120 
February 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THB 
Rural New-Yorker 
Oor. Chambers and Pearl Sts ., New York. 
A Natlan*! Weakly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
BLBBBT B. CABMAN, Bdltor-ln-Ctalsl. 
HKBBBBT W. COLLINGWOO0. ManaRlng Hdltor 
HBWIN G. FOWLKB, Associate Editor 
JOHN J DIUiON, Business Manager. 
Copyrighted 1894. 
Address all business oommnnloatlons and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE BUBAL NEW-TORKEB. 
Be sure tbat the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
offloe 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, FEBRUARY 24, 1894. 
T HE “ little end of the horn” is more 
dignified as an entrance than as an exit. 
Catalogue review number next week, 
« • 
Mr. Ham’s heifer farm—see pagfe 113—is an inter¬ 
esting place. As you know, The R. N.-Y. has often 
advocated such a business. Here we are tbe first to 
describe it in actual practice. Suppose you live near 
a milk dairying section. Would it not pay you better 
to stop making milk and go to making milk machines? 
Think about it I 
A FRIEND sends us the following bit of suggestion : 
“ When hauling out corn stalk manure, cut across the 
pile with a hay knife every 18 inches and save your 
shoulders and time.” We have no doubt this can be 
done, but a greater saving yet could be made if the 
stalks were cut before they were fed. Then not only 
would labor be saved, but food as well. That manure 
should be cut long before it is made. 
« # 
Mb. Dibble speaks of using bone fiour on potatoes 
Readers will remember that he formerly used dissolved 
bone black. This bone fiour is ground to a very fine 
dust, and as it contains considerable nitrogen, Mr. 
Dibble finds it cheaper than the bone black. As a 
rule we would prefer to use a quantity of soluble 
phosphoric acid on potatoes to obtain the best results. 
With a good clover sod, however, the bone dust may 
answer. ^ ^ 
Mr. T. M. Ryan of Pennsylvania gives this original 
method of utilizing heat: “I sometimes fill a barrel half 
full of steaming horse manure when I have a sow to far¬ 
row in cold weather and put the young pigs in to get 
them warm. I think a coil of water pipe run through 
a pile of fresh manure under a shed would warm water 
quite enough for stock.” Who have ever tried this 
plan of utilizing the heat in a manure pile ? The heat 
is there. Can you transfer it to water ? 
* * 
There is a bill before the New York Legislature to 
appropriate $20,000 to establish an agricultural experi¬ 
ment station on Long Island. That bill should pass. 
The farmers on the Island need a station if any farmers 
do, because their farming is peculiar and the condi¬ 
tions of soil, rainfall, etc., are unique. There are many 
private farms on the Island that teach valuable lessons 
which go mostly unheeded; still we think a public ex¬ 
periment farm would be of great service. 
« * 
“ How do those sell here ? ” was asked of a commis¬ 
sion merchant before whose store stood a barrel of 
Yellow Eye beans. “ They don’t sell at all,” was the 
reply. “ They never should have been shipped here. 
In Boston and other New England cities, they sell for 
highest prices. I shall probably have to ship them 
there myself if I get any kind of a price for them.” All ' 
of which is another exemplification of the fact that 
one should know the demands of the market before 
shipping anything to it. 
* « 
Why will some people never learn that their own 
way isn’t necessarily the best ? Time and time again 
has The R. N.-Y. reiterated the advice not to ship 
perishable produce so as to have it arrive in market 
late in the week. Commission merchants in their let¬ 
ters and circulars of instruction give the same advice ; 
yet shippers continue to send goods like poultry, per¬ 
ishable vegetables and fruits, etc., so that they arrive 
late on Friday or on Saturday. This is altogether too 
late for produce to sell to advantage. Saturday is the 
great retail market day, but it is not a good wholesale 
day. The wholesale business of the week is nearly 
over by 7 or 8 o’clock on Friday morning. The rest of 
the week is devoted to cleaning up odd lots, belated 
arrivals, and getting rid of odds and ends generally. 
Recently a lot of fine dressed ducks arrived late on 
Friday; the receiver is a man who has an excellent 
class of trade and generally gets high prices for con¬ 
signments, but the best market of the week was over; 
the weather was soft and unfavorable for holding, the 
ducks must be sold at some price or by Monday they 
would have been a total loss; consequently they were 
sold for the highest price which could be obtained, 
which was a low one. The commission merchant was 
blamed for not getting more for the ducks. He might 
have obtained considerably more if he had received 
them a few hours earlier. As it was, whose fault 
was it ? 
« » 
There are four notes on sweet corn in this issue. 
That indicates something of the great interest taken 
in the question asked by Mr. Baker on page 55. Why 
should the Maine growers make more money per acre 
than those in other States ? They seem to be doing it. 
Is their corn better ? Do they get heavier yields ? Or 
do the canners obtain better prices ? Certainly $25 
from an acre of sweet corn is poor pay. Our Maine 
friend, page 126, puts it well when he says that the 
money obtained from 1% acre of sweet corn will buy 
150 bushels of shelled corn. There is profit in such an 
arrangement as that. 
» « 
Last week Mr. Bittner told about his home-mixed 
fertilizer. To the many who are asking about it we 
may say that he used equal parts of dried blood and 
nitrate of soda to give nitrogen, dissolved bone black 
for phosphoric acid and sulphate of potash for potash. 
This gave fine results, as we know. We would criticise 
the use of all dissolved bone black, as we think it 
would have been cheaper to use ground bone as a part 
of the phosphoric acid. Otherwise the mixture is good. 
Mr. Bittner says he used muriate of potash on other 
crops than potatoes, and used more nitrogen and less 
potash for tomatoes. Do you notice how farmers say 
that tomatoes are later and rot worse where all stable 
manure is used ? 
« « 
It was generally thought some time since that wheat 
prices had touched bottom. But an entirely new record 
has been made ; considerably lower than any previous 
quotations. Cash wheat in New York at 60% cents, 
and May wheat in Chicago at 58% cents, are not en¬ 
couraging prices to wheat growers. But the worst 
part of it is that little better conditions are likely to 
prevail. The elements which have contributed largely 
to this depression are the immense visible supply, the 
weakness of foreign markets, and the probability that 
Europe can get all needed wheat from India, Russia 
and the Argentine Republic. She is thus practically 
independent of America. Reports are that Russian 
and Argentine wheat is now offered in Europe at 
three to five cents per bushel less than American, and 
if this continue, our wheat must decline to that extent 
to successfully meet the competition. 
« « 
We invite ynur attention to the following statement: 
As you are a respectable man and a good citizen you 
would be ashamed to let your horse go out all plastered 
up with manure and his hair growing in a dozen 
different directions. The horse gives you nothing that 
you eat. You like to comb and clean him because he 
looks and feels better for it. If that is right, we will 
proceed. You have in your barn another animal— 
the cow ! Her milk and butter form staple articles of 
diet and are eaten raw. They should be the cleanest 
food on your table because they cannot be washed 
clean and there is no cookery to “ kill the dirt.” We 
notice that your cow’s hind quar ters are covered an 
inch thick with manure, while her coat goes guiltless 
of card or brush. We make the statement that you 
cannot milk such a cow without dropping some of that 
manure into the pail. Now why do you clean the 
horse and let the cow go dirty ? Is the manure used 
as a blanket ? L'jt’s hear from you I 
» » 
A CERTAIN dealer received a lot of butter with this 
message : “This is creamery butter, all of one churn¬ 
ing and of fine quality. There are 53 pails each hold¬ 
ing 10 pounds net of butter—530 pounds in all. It 
ought to sell for a good price.” One case of it was 
opened, and one of the pails examined. It was fairly 
good butter, and a customer took a case of it, suppos- 
ing it all to be alike. Later he came back bringing 
the butter with him. “ I can’t use this butter,” he 
said ; “there are as many different qualities as there 
are pails.” Examination of other cases revealed the 
fact that the same was true of them all. Then a 
weighing of some of these 10-pound pails followed. 
One case of nine, which should have contained 90 
pounds net of butter, weighed-^pails and butter—84 
pounds. This would make a shortage of over 35 
pounds in the whole lot. Then what about the state¬ 
ment that the butter was all from one churning ? 
Would one churning of creamery butter give a dozen 
different qualities and as many varying shades of 
color ? What are we to infer as to the veracity of the 
shipper ? The same dealer sold to a retailer a tub of 
butter marked 64 pounds tare 10 pounds, 54 pounds 
net. The retailer emptied the tub and weighed it, 
finding the weight to be 14 pounds. Now this tub if 
very dry when weighed may have weighed 10 pounds 
and afterwards absorbed four pounds of water, but 
the packer had no business to sell four pounds of 
water at butter prices. Dairymen usually allow a cer¬ 
tain amount for soakage. It is such practices as these 
that work injury to shippers, but the remedy lies with 
the shippers themselves. 
« tt 
A Florida friend inquires why they can’t just as 
well ship cabbages in sacks as in the heavy barrels 
and crates. We passed the query along to the receif«Ys 
of Southern cabbage. “ Because cabbage must have 
all the ventilation possible,” was the unanimous reply. 
In sacks, they would be packed so closely in the cars 
that they would all heat and spoil before reaching 
market. Another thing, we are told that more than 
half the packers and shippers do not know their busi¬ 
ness, They cut cabbage when wet, or when the sun is 
shining on it, regardless of consequences. The result 
is that it arrives in market in bad shape. It should be 
cut early in the morning before the sun is hot, and 
kept in the shade and as cool as possible until packed. 
It should be dry when packed, and be kept as cool and 
well ventilated as possible. If these precautions were 
taken, less spoiled cabbage would be received, and 
more satisfaction would be experienced by both ship¬ 
pers and receivers. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
Here Is a Htory Lincoln used to tell; 
It’s cld, b Jt then it points a moral well: 
Two farmers had a horse race: one was proud 
Of hts na ’s pedigree and boasted loud. 
The other horse was homely as a rail; 
lie had no more cf pedigree tha.i tall, 
And that was bobbed; yet In the race he quite 
Outran “ pure blood ” and beat him out of sight. 
Disgusted than was Farmer A; says he, 
“Gol dsrn a horse without a pedlirree 1 ” 
All right,” said Farmer B, “just so. of course. 
But darn a pedigree without a hors • 1 ” 
You see the point—it’s luogs and legs that chase 
The minutes down and land Urst In the race. 
Don’t back the hor. e that puts In but the plea 
Of dark blue blood and stylish pedigree. 
But look for good performances; and then 
Apply this selfsame test In backing men. 
Debt rhymes with fret. 
Ilow to heal a hole—page 127. 
You must stand by your writes 1 
The cow must advertise her calf ? 
Night makes a rooster out of a hen. 
Tobacco is good for lice 1 -and men ? 
Cttoss the peach orchard with sheep. 
Only the teachable man Is reachable. 
The Business Hen needs business men. 
How much does a cow breathe In a day! 
How long should those heifers last ? page 127. 
Your Ungers were never made to size potatoes. 
You’re so much out on every seed that does not sprout. 
You folks who scold the cows, try a tongue tie for a tall tie. 
What about Mr. Pierson’s plan for ‘ stunting ” the No. 2 potato 7 
Who ever heard of a man being prosecuted u ider the weed laws? 
Wind wLl lift water to your barn -not talking it, but harnessing It, 
Here is a mono to put on your crop—buy at the bottom and sell at 
the top. 
A i.ACK of water limits the possibilities of your farm. Can't you 
irrigate? 
There Is as much difference between varieties of potatoes as in 
breeds of cows. 
Which do you prefer for a neighbor, one who knows too little or one 
who knows too much. 
Your milk, sir. and your money will be briefer, if for to sire your 
calves you use a beefer. 
There are fa-mers who “eat what they can’t sell!” Such culture 
makes one a call chewer 
Be merciful to your feet and have two pairs of shoes or boots and 
"change off ’ every week. 
How does that record of 32J quarts of milk dally from 35 Guernsey 
grades strike you ? See page 111. 
Don’t hesitate to ask simple questions. If we don’t make the 
answer clear the 11 rat time, come again. 
Lice like to get on the fowl’s head and arm pits, where It is hard to 
reach them. Eh? One may ca,l that high lice sense. 
A fertilizer dealer hurts his own trade when he encourages the 
use of the word "phcsphate” to represent goods that are not phos¬ 
phates at all. 
"Dollars seem big as cartwheels!” if the wheels were smaller- 
on a "low down” wagon the saving in labor might make the dollars 
seem smaller. 
The people who have asked questions about the use of hen manure 
are informed that we propose to answer them all In one general article 
in ample time for use. 
Face to face or tall to tall—which way do you want your two rows 
of cows to stand? In other words, is economy In feeding mere desir¬ 
able than economy In getting out manure? 
Farmer, test your seeds—lot not the seedsman's mix of last year’s 
stock and this get you Into a fix. So give your seeds a test and then, 
sir, you may know when scattered In the ground what part of them' 
will grow. ^ 
The French are making their best quality of cider by the diffusion 
or soaking process. Instead of crushing and grinding the apples, they 
are sliced and soaked in different waters, the juice being thus washed 
out. This gives a purer cider, because In crushing, other matters be¬ 
side the pure Juice are forced out. 
