452 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 0 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Conducted by 
ElBURT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. JULY 9, 1887. 
Our cartoons are attracting much at¬ 
tention. They are full of power. They 
strike the miud with all the force of a 
powerful blow. The next one will deal 
with the subject of ‘‘Farm Sanitation” 
and is thought to be the strongest of the 
series. 
We don’t want any White Clover 
among our lawn grasses. What is the 
use of it ? Does it improve the smooth, 
velvety, uniform appearance of the lawn 
to have it. speckled with white blossoms ? 
It blooms in spite of the lawn-mower, 
you know. Give us Red-top, and Blue 
Grass—Red-top, any how, and also Blue 
Grass if you will. 
The Pedigree Sweet Corn, sent out in 
the Rural’s last seed distribution, grows 
with us scarcely two feet high. It is 
vevy early, and the corn is sweeter than 
any other variety we know*. But there 
are many barren plants. Half of this 
plot, as has been $aid, received at the rate 
of 300 pounds of nitrate of soda to the 
acre. The plants of this part show no 
benefit from this liberal application of 
nitrogen. 
In so far as the R. N.-Y. is informed, 
it was the first journal to advocate from 
experience the bagging of grapes, and to 
explain and illustrate the whole business. 
We have never had occasion to change 
the views then expressed. Bagging 
grapes is a profitable thing to do, if the 
grapes are to be marketed; and if not, it 
is still a profitable thing to do, because 
the wax-like beauty and perfection of 
fine bunches which have been so pro¬ 
tected, gratify one beyond the cost of 
the work. 
There is no reason why the farmer 
should not protect himself from the rays 
of the sun whenever he can do so. There 
are many farm operations that cannot pos¬ 
sibly be done in the shade. There are 
others that can be. In riding on the mow¬ 
er or reaper or wagon there is no possible 
reason why a man should sit in the hot 
sun. A canvas screen, such as is usual on 
city wagons, can be easily fixed, or an um¬ 
brella can be arranged so as to provide 
shade. We believe in making work as 
pleasant as possible. There is no sense 
in sitting out in the broiling sun when a 
lew minutes’ w*ork "will enable one to sit 
in the shade. 
In a country community where farm¬ 
ers have lived as neighbors for 20 years 
or more, we ivere surprised at the differ¬ 
ent practices in vogue. Take the single 
operation of poisoning potato beetles. It 
was found that Paris green was used in 
strength varying from one pound to 10 
of plaster to one pound to a barrel. 
Each farmer had his ov*n mixture, and 
few knew, except by hearsay, what their 
neighbors used. Many vines had been 
killed by too liberal doses of poison, and 
the beetles had ruined several crops that 
were too lightly covered. Who doubts 
that an hour’s discussion of this subject 
where all could have given their experi¬ 
ence, would not have saved money to 
most of these farmers ? There’s email 
reason to doubt that there are similar dif¬ 
ferences in feeding cattle, cultivating 
crops, and other farm operations. Some 
are profitable; others are not. Would 
not a farmers’ club pay ? 
Springfield Thornless (black-cap) 
Raspberry is the first to ripen this season 
at the Rural Grounds. The berries are 
medium in size and of excellent quality. 
The plants are quite vigorous and pro¬ 
ductive. The Carman (black cap) ripens 
a few days later. It is remarkably pro¬ 
ductive. There are more berries in a 
cluster and they average somewhat larger 
than those of Springfield. The drupelets 
are smaller, the berry a trifle firmer and 
the quality much the same. The advan¬ 
tages of the Springfield are, first, that it 
is a few days earlier, and, second, that 
the canes are substantially without thorns. 
Marvin’s Yellow Cap is wonderfully vig¬ 
orous and productive and ripens its ber¬ 
ries a few days later. They are rather 
small, but sweet. Beebe’s Golden 
ripens at the same time. The berries are 
small, of a dull yellow, sweet and seedy. 
Hansell gives the first red raspberries, as 
usual. It is not a strong-growing plant, 
but still yields fruit, while the Marlboros, 
planted the same season, are now nearly 
dead. 
* ■*■* — 
Oh for a fowl that will eat potato 
beetles. In 1 ' grasshopper years” farmers 
have turned misfortunes into profit, by 
raising multitudes of turkeys to feed 
upon the pests. There would be a double 
profit in raising poultry upon potato 
beetles. It is said that ducks will eat 
this hated pest, but we have never been 
able to induce them to do so. We have 
repeatedly caught the beetles and placed 
them before hens, but the wise biddies 
are not to be tempted. A few bugs are 
sometimes found in a hen’s crop, after 
dressing, but they were evidently eaten 
through mistake. A fortune is waiting for 
the man who can produce a breed of do¬ 
mestic poultry that will feed upon the 
potato beetle. The pest seems to contain 
a sharp, burning acid. A neighbor, in 
crushing one, was unfortunate enough to 
let the juice fall into his eye. For an 
hour or two the sight was almost de¬ 
stroyed while the pain was intense. 
♦ —- 
Delegates from the various Provinces 
of Canada are soon to hold a meeting to 
discuss several demands to be made on the 
Federal Government, with a view to the 
amendment of the Dominion Constitu¬ 
tion. The Federal Executive has now 
the power to disallow bills passed by the 
Provincial Legislatures, and most of the 
complications that have disturbed the 
federal relations of late have grown out 
of the frequent exercise of this preroga¬ 
tive. The Dominion Senate, too, as at 
present constituted, is considered an incu¬ 
bus, since instead of being elected by 
the Provincial Legislatures, or the peo¬ 
ple,its members arc appoiuted by the Gov- 
» ernor-General on the recommendation of 
the Privy Council, so that they are the 
mere creatures of the Premier who hap¬ 
pens to be in power. If the Canadian 
Supreme Court could be given power to 
decide what Provincial laws are uncon¬ 
stitutional, and if the Senate could be 
chosen by the various Provincial Legisla¬ 
tures, it is thought a great advance 
would be made, and the cry for the diso¬ 
lution of the union of the Provinces would 
not be so frequent or urgent. 
The conviction of Jacob Sharp, the 
head of the boodle conspiracy of 1884 in 
this city, for the crime of giving a bribe, 
is said to have been the first instance of 
the kind in the history of this State. The 
conviction cannot fail to produce good 
results. All over the country there is a 
disposition od the part of State and Fed¬ 
eral officials to regard their positions as 
openings for making illegal profits. 
Bribery is the bane of the most corrupt 
and decrepid monarchies of the Old 
World, and unless all reports are false, 
bribery is rampant m nearly all paits of 
the model Republic of the New. Such 
crimes are proverbially difficult to bring 
home to the culprits, however little doubt 
may re»t in the public mind us to their 
guilt, but the results of the “hoodie” 
trials here and at Chicago prove that con¬ 
viction is not impossible. They show 
that dishonest invasions of public rights 
and private property from corrupt combi¬ 
nations of public officials and private lob¬ 
byists cannot any longer be practiced with 
impunity . ^ ^ 
While all the other States in the Union 
which have legislated with regard to 
“bucket shops,” have suppressed them as 
gambling dens demoralizing to the peo¬ 
ple and injurious to the public welfare, 
the recently adjourued Legislature of this 
State dealt with them merely as proper 
subjects of revenue, and assessed on them 
a tax ranging from $300 a month in New 
York and Brooklyn, to $75 a month in 
other places in the State. Governor Hill 
has vetoed the bill; but not on account 
of the immorality of giving legislative 
aid and protection to institutions so op¬ 
posed to public policy; but because it 
discriminates against persons residing in 
certain cities, and thus becomes “partial, 
unfair and unjust in its operations.” The 
courts of this and several other States re¬ 
fuse to give these demoralizing dens judic¬ 
ial aid and protection on the ground of 
public policy; why should the State give 
them aid and protection by taxing them? 
Is there not legalized gambling enough in 
our regular Boards of Trade and Exchang¬ 
es without officially authorizing the es¬ 
tablishment of gambling hells in every 
town and village in the State ? Our leg¬ 
islators would do well to follow the ex¬ 
ample of our judges in dealing with 
bucket shops. 
Many a young man never learns how to 
work until he goes away from home. The 
young clerk in Boston or New York is 
horrified at the thought of carrying a 
package through the street or meeting a 
young woman while engaged in any man¬ 
ual labor. Let this same young man go 
to the Western ranch or the frontier town 
and he will care nothing for his dress and 
work manfully at the roughest toil. In 
the new place, work is the order of the 
day. Society is all new and every man 
has a chance to reach the top. In the old 
place, society divided itself into classes 
long before the young man was born. It 
is hard work, in a community where for 
years certain kinds of labor have been 
naturally associated with ignorance and 
inferiority, for a poor young man to fight 
his way up through such labor into a bet¬ 
ter position. That, it can be done, abund¬ 
ant instances are shown, but the boys who 
ate most likely to succeed are those who 
feel their position most keenly, and are 
most anxious to get away—into a new field 
where they can work with a fairer oppor¬ 
tunity. It often does a young man good 
to go out into the world among strangers 
and work up from the bottom. The rich 
father who insists that his son shall learn 
a trade aud work his own way through 
college is a kind and wise parent. Thou¬ 
sands of young men at the present day 
have been orippied by kindness, and their 
indulgent fathers have sent them into the 
world with a curse hauging about their 
necks. 
Farmers and gardeners near New York 
are obliged to depend more and more 
upou Castle Garden for help. It is get¬ 
ting hard to find a good American farm 
laborer. The manufacturing towns of¬ 
fer superior attractions to youug men. 
Farmers’ sons, as a rule, are eager to get 
to the city as clerks, If they have any 
plans for the future, they expect when the 
farm falls into their hands, to sell it in 
small lots at an advanced price for build¬ 
ing lots. When a young man does stick 
to farm work, he is generally so industri¬ 
ous and enterprising that he will own his 
own place in a few years, and graduate 
from hired man to land-owner. The emi¬ 
grants from Castle Garden are usually 
poor help, but they are the best that can 
be obtained for the wages farmers can 
pay. Many of them are dirty, frowsj, 
and unreliable. They do not, as a rule, 
understand English, and communication 
is carried on mostly by means of signs. 
They have a bad habit of shouldering 
their baggage without any warning, and 
trampiDg back to the city. It is im¬ 
possible to take them into the family, or 
to put them at any hut the roughest work. 
Where they cau be hired in gangs with 
an interpreter to explain matters, they do 
reason ably well, but when hired singly 
they are poor substitutes for the model 
hired man. 
THE OUTLOOK FOR CROPS. 
In this issue we present to our readers 
some specimens of the earliest reports with 
regard to the prospects for the coming 
harvest received from practical farmers in 
all parts of the country. Over 500 more 
are already on baud, and others are pour¬ 
ing in by every mail. As will be seen, 
they embrace the comparative area, con¬ 
dition, and outlook for farm, garden, and 
fruit crops in the writers’ neighborhood. 
A total of 2,500 reports are expected. Of 
course, we cau spare room for only com¬ 
paratively few specimens of so great a 
number, but all will be carefully analyzed 
and the results will be summarized, as 
usual, in our next issue. This week and 
the next will be decisive as to the out¬ 
come of several crops in many parts of the 
country, especially in Illinois, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, and the Northwest generally. In all 
that region a drought of almost unpre¬ 
cedented severity is threatening disaster 
to wheat, oats, and most other small 
grains as well as to potatoes and most 
other crops, except corn which has not 
hitherto been much iujured. In Illinois, 
Wisconsin, and Iowa, during the past 
week, farmers have been praying for rain 
in the churches, and in assemblages met 
for that purpose at farm houses in nearly 
all parts of those States. Yesterday, light 
local raius cheered many sections in the 
Upper Mississippi Valley and near the 
Western lakes; yet the showers were not 
heavy enough to satisfy the parched 
fields; but the meteorological conditions 
this morning give promise of further rain¬ 
fall within the next two days m the sec¬ 
tions where the drought has been the 
severest. Where the wheat harvest has 
been in progiess the weather has been 
generally favorable. The new crop of 
winter wheat is coming into Baltimore in 
small quantities, and ^the bulk of the 
grain is inferior in weight aud quality to 
samples of the crop of 1886; there is con¬ 
siderable shrunken wheat, and the berry 
is smaller and the color is not so good. 
There have been some small receipts of 
the new crop at St. Louis also, as well as 
at Chicago, Detroit and Toledo. From 
all the specimens received, it is inferred 
that the winter wheat crop of 1887 will 
be inferior in quality to that of 1886; 
but perhaps it is too early yet to general¬ 
ize from such small data. 
BREVITIES. 
1 'AST November good Baldwin apples sold 
in the market at $2 *25 to $2.50 Last week a 
large lot sold readily at $5.50 per barrel. 
They were in prime condition—just out of 
cold storage. At an advance of $3 per barrel, 
how muny barrels must be saved each year 
for 10 years in order to pay for a good cold- 
storage house? 
The secretary of the Cayuga County Farm¬ 
ers’ Club suggests the formation of an asso¬ 
ciation for fanners’ wives. Why not? Surely 
the labor of the farmer’s wife is as important 
as that of her husband. If the work of the 
farmer cau be improved and dignified by as¬ 
sociation aud combination, surely that of his 
wife can bo dignified and improved by the 
same methods. 
We have planted fodder corn every week 
from the last of May. and shall continue to 
plant till the first ol* August. The point to bo 
determined is how late we can plant this sup¬ 
plemental crop with the hope of getting suit¬ 
able feed. We have a smull space on which 
the corn was scattered on the surface and 
harrowed in. At the present writing this 
com is the best both in size and color. 
We are cutting green oats for the cows. 
We have half an acre of oats near the barn. 
A few minutes’ work with a scythe every 
night provides an ample supply of choice fod¬ 
der for our two cows. The flies are now so 
troublesome that the cattle cannot feed prop¬ 
erly during the greater part of the day. It is 
a merciful net to put them in a darkened stable 
during the day and bring green food to them. 
They more than pay for the trouble in the ex¬ 
tra milk. 
I am delighted with the “Study of Noses,” 
shown in the Rural of July 25. and st ill more 
with the cartoon Of Birds. If i ever felt like 
saying confound anything it is this insane and 
wicked slaughter of our allies in the air—near¬ 
est to angels of anything we are liable to see. 
The helplessness of the monarch of creation in 
a light with insects is pitiful. Without the 
birds we may as well go back to barbarism 
and give up agriculture—indeed, we shall be 
compelled to do so. E. P. powell. 
Clinton, N. Y. 
There may be handsomer hybrid perpet¬ 
ual* than Ulrich Brunner in some respects, 
but not in all. Its color would be what is 
known as pink, except that it inclines too 
much to crimson. I’erhaps a cherry color 
would more nearly* describe it. The buds as 
buds and when nearly open are next to per¬ 
fect—its odor delicious. The bush is vigorous 
and quite hardy*. This rose was introduced in 
1881, raised by* Lcvut from seed of Paul 
Neyron. It has the decided advantage of 
giving fine, perfect flowers after most of the 
perpetuate have ceased to bloom. 
There are many* libraries in country Sunday 
schools and literary societies, that would be 
greatly improved by the addition of a few 
sound agricultural books. The great trouble 
is to find books that will be attractive enough 
to arrest the attention of the youug reader 
and yet true enough to scientific tacts not to 
lead him astray. The money to be spent by 
literary committees is too valuable to be 
wasted It costs too much to get it together, 
so that careful thought and study should be 
given to the selection of agricultural books. 
We shall have more to say on this subject. 
We deem it well worthy of discussion. 
Considerable grass issold at auction in our 
neighborhood every year. A number of old 
farmers consider the grass crop as cheap and 
profitable as any they can raise. The land is 
well prepared and seeded to Timothy and 
clover and kept well immured. By selling 
the grass standing the owners save all expense 
or risk of cutting aud curing. Buyers are 
plenty, for good hay is in great demand. As 
a rule the grass brings about hall' the price of 
hay on the market. This seems to he satis¬ 
factory. Exports cau easily tell w ithin a few 
hundred pounds, the yield of a given area of 
grass. 
The Rural Grounds have never been more 
infested with rose-bugs than now. They seem 
to have little choice of food—roses, the tender 
shoots of many ornamental trees and shrubs, 
grape-vines, apple trees, plums, etc., all alike 
art' suffering. Buhaeh, or pure, frush pyreth- 
runi powder is our remedy, either blown upon 
them through bellows or sprayed upou them 
through a cyclone nozzle. But the powder 
should be fresh anti pure, Much of the im¬ 
ported pyrothrum powder sold as low as 50 
cents a pound—less than the price of the 
pyrethruui flowers—is quite worthless. A 
flrst-rate article of pyretbrum powder is worth 
at least 75 cents a pound. 
Wk are glad to see that Michiguu appreci¬ 
ates her agricultural college. The last legis¬ 
lature appropriated $65,205 for the support of 
the institution. New buildings and imple¬ 
ments are to be provided and experiments 
will be conducted. A new dormitory will be 
built. If it were ready now it could be tilled 
with students next fall. Michigan has offered 
abundant proof that an agricultural college 
cun win for itself influence, respect aud stu¬ 
dents. If the agricultural college had been 
tacked to the State university, or if those who 
have directed it had not ulways insisted that 
agriculture should bo foremost iu the teach¬ 
ings ,u£ the school, we should now have in 
place of a healthy and influential college, a 
very tired institution without strength enough 
to.die. properly. 
