236 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Adtoess RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duan® Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 12. 1879. 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 42 
m THE BREED IN THE FEEDING 
TROUGH I 
Replying to this query, we are in¬ 
clined to make the paradoxical answer 
that it is foolish to think it is, and yet 
dangerous not to know it is. No profit¬ 
able breed was ever made without liberal 
feeding. But feeding alone, however 
liberal, will not make a profitable breed. 
Feeding, care, and intelligent selection, 
are all required for the improvement of 
farm stock. And after a valuable breed 
is thus produced, its excellence can only 
be continued by a continuance of all 
these. Nothing ' is more wretched and 
worthless than a degraded thoroughbred 
of any kind. This is one reason why 
thoroughbreds are not more popular with 
the “ old-fashioned farmers.” They are 
creatures of high art, and in farming, 
high art and old fashions are strangers to 
each other. To take a fine Jersey cow, 
a choice Essex pig, an Oxford-Down 
sheep, and subject them to the methods 
that have developed the scrub cattle, 
the “ elm-peelers” and the "fence scal¬ 
ers” of our pens and pastures, is not the 
way to show them off to a good advan¬ 
tage. 
The old breeds are tough, for the 
same reason which the Dutch farmer 
gave for his wife's resignation to die : 
“ Mine Gott,” said he " She hat to be !” 
Now the very methods taken to develop 
the profitable qualities of improved stock, 
—the liberal and varied feeding, the rich 
pasturage, the warm stables—all have a 
tendency to lessen their power of resis¬ 
tance to extreme hardship. It is simply 
a question whether it is better to have 
" tough” cows that will make 100 pounds 
of butter a year, or such as must have 
more care and better feed, but will re¬ 
turn 300 pounds in the same time. 
Probably nine-tenths of the farmers, 
even of New England, New York and 
Pennsylvania, have as yet little or no 
blood of foreign breeds in their stock. 
Yet they possess many beasts thatare good 
and profitable. Our "native” animals are 
as easily improved by proper care, feeding 
* and breeding, as those of any part of the 
world. The judicious introduction of 
foreign blood will often hasten the de¬ 
velopment of desired qualities. But never, 
never , never will it do so unless, along 
with it, we take the methods that made it 
what it is. And with those methods it is 
simply a question of greater or less time to 
make as good or better thoroughbreds 
upon the basis of our " native ” animals. 
This is most important to be known. It 
is not yet by any means so well known 
as it ought to be. 
CONCENTRATED FERTILIZE RS-OUR 
ADVICE. 
weight has been due to that. At least 
there was no other change in my diet or 
life to which I can attribute it—therefore, 
I say, no doubt it was the fish. ” Farmer 
B., impressed with the force of this 
reasoning, eats thereafter two fishes 
where previously he had eaten one ; but 
the end of 1878'found him in weight just 
150 pounds. Accosting farmer A., far¬ 
mer B. says : "I have followed your fish 
diet during the past year, but I am no 
fleshier than at its commencement. 
"Well,” retorts farmer A., “I am not 
the less satisfied that it was the fish which 
added so much to my weight. It only 
goes to show the truth of the old adage 
that what will kill one will cure another.” 
In the first place, there is no proof that 
it was the 1000 pounds of superphos¬ 
phate that produced the 100 bushels of 
shelled com The large yield might 
have been due to one or to fifty other 
less apparent causes. But even if the su¬ 
perphosphate were the cause of the 
large yield, the same amount upon far¬ 
mer B. ’s field might produce no manifest 
increase of yield while, perhaps, had he 
used nitrate of soda or potash, his yield 
might have been as great aB that of 
farmer A. 
We say to our farmers who propose to 
buy concentrated fertilizers: ‘ ‘ First— 
Be sure what you are buying. See that 
you get what you pay for . Chemical 
analysis may assure you of this. One 
superphosphate at $20 per ton may be 
worth to you less than one-quarter of the 
value of” another superphosphate that 
costs twice as much. Second—We say 
do not conclude that your land needs 
nitrogen, potash or phosphoric acid be¬ 
cause either one or all of them seemed to 
produce fine crops for your neighbor's. 
Last, we say, before you purchase 
Bpecial fertilizers at all,—experiment in a 
small way for yourselves with fertilizers 
of the simplest composition; such as 
burnt bone, nitrate of soda, muriate 
of potash. There are a number of 
trustworthy firms in New lork, Chi¬ 
cago, Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, 
who will supply any or all in small quan¬ 
tities which will enable you thus to ex¬ 
periment in a small way and at a small 
cost. In this way, (if at all) you may 
leam approximately what your land 
needs. You can learn in no other way 
except by a probably ruinous waste of 
money.” 
--—- 
TREATING. 
Parties advertising concentrated fer¬ 
tilizers usually present, in circular form, 
a long list of recommendations from 
those who have used them. Our readers 
ought not to be influenced by such re¬ 
commendations, no matter how well the 
names may be known to them. The com¬ 
mercial fertilizer sold this year may be 
very different in its valuable ingredients 
from that Bold last year—and the com¬ 
mendation of a neighbor as to how much 
a certain brand benefited a certain crop 
in his field, is no guarantee as to its ef¬ 
fect upon the same or a different crop in 
another field. 
If your neighbor uses 1000 pounds of 
superphosphate on his acre of corn, and 
produces 100 bushels, that is no proof 
that 1000 pounds of superphosphate will 
produce 100 bushels of shelled corn on 
your field—-it is no sort of evidence that 
it will. 
The readiness with which one farmer 
will buy the same fertilizer that seems to 
have helped his neighbor’s crop, brings 
to our mind a fanciful ease like this : 
Farmer A. up to Jan. 1st, 1877, weighed 
175 pounds. During the year he gained 
in flesh so that by Jan. 1st, 1878, he 
weighed 225 pounds. Now farmer B., 
whose weight was only about 150, knows 
of this change, and seeking farmer A. 
asks : " What have you done to gain 50 
pounds in one year?” "I will tell you,” 
replies farmer A.: "It happened that 
during 1877 I ate about twice as much 
fish as ever before in the same length of 
time, and, no doubt, my increase of 
Some time ago (July 27, 1877) we sug¬ 
gested in the Bubal that the friends of 
temperance might promote the cause for 
which they are laboring, bv inducing 
young men to abstain from the common 
practice of treating, and proposed that 
a society be formed, the members of 
which should pledge themselves to pay 
for no liquor to be drank by others, and 
to drink none that another paid for. Such 
a society is now established in New York, 
and is, we understand, in successful ope¬ 
ration with good results. Perhaps the 
originators of it, however, were as little 
aware that we had suggested it, as we 
were that the same thing was advised by 
one of the Governors of New England 
nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. 
We recently found in Cotton Mather’B 
“ Magnalia Christi Americana”—a quaint, 
curious and rare old book—the following : 
" There was one civil custom used in (and 
in few but) the English nation which this 
geiftleman [Gov. W T inthrop] did endeavor 
to abolish in this country ; and that was 
the usage of drinking to one another. 
For although by drinking to one another, 
no more is meant than an act of courfce- 
sie, when one, going to drink, does invite, 
another to do so too, for the same ends 
with himself : nevertheless the governor 
(not altogether unlike to Cleomenes, of 
whom it is reported by Plutarch Nolenti 
poculitm nunquan prcebiiit;)* consid¬ 
ered the vm,pertinency and insignifican¬ 
cy of this usage, as to any of those ends 
at all, but only to provoke persons unto 
unseason able and perhaps unreasonable 
drinking, and at last produce that abom¬ 
inable health-drinking which the Fathers 
of old so severely rebuked in the Pagans, 
and which the Papists themselves do con¬ 
demn, when their casuists pronounce it, 
Peccaturn mar tale provocare ad 
lequales calices, et nefas respondere. t 
Wherefore in his own most hospitable 
house he left it off; not out of any silly 
or stingy fancy, but merely that by his 
example a greater temperance, with lib¬ 
erty of drinking, might be recommended, 
and sundry inconveniences in dr ink i n g 
avoided ; and his example accordingly 
began to be much followed by the sober 
people in this country, as it now also be¬ 
gins among persons of the highest rank 
in the English nation itself; until an 
“Never urged the reluctant, to drink- . , ,. 
tit lea deadly sin to challenge another to a drinking 
match, and it is impious to accept such challenges. 
+A bins toward n forbidden indulgence. 
--—♦♦♦-- 
THE REVOLUTION IN DAIRYING. 
It is scarcely more than a year since the 
Western people were complaining that 
the brand “ Western” upon their dairy 
packages conveyed an inference of infe¬ 
riority of quality, and was accompanied 
by a decided inferiority in market value. 
Eastern men said patronizingly, "raise 
the quality of your goods aud the market 
will respond at once;" “make Western 
butter equal to ours, and the prices will 
regulate themselves. ’ ’ 
At the same time they rested confi¬ 
dently in the opinion that such a state of 
affairs could never occur. They slept on 
that idea just as the hare in the fable 
slept on the idea that the crawling tor¬ 
toise could never overtake her in the race. 
But Eastern dairymen have been awak¬ 
ened in a most startling manner. West¬ 
ern creamery butter stands at the head of 
the market, and Western dairymen carry 
premiums at the exhibitions. As usual, 
the West has gone ahead. It is a West¬ 
ern habit to do that. With all their per¬ 
tinacity and vim born of their Eastern 
origin,' together with the surpassing ad¬ 
vantages of their locality, Western men 
have left their Eastern competitors in the 
rear, simply because they discovered 
what was wanted by consumers of their 
produce, and then went to work and pro¬ 
duced it. 
They found that sweet, fresh butter 
was wanted iu place of "State firkins 
and tubs packed in June, and they went 
to winter dairving; had their cows fresh 
iu the fall; fed them on early-cnt hay 
aud their rich and cheap com ; used all 
their natural advantages and acquired 
the necessary skill ; turned out an ex¬ 
cellent product and swept the market. 
And now the Eastern men are cogitating 
how they may recover their lost ground. 
They are in'the rear just now, and "a 
stem chase is always a long race but 
whichever wins in the end, the public, 
who consume the butter and cheese, will 
be the gainers. 
-*♦»- 
ROSE CULTURE. 
One of the first secrets of success with 
the Rose in guarding against its several 
persistent insect enemies, such as the 
rose-bug, green-fly, rose-slug, etc., is to 
keep the plant healthy and in vigorous 
growth. To insure this, a rich soil is in¬ 
dispensable. Let it be composed of old 
decomposed sods or thoroughly rotted 
manure. This earth should never be 
permittted to bake ; but should be kept 
friable by frequent stirring. The aphis, 
or green-fly, first attacks the young, ten¬ 
der shoots', feeding upon their juices. 
The pests may be killed by placing a barrel 
over the infested plant and burning to¬ 
bacco in a flower-pot or other vessel un¬ 
derneath. The rose-slug, that green¬ 
bodied, jelly-like pest that feeds upon the 
surface of the leaves, leaving only the 
the veins and ribs, may be kept in severe 
check, if not destroyed, by dusting the 
plant with fine coal ashes. The rose-bugs 
may be brushed off into a pail of water, 
or picked off’ separately by baud and de¬ 
stroyed. As much as has been written 
about the culture of the Rose and about 
its insect enemies and their destruction, 
the above, in our experience, embodies 
the whole story. 
--♦ — ♦- 
A suggestion to those who have re¬ 
ceived a packet of the Pearl Millet we 
have sent them, is this : Take a three- 
inch pot and plant therein one of the 
seeds. By the first of June the plant will 
have grown to some size. Turn it out 
in the middle of a flower-bed, the soil of 
which has been made as rich as can be. 
It will make an immense plant by mid¬ 
summer, that will prove, for the rest of 
the season, as ornamental as many others 
that are cultivated for ornament alone. 
In this way, too, no doubt Pearl Millet 
will seed freely. We should like to hear 
from those who act upon this suggestion. 
Our largest plant last year (without extra 
care or a rich soil) grew to the bight of 
ten feet one inch, and girthed about six¬ 
teen feet. We should much like to know 
what caw be done with this plant if given 
the best of garden culture. 
.- - ♦ » 
BREVITIES. 
Our Querist Department is eo full this week, 
chiefly with timely inquiries, the condensed 
answers to which will be very useful to many 
of our readers at this busy season, that it has 
forced out our “News of the Week.” a mishap 
the less to be regretted, inasmuch as the news 
of the past week lias been of little general 
interest. 
By the use of the words ensilage aud silos, 
needless mystery has been thrown over the 
preservation of cut-up green corn stalks and 
leaves, through the winter for stock. It will 
be seen that the corn leaves and stalks are 
treated upou much the same principle on which 
celery is stored in trenches for the winter. 
And that is about the whole story- 
A FRIEND asks us: “What, commercial fer¬ 
tilizer shall I buy for my oat field ?” The ques¬ 
tion Is a simple one—It is as plain as the nose 
on one’s face. We wish we could answer it. 
It would seem that information as to such 
questions lies at the end of a long, rough road, 
and thut at. the end of it,, each field, by experi¬ 
ment, must give that information. 
The hard frost of last spring which so in¬ 
jured Grapes, all small fruits, potatoes, melons, 
cucumbers, beans, etc., etc., was on May 14. 
Mr. F. Corbin states in his interesting little 
work about Plymouth Rocky, that thia breou is 
by the best authorities thought to be a crosB 
between a single-combed Dominique cock and 
a Black Juvanen. 
The Gartner-Zcitung, speaking of a reminis¬ 
cence of the Tulip Mania, says that two houses 
in the main street of Hoorn, near Amsterdam, 
were offered for Rale for demolition. These 
houses were purchased during the Tulip trade 
which flourished from 1S54 to 1«)7, with the 
proceeds of three Tulip bulbs. The record of 
this purchase was preserved in a stone, inserted 
in the gable of one of the houses. 
Dr. Bturtkvant reminds his readers in the 
Scientific Farmer that “ when a farmer plows 
a furrow of seventy-eight yards in length when 
he could as well plow a furrow two hundred 
and seventy-four yards iu length, he i6 getting 
a waste of three hours and twenty minutes out 
of a day of eight hourB ; or, If the day’s labor 
of men and team be reckoned at three dollars, 
he is losing by the short length of furrow about 
$1.25 a day. This, though an extreme case, 
does not lessen the force of the argument." 
Puup. Bre wer says that farmers, as u general 
rule, are not good gardeners. He says that 
the time when a large field is waiting to be 
sown, upon which field the farmer expects to 
raise a crop from which his iuconie is to come, 
is the very time when his garden needs attend¬ 
ing to; and while his garden is an important 
thing for his own table, it is not his business, 
and if either is neglected, it is his garden rather 
than his field. Farmers do not raise as good 
vegetables as gardeners do, because it conflicts 
with their regular business. 
Our readers will remember the frequent 
references we have made to that excellent 
work. “The Native Flowers and Ferns of the 
United States,” by Thomas Meehan. We are 
gratified to learn that the scries finished “has 
proven so acceptable to the public that auother 
series lias been prepared and will appear about 
midsummer.’’ Ann then we hope another aud 
another will appear, for it is at once the most 
elegant, interesting and instructive work of its 
kind that has ever been published to our knowl¬ 
edge. The colored plates alone are worth the 
cost of the work. 
Four years ago we made teBts with all of 
the good and promising new sorts of cucum¬ 
bers—not for pickling but as cucumbers to be 
sliced up and eaten with vinegar, etc., as they 
are usually prepared. Our report was that 
“ Tailby’s Hybrid ” was the teuderest, had the 
fewst secdsj was, in short, the best. Ever 
since that time, we have made occasional re¬ 
ferences to it in the hopes of securing for it a 
general appreciation. We are glad to see that 
our friend Mr Gregory, of Marblehead, now 
advertises It as a “ prize for any’garden.” We 
should prize the cucumber, more had Mr. 
Tailby called It. by any other name than a 
“Hybrid." 
The old system of cutting cemetery grounds 
iuto small lots surrounded bv hedges, bids fair 
to pass away entirely- All over the country, 
the park landscape or lawn system is gaining 
favor. It consists in a series of plantations of 
shrubs and trees, so arranged that the effect of 
the entire cemetery, from the main drives, is 
that of an extensive park, all evidence of ex¬ 
isting burial grounds being shut off by foliage. 
Of course, in this system, the hcdge-and-fence 
monstrosity finds no place. Vaults or cata¬ 
combs arc excavated in the hillsides, aud me¬ 
morial buildings of all kinds creeled in retired 
nooks. More land is required for this arrange¬ 
ment, but its attractive, rural character seems 
to commend it to all. 
Mr. J. 8. Woodward reports to the W. N. Y. 
llort. 8. as follows : "One part of the orchard, 
belonging to Mr. Haynes, of Newfaue, was 
badly infested with the canker-worm, or some¬ 
thing like It. Ho procured » force-pump and 
sprinkled the trees with water containing 
PariR-green. This not only entirely rid them 
of the canker-worms, but to his surprise those 
apples which grew in that part of his orchard 
were entirely free of codling-moth worms, and 
though be and his family have, eaten freely of 
the fruit, they have found no trouble from the 
poison, and he Is very sanguiue In thinking 
this a cheap and very effective remedy for this 
pest." Now we earnestly hope that these re¬ 
commendations to use Paris-green will not be 
lieedod. The destruction that its free use may 
cause is beyond our powers to surmise. Its 
use to exterminate the potato-beetle may be 
excused, perhaps, but even In in this ease it 
may lead to ills which wo have never dreamed 
of. 
It Is a poor sort of philosophy that sets itself 
up to negative the plans offered by thinking 
men, without offering better ones in their place- 
Nevertheless, the belief is strong upon us that 
the many sorts of hands used to exterminate 
the Godliug-moth will never appreciably lessen 
their numbers aud that the use of them is, conse¬ 
quently, time and money thrown away, un¬ 
favorable conditions of the woathcr or a natu¬ 
ral enemy would do more to exterminate tnem 
iu one season than any such measures of oui 
own, In a lifetime. It iB natural to the earnest 
horticulturist to work unceasingly for the ben 
efit of horticulture; but we respectfully rsk 
that the natural increase or the Uodlmg-motn, 
as compared with the numbers which are nRe¬ 
ly to be killed by the general use of bands, oe 
fairly considered. Is it not best to oppose s! 
labor or appliances which evidently cost mo 
than they are worth ? 
