THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
467 
OUR CORN DISTRIBUTION. 
After reading the preceding articles, com¬ 
ments as to the probable value of the variety 
of corn which we have called Blunt’s White 
Prolific, seem unnecessary. We know of 
one instance iu which it has yielded at the 
rate of 130 bushels of shelled corn per acre 
within tweuty miles of this city, and it was 
this which first induced us to secure all that 
we could iu order to distribute it among our 
subscribers. It seems to be a variety that is 
well adapted to a great range of country, hav¬ 
ing produced enormous yields iu various 
parts of the South aud West as well as in this 
viciuity. Our seed is procured from Mr. A. 
E. Blunt himself who, us already stated, has 
devoted several years to making it what it is. 
As agricultural aud horticultural editors wc 
have a dread of raising hopes which, in all 
probability, will never be realized. Wc be¬ 
lieve that the agricultural press has, by "crack¬ 
ing up” uew seeds and plants, which have upon 
trial proved inferior to old sorts, impaired the 
confidence which it ought to command from 
the farmer aud horticulturist, and we are far 
from denying that our own journal has, in days 
past, at least, merited a full share of reproach. 
At present we desire, in so far as it is possi¬ 
ble so to do, first, to test in our own grounds 
ail novelties as fast as they appear iu the 
market, aud, second, to enable our readers to 
test them at a cost which, should they prove 
worthless or comparatively so. will leave 
little room for regret. Accordingly we are 
prepared to send to all of our subscribers who 
apply, a quantity of Blunt's Prolific White 
Corn, that shall enable them to judge whether 
it be or be uot an improvement upou the varie¬ 
ties they have previously cultivated. The qiiau- 
tity so to he sent will require a two-eout stamp 
to carry it through the mail, aud this two-cent 
stamp must he sent to us iu the letter of ap¬ 
plication. 
PREMIUMS. 
Iu order to iusure for this corn, trials iu 
every part of our country where the cereal can 
be advantageously raised, aud to invest them 
with the interests which a friendly competi¬ 
tion may provoke, the following premiums 
are offered: On the part of the Kukal Nbw- 
Yokker §100 in cash, the details aud plan of 
which will be fully given hereafter. 
OTHER PREMIUMS. 
Batavia, III., Feb. 22d, 1879. 
Rural New-Yorker:— In answer to yours 
of the loth, we will Offer our §05.00 Feed aud 
Meal Mill to the one having the largest yield 
of your uew variety of corn. The details and all 
questions, us to who did raise the largest 
amount, or rather the best yiold, we leave to 
you. Respectfully yours, 
Challenge Mill Co. 
St. Louis, Feb. 20 , 1879. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Yours of 15th 
ree’d aud uoted. You may offer one of our 
Improved Big Giant Feed-mills, No. 2, two- 
horse, piice, §45, as a premium for your new 
corn, iu such a manner as you may see fit, as 
suggested in your letter of above date. Yours, 
J. A. Field, Son & Co. 
P. S.—The mill will be delivered here on 
board cars or boat, free of charge. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. la, 1879. 
Rural Pub, Co., 78 Duaue street, New York. 
Gentlemen: Iu reply to your favor of the 17th, 
we will say that we will join you iu offering a 
prize of a La Dow Joiuted Pulv. Harrow, for 
fitting the ground for a corn crop, or a Two- 
horse Disc Wheel Corn Cultivator, at the option 
of the winner, for the best yiold of the corn 
you send out. Yours truly, 
Wheeler A Meliuk Co. 
.Sandwich, Ills., February 21, ls79. 
Rural Publishing Co. Gentlemen: We 
are pleased to offer one of our “Veteran’ 
Corn Shelters complete (retail price. §35), as a 
premium for best yield of corn from seed to 
be sent out by you, as per your letter, or for 
second best if your premium exceeds ours iu 
value and you deem it best to offer iu that way. 
Or, if you contemplate awarding for any other 
excellency iu connection with this scheme, 
other than the best aud sec<>.,d-;» i yield, we 
shall be pleased to place our premium.“ where 
it will do the most good.” V'••u may announce 
this prize, therefore, as being given by us and 
in connection with your ow.i uuuouuceineut, 
aud we presume your announcement of the 
purpose of the distribution aud gitis will suffi¬ 
ciently cover the ground, ami that it will uot 
be necessary for us to make a separate an¬ 
nouncement of the specific object of our prize. 
Yours truly, J. P Adams. Sec'y. 
ITmuuKua. l a., Feb. 19, 1879. 
Eds. Rural Nkw-Yokkkh : —in reply to 
yours just to baud, we would M»y we will offer 
two Corn Shelters as prizes lor y ield or quality 
of your new corn. You can m range the com¬ 
petition as you see fit. Wishing your enter¬ 
prise abundant success, we remain very truly 
yours, Livingston & Co. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Fully approv¬ 
ing, as we do, the sound policy of the Rural 
iu inakiug Iudian Corn a special feature for 
one number, aud equally approving the liberal 
premium offered by this journal, the under¬ 
signed will cheerfully eo-operate in the good 
work by offering the following Hook Premiums 
to farmers, for weight of corn raised from the 
seed given out by the Rural. For the best 
weight of shelled corn per bushel, to he deter¬ 
mined after an Interval of three months from 
harvest, we offer the following Hooks: 
1. Prof. Miles’s New Book on Stock-breeding. 
2. A complete set of Dickens's Works, in 19 vols., 
published by Appleton & Co. 
3. Any books from Scribner’s Catalogue to the 
amount of |5. 
4. The first 30 vols. of Harper’s half hour series. 
.». The Wilson Series of Books for Farmers, boirnd 
In cloth. 
s. The Rural New-Yorker for one year. 
Farmers’ Publishing Co.. 
[Box 2,095.J 104 Duaue St.. N. Y. 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, MARCH. 8, 1879. 
UNLESS WE SHOULD HAVE SEEDS LEFT 
OVER, NOTICE IS NOW GIVEN THAT OUR 
FREE SEED DISTRIBUTION OF 1878-9 IS 
CLOSED. ALL APPLICATIONS RECEIVED 
WILL BE FILLED PROBABLY BEFORE THE 
24th INSTANT. 
THRASHING CORN. 
If corn, after being cut up and cured 
iu tlie field, could lie made ready for 
grinding or market as conveniently as tlie 
small grains, a much larger area would 
be cultivated, especially in New England. 
It has always been supposed that no other 
than the old-fashioned routine of husking 
and shelling was practicable, and this is 
so slow and tedious, and constitutes so 
great a percentage of the whole cost of 
the crop when brought to a marketable 
condition, that it materially limits the 
area of this grain in the Western States, 
Many ways of evading these onerous 
tasks have been tried. Some farmers feed 
the crop whole, ears and hH, just as it 
comes from the field, believing the loss 
from feeding thus not equal to the cost of 
husking, shelling and grinding. Others 
break off the ears and thrash them with 
flails upon the bam floor. Still others 
cut the stalks and ears, by machinery, to a 
more or less short and fine condition. But 
all these ways are unsatisfactory. It is 
quite doubtful whether there is uot even 
a loss, over all savings, in feeding the 
grain and stalks as they come from the 
field, aside from tlie awkwardness and 
slovenliness of the practice. Thrashing 
the ears is hardly less labor than shelling 
by the ordinary hand-shellers, while it 
does not leave the cobs so clean and 
wastes the husks. 
In eutting up ears and stalks together 
we find several objections. The ravages 
of rats, miee and squirrels during the 
winter destroy much grain, and greatly 
damage the Btalks by fouling them with 
the urine and excrement of the vermin. 
Then, unless cut very fine, and this re¬ 
quires power, the cattle pick out the ears 
and are with difficulty made to consume 
the fodder. 
Some recent experiments lead to the 
hope that our Eastern eoni may be 
thrashed effectively and cheaply by the 
ordinary thrashing machines, delivering 
the com clean and whole, and leaving the 
fodder in an excellent condition for stor¬ 
age aud feeding. Nothing more than a 
careful adjustment of tlie concave and a 
little practice in feeding the machine 
seem to be required, anti we trust that 
thrashers generally, will see what cau be 
done in this direction. Even if a little 
change iu the maeliinery is required, it 
would still be profitable to make it, not 
only on account of the large quantity of 
corn already grown, but on account of 
tlie groat increase of acreage that would 
be likely to follow when the disagreeable 
tasks of husking and shelling are done 
away with. Unless corn thrashed by 
machinery is well cured in the field, it is 
probable that it would require some dry¬ 
ing before taking it to mill. But if the 
early varieties of 8-rowed corn (some of 
which are very productive and mature in 
from 90 to 100 days from planting), are 
generally grown, it would usually be quite 
as dry as any other grain after standing 
in small stooks for four or five weeks. 
QUALITY IN CORN. 
We all recognize a great difference in 
the quality of flour from different kinds 
of wheat, and tlie same with oat meal. 
Home are worth much more than others 
on that account. But when we come to 
corn meal it would seem that the quality 
of different kinds is not well appreciated. 
Corn meal is com meal, with a great many 
buyers. If any distinction is made, it is 
between Eastern and Western, or North¬ 
ern and Southern corn, with no consider¬ 
ation of the many different varieties em¬ 
braced iu each one of these grades. 
The reason why this is so is, probably, 
because we eat rnueh more corn cake than 
corn bread. On most tables where com 
meal appears it is made up with sweeten¬ 
ing and eggs into various forms, the edi¬ 
ble qualify of which depends upou what 
is added to the meal, rather than upon 
the meal itself. But there are not a few 
who delight in the sweet, rich and deli¬ 
cate flavor of the com itself. A large 
number of people, it is true, never taste 
this, except, perhaps, in pop-corn, and 
this is iquite too often sophisticated with 
sugar. Those who come from the city 
into the country are often very much 
surprised at the excellence of our hasty 
puddings and Johnny-cakes, made of pure 
corn meal and salt, mixed only with water 
or milk. But those who use corn meal in 
this way soon discover that there is a 
great deal of difference in its adaptation 
to different uses, and also in the quality, 
sweetness and freedom from any strong 
taste in the meal of each particular vari¬ 
ety. 
Southern people, who eat much more 
com meal than Northerners, complain of 
the Northern yellow corn as being strong 
in flavor and unlit for human food. On 
tlie other hand, Yankees going South al¬ 
most always complain of the tastelessness 
of Southern ‘‘com pones” and the like, 
frequently thinking, until assured to tlie 
contrary, that the meal is mixed with 
wheat flour before being cooked. These 
differences of local taste, however, are 
not what we particularly refer to. The 
varieties of corn grown in a single county 
or neighborhood, North or South, East 
or West, will be found to be very differ¬ 
ent in quality for bread-making. The 
same variety also differs according to its 
stage of ripeness wheu cut up, the. care 
with whieli it iu handled, and in the se¬ 
lection of perfect, sound ears, free from 
mold, smut, or dirt of any land, for 
gngdiug. 
There is a great difference also in tlie 
way in which meal is prepared for the 
table. There is plenty of poor white 
bread made out of good flour, and it is 
the same with corn-bread made out of 
good flour. The agricultural Indians of 
New Mexico grow a peculiar variety of 
maize, and prepare it for food by boiling 
the meal to a thiu gruel and then smearing 
it upon a smooth, hot stone, where it 
quickly forms a thin brown cake, hardly 
thicker than paper. These cakes are 
piled one upon another, four or five thiek, 
and immediately rolled up in a tight roll, 
which hardens somewhat in cooling and 
retains its shape. These rolls are said to 
be very delicious by those who have eaten 
them, and we think our cooks might well 
take a hint from this method of cooking 
meal. One has done so, and furnishes 
the following recipe for a thin Johnny- 
cake which “is all crust.” From the table 
where this Johnny-cake appears every 
morning duriug the winter, hot biscuits 
have been banished for lack of demand. 
The preparation is very rapid and simple, 
as follows: Take one pint of milk and 
stir into it half a cup of sifted corn meal. 
If from new corn, a little more meal is 
required. Add half a teaspoouful of salt. 
Have ready a sheet-iron pan, ten inches 
square and one inch deep. Set it on the 
stove, drop into it a piece of butter (or 
lard) half the size of an egg ; let it melt, 
and by tipping, flow the melted grease all 
over the bottom and sides of the pan ; 
then pour what remains into the meal- 
batter. Turn this into the pan, aud bake 
in a quick oven to a full brown. This 
batter will appear- very thiu and the milk 
will rise to the top when it is poured into 
the pan, but it comes all right in the bak¬ 
ing. A family of six will want about four 
pans for breakfast. 
A HALF ACRE TO VEGETABLES. 
We are anxious to use all the influence 
we have among our readers to induce them 
to give more attention to the home veget¬ 
able garden another season. Instead of 
an acre or more railed the vegetable gar¬ 
den, that after planting and sowing is left, 
with barely sufficient after-labor to pro¬ 
vide against the supremacy of weeds, try 
half au acre, or even less. Be generous 
with manure (if needed); plow, mil aud 
harrow thoroughly, and then plant in even, 
straight rows, and keep the weeds down. 
Give a few rows of Celery, Salsify, Pie¬ 
plant, Asparagus aud Cauliflowers a place. 
Make one or more paths through this 
garden and on either side set Currant and 
Gooseberry bushes, also in straight lines, 
to make the path boundaries. Give one 
plot forty feet square to Strawberries, 
another of the same size to Blackberries 
and Raspberries. Half an acre thus at¬ 
tended to, will, we are confident, gratify 
those who have never tried gardening iu 
a small and painstaking way. 
Farmers, occupied with their field crops 
and farm projects, are, without meaning 
to be so, perhaps, unmindful of the power 
whieli a varied supply of garden prodttce 
during the season exerts to make the 
oountry home a sprightlier aud happier 
place than in a majority of cases it is 
found to be. Under “Catalogues, &c., 
Ree’d ” we have placed before our read¬ 
ers, with any comments that have occur¬ 
red to us, the catalogues of the foremost 
seedsmen in this country. These cata¬ 
logues contain lists of all the vegetables 
which are worth planting, and they may 
be had for a nominal sum, or, iu some 
instances, free of charge. Now, we say 
to our readers what we liave said before : 
Bend for these catalogues—read them— 
compare them. Order of those that seem 
to offer the best and the most for the 
price, and then be guided by our advice 
to try what can be done upon a half acre. 
-- 
MOONSHINE. 
There are many persons who are wait¬ 
ing for the “ right time of the moon ” be¬ 
fore they will venture to plant their pota¬ 
toes. They were governed by the same 
idea in slaughtering their hogs last sea¬ 
son. They firmly believe that the phases 
of the silver satellite have a potent influ¬ 
ence on the products of the earth. This 
need not be regarded as superstition ; for 
it respects tlie theory of a natural cause, 
and is extenuated by the many surprising 
discoveries of causes and effects by mod¬ 
ern science. The opinion is tlie result of 
the common tendency to cling to beliefs 
that are inherited, without questioning 
their soundness or seeking for rational 
explanations of them. As far as the moon 
theory seems to be sustained by experi¬ 
ment, there is, no doubt, in every case, 
an unrecognized cause that should rather 
be accepted as the true one. 
Those farmers that pay no attention to 
sttch notions, are just as successful as 
those who do. We venture the affirma¬ 
tion that ever* one who is governed by 
the state of the moon and is blessed with 
a good result, invariably uses the ordin¬ 
ary indispensable conditions. He selects 
suitable land, applies proper manures, 
and cultivates the crop as it requires. 
IE he hadn’t done these things, his expec¬ 
tations would have proved a mere matter 
of > no<ms flint:. 
BREVITIES. 
Zea Mays. 
The corn plant has beeu known to grow 28 
inches iu a week. 
Thkke is no variety of table corn which is 
sweeter anil richer than the Black Mexican. 
We had excellent green corn the 15th Oct. 
last. It was planted the 5th of July. 
Tile average shrinkage of corn iu a year is 
about twenty-five per cent, it would therefore 
be as profitable to sell corn at seventy-five 
cents per bushel after harvest as at one dollar 
the next summer. 
Theke are few plants in which it is so easy 
to fix any desirable peculiarity or feature by 
selection of seeds for a few years as iu corn. 
Hence it is there are so many well-marked va¬ 
rieties. 
The corn plant is what is called in botany 
iuoucccious—that is, the mate or staruinate 
flowers arc borne on oue part, aud the female 
or pistillate (lowers upon another. The former 
iskuuwu as the tassel, the latter as the ear. The 
silk is the pistil. The cob is the rachis, and the 
chaff is the glumes (abortive flowers) and 
pulets. 
The Executive seems resolved to do its duty 
vigorously iu order to check and suppress the 
spread of pleuro-pneumouia among our cattle. 
Already importations of live cattle from in¬ 
fected countries has been prohibited, and. curi¬ 
ously enough, a shipineut from England has 
been the first prevented from lauding by the 
orders just issued. The prompt aud radical 
measures takeu by the Governor of New York 
must soon stamp out the plague in this State, 
and the Legislature of New Jersey is already 
busy framing laws iu tlie same direction. The 
borderiug States also seem to be awakeuiug lo 
the necessity of prompt action. 
We have stated that different species aud 
varieties of the Gourd family as, e. g., the 
melon and the cucumber, may be planted to¬ 
gether or near oue another and yet uot “ mix” 
the first c-eason. It is the seed that is mixed, 
not the edible part. Seed sown from plants of 
different kinds that were raised near each 
other, may show that a cross has occurred. 
This being the ease, we have been asked the 
question why oorn mixes the jirsl season? Now 
that part of the grain of corn which shows by 
its color that a cross has occurred, is the en¬ 
larged ovule or seed which is at Once affected 
by cross-fertilization the same as in the seed of 
the melon or cucumber or any other fruit. 
