io4 
February  13 
T 
THU 
Rural  New-Yorker 
TIMES  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK. 
*  * 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
*  * 
ELBERT  S.  CABMAN.  Editor  In  Chief 
HERBERT  W.  COLLINGWOOD,  Managing  Editor. 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY ,  FEBRUARY  13,  1892. 
NEXT  WEEK. 
Reviews  and  brief  notices  of  the  seedsmen  and 
florists’  catalogues  hitherto  received  will  appear  next 
week,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  greater  part  of  them  will  so 
appear.  The  R.  N.-Y.  may  not  be  held  fairly  respons¬ 
ible  for  failing  to  “  notice  ”  catalogues  that  have  never 
been  received.  It  has  always  been  the  custom  of  the 
farm  press  to  announce  the  receipt  of  catalogues 
editorially.  The  “  review”  feature  is  peculiar  to  The 
R.  N.-Y.  For  the  past  15  years  we  have  endeavored  to 
make  a  study  of  these  instructive  periodicals  and  from 
this  study  to  help  our  readers  to  deal  with  trust¬ 
worthy  firms.  That  we  have,  in  many  cases,  spoken 
our  mind  freely  against  certain  firms  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  libel  lawsuits  for  large  amounts  have  been 
brought  against  The  R.  N.-Y.  That  we  have  not  in 
all  cases  denounced  catalogues  that  were  palpably 
open  to  denunciation,  is  simply  for  the  reason  that  we 
could  not  afford  to  do  it.  We  can  not  afford  to  carry  on 
this  journal  at  a  loss — and  to  speak  our  mind  freely  as 
to  the  inexcusable  falsehoods  and  exaggerations  with 
which  the  illustrations  and  text  of  certain  of  our 
seedsmen  and  florists’  catalogues  are  well  supplied, 
would  involve  it  in  lawsuits  which  would  take  half 
our  time  to  contest. 
We  are  doing  all  we  can  in  this  battle  against  those 
who  live  by  false  representations  of  the  plants  and 
seeds  they  sell.  First,  we  have  attacked  one,  then 
another.  We  can  not  fight  all  at  once  and  live.  But 
we  do  devoutly  hope  that  our  warfare  will,  in  good 
time,  place  the  rankest  offenders  in  such  a  light  before 
the  public,  that  the  rest  will  deem  it  a  good  business 
policjr  to  change  their  ways  in  the  interest  of  truth. 
*  * 
When  the  war  broke  out  many  Southern  men  went 
to  the  Confederate  army  accompanied  by  slaves  as 
body  servants.  These  negroes  served  their  masters  so 
well  that  many  of  them  were  killed  and  wounded. 
Several  of  the  Southern  States  pay  pensions  to  disabled 
Confederate  soldiers.  A  bill  has  just  passed  the  Mis¬ 
sissippi  Legislature  providing  that  all  servants  who 
were  disabled  by  wounds  shall  receive  the  same  State 
pensions  as  private  soldiers.  This  places  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  negroes  on  the  pension  roll,  and  there  will  be 
few  to  say  that  it  is  not  a  well-deserved  action.  The 
world  moves— and  we  are  glad  it  does  not  stand  still. 
*  * 
A  bill  has  been  introduced  into  the  Senate  at  Albany 
providing  for  the  construction  by  the  State  of  six 
elevators,  two  at  Buffalo  and  four  at  New  York,  for 
loading  and  unloading  canal  boats  with  grain,  the 
charge  of  one-fourth  of  a  cent  per  bushel  to  be  made 
by  the  State  for  that  service.  Whether  the  bill  is 
simply  a  “strike”  or  whether  it  is  intended  honestly  to 
urge  its  passage,  we  do  not  know.  Honestly  constructed 
and  honestly  managed,  they  would  be  a  boon  to  the 
people  of  the  State,  in  preventing  the  extortions  of  the 
elevator  men  of  New  York  and  Buffalo,  who  have  prac¬ 
tically  neutralized  all  the  benefits  expected  from  free 
canals.  We  shall  watch  the  progress  of  this  bill. 
#  * 
Anent  the  recent  utterances  of  the  mayors  of  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  against  an  increase  of  official  sal¬ 
aries,  The  Rural  would  like  to  say  a  word  or  two. 
When  a  man  makes  a  prodigious  effort  to  secure  a  pub¬ 
lic  office,  we  have  a  right  to  infer  that  he  considers  the 
position  a  desirable  one.  But  when  he  begins  lobbying 
for  an  increase  of  salary,  he  is  not  acting  fairly.  If  he 
can  do  better  in  the  other  walks  of  life,  he  can  always 
resign,  and  there  will  be  no  lack  of  patriots  to  take 
his  place  at  the  old  salary.  It  is  really  like  trying  to 
obtain  money  by  false  pretenses.  Official  salaries  are 
too  high — not  too  low.  Two-thirds  of  the  incumbents 
never  did  and  never  could  earn  as  much  in  any  other 
way.  Neither  is  it  true  that  large  salaries  give  us  a 
better  civil  service.  Large  salaries  tempt  dishonest 
men  to  make  unusual  efforts  to  secure  the  prizes,  and, 
using  methods  which  honest  men  would  not  counte¬ 
nance,  they  are  most  often  the  victors  in  the  struggle. 
The  Health  Officer  of  New  York  gets  §10,000  per  year 
salary,  and  it  is  said  his  perquisites  amount  to  far  more 
than  this.  There  are  scores  of  competent  men  who  would 
be  glad  to  take  the  place  at  half  the  salary  and  with 
HE  RURAL  NEW-YORKE 
no  perquisites  at  all.  All  over  the  State  there  are 
county  clerks  with  incomes  ranging  from  $5,000  to 
$20,000  per  annum,  and  there  are  plenty  of  thoroughly 
competent  men  who  would  be  glad  to  fill  the  places  for 
•$2,500,  covering  the  remainder  of  the  receipts  into  the 
public  treasury.  Reform  is  needed  in  this  salary  mat¬ 
ter,  but  it  is  not  in  the  direction  of  an  increase. 
*  * 
We  asked  a  barber  the  other  day  how  a  boy  could 
learn  to  shave  without  cutting  so  many  customers  as 
to  ruin  trade.  The  barber  said  he  never  let  an  appren¬ 
tice  shave  one  of  his  old  customers ;  whenever  a 
transient  customer  came  in  he  let  the  boy  try  his  skill 
on  him.  It  never  paid  to  try  an  experiment  on  an 
old-time  customer ;  he  made  every  effort  to  give  his 
old  friends  the  best  of  service,  believing  it  better  to 
make  sure  of  keeping  one  old  friend  than  to  spend 
the  time  trying  to  pick  up  two  new  ones.  There 
is  a  good  hint  here  for  farmers  or  other  business  men. 
Find  out  just  what  your  customers  want  and  give  them 
that  and  nothing  else.  If  you  have  any  experiments 
to  try.  make  them  outside  of  your  regular  business. 
*  * 
A  friend  in  Homer,  N.  Y.  sends  this  note:  “Many 
of  the  residents  of  this  town  have  signed  a  petition  to 
our  legislators  to  pass  a  law  to  compel  the  use  of  wide 
tires  on  heavily  loaded  wagons  on  the  highways  of  the 
State.  Wagons  with  tires  only  one  inch  and  a  half 
broad  carrying  loads  weighing  6,000  or  8,000  pounds, 
cut  the  road  very  badly  when  wet.  With  three-inch 
tires  the  injury  would  not  be  nearly  so  great.  All 
wagons  carrying  loads  of  from  2,000  to  6,000  pounds 
should  have  three-inch  tires,  and  those  carrying  6,000 
pounds  and  upwards,  four-inch  tires.  ”  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  if  every  wagon  wheel  could  carry  a  wide 
tire  our  roads  would  be  better  off.  The  difference 
between  a  narrow  and  a  wide  tire  is  the  difference 
between  a  plow  and  a  roller.  It  seems  strange  though 
that  people  must  be  compelled  by  law  to  do  things  that 
are  manifestly  for  their  best  interests. 
*  * 
W ATER  is  a  wonderful  thing.  It  is  delivered,  free  of 
charge,  to  the  majority  of  our  farms.  Except  when  we 
handle  stable  manure,  we  do  not  have  to  haul  water. 
It  is  given  to  us,  and  yet  when  we  sell  it  in  the  form  of 
vegetables  and  fruits,  we  may  get  for  it  all  the  way 
from  $100  to  $1,000  per  ton  !  Yet  if  we  took  this  water 
just  as  we  get  it  and  tried  to  sell  it,  nobody  would  buy. 
It  must  be  sold  in  the  form  of  a  combination.  The  grow¬ 
ing  plant  makes  the  combination,  but  the  plant  cannot 
do  it  alone — it  must  be  assisted  by  three  workmen — 
Nitrogen,  Potash  and  Phosphoric  Acid.  These  are  in 
the  soil  and  in  the  manure.  On  new  or  strong  soils 
they  will  work,  for  a  time,  for  nothing,  but  the  time 
must  come  when  we  must  pay  for  their  services  in  the 
money  we  spend  for  manures  and  fertilizers.  Potash 
and  phosphoric  acid  do  not  demand  large  wages.  Close 
competition  and  almost  unlimited  supply  have  reduced 
their  price  so  that  the  cost  of  supplying  them  to  the 
farm  is  not  excessive.  The  amounts  of  these  substances 
removed  in  a  bushel  of  wheat  would  not  cost  much 
over  four  cents  at  the  highest  market  price.  It  is  the 
nitrogen  that  costs,  and  the  great  problem  of  agricul¬ 
ture  is  to  reduce  its  price  per  pound.  There  is  nitrogen 
all  about  us  as  free  as  the  air  in  which  it  stays.  Could 
the  farmer  get  hold  of  the  nitrogen  in  the  air  above 
his  farm,  his  manure  question  would  be  settled.  It  is 
not  strange  that  scientists  have,  of  late  years,  given 
increased  thought  to  the  problem  of  securing  free  nit¬ 
rogen  or  at  least  cutting  down  its  wages.  Clover  has 
come  to  be  called  a  “nitrogen  trap.”  How  can  we 
best  “  bait”  this  trap  so  that  the  desired  game  will 
enter  it  ?  What  plants  are  best,  what  manures  are 
cheapest  to  give  these  plants  the  best  growth,  and 
what  do  they  need  to  supplement  their  fertility  ?  These 
are  questions  that  farmers  want  to  know.  Every  ex¬ 
periment  station  in  the  country  should  conduct  pro¬ 
longed  and  exhaustive  experiments  with  green  man¬ 
ures  and  fertilizers  to  determine  what  plants  are  best 
and  in  what  forms  the  potash,  phosphoric  acid  and 
nitrogen  needed  to  aid  tnese  plants  can  be  most  reason¬ 
ably  supplied. 
*  * 
The  Fifty-first  Congress  passed  a  law  forbidding  the 
use  of  the  United  States  mails  for  the  distribution  of 
all  lottery  circulars,  letters  or  tickets,  or  for  the  trans¬ 
portation  of  newspapers  containing  lottery  advertise¬ 
ments,  or  for  the  remittance  of  money  to  or  from  any 
lottery,  and  imposing  heavy  penalties  for  all  violations 
of  the  law.  Straightway  the  Louisiana  Lottery,  against 
whose  monstrous  abuses  the  measure  was  mainly 
directed,  contested  its  constitutionality  before  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  which  the  other  day 
decided  that  the  law  was  constitutional.  This  has 
been  a  death  blow  to  the  scandalous  swindle.  John 
A.  Morris,  its  chief  beneficiary  and  owner,  who  has 
reaped  many  millions  of  profits  from  the  greed  and 
credulity  of  its  dupes,  has  just  declared  that  the  con- 
R. 
cern  will  “  go  out  of  business”  at  the  close  of  its  pres¬ 
ent  charter,  in  1894.  For  upwards  of  two  years  it  has 
been  trying  to  secure  a  renewal  of  its  charter  for  25 
years  from  the  Louisiana  Legislature.  To  this  end,  it 
has  offered  the  State  an  annual  bribe  of  $1,250,000  for 
the  privilege  of  swindling  its  own  citizens  and  those  of 
every  other  State  and  Territory  for  the  next  quarter 
of  a  century.  Its  annual  income  for  years  has 
been  estimated  at  about  $12,000,000,  and  its  clear  profits 
at  not  less  than  $4,000,000.  In  the  political  contest 
lately  raging  in  the  Pelican  State,  it  is  reported  to  have 
already  spent  from  $3,000,000  to  $5,000,000  in  corrupt¬ 
ing  the  constituency,  and  probably  nearly  as  much 
more  would  be  needed  to  secure  the  charter.  Nearly 
the  whole  of  its  business  has,  until  the  past  year,  been 
carried  on  through  the  mails,  and  as  this  can  no  longer 
be  done,  it  appears  to  be  impossible  to  realize  gigantic 
profits  after  paying  large  commissions  to  agents  and 
other  heavy  expenses,  in  addition  to  the  monstrous 
bribe  of  a  million  and  a  quarter  a  year.  For  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  no  single  agency  has  done  so  much 
to  demoralize  the  public  as  this  gigantic  fraud,  and  all 
over  the  country  all  decent  people  should  rejoice  that 
the  threatened  prolongation  of  its  nefarious  career  has 
been  rendered  impossible  by  national  legislation,  which 
alone  was  capable  of  coping  with  its  vast  powers  of 
coercion  and  corruption. 
Brevities. 
I’m  jest  a-gonter  fix  my  road  to  suit  myself,  I  say, 
An’  folks  that  Isn’t  satisfied  kin  drive  some  other  way. 
There  ain’t  no  civil  engineer  a-gonter  touch  my  road, 
Let  one  of  ’em  come  here  an’  I’ll  jest  let  him  have  a  load 
Of  salt;  an’  ef  he  comes  agin,  I’ll  give  him  buckshot  too; 
I  date  way  back  to  Bunker  Hill  where  Grandsire  Hale  blowed  through 
A  British  sojer  slick  and  clean;  an'  so  I  know  my  right; 
Ef  they  try  crowdin’  me  I’ll  jest  rare  up  and  show  ’em  fight. 
Don’t  make  no  odds  what  people  say— this  farm  belongs  to  me; 
We  ’lowed  the  town  to  make  that  road,  and  now,  then,  we’ll  jess  see 
Ef  city  folks  and  dudes  an’  cranks  kin  take  my  rights  away; 
They'll  find  the  date  they  try  It  on  a  mighty  lively  day — 
I’ve  got  the  papers  showln’  what  the  town  agreed  to  do. 
They  don’t  work  no  John  C.  Calhoun  on  me,  now  1  tell  you  ! 
They  ain’t  a-gonter  nullify  no  rights  of  mine  I'll  bet: 
They’ll  find  old  Andrew  Jackson  Is  alive  an’  kickin’  yet. 
Don’t  make  no  odds  what  laws  they  pass  !  jest  let  'em  vote  all  night. 
An'  resoloot  an’  legislate;  I’m  gonter  show  ’em  fight  1 
I’ll  run  a  fence  across  the  road  an’  fight  off  half  the  town, 
An’  make  a  sieve  of  any  man  that  tries  to  pull  it  down. 
An’  so  I'm  gonter  fix  that  road  to  suit  myself,  I  say, 
An’  folks  that  Isn’t  satisfied  kin  drive  some  other  way. 
Spraying  keeps  Insects  from  preying. 
’Tis  neither  business-like  nor  nice  to  feed  good  chicken  to  the  lice. 
Hand  separators  capable  of  handling  26  gallons  of  milk  per  hour  are 
sold  In  England  for  $85. 
Lots  of  people  would  win  brand  new  health  and  strength  by  eating 
more  bran  In  their  bread  ! 
What  a  change  there  would  be  In  this  good  world  of  ours  If  some  of 
the  beer  money  went  to  buy  flowers. 
Never  mind  how  foul  the  day,  little  evil  can  befall  If  we  truthfully 
can  say— home  Is  still  the  best  of  all. 
Surplus  roosters  are  misery  boosters,  as  all  of  you  must  know;  they 
are  only  alarmers,  and  give  the  farmers  little  to  eat  but  cr<nv. 
The  drain  from  yard  to  river  and  the  hole  that  makes  stock  shiver  are 
the  bung  holes  of  the  farm;  good  goes  out  while  in  goes  harm. 
The  farmer  who  lets  his  calves  and  colts  stand  out-of-doors  all  day, 
may,  by  processes  of  evolution,  succeed  In  raising  animals  that  will 
be  hardy,  but  hardiness  will  be  their  only  virtue. 
We  all  have  our  likes  and  dislikes  with  tomatoes  as  with  everything 
else.  Here  Is  the  way  an  Ohio  reader  talks:  “  Ponderosa— that  great 
big  loafer!— he  came  In  so  late  we  had  to  hire  our  neighbors  to  take  him 
in  and  pickle  him.” 
Can’t  you  and  your  neighbors  start  a  mall  delivery  association?  The 
history  of  the  mall  service  shows  that  private  enterprise  started  mall 
delivery  in  this  country.  Uncle  Sam  followed  and  took  the  work  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  people. 
On  page  39  a  subscriber  told  of  his  difficulty  in  catching  clover.  An¬ 
other  man  In  Ohio  who  has  had  the  same  trouble  writes:  “Tell  S.  Y. 
that  If  he  doesn’t  sow  any  Timothy  either  in  the  fall  or  spring,  he  will 
be  more  likely  to  get  clover.  This  is  my  experience.” 
Over  40  years  ago  StSckhardt  wrote:  “  A  farmer  who  does  not  care¬ 
fully  collect  and  preserve  the  urine  of  his  house  and  live  stock,  acts  like  the 
miner  who  throws  away  dull  silver  ore,  because  it  does  not  shine  like  white 
silver."  That  Is  as  true  to-day  as  It  ever  was.  What  good  does  it  do  to 
buy  fertilizers  In  bags  If  we  let  an  equal  amount  of  fertility  run  away 
through  the  bung  hole: 
We  are  surprised  to  see  that  some  of  our  best  poultry  authorities  ad¬ 
vise  a  cross  of  the  Leghorn  on  Plymouth  Rock  or  Light  Brahma  for  an 
egg  fowl.  Such  a  cross  will  produce  a  good  layer;  but  the  eggs  will  be 
of  a  dusty,  indistinct  color  that  will  be  against  their  sale.  Don’t  cross 
a  brown  and  a  white-egg  breed  if  you  want  to  sell  the  eggs.  A  warm 
and  comfortable  Leghorn  doesn’t  need  any  Brahma  blood  to  make  her 
lay  in  winter. 
J.  H.  Hale  suggests  that  the  Connecticut  State  Grange  should  loan 
its  surplus  funds  to  Patrons  who  need  money,  at  three  per  cent.  Why 
not  ?  Almost  all  the  farmers’  organizations  have  a  cash  balance  In 
their  treasury  and  could  easily  obtain  more  by  enlarging  their  dues. 
This  sum,  loaned  to  needy  members  at  three  per  cent  would  not  hurt 
the  many  who  paid  slightly  larger  dues,  while  it  would  benefit  the  few 
who  needed  to  borrow. 
The  experiments,  not  yet  completed,  in  La  Salle  County,  Ill.,  to  test 
the  value  of  different  methods  of  inoculation  as  a  preventive  of  hog 
cholera,  have  had  a  rather  surprising  result.  At  last  accounts,  over  60 
per  cent  of  the  hogs  inoculated  by  the  Billings  method  were  dead,  and 
they  have  communicated  the  disease  to  those  inoculated  by  the  Bureau 
of  Animal  Industry,  and  to  those  not  inoculated  at  all.  So  far  as  we 
can  judge  from  the  experiments,  inoculation  is  worse  than  useless. 
PROF.  Cooke,  of  the  Vermont  Experiment  Station,  in  a  talk  to  the 
Vermont  dairymen,  gave  them  good  advice  when  he  said  “  no  factory 
should  make  butter  and  cheese  from  the  same  milk.  When  analysis 
shows  the  milk  to  have  over  four  per  cent  of  fat,  make  butter, 
when  less,  make  cheese.”  We  hope  he  advised  them  to  never  make  a 
“half  skim  "  cheese,  that  calamity  in  the  line  of  dairy  products,  which 
has  done  so  much  to  reduce  the  consumption  of  American  cheese,  both 
at  home  and  abroad. 
Texas  ranchmen  claim  to  have  found  a  way  of  burning  straw,  that 
beats  any  other  use  that  oan  be  made  of  it.  The  cactus  is  a  plant  of 
high  feeding  value,  ranking  above  roots  or  ensilage  in  that  respect.  It 
is  practically  useless,  however,  because  of  the  long,  sharp  spines  with 
which  nature  has  provided  it.  It  is  now  reported  that  200  pounds  of 
dry  straw  carefully  mixed  through  1,000  pounds  of  cactus  and  set  on 
fire  will  scorch  off  the  spines  and  make  it  fit  food  for  cattle.  Surely 
here  is  a  case  where  it  pays  to  burn  straw. 
