THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal v'or Country and Suburban Homea 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S C 4RU1N. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, Nicw York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1884. 
Final Notice. 
All subscribers teho hare not received the 
regular free-seed distribution of the Rural 
New-Yorker for 1884 will please notify 
us by postal card. 
We shall publish a Querist Supplement 
next week. 
Fraudulent advertisers—that is, those 
who advertise articles which are not as 
they are represented to be—had better 
avoid the R. N-Y.; for just so sure as we 
learn that they are fraudulent, we shall 
expose them—and this exposure will do 
the advertisers more harm than the adver¬ 
tising will do them good. 
Fob small places try apples on the Para¬ 
dise stock. Alexander, Duchess of Olden- 
burgh, Wagener, Northern Spy, Mother, 
and Gravenstein are good varieties for 
this stock. They will give you fruit in 
from two to three years. Our specimens, 
now about ten years from the uursery, 
are from six to 10 feet high. The Alex¬ 
ander, Northern Spy, and Wagener bore 
several apples the second year, and the 
Alexander has borne a full crop every 
year since. 
In order to get bam and bacon of a su¬ 
perior quality, it is absolutely essential to 
rear special breeds of swine for the pur¬ 
pose. We have seen Berkshire hams 
weighing 25 pounds each, or more, which 
were lined with only about half an inch 
of fat, the rest being tender, sweet, 
juicy meat. The side pieces were finely 
intermixed with fat and lean—of mere 
threads—and, of course, were also tender 
and extremely palatable as salted and 
smoked for bacon. Such meat is more 
economical than a fatter sort, and far the 
most healthy, especially in warm weather. 
The consumption of fat meat of any kind 
then, is apt to produce too much bile in 
the stomach, which is often the cause of 
fever, scrofula, and perhaps some other 
diseases. 
There is no part of the Rural oi equal 
extent, that contains so large an amount 
of reliable information, or that requires so 
much research, or that costs so much in 
time and money as the Querist. We al¬ 
ways endeavor to have every question 
answered as briefly, yet fully as possible, 
by some one thoroughly posted and 
competent, and this often requires the 
service of an expert. We are only too 
willing and happy to do all this work and 
bear this expense that our subscribers may 
have correct information. We are anxious 
to make the Rural of the greatest practi¬ 
cal service, to them always. But we only 
agree to do this for our subscribers; yet 
when others send questions to be answer¬ 
ed we should be very glad to aid them 
and furnish the knowledge sought, and 
will do so when we can; but it would be 
doing an injustice to the Rukal’s large 
family to neglect them for strangers, 
and already we find it a trifle difficult to 
make room for the increasing demands on 
this Department, while doing justice to 
the others, hence the number of supple¬ 
ments we have lately been compelled to 
issue at no inconsiderable expense. Ow¬ 
ing to the increase in the importance of 
the Department, it has been suggested 
that we should change its name from 
Querist to Farmers’ Club of the Rural 
New-Yorker. The change will be made 
in our next issue, and as we have hitherto 
done, we request our friends to criticise 
briefly our answers and to add any inform¬ 
ation which their individual experience 
may suggest. We should like to have this 
Department considered a Question Box, 
like those at Farmers’ Clubs. 
-» • •- 
Among the measures now before Con¬ 
gress is one making an appropriation of 
$150,000 for a Bureau of Silk Culture. 
While desirous of keeping our friends 
thoroughly informed of all now develop¬ 
ments in silk culture as in all other agri¬ 
cultural industries, we have never hesi¬ 
tated to express our opinion that the 
production_of _raw silk in this country - 
could not be profitable under existing 
conditions of labor. Mulberry trees will 
grow well and silk worms will thrive, but 
the cost of the cocoou is only a small 
part of the cost of raw silk. The cocoon 
is made of a single thread, or rather two 
threads waxed together by the silk-worm, 
from 600 to 1,000 feet long, and about one- 
thousandth of an inch thick. Now raw silk 
consists of several of these threads reeled 
together, and as the thickness of the pri¬ 
mary thread varies in different parts of the 
cocoon, being largest in the middle, the 
best reeling can be done only by experi¬ 
enced operators, and the labor of such 
people can be secured in Southern Europe 
and m Asia for much less than in any part 
of this country. Nearly all the cocoons 
produced in this country for the last 
quarter ot a century have been sent to 
Europe to be reeled. Some money can 
doubtless be made by silk raising, by wo¬ 
men and children, especially in the South¬ 
ern States, but neither the present extent 
nor the prospective development of the 
business warrants either the establish¬ 
ment of a special Governmental Bureau to 
attend to it, or the outlay of any such 
sum as $150,000. 
-• ♦ •- 
The Christian Union has been collecting- 
reliable statistics of tbe enormous sales of 
intoxicating drink in the United States 
annually. From these we learn that more 
money is annually spent for strong drink 
than for both bread and meat; more than 
three limes as much as for all the building 
materials of all kinds; more than one- 
and-a-hatf time as much as for all cloth¬ 
ing, including hats, hoots and shoes; 
more than ten times as much as for educa¬ 
tion, including the building and repair of 
school-houses and books for pupils; more 
than 180 times as much as for all religious 
teaching, and the amount thus squandered 
would pay the entire National debt inside 
of two years. And then this enormous 
sum does not include the loss caused 
incidentally of time and health, or the 
expense of supporting the paupers and 
punishing the criminals, over nine-tenths 
of whom, these statistics show, are legiti¬ 
mately chargeable to this terrible traffic. 
Nor does it show the utter want and 
wretchedness, the untold suffering, mis¬ 
ery and anguish of the companions and 
little ones of the victims of this curse. 
One cannot but wonder that we, as a peo¬ 
ple, are as prosperous as we are, and we 
tremble for tbe future, unless we put 
away this great iniquity. 
Ob, what a prosperous and happy people 
we would be, if this terrible drain upon 
our vitality was only stopped; if the 
money now worse than wasted could only 
be used to house, clothe, warm, feed and 
educate the people! Thousands of little 
ones, now gaunt with hunger in our 
streets, going down, down to lives of 
pauperism, shame and crime, would be 
made rosy with health and educated to 
lives of usefulness and happiness; thou¬ 
sands of homes, now the abode of want 
and misery, umllumined by love, would 
be made comfortable and happy, sur¬ 
rounded with bright flowers and filled 
with brighter faces and happy hearts. 
Oh, if our people could only be persuud 
ed to look upon this thing as it is, it does 
seem as though they would he swift to 
put it eternally away, and when they do, 
the millennium will be nearly at hand! 
FRAUD ROBBERY. 
Oleomargarine, properly made from 
carefully selected materials, is a clean and 
not unwholesome product of legitimate 
manufacture, and if put up and sold as 
oleomargarine no one could complain, and 
many people, no doubt, would prefer a 
fine sample of it to much of the low-grade, 
poor butter, and eventually much would 
find a market. 
But when made, colored and put up in 
intentional imitation of good butter, 
when stamped and sold as butter, the 
whole transaction becomes fraudulent 
and dishonest, and those engaged therein 
are on a par with the venders of bogus 
jewelry or counterfeit money. They are 
another class of public robbers, robbing 
the dairymen of the legtimate market for 
their goods, creating distrust of even 
honest butter, and robbiug the consumers 
of the money paid for tbe fraudulent 
article. 
But when the manufacturers of oleo¬ 
margarine, as a large share of them do, use 
rancid fats, and those from animals that 
have died from disease or been- killed in 
transportation, they make something ab¬ 
solutely unwholesome, and are not en¬ 
titled to be classed as respectably as rob¬ 
bers. They are no better than those persons 
who, during the war, engaged in sending 
- infected clothing into Northern cities. 
We believe in the most stringent legis¬ 
lation against such pernicious adultera¬ 
tions, not only by the State Legislatures, 
but by the National Government as well. 
Our people should by all means be pro¬ 
tected against fraud and robbery in their 
food supplies. Wc believe in public in¬ 
spection, and that all foods offered that 
are found adulterated should he con¬ 
fiscated and destroyed, and the manufac¬ 
turers and dealers subjected to heavy 
fines. Farmers and consumers should 
make common cause and agitate this ques¬ 
tion until they receive proper attention. 
Until such time as suitable laws are 
enacted, the makers of good butter can 
do much to protect themselves and their 
customers by the use of stamps or molds, 
having their initials or some other device 
“trademarked.” For a near-by market, 
use a press and imprint the mark on every 
pat and roll of butter sent out. These 
can be wrapped in paraffine paper and 
packed in suitable snipping boxes with 
the name and address of the maker plain¬ 
ly marked on the sides. 
For a distant market the dairymen can 
use the same package now employed, im¬ 
printing their trade mark on the top of the. 
butter in every package. If their butter 
is uniformly first-class, their trade mark 
will soon be in demand, commanding an 
extra price and quick sale. These ship¬ 
ping boxes, presses and stamps cost but 
little, and arc now kept on sale or made 
to order by most of our enterprising man¬ 
ufacturers" of dairy supplies. But while 
adopting all possible measures to protect 
their interest against imitation and fraud, 
they should not cease to agitate and de¬ 
mand protecting laws. 
--- 
INDIAN WHEAT. 
At present Russia is the most formid¬ 
able rival of this country in the wheat 
markets of the world; but although the 
rapid development of the railroad sys¬ 
tem of that empire and the improvements 
in its agricultural methods must lead to a 
steady increase in its exportable surplus, 
yet there is little doubt that in a very few 
years British India will prove our strong¬ 
est competitor. In a fertile land of near¬ 
ly 1,400,000 square miles containing a 
teeming population of 250,000,000 mil¬ 
lions, with only 10,000 miles of railroad, 
the development of production and trans¬ 
portation is almost illimitable. * 
It is only within the last ten years that 
any special attention was paid to India as 
a wheat-producing country, and only 
within the last five that her exports made 
any show in the European markets. In 
1878-9 her exports of wheat were worth 
only $2,568,892, while in 1879-80 they 
rose to $5,005,074; in 1880-1 to $16,389,- 
708; in 1881-2 to $43,020,407. Last year 
the increase was over 50 per cent, over 
the exports of the previous year. The 
total area at present under wheat, accord¬ 
ing to reports just made by the Agricultu¬ 
ral Department of tbe British-Indian Gov¬ 
ernment, comprises about 20,000,000 
acres, yielding between 5,500,000 and 
6,000,000 tons, while the corresponding 
area in the territory under native rule but 
British protection, is about 6,000,000 
acres, yielding 1,500,000 tons. 
The production per acre varies from aa 
average of thirteen bushels in the North¬ 
west Provinces and Oude to seven in 
Bcrar. The eost of production varies in 
the different Provinces from 33 to 40 cents 
per bushel. United States Consul-Gene¬ 
ral Mattson, at Calcutta, states, however, 
that if the ryots, or farmers, cannot get 
from 60 to 70 cents per bushel for their 
product, they refuse to sell it, preferring 
to store it in the earthen jars which there 
serve as elevators, and wait for a better 
bid. 
Throughout nearly the entire wheat- 
growing area the mode of tillage and the 
implements are at present extremely crude 
—such as have been in vogue from time 
immemorial. The Government, however, 
has established model farms throughout 
the country, and is earnestly endeavoring 
to overcome the apathy and dislike of in¬ 
novation of the natives. It is vigorously 
extending the means of transportation by 
constructing new canals and repairing old 
ones, and by encouraging the building of 
railroads by capitalists, and doing so itself 
in sections where these hesitate to make 
investments. Already 15,000 miles more 
of road are either being made or have been 
surveyed. So wretched are the means of 
transportation in many districts at. present, 
that a bountiful harvest is regarded as a 
disaster, and the Government has often 
been compelled to remit the land tax be¬ 
cause good crops brought ruinously low 
prices. 
When the Government abolished the 
export duty on wheat, in 1873, the order 
, of the three most important articles of 
Indian export had for years been, opium, 
raw cotton, grain and pulse, whereas now 
wheat, comes first and opium third, cot¬ 
ton retaining its position owing to in¬ 
creased exportation. With improved 
tools and methods of tillage, and in¬ 
creased means of transportation, there is 
no doubt that India, where labor ran be 
bad for ten cents a day, will soon vastly 
increase her area under wheat and tbe 
average production per acre; while with 
a better system of cleaning the product, 
it will fetch a higher price in the market. 
Already “Calcutta Club No. 1” com¬ 
mands a price in Mark Lane not much less 
than the best Australian or California 
wheat, and choice varieties are taking 
the place everywhere of poorer sorts. 
The population of India, however, is in¬ 
creasing so rapidly, according to Sir Jas. 
Caird, the eminent statistician, that in 
two years it will require the whole amount 
of the wheat now exported, so that there 
must be a large increase in production be¬ 
fore the cheap wheat of that country can 
supplant the dearer and better product 
of the United States, for Indian wheat, 
besides being badly mixed with dirt at 
present, is inferior to ours in quality, 
though very good for mixing with the 
damper wheats of Europe. 
BREVITIES. 
Graft the trees that bear poor fruit with 
good kinds. 
Don’t Scold.—N othing so impels a child 
(or a man either) to wrong and disobedience as 
harsh words. 
Pay cash if you can. Think twice before 
you run in debt. We never tire of giving our 
readers this advice. 
Our special wheat plots never look?d better 
at this season than now. The nine plants of a 
cross between wheat and rye are all alive and 
healthy. 
The number of this paper is 1787—see under 
the bull’s head of the title. Please notice the 
numbers on the address wrappers, and renew 
a week or so in advance. 
There is great satisfaction in being ahead 
of one’s work. One sleeps better and en¬ 
joys a better appetite; home seems pleasanter, 
and life is the better worth living. Isn’t it 
true? 
We firmly believe in applying the third-term 
policy to the farm:— 
First Term, a long one for all good help: 
Second. Term-mate the employment of inef¬ 
ficient help as soon as possible; 
Trend, ex- Term -inate every weed on the 
farm. 
Don’t forget how good those strawberries 
were that neighbor Smith sent over for tea 
last. Summer, or that you then resolved to 
plant a generous bed this Spring: and don’t 
scrimp the beds either, for they aro both food 
and medicine—a very pleasant medicine to 
take, too. 
Why doesn’t the agricultural editor of the 
N. Y. Sun confess that he was wrong iu his 
several assertions—1st. that tbe hickory can¬ 
not he grafted; 2d, that seeds of Bermuda 
Grass hare not. been and are not sold in New 
York City: 3d, that the Japan Persimmon is 
hardy in this climate; 4th. that Gatalpa spe- 
ciosa is not a distinct species, etc. ? Now. why 
don’t you do it. Mr. Editor? Having deceived 
your readers, why don’t you undeceive them, 
if you care a cent for the interests of agricul¬ 
ture? 
Are the Holsteins to have the next boom? 
Their place as the first milk and cheese breed 
has not been disputed. Will they not force 
the Jerseys from their place as the first butter 
breed? It looks as if the greater flow of milk 
of the Holsteins would more thau compensate 
for lack of richness. The Holsteins do not 
require the delicate attention necessary for the 
Jerseys, will eat rough food, and graze on a 
hot Rummer day when the Jerseys must have 
shade. Though so excellent for milk and but¬ 
ter, the Holsteins are not worthless for beef 
by any means. They come nearer the “all¬ 
purpose cow" than any other. 
“A contented mind is a continual feast.” 
This true old adage was written many ages 
ago: it was true then, it is as true now. But 
what makes it peculiarly interesting to the 
fanner is the fact that it is just as true when 
applied to animals as when to humanity: so. if 
we would have our fattening animals do the 
very best, on the feed given, if we would have 
the cows give the most milk and make the 
most bitter possiWf? for tbe feed consumed, we 
must see to it that everything about their 
quurters, as well as their food and attendance, 
are all such as to make them perfectly con¬ 
tented and happy. Contentment pays, in 
stock or owner. 
Germany haviug declined to take American 
hog products, an enterprising Chicago firm 
lias resolved to teach her how Teutonic hogs 
can be prepared for market after the superior 
American fashion. The manner of cutting-up 
and preparing a hog in the Fatherland is very 
different from that practiced in the great 
Porkopolis of the West, and Messrs. Moran & 
Healv have started from that point to open a 
pork-packing establishment at Bremeu, where 
the Chicago system of packing will be exem¬ 
plified. An American company is seeking 
permission to build grain elevators in Russia; 
aud now another American firm is deter¬ 
mined to touch Germany how to pack hogs. 
We arc ready not only to sapplv “effete Eu¬ 
rope” with bread and meat from our own rich 
fields, but’also to teach it how best to'prepaiv 
what it has raised at.home. 
