92 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
IAN. 31 
The watches we sent to our subscribers 
on our previous offers have surprised us 
greatly. 1, As to the high-grade demanded 
in most cases; cheap watches were not 
wanted. 2, On account of the great num¬ 
ber called for. Only one or two complaints 
have reached us, and many have expressed 
great satisfaction with the watches re¬ 
ceived. 
The watches will be sent in connection 
with subscriptions on the following terms: 
In each case either a renewal or new sub¬ 
scription may be included. If you have 
already paid for 1891, the paper may be 
sent to the address of a new subscriber. 
Any watch in the list will be sent in con¬ 
nection with a subscription (on the same 
order) for $1.25 in addition to the amounts 
above named for the watches. 
We send the watches pre-paid by regis¬ 
tered mail to any part of the United States. 
Watches sent to Canada are subject, of 
course, to Custom House restrictions. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO , 
Times Building, New York. 
All Sorts. 
RECENT STATION BULLETINS. 
Cornell, Ithaca, N. Y., Bulletin 24, The Clover Rust. 
Utah, Bogan, Bulletin S, Vegetables. 
Kentucky, Lexington, Bulletin 21, Strawberry Pests. 
The New Jersey Ex. Station advises farm 
ers to use kainit for the cut-worm. In 
many Western States the cut-worms are 
troublesome, while the soil needs potash. 
Farmers in those States would use kainit 
for the worms, but would scorn to use 
any “patent fertilizers.” The “cut-worm 
medicine,” however, will so doctor the 
fruits and vines and other crops needing 
potash that these farmers will learn to 
respect fertilizers. 
The Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture 
concludes that the farm operations of 
Georgia farmers for 1890 are both encourag¬ 
ing and discouraging. Farmers are slowly 
paying debts, substituting cash for credit, 
learning economy, talking more about 
stock, fruits and poultry and “ coming to¬ 
gether ” in the Alliance and other organi¬ 
zations. On the other hand, “King Cotton” 
still rules. Cotton falls in price, while 
corn rises. The supply of timber is being 
exhausted, roads are in bad condition and 
country schoolhouses are in woeful shape. 
The Commissioner tells farmers they must 
“take care of their land” Leaching and 
washing are the two chief sources of lost 
fertility. “Burn nothing; plow in every¬ 
thing and let it decay,” he says. Let land 
rest at least once in every three years. 
Nature will cure the land if you only give 
her time enough. The horse and mule 
trade of Georgia is enormous. In 1889 
47,580 animals were sold in Atlanta, valued 
at $5,462,500. This is one-sixth of the value 
of the entire cotton crop of the State. Hard- 
earned Georgia dollars go out of the State 
to pay for animals that might be raised at 
home. 
In Bulletin 24, (Cornell Station) J. K. 
Howell describes and illustrates the clover 
rust—a disease which prevailed to quite a 
serious extent in the several wet, cool 
seasons preceding 1890, in some sections of 
the Northern States. This is a true “ rust ” 
related to the wheat disease of the same 
name. Prof. Dudley, in this bulletin, says 
of the wheat rust, that “ the legislatures 
of the ancient colonies of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, as early as 1755, passed 
stringent laws requiring the destruction of 
barberry bushes, because it had ‘ been 
found by experience that the blasting of 
wheat and other English grain, is often 
occasioned by barberry bushes to the great 
loss and damage of the inhabitants.’ ” 
So far as investigations of this new 
clover disease have gone, the following 
suggestions are all that may now be 
offered: 1. The early crop of Red Clover 
is not likely to suffer injury from the rust. 
2. As the second crop is likely to suffer 
greatly if the midsummer Is cool, and as 
clover becomes a valuable fertilizer when 
plowed in, the fields should be carefully 
watched in such seasons and the crop 
might be plowed under to advantage. 3. 
Burning the clover fields in the fall would 
probably have some effect in checking the 
spread of the disease during the next 
season, but the application of fungicides 
seems impracticable. 
H. C. Thom, Dairy and Food Commis¬ 
sioner of Wisconsin, issues his first annual 
report. Food adulteration, he says, is 
alarmingly prevalent. People demand 
cheap food. So fierce is competition 
that merchants are unable to supply 
the demand with an honest article, and 
fraud is resorted to. People call for cheap 
food, but they never call for adulterated 
food, and yet adulteration is resorted to in 
order to satisfy them. It is estimated that 
the annual food bill of the United States 
is $4,500,000,000, and that of this $675,000,- 
000 is displaced by the manufacture of 
fraudulent food stuffs. Europe sends us 
vast quantities of adulterated food prod¬ 
ucts, but we are rapidly getting even with 
her, especially in the matter of cheese. 
The honest cheese maker has never before 
been forced to face so much dishonest com¬ 
petition. The export market has been 
loaded with “filled” cheese. This is a 
compound of skim-milk and grease—the 
favorite ingredient being the stale butter 
bought at the country stores. This is used 
in the belief that chemists cannot detect 
such a mixture. Unless the manufacture 
of this vile stuff is stopped, our export 
trade is doomed. A National law covering 
this matter should be passed and enforced. 
READER’S NOTES. 
The latest proposition in potato culture 
is in the line of the new system of onion 
growing described last week. The potato 
sets are to be started in a greenhouse and 
transplanted—like strawberries—as soon 
as the ground is fit for them. This is an 
experiment that we should prefer to try on 
a very small scale. 
Commissioner Thom,of Wisconsin.claims 
that the cow that gives milk containing less 
than three per cent of butter fat, skims the 
milk herself and holds her owner respon¬ 
sible for damages, just as a sheep-killing 
dog gets his owner into trouble. Neither 
is worth keeping. Do you keep such an 
animal ? 
There are frosts in Florida as well as in 
other parts of the country, and a light frost 
there will do as much damage as it will 
anywhere, because it comes at an unex¬ 
pected time. A melon-grower in northern 
Florida has arranged a novel scheme for 
defeating frost. Holes, four feet square 
and one foot deep, are dug all over the field. 
The upper soil is put at one side aDd thrown 
tack when the hole is deep enough. The 
holes are lined on the sides with boards 
reaching the top. Light covers are made by 
taking two crates or frames of lath—just 
the size of the holes—placing light straw 
or leaves between them and fastening them 
together with wire. The holes are well 
supplied with manure and cucumber or 
melon seeds are planted within. If frost 
threatens one man can cover hundreds of 
these pits before the sun goes down. The 
pits are permanent, fresh manure being 
taken each year. In the North, unless 
ample drainage was provided, these pits 
would simply hold water like mud puddles, 
but in the porous, sandy Florida soil, this 
trouble would probably not count. 
A former New York farmer now living in 
Michigan, writes to the Michigan Farmer 
about a visit to his native county (Seneca). 
Farms, he says, are worth only half what 
they formerly were. Rural population is 
failing, because the older farmers are mov¬ 
ing to town after renting their farms to 
tenants. “ The old farmers,” he says, 
“ take life easily, with their farms worked 
on shares and not much to do but attend 
church and be good.” He finds more and 
costlier churches than ever before, and 
fewer public schools. He thinks the farm¬ 
ers raise bigger crops than when he was a 
boy, and attributes this to the use of fer¬ 
tilizers and judicious rotation of crops. 
This writer seems to think the towns and 
cities will continue to absorb the brightest 
country boys, and that New York State 
farming is doomed. The R. N.-Y. is con¬ 
stantly meeting or hearing from the sons 
of men who farm by tenants, who have de¬ 
cided to leave the town for the country, 
and build up the farm 1 
Quite a good many potatoes were planted 
last fall before the frost closed the ground. 
They are now supposed to be quietly resting 
beneath a thick coating of horse manure. 
They were planted in the hope of securing 
earlier and stronger plants than spring 
planted seed could produce. It is observed 
that “volunteer” crops, coming from 
potatoes left in the ground at digging, start 
early in the season and make strong plants. 
They are above the ground before a spring 
crop could be planted. It Is proposed to 
mulch heavily with straw to keep off the 
frost. 
The American Historical Association 
recently held its seventh annual meeting 
at Washington, D. C. The object of this 
association seems to be to tell the whole 
truth about important epochs of history, 
that might be distorted by personal or 
partisan prejudice. Among other interest¬ 
ing facts brought out were the efforts made 
to populate Acadia, or the peninsula of 
Nova Scotia, from New England. Between 
1760 and 1770 nearly 11,000 persons left New 
England for Canada, and in 1784 23,000 
more left—“ mainly disbanded soldiers and 
loyalists. ” Had this scheme of colonization 
been carried out we might to-day have 
owned the Canadian maritime provinces. 
It was said that down to the close of the 
50th Congress (1886) there had been 1,700 
propositions to amend the United States 
Constitution. Of these only 19 were ever 
offered to ths States for ratification, 15 of 
which were ratified and four rejected. 
MEETINGS. 
Ayrshire Breeders’, New York City, Feb¬ 
ruary 11. 
New Jersey Poultry Association, Orange, 
N. J., February 19-24. 
New York StandardWatch. Nos. 3-4. 
IVA TC//ES 
FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS. 
The Rural New-Yorker, gratified by 
the flattering responses to its offers of 
watches to its subscribers, has made a thor¬ 
ough revision of its watch offer, and pro¬ 
poses to supply its subscribers with the best 
watches in the world at prices from 25 to 
50 per cent less than those usually charged 
by retail jewelers. The Rural New- 
Yorker wishes to have it thoroughly un¬ 
derstood that, since the watch companies 
have come to their senses and are no longer 
trying to boycott the newspapers, it is no 
longer making war upon them, but, on the 
contrary, by new arrangements it can offer 
watches to its subscribers at rates fully as 
favorable as those formerly advertised. 
Our object in making these offers is to 
give our subscribers good watches at low 
prices, to advertise The Rural New- 
Yorker, and to get new subscribers as per 
special offers at the foot of this column. 
|J3F* We believe that there is not a 
poor watch in the list.^fg^ 
SPECIAL OFFERS : MENS’ SIZE. 
No. B—A genuine New York Standard move 
ment; 7 jewels, safety pinion, com¬ 
pensation balance, stem wind and set; 
in a solid nickel silver case, open face; 
a really excellent watch and far su¬ 
perior to any other cheap watch 
we have seen.$ 6.50 
No. 2.—Same movement as No. 1, in gold-filled 
case. 15-year guarantee, open face.... 12.00 
No 8.—Same as No. 2, hunting case (see cut 
above) . 15.00 
No 4.—Same movement as No. 1, in a solid gold 
14k. hunting case, weighing 40 dwt_87.50 
RURAL SPECIAL BARGAINS. 
No. 5.—A genuineWaltham movement; 7 jewels, 
compensation balance, safety pinion, 
stem wind and set; in a solid nickel- 
silver case, open face. 7.25 
I*o. 6.—Same movement as No. 5, in gold filled 
case, guaranteed to wear 15 years, 
open face. 14.00 
No. 7.—Same movement as No. 5, in hunting case 
same as No. 6. 16.00 
No. 8.—Same movement as No. 5, in solid 14k. 
gold hunting case, weighing 40 dwt... 88.00 
No 9.-A genuine Waltham full jewel move¬ 
ment. compensation balance, safety 
pinion, stem wind and set, patent reg¬ 
ulator, Breguet hair spring, hardened 
and tempered in form, in open face. 
nickel-silver case. 11.00 
No. 10.-Same movement as No. 9, in gold filled 
case, guaranteed for 15 years, open 
face. 16.25 
No 11—Same as No. 10, hunting case. 19.25 
No. 12.—Same movement as No. 9, in solid Ilk- 
gold hunting case weighing 40 dwt. 
A very handsome watch. 41.00 
LADIES’ SIZE. 
No. 18.—A genuine Waltham ladies’ watch with 
jewels, compensation balance and 
safety pinion, stem wind and set; in a 
solid coin silver case. 11 50 
No. 14.—Same move¬ 
ment as No. 18, in 
a 15-year guaran¬ 
teed gold-filled 
hunting case $15.25 
to. 15.—A beautiful 
11 jewel move¬ 
ment, full nickel, 
In a handsomely 
engraved hunting 
case made of 14k. 
U. S. Assay solid 
gold, usual retail 
price from $50 to 
$75. One of the 
prettiest watches 
for a lady that we 
have ever seen. 
The illustration 
shows the case in 
exact size and 
style.$25.00 
Wood’s 
Household 
Practice of 
Medicine. 
A “Manual of Medicine,” for family use, giving 
full directions and instructions for every emergency 
that could arise. Clear, easily understood, trust 
worthy and fully illustrated. Each division written 
by the physician most eminent in that branch of 
medical science. Nothing so complete was ever 
before attempted, and probably never will be again. 
—New York World. 
A practical treatise for the use of families, travel¬ 
ers, seamen, miners, and all who are liable to diseise 
and accident, requiring speedy attention, Objections 
against attempts to popularize such knowledge may 
be met by the argument that some physiological 
basis of practical medicine enters into the ordinary 
education of the day ; and also by the common- 
sense reasoning that a sufferer had better be relieved 
inexpertly than die in waiting for a doctor. Besides, 
if people as a rule are ignorant of such subjects, the 
sooner they are taught something that may be 
vitally useful the better, and it is writings of this 
kind that will teach them. The work is beautifully 
printed, and the finely executed wood engravings, 
over 700 in number, materially assist in the elucida¬ 
tion of all that might be doubtful in the text.—Lon¬ 
don Telegraph. 
A work which physicians consider desirable for 
popular use, and which has been prepared for such 
use by members of the profession who are allowed to 
be experts in regard to the subjects of which they 
treat .—Mail and Express. 
The care of infants in health and disease, the in¬ 
stant measures to be taken in cases of various acci¬ 
dents and emergencies, and the treatment of various 
forms of common disease are treated by specialists. 
The book is a valuable encyclopedia to the family 
practitioner, especially in the smaller towns and vil¬ 
lages, and country districts : but itslspecial value is in 
the library of the household and in the hands of the 
intelligent father and mother. It will not make a 
doctor out of the [housewife or husband ; but it will 
make the housewife and the husband intelligent co- 
operators with the physician. It will teach them 
when they ought to call a physician, it will instruct 
them how to live so as to avoid disease and the ne¬ 
cessity of a physician’s visits, and it will even stand 
them in good stead when sudden emergencies or 
special circumstances of any kind throw them upon 
their own resources .—The Christian Union. 
The regular price of the work is $10.00 
for the set, but we have made special ar¬ 
rangements with the publishers by which 
we can offer to our subscribers the latest 
edition (thoroughly revised and brought 
down to date) bound in cloth, stamped in 
ink and gold at the GREATLY RE¬ 
DUCER PRICE OF $5.00. Or with a 
renewal or new subscription (if sent in 
one order strictly) for $6.00. 
You who have already paid for 
1891 may buy the books at $5.00, or send 
$6.00 and order a new subscription for 
some other party ; or have your own sub¬ 
scription continued for 1892. 
The subscriptions may be for either The 
Rural New-Yorker or The American 
Garden. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, New York. 
P.S.—The books are sent by express, and 
will be prepaid for 55 cents additional, the 
weight being over 12 pounds. 
N. B.—This supersedes all previous offers 
on this work. 
