Profitable Farming de¬ 
pends as much on sell¬ 
ing as on producing. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER’S 
A crop which is well 
grown is only half 
way to market. 
MARKET, CROP AND NEWS SPECIAL. 
Special to 
Club Organizers. 
The multitude of able men, promi¬ 
nent and progressive farmers who are 
note interesting themselves in organ¬ 
izing clubs of subscriptions for The 
Rural New-Yorker speaks more than 
volumes could of the warm feeling of 
personal interest between the Paper 
and its Readers. This practical co¬ 
operation in forwarding the import¬ 
ant interests of agriculture common 
to all farmers, practical, commercial, 
social, political, is what is actually 
placing The Rural New-Yorker at 
the very head of the farm papers of 
the World, in character, in circulation 
and in influence. By working to¬ 
gether il we" — subscribers, readers, 
editors and publishers—shall become 
a compact, strong body of ivorkers 
whose power for good will be limited 
only by our wisdom in using it for the 
f urtherance of the objects we all have 
at heart. 
The opportunities for the organiza¬ 
tion of clubs are manif old. The casual 
meeting, at work, on the road, at the 
store, at the Grange, Alliance, Club 
meetings and social gatherings; these 
are the times and occasions for in¬ 
creasing our family of readers and 
subsequent workers in the cause of ad¬ 
vanced Agriculture. 
TRADE WINDS. 
The year 1890 was a peculiar one in many 
respects. The exceptionally mild winter 
In the early part of it unbalanced trade in 
certain lines of seasonable goods, so that 
many failures resulted, and general busi¬ 
ness was unsettled to a greater or less ex¬ 
tent. The failure of the ice crop in local¬ 
ities where it was an important one also 
proved a great hardship to many who de¬ 
pend upon this for winter employment. 
The absence of snow and the almost impas¬ 
sable roads interfered seriously in many 
parts of the country with the movement of 
produce to market, and almost entirely 
prevented lumbering operations in those 
parts of the country where snow is de¬ 
pended upon to facilitate the movement of 
logs. The warm winter also seriously in¬ 
jured the fruit crop, and over large areas 
was the chief if not the only cause of its 
complete failure. Then a late and wide¬ 
spread freeze throughout the South en¬ 
tailed a loss of millions of dollars upon 
Southern truckers and fruit growers. 
Higher prices have compensated partially 
for many of these losses, but great hardship 
has come to many, and utter failure to 
others. The la^-t month of the old year 
brought regular, ol i-fashtoned, winter 
weather, which is favorable to business, to 
work in the country and to agriculture in 
general. This has renewed hope, and prom¬ 
ises favorably for a more prosperous year 
to come. 
The financial situation throughout the 
world was unfavorable during the entire 
year. The causes lie outside tnis country, 
but reference to them shows the bond of 
union existing between all the great finan¬ 
cial centers of the world and their common 
interdependence. It also shows the un¬ 
favorable effects exerted upon other coun¬ 
tries many times by financial stringency in 
a distant country. Leading financial in¬ 
stitutions are coming to recognize this and 
are aiding each other in times of need in¬ 
stead of striving selfishly to benefit them¬ 
selves at others’ expense. The troubles in 
the Argentine Republic were largely re¬ 
sponsible for the narrowly averted univer¬ 
sal financial panic of the closing months of 
’90. England had heavy investments in 
that unfortunate country. When the polit¬ 
ical and financial crisis came there, gold be¬ 
gan to flow to South America from London, 
while the premium on that metal was ad¬ 
vanced at Paris to prevent its export to 
London. Then there was a demand upon 
London for gold from many different coun¬ 
tries, South American securities depreci¬ 
ated in value, business became unsettled, 
the suspension was announced of one of the 
oldest and presumably most reliable bank¬ 
ing houses in the world, and a universal 
panic was prevented oniy by the action of 
a syndicate, of which the Bank of Eng¬ 
land was a chief member, to lend money 
to tide over the temporary difficulty. 
The unsettled condition of affairs in 
London, through which most of our ex¬ 
change with South America is effected, 
caused an uneasy feeling here; prices of 
stocks were depressed, large sums of money 
were withdrawn from circulation, and 
business was seriously disturbed. There 
is more confidence abroad and an increased 
confidence here, but the feeling is not one 
of perfect security. In regard to the situ¬ 
ation at the close of the year, the Journal 
of Commerce says that general trade was 
stimulated by the operation of the new 
tariff which, however, bore heavily upon 
all consumers, and had it not been for the 
monetary situation and the depression in 
the stock markets, the feeling at the close 
of the year would have been, on the whole, 
rather encouraging. The prospects cer¬ 
tainly appear brighter than they did a 
month ago, but there is small cause for 
congratulation. The monetary situation 
is simply relieved—not permanently im¬ 
proved—and legislation of a very disturb¬ 
ing character is threatened by Congress. 
The severe financial strain which has con¬ 
tinued with only brief intervals of relaxa¬ 
tion since August is having its influence 
upon banking and commercial interests 
all over the country, unsettling confidence 
and causing widespread distress, and it 
will require the exercise of the wisest dis¬ 
cretion on the part of our statesmen to 
avert further financial troubles. 
AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Several Ohio farmers have made assign¬ 
ments. 
Ice seven inches thick formed in Virginia 
last month. 
The total assessed valuation of Califor¬ 
nia is $1,060,390,291. 
A London journal proposes the rabbit as 
a wool producing animal. 
Two earthquake shocks were felt at El- 
wood, Ind., Saturday afternoon. 
A family starved to death on a farm in 
Rooks County, Kan., during a recent bliz¬ 
zard. 
Dispatches from Bismarck, N. D., last 
week, stated that farmers near there were 
plowing. 
A 40-foot picket fence near Bath, Me., is 
composed entirely of the swords of the 
swordfish. 
The manufacturers of road-machines 
have been considering the advisability of 
combining. 
It is probable that the restrictions on the 
importation of American pork into Italy 
will be removed. 
O wing to the scarcity of barley in some 
parts of California, farmers are using 
wheat for horse feed. 
Two farmers in Tennessee had a deadly 
encounter over the question of their line 
fences. Down with the fences 1 
The Florida Orange Buyers’ Protective 
Association has been organized. Its object 
is to protect its members’ interests. 
Glanders is prevalent among the horses 
in the vicinity of Plainfield, N. J., and 
several affected animals have been killed. 
At Fort Fairfield, Maine, the thermome¬ 
ter registered 60 degrees below zero, Decem¬ 
ber 31, the coldest weather ever known 
there. 
Severe frosts have recently been exper¬ 
ienced at many Mediterranean points, some¬ 
thing which has been unknown for a 
quarter of a century. 
Peter Kieffer. the introducer of the 
pear bearing his name, died recently at his 
home near Philadelphia. He was widely 
known as a pomologist. 
Jerry Simpson, known as the “Sockless 
Statesman,” and Congressman-elect from 
the Seventh Kansas district, is becoming a 
prominent candidate for Senator Ingalls’s 
Senatorial seat. 
Kansas grain merchants protest against 
the new grain rates, and have appealed to 
the Inter-State Commerce Commission to 
compel the roads to observe the taaiff 
named by that body last summer. 
An English firm has entered the beef¬ 
importing trade, making the first shipment 
of 2 000 quarters of beef to English ports on 
Saturday. They have a two years’ con¬ 
tract for freight room with the Cunard line. 
The weather in England at the close 6f 
last year was the coldest since 1813. In 
London the thermometer was 10 degrees 
above zero, and the Thames was partially 
frozen over. On the Continent the cold is 
correspondingly severe. 
Senator Paddock, from the Committee 
on Agriculture and Forestry, on Tuesday 
reported, with unimportant amendments, 
the bill known as the Pure Food Bill, for 
preventing adulteration and the misbrand¬ 
ing of foods and drugs. 
A kerosene lantern dropped in the barn 
by a man while doing chores started a fire 
which destroyed several out-buildings, 
some live stock, and caused a loss of $20,000 
at Boscobel, Henry Ward Beecher’s old 
summer home, the other morning. 
Information has been received at Wash¬ 
ington that the President of Mexico has ap¬ 
proved the bill recently passed by the Con¬ 
gress of that Republic, admitting corn 
from the United States free of duty. This 
is a very large concession, as the duty 
heretofore has been about one half cent per 
pound. 
The Farmers’ Alliance of Missouri is 
taking steps to compete by cooperative 
manufacturing with the American Har¬ 
vester Company. A movement is on foot 
to establish a binder factory in the State, 
the necessary capital to be raised by sub¬ 
scription and the plant to be run on a co¬ 
operative basis. 
The action of Secretary Rusk in closing 
certain Vermont ports for entry of Can¬ 
adian cattle into the United States owing 
to the alleged existence of pleuro pneu¬ 
monia in the Dominion is much criticised 
in Ottawa. The government officials assert 
that there is not a. single case of the disease 
in existence in the Dominion. 
The Executive Committee of the Kansas 
Farmers’ Alliance has been considering 
the insurance plans of the order. It is 
stated that the scheme has been sufficiently 
perfected to assure an attempt at opera¬ 
tion. Lecturers will be sent into the field 
immediately. Only persons eligible to m ^m- 
bership in the Alliance can insure with the 
company. 
The sheriff of Lehigh County, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, last week sold under execution 19 
farms, varying in area from 12 acres to 137 
acres. One of the farms, on which there is 
a valuable deposit of iron ore, and for 
which the Thomas Iron Company 10 years 
ago offered $90,000, was sold for $8,250, sub¬ 
ject to an execution for $7,000. 
Secretary Rusk says that the Govern¬ 
ment’s exhibits at the World’s Fair will 
not come in competition with the State, 
corporate, association, or individual exhib¬ 
itors. The Government will confine its ex¬ 
hibits to its function as an investigator 
and experimenter, as promoter of new and 
useful lines oi agricultural industry and as 
disseminator of information. 
The crops of potatoes throughout the 
best potato growing districts of England 
are reported large, and practicilly no dis¬ 
ease exists. The quality is exceptionally 
good, the tubers are very equal, and the 
crop having been lifted and secured in 
good weather, they will keep well. The 
early varieties were all consumed before 
any disease attacked them. The main 
crops grown are Magnums, Imperators, 
Beauty of Hebron, with a few Bruce. The 
Magnum, however, is the variety which is 
feeding the millions in England. 
A movement is on foot to build a big 
slaughtering establishment in Philadel¬ 
phia and ship cattle there from points as 
far West even as Utah, with an average 
shrinkage of not more than 2X per cent. 
The average loss on cattle transported by 
present methods is eight to ten per cent. 
The animals are to be carried in a vestibule 
stock train at a speed of 25 miles an hour. 
The cars will be made almost wholly of iron 
and steel. They will have arched roofs 
like those of passenger coaches. The in¬ 
terior arrangements permit feeding and 
watering the stock while the train is run¬ 
ning at full speed. 
Many rumors are afloat about the plans 
of the American Harvester Co., but many 
of them lack the element of truth. The 
company’s plans are not matured. A 
prominent firm which has joined the com- 
piny says that there are 22 concerns that 
have either sold out or joined the new com¬ 
pany, and none of them will be closed. All 
will not be operated as manufactories of 
machinery, however. The intention is 
eventually to manufacture all the paints, 
varnish, twine, etc., used in the business. 
One shop, for instance, will be used to 
manufacture paint, another twine, another 
varnish and another something else. The 
greatest change seems to be in the large 
number of traveling agents dispensed with. 
The Kansas Farmers’ Alliance has framed 
several measures to be submitted to the 
legislature. Among them are : A redemp¬ 
tion law, giving the mortgagor three years 
in which to redeem lands not exceeding 320 
acres sold under foreclosure ; a law requir¬ 
ing the mortgagee to pay his proportionate 
part of taxes ; a reduction of the rate of in¬ 
terest to six per cent straight, with penalty 
of forfeiture of principal and interest for 
its violation; a revision of Assessment and 
Taxation laws ; a reduction of the salaries 
of public officers; adoption of the Austra¬ 
lian system of voting and the Crawford 
County system of primaries ; a law requir¬ 
ing Railroad Commissioners to be elected 
by the people ; a law prohibiting alien own¬ 
ership of lands and such a reduction of 
railroad tariffs as will yield an average in¬ 
come not exceeding six per cent on the an¬ 
nual investment. As the Alliance controls 
the legislature there is every probability 
of these measures becoming laws. 
Condensed Correspondence. 
Livingston County, Mich.— Snow fell 
on December 1st and on the 3d it reached 
a depth of six inches and lay until the 20 th, 
protecting the wheat, which grew right 
along. This week it has gone and the 
ground is freezing, ready for a good run 
of sleighing' With us, beans are the money 
crop this year; but a fair acreage of wheat 
is sown and well started. Livingston 
County, with its three agricultural so¬ 
cieties, leads in sheep, and Short-horn and 
Holstein cattle. Horses are coming to the 
front; roadsters, Cleveland Bays, and draft 
are all booming, but I think with our 
climate the lighter breeds will do the best. 
F. W. M. 
New Westminster, B. C.-We have had 
a good year here on the Pacific coast. Good 
crops of all kinds, no droughts, no insect 
pests, no floods, no storms, and yet no 
frosts to kill vegetation. Our nasturtiums 
still bear some blossoms, and the Cuthbert 
Raspberries have not yet shed their leaves. 
From the one small R. N.-Y. Potato No. 
2 of two years ago, I now have four sacks 
of real beauties, besides a quantity I have 
given away and some we have eaten. R. s. 
Christian County, III.—The great 
drought in this section is still on. Not an 
inch of rain has fallen since last June. 
Water will be a luxury if the drought con¬ 
tinues much longer. I notice that many 
cedars, pines and arbor-vit863 are on the 
ragged edge of dissolution. Deciduous 
trees appear to be all right, though they 
shed their leaves rather earlier than usual. 
Winter wheat and the various grasses 
