836 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV. 28 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIME8 BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Mans^sr. 
RURAL NEW-YORKKR, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1891. 
Every man who has accumulated a large fortune, 
and who, in the employment of labor and in the em¬ 
ployment of assistance, so manages as to create the 
impression in their minds that he is master and 
they are slaves is an apostle of socialism far greater 
than any preacher of socialism in the world .— 
Chauncey M. Depew. 
What is more heroic than close attention to the 
duties, small or great, of every-day life ? 
Congress convenes on Monday, December 7. It’s 
likely to be a cyclonic assembly, with three thunder 
ing vortices in which tariff, tin and silver will be 
the most noticeable phenomena. 
Since Vermont published a list of her “aban¬ 
doned farms,” many of them have found occupants, 
chiefly city folks and emigrants from northern 
Europe and Canada. Advertising even “abandoned 
farms ” pays. 
Within the past seven weeks the price of broom 
corn has advanced from $70 to $150 per ton. Why ? 
Well, while 35,000 tons are used in the country an¬ 
nually, there are only 27,000 tons here now, and 
nearly all the amount is in the hands of a syndi¬ 
cate ! 
The R. N.-Y.’s trials of potatoes have not failed 
to prove trustworthy guides in one respect, viz., 
quality. If potatoes prove to be of good quality 
when grown in its moist, cold soil they will prove 
of good quality in any other land where potatoes 
may be profitably grown. 
It appears that the Japanese have several varie¬ 
ties of that hardy and distinct conifer, the Um¬ 
brella Pine, Sciadopitys verticillata, some of which 
have variegated leaves ; others leaves varying in 
breadth and length. Some are dwarf, others grow 
to a towering height—all are slow-growing. Is more 
than one form known in this country ? 
In spite of the widespread distress in Russia, 
offers of foreign help are, as a rule, either curtly 
declined by the authorities, or referred to the cir¬ 
cumlocution office. Strenuous efforts are being 
made, however, by the government to relieve the 
distress. The happiness or misery of its people is 
with a semi-barbarous nation exclusively its own 
affair ? 
Suppose the next Congress should spend but just 
one day in discussing the tariff, decide to leave the 
silver question where it is, pass a pure food bill, a 
bill to properly regulate gram gambling, a bill to give 
the people fractional paper currency, and to extend 
the free delivery of mails to country districts, pro¬ 
vide for necessary appropriations, pass a few other 
bills that the business of the country demands, and 
then adjourn ! The country would be better off 
and the party that carried out such a session would 
sweep the country next year. Is that so or not ? 
While science and the best skill are called into 
requisition to provide adamantine safes and vaults 
to guard the treasures of our great financial insti¬ 
tutions against burglary and fire, what precautions 
are taken to protect them against official dishon¬ 
esty ? Isn’t it notorious that such institutions lose 
vastly more through the rascality of insiders than 
by the depredations of outsiders ? How many of 
them are being robbed to-day by trusted officials 
who have been equally dishonest for years, but who 
have not yet been “found out”? What precau¬ 
tions are the trustees taking against such “ respect¬ 
able rascality ” ?_ 
The Chinese believe that if they eat the flesh of 
fierce wild animals they will become brave and 
strong. They are therefore eager to secure the 
carcasses of lions, tigers, wild cats and similar 
beasts. They also believe that the flesh of the fox 
or rat will make them wise and crafty. This seems 
to be about as far as many of them have gone into 
the science of feeding. Many of our ancestors be¬ 
lieved the same thing 1,000 years ago—in fact, plenty 
of Americans to-day believe something of the kind. 
Because meat eaters are proverbially fierce and 
easily excited, such people believe that this effect is 
due to the character of the animal rather than the 
composition of the meat. Beef from a fat, lazy old 
cow is no more “exciting” than that from a wild 
Texas steer. An undue allowance of protein in any 
form of food will create excitement and overstimu¬ 
lation. Shall we be a “ smarter ” race when Prof. 
Atwater’s nitrogenous corn is a reality ? 
If judgment may be passed thus early, the 
transfer of the Weather Bureau to the control of 
the Department of Agriculture, was a wise move. 
Under General Greeley’s directorship the predic¬ 
tions were as often false as true and no one cared 
for or acted upon them. At present we are grow¬ 
ing to respect them as worthy of being heeded. 
Whether this is mainly due to Prof. Harrington’s 
personal fitness for his position as director or to 
the fact that there are now twice as many weather 
stations as there were during Greeley’s administra¬ 
tion we can not say. 
At some of the larger fairs the past season, work¬ 
ing dogs were exhibited, and attracted more atten¬ 
tion than any other stock. The managers shrewdly 
put them where they would work upon the feelings 
of the most influential members of tne household— 
that is. they had them running washing machines. 
A working dog may be regarded by some people as 
a great curiosity, but such an animal is a curiosity 
simply because the dog hasn’t been developed in the 
right way. Some people seem to think the dog’s 
only mission in life is to “watch” or lie on the 
piazza and “look handsome.” Good, honest work 
never will hurt his watching—in fact, any being 
thinks more of a home he has to work for, and labor 
will make the dog healthier and happier. Running 
a washing machine is just the work in which the 
dog can make himself a highly respected member 
of the community instead of an advertisement of 
his owner’s shiftlessness. 
The United States Supreme Court has just ren¬ 
dered a decision in favor of a Boston importer, by 
which the government will be obliged to refund 
over $100,000 duty wrongfully imposed. Who gets 
this refund ? The importer. Who paid the over¬ 
charge ? That depends. Protectionists claim that 
the foreign manufacturer did. Free traders tell us 
that purchasers of the imported goods did. Accord¬ 
ing to all correct business principles, the party pay¬ 
ing the overcharge should have the refund. In the 
above case neither foreign manufacturer nor the 
purchaser gets it. Similar cases occur almost 
weekly. Not many months ago one transaction in¬ 
volved in the neighborhood of a half million dollars 
overcharge. It is the common impression that the 
importer sells his goods at a price that covers all 
overcharges. If this be so, and he afterwards re¬ 
ceives a refund, does he in turn refund to the 
purchasers ? If not, who is wronged ? If he re¬ 
funds, does the purchaser refund to the consumer ? 
It looks much as though the consumer must ulti¬ 
mately settle the bill. 
Some weeks ago the New York Chamber of Com¬ 
merce passed a resolution in favor of the rep eal of 
the present silver purchase law. They did not 
offer any substitute; but seemed to object, on gen¬ 
eral principles, to any further use of silver as money 
or a money basis. At their annual public dinner 
last Tuesday, Secretary Foster gave the Adminis¬ 
tration’s side of the question. 1 i e does not believe 
that Congress can be induced to repeal the present 
law unless a “free coinage” measure is to supplant 
it, and such a measure would be vetoed by the Pres¬ 
ident. The Secretary believes that we need a 
greater volume of money and that silver will an¬ 
swer as a basis for it so long as it can be kept at a 
parity with gold. Under the present law, silver is 
bought on a gold basis and the silver dollars put 
into circulation under it contain about 80 cents’ 
worth and represent 20 cents’ worth more. In the 
course of his speech the Secretary said: 
I have much hope that the best j udgment of all concerned 
will agree to a better and more extended me of silver to 
be followed by International agreement by which the 
parity of the two metals upon an accepted ratio may be 
maintained. I feel quite safe in saying that the 
chief hindrance to an early agreement in the direction 
1 have indicated is the belief in Europe that free coinage i3 
to be the policy of this country. If this is to be our policy, 
they know that their silver will come to us, and that our 
gold will go to them. 
From the present indications it seems pretty safe 
to conclude that the silver question will remain as 
it is for two years more at least. 
After January 1, President Harrison will be em¬ 
powered to impose discriminating duties on certain 
imports from some other countries in pursuance of 
the policy of compulsory reciprocity marked out in 
the McKinley Bill. There is a strong movement, 
supported by Secretary Rusk, to induce him, in 
this connection, to reimpose the duty on hides. The 
chief supporters of the measure are the cattle rais¬ 
ers of the West, who charge that since hides were 
placed on the free list, the price of the domestic 
articles has fallen a good deal ; while its chief 
opponents are the shoe manufacturers of New Eng¬ 
land, who allege that all the upper leather now 
used is made so largely from domestic hides that 
the foreign cut little or no figure. Imported hides, 
they say, are used chiefly for sole leather, and they 
profess to be almost indifferent to the policy the 
government may adopt, since if shoes cost more, 
they will charge more for them. But if the prices ad¬ 
vance, won’t old shoes be made to last longer and 
won’t their trade consequently decrease ? Most 
likely the President will take no action in the mat¬ 
ter until the United States'Supreme Court has given 
its opinion on the constitutionality of the reciproc¬ 
ity clause of the McKinley Bill. The case has been 
advanced almost to the head of the docket and a 
decison cannot therefore be long delayed. 
BREVITIES. 
There’s lots of folks tl>a’ love a horse, 
About as well as they know how, 
We atn’t all built alike, of course, 
There's them that do Just love a cow 
Above their wives. Some folks will sle -p 
When cows or horses has the talk: 
But start a word e geways on sheep 
And see the way tueir tongues will walk, 
And some folks sit up half the night 
To Daint the virtues of a hog. 
And I know folks uncommon bright, 
Who spread their love thick on a dog. 
I h ive, as now I do rejoice. 
No quarrel with my fellow men, 
But of all animals, my choice, 
Korever Is the laying hen. 
She ain’t so big nor yet so stout 
As hog, or horse, or sheep, or cow. 
And yet she knows what she’s about: 
She hustles well-that suits n>e now. 
So let them brag upon their stock 
And satisfy themselves—-hut then ! 
My mind is made up like a rock. 
You can’t fool me—I Jove the hen 
Leave no tender word unsaid. 
A good fire Is the sire of a good dinner. 
Keep out of the women’s way on a rainy day. 
No man can succeed who has not faith in himself. 
Steer the scrub bull out of life—for a rudder, use a 
knife. 
The man who needs a farm paper most is the man who 
never takes one. 
In breeding un your stock, sell largely from the little 
end ot your flock. 
The best cure for drunkenness or any other will disease 
is a double injection of “ sand.” 
There are thousands of farmers who would rather fail 
in tbeir own way than succeed in any other. 
Plenty of capital to carry on a small farm gives better 
results than a small capital to carry on a large farm. 
He who would aspire to vote for Yankee Institutions 
should be obliged to read and quote our Yankee constitu¬ 
tions. 
It takes but a fraction of a second to make a new “King 
of the Turf ” in this country. Just now it is King Palo 
Alto, 2.08%. * 
Winter’s soil-work is not lost—there’s fertility in 
frost. Frozen soil will heave and swell—Nature likes 
such action well. 
Are you willing to feed coarse corn-and-eob meal to 
horses ? Observe how a cow will eat “ cob and all ” while 
a horse just gnaws off the grain 1 
We know of several farmers who never seem to be in a 
hurry and are yet always ahead of their work. They are 
happy, intelligent, successful men. 
The R. N.-Y. is not a Leghorn organ, though it con¬ 
fesses to a great admiration for the bird that is up earliest 
in the morning and goes to bed last. 
It makes little difference how carefully pears and 
apples may be packed, they will shrivel and become worth 
less if fully exposed to the air and light. 
It was a Connecticut man who displayed his “cheek” 
and ingenuity by selling wooden nutmegs; but a West¬ 
ern woman has beaten him in both respects by peddling 
mustard seed lor silk worm eggs. 
IN spite of the alleged “collapse” of the Farmers’ Alli¬ 
ance, Senator Stanford appears to be as anxious as ever 
to be its candidate during the next Presidential campaign; 
but President Polk declares that he couldn’t be elected an 
alderman by that body. 
Every year as we eat our Thanksgiving dinner, we are 
forced to think of some poor country where the people are 
without food. This year it is Russia How many people 
remember that Russia was the best European friend tuis 
country had in our cruel war ? 
As to grafting grape vines in the fall, Mr. G. R. Wood 
seems to get near the facts when he writes: “ I have 
grafted oa young vines in the fall and stored them for 
spring planting and succeeded ; but this method isn’t any 
better than grafting in spring.” 
Mr. Isaac Hicks, an experienced nurseryman of Long 
Island, writes : “ Although nearing 77 years of age, I love 
trees and fruits with undiminished ardor. They are a 
source of unalloyed pleasure, for no discord, politics or any 
disturbing element comes between us.” 
As explained on another page, fine ground bone is worth 
twice as much as coarse ground. The grinding gives na¬ 
ture’s forces a better chance to work at the bone. There 
is even a greater difference between a crude, half-con¬ 
sidered plan, and one that;has been studied. 
The Georgia Legislature passed a bill to make drunken¬ 
ness in physicians a special crime. Governor Northen ve¬ 
toed the bill on the ground that it was “ class legislation” 
aimed at one class of citizens and not at another. It 
strikes us that the bill had much sense and justice in it 
when we consider how a drinking doctor may jeopardize 
life and health 1 
A few months ago we were pained to report the illness 
of Mr. J. S. Woodward. In a recent letter he describes 
himself as being “as healthy as a buck.” That is hearty 
enough for anybody. Mr. Woodward is working hard on 
his farm. He is writing The R. N.-Y. a series of arti¬ 
cles to show that beef making can again be made profit¬ 
able in New York State. 
On page 842 our readers will find a political symposium 
on the People’s party and the recent election. During the 
coming season we shall present a number of these col¬ 
lections of political opinions regarding legislation that 
directly concerns agriculture. We shall try, as usual, to 
give all sides a fair hearing, and If any party feels itself 
slighted we shall be glad to print any important facts 
that have been omitted. 
It is thought that the strongest barrier to Socialism in 
France is the fact that the land is so apportioned that al¬ 
most every peasant owns a part of it. It is hard to per¬ 
suade a land owner that “property is robbery.” Next to 
France, this barrier is strongest in the United States, 
where it is firmly buttressed by the general intelligence 
of the people. Wouldn’t it be folly to weaken it by the 
multiplication of vast estates and landlordism ? 
How do you answer those questions asked of the cattle 
breeders on page 829 ? It is the old question concerning 
the ability of an animal to excel as a milker and yet make 
first-class beef. If the answer to the last question could 
be a unanimous “yes,” the question would be settled, but 
if the bulls are all to oe of the “ beef type”, how are we 
to breed “ milk type ” heifers from them ? Carrying the 
“general purpose” theory to a reductio ad absurdum, we 
have an animal yielding pure butter, good beef, fine wool 
and beautiful ostrich plumes l 
