476 
THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKEB. 
JULY 20 
frem obstructive beliefs, which very slowly 
admit the clear light of demonstrative science. 
The shifting character ot our population, 
in its efforts to over-spread and occupy a 
vast virgin continent, acts continually to 
hinder the foundation of agricultural art | 
Our bountiful soil prevents our blunders from 
doing us the injury that otherwise might end 
in destructive and fatal loss; yet in the settle-1 
ment of many new States the settlers havej 
crept very close to the verge of starva¬ 
tion, for want of an acquired art of agricul¬ 
ture, adapted to their special conditions. 
Situated as we thus find ourselves, 
American farmers stand, in default of art, 
deeply in need of science, not only of 
general scientific knowledge, but of highly 
specialized knowledge, as made needful by lo | 
cal conditions. What will do in Dakota will 
not do at all in North Carolina. What is 
right for Florida is exactly wroDg for Oregon. 1 
The essentials in Iowa are pernicious errors in 
Maine. Now, mankind seems, under some ill- 
recognized influence to have always builded 
more wisely.than it knew; and have we not 
done so here in America in the foundation of 
agricultural colleges and experiment stations 
in every State and Territory of our Union? 
Tne plan has been much divided, and as a 
fact it has been yet but poorly carried out. 
But having no art, do we not, here in Amer¬ 
ica. stand in especial need of a Science of Ag¬ 
riculture, and having the beginnings of 
these institutions, will not our needs, now be¬ 
ing so rapidly realized, force their develop¬ 
ment, and drive us on to insure their success? 
Cmijfbijfue. 
LONG ISLAND NOTES. 
Foreign Market-Gardeners and Farm¬ 
ers Supplanting Americans.— The farms 
and market gardens in the close vicinity ot 
New York City and Brooklyn are passing 
from the hands of their original owners, 
chiefly descendants ot the English, into the 
hands of foreigners. This is due chiefly to 
the fact that Americans are unable to live as 
they have been accustomed to, and compete 
with tne immigrants. Americans work them¬ 
selves and hire all the labor they can pay for, 
while their families keep their houses in order; 
the children attend school and live and dress 
comparatively well. On the other hand, not only 
do their competitors work themselves, but they 
keep their whole families in the fields from 
early mornirg until late at night. Housework 
is neglected and school is not thought of dur¬ 
ing the busy season. What will be the Anal 
result of this evolutionary process? Will the 
level of farm labor go down, down, until it is 
on the same plane as that on which the tenant 
farmers of England and the peasantry of the 
Continent slave for a hard-earned and scanty 
livelihood, or will the foreign element become 
Americanized? The Germans, accustomed to 
hand labor, do not take kindly to the Ameri¬ 
can way of doing things. A plow and a hoe 
seem to be about all the implements they re¬ 
quire, and it is really suprising how clean they 
keep their ground with these tools. The se¬ 
cret of their success is persisent, continuous 
hard work. 
Scarcity op Potato Beetles.— For some 
reason the potatoes raised by the local market 
gardeners are comparatively free from potato 
bugs. It must be that early planting on very 
rich soil, causes so rank a growth as to make 
the vines distasteful to the pests. It may be 
that the application of London-purple very 
soon after the vines are up, with persistent hand¬ 
picking, is the secret of the scarcity of the 
bugs. At any rate, they are not nearly so 
troublesome in the market gardens as they 
are on the farms. 
Asparagus, for many years a profitable 
crop, has not brought enough in the city mar¬ 
kets this year to pay the cost of cutting, 
bunching and marketing. The high prices of 
previous years had induced the planting of 
large quantities of this important vegetable, 
and the low prices will prove a great disap¬ 
pointment to the younger market gardeners. 
As usual when there is an over-production of 
anything, the large crop has glutted the mar¬ 
ket and the price has been hammered down to 
ruinous figures. 
New Vegetables.— One of the effects of 
the introduction of foreign methods in mar¬ 
ket gardening has Deen a demand for veget¬ 
ables not formerly grown to any great extent 
on Long island. It is straDge how quickly 
the city customer learns to appreciate a new 
vegetable. Leeks, cauliflower, kohl-rabi, sal¬ 
sify, Brussells Sprouts and a great variety of 
other vegetables now in common use, were 
seldom raised by the farmers ot 20 years ago. 
A Bad Practice. —What is to prevent a 
potato grower from selecting some of the best 
tubers raised from any of the older varieties 
aDd calling: it a new potato? I recently saw 
a plate of potatoes exhibited as a new variety. 
They were very large and handsome, but to 
the casual observer they did not differ in any 
respect from the Thorburn. This practice of 
giving a name to a mere variation of a well 
known and distinct variety and introducing 
it as something novel, is doing an immense 
amount of harm. It is carried to an extreme 
and should be stopped. 
Crops. —It may be news to some of the 
readers of the R. N.-Y. that on Long Island 
there are fields of grain a mile or more in 
length and that the harvesting methods of the 
West are followed here. 1 recently saw five 
mowing machines at work in one field, all 
mowing together. In an adjoining field five 
horse rakes were going. This was on the 
plains at Garden City. The crops this year 
seem very good. Corn, however, is an ex¬ 
ception; it seems to have suffered from the 
wet and cold. 
ing to get along with less help. They would 
solve the “farm help” problem by using the 
latest and best labor-saving implements. The 
Aspinwall potato planter and the Hudson Bi¬ 
cycle cultivator have taken the place of hand 
labor in the cultivation of potatoes. The re¬ 
sult has been laiger crops, produced at a 
much less cost than by the old methods. 
A New Potato Disease, if such it may 
be properly called, is known in seme parts of 
the island as the “black stem.” Opinions dif¬ 
fer as to whether it is caused by wire-worms 
or by some sort of rotor fungus. Should it 
increase to any great extent, it will prove far 
more damaging to the potato crop than either 
the flea beetle or the potato bug. 
Ravages op the Rose-Bug.— The whole¬ 
sale destruction of the foliage of the cherry 
trees by the rose-bug is likely to nearly or 
quite ruin the crop of cherries, and the pests 
may do even the trees irreparable injury. 
Good Work of Ye Olden Time.— Mr. C. 
L. Allen of East Hinsdale, the well known 
horticulturist, has one of the finest libraries in 
THE PARKER EARLE STRAWBERRY. From Nature. Fig. 181. 
Strawberries. —Has there been any real 
improvement in these since the introduction 
of the Sharpless? Many of our leading 
growers have tried nearly all Ihe new seed¬ 
lings, only to return to the Sbarplcss as their 
chief market berry. I have a friend who 
picked 32 quarts of Sbarpless from a small 
patch in a short time while he could not have 
gathered 10 quarts frem all his other va¬ 
rieties put together. 
The Seventeen-year Locusts have again 
appeared cn the north side of the island. It 
is impossible to describe the condition of the 
forests after a visitation from these horrible 
pests. At times the trees seem fairly alive 
with them. The damage, however, is not as 
great as would at first appear. They eat off 
all the leaves and the trets turn yellow and 
look as though they were dead, but they come 
out the next season as fresh and green as ever. 
The Farm Help Problem.— The larger 
farmers on the east end of the Island are try- 
tbis country. Among his books are works on 
horticulture printed in the Seventeenth Cen¬ 
tury. The illustrations in these ancient books 
are wonderfully true to nature; more so, Mr. 
Allen says, than the average drawings of the 
present time. It is rather humiliating to find 
that after two centuries of supposed develop¬ 
ment in floriculture and the engraver’s art, 
we can find so few points of superiority in our 
modern books on the subject. rambler. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Kansas. 
Parsons, Labette County, July 2.—After a 
very wet spring and considerable loss from 
floods on the Neosho river and its feeders, we 
have had 10 or 12 days of warm weather 
which, while injurious to oats (causing rust) 
has given us time to finish the cultivation of 
crops [.and reap the wheat and oats. The 
crops of wheat, oats, small fruit of all kinds, 
vegetables, and grass will prove better than 
ever before known. We were just beginning to 
call for rain, when this morning, it came, and 
is now coming down—one of those rare rain¬ 
falls in Kansas, which fall gently and quietly 
and become absorbed as they fall. Early ap¬ 
ples and peaches are just coming into market 
and selling at very low prices—apples and 
peaches at 30 to 40 cents per bushel. 
Field corn will probably prove a big crop, 
even though some has been “ laid by ” in a 
weedy state. Kansas crops promise well in 
the aggregate, and low prices will be the rule 
if similar conditions prevail in other Ftates. 
Corn is just beginning to tassel and may be 
considered somewha: earlier than usual, 
though there,is great difference in the growth, 
some of it not being over two or three feet 
high, while some is eight or 10 feet. Many 
of our farmers consider that no particular 
benefits come to them from big crops, as such 
crops are followed by low prices, while small 
crops are followed by high prices. But it is 
certain that benefit will inure to the con¬ 
sumer. j. b. 
Ohio. 
Bristolville, Trumbull County, July 5.— 
Hereabouts some depend upon the flax crop as 
the best crop for cash, as it brings ready pay 
for'both seed and straw. The seed is mostly 
sold at Warren, Ohio, our county seat, where 
it is worked into oil, and the oil-cake is sold 
for feed. The seed has brought $1.10 per 
bushel, but the company has agreed to pay 
$1.50 per bushel for seed delivered before the 
17th of August this year. The straw is bought 
in two places, each about eight miles from 
here. The price paid last season was $8 per 
ton. Wheat is raised to a considerable ex¬ 
tent also, and is shipped on the railroad pass¬ 
ing through this town. It brought $1 per 
bushel last fall and winter, but now it brings 
only about 00 cents per bushel. These are the 
most important crops that are raised around 
here, although some farmers raise some others 
on a small scale to sell for cash. Most farm¬ 
ers raise some stock for sale—hogs, cattle and 
sheep—but prices are very low at present. I 
do not know of any farmers around here who 
get better prices than those obtained by their 
neighbors. Prices of almost all products are 
lower thau they were a few years ago, 
and the tendency seems to be downward, and 
the prospects are not very bright for farmers, 
as prices are low and money pretty scarce. 
The farming of this section has not clanged 
very much within a decade. Farmers, how¬ 
ever, do not keep so many dairy cows as they 
did a few years ago, while they raise more 
young stock and wheat. A decrease in the 
price of dairy products helped to cause the 
change. Otherwise farmers depend on about 
the same routine of crops as in the past. The 
prospects for farmers are not very bright 
around here, but we must keep on and try to 
do the best we can and hope for better times. 
It will not do for farmers to give up, even 
though prcspects may not look very encour¬ 
aging- J. s. B. 
Texas. 
Denison, Grayson County, June 29.— In a 
journey of about 500 miles, which took me 
through portions of 13 counties in central 
northern Texas, I find the most promising 
crop conditions I have ever seen over the 
same extent of country. 
Corn, with but few exceptions, is now in 
the roasting-ear condition with plenty of mois¬ 
ture in the soil to fully mature the crop, which 
will ceriainly be the largest ever produced in 
the State. The cotton crop prospects are also 
above the average. Some complain of too 
much rain for the bottom lands, which has 
prevented cultivation in places until the grass 
and weeds have such a start that some pieces 
have been abandoned. But farmers in the 
section referred to certainly have good cause 
to feel jubilant over their prospects, j. n. 
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WILL SORGHUM PAY? 
Is sorghum a paying crop at $2 per ton of 
cane? That is, will an acre of laud produce 
