642 
THE BUBAL SSEW-YOBKEB, 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN at ional J ournal for Country and Suburban Home 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 1889. 
We would be glad to receive a seed- 
ball or so of the R. N.-Y. Potato No. 2 
from any of our readers with whom the 
variety fruits. 
Now that it has been found that Paris - 
green sprayed upon the trees will kill the 
coddling moth, people having but little 
land or small gardens, will be encouraged 
to plant apples worked on Paradise stock. 
Tiees so worked are well suited to just 
such locations. Every part of these little 
trees may readily be sprayed by a hand 
pump and spraying nozzle, insuring 
large, fair fruit. 
But for the rust to which the Kitta- 
tinny is especially liable, the R. N.-Y. 
would to-day, as in years past, select it 
as its first choice among blackberries. 
The only other objection to it is that it 
often sustains injury during severe win¬ 
ters. In so far as can be judged at pres¬ 
ent, the Minnewaski is a hardier variety 
not subject to rust. Acting upon this 
assumption, it would be oui first choice. 
The Snyder and Taylor are about the 
hardiest kinds known, but they will not 
sell in any market that is supplied with 
larger berries. 
To show the serious damage that the 
potato crop has sustained, even in sections 
where loss was deemed practically impos¬ 
sible, the R. N.-Y. prints the following 
note just received. Whoever before 
heard of potato blight in Colorado ? 
“Longmont, Weld County, Colorado, 
August 31. Since my report of August 
17, on the potato crop, the prospects have 
materially changed for the worse. Many 
fields are blighting and the outlook at 
present is not good for more than one- 
half an average crop, so general is the 
complaint of the evil. This is the lead¬ 
ing potato county in the State, c. c c.” 
“ The nutriment in an acre of corn-fodder 
is equal to or really exceeds the nutrition in 
the corn it bears ."— Prof. Sanborn, page 
607. 
The soil of most of New England 
seems to be admirably adapted to the 
growth of Timothy. At all the local 
New England fairs are seen samples of 
this grass so long as to astonish visitors 
from abroad. Bunches of Timothy six 
feet eight inches high, taken from a 
Bristol County, Massachusetts, meadow 
will be exhibited at Western fairs this 
year. This grass was taken from new 
land from which the wood and bushes 
were cut in the winter of 1888. If West¬ 
ern folks expect the Yankees to be aston¬ 
ished at their great corn and vegetables, 
they should at least respect New England 
hay. 
Mr. N. Hallock, of Creedmoor, N. 
Y., tells us that he saved the seed from 
the blossom end and stem end of two va¬ 
rieties of tomatoes and planted them sep¬ 
arately—giving six plants to each. He 
found that the plants raised from the 
seed of the flower end ripened about three 
days earlier than those from the stem end. 
This is an important item. Certain it is 
that the portion of the tomato furthest 
from the stem (flower end as it may be 
called) ripens before the flesh about the 
stem, and it seems not unreasonable that 
the seed earliest matured should produce 
the earliest fruit. At any rate the ques¬ 
tion is worthy of further investigation. 
In the printed reports of the Tomato 
Exhibition recently held at the ware¬ 
house of J. M. Thor burn & Co., the 
origin of the “ Station” Tomato is credit¬ 
ed to Cornell University instead of to tne 
Geneva Experiment Station. Mr. E. S. 
Goff crossed the Alpha (as we remember) 
upon the Tree Tomato some six years 
ago. One of the results of this cross is 
an upright, bush variety which bears 
fruit nearly as smooth as the Alpha and 
as early to ripen as most of the kinds pop¬ 
ular at the present time. This is the 
tomato now known as the “Station.” 
Mr N. Hallock of Creedmoor, N. Y., has 
a strain of this tomato which seems to be 
quite well fixed. But at the Rural 
Grounds, plants grown from seeds kindly 
sent to us by Prof. Goff, sport indefin¬ 
itely both as to habit and fruit. 
After all, the bankrupt Pennsylvania 
Agricultural Society has managed to 
make arrangements for holding a State 
Fair in connection with the York 
County Agricultural Society’s Fair at 
York, Pa. Upwards of $3,000 will be 
added in premiums and $1,000 for races 
above what was originally intended by 
the York Society. Nearly the whole of 
this amount, however, has been contrib¬ 
uted by York as an inducement to the 
State Society to lend its name and influ¬ 
ence to the enterprise. Some discontent 
is expressed at its intention to charge a 
50 cent entrance fee instead of the cus¬ 
tomary popular 25 cent fee. It is to be 
hoped that exhibitors and visitors will 
lend a helping hand to the crippled so¬ 
ciety, and liberally reward the liberality 
of York. 
The scientists tell us that the spores or 
germs of the potato rot remain in the 
tubers for a considerable time. In fact, 
it is claimed that the disease is frequent¬ 
ly brought into a field in the potatoes 
used for seed. The spoies remain in the 
seed pieces until the conditions favorable 
for their development are supplied. 
Then the disease spreads. If this be so, 
the selection of next season’s seed will 
prove a very important matter. In order 
to insure ourselves from the introduction 
of rot in our seed potatoes we must ob¬ 
tain seed from districts where rot has not 
appeared. The R. N.-Y. proposes to try 
to investigate this matter with a view 
to disclosing the sections where rot has 
been least damaging and also to learn how 
far this idea of Ganger of rot in seed po¬ 
tatoes may be safely carried. 
To prevent rot and mildew should 
the grape racemes be bagged before the 
buds open, while in bloom or after the 
berries have set ? To answer this ques¬ 
tion about 100 bags were used—one-third 
for each class. Most of the racemes 
bagged before bloom did not set any ber¬ 
ries. Several—the Eaton among them— 
formed and matured perfect bunches. 
Most of those bagged while in bloom 
formed imperfect bunches. Most of those 
bagged after the berries were the size of 
early, small peas matured berries which 
were neither more nor less rotted than 
those left exposed. It is a delicate mat¬ 
ter to bag the racemes while in bud or 
flower and is, in fact, impracticable. As 
might have been anticipated, bagged 
buds produce or fail to produce berries 
as the pistils and anthers are perfect or 
imperfect. 
One of the most difficult problems to 
be solved by the Census Bureau is the 
best way to secure statistics of mortgage 
indebtedness for the comingenumeration. 
If the face of the recorded mortgage 
showed the amount of the indebtedness, 
the work would be comparatively easy; 
but the face indicates only the original 
debt, and to learn how much has been 
paid on each mortgage, the mortgagors 
or mortgagees must be written to or inter¬ 
viewed, and when this has been done the 
desired information is sometimes refused. 
It is of much interest and considerable 
importance that this form of indebted¬ 
ness should be ascertained; but to do so 
appears an almost impracticable task. 
The matter affects farmers, of course, 
more than any other class, and they 
should help the enumerators in tbe work. 
Several experts from the Pension Office 
are now conducting experiments in the 
matter in different parts of the country; 
but the difficulties in the way of gather¬ 
ing correct information are so unsur 
mountable that the results must, at the 
best, be largely approximate. 
This has been a good year for Kansas 
farmers; crops, as a rule, have been good 
and prices promise to rule high. This 
success should not make farmers reckless. 
There is danger that it may do so. After 
fs. good season it always pays to be con¬ 
servative. This is on the principle that 
saving is just as important as earning. 
On another page of this issue, Prof. Shel¬ 
ton puts the matter in a very forcible 
way. The excellent wheat crop that has 
just been harvested has turned the minds 
of many Kansas farmers. They want to 
put in more wheat than ever next year 
and neglect other crops and farm inter¬ 
ests. This idea is wrong. Keep out of 
it. Diversified farming is surest in the 
end. And this fact applies with equal 
truth to farmers in other sections of tbe 
country. Whenever prices range high 
for a certain product, there is, among a 
certain class of farmers, a rush to raise 
an extra amount of that product the next 
year. The consequence always is that 
the market is glutted, prices are lowered 
and good prices are only obtained for the 
products that the farmer has neglected. 
Is not this true? 
■ ■ ' 
THE CROP FOR STABLE MANURE. 
O NE of the most interesting questions 
that the R. N. Y. has for discus¬ 
sion is the best place in an organized crop 
rotation for the application of stable ma¬ 
nure. We find that good farmers differ 
in their opinions as to the best crop for 
utilizing stable manure, particularly those 
farmers who use more or less chemical fer¬ 
tilizers. Many are very strongly in favor 
of the corn crop, arguing that the corn 
plant is the greediest plant known to agri¬ 
culture and the least likely to be injured 
by rank or coarse manures. Other farmers 
haul manure on the rye or wheat during 
the winter, arguing that the grass that is 
to follow the grain will find the best use 
for a manure that is supposed to continue 
its effects for a number of years. Still 
others have special plans for the use of 
stable manure. The R. N.-Y. has col¬ 
lected quite a mass of information from 
farmers in all parts of the country where 
pains are taken to save stable manure. 
The rotations employed on various farms, 
the crops that are used as specialties, 
how and when the manure is applied, and 
in fact, dozens of important matters con¬ 
nected with successful manuring will be 
brought out. This promises to be one of 
the most important “ symposiums ” that 
the R. N.-Y. has ever published. 
- *-*-* - 
PROBABLE REPEAL OF TAXES ON 
TOBACCO AND FRUIT BRANDY. 
T HERE is a growing movement for the 
repeal of the internal revenue taxes 
on tobacco and fruit brandy, during the 
next session of Congress. In order to re¬ 
duce the surplus revenue without ma¬ 
terially lowering the tariff, the Repub¬ 
licans, as a party, are likely to favor the 
abolition of some of the internal revenue 
taxes, and the repeal of those on tobacco 
and fruit brandy appears to be less objec¬ 
tionable than of those on whisky and 
sugar, from which most of the internal 
revenue is derived. It is proposed to be¬ 
gin the work for repeal with the election 
of the Speaker of the House of Represent¬ 
atives. The Republicans favoring the 
measure are not to vote for any candidate 
who will not agree to give a fair parlia¬ 
mentary recognition, in the commit¬ 
tees and on the floor of the House, to 
those who favor the abolition of these 
taxes. Should all the candidates yield to 
the demands, each member will be free to 
vote for any one of them according to his 
choice. Democrats from the tobacco¬ 
growing districts are equally earnest in 
favor of the repeal of the objectionable 
taxes, and there is little doubt that they 
will heartily unite with the Republican 
advocates of repeal. For years tobacco 
growers all over the country have been 
strongly urging the abolition of the to¬ 
bacco tax, and fruit-growers in those sec¬ 
tions where the making of fruit brandy 
is an important industry, have been 
equally persistent with regard to the re¬ 
peal ot the tax on that product. There 
is now a probability amounting almost to 
a certainty, that by vigorous efforts dur¬ 
ing the ensuing year, they will so in¬ 
crease the number and strengthen the in¬ 
fluence of their friends as to secure the 
measure for which they have so long 
struggled. 
INTEREST ON RAILROAD INVEST¬ 
MENTS. 
A GOOD deal is being made by rail¬ 
road men out of recent statistics 
with regard to the average rates of inter¬ 
est paid on railroad investments. The 
statistician of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission puts the general rate of in¬ 
terest on all railroad capital at 3.06 per 
cent., the lowest being 2 03 per cent, on 
common stock, and the highest 4.24 on 
bonded debt. The figures given by Poor, 
the great authority on railroad statistics, 
are an average of 1.77 per cent, on all 
kinds of stock, the highest being 4.35 on 
bonds. “How can railroad charges be 
extortionate or in any way unfair, ” ex¬ 
claim railroad men, “while the iuterest 
paid to stockholders on their invest¬ 
ments is so pitiful ?” How much of the 
aggregate stock on which interest is paid, 
is “water,” on which no interest should be 
paid ? What is paid on the enormous mass 
of water, however, lessens by just so 
much the interest payable on cash. 
Then again, how many railroads are 
built or run for the benefit of the mere 
stockholders? Isn’t it a fact that a large 
proportion of them are “worked” 
mainly, if not entirely, for the benefit of 
their speculative directors and managers? 
Have Jay Gould and others of 
his kind, piled up their millions from 
the legitimate interest on their invest¬ 
ments or from their tricky manipulation, s 
of the vast interests in their charge, in the 
financial markets, for their own private 
advantage? How can stockholders ex¬ 
pect high interest on their investments in 
railroads a large part of whose capitaliza¬ 
tion is very dirtv “ water,” and whose 
interests are manipulated by speculating 
managers for their own individual emolu¬ 
ment? And why should the public be 
expected tamely to reimburse them for 
the shortage due to the unscrupulous 
greed, trickery and knavery of their own 
officers? 
“ Better a. little under or over-ripe than 
spoiled hay." * * * * •* The Lord never 
planted cat-tails on a dry hillside, but I 
have known farmers to try to raise celery in 
gravelly sand." —Prof. Roberts, page 607. 
BREVITIES. 
Try the Minnewaski Blackberry. Try the 
Erie. 
One of the most appropriate and valuable 
trees for cemeteries is the European Weeping 
Beech. 
Just now the Minnewaski is giving us the 
largest and best blackberries of those bearing 
so late. 
The dry, hot weather of the last two weeks 
has improved the R. N.-Y’s corn crop won¬ 
derfully. 
“ There, now, good little boy, you have 
done the work nicely. Run off and have a 
good play.” 
There is a demand for first-class butter at 
good prices, although the market is flooded 
with poor trash. 
Is not fodder-corn out at just the right 
time and well cured as good for old horses 
as Timothy hay? 
Pear trees lost their leaves 10 days ago. 
Now, many of them are making a second 
growth and bloom. 
If vou would increase the size of tbe Snyder 
Blackberry, give it close pruning, plenty of 
room and high culture. 
Were it not for tbe California and tropi¬ 
cal fruits, it is doubtful if the supply in this 
city would equal the demand. 
“Lard Compound” was the inscription on 
some barrels which were being rolled into one 
of the large city bakeries. Next! 
Good peaches are not plentiful, and sell 
readily at paying prices. Tomatoes are a 
drug on the market, and the price is low. 
The objections to the several kinds of white 
blackberries tried at the Rural Grounds are 
tenderness of cane and unproductiveness. 
The apple crop in the United Kingdom is 
poor, and the demand for “fruit of good size 
and quality” from this country will be good. 
Transplanting potato plauts did not prove 
a success with us. Doubtless part of the fail¬ 
ure was due to the very unfavorable season. 
There are still a good many farmers in this 
country who believe in cooking feed for 
stock. A dozen of such will describe their 
practice in next week’s Rural. 
What most of all is wanted among black¬ 
berries is a thornless variety as good as the 
best of the old kinds. The Wachusett comes 
the nearest to this, but it is not sufficiently 
productive. 
The potato rot seems to have been arrested 
in the vicinity of tbe R. G. Thepolatofs in 
some fields are a mass of rot and will not be 
dug. Those left in the soil, however, are rot¬ 
ting rather less than those which were har¬ 
vested a week or so ago. 
Brother Farmer, wouldn’t it be better to 
bring that mower in out of the weather? 
4nd that reaper? Also that horse-rake? 
Likewise tkBt lumber-wagon? Ditto that 
cultivator and barrow ? We know the manu¬ 
facturers are anxious to sell you more imple¬ 
ments, but you should look out for your own 
interest as well as theirs, and no farmer can 
afford to house his tools under a tree. 
Fashion and the “$3-shoe’ - men have in¬ 
jured the hide and leather trade. If the old 
style leg boots had not been driven out of 
form by lighter foot wear, we might still be 
searching tbe earth for hides as we were do¬ 
ing 60 years ago. Cut down the amount of 
leather needed to make a boot by one-half, 
and at the same time increase the supply of 
hides, and also tbe facilities for transporting 
them, and there can be but one result. The 
new process of tanning said to have been just 
discovered by a professor in the University of 
California will, it is reported, render leather 
at least five times more durable than it can 
be rendered by any process previously known. 
What will become of all the hides when this 
8ort.of*leatber_sb»ll be in general use, ? 
