676 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SEPT. i9 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIME8 BUILDING. NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, I ED)TOR8 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, ) 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Protident. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1891. 
If the same exemption from poison and powder 
granted to other domestic animals is claimed for 
the dog, shouldn’t he, like they, be kept at home ? 
In payment for the earliest investments for our 
superabundant crops, gold, which lately fled by 
tens of millions to Europe, is already winging its 
way back. Surely there is no place like the home 
eyrie for the American eagle ! 
There is a good deal of loose talk about “ cheap ” 
and “ dishonest ” money going the rounds. We do 
not believe any good citizen really wants “cheap 
money ” if cheapness means dishonesty in the mat¬ 
ter of paying just debts. At the same time we be¬ 
lieve that several of the schemes proposed by the 
debt doctors would create a class of money that 
would be “ cheap ” in the fact that more than one 
dollar of it would be required to buy a coin dollar 
or its representative. In that case the poor would 
suffer most because the rich could buy the cheap 
money at a discount and compel the poor to take it 
for wages at par. With two different dollars in 
circulation, the trading advantages would be with 
the rich or the holders of the higher priced dollar. 
There is a very general belief among many farm¬ 
ers that the cheaper money, or that which is worth 
intrinsically less than the other, would prove a 
benefit to the debtor class because it would en¬ 
able them to “obtain a discount on their debts ; ” 
in other words, obtain the money below par and 
deliver it to creditors at par or above. They do 
not tell us how they are to obtain the cheaper 
money except by paying the gold—dear money—for 
it. The gold is not in the hands of the debtor class ; 
it is controlled by the “money kings,’’and any dif¬ 
ference in money values would add to the money¬ 
buying power of the classes. If free coinage of sil¬ 
ver would not raise the price of the white metal so 
that silver and gold coin would be intrinsically 
equal, would it benefit the working people ? 
The attention of our readers is called to the article 
“How’s This?” on page 675. What are we to 
think of any American seedsmen that would pur¬ 
chase and sell such seeds, or purchase them for the 
urpose of adulterating fresh seeds, that they may 
e sold Jor a lower price or a greater profit ? 
Mr. Lewis, whose farm was described in the 
“ Chemicals and Clover ” articles, writes that his 
17-acre field will yield 4,000 bushelsof potatoes. Re 
member that he used 21,400 pounds of fertilizer at 
a cost of about two cents per pound. The pota¬ 
toes have left enough to grow a good crop of wheat 
and two crops of grass. There was no hand work 
about hauling or speading the fertilizer. Enough 
was put on to run the rotation through. The 
farmer trusted his farm. The result is that the 
farm honors his draft. If he had divided that fer¬ 
tilizer into four annual applications his crops and 
his profits would have been cut down. There is 
money in the wholesale business. 
People who use their noses for determining the 
value of manures or fertilizers are sure to lose 
money, because most of them believe that a hor¬ 
rible smell indicates “strength.” It happens that 
the substances that give the worst smells are not as 
valuable for plant food as water. Still the folks 
keep on smelling for value. The nose is no worse 
than the eye, however. We are told of an ingenious 
fraud that has just been exposed in France. In 
some parts of that country farmers demand phos¬ 
phates of a green color and will buy no others. A 
trade grew up of coloring inferior mineral phos¬ 
phate with aniline dye so as to give it the color de¬ 
manded by farmers. This neat fraud snared many 
good men. 
We learn of a Missouri farmer who experimented 
with bone meal for wheat on land ‘ ‘ that had been 
corned for several years.” The yield of wheat was 
increased and the effects of the bone are still visible. 
This bone meal was made at a Kansas City slaugh¬ 
ter house. Every live steer that is sent away from 
the West takes, on the average, over eight dollars’ 
worth of fertility with him. That fertility belongs 
to the West. Some day or other as sure as the sun 
shines the farmer or his son or his grandson will 
have to pay for it. When the steer leaves his 
blood and bones behind him he takes less than half 
his fertilizing value out of the country. The wheat 
needs the phosphoric acid in these bones and must 
have it. No use saying “clover !” Clover cannot 
make phosphoric acid and never could. 
Many of the efforts to practically nullify farm 
mortgages in Kansas by preventing their foreclos¬ 
ure are due to the misrepresentations of dishonest 
and unprincipled lawyers. These by circulars, 
newspaper advertisements and in other ways an¬ 
nounce that they can defeat mortgage foreclosures 
on homesteads, and there is little wonder that some 
hard-pressed farmers apply to them for relief. In 
all cases they require their fees, in whole or in part, 
in advance. Should any case come before a j udge 
recently elected by the Farmers’ Alliance for the 
express purpose of embarrassing the holders of mort¬ 
gages, some delay and trouble are generally caused, 
but an appeal to the Supreme Court is always in 
favor of the mortgagee whose claims are in accord¬ 
ance with the laws of the State ; in cases brought 
before the ordinary county judges the law is at 
once allowed to take its course. Not only have such 
shyster lawyers no case ; but, in the words of Judge 
Ilouk, the other day, if any of them accepts a fee 
from his clients on the representation that he can 
prevent foreclosure, he ought to be prosecuted for 
obtaining money under false pretenses. In Kansas 
as in the other States there are so many “poor” 
lawyers that it is by no means surprising that some 
of them resort to disreputable means for a livelihood. 
As usual, farmers are the chief victims of such 
rascals, especially farmers who seek to make dis¬ 
honest gains or to avoid honest obligations. 
In our judgment the Republicans of New York 
State missed an opportunity when they failed to 
nominate Andrew D. White for governor. He would 
have given a dignity and strength to the campaign 
that would have brought out with great clearness 
several matters that go to make up political issues. 
There is one thing about Mr. Fassett, the Republi¬ 
can nominee for governor, that is worth remem¬ 
bering. Few men are so cordially hated by Tam¬ 
many Hall as he is. That organization will work 
its best to defeat him, because it realizes that his sue • 
cess will undoubtedly mean a revision of our present 
State election law, that will prevent the use of the 
“ paster ” ballot. At the election last fall The R. 
N.-Y. took particular pains to investigate the 
methods of voting employed in New York city. 
We then stated that the new election law was but 
one step in advance, and that the “ paster ” still 
enabled “heelers” and “workers” to keep full 
track of the vote. That “ paster ” covers too many 
political crimes. Wipe off the paste I The New 
York campaign will deal with local rather than 
with national issues. We shall endeavor to place 
the views of all three party leaders before our 
readers in due time. We want the issues clearly 
and forcibly defined. 
The Pennsylvania Experiment Station has issued 
a bulletin on chestnut culture, that presents some 
very interesting facts. Analyses of the different 
sorts of cultivated and wild chestnuts have been 
made and we are thus able to compare the food 
value of this nut with that of grams and other 
E roducts. The “meat” of the chestnut gives a 
etter analysis than either corn or wheat; that is 
to say, there is more life sustaining food in a pound 
of chestnuts than in a pound of either of these 
grains. It is rich in fats and in protein. The pos¬ 
sibilities of an acre of land planted to chestnut 
trees have never been accurately given; we cannot 
tell what might be considered an average crop when 
the trees are carefully cultivated and tended. We 
believe, however, that more digestible food fit for 
either man or beast can be produced, with less 
expense, from an American acre of chestnut trees 
than from an acre devoted to any other plant, and 
it can be done on soils that are too poor to support 
a respectable crop of hay or grain. The stout 
roots of the chestnut tree will force the soil to yield 
fertility where weaker grass or grain roots would 
be powerless. We are merely talking about the 
possibilities of this crop; not what people are going 
to do so much as what they might do. Gray-haired 
men who plant a chestnut orchard will never live 
to see it a paying investment. We do not believe 
that human beings are going to increase their con¬ 
sumption of chestnuts to any great extent within 
the next 50 years. It is as a food for stock that its 
great profit will be found. There are stock feeding 
possibilities in the peanut and the chestnut that will 
some day again revolutionize American meat mak¬ 
ing and give the dry, thin hill sides of New England 
and the South a fairer chance with Western corn 
fields. 
Although there are over 900 grain elevators in 
North Dakota, there has been great danger that 
there would be much difficulty to secure storage 
room for the 50,000,000 bushels of wheat raised in 
the State this year. After years of bitter conten¬ 
tion between the farmers and the elevator com¬ 
panies, the legislature of 1891 amended the severe 
elevator laws passed by the legislature of 1890 so as 
to make them more stringent. It declared all the 
elevators in the State public warehouses subject to 
certain uniform rules, and empowered the railroad 
commissioners to enforce the law and establish such 
regulations. It also compelled the elevator owners 
to clean, store and insure grain for 20 days for 2K 
cents per bushel. The most objectionable of the 
rules made by the commissioners required daily re¬ 
ports of sales, prices, storage and shipments from 
every elevator, and they refused to allow grain to 
leave the State unless it had been inspected at the 
points where the railroads left it. The elevator own¬ 
ers insisted that the law was unconstitutional; that 
2% cents was less than the actual cost of the work re¬ 
quired ; that they could not afford to maintain a 
staff of clerks at the various elevators, and that 
an effort was being made virtually to confiscate 
their property. They declared that they would 
pay no attention to the law, but would buy and 
store grain to suit themselves. They professed a 
willingness, however, to allow the matter to be set¬ 
tled by the courts. O wing to this embroglio the grain 
growers have been in a dilemma, as their private ac¬ 
commodations are entirely inadequate for the stor¬ 
age of their enormous crops, and they must, as in 
the past, depend on the elevators. A telegraph 
from Grand Forks announces that Judge Templeton 
has just come to their relief, though not ip the way 
they wanted. He has decided that the elevator 
companies cannot be compelled to engage in the 
storage business unless they choose, and that the 
law under which grain inspectors are appointed ap¬ 
plies only to elevators at the terminal points. It’s 
a pity, a sad pity that needed reforms in legislation 
should be delayed or defeated by the too drastic 
nature of the measures enacted to effect them, and 
this has been the fault of by far too many of the 
laws recently passed through the newly acquired 
influence of farmers in legislation. 
BREVITIES. 
I know I plant cabbapra, corn and potatoes, 
My pants are but overalls—flannel nay shirt. 
And down on my knees with the beans and tomatoes 
I fumble a living and health from the dirt. 
I know what It Is to be wet, worn and weary, 
And yet, when the night comes, I never am sad ; 
For Betty and babies are bright, brisk and cheery. 
And supper’s the very best moal to be had. 
We haven’t found fortune and never caught sight of 
The gold that so many folks chase night and day, 
And wearily toll for and worship In spite of 
The fact that it turns hope to ashes of gray 
Far better plant cabbage and harvest contentment, 
Far better dig happiness out of the soil 
Than chase after riches and store up resentment, 
For gold purchased happiness always will spoil. 
Clover Is a nitrogen trap. 
Sand for absorbent on a stiff clay soil. 
We demand free coinage of common sense. 
What use has civiliz ition for the liquor dealer ? 
The richest skim-milk in a can is closest to the cream. 
A fresh and juicy sweet corn stalk will make the milk 
and batter talk. 
YOU will get through this world at a very slow pace if 
you stop in your work to kick over the trace. 
The Diamond is a good white grape; so is the Witt. 
Rural reports of grapes will appoarin a few weeks. 
Both pleasure and profit will fail to find clearance, if 
you spend all your money to “ keep up appearance.” 
The man who feeds green stuff in the barn can afford to 
grow brush in his pasture to keep the files off the cows. 
If by some stroke of fortune your tongue should break 
its hinge, the words that bring yon trouble are not likely 
to Impinge, 
What is your opinion of Dr. Hoskins’s idea of turning 
the agricultural colleges into normal schools for the 
training of district school teachers ? 
I might offer a prize of a million or more, with no fear 
that it e’er would be taken, to the man who could say that 
for doing his whole duty he had been ever forsaken. 
Several cases have been reported where burning py- 
rethrum powder inside a tent or house proved effective 
for killing flies and mosquitoes—without injury to humans. 
More pnlp or flesh, fewer seeds; a smooth, even skin ; 
medium size, ripening all over at the same time. These 
are the characteristics which we should strive for in the 
tomato yet to come. 
From many parts of the West and the Pacific Coast come 
complaints of a car famine for moving the crops ; this, of 
course, is sad, but not nearly so sad as the complaints of 
a food famine from many parts of Europe. 
What is said to be the most profitable five acres in Cali¬ 
fornia is a “ Violet Farm ” of that size on which this mod¬ 
est and beautiful flower is grown as a regular crop. What 
an illustration of the forward march of events in the past 
40 years I 
Prof. Georgeson, of Kansas, reports of his wheat tests 
that a severe wind storm blew most of the varieties down, 
but Bf'al stood erect while those on each side were laid 
flat. Roberts gave the best yield of the six R. N.-Y. 
varieties. 
Since recent experiments appear to have shown that 
rainfalls can be produced by explosions, is it not likely that 
the recent heavy downpours through most of the country 
are due to the clamor of political spouters during the pres¬ 
ent campaign ? 
It is worth much to know where the troublesome Horn 
fly lays and hatches its eggs. There is the place to kill it. 
One of our friends in New Hampshire writes that he has 
swept the stables clean every day and scattered Diaster 
thoroughly about. As a result he has no smell and but few 
flies. Flies abhor dry, clean quarters. 
How sycophantly the political papers flatter the main¬ 
stay of their circulation, the city workingman, is most 
clearly seen in their reports and editorials the morning 
after Labor Day. While, however, they are throwing 
plaudits and praises on the toiler with hod, trowel or 
nammer, they are always prepared to fling mud or a brick 
at the toller with hoe, plow or curry-comb. 
While reports of “ bread ” riots come from some parts 
of Europe and of threatened famine from others, France, 
Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia are shaking under 
the march of vast armies engaged in mimic warfare, 
which is generally held to be the speedy precursor of 
slaughter and devastation. Hungry nations, like hungry 
men, are exceptionably irritable and quarrelsome. 
It looks as though 90 per cent of the people in the world 
are mere imitators. They do what others do and follow 
rather than lead. Not over 10 per cent have the strength, 
the courage and the force to be original or to stand fairly 
by the side of what they believe to be right and true if the 
majority of their friends and neighbors ridicule it or argue 
against it. The world needs more true independence and 
must have it if any real progress is to be made. 
Canada’s surplus wheat crop will amount to at least 
50,000,000 b :shels—more than twice as much as last year. 
Should tae price be a shade lower for it than for our own 
crop, American millers can afford to import it in spite of 
the McKinley “ protection ” of 25 cents per bushel; for 
having made it into flour, they will be entitled to a draw¬ 
back of 99 per cent of the duty, on exporting it. The 
McKinley “protection” to American wheat growers, 
therefore, in such cases, amounts to only 2% mills per 
bushel—a mere bagatelle. 
