220 
1 
APRIL 7 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1888. 
We think, from our own test, that Tay¬ 
lor’s Prolific Blackberry will please our 
readers. It is extremely prolific, and. so 
far as we may yet judge, as hardy as the 
Snyder. 
We have in preparation two articles 
with illustrations, which will interest many 
readers. One is about mole traps which 
will actually catch moles; the other is all 
about bagging grapes. 
The talk about ensilage is becoming 
rather less wild. Many who advocate en¬ 
silage from their own tests now admit the 
extravagance of the claims of the Bailey 
class. 
Mr. Stewart’s articles “How to Pro¬ 
duce Milk at Two Cents a Quart” are be¬ 
gun. If we have iu America a writer ou 
dairy topics that writes from experience, 
Henry Stewart is that man. 
Mr. Goodrich’s theory as to the flat 
cultivation or hilling up of potatoes is just 
that which the Rural has advocated and 
just that which Sir J. B. Lawes advised 
in answer to our question. Mr. Good¬ 
rich’s article will be found on page 216. 
-♦ • ♦- 
The time to girdle grape-vine canes so 
as to produce larger fruit is just after it 
has set. This may be done by cutting 
out a narrow' ling of the bark of the shoot 
just above its junction with the main 
cane. Tying a wire around the shoot 
answers the same purpose. 
- - 
Hardiness in raspberries is a much- 
talked of quality seldom found. We 
have tried nearly every kind, and are pre¬ 
pared to say that for our trying climate, 
(Rural Grounds, Bergen C'o., New Jersey) 
the old Turner is as nearly hardy as any 
other. The quality of the fruit is, as we 
have often stated, excellent, though the 
berries are rather soft for distant shipment. 
Our readers must not think we have 
forgotten the Prize series of articles— 
“Profitable Farming for a Poor Man.” 
At this season of the year it is desirable 
to give preference to timely topics. We 
have in hand an accumulation of the 
richest reading matter that the Rural, has 
ever placed he fore its readers, a fact in which 
they will concur with us before the close 
of 1883. 
SciADoriTYS verticillata, the Japan Um¬ 
brella Pine, is one of those distinct and 
desirable hardy evergreens that the Rural 
takes pleasure in keeping before its read¬ 
ers. Thus far it has proven hardy at the 
Rural Grounds, and we learn it is also 
hardy in the climate of Boston, Mass. Our 
own specimen is about five or six years old 
and two feet high. Though it grows thus 
slowly in youth, it eventually grows much 
faster and becomes a tree of large size. Its 
whorls of dark-green, glossy leaves, in um¬ 
brella-like tufts, give to it an appearance 
very different irom that of any other conifer. 
According to the late Census the fol¬ 
lowing is the average yield of milk per 
cow in gallons in the counties named in 
this State: Orange, 400; Herkimer, 344; 
Madison and Oswego, 207; Oneida, 250; 
Jefferson, 214; St. Lawrence, 104; Otsego, 
109. Thus it appears that the cows of 
Orange County average 230 gallons a year 
more than the cows ot St. Lawrence 
Comity! and 291 gallons more than those 
of Otsego County! If these figures are 
correct there should be a tremendous 
amount of “weeding out” among the dairy 
- herds in some parts of this State, and no 
doubt the same remark would apply to 
every other State also, where dairying is 
at all a prominent industry. 
An earnest effort is being made in Mich¬ 
igan to secure from the Legislature a grant 
for the establishment of a State Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station. In view of the 
wide-a-wake .attention hitherto bestowed 
on agriculture in that State, it appears a 
trifle surprising that she should have 
allowed so many of her sister States to get 
ahead of her in the^ establishment of so 
efficient a means of advancing the agricul¬ 
tural interests of her people. What other 
State has so excellent an agricultural col¬ 
lege to take charge of the Station? In Min¬ 
nesota, Georgia and several of the other 
States there is a good deal of agitation 
looking to the establishment of similar 
stations; will Michigan permit these too 
to get ahead of her in so praiseworthy an 
undertaking? 
-- 
One of the great, objections which we 
have experienced in the matter of testing 
the implements, plants, etc., sent to us, is 
that if our report is favorable many deem 
it merely a “puff” for which the Rural 
is paid; if we report unfavorably, the par¬ 
ties sending us the article to be tested are 
offended. We canDOt help it. It is un¬ 
avoidable. Our newer readers after a 
while learn that we strive to be strictly 
impartial and that we are as likely to re¬ 
port unfavorably upon anything sent to us 
by our best advertising patrons as by those 
who do not advertise at all. As for re¬ 
ceiving pay for favorable notices, we should 
entertain a low opinion of anybody who 
made such a proposition and a still lower 
opinion of the Rural if it accepted it. 
-• ♦ +- 
Readers of the Rural New-Yorker 
should beware of so-called “cheap fertiliz¬ 
ers.” The guaranteed analysis is their 
only guide. Potash, phosphoric acid and 
nitrogen (the valuable ingredients of fer¬ 
tilizers') have a Jkted value and there is no 
sane firm in America that will make a 
practice of selling them for less than that 
value. When an “agent” tells you that 
his fertilizer, offered for $25 per ton, is 
worth as much as that of some well-known 
firm whicli charges $50 per ton, he utters 
a falsehood—and you may be sure of it. 
Agents cannot afford to sell gold dollars 
for 50 cents. Have naught to do with 
fertilizers that are offered for less tlian 
their market value, and t his may easily be 
ascertained from the guaranteed analyses 
of responsible fertilizer dealers. We 
should no sooner buy fertilizers of un¬ 
known agents than we would give an or¬ 
der for fruit trees to unknown tree-peddlers. 
-- 
Dr. D. E. Salmon D. Y. M., has for 
several years devoted much time and ex¬ 
periment to the study in whicli Pasteur 
has deservedly achieved so high a reputa¬ 
tion the world over—the prevention or 
amelioration of contagious diseases among 
live stock by inoculating sound animals 
with a form of the vims of the disease, 
that will prevent a fatal attack subse¬ 
quently. without endangering life from 
the mild attack produced by the in¬ 
oculation. The method adopted by Dr. 
Salmon for lessening the virulence of the 
virus so as to fit it for inoculating, or 
rather vaccinating, purposes, differs con¬ 
siderably from the “attenuating” system 
of Pasteur, and we are glad to learn that 
the Doctor is to have an opportunity of 
thoroughly testing its efficiency. lie has 
been summoned to Washington hv Com¬ 
missioner Loring, and is about to inaugu¬ 
rate a series of experiments in his method 
for the Department of Agriculture. 
- - »-» ■» - 
Mr. J. W. Daurow, who for over two 
years has been on the editorial staff of the 
Rural New-Yorker, has, we regret to 
say, just severed his connection with this 
paper, having purchased the Chatham 
Courier, published at Chatham, New York, 
of which he will in future be editor and 
publisher. The Courier is a county paper 
of excellent reputation and large circula¬ 
tion, and our friend’s connection with it 
begins with its 22d volume. The retiring 
editor, Mr. Howland, will henceforth give 
his entire, attention to a journal of recrea¬ 
tion called “Outing,” which he recently 
started in Albany, N. Y. Mr. Harrow, 
who graduated at Brown University in 
1880, at the age of 24, is fully capable of 
the successful management of the Courier, 
and we doubt not that his enterprise, 
ability and earnestness will soon add 
largely to its circulation beyond the circle 
of its present readers. By his courteous, 
manly conduct our late colleague has won 
the regard and esteem of all in the Rural 
Office, especially of the editorial staff, 
with whom his connection was closest, 
and it is with hearty sincerity we wish 
him a brilliant success in bis new enterprise. 
A PROMISING NEW CORN. 
We have lately received from a friend 
a box of seed corn that pleases us greatly. 
It has been cultivated on one farm for 
many years, and we are assured that it 
possesses several characteristics which are 
not found in any other variety—at least 
in the same degree. It has never yet been 
offered for sale, and we shall plant an acre 
of it with the object of placing it on our 
next Free Seed Distribution should it 
prove with us what it appears to have 
proved with its originator. The kernel is 
very large, the cob is as it should be— 
neither so small as to break easily in shell¬ 
ing nor so large as to retain moisture 
after harvest long after it should be dry. 
The stalks grow iu good soil but six 
feet in bight, rarely sucker and average 
three ears to a stalk. It ripens in 90 days. 
We do not make such statements from out- 
own knowledge or with the belief that our 
readers will credit them. We need only 
say that the originator has nothing to 
gain by misrepresentation, and that his 
words and appearance inspire confidence. 
We propose to plant this corn by the 
method the Rural has followed for years 
past, viz., broadcast fertilizing upon 
plowed sod land, drilling in the seed, and 
fiat cultivation. We shall use about 600 
pounds of corn chemical fertilizer to the 
acre. In planting this corn we shall use a 
new two-norse corn-planter which, it is 
said, will drop the seed in hills or in 
drills as may be desired. 
— ♦ + ■■ * -- 
SILK CULTURE IN FRANCE. 
Within the last year or two silk culture 
iu France has much revived. Among the 
causes of its decline during the previous 
decade or more, may be mentioned the 
keener competition of Japan as a seller 
and reeler of raw silk, owing to the intro¬ 
duction of improved European systems 
and apparatus: Italy, too, became a pow¬ 
erful rival, the Italian reelers having built 
filatures which worked better and more 
economically than those of the French. 
Then, again, the Lyons manufacturers 
helped the downward movement by selling 
an inferior class of silk goods. The great 
cause of the decline, however, was the 
outbreak of the silk-worm disease, 
due, probably, to overcrowding and 
want of ventilation, so that silk¬ 
worms were destroyed by millions 
when the disease had once broken out. 
The recuperation of the industry is 
mainly due to the researches into the 
causes and remedies for the disease, made 
by Paeteur, who invented a method of 
examining the moths, by which it is pos¬ 
sible to preserve the good eggs and to de¬ 
tect and destroy those that arc infected. 
During 1880-’81 there was a marked im¬ 
provement in the strength aud character 
of the worm, hut there.was hardly enough 
feed, as a great majority of the mulherries 
had been neglected or used as firewood. 
During the past year, hoivcver, this diffi¬ 
culty lias been remedied, improved fila¬ 
tures have been introduced, the ravages 
of the disease have been greatly diminished 
and France has again become an exporter 
of cocoons. 
HOW BEST TO EXTEND PARIS-GREEN 
SO THAT IT WILL KILL THE POTA¬ 
TO BEETLE AND NOT HARM 
THE FOLIAGE. 
Farmers, bear this in mind: you can¬ 
not have a large crop of sound potatoes, 
no matter how rich the soil or how well 
the crop is cultivated, unless the vines 
and foliage are healthy. Protect them, 
therefore. If you use too large a propor¬ 
tion of Paris-green in the water or plaster, 
then the leaves will be injured, and injury 
from this cause is just as harmful as injury 
from the potato beetle. It is a fact that 
Paris-green may be so extended with plas¬ 
ter that it will not harm the foliage while 
it will kill the beetles or their larvte. It 
is, no doubt, a handier way to many and 
certainly it costs less to use this poison in 
water, while it is just as effectual. But 
the poison does not dissolve, so that, in 
spite of constant stirring, the water of the 
bottom of the vessel from which it is 
sprinkled upon the vines, contains enough 
poison to harm the leaves and it is for tiffs 
reason we give preference to its division 
with plaster which may be evenly distrib¬ 
uted over every part of the plant. Sifters 
and bellows are now sold in most country 
stores, or the former may be constructed 
at home at a trilling cost. We have used 
Paris-green iu water and in plaster through 
several seasons and carefully noted the re¬ 
sult upon the foliage. While that upon 
which the poisoned plaster was applied 
remained green and luxurious, the mid¬ 
dles (mid-veins) of the leaves receiving 
the poisoned water would often turn gray 
and finally wither. Let us then bear in 
mind that our object is to preserve our po¬ 
tato vines as much from the injury of 
Paris-green as from being devoured by the 
potato beetle. The one is just as import¬ 
ant as the other, und both may be accom¬ 
plished if we would use, instead of pois¬ 
oned water, one part of pure Paris-green 
to 100 parts of plaster aud thoroughly 
mix them together, so that the plaster will 
be evenly, though very slightly, tinted 
throughout with the poison. It is best to 
purchase the plaster and green vow and to 
mix it as above suggested and store it in 
barrels in a perfectly dry place. Thus mixed 
there is little, if any, chance of its poison¬ 
ing animals, since they would have to eat 
a considerable quantity to do them harm, 
while pure Paris-green is a most danger¬ 
ous article to have about the premises. 
BREVITIES. 
Read what is said about potatoes on page 19S. 
Read Sir J. B. Lawes’s article on first page. 
Read President Stockbridge’s article on 
page 198. 
Read Prof. Tracy’s article on page 197 iu 
answer to Feter Henderson. 
We are very sorry to hear of so many far 
mers plunging'into hop culture. 
The many synonyms of the Easter Beurrd 
Fear give some evidence in favor of its quality. 
It is better to have the corn plants, whether 
in hills or drills, rather too far apart than 
too near. 
The Fameuse seems to be the leading apple 
in the Province of Ontario. Many are shipped 
to England. 
Col. Curtis’s “Jottings at Kilby Home¬ 
stead,” his hospitable home, will be found on 
the opposite page. 
Prof. Hussman thinks that sulphur will do 
much to keep grape-vine mildew in check, but 
that close pruning is best. We have not so 
found it. 
Dr. John A. Warder is one of our first 
authorities on forestry matters. Our readers 
interested in this grand study should read his 
notes carefully. 
Our Niagara Grape seeds have not yet 
sprouted. Our Rural readers must be patient 
and not neglect them because they do not 
sprout in a few weeks. 
We trust that the Rural New-Yorker has 
saved many of its readers several hundred dol¬ 
lars by persistently advising them not to in¬ 
vest in expensive silos. 
It pays to give currant bushes good atten¬ 
tion. A clayey is bettor than a sandy soil, and 
partial shade and a moist, though thoroughly 
well-drained, soil suits them well. 
We have heard of a ton of salt being spread 
upon an acre of asparagus; and yet we have 
never been able to learn that any comparative 
experiments have been inude that prove salt 
to he of any particular value. 
The Rural several years ago was the only 
journal that spoke slightingly of potted straw¬ 
berry plants. It appears, however, that, all 
things considered, they are profitable neither 
to the seller nor buyer. 
Mr. Fuller says that had Mr. C. M. Hovey 
not produced so good a pistillate variety of 
strawberry as The Iiovcy Seedling, it is very 
likely that pistillate kinds would never have 
been tolerated by fruit-growers anywhere. 
John S. Bodge writes us from La Porte, 
Indiana, that he wants a yellow dent corn 
about 18-rowed. long ear, only one to the stalk, 
which should never grow more than five or six 
feet high, with kernels as long as those of the 
Shoe-peg, and never sucker. He adds that we 
cannot afford to grow bean-poles for fodder 
or hnsk nubbins. 
It is hard to realize that the only hardy 
grape generally known 25 years ago was the 
Isabella. Mr. E. W. Bull of Concord, Mass., 
raised the Concord, now the most widely cul¬ 
tivated of any. Scores of the offspring of the 
Concord, white, black and red m color, are 
being- brought to public notice every year. 
Twenty-five years hence it will bo difficult to 
realize that the Concord was at this time the 
“grape for the million.” 
The steamer Creighton arrived at this port 
on Thursday after a stormy passage from 
Greenock, Scotland. A deck-loud of 50 Shet¬ 
land ponies which had been purchased for par¬ 
ties iu New Jersey were swept overboard (lur¬ 
ing a severe gale. A considerable number of 
horses have been lost on other vessels also 
during the last few weeks. To any one ac¬ 
quainted with the perils of a Winter passage 
across the Atlantic, it must appear the hight 
of imprudence to ship stock in deck at that 
stormy season. Loss is probable aud great 
suffering certain. 
During the last month not a day has passed 
without announcements iu the papers of this 
city and Brooklyn telling of large quantities 
of ‘‘bob veal” destroyed by the meat inspectors. 
Yesterday 2,310 pounds were seized here aud 
over 1,500 pounds in Brooklyn, and who can 
tell how much was sold undetected? A glance 
through our "Exchanges” shows that a like 
destruction of young calves is taking place 
all over ♦ he country at this season. How many 
possibilities, nay probabilities, of excellent 
cows are in this way sacrificed! and this too 
when calves could be reared economically to 
a more prolitable age, according to the method 
dear rilicd by Henry Stewart in the Daily De¬ 
partment oi this issue. 
The United States District Court of Masra 
chusetts has just decided affirmatively with re¬ 
gard to the - constitutionality of the United 
States statute prohibiting any rnflroad com¬ 
pany over whose line cattle or other animals 
are conveyed from one State to another, from 
confining them in cars for more tliun 28 con¬ 
secutive hours without unloading them for 
rest, water and feed, for at least five consecu¬ 
tive hours. The American llumonu Associa¬ 
tion prosecuted a couple ot Massachusetts rail¬ 
road companies for tne violation of tlyshiw; 
the companies pleaded that it was uuconstitu 
tional. but the Court has decided against them 
