27o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 26 
FARMERS’ CLUB—DISCUSSION. 
That “Temperance” Measure. 
M. A. P., Cobleskill, N. Y.—H. S. H.,in 
the R. N.-Y. of March 29, proposes a “ tem¬ 
perance measure,” and invites the “ severest 
criticism ” of his plan “ to the end that we 
may be rid of the rum curse.” Although 
there is certainly room for severe criticism, 
on second thought it seems, judging by the 
article, that cold argument would never 
convince H. S. H., therefore to attempt it 
would be valuable time thrown away; but 
it is a strange “ plan ” to be promulgated 
for the purpose of ridding our country of the 
' rum curse. Will the R. N.-Y. please allow 
space for protest, for the sake of the fallen 
creature who is with us!? 
“ Heir to the same Inheritance, 
Child of the self same God, 
Who has but stumbled In the path 
We have In weakness trod. ” 
The temperance question never lacks new 
examples of the horrors of the rum demon’s 
reign, and the day after the issue of the 
paper containing H. S. H.’s article reached 
me. our vicinity was the scene of one more 
addition to the hundreds and thousands of 
history. A young man, crazed, helpless and 
irresponsible by rum, was thrust from the 
doors of a hotel at 11 o’clock at night into 
the dark and muddy street. Less than two 
hours later he was picked up from the rail¬ 
road track mangled and torn. A few hours 
more and he was dead. I could make no 
better or more touching comments on the 
matter than were given by our local paper— 
The Cobleskill Index. 
It says : “ And thus it was that an appe¬ 
tite was tempted, a taste cultivated, a de¬ 
sire gratified, a man bemuddled with rum 
cast into the cold street at midnight, a 
form mangled, a life crushed out, future 
prospects cut short, a home desolated, dis¬ 
graced, and an immortal soul gone to meet 
its Maker! And what of the man who 
sold the whisky ? ” Would to Heaven 
that H. S. H. might have stood over that 
bleeding, suffering mortal, and been 
obliged to answer that question to the soul 
fast going into eternity. 
Another scene in connection with this : 
A good old man whose songs of Zion seem to 
resound yet after many years through the 
grand old woods, was a vehement de¬ 
nouncer of rum in all its forms. He had 
two promising sons. One is now an earnest 
and honored minister of the Gospel. The 
other is a despicable rum-seller, whose 
haunts reveal by night and day scenes fit 
only for the bottomless pit in the midst of 
deep darkness. This is right here among 
us; and would that H. S. H. might sit in 
the midst thereof until disgust aroused 
the man within him and then let him an¬ 
swer us: “ What of the man who sells the 
whisky ?” This is the door from which 
that poor mangled young man received his 
last cruel thrust, after he had swallowed 
all the rum that his money would buy, 
poured and given by that rum-seller’s hand. 
Thrust from such a place ! Was he worse 
or more degraded than those he left be¬ 
hind ? Was he the criminal, whom they 
had maddened with rum and turned out, 
devoid of reason, to wander unguarded into 
the jaws of unheeded danger ? And H. S. 
H. says the rum-seller should have the 
right to sell rum without stint! The 
drinker was the criminal and should have 
been imprisoned, and fined— or killed ! 
What must we think of an argument 
which advises us to “ pass by the rum-seller 
to the author of the evil caused by rum— 
the person who drinks it! ” Who is the 
person most injured by rum-drinking? The 
person who drinks it; and must he suffer 
the penalty of the law in addition to the vil¬ 
lainous attacks of the rum-seller because 
his appetite is diseased and his brain made 
crazy ? 
Thetaste, or desire for swallowing some¬ 
thing with the hope and intention of 
quenching hunger or thirst, is one of the 
subtle senses in the construction of the 
human creature. But when this has be¬ 
come morbid, craving unnatural sub¬ 
stances, it is a disease as much as a craving 
for opium, morphine, etc. People have 
often teen afflicted with diseases which 
caused them to crave lime, slate-stone or 
inordinate quantities of sweet substances. 
Is this a crime, and should they be pun¬ 
ished for it? What, then, of the fiendish 
concoctions which years of chemical study 
and experiment have made into the most 
maddening excitants for the human appe¬ 
tite? What of the wiles of white-washed 
demons who insinuate the first doses down 
the throats of unsuspecting victims? This 
once done, the effect is sure, and the rest is 
easy. The exciseman says to the rum-sel¬ 
ler: “ You pay us this high license to help 
us]pay our taxes, and we don’t care how 
many you kilt; hut don't let them he found 
dead at your d'^or —that is against the- 
law! ” 
The writer has in mind a good old Chris¬ 
tian, once a drunkard, who never dared: 
touch the sacred (?) wine cup; and he used 
to say, confidentially, that its fumes while 
passing him kneeling, were well-nigh mad¬ 
dening. 
But why speak further? H. S. H. is not 
ignorant, however much he may be in¬ 
clined to muffle his conscience. We can¬ 
not stop the liquor traffic! Listen! It will 
stop some day. If the prayers of women, 
the franchises of men, and the government 
of nations cannot stop it, God can—and 
will. And then what of the men who 
helped to give license to rum-sellers to sell 
whisky? 
This article may be set aside as a 
woman’s fanaticism, but she is not one who 
clamors for franchise, neither does she 
mount rostrums to proclaim her opinions 
before mixed audiences; and seldom takes 
the liberty of responding to newspaper dis¬ 
cussions ; but in this case silence must 
needs be broken. 
“Imperfect Distribution” and 
“ Over-Production.” 
J. P., Greason, Pa.—In an editorial in the 
RURAL of April 5, we are told that it is 
“imperfect distribution rather than over¬ 
production that hurts us.” If that is so, 
please explain the following facts: In the 
winter and spring months of 1880 I sold 
potatoes at $1.60 per bushel, and in the cor¬ 
responding months of 1881 at 25 cents, at 
15, at 10 and at 0. Was it owing to perfect 
distribution that I got the high price one 
year ? And was it owing to imperfect dis¬ 
tribution, and to the destruction of the 
means of distribution that I got a low 
price and finally no price at all in 1881 ? 
The com crop of 1887 was estimated at 
1,400,000,000 bushels; that of 1888 at 2,000,- 
000,000 and that of 1889 at 2,200,000,000. The 
smallest one of the three, that of 1887, 
was worth $700,000,000 ; that of 1888, about 
$640,000,000 and the crop of 1889 about 
$616,000,000. Is the decline in the value 
of the com crops caused by an increasing 
impairment of the means of distribution ? 
The wheat crop of 1885 was about 540,000.- 
000 bushels. That was the largest crop 
ever produced in the United States, and 
yet, notwithstanding its magnitude, farm¬ 
ers roceived a fairly remunerative price. 
The last crop, although smaller by 50,000,- 
000 bushels, is selling for 50 cents a bushel 
less Is this owing to an impairment of 
the means of distribution ? From the 
great number of miles of railroad that have 
been built since 1884, we were led to believe 
that the means of distribution were be¬ 
ing constantly improved. It seems we were 
mistaken. Again,the October report of the 
wheat crop of 1889 placed it at 450,000,000 
bushels. Prices immediately hardened, and 
dollar wheat seemed to be in sight. The 
November report placed it at 490,000,000 
bushels, and the price declined. The 
December report confirmed the November 
estimate and the price slumped. Accord¬ 
ing to the Rural’s view,the means of dis¬ 
tribution were adequate in October, were a 
little out of joint in November and in 
December they fairly gave out. 
When I was visiting Kansas in November 
1888, one of the best informed men of the 
State asserted that they had railroads 
enough in the State to move the agricultural 
products of five millions of farmers. There 
surely can be no deficiency of means of dis¬ 
tribution there, yet Kansas is suffering 
more from low prices than any other State 
in the Union. 
And, further, you say the liquor traffic 
is another evil that works to the detriment 
of the farmer. That will hardly apply to 
Kansas, as it has the most stringent and best 
enforced prohibitory law in our whole 
country. 
R. N.-Y.—We evidently did not make our 
point clear. We meant more particularly 
the “ imperfect system of distribution ” 
which permits thousands in our great cities 
to go without proper food and clothing, 
while farmers are unable to dispose of their 
products at paying prices. Go through this 
or any other large city and observe the poor 
people who are actually without proper 
food. There are hungry mouths enough in 
this country to create a demand for every 
pound of food that can be taken from our 
soil. This sad picture of hunger'and plenty 
walking hand in hand was what we referred 
to. 
As to the Kansas farmer and temperance, 
me may ask: Where are Kansas products 
sold ? If they were sold in that State alone 
the logic would be sound. They are not. 
Corn, wheat, beef and pork go the great 
•cities to feed the very people who come 
nearest to the curse of the liquor traffic. 
Instructing a Professor. 
F. Q. W., Yorktown, N. Y.—In “The 
Study of Bugs,” now appearing in the New 
York Ledger, Prof. J. H. Comstock says, 
in regard to the Striped Cucumber Beetle: 
“The most that can be done is to protect the 
plants while they are young with nettings 
of some sort.” Any one who has seen cu¬ 
cumbers grown by the acre as they are here, 
some growers having four or five acres, 
would perceive the futility of trying to 
protect the young plants with nettings of 
any sort. But there is a practical method 
of routing these pests and it is so cheap and 
simple and so quickly applied that every¬ 
one should know of it. We have no recipe 
for the mixture : but into a pailful of com¬ 
mon land plaster we put sufficient spirits 
of turpentine to give the former a strong 
flavor of the latter. Perhaps a table-spoon¬ 
ful of turpentine to two or three gallons of 
plaster would be the right proportion. In 
the morning, after the vines have shown up 
nicely, a man goes through the patch, tak¬ 
ing two rows at a time.and scatters a small 
pinch on each hill. The turpentine drives 
away all striped beetles, and we seldom use 
a second application. This remedy has 
worked perfectly here for the past 10 years 
and perhaps Prof. Comstock has not tried 
it. 
Vagaries of seeds. 
N. H., Creedmoor, N. Y.—One who tries 
to keep even with the seedsman must have 
a hard time. I was led to this conclusion 
by a'note in “ Brevities ” on Ne Plus Ultra 
Sweet Corn. 
The first I ever had of that name was ob¬ 
tained from a Philadelphia seedsman. The 
rows were irregular, the grains quite large, 
the quality only fair. Ne Plus Ultra No.2 
was from a New York seedsman. The ears 
were not large, the grains were very irreg¬ 
ular in the row, deep and very small. The 
same variety is advertised by the same 
concern now as Shoe-Peg. The quality was 
of the best: the stalks were large and bore 
three to four ears each. It was, however, 
common and late. The Tremble, once sold 
by the same firm, I received from Dr. Trem¬ 
ble directly. It bore a short, stout ear. 
There were no rows at all, but often a 
small effort was made to form an earat the 
base of each ear. The quality was very 
superior and the corn very tender. It was 
of only medium hight and bore from 
one to two ears. Its season was medium or 
second early. 
Horse Shoes for Swampy Land. 
J. E. J., Brooklyn, Mich.— A recent 
Brevity asked us what kind of horse shoes 
to use on swampy lands. My husband used 
to have the horses shod with good calks on 
the shoes: then he had a board cut some¬ 
thing like the shape of the foot, only larger 
—say, one inch all around larger. Then 
holes were made in it to let in the calks of 
the shoe. It must be of good material. 
Next an iron was made to come over the top 
of the horse’s hoofs and down through the 
board, with a thread cut on each end ; then 
a burr was placed on each and tightened. 
Thus shod, a horse can go on soft land with 
ease. Of course, the shoes are awkward at 
first; but the horses enjoy them as they 
feel safe. 
SEED TESTING AGAIN. 
A “RURAL” man finds a mare’s nest. 
A recent number of the Rural New- 
Yorker contains what affects to be a re¬ 
view of a late bulletin of the North Car¬ 
olina Experiment Station. Station bulle¬ 
tins should be, and generally are, self-ex¬ 
planatory, and capable of being understood 
by all men. The author of the article in 
question has, however, misunderstood or 
misrepresented the position of the North 
Carolina Station as shown in Bulletin 67, 
and devotes the larger part of his article to 
refuting a question not discussed in that 
bulletin. It may be worth while, then, to 
set the matter straight before the intelli¬ 
gent constituency of the Rural New- 
Yorker. 
The form of guarantee quoted and ap¬ 
proved in Bulletin 67 of the North Carolina 
Station includes all that European seeds¬ 
men guarantee, and all that the North Car¬ 
olina Station understands by the guarantee 
system. The Rural critic acknowledges 
that no reputable American seedsman 
could refuse to guarantee as much as that. 
This being the case, the raison d'etre of 
the attack is not apparent. The critic be¬ 
comes quite hysterical over the possibility 
that under the guarantee system seedsmen 
may be mulcted in heavy conseqential 
damages for selling seeds untrue to name. 
With this matter, except in so far as the 
genuineness of seeds can be ascertained by 
botanical analysis before sowing, the guar¬ 
antee system has nothing to do. It does 
not recognize the principle of consequential 
damages. The North Carolina Experiment 
Station has expressed no opinion as to the 
liability of seedsmen for consequential 
damages, and has proposed no “law” on 
the subject. To drag this question into 
what pretends to be a review of a published 
work is entirely gratuitous, misleading 
and unfair. 
The critic disputes the correctness of the 
phrase “European custom ” and in opposi¬ 
tion quotes the names of five English firms 
—four of which are small concerns—one 
German and two French firms. Inasmuch 
as French law holds the seller responsible 
for the quality of his wares, it is of little 
importance to this discussion whether or 
not French seedsmen adopt the specific 
guarantee system. This system is of Ger¬ 
man origin, and has been developed since 
1870. Possibly Frenchmen are too patri¬ 
otic to believe that anything good can come 
out of Swabia. 
There are in Europe 50 or more public 
seed-testing stations. I have before me a 
list of seedsmen who patronize a single one 
of these—that at Zurich, Switzerland. This 
list includes about 150 names—English 
German and Italian as well as Swiss. 
Among the English firms who sell tested 
and guaranteed seeds are the following: 
James Carter & Co., probably the 
largest seed firm in England. This firm 
guarantee their seeds “ equal to the best 
quality of the season, and subject to botani¬ 
cal analysis by the purchaser before sow¬ 
ing; ” Peter Lawson & Sons, scarcely second 
to Carter; James Hunter of Chester; Robert¬ 
son & Hoag of Dublin ; John Mill of 
Motrose; Durant & Sons of Tawton; Kent 
& Bryden, Hurst & Sons of Darlington, 
David Allester of London; the Agricultural 
and Horticultural Association of London. 
The Royal Agricultural Society advises its 
members to purchase none but guaranteed 
seeds. 
The Rural critic assures us that no seeds¬ 
man not a fool or a rogue will undertake to 
guarantee any sample of seed to be en¬ 
tirely free from foreign seeds. This is not 
very complimentary to American seedsmen, 
but they might well retort that no one 
familiar with the facts and fastidious as to 
truth would make such an assertion as the 
above. A competent and careful seed 
grower, when he has authentic stock to 
start with, knows that his seed is true to 
name and free from impurity. This has 
nothing to do with the discussion. Seeds¬ 
men are not asked to guarantee samples en¬ 
tirely free from foreign admixture. They 
are asked only to guarantee a specific per¬ 
centage of pure,'vital seed in each sample— 
a very different thing. If two seedsmen 
offer the same variety of seed, and the 
stock of one has been so thoroughly cleaned 
as to contain but one per cent, of impurity, 
while that of the other contains weeds and 
trash to the amount of 25 per cent of the 
whole, each has a right to sell his seed if he 
can, but the stock of each should be sold 
upon its own merits. The 99-per cent, seed 
is very much more valuable than the 75-per 
cent, seed, and purchasers should have 
some means of ascertaining the fact. 
While it may be impossible to distinguish 
one variety of cabbage seed from another, 
or cabbage seed from cauliflower by micro¬ 
scopic examination, it is quite possible to 
distinguish cabbage from weed seeds and 
live seeds from dead seeds. 
One species of clover or grass seed can be 
readily distinguished from another, and all 
from dodder, plantain, dock and quartz 
rock. The major part of the loss suffered by 
seed consumers comes from weed-infested 
and inert seeds. This loss can be prevented 
by botanical analysis before sowing the 
seed. 
The gush about the personal knowledge 
of an anonymous writer vouching for the 
character of American seedsmen is enough 
to make a graven image blush. It is only 
the dishonest members of the trade who 
have anything to fear from the guarantee 
system. 
Mr. J. E. Northrupof Minnesota, an hon¬ 
est man and a competent seedsman, was led 
by his personal experience to say that he 
had discovered the employees of a large 
seed establishment cooking over a sulphur 
fire cucumber seed which had lain in the 
warehouse for nearly a quarter of a century. 
One of the oldest and best known seedsmen 
in the United States said to the writer, 
speaking of retailers: “ They care nothing 
about the quality of the seeds they sell, but 
