4885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
374 
•RfoscfUaneous. 
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
AND OTHER MATTERS. 
I suspect that the gentlemen who so ably 
edit the Rural New-Yorker aud conduct its 
Trial Grounds at River Edge, N. J.. have not 
had the experience of a certain editor “out 
West” with our National Department of Ag¬ 
riculture, or they would he much more en¬ 
thusiastic in their support of that very im¬ 
portant branch of Uncle Sam's Administra¬ 
tion. Said editor came out one day with a 
rousing article in favor of the Department, 
on tbo ground that he had received from it a, 
handsome present of a lot of imported man¬ 
gel-wurzel seed, which, on cultivation, had 
developed such a noble growth of wood that 
he felt confident he now saw his way clearly 
to the solution of one of the gravest problems 
that had always confronted settlers on prairie 
lauds, namely, the scarcity of timber for 
fence-posts, railroad ties, building purposes, 
etc., etc. So far as be was concerned, his 
quill and paste-pot and shears might forget 
their cunning, and his editorial tongue cleave 
to the roof of his mouth, should he ever fail 
to set forth the well-deserved praises of the 
Department of Agriculture. I was freshly 
reminded of his experience, the other day, on 
receiving from the Department, in return for 
some slight service rendered in collecting and 
forwarding statistics, a lot of Early Amber 
Sugar-cane and French 6Ugar-beet seed, with 
both of which products of the soil I have ex¬ 
perimented to my satisfaction in former 
years. The sorghum made about as nice a 
woody growth as the Western editor’s man¬ 
gel-wurzels, so woody and hard that my stock 
would eat no part but the leaves, and that we 
thought seriously of utilizing the stalks, after 
thoroughly drying, for bean and hop-poles, 
fishing-rods, etc. As to the beets, while ex¬ 
cellent for fall-feeding, we never got more 
than half the yield easily obtainable from 
other native sorts, and in no way could we 
succeed in keeping them from rotting, while 
almost all other varieties kept perfectly sound 
through long storage, with little or no extra 
trouble. 
But hold! I guess I am somewhat “too 
previous' 1 in allowing myself to write thus 
slightingly about the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture. Here in my mail tonight is another 
budget of seeds from it—corn, beans, peas, 
lettuce, onion, cabbage, tomato, radish, car¬ 
rot, cucumber, melon, squash, flowers, etc.— 
and here, closely following this package, comes 
one from the Rural Nkw-Yohkh:r, a part of 
its generous aud valuable Free Seed Distribu¬ 
tion to subscribers—Carter's Stratagem and 
Prince of Wales Peas;sixty different crosses 
between the best varieties of IndiaD Corn 
grown in the country; Rural Bicolor and 
King Humbert Tomatoes; a new variety of 
Flageolet Bean; Garden Treasures (flowers) 
for the ladies of the household; Sorghum hal- 
apense, or the Jobuson Grass of the South, 
etc. Well, now we shall be able, the coming 
season, to pit the Rural seeds against those 
of the Agricultural Department, and see 
which will come olf victorious. But won’t the 
Department or the Rural just please send us 
something in exchange for that Amber 
Sorghum and French beet seed ? I think the 
Rural is eminently sound on the subject of 
the Agricultural Department, and, indeed, 
on other subjects as well: your suggestion to 
elevate aud keep the Department, with its 
chief officer and all his subordinates, entirely 
out of the realm of politics, is one of utmost 
importance, and should be heartily seconded 
on all sides. Your further suggestion to make 
the Commissioner of Agriculture a Cabinet 
officer is also important. Gur Canadian cousins 
are wiser than we in this matter. With them, 
one of the regular government officers is the 
“Minister of Agriculture,” who takes his 
place in the administration of affairs with 
other Cabinet officers. So we tiud it in various 
European countries. The United States, with 
its vast expanse of territory, teeming millions 
of inhabitants, and magnificent agricultural 
and other resources, possibilities and require¬ 
ments, can not afford to be behind other 
nations in this momentous matter. 
Chittenden Co., Vt. rev. r. nott. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
B. W. Payne & Sons, Elmira, N. Y.—Il¬ 
lustrated circular of the Payne Automatic 
Engine, showing by cuts the niauner of con¬ 
struction of these engines. One of the main 
improvements, a distinctive feature, Is the 
governor, which is very simple in construction 
but very positive iu action. The working 
parts of this governor are placed within the 
main pulley, aud by their change of position 
by reason of the varying velocity of the 
wheels, they operate the cut-off so that,instead 
of governing by cutting off the amount of 
steam entering the cylinder aud thus reducing 
the pressure, as is done by the old style gover¬ 
nors, this governs by cutting off the steam 
entirely, at a 1 ass or greater proportion of the 
stroke, thus allowing the steam while admit¬ 
ted at all, to have the full pressure of the boiler, 
and then cutting off entirely.and allowing ex¬ 
pansion to do the balance. These engines are 
made in different styles and of different ca¬ 
pacities. The firm also make upright and 
portable engines for burning coal and wood, 
and also straw burners for the Far West. It 
will pay all who want steam power to consult 
this catalogue. Sent free. 
Boomer & Boschert Press Company, 
Syracuse, N. Y.—Catalogue of the Boomer & 
Boschert cider and wine presses, and machinery 
and appliances suitable for use iu cider mills. 
As we looked through this fine catalogue and 
saw the cuts of those huge presses capable 
of making from 10 to 13 barrels per hour, we 
coul 1 but think of cider-making in our boy¬ 
hood days, w’hen we drove the horse on the 
old wooden sweep to crush the apples, and 
happy would have been two men who could 
make half as many barrels in a whole day. 
In this catalogue are fully described all their 
presses, from this immense one, to the little 
haud-press capable of making only 10 or 15 
barrels in a day; also the various styles of 
platforms and curbs used, including double, 
single, reversible, circular and combination 
platforms; also their grinding and grating 
apparatus, pumps, elevators, buckets and 
cider evaporators, with full directions for set¬ 
ting up and running all their machinery. It 
also has letters from the users in all parts of 
the Union. There is in it much of interest to 
every cider-maker. 
Transactions of the Illinois State Hor¬ 
ticultural Society for 1884.—We are in¬ 
debted to Mi-. A. C. Hammond, the Secretary, 
for a copy of this fine volume of 450 pages, 
containing the transactions of the above 
society ; also of the Northern Illinois Society, 
the Central Illinois Society, as well as many 
local societies. It contains the papers read at 
the various meetings, and a very full report of 
the discussions following each. Altogether 
this is a volume full of good things, but we 
suggest that it would be of much more use to 
a busy man if the index were much fuller. We 
have no desire to find fault, but we wish that 
all these volumes, that are intended as refer¬ 
ence, were indexed in subjects and so fully 
that anything iu the book could be found at 
once. It would also be a convenience to the 
general public to be informed from whom tb6 
reports can be obtained and on what terms, 
for often people would wish to get the reports 
of particular States in which they do not 
live. 
Dana Windmill Company, Fairhaven, 
Mass.—A descriptive catalogue of the Dana 
Centrifugal-governing Windmill. This cata¬ 
logue is finely gotten up, and describes this 
mill, which is on a new principle of govern¬ 
ing, this being done by the speed of the mill 
and not by the force or pressure of the wind. 
The fau always remains face to the wind and 
the “sails” are pivoted on the spoke of the 
wheels iu such a way that by the governing 
device they are caused to rotate, so that as 
the speed increases above a certain point, 
these fans turn edge to the wind, so that it is 
claimed that after the wind gets strong 
enough to start the mill, no matter how hard 
or how unsteadily it may blow, the mill can 
only travel at the giveu speed, which is uni¬ 
form. There are so many points iu this cata¬ 
logue that are new, that it will pay all inter¬ 
ested in wind-mills to send for it. Free to our 
readers. 
Michigan State Hortictltural Soci¬ 
ety, annual report for 1884.—This volume is 
issued in the usual style of this Society’s re¬ 
ports, aud contains accounts of the proceed¬ 
ings of the meetiugs of the Society for the year, 
including the spring, summer, aud winter 
meetings. About 100 pages arc tilled with the 
Secretary’s Portfolio, and iu this, Secretary 
Garfield manages to get an immense amount 
of good, sound common sense. Michigan is 
doing more for horticulture than any other 
State, and her Society is composed of about 
the best and widest-awake lot of horticultur¬ 
ists anywhere to be found, and foremost 
aui ng the hard workers stands the indefat¬ 
igable Secretary. If you want this volume, 
send $L to C. W. Garfield, Grand Rapids, 
Mieh., and that makes you a member of the 
Society, and this book is sent to all members 
free. 
“The Home Florist,” by E. A. Long, 
published by C. A. Rieser, Springfield, Ohio, 
a revised aud enlarged edition. This work 
treats briefly of landscape gardening. Under 
open air floriculture, planting in masses of 
color, sowing seeds, transplanting, preparing 
plants for wiuter flowering, etc., etc., are 
treated of. Lists of trailers for baskets, 
vases, etc., and also lists of roses, aud of orna¬ 
mental and flowering plants in general are 
giveu, with directions for their culture. The 
book closes with a list of the floricultural op¬ 
erations of the year arranged by weeks. 
J. T. Lovett. Little Silver, N. J.—A cir¬ 
cular announcing the new Parker Earle 
Strawberry. This originated in Texas, from 
seed of the Miner, with T. V. Munson, if we 
mistake not. Mr. Lovett praises this new 
berry as having stood the effects of droughts 
and excessive rainfall better than any other 
kind. He describes the fruit as large, conical; 
the quality as rich and superb. He invites 
all to visit his grounds and see the Parker 
Earle as well as several hundred seedlings 
produced at bis nurseries. 
A second circular offers berry crates and 
baskets, peach baskets and grape baskets. It 
is illustrated. 
U. 8. Wind Engine & Pump Co., Batavia, 
Ill.—Catalogue of haying tools, such as hay- 
carriers, horse forks, pulleys, etc., among 
which, we notice Noye’s Anti-friction Hay- 
carrier, the Standard four-wheel carrier, the 
Standard rod-carrier, and the double-grapple 
two and four-tined forks; also pulleys with 
wooden sheaves. It will pay anyone needing 
haying apparatus to carefully study this cata¬ 
logue. Free. 
Annual Report of the Indiana State 
Board op Agriculture, for 1884, contain¬ 
ing reports of the meeting of the Board, also 
those of the Short-horn breeders, and breeders 
of Jersey cattle, as well as those of the Wool 
Growers’, Swine Breeders’, Bee-keepers’ and 
the Cane-growers’ Associations. It is a book 
of nearly 500 pages, and very handy for con¬ 
sultation. We are indebted for the favor to 
Alex. Heron, the Secretary. 
Spear & Dehnhoff, 717 Broadway, N. Y. 
—A list of all sorts of books and pamphlets of 
musical instruction for the organ, piano, vio¬ 
lin, cornet, etc.; also sheet music of every 
kind. The lists will be sent on application to 
all Rural readers. 
R G. Chase & Co., Geneva, N. Y.—A circu¬ 
lar of the new Rancocas Raspberry. Among 
perhaps a hundred different varieties this has 
endured the past Winter as well as any. 
The meanest sort of swindlers are the ras¬ 
cals who take advantage of the anxiety of 
those who are in search of employment in 
order to earn a livelihood, or to add a trifle to 
their scanty income, or to secure pocket- 
money. Many of these are women who are 
desirous of getting something to do at home 
in their leisure moments; others are invalids 
or cripples confined to the house by their sad 
infirmities; others are in “reduced circum¬ 
stances," and wish to earn a little quietly while 
coucealing their pinched means; few, if any, 
can afford to lose even a few dollars without 
distress. Like coyotes, the most contemptible 
of all beasts of prey, a set of miscreants are con 
stautly seeking to victimize these unfortunates 
by offers of profitable employment, made in 
the most liberal and attractive way, while all 
the time their only object is to swindle them 
out of a few dollars. The amouutsare gener¬ 
ally small singly, but the number of employ 
meutseekers is so great that the aggregate 
plunder must be very considerable. Indeed, 
that the roguery is profitable is proved by the 
number of knaves engaged iu it, and the 
liberal amount they spend in advertising the 
various projects by which they seek to beguile 
the confiding. 
The most persistent advertisers of this dis¬ 
reputable class are the fellows who offer for 
sale photographs, oleographs, etc., engaging 
to buy them back at a profitable price when 
they have been colored. These make a large 
profit on the photos and on the coloring “out¬ 
fits’’ they beguile their dupes into purchasing, 
but we have yet to hear of one who has kept 
his promise to buy back the colored pictures 
at the figures mentioned when selliug the 
goods. Of much the same character are au 
other set of adveuturers who are of late be¬ 
coming rather uumerous. These offer mate- 
terials and instructions for crochet work, lace, 
etc., etc., aud engage to buy the goods made 
from these materials. We have inquiries 
about concerns of this style in Chicago, Cin 
cinnati, and this city, and not one of the “es¬ 
tablishments” that advertise grandiloquently 
is even mentione l by any mercantile agency. 
The Hudson Manufacturing Company, of 
this city, says: 
“We are manufacturers and dealers In a large 
variety of Maltese Lace Goods, articles made from 
silk and lineu threads, such as Ladles’ and Child 
ren's Caps, Collars, Cults, Dress Tr Immlims, tidies, 
Flllow Shams. Afghans, Krluges, etc., which are 
made for us by ladles at their own homes; to whom 
we give the work aud pay for by the piece when de¬ 
livered. which can be done through the mall as the 
articles arc light anil It costs but one cent per ounce 
where there la no writing Inclosed.”., 
One might suppose this concern was doing 
a rushing legitimate business; but it occupies 
only a small rear room in the second story of 
a third-rate house in a fourth-rate street— 
a room that would be dear for lodgings at 
$2 50 a week. It guarantees constant and 
profitable employment, however; but to those 
only who purchased its “Instruction Book, 
Implements, Materials and Complete Outfit 
for $3.00!” The other concerns in the lace 
and crocket line, about which inquiries have 
been made, appear to be equally “dubious” in 
character. We would certainly advise no 
dealings whatever with any one of them. 
To Several Inquirers.— We can by no 
means recommend Health aud Home, a medi¬ 
cal publication which claims to be published 
at Washington, D. C., and to be edited by W. 
H. Hall. This fellow, we learn from the 
Agents’ Herald, is a voung Irishman, who 
travels as an Indian doctor, swindling the 
nublic with various nostrums of marvelous 
power and efficacy. Two of the aliases of the 
mountebank are Dr. Carson and Dr. Light- 
foot.. .......Dr. Powel, alias Henry Voegel. 
Brooklvn, N. Y., is flooding the country, and 
especially the West,with advertisements guar 
anteeing cures for nearly all evils human flesh 
is heir to, for a Bmall “consideration.” Fools 
may be gulled by him; but no such fools are 
among the readers of the Rural .Leslie 
E. E>eley is an Illinois counterpart of the 
New York quack swindler, the "Rev.” Joseph 
T. Inman.....The Rutledge Publishing 
Co., Easton, Pa., is a fraud. 
We don’t recommend Prof. J. H. Armstrong, 
aUas W. C. Homes, of this city and Philadel¬ 
phia: Ash & Robbins, Brooklyn, N. Y.; 
“Dr,” M. W. Bacon. Chicago; the Buckeye 
MTg Co., aJias A. C. Bowen, Marvin. Ohio; 
or the Cincinnati Publishing Co., alias S. 
Foster & Co., Cincinnati. Ohio, publishers of 
the “Aid.”.The “Golden Specific” Drunk¬ 
enness Cure, Cincinnati, Ohio, is a humbug. 
...... We have already twice denounced 
the Galvanic Girdle Co., of this city.The 
Monarch Music Co., Springfield, Mass, is not 
reliable: neither is the National Intelligence 
Publishing Co., of Chicago; the Erie Medical 
Co., Buffalo. N. Y.; the Rheumatic Limb Co., 
Rochester, N, Y.; T, W. Sax, Warsaw, Ind., 
nor L. A. Smith Co., alias Smith Hanke, 
alias Botanic Laboratory, alias Union Supply 
Co.. Palatine, Ill., or Algernon Wilcox, alias 
Wilcox Specific Med. Co., alias Wilcox 
Chemical Co., alias Wilcox Chemical Prepar¬ 
ation Co., alias the Specific Med. Co., alias 
Dr. J. V. Staunton, Philadelphia and New 
York. 
Just now the country is being “flooded’, 
with—not by—fire-extinguishers. Many of 
these are almost, if ’not altogether, worthless, 
and money invested in them would be far 
better invested in fire insurance. The usual 
method of disposing of these so-called “ex¬ 
tinguishers” is for an agent to go into a vil¬ 
lage, do a little local advertising, build a fire 
in a public place, and after it has burned 
awhile, bring forth an “extinguisher” and 
promptly extinguish it. As a matter of 
course people are found with more money 
than brains, who invest their cash in these 
bottles, grenades, or whatever they are called, 
take them home, and sooner or later throw 
them on the ash heap, or stick them with 
other useless lumber, in the garret. The ad¬ 
vertisement of one of the’u (Flagg’s) states 
that its patent antedates all others by two 
years 11 months and 16 days, and gives a 
warning to the public not to buy any other 
fire extinguisher. This patent is, as we are 
informed, on a chemical compound for ex¬ 
tinguishing fires. Another company says that 
every person purchasing of the first will get a 
so called extiuguisher and—a law suit. The 
principal patent on these extinguishers is sup¬ 
posed to cover both a chemical compound and 
the method of throwing it upon a fire—a ves¬ 
sel containing a chemical mixture to be 
thrown upon a fire aud broken. If this be an 
iron-clad patent, does not the throwing of 
water, especially if it happens to be in a vessel, 
upon a fire, infringe upon it. Another point 
claimed by these extinguishers is that a kit¬ 
chen fire can be put out with them; so that 
all that is required for heating purposes is a 
can of kerosene and one of this compound, and 
you can start and stop > our fire as you please. 
A chemical compound to prevent combustion 
is no new thing; any chemist can prepare it. 
There tire already a number of apparatus for 
producing the necessary chemical action to 
extinguish a fire, which have been thoroughly 
tried. In view of the exorbitant price at 
which these so-called hand extinguishers are 
selliug—-a price oat of all proportion to their 
cost or value—and of the uncertainty as to 
who has the right to sell them, we should 
advise our readers to let them alone. 
Mrs. Lizzie E. Cotton, of “the New System 
of Bee Management” notoriety, has been de¬ 
nounced as a fraud by the bee-men at the 
World’s Exposition at New Orleans. But the 
fools are not ail dead yet, by any means—even 
among bee-keepers, 
