532 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AUG 48 
THE 
RURAL NLW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homos. 
Conducted by 
E. 8. CABMAN, 
J. S. WOODWABD, 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
*AiXtUJArf, AUGUST 16, 1884. 
Our Alexander Apple, on French Para¬ 
dise stock, is now about nine years old, 
and him borne a lull crop for the past live 
years. The tree is but eight feet high 
and the same in diameter. Upon this 
little tree 75 apples are now ripening. 
We have just dug Notts Victor, a 
new potato not yet introduced, we be¬ 
lieve, and the yield is 1,072.33 bushels to 
the acre. Our greatest yield last year was 
from Corliss’s Matchless, viz., 1,140.33 
bushels. We hope to heat that this year. 
‘The great source of nitrogen is the 
atmosphere/’ This we read and read 
again in all of our agricultural exchanges. 
And yet Sir J. B. Lawes, our highest 
authority, doubts if plants get. any nitro¬ 
gen from the air. Ills experiments of 40 
years do not show that they do. 
■ » ♦ ♦ - 
We have never before seen the applica¬ 
tion of a fertilizer of any kind show such 
remarkable effect as that of nitrate of 
soda upon a row of corn, spread at the 
rate of 250 pounds to the acre. When 
the plants were knee-high this was the 
poorest row in the field; now it is decid¬ 
edly the best, and the deeper color-—as we 
have stated—is so marked that it can at 
once be pointed out as far as it can 
be seen. Another year we shall sow 
nitrate of potash when the plants have 
grown a foot high. It must be Bown with 
care. It kills the leaves wherever it 
touches them. 
Sir. J. B. Lawes, commenting upon 
the action of nitrogen upon our fertilizer 
experiments with potatoes, says, in a letter 
just received, that “all the anomalous re¬ 
sults which are obtained in regard to 
manures, generally find explanation in the 
Remand of available substances which 
exist, in the laud at the time of the ex¬ 
periment. If you go on growing potatoes 
with nitrogen, you will soon come to the 
end of your potash. That is to say, if you 
grow Inrge crops, nothing but experiment 
can tell the resources of any soil. For 
instance, my soil has for the last 30 or 40 
years yielded between 20 and 30 pounds 
of potash per acre per annum. This is 
far less than the requirements of a good 
crop of potatoes.” It would appear that, 
all of our plots which receive nitrogen 
alone, very soon come to the end of the 
available potash in the soil, since the vines 
are dying, while the plants of the other 
plots are green and growing. 
Sugar is now cheaper than it has ever 
been in the memory ol the present middle- 
aged generation, and it is supposed prices 
have not yet touched bottom. The fall 
in prices, however, has not been caused 
by a falling off in demand, for consump¬ 
tion has never been so great. In less than 
a year it has increased one-fourth, and the 
United States are now using 25 per cent, 
more sugar than they used last Summer; 
yet the stock on hand in New York, Bos¬ 
ton, Philadelphia and Baltimore on July 
28 last, amounted to 189,798 tons, against 
133,893 tons on the same day last year. 
Cuba is not sending us much sugar now, 
as the export tax—half a cent per pound 
—and the import taxes here, cause it to 
be worth only three cents a pound on the 
island, and the growers, hoping the Span¬ 
ish Government will lighten the export 
duty, are holding back their product, as 
at preseut prices they can make little or 
no profit. The chief cause of the present 
cheapness is the enormous production of 
beet-root sugar in Europe, especially in 
Germany, last year. So great was this, 
that Germany now rules the sugar mar¬ 
kets of the world, and although not much 
of this sugar is imported here, cane sugar, 
which we use chiefly, comes to us all the 
cheaper, from 8t. Domingo and other 
places, because it cannot be sent to Europe 
in competition with the beet-sugar made 
there. Of course, the low price hurts the 
producers of cane, sorghum, and maple 
sugar here in all parts of the country. 
WHAT THINK YOU ? 
It strikes us that one of the most valu¬ 
able kinds of seed for our next Free. Seed 
Distribution would be a package of the 
60 different kinds of corn which we are 
now raising in the same field. These 60 
kinds have been obtained from as many 
parts of the Northern, Eastern and West¬ 
ern States, and all are highly praised by 
those who sent them to us to test. It will 
be remembered that in intermediate plots 
the Rural’s Blount’s Improved is growing. 
The tsissels are cut off as they appear, so 
that all the corn that forms will be crossed 
with some of the 60 varieties. These last 
will, of course, intercross with one an¬ 
other indefinitely. The Rural Blount has 
been carefully selected every year since 
the original Blount’s Prolific was intro¬ 
duced by the R. N.-Y. year? ago. It is 
now much earlier and more prolific than 
then; the plants do not sucker at all; 
they do not grow so tall; the shanks are 
shorter, the ears rather larger. Now 
what we propose is to mix the yield of 
all these 60 kinds as well as possible, and 
to send a packet to each subscriber. In 
this way all will hart the hen*jit ol fair 
grand fronting experiment, and f rom these 
‘kernel* anyone fan tried those plant* which 
he deems the best suited to h is soil and. climate , 
and set to work to establish varieties of h is aw n. 
What think you, Rural readers? We are 
not aware that the crossing of corn has ever 
before been conducted on so large a scale 
—certainly not with the same object or 
with the same care in selecting the best 
varieties of the country as parents. We 
are only fearful that the three-quarters of 
an acre uuder this experiment may not 
yield enough to furnish the desired quan¬ 
tity of grain. 
i 4 » ~ 
IS THE RURAL RIGHT? 
Referring to the Rural’s statement 
that certain New England farm papers 
have always declined to admit its regular 
yearly advertisement, the New England 
Farmer, says: 
“ Now, we do not assume to speak for the 
other Boston agricultural papers, but speak 
ing simply for ourselves, we have to say, that 
we have always refrained from sending our 
own advertisement to other agricultural 
weeklies, because it has appeured to us that 
it is an act of discourtesy to our neighbors in 
the same business to ask them to circulate our 
business advertisements, just as, if wo were 
dealing in any kind of goods, boots and shoes 
for instance, we should consider it discour¬ 
teous to ask the shoe dealer around th« cor¬ 
ner to hang up over his counter a placard 
recommending his customers to ilenl with us. 
In declining the advertisement of the Rural 
Nkw-Yorkbr, we were merely holding them 
to the observance of the same rule in that mat¬ 
ter by which we guided our own conduct. 
We are unable to see that, there is anything 
illiberal or nubusiness-like in thut view of the 
subject. We do not expect to conceal from 
the knowledge of even one of our readers, 
the existence or t he merits of the Rural or of 
any other agricultural journal, as our columns 
for years past will show ” 
The New England Farmer, then, places 
the agricultural press in the same box 
with boot and shoe dealers or any other 
kind of merchants. Merchants engage in 
business to make money. That is their 
first object. They do not set themselves 
up as teachers at all. All that is required 
of them is that they should deal honestly 
with their customers. The public has 
nothing more to do with them. If one 
merchant were to say to a competitor, “I 
will give you $100 to be permitted to put 
up my sign in your store,” the other 
would merely have to consider whether 
or not his loss of custom from such a dis¬ 
play would amount to more or less than 
$ 100, and act accordingly. There is no 
moral principle involved. But the farm 
journal is a teacher of the “most noble 
and useful employment of man,” and it 
has no right to withhold from its readers 
any information, or means of information 
within its knowledge. As well might a 
minister of the Gospel decline to permit, 
another minister to preach from his pulpit 
as that one agricultural journal should 
decline the advertisements of other jour¬ 
nals earnestly working in the same field. 
Farmers have a right to know all that 
concerns them or their occupation, and 
the mission of the farm press is to furnish 
that information, whether subscribers are 
gained or lost. Journalists who place their 
own pecuniary interests above the inter¬ 
ests of agriculture, disgrace their profes¬ 
sion. They should engage in mercantile 
pursuits. 
We do not wish by any means to make 
this a personal matter. The agricultural 
editor of the Farmer, Mr. A. W. Cheever, 
is respected by all who know him, and 
our relations with the other farm journals 
who have declined the Rural's advertise¬ 
ments, have always been pleasant enough. 
The question is simply this: 4 ‘Is one good 
farm journal, on the grounds of competi¬ 
tion, justifiable in declining the advertise¬ 
ments of other good farm journals?” 
GIVE THE BOY A CHANCE. 
One of Our Boys writes: “I would aw¬ 
fully like some of your new wheat, and 
think I could get tiie subscribers, only I 
don’t have any time—only nights and 
Sundays—but I would even get the sub¬ 
scribers nights, only my pa won’t let me 
have the land; he says, ‘What’s the use; 
my wheat is good enough and, besides, I 
want you to work for me and not to waste 
time in such business/ I do want to earn 
some money that shall be all my own, but 
I won’t do anything without pa’s consent. 
Won’t you write to him ?” 
Yes. George, we will write him this 
open letter, because there may be other 
boys in the same situation. When you 
see this, show it to him, and tell him we 
wrote it especially for him. The fact is, 
he does not realize what a jewel of a boy 
he, lias, or else he is not worthy of him! 
Mr. B., George is a grand boy, much bet¬ 
ter than you deserve. Do vou not see he 
has the germs of a grand success? lie 
“wants to earn some money that shall be 
all his own,” and yet he is so honest that 
he will not even attempt it without your 
permission. He is a noble boy; any fa¬ 
ther should be proud of such a son, and 
yet we know you arc too hard on him; 
we know, by his letter, that you have not 
given him a good—no, not even a decent 
—education. But probably this is more 
the result of thoughtlessness than design. 
When you go to bed to-night and are 
all by yourRclf, think this matter over a 
little. Do you wish to keep George on 
the farm, and make him a farmer worthy 
to fill your place? Would you have him 
a bright, intelligent, successful farmer? 
Can you make him such by working him 
so hard and constantly that he has no 
time, “only nights and Sundays?” Is it 
not just as essential to have him know 
something of business and business ways 
as all about the manual processes of the 
farm? If this wheat were worthless, 
would not the coming in contact with 
people in securing the Club be worth 
much, by giving him confidence and a 
knowledge of human nature? And then, 
Mr. B-is it not possible for you to 
get a better wheat? This Cross-bred 
Diehl -Mediterranean yields much better 
and is a better sample than Clawson; can 
the same be said of yours? 
Would it not nay you to encourage 
George—to even help him a little, and 
then next year buy your seed of him? 
You could not be mean enough to take it 
without pay. Don’t go to sleep till you 
have thought of George’s good traits; 
how hard he works; how honest he is; 
ho w pleasant, and how read)’ to save you 
steps. Suppose his little, brown, sun¬ 
burned hands were still, aud his little 
tired leet were never more to run at your 
bidding, would not you miss him? Would 
you not, then, wish you had not been 
quite so hard on the boy? “Wants to 
earn a little money, all his own,” a lauda¬ 
ble ambition; and we know he needs a 
little more education. Don’t go to sleep 
till you have decided, fully and firmly 
decided, to be a little better father to 
George. Give the boy a chance ! 
-■♦♦♦- 
THE TEXAS FEVER SCARE. 
Lately there has been considerable 
alarm in the West about Texas or splenic 
fever, which lias proved very fatal among 
cattle at Manhattan, Kansas; Brady Isl¬ 
and, Maxwell aud Ogalalla, Nebraska; 
La Junta, and several other points in 
Southern Colorado, and Barnard, Missouri. 
A good many deaths among cattle 
brought from other points have also oc¬ 
curred at the stock-yards at Chicago, Ill.; 
Kansas City, Mo.; and Pueblo, Col. 
The greatest fatality has been in Ne¬ 
braska, where some 2,000 head of Texan 
cattle were landed on May 27, at Brady 
Island. Most of these were driven north; 
but about 300 strayed away, and are now 
scattered among the native cattle through¬ 
out that section. All known cases of 
disease have occurred among herds that 
pastured on the trail of these animals. 
The herd of 220 steel-s most of which have 
died at Manhattan, were bought at the 
Kansas City stock-yards, and had 
originally come from about Caldwell, 
Southern Kansas, where they must have 
contracted the disease. In Colorado a 
train load of cattle from Southern Texas, 
was unloaded at Pueblo in the end of 
May, and the animals were thence driven 
on a trail northwest between the Arkansas 
and St. Charles Rivers. About the same 
time two trains of Texans were unloaded 
at La Junta, and the beasts were driven 
over the range, part to the north, and part 
to the south and west, and all infected 
cattle are among the herds that have fed 
over the trails made by these animals, or 
over the trails of several minor Texan 
shipments unloaded at the same stock- 
yards. In all cases the first symptoms of 
the disease have appeared in from five 
to seven weeks after the animals were ex¬ 
posed to contagion, and in every case the 
attack proved fatal within 48 to 60 hours 
from the appearance, of the first symp¬ 
toms. No known treatment is of any 
avail. 
The name Texas fever is misleading as 
to the source of infection, for, according 
to Prof. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the Bu¬ 
reau of Animal Industry, who has thor¬ 
oughly investigated the matter, the dis¬ 
trict permanently infected with the virus 
of the disease, embraces Southern Vir¬ 
ginia, North Carolina east of the moun¬ 
tains, South Carolinia, Georgia, Alabama, 
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the 
greater part of Texas, as well as Arkansas, 
the Indian Territory and Southern Ten¬ 
nessee, and the limit, of this infected re¬ 
gion is slowly but steadily extending 
northward. The native cattle of this sec¬ 
tion are all infected with a latent form of 
the disease; for although they do not 
seem to suffer from it in health, their 
systems are certainly charged with the 
poisonous principle, so that their drop¬ 
pings contaminate pastures and water¬ 
courses to such an extent that cattle raised 
north of the permanently infected region 
are liable to contract the disease from 
these infected sources. The disease-pro¬ 
ducing principle—probably a vegetable 
poison, due to a vegetable disease germ— 
is destroyed by frost, hence Southern cat¬ 
tle may be driven north without danger of 
spreading infection after the first frosts of 
Autumn and till tbe last frosts in early 
Spring. Infected Northern cattle remain 
apparently healthy for five or six weeks, 
and may be driven or shipped long dis¬ 
tances before the malady is developed. 
No case is known, however, in which 
these spread the disease: this can be done 
only by animals from the permanently in¬ 
fected region; and even if these are driven 
slowly north, grazing as they advance, the 
infectious principle in them appears to be 
destroyed or greatly modified in virulence. 
Governors Click of Kansas, Grant of 
Colorado, and Dawes of Nebraska, appear 
to be fully alive to the importance of pre¬ 
serving the health of the great herds of 
those States, and the two former through 
the State Veterinarians, Drs. Holcome 
and Faville, are taking active measures to 
prevent the spread of the disease, while 
Gov. Dawes is aided in his efforts in the 
same direction by our old friend, Dr. 
Hopkins, for the last three years Territo¬ 
rial Veterinarian of Wyoming. The rail¬ 
roads have engaged not to transport 
Texan cattle north before frost, and Wyo¬ 
ming and Montana have forbidden the 
entrance of any Texans within their bor¬ 
ders until October 1. A telegram from 
Galveston says much indignation exists 
among Texan stockmen at the action of 
the railroads, and mass meetings to pro¬ 
test against it are threatened. Just as in 
all cases of panic about any disease among 
men or domestic auimals, there are nu¬ 
merous reports of outbreaks of the malady 
in various other widely-separated parts of 
the country. Telegrams this morning 
announce that supposed cases exist near 
Le Mars, Iowa; Lancaster, Pa.; and at 
several points in Idaho; while reassuring 
accounts are received from Kansas, Ne¬ 
braska and Colorado, to the effect that 
though many more animals among the 
infected herds may yet die, there is now 
no fear that other herds will become 
infected. 
-- 
BREVITIES. 
The berries still ripening freely on the Su¬ 
perb Raspberry, are very large, but sour and 
soft. 
No. mv dear boy, being born on a farm, and 
raised oh a farm do not necessarily make a 
good farmer. 
Yes, you may make currant cuttings even 
now. Strip off the leaves of this year’s shoots, 
make the cuttings six inches long, place them 
at a slight angle In mellow soil, press the soil 
firmly about the lower end, and keep the 
ground moist. 
We find that Tent Caterpillars are killed by 
the Buhach (pj rethrum) powder, blown 
through bellows. It is an easy method of 
application, while no injury results to either 
leaves or branches. 
The use of a little of that kerosene oil and 
resin mixture we mentioned a few weeks ago, 
applied to all the iron and steel works of the 
maebinerv as it is put away after the haying 
and the harvest, will save many hours of hard 
work next Spring, and maybe your temper. 
Don’t forget it 
The whole operation of butter making, 
from the taking of the milk to the delivery of 
the butter to the consumer, is entirely me¬ 
chanical: but it is a branch of mechanics that 
tolerates no mistakes, for the least failure to 
perform the proper operations at tbe proper 
time, results in an inferior article; and perfect 
butter only, commands the highest price. 
