340 
MAY 22 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBKKT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1886. 
If any subscriber of the Rural New- 
Yorker Tuts not received the paper regular¬ 
ly, he mil confer a favor by notifying us. 
We are anxious to extend the time far 
enough to male up for all mistakes or neg¬ 
lects. 
If the number on your address label is 
1895, your subscription expires with this 
number; if 1896, next week; 1897, in two 
weeks, etc. 
The writer was talking a few days ago 
with one of his neighbors about the best 
way to raise muskmelons. The neighbor 
said that last year he manured them in the 
hill. They started oil finely, made a good 
growth of vine, but began to fail as the 
fruit set and developed. “Now,” said 
he, “this has happened before, and my 
belief now is, as the Rural has often 
stated, that though the young vines were 
well fed, the older vineR were starved. 
The roots had grown beyond the manure, 
and had nothing to draw upon when the 
melons began to form; and that is the 
time they most need food,” 
One of the largest crops of corn ever 
raised at the Rural Grounds was planted 
June 8th. We were then inclined to 
speak well of planting early kinds late. 
We once harvested a tine crop which was 
planted late in April. We were then in¬ 
clined to favor very early planting. But 
a second early planting was much injured 
by frost, and it has been found that, in 
most seasons, drought will hurt late- 
planted corn in our sandy soil. Well, 
years of farm experience have taught us 
that it is never safe to plant before early 
May, the exact date to he decided by the 
season outlook. We may plant earlier 
and take the risk. 
We have three trees growing near each 
other, which, just at this season, are beau¬ 
tiful indeed. The leaves of the Blood 
Birch are now of a blackish-purple color; 
those of the Purple Beech are of a reddish- 
purple, while those of Schwerdler's Maple 
are of an amber-purple, if we may so 
describe colors. Near these three trees 
is another, the Golden Oak, which is just 
beginning to unfold its leaves which are 
at first yellow. A more charming group 
we can scarcely conceive of. The leaves 
of the Blood Birch turn, later in the sea¬ 
son. to a dull, deep green, and, without 
ruakiug nice distinctions, so do those of 
the Beech and Maple. The Oak resumes 
something of its golden color in the Fall. 
As something akin to the above trees 
among shrubs, may be mentioned the 
Purple-leaved Hazel, the Golden Spiraea 
and Pissard’s Plum. 
The hill making the Commissioner of 
Agriculture a Cabinet officer is again up 
in Congress. A considerable number of 
prominent farmers are opposed to it; but 
at conventions and other public meetings 
of farmers such a measure invariably re¬ 
ceives overwhelming support. There 
does not appear to be any very urgent de¬ 
mand for it, however, among the fanning 
community. The interest iuit is of a mild 
nature, on the whole. The elevation of 
the official head of the Agricultural De¬ 
partment, would be quite acceptable to 
the vast bulk of our agriculturists, but 
there is slight ehauce of its takiug place 
at this session of Congress, and the agri¬ 
cultural disappointment will hardly be 
excessive. 
It is time now to begin to talk about 
the next fair. The life of the crop is just 
beginning. You have all the Summer be¬ 
fore you in which to fit the stock for the 
prize. Begin early this year, and see 
what you can do. It is your duty to do 
one thing at least, and that is to do all in 
your power to keep liquor off the fair 
grounds. Talk against it wherever you 
may chance to be—at the store, on the 
road, at home, anywhere you can get an 
audience. Farmers can keep this cursed 
thing out of their fairs if they will only 
think so. Public opinion determines 
such tilings. Give your opinion, your 
voice and your influence on the right side. 
Begin to talk now, and never stop till the « 
thing is done. If you don’t succeed this 
year, do your hardest talking on the fair 
Petitions for the passage of the bill to 
tax bogus butter are daily being presented 
by the hundred in both the. House and 
Senate fi’om farmers in every State east 
of the Rockies. There are also a number 
of petitions in opposition, many of them 
of late from the Knights of Labor. The 
manufacturers of cotton-seed oil are es¬ 
pecially earnest in their appeal to Southern 
Congressmen to vote against the bill, on 
the ground that its passage would depress 
the price of their product, which is largely 
used in the concoction. A remonstrance 
from the Chicago Live Stock Exchange 
says that cattle are worth $10 more per 
head now than they would be if the manu¬ 
facture of bogus butter were prohibited. 
Who seeks to prohibit it? We merely 
want to regulate it, and to force its hand¬ 
lers into honest dealing. Supporters of the 
hill should lose no time in writing to their 
Congressmen on the matter. Have you 
done so? Remember a multitude of small 
efforts generate a tremendous pressure. 
Little drops of water, little grains of sand, 
Make the mighty" ocean and t he pleasant land. 
Observation on Fourteenth Street and 
upper Broadway, and several of the other 
fashionable “shopping” streets of this city, 
leads us to believe that the thoughtlessly 
cruel fashion of wearing birds, whole or 
in parts, as decorations for feminine head- 
gear, is waning. Even in the Bowery, 
Grand Street, and other great thoroug- 
fares thronged by “working girls” and 
women who make little pretence of being 
fashionable, fewer birds are seen on hat 
and bonnet, although this class is rather 
slow to follow change of fashiou. The 
millinery stores, however, still display a 
varied assortment of head-gear barbarous¬ 
ly “ornamented.” Some hats are disgraced 
with two or more small birds, others with 
a single larger one; others with wings, 
heads or plumes. One firm bought last 
year over 60,000 birds; another 85,000; 
70,000 were shipped to dealers here in 
four mouths from a single village in Long 
Island. It is to be hoped that tickle fash¬ 
ion will rapidly change to a more humane 
style. Flowers are now the “rage” here. 
Won’t you help by word and deed to 
change the fashion in your neighbor¬ 
hood? 
■ — ■■ 
Said a farmer the other day,looking out 
at one of the city parks, “If I had such 
grass as that is on my pasture, my cows 
would get too fat to walk.” While the 
grass on this little plot was thick and 
green, his pasture was covered with a 
light sickly growth that compelled the 
cows to travel miles every day in order to 
pick up a living. The city plot had been 
underdrained, carefully cultivated and 
fertilized and well seeded. His own pas¬ 
ture had been left to take care of itself 
without manure, except that dropped by 
the cattle roaming over it, and not a 
pound of seed had been scattered upon it. 
No one can expect a farmer to spend the 
time and money in handling his pasture 
as these city parks are handled, yet the 
principles on which the success of one 
mode of cultivation is based are appli- 
able in the other. A stout hoy with a 
heavy wooden mallet could in two days, 
scatter the hard clumps of manure, so that 
it would do five times the work it now 
does. A few pounds of grossseeds, evenly 
scattered upon the surface, would surely 
make their mark. There are plenty of 
pastures in this country, that are far more 
luxuriant than any of the city parks ever 
can be. They were all produced by prop¬ 
er fertilization and care. The pasture 
should never be neglected. Too much of 
the money on the average farm comes 
from it. Many a farmer can learn valua¬ 
ble lessons from the keepers of our city 
parks. 
We want to see more students in the 
Agricultural Department at Cornell Uni¬ 
versity. The equipment is in excellent 
condition, and the course of instruction 
ranks among the best in the country. 
Dozens of young men go from this to 
other States for Agricultural instruction. 
These should be kept at home. The re¬ 
quirements for admission into the Agricul¬ 
tural Department at Cornell have here¬ 
tofore been quite rigorous, so that the 
greater number of farmers’ boys have been 
unable to enter. Heretofore, students 
over 21 years of age have, on the recom¬ 
mendation of members of the faculty, 
been admitted as special students, and 
have been permitted to take such courses 
as they desired. This limitation of age 
has precluded large numbers who might 
otherwise have attended. Henceforth, 
any student 18 years of age, with a fair 
English education, may avail himself of 
all the advantages offered by the Agricul¬ 
tural Department of Cornell University 
free of expense for tuition. We are 
glad the requirements for admission have 
been made less rigorous, both as regards 
previous training ami age. Wo would 
gladly see 150 agricultural students at 
Cornell. The State would be benefited 
in a marked degree by such an attend¬ 
ance. We will gladly give our most earn¬ 
est support to any measures tending to in¬ 
crease the size of the classes in agricul¬ 
ture. 
SPECIAL. 
Those who, having applied for the 
Rural's present seed distribution prior 
to May 15th, have not yet received it, 
will kindly notify us by postal at once. 
We need a better test for beef at our 
Fat Stock Shows. There is a great ad¬ 
vance in the present judging of beef 
cattle compared with the methods em¬ 
ployed 50 years ago, yet we might well 
go still further. In olden times judges 
were satisfied with an outward examina¬ 
tion of the animal. Now the butcher’s 
block is regarded as the final test. The 
prize steer at our Fat Stock Show has 
gained fame enough. There is no reason 
why he should live longer. We are told 
the percentage of dressed meat, weight of 
each part, gain per day, and, in" some 
cases, the cost of producing a pound of 
beef. Can we not go further and take 
the flavor of the meat and its economy iu 
cooking into account? Encourage the 
improvement in quality as well as in 
quantity of beef. Carcasses of prize ani¬ 
mals, which we have examined, appear to 
be coated with several inches of pure fat. 
Is this meat the most economical that, cau 
be produced? The bulk of animals has 
been wonderfully increased by the system 
of awarding prizes for the greatest gain in 
weight without much regard to quality of 
meat. It seems as if the practical limit 
in this direction had about been reached. 
It is a common belief with the public 
that grossness in animals, vegetables and 
fruits indicates an inferiority in flesh. It 
will be far wiser to improve the quality of 
these vast masses of meat than to seek to 
still further increase the size. Let the 
final test pass from the block to the pan. 
We may eventually know the proportion 
of edible meat to bone, and even the cost 
of producing a pound of this edible meat. 
We believe that keener tests would pro¬ 
vide a string 1 .incentive to improvement 
in quality. It is true that such a test 
might bring some hitherto neglected 
breed to the front, but in any event the 
gain would greatly benefit the general 
public. Why cannot the managers of our 
Fat Stock Shows move in the matter and 
establish a class for beef cattle where the 
quality and proportion of edible meat are 
solely to be taken into consideration? 
CANADIAN DISCONTENT. 
When the Dominion of Canada was 
formed in 1867, Ontario, Quebec, Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick were the only 
Provinces in the confederation, and before 
the act of union was submitted to the Im¬ 
perial Government, the great majority of 
the people of Nova Scotia refused to sanc¬ 
tion the action of their delegates in agree¬ 
ing to it, and displayed a revolutionary 
violence in opposition to it, and the Leg¬ 
islature declined to assent to it. In Lower 
Canada there was considerable opposition 
and a still stronger one in New Bruns¬ 
wick, while Prince Edward’s Island and 
New Foundlaud absolutely refused to 
enter the confederation, though the former 
was afterwards induced to do so. Since 
early after the formation of the confedera¬ 
tion a good deal of hostility against it 
has been displayed in New* Brunswick 
and Nova Scotia, especially the latter. 
The root of the discontent lies in the fact 
that the Maratime Provinces contribute 
yearly several hundred thousand dollars 
more to the Dominion than they get back; 
protection, too, which has been of service 
to the manufacturers of Upper Canada, 
has been injurious to them, as it has raised 
the price of goods by cutting off competi¬ 
tion with this country, while the abroga¬ 
tion of the fisheries clauses of the Wash- 
ngton treaty last year, shut them out from 
the fish markets hero, so that there is 
widespread business depression and dis¬ 
tress among the people. Lately, in spite 
of the utmost efforts of the Dominion 
Government, a hostile provincial adminis¬ 
tration was elected in New Brunswick, 
and last Saturday tin- Legislature of Nova 
Scotia, with only six negative votes, 
passed a resolution declaring that “the 
financial and commercial interests of the 
people of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 
and Prince Edward’s Island would be 
advanced by those Provinces withdraw¬ 
ing from the Canadian confederation and 
uniting under one government.” If this 
were impossib’e, the Assembly declared 
it “absolutely necessary” that Nova Scotia 
should seek separation, and ask permis¬ 
sion from the Imperial Government to 
withdraw from the confederation and re¬ 
turn to the status of a province of Great 
Britain with full control over her own 
fiscal laws and tariff regulations. The 
chief argument urged was that then a 
customs union or rcceproeity treaty with 
the United States would be practicable. 
With the Maratime Provinces discontent¬ 
ed with their preseut condition; Quebec, 
in part, disgruntled at the execution of 
Riel; Manitoba uneasy under inadequate 
Parliamentary representation and a pro¬ 
tective tariff, and British Columbia grum¬ 
bling at the failure of the Dominion Par¬ 
liament to sanction her proveneial anti- 
Chinese legislation, the provinces of the 
Dominion do not form an altogether 
happy family. Ontario, full of life, 
energy and spirit, is content, however, 
and seems resolved that no peaceable 
secession of any of the other provinces 
shall he permitted. 
BREVITIES. 
Frequent raius, warm, delightful weather 
at the R. G. 
Yes, the tender shoots of raspberries and 
blackberries that are now a foot high will live 
if carefully transplanted and watered. 
MaryWager-Fisuer’s transcontinental ar¬ 
ticles will lie resumed next week, and will here¬ 
after appear without interruptiou till all have 
been published. 
Gardener, of the Farming World, and Cin¬ 
cinnati four-per-cent loan notoriety, who has 
also been engaged in several other unsavory 
enterprises, about a year ago sited the Chic¬ 
ago Tribune for $25,000 damages for having 
libeled him by denouncing his schemes. The 
Rural had done the same, and at the time 
declared that Gardener would never have the 
audacity to bring th© case to iriai The case 
was dismissed by the Court the other day, 
because he had fulfilled our prediction. 
Bills now before Congress and which have 
nearly all passed the House, will restore to the 
public domain for homestead purposes over 
100,000,000 acres of excellent laud, withheld 
from settlement as railroad grants, some of it. 
since 1857. Not. a shovelful of dirt has ever 
been removed on some of the projected roads, 
yet the land has been held ns bait for specula¬ 
tors often for over a quarter of a century. If 
this just, anti expedient legislation fails, the 
fault will rest, wit h the Senate, and especially 
with the Senate Committee on Public Lands. 
The Women’s Christum Association’s bill to 
prohibit the sale of intoxicants at town, county 
or State fairs. introduced by Mr Westfall, pass¬ 
ed the New York Assembly on Thursday. Now 
let it be pushed through the Senate and he 
signed by the Governor, Tf the managers of 
our fail's are willing for the sake of a paltry 
money gain, to deliberately engage in rum- 
selling. the law should prevent t hem, not in 
this State only, but in every State in the 
Union. The inau who sells to another the 
privilege of selling rum, is morally a ruin-sel¬ 
ler himself. 
Intending emigrants should read what is 
said elsewhere of Utah ns a place of settle¬ 
ment, We would especially call the attention 
of lawyers, yes, and also of doctors to the ex¬ 
cellent. openings there awaiting gentlemeu of 
their professions. Like the poor who are al¬ 
ways noth us, t here nro too many of them 
here, and we call attention to the advantages 
Utah offers them, on the same principle on 
which some of the papers in many sections of 
the tramp-plagued South, annually call atten¬ 
tion to the vast advantages Florida offers in 
the way of yielding a free livelihood to the 
thriftless, lazy and “tired.” 
There's a growing inclination among all par¬ 
ties to restrict rather than any longer encour¬ 
age the immigration of all foreigners. Immi¬ 
gration is desirable in a thinly settled coun¬ 
try which wants hands to develop its re¬ 
sources: but we have here now 1.000.000 men for 
whom there is uo employment, and as many 
others who cannot work "lull ttroe,”and why 
should more be invited except for the benefit 
of capitalists anxious to keep down wages by 
overstocking the labor marketf It is pro¬ 
posed to tax immigrants $800 apiece, and the 
recent, Anarchist outbreaks stimulate the 
movement. There is a good deal of talk; but 
action is improbable—just yet at any rate. 
In view of the importance of legislation re¬ 
storing to the public vast, areas of the public 
domain, unjustly withheld from settlement for 
the benefit of railroad corporations, the people 
should bear in mind the names of the members 
of the Senate Committee on Public Lands. 
Here they me; Preston B. Plumb. Kansas; 
Henry W, Blair. New Hampshire: Charles H, 
VanWvek, Nebraska: Joseph N. TJolph, Ore¬ 
gon; Henry M. Teller, Colorado; John T. 
Morgan, Alabama: Francis M. Cockrell, Miss- 
onri;E. C. Walthall, Mississippi; James n. 
Berry, Arkansas. Whatever obstruction may 
arise with regal'd to such needed legislation 
will be iu the Senate, the stronghold of capi¬ 
tal and corporate interests. So great is the 
influence of the support of any measure by the 
Senate or House Committee in charge of SUOh 
legislation, that in nearly all cases a unanimous 
support insures the passage of the measure, 
aud the closer to unanimity, the greater the 
chance for the bill. Some of the above men 
are known to be honestly in favor of wresting 
from the railroads the lands to which they 
have no just claim; others are known to bo 
personally interested in such corporations, and 
seldom’antagouizejthe intcrests of any wealthy 
corporation foivtho benefit oQthe/people. 
