628 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMiX, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER IS, 1SS6. 
It is desirable that the Rural New- 
Yorker should be represented at all the 
agricultural fairs of the country. Those 
who are willing to act as agents will be 
furnished upon application with posters 
and all the specimen copies they may 
need. 
- » » 
Several flowers in a spike of the 
Gladiolus multiflorus at the Rural Grounds 
bore 30 petals and 15 stamens each. It is 
noteworthy because when flowers become 
double it is at the expense of the stamens 
or pistils or both. 
A neighbor remarked to the writer 
one day last week that he had rather 
sell his potatoes now at $1.75 per bar¬ 
rel than to keep them until February 
and sell at $2.25. Many potatoes, 
which are now of marketable size, 
will have to be thrown out then. Be¬ 
sides, we have to consider rot and the 
shrinkage of the rest. 
The Rural New-Yorker, as an¬ 
nounced last week, will be mailed from 
now until January 1st, 1888—nearly 16 
months—for $2, or, in clubs of five or 
over, for $1.50. Specimen copies and 
posters will be sent promptly to all who 
apply. Our new Premium-list of 16 
pages will again and at any time be sent 
to all who desire it. 
The writer was asking himself a few 
days ago, as he sat under the Yellow- 
wood of the Rural Grounds, and admired 
first one, then another of the many dif¬ 
ferent kinds of evergreens in view, which 
ho would choose in case he was confined 
to one or two. We thought it over very 
carefully, and chose, first, the common 
Hemlock Spruce, and, second, the White 
Pine, and this, too, after cultivating for 
13 years the rarest conifers known. Few 
know of the surpassing beauty of the 
White Pine when, during youth, it has 
been disbudded, or cut back in a way to 
induce an ample furniture of foliage 
from the ground to the top. 
We hope to return for years to come as in 
years past, the hulk of our old subscribers 
without any further inducement than that 
which the Rural New-Yorker itself 
offers. If they contin ue to need and to 
prize it, they toill continue to subscribe for it. 
In order to induce those who -would gladly 
see its circulation largely increased to aid 
us in this work, ice have placed, before them 
two propositions. The first is that in dubs 
of five or over, the price will be (untilfurther 
notice) $1.50 per year. The second is em¬ 
bodied in the premium-list , a careful ex¬ 
amination of wh ich will certainly show that 
adequate compensation is offered for any 
effort our friends may kindly make in the 
Rural’s behalf. Send for it if you have 
not received it. 
■ * * * 
MIKADO AND TURNER’S HYBRID. 
Turner’s Hybrid and the Mikado To¬ 
matoes are receiving as much praise in 
some of our farm journals as if they were 
distinct varieties. But they are distinct¬ 
ly the same, as the Rural has before 
stated, and as we suspected as soon as the 
first true leaves appeared upon the little 
plants last Spring. The foliage is quite 
different from that of any other kind of to¬ 
mato known to us, quite resembling that of 
young Lima beaus in a general way. 
This peculiarity of foliage is all that we 
cau find about, this tomato to interest us. 
The variety is a strong grower and very 
productive. So also are Optimue, Beauty, 
Perfection, Acme, . Cardinal, Paragon, 
Mayflower and a score of others. The 
fruit of the Mikado, or Turner’s Hybrid is 
as firm and well-flavored as that of any of 
the above. But the variety is inferior to 
them in one essential respect— shape. 
There are scarcely two shaped alike. 
Most of them are as deeply lobed and ir¬ 
regular, as the Trophy; many of them 
more so. Occasionally one is found that 
is smooth and handsome, and from such, 
by continued selection for several years, 
a tomato may bo evolved that, besides a 
peculiar foliage, may prove as good in 
every other way as the popular kinds now 
before the public. The origin of this new 
tomato seems to be obscure. 
A SOURCE OF DISEASE. 
TnE statement is made that a barrel of 
kerosene buried in the ground will give 
a distinct taste to all water taken from 
a well within 20 rods of it. The loul 
vaults to be found on the majority of 
farms are far more deadly thau kerosene, 
and the injurious emanations from 
the contents are certain to pass 
into wells whenever allowed to do 
so. The cold well-water, which we are 
apt to look upon as the purest of all 
drink, is often fairly reeking with dis¬ 
ease germs washed into it from the 
filthy, uncleaned vault. The worst of it 
is that these germs are often impercepti¬ 
ble to the taste or smell. Their presence 
is never known until some member of 
the family is stricken with disease. At 
this hot, dry season there is particular 
danger. The ordinary farm vault is a 
veritable plague spot, responsible for the 
loss of numberless dear lives that might 
have been spared by a decent regard for 
sanitary laws. The man who allows an 
opeD, uucemented vault to remain upon 
his premises is guilty of a criminal offence. 
The vault should always be watertight, 
and dry earth, road dust or other absorb¬ 
ents should be used freely. The best 
closet that cau be used consists of small 
iron or wooden boxes, in which ah sorb- 
euts are very freely employed. They can 
be taken out and emptied at. frequent in¬ 
tervals. This method will make extra 
work, hut the increased cleanliness and 
health resulting from it will pay. 
KILL THE WEEDS. 
In too many neighborhoods farmers 
have prepared a bountiful crop of weeds 
for next year's seeding. Along the roads, 
in old strawberry patches and potato fields, 
in the waste places, back of the houses, 
there are millions of weed seeds ripening 
at leisure. Weeds are a curse. We are 
tired of the charity which spoke of them 
as “plants whose virtues have not been 
discovered. 0 They are the worst of all 
enemies of legitimate plant life, for they 
add robbery to murder. If farmers would 
only combine against these tramp weeds, 
which crowd into roadsides and other 
waste places, thus escaping the cultivation 
which is bestowed upon the profitable parts 
of the farm, with the determination with 
which they combined against oleomargar¬ 
ine, they could make solid progress. The 
fact that the weeds grow and flourish upon 
land that could not be profitably employed 
in agriculture, leads many farmers to con¬ 
sider them comparatively harmless. This 
is a fatal mistake. So long as a single 
weed ripens its Seed within 20 rods of a cul¬ 
tivated field that field is in danger. And 
even after every growing weed has been 
exterminated there is danger. It has been 
shown that weed seeds can lie dormant in 
the soil for years, to germinate at last 
when least expected. The interest awak¬ 
ened in tree planting by the general ob¬ 
servance of Arbor Day has done much to 
counteract the careless spiri t which prom pts 
the destruction of forests. Shall we not 
be forced in the near future to appoint 
“Weed Days.” The idea is a sensible one. 
By devoting one day to the business of 
cutting and burning the weeds that grow 
in roads and waste places, farmers could 
save themselves an immense amount of 
work and trouble. Let Granges and Far¬ 
mers’ Clubs take hold of the matter and 
make “Weed Day” an established fact. 
A LESSON IN ROAD-MATCTNG. 
We know of one Southern town that 
has taken a practical lesson in road-mak 
ing. It is situated on a “prairie,” where 
during the rainy season the mud stands a 
foot deep. During the Winter the streets 
are simply impassable by reason of the 
mud, and when this mud dries it dries in 
great mounds and ruts that will shake a 
wagon into pieces. There was no gravel 
within thirty miles. It was at first pro¬ 
posed to build a plank foundation through 
the main street, but this was considered 
too expensive. There was but little inter¬ 
course with the surrounding country, ex¬ 
cept on horseback, from November to 
April, One dealer sold a wagon and 
could not deliver it for four months sim¬ 
ply because he could not haul it out of the 
town. The town is quite a shipping point 
for cotton. Two railroads run through 
the place, and there is close competition 
for the cotton shipments. One. railroad 
offered to deliver free of cost a number of 
carloads of gravel on condition that it be 
applied by the town authorities to the 
street leading to the depot. The other 
railroad, not to be considered behind the 
times, duplicated this offer, and the town 
accepted. As a result, nearly oue mile of 
street was fairly well-coated with gravel. 
The effect was so plainly noticeable that 
the town has decided to improve all the 
roads within the corporation limits. It is 
so unmistakably evident that good roads 
will increase the business of the place and 
add to the comfort of the people that 
those who before opposed the expenditure 
of money for road repairing are now in 
favor of it. There are thousands of neigh¬ 
borhoods that go on thinking that money 
spent on good road-making is money 
thrown away. If they could have practi¬ 
cal demonstration of what good roads 
are, they would never regret the money 
spent in securing them. 
LAND HUNGER IN IRELAND. 
Probably in no other country in the 
world is land hunger or love of the soil so 
great as in Ireland, For ages the land 
lias afforded only the meagerest support 
to those who have tilled it, yet the peas¬ 
ant is always ready to suffer all sorts of 
privations, to the verge of starvation, 
sooner than abandon the little holding 
that has kept his forefathers, himself and 
his children pinched and tattered, and 
his highest ambition is to be the absolute 
owner of a few acres. To secure this 
object he will iraprovidently undertake 
obligations which it is almost impossible 
for him to discharge. Irish tenant farm¬ 
ers now insist that it Is impossible for 
them to pay the rents which a few years 
ago the courts decided to be fair. They 
say the value of agricultural products has 
been constantly going down, and that 
present judicial rents are from 30 to 50 
per cent too high. In spite of this, how¬ 
ever, the cables a few days ago announced 
that the owners of several estates had sold 
the fee simple of their property to the oc¬ 
cupying tenants for sums amounting to 
from 16 to 20 years’ reutal at the present ex¬ 
orbitant rate; and this, too, though the 
price of Irish land is going steadily down, 
owing to decreasing population and in¬ 
creasing foreign competition! The Ameri¬ 
can tenant, farmer who hires laud at a fair 
rent, seldom estimates the price which he 
should pay for it at over nine to ten 
years' rental, although the land is certain 
to increase in value owing to the rapid 
increase of population. The Irish farm¬ 
er pays the purchase money in yearly 
installments, and can borrow a part of it 
from the government; but it is preposter¬ 
ous to suppose that, under the circum¬ 
stances, he will be able to pay it. Mich¬ 
ael Davitt has repeatedly warned the ten¬ 
antry that Irish land is worth only from 
five to ten years’rental, allowing the teu- 
aut full credit for all improvements made 
by him, and theie is no doubt that in a 
few years the peasant proprietors will be 
importunate fora scaling down of the an¬ 
nual payments just, as the purchasers of 
Irish glebe lands, who bought on the dis¬ 
establishment of the Episcopal Church a 
few years ago, are clamoring for relief at 
the present time. In spite of the recent 
enormous depreciation of farming land in 
the United Kingdom, there is no doubt 
but the value put upon it at present, is ab¬ 
solutely fictitious, and the landowners in 
all parts of the islands would do well to 
heed Gladstone's late warning to Irish 
landlords—“the sand in the glass is rap¬ 
idly running out,” 
POOLS. 
Combinations of the unscrupulous are 
always iuimical to the welfare of the com¬ 
munity. The manipulators of gigantic 
rings which aim at. a monopoly of any 
trade are utterly unscrupulous iu their 
means fur accomplishing the objects they 
have iu view. When they join hands it 
is always for the purpose of obtaining an 
undue and therefore an uufuir advantage 
over legitimate trade and honest industry. 
However plausible the reasons assigned 
for such associations, their object is al¬ 
ways to extort from an unwilling public a 
patronage and profit they can secure in 
no other way. Who knows of a single 
instance in which the welfare of the com¬ 
munity has been promoted by any such 
combination ? 
No class suffer so much from organiza¬ 
tions of this kind as farmers. There are 
manufacturers’ and jobbers’ pools, whose 
sole object is to put up the prices of most 
things fanners have to buy ; there are 
buyers’ and speculators’ pools, whose sole 
object is to put down the prices of most 
things farmers have to tell; and there are 
railroad and steamship pools, whose sole 
object is to secure unduly high rates of 
freight on both manufactured and raw 
products on their way from the work¬ 
shop to the farm, and from the farm to the 
market. 
Iu other industrial callings combina¬ 
tions arc constantly made to keep or raise 
up the price of labor or its products. 
Hitherto such combinations have been im¬ 
practicable in agriculture." When em¬ 
ployers of labor combine to lower wages, 
trades-unions combinations are ready to 
resist, and often even exact higher fig¬ 
ures. When grain buyers combine to put 
or keep down the price of wheat or corn, 
the farmer, as a rule, has to abide by their 
decision, for generally he must sell to ob¬ 
tain money for pressing needs, and he 
cannot advantageously ship to distant 
markets, as the railroads will charge a 
higher rate of freight and the consignee a 
higher rate of commission on his single 
shipment than on the aggregate shipments 
of an individual buyer or combination of 
buyers, to say nothing of the greater risks 
of overcharges or total loss through an un¬ 
scrupulous or dishonest consignee. 
What is the remedy? Evidently either 
protective combinations against inimical 
organizations, or legislation to prevent, 
them. Why shouldn’t the farmers of each 
district keep posted on the markets and 
combine to sell or ship their products, 
and also to purchase their supplies? By 
this means they might sell the former 
at the highest figures, buy the latter 
at the lowest, and obtain fair rates 
of transportation on both. Gen¬ 
erally this would be very difficult, if 
not impracticable, at present; but it is 
done to some extent in some places, 
mostly through the Grange, and there is a 
strong tendency to form combinations for 
the purpose everywhere. Preventive legis¬ 
lation is being tried to some extent in 
Minnesota, but such legislation can have 
no influence on injurious combinations 
outside the State, and can only check 
flagrant abuses within its limits. The 
great necessity now is that farmers should 
fully realize the removable evils which 
curtail their legitimate profits; for a 
clear recognition of these is a prerequisite 
to their suppression. 
BREVITIES. 
Who can supply nuts of the Japan Chestnut 
to our subscribers ? 
The Emnire State Grape bas made a fine 
growth at the R, G. this season. 
One of the most grotesquely beautiful trees 
is the Weeping Beech, but it requires at least 
twelve years to show its grotesque beauty. 
Any of our readers who rare to post up 
their visitors will kindly send for the new 
Rural poster and post it, up in a conspicuous 
place. 
Our advice is not to sow wheat early if 
the soil is dry. Rotter wait even a month for 
rain. The trouble is that, the wheat will 
usually germinate and he injured irremedia¬ 
bly if the drought continues. 
The Spanish have a good old proverb that 
will bear thinking over. 
" They wlto waif the coming rider 
Travel twice as fat ft« he. 
Tired wench and coming butter, 
Never could In time agree." 
The tendency of young men is to try and 
hurry results. They cannot wait, for t he slow, 
legitimate process through which all that is 
good must pass. A careful, patient develop¬ 
ment is the safest, in the end. Young America 
needs to study patience rafchur than push. 
The Early Victor (black) ripens at the Ru¬ 
ral Grounds almost exactly with Moore’s Early. 
If there isanv difference the Victor is a day or 
so earlier. The skin is firmer than Moore’s 
Early, the quality fully as good, the berry 
and bunch smaller—the vine a less thrifty 
grower. 
The meeting of the American Horticultural 
Society, just dosed at Cleveland, Ohio, has 
been n successful one. Th« attendance was 
good. the papers read were interesting and 
practical, and the discussions spirited. The 
display of fruits was excellent and the prizes 
were well scattered about, the country. The 
society is doing an excellent work and its pro¬ 
ceedings are well wortliv the thoughtful 
consideration of all Americans. We hope to 
begin a report of the proceedings next 
week. 
Oleowaugauine ami Us kin are the bitter 
foes of all dairymen; 80 are flies. Many a 
pound of butter and many a gallon of milk 
arc sucked from the blood by wretched flies 
and gnats. Good farmers who will fight oleo¬ 
margarine with every weapon they can 
handle, art'often disgracefully beaten by these 
winged enemies. No merciful man wishes to 
torture htg animals, and yet one can hardly 
subject them to worse torture thau by com¬ 
pelling them to fight flics all through the hot 
sun. It is more humane and more 
economical to keep the cows tied up in a 
darkened stable, during the heat of the day at 
least. Good farmers would point in scorn at 
a man who would keep his cattle out in cold, 
freezing weather, yet how much more cruel is 
it than the usual summer treatmout? 
