644 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 26 
THE 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
A fldress 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER," 
No. 34 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1883. 
If we examine the first catalogue at 
hand, we find new varieties of corn of¬ 
fered at 25 cents per packet; new peas and 
wheats at 25 cents per packet: new rye, 
oats and tomatoes at 25 cents; new flowers 
at 25 cents each packet. Taking less than 
these retail prices as our guide for new 
varieties of grain, vegetables or flowers, 
the Rural’s next Seed Distribution could 
easily be figured as of more value than the 
yearly subscription price of the paper. 
Thus: 
The Rural Union Cora. $.20 
Cleveland’s Rural New-Yorker Pea.20 
The Diehl-Mediterranean Wheat.10 
The Thousand-fold Rye.....10 
Horsford’s Market Garden Pea.20 
Black Champion Oats.20 
Tomatoes, at least 10 different new varie¬ 
ties at 10 cts. each.1.00 
The Rural Garden Treasures, at least 100 
different varieties at one cent each kind .1.00 
Total.$3.00 
Is this a fair estimate, or are these 
figures, as are many others, given merely 
to mislead? We are preparing for 18,000 
applications, that is to say, 162,000 en¬ 
velopes, counting the addressed envelope, 
and it would he very unwise, in the face 
of so many prospective tests, for the 
Rural greatly to exaggerate the value of 
the seeds in view of the fact that we 
should merely lessen the confidence of our 
readers in our future statements. We can¬ 
not say that our Free Seed and Plant Dis¬ 
tributions have beeu instrumental in add¬ 
ing very largely to our circulation, but we 
can say that it has pleased us to have in¬ 
troduced several of the most valuable 
varieties of farm and garden novelties now 
in cultivation. 
- 
Twenty thousand people at the N. Y. 
State Fair on Wednesday and 10,000 
in the rain on Thursday! No horse trot¬ 
ting, side-shows or anything of the kind. 
How shall we educate our child¬ 
ren agriculturally? is a question which 
we ask our readers to think upon -to 
study carefully. Why we urge it upon 
their attention will appear in a week or so. 
-» • » ♦- 
Mr. W. L. Devereaux writes us: “I 
like that paragraph in the Rural of Sept. 
8 “ ‘True, he who takes delight in moving 
his fertile soil and his golden grain with 
his own hands is of all men the most en¬ 
viable; but few men are able to do good 
hand-work and good head-work at the 
same time.’ ” 
“ Sufficient unto the day are the 
weevils thereof,” as Mr. Olcott puts it. 
In saving our seed peas this year, a sound 
seed was the exception. Nineteen-twen¬ 
tieths of them were weevil-eaten. How 
would it do to spray the vines daily with 
a kerosene emulsion during the period in 
which the insect deposits her eggs? The 
spray bellows now sold by seedsmen, at 
the cost of a dollar each, would do rapid 
work. 
We call attention to Mr. Clendon’s re¬ 
marks on “Phosphate versus Superphos¬ 
phate” elsewhere in this issue. Is it a 
fact that many are paying for soluble 
phosphoric acid in superphosphates twice 
as much as they would have to pay for in¬ 
soluble phosphoric acid in South Carolina 
mineral phosphate without getting any 
better results from the former than could 
be got from the latter? 
During the past season we made a 
cross between wheat and rye. The an¬ 
thers of the wheat were extracted as soon 
as the head was out of the boot. Before, 
while and after we supposed the stigmas 
were receptive, pollen from rye was ap¬ 
plied. The head was bound with worsted 
after each operation, remaining so until 
the binding was removed for the next 
operation. Ten kernels were the result of 
the cross. 
How about Asparagus flowers? Is there 
a pure pistillate or is the supposed pure 
pistillate really hermaphrodite, leaving no 
occupation for the staminates? Those who 
so energetically opposed the Rural’s 
statements may he supposed to have ob¬ 
served the flowers during the past season 
and ascertained if the supposed pistillates 
would become pregnant without the aid 
of pollen other than their own. 
A friend writes us as follows: “In Ill¬ 
inois they tax dogs $1 each. I know 
of an Illinoisan whose tax—land, personal, 
poll and dog—this year was $6.13. Five 
dollars were dog tax ! His family was in 
actual want and his cattle almost starved. 
There are a good many more like him. A 
dog eats as much as a man. I know of 
men who keep from one to four fat dogs 
and grumble every time their wives need 
a calico dress, or one of their children, a 
school book. Dogs are good to breed lice 
and fleas upon, to lie behind the stove in 
Winter, to carry filthy diseases, and to 
kill sheep. Sometimes they bite a child.” 
- 
Something may be said in palliation of 
the sin of horse racing at the fairs, for 
there are yet in this day of human cussed¬ 
ness, many good, honest souls that will 
drive 40 miles through the dust or mud to 
see a horse trot a mile in 2:30, but would 
not cross the road to see a Jumbo pump¬ 
kin ; and a crowd must be drawn; but there 
is no excuse whatever for the admission to 
the grounds of gambling devices. Gloss 
it over as you please, the fair manag¬ 
ers who admit such institutions to corrupt 
the young and offend the decent are ripe 
for crimes fliat send a thrill of pleasure 
through the infernal regions. 
Wf, would call the attention of our 
readers to the very interesting discussion 
now going on in the Youths’ Department 
relative to the apple. Upon the Youths’ 
page of the present number as well as that 
of last week can he found a fund of in¬ 
formation. even though it he the work of 
youug people. We feel sure that the elder 
members of the Rural family cannot fail 
to be benefited by reading the contents of 
the childrens’ page. We feel that we can 
say in truth that no other journal presents 
to its youngreaders more practical, healthy 
and at the same time more interesting 
reading. It will pay you to read this 
page. Don’t merely glance over it, but read 
it carefully over; it will do you good. Get 
your children to join the Youths' Club 
and aid us in getting the young folks in¬ 
terested in the work of the farm. 
It is commonly said that in the city, 
lads and lasses marry for money, but in 
the country they mate for love. We sup¬ 
pose this is the reason why the young man 
thinks nothing of hiring a couple of hands 
at $25 per month to help him on the farm, 
but would suffer a severe nervous shock if 
his wife asked for the help of a girl at a 
third of those wages. Yet the young 
farmer is not so very bad. lie is' only 
blind. He does not see it in its true light*. 
It is a matter of education. His mother 
and his grandmother had as hard a lot. 
Woman should pray heaven to starch her 
spinal column and increase the tempera¬ 
ture of her temper, that she may obtain 
justice by the use of her tongue and the 
rolling pin. 
It has been stated more than once that 
the Rural New-Yorker was wrong in 
making the statement that Black-bearded 
Centennial and Golden Grains Wheat were 
the same. We think not. The intro¬ 
ducers of the so-called Golden Grains sent 
out the Black-bearded Centennial as 
Golden Grains. Perhaps their original 
stock of the latter fell short and their 
orders were filled with the former. Per¬ 
haps the wheats were mixed and the mis¬ 
take was unintentional. It docH not mat¬ 
ter; the introducers sent out both kinds 
under the name of the Golden Grains. We 
received, sowed and harvested Black- 
bearded Centennial from seeds of so-called 
Golden Grains, and so the Rural stated 
they were the same. Such mistakes occur 
sometimes in spite of the most careful pre¬ 
cautions on the part of seedsmen. The 
Black-bearded Centennial sent out in the 
Rural’s last Free Seed Distribution was 
received from Prof. A. E. Blount, of the 
Colorado State Agricultural Society, and 
we find, through the many reports coming 
to hand, that it was badly mixed with 
other varieties. Again, we fell short of 
the Fultzo-Clawson in our seed distribu¬ 
tion of 1882. We begged Mr. Wysor to 
spare us a few more bushels. He kindly 
sent us an order on his commission mer¬ 
chants to whom, without mentioning the 
name, he had sent a few bushels. The 
commission merchants at once shipped us 
a few bushels of wheat, but it proves to 
have been a bearded variety and, of course, 
not the Fultzo-Clawson. 
THE GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION. 
Next to the Indian Territory contain¬ 
ing an area of about 69,000 square miles, 
the largest continuous body of land occu¬ 
pied by Indians in the United States is 
the Sioux Reservation covering 49,576 
square miles, or 31,728,640 acres, a part of 
which has been surveyed. In this extensive 
territory there are five agencies, namely, 
the Cheyenne River, Crow Creek and 
Lower Brule, Pine Ridge (Red Cloud), 
Rose Bud (Spotted Tail] and Standing 
Rock. According to the Report of the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1882, 
the number of Indians on the reservation 
was 25,96S. Thus for every person, male 
and femnle, young and old, there are 
1,222 acres. According to the same 
authority, the number of male Indians 
who undertook manual labor in civilized 
pursuits was 3,982. Most of these did 
very light work and little of it; but if all 
of them were engaged in agriculture they 
could have 7,969 acres apiece. About 80 
per cent, of their entire support, however, 
comes from the Government rations. The 
reservation is entirely in Dakota, stretch¬ 
ing from the Nebraska line northward 
nearly as far as Bismarck. It is watered 
along its entire length on the east by the 
Missouri, except where the river separates 
the Crow Creek Agency from the rest of 
the reservation. Numerous tributaries of 
tlic“Big Muddy, "such ns the White, Teton, 
Cheyenne, Moreau and Grand Rivers, 
traverse the country from west to east, 
while a large number of smaller rivers and 
creeks water it well in all directions. The 
greater part of it is excellent arable land 
and the rest, good pasture. The question 
6f opening the reservation to settlement, 
or at least of contracting its boundaries 
under the pre-emption and homestead 
laws, has been agitated before Congress 
and in the Western press for two years or 
more, and a Commission was some time 
ago appointed to treat with the In¬ 
dians on the subject; but inasmuch as 
any question affecting any one of the 
agencies must be decided by three-fifths 
of the whole, progress has been slow. The 
last Congress appointed a Senate Com¬ 
mittee to visit the reservation and investi¬ 
gate matters, and this has just completed 
its researches there. As the matter stands 
at present, 13,000,000 acres have been 
ceded by the Indians for considerations 
which would amount to about three-quar¬ 
ters of a cent per acre, and Congress will 
doubtless act on the question nt its next 
session, so that a large area of this fine 
territory, nearly equal to the Black Hills 
for grazing and arable purposes, -will soon 
be thrown open to settlement. 
CORN CLASSIFICATION. 
Bulletin LX of the New York Experi¬ 
ment Station shows that much thought 
and careful investigation have been given 
to the subject treated. It divides corn 
(Zea mays) into six races, viz., Pops, 
Flints. Dents, Sweets, Tuscarora, or Softs, 
and the curious variety known as the 
Husk or Podded Corn. These differ from 
each other, the bulletin says, more or less, 
in the structure of the kernel, and in the 
habit of ripening and growth. The flint 
corn kernel, when split open, is found to 
show three structures, the chit, or germ, 
lying in a starchy substance, which is sur¬ 
rounded by a corneous envelope. This 
corn ripens from outward inward. The 
dent corn has the chit, the starch and 
the corneous envelope, but the corneous 
portion occupies the sides, while at the 
terminal portion the starch comes to the 
surface. This kind of corn ripens from 
within outward. The Tuscarora or soft 
corn is composed of the chit, and a starchy 
portion, the corneous portion being absent. 
This ripens from the outside inward. 
The sweet corn shows the chit and the 
corneous portion without visible starch. 
To these four types we can at. present re¬ 
fer all the kinds that we know of, and 
these types preserve a constancy which is 
truly remarkable. In examining over 300 
kernels of different kinds of corn, the Di¬ 
rector has found, thus far, no exception, 
and hence it seems eminently proper and 
desirable to him that these types should 
receive a name in the guise of botanical 
nomenclature, in order that observations 
may be referred to the type selected, and 
thus confusion, as between experimenters, 
avoided. He would propose the use of a 
symbol between the generic and specific 
name, which symbol shall indicate agri¬ 
cultural botany, and will show that the 
naming doesnot attempt to decide whether 
a true botanical species or not. Thus, for 
the flint corns, he would suggest Zea* in- 
durata; for the dent corns Zea * indeutata; 
for the sugar corns Zea * saccharata; for 
the soft or Tuscarora corns Zea * awylaera ; 
for the pop corn, Zea * everta, and for the 
podded, Zea * ragivata. 
We really do not see any advantage that 
can follow the adoption of the Latin gen¬ 
eric and specific names in this case, or in 
any as applicable to agriculture. Agri¬ 
cultural botanical nomenclature is absurd. 
It would neither help the farmer nor the 
botanist. The names Pops, Flints, Dents, 
etc,, express all that is expressed by Z. 
everta, indurata or mdentata, etc. If 
they are. to he recognized as species, it. is 
for botanists to accept the Latin names. 
The Director says that, the results of 
the Station experiments up to date clearly 
show that the different races of corn may 
have different habits and react differently 
to the factors of culture, and that there 
seems, from imperfect data, a possibility 
that the crossing of these types is unfavor¬ 
able to crop, while the crossing within 
these types may be favorable to crop. By 
this is meant, we presume, that it is bet¬ 
ter to crosss one variety of Flint with 
another Flint; one variety of Dent with 
another, than to cross a flint with a dent, 
etc. Well, this problem may be studied 
out just as well wifhout the Latin names. 
BREVITIES. 
Extremes meet. Heat and frost both 
scorch. 
Attention is called to Mr. Caywood’s rem¬ 
edy for the Rose-bug. 
Spring bulbs. They will delight vou in the 
Spring. Plant them any time before the ground 
freezes. 
We learn that the Hansell has stood the 
drought in Connecticut better than other 
rasplierries. 
We would ask our flower-loving friends to 
sow seeds of the improved Digitalis or Fox¬ 
glove. They are biennials. 
Our New Jersey State Fair Report, will lie 
published in our next issue, as it was unavoid¬ 
ably crowded out of this number. 
Gather the green tomatoes before severe 
frosts, and spread them out. to ripeu in the cel¬ 
lar. A sunny room is a good place. 
John M. Stahl, the Editor of tlx* Farmer’s 
Call, says that, the Fair Number of theR. N-Y 
oaf is anything of the kind he has ever seen. 
We notice in the premium lists of the fairs 
that, the premiums for articles of man’s pro¬ 
duction are fully five times those for articles of 
woman’s production. Why is this ? 
Hundreds of water and muskmelons are 
rotting in the fields. Did you know that, 
poultry are very fond of them? It. is not 
much trouble to store them in a pile aud 
break a few in pieces daily for their use. 
Pome months from now the farmer will turn 
hunter. He will hunt for seed com. He’hasu’t 
time to select it now;. It would take half a 
day to do so. He'will spend half a week in 
getting it next Spring. 
How little do we observe beautiful things 
that, grow precisely under our noses, sotosnv. 
Tulip trees are common enough in our woods 
and hedges. Rut there are among the oldest, 
inhabitants those who have never seen the 
tree’s profctvtulip-like (lowers. At this date, 
8ept„ 17, after two frosts, one of which black¬ 
ened the leaves of melon vines, okra plants 
are still blooming profusely. The flowers, of 
the Hollyhock kind, are of a straw color, and 
each petal at the base has a blotch of maroon, 
while the stigmas of the pistil are of the same 
color. 
Kick him outside the pale of civilization. 
Hoist, him over the moon beyond the stars. 
Fire him through the Coal Sack into illimitable 
space. You know him—only too sadly and 
too well. He wears u Prince Albert, eoat, a 
black tie and a saintly air, and has the general 
appearance of a parson. He has a cheek ns 
hard as adamant, nnrl a tongue as oily as the 
interior of the Plymouth Rock rooster. He 
carries a black backed book that looks like a 
Bible but which contains gorgeous chronios of 
fruits as big as their names. He is pretty 
numerous just about now and takes in the un¬ 
wary. His fruit is a fraud and he is a bigger 
one. 
Upon the stone reared in memory of Sir 
Robert, Peel is written. “He gave the poor 
cheap bread.’’ If the truth were as plainly 
told of many who now occupy high positions 
it would be, “He gave the poor dear bread.” 
Some farmers entertain the mistaken notion 
tlmt corners are to their advantage, forgetting 
that, labor has common interests everywhere 
and that, when the poor in the cities cry" for 
bread there will be hard times upon 'the 
farm. The wolf is gentle and merciful com¬ 
pared with those who get up corners. The 
hyena devours the substance of the dead; hut 
they, of the living also. Yet the sovereign 
people ure very good and laudato them. 
