VOL. XLVII. NO. 2031 . 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 29 , 1888 . 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered According to Act of Congress, In the Year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
Readable Rural 
Retrospects. 
SOME SOBER SUGGESTIONS. 
WISE WORDS WELL WOVEN. 
FARM FACTS FAITHFULLY FIXED. 
GREAT GOOD GAINED. 
HOMES HAPPILY HANDLED. 
The Youngest Year 
Tells a Tale 
Full of Facts 
Sound and Sensible, 
K 
Glad and Grave, 
Pure and Practical 
Instructive and Interesting. 
A HARROWED HISTORY 
Plainly Plowed, 
Carefully Cultivated, 
Rightly Raked, 
Heartily Hoed, 
Happily Harvested, 
Gloriously Garnered. 
-- 
“ If men were wise in little things, 
Affecting less in all their dealings ; 
If hearts had fewer rusted strings 
To isolate theirJeindred feelings', 
If men, when Wrong beats down the Right, 
Would strike together to restore it; 
If right made'might, in every fight, 
The world ivould be the better for it." 
—Cobb. 
ILLINOIS IDEAS. 
Almost any evening during the past three 
months a person glancing arouDd the horizon 
could count from three to a dozen or more 
bright red patches on the sky, the reflected 
light of burning straw. Each one of these 
patches plainly indicated the roostiDg place of 
a farm mortgage, and the abode of an unlet¬ 
tered, luckless clodhopper. The farmer does 
not burn straw. The clodhopper does. The 
farmer is out of debt, or on the way to be, 
with a broad, smooth, open road in front of 
him, and his smile is like a Spring morning. 
The clodhopper is in debt, and likely to stay 
there. He is chronically hard up, run down 
at the heel, discouraged and melancholic. The 
corners of his mouth droop ruefully and are 
tinted with a brown sediment, and his trousers 
are half-soled with a contrasting color. In a 
few years the hated capitalist will take 
the farm he lives on from him and sell it to 
the man who does not burn straw. 
Some years ago, a gentleman of my ac¬ 
quaintance bought a farm without any build¬ 
ings on it. The best building spot on this 
farm was directly opposite the house of a 
party who owned 80 acres across the highway. 
On this spot he decided to build. I pointed 
out to him the inconvenience of having a 
neighbor so close. 
“I’ll fix that matter easily enough,” said he. 
“ I’ll buy him out.’ 
“ But he won’tsell. Several men have tried 
in vain to buy that farm. He likes it, and 
he’s a sticker.” 
“ See that black spot yonder ?” said he, 
pointing to the ashes of a large quantity of 
straw on the farm in question. “ That settles 
it. The man who does that won’t keep his 
farm long. He’ll offer it to me and I’ll buy it 
within five years ! ” And he did. 
Christian Co., Ills. fred grundy. 
INSECT INDICATIONS IN IOWA. 
Among other things that Western farmers 
have to be thankful for the present year is the 
prevalence of chinch-bug diseases which have 
almost entirely destroyed these insects in 
parts of Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa. 
An epidemic among chinch-bugs, is something 
that, before the present year, has been un¬ 
known to most farmers, and perhaps is still. 
The first man who ever published an account 
of such a disease was Dr. Shiner, of Mt. Car- 
roll, Ill., who m 1867 published an account of 
his observations upon a disease which was so 
effectual in destroying the bugs near his home 
that no “ chinches ” whatever could be found 
there the following summer. Sixteen years 
later—in 1883—Prof. Forbes, of Champaign, 
Ill., reported upon two diseases that had that 
season destroyed many of the bugs in Illinois. 
One of these diseases was a parasitic fungus 
belonging to the genus Empusa, and was 
probably the same disease reported on by 
Shiner. The other, a bacterial disease, had 
never before been known to attack chinch 
bugs. 
Tbe’past season has been a very remarkable 
one, not only for the wide-spread appearance 
of the two above-mentioned diseases, but also 
for the appearance of another disease caused 
by a fungus belonging to the genus Botrytis, 
which, Prof. Forbes finds destroying great 
numbers of the bugs in Illinois. The disease 
most widespread the present year seems to be 
the one caused by the attack of the first-named 
fungus, (Empusa). Either of these fungi 
covers the dead bugs entirely or in part with a 
white mold. At this place the diseases have 
been so destructive that it has long been 
almost impossible to find a bug, although 
they were very numerous early in August. 
The prospects now are that wherever the dis¬ 
eases were present the past summer there will 
be no danger of a chinch bug outbreak next 
year, however favorable the season may be 
for the development and increase of the pests. 
It is certainly very encouraging to notice the 
more frequent occurrence and wider distribu¬ 
tion of these diseases under natural condi¬ 
tions. While we hope that these tendencies 
through the aid of experiment stations will be 
so increased that this greatest evil to Western 
agriculture shall no longer be feared, let us 
not forget to be thankful for what has already 
been accomplished. c . p. Gillette. 
Ag’l Coll., Ames, Iowa. 
a tale of toads. 
Our Colorado system of irrigation certainly 
suits the toads. Visitors from the older 
States remark upon the multitude of toads. 
The frequent floodings of the lawns give ex¬ 
cellent opportunities for the study of toad 
life. The toads come hopping along as fast 
as they can, when the water has been turned 
on, either hearing, seeing or smelling the 
water. Into it they plump with evident satis¬ 
faction, not only enjoying the bath but com¬ 
bining business with pleasure, by snapping 
up every unlucky insect that takes refuge on 
tree trunk or blade of grass. 
Down beyond the slope near the old sod 
corral is a shallow pool of alkali water. Dur¬ 
ing the first really warm day in May great 
numbers of toads may be seen in that pool, 
making a joyful noise. I have stood for 
hours watching their queer performances, 
and trying to make out their significance. 
About once a minute each toad would lift up 
its head, displaying its white vest to advan¬ 
tage, and swelling out the loose flesh beneath 
the lower jaw until it took the form of a small 
hemisphere, all the while making a loud, but 
somewhat tremulous, pent-up sound, never 
once opening the mouth. They had just come 
from the cold, dark ground where they had 
spent the long, cold winter, and felt as if they 
could no longer keep silence in the presen c 
of so much water, sunshine and warmth. 
Great is the capacity of the toad for the in- 
FAITHFULLY YOURS FOR 1889! 
