THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
EEB. 28 
168 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
\ National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
_AWSON VALENTINE, Piosident. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERJCAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1891. 
The best of servants, the worst of masters 
—the mouth. 
Of all the things which must be done, do those 
which are most distasteful at first. Then you will 
have something to look forward to with pleasure. 
Be just, and liberally so, to your own family. Do 
all the good you can in your own neighborhood, by 
helping those who are worthy of help, and only 
those. Spend in this way your entire income with¬ 
out touching your capital. God will be better 
pleased than if you gave millions to far-away people 
who may be more or less needy, but who, in 19 cases 
out of 20, are less needy. If the well-to-do people of 
every neighborhood would do their duty to the 
worthy poor, the worthy poor would never suffer. 
Are we right ? 
So many wild threats against capital have lately 
been made in some of the Western States that 
capitalists have been guarding their investments 
there with unusually stringent provisions, or, for 
the most part, have altogether ceased to make any. 
This is having an injurious effect on the develop¬ 
ment of the country and increasing the distress due 
to the scarcity of money, and worse things are 
threatened. The Nebraska Legislature has there¬ 
fore found it necessary to pass a resolution dis¬ 
claiming any intention on the part of the State to 
make any laws discriminating against lenders of 
money on farm mortgages. Surely it ought not to 
need the lessons of hard experience to teach any¬ 
body that capital is proverbially suspicious and 
likely to fly from those who need it most when 
foolish enough to assume a threatening aspect. 
The records of cash sales from the farm afford 
the basis for some interesting figuring. Deducting 
the cost of labor, a fair price for board, interest on 
investment, etc., and what did the farmer earn per 
day for his work ? In most cases it is under one 
dollar per day, if we allow a reasonable price for 
board. And yet most of these farmers have “saved 
money ” and are richer than they were one year 
ago, while with the value of their farms invested 
in a store or in ordinary securities it is doubtful if 
they could make a living. It is also doubtful if a 
man in New York city on a salary of $1,200 a year— 
far above the average—could have as much comfort 
as these men have and as much clear money at the 
end of the year. ( 
Ari? we losing on patriotism and true love of 
country ? Are the children of to-day taught the 
real meaning of liberty and freedom ? General 
Sherman’s funeral the other day was welcomed by 
hundreds of young people as a holiday for pleasure 
rather than for paying respect to the memory of 
one of our greatest soldiers. Decoration Day is 
largely used as a holiday, when ball-playing and 
other amusements draw the crowds away from the 
memorial services. A few nights ago at a country 
school exhibition it was proposed that the audience 
sing “TheStar Spangled Banner.” Not half-a-dozen 
people knew the words! “When I was a boy every¬ 
body knew that song!” said an old man, sadly shak¬ 
ing his head. He was right. People in those days 
were fired by the slavery and war discussion. It 
won’t do, teachers, to crowd out “ The Star 
Spangled Banner ”—that flag has cost too much! 
What a diabolical conspiracy was that for 
which the Secretary of the Whisky Trust has been 
indicted at Chicago. It has long been notorious 
that the trusts have been utterly reckless in the 
means they employed to crush all recalcitrant com¬ 
petition within the utmost limits set by the 
criminal laws, and several of the over-zealous or 
incautious agents of one or more of them have 
already been convicted of having transgressed 
those limits; still few of their bitterest opponents 
ever imagined any of them capable of such 
atrocious disregard of human lives in effecting 
their object as that with which this prisoner is 
charged. Of course an indictment is not a convic¬ 
tion, especially in case of a man backed by nearly 
the entire whisky interests of the country and a 
solid capital of $35,000,000; but the crime charged 
is so directly in line with the ordinary policy of 
the trusts in their dealings with obstinately 
successful rivals that the public are almost uni¬ 
versally ready to accept the truth of the accusation 
on the reiterated assertions of the government 
officials that they have ample proofs to secure a 
conviction. Probably this assurance of criminality 
is strengthened not a little, perhaps unconsciously, 
by the character of the trust indirectly impli¬ 
cated. Of course in all such cases it is next to 
impossible to trace the crimes beyond the detected 
agents; but who can believe that such men would 
take such tremendous hazards without the covert 
instigation or approval of those on whom their 
fortunes depended. It may be difficult almost to 
the verge of impossibility to kill a trust legally, 
but happily it can readily commit suicide. 
Then few, few would be the rr ourners • tho' It bless’d the laud with rent 
As It rotted ’neath the cross-roads, with a stout stake through Its breast. 
The Union and its continuation, the Central 
Pacific Railroad, owe the government consideraly 
over $100,000,000. Urged on by the people, the 
government is insisting on some sort of a settle¬ 
ment The railroad kings, having constructed 
parallel lines, are thinking it more to their interest 
to surrender the property than to pay for it, after 
having made colossal fortunes out of it, and en¬ 
cumbered it with enormous responsibilities which 
their successor must assume. Now, like pirates 
who scuttle a ship before abandoning it, they are 
preparing to make the property worth as little as 
possible when it shall lapse to the government 
under foreclosure of its mortgages. To embarrass 
the government and aid their own enterprises, 
they propose to leave the subsidized lines without 
terminal facilities, and to transfer the entire 
transcontinental traffic to their own parallel lines. 
The sooner these railroad wreckers are kicked out, 
the better for the public. 
Under existing laws in most of the States, farm¬ 
ers must return for taxation all their products 
which remain unsold on the statutory day of assess¬ 
ment ; while the manufacturers’ products for the 12 
months preceding the assessment are exempt from 
taxation. A bill now before the Ohio Legislature 
seeks to rectify this injustice. It exempts from 
taxation agricultural products raised within the 12 
months next preceding the second Monday of April 
each year, still in possession of the person or per¬ 
sons who have produced them. This applies also to 
the increase in the number of cattle, horses, mules 
sheep and hogs. Surely the annual tax a farmer 
pays on his land ought to cover its natural products 
or so much of them as he may hold at the time of 
assessment. Moreover, doesn’t the growth and 
therefore the value of young growing animals de¬ 
pend on what they consume, and in case of growing 
animals kept for a year, this has been taxed in its 
original form—is it to be again taxed in the form of 
live stock? Wouldn’t this be double taxation? No 
tax on production and labor is as excellent a precept 
on the farm as in the factory. 
The ownership of vast tracts of land by single 
individuals is a curse to any nation, and especially 
inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions and 
the fundamental principles of our government. 
Under the least objectionable conditions it not 
only tends to produce but actually necessitates 
the serfdom of the tenantry; it hinders local 
improvements; it prevents the cultivation of 
small areas by independent owners, who, above 
all others, give stability and security to the 
national government; it delays the settlement 
of the country to an extent injurious to the 
public welfare, and it creates the most pernicious 
of all class distinctions—a landed aristocracy. Under 
ordinary conditions, especially in the more recently 
settled States, this odious monopoly either condemns 
large principalities to the isolation of stock ranch¬ 
ing or bonanza farming, where the only activity 
is at brief intervals at the annual “round-ups” and 
semi-annual seeding and harvesting rushes; or it 
cuts them up into small areas for sale at exorbitant 
prices to needy settlers who, in many cases, become 
merely the toiling bondsmen of the absentee own¬ 
ers, through the mortgages they are forced to give; 
or it withdraws them altogether from settlement 
and improvement, suffering them to lie waste for 
years, and thus escape their due share of taxation, 
with the certainty tliat the improvements in the 
surrounding country and the rapid curtailment of 
the public domain will speedily greatly increase 
their value without any cost to their wealthy own¬ 
ers. Very justly, therefore, this monstrous abuse 
in a country which, nominally at least, should give 
an equal chance to all, has been loudly denounced 
by farmers and agricultural organizations every¬ 
where. The great difficulty has been to devise some 
means of abolishing it without injustice or hard¬ 
ship to vested interests. California, where the 
evil has reached the|most gigantic proportions, 
seems to have discovered an excellent method of 
accomplishing this. A law now before the legisla¬ 
ture of that State limits the acreage of land that 
can be owned by one person. The limit may be fixed 
at 1,500 or 2,500 acres or more; but it must be defi¬ 
nite. To effect this gradually and without injury 
to anybody, it limits the number of acres which a 
man may hereafter deed, devise or bequeath to any 
one person, or which any one may acquire by pur¬ 
chase. Such a law would crush the* evil without 
harm to the existing order of things, and should be 
a practical subject for discussion and legislation by 
the farmers throughout the country. 
IMPORTANT ! 
What high priced novelties have you bought and 
cultivated—whether of small fruits , large fruits , 
ornamental shrubs, trees or seeds of any kinds — 
that proved to be either old varieties . no better than 
old varieties , or more or less worthless % And o f 
whom did you purchase them f We would be glad 
to hear from our readers at once. We propose to 
ventilate the important subject thoroughly. 
BREVITIES. 
If you would not when you could, 
Why, you will not when you wonld. 
Go gunning for the truth. 
Do home-made spraying machines pay ? 
We want to know the size of your feed bill. 
Do you believe in the religion of good health ? 
The government seed shop has disposed of all its stock. 
What have you to say in that sweet apple discussion, 
page 166 ? 
How many bushels of wheat does it take to buy a suit 
of clothes f 
The English language needs more adjectives for the use 
of novelty venders. 
You can always tell at a glance if a white horse has 
been properly cleaned. 
People who build on low ground must be prepared to 
move when the floods come. 
The English papers are now talking about “ chalking ” 
their land. What is chalk but lime f 
It seems that the Rural Thoroughbred Flint Corn ma¬ 
tured last year in Sheboygan County, Wis. 
All who have used whole corn-stalks in the silo are re¬ 
quested to send us this winter’s experience with this sys¬ 
tem. 
“I believe The Rural New-Yorker is worth as much 
to me as a hired man,” says Mr. D. C. Allen on another 
page. 
The farmer who spends most of his time in town in 
winter will be “ too busy to bother to cut any woo<J ” next 
summer. 
J. H. Hale says he can save over $8 per ton by mixing 
his own fertilizers. As he uses over 60 tons a year, this 
“ amounts to something.” 
Unalloyed happiness is a myth. Alloys usually 
strengthen or make more useful all the metals, and even 
gold is improved by a very little base metal. 
The poem, “ The Farmer Goes up Head,” has been re¬ 
cited at hundreds of institutes and other gatherings. Next 
week we shall print a companion poem entitled “ The 
Farmer Wins the Bride,” which we hope will prove even 
more popular. 
A considerable number of petitions have been pre¬ 
sented to the Pennsylvania Legislature, now in session, 
asking the re-enactment of the fence law of 1707, which 
the last legislature repealed. Verily, some people cannot 
change their ways—cannot or will not. 
Sifted coal ashes scattered over the horse manure will 
do no harm and may prevent fermentation. The same is 
true of muck, road dust and, of course, land plaster. But 
keep wood ashes out of the pile. The richer they are in 
potash, the more will they do the very thing you want to 
avoid. 
The following note is from one of the oldest and most ac¬ 
complished agricultural editors in the country, viz.: Henry 
Stewart: “ I often think of the curious way in which in¬ 
dividuality is stamped on one’s work. The Rural is 
unique in this respect, the most singularly individual paper 
existing, I think, and this individuality gives the value 
to it.” 
The fact seems to be pretty clearly established that 
Japanese Buckwheat will make good flour. True, some 
millers still cry against it, but they cry without reason. It 
is the old story of the fight made by the Michigan millers 
against Clawson Wheat. Japanese Buckwheat is all 
right. 
Jay Gould is extending his railroad control so widely in 
all parts of the country that should his monopolizing 
career last another quarter of a century, it is probable the 
government would have to deal with him alone, should 
it defer assumption of control of all the railroads of the 
country so long. 
Is Henry Stewart right in thinking that the world 
“ promises to become worse instead of better ?” The 
thought is appalling and yet it may and will be true 
if we all forget to pay our little debt to society and good 
government and run across the rights of those who are 
weaker in our rush for gain. 
Last year a good many of you delayed your hay cutting 
until the grass went to seed and cured on the ground. As 
a result you are now feeding your cows stuff that is far 
better suited for bedding. They don’t like it—neither will 
you when you figure at the profits. We learn in February 
what we ought to have known in June. 
Last year The R. N.-Y. gave an account of a “ One- 
Horse Jersey Farm a little place of 18 acres, on which 
the owner grew nearly $3,000 worth of strawberries, pota¬ 
toes, cabbages and eggs. We now learn that in 1890 nearly 
$4,000 worth of produce was sold off this place. The R. 
N.-Y. expects to give a full account of the operations on 
this place soon. 
A determined effort is being made in Missouri to take 
the agricultural college of that State out of the clutches 
of the “State University ” and give it a chance for itself. 
As is the case in half-a-dozen other States, the University 
gobbles up the agricultural land grant funds and makes a 
farce of agriculture. We hope the movement will succeed, 
but we consider the outlook doubtful unless the farmers 
go at the matter with a broad axe. 
Judging by the article on the subject elsewhere in this 
issue, 
How tinners and canners must grin, 
As shekels In showers they win 
By big overcharges In tin ; 
For they reck not a whit 
How the public are bit, 
Or loud protests emit. 
As they rake in the “ tin ” from tin. 
Very properly the legislatures of the various States in 
which farmers hold an influential position are providing 
stringent laws against the bribery of legislators, judges 
and other prominent public servants, which is thinly dis¬ 
guised under the form of “ complimentary ” passes from 
railroads and other agencies of public transportation. In 
some of the States the laws proposed against this gross 
abuse are very severe, making the grant or acceptance of 
a free pass a felony, thus putting the offense in the same 
category with grand larceny, murder and other crimes of 
like atrocity and turpitude. It is intolerable that public offi¬ 
cials should lay themselves open to charges of corruption 
in matters to be affected by the laws they pass, the de¬ 
cisions they give and the action they take, and, of course, 
the briber is worse than the bribed. Away with free 
passes I 
