THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
EGBERT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1889. 
FROM THE LIEUT. GOVERNOR. 
Binghamton, N. Y., Dec. 29, 1888. 
Editor Rural New- Yorker : The Rur¬ 
al New-Yorker of December 29 is be¬ 
fore me, and its effect on me is to impel 
me to express to you my sincere wishes 
for a Happy New Year for yourself, and 
continued success for the Rural, which, 
when contrasted with the agricultural 
papers of 25 years since, shows not only 
the improvement in the paper itself, but 
also illustrates the progress made by the 
agricultural class, much of which is due to 
the inspiration of the Rural New-Yorker, 
and such of its contemporaries as follow its 
example. edward f. jones. 
“But who would buy these vegetables if 
you had them to sell? Every mechanic and 
merchant in your village and even your 
next-door farmer-neighbor. You needn't 
shake your head and say you know differ¬ 
ently—that I “don't know the kind of folk in 
these parts." We all know that supply 
creates demand. If these vegetables are not 
presented to your people , can you expect 
them to run around looking for them? No, 
for they won't do it ."— Wm. Falconer, 
page 20. 
“But, taking the year together, my dear, 
there isn’t more cloud than sun.” 
The Rural New-Yorker for 1889, will 
be, as hitherto, invariably, $2.00 a year for 
single subscriptions, and $1.50 m clubs 
of five or more. 
« < ■ » -- 
The best kinds of vegetables, roots, 
potatoes, etc., for both the garden and 
field; the best of the old kinds, the best 
of the new. These topics will be fully 
treated by practical writers in a few 
weeks. 
—- ^ l> ♦ » » » -- 
The three bunches of Niagara grapes, 
received from Secretary Williams,Septem¬ 
ber 29, and illustrated in Fig. 5, weigh¬ 
ed about three pounds. Some of his 
clusters weighed a pound and a quarter. 
The illustration is precisely life size. 
“The success of the ‘Potato Contest’ 
of our friends of the The Rural New- 
Yorker, has stimulated several publish¬ 
ers and manufacturers to the offering of 
large money prizes for crops to be raised 
during the coming year.” So says the Edi¬ 
tor of the American Garden. 
-- ^ -* 
Mr. C. W. Minott, the Horticulturist 
of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment 
Station, writes us, under date of Decem¬ 
ber 26, as follows: 
“The R. N.-Y. potato No. 2, I think, is 
bound to come to the front. It fulfills 
all that is claimed for it. It nearly leads 
the 80 varieties tested here this season in 
merchantable tubers.” 
The 1889 catalogues are now being 
sent out by the seedsmen and nurserymen 
of the country. We shall soon begin to 
review these catalogues, calling special 
attention to the new and old things of 
merit and demerit, which it might be well 
to try or to leave untried. The R. N.-Y. 
always endeavors to be strictly impartial 
in its catalogue reviews. 
Such of our readers as make butter 
will confer a favor upon us by ascertaining 
how many pounds of milk are required to 
make a pound of butter. We are gather¬ 
ing statistics regarding dairy profits, and 
want as many figures as we can get. Our 
readers will have all the benefit of our in¬ 
vestigations. The greater the number 
of accurate statements, the 'more valu- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
able the conclusions. We want the milk 
weighed as it is put into the pans, the 
cream weighed as it goes into the churn, 
and the butter weighed as it is sold or 
used. Then we would like to know the 
breed of cows, the feed, and any other in¬ 
formation that is easily obtainable. Who 
will help in this matter? 
For the past 10 years, in a general way, 
but for the past four years especially, we 
have had occasion to observe that the 
subscribers of the R. N.-Y. are, more and 
more with each succeeding year, of the 
more intelligent, progressive, alert, well- 
tod o class. This is as it should be. It 
is what we have worked for. It is in 
accordance with the old and forcible 
maxim that “birds of a feather flock 
together.” We want all the subscribers 
we can get. That, as they say, “goes 
without saying.” It is not for the 
R. N.-Y. to select its clientage, any more 
than it is for a merchant, doctor, lawyer 
or minister. Nevertheless,it is gratifying, 
all the same, to find that we are supported 
by good, intelligent people. The 
R. N.-Y. some years ago found out that 
purchased subscribers, how much soever 
they may swell the subscription list for the 
time, are not worth having. 
The Southern Cotton Oil Company, 
the great hopeful rival of the Cotton Oil 
Trust monopoly, has been doing a fair 
business during the season, and, the other 
day, at the end of its first half year’s 
business, decreed a dividend of four per 
cent., payable February 1. This is said 
to represent less than half its earnings, 
the rest being reserved for expenses in 
increasing its plant and machinery. 
While the oil-producing quality of 
cotton seed this year has not been equal 
to that of last year, the higher prices 
that have been obtained for the product 
have made better returns and enabled 
the company to pay better prices to 
the planters. Owing to the competi¬ 
tion between the rival organizations in 
some places and to the refusal of the plant¬ 
ers to sell their seed at unremunerative 
figures in others, higher prices than 
usual have been obtained by growers for 
their seed during the past season. 
Southern farmers have shown a good 
deal of spirit and sense during the past 
year in refusing to sell their seed at un¬ 
reasonable prices, as well as to buy jute 
bagging at extortionate figures. 
The Hon. Columbus Delano, of Ohio, 
President of the National Wool Growers’ 
Association, has called a meeting of the 
officers of the National and State Assoc¬ 
iations at Washington on January 10. 
In his address he says that “the schedule 
pending before the benate fails to afford 
adequate protection to the wool-growing 
industry.” He thinks the provisions re¬ 
lating to carpet wools will lead to large 
importations of wool used for clothing 
purposes at a duty of only 2 'A cents per 
pound. He points out that it contains 
no provisions preventing the present 
large importations of scoured wools at 
the low duty imposed upon washed 
wools; and he thinks these and other 
defects endanger the prosperity of the 
wool industry, unless they are rem¬ 
edied before the bill is passed. At 
present wool is in good demand at an 
average ot three cents per pound higher 
than it was a year ago; but at an average 
of one cent per pound lower than it was at 
the corresponding date in 1886. The stocks 
on hand at Boston, the great wool market 
of the country, are about 40 per cent, 
lower than a year ago, and at Philadel¬ 
phia, our second greatest wool mar¬ 
ket, they are estimated to be at least 
50 per cent, lower, while at other 
points they are unusually small also. At 
all Eastern markets receipts are very light 
and there is no anxiety to sell except at 
top figures, while the tendency of prices 
is decidedly upward. Some large manu¬ 
facturers have considerable stocks on 
hand; but small mill owners are not pro¬ 
vided with much for future consumption. 
The news from abroad continues quite fav- 
orable.and with the confidence arising from 
the knowledge that no decrease will be 
made in the tariff for at least the next 
half dozen years, the outlook for sheep 
husbandry is very encouraging. 
SPECIAL NUMBERS. 
E VERY issue of the R. N.-Y. for 1889 
will contain an elaborate discussion 
of some timely and important subject. 
We find that this idea of grouping the 
opinions of various authorities in one issue 
is very popular and convenient. Some 
of the best of these discussions are fre¬ 
quently started by suggestions made by 
readers, who, in course of their studies, 
come across points that are not clear to 
them. We always take pleasure in col¬ 
lecting all the information we can, that 
will benefit our readers. While our read¬ 
ers may expect 52 special discussions for 
1889, there are several topics that we 
deem of sufficient importance to warrant 
us in giving extra attention to them. 
Farm Help. —If we may judge from the 
deep interest evinced in the replies to 
our inquiries, the question of farm labor 
and laborers is of the utmost importance. 
We shall give the most reliable inform¬ 
ation obtained from the various sections 
of the United States. 
Seed and Seedsmen. —In this Special 
Number some of our best market garden 1 
ers and farmers will give lists of the seeds 
they find most profitable for field and 
garden culture, with very reliable inform¬ 
ation regarding culture, etc. “To what 
extentjshould seedsmen be held responsible 
for their seeds ?” This question will be 
discussed fairly and intelligently in this 
number. 
Manures. —We shall issue our usual 
Fertilizer Special in which a number of 
exceedingly interesting topics will be dis¬ 
cussed. In short, the R. N.-Y. will do 
its best to collect the most reliable in¬ 
formation regarding any agricultural 
proposition discussed. 
TAXES ON MORTGAGES. 
I N several of the States if a farm worth 
$5,000 is mortgaged for that sum, 
the mortgagor is taxed as if he owed 
nothing, and the mortgagee as if he had 
created property to the extent of the in¬ 
cumbrance; in other words, $5,000 being 
taxed twice, is taxed as if it were $10,000. 
To avoid such double taxation borrowers 
frequently give deeds for the land in com¬ 
mon form, taking bonds for reconveyance 
when the money is repaid with interest; 
but this is a perilous practice. The credi¬ 
tors of the lender may attach the proper¬ 
ty and hold it as his, for it stands in his 
name; the creditors of the borrower 
may attach it and hold it as his, for the 
bond to reconvey is a secret trust, and in 
law a fraud upon them, unless it is re¬ 
corded with the deed, in which case the 
two instruments constitute a mortgage; 
and, finally, in some States at least, the 
tax collector, if he can learn the facts, 
may treat the transaction as a mort¬ 
gage, and collect from both parties. 
In some other States the tax on mort¬ 
gages is smaller, and few resort to such 
dangerous expedients to avoid it. In all 
cases, doubtless, the reason for the origi¬ 
nal imposition of this burden was the 
supposition that it would operate as a tax 
on capital. Even if such were the case, it 
is questionable whether such legislation 
would be best for the people at large. 
As a matter of the plainest fact, however, 
it is always and inevitably a tax on the 
borrower and not on the lender; for in 
all cases the latter, in addition to the in¬ 
terest he would otherwise charge, exacts 
enough to cover the tax he has to pay on 
the mortgage. Moreover, such a tax always 
operates as an unjust discrimination 
against the capital ef the State in which 
the mortgage lies in favor of outside 
capital. 
Some of the States in which mortgages 
are taxed, having realized the evils of 
the system, are agitating for the repeal of 
the laws. Of these Minnesota is probably 
a fair example. There the tax on mort¬ 
gages is two per cent, The financial 
standing of the State is so high and the 
reputation of her citizens so excellent 
that, on good security, they ought to be 
able to obtain money readily at six per 
cent; whereas the current rate of interest 
is eight per cent. The difference is due 
entirely to the tax on mortgages. The 
man who makes the loan knows that he 
must pay two per cent on it to the State, 
and, intending to realize six per cent on 
his investment, he charges eight per cent, 
to cover interest on the loan and the tax 
on the mortgage in addition. Then 
there arises an unjust discrimination. 
If the lender is a citizen of Minnesota, he 
is subject to her law, and must pay the 
tax. If he is a citizen of some other 
State, he is beyond her jurisdiction, and 
the tax on the mortgage cannot be col¬ 
lected within her borders. The result 
ot this is to keep the rate of interest in 
Minnesota artificially high. Citizens of 
a few other States holding Western 
mortgages are taxed on them in their 
own States, and must therefore add this 
tax to the amount of interest they exact. 
Even where this is not the case, capital 
invariably charges the rate of interest 
current, in, any„ community; A and the 
Eastern capitalist who has to pay no 
interest at home on his Western mort¬ 
gages, will always charge eight per cent, 
in Minnesota, because the home-lender 
must do so to cover the two per cent, he 
has to pay to the State on his mortgage. 
The net result of the tax, therefore, is to 
raise the rate of interest over the whole 
State by two per cent, and this enormous 
tax is wholly borne by the unfortunate 
debtor class—chiefly farmers. Taxation 
of mortgages is always a harmful and in 
iquitous policy, because it inevitably adds 
to the burden of those already grieviously 
oppressed, and all legislation sanctioning 
It should be speedily repealed m every 
State in the Union. 
brevities. 
The R. N.-Y.’s best admonition to its 
readers for the New-Year: “Love ye one an¬ 
other.” 
Now is the time to begin to handle over 
your seed potatoes. Read what was said 
about this last year. 
The city supplies the country with eggs 
just now. Where does the blame rest—with 
the hen or the hen owner? 
The Kif.ffer Pear is a prince in quality 
compared to the large and beautiful Cal¬ 
ifornia Clairgeaus now in the market. 
A Writer in “Postscripts” gives an orig¬ 
inal plan for interesting children in the liter¬ 
ature of agriculture; why not try this? 
Many ladies who have entered for the 
“Potato Contest” write to the effect that they 
want to do all the work themselves except the 
plowing and cultivating. 
The Bubach strawberry is worthy of a 
trial. It succeeds well at the Rural Grounds, 
and favorable reports come to us regarding it 
from many parts of the country. 
The Niagara grape—outside of the Niagara 
nursery—was first fruited at the Rural Farm, 
Queens Co., L. I. It thrives well there, but 
at the Rural Grounds, Bergen Co., N. j., it 
rots badly in moist seasons. 
In our issue of Sept. 15th, page 615, under 
head of “Latest and Briefest” we said: “Am- 
moniated bone, made by J. B. Eckerson, 
River Vale, N. J.; selling price §38; station 
valuation §27.20” —We should have said sam¬ 
pled by J. B. Eckerson. 
One of our leading agricultural writers 
suggests Prof. J. L. Budd, of the Iowa Agri¬ 
cultural College, for our next Commissioner 
of Agriculture. “I believe,” he says, “that 
for enterprise we have no better man.” And 
the R. N.-Y. believes precisely the same 
thing. 
The hogs that work over the manure in 
New England barn cellars have done a good 
work for agriculture. They have not made 
the best of pork though. The best ot pork 
can be made only by animals which make a 
business of pork-making, and do not have to 
act as manure-mixers as a side issue. 
The Pennsylvania Patrons of Husbandry 
advocate the preparation of petitions to be 
presented to the Legislature providing for 
a bounty of two and a half cents per head for 
the destruction of that “intolerable nuisance,” 
the English sparrow. Similar petitions asking 
for a bounty of two cents per head have been 
circulated in New York State, and measures 
looking to the extermination of the pests have 
also been advocated in a large number of 
other States; but while the farmers are talk¬ 
ing, the friendless little vagabonds are multi 
plying and spreading abroad prodigiously 
rendering their destruction next to an im¬ 
possibility, while becoming all the more de 
sirable This pugnacious and impudent little 
robber is among birds what weeds are among 
plants. 
There is a tariff of §20 a head on imported 
horses and mules, and at first glance this cer¬ 
tainly appears equitable in view of the usual 
cost of such animals and the tariff on manu¬ 
factured products. Moreover, it is easy to 
count off imported beasts and levy the tax, 
aud there is no danger of under-valuation. Iu 
a debate on the matter in the Senate the other 
day, however, a Texas Senator stuted that 
many horses and mules imported from Mexico 
are valued at only §10 apiece, although they 
answer all intended requirements. A tariff 
of §10 on such an auimal would bo equal to 
200 per cent., while on a Canadian truck 
horse worth §100, it would be only 20 per cent., 
and on a §2,000 imported Thoroughbred, only 
one per cent. In such cases a specific duty of 
§10 per head would tax the Texas plauter 
200, the Vermont farmer 20, aud the “dude” 
horseman only one per cent. Surely there are 
some puzzling problems in the tariff question. 
The famous Legion of Honor was founded 
by Napoleon Bonaparte when First Consul of 
France, for merit both military aud civil. To 
obtain the insignia of the Order is one of the 
highest ambitions of a Frenchman, and is a 
mark of signal honor for a foreigner. The 
number of such decorations bestowed on the 
latter class, in all parts of the world, is small, 
hence the greater the distinction for the for¬ 
tunate few. On the first of each new year, 
the head of the nation, whether Emperor, 
King or President, confers the honor of the 
Order on those natives or foreigners whose 
merits are considered worthy of the favor. The 
only foreigners who were thus decorated by 
President Carnot on last New Year’s Day were 
two Americans, one an occasional, aud the 
other a frequent contributor to the Rural— 
F. L. Scribner, Mycologist of the Department 
of Agriculture, and T. V. Munson, vine origi¬ 
nator of Texas. In both cases, wasn’t the 
honor worthily bestowed? 
