336 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 13 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
L national 'Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT 8. CABMAN, Editor-In-Chief. 
HBHBEKT W. COLLING WOOD, Managing Editor 
EBWIN G. FOWLEB, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1898. 
Address all communications and make all orders payable to Th» 
Rural Publishing company. 
Money orders and bank drafts are the safest In transmitting money. 
SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1893. 
Will some wise man who can do so rise and tell us 
what serious objection there would be to the Govern¬ 
ment’s selling’ small bonds to the people—limiting 
the amount taken by one person to $100 or $500. 
Would it not increase the circulation, relieve the 
money stringency and give holders of small sums a 
sound investment ? Who will object to such a plan 
except bankers ? * * 
In Texas hunters—mainly thriftless, idle Greasers— 
have become intolerable nuisances to the farmers and 
cattle men, as they have been in the habit of breaking 
down fences, trampling crops and scaring stock. 
Under pressure of the aggrieved agriculturists, the leg¬ 
islature has forbidden hunting in small fields and pas¬ 
tures, but has given any worthless vagabond legal 
leave to pillage any pasture of 2,000 acres or over. 
The partridges and rabbits on the land of a small 
farmer are his own therefore, but those on the land of 
large farmers belong to the pot-hunters of the neigh¬ 
borhood. This is the law ; but is there any equity in it ? 
* * 
A young farmer in Maryland writes us this note : 
“I am a young single man with a desire to see the 
great grain fields of the West. Not being able to bear 
the expenses of traveling, I would like to go this 
harvest to get work on some of them. I am a farmer 
and understand the use of binders and other farm 
machinery.” This is one way to travel, and a good 
one too. The young man will have no difficulty in 
finding plenty of work ; still it would be a good thing 
for him to know where he is going before he starts. 
It would also be a good thing for Western farmers to 
get on the track of such men. 
# « 
It is not impossible that the present century will 
witness the formation of another Republic. The 
people of Norway have never been fully satisfied with 
their union with Sweden. The Swedish King rules 
over them, but they have their own Parliament and 
enjoy certain rights of their own at home. The Swedes, 
however, claim the right to appoint foreign represen¬ 
tatives and also to regulate taxes, etc. The Nor¬ 
wegians have never fully trusted the Swedes and the 
feeling is growing all the time that Norway should be 
free to form its own government. If left to itself this 
government would undoubtedly take the form of a 
Republic, and it is quite probable that the change 
will come before another century opens. The Scan¬ 
dinavians have always been a liberty-loving people. 
They are the Yankees of Europe and have done more 
to change the world’s history than any other nation 
with an equal population. 
* * 
Ever since the proposal was made in the McKinley 
tariff bill to grant a bounty on home-made sugar to 
compensate the producers for practically placing 
sugar on the free list, the opponents of the measure 
have been loud in their assertions that such a pro¬ 
vision is unconstitutional. They have maintained 
that there is not in the Constitution a line or a word 
empowering Congress to thus tax one part of the 
people for the benefit of another. Nowhere, they de¬ 
clare, can any constitutional pretext be found for the 
exercise of such power except in the preamble to the 
instrument, which states that one of the objects for 
which it was formulated was “ to promote the general 
welfare.” When no other authority for certain forms 
of legislation can be found, supporters of the meas¬ 
ures invariably cite this phrase in support of their 
views. But if such an interpretation be valid, it is 
alleged, Congress, in spite of all constitutional safe¬ 
guards, can pass any piece of legislation the majority 
may believe promotive of the public welfare. In this 
connection there is a report from Washington that 
President Cleveland intends to submit to Attorney 
General Olney the question whether the President 
has the legal right to order the Secretary of the 
Treasury to suspend the payment of sugar bounties 
in order that the constitutionality of the bounty law 
may be brought to a judicial test before the United 
States Supreme Court. Should the Court decide ad¬ 
versely to the law, from $9,000,000 to $10,000,000 a 
year would be saved to the Treasury without the 
necessity of repealing any act of Congress. Whatever 
the President’s opinion of the constitutionality of the 
law, however, the above report is more than likely to 
be groundless. It is the duty of the Executive Depart¬ 
ment of the Government to enforce the laws, not to 
bring their constitutionality into question. Should 
the Executive refuse to put the laws passed by Con¬ 
gress into force whenever it deemed them contrary to 
the Constitution, wouldn’t chaos follow ? It is the 
business of the Adminstration to obey the laws until 
they are repealed by Congress or declared unconstitu¬ 
tional by the Supreme Court in a regular judicial pro¬ 
ceeding brought by a corporation or private citizen 
aggrieved by any of them. Again, the comity exist¬ 
ing between the Executive which enforces the laws, 
and Congress which makes them, will not permit 
such a conflict between the two. Any attempt of the 
kind would subject the President to impeachment. 
* * 
Mr. O. H. Smith, the President of the Farmers’ 
Agricultural Association of Cattaraugus County, N.Y., 
has dishorned most of his cows, following the advice 
of speakers at farmers’ institutes, experiment sta¬ 
tions, etc. The results were very satisfactory to him 
—he has no more use for horns. A short time since, 
Mr. Smith was arrested by the agents for the Preven¬ 
tion of Cruelty to Animals for dishorning his cows. 
The case goes before the Grand Jury on May 15. Now, 
then, farmers, let us make this a test case, and push 
it through to a final decision. Every farmer in New 
York State, who has practiced this operation, is inter¬ 
ested in this case. It is time the thing was settled 
one way or the other. Let us obtain a legal decision 
from the highest courts. The R. N.-Y. suggests that 
the farmers of the State make up a purse for the pur¬ 
pose of carrying this test case up to the highest 
courts. If every New York farmer, who has cut the 
horns off his cattle, would contribute 25 cents or even 
a dime, we could easily raise a fund large enough to 
settle the matter for good. Come, farmers, where 
are you ? * # 
It is surprising ho w the consumption of commodities 
increases with a decrease in prices. For instance, when 
sugar was selling at seven cents per pound, the con¬ 
sumption in this country was 25 pounds a year for 
each person. When the price fell to five cents, the 
consumption rose to an average of 60 pounds per capita. 
In 1891-2 the total product of the world was 6,285,000 
tons, of which 3,490,000 were from beets. A process 
for converting the beet juice into sugar has recently 
been invented in Germany by which it is estimated 
that that kind of sugar can be produced at a cost that 
will enable the dealers to sell it at less than four cents 
per pound. Should this come into general use and 
the price fall as anticipated, what an enormous quan¬ 
tity would be used throughout the world! The prospect 
that the bounty on home-raised sugar will be repealed 
during the next session of Congress is having a de¬ 
pressing effect on the enterprise of rais’ing beets for 
sugar-making purposes in the United States. The 
cane sugar makers of Louisiana are also greatly per¬ 
turbed, and declare that the withdrawal of the bounty, 
without restoring the tariff on foreign sugar, would 
certainly ruin their business. They intend to invite 
the cooperation of other sugar producers in agitating 
the subject and propose to hold a series of conventions 
for that purpose. * * 
At last the Standard Oil monopoly is without a rival 
worth mentioning in this country, having just absorbed 
the Manhattan Oil Company, which was started in 1890 
avowedly as a rival of the great octopus. The mil¬ 
lionaire manipulators of the Manhattan had previously 
sold out to the Standard the Lima Oil Company, with 
a capital stock of $2,000,000, and thereby secured 
about double the amount of their original invest¬ 
ments. Then, after an interval, the Standard having 
refused to sell oil to the Chicago Gas Company, the 
latter being thus forced to use coal at largely in¬ 
creased expense, invited the enterprising ex-managers 
of the Lima to join it in organizing a fresh rival. The 
latter built immense refineries in Ohio and soon be¬ 
came a dangerous competitor. It forced the Standard 
to raise the price of Ohio oil to producers from 15 to 
48 cents by making advances itself, and made heavy 
contracts to deliver oil in various parts of the country. 
The old monopoly soon realized that it would pay bet¬ 
ter to secure control of its rival, even at an exorbi¬ 
tant price, than to compete with it, as having once 
absorbed it, it could readily wring from producers 
and consumers the whole cost of the “ deal.” Accord¬ 
ingly it made overtures to the Manhattan some time 
ago, and the other day assumed the absolute manage¬ 
ment of its $15,000,000 worth of property, the original 
stockholders having, it is asserted, again doubled the 
amount of their investments. It is not long since the 
country rejoiced at the voluntary dissolution of the 
Standard Oil Trust under pressure of hostile legisla¬ 
tion and wrathful public execrations. At the time 
The Rural New-Yorker declared the shrewd man¬ 
agers of an enterprise which realized such enormous 
profits would never abandon such possibilities of 
untold wealth; that they would merely change the 
title of the concern to a name less obnoxious to the 
laws and less odious to the people, and the truth of 
our assertion has since been amply demonstrated. 
To day the old monopoly, under the old management, 
is stronger, wealthier and more powerful than ever. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
When the good wife and her husband still are honestly In love. 
After all their tiffs and troubles, they are surely “ hand In glove. 
That’s exactly as It should be, but I don’t quite understand— 
Is the wife the glove, or does she represent the working hand ? 
’Tlsthe glove protects the fingers from the brulseor heat or cold, 
Yet the hand directs the glove, sir, or It never could take hold. 
Should the wife play glove forever and protectherhusband shand? 
That would spoil the toughest leather that the tanner ever tanned. 
Shall she play glove till the graveyard swallows up her care and pain 
That her well protected husband may then glove himself again? 
Should the man plav hand forever and provide all motive power 
Till his fingers ache and stiffen as they must some fatal hour? 
Let them rather take turns playing hand and glove—yes, yes, that’s It, 
With a love and kindly patience that will make a perfect fit; 
For It makes small odds, I reckon, whether glove is on the hand 
Or the hand Is In the glove, sir. If the work Is wisely planned. 
A scrub cow Is a milk weed. 
What do you do for a cannibal sow? 
Any “ contrary ” cattle In your barn this spring? 
There Is too much inhuman nature In the world. 
Nitrate of soda is not worth Its salt on poor soil. 
What’s the objection to clover for a subsoil plow ? 
Sun burnt hay Is poor stuff with which to stuff cows. 
Celery will pay better than frogs on that swamp of yours. 
The well-kept dog Is the connecting link of a good stout chain. 
What reception have you planned for fruit thieves this summer ? 
There Is a place In every dairy for the scrub. It Is on the milk cans! 
There Is a howling need of reform In the New York State methods 
of assessing property! 
What do you think of a business that would run out of a State 
rather than give an honest list of Its property ! 
Shame on the man who will buy an old horse and put It with a 
younger animal to “ get the work out of the old plug.’’ 
With the sublimate solution underground and the Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture above, potato scab and blight will have anything but a picnic. 
Why does a sensible man draw the “ color line ” at Black Mexican 
sweet corn? It Is the best In quality. Does a man taste with his 
eyes ? 
IN the wine-growing districts of France grape seeds are used to 
fatten chickens. The mill-stone In a chick’s stomach can grind the 
seed Into feed. 
Mr. Van Loon, page 331, scores another point for the corn crop. 
What a ridiculously small cost for seed as compared with that 
for other crops! 
It’s a good thing to hear a man say, “My wife would never let me 
do that ! ” In nine cases out of ten It would be something he would 
be ashamed of afterwards. 
A good way to test the value of the gravity us. the separator method 
of creaming milk Is to feed a calf on sklm-mllk from each lot and see 
which gets most fat out of It. 
Mr. Sage, page 330, gives us a new Idea In the milk business. This 
Is to sell milk in the cow by renting out healthy animals to towns¬ 
people. This remark is a sage one In a double sense. 
The premium mean man sells eggs. He said In delivering a dozen 
recently; “ That big one must be a double-yolked egg—that’s equal 
to two." He gave 11 eggs, or a tinker’s dozen. The big one had a 
single yolk in It • 
“I pay 23 cents for a half peck of potatoes.” said a city man 
recently. “ We have to buy in small quantities because we have no 
good place to store them!” Thousands of people buy in the same way 
Compare that price with what the middlemen pay you! 
If dry Paris-green or hellebore can be used successfully In place of 
the water mixture, there will be a great saving in lugging, as our 
friend says on page 332. Look out for your nose though when walk¬ 
ing In the midst of that dry poison. Better keep your nostrils well 
smeared with vaseline. 
Milk Is heavier than water The fat Is lighter than water, but the 
other solids are heavier. Thus partly skimmed milk Is heavier than 
rich milk to which water has been added. For example, take two 
samples of milk each testing four per cent of fat. Skim one so that 
two per cent only is left and add water to the other so that it tests 
only two per cent. The skimmed milk would be heavier. 
To carry out the analogy between the growth of a man and a cab¬ 
bage head mentioned by Mr. Gregory on page 332, suppose a man who 
thinks he knows It all. Just as he Is bragging about his knowledge 
somebody upsets all his arguments, just as when the cabbage Is com¬ 
ing to a head somebody wrenches out the toots. Wouldn’t the man 
have to start In and grow a little In order to keep up his reputation? 
They tell of a Yankee In England who saw a stagecoach offering 
accommodations for first, second and third-class passengers. He won 
dered how they divided them up until they came to a hill. Then he 
found that the first-class folks sat still, the seconds got out and 
walked, and the thirds got behind and pushed. In the great agricul¬ 
tural stage coach, my friend, don’t be a third-class passenger and 
help push somebody else. 
One singular thing about the use of night-soil as a manure Is that 
most people have an exaggerated Idea of Its value. When used In 
large quantities on quick-growing vegetables It often stimulates a 
rapid and vigorous growth and hence the gardener considers It far 
more valuable than stable manure. The nlght-soll Is a one-sided 
manure with three times as much available nitrogen as of potash and 
phosphoric acid. It Is strong therefore In the sense that nitrate of 
soda is strong, giving far more nitrogen than anything else. This 
explains why It Is greatly praised when first used, but discarded by 
those who use It alone for several successive years. 
The Legislature of South Carolina has been extremely niggardly In 
appropriating only $50,000 to set up Governor Tillman as chief saloon¬ 
keeper of the Palmetto State. Besides laying In large supplies of 
liquors of all sorts, he has to provide the dispensaries with necessary 
bottles, glasses, jugs and bar fixtures, and the greater part of the 
money has already gone for these purposes. Of course, there’s little 
doubt that he can, like other liquor dealers, buy most of his liquor 
stock on credit, but this is hardly creditable on the part of the 
Governor of a proud State, and then the next legislature may be 
opposed to the system and cause vexatious delays In the way of 
appropriations to meet.outstanding bills 
