676 
06T 6 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Conducted by 
KLBEHT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1SS6. 
A continuation of our special reports 
of fairs (New York State and Nebraska) 
will be found on page (182. 
“I hate beard it estimated by dealers 
that fully one-balf of all the fruit sent to 
market was so badly packed or so badly 
earned as to pay little, if any, profit to the 
grower.” See Parker Earle’s article on 
page 672. Hence ouc-half of all the labor 
and capital invested in fruit-growing in 
this country is wasted. 
The Kaffir Corn (a sorghum) is very 
much prized where it has been tried in 
the South. It seems that the first growth 
is cut for forage when in early bloom. 
The second growth yields both grain and 
forage in late Fall. Our Northern seeds¬ 
men (or several of them) will offer it for 
sale. The heads are very large and must 
give a heavy yield of grain which, it is 
claimed, makes a better quality of flour 
than any other of the sorghums. .We have 
seeds and shall try it another year. 
In our next seed distribution, which 
will be announced ere long, will be a 
variety of field corn which we believe to 
be earlier than any other tried at the 
Rural Grounds. The grain glazed with 
us in 85 days. The ears are large, the 
kernels are one-third larger than those of 
the absurdly-named Angel of Midnight; 
the plants do not grow so tall. A pecu¬ 
liarity of this variety is that the same plant 
often produces both pure yellow, dark- 
red or mottled grains upon different ears 
—each apparently as fixed as if it were a 
thoroughbred. 
We hope to retain for years to come as in 
years past y the hulk of our old subscribers 
without any further inducement than that 
which the Rural New-Yorker itself 
offers. If they continue to need and to 
prize it, they will, continue to subscribe for it. 
In order to induce those who would, gladly 
see its circulation largely increased to aid 
us in this work , we have placed before them 
two propositions. The first is that in clubs 
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 which icill 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. 
Mr. J. H. Hale writes us, under date 
of September 25, as follows: 
“The Rural's illustrations of the Car¬ 
man Raspberry are very fine. Such a 
fine-grained, solid, compact berry shows 
up well in a cut; but, as to size, our whole 
crop of 500 plants the past season aver¬ 
aged much larger than that shown on the 
first page of the Rural; but, then, the 
public have been so deceived with over¬ 
drawn fruits it will be a glad surprise to 
them when they come to fruit the Car¬ 
man to find the berries are larger than the 
picture. Earhart is still doing wonders 
here. It made a great show of fruiting 
canes at the State Fair last week, and 
again at the Rhode Island State Fair 
f VllQ TTljol' 
South Glastonbury, Ct.” 
Secretary Geo. W. Campbell writes 
us as follows: ‘ ‘Ihave been really pleased 
at the result with Niagara seedlings that 
have fruited here, and that I have seen 
both from the northern and southern por¬ 
tions of the State. I believe all that I 
have seen have been quite equal to the 
Niagara in quality—and several were de¬ 
cidedly better in that they were free from 
foxiness. Tt is a little curious to me that 
all are white. Seedlings from others have 
almost always been varied. I have seed¬ 
lings from Walter, black, white and red; 
seedlings from Worden crossed with Dela¬ 
ware and Purity, red, white and black. 
Almost all vary; but Niagara seedlings ap¬ 
parently do not, in color. If 1 live a few 
years I hope to send you many interesting 
results when a little further developed.” 
We have received the following note 
from J. Troop. Professor of Horticulture 
in the Purdue Universitv. Indiana: 
“In speaking of the different varieties 
of wheat grown at the Indiana Agricul¬ 
tural College (Rural of Sept. 18), you 
say the Velvet Chaff is described as 
bearded, while that raised at the Rural 
Grounds is smooth. I will say that we 
also have the smooth variety, which came 
to us under the name of Greenawalt, and 
is mentioned bv that name in the bulletin. 
I might add, further, that we now have 
obtained, by selection, four distinct types 
of the Velvet Chaff, viz.: brown-bearded, 
brown smooth, wliite-lienrded and white 
smooth i. e white and brown chaff.” 
Something should be done to close the 
mouth of Wiggins, the false prophet. He 
has proven himself to be a fraud. He has 
done damage enough. The widest pub¬ 
licity was given to bis recent prediction 
of a new earthquake, Thousands of peo¬ 
ple were frightened into idleness, and a 
considerable loss of time and labor wasex- 
Iierienced as a result of his dismal guess¬ 
ing. One can hardly blame people who 
passed through the horrors of the late 
earthquake for being nervous when the 
papers publish these absurd “predictions.” 
Is not a man like this Wiguins who causes 
so much excitement and fright guilty of 
a crime? The newspapers of the country 
are far too eager to publish sensational 
reports without thinking of the mischief 
they may oau«e by so doing. They should 
boycott this Wiggins and keep his “pre¬ 
dictions” out of print. This they owe as 
a duty to the American public. 
CHESS AND WHEAT. 
A farmer, who, from a long life’s ex¬ 
perience in raising wheat, is confident 
that it sometimes changes to chess.brought 
to this office as many as six plants which 
apparently were both wheat and chess. 
The roots of each plant seemed to be those 
belonging to but one ]i!ant, and they were 
so matted together that even after all the 
soil had been washed out it seemed im- 
poss'Ble to separate the wheat from the 
chess. “Now,” said our friend, “if the 
plants are separate the roots can be separ¬ 
ated or traced.” We undertook the tusk 
of separating them without breaking a 
fiber. One by one the fibers were disen¬ 
tangled and over an hour was thus spent, 
before the tedious job was completed. In 
one case the chess stalks seemed to start 
from the wheat roots and for a few min¬ 
utes we were in doubt whether at last an 
actual instance of this change were not be¬ 
fore us. It was found that the neck of 
the chess grew horizontally for two inches, 
resting upon and concealing the wheat 
neck which had also grown horizontally, 
while the fibrous roots of each were so in¬ 
termingled that only the chess neolc could 
be seen. When such specimens are en¬ 
countered and less carefully examined, it 
is not to he wondered at that there are 
farmers who grow angry when they are 
told that wheat never changes to chess. 
- - 4 »» . 
FIGHTING AN UNSCRUPULOUS MON¬ 
OPOLY. 
The American Cotton Oil Trust, Com¬ 
pany is one of the largest and most un¬ 
scrupulous monopolies in the country. 
By the most tyrannical means it has ob¬ 
tained control of 80 cotton seed oil mills 
in the South, and turns out 00 per cent. 
of all the cotton seed oil produced in the 
Union. Whenever any independent 
mill declined to join the combination, the 
policy of the syndicate has been to threat¬ 
en to establish or actually start an oppo¬ 
sition mill in the neighborhood and buy 
up all the seed at figures which the local 
mill could not afford to pay. thus ruining 
the latter. Having once obtained control 
of the business, it. began straightway to 
plunder the planters and the public. 
Last season the price of cotton seed on 
the levee, at New Orleans and Memphis 
was as high as $16 per ton. Then it 
was brought down to $11 by a com¬ 
bination of the crushers; then to $10. 
$9, and finally to $8, when the plant¬ 
ers began to complain loudlv. At, 
last it decided to pay only $5 a ton 
for seed on the river bank, and in view of 
cost of hauling it there, little or no recom¬ 
pense was left, to the grower. The 
planters of the Mississippi and Louisiana, 
it is estimated, could not get more than 
60 cents a ton for their seed. While the 
price of seed has been put down in this 
way, that of the oil has been raised from 
37W cents in 1885 to 40 and 41 cents per 
gallon for prime summer yellow at present. 
At last the cotton planters of Louisiana 
and Mississippi have organized in opposi¬ 
tion to this unprincipled monopoly.'It is 
proposed that all planters shall refuse'to 
sell seed to the mills for one year, forcing 
the latter to remain idle, and thus crush¬ 
ing the crushers. By this arrangemeut, 
the planters will lose little, for if the seed 
is used as a fertilizer it will be worth at 
least the insignificant sura offered them 
by the mills. Of course, the growers are 
too numerous for all to remain in the 
combination against a quiet offer of bet¬ 
ter prices by the monopoly; but since the 
organization was formed the other day 
the Cotton Trust, certificates have fallen 
from 57 to 54 1-8 in this market. 
• • ♦ — 
The new Premium-List of the R. N.-Y. 
is available to all who send yearly subscrip¬ 
tions at the regular price, viz., $2.00. 
It is a matter of choice whether they re¬ 
tain the cash commission of 50 cents for 
each subscription in clubs of five or over, 
or select any of the articles from the Pre¬ 
mium-List. which are scaled so as to allow 
an equivalent of from one to two dollars 
for each subscription, according to the 
arrangement which we have been enabled 
to make with the manufacturers of those 
articles. 
FARMERS TO THE RESCUE! 
Over $500,000 have been already con¬ 
tributed for the relief of the distressed 
among the 50,000 inhabitants of Charles¬ 
ton, and monev is still coming iu by 
thousands of dollars every day. Tt cranes 
from the North, South. East and West; 
for in this glorious country generosity and 
charity are confined to no section and to 
no class. The Charleston relief fund, 
however, has been contributed almost en¬ 
tirely by the large cities, and the mercan¬ 
tile, professional, manufacturing and op¬ 
erative classes. This is quite natural. 
“A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous 
kind,” and dwellers in cities should be 
foremost to relievo dwellers in other 
cities affected by any grievous calamity 
for which they are in no way responsible. 
What an earthquake has done for the city 
people of Chaileston in a few seconds, a 
drought has done for the farmers of West¬ 
ern Texas in 15 months—reduced them 
to a deplorable condition, which appeals 
for aid to the ge.nerosit,y and charity of 
all their countrymen and more especially 
to the sympathy of their fellow-farmers 
everywhere. 
The affected district embraces 10 coun¬ 
ties. Hundreds of the inhabitants haven’t 
tasted meat for n year, unless perchance, 
they caught or shot a rabbit. Children 
have not for months had a drop of milk. 
Water and meal have been the only support 
of the great majority of the people for a 
twelve-month. In some localities water 
had to be hauled in tanks from 10 tn 30 
miles. Within the last six weeks rain has 
come to the dried-up region and the ground 
is once more in a condition for cultivation. 
Wheat is the principal crop of the section. 
That and all others put in last Fall and 
Spring either failed to germinate or soon 
perished. What the poor farmers—most¬ 
ly new settlers—most need is seed wheat. 
Drought has left them without monev to 
buv seed themselves, and under the law's 
of Texas they cannot mortgage their land 
to secure the means to buv. The Rev. 
John Brown, a Presbyterian minister at 
Albany, Shackleford County, Texas, has 
been sent. North to procure aid for the 
distressed. “Unless I succeed,” he writes 
us, “T do not know' how many of them 
will live through the Winter. If seed can 
be supplied the stores will generally give 
credit until next harvest, and in this way, 
with what help the Relief Committee may 
be able to give, they will pull through.” 
Contributions and correspondence can be 
sent, to the Rev Dr. Kendall and the Rev. 
Dr. Roberts, Secretaries of the Presbyter¬ 
ian Board of Home Missions. 280 Broad¬ 
way, New York, or to Mr. Brown at the 
same address. Is there any need of urg¬ 
ing our readers to be generous to their fel¬ 
low fanners starving in far-off Western 
Texas? Even a bushel of wheat, or, bet¬ 
ter, the price of it, from each man who 
reads this would be a godsend. Will not, 
the farmers of the couutry do for the 
stricken farmers of Texas, what the city 
people of the country have done for the 
stricken city people of South Carolina? 
NEW KINDS UNDER OLD NAMES.— 
THE DUTY OF EXPERIMENT STA¬ 
TIONS. ETC. 
Form years ago, or thereabouts, when 
Martin’s Amber Wheat was first, announc¬ 
ed as a new. wonderful variety, we grew 
it in our wheat plots and found it the 
same as Armstrong. Armstrong was sent 
to us about eight years ago, and we were 
surprised two years or more later to find 
it advertised as “ Landreth.” Still later 
the Martin’s Amber was advertised as the 
most productive wheat in the world. 
During the past two years we have re¬ 
ceived several heads, as severally named, 
that seemed to be identical with Arm- 
strong-Landreth-Maitin’s Amber. So it 
goes. The experiment stations are rais¬ 
ing and commenting upon Martin’s Am¬ 
ber and Armstrong and Landreth. giving 
different yields, strength of straw, etc., 
as if thev were different. With the ex¬ 
ception of C. S. Plumb, of the N. Y. Ex. 
Station, who writes us, under date of Sep¬ 
tember’^, that, thev are the same, not one 
of the Ex. Stations liasstated that they are 
the same. And yet the directors profess 
to take the most careful notes, watching 
the young plants, the tillering propensi¬ 
ties, the hight, color and strength of 
straw, differences in the heads and ker¬ 
nels, differences in the time of maturity, 
yield, etc. 
We repeat: Isn't it as important that 
the stations should detect synonymous 
varieties aud make them known, as that 
thev should grow the same kinds in dif¬ 
ferent soils or under different conditions, 
and report different values? Farmers are 
thus deceived and injured. One price is 
paid for Landreth. another for Armstrong 
and another for Martin’s Amber. The 
Landreth is praised in one State, the Arm¬ 
strong condemned iu another, the Mar¬ 
tin’s Amber is lauded here and rejected 
there. So it is that the farmer may be 
induced to buy first tbe one. then the 
other, to find ultimately that they are all 
the same. And thus it is that, years of 
useless experimentation are wasted. Af¬ 
ter all these new (!) varicliesliave become 
old and the price is that of usual seed 
wheat, it is too late for the Ex. Stations 
to inform the farming public that they 
are the same. The stations should be 
the fird to secure and plant all novelties, 
and to inform the farmers whether they 
are Teally new or old, better than old 
kinds or poorer, so that farmers might 
know whether to buv Martin’s Amber at 
five dollars or Landreth at one dollar per 
bushel. And so it is with oats. Thous¬ 
ands of dollars have been spent by far¬ 
mers for Welcome Gats at five or ten dol¬ 
lars a bushel when the same variety might 
have been purchased under several differ¬ 
ent names at one dollar a bushel. And 
the R. N-Y. has said this so often that it 
is sick of the repetition. And so it is 
even now respecting the so-called Yankee 
Prolific Oats, (White Russian) and scores 
of other grains, fruits and roots that have 
been proven to be the same at, the Rural 
Grounds. 
Our esteemed farm contemporaries are 
free enough to print in full the bulletins 
of the various agricultural stations. That 
is right. Thev are rather shy of printing 
the results of tests at the Rural Grounds. 
Thev don’t like to give “ free advertis¬ 
ing” to contemporaries. That is wrong, 
provided the contemporary works as hard 
and as disinterestedly as does the Rural 
to spread information that is of the first, 
value to the farmers of the land. 
BREVITIES. 
The Earhart. blackcap ripens several fine 
clusters of berries October 1st. 
Our fair reports have crowded the Youth’s 
Department out of the paper this week. As a 
rule, such reports are pretty drv reading, but 
we think we have some new ideas iu those of 
this year’s fairs. 
Alaska Peas were sown August Ifi. First 
picking September 29. The vines are 15 inches 
in till—the pods are small with few peas. But 
the yield is better than was anticipated. It is 
a treat to have tender green peas in early 
October. 
Again w T e have received a bunch of Mr. 
Marvin's new crape, the Cayuga, from H. S. 
Anderson, of Union Springs. N. Y, This is a 
good grape, vorv juicy, tender, sweet, and 
with a firm skin. We hope the vines will prove 
healthy and adapted to general cultivation. 
TnE exhibitions of poultry at, the fail's 
make it very evident that, too much stress is 
laid upon tlie feather standard. Early matur¬ 
ity and laying qualities are worth far more 
to farmers than a beautiful plumage. There 
is a grand chance for improvement in the pres¬ 
ent “ standard.” 
One advantage claimed for the use of pota¬ 
to diggers is that the act of running such a 
machine through the soil in digging is equal 
to a good fall working, freeing the land of 
weeds ami leaving it in fine condition. This 
idea is a good oue. Fall working of laud is 
desirable and a machine that digs potatoes 
and stirs up the soil at, the same time, performs 
a double good. 
J urging from a specimen bunch scut, to this 
office by Wm, F. Bassett, of TIanniionton, N. 
J.. the Dolle Grape is a very showy variety. 
The berries nro us large fts those of Moore’s 
Early, dark blue, with some bloom. The skin 
is thick and firm, with considerable “meat” 
between It, and the pulp, which Is rather tough 
and u little sour. Seeds from two to four in 
each berry. Except the sourness of the pulp, 
the quality is sprightly, juicy aud very agree¬ 
able. Mr. Basset says that the Dolle is 
the bestj,keepiug grape he bus ever seen. 
