o 
1885 
THE BUBAL HEW-YORKEK. 
563 
rain falls at this point than at most others on 
the Sound, but there is more wind. However, 
asa place of residence,it is regarded as emi¬ 
nently healthful and agreeable. 
We obtained a very good mid-morning 
breakfast in one of the hotels for 50cents, and 
while awaiting in the parlor the arrival of the 
“Idaho.” I became considerably interested in 
a school girl from San Francisco, who had 
been north for her health with her father on a 
seal-catchiug expedition. Her father owned 
the schooner; they had left home in March, 
and were now on their return. She had 
greatly improved in hpnlt.h, and although she 
had been greatly pained by the brutalities 
connected with sealing, she was ready for a 
cruise next year. She said the Indiana often 
cut open the seals before they were dead, and 
her father said he bad seen them, after being 
skinned, hold up their heads and try to walk. 
The seal is usually stunned by a blow on the 
head; then skinned in a minute and a half— 
the skin sometimes bping takeu off whole— so 
if a vital part, is not first pierced, the animal 
may awaken from its swoon to suffer untold 
torture for a brief moment before death. The 
moanirgof the seals when robbed of their 
young is touching anil pitiful in the extreme— 
but what is so hard as the heart and hand of 
man! The fur of the se"l becomes white with 
age, and its gray hairs protect it from 
slaughter. The fur of the “pups”—the young 
seals—is considered very handsome when made 
up undyed and unplneked. Skins which a few 
years ago sold in the salt for #20. now briDg 
but from #4 to $5. and the girl’s father said 
that two years hence, seal skin would be cheap 
enough for servant girls! He said that, one 
of the Aleutian Isles was peopled entirely by 
Russians—a fair, curb-haired and very hand¬ 
some people. The Indians be found to Hb ex¬ 
cessively fond of sugar, because they could 
make “drink” of it. and would pay exor¬ 
bitantly for it when they could not get beer at 
a dollar a bottle. 
The ''I 'aho” steamed into port at half past 
three, an hour or so after the arrival of the 
“Queen” from San Francisco, and remained 
in port until noon of the following day. As 
we bad eugaged our state room a week previ¬ 
ously, we settled ourselves in it and disposed 
of our luggage in the compact and ship shape 
fashion demanded by hotel accommodation 
at sea But presently a difficulty arose as 
there appeared other claimants for the room, 
who had secured it in San Fransisco, and 
who would not take a room below deck for 
any consideration. The matter was, finally, 
amicably adjusted by some rearrangements, 
as it became apparent that onr right was the 
prior one. aud we had possession. I learned 
afterward that a similar difficulty bad afflict¬ 
ed various passengers, as state-rooms secured 
in Portland conflict with those engaged in San 
Francisco, and it was evident that the present 
arrangement of securing state rooms required 
thorough revision. 
We spent an hour or two very pleasantly 
and profitably with Mr. James G. Swan, who 
has acted for several years as agent for the 
Smithsonian Institute, procuring for it most 
of its Indian curios — those immense canoes 
and tall totem poles that attracted so much at¬ 
tention in the Government Department at the 
Centennial, as well as other innumerable spec¬ 
imens of Indian work and things of ethno 
logical interest. Mr. Swan is exceedingly 
conversant with matters connected with these 
Northwest Indians—familiar with their le¬ 
gends and the meaning of their art; and his 
place fur a part of the year, at least, should 
be in Washington where his intelligence would 
set to rights much of the hodge-podge that so 
ludicrously prevails iu the arrangement aud 
nomenclature of curios in the National Mu¬ 
seum aud Smithsonian Institute. He gave us 
much valuable information and advice, and 
commeudeil us to the acquaintance of Win. 
King Lear, commonly called “King Lear,” 
who was to be our follow passenger, aud w* o 
had lived much among the Alaska Indians for 
the last 17 years. 
Sunday morning was generally devoted by 
the passengers to correspondence—to writing 
a final message to friends, as it would he near¬ 
ly a month before another opportunity would 
occur to send letters from a United States post 
offico. Promptly at noon, the ship’s whistle 
blew, aud we moved out under a semi cloudy 
sky across the strait of Juan de Fuea, and en¬ 
tered at five o’clock the port o£ the pretty 
town of Victoria, the Capital of British 
Columbia. This English town of 8,000 to 10,- 
000 inhabitants, pleased me much better than 
upon my first visit, last year, and I could ap¬ 
preciate the geuoral verdict that “Victoria is 
a pretty place”—as if it were an oasis in this 
part of the world. After dinner at 5:30, we 
went on shore for a ramble along the beach, 
aud I found in a grassy cove, tall spikes of 
deep, rich blue larkspur, quite like, for all I 
could see, the best cultivated variety of Del¬ 
phinium ; yellow-flowered moss on the rocks; a 
small, dark-blue, lily-like flower; the scarlet gil- 
ia; purple cranesbill; an abundance of wild ros¬ 
es; two or three, to me, new varieties of native 
clover, which I also found at Port Townsend, 
where I gathered masses of yellow abronia on 
the beach, and the cliffs were beautiful with the 
white, feathery sprays of the most beautiful 
spiral that I have seen, which fringes the 
shores of Puget Sound 88 well. Next morning 
after breakfast, we walked up into the town— 
a distance of three-fourths of a mile, the 
street hedged with wild roses. I found the 
gowan growing in the grass by the wayside, 
taller of stem and less pink than in Scotland. 
Over the paling and through half-opened gar¬ 
den gates, we had many glimnses of lovely 
flower eardeu3,woodbine in particular, bloom¬ 
ing with wonderful profusion. In a mercan¬ 
tile way, Victoria “enjoys” peculiar disad¬ 
vantages. More American than English 
goods are sold by the merchants, and eon- 
consequently nearly, if not quite, everything 
is hieher than in Seattle, for the Victoria 
people have to pay duty not only on American 
goods, but upon English wares as well—the 
latter tariff being imposed by the central 
government at Ottawa. Considerable dissat 
isfaction exists in British Columbia toward 
the Canadiau domination, which has been 
aggravated by the refusal of Parliament to 
ratify the Chinese Restriction Bill of B. C. 
From what I could gather, all corporations 
and large employers of labor want the 
Chinese, while the people en tmts.se do not. 
At noon sharp, on Monday, the 8th. the 
“Idaho” steamed from Victoria, moving east 
into the Canal de Haro, then north past the 
lovely San Juan and Orcas Islands, then east 
again, then north by northwest, through 
Active Pass into the Strait of Georgia, the 
lower end of which may be said to be 
marked by the 49th parallel of latitude, and 
we are in British waters, with Vancouver Is¬ 
land to the west. British Columbia to the 
east, and the course of the steamer, until 
Queen Charlotte Sound was reached, north¬ 
west. through a continuous sea of islands, 
through passes, channels, sounds, narrows, 
straits, reaches, etc , etc. In these quiet wa¬ 
ters the ship moves with hardly a perceptible 
motion. The sun shines, the passengers, of 
whom there were ahout 50 ftrst-clas3, are on 
the upper deck, sitting under gav-colored par¬ 
asols or broad sun hats. The mountain views 
all the late afternoon are superb, mountains in 
every direction, with jagged outlines, peaks 
with snow, range back of range, rising direct¬ 
ly out of the water, with softest tints of blue 
in various hues—enchanting as fairy land— 
all the shores wooded,the picturesque Madroua 
Tree hanging over the cliffs, the snowy plumes 
of apirtea nodding on the rocks, and an occa¬ 
sional farm house to be noted on an island or 
on the mainland. 
Upon leaving Victoria, the Alaskau cruise 
seems fairly begun. There are 150 souls on 
board, and besides these are three other im¬ 
portant passengers belonging to the ship—a 
ten year-old black bear, a canary bird and 
the captain’s terrier dog “Toots.” The bear 
is very forbearing and endures a vast amount 
of teasing with good humored complacency, 
and stands upon bis hind feet to take food 
from the hands of the passengel's. The laddie 
carries him half his dessert at dinner, consist¬ 
ing mainly of Portland cherries, of which 
Bruno is fond. At eight o’clock that evening 
the steamer reached Nanaimo, B. C., and lay 
in port for the night. 
NOTES FROM COLORADO. 
The movement of the gTeat cattle com¬ 
panies of the West to get possession and con¬ 
trol of the Government Iand3, either by lease 
or purchase at a nominal price, seems to meet 
with but little favor from the people of anv 
part of the country outside of these corpora¬ 
tions. Such a scheme, if consummated, would 
practically exclude the poor man with his 
small flock or herd, uud the homesteader seek¬ 
ing u home for his family, from all the public 
domain. Such exclusion, indeed, seems to be 
the end sought by this plau. as these lands are 
now used free of cast by the parties who are 
seeking a permanent monopoly of them. The 
Government could hardly make a more f..tal 
mistake than to grant such a monopoly. 
From live stock to fruit growiug may seem 
a rather sudden transition; but almost every¬ 
thing in this region is either stock or fruit. 
Nearly everybody here is interested in one or 
both of these brunches of business. .lust now 
the fruit business is looming up as one of very 
great, importance in the near future. With a 
soil well adapted to all the cornmou fruits of 
this latitut-e and climate that, so far, appears 
suitable for the ordinary hardy varieties, we 
think the prospect for great success in this 
lino is quite fair. Apples, pears and plums 
are undoubtedly successes. The cherry has 
not yet been tried sufficiently to remove 
all doubt, but it promises well. The peach is 
unprofitable. The present Winter has given 
us some points in regard to the hardiness of 
trees, that may well be taken under consider¬ 
ation. Last Spring a great many fruit trees 
were planted in this vicinity, and among them 
a considerable number of the new pears, 
Kieffer and Le Conte. Early in February 
nearly all these, so far as I could learn, were 
either dead or in a greatly damaged condi 
tiou, It is is true that we are at an altitude 
of 5,400 feet, yet we are so environed by 
mountains that the temperature seldom falls 
as low here as at points east of us in the same 
latitude. The trouble seems to result from 
the aridity of the atmosphere during the 
cold weather. The sap seems to be so com¬ 
pletely evaporated as to leave the tree no 
power to resist the evil effect of the cold. 
The same evil effects of the dry atmosphere 
of our climate are seen in the injury to some 
of our small fruits, particularly the red rasp 
berries, and more tender varieties of black¬ 
berries. These are almost invariably killed 
by the first severe freeze that comes. With 
these exceptions, small fruits are promising a 
grand success in this region. Strawberries, 
black raspberries, gooseberries and currants 
succeed as well here as I have ever seen them 
do anywhere. While we have much to 
learn, yet, taking it altogether, this region 
promises to be a very desirable one for the 
business of fruit raising. L. J. templix. 
Canon City, Fremont Co., Colo. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Arkansas. 
Fort Smith, Sebastian County, August 5. 
— Corn and cotton first class. Wheat and 
oats short crops. Grass excellent. Potatoes 
good. Peaches all rotting on the trees. 
L, H. s. 
Canada, 
Chatham, Ont., August 3. — Crops here 
very good—much better than was expected, 
both fruit and grain- Beans look remarkably 
well We have had many splendid showers. 
The farmers are starting to reap oats, and the 
wheat and barley being nearly all stored 
away, the thrashers are beginning their fa¬ 
miliar hum. Self-binding harvesters have 
much facilitated the harvesting of grain in 
this locality. F. w. w. 
St. Catharines, Ont., August 6.—The 
apple crop will be light in this part of Canada; 
but 1 understand it is a little better west. The 
peach crop is also light here, excepting a few 
early varieties. Pears medium; plums ditto; 
grapes well loaded. a. m, s. 
Connecticut, 
Naugatuck, New Haven Co , August 8.— 
The season has been backward, with drought 
in June and July. Early grass was extra 
heavy; late grass very light; the hay crop 
will average more than for four years past. 
Rye was about an average crop; where it did 
not winter-kill, it was extra nice. Oats light. 
Corn promises well. Pototoes promise a light 
crop. Apples, pears and plums are abundant 
crops. H. n. w. 
Hrornla. 
Americus, Sumter Co., Aug. 1.—A stalk 
of Johnson Grass, which has been cut once 
before, measures, rear the ground, eight feet 
11 inches. I still think it a poor thing for a 
country like this which will grow other foods 
much superior. German Millet, Cat Tail 
Millet (which will yield five times the quantity 
of green food), with pea-vines for Summer 
and Fall, and green oats aud rye for winter 
use, leave no place for anything so coarse as 
this. Several farmers in the neighborhood 
say that it is us great a curse as Nut Grass. 
Diehl Mediterranean Wheat grown with or¬ 
dinary culture and very ordinary fertiliza¬ 
tion on ordinary land. I consider better than 
any I have seen; yet, 1 think It later than 
sultsus, as we wish to make a crop, after wheat 
and oats come off. The Black Champion 
Oats were very flue, growing nearly double 
the higbt of our Red Rust proof, with straw 
os stout again, but the grain is not so large, 
aud they also are too late for us. I had corn 
knee-high, on land from which I had cut Red 
Rust proof, before Black Champiou could be 
cut. The Rural ryestooled out wonderfully; 
but wus ulso too late. The stalks were stout 
aud the heads very long and handsome, prom¬ 
ising a fine yield; but few heads, formed even 
a small number of grains. The Stratagem 
Peas are magnificent. We have splendid 
rains with promise of a great corn crop, and 
a full crop of caterpillars on cotton. The 
sweet potato yield will also be immense. 
“greybeard.” 
Illinois. 
Danvers, McLean Co, August 7.—The 
season opened late and backward; but taking 
it all iu all, it has beeu a very favorable one, 
with the exception of a rather dry spell the 
last of July. Notwithstanding the delay in 
getting in crops, they have come forward 
rapidly, so that the hay and oat harvest was 
here at the usual time, in fact, the latter rip¬ 
ened a little earlier than usual. More trouble 
than usual was experienced in getting a stand 
of com. Most farmers planted a second 
time; and numbers of fields were planted a 
third time; yet now the ou’look is very good 
for a. good crop. Havcropnotas heavy as last 
year, but fair, and has been well saved. Oats 
good, with a large acreage, so there will be an 
abundance of oats in the market at this point, 
hut verv little wheat, but its quality is good. 
Of early planted potatoes the quality will be 
excellent, but the quantity will be below the 
average and the late planting is likely to fall 
considerably below an average crop. Small 
fruits only medium crops, except raspberries 
which were fair Blackberries were far be¬ 
low an average; the past Winter having 
been too severe for them. Even the Snyder 
was badly injured in some localities. But the 
present season's growth of blackberry canes 
is beyond anything I ever witnessed. There 
are no peaches at all, and but very few apples. 
Oat harvest was nearly entirely finished last 
week. Steam thrashers are running to their 
utmost capacity. We had a fine shower on 
Saturday night and a gentle shower Sunday, 
which revived things wonderfully, and since 
then the weather has been cooler and delight¬ 
ful. General health for the season has been 
excellent. Business very dull here at present, 
but we look for a revival nrettv soon. Suc¬ 
cess to the Rural New-Yorker I plant¬ 
ed the Prince of Wales and Carter’s Stratagem 
Peas on Mav 16, taldog special pains with 
them. Only about two-thirds grew; but they 
gr«w well and looked fine; they were extra¬ 
ordinarily full of bloom and pods, but the 
dry spell in July hurt them. They failed to 
fill out as they would have done had it not 
been for the drought. I have gathered them 
nicely and have quite a lot of them, bat I fear 
many of them will not grow. I snrely think 
them a splendid pea. I think I planted them 
too late for the present season. I want to say 
right here that the peas I received from the 
Rural last year, did finely. I let my daughter 
have one pint of each kind in the Spring. She 
planted them early, and I have never seen as 
fine a crop of peas as what she bad. They 
were surely the best bearers I have ever seen, 
and the flavor was excellent. I tell you I 
don’t want any better pea. We have taken 
special pains to save seed for another year. I 
planted the Flagolet Beans on May 16. They 
did finely and seem to be wonderfully produc¬ 
tive They are ripe now but I think the dry 
weather hurt ttatfm somewhat. I have not 
hulled them yet. I planted the tomatoes in 
the hill Mav Ifi; they look fine, but from some 
cause the vouug tomatoes are rotting badly 
when quite small. The tomatoes I received 
from the Rural last year were the finest I 
ever saw—I want no better. Bat few of the 
seeds of the Garden Treasures grew; but I 
have three stalks of nice flowers. My Rural 
Hollyhocks are fine. The Blush Potato ex¬ 
ceeds anything that I have tried for a spring 
potato. They are Hue until the new crop is 
ready for the table. I speak from experience, 
for we have tried them the past Spring and 
Summer. P. M. w. 
Iowa. 
Runnels, Polk Co., Aug S.—Spring wheat 
all harvested, and some thrashing done; yield 
10 to 13 bushels per acre, of fair quality, con¬ 
sidering the amount of rain since harvest; it 
is falling short of the estimates about one- 
fourth. and not of as good quality as was ex¬ 
pected. Oats generally good; average cut 
short by the grasshoppers and wind storm be¬ 
fore the harvest was completed. It has been 
the hottest harvest since *63. A large uumber 
of valuable horses died from the excessive 
heat while working on the harvesters. Corn 
is about 10 days late and bids fair for an aver¬ 
age crop. Potatoes look well, but from some 
uuknown cause, they failed to set as many 
tubers as usual, and those set are only of med¬ 
ium size. Grass is above an average crop. 
J. K W. 
itlaatmchnuctts. 
North Adams, Berkshire Co , August 6.— 
If I had uot followed the Rural's system of 
potato mulching and 11 it tillage this season, I 
would not have hail half the crop I have. As 
the crop never got one particle of moisture 
from the day of setting to digging out, what 
would the outcome have been in high hills or 
drills! The Rural Corn Is very promising, 
nearly one foot over all other kinds, rich and 
green, but I fear it will require a long season 
to ripen. The Johnson Grass did uot come at 
all. Tomatoes promising. Stratagem Pea 
far beyond anything I had, not excepting the 
Champiou; but late to ripen Flageolet Bean 
far inferior to any of the wax or butter sorts. 
Flower seeds of not much account. G. b. f. 
iHlchlf an. 
Maplkton, Graud Traverse Co., Aug. 5 — 
My Rural C. B. corn is doiug well; some is 
in silk and some has not commenced to tassel 
yet. I think it will prove a better corn for 
this climate than any from the R. N.-Y. pre- 
