THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG 43 
THE 
RURAU NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homos. 
Conducted by 
EltBBltT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1S&7. 
Any of our readers who would wish 
to represent "The Rural New-Yorker” 
at the Fairs—North, Sou'h, East or 
West—and obtain subscriptions, either 
yearly or for a short term, will please 
communicate with this office at once. 
Liberal terms will be offered. 
It will be seen by Notes from the Rural 
Grounds that we were three seasons in 
finding out why the Polish Wheat, Wheat 
of Taos, Diamond Wheat, Montana Rye, 
etc., has never become popular, though it 
has been “introduced” as a noveltj some 
dozen times. 
Ordinarily it requires many years 
before a new grape finds its way in large 
quantities to the chief markets of the 
country. The white grape Niagara is a 
notable exception. Thus early in the 
season we find it for sale by all fruit 
dealers on the street stands at 25 cents a 
pound. There is no success like success 
itself, and the above fact proves that the 
Niagara ranks w'lth the most popular 
grapes of America, whatever its short¬ 
comings. 
People sometimes wonder w T here the 
worn-out city horses go to. The fear of 
Henry Bergh and his agents has com¬ 
pelled many a cruel driver to dispose of 
his limping wreck of horse flesh. Some 
of these poor hrutesare mercifully ki.led. 
A woise fate awaits many of them. They 
are bought by some brutal market-gar¬ 
dener for a song, and taken into’ the 
country where they can more easily escape 
the eye of tbe law. After a short run at 
pasture they are. turned into a service 
from which death alone can release them. 
Day after day, and night after night they 
come wearily toiling over the heavy 
roads. With hanging heads, thin sides, 
raw shoulders and shattered feet and 
limbs, they stagger onw ard to their death. 
It JB pitiful, this abuse of man’s noblest 
animal friend. It is a brutal business—a 
cruel trade. 
The market-gardeners’ season is now at 
its lright. The roads leading to New 
York are crowded with teams, and men 
and women work day and night to har¬ 
vest and market the crop. From now 
until the middle of September tbe life of 
the market-gardener will be an arduous 
one. There is no rest for man or horse. 
During the day the vegetables must be 
picket!, sorted and pocked, and at night 
haul ng must be done. There is more 
Sunday work this year than ever before. 
It is a shame that this should be so, yet 
as competition increases some men feel 
themselves driven into business methods 
they would not have considered 15 years 
ago. Stop the Sunday work. It will 
noi pay iu the end. You may lose a load 
or two of vegetables, but you will gain 
enough in self-respect, to more than make 
up the loss. A day of rest is an absolute 
necessity, both for man and team. 
Mr. B. F. Johnson’s article on page 
511 is worthy a careful study. Sooner or 
later, we believe, Western farmers will 
have to come to commercial fertilizers. 
The sooner they realize the fact and ac¬ 
custom themselves to the thought of 
“buying manures in hags,” the better off 
they will l>e. Years ago, farmers in New 
York or Pennsylvania could not believe 
that the use of commercial fertilizers 
would ever pay them. Now, who cau 
sell n grain drill in these, sections, that is 
not fitted with a fertilizer attachment? 
Wc feed cattle for manure. We aim to 
turn our grain and hay into meat and 
wool, and still have the substance of a 
new crop of food plants in the manure. 
Can we not go a step further and return 
to the earth not only the manure, but the 
bones and offal of the animals as well? 
We believe the farm economies of the 
future will demand this. 
We have from season to season called 
attention to the influence which cutting 
off the tassels of corn as soon as they ap¬ 
pear, exerts in promoting the growth of 
sets which would otherwise remain dor¬ 
mant. In our attempts to improve com, 
we go over the plot nearly every day 
during the blossoming period, and cutoff 
all tassels borne by plants that either do 
not show sets or that, are objectionable in 
any way, the object being to insure male 
parentage of a higher order. Thus it has 
occurred that we have every season noted 
the effect alluded to. No sooner is the 
’ young tassel eut off than sets from these 
otherwise sterile plants begin to push. 
Whether it would pay to treat large fields 
in this way, our readers may judge for 
themselves. The philosophy, no doubt, 
is that the nutriment which would go to 
mature the tassel and iis immense amount 
of pollen is directed to the embryo ears 
after the young tassels are removed. 
BERMUDA GRASS. 
A. A. Crozter, of the IT. S. Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, tells the Albany 
Cultivator that Bermuda Grass is worthy 
of a trial farther north than Washington, 
whe re “it. may now be seen in dry, exposed 
situations, vigorous and of a lively gtecn, 
in striking contrast with the parched Blue 
Grass by the side of it.” Years ago, as 
our readers may recall, wc raised Bermu¬ 
da Grass in the sandy soil of the Rural 
Farm, both from sods and seeds. Though 
the situation is tempered by close prox¬ 
imity to the ocean, and though a part of 
the grass was protected during the win¬ 
ter, marly all the grass was killed befoie 
spring, and what survived was killed en¬ 
tirely" during the next winter. We much 
doubt if it will survive several successive 
winters in Washington, but even if it 
were otherwise, surely we do not need 
Bermuda Grass in the North, where so 
many other kinds of grass will thrive up¬ 
on the lawn, except, it muy be, in the se¬ 
verest droughts. In the South it is far 
better than no grass at all, but from its 
peculiar manner of growing it can not 
be cut by the lawn-mower so as to form a 
smooth, velvety surface. 
We were among the fiist in this couutry 
to raise Bermuda Grass from seed. Some 
of our contemporaries doubted this for 
the excellent reason that true Bermuda 
Grass seed w as not to be procured as they 
supposed. 
RAILROAD RECKLESSNESS. 
We have noticed that many of our 
readers residing in the interior conic to 
the seashoie at this season to listen to the 
breakers’ roar and take a dip in the briDy 
surf. We would warn them against 
crowded steamboats and railroad trains. 
Railroad companies do not pay sufficient 
attention to roads which are used only 
during a portion of the year and for ex¬ 
cursion purposes. Our attention was 
recently called to the condition of the 
trestle-work between East. Rockaway 
and Long Beach on the N. Y. and Long 
Beach R. R., which is built over tbe bay 
and several creeks leading to it. The 
timbers arc water-soaked and worm-eaten, 
and it is patched and braced in a most 
unworkmanlike manner. It rocks and 
sways under a loaded train in a most dan¬ 
gerous fashion. It is the duty of the 
city and suburban press to call the atten¬ 
tion of the railroad companies to the un¬ 
safe condition of their tracks, on the prin¬ 
ciple that “an ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure." It is far better 
to criticise before than after an accident. 
If the trestle-work on the Long Beach R. 
R., or any other of the railroads to the 
seaside should give way, it would doubt¬ 
less cause the loss of dozens, perhaps hun¬ 
dreds of lives, and the proper authorities 
should sec to it that they are kept in the 
best possible condition. 
NEW HYBRID ROSES. 
Last year we crossed Harrison’s Yellow 
upon Rosa rugosa rubra. From the 
crossed seids 16 plants are now' growing. 
A notable peculiarity of these plants is 
that but one resembles the mother, Ru¬ 
gosa. The other plants vary in a remark¬ 
able way. The leaflets vary from three to 
seven, 6omt* of a dark green, others of a 
very light green color. Some are very 
small, others large. The shape varies 
from orbicular, oval, elliptical to ovate; 
the margins from entire to coarsely 
toothed. The stems of some are crowded 
with prickles, while others have few. 
Rosa rugosa, the seed-bearing plant, is 
a very distinct Japan species with very 
tough, thick, wrinkled leaflets from seven 
to nine iu number, of a dark green color. 
The fodage is so peculiar that when once 
seen it is easily identified thereafter. 
The flowers are large, single, and of a 
pink color, and form large heps, or fruits, 
freely. While the foliage of other roses 
may be infested with aphides, worms, 
thrips, etc., Rugosa is often exempt. It 
was for these reasons that it was selected 
as the seed-bearing parent. 
Harrison's Yellow is an Austrian rose 
or a hybrid between this and a Scotch rose. 
Its flowers are yellow, semi-double—and 
it is a very free bloomer, the stamens 
yielding lots of pollen. Its leaflets are 
small and thin. It was our intention 
to have used pollen from different roses, 
but as pollen was readily found on the 
Harrison, and sparingly sn the others, w’c 
concluded to make Harnsou alone the 
father in our proposed union. 
The distinctive foliage of Rugosa and 
its being the mother plant would lead one 
to conclude that the hybrid seedlings 
w'ould for tbe most part resemble it. It 
appears, however, that in this case the 
Harrison is potent in the ratio of 10 to 
one, since but one seedling hears the 
Rugosa foliage. Wc learn, too, that 
pure Rugosa seedlings come quite true. 
These hybrids should interest rose grow¬ 
ers, especially as we can not learn that 
any hybridization with Rugosa has ever 
been attempted. If otherwise, we should 
be glad to know it. This season we have 
again made Rugosa the seed bearer, this 
time using pollen from Jacqueminot, 
John Hopper, Magna Charta anil o.hers, 
from which we have no less than 15 
hybrid heps. 
Later on we shall give engravings of 
some of the haves of our present plauts 
as well as those of the blnckberry-rasp- 
beiry hybrids which seem to show fea¬ 
tures of both parents. 
THE BOOM IN TOBACCO. 
The July report of the Department of 
Agriculture indicates a reduction of 17K 
per cent, in the acreage ot tobacco this 
year as compared with last. There is no 
doubt that many of the estimates on 
which the calculation was made, were 
partly based on expected plantings, 
with which the unfavorable weather has 
since interfered, so that future reports 
are likely to show a greater reduction. 
Already the men in the trade have cut the 
area down to about half of last year's, 
and been booming the market in con¬ 
sequence. The excitement has been in¬ 
tensified by the rivalry between a New 
York and 8t. Louis firm, both the largest, 
in the trade. To offset the premiums 
offered by the Eastern concern, the West¬ 
ern offered its goods at lower prices, and 
guaranteed that they should not advance, 
offering to fill future orders at those fig¬ 
ures. The New York firm and a crowd of 
followers elsewhere, have raised the prices 
of tlicir owu goods, offered high prices 
for the stock of leaf tobacco in dealers’ 
hands, and crowded the Bt. Louis firm 
with orders at the lower guaranteed fig¬ 
ures, turning over the orders of many of 
their owu customers to be filled by their 
rivals, to ruin whom they have been try- 
iug to corner the market. 
The curtailment of the area under the 
“ weed ” is due almost entirely to the 
small compensation received by the grow¬ 
ers last year. While the product was in the 
growers’hands, the denlers cut down prices 
to unremunerative figures, but now that 
the crop is in their own warehouses they 
are trying to get rid of it at double rates, 
and to sell in advance much of the com¬ 
ing crop at the same prices. Then, next 
winter and spring, they will try to beat 
down prices again, until they secure the 
next crop at figures much lower than 
those at which they will have sold much 
of it in advauce. Statistician Dodge, of 
the. Department of Agriculture, issued a 
statement, Wednesday, that before Christ¬ 
mas speculators will learn that the tobacco 
area is larger than they thought ; that the 
yield will be beyond their expectations, 
and the roatket dull, “so that growers 
will be offered only a moderate advance 
on last year’s rates.” The stock on hand 
this year and last, on July 1, averaged 
72,000 hogsheads, against 30,000 the av¬ 
erage at "the same date for the previous 
five years. This heavy production, he 
says, accounts for the reduced area put 
in by farmers, and the desperate efforts 
of the dealers to get rid of the surplus. 
The present boom is confined to the trade. 
It doesn’t pecuniarily interest farmers 
who will not market their new crop for 
six or eight months. 
COLLAl’KE OF THE CALIFORNIA 
WHEAT CORNER. 
The great California wheat corner has 
met wiih the same disastrous fate which 
all other corners in produce have encoun¬ 
tered this year. Who were the real 
manipulators of the corner, behind the 
brokers who appeared iu the market, is 
yet unknown. They made two egregious 
blunders, however: their estimates of the 
quantity of old wheat held back and of 
the new crop were much too low—about 
250,000 tons too low r , The quantity of wheat 
the bears * ere carrying when the collapse 
occurred last Wednesday, is estimated at 
560,000 tons, which cost them all the way 
from $1.60 to $2,15 per cental. This 
immense quantity was compos*d of 215,- 
000 tons at Liverpool, 100.000 tons afloat 
and in warehouses, and 145,000 tons con¬ 
tracted for in the State. They thought 
that this was all t> e old and new wheat 
that could be got; but within the last few r 
days before the end. nearly 100,000 tons 
more wore hurled at them, and as they 
bad already over $19,000,000 locked up 
in the “deal,” and the banks refused to 
loan more money on wheat as collateral, 
and many of the “shorts” refused to put 
up more margins, the brokers of the specu¬ 
lators sought a compromise, which has 
been effected. Before the collapse the 
price of wheat was $2 15 percental; yes¬ 
terday the bulls put the price at $1 70 
and the bears at $1 80; but as the Prod¬ 
uce Exchange has been closed since the 
collapse, to prevent a panic, no regular 
quotations have been made for wheat; but 
from the quantity of old and new wheat 
in the State it is claimed that the bears’ 
figures represent the real value of wheat 
in California more closely than the bulls’. 
The speculators’ losses are put all the way 
from $4,000,000 to $10,000,000. These 
were not confined exclusively to the 
giants of Ban Francisco; several grain 
gamblers in the in’ertor are reported to 
have lost from $20,000 to $60,000, while 
in the large wheat counties losses of 
$4,000 to $5,000 are said to be numerous. 
Until the last few years wealthy specula¬ 
tors confined their ventures almost exclu¬ 
sively to the Stock Exchanges, where 
their manipulations of the market had 
little effect on the general public. The 
losses and gains of the gamblers were 
made among themselves. Of late they 
have, unfortunately, been gambling 
heavily in the Produce Exchanges, and 
as their transactions have gravely affected 
the prices of the necessaries of life, the 
world at large has suffered from them. 
BREVITIES. 
Advices from one of the Rural family, who 
is traveling through Mississippi, inform us 
that the cotton crop promises to bo due. 
The quantity of Le Conte pears received 
from the South and sold in the New York and 
other large markets of the North, is some¬ 
thing surprising. Every street fruit-stand is 
filled with them. 
The Rural Grounds IN. J.) have received 
showers every day for two weeks past We, 
and the farmers about us. propose to dig new 
potatoes at once, in order to avoid rot and 
second growths. 
It is to be hoped that all who can will attend 
the dairy conferences announced last week. 
New York State dairymen can learn some¬ 
thing yet. Many of the best market* in this 
State are now occupied by the Western dairy¬ 
men. 
WrrniN the past three weeks we have re- 
eetvod two sets of drawings and descriptions 
for machines that were expected to give "per¬ 
petual motion.” It is strange that this belief 
in the possibility of producing "something 
from nothing” Cannot tie done away with. 
The managers of the Orange Co. fair have 
adopted the excellent plan of p intiug the 
•obits of excellence in cattle in their premium 
ists. The scales of points of the four dairy 
breeds are carefully compiled. This will 
old the judges and also interest, spectators. 
A writer in the N E. Homestead suggests 
that a sufficient number of Congressional re¬ 
ports be printed to unable the librarian of 
every farmer’s club or Grange to secure a set. 
They should be sent, upon application, as docu¬ 
ments from the Agricultural Department are 
now sent. This is a capital idea. Farmers 
could become acquainted wiih the workings 
of the Government and they could watch 
their representatives with ease.’ 
August 1st, we used the last of our Blush 
Potatoes, It must be considered that they 
were kept in a rather warm, light cellar, and 
that no effort was made to preserve them. 
The Blush is a flue keeper. It Is of the best 
quality. It is an immense yi elder in con¬ 
genial soil. Unfortunately, it is troublesome 
to harvest the crop, because the tubers often 
form at u distance from the plants Again, 
we have found many hollow-hearted potatoes 
iu our last year’s crop. 
There never yet has been a public test of 
dairy cows where all were satisfied. If a Hol¬ 
stein should defeat a Jersey or if nu Ayrshire 
should defeat them both, there will always be 
plenty of people to attempt to show wherein 
the teat wan unfair, and wherein the figures 
show that ihe defeated breed wits really supe¬ 
rior to the Victor, Next week we shall begin 
the discussion of the best rules to govern 
these tests, by presenting the views of some 
leading breeders and judges. 
In England a strong effort Is being made to 
force dealers in bogus butter to mark their 
Stuff "margarine” instead Of " but tori ne.” The 
dealers object, though they can give no rea¬ 
sonable grounds for their objection. It will 
be noticed that the bogus butter dealers have 
objected to every proposition to muke their 
product distinct,' Gy appearance and name, 
from butter. They know that their profit lies 
in selling their stuff for butter, and it is a 
part of their business to oppose everything 
that tends to sbow just what it is. 
