868 
DEC. 12 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIME8 BUILDING. NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Jonrnal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Pr-ident. RURAL NKW-YORKKR, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Managar. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1891, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1891. 
“Trusts continue to multiply apace in the very 
shadow of the national anti trust law designed to 
destroy them,” exclaims the flamboyant orator. 
Hold hard ! Mr. Spouter, has that law sub¬ 
stance enough to cast even the gauziest ghost of a 
shadow ? 
opolists have been taught a salutary though, per¬ 
haps, a harsh lesson, and doubtless before long a 
compromise will be effected which will be satis¬ 
factory alike to the managers and patrons of the 
roads. 
The article in a recent number of The Rural illus¬ 
trating the celery business of Michigan, has borne 
unexpected fruit. The Rural representative 
said to Mr. Stewart on that occasion : “Why do 
you celery men grow your celery in Michigan, when 
ou can find the same soil in abundance within two 
ours of New York city?” The question brought 
out the fact that Mr. Stewart was unaware of the 
existence of such a soil in appreciable quantities 
in the East. Since the publication of the arti¬ 
cle he has been East and has purchased a 
tract of muck land near Middletown, in Orange 
County, N. Y., and will plant about 50 acres to 
celery next spring. There are thousands of acres 
of such land—the best in the world for celery—in 
that section, and this movement of Mr. Stewart 
is probably the initial one in the building up of a 
large trade in this direction. So far, the demand 
for celery has kept pace with the supply, and is 
likely to do so for many years to come. 
The Farmers’ Alliance, we are told, is preparing 
to adopt, on a very large scale, the Rochdale plan of 
commercial cooperation. Its business departments 
in 22 States are reported to have united with a 
number of New York merchants to establish 
throughout the country cooperative stores which 
will receive the hearty support of its members. 
The Rochdale system, established at Rochdale, 
England, nearly 50 years ago, by a few poor weav¬ 
ers, has achieved a measure of success far greater 
than has been secured by any of its score of imitat¬ 
ors. This has been due directly to the fact that 
from very small beginnings the society has always 
adhered rigorously to strict business principles. It 
has made no purchases or sales except for cash. It 
has divided its profits in definite proportions be¬ 
tween the stockholders, employees and purchasers. 
All its forward movements have been slow and 
cautious. It has been exceptionally fortunate in 
the ability and honesty of its managers and other 
employees, who have always been carefully super¬ 
vised and held to strict accountability. Is the 
Farmers’ Alliance prepared to do business rigidly 
on this plan ? If so, and it unswervingly adheres 
to it, success is certainly probable, but there must 
be a radical change in the system it has hitherto 
followed. 
Lots of business men are not acquainted with 
their own families. They are away through the 
day—home is chiefly a place where they may pass 
the night. We often hear such people say, “ I wish 
I could live so that I could know my own folks 1” 
The farmer, if any man, ought to be thoroughly ac¬ 
quainted with his wife and children. Many are and, 
unfortunately, many are not. When you find a 
family containing sour, disappointed people, boys 
afraid of father and girls keeping things away from 
mother, you may safely conclude that there is a 
lack of family acquaintance—and a bad job all 
around too. 
It is well known to all farmers that years ago 
potato balls (fruits) formed upon potato plants 
more freely than they have formed during later 
years. In fact a potato ball in this part of the coun¬ 
try is now a rarity. This seems to be owing to a 
deficiency of pollen. The five anthers of the potato 
flower closely envelop the pistil, the stigma of 
which protrudes above them. It would apoear 
that this formation of the flower well fits it for 
cross fertilization. The same may be said of the 
flowers of tomatoes. The anthers dehisce at the top 
which though near the stigma would still be depen¬ 
dent upon insects or the wind to carry it to the 
stigma._ 
Leopold, King of Belgium, one of the most enter¬ 
prising and enlightened monarchs of Europe, is re¬ 
ported to be negotiating for the purchase of large 
tracts of land in Minnesota. There is no objection 
to his ownership of land here where the law will 
permit, provided he operates it “on the American 
plan,” to which alien landlordism is wholly antag¬ 
onistic. If, however, he is merely providing a com¬ 
fortable home for his family when it is no longer 
fashionable to be king, a hearty welcome awaits 
the founder of the Congo Free State in this “ land 
of the free and home of the brave.” No matter 
where he may settle down as an American farmer, 
will he not be following a safer and nobler occupa¬ 
tion than that of king ? 
W. J. Florence, the actor lately deceased, is 
credited with a short temperance lecture that is 
worth keeping before the public. He proposed to 
have the consumer benefit his own family by buy¬ 
ing his whisky from his wife and paying her the 
full retail price. Thus the wife would pay $1.20 for 
a gallon of liquor, and sell it to her husband at the 
rate of 15 cents a drink or a total of $9.75, with a 
profit of $8.55. Let them keep this arrangement up 
lor 20 years and when his time came to fill a drunk¬ 
ard’s grave, the wife would have enough to send 
him to some inebriate asylum ! If you must get 
drunk, why not let your wife have the profit of it ? 
Do you think more of a red-nosed rum seller than 
you do of your wife ? What is there about the 
saloon anyway, aside from the liquor that can be 
bought there, that attracts one to it ? 
Did you ever know of a case where it was wise 
in a man to cut off his nose to spite his face? Some 
of the least hostile of the political papers, however, 
charge that the farmers of some of the Western 
States have been guilty of this folly. From Janu¬ 
ary 1 to September 30 only 2,829 miles of new rail¬ 
roads were built in the United States—an almost 
unprecedently small mileage in any of the last 25 
years. The notable thing about the decrease is 
that it has been very much greater in those States 
in which “granger” legislation has been most 
active than in any others. For instance, in the nine 
months referred to, South Dakota added only 55 
miles to her previous length of tracks ; Iowa only 
27; Nebraska only 25 % and Kansas only 2! In all 
these States the cost of freight and passenger trans¬ 
portation has been reduced by the legislatures and 
railroad commissioners to figures which offer no 
inducements to capitalists to invest their money in 
additions to the existing lines. Many large areas 
in every one of them are without railroad facilities, 
and in such sections farmers are clamorous for 
these aids to the development of the country. 
Railroad charges, however, in the remainder of 
the States are no longer extortionate, railroad mon- 
The Danish Parliament is now considering a bill 
to provide for a National trade mark for Danish 
butter. It provides that all butter made for the 
export trade shall be inspected and, if worthy, 
stamped or branded with this National trade mark 
as a guarantee that the quality is perfect. Heavy 
punishments are to be inflicted on persons who shall 
counterfeit this mark on substitutes or inferior but¬ 
ter. There can be no doubt that this measure will 
be of great value to the Danish export trade. Den¬ 
mark is a little country—if she were much bigger it 
might not be possible to enforce such a law. Inten¬ 
sive countries as well as intensive farmers derive a 
certain advantage from the limited area of their 
soil. There are fewer confl icting elements to har¬ 
monize and it is easier to perfect a suitable rotation. 
A National trade mark for American butter is hard¬ 
ly possible, but a neighborhood, county or district 
trade mark is not only possible, but necessary in 
order to secure fair prices. A trade mark is nothing 
but a guarantee of uniformity. The buyer whose 
trade is worth anything at all, wants to buy of a 
man who gives a uniform lot of goods—one package 
just like another. 
What Is a Sport. —Many years ago The R. N.- 
Y., while raising hundreds of crossbreeds between 
the plain zona'le and variegated pelargoniums, found 
that seedlings which were at first without variega¬ 
tion subsequently developed variously-colored 
shoots which, being propagated, retained with more 
or less constancy the variegation. Had the parent¬ 
age of such plants not been known, these depart¬ 
ures from the mother plant would have been called 
“ sports.” Hundreds of similar variations have 
since come under its observation. Among the 
most familiar cases of “ sporting,” the rose gives 
many forcible illustrations. Is it not probable that 
sports are simply the results of a cropping out, un¬ 
der peculiar conditions, of crossbred or hybrid blood 
which, for a greater or less length of time, has re¬ 
mained dormant? May not a sport be considered a 
reversion or atavism, more or less pronounced, to 
some ancestor more or less remote? As certain 
conditions of the soil, air, temperature or moisture 
may be favorable to the rapid multiplication of in¬ 
sect pests, not previously harmful—perhaps not 
even known—so the equilibrium of plants may be 
disturbed by peculiar conditions and the weaker 
potency become strong enough to manifest itself. 
We would therefore define the word “ sport ” as an 
evidence of cross breeding or hybridizing at onetime 
or another in the ancestry of the plant upon which 
it occurs. 
The Farmers’ Alliance has lately sent out another 
circular urging farmers to hold their wheat for the 
better prices sure to come later on. Experience 
has shown that such warnings are as futile as Cas¬ 
sandra’s. The latest report of the Department of 
Agriculture makes the year’s grain crops aggregate 
3,215,000,000 bushels, as follows : Corn, 2,000,000,- 
000 bushels ; wheat, 585,000,000 ; oats, 600,000,000 ; 
rye, 30,000,000. In face of such figures advice to 
hold back grain is wasted wisdom, statistics at the 
principal receiving centers in the West show that in 
the 126 days between July 1 and November 28, the 
receipts of wheat aggregated over 1,000,000 bushels 
per day. The following figures show the compara¬ 
tive receipts at the nine chief points between the 
above dates, and also the total receipts during the 
entire crop years: 
Year. July 1 to Nov. 2?. Entire Crop Year. 
1891-92. 189,418 541 
1890-91. 55 930,997 114 635.794 
1889- 90 . 74,959 149 119 238 656 
1888-89. 61,323,473 93,408,452 . 
There is still no abatement of the wheat deluge ; 
the receipts for the last week in November are 
larger than for the last three weeks in October. 
Since July 1, 102,700,000 bushels of wheat and flour 
have been exported, against 38,500,000 in the same 
period last year ; still, owing to the large accumu¬ 
lations of wheat at various points, the “ visible sup¬ 
ply ” is much greater than usual, and a larger quan¬ 
tity than ever before has been converted into flour. 
As yet the crop year is not half over ; what a phe¬ 
nomenal one it must prove before its close! 
BREVITIES. 
How do you build a home of your own ? 
It doesnV grow up in a night • 
It doesn’t take form while you l'e asleep. 
And you can’t bluster up and fight 
With spear and shield like the knighls of old, 
And drag oft a home for a prize ; 
\ou can’t lie dreaming and see it fall 
Like a free gift out of the skies, 
For each brick in a home of your own 
Is baked out of self-denial. 
And every timber ihat holds it up 
Rests square on the back of a trial. 
And grit and labor an < bull dog pluck 
Must bolsterup eve y wall. 
And love must stay when the hairs grow gray, 
Or it won’t be your home at all. 
Do YOU want to try “ chemicals and rye ? ” 
Let your farmers’ institute grow a crop of noble fruit. 
“ Artificial dung ” is the latest name for chemicals 
and clover. 
8PAUE the rod by giving the child an example of what a 
man ought to be. 
On the farm, as elsewhere, the industrious man, unless a 
spendthrift, is never in need. 
The man who is always and ever “on deck,” need never 
be slave to some other man’s beck. 
FEED the cow right now when she needs her grain. 
Don’t you scrimp, or limp grows your share of gain. 
You are throwing your bread on the waters, that’s sure; 
if the brook takes the washings from all your manure. 
We praise the clover plant, and yet the best of it is 
found where people least expect it, namely, underneath 
the ground. 
WHAT measure for the benefit of agriculture finds favor 
in the United States Senate ? No wonder the farmers 
want a change in the ‘ American House of Lords ! ” 
Hasn’t “Waste of Time on the Farm ” become rather a 
wearisome theme f In what other vocation is less time, 
as a rule, wasted, or more work done every 24 hours ? 
We would rather use for the “head of the flock” the 
son of the best*layer, if he was of good shape and size, than 
a prize-taking thoroughbred that had been bred to the 
“Standard ” alone. That is, we prefer performance to 
points in our egg business. 
Chicago has gained considerable notoriety of late by 
selliDg horse meat for beef; and has just, added to it by 
selling Mexican goat flesh for South Down mutton. It 
isn’t the big extortioners, but the little swindlers in meat, 
that pilm off such frauds on the public. 
Candidates for the office of “ meanest man in the coun¬ 
try ” will have to let out a link to get in ahead of the 
Maryland doctor who cared for a workman suffering from 
a fearful gash in his leg. After sewing up the wound the 
doctor called for his pay, $2. The man had no money, so 
the doctor cut the stitches, thus opening the wound and 
leaving it as it was before! 
Some of the farmers in New York State who refused to 
vote st the last election, and the poor creatures who ac¬ 
cepted a “present” to stay away from the polls, must feel 
happy over the present disgraceful fight for the control of 
the legislature. When, iu the proposed “ redistrioting ” 
of the State their county loses a part of its representative 
power, they may wake up and realize what they have 
uone. Is it better late than never ? 
Secretary Noble is Indignant at the spoliation of the 
Yosemite Valley by a live stock syndicate which has con¬ 
verted the grand National Park into an ordinary pasture 
for its cattle and sheep. In this country land monopoly 
has had an immemorial craving to misappropriate the 
public domain ; cannot the might of the National Govern¬ 
ment curb this craving even in the case of land set speci¬ 
ally apart for well defined public purposes? 
Farmer Dunkleberger, of Shamokin, Pa., while driv¬ 
ing to the mill tUe other day, had his wagon stuck so fast 
in the mud that “ he has been unable to budge it ever 
since.” He has just appealed to the court to test the ques¬ 
tion, “can a farmer receive damages tor getting stuck in 
the mud ? ” Shouldn’t he get handsome damages in his 
suit against road supervisors who never supervise ? If 
not, while all roads may still lead to Rome, except bad 
ones : shouldn’t they lead to revolution ? 
There Is a strong and growing movement In Eugland 
looking to the division of large estates into small farms to 
be owned by those living on tnem. Both Liberals and Con 
servatives are ready to make political capital out of tbe 
scheme. The great difficulty in the way of such a reestab¬ 
lishment of British yeomanry lies iu the lack of adequate 
capital, machinery, etc., by the small proprietors. Coope¬ 
rative farming has been propounded as the only remedy, 
but it is freely admitted that there is no hope of its imme¬ 
diate realization. It is well to have an ideal to work to¬ 
wards, however. 
The English agricultural papers are up in arms about 
the practice of labeling imported meat. It seems that 
some English butchers buy American meat, put it up in 
new packages, with some fanciful labal, and sell it for 
“ home-grown English product,” at a high price. The 
English papers call this as big a fraud as the sale of oleo¬ 
margarine for butter. There can be no doubt that this 
“substitution” practice injures the sales of American 
meat abroad. No patriotic Englishman can be blamed 
for thinking his home-grown product the bast in the 
world. There’s no place like home, anyway. Our meats 
are good enough to stand on their own ground, and Ameri¬ 
can farmers will lose nothing from the English laws to 
prevent substitution. 
