*42 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 4§ 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBKRT 3. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1883. 
From the fact that we have already re¬ 
ceived a considerable number of applica¬ 
tions for seeds, we conclude that our 
friends must have overlooked the state¬ 
ment in t-lie Fair Number, in which we 
said that no persons need apply for 
seeds before December 1. 
-A*-*- 
Wr would suggest to our friends and 
agents that they remit for the Rural by 
the new Postal Notes, which went into 
use. on Sept. 3d. Any sum less than 
$5 can be sent for a three-cent stamp by 
means of this note. By sending small 
amounts by this method, money can be 
safely sent, and at cheaper rates than here¬ 
tofore. 
The current issue of the Rural Home 
gives n portrait of the late H. B. Ell- 
wanger, with a short biographical sketch 
—a feelinu tribute to the conspicuous 
worth of the dead—by Mr. W. C. Barry. 
Under date of August 11 we announced 
with deep regret the death of this accom¬ 
plished young man whose marked abili¬ 
ties, great attainments and noble charac¬ 
ter gave high promise of a useful, honor¬ 
able and distinguished career. 
One of our fields of Silver Chaff Wheat, 
containing 3.845 acres, yields 121 bushels 
of grain. Potatoes and corn were raised 
upon it last year. A neighbor’s field, 
sown with the same seed and manured 
morp liberally, will yield, we should 
judge, over 35 bushels to the acre. On 
the Rural CL. I.) Farm Silver” Chaff will 
always outyield Clawson, w'hile the grain 
makes a far hotter flour. The heads aver¬ 
age no longer and the kernel is smaller, 
but Silver Chaff gives three kernels to the 
breast while Clawson gives but two. 
At this time last year “mixed hogs” 
were worth $7.60 to $8.49; in the Chi¬ 
cago market; heavy, $8.45 to'$9; light, 
$7.65 to $8.50; skips, $5 to $7.25. Now 
mixed are worth $4.35 r to $4.60; heavy, 
$4.75 to $5.10; light, $4.80 to $5.40; 
skips, $3.40 to $4.50. A sad falling off 
is here, oh hog-raisers! To what, is it due? 
To the relation of supply and demand of 
course. In August the net supply of hogs 
in the Chicago market was 73,963 larger 
than in the same month last year, and for 
the three months since .Tune 3, the gain 
over last year was 199,801, and the country 
is still full of hogs, owing to the impetus 
given to the raising of swine by the un¬ 
usually high prices of last year and the 
year before, and the almost, entire ex¬ 
emption of swine from hog cholera and 
other widespread and disastrous diseases 
during the last twelvemonth. 
Foot-and-mouth disease is snreading 
rapidly in England, Scotland and Ireland, 
and as the disease is an imported one, 
generally coming originally from Russia, 
a fresh outcry against importations of 
foreign cattle is likely to Tie raispd by the 
cattle owners of the United Kingdom. 
Fears a re'al ready'ex pressed that the pres¬ 
ent outbreak will prove as disastrous as 
any of its predecessors, by some of which 
stock-owners have lost millions and mil¬ 
lions of dollars. Apart from the dislike 
of damaging foreign competition, there 
certainly is a good deal of excuse for the 
British farmer’s protest against the impor¬ 
tation of foreign diseases of live-stock in 
view of the enormous losses incurred with¬ 
in such narrow limits, for it must be re¬ 
membered that the total area of England 
and Wales is only 58,329 square miles 
while that of Georgia alone iR 58,000 
square miles. 
On an acre plot of worn-out land we 
have raiRed a crop of very poor corn. 
Seven hundred pounds of chemical corn 
fertilizer were used upon this plot and the 
cultivation has beeu perfect. The soil is 
now as mellow as it can be and there is 
scarcely a weed to be seen. Is the poor 
crop owing to insufficient food, to the 
drought or to the variety of corn raised? 
Upon a hill less than a mile distant we 
have another acre of almost, the finest 
corn we have ever raised. The land is a 
strong, clav-loam. It was manured with 
20 tons of farm manure. Tsthis fine crop, 
in spite of the drought, due to the better 
soil and farm manure? If so, 700 pounds 
of corn chemical fertilizer will not pro¬ 
duce a good crop of corn on poor land. 
How much will? We hate to see the wild 
stories that arc printed regarding the 
wonderful effects of chemical fertilizers. 
It is a pitv that some of our agricultural 
journals do not think more of the farm¬ 
ers’ true interests and a little less of those 
of their advertising patrons. 
— ♦ ♦ » 
The following grape notes, taken Aug. 
22, may interest some of our readers: Ni¬ 
agara, not ripening; Moore’s Early, ripe 
and ripening; Ladv(white) ripe and ripen¬ 
ing; Herbert and Bindley ripening: Cottage 
ripening—not so far advanced as Moore’s 
Early; Victoria (white) as far advanced 
as Concord. The vine is crowded with 
grapes and the hunches average large 
though this is the third season in suc¬ 
cession it has borne a heavy crop. Carlotta 
(white) beginning to ripen ; Rockingham 
as far advanced as Concord; Pocklington 
(white) not beginning to ripen; Delaware 
beginning to ripen; El Dorado rotting 
badly, asusual; Jefferson not beginning to 
ripen; Vergennes beginning to ripen; 
Augusta (white) not beginning to ripen; 
Lexington as far advanced as Concord; 
Lady Washington—some of the berries 
are softening, some bunches rotting badly, 
others not. Concord beginning to ripen; 
Florence ripe. We hear that all kinds of 
grapes, not excepting the Niagara, are rot¬ 
ting in other parts of New Jersey. 
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 
The question is asked, answered and 
discussed in the agricultural papers 
whether “chemical fertilizers nay;” 
whether they are of any use, etc?” When 
in this country and in Europe good crops 
have been raised from five to forty years 
without, any other fertilizers, the ques¬ 
tions seem odd enough. No farmer should 
condemn commercial fertilizers because 
superphosphate of lime alone has been 
used without any visible effects. If the 
land needs all kinds of plant food, crops 
will receive hut little benefit from one 
kind alone. It may happen, moreover, 
that the particular special fertilizer ap¬ 
plied is just, that which the land does not 
need. Farmers are apt to look upon 
“phosphates” ns complete chemical fer¬ 
tilizers and to conclude that nTl concen¬ 
trated fertilizers are worthless because 
from a single trial the “phosphates” 
failed. This is one-sided reasoning. 
There are fields upon which wood ashes 
will produce no visible effects; others 
upon which phosphoric acid or nitrogen 
may lie wasted. Rut if all three are ap¬ 
plied and the land needs food, the growth 
of the crops will as surely he promoted 
as by the use of farm manure, for the 
reason that they supply preeiselv the same 
food ingredients. Tf we could have all 
the farm manure needed, there would be 
no sale for chemical fertilizers at their 
present prices. But when we cannot pro¬ 
cure farm manures at a reasonable price 
we must resort to the next best thing— 
complete chemical fertilizers, unless we 
ascertain by experiment that our land 
needs one or the other constituents of 
which they are made. Then perhaps, 
bone, potash, or nitrogen may produce the 
same effects as all combined. 
PROMISES OF THE CORN CROP. 
Althouoh owing to the lateness of the 
season in all parts of the country, and the 
late date at which com was planted in 
many places, it is yet too early to deter¬ 
mine with anything like accuracy the out¬ 
come of the present corn ciop, yet the 
questions of its present condition and its 
probable aggregate yield are important ns 
a guide to the prices that may be obtained 
for the product, which will soon lie in the 
market from the Southe: n States. The Cin¬ 
cinnati Price Current, from unusunlly ex¬ 
tensive investigations on this subject, ar¬ 
rives at the conclusion that, as compared 
with last year’s crop, there will he an in¬ 
crease of 75,000,000 bushels in the West¬ 
ern States and a decrease of 75,009.000 
bushels in the rest of the country, chiefly 
in the Southern States. Now the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture figured out the corn 
crop of 1882 at. 1.617.000,000 bushels, while 
last year the Price Current was generally 
blamed for putting the crop as high as 
1,800.000,000 bushels, and thus, it was 
roundly, alleged, causing unduly low 
prices—in other words, playing into 
the hands of the “bears” in the market. 
Nobody whose opinion is worth anything 
attributed this high estimate to any un¬ 
worthy motive, however, and though it is 
generally thought to have been excessive, 
the Price Current is still disposed to argue 
that it was reasonable. If last year’s crop 
*s reckoned at 1,617,000 bushels, the pres¬ 
ent year’s crop will he the same; while in 
last year’s crop was 1,800,000,000 bushels 
the present promise is good for a crop of 
equal proportions, provided always there 
is a continuance of favorable weather to 
the maturity of the hulk of the growing 
crop which, in the corn belt, and north¬ 
ward, is late and will need favorable con¬ 
ditions for several weeks to come 
According to the Reports of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, last year the 
corn area was 65,569,000 acres; the aver¬ 
age yield 24.6 bushels per acre, and the 
aggregate yield 1,617,000,000 bushels; 
the year before, the area was 64,262,025 
acres, the average yield 18.6 bushels per 
acre, and the total yield 1,194,916,00ft 
bushels; while in 1880, the area was 62, 
317,822 acres, the average, yield 27.6 
bushels per acre, and the total yield 1,717.- 
434.548 hush, the largest crop ever raised. 
In 1879 the area was 53.085,450 acres; the 
average yield, 29.2 bushels per acre, and 
the aggregate yield 1,547,901,790bushels; 
hut the Census returns for that year put the 
total crop at 1.754,861,535, which would 
increase the average yield per aero. The. 
average price per bushel was 37.5 cts. in 
1879; 39.6 cts.in 1880,and 63.6cts.in 1881, 
During next week the estimates of the 
Department of Agriculture for August 
will he tabulated, and we shall have 
considerably more to say on this subject 
in our next issue. 
POTATO TESTS AT THE RURAL 
GROUNDS. 
When last year we reported that sever¬ 
al of the potatoes we had tested yielded 
at the rate of over 700 bushels per acre, 
several of our readers wrote us that thev 
doubted it. One said that he had raised 
potatoes all his life and that he considered 
himself a good farmer; yet he had never 
harvested 400 bushels from an acre. Were 
we to judge alone by our farm experience 
at the Rural Farm on Long Island, we 
should be ready to shar<* the doubts of Ibis 
writer. There we have never raised a 
large crop of potatoes, though we have 
tested over 100 different kinds and raised 
them under different methods of cultiva¬ 
tion and with different manures. Last 
year we were both surprised and pleased 
at the quantity of potatoes raised upon 
our New Jersey experiment plots, so that 
this year we again determined to procure 
many different kinds and test them in every 
way that, xve could think of. This has 
been done and the results are that, though 
many tests proved utter or partial failures 
as was expected, we have to report that in 
many cases ivo have harvested at the rate 
of over 700 bushels to the acre; in quite a 
number over 800 bushels; in six nr eight 
cases over 900, in three, over 1,000 and in 
one ease over 1,100 bushels. 
We are wondering if our friends will 
credit such reports when thev are made, 
if several of them doubted the yield of 
700 bushels per acre, made last year. Prob- 
ablv not. 
There is nothing, however, in our work 
that is more unsatisfactory than to have 
our readers doubt'the reports which come 
from the Rural Grounds. We have no 
motive to exaggerate them. Our one de¬ 
sire is to report things as we find them for 
the guidance of our readers, and this we 
do very often when the interests of per¬ 
sonal friends or of liberal advertisers are 
injured thereby. We could mention scores 
of such instances, nf which, howevpr, the 
older renders of this Journal must already 
he aware. Wehave no interest in the sale 
of any plant, farm implement or any other 
article whatever except the Rural New- 
Yorker. We have never sold a seed, 
plant, implement or any other article to a 
subscriber since wp have conducted this 
paper, and it is therefore reasonable to 
suppose that our Experiment Grounds, 
maintained at a considerable expense, 
should exist for some better object than 
that of deeeiving'niral’peoplc by undue 
praise or censure. 
To say that we have during the present 
season in one case raised at the rate oi 
1,100 bushels of potatoes to the acre is a 
statement that we could not have credited 
two years ago, and wc must therefore he 
charitable to those who doubt it now. 
Such is the fact, however, and the pota¬ 
toes and the staked-out drill in which 
they were raised may lie examined by any 
who choose to do so. 
Our method of computing yields is a 
simple and, as will be seen, an entirely ac¬ 
curate one. The only way in which it 
differs from field yields is that every hill is 
counted. There is no allowance made for 
vacant hills,which alwaysoccur upon large 
areas. That is to say, if we plant 20 
pieces and but 10 grow, we estimate the 
yield by]10 hills—not by 20. As a rule, 
however, every piece planted grows, so 
that generally there are no such allowances 
to he made. Upon 10 acres of the name land, 
manured, planted and cultivated in the 
same way and to the same variety of pota¬ 
to, we should look for essentially the same 
yield. 
Our method of computing the yield is 
as follows: The pieces (usually one strong 
or two weaker eyes) are placed by measure 
just one foot apart in drills three feet 
apart. The width of the drills is always 
measured and a cord, with knots in which 
short strings arc tied one foot apart, is 
stretched over each drill. The seed pieces 
are placed under these marks. With pieces 
placed one foot apart in drills three feet 
apart, we should have 14,520 pieces to 
the acre. Now if we plant 20 pieces, and 
the yield is 50 pounds, the Rule of Three 
will give the yield per acre in pounds. 
This must he divided by 6ft. the legal 
number of pounds for a bushel of potatoes, 
and the answer gives the yield per acre, 
viz., 605 bushels. The yield is weighed 
upon nicely balanced scales placed near 
the plots and each kind is weighed as soon 
as harvested and the weight, even to the 
quarter of an ounce, and the number of 
potatoes (large and small) are recorded at 
once. 
Besides merely testing the productive¬ 
ness, quality, etc., of most of the new 
kinds offered as well as of a number vet 
to be offered for sale, we have made many 
experiments with different manures, con¬ 
centrated fertilizers, separate, combined, 
and in various quantities; with manures ap¬ 
plied above and below the pieres; with 
straw and manure mulches; with whole 
potatoes with all the eyes hut one cut out; 
with small pieces, single, double, treble 
and quadruple eyes; with small, medi¬ 
um and large quantities of salt ; we have 
planted the pieces in wide trenches, in 
trenches flic width of a spade and in nar¬ 
row drills. The cultivation has always 
boon perfectly flat. 
We shall begin the publication of the 
results of these tests, with careful por¬ 
traits of the new kinds, in a few weeks, 
hoping to finish them in time to enable 
our readers to avail themselves of any in¬ 
formation they may contain which may 
he deemed worthy of being acted upon. 
BREVITIES. 
Potatoes are rotting badly in many parts of 
New Jersey. So are grapes. 
Professor W. .T. Beal of the Michigan 
Ag. College c avs: “Your pet, the Rural 
New-5 orker, is a credit to American agri¬ 
culture.’’ 
Professor ,T. \\ . Sanrorn of the Missouri 
State Ag. College says: “Yon have well Oiled 
your promise regarding the Fair Number. 
It is capital.” 
Wall's Orange is this voar at, the Rural 
Grounds small and the yield is not so large as 
that of most other kinds. 
A Fair correction.— The Wisconsin. 
Madison State Fair which was datrd 
Sept 3-8, in onr issue of Aug. 18, should have 
been from Kept., 10-14. 
Those intending to send us Wj n f 01 . wheat for 
trial will kindly send their specimens at once. 
Wo cannot, test Spring wheats. 
Tt is sa id that the white grub or larva of t he 
May Beetle is the most destructive enemy to 
the strawberry plant. We flml it to be the so- 
called wire-worm—the thin, brown myria¬ 
pod belonging to the genus lulus, and gener¬ 
ally known as the False Wire-worm. It is 
also the cause in our grounds of the scab in 
potatoes. 
In view of the great, losses every year in¬ 
curred hy farmers owing to the use of poorer 
l.ad seed corn. we cannot urge upon them too 
strongly the advisability of exercising great- 
care in the selection of seed coni. Whatever 
outlay of time or money rnav tie mnde to do 
this well, will he amply repaid next yenr by 
surer and better crops. An Iowa rorrespon- 
dent. gives elsewhere a method of insuring 
Stood seed, which can be followed everywhere 
with some slight, allowance for the necessity 
he is under to pick his corn early In order to 
avoid any possible danger from frost. 
Tt has always been n matter of surprise to 
us that, any respectable journal would credit 
ft copier] article to K,v. or K.mchayuir. Tt is a 
i cry mean, dishonest, business. The original 
articles published in a journal are its property 
no matter whether thev an* contributed to it 
voluntarily by the writers or paid for. and 
any other journal copying such articles is 
morally hound to mention the name of the 
paper from which it is taken. All editors of 
any experience understand this perfectly. We 
hope that otir readers when thev see articles 
credited to F.r. or Krrhan„r. will take for 
granted that t he editor is not. to lie trusted. 
The Industrialist, of the Kansas Ag Col- 
by Prof. Edward M. Shelton savs: 
•I he Annual Fair number of the Rural 
New-Yorker for 1883 has Inst, been received. 
This is. we believe, one of the largest, hand¬ 
somest. and most generally useful numbers 
ever ifi.tnril by the American agricultural 
press. The number before us contains some 
forty pages with many beautiful illustrations 
of objects connected with almost every de¬ 
partment of rural industry. Wo have - heen 
a careful reader of the Rural New-Yorker 
for many years, and willh* there may be bet¬ 
ter agricultural papers in existence,’wo really 
do not know where to find them ” 
