42 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKIR. 
jan n 
J THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CA.RMAN. 
Rural may be wrong. We tried it but 
a single season, and we now simply repeat 
for the second or third time the result of 
the trial, viz., that this so-called Brazilian 
Flour Corn is not adapted to the soil and 
climate of the Rural Grounds. Try it, if 
at all, in a very small way. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1888. 
A well known pomologist writes us: 
“My opinion is that no man knows less 
of most fruits than he who knows much 
of few. ” 
Next week we shall print an article 
upon “Feeding for Lean and Fat,” by Jos¬ 
eph Harris. The article takes exceptions 
to Professor Henry’s experiments as not 
proving half that is claimed for them. 
It makes one feel a little lonely to see 
the trees, now stately and beautiful, be¬ 
ing cut down, that 15 years ago he care¬ 
fully planted and has since watched and 
enjoyed. That is what is being done at 
the Rural Grounds at this time. All can 
not live in health and beauty and so we 
are making it an easy survival of the fit¬ 
test. 
Our friends will please us if they will 
send us the names (one or many) of any 
good, progressive farmers with whom 
they are acquainted, so that we may mail 
them specimen copies of the R. N.-Y. 
We say “good, progressive” farmers ad¬ 
visedly, since it is to them that the Ru¬ 
ral addresses itself. Shiftless, drowsy 
penny-wise-and-pound-foolish farmers 
would neither subscribe for this jour¬ 
nal nor read it if it were presented to 
them. As it requires an industrious, en¬ 
terprising man to make the most of im¬ 
proved implements, or, indeed, to make 
them profitable investments, so it needs a 
thinking, ambitious farmer to appreciate 
a wide-awake, sprightly farm paper and 
to be benefited by its teachings. 
While we are right sorry to learn that 
the old Gardeners’ Monthly is to end its 
long and useful career as a distinct publi¬ 
cation, we are pleased to know that it is 
to be combined with the American Garden 
under the management of Mr. Libby. Its 
present proprietor, Mr. Meehan, we are 
especially pleased to learn will give his 
services to the new combination. 
Among experiments commenced here 
some 15 years ago to show the effects of 
pruning evergreen trees was this: Two 
Hemlock Spruces of the same hight (four 
feet) and shape were placed within 40 
feet of one another. In two years one of 
them was cutback to half its hight Now 
the one not cut back is about 22 feet high, 
the other is 23 feet high. In shape and 
fullness there is not much difference. 
Again we would commend to all who 
care enough for their plants to keep them 
free of insect-destroyers to purchase a 
Cyclone or Nixon Nozzle. It will save 
lots of time, and give our frierds lots of 
satisfaction. Of course it must be at¬ 
tached to an iron rod and hose and the 
hose must be attached to some one of the 
many effective hand pumps offered for 
sale. Finally, we again ask those of our 
friends who desire to keep their poultry 
houses free from vermin to use the Wood- 
ason Spraying Bellows. These bellows 
will last for many years and pay for them¬ 
selves in three months. The Rural ex¬ 
perimented with these devices as soon as 
they were introduced, and we want all our 
readers to use them because we know 
they will give satisfaction. Most seeds¬ 
men offer them for sale. 
We have tried through many years 
every device for catching moles, that we 
could hear of. We aie now to repeat in 
an emphatic way, what we have said in 
a general way a number of times, that the 
Hales’s Trap is little short of perfection. 
If it does not catch the mole that passes 
under it, it will be because the trap was 
not properly set, and this is a very simple 
thing to do when you know how to do it. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
We have covered our garden plot—that 
upon which we have raised the heavy 
yields of potatoes—with a heavy spread 
of stable manure, perhaps at the rate of 50 
tons to the acre. Here it will lie during 
the winter and spring months, becoming 
blanched and straw-like. But this coat¬ 
ing of manure applied in the winter has a 
marked, indeed a wonderful effect, upon 
subsequent crops, that it is difficult to 
account for. 
The R. N.-Y. has expressed the opin¬ 
ion that the Woodruff Red grape is little 
better in quality than the best of our wild 
Labruscas, and in expressing that opin¬ 
ion it thought it was not speaking hastily 
either. Acting upon this belief, our speci¬ 
men vine was dug up and thrown away. 
Secretary Cambell in an article on page 37 
gives his opinion of this grape,which dif¬ 
fers widely from our own. He has had 50 
years of grape experience, and his esti 
mates are always made in an impartial 
way and after careful consideration. 
It requires 7,000 barrels of potatoes 
every day to supply the New York city 
market—at this season. Last year at 
this time potatoes sold, wholesale, at $1.50 
to $1.60. This year they are quoted at 
$2.12 to $2.30. We sell our own in Pat¬ 
terson at $1.00 per bushel without trouble. 
These prices are maintained in spite of 
the fact that shiploads of European pota- 
tatoes are constantly arriving. From 
October 1 to December 30, 1887, 197,553 
sacks of potatoes were received at this 
port from Europe, including those sent 
from Great Britain For the same period 
in 1886 only 3,623 sacks were imported 
from the same countries. The potato crop 
is a most important one. When means 
are devised for a surer preservation and 
handling, it will be still more important. 
City people grumble at the high prices. 
“Why can’t American farmers raise pota¬ 
toes as cheaply as Europeans?” they ask. 
Let them walk out of the city a few miles 
and see how some of these Europeans,now 
living in America, work and they will 
see. Let a man take his wife and children 
all out into the field and work them like 
animals, let him live in one or two small 
rooms and work days, nights and Sun¬ 
days, and he can produce cheap potatoes. 
Do we want American farmers to have to 
compete with such labor? 
TO ADVERTISING PATRONS AND 
AGENCIES. 
The Fanciers’ Review makes the sug¬ 
gestion that the experiment stations 
should make it a part of their work to ex¬ 
periment with poultry. The suggestion 
is excellent. Here is a field that has never 
been trodden. Poultry fanciers have bred 
for markings and early maturity, but no 
long-continued, methodical effort has been 
made to increase the size and number of 
eggs. The Rural has called attention to 
the great importance of this object, and 
there are few investigations which the 
stations might take up with a better pro¬ 
mise of most valuable results. 
Jn order to save our advertising patrons 
time and trouble in correspondence, 
we beg leave to repeat that the Rural 
New-Yorker’s published rates for adver¬ 
tising are never, in any instance or under 
any circumstances, departed from. We 
regard it as a very plain and pressing 
duty upon publishers that the price for 
advertising space in their journals should 
be the same to all. 
As noted under “What Others Say,”we 
respectfully caution our readers or at 
least such of them as live in a climate 
about like this, not to buy the Brazilian 
Flour Corn with the purpose of planting 
it on a large area. It is now elaborately 
announced in several seedsmen’s cata¬ 
logues, which are'not alone those of firms 
of local or^uncertain^ reputation. The 
“THE DARK SIDE OF FARM LIFE.” 
M ary Wager-Fisher’s articles on the 
Dark Side of Farm Life, as to the 
women, are concluded this week. Re¬ 
member, readers, it is the darTc side; it is 
not the bright side; neither is it the 
average side. It is well to keep this in 
mind if we would be just in estimating 
the spirit of these articles. Few will say 
that there is no dark side to farm life. It 
certainly has its shadows as well as its 
glory. The Editor has spent the better 
part of his life on the farm and has seen 
both sides as well as have most country 
people. We do not agree with Mrs. 
Fisher in certain parts of her narrative, 
while in the main, at the same time, we 
believe it to be the most effective and 
real exposition of the subject ever print¬ 
ed. It may be scouted by the mean, 
penny-grabbing, selfish, bull-headed, get- 
all-you-can-out-of-everybody farmer; it 
may be unpalatable to the 'pious farmer, 
who sees no harm in grinding up his wife 
and daughters six days so long as he puts 
on a long face and rests on the seventh; 
but all who love mercy and truth, all 
who worship God as a benevolent, just 
being, will, we are convinced, take our 
view and thank Mrs. Fisher for her 
effort. 
Dr. Hoskins’s narrative will follow 
shortly. He would much prefer to have 
written about the Bright Side; so, in¬ 
deed, would Mrs. Fisher. But it is not 
so much by having our virtues extolled 
that we are led to do better as by having 
our shortcomings painted in glaring 
colors. 
A SEVERE BLOW TO A MONOPOLY. 
BREVITIES. 
F or ten years the public has been fight¬ 
ing against that oppressive monop¬ 
oly, the Washburn & Moen Barbed Wire 
Fence Company, which has insisted on 
its right to a “broad claim,” covering all 
forms of barbed wire fencing made in 
the country. This “broad claim” was 
founded on the Glidden patent issued 
November 24, 1874, and in which Glidden 
asserted that he was the first to conceive 
the idea of making wire fences armed 
with barbs to keep off stock. Of late the 
most persistent foe of the monopoly has 
been the “Beat ’Em All Wire Company,” 
which four years ago established a manu¬ 
facture of barbed wire at Cedar Falls, 
Iowa, in defiance of Washburn & Moen. 
It was at once assailed by a law suit, but 
has just won a signal victory before Judge 
Shiras of the United States Circuit Court 
for the Northern District of Iowa. Irre- 
sistable proof was offered of the 
existence of barbed wire fence in 
Iowa in 1859—15 years before the date 
of the Glidden patent. It was shown 
by a number of eye-witnesses that at a fair 
in Delhi in that year a barbed wire fence 
was built on the fair grounds and that a 
horse was lacerated by it; while the black¬ 
smith who made and attached the barbs 
with his own hands, testified that they 
were like those covered by the patent. 
Even a piece of the original wire with the 
barbs attached was shown in court and its 
identity established. Moreover, it was 
demonstrated that after this many other 
wire fences were in use in the State for 
years before the issue of the Glidden pat¬ 
ent. The case was thus rendered clear to 
the Court which has declared that the 
patent was null and void from the begin¬ 
ning, on the ground that the idea of it— 
an exceedingly simple one—was worked 
out—having been embodied in a mechani¬ 
cal device—by Alvan Morley, 15 years be¬ 
fore Glidden’s application for a patent. 
This has been one of the most extortion¬ 
ate and costly monopolies the farmers 
have been called upon to support. The 
Rural has been combatting it for years, 
having over six years ago given editorially 
a full account of the chief patents con¬ 
trolled by the monopoly, and shown the 
untenable character of the Glidden and 
Kelly patents on which its “broad claims” 
are founded. A number of telegrams 
relating to the affair, however, are mis¬ 
leading. They intimate that this decision 
upsets the monopoly; that all the manu¬ 
facturers who have been making barbed 
wire under licenses from Washburn & 
Moen will henceforth refuse to pay any 
license, and consequently that the price 
of barbed wire fencing will be at once 
lowered. This may be so; but it is hardly 
likely. The monopoly lias wrung mil¬ 
lions of dollars a year from the pockets of 
the public, and as its patents have from 
four to eight years yet to run, it will not 
give up a tittle without a severe struggle. 
It controls nearly 100 patents on different 
forms of barbs and on the machinery for 
manufacturing them and the wire, so that 
unlicensed makers run the risk of suits 
for infringement under other patents. 
Finally, the case is sure to be appealed 
to the United States Supreme Court, and 
it will be about three years before it can 
be reached there, and before a final decis¬ 
ion applicable to the whole country can 
be given. Of the nature of this decision 
there can now be no doubt in view of the 
explicitness of the Iowa testimony and of 
the late action of the Court in the case of 
the driven-well swindle. The farmers 
should have prompt relief from such extor¬ 
tions, and to provide this our patent sys¬ 
tem should be at once reformed. There 
are several other abuses from which 
farmers suffer and for reformation in 
which they clamor, which are much less 
grievous than this. 
“Don’t send horse-radish to this market” is 
the advice of commission men. The trade is 
overdone. 
A lady looking at the pictures in last week’s 
R. N.-Y.. and pointing out the “poor steak,” 
said: “I wouldn’t buy a steak like that— 
there’s too much fat.” 
Baldwin and Russet apples are selling 
best in England this season. Prices for these 
sorts are above those of last year. Other 
sorts are dull. 
It appears that the potato beetle has at last 
gained a foothold in Germany. The Germans 
kept it out for a time by careful and organ¬ 
ized warfare upon it. 
Snow birds are quoted at 75 cents per dozen. 
It seems almost like a crime to eat these little 
friends, but they are considered great delica¬ 
cies. We wish English sparrows could be 
quoted at a fair price. 
Quite a number of opossums are sold every 
year in the New York markets. They bring 
from 75 cents to $1.25 each. The negroes buy 
them. Even in the cities the negro and the 
’possum are good friends. 
The makers of potato diggers claim that 
their machines save enough in preventing 
“spiked” potatoes to pay the interest on the 
money invested in the machine. Spiked and 
cut potatoes always injure the sale. 
There is quite a business done in this mar¬ 
ket every year in suckling pigs. There is 
usually a good demand for them. A six- 
weeks-old pig. when stuffed and roasted, is a 
dish fit for a king. Is there a chance to make 
something by supplying this demand? 
The Rural’s cartoons are liked by many of 
its readers. Here is a note from Mr. A. H. 
Tuthill of Suffolk County, L. I.: “I have ad¬ 
mired all of the Rural’s cartoons,but the last . 
causes me to offer a silent prayer to the 
Righter of all Wrongs for His blessing to rest 
for ever upon the publishers of that paper.” 
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
issues a list of the meetings to be held during 
the season of 1888, with a programme of the 
topics to be discussed. The meetings will be 
held every week, the first having taken place 
January 7, at Horticultural Hall, Tremont 
Street, Boston, at 11 o’clock. The subjects 
for consideration are well chosen. 
We are going to try a poultry experiment 
with five “sports.” The rooster is a White 
Wyandotte. The four hens are White Dork¬ 
ings with yellow legs. The birds are as much 
alike as five peas. They are all fine birds, 
“blocky” and solid. We propose to hatch all 
the eggs we can from them, as we desire birds 
for feeding experiments. Shall we get a new 
breed? 
Florida tomatoes are in the market at 50 
cents per quart. Hot-house tomatoes have 
been bringing $1 per pound. There are plen¬ 
ty of folks to buy this gilt-edged produce. 
Southern eggs come in larger quantities than 
in former years. Most people prefer “near¬ 
by” eggs, there being quite a general belief 
that a long journey by rail or boat injures 
the quality of eggs. 
It is now some 10 years ago since the Ru¬ 
ral described the method of a friend whom 
we met near Mount Tryon in N. C. of graft¬ 
ing grape vines, He used the roots of native 
vines on which to graft cuttings of the culti¬ 
vated varieties. These grafts were then 
placed in boxes of soil in a cool cellar, and 
there left till May when they were set out in 
his vineyard. Our remembrance is that few 
failed. 
Our aim will be to conduct the new farm 
on a strictly business basis. We shall en¬ 
deavor to crop it so that it will pay for itself. 
The story of this effort will be very useful to 
our younger readers. They will have the ad¬ 
vantage of our failures and successes Our 
older readers will also be interested in it and 
will give us the benefit of their experience. 
It will be a very practical experiment. 
Some years ago—not many—a writer in the 
R. N.-Y. railed against the common custom of 
painting houses white and the blinds green. 
But there was little if any response either for 
or against the article. A good deal of good- 
natured fun was poked at the Rural people 
because their barn and other out-buildings 
were painted in different bright colors. How 
things have changed since. Painting in colors 
has come to stay. Read the articles on paint¬ 
ing. 
A friend desires to whisper in our private 
ear that some agricultural writers give offense 
by hints or affirmations that directly imply 
ignorance—on the part of the farmer. The 
Apostle Paul was a great man, a wise 
teacher. He said: “Not but that ye know 
these things, but I think it meet, as long as I 
am in the body, to stir up your mind, by way 
of remembrance.” This is very sensible. It 
is very safe to assume that every man we 
meet can teach us something we did not know 
before we met him. At the same time, the 
man who will not admit that he is capable of 
being taught, makes a great mistake. 
“Touch novelties cautiously” is the advice 
of many papers; “touch them not at all” the 
advice of some. “Touch them gently” is the 
advice of the Rural, but “touch them.” It 
is our fixed belief that the farmer or gardener 
who does not try novelties is in the same boat 
with the merchant who sticks to old things 
and ways. You cannot do it, farmers and 
gardeners, and keep in the front ranks. There 
are lots and lots of new methods and seeds 
superior to old methods and seeds. But there 
are many good and true people who are work¬ 
ing for the good of agriculture, and now and 
then they originate or discern something 
which it will pay you to try at once. Try nov¬ 
elties in a small way—but try them. Econ¬ 
omy^ good,|but not the kind that is penny 
wise and pound-foolish. We must read and 
experiment; we must do it, if we would suc¬ 
ceed in these wide-awake times. The “early 
bird will catch the worm”—if he is hungry, 
and if he is not he had better remain in bed. 
