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OEC 22 
THE 
RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW YORKER. 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1888. 
A Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry 
Christmas to you all! 
Next isssue will be the Index Number, 
to which we shall have given our usual 
careful attention. We would not be vain 
over our indexes, but in order that readers 
may duly appreciate them, we -would ask 
both a careful study of them and a com¬ 
parison with those of other agricultural 
papers. Most of the usual departments of 
the paper will be sacrificed. 
The Rural New-Yorker from now 
until January 1, 1885, for $2.00 All who 
desire the Rural’s Seed Distribution must 
apply for it inclosing a three-cent stamp. 
Only subscribers need apply. All who 
subscribe for the Rural in connection 
with any of the journals that club with 
it, will have the seed distribution sent to 
them without application. Please write 
names and addresses plainly. Our new 
posters and premium lists sent to all who 
desire them without charge. 
We hear of planting quick-growing 
trees for fuel. We plant -willow cuttings 
every year or so in out-of-the-way places 
and thus provide all the wood we need. 
It is with regret we learn of the death 
of Dr. Louis Edouard Berckmans. father 
of our friend Prosper J. Berckmans. of 
Augusta, Georgia. The venerable gentle¬ 
man was id his 84th year, and was highly 
esteemed and greatly beloved by all who 
knew him. 
-» ♦ •»- 
The Black Champion Oats of the Ru¬ 
ral’s present Seed Distribution weigh 
nearly 41 pounds to the bushel, although 
oats were generally light in the section 
where they were raised. Mr. Horsford, 
who raised them for us, remarks that he 
believes they will give as good satisfaction 
as anything which the Rural offers in its 
present distribution. 
We find that the entire crop of Hors- 
l'ord’s Market Garden Pea (saving only a 
small quantity for seed) will enable us to 
send between 30 and 40 to each applicant. 
They are entirely free from the weevil. 
Probably this excellent kind of pea will not 
reach the seedsmen’s hands in less than 
two years. Of the Rural New-Yorker Pea 
we shall send about 60 to each applicant, 
though, we are sorry to say they are badly 
weevil-eaten. 
♦ ♦ ♦- 
We beg to remind the friends of the 
Rural New-Yorker that we have now 
reached the time when people are settling 
upon the papers they are to read another 
year. We shal 1 be tlumkfu 1 for every kind 
word spoken—every new subscriber sent 
to us. We would not weary our friends 
with importunities. We merely solicit 
them to assist in extending the Rural 
New-Yorker’s influence as they may think 
it fully worthy of being extended. Spec¬ 
imen copies, premium lists and posters 
will be sent promptly on application. 
— ■ +»» ■ — - 
W hen a nation becomes rich, it is in 
peril. Money is the root of all evil. As¬ 
syria and Babylonia and Egypt were rich 
in their day, and the corruption that at¬ 
tended their wealth wrought their down¬ 
fall. Foreign conquests heaped the cof¬ 
fers of Greece and Rome, the New World 
clothed Spain in purple and fine linen, 
and the ruin of each dates from its corrup¬ 
tion by gold. Wealth leads to luxury, 
extravagance, debauchery and downfall. 
While these nations were poor, they were 
virtuous; when they became rich, they 
were vicious. We are becoming rich very 
fast. We have not gained it by the conquest 
of the sword or the discovery of a new 
world, hut by the subduing of the land 
and the development of a new world. Let 
us take warning. Already the evils are 
apparent among us. 
♦ » ♦ 
How mysterious is the course of migra¬ 
tion westward. Along the parallels near 
which men are reared do men commonly 
seek new homes. That way the tides 
have always set in history. Yet why not 
go South as -well? If a Northern farmer can 
sell his farm for $50 to $90 an acre, and 
in a more genial clime get 10 acres of as 
good land for one, why shouldn’t he do 
it? Why should not colonies of farmers 
do it, and take along with them material 
and serial comforts as men often do when 
they go West? Foreign immigrants, for 
the most part, kuow little of the South; 
they go in droves or companies and pick 
their localities in advance. Tliere is said 
to be a movement to the South of native 
Northern farmers again, not so enthusias¬ 
tic perhaps as that immediately after the 
w r ar, but more business-like and, there¬ 
fore, more welcome and encouraging to 
the localities chosen. The cheap virgin 
or worn-out lands of the South are des¬ 
tined yet to bless their tillers with rich 
and varied products, and thus will the 
Union find new and stronger cement. 
It is true that strong drink ruins the 
life, breaks the heart, blights the home 
and damns the soul. But man is ever 
ready to say: “I am not my brother’s 
keeper.” It is true that strong drink 
peoples insane asylums, poor-houses, jails 
and penitentiaries, making almost ninety 
per cent, of the expenses of maintaining 
these institutions and criminal courts. 
But man is ready to say; “It is not the 
province of government to make sumpt¬ 
uary laws.” But strong drink threatens 
our government, and who will say that 
a government has not the right to protect 
itself, to obey the first law of nature— 
self-preservation? Strong drink does 
threaten the government. What inflames 
the ignorant voter? Whiskey. What 
controls the votes of the cities’s slums? 
Whiskey, What is the strength of the 
ward loafer, the vicious partisan boss? 
Whiskey. What buys more votes than 
money?* Whiskey. What controls con¬ 
ventions and puts its minions into olfiee? 
Whiskey. What do politicians and par¬ 
ties fear more than dishonesty and the 
people? The whiskey power. Tt, is 
whiskey that brings the worst votes to the 
polls, that elects the worst candidates, 
that secures the passage of the most obnoxi¬ 
ous measures. This evil is being recog¬ 
nized in the cities where whiskey rings 
control municipal governments in spite 
of respectable citizens. And when this 
evil has grown so great that it can no 
longer be ignored and the government 
live, then, and not till then, will we have 
an effective, for it will be a national, pro¬ 
hibitory law. 
- - 
WIRE FENCE CUTTING IN TEXAS. 
“To consider and devise a remedy for 
the wanton destruction of fences,” was 
the principal reason why the Governor of 
Texas summoned an extra session of the 
Legislature the other day. Tnroughout 
most of the great grazing districts of the 
Lone Star State, a section larger than the 
whole of New England, a species of civil 
war has for some months been waged be- 
'tween the “land-sharks” and “cattle 
kings” on the one side, and on the other, 
the “Javelins,” an organization lately 
formed of those opposed to the fencing in 
for grazing purposes of the vast pastures 
of the State. As a rule, no objection is 
made by these to the inclosure of land for 
arable purposes; what a man works for 
they consider his; but grass they deem 
free, and say “no man has a right to claim 
what does not belong to him through his 
own labor.” Accordingly on all sides the 
wire fences put up bythc “cattle kings” are 
being cut by the “Javelins,” and when¬ 
ever any of these are caught the bowie- 
knife, revolver and rifle promptly decide 
the question of right or wrong, for might 
is always right id such cases. Various 
classes are combined in the association of 
“Javelins.” To it belong some of the 
cow-boys, whose occupation has been 
greatly curtailed by the fencing of the 
pastures; men with little or no stock of 
their own, who cut the fences to raid 
upon that of others; men who own small 
bunches of stock, but little or no land, 
and who, therefore, want free grass; men 
who feel aggrieved at finding themselves 
and their lands and stock shut, in on all 
sides by the fences ol' opulent stockmen; 
and men whose stock has been mixed up 
with the larger flocks or herds of their 
wealthy neighbors, who have put their 
own brands on them. 
No doubt, too, a considerable number 
of the fence-cutters are actuated by a 
spirit of communism; hut in a country 
thinly settled by a hardy, adventurous 
race, who are accustomed to form their 
opinions of others by their personal merits 
rather than by their bank accounts, com¬ 
munism is a natural accompaniment or 
outgrowth of the greed which monopo¬ 
lizes vast tracts of pasture land. A large 
number of these land-grabbers are titled 
or wealthy foreigners, who care absolutely 
nothing about the welfare of the country 
provided they can obtain from it vast 
profits from their investments. It is a 
common practice of these to fence in the 
wells and water-COUrses of a large area, and 
by rigidly excluding from these all other 
stock, secure the adjacent territory for 
their own without a cent of outlay. Then 
again, many of them graze their stock on 
the unfenced pastures until the grass oe- 
comes scanty, when they turn them into 
their fenced areas. To save the cost of 
extra fencing, many Inclose with a single 
boundary line miles of territory, so as to 
render passage from one part of the coun¬ 
try to another extremely tedious and cir¬ 
cuitous. A specimen case is mentioned 
where it was necessary to go 40 miles 
around, owing to the great extent of the 
inclosed area. 
— — ■ •» ♦ • 
THE ECONOMIC PHASE OF FORESTRY. 
It is generally conceded by all persons 
at all versed in the forestry question, 
that forests protect and feed the springs 
and rivers; prevent the washing away of 
soil from declivities; exert a beneficial 
influence upon the. atmosphere; regulate 
to a certain extent the flow of waters, 
and the hygrometrieal conditions of the 
atmosphere; equalize the temperature and 
humidity of the climate; when large, 
break and deaden the force of heavy 
winds, such as would injure the growth 
of crops, and do other damage; form 
reservoirs of moisture; check the descent 
of rain-water upon hill-sides, by means of 
the roots and tree-trunks, thereby giving 
the water time to soak into the soil, to 
gradually find its way to the brooks and 
rivers; and furnish a great source of 
revenue. 
In the face of these facts, the value of 
our forests cannot he well underestimated. 
For years the governments of Europe 
have been engaged in the cultivation of 
their forests, having been fairly driven by 
necessity to doing so, in consequence of 
great losses incurred in those sections 
denuded of forests, by the terrible over¬ 
flows of the rivers running through such 
retrions. In Central Europe, in France. 
Italy and Switzerland, the loss of life and 
property caused by this destruction of 
woodlands, has been enormous. 
To-day, most European countries have 
adopted systematic plans for the manage¬ 
ment of forests. A forest has, by thin¬ 
ning, planting and so forth, been grad¬ 
ually got in perfect order, and the system 
of natural reproduction is followed as 
much as possible. The forests are under 
State administration, and they are man¬ 
aged by a proper corps of officials and 
workmen, and vast tracts of almost bar¬ 
ren districts have been planted at great 
expense. 
In the United States vast areas of for¬ 
ests have been and are being leveled by 
the axe of the wood-man, so that to-day 
we are beginning to realize that our 
forest area is rapidly diminishing; in 
fact, to-day it amounts to less than one- 
fourth of the entire area of the country. 
We have a National Forestry Association, 
formed for the purpose of protecting and 
advancing our forestry interests, and the 
National and several State Governments 
have taken steps to a greater or less extent 
toward increasing our forest lands, but os 
yet little or nothing has been done to 
prevent the ravages of the lumber-man in 
forests now standing. 
We would not advocate the preserva¬ 
tion of our woodlands, and allowing trees 
to go to rot and decay; hut we would 
discountenance the wholesale destruction 
of immense areas, without any efforts 
being made to restore the lands to their 
former condition. 
At present the forestry question is being 
vigorously brought before the public, by 
means of the agitation with regard to the 
Hudson River and Adirondack Moun¬ 
tains. The source of the Hudson lies in 
these mountains, which are situated in 
the northeastern section of New York 
State. Thousands of acres in this local¬ 
ity have experienced the axe of the chop¬ 
per; have been gutted of their forests, 
and, as a result, the people of New York 
are beginning to realize that at some 
seasons the Hudson—one of the great 
sources of the prosperity of New York 
city—is^ diminishingpn flow of water to 
a very noticeable degree, and is exhibit' 
ing more uncertainity in the regularity of 
its flow. Realizing the importance of 
the case, and impelled to action by the 
press and petitions of prominent indi¬ 
viduals, the Senate of the State Legisla¬ 
ture has appointed a committee to learn 
what lands belonging to private parties 
in the Adirondacks it would be well to 
buy for the benefit of the State. It is 
probably not the intention to buy vast 
tracts, but rather to buy such pieces as 
will link together the State property, 
thereby constituting a great State park, 
which may be maintained as a guard 
against great floods in the Mohawk and 
Hudson Valievs. To this plan, as might 
be expected, a certain class, chiefly made 
up of lumber-men, railroad companies 
and others having an interest in the mat¬ 
ter, are opposed, prominent among whom 
is the Adirondack Railroad Company, 
which owns 700,000 acres, 250,000 of 
which were purchased from the State at 
five cents per acre. Another opponent 
is what is known as the “ Laud Improve¬ 
ment Company,” which is connected with 
this railroad. These companies are now 
hard at work cutting timber from the 
lands in their possession. Certain forest 
lands are already reserved in this region 
by the State, and we think that we can 
safely predict that the present session of 
the Legislature will adopt speedy meas¬ 
ures to prevent the further despoiling of 
these valuable tracts. Certainly, these 
lands should be placed under State con¬ 
trol. so that the future water supply, etc., 
of Eastern New York may be assured. 
The terrible floods which have devas¬ 
tated the West during the past few years, 
furnish us sufficient examples in our own 
country of the importance of this matter. 
Ten years ago, the Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, 
a thorough student of this subject, and 
one who had had wide experience in other 
lands, wrote as follows: “The degreda- 
tion of soil is, perhaps, not equally pro¬ 
moted by a combination of the same 
circumstances in any of the American 
Atlantic States, but still they have rapid 
slopes and loose and friable soils enough 
to render wide-spread desolation certain, 
if the further destruction of the woods 
is not soon arrested.” 
Professor Sargent, stated in a meeting 
appointed last Wednesday to take meas¬ 
ures for the preservation of the Adiron¬ 
dack forests “that there was overwhelm¬ 
ing testimony from residents in that 
vicinity, that the streams flowing thence 
have been growing gradually smaller as 
the forests have been cut down, so that 
little streams only were now seen in 
places where living men once saw large 
rivers.” 'Ilie most significant and alarm¬ 
ing fact that he observed was the gradual 
lack of water to supply the eastern end 
of the Erie Canal through the Black River 
Canal and the Black River, whose source 
of supply is in the Adirondacks. 
“What are you going to do about it?” 
may well be asked with regard to the con¬ 
servation of our forests. The National 
Government should take active measures 
to not only offer inducements in the shape 
of bounties for tree planting in the public 
domain as it has already done, hut it should 
also retain under its control the great pub¬ 
lic areas of forests which now guard the 
head-waters of the main water-ways of 
the Continent. By so doing, at a small 
expenditure now, untold amounts may be 
saved in the future. That this matter is 
one of National importance cannot be 
denied, and it should demand the earnest 
consideration of the people. 
BREVITIES. 
A healthy Christmas story this time. 
Index Number next—the last of the year. 
Vilmorin Andrieux & Co., of Paris, 
France, probably the most esteusiv©seedsmen 
in the world, have applied for the Rural’s Seed 
Distribution. 
“I inclose you,” says our esteemed con¬ 
tributor, J. B. Armstrong, California Notes 
written out here in the Redwoods on the shore 
of the Pacific within .sound of its breakers.” 
Read them. They are very interesting. 
The hard, round, smooth seeds of early sorts 
of peas should be sown as earlv as possible, 
in the flint hour that shows the soil dry 
enough to stir without injury. Ground thrown 
up roughly in ridges in November or later, 
will be ready much sooner, and much more 
completely ready than a bed left unprepared 
till April. The furrow should be three inches 
deep, or more iu light soil, and the peas scat¬ 
tered along at least one sound pea to the 
inch. An inch of covering is enough at first, 
and at that early season of abundant mois¬ 
ture it uiuy lx) laid on lightly and covered 
with coarse manure. As the peas show 
through, tins shelter cun lie raked aside anil a 
little more earth drawn over. The stieks 
should be ready, to be set in after a good boe 
iug, ns soon as the plauts are four inches 
high. The later, richer, but more tende’ 
winkled peas are best planted when the groui d 
has been somewhat warmed by the sun. 
