4oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 10 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers a/nd Pearl Sts., New York. 
* 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, Kdltor-ln-Chtef. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1893. 
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, JUNE 10, 1893. 
About the oddest legal proposition we have met 
with in a long time is contained in this note : 
1 f a person rents an orchard and the renter allows caterpillars to 
eat up the trees. Is he not liable for damages? Is there any printed 
decision of a court on the subject? 
We have no knowledge of any similar case and doubt 
if any decision could be quoted covering exactly this 
point. There can be no doubt about the damage part 
of it, however. The man who makes his orchard a 
breeding place for caterpillars ought to be prosecuted 
not only by the owner of the orchard, but the neigh¬ 
bors as well. * , 
Can we prevent our apple orchards from taking a 
year off and still have them do just as good work 
without any vacation ? That is the problem our 
friends talk about in this issue. Evidently some varie¬ 
ties will stand it better than others. The Baldwin 
seems to be about the most stubborn in demanding 
a vacation. The best way to fix him would be to 
make him work in two gangs, with alternate years 
for vacations. It is evident that good feeding and 
spraying will help many orchards to yearly bearing. 
Dr. Hoskins hints at a sure method, but, as he says, 
it would cost too much in most orchards. 
* * 
It is easy enough to see that there are two sides to 
this question of returning “empties,” and both are 
full of talk. We gave a faithful report of what the 
commission-men had to say, and now we are glad to 
give the growers the same chance to talk. Our friend 
opens up the ball on page 390. If his proposed new 
race of commission-men would come straight from 
the farm and set things right we might all be happy. 
How long, however, will it be before they forget their 
former interests as farmers in their desire to make a 
profit as commission-men ? So long as it is “every 
man for himself ” the hindmost will be in danger from 
his old-time captor. The business of the world needs 
a surgical operation sometimes called cooperation. 
* * 
Several of the experiment stations are beginning 
work of a somewhat new character—a little out of 
the ordinary line. For example, the West Virginia 
Station sends out as a bulletin copies of an address on 
sheep raising in that State. It is an excellent and 
helpful article and deserves a wide reading. The Vir¬ 
ginia Station, also, sends out a bulletin on Dorset 
Horned sheep, giving an account of the history of Dorset 
sheep with descriptions of their most prominent char¬ 
acteristics. Now both of these pamphlets are useful, 
but neither is a record of actual work in experiment¬ 
ing done at these stations. We have a class of scien¬ 
tists who will say that the experiment station steps 
out of its proper sphere in thus doing the work that 
would seem to belong to the agricultural paper. For 
our part we do not think so. We see no objection 
to a station’s collecting valuable information from 
any source and broadcasting it over the State. In¬ 
stead of injuring the business of a live agricultural 
paper, such action ought to help it. 
* * 
“ What is the matter with our export trade ? ” said 
a farmer the other day. “The value of our exports is 
falling from year to year. It’s a singular thing that 
this great country can’t send stuff enough away to pay 
its foreign bills.” 
“ My idea is that the falling off in export values is 
due to a shrinkage in prices. We send abroad as much 
as ever, but it is not worth as much because the value 
per bushel or pound is generally less.” 
“ Oh, I can’t believe that! ” 
“Well, let’s look it up and make sure.” They hunted 
up a copy of the last quarterly report of the United 
States Bureau of Statistics. This gave the foreign 
trace of this country for the last three months of 1891, 
and also for the same period for 1892. Here are the 
figures for a few items : 
EXPORTS. 
/—Three months 1892—, Three months 1891—. 
Cotton (bales). 2,230,328 $93,812,034 2,948,773 131.415,569 
Wheat (bushels). 34,052,329 26,955,372 45,826,838 48,124,984 
Corn (bushels). 12.196,890 6,705,787 18,327,690 6,980,204 
Flour (barrels). 4,867,985 22,053.242 3,906,199 19,531,547 
A number of other instances could be given to show 
that there is considerable truth in the statement that 
a decreased price has had most to do with lowering 
the values of our exports. While a few minor articles 
have been valued higher than before, the price gener¬ 
ally has been lowered, and we have been forced to 
send an extra two ounces or half peck to obtain an 
equal amount of money. 
* * 
The patent on the Bell telephone expired on March 
7 laBt; the Berliner patent, which still checks compe¬ 
tition, will expire on January 30 next; still other sub¬ 
sidiary, patents and the possession of the equipage and 
lines now on hand, will continue for years to give the 
Bell extortion an almost free hand in the telephone 
methods now in use. Experiments of a highly suc¬ 
cessful nature were made in New York city, however, 
the other day in a new patented method of telephon¬ 
ing, which, it is claimed, is entirely independent of 
any of the 100 or more patents owned or controlled by 
the Bell monopoly. The new system is reported to be 
at once very simple and cheap, the cost of all the ma¬ 
terials as well as of the royalty of a line five miles in 
length being $62 40. Is this to be the telephone for 
the “ millions ? ” * # 
Governor Flower promptly vetoed the other day a 
bill passed by the last session of the New York Legis¬ 
lature making the use of cheese compulsory as an arti¬ 
cle of diet in State prisons and military camps, with 
the object of encouraging the manufacture of Ameri¬ 
can cheese. We to a great extent approve of that 
veto, inasmuch as the bill discriminated in favor of 
one particular class of farmers to the exclusion of 
many other classes in the noble ranks of agriculture. 
Why not include in the provisions of the bill the use 
of strawberries and other small fruits as well as of 
orchard fruits, saurkraut, sage, and a host of other 
agricultural products which are as little used in the 
above institutions as cheese ? Let’s have a bill to com¬ 
pel the use of every agricultural product in all public 
institutions so as to encourage every department of 
agriculture. Why limit the boon to cheesemakers ? 
* * 
The anti-income-tax papers are loud in their denun¬ 
ciations of such an imposition as an outrage on the 
“ American people.” Pray, who are the people ? The 
million or a trifle more who would contribute a little 
more from their ample means to the public burdens 
assumed more for the protection of their property and 
themselves than for the sake of all others ; or the tens 
of millions whose loads would be lightened by such a 
tax ? It will stimulate perjury, they say, among those 
who will run risks to evade it. Would the Nation be 
then responsible for the crimes of the perjurers ? 
Owing to knavery and trickery, they add, the tax 
would never amount to much. It amounts to a good 
deal in the poorer European countries where it is in 
foroe, and the rigorous application here of a few of 
the penalties inflicted on delinquents abroad would be 
certain to have a salutary and truth-compelling effect. 
* * 
What’s the matter with the United States mail 
service ? The writer mailed a letter in Brooklyn 
before seven o’clock Tuesday night with a 10 cent 
special delivery stamp on it. It was addressed to a small 
town in Sullivan County, N. Y., about five miles from 
the railroad station at Monticello. A mail stage is run 
daily to the town. We left the city Wednesday morn¬ 
ing at nine o’clock and delayed a half day at an inter¬ 
vening town on business, yet reached the town to 
which the letter was addressed 24 hours before the 
“special delivery” letter was handed over the counter 
by the postmaster. The letter mark showed that it 
had been delayed in Brooklyn, and the postmaster 
offered the excuse that the farmer to whom it was 
addressed lived outside of the special delivery limit. 
The farmer lives just one mile from the post-ofiice. 
We not only want free rural delivery; but more 
prompt service in city post offices in the handling of 
mail for country delivery. 
* * 
In a New Jersey court the other day during the 
trial of a case about a horse, a so-called veterinary 
surgeon gave some testimony that was decidedly orig¬ 
inal, and also somewhat startling. In describing the 
anatomy of a horse he swore that every horse possesses 
three spinal cords, one directly on top of the backbone 
and one on each side, an inch from the center of the 
bone. That veterinary surgeon isn’t likely to do 
much more damage in that neighborhood, but one 
can’t help wondering how many more similarly intel¬ 
ligent quacks are practicing their nefarious quackery 
upon helpless and innocent animals in different parts 
of the country. This is the class of individuals that 
pour hot pepper tea in the ears of suffering cows to 
cure hollow horn, who split the ends of their tails to 
cure that “ tired feeling” incident to a starvation diet 
through the winter, etc. Down with them! Don't 
permit them to torture your poor defenceless animals 
any longer. They deserve a dose of their own medicine. 
The following letter calls attention to a matter that 
ought to be attended to : 
lam credibly Informed that extraordinary efforts are being made to 
entice young girls to Chicago for Immoral purposes by means of seduc¬ 
tive advertisements offering good wages for light work, Invitations to 
places of amusement, etc. Cannot The Rural Niw-Yorkbr warn 
Its readers agatnst this state of affairs? Reliable Information about 
lodgings or work will be furnished free by mall or at the office of the 
Protective Agency for Women and Children, Room 828 Opera House 
Building, Chicago. 
It is evident that this cursed business is in full 
swing and young women who go to Chicago alone 
must be on their guard. The Young Woman’s Chris¬ 
tian Association at Room 61, 243 Wabash Avenue, 
Chicago, will make a business of securing suitable 
lodging houses for strange young women. Do not, 
under any circumstances, have anything to do with 
irresponsible strangers. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
I’ve a license to be with you, said our friend Hen Louse, 
Yonder farmer paid my license when he would not souse 
Bolling water In the corners of his old hen-house 
And blow powder In the feathers of each lousy fowl. 
If he won’t get out and hunt me where I bite and prowl 
It’s exactly like a license and you needn’t howl. 
I’m the boss of all this hen-house, I demand respect, 
I've a license I I’ve a license In that man’s neglect. 
Long and loud old Hen Louse boasted and the farmer heard 
And he listened there In silence and each boasting word 
Dug a hole Into his conscience and his heart was stirred; . 
And he doffed his coat and waistcoat and his broom he took, 
And he swabbed the boiling water like a full-sired brook, 
And upon each hen a plenty of his Buhach shook 
Then he rested from his labor with a sigh Immense 
As he said “ I gave you license but It’s now lice henceJ 
No hen can gnaw off black knot. 
IT’s an 111 wind that makes us all sick, 
Sound apple timber Is too good to be burnt. 
The easiest way to steal is to do It indirectly. 
We give all sides of the folding saw question. 
The throat of a stone ditch determines Its life. 
DO you think a sane sow ever tried to eat her own pigs? 
DO you always say “ Good mornlngl” to the hired man ? 
Couldn’t you get along without any whip on your farm? 
Better “ corn ” your manure before using It on potatoes. 
A drain and a roller will cure the “ heaves ” In a wet soil. 
Who have ever made stone water tanks that fought off the freeze ? 
It makes a great difference whether the hired man Is tired or In¬ 
spired. 
A liberal breeding of South Down sheep would help bring the 
South up. 
Full many men would gladly use their boots on nursery folks who 
send them substitutes. 
According to Prof. Cooke, page 407, a cow can stand a cold storm 
If she has plenty to eat. 
One way to keep the cows clean of horn flies Is to soil them. To soli 
Is to pasture In the barn. 
Nothing stlngeth worse than the adder who figures up the debts 
you owe to your better self. 
Handling 1,500 pounds of water In every ton of stable manure Is 
Irrigating with a dung-fork. 
Mb. Sbmpers gives those who want a coffee substitute a wide 
range for experiment—page 406. 
It Is an “off” year with many trees because the tree Is off Its health 
—too feeble to make a good crop. 
If somebody at a distance sends In and cuts the tall off your trade, 
the only thing you can do Is to retail. 
If frost gets below the throat of a stone ditch and “ heaves ” It, 
then there will be a case of soar throat. 
The National Butchers’ Association Is preparing to fight the big 
Dressed Meat Trust. Success to such butchery 1 
The Columbian Horticultural Society of North America was recently 
organized at Chicago with our Mr. E. G. Fowler as president. 
KEEr It before the people! What? The fact that personal prop¬ 
erty receives most protection from the law and pays least to support 
the law. 
MR. Cooper, you will notice, uses his stable manure to help get a 
seeding of olover. That Is like getting It to play two parts—mother 
and nurse. 
See here, why don’t you get up an exhibit for the fair such as Is 
suggested on page 398 ? What can you do to give your farm a better 
advertising ? 
The Immemorial policy of England has been to make herself great 
and other nations small. Ever known a man whose policy, mutatis 
mutandis, was the same? 
A hired man may “take as much Interest In his employer’s business 
as he would In his own,” and still make a big fizzle of It. The advice 
for one class of folks Is to pay the attention to their own affairs that 
they do to other people's. 
Who can ever count the value that Dictator added to the horses of 
America? Should that horse have been taxed according to his earn 
lng capacity or on the basis of some nominal value? That Is the taxa¬ 
tion problem In a nutshell. 
Let a man Invent a rifle that will deal out wholesale death and we 
deal him out a profit that will take away your breath, but a tool to 
make one weed grow where a dozen grew before may receive a grudg 
lng “thank you,” but a mighty little more. 
A beet mother Is a beet selected for growing seed because of her 
high analysis of sugar. Small bits of the beets are taken out an 
analyzed, and the beets showing the best analyses are planted ; the 
holes cut In them for the sample do not Injure them. 
Have any of our readers tried the machines that are used for mak¬ 
ing slat and wire fencing for preparing crates or barrels for shipping 
produce? We sometimes see such crates In the market. It seems as 
though they might be made by these machines, but can they? 
MY friend, why don’t you build a cream brooder like Mr. Chapman's 
page 394, rlghtaway ? Won’t need It till winter ? Maybe so, but the 
chances are you will have lost the paper by that time and will have 
no pattern to work from. Now Is the accepted time with cream 
brooders. 
Now, remember, the United States Supreme Court has just decided 
that the tomato is a vegetable—not a fruit. Several years ago. some 
tomatoes were Imported in New York city, and the Collector of the 
Port classified them as vegetables and collected duty accordingly. 
The Importers disputed the point, claiming that they were fruit and 
accordingly on the free list. In spite of the law’s delays, the case has 
Just been declared In favor of the Collector. But will not many think 
the members ef the court better lawyers than botanists? 
