*70 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAR 14 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Conducted by 
E. S. CARMAN, 
Editor. 
J. S. WO OB WARD, 
Associate, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No, St Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1885. 
The Supplement of this week helps us 
along a little with the Farmers’ Club— 
but we are still greatly behind. We are 
now preparing for a double Supplement 
in two weeks. 
A treat for those who are interested in 
grapes will be presented in two weeks. 
We shall give a Grape Election week 
after next, which may guide our friends 
in selecting their grape-vines. 
The Rural always stops when the sub¬ 
scription term expires. Any numbers 
sent thereafter are accidental, and no 
charge is made. 
If the number of your address label is 
1834, your subscription term will expire 
next week; if 1835, the week after, and 
so on. Please look to this. 
During February our nine Wyandottes 
gave us 138 eggs, or an average of nearly 
five a day. We are surprised at the fecun - 
dity of this breed, as those of our readers 
will be who have noted our accurate 
reports. 
We often have occasion to wish that 
all our subscribers could visit the Rural 
Grounds and see for themselves what is 
there going on. We judge that they 
would give us credit for at least desiring 
to practice what we preach. 
Again we present a long list of cata¬ 
logue notices to which the attention of 
readers is directed. All progressive far¬ 
mers and gardeners should apply for 
them, examine them, and lay them aride 
for future reference, if not for immediate 
purposes of selection, until another year 
when the new issues may take their place. 
♦ - 
The prete .t Winter has been a trying 
one upon all hardy plants at the Rural 
Grounds. The thermometer has been 10 
degrees below zero, while there was no 
snow upon the ground. If our Sorghum 
halapense should pass through this sec¬ 
ond Winter without injury, we shall 
pronounce it absolutely haidy in this 
climate. 
Three different posters; the full account 
of our Free Seed Distribution; the offer 
of $2,800 in presents to subscribers for the 
largest clubs; our premium list and speci¬ 
men copies will be sent to all, post-paid, 
on application. We will also gladly send 
specimens to any list of names which our 
readers may send us in order to aid them 
in obtaining new subscribers. 
- *-■»-*-- - 
It will be a wonder if some of the farm 
implements or machines which were 
put away in the hurry of last Summer, 
do not now need repairs or improvements, 
and we can’t see how a few odd days can be 
spent, at this time to better advantage 
than in looking each machine all over 
carefully and putting it in the very best 
of order. It is also well to have plenty 
of plow extras and other repairs on hand, 
and now is the time to get them. 
Several of our subscribers have stated 
that they were disappointed in the tools 
of the Rural’s seed-packet, of crossed 
Indian corn. But you muBt not be disap¬ 
pointed in the looks ! Try the experiment 
yourselves of raising 60 strains of corn 
and emasculating alternate slots, and see 
what sort of ears are produced. Any of 
our subscribers who do not test this corn 
fairly and select the best seed from it, 
will make a grand mistake. 
The Rural has nothing to gain but 
much to lose by unduly praising the vari¬ 
ous kinds of seeds it sends all over the 
country to be tested. If it sold these seeds 
directly or indirectly, the case would be 
somewhat different. Even in that ease, 
however, we should deem it bad policy to 
praise them in such a way that those who 
buy them would be disappointed. In 
this very matter, it occurs to us that many 
of our seedsmen do not study their best 
interests. 
Mr. Alfred Rose, of Penn Yan, N. 
Y., who has raised some of the largest 
yields of potatoes on record, agrees with 
the Rural that scab is caused by the 
wire worm (lulus). He finds that the 
best protection against this pe9t is to cut 
the seed three to four weeks before plant¬ 
ing. He also finds that salt and ashes, 
or kalnit and plaster, used in the trench¬ 
es, well-mixed with the soil, have always 
given him smooth potatoes. He further 
recommends sulphur and lime slaked to¬ 
gether mixed with salt and ashes. 
— - » 
When this number reaches our 
readers it will be just exactly time to sow 
potato seeds in boxes or potato be placed 
in sunny windows. Treat them precisely 
as you would tomato seeds, and the 
plants may also be treated in the same 
way, though they will not. grow as fast 
as tomato plants. Three or four years ago 
we began to urge our readers to raise va¬ 
rieties of potatoes for themselves and we 
emphasized our remarks by illustrations 
from nature of the seed-leaves, true- 
leaves and the young tubers of the first, 
season’s growth. 
Notice to Canadian Friends. —The 
seeds for our Canadian friends will be 
sent by express to Niagara Falls, Ont., 
and there mailed about March 21st. By 
so doing we can save much in postage. 
All of our subscribers m Canada who 
have not applied for the seeds and who 
desire them, should send their applica¬ 
tions and stamps at once, and no one of 
our Cauadian friends should fail to obtain 
the twelve Marlboro Raspberry plants, 
which we will send them free for one nan 
subscriber. 
If it were not too much trouble, we 
should ask our older readers to look over 
the Rural for the past six years, and note 
how many of the great novelties in grain, 
vegetables, potatoes, forage plants, fruits 
and flowers, freely advertised as the most 
wonderful of their kinds, have been 
carefully tested at the Rural Grounds and 
condemned as worthless, or approximate¬ 
ly so. The Rural is credited, on the one 
hand, with having done good service to 
the farm and horticultural interests of the 
country, while, on the other, we have of¬ 
fended many (some of them worthy peo¬ 
ple) whose pete have been shorn of alleged 
merits, which did not belong to them. 
A NOTE FROM PROF. C. V. RILEY. 
“I LOOK through the R. N.-Y. with 
more pleasure than through any other 
agricultural journal I get. You are doing 
an excellent work. You are a little rough 
on the Department in last issue, but your 
position in some respects is justified. The 
little really important, original research 
done in the Department should, I think, 
have all the more appreciation because of 
the difficulties and discouragements under 
which it is done. Deep and radical re¬ 
form is needed in this institution, hut we 
shall only get it by working for it—if at 
all.” 
A WORD OF CAUTION. 
We are receiving numerous letters ask¬ 
ing where the seed of Johnson Grass can 
be obtained, some saying they wish to sow 
many acres. We have told all we know 
of Johnson Grass, of its hardiness, etc., 
and while we have great hopes of its suc¬ 
cess, in accordance with the Rural’s con¬ 
servative course, we have this caution to 
give: Go slowly, dear friends; the sam¬ 
ple of seed we send out is ample to give it 
a fair test. Sow this; give it good care, 
and wait and see how well you like, it, 
and how it endures the Winters where 
you live. It is no new thmg, and it is not 
best to get wild over its introduction to 
the North. You have lived long without 
it; you can endure one year more while 
giving it a fair test in a small way; then 
you will know from personal experience 
whether you want it. This is the wisest; 
the safest; and by far the best course to 
pursue. 
AGAIN ! ANOTHER PULL ! 
Within the next few weeks the majori 
ty of town elections will be held, and 
most of our friends will have attended. 
Let us suggest that you can accomplish a 
vast arnouut of good if you will make it a 
point to send for a few copies of the Ru¬ 
ral to take with you to show to neigh¬ 
bors and friends. Go and vote for the 
best men, irrespective of parti, and then 
spend a part of the day in showing the 
Rural to people and soliciting subscrip¬ 
tions. In this way you will benefit many. 
You will benefit your neighbors by induc¬ 
ing them to subscribe for the most prac¬ 
tical and reliable agricultural paper pub¬ 
lished—the only one owned, edited, and 
entirely controlled by every-day, practical, 
working farmers; you will greatly benefit 
the Ri ral, and place us under deep and 
renewed obligations to you by extending 
our circulation and influence, and giving 
us the means to still further improve the 
paper. You will benefit yourselves, be¬ 
cause in this way you can obtain the books 
we offer, the Marlboro Raspberry plants, 
some splendid grape-vines, or some one 
of our 321 presents for subscribers 
only. Try this plan, kind friends, and 
see how much more happy you will be 
when night comes than though you had 
wrangled all day on politics; polities are 
good in their place, but the dissemination 
of agricultural knowledge and the im¬ 
provement of our methods of farming, 
are worth a thousand times as much to 
the people. Will you not give us one 
more pull? 
A WORD OF EXPLANATION. 
We have numerous letters coutaimng 
two dollars, from persons asking us to 
place their names on our subscription list, 
and send them the raspberry plauts, or 
something else, as a premium, and asking 
what difference it makes to us whether 
they send their owu names or subscribe 
through some present subscriber? 
We have tried to make it very plain 
that no premium is ever given to a sub¬ 
scriber; that we consider the R. N.-Y. 
richly worth much more than we ask for 
it; that the Free Seed-Distribution, not¬ 
withstanding its great cost to us, in time, 
care, labor, and money, is in no sense a 
premium, but is given just as freely to a 
subscriber whose subscription expires tne 
next week, as to one whose name is just 
entered upon our books. Beyond this, 
everything we offer is intended to com 
pensate in some Little degree our very 
kind friends fur the efforts made by them 
to extend our circulation, by securing new 
subscribers, and not to pay for their own 
or any other person's renewal. Any not 
subscribers can avail themselves of these 
offers by sending with their own name and 
money, the name and money' of a new sub¬ 
scriber; so the- offer is veTy fair. Is it not? 
The difference it makes is this: while 
we cannot afford to give anything but the 
seeds with the Rural, we offer these 
presents as an inducement for extra work 
in securing new subscribers, in the hope 
and w'ith the belief that the persons so ob¬ 
tained, by reading the Rural one year, 
will become our friends and constant sub¬ 
scribers. We do not care for those so 
mercenary as to think more of a premium 
than of the paper. As we cannot afford 
to give presents to everybody, we certain¬ 
ly cannot discriminate against old friends 
in favor of strangers. Have we made it 
plain now? 
- * —♦- 
DEVIATIONS IN ADVERTISING RATES. 
Here are two men, each worth about 
the same. One is a whole-souled, honest 
man whom we will call Brown; the other 
a whispering, sharp fellow whom we will 
call Smith. They both have occasion to ad¬ 
vertise in the farm journals, and therefore 
wnte for the lowest, rates. Each receives 
a prompt reply. The unsuspecting Brown 
forwards his advertisement, relying 
upon the integrity of the publishers. 
Smith, however, offers 25 percent, less 
than the “lowest” rates quoted, adding: 
“I will not pay more. Accept or re ject 
as yiu like. I do not advertise in papers 
that will not give me special rates.” 
As Smith is known to be financially 
responsible, though suspected of being 
unscrupulous, many of the publishers, 
rather than lose his patronage, accept hi* 
proposition. Thus the unsuspecting, 
honest man is permitted to pay $1,000 
for the very same privileges which costs the 
rogue but $750. We need not, however, 
present Smith as an out-and-out rogue; 
the case would be tbe same if he were 
merely cautious and shrewd. 
Such supposed cases are l>y no means 
highly colored. Their counterparts ure 
of daily Occurrence in the experience of 
publishers. We do not, in the leasr, re¬ 
proach the man Smith for endeavoring to 
secure the real “lowest rates” of the va¬ 
rious periodicals in which he decides to 
advertise. We claim that all journals 
should be what they set themselves up as 
being—moral as well as intellectual 
guides. As such they are trusted by the 
straightforward, confiding Browns of the 
country, while the shrewd, exacting, faith¬ 
less Smiths reap the benefit of the others’ 
credulity. No, our reproach is upon those 
publishers, who, while filling one part of 
their journals with educational and moral 
truths, are, in their advertising columns, 
not only teaching double-dealing, but are 
actually assisting the avaricious, the 
exacting, the shrewd, the dishonest we 
may say, to triumph over the confiding, 
true and generous, and in a measure,’at 
the latter’s expense. 
4 Again, the live stock men, a very worthy 
and honorable class of people, are favor¬ 
ed with advertising rates by many of 
the so-called first-class farm and stock 
papers, that are but half as much (or less) 
as those charged seedsmen, nurserymen, 
florists, implement dealers, etc. Why is 
this? Nobody can blame the stockmen 
for securing the “very lowest” rate possi¬ 
ble. If they can “place” their advertis¬ 
ing at 15 or 20 cents per line, they would 
be little less than idiots to pay 25 to 40 
cents. But why men who claim to have 
any conscience or common honesty should 
charge one man or class of men 30 cents 
per line and give another the same ad¬ 
vantage for 15 or 20 cents, is what we 
can’t understand. We have been assured 
and re-assured that if the R. N.-Y. would 
accept “stock” advertisements at special 
rates, it could fill three or four pages with 
such patronage every week, and thus add 
$10,000 or more to its income. Other 
would-be advertisers say “Ob, the times 
are hard, and you must make a special 
rate to us, or we shall be obliged to leave 
you out of our list.” While we know the 
times are hard, we know also that the R. 
N.-Y. is better than ever before; that it 
costs moie to publish than ever before for 
paid contributions; for editorial work; 
for its original illustrations; we know 
that it circulates among a better and bet¬ 
ter class of people each year; that its cir¬ 
culation is as largeas ever before and bids 
fair to be larger before the close of the 
subscription season. Why, then should 
the Rural change its rates? 
Of one thing our patrons may rest 
doubly assured—if ever, for auy reason, 
we should reduce our advertising rates, 
they will be reduced to all alike. We re¬ 
spectfully submit, and in no spirit of envy 
—for the Rural enjoys at least a full 
share of appreciation and success—that 
the position we have taken is that which 
all right-minded publishers and editors 
must adopt and strictly stam'l by, if they 
would fill well and truly their positions as 
public teachers entitled to the unqualified 
respect and confidence of their rtaders. 
8RWVITIE8. 
Try the Ohio Rlnck-cap Raspberry. 
A landed question:—How to make the 
land "answer." 
A legal question:—Can the farm be “com- 
■pelted to pay?" 
CereIU)S questions:—How can we compell 
every corn stalk to "get on its ear/" 
How prevent grain stalks from becoming 
"light headed?" 
We doubt if you can find a better oat than 
the Scbumeu. 
The Saskatchewan Spring Wheat seems to 
have been taken up by most seedsmen on 
faith. Who hams anything about it? 
Acer tricolor is one of the few variegated 
trees that retains its variegation fairly well. 
It. is really a bicolor,as the purple which makes 
the third color is seen only iu t he opening leaves. 
A friend writes: “I am glad to find the 
Rural's exposure of the consumption cure 
man at Rochester. I wrote several publishers 
aliout this humbug, but they continued his 
advertisement.” 
Have you a Hemlock Spruce; and do vou 
wish to make a shapely, full-foliaged, beauti¬ 
ful, perfect tree of it? Then cut it hack now, 
all over, two feet, allowing only the lowermost 
branches to remain as they are. 
Hon C. 8. COOPER, who has devoted a con¬ 
siderable part of bis life to raising fine breeds 
of poultry, advises us not to cross the Wyan¬ 
dottes and Plymouth Rocks. But this is mere¬ 
ly a matter of opinion, aud the Rural is go¬ 
ing to make the cross all the same. 
Mr. W. G. Waking, Sr., a well known 
writer, farmer and horticulturist of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, writes us: “I used to care little for 
seeds offered as gifts, etc., through having had 
vexations experience with Patent Office dis¬ 
tributions. Bo I did not, till last year, apply 
for any that you offered. The products from 
those were so superior that 1 regret, now hav¬ 
ing had so little faith aud resolution you-ward." 
The opponents of the manufacture aud sale 
of oleoroai gine concoctions, last Thursday 
added a victory in this city to those ul ready se¬ 
cured in the courts iu Brooklyn. Missouri aud 
Iowa. A test case as to the constitutionality 
of the “Anti-Oleomargarine Law” passed last 
Jnne by the Legislature of this State, which 
had been decided adversely to the sellers iu the 
lower court, was brought tip ou appeal, and 
as another branch of the same Court 
over in Brooklyn, had decided in favor of 
the constilutionnlil v of Lho law. the branch 
sitting here In New York, decided in the same 
way, so that the ease might at ouee be taken 
to the Court of Appeals for final adjudication. 
Of the three judges. Daniels favors the consti¬ 
tutionality or the law; Brady suspends judg¬ 
ment, and Davis appears to consider the law 
unconstitutional; but all agree to affirm the 
decision of the lower court, so as to hasten the 
final decision of the case ou appeal to the 
Court of Appeals. 
