300 
Queen Victoria in ordering that no lamb 
shall be served this season in the Royal 
household. The Privy Council, too, has 
issued orders discouraging the sale of 
lamb. The bitter March weather has 
been so fatal to lambs and breeding 
ewes as seriously to reduce the stock 
of sheep, and if lambs are killed in 
the Spring, in a few years there will be 
no more sheep. It is in the interest of the 
sheep of the future therefore that the lamb 
of the present is royally protected. From 
an agricultural point of view, how¬ 
ever, it is urged that sheep breeding will 
be discouraged by rendering Spring lamb 
unfashionable on the table, .as farmers 
must sutler now. while the future advan¬ 
tages will be on the side of their custom¬ 
ers who will get cheaper lamb and mut¬ 
ton; on behalf of the latter, too, it is 
charged that the price of mutton and oth¬ 
er meats will advance; that lamb and 
veal are very economically produced, and 
that sumptuary regulations are wrong in 
principle and generally futile. The de¬ 
crease in the number of sheep in England 
is pretty sure to cause larger exports of 
mutton and beef from this country, and 
also to render the prices firmer. 
movement has become general. In Illinois 
there is a High-license Bill now before the 
Legislature, but at present the rate is 
fixed by the City Councils. There, too, 
the battle rages fiercely. The rum-sellers 
at Danville closed their saloons one day, 
hoping to defeat the $1,000 rate, but had 
to yield. Half the whiskey-shops of Mor¬ 
ris are closed rather than pay $500. Last 
Wednesday eight saloons at. Paris were 
licensed at $800 a year. Tn Kansas the 
“good fight” goes on. and those who 
fought one kind of slavery bravely of old, 
are equally resolute in fighting a worse 
form of slavery now. 
agents state that the fertilizers they offer 
are $10 or $20 per ton less than the mar¬ 
ket price, they utter a falsehood, unless 
they mean that they are worth so much less. 
RURAU NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
Last year. May 8th, there was a severe 
frost, making ice an eighth of au inch 
thick. A long cold storm occurred May 
14th and 15th. Early potatoes were just 
breaking through. We sowed our first 
field corn not until May 18th. Cold, gray 
skies continued from this date until the 
middle of June. As late as June 20th 
melons were scarcely up and our corn was 
but four inches high. Grape buds were 
just beginning to open. We remember it 
was thought that the grape crop would 
prove an entire failure. Up to June 30th 
the weather continued cool and wet. 
Then began dry weather running into a 
drought—just reversing the conditions fa¬ 
vorable to corn, though very favorable to 
oats. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1883. 
The regular Free Seed Distribution of the 
Rural New-Yorker for 1882-3 is now 
closed . 
WORK AT THE RURAL EX. GROUNDS. 
Since writing our last report, we have 
planted of potatoes a seedling (103) from 
Henry Morrell, of Essex Co., Mass; Lady 
Finger, Mexican, Purple Mercer from A. 
S. Johnson, Monroe Co,, N. Y., (we had 
never raised these old kinds) ; New England 
Beauty (a splendid round Peach blow) not 
yet offered for sale; Bliss’s No. 5 (not 
named) ;Marsh’s Defiance, from Mr. Marsh 
of Pa.; Orwell, Alexander's No. t. Snow 
Fairy, Charlotte X X Extra from O. IT. 
Alexander of Vermont; Sport of Late 
Rose from F. Osborn of N. Y., later than 
the parent and far more prolific; Pride of 
the Wcst. Crawford’s Early from Cole & 
Bro., Pella, Ills.; Arundel Rose, Clark's 
No. 1, Dakota Red rind Telephone from 
Hiram Sibley & Co., making in all 93 differ¬ 
ent tests. Four years ago, our older readers 
may remember, we planted from one to six 
eyes iu different plots. But the eyes 
were in separate pieces. This year we 
have tried the same experiment with one, 
two, three, four and five eyes each in one 
piece. Again, we have used from 100 to 
1,200 pounds of concentrated potato ferti¬ 
lizers in different drills, intervening drills 
being planted without fertilizers to show 
the natural fertility of the soil. These tests 
have all been made in moist, clayey soil 
and duplicated in dry, sandy loam which 
has been pretty well exhausted Of fertility. 
We are now preparing plots for testing 
the many different kinds of corn (sweet 
and field) that have been sent to us by 
kind friends. Being planted close to¬ 
gether, all those w hich bloom at the same 
time will, of course, mix. But as our ob¬ 
ject is not to save the seed, hut merely to 
note the characteristics of each, this mat¬ 
ters little. 
The next Free Seed Distribution of the 
Rural New-Yorker will be announced 
in August or early September. We are 
pleased to be able to state that w e have 
already succeeded in securing for it several 
novelties of very great value. 
By direction of Secretary Teller the 
lands of the Otoe and Missouri Reserva¬ 
tion in Kansas and Nebraska, comprising 
about 50,000 acres, w ill be offered at pub¬ 
lic sale at the U. S. Land Office in Beatrice. 
Gage County, Nebraska, on the 81st of 
tills month. Land will be sold only to 
persons who shall within three months 
from the date of their applications make 
permanent settlement upon it, and each 
application must be accompanied with an 
affidavit as evidence of good faith in this 
point. The land will be sold to the highest 
responsible bidder at not less than the 
appraised value in 80-acrc tracts and no 
one person will be allowed to purchase 
more than 160 acres. The terms of sale 
are one-fourth “cash,” to be paid in three 
months from the date of tiling the appli¬ 
cation, and the remainder by installments 
in one, two and three years with inrerest 
at five per cent. The (Roes and Missouri?, 
who now form one tribe, are a branch of 
the great Dakota family. Owing to dis¬ 
ease, especially small-pox, and also to fire¬ 
water. the combined tribes had dwindled, 
in 1880, to 457 souls. Their reservation 
is partly on Kansas and partly in Nebraska, 
on the Big Blue, a tributary of the Mis¬ 
souri River, about 70 miles west of the 
Missouri State line. 
Many are now planting Lima Beans. 
We would advise planting four feet apart, 
four beans about a pole, and but one inch deep, 
We were greatly interested while reading 
Secretary Chamberlain's article which heads 
the next'page. It is the third of a series; but 
complete in itself. 
Mr. Geopes has called grass the pivotal 
crop of American agriculture. Mr. Harris 
thinks that grass Is rather a good savings 
bank, gathering up plant food that otherwise 
would run to waste. 
Mrs. C. A. Thompson, of Illinois, writes us 
that her nearest neighbor invested in Bessara¬ 
bia Cora and that his experience was like the 
Rural’s, except, that the stalks were 15 to 16 
feet high, the corn being eight feet high on 
the stalk. She adds, ‘'it is just the com for fuel.” 
In April, during one week, seven steamers 
arrived in Liverpool from America with car¬ 
goes of fresh meat, consisting of 9,046 quar¬ 
tern of beef and 1,008 carcasses of mutton, 
while seven other vessels brought to the same 
port 2,055 cattle and 2,315 sheep. If England 
receives so much meat from this side of the 
Atlantic in one week at one port, how much 
must she receive in 52 weeks at all her ports 
to which steamers from this continent run? 
Of all the varieties of corn which we have 
seen, we should prefer the Rural Thorough¬ 
bred Flint for ensilaging. The leaves are 
broad, the stalks are comparatively small and 
short-jointed. Not more than <>ne plant should 
be permitted to grow iu a hill—the hills 3)^ 
feet each way. If in drills they should lie not 
le«-, than four foot apart—the plants not less 
than two feet apart in the drills—so branching 
is this variety. 
Buckwheat twice a week, wheat for the 
rest of the time, with plenty of fresh water 
and bone meal always on hand, are good 
Spring food for poultry, if shut up do not 
fail to give a little fresh grass daily. Kero¬ 
sene the porches once in two weeks. Clean 
out the neete every month; pour kerosene in 
the bottom and sift, n little flowers of sulphur 
hi the straw. Clean nut the houses e very few 
days. Give the fowls liver or haslets, cut up 
fine, every week. If you attend to the above 
aud your fowls are young, we guarantee youa 
full share of eggs. 
A great trade in jerked lieef is carried ou iu 
South America. Thousands of tons are yearly 
exported from Montevideo, Rosario and other 
parts of Uruguay aud the Argentine Repub¬ 
lic. In some of the factories more than 1,000 
cattle arc killed daily in the season, one man 
usually slaughtering nil by puncturing the 
spinal cord at the back of the head. The 
animals are cut up and the flesh piled in heaps 
with layers of salt by half naked semi-sav¬ 
ages, half Basque ana half Indian, who pos¬ 
sess a peculiar knack of detaching the flesh 
iu flakes from the bone by striking it with 
their brand cutlass-like knives. Mixed with 
black beans and farina, or cassava meal, 
jerked beef is the staple article of food among 
the lower orders along the coasts of South 
In reply to many questions appertain¬ 
ing to the" Russian Mulberry, inquirers are 
referred to Prof. Budd’s answer in the 
Querist Department. 
One of the first, poultry fanciers of 
America writes us: “You are right. In¬ 
cubators are a failure. They will hatch as 
large a percentage as hens, but not half 
the number will live as of those that are 
hatched by bens. So sure as the incu¬ 
bator goes to 115 degrees during the 
hatching of the chicks, death is nearly 
certain before they are six weeks old. 
The Government of Greece has issued 
an order prohibiting the importation of 
American pork, “fearing that the ship¬ 
ments of diseased meat may be thrown on 
the market and that Greece may be used 
indirectly to secure admission to the Ger¬ 
man markets of meat intended to be ex¬ 
cluded." “Here’s richness for you!” Greece, 
the little, contemptible, degenerate repre¬ 
sentative of a once noble race, afterwards 
crossed with Turkish and other barbarian 
blood for centuries, shuts out the noble 
American Hog lest unfair German regula¬ 
tions should perchance be evaded. The 
North German Gazette has been “eating 
humble pie” for its unjustifiable attack on 
Minister Sargent, which it now acknowl¬ 
edges was based on misinformation. Mr. 
Sargent writing to the Department of State, 
explodes a cock-and-bull story widely pub¬ 
lished in the Continental press that an 
alarming attack of trichinosis liad been 
caused among the garrison of Tilsit, Ger¬ 
many, by eating American pork. Investi¬ 
gation has proved that 14 very slight cases 
had occurred among the soldiers: the 
meat was obtained by them in town; 
there is absolutely no proof where it was 
raised; but it is “highly probable it was 
the native raw product so largely con¬ 
sumed among the lower classes in Ger¬ 
many.” Here the idea of excluding Ger¬ 
man hosiery, of which we import $4,000,- 
000 a year, out of a total importation of 
$7,500,000, and German wines, etc., is 
gaining steadily in favor. 
Every reader of the Rural New-York¬ 
er who has used or who proposes to use lime 
upon his lands, or who desire to under¬ 
stand the action of its different forms or 
why it benefits some lands while it exerts 
no perceptible effect upon others, should 
not fail to read Prof. S. W. Johnson's ar¬ 
ticle on page 294, which he has kindly 
prepared at cur request. 
A NEW ANTI SEPTIC. 
Lout) boasts have been made from time 
to time about the merits of various food 
preservatives and of the revolutions they 
were destined to make in the present 
modes of transporting perishable articles 
from places where they are superabund¬ 
ant to places where they are scarce. Who 
does not remember the promises made 
a year ago with regard to boroglyeeride, 
which, we were assured, would render 
easy the safe transportation of the 
cheap meats of Australia and Buenos 
Ayres to the markets of Europe, and also 
preserve uninjured the abundant fruit crops 
of one year to make up for the short crops 
of another. Who hears of boroglyeeride 
now? Rex Magnus—“The Great King”— 
is the latest antiseptic of the kind. Pro¬ 
fessor S. W. Johnson, it seems, lias been 
experimenting with this preparation, and 
found that pieces of beef, mutton, pork, 
veal, fowls, oysters, etc., which had 
been immersed in the solution for 24 
hours and afterwards hung up in his 
laboratory remained sweet for 35 days 
—after which time he said: “My 
tests have certainly been severe, and 
the several preparations of Prof. Humiston 
with which i have experimented have ac¬ 
complished all he. claimed for them. So 
far as I have learned, they are the only 
preparations that arc effective, and at the 
same time practicable, for domestic use. 
I should anticipate no ill results from the 
consumption of food preserved with Rex 
Magnus according to Professor H Houst on's 
methods. I should suppose his preserva¬ 
tives to be no less salutary than common 
salt, and much more so than saltpeter.” 
Is this antiseptic to share the oblivion of 
so many of its puffed-up predecessors ? 
SPRING LAMBS. 
Genuine Spring lamb on Thursday last 
was worth, in Fulton Market here, three 
dollars a quarter, though at the restau¬ 
rants a plateful of it with “etes.” could be 
got for 35 cents; but restaurateurs are as 
generous with Spring lamb as with Spring 
An esteemed Rural friend remarks that 
he has found one objection to the Rural’s 
pet ornamental tree, the Yellow W ood, 
viz., that it is constantly shedding its 
leaves in late Summer. Perhaps this is 
owing to some peculiarity of the soil or 
situation in which his tree grows. We 
have never noticed this failing in our own 
specimens which, however, arc several 
years younger than those of our friend. 
Last year we raised at the rate of over 
700 bushels of potatoes with one variety; 
over 600 with several; over 500 with 
many. Some of our good friends doubted 
it, though our estimates were thoroughly 
fair and accurate. This year we hope to 
do better, and at harvesting time we 
think we shall secure the services of sev¬ 
eral surveyors to measure the land and 
yield and several justices of the peace to 
take our affidavits thereto. 
We find after a pretty careful examina¬ 
tion that the Lost Rubies Raspberry has 
proven during the past Winter the hardiest 
of all our varieties. Not one bud has 
been harmed. Shaffer’s Colossal has been 
killed back considerably. Caroline (yel¬ 
low) has again proven as hardy as most 
kinds. Gregg (Black-cap) which last year 
was badly injured is this Spring quite un¬ 
harmed. The Ohio Black-cap seems as 
hardy as it is vigorous. We can make no 
comparison between blackberries as to 
hardiness: all varieties are alike uninjured 
by the past Winter. 
THE WAR ON RUM. 
“High license” is gaining speedy favor 
in the West. Since the final defeat of the 
prohibitory amendment in Iowa a “ high- 
license” wave has swept rapidly over the 
State. Under the law as it stands the 
sale of spirituous liquors is absolutely 
prohibited under severe penalties, and the 
sale of beer, ale and wine is either regu¬ 
lated by municipal authority or wholly 
forbidden at the option of the com¬ 
munity. Where the traffic is permit¬ 
ted, however, the sale of strong drinks 
goes on under the cover of the ale, beer 
and wine permit, and convictions are very 
difficult to secure. Heretofore the li¬ 
censes throughout the State ranged from 
$50 a year in Davenport to $500 in some 
interior towns. Creston. it is true, had a 
$1,600 and Ottumwa a $1,000 license, hut 
these were exceptions. The other day, 
however, Des Moines raised the license 
from $250 to $1,000, Clinton and Burling¬ 
ton from $200 to $600 and Davenport 
from $50 to $1,200, and a like upward 
How much potash, phosphoric acid and 
nitrogen does the fertilizer contain which 
you propose to buy? Unless yon know 
that you don’t and can't know what you 
are buying. Trustworthy manufacturers 
guarantee their fertilizers to be worth in 
those three essential elements of plant 
food just what you pay for them. Yerv 
often the per ee*nt. will overrun the guar¬ 
anteed analysis. Remember the Rural’s 
advice often repeated: Never buy chemi¬ 
cal fertilizers of unknown firms. When 
