DEG 26 
860 
THE 
RURAU NEW-YORKER. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row. New York 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1883. 
A CHANGE. 
We row club with the Inter-Ocean, in¬ 
cluding the Free Seed Distribution, for 
$2.65. With the Detroit Free Press and 
Household for $2.75. 
With the New York Times, including 
Free Seed Distribution, for $2.75. 
Subscribe through the Rural New 
Yorker. Send to the above journals for 
free specimen copies. 
And so another year closes. “We 
shall be pleased to see you again ” good 
readers. 
The series of articles, the first of which 
appears in this impression, has cost Prof. 
F. H. Storer considerable time and trou¬ 
ble, as will be very apparent to the reader 
as he studies the series. Information 
with regard to the matter is vague and 
the published statements are conflicting. 
Prof. Storer’s motive is to direct atten¬ 
tion to the question of the influence of 
foods (moderately fed) upon the quality 
of flesh and to incite a discussion of this 
question. In view of the importance, 
and, in one sense, the novelty of the sub¬ 
ject, no doubt the distinguished author’s 
wish "will be gratified. 
In the northwestern corner of Minne¬ 
sota, just north of the White Earth Res¬ 
ervation, is the Red Lake Reservation, 
embracing an area of 8,200,000 acres, in¬ 
habited by the Red Lake and Pembina 
bands of Chippewa Indians. Last year 
these numbered 1,170 of all ages and both 
sexes. The total area under cultivation 
was not over 600 acres, tilled by 140 
families. Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota, has 
introduced a bill into Congress to 
extinguish the Indian title to this res¬ 
ervation and to open the land to actual 
settlers. The bill provides for the ap¬ 
pointment of commissioners to obtain 
from the Indians a cession of their title 
and interest in the lands; that the pine 
lands shall be sold at public auction in 
tracts of not more than forty acres, and 
that the other lands shall be opened to 
settlement under the existing laws, and 
that the proceeds of the sale, after deduct¬ 
ing expenses, shall be held in trust for 
the Indians by the Secretary of the In¬ 
terior, and by bim expended for their 
benefit. Provision is also made for the 
allotment of lands in severalty to the In¬ 
dians. The measure seems framed to pre¬ 
vent the fraudulent and corrupt practices 
so common where Indians and timber 
lands are concerned. 
- « «♦- 
The more that is heard of the corn crop 
from the great corn States of the West 
and from the Agricultural Department at 
Washington, the worse the outlook for 
even a moderate crop. It is now acknowl¬ 
edged by the Department of Agriculture 
that its estimate of nearly 1,600,000,000 
bushels published about a month ago was 
too great. It is now the opinion of the 
Statistician of the Department that the 
yield of merchantable corn does not ex¬ 
ceed 1,200,000,000 bushels, while it is 
thought by some of the agentB of the De¬ 
partment that the figures may fall as low 
as 800,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 bushels. 
Since the crop was harvested the warm, 
damp weather has seriously interfered 
with the proper drying of the crop, and 
it is thought that not over 75 per cent, of 
the crop gathered will ever be fit for mar¬ 
ket. The crop this year is thought to be 
in a worse condition than ever. The price 
of corn is rising steadily in all the mar¬ 
kets, and the prices of oats and rye are 
going up in sympathy with it. Hogs are 
being pushed to market in a light, half- 
fed condition, as there is not corn enough 
to fatten them at present prices, and those 
who can keep over their hogs till next 
Summer are likely to get fine figures for 
them. In a large section of the “corn- 
growing region,” it will be a very difficult 
matter to get good seed corn for next crop. 
Commissioner Loring’s annual report t° 
be President shows that there were dig" 
tributed during the year nearly 2,500,000 
packages of seeds, of which more than 
2,000,000 were furnished to members of 
Congress, It appears that letters are con¬ 
stantly received by the Department of 
Agriculture, inclosing “the most exten¬ 
sive requirements for trees and plants of 
all kinds,’’ so that no single establishment 
in the world could supply the orders. It 
should be borne in mind that the aim of 
the Department is to introduce new things 
which may be of value as compared with 
our present productions, and not to fur¬ 
nish articles that can be readily purchased 
from dealers. The Department’s experi¬ 
ments in extracting the juice from sorghum 
cane by diffusion instead of by milling, are 
stated to have been very successful, lesult- 
ing in an increase of from 25 to 30 per 
ceut. in yield. As an instance of the 
value of our forests, the Commissioner 
says the total value of the forest products 
of the United States for the Census year is 
estimated at $700,000,000, In other 
words, our forest products exceeded in 
value our crops of hay, rye, oats, barley, 
buckwheat, potatoes, and tobacco taken 
together. During the year 3U0.000 copies 
of the annual report for the year 1881-2 
were printed for the Department, and 
about 215,000 copies of other reports and 
documents, and the total expenses of the 
Department amounted to $455,679. 
The Government of British India has 
lately instituted some interesting exjieri- 
ments to ascertain the comparative merits 
of wheats raised in that country and else¬ 
where. Equal quantities of Indian, Ameri¬ 
can, Australian, Russian, and Egyptian 
wheats were grouud into tlour, which 
was made into bread, and accurate ac¬ 
counts were kept of the results. The 
Indian wheats were the heaviest, weigh¬ 
ing from 60 to 64 pounds per bushel 
against 61 to G1 y:* pounds for Ameri¬ 
can. The Indian wheats also produced 
the most flour, yielding from 73.2 to 
8o.52 per cent, of the grain, against 60.5 
to 73.8 per ceut. from American wheats. 
'Ihe percentage of gluten, however, the 
principal nutritive element of bread, was 
coinaderably less in Indian than in Ameri¬ 
can wheats, ranging lrom 6.4 to 13.4 in 
the former, and from 8.7 to 15.3 in the 
latter. The flour from the Indiau w heats 
made the most bread, a given quan¬ 
tity of it having produced from 365 to 
376.6 pounds of bread according to the 
variety used, against 346 to 364 pounds 
from the same quantity ul’ American flour; 
but the color, taste, texture and other 
characteristics of the bread from our 
w heats w ere more satisfactory, especially 
in case of our W inter wheats. Indian 
wheats have a beany flour: the flours arc 
ricey; the texture of the bread is too 
close, while the crust is hard and brittle; 
hence it is recommended that tbfse wheats 
should be mixed in proportion of 25 to 
50 per cent, with “ wheats, such as the 
American, possessing a tine, sweet, milky 
or nutty flavor. ” 
EXCESSIVE TAXATION OF REAL ES¬ 
TATE. 
Of the $398,287,581 which comprised 
the total revenue of the United States 
last year, $214,706,496 were received 
from Customs, and of the remainder 
$144,72u,368 were derived from taxes on 
intoxicating beverages, tobacco and other 
sources of internal revenue, the rest being 
contributed by sales of public lands, etc. 
Of course, the taxes levied ou all articles 
of foreign or domestic production are paid 
by those who use the commodities in the 
prices charged for them. A great deal is 
said at present about tne necessity or ad¬ 
visability of amending the forms of indi¬ 
rect taxation of the General Government; 
should not more be said of the necessity 
of amending the mode of levying blute 
and local taxes which arc collected di¬ 
rectly on property ( These, in the aggre¬ 
gate, amount to about the same as the 
National revenue, having reached $302,- 
200,694 in 1880, exclusive of the taxes of 
townships. 
In all parts of the country real estate lias 
always borne much more than its just 
proportion of taxation of this kind. In 
returning property to the assessors for 
taxation, there is generally an undervalua¬ 
tion, often a very great undervaluation. 
According to the Census of 1880, the as¬ 
sessed value of land m the United States 
was $13,036,766,925, and that of per¬ 
sonal property only $3,886,000,000, mak¬ 
ing the total assessed valuation about 
$17,000,000,000. Yet from all accessible 
data, the best statisticians put the value 
of tne property of this country in the 
neighborhood of $50,000,000,000. Of 
this it is estimated that one half is in real 
estate and one-half in personal property, 
while according to the Census returns 
the valuation of land was thrce-and-a-half 
times greater than that of personal prop¬ 
erty. 
The disproportion between the assessed 
valuations of both kinds of property is 
least where population is sparse and 
wealth not much, concentrated, and great¬ 
est where the population is dense and 
wealth in the. hands of a few. In Texas, 
for instance, the assessment of land in 
1880 was $205,000 000, while that of per¬ 
sonal property was $114,000,000—more 
than half; w T bile in Pennsylvania lhe as¬ 
sessment of land was $1,540,000,000, 
and that of personal property only 
$143,000,000—only one-eleventh. Again, 
in the large cities where we might confi¬ 
dently expect to find more personal than 
real property, the inequality is maintained. 
In the counties in which New’ York and 
Philadelphia are situated land is assessed 
at $918,000,000 and $529,000,000 respect¬ 
ively, while all other property is assessed 
at $175,000,000 and $52,000,000 respect¬ 
ively. 
The explanation of this inequality is 
easy. Land cannot be concealed. It can¬ 
not be undervalued so easily as personal 
property. Property cannot be so cftulv 
concealed in thinly settled as in thickly- 
settled sections: in the country as in the. 
cities. The character of all sorts of prop¬ 
erty owned by people in the country pre¬ 
vents it from being concealed as easily as 
city property. Moreover, in the cities 
people attend to their own business, while 
in country places there are always some 
who attend to their neighbors’ also. It is 
not necessary to insist that country people 
are more honest than city people, though 
that is our belief; but everywhere the tax¬ 
payer who renders his property at its full 
value is an exception. Here is an ex¬ 
ample: On the first of last January, in the 
midst of the busiest season, the merchan¬ 
dise in 50,000 mercantile houses in Texas 
was valued at $25,469,181, while the in¬ 
surance on this very merchandise, at 
three-fourths of the value, was not less 
than $50,000,000. While the personal 
property of the country is advancing in 
value more than the real estate, the taxa¬ 
tion of it is proportionately diminishing: 
13 years ago personal property iu this 
State paid 22 per cent, of the State and 
local taxes, now it pays somewhat less 
tliau 12 per ceut. 
'Hie farmers of the country, as the 
owners of most of the real estate, are the 
chief sufferers from this inequality of tax¬ 
ation. Of the $13,036,700,925 assessed 
value of all the land in the Union in 1880, 
the value of the farms amounted to $10,- 
197,090,776. But although the fanners 
pay an unjustly large proportion of the 
State and local taxes, which are levied 
for the protection of life and property, 
their property requires the least protec¬ 
tion. Thieves do not steal real estate; 
the whole array of militia, sheriffs, police, 
judges and jailors is for the most part en¬ 
gaged in protecting personal proporty, or 
in punishing offenders against it. Be¬ 
sides the obvious injustice to the agricul¬ 
tural community arising from the escape 
of the greater part of the personal prop¬ 
erty of the country from taxation, other 
serious evils are threatened by it. The 
owners of this kind of property are natu¬ 
rally indifferent to the expenses of the 
Government to which they contribute lit¬ 
tle or nothing; yet the majority of the 
members of the Legislatures every year 
have most of their wealth in stocks, 
bonds, mortgages and other forms of per¬ 
sonal property, that wholly or in part es¬ 
cape assessment. If these men shared 
equally with the real estate owners in the 
burdens of taxation they place on the 
people, would they make the load so 
heavy? 
♦ ♦♦- 
BREVITIES. 
Although we allowed extra space for our 
Index, it was found to be so much longer than 
usual that we were at length obliged to finish 
it upon this page. 
“Why is it that iu one animal a good deal 
of the fat is disseminated iu the ilesh, while 
in another the fat teuds only to accumulate 
around the kidneys and intestines? Read 
Prof. Stoi’er’s series of articles, the first of 
which appeare ou page 861. 
We are aware that many questions sent to 
us within the past six months have not been 
answered. The reason is that we are receiving- 
more questions than we can answer without 
too much encroaching upon the space due to 
other departments. We shall do the best we 
can, begging our friends not to feel slighted if 
answers to their questions do jjot appear. 
Still they come. Swarms of immigrants, 
from every part of Europe and the East, at 
the average rate of about 10,000 a week, land 
on our shores They bring Old-World notions 
of government, religion, education, but in the 
mam are an earnest class seeking disenthrall- 
ment, and ambitious for a home. In every 
industry, in city and country, they lend a 
hand; in every "interest of our country they 
concern themselves. W hut shall this nation 
do with them? Will it maintain its distinc¬ 
tive character, and mold into homogeneity 
these heterogeneous elements' Or will it fail 
and find itself transformed and made over by 
these foreign and unassimilable masses? Iu 
the country more than in the city can the 
molding influences have power. With the 
rural population rests the perpetuation of all 
that is distinctive in our people. 
The Western Linseed Oil Crashers’ Associa¬ 
tion held its unnual session at Chicago the 
other day. about 50 mills being represented. 
There are 53 mills west of Buffalo, the 
••plants’’ alone of which are worth between 
$5,000,000 and $6,000,000. This year there has 
been a shortage of over one million bushels iu 
the production of flax seed iu the West.and to 
satisfy the growing demand, an unusually 
large "quantity will nave to be imported from 
India. The demand for oil-cake as stock feed 
is increasing very rapidly, the sales of the 
mills at Kankakee, Ill., during last Fall run¬ 
ning as high as 30 tons a day for this purpose. 
The flaxseed crop appears to be a very profit¬ 
able one, and to be t ne chief reliance of those 
settling ou new lauds in the Fur West. Dar¬ 
ing the meeting an attempt was made to raise 
the price of the crude oil from 53 to 55 cents, 
but it. failed, the Association maintaining that- 
regulating prices is no part of its function. 
Strawberries are quite as helpless of 
themselves as the support-requiring grapes, 
because of their low stature, and i ability to 
grow excepting in cool, moist weather, which 
makes them an easy prey to tall, robust 
plauts competing for existence upon the same 
grouud. They fairly- laugh at oue, us he grows 
them, with their jolly, shining leaves form¬ 
ing a dense mound of every hill. And 
when the fruiting time comes in the earliest 
warmth of Summer, what a reward they 
yield for the care and protection given them! 
Who would not take pains with at least a few 
hills, sure of such a superb return? It is com¬ 
paratively of little account what sort is 
planted; culture will secure handsome rewards 
from any' of the kinds usually planted, 
although some are constitutionally capable 
of greatly excelling others )o some or other 
of the points of merit. Currants, gooseber¬ 
ries and raspberries show equally grateful na¬ 
tures, never failing to repay handsomely care 
bestowed upon them whenever that t are is 
constant and complete. This word “com¬ 
plete” has an important meauing. If we be¬ 
gin well and go on through uiue-teuths of the 
required routine of culture but omit the other 
tenth, or perform it out of season, we lose the 
expected profit that would otherwise be 
assured. It is as if wo omitted to place oue of 
I the bricks iu making au arch. 
{Continued from pane V.) 
Subsoil lug.842 
Sugar-making at Rio Grande... .824 
Syndicate of farmers.822 
FIELD CROfS. 
Corn, Cuba.888 
— cultivation, shallow.842 
— and potatoes, flat culture 
far!..823 
— seeii from Illinois.888 
— — ripened ..888 
Outs, Champion Black ..84-1 
Potato, Ajditop Fluke.887 
Cosmopolitan.837 
— ex at R. G.837 
— V K, Mammoth.887 
— Rosy Morn.837 
Potatoes front seed end and 
middle. 823 
— manuring! heavy above or 
below seed niece ..887 
— yields, variations In .888 
VVheut, test la cultivated plots.838 
FLO UICCLT URAL. 
Akebia qulnutu.821 
Begonia Rex 821 
Bouvardlas, window culture of .840 
GARDEN. 
Melons, Russian Winter.854 
Onion growing.825 
Peas, late experiment.840 
Pea. tests at It. G...847 
Tomato, fuels and theories.8811 
Tomato, Mayflower.8.18 
Tomato rot.840 
HERDSMAN. 
Bedding for stock.833 
Cattle, slaughter test. 829 
Cow, average age of.825 
Cows’ liorus, marks on. age.824 
performances, according_824 
Cross-bred animals, most val¬ 
uable. 823 
Devon beef, best In the world.. .840 
Holsteint). highest priced.822 
Jersey*. Increasing butter yleld.838 
— grade.- ..833 
Nebraska, stock notes from.... .w>t 
Soiling (-attic.823 
Stock, nodding for . 838 
— quick-growing for food.823 
—• region near N. Y. 323 
— show, Cut, impression* of....829 
HYGIENIC. 
Grape seeds, don’t swallow.810 
horticultural. 
Currant, White Imperial.841 
Strawberry plants, freezing and 
thawing.841 
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES. 
Mich. Horticultural Society.840 
— — — Convention of.861 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Canada, climate of...855 
Cat books, etc., received.350 
Maryland, fruit notes from..8K 
Monopolies..—853 
Papers, who owns the agricul¬ 
tural?....,. .855 
POMOLOGICAL. 
Apple, (’lark’s Prolific.839 
Cherry. Early Richmond.840 
Cherries < n wet soil...*40 
Fruit pomace, value of.839 
Pear, Mneoinbor.,,..841 
PlumsAilack knot.840 
Plum, Washington.840 
THE qUERIST. 
American Merluos, who owns?...857 
a pple-treee, Paradise,from seed.843 
Asparagus, fertilization of, 
blooms... 856 
Ayrshire Herd Book.857 
Barberry plants, when-to get...843 
Blush potato, weight Of.857 
Hull, selecting a Jersey, etc.857 
Butter-worker* and eburus.656 
Cattle, anthrax tever la....use 
Cleveland Bay Horses.856 
Chickens, for Winter layers.... MS 
Cotton-seed meal, to buy.843 
Crossing Brown Leghorns and 
Plymouth Hooks.856 
Feed-mill Investment.857 
Flue sawdust.657 
Forestry. book on....848 
Fowls, membranes of throat 
thtekenlng.857 
Fruit queries, Mich...,., . ms 
Getting Immigrants.856 
Grape. It. N.-Y., to buy.848 
— Victoria .. .849 
Grease, a good harness,..856 
Heel, sore on horse’s.856 
Horse, diphtheria In a.856 
— removing callusfom footof.857 
— throat, gland Inflamed .857 
— sprain of the hack tendon 
In a .. 857 
Iowa, weight of bushel of corn 
tn .857 
Mare, rhrumutlsm In a.856 
Outs, wild. 886 
Oltul, stable manure and fish... .836 
Phylloxera. 843 
Potatoes, difference In Beauty 
Hebron and White Elephant..856 
Remedy for hard milking.856 
Sorghum bolter than corn for 
Autumn f« ed, U?.856 
Spattering milk, how avoided?.856 
Swine, meningitis. 856 
Transparent cement to mend 
glass.356 
wheat, earliest.848 
Wyamlotte, where to get.857 
VINEYaRP. 
Grape, Empire State ..8-10 
Vergennee...889 
- at tt. G.889 
rape seeds, don’t swallow.8§ 
