788 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 7 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING. NEW YORK. 
A Rational Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
| EDITORS. 
rangements for amply feathering his own nest. He 
has made a contract for watering 2,000,000 acres of 
land in northwestern Kansas next summer for 10 
cents per acre. The irrigation companies threaten 
to fight the scheme, and lively times—and showers 
are threatened. If the rains come—and a certain 
proportion probably will—of course the contractor 
will take the credit—and the cash. ’Tis a funny 
business. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Prssidsnt. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Mansgsr. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1891. 
The request is made that all plants and 
seeds for trial or specimens for identification 
be sent to the Editor, River Edge, Bergen 
County, N. J. 
For five years past The R. N.-Y., has neither 
been obliged to go to the woods nor to buy wood of 
dealers for kindlings. A full supply is obtained 
from fast growing trees grown in corners and out- 
of-the way parts of the grounds. Meanwhile these 
trees, grown from cuttings or seeds, help to make 
the home grounds more homo-like. 
The R. N.-Y., is accused of “talking fertilizers.” 
We plead guilty and propose to keep up the talk, 
because, as is stated elsewhere, farmers are wasting 
a good share of $50,000,000 in cash because they 
don’t “ talk fertilizers” enough. As well find fault 
with one who talks about buying grain ! Fertilizers 
are food for plants just as much as grain is food 
for animals. Fertilizers and good sod make just as 
good manure as hay and grain fed to animals. No 
one has yet denied that proposition—no one can 
deny it, for it is true. On another page Mr. Davis 
tells us of his experiment with green crops alone 
as a food for a hungry soil. If you ever tried to 
winter a thin and poor cow on hay and straw alone 
you know how this farm responded. Grain fed to 
the cow and soluble fertilizers fed to the soil, would 
have changed the whole aspect of affairs. Instead 
of waiting a whole winter to start the cow right for 
work in the dairy, or waiting two years to grow a 
fair crop of rye, the cow might have been made to 
pay at once, or the land might have paid the first 
year. We shall continue to “talk fertilizers” at 
intervals. 
young farmer who attempted to use our columns 
for this unfair purpose because we are convinced 
that he did not realize how his proposition would 
appear to experienced business men. We say here 
to farmers and manufacturers alike that we are 
trying to give our readers honest and critical opin¬ 
ions regarding the merits of implements. If another 
case of this sort comes to our notice, we shall 
promptly expose the farmer and shall do the 
same with the manufacturer who may yield to this 
blackmailing demand, as men unworthy the confi¬ 
dence of our readers, and we will do it in such a 
way that the bad reputation will “stick.” No 
blackmail or “ sailing under false colors” in this 
paper! 
BREVITIES. 
Men of grit, never quit. 
Grow so as to fit a broad guage. 
A king is not obliged to look at a cat. 
Are you breeding loafers in your barn-yard t 
The Bordeaux Mixture is going to be a fixture In potato 
growing. 
According to Mr. Newton, thev have very long winters 
and plenty of time for chores in Vermont. 
The would be young housewife who can’t cook a dinner, 
will train, In her husband, the points of a sinner. 
A watch ticks 160,144 000 times in one year. How many 
marks of progress do you make in the same time t 
The drilling and directing of your little children’s mind 
is about the best employment that you can ever find. 
Do you send your children to school jnst so as to be rid 
of them for a few hours t If so, you nave plenty of com¬ 
pany. 
During many years The R. N.-Y. has endeavored 
to impress on those of its readers who are planning 
to lay out attractive home grounds the necessity of 
planting a fair proportion o£ hardy evergreens. Of 
the two great classes, deciduous trees are to be pre¬ 
ferred during the growing season ; but there are 
warmth and color and comfort in the conifers dur¬ 
ing the long winter. A country home without 
evergreens is not quite the home it ought to be. 
Unless the saloons can recruit 2,000,000 or 3,000,- 
000 boys from each generation as raw material, 
most of them must soon close. One family in every 
four or five must contribute a boy to the Demon of 
Rum—more terrible than any manor woman-eating 
monster of mythology. Has your family already 
contributed a boy to this fiery Moloch or is 
it going to do so ? If not, mustn’t some neighbor¬ 
ing family have to contribute more than its share f 
The movement for free mail delivery in country 
places is rapidly spreading. Everywhere farmers 
declare that a daily mail delivery would add per¬ 
ceptibly to the money value of their farms and 
would be worth still more by bringing them into 
touch with the markets of the world and by help¬ 
ing to rob farm life of much of its isolation and 
monotony. Let every farmer at once take part in 
the project by writing to his Congressman and the 
Senators from his State urging them to take favor¬ 
able action on the measure. 
Ignatius Donnelly's libel suit against the St. 
Paul Pioneer Press has just been decided. Instead 
of the $100,000 the Baconian ex-Congressman 
claimed as damages for wounds to his reputation 
the jury awarded him $1 and gave only $5 as coun¬ 
sel tees. A jury, like the public at large, are very 
likely to sympathize with a paper that honestly ex¬ 
poses frauds and humbugs, not from personal feel¬ 
ing, but for the public advantage. A man who 
seeks damages for an injured reputation by a libel 
suit against an upright, independent paper should 
have an unsullied character for any chance of even 
slim success. 
The Kentucky Farmers’ Alliance means business, 
It has opened a store in Louisville and obtained op¬ 
tions on 35 others throughout the State with the 
avowed intention of revolutionizing the farm sup¬ 
ply business. Heretofore the mam causes of failure 
in such enterprises have been wasteful management, 
excessive credit and neglect of the close economies 
enforced by competition. If the Kentucky Alli¬ 
ance can steer clear of these obstacles, a fine pr s- 
pect of success is ahead. There is no doubt that 
economic combinations among farmers would be of 
vast importance ; and the present experiment is 
therefore both interesting and instructive. 
And now we have another profession (in more 
senses than one) that of rainmaker or rain king as 
some bombastic reports put it. Much that is 
written about this business would be ludicrous were 
it not so silly, not to say irreverent. The govern¬ 
ment experiments have sometimes been followed by 
rain, sometimes not. When the rain came of course 
it resulted from their operations ; when it didn’t, 
“conditions were unfavorable,” etc. An Ohio 
sprinkler has for some time been operating in Kan¬ 
sas bombarding the clouds and surprising the 
natives and himself. As in the government experi¬ 
ments, sometimes it rained and then again, some 
times it didn’t. When it rained the natives were 
surprised—when it didn’t, the experimenter suf¬ 
fered—and made excuses. A Californian smarting 
under an alleged infringement of his discovery of 
various aqueous secrets, threatened dire and ter¬ 
rible things in consequence, but our hero lost no 
sleep in consequence and has apparently made ar- 
Each recurring election season emphasizes the 
need of an educational qualification in our election 
laws. Not only should ihere be one relating to the 
naturalization of foreigners, but also one relating to 
native-born citizens. Every year foreigners are 
naturalized in this city who cannot tell whether 
this country is governed by a king, queen, or what 
not. Thousands of votes are cast every election by 
people who cannot make themselves understood in 
English without an interpreter. Thousands deposit 
ballots every year who do not pay a dollar of tax, 
who cannot read the ballots they deposit and who 
have no more conception of the issues to be decided 
by those ballots than so many cattle. What do our 
farmer friends think of having men such as these 
help to elect the officers who make and execute our 
laws ? And at the same time thousands who pay 
heavy taxes and successfully control immense busi¬ 
ness interests are disfranchised for the simple reason 
that they were born women. Brains, education, 
ability don’t count; a pair of breeches do. What a 
commentary on the provisions of our system of 
government ! A certain Pennsylvania judge this 
year refused to grant naturalization papers to cer¬ 
tain foreigners who were ignorant of our language 
and methods of government. Would that there 
were more like him! Give us an educational qualifi¬ 
cation which will deny the right of suffrage to 
every man who cannot read and write the English 
language understanding^ and who is unfamiliar 
with the fundamental principles of our form of 
government. 
Crops are abundant all through the country and 
selling at fair prices, and farmers are jubilant at 
the prospect of unwonted prosperity. The main 
question now should be what should be done with 
the golden harvest. Shall the forehanded farmer 
4 4 pick up a little more land, ” or “ improve the 
place,” or “ dress up the family and buy a buggy,” 
or take a trip to “ visit his uncles, his cousins and 
his aunts ? ” The first use anybody who has felt 
the gallings of poverty should make of a prosperous 
year, is to free himself from the stings of debt. 
There should be no hesitation or procrastination. 
No honest man will think that paying a just debt is 
like “ paying for a dead horse.” Once out of debt, 
the wise man, if anything is left, will lay by a little 
nest-egg in a savings bank or some other handy and 
safe investment. Remember that the first savings 
are a prophesy and a pledge of future thrift. It 
is the candid confession of every man who has ac¬ 
quired a fortune that the first little savings were 
the hardest trials of his whole career. Fortunes are 
not so much made as saved. There isn’t a wage- 
earner even in the country who doesn’t waste 
enough to prevent a great betterment of his con¬ 
dition. False pride and self indulgence are the sins 
that mar or ruin millions of lives. Their victims 
are always under the lash, when a heroic effort 
would give them freedom and self respect. Provi¬ 
dence nas blessed the farmers of the country 
with a prosperous season, it rests with themselves 
to make the best use of it. 
The R. N.-Y. has had quite a little trouble in 
years past in dealing with a species of petty black¬ 
mail that is very annoying. Farmers who write 
now and then for the farm press, when in need of a 
new tool, go to the manufacturer and say in effect : 
“ If you will give me this machine I will write to 
all the farm papers and praise it highly, calling the 
attention of farmers to it, etc., etc.” They fre¬ 
quently add: “If you don't let me have it, I can 
get a similar one of Jones & Co., and I will see that 
your machine is not mentioned.” Sometimes the 
manufacturers foolishly yield to such requests and 
send the machines. In other cases they refuse and 
promptly report the matter to the papers. Within 
the past month two such firms have notified us of 
such propositions to “boom” their goods in the 
columns of The R. N.-Y. We desire to thank them 
for notifying us. We do not give the name of the 
The R. N.-Y. desires to inquire if any of its readers have 
met with success in grafting the grape in late fall, and, if 
so, by what method t 
An Ohio subscriber writes: ‘‘Let me add to your 4 We 
demand the free coinage of common sense’ this : ‘We de¬ 
mand the free coinage of justice and libarty.’ ” 
“The farmer that cannot make it a paying investment to 
take Ihe Rural is following the wron# vocation and had 
tetter try something else.—C. L. Burr, Hampden County, 
There is a good opening for one-legged men in the poul¬ 
try business. It doesn’t need much running if the hens 
are tame, and the best egg producers are the lea-gone 
breed 1 
Of all the cow’s milkers there’s not one so mean as the 
calf, for he never will milk the cow clean. “ No profit ” 
comes after those folks with a whip who lose the test milk 
by their failure to “strip.” 
The man who can invent a process by means of which 
the nutriment in bananas can be preserved and shipped 
in the form of dry flour or meal will be a world’s benefac¬ 
tor—that is, if cheaper food is desirable. 
Twenty per cent of “water” has just been injected into 
the Pullman car stock, on which me puolic will have to 
pay big Interest. Surely the sleepers who must contri¬ 
bute In a special way to it, must feel the outrage as a 
nightmare. 
The work of the progressive farmer is never done. Not 
Important of his work at this season may be 
talking with other successful farmers, attending insti¬ 
tutes, visiting the nearest nurseries with his family and 
reading current farm literature. 
Mr. J. J. Ashenhurst, candidate for governor of Ohio 
on the Prohibition ticket, sends us conies of his speeches 
to be used as an “interview” if desired. They came too 
late for this issue or for this year’s campaign. Still we 
hope to print the substance of them later. 
The latest figures given out by the Secretary of the 
Treasury show tnat the amount of circulating medium 
per capita is $23 75. If every person had his share, thous¬ 
ands who must shiver through the winter could buy a 
warm overcoat or a few needed tons of coal apiece. 
The hay crop in many sections has teen light. This is 
bad enough, but some farmers have seen fit to “ gnaw it 
in ” by keeping the stock on the dried up meadows. The 
light growth that started after mowing has teen gnawed 
down close to the roots. A pretty way to treat a field in 
misfortune 1 
If yon want to see an interesting performance watch a 
Guinea hen chase insects. The Guinea is the most active 
and persevering of all farm yard poultry. She will hunt 
for insects ana capture them, too. If she would only eat 
potato beetles we could forgive her morning salutation 
to the snn. 
Your hens do not need to go out of the house from 
November till April. Hundreds of good breeders have 
plainly disproved the old theory that the “active” breeds 
must “run out” during the winter. The test flocks of 
Leghorns we know of never see the outside oi the house 
during cold weather. 
IT is expected that as a result of this year’s abundant 
crops, $200,000,000 of mortgage indebtedness will be paid 
off in the Western States within the next few months. 
Where will savings banks, insurance companies, mortgage 
associations and other holders of such securities find good 
investments for their liberated funds f 
The tree agent comes with his wonderful plnms and 
his grapes that grow bigger than eggs, and his winter- 
prool pears and his cherry that scares the birds—while 
your order he begs for his golden-haired rose and his tree 
tomatoes and his berries that never can fail; with your 
leg you should shoot a stout bullet of boot right straight 
at his ample coat tail. 
Farmers everywhere report an extra large acreage of 
winter wheat. With almost any other crop this would 
mean a low price next year. The chances are favorable 
for good prices, however, for all grain experts seem to 
argue that the deficit in Europe is so great that all sur- 
E lus will be eaten up and that the demand next year will 
e almost as great as this. 
In Russia winter is coming in with unusual severity. 
What appear to be the most reliable estimates put the 
total number of people exposed to starvation in European 
Russia, owing to the shortage of crops, at 20.000,000, with 
the certainty of the deaths of 1,000,000 or 2 000,000. It may 
make each of us realize the extent of the calamity more 
clearly if we imagine nearly one third of the population of 
the United States on the brink of starvation, on the verge 
of winter, in the year of grace, 1891. 
The Indian Game, when about two-thirds grown, is the 
most gawky, slim-legged fowl imaginable, but it “ weighs 
like lead.” Three men stood in one of The R. N.-Y. 
yards, in which were Indian Game, Wyandotte and Sher¬ 
wood chickens of about the same age. All said the Sher¬ 
woods must be heaviest because they looked larger in 
every way, When held in the hand, however, the Indian 
Game was found easily 30 per cent heavier than the Sher¬ 
wood. It was certainly a most remarkable surprise. 
