THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JAN 47 
44 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
^National Journal for Country and Suburban . 
' "oducted by 
E. S. C A HU AN, 
Editor. 
J. S. WOODWARD, 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1885. 
Isn’t it strange that in the United 
States there are more thousands teaching 
music professionally than there are single 
persons teaching cooking, and yet every¬ 
body has to eat, and comparatively few 
sing. We advocate not fewer music 
teachers, but more teachers of cookery. 
We have still to put up the mixed corn, 
Stratagem Peas and Evergreen Beans. 
We are now working at the Stratagem 
Peas. They are the finest lot of seed- 
peas we have ever seen, There is not 
a weevil to be found. About sixty seeds 
will be sent to each applicant. If not 
obliged to wait lor the Evergreen Beans, 
which are to come from France, we shall 
be able to commence mailing the Distri¬ 
bution in early February. 
SHALL SMALL BILLS GO? 
We canuot quite understand the mo¬ 
tives of certain legislators at Washing¬ 
ton and certain newspapers as well, in 
urging the passage of a bill to abolish 
the use of the one and two dollar bills, 
unless it be a desire to force into circula¬ 
tion the enormous hoard of silver dollars 
now in the Treasury vaults, and which is 
beiDg constantly increased by fresh coin¬ 
age. While the silver dollar is well 
enough in its place, and we may all be 
glad enough to get hold of it, yet sixteen 
of them weigh a pound, and it is no 
slight annoyance to be compelled to have 
our pockets filled with them, and all 
must admit that they are not so conveni¬ 
ent as the greenback or the national bank 
dollars. The people arc quick to per¬ 
ceive those things most conducive to their 
comfort, and it is a fact most patent to 
everj'body that the silver dollar is not a 
favorite, and it is only taken when small 
bills can not be obtained. 
We believe that in the matter of the 
currency. Government should study the 
wishes of the masses, and should furnish 
that which they prefer. It may make 
little difference to the wealthy and large 
operators who do business by thousands; 
but to the day laborer and the man of 
small means and to those people who 
wish to use money in small quantities,and 
especially to the farmer who must neces¬ 
sarily carry considerable money about bis 
person, the substitution of silver for 
small bills will be a great annoyance, and 
we hope Congress will steadfastly refuse 
such enactments. 
A GOOD PROTECTION FOR TREES. 
We suggest that as a shield for trees 
liable to be girdled or gnawed by mice or 
rabbits, there is no better or, in the end, 
cheaper protection than wire meshing, 
such as is used in door and window 
screens. It costs but a trifle—a cent or 
two per square foot—can be purchased of 
any width desired, and by being rolled 
into a tube a little smaller than the dia¬ 
meter of the tree, before being applied, 
it will remain in place by its own elastici¬ 
ty, and need no tying. In Spring the 
protectors can he easily removed and 
S acked into bundles for storage. This 
as the advantage over tarred paper, 
bark, or any close covering, of not keep¬ 
ing light or air from the body of the tree. 
For protection of street or lawn trees, in 
danger of being eaten, a coarser galvan¬ 
ized meshing can be used, and by being 
put on with the edges overlapping, will 
adapt itself to the growth of the trees; 
the same material, with suitable mesh, 
can he used to protect orchard trees 
where it is desired to pasture sheep. 
That, three or at most four feet high, 
would be amply sufficient, as sheep sel¬ 
dom commence to bark a tree higher than 
one or, at most, two feet; and if put on, 
as we suggested for street trees, wrth the 
edges overlapping, it could remuin with¬ 
out further notice until the trees out¬ 
grew it, with no injury to the trees. 
Try it, friends, and report results. 
-- 
FARMERS AS MINERS. 
Ws learn from our Western “ex¬ 
changes” that large numbers o 1 farmers, 
discouraged by the low prices of cereals, 
have turned their attention to prospect¬ 
ing for and working mines. In Montana 
they arc searching for copper; in Missouri 
for iron and coal; in Wisconsin for va¬ 
rieties of earth used in the manufacture 
of cheap paints, and in Illinois for lead. 
We have not noticed that they have yet 
found anything of value; but they still 
hunt briskly, allured by that will-o’-the- 
wisp, hope. Tn no other calling to which 
men devote their energies is there such a 
large proportion of blanks to prizes as 
in working mines, except in prospecting 
for them. We hear only of the few suc¬ 
cesses; about, the thousands of failures 
in which men have sunk money, health, 
time and hope, who ever hears or heeds? 
The vast majority of miners would have 
been far better off if they had stuck to 
any of the ordinary occupations of life. 
Even where labor is in least demand, and 
its reward poor and precarious, more can 
be made from it than by tramping over 
the country in search of mineral outcrops. 
The farmer is the last man who should 
abandon the business he knows for the 
uncertainties of mining. At the worst, 
he eau get a living out of the soil, for he 
can eat what he grows—how many hun¬ 
dreds of thousands in this country to-day 
would be grateful for such an assur¬ 
ance! With shrewd Western farmers 
this mining craze can only be transient. 
After a short trial of the unrequited 
hardships of a miner’s life, most of them 
will gladly lay down the pick-axe and 
take up the shovel and the hoe; but a few 
unfortunates will probably become infatu¬ 
ated with the wandering life, and finally 
sink into that other vagrant class, the 
tramp. 
THE OKLAHOMA BOOMERS. 
News comes from Washington that 
Col. Hatch has started from Fort Leaven¬ 
worth, Kansas, to the Indian Territory 
with a strong force to expel the “boom¬ 
ers,” “thousands” of whom have recently 
flocked into Oklahoma on the report that 
Congress would soon open the district to 
settlement,and that the incoming Admin¬ 
istration would not disturb them. No 
fewer than six railroads, having termini 
just on the borders of the Territory, are 
waiting impatiently fur permission to 
push the roads through, and these will 
want laud grants enougd to take up a 
large share of the country, while cattle 
kings are already 7 fencing a great propor¬ 
tion of it. The “boomers” insist that 
the region is already Government proper¬ 
ty, and legitimately open to settlement, 
and although the Government has fre¬ 
quently expelled the intruders, it has 
never brought the question for decision 
before the courts, though repeatedly chal¬ 
lenged and besought to do so. It is said 
that if small settlers wait until the country 
is formally thrown open by the Govern¬ 
ment,therailroads and cattle kings will mo¬ 
nopolize all of it that is of any value be¬ 
fore homesteaders or preempting can ac¬ 
quire a footing, hence the popularity of 
the “boomer” movemeut along the Iron- 
tier. In a fisticuff tussle with the intru¬ 
ders, the other day, a compauy of troops 
were so roughly handled that they had to 
retire in sad discomfiture. Col. Hatch is 
reported to have two Hotchkiss guus with 
his command, and to have resolved not to 
risk a man at short-range fighting, but to 
open on the “boomers” with loDg-range 
guns. Although the “boomers” may 
have no right in the Territory, still we 
protest against this ruthless mode of treat¬ 
ing them. If the United States army is 
to make war on poor American intruders 
into a section about the title of which 
there is considerable doubt, why does it 
not treat in the same way the foreign and 
native capitalists and syndicates who il¬ 
legally monopolize principalities of the 
public domain about the title of which 
there is no doubt whatever. Why should 
this great Government show more favor to 
the rich than to the poor; to the alien 
than to the citizen ? 
THE BARBED WIRE FENCE MONOP¬ 
OLY. 
The Washburn & Moen Manufacturing 
Company, the barbed wire fence monop¬ 
olists, having been defeated in the United 
States Circuit Courts in Missouri and 
Iowa, and having triumphed in that of 
Illinois, have just been seeking to repeat 
their Chicago triumph at Pittsburg. 
Some time back they granted a licence to 
H. M. Scutt A Co. of that city, authoriz¬ 
ing them to manufacture a certain speci¬ 
fied amount of wire annually and sell it 
at a stipulated price, the manufacturers 
agreeing not to handle any other kind of 
wire and to make monthly statements of 
the amount made, and pay the monopo¬ 
lists a royalty of three-fourths of a cent 
per pound. It is alleged that the defend¬ 
ants have made more than their allowance; 
that they have not make the monthly 
returns as required, uor have they 
been paying royalty, and that they have 
sold for a lower price than that stipulat¬ 
ed. The defence is that the monopolists 
first violated the contract by issuing 
licenses to manufacture to a greater num¬ 
ber of persons than plantiffs and defend 
ants had mutually agTeed upon; and then 
the cutting of prices was fust begun by 
the monopolists. Judge Aeheson has 
decided that,pending the trial,the defend¬ 
ants shall make monthly statements to 
the plantiffs until the case shall be decid¬ 
ed on final hearing,and shall give $20,000 
bond for royalty and udj damages that 
may be decided against them; but 
lie refused to grant a preliminary injunc¬ 
tion forbidding them to continue manu¬ 
facturing the wire. The monopolists own 
over 100 patents; hut the Kelley and Glid- 
den patents are those on which they 
found a broad claim, and there is little or 
no doubt that these will he declared inval¬ 
id by the United States Supreme Court, 
when the c?»se comes before it on appeal 
from Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. The 
case from Illinois was put on the docket 
over a year ago, and nearly a year ago those 
from Missouri and Iowa; but so many cases 
are now before the Court,that this will not 
be reached for over two years yet. Surely 
the bill now before Cougress providing 
for an increase of the number of judges, 
with a view to expedite business, should 
be passed in the interests of the vast num¬ 
ber of people who are suffering hardships 
from the law’s -wearisome delays. 
DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN IN¬ 
DUSTRIES. 
In view of the fact that the past year 
has been one of extremely low prices, 
which in many cases have not paid either 
the producer or manufacturer, the ag¬ 
gregate of investments made in the South 
is very remarkable. The stoppage or 
curtailment of work in many factories in 
the Northern manufacturing States shows 
that when it is difficult to obtain the cost 
of manufacture,contraction notexpansion, 
of production is to be expected. Such a 
condition is very unfavorable to new en¬ 
terprises, yet the Manufacturers’ Record 
tells us of 1,885 new undertakings started 
during the year in the fouiteen Southern 
States, with a total capital of $105,209,- 
500,and the list is by no means complete. 
Of course, most of this capital is from 
the North and West; but it goes South 
not from sentimental or benevolent mo¬ 
tives, but simply because it finds there 
good opportunities of securing profitable 
returns. Time was not very long ago 
when New England almost monopolized 
the manufacture of cotton and wool, and 
Pennsylvania that of iron; but of late 
producing agencies are being widely dis¬ 
tributed all over the country wherever 
the most favorable conditions exist, and 
cotton and woolen mills, blast furnaces, 
foundries and machine shops are spring¬ 
ing up in such numbers in the South that 
it looks as if that section would soon be 
able to supply its own population. The 
heavy freight charges on crude cotton and 
wool to distant factories,and on the man¬ 
ufactured goods on their way back, will 
thus be avoided, together with consider¬ 
able wastage in transit and exactions of 
agents and other middle-men. In many 
parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Ala¬ 
bama and Tennessee coal and iron ore are 
close together, affording excellent oppor¬ 
tunities for the development of the iron 
industry, and European as well as North¬ 
ern capital is making heavy investments 
in this line. Minor manufacturing indus¬ 
tries, too, are finding numerous remuner¬ 
ative openings,and agriculture is improv¬ 
ing in its methods, becoming more diver¬ 
sified, and extending its area owing to 
the influx of Northern and European 
farmers and stock raisers. The presence 
of manufacturing industries is highly ad¬ 
vantageous to farmers in all sections; for 
they raise the value of real estate, supply 
goods at lower prices than those at 
which they can be obtained from a dis¬ 
tance, and afford a home market for a 
good deal of agricultural products. 
CANADIAN RECIPROCITY AND AN¬ 
NEXATION. 
It is nearly impossible to take up a 
Canadian paper in which there is no re¬ 
ference to commercial reciprocity be¬ 
tween the Dominion and the United 
States. This question seems to be one of 
burning interest to our northern neigh¬ 
bors at the present timu. The opponents 
of the Government are iuveighing 
against the Ministry for not securing a 
reciprocity treaty t Avith this country; and 
the Ministerial papers, notably the To¬ 
ronto Mail, insist that the Government 
has done everything consistent with its 
dignity to obtain such a treaty, They 
point out that in the Canadian tariff act 
of 1879, still in force, there is a statutory 
invitation to the United States to estab¬ 
lish reciprocity, which still remains unac¬ 
cepted. Before Canada adopted a pro¬ 
tective tariff against this country in 1865, 
every legitimate effort was made by the 
authorities of that country to secure from 
Washington a renewal of the previous 
commercial relations between the two 
countries; and ever since then our Gov¬ 
ernment has been fully aware of the 
readiness of the Canadian authorities to 
form the most liberal sort of a reciprocity 
treaty. This country, however, seems to 
think that such a treaty would be a one¬ 
sided affair — that the advantages we 
would give would be much greater than 
those we could receive. This will always 
he the case where free trade with fifty 
millions of people is allowed in exchange 
for free trade with four millions; hence 
there is little or no desire*, on this side of 
the line, for a reciprocity treaty with the 
Dominion, 
We think our Canadian friends are 
greatly mistaken in the opinion which is 
so frequently reiterated, among them, that 
this unwillingness is due to a wish or in¬ 
tention on the part of this country to 
“starve Canada into annexation,” The 
possible annexation of the Dominion is a 
matter scarcely ever spoken or thought of 
by the people of the United States, ex¬ 
cept, perhaps, by those living close to 
the boundary line; and the great majori¬ 
ty of these have no desire for it, as it 
would, of course, result in the most lib¬ 
eral kind of reciprocity, and they are 
generally opposed to reciprocity, on the 
ground that the free importation of Ca¬ 
nadian products would injure their own 
interests. The question is relatively so 
unimportant on this side of the line, and 
of such remote contingency, that Ameri¬ 
can papers rarely discuss it, and never do 
so, except, as in the present instance, 
when the discussion is suggested in some 
way by our neighbors, and even then one 
very seldom sees even a passing reference 
to it in papers published in any Btate 
south of those bordering on the Dominion. 
There are here few, if auy, advocates 
of such a measure, though when it is 
thought (»f at all, there is a vague sort of 
feeling that it is a question we may have 
to decide upon some day on account of 
the solicitude for it on the part of Canada 
herself. There is no doubt that Canada 
wtuld gain many great commercial ad¬ 
vantages by annexation; hence we can 
readily see a multitude of reasons why 
a large proportion of the inhabitants of 
Nova Scotia on the east, and of Manitoba 
on the west, advocate such a union. 
Moreover as the total average rate of 
taxation in the “States” is nearly 5U per 
cent, less than the average rate in the 
Dominion, annexation would equalize this 
difference, and while tlure would be a 
large reduction in the taxes of our friends, 
we would have to pay a good proportion 
of the load of debt freely piled up by our 
heavily tax-ridden neighbors. 
--- 
BREVITIES. 
Read what Prof. Sheldon says of Short¬ 
horns. 
We are receiving many calls from farmers 
who wish to see our mammoth potatoes. 
We should be pleased if some of our experi¬ 
enced farmers would tell of the best way they 
know of, to cure pork. 
Our friend, John Burr, of Leavenworth, 
Kansas, reports (January 5th), that on care¬ 
ful examination of the peach buds, he is satis¬ 
fied they are all right so far. 
Note.— The Rural New - Yorker is 
promptly discontinued at the end of the sub¬ 
scription term. Any numbers mailed after¬ 
wards are sent by mistake or as specimens, 
and no charge Is ever made. Recipients 
should refute to pay for papers sent, after the 
term subscribed and paid for has expired. 
Years ago the farm and garden papers 
wen* looked to for information as to hot-beds, 
cold-frames, planting seeds, etc. Now all this 
information may be found in the seedsmen’s 
and nurserymen's catalogues. Send for them, 
therefore, as annouuced. We request all of 
our readers to mention the K. N-Y. in cor¬ 
responding with those who advertise in its 
columns. It is helpful to our subscribers, our 
advertising patrons, and ourselves. 
pr is with much regret wo learn that our 
venerable friend, Charles Downing, lies dan¬ 
gerously ill at. Ids home at Newhurg, N, Y. 
It will be remembered that he was seriously 
injured by a horse car in this city about two 
years ago, and ho bus never fully recovered 
from the evil effects. Aft be is now eighty- 
four years old, and has been in feeble health 
for some tune, grave fears are entertained of 
his condition. There are few in this or any 
other country who, in this age, have done 
more for pomology than Mr, Downing, and 
few would be so widely and sincerly lamented. 
