5oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AUG. 2 
TH El 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
Rural Publishing- Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1890. 
When a man looks back upon 40 years of 
life and sees that he has no home that he 
may call his own ; sees that he is little if any 
better off than he was in early manhood, he 
must gloomily confess that life has been a 
failure. It does not suffice to say: “I have 
helped others and that is the cause of my 
homelessness.” It is never economy for any 
one to sacrifice his home that another may 
have it. God gives to those who help them¬ 
selves, and he does not recognize the morality 
of the exchange which robs Peter to pay Paul. 
The survival of the fittest is one of God’s 
laws which we must not change, else instead 
of progress, degeneration of all animal and 
vegetable life must follow. 
Proerast I nation— 
Abomination. 
Economy- 
Security 
Give us, Rural readers, more pith in fewer words, 
please. 
A TOMATO which originated at the Rural Grounds 
—the result of 13 years’ selection—will be intro¬ 
duced next year. It is early, of medium size, re¬ 
markably smooth, and a long keeper. 
God, in his great wisdom, has so constituted us 
that the pursuit of real economy gives pleasure in¬ 
stead of sacrifice and pain. Herein is where the 
profligate misses it. His profligacy, which he 
chooses as a source of pleasure, gives naught but 
sorrow and disappointment and disaster in the end. 
Our friend, J. Lewis Childs, proposes to sue The 
R. N.-Y. If we have wronged him we hope he will 
win the suit. The power of such a journal as The 
R. N.-Y., which circulates among the progressive 
farmers of the Nation, is great. It should be ex¬ 
tremely careful as to its facts before it either 
praises or condemns. 
Success, if honorable, must bring a measure of 
happiness. But there is no lasting success without 
economy. Blessed he economy, for it increases the 
real joys of life and our capacity for doing good. 
Cursed be parsimony, on the other hand, for it is 
the dog in the manger, that will neither itself eat 
nor permit others to eat. 
Of the 75 varieties of grapes fruiting this season 
at the Rural Grounds (not counting our own seed¬ 
lings) the following are the only kinds which are 
carrying bunches free from rot: Parity, Delaware, 
Pocklington, Rockingham. Victoria, Antoinette, 
Ulster, Cottage, Nectar (Black Delaware), Eaton, 
Empire State and Worden. 
There is a striking difference in the vines of our 
potato experiment plots—those, we mean, which 
are again striving to solve tho problem: “What 
sized seed shall be planted and how far apart? ” In 
one plot the seed was planted but three inches 
apart in trenches three feet apart—the seed being 
cat to single eyes. In others seed with two eyes, 
half-seed, or whole-seed was planted at different 
distances. The vines of the single eyes are much 
less bushy than the others at present. The R. N.- 
Y., as its readers know, has tugged at this problem 
for many years. Thus far our answer is: “Plant 
three eyes with all the flesh to each piece possible.” 
Our debts to Nature must be paid. There is no 
possible escape. You can delay and delay until you 
come to the end of your resources. You can pur¬ 
chase pleasure day after day; but you must pay the 
interest as it falls due and then, alas ! you must 
pay the principal. At first it is easy to pay the in¬ 
terest. The sum seems small; but do you fully ap¬ 
preciate the fact that, as years roll on, your desire 
for pleasure remains the same or increases, while 
your capacity for paying for it grows less l Nature 
is bountiful in her loans. But she is unrelenting in 
her demand that they should be promptly paid at 
maturity. There is no escape; no sneaking out of it. 
The three bush Limas which were, last year, meta¬ 
phorically illustrated as running after the farmer's 
cash, though they run not at all as to vine, are this 
year thriving exceedingly well at the Rural 
Grounds. Henderson’s Little Lima (or Sieva), 
Thorburn’s Kumeije (or bush Dreer’s) and Burpee’s 
Large Lima—to mention them in the order of their 
introduction—are the three bush Limas, and they 
are in fact bush beans. The one merit of the Bush 
Sieva is its earliness. The others are true bush 
Limas and are just what any gardener wants that 
does not care to go to the expense and trouble of 
poles._ 
The State of Louisiana having virtually entered 
into partnership with the Louisiana Lottery Fraud 
for the purpose of swindling the gullible, greedy 
and gambling elements of the country out of mil¬ 
lions of dollais, it behooves the National Legislature 
to promptly take the most effective constitutional 
means to lessen as much as possible the consequent 
evils likely to result to the public. Under the 
present laws, the Post office is not authorized to in¬ 
spect letters passing through the mails, even when 
tneir destination is known, and there are grave ob¬ 
jections to any inquisitorial measures with regard 
to the postal service; still the best sense of the 
people insists that the public mails of the Nation 
shall not be used for the purpose of swin 
dling and demoralizing the people of the Nation, 
lor whose benefit the service is intended. 
With the certainty that it will be passed by an 
ignorant and corrupt vote, the legislature has de¬ 
cided to submit to the people a constitutional 
amendment granting the lottery a charter for 25 
years from the expiration of its present franchise, 
tor which the concern is to pay the State $1,250,000 
a year out of its public plunder. Thus the State is to 
gain $30,250,000 for the grant of power and authority 
to a conscienceless corporation to defraud and de¬ 
moralize the moral weaklings of the Nation for a 
quarter of a century. There are five bills now be¬ 
fore Congress to check and minimize the evils of 
this crime, and the committee on Post-offices is to 
formulate a sixth, embodying the best features of 
all the others. Such a measure should meet with 
the hearty commendation of the public, even if it 
should trench almost a trifle on rights which 
nave hitherto been considered inviolate. Hitherto 
Louisiana has been known as the Pelican State ; 
should this infamous measure become law, would 
not a more appropriate name be the Lottery State ? 
When, a few weeks ago, the Court of Appeals of 
New York State decided that the charter of the 
North River Refining Company had been forfeited 
because that corporation had surrendered to the 
Sugar Trust the powers granted to it by the State, 
a confident belief was expressed throughout the 
country that the decision was a death blow to 
Trusts in general. The Rural New-Yorker, how¬ 
ever, at the time stated the simple facts of the case 
—that the decision was conclusive only as to the 
power of a New York corporation to enter a Trust 
combination, and that it would “tax the highest 
statesmanship, the keenest legal ability, and the 
most incorruptible judiciary ” to “abolish these 
odious monopolies.” The course of events since 
then has fully substantiated these views. Last 
Wednesday the first step was taken by the Trustees 
of the Sugar Trust to evade the effects of the de¬ 
cision by maugurating measures for dissolving the 
organization under the Trust deed and reorganizing 
it into a corporation, probably under the loose cor¬ 
porate laws of New Jersey or Connecticut. It will 
still, however, be the Sugar Trust under a new 
name. The public will derive no relief whatever 
from the change. The questions suggested by the 
placing of Trusts under corporate charters are still 
to be considered by the Courts. Within the 
last few weeks eighteen or twenty starch fac¬ 
tories in different parts of the country have 
been grouped under a corporate charter obtained in 
Kentucky. In this case the method followed was 
precisely similar to those used in forming actual 
Trusts, but the organization has a charter and is 
entitled to be called a corporation. The deed under 
which the Sugar Trust was organized was considered 
the weakest of those on which all the great Trusts 
have been founded. Indeed, it is reported that sev¬ 
eral of the magnates of some of the other large 
Trusts absolutely refused to invest a dollar in the 
Sugar Trust after their legal luminaries had shed 
light on the faulty construction of the instrument. 
All the other big Trusts, following the example of 
the Standard Oil, are constantly making enormous 
investments to strengthen their monopolies and ex! 
tend their business, apparently entirely undisturbed 
by any judicial or legislative action hitherto taken 
against such organizations. The battle against the 
Trusts has only just begun, and is pretty certain to 
go against the people unless they realize the real 
position of the case, and take earnest, wise and en¬ 
ergetic action. 
RABIES. 
Now we are having the periodical talk about 
rabies or, as it is incorrectly called, hydrophobia. 
It may be presumed that most of those who write 
about this rare disease have never seen a case of it. 
Though so rare in fact, it may still have an exist¬ 
ence, and the fear of so terrible a malady excites an 
infinitude of apprehensions antagonistic alike to 
searching inquiry and to the animal in which, ac¬ 
cording to popular prejudice, it is most likely to 
develop. Let us call attention to several of the 
glaringly erroneous notions that have always 
existed in connection with it. Fits, with which 
young dogs are often afflicted, are too often mis¬ 
taken for rabies, and this has created not only a 
belief in the prevalence of the disease, not at all 
supported by facts, but has lent a powerful in¬ 
fluence in fixing the deep prejudice at present 
existing against all dogs. So marked, however, 
are the differences in the symptoms of the two 
afflictions, that it is remarkable they should ever 
be confounded by the most timid and uninquiring. 
The writer begs to say that he has witnessed the 
disease of rabies in every stage, having chained 
and muzzled the animal as soon as it was sus¬ 
pected, and killed it only when he could no longer 
endure to watch its agonies. It is by many sup¬ 
posed that, without any abnormal symptoms, a dog 
may be attacked at any moment, and that from 
that moment it will bite whatever comes within its 
reach. The truth is, however, that the disease has 
its mcipieacy, its aggravated progress, and that the 
proclivity to bite is evinced only in its culminating 
stages. Whenever the disease has been watched, a 
manifest sickness of not less than two, and gener¬ 
ally from three to four weeks, has intervened be¬ 
fore marked symptoms are revealed. Drooling 
(not frothing) at the mouth, a strangely perverted 
appetite, the watching of imaginary objects, and a 
never-ceasing restlessness are among the middle 
symptoms that rarely deceive. It is commonly 
supposed that rabid dogs shrink from contact or 
even the sight of water. This idea is erroneous, 
since from actual trials with 11 out of 12 cases, their 
thirst seemed unquenchable. Again, it is believed 
by many that the rabid dog, if unrestrained, will 
pursue a nearly straight course, snapping at every 
object within its reach until death occurs. It is 
the truth, however, that, except during the par¬ 
oxysms of delirium, which seldom continue 10 
minutes at once, it seeks, in its agony, the most ob¬ 
scure places. In the writer’s own experience the 
dog never evinced the least inclination to bite at 
other times, recognizing his master as usual. 
Epileptic fits seize a dog without giving a 
minute’s warning. Indeed, they often occur when 
the dog seems in his highest spirits and most vig¬ 
orous health. The affected animal generally runs 
wildly, staggers, falls down and froths at the mouth 
from incessant champing; his eyes are sometimes 
closed or show only the sclerotica (white of the eye) 
or, if open, are dull and vacant. He regains his 
feet, toddles about mechanically, and, as if de¬ 
prived of sight, runs first into one thing, then into 
another. In rabies a dog never runs about without 
an object. Possessed of unnatural strength, he 
never staggers, never falls, except it be to die. He 
drools at the mouth, but never froths. His eyes are 
strangely bright and piercing and are never par¬ 
tially or wholly closed. The disease gives a long 
warning, as stated, and is more frequent in winter, 
fall or spring than in summer. As, therefore, fits 
never occur in any stage of rabies, their existence is 
a positive guarantee that the dog is harmless. 
Unless inoculated from the bites of rabid animals, 
rabies, according to the most reliable statistics, 
standard authorities and the experience of intelligent 
dog fanciers, never attacks those dogs which have 
a fair share of attention paid to their food, drink 
and general care. It might be said that the virus of 
rabies is the inspissation of filth, neglect, suffering ; 
the resultant scum, so to say, that is finally incu¬ 
bated from this combination of evils to which the 
dog is often subjected by ignorant, cruel and indif¬ 
ferent owners. 
BREVITIES. 
The dickering farmer is at heart a gambler. 
The R. N.-Y. has to report that it does not thus far find 
marriage a failure. 
The question is not “ Does farming pay? ” but “ Is he a 
competent or an incompetent farmer ? ” 
Would you pardon us for calling attention to the fact 
that The R. N.-Y. takes no summer vacation ? 
The lazy man at least loathes himself and is, in fact, dis¬ 
satisfied with all the world besides. There is no economy 
in laziness. It is all outgo. 
Spasmodic tidiness in mowing weeds is like spasmodic 
goodness in eradicating evil. It leaves a mighty coarse 
stubble and lots of roughness. 
A correspondent compares corn to a good-natured, 
hungry child. It adapts itself easily to things as they 
come, but is wonderfully impfoved by cultivation. 
The woman or man that does not economize time rarely 
gets anywhere. There are millions among us who work 
incessantly in one way or another, who have never learnt 
to economize time. 
A GRAND crop of early potatoes is fully assured if we 
may judge by New Jersey’s outcome. The plants were 
never more vigorous. Something has happened to the flea 
beetle and ten-liners. 
T. V. MUNSON sends us specimen bunches of a new grape 
which he calls “ Brilliant.” The parentage is Liudley 
crossed with Delaware. A portrait will appear later. We 
want more Munsons. 
Is it economy that we should deprive ourselves of the 
food essential to the support of the body ? Is it economy 
that we should work beyond our strength to save a dollar? 
Is it economy that we should do without the necessaries of 
life that we may enjoy its luxuries ? 
The R. N.-Y. regrets to learn of the death of its former 
correspondent, F. D. Douglas, of Vermont. The Secre¬ 
tary of the Vermont Dairymen’s Association well says of 
him : “ He was a man of great research and rare ability 
for experimental and practical work. The dairy p .blic 
have never realized to how great an extent they are in¬ 
debted to his investigations and early experiments in the 
'behavior of milk under various couditious, for there has 
been no special system or apparatus to bear his name. 
His was a nature so unselfish and magnanimous that he 
freely taught to others the facts gleaned from his laborious 
experiments; and, if I am correctly informed, the men 
who have had the honor of originating the Jewett Pan, 
the Cooley Creamer, and other milk-setting apparatus, re¬ 
ceived tbeu fundamental ideas from Mr, Douglas.” 
