736 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 4 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN, Edltor-in-Chlef. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD. Managing Editor 
ERWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
JOHN J. DILLON, Business Manager. 
Copyrighted 1393. 
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, NOVEMBER 4, 1893. 
Here is an instance worth consideration by financial 
doctors. Some years ago a widow was left with an 
investment of $15,000. At seven per cent it afforded 
her a fair living for herself and family. To-day, five 
per cent is all the property will produce, and she has 
been forced to seek work in order to educate her chil¬ 
dren. The earning capacity of the $15,000 has shrunk 
—that is, the advantage of the creditor has been re¬ 
duced. Now the question is : Who gets the benefit of 
this woman’s reduced income ? 
* * 
Uniforms for farmers are suggested on page 742. In 
our younger days the best uniform consisted of a 
jumper and overalls, made of strong blue denim. This 
was cheap, serviceable, neat looking, easily washed 
when soiled, and afforded excellent protection to the 
wearer against dust and dirt. Being close-fitting, it 
was also a good protection against the cold, consider¬ 
ing its weight. The street sweepers of this city are 
now clad in this sort of uniform, including a cap of the 
same material. What’s the matter with this for the 
farmers’ uniform ? „ # 
Apropos of the recent discussion in The R. N.-Y. 
regarding the disposition of old horses, it may be 
said that the farmers are not the only ones interested 
in this question. Under existing regulations the fire 
department horses of this city, when too infirm to be 
of any further use to the city for hauling its fire 
apparatus, are sold at auction to the highest bidder. 
One of the fire commissioners wants to see this 
changed, so that they may be disposed of through the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
which means that they will be put to death painlessly. 
There may be considerable sentiment mixed up in this 
business, but if there be, it is the kind of sentiment 
that should be cultivated and encouraged. 
* * 
We hardly know whether to feel astonished or only 
sad to announce that letters are still coming from 
friends who have read The R. N.-Y. for years asking 
if they had better invest in “Black Pepsin” to in¬ 
crease the yield of butter ! We have explained this 
matter time after time. The “ pepsin ” is a fraud, 
meant to deceive dairymen and the public. It adds 
nothing to the fat in the milk, but simply coagulates 
a portion of the cheesy matter so that it adds to the 
bulk of the product churned. While more of a mass 
is thus churned out of the milk, it is not pure butter, 
but a poor mixture of butter and cheese that will not, 
in the long run, sell even at cheese prices. We are 
sorry to keep repeating this information, but it seems 
necessary to do so. 
* * 
There was a time when good cotton-seed meal was 
about the cheapest source of nitrogen for fertilizers. 
Not very many Northern farmers used the meal for a di¬ 
rect fertilizer because it was considered better suited 
for stock feeding. The Connecticut station finds that 
the price of the meal has so advanced that it is now a 
costly form of nitrogen. Last year the average cost 
of a pound of nitrogen in cotton-seed meal was 15 
cents, while this year the average of eight samples 
was 1734 cents. The samples of meal analyzed varied 
greatly in composition. The prices ranged from $20 
to $31 per ton. One sample, costing $20, contained 0.9 
per cent of nitrogen or a cost of 14.9 cents a pound. 
Another sample, costing $29.50 per ton, analyzed only 
3.71 per cent of nitrogen, or a cost of 35.4 cents a 
pound ! This difference is largely due to the fact 
that the poorer sample is seed ground with the hulls, 
and it is probable that this sort of meal will be largely 
put on the market. Do not buy it either for stock 
feeding or fertilizing, except at a reduced rate. It is 
full of black hard fragments of hulls. A test for this 
cheap cotton seed is to put a small quantity in a glass 
of water and notice the proportion of small black 
pieces of hulls that rise to the surface. This low¬ 
valued, or undecortieated meal is not injurious for stock 
feeding, but is a fraud when sold for a high price, be¬ 
cause it does not contain the feeding value of meal 
from the pure cotton seed. The difference between 
corn meal and corn-and-cob meal illustrates about the 
difference between decorticated and undecorticated 
cotton-seed meal. As a general rule farmers should 
not use any meal that analyzes less than 634 per cent 
of nitrogen. # # 
Here is a thought well worth considering : 
One point In tbe hired-man question has not been noticed. Men 
who have boj s should be careful not to hire men who are likely to 
have a bad influence over them. I know that I learned a great deal 
of meanness from hired men, being, perhaps, an apt scholar, and I 
have known other boys who have bad tbelr morals corrupted by tbe 
hired man. The children constitute the most Important farm crop, 
and It is well to look to Its tillage and see that the weeds are kept to 
the lowest limit. 
That is sound enough. If you had a pet crop grow¬ 
ing in the field you would be very careful how you 
tried experiments on it. You don’t need any wild 
blood in the child crop. 
# * 
We put some of our readers in sight of a new busi¬ 
ness chance this week—that is, the manufacture and 
sale of cut bone. In any com nunity where large 
flocks of poultry are kept and where raw bones are 
cheap it is likely that some enterprising man can do a 
good business by introducing the bones to the hens. 
In such cases a bone cutter ought to create a new 
business. Or, if such a trade is not desired, a small 
cutter would supply the bone needed in the home 
flock of poultry. In most places bones are now reason¬ 
ably cheap, and it is a great mistake for the poultry- 
man to lose this chance of securing a cheap ration. 
For hogs, too, this cut bone is a good food. The 
chances are that within a few years this bone cutting 
will put a new value on raw bones so that, in many 
places, the price will rise. 
* * 
The discussion of the manure question this week is 
chiefly confined to the growing of grain or crops for a 
dairy farm. While, from this point of view, the use 
of 20 loads of stable manure per acre might be con¬ 
demned as wasteful, there are conditions in which that 
would be called a small dose. On money crops like 
choice vegetables and fruits, market gardeners often 
use 50 or 75 loads of manure per acre with profit. Only 
last week we talked with a strawberry grower who 
used 800 pounds of high-grade fertilizer and 40 loads of 
manure on one acre of strawberries, and only regretted 
that he did not use more. The one objection to stable 
manure is, as we have often pointed out, that it is 
one-sided in its action. There is a lack of phosphoric 
acid in its composition. It is a forcing manure, as 
grape growers find when it induces a heavy growth 
of wood at the expense of early ripening. A quantity of 
superphosphate could always be used to advantage 
with every load of manure. 
* * 
A correspondent on page 742, defends the pub¬ 
lishers of county histories. The charge previously 
brought against these individuals amounted practi¬ 
cally to this, that they are sold at exorbitant prices, 
and that in order to receive notice in the book one 
must subscribe for it. Both of these charges may 
sometimes be true, but they certainly are not when 
the publishers are reputable men. It must be remem¬ 
bered that a county history has a comparatively small 
circulation, and this necessitates a higher price per 
copy. Only people living in the county, or those more 
or less interested in it, care for a history of a local 
character. A book having the circulation of a single 
county may not prove so profitable as a similar one 
having a general circulation, but which is sold at half 
the price. The writer has a history of his native 
county for which he paid $10, and which is entirely 
satisfactory. So far as may be judged, the history of 
localities and families is accurately given whether the 
person interested subscribed or not. It is an exceed¬ 
ingly interesting book, and one about which no fraud 
could be consistently charged. 
* * 
In olden times in the New England colonies, “Black 
Strap ” was a favorite drink. It was made of rum and 
molasses, and was sold at every country store. A 
favorite \ 7 ankee device was to hang a salt fish on the 
outside of the “ Black Strap ” barrel, and invite 
patrons to take a piece. The object of this “free 
lunch” was two-fold—to keep customers good natured 
and also to make them thirsty, so that they would need 
an extra drink of the “ Black Strap.” If a fish, cost¬ 
ing 10 cents, created a thirst that led to a dozen extra 
drinks, the profit on the latter would far more than 
pay for the fish. We have the same old Yankee trick 
to-day in the schemes for giving away town lots or 
other worthless property. The lot represents the 
piece of fish, which creates such a thirst for more 
wealth that the eater is willing to pay for “re¬ 
cording ” or “ marking ” his worthless land, and that 
is where the profit comes to the seller. The “ town 
lot ” scheme is but one of the many where something 
for nothing is promised. Always let them alone. They 
only lead you on to drink the costly “ Black Strap.” 
* * 
We give considerable space to the manuring ques¬ 
tion this week, and more will follow. This is quite 
an important matter, and it is evident that different 
men have different views. A good deal of this differ¬ 
ence is due to the fact that manures vary not only in 
quality but in their mechanical condition. Take a pile 
half full of long, tough corn stalks and big, frozen 
lumps, and Mr. Simpson’s criticism of the five-loads- 
per-acre plan would be very true. Let the same amount 
of manure be composted and well rotted and then ap¬ 
plied with a spreader, and we think it could be scat¬ 
tered over the acre. The ability to handle the manure, 
therefore, has much to do with the amount needed. 
As to what that amount is, we think will be brought 
out in the forthcoming discussions. As a general 
rule, however, on all except the smaller grains it is 
safer to put on too much than too little. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
01<1 farmer Briggs Is quite a politician. 
Ought to see him started shoutin’ at the ring, 
Stand up an’ argue that our bad conditon 
Is all due to ring rule-got to go an’ wring 
Heads off a dozen or more of them bosses 
Up there to Albany hoidln’ farmers down. 
Them folks live cn the fat of farmers’ losses; 
He'd like to take the job of roastin' em brown. 
Old farmer Briggs had better look around him; 
Close beside his door he’ll Hnd another ring. 
Scrub stock and ways for years have slowly ground him; 
Like a pack of leeches closer still they cling. 
Old farmer Briggs, your head Is hard as rock, sir; 
Bigotry’s the ring, sir, that has got you tied. 
Oh! for a word to give your heart a shock, sir; 
Oh, for a sharp spur to get beneath your hide. 
Stick your knows In your own business. 
The Idle man wants a vacation for a vocation. 
Keep away from woe by saying whoa! to yourself. 
Keep away from the man who has no safety valve. 
What better medicine than an entire meal of fruit? 
Fat on the breeding sow takes a lien on the pig crop. 
Wheat seems to be about the only crop you can overfeed. 
Du Gkofe explains something of the mystery of a county history. 
IN Britain a stlrk Is a steer, a hogg a young sheep, and a tup a ram. 
We hope Mr. Griffin will watch that fertilizer experiment carefully. 
Coal ashes and hen manure make a line mixture to put around 
currants. 
A chance Is offered Mr. Wing, page 734, to explain why he fayors 
free wool. 
Which makes you work harder—getting the value of a good man’s 
work or a cheap one’s? 
It certainly looks dubious for potato scab If the corrosive sublimate 
solution Is faithfully used. 
That scheme for cutting oats, straw and all for the hens Is a good 
one. Plenty of exercise about that. 
Our friend, page 742, should have gone further and told us what 
dress she would pick out for farmers. 
The dry weather has prevented the usual heavy growth of straw¬ 
berry runners. Plants are scarce In many sections. 
Lots of people are afflicted with mental dyspepsia. Why ? Because 
they feed their minds on an unbalanced mental ration. 
That plan of using cow peas just before the wheat Is good. There 
Is an Illustration oi the advantage of activity over Idleness’. 
What a hole a man does make In his pocket when he smashes 
through the roots of a corn crop. The trouble Is he charges the leak 
to something else. 
What has happened to the managers of the Farmers’ Institutes In 
New York State? Somehow, we hear nothing about them this year. 
What’s the matter? 
Pkoe. King’s figures make It very plain to us why grass Is so quickly 
Injured by a drought. The thirsty man never can do good work no 
matter how well he be fed. 
The Prohibitionists and temperance people will be the ones to save 
the grape Industry by drinking grape juice. The wine drinkers alone 
never can keep ahead of the supply. 
Most fruit men who grow fruit to sell prefer to buy their plants. 
Selling nursery stock and fruits are two different kinds of business. 
The fruit man does not want to produce wood. 
The trouble with the old pathmaster system of repairing roads Is 
that the officer chosen is not master of the path or anything else. A 
pathmaster who does his duty can accomplish something. 
To test your dinner you add a little salt until the taste suits you. 
That Is the way to test your soil for potash. Add It In varying quan¬ 
tities until the crops show that they have enough. They will talk 
In a very practical way. 
The papers report a shipment of Colorado hay to Europe by way of 
Galveston, Texas. The statement Is made that such hay can be put 
on the London market at a cost under $12 per ton. What can there be 
left for the grower out of this? 
You notice Mr. Chas. Chapman prefers the Cotswold to the Dorset 
for mixing with Merino bicod. This Is quite an important matter as 
so many of the common ewes have more or less Merino blood In them. 
We shall hear from others soon. 
It Is customary to say that horses are now cheap. Lower grades 
are. Try to buy a good farm horse, though - one that can plow, culti¬ 
vate, walk fast with a load or trot off to church on Sunday—and you 
will find that they cost as much as ever. 
Give the weeds their due. Prof. Storer says that analyses of dande- 
Hod, purslane and pig-weed show that If there were no c.over to be 
had It would pay farmers to cultivate these weeds for stock food. 
Milk-weed, dandelion, thistles and “pussley” are all eaten as human 
food. 
Look out for Insects in stored grain. The tirst Indication Is usually 
an Increase of heat In the mess. Bisulphide of carbon Is the thing to 
kill them. Use about one ounce to every 100 pounds of the grain. 
Sprinkle it over the surface, and then cover with an old blanket. Keep 
it away from light or tire. 
