236 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 7 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home ! . 
Conducted by 
E1BIBT S. C4WMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York, 
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1888. 
No matter how thrifty or lovely your 
old rose bushes may be, raise a few young 
bushes every year to keep up your stock 
and your beds full. But how? Be al¬ 
ways sticking in a cutting or kneeing 
down a layer. 
Especial attention, is directed to the 
article by Mr. T. B. Terry on page 237. 
He is one of the most successful potato 
growers in the country, and his own views 
as well as his criticisms of the B. N.-Y.’s 
trench method, will no doubt be read with 
unusual interest. 
- -■» » » . . — . 
Either the Inter-Ocean, of Chicago, or 
the Free Press, of Detroit, with the Ru¬ 
ral, one year, for only $2.50. The New 
York World and either the History of 
England or History of the United States 
and the R. N.-Y., $2.60, which includes 
postage on the book chosen. The Cour¬ 
ier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) and the R. 
N.-Y. one year for $2.75. Subscriptions 
sent to this office will be forwarded at once. 
Send to those papers for specimens if de- 
gired. 
TnE blocking of the roads by snow¬ 
drifts during the past winter and spring 
should direct a good deal more attention 
to the question of road-side fences. In 
all parts of the country complaints have 
been loud with regard to the impassable 
condition of the roads for days together 
owing to enormous snow-drifts caused 
chiefly by the nature of the fences. 
Staked and ridered fences come in for 
most blame; and wire fences for least. 
The constant inconvenience and frequent 
sufferings due to this cause all over the 
country should set people to devising a 
remedy. Wherever animals are not 
allowed to “run on the road,” what 
need is there of fences at all? Wherever 
road-side fences are needed, can anybody 
suggest a better sort than those of wire? 
Don’t pay more than 50 cents for any 
rose bush no matter what is claimed for 
it. Yes, new and rare roses cost more 
than that, but beginners had better let 
them alone. 
Don’t buy old bushes of roses no mat¬ 
ter how big and thrifty they may be. 
One-year-olds are old enough for anybody. 
Don’t buy a variegated rose of any 
kind, no matter whether the variegation 
be in the flowers or in the foliage. 
Don’t buy a blue-flowered rose because 
there isn’t such a thing. 
Don’t buy a green-flowered rose because 
it looks like a monstrosity and is neither 
beautiful nor ornamental. 
Don’t make hedges of roses nor of any¬ 
thing else except of evergreens and that 
as a shelter or screen only. 
TnE continued bad weather is having 
a depressing effect upon some agricultural 
communities. It has been a dark and 
dreary winter and many of the families in 
isolated farm houses unsupplied with 
bright, cheerful and helpful reading mat¬ 
ter and hence at a loss for fresh topics 
for conversation, have brooded over their 
troubles as never before. They now 
imagine and prophesy all sorts of dreadful 
disasters for the world during the com¬ 
ing year. According to their troubled 
fancies this is to be the gloomiest year we 
have ever known. Nonsense! The year 
is going to be just exactly what we make 
it. As we write, after two weeks of dull 
and dreary weather, the sun comes up 
again as cheerful and bright as ever. To 
all the croakers and dismal prophets we 
can only say—“Brace Up!” 
The Womens’ International Council at 
Washington is worthy of universal atten¬ 
tion. It represents the advanced think¬ 
ers of the sex. Some of the charges of 
the members may be a trifle exaggerated; 
some of their claims, a trifle extravagant; 
but all their doings and discussions tend 
towards the betterment of the condition 
and the enlargement of the sphere of 
womankind. Let us all remember that 
nations have the women they deserve. 
According as women are ignorant or cul¬ 
tured; free or oppressed; respected or dis¬ 
regarded, so do they contribute to the 
decay or grandeur of nations. Success, 
therefore, to the Womens’ Council! Suc¬ 
cess to every movement looking to the in¬ 
tellectual and physical advancement of 
the sex which has a just claim on the 
love, respect, admiration and gratitude of 
every man worthy of that name. 
The Farmers’ Alliance of Minnesota 
embraces a considerable number of farm¬ 
ers in that State, and represents the opin¬ 
ions of many more in that State and the 
Northwest generally. It has just put 
forth a platform which declares in favor 
of the smallest villages having the use of 
railroad tracks on the same terms as the 
largest cities; it favors railroad ratesonly 
high enough to pay expenses and a fair 
percentage on the cost of construction at 
the rate of $20,000 per mile; it wants 
railroads taxed the same as other proper¬ 
ty, and the prohibition of free passes and 
free mileage; it demands a radical re¬ 
duction of the tariff, and protests against 
bonding country elevators; it wants cars 
furnished to shippers on demand, and 
that appointments to office should be 
made for fitness, not to pay political debts; 
finally, that the State Agricultural Col¬ 
lege should be separated from the State 
University. Contrary to what appears to 
be the sentiment of the majority of farm¬ 
ers in other parts of the country, the 
Northwest, and especially Minnesota, 
though Republican in politics, isgenerally 
in favor of free trade, or rather, of “a 
tariff for revenue only.” Accordingly 
the Convention of the Alliance in session 
at St. Paul, on Thursday, unanimously 
“indorsed President Cleveland’s views on 
the tariff issue,” and demanded “its im¬ 
mediate repeal on all raw materials and 
the necessaries of life.” Finally, the con¬ 
vention nominated a Republican for Gov¬ 
ernor on a Democratic platform, so that 
a Republican, Democrat and Farmers’ 
candidate will be running for Governor 
in Minnesota this year. 
HOW TO RAISE ROSES FROM SEEDS. 
W nEN the hips are fully ripe, separate 
the seeds from the fleshy part and 
place them in boxes of sand or soil. Bury 
these boxes in the open ground, and sub¬ 
ject them to frost. After that they may 
be planted in pots or boxes in the house, 
and they will sprout in from 10 days to 
three weeks. As soon as the seedlings 
grow to the hight of an inch or more, 
each one may be carefully taken up, pre¬ 
serving all the soil possible about the ten¬ 
der roots, and set in a little flower-pot 
three inches in diameter. In late May 
thump them out in the open ground, hav¬ 
ing previously made it mellow and rich. 
If they are from hardy varieties, a protec¬ 
tion of coarse material will carry them 
safely through the winter. If of tender 
kinds, they must, of course, be removed 
to the house or placed in pits or the cel¬ 
lar. Mildew is the great enemy of rose 
seedlings. Blow sulphur upon the leaves 
as soon as it appears, and repeat as often 
as necessary. 
In this way, Rural readers, you can 
raise your own roses in abundance and, 
though they may prove inferior to the 
best of the varieties in cultivation, there 
is a chance of your producing roses supe¬ 
rior to any. Whether you do or not, you 
will find that seedling rose growing will 
give you a world of pleasure. 
THE RURAL’S WAY OF SUBDUING 
ROSE BUGS. 
T he most serious enemy to roses out-of- 
doors is the rose bug in those parts 
of the country where this insect abounds. 
The R. N.-Y. announced three years ago 
that it had found a remedy in Buhach or 
pyrethrum powder. The powder must be 
fresh, dry and pure. Our first experi¬ 
ments were made by spraying Buhach 
water on the bugs confined in tin cans. 
As this was found effective in destroying 
them the liquid was sprayed upon all in¬ 
fested plants using a hand pump, rubber 
hose and iron tube terminating with a 
Cyclone nozzle. About two tablespoon¬ 
fuls of powder were used to two gallons 
of water. It is better to wet the powder 
first with warm water forming a paste, and 
then mix the paste with the desired quan¬ 
tity of cold water. In from five to ten 
minutes after the bugs receive the spray, 
they begin to fall to the ground where 
most of them wriggle about until they 
die, though a certain proportion recover. 
During the few days when the bugs ap¬ 
pear in greatest numbers it is necessary 
to repeat the spraying every day or even 
twice a day. 
The Climax nozzle gives a finer spray 
than the Cyclone, but it is not quite so 
easily handled in spraying the under side 
of the leaves, as the spray issues through 
the end of the Climax and through the 
side of the Cyclone. 
SPECIAL NUMBERS. 
O ur special numbers have thus far 
proved exceedingly popular. Our 
readers like to have subjects exhaustively 
treated. Where a mass of facts and sug¬ 
gestions relating to any important subject 
can be condensed into one paper, all who 
keep the papers for future reference are 
saved the trouble of hunting up some 
particular article should they need to re¬ 
fer to it later on. In making a study of 
any question it is better to have the facts 
presented in a lump than it is to have 
them scattered through the year. Our 
next special will discuss the necessity and 
practicability of improved Road Making. 
This is a subject of vital importance to 
all farmers. We shall give a careful 
synopsis of the principles laid down in 
standard works on road building, and 
dozens of articles by those who have 
actually succeeded in improving country 
roads. We shall show how they awak¬ 
ened public interest in the matter, what 
implements were used, cost, and, in fact, 
all about it. We are satisfied that there 
is no engineering work extant that con¬ 
tains the information to be found in this 
paper. Following this we shall issue an 
Ensilage Special. This will treat of the 
silo and its product in a thoroughly ex¬ 
haustive manner, giving the very latest 
information from practical farmers and 
dairymen. This subject, though already 
well discussed, has not by any means been 
exhausted, as we shall show. Other 
specials are in preparation. These will 
deal with Insects and Insecticides, The 
Country School, The Bright Side of Farm 
Life, and other important topics. We 
shall be glad to send copies of these 
special numbers to lists of names with 
which our readers may favor us. 
ATTENTION. 
O tjr friends must not fail to read Mr. 
Terry’s potato talk and the R.N.-Y.’s 
reply on page 237. We want our readers, 
every one of them, to try the trench sys¬ 
tem fully and to follow in every respect 
the details of that method. A “super¬ 
phosphate” or a “phosphate” or an “am- 
moniated superphosphate” or “Swift- 
sure,” “Smith’s Favorite,” “Universal 
Fertilizer,” etc., will not suffice for a fair 
trial. We ask our friends to purchase a 
high-grade potato fertilizer; one that is 
guaranteed to contain at least four per 
cent of ammonia, seven per cent of phos¬ 
phoric acid and six of potash. Further¬ 
more, it will not suffice that these constit¬ 
uents be supplied by one form of each. 
For example, the ammonia should be 
supplied by nitrate of soda, sulphate of 
ammonia, blood, etc.; the phosphoric acid 
by raw bone, dissolved bone-black, etc., 
so that the food exists in various degrees 
of solubility supplying food to the plant 
during every stage of growth. High- 
grade potato fertilizers are put up in this 
way and do not consist merely of one 
form of potash, phosphoric acid and 
nitrogen. 
We have no doubt that any reputable 
fertilizer firm would, on application, fur¬ 
nish our readers with a small quantity— 
say 50 pounds—of such a fertilizer at the 
ton rate, if the object of ordering so small 
a quantity were stated. 
Then, importance is attached to the 
size and depth of the trench; to covering 
the seed pieces lightly with soil before 
the fertilizer is sown; to sowing the fer¬ 
tilizer evenly over this soil in the trench, 
and, finally, to level cultivation. If our 
friends find, as we believe many, if not 
all, of them will, that they can in this 
way profitably increase the yield of pota¬ 
toes, surely they will have little cause to 
lament over the botheration connected 
with the trial—while the R. N.-Y. will 
rejoice that it helped in the good work. 
COMMOTION IN LARD CIRCLES. 
W hat a commotion has been caused 
throughout the country by a lot of 
evidence before the House Committee on 
Agriculture investigating the manufac¬ 
ture of lard. Last Saturday William C. 
Bartle, of St. Louis, testified that he had 
been in the pork-packing business 40 
years, and that finally he had to abandon 
the business for conscience’s sake. When 
he was in the business he necessarily 
packed hogs infected with cholera and 
other diseases because they were mixed 
with other hogs, and it was impracticable 
to separate the sound from the diseased. 
He had cut up hogs knowing them to be 
J diseased, just as every other packer did. 
One of the crying evils of the times, in 
his opinion, was the shipping of diseased 
hogs and pregnant sows by farmers. He 
declared that there was more filth in 
steamed lard than in anything else, and 
that the man would immortalize himself 
who would frame legislation which would 
prevent farmers from shipping diseased 
hogs, and refiners and packers from acting 
improperly in the manufacture of food 
products. No sooner was this testimony 
published than an excited uproar of de¬ 
nial arose, not only from the great pack¬ 
ing centers, such as Kansas City, St. 
Louis, Chicago, Louisville and Cincinnati; 
but also from country districts throughout 
all the great hog-raising section, where 
indignant farmers loudly denied that they 
ever knowingly shipped diseased beasts. 
In the packing centers angry denials 
came not only from the packers, but also 
from the Boards of Trade, Mercantile Ex¬ 
changes and other public bodies as well as 
large dealers in hog products. Threats are 
made to prosecute Bartle for libel, and for 
fraud in selling what he knew to be dele¬ 
terious, according to his own confession. 
In spite of all these denials, however, 
there is a strong impression among the 
public that there is considerable founda¬ 
tion for Bartle’s charges, a few only of 
which are here mentioned. It is very ev¬ 
ident that some means must be devised to 
superintend the manufacture of lard, for 
according to evidence given before the 
Committee, it is impossible to detect un¬ 
wholesome from wholesome lard—steamed 
or refined—after the product is ready for 
market. 
BREVITIES. 
Rosy. 
Roses and rosy cheeks. 
There is nothing sub rosa about this num¬ 
ber of the R. N.-Y. 
We have one seedling rose with three fully 
developed cotyledons. 
Roses must have a well-drained soil and it 
can scarcely be made too rich. 
For large size, get Paul Neyron and 
Magna Charta; for fragrance, La Prance. 
There are thousands of farmers who really 
do not know that they have roses in their 
hearts. 
Plant a rose, if only one. And then, when 
the buds begin to expand, pluck one and give 
it to your wife, your daughter or son. 
Roses of all kinds need an open, sunny situ¬ 
ation. They will not do their best near the 
roots of trees no matter how rich the soil is. 
Hip or hep is the fruit of the rose-bush, the 
same as pear is the fruit of a pear tree, or 
shaddock the fruit of a certain kind of orange, 
or Juneberry the fruit of a shad-bush. 
Professional r 'se dealers or growers may 
not find much new or instructive matter in 
this issue; but it was not written for them. 
It was written for those who do not “know it 
all.” 
H. R„ means Hybrid Remontant or Hybrid 
Perpetual, words representing the same class 
of roses, or those which bloom in June and 
sparingly again in the fall. They are all har¬ 
dy without protection. 
Roses have their ups and down in the 
market the same as have baser merchandise. 
Last week we bought exquisite buds of Papa 
Gontier, Perle, Souvenir de la Malmaison and 
Nipbetos for five cents each. 
Rosa rugosa should not be planted mixed 
up in beds with common roses; plant it by it¬ 
self either as an issolated specimen ora clump. 
It suckers inveterately and spreads accord¬ 
ingly. 
It will appear to our readers that, in order 
to do justice to this Special Rose Number, it 
has been necessary to omit our usual depart¬ 
ments of Domestic Economy and Woman’s 
Work. All other departments are abbreviat¬ 
ed or omitted. 
“All of our roses are on their own roots,” 
say several of our rose growers in their cata¬ 
logues. That is all right for those roses that 
will thrive on their own roots. But many of 
the finest roses will not thrive on their own 
roots. What are we to do in such cases? Go 
without or buy budded roses? 
The rose represents the great family of 
Rosaceae, in which order are placed, because 
in a botanical sense they are really roses, the 
greater part of the fruits we most prize—the 
peach, apple, quince, pear, cherry, plum, rasp¬ 
berry, strawberry, blackberry, etc., may 
be mentioned among them; so also do such 
plants as the spiraea, kerria, potentilla belong 
to this great family. 
If hardy roses are needed, we must select 
from the Hybrid Perpetuals, Climbers and 
Mosses. But if we would have constant 
bloom, the most delicate colors, and perfume, 
the most perfect buds, then select from those 
known in catalogues as Everblooming. We 
need never hope to combine the beauties and 
perfection of all classes in any one class. It 
is not the law of Nature. 
Just wait, good readers, until the Rural’s 
hybrids between Rosa rugosa and Harrison’s 
Yellow bloom as we presume most of them 
will next summer. We do not anticipate 
that any of them will take the place of the 
finer Hybrid Perpetuals, but it would not be 
surprising if some of them were so different 
from either parent as to be worthy of a place 
in the list of our hardiest garden roses. As 
will be remembered we again used Rosa rugo¬ 
sa as the mother plant last summer, applying 
pollen from dozens of our best Hybrid Perpet- 
uals.“!!Several"hundred ’"seeds formed and 
mauy^ofbhem are'sprouting. 
