THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 24 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 21. 1879. 
OUR CROP REPORTS. 
To be able to estimate in advance with 
a fair degree of accuracy the probable 
yield of various crops throughout the 
country, is of no small interest to the 
agricultural community, not merely as a 
matter of curiosity, out also because such 
foreknowledge, wisely utilized, will ena¬ 
ble the fanners to sell their produce to 
greater advantage and conduct their af¬ 
faire on better business principles. Nor 
are the farmers the only people interested 
in this question j tor there is no class in 
this country, nor, indeed, in the civilized 
world, to whom the American harvest is 
not a matter of great importance. To 
the railroad and shipping interests, and 
the whole carrying trade, an abundant 
harvest means a prosperous season and 
large dividends ; to the mercantile com¬ 
munity it means an extensive business on 
a sound basis; to the manufacturers it 
means large sales and small losses; to 
the laboring classes it means plenty of 
work and paying wageB, and plenty of 
food at low prices, while to the nation at 
large it is a sure guarantee of comfort 
and prosperity. 
Nor are the blessings of abundant food 
and low prices consequent npon a fine 
harvest here, confined to this side of the 
Atlantic, for abroad also the toiling mul¬ 
titudes are benefited by the surplus pro¬ 
ducts such a harvest enables us to send 
them. True it is that overflowing crops 
here cheapen the price of farm products 
and consequently lessen the profits of 
farmers elsewhere; but the agricultural 
community of Europe, and especially of 
onr chief market, England, forms but a 
comparatively small proportion of the 
whole population, and there is no single 
general benefit that does not entail a 
thousand individual hardships. 
Reliable information with regard to the 
prospects of all crops can be obtained 
only from those who cultivate them, and 
who are acquainted with the customary 
yield in each section and under each 
method of treatment. In this issue sev¬ 
eral hundred farmers from as many points 
scattered all over our broad territory, give 
well considered opinions on the outlook 
for crops in their respective neighbor¬ 
hoods or counties. With a very few ex¬ 
ceptions, all the writers are "practical 
farmers, each well acquainted with the 
condition of the crops in his own vicinity. 
Many of them are the secretaries of the 
agricultural societies of their respective 
counties, and these have condensed in 
their reports to us the results of their in¬ 
vestigations and of the local reports made 
to them. Taken as a whole, therefore, an 
excellent estimate of the coming harvest 
throughout, the country can be readily 
formed by a eareful perusal of these pithy 
and interesting accounts. 
From these and various other sources of 
information, including the report of the 
Department of Agriculture, reoeived this 
morning from Washington, it appeals 
that the average condition of winter 
wheat is 90, against 98 last year. The 
yield on the Pacific coast, from which 
our special reports have not yet reached 
us, is considerably above the average, 
Oregon rising to 104. The States north 
of the Ohio river average 95, Indiana 
reaching 103. The crop in the Middle 
States averages 86 ; that of New' England 
91; and of the South Atlantic States 96, 
South Carolina* reporting 108 and Georgia 
113—a fine showing for the Empire State 
of the South. The Southern inland Sta/tes 
average 88, the Gulf States 83, and the 
trans-Mississippi States only 79, as com¬ 
pared with 98 last year. All over the 
country a late spring and severe drought 
have been more or less injurious to the 
crop. Complaints of winter-killing have 
come from some parts of the South, and 
of slight ravages by the Hessian fly from 
the North and West; while grasshoppers 
have made their appearance, but have not 
yet done much damage, beyond the Mis¬ 
sissippi. The acreage under spring wheat 
is about four per cent greater than last, 
year. The heaviest increase iB in Cali¬ 
fornia, which reports ten per cent more : 
while in the .New England and the States 
west of the Mississippi there is an in¬ 
crease of five per cent., and one of nine per 
cent, in Minnesota; while the Middle 
States fall off one per cent. The condi¬ 
tion of spring wheat is about the same 
on the whole, as that of winter wheat 
all the States being a trifle below the 
average, the crop having been subjected 
to the same injurious influences. There 
is a considerable increase in the acreage 
under wheat, but the amount of this 
it iR at present, impossible to ascertain. 
In many of the old States the increase is, 
in the aggregate, not inconsiderable, 
while in some of the border States, and 
especially in the Territories, it is of great 
extent. For instance, in one county in 
Dakota, which last year sowed only fifty 
acres, upw'ards of four thousaud acres 
have been grown this year. It is more 
than probable, therefore, that this great 
increase of area under wheat will at least 
fully counterbalance the slight diminu¬ 
tion in the yield per acre of the crop. 
Corn is nearly everywhere backward, 
but the late rains all over the country 
have already pushed it ahead wonder¬ 
fully, and unless the weather is very un¬ 
favorable a fair crop is among the proba¬ 
bilities. Curiously enough, while our 
Kansas reports indicate a very poor wheat 
crop, they all promise a splendid crop of 
corn. Poor seeds and planting too early 
appear to be the causes of the present 
unsatisfactory condition of the crop in 
the Middle and most of the Western 
States, and it is to be hoped that the les¬ 
sons taught by the hard experience of the 
present season will not be profitless in 
the future. 
The prospects are promising that cot¬ 
ton will be an excellent crop this year. 
The area planted to it is reported to be at 
least two per cent larger than last year, 
while the stand and culture are both fine! 
Taking 100 as the average of last year’s 
crop, 47 counties in North Carolina re¬ 
port their present crop at. 103; 18 coun¬ 
ties in South Carolina report 100 ; 71 
counties in Georgia, 102 ; 12 counties in 
Florida, 98; 58 counties in Texas, 107 ; 
40 counties in Arkansas, 101 ; 18 counties 
in Tennessee, 103. The average yield per 
acre, however, will be a trifle less than last, 
year, in the proportion of 96 to 99. Like 
corn, it is in every section about a couple 
of weeks backward. At present the pros¬ 
pect seems to be that oats, rye and bar¬ 
ley will be somewhat less than average 
in yields; but while the arceage under 
each iB about the same as last year in the 
old-settled States, there is in the Western 
States a considerable increase, which will, 
not improbably, help to bring the aggre¬ 
gate crops out fully abreast of those of 
last year. The high price of potatoes 
during the past season has led to the 
planting of a greatly inoreased acreage 
to this crop, and as the yield, on the 
whole, promises to be abundant, low 7 
prices w'ill most likely be more universal 
next season than good figures have been 
this. Then it will be at least possible 
that the low prices realized for potatoes 
the coming season, may again restrict 
farmers in planting them on the follow¬ 
ing year, w'hen another era of high prices 
will be pretty sure once more to produce 
so large a supply as again to overstock 
the market. 
Apples will he a Bhort crop, and those 
who are fortunate enough to have ex¬ 
ceptionally good yields, are pretty sure to 
realize good prices. While reports from 
the Maryland and Delaware peach re¬ 
gions are highly promising, the peach 
crop throughout the country will, in 
the aggregate, be considerably smaller 
than the apple crop. Of small fruits 
there will probably be the usual supply, 
so that there cannot be much difference in 
prices from those that have ruled during 
the past season. 
On the whole, the prospects for the 
farming world while not particularly bril¬ 
liant, are certainly encouraging, and we 
are glad to notice that from every quarter 
come words of hope, contentment and 
good cheer. 
FAULTY BREEDING. 
We can have too much of a good thing. 
In its way a finely-bred steer, or a sheep 
or nog is a good thing, and, so far as it 
becomes profitable to the. producer and 
useful to the consumer, the world is bet¬ 
ter for it.. But when by a course of breed¬ 
ing for several years’the end has been 
reached in these respects, it is time to 
stop. If the so-called improvement re¬ 
sults in the conversion of a fine carcass 
of flesh into a mass of tallow or lard, and 
gives the hapless consumer a few bones 
drowned in a dish of fat for his meal, in¬ 
stead of succulent, tender flesh, he con¬ 
siders himself to be an ill-UBed man. 
Formerly the pride of the butcher and 
the joy of the housekeeper was a cut of 
Devon beef beautifully marbled with fat 
and lean intermingled; and the Berk¬ 
shire ham and bacon, or the Essex mar¬ 
ket pork, were the ne plus ultra of the 
breakfast table. Then it was the end 
which ennobled the means to it, and a 
breeder pointed with pride to the dressed 
carcass of his well-bred animal. 
Unfortunately we have changed all 
that. Now the talk of the breeder is of 
the mellow hide and handling of his 
beeves, significative of a soft layer of fat 
beneath the skin ; or of the short face, 
turned-up snout., breadth of loin, or 
enormous weight of his pig, all which 
mean a mass of fat in place of a well dis¬ 
tributed mixture of it with useful lean. 
And the mischief grows. The beef of a 
show .Short-horn would be rejected from 
the kitchen of any housekeeper, and al¬ 
ready the effect, of the crossing of such 
animals upon our common stock is to be 
seen in the waste of fat which is thrown 
off from the butchers’ stalls. The yield 
of lard per 100 pounds of live weight is 
gradually increasing, and this tendency 
is not to the greater usefulness of the 
pig, but otherwise. The result. iB charged 
to the influences of the methods of judg¬ 
ing stock and the fancy points of profes¬ 
sional breeders. But it is time that the 
other end of the line should be heard 
from, and those w'hose money pays for it 
should give the breeders a piece of their 
mind. 
-- 
A NEW PRODUCT FROM BEETS. 
The wonders of nature are amazing, 
and w r e have to thank chemistry for pre¬ 
senting to us the extraordinary disclos¬ 
ures made through constant experiment¬ 
ing in the laboratory. The common su¬ 
gar beet, erew'hile a mere food for cattle, 
was, within the memory of some persons 
yet living, discovered to contain a pure, 
crystallizable sugar. After many years’ 
labor a successful process was invented to 
utilize this discovery, and now not far 
from one thousand million tons of beet 
sugar are made annually in Europe, with 
vast, indeed incalculable, profit to agri- 
ture. But sugar is not the only product 
of this homely root. A great quantity of 
molasses is produced from the refuse of 
the sugar manufacture ; a large quantity 
of spirits is distilled from the refuse o’f 
the molasses ; from the refuse of this last 
potash is made, and used as a fertilizer. 
Now 7 a more wonderful discovery than all 
these has come to light. From the refuse 
of the distillation of alcohol there is now- 
produced a combustible gas which can be 
condensed into a volatile liquid, known 
as chloride of methyl. This chloride of 
methyl has been used in the preparation 
of some of the brilliant aniline colors, 
but it has been now found to be a valua¬ 
ble refrigerating agent. By rapidly evap¬ 
orating it, a temperature’ of more than 
sixty degrees below zero can be produced 
and maintained, and mercury can be re¬ 
duced to solid metal by this means. But 
the grand value of the discovery will be 
in the use of this product of the modest 
beet root in the manufacture of ice. What 
vast possibilities may exist in a simple 
root! and what boundless wonders are 
enfolded in the commonest products of 
nature! Surely there can be no more 
ennobling study for the mind, or work for 
the hands of man than that w'hich brings 
to his view the exquisite works of nature, 
or opens to his intelligence the fairy world, 
of which he may obtain a glimpse, at 
least, now and then. 
PEARL MILLET—A MISTAKE CORRECTED. 
The Maryland Farmer, in commenting 
upon an article in the Planter and Grange 
about Pearl Millet, says: “The Rural 
New Yorker —high authority—will also 
be taken aback, if after all the expense it 
incurred in illustrating millets, and this 
variety especially, it is convinced by the 
Planter and Grange that it has ’been 
dressing up an old ewe in lamb-fashion ?” 
Pearl Millet is new to the North, though 
old to the South, where it. is better known 
by other names. We have never disguised 
this. 
On page 540, August 24, is the follow¬ 
ing : “Our correspondent., Col. M. C. 
Weld, tested this plant twenty years ago, 
and disseminated the seeds for others to 
try. The reports were favorable; in 
view of which, as well as of the fact that 
it has been cultivated in some of the 
Southern States for many years, it is sin¬ 
gular that it has escaped’ general cultiva¬ 
tion, if worthy of it. ” 
Had we space, and it were desirable so 
to do, we could quote at least a dozen 
passages to the same effect. Our only 
object in writing the above is to show our 
friend, the Maryland Farmer, that we 
have made no statement regarding Pearl 
Millet which it is not very easy to sub¬ 
stantiate. Mr. Peter Henderson, against 
whom the article in the Planter aud 
Grange was directed—veiy unjustly, as 
we think—estimated from his own tests a 
far greater yield per acre than we did 
from our tests. He, too, in an article 
published in November of last year, 
states distinctly enough that it has been 
cultivated “ some years in some of the 
Southern States.” 
POULTRY EXHIBITIONS. 
Miss Tox (one of the pleasing creatures 
of Charles Dickens’s genius) was con¬ 
vinced that all the “crookedness” of dis¬ 
position evinced by “Rob. the Grinder” 
was due to his association with pigeons. 
Was Miss Tox correct? It would seeni 
corroborative of a suggestion that that 
lady’s “ head was level ” to read in a re¬ 
cent issue of the New England Farmer 
that if “ we were so disposed we could 
fill a whole page with accounts of tricks 
practiced to defraud,” etc., in poultry ex¬ 
hibitions. This is timely, and pertinent, 
to think of just now. The above-men¬ 
tioned charge refers to the borrowing of 
birds to make up trios, aud so carry off 
prizes to which the exhibitors were not 
entitled. There are tricks in all trades, 
and while there are many honest poultry 
faneiere, it is true there are some whom 
it will pay to watch very closely. But it 
is not pigeons or poultry alone that ex¬ 
ert this demoralizing effect; witness the 
“ stubble-shorn,” yellow-ochered sheep ; 
the sand-papered and waxed horns of the 
cows, their bandaged tails and skins 
washed with dung-water to confer a rich 
butter color; the false pedigrees, the 
stocked udders, and various other tricks 
and devices to catch the judge’s favor. 
All these—to draw it mild—are not un¬ 
known to many breeders; and some med¬ 
als and blue and red ribbons must recall 
to some folks reminiscences that will, or 
ought to, lie heavy upon their consci¬ 
ences one day in the future. 
N. Y. HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION. 
The price of admission to the New 
York Horticultural Society held at. Madi¬ 
son Square Garden has heretofore been 
fifty cents. The price at the last exhibi¬ 
tion reported elsewhere, was but twenty- 
five cents. And yet the attendance was 
less than ever before, and financially, it 
was a failure. Many people value plants 
according to the price they have to pay 
for them. It seems to be the same with 
horticultural displays. They have now 
Gilmore at Coney Island. Perhaps he 
was a chief attraction. 
With lager beer, cigar-smoking, and 
lounging about prohibited, we should 
like to know how a strictly horticultural 
show could be made to pay in New York 
City. Horticulture is everywhere excit¬ 
ing more interest from year to year, and 
we are constrianed to believe that if Hor¬ 
ticultural exhibitions were properly con¬ 
ducted, there is no reason why’ they 
should not be well attended and well sup¬ 
ported in this Metropolitan City. 
BREVITIES. 
Dr. Asa Gray and Professor Sargent have 
started for a month’s tour in the mountains of 
the Carolinas. 
Many excellent crop reports that have just 
arrived must be kept until next week, through 
lack of space for them in thi6 issue. 
We have never seen such a pest of rose-bugs 
us there are this season. They even destroy 
the flowers of late-blooming Magnolias and 
Clematis. 
Among newer kinds of potatoes. Dr. Hexa- 
mer does not know of any variety more prom¬ 
ising than Snowflake. It is especially adapted, 
however, to heavy soils. 
Mr. J. T. Lovett, who has studied poultry 
as well as small fruits, tells us that he has set¬ 
tled upon the Brown Leghorns for eggs, and 
the Plymouth Rocks for all-purpose fowls. 
“ Probably,” says Mr. Wilson in the Lon¬ 
don Chronicle, ‘‘ali the wheats which have 
white grains have leaves of a lighter green 
than those which have red grains. If this is 
true, the shade of green is not always an indi¬ 
cation of vigor. 
Our reports are necessarily much condensed. 
When from any State there is a general co¬ 
incidence in reports, we have combined sev¬ 
eral or more in one. Many of the reports had 
to bo necessarily omitted, as they contained 
the name neither of the town, county nor State 
of the writer, and in some such cases the post 
office stamp was indecipherable. 
We may still sow seedp of the following veg¬ 
etables : squash, pumpkin, tomato, cucumber, 
nasturtium, musk and watermelon, sweet corn, 
bush, pole and Lima beans, okra, lettuce, tur¬ 
nip beets, ruta-bagas. Hoe up all blackberry 
and raspberry canes not needed lor next sea¬ 
son’s fruiting. Set out celery plants. Pota¬ 
toes may still be planted. If the beetles of 
the curly potatoes have been killed, there will 
be few to interfere with the next crop. Study 
our crop reports. 
Mu. Peter Henderson gives as the cream 
of all Strawberries, mentioned in order of 
merit, 1st. Pioneer; 2d, Forest Rose; 3d, 
Beauty; 4th, Sharplosa; 5th, Monarch of the 
West; 6th, Borden 30; 7th, Jucuoda; 8th, 
Charles Downing. He places Pioneer first 
because he deems it the earliest, while it is of 
as good quality and as large as Monarch. Dr. 
Hexamer, however, tells us that, like all of 
Durand's seedlings, it requires high cultiva¬ 
tion. He also thinks that either Nicanor, 
Duchesne or Duncan is earlier. We have not 
tested Pioneer. Duncan is, with us, the earli¬ 
est, though little else can be said in its favor. 
