56 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE P US I NESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 18H5 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
al)le to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY. JANUARY 26. 1S95. 
Few of our readers may be willing to go through 
the practice needed to understand the figuring on 
page 62. It is a big job we admit, but it will pay— 
that is, if a person wants to know what grains are 
cheapest If you do figure, be sure to include all the 
grains you can buy in the average pound. 
O 
We print this week, an account of the milk business 
as conducted at Boston, Mass. It is our purpose to 
print a series of articles showing how this important 
trade is managed at the larger towns and cities 
throughout the country. Our chief object is to see 
what proportion of the retail price goes to the farmer 
and what the chief obstacles are in the way of his 
obtaining a larger share. We would like to hear from 
readers who are familiar with the milk trade in West¬ 
ern and Southern cities. 
O 
Some farmers living near large towns, can buy the 
sweepings of bakeries for a small price. Such sweep¬ 
ings contain considerable broken crackers, bits of 
bread and damaged flour, and are worth quite a little 
for feeding. Two precautions are needed in handling 
this waste. It should be sifted and cooked. It often 
contains splinters, nails, glass and other substances 
that would injure an animal. The bits of crackers 
and bread might be thrown out to the poultry, but for 
other animals, it will pay to sift the whole and soak, 
or. better, cook it. 
O 
We wish to indorse what Mr. Sisson says, on page 
49, about giving the cow what she wishes—that is, 
consulting her taste and appetite. In the “ balanced 
ration,” we have said over and over again that the cow’s 
tongue is, after all, the best authority on good feeding. 
When the cow begins to “nose” over her food in search 
of something that tastes good, you may safely conclude 
that you are feeding wrong. Don't try to digest it for 
her with a dose of club bark, or to “ starve her to it ” 
—give her what she desires in reasonable quantity, 
and in fair proportions. 
O 
Every farmer who feeds his horses Timothy and 
clover hay, has a quantity of seeds and broken leaves 
on his hay floor. If he uses this waste matter for 
bedding, or sweeps it into the manure pile, he will 
seed down his cultivated fields with weeds and grass. 
This useless material is a prime addition to the mid¬ 
winter ration of poultry. Fill a pail half full of the 
finest dust and leaves, pour over this one quart of 
boiling water, cover for 10 minutes, then stir in corn 
meal, ground mixed feed, or bran. The fowls will 
run eagerly for the savory mess, which both fills the 
crops and hastens the commencement of the laying 
season, besides ruining future “weeds.” 
O 
Mr. Glass tells us, on page 49, that he finds it too 
slow to try to grade up his milk herd by selecting 
the heifers from his best cows. While he raises a few 
heifers, he finds good thoroughbred cattle so cheap 
that, on the whole, it pays to buy most of them. As 
The R. N.-Y. has often stated, there has seldom been a 
time when purebi’ed animals were so cheap as they 
are to-day. To put it in another way, there never was 
a time when a dollar of your money would buy more 
of the skill and care which the breeder has put into 
his herd. We are not going to argue for or against 
Mr. Glass’s plan, because too much depends upon the 
local conditions. Mr. Glass has made rapid progress 
and has an excellent herd. You notice that the cows 
averaged over $120 each, gross earnings, and see how 
cheaply they were fed. It ought to be as plain as a 
barn door that scrubs do not pay when improved ani¬ 
mals make such returns. 
O 
It is said that sulphate of zinc is largely used to 
adulterate New Orleans molasses. It is said that 95 
per cent of the molasses received in the New York 
market is thus adulterated, the addition being made 
to clarify it. Many boards of health have prohibited 
the practice, yet most dealers and manufacturers claim 
that the addition is so slight that it really amounts to 
nothing. Others deprecate the practice, but say that 
goods so treated are so superior in appearance, that it 
is difficult to sell the pure goods. The sulphate of 
zinc is poisonous—nobody disputes that. The question 
is whether the amount added is sufficient to cause any 
ill effects. A New York judge has just decided that 
the City board of Health has no case against the 
manufacturer. 
0 
The florist business in this vicinity has lately had a 
temporary boom. The Anglicized American, William 
Waldorf Astor, recently arrived in this country with 
the remains of his wife, which were deposited in 
Trinity Churchyard. Mrs. Astor’s favorite flowers 
during her lifetime, were orchids and lilies of the 
valley. At the burial, $5,600 worth of orchids were 
placed upon the casket. An arrangement was also 
made with the florist to place a blanket of lilies on the 
casket each day during the coming year, the whole 
to cost $50,000. A special greenhouse is needed for 
this, as the lilies are not in season during the entire 
year. Laying aside all sentiment, this looks like an 
uncalled-for outlay, but it means an increase of labor 
for many men, and the distribution of that much 
money to that branch of labor. The price of lilies 
has already begun to advance. 
o 
There are a few people left who seem to believe 
that potatoes can “mix in the hill," and there is not 
much use trying to argue them out of the belief. But 
if they will not mix in the hill, some seedsmen seem 
to have discovered a way of making them mix in the 
bin. For example, here is a statement from a potato 
county in New York State : 
One-third, if not one-half, of the R. N.-Y. No. 2 potatoes about 
here are Green Mountain. I have noticed that whenever a new 
potato becomes popular, all potatoes grown thereabouts are 
transformed into that popular kind, and for a time there is only 
this one kind. You can get anything you want out of the same 
bin. 
That condition of affairs is made largely possible 
because the bulk of our growers do not take pains to 
study and determine the characteristics of the differ¬ 
ent varieties. Dishonest dealers know that and hence 
try to palm off old varieties for new ones. 
O 
Many dairymen do not raise cows of their own 
breeding, but depend on buying either from neighbors 
or at public sales. In such a system of buying, of 
course a portion of the cows prove to be poor milkers, 
and not profitable in the dairy. They must be fattened 
as quickly and cheaply as possible and sold for beef. 
Suppose that a dairyman has a regular mixture of 
grain and fodder that seems to give him the best 
yield of milk ! It is evident that this is not also the 
best for fattening the “ manure makers.” To get rid 
of them to the best advantage, he should put them by 
themselves, and feed a ration much higher in fats. 
We might theorize about such a ration, but would 
prefer to have some practical dairymen tell us just 
what distinction and changes they make in feeding 
the profitable cow and the one that proves to be a 
robber. Who will study this out ? What is the 
robber’s ration ? 
O 
Here is a feeding problem that seems to us of more 
than ordinary interest. A dairyman in central New 
York writes this note : 
I have for fodder for my dairy cows for the remainder of the win¬ 
ter, Timothy hay and good oat straw. I have so far fed wheat 
bran, two pounds per head per day. When our State institute 
teachers were here, they recommended cotton-seed meal so highly 
both for feed and its manurial value, that I ordered two tons to 
help me out this winter and the coming spring. Now The R. N.-Y. 
says never feed cotton-seed meal except with pasture or when 
other succulent food is fed with it. Is it safe to mix a portion of 
the cotton-seed meal with wheat bran ? If so, what proportion ? 
I have a few small potatoes that I could give the cows, say eight 
quarts a head, twice or three times a week for five or six weeks. 
At its present price, cotton-seed meal is the cheapest 
food on the market. It is also the most dangerous 
food for inexperienced feeders to give to cows that 
have never eaten it. Personally, we would never feed 
it at all except with pasture, ensilage or roots or old 
process oil meal. Some good feeders do not agree 
with that, but we consider it the safest rule to follow, 
and we think institute lecturers should caution farm¬ 
ers against feeding this strong meal with dry fodder. 
In this case, we would begin by using half a pound of 
cotton-seed meal with 1 % pound of bran. The pota¬ 
toes will serve as a laxative, and by feeding equal 
weights of oil meal the ration of cotton-seed meal 
might be increased to two pounds per day if the cows 
show profit from it. We have just read an article 
advising the daily feeding of eight pounds of cotton¬ 
seed meal with dry corn stalks ! It is almost criminal 
folly to teach such “science.” One might as well go 
about advising people to eat all the beans they pos¬ 
sibly could without adding that they should also eat 
lots of vinegar on them, take plenty of fruit and work 
hard outdoors! 
o 
We can point to a good many farm neighborhoods 
where agriculture is at a very low ebb. There is little 
of either pleasure or profit in it. Most of the inhab¬ 
itants are old people. The young folks moved away 
some years ago. Many of the boys and girls have done 
well in other lines of work. They have contributed 
largely to the prosperity of town and city. We often 
question what the result would have been if these 
young people had remained on the farm with a fair 
scope to develop agriculture as they have developed 
business or the professions. Would not these sections 
have remained prosperous—with the values of farm 
property increased rather than diminished ? If not, 
let us ask, why not ? What is the true secret of the 
fact that the town gives skilled labor better oppor¬ 
tunities than the country? 
O 
BREVITIES. 
UNCLE SAM TO CONGRESS. 
Go home ! Go home ! Adjourn yourself at once. 
Don’t sit before the people like a dunce 
With fool’s cap on—we have no use for you. 
Here you have been the whole long session through, 
Fighting and squabbling like a lot of boys 
Over the distribution of their toys. 
Stay not upon the order of your march, 
But march at once—your conduct takes the starch 
From out the back of all the dignity 
Your country ever had—on land or sea. 
You make us but the shame and laughing stock 
Of other nations with your stupid mock 
Of legislation and your selfish fight 
Against the laws of reason and of right. 
You headless, tailless group of greedy men, 
With less of patriotism than a hen, 
Adjourn ! Go home ! And write upon your door 
This epitaph : “ I was, but am no more." 
No help can beat self help. 
A better day is on the way. 
Make waste a good-bye product. 
Raise, not raze, the human race. 
What’s the breed of your weeder ? 
A friend in knead — elbow grease. 
Sound to the core—the blow hard. 
The balanced ration is a board of health. 
We don’t think much of the boy as a beau. 
A hog —any man who wants more than a good opportunity ! 
Outgo tax ! The tacks used in fastening tar paper over the 
cracks. 
Does irrigation of raspberries increase or decrease the ravages 
of anthracnose ? 
Who will be first to have hen yards on wheels so that the chicken 
runs may be rotated ? 
Before you call others frauds, count the small apples you put 
in the middle of the barrel ! 
The latest device for a muscle-making hen ration is to dissolve 
linseed jelly in poultry drink ! 
How often does the little baby eat ? Think of that while you 
let the little calf go 12 hours without food. 
Don’t you have to take the full pound of cure before you can boil 
down the ounce of prevention ? Any excuse for you if you refuse 
to boil it down ? 
We used to talk about “laying something aside for a rainy day.” 
Nowadays, the rainy day gives us something to put aside against 
a time of drought! 
Have the “hard times” taught you to economize and reduce the 
cost of production? Yes ? Then they are good for you. No? 
Then you may need them harder ! 
When a man writes on a postal card such questions as “Why 
are farmers poor ?” “ I used fertilizer last year and got a poor 
crop. Why ?” etc., etc., we call them penny whysto pound foolish 
propositions. 
When the “ creamery shark ” loses a chance to plant one of his 
creameries at an exorbitant price, he says, “Oh, I don’t need that 
anyway!” “Sour grapes.” That’s the sort of acid that sets his 
teeth on edge. 
Are any of our readers willing to pen up half a dozen ordinary 
hens by themselves and feed them a ration composed of cut bone, 
cotton-seed and linseed meal on alternate days and a little whole 
corn at night ? If so, we can have some excellent feeding experi¬ 
ments under way. 
One of our Kansas friends writes: “I am a woman nearly 74 
years old and almost a shut-in.” It isn’t so bad to be a “shut-in” 
if you have agreeable company. Your chief company will be your 
thoughts and your own record. How can you beat peace for a 
companion ? 
We are told on another page to feed cotton-seed meal with 
ensilage because the latter is laxative. Poultrymen often find it 
advisable to give this meal when large quantities of cut bone are 
fed. The object is to prevent too much looseness of the bowels. 
It is good advice unless you feed too much. 
The R. N.-Y. regrets that an error was made on page 30, in speak¬ 
ing of “ the square meal.” In the upper table in the third column, 
under “ food needed per day,” the headings “ pure fat ” and “ fat 
formers ” were transposed. The smaller numbers in the second 
column represent the “ pure fat.” The figuring below the table is 
right. 
