a 
FEB 24 
THE 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
E L B’E K T S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
No. 3) Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEB. 34, 1883. 
TO ADVERTISING PATRONS. 
We call attention to our changed ad¬ 
vertising rates for 1883. as presented on 
page 135. The.change divests then; of all 
discounts, presenting them in rhe simplest 
form so that they may be understood at a 
glance. We beg to assure those who 
would favor us with their advertising 
patronage that these rates are invariable 
and that any correspondence looking to a 
change would under any and all circum¬ 
stance prove ineffectual. 
We are obliged to state that all adver¬ 
tisements intended for the next issue must 
resell us before Thursday. 
We wish that our readers might believe 
that there is no such thing as a eurculio- 
proof plum that is fit to eat, and that po¬ 
tatoes never have mixed, never can mix, 
in the hill. 
One tiling may he said in justice to the 
Keiffer Pear, viz., that the engravings 
which have appeared of it are not over¬ 
drawn. This may be seen by comparing 
them with our own cut which is true to 
nature. 
4 »» 
As we have never adopted the plan of 
notifying our subscribers when their sub¬ 
scriptions expire, we would ask them to 
look at the address slips on the wrappers 
and thus ascertain for themselves. Thus, 
if the number after the name is 1727, the 
subscription will end next week; if 1728 
the week after, and so on. 
♦ ♦♦ - 
One thing is proof that the conservative 
course of the Rural as regards ensilage 
has served our farmers well. viz. that 
effective silos may now be built for $50. 
that earlier cost from $300 to $500. Our 
farmers can gain nothing by haste in this 
matter. Let them still wait awhile. Let 
our agricultural experiment stations and 
colleges solve the problem of economy and 
utility. Then the farmer may invest with 
his eyes open. 
-» - 
We now find that the postage on our ; 
seed distribution will be as follows: On 
the little potato—wrapped in paper and 
placed in a small, square paper box—five 
cents to all parts of the United States; 
10 cents to Canada. On the seeds, 
three cents to all parts of the United 
States; 10 cents to Canada. As often 
stated before, we charge our subscribers 
six cents, which, taking the entire distri¬ 
bution, is not half the cost. 
Our readers who live at some distance 
from villages and who desire to test the 
value of bagging their grapes next Sum¬ 
mer, might now, during stormy days, en¬ 
gage in making the bags. Any kind of 
strong manillu paper answers. It is not 
well to make them less than 8x6 inches in 
size and some should be larger. Make one 
side of the bag two inches longer than the 
other, to lap over the arm so tiiat it can be 
secured by pinning. Let us again assure 
our readers that this bagging of grapes will 
give them much pleasure. As a rule, the 
Rural opposes all fussy operations that 
cost more than they ever amount to. But 
this method of preserving and perfecting i 
grapes cannot be so considered. Some j 
bunches of our bagged grapes last year 
were more beautiful than any we have j 
seen in hot-houses. 
A short time back orders were issued 
by the Secretary of the Interior that suits 
should be brought for the value of the 
hay cut in the vast inclosures made by 
barbed-wire fences erected by cattle-men 
in the Indian Territory and on the public 
lands. A few days ago these directions 
were countermanded, but orders were 
given that all such fences should be taken 
down. Much excitement has been crea¬ 
ted by these orders among stockmen who 
have appropriated large ureas of the pub¬ 
lic domain—by what right, except that of 
might, who can tell? Out on the Plains, 
beyond the rapidly-extending Western 
margin of cultivation, tliis illegal appro¬ 
priation cannot at present give rise to 
much objection or public loss; but when 
the area of legitimate settlement extends 
to the ranges of these land-grabbers, ex¬ 
perience shows thatywith them possession 
is nine points of the law, and unscrupulous 
might the tenth. 
-- 
A gentleman everywhere well and 
favorably known as a skilled practical far- 
; mer and farm editor, writes us: ‘‘I am 
i glad the Rural is doing so well. No 
harm in your telling of this now and 
then, as some other papers do. People 
only get out of patience with excessive 
boasting, in which I do not think you in¬ 
dulge.” One of the most repugnant tasks 
we are obLged to perform is to sing our 
own praises during the subscription sea¬ 
son. The exaggerations of the average 
American advertisement are simply sicken¬ 
ing to good people who seek trustworthy 
information. We believe we speak the 
exact truth in all of our personal adver¬ 
tisements and in all that we are con¬ 
strained to say of ourselves. Neverthe¬ 
less it would seem that real worth in a 
public journal would prove a sufficient 
advertisement of itself. But in these days 
when trumpet blasts are sounding in our 
ears from every quarter, the lesser sounds 
easily escape the tired ear. There is just 
this that we may say without violence to 
our feelings, viz., that the Rural New- 
Yorker is duly grateful to hosts of friends 
to whom it is indebted for the largest 
I paid-up circulation of any paper of its 
' class published in America: and we re¬ 
spectfully invite an invalidation of this 
! statement. 
- *-»-• - 
SUPPLEMENTARY SEED DISTRIBU¬ 
TION. 
Mil H. L. Wysor writes use: “The ear 
of Shoe-peg which I send you is not a fair 
specimen, as the season was excessively 
wet and corn did not do well. 1 exhibit¬ 
ed this variety at our county fair last Fall, 
and it attracted a good deal' of attention. 
Tf I had had it. I could have sold 100 
bushels at a fine price. It cannot be of¬ 
fered for sale until 1884. or after my next 
crop. I think it will prove the most pop¬ 
ular corn you have ever distributed. Its 
earliness, its heavy and pointed kernels, 
closely packed, and small cob, all recom¬ 
mend it.” 
We have received from Mr. Wysor 
enough of this corn (which we have 
named Wysor’s Early Shoe-peg), to enable 
us to send* about 40 to 44 kernels to all of 
our subscribers who have applied for our 
present seed distribution either directly or 
through other journals. No additional 
application or postage is t herefore required. 
Our only object in asking a part of the 
postal charges from our subscribers for 
the Rural's Seed Distributions is to in¬ 
sure ourselves against sending them to 
those who would not value them. We 
have put up and are distributing 15,000 
packages, each package containing five 
small envelopes, making 75,000 seed-pack¬ 
ets. not counting the Blush Potato, which 
is sent separately as the weather permits. 
In case the potato is received in a frozen 
condition, our subscribers will kindly no¬ 
tify us by postal-card, giving their full 
names and addresses. We beg to remind our 
many new readers that the Rural's Free 
Seed Distributions are in no sense premi¬ 
ums. We reserve the privilege of making 
them as often as we choose, or not at all. 
Our object is to enable our friends to test 
new and valuable seeds in a small way 
without cost to them, and our success in 
introducing valuable kinds has been such 
as to gratify us very much indeed. 
The illustrations on page 113 of the 
Shoe-peg are true to nature. 
-*-*-♦- 
THE OHIO FLOOD. 
Never since the first settlement of the 
country along both banks of the Ohio, 
from its origin at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
by the confluence of the Alleghany and 
Monongahela. to its union with the Missis¬ 
sippi at Cairo, Ill., have the waters of the 
Beautiful River risen so high as during the 
past week. .The rise of 1832 was the only 
one known to approach the present flood. 
The ordinary rise of the river averages 30 
feet; last Wednesday it raged, yellow and 
turbulent. 67 feet above low-water mark at 
Cincinnati, and at a corresponding bight, 
above and below that point as the flood 
swept along. The waters are now slowly 
receding at Cincinnati, but they are still 
rising at Louisville, Kv., and at Wheeling, 
W. Va.. and this morning the Signal Ser¬ 
vice Bureau sends forth doleful announce¬ 
ments and predictions of more rains in the 
Ohio Valley, which will probably produce 
another wave-like rise following the pres¬ 
ent mighty surge. At present, the river 
is three inches above the danger point at 
Cairo: the Mississippi is reported to be 
rising rapidly all the way down to Helena, 
Arkansas, and a flood equal to that which 
wrought so much disaster last year is 
threatened along the lower course of the 
Father of Waters. Yesterday heavy rain 
fell throughout Iowa, Illinois and Mis¬ 
souri. and the drainage from these will 
swell the flood from the Ohio Yalley. 
It is not easy to appreciate the extent of 
the area affected by the flood or of the 
damage it has done in its course. It is 
not only the low country immediately 
along the river that Buffers; all the de¬ 
bauching rivers and streams have also risen 
and flooded the low lands for miles on both 
sides. The Wabash, the Cumberland, the 
Tennessee and numerous smaller streams 
that flow into the Ohio, are spreading dis¬ 
aster. It is not only in the towns and vil¬ 
lages that life and property are destroyed 
and a world of suffering and grief in¬ 
flicted ; all the long reaches of settled farm¬ 
ing country between these points are still 
more disastrously devasted where the 
afflicted are often far from help or sym¬ 
pathy, and where relief at best is uncer¬ 
tain and slow-footed. Here stock, barns, 
houses, fences, gathered harvests and sowed 
crops are all swept away or grieviously 
damaged. 
In the gloomy scene along the Ohio and 
tributary streams the bright features are 
the pluck and self-reliance of the people of 
Cincinnati and Louisville who, instead of 
clamoring for help, have promptly set to 
work to help themselves. We read of the 
rapid organization of relieving committees 
and of guards and watchful patrols; and 
of the throwing opeu of churches, 
school-houses and public halls to afford 
shelter to the homeless; but the misfortune 
in most places is too great for local relief, 
however generous, to be able to cope with 
it. Tens of thousands have been thrown 
out of employment by the injury or de¬ 
struction of factory and workshop, while 
their all has been wrested from them. 
Sickness has already in many cases stepped 
on the heels of disaster, and with the 
ground floors, cellars and lower stories of 
buildings water-soaked and everything 
covered with slime and debris, malarial 
and typhoid fevers are sure to follow the 
flood in the devasted districts. All the 
large towns are already forming organiza¬ 
tions to afford relief to the sufferers, surely 
the manly and womanly agricultural com¬ 
munity will not. be slow in this work 
of liberality and charity. 
■ « • » 
THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 
In the northwestern corner of Wyoming 
Territory is a district more remarkable for 
natural curiosities than any equal area on 
the globe. It lies mostly between latitude 
44° and 45° and longitude 110° and 111°. 
extending on the west into Montana. II 
stretches 65 miles north and south by 55 
miles east and west, and comprises 3,575 
square miles, all of which is over 6,000 
feet above the sea level. The mountain 
ranges that hem in the valleys on all sides 
tower to the bight of 10,000 to 12.000 
feet and are covered with perpetual snow. 
In June, July and August the atmosphere 
is pure and invigorating, with little rain 
and rare storms, but there is frost every 
month of the twelve. There are in it prob¬ 
ably 50 geysers that throw' columns of w T ater 
from 50 to 200 feet high, and from 5,000 
to 10,000 hot springs of two kinds chiefly 
—those depositing lime and silica. These 
deposits are elaborately ornamental and 
of the most beautiful colors. The can¬ 
yons of the region are marvelous and its 
waterfalls wonders, the Grand Falls being 
over 850 feet in hight. Tliis region 
also gives rise to vast rivers flowing 
in all directions. On the north are 
the sources of the Yellowstone; on the 
w r est those, of the chief forks of the Mis¬ 
souri ; on the southwest and south those 
of the Snake River flowing into the Col¬ 
umbia and through it to the Pacific Ocean, 
and those of the Green River, a branch of 
the wonderful Colorado which empties 
into the Gulf of California. 
This “Northern Wonderland”—so called 
in contradistinction to a somewhat simi¬ 
lar region in New Zealaud, styled the 
“Southern Wonderland ”—is known all 
the world over as the Yellowstone Na¬ 
tional Park. By an act of Congress 
approved March 1, 1872. it was “reserved 
and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy 
or sale under the law-s of the United Stales, 
and dedicated and set apart as a public 
park or pleasuring ground for the benefit, 
and enjoyment of the people,” and at the 
same time it was placed under the exclu¬ 
sive control of the Secretary of the Interior. 
This large area of marvelous natural 
scenery which is yearly attracting increas¬ 
ing crowds of admiring visitors from all 
parts of the civilized world, is in danger 
of becoming substantially the property of 
a bund of moneyed speculators headed by 
that arch “coruercr” of agricultural pro¬ 
ducts and railroad stock, Mr. Rufus Hatch. 
Under the title of “The Yellowstone Park 
Improvement Company” he and his asso¬ 
ciates have secured a lease of some 4,000 
acres of this choice piece of public prop¬ 
erty, embracing every object of interest to 
the tourist. They claim the exclusive 
right to build hotels, run stages and other 
means of public conveyance, and arrogate 
all the other rights, privileges and immu¬ 
nities of actual owners. In the words of 
General Brisbin “these monopolists claim 
to have hogged the whole park.” Gover¬ 
nor Crosby of Montana lately presented to 
the United States Senate a vigorous pro¬ 
test against the acts and projects of these 
rapacious capitalists. They, It is charged, 
propose to establish vast cattle enterprises 
close to the Park and secure unlimited free 
forage and pasturage in it as well as im¬ 
munity from disturbance in their trespass by 
controlling the place as hotel monopolists. 
It is the intention of the Government 
that this wide area, a large proportion of 
which is rich with nutritious grasses, 
while the whole is fenced in with natural 
mountain barriers, should be a place of 
refuge for the wild animals of the Far 
West, many of which, without some such 
protection, will inevitably soon become ex¬ 
tinct. Governor Crosby charges that the 
animals that have sought refuge there in 
large numbers from the relentless pursuit 
of hunters in the surrounding territories, 
are being ruthlessly slaughtered. Mr. 
Conger. Superintendent of the Park, thinks 
the Governor has exaggerated this evil, 
hut General Sheridan has several times for¬ 
warded complaints to the Government on 
the matter, charging that skin-hunters are 
slaughtering the game there, and offering 
to protect it if authorized to do so. 
Hotel accommodations and means of 
travel for the visiting public are, of course, 
needed in the Park ; hut is it w ise in the 
Government, is it just to the public, to 
give any clique a monopoly of these? The 
navigation of Yellowstone Lake alone for 
ten years General Brisbin considers worth 
$1,000',000 to the holders—how much will 
a monopoly of accommodation for the 
tens of thousands of yearly visitors through¬ 
out the choicest parts of the Park be 
worth? And how much will the rights, 
privileges and immunities arrogated by 
the monopolists in the rest of the Park 
put into their greedy pockets? We emphat¬ 
ically agree with Governor Crosby that it 
is the public, not a band of speculators, 
that should profit by this Park, and that 
there should be an absolute annulment of 
every unauthorized lease of any part of it. 
In the hands of speculators the Park is cer¬ 
tain to deteriorate; if held freely open to the 
world, under proper Governmental super¬ 
vision. it will ere long draw nearly a.s much 
of the profitable curiosity of the Old 
World as the Old World draws of Un¬ 
profitable curiosity of the New. 
BREVITIES. 
And now come the small-fruit, catalogues. 
The mailing of last week’s Rural was de¬ 
layed by accidents resulting from a fire in a 
building adjoining our printing rooms. 
Plant new fruits cautiously -—but plant 
them! Study the catalogues,' select what 
you believe to be the best kinds, consult what 
the Rural Juts said about them and order ac¬ 
cordingly. 
The small fruit catalogues of this year give 
all needed details of soil, preparation, planting 
and culture so freely that we refer our readers 
to them for instruction which need not. there¬ 
fore, be repeated in our columns. 
As the Rural New-Yorker is read by the 
best class of farmers and gardeners in the coun¬ 
try, it is no doubt well that our readers should 
mention it hi communicating with its adver¬ 
tising patrons. We dare say it proves help¬ 
ful to all parties concerned. 
The opinion of Mr. Charles Downing regard¬ 
ing the Keiffer l’ear, that the quality is better 
when raised further South, coincides with 
many reports. Unquestionably its quality is 
better in Southern Pennsylvania than it, Is 
either in Northern New- Jersey or New York. 
Canadian papers report the arrival of a 
new bird, in considerable numbers, which prevs 
upon the English sparrow. Have farmers, 
fruit-growers and lovers of our persecuted 
feathered songsters to thank kind Heaven for 
a fresh act of creation in answer to their prav- 
ers. or has some old species of bird suddenly 
©voluted in a friendly wav in aooonlanoe with 
the environment of which the sparrow is the 
fresh feature; nr has the pugnacity of our im- 
] tor ted nuisances developed a similar combative 
spirit in one of our hitherto peaceable sitecies 
which has therefore assumed such additional 
beauty in the eyes of our Canadian friends as 
to be mistaken for an entirely “new kindf” 
A set of capitalists of Buffalo. New York, 
have recently ttought upwards of 200,000 acres 
of land in Laded©, Camden, Webster and 
Dallas comities. Mo., from the St. Louis and 
Ran Francisco Railroad Company, for $400,000, 
and the Company is reported to be negotiat¬ 
ing with other Eastern parties for the sale of 
other large tracts in the southwestern part 
of the State. If this is to 1>© parceled out 
among actual settlers it is perhaps nearly as 
well that this should be done by the Eastern 
syndicate as by the Western railroad com¬ 
pany, as it is likely the latter would charge 
pm-chasers of moderate farms nearly as high 
a price per acre as the former must charge 'to 
make a profit on their investment ; but if, "ns 
in far too many other cases, the land is to” be 
heki for speculative purposes, is It not against 
the spirit of American institutions that such 
large tracts should l>e so held ? 
