268 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AHR 1 L 4 
r he 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal Tor Country and Suburban IfonieH. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Piesident. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1891. 
Boil yourself clown, boll yourself down ; 
Don’t try to spread yourself all over town. 
Don’t strain your back, don’t strain your back, 
Half your life goes when you once hear It crack. 
Know when to stop; know when to stop! 
Else you will never come sailing on top. 
“A monopolistic agricultural paper printed in 
New York city,” is the way in which Secretary 
McCune’s organ, printed in Washington city, 
which he calls The National Economist, speaks of 
The Rural New-Yorker! Well, well! Have any 
of our readers seen in these pages any symptoms 
that would justify such a characterization ? 
J. A. Woodward, associate editor of the Farm 
Journal, asks the following question in a letter of 
recent date: “Is it not a good idea for all the 
potato growers of a community to grow one sort, 
so that a car load, or half-a-dozen of them, may be 
sent at any time to fill any order ? A dozen car¬ 
loads of any good sort may be sold more quickly 
and easily than one load of a dozen sorts.” 
Except grown on contract by seedsmen, pop¬ 
corn, according to The R. N.-Y.’s trials, is an un¬ 
profitable crop. First, it is hard to get a full stand; 
second, the plants readily lodge because of a com¬ 
paratively feeble root system; third, the yield will 
not average one half that of sweet or field corn; 
fourth, the crop requires twice as much handling 
and, last, the yield of fodder is not over half. 
In the present discussion of farm crops and farm 
accounts most stress is put upon the financial side 
of the matter. What do you think of this note ? 
“We have bent all our energies for nine years to¬ 
wards educating our boys, and for this reason our 
house and grounds are far short of what we would 
like. During that time we have often paid 12 per 
cent for money to carry us over a tight place. We 
are glad to say that we have nearly accomplished 
our purpose.” We are going to follow up the pres¬ 
ent discussion with answers to this question: 
“ What are you doing for the child crop i ” Think 
the matter over and tell us. 
A decision of the United States Supreme Court 
rendered a few days ago, deprives railroads and 
some of their ‘ ‘ parasitic corporations ” of a vexa¬ 
tious source of fat extortion. It is to the effect that 
the companies are not entitled to any charge for 
the “yardage” of live stock, and that they are 
obliged to furnish gratuitously suitable stockyards 
for loading and unloading animals the same as they 
must furnish depots gratuitously for passengers. 
The decision further announces that if the carrier 
cannot make such special charges for stockyards 
which it owns and controls, it cannot invest another 
corporation or company w ith authority to impose 
similar burthens on shippers or consignees. At all 
the chief shipping points the stockyards attached 
to the railroads belong to parasitic corporations in 
which the stockholders of the railroads have little 
or no interest; but from which the managers draw 
large incomes, and the charges have invariably 
been arbitrary and exorbitant. Even disgruntled 
farmers must acknowledge that between them and 
corporations, the Supreme Court is often justly 
impartial. 
In some of the yVestern States, especially those 
along the frontier, there is a strong agitation for 
the passage of extremely severe anti-usury laws. 
As in the law now before the Minnesota Legisla¬ 
ture, the interest to be allowed on borrowed money 
is usually six per cent in ordinary cases and not 
over eight by special agreement, and, as a rule, the 
principal and interest are to be forfeited for any 
violation of the law. The terms might be satisfac¬ 
tory to investors in the older settled States, but are 
hardly likely to be so under the different conditions 
in the new. There the demand for these stringent 
restrictions comes most loudly from the very 
class in most urgent need of money ; and of 
these the farmers are by far the most numer¬ 
ous and loudest. When they settled on their farms 
they found only the virgin soil, and had to provide 
everything. Generally without adequate means to 
build homes, obtain supplies and machinery, pre¬ 
pare the land and put in and harvest crops, it was 
absolutely necessary for them to borrow money, 
and with only the bare land and uncertain pros¬ 
pects for security, the interest was always high 
and often extortionate. Naturally chafing under 
the galling burthen, they seek to prevent the pos¬ 
sibility of a like hardship in the future, and find a 
multitude of sympathizers ready to go through the 
same ordeal to attain similar results—a home and 
estate of their own, however encumbered. As the 
laws cannot be constitutionally retroactive, they 
cannot lighten the present burthens; are they likely 
to better the condition of the borrowers of the 
future ? Experience elsewhere has shown that 
such laws, instead of attracting, are apt to repel 
legitimate investments and compel borrowers to 
resort to the clandestine services of the usurer 
and sharper. Shouldn’t a new country, where 
money is vitally needed, instead of harrassing and 
intimidating capital, attract and coax it to free 
competition by every legitimate means possible ? 
Hating usury and all forms of extortion and injus¬ 
tice as bitterly as any of our Western friends, we 
greatly fear that within a few years they will be 
sadly disappointed at the results of this proposed 
legislation, which may be righteous, but under the 
circumstances seems hardly expedient. 
An experience which is rather discouraging to 
advocates of cooperation was related by a South 
Jersey fruit grower. He was in Philadelphia and 
saw a neighbor’s berries sold for three cents per 
quart. When returns were received by the several 
growers who had shipped together, all were rated 
at the same price—seven cents per quart, although 
there was a great difference in the quality of the 
berries. Upon afterward asking the dealer for an 
explanation, the latter said, in substance, that it 
was simply a matter of self-protection with him. 
Had he returned the price actually received for 
the inferior fruit and a much higher price for the 
superior, the man receiving the lower price would 
never have sent him any more produce. He must 
average the prices remitted regardless of the justice 
of the matter. This is one of the greatest difficul¬ 
ties in the way of cooperative marketing of pro¬ 
ducts. Every man thinks his produce entitled to 
a price equal to those obtained by his neighbors. 
If the price is averaged, there remains no incentive 
for superior products. Cooperation is good in 
some things, but, until human nature is radically 
changed, it will be a failure in others. The pro¬ 
ducer of a superior product will not be satisfied 
with an average struck between his and his 
neighbor’s inferior product, and, indeed, he should 
not be. 
There are well authenticated reports that the 
sale of oleomargarine in Pennsylvania, which was, 
some time ago, strictly prohibited by the legisla¬ 
ture, is about to be extensively resumed by the 
wholesalers and jobbers under the national law 
which protects the sale of oleo in original packages, 
as the product of another State, though it cannot 
be made in the Keystone State or sold by retailers 
out of the “ original packages.” An effort is also 
to be made to break down the State anti-oleo law 
as unconstitutional, and a case against it is to be 
made up for the United States Supreme Court, the 
wholesalers having already, it is stated, contributed 
$2,000 towards the expenses of the suit. Hitherto 
they have been contributing liberally to the fund 
of the creamery men in their struggle with the oleo 
monopolists of Kansas City and Chicago; now they 
appear to have made advantageous terms with the 
latter and diverted their contributions in their 
favor. The passage of a law putting the sale of 
oleo in original packages within the jurisdiction of 
the various States on the same terms as the sale of 
intoxicants, was a measure strenuously urged by 
The Rural New-Yorker during the last session of 
Congress and which very nearly became a law, 
but its final failure is one of the sins with which 
farmers can justly charge that body. There are 
over 500 creameries and about 1,500,000 farmers in 
Pennsyvlania; will they patronize the men who 
are seeking to injure one of the most important ag¬ 
ricultural interests of the State? 
The recent action of several of the great trusts 
and fraudulent endowment schemes forcibly illus¬ 
trates the necessity of promptly overhauling and 
amending the laws relating to corporations in this 
and some of the other States. The notorious laxity 
of the corporation laws of New Jersey has led the 
Sugar Trust, the Cotton-seed Oil Trust, the Cordage 
Trust and a large number of minor combinations 
of the same kind to procure charters in that State 
even after some of them had been declared illegal 
by the highest courts of sister States. Even in 
this State, two months after the final decision of 
the Court of Appeals as to the illegality of the 
Sugar Trust and similar organizations, the Harrow 
Trust found no difficulty in procuring, under the 
laws of the State, the corporate charter it is now 
using. In Illinois, too, where the laws against 
trusts have been more energetically enforced than 
in any other State except New York, after the 
Courts had emphatically decided against the 
legality of the Chicago Gas Trust, the Whisky 
Trust readily obtained a charter after having 
merely changed its name from “trust” to “com¬ 
pany,” owing to the unpopularity of the former 
term. In this case and in several others where 
similar changes have been made, the trust certi¬ 
ficates have merely become shares of stock; but in 
all other respects the combinations have remained 
the same. Then again, a multitude of fraudulent 
schemes readily assume the guise of legal protec¬ 
tion under corporate charters in this and a large 
number of other States. All these prominently 
advertise that they are incorporated under the 
laws of this or that State, as if, forsooth, the fact 
were a guarantee of their reliability. Why should 
any State clothe even with the semblance of legal 
protection the horde of greedy trusts and swindling 
corporations the very object of whose existence is 
to prey on the public? Statutes which even appear 
to encourage either extortion or fraud must be 
promptly amended when the eyes of the people are 
open to their pernicious possibilities. 
The recent acquisition by the New York Cen¬ 
tral and Hudson River Railroad Company of 
the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad 
under a perpetual lease opens up to northern 
New York and Canada the probability of more 
direct and rapid connection with the metrop¬ 
olis. It is another link in the chain of events that 
conspire to bind this country and Canada more 
closely together. Hereafter this powerful corpora¬ 
tion reaches over its own lines an important part 
of the boundary line between the two countries. 
The history of the Central Company assures an im¬ 
proved service, but the question may be asked 
whether the patrons of the road may not have to 
pay for the improvements. The Rome, Watertown 
and Ogdensburg was in some senses a competing 
road. The terms of the lease are, to all intents and 
purposes, a sale. The Central has absolute control 
of the entire property, branches, rolling stock, etc. 
Former experience with the acquisition of competing 
lines by this company gives no assurance of any re¬ 
duction in rates bv this latest movement. Yet the 
law of this State forbids the purchase of a railroad 
by a competing one. What else does this, as well 
as the leasing of the West Shore Road by the same 
company a few years ago, amount to ? In many 
of the towns traversed by those two roads freight 
rates were exactly doubled as soon as the lease was 
consummated. Are these great corporations, which 
derive their franchises from the public, amenable 
to their creators ? If not, why not ? Isn’t a per- 
etual lease a sale ? And is it any less a sale 
ecause called something else ? 
BREVITIES. 
Here you are at springtime. 
Have your chickens paid ? 
You’ve paid out your money, 
Have the chickens laid ? 
Better cut their heads off, 
That you will confess, 
Than to breed up loafers. 
With your carelessness. 
Who gave Malus Halleana the name of Malus Park- 
mannii and wherefore T 
Would you be willing to try Mr. Johnson’s remedy for 
falling eyes ? There are thousands of such men in our city 
to day who ought to be on the farm. Will they go ? 
The last Congress passed a pretty efficient Immigration 
Law; but failed to make any appropriation for its enforce¬ 
ment. Very appropriately it is to go into effect on All 
Fools’ Day. 
For once there seems to be a general concurrence of 
opinion that the promise of an abundant peach crop all 
over the country is fine. The fruit buds are intact and 
spring is advancing. 
Some of the canes of the Wineberry or Mossberry 
(Rubus phoenicolasius) have made a growth of 10 feet at 
the Rural Grounds. The tips of the canes take root 
readily. The plants seem hardy and healthy. 
A dressing of unleached wood ashes and flDe bone just 
at this time upon the asparagus plot will help to insure 
large, tender shoots. It is not improbable that kainit 
might profitably be substituted for the ashes. 
Answers to questions regarding markets, varieties, 
prices, etc., are frequently embodied in articles found on 
the page next to this. We are always glad to receive 
questions or suggestions that would tend to make this de¬ 
partment more valuable. 
It takes $12,000 to publish the eulogium of a defunct 
Congressman, besides other heavy funeral expenses. How 
many of our departed Solons ever rendered to the public 
who must foot the bills, services worth even the price of 
their perfunctory praises ? 
We are pleased to find that the beautiful white Tea- 
rugosa hybrid, called Georges Bruant, has passed the 
winter at the Rural Grounds with very little injury to 
the canes. The plants were not protected in the least. It 
is a splendid acquisition without doubt. 
A subscriber in Washington has this to sav about crop 
prospects : “ A car-load of girls from 18 to 30 years old 
could be disposed of at a premium in this neighborhood.” 
It is a poor community that has girls to ship. What hap¬ 
pens to the farm when the best part of it is sent away ? 
Many Southern writers are chuckling because after 
years of learned argument against it, Northern stock- 
feeders now praise cotton-seed meal when properly fed. 
Some of them go so far as to say that Japan Clover wili 
have a similar history and be found useful in northern 
climes. 
Are you still afraid of that harrow f It won’t hurt the 
young corn and potatoes half as much as the weeds will 
hurt your pocketbook. This is the way one of our Michigan 
friends feels ; “I have sometimes fairly ached to get some 
of those potato fellows out in the field with me about the 
time potatoes are about four to six inches high to see me 
‘spoil’ a field with a 60-tooth spike harrow, or cultivate 
corn with the same weapon. There is not one farmer in 
20 who understands the full usefulness of a spike harrow.” 
The Republicans of Maine who put Ballot Reform in 
their platform but defeated it in their legislature, have 
succumbed under the tempest of opprobrium that has as¬ 
sailed them from all parts of the country. By a vote of 
76 to 30 they have just passed a bill enacting the 
Australian system. As Governor Burleigh is a strong 
advocate of reform, the measure is sure to become 
a law. The Republican Legislature of Pennsylvania 
still appears inclined to limit ballot reform as much 
as it dares; but whatever measure of restricted 
reform it may concede, wili be accepted by the people 
merely as a first instalment to be supplemented in full 
after the next elections. Great is the power of honest pub¬ 
lic opinion forcibly expressed. 
