646 
THE RURAL. WEW-YORKER. 
SETP 46 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home . 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Hark Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1888. 
Our present Agents , and all who may he 
willing to act as such, are referred to our 
announcement on the third page of the 
Cover. 
Our Armstrong wheat weighs 64 
pounds to the bushel and promises to 
thrash out 40 bushels to the acre. We 
have not measured it yet. This is now 
known as Landreth. 
“Yes, wheat straw or clover haulm will 
make a good mulch for wheat.” 
Read Prof, Comstock’s remarks about 
the Clover-root borer. We had not sus¬ 
pected its presence in clover at the Rural 
Farm until, acting under his instruction, 
plant after plant was found to be infested. 
Col. Curtis says on page CIO: “ Wheat 
straw will malce a most excellent mulch and 
prevent the wheat from freezing out. The 
mulch will also act as a manure. Such 
mulching will sometimes double the crop.' 1 ' 1 
A partial answer to the question so 
often asked, viz.: “What do you expect 
to gain by crossing rye and wheat?” may 
now be given. We find that three varie¬ 
ties of these hybrids bear the largest 
grains that we have ever seen raised in 
the East. 
Mr. French says, on page 610: “It 
seems to me that mulching wheat cannot take 
the place of top-dressing; for with protection 
from winter-killing by top-dressing we get 
the additional virtue of its fertilizing prop¬ 
erties. 
The Eaton is changing color. What a 
showy grape it is. If this doesn’t prove 
popular in the markets, with the millions, 
theR. N.-Y. will miss its guess. And we 
want you to remember it, friends, and 
cherish it up against us in case we have 
guessed wrong. Try for a trio, F. B. 
Hayes, Ulster and Eaton—white, red and 
black. 
Mr. Root says on page CIO : “A mulch 
tends to hold the snow in winter as a covering 
to prevent the action of severe frost; it in¬ 
vents the surface of the soil from becoming 
hard and crusted by the sun and drying 
winds of spring; it affords a degree of shade 
about the roots of the plants retaining moist¬ 
ure; it will so decay in summer , during the 
season of crop growth , as to afford plant- 
food; it will largely aid the germination of 
clover and grass seed. 
What is the best wheat for your sec¬ 
tion, good farmer? It will surely pay 
you to find out, unless confident that you 
know already. It would have been many 
a dollar in the R. N.-Y.’s pocket had it 
raised Armstrong in the place of Clawson 
for the 10 years the latter was raised as 
the main crop. W ait until the Rural 
hybrids are introduced. 
There ought to be exhibits of de¬ 
horned cattle at the fairs this fall. Show 
the cattle, with the horns off and with 
the wounds nicely healed, by the side of 
the cattle with the horns still loaded. 
This would make a new and interesting 
exhibit. Packages or jars of silage would 
also attract considerable attention. We 
wish farmers could see the sample of 
silage from which our last week’s pictures 
were taken. 
How does the first frost find you? 
Winter gives fair warning after all. He 
sends a frost to pinch us and give notice 
of the heavy blow to follow later. The 
first frost pinched us a little last night. 
It found a field of corn that was planted 
too late; it found some cracks in the hen¬ 
house and numerous other tender places 
on the farm’s face. We felt the pinch 
and we mean to take it as a warning. 
That is what it is meant for. 
A letter to the R. N.-Y., from Sir J. 
B. Lawes, under date of August 21st, 
says : 
“ There is a great deal in an if. I said 
that my wheat crop would be very large 
i) we had a dry July. We measured more 
or less rain on 29 days in July, leaving only 
two days absolutely without rain. We 
have had no summer weather this year. 
J had decided to begin harvest to-day, but 
it rained all last night and is now very 
wet. We shall have a late harvest and a 
bad wheat crop." (Italics ours. Eds.) 
Is it economy to mulch wheat ? That 
is a very important question. The R. N.- 
Y. for years has mulched its wheat plots 
from necessity , as, when wheat is planted 
a single kernel six inches or a foot apart 
each way, it must be protected in some 
way in lieu of the protection which the 
plants give each other in thicker seeding. 
But we have never mulched our field or 
main-crop wheat and can not, therefore, 
speak from experience as to whether 
mulching is profitable or not. Of course, 
much depends upon the character of the 
land. 
The attention of our readers is called to 
the articles in this issue by F. P. Root. 
II. T. French, F. D. Curtis, Prof. I. R 
Iiobeits and T. F. Hunt. 
The experiment stations may well work 
upon this problem. 
The most trying work of the year done 
at the Rural Grounds is planting wheat. 
We are now engaged in planting half an 
acre. The land, after being plowed and 
harrowed, is finally raked by hand, so as 
to secure a uniform surface. Then a six- 
tooth marker is used, which makes shal¬ 
low drills 10 inches apart. The wheat is 
then planted in these drills, one kernel 
every six inches. At least 150 varieties, 
including our hybrids and cross-breeds, 
are to be planted in this tedious, never- 
ending way. A wooden label marks each 
variety, the same as if it were a tree or 
shrub, and the numbers and a brief des¬ 
cription are recorded in a book kept for 
the purpose. As soon as the surface 
freezes the entire plot will be lightly 
mulched with short stable manure. We 
have been doing this back-spliting work 
for 11 years. 
■' " ■ ■ • * » . - 
We have watched the poultry markets 
in New York City for a number of years. 
One feature has been so persistently re¬ 
peated that we have come to look upon it 
as a settled fact. The holiday prices are 
generally low—each Christmas finds a 
larger lot of poultry that it is difficult to 
get rid of. Prices slowly fall from Sep¬ 
tember till January. There is every in¬ 
dication that the same story will be told 
this year. The holiday trade will doubt¬ 
less be profitless—except to buyers, ship¬ 
pers and handlers—unless part of the 
shipment is kept at home. It is the sea¬ 
son now when the farmer can best afford 
to eat his poultry at home. Eat “chick¬ 
en” instead of beef. Thus cut down the 
meat bill and, by diminishing the stock 
sent to market, obtain a better price for 
what is sold. As now conducted, the 
main profits in the poultry business are 
obtained from early chickens and eggs. 
The Earhart Everbearing raspberry is 
at this time (Sept. 4) full of fruit. From 
a single “tip,” one foot long, we have 
just picked 85 large ripe berries. They 
are juicy but the quality is a little off, and 
they are less firm than in the early season. 
But it is not everyone that cares for 
black-caps when the market is flooded 
with grapes and peaches. As an ever- 
bearing raspberry it is probably the best of 
its class by far. As a novelty it is a 
success. The only question is whether 
there is a place for it. 
r i he Rural’s CO hybrids between Rosa 
rugosa (female parent) and many hybrid 
remontants and teas (male parents ) have 
made a fair growth during the season, ex¬ 
cept that many of them have been much 
injured by mildew. We are now alluding 
to the plants raised from the crossings of 
the summer of 1887. It seems to the 
writer one of the most remarkable facts 
that not one of these hybrids should have 
the distinctive loliage of the mother 
plant. 
.»»» . — 
Never before so early in the season has 
the market been supplied with so many 
varieties of native grapes, or those which 
are hybrids between natives and foreign 
grapes. And the price is low. It is our 
opinion that this country is one day des¬ 
tined to become the grape country of the 
world. The best hybrids thus far pro¬ 
duced are not adapted to general cultiva 
tion, for which reason their successful cul 
tivation has been confined to comparative¬ 
ly small areas. Each section is slowly 
finding out what kinds it can grow, and 
the large markets are being supplied ac¬ 
cordingly. Duchess is now sold by com¬ 
mission men at eight cents per pound; 
Martha at six; Brighton at eight; Agawam 
at five; Union Village at eight; 
Concord at five; Niagara at 12, 
and so on. Vineyardists make a 
grand mistake in sending fine-looking 
grapes to market which are plucked be¬ 
fore they are ripe. Yesterday we bought 
a basket of Duchess, the finest we have 
ever seen. The bunches were long, 
shouldered—the berries crowded to¬ 
gether, and perfect. But they had been 
picked before maturity in order to secure 
a ready sale at a high price and were 
therefore worthless. 
A NEW PLAN. 
W E have a good deal to say in this 
issue about the way we propose to 
pay our agents this year. You can really 
get “anything you want” in the way of a 
premium. We speak of it here more par¬ 
ticularly to emphasize the fact, elsewhere 
enlarged upon, that this offer gives a 
double chance to granges, farmers’ clubs 
and other organizations to secure a double 
benefit. If the members of any such or¬ 
ganization need a road machine, a thrash¬ 
er, a steam engine, or any other imple¬ 
ment, here is a chance to get it. Let each 
member of the organization subscribe to 
the Rural New-Yorker. Thus a club 
is formed large enough to secure the 
desired article. We will try and see to it 
that the subscribers get the worth of their 
money in agricultural information; the 
premium will be thrown in. Can you 
suggest a more liberal way of doing busi¬ 
ness? If you can, let’s hear it! 
A GRAPE NOTE OR SO. 
O UR single specimen of the white 
grape F.B. Hayes, was received from 
the late John B. Moore in December of 
1884. This is its second season of fruit¬ 
ing. The vine is thus far hardy and 
healthy. The grapes are free from rot 
though this is a season when rot pre¬ 
vails to an unusual extent. The berries 
ripen only a little after Moore’s Early and 
nearly at the same time with Cottage. 
This is a Concord seedling and it is quite 
pure in flavor. It is certainly a very 
promising variety. 
The Ulster (Prolific) is again doing 
finely at the Rural Grounds. The vine is 
healthy, the berries free irom rot, the 
bunches oompact. It ripens a trifle be¬ 
fore the Concord, and the quality is fine. 
Again the Victoria is nearly faultless 
in all essentia] respects, except as to 
quality. We have never regarded it as 
better than the Concord. The bunches 
are perfect and it bears year after year a 
quantity of fruit that would kill most 
varieties. 
“WAKE UP, UNQLE SAM!” 
L OOK at our first page picture! It 
speaks. Uncle Sam is generally pic¬ 
tured as a tall, thin, old gentleman, alert, 
wiry and keen. He had to work when he 
was a boy. Times were hard then and it 
needed every effort of muscle and mind 
to fight his way up to a living place 
among the nations. Poverty was good 
for him, because it kept his eyes open. 
The years have brought prosperity. The 
old fellow does not have to work as he 
did 50 years ago. Prosperity makes him 
fat; good living makes him sleepy; the 
spur of necessity has been filed off, conse¬ 
quently he is lazy. In this condition the 
old gentleman falls an easy prey for ras¬ 
cals who want to live by tongue-work. 
Our picture shows old Uncle Sam as 
he should not be. The portly, well-fed, 
prosperous old gentleman concludes that 
wealth is piling up in the country at such 
a rapid rate that he can afford to let 
things run themselves while he takes a 
nap. He finds a pile of Trusts that cer¬ 
tainly possess “fat” enough to make a 
comfortable place. While he sleeps, a 
gang of political sharpers make away with 
his pocket-book. The farmer sees this 
theft and he proposes to prick Uncle Sam 
to wakefulness so that he may protect his 
property. There are two thoughts that 
should go with this picture. The wealth 
of this country is increasing rapidly 
enough—nobody doubts that. It is in¬ 
creasing at a marvelous rate, but there is 
not a fair division of it. The farmer does 
not get his honest share, He does too 
much work for the share he gets. The 
other point is that this state of things will 
continue until the farmers force a change. 
“Wake up. Uncle Sam!” Put the pitch- 
fork into him, farmer! 
SWEET CORN FOR POULTRY. 
A FRIEND reports success with an 
experiment at feeding sweet corn to 
poultry. This experiment was the result 
of an accident. A piece of late sweet 
corn was planted. The price was so low 
that hauling it to market would hardly 
pay. Therefore the corn was allowed to 
mature, that it might be used for seed 
another year. There was nearly as large 
a yield of shelled corn as there was from 
a field of equal size near by planted to 
field corn. A peck of it fed to poultry 
gave such good results that the whole 
amount was fed before spring. No 
record of egg production w 7 as kept be¬ 
yond the fact that from about an average 
number of hens “more eggs were supplied 
to the egg-man than ever before.” The 
following analyses of corn are interesting. 
We give the average analyses of a dozen 
or more samples. 
Sweet Corn Dent Corn 
Water, 
Ash, 
Albuminoids, 
Fiber, 
Carbohydrates, 
Fat, 
8.59 
1.88 
12 08 
2.04 
67.37 
8.04 
11.13 
1.48 
10.49 
1.86 
70.20 
4.84 
These analyses would indicate that the 
sweet corn would afford a more evenly- 
balanced ration for egg^production than 
the dent corn, besides having the ad¬ 
vantage of smaller kernels. Who among 
our readers have had experience in this 
matter ? We want to know more about 
it. 
brevities. 
The 28th. 
Is the It. N.-Y. to be defeated? 
Read Prof. Sheldon’s dairy article. 
Do you know of any axle-grease that is bet¬ 
ter than chicken fat? 
The general opinion is that potatoes will be 
higher in price than most people thought they 
would. 
The latest advices are that the short crop of 
clover seed abroad will bring about higher 
prices here. 
On the 7th inst. the R. N.-Y. had planted 
86 varieties of its rye-wheat hybrids and 
wheat crosses. 
“Your cartoon, ‘A mystery of Trade,’ is 
beyond praise.” T. h. youngman. 
Harison Co. Dakota. 
The Empire State Grape (white) may be all 
that it has been cracked up to be in some 
places; but it is not for us. 
The farm papers tell us to sow from 2(X) 
to 500 pounds of “superphosphate” to the acre 
before sowing wheat. What advice 1 
Isn’t it better to keep cats to kill the rats 
and mice then to use poison and have the dead 
vermin under floors and between partitions? 
“At the rate of over 700 bushels of potatoes 
to the acre, let the weather and other condi¬ 
tions he what they may.” That’s the con¬ 
tract. 
Mr. Atkinson will be disappointed too. 
He is not the kind of man to care for the loss 
of $50 that may do a million dollars worth 
of good. 
Mr. Macomber offers some valuable sug¬ 
gestions to those who may next year have 
occasion to purchase a mowing machine. See 
page 612. 
A good account of the easiest known way 
of harvesting potatoes next week. This will 
be hard reading for farmers that dig potatoes 
out of the weeds. 
Read Mr. Goff’s sound remarks about the 
“Country School.” Ah, hero is a fine chance 
for reform for those who w'ould raise up the 
country lads and lassies and so elevate agri¬ 
culture. 
Mr. Crosby, page 611, is an ardent advocate 
of the special-purpose cow and, as we infer, 
of special-purpose men. He does not seem 
to think a general-purpose cow can be made 
to perform special duty; how does ho propose 
to change a man who has been a general- 
purpose farmer all his life into a “special” 
worker? 
Small fruit growers are often at a loss to 
secure a sufficient number of pickers. In some 
of the raspberry and grape regions along the 
Hudson river, tramps are made useful. They 
live in little houses, boarding themselves. 
It is said that in some of the hop regions of 
this State farmers are importing Italian lab¬ 
orers from this city. 
Keep an eye on the cartoons we shall pub¬ 
lish during the few remaining weeks before 
the electioo. The Rural folks are not 
strong partisans in the ordinary sense of the 
word. We believe that the farmer is not 
getting his fair share of the yearly profits. 
That is issue enough for us. Let us think out 
a way of correcting the wrong. 
A few days ago we were shown plants of 
the common saltwort—Salicornia Virginica— 
that abounds in our salt meadows along the 
seaboard. They were highly perfumed with 
what seemed to be a combination of rose at d 
patchouly and were sfld for their exquisite 
odor. The plants naturally have no odor 
whatever. A local name for this peculiar 
weed is Mutton-sauce. 
