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 
now 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 ivhat 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 11 we" — subscribers, readers, 
editors and publishers—shall become 
a compact, strong body of xvorkers 
whose power for good will be limited 
only by our wisdom in using it for the 
furtherance of the objects ive all have 
at heart. 
The opportunities for the organiza¬ 
tion of clubs are manifold. 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. 
Financial. —The money market in this 
city is firmer, with somewhat higher rates 
asked for loans. The feeling in London is 
very unsettled because of the financial dis¬ 
order in Buenos Ayres, where the English 
have large interests, but it has as yet had 
no effect on this country. 
General Trade.— Bradstreet’s reports 
that live cattle and hogs are irregular in 
price at Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis, 
without special strength. Wool is quiet 
after a fair trade for the season. Manufac¬ 
turers are fairly well stocked. Cotton is 
one eighth cent off and weak on the very 
heavy crop movement. The price of wheat 
has advanced 2% cents on reported dam¬ 
aged French (and possibly other Continen¬ 
tal) winter-wheat crops, light officially re¬ 
ported stocks at home, and a good demand 
for spot for home demand and for export. 
There were 1,831,834 bushels of wheat (and 
flour as wheat) exported from the United 
States, both coasts, this week, against 1,- 
684,240 bushels last week, and as compared 
with 2,264,869 bushels in a like week in 1890, 
905,510 bushels in 1889, and 1,603,583 bushels 
in 1888. Total exports July 1 to date equal 
67,936,637 bushels (including Montreal’s 
shipments), against 73,072,861 bushels in a 
like portion of 1890, 62,883,929 bushels in 
1889, and 93,981,527 bushels in a like portion 
of 1888. 
Chicago reports prospects excellent In all 
branches. Stocks of wool are light. Re¬ 
ceipts of grain are below expectation. Pork 
products continue weak, because of the 
unprecedented receipt of hogs. Best grades 
of hogs are being bought quite freely for 
shipment to Cincinnati and Eastern 
points. 
St. Louis reports wool firm, and all avail¬ 
able lots have been taken at full quota¬ 
tions. Hides are firm and buoyant. Cot¬ 
ton remains dull and very weak, with an 
active local market. Receipts have been 
rather light, and prices remain firm. Flour 
Is improving slowly and is in better 
inquiry, but prices are still unsatisfactory 
to local producers. Provisions are in good 
demand at improving prices. 
Many parts of the country which were 
visited by the floods of the previous week 
are just recovering from the interruption 
of trade caused by that calamity. In many 
places a shortage of provisions has re¬ 
sulted, but there is probably nothing more 
serious likely to follow. 
The industrial situation is such as to 
attract wide attention, and bids fair to con¬ 
tinue so from now until May 1. The in¬ 
dustry likely to be most seriously affected 
by labor disturbances this spring is coal min¬ 
ing. General business in the regions affected 
is naturally depressed. The probable loss 
to operators has not been calculated. An¬ 
other feature of note is the depressed con¬ 
dition of the window glass trade reported 
from Pittsburgh. 
The total number of operatives engaged 
in strikes during February is placed at 
about 28,000, of whom the cokers’ strike 
accounted for a large proportion. The out¬ 
look for the building trades in Chicago is 
not perfectly cloudless. A mass meeting 
of carpenters is to be held next week to 
take action on the employers’ proposals. A 
strike of Chicago carpenters, it Is claimed, 
would involve all engaged in kindred 
trades in that city. The number of unem¬ 
ployed workmen in Chicago toward the 
close of February was estimated at 5,000, 
of whom 2,000 had gone to that city during 
the preceding two months, attracted by 
preparations for the World’s Fair. Cigar- 
makers in that city have decided 
to demand $1 more per thousand for 
making cigars after May 1. March 30 is 
the day set for a meeting at Lowell, Mass., 
of textile workers representing every 
branch, at which it is claimed, 100,000 men 
and women will be represented. The aims 
of the union, which it is proposed to organ¬ 
ize, are to reduce the number of hours of 
labor daily, to increase wages, and to abol¬ 
ish weavers’ fines. It would seem, there¬ 
fore, that what is called the labor move¬ 
ment is quite as active this spring as 
usual, and that it promises to be more than 
ordinarily interesting. All these disturb¬ 
ances must, of course, have an indirect 
effect upon the agricultural interests of 
the country in one way or another. 
AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Three hundred thousand pounds of dried 
berries are said to have been recently 
burned in a Chicago fire. 
A number of prominent cotton-seed-oil 
merchants of London have formed a joint 
stock company with a capital of $4,000,000. 
The Los Angeles, Cal., Citrus Fair was 
postponed for a week because the washouts 
on the railroads caused by the heavy rains 
delayed exhibits. 
Along with the report of the consolida¬ 
tion of the barbed wire manufacturers 
comes another report of an advance of five 
cents per 100 pounds in the product. 
The directors of the Madison Square 
Garden are organizing a competitive chry¬ 
santhemum show, to be held in the early 
part of November. A list has been started 
to raise money. 
California parties who have recently re¬ 
ceived patents on a fumigating apparatus 
have announced that growers will be charg¬ 
ed a royalty of 10 cents per tree for the priv¬ 
ilege of using the patent method. 
Washburn & Moen the great barbed wire 
manufacturers of Massachusetts, have pur¬ 
chased between 800 and 1,000 acres of land 
adjoining the town of Waukegan, a few 
miles north of Chicago, and will begin 
work on their manufacturing plant there 
this spring. 
Receipts of the Internal Revenue Depart¬ 
ment show that the manufacture of oleo¬ 
margarine is rapidly on the Increase. For 
the month of February there was received 
from manufacturers of this product over 
$600,000, the largest amount ever received 
in one month. 
Thirty delegates from Pennsylvania and 
New York, representing the Farmers’ Al¬ 
liance, Patrons of Husbandry and the Agri¬ 
cultural Implement Exhibitors’ Union 
met at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, last Wed- 
nesdy, and effected a permanent organiza¬ 
tion, to be known as the Mount Gretna 
Farmers’ Encampment. 
A committee of the Minnesota Legisla¬ 
ture has discovered that regular wolf 
farms exist in the northern part of that 
State, where wolves are raised in large 
numbers for the purpose of selling their 
scalps to the State, which pays $5 bounty 
for each scalp. The fraud has cost the 
State $25,000 the past year. 
The lymph-inoculated cow, which bore a 
calf a few days ago at the Pennsylvania 
University Veterinary Hospital, died last 
week. An autopsy was held and the prema¬ 
ture birth is said to be the main cause of 
death. As it was desired to ascertain the 
natural results in the case, no extra pre¬ 
cautions had been taken to prolong life. 
The United States Court has just issued 
an injunction restraining the South Caro¬ 
lina State authorities and their licen¬ 
sees from mining phosphates in the Coo- 
saw River beds. The Coosaw River Phos¬ 
phate Company, whose monopoly of the 
business was recently disturbed by the 
State Phosphate Commission, will make a 
stubborn fight to retain their exclusive 
franchise. Millions of dollars are involved. 
The great orchid show at Madison Square 
Garden by Siebrecht & Wadley, closing 
on March 12, is a wonderful exhibit in its 
way. It is much more than its name im¬ 
plies. It is an object-lesson in itself of the 
wonders that may be accomplished by the 
expert landscape gardener. The array of 
plants and flowers is bewildering and the 
values placed upon some of them would 
stagger the ordinary farmer. Prices are 
asked for single plants that exceed the 
assessed value of many a farm in the 
country. 
The Squirrel and Gopher Bill, which 
has been introduced in the California Leg¬ 
islature, provides that whenever a petition 
is presented to the Board of Supervisors of 
any county, signed by 50 or more persons 
who are resident freeholders, with the 
statement that orchards, vineyards, grain 
and Alfalfa fields, levees and other places 
are detrimentally infested with squirrels 
and gophers, and praying that a commis¬ 
sion be appointed to supervise their de¬ 
struction, the County Board of Supervisors 
shall within 20 days thereafter select three 
Commissioners for the county, to be known 
as the County Board of Agricultural Com¬ 
missioners. The Board shall have power 
to compel the destruction of said pests, or 
to destroy them at the expense of the land 
owners. 
Condensed Correspondence. 
Monroe County, N. Y.— The Japanese 
Buckwheat has done well in our part of 
the country. It makes splendid flour and 
the yield is good both of grain and flour. 
Wheat is looking well, but is not covered 
and the thawing and freezing may tell on 
it. w. w. 
McLean county, III.—Most farmers 
are in good spirits hereabouts, having 
raised good crops of corn and hay last year, 
though oats were light in weight and yield. 
Corn is worth 48 cents; oats, 44 cents; hay, 
$8.50; eggs, 16 cents; butter, 15 cents; 
hogs, $2.90 to $3, and beef five to seven 
cents. C. K. 
Montgomery County, Mo.—We have 
had a dry season, that is to say, we had no 
rain from June 18 to February 19, when we 
had enough for our wants. Although it was 
dry we had fodder enough to carry our 
stock through the winter, and those desir¬ 
ing to fatten sent to Iowa and Kansas for 
corn at 65 cents a bushel and sold the cat¬ 
tle at to 5 cents per pound. Hogs were 
low, ranging from $3.25 to $3.60 per 100 
pounds. Work horses, good to common, 
ranged from $110 to $150. The aphis de¬ 
stroyed some fields of oats entirely, while 
it left in others enough for seed. In 
spite of the dry winter the wheat looks 
well. A large acreage is sown in this 
county. The farmers use bone meal. I 
sowed 10 acres in 1889-90. In the latter year 
five acres received an application of bone 
meal and yielded 20 bushels per acre, 
while on the remaining five acres which 
had received no meal, the yield was only 
five bushels per acre. Potatoes are from 
75 cents to $1.30 per bushel, as they were 
a failure the past season. Our peaches 
are not damaged any yet, but the crop 
will depend greatly on the weather in 
March and April. This winter has been 
very mild: the thermometer was down to 
zero only once. We bad three snows, but 
they did not stay long. R. L. 
CROP AND MARKET NOTES. 
Large numbers of vineyards in the Liver¬ 
more Valley, Cal., are to be grafted to finer 
varieties of grapes. 
Linseed oil is said to be a remedy for 
black knot on the plum if applied to the 
knot upon its first appearance. 
The New York Milk Exchange has fixed 
the price of milk for March at 2% cents net 
to the producer, or one-fourth of a cent 
lower than the February price. 
A Florida orange grower says that in 
that State it costs 50 cents per thousand to 
pick oranges and five cents a box for 
wrapping and packing, while the box costs 
from 12 to 15 cents. 
Tulare County, Cal., vineyardists have 
permitted the sheep men to turn their 
flocks into the vineyards to keep down the 
first crop of weeds. The arrangement 
seems to be mutually beneficial. 
The ill effects to legitimate trade of the 
gambling in farm products is again shown 
in the following item in a commercial 
paper of this city last week: “ Fully 
18,000 barrels of flour were taken up by ex¬ 
porters. but the speculative manipulation 
of wheat restricts its outward movement.’’ 
The Atlanta Constitution last week 
printed a review of the farming situation 
throughout the South, based upon the 
declaration of Hon. R. T. Nesbit, Commis¬ 
sioner of Agriculture, and concluded that 
the prospect had not been so bad before for 
forty years. From South Carolina, Ala¬ 
bama and Mississippi reports are that farm 
work is fully one month behind, and that 
with most favorable prospects the record 
of last year could not lie attained. The 
consensus of opinion is that the reduction 
of acreage and delay in farm work will cut 
off the cotton yield by at least half a million 
bales. Other crops are likewise backward. 
The Farmers’ Review says that the con¬ 
dition of winter wheat since February 1 
is improved on an average just 1 per cent. 
This change is, however, very unevenly 
distributed, Kansas showing a gain of 11 
per cent, and other States showing a loss of 
condition. In Illinois the late rains and 
snows have not materially advanced the 
prospects of the crop. In some localities 
the snow had disappeared, and the crop is 
looking green and healthy. The Hessian 
fly is reported from a number of counties 
as having done great damage. The average 
in the State shows a gain of 1 per cent. 
Indiana shows a loss of condition since 
February 5 of 1 per cent. In Ohio the 
general condition is good, and in many 
localities it never looked better at this time 
of the year. In a few counties, however, 
some damage has been done by freezing. 
In Michigan there has been a general loss 
in condition of 2 per cent. Kentucky re¬ 
ports a [gain of 1 per cent. In Wisconsin 
the condition has continued to improve, 
the wheat in many places being covered by 
one foot of snow. In Iowa the outlook is 
good and the condition has not materially 
changed since last month. Missouri shows 
an advance in condition of 2 per cent., 
though some damage by Hessian fly and 
rains is reported. In Kansas the condition 
shows marked improvement. In some sec¬ 
tions of the State it has not looked better 
for the last 20 years. By States the 
percentage of condition, compared with an 
average, is as follows: Illinois, 89 percent.; 
Indiana, 97 ; Ohio, 96; Michigan, 92; Ken¬ 
tucky, 90; Wisconsin, 89; Iowa, 90: Mis¬ 
souri, 91; Kansas, 100. 
