THE 
RURAL NLW'YORKER. 
Conducted by 
BLBKRT B. OAR WAR. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1884. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
Wk have now tilled 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 Is the Inten¬ 
tion or not Of the subscriber to renew. They are not 
premiums , 
Our ohject In charging a part of the postage to Sub¬ 
scribers Is that wc may not have applications from 
those who arc 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 seeds will be Bent 
to them without application except In case of over¬ 
sight or miscarriage. For example: The Inter-Ocean 
and the Rural Nicw-YORKEU (with its seed distribu¬ 
tion) are ottered for f3.7S 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 or the Detroit 
Free Press, Ncav York Times, Tribune. Suu, Mail 
(Canada', etc., etc. 
Some of our seed packages require six cents for 
postage—but most of them live conts-except to Can¬ 
ada, where the postage is 10 cents. But our subscrib¬ 
ers are desired to send us hut 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 try postal 
card. 
If you hoar a man Iterating farming as 
the meanest business on earth, and as being 
degrading and paying only a meager or 
no profit, you may safely set him down as 
a man who has an awfully poor farm; who 
doesn’t know how to run a farm; is too 
stingy to buy manure, or the stock to make 
it; is' too lazy to work, or spends more 
time at the corners, talking politics and 
looking after a little petty popularity or 
an office, than he does in his fields study¬ 
ing the character of the soils, posting 
himself in his business and caring for the 
farm. He certaiuly reads more political, 
than agricultural papers, and is no honor 
to the profession. 
For a while “Notes from the Rural 
Grounds” will be less frequent than they 
have been during the past six months. 
We spend the greater part of every pleas¬ 
ant day (except Thursdays and Saturdays, 
which are office days) in the field, in the 
hopes of making our tests and experi¬ 
ments for another season more varied 
and instructive than ever before. There 
is no laziuess about it, therefore, 
good readers. We are working with a 
hearty good will in one way that 
the Rural maybe more interesting in an¬ 
other. Editors cannot write from experi¬ 
ence in the field and garden if all of their 
time be spent in a city office. 
If grass seed has not been already 
sown, it should be done at once. Though 
the price of clover seed is comparatively 
high, no good farmer will allow his fields 
to go without seeding, or try to scrimp the 
quantity of seed, even should be desire to 
plow them again next year. The growth 
of grass will pay many times for the seod- 
ing; it will pay in the feed furnished; it 
will pay in protecting the fields next 
Winter; it will pay as manure in the roots, 
to be plowed under next Spring; and, 
lastly, it will pay by furnishing some 
good growth to “fill” the ground. Nature 
abhors a bare piece of ground, and if the 
owner iB too stingy or negligent to fur¬ 
nish an abundance of seed of some eco¬ 
nomic crop, she is ever ready to cover it 
with something, even though it be perni¬ 
cious weeds, and we cannot, afford to per¬ 
mit her to do this work. 
The people of the Great West, particu¬ 
larly of the Pacific Coast, have a straight¬ 
forward, practical way of doing a thing, 
that is, to say the least, very sensible. 
They are about organizing a Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association, intended to inform and 
benefit, the fruit grower. No person will 
be eligible to membership unleeBhis prin¬ 
cipal business is fruit growing; nor if he 
has any business, or business relations 
that are antagonistic to fruit growing. 
Then it will cost each applicant. $ 10 to 
become a member, and $5 each year 
thereafter. This money is to be used in 
obtaining information beneficial to the 
business and in relation to the supply and 
demand for the fruits grown hv the mem¬ 
bers. It w T ill also be one of the objects of 
the association to prevent imposition on 
its members by any transportation compa¬ 
ny or middle-man. It may pay fruit 
growers nearer home to keep posted on the 
success of this society. 
■- * • ♦- 
C. E. Thorne, lately of the Ohio Ag. 
Coll., and now associate editor of the Farm 
and Fireside of Springfield, Ohio, writes: 
“I have for some time wanted to write to 
you and add my mite of encouragement, 
that you persevere in holding tile Rural 
up to its present high standard, not only 
as regards the quality of the matter it con¬ 
tains and the manner of presenting it, 
but especially as regards the exclusion from 
its advertising columns of the various 
swindles which so many ot our agricultu¬ 
ral publications are so ready to invite 
their readers to be duped by. I know 
that you could, temporarily, almost or 
quite double your income from advertise¬ 
ments, if you would admit the class I 
refer to; but I firmly believe that, in the 
long run, you will find your present course 
profitable, 1 kuotv you will find it profit¬ 
able in the peace of mind it will give you.” 
It is our intention to continue to pursue 
the course urged upon us by Mr. Thorne, 
and we ask our readers, whenever they 
have just grounds of complaint against 
any of our advertising patrons, to advise 
us of the fact. 
DOGS OR SHEEP. 
TnE Massachusetts Legislature has 
killed the proposed dog law, and there is 
now no probability of any law on the sub¬ 
ject, of sheep-killing dogs being enacted 
at, the present session, if ever. Isn’t it 
strange that Massachusetts, with tens of 
thousands ot acres practically worthless 
for any purpose except sheep raising, and 
with mutton, the healthiest meat her 
people can eat, so high iu price as to be sel¬ 
dom or never tasted; and while importing 
annually many millions of pounds of wool 
to keep her factories employed, should be 
so oblivious of her own interests as to 
neglect the passage of a law protecting 
her farmers and ridding herself of the 
millions of worthless curs that at present 
render the sheep industry utterly impossi¬ 
ble. It is surprising that such a level¬ 
headed people as the New-Englanders 
should prefer to raise dogs rather than 
sheep. 
In nine-tenths of the counties of New 
England outside of Vermont, the dogs 
greatly outnumber the sheep, and are not 
only worthless, but a positive curse; while 
the sheep would add millions to the reve¬ 
nue of the farmers, and consequently of 
the States. The trouble iu Massachusetts 
is the same as the trouble in the West, and, 
in fact, everywhere. The owners of those 
worthless curs can vote, and the farmers 
have not sufficient regard for their own 
interests to combine and kill, politically, 
every one of those nincompoops in the 
Legislature, who thinks more of the good 
opinion of his dog-keeping constituent 
than of the farmer. The want of organi¬ 
zation and concert of action among farm¬ 
ers is what places them at the foot oi the 
ladder, and makes their interest the foot¬ 
ball and sport of the politician. Will the 
time never come when farmers shall have 
a regard for their own interests, and shall 
assert their rights, and shall combine to 
exert the influence in politics and else¬ 
where that their numbers, respectability, 
and intelligence deserve? 
- -« ♦ ♦■-- 
THE “CALIFORNIA LILY" CHEAT. 
One of the boldest and ; at the same 
time, one of the most amusing cheats that 
has ever been perpetrated on the benighted 
citizens of New York, has been going on 
for the past week or ten days in the up¬ 
town thoroughfares. The descriptions 
which came to the Rural Office of queer- 
looking, sweet-scented flowers which were 
being freely sold two for 25 cents, in¬ 
duced us to send a reporter to ascertain 
what sort of flower the California Lily 
could be. Near Fifth Avenue, in Four¬ 
teenth St., one of the stands was found, 
and the following is a verbatim report of 
what occurred: 
Peddler.—“Here, ladies, are yer lilies 
from California only ten cents apiece;” 
(the price had been reduced). 
Reporter—“What are these V } 
Seller.—“California Lilies.” 
R. —“Did they come from California?” 
S. —“Yes, ma’am. The flowers that are 
iu them will keep on growing all Bummer. 
They will send out long, silk threads, 
which will fall all over the outside. See 
how sweet they are.” So saying, he held 
up one of the flowers for our lady reporter 
to smell. “It is very sweet, you see, and 
will scent a room.” 
It was, indeed, very sweet. Our re¬ 
porter bought two of the flowers which, 
with several green leaves, were tied to¬ 
gether and covered neatly with damp moss. 
The flowers were, of course, readily re¬ 
cognized as those of the Skunk Cabbage 
(Symplocarpus fmtidus) which, at this 
season, may be found in all bogs and 
moist grounds. The green leaves seemed 
to be those of the American White Helle¬ 
bore or Indian Poke (Veratrum viride). 
The flowers referred to by the peddler, 
that would “send out long, silk threads,” 
and that were so sweet-smelling, covered 
the spadix or club-shaped column sur¬ 
rounded by the purple-spotted and striped 
spathe or hood—just the same as in Jack- 
in-tke-Pulpit or Indian Turnip. The 
flowers offered to lookers-on to smell of, 
had been perfumed with cologne, or ex¬ 
tract. 
We are really very sorry for the ignor¬ 
ance of city people that can gape over the 
flower of a Skunk Cabbage with admiring 
wonder when it, is presented to them as a 
California Lily. Several years ago, it will 
be remembered, pieces ol the wood of the 
Liquidumber, or Sweet Gum, were freely 
sold about New York as Alligator Wood, 
that was possessed of several potent 
charms. 
NO HIGHER TARIFF ON WOOL. 
Last Monday the Lower House of Con¬ 
gress, by a vote of 118 to 126, rejected 
the joint resolution introduced by Mr. 
Converse, of Ohio, restoring the tariff of 
1807 on wool. Of the 118 votes for the 
resolution, and therefore for higher wool 
duties, 36 were Democrats. Of these 
nine were from Pennsylvania, seven from 
Ohio, and one each from New Jersey, 
Tennessee, Michigan, Maryland, Louisi¬ 
ans, Georgia, South Carolmia and Iowa; 
two each from Alabama, "West Virginia, 
New York and Wisconsin, and four from 
California. Pennsylvania being a strongly 
protectionist State, it was to be expected 
that her Democratic Congressmen should 
favor protection on principle; and Louisi¬ 
ana wanting n high tariff on sugar, natu¬ 
rally favored a high tariff on wool; while 
the other Democrats who voted for the 
measure represented States largely in¬ 
terested in sheep husbandry, especially 
those from Ohio, Michigan and Cali¬ 
fornia. Of the eleven Republicans who 
voted against the resolution, and there¬ 
fore against higher wool duties, six 
were from Massachusetts, two from Min¬ 
nesota, two from Iowa and one from 
Illinois. The six Massachusetts Repub¬ 
licans who repudiated the protectionist 
principles of their party and their State, 
obeyed the wishes of the woolen manu¬ 
facturers, whose influence is powerful in 
the Old Bay State. Indeed, only one 
Massachusetts man, Mr. Russell, voted 
for the resolution. The Western Repub¬ 
licans who voted against it, no doubt 
represented the free-trade sentiment which 
is very prevalent among Western men of 
both parties. It was a thin House, 244 
only voting out of 325 members. It is 
said there were 30 pairs, equivalent to 60 
members. 
The arguments of the opponents of the 
measure, who wished to excuse their vote 
to their agricultural constituents, were 
forcibly stated by Mr. llurd, of Ohio, who 
had been requested by the Democratic 
Legislature of his State to vote for it, but 
who vehemently opposed it. According 
to him, the American manufacturer makes 
the market for the American wool grower; 
just, as he prospers, or is depressed, are 
the prices of wool high or low; a low 
price for American wool is largely attribu¬ 
table to a high price for foreign wool (!); 
of the three grades of wool, supertine, 
intermediary and combing, America does 
not produce either the first or last, there¬ 
fore no duties on them can protect the 
American farmer, and foreign wool is 
needed to mix with the intermedia¬ 
ry; therefore foreign wool does not 
come into competition with American 
wool, but merely supplements it (!) 
Strange that the sheep raisers of the entire 
country should be so blind to their own 
interests as to advocate high duties on 
foreign wool: at all their conventions and 
through every paper that represents them! 
- ♦ - 
PRICES AND PROSPECTS OF WHEAT. 
Last Monday wheat sold in Chicago at 
the lowest prices overpaid in that market, 
but on the following day a reaction set 
in, and since then prices have been mov¬ 
ing upwards, though quotations each day 
have been marked by violent fluctuations. 
While the advance has averaged only 
about 2>£ cents per bushel within the last 
seven days, the rise since Monday has 
been six cents in Chicago, and prices in 
other Western markets have risen nearly 
as much, while in New York the advance 
has been still greater. It is a trifle doubt¬ 
ful whether the rise can he sustained in 
view of the heavy supplies on hand here, 
the latest reports of stocks and prices in 
Europe, and the favorable condition of 
the growing crops; but the bulls stoutly 
declare that prices of wheat have touched 
bottom in 1884, and that a still further 
advance is certain: while the bears insist 
that 70 cent -wheat is yet probable. 
A cablej^am from London last Tuesday 
reports enormous stocks of wheat, barley 
and corn in the granaries there. Of 
wheat alone there w'erc nearly 3)4 million 
bushels more than last year, and stocks 
were correspondingly heavy at other 
points. Within a week American wheat 
has been offered at Liverpool at 96u, cents 
a bushel, which is not only lower than it 
was ever offered before; but also lower 
than any reported sales of Indian wheat 
in the English market. Just now Eng¬ 
lish and French grain merchants are buy¬ 
ing “ futures” in Russia and India, and 
selling “ short” in New York and Chica¬ 
go, the foreign short interest in wheat in 
this market alone .being over 2,000,000 
bushels at the present time. The wild, 
unscrupulous speculation in food pro¬ 
ducts in this country appears to have dis¬ 
gusted the Old World, wid led dealers 
there to seek supplies elsewhere, and the 
immense railroad progress in Russia, In¬ 
dia, Australia ami South America, by 
cheapening transportation, has led to the 
cultivation of larger areas in cereals and 
to keener competition in our foreign mar¬ 
kets. This competition is certain to in¬ 
crease as the resources of our rivals are 
developed, so that American farmers 
should look forward to the probability of 
moderate prices for wheat in the. future, 
since in spite of our short crop last harv¬ 
est, and our comparatively siuhII exports 
since, the stocks arc so heavy and the prices 
are so low in our foreign markets. 
The outlook for the next crop, which 
lias much influence on prices to-day, is 
excellent, according to the April Report 
of the Department of Agriculture received 
here yesterday. From this it appears that 
the wheat area is about 27,600,000 acres. 
This is nearly the acreage sown for the 
previous crop; but of that between five 
and six per cent, was subsequently plowed 
up, leaving 26,400,000 acres to be harvest¬ 
ed. It is probable that very little will be 
plowed up this year, as no serious wiuter- 
killing is reported except in Alabama, 
though some injury is reported on low 
and "wet areas throughout the entire 
breadth. Without a single exception, 
drilled wheat is reported to he in superior 
condition everywhere. The present area 
is 1,200,000 acres great er than that har¬ 
vested last year and 2.000,000 greater 
than that of the census year. The iucrease 
is about 1,500,000 on the Pacific Coast, 
and nearly 750,000 acres in the Southern 
States; while there is only a small in¬ 
crease iu the Middle States and a slight 
decrease in the Ohio basin. The condi¬ 
tion of the crop averages 95; 100 repre¬ 
senting a full stand, unimpaired vitality, 
and medium growth. In April last year 
the average was 80, and 85 in April 1881; 
while the April average of the large crop 
of 1882 was 104. 
The State averages are as follows:— 
Connecticut, 100; New York, 97; New 
Jersey, 95; Pennsylvania, 99; Delaware, 
96; Maryland, 102; Virginia, 101; North 
Carolina, 102; South Carolina, 97; Geor¬ 
gia, 91; Alabama, 88; Mississippi, 92; 
Texas, 101; Arkansas, 81; Tennessee, 98; 
West Virgiuia, 100; Kentucky, 98; Ohio, 
88; Michigan, 94; Indiana, 92; Illinois, 
82; Missouri, 1)1; Kansas, 101; Califor¬ 
nia, 101; Oregon, 102. The report repre¬ 
sents the condition of the crop on April 1, 
when the snow lay a foot deep on many 
fields in Michigan, New York and Con¬ 
necticut. 
. -- 
BREVITIES. 
Telephone, Stratagem, and Pride of the 
Market. You can not make a better selection 
for main-crop peas than the above. 
Thousands of pounds of what would other¬ 
wise be immaculate butter arc totally ruined 
before the milk is drawn from the cow, by bad 
air, unwholesome food, putrid water. You 
cannot be too careful what your Cows eat and 
drink, remembering that from polluted foun¬ 
tains pure streams never flow. 
Abe you going to raise sweet potatoes this 
year# Choose a. warm, windy loam. Set the 
plants 15 inches apart iu ridges (one foot high 
in the middle and gradually sloping) four feet 
apart. The tubers may lie started now in hot¬ 
beds. Place them in sand uud the sprouts will 
lie ready to plant in the open ground about the 
1st of June, which, for this climate, is soon 
enough. The Nansemond is as good os any. 
