336 
May  21 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural  New-Yorker 
7 IMES  BUILDING ,  NEW  YOIIK. 
*  * 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
ELBEItT  S.  CARMAN,  Editor  In  Chief. 
HERBERT  W.  COLLING  WOOD,  Managing  Edltor.O 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY,  MAY  21,  1892. 
SINCE  1879  a  law  of  Pennsylvania  has  provided  “that 
any  person  liable  to  road  tax  who  shall  transplant  to 
the  side  of  the  public  highway  on  his  own  premises 
any  fruit,  shade  or  forest  trees,  shall  be  allowed  by  the 
supervisor  of  roads,  in  abatement  of  his  road  tax,  one 
dollar  for  every  four  trees  set.”  Judging  by  the  little 
attention  paid  to  this  law,  it  is  claimed  that  few  farm¬ 
ers  know  of  its  existence. 
*  * 
A  Connecticut  subscriber  writes:  “My  rye  is  now 
two  feet  high  and  the  cows  are  doing  well  on  it.  Is 
it  considered  good  feed  for  them  and  how  long  can  it 
be  fed  ?  ”  He  may  feed  the  rye  as  long  as  the  cows  will 
eat  it  readily.  When  it  gets  hard  and  woody  the  cows 
will  begin  to  “  nose  it  over  ”  and  refuse  to  eat  it  all. 
They  know  what  they  want.  Green  rye  is  excellent 
for  a  first  soiling  crop.  We  hope  our  friend  has  a  crop 
of  mixed  peas  and  oats,  clover  and  fodder  corn  to 
follow  the  rye.  *  * 
The  It.  N.  Y.  pointed  out  many  years  ago  that  it 
was  easy  to  foretell  the  color  of  portulaca  flowers  by 
the  color  and  markings  of  the  stems;  that  is,  whether 
the  petals  would  be  white,  pink,  crimson,  scarlet,  yel¬ 
low  or  variegated.  So,  too,  the  color  of  the  silk  of 
corn,  the  grains  of  wheat,  the  color  of  peaches  are 
often  indicated  by  the  color  of  the  stalks,  leaves  or 
flowers.  The  subject  is  referred  to  our  experiment 
stations  as  one  worthy  of  study  in  regard  to  plants  and 
fruits  in  general. 
*  * 
Lately  an  opportunity  was  offered  to  the  farmers 
of  Connecticut  by  State  Secretary  of  Agriculture  Gold, 
to  present  for  sale  abandoned  or  otherwise  undesirable 
farm  lands;  but,  according  to  his  report  just  issued, 
of  the  3,200,000  acres  of  the  State’s  area,  only  30,000 
were  offered.  The  land  included  buildings,  and  the 
aggregate  price  of  the  28,799  acres  of  which  details 
are  given,  amounted  to  $822,190  or  $28  per  acre.  These 
figures  certainly  do  not  suggest  the  absolute  ruin  of 
Connecticut  agriculture  proclaimed  by  so  many 
croakers.  *  * 
The  most  important  patent  of  the  Bell  Telephone 
Company  will  expire  next  year,  and  the  public  has 
been  congratulating  itself  on  its  prospective  liberation 
from  the  extortions  of  the  monopoly  ;  but  it  is  very 
likely  that  by  the  issue  of  three  new  Edison  patents, 
its  oppression  may  be  extended  for  17  years  more.  The 
applications  for  the  patents  were  filed  in  the  Patent 
Office  away  back  in  1877  ;  but  they  have  been  held  in 
abeyance  there  for  15  years,  only  to  be  issued  just  in 
time  to  suit  the  purposes  of  the  unscrupulous  Bell 
monopoly.  Such  an  abuse  of  the  patent  system  should 
no  longer  be  tolerated. 
*  * 
In  speaking  of  the  difficulty  of  properly  inspecting 
food  products  under  a  State  law  alone,  the  editor  of 
Agricultural  Science  tells  how  he  found  a  sample  of 
“  pure  ”  cream  of  tartar  which  contained  20  per  cent 
of  tartar  and  80  per  cent  of  white  earth.  The  manu¬ 
facturer’s  defense  was  that  the  goods  were  made  to 
be  sold  in  a  State  where  there  was  no  inspection  and 
that  only  by  accident  did  they  get  into  the  local  trade. 
Yet  his  price  for  this  adulterated  stuff  was  a  little 
above  that  asked  for  the  genuine  article  which  he  knew 
would  be  inspected.  Nothing  but  a  uniform  national 
law  will  cover  such  cases  and  that  is  just  what  the 
Paddock  Pure  Food  Bill  provides. 
*  * 
There  is  a  movement  among  the  Germans  in  Kansas 
to  hatch  out  a  new  political  party  with  the  expressed 
object  of  forcing  the  other  political  parties  to  grant 
more  offices  to  the  Teutonic  “  element.”  The  leaders 
complain  that  at  present  the  “  German  vote”  does  not 
get  enough  of  the  “  loaves  and  fishes,”  and  they  pro¬ 
pose  that  the  new  party  shall  take  an  independent 
position  in  politics  in  order  to  be  able  to  sell  out  to  the 
highest  bidder.  The  project  is  corrupt,  foolish  and  un¬ 
patriotic.  We  have  no  use  in  this  country  for  any  party 
based  on  Old  Country  race  lines — whether  German, 
Italian,  Irish  or  Frencli-Canadian.  No  one  except  a 
voter  should  be  permitted  to  meddle  in  American  poli¬ 
tics,  and  every  voter  is  an  American  citizen — no  other 
is  allowed  access  to  the  ballot  box.  There  are  over 
340,000  voters  in  Kansas,  and  of  these  30,000,  or  one- 
twelfth  are  of  German  birth.  Only  a  small  proportion 
of  such  a  sensible,  patriotic  people  as  the  German 
Americans  are  likely  to  join  an  avowedly  office¬ 
seeking  organization,  so  that  the  proposed  new  party 
is  hardly  l’kely  to  have  many  members  or  much  influ¬ 
ence.  May  such  be  the  fate  of  all  similar  pernicious 
projects.  *  * 
The  address  issued  by  the  conference  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Farmers’  Alliance  just  held  at  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  urges  a  spirit  of  harmony  and  unity  of  action 
among  the  members.  It  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  most  emphatic  declaration  made  to  every 
member  on  joining  the  order  is  that  it  shall  in  no 
way  interfere  with  his  political  or  religious  liberty, 
and  therefore  it  argues  that  neither  the  order  nor  any 
of  its  branches  will  take  any  partisan  action  on  politi¬ 
cal  or  religious  matters.  Hence  all  expectations  that 
as  an  organization  it  will  indorse  the  new  People’s 
Party  are  certain  to  be  disappointed.  Indeed  all  indi¬ 
cations  from  the  South  intimate  that,  with  few  excep¬ 
tions,  the  members  will,  as  usual,  faithfully  vote  the 
Democratic  ticket  at  the  next  national  elections. 
*  * 
According  to  the  books  of  the  registers  of  deeds  in 
Kansas,  the  farmers  are  rapidly  paying  off  their  mort¬ 
gages.  Sixty-one  counties  show,  for  a  period  of  nine 
months,  releases  of  farm  mortgages  amounting  to 
$17,270,834,  and  in  spite  of  large  purchases  of  land  and 
the  records  of  new  mortgages  for  purchases  and  re¬ 
newals  and  all  other  purposes,  there  has  in  these  coun¬ 
ties,  for  the  period  mentioned,  been  a  net  reduction  of 
$4,003,704  in  debt.  Morever,  it  is  calculated  that  the 
aggregate  bank  stock  belonging  to  farmers  in  the  en¬ 
tire  State  amounts  to  $4,500,000;  while  their  aggre¬ 
gate  bank  deposits  are  as  high  as  $21,500,000.  During 
the  last  two  years  farmers’  deposits  have,  on  an  aver¬ 
age,  increased  over  50  per  cent,  and  in  10  only  of  the 
800  banks  in  the  State  has  there  been  a  decrease. 
Evidently  the  energetic  farmers  of  the  Sunflower 
State  are  fast  recovering  from  the  effects  of  the  dis¬ 
astrous  “  boom  ”  that  impoverished  so  many  of  them 
a  few  years  ago.  *  * 
The  editor  of  the  English  Horticultural  Times  is 
making  a  great  clown  of  himself.  Week  after  week 
he  comes  out  in  his  paper  with  a  headline  like  this  : 
ARSENIC  IN  AMERICAN  APPLES!  STARTLING 
DISCLOSURES !  ! 
He  then  goes  on  to  “  prove”  that  in  consequence  of 
the  American  custom  of  spraying  apple  trees  to  pre¬ 
vent  the  injury  done  by  the  codling  moth,  apples 
come  to  the  English  market  containing  so  much  arsenic 
as  to  be  dangerous,  lie  declares  his  intention  of  killing 
the  trade  in  American  apples.  Chemists  have  tested 
the  apples  and  found  no  trace  of  arsenic  ;  experts  have 
repeatedly  explained  how  utterly  impossible  it  is  for 
apples  to  absorb  or  retain  the  poison  used  in  killing 
the  insects.  This  has  no  effect  upon  the  Dogberry  of 
the  Horticultural  Times.  He  simply  falls  back  on  this 
learned  statement : 
How  was  it  that  the  fruit  seized  by  the  New  York  Board  of  Health 
was  destroyed  on  the  testimony  of  official  analysts  as  being  of  such 
a  poisonous  nature  as  to  be  dangerous  to  eat  as  food?  We  shall 
consider  that  this  seizure  of  fruit  in  New  York  shows  that  there  may 
be  danger  in  eating  fruit  from  trees  that  have  been  recently  sprayed 
with  arsenical  compositions— as,  Indeed,  common  sense  would  tell  us 
that  there  must  be. 
Why  doesn’t  this  man  know  what  he  is  talking  about 
before  he  opens  his  mouth  ?  No  apples  were  ever  con¬ 
demned  by  the  New  York  Board  of  Health.  Some 
tjrapes  were  condemned  because  the  growers  foolishly 
sprayed  them  with  Bordeaux  mixture  just  before  they 
were  shipped.  No  Paris-green  was  used  on  the  grapes, 
and  the  very  men  who  destroyed  them  afterwards  ad¬ 
mitted  that  they  were  in  no  sense  injurious  to  health. 
Why  doesn’t  Dogberry  say  that  his  great  apple  ex¬ 
amples  were  all  grapes  with  no  Paris-green  about 
them  ?  His  efforts  to  ruin  a  useful  and  legitimate  trade 
by  frightening  English  consumers  are  entirely  uncalled 
for.  *  * 
Existing  penitentiary  contracts  in  Illinois  are  soon 
to  expire,  and  the  legislature  to  be  elected  next  fall 
will  be  called  upon  to  face  the  convict-labor  problem. 
An  agitation  is  already  on  foot  to  employ  the  pris¬ 
oners  in  making  public  roads.  The  advocates  of  the 
plan  contend  for  its  adoption  quite  as  much  because 
they  believe  it  will  remove  competition  between  con¬ 
vict  and  free  labor  as  because  good  roads  are  so 
urgently  needed.  Are  there  not  thousands  of  men 
ready  to  work  on  the  roads,  and  would  not  these  re¬ 
sent  the  employment  of  convict  labor  upon  them  quite 
as  keenly  as  shoemakers  and  other  artisans  now  resent 
its  employment  on  the  products  of  their  special  voca¬ 
tions  ?  Shouldn’t  the  roads  be  improved  at  the  cost  of 
the  property  specially  benefited,  just  like  the  streets 
of  a  city  ?  If  so,  how  could  this  be  possible  by  the 
employment  of  convict  labor  upon  them  ?  Moreover, 
wouldn’t  the  familiar  presence  of  gangs  of  convicts 
throughout  the  State  have  a  demoralizing  effect  on  the 
community,  and  wouldn’t  the  chances  of  escape  be 
dangerously  increased  ?  Still  convicts  must  have 
work,  for,  if  idle,  they  become  an  absolute  burden  which 
free  labor  must  carry.  What  is  the  best  solution  of 
the  problem  ?  *  * 
Erastus  Wiman  thinks  the  Building  and  Loan  Asso¬ 
ciations  of  the  country  and  world  have  proved  one  of 
the  greatest  instruments  for  good  this  century  has 
produced.  Their  one  weak  feature  is  a  failure  to  pro¬ 
vide  for  saving  the  home  in  case  of  the  death  of  the 
head  of  the  family.  When  the  husband  and  father  dies 
the  wife  and  children  must  keep  up  the  regular  pay¬ 
ments  or  lose  their  home.  Mr.  Wiman  would  combine 
the  loan  association  with  an  insurance  scheme.  This 
would  call  for  small  extra  monthly  payments,  but  in 
case  of  the  man’s  death  the  home  would  belong,  clear, 
to  his  family,  just  like  the  face  value  of  an  insurance 
policy.  In  case  the  man  lived  the  extra  payments 
would  enable  him  to  pay  for  his  home  sooner. 
*  * 
Beevitie  s. 
Couldn’t  eat  a  mite  of  breakfast  ’cause  I  felt  so  bad  to-day, 
Found  old  Jack  dead  In  the  stable,  we  ben  haulin’  him  away. 
Jack  was  our  old  gray,  had  spavin,  heaves  an’  ringbone  like  enough— 
Didn’t  raise  him,  at  an  auction,  found  nim  standln’  thin  an’  rough. 
He  jest  stood  there  an'  nosed  of  me— there  wus  somethin’  in  his  eye 
Said,  “I  know  I’m  stiff  an’  feeble,  but  I’ll  serve  ye  if  ve’ll  buy.” 
So  I  bought  him— our  folks  giggled,  poked  a  heap  of  fun  at  me, 
’Bout  my  ’’race  hoss;  ’  wain  t  no  answer  1  cud  make  but  "let  him  be!” 
One  day  Johnnie,  our  first  baby,  went  to  cut  a  stick  of  wood. 
Axe  jest  slipped  an’  cut  his  ankle,  with  a  fearful  gash— the  blood 
Jest  gushed  out— 'twas  right  in  harvest,  warn’t  no  hoss  around  the 
place, 
■  ’Cept  old  Jack— he’s  no  condition  fer  a  life  or  death-like  race. 
But  we  lied  to  send  fer  doctor;  my  wife’s  little  brother  Dick 
Mounted  Jack— the  brave  old  feller,  didn’t  wait  fer  any  stick. 
Bless  ye,  how  that  hoss  did  travel!  Never  thought  of  leg  or  lung, 
Heaves  an’ spavin  all  forgotten.  Go?  Why,  man!  the  air  jest  sung. 
Doctor  came  In  time  to  save  us,  Jack  limped  back  an  hour  or  so 
Later.  Hobbled  like  a  cripple,  heaves  an'  spavins  hurt  him  so. 
Ain’t  no  doubt  he  won  his  pension  by  the  deed  he  done  that  day, 
Feel  so  bad  we  can’t  eat  breaklast  now  ’th’old  hoss  has  passed  away. 
We’ll  follow  where  the  legumes  lead. 
“  x  do  not  keep  cows,”  says  the  successful  dairyman,  “  the  cows  keep 
me.” 
“The  Rural  New-Yorker  is  the  best  paper  in  the  country.”— 
Joseph  Harris. 
JACK  Frost  is  like  a  dirty  boy— he  hates  water.  He  will  keep  away 
from  a  plant  that  is  drenched. 
Is  there  any  sequence  between  small  and  large  strawberry  blossoms 
and  small  and  large  strawberries? 
Just  what  relation  does  early  and  late  blossoming  bear  to  early  and 
late  fruiting— in  the  strawberry  plant  for  example? 
The  representatives  of  the  People’s  Party  split  on  the  question  of 
voting  appropriations  for  the  famous  River  and  Harbor  Bill.  Half 
were  for  the  bill  and  tne  other  half  against  it. 
At  last  the  General  Government  has  attacked  the  slippery  Sugar 
Trust  under  the  provision  of  the  late  Anti-Trust  Law  of  Congress. 
The  monopoly,  however,  appears  to  have  little  fear  of  even  National 
legislation. 
Seedsmen  might  find  it  advantageous  to  offer  mule  asparagus  roots 
for  sale.  The  suggestion  Is  timely  since  it  will  be  necessary  to  destroy 
the  females  as  soon  as  they  blossom  or  fruit.  Females  may  be  deter¬ 
mined  by  the  blossom  as  well  as  by  the  berry. 
The  season  thus  far  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Rural  Grounds  has  been 
just  right  for  all  early  crops,  potatoes,  sweet  corn,  peas,  onions,  beets 
and  the  like.  Limas  are  just  breaking  through,  the  earliest  sweet 
corn  is  a  foot  high,  and  potatoes  are  well  out  Of  the  soli. 
If  we  use  for  seed  sound  potatoes  that  have  been  placed  in  light  and 
warmth,  thereby  inducing  a  stubby  growth  of  the  eyes,  will  these 
shoots  grow  faster  when  planted  and  appear  above  the  soli  sooner 
than  seed  potatoes  which  have  been  preserved  in  a  dark  cellar 
whether  sprouted  or  not?  Our  answer  would  be:  “  Not  necessarily." 
There  seems  little  likelihood  for  any  progress  towards  free  delivery 
of  the  mails  in  rural  districts  by  the  present  Congress.  The  proposed 
appropriation  Is  too  small  even  to  properly  carry  out  the  delivery  sys¬ 
tem  in  the  towns  and  cities.  After  squandering  millions  on  rivers  and 
harbors.  Congress  tries  to  economize  by  crippling  the  postal  service  1 
The  New  York  State  Board  of  Health  computes  the  number  of  deaths 
from  the  “grippe,”  In  the  State,  since  last  December,  at  10,000,  or  one 
person  In  000  of  the  population.  There  has  never  been  a  scourge  so 
deadly  in  its  ravages,  which  has  been  so  little  feared.  When  cholera 
created  a  panic  throughout  the  country  some  years  ago,  the  rate  of 
mortality  in  the  worst  afflicted  parts,  was  very  much  less. 
There  are  grass  farmers  near  New  York  who  get  wonderful  prices 
for  their  produce.  They  sell  the  grass  in  the  original  sod  package. 
They  sow  grass  seed  on  well-prepared  ground  and  get  a  good  sod 
started.  Then  they  cut  the  sods  into  suitable  sizes  and  peddle  them 
out  to  city  people  who  want  a  “  green  border  ”  for  the  back  yard.  This 
sort  of  grass  farming  is  mighty  profitable— what  there  is  of  it. 
Of  all  the  reports  that  come  from  the  South  none  are  more  encour¬ 
aging  than  those  like  the  following:  “  The  farmer  of  the  South  is  look¬ 
ing  to  other  things  besides  cotton.  I  started  two  years  ago  with  three 
cows  and  open  pans;  I  now  have  a  herd  of  35  thoroughbred  and  grade 
Jerseys,  and  for  eight  months  in  the  year  can’t  supply  the  demand 
on  my  dairy.”  South  Carolina  needs  Jerseys,  cow  peas,  clover  and 
potash. 
The  Cordage  Trust  has  given  its  price  for  sisal  twine  for  the  current 
year,  and  it  is  1  to  cent  per  pound  higher  than  last  season’s 
figure.  Moreover,  dealers  must  not  sell  at  less  than  12  cents  per  pound. 
Jobbers,  we  are  told,  are  completely  without  supplies  and  must  pay 
Trust  prices.  Binding  twine  is  sure  to  be  exorbitantly  high  again  this 
year  in  spite  of  the  monopoly  s  reiterated  professions  of  friendship  for 
the  farmers. 
A  French  Scientist,  M.  Larbal6trier,  has  been  experimenting  with 
substances  that  are  said  to  hasten  the  germination  of  seeds.  Of  14  sub¬ 
stances  tried  only  three— camphor,  glycerine  and  oxygenated  water— 
were  of  any  value.  When  the  seeds  were  soaked  In  a  solution  of 
camphor  or  In  oxygenated  water  before  planting  they  germinated  three 
or  four  days  before  others  not  so  treated.  A  two-per  cent  solution  gave 
the  best  results. 
AN  illustration  of  the  crooked  work  so  often  done  in  the  New  York 
Legislature,  Is  seen  in  the  passage  of  a  bill  which  allows  police  justices 
in  New  York  city  to  practice  law— a  bill  which  was  Introduced  for  the 
special  benefit  of  Justice  Grady.  The  city  pays  him  $8,000  per  year 
salary,  which  Is  really  twice  as  much  as  this  “silver-tongued”  blather- 
Bkite  was  ever  worth,  and  it  ought  to  have  his  entire  services.  A  New 
York  police  justice  who  does  his  duty  has  no  time  to  practice  law. 
Last  year  we  had  quite  a  little  to  say  about  the  efforts  made  by  Prof. 
Snow,  of  Kansas,  to  spread  disease  among  chinch  bugs.  He  sent  dis¬ 
eased  bugs  all  over  the  State  by  mail,  urging  farmers  to  put  them 
among  the  healthy  bugs  In  their  fields.  From  his  report,  just  printed, 
it  seems  that  nearly  80  per  cent  of  these  experiments  were  successful— 
the  disease  was  conveyed  to  healthy  bugs,  and  many  farms  were  thus 
cleared  of  the  pests.  The  experiments  will  be  continued  this  year. 
