see 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT e 
Samuel Edwards, Illinois. 
O. B. Galusha, Illinois. 
Marshall P. Wilder, Massachusetts. 
Ex-Governor Furnas, Nebraska. 
E. S. Goff, New York. 
Professor I. P. Roberts, New York. 
1 Waldo F. Brown, Ohio. 
Clem Auldon, Colorado. 
Ben. Pcrley Poore, Massachusetts. 
Forrest K. Moreland, New York. 
B. F. Johuson, Illinois. 
T. H. Hoskins, Vermont. 
J. B. Armstrong, Califonra. 
R. J. W. Moore, Iowa. 
H on. F. D. Coburn, Kansas. 
W. C. Barry, New York. 
T. T. Lyon, Michigan. 
William Falconer, Massachusetts. 
Professor A. J. Cook, Michigan. 
Professor F. H. Storcr, Massachusetts. 
General Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky. 
General W. H. Noble, Connecticut. 
Mrs. W. C. Gifford, New York. 
Phillis Brown, New York. 
Aunt Mabby, Quebec, Canada. 
Mrs. Annie L. .Jack, Quebec, Canada. 
John M. Stahl, Illinois. 
Nelson Ritter, New York. 
Professor W. W. Tracy, Michigan. 
M. B. Prince, North Carolina. 
“Waldo,” Ohio. 
C. R. Dodge, Connecticut. 
“ Stockman,” New Jersey. 
Colonel F. D. Curtis. New York. 
C. E. Little, New Jersey. 
E, Williams, New Jersey. 
O. S. Bliss, Vermont. 
A. B. Allen, New York. 
W. H. Ravenel, South Carolina. 
C. W. Garfield, Michigan. 
This is a goodly list—now isn’t it ?—of 
eminent contributors to a single issue, to 
say nothing of Notes from the Rural 
Grounds, Bricflets, Editorials, etc., etc., or 
of the thirty engravings that illustrate the 
text. A glance at the account of our Free 
Seed Distribution will convince anybody 
that that for the present year is more val¬ 
uable than any of its predecessors even. 
Although this cannot, of course, be 
considered a specimen of the ordinary 
issues of the paper it is an earnest of our 
intention to make the Rural better in 
every way in the future than it has been 
in the past, for our motto is that of every 
•wide-awake farmer—improvement always. 
■ ♦♦4 - 
HEAD VERSUS HAND. 
will be hampered and fretted, and annoy¬ 
ances that would scarcely ruffle a peace¬ 
ful mind are enough to stir his troubled 
spirit to a foam. Things seem arrayed 
against him—not because they are so, but 
because be is over-taxing himself. 
The farmer must make a difference be¬ 
tween his own work and that of his hired 
man, or he will sooner or later fail in 
body and in business. His man lias but 
one subject to engross his attention, the 
work upon which he is engngpd ; hut. with 
the farmer there are many weighty ques¬ 
tions to be considered. There are the 
arrangement and timing of his work. 
There is the subject of implements, and 
machinery, of farm improvements, of 
rotation of crops and of varieties, all im¬ 
portant questions. Then there is the 
commercial aspect of his business, which 
he can certainly not afford to overlook. If 
he deals with these subjects wisely he does 
well without putting his own band to the 
plow. He is a poor business-man whose 
head is not worth more than his hands. 
There are doubtless farmers to whom 
moderate manual labor is a true pleasure. 
It is not work as a privilege, but work as 
a duty that we are denouncing. The 
farmer whose mind is so large and whose 
farm is so small that the care of it is no 
burden, and who takes delight in moving 
his fertile soil and liis golden grain with his 
own hands, is of all men the most enviable. 
But we all agree that such farmers are too 
few. We find many more who come to 
the shady side of life with the back bent 
with toil, and the brow furrowed with 
care. It is for this class that these words 
are meant. 
BREVITIES. 
Save the potato balls of y r our best kinds of 
potatoes. 
Save all the nibbish that can be converted 
into manure. 
Tno address of A. B. Cleveland, given in the 
Fair Number as Cape Vincent, N. J., should 
have been Cape Vincent, N. Y. 
We omitted to state that the group of Small 
Yorkshires on first page of the issue of August 
4th, were portraits taken from life of animals 
belonging to T. R. Proctor, of Utica, N. Y. 
On page 573 of our Fair Number a part of 
the edition reads “Syracuse Steel Chilled 
Plow Co., instead of Syracuse Chilled Plow 
Co. Our subscribers wifi please tuke note. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT B. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1883. 
The Blush this year is one of our latest 
potatoes. 
Moore’s Early is with us fully 10 days 
earlier than Concord. The berries are de¬ 
cidedly larger, though the hunches are 
not so* large. Try a vine. It is vigorous, 
healthy and prolific. 
•-- 
We have known the Early Ohio Potato 
to do well repeatedly on Long Island where 
the soil is a sandy loam. But at our New 
Jersey Experiment Grounds it has made a 
poor yield this year. 
-- 
Now is just the season of the year when 
we most prize short, practical farm, dairy, 
stock, orchard or garden notes—and it is 
just the season when we find it hardest 
to get them. 
Clapp’s Favorite is by far the largest 
and best Summer pear with us. It thrives 
generally in New Jersey as well as in 
Maine, Massachusetts, New Y r ork, Michi¬ 
gan and Texas. It should be tried in every 
State. 
-- 
It is a mistake to have appointed dates 
for the the Am. Pom. Convention, during 
which the largest and best of our Fairs 
are in full blast. Many who would be glad 
to attend both will choose the fair if they 
can attend but one. 
We find that the Beauty of Hebron and 
Early Rose Potatoes are badly mixed and 
often so sold. We are getting so many 
new varieties of potatoes that closely re¬ 
semble each other that in a few years there 
will not be any trustworthy connection 
between the name of the kind purchased 
and that raised. 
We beg to say that now, as previous to 
the past six weeks, personal letters may be 
directed to the Editor at River Edge, 
Bergen Co., New Jersey. It is well also 
to send all specimens of fruits and plants 
to the above address rather than to send 
them to the office where they may remain 
several days. 
The originator of the Blush Potato is 
Mr. E. S. Benham, of Attica, N. Y. He 
sent a box of this potato to the Rural Ex¬ 
periment Grounds three years ago. It 
was tested with 15 other varieties and 
yielded better than any other. For this 
reason we were induced to place it in our 
last year’s seed distribution, and thus in¬ 
troduced it to the public. As it has been 
tested in every State in the Union, its 
value will soon be made known. 
- ♦ » « - 
Touching upon our remarks regarding 
the crossing of grapes, we present a letter 
writteu, in answer to our inquiry, by Mr. 
E. S. Rogers, the originator of the well- 
known Rogers’s Hybrids: “In crossing 
the grapes all the blossom buds on the 
cluster were removed, excepting those to 
be operated upon, and when the latter 
were nearly ready to open, the petals, or 
caps, were removed before the anthers 
shed their pollen, and the stigmas were 
then touched with the foreign pollen and 
a cluster of the foreign pollen was also in¬ 
closed in the bag with which the native 
bunch was covered as soon as operated on. 
Saleh, Mass. Edw. S. Rogers.” 
-- 
Tns milling interests of Minneapolis are 
becoming enormous. A couple of the 
local papers have lately been doing some 
figuring on this subject, from which it ap¬ 
pears that the present daily production of 
flour from the mills of the city is 26,0«0 
barrels against 21,250 barrels daily one 
year ago—an increase of 5,410 barrels a 
day! The number of bushels of wheat re¬ 
quired to make the 20,660 barrels of flour 
per day is 183,800, the transportation of 
which would take 266 cars, or a solid train 
about a mile and three-quarters long! In 
addition to flour 1,400 tons of millstuff 
are turned out every day, and if the trans¬ 
portation of this he added to that of the 
flour, 828 cars and 16 locomotives would 
be required,or two miles of solid train! At 
an average price of $4 per barrel for flour 
and $8 per ton for millstuff, the total daily 
production of the mills would amount to 
$117,728 or nearly $37,000,000 in one 
year! 
RAPID SETTLEMENT. 
The public domain is being so rapidly 
“taken up” by settlers and bought up by 
speculators that little, will soon remain 
suitable for arable purposes. According to 
the statement of Commissioner McFarland, 
of the General Laud Office, the number of 
cash sales, homestead entries and timber 
culture entries in the fiscal year ending 
with June 30, 1883, was 35,217 more 
than in the previous year, and the number 
of acres entered was 3,505,843 more. The 
amount received from the cash sales in¬ 
creased from $3,313,S34 in 1882 to $7,564,- 
449 in 1883, or more than 128 per cent. 
The number of pre-emption and other fil¬ 
ings and of applications to purchase min¬ 
eral, timber, and stone lands in the same 
States and Territories in 1882, was 29,- 
080, while they ran up to 43,591 in 1888. 
On original homestead entries, the fees 
and commissions in 1882 amounted to 
$456,661, but in 1883 they reached 
$572,630. 
In the amount of land taken up by 
actual settlers and iu the amount sold for 
cash, Dakota again takes the lead. The 
number of homestead entries there in¬ 
creased from 14,156, covering 2.208,268 
acres, in 1882, to 22,490, covering 3,267,- 
227 acres in 1883. The timber culture 
entries ran up from 9,368, covering 1,460,- 
532 acres, to 11,566, coveriug 1,765,259 
acres, wliile the cash sales increased from 
673,388 acres at $977,242, to 1,518,091 
acres at $3,109,387. The history of no 
State or Territory can furnish a parallel to 
these figures. In K ansas the area of good 
public land still open to settlement is very 
small, and although the cash sales in¬ 
creased from 90,962 acres at $118,583 to 
159,144 acres at $189,329, the homestead 
entries decreased from 537,349 to 508,781 
acres, and the timber culture entries de¬ 
creased from 273,053 to 237,860 acres. In 
Minnesota the cash sales increased from 
318,465 to 739,345 acres; but here too 
there was a falling off in original home¬ 
stead entries from 588,343 to 431,872 
acres, and in timber culture entries from 
176,741 to 122,750 acres, nere and in 
Kansas the homestead settlers are rapidly 
acquiring patents for their farms after five 
years of settlement. Nebraska has still a 
large area of public land open to settle¬ 
ment and there was an increase in all 
kinds of entries. Washington Territory 
is likely to have a “boom” after the best 
Dakota lands are taken up, and then the 
large tracts of public land in some of the 
Southern States will speedily find settlers. 
In Florida the cash sales increased from 
128,872 to 221,853 acres, and the home¬ 
stead entries,from 191,033 to 212,S95acres; 
while in Louisiana the cash sales decreas¬ 
ed, but the homestead aud timber culture 
entries were more numerous. There was 
also an increase of all sorts of entries in 
Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Utah, 
Montana and the Pacific States. 
OUR FAIR NUMBER. 
The Fair Number of the Rural New- 
Yorker, which should now be in the 
hands of all our subscribers, is probably 
the most valuable and costly issue of an 
agricultural paper ever published. Its 
44 pages are a store-house of useful infor¬ 
mation on a wide range of agricultural 
topics. Wliile the one hundred and forty 
original articles and notes it contains deal 
with every topic of prime agricultural in¬ 
terest, what a fund of convenient, inter¬ 
esting and important information is to be 
found in its advertising columns. Great 
care has been taken to exclude nil adver¬ 
tisements of untrustworthy or even doubt¬ 
ful concerns, so that this department of 
the paper forms an encyclopaedia to which 
our friends can readily refer for all sorts 
of information during the year. 
The list of contributors to the number 
is a long and eminent one. Here they 
are in the order in which their contribu¬ 
tions appear in the paper : 
Richard Goodman, Massachusetts. 
Silas Betts, New Jersey. 
Henry Stewart, New Jersey. 
E. A. Powell, New York. 
Sir J. B. Lawes, England. 
Henry E. Alvord, New York. 
Professor L. B. Arnold, New York. 
J. J. Thomas, New York. 
Charles Downing, New York. 
Elias C. Hathaway, Illinois. 
We can readily understand why our 
neighbor who rises at seven in the morn¬ 
ing, and spends three or four hours of al¬ 
most every fair day in the town or vil¬ 
lage talking politics, does not prosper at 
farming. We say sometimes, perhaps 
heartlessly, that be does not deserve to 
succeed, and that we have no sympathy 
for him. But most of us will not have 
to look very far to find another neighbor 
whom we rarely see away from home, but 
who is generally found in frock and over¬ 
alls plodding at his work, and yet this 
farmer is not growing richer, hut rather 
poorer. How are we to account for this ? 
We once knew of a very skillful and in¬ 
dustrious carriage manufacturer who failed 
in his business after a long and hard strug¬ 
gle. Another succeeded him,and the tables 
were turned at once. With no other facili¬ 
ties than the first, enjoyed, the new-comer 
soon built up a thriving and profitable 
business, ne was once asked why his pre¬ 
decessor met with so signal a failure; he 
replied : “He worked too much; he 
spent his time at his bench when he ought 
to have been attending to his sales and 
purchases and overseeing his workmen.” 
Is not this answer suggestive ? May it 
not account for the fact that some of the 
most industrious farmers never rise above 
mediocrity ? Borne farmers certainly do 
over-estimate the importance of the labor 
of their own hands. 
Suppose a man has two teams and four 
men at work on his farm. It is obviously 
of greater importance that he should 
keep all advantageously employed every 7 
hour in the day than that liis own hands 
should be kept constantly busy. Few 
men are able to do good hand-work and 
good head-work at the same time. Better 
lay by the hoe or pitchfork and plan the 
work, so that every stroke shall count, and 
so that there shall be no delays or blun¬ 
ders. Every farmer should have a carefuI ly- 
laid plan for each duy’s operations before 
beginning work'in the morning. Without 
such forethought things cannot go on 
smoothly. The whiffletrees will he needed 
on the wagon when they are three fields 
away on the plow; the hay-rack will have 
to be repaired after the bay is ready to 
haul to the barn; or the team and the rnen 
will be kept waiting to grease a hot axle. 
The farmer who keeps himself wearied 
and worried with manual labor is in poor 
condition for plan-wisdom. His mind 
Spread out the potatoes in a dark, airy 
place for a week to sw eat and cure before 
putting them in barrels or bins. It is the very 
best way to protect them against rot. 
A bushel of seed wheat to the acre is ample, 
if the laud is in good heart aud well prepared. 
Otherwise sow a bushel and a-balf. If with 
this quantity of seed, you cannot raise a full 
crop, wheat will not pay you at all, aud you 
had better sow something else. 
Save the best seeds from apple pomace, or, 
better, from the best apples eaten. Dry them 
in the sun and place them in damp sand, to be 
planted this Fall or next Spring. When one 
y-ear old the strongest may be budded with 
any desired sorts. The second year they may 
be grafted. In transplanting, it is necessary 
to cut back the stem and tap-root. 
Gc> through the corn and mark with a col¬ 
ored rag the stalks which bear the most and 
best ears, the ears having the shortest shanks, 
the plants which mature earliest, which bear 
the ears lowest and which are themselves 
the shortest and freest from suckers. Then 
select your seed from these. 
Wk tried the experiment lust year of raking 
several plots SO that the soil was as fine as pos¬ 
sible aud then sowing wheat. The effects of 
th‘s extra care were not evident iu a better 
crop or larger heads. There is such a thing 
as making soil too powdery. It will crust 
over aud bake after the first hard raiu like 
cement. 
Here is the latest telegraphic news from 
the hop fields: Malone, N. Y. : Picking 
barely begun. Crop larger than early esti¬ 
mated—probably 9,000 to to,000 bales' alto¬ 
gether in Franklin County. Quality good; 
not more than one per cent, injured. 
Oneonta, N. Y.: Hop crop likely to be larger 
and of better quality than expected ten days 
ago. Crop as great probably as last year. 
Quality not even. Harvesting has generally 
commenced. Watertown, N. Y..- Hop crop 
not. as good as last year— some mold and plenty 
of lice! Watrrvu.i.e. N. Y.: Hop crop in 
Snngerfield and Marshall heavy and good. 
Picking just commenced. Lice decreasing. 
Madison, Wis.: Hops good—better than they 
have been for several years. 
Telegrams from various parts of the 
country, especially from Northern Now York 
and Pennsylvania,tell of injury to buckwheat 
and corn by early frosts. 'Complaints of 
damage to coni from the same cause also come 
from parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and 
Minnesota. Frosts have also visited Mniue. 
New Hampshire and Vermont. New Kuglana 
moreover, especially the eastern parte, are 
suffering very severely from drought which 
has now lasted five or six weeks, and has 
greatly injured crops, aud the damage will be 
very serious unless t he drought, is soon broken. 
Farmers have been compelled to take their 
cows from pasture and feed them on Winter 
hay, and consequently, in many places the 
price of milk has been raised. 
