41 6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 17 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
El.BERT 8. CAltMAN, Edltor-ln-Chlef. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD. Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1S03. 
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 17, 1893. 
Both houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature have, 
with practical unanimity, passed a law making Satur¬ 
day a half holiday all the year round, and Governor 
Pattison has promptly signed it. It is generally con¬ 
ceded that no more popular piece of legislation has 
been enacted in the Keystone State for years, and the 
example is likely to be extensively followed in other 
States also. # # 
The pressure to realize on the enormous accumula¬ 
tions of wheat at the commercial centers, coupled 
with the financial distrust and money stringency, 
forced the price of J uly wheat down to 03 cents per 
bushel at Chicago last Thursday—the lowest price by 
Z% cents in 30 years. There was considerable foreign 
buying at the decline, but it appears that Europe ex¬ 
pects still lower figures for American wheat. When 
may consumers look for larger loaves or lower prices 
at the baker’s? * # 
The Populist Attorney-General of Kansas declares 
that he has discovered a combination of millers having 
for its object the depression of the price of wheat and 
the maintenance of the price of flour, and a bill is to 
be introduced at the next ses.ion of the legislature 
providing that all flour mills in the State shall be con¬ 
sidered public mills and that the minimum price of 
wheat and the maximum price of flour shall be fixed 
by law. Wouldn’t diversification of crops rather than 
any arbitrary regulation of prices be the true solution 
of the troubles of wheat raisers ? 
* * 
We heard of a bunch of horses the other day that 
will bring a good big price per pound. They were 
Ilackncy grades—all from the same stallion and out of 
mares with a good percentage of trotting blood. They 
had the beautiful shape and carriage of the Hackney 
and were capable of trotting in three minutes or 
better. That is the horse for the market. Speedy 
style beats slow style. The Hackney blood makes a 
colt pick up his feet and the trotting blood makes him 
push those feet out before they are put down again. 
That is a combination that sells. 
* * 
The R. N.-Y. is keeping up its promise regarding 
descriptions of noted farms and farm methods. This 
week a duck farm holds the place of honor. What 
Mr. Hallock does not know about‘ducks is known only 
to the duck itself. Of course a reader cannot plunge 
right in after reading this article and sell 20,000 ducks 
at about 80 cents each the first year ! This article 
may start one right, but it will take years and years 
of study to make a successful duck farmer. A man 
must take the webs out of his brain and put them on 
his feet before even a drake will listen to him. 
* * 
A young duck grows so fast that an early feeding 
on fish or other rank food will not hurt the flesh if 
such feeding is stopped in time and other foods sub¬ 
stituted. Lots of men seem to consider themselves 
ducks. They accumulate money by all sorts of ques¬ 
tionable practices and then seem to think their ‘ pile” 
will be purified and made sweet if they give up the 
dishonest methods—after the money is made. Not so. 
The rascality will stick to it. Man is less honest than 
the duck. The only way to get the curse off that 
money is to give it away so that it may do good. 
Rather have the curse with the cash, eh ? “Go and 
give all thou hast to the poor !” 
* * 
What are a dog’s legal rights ? It would seem to 
be generally supposed that the dog has special privi¬ 
leges under the law. Is that so ? A lawyer informs 
us that under the common law a dog has no more 
rights than a donkey—in fact less, because it can be 
easily proved that a donkey is a useful animal. As a 
matter of fact, unless special local laws have been 
passed preventing it, a farmer can shoot any dog found 
prowling about his premises. A sign like this, “All 
Dogs Found on This Farm Will Be Shot!” would be 
considered ample notification to the public that dogs 
were not desired. If then the dog was shot when on 
the farm, we do not believe any court would convict 
the shooter. In fact, we know of at least one Western 
sheep farm where the owners make a standing offer of 
$1 for every dog killed on the place. At least 25 have 
been slaughtered. But the dog owners ? Of course, 
they object and vow vengeance for the loss of their 
comrades. We are talking of legal risks, not private 
vendetta. Our belief is that a big and savage dog, 
when away from the society of those who can control 
him, should be regarded as a savage beast and de¬ 
stroyed as such. * # 
Good luck to the toad, say we ! He is a good friend 
of agriculture. For that reason we print his picture 
on another page. He has no beauty and small grace. 
His stomach is too large to get through the door of 
polite society, but he gets into that notch of fame in¬ 
definitely termed “there’’all the same. Bugs and 
beetles disappear down that great throat and are 
never heard from again. Make friends with the toad. 
He is all right. He is no toady, but a plain, inde¬ 
pendent citizen. The word “ toady ” came originally 
from toad-eater—one who destroys this useful animal. 
Let’s have no toadies in our family. Success to the 
toad ! May his tribe increase ! 
* # 
Mr. Engle makes a good plea for the new clover 
culture. Come to think of it, there is not so much 
difference in the cost of mowing and gnawing off the 
clover field. On one hand the cattle eat off part of 
the grass—there is no cost to the farmer in the harvest¬ 
ing. The cattle, however, leave the weeds and coarse 
grass—just what we do not want—left. The mower 
takes everything, and later the cattle pick out what 
they want and leave the rest. The only difference is 
that this selection is made in the barn instead of in 
the field, and the rejected staff is put where it can do 
no more harm. Try the plan this year. Castrate the 
weeds with the mower knives and turn them into 
steer weeds. * # 
We beg our Experiment Station entomologists to 
hit upon something that may be added to the Bordeaux 
Mixture or to Paris-green water or plaster that will 
kill the flea beetles. We have long been of the opinion 
that during seasons like the present, when they are 
abundant, they do more harm to potato vines than 
Paris-green applications or the potato beetle. The 
leaves soon become riddled with holes and the plants 
readily succumb to “ blight,” which would never 
attack them except they were weakened by injury to 
the foliage. To our old readers, it n an old story to 
say that The R. N.-Y. has tried all the probable and 
many of the possible, and several impossible insecti¬ 
cides without finding anything that impairs their 
sprightline3S. * * 
“ Hens may be all right for mothers, but they are 
no good as nurses !” The man who made this startling 
statement stood with two of his best little chicks in 
his hands. Both were dying—killed by the “old hen.” 
The little things ran over to visit friends in another 
brood and met only the cruel beak of the hen nurse. 
There is too much of this loss by ill-natured hens 
when broods of little chicks must be crowded together. 
Sometimes in long, cold storms it is not possible to 
keep the broods separated. That is where the hot air 
brooder beats the old hen. W ooden boards are never 
jeal vus and do not try to peck the life out of little 
chicKs. The old hen teaches the brood how to scratch, 
eat and care for themselves ? Not a bit that they 
can’t learn themselves j ust as well. 
* * 
Talking about hot-weather ensilage, how do you 
like this statement? “My own opinion, which is 
steadily growing stronger, is to stick to corn and put 
up an extra pit of it for summer, and let the little 
go-between crops alone, and cure the clover into hay, 
and feed it for the dry ration in the winter. Corn is a 
sure crop, a big one, and the cheapest that can be 
grown, and the silo preserves it for years, and, what 
is more, the stock like it the year round. Why not 
make a job of it in the fall, and put up enough ensi¬ 
lage to last till it comes again, and of a crop on which 
there is no discount.” That is to say, ensilage is all 
right to feed in hot weather, but not to put in the silo 
at that time. It can be fed out more safely than it 
can be put in. This may be so as applied to corn, but 
what we want to know is whether peas and oats, or 
peas alone, can be profitably put in the silo. These 
make good protein crops ; what is the best way to 
preserve them ? 
* * 
On June 25 it is proposed that 300 cowboys shall 
start from Chadron, Neb., on a “go-as-you-please” 
horse-back race of 700 miles to the Fair Grounds 
at Chicago. Each of the participants is to be allowed 
two horses “accustomed to hard work on the prairies” 
and on these the riders must make the cruel journey 
in the blaze of a late June sun. The purpose of the 
race is a sheer gambling one, two purses, one of $1,500 
and the other of $500, having been offered by the 
promoter of the brutality. The conditions of the race 
are such that it must inevitably be an atrocious bar¬ 
barity and cause a wanton waste of animal life. 
Just think of the sufferings of the poor brutes in a 
700-mile race in the glare of a torrid sun in one of the 
hottest months in the year ! Neither rest nor adequate 
food will be allowed from the commencement to the 
end of the contest and every sign of exhaustion will 
be to their inhuman riders an additional incentive to 
a crueler use of whip and spur. For the sake of 
humanity and common decency should not the author¬ 
ities of Nebraska and the other States which must 
witnesss it, put a stop to this outrageous brutality ? 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
I've often heard folks make their braes about the way things go In 
town. 
They tear onr country life to rags! Oh, don't they love to run us down! 
We don't get nowhere, so they say, ain't got no style; they crack their 
jokes, 
An’ yet they love to come an’ stay an' live right off Us country folks. 
I’ve lived in town an' seen It all. I know what life is—yes, slree! 
An’ this here farm, whate’er befall. Is plenty good enough for me. 
Suppose they want to take a ride; out comes their little dollar bill, 
While I jest harness up my horse. It's jest about enough to kill 
A farmer for to see the stuff they buy for vegetables an’ fruit; 
So little, spindling and tough; no flavor there: It wouldn't suit 
A farmer who can leave his door an’ pick the stuff right off the stalk, 
An’ get It In the pot before the grocer has a chance to talk. 
I like the freedom of the farm, with no stern boss on band to rob 
M v work an’ All me with alarm to think that I may lose my job. 
I like the flelds an' sun an' air; the town an’ I could not agree. 
Talk on, ye town folks. I don't care, the farm is good enough for me. 
Any flies on your dinner ? 
Too full—lambs that eat wool. 
Thkre Is little fight In a drake. 
Give the young orchard a show. 
You sell a man by " giving him away.” 
There’S pleasure In well-earned leisure. 
A hen cannot lay on fat and eggs together. 
Anybody hold a mortgage on your tongue? 
Senseless dollars or dollar-less sense; which do you take ? 
The price of a June-laid egg Is small, but the profit is great. 
Motto of the return crate men—" Don’t give up the shipped ! ” 
“Give us a rest! ” says the Trust. All right, we’ll give you arrest. 
Roasted and ground barley seems to be a favorite coffee substitute. 
Every article that leaves your farm should be a salesman for more 
of the same sort. 
Those web-footed friends on Long Island would soon duck the life 
out of a mortgage. 
“ A new lease of life” Is all right, but don’t let the old one run out 
by your own neglect. 
Do you realize how bard it Is to find a man who puts up ensilage In 
hot weather successfully ? 
A dead-air space Is a good protection from cold—that is air that 
Is killed Is not easily chilled. 
To use a forcible Americanism, “ what's the matter” with that silo 
substitute pictured on page 411 ? 
To get the best flavor of dnek—eat It young for the taste of the 
duck lingers long on your tongue. 
About all the use that a duck has for water Is to wash up her 
feathers just right for the slaughter. 
Would It not pay you to give the clover crop the full benefit of the 
soil and not try to get a grain crop with It ? 
What man has a right to run any business unless he Is willing to 
pay the price of “ eternal vigilance ” for It ? 
Are there many hired men like that one described on page 414 who 
run on the motive power of a wife’s tongue? 
That man has small bustness with an orchard who must plant an 
extra crop In order to give the trees the cultivation they need! 
The hoard owe mixture ought to be unpopular with boarding house 
keepers. A doughnut, by the way, may be called a bored dough. 
There Is quite a little complaint about heifers that do not give 
much of any milk from the front teats. As explained on page 423, such 
teats need kneading. 
Dexter showed the world what speed was, and Dictator perpetu¬ 
ated and Improved It. One advertised and the other sold. It Is not 
always that two brothers will work together so well. 
Is It possible that there Is any humbug In all thlB talk about the 
great advantage of growing plum trees In chicken yards? Perhaps 
the curcullos do not make such fat pickings for the chickens after all. 
One good rule for growing strawberries among grapes is to set the 
vines and berries together and give both a good manuring. Pick the 
berries as long as they are profitable and then plow them In. The life 
of the berries Is not long enough to injure the vires. 
If your commission man agrees to return your crates a long dis¬ 
tance, he will have to compete with those who will not do so. You 
may get your crates, but you will find more than their value taken 
out of something else. 
Probably none of our readers has ever tried breeding the 
aepyornls maxlmus! There Is such a bird —from Madagascar - and itli 
the largest bird living or extinct. One of Its eggs recently sold at 
auction In London for $335. It was 3414 inches long and 28 Inches 
round, holding as much as 148 common-sized hens’ eggs. No more for 
sale! 
Surprising what a " boom ” Is starting for building brick houses 
with hollow walls. Large, hollow bricks are In use, and often ordi¬ 
nary bricks are laid In courses with headers and stretchers on edge 
alternately through the course. This leaves a hollow space the 
width of a brick at the midnle of the wall, and at the same time holds 
the wall securely. 
For 20 years Wyoming has had woman suffrage and the consensus 
of opinion Is that though proportionately as many women as men 
vote, the moral mlllenium anticipated by the Introduction of female 
suffrage has not been advanced a week. It has not created family 
jars even where the heads of the household differ politically; It has 
had a tendency to eliminate from public life men who are unkind to 
their wives; but no extraordinary reforms have been introduced 
mainly because women, like men, are seldom a unit on public questions 
