472 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MARCH 42 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal forCountryand Suburban Horuca 
Conducted by 
EI.BGRT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 3-1 Earn Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1887. 
Read the Eye-opener, page 177, 
1(7? have mailed our //resent seed distribu¬ 
tion to all subscribers who applied prior to 
March 20 th. Any who have not received it 
will kindly notify us at once. 
We trust that our carefully prepared 
notices of catalogues, page 179, will be 
read with interest. We have endeavored 
to call attention to such of their promi¬ 
nent points as come under our own exper¬ 
ience or that, seem worthy of considera¬ 
tion. 
Special club arrangements with the 
Inter-Ocean of Chicago, Ill., and the De¬ 
troit Free Press, of Detroit, Michigan, en¬ 
able us to oiler either of these excellent 
journals with the R. N.-Y. for $2.50 a 
year. Send to them for specimen copies 
and your subscriptions to the Rural New- 
Yorker. 
The series of cartoons which aim to 
expose or hold up to censure such follies 
or vices as, conflicting with the best in¬ 
terests of American agriculture, should 
engage the farmer’s best efforts to sup¬ 
press, will be continued every few 
weeks during the year. Nothing of the 
kind has ever been attempted by the 
rural press before. 
Lively, Rural friends! We desire to. 
increase our circulation for this year. 
Such as the Rural New Yorker is now 
it will continue to be during the year, 
And we venture to hope that we sha'I 
be enabled to make further improve¬ 
ments for 1888. ONWARD AND 
UPWARD, friends: has not that been 
the Rural's motto during its present 
management, or since the Rural New- 
Yorker sprang up from the ashes of 
Moore’s Rural New-Yorker? Or 
hasn’t it? 
It should be known by all who read 
Mr. Joseph Harris’s first, review of Lawes 
and Gilbert’s work at Rothamsted, as it. 
appears on the first page of the supple¬ 
ment, that the proof sent to Sir J. B. 
Lawes has not been returned. The article, 
therefore, must not be considered as hav¬ 
ing received his approval or indorsement. 
Mr. Harris has read the proof carefully 
and it is hoped that no serious errors will 
occur. In view of the time required to 
send proofs to Dr. Lawes and the possibil¬ 
ity of our making mistakes even in read¬ 
ing or printing his corrections, it is better 
that these articles be not in any sense 
considered official , but that Mr. Harris 
alone be held responsible for them in every 
way. 
A SIMPLE FERTILIZER EXPERIMENT. 
Here is a very simple experiment, 
which wc would like all our farm or 
garden readers to try: 
Dig two trenches 311 feet long, four inches 
deep, and 15 inches wide. Loosen the 
bottom soil of each trench. Cut the 
seed-pieces, ns preferred, the same weight, 
and number of eyes for each, and place 
them one foot apart. Cover the pieces 
of one trench with an inch of soil, and 
then evenly scatter 29 1-8 ounces of high- 
grade potato fertilizer over this, and fill 
the trench. Proceed the same with the 
second trench, mixing thoroughly with 
the soil 46 pounds of old, fine farm 
manure. Estimating the trenches as three 
feet apart, this will give 800 pounds of 
fertilizer to the acre, and a little over ten 
tons of manure to the acre. As a trench 
33 feet long is 1-440th of an acre, the 
yield per acre in bushels may be ascer¬ 
tained by multiplying the weight of the 
potatoes of each trench by 440 and di¬ 
viding this by 00, the number of pounds 
to the bushel. Thus, if either trench 
yielded 20 pounds of potatoes, the crop 
would be at the rate of over 146 (146.66) 
bushels to the acre. 
Here we. have a simple experiment that 
would cost scarcely 25 cents to try. Are 
there those among our subscribers who 
have no faith in chemical fertilizers what¬ 
ever? Are there those who believe that 
they do not pay, or that heavier crops of 
potatoes may be grown with manure? 
Very well, Unless such beliefs arc un¬ 
changeable, and further trials arc re¬ 
pugnant, we ask you, readers, to try this 
simple experiment. The trial is to be 
made with potatoes , not with oats, corn, 
or anything else, and in the way we have in¬ 
dicated. Potatoes have been chosen as 
the crop best adapted to a trial of this 
kind, because iu mauy such trials the 
yield and the quality of the yield have 
with us, in every case , been better than 
with manure, and also because the in¬ 
quiry may be made and answered as well 
apparently on l-440th of an acre (or a 
trench fifi feet long) as on a greater area. 
Whether potato fertilizers arc better 
suited to the needs of the potato plant 
than are other complete fertilizers to 
those of other plants, we do not pretend 
to know. But we do not hesitate to say 
that their effects have been far more 
marked upon potatoes, when applied in 
the way described, than they have been 
upon any other crop with which we have 
experimented. 
We have never before 
offered premium articles 
at such a low rate, or any - 
thing like it, as those 
which will be found upon 
the last page of the Sup¬ 
plement. The reason is 
that we have an accumu¬ 
lation of the articles 
mentioned and neither 
room for storage nor time 
or inclination to SELL 
them. Our readers may, 
if they choose, avail 
themselves of this state 
of things. 
“FORTUNES IN THE CLOUDS”—THE 
CLOUDS BURST. 
On October 7, last, we received an 
$84 advertisement from tlie“British-Amer¬ 
ican Claim Agency,” of this city. It di¬ 
lated upon “enormous fortuues awaiting 
claimants” iu the Court of Chancery and 
Bank of England, as well as in Germany 
and other countries. The amount was 
moderately put at $480,000,000, belong¬ 
ing to 50,000 heirs, whose names the 
Agency hud, after much labor and re¬ 
search, obtained. A “specimen of a few 
names,” consisting of over 1,000 iu five 
long columns, was given. The fees de¬ 
manded by the Agency from fortune- 
hunting claimants began modestly with 
50 cents for a pamphlet containing the 
names of people who, it was claimed, had 
left large unclaimed fortunes. Then ad¬ 
ditional fees, ranging from $2 to $13.25, 
were demanded, in advance, from 
all applicants for proposed services in 
searching for foreign inheritances. 
The concern alleged that it had a branch 
office in London to prosecute inquiries, 
and made extra charges from applicants 
for work to be done by it. It purported 
to be incorporated under the laws of this 
State; and advertised very extensively all 
over the country. Its glowing advertise¬ 
ments appeared week ufter week in the 
columns of the most “respectable” politi¬ 
cal, agricult ural and religious papers in all 
parts of the Union. All aloug it. seems 
to have found no difficulty in obtaining 
admission into the columns of all suits of 
journals and periodicals. Its advertise¬ 
ment sent, to the Rural, however, was 
promptly returned. “Upon looking into 
the matter, we find that it is of such a 
character t hat, we cannot consistently ad¬ 
mit it into our columns,” said our accom¬ 
panying letter. 
In the next issue of the Rural— that of 
October 16—the “Agency” was forcibly 
denounced as a barefaced swindle in a col¬ 
umn article on the editorial page, and 
another lengthy article on the opposite 
page proved that the statements made by 
the concern with regard to the “enormous 
fortunes” were false, on the authority of 
the Bank of England and the American 
Legations in London, the Hague, and Ber¬ 
lin. The article closed thus: “Whoever 
invests 50 cents or even a postage stamp 
in the pursuit of any inheritance on the 
list of the ‘British-American Claim Agen¬ 
cy.’ will, to that extent, lose money and 
prove himself a gullible, greedy fool.” In 
the following issue—that of October 23— 
we again editorially denounced the swin¬ 
dle, and warned our esteemed contempor¬ 
aries not to admit its advertisements, as it 
would certainly bamboozle all their pat¬ 
rons who might have any dealings with it. 
Since then the “true inwardness” of the 
fraud has been frequently exposed in the 
Eye-Opener. 
Our estimate of the real character of 
the concern as well as our predictions of 
the fate of its dupes, have just been 
proved true. “George F. Parker, Presi¬ 
dent, and General Manager,” “Edwin S. 
Withered, Secretary and Treasurer,” and 
“George W. Gibbons, Counsellor,” whose 
names figured so prominently in the tempt¬ 
ing circulars of the concern, arc now in jail 
here for obtaining money under false pre¬ 
tences and psing the United States mails 
for fraudulent purposes, having been in¬ 
dicted by the Grand Jury on Thurs¬ 
day and arrested yesterday morning. 
We sent marked copies of the Ruralb of 
Oct. 16 23 to the Post Office authorities, 
to the Chief of Detectives here and to An¬ 
thony Comstock, Agent for the Society 
for the Suppression of Vice. Ever since 
these have been investigating the concern; 
but although its fradulent nature was at 
once apparent, it was slow work to obtain 
legal proof of it. The detective authori¬ 
ties iu Loudon were consulted, and proved 
that the swindle had no “branch office” 
in that city; but that a similar swindle had 
been lately suppressed there; that its chief 
managers had forfeited their hail and were 
probably in control of the swindle 
here. Several of the fortune-seeking 
patrons were communicated with, and 
one of our detectives here invested $25 in 
the character of a claimant, and tioally 
the legal proofs were considered 
complete three days ago, and the 
rascals were at once arrested. 
George Frederick Parker, “President,” 
turns out to be an ex-convict, who was 
sent to State prison for larceny in 1878 
and was subsequently sent there again for 
forgery, and whose picture adorns the 
“rogues’ gallery” at, police headquarters 
here. Of the “Secretary" little is yet 
known; but when arrested lie acknowl¬ 
edged that the “Agency” was a fraud, and 
said they had never made any search for 
the claimants. They had no London of¬ 
fice, but paid a small fee to an agent there 
to write letters “for form's sake” concern¬ 
ing the affairs of dupes who became press¬ 
ing. 
The “Agency” had a gorgeously fitted 
up office iu the “Stewart Building,” one 
of the finest in the city, and employed 14 
young lady type-writers to correspond 
with its dupes. On the arrest of the prin¬ 
cipals all the books, letters and other be¬ 
longings of the concern were seized. The 
books show that the firm did a rushing 
business. They contain the names of over 
30,000 “next of kin” alphabetically ar¬ 
ranged, that paid fees of from $2 to $25 
each duriug the past winter. The busi¬ 
ness brought in fully $100 a day at the 
start uud latterly from $300 to $500 a day, 
and the conspirators often counted at the 
end of the week bet w een $2,000 and $3,000 
clear profit. Every mail brought In scores 
of letters, from all parts of the country, 
and nearly every letter contained a remit¬ 
tance. The only expenses of the concern 
were the. rent of the offices, the wages 
of the “help” and the cost of advertising 
and postage. No “inquiries” or “re¬ 
searches” either here or abroad were over 
made. All the money that came in went 
into the pockets of the swindlers after 
enough had been deducted to meet the 
cost of securing fresh dupes or bleeding 
the old ones still more. In boldly de¬ 
nouncing the swindle whose headquarters 
arc within a pistol shot of this office, the 
Rural rendered itself liable to prosecu¬ 
tion for libel and to a great deal of 
trouble and expense even if the case never 
came to trial. In repeating its denunci¬ 
ation it defied threats of a suit in 
this line. It knew it was right and went 
ahead. It has now the satisfaction of 
knowing that it gave timely warning to 
all its friends, and a friendly though 
generally unheeded caution to all its con¬ 
temporaries. 
BREVITIES. 
The last page of the Supplement should en¬ 
gage the attention of oub readers. 
Prof. J. L. Budd sends us the suggestion 
for the method of “whip grafting” shown on 
page 168. It ought to be effective when well 
done. 
Evidence accumulates that the large and 
beautiful Kelsey Japan Plum is not hardy as 
far north as Now Jersey and Ohio. And so 
the Rural's hopes arc dashed to pieces. 
Catalogue notices appear this week on 
page 174, We have endea vored to write them 
with all impartiality and with n. view' of in¬ 
ducing our readers to apply for such of them 
as they may think will prove interesting, in¬ 
structive or useful in any way, 
Our first page picture explains itself. The 
politicians who have climbed upon the plat¬ 
form are typical specimens of the men we 
don’t want to represent, us. When the farm¬ 
ers of the country take hold of things as they 
are doing in the picture, wo may hope to rid 
ourselves of such fellows. 
If we would have Farmers’ Institutes popu¬ 
lar and effective, let the speakers announced 
be those who can command the attention of 
the it' audience; and the time alloted to each 
ought, rarely to exceed ten minutes. Dull 
speakers are worse than none, and in too 
mauy cases they are the ones to consume the 
most time. 
An inquirer asks if we would spread farm 
manure m winter if the land is hilly. He has 
seen it advocated in a farm journal. By no 
means, we reply. We have seen such advocacy 
uud deem it the worst advice that can be 
given. Unless the land is so level that during 
thaws or after rains the water cannot run off 
or collect in basins, we should not spread it in 
winter. 
Farmers go away from the Institutes now 
being held iu N. Y. State asking “Why have 
W6 never laid such meetings before?” They 
realize what a power for good there is in this 
coming together and comparing notes. Next, 
year we want at least 20 Institutes in this 
Mtate. Tt is evident, from the interest mani¬ 
fested in this year’s meetings, that farmers 
are fully prepared to back up the State Board 
of Agriculture iu its new work. 
When the shrub Xanthoceras sorbifolia, 
from China, was first introduced here, it was 
feared it might not prove hardy. We bought 
several specimens 19 years ago, but they all 
died from some cause unknown to us. We 
now have planls raised from seeds which ger¬ 
minate freely. It appears that this fine shrub 
proves liurdy in Rochester, and wo should like 
to know how it has behaved with any of our 
readers further North. 
Mu. A. B. Howard, of Belchertown, Mass., 
sends us two lots of tomato seeds which have 
been selected from the Trophy for, respective¬ 
ly, 15 and 14 years, the one from seeds saved 
hi ’86. the other from seeds saved in ’85. 
Everythin# else being equal, he is quite confi¬ 
dent that tomato seed two or three years old 
“is less disposed to run to vines producing 
more and better fruit than seed of the previ¬ 
ous year’s growth, being much like melons in 
this respect.” 
The Weekly Press criticizes an article in the 
Tribune which assumes that white grapes are 
essent ially weaker in constitution than red or 
dark varieties, because, to state it in a word, 
there is less ehlorophyl iu the fruit, ft would 
seem that there is more ehlorophyl in a white 
grape thau in a red or black; for all white 
grapes are really of a light-grem color when 
nearly, and many are so when fully, ri|«>, 
while tlie others are red or black for many 
days before ripening. 
Out off the stock at a right angle to itself. 
Cut a slit down the bark an iueh or more from 
the top, as in budding. Cut the cion four or 
more inches long and beveling one side of the 
larger end insert it after loosening the bark on 
either side of the cut, the same as a bud is 
pushed into its place. One or a dozen cions 
may thus be inserted in the stock according to 
its size. This easy and safe method of graft¬ 
ing has several t imes been explained and illus¬ 
trated in these columns. As the time for 
grafting is now neur at hand, it is repeated 
ns a reminder. 
.Some friends of tempera nee in Kalamazoo, 
Mich., set a watch upon I t saloons on a Sat¬ 
urday night to get an idea of the saloon pat¬ 
ronage. They saw 1.995 men and hoys, ap¬ 
parently under 85 years of age, enter the 
saloons between half-past seven and nine 
o’clock. There are plenty of small cities and 
towns iu this country where such a watch 
would reveal a similar state of things. No 
wonder the temperance people of Michigan 
demand a chance to show toelr hostility to 
rum at the j>o11k. We wish they could stamp 
out every vestige of the wretched stuff'. 
We are in receipt of more thau the usual 
number of Inquiries as to which is the best 
early or late potato. If we could know that 
those kinds which do best at the Rural 
(1 rounds would also best satisfy our friends in 
Maine, Michigan or Oregon it would give us 
great pleasure to mime them. Tn the absence 
of such information we would run a risk of 
doing great mischief by naming varieties 
quite unsuited to other soils anil climates. 
The best we can do is to continue to try all 
new kinds and place before our renders the re¬ 
sults, thus uiding them to choose which kinds 
it may be worth their while to try in an ex¬ 
perimental way. 
The agricultural editor of the N. Y. Times 
assumes that the Rural is fond of dogs hut 
dislikes cats. We are certainly fond of well- 
trained, well kept dogs, while we deem the 
lawless enr one of the greatest, posts to which 
life'iu the country is sub jected, We also like 
cats, aud have four fine “crit ters” to prove it. 
But they are all castrated males. Either per¬ 
fect males or females, or both, arc objection¬ 
able for many good reasons. But the emus 
cuiated male is serviceable in every way that 
the others'llro while inoffensive in every Other 
way." He* is a*better rat catcher, is quite 
peaceable and]hasY little toj do)'with* making 
nights hideous'with^irrepressible squalls. 
