736 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country ami Suburban Ho.;r • 
Conducted by 
K. 8. CAKViK, 
ium list according to the- size of their 
clubs, which will give them 50 cents or 
more per subscriber. Our subscribers 
may work for the presents which are of¬ 
fered them for the largest clubs. If they 
lived. Furthermore, during those years 
when Indian corn mostly failed to get 
ripe, the Sorghum halapense matured 
some seed.” This is the Johnson Grass 
or “Evergreen Millet” offered in our Free 
Seed Distribution. 
-♦ » » - 
Editor. 
J . 8. WOODWARD, 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8. 1884. 
TO THE FARMERS, GARDENERS, FRUIT 
GROWERS AND STOCKMEN OF 
AMERICA. 
fail in this, they may reserve 25 cents 
cash for each subscriber, or select from 
our regular premium list, as they prefer. 
We can make no fairer or more liberal 
offer. 
Rural New >- Yorker postern are note ready. 
They will he serf to all of our subscribers 
without application. All others who see 
this notice are requested let apply for them 
at once. 
When such men as Henry Ward 
Beecher (N. Y.), Gen. Le I)uc (Minn.), 
Dr. W. J. Beal, Prof. A. J. Cook (Mich.), 
Prof. E. M. Shelton (Kansas), Dr. T. H. 
Hoskins (Vermont), Dr. D. E. Salmon 
(Washington, D. C.l, Prof. A. E. Blount 
(Colorado), B. F. Johnson (111.), Prof. J. 
M. McBryde (N. C.), Prof. J. P. Sheldon 
(England), Gen. W. II. Noble (Conn.), 
Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant (N. Y.), Prof. 
Henry (Iowa), and many others say that 
the Rural New-Yorker is the best 
faun paper published, would it not be 
well for all progressive farmers to read 
it for a while,and see if they do not think 
so as well? We have hundreds of testi¬ 
monials to the same effect from the best 
farmers in America, a few of which will 
be found in our supplement. The Rural 
will cost you $2 for one year; it may 
save you hundreds. It is owned and 
conducted by successful farmers who 
have their hearts in their work. It is the 
first journal to have established an ex¬ 
periment farm; the first to have distrib¬ 
uted seeds and plants of the first value, 
without charge, among its subscribers; 
the first to test all new seeds and plants 
and render unbiased reports of their worth; 
the first to render true portraits of fruits, 
grains and farm animals. It is spark¬ 
ling, conscientious and original. We 
ask our new readers to inquire of those 
who know regarding the above claims, 
and we ask our old readers to speak a 
timely and kindly word in behalf of the 
Rural New-Yorker, in its efforts to ex¬ 
tend its influence. 
Subscribers who apply for the Free 
Seed-Distribution are requested to inclose 
a stamp in their applications. The post¬ 
age alone on each packet will probably 
be five or six cents, which we shall pay, 
and we require that applicants should iu- 
close t he stamp, not to help def ray the post¬ 
al expenses, but in order to protect us 
against those who would apply for the distri¬ 
bution merely from curiosity. The Seed Dis- 
bution costs a very large sum, and ice can 
not afford to send it to those xcho are not 
willing and anxious to give the seeds good 
care. Of course, those who subscribe for 
the Rural in connection with other 
journals which offer the seeds in the eonibin 
ation , need not send us any stamp or even ap¬ 
ply. Such subscribers will receive the 
Seed Distribution without application. 
The distribution of the seeds will be be 
gun about the middle of February. 
The price of the Rural New-Yorker 
is $2.00 a year. We have no other price. 
Tf agents choose to sell it for less than 
$2.00, it is a matter over which we have 
no control. We allow 25 cents cash com 
mission for all clubs of eight and over; or 
agents may select articles from our prem¬ 
TnE greatest yield of potatoes produced 
upon the R. N.-Y. experiment plot, up 
to and including 1883, was at the rate of 
1,140.33 bushels per acre. The variety 
was Corliss's Matchless. 
-- 
Try this: spade up the raspberry and 
blackberry patch now. In early Spring 
level and sow oats. They will make a 
splendid mulch, and will give you berries 
in a dry season when your neighbors’ 
berries fail. Trample or mulch as soon as 
headed. 
♦ ♦ ♦ — 
We ask our readers to sow nitrate of 
soda at the rate of 200 pounds per acre 
on a small plot of wheat early next Spring, 
and the same amount upon potatoes as 
soon as the shoots appear above ground 
—not before. 
Fifty different kinds of corn will be 
scut to subscribers in the envelope of 
“Rural Cross-breeds”—and they are from 
the best varieties grown in America. Try 
them carefully. Prepare a plot well and 
give it and the plants good care. Read 
the supplement. 
- - - 
What an immense amount of good 
might have been done with the money 
which has been wickedly squandered dur¬ 
ing the past Presidential campaign ! IIow- 
much suffering might have been allevi¬ 
ated; how many worthy poor people 
might have been made happy ! 
We had not intended to send the Rural 
Bicolor Tomato to our readers for a year 
or so yet; but a neighbor to w hom we gave 
seed, has sold the fruit, in the market and 
they are so well liked that we fear they 
will be propagated and sold under some 
other name. Several seeds of the true 
Rural Bicolor will be found in every en¬ 
velope. 
- - -»♦» - ■ ■ 
Is This Sensible? —Can good people 
make a more valuable gift to their farmer 
friends w-ho are struggling to be success¬ 
ful, than a year’s subscription to the 
Rural New-Yorker? It might not be 
out of the way to suggest that some of 
our wealthy subscribers might do worse 
than to present a thousand Ruhalb to a 
thousand deserving farmers. Eh? 
Tns Evergreen Flageolet Beau offered 
in our Free Seed Distribution, is scarcely 
half the size of the Lima; but it is so very 
prolific that more can be raised to the 
acre. Its superiority consists in the fact 
that it retains a lively green color after it 
is cooked, and the quality is richer than 
that of the Limas. Our entire stock is 
imported from France by the R. N-Y. 
— - • »♦» - - 
The parts of asparagus shoots nearest 
the tips or buds are the most tender. 
Don't lose 6ight of that. If, therefore, you 
want to improve asparagus by blanching, 
don’t cut it beneath the natural level of 
the soil; by so doing you will get the 
oldest and stringiest parts of the shoots. 
But hill it up above the natural level, and 
cut just at the natural level. The shoots 
will he shorter, but all will be tender and 
edible. 
■ «»» - —- 
Prof. E. M. Shelton, of the Kansas 
State Agricultural College, says that the 
Rural New-Yorker, though published 
on the Hudson, is about as useful to 
Western as to Eastern farmers. We 
really do not see why it should not be, since 
as much attention is given to the needs 
of W estern as of Eastern agriculture, and 
in proportion to population the Rural 
has as many subscribers in the West as in 
the East. 
--- 
In reply to our question, Dr. W. J. 
Beal, of the Michigan Ag. College, writes: 
“Sorghum halapense has wintered here for 
three years in the ground, though one 
Winter w-as quite destitute of snow; when 
most of the root-stocks died, but some 
During the past season we have crossed 
12 kinds of peas, obtaining from three to 
a dozen seeds of each. These seeds do 
not vary in appearance. What we say of 
them must not, however, be confounded 
with w-hat has been said of the difference 
in the size, quality and color of crossed 
strawberries. The pulp of strawberries 
is not the fruit at all. It is merely a soft, 
fleshy enlargement of the end of the flow¬ 
ering stem. The little seeds, which are 
embedded in the surface, are the true 
fruits, botanically, and these alone are 
comparable, not with the seeds of peas, 
but with the entire pod. 
Does the number of roosters kept in a 
flock of fowls influence sex? Who can 
tell? The question is submitted to our 
experiment stations as one fully worthy 
of investigation. Until the past'year one 
of our neighbors thought it well* to have 
25 cocks to 125 hens—White Leghorns. 
The chicks averaged about one-half 
roosters. The past year he changed the 
proportion so that there should be but 
one cock to 15 hens. He raised 75 
chickeng the past season, of which num¬ 
ber 18 were roosters. The hens are just 
as well contented in the one case as in the 
other. 
The Largest Potato. —The Rural 
New-Yorker, last Spring, offered a little 
prize for the largest potato (without 
prongs) grown by its subscribers. The 
contest, will be decided the first of De¬ 
cember. Those competing for this prize 
are to advise us by postal card of 
the weight of the largest potatoes raised. 
We shall then order the largest potato 
sent to this office, with an account of its 
cultivation, so that we inay present a por¬ 
trait to our readers. Thus tar Mr. Jacob 
Shoudy, of Deadwood, D. T., is entitled 
to the prize. Ilis largest potato weighs 
four and a-half pounds. It is quite 
smooth. He sends us 14 potatoes, the 
gross w-eight of which is 38 pounds, aver¬ 
aging 2 5-7 pounds each. 
As our readers are aw-are from the 
Rural’s tests of several years, different 
kinds ol potatoes vary in yield upon the 
same plot, fertilized and cultivated in the 
same way, from the rate of 150 to 1,300 
bushels per acre. The same differences 
in yield would, of course, occur upon the 
laud of our readers. Would it not, there¬ 
fore, pay them to test many different va¬ 
rieties of potatoes, as we have done, in 
order to ascertain which kinds would 
prove most profitable? Read the Rural’s 
repoits, and procure a few potatoes of all 
those sorts which are the most favorably 
regarded w hen yield, shape and quality 
are considered. Prepare plots for them, 
cut them to double eyes, plaet the pieces 
one foot apart in trenches three feet apart; 
label each plainly, and at harvest select 
the best for seed. This involves no great 
amount of labor,for w-hich the results may 
pay you a hundred-fold. 
The Rural New-Yorker from now 
until January 1st, 1886, for $2,00. 
THE RURAL’S METHOD OF CORN CUL¬ 
TIVATION. 
Let it not he forgotten that the Rural 
New--Yorker was the first to advocate 
for Indian corn culture the triplicate 
method of (1) shallow' and (2) flat cultiva¬ 
tion, and (8) broadcast fertilization, 
whether farm or concentrated manures 
are used. This we have persistently ad¬ 
vocated ever since our immense yield of 
corn, five years ago, which was raised in 
that way—the largest yield ever produced, 
the cost of producing it considered. The 
method is now- being tried all over the 
country, and with such results that other 
farm journals, which for several years 
gave it the cold shoulder, now- commend 
it as the best method to be pursued. 
We must not cut the roots of corn; w-e 
must not dump manures or fertilizers in 
the hills, hut distribute them evenly over 
the field, so that the old plants may have 
the benefit of the food as well as the 
young ones; we must not pile up the soil 
about the stems—it is needed over the roots 
between the rows, and is not needed by 
the stalks. The system commends itself 
to reason, and practice proves its sound¬ 
ness. That the corn cannot be cultivated 
both ways is no objection at all, if the 
rows are straight. Let the weeds grow be¬ 
tween the plants if hoeing is deemed too 
much trouble or expense; the shallow cul¬ 
tivator may be run close to the plants, and 
the space left for the growth of weeds 
will be very narrow. 
And niw lor the Rural’s wide-trench 
and flat cultivation for potatoes. We have 
raised at the rate of over 1,300 bushels 
to the acre, and repeatedly over 1,000 dur¬ 
ing four successive seasons on the same 
plots. How long before that method will 
be generally advocated? 
BREVITIES. 
The Rural New- Yorker from now un 
til Jan. 1st. 1886 for #2. 
Rural Peadkks, please do us the favor 
to renew early. It will gave ns a deal of 
trouble, and will cost you nothing. 
Send for specimen copies of all the farm 
garden, and stock papers. Compare them 
carefully —and subscribe for the best. 
The Souvenir du Congres Fear is showy 
and large, and the quality is oftentimes excel¬ 
lent. Have any of onr readers fruited It yet? 
The Stratagem Pea originated on the Ex¬ 
periment Grounds of James Carter & Co. of 
England. The Telephone is one parent; the 
other Is not known. 
Fnow the Rural New Yorker to your 
neighbors, and request them to subscribe 
Will you not? We will gladly send you all 
the specimens you need for this purpose. 
The greatest favor that the R. N-Y asks of 
its subscribers is that they will send one new 
name with their renewals. Isn’t this a mod¬ 
est request, kind readers, and will not you 
grant it? 
We should like to know how the Diehl Med¬ 
iterranean Wheat has started with our sub¬ 
scribers. We shall be greatly disappointed 
if this wheat does not, generally, give good 
satisfaction. 
Half an acre gives ms more raspberries 
carrots, beets, cabbages, beans, peas, cur¬ 
rants. gooseberries, grapes, tomatoes, celery 
and potatoes than the Rural family can use 
Have you a garden? or, do you think “it don’t 
pay ?” 
The Rural’s opinion is that the evergreen 
variety of tbe French Flageolet Beau, offered 
in our Free Seed Distribution, can be grown 
iD Canada as well as here. Though the beans 
(seeds) are not as large us those of the Lima, 
they are richer. 
Mr. J. H. Ftevknr, of Hillman, Mich , 
says: “Those that know the most about farm¬ 
ing are the ones that appreciate the Rural 
the most. As conducted for the past five 
years, no progressive farmer can afford to dc 
without it.” 
Readers who visit New York are always 
welcome at the office of the Rural New- 
Yorker. The Rural building is in the 
heart of the downtown business world—op 
posite the City Hal) Park and Post Office. 
Facilities are at hand for writing letters, 
sending dispatches or anything of the. kind, 
and “the latch string is always out.” 
Among the Garden Treasures will bo found 
some grape seeds kindly sent to us by Mr. Thos. 
Huber. Of Illinois City, Illinois. They are 
all seeds of new varieties, including Ursula, 
Henry. Edward, Margaret. Bertba. Barbara, 
Alphonso, Dr. Jno. A. Wurder and others. 
These may easily be separated from the 
flower seeds, and they are well worthy of 
being planted separately. 
Wk have tested at the Rural Grounds dur¬ 
ing the past ten years, nearly every old and 
new pea which seedsmen offer for sale, and 
many not yet offered. Our conviction is that 
Carter’s Stratagem is, all things considered, 
the best intermediate pea in existence. It 
needs no brush; the pods and peas are of the 
largest size und best, quality. The vines are 
extremely prolific. The seed we offer in our 
Free Seed Distribution is from tbe originators, 
and is warranted pure. Tbe Stratagem will 
§ lease you. We offer also tbe Prince of Wales 
’ea which, we are confident, will also prove 
of value to American growers. 
Cross-bred Rural Corn.— Referring to 
our cross bred corn, between 60 or more dif¬ 
ferent kinds, Mr. W. H. Cook, of Columbia 
Co.. Wis., says; “My opinion is that of all the 
useful and valuable seeds sent out by the 
R. N.-Y., there has been none that would be 
of as great benefit to the whole country as the 
proposed distribute m of that cross bred corn 
for seed. With so many crosses, each will find 
some one kind that will be especially valuable 
in his locality. That be can cultivate, and 
discard tbe rest., I am experimenting in cross¬ 
ing different kinds myself, and from mv ex¬ 
perience so far, am led to believe it is the best 
w ay to procure a variety adapted to tbe State 
where I reside. By all means include tbe 
com.” 
The Rural Nevv-Yorker in its Free Seed 
Distribution has introduced some of the most 
popular grains, fruits aud flowers now in cul¬ 
tivation Among them we nmy menliun the 
Blount's White Prolific Cora, the Rural Union 
Com, tbe Rural Thorough bred Flint; tbe 
Diehl-Mediterranean. Clawson, Champlain, 
Defiance, Fultzo-Clawsou, Surprise, Shumak¬ 
er, Black-bearded Centennial end other 
wheats; the Thousand-fold Rye; Telephone, 
Horsford's Market Garden and Cleveland’s 
Rural New-Yorker Peas; Black Champion, 
Mold's Ennobled and Washington Oats; tbe 
Cutbbert Raspberry; Beauty of Hebron, White 
Elephant and Blush Potatoes; the Rural 
Braucbing Sorghum: Pearl Millet; Golden 
Heart well Celery; the Perfect Gem Squash; 
the Niagara Grape; Salix pentandra; the 
Acme, Bicolor, aud 12 other different kinds of 
tomatoes; the Golden Ovoid Maugel; the Ar- 
genteuil and Giant Red Dutch Asparagus; 
with flower, tree and shrub seeds too numer¬ 
ous to mention. These have been sent north, 
east, south and west w ithout any charge what¬ 
ever to subscribers of .the Rural. 
