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363 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
New York. 
RoyALTON, Niagara County.—We are 
having a great deal of rain just now, which 
is rather discouraging to farmers, as some 
have not finished sowing their spring crops. 
Until last year the seasons had been very 
dry for some time, owing to the “ destruc¬ 
tion of the forests,” we were told. For one 
year and a half it has been very wet, I 
would like to learn the cause of this. 
B. F. B. 
Iowa. 
Des MoTNES, Polk County, May 12.—Our 
drought of six weeks was broken last night 
by a fine rain, which greatly revives the 
spirits of farmers. The outlook for a crop 
of early planted potatoes was anything but 
promising, and all vegetables were not yet 
up. It has been so dry that radish and 
onion seeds could not germinate, and but 
few of the early-planted potatoes are yet 
up. All small fruits are greatly damaged 
by the dry weather. Grass is short and 
pasturage poor, while water has been scarce 
for stock. On May 7th there was a hard 
freeze, which destroyed what beans and 
potatoes were up. This is a wonderful 
country, however, and now that we have 
had a good rain everything will come on 
fast, and we may have good crops of vege¬ 
tables yet, though our fruit crops are bound 
to be light. Grapes and all the small fruits 
were greatly damaged by the frost. Our 
hay crop will also be light, as it is too late 
now for the rain to save it. Oats came up 
very unevenly, but may make a good crop 
yet. There has been no weather to hinder 
farm labor, so farmers are well up with 
their work, and the larger part of the corn 
crop has been planted. Vegetables have 
been very scarce in our own market, and 
bring good prices. Our strawberry crop 
suffered most by the drought, and it will 
be short and of poor quality. The straw¬ 
berry worm has not made its appearance 
this season. F. S. w. 
Delaware. 
Dover, Kent County, May 12 —This has 
been a backward spring. We have had but 
very little real warm weather so far. Farm¬ 
ers are about up with work. Corn plant¬ 
ing began about April 18; some fields are 
already planted ; but a considerable acre¬ 
age remains to be planted. Wheat is be¬ 
ginning to head. Clover will soon be in 
blossom. Early truck is growing finely. 
Sweet potatoes are being put out. The 
fruit crop will be very light—there will be 
no peaches, and pears and apples have been 
killed to a great extent by frosts. It has 
been too wet for the past two weeks; still 
larm work has not been seriously retarded. 
Pasture is good. Stock have been out for 
some time. Wheat and potatoes have ad¬ 
vanced in price, other farm products re¬ 
main low. Butter a drug on the mar¬ 
ket at from 12 to 20 cents; poultry, 10 to 
13 cents ; fish plenty, and prices low; wheat, 
80 cents; corn, 40 cents; potatoes, 50 to 70 
cents. Times a little brisker than during 
the winter. A. G. s. 
Kentucky. 
Lyndon, Jefferson County, May 12.— 
The prospects for fruit are very promising, 
except for peaches, which are almost a total 
failure. Strawberries are very full ; too 
much so, I fear, as they cannot perfect all 
the berries; but the most cunous freak is 
among the grapes. Among the Labruscas, 
for instance, in case of Moore’s Early, Early 
Victor, and others, which are considered 
the hardiest, the clusters of some are ready 
to bloom ; while in others of the same 
variety alongside of them the buds are 
scarcely bursting. Among the 200 varieties 
I have growing, I find the tenderest stood 
the winter better than the hardiest. As 
every one knows, Ricketts’s hybrids are 
more or less tender ; but they have come 
through in splendid condition. The same 
is the case with most of Rogers’s hybrids, 
and nothing could be more promising than 
Caywood’s Duchess, Ulster and Pough¬ 
keepsie. The Norfolk is the rankest grower 
I ever saw. I have a three-year-old vine 
that is about to take possession of my 
arbor. Among the newest grapes I think 
Moore’s Diamond has come to stay. My 
vines bore a few clusters last year for the 
first time, but this spring they are simply 
loaded, and where can one find a better 
table grape than the Diamond ? Iam glad 
to see that the farmers are planting more 
fruits. G - K - w - 
Kansas. 
Parsons, Labette County, May 14.—Ap¬ 
ple trees promises very abundant crop, but 
we find that out of 22 varieties there are 
only two or three that will produce any, 
except perhaps a bushel to the tree. The 
two varieties that promise abundantly are 
the Sweet June, and the Gennetting. These 
were the latest to bloom, and we have con¬ 
cluded that the big wind of March 27, or a 
frost on March 30, destroyed the fine 
promise of a crop. Farmers would have 
been through planting corn had they not 
been obliged to plant again, from the fail¬ 
ure of the first planting. They are rather 
jubilant over the great demand for corn, 
and the advance from 15 to 25 cents per 
bushel. It is shipped to all of the Gulf 
States; but chiefly to Mobile and Galves¬ 
ton. This rate is equal to 40 cents in 
Chicago. Farmers have had great success 
in rearing horses, having introduced heavy 
stock for that purpose. Eggs and poultry 
are now shipped directly to New York and 
New Orleans in special cars, so there re¬ 
mains a prospect of brighter days for the 
Kansas farmer. J. B. 
Garnett, Anderson County, May 16.—We 
have had a dry spring. Farmers are well up 
with their work. We are having a good rain 
to day. Corn is all planted and many farmers 
have their crop cultivated the first time. 
Wheat and rye are heading out; the straw 
will be short on account of our dry weather. 
Flax and oats are growing nicely. Farmers 
are feeling good over the crop prospects. 
A great deal of corn is being marketed at 
25 cents per bushel at the railroad. The 
prospects for apples and small fruits are 
good and we shall have about one-half crop 
of peaches. s. E. 
THE SILVER QUESTION. 
Hardly second to the tariff problem in 
general interest is the silver question. It 
is a matter for agitation not in this coun¬ 
try only, but in the chief countries of 
Europe also. Everywhere it is a subject 
of deep and general interest whether there 
shall be a single or double standard of 
value—whether this position shall be held 
by gold or silver or both. At present silver 
is the sole standard of value in Mexico, 
South America, Austria and India, and 
gold in the rest of Christendom. The 
great trouble is to establish a fixed ratio of 
value between the two metals. This has 
varied a great deal at different times in ac¬ 
cordance with the relative overproduc¬ 
tion of one or the other; but the varia¬ 
tions have never been so rapid or great 
within a brief interval as they have been of 
late years. According to the best accounts, 
the relative value of gold and silver at 
different periods has been as follows: 
Rome about the Christian era. 1 to 9 
England, mint price, 1344 1 “ 12.475 
•• “ •• 1 09 1 •• 11.400 
“ •* “ 16UO 1 “ 11.100 
•• “ “ 1717 1 " 15.209 
•• *• “ 1363 1 “ 15.069 
For thousands of years all the nations of 
the earth used either silver or both silver 
and gold as standards of value till 1819. 
Before that date for over three-quarters of 
a century, owing to the over valuation of 
silver in France, the heavy silver coins of 
Great Britain had been disappearing from 
circulation, as they were either exported to 
the continent or melted down for their 
value as bullion, so that early in this cen¬ 
tury no silver coins of legal weight and 
purity remained in circulation. To obviate 
the losses and inconvenience due to this 
state of affairs a law was passed in 1774 de¬ 
claring that silver should no longer be 
legal tender beyond £25, except by weight, 
and in 1819 the pound standard of silver 
was coined into 66s. and silver was made a 
legal tender for only 40s. or under, and the 
law has remained in force ever since. 
In 1792 the Congress of the United States 
fixed the relative value of gold and silver 
at 1 to 15. But as this put an over-valua¬ 
tion of silver as compared with its value in 
Europe, gold was so largely exported that, 
in 1834, the standard was altered to 1 to 16, 
while In other nations it was l to 15%. 
Now silver was so largely exported that in 
1853 the ratio was again altered to 1 to 
14.88. By the coinage act of 1873 it was 
again changed to 1 to 14.95. After the dis¬ 
covery of gold iu California and Australia 
the economists of Europe predicted a de¬ 
cline iu its value, and under their influence 
the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and 
Austria demonetized it in 1857 and adopted 
silver as the only legal tender. In 1861 Bel¬ 
gium re-adopted gold as legal tender, with¬ 
out. discarding silver, however, but this she 
did nine years later, and in the same year— 
1870—Germany made gold alone a legal ten¬ 
der. For years the “ Latin Union,” in¬ 
cluding France, Spain and Italy, main¬ 
tained a double standard with a ratio of 1 
of gold to 15% of silver, but in 1875 these 
countries followed the examples of their 
neighbors and made gold the sole standard 
of value, so that in no country in Europe is 
there to-day a double standard of value. 
Among the most noted economists of every 
country, however, there are many who are 
strong advocates of bi-metallism, and, like 
most of the leaders of the double standard 
theory in this country, these declare that 
extraordinary depression in business has 
invariably followed the demonetization of 
silver in every country, and to the general 
practice of it they attribute the general de¬ 
pression in all branches of productive in¬ 
dustry all the world over at present, insist¬ 
ing that this is mainly due to the wide¬ 
spread shrinkage of the volume of the 
currency relatively to population and busi¬ 
ness activity. 
By the coinage act of 1873, Congress 
practically demonetized silver in this 
country by failing to provide for the coin¬ 
age of legal tender silver dollars. At first 
no great notice was taken of this measure; 
but after the discovery of the vast deposits 
of silver in our Western States and Terri¬ 
tories, the owuers of the treasure began an 
active agitation for the remonetization of 
the white metal, in order to compel the 
government to purchase most or all of it, 
and thus enhance its value for their bene¬ 
fit. Various other causes conspired to 
gain advocates for the project, and the 
Bland-Allison Act, passed in 1878, required 
the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase 
and coin not less than $2,000,000 or more 
than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion 
every month, and ever since the Treasury 
has bought every month the lowest amount 
it was compelled to purchase, and it has 
coined over $350,000,000 silver dollars, each 
containing from 69 to 75 cents’ worth of 
silver, according to the fluctuations of 
silver bullion in the market. A compara¬ 
tively small amount of them has been dis¬ 
tributed among the people; and by no de¬ 
vice has the government been able to force 
the others into circulation; so that there 
are now in the United States Treasury con¬ 
siderably over $300,000,000 silver dollars; 
while there are in circulation over $290,- 
000,000 silver certificates representing this 
enormous inert accumulation to which at 
least 2,000,000 big silver dollars are 
added every month. Indeed, there has 
never been any great demand for silver 
currency in this country. From the year 
1792, when the first standard silver dollars 
were coined, down to 1873, when their 
mintage was discontinued, the total num¬ 
ber of silver dollars coined was S,045,838, or 
less than 100,000 a year! Indeed, between 
1805 and 1839, during which period coinage 
was absolutely free, only 1,620 silver dol¬ 
lars were turned out. More have been 
coined within the last 82 days, than during 
the 82 years embraced in the above period; 
but still it appears impossible to get them 
into circulation. 
In spite of this, however, the agitation in 
favor of silver coinage has constantly spread 
and become more powerful, until now a 
large majority of the members of both 
Houses of Congress are in favor of a double 
standard and fear of the President’s veto 
alone prevents the passage of a bill author¬ 
izing the unlimited coinage of silver, and 
such a measure may possibly yet be 
passed in the expectation that he will not 
venture to veto it in the face of the strong 
support behind it, or that should he do so, 
the two-thirds majority necessary to pass 
it over the veto, can be secured in both 
Houses. It is probable, however, that Con¬ 
gress will, for the present at any rate, be 
content with passing the compromise bill 
which is the result of a conference between 
both Houses. This will undoubtedly be 
amended in tne direction of unlimited 
coinage as far as the silver majority may 
think it safe to go, in view of the President’s 
expressed determination to veto any bill 
providing for unlimited silver coinage. At 
present, the bill directs the Secretary of the 
Treasury to purchase silver bullion to the 
aggregate extent of 45,000,000 ounces, worth 
about $54,000,000, per annum at the market 
price not exceeding $1. for 37124' grains of 
pure silver, and to issue in payment of such 
purchases, Treasury notes ranging in value 
from $1. to $1,000. These are to be redeem¬ 
able iu lawful money of the United States 
and to be receivable for customs, taxes and 
all public dues, and when so received may 
be reissued. When held by any national 
banking association they may be counted 
as a part of its lawful reserve. The bill 
further provides that upon the demand of 
the holder of any of the notes the Secretary 
of the Treasury may in his discretion, and 
under such regulations as he may prescribe, 
exchange for such notes an amount of silver 
bullion which will be equal in value at the 
market price thereof on the day of ex¬ 
change to the amount of such notes. The 
Secretary of the Treasury is required to 
coin such portion of the silver bullion pur¬ 
chased under the provisions of the act as 
may be necessary to provide for the re¬ 
demption of the notes, and any gain or 
seigniorage arising from the coinage is to 
be accounted for and paid into the Treasury. 
Under the provisions of the act, of course, 
the existing provision of the law requiring 
the coinage of not less than $2,000,000 nor 
more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion 
per month is unnecessary, and it is there¬ 
fore repealed. 
The extreme silver men still insist that 
$54,000,000 worth of silver shall be bought 
each year, and that the certificates issued 
in payment therefor shall be redeemable in 
gold, or silver dollars, greenbacks or silver 
bullion at its market rates, and shall be 
legal tender in all transactions, national. 
State and individual. Statistics, however, 
show that the annual silver output of this 
country amounts to less than $50,000,000 
worth a year ; while from $8,000,000 to $10,- 
000,000 worth of this is annually used in 
the arts and manufactures; so that, besides 
buying up every ounce of silver produced 
in this country, the Government, to comply 
with such a law, would have to purchase 
yearly $10,000,000 worth of silver bullion 
from abroad. Of course, under the stimu¬ 
lus of an increased value for silver, due to 
an unlimited market, the domestic produc¬ 
tion may be increased ; but it may also fall 
off owing to the exhaustion of some of the 
mines. 
An ounce of silver contains 400 grains 
troy weight, so that if $1 were paid for 371 % 
grains—the highest price allowable under 
the proposed law—it would be paid for an 
amount 28% grains less than an ounce. 
The metal in the dollar, however, is al¬ 
loyed nine-tenths fine, and weighing 412% 
grains. The value of the silver in a dollar 
now ranges about 20 per cent, less than the 
value of the coin for legal-tender purposes. 
Silver is worth at present $1.05 per ounce; 
during the California gold craze it was 
worth $1.36 an ounce, which made the dol¬ 
lar worth $1.05, and dollars, halves and 
quarters, and even dimes were sold for 
bullion, and shin-plasters, eating-house 
tickets, and all kinds of substitutes came 
into vogue. The price of silver is steadily 
going up, however, mainly on account of 
the probability, nay certainty, that the 
metal will soon be practically restored to 
its old position as a standard of value, 
hence, while the bullion value of the silver 
dollar was 75 cents a few weeks ago, it is 
now 80 cents. 
THE NEW CUTAWAY SEEDER 
Positive in its action, and perfect iu its seeding. Will 
sow ail kinds of grass seeds and grains. Send for new 
special Circular. 
The HICGANUM MANF’G CORPORATION, 
N. Y. Office, 189 & 191 Water St. Higganum, C«nn. 
Rochester Hay Slings and Carriers. 
Result of twenty-two years’ experience. ’ 
SEND FOR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE. 
RICKER & MONTGOMERY, 
53 Lorimer St.. Rochester, N. Y. 
sIWILLIAMS 
For full particulars address 
ST. JOHNSVILLE AGR’L WORKS, 
St. JobuuAviile. Montgomery Co., New York, 
