MARCH 47 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT B. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1883. 
ALL SHOULD READ THIS. 
All applications made for seeds up to 
March 1st have been mailed. The potato 
is sent as the weather permits. Any of 
our readers who. having applied for the 
seeds prior to March 1st, have not yet re¬ 
ceived them, will please notify us by postal 
at once. We shall give notice as to the 
potato later. 
In each envelope of seed there should 
be (1) two small envelopes of the Black- 
bearded Centennial Wheat; (2) one of 
Garden Treasures; (8) one of Niagara 
Grape; (4) one of Perfection Watermelon; 
(5) one of Wysor’s Shoe-peg Corn. 
All notifications should he addressed to the 
Editor , at River Edge , Bergen Co ., New Jer¬ 
sey. They will receive prompt attention. 
-*-»-*- 
TO ADVERTISING PATRONS. 
We call attention to our changed ad¬ 
vertising rates for 1883, as presented on 
page 173. The change divests them of all 
discounts, presenting them iu the 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¬ 
stances prove ineffectual. 
We are obliged to state that all adver¬ 
tisements intended for the next issue must 
reach us before Thursday. 
Our wheats upon our special wheat 
plots are pretty well killed out. Those 
that survive will be especially entitled to 
be called hardy. 
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 1730, the 
subscription will end next week; if 1731 
the week after, and so on. 
Please notify us of any irregularity in 
the receipt of the Rural New-Yorker. 
If you have missed any numbers, kindly 
advise us and we will extend the subscrip¬ 
tion accordingly. It is impossible to 
avoid mistakes or even to correct them 
promptly during the busiest part of the 
subscription season. We desire to be 
more than just in this matter. If we 
deprive you of one paper we are willing 
to give you three in its place. 
Here is a step in the right direction! 
The trustee of the public school at Ghent, 
N. Y., has organized a course of brief 
Friday afternoon lectures to the pupils of 
the school on botany, fruit-culture, vege¬ 
table physiology and various kindred 
topics. Prominent townsmen who have 
given these subjects attention are invited 
to address the pupils. Is there any better 
way to awaken an interest among young 
people in agriculture and horticulture 
than this ? 
-- 
Horticultural interests in Michigan 
are in a very flourishing condition, as we 
have reason to believe. Twenty-eight 
societies for the advancement of the in¬ 
terests of horticulture are now in active 
operation and are doing a grand work, 
meetings being held by each either 
monthly or quarterly. On the approach¬ 
ing Arbor Day the societies of the State 
will make a combined effort for the plant¬ 
ing of trees about the school-houses—a 
matter worthy the attention of every 
similar organization in the land. Success 
to the horticultural societies of the 
Wolverine State ! 
- 4*4 - 
To the cries for help from the “drown¬ 
ed out ” people along the Ohio, are now 
added those from the inhabitants of the 
inundated region along the Mississippi. 
Between Memphis, Term., and Helena, 
Ark., there are not more than two or three 
spots of dry ground, and for 40 miles 
there is not a dry foot of land. Refugees, 
white and colored, are flocking by the 
hundred from the flooded districts to k the 
bluffs and adjoining towns, while every 
elevation is crowded with starving stock 
and despairing people. Help from the 
charitable everywhere is urgently needed, 
and again we earnestly beseech our friends 
to contribute as much as they can toward 
the relief of their suffering brethren, and 
whatever they give let them forward at 
once to the New York Herald Relief Fund, 
or the Commissioner of Agriculture. 
- 4*4 - 
Los Angeles County, California, is a 
region noted for its immense wheat-fields 
and sheep pastures, but chiefly for its 
olives, vines, orange groves, lemons, braes, 
guavas, pomegranates,gardens and prosper¬ 
ous colonies. The Ban Gabriel Valley is 
one of the fairest spots on earth, and is 
only rivaled by the Santa Anna and other 
valleys southward. It. is often thought 
that semi-tropic fruit-culture is the only 
occupation of the Los Angeles citizens, but 
that section, no less than Northern Cali¬ 
fornia, has large farms. One of these is 
the Laguna Ranch, where a company of 
capitalists who have leased the place are 
at work on a large scale. They have 24 
six-mule teams plowing and harrowing. 
Already 9,000 acres are seeded, and 3.000 
more will be sown before the end of 
March. The ranch has immense pastur¬ 
age facilities, and wheat-raising forms only 
a part of their extensive operations. 
We call attention to the instructionsgi ven 
on page 162 by experienced seedling grape- 
growers. Our own method has been to plant 
the seeds fresh from the grapes, in which 
case many will sprout in three or four weeks. 
We have planted the seeds in pots of good 
soil half an inch deep; covered them with 
glasses and set the pots over the heater on 
the mantle so as to keep the soil warm at 
all times, by supplying a gentle bottom 
heat. These pots rest in saucers which 
receive the water, We never water the 
surface. We are without experience as to 
raising seedlings from seeds which have 
become dry , as with those of the Niagara 
sent to subscribers in our present Seed Dis¬ 
tribution. We planted some of them in 
the way above mentioned six weeks ago. 
None has as yet germinated. We beg 
our readers to exercise their best judgment, 
as aided by the instructions of Messrs. 
Marvin, Burr and Campbell, and to be pa¬ 
tient and painstaking, even though the 
seeds do not sprout in months, since they 
may he assured that the seeds, though 
necessarily dry, are fresh and guaranteed 
to be—all of them—from thcNirgara grape. 
Some of our readers may doubt tills 
statement: Upon three-eightieths of an 
acre of land—or let us say one-thirtieth— 
we raised enough potatoes to supply the 
Rural family from August, 1882, until 
probably the firet of May, 1883. The Rural 
family has consisted of two men. three fe¬ 
males and two email children, besides visit - 
ot's. The only extra cost has been for chem¬ 
ical fertilizers, used at the rate of about 800 
pounds to the acre, and perhaps two cul¬ 
tivations more than field potatoes get. as a 
rule. All cultivation was givcu with hand 
cultivators, which every owner of a small 
garden should use. The yield of this plot 
coukl not have been less than 19 bushels. 
We do not mention the variety, because 
there were many kinds. Though the land 
was inclined to clay there was no hilling 
up. The seed, as mentioned in our re¬ 
ports. was cut to single or two eyes and 
planted a foot apart—the drills three feet 
apart. Our friends may estimate the cost 
of this yield and juage for themselves 
whether it pays to give this sort of treat¬ 
ment to potatoes, or whether it is better 
to follow the usual methods and raise from 
one to two hundred bushels to the acre. 
There is no farm crop raised in America 
that returns such a profit for suitable ma¬ 
nure and good tillage as potatoes. 
A SELECTION OF SMALL FRUITS FOR 
TRIAL. 
Some catalogues call Brighton the best 
red grape; Worden and Moore's Early 
the best blacks; Lady, the best white. 
Wilder might be added as one of the best 
black grapes, though it does not succeed 
everywhere. We should at present place 
Miner’s Victoria before the Lady, because 
it is hardier, more prolific, cracks less 
and is a better shipper. This is not the 
opinion of Mi*. Barry, which is entitled to 
great respect, but we have reason to be¬ 
lieve that, after Mr. Miner’s death several 
of his collection were mixed up, and the 
Victoria among them. Possibly Mr. Barry 
has not the true Victoria. Our collection 
of Miner’s grapes was received direct 
from him, The grape is foxy, but not 
more so than the Concord or Niagara, 
while it is of better quality. Moore’s Early 
is earlier than the Concord, just as hardy 
and prolific, while the berry is larger and 
of equal quality though the bunch averages 
smaller. Jefferson (Ricketts’s) is a mag¬ 
nificent grape as we have seen it elsewhere. 
It has not as yet fruited at the Rural 
Grounds. The Duchess is a favorite with 
us on account of its meaty flegli—by which 
we mean that it is destitute of the tough 
pulp which characterizes the Concord and 
most other native grapes. It reminds one 
of the so-called White Malaga more than 
any other grape which is hardy in the 
latitude of New York. Barry bears short, 
compact shouldered bunches of large black 
grapes. Herbert is much like Barry in 
quality. The berries are rather larger, 
though the bunch is less compact. Mer¬ 
rimack is much the same as Herbert iu 
size and quality. These last three are de¬ 
cidedly better in quality than Concord. 
Remember that, Rural friends! They may 
not succeed everywhere so well, hut they 
are everywhere worthy of trial. 
Prentiss is highly prized by many as a 
white grape. We have not tested it. 
Do you ask us what strawberries we shall 
try? We answer: Bidwell, Big Bob, 
Charles Downing, Warren, Jersey Queen, 
Primo. Hart's Minnesota, James Vick, 
Sharpless, Cumberland Triumph, Piper's 
Seedling, Manchester, Miner’s Prolific, 
Mount Vernon, Windsor Chief, Kentucky, 
Finch's Prolific. 
Of raspberries; Gregg, Souliegan for 
black. For yellow, Caroline. For purple, 
New Rochelle. For dark red, Shaffer’s 
Colossal, Montclair, Superb, For red, 
Cuthbert, Hansell (for earliest), Turner. 
Of blackberries : Snyder, Ivittatinny, 
Taylor's Prolific. 
Of currants: Fay's Prolific, Cherry, 
White Grape. 
THE AMBER-CANE INDUSTRY. 
From present indications there is little 
doubt that a larger area will this year be 
devoted to tlie growth of Amber-cane thaD 
ever before. Although last season was 
highly unfavorable for growing sorghum 
on account of the cold, moist weather, still 
the results from the plots cultivated— 
many of them experimentally—were so 
favorable that former growers will be en¬ 
couraged to increase the space given to 
this crop, while others will be induced 
to make a trial of the new industry. Farm¬ 
ers, as a rule, are a conservative class, 
preferring to follow in beaten tracks, but 
the experiments in Amber-cane growth 
have convinced many that there is money 
in this new business. In most of the West¬ 
ern, many of the Southern and nearly all 
the Middle States both sorghum sugar and 
sorghum simp were produced last year, 
though a considerably greater proportion 
of sugar was made in some States than in 
others. 
Comparatively little lias been said about 
the industry in New York, but from re¬ 
ports made to the convent ion of growers 
who met the other day at Geneva, it ap¬ 
pears that upwards of 50 mills w T erc in op¬ 
eration in this State last year, and the 
number will be materially increased this 
year. High expectations of sorghum su¬ 
gar-making were expressed at the New 
York Convention as well as at that of the 
Mississippi Valley Cane-Growers, who met 
at St. Louis the middle of December, and 
by the Minnesota Cane-Growers, who con¬ 
vened at Minneapolis the middle of Janu¬ 
ary. The manufacture of soighum sirup 
is already considered an assured success, 
and the amount now produced ha« consid¬ 
erably lessened the consumption of glu¬ 
cose, and this no doubt contributed to the 
closing of the Buffalo .glucose factory a 
couple of weeks ago, and to that at De¬ 
troit about a month since. In conntry 
and town people are finding out that sor¬ 
ghum sirup is as cheap and far sweeter 
and more palatable than t lie lighter-colored 
glucose, and the day of the latter will 
soou be over. 
The possibilities of I hc business are best 
shown by the results at the large factories 
where all needed appliances arc at hand 
and the best skill produces the best re¬ 
sults. The largest Eastern works of the 
kind arc those at Rio Grande, Cape May 
County, N. J. Here a Pennsylvania com¬ 
pany, tempted by the offer made by New 
Jersey of one dollar a ton for cane, and 
one cent a pound for all the sugar made 
from it, bought 2,400 acres of poor land 
“for a song" and setup their establishment. 
Last year they planted 1,008 acres, from 
which they obtained 8,638 tana of “topped” 
cane, which yielded 310,044 pounds of 
“manufactured” sugar, ami 40.000 gal¬ 
lons of dense sirup. Their State bounties 
amounted to $8,837.44, and their sales to 
$45,000. There was a great difference in 
the yield of different plots; one eight-acre 
field gave 136 tous, an average of 17 tons 
per acre; while other plots yielded as 
high as 20 to 22 tons. To ascertain the 
cause of the greater yield on some fields 
and what fertilizers should be applied to 
others to increase their productiveness, the 
company are having the soils analyzed and 
intend to materially increase the area 
under Amber-cane this year. 
A Western establishment, of the same 
character is the Champaign Sugar Com¬ 
pany, of Champaign, Illinois, where Pro¬ 
fessors Weber and Scovell’s discoveries in 
the mode of making sugar from sorghum 
were first exemplified on a large scale. The 
Company’s “ plant.” which was new last 
year, cost $80,000, including a crop of 
2,282 3-4 tons of cane “topped and strip¬ 
ped,” that is, after the leaves and seed had 
been removed to prepare it for the mill. 
The yield was 86.603 pounds of sugar and 
25,137 gallons of sirup, which sold for 
about $17,400. The average yield to the 
acre was 9 1-3 tons of cane and 465 1-2 
pounds of sugar, which graded Yellow C, 
and sold for 8 l-2e. The company has 
decided to plant 1,000 acres this year. 
But what would be the probable results 
with oue who raised only a moderate 
amount of cane? To this question an an¬ 
swer was given by a Mr. Powell, of Wis¬ 
consin, at the St. Louis Convention. From 
60 acres of cane raised in his neighbor¬ 
hood last year he presented estimates of 
the cost and yield per acre, based on act¬ 
ual results. According to him the total 
cost of planting, cultivating aud manufac¬ 
turing an acre of cane was $20,75, while 
the value of the simp, vinegar and seed 
obtained from it was $95.68—a net profit 
of $74.93 per acre. No attempt was made 
to manufacture sugar, as the sirup sold 
readily at 60 cents per gallon. Of course, 
it is probable few cane-growers would be 
so successful, but Half the net profit per 
acre would satisfy most farmers. 
BREVITIES. 
Strawberries from the South sell at 75 
cents a quart. 
Plant the Beurre d' Anjou Pear, if it will 
thrive in your section. 
Several have asked us why we did not give 
a day view of Mrs. Jack’s home. Ah, that's 
a secret I 
Ever-blooming roses. No plants are more 
delightful. They are not hardy in this cli¬ 
mate. but they may be removed to the house 
in Winter. 
Mr. Kieffer certainly should be permitted 
to settle the question ns to how*bis pear should 
be spelled. He decides it should be the same 
as his uauie—Kieffer. So be it. 
A good proportion of the seed of Yellow 
Danvers Onion and Early Curled Lettuce sent 
out by seedsmen lor the seasou of 1881, as 
tested by Prof. Beni, was worthless. 
Speaking of roses, we know of no other 
more beautiful among the Hybrid Perpetuals 
than the old Gen. Jacqueminot. Try it, reader, 
if you havo never seen the General. 
We are afraid that the “Prolific Tree Bean,” 
or “California Branching Bean.” which we 
take to be the same, will disappoint our read¬ 
ers. We tided it last season and it closely re¬ 
sembles the old Refugee. 
We don’t know of a better evergreen tree 
to conceal out-houses, or for shelter, than the 
beautiful White Pine—-Pinus Strobus. It is 
beautiful in every way and may bo made to 
assume quite a dense growth by cutting back 
or disbudding. 
One of the very best Summer pears is Clapp’s 
Favorite. The tree is a strong grower aud it 
yields heavily. It succeeds well in Maine, 
Mass., New York, Michigan, Texas and New 
Jersey, as we know. Where else it may suc¬ 
ceed is not so well known. 
The Rural owes many of its kind friends 
an apology because it cannot at present pub¬ 
lish many interesting communications with 
which we have been fuvored. It aimoys us 
probably more than it. does them. One hates 
to appear unappreciative of such favors. 
Those who have never tried chemical fertil¬ 
izers, and who desire to do so, would do well 
to buy a bag (200 pounds) each of different 
kinds and spread them separately on the same 
crops. Thus the needs of the soil may in a 
measure be determined. 
Wf. have received from two firms in New 
York two different patented mole-traps to 
test.. The Rural premises have always been 
infested with these “critters,” mid we have 
tried ail sorts of remedies, including all sorts 
of traps for them, ineffectually. The two trups 
above referred to strike ns most favorably. 
We shall try them as soon jus the frost leaves 
the ground and report to our readers without 
restraint or partiality. 
An English paper gives examples of the sub¬ 
tilities of the law as ft applies to overhanging 
trees or vines. An owner, aggrieved by the 
growth of branches from his neighbor’s tree 
extending over his ground, is recommended to 
first intimate to the neighbor the existence of 
the nuisance before proceeding to the extremity 
of cutting off the branches. But. this he can 
do at any time if he but carefully avoids cut¬ 
ting an atom on his neighbor’s side of the line, 
lie must let, the loppings lie, however, or send 
them to the neighbor, and not use theiniu uuy 
way himself. Nor can he take the fruit, even 
what has fallou on the ground, unless granted 
to him by the neighbor. The neighbor, ou tin* 
other hand, tuu**! not cross to get it without 
permission, but if permission is refused he may 
go and get it, subject to any damage that he 
may commit. For the withholding of permis¬ 
sion constitutes a taking possession of the fruit. 
