S30 
AUG. 41 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National J ournal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by ' 
ELBERT 8. C A R M A h* 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1888. 
We know farmers who raise turnips 
among the potato hills. At the last work¬ 
ing, when the plow or cultivator has been 
run one way, the seed, previously mixed 
with three times its bulk of dry sand, is 
broadcasted. Then the potatoes are 
worked the other way and thus the seed 
is covered. Of course, this could not be 
dope when the potatoes are planted in 
drills and we woLder how such farmers 
would go to work in such vines as we 
have had this year. The entire field has 
been covered by a perfect mat of vines. 
See “ Discussion ” this week for a remedy 
for the Buffalo Moth, which , by the way, is 
not a moth at all, but a beetle. 
It is a question in our mind whether 
just before the last cultivation of late 
corn it will not pay to sow a couple of 
hundred pounds to the acre of fertilizer. 
It the land is very nch it will not be 
needed. If not, ihe fertilizer will be 
greedily sought by the roots which now 
ramify in every direction to feed the 
plant whose demands are now at the 
greatest. A full crop of grain need never 
be looked for if there is not available 
food to supply the needs of the growing 
ears. The R. N.-Y.’s great yield of corn 
received its last spread of fertilizer when 
the plants were knee-high. 
The only way to make a profit on wheat at 
present prices is to have many bushels on 
few acres. A. L, Crosby. 
Lima beans in the country about the 
Rural Grounds are, this season, a partial 
failure, those planted at the usual time 
having rotted in the ground, owing to the 
cold, wet wearher. Some fields have 
been planted three times. Generally 
speaking, however, it pays to plant early, 
as in three seasons out of four the beans 
sprout freely and escape frost. It pays to 
take the chances. One of our neighbors 
who planted early this year and hit a fa¬ 
vorable time sold large quantities between 
July 20th and 24th at $4.50 a bae, the 
bag containing five pecks. Now they are 
bringing from $3 to $3.50. 
If I were asked to tell in four words as to 
how I had grown such crops of wheat, the 
answer would be u clover-sod and tillage." 
See T. B. Terry's article. 
We have had the Lucretia Dewberry 
since 1885. Everybody, so far as the 
R. N,-Y knows, praises it except the re¬ 
ports from the Rural Grounds. The 
berry is large, early to ripen and of fair 
quality—the same as we might say of a 
score of upright varieties, as for example 
the Minnewaski, Kittatinny, Agawam, 
Lawton, Taylor, Erie. But the berries 
are well concealed by its prickly foliage; 
it spreads out over at least 12 feet of 
ground and one has to stoop low and to 
try his patience sorely to gather the 
berries without tearing his flesh. Our 
final opinion of the Lucretia is that if we 
were obliged to have Lucretiasor go with¬ 
out blackberries, we should vote to go 
without. Lucretia, adieu! 
Rose Notes. —Am^ng tender roses 
Bon Silene is this year a free bloomer. 
Both the buds and partly open flowers are 
very pretty. American Beauty blooms 
sparingly and one would not recognize 
the little buds as related to those pro¬ 
duced in the house. Father Gontier is 
fine. Nearly every shoot bears a flower. 
The buds are pointed and the half-opened 
flower is shapely and durable. The new 
rose Meteor is not thus far a success in 
the open ground. The plant is feeble 
and the buds scarce. Boule de Neige 
(Ball of Snow), earlier in the season 
bloomed freely and the flowers were of 
medium size. The buds and flowers still 
liberally produced are now small. Name¬ 
less Beauty has not bloomed. The Puri¬ 
tan bloomed early in the season, but has 
not since bloomed. The plant in the open 
ground is not very vigorous. 
Pere Gontier and Bon Silene would be 
the choice in our present collection. 
I don't think there is a percepitible differ¬ 
ence in wheat whether clover is sown or not. 
If the clover makes a draft on the plant-food 
of the wheat, it compensates for it by the 
moisture it causes about the wheat roots. 
S. B. Hoefgen. 
Now here’s a plan which farmers all 
over the country would do well to adopt. 
So far as we know it is now followed only 
by farmers in Central Illinois, where they 
call it the “ Granger plan.” Hitherto it 
has been used chiefly by shippers of small 
fruits ; but it is equally good for others. 
Those who have produce to sell at any 
distant market combine their shipments 
to make one or more car-loads under the 
direction of one or more loaders at the 
shipping points, and of unloaders at the 
points of destination. These act in com¬ 
mon for all the shippers, obtaining car¬ 
load rates of freight for cash contractors, 
and also cheaper rates of cartage at the end 
of the journey. Each shipper, however, 
selects his own consignee or commission 
man. Can’t you manage to get your 
neighbors to do something of this kind, 
if they are not already doing it ? 
There is in a quart of clover seed about 
500,200 seeds. There are 43.560 square feet 
to the acre. Supposing all the seed to be 
evenly distributed and to grow, it is appa¬ 
rent that six quarts to the acre—the usual 
seeding of clover—are too much. 
Gen. Le Due. 
It may at this time be well to repeat 
that some 10 years ago the R N.-Y., 
sowed on different plots of one-fortieth 
of an acre each, all the way from a half¬ 
bushel to four bushels of wheat per acre. 
This was repeated the next year. One 
bushel and one-quarter gave the best 
yield the first year, and as much as any 
other quantity the second. Last Sep¬ 
tember we sowed four acres with Arm¬ 
strong (Landreth) wheat. The crop (not 
yet thrashed), is one of the largest ever 
raised. One and a half bushel was drilled 
in. The right amount of seed to sow will 
vary with soil and climate and general 
conditions. The richer and better pre¬ 
pared the soil is, the less the seed re¬ 
quired. Our experiments were made on 
a fertile sandy-loam that yields about 30 
bushels to the acre. We may further 
state that rolling the land after seeding, 
has never with us increased the yield. 
The stand on the rolled portions was not 
so good the next spring as on the un¬ 
rolled parte, having winter-killed more. 
CONGRESS ON THAT IRRIGATION 
PLAN. 
L AST Monday, the Upper House of 
Congress adopted an amendment to 
the Sundry Civil Bill,appropriating $250,- 
000 for the purpose of investigating the 
extent to which the arid regions of the 
United States can be redeemed by irriga¬ 
tion. This relates to Major Powell’s 
gigantic scheme of damming the canons 
of the Rocky Mountains to form im¬ 
mense reservoirs of water from the melt¬ 
ing snows and heavy rainfalls of the 
mountains, to be used for the irrigation 
of the arid lands west of the 100 merid¬ 
ian, embracing a vast area of at least 
150,000 square miles. The location 
of the reservoirs, and the selection of land 
for irrigating canals by the Geological Sur¬ 
vey will ultimately cost probably from 
$4,000,000 to $5,000,000, so that this lit¬ 
tle appropriation may be regarded merely 
as the entering of the point of a wedge to 
greater appropriations hereafter. Of 
course, the construction of such reservoirs 
and the necessary canals to utilize their 
contents would entail an outlay of tens or 
hundreds of millions of dollars, but far- 
seeing statesmen and political economists 
see ample returns in the reclamation for 
profitable agriculture of “ four-tenths of 
the area of the United States” as estimated 
by Senator Teller of Colorado. 
In order to prevent the taking up of the 
land selected as sites for reservoirs, by 
land-grabbers who might watch the oper¬ 
ations of the Survey, it was provided, by 
a vote of 29 against 19, that the lands 
designated for reservoirs and canals for 
irrigation shall be reserved as the proper¬ 
ty of the United States, and shall not be 
subject to entry or settlement until pro¬ 
vided by law. There is little doubt that 
some measure of this kind will ultimately 
be put in practice, and though it is likely 
that the present generation will not reap 
any advantages from it, still who will be¬ 
grudge a small outlay now for an im¬ 
mense advantage hereafter to that intelli¬ 
gent, well-educated, practical and scien¬ 
tific gentlemen, statesman and patriot— 
the American Farmer of the Future ? 
ANOTHER PERNICIOUS TRUST. 
T HE Congressional Committee investi¬ 
gating Trusts, reports that there is 
nothing illegal in their organization. 
Still, New York State has already made 
all preparations for prosecuting the Sugar 
Trust, having engaged special counsel for 
the purpose, and the Attorney-General is 
oi opinion that the State has a good case. 
If in this or any other State, the present 
laws cannot reach these associations, the 
laws should be promptly amended. They 
are to day the worst danger to American 
prosperity, and to our American Republi¬ 
can Constitution. While the public are 
denouncing them, however, and 
the National and State Legislatures 
are devising means to check the 
rapacity of those already in existence, 
others are being formed of a still more 
objectionable character, if possible. 
The latest is the “ Flour Trust,” started 
by the millers of Indiana,Illinois, Tennes¬ 
see, Missouri, Kansas and the other West¬ 
ern winter wheat States. Negotiations for 
the formation of the association have been 
under way for some time, but the matter 
has become public only this morning. 
Millers controlling an output of 17,000 
barrels of flour a day have already signed 
the agreement. The Trust is to be called 
“ The Central Millers’ Association.” Its 
rules are peculiarly stringent. Here are 
some of its stipulations : 
“Absolute submission to authority, of 
which the individual member is only an inte¬ 
gral part. The power of the directors is 
made absolute. They are to fix prices, may 
order reduction in output or closing down of 
mill, contract with brokers to act for members 
of the Association. Credits are not to exceed 
thirty days; mills at points tributary to St. 
Louis, Detroit or Toledo shall not pay over 
the current prices for some grades of wheat 
or flour in those markets less two-thirds of the 
freight rate thereto. All sales of less than 
car lots must be 10 cents higher than current 
minimum prices.” 
This Trust proposes to control absolute¬ 
ly the millers’ prices for wheat, £nd the 
output and prices for flour in the terri¬ 
tory it will govern. It will oppress the 
producers by cutting down the prices for 
their grain to the lowest figure possible ; 
and it will oppress the consumers by put¬ 
ting up the prices of their bread to the 
highest figure possible. Farmers are pro¬ 
ducers and consumers, and are sure, 
therefore, to be oppressed in both char¬ 
acters. They have the power to put an 
end to such extortion. What are they go¬ 
ing to do about it ? 
A FORMIDABLE POTATO ENEMY- 
L AST week it was announced that 
the farmers in the vicinity of the 
Rural Grounds were alarmed at the dep¬ 
redations of what seemed to be a flea- 
beetle upon their potato vines. It was 
stated that the vines of early potatoes in 
one field had been entirely destroyed by 
this insect and that many of the late po¬ 
tatoes were suffering from its depreda¬ 
tions. Further inquiry reveals the fact 
that nearly every field is infested and that 
the crop is now doomed to one-third or 
one-half the usual yield, depending upon 
whether early or late potatoes were plant¬ 
ed. Many fields of late potatoes will 
not yield one-quarter of a crop. The 
season has been unusually good for pota¬ 
toes and the early outlook has seldom 
been more promising. All at once it was 
seen that the leaves were turning black 
and drying up, while the vigorous stems 
assumed a yellow color, deepening until 
they too began to wither like the leaves. 
All sorts of causes were assigned—drought, 
the cold of the early season, the excessive 
heat of several consecutive days, and so 
on. It is now known, as intimated last 
week, that the cause of this injury is a 
flea-beetle (probably the Cucumber Flea- 
beetle, Haltica cucumeris of Harris) such 
as those which infest cruciferous and cu- 
curbitaceous plants more or less, but has 
never before infested potato vines in such 
quanities as to destroy them. The 
leaves are first punctured—generally from 
the under side—and the pulp of the cells 
is eaten until holes are made as large as 
the head of a pin. A few of these holes are 
not fatal to the leaf, but this season the 
leaves are punctured untii they are riddled 
like a sieve, when they necessarily black¬ 
en and wither. The stems, deprived of 
foliage, first turn a light, then a deeper 
yellow, as we have said, and then, like 
the leaves, wither and die. How far 
beyond the Rural’s neighborhood this 
beetle is destroying potatoes we have yet 
to learn. 
It is a very easy thing to overlook this 
enemy on account of its small size, and 
because, never before having destroyed 
potato vines, it was not suspected of be¬ 
ing capable of doing so. Word has been 
sent to the Department of Agriculture, 
and it is to be hoped that the U. S. Ento¬ 
mologist will take immediate steps to in¬ 
vestigate the matter Paris-green and 
water or plaster has little effect upon the 
insect, either because it is proof against 
the poison or because it merely punctures 
the skin and eats the inner (parenchyma¬ 
tous) tissue. At the Rural Grounds it 
is worthy of note that while the leaves of 
one variety of potato are alive with the 
beetle, while the leaves of another have 
been destroyed, those of a third have not 
been materially harmed, while those of a 
fourth have not yet been attacked. 
The R. N.-Y. is not in the least ex¬ 
aggerating this case. A more formidable 
potato enemy has never hitherto appeared, 
and as it is liable to prove equally destruc¬ 
tive in the future measures should be at 
once taken to fight it successfully. 
Note.— The specific name of this beetle 
is unknown to the writer, being unable to 
find any description which covers it ex¬ 
actly. It resembles, as we have said, 
Haltica cucumeris very closely. 
The popularity of Fultz wheat may be 
inferred from its frequent reintroduction 
under new names. Hugh L. Wysor. 
LATEST AS TO THE FLEA BEETLE. 
ATER information shows that potato 
f 
vines for miles about the Rural 
Grounds, are dying from the injury 
wrought by the Flea Beetle, which we have 
now no doubt is the Cucumber Flea 
Beetle—Haltica cucumeris. On Friday the 
vines were sprayed with Gishurst com¬ 
pound, hellebore, Buhacli and Paris- 
green. This compound solution did not 
seem to affect the insects in any way. 
The vines had previously been sprayed 
with Paris-green and hellebore repeat¬ 
edly, without any effect. The vines of 
the half-acre plot (Rural Trench system), 
are being destroyed, and not over half a 
yield is hoped for. The Rural Seedling, 
No. 3, of the Contest plot, is dead, while 
the No. 4 is attacked. 
BREVITIES. 
Five pecks of wheat to the acre. 
Mr. Devereaux tells about the Buffalo 
moth or Carpet beetle on page 527. 
It appears that this is not the first season 
that the Cucumber Flea Beetle has destroyed 
the pototo crop. 
A correspondent on another page thinks 
all business men in America might be called 
farmers because they all make a living by 
forming a patnership with those who till the 
soil. There is a good deal of sense in this 
statement. 
In answer to a recent note in the Rural, 
quite a number of poultrymen write that they 
feed rye to poultry. The conclusion seems to 
be general that this grain ranks nearer corn 
than wheat in feeding value. It does not pay 
to feed it exclusively. 
“ If I had a cold-storage house, I would 
surely buy my seed potatoes in the fall,” 
writes a well-known potato grower. There 
are a good many sound reasons for fall buy¬ 
ing. They will be stated in a brief sympo¬ 
sium soon to appear. 
Manure pays in any season—warm, cold, 
wet or dry. That is a solid agricultural 
truth. Last year was dry aDd manure made 
its mark on the crops wherever it was put. 
This year is wet, yet the manure effect is 
readily seen. 
And now our first planted Japan Chestnut 
is fruiting. It was received from the nursery 
some five years ago. It is now 10 feet high 
and of a round, bush form. The Para¬ 
gon, H. M. Engle’s new chestnut, though 
planted the past spring, set several nuts. 
These were pulled off. This is a most prom¬ 
ising variety, as the nuts are of fine quality. 
We planted three acres of the Pond corn on 
June 10, and the wiseacres of the neighbor¬ 
hood are excited as to the probability of its 
“getting through.” The majority seem to 
think it will mature ears. It is too close a 
call anyway, particularly as we wanted to fit 
the ground for rye. Doesn’t it pay to get com 
into the ground as early as it is safe to do it ? 
