THE RURAL NEW-YOFKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home 1 ). 
Conducted by 
KABERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park i mw . New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19. 1887. 
There can be little doubt that seed po¬ 
tatoes will be high next spring. Nursery¬ 
men may well consider, too, that small 
fruits have been utterly killed out in large 
poitions of the drought-suffering parts of 
the country. 
The R. N.-Y. was the first of farm 
journals to fruit the Champion Quince. 
Our report nas that it was too late for 
this climate. This w as disputed by many 
at the time, but is now generally acknowl¬ 
edged. See A. P. S. report, page 700. 
Our position with legard to Meech’s Pro¬ 
lific Quince is now', also, supported by 
good pomologists. 
Prof. C. V. Riley, writing to the 
R. N.-Y. from Paris, under date of Oct. 
20, notes that in some of our papers the 
facts which he las lately made public as to 
the hibernation of the Hop plant Louse 
on plum trees is being opposed and criti¬ 
cized. He says that we may announce, 
upon his authority, that he has had the 
satisfaction of fully and thoroughly con¬ 
firming them by tracing the closing 
scenes in the insect’s life history in Eng¬ 
land. 
An endeavor has been made to equip 
our subscription department the present 
season for prompt work more thoroughly 
than ever before, and it may he hoped 
that all delays and mistakes due to the 
hurry of the time will be avoided. Our 
friends may aid us in this matter measur¬ 
ably by taking pains to write the name 
and full address in plain, bold letters. 
All subscriptions for the In tor-Ocean, De 
troit Free Press and New York World, in 
connection with the R, N.-Y., will he for¬ 
warded at once. We this year add the 
Courier-Journal of Louisville, ICv., to this 
special list—both papers-for &2.75. We 
club with the leading magazines as 
hitherto. 
If any other paper has presented in 
such a condensed and readable form the 
information regarding the necessary pre¬ 
parations to he made for a dry season to 
he found in this issue, the Rural would 
like to he told of it. There is uot a 
farmer in this country that cannot learn 
something from this series of articles. 
They nre all written by men who make a 
living on The farm or garden. They all 
point with unerring accuracy to several 
fundamental principles. Manure is needed 
more than ever in dry seasons. A thorough 
preparation of the soil is absolutely neces¬ 
sary. Early and careful planting of good 
seed must be had. It is folly to try and 
hold inferior stock when all indications 
point to a lack of forage. 
Here is a plot upon which 36 succes¬ 
sive crops of wheat have been harvested. 
Fourteen tons of farm manure have been 
spread upon the plot every year. The 
average yield has been, in round num¬ 
bers, 31 bushels. Here is another plot 
which for the same number of years has 
received the same amount of plant food 
in the form of chemical fertilizers. This 
has yielded, in round numbers, 84 bush¬ 
els. Dr. Laweg, of Rothamsted, Eng¬ 
land, tells us this. Is this a piece of in¬ 
formation to be sneered at by those farm¬ 
ers w’ho have tried chemical fertilizers 
and could see no results from them? Is 
it a piece of information that progressive 
farmers can afford to ignore? The great 
point that the Rural lias tried to make is 
that farmers who condemn concentrated 
fertilizers have used a poor article or a 
special fertilizer when their land needed 
a complete fertilizer. 
Eastern cattle feeders are making ex¬ 
cellent bargains just now. The prices 
for prime steers are considerably below 
those of last year at this date. The 
reason generally given for this state of 
affairs is that many Western farmers in 
the regions which suffered most from 
drought, are disposing of their surplus 
stock and selling many animals which, in 
a better season, would never have been 
sold at this time. Low prices now will 
meaujiighjprices nextJ-jpring, for many 
of the animals which are now being hur¬ 
ried to market would, in ordinary seasons, 
have been held till the end of winter. 
Forage crops at the East, have, as a rule, 
beeu good and fatmers here arc able to 
feed rather more stock than usual. Many 
gardeners and smaller farmers will try 
winter feeding, perhaps for the first time. 
As we near the close of the year the 
Rural may he pardoned for remarking 
that if our present subscribers will send 
us a new subscriber when they renew, it 
will he deemed au act of kindly apprecia¬ 
tion, while it will aid us powerfully to 
carry out the plans we have in view for 
improving the paper for another year. In 
any case we shall continue to do the host 
we can. There is no kind of encourage¬ 
ment, however, that touches the heart 
more than that which comes fiom those 
we are working to please and instruct. 
If farmers could have their way they 
would always use seeds grown on soil 
poorer than their own. There is a well 
defined belief, founded on considerable 
practice and observation, that plants fol¬ 
low to a marked degree the law of degen¬ 
eracy so plainly indicated in animals 
when removed from a rich soil, with its 
luxuriant herbage, to a poorer one; or 
from good care and feeding to the rough 
forage and careless treatment so prevalent 
on many farms. A race of good cattle 
can ho made into scrubs by careless 
treatment, and the scrubs could be de¬ 
veloped back by the proper methods. 
It seems reasonable to believe that 
seeds raised in a rich garden soil 
will give less general satisfaction than 
those raised in a poorer soil. Seedsmen, 
we believe, desire rich soil, for their seed 
farms. Too many of them look to quan¬ 
tity rather than quality in the product. 
We know several farmers who raise most 
of their own seed each year. They use 
the poorest part of the farm for raising it 
and the results ou richer soils would cer¬ 
tainly seem to indicate, their wisdom. 
The “ oleo ” men have been once more 
defeated. Last year they brought suit to 
test the constitutionality of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania anti-oleo law, and last January the 
Supreme Court decided against them. 
With the persistency characteristic of 
large corporate and private interests, they 
at once brought another suit covering 
some points not touched upon in the 
former case, and the Supreme Court has 
just reaffirmed the constitutionality of the 
law. In giving judgment the Court, 
among other things, said: “We are of 
opinion * * * that the Legislature has 
the power to prohibit the manufacture 
and sale of any article detrimental to the 
public health. Whether oleomargarine 
was such an article was a question of fact 
and one which lias been determined by 
the Legislature. We are hound to assume 
that, it was done upon sufficient evidence.” 
All the eases brought to test the consti¬ 
tutionality of oleomargarine legislation 
in the various States rested on fundamen¬ 
tally the same points, and in every case 
hitherto the constitutionality of the law 
has been affirmed. 
Justice tempered with mercy was ad¬ 
ministered yesterday to the Anarchists of 
Chicago. This handful of foreigners 
warred against society here and society has 
crushed them. When next these Anarch¬ 
ists hurl themselves against the rock of 
our civilization, they may perish,not four 
at a time, hut by hundreds or thousands. 
In defending law and order against wan¬ 
ton attacks there is no length of severity 
to which society will not go. Striking 
insanely at the established order of things 
in this the freest country in the world, 
these enthusiasts are like birds that dash 
themselves at night at the torch of Lib¬ 
erty on Bedloe’s Island and are stricken 
dead by the hundreds, while the light 
burns on undimmed. Under our form 
of government every public wrong can 
be righted by the peaceable action of the 
people. “Ballots not bullets” must he 
the means, haw breakers, alien or native, 
must he convinced that in this couutry 
punishment will surely follow transgres¬ 
sion; that under,whatever plea murder is 
committed, the murderer shall hang. 
The public generously sympathize with 
the widows and orphans of the dead An¬ 
archists ; what sympathy did they show for 
the widows and orphans of their victims? 
A FEW SUGGESTIONS. 
O NE of the liveliest, greenest shrubs 
in November is the privet. And do 
you know that Hall’s Honeysuckle is still 
as green as ever? It is a companionable 
vine near the kitchen door. And do you 
know the Golden Oak retains its foliage 
among the Intent of trees? Did you know 
that Rhodotypus Kerrioidcs holds its 
leaves well into winter, and that its black, 
nut-like fruits are still retained like so 
many ripe blackberries? The Weeping 
Beech holds its foliage longer than the 
species. Do you waut a vine to cover 
over stumps or other unsightly ob¬ 
jects, that will hold its peculiar green 
leaves until mid-December? Try Akehm 
quinata. And let us tell you, friends, 
that several of the yuccas are always 
green, and that clumps even in winter are 
suggestive of tropical plants. Did you 
ever raise them from seeds? The seeds ger¬ 
minate freely. And young seedliug lilacs: 
how t hey retain their green leaves, which 
are fully twice as large as those of old 
plants. And now while nearly every 
flower is gone except chrysanthemums, 
verbenas are still in bloom, while the 
leaves are as fresh as ever. Give us ver¬ 
benas as om of the best hedders. And 
the Oak leaved Hydrangea! Its big 
leaves have turned to a tine bronze color. 
Spirica Thunbergii is a lovely, willowy 
shrub, even as late as this. The euony- 
mus is in its fruit glory. They are bushes 
of orange and red. 
Aren’t these little hints worth consid¬ 
ering? 
TEOS1NTE AND KAFFIR CORN. 
R EANA or Euchlcena luxurians (Teo- 
i sinte) is again spoken of by some 
writers in the Northern farm press as a 
wonderful fodder plant. The R. N.-Y. 
would respectfully caution its readers 
against being influenced by such state¬ 
ments. Wc tried it carefully 10 years 
ago. The seed is slow to start and the 
season must he just such as we do not 
have oftencr than one year in live, to in¬ 
duce a growth equal to that of Indian 
corn. The leaf is broader than that of 
corn, the plants tiller as much as those of 
the wonderful (!) Pearl millet (Penicil- 
laiia spicatn) and they may be cut back 
and still grow. But there is in most sea¬ 
sons no need to cut them hack. Besides, 
it does not form seeds north of the 
Southern States, and a seed crop is doubt¬ 
ful there. It has been well tried in many 
parts of the country and found wanting. 
We would also guard our readers against 
Kaffir corn so extensively advertised dur¬ 
ing the past season. It may prove valu¬ 
able in the South or in droughty regions 
where corn is an uncertain crop, hut it 
will never, as we believe, he extensively 
cultivated in the North where corn 
thrives. The result of our trial with 
Kaffir corn during the past season, has 
already appeared in these columns. 
Those who “ know better” are cautioned 
to try it in a small way only. 
ABOUT IRRIGATION. 
I T will be noticed that hut one of the 
writers on the “Drought Lessons” 
makes mention of irrigation as a possible 
remedy for crops that perish for lack of 
water. That one mention is to the effect 
that irrigation on rough farms is imprac¬ 
ticable. A market-gardener in Michigan 
who reports the loss of his entire black¬ 
berry crop and two-thirds of his raspber¬ 
ries owing to the utter lack of moisture, 
writes that if he had an artesian well, 
even though his surface is not fitted for 
ordinary irrigation, he is satisfied that he 
could make a man and team earn $20 per 
day for three mouths hauling water in an 
ordinary watering cart, to sprinkle over 
the rows. He spent $1,000 in a vain at¬ 
tempt to sink an artesian well. The wa¬ 
ter came tantalizingly near the surface, 
but refused to run over. Another year 
by means of a windmill and pump a fair 
supply of water will he obtained for 
sprinkling purposes so as to save at least 
a portion of the crop. A few months 
ago we told our readers of the system 
employed by Mr. J. M. Smith of Wiscon¬ 
sin. The water is pumped into a tank 
from which iron pipes run below the 
ground in all directions, carrying water to 
all parts of the farm. These works cost 
considerable money, hut they have more 
than paid for themselves. For market 
gardens where a large crop is to he grown 
on a comparatively small tract of land a 
system of artificial irrigation can he rnude 
to pay. Experience has abundantly 
proved that point. On large farms, ex¬ 
cept in cases where the farm is located 
on the banks of a never-failing stream, 
irrigation must be considered of doubt- 
lul economy. Practiced on a small scale 
for the purpose of supplying water to a 
few acres of some fodder crops, it may be 
made to pay. It must he remembered 
that even in the Far West where irriga¬ 
tion is the soul of successful agriculture 
it is only possible when an entire com¬ 
munity can combine to defray the ex¬ 
penses. It is probable that there are 
mauy locations iu the East and Middle 
West where 50 or more farmers could 
combine to secure a supply of water am¬ 
ple for their forage crops at least. In 
most cases the expense of pumping and 
lifting the water into tanks and reservoirs 
will he heaviest. The next 25 years will 
witness the invention of machines for de¬ 
veloping and storing power, that will 
vastly reduce this expense. 
BRVITIEES. 
Thanksgiving Number next. 
And now commenceth the time when ever¬ 
greens are lovable—the jolly companions of 
winter. 
Don’t cut hack evergreen trees or shrubs 
now. It’s too late. Wait until spring before 
the buds start. 
Mr. J. J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, 
Mass., writes us that rot has nearly annihi¬ 
lated 40 varieties of the potatoes he raised 
last summer. 
We are glad to know that the Ulster Grape 
(Cay wood) is spoken well of. Our opinion is 
that the vine is hardy and prolific and the 
berry of excellent quality. Thus, at any rate, 
it has proved at, the Rural Grounds. 
Several parties iu this issue speak of the 
probable invasion of chinch bugs next year. 
Tt seems settled that we are to have another 
invasion of this pest.. Wlmt preparations can 
be made to fight this enemy? The Rural will 
give all known information in due season. 
It now appeals, unfortunately for those 
who have large lots to sell, that poultry will 
rule low for 10 days at any rate. Chickens 
are now selling from eight to 10 cents; tur¬ 
keys, eight to IS; ducks, nine to IS. Law¬ 
rence pears bring, for first quality, $2.50 per 
half-barrel: Vicars, $1.75. Catawba grapes 
are four to 4) { cents. 
In T. T. Lyon's “drought notes” mention is 
made of the Use of salt as a valuable agent 
for the conservation of moisture. The Rural 
will follow up this suggestion by publishing in 
a few weeks an excellent series of articles on 
the use of salt in dry seasons. They will be 
written by practical farmers who live in the 
present droughty region. 
A whiter in the London Gardeners’ Chroni¬ 
cle is positive that the hybrid perpetual rose, 
Marshall P. Wilder, Is the same as Alfred 
Colomb. The latter is a French rose of 1805, 
raised from Gen. Jack; the former a seedling 
of Ellwauger & Barry, raised six or seven 
years ago, also from Jack. We have the two 
roses growing side by side. It is hard to 
tell one from the other. 
The practice of exchanging seed potatoes is 
quite common among farmers in our neighbor¬ 
hood. They are exchanged m equal quanti¬ 
ties from farm to farm. Oftentimes when a 
farmer visits friends at some distance, he 
takes along a bushel of potatoes and brings 
back a bushel from the farm visited. This 
exchange is based upon the well believed the¬ 
ory that, “new blood” is needed every year 
or so. 
Farmers ought to be now making the first 
preparation for next year’s corn crop. Strong, 
well cured seed will often make all the differ¬ 
ence between a good and bad crop. It is a 
trifle easier to go to the corn-crib iu the spring 
and select good ears for planting, but it is far 
more profitable to select the good ears in the 
fall and keep them warm and dry through the 
winter. Business furmers farm for profit 
rather than for ease. 
Lessons ok the Drought —The judgment 
of Waldo F. Brown, of Ohio; Prof. Morrow, 
Mr. llerriek, and Mr. Grundy, of Illinois; Mr. 
llutton, of Indiana: Pres, T. T, Lyon and Mr. 
Glidden, of Michigan; Mr. White, of Iowa, 
as expressed in well considered articles pre¬ 
sented ou pages 767-769, should prove instruc¬ 
tive to those who would help themselves when 
killing droughts come again, as they are sure 
to do one day or another. 
The Chicago elevator ring refuses to reduce 
the charges for storing grain, and the Legisla¬ 
ture this winter will be asked to interfere. Is 
it likely legislation can force them to do what 
their own real interests and those of their city 
have failed to make them do? St. Louis, 
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Milwaukeeund 
other grain-receiving centers are already tak¬ 
ing away a large proportion of the Windy 
City’s grain trade, and it is not unlikely that 
its supremacy as a trading center will soon 
be reduced to its hog and cattle packing busi¬ 
ness. This is a short-sighted policy of the ele¬ 
vator ring. 
Land Commissioner Sparks has Bhowu him¬ 
self an honest, earnest, hard-working man; 
but he has frequently, according to the best 
accounts, exhibited too much zeal and too 
little consideration for his superior officer, 
Secretary Lamar, of the Department of the 
Interior. This hus called down ou his head 
several reprimands, in the form of letters 
which have been published* 1 bo trouble? cub 
minatei yesterday when the Secretary sent 
the Commissioner n letter sharply replying U> 
a communication from him relat ive to the ad¬ 
justment, of the Chicago. St. Paul, Minneapo¬ 
lis and Omaha Railroad land grants, and in¬ 
forming hint, in conclusion, that either he or 
the Secretary must forthwith retire from the 
Department. Sparks doubtless must go. 
Either he is too big for his office, or the office 
is too mnall for him. Bis departure will cause 
no small satisfaction to public land-grabbers 
of all kinds whose industrious, unrelenting 
l'oe the Commissioner has always been. In¬ 
deed the man appears to have au extraordin¬ 
ary faculty of making enemies. 
