8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Jan. 7 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A Rational Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, Editor-In-Chief. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted. 1893. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1893. 
The index of the volume of The Rural 
New-Yorker for 1892 is now ready, and 
will be supplied to subscribers gratis, on 
application. # # 
Won’t you help The Rural New-Yorker, the cause 
of progressive agriculture, and your neighborhood by 
getting up at least a small club of new subscribers? 
See the Publisher’s Desk ? 
* * 
Suggestions as to the make-up and appearance of 
The R. N.-Y. are always in order. We are glad to get 
them. Here is one of several: 
That article on “Brevities” page 865 Is true. I like them very much 
and read them through; but I cannot do It at one sitting. The print 
Is so fine that It makes my eyes ache before I am a quarter through. I 
never read them without wishing they could be In larger print. 
We have decided to use a little larger type in this 
department and shall make the change early in the 
year. Of course, a larger type will mean briefer 
“ Brevities.” We are glad that our readers prefer 
quality to quantity. # # 
The first of a series of articles on silver and wheat 
appears in this issue. Mr. Mortimer Whitehead, 
Lecturer of the National Grange, speaks for that 
organization and strongly advocates the free coinage 
of silver. In coming issues of The R, N.-Y. other prom¬ 
inent members of farm organizations will state their 
views. We shall thus obtain a clear idea of what the 
free coinage advocates desire and expect. These ex¬ 
pressions of opinion 'will be answered by other farm¬ 
ers who do not believe in free coinage, and thus we 
shall be able to look at the question fairly from all 
points of view. The R.N.-Y. wants to get at the truth 
of the matter regardless of the personal opinions or 
prejudices of its editors or correspondents. 
* * 
This is the hauling season on many farms. Good, 
hard ground with a smooth surface of snow gives good 
sledding, and the horses can pull an extra large load. 
It is a good time to get out manure on level farms. 
Either spread it on the snow or pile it where a short 
haul will, in the spring, put it where it is most needed. 
One most important work for such weather is hauling 
waste products like leached ashes, saw dust, charcoal 
dust, bones or other substances that are of no particu¬ 
lar value to their present owners—in fact, are in the 
way. Some of these substances are valuable as plant 
food or absorbents and may be had almost for hauling. 
Now is the time to look about and see if you cannot 
find such wastes near you. Cheaper plant food is one 
of the things that are to make farming pay better. 
The R. N.-Y. will be glad to do all it can to help 
readers learn the value of such wastes. 
* # 
Lately our exports, especially those of agricultural 
products, which constitute four-fifths of the whole, 
have been by far heavier than during the most part of 
the year, as is usually the case after harvest; hence the 
balance of trade and a consequent influx of gold ought 
to be in favor of this country. On the contrary, how¬ 
ever, the outflow of gold for the last few weeks has 
been almost unprecedentedly heavy, having amounted 
to over $7,000,000 in the last three weeks. To what is 
this strange financial condition attributable? Well, 
some allege that the prospect of the establishment of 
a bimetallic standard—or, in other words, the free 
coinage of silver—here has so alarmed foreign invest¬ 
ors in American securities that they are precipitately 
realizing on their investments; the securities in the 
shape of national bonds, railroad stocks, etc., coming 
back home in return for the gold exported in payment 
of them. Others maintain that the state of affairs is 
due wholly, or in great part, to the desire of European 
nations, especially of Russia, to lay by enormous gold 
reserves to meet belligerent contingencies. Of course 
there are a few “ calamity howlers” among our cap¬ 
italists as well as among our proletarians, and these 
see nothing but financial disaster from the heavy ex¬ 
ports of gold, especially at this season; but the best 
and most trustworthy economists are not at all alarmed, 
as they attribute the matter to temporary foreign dis¬ 
quietude, and expect the speedy return of the exported 
millions. Anyhow, inasmuch as this country ex¬ 
ports necessaries and imports luxuries, a temporary 
decrease in our extravagances would soon set the 
balance of trade so decidedly in our favor as to send 
gold rushing back to this country to even up the 
balance. * * 
According to the latest reports, there are in the 
Russian province of Tula alone 173,000 people depen¬ 
dent for escape from starvation until next harvest, on 
outside assistance. The crops have been utter failures 
again, and the condition of the farmers and peasants 
is even worse than in 1891. The rich have become 
poor and the poor have become beggars. To add to their 
wretched plight, typhus fever is raging to an alarm¬ 
ing extent, and the sufferers are huddled together in 
roofless huts whose thatch has served for fuel, without 
attendance and without bread. Yet the Czar is re¬ 
ported to have stored $500,000,000 in gold at St. Peters¬ 
burg and to own $100,000,000 more in London, Paris 
and other European financial centers, while he is 
eagerly adding to his enormous hoards, and compel¬ 
ling other European nations to follow his example. 
* * 
Though Jay Gould left $72,000,000 behind him, for 
four years his personal assessment was on only $500,000, 
and for many years prior to that it had been on only 
$250,000, and when the increase was made, he bitterly 
complained of the “outrage.” Comptroller Campbell, 
of New York State, declares that hundreds of other 
rich men during their lives pay taxes only on a 
small percentage of their personal property, and, to 
even up the dues, he suggests a graded inheritance tax 
as follows on all estates: on all valued at $10,000 to 
$100,000, a tax of one percent; on those from $100,000 
to $500,000, two per cent; from $500,000 to $1,000,000, 
three per cent; and on all over $1,000,000, five per 
cent. Under such a law the personal estate of the late 
Jay Gould would have yielded to New York State over 
$4,000,000, instead of the 720,000 payable under the ex¬ 
isting law. Is there a more practical plan for collect¬ 
ing delinquent taxes dishonestly withheld from the 
estates of our plutocrats ? Of course, the ideal plan 
would be to collect all dues from the rich as well as 
from the poor, but the enforcement of ideal plans is 
often beset with difficulties. 
•* * 
It is to be hoped that Mr. Grundy’s farmer friend 
who told us how to get rich at farming will read this 
issue of The R. N.-Y. It will be interesting to know 
what he thinks of the views of Messrs. Crosby and 
Massey. Lots of other people have written in the 
same strain, and it is evident that a big majority of 
R. N.-Y. readers are not particularly anxious to get 
rich that way, because they fail to see what good the 
old gentleman gets out of his money. It is not all of 
life to grub and slave, starving the soul and mind to 
fill the pocketbook. Hope and faith point to higher 
and nobler things than that. It will be the saddest 
day that American agriculture has ever known when 
farmers and their children place a bank account as 
the great and only object in life. Years ago Shelley 
wrote these beautiful lines. At the opening of this 
year, 1893, they are as true as they ever were : 
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, 
The signet of Its all-enslaving power 
Upon a shining ore, and called It gold; 
Before w hose Image bow the vulgar great, 
The vainly rich, the miserable proud, 
The mob of peasants, priests and kings, 
And with blind feelings reverence the power 
That grinds them to the dust of misery. 
But in the temple of their hireling hearts 
Gold is a living god and rules In scorn 
All earthly things but virtue. 
* # 
On the suppression of turbulence among the strikers 
at the Carnegie Steel Works at Homestead, Pa , up¬ 
wards of 2,000 non-union men from other parts of the 
country soon took the places of the malcontents, and 
for weeks afterwards additions were steadily made to 
their numbers. As outrageous assaults on single 
members or unsupported groups of the new hands by 
overwhelming crowds of the old, failed to properly 
intimidate the former, resort was apparently had to 
more effective and deadly means of getting rid of 
them. A mysterious disease soon appeared among 
them, which speedily sent 35 of them to the graveyards 
and over 200 to the hospitals. At length the doctors’ 
suspicions were confirmed by the confessions of some 
of the cooks for the newcomers living within the 
barricaded inclosure, who confessed that they had 
been bribed by prominent strikers to poison the food 
of the “ scabs.” A number of the accused have been 
arrested and are now awaiting trial. Of course, there 
is a wide difference between accusation and convic¬ 
tion in such cases, but the conduct of the strikers 
throughout the trouble has not been such as to lead to a 
strong belief in their innocence of participation in this 
cowardly and atrocious outrage. Could anything so 
utterly and irretrievably forfeit the sympathy.of all 
law-abiding citizens for labor organizations than even 
fair grounds for suspicion of their complicity in such 
a diabolical conspiracy ? 
Many complaints have reached us from subscribers 
who do not receive their papers regularly. We learn 
that other publications in this city have much of the 
same trouble. So far as we can learn, the fault lies 
chiefly in the New York Post Office. The working 
force seems inadequate to properly handle the vast 
and constantly increasing volume of mail, and there is 
a lack of system and skillful management that ought 
to be corrected. It is a shame that this great post 
office is not run on strict business principles—entirely 
removed from political manipulations. The way this 
great office is conducted is a striking example of the 
evil results of making positions in the postal service 
the rewards of party fidelity. We would like to see 
this service taken entirely out of politics and conducted 
on a strict business basis so that it never would matter 
which party came into power so far as changes in 
the post offices are concerned. As it is, such an office is 
a powerful argument against government ownership 
or control of railroads or similar demands of the Pop¬ 
ulists. The R. N.-Y. wants less bungling and delay 
between this office and its readers. Postmaster Van 
Cott informs us that he will do his best hereafter to 
have our mail forwarded promptly. Most of the 
trouble is at Washington, the authorities there having 
failed to provide for increased facilities in our post 
office. * * 
BREVITIES. 
Are there any holes in your cow’s horns ? 
A good husband husbands his wife’s strength. 
Mr. Whitehead makes a plea for the white metal. 
General Shiftlessness commands a ragged regiment. 
Read Mr. Woodward’s opinion of Dorset sheep on page 15. 
Can a man make a living out of 10 acres of apples well cared for? 
Who can breed the top-knot out of a bird with Houdan blood in It ? 
Chasing hens about to keep them warm Is certainly a ease of fowl 
play. 
I CALL him but an ordinary shote whose word’s bad reputation 
needs a note. 
How many trees must the nurseryman sell to give one good bearing 
tree true to name? 
A bulge on a meat-can Indicates something wrong inside, the same 
as with heads—or stomachs ! 
A corn on your heel makes you limp In your track, but a heal on 
that corn brings your sprightly walk back. 
Our friend on page 6 seems to think that Mrs. White's family had 
a bigger job to eat that food than she had in preparing it! 
What fertilizer maker will offer to insure the clover seed If his 
fertilizer—used just as he directs—falls to clinch or “ catch’’ ? 
c Don’t “ swear” by The R. N.-Y. unless you also practice some of the 
things our good friends teach us. Otherwise your farm may make a 
present of us—in other words, “ give us awav” ! 
An old fraud in an old dress and the same dirty face is the propo¬ 
sition to collect an old fortune that some old English ancestor left for 
you. It Is a miserable fraud and the man who pays good money to 
these “ British claim ” scoundrels is worse than an idiot. 
Look out for the new-style heating stoves which burn a so-called 
patent fuel and are guaranteed to give off no gas. In the writer's 
own county no less than six people have, within the past month, 
nearly died from the effect of carbonic acid gas generated In these 
“ harmless ” stoves. 
It Is a fact worth repeating that the managers of a blind asylum at 
Louisville, Ky., substituted oleomargarine for butter. The sightless 
children without knowing the difference, gradually ate less and less of 
the substituted stuff and finally gave it up altogether. Steer fat is no 
cow fat and never will be 
Two centuries ago when a man died In a mine the wise men said that 
Satan and his imps had caught him, and this belief almost ruined the 
mining industry. By-and-by science proved that the Satan in this 
case was a noxious gas that could be prevented. In like manner 
science and sense are knocking the fixtures out of “ luck.” 
High-priced corn; low-priced cattle, because many are anxious to 
get rid of their stock rather than feed or buy for them high-priced 
grain. Better dispose of the beasts than half-starve them, however. 
Did you ever know such stiff variations in the prices of corn In different 
parts of the country as are now caused by railroad distribution? 
The hog boom is still upward, and the extent of the corn crop is 
hardly likely to have a depressing effect—at least for some time. The 
present high prices, however, are likely to stimulate hog production, 
and should the corn crop of 1893 be large, isn’t It in accordance with 
the usual order of agricultural affairs that the prices of hogs should 
be inversely low a year hence? 
While the great majority of the people of this country are alarmed 
at the annexation of Europe at the rate of 2,000 of its inhabitants a 
day, almost all of them see nothing but fun in the daily annexation 
of Canada at the rate of 200. There would be little fun, however, In 
the Influx of people from the latter country if they made it merely a 
stepping-stone on their way from Europe. 
If you want to know what lack of cash means, work a few years in 
some place where you can draw your salary every Saturday night. Get 
yourself into the habit of depending upon that regular cash supply 
Then go to farming where you draw no wages until you can grow 
crops and sell them for cash. You will find that the trading value of 
cash is far ahead of the similar value of wheat or hay 1 
Garget has been well called congestion of the udder. As our cor¬ 
respondents this week say, the proper way to prevent it is to treat 
the cow so that she will have as little fever as possible at calving. 
True garget occurs only at calving. Inflammation of the udder often 
occurs during the milking period as the result of colds, bruises, or 
other injuries, or over-feeding on constipating food. 
In the last German army manoeuvres many bomb shells were fired 
which, like the French shells at Waterloo, got embedded in the soft 
ground and failed to explode. They are now left in the soil, and 
many peasants are afraid to plow their fields for fear of exploding 
them, We hope there are no shells In your field, but a little deeper 
plowing might explode a belief that you are growing the biggest crop 
you can. 
Russian sugar refiners have formed a trust. They have secured a 
monopoly of sugar and now propose to charge exorbitant prices for 
sugar, and pay little or nothing to farmers for growing beets. This 
will reduce the output of sugar and give them a still greater advan¬ 
tage. The Russian government will fight this trust. A large sum of 
public money will be used in buying sugar which will be sold by gov¬ 
ernment agents at cost. Anything wrongjabout that ? 
