THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MAY 34 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, MAY 31. 1879. 
TO EVERY READER. 
We respectfully and urgently call the atten¬ 
tion of our readers to the necessity which exists 
that they should address their communications 
to the Editors or the Publishers of the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker, if they would insure prompt 
responses. Letters addressed to individuals 
are often delayed in this office for weeks. Mr. 
Moore, to whom letters intended for us arc 
still occasionally addressed, has had no con¬ 
nection with this journal for years. 
-A-*-*- 
DRINKING AT MEALS. 
We were once told by a shrewd old 
college professor that the most foolish 
thing a man of intelligence can do—from 
the worldly point of view—is to “butt 
his brains out against a popular preju¬ 
dice.” Still we are sometimes dreadfully 
tempted to pound our cranium against a 
hurtful notion, and have never been more 
so than while reading the advice so often 
insisted on in the papers against drinking 
water at meal-times. The chief and most 
plausible argument against this practice 
is that it dilutes the gastric juices, and so 
delays digestion. It is not often in a 
scientific discussion that we can so easily 
as in this case appeal to the individual 
consciousness of the nniustructed reader 
in proof of the fallacious character of the 
assumption in question. Who that reads 
this has not had a thousand proofs forced 
upon hiB attention that water taken into 
the stomach remains there but a few 
seconds, is quickly taken up by the blood 
vessels, and, if * in excess, almost as 
quickly thrown out of the blood again 
through the kidneys? Yet there is a 
small grain of truth in the midst of this 
gross error. Large draughts of very cold 
water taken into the stomach with the 
food, by chilling the stomach during its 
rapid progress through the walls of its 
vessels, do arrest the secretion of the 
digestive fluids until the proper warmth 
is re-established. Large draughts, also, 
of tea and coffee, by the astringency of 
the former and by the nervine action of 
the theine they both contain—as well, 
also, as by the peculiar narcotic action of 
coffee — derange and hinder digestion. 
Alcoholics, however diluted, have a like 
effect. 
With these limitations, we but declare 
the consensus of all physiologists when 
we say that a full response to the calls of 
thirst, at meal-times as at other times, is 
wise and proper. And for these reasons: 
The sense of thirst is given to us not 
only that we may keep the fluids of the 
body duly supplied with solvent and 
diluent material, but also that, through 
the excretory organs, all soluble offensive 
substances may be quickly washed away. 
In the digestive process the demand for 
water in aid of both these necessary pur¬ 
poses is urgent. In nearly everything 
we eat there are soluble substances that 
are in excess, and this excess should be 
promptly carried out of the system. Per¬ 
haps the most abundant among these, 
usually, is the common salt so freely 
taken. It is, however, by no means the 
only one; and they all, unless promptly 
removed, act as irritants. Their action 
upon the Btomach will in a very short 
time decrease and soon arrest the flow of 
the gastric fluids and disturb the muscu¬ 
lar action by which the stomach “churns, ” 
so to speak, its contents, that every por¬ 
tion may receive its due admixture of 
digestive material. This disturbance of 
muscular action is Been at its highest in 
vomiting, by which the offending sub¬ 
stance is ejected summarily, together 
with all the contents of the organ. 
Now, it is best not to over-eat, and it is 
best to eat simple food, with as little 
excess of seasoning or of objectionable 
elements, as possible. But, under all 
circumstances, it is both wrong and dan¬ 
gerous to give refusal to nature’s oall for 
nature’s remedy in such cases. Plenty 
of drink is what is demauded, and a free 
supply of fluids must be given, if serious 
consequences are to be avoided. 
The consequences of refusal are not all 
immediate. The irritation from lack of 
drink, as well aB that from improper 
drinks, becomes in time chronic, passing 
to inflammation, the result of which is 
dyspepsia and the symptom of which is 
pain. Then, for want of diluent fluid by 
which offending soluble substances are 
quickly removed, these often assume in¬ 
soluble forms, and are deposited in vari¬ 
ous parts of the body, to remain there, 
constant sources of pain and danger. 
Gravel and stone in the urinary organs, 
biliary concretions in the liver, calcareous 
deposits in the joints and elsewhere, and 
possibly tubercular deposits in various 
organs, are, we may say with much cer¬ 
tainty, due in some degree, to a foolish 
fear of water-drinking. 
OVER-PRODUCTION. 
It is to be regretted that any econo¬ 
mists should intimate the belief that there 
is, or threatens to be, over-production of 
the fruits of the farm. Already our agri¬ 
cultural interests have too much and too 
many kinds of opposition. The prevail¬ 
ing low prices of the articles raised by 
the farmer are not to be accounted for on 
this ground. Neither is the widespread 
financial trouble to be attributed to sucli 
a cause. 
It is readily admitted that local or gen¬ 
eral markets' may easily be over-stocked 
with various kinds of manufactures, and 
also with those articles of consumption 
that are regarded as luxuries; but these 
bear to the community an entirely differ¬ 
ent relation from that sustained by the 
usual products of agriculture. All kinds 
of articles of commerce have shown a 
corresponding decline in price. If farm¬ 
ers need much that they cannot buy, the 
same is true of those engaged in all other 
occupations. The low prices of farm 
products are not attributable to the ab¬ 
sence of a demand for them, but rather 
to the want of the money with which to 
purchase them. 
All over this vast land there are now, 
and probably always will be, districts 
which need far more meat and grain than 
they have or can obtain. Taking a broader 
view, the worn and denuded lands of the 
Old World are scourged with terrible 
famines from time to time. China, in a 
few years, has lost millions of her people 
from this cause. Syria and India have 
been—and the latter even now threatens 
to be again—the scenes of horrible mor¬ 
tality and desolation from the same calam¬ 
ity. Brazil and Morocco have also been 
greviously affected by famine during the 
past year. 
For the following reasons we believe 
that no section need to fear over-produc¬ 
tion of the necessaries of life: The means 
of transportation are so rapidly multiply¬ 
ing that there are always near or distant 
communities that may be reached, that 
are in immediate and urgent need of what 
the farmer raises. These means of trans¬ 
portation are constantly increasing. The 
growth of population and the vast exten¬ 
sion and multiplication of non-productive 
callings 'null prevent any diminution of 
the demand for the direct and indispensa¬ 
ble means of subsistence. 
The nature of the products of the soil 
is such that in many instances they ean 
be converted into other forms that may 
prove more marketable. If there be 
more corn than is needed, there may be 
a scarcity of good beef, butter, mutton, 
pork, etc., and these can readily lie raised 
from the corn. Again, there is such won¬ 
derful adaptation in our soil and climate, 
that, at least in many parts of our country, 
there is a vast privilege of choice as to 
what articles shall be produced. This 
ought to protect the intelligent farmer 
from the disappointment of au over¬ 
stocked market. 
Millions of our people do not have a 
pound of fresh fruit of any kind for a 
great part of the year. Millions do not 
have a pound of butter for months. Mill¬ 
ions scarcely know the taste of good, rich 
milk. Millions are living almost entirely 
without meat. Millions are to-day with¬ 
out a single article produced in the gar¬ 
den. Millions do not taste mutton once 
a year. Millions have to live nearly or 
quite without wheaten flour. Millions 
have not enough corn-bread. Does that 
look like over-production ? 
--M-»- 
CAREFUL PACKING ALWAYS PAYS. 
Coming up Fulton street a few days 
ago, we noticed, in front of a fruit deal¬ 
er’s store, several boxes of oranges, some 
of which were prat up in the ordinary 
style, while in others the oranges were 
wrapped variously, some in red, some in 
blue, and others in the ordinary white 
papers, and packed in the order that gave 
the most, pleasing appearance. Being 
attracted by the novelty, we inquired of 
the proprietor if the fruit so packed was 
of a superior quality. “No,” was the 
reply, “it is all alike; but,” he added, 
“that style of packing makes it sell 
quicker.” 
Here, we thought, is a lesson for the 
readers of the Bubal, and one by which 
they can profit. We have previously 
often called attention to the fact that 
time spent in properly preparing for 
market all articles that are offered for 
sale, whether they are productions of the 
factory or the farm, is time well spent. 
Taking fruit for an example, one having 
a hundred barrels of apples will send all 
in one lot. The smaller ones give an 
undertone to all the others. If four or 
five barrels of the smaller and imperfect 
ones were selected and kept at home, the 
balance of the lot would sell for more 
money than all together would bring, and 
if those sent, were divided into two lots— 
extra and fair—they would probably sell 
for still more than if sold in one lot. 
Two or three cents a pound more can 
be readily obtained for butter of the same 
quality when care is taken to pack it 
nicely. Appearances may be deceitful in 
many cases, but they go a. great way in 
fixing the market price of any commodity. 
Perhaps there is as much difference in 
price made by “looks" in poultry as in 
any article sent to market. A walk 
through Washington Market any day in 
the week, would prove to the satisfaction 
of any ordinary observer that the profit 
or loss of poultry-raising depends uot bo 
much on the management of the fowls 
before as after they are killed. 
A case in point occurs to us. We vis¬ 
ited, a while ago, a friend in the Connec¬ 
ticut River Valley, whom we will call A. 
His farm adjoined that of B. A was 
known as one of the neatest farmers in 
the neighborhood; B was the reverse. 
Both raised tobacco. A had sold his for 
a good price; B could get no offer for 
his. One day he came to A and said, 
“My tobacco grew as well as yours ; was 
as well ripened and cured, but it doesn’t 
sell. What is the matter?” “Because 
it doesn’t look well,” was the reply. 
“When stripped, you put it iu hanks 
carelessly and with no regard for appear¬ 
ance. If you will overhaul it aud do it 
up nicely,you can easily find a customer.” 
The advice was followed, aud in a few 
days the crop was satisfactorily sold to a 
dealer who had previously seen it and 
declined to purchase. 
Everybody knows that neatness and 
order are everywhere attractive, and 
should readily infer that they pay well 
in the end. 
-♦ • ♦- 
THE CROPS. 
The latest information from different 
parts of the country gives assurance of 
heavy crops everywhere. The recent 
abundant and widespread rains have re¬ 
moved the alarm of farmers, especially 
in the West and Northwest, with regard 
to the injury likely to be caused by a 
prolonged drought. From all sides con¬ 
fidence is now expressed of an unusually 
fine harvest. The accounts from Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Dakota, 
Iow r a, Kansas and Nebraska indicate a 
large increase in the production of cere¬ 
als. Throughout the great wheat region 
the acreage under wheat is considerably 
larger than last year, owing to the now 
land taken up aud cultivated, and be¬ 
cause the dryness of the early part of 
the seasou enabled farmers to plow land 
not tillable in a wet spring. Spring 
wheat, as a rule, looks well, but the 
production of this sort is yearly diminish¬ 
ing. The com crop will be* larger this 
year than ever before, according to pres¬ 
ent estimates. Here and there fruit has 
been somewhat, injured by late frosts, 
but on the whole a heavy yield is confi¬ 
dently expected. The reports with re¬ 
gard to barley aud oats promise heavy 
crops. The welcome rains have given 
the grass a fine start, and the fears enter¬ 
tained early in the season of a short hay 
crop are no\f replaced by high hopes of 
an unusually abundant one. Out West 
the cultivated or tame grasses are being 
extensively introduced witli very satisfac¬ 
tory results. The outlook for agriculture 
this year is, on the whole, highly encour¬ 
aging. 
-*-M- 
BREVITIES. 
How beautiful the world is now! 
Cuekkies are now in the New York market. 
Tne Plymouth Rocks make the best of 
mothers. 
Keep the growing canes of Grape-vines well 
tied to their stakes or trellises." 
Dendrobium mobile is one of the best 
Orchids aud one of the easiest to cultivate. 
Those w ho wish to have a fine display of 
Zonal Pelargoniums for next fall, should strike 
cuttings now. 
The cuuuingest little chicks iu the world 
when first hatched out, are the VVbite-crested 
Polish. 
In our wheat fields, or iu those of our neigh¬ 
bors, there, is uo appearance of injury by the 
Hessian Fly. 
Pinch off blackberry aud raspberry shoots, 
the laterals when two feet long, the leaders 
when three or four feet high. 
Young grape-vines that have pushed many 
buds, should now have all rubbed off but one 
or at most, two of the strongest shoots. 
Phlox reftans is now r one of our showiest, 
hardv herbaceous plants. The flowers are of 
a reddish-purple borne, in corymbs. The plant, 
will grow anywhere. 
“Alas!" says Mr. Crozier, “beauty nowa¬ 
days counts high—tar too high—in the selection 
of a cow, no matter how much or how little 
milk she may give." 'Tis true. 
Rural Farm Note. —Weather showery aud 
warm. Cherries and Peaches have set well, 
and there seems scarcely any further danger 
to be apprehended from frost. 
We are pleased to see that some of our 
contemporaries are cordially supporting our 
advocacy of children’s gardens. Meantime the 
Rural's Horticultural Club of Youngsters is 
growing thriftily. 
As we state in another column, 70 weevil- 
eaten peas were planted at the Rural Grounds 
two weeks ago. One only germinated—a sick¬ 
ly plant. How fond many of us are of stating 
mere impressions as facts! 
“Professor” Henderson of the Rural Farm 
reeptests us to state that he finds lamp-black, 
applied with a woolen cloth, the very best 
substance for burmshing the brass or silver- 
plated mountings of harness, 
We have had occasion to notice that plants 
which have been withered in cellars, pots or 
greeuhouses are often planted loo deeply in 
tne open ground. Tbit is often a fatal mistake 
with such tender plants, the same as it is with 
fruit trees. 
Those who received the lettuce we sent to 
them in the Free 8eed Distribution, are asked 
to cut it off to the ground as often as the leaves 
are large enough for table use. The quantity 
that a small bed will thus supply may surprise 
those who do so. 
X. A. Willard says: “ Putrid water is often 
the only kind by which the cow can slake her 
thirst, and yet it is productive of disease. Wo 
have a law to prevent watering milk, and yet 
a farmer is not prohibited from permitting bis 
cows to quench their thirst in the most filthy 
and poisonous water.” 
Make a Note of This. —Plant, next fall or 
spring, in one group, the following: The 
Golden-leaved Spinva, the Purple-leaved Ha¬ 
zel-nut (Gory his Avellaua purpurea), the Gold¬ 
en Elder (8aiubucus nigra aurea). In another 
group, plant the variegated Rose of Sharon 
(Hibiscus Syriacus), the variegated Dogwood 
(Cprhus Mas.), aud the variegated Cora) Berry 
(Syiupboriearpus vulgaris). 
The imported cabbage-worm, Pieris rapte is 
rapidly progressing westward. It was ob¬ 
served at Quebec in 1859. Theuee it passed 
southward along the Atlantic coast, and hav¬ 
ing once gained a good foothold, it commenced 
its westward march. It seems to take longer 
strides with each year. It has now reached 
Iowa and is rapidly advancing into Missouri. 
The butterfly is white with one or two clearly 
defined black spots on each fore-wing. Hot 
water, or one pound of whale-oil soap dissolved 
in six gallons of water, thrown upon the plants 
will kill the larvte. 
With Beets we have been most successful 
iu those of our fields the soil of whieb we have 
described as a saudy-iuuek. For field culture, 
the rows should be three feet apart aud the 
plants thinned out in the row to ten inches at 
least. For garden culture, the rows need not 
be over two feet apart. There is now a tend¬ 
ency to plant all crops further apart than in 
bygone (lays, and the teudeucy is no doubt 
good. In our desire for large yields, over¬ 
looking the importance of air and sunlight, as 
well as the extent of ground which the roots 
should be permitted to traverse freely, we are 
too prone to estimate the yield of the crop by 
the number of plants cultivated. The proper 
cultivation of beets has especially been ignored 
iu this country. 
Our plants of Prickly Comfrey, which we 
cut tjireo times last summer, arc growing 
vigorously now and are truly objects of some 
general beamy and of great symmetry. They 
are nearly five feet tall, compact, conical, 
prickly—very prickly. Prickliness and sym¬ 
metry, however, do not add much to the value 
of the plant as fodder. A gcutlemau wrote us 
a little while ago that bis advertisement of 
Prickly Gomfrey in the Rural did not pay him 
very well, while the reverse was the ease in 
other agricultural journals which do not claim 
so large a circulation. Had our Iriend been 
interested iu the Rural otherwise than as an 
advertising medium, be would probably never 
have sent us the advertisement at all. We 
have several times stated that we could find 
no animals that cared for it, and this, ouo 
would suppose, was enough to have condemned 
it. in the estimation of such of our readers as 
have uot tried it for themselves. 
Mr. Barron, of England, instituted a few 
years ago some experiments to gain, if possi¬ 
ble, more light upon the influence which the 
stock exerts upon the cion and vice versa. A 
certain number of stocks of each kind were al¬ 
lowed to grow without let or hindrance, and 
the others were grafted with the Blenheim 
Orange, it being desirable to know what effect 
the different stocks would have on the same 
variety of Apple. At the present time, accord¬ 
ing to the London Chronicle, the results of the 
experiment are very clearly apparent, the 
young trees on the French Paradise and Dou- 
cin stocks being full of bloom, while there is 
none on those worked on the Grab, and but 
very little on those grafted on the English 
Paradise, It is also worthy of record that the 
same results were experienced last year. 8" 
much for the influence of the stock on the 
cion. Another siugulur fact which these ex¬ 
periments have brought, out bears upon the 
opposite question—the influence of the cion 
upon the stock, and it is this, that during 
the wiuter of 1877 8 several of the unworked 
Freuch Paradise stocks died; and during the 
past winter the remainder followed suit: thus 
proving (1) that iu a state of Nature the French 
Paradise is a short-lived tree; yet (2) when 
grafted with another variety it lives tor years 
—in fact, for an indefinite period. 
