24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Jan. 14 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
TIMES BUILDING , NEW YORK. 
A national Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. Editor-In-Chief. 
HERBERT W. COLLING WOOD, Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1X93. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1893. 
Subscribers have often requested us to obtain facts 
about the system of soiling 1 cattle, as there are many 
who want to try this plan of ‘ pasturing in the barn.” 
We have not found it easy to get just the facts we 
want from practical men, but we shall soon begin to 
publish an article that will open the eyes of many cow 
feeders. Don’t think the chemical fertilizer men are 
doing all the soil improving these days. Lots of dairy¬ 
men are feeding three cows on the ground that fed 
one before, and they are the men we like to have talk 
to our readers. 
* # 
Although the wealth of New York State has been 
growing at an enormous rate during the last 20 years, 
the actual valuation of personal property was less in 
1891 than in 1871 by $70,000,000 ! While the law 
imposes equal burdens on real estate and personal 
property, the latter shamefully shirks most of its 
obligations, so that real estate has to pay by far more 
than its just proportion of. taxation. This subject is 
likely to receive a good deal of attention during the 
next session of the New York Legislature, and farmers 
should be honestly and ably represented. 
* * 
It has been proposed that railroad employees should 
acquire an ownership in the roads they operate. If the 
100,000 of them should each lay aside $1 per month, 
making $1,200,000 a year, and invest it in a block of 
stock, their influence would soon be seriously felt ; 
and, moreover, wouldn’t the sense of even partial 
ownership sweeten toil ? The stout hands and strong 
muscles of the men, however, would be far more 
remunerative than their investments in some rail¬ 
roads Then, again, they have a pretty just idea of 
the character of most of the railroad magnates : could 
they trust them ? 
# * 
All the Louisiana sugar houses have ceased opera¬ 
tions, and the crop has been harvested and marketed. 
Nearly all the sugar has reached New Orleans, so that 
we have now a trustworthy basis for estimating the 
crop. The present figures put it at 189,500 tons. This 
will call on the United States for $7,580,000 bounty, as 
compared with $6,882,590 last year, an increase of 10 
per cent. The planters have as yet received only 
$898,000, however, or less than 12 per cent of the 
amount coming to them, and they are, with some show 
of justice, bitterly complaining about the dilatory 
action of the government. 
* * 
The English farmers at their recent great conven¬ 
tion passed a resolution declaring that protection for 
British grain growers is a necessity and must come if 
British farming is to prosper. Prof. J. P. Sheldon, 
our British correspondent, sends us an article attack¬ 
ing this position and arguing that free trade is best for 
the farmer both in England and America. We shall 
print it later, and in connection therewith shall give 
the arguments in favor of protection given at the con¬ 
ference. Just as Americans have decided to experi¬ 
ment with free trade, the British farmers demand an 
experiment with protection. 
* * 
When a commission man starts in to do a bogus 
business his first step is to secure credit and references. 
It helps him to print on his circulars that he can refer 
to half a dozen or more w r ell-known banks, because the 
farmer gets an idea that the fellow must be doing a 
great business if all these banks handle his funds. An 
instance of this abuse of credit is seen in the recent 
failure of a poultry dealer in this city. He had 
deposits in 13 different banks and only $160 in the 
whole 13. His game was simply to keep small deposits 
in many banks so that he might make a good showing 
in his circulars. He succeeded in doing this very 
thing and probably received many a consignment that 
would otherwise have gone to merchants that made 
less noise. This question of the commissionman’s 
share is a mighty one. Every week we receive letters 
from those who are unable to get returns from their 
shipments. We often try to straighten such matters, 
but often find it a thankless task to do so, because 
there is a wide difference between what the shipper 
thinks ought to be and what the merchant says is. 
Some months ago The R. N.-Y. asked its readers to 
send the names of commissionmen who had always 
treated them fairly. We have not received half a 
dozen names. Why is it ? If farmers are at the mercy 
of a class of men they cannot trust they must combine 
and do their own business, or c rtainly “go to the 
wall.” 
* # 
In 1891 Southern farmers marketed but a trifle over 
one-fourth of their cotton-seed crop. Allowing enough 
for seeding, over 2,000,000 tons of the crop were not 
hauled from the farms. This was worth at least 
$15,000,000, at the usual prices paid at the crushers for 
seed. The greater part of this was lost to the farmers 
because the cost of transporting the seed was too great 
to leave any profit out of the price paid at the crushers. 
Awful roads and excessive railroad charges are largely 
responsible for this. It is true that much of the seed 
was not wasted, because it was fed or used for fertilizer, 
whole or not crushed. This is a wasteful process, how¬ 
ever—more wasteful than for wheat growers to use 
their whole grain for feed or manure. It is better 
economy for the miller to separate the grain into'flour 
and bran or shorts, and it is also better for the planter 
to sell whole seed and buy back cotton-seed meal. No 
part of the country is so thoroughly handicapped by 
poor transportation facilities as is the South. Every 
Southern planter ought to be a member of the National 
League of Good Roads. 
* * 
About 15 months ago, a certain Wall street “ oper¬ 
ator” undertook to “ corner” the corn market of th ! s 
country, to set at naught all laws of legitimate trade, 
all moral principles, and to force to an unnatural and 
oppressive figure the price of an important food pro¬ 
duct. He not only failed, but the firm of which he 
was the chief member was forced to the wall with ob¬ 
ligations of nearly a million of dollars beyond his re¬ 
sources. His creditors were mostly men of the same 
stamp as himself, and magnanimously compromised, 
and allowed him to resume the business of again pluck¬ 
ing the dear public. Now the daily press announces, 
with a great flourish of trumpets, that he has paid 
every dollar he owed, and that to do so, “he has 
earned in Wall street, within a year, almost $1,000,000.” 
Stuff and nonsense! No man ever “earned” that 
amount of money there in one year, or 100 years. As 
well say that the stealthy burglar who prowls at mid¬ 
night in search of wealth of which to despoil his 
neighbor ; or the dashing stage robber of the plains, 
earns the booty of which he despoils his victims, as 
to say that these leeches who add not one penny to 
the wealth of the country, but who thrive and fatten 
upon their ill-gotten gains, and draw the very life 
blood from thousands of honest toilers, earn the wealth 
they acquire. And yet the plutocratic representatives 
in the highest legislative branch of our government 
have been hesitating for months over passing a bill to 
curtail this nefarious business. How much longer will 
the people submit to this sort of representation, that 
doesn’t represent ? 
* * 
A great deal was expected by the bimetallists of 
this country, and not a little by those of other nations, 
from the Monetary Conference which adjourned the 
other day after a lengthy convention at Brussels, Bel¬ 
gium, to meet again, perhaps, in May. The most san¬ 
guine predicted a complete solution of the silver 
problem as its chief result; but, in spite of the hopeful 
declarations of the American delegates, its outcome has 
convinced the most enthusiastic that the governments 
of Europe will not unite in any efforts to establish a 
double standard of value by placing silver for that 
purpose on an assumed parity with gold. No prop¬ 
osition was presented which had the slightest 
chance to secure the approval of the members. No 
suggestion was made which would have removed the 
difficulties encountered in keeping up the market 
price of the white metal. Moreover, if a valid plan 
for the purpose had been devised, not one of the for¬ 
eign governments represented would have taken any 
step towards putting it into execution. Evidently the 
invitation to engage in the discussion issued by our 
government was accepted, partly out of courtesy to 
this country and partly to defer as long as possible 
any change in the present financial policy of the gov¬ 
ernment at Washington. Foreign governments fear 
that the repeal of our law providing for the purchase 
of 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month, would create 
more or less financial disturbance in their own do¬ 
minions, and they want to temporize, if possible, to 
secure further time in which to guard against a mon¬ 
etary crisis. Right or wrong, it is obtrusively plain 
that the shrewdest of them are united in the convic¬ 
tion that the silver policy of our government is a 
source of imminent peril to our finances, and must soon 
end either in the repeal of the existing law while gold 
and silver are still at par, or by the collapse of the 
experiment by the sudden loss of their parity and the 
introduction of a premium on gold. It is evidently 
their belief that a double standard giving equal value 
to two ever-varying metals, is in the very nature of 
things an impossibility. They assert that the effort to 
make one has already cost the people of this country 
nearly $100,000,000 within the last few years, as the 
silver purchased for coinage and the bullion in the 
Treasury, which nobody wants, are worth to-day that 
much less than they cost the government. They believe 
that to continue the experiment is worse than folly— 
and they emphatically decline to become in any way 
entangled in its course or consequences. If any coun¬ 
try in the world could safely continue our present 
financial policy, the United States is that country; but 
can even the United States do so ? 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
If I could plan a New Year’s gift 
For lives that seem all sere and brown, 
I’d give them hope that they may lift 
The shadows that now bear them down. 
I'd give them faith to feel and know 
That trouble's cloud Is silver-lined. 
I’d have them feel the kindly glow 
Of courage, and leave fear behind. 
Don't quit, my friend, hang on. 
The way Is dark ahead of you, I know. 
The sun seems lost, dark shadows flitting go 
Across your path and beckon to the dead. 
We know not what dark terror lies ahead, 
We only know that duty bravely done 
Will And Its just reward at set of sun. 
Don’t quit, my friend, hang on! 
You see It pays to cook cut bone. 
Are you satisfied with your store of knowledge? 
There’s nothing like leather—for giving bogus nitrogen. 
The Rural New-Yorker is opposed to rural New York curs! 
A low-down wagon makes high-up spirits for the loader. 
Who can give to another the hlnd-slght he has had so roughly ground 
Into him. 
Don’t expect high-class cows to come down to your standard—grow 
up to theirs. 
A scrub Is an animal that has lost good qualities that belonged to 
Its ancestors. 
Why can’t that hen pay for her year’s feeding In her January and 
February eggs ? 
There’s nothing uncertain about Farmer Miles's remedy for sheep¬ 
killing dogs—see page 31. 
A well-kept yard will surely guard the value of your place, good 
shubbery with flower and tree will soon wash up Its face. 
It Is the managed man that makes a success—whether managed by 
somebody else or by himself in whole or In half (better-half). 
How many of you ever weighed an “ armful of hay ? ” This way of 
regulating your cow’s fodder by the condition of your back is 
” uncertain.” 
Physicians now recognize a form of deafness known as “ the tele¬ 
phone ear,” which Is due to a continued use of the telephone. Such 
use Is sure, sooner or later, to affect the hearing. 
Lots of farmers who grow poor selling wheat to middlemen at 75 
cents a bushel, would grow rich selling it to hens. What they want Is 
a change of middlemen. Bring Mrs. Biddy Hen into trade. 
We hope to begin next week a special department of notes on ferti¬ 
lizers and manurlal substances. Anything that will instruct our readers 
as to the profitable buying and using of plant food will find a place. 
Here Is a problem in algebra for seme of you smart young farmers 
to figure out: X = cost, Y — price, Y—X — Z; Z = profit. Given the 
cost and price of an egg In January and In June, In which case will Z 
be greater? 
Hear the rumble of the grumble of the farmers as they tumble old- 
time hobbies that must crumble ere the sun of hope shines through. 
Let’s not fumble nor let’s jumble, but, for all of that, we will humble 
all the oracles that mumble dead old things—bring in the new! 
Chemicals and clover, 
Silage and stover; 
Cows under cover, 
Comfort all over. 
Who will give a sound reas in why a United States Department of 
Roads would not be as useful as our War or Navy Departments? In 
Holland one of the most important public departments Is that of 
engineering, which has charge of the dikes and canals of that country. 
Readers often apologize for sending us descriptions of methods or 
tools because such things are common in their neighborhoods, and they 
think they are equally common elsewhere. Don’t stop writing such 
things for that reason. We want descriptions of all the local successes 
we can get. 
And now the horticulturist his good report has made, and boasted 
of his perfect fruits of very highest grade; and when they ask him 
what he did and how he planned a raid upon the awful insect pests, 
and how their ghosts were latd, he simply smiles and answers thus: 
I only watched and sprayed. 
A hen at large In summer Is not a vegetarian by any means. She 
eats Insects enough to rank as a fierce meat eater. That Is what she 
is from choice. When you shut her up In winter and compel her to 
live on grain alone you force her to change her whole mode of diet¬ 
ing. It doesn't pay. It is here that cut green bone comes to the rescue 
of that hen’s health. 
When the Portuguese first sailed to India they found a wealthy 
king so reverenced by his attendants that the latter went about with 
the left hands held before their mouths that no common breath should 
touch royalty. Haven’t you been holding your breath in for fear of 
hurting the feelings of some old-time custom? Stop doing It and blow 
once. It’s a sham royalty and will blow away. 
A trust with a capital of $200,000,000! and mainly foreign capital at 
that! The gigantic Beer Trust lately established, Is reported to be 
encumbered with that unwieldy amount of capital as a starter. Is the 
Star-Eyed Goddess of Liberty blind to the dangers likely to arise 
from such a monstrous combination of manufacturers of diluted 
Intoxicants, in alien hands—and native stomachs ? 
The R. N.-Y. favors the publication of a printed list of all who draw 
pensions from the United States government, with the amounts drawn 
and the causes assigned for drawing them. In this way the public can 
know which are the honest pensioners and which are the frauds. Let 
not a penny be taken from those who honestly deserve pensions, but 
down with the humbugs who have done so much to discredit the service 
Irish growers of gooseberries are making plans to send large quan¬ 
tities of that fruit to this country the coming season. The gooseberry 
grows to perfection in Ireland, and, as it Is a failure in most parts of 
America, the Irish growers expect to reap a rich harvest. It is just as 
fair for them to send us their gooseberries as It is for us to send them 
Florida oranges,, but what will they do to compete with the new 
mildew-proof varieties ? 
Prof. E. W. Stewart, on page 31, tells us of an instance he has 
observed where cows showed a liking for bone meal. He thinks bran 
a more suitable feed than bone. Most of ub have seen cows that 
showed an almost insane desire to gnaw bones when let out of the 
stable In spring. This condition was largely due to poor care and 
feeding through the winter, but bone meal would probably have helped 
them. We know that several dairymen feed bone regularly with 
the salt, believing that it acts to prevent abortion in many cases. 
