855 
DEC 2© 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
wiser? This Society ought to be ashamed of 
this part of its report. We had a right to ex¬ 
pect more reliable informatiou to emanate 
from suchan organization. The fact is that the 
Champion (Talman) is the most vile grape 
that was ever crowded on a suffering public. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. nelson ritter. 
^ttigceUcrrteous. 
MONOPOLIES. 
What could we do to-day without the enor¬ 
mous railroad, telegraph and manufacturing 
monopolies, that have become part and par¬ 
cel of the business machinery of our country? 
May we not fairly assume that, without them, 
the hands of agriculture and commerce 
would almost at once become paralyzed, and 
the country shorn of the ability to utilize 
the wea 1th so rapidly accumulating upon its 
hands? To a large extent, these grasping, 
soulless corporations were once but feeble be¬ 
ginnings, pleading at the bars of Legislatures 
for the support indispensable to their exist¬ 
ence. and, granted the desired boon, they 
have (like the fabled wolf that, once allowed 
to get his nose within the door, made short 
work of forcing a way for his entire body) 
forgotten the uieaus by which they were 
warmed into life, and have, in too many 
cases, set themselves to override the rights of 
the people, and directly or indirectly to con¬ 
trol the courts and the legislation of the coun¬ 
try. To such an extent has such high-handed 
oppression been carried that even political 
organization is attempted and platforms laid 
down, which, if carried into full effect, can 
hanlly fail to work utter ruin to such monop¬ 
olies. 
This is not the dictate of wisdom, but of 
unreasoning spite. What we need is to 
“ weed out” of our Legislatures the creatures 
of these self-asserting ami ambitious leeches, 
ami, by overwhelming public sentiment, to 
compel our law-makers to so frame and 
ameud laws, when needful, as, while allow¬ 
ing to capital when invested iu corporation<, 
an equality of rights, to place the ban of 
illegality, if not even of criminality, upon 
auy and all attempts of such monopolies to 
use the powers conferred upon them, for pur¬ 
poses of oppression, whether by the over¬ 
riding or evasion of law, or by discrimination 
against the weak, or in favor of the strong. 
A tirm and even balancing of the rights of 
monopolies, whether corporate or otherwise, 
against the rights of the people as a whole 
and as individuals, will do no injustice to 
either. The danger, to my apprehension, 
lies in the very human liability, in endeavor¬ 
ing to strike for the right, to make the blow 
too strong, and by thus assuming an untena¬ 
ble position, euabling our opponents to defeat 
us. Monopolies, indispensable as they may 
be, bavo. iu very many eases, become oppres¬ 
sive—often exceedingly so. They should be 
allowed such rights as properly belong to 
them, to be exercised only iu accordance 
with the rights of the people, whose interests 
they wore created to subserve; and should be 
so surrounded bv checks and restrictions that 
they can be brought to a rigid accountability 
for abuses of the powers conferred upon 
them. T. T. LYON. 
FRUIT NOTES FROM MARYLAND. 
• ’LAPP'S FAVORITE PEAR. 
Under head of “Brevities,” on page 70S of 
the Rural, 1 uotice, with regret, your re¬ 
marks relative to this pear; with regret.be 
cause variability even iu the deportment of 
mankind, is not too desirable, and when 1 
learn through unquestionable authority that 
there isu strong inclination to coquetry in so 
grand a pear as the Clapp's Favorite is with 
me—why not regret it? If I bud room for 
but one pear tree, or if I were planting one 
hundred, for profit, this variety would be my 
first choice, and at least 50 of the hundred 
should be Clapp’s Favorites. I harp only one 
dozen trees of it in bearing; they produced 
their first crop five years ago, and have hot 
missed a year since; uud have produced in 
that time ten times as much fruit as the same 
number of Bartlett*, Burrd d’Anjou, Oslmud's 
Summer or Socket. They are decidedly 
superior to the Bartlett for eating, and have 
sold in the Philadelphia market fora larger 
price per basket. Iu short, l would not ox 
change it for any other kind 1 know or that 
1 don't, know—not even for the Kieffor. 
SOME NEW GRAPES. 
By the way, have you fruited the Bacchus 
drape? [No. Eus.l If so, please point out, 
(with pen or pencil) the difference between 
it and Clinton. I have a couple of vines 
bought for Bacchus, that fruited this season, 
and the fruit is so much like the Clinton, and 
the foliage and growth so very similar, that I 
cannot see any difference between the two, 
Jefferson fruited this season on three-year- 
old vines, and it brought no disappointment 
with regard to its fruit. If it holds out as it 
has commenced, and if it iselsewhere as good 
as it is here; it must have a large “ruu,’» 
Duchesse or Dutchess (which ?) [Neither. 
Duchess is the right name. Duchesse is the 
French form of the word, and is used with 
fruit of French origin, as Duchesse d’Angou 
16me Pear. Dutchess is the name of a county 
m New York .State.— Eds.] fruited the second 
time for me this season. It is not as good as 
the Elvira. Poeklington fruited for the first 
time. It is no better than the Martha, and I 
might enumerate several other disappoint¬ 
ments in new fruits of different kinds, but 
why repeat the “old, old story?” 
Caroline Co., Md. j. w. kerr. 
THE EYE-OPENER. 
“Like loans at four percent. Principal need 
never be paid so long as interest is kept up. 
No security required except for interest, and 
then only personal. These loans are for poor 
men of moderate means in amounts of $100 to 
$5oo for life. Send two cents for particu¬ 
lars” to Mr. “ Oily Gammon,” Cincinnati, 0. 
A correspondent wiio clipped the above adver¬ 
tisement from an agricultural contemporary 
has sent it to us from Kansas, and asks 
whether it is worthy of notice in the "Eye- 
opener.” Certainly it is worthy of the promi¬ 
nent notice here accorded to it. The number 
of “ poor meu of moderate means” willing to 
accept a “life loan” of $100 to $500 at four 
per cent, on personal security, is great enough 
in Cincinnati to exhaust the fortunes of a 
score of Gammons. There would therefore be 
no necessity whatever for spending money in 
outside advertisements if that sort of lending 
were intended. There is little risked in look, 
in*, upon the above advertiser as either a fool 
or a sharper, but the chances are ten to one 
that he is not a fool except iu the way that all 
sharpers are really fools in the long run. 
Either the two cents will be pocketed, or ? 
more likely, the humbug or swindle will be 
more fully set forth iu a letter or circular. 
The Henry College Lottery, of Kentucky, is 
flooding the country with circulars, etc., just 
now, from Louisville, sigued J. J. Douglas. 
The fools who are williug to ourich the sharp¬ 
ers who are conducting the enterprise, are 
warned beforehand of its dishonest nature by 
the caution: “ We prefer that all remittan¬ 
ces be made by-Express Company's money 
order. * * * Do not send by registered 
letter or P. O. Money Order.” Obedience to 
this caution is necessary, otherwise the nin. 
compoops who are anxious to lose their money 
for the benefit of the Louisville rogues, mag¬ 
net be able to do so, as the United States 
Post-Office has black-listed the Henry College 
Lottery as a swindle, and will return to its 
dupes the money forw arded to it through the 
mails. Louisville has an unenviable noto¬ 
riety for the number of lottery swiudles that 
have flourished there. 
A benevolent-looking old man lias been ob¬ 
taining the signatures of Illinois farmers to 
petitions asking the Legislature to tax church 
property the same as other property, and 
transferring the signatures to promisory 
notes. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue 
of American Grape-vines. A grape- 
growers’ manual, by Bush and Son & 
Miesner, Bushberg, Mo. The third re¬ 
vised edition of this work is at baud, a 
neat volume of 150 pages. Of t hese fifi puges are 
devoted to the requisites of climate, soil, etc.; 
the classification of our nat i ve species a nd t hoi r 
hybrids, grafting, pruning and training, di.s* 
eases and insect enemies .togther with a chapter 
on wine making. The catalogue proper enu¬ 
merated and describes nearly 850 varieties with 
their synonyms and the species to which they 
are supposed to belong. The second edit ion, 
issued, in 1873, a volume of 80 pages, has be 
come a standard of reference in all matters 
pertaining to grape nomenclature by Ameri¬ 
can vineyardists aud amateurs, and the pres 
cut issue, brought down to the present time, 
should be in the bands of every grape-grower 
of any pretensions in the country, as it is the 
fullest aud most complete work on tbe subject 
ever published. Price 35 cents. Address t he 
authors. 
The Weather. A practical guide to it s 
change's, showing Signal Service system, and 
how to foretell loc.il weather, by 8. S, Bassler, 
of the Commercial Gazette, Cincinnati, O. 
Price35 cents. V very interesting little book 
of 54 pages 
An Epitome of English History, with 
(Questions for Examination. S. Agnes 
* Kummer. Revised by A. M. Chandlee. A. 
S. Barnes & Co., publishers. New York 
City. This is as profitable to any who are in¬ 
terested in this noble study as for the student. 
Furman’s Farming. A series of letters on 
intensive farming, by the late Parish C. Fur¬ 
man, of Georgia. Published by Home and 
Farm, Louisville, Ky. Price 10 cents. 
Department of Agriculture Report 
for 1881 and 1882. Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture. Washington, D. C. Pages 704. 
WHO OWNS THE AGRICULTURAL 
PAPER ? 
For some years past the inquiry has come 
up in my mind: who owns the agricultural 
paper ? It is called the farmer’s paper, and 
why is it so called ? Taking a square view of 
the matter, it is only pulling the wool over 
the farmer's eyes to make believe that he has 
what he really has not If he sends in a re¬ 
port of his crops it will be published at a 
more convenient season. Even then it stands 
a slim chance unlesss it reports on Mammoth 
or Shoe-peg Corn. If some city sharper has a 
fine horse, with several yards of pedigree, a 
full page will be given him, with a cut drawn 
by the best artist the city affords, and he 
looks superb. Now, how about the farmer ? 
If his picture is ever seen in the paper no one 
ever knows what it is but tbe editor, for 
it surely resembles an ape as much as it does 
a man, and if he has a team they are made 
to look really disgusting to any society, and 
to finish it off it is stamped—The Farmer and 
His Team. “Growler." 
Damascus, Pa. 
[We print this letter to show that we desire 
to be impartial, and that it is no easy matter 
for an editor to please all.— Ed. 1 
The Latest Dairy Lecturer.— One of the 
society papers, says the London Agricultural 
Gazette, announces that among the latest pio¬ 
neers of improved dairy practice must lie 
reckoned Madame Sarah Bernhardt, who, 
out of the leisure which she has to spare, after 
attending to her owu acting at one theatre 
aud the management of another, has found 
time to establish what the Americans call “a 
creamery” upou her farm, and to send its prod¬ 
uce to Paris. Upou the bills of fare, at cer¬ 
tain restaurants, will be found “Bernhardt 
pats and cheeselets.” 
A writer to the American Bee Journal 
says “deliver me from the Cyprians.” He has 
Cyprian, Italian, German and Syrian bees. 
The Cyprians fight everything within reach 
of them. Ivist Summer they attacked a horse 
hitched to a fence a hundred yards distant, 
and would have killed it had he not been close 
by. He finds them very prolific, but they 
waut to swarm all the time, when they ought 
to lie laying up honey; but ho finds the hives 
all full in the Fall. 
Mr. Downing’s Choice of Peaches.— 
With their sweet, rich, juicy, melting flavor, 
peaches are very pleasant to most tastes; 
some of the varieties, the vellow-fleshed ones 
in particular, are more or less vinous, which 
makes them especially acceptable to many 
persons. Modern facilities extend their 
season, too, large quantities being preserved 
each year by drying, evaporating, canning, 
etc. For marketing fresh, the later kinds are 
preferred in this locality, but the list he ven. 
tures to give in the New' York Tribune wil) 
afford a succession of crops from the middle or 
last, of July till the 1st of November: 
Mexauder, ov Aumden, 
Early Louise, 
Larne Early York 
Yellow St. John, 
George the Fourth. 
Early Sliver, 
Mountain Rose. 
OMmlxou Freestone, 
Crawford’s Early, 
Foster, 
Wheatland, 
Crawford’s Late, 
Crockett’s White. 
steven’9 Rare pipe. 
Stump the World, 
Steadly, 
Morris White, Solway, 
The peach wants good soil and clean cul¬ 
ture two requisites W'ithin reach of industry; 
and must have hot weather—a Summer condi¬ 
tion which Providence generally supplies. 
Then, especially if large specimens of extra 
flavor are desired, there must be judicious 
pinning of tbe brauches aud thinning of the 
growing fruit. 
♦* 
While he believes a man must look inside 
to see how it is with a. colony of bees, Mr. J. 
Hasbrouck remarked at the New Jersey and 
Eastern Bee-keepers’ Convention, that a man 
who is cut out for a bee-keeper must be able 
to tell accurately by a rapid examination in 
the Spring the condition of every colony then, 
and what help each ueeds, and afterwards, by 
means of his record, he must be able to judge 
when and what kind of attention each colony 
will again need, and, except for that, he con¬ 
siders it necessary for their greatest prosper¬ 
ity that they be left absolutely alone. It is a 
fortunate era for the bees of a beginner when 
he gets so many colonies that he is not able 
“to go through them” every few days for 
some imaginary purpose. 
- *+*~. -- 
Mr. D. W. Andrews’s Poultry Farm 
is located near Lynnfield in Massachu¬ 
setts. He has been in the business about 
13 years. He keeps about 1,500 hens during 
the Winter; 4,000 to 5,00u during the 
Summer and Fall. He raises his own 
chicks every two years. The breed he con¬ 
siders the most profitable is a cross between 
the Brown Leghorn roosters and pure white 
Brahma hens. He uses old roosters for 
breeding. He gives them one warm meal a 
day each morning,consisting usually of boiled 
fishes’ heads and onions, thickened up with 
meal. For the remainder of the day he gives 
them all they will eat of oats, com and wheat 
screenings. Sometimes he mixes a little sul¬ 
phur with the meal. He has no trouble with 
diseases of any kind. In Summer he gives 
them free range. The coops are 6>£xl2 feet. 
These are inclosed by lath fences two laths 
high inclosing 12x13 feet. The coops have 
glass sashes in front 3}WxD feet. The coops 
are continuous, built in ranges, having from 
seven to 10 hens in each. There is a narrow, 
unbroken passage-way back of the coops, 
lathed off, where feed and water vessels stand 
accessible to each. The roosts are strips of 
board but little above the ground. The drop¬ 
pings are cleaned out daily. The coops are 
whitewashed outside and inside once every 
year. The floor of the coops is covered with 
sand, which is removed as deep as it is dark- 
colored each Spring, and sold for manure at 
six dollars per cord. The droppings from the 
roosts are sold to tannera for 40 cents the 
bushel and bring about $300 annually. There 
are 12 ranges of coops having from seven to 
12 coops in each range. The ranges them¬ 
selves are about 00 feet apart. Powdered 
oyster shells lie scattered about the ground. 
Iu most of the inclosures healthy plum trees 
were growing. Mr. Andrews stated to J. J. 
H. Gregory, who writes the article for the Ru¬ 
ral Home, from which our notes are condensed 
that he estimated the profit at from $1.25 to 
$1.50 each hen. 
WHICH REMINDS ME. 
Mr. J. J. Thomas utters a caution against 
covering strawberry plants too thickly with 
leaves. Let the covering be light and hold it 
with evergreen twigs, cuttings of busies or 
trees or long, strawy manure. 
Residents of Manitoba (Canada) describe it 
to Prof. Tauner, who was sent there by the 
British Government, as having a climate far 
more enjoyable than that of England. The 
atmosphere is so dry and bracing that the 
fluctuations of temperature are not inconve¬ 
niently felt. The warm days of Summer are 
followed by cool evenings. Sultry weather is 
unknown. The mean temperature for Win¬ 
ter is considerably below zero. 
U. S. Senator Williams said:—“All inter¬ 
ests, save those of Agriculture, maintain a 
lobby to secure proper attention to their busi¬ 
ness from Congress.” We say let farmers 
maintain this “lobby” at the polls. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Uxbridge, Ont, Dec. 6.—Wheat here¬ 
abouts was not a verv good crop, about 
10 bushels per acre. Rye very light, from 5 to 
10 bushels. Oats excellent, from 80 to 50 bu¬ 
shels. Peas about 20 bushels. Hay a fine 
crop- Potatoes a lignt crop, and turnips an 
average one. Carrots good. f.. p. 
Illinois, 
Georgetown, Vermillion Co., Dec. 9 —We 
are having nice weat her now, which is needed 
badly to dry the corn, most of it being very 
soft aud wet. Last wheat crop was nearly a 
failure. The growing crop, though quite late, 
looks well. There is quite a lively demand for 
young stock to feed the soft corn to. Success 
to the good old Rural 1 w. p. r. 
Missouri. 
Elder, Miller Co, Dec. d.—The Fall 
weather so far has been very favorable for 
work ; a little too wet sometimes, but farmers 
have been able to gather the larger portion of 
their corn. Not quite as much Fall plowing 
has been done as usual on account of too much 
raiu. Hogs are fattening iu good condition 
