1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
chemicals ? 3. Is boneblack as good as dissolved raw 
bone, deducting the ammonia from the latter ? 4. Is 
$30 per ton a fair price for cotton seed hull ashes with 
an analysis of 26 per cent of potash ? 5. What is 
azotin ? 
Axs.—1. Send to the New Jersey Experiment Station 
(New Brunswick) and get a copy of the bulletin on 
fertilizers for tomatoes. In these experiments the 
combination that gave the best results was 160 pounds 
nitrate of soda, 320 pounds boneblack and 160 pounds 
muriate of potash. On that soil, larger amounts of the 
nitrate did not show a profit, though they might do so 
in yours. 2. Yes, we think so. In the majority of cases 
in the New Jersey experiments two applications of the 
nitrate gave a decided gain over one. 3. Leaving out 
the nitrogen, boneblack superphosphate should con¬ 
tain 16 per cent of soluble phosphoric acid, while the 
dissolved bone contains about 15 per cent or a trifle 
less. The boneblack will average a little more phos¬ 
phoric acid, but the dissolved bone has one to two per 
cent of nitrogen in addition. For plant food the phos¬ 
phoric acid in one is as good as that in the other. 4. 
The potash in the cotton hull ashes would be worth 
$26 per ton. 5. “ Azotin” is a commercial corruption 
of the French word azote, meaning nitrogen, and is 
used to designate pure, dried and ground flesh yield¬ 
ing 10 to 12 per cent of nitrogen and a little phosphoric 
acid. 
The Anti-Option Law. 
Subscriber, Cedar Rapids, Neb. —Should the Anti- 
Option law be passed, how are farmers at a distance 
from market to dispose of their goods? Isn’t the sys¬ 
tem of marketing the products of the farm by dealing 
in “options” and “futures” an inseparable part of the 
present machinery for “moving the crops? ” After 
all, are not the Boards of Trade an aid and benefit to 
farmers instead of the sharks and enemies which they 
are generally held up to be by the agricultural press ? 
Ans.—F rom the character of his questions it is evi¬ 
dent that our friend has been reading some of the 
pamphlets and circulars which have been scattered 
with a liberal hand all over the country districts by 
the Boards of Trade and various Exchanges backed up 
by speculators and other gainers by the present sys¬ 
tem. If the objectionable system is beneficial to the 
farmers of the country, how comes it that the vast 
majority of them are so blind to their own advantage 
as to be bitterly opposed to it ? Farmers’ clubs and 
farmers’ associations and organizations of all kinds 
have been individually and collectively loud and em¬ 
phatic in their support of the Anti-Option Bill now 
before Congress? A majority of both Houses of that 
body are strong in its favor, and many of the ablest 
members of both Houses have made the best speeches 
in support of it. Is it to be supposed that the farmers 
of the country and their representatives in the National 
Legislature are less enlightened with regard to agri¬ 
cultural interests than a parcel of selfish gamblers in 
produce who make millions every year from goods 
the vast bulk of which they never handle, see or own? 
Their method of trading, or rather gambling, is at 
most hardly a quarter of a century old; how were the 
crops of the country marketed before then ? Were 
prices of farm products lower then than they are now? 
The Anti-Option Bill now before Congress simply seeks 
to restore the old system of trading in agricultural 
products, and to eliminate the gambling features that 
its advocates insist have greatly injured the interests of 
farmers. What then are “ options” and “ futures ? ” 
The bill defines the word “ option” to mean a con¬ 
tract or agreement for the right or privilege to deliver 
at a future time or within a designated period a special 
quantity of raw or unmanufactured cotton, wheat, 
flour, corn, oats, rye, barley, pork, bacon, lard or hops, 
to which products alone the bill is applicable. It defines 
“ futures” to mean a contract or agreement to sell 
and deliver at a future time or within a designated 
period any of the above articles when the party so 
contracting was not the owner of such articles and had 
not agreed for a right of their future possession. The 
act, however, is not to apply to contracts to supply 
National, State or municipal governments with any 
of such articles, nor to contracts by farmers or planters 
for future delivery ; nor to agreements to pay or 
deliver a part of the product of land as compensation 
for its use or as compensation for work or labor done 
or to be done on the same ; nor to agreements with 
farmers or planters to furnish such articles for use or 
consumption—provided that such contracts or agree¬ 
ments shall not be made or settled for on any Board of 
Trade or Exchange. Dealers in “options” or “futures” 
are to pay $1,000 a year license fee and five cents a 
pound on cotton, hops, pork, lard or bacon, and 20 cents 
a bushel on grain handled by them. It is readily seen 
from the above extract from the hill that provisions 
are made for all legitimate trade, and that gambling 
in produce is alone prohibited. 
As it is impracticable to use space enough here to 
explain how the marketing of the different crops is 
affected by the system, let us confine our attention to 
cotton, bearing in mind that similar conditions are 
applicable to the other products mentioned, with 
slight modifications. In marketing this product the 
new system is confined to five places—New York, New 
Orleans, Liverpool, Havre and Bremen. Less cotton 
is received in New York than in seven other seaports 
of the United States: why then are such dealings con¬ 
fined to only two places in the whole country ? The 
prices made in New York, however, control those in 
every other market in the land. Who make the prices 
in New York ? The Cotton Exchange. What is the 
Cotton Exchange ? A body of 454 men, each of whom 
pays an initiation fee of $10,000 in order to limit the 
number, which is further confined to not over 454 by 
one of the by-laws. These men absolutely control 
and monopolize the cotton trade of this city. They 
license cotton warehousemen, inspectors and their as¬ 
sistants, weighers, samplers, owners and captains of 
lighters, and all the way down even to draymen and 
menders of torn bales ! Moreover, they legislate on 
all matters relating to the transfer of the staple. No 
legitimate transaction in cotton can be made either of 
an actual or speculative nature except through a mem¬ 
ber of the body, for which a fee of 12% cents per bale 
is charged to outsiders, 2% between members having 
offices within half a mile of the Exchange and 7% be¬ 
tween those further apart. Every business day the 
Committee on Quotations meet and fix the quota¬ 
tions at 2 o’clock, though the business doesn’t end till 
3. They also fix the quotations for days on which no 
sales take place ! They fix the price of middlings 
only each day, and the relative prices of the 29 other 
grades once a month for only nine months in the 
year. There are also three “ calls ” in the Exchange, 
or sales of cotton for future delivery by months. If 
April is called and there is no offer and no bid, the 
Quotation Committee fix the price for that month and 
so for every other month in which there is no transac¬ 
tion ! Thus it obtrusively appears that quotations are 
not fixed with reference to actual trading in the 
market. 
Who compose this Exchange which arrogates to 
itself such dominant control of the prices of one of the 
chief products of the lan I ? There are 162 merchants, 
17 bankers, six storagemen, nine bankers and brokers, 
three exchange brokers and the others are factors, 
cotton buyers, shipping-men, stock-brokers, insurance 
men, real estate dealers and—Lord save the mark !— 
16 farmers ! Not one of these lives on a plantation, 
however ; while every one is engaged in town or city 
in some other business. Farming is a mere avocation 
with them ; in nearly every case they have secured 
their land by foreclosing mortgages on it. In this 
business therefore which absolutely controls the prices 
of cotton in every market in this country and influ¬ 
ences them throughout the world, there isn’t a single 
genuine representative of the cotton producers of the 
country, nor is there one in the New Orleans Ex¬ 
change ! These men, like others, look out for their 
own interests only, and as a rule these are opposed to 
those of the planters. Last year, though the crop 
handled amounted to only 8,600,000 bales, of which only 
165,576 reached New York city, 40,000,000 bales were 
sold on the floor of the New York Cotton Exchange, 
and the whole business was necessarily transacted by 
the members of that body, who secured the enormous 
commissions on such monstrous transactions. More¬ 
over, in every “ deal ” there must be a seller and a 
buyer connected with the Exchange, and for each a 
commission is exacted. Who pays this vast aggregate 
sum ? Surely a membership of such a profitable call¬ 
ing is worth a $10,000 initation fee besides annual 
heavy dues. Who pays for all these too for the whole 
454 ? Moreover, the Exchange is absolutely the sole 
arbitrator of all disputes, claims, differences and con¬ 
troversies in the matter. During the week ending 
December 13 the number of actual bales of cotton sold 
on the Exchange was 4,040, while the number of 
phantom bales aggregated 1,938,800 or 1 to 480 ! At 
the regular rates for buying and selling the brokerage 
on the fictitious cotton would have been $484,500, while 
at current prices the value of the real cotton would be 
only $190,000, or in the ratio of 2% to 1. 
Should any cotton market in the United States dare 
to offer better prices than those quoted on the New 
York Exchange, the latter could flood that market 
with an unlimited quantity of cotton and beat down 
prices. It needn’t be confined to the quantity of the 
staple there or to the 8,600,000 bales actually raised, 
it could throw 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 bales of fictitious 
cotton on the market and crush all rivals. Last year 
the output of the staple was only about 6,500,000, while 
the consumptive demand was fully 8,000,000, leaving 
an actual shortage of 1,500,000 in the world’s supply. 
The New York Exchange, however, sold 40,000,000 
bales nearly the whole bogus, and probably nearly as 
much more of the same kind was sold elsewhere. Did 
these enormous fictitious sales have a favorable effect 
on the genuine or “spot” sales. 
The whole system of dealings in “ futures ” is based 
145 
on what is called “ hedging.” Whatiisthis? Well, a 
man buys 1,000 bales of cotton to be delivered at some 
date in the future, and pays the money for it. Then, 
for fear that cotton will rise or fall in the interval, he 
buys a “future contract ” for the quantity, and thus 
hedges; but brokerage has to be paid to seller and 
buyer in both cases, and who ultimately pays it? 
Want of space necessarily confines our remarks here 
to one or two prominent features of “ future ” deal¬ 
ings in cotton alone; but substitute the Board of 
Trade of Chicago for the Cotton Exchange of New 
York and wheat for cotton, and the same rules hold 
good, with slight variations. Experience and statistics 
have shown that where fictitious sales of a product 
have increased, actual sales have diminished, and that 
the prices of “ futui’es ” are always below those of 
“ spot” or genuine transactions, and hence their ten¬ 
dency is to lower prices. Besides the demoralization 
to our domestic and foreign trade, who pays the enor¬ 
mous cost of the Exchanges, and their commissions on 
fictitious as well as real sales? Isn’t it true here at 
any rate that “the farmer pays for all,” except what 
consumers may pay ? 
Ration for Milch Cow. 
f. A. H., Rocliport, 0.—What is the daily ration for a 
1 000-pound new milch cow when the feed is linseed 
meal, corn meal, bran and middlings ? How should I 
mix a balanced ration to be fed with Timothy hay and 
sweet corn stalks ? 
Ans.—A cow of that size should eat each day about 
25% pounds of organic matter, containing 2% pounds 
of protein, 13% pounds of carbohydrates and 4-5 pound 
of fat. The foods mentioned contain the following in 
pounds per hundredweight: 
Protein. Carbohydrate. Pat. 
Linseed meal. 33 38 3 
Corn meal. 4.2 (59 3 % 
Bran. 15 % 54 4 
Timothy hay. 3.1 20 \% 
Of these grains corn meal is best for butter-making, 
and, if you desire quality, it should be made the basis 
for the grain ration. This ration would be nearly 
right: eight pounds of corn meal, two of linseed meal, 
four of bran, 15 of Timothy hay, and 8 or 10 of stalks. 
Hen Manure and Potato Fertilizer. 
T. J. F ., Spring Church, Pa .—How does pure hen 
manure compare with high-grade fertilizer, such as 
the Mapes potato manure and nitrate of soda ? 
What is the analysis in plain terms of such hen man¬ 
ure ? Mixed with one-half of dry earth, is it a good 
potato fertilizer ? 
Ans.—F ew products of the farm vary so much as 
hen manure. This is due to various causes. Some 
samples contain a quantity of feathers, others are 
mixed with wood ashes or earth, while others left 
without any care have lost most of the nitrogen. An 
average well dried sample might be expected to con¬ 
tain about the following—compared with the potato 
manure mentioned : 
.-In 100 pounds.-, 
Nitrogen. Phos. Acid. Potash. 
Hen manure . 2 2 1 
Potato fertilizer. 3 % y 7 
Nitrate of soda contains about 16 pounds of nitrogen 
to every 100 pounds of the nitrate—and nothing else 
of particular agricultural value. The above indicated 
composition of hen manure is probably better than 
the majority of samples found on farms. You can 
readily see that such manure will not make a good 
potato fertilizer. There is too much nitrogen for the 
other ingredients, and it would give long and “ leggy ” 
plants with poor tubers. Our older readers will 
remember how Mr. Johnson, of New Jersey, makes a 
potato mixture. His hen manure is well mixed with 
plaster and thoroughly dried. In the spring it is 
ground fine and mixed : about 750 pounds of hen 
manure, 125 pounds muriate of potash and 175 pounds 
dissolved bone black. This works well on his soil. 
We are now preparing another article on Mr. John¬ 
son’s farming, and will give fuller particulars then. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Wineberry Seeds.— G. H. P., New Whatcom, Wash.— 
To propagate the wineberry from seeds, crush the 
berries and save the seeds. Sow them in shallow 
boxes in the fall. Let these boxes be exposed to the 
weather during the winter, covering them over with 
a little straw to protect the soil from heavy rains. In 
February they may be brought into the house or placed 
in a hot-bed or under glass, when the seed will ger¬ 
minate in a few weeks. 
Evergreen Seeds .—J. M. M., Wellburn, Can.—Seeds 
of Norway spruce may be gathered just as soon as the 
cones mature. The seeds may be sown in a cold-frame 
in the fall and protected during the winter. They 
will germinate in the spring. They may also be sown 
in flats and kept under cover, being careful to avoid 
extremes of dryness or moisture. We do not know 
what tree is alluded to as Golden Norway. 
Not Hardy Here.— F. M. M., Wellburn, Conn.—We 
do not think the common European hazel (C. Avellana) 
can be grown with you. It is not a success as grown 
in this country in so far as we are informed. Blight 
is the trouble. 
