6o8 
September 9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, Kditor-ln-Cbtef. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD. Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1H93. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
otlice 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 .9, 1893. 
Believing that his Anti-option Bill was talked to 
death during the last session of Congress, Senator 
Washburne will withold it, this time, until its oppo¬ 
nents have talked themselves to death on the silver 
and tariff questions. m # 
The packing and bedding value of good straw is 
greater than its feeding value or its manurial value. 
When that is so, it will pay to bale the straw and send 
it to market, using the money to buy manure or fer¬ 
tilizers or grain to feed to stock. This is an illustra¬ 
tion of the fact that there are exceptions to the old 
rule that all hay and straw should be kept at home. 
* * 
To advocates of paper money, sound and worth in¬ 
trinsically more than its money price, we might sug¬ 
gest The Rural New-Yorker as a good circulating 
medium. At SI for 52 issues the people would have 
paper money that would have three values—circula¬ 
ting, intrinsic and educational. We are prepared at 
any time to exchange a year’s subscription for a silver 
dollar. * * 
Here is a question we want discussed in The R. N. - Y.: 
What shall we do with the faithful old plow team, 
which is no longer able to do more than half or three- 
quarters of a day's work ? 
That question appeals to the heart as well as to the 
pocketbook. What can we do with these faithful old 
servants ? Come, now, what is your answer ? 
* * 
Dr. C. V. Riley tells us, in Insect Life, that there is 
strong reason to believe that the English sparrow is 
instrumental in suppressing the horse bot fly. It is 
claimed that this pest has become almost unknown in 
certain localities where the sparrows are plenty. The 
sparrows have never been seen to eat the bots in horse 
manure, nor have the insects been found in their 
stomachs, still popular belief is that they destroy, the 
insects. Who knows something about it ? 
* * 
Our Pennsylvania friend makes a good point on page 
605 when he talks about getting cows to eat up coarse 
stalks clean. Naturally they don’t care to do so. About 
the only way to make them do so is to starve them to 
it. Hunger is a dressing that will make coarse food 
eatable. But this is not business if you are feeding 
for milk or butter. There may be “ filling,” but there 
is mighty little fat in these stalk butts. Better use 
them for bedding and give the cow food that she will 
eat of her own free will. 
* * 
We give in a popular way, on page 609, the chief 
arguments advanced by General Weaver in favor of 
free silver coinage. The Populists demanded other 
things—including Government control of public ser¬ 
vice and public work for the unemployed. Free 
silver, however, was their chief demand. The recent 
vote in Congress shows that almost all the representa¬ 
tives of the purely agricultural States voted for free 
coinage as did a majority of the representatives of the 
Democratic party. What we want to ask is this— 
should the Eastern farmer pin his faith to silver or 
“ blood ”—or to a combination ? 
* * 
A large proportion of the political papers to the 
east of the Mississippi have lately exhibited a “ghoul¬ 
ish glee” in deriding the political, econ.mic and finan¬ 
cial experiments advised or put in operation in Bleed¬ 
ing Kansas, and ridiculing the men, women and party 
at present managing the politics of that State, and 
spreading its doctrines abroad. In spite of every¬ 
thing. however, the Sunflower State is prospering 
wonderfully in material ways. The returns of the 
State Board of Equalization, just published, show 
that her property has increased more than 311,000,000 
in value since last year, while her taxes have been re¬ 
duced from 3.95 to 3.0811 mills. Then again, the 
mortgage indebtedness of the farmers of the State is 
being rapidly and steadily decreased, and the clamor 
for stay laws and other expedients for avoiding or 
delaying the payment of honest debts is no longer 
heard in the land. Even in this season of general de¬ 
pression and gloom the “ calamity howler ” appears 
to have unusually few and insignificant causes for his 
hullabaloo in Bleeding Kansas. 
* * 
A French lady who has just moved to a little country 
home in New York State writes this note, which we 
print in her own words : 
There are here five farms with some 12 cows and there Is not a single 
pound of butter made and with a hundred of chickens one must wait 
days Ion* for a dozen ©kks. I think, dear sirs, that with the help of 
my books and papers I will do better; otherwise farming would be a 
folle. 
Exactly, and yet, madame, this system of “folie” 
farming is so general that you will find more or less 
of it in every neighborhood. Such men are very much 
afraid that their cows and hens wi’.l be overworked 
and hence not able to travel all day in search of food. 
“ Folie farming ! ” That is correct. Such people will 
assure you that “ book farmin’ is no good.” Don’t 
believe them—go ahead and study it up. 
* * 
The South Carolina Dispensary Law has just re¬ 
ceived another setback by the refusal of the Patent 
Office to grant the State a trademark for its liquor. 
The State officials declared their intention to sell their 
goods in the markets outside of the State, and wanted 
to register as a trademark the word “ Palmetto,” with 
the arms of the State. The Commissioner of Patents 
admitted that the State could engage in trade, both 
outside and inside its own limits, but held that the 
outside business must be well established before a 
trademark could be granted for it. As tbe Dispensary 
Law contemplated no extended business of the sort, 
the application for a trademark was denied. This law 
is certainly meeting with a world of opposition ; but, 
then, all tne greater will be its triumph should it 
succeed. # # 
The latest and most fearful of the West Indian 
cyclones which, last Monday, devastated the Atlantic 
States from Georgia to the Canadian line, wrought 
such havoc and destruction as to be a national calam¬ 
ity. From Florida to Connecticut the coast has been 
strewn with the wreckage of vessels and the bodies 
of their crews. On sea and land the loss of life is al¬ 
ready estimated at upwards of 1,500, and it is feared 
that it will amount to much more. Savannah, Port 
Royal, Beaufort, Charleston and the Sea Islands have 
suffered disastrously, having borne the brunt of the 
hurricane. The destruction of human life in all five, 
but especially in Savannah, Port Royal and the Sea 
Islands, has been appalling, and the property losses 
amount to millions of dollars. Other cities and towns 
along the coast also have been afflicted, but their 
great sufferings are dwarfed by the still heavier 
calamities of the others. For many miles inland the 
tempest and terror have wrought ruin and destruction. 
Dwellings, outbuildings, fences, crops stored and 
standing, have been destroyed or greatly injured by 
force of the wind and the floods of rain that rendered it 
solid. All along the course of the hurricane are ruins 
and wailing and distress pitiable even to hear of. It 
is not in human foresight to avert such a calamity, 
but happily it is within the power of human sym¬ 
pathy to promptly mitigate its horrors, and the gen¬ 
erous American people, who are ever eager to lend a 
helping hand to the afflicted, are sure to be prompt 
and liberal in their aid to those impoverished and be¬ 
reaved by this terrible misfortune. 
* * 
Human nature is sometimes a queer combination 
of contradictions and contraries. Appeals have been 
made from western Kansas, where the farmers have 
been sorely stricken with drought, for seed wheat to 
enable them to put in their crop. If we are to believe 
the reports, next to no responses have been received, 
and some of the answers have been refusals. It would 
seem that the farmers who have been favored with 
good, or reasonably good, crops should be both ready 
and willing to help the unfortunates in their own 
State. But while one report says not, another informs 
us that they are planning to send relief to the “unem¬ 
ployed and starving workingmen of New York,” and 
intimates that it is done for political effect. This is 
certainly a case of defective judgment and misguided 
sympathy. It is plain that charity should begin 
nearer home. It is ridiculous for farmers, especially 
at such a distance, to be sending relief to the poor of 
this, the richest city on the American Continent, and 
abundantly able and willing to care for its own poor. 
The larger part of these unemployed workingmen— 
at least the part who are making the most noise—are 
a lot of loud-mouthed, ignorant, dirty, lazy, foreign- 
born Anarchists, most of whom can’t make them] 
selves understood in English, and most of whom won’t 
work, unless compelled by circumstances. They are 
impostors of the most blatant type. True, there are 
deserving workingmen out of work, some of them, 
perhaps, suffering ; but be not deceived, you farmers, 
these are not the class who are howling for bread and 
blood, and are making lurid speeches, and ten chances 
to one, these are not of the class who will get the 
relief which is sent. Take care of your unfortunate 
and deserving neighbors first, and then look a little 
further from home for worthy objects of that charity 
for which the American farmer is noted. 
* * 
One of the plainest evidences of the extent of con¬ 
traction in all kinds of business is afforded by the 
weekly record of bank clearances throughout the 
country. For the week ending August 26, these 
amounted in all to 3653,000,000 against 3973,000,000 
during the corresponding week last year, the decrease 
being 3320,000,000, or about one-third. J ust now affairs 
appear to be about stationary, the number of factories, 
mines, banks, etc., which are daily resuming oper¬ 
ations about counterbalancing those which are shut¬ 
ting down. The prospect henceforth, however, appears 
to have a brighter aspect. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
All those big promises made In the spring 
Summer Is ending up; what do the? bring? 
Read well on paper when April was here. 
How did they work? Are the wheels out of gear? 
Now ere Jack Frost with his merciful hand 
Blots out the record let’s see where you stand. 
Started with plenty of plans in your head’ 
Didn’t stay by ’em—made new ones Instead? 
Didn’t get down on the top of one plan? 
St- y there and work It right out like a man? 
That’s the story, and Kate writes across 
Turned into loss for the lack of a boss! 
Keep dairy sheep. 
Get a lean on your pork. 
Mulch the top of the gulch. 
Training prevents straining. 
Stand shun— the beer stand. 
Small politics l9 sull- try work. 
Daily bread and dally breeding. 
Who sets the pace In your family ? 
The hog needs a pen shun of grass. 
A matted door gives a clean floor. 
Act shun— on things you are ashamed of. 
What “ small ” man ever got a big chance ? 
are you foreman or hlndman on your farm? 
Unsought— the man who sells a short quart. 
How many loafers do you propose to winter ? 
The orator’s sore throat is a hoarse chestnut. 
It’s a poor manager who Is simply a man ager. 
The potato beetles seem to stick to their nfttlng. 
The bull on the hay mow Is not looking for a row 
Let’s deseat some of our deceitful county officials. 
How can you be Independent without Independence ? 
Several “ We Want to Know” Items In “ Discussion.” 
Never buy an unpricked bubble. W1 d costs too much. 
Try dieting, you folks who seem determined to die eating. 
A stick of caustic potash is a cause stick, the effect Is—no horn on the 
calf. 
You could paint the house with the butter that slips through the 
churn. 
How much time have you lost In your life from stopping “ to look at 
the clock ? ” 
Poverty’s pinch! poverty’s pinch! Tighter than cow-boy ere drew 
up his cinch. 
The chances are that you can’t stand prosperity; It will knock you 
over and out. * 
The scrub man tries to put a poor excuse between himself and well- 
deserved abuse. 
There Is no copper In copperas; remember that In buying chemicals. 
Copperas Is sulphate of iron. 
“ Lange lebe die Rural New-Yorker!” writes a hearty German 
friend. There Is a good prospect for it! 
Think of the work and time lost because right hand has to wait on 
left. Make left help himself or confess yourself one-handed. 
Horns on Dorset lambs are not needed. Who have ever tried 
“killing” the horns with caustic potash as they kill calves’ horns? 
And now comes gay September-the beginning of the fall. We love 
her, but she has one mighty fault, because she turns things over—it 
Is evident to all—that she shocks folks with an awful summer’s halt. 
The hoe Is a relic of the Mosaic age. It gives New England boys the 
hoe's ache according to Mr. Paine, whose name at least qualifies him 
to say so. By the way, though. Mr. P. uses a sharpened hoe to cut 
corn with. 
We have told our readers about one family that solved the dog 
question. The family washing is done In an old swing churn, and the 
dog supplies the power. The deg Is no less a “ watcher” because he 
Is a worker. 
Will cattle fed on a blue-grass sod waste more of the stalks of 
corn than they would feeding in the bam? What they leave Is just 
where you want it for the next corn crop, instead of in the manure 
pile to muzzle your fork. 
Every one has noticed the hard excrescences on the Insides of 
horses’ legs. They serve a useful purpose In excreting waste matter 
from the system. The English call them “chestnuts” which is as 
good a name as any other. 
During the Fremont campaign one effective cry was “ Give’em 
Jessie 1 ” Mr. Connelly, It appears, has received this desirable preset t 
in the person of his wife, and he has proceeded to give bis debts a dose 
of his wife’s name. See here, you farmer, how often does your run¬ 
ning help mate have to come to a walk in order to let you catch up ? 
IT Is commonly said that losses by storms are total—absolutely 
without compensation. In 1885, however, a terrible West Indian cy¬ 
clone having struck Charleston. S C., inflicted such heavy losses that 
ever since many of the citizens have carried cyclone insurances. 
This forethought brought them in, It is reported, about $1,000,000 to 
assuage their grief at the losses Inflicted by last Monday's hu. rlcane. 
The prudent can thus often turn even misfortune to their advantage. 
