5oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 4 
THE 
Rural N ew-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING. NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
out, as far as possible, American grain, cotton and 
meat, as well as the products of neighboring coun¬ 
tries. The United States, however, has a great ad¬ 
vantage over the latter in that while their products 
are mainly matters of convenience, comfort or 
luxury, ours are matters of necessity. The European 
countries must take our food products, because 
the adoption of a dear-bread policy by them might 
readily bring on a revolution. Still there is no doubt 
that an antagonistic tariff would greatly lessen our 
trade with them, and, moreover, it is unpleasant 
to know that even if a retaliatory policy is imprac¬ 
ticable, the feeling that prompts it exists, for it 
manifestly implies a sense of wrong and injury sup¬ 
posed to be sustained at our hands. 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Rre*ident RURAL NEW-VORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Man«*«r. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1891. 
“ I’m taking a rest,” says the clover soil, 
“ I’m having a big vacation ; 
I’ve carried my share of the heavy toil 
And gone through the whole rotation, 
I’m drawing in vigor and strength galore, 
Through the roots and leaves of clover; 
I’m fatter than ever I was before - 
And when the vacation’s over 
I’ll tackle the crops with a big, stout heart, 
With lungs full of wind I’llhustle, 
And then If the farmer will do hit part, 
The leaves of the grain will rustle.” 
NEW WHEAT PRIZES. 
The R. N.-Y. will give two cash prizes of 
$10 and $5 respectively for the best and sec¬ 
ond best heads of the R. N.-Y. wheats con¬ 
taining the greatest number and heaviest 
weight of grains ; not less than three heads 
of a kind to be selected and forwarded to this 
office before August 15, 1891. 
That is just it, as Prof. Thorne says, “The liabil¬ 
ity to wrong conclusions may be just as great in 
dealing with large as with small plots.” 
Sir J. B. Lawes : “ I have had an opportunity of 
going over the ‘ New Potato Culture,’ and am quite 
surprised at the amount of work which you have 
performed. ” _ 
Isn’t the disposition to undervalue the farmers’ 
movement a grand mistake ? Like all new move¬ 
ments, it is hampered by the crude plans of many 
minds, which only dimly perceive the true causes 
of the discontent that animates them, and still more 
dimly the best means of removing abuses. The 
movement, however, is terribly earnest, and is a 
wholesome protest against the class discrimination 
which has marked legislation of late years, and the 
wiles of plutocracy which seeks to intrench itself 
behind the laws of the land against popular right. 
Baron Hirsch, the multi-millionaire philanthro¬ 
pist of Europe, who has already donated several 
millions of dollars for the amelioration of his He¬ 
brew coreligionists, is reported to have bought 250,- 
000 acres of land in North Carolina as a site for 
an Israelitish colony of agriculturists. Of old the 
Children of Israel found the Promised Land “flow¬ 
ing with milk and honey, ” and under their skillful 
management it supported for centuries a teeming 
opulation ; but haven’t they lost their ancient 
eftness in agriculture during the last 2,000 years 
of attention to trade and financiering ? For cen¬ 
turies the Hebrew’s habitat has been among bricks 
and mortar, and his occupation behind counters ; 
wouldn’t he be out of place in green fields and be¬ 
tween plow handles ? 
The Department of Agriculture is making prepa¬ 
rations for the control of the weather by making 
experiments with a view to inducing the stubborn 
clouds to yield a little rain by the explosion of de¬ 
tonating substances in their midst. It certainly 
rained subsequent to the first experiment ; there 
is plenty of testimony to that fact ; indeed, some 
think the matter was a little overdone, but whether 
it would have rained without the interference of 
the official explosives is an open question. The 
experiments were made with three balloons 
about 12 feet in diameter, charged with two parts 
of hydrogen and one of oxygen, sent up to an ele¬ 
vation of 1,000 to 1,200 feet and exploded by means 
of an electric current. The experiments were wit¬ 
nessed by a number of experts and were considered 
a success by the authorities. 
Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy and Switzer¬ 
land have agreed upon a basis for a great central 
European customs league, by which reciprocity in 
trade will be established between the members, to 
the detriment of their commercial relations with 
all outsiders ; but especially with France, Russia, 
England and the United States. The movement is, 
we are assured, due mainly to the high protective 
policy of this country, which shuts out many of the 
products of the projected zollverein, and to our 
reciprocity policy with South American and Asiatic 
countries, which threatens to close their markets 
to all competing commodities. In retaliation, it is 
proposed by the central European powers to keep 
Since the announcement last week of the hot 
water rose-chafer insecticide we have experimented 
to ascertain just what degree of heat grape vine 
foliage will bear without injury. The leaves were 
held in water at 145 degrees for 30 seconds. They 
died. Leaves held for 30 seconds or more in water 
of a temperature of 134 degrees were slightly in¬ 
jured, while the leaves and flowers of magnolias 
and the leaves of grape vines received the cyclone 
spray at 140 degrees long enough to kill the rose- 
bugs (two or three seconds perhaps) without injury. 
It will probably appear that while 123 degrees is 
certain death to the rose-bug, the spray may be at 
least 10 degrees higher without injury to the foliage, 
blossoms or young grapes. 
There is nothing in the world that grows upon 
one so fast as the desire to loaf. The growth is 
gentle and pleasant at first. We “ put off” a little 
thing, dodge some little responsibility, or do some 
little shirking just because we don’t wish to exert 
ourselves. It is a little thing, but it can’t be rubbed 
out. It is the beginning of a disease of the will—a 
drop from the bucket of moral force, a scratch on 
the face of self-respect. A gallon is made up of 
drops, a death gash is only a wide and deep scratch. 
We must loaf or labor—shirk or work. The worker 
blesses himself and the community because his 
labor creates moral and material wealth. The world 
is the better because he grew and developed in it. 
The loafer is a curse to society—a moral pauper 
who must be supported and cared for. It is a pleas¬ 
ant journey from working into loafing, but it is a 
death struggle to get back again. At the first de¬ 
sire to become a genuine loafer, give yourself harder 
tasks than ever before and make yourself perform 
them. _ 
This week the law passed by the Alliance Legis¬ 
lature of Nebraska, at its recent session declaring 
all the grain elevators in the State public ware¬ 
houses, goes into effect. In addition to the private 
elevators thus made public, the Alliance has pur¬ 
chased and built many others. Instead of at once 
marketing the enormous crops soon to be harvested, 
the Alliance grain men assert that they will be 
stored in the elevators until prices are materially 
advanced. The grading will be like that in Minne¬ 
sota, and Chicago grading will be disregarded. 
Farmers requiring funds immediately will receive 
advances on their warehouse receipts. The rail¬ 
roads are bitterly complaining about the injury to 
their traffic likely to result from this arrangement, 
and the speculators in the St. Louis, Chicago and 
New York markets are a trifle puzzled and discon¬ 
certed at its possible effect on their profits. The 
daily press of course, according to its immemorial 
practice, upbraids and jeers at the Nebraska farm¬ 
ers—this time because, after having for years loudly 
clamored against corners of all kinds in agricul¬ 
tural products, they are themselves now establish¬ 
ing a monstrous one. Farmers, however, have 
learnt that it is impossible for them to please the 
olitical papers, and have come to contemptuously 
isregard their carpings. 
There has not been a season for a number of 
years when farmers throughout the country at 
large are more generally hopeful for the future than 
they are at the present time. There is every pros¬ 
pect for at least a fair crop, except perhaps for hay, 
and there is every indication that prices will rule 
far above the average. There will unquestionably 
be a heavy demand in Europe for American grain 
and other food products. It is believed that the far 
West has about reached its limit in the produc¬ 
tion of cheap cattle, and that beef making in the 
States of the central West will once more be a 
profitable business. With the possible exception of 
otatoes, there is a good chance that all crops will 
ring remunerative prices. And the chances for 
the future are also bright. Population is now in¬ 
creasing faster than is the area of cultivated 
ground. For a number of years this area in¬ 
creased faster than the population. In other words, 
the ability to produce food grew faster than the abil¬ 
ity to consume it. The indications now are that this 
state of affairs has been transposed. We are now 
within a handshake of the time when no food 
product can be used as fuel because it is more eco¬ 
nomical than wood or coal I It is high time now 
for the farmer to put his soil in training for the 
heaviest crops it is capable of growing. There is 
hope in the future for the careful farmer who will 
have faith in his soil and in himself. There will 
be no “good time” for the lazy, the careless and the 
shirk, but there will be a “whole chance” for the 
careful, thrifty man who will conduct his farm on 
business principles and make the most of his op¬ 
portunities. For such men there is every indica¬ 
tion of a rise of 20 or more per cent in the value of 
what they have to sell. An increase of 20 per cent 
in the power of the farmers to pay debts and buy 
goods means prosperity to every class of people in 
the country. Among other things it will mean the 
abandonment of many of the radical political 
schemes now proposed for the relief of agriculture, 
and a concentration of energy upon the proper en¬ 
forcement of the present measures. The R. N.-Y. 
does not assume to be a prophet. It only knows 
that the world’s demand for food is increasing 
faster than the supply, and that the man who puts 
his produce on the market with the greatest mar¬ 
gin between cost and selling price will prosper. 
Hitherto the most powerful of all the republics 
on earth has been unable successfully to cope with 
the most powerful of all the trusts on earth—the 
Standard Oil; will the most powerful of all the 
empires on earth, which is about to tackle the same 
gigantic monopoly, have any better fortune ? The 
German retailers of “ coal oil” complain that they 
are being driven out of the business by the Standard, 
which is pursuing in the Fatherland the same 
ruthless policy whereby it has won so much power 
and so many millions in its own motherland. Having 
formed a combination with the Rothschilds, who 
control the Russian petroleum output, the two have 
partitioned Europe between them for predatory 
purposes, and Germany has fallen to the share of 
the Standard. To minimize risks of competition 
from the few still independent American producers, 
the trust has purchased all the petroleum tank 
steamers plying between the German ports and the 
U nited States, and is forcing the German importers 
to form joint stock companies under its control. It 
also threatens to erect storage tanks in all the larger 
cities in order to sell directly to consumers where 
local dealers dare to assert any semblance of inde¬ 
pendence. The Rothschilds having flatly refused to 
supply the’German trade, the American invader has 
absolute control.of prices. The recalcitrant German 
tradesmen have appealed to the government for 
relief, and a committee appointed to investigate the 
matter recommends that the duty on imports of 
barreled oil should be suspended, and that an effort 
should be made to obtain a supply from indepen¬ 
dent American sources. Although, no doubt, more 
drastic measures can be enforced by a semi-auto¬ 
cratic government against a foreign mercantile 
enterprise, still it’s dollars to cents that the mighty 
young Kaiser will find as stubborn an antagonist as 
the army of France in this marvelous American 
monopolistic hydra headed octopus. 
BREVITIES. 
Hitch up Old Gray 
Some pleasant day 
And to a picnic go ; 
If you stay snut 
In one old rut 
You’ll always be too slow. 
What use has a dairy cow for long legs ? 
How far South does the rose-bug thrive t 
What is the right place for the wrong man f 
Teach yourself to breathe through your Dose. 
Can you make money out of a hired man’s labor f 
If you desire to Id jura your children, let them eat all 
the meat they call for I 
A lawn-mower that will not cut the grass so short— 
that’s what every one wants. 
As a rule, celery for latest winter or spring use is set 
out too late. The R. N.-Y. Is trying June 23 this year. 
The larger the package that leaves your farm the great¬ 
er the difference between your purse and the consumer’s. 
You do not know any six men with haud hoes who can 
do the work of one man, one horse and one Breed’s weeder. 
The Pennsylvania Experiment Station has been at¬ 
tempting to devise methods for discriminating between 
phosphates derived from bone and those derived from rock. 
Illinois has sensibly added her name to the list of States 
which permit women to vote at school elections. Surely 
the mothers of the United States should have something 
to say in the election of those who are to control the edu¬ 
cation of their children. 
Col. F. D. Curtis, whose death is so sincerely lamented 
by all who knew him, wrote his first articles for the farm 
press, over his own name, as he assured the writer, for 
The R. N.-Y. some 13 years ago. The articles were con¬ 
tinued for a year or more and entitled “ Jottings at Kirby 
Homestead.” 
An extraordinary manifestation of evolution is reported 
with regard to rabbits in Australia. Hitherto fences of 
wire-netting have proved the best safeguards against the 
depredations of the multitudinous pests; but, adapting 
themselves to their environment, they are, we are assured, 
fast learning to climb over these I 
A Pittsburg dispatch announces that the fruit-jar 
manufacturers have decided to Increase prices. The time 
is well chosen. The country Is on the eve of a splendid 
peach crop, and sugar is so low that the excited housewife 
is likely to stand any imposition once she Is in the midst 
of the flurry of preserving. 
Farmers who have large fields of The R. N.-Y. No. 2 
Potato say they can work in the crop with a cultivator 
several weeks later than other varieties. This is because 
of the upright habit of growth of the vines. Between tne 
last cultivating and the digging a mighty crop of weeds 
will grow and two weeks saved will make a great differ¬ 
ence In the condition of the ground at digging time. 
In one ton of eggs there are 43.6 pounds of nitrogen, 7.4 
pounds of phosphoric acid and 3 pounds of potash—the 
whole thing valued, at the prices paid for commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, at $8.05. That is, in every 2,000 pounds of eggs 
sold from the farm $8 05 worth of fertility is lost. The 
weight of the average egg is about seven to the pound. 
A ton represents 14,000. Tne fertility sent from the farm 
in a dozen eggs therefore is worth less than nine-tenths of 
a cent. 
A Citizens’ Alliance has been formed in Vermont 
which entirely repudiates the methods of the National 
Citizens’ Alliance. It is engineered by the Knights of La¬ 
bor, but is earnestly endeavoring to enveigie tne farmers 
within Its fold, as a sort of tall to its kite. Of course the 
Green Mountain labor organizations have an undoubted 
right to enter any form of legitimate association; but 
wouldn’t it be fairer and honester to assume a name not 
already “ preempted ” by a well known and established 
organization with which it desires no affiliation ? 
