THE 
RURAU NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homea 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No, 84 1’ark Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1SS7. 
All readers of the Rural New-Yorker 
are respectfully notified that our premium- 
lists, posters, etc., are note ready , and that 
they will be cheerfully sent to all applicants. 
It will be seen that we begin iu this 
number of the R. N.-Y. our notices of the 
New Year catalogues of seedsmen. Pro¬ 
gressive farmers, by which we meau all 
who till the laud hoping each year to 
raise larger crops at a less cost, should 
examine them. 
For the past three weeks we have used 
the heavy machine-calendered paper, and 
our readers may now compare it with the 
swper-calendered paper used for a month 
previously. “Gloss” or “Heavy” for the 
future? That is the question. Let us hear 
from our readers. 
A subscriber in Canton, Ill., scuds us 
a few seeds which he found on a sweet 
potato plaut last summer. Several years 
ago, Mr. II. W. Ravenel, of Aiken, S. C., 
also sent us seeds. The sweet potato vine 
fruits so rarely in this country that the 
above instances are worthy of note. 
We would respectfully state to all who 
are interested iu Chemical fertilizers 
that the series of articles by Joseph Har¬ 
ris, reviewing the work of Lawes & Gil¬ 
bert, begun in this number, will be con¬ 
tinued once a month or oftener during this 
year. 
♦ » • .I ■ 
Catawba grapes of the first quality 
are now retailing iu the New York mar¬ 
kets at 60 cents a box. The weight of 
the grapes averages eight pounds t>X 
ounces, the weight of the box is oue 
pound 1% ounce. These are called 10- 
pound boxes. It is a notable and sug¬ 
gestive fact that at this time the Catawba 
is the only American grape to be found in 
any quantity. 
We regret to see that most of the new 
catalogues thus far received repeat the 
misleading accounts of the so-called— 
miscalled—Turner’s Hybrid (Mikado) To¬ 
mato. It is represented as being perfect¬ 
ly smooth, while, as we have shown, a 
large proportion are conspicuously lobed 
—not to say unshapely. This variety has 
several good qualities. It is very prolific, 
the tomatoes average large and of as good 
quality as any tomato. The leaves, too, 
are distinct. But those who purchase 
seeds of the Turner expecting to raise 
perfectly smooth fruit will be disap¬ 
pointed. When seedsmen persist in misrep¬ 
resenting the merits of new things, it seems 
to us. they are “penny wise aud pound 
foolish.” The seedsman who will take 
pains to write his catalogue with the view 
of telling the truth regarding everything 
offered in it as nearly as possible, would 
be entitled to the thanks and the very lib¬ 
eral support of the public. 
Our First Page Cut. —That is a grim 
and ghastly figure on our first page. 
Study it well. Is that bony hand stretched 
out in appeal to you? For centuries this 
faithful giant has toiled with uncomplain¬ 
ing patience. Men have come and men 
have gone, thoughtlessly taking the rich 
stores which the earth has yielded, with¬ 
out concern for the patient worker whose 
strength they have sapped, whose life 
they have dug away. They have not re¬ 
turned thanks to the land for the strength 
and life it has given them, they have 
rather cursed it for its feeblenoia. Now, 
as a last despairing effort, the giant rises 
to plead for help. The ghost of his for¬ 
mer self, with wasted muscles and famine- 
stricken face, he stands a supplicant. 
Butter-making Contests. —We sug¬ 
gest to Farmers’ Clubs the advisability of 
holding butter-making contests this 
winter. Prof. Sheldon speaks of such 
contests on another page. We shall be 
greatly pleased to have some of our live 
Farmers’ Clubs take hold of the matter 
and see what there is in it. Let the mem¬ 
bers of the club provide the cream and 
the contestants provide their own dairy 
implements. Or should there be, as there 
generally is, a contest between breeds in 
the neighborhood, why not settle it in this 
way? Let the rival breeders pick out their 
best cows, put them all in charge of an 
umpire, keep account of all food fed them 
for three days, save all the cream they 
make and let the wives or daughters of 
the owners make it into butter at a public 
meeting of the club. Such a contest can 
be conducted ft would call out the 
“best house” of the season, and do more 
to prove the value of cows thau a year of 
talk. Here is a chance for some of our 
young Farmers’ Clubs to take up a lively 
issue. 
Dishonesty op Capital.— In Alabama 
there are large tracts of Government land 
extremely rich in excellent, coal and iron 
ore in close proximity, rendering the 
country splendidly adapted to manufac¬ 
turing purposes. ft is this proximity of 
coal and iron that has been “booming” 
Birmingham. Alabama, of late years, and 
that has made every section where it ex¬ 
ists in any part of the civilized world a 
center of manufacturing industry In 
accordance with an Act of Congress of 
March 3, 1883, these lands were declared 
open to purchase, but the proclamation 
ordering the sale was revoked by Presi¬ 
dent Arthur on January 29, 1884, and 
subsequently the sale was indefinitely post¬ 
poned. Land Commissioner Sparks de¬ 
clares that this action has been taken on 
account of trustworthy reports that a 
secret combination of large mining com¬ 
panies lias been formed to crush all indi¬ 
vidual competition and secure these valu¬ 
able lands at the rate of $1.25 per acre. 
Similar unscrupulous tactics on the part 
of wealthy capitalists aud powerful cor¬ 
porations have already secured, for less 
than a tithe of their worth, great tracts of 
valuable timber lands in the Northwest. 
of mining lands in the Far West, and of 
swamp lands iu the Southwest. The un¬ 
scrupulous maneuvers by which Jay 
Gould has accumulated his vast fortune 
in a few years, meet with reprobation and 
denunciation everywhere; but the un¬ 
scrupulous manceuvers of Jay Gould are 
only successful examples of the unprin¬ 
cipled tactics of vast capital iu all places 
and under all circumstances. One of the 
most vital problems of the age is how to 
check the rapacity and dishonesty of 
capital. 
-»»• ii 
Constitutionality of Oleomarga¬ 
rine Legislation. —The Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania has just affirmed the con¬ 
stitutionality of the law passed by the 
Legislature, May 21, 1885, prohibiting 
the manufacture, sale or keeping of oleo¬ 
margarine. The Court decided that the 
act was not in conflict with anv provision 
of the State or Federal Constitution, and 
was within the limits of Legislative au¬ 
thority. The Court holds that the Legis¬ 
lature has full powers to make laws “for 
the protection of public health and to 
prevent adulteration in dairy products 
and fraud in the sale thereof”; for this 
comes “within the police powers of the 
State, wh'ch extend to the protection of 
the lives, limbs, health, comfort and quiet 
of all persons.” “The manufacture, sale 
and keeping of an article may all alike be 
prohibited bv the Legislature, if in their 
judgment the protection of the public 
from injury and fraud requires it.” “The 
fact that the prohibited substance may be 
innocuous is irrelevant. The sale of a 
mixture of pure milk and pure water has 
been prohibited.” 
This decision gives a wider scope to 
legislation within the police powers of 
the State than the New York decision in 
a similar case gave. In 1884 the New 
York Legislature passed a law almost 
identical in terms with the Pennsylvania 
law. and the following year the Court of 
Appeals decided against.the constitution¬ 
ality of its chief provision, holding that 
the sale of a substitute for anv article of 
manufacture was legitimate business, and 
if effected without deception could not 
be arbitrarily suppressed. When the 
highest authorities among judges disagree 
on legal questions, there is a good deal of 
excuse for a difference of opinion among 
the laity. Our own opinion is strongly 
in favor of the Pennsylvania decision. 
GIVE IT A TRIAL IN A SMALL WAY. 
We should be glad it those of our read¬ 
ers who are fond of making experiments 
would try the Rural's “valley mulch” 
plan of raising potatoes for which a little 
plot even 15 feet square would suffice. 
It may be briefly stated, for the. benefit of 
new subscribers, that the soil is prepared 
and leveled as if for grain-sowing. Then 
the seed-pieces are placed upon the soil, 
let us say, one foot apart.the rows being 
three apart, and the pieces pressed into 
jhe soil about one inch. We are now to 
over these seed-pieces with soil from 
between the rows three or four inches, I 
thus forming ridges (running parallel with 
each other) over the pieces and valleys be¬ 
tween. These valleys are now to be filled 
with leaves, or, in fact, any mulching 
material whatever at hand, and the work 
is completed, as no after cultivation is 
practicable or perhaps required. The 
material used in mulching decays some¬ 
what during the summer, and may be 
plowed under after the crop is removed. 
The “ trench-mulch ” system which origi¬ 
nated at the Rural Grounds several years 
ago and which has been tried by many 
readers of this journal, has proved a very 
successful method in light soils and dry 
seasons; but in heavy soils and backward 
seasons it is liable to lessen the yield. 
The seed-pieces are kept cold, and sprout¬ 
ing is retarded. But the valley-mulching 
seems to secure nearly all the advantages 
of the mulch without any disadvantage, 
let the season or soil bo what it may. If 
fertilizer is used it should be sown after 
the seed-pieces are set an inch (more or 
less) beneath the surface, and before the 
ridging is commenced. 
DISCONTENTED SOUTHERN NEGROES. 
Reports from several parts of the South 
tell of a great deal of discontent among 
the plantation negroes. The “contract 
labor" laws of some of the States are cer¬ 
tainly liable to inflict great hardships 
and injustice on the laborers. In some 
parts of that, section employers have 
formed a mutual agreement by which the 
colored people are virtually held in thrall- 
dom. Taking advantage of the igno¬ 
rance and improvidence of the race, they 
keep the field hands constantly in debt, 
while the planters of each district refuse 
employment to those who owe any other 
planter a dollar. The discontent is greatest 
in parts of South Carolina and Missis¬ 
sippi. For some months there has been 
quite an exodus of negroes from the former 
State,chiefly to Kansas aud Arkansas; and 
a regular exodus of negroes has lately set 
in from the lully districts of Mississippi to 
the low lands along the river. They take 
alongal! their chattels aud drive their milch 
cows and other live, stock before them. 
All the “exodusters”comphun bitterly of 
cruel hardships and the impossibility of 
making a decent living’in theirold homes. 
The planters in the deserted sections are 
put to no small amount of trouble and loss 
for want of laborers to put iu and gather the 
crops. Agents for other sections seeking 
laborers or inciting emigration are con¬ 
stantly warned off at the peril of their lives; 
and always find it salutary to obey the 
warning; but still the exodus continues. 
In most parts of the South investments 
in industrial enterprises of all kinds have 
been very heavy during the past year; 
business has been “booming,” and labor 
has been comparatively well paid and 
contented. More liberality on the part 
of the planters in the discontented sections 
would doubtless have kept the laborers 
on the plantations. Injustice to labor in 
these days is very likely to bring about its 
own punishment in the shape of serious 
financial loss to the guilty. 
KILL THE DOGS ! 
Kill tiie dogs! Kill all the dogs, is 
the howl now set up by city editors; by 
selfish, penurious country farmers; by 
panicky old maids or fretful old bache¬ 
lors. The writer of this note has suffered 
as much as another by the pillagings and 
destructions of the wretched, half-starved 
curs that on either side of him are allowed 
to prowl about the Rural Grounds, work¬ 
ing at times an amount of destruction al¬ 
most maddening to the family. We have 
expostulated in a kindly way with their 
owners without avail. We have endea¬ 
vored so to frighten and drive them off 
that they would not care to return. But, 
half-starved and unrestrained, they return 
to pick up the morsel of food which they 
cannot find at home. Every owner of a 
dog is called upon to feed him, to train 
him, to restrain him—the same as his 
fowls, his pigs, horses and cattle are re¬ 
strained. Otherwise he lias no right to 
own a dog. But if he persists in owning 
dogs that without restraint or breaking 
or a sufficiency of food, prowl about 
the neighborhood, breaking into cellars, 
killing fowls or sheep as tin; case may be, 
whose fault is it—the dogs’ or their own¬ 
ers’? It is easy to judge of some phases 
at least of the farmer’s character by the 
looks and behavior of bis dog ns much 
as by those of the other farm animals. A 
farmer that is too mean to care for his 
dog will skimp his family. You will see 
in the appearance and manners of his 
wife and children that he is mean and 
cruel with them too. We may kill the 
dogs,’tis true, but the poor animals suffer 
for the sins of their owners. 
We would not—in our countrv life—be 
without well-trained dogs. We believe 
that God intended this noble animal as a 
companion and protector of man, and 
that in point of instinctive Intelligence, 
fidelitv, sagacity, a yielding to diseiplin- 
ary measures and a natural love of man, the 
dog should he placed first among the 
lower animals. When, therefore, we read 
day after day in our exchanges of the in¬ 
discriminate demand to “kill the dogs,” 
we wonder how it is that those who are 
responsible for their existence should not 
in some way he held accountable for their 
behavior. 
An i'lustrated account of the RU¬ 
RAL NEW YORKER’S Free Se-d Dis¬ 
tribution for 1887. was published in 
a supplement of the issue of Novem¬ 
ber 20. This will be mailed to all 
who wish it. 
BREVITIES. 
AcTiNintA PQLYOAMA.—The canes of this 
thriftv new vino made a growth at the Rural 
Grounds of 25 feet Tt. has not yet bloomed, 
though we have had it four years. 
One thing seems to have been unite well 
demonstrated, viz,, that a larger quantity of 
potatoes, ms well as potatoes of a better qual¬ 
ity, can he raised with chemical fertilizers 
than with manure. 
Catalogue notices well he found on page 
37. the first of the season. Readers will lose 
nothing bv applying for them and. if they 
have seeds or plants to purchase, bv compar¬ 
ing them. Still, it is not, as a rule, the trust¬ 
iest, seedsmen that offer their goods at the 
lowest price. 
Pkah, lettuce, radishes, early potatoes and 
the like need specially prepared fertilizers— 
those which are immediately soluble. If we 
were to use hair or wool to furnish nitrogen, 
and 8. C. rock or coarse bones for such crops, 
we might safely Predict failures If. indeed, 
we were to use fresh horse manure alone, the 
plants would receive little benefit, from it. 
Quick-growing crops must have their food 
ready for t hem. 
With our added experience of another year 
with poultry, we are still of the opinion that 
either the Wvaudottesor Plymouth Rocks are 
ns valuable ns anv other breed for the general 
farmer, or ns all-Piiroose fowls. Among the 
older breeds we should choose the White 
Brahmas, and next the Blank Cochins. Ac¬ 
cording to our records, the Black Ham burghs 
gave us the largest number of eggs. Our ob- 
ieotlon to them, as to the Leghorns, however, 
is that they niv less valuable than others for 
the market and are less contented iu confine¬ 
ment. 
Mu. Joseph Harris makes a strong point 
in favor of having experiment stations en¬ 
tirely divorced from nil political manage¬ 
ment A case like the English one described 
bv Air. Harris might easily occur here. A 
dishonest director dependent, noon Popular 
opinion for his position, would not dare to 
report the truth. The ideal director is the 
man who does not care a cent for tmblic opin¬ 
ion. but whose mdv desire is to tell the truth 
and to report experiments lust as they result, 
whether that result be favorable or not. 
A BILL is now before Congress enlliug for a 
reduction in the postage on seefis. plants, etc., 
from Ifi to eight cents per pound. R should 
pass, ami vet we are convinced that four cents 
per pound would bo high enough The seed 
trade conducted through the mail, is enor¬ 
mous. and would he greatly increased if the 
rate of postage could he reduced. The in- 
ereased business would enable the Post Office 
Department to fullv cover all exnenses. while 
the reduced cost would benefit every farmer 
or gardener. The bill should be pushed 
through. 
A bill now before Congress provides that 
no nart of the appropriation for farmers at 
Indian Agencies shall be expended in payment 
of the salary of anv man who is not n practi¬ 
cal farmer, and who for five years next pre¬ 
ceding his appointment, shall not have been 
engaged in farming. If annears that a num¬ 
ber of broken-down political backs, who know 
little or nothing about, farming, or. indeed, 
anv other honestoittolovuient involving actual 
labor, have been aonointed to batch the In¬ 
dians agriculture, and bv example as well as 
precept, induce them to become tillers of the 
soil. Tf politicians have anything to do with 
the proposed National .WrieuPurnl Exfteri- 
ment Stations, is if not, likelv that the same 
line of policy will render them practically 
worthless? 
All who are interested in chemical fertiliz- 
ers mav be pleased to see that Joseph 
Harris of Moreton Farm, near Rochester. N. 
Y.. is writing a series of articles for the 
Rural New-Yorker to continue through 
this year. The subject is 
THE EXPERIMENTS OF LAWES & GIL¬ 
BERT OF ROTHAMSTED, ENGLAND. 
We do not helievo a more important, and 
instructive series of articles has ever been 
offered to the farmers of our country. Sir J. 
B. Lawes bus done more than nil other exper¬ 
imenters out together to solve the great prob¬ 
lems of soil food, soil exhaustion, the action 
of manure and chemical fertilizers iu the soil 
and t heir effects upon plants. This work of 
44 wars will be reviewed by Mr. Harris, who 
is specially fitted for the task, in that ho was 
him°elf a student of Dr. Lawes. at Rotham- 
stend. and has since Iren in regular corres¬ 
pondence with him and received and studied 
his various publications issued meanwhile. 
Ami there is no more fitting medium for the 
presentation of this series of articles than the 
columns'of**the 'Rural New-Yorker which 
was the'firstAmerican paper ho ever’,wrote for. 
