660 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT 6 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 6. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER,*' 
No. 84 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1883. 
And tiow abideth the big pumpkin, the 
fat hog, the 2:25 trotter, these three. But 
the greatest of these is the trotter—ah, 
yes, by all oclds 1 
The originator of the Rural Union 
Corn writes us that on the 21st of August 
he gathered one bushel of seed ears, 
sound and dry, from corn planted May 21. 
Yes, it is very harrowing indeed to or¬ 
der, pay for, plant and care for certain 
fruit trees, and then ascertain five or ten 
years afterwards that they are not the 
kinds ordered or desired. Youhadbetter 
order of trustworthy firms. 
-- 
Lotteries and other kindred humbugs 
flourish. They offer one dollar for ten 
cents. Tie who tries to get something for 
less than its value, to deprive the owner 
of his property without giving a just 
equivalent therefor, is either a fool or a 
knave. 
Our account of the discussion at the 
American Bornological Society Convention 
is absolutely accurate, as we employed a 
stenographic reporter. Our next number 
will cover the remainder of the discussion 
—apples, grapes and peaches. We shall 
then present Professor Riley’s address, 
which we believe was not copied steno- 
graphically by any other paper. 
We hear a great deni of talk about the 
necessity of ventilating cisterns and fil¬ 
tering tlie water. We have had a tight 
cement cistern which for 11 years has held 
more water than has ever been used, and 
the water has always been pure—at least 
clear and odorless. The only ventilation 
it gets is from the tin pipe running into 
it from the roof. 
Is there no help for some farmers’wives? 
The farmer has sulky plows, riding drags 
and rollers and cultivators, mowers and 
self-binders, horse hay forks and hay load¬ 
ers; hut his wife scrubs and cooks and 
soothes the baby without machinery. 
Woman must turn inventor. Man is too 
selfish, too blind to his own interests, to 
invent for her. The only agency in hea¬ 
ven or on earth that helps woman is God, 
and He helps her only when she helps her¬ 
self. Angels weep over her, but they can’t 
do the scrubbing or soothe the baby’s 
colic. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
We bar our windows and lock our doors 
for we lear thieves. There is a legalized 
robbery that we do not lock and bar out 
in the cold and which we should fear 
more. Monopolists are as heartless as de¬ 
mons. They oppress the poor and control 
those in high places. They corrupt legis¬ 
lation which is the fountain of justice, 
and pervert the utterances of the oracles 
of the law. They are all-powerful, for 
men sleep. There is a point in the oppres¬ 
sions of men when they will no longer en¬ 
dure. Some day monopolies will be put 
under. 
We are wondering if Malaria is not the 
cause of yellows in peaches! It makes 
human patients yellow and gives them the 
“Blues’’ Desides. Anyhow, the Rural 
wants to have a theory of its own as to the 
cause of this disease. We say it is mal¬ 
aria. If xt isn’t, why isn’t it? Don’t you 
know that peach trees never hnve the yel¬ 
lows where there are no fogs? Don’t you 
know that they never have it where they 
grow on mountains five miles high? Don’t 
you know they never have it where there 
are no mosquitocB? Don’t you see that 
malaria is really the cause of yellows, and 
isn’t, it strange that it has never occurred 
to anybody before? 
-- 
You told the agent at the fair that you 
could not afford to take that agricultural 
paper for three months on trial, didn’t 
you? And then you bought a cigar and 
went into the side-show to see the little 
man, the fat woman, the big toad, and 
the six-legged pig-, didn’t you? And the 
weeds shade your corn, don’t they? And 
your plows stand in the fence corners, 
your reaper in one corner of the orchard, 
and the wagon in the middle of the barn 
yard, don’t they? Your harnesses are crack¬ 
ing for want of oil, your spades and hoes 
rusting, your cattle without shelter, aren’t 
they? 
- - ■» ♦ »- 
We are no friend of abuse. We do not 
believe in saying aught ill of any man. 
Much less would we berate the farmer, for 
then we must include ourselves. But we 
think he has been told long enough that 
he is a poor, weak, much abused and to 
be pitied creature. He should dry his 
eyes. He is a man. If rings, corners, 
monopolies and legislation oppress him, he 
has no one to blame but his own weak- 
kueed self. lie has the numbers, wealth, 
and ability to make Rome howl if he only 
had the necessary sand in his craw. The 
true patriot will not administer soothing 
sirup to him, but make him mad—mad till 
he cavorts. Oh, that the farmer was more 
of a kicker! 
In thousands of our farm homes the cul¬ 
tivation of the grape is neglected. A 
bushel of grapes can be raised as cheaply 
as a bushel of apples and they will bring 
more. Comparatively few people are alive 
to the fact that there are among our new 
kinds of grapes, quite a number that will 
thrive in a given vicinity as well as Con¬ 
cord and produce as much fruit, and that 
of a better quality. If there is one kind 
of fruit that, above all others, helps to 
make the farm borne pleasant, it is the 
grape. Wc say to our subscribers who 
can afford to do so, buy a vine each of 
Jefferson, Lady, Pookiington, Prentiss, 
Lady Washington, Wilder, Moore’s Early, 
Duchess, Brighton, Cottage, Herbert, 
Bindley, Grein’s Golden and Vorgennes; 
and if you cannot afford to buy them, 
then procure cuttings of the best varieties 
grown about you. 
We ordered last Winter from a German 
house, seeds of a new variety of Ricinus or 
Castor-oil Plant. There were 40 seeds and 
the bill was five dollars, or 12X cts. per 
seed. The plants are very pretty, resem¬ 
bling R. Gibsonii. The leaves are cut to 
the mid-vein and the color of the leaves is 
a brilliant, changeable purple, bronze. 
These seeds will be added to our Garden 
Treasures in our next. Free Seed Distribu¬ 
tion, and we hope those who receive them 
will not treat them as if they were the 
common castor bean. We have to thank 
many friends for their seed contributions 
to the Garden Treasures. These will great¬ 
ly help to make a more varied collection. 
Our readers will not expect that all these 
garden seeds will be of new or the choicest 
strains. There will be worthless kinds in 
this as in our last distribution, but we 
shall do our best both as to quantity and 
quality. We have already over 50 differ¬ 
ent species or varieties and many of these 
we know to be the best of their kinds. 
Lord Fitzharding purchased a Short¬ 
horn hull, the Duke of Connaught, when 
about two years old, at the great Dunmore 
sale, for the very high price of 4,500 
guineas ($22,987). Those present at this 
sale thought his lordship would never see 
his money back; but from that time to 
the present, the bull, now eleven years 
old, has not only regularly served his 
owner's cows, which has been of great 
benefit to him, hut also upwards of 100 
cow's belonging to other people, at from 50 
to 100 guineas each. These latter alone 
have paid double or more the first cost of 
the bull. The Duke of Connaught instill 
just as serviceable as ever, and may con¬ 
tinue so for several years to come—a mine 
of wealth to his owner. This is encourag¬ 
ing to those who desire to possess choice 
stock; hut we cannot recommend their 
taking the risk of paying bo high for it as 
the above, unless very wealthy, and able 
to put up with a considerable loss, if by 
early death of the animal or any other 
cause, they should sustain one. 
-»-«-*- 
ENGLISH SHIRE HORSES. 
Mr. Walter Gilbky, in the history of 
this breed of horses affixed to their stud 
book, says there is no doubt of their being 
traced back as far as the year 1650, and 
that the breed has been kept up by very 
little and perhaps no mixture of foreign 
blood. If thus bred so long in line, no 
wonder the stallions are so prepotent, and 
that the canny Scots have as stealthily as 
possible resorted to them for the purpose 
of more rapidly improving their Clydes¬ 
dales. These they have been largely ex¬ 
porting to America for years past, at the 
round profit, it is asserted, of 80 to 100 per 
cent. This has fully roused the breeders 
of Shire horses, and they are now r making 
arrangements to come in for a fair share 
of this lucrative business. They say that 
they will be satisfied with 20 to 30 per 
cent, not profit, as indeed we should sup¬ 
pose they might be, and thus force the 
Clydesdales down to the same figure. 
They now propose getting up a Shire 
Horse Breeding Company, and exporting 
to America on their own account. In this 
way they think they can make the merits 
of their horses more quickly known and 
secure for themselves a larger profit. Some 
of these horses have latterly brought enor¬ 
mous prices. Mr. Gilbey paid 800 guineas, 
($4,088) for the stallion Spark in 1881, and 
others have since approached this figure. 
These are for the Englishmen’s own choice 
breeding, for they could not expect. Amer¬ 
icans to pay any such enormous prices. 
4 ♦ 4 - 
GOLDEN GRAINS AND BLACK-BEARD- 
CENTENNIAL WHEATS. 
We have received the report of the 
State Board of Agriculture and the State 
Agricultural College of Colorado for 1881- 
2. In it is an essay on “Seeds” by A. E. 
Blount , the Professor of Agriculture. The 
following quotation from this essay will 
interest our renders: “I am personally 
acquainted with parties in Philadelphia 
who have, imposed upon the public by sell¬ 
ing wheat, oats, corn, and many other 
seeds under new and various names, to the 
amount, they told me, of about $3,000 
yearly. I do not hesitate to give the name, 
S. Y. Haynes & Co [The firm no longer 
exists.—E ds. R. N.-Y.] They put the 
Golden Grains wheat upon many unsus¬ 
pecting farmers at a cent a grain, and if 
any of you have read the recent number 
of the Rural New-Yorker you will find 
the Golden Grains to be the same as the 
Black-bearded Centennial. They once sold 
the Common Giant, or Mammoth Rye at 
one dollar per fifty grains, under the name 
of Diamond Wheat; and Pearl Millet, 
they sold representing that it made two 
crops a year, and 00 bushels per acre, and 
much finer fiour than any we ever saw.” 
As we have already stated, the Golden 
Grains and Black-bearded Centennial 
Wheats, though resembling each other 
very closely, arc yet different. Neverthe¬ 
less, ns both kinds were sent out by Haynes 
& Co. under the name of Golden Grains, 
those receiving Black-bearded Centennial 
under the name of Golden Grains -would 
insist that both kinds were the same. 
- 4 • 4 
DEBT. 
The Prince of the Powers of Darkness 
ne’er devised aught else which gave him 
so much joy and satisfaction as did debt; 
and at its inception the demons of despair 
sent up a shout of triumph while angel 
hearts stopped beating from despair and 
anguish. It is tho ever-present torment 
of the American farmer. His greed for 
land is insatiable. The sunny prairies and 
fertile hills stretch out before him and to 
grasp them he gladly puts on the clank¬ 
ing, festering chains of debt. He mort¬ 
gages his farm and the vile canker cats 
night and day into flesh and brain. It 
knows no rest, it has no Sabbath and no 
time for sleep. It takes the bread from 
his children and the shoes from his wife’s 
feet. God have mercy on those over 
whom debt hangs! It makes the individ¬ 
ual miserable, wastes his cheek, consumes 
his mind ; it destroys the peace of families 
and banishes the joys of home; it creates 
commotion and clashing in the commu¬ 
nity; for it arrays capital against labor; it 
undermines the state, and the ruins of em¬ 
pires bear wit ness to its devastating power. 
The luxury of the rich and the misery of 
the poor, made by debt, which always 
makes the rich more rich and the poor 
more poor, have debased and obliterated 
more empires, kingdoms, states, than 
famine, sword and pestilence. To gain a 
home a certain amount of debt may be 
justifiable. But better au acre all your 
own than a thousand, cursed by debt. 
Strong drink may cause the most misery 
in cities; but the faces wan and pinched, 
the cheerless laughter and the sighs, seen 
and heard in the country, these are the 
trophies of debt. 
BEGASSE. 
Considering that begasse may be util¬ 
ized in several ways, those fanners grow¬ 
ing sorghum might do w’ell to look about 
them and see how they may dispose of it 
to the best advantage. Analyses have 
shown that as a food it is superior to 
either ensilage or the average maize stalks. 
Dry begasse contains 4.41 per cent, of 
water; 23.19 of crude fiber; 2.77 ol ash; 
3.17 of albuminoids, and 66.46 per cent, 
of carbohydrates, 13.76 per cent, of the 
latter consisting of sugar. The begasse 
fresh from the mill contains the follow 
ing: cnide fiber, 10.61 per cent; ash, 
1.27 per cent; albuminoids, 1.45 per 
cent; carbohydrates, 30.41 per cent, and 
water, 56.26 percent. Of the latter, 6.30 
per cent w as sugar. Mixing the fresh be¬ 
gasse with fresh leaves produced from the 
cane, w r e find the mixture consists of 8.80 
per cent of Crude fiber; 1.74 per cent of 
ash; 2.15 per cent of albuminoids; 25.93 
per cent of carbohydi ates, and G1.38 per 
cent of water, and that it possesses a nu¬ 
tritive ratio of 1 :12. percent. The aver¬ 
age analysis of 26 specimens of ensilage, 
and two of maize cut when fit for ensilage, 
as shown by the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, gives the ensilage a nutritive ratio of 
1:7.9 and the maize 1:9.3, which shows 
them to be inferior to the begasse and 
leaves when mixed. For a ton of the 
three we should have the following values, 
viz: ensilage, $2.84, maize stalks, $2.65 
and begasse and leaves, $5.66, which 
show's quite a large difference in favor of 
the last. 
The cane after being thoroughly crushed, 
is in a condition in which fermentation 
will rapidly set in; hence if to be used for 
feeding purposes, it should be removed as 
soon as possible from the air. and com¬ 
pressed in silos. Begasse w ? hen fresh is 
eaten by most stock with avidity, and 
during Winter, cattle have been known to 
burrow 7 and eat far into a pile of it, in 
order to reach the preserved portion in 
the center of the pile. Thus it can be 
seen that the begasse tnay he used profit¬ 
ably as a food. 
If it is desired for manurial purposes, 
by adding quicklime or solution of potash, 
the pile may be easily disintegrated during 
the Winter so that it may be readily 
plowed and hammed m the following 
Spring. 
But the value of begasse is not alone 
confined to the farm. At the meeting of 
the Mississippi Yalley Cane Growers’ 
Association, brown wrapping paper made 
from it was on exhibition. It was pure 
begasse, with the exception of a little 
coloring matter. A sample of pulp made 
from it, was submitted for examination to 
one of the largest paper makers of the 
United States, who claimed it tube worth 
4% cents a pound. 
The foreman of the paper mill wdiich 
manufactured that on exhibition at the 
Cane Growers’ Association, also said it 
would make good blotting paper if not 
calendered. It works just, like straw, 
with the exception that it takes somewhat 
longer to beat it, on account of its 
toughnesss. 
Will it not pay for our farmer friends 
to put in their silos a quantity of begasse 
and sorghum leaves,and compare them as a 
fodder with other feeding stuffs? Con¬ 
taining as much nutritive matter as they 
do, w r e fail to see why they should not be 
placed in the silo in preference to corn 
stalks or other feeding stuffs. 
As the Rorghum stalks can be made to 
serve a double purpose, after having been 
run through the crusher, we should say, 
get the most good from them that you can. 
BREVITIES. 
The best shipping fruits are usually those 
which are not lit to eat at any time. 
Did you take the Rural’s advice to bag a 
few grapes? And do you regret it? 
The results of our long-promised mole-trap 
tests will be placed before our readers next 
week. 
No doubt many will have occasion to re¬ 
gret that, they did not take the Rural’s ad¬ 
vice not to invest in new hop plantations. 
Prof. Budd agrees with the Rural that 
the Barberry is the best plant for hedges, all 
things considered. Seedling cultivation 
would give varieties of great productiveness. 
When you bum brush or rubbish in the 
garden, spread the ashes as far as they will go 
aud not lea ve them to be leached into t he earth 
on the spot where the brush was burnt. 
Have you a feeling that your wheat is sown 
and out of the way, oris it sown in a manner 
that, makes you feel: “Well, if 1 don’t get a 
good crop, it, will be no fault of mine?” 
I)r. Zabriskik mentions to the writer a 
case in which n young lady ate a few leaves of 
the Kalmia latifolia (Mountain Laurel or 
Calico Bush) ns she was passing through the 
woods. She died that night. 
Judging from our single vine of Vorgennes, 
Mr. Bensel is wrong in stating that it is as 
early as Moore’s Early. It ripens at the 
Rural Grounds rather later than Concord. 
Here is a specimen of the encouragement 
that cheers:—“Rest assured thutl will ao what 
ever nmybe in my power to advance the interest 
of your great, national enterprise. 1 am in en¬ 
tire sympathy with the w ork in which you are 
engaged—and regard your efforts in behalf of 
agriculture, and all kindred pursuits, as worthy 
of the entire support and encouragement of 
all lovers of rural life. 1 am with you heart, 
soul, mind and body. A. B. Coleman,” 
Caldwell Co., Ky. 
