THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 2 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Home 
Conducted by 
ELBHRT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1SS7. 
We feel confident that both old and 
new friends of the R. N.-Y. will read J. 
B. Olcott’s impressions derived from a visit 
to the New Jersey portion of the Rural's 
Ex. Grounds with much iuterest, Mr. 
Olcott, as Eastern people are aware, is no 
less a successful farmer than a brilliant 
journalist, and those who read his farm 
department in the Connecticut Courant, 
as those who know him personally, will 
never accuse him of paying compliments 
at the cost of sincerity. 
There are lots of insecticides talked 
about, and the Rural Ims spent lots of 
time in testing many of them. Paris- 
green, London purple, pyrethrum (pow¬ 
der or infusion) and hellebore are the only 
ones that have served us specifically. 
The kerosene emulsion proves effective in 
other hands. At the Rural Ground we 
have killed or injured about as many 
plants as insects. The fact appears to us 
that it is difficult to make or retain a 
complete emulsion; that some plants will 
not endure a strong enough emulsion to 
kill the insects; that it is more bother than 
it is worth, and a disastrous remedy in the 
hands of people who have little time to 
experiment and work cautiously. 
IMPROVING CORN. 
If you wish to improve your field corn, 
there is one way, it seems to the writer, 
more than any other in which it can be 
done. For the past 12 years we have 
been endeavoring to change to our liking 
a variety then introduced as Blount’s Pro¬ 
lific, though in fact it was merely the 
Tennessee Prolific for which Mr. Blount 
substituted his name. Without ever fail¬ 
ing to do so, wc have gone through the 
field or plet, as the case may have been,and 
with sickle or knife have cut off the tas¬ 
sel aud a part of the stem of every plant 
that was too tall, or that suckered, or 
that did not show over two sets. The 
reason of this is both obvious and sensi¬ 
ble. Some corn plants are not self-fertil¬ 
izing. The silk is receptive before the 
pollen is matured, or the reverse. This 
changes with the season. But even when 
both generative organs arc mature at the 
same time, a wind may carry the pollen 
away from the plants bearing it to others 
both near and far off. It thus appears 
that pollen from barren, or otherwise ob¬ 
jectionable plunts, may become the male 
parents of others which wo might select 
for seed. By cutting off the tassels of in¬ 
ferior plants we secure a higher grade of 
male parentage. 
HALF-HOLIDAY IN THE COUNTRY. 
How many farmers in New York 
State can take advantage of the new 
legal half-holiday ? Satuiday afternoon 
is now as much of a holiday for the city 
clerk as is the Fourth of July. Can 
farmers plan so as to celebrate it ? We 
know of several who have already 
answered the matter in the affirmative. 
Saturday afternoon, hereafter, is to be 
their time for visiting. They will be 
able, during the summer, to visit all the 
good farms in the neighborhood, look 
over the crops and stock, and get into an 
everyday acquaintance with their neigh¬ 
bors. As it is now, they have only a Sun¬ 
day acquaintance, for they rarely meet on 
a week day. This is a sensible use for 
the holiday. The farmers will gain more 
from these weekly visits than they ever 
could from the work at home. This is 
not the only good to come from these 
visits. Farmers should become better 
acquainted with each other. They never 
can act in concert while they are held 
apart by any social feelings. Those who 
prey upon them and seek to use them as 
tools, are particularly anxious that the 
farmer should spend every moment on his 
own farm, and supply himself with a 
long list of “odd jobs” to fill up all his 
spare time. The fanner’s position, pres¬ 
ent and future, depends largely upon him¬ 
self. Getting acquainted and talking 
matters over, as only friends can talk, is 
the surest foundation for a strong and ef¬ 
fective organization. 
NO BEER AT ROCHESTER. 
The New York Slate Fair will be held 
this year at Rochester, September 8 to 14. 
No efforts will be spared to make the fair 
the most successful agricultural exhibi¬ 
tion ever held in this State, if not in this 
country. Many new features will be add¬ 
ed and the list of premiums is very com¬ 
plete. For years the managers of the 
fair have been justly criticized for their 
countenance of liquor selling on the fair 
grounds. That stain can no longer rest 
upon the management. At a meeting of 
the Executive Board last Tuesday it was 
voted, by a large majority, to exclude 
beer aud hard cider from the grounds. 
For this action the managers deserve the 
thanks of every farmer in New York 
State. It is a manly stand for temper¬ 
ance and order, that will be appreciated. 
The liquor devil has no place at a farm¬ 
ers’ meeting. The N. Y. State Fair can 
now be made the model fair of the world. 
No racing, no side shows, no cheap-John 
peddlers, swindlers and gamblers, and 
now no beer guzzling. The farmers of 
New York, as a duty to the cause they 
represent, should show their appreciation 
of this action in a practical manner. In a 
leform of this lriud, all hauds must take 
hold and help carry it through. The 
great argument heretofore in favor of 
granting liquor licenses has been that the 
fair would run behind in receipts without 
the money obtained from them. The 
farmers of this State should give the lie 
to this assertiou by attending in such 
numbers that this beer money will be 
more than made up. The liquor power 
is the curse of this country. We honor 
every honest effort that, is made to crip¬ 
ple it, and we are glad to help hold up 
the hauds of those who make the attack. 
- ♦ - 
PLEURO-PNEUMONIA LEGISLATION IN 
ILLINOIS. 
Just on the eve of adjournment the 
Illinois Legislature passed one of the most 
important laws of the session—the Merritt 
Pleuro-pneumonia Bill. Two bills passed 
earlier in the session enlarged aud clearly 
defined the powers of the State Live 
Stock Board aud fixed the pay of its 
three members at $15 a day while actually 
in service, in addition to all expenses. 
The bill just passed and still awa'ting the 
Governor's signature, authorizes the Gov¬ 
ernor, on behalf of the State, to accept 
the regulations of the Commissioner of 
Agriculture to prevent the spread of the 
disease and the exportation of affected 
cattle, and to stamp out the plague. It 
gives the United States inspectors the 
right to inspect, quarantine and condemu 
all diseased and exposed animals, and, in 
return, saddles all the expense on the 
Federal Government. 
Against the measure it is urged that in 
accepting the rules aud regulations of the 
National Bureau of Animal Industry, the 
State turns over to the General Govern¬ 
ment the power to deal with the disease 
independently of all local authorities, who 
will be powerless to act eveu if, in their 
judgment, the restrictions imposed are 
not justified by the conditions. Besides, 
the State will have to accept the manage¬ 
ment of such agents and veterinarians as 
the Government may appoint, in a matter 
affecting one of its most important inter¬ 
ests. It is feared by some that these con¬ 
siderations, together with the sympathy 
manifested by the Governor with the State 
Live Stock Board seven or eight months 
ago, in its squabble with the Department 
of Agriculture, may induce him to veto 
the bill. The cost of suppressing the 
plague, however, is very heavy, there is a 
vast surplus in the National Treasury, 
while the State Treasury is nearly empty, 
aud the National Bureau of Animat In¬ 
dustry is better fitted for dealing with tie 
disease than any State Commission. 
Surely these are weighty inducements to 
insure the signature of so shrewd and 
public-spirited a man as Governor Oglesby 
has often shown himself to be. 
“OLEO” LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK. 
Keepers of hotels, restaurants, board¬ 
ing-houses and other places of entertain¬ 
ment have always been the most extensive 
buyers of oleomargarine. They have used 
it because it was much cheaper than real 
butter, and because they could very easily 
foist it off on their patrons as the genuine 
article. When the New York Court of 
Appeals last March, declared the “ oleo” 
law of 1885 constitutional, the Legislature 
enacted an amendment providing that 
“no keeper or proprietor of bakery, 
hotel, tavern, boarding-house, restaurant, 
saloon, lunch counter or place of public 
entertainment” shall “keep, use or serve 
therein” as food to their guests, or for 
cooking purposes any imitation butter. 
It is sufficient to prove the use of the 
article; evidence of willful or intentional 
violation of the law is not required. 
All who violate the provisions of the act 
are guilty of misdemeanor, and punish¬ 
able by a fine of not less than $50 or 
more than $300, or not less than 10 days 
or more than 81 days’ imprisonment for 
the first offence, and by imprisonment for 
one year for each subsequent offence. 
By a subsequent section of the statute, 
the violation of those provisions entails a 
penalty of $500 for each offence, to be 
recovered with costs in an action brought 
by the Dairy Commissioner, or by any 
person authorized to sell in the name of 
the people of the State. 
Provisions for search warrants, injunc¬ 
tions against further violations of the law, 
and for the summary punishment of vio¬ 
lations of it, by proceedings for contempt 
of court, have been added by still later 
amendments, and the Governor has just 
signed the bill, which is to take effect 
immediately. The law is directed against 
counterfeit butter only. Oleomargarine 
can still be openly made and sold for what 
it is, where it hasn’t the appearance of 
butter. Colored pink, blue, red or green, 
or of its natural tallowy hue, no legal ob¬ 
jection can be urged against it. It is 
ouly when it is artificially colored to imi¬ 
tate genuine butter that the sale or use of 
it entails these heavy penalties. It is the 
duty of all good citizens to aid in enforc¬ 
ing the laws. If know r n violations of 
this law are promptly reported to the 
Dairy Commissioner or his assistants, 
with all attainable information to help in 
convicting the guilty, the fraudulent sale 
of this concoction in New York State 
would soon cease. 
OUR COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH 
CANADA. 
WnrLE the mercantile, and still more 
the manufacturing classes in Canada, are 
strongly in favor of heavy duties on im¬ 
ports from this country for the protection 
of their growing domestic manufacturing 
interests, the farmers are almost a unit in 
favor of free trade or liberal reciprocity 
between the Union aud the Dominion. 
At all the representative farmers’ meetings 
which have taken place of late, strong 
resolutions advocating such a policy have 
been adopted by great majorities. Al¬ 
though the sentiment has been most fre¬ 
quently and loudly expressed by the far¬ 
mers of Ontario of late, it is doubtless 
strongest in the Maritime Provinces on 
the east, and in Manitoba on the west. 
The inhabitants of the former "want a 
liberal tariff arrangement so that they may 
find large markets for their fish, bay, 
potatoes, and other commodities among 
the 00,000,000 people in this country, and 
the latter desire to secure the advantages 
of cheap agricultural implements from 
American manufacturers, instead of 
the inferior goods for which they 
have to pay much higher prices, 
to Canadiuu manufacturers. With 
free trade or a low tariff between 
the two countries, the farmers of Canada 
would certainly be the gainers, for they 
would be able to purchase nearly all the 
manufactured goods they need at lower 
prices aud find better markets on this side 
of the line for many of the products of 
their farms. In spite even of the high 
tariff, about half of the $84,000,000 wor.h 
of goods imported into this country from 
Canada last year consisted of farm animals 
and raw farm products. With free trade or 
a liberal tariff, the amount would have 
been vastly increased. What would un¬ 
doubtedly benefit the farmers, however, 
would certainly ruin or greatly injure the 
manufaetuiers of the Dominion, fur ex¬ 
cept in a very few lines, they could never 
compete with the older, stronger and 
more skillful manufacturers of this coun¬ 
try. 
But the greatest obstacle to any¬ 
thing in the line of a commercial union 
between the two countries without a 
political union, lies iu the protective 
tariff adopted iu the United States against 
European products. Before free trade or 
a liberal commercial reciprocity treaty can 
be put in force between the two countries, 
the tariff of both on the products of all 
other nations, including those from the 
United Kingdom, must be equalized. 
Either Canada must raise her tariff to the 
level of ours, or we must, lower ours to 
the plane of hers, or concessions must be 
made on both sides. In the present state 
of public opinion on this side of the line, 
the advantages from a commercial union 
with the Dominion are not considered im¬ 
portant enough to warrant any change in 
our tariff on goods from other countries; 
while Canada is hardly likely to concede 
to the United States greater commercial 
privileges tliuu to the Mother Country. 
BREVITIES. 
A pound of pure Paris-green to a barrel of 
plaster, well m ixed, is enough. 
J. B. Rogers, of Northern New Jersey, re¬ 
ports the Empire State grapevine perfectly 
hardy with him. 
Anybody who has, through several years, 
watched the difference between the Hardy 
and Common Catalpas, will never select the 
latter for any purpose whatever. 
“Birds are welcomed here.” Put this sign 
up iu the shape of an occasional bird house 
and show that it is meant by not allowing 
shooting or trappiug on your farm. 
It is said thattlie mau wholies awake nights 
thinking about the notes he will be called 
upon to meet, is in less danger than he who 
goes to sleep and forgets when his notes are 
due. 
Springfield Thornless Black Cap gives us 
the first ripe berries (June 18). We do not 
say it is the earliest cap by any means, as we 
have not at present many of the older kinds 
to compare it with. 
We keep our rose-bugs in full cheek by 
usiug the pyrethrum powder, dry or di(Fused 
in water—and it is effectual. Tliiuk of pick¬ 
ing off these pests by hand, or letting them 
drop into hot water or kerosene 1 
What became of the white earn plants of 
the Rural corn plots ? They all died ; a fact 
that %vill not surprise anybody. 8ome that 
were half white and half green are growing, 
but less vigorously than the others. 
Mad. Gabrielle Luizet is one of the finest 
hardy roses we have ever raised, except, that 
it is not so fragrant as many others. The 
shell-like, light pink buds are borne on long 
peduncles. One of the most extravagant 
bloomers is Due de Brabant. 
While many Western States are suffering 
from drought, parts of New Jersey, and espe¬ 
cially that little part known as "the Rural 
Grounds, are suffering from too much rain—a 
little flood indeed. We wish we might divide 
tliis too-much-of-a-good-thing with the West. 
The early season was dry, the later wet. 
Our mulch carried our 100 kinds of straw¬ 
berries through the dry seasou nicely, aud 
has given us the largest crop we have ever 
raised. Our neighbors have had very few 
strawberries, their vines having suffered so 
much during the dry weather that the later 
rains were of little avail. 
We notice many corn fields where the rows 
run the short way of the field. The extra 
work caused by this arrangement will count 
up at the end of the season. The time spent iu 
turning around is clear loss. In marking out 
the drills the object should be to have these 
turns come at the narrow ends of the fields 
where they can be reduced to the least possi¬ 
ble number. 
Our Patagonian chicks (there are but three) 
arc now nearly of the same color, much that 
of Gray Dorkings except that their dark 
markings are more distinct. They grow fast, 
und are strong, sprightly chickens. The Dow- 
nies, as we call them (Downy Plymouth 
Rocks), are showing their fluffy feathers. The 
white ones are growing darker, and the dark 
ones lighter. The Black Javas (uluc iu num¬ 
ber) are healthy and frisky. 
We find that many who are practicing irri¬ 
gation iu a small way, prefer to sprinkle the 
plants with water rather than to flood them. 
With strawberries or cabbage this plan seems 
to give the best results. A large sprinkling 
cart, like those used on the city streets is used. 
A high tank pumped full of water by a wind¬ 
mill or other contrivance provides a supply 
for the cart. It appears that partial irriga¬ 
tion is becoming quite common among gar¬ 
deners. It always gives satisfactory results. 
A garden that is set upon a hillside has a 
hard fight for life. Unless special arrange¬ 
ments are made for drainage, a single heavy 
shower will wash out the careful work of 
weeks. Two such storms iu New Jersey 
within the past week have done much damage. 
Water enough to provide a six hour’s storm 
fell in au hour. Hillside gardens in localities 
where such showers are possible should be 
provided with ditches or terraces which will 
arrest the flowing water or conduct it harm¬ 
lessly away. 
We may be excused for smiling n little sar¬ 
castically," when we read in our esteemed con¬ 
temporaries the advocacy of hand-picking 
the first jwtato beetles as a subsequent labor- 
saving business. Years ago we tried hand¬ 
picking, and tried it thoroughly. Tin- plot 
was about I -20th of an acre. Every pleasant 
morning we walked through the rows, ex¬ 
amined every plant carefully, picked off every 
beetle aud crushed every egg that could be 
seen. The soil between the rows was kept 
hard by this constant walking to aud fro. 
Nevertheless, when it was time for the grubs 
to appear, they appeared, and iu the usual 
numbers. We have not spent, much time over 
hand-picking since. 
Again we bog to call attention to the ad¬ 
vantage which seems to us to exist in applying 
Paris-green or Loudon-purple in plaster raither 
than m water. When the poison is used iu 
water, the water is generally held by the 
leaves near the stem or iu any inequality 
until it evaporates, leaving the jtoison depos¬ 
ited iu that place. This injures the leaves as 
may be seen by an examination a few days 
afterwards. If the poison is thornuyhly 
mixed with plaster, usiug one pound to an 
entire barrel of plaster, the leaves do not 
sustain any injury, because the mixture is 
applied quite evenly and remains there. 
Again when poisoned water is used, the 
beetles as a rule, must, eat more of the leaves 
before they eat the poisoned part which, as 
before sniu, is confined to certain portions of 
the leaf. All else equal, we should hope to 
raise a larger crop or potatoes by using poi- 
oned plaster than poisoned water. 
