io8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 16 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established, 1850. Copyrighted 1805 
Elbert S. Cabman, 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- 
abIe 1,0 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 16, 1895. 
Before the next hothouse lamb season opens, we 
expect to print a series of articles by J. S. Woodward, 
on topics connected with early lamb raising’. Let’s 
stand by the “ Golden Hoof ” and grow mutton, even 
if wool doesn’t pay. 
o 
When a man graduates from a Keeley cure estab¬ 
lishment, the first thing he thinks of is life insurance. 
He knows then what a risk he runs, and that a patched- 
up will power is a poor thing to stand before tempta¬ 
tion and despondency. The better class insurance 
companies will never take these “ graduates” at the 
ordinary risks. 
O 
The House Committee on Printing lias agreed to re¬ 
port favorably the resolution for printing the results 
of the dairy test at the World’s Exposition. As a rela¬ 
tively small edition is likely to be published, all those 
w ho desire to secure copies should make an applica¬ 
tion at once to their Representatives in Congress. 
O 
Under “ Wood Ashes and Bone ” we hope to present 
the problem of feeding plants a proper ration in a 
new way. This is to be no special plea for the use of 
fertilizers any more than “The Balanced Ration” was 
such a plea for the use of cotton-seed meal. If we fail 
to give manure or ashes all the credit that is due 
them, just remind us of it, and we will make it right. 
As usual, we purpose to take time enough to do the 
thing right. 
O 
Edison, the great inventor, is deaf. It is said that 
his deafness was started when a boy by a man who 
boxed his ears for some mischievous prank. We 
fully believe that many cases of deafness are caused 
by blows on the ears. The very make-up of the ears 
ought to show any thinking person how damaging a 
blow on the lower part of the face or head may be. 
Nature has provided a far more suitable part of the 
body for such blows—if they are deemed a necessary 
part of family discipline. 
G 
People sometimes think that they have been swin¬ 
dled by commission merchants because some ship¬ 
ment of goods doesn't realize so much as some previous 
shipment. This isn't necessarily true. Prices are 
likely to fluctuate. An example of this just now is 
found in furs. Dealers here have been getting what 
they considered good prices. The prices here are 
largely governed by those of London. The recent 
sales there have shown a marked decrease in many 
kinds, and shippers here will probably receive much 
lower prices on these kinds than they have been pre¬ 
viously receiving. 
G 
“I wish that you would send me some one to buy 
that butter,” said a commission merchant pointing to 
about 50 tubs of all kinds and sizes piled up in a 
corner of his store. “ First-class butter never stays 
in the store overnight, but I don't know what to do 
with that stuff. The use of cottolene has almost 
destroyed the demand for the cheaper grades of butter. 
A dealer who buys a good deal of cheap butter was 
in here, and I offered him the whole lot for 14 cents a 
pound. He took a number of bills from his pocket, 
and showed me where he had purchased a number of 
different lots for 4)^ cents per pound. He said that, 
while some of it was nothing but grease, some was fair 
butter. What we are to do with that stuff, I don’t 
know ; I wish that they wouldn't send it here. There 
is a lot in five-pound pails. The man who sent it, also 
sent some in tubs. The latter was good butter, and 
sold at once, but he had evidently packed his poor 
stuff in pails thinking that the packages would sell it. 
But there they are.” Why will people make good 
milk into poor butter, and then expect people to buy 
the stuff at good butter prices ? 
G 
At one of the meetings recently held on Long 
Island by the Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station, Dr. 
Van Slyke made the statement that 10 pounds of nitro¬ 
gen, 15 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 20 pounds of 
potash, or about a 200-pound bag of a high-grade 
fertilizer to the acre, was considered a big dose by 
some of the farmers in the center of the State. That 
seemed a funny thing to men who use a ton or more 
to the acre. The most serious side of the matter is 
with the one-bag men, who will not see that they 
make it impossible for the fertilizer to make a fair 
showing. 
G 
Eggs have reached the highest price so far, of the 
winter. They usually reach the top earlier that this, 
and begin to decline earlier, for large quantities be¬ 
gin to arrive from the South. A great many were car¬ 
ried over from last fall, and earlier arrivals were up to 
the average, but prices have been moderate, and con¬ 
sumption large, so that present stocks are light. Then, 
too, the weather has been cold in the producing sec¬ 
tions, and recent receipts light. Last week’s arrivals 
here were less than half those for the corresponding 
week last year. But the present severe weather is 
unlikely to last long. When warmer weather arrives, 
supplies are soon likely to increase rapidly and prices 
decline. Stock should be shipped as closely as possi¬ 
ble, and especially should all held and limed eggs 
be worked off at once. 
G 
One of the few things that cannot possibly lie is a 
camera. Whatever comes before it in the sunlight, is 
pictured just as it is. When Mr. Drew pointed his 
camera at that Minnesota road, he got a picture which 
the world must recognize as true. So that “irrigated 
road” reminds one of a “diseased lung” does it? 
That’s right. A diseased lung indicates consumption, 
and if that hillside doesn’t indicate consumption of 
energy and force, it doesn’t indicate anything. The 
first thing needed in the construction of a good road, 
is a sound public sentiment and honest desire for im¬ 
provement. That is not only the first, but the hardest 
part of the task. Get that, and the tools and methods 
come easier. Put 25 bicycles in the hands of 25 enter¬ 
prising young people of any township, and the interest 
in better roads will grow at a double compound rate. 
When a man provides his own motive power, he knows 
what bad roads mean to the horse as he never did 
before. 
G 
Here is an illustration of what a young man can do 
by calling science and advertising to his aid. This 
letter is from a woman in Cayuga County, N. Y.: 
The short course of three months in agriculture, given by Cor¬ 
nell University, is truly a great advantage to young men of push 
and perseverance, who can avail themselves of the opportunity. 
They thereby gain much information that cannot be otherwise 
obtained by men of limited means. Young men who go there to 
learn all there is to learn in that length of time, and are diligent 
in their pursuit, will be benefited, and receive the knowledge and 
information, tliaf will be of use to them all through life. A young 
man from this place went there January 4, 1894, when the short 
course began. He was discouraged by all the hayseeds in the 
locality, and advised not to go there and spend his time and 
money, without deriving any benefit therefrom. But the people 
were mistaken, for he went with a will and determination to win, 
and he came out ahead. Five months elapsed after he returned 
to his home on the west shore of Owasco Lake, when he saw an 
advertisement in The R. N.-Y. for a competent buttermaker. He 
answered it at once and secured as nice a place among upright, 
honest people as can be found in New York State. He is making 
butter and Neufchatel cheese for the Syracuse market. The but¬ 
ter commands a higher price in market than any other sold in 
that city. That is what the short course at Cornell University 
has done for him. 
We will guarantee that the young man’s mother had 
much to do with that dairy education. Down at the 
root of many a man's success, you will find his moth¬ 
er's influence. We are glad to get this note because it 
proves what we have always claimed, viz.: that science 
holds out practical inducements to boys on the farm, 
as well as to city boys. The time is coming when 
agriculture will fairly compete with commerce or 
manufacturing in offering inducements to students of 
practical agricultural science. Increased respect and 
consideration for agriculture will come through in¬ 
creased education and dignity on the part of farmers. 
Our agricultural colleges carry a greater responsibility 
than any other class of institutions, because they rep¬ 
resent the class that is in greatest danger of being 
misled by false science. It is unfortunate that some 
of these colleges have, for one reason or another, 
wandered into a false idea of their real mission. 
We have given many accounts of failure and desti¬ 
tution among farmers. This week we give the other 
side in that account of the young Wisconsin farmer. 
The thought that strikes one most forcibly in this, is 
the fact that the wife has made such a success of her 
department. What short-sighted folly it would have 
been to keep her over the stove and washtub, when, 
by doing other and more skillful work, she can earn 
enough to hire the rougher work done, and also pro¬ 
vide conveniences for her house ! That is a good 
illustration of the superiority of brain over brawn, 
and we are glad to have it shown that this superiority 
extends to housework as well as any other. Not long 
ago, a reader wrote that he was much pleased with a 
certain article, and then added : 
I hope that it may all be true ; but it looks rather too good to be 
true. Have you any way to make your readers doubly sure, or 
simply prove it to be true for them ? 
It seems hardly necessary for us to say that we en¬ 
deavor to state nothing but facts in The R. N.-Y. What 
we describe ourselves, we know to be true, and we 
would knowingly have nothing to do with any corre¬ 
spondent who would send us a false report. It is but 
natural for an enthusiast to make the most favorable 
showing he can from real facts ; and for this reason 
the reader does not always see that these results often 
mean special training, special personal characteristics 
and special location—not to speak of long years of 
patient study and application. It is easy to see that 
we cannot always prove them to your complete satis¬ 
faction. Naturally, you must do that yourself. We 
always add the caution about experimenting on a very 
small scale to begin with. These facts represent pos¬ 
sibilities. You are the one to study and see whether 
they lie within your reach. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
Why do you turn your nose up at a man 
And sneer because he seems of low degree ? 
Know ye not, friend, how quickly science can 
Prove your smart nose of dubious pedigree ? 
Whence came its bone and muscle-makers, pray ? 
You from a steak absorbed them and the beef 
Took them in turn from out its feed of hay ; 
Bone from a tiger gave the grass relief. 
Dead from despair in some menagerie. 
Tell us, Oh, tiger ! where thy bones were made ! 
Crafty and cruel! In the jungle free, 
Dead from thy fangs, the elephant was laid. 
Trees, grass and fruits the elephant consumed. 
What nourished them ? Long years and years ago, 
Deep in the jungle’s darkest depths entombed, 
One day a monkey died and laid him low. 
Straight from a monkey comes the bone that made 
Thy nose, and these wild creatures used it—all 
Lords of their kind, low in the dust were laid; 
Use it not now to sneer, for thou shalt fall, 
When comes thy turn, lower than these wild things 
Who lacked the soul and mind that govern thee. 
Death ends their course—that lives alone which brings 
Help to thy fellow man and sets him free. 
Don’t ship all the sheep. 
What commands “ unusual terms ” ? 
Don’t lose interest in good principles. 
We favor woman’s writes—on farm topics. 
Put the plumming in your chicken yards this spring. 
“ Oats is a horse rare dish at our barn,” says old Dobbin. 
“Apple pie order.” Why isn’t squash pie as good a standard 
for regularity ? 
You wouldn’t take a supply of irrigating water as a gift unless 
you could control it. 
Does quality always pay better than quantity ? No—not unless 
you know how to sell it. 
A foolish farmer—the one who buys potash while wood ashes 
are to be had for the hauling. 
Would we study to try to “ balance ” the ration for a scrub? * 
Yes, or get rid of her. We prefer the latter. - 
In spraying from the wagon, do you place the barrel on its side, 
or on end ? Which position do you prefer, and why ? 
Want to prolong the ripening of some of your berries ? Mulch 
them heavily and keep the mulch on late. Hold the frost in the 
ground. 
“Fifteen minutes for refreshments” for chicks. What they 
leave in the pan after that, take away and bake to prevent 
souring. 
Between New York and Buffalo the driving wheels of an engine 
make 104,645 revolutions. Your wits must revolve that many times 
to make a run to success. 
If frost strikes your early tomatoes, don’t give them up without 
soaking them in water before the sun gets at them. If frost 
threatens them in the field, cover them over with soil. 
Dr. Horne wanted to know about cows with more than four 
milk ng teats. Our readers are rallying from hillside and dale 
with information—as they usually do. Now will some one tell how 
to plug up these extra little teats ? 
It is astonishing how many people have succeeded with irrigat¬ 
ing a small area at the East. Recent articles in The R. N.-Y. are 
calling out lots of valuable testimony. We shall soon tell about 
what was done with old iron tubing bought of a junk dealer. 
It’s never safe to put a ripe tomato and a hen in the same field, 
unless you take time to teach the hen enough botany to enable 
her to distinguish between weeds and useful plants. Your time 
ought to be worth enough to make a fence between the two, 
cheaper. 
Don’t let a doctor cut a child’s tonsils out until you make sure 
that the trouble is not in an enlargement of the glands near the 
throat. Sometimes such enlargement creates a pressure that 
irritates the throat. This enlargement may be reduced from the 
outside without a surgical operation 
