THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FEB. 21 
148 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
\ JVntlonnl Weekly .Journal for Country mid Suburban IJomex. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
-AWSON VALENTINE, Piesident. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H, LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891. 
Mu. Dibble, on page 159, states the case against 
the Adirondack Park as many good farmers view 
it. Is he correct? The R. N.-Y. will be glad to 
have those interested in establishing the park give 
the other side. As a matter of fact, we need roads 
more than we do parks, yet how far would the 
$7,000,000 go in plastering up the mud holes ? 
The Indian Games ! No less than 182 entries 
were exhibited at the New York Poultry Show. 
“What are they good for ?” we asked of veteran 
fanciers like Hales and Cooper. They elevated 
their shoulders, looked smilingly wise, and could 
not say further than, “They are the fashion of to¬ 
day.” Well, The R. N.-Y., as is its way, will try 
this much boomed new breed and render its cold¬ 
blooded report in due time. 
Our readers will, with us, be pleased to learn that 
J. S. Woodward, ex Secretary of the New York 
Agricultural Society, is so far recovered as to be 
able to walk about the house and, during pleasant 
weather, outside. “One thing is certain,” he writes, 
“ I shall never go back to the old mode of life, but 
give my attention to my farms. We shall raise this 
year over 700 lambs all of which are better than 
ever before and are bringing better prices, proving 
that in farming as in medicine, law or theology, 
there is plenty of room up stairs, and they who climb 
will ‘ get there Mr. Woodward proposes in a few 
weeks to favor The R. N.-Y. with a series of short 
articles on lamb-raising. 
At the Madison Square Poultry Show in the class 
of Indian Game Cocks was one bird valued by the 
owner at $600. Competing with him was one 
valued at $35. The latter was awarded by the 
judges the first premium, also a special prize, and 
was sold. The former received no prize. Now, if 
quality is any criterion, whence arises this dis¬ 
crepancy? If the $35 bird is a better bird than the 
other—and the judges said he was—isn’t that extra 
$565 all “fancy” price? Aren’t “fancy” prices 
misleading ? Is a high-priced bird necessarily the 
best breeder ? Is any fowl worth $600 for any pur¬ 
pose ? Who pays the expenses of “booming” a 
new breed ? 
To judge from some of the partisan papers, one 
would suppose that the Farmers’ Alliance is made 
up of men who went to sleep just after the French 
Revolution, and have just woke up to continue their 
work here. What would such papers say to the 
following note, just received from an Ohio sub¬ 
scriber :—“I am an Alliance man, but I want no 
Sub Treasury Bill or two-per cent government loan, 
or free coinage of silver. I believe free coinage of 
silver would be all right if silver enough were put 
into the coin to make it equal to the market value 
of gold.” No doubt they would say that such a 
man has no business in the Alliance. But he has; 
there are thousands more like him, too. What is 
the Alliance for anyway—to boom pet hobbies and 
experiments in legislation, or to give all good and 
true men a chance to “ get together?” 
Some of our ablest political economists and 
statesmen are firmly convinced that the odious 
trusts have come to stay. They look upon them 
as, on the whole, beneficial developments of indus¬ 
trial, mercantile and commercial progress, which 
cannot be stopped or even seriously checked, but 
may be moulded and guided by legislation. 
Gigantic as they now are, they may coalesce into 
still more monstrous aggregations, but cannot be 
permanently disintegrated into their original 
innocuous elements, in the opinion of these 
worthies ; for in their faith, like that of the planet 
in its orbit, the career of its people is ever irresist¬ 
ibly onward. Then 
Must laws recalling “ trustless ” days to hapless farmers seem 
Like morality in polities—an iridescent dream ? ” 
The United State Senate appears to be deluged 
with rival petitions from all parts of the country, 
for and against the Paddock Pure Food Bill and 
the Conger Lard Bill. Illinois farmers have just 
passed vigorous resolutions in favor of the former, 
while Ohio farmers have just passed resolutions 
equally vigorous in favor of the latter; and else¬ 
where the advocates of both measures are busily 
signing petitions to Congress in support of their 
respective favorites. There appear to be two rival 
petition syndicates which are scattering the rival 
petitions for signature broadcast throughout the 
country, the Paddoclate concern having its head¬ 
quarters among the cotton-oil lard makers of Chi¬ 
cago, and the Congerite affair, among the unadul¬ 
terated lard manufacturers of Boston. In each case 
the signed petitions are returned for inspection, and 
possibly revision, to headquarters before they are 
forwarded to Washington. From present appear¬ 
ances a good deal of the petitioning business seems 
to be chiefly a trick of trade in which the rival 
interests are seeking to use the farmer as a cat’s-paw. 
Mr. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, finds, after another year of observation, that 
male asparagus plants are about 50 per cent more 
productive than the females, and the shoots, being 
larger, have a greater market value. In making 
new plantations we have merely to select those 
plants which do not bear seeds. A further advant¬ 
age of male beds would be that all the trouble of 
destroying seedling plants would be avoided. Some 
years ago TheR. N.-Y, discovered that asparagus 
is not, in all cases at any rate, a dioecious plant, 
since so-called female plants growing far away 
from males, fruited abundantly. It was while 
making these observations that it was noticed that 
the stems of male plants were generally taller and 
larger than those of females or bisexuals—a fact 
that Mr. Green has, through his careful experi¬ 
ments, demonstrated for the good of the public. 
One of the local branches of the Farmers’ Alliance 
in Kansas has just bitterly protested, in a strong 
resolution, against the jibes and jokes perpetrated 
from time immemorial on farmers, their ways and 
belongings by shallow-pated city fellows and hire¬ 
ling revampers of antiquated witticisms for the 
press. The abortive attempts at humor by jack-a- 
nape counter-jumpers, whose chief virtues are in 
their clothes, and by careless penny-a-liners whose 
chief wit is in their memory, are certainly a trifle 
provoking now and then even to the most indul¬ 
gent of humanity, owing to their flat futility; but 
farmers should be tolerant with the poor fellows; 
for their misapplied efforts are to one class always 
‘ ‘nuts, ” and to the other often, alas! bread and butter. 
Who has ever heard of a wit really worthy of 
the name who has stultified his faculty on 
farmers? It’s the puppies and curs that bark, yelp 
and snarl; the mastiffs are silent. Why, then, 
should farmers demean themselves by showing re¬ 
sentment at the undeserved snickers of such weak¬ 
lings or sneers of such witlings, 
For who does not know that as soft as thin jelly 
Is the ninny who puts on a cap that mtsllts, 
And farmers who furnish rich food for their belly, 
Should surely begrudge not poor food for their wits. 
A bill has been lately introduced into the House 
of Representatives to establish government postal 
savings banks and encourage small savings. The 
government is to guarantee the safety of the depos¬ 
its and to issue certificates of deposit bearing a 
moderate rate of interest, and the Secretary of the 
Treasury and the Postmaster General are charged 
with the duty of loaning postal saving funds to 
banks and issuing the certificates. Bills differing 
more or less in detail, but of the same general tenor, 
have failed to pass previous Congresses ; but this 
should meet a happier fate. Farmers are particu¬ 
larly interested in it. In towns and cities savings 
banks are always ready to utilize the economies of 
the thrifty; but in country places such encourage¬ 
ments to thrift are rare. The security would be 
absolute, and there would therefore be less induce¬ 
ment to hoarding which abstracts millions of dol¬ 
lars from the needed currency circulation of the 
country and presents perilous temptation to robbery 
as well as mutilation or murder in isolated farm 
houses. With a moderate rate of interest and a 
secure place of deposit always at hand for the small¬ 
est savings, there would be a stronger inducement 
to make them and a weaker to invest them in any 
of the wild cat schemes now so dangerously com¬ 
mon throughout the country. Similar institutions 
have done splendidly in England and elsewhere, 
and despite the croakings against their “ paternal ” 
character, our own citizens, and especially, our 
farmers who need them most, should no longer be 
deprived of their advantages. 
Our Canadian friends are in the lively throes of 
a fierce political campaign. The dominant issue be¬ 
tween the Conservatives, who have for years held 
power by an overwhelming majority, and the Lib¬ 
erals, who have for years been impatiently waiting 
to oust them, concerns the commercial relations of 
the Dominion with the United States. The mack¬ 
erel fisheries in the Northern Atlantic and the seal 
fisheries in the Northern Pacific as well as the 
boundary embroglio between Alaska and British 
Columbia will doubtless have some slight weight 
in the contest ; but the pivotal influence on the 
March elections will be the desires of the people 
with regard to the character and extent of the pro¬ 
posed treaty of reciprocity. As years go by, it be¬ 
comes more and more evident that while the nomi¬ 
nal and formal dependence of the Dominion is upon 
England, its practical dependence is on its trade 
with the United States. The hardships of the Mc¬ 
Kinley Bill have made our friends realize this more 
forcibly than ever before. Farmers have been the 
most grievously hurt by it, as voiced on Thursday 
by the Dominion Grange in session at London. Both 
parties now desire a modification of our tariff re¬ 
strictions. The great difficulty is caused by Canada’s 
relations with the rest of the British Empire. To 
consent to a lower tariff between Canada and the 
United States than between Canada and England 
would be to discriminate against the Mother Coun¬ 
try, an act abhorrent to the loyalty of the Conserv¬ 
atives, but which the Liberals would view with tol¬ 
erance if not with complacency. Our govern¬ 
ment insists that the only possible basis of any 
treaty of reciprocity is that our people shall de¬ 
cide on what terms goods from all foreign coun¬ 
tries shall be imported into the United States, 
and to insure this in case of any trade arrange¬ 
ment with Canada, it would be absolutely neces¬ 
sary that the Canadian tariff should be in harmony 
with our own; otherwise, while our tariff would 
close our front door against importations from 
Europe, there would be nothing to prevent them 
from coming boldly in at the back door through 
Canada. While a respectable minority of the 
Canadians agree with the great majority of our 
people that the ultimate annexation of the Domin¬ 
ion to the Union is inevitable and will prove a 
blessing, a decided majority still either regard the 
dependence of the country on England as a sacred 
relation, or dream that in good time it will take 
rank as a great independent nation. The coming 
election will have no small influence in deciding 
its fate, though the general drift of opinion here is 
that, no matter how the campaign results, the move¬ 
ment towards annexation will be quickened. Our 
friends across the border have a serious problem 
before them; may their solution of it lead to their 
highest prosperity and happiness. 
BREVITIES. 
Don’t breed the scrub! Don’t breed the scrub 
Else you’ll be called on to purchase a tub 
To measure your loss; It’s only a toss, 
For butter, ’twlxt Jersey and Guernsey, ’tis said, 
For milk and cheese, find if you please. 
Better than Holstein or Ayrshire well bred. 
“ All taxation is an evil.” Is that correct ? 
If you put down drains, keep track of them. 
How many eggs do your hens average per year ? 
Do you know how the children are doing at school t 
The incubator chicks at the Poultry Show sold at 25 
cents each. 
It is a poor farmer who would not work hard to save 
his manure from wasting. 
Who can tell us of a practical use of nitrate of soda on 
farm crops west of the Mississippi ? 
Doesn’t it look like a poor policy for this country to be 
bringing in cabbage from Holland f 
Here’s an experiment: Talk to your wife as you used 
to talk a month before you were married, and see what 
the effect will be. 
Free silver will never help the farmer who takes Jersey 
milk to a creamery where no distinction is made between 
fat and lean milk. 
They now tell us that the practice of eating an orange 
before breakfast is wrong. “ The best time to eat an 
orange is on a full stomach.” 
There is no satisfaction in using a riding cultivator—or 
any other—among crooked rows of corn or potatoes. It 
always “pays to be straight.” 
We would thank Mr. Tift, of San Juan County, Wash., 
or any other reader if he would, next season, send us a few 
seed balls of the R. N.-Y. No. 2. See page 146. 
One of the good old plants re-popularized by Mr. J. L. 
Childs, is the Manettia Vine. There are lots of forgotten 
plants more worthy of a novelty boom than most of the 
real novelties of to day. 
Iowa farmers are a good deal exercised over the speech 
made by Governor Boies at a recent dinner in New York. 
They claim that he did not properly represent them, hav¬ 
ing made out too black a prospect. 
Is there ever a glut in our markets of the very finest 
fruits—apples, pears, plums, peaches, oranges or grapes ? 
Is there ever a season when the fruit crop is so heavy that 
the best quality does not sell at a paying price ? 
Among other “ cash crop ” reports we have one from a 
friend in Idaho who is growing fence posts at a good 
profit. Surely this is a great country. The trouble is, 
most of us do not realize its size, and have hard work to 
look beyond our own county. 
We have further information regarding polled Jersey 
cattle of proper pedigree and breeding. Some man will 
make a fortune out of polled Jerseys. No Short-horns in 
the country sell more easily than the new “ Polled Dur- 
hams.” What are horns good for ? 
The West is flooded with wild cat insurance schemes 
and the East with wild cat investment schemes. Isn’t the 
best safeguard against such cats a liberal dose of public 
denunciation and a prompt application of the legal whip or 
cudgel to the rascals “ sicking ” them on ? 
The R. N.-Y. made a great blunder in saying that “ Mr. 
Hoyt had his barns tinned at IX cent per square foot.” 
The tinning cost 5% cents laid. Roof slating cost six 
cents per square foot laid. The tin was afterwards painted, 
which made it cost about the same as the slate. 
Doesn’t the excellent article elsewhere in this issue on 
poultry for profit plainly prove that 
The man who grows carefully into the job 
Of culling and raising a fine flock of chickens, 
Needn’t pester his soul or his poor acres rob, 
Yet put in his pocket a prime pot o’ pickin’s ? 
The French Chamber of Deputies proposes to put a tax 
of nearly a cent and a quarter a pound on American pork, 
by way of retaliation for the McKinley tariff. Such a 
prohibitory duty on the American hog would be more 
straightforward and honest than its present exclusion on 
the pretext of sanitation. 
When hand corn planters were first sold, farmers fought 
shy of them. It was felt somehow that human fingers 
were needed in this work. Now they are used everywhere. 
Now we find a hand (or rather a foot) potato planter on 
the market—which certainly seems serviceable and eco¬ 
nomical! What next? A practical milking machine? 
Let us remind our readers again, as spring approaches, 
of The R. N.-Y.’s simple remedy for destroying the as¬ 
paragus beetle: Go over the plantation as soon as the 
stems are a few inches above the ground and rub off the 
eggs. A single movement of the hand inclosing the shoots 
suffices. Do this again in a week. Then again in another 
week. There will be no iarvm to destroy the plants. 
In reply to a request for a statement of his farm sales, 
one subscriber says he has no suitable statement to make 
because he is working for a future. Nearly half of his 
farm is a young pear orchard—not old enough to bear. He 
is satisfied to support his family on the other half and put 
the best of work on the orchard, without immediate pay, 
in the belief that the money will all come back to him 
when the orchard reaches its prime. Have you any 
“future” that is worthy of your best work ? 
