7S6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 22 
T HI E 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
CONDUCTED BT 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY, NOV. 32, 1873. 
AN APOLOGY. 
We have often stated that the Rural 
New-Yorker admits no deceptive or un¬ 
trustworthy advertisements and we have 
made such statements with all sincerity. 
Nov. 8th an advertisement of an estab¬ 
lishment whioh professes to cure Cancer 
was admitted, and for this we apologize 
to our readers. It was an oversight due 
to the absence of the superintendent of 
the advertising department. The insti¬ 
tution referred to may be perfectly re¬ 
spectable. We know nothing against it. 
As, however, we do not believe that can¬ 
cer can be cured “ with h'ttle pain” or, 
indeed, at all, we are unwilling to be in¬ 
strumental in influencing our readers 
against our own very decided convictions. 
-- 
THANKSGIVING. 
A New England historian, many years 
ago. wrote of this annual festival as fol¬ 
lows :— 
make a feast from that which could be 
spared without notice from the over¬ 
abundance of their neighbors’ tables. 
Charity is not necessarily an adjunct to 
thankfulness, and one who is in a grate¬ 
ful spirit may forget the necessities of 
those about him ; but it would seem that 
even a slight modicum of the love for 
our fellowmen, merely as a portion of the 
humau race, should at such a time be 
sufficient to awaken our sensibilities and 
induce us to do at least a little to awaken 
thankfulness on the part of a less pros¬ 
perous neighbor, and not merely thank¬ 
fulness toward us, as individuals, but a 
feeling that he is a portion of the great 
mass of humanity over which a constant 
care is exercised by that Power without 
whose notice even no sparrow falls. 
With Thanksgiving Day comes a great 
temptation to sin. The savory odors of 
the nicely prepared food; the number of 
courses and variety of dishes ; the com¬ 
pany of relatives and friends, all join in 
keeping us long at the table, giving more 
time for the indulgence of appetites and 
urging on to excesses. 
We rejoice at the annual return of the 
day for the pleasures it gives to ourselves 
and others—the pleasures of social com¬ 
munion, of family reunions, of good din¬ 
ners and hearty cheer, of danoes and 
games and general merry-making. Of 
all these we hope our readers will have 
plenty; but, while wishing them the 
most enjoyable of days, we cannot refrain 
from this bit of advice : Don't eat , and, 
above all, don’t drink, too much. 
‘‘The com is garnered, the crop is 
gathered, the work done. The Earth has 
begun her rest, and the husbandman is in 
harmony with her. Again are heard the 
notes of preparation; on Sunday the 
sounding proclamation is listened to with 
attentive eare—how the year has been 
crowned with goodness; how peace is 
upon our borders and plenteousness in our 
palaces; how the clouds drop fatness, 
and how servile labor and vain recreation 
are on this day by law forbidden. The 
week is full of bustle, consecrated to the 
mystic rites of the kitchen, the body be¬ 
comes great—almost god-like. For it is 
elaborated the great chicken pie; tarts 
and custards and Beed cakes, are adorned 
with unintelligible characters, clearly not 
Hebrew. Fires are burning ; the hearth 
is swept and all iB expectation. Fathers 
and mothers and sisters and cousins, 
ohildren and grandchildren and even dogs 
are ready to welcome to the old New 
England homes the crowd of returning 
children. Thursday is well spent, even 
with some excesses, for all good and 
kindly feelings are called into fervid ac¬ 
tion. Hatred, malice,and uncharitableness 
are banished. The day is a holy day, and 
as such is to be cherished and preserved. ” 
To this he adds a prediction that this 
institution, begun in New England and 
there so firmly rooted, will follow the 
children of New England and become es¬ 
tablished throughout the Union. Wehave 
lived to seethe prediction verified, and 
never do we remember a year when the 
whole countiy could with one accord bet¬ 
ter unite in fervent thanksgiving for un¬ 
bounded prosperity, than on the one now 
near its close. The harvests of the 
various crops in the various sections have 
been abundant, the surplus above what 
is needed for home use finding ready 
market abroad. There is not one of the 
agricultural products of our whole coun¬ 
try that is not readily salable at a good 
price. Our manufactories, also, many of 
which have lain idle during a season of 
business stagnation, are now in success¬ 
ful operation, giving employment to 
thousands who depend upon them as a 
means of earning a subsistence. To dis¬ 
pose of the products of the soil and the 
manufactured goods has given a much- 
needed revival to business, and there is 
not a class in the whole community that 
is not feeling the effect of brisk trade. 
We have, furthermore, reason to rejoice 
and be glad in the general healthfulness 
that has prevailed. With the single ex¬ 
ception of a limited area, there has been 
no fatal epidemic, and we think the death 
rate for the year will be found consider¬ 
ably below that of the average of many 
years. Droughts and floods have been 
confined to restricted limits ; insect pests 
have not been so destructive as in former 
years, and in whatever way we review the 
year, we find cause for rejoicing and 
giving thanks. 
In this world there is much theory and 
sentiment; more than of practice and fact. 
How many who gather round the festive 
board on Thanksgiving Day will do it 
with a spirit of thankfulness; and even 
when the wmrds of “grace” are said,in how 
many cases will they be only as a cold 
formality. In how many families will 
thought be given to those who would 
seem in the eyes of the prosperous to have 
little to be thankful for, and who would 
CULTURE ON THE FARM. 
It has truly been said that culture is 
the acquisition of no single effort. It is 
rather the resultant of constant progress, 
the improvement of every advantage be¬ 
stowed on the otherwise crude and 
uncouth mind. Our cosmopolitan 
nation, while affording an ample field for 
mental and physical culture, embodies 
an ample fund of inventive genins 
which is subject to mental discipline 
and refinement. Yankee ingenuity and 
Western enterprise are two of the 
chief forces that give zest to Amer¬ 
ican life. Each, to insure success, 
implies efficient work and deep-fath¬ 
omed schemes. To a certain degree 
manual labor always precedes mental, after 
which, to preserve our individuality, they 
should be rivals; for neither is ade¬ 
quate to sustain its colleague. Un¬ 
divided attention to one is positively fatal 
to the other, while both are essential. Our 
literary circles sparkle with the wit and 
wisdom of former times, and the lore of 
the present day ; our laborers hammer at 
the forge and guide the plow-share. 
Neither knows the pleasures of the other, 
but if the former are brilliant in letters, 
the latter need not be ignorant. A pre¬ 
valent idea is that mistaken one so often 
assumed—the idea that culture cannot 
attend a farmer's life. It is, however, 
true that no being with self-regard, can 
afford to sacrifice self-improvement for 
worldly devotions, and totally disregard 
the refining influences of his associates, 
but every person does owe a first duty to 
himself, and that duty is to make himself 
a man. 
The rural districts may be deprived of 
many cultivating sources familiar to the 
city, but country homes need not be 
gloomy and unattractive. On the con¬ 
trary, each home is a little world in itself. 
The reliable medium of books and papers 
should provide for every kind of life. 
Our best autLiors and educators should 
find their way into every rural home, and, 
beyond developing a taste for facts or 
serving as an amusement, they should 
furnish the choicest language, and sug¬ 
gest the best ideas ; for language, written 
or spoken, is undisputably the highest 
deputy to culture. Rural people un¬ 
avoidably associate with the illiterate, and 
for that reason encounter difficulty in pre¬ 
serving intact their purest ideas. Re¬ 
gardless of this, the farm has fostered our 
best statesmen, orators and poets. It 
has nourished the strongest bodies and 
clearest intellects; it has filled the chief 
offices and served the highest honors. 
Men are not born great. They may 
breathe almost the first breath with 
ambition for great achievements, but the 
record of success is the indelible record 
of old age. It is th.e little parts that 
compose the great whole. No generation 
should retrogress. The past can be re¬ 
achieved and the present improved. If 
books, as silent companions, do not pro¬ 
duce the required result, one’s own re¬ 
sources must submit to one’s will, or 
society supply the deficiency. Our sub¬ 
ject then incurs the query : How shall 
rural customs contribute the best advan¬ 
tages ? The innate feelings of each per¬ 
son require various modes to deduce the 
greatest benefit. Some individuals are 
brilliant only in conversation ; others in 
writing, and many only in tact or execu¬ 
tive ability. Separately, however, they are 
susceptible to their surroundings, and he 
who cannot grow amid books, can cull ser¬ 
mons and inspiration from nature, and 
can profit by conversation. It is impossi¬ 
ble to be familiar with anything without 
catching something of its inspiration. 
Our rural homes can be surrounded by 
richest luxuries, and it requires only a 
little care and diligence to secure the aids 
to self-improvement, but it requires con¬ 
stant attention to appropriate the benefits 
of our resources and imbibe the highest 
culture. 
ROOTS AND TUBERS. 
We often see sweet potatoes, “ Irish” 
potatoes, Dahlias, Jerusalem artichokes, 
beets, carrots, etc., referred to indiscrim¬ 
inately as roofs and tubers. It is well 
that the distinction should be observed. 
A potato is a tuber ; so is an artichoke. A 
sweet potato is not a tuber. N either is a 
Dahlia nor a Pjeony, A tuber is an un¬ 
derground branch or thickened rootstock. 
The so-called eyes of potatoes are really 
buds, as much as those which occur in 
the axils of the leaves of stems above 
ground, and the rudimentary leaves be¬ 
neath may be seen’ in the form of little 
scales. Sweet potatoes, Dahlias, Psaonies, 
etc,, are swollen roots, though the sweet 
potato does produce buds, particularly at 
the upper end, and it is for this reason 
that it has been mistaken for a tuber. He 
who will take the pains to examine the 
underground growth of each will see that 
the difference is very marked. Often the 
roots of sweet potatoes swell to the size 
of one’s little finger, and so remain, 
while, beyond, another swelling upon the 
same root may so enlarge as to make a 
potato fit for eating. The Irish potato 
forms at the end of the stem, and forms 
no fibrous roots of its own. The eyes may 
be compared to the nodes or joints of the 
rootstocks of the well-kpown couch, or 
quick-grass (Triticum repens i, so trouble¬ 
some to farmers all over the country, each 
one of which will grow more quickly for 
being detached from the rest of the stem. 
Beets, turnips, carrots and parsnips are 
roots. The seed is planted one season 
and an accumulation of nutrition is stored 
in the root which, if planted again, pro¬ 
duces flowers, fruit and seeds while it is 
itself consumed. The tomato and potato 
are closely-allied plants. The former 
produces fruit freely, but never tubers— 
the latter fruits sparsely, but produces 
tubers freely. 
•-♦-- 
TIMELY WARNING. 
Readers of periodicals should be par- 
ticularly careful in regard to trusting 
their money to strangers who ask for it 
through the medium of an advertisement. 
This caution is undoubtedly a trite one, 
but it is peculiai’ly pertinent at this season. 
The unscrupulous men who concoct allur¬ 
ing announcements in which a great deal of 
value is apparently exchanged for a very 
trifling consideration, choose this season 
in preference to any other, and their ad¬ 
vertisements will be found in a great 
many papers. Indeed, a publisher must 
not only edit his advertisements with 
extreme care, but must, in addition, have 
a running knowledge of the individuals 
themselves in order not to be deceived. 
In our own office, very recently, we re¬ 
jected an advertisement that, to all ap¬ 
pearances, was unexceptionable, because 
we knew the advertiser, and felt certain 
that any of our readers who dealt with 
him would have good cause for dissatisfac¬ 
tion, to put it no stronger. The latest 
rank swindle is that advertised as the 
North Denver Land Co. The corpor¬ 
ation was one man—8. A. Grant—and he 
was, at last accounts, in the hands of the 
sheriff. Grant is an old offender and 
very clever at concocting plausible swin¬ 
dles. We trust none of our readers were 
induced to send him a dollar to secure a 
tax-free title to a lot in the Utopian North 
Denver, as they will certainly never again 
see their dollar. It is unnecessary to add, 
perhaps, that “North Denver” was a 
waste place, and every promise made in 
the advertisement a delusion. 
It would be a wise course to pursue to 
write to your papers for information re¬ 
garding any advertisement or solicitation 
of which you had the slightest reason to be 
suspicious. It would save you many 
dollars probably. 
BUD “HYBRIDS.” 
A bud is an undeveloped stem. To 
unite two buds is really the same as 
uniting two stems. If we were to split 
two buds of different varieties of Apples 
in two, and then, taking a half of each, 
cause them to unite by grafting them 
upon an apple stock, we should suppose 
the result would be precisely the same as 
if entire stems—cions—from different 
varieties were grafted upon the same 
stock, viz., each bud or cion alike would 
bear the fruit of the tree from which it 
was taken, If it were possible to cut a 
bud into 100 pieces and cause them to 
unite to 100 other pieces, we should sup¬ 
pose that each of the 100 pieces would 
bear the fruit of its kind. Uniting the 
halves of two buds or of two stems merely 
forms a compound or aggregate cion or 
bud. The individuals remain as distinct 
as ever. A blending of the qualities of 
different plants so as to form what are 
populaily called “ hybrids, ” can, as we 
believe, be effected only through the re¬ 
productive organs. 
-*-♦-*- 
BREVITIES. 
Mrs. Jack, of the Province of Quebec, 
Canada, tells U6 that Alfalfa is hardy there. 
Does anybody know that “ Kieffer’s Hybrid 
Pear” is a “hybrid"—by which we mean a 
cross-hretd. Is it a guess, or what ? 
Those who are prone to eat too much of the 
Thanksgiving dinner, will do well to return 
tliankH before commencing the fea6t. There 
is such a thing as being too full for utterance. 
Soot from a chimney where wood is used for 
fuel, is an excellent fertilizer for pot-plant6. 
Put into a pail and pour hot water upon it; 
then water the plants with this every few 
days. 
Cap. Jack may conduct himself admirably 
West, but he is a “gay deceiver” with ub, and 
we hazard the prediction that haviug served 
a full term, our Western friends will not re¬ 
elect him. They would again vote for Wilson 
rather. 
Wb shall send out the raspberry plants to ap¬ 
plicants so long as the ground remains open. 
The seeds will be distributed during the winter 
and the rest—the great bulk, of course—of the 
raspberry plants in the spring. 
One of the finest plants for forcing is the 
Bleeding Heart—Dicentra spectabilis. The 
roots of old plants may be taken up even now. 
Place in a cool window or greenhouse and it 
w ill bloom by the 1st of February and continue 
to bloom until May. 
Last year a contributor to this journal asked 
us to state several plants which could not be 
subjugated by repeatedly cutting off the foliage 
and stems. Wementioned several, but not the 
Nut-grass of South Carolina, which did not at 
the time occur to us. Probably no other pest 
is more tenacious of life. 
Br a decree of November 3rd.1877, permission 
was given to import cows intended for breed¬ 
ing purposes iuto Cuba, duty free. The term 
for which this concession was made, having 
just expired, the Cuban Treasury has or¬ 
dered the Custom House to resume the col¬ 
lection of duties ou such cattle. 
A friend shows ub a specimen of a new 
seedling potato which is said to be perfect as 
regards quality, and an abundant yleldor. We 
may say that iu appearance it is as shapely as 
the Snowflake which it somewhat resembles. 
It has been tested by Dr. Hexamer who pro¬ 
nounces it the best potato he has ever 6een, 
which is very high praise. It has thus far 
been designated only as B.4. We suggest the 
name when this variety shall be offered for 
sale. “ Before." 
Mr. C. W. Garfield, Secretary of the Michigan 
State Pomologicul Society, writes us the fol¬ 
lowing of Kieffer’s Hybrid Seedling Pear, and 
what he says we heartily Indorse. “ Without 
haying as yet fruited it, I have one objection 
to it, aud that concerns its name. There is no 
use iu trying to exhaust the description of a 
fruit by giving it a long name. “ Kleffer" is 
enough without having to run twice across a 
written page with the rest of the name. Our 
Society will try and give short names to the 
fruits which It “dubs.” For instance: two 
Strawberries we have named this year, the 
“Marvin” and the “Shirts,” are models in 
brevity of nomenclature. 
The Thwack.—A friend from La Porte, Iud., 
writes us that in view of our derogatory esti¬ 
mate of the Thwack Raspberry, he is of opinion 
that wo have not the genuine sort, or else 
that the kind he cultivates under that name, 
is not the Simon-Pure article, as he and others 
in bis neighborhood think their Thwack fully 
equal in quality to the ilerstlne, while some 
deem it superior to that excellent variety. Wc 
have no doubt as to the genuineness of our 
Thwacks, and the opinion wo have expressed 
as to their merits, like all our opinions with 
regard to the various plants we have tested, is 
the unbiased result of our experience with 
them. It may be that our correspondent and 
his neighbors have not the real Thwack. There 
is, of course, no doubt that nearly all varieties 
of fruits give more satisfaction lu some soils 
and climates than in others. 
Mr. E. H. Libby, several years ago fouuded 
the Scientific Farmer, u Monthly published in 
Boston. Several months ugo he relinquished 
his interest in that journal to his partner, Dr. 
E. L. Sturtcvant, to manage a new weekly 
which was to have been called the Country 
Home. It was advertised widely, but did not 
appear, because just at that time Mr. Libby 
preferred to accept the position of Editor-in- 
Chlef of the American Agriculturist, and the 
“ Country Home” was abandoned. For rea¬ 
sons not known to us, he soon retired lrom 
that position and, after a brief visit to Eng¬ 
land, has uow returned, and the first number 
of Laud aud Home, au agricultural weekly of 
which he is the manager, is now before us. It 
seems to be about two-thirds the eize of the 
Rural New-Yokkek, aud proposes to work 
in esseutially the same field of labor. This 
enterprise could not have been Btarted at a 
more auspicious time. We heartily wish it 
and all other agricultural enterprises, the full 
measure of success which they deserve. 
