266 
f HE RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 48 
THE 
RURAL NLW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
E. S. CARMAN, 
J . S. WOODWARD, 
Editor. 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RUKAL NEW-VORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. APRIL 18 1>>o5 
We would advise all of our friends 
whe propose to select evergreen trees to 
plant this Spring, to select one at least of 
the Abies orientalis. In our judgment 
it is one of the finest and hardiest coni¬ 
fers in cultivation, and one of its best 
traits is that it bolds its lower foliage in 
old age, which cannot be said of either 
the Balsam Fir or Norway Spruce. 
How long before planting should seed 
potatoes be cut? Some experiments seem 
to show that several days, or even a week, 
should intervene; others that it is belter 
to plant the seed as soon as cut. In 
either case the Rural is of the opinion 
thai, as soon as cut it. is better to roll the 
seed pieces in plaster, ashes or something 
of the kind. 
Three weeks ago we announced that 
the circulation of the Rural New-York¬ 
er was larger than ever before. Nearly 
every day since it has steadily increased, 
not very rapidly it is true, but still it has 
been making a good steady healthy 
growth. It is a very great pleasure for 
U9 to be able to make this announcement, 
a pleasure which we know will be heartily 
shared by our good friends, and for which 
we are indebted to their kind and earnest 
efforts. 
Many of our farm contemporaries who, 
from experience, know nothing about it, 
caution their readers against the Johnson 
or Means Grass, seed of which we are 
sending to those of our subscribers who 
apply. One would suppose from what 
they say that a few seeds s iwn would 
ultimately overrun the entire farm, in 
spite of all efforts to exterminate the pest. 
Our readers must not share in aDy such 
foolishness. Sow the seeds we send. In 
mid-summer cut the plants to the ground 
and feed the leaves and stalks to your 
farm animals. They will relish them as 
well as fresh clover. Let the siubble 
grow, and cut the second growth after the 
first frost. Give this Johnson Grass a 
fair trial. If it proves hardy, a small plot 
may be easily eradicated if so desired. 
If it do not prove haidy, there is an end 
of it. Our readers may trust us in this, 
for we know what we are talking about. 
Mr. J. J. Hill, of St. Paul, Minnesota, 
is one of the men of whom the State 
should be justly proud. He is one of those 
wealthy men who desire that their money 
shall benefit others as well as themselves, 
and he is far-seeing enough to so place his 
wealth that it shall accomplish the most 
good. Last year he purchased in England 
40 first-class thoroughbred bulls of the 
Short-horn and Aberdeen-Angus breeds 
and distributed them free along the line 
of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba 
R. R., of which he is President. He has 
just purchased 100 more of the same blood, 
which are en rovle for the same purpose. 
Mr. Hill justly believes that the country 
will be much benefited by the adoption of 
a mixed husbandry in the place of such 
exclusive wheat growing, and to stimu 
late stock raising of the best breeds 
he takes these, fine animals along the line 
of his road. Any limited number of 
farmers who will agree to take one of 
these bulls and to look after and care for 
him, are supplied with a Short-horn or 
Aberdeen-Angus,as they may choose,free 
of all expense. Whatever Mr. Hill’s mo¬ 
tive may be, he is doing a very praise- 
woithy work, and one whose good influ¬ 
ence on the agricultural development of 
the great Nc>rth-we6t, can not be limited 
to time or estimated in money. All hail 
to such men as Mr. Hill! Would there 
were many more like him! 
How can the editors of farm journals, 
who work in offices and live in cities; 
who have neither farms, experiment 
grounds, nor gardens in which to try the 
• seeds or plants of recent introduction, dis¬ 
criminatingly praise or condemn? Their 
advice is just as likely to be harmful as 
helpful, and they Bhould be very careful 
how they commend or condemn. And 
yet such editors, we find, are the most 
positive in their statements and advice. 
They condemned the Rural’s advice as 
to the utility of surface manuring, drill- 
seeding, shallow and fiat cultivation of 
corn; while thousands of the best farmers 
of the country, after having fully tried it, 
would not return to the old w r ay of ma¬ 
nuring in the hill, hilling-up and deep 
cultivation. And now we are passing 
through a similar experience as to pota¬ 
toes. We have worked hard through six 
years to raise large yields and have at last 
succeeded. We print the results, which 
are rather below than above the truth, 
while such farm journals as the American 
Agriculturist, whose editor, or owner, or 
president {?), really knowing nothing of 
agriculture, horticulture, pomology or 
botany, presumes to sneer at our great 
yields and declares that “this thing must 
stop!” It would be a good thing if this 
“president” or “manager” or whatever he 
is, c mldbe induced or constrained to give 
up his position to some one w'ho would 
no longer disgrace the noble name which 
his journal bears. 
SPRING SEEDING. 
“A crop well sown is half grown.” A 
good seed-bed is one of the most impor¬ 
tant objects to be sought by the farmer. 
While, all other things being equal, the 
early sown or planted crop will be the best, 
it is much better to delay the seeding a few 
days than to put the grain into cold and 
wet or half-prepared ground. This un 
usual Spring, with its snow banks and 
zero weather banging well toward April, 
has a tendency to make many people un¬ 
easy, and we fear much grain will he hur¬ 
ried into ground only half prepared. 
While it is a fact that the season is very 
backward, and that at tins time in other 
years the spring seeding was nearly over 
and many farmers were planting potatoes 
and preparing for corn, it is also a fact 
that the cold weather is what has prevent¬ 
ed the pieparation of the land and the 
sowing of grain, and this cause has equal¬ 
ly retarded all vegetation,so that,eompar- 
ed with the growth of wild plants and 
trees, the farming is not moie backward 
than in ordinary seasons. We repeat that 
while it is important to get all crops into 
the ground as soon as possible, it is still 
bes. to take time to do the work well, and 
to see to n that the land be thoroughly 
well fitted before the seed is sown. Re¬ 
member that ki icell no ten in timely sown.” 
FRUIT EATERS NEED NO DOCTORS. 
We were struck recently by the re¬ 
marks of a doctor friend of ours, who 
said no one thing will do so much to make 
people independent of the medical pro¬ 
fession as the daily free use of fruit. He 
had noticed that those farmer!! in whose 
families fruit was regularly and largely 
consumed, seldom needed his services. 
We thought what a pity that every 
farmer in the land could not be convinced 
of these truths. It is a deplorable fact 
that farmers’ families do not erijoy that, 
robust health that country air and out-door 
life, with plenty of exercise, should give. 
It is also a fact that living on farms whose 
rich acres arc aching to produce abund¬ 
ant crops of the varied fruits, but very 
few have plenty, and many never have 
any fruit, except it may be an occasional 
apple. The standard food in a majority 
of fanners’ houses consists largely of 
bread, butter and meat (mostly pork) 
fried in grease, and where pastry or cuke 
is used, it has lard in large proportion in 
its composition; and this food is eaten at 
least twice, and, in many families, three 
times a day, year in and year out. Is it 
any wonder that they are not more healthy, 
and that their prevailing diseases are 6uch 
as indicate an over-consumption of greasy 
food? If fruits were expensive or difficult 
to raise, there would be some excuse; but 
there is no part of the country without 
plenty of varieties adapted to its soil and 
climate, and just such as are fitted by na¬ 
ture to botb nourish and cleanse the body, 
and no more skill is required to grow 
them than to grow corn or wheat. 
Why is it that so few farmers make any 
attempt to provide an adequate supply 
of what would add much to their pleasure, 
and save many times its cost in doctors’ 
bills, to say nothing of the sufferings and 
loss of their dear ones. Wc entreat you, 
decide just now not to let the Spring 
pass without planting a fruit yard. Sure¬ 
ly it is better to grow fruit than to be 
continually dosin'? with medicine! 
AN OLD FRIEND IN TROUBLE. 
We are sorry to learn that handsome 
Ex-Commissioner Loring is in trouble 
with the Treasury Department, on account 
of a recent order of his lemoving the cat 
tie quarantine station lrorn Waltham to 
Littleton, Mass. Nearly $32,000 were 
spent a couple of years ago in fitting up a 
station at the former place, of which $23,- 
000 went into buildings. A few weeks 
ago, the Commissioner ordered the re¬ 
moval of the station to Littleton, 20 miles 
further from Boston, on the ground that 
the new location was much more suitable 
for the purpose, and that cattle importers 
desired the change. Certainly the Fitch- 
burgh Railroad desired it, inasmuch as it 
is the only road running to the new station, 
so that besides an extra haul of 20 milts, 
it would have a monopoly of transporta¬ 
tion. The superintendent of the new 
station at Littleton is Ex-Councilor J. W. 
Harwood, and he also owns the farm 
selected for the station, so that he would 
make a good thing from salary, rent, 
manure and a good market for his gram 
and hay. A number of cattle importers, 
however, appear to have written to the 
Treasury Department protesting against 
the change, and Assistant Secretary Fair- 
child has ordered all the work of removal 
to be stopped, though half the buildings 
had been already transferred. The 
Treasury, it seems, thinks the Commis¬ 
sioner has acted without autnority, inas¬ 
much as the management of the cattle 
quarantine stations was undtr the direct 
direction of the Treasury Department, 
which had delegated only a part of its 
authority to the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture. The law directs that no money 
shall be spent on these stations without 
the consent of the Secretary of the Treas¬ 
ury, and last July, the latter, in author¬ 
izing the Commissioner to make routine 
and ordinary expenditures, directly re¬ 
strained him from “establishing or erect¬ 
ing new stations,” without authority from 
the Treasury. Dr. Loring, however, says 
that the station at Littleton is not a new 
one, but a transfer of one already estab¬ 
lished, and the Treasury authorities are 
unkind enough to consider this an 
evasion. Commissioner Coleman will at 
once investigate the matter, and it is the 
general opinion that the contemplated 
change will not be made. 
THE ADVANCE IN PRODUCE MARKETS. 
The news cabled here on Thursday 
morning to the effect that the Russian 
forces near Penjeh had attac ked the Af¬ 
ghans, thoroughly routed them after an 
obstinate conflict, with a loss of 500 of 
the vanquished and a nominal loss only 
among the victors, created intense excite¬ 
ment in all the large maikets in the coun¬ 
try, and especially in ihe produce mar¬ 
kets. Here wheat which closed on Wed¬ 
nesday at 93%c. per bushel, opened next 
morning at 90hc. and then rapidly ad¬ 
vanced to $1 00X. So great were the 
confusion and excitement in the Exchange 
that purchases were simultaneously made 
at a difference of one ccut a bushel in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the crowd. The volume 
of business was so great that 2,000,000 
bushels were bought and sold in the first ten 
minutes, and over 12,000,000 bushels were 
sold during the cay. Prices fluctuated 
constantly in accordance with the tone of 
cablegrams from Europe, or with the pur¬ 
port of mere rumors. The c xtreme advance, 
however,was seven cents per bushel, which 
means a difference of $500 on every boat 
load of 8,000 bushels, which is the 
smallest quantity dealt in on ’Change 
in “options” or “futures.” No. 2 Red 
for May delivery was the favorite option. 
Other grains, too, showed an advance, 
corn advancing 2 to 2hj cents per bushel 
and oats, % to l#c. Flour went up 15 
to 30 cents per barrel, and Western mil¬ 
lers telegraphed to hold fora further rise. 
Lard took a flight of 12 cents per 100 
pounds, and “provisions” also moved up¬ 
ward. lu other markets the rise here was 
repeated. In Philadelphia wheat went 
up eight cents a bushel; corn and oats 
three cents, and flour 25 cents a barrel. 
In Baltimore wheat rose five cents, and 
corn two cents a bushel. In Chicago the 
excitement was greater than ever before, 
except on the day of the formal declara¬ 
tion of the Franco-German war. Then 
wheat advanced 14 cents per bushel dur¬ 
ing the entire day; on Thursday it ad¬ 
vanced five cents a bushel in less thau a 
quarter of an hour. Other grams, as well 
as provisions shared in the rise, corn 
going up l%e. and pork GOc. and lard 
17c. At Milwaukee the day was unpre¬ 
cedentedly exciting, wheat advancing 
5% cents, and other grains sympathizing 
with it. At Detroit wheat opened at an 
advance of 3}£C. on Wednesday’s prices, 
and fluctuated wildly during the day. 
At St. Louis the advance during the week 
has been exceptionally great. Before the 
leceipt of the disturbing cablegram, 
wheat had advanced early in the week 
four cents a bushel owing to a conviction 
of serious damage to lall-sown wheat. 
In addition to this, prices rose seven 
cents a bushel on Thursday; but reacted 
two cents a bushel at the close. Although 
recent steady rains had given assurance 
of excellent grain and fruit crops in Cali¬ 
fornia, the threatened European em- 
brogliosent wheat up 6>s cents per cental. 
In Montreal and Toronto, also, cereals 
advanced rapidly, though the excitement 
from the troubles in the Northwest and 
from the probability of Canada becoming 
involved with the Mother Country in 
hostilities with Russia, greatly trans¬ 
cended that due to the rise iu prices. 
This morning's cablegrams are a trifle 
more conciliatory. There is just a chance 
that Russia's explanation of the attack 
of her troops on the Afghan forces may 
prove satisfactory to England, and that 
w ar may be postponed. This possibility 
must check the advance or cuuse even a 
reaction; but the general impression is 
that war is inevitable. Iu that event 
Thursday’s advance is only the first step 
in a rise whose bight it would he impos¬ 
sible now to forecast. 
brb,v mints. 
No plowing done yet at the R. G. 
A Farmers’ Club Supplement next week. 
Select one plant of Paul’s double-flowering 
Crataegus. 
Among evergreens, do not forget the 
Tiger’s-tail Spruce, Abies (Picea) polita. 
Marshall P. Wilder writes us: “Your 
articles on the best grapes are very interest¬ 
ing and useful.” 
Ik you want a close, very compact ever¬ 
green, trv Abies Gregoryana. It forms a com¬ 
plete half sphere, aud grows to about the 
night of 18 inches. 
We have about all the new kinds of pota¬ 
toes we can test for this season. The season 
is so backward we shall not be able to make 
our usual number of experiments. 
Pray, see to your wells. If you have the 
slightest suspicion that the water is impure, 
have them emptied and cleaned out. See that 
there is uo possible connection between the 
well and thebarn-yurd, the privy or cesspools. 
Here is a list of peurs which the Rural 
would select : Margaret, Rostiezer (Summer), 
Bose, SSecke), Supertin, Sheldon (Autumn); 
Anjou. Dana’s Uovey, Reeder (Autumn and 
early Winter); Josephine deMaliues (Winter). 
IN our experience, the very nest way to 
raise line strawberries plunted in hills, is to 
mulch the space between the hills and rows 
heavily with old farm manure late in the 
kail, and leave the mulch until the end of the 
fruiting season. Then this mulch may be 
forked under. 
The very practical, common-sense paper on 
farm manures, by Prof. I, P. Roberts, which 
appears iu another column, together with 
others yet to follow, will, at the request of the 
author, appear contemporaneously in the 
Agricultural Department of the Philadelphia 
Press. 
In farming there is no such thiug as luck. 
Laws, llxerl and immutable, govern the 
growth of even the most worthless weeds. 
What a man sows, or allows nature to sow, 
he will surely reap. These facts should im¬ 
press two very practical and important lessons 
—the necessity of clean culture aud of clean 
seed. 
The Rural bus repeatedly noticed that the 
seed-end of potatoes sprouts before the eyes 
of the other portions. Side by side, the sprouts 
from the seed-end have appeared above the 
ground from three to seven days before the 
sprouts from the middle or stem end. But we 
have never observed that there was any dif¬ 
ference iu the maturity of the two. 
One of the difficulties in establishing a 
velvety lawn from seed the first season, is 
that the seed seems to grow in patches. Here 
it is too thick; iu other places there is no 
grass wnutever. Uur best success has fol¬ 
lowed a double sowing. First after the soil 
was raked aud mellowed, about 1)£ bushel of 
Blue Grass and Red-top (half aud half—14 
pounds to the bushel) was sown and worked 
in with the back of an iron rake. Then the 
same quantity was sown und uguin mingled 
with the sod. A light iron roller was then 
used to press the soil and seed closely in con¬ 
tact. The roller of an old Excellsior lawn- 
mower answers well. 
Secretary Garfield writes us from 
Giand Rapids, Michigan: “We have bad a 
terrible Wlutar. Peach trees on my place 
are killed; under varieties of apples dis¬ 
colored; all raspberries and blackberries killed 
to the snow line; plum wood is injured. I 
went into the woods to see how the oak grubs 
stood it. and found the young twigs on last 
year’s growth in low places materially iujured. 
I have not examined fence posts yet, but it 
must have been “tough on ’em” in the hol¬ 
lows. The grape vote m a late Rural is very 
valuable not only for the horticultural infor¬ 
mation it contains, but for its illustration of 
the different w ays in which men put the same 
set of tueta. 
Francis D. Perkins, a friend and con¬ 
tributor of the Rural Tor 20 yearp, died the 
other day on the homestead on which he was 
born, and where he had always lived, near 
Home, N. Y.—age 55 years. As a farmer, he 
was provident, economical and progressive. 
His (arm was a model of order and good cul¬ 
tivation. Ills home life was unusually happy. 
For neurly u quarter of u century lie had been 
personally a warm friend of the Rural, and 
m late years he had exerted himself to secure 
tor it triends among his neighbors. Loved aud 
revered at borne, he was esteemed aud hon¬ 
ored abroad by all who knew him. 
