THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. 18 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BY 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 18, 1879. 
OUR RIVALS IN WHEAT PRODUCTS. 
In view of the great importance of our 
exports of wheat, products at present and 
in the future, it is a matter of interest to 
know what countries are our chief com¬ 
petitors in the wheat markets of the 
world. Of these, by far the most exten¬ 
sive and to us the most important is Eng¬ 
land, and a glance at the nations from 
which she draws her supplies will convey 
no small amount of information on the 
subject. According to the recently pub¬ 
lished returns of the Board of Trade, the 
following imports were made from the 
countries mentioned during the seven 
months ending July 31, 1879, compared 
with the corresponding periods in the 
years 1877 and 1878. 
Wheat, Bushels of 66 Lbs. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 
United States.22.637.292 36.375.6rd 
Russia. IO.74T.3481 9.565.108 
Germany. 6.778.044 6.527.478 
British North America— 479.WWI 1.4H4.89U 
AuntTHlla... 417.7(i»»j 1.502.4M 
Eerypt. 3.638.29S; 177,886 
nil ill . . TfHi MR - 
34.047.484 
9.1*22.854 
4.588.116 
2.321.016 
2.298.874 
1.40.3.824 
691.594 
621.408 
74.844 
23.616 
316.168 
British India. 
Roumania and Turkey.... 
France. 
Other Countries. 
6.663.233 
1.798.670 
2.815.592 
1. pm. 734 
2.778..340 
213.434 
22.026 
276.868 
55.121.770:58,922.920 55.309.298 
Wheat Flour, Cwrs. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 
United States. 
892.100 
596.778 
11.177 
1.487.712 
1.2)1.076 
2.238.8o7i 3.711.182 
708.734 431.457 
98.022 179.658 
666.575 207.389 
1.288.042 1.242.429 
Germany. 
British North America.... 
France... 
Other Countries. 
4.198.843 
4.910.180 
5.772.115 
A study of this table is both instructive 
and interesting in its suggestiveness. 
The bulk of the wheat importations 
into that country, it will be seen, are 
made during the remaining five months 
of the twelve, including the period soon 
after onr harvest. Down to the present 
year the imports from Turkey aud 
Boumania were clubbed together, but the 
latter having lately gained her independ¬ 
ence, the last returns give to Turkey only 
4,504 bushels, while Roumania is credited 
with 70,340 bushels; so that nearly all 
the grain credited to both States in the 
previous years, must have come from 
Bonmauia, Our neighbors across the 
border are evidently exporting a good 
deal of grain from the newly settled re¬ 
gions on the Red River, and thus increas¬ 
ing their exports much faster, proportion¬ 
ately, than even this country. The mining 
fever having abated in Australia, it is evi¬ 
dent that the multitude of immigrants 
thither are devoting their attention to 
agriculture as well as to sheep farming. 
The rapid increase of wheat exports thence 
must be also due in a great measure to 
the eclat won by Australian wheat in 
bearing away the first prize at the Paris 
Exposition of 1876. In Chili, anticipation 
of war with her covetous neighbors, Peru 
and Bolivia, evidently paralyzed her agri¬ 
culture last year more than the actual 
outbreak of hostilities which has since 
occurred. 
The terrible famine which for the last 
couple of years lias been depopulating 
parts of British India, and which has been 
only partially relieved by the liberal out¬ 
lay of the Government, must have divert¬ 
ed to home needs mueh of the wheat 
which would otherwise have found its way 
to the English market. It is within the 
probabilities that this vast and teeming 
country will in the near future be our 
most formidable competitor in the wheat 
markets of the world. Lately, 1,152 
samples of wheat collected from nearly all 
parts of the country, were exhibited in 
England aud demonstrated the fact that 
grain of the highest quality is grown in 
widely-separated districts of that penin¬ 
sula. Oarlessness in handling and the 
heavy cost of transportation have hitherto 
checked the sale in Europe of wheat from 
that, quarter; but vigorous efforts are 
now being made to produce a cleaner aud 
finer article, while the railroads being 
built aud projected through various 
wheat-growing regions, will greatly lessen 
the freightage to the seaboard. 
In view of the rapid extension of our 
exportation of flour, the complaints of 
English millers that most, of them must 
soon abandon the practice of their avoca¬ 
tion at home, are quite intelligible, aud 
it is highly probable that within the next 
few years their forebodings will be reali¬ 
zed. Their regret, however, may be 
assuaged by the knowledge that many of 
the best, of them will find profitable em¬ 
ployment in some of the multitude of 
mills that are now being projected or built 
in various parts of this country. 
-<*-♦-♦- 
HOW WILL THE WHEAT CROP OF 1880 
SELL 1 
Fob the past three or four years our 
farmers have been fortunate in findiug 
profitable markets for their wheat crops, 
despite the vast, additions annually made 
to the area under this cereal. The last, 
report, of the Department of Agriculture 
puts the condition of this crop throughout 
the whole country at seven per cent, bet¬ 
ter this year than at the same date last 
year, and a moderate estimate of the 
aggregate increase in yield places it at 
20,000,000 bushels. Yet in the face of 
this unparalleled crop, prices now leave a 
fair margin of profit to the farmer, and 
there is little or no doubt but that they 
will rise considerably so soon as a moder¬ 
ate export trade shall succeed the rush 
which is uowoverstockingonr foreign mar¬ 
kets, and consequeutlykeeping down prices 
there. Stimulated by their past aud pre¬ 
sent successes with this crop, there is a 
strong probability that our farmers will 
devote to it the comiug year even a larger 
area than they have hitherto done, in the 
expectation that next year they will find 
for it an equally profitable market. What 
is the prospect that this expectation will 
be realized ? 
Two circumstances have contributed 
chiefly to the good fortune we have met 
with in our wheat production during the 
last few years:—the crops here have been 
excellent, while those abroad have been 
more or less deficient, and the shortage 
there, fortunately for us, has been in 
inverse proportion to the increase here. 
The latest trustworthy statistics of the 
wheat harvest throughout Europe says 
that, taking 100 as representing the aver¬ 
age harvest, that of the present year in 
Austro-Hungary may be represented by 
78; in Germany by 85; in France by 78; 
in Switzerland by 80; in Italy by 73; in 
England by 71; in Russia by *79; and in 
Roumania by 90. Of course, as the har¬ 
vest, as a rule, haB not been thrashed 
there yet , considerable modifications may 
have to be made in these figures; but it is 
hardly probable that these modifications 
will he for the better. Even with full 
average crops, Europe would require a 
large measure of foreign assistance to 
feed her teeming population, aud, of 
course, with these deficiencies everywhere 
in her supply, the amount of foreign 
cereals needed to keep her people from 
starvation, must bo proportionately 
greater than in years of average harvests. 
Moreover, the wheat crop is not the only 
failure across the Atlantic this year; most 
of the other crops also have been more or 
less short, and the deficit in these must be 
made up from outside sources, chiefly in 
wheat products, because these cau be 
transported more easily and cheaply than 
any other equivalent form of food. 
Is it probable, however, that the present 
ill-luck will attend European agriculture 
next year ? Will the weather then be 
equally disastrous to the farmers’ efforts 
and hopes ? for the present poor harvests 
are on all hands attributed chiefly or 
wholly to the execrable weather which dur¬ 
ing the last year has afflicted nearly the 
whole of Europe. These are questions 
upon which our readers are ns well able to 
speculate as ourselves. They can also see 
with equal clearness that an abundant 
wheat crop across the Atlantic next year, 
is certain to lessen the demand for our 
cereal products, and as the supply here is 
likely to be unusually great., the prices, in 
that case, would necessarily be unusually 
low, unless a poor crop here by diminish¬ 
ing our surplus should increase the price 
for it. 
-♦-*--♦- 
MILLERS AND WHEATS. 
There seems to be a growing disposi¬ 
tion among millers to discriminate in 
prices against two of the varieties of 
wheat most popular among farmers, 
namely, the Clawson and Fultz. It is 
no longer true that all kinds of wheat 
are equally valuable, weight for weight; 
for experience in flour-making lias shown 
that some sorts are worth from five to 
ten per cent, more for this purpose than 
others. Hence has arisen a double stan¬ 
dard for wheat:—its productiveness and 
flour-making quality, the farmer being 
mainly interested in the former and the 
miller in the latter. From this point of 
view the popularity of these two varieties 
among the agricultural community is 
natural, as both yield largely, while the 
berries have a fine appearance. On the 
other hand, the millers insist that first- 
class flour cannot be mode from either ; 
that thoy are both too soft, and that their 
own best interests and those of the con¬ 
sumers should induce them to discourage 
by all legitimate means the cultivation 
of these wheats. The millers of Penn¬ 
sylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
aud of several other States, at their con¬ 
ventions during the year, have beeu 
unanimous in their objections to these 
varieties, to whioh the Indiana millers 
added the Shoaf and Diehl. Millers 
who employ the “New Process” of flour¬ 
ing are especially emphatic in their ob¬ 
jections to them, claiming that they are 
not fit for “high grinding,” by which 
the soft part of tlie wheat, containing the 
starch, is ground fine enough to pass 
through the bolting cloths, while the 
hard part, containing the gluten and oil, 
is separated and reground to make the 
patent flour. As millers can obtain from 
SI to $2.50 more per barrel for this pat¬ 
ent flour than for the family sort, besides 
securing a larger percentage of flour from 
the wheat, their objection to varieties 
which are unsuitable for its production, 
seems not unreasonable. In many places, 
too, ordinary flour from Clawson and 
Fultz wheats brings 50c. a barrel less 
than that from harder varieties, such ns 
the Michigan Amber and Old Mediterra¬ 
nean. 
Shull farmers, then, discontinue grow¬ 
ing these sorts? There certainly seems 
no inclination among them to do so; on 
the contrary, more of these two kinds, 
particularly of Clawson—the millers’ es¬ 
pecial abomination—will probably be 
sown this season than ever before. This is 
due to the adaptability of the varieties to 
a large extent of country, their uniformly 
good yield and the fine appearance of the 
grain. Moreover, farmers can grow them 
in most cases from five to ten cents a 
bushel cheaper than sorts that please the 
miller more, while reports from different 
parts of the country go to show that, as 
they become acclimated in various sec¬ 
tions, they are growing harder, and it is 
not improbable that necessity will force 
the millers to devise some means of hand¬ 
ling them in a more satisfactory manner. 
Already it has been discovered that 
dampening or heatiug improves their 
milling qualities. Yet some millers 
maintain that within two years Clawson 
wheat will sell for 20 cents a bushel less 
than more desirable sorts. 
-♦♦♦- 
“HYBRID” WHEATS. 
Of late years we hear a great deal 
about hybrid wheats. It is a pity that 
those who produce seeds by crossing dif¬ 
ferent varieties of the same species will 
persist in calling the plants from such 
seeds “hybrids.” The only excuse for 
it is that hybrid, as a catch-word in ad¬ 
vertisements, is a more “taking” word 
than cross or cross-bred, which, as the 
Rural has always held, should be used 
to express the above relationship. If 
Triticum repens (couch-grass) were pol- 
lenated with T. vnlgare (wheat), and the 
ovaries produced seed, such seed would 
be hybrids between those two species. 
They would be neither wheat nor couch- 
grass, however much they might resem¬ 
ble either. But if Diehl and Fultz 
wheats be treated in the same manner, 
and produce seeds, these seeds would be 
wheat, whichever parent they resembled; 
they would be crosses or cross-breeds. 
According to the above definition, we 
have no hybrid wheats. In fact, most 
hybrids are not fruitful—some are sterile, 
a* fact which, if it were generally borne 
in mind, would put an end to the popu¬ 
larity of this word as applied to all seeds 
which are valuable according to their 
yield. 
It is generally supposed that wheats 
will not “mix,” even though growing 
closely together, for the reason that the 
pollen is ripe and pollenates the stigma i 
before the stamens are seen, when the 
grain is said to bo “in flower.” Crossing 
wheats is therefore an operation which 
requires much patience aud a deal of very 
tender manipulation, for the reason that 
the anthers must be removed from the 
uneKpanded flower before the pollen 
ripens. The glumes (outer husk) and 
the pale® (inner envelopes) must be 
spread apart in order to enable the ope¬ 
rator to do. this. Then the pollen from 
which it is desired to make the male 
parent, must he scattered or rubbed up- 
on the pistil. This necessitates a second 
spreading apart of the glumes and pale®, 
at a time, too, when the stigmas are ma¬ 
ture aud fitted to receive it. We have 
very little doubt that by selecting the best 
specimens of different varieties, kinds of 
wheat will be produced better than any 
now known. But it will not be done by 
hybridizing. 
VALUE OF SHRIVELED WHEAT SEED. 
Last year, as our readers are aware 
we tried* half a dozen different sorts o 
spring wheat. Of these, Defiance looked 
the best, but owing to excessively hot 
weatlier and to daily showers, tlie grain 
so shriveled that the yield amounted to a 
mere nothing. Tlie kernels were mere 
shreds. We were aware that what is 
generally understood by shriveled wheat 
is considered by many aB good for seed 1 
as that which is large and plump. In* 
order to ascertain to what extent seed* 
wheat may be shriveled and yet germi¬ 
nate, we sowed the shriveled Defiance 
tliis spring upon a quarter-acre plot. 
The yield was at the rate of ten bushels 
per acre—the gram as plump and large 
as the average specimens of Defiance we 
have seen in seed stores and elsewhere. 
The straw, however, was not so heavy as 
last year, and the heads Were much 
shorter. This, however, may have been 
due to the soil, which was not so inch as 
that upon which it was raised fafct' year- 
MANY A LITTLE, Etc 
To plant one grain of wheat in the 
hope of, in a few years, producing enough 
to seed a field, may seem to many as a 
hopeless task. But we do not realize the 
vast increase which is made in the pro¬ 
duce of a single grain in the course of a 
few years. Plant one grain this year and 
gather 50 from it and repeat, and the third 
year the harvest will be a peek ; but the 
sixth year the product will be 15,000 
1 »ushels and the twelfth harvest would 
be sufficient to supply the whole popula¬ 
tion of the world for their natural lives. 
This fact may tend to show what may be 
gained by a course of persevering indus¬ 
try aud economy in the pursuit of agri¬ 
culture aud the rewards which are offered' 
for honest work in the labor for which our 
race was first created—the cultivation of 
the soil. 
BREVITIES. 
The Double Tiger Lily is a scare-crow among: 
flowers. 
The wheat crop of Michigan will be about 
the same as last year. 
Chinese history says that wheat was intro¬ 
duced into China 2,700 b.c. 
Vine growers of the Rhine are in despair 
over their vintage prospects. 
Farmeks who arc in debt should try their 
best this year to get out of it. 
As a rule, superphosphate for wheat has 
proven the best special fertilizer. 
Will poor laud, well pulverized, make 
more wheat tliau rich cloddy land F 
The Kansas Fanner advises its readers not to* 
waste any more time or money over spring 
wheat. 
Bearded Diehl (Lovett's "White Wheat)— 
now offered for the first tune—was found in a 
field of Diehl. 
The Silver Chaff wheat was originated, ac¬ 
cording to Mr. Rennie, by Mr. Hartwell in thin 
State, and was first offered for sale in 1875. 
As “ Wheat is the staff of life." and this ie 
onr Wheat number, doesn’t it follow that this 
number of the Rural is the Rural staff of life! 
The Weekly World calls Clawson “ Leircca” 
wheat. Where in the inorld did it (jet that ntwna 
from? It can’t mean Seneca, cau it! 
We beg the indulgence of those who have 
asked ns questions. Special numbers havo oc¬ 
casioned an unusual accumulation of articles 
of all sorts. 
According to Mr. Rennie, of Canada, the 
White Midge-proof aud the Victor wheats are 
precisely the same. Why charge $2.00 for the 
former and $2.25 for the latter ? 
For illustratious of the Hessian fly, a full 
aceouutof its transformations and the injury 
it works upon the wheat plaut, see Rural 
New-Yorker of July 18, 18775, p. 442. 
Klippart says that there is not in the entire 
catalogue of plants another one which has been 
instrumental in the development of mechani¬ 
cal ingenuity, aud the intellectual faculties, as 
has been, and is, the wheat plant. 
Prof. Blount (we have been spelling it 
Blum) writes us that at the Colorado State 
Agricultural College they have just harvested 
&> varieties ol spring wheats, and the yield is 
wonderful. Only 24 pounds on 1) acre were 
sown, and it is 'supposed 60 bushels will be 
harvested. It was drilled, in 18 inc hes apart in 
rows aud cultivated twice. 
The Rural claims to have had a good deal 
to do with the present appreciation of Clawson 
wheat all over the country where wheat may 
be grown profitably. Wo have raised it for 
home use for six years in succession, and have 
distributed not less than 10.000 half-pint pack¬ 
ages at fairs. Much is said as to the inferiority 
of flour from Clawson wheat. It does not 
make such White bread, but there is no flour 
liiat makes sweeter bread. tVe believe that 
Clawson will yield a greater amount of gram 
to the acre and over a wider range of country 
than any other variety which has been well 
tested. 
D. B. Weir. Laeou. Ills., sent us bis catalogue 
of Seedling Cherries two weeks ago or more. 
Crowded eoluinusliuve prevented any reference 
to it before It describes selections from six 
thousand varieties which lie has grown from 
seed. Particular notice is called to the fact 
that their names, descriptions and numbers are 
cony-lighted, and are, therefore, his individual 
and exclusive property. Anyone infringiugon 
his rights will he prosecuted! Willi all due 
respect, Mr. Weir, you will find that this is <i 
1 great nonsense,before you have proceeded fat . 
