592 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Sept.  10 
T  H  K 
Rural  New-Yorker 
TIMES  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK. 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
ELBERT  8.  CABMAN,  Editor  In  Chief. 
HERBERT  W.  COLLINGWOOD,  Managing  Editor 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY ,  SEPTUM  HER  10.  1892. 
The  R.  N.-Y.’s  experience  in  crossing1  tomatoes  for 
the  third  season  is  again  a  revelation.  A  single  ex¬ 
ample  may  be  cited.  The  first  year  the  Peach  Tomato 
was  made  the  mother.  The  second  year  not  one  Peach 
1  omato  appeared  in  the  progeny.  This  year,  without 
again  using  the  Peach  either  as  a  male  or  female 
parent,  there  are  five  different  sorts  of  tomatoes  with 
the  characteristic  Peach  skin.  Many  of  these  are  as 
large  as  ordinary  tomatoes. 
*  * 
At  the  convention  of  the  Mississippi  Farmers’  Alli¬ 
ance  held,  the  other  day,  at  the  State  Agricultural 
College,  among  many  resolutions  of  debatable  wisdom 
and  practicability,  one  must  meet  the  approval  of  all 
reasonable  citizens.  It  unanimously  passed  a  resolu¬ 
tion  denouncing  as  an  outrage  on  the  tax-payers  the 
40  cents  mileage  now  received  by  Congressmen,  Sena¬ 
tors  and  Electors,  and  urged  that  a  reduction  be  made 
to  five  cents  per  mile.  The  present  rates  were  inau¬ 
gurated  in  the  days  of  private  conveyances  and  stage 
coaches,  when  travel  was  slow,  tiresome  and  expen¬ 
sive.  Now,  when  a  man  can  comfortably  pass  over 
000  miles  or  more  in  24  hours  at  a  cost  of  $25,  meals 
and  sleeping  accommodations  included,  why  should  he 
draw  $240  from  the  public  treasury  to  be  made  good 
from  the  pinched  pockets  of  the  tax-payers  ? 
*  * 
We  are  growing  more  and  more  of  the  opinion,  from 
observations  made  here  and  there,  that  much  of  the 
decay  and  disease  that  afflict  our  trees  and  vines,  is  the 
result  of  our  ignorance.  We  do  not  know  how  to  feed 
these  friends — how  to  furnish  them  the  peculiar  foods 
they  need,  or,  knowing  how,  we  neglect  our  duty.  We 
treat  our  trees  much  as  we  treat  ourselves.  We  eat 
and  drink  too  much  or  too  little,  we  use  articles  of  food 
that  we  know  are  injurious,  simply  because  we  like 
them,  and  then,  when  Nature  sends  sickness  to  em¬ 
phasize  her  protest,  we  resort  to  drugs  and  empiri¬ 
cism  in  vain  efforts  to  evade  her  laws,  instead  of  obey¬ 
ing  them  and  eating  and  drinking  as  a  wise  hygiene 
demands.  Trees  and  men  are  much  alike.  Properly 
fed  and  cared  for,  they  will  not  suffer  much  from  dis¬ 
ease,  even  in  unfavorable  environments.  The  vigor 
they  will  gain  by  right  living  will  enable  them  to  re¬ 
sist  pestilences  that  would  wipe  out  weaker  trees  or 
men.  *  * 
The  wisdom  of  honest  packing  of  fruit  has  always 
been  commended  by  The  Rural  and  its  contempo¬ 
raries  of  the  agricultural  press,  and  it  is  gratifying  to 
know  that  a  marked  improvement  has  been  made 
among  fruit  growers  of  late  years  in  this  direction. 
In  justice  to  the  farmers,  The  Rural  desires  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  a  large  half  of  the  “deacon¬ 
ing”  has  always  been  done  by  the  venders  in  the 
city,  and  while  the  farmers  have  generally  abandoned 
the  practice,  tlie  dealers  have  extended  it.  One  has 
only  to  take  a  walk  through  the  markets  to  satisfy 
himself  of  the  truth  of  this  statement.  No  attempt  is 
made  to  hide  it,  but  when  a  buyer  empties  a  basket, 
and  finds  all  the  good  fruit  was  on  the  top  and  calls 
the  seller’s  attention  to  it,  the  latter  rolls  up  his  eyes 
in  pious  horror  at  the  sinfulness  of  the  grower,  who 
had  done  this  thing.  The  same  state  of  affairs  pre¬ 
vails  in  the  milk  trade.  The  dealer  adds  water  or 
skimmed  milk  to  his  can.  When  caught  in  it,  he 
heaves  a  sigh  and  wonders  how  those  farmers  can  be 
so  wicked.  That’s  the  way  it  goes. 
*  # 
The  latest  investigations  show  that  earlier  estimates 
of  the  membership  of  labor  organizations  throughout 
the  country  were  greatly  exaggerated.  It  appears 
that,  all  together,  the  membership  of  such  bodies 
hardly  exceeds  1,000,000,  in  a  population  of  65,000,000! 
What  a  commotion  is  being  produced  by  such  an  aggres¬ 
sive  handful  !  The  members  are  now  beginning  to  de¬ 
nounce  the  militia  with  as  much  bitterness  as  they 
ever  lavished  on  the  Pinkertons.  Both  are  alike  the 
“scallawag  myrmidons  of  bloated  plutocrats,”  and 
“the  pestiferous  enemies  of  honest  labor.”  Indeed,  the 
State  troops  receive  viler  treatment  than  the  mercen¬ 
aries  ;  because,  while  the  latter  are  paid  by  the  cor¬ 
porations  or  capitalists  who  employ  them,  the  former 
draw  a  paltry  pittance  from  the  State  treasury,  an  in¬ 
finitesimal  part  of  which  is  contributed  by  labor 
unionists.  It  would  be  well  for  these  to  be  a  little 
less  blatant  against  our  citizen  soldiers.  The  public 
generally  sympathized  with  them  in  their  opposition 
to  the  Pinkertons,  beca,use  the  use  of  such  mercen¬ 
aries  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  and 
because  the  people  at  large  felt  that  the  State  troops 
should  perform  the  duties  undertaken  by  them.  If 
labor  unionists  now  vent  their  railings  on  the  latter 
with  equal  virulence,  the  public  must  believe  that 
what  they  really  object  to  is,  not  the  character  of 
their  opponents,  but  any  check  on  their  disposition  to 
riot,  destruction  and  terrorism  wherever  their  demands 
are  not  conceded.  _ 
For  some  time  Germans  have  been  growing  suspi¬ 
cious  of  American  pork  in  spite  of  the  Government 
inspection  on  this  side  of  the  water.  A  number  of 
experts  over  there  have  lately  declared  that  they 
found  trichinae  in  the  imported  product,  and  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  accordingly  ordered  that  bacon  and  hams 
as  well  as  salted  pork  from  this  country  must  not  be 
placed  on  sale  until  they  have  been  examined  by  the 
authorities.  Of  course  our  meat  inspectors  deny  the 
possibility  of  the  exportation  of  diseased  pork  pro¬ 
ducts  ;  the  Germans,  however,  place  more  reliance  on 
the  diagnoses  of  their  own  experts  than  of  ours.  It 
matters  not  that  German  hogs  are  affected  by  trichi¬ 
nosis  much  worse  than  hogs  in  any  part  of  this  coun¬ 
try;  the  fact,  even  if  acknowledged,  would  merely 
draw  from  the  natives  the  assertion  that  accordingly 
they  had  a  superabundance  of  the  disease  at  home, 
and  therefore  all  the  more  strongly  objected  to  all 
importations  from  abroad. 
*  * 
How  does  one  man  manage  to  wring  success  out  of 
conditions  that  bring  failure  to  dozens  of  his  neigh¬ 
bors  ?  Wbat  is  the  secret  of  such  success  any  way  ? 
Is  the  one  man  gifted  with  some  almost  divine  inspira¬ 
tion  that  so  strengthens  his  faith,  hope  and  courage, 
and  so  spurs  him  on  that  he  cannot  fail  ?  Is  it  in  the 
man  alone — that  is,  can  any  man  by  patient  and  hopeful 
application  rise  to  the  top,  or  must  the  man  be  gifted 
with  some  wonderful  and  mysterious  power  that 
others  do  not  possess  ?  We  are  led  to  these  thoughts 
after  studying  the  great  success  of  the  Hale  brothers 
with  their  peach  orchards.  Why  did  they  reach  their 
success,  and  how  did  they  do  it  while  hundreds  of 
other  farmers  better  off  in  the  beginning  than  they 
were,  have  now  fallen  far  behind  them  in  the  race  for 
profit  ?  Can  any  man  do  the  same  or  were  the  Hales 
made  for  this  work  just  as  great  generals,  painters  or 
poets  were  made  for  their  work  ?  Who  can  tell?  It 
seems  to  us  that  every  man  or  woman  comes  into  the 
world  with  a  definite  work  for  which  they  are  pecu¬ 
liarly  gifted.  The  failures  in  life  are  largely  due  to 
the  fact  that  we  cannot  seem  to  find  the  one  work 
over  which  we  can  enthuse,  and  put  every  energy  of 
mind  and  body  at  work.  Is  it  not  so  ? 
*  * 
SEASON  AS  AFFECTING  THE  SIZE,  SHAPE  AND 
PRODUCTIVENESS  OF  CERTAIN  VARI¬ 
ETIES  OF  POTAIOES. 
Few  of  us  have  observed  the  widely  different  yields 
of  potatoes  during  dry  and  wet  seasons.  Many  kinds 
that  yield  abundantly  during  seasons  of  sufficient  rain¬ 
fall,  are  worthless  during  seasons  when  the  rainfall  is 
insufficient.  Some  kinds  which  yield  a  satisfactory 
proportion  of  sizable  tubers  in  a  favorable  season,  will 
yield,  in  a  dry  season,  a  multiplicity  of  little  ones 
worthless  except  for  cattle  or  the  starch  factory. 
Again,  there  are  varieties  which  yield  larger,  though 
fewer,  tubers  in  a  dry  than  in  a  wet  one.  This  fact 
was  never  more  forcibly  presented  to  us  than  while 
harvesting,  counting  and  weighing  the  38  different 
kinds  of  new  varieties  grown  upon  the  Rural  experi¬ 
ment  plot  of  this  year.  A  few  instances,  though  many 
might  be  given,  will  serve  to  show  how  important  it 
is  that  this  difference  should  be  understood  and  con¬ 
sidered  by  the  cultivator.  Seven  hills  of  Snowdrop 
yielded  11 %  pounds  of  which  only  20  tubers  were  of 
marketable  size  while  104  averaged  scarcely  larger 
than  black  walnuts.  This  is  at  the  rate  of  only  about 
80  bushels  of  marketable  potatoes  to  the  acre,  while 
the  entire  yield  was  about  400  bushels  to  the  acre. 
Seven  hills  in  the  same  row  of  a  seedling  not  yet  in 
the  market  yielded  31%  pounds.  This  is  at  the  rate  of 
1,089  bushels  to  the  acre.  There  were  but  14  of  un¬ 
marketable  size,  while  the  total  number  of  tubers  was 
only  56,  all  shapely  and  without  a  knob  or  indication 
of  a  check  or  second  growth.  Ten  hills  of  the  Freeman 
yielded  13  pounds,  of  which  34  were  of  small  marketa¬ 
ble  size,  64  small.  This  is  at  the  rate  of  314.60  bushels 
to  the  acre.  Nine  hills  of  the  American  Wonder  yielded 
19  pounds  of  which  39  were  large,  9  small.  This  is  at 
the  rate  of  685.55  bushels  to  the  acre.  The  same  kind 
of  potato,  it  may  further  be  said,  will  vary  greatly  in 
shape  as  between  a  favorable  and  an  unfavorable 
season.  While  some  kinds  give  larger  though  fewer 
shapely  tubers  in  a  droughty  season,  and  others  break 
up,  so  to  say,  into  numberless  little  tubers — all  shapely 
still  others  as  shapely  as  possible  in  a  favorable 
season,  will  make  a  second  or  third  growth,  producing 
a  crop  of  ill-shaped,  knobby  tubers  worthless  for  the 
market  and  objectionable  for  home  use. 
*  * 
Bsevitie  s. 
He’s  cursed  with  a  wandering  wit.  my  son, 
That’s  why  he’s  seedy  and  poor. 
And  his  plans  go  stumbling  in  and  out 
Like  sheep  through  an  open  wide  door. 
He  can’t  keep  his  mind  on  his  work,  my  son, 
He  must  stand  while  others  may  sit, " 
He  carries  a  penalty  all  through  life, 
The  curse  of  the  wandering  wit. 
He  never  would  fasten  his  mind,  my  son, 
To  his  work  with  a  steel-like  band; 
But  wandering  this  way  and  that  he  went 
Till  he  lost  the  knack  from  his  hand. 
And  now  he  is  feeble  and  old  and  gray, 
The  days  of  his  vigor  are  past. 
And  his  wit  still  wanders  and  can’t  keep  still, 
It  will  be  so  unto  the  last. 
So  fasten  your  mind  to  your  work,  my  son, 
If  it  take  all  your  power  and  grit, 
Oh  sad  is  the  fate  of  the  one  who  feels 
The  curse  of  the  wandering  wit! 
Keep  well,  stay  well. 
It  pays  to  putter  over  butter. 
Plenty  of  fruit  talk  this  week. 
Half  year  dairying  doesn’t  pay. 
Try  a  Green  Mountain  Grape  vine. 
Do  you  ever  use  soap  In  the  churn  ?  Why  ? 
A  scrimped  calf  carries  a  curse  to  the  cow. 
Brains  will  ne’er  direct  your  feet  to  an  unreserved  back  seat. 
A  compost  heap  is  a  manure  condenser.  It  takes  some  of  the  water 
out. 
A  man  carries  his  life  on  his  Unger  when  he  undertakes  to  lead  a 
bull  without  a  ring. 
S.  A.  Little  defends  the  Leghorn  as  a  nurse.  Who  else  has  noticed 
her  value  in  this  role? 
One  thing  the  Guernsey  cows  can  do— they  can  get  more  color  out  of 
a  given  amount  of  food  than  any  other  cows! 
Read  that  little  poem  on  page  598  and  ask  yourself  if  any  of  your 
old  folks  need  just  such  a  visit  from  you. 
No  paying  crop  for  him  who  leaves  manure  beneath  the  dripping 
eaves.  For  what  manure  can  ever  pay  when  all  its  life  is  washed  away? 
Next  week  comes  an  account  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  farms 
along  the  Hudson  River  and  about  the  most  unique  picture  we  have 
ever  printed. 
Rats  and  mice  are  revengeful;  if  they  can't  eat  your  grain,  they 
will  eat  your  bags.  Bag  the  bags— put  a  dozen  in  one  and  hang  it  up 
out  of  their  way. 
That  plan  of  using  clay  over  the  joints  of  tile  in  quicksand— see 
page  591— will  be  worth  many  times.the  cost  of  a  year’s  subscription  to 
some  farmer  with  similar  land. 
Messrs.  Barns  and  Bdckman  are  both  carelul  men  and  they  have 
given  this  matter  of  spraying  a  careful  trial.  Their  conclusions  differ 
somewhat  as  you  will  see  by  reading  their  reports. 
Those  Kentucky  cur  dogs— see  page  591— had  to  die  in  order  to  bene¬ 
fit  agriculture.  Try  the  same  thing  on  some  of  the  curs  in  your  own 
town.  Make  a  prejudice  pull  for  you  whenever  you  can. 
So  strong  is  the  faith  of  most  strawberry  growers  in  the  Parker  Earle 
that  whenever  a  man  says  a  word  against  it,  a  dozen  or  more  rise  at 
once  to  say  that  he  could  not  have  had  plants  true  to  name. 
A  Massachusetts  man  reports  a  new  trick  of  the  crow.  He  says 
the  black  scamp  knocks  his  Astrachan  apples  and  hard  pears  from 
the  trees  and  then  partially  eats  them.  Has  any  other  fruit  grower 
been  served  in  the  same  way? 
Score  100  for  the  managers  of  the  dairy  exhibit  In  the  Madison 
Square  Garden  Food  Exposition.  “Oleo  cannot  come  into  the  build¬ 
ing  under  any  pretext  whatever.”  As  soon  let  a  sheep  affected  with 
the  scab  Into  a  flock  of  healthy  animals! 
Most  of  us  feel  that  a  good  diet  of  strawberries  will  counteract  the 
effect  of  eating  too  much  fat.  The  Alaska  Indians  do  not  care  for 
strawberries  at  all  unless  they  aro  stewed  in  the  fat  of  the  seal.  Thus 
do  Americans  differ!  ’’Every  man  to  his  taste!” 
It  is  a  common  saying  that  many  Western  towns  and  counties  delib¬ 
erately  turn  their  profits  right  oyer  to  Eastern  money  lenders.  If 
Western  farmers  would  stop  voting  worthless  bonds  for  railroads  and 
other  Improvements  there  would  be  a  good  deal  fairer  “distribution 
of  wealth.” 
Prof.  A.  J.  Cook  tells  us  this  week  about  a  method  of  successfully 
fighting  the  Harlequin  cabbage  bug  which  is  going  to  be  a  troublesome 
pest  throughout  the  North.  This  bug  likes  mustard  and  advantage 
is  taken  of  this  fact  to  capture  him.  Man  himself  is  often  lured  to  de¬ 
struction  by  palate  bait. 
One  political  advertising  scheme  this  year  is  a  piece  of  ffy  paper  on 
which  are  printed  pictures  of  the  candidates.  One  of  the  pictures  Is 
covered  with  “  stick  ’em,”  so  that  It  soon  becomes  covered  with  flies 
while  the  other  is,  of  course,  clean.  Thus  the  legend,  “  No  flies  on  our 
candidate!  ”  becomes  quite  effective.  How  many  farmers  there  are 
who  unconsciously  cover  their  farms  with  “  stick  ’em  ”  and  gather 
flies  in  the  shape  of  weeds  and  woe! 
Governor  Hoard  is  correct  In  saying  that  cows  on  good  pasture 
take  very  little  so-called  exercise.  They  simply  roam  about  after 
food  and  water.  Where  these  are  close  to  them  they  will  travel  but 
little— probably  but  little  more  than  they  would  if  confined  in  a  roomy, 
box  stall.  Of  course  there  are  some  foolish  cows  in  every  herd  that 
go  roaming  about  for  no  particular  purpose  like  gossipy  and  curious 
humans.  We  do  not  mean  such  animals,  we  mean  the  quiet,  gentle 
business  cows  that  pay  the  rent 
“  Competition  is  the  life  of  trade,”  is  one  of  those  old  adages 
which  seem  to  deserve  respect  only  on  account  of  their  antiquity. 
Isn’t  competition  In  reality  the  death  rather  than  the  life  of  trade? 
Isn’t  it  the  real  cause  of  all  these  labor  troubles  and  of  innumerable 
other  woes?  Employers  compete  with  each  other  to  make  their 
products  as  cheap  as  possible,  and  in  order  to  do  this  they  reduce  ex¬ 
penses  in  every  way  and  the  first  assault  is  always  made  upon 
wages. 
“The  growing  unremunerativeness  of  grain-growing  in  Europe  in 
face  of  the  overwhelming  American  competition,  constantly  increasing 
through  the  opening  up  of  new  regions  to  cultivation  and  the  lowering 
of  railroad  rates,”  was  the  theme  of  a  sensational  address  the  other 
day  by  Herr  Natchaner.  President  of  the  Corn  Exchange  of  Vienna,  at 
the  opening  there  of  the  great  International  Grain  Fair,  the  largest 
and  most  important  annual  assemblage  of  the  kind  held  anywhere. 
His  mode  of  handling  the  subject  has  caused  a  great  deal  of  com¬ 
motion  in  Europe,  where  American  competition  in  agricultural  pro¬ 
ducts  has  long  been  a  puzzling  problem  with  economists.  The  speak¬ 
er’s  only  chance  of  relief —the  building  of  a  network  of  canals  In  cen¬ 
tral  Europe— is  hardly  likely  to  be  adopted  in  these  days  when  rail¬ 
roads  are  everywhere  fast  superseding  canals  for  the  purposes  of 
transportation. 
