THE RURAL NEW-YORKEK 
FEB 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
(34 Park Row, New York), 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban 
Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1890. 
Catalogue notices, and they are of 
unusual interest, will be found on page 
79. 
The Crosby fills the R. N.-Y.’s ideal 
of an early sweet corn very well. 
Planted May 5, it will be ready for 
cooking in late July. In moderately 
fertile soil the stalks grow about six 
feet high, that is, to the top of the 
tassel. The ears are borne a foot or 
more above the surface. Each stalk 
may fairly be said to bear two ears. 
The husks are always of a fresh, light- 
green color. The ears are about eight 
to nine inches long, 10 to 12 rows 
tapering from butt to tip. The rows 
are straight, even and close to¬ 
gether. The quality is of the best. 
For a second early corn the R. N.-Y. 
desires to commend a trial of the 
Crosby to all who are not already 
familiar with its excellence. 
Pennsylvania is to revise and 
codify all her road laws into one law, 
and a Road-Law Commission is now 
taking evidence and receiving sugges¬ 
tions at Harrisburg with regard to the 
matter. The general drift of opinion 
appears to be that the State should 
aid in making the roads, and all agree 
that the custom of working out the 
road tax should be abolished and that 
the tax should be paid in money, and 
expended by a skillful and judicious 
road builder under adequate supervis¬ 
ion. Could there be before the farm¬ 
ers’ club of any neighborhood a sub¬ 
ject for discussion more likely to pro¬ 
mote the comfort and prosperity of 
the people than the best method of 
improving the roads of the district ? 
A good road to the nearest market is 
for the farmer one of the best roads to 
happiness also. 
Readers will kindly bear in 
mind that the R. N.-Y. clubs with 
all respectable periodicals and 
will guarantee to them the low¬ 
est possible combination rates. 
We cannot afford the space 
which a standing list in detail 
would require. The following 
may serve as illustrations : 
R. N.-Y. and the New York Weekly 
World, $2.25. 
R. N.-Y. and the Chicago Inter-Ocean, 
$2.50. 
R. N.-Y. and the Chicago Weekly 
Times, $2.25. 
R. N.-Y. and the Detroit Free Press, 
$2.50. 
R. N.-Y. and Harper’s Magazine, $5. 
R. N.-Y. and The Century, $5.50. 
Canada’s trade with the United 
States last year amounted to nearly 
one-half the foreign commerce of the 
Dominion. The imports from this 
country amounted to $50,537,440; 
while the exports across the border 
reached $43,522,404. Thus the aggre¬ 
gate amount of trade with this 
country was $94,000,000, while the ag¬ 
gregate trade with England was $80,- 
422,500. The trade with all other 
countries amounted to only $24,000,- 
000. The duty on all goods imported 
into the Dominion for consumption 
last year, reached $23,742,316, the 
largest sum ever secured, amounting 
to $4.68 per head of the population. 
Probably half the entire population 
used the taxed imported articles, so 
that half the inhabitants of the Do¬ 
minion of both sexes and all ages, paid, 
on an average, $9.36 apiece for the 
“ protection ” of competing Canadian 
industries. 
director for each district. Thirteen 
districts were thus outlined, and direc¬ 
tors were selected who will be recom¬ 
mended for election at the convention 
of milk producers from the entire 
milk producing district, which will be 
held m this city, January 30. Dis¬ 
cussion of plans for distributing milk 
to the consumers in this city showed 
that the producers consider it inexpe¬ 
dient to do away with the middlemen 
as has been proposed, and as has been 
done at Syracuse. The business of 
distribution is considered too large for 
the farmers to handle. The problem is 
to so systematize the business that con¬ 
sumers may receive a pure article of 
milk at a fair price, and the producers 
may realize just returns upon their 
investments. 
The Chicago packers do not appear 
to be in the least frightened at the or¬ 
dinances passed by Atchison and 
other Kansas cities providing that 
dressed meat not previously inspected 
on foot must pay an inspection fee of 
25 cents per 100 pounds. Of course, the 
movement is directed against the im¬ 
portation of Chicago dressed beef and 
appears not to be open to the charge of 
unconstitutionality, which the courts 
have sustained against various State 
laws having the same object in view. 
The packers say that by utilizing 
every particle of the animal at the 
place of slaughter, they can afford to 
pay the freight on Kansas cattle 
shipped to that point and on the 
dressed beef sent back, and still be 
able to pay the tax and defy local com¬ 
petition. If there is no legal objection 
to an inspection fee of 25 cents per 100 
pounds, however, there would be none 
against a much higher one, and any 
place in Kansas or elsewhere deter¬ 
mined to exclude Chicago dressed 
meat could make the fee prohibitory. 
It seems to be impossible to excite 
any lively interest in the selection of 
a national American flower. In other 
countries the adoption of a national 
or dynastic floral emblem, has been 
made, not of set purpose, but by acci¬ 
dent or some fortuitous chain of cir¬ 
cumstances, and it is likely the Amer¬ 
ican national flower will be selected 
in the same way. The Prang canvass 
on this subject has been the most ex¬ 
tensive, and the results appear to be 
the most satisfactory to the vast ma¬ 
jority of the people. Of the total vote 
70 per cent, are in favor of the golden 
rod, the mayflower and trailing arbu¬ 
tus coming second with 16 per cent, 
the rest of the votes having been 
scattered. Whatever preferences 
may be felt for other flowers, the 
beauties of the golden rod, scattered 
with prodigal generosity along high¬ 
ways and byways all over the coun¬ 
try, are acknowledged as paramount 
from Maine to Texas, and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. Then, too. it 
is a composite flower, and surely no 
simple flower could so well symbolize 
a great composite nation. 
As an instance of farming that 
pays, the R. N.-Y. quotes from a re¬ 
cent letter from Massachusetts as 
follows: 
“From 16 cows I have made during 
the year 1889, 5,019 pounds of butter 
—about 314 pounds per cow—and as 
it has been sold mostly at 35 cents per 
pound—some brought 45 cents— I got 
over $100 from each cow.” 
We have every reason to believe 
that this statement is absolutely 
correct. Now we will agree to say 
that the ancestors of those cows could 
not yield over 125 pounds of butter to 
save their lives, and that the cream 
they did furnish could have been 
made into butter that would have 
found dull sale at 20 cents per pound. 
Now the R. N.-Y. wants to know 
what secrets of breeding, feeding and 
working this correspondent possesses 
that make a difference of $75 per cow. 
Are they secrets or can any intelligent 
man master them by honest study 
and observation? 
beet culture would afford relief. 
Spreckels has just shattered this de¬ 
lusion, however. He declares that, 
for some time at any rate, his entire 
interest in sugar-beet culture will be 
confined to California, and that cane 
sugar alone will be manipulated in his 
Philadelphia refineries. He has al¬ 
ready one sugar beet factory in Cali¬ 
fornia and is building 10 others. It 
would be useless for farmers to en¬ 
gage in sugar-beet culture unless 
there was in the neighborhood a fac¬ 
tory for the extraction of sugar, and 
such a factory would cost $500,000. 
Pennsylvania farmers, may, however, 
obtain consolation in this'disappoint- 
ment from the knowledge that the 
California farmers who have been 
raising sugar-beets for Spreckels un¬ 
der contract are, as a rule, by no 
means satisfied with the results of 
their labors. Most of them complain 
bitterly that their contracts have been 
so drawn up as to deceive them and 
that hitherto there has been little or 
no profit in the business. 
The distress among the settlers in 
some parts of North Dakota is sur¬ 
passed by the destitution among the 
farmers in 18 counties of South Dako¬ 
ta. These are McPherson, Campbell, 
Walworth, Edmunds, Potter, Spink, 
Hyde, Hand, Beadle, Clark, Kings¬ 
bury, Miner, Davidson, Gerard. Fork, 
Hughes, Sully and a part of Brown. 
In the area embraced by these coun¬ 
ties many thousands of families, ac¬ 
cording to trustworthy reports in the 
principal Western papers, are in the 
direst distress. The failure of crops 
for four successive years has left even 
those who were formerly well-to-do, 
without the ordinary necessaries of 
life. The farms are all mortgaged, 
often for more than their sale at pre¬ 
sent prices would realize. Most of the 
stock has been sold at auction by the 
sheriff at prices so paltry as to speak 
eloquently of the scarcity of money 
in each community. Cows have been 
sold for $5 apiece and horses from $8 
to $10; while sheep and pigs are al¬ 
most unsalable. Pinched and meager 
faces, and tattered and insufficient 
clothing are marks of the general dis¬ 
tress on all sides, while “No Trust” 
placards confront the impecunious in 
all the country stores. The latest re¬ 
ports indicate that unless relief, in the 
shape of provisions, fuel and clothing, 
is promptly given with a liberal hand, 
a world of heartrending suffering must 
be endured by the settlers during this 
winter and that many deaths from 
sheer starvation are not improbable. 
The officers of the different sections 
of the Milk Producers’ Union held a 
meeting at Goshen, N. Y. recently, for 
the purpose of dividing the transpor¬ 
tation routes west of the Hudson 
River into districts and to select a 
The farmers of Berks, Chester and 
other counties of Pennsylvania have 
been cherishing hopes that the open¬ 
ing of Claus Spreckels’s mammoth 
sugar refineries at Philadelphia, 
would be followed by a heavy demand 
for sugar beets. In that section the 
sheriff has of late been kept very busy 
seizing on farm after farm, and it was 
hoped that the new industry of sugar - 
Yesterday No. 2 corn sold in Chi¬ 
cago at 29 cents per bushel and for 
upwards of a month the price has 
fluctuated about that figure. An ex¬ 
amination of our market reports 
shows that this is the lowest price for 
that grade in that market since 
1862. No. 2 is the speculative grade, 
and is therefore the kind quoted in 
the market reports telegraphed all 
over the country, but No. 3 is the 
grade most in demand by shippers, as 
it is found to be sufficiently dry to 
satisfy consumers, and this grade sells 
for considerably less than the other. 
The other day a heavy shipment of 
Kansas corn was graded No. 3 on its 
arrival, and when sold netted the 
shipper only 5% cents per bushel after 
the payment of charges for transpor¬ 
tation and handling. This pittance 
included the profit made by the Kan¬ 
sas merchant who bought the corn 
from the producer as well as the cost 
of hauling it from the farm to the 
railroad depot. This, of course, is an 
extreme case ; but it is estimated that 
the average net price that can be re 
mitted from Chicago to the buyer at 
the country depot west of the Missouri 
River, is about 12 cents per bushel. 
Small wonder that Western farmers 
are dissatisfied with the commercial 
conditions which yield them such piti¬ 
ful returns for their hard labor ; that 
they are anxious to secure cheaper 
transportation facilities and better 
outlets to foreign markets, and that 
many of them find it more economi¬ 
cal to burn their corn for fuel than to 
sell it. 
A DITCH VS. A LAWYER. 
H ERE is a record of a case that has 
just been brought to the R. 
N.-Y.’s attention. A and B are neigh¬ 
bors. B’s field lies between A’s field 
and the road. On this road is a low 
place where the water stands. The 
shortest way for a drain is directly 
across both fields to the brook. Some 
years ago both men agreed to dig a 
ditch from the road through the fields, 
B to dig the ditch from the road to 
A’s field and A to dig it across his own 
field. This was done and A made a 
drinking place for his cattle at the 
end of his ditch. Some trouble comes 
between the two men. After a time 
B digs his ditch out six feet wide up 
to A ’s boundary and insists that A 
should do the same with his part of 
the ditch. A deems this unnecessary: 
he offers to clean out the ditch so that 
the water will run free, but declines 
to dig a wider ditch. Then B digs a 
ditch along the boundary of his field 
and closes up the lower end of his 
ditch. The water no longer runs 
through A’s ditch and his cattle are 
deprived of their drinking place. 
Will the law force B to open the ditch 
and again permit the water to flow? 
A lawyer tells him it probably will ; 
but the suit will cost quite a little 
money. It will also create a never- 
ending feud. By accident A discov¬ 
ers that the place where his cattle 
drink is lower than the outlet of B’s 
new ditch, so he digs a ditch diagon¬ 
ally across his field. This taps the 
ditch which B has cut along the bound¬ 
ary line and the water runs as before 
into the cattle pool. Both fields are 
now better dramed than they had ever 
been before. Surely in this case a 
ditch beats a lawyer. Is not this a 
good example or hundred of cases 
where the services of legal gentlemen 
could be dispensed with ? 
BREVITIES. 
Ferrets for rats. See page 70. 
Did you ever find the body of a dead 
wild animal that seemed to have died from 
natural causes ? Where do the wild beasts 
disappear to die ? 
The R. N.-Y. finds that many of its 
readers have used coal ashes on light soils. 
The result in almost every case has been 
favorable for the growth of grass and 
clover. 
We have seen a paragraph somewhere 
which stated that the green fly (aphis) 
could he held in check, indoors, in this 
way: Provide a pan of tobacco water. In 
this place a red-hot brick occasionally. 
The fumes arising will kill the insect. 
Kindly tell us, florists, to what extent this 
simple remedy may be relied upon. 
There is not one of us who, in selecting 
and buying fruits, whether large or small, 
or ornamental trees or shrubs of any kind, 
can afford to do it on the hit-or-miss, guess¬ 
work principle. Life is too short to take 
such risks. It costs too little to obtain all 
needed information which shall secure us 
just what is needed ; just what will give us 
the most profit or satisfaction. Send for 
the catalogues. Compare them. Make 
out the best lists which such a comparison 
may suggest. Then submit these lists to 
competent, disinterested parties and order 
only such as may meet with their approval. 
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 
held its 61st. anniversary on Tuesday even¬ 
ing, at which George W. Childs, the 
newly elected president, assumed the 
duties of his office. The occasion was 
also marked by the iuaguration of a 
series of monthly exhibitions of plants, 
cut flowers, vegetables and fruits. Rep¬ 
resentatives of various similar societies 
in other States were present, and the ex¬ 
hibition of rare plants and flowers betoken¬ 
ed the interest of the members in the wel¬ 
fare of the society, and in the advancement 
of the cause of horticulture which it repre¬ 
sents. 
One of the best of the new yellowish- 
flowered Tea roses tried by the R. N.-Y. last 
summer, is Mad. Hoste. The plant is 
strong-growing, and it bloomed well during 
the entire season. The buds are pointed 
and fragrant. Mad. Welche is an excellent 
out-door yellow Tea. Perhaps Comtesse de 
Frigneuse, among the newer yellow Teas, 
gave us the most satisfaction. The buds 
were large, pointed and full. Among our 
little collection of yellow Teas, which in¬ 
cluded most of the novelties, this and Perle 
gave us the most pleasure. Perle is just as 
valuable as a summer bedder as it is for 
forcing. 
New Mexico with an area of 121,201 
square miles, abundant stores of gold, sil¬ 
ver, copper, iron, lead, coal and other min¬ 
erals, a fine, healthful climate and a rich 
soil which could be made abundantly pro¬ 
ductive by irrigation and which now af¬ 
fords excellent pasturage, is still the most 
backward of our Territories. The main 
cause of its stagnation Is the fact that the 
best lands are claimed under grants made 
by the government of Mexico before the 
cession of the territory to this country in 
1848, and the titles to all the vast area 
covered by these grants are cloudy. The 
present land court is away behind in its 
business, and the best citizens of the coun¬ 
try are pressing Congress for relief by 
the establishment of a separate land court 
for the Territory. The demand is reason¬ 
able. It would take several years to clear 
the docket of the present court whose juris¬ 
diction extends also over Colorado and 
Arizona, and outsiders wi'l hesitate before 
investing time, labor or capital where 
clouded laud titles exist. 
