THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG 27 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Pakk Row, New York. 
SATURDAY. AUGUST 27, 1887. 
» _ 
Any of our readers who would wish 
to represent "The Rural New-Yorker" 
at the Fairs—North, South, 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. 
Our efforts to cross our three-quarters 
rye plants with rye again have failed. 
Nineteen heads were operated upon, 
requiring not less than 19 hours of 
tedious, careful work, and but one poor 
seed that probably will not grow, is the 
result. Our seven-eighths rye and wheat 
plants bore nearly sterile heads. 
What an incomparably showy lily is 
Lilium auratum. Wc have many plants 
growing in our rose bed, and some of the 
flowers are a full foot in diameter. Near¬ 
ly 20 years ago we bought our first bulbs 
for $2 each, and when they bloomed we 
thought the price none too high. Now 
seedsmen offer them for 25 cents or less. 
The Illinois Live Stock Commisioners 
declare that there is no known case of 
acute or chronic pleuro-pneumonia now 
existing in Cook County, and, acting on 
this recommendation. Gov. Oglesby" has 
asked the authorities of the States and 
Territories that still quarant ine Illinois to 
remove the restrictions on the interstate 
cattle trade. Many of them are slow 7 to 
comply. Just as Great Britain and other 
European countries act with regard to 
American cattle, they seem disposed to 
act with regard to Illinois stock—exclude 
it as much to avoid competition as con¬ 
tagion. 
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If the Granges and Farmer Clubs of 
the country are not satisfied with our 
agricultural colleges they could do much 
to improve them. The great need of 
most, of these colleges is an increased 
number of students. A crowd of stud¬ 
ents at anyone of these institutions would 
soon bring it to notice. Nothing has ad¬ 
vertised the Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
lege as well as its graduates. Let. every 
Grange and farmers’ club decide to send 
at least one boy every year to the agricul¬ 
tural college. The college will be filled 
with the right kind of students. Every 
neighborhood in the State will make 
itself felt. 
As we are about to dispose of our 
Langshans, having kept them two years, 
we may now place before our readers our 
opinion in regard to them. We have 
tried but one strain, and our opinion is 
necessarily confined to that strain. As 
egg-producers, they are inferior to either 
Wyaudottes, Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, 
Leghorns, Dorkings and Hamburghs. 
They mature lute. A few days ago we 
killed several four-months-old Langshans 
and the same number of crosses between 
Langshans and Wyandottes of the same 
age. The latter averaged half a pound 
heavier, with less bone and plumper 
bodies. The Langshans are fine-looking 
birds with their brilliant plumage. They 
are quiet and hardy. Notwithstanding 
their late maturity and the low average 
weight of mature birds, they eat more, if 
we may judge without exact trials, than 
any breed we have ever raised. 
If the R. N.-Y. may be guided by its 
own trials for two seasons, the Turner- 
Mikado tomato—while the vines make a 
widely-spreading, heavy growth, and 
the tomatoes are large and solid and per¬ 
haps less inclined to rot than Acme, Per¬ 
fection, Beauty, etc.—cannot be consid¬ 
ered an advance upon the best existing 
smoother varieties. It seems too much 
like going back to the Trophy for pro¬ 
gress. The potato-like foliage gives the 
Turner or Mikado a distinct appearance, 
but this will scarcely be considered if the 
fruit is less shapely or of no better quality 
than that of older kinds. Selections from 
the Turner, or crosses, may one day give 
us a decided advance. In breeding for 
the tomato of the future, firmness, 
smoothness and keeping qualities must 
first of all be considered. Productiveness 
and earliness are secondary considera¬ 
tions. The South will give us the earli¬ 
est tomatoes, and most kinds are suffi¬ 
ciently productive. 
THE CHATSWORTH HORROR. 
The horrible railroad accident in Illi¬ 
nois, clearly shows how the public may 
suffer from the carelessness and negli¬ 
gence of heartless corporations. The fire 
that rendered the bridge unsafe might 
have been prevented. For weeks the 
grass and brush around it had been 
allowed to grow. When the fire did 
come it found this mass of fuel a9 dry 
as tinder. Whether the fire came from 
the careless burning of section hands or 
from a locomotive spark, the company 
was criminally negligent in altowing such 
a mass of dry grass and brush to grow 
around the bridge. A few hours’ work 
by half a dozen intelligent men would 
have prevented all danger from the burn¬ 
ing of wooden bridges on that railroad 
line. These things are seen too late. De¬ 
lays are fatal. We venture to say that 
there are dozens of wooden bridges 
throughout the West that are as danger¬ 
ously uear falliug as the one at Chats- 
worth. Surrounded by a mass of inflam¬ 
mable material, a spark only is needed to 
make the condition that caused the late 
horror. In view of all the facts concern¬ 
ing the working of railroads it is not so 
strange that so many accidents occur, hut 
that there are not more of them. Cannot 
these corporations be taught that human 
life is too sacred to be trifled with? Every 
such case of carelessness should be so 
sternly punished that all who serve the 
public may be frightened mto more cure. 
A FACT WORTH KNOWING RESPECT¬ 
ING HYDRANGEA PANrCULATA 
GRANDIFLORA. 
TIif. Rural likes to tell its readers 
periodically that it was the first journal 
to take up the Great-Pauicled Hydrangea 
(H. paniculata grandiflora) and bring its 
conspicuous but coarse merits before the 
public. We were also the first to state, 
and it may be repeated now, that it is 
one of the easiest shrul>9 to propagate 
from green cuttings. Old—matured— 
cuttings will not'make roots. It is impor¬ 
tant that our readers should hear this in 
mind, because this plant is never so strik¬ 
ing as when it is young. Make green 
cuttings now, six inches long, and press 
the soil about them so that one inch ap¬ 
pears above it. Next year these cuttings 
will bear flowers and the panicles will be 
as large as or even larger than those borne 
by older plants. The older the plant, the 
smaller the panicle. The younger the plant, 
the larger the panicle. It should be consid¬ 
ered that every stem will bloom, whether 
young or old. That is, every stem will, 
in August, terminate in a panicle which in 
year-old plants in suitable soil will often 
grow to the immense size of 18 inches in 
length and a foot in its widest diameter. 
Propagate this hydrangea now and make 
and strike cuttings every year. A bed of 
yearlings from early August until after 
frost will strike you hard in some respects 
if not in others. 
SCAB ON POTATOES. 
We hear of land in which scabby pota¬ 
toes abound though, it is said, the wire- 
worm is unknown. We are inclined to 
the belief now, as w T e were five years ago, 
that this worm causes scabby potatoes at 
the Rural Grounds, whatever may cause it 
elsewhere. Why? We can raise scabby 
potatoes to order by planting them in soil 
where there is plenty of vegetable matter, 
as leaves, for instance. Wire-worms like 
leaves and they accumulate without end 
in any little plot where leaves may have 
been turned under. It is the same when 
a mulch of manure is put on the surface 
of the ground. They congregate between 
the manure and soil in immense quanti¬ 
ties. Potatoes raised in such parts of our 
land are covered with scab; and it is 
the wire-worm that causes it. Our read¬ 
ers will pardon such a positive assertion 
when we tell them that, having examined 
the potatoes in various stages of growth, 
we find the wire-worms at work; find 
them coiled up in the corrugated hollows 
or in contact, with the little sores, if we 
may so call them, when they first appear. 
We do not say that a similar disease is 
not caused by a fungus. We merely ex¬ 
press the belief that what we know as 
scab is in our land caused by the wire- 
worm, For the third year we have found 
that powdered sulphur used with chemi¬ 
cal fertilizers in the drills, hills or 
trenches, keeps the wire-worms away and, 
consequently, the tubers are free from 
scab. 
THANKS TO THE COMMISSIONER OF 
AGRICULTURE. 
United States Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture, Norman J. Colman, in the course 
of a reply to several questions which were 
asked him, w r rites the following: “I fully 
understand your views in regard to the 
seed distribution, and for some time past 
have thought that a way is opening by 
which Congress may dispense with it. 
The large appropriations for Experiment 
Stations in the States and Territories will 
enable the Directors of those Stations to 
purchase and experiment with seeds 
adapted to their respective localities, and 
this may furnish a good ground for dis¬ 
pensing with the distribution; aud it has 
been my intention, for some time, to 
recommend in my report to the President 
that such action be taken. I have already 
talked with many members of Congress 
on the subject, but have met with a diver¬ 
sity of views, and it. is impossible to say 
what may be the result. If relieved of 
the annual seed distribution, I shall feel 
like a child let out of school, for it has 
given me more worry than any other 
division of the Department.” 
That is just exactly what we should be 
glad to have Com. Colman do. That will 
give satisfaction all around, except it may 
be to those Congressmen who would kick 
their mothers if it were necessary to in¬ 
sure. re-election. The President will no 
doubt indorse Com. Colman’s recom¬ 
mendation, and the country will then 
have the opportunity of judging to what 
Congressmen it will be indebted for the 
abolition or continuance of the Washing¬ 
ton seed distribution. 
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THREE. 
The suggestion comes early, but we 
beg to make it now because some of our 
readers are planning to beautify their 
new homes by judicious selections of 
plants this fall or next spring. Our sug¬ 
gestion is for next spring, since it is haz¬ 
ardous to transplant evergreens in the 
fall. Here is an interesting group that 
will please one in youth, in middle, or in 
old age; or they may be placed singly. 
They are the Little-leaved, Big-leaved, 
and Weeping Hemlock — botanically, 
Abies (Picea) Canadensis microphylla, 
macrophylla and pcndula. All are of 
dwarf form and slow growth, and admir¬ 
ably suited to small grounds. The Big- 
leaved Hemlock bears leaves as much 
larger than the common hemlock as the 
Little-leaved leaves are smaller. The 
one is a fat, slow-moving, handsome 
boy; the other a blithe, graceful girl. Of 
all weeping evergreens the Pendulous 
Hemlock takes the rag off of the hush, 
if our friends will pardon us for using 
such undignified language. One speci¬ 
men at the Rural Grounds is now 12 
years old from the nursery, and it is fully 
10 feet in diameter and five feet high, 
with a top (as wide as the bottom) so level 
that one might lie upon it as upon a mat¬ 
tress. “ Vot is de rason about dot ?” as 
a German friend inquires. “A moist soil,” 
we answer. “Only that and nothing 
more,” so far as we know. It is prob¬ 
ably one. of the beet specimens of this 
charming evergreen in this country. 
Don’t forget this trio, friends, next 
spring,—and may you live to thank the 
Rural for the suggestion. 
EXORBITANT INTEREST ON FARM 
LOANS. 
TnERE is a great deal of just com¬ 
plaint among farmers in all the Western 
States at the high rates of interest 
charged on loaus mostly supplied by 
Eastern capitalists through local agents, 
who prodigally add to the burdens of 
the borrowers by exorbitant personal 
charges. The Rural New-Yorker has 
frequently denounced such extortions. 
Again and again it. has shown that aver¬ 
age farm profits in the West could not 
afford to pay even 10 per cent, interest 
without, any bonus or other exactions to 
agents, one year with another. The 
States of the West, like those of the 
South and East., make their own laws, 
however. Keenly conscious, from bitter ex¬ 
perience, of the hardship of grinding inter¬ 
est on debts, why do the inhabitants enact 
laws allowing such extortions ? In no sec¬ 
tion of the Union are such heavy rates of 
interest legally permitted as in the West, 
und tho further West, the heavier the in¬ 
terest. In the Eastern aud Middle States 
six per cent, is the usual rate, though in 
many of the States eight per cent, may 
be contracted for in writing. In the 
Southern States seven per cent, is the av¬ 
erage k legal rate, but from eight in Geor¬ 
gia to 12 in Texas, may be contracted for. 
In the Western States, this side of the 
Mississippi, the legal rates are almost as 
low as in the States to the east of them, 
being six per cent, in Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois, though eight per cent, may be 
agreed upon in writing. In Michigan 
and Wisconsin, however, the rate is seven 
peT cent., but in both 10 per cent, may be 
contracted for in writing. West of the 
Mississippi, with few exceptions, interest 
becomes extortionate. In Arkai sas, 
Iowa and Missouri, it is true, the usual 
rate is six per cent., but 10 per cent., may 
be contracted for. In Minnesota. Kansas 
and California, the legal rate is seven per 
cent., but 10 percent, can be contracted 
for in the first, 12 per cent, in the second, 
and any rate of interest in the third. 
In Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, 
Washington Territory and Idaho, 10 per 
cent. is the legal rate, but any rate can 
be stipulated in writing; while in Wy¬ 
oming Territory 12 per cent, is the legal 
rate, but any rate can be agreed upon. 
Thus it. appeare8 that the most newly 
settled States and Territories are the most 
urgently in need of money, and are there¬ 
fore willing to pay most for the use of it. 
That they cannot afford to borrow money 
at the rates most of them are willing to 
pay for its use, is proved by multitud¬ 
inous mortgages on Western farms. 
Money-lenders East, West, North and 
South, on both sides of the Atlantic, and 
in all other parts of the globe, are the 
same—they always want to get the heavi¬ 
est possible interest on their investments 
consistently with good security. The less 
certain the security and the more difficul- 
the collection, the heavier the interest ex¬ 
acted. These considerations, together 
with the greater need of money 
there to lay open the undeveloped 
resources of the country, arc the reasons 
why interest is higher in the West than in 
the East. But there are hundreds, nay 
thousands of poor people in this city to¬ 
day, who, urged by sore distress to bor¬ 
row money on the security of furniture, 
salary, etc., are paying at the rate of 25 
to 130 per cent, per annum on the loans, 
in spite of all the laws against usury. 
The Shylocks, Gentiles as well as Jews, 
know well how to evade the law, aud to 
take the pound of flesh too. Who can 
suggest an effective remedy for this mon¬ 
strous evil East as well as West? 
BREVITIES. 
“Andersonville Violets ” will begin next 
week. A good time to begin new subscrip- 
tiovs. 
Keep the potatoes dry if you would have 
them keep well. Are we right about that, 
readers t 
Referring to Mr. Brown's article on wheat 
seeding, we would say that careful tests at the 
Rural Farm (a sandy loam) showed that one 
and a-quarter bushel of seed (Clawson) gave 
the largest yield. 
Market gardeners about the Rural 
Grounds are picking tomatoes as soon as they 
begin to color, to escape rot. They ripen well 
under cover; but are more acid than when 
ripened fully on the vines. 
Mrs. Wager-Fisher suggests elsewhere 
that girls should be taught carpentry. Why 
not ? It. would do them twice the good that 
many of our “accomplishments” now do 
The woman who makes a success of “home- 
building,” aud no womau can have any truer 
occupation, is a practical person who perfects 
herself in details rather than studies toper- 
feet great plans. 
The silos at the University of Wisconsin 
were filled last week. Prof. Henry did a wise 
thing in inviting fanners from all over the 
State to visit the farm while the filling was 
in progress. A man can learn more by a few 
hours’ personal inspection of a silo than he 
could from a dozen articles. The invitation 
should have been sent out earlier. 
We have procured another setting of Pata¬ 
gonian eggs. The three chicks previously 
spoken of, are fine, healthy birds; oue black, 
two much the color of partridges. Whatever 
this breed may have sprung from, they res¬ 
emble, in their long, guincshuped heads, 
quick movements, and peculiar peeping, wild 
birds rather than ordinary, domestic birds. 
A neighbor, more successful than w r a were 
with the first lot of eggs, says that they are 
black in color and plump in body. Ho is thus 
far pleased with them. 
Thursday, the Agricultural League, of 
New York, started to fashionable Newport, 
R. 1., on its second annual excursion. After 
a dip iu the surf there, they w ill go on to 
Boston and try Parker House rare. The Bos- 
tou uiembersof the League are expected to ex¬ 
tend to the visitors all the courtesies of t he Hub. 
The party will not return to this city till 
next Sunday, and then with renewed vigor 
they will be readj 7 to enter once more on their 
usual agricultural pursuits. This agricultu¬ 
ral association is as yet mueh less widely 
known than some others no more worthy of 
agricultural recognition. A good deal could 
be said against some of these as representa¬ 
tives of agriculture; but what cun bo said 
against the League with such shining agricul¬ 
tural lights as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert 
Goelet, Louis Lorillard, aud a number of 
other milliouaire tillers of the soil among its 
leading members 1 
