720 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 28 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts ., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, Edltor-ln-Cblef. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD. Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted 1S93. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW YORKER. 
Be sure that 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 , OCTOBER 28, 1893. 
RE PA RA T10N. 
It is with no little satisfaction that we may now in¬ 
form our friends that a Rugosa hybrid rose will be 
mailed to every subscriber who applied for one or 
more of the Rugosa set, injudiciously, but in good 
faith, offered to applicants by the late business man¬ 
agement. The rose to be sent has been named by the 
Storrs & Harrison Company, of Painesville, O. (who 
have for five years been propagating it for introduc¬ 
tion) the Agnes Emily Carman. It is the first hybrid 
with Rosa rugosa known to have bean effected, and it 
would have been offered for sale several years ago but 
for the difficulty found in its propagation. The set 
originally offered, of which the Carman rose is not one, 
will be mailed to all who have applied, just as soon as 
a sufficient stock shall have accumulated—and that 
without further application. 
We are delighted at the opportunity thus presented 
of repairing in part the injustice we unwittingly did 
our friends in not filling their orders promptly accord¬ 
ing to agreement. If they could know how grieved 
we were over this failure to keep our promise, they 
would, we are sure, accept it as a further amend. 
Illustrations and a further account of the foliage 
and flowers of the rose will be presented in the near 
future. 
'I he Carman No. 1 Potato .—Small tubers, or cut pieces 
M large ones of the above, will also be mailed to those 
who have applied for it without further application. 
The potato crop, where the stock was grown, was a 
partial failure, and the quantity in store is #o small 
that it will be offered for sale next year at an almost 
prohibitive price. No further applications can be filled. 
It is believed by those who should know that this po¬ 
tato will prove the most valuable of any variety ever 
introduced. Practically it does not yield any small 
tubers. The necessity of cutting larger tubers to mail 
to our friends is therefore apparent. 
* * 
It is about time to begin preparations for holding a 
farmers’ institute. It is at least time to begin talking 
it up. Begin now and get the people to discussing it. 
It is well enough to have something to look forward 
to. Try this year to get out a class of men that never 
attended before. * * 
We begin this week a series of sketches of one of 
the most interesting farms in the coun* /y. Mr. Hicks 
is a genius in the way of contriving means and ma¬ 
chines for saving useless labor and economizing 
strength and space. The Hicks farm is like a museum 
of labor-saving devices—most of them home-made. 
We propose to describe many of these simple contriv¬ 
ances, and it will be a dull reader who cannot get the 
value of a life’s subscription out of this series of 
articles. # # 
The hard times and financial stringency have de¬ 
veloped some curious features. Shortage of money 
seems to have had the effect of curtailing some of the 
bad habits of mankind. Wholesale dealers in tobacco 
say that the quantities consumed have fallen away 
below those of former years ; that in place of having 
their stocks well sold out, they have a large surplus 
on hand. Consumers are not purchasing their usual 
allowance, and retailers are buying in small quanti¬ 
ties. The same tale of woe comes from the brewers, 
many of whom have their cold storage warehouses 
filled with beer, for which there is a greatly reduced 
demand. The whisky distillers tell the same story, 
and all complain that their business has been greatly 
curtailed. The reason is that the consumers of these 
products are found largely among the poorer laboring 
classes, and as many of them have been out of em¬ 
ployment, or working at reduced wages, their pur¬ 
chasing ability has been greatly lessened. But the 
effect is likely to extend still further, and largely 
affect those who produce the raw materials for these 
and other products. The brunt of much of this loss 
must eventually fall upon the farmer. It is likely to 
be many months before a full recovery from this de¬ 
pression, and its effects are necessarily far reaching. 
# * 
It seems that we were wrong in saying that in New 
York State women are to vote for delegates to the 
coming constitutional convention. A bill to give them 
that privilege was introduced at the last session of the 
legislature, and passed the Assembly 72 to 27. That 
was all that came of it. The politicians gave it that 
bit of life, and then smothered it. They were forced 
to take some action in the matter, because of .he flood 
of petitions that poured in upon them. 
# * 
Again, again and again does this matter of avoiding 
the middleman by making sales direct to buyers, come 
up. The R. N.-Y. is prepared to act as middleman as 
far as possible, but direct selling neve r can be a suc¬ 
cess until the producer can form a fair estimate as to 
the cost of growing his product. How can he tell 
what is a fair price to charge unless he knows the 
difference between that price and the cost? Many 
farmers cannot make up their minds about selling or 
holding a crop. The trouble is that they do not know 
whether the “ going price” represents profit or loss. 
This is an old story with us, but it is true. 
* * 
A traveling salesman' for a large dry goods firm 
in this city, who has just returned from an extended 
Southern trip reaching down into Texas, says that he 
has $8,000 worth of orders on his books for spring 
delivery, where, last year at this time, he had $00,000, 
and that other salesmen tell much the same story. He 
attributes this condition of affairs to the dilatory 
action of the Senate, which renders the outcome of any 
business ventures extremely problematical. People 
will not invest money so long as there is so much 
uncertainty. Business was picking up a while ago 
when the immediate repeal of the Silver Law seemed 
probable, but is now getting worse. Unless some¬ 
thing definite is promptly done, the result is extremely 
difficult to foretell. # * 
The R N.-Y. doeB not pretend to be a political 
prophet. It has gocd opportunities for watching the 
signs of the times—particularly among farmers. Three 
years ago we said that rightly or wrongly the people 
wanted a reform of some sort in the tariff; also that 
the People’s Party had come to stay. With this many 
of our old friends disagreed, but events proved that 
we were right. It now seems to us that the demand 
for the increased use of silver as money is increasing 
every day among the farmers of the country. This is 
stronger in the West and South, but by no means 
entirely confined to those sections. We do not mean 
what is sometimes vaguely named as “ free silver,” 
but the increased use of the white metal at a regularly 
defined ratio value with gold. 
* * 
Three children living in this city were made ill by 
eating grapes. It was said that the grapes had been 
sprinkled with Paris-green “to kill worms.” Forth¬ 
with the inspectors of the Health Department were 
instructed to be on the lookout for poisonous grapes. 
The chemist of the Board of Health gravely informed 
the anxious public that he had never heard of Paris- 
green being used for such a purpose. That “ the 
Bordeaux Mixture is commonly used to kill bugs and 
worms on grape vines.” What a great fountain of 
agricultural and horticultural wisdom! And it is 
upon the simple word of such as he that tons of hard- 
earned produce are often seized and condemned to 
destruction without appeal, and without opportunity 
for explanation. Truly this is a great state of affairs. 
What will the farmers do about it ? 
* * 
The only way to drive a nail so it will hold is to 
keep hammering away at it, blow after blow. The 
same way with a new idea ; it must be presented again 
and again and forced upon the minds of those who 
need it. We had a good illustration of this in a recent 
conversation with a dairyman. “The R. N.-Y.,” he 
said, “ has been hammering away in prose and poetry 
about driving out the robber cows. I didn’t pay much 
attention to it at first, but the more you talked about 
it, the more plausible it seemed, and I said, ‘ I guess 
there is something in that.’ I got a Babcock tester 
and went at it. The result was that in my herd of 18, I 
found five cows that did not pay for their food. One cow 
with a big pedigree that I had been bragging about 
proved so poor, by the test, that I was glad to sell her 
for $20.” Five active robbers in a herd of 18, will steal 
about all the profits the 13 honest cows can make. 
Life is too short and sweet to spend it helping cow 
thieves steal from your wife and children. Test out 
the robber cows. Keep at them ! 
* * 
In showing how chemical fertilizers and a good 
grass sod may take the place of stable manure, The 
R. N.-Y. has often used as an illustration the fact 
that anything that will serye for feeding stock will 
also serve for feeding plants without first feeding it 
to animals. This is brought to mind on reading an 
old English report, printed in 1829, of the way oil¬ 
cake was first found by one farmer to be good food 
for sheep. He used the ground oil-cake for manure 
on a mowing field and then turned in the sheep for 
pasture. To his great surprise he found that both 
grass and manure disappeared. He called the animals 
“ devils in sheep’s clothing,” because they “ ate grass 
and manure and began upon the soil itself ! ” That 
was one way of learning that the same substance 
might be used both for manure and sheep food. The 
next lesson was that there was more profit in its last 
named use, because the sheep took from it mostly the 
substances that could not nourish the plants and re¬ 
turned, as manure, almost all that the plants could 
utilize. # # 
BREVITIES. 
I ain’t no hand to Ice my grip an’ tell all hands to quit the ship 
When snarlin’ trouble c.mes along an' sets bis teeth In good an’ strong. 
An’ pricks yer heait way to the core; 1 Jest hang on a little more 
An' sorter bolster up my hope an’ give my falta a little rope, 
An’ rest content that some good day I’ll capture every cent o’ pay 
That 1 have squarely earned. My wife, somenow, to save her very life. 
Can t see things tnat way. Wnen Jack Frost jest blighted growln' 
things, she lost 
Her hope; them dreary winter days rl/. up before her eyeB. I says. 
“ Jest see that Staple tree out there, all colored up so red and fair; 
Jack Frost has painted out the green—a Hner eight 1 never seen.” 
She see the p int, an’ that same nig t I 11 bet our house was shinin' 
bright 
With autumn loaves, tacked everywhere, a bright-red cluster in her 
hair, 
An’ on her cheek a bit of bloom—that was the best thing In the room; 
An’ when the wind of winter grieves, somehow them pretty autumn 
leaves 
Will keep u thlnkln' of the flowers, an’ we won’t mind the lonely 
hours, 
An’ first ye know the birds will sing, an’ here we be again at spring. 
Them autumn leaves are dear to me I call ’em Jack Frost’s legacy I 
Any bed bugs on bats ? 
The skunk Is a de grubber. 
Do you get paid for rainy days ? 
IF you must go out, don't bach out. 
We want a law against chin-er men. 
A man In tears Is a crying de-manned. 
Give honor to the hard-working roots. 
Mu. Mapes tarred and feathered the lice. 
What percentage of “go ” in your make up 1 
Strawberry plants are “ grub ” for the grub. 
The selfish man Is like a well-known shell fish. 
Tub thing that murks the sky of a shirk. Is work. 
Sweet apples for a “ condition powder,” page 727 
are you “ reliable ” In the eyes of your neighbors ? 
Who can name a cheaper chicken food than grasshoppers? 
Did you ever buy a farm without getting out of the wagon ? 
IJkavey mare and heavy feed—these two things have ne'er agreed. 
Commission-men have too many sins of omission in settling 
accounts. 
Have you ever used the seeding attachment on disc harrows? How 
does It work ? 
It Is but a short step from the silo to that scheme of cutting the 
stalks In the mow. 
Plants or Insects-can’t you salt the former to death easier than 
you can the latter ? 
The West needs some of the rest of the East and the East needs 
some of the Western yeast 
That Is au Ingenious device for soaking potato seed described by 
Mr. Bllsborrow on page 714. 
The lelt hand knows what the right hand doeth, but for lack of 
education cannot match the work 
The man who pays the nurserymen his good hard cash, has a right 
to feel Indignant when they send him trash. 
All our sweet corn growing readers are Invited to arise and answer 
those questions proposed by Mr. Taicott on page 718. 
IS It your experience that the proportion of roosters to the average 
eggs Bet is greater w ith Leghorns than other breeds? 
Don't you think you would be foolish to buy seed potatoes grown 
In the same sort of land you have selected for the crop ? 
Every man who pushes a wheelbarrow gets the “cart before the 
horse” and can do better tnau with tne cart behind him! 
Pound for pound there Is a higher feeding value In pumpkin than 
In turnip. How easy it Is to raise tons of pumpkins in the corn Ueid. 
What Is better for feeding until the silo Is opened? 
There certainly Is a wide margin between the statements made hy 
Messrs. Wyckotf and Carew as to the number of eggs needed to pio- 
dnce one laying pullet. How do you explain this difference? 
“Disc” Is a new word In Western agriculture-used as plow and 
hoe are used—to perform a certain operation. The use of the disc 
harrows is bo general that the special work they perform has created 
the new use of this word. 
The Populist says, “ I will hoe my own row I” 
No more dropsical ’crats, I confess, 
Ana If my opinion of 'crats you would know, 
From crat just drop the c and add * 
Our friend, the actor, who tells us about his farming cn page 726 
adds: " I learned more from reading The R. N.-Y. than I did from 
any of my neighbors, for The Rural always told me straight, while 
some of those whom 1 asked for information misled me by telling me 
wrong.” We always try to prompt folks right. 
SnouLD a bee have greater protection at law than a dog ? In sev¬ 
eral States efforts have been made to pass laws prohibiting spraying 
at certain times because bees are liable to be killed by the poison 
used on the trees. Why not compel the bee owner to keep his bees at 
home by providing bee pastures there ? That Is, In effect, what he has 
to do with his other stock 
