126 
February 23 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
TUE BUSINESS FARMERS' RARER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1805 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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8 s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
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Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “Adv.,” 75 cents per 
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Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
office and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in every 
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means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 23, 1895. 
For many years The R. N.-Y. has issued a special 
catalogue number, the several-fold object of which 
has been to collect under one cover, impartial reviews 
of all the catalogues received up to date for the cur- 
rent year ; so that, as if it were a book, ready refer¬ 
ence and comparison may be made by our readers to 
most of the standard, special and novel seeds and 
plants offered by florists, seedsmen, and nurserymen. 
This year, more than hitherto, we have endeavored, 
to avoid unnecessary repetitions, so that, while many 
of the novelties are offered in a dozen catalogues, we 
have mentioned them once for all. It is hoped, there¬ 
fore, that all classes of readers, whether interested in 
held or garden crops, in flowers or fruits, will be more 
or less interested and guided—for the object of this 
special number is to assist our readers towards more 
profitable work, which may prove more pleasurable, 
and in all ways more satisfactory as well. The R. 
N.-Y. has ever laid great stress upon the necessity of 
selecting- the best varieties of seeds, tubers or plants 
—those best adapted to the soil and climate. Only by 
careful selection can the farmer or fruit grower hope 
to increase his crops and lower the cost of pro¬ 
ducing them; and this can be effected only by 
experimenting—in ever so small a way it may 
be—with the most promising varieties offered from 
year to year. Hence it is that we urge our friends to 
send for the catalogues, and to examine and compare 
them—to study them, indeed—that the lesson so 
learned may help to render the work for the coming 
season more effective than in any previous years. 
O 
We learn of a man who is getting the cost of his 
potato cutter by renting it to the neighbors, lie 
charges five cents a bushel for cutting seed. What is 
your time worth at such work ? What it would pro¬ 
duce at other occupations ? Well, what is that ? Did 
it ever occur to you that you have never adopted a 
fair standard for estimating the value of your time ? 
Would it be profitable for you to pay five cents in 
cash for having a bushel of potatoes cut ? What is 
the ratio between cash and labor on your place? You 
can probably change that ratio quicker than you can 
that between silver and gold. 
O 
Market quotations are uncertain quantities these 
days. The recent storm prevented or hindered ship¬ 
ments to such an extent that almost a famine was 
created in some products. Milk was the first com¬ 
modity to run short, and many a dealer couldn't get a 
can. Stocks of fruits and vegetables ran low, and 
many of those received were so badly frozen as to be 
worthless. The city’s supply of meats, as well as of 
other articles of food, was greatly reduced. Under 
these circumstances, prices fluctuated greatly, many 
of them going exorbitantly high. It will be many 
days before normal conditions are again reached, and 
quoted prices are wholly unsafe guides for any shipper. 
Some prices are liable to decline as rapidly as they 
rose. 
Q 
A correspondent writes us of being in a company 
of intelligent farmers who all believed and argued 
that wheat will and does turn to chess. lie greatly 
desires The R. N.-Y. to make some reference to the 
absurdity of such a belief. It’s about time this old 
superstition was dead and buried. Will one of the 
believers in this nonsense, believe that, if he plant 
corn, he will harvest a crop of beans ? Or that, if he 
put under a hen a setting of good, honest hens’ eggs, 
he will get from them a brood of web-footed ducks ? 
Yet the one is just as sensible as the other. There 
are too many live questions pressing for consid¬ 
eration to waste any time over this heresy. Wheat 
doesn't turn to chess, though there are some cases, 
where, to a careless observer, it may appear to do so. 
O 
Here is a man who thinks to save some money this 
year by buying a low-grade fertilizer. He says: “ I 
obtained good results from the use of coarse manure 
last year, and I guess a coarse fertilizer will do as 
well. Don’t you see what a misleading argument 
that is ? The difference in fertilizing value between 
the fine and coarse manure, did not probably amount 
to over 25 cents a ton, wh’le between the high-grade 
and low-grade fertilizers, there may be a difference of 
315. That man probably would not use rotten saw¬ 
dust instead of manure, because it was cheaper, yet 
the value difference would not be proportionately 
greater than between the two fertilizers. Much of 
the same reasoning would lead him to buy oat hulls 
instead of oats for his horse, or “ oleo ” instead of but¬ 
ter for his table. No ; whether you mix at home or 
buy standard brands, get the best you can. Other¬ 
wise you will have to pay freight, commission and 
bagging on a lot of absolutely worthless stuff. 
O 
We have been asked whether Edward J. Hayt, 264 
Washington Street, is any relation to Stephen II. 
Hayt, whom we have so often exposed. There is no 
such person as Edward J. Ilayt at 264 Washington 
Street. He moved from there, May 1 last, although 
his price lists still bear that number. He was dis¬ 
covered at 297 Washington Street, where he occupies 
a store in connection with a man who has a bad repu¬ 
tation among the trade. When reputable business 
men make a change of location, they generally adver¬ 
tise that fact, and do not continue the same old ad¬ 
dress on their printed matter for months at a time. 
Many of the claims he makes in his circulars are mis¬ 
leading. Some of the prices he quotes are deceptive, 
lie gives a large number of references, but it is prob¬ 
able that these are stool pigeons. Finally, though it 
may be more his misfortune than his fault, he is sup¬ 
posed to be the son of Stephen H. Ilayt. Any one 
who wishes, is at liberty to ship him goods, but we 
shall decline to investigate any complaints that come 
in relation to such shipments. 
O 
Several questions are asked as to the difference 
between “decorticated” and “undecorticated” cotton¬ 
seed meal. The cotton seed is surrounded by a tough, 
hard hull or shell. The “decorticated” meal does not 
contain this shell, while the “ undecorticated” is 
ground up, shell and all. Grind one chestnut shell 
and all, and another with the shell removed, and you 
will have about the same difference. Of course the 
ground shell is inferior, either for animal or plant 
food. Prof. Voorhees found this difference : 
Muscle-makers. Fat-formers. Pure fat. 
“Decorticated”.42.0 26 13)^ 
“Undecorticated”.26J4 36*4 5% 
As to fertilizing value, the “decorticated” meal con¬ 
tained 6% per cent of nitrogen, while the other had 
but 4 % per cent with corresponding differences in 
potash and phosphoric acid. There is a danger in 
buying cotton-seed meal—one is liable to pay prices 
for the best, and obtain the poorer article. A simple 
test is to put a tablespoonful of the meal into a glass 
partly filled with water, and stir it well. If the 
ground hulls are present, they will fall first to the 
bottom and show a black sediment. Don’t buy cotton 
hulls, any more than you would peanut shells. 
o 
We lately heard the following discussion upon 
which some one may wish to say a word. Said A to 
II, “ I have no leveling harrow for finishing work. 
Shall 1 buy a smoothing harrow, or a one-horse tool of 
the ‘weeder’ type?” B uses both tools, and answered, 
“ Buy the smoothing harrow, if you buy only one. It 
has become almost an indispensable tool for finishing 
a seed bed, and will do about as much early cultiva¬ 
tion as the one-horse weeder, either in corn or pota¬ 
toes.” “But,” returned A, “one horse will run a 
weeder, while the harrow will need two.” B answered 
that the harrow would take no more men, and would 
do enough more work to pay for the extra horse. He 
harrowed his corn, which is sowed in drills, until it 
was 15 or 18 inches high, g^iug with the rows, but not 
across them. \\ hen so high, the harrow bent it over 
a good deal, but it was up and growing again the 
next morning. Harrowing across the drills would 
tear up too much corn, and here might be an objec¬ 
tion to harrowing hill-planted crops. He had har¬ 
rowed drill planting only. The weeder teeth were so 
close that there was more danger of dragging small 
sods or obstructions over the young plants than with 
the harrow, whose teeth were further apart, yet 
working all the ground. He walked behind his har¬ 
row, and lifted it when necessary to clear the teeth. 
The weeder, B said, was a tool adapted to a soil more 
finely prepared than were the corn and potato fields 
generally. 
O 
We are glad to have Mr. Glass “ come again” as he 
does on page 124, and tell us more about his cows. lie 
is running his farm so that it pays, and for that reason, 
his methods are of value to practical men. His plan 
of feeding as much bran (by bulk) as the cow gives 
milk, is a shrewd and simple way of regulating the 
feed. Do you notice how Mr. Glass reduces the cost 
of his farming by using ensilage alone for winter feed? 
The only crop he needs to cultivate, is ensilage corn. 
By putting all the manure on the corn ground each 
year, he saves a vast amount of work, for the manure 
can be hauled on the sod at any time. IIis ensilage 
corn can be planted, cultivated, and even harvested 
almost entirely by machinery. There is no hoeing, 
haying or harvesting needed on the farm. The cows 
cut the grass crop with their teeth, and the owner is 
free to devote most of his time to the care of the cows. 
Let any dairyman estimate the time and money he 
spends getting hay from the field to the manger, and 
in growing and handling grain, and he will see how 
cheaply these cows are fed. Should every dairyman 
at once follow Mr. Glass’s example, and grow nothing 
but ensilage corn and pasture ? No ; this plan may 
be a great success on this one farm, but other dairy¬ 
men may be so situated that other crops pay better. 
For example, Mr. Bancroft, of Delaware, finds it more 
profitable to put Crimson clover in the silo, and feed 
cotton-seed meal with it. It is a matter of locality, 
you see. There was a time when farmers could safely 
go by yeneral rules—but nowadays a man must think 
out special rules for his own locality, taking the 
general principles of farming for the basis of opera¬ 
tion, and adapting them to his own needs. Hunt up 
any successful farmer, and you will find that is just 
what he has done. Are you doing it ? 
G 
BREVITIES. 
The catalogue of ’94 has gone to seed, and now, 
Young ’95 is at the door, to make his welcome bow. 
He cracks up famous novelties, with all his ink and type ; 
New fruits that never mind a freeze, but turn up sweet and ripe, 
No matter if they’re frozen stiff—they beat old sorts by half ; 
Of course you understand the if beneath each paragraph ! 
And so with plants of divers kinds, of every sort and size— 
Each one the introducer fiuds will revolutionize 
The farming of our native land—a greenhorn might find fault, 
But old-time buyers understand, and use a grain of salt 
Upon the introducer’s tale, and, with Tun R. N.-Y. 
To help them out, they seldom fail—the proper sorts to try. 
But mark you this, when in the earth, your seeds are put to grow, 
You want a pedigree of worth—not ink and wind and blow. 
A good test winter for Crimson clover. 
Taxpayers should not serve tax-eaters. 
The essence of the “ essay ” is all we want. 
A lady that will appreciate your card — the cow. 
The wire fence dealer conducts a hole sale business. 
Some difference between your being a “daisy” and a “dazy.” 
How much butter fat did the blizzard freeze out of your cows ? 
How to make something out of nothing—start a compost heap. 
A verb represents performance. A noun is a name. Better I do 
than I do. 
A suitable gift to your wife is to shift to kitchen devices a share 
of her lift. 
Many a would-be turns out to be a won’t be because the will be 
grows faint. 
We trust you have cut the vital cord (of wood) that means life 
to your fires. 
Put yourself in the imperative mood when the question of deport¬ 
ing scrubs comes up. 
There are lots of anxious waiters for spring to show what the 
blizzard did to the fruit buds. 
Come, boy, polish the stove for your mother now and then. That’s 
the sort of a son shine she likes. 
“ Taffy ” is a liar, “ taffy ” is a thief; he who feeds his friends 
on “ taffy” always comes to grief. 
Ever notice how hickory nuts differ in quality ? Ever try to 
improve the good ones as you would fruits ? 
Some people may think the articles on “Wood Ashes and Bone” 
are a little too primerry for them. Don’t be too sure you know it 
all. 
If you call everything that increases a crop a fertilizer, coarse 
sand is one, for when mixed with a stiff clay, the soil does better. 
See page 132 for the why. 
Cats and owls are full of night traits. The use of one part 
each g, u and n, will turn these night traits into nitrates—the most 
valuable part of fertilizers. 
Many fertilizer questions will be answered under “ Wood Ashes 
and Bone.” Have patience and you will find the points you have 
asked about discussed in these articles. 
“With frost on the water,” says Madame the hen, “ My master 
gets there for the minute; but when on the wattles the frost comes, 
why then—I am, as the boy says—not in it." 
1) and e, two letters fair, let’s apply them to your hair; put in i and 
you are called honest though your head is bald. Put in y your 
looks to laud, and you mark yourself a fraud. 
Suppose it cost $10,000,000 to pay for the cows in New York State 
badly diseased with tuberculosis—would you willingly pay your 
share of the taxes required to try to kill them ? Why not ? 
Happy that man whose well-worked conscience knew, while 
through the week the blizzard was a-blizzing, that his wood pile will 
see the winter through, and keep the fires in every stove a-sizzing. 
