THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
b. s. CARMAN, 
Editor. 
J. S. WOODWARD, 
Associate. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1886. 
We liave many interesting contributions 
as to the Japan Chestnut, which we shall 
publish as fast as space can be found. 
If the number on your address label is 
1886, your subscription expires with this 
number; if 1887, next week; 1888, in two 
weeks, etc. 
We have received a number of com¬ 
plaints that the Nature’s Incubator, man¬ 
ufactured in Quincy, Illinois, is a worth¬ 
less affair. We are investigating these 
charges, and, in the mean time, our friends 
may accept the above as a caution. 
A friend from Alexandria, Dakota, 
who does not sign his name (we would 
thank him to forward it), says that he 
planted both the Cory and Marblehead 
sweet corn last year, and found the claim 
in favor of the earliuess of the Cory not 
well sustained. He thinks the Cory a 
strain of the Marblehead, which, we be¬ 
lieve, is admitted by the introducers. 
During the past week Catawba Grapes 
of the best quality have been selling at 
the retail fruit stands for 20 cents the 
pound, nominally five-pound baskets! about 
four pounds) for 60 cents. Wc have nev¬ 
er before seen Catawbas offered for sale so 
late. They have been preserved by the 
cold-storage method. When, among the 
scores of new grapes, we find one as good 
a keeper, and as good in quality as the 
Catawba, the fact will be noteworthy. 
--■ 
The Michigan Agricultural College is 
entering upon a new era of prosperity. 
The freshman class contains 165 members, 
and more are coming every day. '-How 
fortunate,” writes our informant, “that 
we have held to our labor and agriculture, 
pure and simple.” There is the secret of 
the great success of this college in a n ut- 
shell. It is not. the tail of a university, it 
is not ashamed of its name, it holds labor 
in the foreground. The few colleges that 
insist upon work as a necessary element 
of education grow stronger every year. 
The many that ape the influence and tone 
of a literary school and still attempt to 
pass as agricultural institutions, grow 
weaker and weaker. The reason is plain. 
In one case faculty and students are proud 
of their work; in the other there is a 
constant effort to apologize for the exis¬ 
tence of the institution. 
According to the Report of the Con¬ 
necticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 
potash in muriate has cost the past year, 
at wholesale in New York, about tliree- 
and-one-third cents a pouud. At retail 
it has cost about four cents. Kainit at 
wholesale in New York cost in December 
less than one cent. It rose until April, 
when it cost 3.8 cents per pound. Then 
it fell to 3.8 cents per pound in July, 
rising to three cents in November. Now 
at retail , the cost has been about 4.5 cents 
per pound. Farmers should note this. 
A pound of potash in kainit is worth just 
ai much as a pound of potash in the mu¬ 
riate, unless the salt in the latter is thought 
to reduce its value. It varies in com¬ 
position, and at the above prices it is 
assumed that the per cent, of potash is 
as much as 12. At wholesale it lias been 
much cheaper than high-grade muriate; 
while at retail it lias been much higher. 
As many as 10 years ago, one of the 
best farmers living in the vicinity of the 
Rural Farm, began the use of bone flour 
as a fertilizer. The effect was very satis¬ 
factory indeed. His crops were evidently 
increased. The neighbors saw this and 
bought bone and spread it upon their 
fields. Of late years, bone is less popu¬ 
lar. The farmer above referred to thinks 
it does not have the same effect as at 
first, and some of the neighbors who 
followed his lead agree with him. Now, 
potash is just as much a plant food as 
bone, which, besides a little nitrogen, 
furnishes only phosphoric acid. During 
these 10 years, where has the potash come 
from which the crops required? Evident¬ 
ly from the soil. And the soil has been 
growing poorer and poorer in potash every 
year until now it can not supply the 
quantity which the plants need, and the 
lighter yields are attributed to the fact 
that “bone does not have the same effect 
now that it did 10 years ago.” Try 
potash, friends, and if this does not give 
satisfactory crops, you may conclude 
that it still needs bone as well as potash, 
and, very likely, nitrogen as well. But 
don’t condemn bone. 
Perhaps, no other improvement in a 
garden or home gives such rich and en¬ 
during results as the sett ing of some well 
chosen grafts. Now is the season, and 
every boy should try his prentice hand 
while observing or assisting a practised 
operator. Success depends on a healthy 
stock, on sound, plump grafts of good 
firm wood, not dried or hurt by severe 
cold, nor at all swelled by any start of 
bud growth; a sharp knife, the close 
and unmoved joining at some one point 
at least of the line between bark nud 
wood in the graft with thf same line in 
the stock on faces freshly and smoothly 
cut; a complete covering of the entire 
wound with a coatiug of wax, which, be¬ 
ing waterproof, and devoid of any oily, 
salty, or any other free matter, will pre¬ 
vent the wound from drying without in¬ 
terfering with the tender protrusion of 
new matter, which will unite the parts 
in the course of a few weeks, if not dis¬ 
turbed. 
Complaints are made that carrying 
fourth-class matter in the mails at the 
present rate is a losing business. What if 
it is? Has not the carrying of any sort, of 
mail matter into many parts of the country 
been always a losing business? Shall the 
mails be "stopped altogether, therefore, 
overall the “starroutes”andseveral others, 
or shall the rates on letters he raised to 
out-of-the-way places? Uniformity of 
postal rates for the whole country has 
been found best by every nation. A profit 
is made on some classes and for some 
distances; a loss is incurred in others, 
and generally they counterbalance each 
other. The letter and post-office-order 
departments of the Post Office are ac¬ 
knowledged to be the most profitable; 
and to the profits of these there is hardly 
anything that contributes more than tlie 
letters and remittances connected with 
the mailing of fourth-class matter. Such 
matter must not exceed four pounds, and 
includes a vast variety of goods, from silk 
to sorghum seed, and probably an average 
of three letters aud one postal remittance is 
associated with the mailing of each pack¬ 
age. Will not the profits on these more 
than make good any loss on fourth- 
class matter? An expert in the Post 
Office here says the present shortage in the 
Post Office receipts will be increased by 
at least $3,000,000 a year, if the Wilson 
Bill becomes law. One of the great dail¬ 
ies here characterizes it as a ‘ ‘foolish” bill; 
it is that aud worse—it is a foolish and 
culpable attempt to tax the multitude for 
the benefit of a few. 
SPECIAL. 
Those who , having applies! for the Ru¬ 
ral's present seed distribution prior to 
March nth, have not yet received ib, will 
kindly notify on by postal at once. 
The seed packages for Canada subscribers 
were expressed last week to be mailed there. 
THE JAPAN CHESTNUT.—A WARNING. 
The Rural would not. influence any¬ 
one to invest largely in Japan Chestnuts 
unless he has money to lose. Too little 
is known as to their adaptability to di¬ 
verse regions of our country. Wc arc 
placing before our readers all the infor¬ 
mation we can gather, in order to enable 
them to act judiciously. How much cold 
will the trees stand? Not over 15 degrees 
below zero, Mr. Halloek thinks, as he 
states in another column. But different 
seedlings possess different degrees of 
hardiness. We know of trees that have 
stood 24 degrees below zero. Of this one 
thing we are confident;—Where the best 
varieties of the Japan Chestnut will thrive, 
they will prove among the most valuable 
nut-bearing trees in cultivation. Again, 
we fear that the Japan Chestnut is not 
the easiest tree in the world to trans¬ 
plant, and we would advise those of our 
readers who purchase trees, to sec to it 
that they be not exposed to wind or sun; 
that the holes be large, enough: that the soil 
be worked in among the roots; that the soil 
be well compacted over the roots, and, 
finally, if necessary, that a mulch be ap¬ 
plied if the weather be very dry. The 
nuts sprout freely, and seedlings may be 
raised with little trouble. 
Mr. Halloek was ODe of the first, to raise 
seedlings, and to propagate from the best 
of them by grafting. He has many trees 
now in bearing, and wishes lie had ten 
times as many. He says the quality is 
better than that of the Spanish, though 
not quite so good as that of the American 
unless the nuts are cooked, when there is 
no difference. He has no trees, nuts or 
cions for sale. 
CHINESE LABOR ON THE FARM. 
It is Haid that 30,000 Chinese are en¬ 
gaged in agricultural pursuits on the Pa¬ 
cific Coast. Many of these work on their 
own account, raising garden “truck” for 
the markets in towns and cities; but the 
great majority are hired by farmers, hop 
growers, fruit growers, and especially by 
owners of vineyards. The wages paid are 
not low in comparison with farm wages 
in the East, as they range, it is said, from 
$25 to $45 a month and board. No com¬ 
plaints of Chinese “cheap labor” can 
therefore be justly made by those who 
wish the expulsion of the Celestials from 
the State. Indeed, there arc not enough 
white men to take their places should they 
be driven out, and as their foes congregate 
mostly in cities, towns and villages, and 
are unwilling, aud, for the most part., in¬ 
competent to perform agricultural work, 
the expulsion of the Chinese must, entail 
disaster on the farmer and fruit grower. 
Accordingly, the agriculturists in many 
portions of the State are protesting against 
the crusade now carried on against this 
very useful class of farm laborers. In 
Solano County upwards of one hundred 
prominent fruit growers, owning 5,551 
acres of orchard, say: “Thepresent con¬ 
dition of the labor market, and the 
sparseness of our population make it ab¬ 
solutely impossible to carry on the busi¬ 
ness of fruit culture here without the em¬ 
ployment of large numbers of Chinese 
laborers.” Their workingmen are alarm¬ 
ed and ready to desert, and the fruit 
growers say their departure would cause 
them a loss of a $1,000,000, The Hop 
Growers’ Association, of Mendocino 
County, say the hop crop is the only one 
to which they can look for money, and 
most, of their capital is invested in hop- 
yards, and in machinery for raising and 
handling the crop. “We cannot pick and 
save our crops with white labor alone.” 
they say, “as it is not in the State, and 
ran not at present be had.” Like many 
other employers on the Pacific Coast, they 
are willing to exert, themselves to stop 
Chinese immigration, and prefer white 
labor when it can be found; but they in¬ 
sist that, the Chinese now in California 
should be protected. The Anti-Chinese 
agitators, mostly foreigners, will not pick 
hops or grapes, or do any other farm 
work, and in any case many farmers pre¬ 
fer Chinese as “they are steadier, more 
faithful and more trustworthy.” There 
are always two sides to a question, even 
to that of “Chinese cheap labor.” 
A STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRI¬ 
CULTURE. 
While wc are strongly in favor of 
placing the agricultural interests of auy 
State under the control of a single hon¬ 
est, capable and efficient head, in the be¬ 
lief that such a course would best pro¬ 
mote those interests, and be most econom¬ 
ical of labor and money, we are very 
decidedly of opinion that such a head 
should not be a politician, or subject to 
the whims or influences of party “bosses,” 
or be liable to be changed every two years, 
as is proposed by the Low bill now before 
the New York Legislature. As a rule, the 
farmers of this and other States, while 
capable of managing their own affairs, are 
not working politicians or wire-pullers, 
and if such a head were made elective and 
placed on the State ticket, in nine cases 
out of ten he would inevitably be some 
incompetent, political place-seeker, more 
intent on serving his party, than on advan¬ 
cing the farming interest, of the State. 
It is a sad fact that the farms of New 
York are not as productive as is desirable, 
or possible; that, her dairies are languish¬ 
ing, and that their products are not al¬ 
ways as good as we would have them; 
that our forests are being neglected and 
destroyed with no provisions for growing 
new ones in their places. But we can all 
see that a Department whose head is a poli¬ 
tician and not even likely to bo a farmer, 
and who would he liable to be changed 
every two years, is not by any means the 
best, or eVen a proper one into whose 
charge such important interests should be 
committed. 
The Rural is, and has been a strong 
advocate of the necessity of a State Board 
of Agriculture in the Empire State, 
which should assume entire charge of its 
agricultural interests. All States are alike 
to us, and we should have taken the same 
position with regard to any other, had 
the question arisen. 
While we have at present no plan to 
propose for the organization of a State 
Board, we are very certain that it should 
be composed of active, progressive farm¬ 
ers, and should be so chosen or appoint¬ 
ed that it would be next to impossible 
for it to become in any degree partisan 
or political. 
CHARMING BARBARITY. 
So enormous is the slaughter of birds 
now taking place to supply the demands 
of feminine adornment, that the speedy 
(Determination of whole species is a ques¬ 
tion of only a short time, unless some 
means are devised for putting a stop to it. 
Out of our whole population, at least 10,- 
000,000 are not only of bircl-weariug age. 
but of bird-wearing proclivities. At least 
two-thirds of these are now wearing as 
ornaments to hat. bonnet or head, the 
wings, head or whole bodies of one or more 
birds, and they average at least two hats 
each thus adorned. Of 50 women met on one 
of the streets here yesterday, 41, by actual 
count, wore the spoils of song birds—the 
nine others were shabbily dressed and too 
poor to afford the cruel luxury. Over 
40,000 terns were killed in a single, season 
on the shores of Cape Cod to supply the 
demand for plumes. A similar slaughter 
in the interior has greatly reduced the 
number of feathered favorites that cheered 
the scene with their songs and brightened 
it with their plumage, besides doing an 
inestimable service to the agriculture of the 
country by destroying myriads of the 
insect pests that prey upon every branch of 
it. Add to the millions of birds annually 
slaughtered for frivolous fashion, the vast 
numbers of nests robbed by juvenile 
thoughtlessness, curiosity, cruelty and 
greed, and by the wicked ambition of 
older marauders to make up worthless 
“scientific” collections, and is it any won¬ 
der that the “balance of Nature” has been 
deranged, and that insect pests multiply 
to an alarming extent as their foes are 
recklessly exterminated? We are glad to 
see that associations are being formed in 
numerous places to discountenance and 
check this barbarous carnage; hut laws 
should l»e passed and sternly enforced in 
every State to protect all insectivorous 
feathered friends of the farmer and fruit¬ 
grower, and every one of these Rhould at. 
once urge upon his representative in the. 
Legislature of his State the importance of 
such legislation. If heartless fashion 
must, be gratified, why not confine its 
cruelty to the English sparrows? With 
these pests the painter’s art ought to be 
able to satisfy the desires of the vainest, 
most thoughtless, charming and fashion¬ 
able of the amiable but cruel sex. 
BREVITIES. 
The Potato Special next. 
We reap what we sow. Too manv of us 
turn about, and sow what we reap. We thus 
make sure of two poor crops. 
The careful experiment made by the Rural 
several years ago, as to the best depth to plant 
peas, resulted in favor of two inches. The 
soil was a mellow loam, rather clayey t han 
sandy. 
A friend who has raised the Japan and 
Spanish Chestnuts for years, writes: “I am 
glad that you are giving the Japan Chestnut a 
boom. I do not know of anything more wor¬ 
thy.” 
Numbers of our subscribers, in various 
parts of the country, write us that their cat¬ 
tle arc afflicted with a serious skin disease. 
The symptoms are the same in all cases. Our 
friends are referred to the article printed on 
page 74. 
A subscriber of Erie. Co,, N. Y., Isaac 
Hemstreet, Jr., writes us that, he received one 
Japan chestnut tree (by mail) from a nursery 
three years ago. It has done well, he says, 
not a ’ bud having been harmed by cold 
weather as yet. 
A friend writes: “The attempt to double 
the rate on fourth-class matter is a rascally 
piece of business. It was a ra.srnlly piece of 
business engineered by the express companies 
in 1872, when the postage was raised from 
eight to sixteen cents a pound, and the people 
ought to demand of their Representatives that 
it l>c at once reduced to the old rate of eight 
cents a pound.” 
There are at least two sides to every ques¬ 
tion. and it is wise to hear both before 
coming to a conclusion. A shore time ago Vel- 
ancyE. Fuller presented, in our columns, the 
Jersey side of the question as to the “best cow 
for the dairy,” according to the results of 
Prof. Brown’s tests at. tlie Agricultural Ex 
poriment Station, of Ontario, Canada. In 
this issue Mr. E. M. Powell presents very forci¬ 
bly the Holstein-Friesian side of the matter, 
and really doesn’t he make out a strong case : 
