3o4 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
May  7 
THE 
Rural  New-Yorker 
TIMES  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK. 
*  * 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
EGBERT  S.  CARMAN.  Editor  In  Chief. 
HERBERT  W.  COLLING  WOOD,  Managing  Editor.  D 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY,  MAY  7,  1892. 
On  page  254  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  we  printed  some  ex¬ 
tracts  from  an  interview  with  Secretary  Rusk,  in 
which  he  spoke  of  wrestling  with  Garfield.  One  im¬ 
portant  fact  was  omitted.  The  writer  of  this  asked 
the  Secretary  last  week  :  “  W hen  you  wrestled  with 
Garfield  which  fell  bn  top  ?”  “  Well,”  said  the  Secre¬ 
tary  “that  is  something  neither  of  us  ever  cared  to 
talk  much  about — I  will  say,  however,  that  I  never  was 
thrown  !”  We  don’t  believe  he  ever  was — and  we  don’t 
believe  he  ever  will  be. 
*  * 
The  English  papers  report  new  discoveries  of  nitrate 
of  soda  in  Africa,  which  will  be  controlled  by  both 
German  and  English  capital.  It  is  also  reported  that 
new  and  rich  deposits  of  guano  have  been  found  off 
the  coast  of  Peru.  The  effects  of  these  new  and 
cheaper  supplies  of  nitrogen  will  not  be  felt  in  this 
country  for  some  time  because  there  is  a  greater  demand 
for  it  in  Europe,  and  that  demand  must  be  filled  before 
the  price  will  materially  fall.  Nitrogen  must  be 
cheaper  some  day,  that  is,  the  nitrogen  we  buy  in  bags. 
It  is  ylven  away  now  to  those  who  court  the  clover 
plant !  ■  *  * 
Many  a  child  is  unjustly  called  a  blockhead  or  fool 
simply  because  its  eyes  are  defective.  A  near-sighted 
child  cannot  see  little  things  that  get  in  its  way,  it 
cannot  read  figures  on  a  blackboard  at  school,  and 
straining  at  the  small  type  in  its  book  makes  its  eyes 
and  head  ache.  No  wonder  it  goes  blundering,  and 
stumbling  over  small  objects  or  knocks  over  pitchers 
and  glasses  at  the  table.  No  wonder  it  cannot  keep 
up  with  its  fellows  at  school,  whose  eyes  are  perfect ! 
It  is  a  shame  that  such  a  child  should  be  abused  and 
blamed  for  what  it  cannot  help.  Such  treatment  may 
spoil  its  whole  life  because  it  cannot  help  feeling  it  is 
being  unjustly  dealt  with.  Every  child’s  eyes  should 
be  examined  before  it  is  classed  as  a  stupid  blunderer. 
It  will  thus  be  proved,  in  many  cases,  that  the  parent 
was  the  blunderer  for  permitting  the  child  to  go  with¬ 
out  proper  spectacles.  Watch  the  eyes. 
*  * 
There  is  a  good  deal  said  about  the  virtues  of  Scarlet 
or  Crimson  Clover  in  this  issue.  The  facts  are  given  by 
careful  men  who  use  this  clover  only  because  it  pays 
them  to  do  so  for  its  fertilizing  value  or  its  use  for 
fodder  or  seed.  The  point  about  it  is  to  know  how  far 
north  it  will  live  through  the  winter.  Where  it  will 
do  this  it  will  prove  very  valuable  in  some  respects, 
more  so  than  the  common  red  variety,  because  it  grows 
and  develops  more  rapidly,  can  be  sowed  one  summer 
and  plowed  under  the  next.  Mr.  Woodward  states  the 
advantage  of  having  such  a  plant,  on  page  300.  In 
favorable  seasons  this  clover  may  thrive  north  of 
Maryland,  but  there  are  sure  to  come  winters  when  it 
will  be  killed  out.  Where  it  will  grow  it  proves  a  great 
blessing  to  the  progressive  farmer — where  it  will  not 
thrive  it  will  prove  a  risky  and  disappointing  experi¬ 
ment,  because  it  is  liable  to  fail  when  it  is  most 
needed.  *  * 
A  CAREFUL  observer  who  travels  about  in  the  various 
regions  devoted  to  the  dairy  interest,  cannot  but  have 
his  attention  forcibly  attracted  to  the  very  wide  diver¬ 
gence  in  the  prevailing  conditions.  We  do  not  allude 
to  the  differences  between  individual  farms,  but  to  the 
averages  which  prevail  in  different  locations.  One  has 
not  to  travel  very  far  to  find  rural  neighborhoods  de¬ 
voted  to  the  production  of  milk,  butter  or  cheese,  where 
the  most  primitive  methods  prevail.  Barns  are  built 
as  if  ventilation  were  their  chief  aim,  in  which  the  cows 
shiver  through  the  winter  and  where,  when  they  lie 
down,  they  are  in  danger  of  freezing  fast.  The  cows 
are — well,  they  are  cows  and  they  give  milk  ;  but  of 
its  value  their  owner  has  no  knowledge.  They  may 
be  plunging  him  deeper  in  debt  with  every  successive 
season  for  all  he  knows  ;  at  best  they  are  not  likely  to 
be  a  source  of  profit.  If  butter  is  made,  the  milk  is  set 
in  shallow  pans  and  churned  in  a  dash  churn,  the  but¬ 
ter  has  two  or  three  ounces  of  salt  to  the  pound,  and 
is  sold  by  the  commission  man.  If  the  cows  are  fed 
grain,  no  attention  is  paid  to  the  subject  of  a  balanced 
ration — grain  is  grain,  they  think,  and  it  is  good  for 
the  cows.  There  are  whole  neighborhoods  where  the 
average  dairies  are  not  widely  variant  from  such  a 
type.  Other  sections  there  are  where  the  leaven  of 
progress  has  entered  and  where  the  average  is  of  a 
very  much  higher  and  better  class.  Warm  outbuild¬ 
ings  filled  with  well-bred  and  well-fed  animals  are  the 
rule.  Modern  scientific  methods  prevail  in  all  the 
processes  of  handling  the  milk,  no  matter  in  what  line 
it  is  utilized.  There  is  no  guesswork  as  to  the  value 
of  individual  members  of  the  herd.  The  owner  knows 
by  actual,  scientific  test  just  what  each  member  is 
capable  of,  and  naturally  no  non -paying  animals  will 
be  found.  In  the  first  case,  we  shall  not  find  a  class 
who  are  prosperous  or  who  reflect  any  particular 
credit  on  their  vocation.  They  are  vegetating — cum¬ 
bering  the  ground.  In  the  last  named  community,  it 
is  easy  to  see  how  the  improved  condition  of  affairs  has 
come  about.  Men  of  brains  among  the  farmers  have  be¬ 
come  dissatisfied  with  the  old  methods  and  set  about 
improving  them.  Innovations  which  are  improvements 
soon  become  the  rule.  Progress  is  contagious,  and,  in 
a  few  years — a  decade  at  least — an  old,  slow  and 
backward  community  is  transformed,  becoming  pro¬ 
gressive,  wideawake  and  modernized.  We  could  point 
out  dozens  of  communities  of  either  of  the  above 
classes,  without  going  out  of  this  State,  and  no  doubt 
similar  conditions  prevail  elsewhere.  The  moral  is 
obvious.  Somehow  the  leaven  of  new  ideas  must  be 
got  at  work  in  these  benighted  sections.  '  We  are 
trying,  as  best  we  may,  to  do  this  work,  and  we  hope 
our  readers  will  do  what  they  can  to  facilitate  the  pro¬ 
cess.  The  conservative,  old-style,  antiquated  farmer 
is  sure  of  only  one  thing — of  getting  left. 
*  * 
Speaking  of  the  action  of  the  health  officials  of  this 
city  in  condemning  grapes  that  were  sprayed  with  the 
Bordeaux  mixture,  Prof.  Bailey  is  reported  to  have 
said  : 
This  action,  though  a  blunder  upon  the  part  of  the  health  officers, 
was  caused  by  a  greater  blunder  on  the  part  of  the  man  who  allowed 
his  grapes  to  go  Into  market  In  the  unsightly  condition  of  haying  the 
Bordeaux  mixture  upon  them  in  sufficient  quantity  to  be  seen.  The 
season  of  1891  was  a  dry  one,  and  the  growers  sprayed  too  often  and 
too  late,  some  of  them  spraying  just  before  the  fruit  was  sent  to  mar¬ 
ket.  I  never  dreamed  they  would  make  such  a  blunder  as  sending  to 
market  grapes  daubed  with  Bordeaux  mixture. 
If  a  man  sent  celery  or  melons  to  the  market  daubed 
with  manure  he  could  not  blame  the  authorities  for 
objecting  to  them,  though  they  would  be  perfectly 
harmless  and  neat  when  washed  and  cleaned. 
*•  * 
The  opponents  of  the  Senate  Paddock’s  Pure  Food 
Bill,  so  earnestly  supported  by  the  farmers  of  the 
country,  are  indirectly  trying  to  secure  its  defeat  by 
loading  it  down  with  amendments  against  other  forms 
of  adulteration.  “Why,”  they  say,  “should  not  the 
numerous  frauds  in  the  manufacture  of  woolens  and 
silks  be  punished  as  well  as  frauds  in  food,  medicine 
and  drink  ?  ”  When  the  bill  reaches  the  House,  no  doubt 
attempts  will  be  made  to  bury  it  under  such  amend¬ 
ments.  Its  friends  should,  therefore,  be  ready  and 
vigilant.  There  is  no  reasonable  objection  to  legisla¬ 
tion  against  all  other  form  of  frauds  ;  but  such  legis¬ 
lation  should  be  included  in  another  bill.  A  law  against 
fraudulent  manufacturers  of  textile  fabrics  cannot  con 
veniently  include  one>  against  frauds  in  food  and  drink. 
One  thing  at  a  time  is  a  good  motto  in  this  connection. 
*  * 
A  decision  just  rendered  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Pennsylvania  against  J.  Otto  Paul,  is  of  great  import¬ 
ance  not  only  to  the  dairymen  of  the  Keystone  State, 
but  to  those  of  other  States  also,  inasmuch  as  it  estab¬ 
lishes  another  precedent  in  their  favor.  It  affirms  the 
validity  of  the  anti-oleomargarine  law  of  the  State, 
which  prohibits  the  sale  or  manufacture  of  the  domestic 
product  within  its  borders.  Moreover,  it  declares  that 
while  oleomargarine  manufactured  in  other  States  can 
be  legally  imported  into  Pennsylvania  under  the 
National  Inter-State  Commerce  Law,  it  cannot  be  sold 
in  any  part  of  the  State  at  retail  contrary  to  the  police 
powers  of  the  State.  In  other  words,  when  imported 
in  the  original  packages  the  merchandise  is  subject  to 
the  Inter-State  Commerce  Law  ;  but  when  sold  within 
the  State  at  retail,  it  is  subject  to  the  local  law.  This 
is  in  exact  harmony  with  the  recent  act  of  Congress 
which  modified  the  effect  of  the  sweeping  decision  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  the  Iowa  liquor 
cases.  #  * 
One  of  the  most  flagrant  cases  of  fraudulent  adulter¬ 
ation  of  food  that  has  ever  come  under  our  notice  has 
just  been  made  public.  For  years  it  has  been  known 
that  inferior  imitations  of  Vermont  maple  sugar,  al¬ 
ways  labeled  as  the  genuine  Green  Mountain  article, 
have  been  a  flourishing  source  of  revenue  in  more  than 
one  Western  city,  from  Chicago  to  San  Francisco.  It 
has  just  been  discovered  that  similar  fraudulent  prac¬ 
tices  have  been  in  vogue  of  late  with  regard  to  maple 
syrup.  The  Jowell  Syrup  Company,  of  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
which  is  manufacturing  an  article  purporting  to  be 
“  genuine  maple  syrup”  is  branding  its  packages  as 
manufactured  at  Fairfax,  Vt.  There  is  no  such  firm 
at  that  place;  but  there  is  an  agent  of  the  St.  Paul 
people,  who  receives  the  mail,  addressed  to  them  and 
forwards  the  orders  by  wire  or  mail.  If  there  is  no 
law  now  on  the  State  or  National  statute  books  to  pun¬ 
ish  the  perpetrators  of  this  glaring  and  barefaced 
fraud,  isn’t  prompt  legislation  in  that  line  urgently 
needed  ?  *  * 
Brevities. 
Pap  went  to  an  institute,  some  one  rubbed  him  hard. 
‘Cause  they  ain't  no  sparrer  grass  out  in  our  back  yard ; 
All  on  us  hed  teased  and  begged— jest  tried  every  way 
Fer  a  taste  o’  garden  truck— Pap  said  'twouldn't  pay; 
But  they  hit  him  awful  hard  at  thet  institute. 
He  went  off  an’  swapped  a  cow— takin’  on  ez  boot, 
Hundred  roots  o’  sparrer  grass,  set  ’em  in  the  yard; 
Cow  he  gut  ain’t  worth  a  cent  —must  hev  hit  him  hard. 
Now  we're  eatln’  sparrer  grass  by  the  peck  each  day. 
Pap’s  quit  eatin’  pie  an’  meat;  orter  hear  him  say 
“  Guess  I'll  take  more  sparrer  grass,”  passln'  up  his  plate. 
Health  is  better!  Sammy’s  blood  was  in  dreadful  state, 
Kep’  a-breakln’  out  in  biles— turn  his  skin’s  ez  fair 
Ez  a  lily;  baby,  too,  don’t  need  half  the  care, 
Jack  don’t  cry— the  little  twins  don’t  give  half  the  sass, 
Ain’t  no  sermon  ever  done  what  thet  sparrer  grass 
Done  fer  us.  Pap  uster  think  gardenin’  wuz  waste, 
Now  he  won’t  do  nothin’  else  sense  he’s  gut  a  taste! 
Brighter  days  fer  all  our  folks  now  has  come  to  pass, 
Sense  Pap  swapped  thet  cow  and  tuck  boot  in  sparrer  grass. 
Teach  your  calves  the  drink  habit. 
The  Big  Four — nitrogen,  potash,  phosphoric  acid  and  brains. 
Mb.  Brigden  makes  money  out  of  his  home  nitrogen  factory. 
The  larger  and  finer  the  fruit  the  more  water  do  you  sell  and  the 
less  fertility.  Water  is  cheap. 
Many  a  good  sheep  man  has  failed  of  success  because  he  thought 
he  could  make  a  good  dairyman. 
One  of  the  first  two  claims  for  a  bounty  on  maple  sugar  presented  at 
Washington  was  from  an  Ohio  woman. 
HAS  any  reader  of  a  good  farm  paper  a  right  to  say  that  he  does  not 
know  what  the  Bordeaux  mixture  or  the  copper  solution  is? 
Don’t  let  a  calf  or  a  baby  drink  itself  full.  Let  the  air  hit  the  bot¬ 
tom  of  the  bottle  before  the  milk  hits  the  top  of  the  stomach. 
Blue  Grass  and  sheep  form  Mr.  Woodward’s  orchard  food.  The 
sheep  do  one  thing  better  than  a  hired  man— pick  up  wormy  fruit. 
THE  pear  originated  in  France  and  Belgium  and  yet  Mr.  Geo.  T. 
Powell,  an  American,  sends  pears  to  these  countries  at  a  profit. 
The  best  present  the  Empress  of  Russia  could  think  of  for  the  golden 
wedding  of  her  mother  was  a  team  of  six  perfectly  white  Russian 
horses. 
Milk  without  ice,  milk  without  ice— that  situation  is  not  very  nice! 
where  Bhall  a  temperature  cooler  be  found?  Like  other  wealth,  in  a 
hole  in  the  ground.” 
It  Is  reported  that  many  car-loads  of  Canadian  maple  sugar  are 
coming  to  this  country.  In  former  years  the  tariff  kept  this  sugar  out 
Yet  the  price  of  both  maple  sugar  and  syrup  is  high  enough. 
When  a  farmer  sells  10,000  ears  of  medium-sized  sweet  corn  he  sells 
over  4,000  pounds  of  water.  That  is  one  reason  why  sweet  pays  better 
than  field  corn.  In  the  latter  case  the  air  takes  the  water  and  pays 
nothing  for  it. 
It  is  reported  as  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  California  prunes  and 
raisins  that  several  Eastern  flrmB  who  supply  the  most  expensive  re¬ 
tail  trade,  are  doing  but  a  fraction  of  their  former  import  business  in 
these  products— using  California  goods  instead. 
The  time  is  close  by  when  no  well  regulated  farm  can  afford  to  be 
without  a  small  glass  house  where  the  family  can  grow  vegetables  so 
that  they  can  be  had  “every  month  in  the  year.”  The  people  who 
own  these  glass  houses  won’t  throw  stones  at  agriculture  either! 
The  New  York  Legislature  showed  one  praiseworthy  evidence  of 
repentance.  It  repealed  the  “  Speedway  Bill  ”  and  prevented  a  race 
track  in  Central  Park.  If  there  is  a  “  speedway  ”  on  your  farm  where 
the  dogs  chase  the  cows  home  at  night,  “  repeal  the  act  ”  if  you  have 
to  kill  the  dog. 
Florida  and  Georgia  farmers  send  many  tons  of  potatoes  to  North¬ 
ern  markets  in  the  early  spring  and  summer.  Then  in  the  fall  and 
winter  these  same  farmers  buy  potatoes  from  the  North.  The  balance 
of  trade  is  against  them,  for  they  might  grow  their  own  food.  Potatoes 
sell  now  in  Atlanta  at  75  cents  per  bushel! 
A  curious  case  has  just  been  decided  in  England.  A  man  stopped 
his  horse  in  front  of  an  inn  and  entered  it  to  deliver  some  goods.  A 
stray  pig  came  and  sniffed  at  the  horse’s  food— whereat  that  animal 
kicked  so  hard  that  its  foot  was  caught  and  severely  hurt.  The  owner 
of  the  horse  sued  the  owner  of  the  pig  and  secured  $(10  damages! 
Potato  seedlings— the  seed  planted,  in  boxes  four  inches  wide  and 
four  inches  deep,  March  19,  are  now  (April  26)  about  three  inches  tall 
and  ready  to  be  transplanted.  For  this  purpose  three-inch  pots  are 
used.  By  late  May  they  will  be  filled  with  roots,  which  will  hold  the 
soil  together  and  make  an  easy  work  of  safely  planting  them  in  pre¬ 
pared  plots. 
Elsewhere  In  this  issue  Mr.  W.  D.  Barns,  a  successful  horticultur¬ 
ist,  tells  his  simple  method  of  dissolving  sulphate  of  copper  In  prepar¬ 
ing  the  Bordeaux  mixture.  This  is  of  great  value  to  all  who  have  this 
work  to  do.  His  plan  obviates  the  necessity  of  buying  the  pulverized 
sulphate  or  the  work  of  pulverizing  the  lumps,  and  it  is  the  very  best 
method  we  have  heard  of. 
AN  Englishman  has  invented  a  musical  attachment  for  bicycles.  It 
is  a  combination  of  small  bells  tuned  to  a  scale  with  spring  key  notes. 
These  are  connected  with  the  wheel  so  that  the  keys  strike  the  bells  in 
a  certain  order  and  produce  a  tune  similar  to  that  of  a  chime  of  bells! 
Probably  the  next  thing  will  be  to  have  a  set  of  bells  on  a  wide-tired 
wagon  so  that  the  farmer  can  Improve  his  roads  to  slow  music. 
Are  farm  lands  worth  more  in  your  neighborhood  than  they  have  been 
before  in  the  past  five  years'!  We  want  a  fair  and  candid  answer  to  that 
question  from  every  county  in  the  country.  Some  “authorities”  are 
claiming  that  farm  property  has  begun  to  advance  in  value,  while 
others  claim  that  it  has  received  another  “  black  eye.”  We  want  the 
facts  from  you.  Is  your  farm  better  or  worse  as  an  Investment  than 
It  was  five  years  ago  and  why? 
“  Money  is  lost  in  the  wasted  surplus.”  That  fact  is  recognized 
by  all  who  deal  in  milk,  fruits  or  other  perishable  products.  The 
“  life  ”  of  such  goods  is  too  short.  If  they  cannot  be  sold  at  once  they 
must  be  thrown  away  and  this  lost  portion  brings  down  the  average 
price  of  the  whole.  No  wonder  that  special  efforts  are  made  to  save 
the  surplus  aud  thus  give  it  some  value.  The  latest  scheme  of  this 
sort  is  a  company  formed  in  this  city  to  dry  and  preserve  the  surplus 
bananas.  Dried  and  canned  bananas  and  banana  meal  will  be  the 
new  products.  Pity  other  fruits  and  vegetables  cannot  have  the  same 
attention. 
A  bill  now  before  the  Connecticut  Legislature  provides  for  putting 
the  principal  roads  of  the  State  in  charge  of  a  special  commission, 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  maintain  them  in  good  condition  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  people  at  large.  Now  each  town  is  required  to  keep  up  its 
highways,  but  the  “  up  ”  is  often  taken  to  mean  to  keep  them  above 
the  line  of  suits  for  damages.  Many  of  the  highways  of  the  State,  it 
is  claimed,  are  used  as  much  by  people  of  other  towns  as  by  those  of 
the  towns  who  have  to  care  for  them.  They  are  inter-town  roads,  and 
therefore  practically  State  roads,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  State 
should  not  assume  the  care  of  them.  With  the  State  roads  off  their 
hands,  the  towns  would  have  so  much  the  more  money  to  Improve  all 
the  by-roads.  The  State  roads  would  then  be  the  standards  of  im¬ 
provement  in  every  neighborhood. 
