58o 
AUG. 8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING. NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homern. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
to make the plants “ head,” and there is a chance 
for greater neatness in dressing the heads for mar¬ 
ket. One must learn how to do it, and then take 
his price for the “know how !’’ Is not this the 
secret of success with improved stock, tools or 
methods ? A cow bred through centuries for dairy¬ 
ing will not eat any more than a “scrub,” nor wilf a 
carefully bred hen, horse or sheep demand extra 
food. They will demand extra care, and to pay for 
it they turn the food given them into the class of 
substances that the public will pay the most money 
for. The high prices paid for articles on the mar¬ 
ket simply represent the value that is put into 
them, in material, in time, in skill and care. The 
man who gets a big price for a farm product simply 
draws a good salary for the care and skill that 
enabled him to pick out the best product and han¬ 
dle it in the best manner. 
means to supply the demand for centuries. One of 
the richest tracts of phosphate land embraces 1,000 
square miles. Over the entire area the deposit 
varies from three to thirty feet in thickness, aver¬ 
aging about 10 feet. A cubic yard of the crude de¬ 
posit will wash out 600 pounds per half ton of clear, 
dry nodules, and a recent survey has ascertained 
that the contents of a single section of land (640 
acres) amounts to 3,000,000 tons. It is only within 
the last two years that experimental ventures were 
begun, but already the industry is established on a 
basis involving millions of dollars in capital, and 
giving profitable employment to thousands of work¬ 
men. The “phosphate mines” of Florida alone bid 
fair soon to rival the gold and silver mines of all 
the country as sources of wealth, and to far trans¬ 
cend them as sources of comfort and happiness. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8. 1891. 
Will it help your own crops to lean over the fence 
and count your neighbor’s weeds ? 
Half a dozen centuries ago the mighty robber 
built a castle and hired a band of reckless retain¬ 
ers ; to-day he organizes a trust and retains a band 
of unscrupulous lawyers. 
The improvement in the tuberous begonias is still 
going on at an astounding rate of progress. We 
have lately seen some seedlings of the most diverse 
and beautiful parts. Some at the distance of a foot 
or so could not be distinguished from full double 
roses ; others might well have been mistaken for 
double hollyhocks ; others for camellias ; others 
for the large, double balsams. These charming 
flowers need only fragrance to place them at the 
very head of the most valued bedding plants 
known. And now we are assured that fragrance— 
the fragrance of the violet as nearly as it can be 
described—has been secured in a new class of hy¬ 
brids. 
What torrents of admonition, objurgation and 
ridicule are pouring in upon the farmers of the 
West from editors who do not know a Long horn 
carrot from a Short-horn cow, anent the im¬ 
practicability, wickedness and disastrous disadvan¬ 
tages of the mooted “ wheat trust! ” Nevertheless, it 
remains, alas ! a frozen truth that, year after year, 
when the crops begin to move prices for farm prod¬ 
ucts are unjustly depreciated not only by gluts in 
the markets and the manipulations of speculators, 
but still more on account of a monstrous deficiency 
in the volume of the currency, which owing to its in¬ 
elastic character, remains practically normal at a 
season when the enormous increase in the business 
of the country demands at least a thirty-fold ex¬ 
pansion. Statistics for a series of years go to show 
that the depreciation in the prices of the chief 
money crops of the country during the three 
months when they are rushed to market is about 
40 per cent as compared with their average 
prices during the remainder of the year. They also 
show that the consumer gains little or nothing by 
this decrease, while the producer loses the whole of 
it, the middleman being the only gainer. How can 
this gross injustice be avoided except by holding 
back some parts of the crops, so as to regulate the 
supply by the actual demand and the volume of 
money available for payment ? 
The reported scheme of the farmers to hold their 
wheat for higher prices, which was mentioned last 
week, has had quite an airing during the past few 
days. It was supposed to have its origin in Min¬ 
nesota among the Alliance officials. It now trans¬ 
pires that a Minnesota law makes any such action 
a criminal conspiracy, according to some wiseacres. 
Further, the law in question was introduced in 1887 
by Ignatius Donnelly, now president of the Min¬ 
nesota Farmer’s Alliance, but an earnest opponent 
of the scheme. Of course, the law when enacted 
was intended to apply to speculators in their efforts 
to corner agricultural products, but it is not likely 
that any distinctions will be made if the Farmers’ 
Alliance should undertake similar tactics, or, if 
made, past history would lead us to believe that 
the farmers would be the first to feel the weight of 
the law. Alliance officials high in authority deny 
that any such combination has been effected. They 
say that farmers have been advised to hold their 
wheat for a fair price rather than to sell it to spec¬ 
ulators for an unremunerative one. It is said, fur¬ 
ther that the plan of sending out circulars advising 
farmers to combine was originated by certain 
officials to enhance their importance in the estima¬ 
tion of farmers and to create consternation among 
wheat speculators for political effect. Who these 
officials are will probably be made known in good 
time. 
A market gardener told us this little experience 
last week. He has been growing early cabbage for 
market. In addition to the cabbage he tried some 
cauliflower plants. By good management in mak¬ 
ing the heads look neat and by seeking special cus¬ 
tomers he was able to sell his cabbage at $8 per 100. 
The cauliflowers sold easier at $20 per 100. A head 
of cauliflower took the same room and the same 
manure as a head of cabbage, yet, when grown, it 
sold for more than twice as much. It requires more 
skill and care to fight cauliflower insect enemies and 
What are the facts about the growth of the 
People’s Party and the Alliance ? The daily papers 
all tell us that the farmers’ movement as a separate 
political factor is steadily losing ground, and that 
it is following the Greenback and similar parties to 
obscurity. On the other hand, Senator Peffer, per¬ 
haps the most conservative Alliance leader, says in 
his paper : 
Farmers and wage-workers are combining everywhere 
for independent political action. The People’s Party is 
growing as fast as the Alliance did in 1889 and 1890. The 
elections in Kentucky, Ohio and Iowa this year will sur¬ 
prise everybody. The Democratic majority in Kentucy will 
be greatly reduced, if not utterly wiped out, while the Re¬ 
publican in Ohio and Iowa will show the w ork of the toil¬ 
ers there. In Texas, if a vote were taken to day, the 
People’s ticket would receive at least 00,000 votes, and 
Democracy would be about 50,000 short of Its cld strength. 
The Senator thus puts himself on record as a 
political prophet. If the Democrats carry Ohio 
and Iowa he will claim this result indicates the 
power of the People’s Party ! Suppose, on the 
other hand, the Republicans carry both States, de¬ 
feating the men who were elected two years ago. 
In that case will the Senator be ready to admit that 
the result shows that the People’s Party is not a 
winning factor ? One test is as fair as the other. 
One inference from Mr. Peffer’s statement is that 
the People’s Party in Ohio will endeavor to hurt 
the Republicans. When the votes are counted we 
can tell how they made out. 
The Democrats of Maryland at their recent con¬ 
vention nominated Senator Gorman for another 
term in the United States Senate, and at the 
same time selected Farmer Brown as their can¬ 
didate for Governor “to attract the farmers’ 
vote.” In Mississippi the candidates for Sena¬ 
tor are stumping the State far in advance of the 
selection of members of the legislature. Within the 
past year several other States have shown an in¬ 
clination to pick out senatorial candidates before 
the members of the legislature were chosen. This 
seems to be in answer to the popular demand that 
Senators should be elected by the direct vote of the 
people. A great many farmers are not yet ready 
to give up all the exclusive features of the Senate, 
while they are as eager as any one can be to put 
true representatives of the States in that side of 
the Capitol. The founders of the Constitution 
meant that the Senate should be thoroughly con¬ 
servative-representing the States rather than the 
people. It was a wise provision, and there is wis¬ 
dom in it yet. If our Senate has become the repre¬ 
sentative of the classes rather than that of the 
States, the fault may lie in the methods of selecting 
candidates as much as in the methods of electing 
them. In our judgment popular opinion should 
force political parties to designate Senatorial can¬ 
didates as well as candidates for State offices. Let 
them go before the people as others do, and look for 
their election to State legislatures as at present. It 
is better to give this plan a fair trial before attempt¬ 
ing to amend the Constitution. The great power 
of the “classes” is to be found in cities. Do farm¬ 
ers realize how many States at the present time 
are controlled by the city vote ? 
When, about 50 years ago, Liebig said : “In the 
remains of an extinct animal world England is to 
find the means of increasing her wealth in agricul¬ 
tural produce as she has already found the great 
support of her manufacturing in fossil fuel,” it was 
thought that he was indulging in a fine philosophic 
fancy ; yet scarcely a decade later vast deposits of 
fossil bones and fossil excrements of animals 
were discovered in Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, and 
straightway John Bennet Lawes utilized these sub¬ 
stances in the preparation of his well known 
“coprolite manure” or “ Lawes’s superphos¬ 
phate,” and thus vastly benefited the agriculture of 
the world, while greatly enriching himself. Since 
then much larger deposits of somewhat similar 
phosphoric character have been discovered in other 
parts of the world, chiefly in South Carolina, the 
West Indies, Canada and Florida, and to-day the 
advanced agriculture of the most civilized nations 
is probably helped more by these than by any 
other sources of fertility. At present the world’s 
annual consumption of mineral phosphate is about 
1,500,000 tons, and there is a yearly increase of from 
25 to 30 per cent. The Id sources of supplv—South 
Carolina, Canada and the West Indies—have prob¬ 
ably reached the point of maximum production, and 
henceforth the world must look to Florida for a sup¬ 
ply to satisfy its increasing wants. In five years 
these must reach 4,000,000 tons per annum, and in 
10 years from 12,000,000 to 13,000,000 tons will be 
required. The Peninsula State, however, has ample 
BREVITIES. 
Don’t stop, little ooy, don't stop 
You have won your game of ball: 
’Tls a gl’int prize 
To your untrained eyes. 
But you mustn’t stop at all. 
There are victories yet to be won up top 
Don’t stop, Utile boy, don’t stop! 
Don’t stop, little boy, don't stop! 
You i ave won her love so true, 
And the purest part 
Of a woman’8 heart 
And her soul belong to you. 
Keep pure and good, or that love will drop 
Don t stop, little boy. don't stop! 
Don’t stop, little boy, don’t stop! 
You have won an honored name, 
But over the bars, 
Up. among the stars. 
There la true and deathless fame. 
There's rest and coo fort and peace up top 
Don’t stop, little boy, don’t stop! 
Any turnips in yet T 
Last call for sowing fodder corn for the cows. 
Doesn’t carrying another’s burden often lighten one’s 
own ? 
Try the Gandy Strawberry in a small way. Try the 
Minnewaski Blackberry. 
Business in Paris-green and London-purple has been 
heavier than ever before, this year. 
Save seeds of the best and largest blackberries and sow 
them in boxes of prepared soil next fall. 
Amid all the talk of holidays, it’s well to remember that 
it’s almost as easy to rest too much as to work too much. 
This dry and parching weather gives the soil an inflam¬ 
mation; the cultivator wisely used gives needed embro 
cation. 
An Itching palm will lead to harm, unless you stop the 
itching. Tls due, I guess to laziness—to cure It, try good 
ditching. 
Go to an expert for treatment for catarrhal or throat 
troubles and the first thing he will tell you will be to eat 
less meat. 
It doesn’t sound well for the man who lets his manure 
pile leach Into the brook, to object to chemical fertilizers 
because they leach out through the soil. 
When, since the days of Ben Franklin, has this country 
had a representative at Paris who has made a better busi¬ 
ness record than the present one—Mr. Whltelaw Reid ? 
Cut off the female plants of asparagus now while the 
berries are green and cling firmly. This will weaken the 
roots pomewhat, bnt it will give the males a better chance. 
Be kind to the women folks, don’t make your wife over 
the cooking stove fry out her life; make her sit down and 
rest, eat more good fruit, don’t be a—well, sir—what rhyme 
now will suit ? 
Milkman, scald your cans, let not one inch of tin pure 
boiling water miss, both outside and then in. The dread 
bacteria can never stand a boll; so. milkman, scald your 
cans or else your milk will spoil. 
“ Patent soluble wool manures” are sold in England at 
high prices. They represent the washings of wool with 
the fatty substances taken out. They contain seven per 
cent of nitrogen and a large amount of potash. Tne fats 
are used in soap making. 
Observations of the present season tend to strengthen 
The R. N.-Y.’s previous experience that tomatoes for 
profit had better be raised upon land of but moderate 
fertility. The plants bloom earlier and set more fruit 
which ripens earlier. There is less vine and more fruit. 
A friend who seldom “ drops into poetry” writes the 
following about the poem on page 325. 
’Tls a very pretty story, that bit of dairy hlstorv. 
For It makes out very plain what was heretofore a mystery 
But when I saw ihe picture, It occurred to my mind 
Jack never milked a goat before, for she's! always milked behind. 
Geo. T. Powell makes a sensible remark on page 576 
when he says that spraying fruit will make grading and 
sorting by machinery easier. Sorting now means picking 
out the wormy, “ knarly ” and badly shaped specimens. 
Spraying would so reduce the number of imperfect fruits 
that but little beyond a sizing would be needed and thus a 
machine will do as well as a hand. 
The anxiety of Eastern Democrats to make the tariff 
the leadtng feature in the next political campaign is 
equaled only by that of the Western Democrats to give 
the first place to the currency. In the Middle State of 
Ohio they built a free silver platform, but the candidate 
they put on It prefers to dance to tariff music. Like the 
other great party, they would like to capture the farmers’ 
vote, without paying the farmers’ price for it. 
The English farm papers frequently contain reports of 
legal actions brought to determine the value of manures. 
Wnen a tenant leaves a farm he expects to be paid for tne 
manure that his crops have lelt in the soil. A court Is fre¬ 
quently called upon to determine the manural values of 
various feeding stuffs and the length of time such manures 
may be exptcted to remain in the soil as plant food 
American law is, we believe, without a precedent In this 
line 
Now that Uncle Rusk has entire charge of the weather, 
The Rural would remind him that a certain average tem¬ 
perature during the season is needed to mature crops, es¬ 
pecially corn. After a cool June and the coolest July on 
record, shouldn’t the temperature henceforth till tne end 
of the season be as much above tne needed average as 
it has hitherto been below It, to give anything like a fair 
show to the King of Crops ? Give us hotter weather, Uncle 
Jerry, and thus once more show yourself the Farmers’ 
Friend I 
For months Russia has been draining the world of 
gold, which she has been accumulating ’’against emer¬ 
gencies.” The financial markets every where have been 
perturbed by this absorption of the yellow metal. Owing 
to the shortage of crops, however, sue is no longer able to 
pay ner debts abroad by exporting wheat and rye, and con¬ 
sequently, during the past week, has been sending out some 
of the stored millions. Tne financial marKets heave a sigh of 
redef as they pocket the “snlners.” Does the farmer have 
to pay tne debts of the nations as well as to feed them all ? 
