THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT %7 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
No. 34 Park Row. New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1883. | 
If you are going to plant fruit or orna¬ 
mental trees, do it now or wait until 
Spring. Don’t delay one day. 
Every time that your child comes to 
you and voluntarily confesses that he has 
done something wrong, you should Mss 
him. 
Mr. Ricketts was lately asked which 
he considered the best of all his grapes. 
He replied: “ the Empire State.” We do 
not think so by a long shot. 
The Rural New-Yorker has shown 
again and again that it is easy enough to 
raise at the rate of from 750 to 1,000 bush¬ 
els of potatoes per acre in rich garden soil, 
under careful cultivation. Now, will it 
pay to make a garden of the field if, by so 
doing, such an amount of potatoes could 
be raised to the acre? 
- - 
A careful experiment by the Director 
of the N. Y. Ex. Station shows that the 
seed end of the White Star Potato pro¬ 
duced a larger yield than either the stem 
end or the middle portion. As will be 
seen by the Rural experiments already re¬ 
ported, and w r e have several yet to report, 
different varieties vary greatly in this re¬ 
spect. The seed ends of some kinds will 
yield more than the stem ends, and vice 
versa. 
We have had the stone age, the bronze 
age, the iron age, and some say the golden 
age; but this is the age of brass. Gold is 
esteemed higher than virtue and wisdom ; 
but brass is more valuable than gold. A 
face of brass is greater than a pure heart, 
an unspotted soul, a great mind, or even a 
weath of gold. Fame is no longer writ¬ 
ten on brass, but with brass. It gains 
place, position, power, honor. But time 
is just. Brass tarnishes, so will the honor 
it brings; and it cannot open the gates of 
heaven. 
Year after year we have said “No 
more Chester Co. Mammoth Corn,” and 
yet we continue to plant it. Our crop 
this year in our low-lands is again a very 
heavy one, and many of the ears are thb 
largest we have seen. They may now be 
seen in this office. The stalks of tins 
corn are very large—the leaves compara¬ 
tively “few and far between.” The ears 
are perched up like the steps of inverted 
stilts. It is the first to be lodged by high 
winds; and yet it yields wonderfully at 
the Rural Farm, and the big golden ears 
are pleasant to look at and to handle. 
■ - ~ - 
We would not advocate luxuri¬ 
ous living on the farm, or anywhere. 
But too many of us forget that mere exis¬ 
tence is not. all of life. We deny ourselves 
too much. How few farm houses have 
bath-rooms. A bath-room may be a luxury, 
but it has become a necessary luxury. 
Few farmers" boys and girls have horses 
and carriages, books and music. Let us 
make home more pleasant, more attractive, 
yes, more luxurious. It need not mar the 
life to be, and makes the life that is 
more full. Save fewer dollars to invest in 
lands and stock, and add more comforts 
to the home that more than anything else 
makes you what you are. 
-♦♦♦- 
Proclaim it from every house top and 
hill top in the land; write it on all hearts, 
and teach it to the children, that the 
tiller of the soil and the toilers of the 
shops shall be free from oppressive mono¬ 
polies of individuals or corporations; free 
from taxation that discriminates against 
the poor land-holder and in favor of the 
rich bond-holder; free to produce without 
unfriendly and crushing competition, and 
free to take his products to an honest 
open market, and not to a mock-auction 
manipulated to suit a syndicate or clique 
of gamblers in the life-blood of the’people. 
How will this come to pass? Well, we 
hope peacefully, by wise and timely ac¬ 
tion of legislators, by concessions on the 
part of all classes, especiallythe rich 
and strong; but it w r ill not come except 
through agitation. Yet we pray that it 
may not come through violence and 
blood. 
The Illinois State Board of Agriculture 
has invited President Arthur, Commis¬ 
sioner Loring, aud the Governors of Illi¬ 
nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, 
Missouri and Wisconsin to deliver ad¬ 
dresses during the American Fat-Stock 
Show at. Chicago. This indicates two 
facts, one which we are ashamed of, and 
one which we arc proud of. The first is 
that no display of fine cattle can be made 
a success without the aid of some outside 
attraction. The second is that racing 
has become disreputable as a feature of 
an agricultural show. It is said that 
these gentlemen have been invited to be 
present to secure the hearty co-operation 
of the citizens of neighboring States; 
but the real object is to draw a crowd. 
They are to he “attractions.” They will 
not add perhaps to the real intrinsic 
value of the show, but many people w T ill 
go to see Arthur who would not go 
to see the big Polled-Angus, Short-horn, 
or Hereford bull. Some of these gentle¬ 
men are in good flesh, but they are not 
intended to represent any feature of the 
production of beet. They will not be 
entered for show, though they will be on 
exhibition. President Arthur will be a 
big “ catch,” but we are not certain but 
that Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, 
will beat him ou points, aud walk off 
with the blue ribbon attached to liis 
muzzle while only the red will flutter 
from the President's coat-tails. If the 
Illinois State Board of Agriculture could 
only induce the Governor of Texas to 
come, what a success the American Fat 
Stock show would be. 
- 
MONOPOLY. 
It is not within the province of the 
Rural New-Yorker to take part in any party 
politics, or to influence our readers to 
vote for the candidates of the one or the 
other political factions, but we do take it 
upon ourselves to advise our friends that 
it is best to fully understand the posuion 
upon which candidates running for office 
may stand, before casting their votes; 
to see how they may stand regarding the 
great question which is agitating the 
people to-day, viz., that of monopoly. 
Capitalists are taking up millions of 
acres of grazing land in the Western 
States, and stocking them with immense 
herds, thereby crowding down and out 
the more unpretentious stock grower; 
corporations are investing millions in 
special industries, and crushing out, by 
the power of money, all attempts at com¬ 
petition; railroads buy up Congressmen 
to grant them immense tracts of land, 
and then they bleed their patrons by 
charging extortionate rates, and in other 
ways abusing the public, who gave them 
their existence. The Northern Pacific 
Railroad was granted 42,000,000 acres, 
a tract seven times as large as the State 
of Massachusetts, the sale of which will 
probably pay the expenses of the road. 
There is, however, no question as to 
whether the Northern Pacific will be run 
m the interests of the corporation, or the 
public. These great monopolies, and others 
of a similar nature, control with a hand of 
iron many thousands of laborers, suppress 
all legal attempts at competition, and 
aim to control legislation, and the rights 
of men. The reduction of this evil can 
only be accomplished by putting into the 
National and State legislatures righteous- 
minded law-makers and, electing to all 
judicial and executive offices men who wi 11 
honestly enforce the laws. To-day there 
are by far too many National and State 
office-holders, who are nothing more or 
less than the paid workers of monopoly. 
And so we say, farmers, be careful, and 
vote for the right man, a man feailess in 
the cause of justice; if possible, a man 
from among yourselves, who may repre¬ 
sent in a fitting manner the interests of 
agriculture and the community at large. 
THE AGRICULTURAL FAIR NUISANCE. 
Readers of our fair reports for the past 
few weeks cannot have failed to ob¬ 
serve the almost universal complaint 
made of the presence at the agricultural 
gatherings of cheap side shows, city 
tricksters, so-called “fakirs,” beer tents, 
and innumerable other concerns collected 
at these places solely to wring hard- 
earned dollars from the pockets of the 
honest yeomen. The complaint is an old 
one, and the evils ought to be remedied. 
Why is it that the managers of our agri¬ 
cultural fairs will persist in allowing these 
- * ------ ■ 
miserable blood-suckers to occupy a prom¬ 
inent place upon the grounds,* or even 
any place there at all? Is it possible that 
we cannot have a successful fair without 
the presence of these nuisances being 
forced upon us at every hand; that our 
farmer friends shall be obliged to pay 
twice as much for what they get of these 
venders as the articles are really worth? 
Do our friends believe in the policy of 
admitting among them these tricksters 
and sharpers who attend the fairs for no 
other purpose than to fleece them? We 
think not. 
Then why is it that they sub mi tj to this 
evil? That agricultural fairs can be made 
a success without the presence of these 
swindlers we have not the slightest 
doubt. It would seem to be a pitiable 
state of things when our fairs cannot he 
conducted in a successful manner without 
the presence of these pests. No excuse 
can be given, except that the revenue is 
swelled thereby; but better have no fairs 
at all, than have them supported by dis¬ 
honest, means. The blame in the matter 
rests with the fair managers. 
The action of the Western Michigan 
Society in renting ground for the sale of 
intoxicating drinks and for cheap dance 
houses, cannot be too strongly condemned 
and it seems strange to us that the mem¬ 
bers of this Society should have coun¬ 
tenanced such practices. It has been 
a current advice in the agricultural press, 
year in and year out, to kill out the 
weeds; we are constantly told they are 
a nuisance and only drain from the soil 
the nutriment that should go into the 
crop; that they are interlopers, and have 
no place on a properly managed farm. 
And so we say, the agricultural press 
should unite with all common-sense 
farmers, and clean nut this rubbish, these 
weeds in human form, from the fair 
grounds. We believe the time wifi come 
when they will find no place at the farm¬ 
ers’ cattle shows. 
When agricultural fairs are held for the 
purpose of displaying improvements in 
agriculture, and for the bringing together 
of the multitude to see wherein improve¬ 
ments can be made; wheu horse trots and 
the great number of cheap bogus shows, 
hawkers and beer-stands are forced to 
flock elsewhere than to the farmers’ gath¬ 
erings, then we predict in all certainty, 
will success rest upon the yearly meetings 
of the farmers. 
THE AMERICAN HOG: HIS FRIENDS 
AND HIS FOES. 
TnE American Hog is a prominent 
character at present. A large convention 
of his friends will meet next month in the 
Western Metropolis to laud his good qual¬ 
ities while seeking means to improve 
them. A Commission has just been ap¬ 
pointed by the President to investigate 
the charges made against him by his 
foreign foes, and already its members 
have agreed upon a programme for pre¬ 
liminary work. Commissioner Loring is, 
of course, to have general supervision of the 
investigation. Col. F. D. Curtis, of New 
York, is to investigate all questions rela¬ 
ting to the hog as raised on the farm and 
sold in the markets. Mr. Blatehford, of 
Illinois, is to inquire into all matters of 
transportation from the point of produc¬ 
tion to destination, all methods of 
slaughter, the mode and manner of pack¬ 
ing and shipment, and all such questions 
as relate to the trade in hog products. 
I)r. Salmon and Professor Chandler, as 
scientists, are to investigate the extent to 
which the bog is affected with trichinosis 
and hog cholera in the United States, jind 
to pursue such other scientific inquiries as 
may be “necessary to the proper prosecu¬ 
tion of the work.” Soon after the assem¬ 
bling of Congress next, December, several 
friends of the noble beast are to bring to 
the notice of that body, the vile aspersions 
cast, upon him by several European Con¬ 
tinental powers and the hostile attitude 
they have assumed towards him, and a 
vigorous effort will be made to compel 
the Government to resume the spirited 
policy of vindication and retaliation 
which Ex-Secretary Blaine inaugurated 
w r ith regard to the calumniated Amer¬ 
ican Hog. 
Among the indications that Republican 
France is about, to adopt a more sensible 
foreign policy than that she has been fol¬ 
lowing of late, the most notable perhaps 
was contained in the speech of Prime 
Minister Ferry at Havre the other day, in 
which he intimated that all restrictions 
on the importation of American hog pro¬ 
ducts into France would soon be removed. 
The prohibition of the importation of 
these products into France in the 
Spring of 1881 inflicted a grievous in¬ 
jury on our provision trade, from which 
it has not yet recovered. According to 
the report of the National Bureau of Stat¬ 
istics the following table shows our ex¬ 
ports of hog products in 1880 and 1881, 
three ciphers being omitted. 
Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value 
Kacouand Hams.... 818,137 $G0,681 607.754 854,944 
Pork. 99,979 (1.992 91.435 7.841 
Lard. 414,881 33,622 810.080 83,478 
The decline in our exports of hog pro¬ 
ducts in the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1881 from the previous year was approx- 
imately as follows: 
Pounds. Value. 
Bacon and hams. 2IO,SR8 0on 85 . 737,000 
Pork. 5,544,000 849,000 
Lard. 104,801,000 141,000 
Decrease in exports, 1881.. 820,728,000 85,032,000 
Although our exports of pork were 
over five-and-a-half millions less, yet 
owing to the higher price it brought, the 
aggregate value was $849,000 more. 
In 1882 the falling off in our exports in 
this line became very striking also, as 
shown by the following figures: 
NINE MONTHS 1S81 AND 1882. 
Pounds. 
1882. 1881. 
Bacon. 245,733,531 48(1,944,129 
Hams.... 22,934,772 47,509,260 
Lard... 171.297.130 231,577,662 
PorE. 47,855,842 70,007,173 
Total . 4S7,824,375 783.138,229 
Decrease In our total exports in 1882. 295,304,854 
Thus in two years there was a falling 
off of over six hundred million pounds in 
our exports of hog products. To account 
for this, it must be remembered that 
Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece and Turkey 
followed the example set by France, and, 
although the quantity taken by any of 
these singly was not very great, the aggre¬ 
gate shrinkage in our trade due to so 
many embargoes was very considerable. 
Last Spring Bismarck declared w T ar 
against the American ITog, having in¬ 
duced the Bundesrath to prohibit abso¬ 
lutely the importation of hog products 
from this country into Germany, but this 
fulmination had no appreciable effect, 
upon our trade. Indeed, lately our ex¬ 
ports have increased considerably over 
those at the corresponding time last year, 
as may be seen by the following table, 
showing our shipments for the eight 
months ending August 31: 
Pounds. 
1888. 1882. 
Bacon.285,029.851 230,496.699 
Hams... 39,180,694 21.289.458 
Lard.187,074.801 149,208,501 
Salt Pork. 43.429,490 44,169,581 
Total.5034714,346 445,164,239 
Total Increase. 58,550,105 
The cause of this increase is that the 
United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, 
and Holland are taking more of our hog 
products than ever before, and large quanti¬ 
ties of them are introduced even into those 
lands where they are prohibited, a^er 
having been repacked as the products of 
other countries. 
- » « «- 
BREVITIES. 
Since our note regarding the Clapp’s Fa¬ 
vorite Pear, 5ve have heard more than ever be¬ 
fore that it rots at the core. 
Have you only a garden— an acre or so it 
may be ? And do you want apple trees? 
Order tbe Alexander, Twenty-ounce (for 
cooking), and Wagener on the Paradise 
stock. Fameuse, Blush, Kiug of Tomkins Co. 
also do well. 
Here is another generous compliment) from 
an agricultural contemporary, the Farm and 
Garden, of Philadelphia: “The Annual Fair 
Number of the Rural New-Yorker comes 
to us ouce more, and there can bo no doubt 
that It is tbe handsomest agricult ural publica¬ 
tion in the world We are proud to bo able to 
say this of an American journal, and we wish 
the Rural such liberal support as may enable 
it to continue to lead.” 
Dr. Peter Collier writes us: “I wish you 
could have been with the party which I ac¬ 
companied on a visit to the sorghum sugar 
works at Rio Grande, N. J., so Mint you could 
yourself have seen the great success already 
attained thei r-in this industry. They expect 
to make 750,000 to 1,000,000 pounds of sugar 
from 975 acres, besides molasses, and then 
they consider the seed pavs all the expenses of 
the crop and the cost of delivering it at the 
mill.” 
Thu Domestic Economy Department of the 
Rural New-Yorker for six years has been 
original from beginning to end. The editor 
has traveled far aud wide for recipes, and 
written probably a thousand letters to Rural 
subscribers soliciting their experience. Well, 
one of the results is tlmt it is widely quoted, 
generally without credit, while our modern 
cook books, some of them at least, are made 
up of Rural recipes transferred bodily with¬ 
out credit. 
Mr. .Torn S. Collins writes us as follows: 
“I think the reputation of the Kietfer’s quali¬ 
ty has been much injured by being tested be¬ 
fore being thoroughly ripened, even though 
yellow aud nice-looking. 1 have tasted some 
this Fall not more than half-grown that were 
soft, very juicy and sprightly , fully equal in 
my opinion to any Harrietts that. I have tasted 
this'season, The Kielfor has had hard knocks 
as to quality, but I think it has como.to stay,” 
