4o4 
TUNE 21 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Msnager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1890. 
You can say enough in one minute to make 
ou spend the rest of your life wishing you 
ad kept your mouth shut tight. 
A broken fence 
A breaehy cow. 
First class chance 
For a neighbors’ row. 
Try soiling your animals and you will learn a 
thing or two. ' You will be surprised to see how 
much green grass a good sized cow will eat in a day— 
she must pick it up one mouthful at a time too ! 
You will never know what an industrious animal 
she is until you are called upon to cut. with your 
scythe, on a meadow not much better than her 
pasture, grass enough to keep her busy. Y r ou will 
also find that the cow, when tied m a cool stable, 
will eat plants that she would not touch in the 
field. 
It is a question of great importance and one by 
no means decided, whether it is not economy to 
leave nitrate of soda out of fertilizers altogether 
and to sow it separately in small quantities as the 
crops grow. That is to say, provide the crops with 
an abundance of potash and phosphate in early 
spring or even in the fall. Then sow at intervals, 
say, 75 pounds of nitrate of soda in the spring, and 
twice or thrice afterwards at intervals of two weeks 
or so, according to the length of time the crop re¬ 
quires to mature. 
“Doctor Green” is an old English name for 
grass as a food for animals. We have never found 
any veterinarian that could compare with “Doctor 
Green” in keeping our farm animals in good 
health. Our horses have not had any hay, except 
what is used chopped and moistened with their 
grain, for six weeks. They have all the grass they 
will eat. One of them broke loose and got at the 
grain chest the other day. We firmly believe that 
had she been feeding on dry hay entirely, as many 
horses are, she would have died from the effects of 
the grain. “Dr. Green” is the best veterinary 
practitioner known. 
In many fields back of the Rural Grounds that 
have not felt the plow or harrow for many years, 
“wild” strawberries grow in great abundance. 
They are now called “wild” by the more recent 
settlers; but are really the remnants or extensions of 
patches of varieties cultivated 20 years ago—the 
Scotch Runner (for the most part) presumably from 
its shape. They are small, firm berries of a flavor 
more intensely strawberry than the popular sorts 
ot to-day. That is to say, they are depauperate, 
degenerate kinds that Nature has restored to 
themselves after having passed through the im¬ 
proving processes of man. Well, man has in¬ 
creased the size of the strawberry—that’s a fact. 
The rose chafer is here— i. e., the rose beetle or 
rose-bug. It may save some of our readers a meas¬ 
ure of ineffective labor if it be repeated that the R. 
N.-Y. has tried about every known insecticide with 
the result that Buhach or pyretlirum powder alone 
seems to hold them in subjection. Hellebore, 
Paris-green. London purple, tobacco-water, tobacco 
soap, Gishurst Compound, whale oil soap, the Bor¬ 
deaux Mixtui-e, etc., have been tried without any 
perceptible effect. When the rose bugs are so num¬ 
erous that two millions stand ready to take the 
places of the one million that have received the spray 
of Buhach water, this remedy may not prove effec¬ 
tive unless, indeed, the several hands employed and 
all the members of the family join in the work and 
squirt away from daylight until dark. 
If the National Government is to lend money 
to farmers at one or two per cent, interest, why 
shouldn’t it lend to some of the failing woolen 
manufacturers or dealers, or to needy merchants, 
or indeed to any of the thousands upon thousands 
of people in the various trades and professions who 
haven’t as much spending money as they desire ? If 
Uncle Sam is to furnish a market for agricultural 
products, why shouldn’t he, in the goodness of his 
heart, furnish an equally good market for the pro¬ 
ducts of our mines and manufactories ? There is no 
disputing the fact that, in the past, the farmer 
hasn’t received from our law-makers the considera¬ 
tion that has been accorded to other branches of in¬ 
dustry, but it is equally true that he has nothing to 
gain by demanding in his favor concessions which 
he would not be willing to grant to any other 
citizen. Thoughtful, conservative men must realize 
the truth of this, and the true friends of agriculture 
will hesitate before asking favors for it which they 
would not be willing to concede to any other in¬ 
dustry. If such legislation is secured through force 
of circumstances, the ultimate result will prove 
more of an injury than a blessing. The adoption 
by the government of most of the socialistic or 
semi-socialistic schemes now advocated by farmers 
or their “ professional ” friends, would cost the en¬ 
tire body of tax payers of the country enormous 
sums, while the farmers would be the chief or only 
gainers. Would this be fair ? Class legislation has al¬ 
ways been justly odious every where; will the farmers 
of America insist on such legislation on their own 
behalf ? Why not extend the benefits of the laws 
which they demand to other classes suffering the 
same or similar hardships ? 
Two years ago the R. N.-Y. said that it had tried 
about every insecticide it could think of to kill or 
drive away the invincible cucumber flea beetle, and 
that these substances, or such of them as did not 
materially harm the vines, had little or no effect 
upon the beetle. The R. N.-Y. being the first to 
discover and to report the unprecedented injury 
which this little black jumper was doing to potato 
vines, was also the first in its endeavors to subdue 
it. Many supposed remedies have since been re¬ 
ported : Tobacco, unleached ashes, London-purple, 
the Bordeaux Mixture, lime, the kerosene emulsion, 
etc., all of which were thoroughly tried by the R. 
N.-Y. and found ineffective. Now. we find such 
careful experimenters as Prof. Cook acknowledging 
this. They have, as yet, found no remedy. 
Two years ago the R. N.-Y r . presented the views 
of some of our leading fruit men regarding the 
desirability and practicability of issuing “patents ” 
to the originators of new varieties of fruits. The 
eneral conclusion of those who took part in the 
iscussion seemed to be that while our present 
patent laws could hardly be applied to the protec¬ 
tion of plant propagators, the testing of novelties 
by the experiment stations should be strongly ad¬ 
vocated, and that State or national bounties seemed 
to be the best form of reward or recompense. After 
much thought and study, the R. N.-Y. presents the 
plan outlined in the proposed act printed on page 
411. This act argues for itself. The matter will 
be fully and fairly discussed in subsequent issues of 
the paper. This is a matter of genuine importance. 
The R. N.-Y. presents its plan of procedure and 
calls for a better one. 
Twenty millions ! That is the figure given by 
Superintendent Parsons in Central Park, the other 
day, to a friend, who had playfully asked “the 
price” of Gotham’s great pleasure ground. The 
friend agreed (?) to take it as well worth the money, 
the amount named representing the estimated cost 
to the city of this magnificent property. As our 
little party drove along the fine park roads, among 
the grand trees, over and around the rocky hills 
and through the bosky dells; as we saw the almost 
countless children enjoying a Saturday’s holiday 
sporting over the beautiful lawns, we agreed that 
New York would lose her chief attraction and 
greatest beauty were she by any means shorn of 
this bit of nature. Twenty millions of dollars are 
as nothing in comparison. All the wealth of her 
richest men were well expended if devoted to such 
beneficent purposes. And we could then better 
appreciate the sentiment of Mr. Parsons’s assertion 
that New York escaped a great calamity when she 
lost the coveted honor of the World’s Fair, for a 
portion of this park would assuredly have been 
taken for its location, and necessarily been spoiled 
for its present purposes. 
NO ALIEN ABSENTEE LANDLORDISM! 
European capitalists are fast buying up a large 
proportion of the cotton, woolen and flour mills, the 
breweries, shoe factories and other industrial insti¬ 
tutions of this country. They have already invested 
considerably over $100,000,000 in these lines of busi¬ 
ness. Nobody here, however, seriously objects to 
such investments. The capital embarked in them 
must be kept moving ; they must be carried on by 
local labor and on popular conditions which will 
enable them to compete with native industries of the 
same character; the income from them beyond a fair 
interest on the capital, must be spent in this country; 
moreover, the sums put into them are so many depos¬ 
its made here by foreigners as guarantees of peace 
between their land and ours. There are strong ob¬ 
jections, however, to another form of foreign in¬ 
vestment here—that of aliens in American land. 
According to a recent report of a Congressional 
committee certain European noblemen, principally 
Englishmen, have acquired and now own, in the 
aggregate, about 21,000,000 acres of land within the 
United States. Although there is no accurate in¬ 
formation on the matter, it is not improbable that 
untitled aliens own nearly as much, though gener¬ 
ally in smaller bodies. Many millions of European 
capital are also invested in railroad and land bonds, 
covering 100,000,000 acres, the greater part of which 
under foreclosure sales, will most likely, before many 
years, become the property of these foreign bond¬ 
holders. in addition to the present alien possessions. 
Not content with the princely estates they have pur¬ 
chased for a mere trifle, these arrogant foreigners 
have fenced in hundreds of miles of the public do¬ 
main for grazing vast herds of cattle at the expense 
of the United States, and in defiance of the rights 
of honest settlers; while their freely-fed stock com¬ 
pete disastrously with the cattle of our own citizens 
fed on the high-priced lands of the settled parts of 
the country. 
The possession of such vast areas must inevit¬ 
ably lead to alien absentee landlordism, which 
has proved a curse to every country in which it has 
prevailed. The evil has already cropped out 
in this country. Rack-renter Scully owns 90,000 
acres of land in Illinois, on which are seen the most 
wretched tenants and the most miserable farming 
in the State, while the alien landlord draws a rental 
of $200,000, which he spends in Europe. There are 
numerous other less notable cases ; but every one 
of them is of such a character as to serve as a warn¬ 
ing against the odious and pernicious system which 
alien avarice and enterprise are endeavoring to 
foist on this country. The tenth census shows that, 
10 years ago, there were already in the United 
States 570,000 tenant farmers—a larger number than 
in any other nation in the world. Shall the tenant 
farmers of the future be subjected to the rack-rents 
and intolerable hardships of an alien absentee land¬ 
lordism ? Shall the blasting curse which after cen¬ 
turies of blight is being slowly and wearisomely 
lifted from Ireland, be granted an abiding-place 
here ? A bill now before Congress seeks to re¬ 
move this danger. It declares all foreign-born 
persons who are not naturalized incapable of tak¬ 
ing title to land anywhere within the United States, 
except a leasehold for not more than five years ; 
but in operation the law is not retroactive. It 
contains a provision, however, which will compel 
alien landowners to dispose of their lands or be¬ 
come citizens of the United States within 10 years. 
That the Government has the power to exclude 
aliens from its jurisdiction has been proved in the 
Chinese case ; and that this sovereign power in¬ 
cludes the less one of defining what property rights 
they may exercise here after they are admitted, is 
not doubtful. The farmers of the country, the 
principal class to be affected by the proposed legis¬ 
lation, should express their opinions emphatically 
on the matter ? 
BREVITIES. 
The man who rides the handles of 
A walking cultivator 
Rescmbleth his crop; he Is. 
" A verv small pertater; ” 
But- he who knows that plants must feed 
And to their roots doth cater. 
Will lightly stir the surfaco soli; 
The crop will see him later. 
June 7. First rose-bugs. 
The R. N.-Y. has a three-legged chicken. 
Don’t ask for State help until you have exhausted self- 
help. 
The crop of newspaper yarns about big strawberries is 
ripe. 
PUT not your trust in the weather iu haying or harvest 
time. 
One day with the cultivator or hoe when the weeds are 
just starting, is worth three days a week later. 
When your hay is dry, don’t wait for it to “ sweat ” 
or “cure in the cock,” or “air;” put it iu the barn at 
once. 
The best evidence of the popularity of the Sharpless 
Strawberry is that the market is flooded with it from every 
quarter. 
Has California any more right to an appropriation for 
developing a system of irrigation than Vermont or New 
Hampshire ? 
Sweet corn, beans, pumpkins, weeds and a volunteer 
crop of potatoes—the R. N.-Y. has them all growing on the 
same ground. 
Two Paragon Chestnut trees (second and third season 
after transplanting) are in bloom. They are grafted on 
stems about six feet high. 
Does your mouth water for some of the green peas and 
other early vegetables of your more enterprising neighbor ? 
Make a note of it for next spring. 
If any of our readers think of buying §1,000 pianos out 
of the profits of last season’s farming, we hope they will 
be able to secure all the discounts. 
Parker Earle began ripening its berries June 8. The 
vines are again loaded with medium-sized berries, gener¬ 
ally of good shape and excellent quality. 
Prof. Bailey says that his best nozzle is no nozzle at all. 
He has a device for puckering up the mouth of an ordinary 
hose so that it will throw a spray to suit him. 
It is not a very dignified spectacle—that of a big man 
with a musket that was made to destroy the enemies of 
liberty, waiting to shoot a little bird that eats a few 
cherries. 
When preparing Buhach water to spray rose bushes to 
rid them of the rose chafer, it is well to add tobacco soap. 
This will rid the bushes of the Green lice (aphidm) which 
the Buhach will not injure. 
Acer Schwedlerii and Acer Reitenbachii (both varieties 
of the Norway Maple) so resemble each other that the one 
will answer pretty well for the other. We prefer the 
Schwedlerii because it retains the color of its leaves for a 
longer period. 
A DRESSING at the rate from 300 to 500 pounds of a 
high-grade fertilizer when the corn is knee-high will gen¬ 
erally pay on land that is not already bo rich that it does 
not respond to fertilizers. Sow the fertilizer just before 
cultivation. Cultivate shallow. 
Squirt, squirt, squirt—that’s what we are mainly en¬ 
gaged iu, good readers, at the Rural Grounds. Really, this 
squirting business becomes just a trifle monotonous don’t- 
cherknow ? Aphidee, rose bugs, slugs, potato grubs, 
asparagus beetles, cut-worms, etc., were never more 
numerous. 
Fifty or so seeds of Magnolia Lenn6 were picked up ou 
the ground this spring under the parent tree. These were 
planted in drills in garden soil and a fair proportion ger¬ 
minated in two weeks. As the pistils and stamens of mag¬ 
nolias are seldom matured at the same time, probably such 
seeds are crosses and one may expect an interesting lot of 
seedlings. Had these seeds been gathered wheu ripe and 
allowed to become dry before planting, it is ft question 
whether they would ever hftYe sprouted, 
