6S6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home’. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Pabk Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1888. 
THE RESULT! 
OH! OH! 
“So Near and Yet So Far." 
THE TRENCH SYSTEM VICTO¬ 
RIOUS. 
The Rural New-Yorker Defeated ! 
THE No. 2 GIVES THE ENORMOUS 
YIELD OF 1076 BUSHELS 
TO THE ACRE! 
The Nos. 4 and 2 Together Averaged 
788 Bushels to the Acre. 
THE No. 3, AS PREDICTED, WAS 
A FAILURE, OWING TO 
THE FLEA-BEETLE. 
Which Brought Down the Yield to 
583 Bushels per Acre. 
The Full Particulars of the Contest 
Will be Reserved for the 
Special Potato Number. 
The following note explains itself: “I 
would like the $50 to be given to the 
Martha Schofield School at Aiken S. C., 
in case the R. N.-Y. is defeated in the 
“Potato Contest.” Miss Schofield is a 
heroine if there ever lived one in America. 
She established her school at the close of 
the war and has been nobly working to 
sustain it ever since against many odds. 
She has been doing a great work in edu¬ 
cating the freed people, and has been quite 
successful. Wilmer Atkinson.” 
Is the practice of selling “show birds” 
“warranted to take the prize at any of the 
smaller shows” conducive to the general 
good ? An amateur desires to make a rep¬ 
utation as a fancy breeder; he sends to 
some of the leading breeders and borrows 
or buys a bird likely to take the first 
prize atttte local show. Of course, a rep¬ 
utation made in this way does not last, 
but it often deceives buyers and results in 
the disposal of comparatively worthless 
stock. This matter should be looked 
into by the judges at all shows where 
poultry is exhibited. Should prizes of¬ 
fered at local agricultural fairs include 
fowls raised out of the county? We 
think not. A local fair should aim to 
stimulate local industry. If an outside 
fancier wishes to exhibit his fowls as an 
advertisement, let him do it, but limit the 
competition to home-raised fowls. 
A new era in the transportation of live 
stock from the Far West to the seaboard 
has just been inaugurated by a New York 
company, which a week ago shipped the 
first train of Idaho beef cattle to the New 
York market. The shipment consisted of 
360 steers, averaging 1,350 pounds each, 
and they were loaded at Soda Springs in 
the new “palace cattle cars,” a compart¬ 
ment being assigned to each animal. The 
stock is fed and watered in transit. A 
time schedule of 25 miles an hour has 
been figured out which would deliver the 
stock at the New York market in 120 
hours fresh from the Idaho ranges, 2,500 
miles away. It is, we are told, intended 
to establish a regular rapid transit line, 
each train being equipped with a dining 
and sleeping car in charge of a train¬ 
master and special crew. The stock will 
not be unloaded, and the only delays will 
be one or two hours in replenishing the 
the water-tanks. The Rural has often 
had occasion to animadvert severely on 
the gross cruelty inflicted on live stock in 
transit, and, accordingly, it hails with 
great satisfaction this vast improvement, 
which seems almost too good to be real. 
The discussion begun in this issue re¬ 
garding the profit of binding grain is an 
important one. 'J he time has come 
when American farmers must think out 
these economical questions. If the self- 
binder is not needed, on the dairy farm 
at least, then the thousands of dollars 
spent each year for these implements are 
wasted, and the extra power expended in 
working this binding attachment is lost. 
We may expect to hear all sides of the 
question before the discussion is closed, 
and we shall not be at all surprised if we 
are led to see that we perform many farm 
operations more because others perform 
them than because of their real economi¬ 
cal value. While practical men are discus¬ 
sing this question, the statisticians are 
viewing it from another standpoint. Mr. 
Edward Atkinson, in a recent review of 
the progress of this country says that the 
self-binder enabled this country to in¬ 
crease its wheat crops from 258,000,000 
bushels in 1877 to 440,000,000 in 1887. 
“We find in this little knot,” he says, 
“one of the most potent factors in the 
displacement of unskilled labor.” Yet he 
argues that this invention reduced the 
cost of wheat production from six to 10 
per cent, and consequently cheapened 
food. There are many sides to the ques¬ 
tion, you see. 
One of our correspondents in the last 
issue, speaking of the Cucumber Flea- 
beetle, says that it takes several days for 
the vines to dry up enough after the work 
is done to attract the attention of a casual 
observer. The beetle is so small as to 
escape notice, unless it is looked for, un¬ 
til it has got in its work, and it is too 
late to save the vines even, though every 
beetle is killed. 
That is true. The vines do not begin 
to die until the leaves have become so 
riddled by holes that death is inevitable. 
The vines of the R. N.-Y. No. 3 of the 
“Contest” plot were thus beyond help 
before we found out what was the trou¬ 
ble We have since talked with scores of 
farmers whose crops were injured or 
ruined by the Flea-beetle, who attributed 
the destruction to “blight.” 
Our correspondent is wrong in suppos¬ 
ing that we claim it as a “new discovery” 
that this beetle destroys potato vines. 
On the contrary, we quoted from Harris 
cases where in 1850 it was very destruc¬ 
tive in certain parts of Massachusetts and 
other States. We merely claimed, and do 
claim, to be the first to make known the 
injury it has wrought the present season 
—an injury far greater than any previous¬ 
ly recorded. 
THREE FACTS. 
1 YOU can obtain anything you want 
• by securing subscriptions for the 
R. N.-Y. 
2. We hope to make the Rural bet¬ 
ter than ever next year, so that agents 
may not be at all bashful about pushing 
the paper. 
3. We make a very liberal short-term 
offer that will enable you to secure the 
attention of your neighbors as you can in 
no other way. 
Add to these the fact that we shall send 
all our subscribers, who apply for it, a 
sample tuber of the Rural New-Yorker 
No. 2 potato, and also small quantities of 
our new wheats, and it looks as though 
Rural agents will have fat business. 
A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. 
P RESIDENT FETTEROLF, of Girard 
College, Philadelphia, has recom¬ 
mended to the Board of City Trusts, 
which has control of the college, that a 
summer farm school should be established 
for the college boys in Schuylkill County. 
In starting such a farm the idea would 
not be to make farmers of the boys, but to 
give them a practical knowledge of soils, 
trees and other country things which every 
one should know about. The plan would 
be to have the larger boys sent to the farm 
during the summer in details of 50 to 100 
at a time, where they would receive in¬ 
struction in farming, gardening and other 
profitable agricultural work. When, at 
his death in 1831, old Stephen Girard 
made his proposed college for poor white 
male orphans one of the most richly en¬ 
dowed in America, it was provided that 
after their education had been finished 
they should be bound out to mechanical, 
agricultural and commercial occupations. 
The beneficiaries who now find a home in 
the most splendid specimen of Grecian 
architecture of modern times in any part of 
the world, number about 600; of these 60 
to 70 per cent, follow mechanical pursuits 
after leaving college, and very few ever 
become farmers. The Girard estate owns 
a large amount of land in Schuylkill 
county, so there would be no trouble in 
obtaining the necessary ground for a 
farm. Life on the farm would be at once 
educational and healthful. It would 
strengthen both mind and body and make 
them familiar with the most important, 
the most extensive and the noblest indus¬ 
try of man. President Fetterolf’s plan is 
a good one, and we hope ere long to see it 
put into practice. 
HURRAH FOR “DOLLAR WHEAT!” 
In an editorial in the Rural of Septem¬ 
ber l,^we predicted that wheat would 
soon be a dollar a bushel in Chicago, the 
first time for nine years, during which 
thousands prophesied that “dollar wheat” 
was a thing of the past which would 
never return. Since “dollar wheat” glad¬ 
dened the farmer in 1879, wheat 
has been down to 66 cents, although 
within the memory of middle-aged 
men it has sold as high as $2.76. 
Last Monday cash wheat in Chicago sold 
at $1.04, and it continued at that price 
till Thursday morning. Then the report 
got abroad that B. P. Hutchison (“Old 
Hutch”) had “cornered” all the Septem¬ 
ber wheat in Chicago, and all that could 
be delivered before settlement at the end 
of the month. In spite of the well 
known fact that “Old Hutch” had been 
buying all the September wheat offered 
in large lots for several weeks, the 
bears had sold a large amount “short” 
which they couldn’t deliver unless they 
bought it from Hutchison. Hence cash 
wheat went up by jumps till it reached 
$1.26. Then, the soreheads began to 
settle, which they were permitted to 
do at $1.25. It is said that on 
Thursday’s transaction alone “ Old 
Hutch” cleared $1,250,000. Since 
the squeeze began what September 
wheat has not been engaged by Hutchi¬ 
son has been pouring into Chicago from 
St. Louis, Milwaukee, and other near-by 
receiving centers, for delivery before set¬ 
tlement day; but probably the bears 
will suffer much more^seriously than they 
have hitherto done. At the opening on 
Thursday December wheat sold in Chica¬ 
go at 96% cents. As cash wheat rose De¬ 
cember wheat strengthened until at the 
close of the day it had reached $1, and 
it looks now that would be the lowest 
figure for some weeks, if not for the sea¬ 
son. This time last year No. 2 spring 
wheat sold at Chicago at about 70 cents, 
the range for September being 67% to 
71% and the average 69% cents. 
Call the advance since 30 cents. The 
wheat crop of the country is now estima¬ 
ted at 400,000,000 bushels, so that the 
increase in value of the aggregate crop is 
at least $120,000,000—an enormous addi¬ 
tion to the wealth of the nation, and es¬ 
pecially to that of our farmers who ought 
to secure by far the greater part of it. 
Good prices for this crop among produc¬ 
ers will' make a world of difference to all 
other industries for the next twelvemonth, 
and a permanent price of a dollar or more 
would enrich every man, woman and 
child in the West directly or indirectly. 
ALLEGED ABUSES OF THE NATION¬ 
AL SEED DISTRIBUTION, BE ¬ 
FORE CONGRESS. 
A N Associated Press dispatch from 
Washington, a few days ago, read as 
follows. 
Mr. Hawley offered a resolution (which was 
referred to the Committee on Contingent Ex¬ 
penses) directing the Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture to inquire into the purchase of seed by 
the Agricultural Department. Mr. Butler 
suggested that the inquiry should be broad¬ 
ened so as to apply to the advisability of 
abolishing the purchase of seed by that de¬ 
partment, but Mr. Hawley declined to modify 
thejresolution for that purpose. 
This resolution was based on a protest 
signed by Messrs. Landreth & Sons, W 
Atlee, Burpee & Co., and William Henry 
Maule, of Philadelphia; J. M. Thorburn 
& Co., and Peter Henderson & 
Co., of New York; James Vick, of 
Rochester, and several others of the most 
prominent members of the Seedmen’s 
Protective League, as well as by D. M. 
Ferry & Co., of Detroit, who do not 
belong to that association. They say: 
“We are advised, and have reasonable 
grounds to believe, that methods have been 
adopted in respect to the purchase of seeds for 
said Department, by which seed has been pur¬ 
chased at exorbitant prices, far in excess of 
the prevailing market rates for good seed; 
that such seed so supplied has frequently been 
dead or worthless, and not true to the descrip¬ 
tion under which it was purchased or distrib¬ 
uted among the agriculturists of the country. 
Such investigation is due to the public, whose 
money is thus wasted; and to the seedsmen of 
the country whose efforts to produce and 
maintain the best varieties of products, are 
frustrated by the bad reputation wrongfully 
given to such varieties through such seed, so 
distributed by the Department, not being true 
to description.” 
Last year’s appropriation for seeds 
amounted to $104,200; this year only 
$103,000 were asked for. Of this sum 
$8,340 were for salaries, and bagging and 
other labor would cost two or three times 
as much more, judging by the outlay last 
year and the year before, which would 
leave probably between $60,000 and 
$70,000 to be paid for seeds. Last year 
the amount devoted to this purpose was 
$67,087. It is charged that of this sum 
$56,499 were paid to one firm having‘its 
main business place in New York State 
with a branch in Minnesota, and it is 
alleged that this was done through 
favoritism. Similar charges were loosely 
made about this time a year ago, but 
so far as we know, they received no at¬ 
tention. Formulated by such respon¬ 
sible, widely known and honorable firms 
as those that now make them, they cer¬ 
tainly deserve investigation. It is much 
easier, however, to make such grave 
charges than to prove them. 
That great abuses are apparently al¬ 
most inseparable from the present system 
of purchasing and distributing seeds by 
the Department of Agriculture has long 
been an open secret. They have been 
acknowledged over and over again by the 
heads of the Department themselves, and 
Commissioner Colman has often declared 
his desire to get rid of the whole business. 
The interest of the Rural New-Yorker 
in this matter is the interest of the 
country at large, and especially of the 
farmers of the country. Let the truth be 
made known and let justice be done 
whatever may be the consequences. 
BREVITIES. 
Try Magnolia stellata. 
From Mr. Ives’s article one would suppose 
that the horse hay-rake might be turned into 
a good cultivator. 
The strawberry to be called Parker Earle 
if worthy of the good name, has thus far 
proved vigorous and healthy at the Rural 
Grounds. 
Mr. E. S. Andrus, of Litchfield Co., Conn, 
writes us that the Flea-beetle destroyed or 
greatly injured his potatoes so that his trench 
experiment was a comparative failure. 
Is not it a good idea to train a honeysuckle 
or so up to the barn? Rarely do we see a tree, 
shrub or ine in such places and the reason 
why this is so does not appear to the R. N-Y. 
We find that the writing (with pencil) upon 
a zinc label, dated August 20, 1879, which has 
ever since been exposed to the weather, is now 
as plain as it was the first year it was writ¬ 
ten. 
Our Canadian contemporary, Farm and 
Fireside, predicts a failure of some kind for 
the Rural Potato Contest—the day appointed 
for harvesting and determining the crop being 
Friday. 
We have received a splendid bunch of white 
grapes from Mr. Daniel C. Smith, of Marietta, 
O., a seedling of Niagara. It is superior to 
the Niagara in juiciness, purity of flavor, 
sweetness and tenderness of pulp. 
Read Mr. Falconer’s exceedingly valu¬ 
able article on page 672. This is one of the 
articles about which readers may truly say: 
“It is worth more than the price of the paper 
for a year.” And, by the way, do you notice 
how many of such articles the Rural pub¬ 
lishes every year ? 
A trustworthy English authority predicts 
a corner in the world’s wheat markets next 
spring, due to deficient crops, to over-confi¬ 
dence and to reduced stocks on hand in the 
United Kingdom. During the past week, 
cash wheat has advanced four cents in New 
York, or to $1.02%, the highest price for five 
years. 
A lady remarked a day or so ago during a 
drizzling rain (the weather report was “ fair 
weather ”), that “ Greely ought to go and 
bury himself. ” According to the Rural’s 
reckoning this weather-forecast scientist 
has missed just about .as often as he has hit. 
But who cares? It is generous to pay your 
money anc^yet not make .your choice. 
