740 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CAKHAX. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. Si Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1886. 
We want a complete volume of tlie 
Rural New-Yorker for 1883, Bound or 
unbound. We also want copies of tlie is¬ 
sues of July 3 aud 81, 1886. Those hav¬ 
ing these numbers to dispose, of will oblige 
us by notifying us at once. 
We are now about to give up our Wy- 
andott.es, having tried them for three 
years, and told our readers all we know 
of them. Our conclusion is that they 
are a first-rate all-purpose fowl—as good 
as any. The only fault we have to find is 
that their eggs are rather small. We have 
now the Langshans to try next. We en¬ 
deavored to' procure a stock from eggs 
last year but failed. 
-♦ - 
While we are reforming the nomen¬ 
clature of fruit names, it would be well 
to make a change in the words “basin” 
and “cavity” as applied respectively to 
the depression about the calyx and stem. 
There is nothing about these words to 
impress them upon the memory. We 
would suggest the words “ stem basin” 
and “calyx basin,” or “stem cavity” 
and “calyx cav ; ty,” These terms would 
be understood by all and uced no fixing 
in the memory. 
TnniTY-TWO carp were put in the little 
lake at the Rural Grounds nearly three 
years ago. They varied in size from two 
to five inches in length. That was the 
last of them so far as we know,* The lake 
is about. 150 by 100 feet in area, occupy¬ 
ing a natural hasin, and averages four feet 
deep. It is fed by many spriugs that 
never fail, and the excess of water flows 
over a dam five feet high and thence by a 
circuitous route to the Hackensack River 
four miles distant. 
At thelate convention of the Knights of 
Labor at Richmond a resolution was 
passed, on October 18, to appoint a com¬ 
mittee “ to promote iraternal relations be¬ 
tween the Knights and the Patrons of 
Husbandry.” There is no reason why a 
very friendly feeling should not exist be¬ 
tween the workers in the shop, road and 
factory aud those on the farm. The ob¬ 
ject of both classes is the same—to ob¬ 
tain for their own benefit a juster propor¬ 
tion of the proceeds of their own labor. 
The time is now coming when we may 
expect to hear fresh account of deaths 
from trichinosis. The season for extensive 
pork eating is now at hand. It appears 
that there arc far more cases of trichino¬ 
sis than people imagine. The disease is 
not always fatal. Many cases of so-called 
typhoid fever, rheumatism or diarrhea 
are really due to this disease. Cases of a 
general attack of bowel complaint among 
the company at picnics or other gath¬ 
erings, have been traced to the serving of 
large quantities, of underdone ham. There 
is only one safe way to serve pork,and that 
is to cook it thoroughly. 
In this State we have a law which for¬ 
bids the killing of of “any wild bird other 
than a game bird,” and, furthermore, it is 
provided that no one shall “purchase or 
have in possession or expose for sale any 
such song or wild birds or any part thereof, 
after the same has been killed.” This 
law applies not only to the man who offers 
song birds or any part of them for sale, 
but also to the woman who wears them. 
It is now in force. There isn't a milliner’s 
store in this city or in any other town in 
the State where it isn’t violated, Law¬ 
breakers are met with on every street in 
this and other towns in the State. 
Wouldn’t it be well to make some attempt 
to enforce the law and put an end to an 
infamous business? 
TnE Ear-leaved Magnolia, M. auriculata 
of some, M. Fraseri of Gray, does not 
seem to be well known though far better 
suited to small grounds than the Cucum¬ 
ber Tree, M. acuminata. It is very hardy at 
the Rural Grounds and bears two crops of 
its yellow blossoms every season—one in 
May the other in September. It does not 
grow so tall as the Cucumber Magnolia, 
while the leaves are as large and the habit 
more compact. Another item in its favor 
is that it retains its leaves fresh and green 
for two weeks or more after frost, while 
those of the CueumberTree are blackened 
by the first frosts. The hardy magnolias 
are not half appreciated as ornamental 
trees. They should be transplanted in 
Spring. 
The North Jersey Water Company pro¬ 
poses to supply pure water to the cities 
and towns in the Passaic and Hackensack 
Valleys. The design is to secure posses¬ 
sion of the range of hills i unning through 
Northern New Jersey. In these hills it is 
proposed to construct reservoirs in which 
the water from springs and brooks can be 
stored. The great elevation of these nat¬ 
ural reservoirs will easily enable the pro¬ 
jectors to force water into any part of the 
large cities between the hills and the 
river. Much of the water used in these 
cities is at present indescribably filthy. 
About Paterson the river is simply blue, 
yet humau beings are expected to drink 
it. The village sewage, cesspools and 
privies all add their quota of disease to 
the supply of drinking water. The sending 
of pure spring water into these cities will 
be an inestimable boon. 
words ever came out of the mouth of 
man. There is a fair chance for every 
man in this country. Every man who 
makes an honest effort to help himself 
will be helped, and all cowards who fall 
back at the first obstacle will be cursed. 
The stern justice that makes this decree 
cannot be moved to change it. Every 
self-made man has the same story to tell, 
lie can point to times in his life where 
had he given up and called for help, he 
would have ended his life dependent in¬ 
stead of independent. Instead of giving 
up he pushed on, helped himself and 
made a way. He found that every self- 
denial made the next one easier, that 
every determination not to give up, added 
just so much strength to his character. 
All this has been proved true time after 
time. The young men of this country 
should understand that it lies in the pos¬ 
sibilities of every healthy man’s life to 
make of himself just what he will. There 
is another thing to be considered. Ex¬ 
cellence in any line of work is simply the 
representative of so much self-denial, so 
much energy and solid work. This has 
been said over and over again, but it is 
true every time it is said. 
THE KIEFFER ON LONG ISLAND. 
of this country generally, aud to breed¬ 
ers of pure-blooded stock particularly. It 
is collecting information from which it 
expects to bo able to present a full and 
accurate report showing the number of 
pure-bred cattle of each established breed 
in each county and State, and their ages 
and sex; the general average prices for 
which such cattle were sold last year; the 
cash values of so-called “ scrub” or native 
cattle, and of animals sired by pure-bred 
bulls of the several breeds. An effort 
will be made to show what, increase in 
weights of beeves resulted front the use of 
pure-bred bulls; also, what increase in the 
quantity of milk, butter or cheese pro¬ 
duced per cow per year has resulted from 
the use of Ayrshire, Guernsey, Holstein- 
Friesian, Norfolk-Suffolk, Short-horn and 
Swiss bull8. The difference between the 
cost of beef produced by high-grade cat¬ 
tle and that from common native or scrub 
cattle, and the difference bet ween the cost 
of milk, of butter and of cheese from 
grades and that from natives, will be 
shown, if possible, as will also the aver¬ 
age duration of productive life of “scrub” 
cattle, and of improved cattle, the average 
number of calves born for each hundred 
pure-bred cows, each hundred grade cows, 
and each hundred “ scrub” cows, so- 
called, and what, percentage of these 
calves reach maturity. Many efforts have 
been made to show the value of the influ¬ 
ence of pure blood in cattle, but they did 
not cover the ground fully and satisfac¬ 
torily—indeed the work is of too great 
magnitude to be successfully done by in¬ 
dividuals. Even the Department of Ag¬ 
riculture itself can not carry out the plan 
without the aid of the thousands of 
breeders who, having experience with 
cattle of the various kinds mentioned, 
and intelligence to observe and note the 
results of their work, are competent to 
give valuable evidence bearing on the 
subject. Prominent, breeders express a 
very cordial appreciation of the project 
and a desire to see it completed at an early 
day. The details of the work are under 
the charge of Mr. E. W. Perry, 234 La 
Salle Street, Chicago, who has for many 
years been known as a student of and 
writer on live stock interests. 
« 4 » ■ 
BREVITIES. 
We would call the attention of our lady 
readers especially, to the Rural's list of hook 
premiums, which will he presented in our sup¬ 
plement. of the Thanksgiving Number. The 
terms niton which they are offered should en¬ 
gage the services of all. 
A HEAVY mulch or dressing' of sifted coal 
ashes about eurraut and gooseberry bushes is 
said by some writers to keep the currant worm 
awnv. The experiment thoroughly tried at 
the Rural Grounds for two years past has not 
had this effect. The mulched bushes were 
just as much infested as those not mulched. 
The farm papers reiterate the perennial ad¬ 
vice to gather the fallen leaves and add them to 
the nmnure pile. Wc gather most of the leaves 
at the Rural Grounds as much with a view of 
koepiug the place tidy as to profit. We doubt 
if it pays to gather the leaves. It requires the 
services of a man for u day to gather enough 
leaves to make, when decomposed, a barrel of 
soil. Is the barrel of soil worth a dollar or 
more* 
And the drought, continues—the severest of 
this season wo have ever known. The air is 
filled with smoke from many burning woods 
and meadows, Tt is worse than useless to 
plow for rye aud much remai ns unsown. Early 
sown rye is burning up in places. Many of 
the wells in the country about the Rural 
Grounds in New' Jersey and the Rural Farm 
on Long Island are dry. Later: October 27. 
The drought has been broken by showers. 
Poultrv supply a good proportion of the 
meat, on most farmers’ tables It should sup¬ 
ply more. We have been discussing breeds, 
crosses and grades of cattle and sheep, why 
not dismiss meat poultry? What, breed or 
what cross 'gives the test meat, and is there 
f lic same difference between scrub poultry and 
thoroughbred poultry ns there is between 
scrub beef and thoroughbred beef? People 
who have looked into it soy there is. Tf this is 
so. it w ill pay any farmer to look into it. 
Well, is it satisfactory to have the question 
officially decided by the highest authority in 
the land. Webster’s Unabridged, the cyclo¬ 
pedias and common opinion have hitherto re¬ 
garded the tomato as a fruit; hut I he Govern¬ 
ment. through the Treasury Department, has 
just decided it is a ‘'vegetable.” The Collec¬ 
tor at ibis port insisted on assessing duty on 
tomatoes as “vegetables” instead of as 
‘fruits,” under which head importers claimed 
they should be assessed, and the Treasury 
Department has sustained tlie action of the 
Collector. 
True opinion of those who examined the pre¬ 
served eggs at the London Dairy show was 
that no plan seems superior to putting them 
in dry salt, without, any other precaution. 
Strange to say, this plan was not followed by 
any competitor. This matter of preserved 
eggs is an important, one. It would lie a great 
convenience to farmers’ wives if eggs could 
be cheaply and easily packed while they are 
plenty. Specimens are sent to the managers 
of English poult ry shows SO days before the 
date of the exhibition. They are kept until 
the opening of the show and then examined 
and tested. Our poultry shows should include 
clusMots^for preserved eggs and dressed puultry. 
There is no fouler blot on the face of 
our country to-day than the grog shop. 
Honest men who love their homes should 
hate the saloon as they hate a loathsome 
disease. There is no reason why the rum- 
seller should be regarded by honest men 
as any better than a criminal. The tem¬ 
perance movement in this country will 
make wonderful progress when the rum- 
seller is placed just where he belongs in 
the estimation of respectable people. The 
saloon has no respectability because it 
works only to destroy the elements of self- 
respect. It replaces hope with despair, 
kills courage, dims manhood, and ruius 
health. It has no right to the respect of 
man, and he who gives it even the encour¬ 
agement of silence is an enemy of morality. 
See to it that no son or daughter of yours 
can ever learn from you that the saloon is 
entitled to anything but their abhorrence. 
There is a great deal of discussion in 
the South with regard to reducing the 
cost of growing and handling cotton, It 
is insisted that the cost of growing and 
spinning can both be reduced, and that 
the changes possible would make cotton 
growing as profitable as it was before the 
war. it is proposed, in the first place, to 
save one cent a pound by doing less work 
with the hoe and more with the cultiva¬ 
tor. With the new cotton-picking ma¬ 
chine, which, it is claimed, is nearly per¬ 
fected, a saving of a cent and a half a 
pound can be made in gathering. Then 
it is proposed to have spinning mil's 
alongside the cotton fields. The follow¬ 
ing calculation is made: Cost of cultivat¬ 
ing and gathering, 4 1 iC, ; cost of spin¬ 
ning, 2c.; total G.Vc. per pound; sale of 
yarn, 14c. This leaves the grower 7Xc. 
per pound after all expenses are paid. If 
the cost of transporting the raw material 
to the mills of New England and Europe 
can be saved, the planter, of course, will 
be the gainer. 
T he Supreme Court of the United 
States, in the case of the Wabash, St. 
Louis and Pacific Railroad vs. the State of 
Illinois, has just rendered a decision which 
is of great importance to the public. A 
State law forbids discrimination against 
persons or places in railroad charges, and 
the State Courts had decided that the law 
applied to rates charged on shipments 
from points inside the State to points out¬ 
side it. A test case was taken to the 
United States Supreme Court, which has 
just decided that legislation by any State 
against discrimination in rates applied 
to transportation which is continuous over 
several States, including the one whose 
lands are in question, is in contravention 
of the Constitution. A majority of the 
Court rules that such legislation is not 
within the province of State Legislatures; 
uut that Congress alone has the right to 
pass la ws regulatinginter-State commerce. 
Chief Justice Waite and two of his asso¬ 
ciates dissented from the opinion of the 
majority, so that, while the principle is 
affirmed, there is a good deal of doubt as 
to its application in the particular instance 
before the Court. Whatever else may be 
the effect of .this decision, it ought to in¬ 
sure the prompt passage of either the 
Reagan or Coll urn inter-State commerce 
bill, which the railroad agents in the last. 
Congress managed to shelve. 
--— 
“ Self help is the remedy for all evils 
of which men complain.” So said Abram 
S. Hewitt in a recent speech. No truer 
In the R. N.-Y. of August 14, page 527, 
is given an account of how Kieffer cions 
were worked on a pear tree 100 years old. 
The grafting was done three years ago. 
The grafts bore two peach-basketfuls the 
secoud year, and this year they were 
loaded. Mr. Augustus T. Hewlett, the 
owner of the tree, now (October 26) sends 
us 10 of these pears. They weigh four 
pounds 12 ounces an average of nearly 
five ounces each. They arc mostly keg¬ 
shaped, the rest Diehl or pyriform. The 
color is yellow, often with a red cheek. 
As to quality, they were pronounced “rel- 
ishable” by those who ate them. Thero is a 
sourness about them peculiar to Kieffers 
and hard to describe, which is agreeable to 
some and disliked by others. It is more 
the sour of some apples than the.sprightli¬ 
ness of pears. They were very juicy, ten¬ 
der in some parts but for the most part 
coarse, with many lignine grains. It. may 
interest many of our readers to know 
how the Kieffer succeeds in the sandy- 
loam soil of the south side (ocean) of Long 
Island. 
THE CHICAGO MENACE. 
The official report just made by Dr. 
Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of American 
Industry, with regard to the outbreak of 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia at Chicago, 
confirms all we have said on the subject. 
The inspection of city and suburban 
herds leaves no doubt that the contagion 
has been very widely disseminated. The 
existence of the disease has been known 
since 1884 to the owners of distillery-fed 
cows; but they tried to conceal its pres¬ 
ence and to lessen the loss from it by 
inoculation. While this did lessen the 
losses, it. scattered more widely the conta¬ 
gion. The experience of the world with 
this plague leaves no doubt that the only 
reliable way to exterminate it is to 
slaughter every affected animal and, 
as a precaution, every animal that has 
been exposed to contagion. In the pres¬ 
ent case, Dr. Salmon says such a measure, 
cannot be carried out without additional 
legislation, both State, and National. 
Neither the State law nor the appropria¬ 
tions are adequate to the emergency, and 
the cattle industry is declared to havo 
1 “reached a crisis.” 
A press dispatch yesterday says the 
owners of quarantined cattle “continue 
killing their healthy animals” under the 
inspection of the State Veterinarian. The 
flesh of unsound animals is sent, to the 
rendering tanks; while that of healthy 
beasts is sold in the markets. Another 
dispatch declares that milk from the dis¬ 
tillery cows is cosutantly smuggled into 
the city, and that numbers of the quaran¬ 
tined cattle are “spirited” away every 
week. J’he cattle dealers of Chicago 
have done more than any other class of 
men to create doubt and suspicion with 
regard to the existence and nature of the 
plague, but it is very likely that the delay 
in suppressing it, which is largely due to 
their action, will entail well merited pun¬ 
ishment upou them. But even for the 
satisfaction of punishing them the vast 
cattle interests of the country—amount¬ 
ing to over $ 1,200,000,000— should uo the 
exposed to prolonged danger. 
-• ♦ » 
HELP THE GOOD WORK. 
The United States Department of Ag¬ 
riculture is engaged in a work which, if 
carried out fully in the line proposed, will 
be of immense benefit to the cattle interest 
