544 
AUG. 4 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAy 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1888. 
We find the “Pond” one of the best 
kinds for fodder-corn as it makes ears 
where other varieties fail owing to close 
planting. It is one of the earliest of 
dents, the leaves are broad, the plants 
only of medium hight. 
Among the problems whose study we deem 
ot most importance is that ol'the conserva¬ 
tion and better utilization of the iertility 
of the soil. Director C.E. THORNE, Ohio. 
A few months ago we were asked by a 
subscriber if the quince would grow if 
worked on the apple. Last spring we set 
three cions each of the quince and Japan 
(ornamental) quince in an apple stock 
some three inches in diameter, by the 
Rural’s crown method of grafting. The 
cions have each made a growth of about a 
foot. Whether the union will be congenial 
remains to be seen. 
It is believed that much more can be 
accomplished by concentrating the work 
ol the station on a few things than by 
attempting superficial work in many. 
Director S. M. TRACY, Miss. 
Dr. Lawes writes us, under date of 
June 15, that his wheat crop (the 45th in 
succession) looks very well. “Some of 
the experiments may easily yield 45 to 50 
bushels per acre, if July prove a dry 
month.” He adds, in closing the letter : 
“ The Hatch Act appears to have given a 
great stimulus to the agriculture in your 
States ; I hope that the money will be ju¬ 
diciously expended.” 
It appears to me wc shall do better work 
by conducting our experiments independ¬ 
ently of each other until we have learned 
more about this new business that we are 
engaged in. 
Director I. P. ROBERTS, N.Y. 
The portrait (from a photograph) of 
six of the Rural’s wheats—the first to be 
introduced—will appear in a short time. 
Possibly we shall be able to send our 
readers a few grains of each in time for 
next year’s sowing. Our expectation is 
to introduce from two to five of our cross¬ 
bred wheats and rye-wheat hybrids every 
year for the next five years at least should 
life be spared so long. 
I am loatli to suggest flint much be done 
in the way of co-operative experimenting. 
The workers in each station will each linve 
a genius lor a particular line of investiga¬ 
tion ; each Htate will have its peculiar local 
needs and problems. 
Director W. H. JORDAN, Maine, 
Prunus Pissardii. Again Pissard’s 
Purple Plum tree bears fruit at the Rural 
Grounds. It is well worthy of note that 
not one of these plums seems to have been 
injured by the curculio. The plums are 
nearly round and a full inch in diameter. 
The skin is firm but not thick, the flesh 
juicy, meaty, sweet and good, the pit very 
small and flat with a thin shell. As an 
ornamental tree there is none other that 
holds so well the claret-purple of its leaves 
through the summer, while its fruit is as 
good as that of many which are raised for 
the fruit alone. 
ness, earliness, productiveness and hardi¬ 
ness considered. Its one objection is its 
thorny canes. This variety was found 
growing wild, we know not how many years 
ago, by Leander Joslyn, of Phelps, Onta¬ 
rio County, N. Y., and is often called 
Joslyn’s Improved. 
The way to interest farmers in the work 
of the stations is, first, to do good work 
having a practical bearing; and, next, to 
tell them about it iu a succinct, plain way, 
avoiding the use ol too many scientific 
terms. 
Director CIIAS. W. DABNEY, Tenn. 
For 15 years the R. N.-Y. has aimed to 
try all the promising new kinds of small 
fruits and to make unbiased reports of 
their value. While in currants, grapes, 
strawberries, gooseberries and perhaps in 
blackberries improvement is manifest, yet 
in blackcaps we know of no variety for 
our soil and climate that we should pre- 
fer fc to the Doolittle, size,^quality, firm- 
A Well-known and respected agricul¬ 
tural worker writes as follows : “I am 
fully convinced that the work of the sta¬ 
tions will add stability to the business of 
every good agricultural journal.” There 
is no reason why it should not. The agri¬ 
cultural paper that has any excuse for 
living will make a distinct place for itself 
and all the free pamphlets in the world 
will not drive it out of this place. If the 
stations are properly conducted they will 
work hand in hand with the true agricul¬ 
tural press—the one helping the other. If 
the stations fail the agricultural press will 
soon know why, 
We are making an offer for short-term 
subscriptions this year, that proves very 
satisfactory to agents. We want a live 
agent in every township in the country, and 
we will pay cash or a liberal commission 
to those who can get subscriptions. 
Commissioner Colman has obtained an 
additional $10,000 for the purpose of con¬ 
ducting what we may call an experiment 
station editorial department. This de¬ 
partment will be located at Washington. 
Its work will be to compare, edit, and 
publish such of the results of the experi¬ 
ments made at the various stations as may 
be deemed most important. Thus the 
general farmer will be able to secure the 
gist of all the experiments without read¬ 
ing the, to him, unimportant matters. 
This is a good plan. It will need a man 
particularly well fitted for editorial work 
to make it a success. Many government 
reports show the need of a competent 
editor. 
1 am very strongly In favor of concentra¬ 
tion in experiment station work. I think 
it far better that each station should select 
a lew related subjects, which appenr to be 
the most important, for its own locality, 
and give them the most thorough and 
patient study possible. While such a 
course may be less popular, I think that, 
in the long run, it will commend itself to 
popular judgment. 
Director II, P. ARMSBY, Pa. 
TnE people at the Rural Grounds are 
much alarmed at the depredations of what 
seems to be the cabbage flea upon potato 
vines. These insects exist upon some 
kinds in such quantities that they are 
easily heard as they leap away, disturbed 
at one’s approach. They are riddling 
the leaves with holes to such an extent 
that the leaves are withering, just the 
same as if too strong a dose of Paris-green 
had been applied. The vines of early po¬ 
tatoes in one field have been entirely des¬ 
troyed by them, and many of our late 
potatoes are suffering in the same way, 
notably those of the “ Contest ” plot. 
Paris-green either does not kill these little 
beetles, or they exist in such immense 
numbers that the thinning out by poison¬ 
ing is not noticed. 
We are always troubled with them upon 
turnips, cucumbers, melons, etc., and to 
some extent upon potato vines, but never 
before to any considerable amount of 
injury. 
not what, is far more satisfactory than 
several bedt of rarer and more costly 
plants neglected and ill-adapted to the 
conditions of healthy growth. 
BREVITIES. 
It is thought proper that, so long as the 
present active demand for information and 
investigations of direct practical import¬ 
ance continues, subjects ol more remote or 
merely theoretical interest should receive 
only such attention as can be given inciden¬ 
tally in connection with the working-out of 
practical problems. 
Director E. A. HILGARD, Cal. 
How often flower lovers go back and 
lake more kindly than ever to old plants, 
discarded as quite inferior years ago! 
Some 20 years ago -we tired of the castor- 
oil plant, of the canna, of the caladium. 
One could see them anywhere and 
everywhere. Whenever we saw beds 
of such plants, it was assumed that 
“ those people were not up to the times.” 
But we change by experience; we live 
and learn. The discarded favorite comes 
back to us and is gladly accepted as really 
superior to most of the novelties since 
tried. One thing the R. N, -Y. has learned 
fairly well. It is that the number and 
size of flower beds should be determined 
by one’s means of thoroughly taking care 
of them and that a single well-kept bed 
of cannas, or ricinus, or petunias, pansies, 
nasturtiums, gladioli, roses, or itjnatters 
Are the directors of Southern stations 
right in giving their chief work to the 
investigation of the cotton plant ? In 
some of the stations but little else will be 
done than to experiment with cotton. It 
may be said in favor of this course that 
cotton is the staple crop of the South—the 
money crop—the only crop of which 
there has never yet been a glut. The 
Southern people are welded by history 
and tradition to cotton culture. It is 
hard for them to give their attention to 
other crops, because they are used to cot¬ 
ton. While cotton is such a valuable 
crop, the plant has been strangely neg¬ 
lected in respect to experiments regarding 
its proper cultivation and the develop¬ 
ment of improved varieties. There is 
room for experimenting here certainly. 
But does the South need experiments that 
will lead to a more exclusive cultivation 
of cotton, so much as it needs instruction 
in the principle of diversified agriculture? 
Dairying, stock and poultry rearing, hort¬ 
iculture and the other elements of hus¬ 
bandry that make farm life varied, cheer¬ 
ful and profitable ought to be made as 
important in Georgia or South Carolina 
as they are in New Jersey or New York. 
The South needs to be taught diversified 
agriculture. Should not her experiment 
stations lead in this education ? 
■Whatever of real value jrrows out of the 
operations of the station will be due to 
careful planning- and diligent, patient labor 
often repeated. Facts, real or supposed, 
obtained hup-hazard, by luck or chance, 
have so far been principally the foundation 
of agricultural practice. It is the demand 
for better knowledge than this—the some¬ 
thing known, not “guessed” at—that has 
called into lile the Experiment Station. 
Director E. M. SHELTON, Kansas. 
THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
W E give considerable space to the ex¬ 
periment stations this week. This 
is an important matter. These stations 
are to cost the public $687,000 every year. 
This is a big sum of money. It ought to 
give correspondingly big results. We 
take it that this is about all the special 
legislation agriculture is liable to secure 
for some time. This is enough, if it is 
rightly used. We wanted our readers to 
know what plans the directors of these 
stations have in mind, so at our request 
the articles in this paper have been pre¬ 
pared. Not all the stations are repre¬ 
sented. Some of them have not yet, ap¬ 
parently, formulated any plans for work. 
The plans we give, however, are typical 
and probably embody most of the import¬ 
ant experiments that will be carried out. 
The Rural New-Yorker bespeaks a 
fair and square trial for these stations. 
We object to petty and carping criticism 
and mean insinuations. Our own experi¬ 
ence with experimenting prompts us to 
be patient and charitable with these new 
institutions. So long as these stations 
honestly strive to carry out the purposes 
which are clearly stated in the bill creat¬ 
ing them, the Rural will give them its 
hearty support. 
It may find occasion to criticize detail 
work in a friendly way or to suggest 
changes or improvements in experiments 
which it has itself conducted , but it will 
support the principle of agricultural ex¬ 
perimentation just as long as it is evident 
that the stations can benefit agriculture. 
If, after a fair trial, the stations, or any 
of them, prove to be failures—the Rural 
will know the reason why, if investiga¬ 
tion can discover the cause. 
We hold that it is possible for these 
stations to aid American agriculture. 
Two conditions are essential to this end. 
1. The management must be placed in 
the hands of honest, practical men, who 
know what farmers want and who possess 
that sound common sense which enables 
one to distinguish between the purely 
theoretical and the happy combination of 
practice and theory, 2. The iarmers 
must help by suggesting subjects for in¬ 
vestigation and by showing a spirit of 
fairness and encouragement towards the 
stations. The present directors must show 
by their work how well fitted they are for 
their positions, and the fanners must 
show by their honest criticism and appre¬ 
ciation that they are worthy of the help 
these stations can be made to provide. 
Give the stations an honest showing; re¬ 
serve criticism until they have fairly de¬ 
served it. This is the Rural’s^ position. 
There is one plant just now that more than 
any other supplies us every day with large 
fragrant and brilliant bouquets—the sweet 
pea. 
Director Roberts’s remarks concerning 
the directors who may not keep up with the 
rush (see page 508) comes close to slang, but 
is both charitable and sensible. 
At the Illinois Experiment Station tests 
will be made as to the desirabilitv of feeding 
salt to milch cows and also as to the frequency 
of watering and the best temperature of the 
water. 
It is estimated that the bread ration in this 
country averages 4 2-3 bushels of wheat, three 
bushels of maize, besides oatmeal, rye and 
buckwheat, for each person. We are bread- 
eaters. 
Within a few days we have dug up and 
destroyed some hundreds of seedling straw¬ 
berries, the selections from those raised for 
the past five years. Pew of them were eciual 
to the best of the old kinds. 
The Michigan station’s experiment on the 
so-called worthless lands of that State might 
with profit be imitated by every station in 
the land. We would like to see a sub-station 
located on the “barrens” of Long Island. 
W. A. Smith’s account of the Early Har¬ 
vest blackberry confirms the Rural’s report 
made several years ago So, too. Mr. Smith 
agrees with the Rural’s estimate of the Early 
Cluster. His article on page 511 is well worth 
I reading. 
.“ 4 SUNNY temper and a sound digestion 
will do more to keep away wrinkles and crow’s- 
feet than all the cosmetics in the world ” 
That is a good remark of Miss Taplin in 
this week’s Woman’s Work. W^e commend it 
to you, girls. 
As an absorbent for use in an earth-closet 
there is nothing better than fine dry charcoal 
It absorbs all disagreeable odors, and renders 
the product dry and easy to handle. The 
mixture is slower in its fertilizing action 
though, than when plaster is used. 
If the Irish people could be induced to raise 
and eat some other crop in the place of one 
half of their potatoes, a gain would be made 
in Irish industry and wealth. If the Southern 
people could and would eat less sweet potato 
and more “Irish” potato they would be 
better off. 
We are sorry that the experiment stations 
propose to ignore poultry. They make a mis¬ 
take in this. Well conducted experiments in 
feeding and breeding fowls would interest 
farmers greatly. Get them interested and 
you can keep them. You have got to be your 
own primary school. 
The demand for a good potato-digger 
which can be sold at a fair price, is getting 
urgent. It is too often next to impossible to 
get help in potato-digging time. Horse-power 
has superseded hand-power in hoeing to such 
an extent that hand-digging seems harder 
than ever. 
Are we to have a glut of medium city 
horses? Horse breeding at the West has been 
developed surprisingly of late and vast num¬ 
bers of second-rate horses have been shipped 
this way. The best grades of horses—those 
used on express wagons and heavy trucks— 
hold their prices well, but there is a falling off 
m prices of lower grades. These facts are 
worth heeding. 
This is what we said last year about the 
potato prospect: “Late potatoes are so high 
this fall that everybody wants to raise them 
next year, Early potatoes will be neglected 
and hence fairly high in price.” We were 
right. Early potatoes now bring $4 per bar¬ 
rel. Many who would have taken advantage 
of this price were prevented by the cold, late 
spring. 
Prof. R. C. Kedzie,of”the Michigan Agri¬ 
cultural College,in a bulletin just issued uses 
the word “superphosphates” as meaning com¬ 
mercial fertilizer having an “abundant supply 
of potash, phosphoric acid and ammonia.’” 
We hope that Prof. Kedzie will join the R. 
N.-Y. in opposing the use of this word except 
to designate such fertilizers as consist of phos¬ 
phoric acid treated by sulphuric acid. 
W hat next ? A movement has been started 
m Liverpool, England, a town of nearly 700,- 
000 inhabitants, for the consolidation of all the 
flour mills and bakeries in the place into one 
great establishment, where the bread-making 
for the entire city may'be done in immense 
ovens, under the most highly scientific condi¬ 
tions and at a material saving in cost. What 
will become of the poor bakers ? Only a small 
proportion of them could find employment iu 
the mammoth works, asj’much of the labor 
would doubtless be done by machinery. If 
once proved successful, such a; movement is 
sure to spread, so, again, what’s to become of 
the poor, poor bakers ? 
Just about this time every year the papers 
have a good deal to say about that curious 
phenomenon—the white huckleberry. It is said 
there are only two places in the country where 
such fruit can be found, so that it is practically 
a monopoly. The biggest monopolist is Farmer 
Hobday of Blooming Grove,Pa., whose patch is 
large enough to produce about 12 bushels this 
year, though it has produced as much as 20 
bushels. The only other white huckleberry 
patch known is in Sussex County, N. J., on 
the‘farm of Mr. H. C. Everett, President of 
the Port Jervis First National Bank; but this 
patch rarely yields more than a bushel of 
berries. These are about the size of wild 
cherries and of a creamy white. They are 
very sweet and readily sell for $2 a bushel. 
Whether it is a species of itself or simply a 
freak of nature nobody knows: yet the 
bushes have blossomed and ripened their fruit 
longer,; than the “oldest inhabitant” can re¬ 
member. Is the area of white huckleberries 
really so restricted, and does any body know 
anything more about them? 
