THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homos 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1887. 
In reply to a question, Sir J. B. Lawcs 
writes us that as an absorbent of urine, 
plaster is both better and cheaper than 
ground phosphates. 
Something has been said of late months 
in regard to copperas (sulphate of iron) 
as a fertilizer. It is credited with hav¬ 
ing materially increased certain crops. 
We have sown it upon small areas of corn 
and potatoes which thus far show no 
benefit. 
Oun lady readers are requested to study 
our first page cartoon this week—not 
merely to glance at it as they would at any 
ordinary picture. It will Bet them to 
thinking and possibly induce them to 
frown upon the cruel, senseless, wicked 
fashion of bedecking themselves with the 
beautiful and useful birds of the fields 
and woods. 
Farmers can not reasonably complain 
of the ill effects of what they encourage 
or even tolerate. We know of farmers’ 
sons who are permitted to “go hunting” 
who do not hesitate to shoot at anything 
in the shape of a bird 1 and birds of gay 
plumage are especially prized. To such 
we commend a consideration of our first- 
page picture. 
We use too much Paris-green or Lon¬ 
don-purple with the plaster. The thing 
is to mix them together fhaiou-ghly. One 
pound of pure Paris-green will suffice for 
two barrels of plaster if "we will only take 
the time to mix them thoroughly, in this 
case the mixture is practically non-poison- 
ous; that is to say, no person or animal 
by any accident, is liable to eat enough of 
it to harm him. We regard the above as 
an important suggestion. 
Let us strive to protect all useful birds. 
And let us not be too hasty in forming 
conclusions what are and what are not 
useful birds. A crow or a sparrow may 
do us lots of harm. We see that. But 
are we sure about how much good they 
may do us that we don't see? Birds, like 
insects, often change their food, and while 
to-day a sparrow or crow may destroy our 
wheat or corn, to-morrow they may serve 
us greatly in aiding to destroy some new 
insect pest. 
We are told by one of the best fanners 
of our neighborhood that he keeps the 
striped melon beetle off his melon, squash, 
and pumpkin plants by sprinkling the 
first leaves with water and cow manure, 
the water thickened so as to be of the 
consistency of rather thick whitewash. 
He has tried plaster, ashes, etc., etc., with 
the usual imperfect results. But the 
above mixture answers the purpose per¬ 
fectly. This supposed remedy fails with 
us. 
We suggest that the enemies as well as 
the friends of the various agricultural 
colleges make it a point to attend the 
commencement exercises this year. It is 
well to look these institutions over fre¬ 
quently. The public is, in a sense, re¬ 
sponsible for them. Of course the col¬ 
leges will be cerlaiu to put the best foot 
forward at such a time. The Mississippi 
Agricultural College makes the most of 
commencement. There is always an im¬ 
mense crowd in attendance. Farmers, 
politicians, and leading men of all grades, 
come together for a general interchange 
of views. The sale of stock, exhibition 
of farm implements and practices, an 
oration by some prominent citizen, and 
the regular college exercises all tend to 
draw people out and interest them. We 
have long expressed the opinion that the 
farmers of the various States could do 
much to improve the agricultural colleges 
if they would take more interest in 
them. Go to the commencement this 
year and see if there is not a good basis 
at these colleges for future work. 
What the Revere ud agitator, Dr. Mc- 
Glynn, calls “killing the hen that lays 
the golden goose eggs,” seems to be a 
peculiarly American folly. There 
is scarcely _an ^exportable American pro¬ 
duct susceptible of adulteration whose 
sale has not been greatly injured abroad 
by this kind of work ; and what a num¬ 
ber of American products are there not 
whose sale has been greatly injured and 
contracted at home from the same cause. 
For years the sale and reputation of 
California wines have suffered severely 
from a belief that adulteration was so 
widely practiced as to leave little chance 
of buying the genuine article. To remedy 
this evil the last Legislature of California 
passed an act which went into effect last 
Monday, prohibiting tbe use of adulter¬ 
ants, among which are classed salicylic 
acid, glucose, cherry juice, aniline dyes, 
and wines fortified by grain spirits. Two 
forms of labels are provided for—one a 
narrow strip over the corks of the bottles; 
and the other of round or square form for 
other receptacles in which wine is sold. 
All growers, manufacturers, traders, 
handlers and dealers in California wine 
must, in selling or shipping, brand or 
stencil each package with the words, 
“ Pure California Wine” and the name of 
the individual or firm. Other precautions 
to insure purity are prescribed; but not one 
sufficient provision for securing rigid ob¬ 
servance of the law appears to have been 
made, and experience everywhere proves 
that law’s against dishonesty in trade, 
however stringent, are inoperative unless 
ample provision has been made to secure 
their enforcement. 
STOCKERS AND FEEDERS FROM 
CHICAGO. 
At this season it is customary for farm¬ 
ers, especially in the West, to increase 
their herds by tbe purchase of thin ani¬ 
mals for the ranges, to fatten on their 
abundant pastures and on the eorn of 
which they hold back a large supply for 
this purpose. Chicago is the principal 
market in which such purchases are made. 
The prevalence of pleuro-pueumouia at 
that, point tends to make many hesitate 
about purchasing stock there, lest they 
might in this way introduce the plague 
among their own herds and those of their 
neighbors. Care in this respect is highly 
commendable; for though there are mil¬ 
lions in the business it would be better to 
suspend it for a time, or forsake it alto¬ 
gether, than run any risk of disseminating 
the plague. There is really no danger, 
however, according to the latest accounts. 
Deputations of cautious farmers and stock- 
men from various parts of Illinois and 
several of the neighboring States have 
visited the city to investigate the matter, 
aud all agree that ample precautions have 
been taken to prevent the communica¬ 
tion of the disease by local cattle to those 
iu transit. The latter come from unin¬ 
fected sections to the Union Stock-yards, 
whence they are shipped to their destina¬ 
tion. From the first the greatest care has 
been taken to keep the yards absolutely 
free from all chance of the introduction 
of the conf&gion, and the fact that Dr. 
Law and the other veterinarians of the Bu¬ 
reau of Animal Industry have advised 
Commissioner Colrnan to exempt the 
stock-yards from the quarantine he has 
established iu the rest of Cook County, 
is ample proof that these precautions have 
been effective. No cattle are allowed to 
be transported or driven out of any part 
of the county except the Stock-yards, and 
all who ought to know best agree that 
there is no risk of contagion from animals 
brought from there. 
COLLAPSE OF THE GREAT WHEAT 
CORNER. 
After two months of manipulation of 
the Chicago wheat market by well-known 
brokers in the interest of mysterious prin¬ 
cipals, last Monday the bull clique found 
themselves unable to buy all the wheat 
that was offered, and so they went down 
amid the greatest excitement ever witness¬ 
ed in the wheat pit. Nineteen fiim9 are 
known to have failed, and the end is not 
yet. The price of June wheat dropped 
nearly 25 cents in a few hours, an un¬ 
paralleled decline in the shortest time on 
record. The losses are estimated at over 
$10,000,000. For weeks tbe combination 
forced the prices of wheat at Chicago 
above those at other receiving centers 
and above those in the world at large. 
As a consequence, enormous quantities of 
wheat were attracted to Chicago in pre¬ 
ference to other Western markets. Daily 
purchases of wheat along the Northwest¬ 
ern railroads were sold against forward 
delivery at Chicago, and as the time for 
delivery approached, the grain was hur¬ 
ried forward and accumulated there to an 
unprecedented amount, there being 1G,- 
000,000 bushels against 8,000,000 bushels 
at the same date in 1886. The elevators 
were crammed, and large premiums 
were paid for storage room, as well as 
higher lake freights for grain sent East. 
The speculative transactions during the 
week have amounted to several hundred 
million bushels. Fortunes have been 
made as well as lost. As the losers were 
gamblers who tried to create and main¬ 
tain an unnatural condition of the market 
for purely selfish reasons, regardless of the 
welfare of the country at large, they de¬ 
serve scant, sympathy. After the collapse 
the artificial condition of the wheat mar¬ 
ket has disappeared, exportation has been 
stimulated, prices, which immediately 
after the bursting of the corner, fell too 
low, are regaining their legitimate level. 
Another illustration has been given of the 
impracticability of cornering a product 
of which the world produces from 2,100,- 
000,000 to 2,300,000,000 bushels, of which 
less than one-fourth is produced in this 
country. 
DESTRUCTION OF OUR BIRDS. 
In spite of the earnest protests of the 
humane, of the remonstrances of econo¬ 
mists, and of the laws of many States, the 
cruel slaughter of our feathered songsters 
still continues. The mortality among 
birds by ordinary accidents, depredations, 
and slaughter nearly counterbalances 
their inerense; and such special havoc as 
has of late years been committed among 
them, upsets the balance of nature and 
leads to the speedy extinction of whole 
species. Within the last half dozen years 
so disastrous has been the slaughter of 
many species whose bright plumage and 
gladsome songs beautified and thrilled 
country places, that ornithologists esti¬ 
mate that even if the slaughter were at 
ouce to cease several generations must pass 
before the evil effects of the recent reck¬ 
less destruction would be effaced. Ento¬ 
mologists estimate that the annual loss in 
food and fiber plants caused by insects 
amounts to fully $300,000,000 in this 
country alone. At a very low estimate, 
5,000,000 birds are annually slaughtered 
for feminine adornment, and it is calcu¬ 
lated that the death of every insect-eating 
bird causes nu actual and consequential 
loss equivalent to four bushels of grain. 
What an enormous tax the country is 
paying to gratify the cruel demands of a 
fashion set by a notorious Parisian profli¬ 
gate, and maintained by thoughtless 
vanity! 
While the reckless vanity of women is 
the chief cause of this baneful butchery, 
man’s gluttony and greed are powerfully 
aiding woman’s vanity. Every year the 
rapacious pot-hunter, the dandified cit 
aud the inconsiderate school-boy are 
abroad heedlessly decimating the most 
destructive foes of the fast multiplying 
myriads of insect pests that cause agricul¬ 
ture annual losses high among the mil¬ 
lions. Several of the States have lately 
passed salutary laws for the protection of 
insectivorous birds; but scarcely any of 
them have provided suitable means for 
their enforcement. Recent events have 
shown that the wishes of the fanners of 
the country, emphatically expressed, have 
powerful influence with our legislators, 
aud on what subject should their wishes 
be expressed more emphatically than on 
the necessity fur prompt and effective 
legislation for the protection of the 
friends whose graceful,melodious presence 
beautifies the country, gladdens tbeir 
homes and greatly aids to save their crops 
from destruction? 
-»» » 
HOW MAN ABUSES HIS MOTHER, 
In its virgin state the land area of the 
earth is covered with vegetation. Geolo¬ 
gists find that in the iueomputably dis¬ 
tant early ages of the earth, when dry 
laud first began to appear, only the most 
bumble plants existed. Mosses and al¬ 
ga 1 came later, apparently tilling the wa¬ 
ters as well as covering the land. Still 
later, stimulated by the universal warmth 
aud the abundance of carbonic gas and 
by the food supplied by decay of lowlier 
growths, the vast ferns, reeds and other 
plants came, the remains of which appear 
among the deposits of carbon of the coal 
measures. Later came trees; and still later, 
grasses, which prepared tbe earth for 
man and for the graminivorous animals 
which are his favorite food. But man 
destroys, and does not spare his mother's 
breast. Since he learned to make fires, 
to cut down trees and to use metals so 
that he can make himself comfortable 
shelter even in the colder zones, he has 
gradually ceased the precarious life of the 
hunter and the fighter, and by tilling the 
soil is able to increase his numbers until 
he swarms over the earth. Everywhere 
he cuts down the native growth; his cat¬ 
tle follow and consume the sprouts which 
attempt to renew it. lie uncovers, 
opens, and exposes the soil to rapid waste 
by the exhaustion of his cropping, and 
by exposure to tbe beating rains. He 
begins to suffer himself ; his springs and 
streams are alternately fresh and then dry. 
At last his land becomes sterile. A few 
goats or sheep or geese feed on the last 
sparse shoots of growth, to become part 
of his scanty food. Latei, even this fails; 
and in the more ancient homes of man as 
a tiller of the soil all is hopeless desola¬ 
tion where once was proud fertility; all 
but a favored spot here and there, by 
some mountain stream capable yet of sup¬ 
plying moisture to an area of soil. In 
Eastern Asia a dense population still 
manages to obtain food, largely front tlie 
waters, and largely by dispensing with 
cattle, by using the smaller animals of all 
sorts as food, and by saving and applying, 
with, pains and labor all but incredible to 
us, all possible forms of manures and 
moisture that can be saved and used, to 
enable the carefully saved soil to con¬ 
tinue its yield. Nowhere is there such 
devastation of the earth’s yield as is seen 
in our own country, whose people revel 
in the fresh abundance in the new pro¬ 
lific soil, like rats in a granary. Every 
one who has the permanent welfare of our 
race at heart should join iu holding up to 
universal view the fate that we are rush¬ 
ing upon headlong if we continue our 
present heedless course. 
BREVITIES. 
A bird in the bush is worth two in the 
hand. 
Fine "Willow Twig Apples are now selling 
at $6 per barrel; Baldwins at $5.50. 
Gracilis and Salet are among the fiuest of 
Moss Roses, ns judged at tbe Rural Grounds. 
Wtten ladies adorn their lints with the 
plumage of birds, do “birds of a feather 
flock together?” 
There is room, apparently, for the evapor¬ 
ated sweet corn industry. Well cured corn is 
excellent iu quality. 
A kkw whiffs of Buhnch were blown into a 
crowded congregation of tent caterpillars tbe 
other evening. In the morning all had de¬ 
parted. A few dead and sick were found un¬ 
derneath on the grass. 
We congratulate the Iowa Agricultural 
College and condole with the Kansas State 
Agricultural College, the former upon secur¬ 
ing and the latter upon losing the agricultural 
teachings of Professor E. M. Shelton, 
The so-called Kaffir Com, like all sor¬ 
ghums. comes on slowly at the Rural Grounds. 
Its early growth is slow and, closely resem¬ 
bling as it docs ordinary grasses, it must be 
sown on clean laud and sown thick, too, or a 
full stand oanuot be procured. 
We are making careful comparisons be¬ 
tween the new strawberries now offered or 
soon to be offered for salo as to each other, 
and ns to older varieties, the result of which 
with portraits of the more meritorious, will 
appear in time to aid our readers in their se¬ 
lections for summer or fall planting. 
We should hate to be obliged-to live in a 
country where there are no birds. But it 
seems us if that were what we are driving at. 
Civilization is a grand thing, no doubt. But 
it has a way of upsettiug the natural order of 
things and refusing to pay the penalty. But 
the fiddler must be paid one day, you know. 
The attention of dairymen is directed to 
the pamphlet on Foods and Food Adulterants 
just issued by the Department, of Agriculture. 
The first part is devoted to dairy products. 
While many of the methods employed in the 
analyses of butters will not interest the gen¬ 
eral public, there are many facts in this pam¬ 
phlet, which all should study. 
The analyses of the test butters made at the 
N. Y. Dairy Show which appeared in our 
issue of June 11, were sent us by the Execu¬ 
tive Committee of the Show, and not directly 
by Prof. Babcock as then slated. Prof. B. 
forwarded the analyses to the committee and 
they sent us the abstract which appeared iu 
the Rural. 
Ot a extended experiments with different 
fertilizer ingredients upon potatoes are this 
year (judging from the tops) more telling than 
ever before. We greatly’ wish thut ull of our 
readers who are interested in the study of 
manures and fertilizers might see them. There 
is nothing like a poor soil for experiments 
with chemical fertilizers or manure of any 
kind. We have never had a piece of luud that 
serves our purpose better than that upon 
which we are carrying on such tests. It is a 
yielding, sandy loam; quickly responsive to 
the plant food needed, and yet one that will 
not, can not yield full crops "without it. Par¬ 
tial fertilizers show scarcely any effect, Lot 
us give an instance of the results from using 
different quantities of fertilizers for potatoes. 
We will call 10 the highest rating: 
Plofcl. 220 pounds potato fertilizer to the 
aero may he rated, judging from the growth 
of the vines, 4, Plot 2, which received 440 
pouuds is rated 6. Plot 3, which received 880 
is rated 8. Plot 4, which did not receive any 
fertilizer, is rated only 2. Plot 5, which re¬ 
ceived 1,700 pounds to the acre, is rated 9. 
Plot 6, which received 2,200 itouuds is rated 
10. Plot 7, which received 2,640 pounds, is 
also rated 10. The leaves are a trifle darker 
in Plot 7, but there is no difference iu the sizo 
of the vines. 
We have duplicates of the above plots, and 
the rating would he, respectively, just the 
same. Let us see how the crop turns out. 
