THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country auo suburban Louies 
Conducted by 
K. S. CAKUAK, 
Z. S. WOODtVAHD, 
Editor. 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York, 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1886. 
POTATO SPECIAL THIS WEEK- 
20 PAGES. 
■ -- 
We cannot in these days afford to plant 
potatoes with deep eyes, either for home 
use or market. 
The Domestic Economy Department of 
the Rural this week contributes its appro¬ 
priate share of potato information. 
NOTE. 
A very annoying blunder occured in last 
week’s Rural. Page 21 should have been 
page 20 and vice versa , and should be read 
accordingly. 
The promised Potato Special is before 
our readers. The second Potato Special 
will appear as announced. There is one 
grave objection to Specials, viz., that they 
put everything else behind. 
Our reports of tests of new varieties of 
potatoes will continue until planting time. 
We are now reporting the trials of the 
eighth year, during which we have tested 
the new potatoes of those years, varying 
in number from 50 to 125. 
The Century for January contains an 
account of the Rural’s hybrid rye-wheat 
plants from the pen of Charles Barnard. 
The article neglects to state whether these 
hybrid plants are growing in the Eastern 
or Western Hemisphere, or in the moon, 
or where the hybridization was effected. 
During the past six years we have 
grown 480 different varieties of potatoes at 
the Rural Grounds, many of which have 
been illustrated in these columns (from na¬ 
ture), and most of which have been re¬ 
ported upon as to yield, shape and quality. 
We give an epitome of these reports on 
page 45. 
Our subscribers are respectfully solici¬ 
ted to renew as soon as, or before their 
subscriptions expire, since, owing to the 
fact that our calls for specimen copies are 
far greater than in any preceding year, 
we can not supply back numbers later than 
the first of February, probably. 
Through inadvertance in a previous 
announcement, we mentioned the Balti¬ 
more Herald as one of the papers of our 
Special Clubbing Arrangement. This 
was an error. It is the weekly edition 
of the Morning Herald with which we 
club. Letters for specimen copies should 
be addressed “Morning Herald, Baltimore, 
Md.” 
Two years ago the Rural effected hy¬ 
bridization between the so-called Straw¬ 
berry Tomato (Alkekengi) and the potato 
—the latter being the female parent. The 
seed was sown in the house last February, 
and produced one plant which was set in 
the garden in late May. It grew thriftily, 
resembled the potato in stems and leaves, 
but bore neither tomatoes above ground 
nor the faintest indication of a tuber be¬ 
neath 
We beg to say that the illustrations of 
new potatoes presented in these columns 
are really portraits of the average or typi¬ 
cal size and shape of the variety illustrated. 
The specimens are selected with a view to 
show the prevailing characteristics. The 
illustrations of the average catalogue 
are not true portraits, and most of them 
will answer as well for one kind as for 
another. Faithful illustrations in rural 
books or periodicals are as rare as they are 
valuable. 
We have at this time, at the Rural 
Grounds, potatoes some of which are all pur¬ 
ple, some streaked, some white or buff, all 
grown from the same tuber three years ago. 
The original tuber was half purple, half 
buff or white. The purple eyes, and white 
eyes, were planted separately, and selec¬ 
tions made from year to year according to 
color. The originators of new varieties 
should commence with a single tuber and 
propagate from it and not select several 
from the same hill, if they would grow va¬ 
rieties uniform in every way. 
Let us say to all that the Rural of 
November 14th, 1885, gives a full, illustra¬ 
ted description of our Free Seed Distri¬ 
bution, together with a full list of the 
$3,300 worth of presents to be sent to sub¬ 
scribers (and to them only)who secure clubs 
for the Rural New- Y orker. This Num¬ 
ber is sent to all who apply for specimens, 
and it should be not only read, but care¬ 
fully preserved. 
As our older readers are aware, potatoes 
have been raised from seed at the Rural 
Grounds for a number of years. Until 
the past season, however, it has not ap¬ 
peared that any of them were better than 
the best of those already in the market. 
We have now a variety that promises to 
meet our hopes. The tubers average large. 
The skin is white, smooth and the 
eyes few and superficial. The quality is 
certainly of the best, if we may judge 
from tlic few tubers eaten. The yield in 
our garden soil was at the rate of TOO bush¬ 
els to the acre. It will probably prove to 
be a rather late potato. Of the hundreds 
of new potatoes tested at the Rural 
Grounds, there is scarcely one that com¬ 
bines all the excellencies of a perfect po¬ 
tato, viz., form, quality, productiveness 
and keeping properties. 
Our Broadway contemporary speaks of 
another new quiuce which is to be called 
after its associate editor, the “Fuller”— 
not because it originated with him, but 
merely because the person on whose farm 
it did originate, gave him cuttings which he 
propagated and now proposes to sell, the 
original tree having been destroyed by 
mechanics while erecting a building. It is 
to be hoped that Associate-Editor Fuller 
will reconsider this. An originator, with¬ 
out question, has a full right to bestow up¬ 
on his new plant any name he may choose; 
but for anyone to hitch his own name to a 
new fruit with the originating of which he 
had nothing in the world to do except in 
an accidental way, gives one of those dis¬ 
tinctions from which all fair-minded po- 
mologists would shrink. The Meech’s 
Prolific Quince offers another example in 
which a puerile vanity has been permitted 
to override a sense of justice and honor. 
Referring to Dr. Caldwell’s article in 
this number, it may be said that the cause 
of what is called “scab” at the Rural 
Grounds has generally been the wire-worm 
(lulus). While digging our potatoes as 
they matured last season, every scabby 
tuber was examined. Many hills were dug 
during various stages of growth. In a 
few cases the “blister” often referred to 
by Rural correspondents, was noticed. 
This kind of scab may be caused by a fun¬ 
gus. It is very plain that scab has for its 
origin more than one cause. To repel the 
wire-worm we have tried all sorts of chem¬ 
ical fertilizers, separately and together, as 
well as litne, salt, coal and wood ashes,but 
none proved wholly effectual. Flowers of 
sulphur, dusted about, the seed pieces, was 
used last season. The tubers so raised 
were entirely free from scab. Several 
years ago we raised potatoes on a plot up¬ 
on which a goodly quantity of leaves had 
been spaded under. The outer portions 
were a net-work of scab, and wire- 
worms of every size were found about 
them and embedded in the corrosions by 
thousands. 
-» ♦ » — ■ 
It is well known to the older readers of 
the Rural New-Yorker that the plot 
upon which our immense yields of pota¬ 
toes have been produced, is well supplied 
with every kind of plant food which the 
potato needs, and that in abundance. 
This plot rarely suffers from drought— 
the great enemy of the potato—and, be¬ 
ing well drained, it cannot suffer from 
too much water. For six or seven suc¬ 
cessive years we have raised potatoes up¬ 
on it, and the average yield has increased 
each year. From 00 to 80 different new va¬ 
rieties are raised every season. As many of 
them are inferior iu productiveness, the 
yield is proportionately reduced. Were 
we to select the most productive kinds 
suited to the soil and climate, we have no 
doubt we could raise at the rate of 800 
bushels to the acre upon this carefully 
prepared plot. Whether it 'pays to pre¬ 
pare land in this way is a question we 
have not been able to decide. 
It is a lamentable fact that farmers’ 
homes, as a class, are almost destitute of 
small fruits, while nothing so conduces to 
health and pleasure as their abundant and 
daily use. We feel earnestly the need of 
their more extended use. In no way can 
we do our readers a greater favor than by 
encouraging them in the growth and daily 
use of all kinds. It was with this end in 
view that we made arrangements with the 
originators, which make it possible for us 
to place seven or eight of the best kinds 
within the reach of all, without expense, 
save the needed exertion in placing the 
Rural before their friends. We want 
every Rural subscriber to avail himself 
of these offers, and we want all to care 
for the plants so that a single year will 
give them a plantation that will furnish 
an abundance for years. Look over 
the list on the next page, friends, and re¬ 
solve to have not one kind only, but sev¬ 
eral. Any of these lots purchased and 
the freight charges paid, will cost you 
nearly, or quite, as much as the price of 
the Rural, while we send them free of 
charge and guarantee them true; and yet 
how many will neglect to profit by this 
offer, and next Summer sincerely regret it! 
STRANGER FRIENDS. 
Thousands of you are receiving 
this Number of the Rural New-Yorker 
for examination, and we wish to call your 
attention to the complete manner in which 
we treat the specialty of potatoes and po¬ 
tato growing, and the character of the 
contributors and their articles. The 
* Rural is the only paper which enters this 
field of Special Numbers, and during 
the year it will take up from six to 
ten subjects and treat them in an equally 
exhaustive manner. Do you not see that 
the Rural is occupying a broader and 
higher field in agricultural teaching, and 
is doing more to give the farmer a thor¬ 
ough knowledge of his business, which 
must lead to a better and more profitable 
system of farming, than any other journal, 
and is it not your duty, as well as your 
privilege, to support it in its noble mission 
by becoming one of its subscribers? We 
shall welcome you among its “grand 
army ” of progressive readers. 
POTATOES. 
The time was, long ago, when the potato 
was regarded as a luxury to be eaten only 
on grand occasions and by the rich. It 
is now a part of the daily food of the 
American people, and greatly to their 
health as well as enjoyment. Although it 
contains but a comparatively small nutri¬ 
ent value when compared with some other 
products, yet its constituents are in such 
proportion, and its use has such a salu¬ 
tary dietetic effect, that there is not an 
article so commonly used, but could be 
more easily dispensed with, and whose 
place it would be harder to fill. So that 
though thousands of our readers many never 
plant a potato, all are deeply interested in 
their growth and abundant supply at 
moderate prices, and should therefore not 
fail to read this Number, in which is con¬ 
tained more accurate knowledge on the 
potato and its culture, than is together in 
the same space, and in so plain and under¬ 
standable a form, anywhere else in any 
language. 
And yet the subject is not by any means 
exhausted. We have much more on this 
topic in such a valuable form, that it 
should not be lost to the world and we 
shall give it in another Potato Number, 
some time in February. No one should 
think, when through reading this Number, 
that he knows all about potato growing, 
for we assure our friends that some of 
the best points have been reserved for the 
subsequentNumber. Wisdom always dic¬ 
tates the “keeping some of the best wine 
to the end of the feast.” 
- 4 -*-*- 
AWAY WITH THE STUFF. 
The oleomargarine men are engaged in 
one of the most profitable branches of 
manufacture ever started in any country, 
viz: the conversion of the low-priced fats 
and grease of pork, beef and mutton, into 
what sells for, and takes the place of, the 
much more expensive and higher-priced 
article, “butter.” Not only rhis; bur, 
they often use the loweBt-priced and most 
filthy fats of dead aud diseased animals, 
and of the spoiled carcasses of the market 
stalls; such refuse as has heretofore been 
used only for soap making; and such stuff 
even as the more conscientious mak¬ 
ers of this very necessary commodity, like 
Frank Siddafls, Proctor <fc Gamble, and 
Williams Bros., will not use for this pur¬ 
pose, these fellows, by the uid of chem¬ 
istry, convert into a counterfeit substi¬ 
tute for an article of every-day use by 
both rich_and poor. 
To this no one would object, were they 
to put it up, brand it with its true name, 
aud sell it for just what it is. If the manu¬ 
facturers can make an article which is 
preferable to poor butter, or even to the 
best gilt-edged butter, and people can be 
found whose tastes will induce them to 
buy and use such a product, we can only 
say good words for such an industry, and 
wish those engaged in it success, and we 
care not at what price they sell it. 
If farmers are so indifferent that they 
will not so study their business as to be 
able to keep cows and make butter that 
will compete, in quality and price, with 
any compound of dead fats and chemicals; 
then let them go to the wall, and let their 
pastures be used for grazing sheep, goats 
and asses (themselves in such a case). But 
when this stuff, no matter how good it 
maybe, is put up to imitate butter, and 
is sold as such, and at a price which, 
though extremely profitable to the oleo mak¬ 
ers, is ruinous to butter makers, it is fraud¬ 
ulent, and we protest in behalf of the 
dairy interest and the consumers, and of 
every tiller of the soil. But these fellows, 
like all persons engaged in a fraudulent 
and illegitimate, but highly profitable bus¬ 
iness, care not a fig for the protest of any¬ 
body, so long as by using a part or the 
whole of their dishonorable profits, they 
can buy or control the courts or law¬ 
makers, in their interests. At a meeting 
lately held, they contributed freely in 
money, aud passed very strong resolutions 
and assumed a hold and defiant attitude. 
They are either “whistling to keep their 
courage up,” or they mean fight, and fight 
to the end; iu either case, honest people 
everywhere, those in every branch of agri¬ 
culture as much as the dairymen, and those 
in the cities who depend upon the farm¬ 
ers for their food supply, should unite in 
demanding of both the State and National 
Legislatures the most, stringent laws 
against this fraud, and then demand of 
tlie courts that the laws shall be con¬ 
strued in favor of the protection of the 
people in their food supply, rather than iu 
the interest of human sharks, who would 
rob the consumers and ruin the producers 
of honest butter. 
It is much more honorable when asked 
for “bread" to give a “stone,” than when 
asked for butter t"o give a vile concoction 
of the garbage house. 
BREVITIES. 
The true seeds of potatoes will germinate 
if three years old. 
Only regular subscribers need appy for our 
seed distribution. A stamp must be sent with 
every application. 
According to the experiments made by the 
Messrs. Button, of England, it is thought that. 
Solatium Maglia, and not S. tuberosuni, should 
have the credit of being tho original parent of 
our cultivated potatoes. 
The experienced potato grower, Alfred 
Rose, writes us that the way to secure large 
yields is not to have the soil over-rich in 
manure, but just rich enough to grow good- 
sized tubei-s, and not all vines with a few 
small tubers. 
Whether it is is better to dig potatoes as 
soon as they are matured, or to leave them in 
the ground until late in the Fall, depends upon 
tho season. If dry, leaving them iu the ground 
may do no harm : if wet, they will certainly 
sustain injuries which would have lieen avoid¬ 
ed by an early digging. 
The Rural New-Yorker has introduced, 
through its Free Seed Distributions, the 
Beauty of Hebron, White Elephant and Rural 
Blush. The Beauty of Hebron is now gener¬ 
ally prized as one of our best early potatoes; 
the White Elephant as one of the best late. 
The Rural Blush is also late, of excellent qual¬ 
ity and in most places an immense yielder. 
Its one fault is that it straggles somewhat. 
It does me good to read the Rural, and I 
shall continue to read it until l become blind 
with age, it it continues to live the life it is 
now leading—an enemy to fraud, and a friend 
to a higher, nobler agriculture. I wish I had 
20 copies of the issue for Dec. 19th. I would 
mark the article “Where shall we aim, at the 
head or the belly?” and send them to my 
friends. ' R. p. mcanly. 
Walnut Cove, N. C 
It is a good time now to sow potato seeds. 
Sow them as you would tomato seeds. When 
three to four inches high, prick them out and 
plant in three-inch pots, one plant to a pot. 
As soon as there is no danger ol frost, or about 
May 20th for this climate, the plants, with the 
soil and roots intact, may be planted in holes 
prepared for them iu rich, mellow soil of the 
garden. Tubers will form by Fall all the way 
From the size of u pea to that of a hen’s egg. 
or sometimes even larger. 
TnE Ag. Ed. of the Vermont Watchman in. 
what seems to us, a trunk, impartial review 
of farm journals, lias this to say of the Rur al 
New-Yorker: “We have for several year 
regarded it as clearly the foremost agrieu 
tural paper in the world. Iu the nbundauce and 
excellence of its illustrations, iu the integrity, 
ability and industry of its editors, and iu the 
qualify of its contributed matter, it outranks 
all competitors. It Lias a largo capital behind 
it, which is spent lavishly to make it what it 
is, an honor to agricultural journalism. It 
pays its contributors yvell, and exacts their 
test work. A writer, however able, who will 
not give that, had better send his matter to 
other papers.” 
