1»93 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
721 
THE PROSPECT. 
The Rhode Island Experiment Station has engaged 
in a new field of work—certainly out of the usual 
order of things done at the stations. Rhode Island 
turkeys are famous for their fine quality, and in 
former years turkey-raising was an important feature 
of the poultry interest in the little State. Frcm eight 
towns nearly 30 tons of dressed turkeys were shipped 
last year. The business now has sadly fallen off, and 
is nothing like what it used to he. The chief of many 
reasons given for this is that the turkey stock has been 
weakened—the blood has deteriorated — until the 
young turkjys easily fall victims to disease. It is 
simply harder to raise the young turkeys than in 
former years. The poultry people at the Rhode Island 
Station believed that the main trouble lay in a lack of 
vitality and hardiness in the breeding stock. New 
blood was needed, and they went to the American 
wild turkey for that. They procured a wild gobbler 
and other birds with more or less wild blood, and pro¬ 
ceeded to cross them on hens of the common stock. A 
forthcoming bulletin gives the interesting details of 
this breeding experiment. Of course, we shall tell all 
about it later, but now we wish to refer to the new 
line of work taken up by the station. Having secured 
a good supply of birds with more or less wild blood, 
the station purposes to distribute them among turkey 
growers, charging simply the market price per pound, 
and $1 in addition for each bird. The plan is to get 
this new blood into the farmers’ flocks as cheaply as 
possible. It seems to us that this is a very practical 
and praiseworthy move. The Rhode Island Station 
easily ranks first in poultry work, because its experi¬ 
ments are business-like and practical, and written up 
in an entertaining way. 
X X t 
Thk turkey-raising business is capable of being 
largely increased. The introduction of wild blood 
will prove of great advantage to those who breed 
large flocks as it will give hardier and stronger birds, 
and prevent, in part at least, the present heavy lo«s 
of poults. It seems that several breeders in Rhode 
Island have tried the wild blood and with considerable 
success. Most of them, however, had special markets 
for their birds, and it remained for the Rhode Island 
Station to put this blood within easy reach of breeders. 
Referring to other uses of wild blood Mr. Cushman, 
the poultry manager, writes : 
Breeders of geese use the Canada wild goose to cross with Black 
African geese. This cross gives a mongrel that Is sterile and that 
Eells at about twice the price the common goose brings. 
It is also said that turkeys have been successfully 
caponized, but this does not appear to be a profitable 
operation. ^ | J 
Wk have often given the figures to show the enor¬ 
mous consumption of liquors in this country. The total 
value of a year’s consumption gives a sum so vast as 
to stagger the mind. The misery and wretchedness 
caused by this drinking could not be told in a century; 
and who is benefited by this vast business ? The 
farmer, it may be said, grows the crude products from 
which the liquors are made and hence he is benefited. 
We may easily see what nonsense that is by compar¬ 
ing the price paid the farmer for a bushel of corn and 
the price paid the rum-seller for the whisky made 
from that corn. The difference between the corn and 
the whisky is lost between the farmer and the 
drinker, and the worst feature is that this lost money 
not only does no good in the world, but is chiefly 
taken from helpless ones who must suffer for the lack 
of it. The question of prohibition or temperance is a 
very practical one for farmers, and it is encouraging 
to find that thoughtful men are coming more and 
more so to regard it. For example, this is what the 
Scotch Farming World says : 
The fact stares us In the face that enormous quantities of liquors 
—beer, brandy, whisky, rum and Innumerable others-are consumed 
dally by persons who seldom. If ever, see the color of milk. Their 
children, too, are gsunt and pale for want of this great and cheap 
commodity, which Is a thousand limes better and three times cheaper 
than beer. If only one-fourth part of the money spent in beer by 
those poor people were devoted to the purchase of milk, all the farms 
In the country would be severely taxed to keep up the supply. 
The idea is that if but a portion of the money now 
spent for liquors could be spent for needed milk, 
dairy farming, the system needed to build up British 
farms, would become more than profitable. It is the 
same with other products, here, as well as in England. 
The great tribute paid to liquor leaves nothing to pay 
for the needed food that the farmer has to sell. The 
same dollar cannot buy both beer and bread. 
X X X 
Probably few, if any, farmers but prefer good, hard 
roads to the miserable, muddy, dusty abominations 
usually found throughout the country. It isn’t a ques¬ 
tion of preference, but of pocketbook, for good roads, 
like other good things, cost money, and the farmers 
at large are not ready to put any great amount of 
money into roads. There seems to be something of 
an injustice in the way some of the roads are built. 
The principal highways connecting leading towns are 
selected for a beginning, and the people fer the whole 
township or county are taxed for constructing these. 
This seems sensible, but while all are taxed, all do not 
receive equal benefits. The man living along one of 
these improved highways can put on a full load and 
take it to town without any trouble. This the farmer 
living off the road, and having to drive over a poor 
pieee of road first, cannot do, for the ability of his 
team is limited to what it can draw over the poorer 
road. Again, the value of property along the im¬ 
proved highway is increased proportionately more 
than that along the other. It seems that those owning 
property along the former should pay the larger 
amount of tax. But as these schemes of road improve¬ 
ment usually contemplate the ultimate improvement 
of all the roads of a township or county, taking the 
leading ones for a starter, this will probably not be 
considered feasible. j j j 
But Col. Pope, the never-tiring advocate of good 
roads, has a scheme for building these without 
burdening the people. He would pay for the improve¬ 
ments by a graduated inheritance tax, increasing the 
per cent of tax according to the increase in the inherit¬ 
ance. This method would certainly not take the money 
from the poor to any extent, but largely from those 
best able to pay it. While there sometimes appears to 
he an injustice in this kind of a tax, it is generally 
satisfactory to all but those whom it taxes. One thing 
in its favor is that it is easier to ascertain the amount 
due than in other cases, for in the settlement of an es¬ 
tate, a schedule of the property must be filed, and it is 
not so easy to hide as before the death of the owner. 
Then in what other way could the money thus realized 
be expended so that all might share its benefits, as in 
the construction of good roads over which all may 
travel ? j , , 
There has been some little discussion concerning 
the value of the soft Florida phosphates. Some par¬ 
ties have claimed that they are more valuable than the 
hard phosphate rock of South Carolina. A. A. Parsons, 
Chemist of the Florida Agricultural Department, has 
this to say about the matter : 
Our experience has been that the soft phosphates contain no more 
readily available phosphoric acid than the ordinary hard rock phos¬ 
phate, that Is, If both are similarly pulverized and applied to the soil. 
The advantage that soft phosphates possess over ordinary phosphate 
Is purely a mechanical one. Their mechanical condition Is such as to 
render them much more easily dlstlntegrated In the soil, and In this 
way the solvent agencies of the soil are capable of rendering the 
valuable elements of plant food available sooner than would bo the 
case with the hard rock phosphate, which would not pulverize so 
rapidly under the Influence of natural agencies. 
The United States Commissioner of Labor has re¬ 
cently issued a special report on the Phosphate In¬ 
dustry of the United States. He states that the South 
Carolina deposits were first brought to notice in 1837. 
It was not until after the war that any extensive 
preparations for mining and selling them were made. 
To-day, in the three States of North Carolina, South 
Carolina and Florida, there is a capital of $4,705,782 
invested in machinery and buildings, and $14,300,0(57 
in land. Last year $2,473,015 were spent for labor in 
mining the phosphate, and 1,231,703 tons were mined 
at an estimated value at the mines of $7,153,141. This 
gives an idea of the great extent of the business. A 
large proportion of both Florida and South Carolina 
phosphates are sent abroad. The Florida phosphates 
have been in use but a few years comparatively. The 
estimate is that there are over 133,000,000 tons in sight 
in Florida alone, and that the future trade will be 
largely in the Florida article, as the South Carolina 
deposits are being mined at a rate which promises to 
exhaust them in about 28 years from 1891. 
X X X 
There are two points about farming in the South 
that have often puzzled thoughtful men: one is why 
the cotton crop is not regulated so as to bring a higher 
price, and the other is why, in view of the suffering 
among Southern farmers, mortgages on farm property 
are comparatively few. Mr. G. K. Holmes has re¬ 
cently made some statements about these matters 
that are very interesting. Before the war the land 
was owned by large farmers who did business 
through agents or brokers. These agents usually owed 
the planters, and the latter could raise cotton or any 
other crop that they saw fit. After the war, the white 
owners could not carry on the plantations as before, 
because the old labor, cash and equipment, had all 
been swept away. Tenant farming was the only pos¬ 
sible outcome, and the big plantations were split up 
into small farms. Both owners and tenants were 
forced to obtain supplies of food, clothing, tools and 
stock on credit. The only security they could possibly 
give was to pledge the crop they were about to plant, 
and they were forced to accept such terms as the money 
lenders saw fit to dictate. They thus placed them¬ 
selves in the hands of the merchants, and most of them 
have never been able to escape. 
The merchants or money lenders naturally selected 
the crop that would best suit their purposes. This was 
their only security, and they chose the one they could 
best control and sell without regard to its profit to 
the grower. The merchants demanded cotton and 
more cot L ,on, and gave the tenant no option in the 
matter, for the grower was now the debtor and forced 
to meet the demand of his creditor. The system grew 
until the farmer lost his independence and became al¬ 
most a peon—unable to select the crop to suit him or to 
handle the proceeds. He was even forced to place a 
lien on his crop before it was planted, and the outra¬ 
geous interest demanded by the lenders keeps him 
constantly in debt and absolutely prevents his inde¬ 
pendence until he forces himself to raise something be¬ 
sides cotton. The cotton crop is large, not alone be¬ 
cause the farmers would not of their own will cut 
down the area, but because the merchants or creditor 
class will not let them do so. In this condition of 
affairs, agricultural land has but little value. Mer¬ 
chants will not take it as security for a debt if they 
can help it. Naturally they prefer to have somebody 
else hold the land and take a lien on the product of 
that person’s labor in the form of cotton, stock and 
other personal property which the tenant must have 
and pay for. He could leave the land on their hands, 
but the personal property he must have. They simply 
demand the more negotiable part of his property for 
security. Thus it may be that land mortgages are 
few and the cotton crop greatly increased, and yet a 
curse and blight rest upon farming. 
X X X 
Is there any “way out” for such unfortunate farmers 
—literally “debt slaves ?” Notunless they can pay 
their debts. To do this they must increase their 
income and reduce their expenses. To increase their 
incomes, the price of cotton must rise or they must 
sell other products. The White Caps seek to increase 
the price of cotton by preventing its ginning, but that 
will not answer. The “free silver” men declare that 
cotton will rise in price with a greater circulation of 
money. The scientist says that they are growing too 
much cotton—reduce the acreage and the price will 
rise—but so long as the merchants control the crop 
this cannot be done. To reduce expenses the farmer 
must pay a lower rate of interest and taxes and stop 
paying his dearly bought cash for food supplies that 
he can raise at home. The farmers as a class are in 
the majority in every Southern State. They certainly 
ought to be able to regulate this interest-rate question. 
As for growing other crops than cotton we venture to 
assert that very few Southern farmers have ever been 
able to get out from under the finger of the money 
lender by growing cotton alone. It cannot be done. 
X X X 
The White-Cap outrages in the South seem to be 
spreading. These crude efforts to foive up the price 
of cotton are, in many respects, the most remarkable 
outcome of the political movement among the farmers. 
The method usually followed is to post a notice on the 
doors of places where cotton is ginned, ordering the 
owner not to gin a pound of cotton until the price ad¬ 
vances to 10 cents a pound. This order is accom¬ 
panied by a threat to burn the house in case the 
order is disobeyed. Most of such work is done in 
lonely and isolated counties where people take a very 
large share of the law in their own hands. A good 
many gin houses have been burned and many more 
are closed in consequence of these warnings. Worst 
of all, the trouble is spreading until it looks as though 
there was some sort of a combination among the law¬ 
less portion of the inhabitants. The authorities of 
the Southern States seem as powerless to stamp out 
this work as they are to prevent the frequent lynch- 
ings. These White-Cap outrages are clearly wrong 
and cannot possibly raise the price of cotton. The 
whole thing is a pitiful object lesson of the despera¬ 
tion of the Southern small farmer under the indus¬ 
trial conditions that now surround him. Gov. Stone] 
of Mississippi, asserts that the reports of burning in 
that State are greatly exaggerated, but admits that 
many warnings have been posted. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
We are offerng some special bargains In watches Just now. If you 
want a handsome holiday present for some friend, young or old, 
these are just the things. 
Dairymen who wish to Improve their stock will be fortunate If 
they read the advertisement of Mr. Francis Shaw, Wayland, Mass., 
In this Issue, and correspond with him. He Is offering for sale 60 
head of his most excellent herd. If you want One Guernseys, here Is 
a chance. 
If you don’t have Guernsey cows to put proper color Into your but¬ 
ter, there Is nothing left to do but to use butter color. When you do, 
be sure that you use a good article, and a color that will not become 
rancid. The orange butter color, made by the Thatcher Mfg. Co., 
Potsdam, N. Y., Is a sale article to use. 
We want to double the circulation of The It. N.-Y. next year. 
That may seem like an ambitious “ want ” on our part, but just think 
how easy It can be done. If each subscriber would Induce just one 
neighbor to join him when he sends his own renewal the result would 
be accomplished. How many will do this? We are going to give spe¬ 
cial terms to agents, too. Suppose you send for them and get up a 
good club. 
