THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
March  5 
1 56 
THK 
Rural  New-Yorker 
TIMES  BUILDING,  NEW  TURK. 
*  * 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
*  * 
ELBERT  S.  CARMAN,  Editor  In  Chief 
HERBERT  W.  COLLING  WOOD,  Managing  Editor. 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY ,  MARCH  5,  1892. 
Some  months  ago  we  had  some  articles  on  the  great 
value  of  Galloway  hides,  with  a  picture  of  the  fur. 
This  seems  to  have  been  about  the  newest  and  most 
surprising  thing  of  the  year  in  stock  breeding.  To 
show  the  interest  manifested,  we  may  state  that  one 
fur  dealer  was  ready  to  buy  2,500  Galloway  calf  skins. 
There  is  a  great  future  for  these  tame  fur-bearing  ani¬ 
mals  on  the  cold  hill-sides  of  New  England,  where 
many  other  kinds  of  stock  have  led  the  farms  to 
“  abandonment.” 
*  * 
A  friend  out  in  Mercer  Country,  Ill.,  is  kind  enough 
to  say  :  “  Your  paper  will  do  for  the  bean  eaters  and 
potato  raisers  of  the  East — such  as  carry  a  book  in  their 
pockets  to  put  down  every  copper  and  nickel  that  they 
spend,  but  it  is  too  narrow  in  its  make-up  for  the  Great 
Northwest !  ”  The  bean  eaters  and  potato  raisers  are 
doing  pretty  well,  thank  you.  Their  “  books  ”  show 
that  they  save  a  “  copper  ”  now  and  then  and  loan  it 
to  their  Western  brothers  who  feel  like  spreading  out 
a  little.  Thousands  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  subscribers  at 
the  West  keep  books  and  lend  rather  than  borrow. 
*  * 
A  friend  of  The  It.  N.-Y.,  just  returned  from  Ha¬ 
vana,  tells  of  a  curious  method  of  delivering  milk  that 
he  saw  there.  A  cow  was  led  along  the  street  by  the 
milkman.  Where  milk  was  wanted  the  servant  brought 
out  a  bottle,  and  the  milkman  proceeded  to  halt  his  cow 
and  milk  the  desired  quantity  directly  into  the  bottle  ! 
Here  we  have,  in  theory,  a  most  economical  business.  All 
the  cost  of  horse,  harness,  wagon,  cans  and  measures  is 
taken  out.  According  to  theory,  all  this  should  be 
saved  and  added  to  profit,  but  the  milkman  was  in  rags 
and  evidently  conducting  an  unprofitable  business.  It 
doesn’t  always  pay  to  save  the  cost  of  improved  imple¬ 
ments. 
*  * 
What  conditions  are  essential  to  the  long-keeping 
quality  in  grapes  is  a  question  The  R.  N.-Y.  is  unable 
to  decide.  Certain  it  is  that  many  thick-skinned  vari- 
ties  are  not  long  keepers,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
many  thin-skinned  varieties  are  among  the  best  of 
keepers.  The  so-called  Malaga  grapes  have  thin  skins  ; 
so,  too,  have  nearly  all  the  foreign  grapes  popular  in 
our  markets.  All  are  long  keepers.  Meatiness  is  a 
characteristic  of  most  of  the  Yinifera  grapes  and  the 
juice  is  held  in  tender,  meaty  cells,  and  not  free,  as  it  is 
in  our  native  species  and  their  cultivated  varieties. 
The  more  free  juice  there  is  in  a  grape,  the  greater  is 
the  pressure  upon  the  skin,  be  it  thin  or  thick. 
*  * 
A  European  Linden  was  planted  in  the  Rural 
Grounds  in  1875,  and  last  summer  had  attained  a  height 
of  40  feet,  spreading  symmetrically  in  all  directions. 
It  was  seen  that  the  body  of  the  tree  five  feet  from  the 
ground  was  so  decayed  from  injuries  sustained  from 
borers  that  it  was  feared  the  tree  would  topple  over 
during  the  first  heavy  gale.  It  was  therefore  cut 
down  and  the  decayed  portion  examined.  A  greater 
part  of  the  trunk  was  filled  with  rotten  wood  and  the 
excrements  of  the  borers.  The  inner  bark  of  the 
sound  wood  above  had  thrown  out  many  roots  which 
permeated  every  part  of  the  rotten  wood  and  excre¬ 
ments  above  mentioned  and  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  tree  was  in  part  sustained  by  the  nutriment 
thus  obtained.  *  * 
Nearly  700  farms  furnish  about  10,000,000  quarts 
of  milk  to  the  butter  factory  described  in  this  issue. 
Do  you  realize  that  this  means  a  pool  1,000  feet  long, 
10  feet  wide  and  3%  feet  deep  ?  If  this  were  permitted 
to  flow  into  the  New  \Tork  market,  it  would  wash  the 
profit  all  out  of  the  business  and  throw  many  a  wrecked 
dairyman  on  the  rocks.  As  it  is,  the  little  price  left 
to  the  milk  men  is  saved,  while  the  milk  is  turned  into 
a  uniformly  salable  product.  This  is  a  good  illustra¬ 
tion  of  the  successful  working  of  one  form  of  coopera¬ 
tion.  This  immense  establishment  can  make  use  of 
every  possible  labor-saving  device  and  can  even  afford 
to  hire  men  to  invent  new  methods  of  utilizing  the 
wastes  of  manufacture.  The  steam  engine  does  the 
work  of  creaming,  churning  and  working,  that,  under 
the  individual  system,  required  the  labor  of  1,000  pairs 
of  hands.  Several  years  ago,  in  a  report  from  this 
same  factory,  it  was  stated  that  much  of  the  skim-milk 
was  piped  into  the  river  as  a  useless  waste.  It  now 
finds  a  profitable  market  in  the  form  of  pot  cheese. 
This  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  tendency  of  the 
times  towards  concentration  and  waste-saving.  We 
are  about  through  with  discovering  new  values  in 
crude  materials  ;  the  pioneer  of  to-day  looks  for  gold  in 
what  has  been  considered  rubbish. 
*  *  * 
A  genius  out  West  has  been  writing  to  The  Rural 
about  an  advertisement  of  something  he  had  to  sell. 
The  ‘  ‘  copy  ”  sent  reads  and  is  punctuated  as  follows  : 
Do  you  like  milk  if  you  do  and  have  got  a  cow  that  does  not  give 
much  you  should  write  to  me  and  learn  of  a  remedy  that  will  increase 
the  milk  one-third  it  is  found  on  every  farm  and  used  in  Every  Kitchen 
and  costs  nothing  to  use  it  for  this  great  remedy  address - 
The  Rural  does  not  like  suspicious  advertisements, 
and  so  proceeded  to  interrogate  further,  before  giving 
this  great  boon  to  its  readers.  What  was  this  “  rem¬ 
edy  ?  ”  How  much  did  it  cost  ?  This  elicited  the  addi¬ 
tional  information  from  the  would-be  advertiser,  that 
the  “remedy  ”  was  hot  water.  Let  the  cow  drink  hot 
water,  and  the  flow  of  milk  would  be  increased  by  one- 
third  in  a  few  days.  For  this  bit  of  quackery,  readers 
were  to  send  25  cents  in  silver,  his  concluding  caution 
being  “  Mension  silver  in  ad  as  every  body  would  send 
stamps.”  Our  readers  have  the  secret — they  need 
send  neither  stamps  nor  silver  for  it. 
*  * 
For  beneficial  purposes  the  English  sparrow  was  in¬ 
troduced  into  America  and  the  rabbit  into  Australia 
hardly  a  generation  ago,  and  both  have  already  become 
uncontrollable  pests  that  have  cost  both  countries  tens 
of  millions  of  dollars  and  are  certain  to  cost  them 
hundreds  of  millions  more.  There  is  a  movement  now 
in  some  of  the  Western  States  to  introduce  the  mon¬ 
goose  to  clear  the  country  of  field  rats.  Isn’t  there 
danger  that  if  this  were  done,  the  story  of  the  sparrow 
and  the  rabbit  would  be  repeated?  Not  long  ago  the 
animal  was  introduced  into  Jamaica  for  the  above  pur¬ 
pose,  but  now  the  inhabitants  are  vainly  trying  to  get 
rid  of  its  multitudinous  progeny.  It  is  so  destructive 
in  the  barn-yard  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  poultry 
of  any  kind.  It  has  destroyed  all  lizards,  toads  and 
small  snakes  which,  harmless  in  themselves,  play  an 
important  part  in  agricultural  economy.  Owing  to 
the  destruction  of  these  friends  of  the  farmer,  the 
grassy  sections  of  the  island  have  become  almost  un¬ 
inhabitable  on  account  of  the  plague  of  ticks  on  which 
they  used  beneficially  to  prey.  Owing  to  their  vast 
numbers,  pastures  are  becoming  useless,  as  cattle  can¬ 
not  stand  their  attacks.  Field  rats  are  a  bad  nuisance, 
isn’t  it  likely  that  mongooses  would  prove  worse? 
*  * 
The  Anti-Option  Bill  now  before  Congress  imposes  a 
license  fee  of  $1,000  on  every  dealer  in  options  and 
futures  in  agricultural  products,  together  with  a  tax 
of  five  cents  on  every  pound  of  pork  and  20  cents  on 
every  bushel  of  wheat  handled.  This  of  course  is 
intended  to  drive  all  such  dealers  out  of  the  business. 
For  years  farmers  throughout  the  country  have  been 
loud  in  their  denunciations  of  this  mode  of  gambling 
in  their  products  by  speculators  and  brokers,  who, 
although  they  never  raised  a  pound  or  a  bushel  of  any 
agricultural  product,  have  realized  vast  fortunes  by  so 
manipulating  the  markets  as  to  cause  fluctuations  in 
prices,  from  which  they  have  gained  while  the  pro¬ 
ducers  have  been,  as  a  rule,  the  chief  sufferers.  Thus 
while  their  machinations  have  unsettled  our  domestic, 
they  have  endangered  and  curtailed  our  foreign  trade 
in  the  transcendent  products  of  the  country.  All  the 
chief  Produce  Exchanges,  however,  of  which  the  specu¬ 
lators  are  the  main  support,  are,  as  might  be  expected, 
emphatic  in  their  protests  against  the  proposed  law. 
They  insist  that  if  it  passes,  the  farmers  will  be  sadly 
disappointed  in  its  results  ;  that  the  buying  and  selling 
of  agricultural  products  will  inevitably  fall  into  the 
hands  of  a  few  plutocrats,  syndicates  and  trusts,  who 
can  manipulate  the  markets  at  their  own  will ;  that 
experience  has  shown  that  dealings  in  breadstuffs  and 
provisions  are  stimulated  by  the  system  of  selling  for 
future  delivery,  and  that  the  greatest  conspiracies  for 
the  depreciation  of  prices  and  the  disturbance  of  home 
and  foreign  markets  have  invariably  been  formed  by  a 
few  wealthy  men,  while  dealers  and  brokers  have  re¬ 
peatedly  broken  their  combinations  by  the  vast  aggre¬ 
gate  volume  of  their  transactions.  They  also  declare 
that  when  the  law  undertakes  to  make  a  just  distinc¬ 
tion  between  commodities  delivered  and  not  delivered 
when  purchased,  it  undertakes  an  impracticable  task 
and  must  inevitably  cripple  trade  and  cause  disastrous 
commercial  stagnation.  For  years  such  arguments 
have  served  to  hinder  legislation  on  this  matter  ;  are 
they  destined  to  defeat  the  present  measure  also  ?  The 
objectionable  system  has  been  in  vogue  only  a  few 
years,  during  which  the  evils  from  it  have  greatly  out¬ 
numbered  the  advantages  to  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  however  lucrative  it  may  have  been  to  small, 
but  influential  cliques  of  gamblers  at  our  chief  specu¬ 
lative  centers.  How  can  any  serious  disaster  to  any 
worthy  class  of  the  community  result  from  a  return  to 
the  more  stable  and  honest  methods  of  business  of  even 
a  decade  or  two  ago  ?  The  speculators  and  their 
adherents  are  straining  every  nerve  to  defeat  the 
measure ;  its  friends  should  be  fully  alive  to  the 
importance  of  energetic  action  in  its  favor  by  urging 
their  Representatives  and  Senators  in  Congress,  individ¬ 
ually  and  through  their  various  organizations,  to  sup¬ 
port  it.  *  * 
That  Zanesville  fraud,  J.  M.  Bain,  is  at  it  again  in 
his  new  and  original  dodge  of  sending  personal  letters 
to  newspaper  editors.  A  “young  person”  calling 
herself  Jennie,  sends  this  guileless  letter  : 
Will  some  one  please  write  me  what  will  remove  grease  spots  from 
carpets  ?  I  have  a  nice  carpet  nearly  ruined  by  grease.  I  have  peaches, 
berries  and  grapes  over  a  year  old,  as  natural  as  when  picked.  I  use 
the  California  Cold  Process.  You  neither  cook  nor  seal  the  fruit.  It 
costs  but  one  cent  a  quart  to  preserve  it.  If  any  of  your  readers  wish, 
I  will  send  them  a  little  sample  of  berries  by  mail,  and  tell  them  how  to 
put  them  up.  It  is  much  nicer  than  canned  fruit  and  less  trouble 
and  expense.  You  can  put  up  a  bushel  of  berries  in  10  minutes. 
Those  who  answer  “Jennie”  will  be  told  that  they 
can  buy  “for  a  song”  a  cheap  and  wonderful  “  pro¬ 
cess.”  What  is  it?  Simply  the  old  plan  of  exposing 
the  fruit  to  fumes  of  sulphur,  which  is  a  nasty  and  un¬ 
healthy  process.  As  to  the  “  grease  spot,”  we  will  in¬ 
form  “Jennie”  that  there  is  nothing  strong  enough  to 
take  the  stain  from  Mr.  Bain’s  carpet.  Perhaps  his 
own  sulphur  process  may  be  in  store  for  him  ! 
*  * 
Beevitie  S. 
A  GRAY  DAY. 
The  sun  has  taken  out  his  handkerchief 
To  wipe  his  eyes  at  some  heart-breaking  grief; 
His  face  Is  hid— a  cold,  gray  mist  of  tears 
Is  in  the  air,  and  fear  and  unbelief 
Seem  all  about  us.  Work  has  lost  its  charm ; 
We  think  of  sadder  hours;  the  shadows  crawl 
From  corners  that  are  bright  on  sunny  days; 
The  evening  drapes  our  spirits  like  a  pall. 
But  light  the  lamp  and  pull  the  curtains  down, 
And  let  the  sad  and  brooding  shadows  go. 
Call  in  the  singers;  give  us  Home,  Sweet  Home  ! 
And  sing  the  good  old  measure  soft  and  low. 
Sing  with  a  thought  of  all  your  happiness; 
Melt  out  your  heart  and  pour  it  in  your  voice, 
And  see  the  terror  and  the  gloom  depart, 
And  every  sorrow-laden  heart  rejoice— 
Fit  ending  for  the  gray  day’s  gloom  and  grief. 
What  matter  if  the  voice  has  lost  its  charm; 
For  if  there  really  be  “  no  place  like  home,” 
True  blessings  rest  upon  the  lonely  farm. 
A  GOOD  milker  is  known  by  his  milk. 
Whether  we  have  free  or  arrested  silver,  50  cents’  worth  of  food,  will 
always  cost  half  a  dollar! 
Let  the  New  York  Experiment  Stations  give  a  fair  trial  to  the  ex¬ 
periment  suggested  elsewhere  by  Joseph  Harris. 
A  “Taxation  Special”  next  week  in  connection  with  comments 
on  those  demands  of  the  New  York  State  Alliance. 
A  man  will  never  be  able  to  “  point  with  pride  ”  to  the  record  of  a 
cow  that  carries  around  on  her  sides  two-thirds  of  a  manure  pile. 
What  shall  It  profit  a  man  if  he  worketh  like  a  slave  to  have  his 
barnyard  filled  with  manure  and  then  letteth  the  water  soak  the  value 
out  of  it  ? 
One  year  ago  with  25  fowls  we  had  five  eggs  a  day.  Now,  with  20  we 
have  from  12  to  14.  The  five  missing  birds  were  roosters,  which  ac¬ 
counts  for  the  whole  story. 
IT  is  said  to  be  a  fact,  and  we  believe  the  statement  can  be  proved, 
that  the  American  people  pay  more  for  eggs  than  they  do  for  flour. 
Let  the  keepers  of  the  American  hen  do  their  full  duty  and  she  will 
need  no  other. 
The  Connecticut  Station  is  to  make  a  collection  of  varieties  of 
Indian  corn  grown  in  that  State.  There  are  said  to  be  more  old,  well- 
established  varieties  of  corn  grown  in  Connecticut  than  in  any  other 
State  In  the  Union. 
The  statistics  from  the  Bureau  of  Internal  Revenue  show  that 
12,000,000  pounds  more  oleo  were  manufactured  in  1891  than  in  1890. 
This  is  not  a  desirable  state  of  affairs  and  shows  a  lax  administration 
of  law,  as  no  one  eats  the  stuff  when  he  knows  what  It  is.  The  coun¬ 
terfeiters  seem  to  be  having  a  boom  in  their  nefarious  traffic. 
Visitors  to  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  next  year,  who 
object  to  eating  fraudulent  butter,  will  be  wise  if  they  take  a  supply 
of  the  genuine  article  with  them.  The  oleo  laws  are  a  dead  letter  in 
that  city,  and  thousands  of  tons  of  the  nasty  stuff  are  palmed  off  as 
butter  on  an  unsuspecting  public.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  will  not  help 
the  Exposition. 
The  R.  N.-Y.  regrets  to  learn  of  the  death  of  a  former  contributor. 
Miss  Hattie  B.  Colby  of  New  Hampshire.  Readers  will  remember  her 
article  last  year  entitled  “  Can  1  Keep  The  Farm  1  ”  She  ably  dis¬ 
cussed  a  topic  that  is  of  wonderful  interest  to  hundreds  of  young 
women  who  are  left  with  no  property  but  that  which  is  locked  up  in  an 
unsalable  farm. 
It  is  said  that  a  new  organization  has  been  started  in  Tennessee 
called  the  Farmers’ Reliance.  Here  is  the  platform:  “  Work  hard  10 
hours  in  the  day,  365  days  in  the  year;  never  come  to  town  without 
bringing  something  to  sell;  never  buy  anything  without  paying  for  It  1” 
A  man  will  make  more  by  working  300  days,  of  10  hours  each,  resting 
52  Sundays,  and  “ taking  a  day  off”  13  times  between  Sundays  ! 
One  of  the  lost  agricultural  industries  of  this  country  is  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  sunflower  oil.  This  substance  used  to  be  quoted  regularly  in 
the  New  York  markets,  but  of  late  years,  the  quotations  have  dropped 
out.  In  Russia,  sunflower  culture  is  a  recognized  industry,  the  oil 
having  superseded  many  other  vegetable  oils.  Two  kinds  of  sun¬ 
flowers  are  grown— one  so  large  that  the  common  people  eat  the 
seeds  very  much  as  Americans  eat  peanuts. 
The  Central  Association  of  Retail  Merchants  of  New  York  and 
Vicinity  have  adopted  a  resolution,  pledging  themselves,  after  March 
15,  to  buy  no  berries  except  such  as  are  in  non-returnable,  free  crates 
and  baskets.  Whether  they  will  be  able  to  live  up  to  this  plan  or  not 
remains  to  be  seen.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  a  threat  and  has  no  force 
whatever.  Doubtless  free  crates  will  come  in  time,  but  the  grocers 
cannot  force  them  by  such  a  resolution.  Bulls  against  comets  are  out 
of  date. 
IN  Nebraska,  Boyd  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  received 
more  votes  than  any  other  candidate.  He  was  not  fully  recognized  as 
governor,  however,  because  the  point  was  raised  that  he  was  not  a 
citizen  of  the  country.  He  came  from  Ireland  when  a  small  boy. 
Neither  he  nor  his  father  took  out  the  usual  naturalization  papers.  The 
younger  man,  however,  served  well  in  the  war.  and  has  voted  and  held 
several  offices.  The  Supreme  Court  has  declared  him  a  citizen,  taking 
into  account  his  service  for  his  country  and  the  fact  that  when  the 
Territory  of  Nebraska  became  a  State,  all  Its  citizens  became  citizens 
of  the  United  States.  We  do  not  see  how  anybody  can  object  to  this 
decision  or  how  any  other  could  reasonably  have  been  expected. 
