1894 
589 
THE RURAI NEW-YORKER. 
$io in Prizes 
Will be given by Thk R. N.-Y. for the best three sub¬ 
jects for syiEposiuins. By a “ symposium ” we mean 
a collection of the views of well-informed men on 
some subject of more than ordinary importance to 
American farming. You send the subject with a set 
of questions that will serve to draw out opinions on 
it. You may, if you like, also send a list of parties 
to whom you would like the questions sent. This is 
not needed, however. We want ideas —topics for dis¬ 
cussion that will instruct farmers or force them to 
think. There will be three prizes : 
First, $5 ; Second, $3 ; Third, $2. 
The contest will close October 15. Now let our 
readers put on their thinking caps and develop some 
new ideas. There is no restriction as to the character 
and scope of these topics. 
THE PROSPECT. 
“ Metayage” is a system of farming on shares— 
generally cne-half the crop going each to tenant and 
owner with certain conditions about providing stock, 
tools and seed. This system is quite common in this 
country and in Earope, but has thus far found little 
favor in England. There the system is for the tenant 
to pay a certain rent in cash, own the stock and sell 
the crop in his own way. In these times of low prices, 
this cash rent is often hard to raise, and it would 
probably be easier for many Euglish farmers to pay 
rent in a share of the crop and stock. In that case, 
the landlord would take his chance with the tenant 
and not have the advantage of forcing the latter to 
turn his crop into cash in order to make payments. It 
is not likely, however, that English farmers would 
take kindly to this change. They are very conserva¬ 
tive, and will hang to tradition and old customs, even 
against their own interests. 
♦ 
The census man took hold of the poultry industry in 
1890, and produced some remarkable figures There 
were 258,472,155 “chickens” and 26,816,545 other poul¬ 
try against 102,265,653 “chickens” in 1880. Missouri 
leads with 22,785,848 head with Illinois next with 21,- 
463,525, Then came Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas in the order named. 
Ten years ago Missouri was first, with Ohio second. 
It is estimated that in 1890, 817,211,146 dozens of eggs 
were produced in this country. In this respect Ohio 
led, with Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania and 
New York following in the order named. It will thus 
be seen that the West is far ahead of the East as re¬ 
gards the poultry business. But, as with cattle, a 
large proportion of the Western poultry trade is given 
up to the production of meat rather than eggs. The 
development of the “ egg machine” hen is largely an 
Eastern enterprise and in keeping with the spirit that 
would leave beefmaking to the West and develop 
fancy dairying instead. Look at it as you will, how¬ 
ever, the poultry business is now a great thing and is 
sure to be still further increased. 
• 
It is just a trifle more than a century ago that Eli 
Whitney, a New Englander, then teaching in the 
South, invented the cotton gin, which made possible 
the great extension in cotton growing. He was a 
mechanical genius, and it is related that on one occa¬ 
sion, several gentlemen were discussing the cotton 
question, and lamenting that the great labor of sepa¬ 
rating. the seeds from the lint prevented the profitable 
production of this crop. His landlady, who was familiar 
witn the young Yankee’s inventive genius, suggested 
that he could make almost anything, and she broached 
the subject to him. It is said, further, that he had 
never seen a boll of cotton at that time, but securing 
one, he set to work. He had to make his own tools, 
but, finally, he produced a machine that would do the 
work. But envious individuals stole his models, and 
long litigation dissipated all his profits from this in¬ 
vention. It is a satisfaction to know, however, that 
he afterward- made a fortune from other inventions. 
These facts are brought to mind by the report that 
Eli Whitney, a grandson of the other inventor, has 
just invented a machine for picking cotton. It was 
developed in the same old factory in New Haven, Conn., 
where the original Whitney perfected his cotton gin. 
Experiments, it is said, have demonstrated that one 
machine with two horses and two men, will do the 
work of 100 men. It is a strange coincidence that 
these two, separated by two generations, should pro¬ 
duce two machines, one of which is, and the other of 
which promises to be, of such great value to toe cot¬ 
ton growers. It is a little remarkable, too, that these 
machines are the product of New England brains and 
skill, a part of the country for which the cotton grow¬ 
ing States are not supposed to cherish any particular 
affection. The South has not found cotton growing 
profitable in recent years. Perhaps some of the ma¬ 
chines invented for picking may supersede the hand 
picking, the most laborious and costly part of cotton 
production, and thus make a profit possible, even at 
lower prices. They may do for the cotton growers of 
the South what the binders have done for the grain 
growers of the North. ^ 
When we say of a man that he needs a tonic, what 
do we mean ? Generally speaking, we mean that he 
needs something to stimulate his appetite and create 
a desire for good food. It is the food—complete and 
nourishing—that is to give him strength and build up 
his system. No intelligent person would claim that it 
was the “tonic” alone and not the food, that saved 
the man’s health. Now nitrate of soda and other 
forms of soluble nitrogen are often not unlike the 
“tonic” in their action on crops. They force and 
start the plant into activity so that it can make use of 
the potash and phosphoric acid which are necessary to 
give it perfect growth. Sometimes one season’s supply 
of these are in the soil and the result is a large crop 
from the application of nitrogen alone. Sometimes 
this leads to the conclusion that continued applications 
of nitrogen alone, year after year , will produce heavy 
crops. That is a mistake which will prove disastrous 
if persisted in. Without the other ingredients that 
make a “ complete fertilizsr,” nitrogen alone will do 
little more than a “ tonic” without food for a man. 
• 
In a recent drive over the country, weeds were seen 
everywhere, in corners of the fences and along the 
roadside, especially. Now that the hurry of the work 
is over, many were mowing them. The law must be 
complied with, and at this too late hour, a little time 
is devoted to the destruction of the already dead stalks. 
It makes the farm look a little better, but less harm 
would be done if they were left standing, for th en the 
seeds would fall more nearly in one spot. Now the 
wind will carry the loose stalks a considerable dis¬ 
tance, leaving seeds all the way. Half the labor 
of all hoed crops consists in fighting weeds, yet a large 
per cent of the barnyards are surrounded by a fringe 
of weeds that scatter their seeds in the manure, and 
thus make foul fields. Many sow grass seeds that are 
not clean. If the farmers would all have their seed 
cleaned, or a law could be made which would compel 
the using of clean seed, the saving in expense of grow¬ 
ing most crops would be greatly lessened. See to it, 
faithfully, that none of the larger weeds go to seed 
on your farm for three years, and you will be rid of 
most of them. ^ 
Every little while we learn from the medical men 
that we are subject to some heretofore unheard of dis¬ 
ease, generally with some stunning name which was 
never dreamed of in our forefathers’ time. One of the 
latest is appendicitis, and many a sufferer has been 
told within the past few years that he was suffering 
from this disease, and that to cure it an operation 
must be performed for the removal of the vermiform 
appendix. The latter is a small appendage at the end of 
the caecum or large intestine, whose particular use in 
the human economy has never been discovered. It has 
been claimed that the inflammation sometimes affect¬ 
ing this organ — appendicitis — is often caused by 
the lodgment in it of grape seeds or similar sub¬ 
stances, and many people have been deterred by fear 
of such consequences from eating grapes at all. Now 
some prominent surgeons assert that this belief is all 
wrong; that very rarely, if ever, is this disease pro¬ 
duced by any such cause. Two leading New York 
surgeons have given their written testimony to this 
effect. One of them ascribes the disease to the pres¬ 
ence in the useless, but often troublesome little ap¬ 
pendage heretofore described, of small particles of 
digested matter, and the other to bacteria. Thus is 
the grape cleared of another charge affecting its 
popularity, and we may go on eating grapes, seeds and 
all, with a clear conscience, and an interior void of 
appendicitis. ^ 
The other day a R. N.-Y. subscriber showed us his 
account sales of some Nutmegs sent to his commission 
merchant in a city 125 miles d stant from the shipper’s 
station. Here it is : 
Ten crateH megs. $9 00 
Commission.. 90 
Freight. '6 00 
Net proceeds. 5 10 
These were small crates, holding 12 extra large Haek- 
ensacks, or 15 to 18 smaller ones. The crates cost 11 
cents each. Deducting $1.10 from the amount received, 
we have just $4 left for the grower. On the other 
hand, 90 cents a crate was a wholesale price. The 
consumer did well if he got one of the 12 Hackensaeks 
for 10 cents, or at the rate of $1 20 a crate. In a word, 
our friend obtained 33% per cent of the price the 
consumer paid, and the 66% per cent went to others 
The commission charge is reasonable. Owing to the 
great supply of melons, the price for the market at 
which they were sold, was fair. But how about the 
cost of carriage ? The freight trains on this railway 
consume 24 hours in making the 125 miles run. This 
is a slow and a rough way of getting into a home 
market. It was necessary to ship by express, and the 
charge was 30 cents a crate, or 2% cents a melon. The 
grow r produces the melon and takes it to the station 
for 3% cents. The express company then charges 
2% cants for carrying it 125 miles. It would seem that 
it were better to own stock in an express company 
than to be a grower of fine fruits at a country railway 
station. There is a wide margin between the price 
obtained by this grower and the price paid by the con¬ 
sumer of his products. The first price has 200 per cent 
added to it. 
Here Is producer’s price, - 
Here Is consumer’s price,- 
In this case little profit is needed to cover risk of loss. 
The producer runs all the risk until in the hands of 
the retailer. He puts only fine and firm melons in the 
crates, or else the retailer does not buy at good prices. 
This grower says he can afford to grow Nutmegs at 3% 
cents apiece—can make more money per acre than by 
growing staple crops—but he is very sure that if con¬ 
sumers did not have to pay an advance of 200 per cent 
over the price he gets, the market would take more 
melons than it now does, and he, with others, could 
increase the acreage. He thinks it hardly fair that 
the transportation company add 75 per cent to the 
first price for its share. And yet he is helpless. The 
transportation company is a natural monopoly ; com¬ 
petition is not possible. ^ 
Another Irrigation Congress has just been held at 
Denver. It is reported that Secretary J. Sterling 
Morton, as usual, got himself into trouble by writing 
the convention a letter in which he said : 
The questions considered by these Irrigation conventions have noth- 
InK to do with practical irilRatlon. They amount simply to the coming 
together of a body of citizens for the purpose of petitioning Congress 
for grants of land and accession of whatever control or ownership the 
general Government may have of the waters of the arid region. 
.Without wishing to impugn the motives of those who 
are seeking to work up interest in these vast schemes 
for irrigating the arid regions. The R. N.-Y. ques¬ 
tions the wisdom of spending money to increase the 
area of cheap, fertile land. There is too much land 
now—so much, indeed, that some farmers think they 
can afford to farm in a careless and slovenly manner 
since it is easy to get new land when the old is worked 
out. The great majority of farmers in this country 
have no interest in these irrigation schemes. In fact, 
they do not take interest enough to oppose them as 
they certainly would do if they could realize how the 
redemption of these arid plains would add to the pres¬ 
ent fierce competition against them. Most of those who 
favor these great irrigation plans, expect to make a 
good deal of money out of them. 
n 
Every fall, there are reports of damage from forest 
fires, but not for 20 years—if ever before—have such 
horrible scenes been witnessed as were enacted last 
week in the woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper 
Michigan. This region comprises a vast forest. Here 
and there around some little lumber town, the timber 
has been cut away and smaller clearings, dotted here 
and there, show where farms have been cut out of the 
wilderness, with connecting roads and railroads be¬ 
tween farms and towns. But with these insignificant 
exceptions, the forest stretches away for miles, a dense 
and tangled wilderness. The fearful drought of the 
past summer has filled this great area with a mass of 
material almost as inflammable as gunpowder. It 
needed but a spark from some passing locomotive, or 
some careless settler’s fire, to start this into a blaze. 
Once started, it swept like a whirlwind through the 
land, destroying farm and town on its awful march. 
In Minnesota alone, hundreds of lives have been lost, 
and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. 
The worst feature of the matter is that there is no 
practical way of fighting these great fires. Once 
started, they sweep onward until they reach the lakes 
or the end of the ary fuel, or until rain falls heavily 
enough to extinguish them. Dwellers in these forests 
must ever live in dread of being burned out in a seascn 
like the present. _ 
BUSINESS BITS. 
At the Syracuse and Blntrhaaitoa fairs, Messrs. G. B. Squires & 
Son are showlnK their nne Red Polled cattle. In their advertlsemoLt 
n tbls issue, tney make special oOers on yoanK calves. 
Tua Syses Iron and Steel Rjollng Co. Niles, U., and Chicago, 111., 
claim many advantages for their rouhng over shingles, tin, or slaie 
Tee Iron and sieel roodngs are nreproof, llgnining-proof and cheap 
Wilte for catalogue and prices 
WtTUashoit crop of corn, farmers cannot alloid to pay t-ll for 
grinding. The Eate.prise Mfg. Co , Columbiana, O., makes both st,am 
and sweep power grinders which will gilnd all kinds of grain. V\ rlie 
them for catalogue and prices of feed mills. 
J.M. TuoHBuaN & Co., 15 John St, New Vork.—December cata¬ 
logue of hyacinths and tulips in great variety, Amaryllis arums, anem- 
01 es, brudimas, crocus, calocnoitus. cvciamea, crown imperials 
ireesias. gladiolus, ixtas, iris, Jonquils, lliles, narcissus, rananculus 
BCilias, snowdrops, tuoeroses, a long list of hardy nerbaceous plants, 
Uower seeds for fall and winter sowing in frame) and greenhouses, 
palm seeds, seeds of hardy plants tor autumn sowing, vegetable seeds 
for frames and open ground, etc. Tnls exce.iect catalogue wlin covers 
of well executed co.ored Uowers, will be sunt to oar readers without 
charge 
