850 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 23 
THE 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER. 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Conducted by 
E. S. CARMAN, 
Editor. 
J. S. WOODWARD, 
Associate. 
Eleven of the samples were made from 
cows eating more or less silage, only two 
of these were marked No. 1; eight were 
No. 2, and the rejected sample was of 
this lot. It must, be that the silage fed 
(the sauer-krant kind no doubt) was more 
or less the cause of this low grade. The 
time, no doubt will come when silage 
will do better, and the sooner it comes 
the better we shall be pleased. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1885. 
Another four-paged supplement de¬ 
voted to the Farmer’s Club of the Rural 
New-Yorker this week! 
Again we must notify our friends that, 
owing to the lateness of the season and 
the backwardness of our work, we can 
not plant many potatoes and seeds of va¬ 
rious kinds sent to us within the past 10 
days. We would if we could, and regret 
that we can not. 
The present makes our ninth Farmer’s 
Club Supplement this year, We find that 
the average number of questions answered 
in each is about 200. Thus 1,800 ques¬ 
tions have been answered thus far in 1885 
in supplements alone. The weekly Farm¬ 
er’s Club has thus far averaged, without 
supplements, about 40 answers, which 
would increase the aggregate largely. 
When corn once starts into growth, it 
grows rapidly—doesn’t it? And the more 
rapid the growth, the more it needs of 
food and moisture—is it not so? When 
the ears begin to set and afterwards, it 
needs more moisture and food than at any 
other time. Are we rizht? Then why, 
even up to the time that the corn is “laid 
by,” would you run a plow through the 
field to sever the roots and thus lessen its 
supplies? 
Lots of our friends write us that, they 
are disappointed in the Rural’s Cross-bred 
Corn. Were they to read our account 
of it, they would see that the Blount’s 
Improved was, in most of the plots, made 
the mother plant. The kernel of this is 
a small white dent. The 60 kinds were 
raised on a poor soil and most of the ears 
were imperfect. Those who carefully 
plant and raise the seed we have sent 
them will, we believe, be surprised with 
the result. 
Again ffh-sav to those who intend to 
use chemical fertilizers on corn—apply 
the bone and potash just before the last 
harrowing, broadcast. Not until the 
corn is up should nitrogen be applied. 
Then sow dried bbed and nitrate of soda 
or sulphate of ammonia. Either of the 
last, two will discolor the leaves wherever 
it touches them, though they are not per¬ 
ceptibly harmed thereby. Do not use a 
plow in the field after the corn is planted, 
and do not hill up the soil about the 
plants. No experiments ever tried at the 
Rural Grounds have given more decided 
answers against plow-cultivation and hil¬ 
ling up than those made to test the two 
methods. 
* - 
^ Mr. E. Williams, writing us from 
Florida, sajs: “A gentleman showing 
me over his place a few days ago, called 
my attention to some Para Grass growing 
by the side of a Palmetto tree,and taking- 
hold of a stalk cut off last Fall, pulled 
it down out of the tree, and it measured 
20 feet in length ! What do you think of 
that? Tall grass eh?—and a tall story; 
but I vouch for its truth, which is more 
ihan I can do for many of the Florida 
stories I hear and read about.” The bo¬ 
tanical name of this grass is Panicum 
barbiuode, and it is said to be a native of 
Africa. It was introduced gome years 
ago into Alabama and lately into Florida. 
It resembles Guinea Grass—Panicum jum- 
entorum—and though coarse, is yet rich 
in food material, 
- 
We hope the time will come when the 
necessary conditions for the keeping of 
silage shall become so well understood 
that the product will be something better 
than “sauer-kraut”; hut that the “etuff ” 
as now taken from the average silo, smel¬ 
ling as rank as Macbeth’s offense, which 
smelled to Heaven, is to be recommended 
as the principal food of cows for the pro¬ 
duction of first-class milk and butter we 
do not believe. The correctness of this 
position is shown by the butter exhibited 
recently at a Vermont dairymen’s meet¬ 
ing. Of 80 samples exhibited, 60 were 
marked No. 1; 19 No. 2, and one was 
rejected as not worthy of being graded. 
There is a great danger that-with low 
prices for wool and great depression in 
the mutton markets, there will be a 
“panic” among farmers to sell their sheep 
and go into Borne other business. Our ad¬ 
vice is, don’t do it. By the time you 
have got well started, wool will bring a 
good price, and mutton be in good de¬ 
mand, and you will wish you were stocked 
with sheep again. The best course is to 
keep steadily on ; weed out of your flock 
all the culls; seek to improve it both in the 
qualitv and quantity of wool produced, 
and in the shape of body and tendency to 
make mutton. A flock of sheep does 
much toward keeping the farm free from 
noxious weeds, and towards making the 
land richer. It is safe to think twice be¬ 
fore sacrificing the sheep! 
WHEAT OUTLOOK. 
It was fully expected that should the 
threatening war clouds across the At¬ 
lantic be swept aside, the prices of wheat, 
which had advanced rapidly at the pros¬ 
pect of war, would recede at least to the 
starting point. The sun of peace has 
dissipated the war clouds that perturbed 
Europe, and at present the outlook is 
good for either a lengthy truce or a brief 
peace between Russia and Great Britain, 
yet prices have fallen off only a trifle in 
any markets, while they have actually 
advanced in some. This is not due to 
anticipations of a renewal of warlike 
demonstrations between the Lion and the 
Bear, although this is still quite pos¬ 
sible; nor to confidence in the inevitable¬ 
ness of a conflict between the two for 
supremacy in southern Asia, for although 
such a conflict is certain, it is now hard¬ 
ly likely to take place soon enough to 
affect the prices of the last or the next 
harvest; tbe stiffness in prices is due al¬ 
most entirely to the multitude of reports 
predicting a great shortage in the next 
wheat crop. 
Reports of crops, official and private, 
were nevermore numerous,and all coincide 
in the opinion that there will be a great 
shortage in winter wheat, as compared 
with the crops of the last few years. 
State agricultural bureau reports put the 
total winter wheat crop as low as 24)0,000- 
000, or even 190,000,000 bushels, the esti¬ 
mate of the Department of Agriculture 
being 240,000,000 bushels against 360,000, - 
000 bushels in 1884. About two-thirds 
of the decrease is attributed to a falling 
off in the acreage, while the. other third is 
ascribed to winter-killing, the Hessian- 
fly, etc. Estimates of the total wheat 
crop vary from 300,000,000 to 420,000,- 
000 bushels,the May report of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture estimating the prob¬ 
able yield at 397,000.000 or 400,000,000 
bushels, as compared with 513,000,000 in 
1884. From a careful comparison of a 
multitude of reports of all sorts from all 
parts of the country, we are at present 
inclined to put the probable shortage in 
winter wheat at about 140,000,000 bush¬ 
els as compared with last year. Reports 
from the spring wheat section are a trifle 
conflicting; but it seems not unlikely that 
the spring wheat production will be about 
the same as last year—150,000,000 bushels. 
BARBED WIRE FENCE WARFARE. 
A very important decision was ren¬ 
dered last Tuesday at Des Moines, Iowa, 
by Judge Brewer, of the United States 
Circuit Court, with regard to the validity 
of the Glidden patent on the manufacture 
of barbed wire fence. This patent was 
granted on May 12, 1874. Shortly after¬ 
wards it was surrendered, and a reissue 
was allowed on February 6, 1876, cover¬ 
ing every form of sharp-pointed metal or 
wire fence for the purpose of inflicting 
wounds on animals and preventing them 
from passing the line of the fence. The 
validity of the reissue having been con¬ 
tested, it was affirmed in November, 
1880, by Judges Blodgett and Drum¬ 
mond, of the United States Circuit Court 
at Chicago. An opposite decision was 
rendered by-Judge Treat, of the United 
States Circuit Court, at St. Louis, in June, 
1883. He declared the reissue invalid, 
because the claims in it were so much 
broader than those in the original patent, 
that it was for an “entirely different in¬ 
vention,” and that Glidden “was fully 
aware of the fact.” The case has been 
before the United States Circuit Court in 
Iowa for about two years, and the de¬ 
cision -just rendered sustains the validity 
of the Glidden patent, and holds that it 
was infringed by the Farmers’ Protective 
Association, of Iowa, and J. E. Rhodes, 
manufacturers at Grinnell. In the tele¬ 
grams announcing the decision, the im¬ 
pression is conveyed that it affects the 
manufacture of wire fence in all parts of 
the country. This is erroneous, as its effects 
are confined within the jurisdiction of the 
Circuit Court which rendered the de¬ 
cision. At present, therefore, anyone 
making, selling or using barbed-wire 
fence made by the Glidden process, with¬ 
in the jurisdiction of the Courts which 
supported the patent at Chicago and Des 
Moines, would be liable to prosecution for 
infringement; but it is quite permissible 
to make it within the jurisdiction of the 
Court that denied the validity of the 
Glidden patent, at St. Louis. The case 
has been appealed to the United States 
Supreme Court; but it will beat least two 
years yet, before it can be reached in that 
overtasked tribunal. 
MISMANAGEMENT IN THE DEPART¬ 
MENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
From various communications to the 
press it is very evident that Commissioner 
Colman is very much discontented with 
the management of the Department of 
Agriculture by his predecessor, and there 
certainly appears to be considerable cause 
for this discontent. The appropriation 
for seeds amounted to $100,000, and of 
this liberal snm only $32 remained in the 
Treasury on May 1. The head of the di¬ 
vision had made a detailed estimate of 
an expendit ure of $70,000 for seeds, which 
would leave $30,000 to pay for packing and 
distributing them, but so anxious were the 
old authorities to expend all the money, 
that they laid out $82,000 for seeds, so 
that now there are several kinds on hand 
in large quantities, but not a cent can be 
found for their distribution. No system 
—certainly no honestly economical sys¬ 
tem—was followed in purchasing seeds. 
For example. 1,700 bushels of sorghum 
seed were bought in this city at prieeB 
ranging from $2.35 to $2.95 per bushel, 
while 300 bushels of the same variety 
were obtained in the West for $1.00 a 
bushel, and it could be had readily 
for 25 cents a bushel in Nebraska. 
Old and common seeds appear to have 
been bought in large quantities at extrav¬ 
agant prices, while no means were left 
even for packing them for distribution. 
The whole of the $50,000 appropriated 
for making experiments in the manufac¬ 
ture of sugar from corn-stalks and sor¬ 
ghum, was expended for the pay of extra 
clerks recommended by friends of the 
Commissioner, although the employees 
were so numerous that they had little 
to do, and ten of the best paid 
of them are known to have done 
absolutely no work for some time, never 
even visiting the Department except once 
a day. The late management of the De¬ 
partment is pretty certain to be fully 
investigated, and all the Washington 
correspondents agree that the affairs 
therein had reached a more scandalous 
condition than could be found in any 
other Department of the Government. 
WE DENY THE RIGHT. 
Some of the thoroughbred stock asso¬ 
ciations have been passing what to us 
seem to be very stringent resolutions. 
For instance, the American Hereford As¬ 
sociation, at its last meeting, resolved 
that every animal whose pedigree is not 
sent in for record before July 1st, 1885, 
shall thereafter be debarred from entry; 
that, from this action there shall be no 
appeal. This is only a specimen of the 
action of others, some going so far as to 
say that all animals not recorded before 
one year old, shall not be ebgible there¬ 
after. 
ft ow, while herd books are good things, 
and registry very important; and while it 
is very desirable that animals should be 
registered before they have bred; and it 
is certainly greatly to the interest of the 
association, and especially to that of the 
officers to obtain the fees towards paying 
expenses, have they not in their zeal 
gone a step too far and made their rules 
oppressive? Is not all stock the property 
of the individual owner, and has he not 
a right to register or not, as he pleases, 
and has he not a right to take his own 
time to make such registry? Are the 
herd books for the purpose of making 
money, or for the sake of preserving a 
record of thoroughbred animals? And if 
the latter, has not the owner of an animal 
whose record is authentic and regular a 
right to demand registry at his pleasure? 
Is the herd-book designed to be a help'to 
the breeder or a “saddle” upon his back? 
It is not, by far, every thoroughbred ani¬ 
mal that will he a desirable breeder or 
worthy of registry, and we submit that 
the forciug of all animals into the herd 
books at one year old, or under, will fill 
their pages with trash, putting on the 
records huudreds that are no better than 
scrubs. Fortunately there are very many 
honorable, conscientious breeders, and 
they do not care to sell or breed animals 
not, in every wav satisfactory.and we sub¬ 
mit they should be allowed time to test 
and prove their stock, so a9 to be able to 
weed out what they consider undesirable, 
and this, too, without the expense of reg¬ 
istering animals fit only for the shambles, 
and we maintain that an animal which, 
though unpromising when young, proves 
with age, of superior excellence, shall he 
eligible to registry on proper proof, 
though ten or a dozen years of age. It is 
not best to be too rigid with the rules in 
minor matters. 
BREVITIES. 
Manuring fu tho hill; Forciug the infant, 
and starving the adult. 
Of all our varieties of strawberries, Iron¬ 
clad was the first to bloom. 
Hilling up: Taking the soil from where it 
is more needed, and putting it where it is less 
needed. 
How to do it. and how not to do it: Why 
is it that the latter problem is so easy to 
solve; the former so ditfleu’t? 
Prunus Pissardii bloomed at the Rural 
Grounds May 8th. The flowers are white 
and rather smaller than those of tbe cultiva¬ 
ted edible plums. 
The Tavlor Blackberry is the first to leaf 
out at the Rural Grounds; Early Cluster the 
second. Some canes of the Wilson Jr. Black¬ 
berry are injured, others not. 
The differences between Forsyt.hia viridis- 
ritim and F. Fortuned are very marked—in 
favor of the latter. We shall give differences 
in detail, from careful observation, with illus¬ 
trations, in due time. 
The potato seed-pieces planted in our half¬ 
acre of poor soil, according to the Rural’s 
trench-mulch svstem, are just (Mav 11) break¬ 
ing through. We shall sow the nitrogeneous 
fertilisers in about 10 days. 
Wf have received from seedsmen and other 
friends about 20 different kinds of sweet corn, 
which were planted from April 27th to Mav 
4th inclusive. The season has been so cold that 
we fear tbe seed has all rotted. 
The following slip has hepn forwarded tons 
as having been published in the Alhany IN Y.) 
Journal: “Mr. D. W. Judd, of the Rural 
New-Yorkf.r —one of the best agricultural 
papers in the country—is at the Delavan.” 
Look out for him! There is no such person 
in onr employ. 
Are you going to bag nnv grapes for the 
fair or for yonr friends or for “company” 
dinners? Then yon should make the bags now. 
We have given full instructions how to make 
them and how to put them on. in previous 
numbers, We were the first to illustrate the 
whole thing. 
Remember the Rural New-Yorker’s 
way of raising corn—1st. broadcast manur¬ 
ing; 2d. shallow aud' frequent cultivation: 
3d. no hilling up. This method has been 
adopted by many of the best farmers in the 
country. Do not condemn it, new friends, 
until you have tried it. 
Abies Sibirioa (Pieea nichtalis a splendid 
fir. It is hardier tlmn the Bulsam. and does not 
lose its lower foliage with age. as we believe. 
The leaves are longer, and the entire tree more 
folinceous and compact. We venture the 
opinion that tbe BalsBm Fir will never be 
planted when Abies Sibirica becomes known. 
Xanthoukkas sorbifolia: who of onr read¬ 
ers have cultivated this handsome shrub? 
How hurdv is it; how earlv does tt bloom, 
and does the inflorescence compare with that 
shown in the pictures published several years 
ago? Through one mishap and another, our 
plants perished. We are now trying it 
again. 
Tndex Numbers Wanted. —In answering 
manv of the knottier questions in the Farm 
er’s Clnh, after tve have failed to get the de¬ 
sired information in every other quarter, we 
are compelled to search the back volumes of 
tbe Rural, where we seldom look in vain. 
But constant use wears the indexes' fast, and 
as ours are becoming much worn we shall he 
greatlv obliged to any of our readers who can 
spare them, if they wifi send u« the numbers 
containing the Index for either of the following 
years 1878. 1879. 1880 and 1881, also for the 
nuinher dated January 1st, 1881. 
A iamb that is found on a rainy morniDg 
nearly dead with cold, should be taken at 
once into a warm room a nil put into a hot 
bath; have the water at 95° and put the little 
thing all under except, its head. It should be 
kept there till thoroughly warmed through, 
then fed u couple of spoonfuls of uew milk 
and rubbed dry und ehufed till the least 
dampness has disappeared. It is surprising 
how quickly this will revive a lamb that 
seems past help. 
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher writes us. 
under date of the 9th inst,. as follows: “There 
Is only one wicked thing about, the Rural, 
and that is that when the last number for 
which a man has paid runs out.,—silently end 
without adequate warning—the Paper stops. 
Weeks run on: we complain of the mails: we 
grumble and think of'writing a sharp’cora- 
plaint. when some one points out that, the 
subscription has run out! This mav lie good 
for the publisher, but it is ruinous for the 
absent-minded gentleman. ~ Tt was a special 
and'providentialaceideutthat, lednsto'looki' 
the, number, pasted on—so ends w / grumble 
