u© 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane 
Street, New 
York City. 
SATURDAY 
, MARCH. 1. 
1«79. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
or ALL OUlt SPECIAL NUMBERS, NO OTHER 
HAS CREATED AMONG OUR SUBSCRIBERS SO 
LIVELY AN INTEREST AS THE COMING COHN 
NUMBER. WE SHALL HAVE AN EXTRA EDI- 
TION PRINTED AND WILL SUPPLY, FREE OF 
CHARGE. SPECIMENS TO ANY OF OUR SUB¬ 
SCRIBERS WHO APPLY FOR THEM. WE ARE 
CONFIDENT THAT THIS CORN NUMBER WILL 
DO GREAT GOOD. AND WOULD BE GLAD IF A 
COPY COULD BE PLACED IN THE HANDS OF 
EVERY FARMER IN TOE COUNTRY. IN IT WE 
SHALL NOT ONLY OFFER TO SEND A TRIAL 
QUANTITY OF SEED (OF THE NEW VARIETY TO 
WHICH WE HAVE ALREADY CALLED ATTEN¬ 
TION) TO ALL OF OUR SUBSCRIBERS WHO AP¬ 
PLY, BUT WE HAVE DETERMINED UPON OFFER- 
ING PREMIUMS TO THOSE WHO. FROM THIS 
SEED SO SENT, SHALL PRODUCE THE LARGEST 
YIELDS OF CORN. 
COMBATTING RESTRICTIONS ON OUR 
CATTLE TRADE. 
There are few unmixed evils in the 
world ; few mishaps from which wisdom 
and energy cannot wrest some good, and 
it happens not unfrequently that what at 
first appears a sheer misfortune is ere 
long transformed by these virtues into a 
godsend. It may yet be so with the pres¬ 
ent embargo on our live cattle exporta¬ 
tion. It has forced public attention to 
the existence among our cattle in more 
places than was suspected, of a plague 
whose ravages wherever it has become 
widespread elsewhere, have been more 
disastrous than those of all other epizoot¬ 
ic diseases oombinetL Had it not been 
for the seemingly hostile action of the 
British Privy Council this insidious mal- 
adv might have been negligently permit¬ 
ted to advance stealthily among onr herds 
until it had caused the loss of millions 
where its thorough suppression now will 
not cause the loss of as many tnousands. 
It has forced upon the notice of the Brit¬ 
ish public the importance of their meat 
supply from this country, so that already 
Liverpool, rather than temporarily lose 
our live cattle trade, is willing to spend 
upwards of $170,000 in constructing con¬ 
veniences for slaughtering the beasts on 
their arrival so long as the present regu¬ 
lations remain in force. It has also di¬ 
rected public attention to many short¬ 
comings and abuses connected with the 
cattle trade, and should attention to there 
lead to their speedy reform, such a mea¬ 
sure would save millions to our farmers 
and stock-owners, save much suffering to 
stock of all kinds, materially lessen the 
chances of sickness or death among an¬ 
imals iu transit, and, together with the 
complete suppression of pleuro-pneumo- 
nia among us, would place our cattle, 
trade with Europe on a firm and more 
profitable basis. To secure these bless¬ 
ings, however, wisdom is necessary in 
concerting measures and energy in carry¬ 
ing them into execution. 
One of the first things needed is to as¬ 
certain precisely the extent of the plague 
among ns. This can be satisfactorily done 
only by official investigation aided by the 
co-operation of cattle owners. The num¬ 
ber of the skilled veterinarians in this 
country is lamentably Bmall, and the ig¬ 
norance of the common run of cow doc¬ 
tors, especially with regard to pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, is lamentably great. Official 
investigation, therefore, can alone, as a 
rule, decide upon the prevalence of the 
disease in any neighborhood. To render 
even this effective, our farmers must con¬ 
tribute their help by giving to the ap¬ 
pointed officials prompt notice of every 
O ise in which the existence of the malady 
is suspected. Whenever, either througn 
selfishness or carelessness, the owner of 
ailing animals neglects this duty, his 
neighbors should promptly supply the 
omission. Such a man deserves little 
consideration from the community in 
which he lives, as the existence of the 
disease among his herd would be an im¬ 
minent danger to all other cattle in the 
neighborhood. Inasmuch as cleanliness 
about the stable and sound food for neat 
stock tend to prevent the outbreak of the 
disease, to modify its severity and check 
its extension, every owner of cattle should, 
for the present at any rate, observe these 
conditions in his own case and bring 
pressure to bear upon his neighbors to 
induce them to do likewise. 
Even before ascertaining the full ex¬ 
tent of the malady, however, it is the 
duty of eacli State in any part of which 
pleuro-pneumonia has wade its appear¬ 
ance, to take prompt measures for stamp¬ 
ing out every ascertained instance of it. 
Belay in doing this is inexcusable in those 
in authority, who should be held to a 
strict accountability for dilatoriness in 
this pressing obligation. If there is only 
a single case iu the whole State, the 
greater the necessity for eradicating it at 
once, before the disease can spread and 
become more uunmnagable. That early 
and vigorous action can extirpate the mal¬ 
ady with comparatively small loss is 
shown by the experience of England, 
where it is accustomed to make its ap¬ 
pearance in several parts of the country 
every year, but where in each case it is 
promptly stamped out by slaughtering 
the affected animals, quarantining their 
healthy companions and thoroughly dis¬ 
infecting all the possibly contaminated 
surroundings. 
On the other hand, the losses likely to be 
sustained by this country should the dis¬ 
ease be allowed to spread extensively in 
it, may be calculated from its disastrous 
results, some years ago, in Great, Britain 
and from its ravages in a single instance 
shortly afterwards in this country. From 
Parliamentary papers it is estimated that 
in the six years ending with 1860, the 
losses from plenro-pneumonia in Great 
Britain and Ireland amounted to $60,000,- 
000. In 1859 the disease was introduced 
by Butch cattle into Massachusetts, 
where for a short time no effective meas¬ 
ures were adopted to check its propaga¬ 
tion. When it had secured a firm foot¬ 
hold, a government commission was at 
length appointed with power to isolate 
exposed herds and kill all infected an¬ 
imals, remunerating the owners out of 
State funds ; but to thoroughly extirpate 
it cost six years’ struggle and the slaugh¬ 
ter of 1,164 cattle, besides those tliut died 
of the plague. It is, therefore, fortunate 
that the Legislature of New York has al¬ 
ready passed severe law's which have en¬ 
abled the Governor to take effective 
measures for promptly stamping it out 
within this State. Tiie Legislature of 
New Jersey is reported to be about to 
follow this salutary example, and the 
people of every other threatened State 
should insist on immediate legislation in 
the same direction. 
To the Federal government belongs the 
duty of regulating our commerce between 
the States and with foreign nations; and 
upon the Federal government, therefore, 
rests a grave responsibility in the present 
conjuncture. According to the best ob¬ 
tainable information the disease is at 
present confined to a few—-a very tow- 
places in the Eastern States; chiefly to 
cows fed upon swill. The vast herns of 
the West are entirely exempt from it. It 
is of the utmost importance that this im¬ 
munity should be maintained, not only on 
account of the probable losses its introduc¬ 
tion there would entail, but also because, 
owing to the absence of disease in this 
chief source of our export cattle trade, the 
Canadian and British restrictions upon 
that trade, so far as that broad region is 
concerned, should be promptly rescinded. 
Already the representations of the Foreign 
Office at Washington to the English gov¬ 
ernment, and those made to the govern¬ 
ment of the Bomiuiou by the Canaihan 
railroads and other interests injured by 
the embargo, tend to hasten the date of 
their repeal. To add to the weight of 
these representations, by giving assur¬ 
ance of safety to our foreign customers, 
ami to remove the possibility of spread¬ 
ing the disease, all movements of cattle 
westward from suspected districts iu the 
Eastern States, should be at once pro¬ 
hibited until it shall be proved that the 
plague either never existed there or has 
been permanently suppressed. 
Every dollar of expense on the trans¬ 
portation of cattle from the pastures to 
the shambles comes out of the grazier’s 
pocket, be he farmer or stockman; for the 
dealer’s price to the owner of the animal 
is regulated by the outlay and risks ne¬ 
cessary m taking it to market, coupled 
with the figure it w'ill fetch there. By the 
present system not only is the expense of 
transportation rendered exorbitant by the 
exactions of the stockyard and railroad 
monopolies, but the risks to the health and 
life ol the animals in transit are unneces¬ 
sarily increased by the recklessness that 
overpacks them iu filthy cars in which a 
fall frequently means injury or death, 
and by tne cruelty that olten keeps thorn i 
for long journeys without food or even a 
drop of water to relieve their feverish 
thirst. Not only does tliis system un¬ 
justly lower the price of cattle to the 
original owners and inflict much needless 
suffering on the animalB, but the physical 
condition induced by it, injures their meat 
and predisposes them to disease if it does 
not actually produce it. The interests of 
the vast body of cattle raisers, therefore, 
unite with tne dictates of humanity and 
the welfare of the consumers in importun¬ 
ately demanding Federal legislation to 
put a speedy end to the overenarges and 
heartlessness of the present iniquitous 
system of cattle transportation. 
The laws of the United States authorize 
the inspection of live stock at the port, of 
shipment and the grant of a clean bill of 
health on the report of the inspector that 
the animals are free from all disease ; but 
| the laws do not forbid the shipment of 
diseased stock, neither do they provide 
that the inspectors shall be men compet¬ 
ent to detect the presence of disease. A 
change in the laws regulating this matter 
should be made at the earliest moment. 
At every port at which live stock are 
shipped skilled veterinarians should be 
appointed as inspectors ; their certificate 
of the healthy condition of the animals 
should be necessary before their embark¬ 
ation ; each certificate should state from 
what part of the country the animals 
therein mentioned had come ; that no con¬ 
tagious disease was there prevalent, and 
that the animals hail incurred no risk of 
contagion along the route from their pas- 
tux-es. In the appointment of these offi¬ 
cers skill and trustworthiness, not politi¬ 
cal influence, should, and must, be the 
sole considerations. To them also should 
be assigned the duty of inspecting all an¬ 
imals imported into this country, and it 
should be made obligatory on them to 
rigidly quarantine all stock coming from 
countries in which contagious diseases 
might prevail. By these means immunity 
from the possibility of infection would 
be guaranteed to our foreign customers 
as well as to our own herds. 
This country is so large and its ports 
for the shipment of cattle, are so far apart, 
that it would be about as reasonable for 
Great Britain or Canada to prohibit the 
importation of cattle from the whole 
European Continent because a few cases 
of pleuro-pneumonia had occurred in 
little Belgium, as to maintain an embargo 
on cattle from our vast borders, because 
the same disease had. made its appear¬ 
ance in a very few places in that section 
of the country from which very few cattle 
are ever shipped abroad. Prompt action 
here by stock-owners themselves, as •well 
as by the State and National Govern¬ 
ments, will not only rid our own herds of 
all danger from infection, remove all the 
pretexts for the present embargo, and all 
risks of future restrictions ; but must se¬ 
cure the speedy repeal of the interdiction 
that now hampers our foreign cattle 
trade. 
-♦ ♦ » 
CAN WE OVER-PRODUCE 1 
The doctors of political economy are 
just now very busy explaining the cause 
of the continued existence of what is call¬ 
ed “ hard times.” One avers that “ over¬ 
production ” is the chief cause ; another 
blames “ under-consumption.” There 
may be a nice distinction between the 
meanings of these terms, but to our mind 
the difference between them is hardly 
apparent. It is a question if we can pos¬ 
sibly produce such a surplus of products 
as will check all the avenues of trade, re¬ 
duce prices to a point below a Uving pro¬ 
fit, and cause ‘‘hard times” through an 
excess of what is really the most substan¬ 
tial wealth we can possess. It seems 
clear that to do so, is simply impossible. 
Let us BuppoBe a case : Four men, who 
may represent four hundreds, or thous¬ 
ands, or millions ; or four nations, if we 
wish, exist upon an island in the ocean. 
One of these men cultivates the soil and 
produces more than he can consume or 
even gather and care for. The others 
are laborers or mechanics and, finding no 
employment or demand for their labor, 
they are idle. Now, the first man needs 
help to handle what he fears is his over¬ 
product. What will he do with it ? This 
troubles him. He calls one man to help 
him gather it; another to carry it to a 
safe place ; and another to make a store 
for it. He pays them with part of his 
product and they are immediately sup¬ 
plied with what they have lacked. The 
farmer then wants a score of things which 
he never knew of before, and he finds 
one or the other of these men is able to 
supply what lie needs. So, by-and-bye 
the whole four are busy and Boon they 
are in a comfortable condition of depend¬ 
ence upon each other, and the next year 
the. farmer does not fear to plant more 
than ever, because he sees a way to dis¬ 
pose of his products. By-and-bye the 
people of an adjacent island learu the fact 
tfiat there are many things in abundance 
across the water, and they come over and 
exchange products, perhaps gold or some¬ 
thing else they may have produced by 
their labor, for the farmer’s superabund¬ 
ance. 
Now, it is evident that so long as these 
men do not, each and all, produce so 
much of every product of their labor, 
that it canuot all be used, there cannot 
be over-production, or too much of any 
one thing; but especially there cannot 
be too much of the farmer’s products, 
because everybody wants some of them, 
and they require so much labor to take 
care of them. It is precisely so in actual 
fact. Think for a moment of what is in¬ 
volved in the fact of 400,000,000 bushels 
of wheat, for instance. What a host of 
laborers of all kinds will this vast amount 
of grain call to work ! Here are, for one 
thing, about twelve million tons to be 
freighted, stored, sold, transferred, re¬ 
ceipted for, milled, bagged, barreled, 
shipped abroad, or used at home; and 
eveiy one of the great army of men en¬ 
gaged in handling it, will use a portion 
of it for food, and wear out shoes, clothes, 
machinery and a thousand other things 
iu the doing of it, to replace which mil 
use up more of it. If the surplus of our 
crops were an idle, useless thing, it would 
bo different; but it is the bread of life to 
the whole world, and there is scarcely an 
individual in any civilized country, where 
bread is eaten, whose labor is not stimu¬ 
lated and increased by an abundance of 
it. Tho political economists should look 
elsewhere for the cause of the hard times, 
than to an over-production of what is 
uecessary to our life or comfort. 
SPECIAL TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS. 
We have sent out up to this time 60- 
GOO packets of seeds and so far as we can 
judge, the distribution is hardly more 
than one quarter completed. Several of 
the varieties of seeds mentioned in our 
columns are exhausted—but we are well 
prepared with a reserve that will carry 
the free distribution through. Now this 
is the point to which we desire to call at¬ 
tention. We caunot publish what these 
reserve seeds are for the reason that hun¬ 
dreds of our subscribers would at once 
desire changes and additions, sending us 
stamps &c., which would give rise, to an 
amount of work and correspondence that 
we are not preparedfor. The reserve seeds 
are no less valuable than those in our al¬ 
ready published lists and, like those, can¬ 
not i'or the most part be procured else¬ 
where. Those seeds of which our supply is 
exhausted will be again offered next sum¬ 
mer, so that those who receive others in 
their place now can obtain them then if 
they so desire. We are again making 
arrangements for onr next fall free-seed 
distribution which we shall endeavor to 
make even more valuable than any of the 
others. Subscribers who have not al¬ 
ready applied for seeds will oblige us 
greatly by doing so at once, since next 
week’s issue will announce the corn dis¬ 
tribution and the premiums which wc 
shall offer for the largest yield from the 
seed sent. 
PELARGONIUMS. 
We have never yet seen a Pelargonium 
(Geranium) with striped flowers, that was 
worth owning. The heads are small— 
the (lowers open one after another—the 
petals fall almost as soon as they are well 
opened. Among a number of high-priced 
novelties, to which reference will in due 
time be made, we have purchased a new 
variety of the striped-flower class called 
“New Life,” which may or may not 
prove more desirable than those to which 
wo have referred. In color the flowers, 
judging by the one sent us, are scarlet 
lined and striped with white, making a 
clear, striking contrast. We have work¬ 
ed for the past five years to produce, by 
crossing and seedling cultivation, some¬ 
thing remarkable in the way of Pelar¬ 
goniums, with feeble results* Once we 
were well on the way towards producing 
leaves with white centers and green 
margins. Just at that time, “Happy 
Thought” was announced. Then again 
we thought we were on the sure path to¬ 
wards obtaining a crimson flower having 
a white border, and then, one with a 
white ground and a crimson border. A 
longer experience dissipated these va¬ 
pors. We have to show, as the sum to¬ 
tal of our labors, a half dozen plants 
which may, perhaps, be- worthy of a 
name—and that is all. 
BREVITIES. 
Next week will be the Corn number. 
There is a war in England between the Tele¬ 
graph uud Telephone—peas ! 
Among the varieties of celery, Clayworth- 
Pride is mentioned in Englaud as the best. 
Mr. Libby has severed his connection with 
the American Agriculturist, of which journal 
for a few mouths past he has been managing 
editoi. 
The electric light is now used in photo¬ 
graphy when the sun is obscured. Perhaps it 
may one day bo turned to account in forcing 
plaut growth. 
Subscribers are requested not to send their 
applications for our corn until they have re¬ 
ceived and read the next number of the Rubai. 
They are also requested not to make out their 
order for the corn on the same page with other 
business matters. 
