THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
797 
THE PROSPECT. 
VVe think the little mare pictured on our first page, 
is about the youngest specimen of horsefiesh ever put 
into a harness. Our photographer found her at Cam¬ 
bridge, Mass. She was horn May 8, 1894. The mare 
died and the colt was brought up by hand or, more 
strictly speaking, “on the finger.” It became a great 
pet with the children, and was as gentle and kind as a 
puppy. A halter was put on it at one month old so 
that it might be tied and led about. At two months 
of age, reins were fastened to the halter and the little 
thing was taught to mind the rein. At three months, 
a bit was put in its mouth, and soon a bridle was put 
on. Two weeks later, a full set of harness was put on 
with no trouble, and the little mare was hitched to a 
small log and driven about. The colt was five months 
old when our picture was taken. Of course the shafts 
in this singular vehicle were new to her, but she had 
been trained so carefully, and had such confidence in 
her trainer, that she made no trouble. Of course 
there is nothing very practical about this. The colt is 
sound and active, and thoroughly well broken; but 
she is too small and weak to haul any great load. At 
the same time, this experiment shows what can be 
done if a colt be taken in hand early enough. Cer¬ 
tainly it is an advantage for any young horse to be¬ 
come halter broken and “ bridle wise ” so early in life 
that he will not know what it is to be otherwise. How 
the boys would enjoy having and handling a colt like 
that! Why not let them have a chance to see what 
they can do ? 
O 
The price of milk was lowered by the Milk Ex¬ 
change, to three cents, December 1, being a drop of one- 
fourth cent per quart. This is the net price to the ship¬ 
per. The surplus has sold on the platforms for the aver¬ 
age price of $1.60 per can of 40 quarts. The total daily 
supply has been 19,258 cans, 176 cans of condensed 
milk, and 350 cans of cream. This comes over a num¬ 
ber of different routes, the larger quantity coming 
over the D. L. & W. R.R., an average of upwards of 
4,000 cans daily. Next comes the Erie, with approxi¬ 
mately 4,000, the Ontario & Western with about 2,700, 
the N. Y. C. & H. R. and Harlem roads, with about 
2,500, the Susquehanna with something like 1,700, the 
West Shore with about 1,000, and several other routes 
with a less number, each. A considerable quantity 
comes from Long Island, also. It is an immense 
business. 
O 
As The R. N.-Y. predicted, the Thank.sgiving mar¬ 
ket for poultry was a disastrous one in many ways. 
The weather was generally favorable, but the unpre¬ 
cedentedly large quantities received, coupled with 
lower prices in. other lines of produce, has brought 
prices far below the profit point. Receipts during 
Thanksgiving week and the week preceding, were 25 
per cent greater than for the same period last year. 
To make matters worse, much of the stock was in¬ 
sufficiently fattened, and of poor quality. Never 
before has choice stock sold so low. All through the 
commission district, dealers were regretting the con¬ 
dition of things, but it couldn’t be helped. The supply 
was simply away ahead of the market demands. Had 
it not been for the cold storage houses, the situation 
would have been still worse, but large quantities were 
put away here for future use. This relieved the mar¬ 
ket temporarily, but considerable quantities continue 
to arrive, and the market continues depressed. While 
the best stock has sold for low prices, much of the 
poorer stock has sold for prices that are hardly 
sufficient to cover shipping expenses, and some was 
fortunate in escaping the dump. The great mass of 
low-priced stock, also reduced the price of the best. 
This was inevitable. It has been an unfortunate sea¬ 
son all around for both shippers and receivers. 
G 
The R. N.-Y. is not surpidsed to find that men every¬ 
where agree that workmen and, especially farmers, 
find their hardest times when there is least cash 
circulating in their market. With money hard to 
obtain, the banks and other capitalists have a mo¬ 
nopoly of it which they can use for their own interests 
as a Trust would “corner” oil or sugar. We leai-n 
much of the suffering entailed by a shortened circula¬ 
tion of money from our readers and correspondents. 
For example, here is a letter from Oregon : 
Wheat has been as low as 30 cents per bushel, sacked, but is now 
35. Potatoes sell for 50 cents per 100 pounds, sacked. Dressed 
beef is 3*4 and 4*4 cents by the quarter. Dressed pork, 5 cents per 
pound. I just sold a really good Jersey calf (male) for $5. The 
calf was eight months old, and the $5 looked bigger than the calf’s 
mother. A good span of horses, broken, can be bought for from 
$30 to $50. I heard a horseman from Cook County offer his whole 
herd of horses at $10 all ’round, or the pick of them at $15. These 
horses are unbroken, and claim a large percentage of Messenger 
blood. Everything here is barter. Coin is a thing of the past. 
The same reports come from nearly all purely agri¬ 
cultural States. Wherever there is least money in 
circulation, there farmers suffer worst. There they 
are forced to accept lowest prices for their crops, be¬ 
cause they are forced to bid with their produce for the 
cash needed to pay the debts for which cash is de¬ 
manded. It does these men no good to tell them that 
there is plenty of money inside the boundaries of the 
United States. iMoney that is tied up in vaults and 
banks at the North and East, may help out the average 
per capita circulation, but it does little good to the 
settlers South and West. There might be blood enough 
in a man’s body, but if it refused to circulate freely in 
his feet, the feet would have a right to complain. One 
thing at least is evident to us, something must be done 
to coax or drive money away from the places where it 
is now congested, into the country markets where 
farmers may obtain it without being forced to give a 
whole year’s crop for enough cash to pay taxes and in¬ 
terest. Unless that is done, the farmer will gi’adually 
lose his ability to buy goods and then the towns will 
be left without customers. 
O 
In these times, two things are filling many farmers 
minds with thinking—saving the middleman’s share, 
and utilizing wastes. We find a good many farmers 
going back to first principles, and doing at home the 
jobs formerly given to others. For instance, here is 
a statement of what an Ohio man is doing ; 
I purchased a malleable iron upright, and three iron lasts, one 
shoe knife, one pegging and sewing awl, two boxes of clinch nails, 
and one pint of blacking to poiish the edges of the shoe soies. The 
whoie outfit cost 84 cents. We have severai hammers that do very 
weil. Our two boys need their shoes half soled three times or more 
a year, at a cost of 50 cents per pair when done by the shoemaker, 
or $3 per year. My shoes have to be half-soled four or more times 
a year, at a cost of 75 cents. I can buy good half soles for the boys 
at 15 cents per pair. Aliowing five cents for clinch nails, the boys’ 
shoes cost 20 cents each, or $1.20 per year, a saving of $1.80 on boys’ 
mending. I can half-sole my own shoes at not to exceed a cost of 
25 cents per pair, or a saving of $2 per year, a saving on the boys’ 
and my shoes of $3.80 cents. We can pay for The R. N.-Y. and two 
or three other good agricultural weeklies with what we formerly 
gave away to the shoemaker, and not be crying about hard times, 
either. 
You may say that is a small thing, and yet it is the 
adding together of thousands of just such things that, 
in these times, will make the difference between money 
to spend and “ no money ” for many farmers. When 
prices were high and crops were fair and easily dis¬ 
posed of, the farmer has money to spend for the labor 
of others. He is then a good buyer. When money 
for his own labor is hard to obtain, he cannot buy, 
and must substitute his own labor as far as possible 
for that of others—just as this man is saving the price 
formerly paid for the cobbler’s time. Whenever the 
farmer cannot buy, all trades must suffer. 
O 
The men who won the great victory for reform and 
good government in New York City last month, are in 
no humor to sit quietly by and see the politicians 
make “deals” that will upset all the moral effect of 
their victory. It is going to mean political death for 
any party to get in the way of this reform. The presi¬ 
dent of the New York Chamber of Commerce says this 
of a recent speech by Joseph H. Choate : 
He said that he knew that there were great corijorations and in¬ 
stitutions in this city who paid for protection to the Legislature ; 
that is, who paid for protection from the Legislature, just as the 
disorderly houses, the saloons, the gambling houses, and others 
have paid the imlice in this city for protection, and for the same 
kind of protection, only one was for protection against the police 
and the other for protection against the Legislature. That, in my 
opinion, and I hope in the opinion of every gentleman in this 
Chamber, must be stopped. And if it is necessary to do it, we 
must call the names—and we know them—of the men who give 
this quasi-bribe and the men who receive it. It is done ostensibly 
as a contribution to either or both of the political parties, but in 
reality it is a bribe for protection, and it is one of the great 
causes of corruption. 
This is a matter in which farmers are deeply inter¬ 
ested, because it is in this very way that many acts of 
legislation that have injured their interests, have been 
carried through. Down with the thieves and bribe¬ 
takers of every degree. Any man who would oppose 
such investigations because the disclosures might in¬ 
jure the prospects of his political party, is not a true 
American. There never was a better time to take 
apart the political machine in New York State, and 
clean it up. Such a cleaning is badly needed. 
THE VETERINARIAN TALKS. 
Lost Hair ; Drying Off a Mare. 
J. R. C,, {No address). —1. What is good to make a horse’s mane 
grow where it has been worn off short? 2.1 have a mare that gave 
birth to a colt a year ago last April. I did not wean the colt, and 
in January following, when the colt was nine months old, I left 
the mare and colt in the care of a friend as I was going on a six- 
months’ visit. I instructed him to separate them, but he did not, 
and when I came back about August 1, the colt was still sucking. 
I took the mare away and left the colt in pasture, but the mare’s 
milk does not di-y up, although I do not draw any from her oftener 
than once in one to two weeks and then get from one-half to one 
teacupful. Her udder does not seem to swell or cake. What 
shall I do to dry her off, or would it be best simply to let her g 
without milking, watching that her udder does not cake ? 
1. There is very little that you can do, except to 
wait for the mane to grow. Thorough daily groom¬ 
ing always stimulates, and favors a more rapid growth 
of the hair. Keep the neck clean, washing occasion¬ 
ally with soft water and Castile soap, if necessary. 
Rathe lightly twice a week with a lotion of equal 
parts of dilute acetic acid and chloroform. 2. There 
will probably be no trouble now if you cease milking 
the mare. You could have dried her off long ago if 
you had milked her only in part, and only when the 
udder became full, so as to be in danger of caking. 
Catarrh in Mules and Horses. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Those are big profits for agents i-eported by P. C. Lewis Mfg. Co., 
Catskill, N. Y., for selling their spray pump. 
That 20-inch Fi-ench Burr feed mill offered by N. C. Hall, 15 
Whitehall Street, New York, looks like a bargain for some one. 
It is claimed for the Simplex hatcher that it will hatch any egg 
that a hen will. Simplex Mfg. Co., Quincy, Ill., is the manufacturer. 
Wine of Copper is highly recommended for hoof-rot and kindred 
sores. The Copper Cure Co., Cortland, N. Y., will furnish par¬ 
ticulars. 
TuAxisagood, rugged, and sensible appearing man who is 
looking for a position as foreman on a farm. Address Farmer at 
The Rural office. 
There is a saving in those all steel frame harrows made by Rod¬ 
erick Lean Mfg. Co., Mansfield, O. It has a level set, too. It will 
be well to send for fuller descriptions. 
The Pineland Incubator and Brooder Co., Jamesburg, N. J., have 
a great success in their hot-water brooders and Pineland Jr. incu¬ 
bators. It was our error to refer to them as hot-air incubators. 
When you dishorn your cows, you need the best implement with 
which to do it. A. C. Brosius, Cochranville, Pa., thinks that he has 
it in the Keystone dishorning knife, and will send a catalogue 
telling all about it. 
Since the balanced ration discussion, we have had several in¬ 
quiries for linseed or oil-cake meal. We would refer these to the 
advertisement of the Griswold Linseed Oil Co., 35 Dawson Street, 
Warren, O., in this issue. 
Attention is called to G. S. Butler’s advertisement. We often 
see calls for a partner with capital in various mercantile trades— 
why not in farming? We know that Mr. Butler has a fine business. 
It is getting too large for one man to handle. Here is a fine chance 
for some young man to invest his money. 
G. A'. A’., Ridgely, Md .—I have five mules and three horses; they 
all have a disease which they had last fall and winter. At night 
they are all right; the next morning some, or all of them, have 
cracked lips and scaly noses, as though they had been scalded. In 
a few days, they are healed and all right again. After some time, 
the trouble returns just as suddenly. Sometimes it is accompanied 
by a hard, dry cough, some running at nose, staring coat, and gen¬ 
eral unthrift; mouths get so sore they cannot eat, and are afraid 
of the bit. It seems to be some kind of catarrh of an epidemic 
character. Many of the horses in the neighborhood have it, and 
have had it before. What is it, and what the cure ? Can it be per¬ 
manently cured, or will it be ready to break out at any time again? 
This epidemic is probably simply a catarrhal out¬ 
break due to local causes or surroundings. The ani¬ 
mals are probably still running out, and the trouble 
may be due to this fact. During the early stages of 
the disease, the following prescription will be service¬ 
able ; Liquor acetate of ammonia and sweet spirits of 
niter, of each one ounce ; fluid extract of belladonna, 
one dram ; to be given as a drench in one pint of cold 
water two or three times daily. Later, if the animals 
continue unthrifty, give two tablespoonfuls of the fol¬ 
lowing powders on the feed night and morning : Pow¬ 
dered gentian, ginger and sulphate of soda, of each 
one-half pound : sulphate of iron, one-fourth pound; 
mix. The sores in the mouth may be dusted two or three 
times daily with finely-powdered borax and chlorate 
of potash, equal parts. Or an ointment may be made 
by mixing them in glycerine. The trouble cannot be 
permanently cured. The animals will be liable to 
another attack whenever the conditions are favorable. 
Avoid exposure of the animals to wind or rain storms. 
Keep them up, at least at night, in a dry, comfortable 
stable. 
A Pot-Bellied Filly. 
R. J. M., North East, Pa .—I have a standard Ally two years old, 
that was in pasture until October 20, and came in pot-beliied, pro- 
nouncediy so. Other colts are not so affected. Would The R. 
N.-Y. suggest any treatment. 
The filly is suffering fx'om chi’onic indigestion, which 
has been induced by some unfavorable condition. For 
the cori-ection of the condition in a case of this kind, 
more depends upon the diet than upon the medicinal 
treatment. The first thing to do is to place the filly 
on a suitable, restricted diet, which will contain but 
a small ration of coarse fodder. Bright hay, properly 
mixed, or green cared corn fodder, may be given twice 
daily, but only in small quantity. For the grain 
ration, give two to four pints of a mixture of two 
parts each of ground oats and wheat bran with one 
part ground wheat or corn meal, and one-fourth part 
linseed cake meal (preferably old process) or ground 
flaxseed. This mixed grain ration may be given three 
times daily, or only twice, with two to three pints of 
whole oats at noon, if you find that the oats are well 
masticated. The quantity of grain fed should depend 
upon the size and condition of the filly ; feed enough 
to keep her in good gi’owing condition. The filly 
probably has an abnormal appetite, with a tendency 
to eat her bedding or other litter. In that case, it 
will be necessary to bed her with peat moss, sawdust 
or leaves, until she overcomes this tendency. A roomy 
box-stall would be the most suitable place for her. 
In addition, daily exercise, when the weather is suit¬ 
able, should be allowed in a yard or field where there 
is little or nothing she can eat. Do not allow more 
than seven to eight quarts of drinking water at once. 
Finally, give two teaspoonfuls of the following pow¬ 
ders in the feed twice daily : Powdered gentian 12 
ounces, powdered nux vomica four ounces ; mix. 
F. L. KILBORNE. 
