592 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 2 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts ., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBKKT 8 . CARMAN, Kditor-ln-Cbief. 
HERBERT W. COLLING WOOD, Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1393. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
Be sure tbat the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
office and State, and what the remittance Is for, appear in every letter. 
Money orders and bank drafts on New York are the safest means of 
transmitting money. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1893. 
Under what circumstances can you afford to dig 
potatoes by hand ? Thousands of farmers who never 
dug them any other way will say that is a foolish 
question. It is as much as saying that some of them 
have lost time. So they have—lots of it. The potato 
is getting to be more and more the crop for big enter¬ 
prises and machine work. The more it gets into that 
condition, the smaller show does the man have who 
uses nothing but his hands. It is getting so now that 
hand work is only profitable on jobs that a machine 
cannot possibly do. * # 
A ustralian farmers have sent a shipment of oat-hay 
to England as an experiment. At home these farmers 
depend largely upon grain cut while green and cured 
like hay, for stock food. Now they seek to introduce 
this hay in England in place of dried grass. We doubt 
if they can succeed. We have fed oat and barley hay 
and know that it is a cheap and excellent fodder, but 
it is next to impossible to get the average feeder to 
believe that any forage can take the place of Timothy 
for horses. We are now feeding oat hay to horses, 
but could not sell it for anything like its feediag value. 
# * 
“ Oh !” says farmer Brovin, “ The Rural tells too 
much about what rich and high-toned farmers are do¬ 
ing. It may be interesting, but it doesn’t teach so 
much as an interview with a practical, every-day 
farmer would.” Let’s see about that. The R. N.-Y. 
goes to the farms where the best farming is being 
done—that it may record the latest and best tested 
methods. Take the articles in this issue on “ Certified 
Milk” and “ Sheep Farming.” Messrs. Francisco and 
Wetmore are, neither of them, rich or high-toned, but 
they have thought out new ways of making money on 
the farm. Can’t you copy at least a portion of their 
scheme ? * # 
When you read an article in The R, N.-Y. that does 
not just fit in with your ideas of economy or probabil¬ 
ity, it is well to remember that locality makes a great 
difference in farm practices. What might pay in Ver¬ 
mont might prove a failure in Illinois. This is a great 
big country and success in any part of it depends on 
your confining your labor to the operations that pay 
in your locality. Farming changes however—or 
rather the markets and outside conditions change and 
we are constantly forced to try and adopt new methods 
that have succeeded elsewhere. In fact the only way 
to progress is to test the ideas of others and make them 
practicable. * * 
Among measures of relief demanded by English 
farmers are the following : 
I’rolilbltlon of the use of sugar in the manufacture of beer; prohi¬ 
bition of the sale of Imported fresh milk (for sanitary reasons, as we 
cannot ensure Its freedom from disease germs); control of the great 
markets, through the medium of which the producer is systematically 
deirauded. 
What is this but “ Protection ” in its most advanced 
stage ? The use of sugar in beer is to be prohibited 
so that more hops will be used, and a desire for higher 
prices for milk is at the bottom of the cry against 
foreign milk. As to the control of the markets, that 
is a business matter for the English farmer to settle 
himself. lie can hardly call on the government to do 
his business for him. This is a problem for his own 
solving through cooperation. 
* * 
While there is a strong tendency of countrymen 
townward in all parts of the civilized world, there has 
lately been developed a remarkable tendency of rich 
and well-to-do city men country ward. This is all the 
more important, because, being in the fashion, it is 
sure to be imitated. Hundreds, yes, thousands of peo¬ 
ple who formerly spent a costly fortnight at Newport, 
Saratoga or other expensive resorts of wealth and 
fashion, may now be found for a season in modest sea¬ 
side cottages or log houses in the woods. Then again, 
the immense growth of suburban residences indicates 
not only a measure of economy, but also a love for 
country life. Another development in the same direc¬ 
tion is the growing popularity of out-door-sports in 
late years. Hardly a decade has elapsed since the 
introduction of tennis, bicycling, lacrosse and other 
op :n air amusements, with facilities for summer 
recreation open even to the poorest in country places. 
There are numerous other instances of the same kind, 
all of a healthful and desirable nature. 
* # 
We have been reading of the successful trial of a 
steam digger in Illinois. An ordinary traction engine 
was fitted with a series of spade-like handles which 
worked behind in much the way an ordinary spade is 
worked in the hands of a man. Thus as the engine 
slowly crawled across the field, a space eight or ten 
feet wide was spaded and turned to the depth of eight 
or more inches—the soil being far better pulverized 
and fitted for seed than can be done by a plow. In 
England these diggers are in quite general use and are 
said to give very general satisfaction. The steam 
plow has not given very general satisfaction. Its 
work is coarse and uneven and while it may answer 
on large grain fields where everything must be done 
in a rapid, wholesale way, it will not answer on soils 
or crops that demand a more careful preparation. 
The digger does better work than the plow and on the 
large, stonrless fields of the West may prove success¬ 
ful and still further increase the advantage of the 
Western farmer in decreasing the cost of a bushel or 
pound. * * 
Several things about New England farming are 
sure to be noticed by the stranger. The baled hay 
trade must be very heavy, and most of this hay comes 
from outside New England. The average New Eng¬ 
land farm has an orchard, a good-sized poultry house, 
a few acres given to potatoes and garden truck and 
a big area of rough land given up to pasture. This 
pasture land is usually so poor that it rarely pays for 
taxes and interest. The visitor from a New Jersey 
hay farm finds his own baled hay sold in these New 
England stores. At once he wants to know why 
these poverty-stricken pastures are not made to pro¬ 
vide this hay. The usual answer is that there is a 
lack of stable manure ; but this is no answer at all to 
one who conducts a hay farm without a single head 
of surplus stock, and uses chemicals entirely. Why 
not make hay farms of these worn-out pastures ? 
W hen parts of them are plowed up and manured for 
small fruits or vegetables they yield good crops. 
That shows what they could be made to do if well 
seeded and fed. New England need not buy a single 
bale of hay. # 
In view of the excellence of the farm as a school for 
the early training of farmers’ sons to become men of 
keen observation and robust health, is it any wonder 
that so many country boys become the life and soul 
of the cities, and achieve success in finance, politics 
and all the other walks in life ? What is a better 
training school for capable men than the homestead 
of an independent, intelligent American farmer, 
whose boys are learning real things while town boys 
are often studying in books the mere reflection of 
things? At an early age the farmer’s son learns about 
land and soils, crops and their rotation, the seasons 
and weather signs. He is familiar with animals from 
his childhood ; he rides the horses and aids in feeding 
stock. His young strength helps in planting and 
harvesting. He knows a great deal about woodcraft 
and the animals that tenant the woodland. He hunts, 
fishes, helps repair fences, and becomes skilled with 
tools and farm machinery, and in all these open-air 
occupations he learns to observe closely and clearly, 
and develops splendid health. Small wonder that 
when brought in competition with the weaker and 
less observant denizens of towns and cities he so often 
shows his superiority. 
# # 
There’s a delegation of Bermudans now in Wash¬ 
ington whose mission it is to seek a repeal, or at least 
a reduction of the duties on Bermudan products— 
garden truck almost exclusively. The annual export 
trade of the islands amounts to 8554,184, of which 
8522,178 is with the United States, and the import 
trade is 81,580,558, of which 8973,957 is with this coun¬ 
try. Thus the exports to the United States exceed 
the total exports of the islands to all other countries 
by over 450 per cent; while the value of the imports 
from this country exceeds the value of the exports to* 
it by nearly half a million dollars. The duty paid 
annually on the products of the islands under the 
McKinley tariff amounts to a sum equal to 810 per 
head of the whole population of the Bermudas, and 
exceeds the amount obtained by the islands from 
their entire tariff by 815,000. In view of these facts 
and because the products of the place, viz,, potatoes, 
onions and other vegetables, are nearly all imported 
between April 1 and June 15, a period when for the 
most part, similar products of the United States are 
not on the market, the commissioners desire that 
the products of the islands should be admitted into 
this country on the same favorable terms as similar 
products are admitted into Bermuda, and, if this is 
impracticable, that such products be subject to the 
same duties only as before the McKinley tariff went 
into operation. This is a question in which the 
farmers of the country, especially those of the Eastern 
and Middle States, and still more of the Southern 
States which supply the Northern markets with early 
vegetables, are chiefly interested. 
* * 
We learn that a Michigan man has invented a way 
to fill peach baskets from the bottom : 
The basket Is made without a bottom, and with an Interior rim on 
which the bottom, after the basket is filled, rests and Is readily tacked 
In place by the packer. The cover and tarletan are first fastened In 
place, and the first peaches put In the basket can be more advan¬ 
tageously placed. 
That is to say the facing is done first instead of last 
* * 
Some months ago The R N.-Y. printed a humorous 
account of a dream in which the writer was supposed 
to fly forward 100 years into space. He pleasantly 
estimated what the seed catalogue of 1993 might be if 
there is to be a proportionate growth in the present 
exa gK era tcd statements. He dreamed that all the 
seedsmen had come together in one big trust. It 
seems that some people have taken all this seriously. 
The following note is a sample of several: 
I have seen an article copied from The R. N.-Y. In which It was 
stated that It had received a huge catalogue from the Consolidated 
Universal Seed and Plant Company; but it did not give the company's 
address. I would like to get such a catalogue, as I want to find some¬ 
thing particular If The Rural has no use for it, and will send it to 
me, I’ll pay the postage. 
A century hence The R. N.-Y. may be able to sup- 
p]y the book. Now we must take it out in dreaming. 
# * 
BREVITIES. 
What Is the hardest thing under the sun ? 
Easy to read as you go on the run; 
Nature gave nothing so hard In her plan 
As the tough head of the know-lt-all man. 
What’s the worst worker of any you know, 
Makes the most motion with least work to show ? 
If you can’t call It to mind, sir, I can- 
It Is the tongue of the know-it-all man. 
What Is the most Ignorant thing In the world ? 
What is the most brazen flag ever unfurled ? 
I can soon name you this wonderful span 
Boiled Into one—'tls the know-lt-all man. 
Pray, then, for modesty, pull down the bit 
Over your tongue till you quite control It. 
Don’t waste your powder, don’t flash in the pan, 
Don’t be a miserable know-it-all man ! 
Ever see any clean dirt? 
What are you geared to? 
Five achers of corn to the foot. 
What mental yeast do you use ? 
The dog should be a yard-sticker. 
The Leghorn hen Is a lay dy bird. 
The poultry will soon be moulting. 
Don’t give the horse too much hay. 
Mouth gas never run a farm engine. 
The narrow man gets under the harrow. 
8end the lice to death per fumes of sulphur. 
The simplest way to preserve fruit is to eat it. 
If you are Number 1, your wife Is “ A Number 1.” 
Hesitate a good deal before sowing all that wheat. 
The whine consumption of this country Is too heavy. 
Who can tell about trimming sweet potato vines— page 589? 
“ Facing ” a barrel of apples Is to sell them on their “ cheek.” 
Which do you find better for sowing with clover—rye or wheat ? 
Any such thing as a “good market sort” that is not good eating? 
Don’t let any one with a new scheme for “doing up fruit” do you up. 
Potatoes and onions are likely to be hop crops so far as prices gol 
JUST as honorable to start an idea as to work it out. Not so profit¬ 
able, though. 
Who will pay you $1 per bushel for your wheat ? W. & B. Leghorn, 
dealers In eggs. 
Just waive voui right to wave your own flag till you do something 
worth waving about. 
Shoot a few of the lions In your way and thus increase the analysis 
of confidence In yourself. 
Wheat may be cash, but you have to buy It at a premium if you 
put a fair value on your labor. 
A muck BED on your farm? Lucky man. For centuries Nature has 
been storing fertility there for yon! 
Some creamery-men could easily fill an hour with the tricks 
attempted by their patrons to cheat the Babcock test. It all ended 
with attempt. 
When you hire a man by the year, specify that his pay is not to be 
divided equally through the 12 months, but Is to be low in winter and 
higher in summer. 
“AN eloquent expounder of the cow!” Is the way a well-known dairy 
lecturer was Introduced. Does that mean that he used to be a pounder 
of cows ? What Is an “ eloquent" way to pound them ? 
When haying and harvesting were done by hand power the amount 
of drink taken to the fields for the workers was something great. Now 
that horses do It—who thinks of carrying water for them? 
And now they say the Jerseys are the champions on cheese, the 
Guernseys and the Short-horns are left outside In the freeze. They 
did It as the English say with just the greatest h’eese. You’ll se by 
knocking off the h and also two good ee s. 
To show how cheap wheat has upset former ideas about feeding 
stock, the story comes from London of a truckman who found low- 
grade flour baked into bread the cheapest horse food he could find 
He only gave it up because the poor humans stole it lrorn the horses 
for their own eating. 
Our readers of last fall will remember the scheme of Mr. O. W. 
Mapes, who proposed to raise hens in scattered small houses with an 
electrical contrivance for feeding them and shutting the doors. This 
scheme has been, in part, worked out, and Mr. Mapes will soon tell 
us about It under the title, “ Hens by the Acre.” 
