204 
INARCH 20 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
EL BEST B. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, MARCH 39, 1884. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
We have now filled all applications for seeds re¬ 
ceived 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 subscription lists 
are entitled to apply for these seeds, no matter when 
the subscription expires or whether it Ib the inten¬ 
tion or not of the subscriber to renew. They are not 
premiums. 
Our object in charging a part of the postage to sub- 
scrlbersis that we may not have applications from 
those who are not Interested in farm or garden pur¬ 
suits. 
All persons who subscribe for the Rural New-York¬ 
er in connection with other journals which publish 
the combination advertisement offering the seeds, 
need not make application. The Beedswlllbe sent 
to them without application except in case of over¬ 
sight or miscarriage. For example: The Inter-Ocean 
and the Rural Nkw-Yobkeb {urith Us seed distribu¬ 
tion) are offererd 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 
scrlber to both papers is entitled to the seeds without 
application. The same may be said of the Detroit 
Free Press, New York Times, Tribune, Suu, Mall 
(Canada), etc., etc. 
Some of our seed packages require six cents for 
postage—but most of them five cents-exeept to Can¬ 
ada, where the postage is 10 cents. But our subscrib¬ 
ers are desired to send us but three cents . The Rural 
New-Yorker pays the rest. 
until it turns red, when it becomes caus¬ 
tic. Dissolve one pound of this in from 
one to two gallons of water, as the trees 
have more or less rough baric and moss 
attached, and with it wash the trees. It 
will remove all foreign matter as effectu¬ 
ally as the potash wash, and will leave the 
bark of a healthy green color. Try it. 
4 » » ~ 
The Kansas wool-growers, at their late 
convention, had under consideration a 
plan which, to us, seems very practicable 
and fair. A company propose to erect 
large warehouses and scouring machinery 
capable of cleansing 25,000 pounds per 
day. They propose to receive, grade, and 
sort each fleece into all the grades neces¬ 
sary for the manufacturer, as well as scour 
and store the wool for four months, all 
for two cents per pound—the Wool-grow¬ 
ers’ Association to appoint one of their 
own number to have oversight of the 
association wool and its marketing, etc. 
In this wav the wool is put into the most 
desirable condition for the manufacturer ; 
all surplus weight of dirt, grease, yolk, 
etc., is got. rid of, and it can be shipped at 
the minimum price. Being sold m large 
lots directly to manufacturers, the grower 
should receive all the profit there is in the 
wool. Wool-growers of other States 
would do well to look into this matter. 
Another Querist Supplement will be 
published with next week’s Rural New- 
Yorker. 
- » ♦ » ~ — 
If you have not received the Rural seeds 
of its present distribution; if you have not 
received at.t. of them, notify us by postal 
card. 
-- 
Though there’s mud on his hoots, 
And dust on his hat, 
The man at the plow 
Is a man for a’ that. 
The directors or principals of all experi¬ 
ment stations , agricultural colleges and 
country schools , are cordially invited to ap¬ 
ply for the Free Seed Distribution of the Ru¬ 
ral New - Yorlcer. 
- - 
If you wish to send 10, 50, or 100 speci¬ 
men copies of the Rural New-Yorker 
to fnends interested in farming, you have 
only to send us a list of the names. Speci¬ 
mens will be promptly forwarded. Who 
will send uh the longest list? 
Every year the Rural New-Yorker 
grows more discriminating as to the class 
of advertisements admitted. Both the ex¬ 
tent and high character of its circulation 
render it the best medium for reaching the 
best farmers. In order that advertising 
patrons should he enabled to appreciate 
this fully, we respectfully solicit 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 benefited by the courtesy. 
We would call the attention of our 
readers to that department of the Rural 
devoted to the young people. In our last 
issue was begun a discussion upon straw¬ 
berries, by our enterprising Youths’ 
Horticultural Club. It gives us great 
pleasure to say that the children 
take much interest in them de¬ 
partment, and through their interest 
make it valuable, not only to themselves, 
but we think to many of our older read¬ 
ers. The present discussion will occupy 
several weeks, and, we think, produce 
much interesting and valuable reading 
pertaining to strawberry culture. If you 
wish information regarding the care of a 
strawberry patch, don’t fail to consult the 
Youths’ Department of the Rural. 
- ♦« -- 
Some of the agricultural papers are ad¬ 
vertising caustic potash, or strong lye 
made from wood ashes, as a wash for fruit 
trees. This will remove all moss and 
rough bark,"but trees ( ’on which it has 
been used look red and sort of burnt, and 
soon have rougher bark than ever. The 
following we have long used, and know it 
to be much the better preparation. Buy 
common caustic soda if you can get it; if 
not, buy sal-soda or common washing 
soda; place it in an iron kettle and over 
the fire; gradually heat it, stirring often 
Nothing adds more to the comfort and 
profit of farming than a reasonable 
amount of the best machinery. It sub¬ 
stitutes animal for man-power, and great¬ 
ly multiplies the capacity of the farm. 
Whatever is worth doiug at all is worth 
doing well and promptly. Often at just 
the right time we can accomplish more 
in one hour than we could in a whole day 
a week later. Look over the farm care¬ 
fully and consider whether it will not pay 
to invest in some more machines or im¬ 
plements. If so, don’t wait till the busy 
season is upon you, and you need the 
tool at once. If you do this, you may be 
tempted to buy of some glib-tongued 
agent, pay a big price and not get what 
you want. Better send to the manulac- 
turers now for their catalogues; they 
are glad to furnish them, and study them 
carefully. You can in this way get much 
useful information, and buy just what 
you want, remembering that the best, 
though costing a little more, is much the 
cheapest in the end. 
--■» 4 ♦ -- 
Railroads are creatures of law, and 
cannot exist without the protection of its 
strong arm. They are chartered by the 
votes of all citizens, and granted by those 
charters certain privileges.which are at the 
expense of all alike, and they are under 
obligations to treat all alike for like ser¬ 
vice, and when any person has himself or 
biR goods carried free and another is com¬ 
pelled to pay for like service, the railroads 
violate their chartered privileges. Thus, 
if they can carry 50 persons from New 
York to Albany for two dollars each, and 
they carry 10 "of those persons free and 
charge the other 40 $2.50 each, they have 
actually robbed the 40 out of the $20 do¬ 
nated to the others. 
This principle is well covered by nume¬ 
rous decisions made by the courts, and 
the bill now pending in the Legislature 
of this State, prohibiting the granting of 
all free passes, and all favoritism in 
freight transportation, exactly covers 
these points, and should be speedily pass¬ 
ed. It provides that railroads and other 
transportion lines shall not grant free 
passes or tickets at a discount, or for ser¬ 
vices, or for any other consideration, ex¬ 
cept to their regular employes or railroad 
officials, and to persons accompanying 
freight on freight trams. There would 
be no question of the speedy passage of so 
equitable a hill, except that the Legisla¬ 
ture is id precisely the same fix as the 
jury who tried and acquitted the “dar¬ 
key,” when he bad stolen the chickens 
and'the evidence was plain against him— 
every one of them had one of those 
chickens in his pocket. 
ties in some of the best corn-growing sec¬ 
tions have not a single ear sufficiently 
matured to germinate. In other sections 
much that would have grown, if properly 
cared for, was so damp and uncured when 
the severe cold came, as to be entirely 
ruined by the freezing of the swollen germs. 
Under the circumstances good seed corn 
must be extremely scarce and hard to get 
at planting time, and hundreds of farmers 
are likely to plant what they have, trust¬ 
ing it to be all right, only to be sadly dis¬ 
appointed in finding, when too late, many 
missing hills and vacant places in their 
fields. ' The aggregate loss to corn-gro w- 
ers from poor seeds will be very large in 
the coming season, and can not fail to be. 
counted by millions of bushels. In many 
fields the "vacant places will be sufficient 
to destroy all hope of profit in the crop. 
Thinking farmers will lose no time in 
securing a supply of good seed, nor will 
they trust to appearances, nor to any 
man’s word; hut will carefully test it 
for themselves, and thus be sure it will 
germinate. This testing of seeds is not 
at all a difficult undertaking; to he doubly 
sure three tests should be made; for one 
dip with a large spoon carelessly, 100 ker¬ 
nels out of the pile; for the second, select 
100 of the best, and, for the third, 100 of 
the poorest you can find. 
Take for each lot any convenient dish, 
and fill it nearly full of clean sand, and 
pour in water till it rises to within a quar¬ 
ter of an inch of the top of the sand; on 
the sand place the 100 kernels of corn, 
and over these place any convenient cloth 
to retain moisture and exclude light. 
Place the dish near the stove so as to se¬ 
cure a temperature of 80 degrees, and not 
over 110 degrees. In two days, and every 
day thereafter, examine by carefully lift¬ 
ing the cloth. Every kernel that has 
sprouted should bo removed and counted; 
in this way you can tell what per cent, of 
each grade will grow. If not over 75 per 
cent, of the best kernels germinate, the 
seed should be rejected, but in any case 
you will know how much to allow for 
worthless seed at planting time. 
NOTICE TO CANADIAN SUBSCRIBERS. 
The Rural Union Corn was at first left 
out of the seed packets to our Canadian 
subscribers because we supposed it was 
not suited to the climate. Thifc? caused 
complaints, and we have to state that all 
who desire the corn may notify us by 
postal and it will be sent post free at 
once. 
--- 
BAD SEED CORN. 
ORGANIZING FOR SELF-PROTECTION. 
Last year was tbe most unfortunate 
year corn-growers ever experienced; with 
not a single torrid day, with untimely 
rains and severe early frosts, whole coun- 
We have shown in a previous article 
that the agricultural is more numerous 
and possesses more actual real wealth than 
all classes of citizens combined. Why, 
then, is the agricultural class subject to 
all the other important industrial classes 
and made the prey of every monopoly, 
small and great, by which the country is 
rilled? . 
Let us consider for a moment why this 
is so. The farmer one day finds, when 
he wants to buy some nails, that the price 
has been advanced $1 a keg. When he 
inquires the reason, he finds that the iron 
miners through their association, have 
demanded an" advance of 10 per cent, on 
their wages; that the coal miners have 
had a strike and have got an advance of 
25 cents a ton on their coal; that the iron 
puddlers, the rollers and the nail makers 
have also been on a strike, and have put 
up their rates; and that the employers, 
having had to increase wages 10 per cent, 
all round, have put up the price of their pig 
iron, bar iron, sheet iron, nails, etc , etc. 
25 per cent., through their organization— 
the Iron Manufacturers’ Association. This, 
of course, has been just as much a strike 
as that of the iron workers, with only this 
difference, that the public, having no 
association to represent them, submit at 
once and without a question, and pay the 
extra rate demanded. It is the same with 
those engaged in every other industry 
the shoe-makers, the carpenters, the tan¬ 
ners, the painters, the millers, the rail¬ 
road engineers, the cotton and w'oolen 
weavers, the tobacco manufacturers; from 
the highest to the lowest, from the bankers 
and railroad kings down to the very junk 
men who gather old papers and rags and 
bones, all engaged in every industry have 
their unions and associations, except the 
farmers—they are sheep without a shep¬ 
herd, and when the wolf comcth they 
suffer, because they have no shepherd to 
protect them. This is the actual state of 
the case, and we all kaow it. 
Now we all know the value of organi¬ 
zation—how a hundred disciplined and 
trained soldiers, under a capable officer to 
direct them, can overpower and put to 
flight ten thousand men m a mob. His¬ 
tory is full of such examples. The fact 
needs no proof to support it. And simply 
because the farmers are unorganized, a 
mere loose bundle of sticks easily broken 
one by one, and every opposing interest is 
thoroughly organized and united, the 
farmers are pushed to the wall and be¬ 
come the sport and prey of every antago¬ 
nist. A monopoly is essentially an or¬ 
ganization, like an army, headed by its 
president, its commanding officer; assist¬ 
ed by a hoard of directors, its staff offi¬ 
cers, and the orders of these are distrib¬ 
uted by subordinate officers, and obeyed 
by every individual connected with it. 
And so thorough is this discipline that 
fifty million persons in this nation submit 
without question to the behests of one sin¬ 
gle individual who has assumed the power 
to coerce them to do as he wishes. If 
the price of nails is put up a cent a pound 
by orders from the Iron Manufacturers’ As¬ 
sociation, every person who needs a pound 
of nails pays the extra cent, and when the 
president of a trunk line railroad advan 
ces the freight on corn 10 cents a hun¬ 
dred, overy farmer in the West pays that 
tax, and there is no way to escape it.. 
The burden is all-pervading. It bears 
upon every man, woman and child, whose 
expenses are increased in a hundred ways 
by the oppression of monopolies of various 
kinds. 
But while every other industry fixes the 
price of its products or the value of its 
labor, the value of the farmer's products 
is fixed for him by the purchasers. The 
farmer is the only producer who cannot 
fix the value of his own labor. But yet 
his labor is the most indispensable of all. 
If the farmers, under a strict union and 
organization, were, for one year, to raise 
only enough grain, meat, butter, cheese, 
etc.', for their own use, the world would 
fall at their feet. They would control 
everything instead of being controlled by 
everything. And if they were organized 
as well as the railroad brakesmen, or the 
shoemakers, or any other of the less im¬ 
portant industries, they could do this. 
They could fix the price of their wheat, 
pork, butter, etc., etc., and the rates of 
transportation. They could control the 
legislation of the States and the United 
States. They could crush an adverse 
monopoly at its first motion, and say to 
every adverse interest, ‘' thus far; but no 
farther.” But, alas, there is nothing of 
the kind. Each, single aud alone, is 
powerless; and each looks on while his 
neighbor is crushed, and he bows his 
head to the stroke which crushes him. 
This is the position of the farmers. What 
is to be done to extricate themselves from 
it and to take the place in society to 
which their numbers and aggregate 
wealth, and their useful and honorable 
labor entitle them? We shall try to 
answer this most serious question here¬ 
after. 
BREVITIES. 
“ Bread-winners”— Farmers. 
The most valuable edition—Exp-edition. 
No fodder should be stored overlive stock, 
unless tbe floor is air-tight. 
Six hundred dollars’ worth of doubtful 
advertising decline i last week! 
A good fleece of wool is as much the result 
of good food as is a fat carcass of mutton. 
The man who is dependent upon Nature’s 
methods for bis crons, cannot afford to be 
ignorant of Nature’s laws. 
Kind words aud a geutle patting on the head 
will go much further in taming a timid hei¬ 
fer, than a score of milk-stools. 
You will soon need all the work the horses 
are able to perform. See to it now that they 
have the best of care and a little extra feed. 
For the benefit of many of our readers, we 
would state that the owner of the Phcenix 
fowls, illustrated in our issue of March 1, has 
no eggs to dispose of this seasou. 
If you would succeed in horticulture, you 
must be observant, unsleepingly vigilant, al¬ 
ways ready to go where needed; to go quickly 
and have a ready hand to assist soils, trees or 
attendants—and always cany a sharp prun¬ 
ing knife in your pocket. 
Have von a lawn-mower, or do you deem 
it one of‘those implements that you do not 
need? That depends. A lawn-mower reminds 
us of shaving. Whether one shaves every 
day, every other day, once a week, or once a 
month, is a matter of taste. 
“ It is strange that the value of petroleum 
as a preservative of wood is so little known 
or understood. In numberless ways has its 
value beeu proven to me, and really I don t 
know how I "should get along without it.” So 
writes our friend W. J. Fisk. 
TnE “Little Turk” (curculio) is really a good 
thing for the plum grower. He is a friend 
in disguise,—so says .John J. Thomas. But 
we have often found it possible to have en¬ 
tirely too “much of a good thing,” and like 
.Job.' have felt like praying, “Lord, deliver 
me from my friends.’ 
The next meeting of the National Associa¬ 
tion of Nurserymen, Seedsmen and Florists, 
will be held at Chicago, commencing June if*. 
This should be a large and important meeting, 
as we have no more enterprising class of citi¬ 
zens or one to whom the country owes more 
than the nurserymen, seedsmen and florists. 
A bill prepared by the New York Senate 
Committee on Adulterations of Food, prom •* 
its the manufacture and sale of butter ami 
cheese adulterations after a given time, under 
a ^penalty, of from $VK) to $1,000; appoints 
the State Dairymen’s Association a (com¬ 
mission to enforce'the provisions of the x bin. 
and appropriates $30,000 for that purpose. 
