§44 
THE BUBAL IEW-V0R5CEB, 
AUG 47 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
^National Journal for Country and Suburban Home •. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST ‘7, 1889 
Prof. S». W. Johnson says that very 
finely ground bone is, at present, one of 
the cheapest sources of quickly available 
nitrogen and phosphoric acid. Remem¬ 
ber this, you who use S. C. Rock, Cotton¬ 
seed meal, though the price is higher 
than last year, still remains the cheapest 
source of available nitrogen. 
To dig or not to digl That is the 
queston that is seriously agitating 
farmers who have discovered signs of rot 
in their potato fields. The first tendency 
would naturally be to take the potatoes 
out of the ground. But will they be 
better off in the air? The R. N.-Y. can¬ 
not assume the responsibility of giving 
anything more than a general answer. 
If the present fair weather continue, it 
will let its potatoes remain in the ground 
for a while at least. The R. N.-Y, will 
be very glad to hear from potato growers 
who have had experience with such sea¬ 
sons. Shall we dig early? 
Keep cool! This is the R. N.-Y ’s ad¬ 
vice to potato growers and farmers gen¬ 
erally. It looks now as thougn some 
crops would turn out bad. Potatoes, ap¬ 
ples, beans and some other products may 
prove disappointing. Keep cool. All is 
not lost. “It’s a long lane that has no 
turning.” In the long run farming, with 
careful attention to details, will pay. 
Some years prove unprofitable. There is 
no use in being discouraged. Every sort 
of business has its dark days, “To-mor¬ 
row may be better.” It is better to say 
that than to give up and settle into the 
belief that there is no hope ahead. Keep 
cool, friends. In any event, don’t let 
your spirits, your temper or your courage 
catch the rot from the notatoes. 
Prof. Sanborn discusses an important 
question on page 545. There are thous¬ 
ands of farms at the East where live 
stock must be kept. The farmers have 
always kept stock of some sort, and can 
not, even if they would like to do so, 
change to fertilizer farming yet. The 
trade in dressed beef has changed the 
w r hole aspect of affairs for these farmers. 
Beef making will not pay, dairjing will 
not pay beyond a reasonable limit, and 
there is not a profitable market for all the 
forage that the farm produces. There¬ 
fore it is quite natural that farmers should 
want to investigate the profits of horse- 
breeding. The R. N.-Y. would like to 
hear from others on this subject. There 
is one thing we want to say about it—it 
never will pay to try to produce a flat- 
country horse on a hilly farm. The 
heavy, ponderous trucking breeds belong 
in level corn countries. There they ob¬ 
tain their best development. Lighter, 
more active animals are betier suited to 
Eastern farming. 
W. B. Keeney & Sons, of Genesee 
County, New York, probably the largest 
handlers of beans in this country, write 
as follows concerning the prospects for 
the bean crop:— 
“ The bean crop last year paid quite well 
and arrangements were made this year to 
plant an unusually large amount, but the 
heavy rains that lasted through the most of 
June hindered planting, even alter the 
land had been fitted two or three times. 
Crops on the Genesee River suffered 
more than those on higher land, and as 
they often yield one third more per acre, 
the production will be very materially 
lessened in this section. Crops planted 
on dry land that received good care prom¬ 
ised a large yield, but as haying and hoe¬ 
ing came together, beans in most cases 
were neglected. We cannot reasonably 
expect more than three-quarters of a com¬ 
mon crop, and as many were planted 
about July 1, an early frost would make 
the crop still shorter. 
The situation ‘ in a nut-shell ’ is this: 
With favorable weather in August and no 
early frost, we shall get three-fourths of 
an average crop. With unfavorable 
weather in August and an eariy Septem¬ 
ber frost, the crop will not be one-fourth 
of an average.” 
BAD WEATHER FOR HAY. 
T HE hay crop is something immense 
this year. Ordinarily such a crop 
would mean low prices and a business 
stagnation, particularly when the fact is 
considered that a great surplus remained 
on hand from last year. But a great deal 
of this year’s crop has been seriously 
damaged by the wet. President F. D. 
Douglass, of the Vermont Dairymen’s As¬ 
sociation, writes the R. N.-Y. as follows: 
“I have over 50 acres of heavy grass 
now under water; while I have over 60 
acres of small grain, which must be badly 
injured, with a continuance of such 
weather as we have had for some time 
past. There are probably 2,000 acres 
within 10 miles of my farm, on the same 
river, which would have averaged nearly 
two tons of hay per acre, and which are 
now in the same condition as my own low 
land. We have had a succession of 
floods, and there has been no opportunity 
for haying upon these meadows, a state 
of things never before known by the ‘old¬ 
est inhabitant.’ I have owned the farm 
on which I now live 23 years, and 
have never before had my hay crop in¬ 
jured by summer floods.” 
This is a fair sample of letters from 
many parts of the country. On low- 
ground, the hay crop has been quite seri¬ 
ously injured The R. N.-Y. judges 
therefore, that prices for the best quality 
of hay will continue firm. 
CHEAPER TRANSPORTATION FROM 
THE FAR WEST TO FOREIGN 
MARKETS. 
T O the States and Territories west of 
the Mississippi, the problem of 
cheap transportation to Europen markets 
is one of the most important. Their 
business is chiefly agricultural, and the 
principal products they have to send to 
market are therefore bulky. While they 
are farthest removed from foreign mar¬ 
kets along the present lines of transporta¬ 
tion, and have therefore to pay the heav¬ 
iest freight rates, the prices for their 
products abroad control those for which 
they must dispose, of them at home. It 
is very natural therefore that they should 
take a deep interest in any scheme look¬ 
ing to the establishment of shorter land 
routes to foreign markets. It is this con¬ 
sideration which for months has given 
special importance to the project of mak¬ 
ing, at the national expense, at some 
point on the Texas coast, a deep-water 
harbor to which should converge lines of 
railroad from different parts of all the 
southwestern States and Territories and 
from the rest of the western country as 
far north as Iowa and Dakota, and as 
far west as California. This sub¬ 
ject has already been warmly discussed 
at several conventions in the West, 
and investigations have been made by 
government engineers with regard to the 
best place for a deep-water harbor on the 
Texas coast. Three points are now un¬ 
der consideration as the most eligible— 
Sabine, with a channel now about 10 feet 
deep at Sabine Pass, at the extreme east¬ 
ern end of the State bordering on Louis¬ 
iana; Galveston, about 50 miles further 
west, with a channel now 16 feet deep 
directly in front; and Corpus Christi in 
the western-central part of the State, 
with a channel at present about nine feet 
deep at Aransas Pass. The proposed 
harbor should have a depth of water to 
permit ocean steamers drawing at least 22 
feet of water to cross the bar at any stage 
of the tide. Galveston appears to be the 
favorite place Not only is the water on 
the bar there much deeper than at any 
other Texas port, but of the 8,000 miles 
of railroad already constructed in Texas, 
nearly all have been built with reference 
to Galveston as the ocean outlet for the 
vast area of the State as well as for the 
States and Territories northwest of it. 
An important convention is to be held 
at Topeka, Kansas, in October, to discuss 
the entire question, and to urge Congress 
at the extra session—which is now almost 
certain—to take prompt action in the 
matter. Delegates will be present from 
the States of Texas, Colorado, Nevada, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa and California, and from the Terri¬ 
tories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, 
Wyoming and Dakota—which has only a 
Territorial vote as yet—as well as from 
the Indian Territory. Each State Com¬ 
mittee is to be composed of five members, 
and each Territorial Committee of three. 
The argument in favor of such a harbor 
is strengthened by the prospect of a large 
South American trade which does not now 
exist, but which would grow up if Western 
produce had a cheap and ample outlet in 
the Gulf. A glance at the map of the 
United States will show that lines of 
railroad converging from the vast region 
west of the Mississippi to some port on the 
Texas coast, would afford shorter and 
therefore cheaper means of land transpor¬ 
tation for goods in transit to Europe than 
a line to any part of the Atlantic coast, 
or to any other part of the Gulf, and a 
dollar saved in the freight of any product 
to market, ought to be at least 75 cents 
extra in the pocket of the producer. 
OPENING OF THE GREAT SIOUX 
RESERVATION. 
E VER since 1882 Congress has been leg¬ 
islating with regard to the opening 
for settlement of a part of the great Sioux 
Reservation in southwestern Dakota. 
This embraced an area of 22,000,000 acres, 
and the various tribes of the Sioux race in¬ 
habiting it, numbered about 45,000 of both 
sexes and all ages. As this vast tract, 
amounting to over 34,375 square miles, 
was over 1,000 square miles larger than 
the combined areas of New Hampshire. 
Vermont,Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 
Connecticut, the settlers in the adjoining 
States and Territories felt it an outrage 
that so large a body of fine agricultural 
land should be appropriated by so small a 
number of shiftless, unprogressive, idle 
Indians, who derived most of their sup¬ 
port from the Government, especially since 
with the disappearance of the buffalo, a 
large area was no longer needed for hunt¬ 
ing. This feeling steadily extended 
among all acquainted with the matter; 
hence the persistent and strenuous efforts 
to induce the Indians to sell their surplus 
area. The principal opponents of the 
measure have been the chiefs, whom the 
new order of things threatened with loss 
of influence and power as well as with 
great curtailment of their opportunities 
for self-enrichment. If half the land were 
sojd to the United States, it was proposed 
that the remainder should be divided, in 
severalty, among the Indians, instead of 
being held in common according to im- 
m'-morial custom. There would be am¬ 
ply sufficient to give a good farm not 
only to every family in all the tribes, but 
to every member, old and young, ma’e 
and female. This would tend to make 
each family less dependent, and therefore 
diminish the power and influence of the 
chiefs. Moreover, the land having be¬ 
come private property, the chiefs could 
no longer use all they wanted of it for 
pasturing tbeir exceptionally large herds 
of horses and cattle. Another class bit¬ 
terly hostile to the proposed sale, has 
consisted of the “squaw men” or white 
men who, having married Indian wives, 
have settled permanently in the country 
and acquired much influence and a good 
deal of property, chiefly in cattle, horses 
and sheep. Under the new arrangement 
they also must lose much of tbeir influ¬ 
ence and many of their opportunities for 
accumulation. 
There is no doubt also that a majority 
of the Indians, though willing enough to 
part with a portion of their territory for 
a liberal consideration, thought that by 
delay and haggling they could secure bet¬ 
ter terms than those hitherto offered. 
During the past few months, however, 
General Crook and the other Commission¬ 
ers who have been urging the Indians to 
make the bargain, have strongly repre¬ 
sented to them the probability that, in the 
event of their obstinate refusal, the gov 
ernment would either force them to ac¬ 
cept the terms offered or take the land 
without payment, and that the chances 
for such an issue to the trouble had been 
greatly increased by the recent admission 
of North and South Dakota to the sister¬ 
hood of States, as their representatives in 
both Houses of Congress would be strong 
advocates of such a course. Having fin¬ 
ally become convinced that they could 
not obtain better terms, and that they 
might be compelled to submit to worse, 
the recalcitrants yielded to the inevitable 
last Monday, and the Commissioners 
easily secured the requisite number of 
votes to effect the sale. 
Hence the long-pendiDg struggle is 
closed- and 11,000,000 acres of fine 
farming land are ready to be thrown open 
to settlement as soon as the President 
shall issue a proclamation to that effect. 
As for the Indians, the interest on the 
$14,000,000 purchase money, will be added 
to their annuities, and the 11,000,000 acres 
still remaining to them, a region as large 
as the combined areas of Massachusetts 
and Vermont, are more than enough to 
give a comfortable farm to every family, 
and the opportunity is thrown open to 
them, under exceptionally favorable con¬ 
ditions, to demonstrate whether it is 
within the range of their capabilities to 
adapt themselves to the conditions and 
secure the benfits of civilization. 
This settlement of the Indian problem 
is the most important event in the his¬ 
tory of the Dakotas. The reservation 
formed a barrier between the eastern 
and western portions of the new State of 
South Dakota, thus shutting off direct 
eastern and western communication be¬ 
tween the Missouri and the Black Hills, 
now regarded as one of the richest mining 
sections of the country. This barrier to 
progress is now removed. More impor¬ 
tant still is the fact that the 11,000,000 
acres to be thrown open to settlement 
will afford good farms to 70,000 families, 
and judging from the settlement of Ok¬ 
lahoma, it will require vastly less than 70 
days, perhaps less than 70 hours, to com¬ 
plete the settlement. For weeks, yea, for 
months, large crowds of immigrants have 
been encamped under canvas and in rude 
shinties on the eastern bank of the Mis¬ 
souri awaiting the settlement of the 
case, and thousands more have al¬ 
ready started, or are about to start 
for this new Promised Land. The 
tract ceded extends from the Mis¬ 
souri River on the east to the B ack Hills 
on the west, and from the White River 
on the south to the Cheyenne River, 
about the middle of the old reservation 
in the north: about 60 miles west from 
the Missouri, on the eastern line of Del¬ 
ano County, it stretches north as far as 
the Cannon Ball River, stretching about 
50 miles to the west. It also includes a 
part of the rich Winnebago Crow Creek 
reservation on the east bank of the Mis¬ 
souri, south of Pierre. Three rivers and 
a large number of streams and creeks run 
through the tract, and the valleys are 
wonderfully fertile. The soil is reported 
to be for the most part a fertile 
dark loam, with a clay subsoil of the 
drift formation, which is said t6be as rich 
as the loam of the surface and to be virt¬ 
ually inexhaustible. The country is well 
adapted for stock raising as well as for 
thegrowth of cereals. The climate is cold 
but dry in winter, and averages good, the 
mean annual temperature being 45 degrees 
above zero. The nights are cool and the 
days warm in summer. Three great rail¬ 
roads have already secured the right of way 
through the country, and will now be 
rapidly pushed to completion. The land 
will be reserved entirely for actual set¬ 
tlers, and will be a valuable addition to 
the agricultural resources of the nation. 
BREVITIES. 
Look out For a Varied Entertainment 
Next Week. 
There seems to be no demand in the N. Y. 
market for sweet apples It seems more profit¬ 
able to feed them to hogs. 
Col. Curtis writes about hotel swill for 
bogs on page 542. We shall bave more to 
say about the disposition of this product. 
The R. N.-Y. has a photograph of the tools 
used on Mr. Terry’s farm. We can easily 
count over 50. Farmers will like this picture. 
Sheep are bandy aDimals for market-gar¬ 
deners to bave. They eat the vines of Lima 
B> ans and peas and substances that other stock 
will refuse. 
The R. N -Y. finds Breed’s Universal 
Weeder an excellent tool. It will take the 
place of the cultivator among small plants, 
and as it is seven feet wide there is a great 
saving of time in its use. 
Does it pay to try to cure the stalks of 
early sweet corn? They do not cure readily 
and are too small any way to amount to much 
as teed. We have been feeding ours green to 
the stock. The horses like them. 
The R. N.-Y. has never seen any chickens 
grow faster than tbe grade Dorkings. We 
like the Dorkings better than ever. Ours lay 
well, fatten readily and are handsome, intel¬ 
ligent, industrious, well-behaved birds gener¬ 
ally. 
“Take it one year with another,” said a 
friend tbe other day, “ an upland farm pays 
better than one on the low land.” Is that so ? 
Some of us bave short memories. A season 
or so of drought might readily change this 
opinion. 
Commission men are a little alarmed at 
tbe reports of potato rot. They are afraid of 
receiving large shipments of potatoes tbat 
will rot on tbeir hands. Shipments of pota¬ 
toes tbat are known to be rotting will result 
in loss and disappointment to all concerned. 
The wet season and consequent sticky con¬ 
dition of soils at all inclined to be heavy, will 
make the work of potato-diggers very unsat¬ 
isfactory. Most of these machines are de¬ 
signed for shallow work anyway. It is quite 
sale to say that digging by machinery will 
not bo fully satisfactory this year. 
Three valuable chickens on the R. N.-Y. 
Farm have broken tbeir legs this year. As 
soon as discovered, they were taken into the 
house and treated. The leg was set—the bone 
being pulled into shape and a tight Laudage 
of cloth hound ar< und it. The chicken was 
then kept lor a few days in a small basket. 
All those injured recovered and now show 
no signs of lameness. They liked the treat¬ 
ment so well that it is now bard to.keep them 
PUt.of.the house, 
