§32 
U 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 34, 1SS6. 
Johnson Grass, started from seed at 
the Rural Grounds four years ago, is now 
(August 3) in bloom. 
Profit and beauty are combined in 
the Japan Chestnut. Why not plant it 
on the lawn or in the garden as well as 
the maple, ash, beech, birch or linden ? 
Titk strawberry plants of our present 
collection quickest to recover after fruit¬ 
ing, are Augur’s 87, Sharpless,Hilton, On¬ 
tario, Bubach No. 5, Ironclad and Bel¬ 
mont. 
-- 
Some of our ensilage friends ought to 
try Prickly Comfrey. Horses and cattle 
do not like it raw, but they might take 
to it as it comes from the silo. We don’t 
know of any plant that would give more 
green leaves to the acre. Then, besides, 
it is a hardy perennial, and, according 
to chemical analysis, very nutritious. 
' » • 
We wish that this simple fact, abund¬ 
antly proven by reiterated experiments, 
were better kuown aud acted upon by 
farmers. It is that the failure of nitroge¬ 
nous fertilizers to increase crops is often 
due to a deficiency of phosphoric acid aud 
potash in the soil; that the failure of phos¬ 
phoric acid to increase crops is often clue 
to a deficiency of nitrogen and potash in 
the soil; that the failure of potash to in¬ 
crease crops is often due to a deficiency 
of phosphoric acid and nitrogen in the 
soil; that, flually, the failure of any two 
to increase crops is owing to a lack of the 
third. 
There is no reason in the world why 
the farmers of New York State should 
not send their boys to fill up the agricul¬ 
tural department at Cornell. The course 
is an excellent one, the instructors are all 
men of note, and the small expense neces¬ 
sary to complete the course renders it 
possible for auv fanner’s boy to attend. 
The terms of admission are easier than 
ever before, why not send your boy there ? 
You are bound that he shall have an edu¬ 
cation. Perhaps you were unable to ac¬ 
quire a college education yourself, and 
for that reason are doubly anxious that 
your boy shall have every advantage. 
Do not make any mistake in the matter. 
Agricultural education is as legitimate 
and necessary as legal education. True 
agriculture is the most intricate trade in 
the world. It requires a broader educa¬ 
tion, a truer groundwork in science than 
any other occupation. A boy who loves 
the farm, who delights in handling stock 
or in experimenting will not be led away 
from farming at Cornell. Let him take 
the course in agriculture and he will 
make a better farmer to pay for it. 
If you have, a genuine farm boy ,friend, 
don’t try to make a lawyer or a doc¬ 
tor out of him, encourage him to 
make a farmer out of himself, and give 
him every chance you can of mastering 
all the details of his profession. 
WHEAT SOWING. 
During our farm experience of 20 years, 
every year of which we have raised 
wheat, we fancy we have learned one or 
two things; that is for a light or sandy 
soil, though as a matter of fact a sandy 
is heavier than a clay soil. One of the 
things we have learnt is to plow the oat 
stubble as soon as possible after harvest. 
Oats in our rotation always precedes 
wheat and Timothy seeding. Whether 
farm manure is spread or not, our wheat 
seems to be benefited by a light dressing 
of a complete fertilizer just before sow¬ 
ing. The land is then rolled aud har¬ 
rowed. For several years we rolled both 
before and after seeding, but were con¬ 
vinced that it is not a good thing to do. 
The rolled surface Ixikea and causes the 
rain, instead of soaking directly into the 
soil, to form gutters and to run in little 
streams here and there. It also appeared 
that wheat Tolled after seeding did not 
stand the Winters so well, being killed 
out in places. 
Who can rationally advise farmers in 
general as to the quantity of wheat that 
had best be sown per acre ? We can not. 
Some wheats tiller little, others a good 
deal. The amount of seed wheat must 
be determined accordingly. Is your land 
light or heavy, well or imperfectly 
drained ; rich or poor? Every farmer 
must consider these questions for himself 
and sow accordingly. From careful ex¬ 
periments made years ago, we settled 
upon IX bushel to the acre for either 
Clawson, Silver Chaff or Fultz. 
LAST NOTICE. 
TEN DOLLARS 
for the largest Bird Cantaloupe from the 
Seed of the Rural's last Seed Distribution. 
TEN DOLLARS 
for the largest Watermelon. 
TEN DOLLARS 
for the longest ear of the Angel of Mid¬ 
night Corn containing the greatest num¬ 
ber of kernels 
TEN DOLLARS 
for 10 of the heaviest pods from the Alaska 
Pea. 
The prizes will be awarded October 1st. 
All competitors will be required to advise 
us as to the weight or size of their peas, 
mclou or corn by postal card. Those 
teJio tale the prizes mat/ he. required to 
send the prize-taking articles by express 
to this office, though at our expense. 
EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
The ideal Experi ment Station would be 
a blessing indeed to the farmer. It would 
be a fountain of knowledge to which lie 
could scarcely apply without receiving 
benefit It would be a place to which he 
might put questions on all subjects con¬ 
nected with agriculture, with the surety 
of being truthfully and disinterestedly 
instructed as to all that is known on the 
subject. Should an unfamiliar, destruc¬ 
tive insect appear, the Experiment Station 
should be aide to tell the farmer what it 
is, and how best to fight it. Does a 
farmer wish to know the merits of a new 
grain or fruit, the Experiment Station 
should be able to give him the result of 
careful comparative trials. Does he de¬ 
sire to set out a collection of ornamental 
trees, the Experiment Station should be 
able to show him samples of all, with the 
whole truth as to their healthfulness or 
hardiness; end so on through the whole 
range of agricultural matters. Not only 
so, but the Experiment Station report 
should give him practical information on 
many subjects of which he had not 
thought to ask. 
But where is the ideal Experiment Sta¬ 
tion? Let us not despond because it has 
not yet arrived. We have several young 
Experiment Stations that are doing all in 
their power to advance the interests of 
agriculture. Tlieir motives and efforts are 
the best that their managers can think of. 
It is to be regretted that most of them are 
as yet hampered through want of means. 
But we hope a brighter day is dawning. 
An Experiment Station of all other 
places requires men of energy and ability, 
and men who are willing to use these 
gifts in the pursuit of discovery for the 
public good. The Director who habitu¬ 
ally sits in his office, trusting all respon¬ 
sibility to bis subordinates, and writes 
reports aud bulletins of experiments of 
which he has not seen a single detail per¬ 
formed, and of which he has made no at¬ 
tempt to verify a single figure, proves 
thereby his unfitness for his position. 
An Experiment Station is no place for 
political, or any kind of dead-beats. Pol¬ 
iticians, send your salary suckers anywhere 
else, but for heaven’s sake keep them out 
of our Experiment Stations. We want 
nothing but pure gold there. 
STORY WRITERS. 
In the early part of the year, a promi¬ 
nent paper offered very liberal prizes for 
stories. The design, in part, was to de¬ 
velop amateur story writers and to en¬ 
courage youthful aspirants for literary 
fame. Some 0,000 manuscripts were sent 
in. The prizes must, of course, be won 
by a few practiced writers, while the 
great, many amateurs must be doomed to 
disappointment, it is a question whether 
this prize-story business does not work 
serious harm. Many a young man or 
young woman, without the first qualities 
of imagination, experience or insight mto 
character needed to make a good story 
writer, are induced to spend hours of 
valuable time at hopeless writing. This 
same time, applied to regular work or 
systematized study, would bring a thou¬ 
sand times the satisfaction that the hours 
silent at story writing can ever bring. It 
is well to be able to express one’s thoughts 
strongly upon paper; practice at letter¬ 
writing and description is always desir¬ 
able. To write a good story, however, 
requires qualities of rniud and heart,experi¬ 
ence and careful drill, not possessed by one 
person in ten thousand. The young men 
and women who are lured on by these 
attractive prizes to neglect plain, whole¬ 
some work, are doomed to tlie most hope¬ 
less disappointment. They cannot suc¬ 
ceed any more than a raw workman can 
jump into a skilled mechanic's place and 
hold it. There are hundreds of highly 
educated men in all our large cities, capa¬ 
ble of doing the very best of literary 
work, who would be utterly unable to 
support themselves at story writing. The 
tendency of too much of our educational 
system is all wrong. Somehow, the 
graduate of one of our schools gets the 
idea firmly fixed in his head that manual 
labor is degrading, and that he must get 
into some business wherein he can keep 
his hands clean. The mania for story 
writing that is sweeping over the country 
is sure to add to this contempt for man¬ 
ual labor. The healthy young men aud 
women who sit down with the deliberate 
intention of becoming authors without 
a willingness to spend years in careful 
study and observation, are to be pitied. 
Their days of usefulness are limited. 
Literature as a recreation is a success; as 
a business, it means failure for nine out 
of ten. 
THE NATIONAL OLEOMARGARINE 
LAW. 
Last Monday the President signed the 
Oleomargarine Bill, and sent to Congress 
a rather lengthy message giving his reas¬ 
ons for doing so, and suggesting several 
amendments to be made promptly. lie 
does not think the definition given of 
oleomargarine clear and distinct enough, 
and he has some doubts as to the consti¬ 
tutionality of sections 14 and 15, as they 
may be construed as interfering with the 
police powers of the States. Although if 
they were found invalid, it would not 
vitiate the whole measure, yet he urges 
amendments to remove all doubt in the 
matter. “ There is certainly no industry,” 
he says, “better entitled to the incidental 
advantages which may follow this legisla¬ 
tion than our farming and dairy interests, 
aud none of our people will be less be¬ 
grudged than our farmers aud dairymen. 
The present depression of their occupa¬ 
tion, the hard, steady and ofteu unre- 
munerative toil which such occupation 
exacts, and the burdens of taxation which 
our agriculturists necessarily bear, entitle 
them to every legitimate consideration.” 
True, every word of it; and yet there’s a 
howl from the partisan press that this 
clear statement of fact is only a bid for 
the farmers'vote! Well, the more “bids 
for the farmers’ vote,” the greater the 
likelihood that due consideration will be 
given to the farmers’ needs and demands. 
Both the great parties are bidding quite 
lively for the soldiers’ vote, the Prohibi¬ 
tionists’ vote, the labor organizations’ 
vote, and are making large concessions to 
secure it; why shouldn't they bid still 
more eagerly for the farmers’ vote, which 
is by far greater than all the others com¬ 
bined? When both parties appreciate 
more keenly the importance of the farm¬ 
ers’ vote, and neither party cau feel sure 
of it, more “bids” will be made for it,and 
more inducements held out to obtain it. 
With regard to the frequent misstate¬ 
ment that the real purpose of ths measure 
is to destroy one industry for the protec¬ 
tion and benefit of another, the President 
says he is convinced that the tax cannot 
possibly destroy the open and legitimate 
sale of the product on which it is levied. 
If the article has all the merits claimed 
for it, and if the people want it un¬ 
der its real name, the tax will leave a fair 
profit to manufacturer aud dealer. If its 
existence and profits depend on disposing 
of it for something else which it deceit¬ 
fully imitates, “the entire enterprise is,” 
he says, “a fraud, and not an industry ; 
and if it cannot endure the exhibition of 
its real character which will be effected by 
the inspection, supervision and stamping 
which the bill directs, the sooner it. is 
destroyed the better, in the interest of fair 
dealing.” 
That is precisely the opinion which 
the Rural has all along expressed. 
Hitherto the enormous growth of the 
oleo business has lieen secured almost 
entirely by fraudulent, misrepresentation. 
The manufacturers and dealers have made 
exorbitant profits by palming off on the 
public the counterfeit for the genuine. 
Instead of blustering and whimpering be¬ 
cause the new law tries to prevent them 
from continuing this “ sawdust ” sort of 
swindle, they should rejoice that it does 
not force them to disgorge their dishonest 
gains, or clap them in prison for their 
“mercantile knavery.” 
We do not think this law will be as great 
a restraint on the bogus butter inen or as 
great a benefit (o dairymen as many ima¬ 
gine. The reduction of the tax to two 
cents a pound; the insertion of a provis¬ 
ion in several sections throwing upon the 
prosecution the burden of proving that the 
offender “knowingly” violated the law, 
and the rejection of the provision giving a 
moiety of fines to in formers, have nil weak¬ 
ened the force of the bill ns originally in¬ 
troduced in the House. We would have 
commented on these errors at the time, 
but thought it bad policy to weaken our 
own side by carping criticisms while 
they were battling with the enemy. The 
matter of paramount importance was to 
secure the passage of a national law regu¬ 
lating the manufacture and sale of oleo 
products in every State and Territory of 
the Union, and thus settle once for all the 
constitutionality of oleo legislation, so far 
as the question can be settled outside of 
the Supreme Court. To the amendments 
suggested by the President such others 
can be added as experience may prove 
necessary for the enforcement of the law 
and the accomplishment of the objects for 
which it was passed. Moreover, the pass¬ 
age of this national law does not abrogate 
or in the least weaken the various State 
“oleo” laws already in force, or in any 
way prevent the amendment of these or 
the enactnieut of new ones. The farmers 
of the country have slmwu their dominant 
influence, when roused to vigorous action, 
on national legislation; surely they can 
secure the passage of efficient supplement¬ 
ary laws in their respective States to piece 
out the shortcomings of this “oleo. law.” 
BREVITIES. 
Wool will probably go higher. 
The European apple crop is far below the 
average. 
The dwarf nasturtium is a fine flower for 
rock-work. 
What we want is n thornless blackberry as 
good in quality as the Kittatinny, as hardy as 
the Taylor or Snyder, 
The market gardeners about the Rural 
Grounds are now getting §1.25 per 100 ears of 
sweet corn. Eggs bring cents each at 
wholesale. 
It Avill he a difficult task for the New York 
Hort. Society to And another secretary so 
competent, so energetic and so well beloved as 
the late James Y. Murkhuid. 
The wet weather continues at the Rural 
Grounds. Tomatoes rot os they ripen. The 
ears of green corn were never before so much 
injured by the corn worm. 
Indefinite Quantities.—A barrel of ap¬ 
ples, a quart of strawberries, a basket of 
peaches, a box of cranberries, a box of huckle¬ 
berries, a quarter’s worth of eggs, a dozen 
oggs. 
It seems that a large attendance at the ap¬ 
proaching convention of American florists is 
promised. It will meet in Philadelphia the 
18th, euding the 20th. The Colonnade Hotel 
will be the headquarters of the society. 
Some of our neighbors are trying the White 
Wyandotte*. Whatever superiority they 
may possess over the Spangled Wyaudottes 
does not as yet appear. The variety will, no 
doubt, become fixed and bo admitted to the 
Standard of Excellence. 
We are ready to commend the Mikado Pear 
as an ornamental tree. It is beautiful in blos¬ 
som (the blossoms are twice the size of the 
ordinary pear’s) and the |tears, so uniform in 
shape, with their long, slender stems, hang 
like so man}’ pendent balls. The leaves are 
huge, thick aud glossy, and hang on until 
frost. The fruit, is good for canning. 
J. M. Ogle, of W. Territory, sent us a root 
of the Evergreen Blackberry, which seems to 
thrive so well in his county and to bear such 
wondrous quantities of fruit. It was re¬ 
ceived and planted last May. It has made a 
tine growth, and is really a handsome, oma- 
meutal vine. It is 1 tearing a few clusters of 
berries. This is the European blackberry (R. 
fruticosns) often called Evergreen, Cut-leaved, 
Parsley-leaved, etc. 
Among tin* visitors at the Rural Grounds 
are some who desire to see everything— 
shrubs, trees, grapes, small fruits, as well as 
our field exjieriments. They have lots of 
questions to ask and ai’e interested listeners. 
There are others who wulk about apparently 
seeing little and talking mui’b. We some¬ 
times wonder when they go away what they 
learnt and what they came for. 
Our list, of fains this year is the most com¬ 
plete wo have ever issued. It will be of ser¬ 
vice to exhibitors who wish to be represented 
in all parts of the country. The balance of 
the list will be printed next week. We shall 
be glad to have the Rural exhibited at all 
the fail’s named in our list. Those of our 
friends who wish to talk up the paper at the 
County Fair will tie supplied with posters, 
samples, etc., upon application. 
It bus for many years been considered es¬ 
sential that lightning rods should not touch 
the building they are designed to protect, and 
where support, has been necessary, glass tubes, 
which have been thought to act as insulators, 
have been placed within the iron supports 
driven into the building. It is of late years 
thought safer to connect, the building with the 
ml. Why not? The lightning rod is u better 
conductor of electricity than the building, 
else |i! 'would afford no protection whatever, 
and “lightning fwill not leave a better for a 
poorer conductor. 
