THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 24 
188 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chamber8 and Pearl Sts., New York. 
Natlenal Weakly Jonrnal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
BLBBRT B. CABMAN, Bdltor-ln-Cblef. 
HBBBKBT W. COUjINGWOOD, ManaRln* Bdltor 
BBWIN G. FOWLHB, AsBOOlate Bdltor 
JOHN J BILLON, BuBlnesB MansKOr. 
VopvrlghUd 1HS4. 
AddreBB all buBlneBB oommunloatlonB and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NKW-YORKER. 
Be Bare that the name and addresB of Bender, 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 
transmlttlnK money. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1894. 
To complete the files of The R. N.-Y. for 1893, we 
lack copies of the issues of July 22, August 26 and Sep¬ 
tember 16. We will make a liberal allowance to any 
one supplying us with copies, in good condition, of 
these numbers. 
» » 
Now Western farmer, don’t you use a fertilizer on 
your potatoes that contains less than six per cent of 
potash. Don’t you do it—no matter what they may 
try to sell you. 
» » 
This note comes with a renewal: 
The B. N.-Y. Is well worth II. There would be a row In our family. 
If I did not continue a member of The Rorai, family. 
Oae would say this is buying peace at a low price. 
The Rural beats a row any day. 
« « 
Mr, Mapes makes a soluble solution of the asparagus 
question on page 182. This crop comes in first-rate 
with “ Hens By The Acre.” By the way, of course 
you are to have asparagus right along on your table— 
all through its season I No ? Well, sir, we hope you 
will be reminded of your shiftlessness at every meal 
you eat. 
* » 
What about a good Jersey bull as a blood purifier 
for your dairy herd this spring ? That blood needs 
purifying if the cows average less than 300 pounds of 
butter per year. Blood and food are two different 
things. Another name for blood is the ability to ex¬ 
tract a value from food. You buy feed by the bushel, 
but blood by the bull. 
On page 183 Mr. Peet gives us another chapter from 
his onion experiment. This shows how sometimes a 
smaller crop may yield a larger profit. Price and ex¬ 
pense have much to do with it. Stable manures and 
fertilizers gave the largest yield, but the least profit. 
Why ? Chiefly because the weed and grass seeds in 
the manure added $30 to the cost of weeding the 
onions. 
* « 
It is reported that eggs are being sent from Australia 
to England. They are first rubbed in grease and then 
packed in bran flour and lime reaching the distant 
market in fair condition. For all this, though the age 
of eggs may be lengthened indefinitely, a stale egg 
never can take the place of one 48 hours old. Lots of 
people never know what a fresh laid egg is. It is pos¬ 
sible to educate them so they will always pay 50 per 
cent above the market price for a fresh article. There’s 
where the money in the poultry business stays. 
* * 
Every now and then some one bobs up to claim 
that soda will take the place of potash in fertilizers. 
Considerable damage is done by such claims because 
farmers are led to think they can thus save the great 
difference in price between soda and potash. If this 
claim were true, nitrate of soda would be the most 
valuable fertilizer material in the world. As a matter 
of fact, nitrate of potash is not only more costly, but 
far more effective as any one can tell by testing it 
beside nitrate of soda. Farmers make a great mistake 
in neglecting to use potash. 
« » 
French potato growers have aimed of late years not 
only to produce new varieties that will give heavy 
yields, but to improve the quality as well. As the 
crop is largely used in the manufacture of starch and 
alcohol, it is easy to see that a variety of medium yield 
but rich in starch, would be more profitable than one 
giving a heavier yield of poor potatoes. Accordingly, 
seed has been selected from good specimens of a 
variety showing a high percentage of starch and so 
carefully has this been done that some varieties will 
now yield 25 to 30 per cent of pure starch. We do not 
raise potatoes for the water they contain. In a general 
way, it is j ast as important to increase the amount of 
starch a potato plant can gather as to increase the 
sugar in a sugar beet or the butter in a cow’s milk. 
In America, this matter has been but little considered 
in the make up of a “ good potato,” but it is high time 
some one took up the French experiments and under¬ 
took to breed more starch into the potato. Here is a 
good chance for some of the experiment stations to do 
useful work. 
* « 
Sometimes it pays to hold produce'for higher prices ; 
sometimes it doesn’t. About the first week in last 
November, the best creamery butter was quoted in the 
New York wholesale markets at 30 cents. It hasn’t 
brought so much since, and is now quoted at 22 cents. 
Quite a drop. In some of the dairy counties of this 
State, dairymen are still holding their butter. It cer¬ 
tainly has proved a losing game for them, for it is 
altogether unlikely that prices will again reach the 
former figure. The farmer shouldn’t turn speculator 
unless he can afford to stand the possible loss. 
Russia is said to have the strongest of all laws yet 
devised to regulate the sale of bogus butter. In that 
country, the stuff must be colored in some bright 
color other than yellow, in packages of the same color. 
It cannot be sold in shops where genuine butter is 
sold, and every bogus butter shop must carry a sign¬ 
board informing the public of the fact. At all public 
places where food is prepared with bogus butter 
public announcement of the fact must be made on 
the bill of fare. Are these conditions hard ? Why? 
Those who use and sell butter are perfectly willing to 
advertise the fact. Why should the oleo men object 
to like publicity unless they want to make the people 
think this stuff is butter ? 
4r « 
The French legislature has just agreed to raise the 
tariff on wheat from 26>^ cents to 383^ cents per 
bushel, which is probably the highest tariff now 
recorded anywhere on grain. The object of this is 
avowedly to hold or increase the price paid to French 
farmers. Almost at the same time the Germans rati¬ 
fied a treaty with Russia which is reciprocal in char¬ 
acter and will result in increased imports of Russian 
grain. In the French debate over the tariff, the 
Socialists took the ground that the Government should 
make a fixed price for bread and wheat, buying all the 
latter and so arranging the tariff that this price could 
always be maintained. Let us ask, why not regulate 
the price of wheat as well as that of silver ? 
« tt 
The R. N.-Y. doesn’t hesitate to admit that it was 
surprised to learn that hens were being dipped in 
tobacco water to kill lice. We have no doubt as to the 
death-dealing qualities of tobacco. It has killed men 
before now. A wet hen is an object deserving of pity. 
She was not made to be wet any more than she was 
made to be lousy. Both are abnormal conditions. If 
a warm dip be used and the hen be permitted to dry in 
a warm place, so that she will not be chilled, we have 
no doubt the hen will be left plus the minus of the 
lice. We believe, however, that the careless man who 
thinks cold air is “ plenty warm enough,” will kill a 
good many hens with the dip. What right has a care¬ 
less man to keep hens anyway ? You would better 
ask some of the thousands who are trying to do so. 
* « 
The remarks about fertilizing substances as insecti¬ 
cides printed on page 184, state the facts wanted by 
many farmers. The trouble is, you see, that while 
these substances can kill the insects, to do an effective 
job, one must use more than would be ne 3 essary to 
fertilize the crop properly. As to the statement that 
the soluble plant food in the fertilizers pushes the 
plant along in spite of the insect attacks, there is 
much in that. We once knew a man who claimed that 
he staved off a bad cold by eating a big dinner of ham 
and eggs before exposing himself to the storm. Very 
likely that was so ; yet, would a doctor prescribe ham 
and eggs for diseases of the nose and throat ? To the 
practical methods of fighting the onion maggot should 
be added that of “pasturing” hens with broods of 
little chickens in the field. A chick the size of a robin 
or under will kill hundreds of insects. 
* * 
Men are like seed potatoes. They grow from sprouts. 
Let these develop in a close, dark place, without good 
food, influence, or example, and you have a pale, 
sickly man with a weak, half-hearted effort that never 
results in good to the world. You are ready to admit 
that because you think it doesn’t hit you. But doesn’t 
it hit your seed potatoes? What on earth do you 
want of a seed potato with a long, slender shoot ? A 
short, heavy, stubbed shoot is what you want. You 
can’t get that in a dark, damp cellar to save your life 
or the potatoes. Bring the seed into the sunshine. 
Spread them on a floor and shovel them over now and 
then. Of course, we don’t need to tell you to protect 
them from the frost. The result of that treatment 
will be warty sprouts, say an eighth of an inch long. 
The crop vnll show the result of such treatment just 
as a man will show good treatment given a boy. 
In The R. N.-Y. for Feb 17, we printed an interest¬ 
ing story of the agricultural rise of Mr. George Bitt¬ 
ner, of Erie County, Ohio. The following letter from 
a friend who lives in the same county will show that 
Mr. Bittner is paying the usual penalty for trying to 
do something in the way of improvement: 
Our friend, Mr. Bittner, has got himself Into hot water by writing 
that letter to The R. N.-Y. Some of his neighbors cannot see why a 
man ehould be so big a fool as to take a paper which would teach him 
how to make 8 J much money. Some of them will scarcely speak to 
him now, while others assert that he does not tell the truth; so much 
for the plg-headedness of mankind. 1 am personally acquainted with 
Mr. Bittner, and believe that he speaks the truth, and, what Is more 
to the point, he keeps books and knows what he Is talking about. It 
Is scarcely necessary to add that but few of his neighbors take The 
^ Thank you for the good your paper has done me, although 
I do not wish to write any letters for publication. 
We will back Mr, Bittaer to hold his own. Any man 
who keeps books and uses his brains, will sail in ahead 
of those who depend on brawn and bluff only. The 
N.-Y.’s mission is to try to show the difference be¬ 
tween these two piirs of B’s. 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
I’ve Been my wife git quite put out an' scold, as like as not. 
On bakin’ days when, by sum chance, her oven got too hot; 
An’ bread she’s worked so hard to make puts on a tight, hard crust 
As thick as my old shoe. Them times. If I want peace, I must 
Jest llnd some pressln’ errand at the barn and leave her free 
Ter make remarks at that 'ere stove Instead of nailin’ me I 
It is allQred provokin’ when ye sorter put yer trust 
In that ’ere yeast ter swell the loaf ter have It come all crust. 
It’s Jest like men that I have seen; they face the world’s fierce heat. 
An’ crust right up an' quit their growth an’ give It up dead beat; 
While others with some stronger yeast In brain an’ soul an’ heart. 
In spite of heat, pull up an’ grow an’ never lose their start. 
An’ though the heat may crust ’em up as through the world they roam. 
At heart they’re meller as a sponge an’ light as ocean foam. 
An’ so In life’s big oven men and bread are both Increased 
In value by the working force within themselves called yeast. 
Keep the saw on file. 
Breed, weed and feed. 
Got the visiting all done? 
The honest hen Is on nest. 
Fine the soil and then firm It. 
Give the potatoes an early start. 
What company does misery love ? 
Tobacco makes the sheep tick sick. 
Who can raise peas without potash? 
Father likes a home maid daughter. 
A chick Is both a fowl and a fresh heir. 
Is the radish a rare dish on your table ? 
Do you sow Crimson clover with oats or after them ? 
Who let’s the it terest In the school cool ? The fool 1 
Facts are based on acts. Fancies represent chances. 
The worst interest you can lose Is interest In your work. 
“ A FARMER Is one who makes his living by agriculture.” 
How shall our friend, page 195, lengthen those milk handles? 
While the lousy hens are sitting how the lice keep up their nitting. 
He has an eye on a good milk yield who cuts up a row-en the clover 
field. 
We never make ourselves so small as when we claim to “know It 
all 1 ” 
A chance at last for the tobacco che wer—page 185. Let him use the 
hen roosts for a cuspidor I 
Do you want to know how to make love go lame ? Go nagging for¬ 
ever with tongue of blame. 
An unwilling performance of a household chore may act like Infiam- 
matlon to a household sore. 
The man who says. “ I never got mad In my life ” Is a hypocrite or 
has no mind. Look out for him. 
The man with no asparagus to greet him In the spring mist view life 
through a narrow glass and hopes with broken wing. 
The man who can’t make a wooden hen after reading the article by 
Mr. Schultz, could not work one made by somebody else. 
If dollar claims so much of space within your heart that love can’t 
grow, don’t give to love the second place, but let the selfish dollar go. 
When a farmer has no other plan than that suggested by his man, 
e’en though he calls himself the boss, the only crop he’ll raise Is lose. 
The Illinois Station concludes that a chief cause of a low yield of 
corn Is a poor “stand.” Riant from 10,010 to 12,000 kernels per acre 
they say. 
A BEETLE eats while a true bug sucks. That Is one reason why It Is 
hard to kill bugs with ordinary poison. The potato “bug” by the way 
Is a beetle. 
Is It pleasant to think when the farmer stares at a rousing big bill 
for machine repairs what a lot of his valuable tools were spoiled be¬ 
cause they had never been properly oiled? 
The Rose Comb Brown Leghorns will shell out their eggs and pay 
for their keep, I suppose. But down go the profits to dark, muddy 
dregs when the frost adds an “ f ” to that “ rose. ” 
The highest type of toll preparation Is to “make It fit for an onion 
bed ” That Is because onion seed Is very small and fine. Corn Is tne 
largest seed, but who can give a reason why “onion bed” preparation 
will not pay for corn ? 
On February 7, a black man In Louisiana who pleaded guilty to the 
terrible crime of stealing two canes from a sugar plantation, was 
sentenced to three months hard labor and 20 blows from a whip. 
How's that for a sugar tariff? 
The “Spray Calendar” Issued by the Cornell Brperlment Station 
(Ithaca, N. Y.) deserves mention here as a handy reference sheet for 
those who have spraying to do. It tells how to mix the different mix¬ 
tures and when to use them for different crops. You need it. 
You are a good enough model for your children are you? Don’t 
want the boys and girls to make a better man or woman than you are 
eh? In other words, you don’t want to exert yourself to make future 
generations better! It would be bad to make the world too good. 
Uncle Sam seems to move like a sleepy elephant on that free mall 
delivery In rural dlstrlcis. Don’t wait for him. Organize a fee-male 
delivery—that Is, chip In with your neighbors and have the mall 
brought to your locality. First you know Uncle Sam will be after the 
Job. 
The squash bug enjoys a unique distinction among Insects. There 
Is no possibility of frightening it away by means of bad-smelllng com¬ 
pounds, for It Is guilty of an odor that outranks flsh-oll for vlleness. 
Let us dream of a time when squash bugs will be trained to march up 
and down our fields driving away Insects that cannot endnre a bad 
smell I 
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