P62 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Dec.  24 
Ward  D.  Gunn,  Ulster  County,  N.  Y. 
— In  my  judgment  the  effect  of  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  black  knot  law  has  been  of 
but  little  account  in  eradicating  the  evil, 
although  it  has  had  a  good  effect  in 
drawing  attention  to  the  importance  of 
its  object,  and  in  leading  cultivators  to 
voluntary  action.  So  far  as  I  know,  its 
provisions  are  not  observed.  People 
generally  theoretically  favor  it,  that  is, 
they  recognize  it  as  a  measure  of  justice 
and  protection,  and  necessary  to  the 
preservation  of  the  trees,  yet,  when  it 
comes  to  local  application,  compliance 
with  its  provisions  seems  very  difficult. 
Some  further  legislation  will  be  needed 
to  make  it  effective.  Just  what  that 
should  be  is  the  vital  point.  “  Every¬ 
body’s  business  is  nobody’s.”  Some  pro¬ 
vision  of  a  compulsory  character  would 
seem  to  be  required.  In  the  county  of 
Ulster — a  fruit  section  where  black  knot 
prevails — I  do  not  think  commissioners 
have  been  appointed  in  a  single  town, 
although  the  supervisors  are  doubtless 
willing  to  appoint  on  the  required  peti¬ 
tion.  But  no  one  feels  it  his  duty  to  get 
this  up  and  obtain  signatures.  And  even 
if  that  were  done,  another  difficulty 
would  arise  in  getting  competent  and 
conscientious  men  to  accept  the  position 
of  commissioners,  as  they  must  neces¬ 
sarily  antagonize  some  individual  inter¬ 
ests  in  the  performance  of  their  duty. 
“Well,”  the  average  reader  may  query, 
“  if  the  fruit  growers  for  whose  interests 
the  law  was  enacted  do  not  feel  inter¬ 
ested  enough  to  enforce  its  reasonable 
provisions,  would  it  not  be  quite  as  well 
to  repeal  it,  or  allow  it  to  become  a  dead 
letter  in  localities  where  it  is  ignored  ?  ’» 
Perhaps  so.  But  how  would  it  be  for 
the  State  farmers’  institutes  to  give  this 
matter  special  attention  at  some  desig¬ 
nated  session,  with  the  definite  under¬ 
standing  that  growers  from  towns  desir¬ 
ing  a  commission  could  have  it  by  ex¬ 
pressing  their  wish  and  naming  commis¬ 
sioners  who  would  serve  ?  It  is  greatly 
to  be  desired  that  some  means  of  en¬ 
forcement  should  be  adopted  for  so  good 
and  necessary  an  enactment. 
The  Crop  After  Strawberries. 
E.  W.,  North  Collins,  N.  Y. — Straw¬ 
berries  from  an  old  bed  are  in  our  market 
a  decided  drug,  therefore  only  one  crop 
is  taken  from  any  of  our  fields,  but  to 
offset  this  loss  we  follow'  the  pickers 
when  making  the  last  picking,  with 
the  plow,  harrow  the  ground  nicely 
and  plant  to  potatoes,  which  seldom  fail 
to  yield  a  good  crop,  and  if  the  season  is 
favorable  they  will  outyield  even  the 
earlier  plantings.  Another  plan  I  have 
found  to  work  is  to  sow  the  old  bed  with 
corn  and  seed  with  clover,  which  has 
never  failed  of  making  a  good  stand. 
The  field  can  be  mowed  or  by  the  first  of 
June  a  good  crop  is  ready  for  turning 
under  for  any  crop  one  wishes  to  plant. 
My  plan  is  to  plant  such  fields  with 
tomatoes,  though  potatoes  or  corn  would 
do  equally  well  on  the  sod. 
Hen  Business  on  Paper. 
J.  H.  Seeley,  Eli.erslie  Stock  Farm. 
Rhinecliff,  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y. — 
In  The  Rural  of  October  15,  is  an  ar¬ 
ticle  about  poultry  keeping,  which  looks 
very  fine  on  paper,  but  in  which  many 
things  are  omitted  which  will  have  to  be 
considered  before  the  end  of  the  experi¬ 
ment.  One  man  is  to  look  after  50  hen 
coops  covering  20  acres  of  ground.  Now 
allowing  10  hours  per  day,  he  has  six 
minutes  for  each  roost  and  in  that  time 
he  has  to  mix  the  feed,  carry  it  and  the 
water,  and  then  the  last  lot  will  not  get 
their  feed  until  12  o’clock.  No  time  is 
allowed  to  look  after  the  sick  or  injured 
of  which  there  are  sure  to  be  some  in 
such  a  flock  of  2,000  hens.  Again  how  is 
he  to  keep  up  his  stock  ?  It  has  been 
proved  that  it  does  not  pay  to  keep  a  hen 
over  one  year  or  two  at  most;  now  to  re¬ 
plenish  such  a  flock,  one  would  have  to 
raise  no  less  than  4,000 chickens  or  more, 
as  upwards  of  half  would  be  roosters  as 
a  rule.  At  a  fair  estimate  he  will  not 
raise  more  than  three-fourths  of  those 
hatched,  and  they  must  all  be  early  to 
get  good  results.  Now  whether  he  raises 
them  by  means  of  the  hen  or  the  incu¬ 
bator  and  brooder,  it  requires  work  and 
lots  of  it.  What  I  object  to  is  the  idea 
that  a  man  can  go  into  the  chicken  busi¬ 
ness  and  sit  by  the  fire  and  count  his 
money  as  it  comes  in.  To  make  the  hen 
or  chicken  business  pay,  a  man  has  to  be 
up  and  at  it  from  early  in  the  morning 
until  late  at  night,  and  then,  as  a  rule, 
he  will  get  good  pay  for  his  labor  ;  but 
poultry  raising  is  the  last  thing  a  man 
should  go  into  thinking  he  will  get  rid 
of  work.  He  is  sure  to  get  left  and  have 
to  count  his  profits  out  of  his  other  re¬ 
sources  if  he  has  any;  if  not  he  will  be  a 
loser. 
Here  are  a  few  aphorisms  with  which 
The  R.  N.-Y.  has  been  favored  by  Mrs. 
N.  Briggs,  of  Vermont  : 
Self-improvement  is  the  first  step 
towards  farm  improvement. 
Everybody  knows  how  to  make  farm¬ 
ing  pay  except  the  farmer. 
Eat  plenty  of  milk  and  eggs. 
Keep  the  well  clean. 
Never  mortgage  your  farm  to  build  a 
handsome  house  or  a  general-purpose 
barn.  Wear  your  old  coat  until  you  have 
the  money  to  buy  a  new  one. 
Plan  carefully  before  commencing  any 
kind  of  work. 
Find  out  what  you  can  raise  most 
profitably  and  stick  to  it. 
Think  while  you  work. 
An  idle  brain  is  worse  than  an  idle 
hand. 
Strive  to  get  in  sympathy  with  the 
spirit  of  farming. 
There  are  certain  important  questions 
that  bear  upon  the  comforts  and  rights 
of  the  farmer  that  need  to  be  settled  in 
an  effective  way.  His  fields  are  invaded, 
and  persons  acting  as  huntsmen,  with 
almost  incomprehensible  folly,  following 
the  scent  of  a  bag  of  anise  seed,  jump  the 
fences  and  gallop  over  the  fields  and 
damage  the  crops.  The  sportsmen  tres¬ 
pass  on  the  land  in  spite  of  the  legal  no¬ 
tices  posted,  and  even  at  times  go  upon 
the  farmer’s  lawn  in  pursuit  of  game 
under  the  shrubbery  in  plain  view  of  the 
dwelling,  and  it  has  been  known  that  the 
scattering  shot  has  entered  the  open  win¬ 
dows  and  wounded  some  of  the  inmates 
of  the  house.  The  fish  in  his  ponds  and 
streams  are  caught  and  carried  off,  and 
remonstrance  often  brings  abuse. 
The  evil  is  growing,  as  Henry  Stewart 
forcibly  presents  it  in  the  Times.  Re¬ 
cently  a  person  riding  after  dogs  follow¬ 
ing  the  trail  of  anise  seed  was  killed  by 
being  thrown  on  a  wire  fence.  And, 
strange  to  say,  the  farmer  was  blamed 
for  having  a  fence  that  any  trespasser 
could  not  safely  ride  a  horse  over.  And 
anywhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  cities 
or  summer  resorts  the  continuous  annoy¬ 
ance  to  the  farmer  goes  on  without  inter¬ 
mission  from  day  to  day.  The  law  is 
mildly  sufficient  for  the  protection  of  the 
farmer  from  lawless  acts,  but  it  is  an 
aggravation  that  he  should  be  compelled 
to  resort  to  it  with  all  the  costs  and  in¬ 
conveniences  by  the  acts  of  lawless  per¬ 
sons,  supported  to  some  extent  by  public 
sympathy  in  the  trespass.  And  when  he 
gains  his  case,  the  law  allows  him  no 
sort  of  compensation  adequate  to  his 
real  losses  in  which  his  loss  of  time  and 
temper  ;  the  insults  he  receives  in  prose¬ 
cuting  his  plain  case  ;  the  indignation  and 
sense  of  insecurity  he  experiences  do  not 
count. 
Some  years  ago  a  crowd  of  horses, 
riders  and  hounds  raced  over  the  Rural 
Farm.  Their  course,  as  it  happened,  was 
but  a  few  feet  north  of  our  chief  experi¬ 
ment  plots.  Had  they  passed  through 
these,  the  loss  to  us  would  have  been  in¬ 
calculable.  Could  we  have  proved  the 
value  of  these  plots  to  the  court  ?  Not  a 
bit  of  it.  What  we  object  to  is  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  such  accidents  happening.  That 
such  grounds  should  be  at  the  mercy  of 
a  pack  of  idle  men  and  women  who  find 
a  delight  in  madly  racmg  after  a  poor, 
little  fox,  regardless  of  the  serious  dam¬ 
age  they  may  do,  is  enough  to  make  the 
farm  owner  burst  with  rage. 
Mr.  E.  Williams  notes,  in  Garden  and 
Forest,  that  Green  Mountain  promises  to 
be  the  earliest  white  grape,  with  Colerain 
a  close  competitor.  Eaton,  he  says,  has 
size  and  good  looks  to  recommend  it,  but 
lacks  sweetness.  It  is  true  that  the 
Eaton  is  watery  ;  but  while  its  sugar  has 
been  unduly  diluted,  so,  too,  has  its 
acidity.  The  result  is  a  mild  flavor,  very 
agreeable  to  many.  Niagara  still  holds 
out  with  him  against  all  competitors 
among  the  whites,  for  size  of  clusters 
and  productiveness.  Brighton  and  Lind- 
( Continued  on  next  page.) 
$Ui0ttUattf0U0 
Ip  you  name  The  R.  N.-Y.  to  our  advertisers  you 
may  be  pretty  sure  of  prompt  replies  and  right 
treatment. 
Mrs.  Paisley. 
WHENEVER  I  see 
Hood’s  Sarsapa¬ 
rilla  I  want  to  bow  and 
say  ‘Thank  You.’  I 
was  badly  affected  with 
Eczema  and  Scrof  n  In 
Sores,  covering  almost 
the  whole  of  one  side  of 
my  face,  nearly  to  the 
top  of  my  head.  Run¬ 
ning  sores  discharged 
from  both  ears.  My  eyes  were  very  bad.  For 
nearly  a  year  I  was  deaf.  1  took  IIOOIVN 
w  \  It sai’A  it 1 1 . 1.  \  and  the  sores  on  my 
eyes  and  in  my  ears  healed.  I  can  now  hear 
and  see  as  well  as  ever.”  Mrs.  Amanda  Pais¬ 
ley,  176  Lander  Street,  Newburgh,  N.  Y. 
&IVE  •  TUB  ♦  BABY 
FOR  and 
INFANTS ->£336^1  NVAU  PS. 
TRADE  ORAtr'lABOPAjf  MAR  It. 
IF  YOU  WISH  your  infant  to  be 
well  nourished,  healthy,  and  vigorous 
THE  •  BEST  •  FOOD 
For  Hand-Fed  Infants,  Invalids,  Convar 
lescents,  Dyspeptics,  and  the  Aged. 
•Our  Book  for  MOTHERS, 
“THE  CARE  AND  FEEDING  OF  INFANTS," 
_  Mailed  free  upon  request. 
doliber-Goodale  Co.,  boston,  mass. 
Farmers  YOUR  Produce 
To  F.  I.  SAGE  &  SON,  183  Keade  St.,  N.  Y., 
Receivers  of  all  kinds  of  Country  Produce,  in¬ 
cluding  Game,  Live  and  Dressed  Poultry  and  Dressed 
Calves.  Specialties— Berries,  Grapes,  Apples,  Pears, 
Honey,  Onions  and  Potatoes.  Correspondence  and 
Consignments  solicited.  Stencils  furnished.  Ref¬ 
erence:  Dun's  or  Bradstreet's  Commercial  Reports, 
to  be  found  at  any  bank. 
THE  CURTIS  STEEL  ROOFING  COMPANY 
8ELLS  IRON  AND  STEEL 
HOOD'S  PlLLS  cure  all  Liver  Ills,  jaundice, 
sick  headache?  biliousness,  sour  stomach,  nausea. 
Nothing  On  Earth  Will 
X.XKIE 
Sheridan’s  Condition  Powder ! 
KEEPS  YOUR  CHICKENS 
Strong  and  Healthy  ;  Prevents  all  Disease. 
Good  for  Moulting  liens. 
It  is  absolutely  pure.  Highly  concentrated.  In  quan¬ 
tity  costs  tenth  of  a  cent  a  day.  No  other  one-fourth  as 
strong.  Strictly  a  medicine.  “  One  large  can  saved  me 
$10;  send  six  to  prevent  ltoup,”  says  one  customer. 
If  you  can’t  get  it  send  to  us. 
We  mail  one  pack  25c  Five  $1  A  2  1-4  lb.  can  $1.20.  Six 
cans,  $5.00,  express  paid.  Poultry  Raising  Guide,  price 
25  cents,  free  with  $1.00  orders  or  more.  Sample  copy 
of  Thk  Best  Poultry  Paper  sent  free. 
I.  S.  JOHNSON  &  CO  ,  22  Custom  House  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
r  IfmLmT  iy  iwVpTi  y  p  c  wp  FSotI 
^  l  111  J  ftl  Automatic  Mixers,  Brans  Working]} 
I  Parts, hoary  Hoaeand  VKKHORF.L  .N  07.-1 
OurGAKFIKLD  k.VU'SACk  and. 
|  mV  I  LITTLE  GKB  lead  all  others.  You  can  *avel 
■  II  r  money  by  dealing  with  us.  Rook  ofinstruc  * 
tioua  free.  flELD,  FOKCK  PUMP  CO.,* 
■  J1K  BrhOo^  LOC KP O KT.^N^Yj 
DPfiriT  F0R  farmers. 
H  HB  I  I  ■  1  I  NOT  DIG  MONEY. 
I  I  I  W  I  B  I  BUT  SURE  MONEY. 
Will  you  TRADE  a  little  time  and  trouble  FOR 
CASH?  Clean  and  honorable  work  for  winter  months. 
Even  the  busy  man  has  time  for  It.  This  means 
DOLLARS.  Don’t  throw  It  aside.  Write  a  card 
for  particulars  to  AXTELL,  RUSH  &  CO., 
Pittsburgh.  Pa. 
KNIFE  SHARPENER! 
The  Bon  Ton  Knife  Sharpener  will  sharpen  any  kind 
of  knife  or  scissors  quicker  than  by  grinding  on  a 
Btone.  Agents  make  big  money  selling  to  families. 
Sample,  25  cents.  Address  UNION  NOVELTY 
CO.,  Box  42,  New  Oxford,  Pa. 
ROOFING 
direct  to  YOU  at  Agents’  prices.  Write  for  our 
GUARANTEE. 
Address  Box  1385  Niles,  Ohio. 
AND 
Gem 
S  T  e  EL 
toWER 
*1? 
When  furnished  with  Graphite  Bearing*. I 
the  GEM  WIND  ENGINE  requires  no# 
oiling,  no  climbing  of  towers,  no  hinged  or# 
frail-jointed  towers,  and  practically  no  atten-f 
tlon,  yet  is  guaranteed  more  durable  than 
other  Mills  that  are  oiled.  Truly  a  GEM, 
and  worth  its  weight  In  gold.  The  i 
GEM  STEEL  TOWER  is  made  trian-J 
gular  in  shape,  the  corners  and  girts  1 
of  angle  steel ;  the  braces  are  steel  rods,  each  i 
of  which  can  be  firmly  drawn  up,  inde-f 
pendent  of  the  other.  It  combines  beauty,  * 
strength,  durability  and  simplicity  to  the! 
greatest  degree,  and  is  much  more  easily  f 
•reoted  than  a  tower  made  of  wood,  f 
We  also  manufacture  the  Celebrated  J 
HALLADAY  Standard  Pump¬ 
ing  and  Geared  Wind  Mills,  the] 
Standard  VAN ELESS  and  U  S. 
SOLID  WHEEL  Wind  Mills.] 
Pumps,  Tanks,  HORSE  HAYj 
TOOLS,  and  the  most  com¬ 
plete  line  of  WIND  MILL] 
SPECIALTIES. 
Bend  for  catalogue.  Address 
U.  S.  WIND  ENGINE  & 
PUMP  CO., 
BATAVIA,  ILL., U.S. A.1 
BRANCH  offices:  I  depots: 
Omaha,  Neb.;  Kansas  City,  Mo.  |  Boston,  Mass.;  Ft.  Worth,  Tex. 
OUR  HAY  CARRIERS 
are  the  best  suited  for  all  kinds  of  buildings.  Use 
any  Fork  or  Slings,  Sell  direct. 
FOWLER  &  FARRINGTON. 
T&ugbannock  Falls,  N.  Y 
