548 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homos 
Conducted by 
E . S. CARMAN, 
J. S. WOODWARD, 
Editor. 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1885. 
After a prolonged struggle with an 
insidious, incurable and excruciating 
disease, the foremost man in the nation 
closed a career second to no other in the 
history of the Republic, a few minutes 
after eight o’clock last Thursday morn¬ 
ing, July 23; and the entire American 
people, without, regard to section or 
party, after watching with intense inter¬ 
est and sympathy the progress of the 
fatal malady, unite in sorrow over his 
bier. Wbat words can add to the glory 
of the dead hero, or lessen the sorrow of 
a bereaved nation! As years roll on, his 
fame will increase, and for all time he 
will live in the memory of millions who 
owe to him the safety of their country, 
asV great soldier, a faithful public serv¬ 
ant, a sincere patriot and a noble man. 
Well, the potatoes of our mulched and 
trenched half-acre of-poor soil are suc¬ 
cumbing to the continued drought. The 
early drought cut the yield of early pota¬ 
toes short, and now the late drought cuts 
short the yield of late potatoes. 
Alsike Clover is hut little cultivated 
as yet in the United States, but if its 
value as a forage crop were better kDown, 
we are confident the cultivation would 
increase rapidly. Its great superiority 
over the common Red Clover is, that, it 
remains growing profusely where sown, 
for yearB, instead of freezing out or dying 
off as is usual with Red Clover. Mr. 
Lewis F. Allen informs us that he has 
cultivated the Alsike for some time on hi9 
farm at Grand Island, in the Niagara 
River. In the Spring of 1884 be sowed 
50 acres with the following mixture: two 
quarts of Alsike, four quarts Red Clover, 
and six quarts of Timothy per acre, which 
he designs more particularly to make hay 
for the -winter fodder of his dairy cows. 
He intends now to double this quantity. 
As Alsike seed is only half the size of 
that of Red Clover, it only requires half 
the quantity of that in seeding down for 
hay. 
HARDINESS OF ORCHARD TREES. 
Wk would call special attention to the 
very valuable article by Dr. T. II. Hos¬ 
kins in this issue of the Rural, giving 
his experience with regard to the hard¬ 
iness of orchard trees during the past ex¬ 
ceptionally severe Winter. The Doctor’s 
place is at Newport, a post village in 
Orleans County, Vermont, close to the 
Canadian line, and on Lake Memphrema- 
gog, a body of water about 35 miles long 
from north to south, and from two to 
five miles wide, situated partly in Ver. 
mont and partly in the Province of 
Quebec, Canada. The village is close to 
the 45th parallel, and its climate must be 
somewhat tempered by its proximity to 
the Lake. In drawing, from the Doctor’s 
experience, inferences with regard to the 
hardiness of trees in one’s own locality, 
however, it must be borne in mind that 
the isothermal lines, or the points on the 
earth’s surface at which the mean annual 
temperature is the same, by no means 
correspond with the parallels of latitude’. 
The former frequently curve considerably 
to the north or south of the latter, some¬ 
times as much as 11 degrees of latitude, 
the irregularity being due chiefly to the 
currents of air prevalent in different 
places^ the elevation of these; the con¬ 
formation of the surrounding country; 
their proximity to large rivers or other 
bodies of water, etc. etc. 
The Doctor’s very expensive experience, 
however, must be very useful to ail who 
may be thinking of planting fruit trees in 
the “Cold North.” It. is a mark of a 
shrewd man to learn wisdom cheaply 
from the costly experience of others. 
Wisdom is obtained at a high price, by 
persona] experience, only by the philan¬ 
thropist and the fool. 
-- 
TOO MUCH LAND A CURSE, 
The natural tendency of this age is to¬ 
wards too much expansion. Men are not 
satisfied with a moderate business, with 
making a good living and a reasonable 
sum besides; but they wish to amass mil¬ 
lions, and so spread out, and worry them¬ 
selves prematurely old, anu in a majority 
of cases die, leaving no more than they 
would had they confined themselves to 
the smaller fields and not having taken a 
tithe of the c jinfort they would then have 
enjoyed. 
In no business is this more the ca^e 
than in farming. There is many a man 
who, when the owner of a single farm of 
50 or 100 acres, was a splendid farmer, 
keeping his fields clean and well culti¬ 
vated, putting in his crops in good sea¬ 
son and in the best order, and securing each 
as soon as mature, and keeping the btstof 
stock,and thus made money,lived in com¬ 
fort, and, besides supporting his family 
well, laid by a small sum for a “rainy 
day,” and was happy. But, ambitious to 
be rich, he reached out after another 
farm, and since this was bought he has 
found so much work to do, so much busi¬ 
ness to look after, that, he has not had time 
to do anything well: his fields are weedy, 
his crops, always sowed late and in a pour 
manner, and not mote than half manured 
or tended, give hut poor return, and even 
these are not harvested till over-ripe anti 
then in a slovenly manner, leaving him 
no profit. As a result, he is a 1 ways hard 
up, and works beyond his strength, while 
his family have to get along with the bare 
necessaries of life, and no one has any 
time for com foil or happiness. 
Is this a fancy pictuie { Look about 
and you will find its reality in every 
neighborhood. And many a one, burden¬ 
ed with too much land, would be glad to 
sell the surplus ancl return to the home 
farm, only for a false piide. By fat the 
safest and most sensible way is to be sure 
that one farm is improved all it can be, 
and made “as rich as a garden”—forced 
to produce its largest crops at tne greatest 
profit—before another aeie is added. As 
a rule, larger profit lies in the direction 
of better fanning and larger crops rather 
than in more acres. 
A CLEAN BACK-DOWN. 
WITH FRESH FALSE INSINUATIONS. 
VBUT W T E W ANT A RETRACTION AND AN 
' APOLOGY. 
Those who love justice will not be 
pleased with the American Agriculturist's 
miserable subterfuge to avoid answeiing 
the falsehoods we have fastened upon its 
“manager.” 
With an attempt at humor, it prays us 
not to institute libelous proceedings, be¬ 
cause, it says, “we both of us might be 
required to tell a good deal moio than 
we would wish.” This is undoubtedly 
true as to the A. A.; but it need not 
trouble itself as to the R. N.-Y. We 
have not one thing to conceal. We invite 
the “manager,” or the worst enemy of the 
Rural, to tell all he knows against the 
Rural editots, either personally or in 
their relations to the paper. We only 
insist that they tell the truth. And 
this is what w T e propose to oblige Mr. 
David Judd to do, a course in which we 
feel assured of the support of all good 
people. 
As if additional falsehoods could atone 
for those already uttered, the August 
number insinuates that Orange Judd has 
become one of our “contributingeditors,” 
and then refers to his financial disaster in 
a way that outrages brotherly kindness. 
Shame! 
Apropos of David Judd’s attacks upon 
us by lalse insinuations and muei.does, 
here is a note from one who has known 
him thoroughly from boyhood. 
“After he went lr.t. i politic#,he boasted of 
skill in attack. I have heard him use this 
illustration: ‘The way to beat a man is to 
attack him vigorously, and follow him up; 
keep him on tne defensive by bold asser¬ 
tions; pay no attention to hie replies if 
he give a good answer to your new attacks; 
but follow him up with other attacks, 
keeping him all tne while responding to 
your new attacks and too busy m parrying 
to leave time to strike any blows.’” 
Again the note says: “He is careful not 
«to make direct charges. He is smart 
enough to leave loop-holes to crawl out 
of, and to be ajle to say: ‘What are you 
talking about? I have not said anything 
about yew—it was the other man I was 
alluding to.’ ” 
We propose to show the “manager” 
that thiH course will not answer with the 
Rural New-Yorker. We caie more 
for the purity, decency and good name of 
agricultural journalism than for personal 
vindication. It was this which led us to 
protest against his shameful prostitution 
of the pages of a paper which once had 
an extended circulation and an honored 
name, to the indecent and malicious per¬ 
secution of his unfortunate brother. That 
wc were right, the scores of letters which 
we have received commending our 
course, amply testify. Here is a sample 
from one, the writer of which is known 
and respected all over this country. 
4 4 Your article in the last Rub al in regard 
to the A. A. has given the writer a great, 
deal of genuine consolation. * * * When 
Orange Judd was so unfortunate as to 
lose his all, he no doubt felt very sensi¬ 
tive about being obliged to leave the 
great uame which he had built up, and to 
have it turned over to otherB whom he 
had brought up, and who continued to 
use his name for all it was worth. When 
he came West to try bis luck again for a 
living, it seemed to me at the time, wbat 
a generous thing the Agriculturist could 
do by giving him a good word and send- 
off, instead of throwing mud in his eyes, 
and telling the world—etc., etc.; and 
when the Rural’s article said, ‘David 
Judd, you ought to stop that,’ it met 
with a hearty response from me.” 
Orange Judd is now quite an old man, 
and, whatever his personal defects, he 
deserves well of the agricultural press for 
the good he did through the Am. Agr. 
during its better days. He is now work¬ 
ing bard for a living, and we, therefore, 
respectfully put the question to our friends 
of the press, whether they do not, should 
not feel it obligatory upon them to co¬ 
operate with the R. N.-Y. in frowning 
down David Judd’s unceasing efforts to 
belittle the life-work of bis brother, and 
to defame his character in the eyes of the 
world ? 
For ourselves, the Agriculturist’s sneak¬ 
ing back-down and evasion of our ques¬ 
tions and demands do not satisfy us at all. 
Wherein soever the Rural may have 
failed, we do insist that during the 
past half score yeais we have worked 
with all our strength and our most earn¬ 
est efforts, in the field no less than in the 
study, for the real good of the American 
farmer, and we cannot afford to have 
mean and invidious people, without a 
shadow of justification, place us in a false 
position by their insinuations, too vague 
to be dealt with by law, but as mean and 
malicious as though emanating from the 
“Father of Lies,” and intended to do us 
incalculable harm among those who, too 
busy to investigate, accept them as par¬ 
tial* truths. No, Mr. Judd, wo call upon 
you to confess t hat your muendoes regard¬ 
ing the Rural and its editors have, as 
you know, no foundation in fact. Will 
you for once like an honest man, do it? 
Or will you print another batch of “bold 
insinuations” with a view of “keeping us 
too busy in defending ourselves to have 
time to strike any blows?” Let us see! 
- - - 
SHALL WEEDS FILL THE LAND? 
It was with a feeling of much surprise 
and genuiue alarm that on a recent ride 
through this State and others we view'ed 
the extreme apathy shown in repelling the 
encroachments and spread of weeds. 
There are by far too many fields of spring 
grain, yellow with the charlock or wild 
mustard blossom ; too many meadow's and 
pastures spotted with white and yellow 
bull’s-eye and wild carrot, or rosy with 
the Canada Thistle, which is rapidly 
working its way westward; too many 
fields of winter grain dotted all over with 
cockle and with nearly as many heads of 
chess as of grain; too many corn, potato 
and bean fields green with Rig-weed,Burn- 
Grass, Canada Thistle, Tumble-w r eed, etc. 
The ground is as rapidly exhausted by 
crops of weeds as of grains; hence 
these are reduced, on an average, at 
least one third. Besides all this, the 
fence corners and hedge rows are allowed 
to fill up with all sorts of noxious weeds, 
thus becoming a disgrace to the shiftless 
owner and a nuisance to his more tidy 
neighbors for miles around. Even the 
roadsides in many places are allowed to 
become nurserieB in which ripen millions 
of weed seeds to be scattered broadcast 
over the country around. Really to day 
the most serious tax upon American farm¬ 
ers, especially in the older States, is the 
increased expense of tillage by reason of 
the weeds and the loss occasioned by 
their prevalence in the crops. 
It docs not seem possible that farmers 
realize the damages which they already 
sustain and the dangers to which they are 
exposed, or else more effort would be 
made to get these pests out, and keep 
them out; and yet the Rural has been 
“instant in season and out of season” in 
calling attention to their prevalence and 
to the danger of their increase, and in 
urging united, persistent action in sub¬ 
duing them. On our own farms we keep 
: them entirely out by constant watchful¬ 
ness and weeding out the pioneers, and 
while it takes considerable time each year, 
it gives us the satisfaction of seeing clean 
fields and of knowing we are not the cause 
of injury to our neighbors. Let us once 
more urge more effort in weeding out 
and keeping out the weeds, lest they pos¬ 
sess the entire land. 
BREVITIES. 
Are you aware that purslane (pussley, as it 
is sometimes called) is just as good for fowls 
as for bogs, and they like it just as well? 
We may now say that, about one-quarter 
of the original plantB of the little plot of 
Johuson Grass are now' growing, having sur¬ 
vived two Winters. 
The American Agriculturist backs down 
certainly from pressing its vicious, false in¬ 
sinuations as to the Rural and its editors. 
But it does not apologize—does uot. revoke any 
one of its falsehoods. Mr. David Judd knows 
every derogatory allegation to be utterly 
false, and we call on him to take them back. 
Are not we right, readers ? 
Jt is not good farming to spread over two 
acres the work and manure necessary for one, 
even if you double your production of grain. 
Good farming would put the work and manure 
of two acres on cue, and thus cause the one 
acre to produce the crop of two. The one 
may be called “diffuse” farming, and is en¬ 
tirely too thin ; the other “intense” farming, 
and will double the profits. It can never be¬ 
come too common. 
We have tried every known method of 
raising celery,and give the preference to shal¬ 
low trenches—sav six inches deep. They are 
better than planting on the surface as now-a- 
days recommended; better than deeper tren¬ 
ches. Apply old manure liberally in the 
trenches and spade it under, enriching and 
mellowing the soil. A slight sprinkling of 
any high-grade complete fertilizer will be 
found advantageous. The plants should be 
set six inches apart in this trench, and see to 
it., that they never once suffer for water. 
This is the price of fine celery. 
There are too many patters in this country 
making slighting remarks directed at the farm 
boy. His back ache, his speed at the sound of 
the dinner bell, and his slowness in the morn¬ 
ing are all held up to ridicule. This is all 
wrong. The boys of to-day are to be the men 
of the future. Making fun of them in this 
way will hardlv (it them for the serious busi¬ 
ness of life. Give the boys a fair chance. 
They do more work for the pay they get than 
any other bands cm the farm. It pays to deal 
in the “futures” of boys. It pays to train them 
so that when you are old and feeble there will 
be a warm heart and a stout arm to help you 
down the “hills that slope to death.” A live 
boy doesn’t take up much room in the family 
perhaps, but he makes a tremendous hole 
when he drops out of it. We don’t want to 
see any more fun made of the farm boy, 
Speaking of the danger to be feared from 
roup in fowls among fowls, Professor Walley, 
of England, says, it is uot only cuugbt by ex¬ 
posure of the healthy to the sick, but that it 
may also be propagated by eggsand chickens. 
A lady, be adds, bought a setting of eggs from 
a place where, unkuowu then to her, roup 
was rampant, and the chickens hatched from 
these at. first appeared perfectly healthy; but 
when about two months old, the roup broke 
out among them all, and one after unother 
died. She had never had roun before among 
her poultry, so there is no doubt that this fatal 
disease was introduced by the eggs she got 
from the place where it was rampant. This 
shows how cautious one ought to be, not only 
in obtaining fowls from a strange place, but 
their eggs also, 
We would again remind our readers of the 
Convention of the American Poraologienl So¬ 
ciety, to be held at Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
on Septeml cr tlth next, uud ail promological 
societies ore urged to send on large delegations 
to the meeting. All lovers of the objects which 
this, society so earnestly and efficiently en¬ 
courages and promotes should certainly be 
present at. the convention, which promises to 
be one of the most interesting ami instructive 
ever held When we reflect on the immense 
work it has accomplished in the 37 years of 
its history, aud on the influence it is to exer¬ 
cise on the fruit culture of our vast domain 
in the future, we should do all we can to make 
its meeting eminently successful. The Mass¬ 
achusetts Horticultural Society bus appointed 
15 delegates, and will iuvite the American 
Pomolcgical Society to come to Boston iu 
18(S7, when the venerable President, Marshall 
P W ilder, will lay off the robes of office with 
which be has been so long honored, unless be¬ 
fore that, time be shall have been called to 
cultivate those fruits in the celestial realms, 
which will not grow iu earthly climes. 
Last Thursday President Cleveland issued 
a proclamation which must strike the cattle 
barons who have long been occupying the 
grazing lands in the Indian Territory, like a 
section of the Day of Judgment. It declares 
that all agreements m .i It uses of Cheyenne 
and Arapahoe lands are void,and warns the 
lessees tort move themselves, with their cattle, 
horses and ot her property, from the Territory 
within 40 days. The fraudulent holdings ag¬ 
gregate over 7,000.000 acres, on which between 
300,000 and 4UO,UOO head of stock are grazing. 
Gen. Sheridan attributes the late Indian 
troubles to the leases, and is ready to enforce 
the terms of the proclamation promptly and 
vigorously. Yesterday the lessees held o meeting 
at St.. Louis. They' say r it is impossible to move 
so vast a body of cattle within 40 days; that 
all the other ranges in the Territory and those 
of Kansas urn fully stocked; that Kausas and 
Colorado have quarantined cattle from the 
South, and that losses must be immense should 
the proclamation be enforced. The barons 
should have a fair time to remove the stock— 
say three mouths—but their arrogance and 
rapacity must be curbed. 
