XKHRENHf IT 
January 6 
reader does not want the paper continued 
after the time for which he has paid ex¬ 
pires we shall be pleased to have him 
notify us and shall always thank him for 
giving a reason why. In any event, after 
^ BOOK PREMIUnS. Jfr 
As WeOoTo Press 
“ COMRADES.” 
Times are “ hard,” are they ? So lots 
of folks say. Now and then a man starts 
up with a tale of soft times, and all are 
ready to give him audience. When water 
is “hard,” it contains too much lime. To 
make it soft, we put something in to 
precipitate that lime. Sulphuric acid 
will do it for one thing. What acid does 
the “lucky” farmer use? Stop now 
and read this letter : 
We have just closed our season of drying fruit with 
that cook stove drier bought of The R. N.-Y. two 
years ago—price, Including a three years’ subscrip¬ 
tion, $7. We cleared, above expense.-, $52.7.^. Hard 
times have not found us on our little farm of 12 
acres, and we expect to take The Uuual right along 
as our father did ’way back in IS-W. The fanner that 
leaves The Kukai. out of his list of papers Is not annual meeting at Sprlngtleld, Ill., .January 7, at two 
wise. H. II. UUPHEB. o’clock. 
Cumberland County, Tenn. ^ famous granary at Antwerp, Holland, was re- 
That evaporator, you see, precipitated cently burned with‘iOO.OOO tons of gram, entailing a 
.$52.7.5 out of the “hardness” of the loss of li, 600 ,oco. 
. -rwT 1 1 X X A sraall lot Of dressed sheep weighing 100 pounds 
times. We have plenty more at the same yrere offered on the Christmas market at 10 
price, and lots of other things, too. Not cents per pound, wholesale. 
only that, but The R. N.-Y. is to be is- a shipment of 289 packages of cabbages arrived 
sued 52 times this year at a cost of but $1. Copenhagen during the week. These are the 
, „ T. i -L first received this season. 
Is it on your list ? If not, you remember 
^ . The number of cattle slaughtered in Kansas ( 
what our friend says about your wisdom, during the last ll months is estimated at over 750 , 000 . 
^ ^ .J The increase of this year over the last is 2 : 0 , 000 . 
The Pennsylvania State Dairymen's Association 
will hold Its annual meeting at Meadvllle, January 
31 to February 2. G. H. St. John, secretary. Mead¬ 
vllle. 
The New Jersey State Horticultural Society will 
hold Its nineteenth annual meeting In Trenton, 
January 3 to 4. Henry .1. Budd, secretary. Mount 
Holly. 
The New York State Shropshire Breeders’Associa¬ 
tion will hold Its fourth annual meeting at Roches¬ 
ter, January 11 to 12. Frank D. Ward, South Ryron, 
secretary. 
The American Oxford Down Sheep Record Asso¬ 
ciation will hold Us annual meeting at the Grand 
Hotel, Cincinnati, January 9, at 10 A. m. W. A. 
Shafer, secretary, Middletown, O. 
South Dakota has 10.000 farms valued at $70,000,000, 
on which are raised 17,COO,000 bu-hels of wheat and 
22,001,000 of corn and various other cereals. The wild 
grass yields 1,.500,000 tons of hay.ard the wool clip 
exceeds 5,000,000 pounds. 
'I'he largest hop yard In the world Is said to be In 
Yakima County, Washington, and contains 600 acres 
There are several In that State of 300 acres and up 
ward, while one In Alameda County, California of 
350 acres Is to be increased by 400 acres more, which 
will give It the palm for size. 
The Illinois corn crop last year Is given as 6,416,488 
acres, 1,308.308 acres more than In 1892. The average 
yield was 26 bushels, equal to that of the preceding 
year, and exceeding It In the aggregate by more tnan 
31,030,000 bushejs. The total yield is given at 119,016,- 
371 bushels, valued at $51,538,070. 
There Isn’t much money to the grower at present 
prices of kale. Barrels cost about 20 cents, picking 
6 cents, freight 17 cents. Add to this cartage, com¬ 
mission charges, etc., and the selling price of about 
subscription, 
we will send, postpaid, any of |^he books mentioned below, 
you i-tiil receive the This ofTer is made to old subscribers only, and the premiums 
you , , ^ . . 
igh are given for work and trouble in sending new subscriptions. 
’ They will not be gfiven to new subscribers with their own sub- 
•ose •' ® 
scriptions. Send one new subscription with $i, and select any 
of these books : 
The Business Hen. Cross-Breeding and Hybridizing. 
The New Potato Culture. Landscape Gardening. 
Or we will send any two of these books for one new sub¬ 
scription ; conditions same as above. 
Trees and Streets and Shade. Window Gardening. 
Accidents and Emergencies. Tuberous Begonias. 
The New Botany. My Handkerchief Garden. 
The Modification of Plants by Cooking Cauliflower. 
Climate. How to Plant a Place. 
Milk, Making and Marketing. Chemicals and Clover. 
Ensilage and Silo. How to Bid Buildings of Bats. 
City the rural publishing company. New York. 
Wk take this occasion to publicly ex¬ 
press our thanks to the hundreds of good 
friends who have responded to our re¬ 
quest to send a new name with their own. 
How they are pouring in upon us! It 
simply “beats all.” We shall have thou¬ 
sands of new friends to talk to next year, 
and the mails are filled with good wishes, 
too. For example, Mr. D. Pierce, of 
Waseca County, Minn., says; 
1 have taken The R. N.-Y. more than 25 years, and 
you may as well put me down as a life member. I 
shall probably take It while 1 live, fori do not find 
any farm paper that can take its place. 
We can only say that, “if wishes were 
horses,” we would gladly provide Mr. 
Pierce with a team that would haul him 
in safely through another century as a 
“ life member.” 
Mr. M. S. Kater, of Virginia, writes: 
I cannot do without The H. N.-Y. 1 took Moore’s 
Ruial New Yorker and paid the book store eight 
cents a copy. 
That is S4.10 a year. You now get the 
paper for $1 per year, and there is more 
in it than when it was Moore’s. 
One word more from Mr. G. F. Gootee 
of Delaware, who says: 
1 was induced to join a club last year by a friend, 
and now I find I can not get along very well w-lthout 
It. althou ;h I do not always agree with some of Its 
writers. Still I find enough can be saved by fol ow¬ 
ing some of Us advice to pay many times the sub¬ 
scription price. Don't lower the standard. 
That’s right! of course we cannot always 
agree. There would be no progress if 
men simply opened mouth and ears and 
drank in without reserve what people 
said. Progress comes out of combat! 
''Lower the Standard!'' No sir. The R. 
N.-Y’s. flag does not go down. 
longer. This is a very desirable IKJ 
premium. Think of providing |||k|| |H 
your household with first-class j^| | H 
water works and making a dozen | H 
families happy at one operation. j raji 
Send for circulars to the Bellevue m|| | H 
Pump Company, Bellevue, Iowa. fflil |H 
For Club of 2 or 3. M|i = 
A GOOD THEBMOMETEB. i| |l 
You want a thermometer; no M|| I III 
dairy house is complete without pl | H 
one. We have secured special Si| | g 
wholesale prices on glass floating S | | H 
thermometers which we can al- 3|| |H 
most give away to our subscribers. PIJ = H 
This thermometer can be drop- 
ped right into the ertam can or 
churn. It will float in the cream, 
and you can take it out in a couple 
of minutes and ascertain the tern- 
perature of your cream. If too i a^SSI^ S 
; if too cold, put in hot water—about 64 degrees is right. If 
ou spoil your butter; if too cold, you churn for hours with- 
it too. We will send the Dairy thermometer for two new 
The house thermometer shown in cut we will send for clubs 
of three new subscriptions, or both for clubs of five. 
erable money when taken to the shop or 
in calling a mechanic. But the Gage 
self-setting tools here offered avoid all 
this trouble. These planes are sent on 
30 days’ trial and can be returned if not 
satisfactory. Regular price, Jack $3.25 ; 
smoothing plane $3, or the set for $6.25. 
We offer the set for a club of 12 new 
subscriptions, or the set and one renewal 
for $6, or with renewal and one new 
subscription $6.75. 
Stove-Polishing Mitten. 
This is really one of the best things 
for a small article that we have seen in 
a long time. It is simply a mitten with 
lamb’s wool front. The blacking is ap¬ 
plied with swab, and the stove then pol¬ 
ished by rubbing with the mitten. You 
can get in all the corners and angles, 
and nothing else pol- ^ ^ - 
ishes so well. Never ^ _Gi—^ 
soils the hand. Price, 
by mail, 35 cents; or 
with renewal subscrip- 
tion $1.25 ; or given to 
any old subscriber for 
one new subscription. If the men had 
to polish the stoves, there wo aid be one 
to adjust them just right. No doubt this of these in every house. We expect to 
want of knowledge or skill has prevented send thousands of them to The Rural 
many a farmer from using planes and readers this year, hut we don’t know yet 
doing odd jobs himself that cost consid- how long we can offer them at this price. 
For Clubs of 12. 
Jack and Smoothing Planes. 
When the writer was a boy on the farm 
he had a set of planes, and many was 
the dollar he saved by their use. But 
the irons had to be sharpened, and it was 
We take the following text for our dis- market has closed the majority of the packing houses, 
course on The R. N.-Y. as a middleman ““<1 Present statistics show as much fruit stiii on 
the trees us the entire crop of last season. Uneea- 
this week : sonable weather and the heavy blow which thorned 
I am more than pleased with results; I have re- much of the fruit; few cars arriving In good condl- 
celved a rush of Inquiries and am getting numerous lion. Heavy crop, poor quality combined with de¬ 
orders from UuKAL readers. I have had letters from presslon In the country, is no doubt the cause of the 
nearly every State, from Oregon to Maine and as far low prices. The opinion is that low prices will pre- 
south as the Carollnas. Of the several papers In dominate throughout the season and the receipts 
which I have advertised. The Rural has brought will be liberal until May. 
me the greatest number of letters and largest per __ 
cent of sales. eh. s. hill. 
Peruvllle, N. Y. WE WANT TO KNOW, YOU KNOW ! 
That is the usual story. An “ ad ” in // you don't see what you want, ask for it. 
The Rural puts men into correspond- transplanting trees deeper.— Should fruit 
ence with enterprising farmers all over trees be transplanted at the same level they stood 
the country. Mr. Mapes, “ the electric „,„„„,oeket, r. i. w. c. m. 
hen man,” says that he got an answer to ans.—as a general thing, at the same level, or 
his “ad” in the same mail that brought only enough deeper so that when the earth settles, 
him the paper contlining it. Sell your stand at the original depth Dwarf 
^ ° ' pears on quince stocks should be set so as to cover 
goods through The R. N.-Y. On another the junction of the graft and stock. 
page the editors talk about a trade in of peach growing.— what does 
New York seed potatc es. They are too the r. n.-y. think of the future of the peach busi- 
modest to end up by sayint; that The R. ness ? ts there any probability that It will be over- 
i J ..1. done as wheat growing now Is? Here, In Athens 
N.-Y. IS the middleman to introduce these thousands. 
potatoes to the world. We can say so 1 know of several farmers that are setting as high as 
here without shocking anybody’s mod- 5,ooo trees each. a. b. s. 
esty. It’s true. _ ^ ^ ^ 
•' . « A Wheezy HORSE.-Whut Is good for a mare that 
Is short winded ? In going up hill she draws long, 
hard breaths accompanied by a whistling sound 
{Continued on nest page ) 
always a trouble to set them just right. 
It was not until after many discourage¬ 
ments that we succeeded in our efforts 
Our subscription plan will he to work on 
a cash basis with our subscribers. If a 
