210 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 25 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
TIMES BUILDUfQ, NEW YORK. 
A. national Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CABMAN, Editor-In-Chief. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1S9S. 
Address all communications and make all orders payable to The 
Rural Publishing Company. 
Money orders and bank drafts are the safest In transmitting money. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1893. 
TftK farmers near Huntington, L. I., have formed a 
Game [Protective Association for the purpose of keep¬ 
ing at bay the city pot-hunters who usually range the 
fields and woods every fall. The association has raised 
funds to put up plenty of signs warning hunters off 
the different farms, and, if they still persist in coming, 
every one will be prosecuted for trespassing. That is 
right. These city hunters are a nuisance in any farm¬ 
ing district. They tramp through crops, break down 
walls and fences, leave gates open, to say nothing 
of filling pockets and bags with apples or other fruits. 
They have no business on a man’s farm, and we wish 
every farm community would form an association like 
that at Huntington. # # 
It is reported from Pennsylvania that a bill is to be 
introduced into the legislature making temperance 
a necessary qualification for any State officer. Under 
the proposed law no man would be eligible to public 
office who had been publicly drunk within one year be¬ 
fore the term of office began, and drunkenness while in 
office would result in impeachment. Politicians seem 
to regard this proposition as a good joke, but why ? 
The public commend railroad companies when they 
refuse to have drinking men in places of trust; why 
should not men in public office be forced to conduct 
the people’s business with order and sobriety ? We are 
told that such a law would turn out over 50 per cent 
of our present politicians both of high and low degree. 
Good; it is about the only thing that ever could get 
rid of them. ’ * # 
Tiie Kansas Trust and Banking Company, of which 
ex-Senator Ingalls was president collapsed last Tues¬ 
day with liabilities of about $800,000 and assets esti¬ 
mated at $700,000. There is no mystery about the 
cause of the failure. All the officials seem to have 
been strictly upright, however strange the phenom¬ 
enon in a wrecked bank. But the telegram says : 
“ The concern loaned considerable money three years 
ago on Kansas property at * boom ’ figures and was 
compelled to foreclose, in many instances without any 
chance of realizing as much as had been advanced on 
the security.” The same story explains the reasons for 
several other recent disasters to fiduciary institutions 
in the Sunflower State, and for the withdrawal of 
others from it after having incurred heavy losses. 
From eveta the most alluring business dreams there’s 
always a rude awakening. 
* * 
There is a bill pending in the Texas legislature for 
the creation of a live stock sanitary commission to take 
proper measures for the prevention and against the 
spread of live stock diseases. Section 2 of the pro¬ 
posed act reads as follows : 
Tie commissioner whose appointment Is provided for In the pre¬ 
ceding section shall be a practical live stock raiser in the State of 
Texas and directly Interested In the cattle Industry and shall have 
been engaged In said business for at least five vears next preceding 
the date of his appointment. Said commissioner shall also be well 
Informed as to all contagious diseases of live stock. 
Think of it 1 Actually insisting that the man to 
head this cattle commission must actually know 
something about the cattle business ! In New York 
State such a section would be at once amended or 
killed entirely, because it might spoil the chance of 
putting some practical politician in a new place. In 
New York State, you know, a dairy commissioner can 
obtain all the dairy knowledge he needs in a lawyer’s 
office. Why is Texas about a century ahead of New 
York in such, a matter ? 
;?~'t ' * * 
The new immigration law seems to give a reason¬ 
able measure of general satisfaction, as it contributes, 
to a moderate extent, towards the exclusion of unde¬ 
sirable immigrants while leaving our ports still open 
to the influx of other classes. Its leading feature is 
that it requires steamship companies to prepare and 
authenticate at the pc rts of departure lists or mani¬ 
fests of their immigrant passengers, with full infor¬ 
mation concerning them, and to deliver these mani¬ 
fests to the immigrant inspectors at the different 
ports of this country. This provision will not only 
make the companies careful as to the character of their 
passengers, as all not approved are to be sent back at 
their expense, but it will also afford relief and help to 
the inspectors who have hitherto had in most cases 
to form instantaneous judgments of the passengers’ 
eligibility, with nothing except appearances on which 
to base an opinion. In addition to the classes excluded 
by the old law, the new act prohibits the admission of 
cripples, blind persons and others physically imperfect 
unless they can show satisfactorily that they will not 
become charges on the public. Moreover, it forbids 
the landing of persons belonging to societies which 
favor or justify the unlawful destruction of property 
or life. Of course, it is the result of a compromise, 
like many of the best acts on our State and National 
statute books. As in other cases, its value will be in 
proportion to the rigor of its enforcement. It is not 
without comfort, however, to know that we have on 
our statute books laws excluding not only from our 
citizenship, but even from our shores, not only contract 
laborers, but hopeless paupers, convicts, cripples and 
anarchists—in a word the scum and sediment of the 
Old World. * * 
For some time the people of Minnesota and indeed 
most of the Northwest, have suffered severely from 
the extortionate prices of coal, due to the machina¬ 
tions of an illegal combination between the coal 
barons and the railroads and other corporations 
engaged in the transportation business. The present 
legislature lately unearthed the vast proportions of 
the “combine ” and appointed a special joint commit¬ 
tee to investigate its nature and conduct. The Min¬ 
nesota Bureau of Coal Statistics whose records con¬ 
tained the needed information, however, obstinately 
refused to furnish it or allow the sergeant-at-arms 
access to the books. The latter is a resolute man, 
however, and took them by main force. No sooner 
had they been deposited in the State Capitol than their 
recalcitrant custodian, acccompanied by a purchasable 
lawyer, seized them last Wednesday and attempted 
to bear them away, but after a lively struggle, was 
prevented from doing so by the sergeant-at-arms and 
several of the legislators. Like the Standard Oil 
Trust, the prototype of all such organizations, the 
Northwestern “combine,” reckless of consequences, 
is of course ready to bid defiance to legislatures, courts 
and people, whenever legal processes threaten to 
disclose the extent of its extortions or check its 
unscrupulous career. 
* • 
The Agricultural Congress lately held in Mexico 
recommends to the Government a scheme for the 
establishment of special banks to loan farmers, at a 
moderate rate of interest, funds to improve their 
farms and further develop their resources. In the 
land of Montezuma, agriculture, it appears, is develop¬ 
ing faster than other industries, and more capital is 
needed, but there as here, in spite of the stability 
of the security, extortionate rates of interest are 
demanded on all loans to farmers. President Diaz is 
reported to favor the project, and certainly thrifty 
farmers ought to be able to offer security of a kind 
to obtain for them money enough to grow fine crops 
and move them to market, at less than the exorbitant 
rates of interest their present necessities compel them 
to pay. Such banks are doing a world of good among 
the shiftless and improvident peasants of Russia, and 
have been of great benefit in various parts of Germany, 
while they are likely to form an adjunct in the settle¬ 
ment of the Irish land troubles ; why shouldn't they 
be equally serviceable on this side of the Atlantic ? 
Too “paternal” in their nature ? Well, in spite of the 
denunciations of Kaisers, Kings and Presidents, pater¬ 
nalism, and especially State paternalism, is steadily 
gaining stronger influence year after year on the 
opinions and laws of the world. 
# * 
A striking illustration of the carelessness of legis¬ 
latures, even at the National Capitol, in formulating 
laws, is afforded by the lately deceased Anti-Option 
Bill. For several years the Hatch Bill or others of 
the same class, with substantially the same provisions, 
have been acrimoniously discussed in Congress and 
throughout the country. The time wasted on the 
Hatch Bill in Congress alone must b ave cost the country 
hundreds of thousands of dollars, while tens of thou¬ 
sands have been spent in publishing and distributing 
circulars, pamphlets and newspaper articles for and 
against it, and thousands in sending deputations, 
hostile or friendly, to Washington to lobby for or 
against its passage. After its defeat the other day, 
however, it was at last discovered that, even if passed, 
it would have been utterly inoperative, as its author 
had neglected to incorporate in it a clause making 
provisions for carrying it into effect—not a dollar was 
provided for this purpose. This omission would of 
course have been fatal to it; especially as Secretary 
Morton is opposed to its provisions and would, there¬ 
fore, not have felt it incumbent on him to divert funds 
from other objects to enforce its enactments. Was 
this strange omission due to the culpable carelessness 
of the friends of the measure, or to the admirable 
skill with which Congressional lawyers richly feed to 
nullify or kill it, performed their task ? 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
Come! let us feed the apple tree; It must te fed like you or me. 
Or all Its hardy growth will stop and we shall lose Its handsome crop. 
It hath a stomach like our own, that calls with no uncertain tone 
So let us give it food to suit and thus enjoy Its welcome fruit. 
Come! let us prune the apple tree and make It sightly, fair to see, 
Let’s cut away Its worthless wood, reserving only what Is good 
For growing fruit. We feed to make a mighty volume that will shake 
A profit from the trees, we prune to shape that volume Into tune. 
Come! let us spray the apple tree to make It fungl-lnsect-free. 
For as our sires their muskets took and fought till slavery's temple 
shook, 
So we must take up arms to-day and bring our squirt-guns Into play. 
Let’s see our graves securely dug, ere we surrender to a bug! 
Feed, prune and spray, In nutshell show, the tale of how good apples 
grow. 
Get In training for spring work. 
Spray early or save your spray. 
Much of woman’s work Is man’s shirk. 
The sward Is mightier than the pen—for pigs. 
Theke's many a “ slip” In amateur caponizlng. 
What has become of the Red Cap breed of poultry? 
The poultry business needs more fussing and less “ cussing.’ 
Who wants a Leghorn rooster with a flop-over comb like a hen’s? 
What gardener can ever cope with the wind that sweeps up a 
northern slope ? 
How many seedsmen would pass over tne sieve arranged by Mr. 
Augur, page 211 ? 
Scientists tell us that a dimple In the cheek simply marks the loca¬ 
tion of a defective muscle. 
We think the caponizlng experience recorded on page 219 corrobo¬ 
rates what Mr. Cushman says In this Issue. 
Hah you but loved your farm one-half as well as you have loved 
the kitchen stove, that stable manure would now all be spread on your 
fields. 
Mr. Avery, page 202, seems to think It is good training for Leg¬ 
horns to roost in a tree till frost. They get up muscle for the winter’s 
egg contest. 
Several questions about the use of hen manure on corn are being 
held until we can find space for another article on Mr. Johnson's 
little New Jersey farm. 
Maybe you are bending that twig of a boy so as to make a stick 
for your back some day. Better train It Into a cane for your old age. 
There are Cains enough now. 
Near a pipe factory In Missouri, farmers sell the cpbs alone from 
an acre of corn for $12. This illustrates the value of a “ home 
market.” We can’t all have a pipe factory next door. 
In English agricultural papers the “ Devil Disintegrator ’’ Is largely 
advertised. Why can’t the devil be Induced to step Into his own ma¬ 
chine—or would that simply scatter him and give him a wider range 
of harm? 
Our correspondent, page 207, finds It cheaper to sell wood and buy 
coal for fuel even at the present high price for the latter. There Is a 
chance for a whole week's thinking In the singular conditions that 
make this possible. 
Stephen Hoyt, the Connecticut nurseryman, said three years ago, 
“I believe the day will come when, on our fruit farms, barnyard 
manure will be considered a waste to be got rid of as easily as pos¬ 
sible.” His words have come true on some farms, while on others they 
never can come true 
The experiment station of California has been analyzing samples 
of hay grown In that State. As compared with the Eastern grown 
product, almost every sample showed a lower feeding value. Warm 
climates usually do produce men with less •' snap ” about them—does 
the rule apply to grasses too? 
After trying almost everything to kill off their surplus rabbits, the 
Australians find poisoned apple sauce about the deadliest weapon 
they have discovered. The apple sauce contains strychnine, and so 
deadly Is its effect that on one big farm 960 rabbits were found and 
skinned as the Tesult of one night’s work. 
Here Is a proposed stable device that would prove a great eye- 
opener to some farmers: Have an automatic thermometer In the 
stable with a connection, running to the farmer's bed-room. When 
the thermometer falls to 40 degrees, we would have the connecting 
wire pull all the bed clothes off the farmer. This would show him 
what It Is to suffer from the cold. 
To see how eggs are prized for food by poorer city people, ope has 
but to look at a group of workmen eating tbelr dinners. Almost eight 
out of ten will have a sandwich made of two big slices of buttered 
bread and two or three hard-fried eggs. The fried egg sandwich Is 
taking the place of the meat article right along with a good deal of 
satisfaction to consumers—and poultrymen. 
The Ohio Farmer advises a reader to use 100 pounds of fertilizer on 
an acre of potatoes and thus test It. It Is easy to predict the result— 
another man who says “ fertilizers don’t pay.” Suppose you used $2 
worth of stable manure scattered all over an acre! You would get 
no appreciable return from it unless you used It all on a small area. 
Because, when you need a full dinner, a single sandwich will not 
satisfy you Is no proof that sandwiches are “ no good.” 
Kansas voters at the next election will vote upon a constitutional 
amendment granting the right of suffrage to women. There Is'every 
chance that It will be carried and that Kansas women will have a 
voice In public affairs. Thousands of good citizens fully believe that 
as at present made up, neither of the two old parties is capable of 
handling a great moral question. Some new element must come into 
politics and what Is there new except what women would bring? 
Don’t mix Paris-green with the ammonlacal solutions In spraying 
potatoes. Ammonia will dissolve Paris-green and make It more 
harmful to plants. This dispute has just beep referred to us. A 
potato field was sprayed with the ammonlacal solution and at once 
sprayed with Paris-green and water. The vines were scorched. One 
man claimed the mixture did the work, while another laid ltto Paris- 
green. Which was right? Both, and yet, bad there been a week be¬ 
tween the sprayings, there would probably have been no trouble. 
Every deaf man can give a long list of ” remedies ” prescribed by 
home curers for his ailment. First on the list usually comes skunk’s 
oil which is to be poured Into the ear. It appears that the basis for 
this proposed treatment lies In the fact that the skunk’s sense of 
hearing is very acute-hence It Is argued its oil'must In some unknown 
way strengthen defective ears. The only cases where oil of any sort 
Is useful in the ears are when there Is little or no secretion - of wax. 
This secretion should be encouraged and it is a good practice to keep 
the ears lightly smeared Inside with vaseline. Most serious ear 
troubles are In the Interior ear far beyond the reach of skunk's oil and 
to be reached, If at all, through the nose. 
