friends to be jolly even 
in the lace of disasters, and there is noth¬ 
ing which will promote this leeling more 
than thought, industry, frugality. 
The Commissioners appointed by Com¬ 
missioner Loring to investigate the swine 
industry of the United States, have re¬ 
ported that hogs in this country are unu¬ 
sually free from disease; that American 
pork is equal, or superior, to that of France 
or Germany; and that, there is no legiti¬ 
mate reason for the restrict ions imposed by 
foreign governments upon importations 
of American swine products Here is 
official authority for the assertions reiter¬ 
ated in these columns; but we doubt 
whether the report will remove Bismarck’s 
hostility to the American Hog, because 
that hostility is due to political not 
sanitary considerations. 
We are in receipt of a letter from Par¬ 
ker Earle, Superintendent of the Horti¬ 
cultural Department of the World’s Fair, 
dated New Orleans, February 23, in which 
he says: “The prospects for the World’s 
Fair here next Winter are growing brighter 
daily. It will nearly equal the Philadelphia 
Centennial on the whole, and far surpass it 
in some things. For instance, our De¬ 
partment of Horticulture will make a 
grander show than was ever before seen.” 
The horticultural building will be 100 
feet wide and 600 feet long, containing 
60,000 feet of floor space, or over one- 
and-one-third acre. Arrangements are 
being perfected for holding back and 
keeping all perishable fruits so as to show 
the largest possible collection of fruits at 
one time. This ample space filled with 
fruits and flowers must be a sight not 
seen more than once in a lifetime. 
• » ♦ » — — 
“We are expecting a big immigration 
in the Spring,” writes a correspondent 
from Kansas, “more especially from Iowa, 
where the crops last year were failures.” 
The above sentence only goes to confirm 
that old saying, “ a rolling stone gathers 
no moss.” The farmer who cannot make 
money in one locality, is just as likely not 
to better his condition by moving as to 
improve it. There is a great deal—yea, 
everything—in sticking to whatever we 
undertake, determining to conquer all 
obstacles and attain success. Even though 
the crops in Iowa were a failure last year, 
does that imply that they will be this or 
next year ? Not at all! The more reason 
why we should look for a bountiful har¬ 
vest next year. By giving careful atten¬ 
tion to business; using good judgment; 
keeping abreast with the times; having 
improved tools and machinery; and by 
working the brain as well as the body, 
there is no reason why the farmer iu Iowa 
should not be as successful as the one in 
any other State. We do not live in a land 
where milk and honey may be had for the 
asking, so be slow to believe those stories 
of the land of golden promise lyiug just, 
beyond. Labor has its own reward, and 
it needs no predictions on our part to say 
that farmers engaging in their vocation in 
an intelligent manner, will meet with a 
just recompense. 
- ♦ • » . ■ —- 
Let’s have n racket among Ruralists 
this season. Who will raise the finest, 
largest, smoothest tomatoes from the Ru¬ 
ral Seed? 
We have been working at half-a-dozen 
strains of tomatoes for io years, and now, 
all mixed together, we send them to sub¬ 
scribers. Perhaps in a year or so the best 
of them will be “introduced” by “enter¬ 
prising” seedsmen under some fine names 
or other. 
Try the Rural New-Yorker Pea beside 
the earliest varieties now offered for sale. 
Mark the uniformity in ripening, the 
hight of vines, etc. 
Try the Market Garden Pea and com¬ 
pare it with other kinds as to productive¬ 
ness and quality. Give the Union Corn a 
fair chance. Note when you plant it— 
note when it ripens, and the yield. 
Prepare a good-sized cold-frame or hot¬ 
bed and sow the Garden Treasures so 
evenly that each plant may bo transplant¬ 
ed without interferixg with the neighbor¬ 
ing seeds which may not have germinated. 
In the absence of frames, prepare a plot 
of loamy soil in a sheltered place. Com¬ 
pact the earth fairly, then sow and cover 
very lightly with fine earth. They may 
be sown in boxes the size of soap boxes. 
Provide thorough drainage by laying 
coal clinkers, bits of wood, or crock in 
the bottom, covering these with sand, 
filling up with garden soil and complet¬ 
ing with fine, sifted loam. Sow the seeds 
and cover at night, or keep the box cov¬ 
ered with glass. 
We hope that in due time many of our 
friends will send us specimens of the to¬ 
matoes, peas, flowers, oats and corn K 
which they raise, and that they will 
write us of their success or failure and to 
what it was due. So let us help one an¬ 
other and keep up the Rural racket. 
MALT SPROUTS OR COMBINGS FOR 
STOCK FEED. 
A correspondent who is largely en¬ 
gaged in stock breeding of various kinds 
and who also luns a dairy, informs us that, 
he finds malt sprouts most economical and 
beneficial as a part of their rations for his 
animals. Sprouts are the refuse of barley 
thrown off in the process of malting. They 
are hard and dry like the grain, and be¬ 
fore feeding it is best to soak them a few 
hours in water in order to soften and ren¬ 
der them more easily digestible. They 
are mixed at the rate of two-thirds with 
one-third of wheat bran, then sprinkled 
on cut hay, and fed morning and night, 
with long hay at noon. This is a particu¬ 
larly good food for rows belonging to 
milkmen; but we should doubt whether 
it is equally so for those kept for the pro¬ 
duction of a choice quality of butter. 
We think for this, Indian meal with a little 
linseed or cotton-seed meal would be pre¬ 
ferable. These sprouts and bran without 
hay, are also au excellent ration for horses 
when moderately used, but if at hard 
work, oats should be substituted for the 
bran. On sprouts mixed with bran swine 
thrive admirably. The sows do not be¬ 
come over-fat for good breeding, a.s they 
are apt to do when fed on Indian meal or 
corn, and shoats glow fast on them, and get 
into superior condition to lie finished off 
for slaughter with a few weeks’ subse¬ 
quent feeding on corn. Sprouts cost our 
correspondent $10 per ton and wheat bran 
$15. He thinks the former cheaper, as a 
part of the ration to his stock, thau either 
all bran, shorts, or middlings. 
“ BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY.'’ 
Last Thursday the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives passed the bill creating a 
Bureau of Animal Industry connected 
with the Department of Agriculture, by a 
vote of 155 yeas to 127 nays. The sub¬ 
stance of the bill was given here in the 
Rural of February 23, the only altera¬ 
tion made being an amendment that not 
more than twenty officials shall be em¬ 
ployed by the Bureau. Early in the week 
it was very doubtful whether the measure 
would pass, as all the advocates of 
“States rights” opposed it vigorously, 
while a great deal too much weight was 
given to the protest of the Chicago live¬ 
stock dealers, whose opposition was 
aroused by the fear that the provisions of 
the bill would interfere witn the trans¬ 
portation of cattle to the Chicago mar¬ 
ket, and consequently with their own 
business and profits. 
The cattle raisers of the country, how¬ 
ever, especially those of the West, became 
aroused and spoke loudly and resolutely 
in favor of the bill; some of the Chicago 
dealers who had signed the protest 
against it, withdrew their names from it; 
the papers that devote any particular at¬ 
tention to agricultural matters earnestly 
advocated it, and accordingly when it 
came to a vote the measure passed, though 
it will be seen that, many Representatives 
refrained from recording their votes for 
or against it.. Of course, like every other 
law, this is liable to abuses, chief of which 
is the chance that, men may be appointed 
as inspectors who may think it to their in¬ 
terest to exaggerate the extent of conta¬ 
gious diseases among cattle and the dan¬ 
ger from them, us mentioned here iu the 
Rural of February 9. The measure has 
still to pass the Senate, but as the Repub¬ 
licans have a majority there, and the op¬ 
position in the House was almost entirely 
on the the side of the Democrats, there is 
every reason for believing that it will pass 
without any serious difficulty. 
BREVITIES. 
Catalogue notices on page 148. 
Can your wife make good bread from poor 
flour? 
W it had rather try to reform a drunkard 
than a lazy man. 
Stagnant water—the bane of plant life, 
the ally of malaria. 
Do you want an appetizer? Try a piece of 
tender, boiled mutton or a bwA’-saw. 
Ok all seasons of the year see that the cell¬ 
ars are pure and sweet nmv. 
A penny wise and a pouud foolish : to use 
uiauure or fertilizers in the hill. 
To finish off a field there is nothing better 
than au inclined-tooth smoothing harrow. 
JJillions of bushels of malt, sprouts are 
monthly turned out of the breweries, and few 
know the value of them. 
Under date of Feb. 28, Henry Ward Beecher 
writes: “ I am delighted with the Rural New- 
Yorker. 1 reud it with constant relish.” 
If you can test new plants or seeds in a 
small*plot as well as in a field, why not do so? 
You learn just as much and run no risk of 
loss. 
Mr. Wm. Clark, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, 
writes us that the Red Fife Wheat is the best 
for bis country, and be ventures to think will 
stand comparison with anything as the rci-it- 
abte No. 1 Hard. 
TnANKSfor yourmention of our lithograph. 
Our mails have fairly been burdened with 
requests mentioning the Rural New- 
Yorker of late. studebaker bros.. 
South Bend, Ind. Manufacturing Co. 
Many advise not to plant, sweet corn until 
the soil is worm, etc. The advice muy be 
good, because it is safe; but one year with 
another we find that those of our neighbors 
who plant the earliest get the earliest cars to 
market. 
Do not forget that the vicissitudes of Spring 
are often more trying to plants than the 
austerity of W inter. The latter may be com¬ 
pared to the heavily-laden animal that stag- 
gore along well enough under a steady burden 
to be crushed by a lesser weight when that is 
thrown upon him unexpectedly. 
The potato speculators of Scbnectady, 
Washington, Saratoga and Rensselaer Coun¬ 
ties, N. Y., are likely to lose about balf-a-mil- 
lion dollars on potatoes this season. There is 
now a glut hi this market and thousands of 
boat and car-loads shipped by them during 
the past few mouths, lu expectation of a rise 
in price, remain unsold, Owiug to the low 
prices this year in most places, a smaller area 
is likely to be planted during the current 
year, and this will probably occasion high 
prices next season. 
The “milk war” still progresses. At a 
meeting in Goshen, N. Y., last Wednesday, it 
was resolved that the milk of members of the 
Fanners’ Milk Co. should pass through the 
hands of the Co. only, in order that the price 
might bo retained. This gives the company 
control of a large quantity of milk hitherto 
handled by' independent dealers. It is said 
that this city pays annually 29,720,000 for 
pure milk and $6,200,000 for skimmed milk 
and water; total, $16,000,000. Of this the 
reducers get $8,720,000 and the middlemen 
11,000,0001 
A Novel in two Chapters. — Chap I. 
Furmer Brown is worth $20,000, and he has 
mouey in the bank always to draw upon as he 
likes. His dress is plain, but neat, whether he 
is at work or rest.. His wife wears a calico 
frock generally, and his little children copper¬ 
toed shoes. Young Mistletoe is a dressy, com¬ 
plaisant young mun—u clerk in the village 
apothecary store, and bis salary is six dollars 
u week. Tho elder Miss Brown likes him. 
“ He is bo finished, you know,” she remarked 
to her sister Dora. She enjoy ed his company 
ever so much more than that, of young Dema- 
rest. a plain, steady-going youth—the sou of 
Squire Demurest, a well-to-do farmer, much 
like farmer Browu. “ But,” remarked Dora, 
“ Demurest is thoughtful and manly, if not so 
Jinishni as Mistletoe.” “ Very well,” replied 
the elder Miss Brown, “if you want to be a 
farm dmdge all your days marry him. I’ll 
take Mistletoe.” 
Chap. II. Ten years after we find Mre. 
Mlstletoe and three children living with her 
father. Mr. Brown, who treats them compas¬ 
sionately. Mistletoe visits them every month. 
He is still a clerk iu the apothecary store, with 
u salary of six dollars a week. Demarest. and 
his wife and children live in a substantial 
dwelling of their own. They have mouey in 
the bunk, but Mrs. Demarest still wears calico 
frocks from choice. “Thank goodness,” she 
lias been known to exclaim to her husband, 
“ that you are not an apothecary’s clerk. You 
may not be so ‘ finished ’ us Mistletoe, but we 
are uot objects of charity,” 
