220 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 7 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Oar. OhambeTB and Pearl Sts ., New Yarh. * 
Natleaal Weakl)^ Journal for Country and Suburban Homos, 
EliBBBT B. CABMAN, Bdltor-ln-Chief. 
HHBBKBT W. COLLINGWOOD, ManoKlng Bdltor 
BBWIN G. FOWLBB, Assoolato Bdltor 
JOIIN J DILLON, BuslneBs ManaKOr. 
Vopvrighttd 1H94. 
Address all business oommunloatlons and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THB BUBAL NKW-YOBKBB. 
Be sure that the name and address ol 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 
transmlttlnK money. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1894 
Abe you taking that course in the catalogue col¬ 
lege ? “If not, why not ? ” Send and get every cata¬ 
logue or circular advertised in The R. N.-Y. That is 
a legitimate part of an agricultural education ? 
O tt 
It is now charged that fat young chickens of certain 
breeds are sent to the New York market and sold and 
eaten for quails ! The people who do that business 
are probably in favor of letting up on the “oleo” 
rogues. In what way is one fraud worse than another? 
« • 
Two bits of advice about that fruit marketing ques¬ 
tion are given this week. Both a^ree that the owner 
should superintend the picking. No doubt about that. 
In no other way can you insure reliable goods and 
careful packing. As to selling—there is the place for 
discussion. 
« * 
CoBN, pumpkins, small grain and grass I How is 
that for a quartette of cow food ? It will make the 
herd sing all the notes on the scale from the bull’s 
bass to the calf’s treble. Next week we shall tell 
you of the doings on a farm where this quartette has 
sole right of way. ^ ^ 
That matter of heredity in strawberries, page 217, 
is a good thing to ponder over. The questions asked 
are important—about as important as any we are 
likely to get regarding the improvement in the straw¬ 
berry. What do our expert growers have to say in re¬ 
gard to these questions ? 
* tt 
The cost of producing a bushel of potatoes for the 
general market is one thing. The cost of a bushel of 
guaranteed seed is another. The difference is very 
small. The prices obtained for the two bushels are 
two other things, and the difference is very great. It 
is the difference between water and blood. 
* * 
One good result of the excitement over the tubercu¬ 
losis scare is the fact that cow keepers are paying 
more attention to the ventilation of their stables. We 
have a number of excellent articles on this subject at 
hand, and before another barn season, we shall print 
them. There is no doubt about the value of pure air 
in any sort of lung trouble. 
* * 
OuB advice to those who are interested in the work 
done at the experiment stations is to write to the 
Office of Experiment Stations, Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, Washington, D. C., and ask that the Station 
Bulletins be sent regularly. These bulletins contain 
careful abstracts of the work done at all the experi¬ 
ment stations, and are very valuable. 
* « 
A GOOD illustration of The R. N.-Y.’s peculiar value 
is found in the articles headed, “ A Short Strawberry 
Rotation.” If any better and more condensed state¬ 
ment of this side of strawberry growing has ever been 
printed, we want to get hold of it at once. By sub¬ 
mitting such questions to our readers, we are gener¬ 
ally able to get something that covers just the point 
wanted. A good deal to our surprise, the other papers 
let us have this field largely to ourselves. 
« tt 
A WORD to farmers who have put up cement cisterns 
for liquid manure. If the cisterns held what ran into 
them you have done a good thing. The liquids are 
the most valuable part of the'excrements. They con¬ 
tain the only actually digested part of the food. This 
manure is quickly available. It is a stimulant. Some 
experiments conducted in Denmark showed that in 
one year a cow consumed food containing 194 pounds 
of nitrogen. Of this 45 1-5 pounds went off in the 
milk and the urine contained 73% pounds. Think 
what a saving it means when all that nitrogen is held 
in a cistern. Consider not only the amount, but the 
fact that it is the most available form of this valuable 
substance. The best place for this urine is on grass 
or grain. Put it on early for the benefit of the young 
plants. If you have a market garden, it is fine for 
forcing plants like radishes, lettuce, etc. Remember 
that urine is like nitrate of soda—a starter or one¬ 
sided manure. It will do all that nitrate of soda can 
do. If you want a complete manure in solution throw 
dissolved bone black and muriate of potash into the 
cistern. 
tt tt 
Who says old customs and methods are dying out ? 
On page 218, a New Jersey correspondent tells us that 
he makes cider by laying up the pomace with straw. 
This within 50 miles of the great metropolis 1 lie 
doesn’t tell us why he uses it when there are so many 
machines for doing the work easily and cheaply. Is 
the old-fashioned straw method cheaper ? Is the prod¬ 
uct of better quality ? He says that the pomace is of 
more value as fertilizer, but this must be looked upon 
as a by-product. Is the main product superior ? 
tt tt 
Thebe is no man in the land so little deserving of 
respect as the farmer who will not take the pains to 
provide a good fruit and vegetable garden for his 
family. Happily, the number of such fellows grows 
smaller from year to year, but there are plenty of 
them left. Farmers everywhere are demanding that 
frauds should all wear distinguishing ear marks. 
That’s right. When you see a farmer pretending to 
be a good Christian citizen in the front yard while the 
back yard is guiltless of fruits and vegetables, brand 
him as a fraud until his bill of fare runneth from as¬ 
paragus to pumpkins. ^ ^ 
The fund for the relief of Ephraim^ W. Bull is slowly 
growing. Where are you, sir, with your mite ? Here 
is a letter we want you to read; 
Here is $1 for the Ephraim W. Bull fund. I never gave 
a dollar so cheerfully as 1 do this one. My heart has often 
swelled with gratitude towards the originator of the Con¬ 
cord grape. Qlad you made the appeal. 
Truly yours, s. s. bailey. 
P. S.—Why not name the fund the gratitude fund ! No 
sin greater than ingratitude. s. s. b. 
That is true. Don’t let it be one of your sins. The 
list of contributors will be published later. 
tt tt 
Last year was a disastrous one to turkey raisers so 
far as prices were concerned. Not in many years 
were prices so low. But had it not been for the system 
of cold storage they would, in all probability, have 
been much lower. The speculators bought largely, 
and large quantities are yet in the cold storage houses. 
Recently a sample lot has been sold to go to England, 
and if the venture prove satisfactory, more shipments 
are likely to follow. This may furnish an outlet for 
the producers of our noble American bird. With 
present facilities, the turkeys can be transported to 
Europe just as well as to New York. Large shipments 
of cranberries have been made, and the turkeys should 
certainly go along as a natural accompaniment. 
tt tt 
Veby many of our readers make a business of selling 
plants like tomatoes, cabbages, etc. Good, stocky 
plants provided just at the right time, sell well. There 
are always lots of people in town who might raise 
plants from the seed, but do not. When planting time 
comes they are quite willing to pay some more enter¬ 
prising man for doing work they might have done 
themselves. The plant trade is a good one, but no¬ 
where is it so necessary to have seed true to name. 
When a man buys tomato and cabbage plants of you, 
nurses them carefully and then has them come to a 
head entirely different from what he expected, there 
is an end of your trade with him and it will do him no 
good to show him that you were fooled too. That sort 
of misery does not love company. 
tt tt 
The receiving agent of one of the largest grape 
growers’ associations in the country said that he had 
suffered so much loss from shortage on grapes ship¬ 
ped by the car-load, that last fall he refused to receive 
any grapes unless the company would check off the 
baskets as they were unloaded. He had previously 
been in the habit of accepting them as billed and of 
course had to make returns accordingly. Under the 
new arrangement some of the cars fell 200, 300, 400 
baskets short of the number they should have con¬ 
tained. This is quite an item. “ Where did the grapes 
go?” was asked. “I don’t know. The cars were 
billed to contain a certain number of baskets, but the 
baskets were short when the car was unloaded and 
the railroads as a general thing refuse to make those 
losses good. One railroad in particular never would 
make any allowance for shortages.” Transportation 
rates are certainly high enough to secure good service 
and there is no reason, when the companies are well 
paid for carrying produce to market, why they should 
not deliver it in good order. Railroads are a public 
necessity, but if they do not render the service for 
which they are paid, the sooner the government takes 
possession of them and runs them in the interest of 
the people by whom they are supported, the better. 
tt * 
Befobe you put in all your crops this year, we want 
to say that the chances are five to one that you are 
spreading over too much land. You would be better 
off if you would farm fewer acres and farm them bet¬ 
ter. Down in your heart you know that it is so, and yet 
you can’t bring yourself to practice what you believe. 
Would you keep two hired men to do the work of one, 
or two cows and two teams to do the work that might 
be done by an individual ? As to the cow and horse, 
you often do it and don’t you see that you thus lose 
the cost of keeping the extra animal ? The same is 
true of half-cropped acres. Crowd your labor and 
manure on to smaller areas. Treat plants as you 
would animals or men with the proper feeding and 
handling to get the most out of each one. Thousands 
of farmers keep hired help at a loss. They would be 
better off at the end of the year if they would simply 
plan to do well what can be done by the members of 
their own family. The one great trouble about this is 
that too much work is planned and weaker members 
of the family will suffer for it. 
tt * 
BREVITIES. 
When onr little baby wag a month or so of age 
Jest a little bnndle of humanity, a page 
Couldn't hold the compliments that little feller had. 
Wife was tickled half to death, and yet It made her sad 
Thlnkln’ how he had ter grow, she says—with lovin’ eyes— 
“ Oh, he'll never he so cunnin’ as he is this size.” 
How the little feller growed—an’ hammered with his fist 
On yer face, an’ held his mouth right up fer ter be kissed. 
Gut 80 he could laugh right out—I did feel bad that day 
When they tuck that long dress off ter give his legs full play. 
“ Baby's gone” says wife ter me—‘‘ter day we lose a prize 
‘Canse he'll never he so cunnin' as he is this size." 
Then he gut ter crawlin’ fer his bottle on the floor. 
Fust ye know he found his legs—cud open any door. 
Then he gut a word or two an’ learned a little prayer. 
Tell ye It wuz comfortin’ ter see him kneelln’ there. 
“ Wife,” sez I “them prophesies wuz Just a pack o' lies 
Fer he never wuz so cunnin’ as he is this size.” 
So he keeps a growln’, every day an’ hour we And 
Somethin’ new developed In the little feller's mind. 
An’ I often wonder if he’s gonter grow away 
From his dad and mother as they think of him to-day 
Hope that life’ll keep him so that In his mother’s eyes 
All his cunnin’ goes to manliness with manhood’s size. 
B. Lkghokxs are Al. 
WHAT are yon farmlr.g for ? 
BONE meal cannot be too flne. 
A GOOD pair—poultry and pear. 
The snrplus rooster Is a delarman. 
Do you coEslder the robin a robber ? 
Firewood of old roosts 1 Good idea. 
The careful feeder keeps the calf full. 
Plaster and muck give your soil pluck. 
Breast collars for work horses—page 227. 
A “ cut to the quick ” makes slow progress. 
A DOSE of buck saw has cured many a liver. 
Let the shiftless man shift less in bis plans. 
A LEAKY boot will raise ooughey on your farm. 
The tassel on pop corn Is the corn’s pop or papa. 
All ready for the spring work ? What’s lacking ? 
What crop do you wish you had planted years ago ? 
There’s a power of Insect death in a pint of kerosene. 
How many town gardens can be spaded by tramp power? 
Life is too short to follow the devil without being caught. 
DON’T try to got a second crop from a rusted strawberry bed. 
The price of good butter—eternal vigilance. It never changes. 
Nature knows no better eyes to make full ears than pulverize. 
The alkali on the Western plains turns out to be a fertilizer lie. 
We aim to make The B. N.-Y. like a dusty carpet—hard to beat! 
“ Hire a man to work and not to plan,” says Mr. Johnson. Correct. 
Bear this In mind, my friend, a leak In a man’s conscience runs to 
cheek. ♦ 
LOUISIANA has no monopoly on the profits In nut culture. It will 
pay In 43 other States. 
It Is a pleasure to deal with a man who “ does not want the earth.” 
Did you ever meet one ? 
No man has any business to use a ton of stable manure without 
adding potash and phosphoric acid to It. 
There are 10 employers watching every young man who works so 
well that he makes his place too small for him. 
How much land do you “ hold out of use ” ? In other words, what 
part of your farm Is useless to you ? We might well say worse than 
useless ! 
How many steps twlzt the pantry and stove? How many miles 
does the good mother move-getting your meals In the drought and 
damp ? Figure It up, It will make quite a tramp. 
IP a man could step out of himself now and then and study himself 
as he does other men, he might not add much to the world’s pile of 
sense, but the value to him would be simply Immense. 
A FRIEND claims that not only will the pullets from eggs of extra 
good layers show the Improved laying quality, but the cockerels will 
grow faster and mature earlier than those from poor layers. Is that a 
fact ? 
The agricultural editor doth loathe, abhor, despise the mean and 
sneaklrg dairy fraud—that will not advertise. But mark you bow his 
light goes out and leaves you In the dark before the advertising of 
the bloated creamery shark ! 
You will see, page 216 that the teeth are not the only tools In the 
mouth that aid digestion. The glands that secrete the saliva are able 
lieutenants of the teeth. The finer the food the greater the need of 
mixing It with the saliva. Unfortunately this need Is not often 
recognized. It Is even more necessary with humans than with cows 
as the former have but one stomach. 
