556 
AUG. 3*1 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duano Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, AUG. 30, 1879. 
A CUSTOM AND ITS RESULT, 
It has been patent to all unprejudiced 
observers for years, that the race-course 
ut so-called agricultural fairs attracts at¬ 
tention to the neglect of more important 
matters, to the demoralization of many 
persons, and to the utter perversion of 
the true objects and interests of those 
important public institutions. Under the 
euphonious name of “ trials of speed,” 
and the pretence of improving our horses, 
ganuine racing has absorbed even the 
iuterest that ought to be given to that 
kind of improvement of the horse which 
concerns the well-being of the farmer and 
society iu general. As it is callod “trials 
of speed,” and is conducted so as to se- 
cure the greatest possible attention, mul¬ 
titudes of the better classes not only give 
it their countenance, but also enter with 
unrestrained excitement into the gambling 
and unprolltable pleasure. 
By a principle of social economy, when 
the conservative part of society falls to a 
lower grade in morals and practice, there 
is a corresponding declension iu the spirit 
and conduct of those more inclined to 
dissipation. Hence, as the moral people 
have sold their patronage to the specious 
form of the turf at our fairs, the devotees 
of bold, undisguised racing have thrown 
aside all hesitancy and modesty, and en¬ 
tered with astonishing abandon into this 
dangerous and intoxicating pleasure. 
There Beems to be a universal mania in 
America on this subject. Men who ought 
to be aiding to develop our resources and 
to ameliorate the condition of pur strug¬ 
gling masses, are keeping magnificent 
stables and numbers of four-legged 
gambling animals, at very great expense. 
More mind and time and money are 
wasted on the vain passion of these ad¬ 
venturous sportsmen than the interest of 
the country can afford to lose. The fever¬ 
ish passion is spreading like an infection. 
It passes comparatively unrebuked. They 
can refer to the fashionable races at the 
fairs. The dispatches in the daily press 
are becoming largely devoted to reports 
of races. The subject has risen to not 
only national but international import¬ 
ance. The like was never known before 
iu the history of our Bepublic. The fairs 
have in part'set the example, fostered the 
custom, mis-educated the people and 
compromised the moral sentiment that 
used to Btand as a wall between such 
customs, and what is better. 
If any one doubts these statements, let 
him recall what he has seen at fairs, ob¬ 
serve closely what takes place at fairs this 
year, and glance at the telegraphic col¬ 
umns of the daily papers. Is there no 
remedy ? 
-♦ ♦♦ - 
PATENTS. 
Considerable dissatisfaction is ex¬ 
pressed with the operation of the patent 
laws. Many persons, but more especi¬ 
ally farmers, who are obliged to make 
use of many of those small matters which 
might come under the head of patented 
trifles, are continually threatened with 
claims aud suits at law for their enforce¬ 
ment by patent agents or owners of pat¬ 
ents, until their patience has become ex¬ 
hausted. In this way a strong popular 
feeling adverse to patent laws has arisen ; 
and it needs no great prophetic capacity 
to prognosticate an early reform in some 
manner of the present law of patents, un¬ 
der which a thing that is old and anti¬ 
quated, worn out and discarded by our 
fathers perhaps, may be patented and 
made a source of trouble. Cakes of this 
nature have become so frequent that it 
has passed into a byword, and the ex¬ 
acting patent agent, with his claims on 
fences, gates, harrows, churns and other 
such matters, takes rank with the bother¬ 
some tree agent and lightning-rod ped- 
lers. 
There is a reason which is not credit¬ 
able to human nature at the bottom of all 
this, and which has been discovered 
through many cases personally known to 
the writer. A man wlto has benefited in a 
hundred ways from valuable information 
given freely by good-natured correspond¬ 
ents of the Rub ax New-Yorker, per¬ 
haps, or, let us say, of some other good 
aud useful paper, designs some change, 
or, possibly, improves in some manner, 
upon a hint thus given, and straightway 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
takes a patent for his so-called invention, 
which may or may not benew r and useful, 
as the law exacts. Examiners of patent 
claims cannot know everything, and the 
required patent may be granted perhaps 
illegally, when to gather in the proceeds 
from that patent, there begins a course 
of petty annoyances which are intol¬ 
erable. ' Persons, who like this selfish 
patentee, procured information from the 
same source aud used it privately, are 
sought out by spies and threatened w r ith 
prosecution if an unjust, tax is not paid 
on demand. This is a typical case out 
of hundreds or thousands of the same 
sort. Barely we find men who are un¬ 
selfish, and who scorn to tax their fel¬ 
lows for what email benefit may be 
gained from an accidental thought, or 
from a hint dropped by others, and 
which may lead to a really valuable de¬ 
vice to save labor, time or* money. This 
used to be so to a greater extent than 
at present. The man who invented fric¬ 
tion matches, for instance, gave his dis¬ 
covery to the public ; and so with many 
other persons who lived in “ good old 
times.” At the present we are too fond 
of money —too anxious to live on the la¬ 
bors of others, and too desirous to own a 
patent to be—well, let us say—strictly 
honest. And this general failing is the 
cause of trouble, aud has created the 
dissatisfaction we have referred to. 
-- 
FARMING AND EDUCATION. 
Whatever croakers may say, the rolling 
years are slowly but surely bringing 
forth progress in many essential depart¬ 
ments of human interest. As experience 
utters its unanswerable voice, error grows 
less confident and gradually disappears ; 
while the right and the best win popular¬ 
ity aud secure the approval and patronage 
of the intelligent and influential. 
It is but a few years since the opinion 
prevailed in a large part of our country, 
that agriculture required but little infor¬ 
mation and mental training for its suc¬ 
cessful conduct; that an educated man 
ought not to waste his talents in so plain 
and humble a calling ; and that it was 
compromising to personal dignity for one 
to identify himself with the common 
duties of the tiller of the soil. Now it is 
clear that there is a very great demand 
for brain as well as muscle iu performing 
the duties of the farm. The difficulty is 
found to be in the want of sound judg¬ 
ment, of fertile minds as well as acres ; 
of power to promptly and economically 
utilize discoveries and improvements. 
There is now a general desire in the 
highest educated circles to devise the best 
methods for preparing our young men for 
the calling that supports all other call¬ 
ings. Hence our agricultural colleges. 
While the problem is hard to solve, it is 
evident that the extraordinary attention to 
the higher departments of instruction in 
industrial pursuits, is rapidly strengthen¬ 
ing, enlarging, anti enriching the minds 
of those who are entering the occupation 
of the farmer. The farmer lias long been 
working for the world unappreciated ; but 
now the world is turning to most earnest 
work for the farmer. Bo far from the 
educated man feeling himself above the 
grand old calling, he is now, in multitudes 
of instances, toiling with his mighty tal¬ 
ents to give more sueoess to those who 
pursue that avocation. 
It is highly complimentary to farming, 
that, while few fanners leave their plain 
work for complete or continued devotion 
to any one of the so-called learned pro¬ 
fessions, there are many, very many, of 
those who profess to be devotees of one 
of those professions, who gladly and per¬ 
sistently add the pleasure and security of 
farming to their special work. It is not 
merely Anglo-Baxon love of laud;—it is 
an intuitive conviction of what is the 
most trustworthy of merely human posses¬ 
sions. Farming, elevated, directed and 
constantly' improved by advancing knowl¬ 
edge, is, in a large degree, the hope of the 
continued prosperity aud progress of our 
country. 
--- 
WAGES IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 
Information has been gathered by the 
State Department through our foreign 
consuls relative to the wages of laborers 
iu foreign countries. The figures as usual 
show a condition of matters which is 
remarkably favorable to American work¬ 
men, especially those engaged in agricul¬ 
ture. Among other interesting facts, we 
may cite the following : In Belgium, 
the most thickly populated and thrifty 
country in Europe, the wages of agricul¬ 
tural laborers are from 17 to 20 cents per 
day for men and 15 to 17 cents for women, 
with food only in addition. When hired 
by the month with board and lodging, 
the wages are $1.75 to $2 per month. In 
France there are 10,000,000 land-owners 
and eighteen million, or nearly half the 
population, are engaged in agriculture. 
Farm laborers receive $3.15 per week 
without board, aud with board aud lodg¬ 
ing $1.36 per week. Upon these low 
wages the laborers not only support them¬ 
selves, but often save enough to purchase 
a small plot of land and become proprie- 
taircs. The report emphatically states 
that these industrious and economical 
people possessing the rural virtues to a 
large extent, are more comfortable and 
better off than the same class of people 
in America. Kuowiug something of both 
classes, we entirely agree with the consul 
iu this opinion. . In Germany the agri¬ 
cultural laborer is not nearly so well off, 
with $3.50 per week without board, and 
hut $1 80 with board; but without care¬ 
fulness and economy he lives iu squalor 
and poverty. In England the tippling 
habits of the workman render bis $4.25 
weekly, insufficient for his comfort, and 
it. is expected that in the next five years 
500,000 of these men will seek to better 
themselves in this country. 
-- 
ADD AS YOU ARE ABLE. 
A venerable and distinguished bishop 
ouce advised a body of ministers as fol¬ 
lows : “ Owe no man more than you are 
able to pay ; and permit no man to owe 
you more than you are able to lose. ’’. A 
rational application of this advice would 
divest the credit system of many, if not 
of all its objectionable features. Consist¬ 
ent with the first part, of the exhortation, 
young men—and older ones as well—are 
admonished to be content with a gradual 
addition to their property of any kind. 
If ono lias not the money to spare for 
much, let him confine himself to the lit¬ 
tle. After a while he can easily venture 
on another part; and, after waiting and 
earning, on still another and another, and 
another, either paying as he goes, or 
surely avoiding heavy indebtedness. Do 
not attempt too much at once. Do what 
you can afford this time, and put off the 
other things to another time. Don’t try 
to build too much and too fast. Don’t 
buy at once all the furniture you would 
like to see in your house. Improve and 
increase your implements and stock by 
degrees. A little that is paid for is far 
better than much that you owe for. Debt, 
bankruptcy and distress come often from 
burdening the present for the sake of the 
future. It is easier to pay little debts 
every now and then, than to pay a large 
debt at one time. All who have tried 
them know that large debts are costly aud 
unpleasant things. 
■-♦ - 
THWACK. 
We are sorry to see Western writers 
praising the Thwack Raspberry as one 
promising to rank high among the new 
sorts. We have tried this thoroughly, 
and as we have several times told our 
readers, it is not worth the ground it may 
occupy. The first season it fruited with 
us, we reported that the berries were of a 
bright red color, very firm, though of a 
poor quality. East winter it was killed 
to the ground, and our six plants have 
produced scarcely a gill of fruit which was 
borne, of course, upon this season’s canes. 
Had it proved hardy or nearly so, it 
might have become popular as a market 
berry. As it is not hardy, we do not think 
it has a single redeeming trait. We are 
in favor of Thwacking it out of existence. 
—-■ - 
BREVITIES. 
Tins latest English papers report “ three real 
summer days.” 
Make your applications for entries at the 
fairs early. 
From #20 to #25 per ton are paid for grapes 
in California this season for wine-making. 
Fine peaches, one day last week, sold in the 
New York market for twenty-five cents the 
basket! 
Prepare tne ground during leisure for the 
fruit and ornamental trees that are to be ordered 
this fall. 
A lady remarked to us a few days ago that 
“ Clawson flour is sweet and tastes good, and 
all that—but It is so dark.” 
Let us touch new plants and sends cautiously, 
uutil their value is proven. Better be success¬ 
ful with a small plot than to fail with an acre. 
Mr. G T. Aushern, of Georgetown, Conn., 
writes us that he has Blount’s corn 14 feet high 
with 10 sets on the stalk, lie udds “ Coiiie|aiid 
see it.” 
During a visit to the Rural Grounds last 
week, Gen. LeDuc, our Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture, was especially pleased with the Sun- 
ray Pine, Piuus Masson ianus. 
The National Agricultural Congress will 
hold its next session at Rochester, N. Y., on 
the 15th of September. Let this society be 
national iu fact as well as iu name. 
What the young English farmer i6 saying to 
his Papa: 
“Tell me not in cheerful numbers. 
You bat e Known when times was wuss.” 
“Let anyone glance over the hurdles at the 
sheep at any of onr agricultural shows.” says 
the London Agricultural Gazette, “am?be will 
sec that the flocUmastors who breed for ixhibfr- 
tiou all use cabbage.” 
The Michigan State Board of Agriculfrare,. 
offer through President Abbott, the chair ofi 
agriculture of the State College to our occa¬ 
sional contributor. Professor E. M. 8helton;- 
He is a very able man. 
Mr. N. A. Beecher says he knows a man who- 
some years sells 1,000 bushels of the finest 
applOS. whose children, pale and scrawny, are 
gnawing at hard green fruit from morning till! 
night. Mr. Beecher ought to cut that man's; 
acquaintance. 
If you have young pear, apple, plum or 
peach trees of an undesirable kind, now is the 
time to bad good sorts upon them. It is less 
trouble than to send far off to get. trees, and is 
very much cheaper. Budding may bring yom 
Improved fruit as soon as the purchased trees: 
perhaps sooner. Besides, you arc apt to feel: 
more interested in your own haudiwork, 
Professor Gale recommends, in the Kansas 
Farmer, the use of narrow strips of zinc for 
labels, with the name, date, etc., written with* 
a common lead-pencil. This shows dimly at 
first, but grows more legible with years. He 
lias such labels that have been exposed to the 
weather for four years,and the writing promises' 
to last as long as the zinc plates. “ Aw-ay then,”' 
he says “ with all patent pencils and corrosive 
compositions.” 
Tue present is a good time to make new 
strawberry plantations. The green snvkcrs- 
should be separated from the. parent plant by n 
clean cut. aud as much soil as possible should* 
be left adhering to the libers. Set in the new 
plantation immediately, so that neither the 
fibers nor soil adhering thereto shall have a 
chance to dry. If the soil is dry, a mulch wilt 
help. When thus carefully transplanted, the 
present canfi will often bear fruit next year. 
The Borer. —Though the advice is not 
needed by carefnt culturists, it is well to re¬ 
mind all that if they have not guarded their 
fruit trees against the borer, it is well to 
attend to the matter at once. The eggs have 
been deposited, and, at least in many places, 
hatched. The pests are generally found under 
the bark at the surface of the ground, or a 
little lower. It, is specially important to look 
after the small tices. 
Rev. A. W. Mangum writes U6 from North 
Carolina that there are two points of merit iu 
the Scupperuong Grape that commend J|. 
After tin: vine is well rooted it seems to require 
little more than plenty of room to insure a re¬ 
gular, abundant harvest. Of course, judicious 
help is advisable. Another good quality con¬ 
sists in the wdiolesomeness of the luscious- 
fruit. It may be doubted whether any variety 
that we raise in this country is more so. The 
vine is also exceptionally hardy aud long- 
lived. 
We have just picked from one of our Acme 
tomato bushes (why not bushes ?) a tomato that 
is peculiar. Half of it (thu half that includes 
the flower end) is of the usual Acme color, 
which is a characteristic color hard to define. 
This gradually merges into yellow about the 
stem end, so that the tomato is three-quarters 
red and one-quarter golden. It is of an oblate 
shape, without ascaiit—measures t)JxS£ inches, 
and is as firm us a ripe apple. It is indeed in 
appearance a perfect tomato and as pretty as 
any fruit can oe. We shall save the seeds in 
thehopcB of obtaining a variety like the parent. 
P. J. Berckmanb, at the late meeting of the 
Georgia Horticultural Society, alluded to the 
fact that about 80 new varieties of Peaches 
were introduced last year, olforing the caution 
that the buyer has little guarantee that most of 
them will prove Improvements npon old soriB, 
or indeed, materially different. We shall be 
glad when thu epidemic for early fruits has 
run its length. Huaiso referred to tho late rage 
for early tomatoes. When it is known that 
earlier tomatoes than we now have are neces¬ 
sarily poorer tomatoes, ono would suppose that 
“the earliest tomato known” would in the 
future bo offered to au indifferent public. 
When we can change the seasons and make tho 
climate of this latitude earlier, we may have 
earlier fruits to correspond. 
One of the meanest injuries that one person 
16 capable of perpetrating against another, may 
be done by means of what is known as a “left- 
handed compliment.” 
It is the most powerful weapon of cunning 
hypocrites and Invidious cowards. Words may 
be written that, to the careless or disinterested 
reader, may seem words of praise, and yet. they 
may serve to influence tho reader against the 
praised object. Words may be spoken that in 
themselves harmless, may be made by the 
voice, the look, the mauner, to harm the one 
respecting whom they are spoken. Then the. 
hypocrite says, when assailed by the injured 
nian—"I have never spoken aiight against 
thee, my friend.” We have an abiding faith, 
that God will punish those who are full of 
“left-handed compliments” more severely 
than those who steal and lie in the usual unre¬ 
fined manner. 
Our correspondent. Professor Sheldon, of 
England, 6ays: “It may be 6aid that the 
Americans are ' killing tho goose that laid the 
golden eggs by plowing their land and selling off 
the corn; and no doubt this is in a sense true, 
but it will be scores of years yet before they 
have killed all (he goose —at present they have 
only broken one wing. And, agaiu, the 
American climate is much bettor than ours for 
restoring condition to land that is impover¬ 
ished by over-cropping. Though the average 
yield is more than twice as large per acre In 
this country thuu it Is In America, and though 
American wheat has to pay 2s. 6d. a bushel m 
carriage and commission on its way t" this 
country, still the American farmers can make 
money by wheat growing, where British farm¬ 
ers can do nothing of the kind, lor the latter 
are handicapped , iu other ways far more than 
the former are in the items I have mentioned. 
