240 
APRIL 42 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT B. CARMAS. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 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. 
AH whose names are upon our subscription lists 
are entitled to apply for these seeds, no matter when 
the subscription expires or whether it is t.he inten¬ 
tion or not of the subscriber to renew. They are not. 
premiums. 
Our object in charging a port of the postage to sub 
scribersis that we may not have applications from 
those w ho are not interested In farm or garden pur¬ 
suits. 
A II persons who subscribe for the Rural n ew-York- 
er in connection with other journals which publish 
the combination advertisement offering the seeds, 
need not make application. The seed swill be sent 
to them without application except in case of over¬ 
sight or miscarriage. For example: The Inter-Oceau 
and the Rural New-Yorker (with Us seed distribu¬ 
tion) arc offered for *2.75 Whether the Inter-Oceau 
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, Snu, Mall 
(Canada), etc., etc. 
Some of our seed packages require six eents for 
postage—but most of them five cents—except 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. 
If you have not received the Rural seeds 
of its present- distribution; if you have not 
received .all of them, notify us by postal 
card. 
Remember, that the entire stock of 
Horsford's Market Garden Pea will be in 
the hands of our subscribers except half 
a bushel used for seed. Send for the 
Rural seeds now or Lever. All com¬ 
plaints as to non-receipt of seeds are at¬ 
tended to at once. If you have not re¬ 
ceived one each of the eight kinds offered, 
please notify us. 
From our own tests we should certainly 
advise our friends to try the Early May¬ 
flower Potato. It is very early—as early 
as the Early Rose, and specimens now in 
our cellar are as well preserved as when 
dug from the ground. The skin is smooth, 
russeted; the eyes flush with the surface, 
and the quality is first-rate. Our yield, it 
may be remembered, was at the rate of 
544.50 bushels to the acre in rich soil. 
No doubt you have read the recom¬ 
mendation to wrap tarred paper about the 
stems of your apple trees to prevent the 
borer from depositing its eggs in the bark. 
We have seen many young trees quite 
ruined by the use of this tarred paper. 
We advise our readers to paint the stems 
from the soil up one foot with a mixture 
of carbolic acid, lime, soap, and water. 
Do this in mid-May aud again in 'early 
June. Either this wash is offensive to the 
beetle or 6o disguises the tree that it de¬ 
posits its eggs elsewhere. 
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 be enabled to appreciate 
t his fully, we respect fully 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. 
Some general word ought to be adopted 
to apply to chemical fertilizers, and an¬ 
other to the manure produced on the farm. 
Both are fertilizers, it is true, the chief 
difference being that one exceeds ihe other 
in bulk. Commercial fertilizer is a poor 
liauic, since farm manure is sold as well 
as the manufactured article. ‘ ‘Phosphates’’ 
is a very bad name, since not all commer¬ 
cial fertilizers contain phosphoric acid, 
and it is, therefore, misleading and per¬ 
plexing to the farmer who is studying 
the chemistry of fertilizers. Why call a 
fertilizer made up of potash, phosphoric 
acid and nitrogen, a “phosphate?” We 
suggest the simple name ‘ fertilizer^ for 
the concentrated or commercial article, 
and ‘ ‘ manure” for all plant food of a 
bulky nature. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
How awfully bad a man looks whose hai r 
is never combed, and how uncomfortable he 
must feel! The cattle have hair over the 
whole body, and if never carded they look 
as had as the uncombed man, and must 
feel a great deal worse. It is too bad to 
compel the poor brutes to go all Winter 
without carding, and then it doesn’t pay. 
They would do much better if carded 
every day, and this should certainly he 
well done at least twice each week. If 
we only notice how much they enjoy being 
carded, and how grat eful they look, and see 
how much better they thrive, we could 
not regret the time and labor. ’Tis only 
a little kindness, but even this pays. 
Baron Deman de Lennick, of the 
Agriculturist, met the Belle de Bordelaise, 
from Kentucky, in a Mammoth Strawber¬ 
ry bed. Said he, “Why do you have 
such a long name? It makes me tremble 
like an Austin Shaker, to pronounce it.” 
“Tremble 1 Well, if I had such a Jumbo 
of a name as you, I should hire a Mam¬ 
moth Hog Pen, where I could store it in 
sections, or send it to Hudson’s Bay to 
keep cool.” This was rather a stinger on 
the part of Belle de Bordelaise, but it left 
her Champion, as the French berry turned 
Imperial Scarlet, and fled. “They never 
speak as they pass by.” A fter the Hero had 
disappeared, President Wilder winked to 
Charles Downing as much as to say, 
“The Little Monitor has given that Cox¬ 
comb a Chilian reception. He won’t be 
so Brilliant after this.” 
BALSAM FIR—A SELECTION. 
In the nurserjunan’s grounds there is 
no other evergreen tree that strikes the 
inexperienced purchaser with more favor 
than the Balsam Fir, or Balm of Gilead 
Fir, as it is often called. The botanical 
name is Abies balsamea. This tree, when 
young, is beautiful in its wealth of foliage, 
of a rich, dark-green color, which, as 
remarked, at once captivates the inexpe¬ 
rienced, and causes the tree to be se¬ 
lected in preference to any other. It is 
assumed that it will always maintain its 
vigor and beauty of color and form. But 
in a few years the mistake becomes ap¬ 
parent. Its foliage dwindles and the 
lower branches, so essential to the sym¬ 
metry of all conifers, begin, to die. In 
from'nine to 15 years a sickly, half-naked 
tree 20 feet in hight, perhaps, is all there 
is to show for the long waiting. If is a 
pity that nurserymen propagate the tree 
at all, and a greater pity that they com¬ 
mend it to those who take for granted that 
its age will fulfill the promise of its vigor¬ 
ous growth. 
“ What evergreen trees, then, shall I 
buy ?” now asks the beginner, who is 
ready to plant the grounds about his new 
home. Well, without giving reasons for 
the selection more than to say that it is 
made from an experience of many years 
with all sorts of hardy evergreens at the 
Rural Grounds, here is the little list: 
—Cut it out or copy it and send it 
to your nearest nursery, or visit the nur¬ 
sery yourself and make the selection: Al- 
eock’s Spruce, Hemlock Spruce, Broad¬ 
leaved Hemlock Spruce (dwarf), Engcl- 
maim’s Spruce, Gregory’s Spruce (dwarf). 
Tiger’s Tail Spruce and Oriental Spruce; 
Nordmann’s Silver Fir, Siberian Silver 
Fir; the White Pine, Scotch Pine, Um¬ 
brella Pine, the Golden Japan Cypress 
and Peabody’s Golden Arbor-vitie. The 
pines and larger spruces should, of course, 
be planted at a considerable distance 
from the house. 
PUBLIC ROBBERS. 
Civilized society is wholly artificial, 
and can only exist by concessions and an 
implied compact between individuals and 
society, in which the individual surren¬ 
ders to society certain rights, and in re¬ 
turn is guaranteed certaiu others, among 
which is the right to protection of person 
and the right to use and enjoy the pro¬ 
ducts of his own labor. 
As each new invention adds to the effi¬ 
ciency of labor, men drift into specialties 
and becoming expert, the members of 
each class produce their particular spe¬ 
cialty cheaply and in an abundance be¬ 
yond their needs, but in doing so they 
need some specialty, the product of 
some other man’s labor. Thus one goes 
into the growing of wheat, another of 
potatoes or meat, another into the manu¬ 
facture of clotlq boots or shoes, or of 
machinery, etc., etc., and while the man 
growing wheat must have the machinery, 
the man making the machinery must have 
the wheat. Literally, man in society 
“ does not live to himself alone,” hut each 
is dependent upon all others for the sup¬ 
ply of the necessaiies and comforts of life; 
hence it becomes necessary to have the 
means of transportation and exchange. 
The farmer has no time to seek consum¬ 
ers for his surplus food, nor has the manu¬ 
facturer time to find users for liis merchan¬ 
dise, and so middle-men and merchants 
find legitimate employment and are justly 
entitled to compensation from the pro¬ 
ducer and consumer, and may add to the 
prices of the commodities handled, reason¬ 
able charges for their services and for risk 
and expense in the transportation, storage, 
etc., of the goods, and neither producer 
nor consumer has a right to object. 
In order that the people properly dis¬ 
tribute themselves among the various oc¬ 
cupations so as to produce all things 
needed for the comfort of all, some sort 
of governor is required to check over¬ 
production aud at the same time stimulate 
greater effort to produce needed things. 
This we have in (he price all articles com¬ 
mand, and the price is again regulated by 
supply and demand. 
Thus, if too few hogs are being raised, 
the supply of hog products becomes short, 
of the wants of consumers; the demand 
being constant, prices advance until pork 
becomes relatively higher than other food, 
when people use less pork and more of 
some other food. This lessens consump¬ 
tion of pork, of course, while the high 
prices stimulate greater efforts to grow 
hogs, and soon the supply becomes ade¬ 
quate to the demand, and prices are again 
reduced. The same is the case with every 
other product, and neither producer nor 
consumer has any cause of complaint at the 
fluctuation of prices. 
When a few middle-men, with capital 
at command, combine to buy and store a 
large share of any of the necessaries of 
life, it has precisely the same effect as an 
actual shortage; the available supply be¬ 
ing short of the actual want, consumers 
are compelled to pay a fictitious, and thus 
an exhorbitant price; consumption is less¬ 
ened and a large and unnatural surplus 
accumulates and is carried over to come 
in direct competition with another season’s 
product. Nor is this all the evil, for the 
high price stimulates an over-production 
as much as an actual shortage, aud the 
surplus coming on a market already carry¬ 
ing a surplus, prices are broken and 
forced much below the cost of produc¬ 
tion ; with abundant means, the hoarders 
step in and take the whole stock again, 
and when consumers have to buy for their 
daily use, prices are again advanced arti¬ 
ficially, and those who need the goods are 
compelled to pay famine prices. 
This transaction, called by any com¬ 
mercial name you please, is not legiti¬ 
mate and violates one of the rights guar¬ 
anteed to every man by society—the 
right to enjoy the products of his own 
labor. The speculators, by the use of 
money and combination, have compelled 
the pioducer to accept less for his produce 
than it was actually worth; on the other 
hand, they have compelled the consumer 
to pay mo’re than the fair cost of raising 
and handling the produce, ami they have 
actually robbed both the producer and 
consumer. They are simply public rob¬ 
bers. 
What is robbery? The taking of money 
or goods from the person or premises of 
another against his will, by tear, force 
or his necessities, which necessities are 
artificial aud controlled by the parties tak¬ 
ing the property. The money in this case is 
taken from these people by this monopolis¬ 
tic hoarding of the food supply, just as ef¬ 
fectually and as much by force as though 
these persons had been “held up” at the 
muzzle of the “ rustler’s” revolver This 
is no extreme picture of an isolated case; 
it is a matter of daily occurence. Syndi¬ 
cates of moneyed men are continually 
“corneri ug” some article of prime neces¬ 
sity, forcing fortunes from the millions of 
hard-working farmers on every hill, val¬ 
ley and plain of our land, and out of the 
millions on millions of needy toilers in 
the shops and factories of the cities, to 
enrich the few. Their families are living 
in luxury aud rolling in wealth which 
rightfully belongs, in common, to the pro¬ 
ducing farmer and consuming operative; 
but which has been wrenched from them 
by the unhallowed use of wealth and the 
power that woalLh confers, and in direct 
violation of the right which society is 
bound to protect, and for the want of 
which the wives and little ones of the la¬ 
boring people arc forced to go hungry 
and half clothed, suffering untold miseries. 
But does not this money belong to those 
who have siezed it, and have they not a 
right to use it as they please? Let us con¬ 
sider a moment: Suppose that by combi¬ 
nation they were enabled to buy the entire 
food supply of the world; they could then 
hoard it for only a few days, and as “all 
that a man hath will he give for his life,” 
mankind would be helpless at their feet; 
nay, farther, they could still refuse to sell 
and all men but themselves would perish. 
No one is so foolish as to claim such a 
right. Men, on the other hand, would 
be justified in taking forcible possession 
of food to avoid starvation. If monopo¬ 
lists have not the right to go thus far, they 
have no right to buy and hoard at all for 
the purpose of advancing prices; and if 
they have no right to do this, then the 
Government, which is only another name 
for society, has the right to prevent, by 
its strong arm, these practices. The labor¬ 
ing people are the producers of wealth; 
they are the foundation, strength, and 
safeguard of the Government, and its first 
duty is to soe that they are not robbed by 
wealth. 
Wealth, aside from labor, is a creature 
of law, aud can only exist through the 
protection of the law, and, being created 
by the law, it is amenable to the law. So 
Government has the right to control 
wealth, and has as undoubted a right to 
prohibit its use to oppress and rob the 
common people. This monopolistic rob¬ 
bery makes the rich richer, not only by 
making the poor poorer, but by actually 
starving them., aud unless Government 
steps in and compels monopoly to desist 
from this organized robbery, we shall 
have more serious labor troubles than we 
have yet conceived possible. 
BREVITIES. 
A Faying Maxim— Owe no man anything. 
The most valuable culture—Agri-culture; 
because it feeds the world. 
Last year we planted potatoes April 9th; 
peas, April 6th: oats were sown April 6th. 
Mu. Horhfoud writes us that the Dakota 
Red Potato is, in quality, very fine, white and 
mea ly. 
Don’t the mellow soil and the starting grass 
and the birds make you feel like piungiug into 
your work? 
The Rural New-Yorker on its bended 
knees begs its readers to plant grape-vines, 
and theu to cure for them until they bear 
fruit. After that, there will he no trouble. 
Don’t suppose that the Concord is good enough. 
The days of the Concord are past, so far at 
least as a home grape is concerned. 
“I am a farmer’s wife, and love my call¬ 
ing,” writes Mrs. D. H. That’s what we love 
to hear. It speaks well for both the husband 
and wife, while it does farming simple justice. 
E Fluribus Unum.—J oseph Breck & Son. 
seedsmen of Boston, write ns, under date of 
March 24: “ The result from the advertisement 
which we gave you has proved to us that the 
Rural New-Yorker is without an equal in 
its line.” 
« Having subscribed for the Rural and 
its Seed Distribution some time ago, I have 
received the paper, but not the seeds, though 
I sent six cents to pay postage on tho latter. 
1 see by the paper that all that, is asked is 
three cents. Perhaps you will send the seeds 
now.” 
The above is one of many letters we receive, 
varying, of course, as to contents and omis¬ 
sions. It will be scon that neither county, 
State nor name of writer is given. 
The annual distribution of seeds has been 
made to the members of the Youths’ Horti¬ 
cultural Club. We ask all of our readers 
whose children are members of the Club, to 
do what they can to see that these seeds are 
properly planted, and that the plants result¬ 
ing from thum are well-cared for. A little 
interest in the children’s work on the pai t of 
the parents, now aud then, will go a great 
ways. Every little in that, direction helps to 
keep the children on the farm. 
The three shipments of Merino sheep made 
to Australia last July aud August from Avon. 
N. Y., by Mr. W. S. Markliam, numbering 
205 head, and valued ut over $40,000 in Aus¬ 
tralia, about, two weeks after their discharge 
from quarantine there, were found to be af¬ 
fected with the scab, and were all killed aud 
burned, together with all the buildings aud the 
clothing of the attendants, and the ranch on 
which they had been pastured was burned 
over as well. This was a severe remedy, but 
it should prove an effectual one. Our Govern¬ 
ment might learn a useful lesson from this 
transaction. 
Last December, nearly all the barbed wire 
fence-makers iu the United States formed a 
combination to control the manufacture and 
price of the product. The combination has now 
become a company with a capital stock of $2,- 
000,000, divided into 20,000 shares, of which 
8,000 are “preferred’ and 12,000 common. At a 
meeting held ut Chicago, Wednesday, the 
price of barbed wire was advanced 10 per 
cent.. This is the second advance within 60 
days, Thu Kellv and Glidden patents having 
been decided invalid, the manufacturers are 
determined to perpetuate bv combination the 
oppressive monopoly the patent laws failed to 
secure to them. 
Those Via re knolls in tho back lots have an¬ 
noyed you long enough. Many times you have 
resolved to get rid of them, aud now you are 
hound to finish up the job. A few loads of 
manure scattered over them aud a seeding 
with grass sown on now, will effectually cover 
them. If the manure can’t, be spared, you can 
apply a few bushels of wood ashes aud, say, 
300 pounds of born- dust, or, if ashes cau’t be 
obtained, put ou 200 pounds of kainit or muri¬ 
ate of potash; or. if these can t be readily ob¬ 
tained, putou 200 pounds of a complete fer¬ 
tilizer. When all are sown, go over with a 
Kmoothiug harrow a fflw tiittos* a 
teeth drag will answer. Every time you 
look that way iu the Summer, you will be 
thankful that those knollsJrare green aud 
afford abundant herbage. 
