1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
429 
THE PROSPECT. 
“ I BEAD your exposure of Hayt,” said a commissioil 
mercliant, “ and you did a jfood thing in showing 
him up. But there are plenty more just like him. 
All they have to do is to quote prices a little higher 
than reputable dealers can afford to pay, and they 
can secure all the goods they want. I know of a 
man who did business from several different cities be¬ 
sides New York, under different names, of course. 
He wrote to creameries all over the country, stating 
the advantages he enjoyed for handling superior 
goods, and hinting at prices far above the regular 
market price. Incidentally, he asked for a sample 
shipment of two or three tubs. He got the samples 
from nearly every one, but none of them ever heard 
from him again. Do you know that any man with 
any gumption and the disposition to defraud, can 
start in the commission business in this city, make 
$50,000 by such practices in a short time, disappear 
and no one know where he has gone ? ” Yet farmers 
will continue to ship to such parties who have no 
recommendations other than their promise to secure 
higher prices. ^ 
Thebe is, apparently, no end to the devices for 
making easier work of dairying. Most of the improve¬ 
ments in separators have had in view increased work 
and greater skimming capacity. Now we are told of 
a little machine called the “ Humming Bird,” calcu¬ 
lated to separate 15 gallons an hour. It stands on an 
ordinary table and is only 13 inches high without the 
feed can. As to the method of working it, we are 
told: 
The operator having, If dailred, taken a comfortable seat, pulls a 
short handle attached to a cord wound on a puller, and thus sets the 
machine In motion. When this cord Is pulled right out, and the hand 
Is Ciased, It Is automatlcallr re-wound, ready for another pull, and so 
on. Moreover, as there Is no heavy gearing to act as a brake, the 
separator will maintain Us momentum for a time while the dairymaid 
Is re-fllllng the tin with milk or doing other short Jobs about the dairy. 
This might be called a pocket separator. We do not 
see what useful purpose such a toy will have. Cer¬ 
tainly the tendency is everywhere toward larger 
operations and saving in expense by producing more 
without extra force. ^ 
Eveby year the interest in new varieties of straw¬ 
berries becomes more marked. Men who up to a few 
years ago confined their operations to a few standard 
varieties now have a dozen or more of the newer sorts 
under test. It pays them to do so. For example, take 
this note from W. D. Barns : 
While our Bubachs and Sharpless have been fine, the Beder Wood 
has been by far our best market berry. Daring the hot weather, I saw 
In a store a!crate?of them picked Saturday morning that were clean 
and bright on Monday morning. Though not nearly as large, they 
yield more quarts than either other variety and hold their size well 
during the season. Our first picking of them was June 4. Our first 
Bubachs were picked June 12. First Sharpless a few days later. June 
19,1 shipped to New Vork to the same commission firm seven orates of 
Snarpless and two orates of the Beder Wood. The Sharpless were 
extra fine and so marked, but the Beder Wood brought one cent par 
quart more than the others.’’ 
It is easy to see from this statement how it pays to 
know the characteristics of different varieties. It is a 
matter of breeding and pedigree—not only that, but 
adaptability to soil and location, and practical men in 
the future will pay more and more attention to the 
testing of varieties. ^ 
OuB Canadian friend, Richard Gibson, has had a 
good deal of experience in the breeding and feeding 
of beef cajttle. In his cold climate, comfortable barns 
are needed and indoor feeding must be carried on for 
many months. At present prices for beef, Canadian 
steers are profitable for two reasons only—the skillful 
feeder can get a better price for his grain and hay 
from the steer than he can from the middleman, and 
the resulting manure keeps up the fertility of the 
farm. But for a fair value on the manure, steer feed¬ 
ing would not pay. Lately Mr. Gibson has seen how 
they fatten steers in the West. There were 400 dis¬ 
horned steers running like sheep in two yards. Grain 
and hay were constantly before them in self-feeders 
and racks. Open sheds provided shelter nights and 
stormy days. Two men with wagons can haul the 
grain and fodder needed simply as chores. When this 
cheap method was compared with the Canadian labor 
of foot pulping, grinding, cutting and barn cleaning, 
no wonder Mr. Gibson was led to say in the Farmers’ 
Advocate: 
It Boomed a careless way of feeding, with corn and hay before them 
all the time; itlll, I am more convinced than ever that we in Canada 
cannot compete with the Western feeder, and that should there be a 
reclproolty treaty with the United States I feel satisfied my village 
butcher would be cutting up Western-fed beef. 
It certainly looks that way. Instead of being a waste¬ 
ful process, this method of feeding Western steers is 
founded on scientific principles. Dishorning has 
revolutionized the business because it economizes 
space, while the hogs that follow the cattle make use 
of about all the undigested food. The one thing 
needed is better and warmer shelter, and that will 
come. Things have certainly come to a curious pass 
when the tariff alone keeps the dressed beef out of 
Canada. That trade rained the old live stock hus¬ 
bandry at the East, but farmers have learned to be 
satisfied so long as they can have the blood and bone 
from Western slaughter houses to use on fruits and 
vegetables. It is either that or be satisfied with the 
smaller markets which the dressed beef cannot reach. 
• 
Dubing the past few years the methods and proc¬ 
esses of keeping goods in cold storage have been 
greatly improved. This improvement has been mostly 
in the line of large establishments in cities rather 
than in the smaller outfits for country places. In one 
sense, this is unfortunate because the farmer needs 
these storage houses nearer his fields. The present 
development is more in the interests of holders and 
middlemen. The possibilities of cold storage for butter 
alone are remarkable. For example, butter may be 
made in June on grass alone at a few cents a pound. 
Let it be made with the accumulator and at once put 
into cold storage in the grain, and kept at a low tem¬ 
perature until Christmas. It may then be taken out 
daily, worked into pats or blocks, and sold for fresh 
winter butter. All this is possible —in fact it has been 
done already on a small scale. It simply serves to 
show how invention and scientific discovery may be 
used to benefit agriculture. The regret is that most 
of the profit in such enterprises goes to those who do 
least actually to make or create the goods that are 
handled. ^ 
Cebtain fiorists in this country and abroad have 
organized a system that will enable a person to order 
fiowers by telegraph to be sent to any address in any 
city. For example, a person in New York wants to 
have fiowers sent to a certain street in Chicago or 
even in Paris. He goes to the florist’s store in New 
York, gives his order and pays for it. The florist at 
once takes charge, and by means of a thorough organ¬ 
ization, is able to telegraph the order to any large 
city, sure that it will be promptly carried out. The 
advantage of this system is evident—it is a co nven- 
ience to the buyer and a saving in all ways. The 
point is that business organization and a perfect un¬ 
derstanding, will enable these florists to conduct a 
business at long range. There is a lesson here for 
farmers. Too many of them are doing an individual 
business. Not only do they lack the ability to guaran¬ 
tee a sufficient amount of produce, but their range of 
trade is shortened and they cannot make a perfect 
use of the telegraph or even the mails. What the 
farmer (irows, must be sold about as the florists handle 
their flowers. Unless the farmers do it themselves, the 
middlemen will do it and charge well for the service. 
« 
The Mark Lane Express in showiug ho)r little the 
English Agricultural Department has done for English 
farmers shows what European countries are doing. 
In France, we are told the Agricultural Department 
not only conducts experiments and offers premiums, 
but has secured reductions of rates on railroads in 
favor of agriculture. The Government has also 
placed $20,000,000 to the credit of a bank for the 
special purpose of loaning to farmers at four per cent. 
In Germany, public money is also loaned to farmers at 
per cent for the purpose of improving holdings. 
So long as this interest is paid the loan cannot be 
called in, but the tenant can pay it at convenience. 
In Austria, vast sums are spent to maintain first-class 
breeding horses with service free to farmers and to 
furnish bulls, rams and boars at lowest cost prices. 
The Government also has power to relieve needy 
farmers from taxation. In Belgium, the farmer has 
even greater advantages, as he has reduced railroad 
rates and can send manure on waterways free of 
charge. The railroads too, make no charge for butter, 
milk or eggs when the owner travels with the goods. 
Of course, all these rules and laws take a certain 
amount of business from the banker, breeder or rail¬ 
road. We have not, apparently, come to a point in 
this country where public sentiment will approve of 
such “Paternalism,” but are we not on the way to it ? 
m 
A VOLUME might be written on the methods of de¬ 
livering milk practiced In different countries. A good 
share of the world’s milk is delivered in the original 
package—that is, the cow is driven about from house 
to house and the milk drawn off as needed. We 
know of a baby that was fed on asses’ milk—the aas 
trotting behind the carriage in which the family 
traveled through Italy. Between such a primitive 
delivery and the modern system of delivering in glass 
bottles, there is a wide stretch. You may judge for 
yourself wherq the method pictured on our first page 
comes in. This photograph was taken in Antwerp, 
Belgium, and shows an every day scene. The girl 
travels about from house to house with the little dog 
cart and delivers the milk to customers. The cans, 
you will notice, are of somewhat different shape from 
ours. They are always polished till they shine like 
silver, and everything about the outfit is neat and 
clean as can be. Who wouldn’t prefer to be served by 
such a milkmaid rather than by an unshorn man 
with dirty shirt and overalls and boots plastered with 
manure ? One singular thing about the outfit is the 
difference between the size of the dog and his load. 
We are told that these trained Belgium dogs are very 
strong, that they pull their burdens with ease. We 
wish the time might come in this country when the 
dog could show that he is capable of doing honest 
work. It will be a long time hence, we fear. 
• 
Why is there so much talk about the woman’s 
money ? If a woman is married to a man, they are 
supposed to be one, and what belongs to one, belongs 
equally to the other. This is the theory, but, like 
many other beautiful theories, the practice doesn’t 
seem to conform in many cases. It is a lamentable 
fact that many women fairly have to beg for the little 
money they need for personal expenses. As a rule, 
women are more careful of money then men; they 
look more closely after the small outlays, and make a 
dollar go further. Men, generally, will not admit 
this, and in practice will not act up to it. Many young 
women, who to-day are independently self-sup¬ 
porting, cannot afford to marry, for business reasons. 
A story is told of one of these who held an important 
clerkship in one of the departments at Washington. 
She received an offer of marriage from a young man 
who in the liberality of his infatuation, told her that 
if she married him, she need work no more. That he 
would take her and her dependent mother, not to 
mention other relatives, to the West, and they would 
live independently and happily. “I have an income 
of $lf500 per year,” proualy asserted this magnani¬ 
mous young man. “But I have a salary of $3,000 
now,” replied the self-sufficient young woman. They 
didn’t go West. Woman has shown herself equal to 
the emergencies of life, and she certainly will show 
herself able to cope with whatever problems present 
themselves to her. The man who would malign wo¬ 
man by the assertion that she doesn’t know how to 
care for and use money, and isn’t to be trusted with 
It, certainly gives strong evidence of never having had 
a woman for a mother. 
« 
Westebn farmers continue their call for an increased 
use of silver as money. At the State convention of al¬ 
most every party, the delegates from the rural dis¬ 
tricts have almost invariably demanded some consid¬ 
eration for silver coinage. The latest thing of im¬ 
portance in this line is an interview with ex-Speaker 
Thomas B. Reed, who states the novel proposition 
that our tariff should be used to force other nations 
into an agreement with this country to accept a stated 
ratio for the coinage of silver. Mr. Reed’s exact words 
are : 
It Is eviaentlr Imuortant for debtor nations, ga which list we stand 
first, to ralae the pries of silver and thereby reduce that bounty on 
exports whloh Asia now enjoys. This can be beat done by a monetary 
agreement with other natlonH favorable to silver, and by such a scale 
of high tariffs against those nations whloh reject monetary agreement 
as will go far to Insure us a favorable balance of trade. In short, a 
higher price for sliver, by reducing Asiatic exports to Europe, will In¬ 
crease ours; add to this a high tariff, and we can keep gold at homo, 
or at least, if it leaves us, it will quickly come back again. 
In other words, as we understand this, a nation that 
will not join us in an agreement to use more silver as 
money would be forced to pay higher duties on goods 
sent to this country. This programme appears to find 
some supporters here, though many regard it as a poli¬ 
tician’s move to keep up the tariff. The Financial 
News, the leading financial paper of London, has this 
to say about it: 
There can be no doubt about It that If the U nlted States were to 
adopt a silver basis to-morrow, Brlt'sh trade would be ruined befo e 
the year was out. Every American Industry would be protected, not 
only at home, but In every other market. Of course the States would 
suffer to a certain extent through having to pay her obligations abroad 
In gold; but the loss on exchange under this head would be a mere 
drop In the bucket compared with the profit to be reaped from the 
markets of South America and Asia, to say nothing of Europe. It has 
been a piece of luck for ns that It has nevar before occurred to the 
Americans to scoop us out of the world’s markets by going on a silver 
basis, and It might serve us right If, Irritated by the contemptuous 
apathy of our Government to the gravity of the silver problem, the 
Americans retaliate by freezing out gold. It could easily be done. 
This is certainly a remarkable statement from such a 
source. It is very safe to say that the silver question 
is nowhere near a settlement. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Thosb readers of The R. N.-Y. who are Inquiring for houses to han¬ 
dle ginseng toot, will do well to ship to Lllrsb & Lowenstein, 176 Cham¬ 
bers Street, New York. The market quotation at present writing is 
<2 to is . 
Fifty-thuee bushels of wheat to the acre Is not bad. This Is the 
yield of the wheat offered for seed by Mr. M. B. Nichols, Easton, Md. 
Mr. Nichols tells us that It ripens a week earlier than Fultz and is a 
much heavier ylelder. 
Tui Dorset-Horn sheep are fast coming Into prominence, and are 
sure to grow In favor as the demand for mutton sheep Increases, 
J. D. Van Valkenburgh, Jr., Chenango Valley Stock Farm. Greene, 
N. Y , Is offering some choice registered and grade specimens of this 
breed. Just what Is wanted for grading flicks. 
The reputation of The Appletoa Mfg. Co., Chicago, 111, was well 
sustained by their exhibit at the World’s Fair In Chicago, their many 
awards setting forth tnat their machines excel lu strength, durability, 
simplicity of constiuctlon and ease of operation. If any of our readers 
are in need of flist-clais goods, tread powers, sweep horse powers, 
grinding mills, corn ihellers, feed cutters, wood saws, etc., they should 
send for their large Illustrated catalogue, whloh gives full and de¬ 
tailed description of all their machines. The catalogue will be mailed 
free by mentioning The U. N.-Y. 
