THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A. National Journal for Country and Suburban Homea 
Conducted by 
KLBEBT S. CAKMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. S4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1SS6. 
In reply to our note- a few weeks ago 
which quoted a paragraph in Mr. Lovett's 
catalogue, which expressed some fear that 
the Eurhart Everbearing Raspberry is the 
same as the old Ohio Everbearing, we are 
told by those who have both kinds grow¬ 
ing that they are quite distinct and that 
the foliage of the Earhart is quite unlike 
that of any other blackcap raspberry 
known. 
It will be remembered that we suc¬ 
ceeded in crossing the blackberry upon 
the raspberry and, eke rerun, the raspber¬ 
ry upon the blackberry. Quite a number 
of the hybrid seeds were obtained and 
planted at once. Without experience in 
raising raspberry - blackberry seedlings, 
we had supposed that, like fresh grape 
seeds, they would sprout in a month or so. 
They have not sprouted yet, and the boxes 
containing the seeds have been buried so 
to remain until next Spring. 
Suppose you buy a chemical fertilizer 
which costs von $44 per ton and is worth 
by analysis$40 per ton, the difference being 
four dollars. Suppose your neighbor 
buys a ton of commercial fertilizer that 
costs him $34 per ton which is worth by^ 
analysis $30, the difference also being four 
dollars. Suppose the latter farmer goes 
to the other and says: “I want to try an 
experiment. Give me 300 pounds of your 
fertilizer and I will give you 400 pounds 
of mine 1 ” How much would the first 
farmer lose by the exchange? 
Under date of November 3, Secretary 
George W. Campbell, of Delaware, Ohio, 
writes: “I am now pruning my vines 
preparatory to laying them down for Win¬ 
ter, and this is what yon ought to do, and 
not only practice but pteach if to all who 
want to grow the best grapes successful¬ 
ly.” If there is any man in this country 
better qualified to give instructions as to 
out-door grape culture than Mr. Campbell, 
we don’t know who he is. The reason 
why We have never protected our vines is 
that we have desired to subject them to 
the severest tests possible, so that those 
influenced by our reports could never be 
misled. 
A lad a dozen years old could readily 
be taught to start and stop a locomotive, 
without comprehending the first principle 
of its operation, but who would care to 
risk his life with such an engineer iu a 
journey on one of our fast railway trains? 
The narrow-minded farmer who is most 
strongly prejudiced against scientific 
farmiug would not dare to ride behind an 
engineer whom he knows is not well ac¬ 
quainted with the principles of the ma¬ 
chine he is trying to operate. If a man is 
unfit to be an engineer who does not un¬ 
derstand the science of the steam engine, 
why may not a man be a better farmer by 
understanding w T hat is known of the 
science that underlies his calling. 
In reply to many inquiries it may be 
said that the new potato, to be called the 
“llural New-Yorker, No. 3,” is the first 
of our tnauy seedling potatoes that we 
have eared to introduce. Any inferior 
novelty is sure to injure the originator 
sooner or later. We do uot suppose that 
we shall be able to distribute this potato 
among our subscribers before the Fall of 
1888, lu other lands and climates it may 
not prove au acquisition. As raised at 
the Rural Grounds it possesses more points 
of unusual merit than any of the 000 kinds 
there tested during the past 13 years. It 
seems to be about perfect in every way. 
We know nothing of its parentage, never 
having kept any record. No attempt has 
ever been made at the Rural Grounds to 
cross-breed potatoes since seed-balls rarely 
form,and it is like hunting for a needle in 
a hay stack to find pollen. 
Miss Alice Brown, the daughter of the 
good Waldo F. Brown, sowell known to 
the reading farmers of America, begins 
with this number of the R .N.-Y., in 
Miss Tapliu’s Department of “Women’s 
Work,” the first of a series of papers 
which she calls “Some Wayspind Things 
at the Rural] Grounds.” The desigD^of 
these papers is to tell her readers without 
any reserve whatever, all that she deems 
worth the telling, of what, in her daily 
life, she sees, thinks and does. Miss 
Brown wau, for a time, employed in the 
Rural Office, a position she resigned over 
a year ago to become a member of the 
Rural family, where she has made the 
education of the children her first duty. 
These papers, as will be seen, are perfectly 
sincere and frank: real names are used and 
neither fear of giving offense, nor a desire 
to please those of whom she speaks will be 
permitted to influence her writings in any 
way. Miss Brown is one who, if she can 
not speak the truth, will do the next 
best thing—hold her tongue. 
The following articles will appear as 
soon as space permits: 
Recuperative Agriculture. In two 
parts, by Prof. I. P. Roberts, of Cornell 
University. 
Principles of Breeding (continued) by 
Professor Geo, E. Morrow, of Campaign, Ills. 
Dairy Husbandry in England, by Prof. 
J. P. Sheldon. 
Stock Articles, by Henry Stewart, A. B. 
Allen,Col. F. D. Curtis, E.W. Perry and others. 
Sheep Notes (continued), by J. S. Wood¬ 
ward, N, Y. 
Bee Notes, by Prof. A. J. Cook, Michigan. 
Transcontinental Letters (continued), 
by Mary Wager-Fisher. 
Notes from the Rural Grounds. Fer¬ 
tilizer tests on a poor soil. Self-Husking Cora, 
Brazilian Flour Corn, etc. 
Floral Notes, by William Falconer, N. Y. 
Horticultural Topics, by many writers. 
There is a whole sermon on our first 
page. The text is plain. The farm ani¬ 
mals, like faithful servants, have chosen 
Thanksgiving Day as a fitting time to 
show their respect for their master and 
his family. They have done their best 
through the year to make a good return 
for the kind treatment they have- re¬ 
ceived. The old turkey makes a fine 
spokesman. How proudly he reads his 
“resolutions;” how honest are the good 
wishes of the faithful “committee” behind 
him; how sincere is the pleasure of the 
farmer upon being “called out” at such 
a time. They have all worked well to¬ 
gether now, and when they come to figure 
up the good things of life they find them¬ 
selves ahead. It is a good thing to have 
the respect of one’s animals. It is a mat¬ 
ter of profit and it makes a better man out 
of the farmer to encourage kindness and 
respect in his stock. Every department 
of the farm will reflect the character of 
the farmer. Impossible is a true Thanks¬ 
giving on the farm wh«re animals shrink 
away in dread at the coming of their mas¬ 
ter. Let us be merry this year. “Care 
will kill a cat,” and we want none of it 
now. Let us heartily take these words 
out of the old turkey’s mouth: 
“Thought magnifies our troubles, 
Care eats the heart away, 
Think only of your blessings. 
And give your joys full play.” 
A DUTY OF THE AGRICULTURAL DE¬ 
PARTMENT. 
That lengthy advertisement concerning 
the alleged existence of vast fortunes 
awaiting unknown claimants in England, 
Holland, and Germany, is still appearing 
in some of the best weekly or agricultural 
issues of the great dailies, and has lately 
also found a place in a few agricultural 
papers. The falsity of the assurances con¬ 
tained in the advertisement has been 
proved more than once by the investiga¬ 
tions of our Ministers iu London, Berlin, 
and the Hague, published through the 
State Department at Washington. We 
very distinctly remember clipping such 
official disclosures from the Washington 
correspondence of some of the papers 
which now give admission to this decep¬ 
tive advertisement. The English Court 
of Chancery and the Bank of England, the 
alleged depositories of these nebulous for¬ 
tunes, have both officially declared that 
they hold no such trusts. By the statute 
of limitation in England anv attempt to 
recover real estate from the Crown or in¬ 
dividuals after the lapse of 13 years, or 
personal property after the lapse of 20 
years, is certain to meet with failure, how¬ 
ever valid the claim may have been origin¬ 
ally; yet the great majority of these sup¬ 
posititious fortunes are supposed to have 
been lying unclaimed in England for 
periods of fropi 50 to 150 years! In the 
Rural of October 1(5 the mythical nature 
of these fortunes was fully exposed. At 
our suggestion, the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, about a year ago, started to ex¬ 
pose frauds upon farmers in its monthly 
reports; but dropped the task after one or 
two issues, The advertisement of these 
bogus estates is addressed almost exclu¬ 
sively to bucolic gullibility; should not 
the Department of Agriculture officially 
warn its friends of the true nature of the 
humbug? The records of the Department 
of State, readily accessible, will prove the 
truth of our statements, and the official 
character of the Department’s report will 
leave no excuse to the publishers of papers 
for inserting an advertisement designed to 
bamboozle their patrons. 
TO EVERY READER. 
There is a thing or so respecting the 
R. N.-Y.’s Seed Distribution that we 
would gladly impress upon our readers. 
First, the object of these distributions is 
not to send out seeds in quantity , but 
merely in trial lots so that our subscribers 
without expense, may test them. Second, 
we do not sell our seeds or offer them as 
premiums , and never have done so in any 
case. Every subscriber who applies is en¬ 
titled to them. If subscribers wish to 
purchase the seeds they must deal with 
seedsmen. We have always laid great 
stress upon the fact that we do not sell 
seeds, plants, or anything whatever except 
the Rural itself. We want our readers to 
believe, indeed to hxoio that our advice in 
these pages is unbiased by any interest in 
seed or plant raising as a business. We 
hold that the proprietors of a journal that 
is worthy of the full confidence of its 
patrons have no right to use it for adver¬ 
tising their own wares, or. in other words, 
that journalism and mercantile pursuits 
should never be combined. The only legiti¬ 
mate exception is that of the so-called 
trade journal, which, in point of fact, is 
merely a catalogue or an advertisement 
of certain goods offered for sale, rendered 
more or less interesting and instructive 
by the reading matter it contains. 
The R. N.-Y. has certainly introduced 
some of the most valuable varieties now 
in cultivation, some of which have origin¬ 
ated in its experiment grounds, while 
others have been sent out before they 
were known to our seedsmen. In this 
way they have been tested all over the 
country and their value has been positive¬ 
ly ascertained without cost, except to the 
Rural —while the seedsmen have reaped 
the profit of all 9ales consequent upon the 
demand which the popularity of the seeds 
so distributed has created. 
Our readers will certainly excuse us for 
feeling annoyed when at a very heavy 
cost and with the best of motives, the 
object of our laborious Seed Distributions 
has been misrepresented. We dare to 
make the statement that no other journal 
has so profited the seedsmen and nursery¬ 
men of the country as has the Rural New- 
Yorker, through its tests of plants and 
seeds, and through its free distributions 
of the best varieties it is enabled to secure 
for that purpose. 
SALES OF OLEOMARGARINE. 
The reports of the. Commissioner of 
Internal Revenue at Washington say that 
the oleomargarine tax promises to yield 
an annual revenue of $1,000,000 to $1,500,- 
000, whereas a short lime back the pros¬ 
pective revenue from it was not expected 
to be over $000,000. The haste with 
which this prognostication is made public, 
indicates a wish on the part of the officials 
to give the new commodity a place among 
the legitimate industries of the. country. 
They reason that the dairy interests made 
a mistake in the notion that to levy a tax 
on bogus butter would lessen the consump¬ 
tion of it. Its inspection and sale under 
government supervision, they snv. guaran¬ 
tee to the public it« purity and healthful¬ 
ness, an 1 hence when the difference in 
price is made clear, good oleo will cer¬ 
tainly be preferred to bad butter. Al¬ 
ready the Boston papers are publishing 
market reports giving the comparative 
prices of oleomargarine and butter, quot¬ 
ing good butter at 34 to 25 cents ’per 
pound, while the best oleo can be had fo 
17 cents. It seems to us probable that the 
notion of the prospective increase in the 
manufacture and sale of this concoction, 
as indicated by the amount of taxes paid, 
is due to a mistake with regard to the 
quantity made before the enforcement of the 
law. Most of it was then sold for genuine 
butter, and no correct statistics existed as 
to the amount annually turned out, as it 
was to the interests of manufacturers and 
dealers to belittle the quantity. Owing to 
a deficiency of competent officials the 
Government inspection is at present mere¬ 
ly nominal, nor is it likely at any time to 
be thorough and ubiquitous; government 
inspection therefore cannot possibly guar¬ 
antee the purity and wholesomeness of 
oleo. 
The local authorities in most of the 
States in which oleo laws exist, appear to 
have ueen much more active than former¬ 
ly since the ‘National legislation went into 
force on November 1, and in such States 
the State and National authorities ought, 
to have little difficulty in enforcing all 
the provisions of State and National legis¬ 
lation. There is considerable complaint 
that Congress did not make sufficient ap¬ 
propriations to enable the National Govern¬ 
ment to properly supervise the enforce¬ 
ment of the law; but this and other mis¬ 
takes should be rectified early in the ap¬ 
proaching session of that body. 
BREVITIES. 
Thanksgiving Number ol the Rural New 
Yorker—‘24 pages. 
Wind up your clock before it has run down. 
Thu next Special of the R. N.-Y. will be the 
New Year Number—the first of 1887. 
The Departments of Woman’s Work and 
Domestic Economy are unusually interesting 
this week. 
Tni? continuation of our report of the North 
American Bee Keepers’ Society is necessarily 
deferred another week. 
“The home of the farmer who boards his 
own help can never be a model farm house.” 
Sec Prof. Shelton’s article, page Tiki. 
Yes. wc would advise our friends to plant a 
Kelsey’s Japan Plum, a Simon’s Plum, and a 
few Earhart Everbearing blackcaps. 
We are satisfied of one thing, viz., that po¬ 
tatoes will “stragcrle.” if inclined to do so at 
all. more when raised under level culture than 
when hilled up. 
At the request of several readers we have 
delayed the awarding of prizes for the corn, 
melons and peas. We shall make our awards 
December 1. 
We commend Prof. Budd’s article on page 
709 to the consideration of every progressive 
pomolosrist. It may spcm unseasonable; but 
now is the time to think over and plan for 
next Spring's work. 
W E hone that most of our readers will feel 
like celebrating Thanksgiving davheartily— 
and we extend our sympathy to those who are 
likelv to pass it in sorrow or in pain. God 
help those who suffer, whether their suffering 
be of the mind or body. 
Marshall P. Wilder sends us bunohes of 
a new white grape, the “Minnehaha.” the re¬ 
sult. of a cross of Muscat of Alexandria on 
Rogers’s Mnssnsoit. He also scuds us two cut¬ 
tings of this vine which we hope to be success¬ 
ful in rooting, since we know of no better 
liardv grape. He also sends us a shoot of the 
rose Marshall P Wilder, six feet long. This 
gives promise that, this tine bardv rose may 
become a pillar rose. If so, it, would lie mag¬ 
nificent, indeed. 
The use of portable and traction engines is 
becoming more general in all sections where 
farming is done on a large scale. The roads 
and bridges must be made to accommodate 
them. In a Pennsylvania town a traction en¬ 
gine fell through a bridge and the town was 
obliged to nav all damages. The eost of the 
bridge and the damage to the engine amount¬ 
ed to enough to build a bridge capable of 
holding up a locomotive. 
Tins is the first compliment we have ever 
known theexocrionccd and well-known farmer 
and farm writer. Henry Stewart, to pay an 
agricultural paper: 
“T think the last Rural the most interesting 
and valuable paper 1 have ever met with. 
There are some good things which pay for 
lieiug chewed and digested over nun in. and I 
have noted some of these. But. this paper is 
filled with them, and might be usefully folded 
and nut awavfora weekly re-reading. I think 
the Rural has taken the load—easily—of the 
agricultural journals.” 
The New York Court, of Appeals has just, 
decided a case involving the construction of 
the new State oleomargarine law of 1885. 
One Arcnsliorg was convicted in Brooklyn of 
having violated the law. In charging the 
jury the trial judge submitted to them the 
bare question whether the defendant bad 
manufactured or sold oleomargarine not. made 
from milk or cream, ami charged that, if he 
did ho was eulltv under the In w. The Court 
of Appeals lias reversed the judgment, holding 
that the guilt, of the defendant did not, and 
could not be in the simple manufacture and 
sale of the article; but depended on the fur¬ 
ther inquiry whether it was manufactured in 
imitation orsemblance Of butter; and whether 
bv the use of ingredients not, essential in the 
article itself it was sought to accomplish such 
imitation or resemblance. It. was thought 
that the constitutionality of the law would be 
raised bv the en«<>; but the question was not 
considered. After a time we shall know how 
to formulate an oleomargarine law that will 
not only stand judicial decision, but will also 
prove effective in accomplishing the legiti¬ 
mate aspirations of tlie'.dairy community. 
