MAY 24 
T H K 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal *.'or Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
KLBKRT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1884. 
May 15. Potato beetles are more nu- 
-merous than ever before at the Rural 
Grounds, so early in the season. 
Parker Earle writes us; “We are 
certainly to have the largest and most 
comprehensive horticultural exhibition 
ever held in the world.” He is referring 
to the World’s Fair at New Orleans next 
Winter. With such men as Earle, Berek- 
mans, Ragan and Tracy to superintend 
the department, we may look for a trium¬ 
phant success. 
■ - 4 »» - 
Under the title of the paper “Rural 
New-Yorker,” und under the bull’s head 
thereof, will he seen the volume (XLIII.) 
and number (1791.) One unit is added to 
this every week. When it is the same as 
the number on your address wrapper, your 
subscription expires. If there is no num¬ 
ber following the name, the subscription 
expires at the end of this year. Please 
examine, and renew a week or so in ad¬ 
vance. 
Are we giving sufficient attention to 
home surroundings? Is it necessary to 
keep the chickens in the front yard? 
Can’t we make a better use of the back 
yard than for an asylum for dilapidated 
wagons, unused sleighs and superannuated 
farm machinery? Do we realize, as we 
ride about the country attending to busi¬ 
ness, that our wives and little ones are 
obliged to spend most of their time at 
home? If there is any place on earth that 
should be beautiful, pleasant, enticing, 
restful, the fac simile of heaven, it. 
should be the homo. It is heaven to the 
little ones. Many a child with a strong 
love for the farm and farming, has been dis¬ 
gusted and driven into other pursuits 
because the home surroundings were so 
desolate! Many a wealthy old farmer is 
to-day sitting in his childless home, who 
might have retained his brightest boy 
upon the farm as his helper and successor, 
had he made his home a little more at¬ 
tractive and pleasant! Oh! it, pays to 
beautify the home. 
During the quarter ending March 31, 
in the County of Surrey, England, with 
an area of only 748 square miles, there 
were four animals sick with pleuro-pntsu- 
monia, three with glanders, 293 with 
scab, 57 with swine fever, and 1,047 with 
foot and-mouth disease. The expenses 
incurred in dealing with these diseased 
animals were €400, 11s, lid. Surely a 
country that suffers such loss in a single 
county in three months, is quite justified 
in dreading the importation of any 
more diseased animals. Should not the 
frequency of disease elsewhere teach us, 
who are so comparatively free from such 
plagues, a most salutary leesou? Should 
it not show us the necessity of more strin¬ 
gent quarantine regulations, and a more 
rigid enforcement of those we now have? 
In fact, is it not the part of wisdom for 
us to entirely cease the importation of 
cattle from sections in which these mala¬ 
dies are prevalent? "We already have as 
good animals of all breeds as exist in the 
Old World ; why not by judicious breed¬ 
ing build up a superior excellence in these 
for ourselves? It is a conceded fact that 
we have never had any of these very de¬ 
structive stock diseases, that were not 
easily traceable to direct importation, and 
if England is so very much afraid of cat¬ 
tle sent from this very healthy cattle 
country, what should be our attitude to¬ 
wards those from a country so broadly 
and badly affected? 
- 
IS IT WISE ? 
Is it wise for a farmer to insist on put¬ 
ting into every barrel of otherwise nice, 
smooth, sizable, first-class potatoes, half 
a bushel of small, half-grown ones, which 
take up room, cost freight, and on reach¬ 
ing market, compel a sale at two-tlurds 
of the price ot first-class potatoes, the 
whole barrel bringing 14 cents lees than 
would the good ones in it, if sold sepa¬ 
rately ; while the half-bushel of poor tu 
bers help to glut the market,and thus lower 
the price of all? To the grower they 
cause a loss of 14 cents in the price, be¬ 
sides the extra cost of barrels and freight 
THE RURAL MEW- 
—at least ten cents—and then, if kept at 
home and fed to the stock, just now “be¬ 
tween hay and grass,” they would have 
been worth at least 10 cents more, so that 
the grower incurs an absolute money loss 
of 84 cents, besides the worse loss of his 
good name. Does it pay? 
When the farmer has a nice crop of po¬ 
tatoes ready for market, and he is offered 
35 or more cents per bushel for them di¬ 
rect from the field, is it wise to assume 
the great labor of storing and holding 
them over, to be compelled to sell them in 
Spring for 10 to 20 cents per bushel ? Even 
if one gets an advance of 25 per cent, in 
price, is it wise to take the trouble, bear 
the loss of shrinkage and danger of frost? 
Don’t those potato growers who uniformly 
sell as soon as the crop is grown, make the 
most money in any period of 10 successive 
years? Potato growing, where one has 
suitable land, and studies the waots of the 
Crop and gives good care, pays as well, 
one year with another, as any other branch 
of farming. Because, just now, they hap¬ 
pen to be a drug, and those wlio have 
their crop on band are forced to lose 
money, is it wise to curse potato growing, 
and refuse to plant the usual crop? “Be 
wise in time.” 
These questions were suggested by a 
visit to the market, and we present them 
to the larmer for his careful consideration. 
-- 
CYRUS HALL M’CORMICK. 
By the death of Cyrus Hall McCormick 
at his home in Chicago on last Tuesday 
morning, in his 75th year, the world has 
lost an inventive genius whose labors 
have revolutionized one of its most im¬ 
portant industries ami added millions of 
dollars to its annual income. C. II. Mc¬ 
Cormick, the world-renowned inventor of 
the reaping machines, was born on a farm 
in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on Feb. 
15,1809, of parents both of whom were of 
Scotcli-Irish descent; but natives of Vir¬ 
ginia. His father, Robert McCormick, 
was an extensive farmer and, at the same 
time, a man of great mechanical genius, 
having obtained several patents before his 
son was out of his teens. In 1816 he in¬ 
vented a reaping machine which worked 
moderately well in grain standing 
straight., but failed in lodged grain, 
and was abandoned as worthless. 
Fifteen years afterward, in 1831, after 
much study and innumerable experi¬ 
ments, his son completed the invention 
of the first successful reaping machine the 
world had ever seen, and in 1834 he ob¬ 
tained his first reaper patent. The orig¬ 
inal machine was crude and heavy, but 
it is the model after which every subse¬ 
quent reaping machine has been fashioned. 
It was not. until 1840, however, that the 
machine was placed on the market, the 
manufacturers paying him a royalty. In 
1845 Mr. McCormick moved to Cincin¬ 
nati, and two years later to Chicago, where 
he started the McCormick Reaper Works, 
which turned out 700 reapers in 1848, 
1,500 in 1849, and 50,000 last year. 
In 1854 two of his brothers, who had been 
for 10 years in the business with him, be¬ 
came partners. When his first patent ex¬ 
pired in 1848, Congress refused to renew 
it, on the ground that the invention was 
of too much value to the public to be mon¬ 
opolized ; but in spite of the keenest com¬ 
petition, his firm have always remained 
the leading manufacturers of reapers 
in the world. Honors innumerable have 
been heaped on this great inventive genius 
at home and abroad. He has acquired 
vast wealth, much of which he has gene¬ 
rously applied to charitable purposes. He 
leaves behind him a wife, two daughters 
and three sons, an honored name and an 
immortal reputation. 
» » »- 
VIRGINIA. 
No State in the Union is blessed with 
so favorable a position so far as climate 
and commercial relations are concerned, 
as Virginia. As in similar sections in 
Kentucky and Tennessee, the conditions 
of climate and soil, especially in the up¬ 
land country, favor the grow th of vigor¬ 
ous men and superior stock, and no finer 
animals can be found in any part of the 
United Statesthau in the valleys of South¬ 
western Virginia, w hose beef is now con¬ 
ceded to be the best sent to Northern 
markets. In its connections with the sea 
the State is marvelously favored through 
the numerous rivers emptying into Ches¬ 
apeake Bay, and the railroads which make 
the shortest connections anywhere existing 
between the cotton growing country of 
the South and Southwest and Liverpool, 
through the fine harbors at the mouth of 
the James. While the tide-water region 
has some malarial districts, there is not 
in Christendom a more healthy region than 
all the upper valley and mountain section. 
Although no other State in the South 
suffered so terribly from the late war, 
Virginia is rapidly taking a front posi¬ 
tion in the rank of the prosperously in¬ 
dustrial States. Northern and European 
capital is pouring into various parts of 
the country and developing the wonder¬ 
ful resources, many of which have lain 
hidden for two centuries. The tide-water 
region near Norfolk and the James River 
has become the garden whence Northern 
cities get their early fruits and vegeta¬ 
bles. The splendid water-power at 
Richmond has made that city cno of the 
most promising manufacturing centres in 
the country. 
Factories are being started at Farmville, 
Lynchburg, and in many other towns, 
and a new manufacturing town, already 
containing several thousands of inhabit¬ 
ants, has been built within the last two 
years at Iioanoke. In the southwestern 
counties park-like valleys, with pastures 
as green and rich as any in the world, 
dotted with large herds of choice cattle, 
are bordered by mountains full of mineral 
wealth, which is destined, in the future, 
to make this the richest mineral-producing 
district on the Northern Continent. In 
many places coal and lime immediately ad¬ 
join iron, so that pig-iron can Ixi produced 
there for $11 a ton, against a cost of from 
$15 to $17 in Pennsylvania. For its high- 
toned, chivalrous, hospitable society, the 
“Mother of Presidents” has always been 
celebrated, and in this respect the modern 
Virginians hardly fall below the high 
fame of their ancestors. Churches are 
numerous and schools plentiful and well 
attended, and it would be bard to find a 
more promising section where immigrants 
could found a home than in the Old Do¬ 
minion. 
DANGER AHEAD. 
The uneasy feeling in the stock mar¬ 
kets of Wall Street, of which the Grant. 
A Ward and the Marine Bank failures 
were the first visible indications, gradu¬ 
ally grew worse until it culminated, on 
Wednesday, in a regular panic and pan¬ 
demonium. it was, veritably, a battle 
of the bulls and bears. For two days 
Wall Street, was a sea of uneasy, 
contending, anxious, frightened men. 
Truly, there was hurrying to and fro. At 
night, on Wednesday and Thursday, many 
men went home penniless beggars, who 
had fondly supposed themselves worth 
millions. The wear and tear of mind on 
these men in a single night, were worse 
than on the farmer for his whole life. It 
was sad to see strong men, with tears run¬ 
ning down their faces, bemoaning their 
utter financial ruin. 
A broker, when asked the cause of the 
panic, said: “Wh live here upon the 
country; people send their money here 
and we invest it. for them and, I am sorry 
to say, quite often lose it. The amounts 
are mostly small, but in the aggregate 
they run up to millions. For some time 
country people have refused to send us 
more, and we had no alternative but to 
prey upon each other, and sooner or later, 
such a state of affairs must end, and you 
now see the ending.” 
We were reminded of a family of five 
boys wc once knew: having a hired man, 
they 011 c rainy day inaugurated a trading 
scheme, by exchanging coats. When night 
came, each boy had the same coat as in 
the morning, and $2 in his pocket. Not 
so the hired man; he had the same coat, 
but was short just $10. The fact, was, the 
boys had combined to fleece the hired man. 
’Tis much the same in stock specula¬ 
tion, only here, when the fleecing is 
over, the country people are minus even 
their coats. The fact is, the whole busi¬ 
ness of stock jobbing, as carried on in this 
country, is fictitious and unreal; is as 
much gambling as any lottery scheme, or 
betting at a horse race. No cause can 
operate to produce a half dozen fluctua¬ 
tions in the price of any particular stock 
in one day; they arc only the results of 
combinations, lying or frauds, and have 
no foundation of facts on which they 
are based. Not one ten-thousandth part 
of the buying and selling is legitimate, 
no stock or produce is delivered, or ex¬ 
pected to be delivered; it is merely a 
method of betting on future prices, the 
bulls betting on a higher, and the bears 
on a lower price; and then each set of 
operators set about producing such a con¬ 
dition of the markets as shall be in their 
favor, and to accomplish their ends, they 
do not hesitate to resort to any scheme, 
however dishonest. 
If the results were confined to those im¬ 
mediately connected; or did the specula¬ 
tion injure no one hut those silly people 
(appropriately called lambs) who get 
fleeced, it would be bad enough; but its 
effects are far more wide-spread and disas¬ 
trous. The foundation-stones of national 
prosperity are agriculture, manufacture 
and business, and none of these can be 
successful without a stable financial con¬ 
dition; consequently anything which un¬ 
settles the money markets, jeopardizes the 
prosperity of the country, and is injurious 
to the whole people, and nothing so inter¬ 
feres with financial stability as stock 
gambling. Because its effects are wide¬ 
spread, it has millions in its control, and 
Is gigantic in its operations, it is all the 
more dangerous and the more difficult to 
control. 
But that the Government has the right 
to make laws for its own safety and for 
the protection of its people, no one can 
question; we have now very stringent 
lawsfor the suppression of betting at horse 
races, lotteries, and all ordinary forms of 
gambling, because those things arc preju¬ 
dicial to the people, and yet, all combined, 
they are not half as injurious to the peo¬ 
ple, or as dangerous to the Government, 
as this one iniquity. 
The danger to be feared by our Govern¬ 
ment is not from the power or influence of 
foreign nations; it is not from any out¬ 
side influence; it is not from a high tariff 
or alow one; hut it is from the corrupt¬ 
ing influence of wealt h, and the disturb¬ 
ing, intriguing influence of those seeking 
to be suddenly rich. Is it not, then, high 
time that our State Legislatures should 
give consideration to this important mat¬ 
ter, and that some measures be adopted 
that shall abate this danger? Where is 
the statesman adequate to the task? 
BREVITIES. 
Rye showed heads May 10t,h; last year May 
12. Grape-vines have made shoots two to 
four inches long. In 1882 the buds had not 
pushed as late as May 23d. Why oull this a 
late Spriug? 
Look after the little things. A very small 
leuk, if not looked after, will swamp a big 
ship, and it will just as surely swamp a big 
farmer. A horse nail is only a little tiling, but 
it has ruined many a fine horse. A very little 
thing often results in spoiling the products of 
the dairy. Ixiok carefully after the little 
things! 
Penny wisdom, pound foolishness—refusing 
to take the R. N.-Y., because it costs so much, 
and then smoking only one five-cent cigar a 
day—one costs yon #2.00, the other #18.25 per 
year. The one will give you many goed 
ideas, make your home bright, und wife and 
children happy; the other befogs your brain, 
poisons your blood, and makeR your breuth a 
nuisance in the family. 
It ts high time the home cellar should be 
thoroughly cleaned und whitewashed* it can 
be done some rainy day. All decaying ap¬ 
ples, or potatoes, are dangerous; in fact, you 
can’t be too particular, as decaying matter of 
every kind breeds disrate. Many a man has 
suffered weeks of torturing sickness, or has 
lost a loved wife, or child, just for want of a 
little cure in cleaning 1 he cellar. Better do it. 
and do it now, even if it takes half a day of 
pleasant weather; cleaning a cellar is cheap¬ 
er than a doctor’s bill, to say nothing of the 
suffering. 
On account of the Post Office w’ar on lot¬ 
teries, the Henry College Lottery of Louis¬ 
ville, Ky., has issued its farewell. Such fare¬ 
wells will not occasion sorrow among good 
people. Lotteries foster the spirit of gamb¬ 
ling speculation which is antipcdal to Honest 
labor and sound prosperity. Their object is 
to dupe those who would suddenly be rich; 
their victims are mostly laboring people. Lot¬ 
teries are frauds, whether instituted lu the 
name of education, charity, or to extend the 
circulation of worthless, bogus, fraudulent 
papers, and the quicker they are suppressed 
the better for everybody. 
A friend writes: “ I want to impress on 
the flock-masters that, as public opinlou is 
now running, it is only a waste of time for 
them to endeavor to restore the old wool 
duties. Instead of this, let them devote their 
attention to improving their flocks, and let 
them, especially m all the Eastern states, in¬ 
crease their flocks of mutton breeds as rapid¬ 
ly as possible. These pay better than the 
Merinos, or other fine wooled sheep. The 
consumption of mutton is rapidly increasing 
at home, and so is its exportation to Europe. 
Let the flock-masters consider how low woolen 
goods have fallen—the manufacturers must 
have cheap wool, or they can’t work to a 
profit. Besides, is not raising wool as profita¬ 
ble as or even more profitable Lhau raising 
wheat and corn at present prices? i think it is, 
and if so, the flock-masters ought not to 
grumble. They are doing as well as their 
neighbors, and, upon the whole, perhaps a 
little better.” 
From numerous reports, the outlook for 
workmen in Canada never was worse. The 
trouble arises from a heavy immigration of 
all sorts of people, even paupers, sent or aided 
by the municipal authorities of various cities 
in the United Kingdom, or by charitable in¬ 
stitutions. or the Government. These have 
been accustomed to starvation wages at borne, 
and subject Canadian workmen to a worse 
competition than that offered by any other 
class, Chinese not excepted. Good British 
workmen can make fair w ages at home; it is 
the poorer kinds that are helped across the 
Atlantic. W ithin the last two years, in some 
trades, wages have fallen 50 per cent, in the 
Dominion: and consequent 1 }', large numbers 
of the best workmen have crossed over to the 
'•States,” while those that remain are agitat¬ 
ing against assisted immigration and the land 
ing of pauper immigrants. 
