THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Address 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
rHE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2(5, ISM. 
A supplement number of the R. N.-Y. 
_ is in preparation, the first page of which 
will illustrate some of the ties which bind 
the politician to the farmer. 
It is the common experience of farmers 
that the second planting of corn, or re¬ 
planting the hills or rows which failed to 
grow, is unsatisfactory. Last year we 
tried transplanting. Plants were taken 
from where they were too thick and 
placed where they had failed. All of the 
plants so treated lived, but they were less 
thrifty and productive. 
♦ »« - 
The Double-flowering Horse-chestnut 
has not yet bloomed at the Rural Grounds, 
but from what we hear it is a novelty of 
real worth. The racemes are even larger 
than those of the common horse-chestnut, 
the shape of the tree is pyramidal. The 
flowers being “double,” do not form any 
fruit, so that this variety is not open to 
the objection of litteriug up the lawn 
with its nuts and shells. 
Many complaints are now received that 
questions sent to the Farmeis 1 Club of 
the R. N.-Y. are not answered. It is 
now a season ot the year when the pres¬ 
sure upon every department of the paper 
is at its greatest—and it is greater tins 
season than ever before- We give all the 
space we can to the popular Farmers’ 
Club without trenching too much upon 
other departments which are quite as im¬ 
portant. We do the best we can, kind read¬ 
ers, and you must be considerate and pa¬ 
tient. 
-- 
The fertilizer experiments on corn made 
at the N. Y. Station seem to show that 
the soil does not need phosphoric acid, 
but, does need nitrogen. The question is 
then asked: “What possible value docs 
this conclusion possess for the farm next 
door, or to the farm in the next town, 
county or State?” We should answer that 
it is of very great value indeed as showing 
that what the station has learned by a 
simple series of experiments might be 
learned in the same way by the fanner 
next door or anywhere else. 
The results of au experiment made four 
years ago intended to show the advantages 
or disadvantages of hilling up corn and 
plowing between the rows or hills as com¬ 
pared with level culture and surface culti¬ 
vation, may well be repeated now. The 
acre of corn which was hilled up and 
plowed yielded much less than the two 
acres which were not hilled up and which 
were cultivated only to a depth of oue or 
two inches. The plants of the former be¬ 
gan to die at least 10 days before those of 
the latter. The season was dry, the land 
a claycj loam. We have made a number 
of experiments of this kind, but never one 
which gave such marked effects. 
Professor W. J. Green, of the Ohio 
Agricultural Experiment Station, con¬ 
ducted last year a series of experiments 
designed to' show Avhich kinds of plant 
food would produce the best yields of po¬ 
tatoes. Without entering upon details, 
it may lie said that the highest yield was 
produced from complete potato fertilize! 
(500 pounds per acre) and the next higj 
est, from stable manure, ten tons per acre. 
Professor Green remarks that “experi¬ 
ments . conducted at Rothamsted and by 
the editor of the Rural New-Yorker il¬ 
lustrate quite as forcibly that maxi¬ 
mum crops of potatoes can be secured 
only with complete fertilizers.” 
Our next cartoon will show what we 
think about the Washington seed distrib¬ 
ution. We have written our opinion 
many times; this cartoon will clinch it. 
We propose to hammer away at this dis¬ 
graceful abuse until it. is done away with. 
We are glad to see that agricultural and 
horticultural societies everywhere arc com¬ 
ing to our aid. Farmers are determined 
to kick this abuse out from beneath the 
skirts of agriculture, and they will kick 
it out, too. Our cartoons are rapidly be¬ 
coming a power for good. It is a new 
feature, no other farm paper has ever at¬ 
tempted it. We propose to keep it up 
and to strike at the heart of every abuse 
and -wrong with all the power we can 
command. The almost univeisal approv¬ 
al with which our pictures have been met,, 
proves that a good artist can express 
more in one page than auy writer can 
ever do. 
Hereafter, in speaking of what is 
commonly kuown as a “license” to sell 
liquor, wouldn’t it be far better to call 
the tax a penalty. We believe the word 
“penalty” most fitly expresses the manner 
in which temperance people regard the 
tax paid by ruuisellers for conducting 
their business. To give a mau license to 
conduct a business, is to admit that his 
business is an honorable and harmless one. 
To make him pay a penalty is to insist 
that he has committed a wrong for which 
he must pay. We hold that the business 
of the rumseller cannot be made respecta¬ 
ble. We object to anything that gives 
him any hold upon respectability. We 
invite ihe press and temperance people 
generally to reject the word license and 
call the tax by its right name—penalty. 
It is as sensible to threaten an evil doer 
with “the license of the law” as to stick 
to the old definition. We would like to 
have every saloon keeper made to appear 
like a criminal in the eyes of our boys and 
Despatches yesterday from Pittsburg, 
Pa., say that Euglish agents are buying 
horses for war puposes in Western Penn¬ 
sylvania. Ohio aud Kentucky, and that 
sales are so large that prices have ad¬ 
vanced 25 per cent. Five hundred horses 
are said to have been recently shipped to 
the seaboard ew Pittsburg, while ■ the 
heaviest shipments are reported to have 
been made through Canada. Advices 
from Illinois tell us the prices of horses 
have advanced fully 25 per cent, in that 
State; while a despatch from St. Louis 
informs us that the United States officials 
there wish to purchase at once 750 horses 
suitable for cavalry and artillery purposes. 
The Government is purchasing horses for 
service in these departments unusually 
early this year at St. Louis and elsewhere 
to allow more time for inspection and trial. 
Hogs and horses appear to be by far the 
most profitable branches of live-stock 
husbandry this year. 
Maple Sugar Adulteration— Prof. 
A. J. Cook points out the fact that while 
comparatively little genuine maple sirup 
is made, it is well-nigh impossible to go 
into auy of the thousands of grocery stores 
in this country without finding plenty 
of jarsmarked “Pure Maple Sirup.” It 
is a story of fraud and adulteration as 
wicked as that practiced by the oleomar¬ 
garine people. Glucose sells for less than 
20 cents per gallon. Mixed aud doctored 
with a little maple flavoring, it is sold for 
St.00. This glucose is made from corn. 
The grain is ground, the starch washed out 
and heated with sulphuric acid. The acid 
is afterward removed by the use of lime, 
hut the consumer never knows how com¬ 
plete this removal is or whether any of the 
acid remains in the glucose he is called 
upon to eat. When poorly prepared—and 
the consumer never knows when this 
condition occurs—glucose contains a vir¬ 
ulent poison which will surely injure the 
system. Makers of pure maple sugar 
must convince their patrons of their hon¬ 
esty. The sweet they prepare in its pure 
state will always command the highest 
price,for it is a delicate luxury. The best 
way to fight the bogus dealers is to war¬ 
rant every can as strictly pure, to observe 
the most scrupulous honesty, and to ad¬ 
vertise in an attractive way. 
4 
LUNG PLAGUE IN CONGRESS. 
The above is the title of a very lengthy 
and able article by Janies Law, Professor 
of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell Uni¬ 
versity, Ithaca, N. Y., who is generally 
considered the best veterinarian in this 
country and one of tbc best in the world. 
A type-written copy of the article is be¬ 
fore us. It discusses the nature, history 
and spread of contagious pleuro-pncu- 
monia among cattle in reference to the re¬ 
cent action of the Lower House of Con¬ 
gress on the matter. A bill before that 
body proposed to appropriate $250,000 to 
stamp out this plague in this country and 
restore us to the vantage ground we occu¬ 
pied before its importation in 1848. It 
was supported by every skilled veterinar¬ 
ian, official or otherwise, who had studied 
the subject; by every cattle association 
East, West, North and South; by numer¬ 
ous State Boards of Agriculture; by the 
joint resolutions of the Legislatures of 
several of the States in which the danger 
from "the disease is most threatening, 
by the ^entire agricultural press, 
with a very few insignificant exceptions, 
and by the vast majority of the cattle in¬ 
terests of the country. It was opposed 
by a handful of wealthy, loud-mouthed 
commission live stock dealers in Chicago 
and some of the other great cattle mar¬ 
kets; by several well-moaning men who 
disbelieved in the imminence of the dan¬ 
ger and believed that all the official re¬ 
ports of the nature and ravages of the 
plague were either absolutely false or 
grossly exaggerated for disgraceful, self- 
interested reasons; and by a few writers 
who either boro personal ill-will towards 
some of the National or State veterinary 
officials, or who have always been mor¬ 
bidly economical of Governmental out¬ 
lay wherever the agricultural interests 
have been concerned. 
These, the other day,found ready mouth¬ 
pieces in the House in the politico-medi¬ 
cal Representatives Dr. Swinburne, of 
New York, and Dr. Gallinger of NevY 
Hampshire. These insisted that there 
was little danger from the disease; that 
it was simply plouro-pneumonia and not 
at. all contageous; that its prevalence 
was duo, not to contagion , but to the mis¬ 
erable surroundings of the affected ani¬ 
mals, and hence that it was spontaneously 
generated; that the veterinarians who 
reported on it, were either incompetent or 
liars; that the medical profession did not 
think it contageous, and that instead of 
an appropriation being made to stamp it 
out, a commission of three physicians 
should be appointed to find out whether 
it was really contageous. On these repre- 
senta ions the House, by 114 to 25, voted 
to appoint three experts to ascertain 
whether the disease is actually conta¬ 
geous, and report to Congress. 
Dr. Law contends that the nature of 
the disease has been already amply inves¬ 
tigated, and that full and conclusive re¬ 
ports on the subject have been made to 
the Government. If Congressmen have 
neglected to study these, is it likely they 
*011 do so after another has been added 
to the list? The entire history of the dis¬ 
ease in this and every other country in 
which it has been prevalent demonstrates 
that it. is produced, never spontaneously, 
but always by contagion. The. investiga¬ 
tions of the Treasury Cattle CommisOon 
in 1882. proved that where the plague ex¬ 
isted in the Atlantic States, it was most 
prevalent, not among cattle m crowded 
stock yards or among animals wearied with 
long travel, but among dairy cows recruited 
largely Irom near-by points, and that had 
passed several weeks in cow-slieds or in 
suburban pastures, so that there was time 
for the incubation of the germs taken in af¬ 
ter their arrival, before they show* d symp¬ 
toms of the plague. The Professor while 
acknowledging that theie are quacks in 
both the ve ericary and metrical profes- 
s ons, declares that an educated veterin¬ 
arian is entitled to fully as much regard 
as an educated doctor, and mentions nu¬ 
merous instances of the high esteem in 
which members of the veterinary profes¬ 
sion are held in tbis and other countries. 
He maintains that a number of the most 
eminent physic nns of New York and 
Brooklyn personally investigated cases of 
the plague near those cities, and abun¬ 
dantly satisfied themselves of the correct¬ 
ness of the diagnoses and statements of 
the veterinarians. 
The true instigators of all the folly, Dr. 
Law maintains, are the cattle dealers 
who want thc.r commissions on the sale of 
cattle sick or well. What matter to them 
if the plague taints every stream of cattle 
trade in the country. The loss wouldn’t 
be theirs. They would still get their 
commissions on sales and as all who may 
have infected cattle will be anxious to 
hurry them to market, the more widely 
the infection is spread, the more numer¬ 
ous will he the sales aud the higher thein- 
Vwuc of the commission dealers. 
A The Professor issues the following chal¬ 
lenge: Let Drs. Swinburne and Gallinger, 
the Commissioner of Agriculture and the 
Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 
(the three expert) ?] Commissioners may 
be added if they should be appointed) se¬ 
lect one dozen cattle in a pure, elevated 
country district, outside the area of any 
lung plague, have them removed with all 
due precautions to ttie Experimental Farm 
of the Department of Agriculture or other 
approved place, have them inoculated 
with the virus of the disease, and if in the 
course of 25 days some of the animals 
show undoubted symptoms of I hi’ plague, 
let the two doctors forfeit their respec¬ 
tive salaries as Congressmen for the cur¬ 
rent year, and let the amount, with what¬ 
ever appropriations may lie made, be ap¬ 
plied to pay for the experiment and to 
stamp out the disease. He also suggests 
that the 114 Congressmen “who fol¬ 
lowed the two doctors in their evil course, ” 
should similarly stake their yearly sala¬ 
ries on the issue, and then no further ap¬ 
propriations would be needed to stamp 
out the plague. “Men so willing to risk 
the great live-stock interests of the coun¬ 
try should be willing to risk their salaries.” 
brevities 
Note Mr. Goff’s method of sowing seeds on 
page 135. 
We sowed potato seeds in six-inch flower¬ 
pots Feb. 10. 
The Empire State Grape (white) is getting 
a good deal of praise from conservative, dis¬ 
interested viueyardists. 
If yon had your choice of earning the title 
of “ wise mau,” “smart man” or “good man” 
which would you select. By the way, haven't 
you gob this chance? 
Crimson Cluster ami Jessie Strawberries— 
try them in a small way, but try them, you 
who can afford to purchase novelties and who 
take pleasure in trying them. 
TpERE is room for a difference of opinion 
as to whether it is better to transplant, decid¬ 
uous trees iu the fall or spring; but there is 
none regarding evergreens—spring is the time, 
and the earlier the better after the frost has 
left the ground. 
Pres. Stribling, of Pendleton, S. C., 
writes us that about one-half of January 
there was fine farming weather, with but little 
rain. He says that nearly nil oats are sown, 
bn! that fall-sown oats were for the most part 
killed by hard freezing during December. 
Hon. John A. Woodward, the genial asso¬ 
ciate editor of the Farm Journal, writes un¬ 
der date of Feb. 10: “You do succeed splen¬ 
didly, not only iu keeping the Rural up ‘to 
the mark.' but in making constant advance¬ 
ment. It is wonderful how you manage it, 
and I congratulate you.” 
The Fifth Annual Report, of the Board of 
Control of the New York Ag. Ex. Station for 
18 ,so with reports of the director and officers 
lias been received. It is a very valuable doc¬ 
ument ami will bear and repay any amount 
of stud}’. We wish this report were in the 
hands of every farmer in the country. 
Mr. II. II. Haaff, the “original dehorner,” 
receutly spoke at a fanners’ institute in Wis¬ 
consin. Somebody said that he objected to 
dehorning cattle because nothing was said 
about it in the Bible. Mr. H. quoted from 
Psalm lxxv, lffth verse, as follows: “All the 
liorus of the wicked also will I cut off.” 
Plant plum trees iu the poultry yard 
and lay laths upon the grnuud, the stem 
of thi- tree ill the center; nail these together 
forming little squares too small to allow of 
the heus scratching. In this way the roots 
are protected. Plums may thus be raised 
and the hens w ill take care of the eureulios. 
An inquirer asks us if we would spread 
farm manure in winter if the land is hilly. 
He has seen it advocated iu a farm journal. 
By no means, we reply. We have seen such 
advocacy aud deem it the worst advice that 
can be given. Unless the land is so level that 
during thaw's or after rains the water can not 
nm off or collect in basins, we should not 
spread it in winter. 
According to Mr. Goff’s experiments at the 
N. Y. Ex. station potatoes cut to single eyes 
and spread on the floor for 10 days yielded 
per 100 plants seven pounds more than single 
eyes planted as soon as cut. He traced the 
roots of squash and musltmelon viues to find 
that the roots extended horizontally as far as 
the vines themselves, averaging only two or 
three inches under t he surface. 
A second set of trials made by Mr. E. S. 
Goff of the N. Y. Ex. Station gives additional 
proof that neither the pulp of strawberries 
nor the color, quality or size of grapes is af¬ 
fected by foreign pollen. His cabbage exper¬ 
iments confirm the Rural's made five years 
ago t hat cabbage plants started in cold frames 
(or in beds) ami transplanted, mature no ear¬ 
lier than those from seeds sown where the 
plants germinated, grew and matured. This 
was the conclusion arrived at, we believe, by 
Mr. J. J. II. Gregory from tests made many 
years ago. 
In Mr. Baird's very valuable article on cab¬ 
bage economy he mentions approvingly the 
often recommended practice of choosing the 
early morning for hoeing the plants, and hoe¬ 
ing often. About the latter there can be no 
doubt, but as to special advantage from hoe¬ 
ing when the dew is on, there may be. Still 
it is possible that the roots may be enabled to 
drink iu a little the more for it if the hoe does 
not wouud them. Can uuy one who grows 
large quantities and works among them early 
and late, tell of any observe*! difference iu the 
growth of t he plants? The opinion may have 
gained ground from the improved feelings of 
the hoer who enjoys breakfast and life gen¬ 
erally all the better for an early nud brisk 
stir in the fresh, healthful, morning air. In 
the case of beans, old sayings warn us ugaiust 
any hoeing about t hem while wet. 
The President’s veto of the bill appropria¬ 
ting $10,000 l'or the purchase of seeds for dis¬ 
tribution among the drought-impoverished 
residents of Western Texas, has been sustained 
by Congress. Texas, without a cent of public 
debt and with a territory’ the most exteusive 
and among the richest in the Uniou, should 
be able to relieve the distress of her own citi¬ 
zens, aided by tin? liberal private benevolence 
of tile Nation. The President, suggested that 
Co* gressrnen whose constituents do not need 
or desire their apportionments of seeds from 
the Department of Agriculture, should club 
together and send the seeds to Texas, and the 
advice is likely to be widely adopted. With 
what a vast variety of all sorts of seeds are 
Western Texans likely to lie blessed or cursed! 
But beggars mustn’t be choosers, and it is 
ungrateful to look a gift horse in the mouth 
