THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4884 
lion horses would barely have standing room 
on a square mile. 
“Unjust ’’ This is the title which the Ver¬ 
mont Watchman places over the following 
item copied from the Maine Farmer, a 
farm paper that declines the Rural New- 
Yobkkr's regular yearly advertisements 
because it is a competitor! 
“Too stood to bp true: The Rurai. Nkw-Youker Is 
smart, no doubt. It tells of a crop of potatoes, Rrown 
on Its experimental grounds, of 1,391!^ bushels to the 
nerr If It can raisp such crops as that, we should 
think It mlkht do well to go to fanning. Wonder If 
It will have any potatoes to sell next Spring at a 
dollar a pound?" 
The Editor of the Vermont Watchman re¬ 
plies to the Maine Farmer as follows: 
“liless yotirsoul! Brother Gilbert, didn’t you know 
thstthe Rural Edltnr’went to fanning' years ago 
on a fine, large farm on Long Island, where 
these big crops of potatoes have been grown 
for several successive years? Bet<t of all, the 
Rural sells nothing to Its reader*except the Rural 
I tself.but has for years sent (not as a premium, but 
free to all subscribers, old and new) an annual dis¬ 
tribution of choice seeds, potatoes, floral novelties, 
and the like. The Beauty of Ilebron, White Ele¬ 
phant, and Several other valued potatoes were first 
given to the public In this way." 
It may be objected to many of our farm 
journals that their editors or publishers are 
interested in the sale of some article or other, 
which they advertise in their own columns— 
and they may, therefore, be considered, to 
this extent, trade, journals, and their advice 
can not be considered wholly disinterested 
when speaking of such articles. It has al¬ 
ways been a special pride of the Editor of the 
R N.-Y. that he has never, In a single in¬ 
stance, sold any article whatever to subscrib 
ers, though, from first to last, he has had 
thousands of applications to do so. We test 
all new or rare plants, grains, fruits, etc., 
which are sout to us, or which we are at pains 
to procure, for the sake of ascertaining just 
what their value is, so that we may present 
impartial and trustworthy reports to our 
readers. Indeed, we have many times 
offended excellent friends of the Rural be¬ 
cause our reports of the plauts which they 
had sent us to test, were unfavorable, Rut 
where, in this way, this journal has mude one 
enemy, it has secured, we are confident, 
scores of friends. And this is the course the 
Rural New-Yorker intends to pursue while 
it is owned and edited by its present proprie¬ 
tors, who are pleased to hold the progress of 
American agriculture in somewhat higher re¬ 
gard than the pecuniary interest of individual 
friends, or advertising patrons: and it would 
doubtless bo well for our Maine contemporary 
if it would make an effort to elevato itself to 
an appreciation of this view of the case. 
WHICH MAY REMIND YOU. 
Tim Rural New-Yorker has the largest 
actual, paid-up, yearly subscription list of any 
rural weekly published. Our subscription list 
is opened at all times to those who have a right 
to know about it. We iuvite any of our con¬ 
temporaries to invalidate the above statement. 
The price of the R. N.-Y, is $2.00 a year. 
We have no club or second price. Our adver¬ 
tising rates are 30 cents a line, unless 1000 lines 
are taken within a year, when they are 25 cents 
a line. We had rather lose our advertising 
patronage than deviate from these rates...... 
An Edinburgh (England) butcher pleaded 
guilty, a few weeks ago, to having on his prem¬ 
ises 143 pounds of unsound horse flesh, which 
was meant for human food. He was fined, 
according to the Agricultural Gazette, |?5, 
or 30 days’ imprisonment.. 
J. B. Olcott says that there is something 
ghastly about the chemical fertilizer business 
when wheat itself is selling at about its manu- 
rial value........ 
Our sprightly contemporary, the N. E. 
Homestead, joins the R N.-Y. in condemning 
the use of the word “staminate” as applied to 
the perfect flowers of strawberries. 
Our valued contributor, Dr. T, H Hoskins, 
did not attend his own Vermont Fair because 
he preferred to attend the “clean and beauti¬ 
ful exhibition of the Montreal Horticultural 
Society.” The latter does not sacrifice every 
other iuterest to the horse-trot.. 
Have you observed how the “wire”-worm 
often attacks tomatoes and melons ? The 
“scab” produced on the skin of the latter, 
quite resembles the “scab” of potatoes.’ 
The N. Y. Tribune says that Mr. J. 8. 
Woodward, one of the editors of the Rural 
New-Yorker, who has done yoeman’s service 
against horse-racing, gambling and drinking 
at the fairs,reminds farmers that they “cannot 
afford to wink at such iniquities concealed 
under the grand mantle of agriculture,” if 
they would have their skirts clear of serious 
responsibility for evil effects upon the rising 
generation.. 
Doubts have arisen in the minds of several 
good pomologists whether Meech’s Prolific, 
advertised during the past season, is a new 
variety of quince. 
American Potatoes in England,— The 
Albany Cultivator notes the fact that a writer 
in the London Garden says the Whito Elephant- 
Potato has given heavier crops this year than 
any other variety he has cultivated. Ho finds 
it particularly adapted to dry season*, nud ex¬ 
cellent in quality. He speaks highly of the 
Rose and Beauty' of Hebron. 
The Beauty of Hebron and White Elephant 
Potatoes were, as our older readers know, 
disseminated through the Frvo Seed Distribu¬ 
tions of the R. N.-Y. 
Prof. Tracy regards sweet corn as our 
most valuable vegetable. He says that no¬ 
where else in the world, unless it. be iu Italy, 
can sweet com be growu iu such perfection as 
in our country. 
The Banana Musk melon, so largely adver 
tised last season, proved a worthless variety at 
the Rural Experiment Grounds... 
We ouce crossed the Black or Mexican Sweet 
Corn with Stowell’s Evergreen. Some of the 
kernels were rose-colored. Those were selected 
and planted for six years. The rose-colored 
kernels increased iu number, but we judged 
that it would have required 20 years to estab¬ 
lish the strain......... 
An Ohio farmer is quoted, in the Michigan 
Farmer, as saying that if a hole be dug in the 
lard keg. theoil will settle into it. One quart 
of this, he thinks, is worth a gallon of the av¬ 
erage lubricating oil sold to farmers.... 
Waldo F. Brown tells the Now York Tri¬ 
bune that he never tasted sweeter gap or made a 
better quality of maple sirup than that from 
soft maples. We presume by “soft maples” t-be 
White or-8tlver Maple (Acerdnsycftrpum) and 
the Red or Swamp Maple (Acer rubrmn) are 
referred to. Mr. Brown should try the sap of 
the Yellow-wood (Cladrastis tinctorial as the 
Rural has dona for three years past. It 
makes a tine-grained, beautiful sugar thut 
tastes like lemonade..... 
The Editor of the Breeders’ Gazette says 
that when ho hears of calves from six to nine 
months old weighing much more than 100 
pounds for each month of ago, or of cattle 
gaining four or live pounds per day, he wishes 
he could have the reports verified. The quan¬ 
tity of food anil water carried by the animal 
may vary greatly. Fifty pounds’ difference in 
the weightof a mature animal may not repre¬ 
sent the gain or loss of a pound of flesh..... 
“Render unto scissors those things which 
are scissors’,” R. N.-Y. exchanges, please take 
notice ! ; .. (t 
Ark you aware that the hardy shrubs 
Deutzia, Philadelphia, Weigela and Rose 
of Sharon grow very readily from seeds? 
Seeds of the double Deutzia will give a large 
percentage of double-flowering plants. The 
Rose of Sharon varies without limit from 
seeds, and so do the Deutzias. Farmers who 
cannot afford to buy these shrubs from nurse¬ 
ries,might raise them iu any numbers with no 
more trouble than is required to raise any 
other hardy plants . 
Mr. Stewart points out that stock-keeping 
is at present the most profitable branch of ag¬ 
riculture. Wheat is sold at 75 cents, and all 
other farm crops are low. But live stock are 
high. 
Tiie New York Times remarks that the 
world owes a debt of gratitude to Mir J. B. 
Lawes, the great English experimenter and 
chemist. Indeed it does—aud the Rural 
New-Yorker was the first American journal 
that induced him to write for American farm 
journals. . .. 
YBBjOne would suppose that our wealthy sub¬ 
scribers might do a great deal of good at a com¬ 
paratively small cost, if they would subscribe 
for 1,000 Rural New-Yorkers or bo, to be 
sent to good, energetic farmers of the poorer 
class... .... 
Dr. Hkxamkr says that European novelties 
rarely come up to what is claimed for them, 
but that the King Humbert Tomato " seems to 
have more than fulfilled its promise Mr. O. 
S. Hubbell, of Stratford, Ct., remarks iu the 
American Garden, that though he raised 
five other varieties in his garden, he was un¬ 
able to pursuade his family to use any other 
for stewing. For prolificacy, nothing equals the 
Humbert; it yields more than double the 
weight of the others. 
Heeds of this variety will be found with the 
Rural Bicolor, etc, in the tomato .seed packet 
of the Free Seed Distribution. 
If you want a mess of green peas next 
Spring, before any of your neighbors, try the 
following method: Take seeds of the earliest 
peas, and sow them in sand and keep the box 
in a warm place where it is to remain until 
the seeds have sprouted, keeping the sand moist 
all the while. If the weather should be too 
wiutry, the box may theu be placed lu a cool 
part of the cellar where it may remain a 
month, if necessary. As soon, however, as 
the weather permits, plant the sprouted peas 
carefully in the open ground. This method 
is given in Bliss & Sons’ Garden by Mr. E. S. 
Goff, of tha N. Y. Ex. Station. 
The Rural has raised the White Star Po¬ 
tato for two years iu considerable quantity. 
It is excellent in quality, being dry and mealy. 
The flesh is white. The potato yields well 
both in sandy and clayey toil. 
Wk hope that potatoes with colored skins 
will soon become fashionable again. Many of 
the best now varieties which we have of late 
tested have colored skins—ro*e-eolored, purple 
or variegated, aud the best of the Rural seed- 
ings, which we hope some day to send to our 
subscribers, have dark-colored skiDs. 
President McCann, of the Elmira Farm 
ers’ Club, as reported iu the Husbandman, 
says that a neighbor, a successful feeder of 
cattle, entertains the belief that a sloer kept, 
all Wiuter on corn-stalks alone would die in 
the Spring..... 
Tiie discovery made at the Rural Grounds 
that Johnson Grass (Sorghum halapense) is 
hardy there, cannot fail to induce many of 
our farm friends to give the packet of seed 
which the R N.-Y. will send them in the next 
Free List Distribution, a careful trial. 
The Rural New-Yorker, first nud last, 
has tested nearly every hardy ornamental 
tree aud shrub in cultivation. The best of 
the evergreens can bo named upon the lingers 
of one hand; the best of the deciduous trees 
and shrubs, on the fingers of both bauds. 
The Rural was asked by a ueighbor to 
name, according to its experience, the best, 
raspberries for a home supply. Wo answered: 
Turner, Cuthbort, Caroline ami Shaffer’s 
Colossal. Better kluds than these might lie 
named, but they have not proven hardy in 
this climate. We should also add the Murl- 
boro had the tests of three or four years ful¬ 
filled its present promise.. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS, XIV. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
It should be borne in mind that Puget 
Sound is a general name for a vast inland sea. 
which some persons fond of comparisons, call 
the "American Mediterranean.” If you have 
a good map of it, you can readily see that it 
extends far inland, jutting into the land in a 
way so that both coasts form a succession of 
capes, points and promontories, while there is 
consequently a succession of small bays, 
coves,etc. ,and a coast line of exceeding uneven 
ness, while the Sound has, in addition, various 
large and small Mauds. All these give a pe 
euliarly scalloped effect—if 1 may use a tech¬ 
nical term of such insignificance — to the 
scenic features of the Sound. The "scallopj,” 
or indentures, are large, uneven, but never 
pointed. There is nothing sharp, or incisive 
to be noted; but as we proceeded on our 
course, aud the atmosphere and sky became 
clearer, something of the much vaunted 
beauty of the place began to be apparent. 
There was a subdued wildness, a sense of free¬ 
dom, a combination of mountain and water 
rarely to be seen—to the west, the Olympic; 
to the east, the Cascade Mountains, with 
Mount Rainier rising 14,444 feet above the 
sea level, towering into the sky like a huge 
ghost, its sides covered with eternal glaciers, 
and sulphurous smoke and steam issuing 
scalding hot from one of the craters. This 
latter part IS not visible, except ucur to the 
peak, aud must be accepted as the statement 
of the last party who marie the perilous ascent. 
It was after uightfail wtteu we neared Seat¬ 
tle, the largest city in Washington Territory; 
and where most of the passengers were to 
laud; but as wo had ordered our letters to be 
sent to New Tacoma, we coucluded to goon 
to that "city," which we would not reach until 
the next (Friday) morning, as the steamer 
would lie in port at Seattle for the night. It 
was very dark, and the pilot who had come on 
board was a long time in getting the ship to 
the wharf, which was crowded with people. 
The lights of the city gleamed brightly from 
the encircling terraces and bluffs, and from 
the shouts of the hotel muuers, one might 
have sujjposed that we were at a seaport of 
half a million inhabitants, instead of being at 
one with the modest population of 12,000. The 
next morning we were at New Tacoma at an 
early hour, after a sail of two hours. The 
ship’s caunou boomed as usual, but aside from 
hotel carriages, there were few people on the 
wharf. After a light breakfast we went ou 
shore, trying to realize that we were indeed 
in a “city” which has probably been “boomed” 
as much as, if not more than, any other town 
in the United States. Judging from what all 
sorts of people had said and written of the 
Sound country of Washington Territory, I 
could but iufer that I was in the Italy of 
America, a land of infinite delight, and of 
immense money-making possibilities. And I 
may as well say it now, as later on, that as 
this Territory has lately been attracting much 
immigration from the “States,” I shall write 
of it iu detail, and as accurately as I can, 
from my own standpoint; and if any reader 
of the Rural wishes „to make specific in¬ 
quiries, a letter will reach me addressed to 
Seattle. I expect to visit, that part of the Ter¬ 
ritory east of the Cascade Range hereafter. 
After a sojourn of four or five days iu Ta¬ 
coma, my opiuton of the town remains the 
same as at the outset. The possibilities of it 
may be very great, but I can only write of 
what actually exists. It is located on a high 
bluff, from which every tree lias been cut. It 
is laid out in lots with a width of 25 feet 
atul 120 feet deep, and on these narrow lots are 
scattered small, wooden houses, built without 
collars for the most part, and in the cheapest 
possible manner. Occasionally two lots are 
merged Into one. In the whole town there 
are not more than two or three lots that aro 
well cared for and present an attractive ap¬ 
pearance, and there is not one flrsc-class resi¬ 
dence. Streets are laid out everywhere, and 
stumps and great groups of rauk ferns are 
undisturbed in them. There are one or two 
business streets in fairly good condition. One 
cannot walk through this place—which, had 
It been laid out with t,a<to and wisdom, might 
easily have developed intoau attractive one— 
without a fueling of vexation nud disgust. 
Greed is written over the whole face of the 
town, aud it is plain to see that tho ruling 
desire is speculation in lots, without a particle 
of regard for tho real welfare of the place. 
The population is claimed to ho 5,000. The 
soil is a glacial moraine, and to look at it 
one would not suppose that anything of 
value could be raised upon it; even the 
great fifS that have boon cut off it, ex¬ 
tended their roots into the ground apparently 
not over two or three feet at tho most. 
To clear one of these infinitesimal lots 
of stumps and native vegetation, grade and 
get It sufficiently enriched for grass aud shrubs 
and flowers, would cost heavily, while tho 
lot in Its cleared or uncleured condition can 
he bought at figures ranging from $100 to $f},- 
000. In a good location, a lot might bo 
bought for 81,000, for the purpose of 
a dwelling, if the average lot of 25x120 
feet sells for, say 1500, you can make your 
own estimate of tho price per acre of laud 
in this new, crude, unformed town ou Puget 
Sound; and if you should ask me what justifi¬ 
cation one finds for such ridiculous prices, 
your question would remain a standing conun¬ 
drum, whieh nobody could answer, but for 
tho possibilities of the town. Even if the 
possibilities are realized, the land will be 
worth no more twenty or thirty years hence. 
The possibilities of tho place at the most are 
limited. There is comparatively very little ag¬ 
ricultural land within u half day’s ride by rail 
from the town. There are timber and coal, 
and both are owned and controlled ehiefiy by 
corporations, and tho profits therefrom ac¬ 
crue to Man Francisco or elsewhere. A large 
proportion of tho money Obtained from the 
sale of lots goes to Philadelphia. A land com¬ 
pany and a railway company practically own 
and control tho town. 
There is a very handsome hotel,commanding 
a superb view of Mount Rainier; but with 
scarcely ground enough about It fora carri¬ 
age to turn around in. A Philadelphia gentle¬ 
man has built a seminary for girls, and a 
church, iu memory of members of his family, 
now dead. All the leading denominations 
have plain wooden churches. I found the 
people pleasant, aud every body who had 
“landed interests" enthusiastic about the 
town, ami from everyone I heard only lauda- 
tiou for tho climate, which is like that of 
England, soft, balmy, aud sunny iu Summer, 
and moist in Winter. One wears flannels the 
year around, and sleeps under blankets all 
Summer. Roses bloom most of the year, and 
frost and snow are almost unknown. "Every 
body grows stout hero,” I beard so often, that I 
had myself weighed, and at tho oud of a fort¬ 
night I find that I have lost one pound in 
weight. The landlady of the hotel, who is 
from the “Hast”—anything is “East” that is 
cast of the Rocky Mountains—came to me one 
day when I wus looking out over the bay 
from a balcony, and asked very earnestly, 
“ Do you like r.his country ? I hope you 
don’t have to stay hero 1 ” I assured her 
that I was not obliged to remain, but 
that I thought the view on the Sound, in¬ 
cluding the mountains, was rather fine. “But 
don’t you think It has been dreadfully over¬ 
rated?” she pursued. I conceded that I thought 
it had, and that I did not find Tacoma very 
interesting. I liked being along the wharf, 
watching the long afterglow at sunset, the 
passing crafts, the camps of the ludiansand 
their life in their “dugouts.” Then she went 
on to tell how much she had suffered from 
home-sick ness, aud that sometimes she felt 
that she could not remain another day, and 
all the time she was growing stouter, which 
