THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
m 
pion, Black Spanish, Cuban Queen, Vick’s 
Early, Icing, Boss, Scaly Bark, Ferry’s Peer- 
less, Burpee’s Iron-Clad are all good. 
It will be well for our readers to turn to the 
Rubal's Index for 1884, and see what has been 
said of all the above kinds of seeds. It is a mat¬ 
ter of regret to us that for the benefit of new 
readers w r e cannot And space to republish, in 
detail, the results of the tests made at the 
Rural Experiment Grounds. 
A new potato s«nt. out by the great seeds- 
house, Vilnao in & Co., of Paris, is named 
Institut de Beauvais. The Revue Horticole 
says that it is of "the general appearance of 
Early Rose, never producing any but large 
or medium sized tubers”. 
When Kansas has a cold, severe Winter 
the next season’s crop will he a good one. The 
Wakeeney World reasons, therefore, that the 
crops of Kansas will be grand next season. 
So let us hope!... 
It seems that the seed of sorghum may be 
made to yield a fine quality of glucose which, 
sweetened with cane juice, is superior, in ap¬ 
pearance at least, to cane sirup . 
OCR friend, the Philadelphia Weekly Press, 
says that it is surprising that the inaguificent 
Weeping Beech is so rarely planted on lawus. 
We have one 11 years old that is still too 
young to show any of its characteristic 
beauty. A tree that needs 15 years to begin 
to show what it is, is slow to command appre¬ 
ciation. Besides, it does not succeed well 
everywhere. 
The Worden Grape is gaining friends here 
and there... 
White Plume Celery is praised by some and 
considered a humbug by others. It is not a 
humbug and will be found valuable in just 
exactly its proper place. 
The Farmer's Gazette says that Toulouse 
geese attain a weight of 22 pounds: some¬ 
times, iu exceptional cases, 84 pounds. In 
France, where they are indigenous, the geese 
are sent to feed in the fields like sheep, and are 
shut in pens at night. They attain full size at 
six months old, and are then ready to fatten.. 
Chari.es Richard Dodge, writing to the 
Husbandman, says that no man ot intelli¬ 
gence or "hard sense” was ever hurt by trav¬ 
el. The very fact that he hasacquired certain 
fixed habits of life iu bis own home will make 
him the better satisfied with thut home after 
trying "to put up” wuh other people’s ways 
of living away from it But, then, a man 
must travel with both eyes open. 
The Planter’s Journal gives an extract 
from a prize essay written by Henry Stewart 
on “Self-Supporting Employment for South¬ 
ern Women,” in which be speaks of poultry 
and bees; of flowers, herbs and seedsaflording 
valuable oils; of dairy products, silk culture, 
and fruits, us offering to the women of the 
South a wide field of labor, that will prove 
sell supporting and agreeable; eggs, butter, 
cheese and honey finding piofltable sale in 
Northern markets at seasons of scarcity. 
The editor of the Gardeners' Monthly says 
that possibly some one will arise who will fol¬ 
low closely in Charles Downing’s steps, and 
continue in the good work just as he would 
have pursued it; but the experience of history 
is against the thought. ‘There will be but one 
Charles Dowtnug; and as we lay his remains 
in tbo grave, the tears of American pomology 
everywhere drop over them as for its greatest 
treasure gone beyond recall. 
During the past year Mr. Downing answer¬ 
ed more questions and wrote more articles for 
the R N. Y. than for auy other journal. The 
last letter we received from him presented a 
year’s subscription to a friend. The letter 
said "Ho not send me any more questions in 
at least two months. 1 am not well enough 
to answer them.".... 
Du. Twitcheli. estimates the cost of f. ed- 
ing a fow 1 one year, at present prices, from 90 
cents to §1.00, and he thinks auyoue that goes 
at the bUMtie»a iu the right way ought to 
make §2 00 a year on each ben. V\ ith a stock 
of 500 hens we should be able to raise 1,000 
chickens in a season. Allowing one half to be 
males, they should sell for 90 cents each at six 
months of age. The hens, he thinks, should 
lay at. least 130 eggs, and, he estimates that 22 
cents are not too much to reckon as the aver¬ 
age price per dozen f. r the year. 
Life says that Md. is the best State for a 
doctor; Wash, the best Territory fora tramp; 
Penn, for hogs; 111 for bad health; Me. the 
State we like the best; Miss, for a poor shot; 
O. tor those who can’t pay; Ark. in case of 
a flood; Ore. for rniuers. It coucludes that 
Tenn. is worth more than nine States put to¬ 
gether, and that the two Slates oftenest to¬ 
gether are Whs. aud Ky. 
Take any shallow box—say four inches 
deep. In the bottom place coal cliukers for 
drainage. Fill with good mellow soil to with¬ 
in an inch of the top. Press it dowu firmly. 
Place the seeds ou this aud press them into the 
MARY WAGER FISHER. 
Potentate Potato. (From Nature.) Fig 71. (See page 118.) 
moisture and to prevent the young plants 
from “damping off.”..... 
New farm manures plowed under in the 
Spring, will have very little effect upon next 
season’s crops. Their effects will be apparent 
the second season, and, to some extent, for 
years after. 
We are sorry to know that Luther H. Tuck- 
seen took but half the milk from the first cow, 
aud then went to the next, taking half, and 
so on until the pail was full, when they would, 
after emptying the pail, return to the first, 
and then to the second, and so ou. This slight 
rest gave the cow time to letdown her milk, 
and thus a larger yield was secured. 
Mr. A. W. Cheever, of the N. E. Farmer, 
^or.il New-Yorker. 
Bonanza Potato. (From Nature.) Fig. 73. (See page 118.) 
er, who for many years has held a leading 
share in the Country Gentleman’s business 
and editorial management, has been obliged 
to go South owing to failing health. 
MR. Bekkman, in the New York Tribune, 
says that commercial fertilizers will give any 
farmer, having faith iu them, and the intel¬ 
ligence necessary for judicious purchase aud 
use, the power to take a ruu-down farm, aud 
almost immediately put it into a productive 
% 
Seedling Pear. (From Nature.) Fig. 76. (See page 119.) 
says that the White Plume Celery upon light, 
dry soils is worthless. 
Major Alvobd, of Houghton Farm, be¬ 
lieves that the best cross for dairy cows is be- 
condition... 
He also says that to grow less than we might 
with a given expense, is scarcely less wasteful 
than to gather but a portion of what is grown. 
In regard to innovations, the majority of 
people are prolific of prophecies as to the 
result As an illustration of this, one has only 
to read a history of the steam engine as ap¬ 
plied to railroads, and note the dire outcome 
that the “prophetic,” saw would come about, 
particularly the thousands of horses and 
cattle that would be frightened back into pri¬ 
mal wildness at the sight of a steam engine 
flying on rails across the country. Now. I sup¬ 
pose. there is no possible innovation that has 
called forth more deplorable results than “wo¬ 
man suffrage.” women voting, holding office, 
sitting on juries, and engaging in politics the 
same as men. From my childnood up, I think 
I listened to as much ••orthodox” talk about 
“woman'- sphere” as ever any girl did; but I 
fear the talk never amounted to much, for I 
was never able to see that what was bad for a 
-woman was good for a man, or that man were 
any better able no withstand evil surroundings 
or evil influences than were women. And so 
notwithstanding my Puritanic training, I 
was an arrant heretic while still in my 
teens,” so far as “woman’s sphere" was con¬ 
cerned. I believed in a woman bring a "doctor, 
lawyer, farmer, priest”—if she wanted so to be, 
and l couldn't see that she would be any the 
less womanly for her work; for it is not what 
a person does, but what he is. that constitutes 
manliness or womanliness, which are the same 
in quality. A woman may be a fool and be fem¬ 
inine; bub a fool cau’tbe womanly. To be 
womanly, there must be a goodly stock of 
common sense and strength of mini, a warm 
heart, a gentle spirit and a "level head." A 
womanly woman is the only ideal woman, one 
who is loyal, orave, true, loving, patient, 
chaste, devoted, and, above all, what we call 
“sensible"—common sense allied to sensibility 
—and capable of taking care of herself. For a 
woman who is not capable of taking care of 
herself, if she has health, is far from being in 
a position to assert or maintain her womanli¬ 
ness, for there is nothing so craven and hu¬ 
miliating as to be dependent on the whims 
and caprices of other people, particularly 
your relatives! But what 1 had in mind to 
treat upon, in this letter, was woman suf¬ 
frage in Washington Territory, and Che result 
of its operation: and I may as well say that 
I have never been what is popularly termed a 
“woman suffragist,” I have always believed 
what ail persons of “sense” believed—that 
woman had as much right to the ballot as 
men, and that our foremothers were, as the 
school boy said, “a long ways off from being 
smart'’ in not claiming representation when 
they were taxed, along with the forefathers, 
so long as they helped to fight the battles of 
Freedom! 
When we reached the Territory, women had 
only voted at one municipal election, but they 
had served as jurors aud one or t-vo ba l been 
appointed notaries. The bill giving suffrage 
passed the Legislature of the Territory iu No¬ 
vember, 188o'. In that part of the Legislature 
answering to the Seuate. the majority was 
but one Of the two strongest opponents to 
the bill in the Legislature, one was a Demo¬ 
crat, an illiterate Irishman, a saloon keeper, 
and the other was a Republican. The Demo¬ 
crat admitted that women had as much right 
to the ballot as men; but he didn't want tbem 
to have It. Tue Republican said that a wom¬ 
an's place was at home—she had no business 
in politics, etc However, the women were en¬ 
franchised. simply because the majority of 
men in the Legislature believed that the 
direct influence of womeu was needed in the 
politics of the Territory, and it was not a 
matter of party, a-id never has been The 
only party arrayed against it, is what is 
called the “saloon party”—whisky meu, gam¬ 
blers, disreputable people of bosh sexes, and 
their allies, all persons opposed to "law aud 
order,” This party fought the suffrage bill 
with all the power it could command, and re¬ 
mains its unflinching and relentless enemy. 
Until the Territory becomes a State, and 
the constitution makes no distinction poli¬ 
tically as to its women or men citizens, the 
party will spare neither money nor means to 
obtain a repeal of the woman suffrage law. 
It may not be amiss for tue to give it as my 
opinion, that the womeu of Washington will 
not be disfranchised. 
Soon after our arrival here, the Republican 
convention of King County, was held in 
Seattle: then the Democratic county conven¬ 
tion, aud a little later the Republican Territo¬ 
rial convention, all of which we attended To 
botn the Republican Conventions women had 
been sent as delegates, aud quite a large num- 
ber of women were in constant attendance at 
soil. Cover with a quarter-inch of sand. This 
box may be kept on the mantel over the stove 
until the seeds sprout. In this way sow pansy, 
verbena, pelargonium, or, indeed, almost any 
of the ordinary seeds which sprout readily. 
The quarter-inch of sand will tend to preserve 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
XXVI 
tween the Jersey and Ayrshire, if crosses be¬ 
tween pure breeds are desired ... 
Puck improves an old quotation: 
“Wbat’s 1 1 ft name? Thai which we call a mule, 
By any other name would kick aa bard.". 
The best milkers the Dairyman has ever 
