THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Ilo .n 
'uducted by 
E. S. CABMAN, 
J. S. WOODWARD, 
Editor. 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-STORKER, 
No. at Pakk Row, New VTork. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 3. 1885 
The Rural New Yorker will pay 
$1,000 to any person who can prove that 
during 1884 any advertisement was ac¬ 
cepted for less than its published rates. 
We hold that publishers can not make 
special rates to one class of advertisers 
without defrauding other classes who are 
not thus favored. 
Suppose you plant ten different kinds 
of corn or potatoes, and you find that one 
of these will yield 25 per cent, more than 
any of the others; why not plant the 
variety of corn or potatoes that yields the 
most. But how are you to find' this out 
except by planting the ten kinds? Truly, 
farmer-friends, tests of this kind—even 
in a small way—will pay you well. 
- 
One of the oldest, hardiest, rarest and 
most beautiful evergreen trees we know 
of, is the Japan Umbrella Pine—Scia- 
dopitys verticillata. We have fully 
described and illustrated this before, but 
we are more and more pleased with it as 
our solitary specimen grows older, It 
grows very slowly during the first six 
years, but in Japan it reaches a bight of 
100 feet with age. 
“Shall we continue to plant the Con¬ 
cord as a market grape?” This is one of 
the questions to he discussed at the next 
meeting of the Western N. Y. Hort. So¬ 
ciety. “ Straws show which way the 
wind blows.” With our present experi¬ 
ence and convictions we shall never, for 
any purpose whatsoever, except, it may 
be as a stock for other varieties, plant 
another Concord. 
Our plants of the hybrid between 
wheat and rye are at this time very differ¬ 
ent from any of the many kinds of wheat 
planted last Fall. The leaves are very 
narrow, the longer ones hugging the 
ground closely, the shorter ones standing up 
like young Blue Grass. Have any of our 
readers noticed that those wheats which, 
while growing, have narrow, recumbent 
leaves, are hardier than those which have 
upright, wide leaves? 
Subscribers should never take the 
trouble to write us to discontinue the 
Rural New-Yorker. We aim to take 
the names out of our list at the end of the 
subscription term. If overlooked, no 
charge is made for the additional copy 
or copies mailed. Whether morally or 
legally considered, it is the duty of all 
publishers either to discontinue a journal 
at the close of the subscription term, or 
not to claim payment thereafter. 
Judging thus early, it is very plain 
that the presents to be given to subscri¬ 
bers (only to subscribers) for the largest 
clubs which they may send us before May 
1st, will be earned—as we presumed they 
would be—by very low numbers; and it 
further appears that we have offered a 
good many more presents than we shall 
receive clubs. Of coarse, we would glad¬ 
ly have it otherwise; Btill, what will be 
the Rt ral’s loss will prove the gain of 
those of our good friends who do send 
clubs, whether large or small. 
» ♦ » — 
Here is a report of our nine Wyan¬ 
dotte hens hatched last Spring: 
From the 27th of September, the date 
when the first hen began to lay, until 
December 22, inclusive, we have had 
251 eggs. Much the same may be said 
in their favor as of the Plymouth Rocks. 
They mature rather earlier than the Ply¬ 
mouth Rocks and are prettier in feather, 
but thus far we prefer the latter, because 
their eggs average larger and are of a 
lighter color. Now, readers, don’t be 
carried away by the extravagant praise 
bestowed upon this new breed by poultry 
journals and those who praise without 
ever having raised a Wyandotte hen. 
Wk hope the American Pomological 
Society will not carry the shortening of 
the names of fruits too far. Shortjnames 
are desirable certainly, but they may be 
so curtailed as to resemble too closely 
numbers or hieroglyphics. It is always 
well that a name should carry with it 
something descriptive, or at least some¬ 
thing which serves to fix it in the mem¬ 
ory. There is also a harmony—a fitness 
in certain long names as applied to the 
finer fruits of the earth, which can not be 
conveyed in short words. For example, 
we should prefer not to change the name 
of the Beauty of Kent Apple, to “Kent;” 
Maiden’s Blush to “Blush;” Pomme Grise 
to “Gnse;” Belle Lucrative Pear to “Lu¬ 
crative;” Louise Bonne dc Jersey to either 
“Bonne” or “Jersey;” Highland Hardy 
Raspberry to “Hardy;” Windsor Chief 
Strawberry to “Chief.” As to descrip¬ 
tive names, -we should not change Sum¬ 
mer Hagloe Apple to “Hagloe;" Winter 
Nellis Pear to “Nellis;” Moore’s Early 
Grape to “Moore's,” etc., etc. All will 
second the American Pomological Society 
in rejecting all unseemly, coarse or vul¬ 
gar names as also in abbreviating those 
which are absurdly or aimlessly long. 
CARE IN EXPERIMENTS. 
So many conflicting statements are 
made by so many individuals who claim 
to be working in the field of experiment, 
agriculturally and horticulturally, that in 
order to place due weight on each, we 
need a directory, with each man graded as 
to his ability, honesty and means of infor¬ 
mation, and so marked, by some sign, 
that we may know just how much value 
is to be placed upon his “facts,” so that 
the public may not be misled. 
We are led to this remark by the extra¬ 
ordinary conflict of “facts” (so-called) 
brought out during the past year concern- I 8ure to result in an unusually large crop 
— <u. -c-I of foreclosures of mortgages. The prin¬ 
cipal gainers will be the partners, pets or 
ing which there will be a surplus. Presi¬ 
dent Adams, of the Union Pacific, the 
most cruelly extortionate of all the com¬ 
panies, is constantly boasting of the great, 
prosperity of his road. In fact the stories 
all the managers tell in Wall Street, 
where they want to keep up the prices of 
the shares of their roads, are entirely dif¬ 
ferent from those they repeat to the rail¬ 
road commissioners, hoards of trade, 
farmers’ delegates, and others who appeal 
to them to reduce ratesso as to allow their 
ordinary customers a chance to live and 
keep their holdings. 
The roads between Chicago and New 
York, according to official reports, carry 
grain for less than a cent a ton per mile*; 
yet they earn millions every year. 'l ake 
the New York Central, for instance: it 
has been paying eight per cent, for a num¬ 
ber of years on stock which the late 
“Commodore” Vanderbilt doubled by 
“watering;” so that the eight per cent, 
on the nominal capital has amounted in 
reality to 10 per cent, on the real capi¬ 
tal. If Vanderbilt can earn 16 per cent, 
carrying grain lrom Chicago to New York 
for four-fifths of a cent per mile, he 
ought to earn enough on the North-west¬ 
ern carrying grain to Chicago at less than 
two cents per ton per mile, and the same 
can be said of other railroad managers. 
We see that some Western papers esti¬ 
mate that “more than half the wheat lands 
of the West and Northwest, are mortgaged, 
the farmer paying from 8 to 10 per cent, 
interest” together with a bonus on the 
loan, -which would make the interest as 
high as 11 to 13 per cent. During peri¬ 
ods of distress of the agricultural com¬ 
munity, the usurers reap the richest har¬ 
vest; and the present “hard times” are 
ing 
the effects of cross-fertilization on 
strawberries, and the claims made regard¬ 
ing the hybridization of certain fruits. 
There must be some egregious blundering 
somewhere, or else some who write so flu¬ 
ently upon these subjects, must have oh 
served only as they write—at the desk. 
We want greater care in observing, better 
arrangements for eliminating every source 
of error or uncertainty, and, above all. 
complete honesty in recording results. 
It is so hard, and takes so long, to fol¬ 
low observations through the season 
even through several seasons sometimes, 
and to correct conclusions, and so easy to 
“cut across lots” to conclusions; so tempt¬ 
ing to record in print results that we 
think “ought to be facts,” that we do not 
wait to have it proved; as it were, we 
“jump at. conclusions” and having once 
concluded, we report them as facts. A 
man who will record other men’s obser¬ 
vations as bis own, may not be able to 
resist the temptation to originate facts to 
fit any hypothesis that to him seems plau¬ 
sible. There are too many examples of 
the truth of what we say. 
Now, fellow experimenters, be sure of 
your facts,and be honest in admitting an 
error, and in recording your facts. If you 
find a seedling fruit a little different from 
any other, be not too ready to announce 
its parentage; if you see a lruit a little 
out of its ordinary shape, be slow in as¬ 
signing a reason; first be sure you are 
right. Let us make haste slowly, and 
then when we compare testimony we shall 
not find such antipodal statements, and 
shall not err in our conclusions. 
•-♦♦ ♦- 
NO REDUCTION IN RAILROAD RATES. 
The railroads of the North-west, West, 
and South-west have, on various pre¬ 
tences, refused to comply with the appeal 
of the farmers and business men of those 
sections to reduce rates of transportation 
on grain to figures corresponding, at least 
to a moderate extent, with the exception¬ 
ally low prices of cereals throughout the 
entire country, and especially in the West, 
where the heavy freight charges are most 
disastrously felt both on account of then- 
extortionate nature and the distance of 
the owners of produce from markets. 
The demand for lower rates is generally 
met with the assertion that the rates are 
already as low as they can be made and 
permit the roads to live. This may be 
true with regard to a few roads which 
have been corruptly and infamously mis- 
managed or wrecked by speculative direc¬ 
tors and agents; but, according to the 
statements of the managers of the princi¬ 
pal roads, on Wall Street, they are all 
earning fine dividends, wrested from the 
pockets of their impoverished patrons. 
The manager sof the Milwaukee and St. 
Paul Road have just declared that their 
road has earned seven per cent, interest 
during the past year, besides accumula¬ 
ting a surplus of $1,600,000. President 
Clarke, of the Illinois Central, says his 
road earned 10 1-2 per cent, last year, and 
will earn 8 per cent, this year, after pay- 
protegCs of the railroad managers, who 
among the general distress, are able to 
keep a cheerful sp ; rit, as owing to the 
exceptionally favorable rates, rebates and 
concessions they obtain from the roads, 
they are able to profit by the embarrass¬ 
ment of their neighbors. The farmers 
and business men of the country could 
certainly put an end to many of the worst 
railroad abuses; and the man who tamely 
submits to oppression when a little exertion 
on his part will remove it, deserves to suffer. 
A CON VERSA TION. 
The American Cultivator, published id 
B oston, Mass.; the Massachusetts Plough¬ 
man, of the same city; the New England 
Farmer, also of the same city; the Maine 
Farmer, published somewhere in Maine— 
it doesn’t matter much where—the Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist, published on Fifth Av¬ 
enue, and the San Francisco Bulletin, of 
California, have refused to publish the 
regular yearly advertisement of the Rural 
New-Yorker. 
A Small Voice : Why is this? 
They All An wet ; Because the Rural is 
a competitor. 
A Small Voice: But you profess to be 
devoted to the true interests of agriculture, 
horticulture, pomology, and the like? 
Am: Yes. 
Small Voice: Do you think that the 
Rural New-Yorker is also devoted to 
the true interests of agriculture, etc.? It 
offers nothing for sale; it tests all sorts of 
novelties and offers impartial reports; it 
conducts u large farm in the interest of its 
readers; it is careful as to the class of ad¬ 
vertisements which it admits; its editors 
are farmers; the paper has introduced and 
disseminated some of the most valuable 
plants, seeds and tubers now in cultiva¬ 
tion. The Beauty of Hebron, White Ele¬ 
phant and Blush Potatoes; Cuthbeit 
Raspberry; Blount's Prolific, and Rural 
Thoroughbred Corn; the Clawson, Sur¬ 
prise, Fultzo- Clawson, Black - bearded 
Centennial, Shumaker, Diehl-Mediterra¬ 
nean wheats; many kinds of oats, roots, 
flower seeds, etc., which, numbering over 
100, cannot well be mentioned—all free 
of any charge or conditions, to its sub¬ 
scribers; are not these evidences that the 
R, N.-1 T . is also devoted to the interests 
of those who read it? 
Combined Paper*: No doubt. 
Small Voice: Then why do you refuse 
its advertisement? 
Co mb ha d Papers : Merely because it is 
a competitor. Are we called upon to hang 
the Rural’s picture, in our columns, and 
in this way to work against our own in¬ 
terests? Journalism is a business, the 
same as any other business, and it is an 
unwise policy to advertise your opponents. 
Small Voices: But you declare that your 
first aim in publishing jour journals is to 
promote the true interests of the country 
home. Your personal interests are second ¬ 
ary. 
Combined Papers : That is precisely 
what we claim. 
Small Voice: Well, do you object to the 
Rural’s advertisement because the paper 
is not what it professes to be? Is the ad¬ 
vertisement objectionable because it is 
disreputable, fraudulent, or anything of 
the kiud ? 
Combined Papers: No; we have spoken 
of the paper, to friends, as enterprising 
and trustworthy. 
Small Voice: Then, if you are devoted 
to agricultural interests, why not state 
this in your columns? Your individual 
interests may suffer; hut the cause of ag¬ 
riculture, which you have at heart, will he 
the gainer. 
Combined Papers: There is a difference 
between tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee. 
We love the agricultural interests of our 
country while they support us. We make 
them our first consideration theoretically 
—hut we can’t uphold them at the cost of 
our bread and butter. 
Small Voice: But if the Rl kal adver¬ 
tises in your columns, and in this way 
gains your subscribers, may not you ad¬ 
vertise in the Rural, and thus win over 
its subscribers? 
Combined Papers: Oh, what is the use? 
It would merely be an interchange of sub¬ 
scribers. Our readers are satisfied as 
they are. Why unsettle them? “Where 
ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise.” 
The above supposititious conversation 
is founded upon the facts which wc have, 
from timeto time, gleaned from correspon¬ 
dence and talks with the editors and 
employes of the farm journals above 
mentioned. 
BREVITIES. 
Do not tear the new leaf in turning it over. 
Would 3*ou stretch a barbed-wire fence iu 
cold or in warm weather? 
The farmers of Englaud should try the 
Johnson Grass—Sorghum halapense. No 
doubt it would prove hardy there. 
Chemists tell us the nutrient proportions of 
plants. They tell, for example, that Prickly 
Comfrey is very rich in flesh producing ma¬ 
terial. We wish they could tell us why ani¬ 
mals do not relish the feast 
The Rural, in its last Free Seed Distribu¬ 
tion, seut out the Diehl-Mcditerraneau Wheat. 
It is looking well all over the country. We 
shall have thousands of reports next Summer, 
and shall be greatly disappointed if it does 
not prove the coming winter wheat. 
The new Rural posters are now ready. 
They an- printed in two colors upon fine 
paper. These, with the Rural Si fplkment 
of Nov. 8. describing its Free Seed Distribu- 
tinn and $3,000 worth of gifts to subscribers 
who semi ns clubs, will be sent, post paid, to 
all who apply. 
The Rural's Free Seed Distribution for 
1885, will be seut to all subscribers who apply, 
inclosing a two-cent stamp. This we require 
as a guarantee of good faith. The postage 
alone wili not be less than five cents on each 
packet. We shall begin to distribute the 
seeds about February 1st. 
Have you the hardy perennial grasses, the 
Zebra striped Eulalia, which is striped traus- 
versely, and the other variegated Eulalia, 
which is striped longitudinally i You should 
have both. They are the hardiest aud pret¬ 
tiest grasses kuown. The feathery panicles 
of bloom, when cut in November, will last for 
a year or more. 
We were honored n few days ago bv a call 
from a lad v who is 85 years old. She has 
paid us a visit regularly once a year for sev¬ 
eral years past to renew her subscription to 
the Rural, because she says “If I ask my son 
to come in, he will forget it.” She is iu good 
health, has a clear mind, shows good judg¬ 
ment. and we think bids fair to give us a call 
for years to come. We shall ahvays have a 
cordial gxeeting for her. 
We have just completed setting square 
chestnut, posts (16 feet apart) which are to 
have four strands of barbed wire stretched 
upou them. The bottoms of these posts, and 
especially six inches above and below the sur¬ 
face soil, were first treated to raw husecd oil 
—petroleum would have arcs warned as well at 
a less cost—and then to a coating of tar. 
Some of our farmers always throw lime im¬ 
mediately ubout their posts after setting, and 
the plan is a good one. 
Youw'hoare foDd of the rare and beauti¬ 
ful, buy a plant of Uranus Plssaxdii next 
Spring. Its foliage is purple, which color is 
held more decidedly during the season than 
that of any other colored-foliage plant; and 
the leaves remain unharmed until u f ter frosts. 
The Rural in this, as iu all such matters, 
Speaks from experience. It confidently ad¬ 
vises its readers to try this plum, though the 
fruit itself is not worth much. 
llow the Rural is liked in Manitoba. 
—Iu renewing my subscription for another 
year to the Rubai. New Yorker, I cannot let 
the opportunity pass w ithout saving a word 
of praise to the editors for giving the farmers 
of America such a valuuble paper—so honest, 
truthful aud consistent to the farmers’ in¬ 
terests. How you can fill it each week with 
such valuable, interesting, and origiual read¬ 
ing puzzles many more besides Mr, Heckman. 
When I subscribed last year for the Rural, 
I dirt so more for the seeds than anything else, 
thinking that its general hints, suggestions, 
etc., would not. be adapted for this northern 
country. I was agreeably surprised to fiud 
that its art icles on agriculture, stock, etc , 
seemed as if written specially for us. You may 
put me down hs a Ufa-long subscriber, as I 
uever expect to get rich enough to get aloug 
without,the Rural New-Yorker ^ c. h. 
Lake Frances, Manitoba, Canada, 
