46o 
THU kURAL NEW-YORK.ER. 
July 2l 
TfiB 
Rural New-Yorker 
Oor. Ohambert amd Pearl St »., New York. 
Natlsaal Weakijr Journal for Country and Suburban Bomoa. 
HLBBBT B. CARMAN, Bdltor-ln-Chlef. 
HHBBEBT W. COLIilNOWOOD, Msna«rlnK Bdltor 
JOHN J. DIliLON, BnstneBB Manager, 
Copvrighted 1B94. 
Address all business oommnnloatlons and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE BCBAL NEW-TOBKEB. 
Be snre that the name and address of 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, JULY 21, 1894. 
Mbs. Howard measured the time and labor required 
for haying by the amount of cooking required of her. 
That is a woman’s measure which the average man 
knows little about. 
« 
If you are to put fertilizers on the strawberries this 
season, you might safely try the plan suggested by Mr. 
Johnson last week. Plow a clean furrow on each side 
of the row, throwing the earth from the row, and put 
the fertilizer at the bottom. 
* 
Our friend, Fred Grundy, is at ’em again on page 
466. There may be people who will not feel entirely 
comfortable while reading that article. Brother 
Grundy hits hard and rubs many a sore place, but the 
motive is all right, and the result ought to be a crop 
of hard thinking. ^ 
The last legislature appropriated $8,000 for experi¬ 
ment station work on Long Island. The Board of 
Control of the New York Station met with some Long 
Island farmers last week to exchange views. Nothing 
definite has yet been decided, but the Board are sin¬ 
cerely anxious to start the matter right. The R. N.-Y. 
will be glad to print the views of those who have sug¬ 
gestions to make. Long Island needs an experiment 
station, but she must start right. 
« 
The article and picture on our first page give us a 
striking illustration of how inventive genius meets 
necessity more than half way. Without Alfalfa, the 
Colorado dairyman would be severely handicapped, 
and if he were obliged to take care of the crop with 
the ordinary tools used on the farm, he would never 
be done haying. It has always been easier to get the 
hay cut than to get it into the barn or stack. This 
is because the latter operation calls for a large amount 
of hand labor, which is the chief item of expense on 
many farms. As the first-page article shows, a good 
portion of the labor required for lifting and stacking 
can be done by horse power. Are there no farms in 
the East where somewhat similar devices would work 
satisfactorily ? ^ 
The secret of success in farming nowadays seems to 
be in avoiding wastes. Get the full working power 
out of everything. You pay for it all—why throw 
part of it away ? We have a good illustration of this 
in the way a Connecticut farmer uses water. He has 
made a pond at the top of a ravine. Near by he has 
built cold storage houses for fruit. The ice is taken 
right from the pond into the cold houses. The over¬ 
flow from the pond is made to turn a wheel which 
provides power for churning, grinding and other farm 
work, and then goes on through ditches and troughs 
to irrigate the land. There is no waste there, even of 
water, and that is the ideal plan for all farm opera¬ 
tions. Alas ! There is a wide difference between the 
ideal and the real I ^ 
The plan of irrigating by means of a windmill and 
wooden tank reads well on paper, but will not work 
out right. Such a tank will not hold enough. The 
time is sure to come when the water pumped in a 
week is demanded for a day’s wetting. There must 
be storage room enough to keep at least 10 days’ work 
ahead of the windmill. This may be done by scoop¬ 
ing out a large reservoir at the top of a hill—as 
described in former issues, but we believe that a 
powerful steam or horse-power pump to force the 
water directly from a pond or stream—or a deep well 
—will prove the most practical plan. The increased 
use of water in agriculture is something that must 
come with time. Two years ago The R. N.-Y. sug¬ 
gested that manufacturers of pumps and engines could 
make a good business by contracting to supply water 
for irrigation on fruit or truck farms. They could 
take an outfit right to the field and raise the needed 
water at so much a week or day. That is merely a 
suggestion, but there is ’’something in it.” 
• 
Our friend on page 455, makes a good point when 
he says that his potato crop paid well when he planted 
24 bushels and dug nine. The “pay” came in the 
fact that this poor yield forced him to investigate and 
learn why he obtained such poor results for his labor. 
He found that the potatoes had not had enough to 
eat. Then he was forced to learn what is the most 
economical food to give them. These things were 
forced upon him, and that is the way some of the 
most useful things come to us. 
* 
The man who takes several agricultural papers, 
must have a curious idea of agricultural journalism 
when he reads the same article, word for word, in all 
of them. Many of these papers apparently print 
whatever is sent them without change, revision or 
comment. The result is that when one person or firm 
sends the same article to several papers, it is printed 
in all. This plan must give a thoughtful reader a 
funny idea of an editor’s carefulness. 
« 
The new Anti-Option Bill has passed the House, and 
the Grange and other farmers’ organizations are urg¬ 
ing their members to write to Senators and urge them 
to support the measure. The new bill differs from 
the one which was defeated last year. The former 
levied a tax of $1,000 on speculators, and was designed 
for the express purpose of prohibiting grain gambling. 
The present bill puts the tax at $12, and is chiefly a 
revenue measure—a tax on produce dealers that will 
doubtless raise considerable money for the Govern¬ 
ment. We do not think the proposed law will satisfy 
those who are so bitter against the practice of gam¬ 
bling in grain. ^ 
It is with much regret that we have to announce 
the death of our old friend, E. Williams, President of 
the New Jersey Horticultural Society. Mr. Williams 
suffered for many years from a complication of 
diseases, and died at his home in Montclair on the 12th 
instant. He was one of those truthful, lovable men, 
who go through the world doing good, and thousands 
will ever remember him kindly and lovingly. 
* 
The suddenness with which values decline, was well 
illustrated during the past week, in the watermelon 
market. One day, a dealer sold three car-loads for a 
Southern consignee at a price that netted the shipper 
$75 per car-load. The next day, owing to heavy re¬ 
ceipts and other causes, the price had dropped so that 
the same dealer refused to accept several cars of 
melons from the transportation company because they 
couldn’t be sold for more than enough to pay charges. 
Of course, such extreme declines are possible only with 
perishable produce which must be disposed of at once. 
No one would think of disposing of wheat, or hay, or 
wool at such ruinous reductions. The greater risk in 
shipping and selling perishable crops is an element 
that must be considered. 
« 
Do you notice that potash is the hardest element for 
a farmer back from the coast to secure ? The greater 
part of our potash used for fertilizing purposes, comes 
from Germany, and farmers in the interior, unless 
they can obtain wood ashes, must pay the increase of 
freight and transportation. They cannot understand 
why they can obtain bone and blood for a very reason¬ 
able rate, but must pay a much greater price for fer¬ 
tilizers containing potash when the Eastern experi¬ 
ment stations all quote it at a very low rate. At the 
seaboard, bone and blood are higher and potash lower 
than in the West, and for the same reason, viz., the 
cost of transportation. A great many of the fertilizer 
trials at the West are of little value because the 
farmer who made them left out the potash almost 
entirely. This is a great mistake. Blood and bone 
alone will not answer on farms that have been 
cropped with grain for many years. 
* 
Not far from the Rural Grounds, a farm barn was 
recently destroyed by fire with all its contents. It was 
just about sundown, a time of day when the fire 
couldn’t well be ascribed to incendiaries. Some wise¬ 
acres said that it was caused by a load of green hay 
that was put in the day before. Others said that it 
was impossible, for the hay hadn’t been in long enough 
to heat; but contended that they knew of barns hav¬ 
ing been fired in that way. One oM veteran said that 
he had seen a stack of hay which was heating vio¬ 
lently, burst into flames when the top was removed, 
so he knew that hay put in too green would ignite 
upon heating. We would like to know what our read¬ 
ers think on this subject. Is such a thing possible 
with clean hay ? Are there certain weeds whose pres¬ 
ence in the hay would lead to this result ? If this 
combustion is a possibility, what steps are necessary 
to prevent it ? Why do not silos take fire ? Would 
there be any difference between a tight and an open 
hay mow ? ^ 
For many years, the trotting horse record has been 
drawing nearer and nearer to two minutes. It has 
approached within a very few seconds of it, but man 
has beaten the two-minute record by several seconds. 
On June 26, a man on a bicycle made a mile in 1:56, 
thus beating the fastest trotting record by some nine 
or ten seconds. Again in a bicycle race in Paris, one 
rider covered 100 miles in 4 hours 14 minutes, 39 2 5 
seconds. No horse could begin to approach this. In 
the same race, which was to determine who could 
cover the greatest distance in six hours, the winner 
made about 136 6-10 miles. Thus we see how man’s 
inventive genius has enabled him to .outstrip his faith¬ 
ful brute friend, both for short and long distances. 
« 
The R. N.-Y. has had much to say about the robber 
cows in your herd. They are there, eating up your 
grain and hay and not giving enough milk or butter 
to pay. The latest proof that these thieves are to be 
found in every herd, comes from the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion of South Dakota. Eight average cows were se¬ 
lected from the herd and carefully tested for one year. 
On the same feed and with the same care, one cow 
gave 9,291 pounds of milk in a year, and another 
2,694 pounds, with the rest straggling along between 
these extremes. As a matter of fact, three of the 
eight cows did not pay for their keep at all—they 
simply lived on the farmer and had as good a time as 
a city cousin. How many thieves are you providing 
for ? Don’t know ? What are your scales for anyway ? 
To keep over your eyes ? 
* 
BREVITIES. 
We’re comlnK, Uncle Farmer, and we’ll eettle on you lonK; 
Our name 1b City Coupln—we’re a hundred thoueand strong. 
There’s mother and the baby and there's Mary Ann and Jim; 
And Mary’s beau Is stopping here, so we’ve invited him. 
We’re coming up to eat your eggs, and put away your fruit. 
And get a taste of milk and ham, and other things that suit. 
Be sure to feed the horse some cats, and get the hay all In. 
We want to drive him all we can—It seems almost a sin 
To ride In that old wagon; don’t you think that yon can buy 
A bran new carriage for us ? Oh, do pUase now. Uncle, try 1 
We’re coming out to rest, you know, and breathe the counlry air. 
Our nerves are broken down, while you have lots of nerve to spare; 
We’ll give you our society to satisfy your due, 
And take our change In vegetables, to run the winter through. 
Fay— or stay. 
A RUNT means a stunt. 
Wk never catch to-morrow I 
Oxen as potato diggers—page 458. 
Peas planted July 4 were “up” July 10. 
Won't system shorten your work hours ? 
There’s lots of tuberculosis In turkeys. 
A SQUEAL Indicates a pen chant for food. 
Watch the papers for that Preservallne ad. 
“ A MILK-SHAKE ”—dogging the cows home. 
FORTY pounds of pork for a dollar—page 407. 
WHICH are cheaper-prices for feed or for eggs? 
Plowing under Crimson clover Is red manuring. 
Who can name a shy bearing berry that Is profitable ? 
“ ALWAYS BEHIND !” The man who buys “ on time.’’ 
Crimson clover is a catch crop-it catches nitre gen 1 
The cheapest place to kill weeds is in the fanning mill. 
Ex-tended— the neglected crop that once was cared for. 
There are more abandoned farms In Kansas than In a 1 New Eng¬ 
land. 
" Unsatisfied with a good thing”—that Is the first step down for 
many a man. 
What shall It profit a man If he gain the whole world—and then 
can’t pay for it ? 
A “ Butter fat finder” is the name of a new milk tester just In¬ 
troduced In England. 
AS compared with 10 years ago. does It cost you more or less to 
grow a pound or bushel of your produce 7 
A new scheme In English haymaking Is the general use of water¬ 
proof tents over the top of new hay stacks. 
Horses are often doctored and blistered for Imaginary diseases 
when the real trouble is a tight collar that chokes them. 
is there any place In this country where one can buy lean steers, 
fatten them, sell at the same price he paid, and make a profit ? 
You see the folly of judging a cow by a single test of her milk. The 
“composite test” tells the story. Same with a man. You can’t fairly 
judge him by a single job. 
A “BOOK FARMER” In an Ordinary farm neighborhood. Is the liveliest 
sort of social bacteria. He will make lots of sport and yet see how he 
Influences public opinion I 
On page 407 we gave our readers about all they need to know about 
cheap paints. This week we give them the facts about cement floors, 
another Important farm matter. 
The hoe Is about the simplest tool, but not three out of five know 
how to get the most use out of it. The same Is true of road machines. 
We hope to obtain some rules for working these machines to the best 
advantage. 
Prop. Morrow, of the Illinois Station describee wild or prickly 
lettuce (Lactuca ecarlota) as a weed likely to prove a bad pest In that 
State. It does not spread from the roots—hence the seed crop must 
be destroyed. 
There is an evident tendency this year In trotting associations, to 
have two or three-mile races. This accords with the general Idea that 
the public prefer a horse that has bottom rather than one with a short 
burst of very high speed. 
It will be noticed that several parties on page 467 tell us that sugar 
beets may be safely fed to all kinds of sheep. On the other hand, 
veterinarians say that with rams and wethers, such beets are apt 
to cause obstructions in the ureter which often kill the sheep. 
