206 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 23 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established, 1850. Copyrighted 1895 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
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means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 23. 1895. 
We judge that many of our readers are planning to 
celebrate 1896 with a big potato crop. We have half 
a dozen requests for advice about treating a light soil 
so as to get the greatest amount of vegetable matter 
in it before potato time in ’96. One way is to sow oats 
early, and plow them in when of good size, sow buck¬ 
wheat and follow with Crimson clover. Another is to 
sow cow peas or Canada field peas, plow them in and 
sow Crimson clover. Some fertilizer may be needed 
for the oats or the peas. In either way, w ith a favor¬ 
able season, the land should be in fine condition for 
potatoes in ’96. 
0 
A man in Austria advertised a cure for dropsy. The 
patient was to follow a certain diet, eat large 
quantities of parsley, drink but little, take certain 
exercise and swallow given doses of a very expensive 
gray powder. Many “ cures” were reported. Analysis 
of the powder showed that it was tobacco ash—evi¬ 
dently the residue from cigar smoking. To what ex¬ 
tent was that a fraud? The parsley, the dieting, and 
the exercise helped the patient! He wouldn’t have 
carried out this system unless he had been forced to 
pay a big sum for the tobacco ash ! That’s the seller’s 
argument! Is it correct ? 
O 
It is said that good venison is far more abundant 
and cheaper in the German markets, than in the cities 
of this country. In the large German parks and 
forests, deer breeding is conducted with system—with 
more science than cattle are bred on our Western 
plains. The result is a large annual supply of deer 
meat, which really provides a profitable income from 
such lands. Of late years, German foresters have im¬ 
ported bucks of the American Wapiti deer to cross on 
the small Red deer of Europe. This cross has been 
very successful, and will be continued. This shows 
how, with careful system, even the wild lands may be 
made to add to the world’s supply of meat. 
O 
We have often spoken of the value of waste molasses 
as food for stock. This substance is a drug on the 
market near the Louisiana sugar plantations. In 
these times, even sugar barons must economize; 
hence men are studying how to get value from this 
molasses. The Louisiana Planter tells of a farmer 
who feeds it to his w orking mules. The molasses is 
put in a shallow trough and the mules lick it up at 
their pleasure. They are very fond of it, and when 
it is fed in this way, soon learn not to eat too much. 
Three or four pounds per day of this waste, saves 
eight or more pounds of grain. The feeding in shallow 
troughs, and keeping it always before the mules, 
work better than mixing it with the other food ; for 
when fed in that way, the mangers are sure to become 
sour. 
0 
The New York City Board of Health has been tak¬ 
ing a census of the horses w ithin the city limits. There 
are 4,380 stables, containing 69,212 horses, or an aver¬ 
age of a little less than five per stable. In 363, but 
one horse each is kept, while nearly two-tliirds of them 
shelter between one and ten. Each of 80 stables 
shelters more than 100 horses. Few mules are seen. 
The horses within a radius supplied by New York, 
will probably bring the number up to 100,000 or more. 
Suppose that each gets 10 pounds of hay per day, this 
calls for 50 10-ton car-loads. Then there are numerous 
cows kept in the outlying suburbs, many shipments 
are made coastwise and to more distant points, the 
cattle boats take considerable quantities, not to men¬ 
tion the direct exports. All these will probably 
aggregate 50 more car-loads, and bring the daily re¬ 
quirement up to at least 1,000 tons. Quite a quantity 
for only one item of the great city’s daily supplies. 
Do a little figuring on this, and estimate how much 
grain—oats, corn, etc.—will be needed in addition. 
How much will it cost to shoe this army of horses ? 
How much will it take to keep them a year, and what 
will these supplies be worth at present prices ? 
O 
Here is a Crimson clover report from southwestern 
Illinois : 
The Crimson clover I sowed last August, is all frozen—only a 
few spires left. It was sown in clean corn ground. The ther¬ 
mometer was 17 degrees below zero. I shall sow more this summer. 
Wait a while before you pronounce that “ all dead.” 
It will look better in April or May than it does now. 
Leave a portion of that field as late as possible as an 
experiment to see what the clover will come to. That 
last sentence shows the right principle. 
Q 
The South buys less of her meat than formerly, but 
the bill is too large yet. This is the way a Southern 
writer puts it : 
Do you know, my friend, that you can turn off a Utter of pigs at 
the same time your wife will hatch a flock of young chickens, and 
can put your pigs on your Bermuda grass, and by the time the 
wife or poultryman can have the chickens large enough to bring 
40 or 50 cents per head in market, you can put your pigs on the 
market at $5 to $7 each ? 
Think of a State that can produce the grass and clover 
crops grown in Louisiana, importing meat. You might 
just as well think of sending marble or granite from 
Georgia to Vermont and New Hampshire—or bringing 
nitrate of soda from Peru to replace the nitrogen that 
leached out of your barnyard! 
0 
In referringto the presence of the San Jose scale in 
New Jersey two weeks ago, we did not refer to the 
work done by Win. Party in fighting this pest, because 
we stated the week before that he has used every pre¬ 
caution to protect his customers. From the first dis¬ 
covery of the insect on his trees, Mr. Parry worked 
faithfully to clear his nurseries. Further than that, 
he has cheerfully furnished the authorities in other 
States a list of the parties to whom he has sent trees 
in the past few years. One can see how important 
this is, if the pest is to be stamped out. In order to 
know where to look for it, the entomologists must 
know where any infested trees have gone. It would 
be well if Mr. Parry’s example were followed by other 
nurserymen. As it is, we would without hesitation 
use trees, from his stock, that have been carefully 
treated with the gas. 
0 
With our ordinary conception of Paradise, we would 
expect that all the poetry would be knocked out by 
reducing it to plain facts and figures. The reader 
may judge whether this is so as regards that “Wis¬ 
consin paradise” mentioned on page 200. These figures 
speak for themselves. We do not think a careful study 
will show anything impossible about them. The 
prices are fair, and the yields are reasonable. The 
items of income for the wife are all in reason. And 
yet—how about the 99 who would start like this one 
and end in failure ? What is the real secret of success? 
Is it something about the man himself ? Can we 
imitate his methods exactly, yet fail because we can¬ 
not copy his personality ? That’s a good thing to 
think over this week, in view of the different opinions 
expressed in this issue of The R. N.-Y. 
Q 
The true status of the farmer's wife in the farm 
partnership, is receiving considerable attention. Is 
she an equal partner in all things ? If not, shouldn’t 
she be ? An instance illustrating one phase of this 
subject, is related by a Western paper. An old couple 
who had reached the allotted threescore and ten years 
of life, sold for a snug sum the farm which had been 
earned and improved by their united toil. The bar¬ 
gain had been made, the papers drawn, and the sig¬ 
natures of the farmer and his wife were all that was 
needed to complete the transfer. The former signed 
—first of course—but the latter declined, saying that 
she had spent her life in making the farm, had never 
in all those toilsome years had anything she could 
call her own, and now she would not sign away her 
title without some consideration which should be her 
very own. The husband failed to move her resolu¬ 
tion, and the prospective purchaser, fearful of losing 
the farm for which he had bargained, asked her how 
much she would take to sign the deed. After a great 
deal of hesitation, she thought she ought to have $2. 
This munificent sum was paid her, whereupon she 
immediately signed the deed. As she turned the 
silver dollars over in her hand, she laughed gleefully 
like a child over a new toy, and said, “ Well, well ! 
this is the first money that I ever had in my life that I 
could call my own and spend as I may wish to do, to 
suit myself.” This needs no comment. We don’t 
believe that there are any such cases in The Rural 
family. But don't you know of some that would 
parallel this—to some extent at least? 
0 
Our friend, page 199, thinks that The R. N.-Y. is in¬ 
juring the majority of American farmers by its policy 
of urging farmers to study and adopt new and pro¬ 
gressive ideas. If we understand his argument, it is 
that the one farmer who pushes ahead and brings 
every possible fair device of business, science and 
mechanics to his aid, works an injury to the 49 who do 
not or cannot, because he thus produces more than two 
per cent of all the 50 men formerly produced, and 
thus leaves less than 98 per cent for the other 49 to 
divide between them. On the same principle, this man 
would wipe out all the great advancements in science 
and industry that have changed civilization. Every 
one of them has taken labor away from a certain class 
of men, and wrought ruin to those who were unable 
to change their methods of doing business. Yet the 
world at large has been made better for them. Life 
has, on the whole, been made easier, though with 
these changes has come an unfair division of the new 
wealth created by them. It would be business suicide, 
however, for The R. N.-Y. to give up its policy of 
urging farmers to do better farming, for the men that 
cry down improvements would make little effort to 
support a paper that tried the impossible task of hold¬ 
ing back invention and human enterprise. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
Just spell out superior—s up e. 
Now you know what that means very well. 
And now spell inferior—i n f e. 
Only three letters changed In the spell, 
But, oh ! There’s a margin as wide as the poles 
Betwixt i nf and sup. 
With i nf, fortune crawls into her holes, 
But she crawls out with good sup. 
For give inf the first place if you will, 
And down foot goes the s u p e. 
Then knock out the./' and your prospects will chill 
For in supe sir—that’s just where you’ll be. 
A saucey fruit—the quince. 
Show no courtesy to the cur. 
What will close an open question ? 
What object made you subject to debt ? 
Southern farmers should use the harrow more. 
“■Blood will tell!” Certainly. A good story or a bad one. 
A stockman in Dakota telephones over a barbed-wire fence. 
Will a shredder properly prepare corn for the silo ? Why not ? 
It takes bees to minister to a fruitful glass-house marriage— 
page 213. 
What do you think of those Colorado cats (page 197) that guard 
the farm crops ? 
The “ Balanced-Ration ” poetry on page 213, is written by a 
friend who doesn’t do so often. 
We tell you on page 201 how to start melons on sods. Can’t you 
start some of your summer’s work on the same principle ? 
Some of the drought-stricken farmers are forced to pay cash for 
making affidavit that they have no money with which to buy 
seeds ! 
Carbolic acid is the saving principle in a henhouse whitewash. 
Would that some of our “ investigating committees ” would use 
more acid. 
Since that article on “ abandoned ” Vermont farms was pub¬ 
lished, several men in the Far West have written to learn how 
they can get farms “ back East.” 
Wiiat is the experience of farmers who have taken children 
from public or charitable institutions to bring up ? Was the object 
a charitable or business one ? What was the result ? 
The proprietors of that “Wisconsin paradise” were not above 
hanging out their shingles and advertising what they had to sell. 
Where is your signboard ? Too proud to do a retail business ? 
How firm a foundation with roosts should prevail ? You need 
nothing more than a movable nail. You fasten the roost and a 
harbor you make, for vermin the hen’s health and vigor to take. 
The “Louisiana purchase” was the greatest and most profitable 
land deal on record. The United States Government secured this 
laud at an average of two cents an acre! Think of its present 
value ! 
Don’t sow Crimson clover seed this spring with oats or other 
grain, and then say that The R. N.-Y. advised it. We don't advise 
it. Don’t sow it on the wheat stubble and expect a crop. It needs 
a clean and fine seed bed, or it will give you a nightmare. 
The wife said : “ Did any one ever admit that present times were 
good ? My experience is that ‘good times’ never come—they are 
always used for comparison—something that used to be or is going 
to be. When we get to them—they are not there.” How about 
that ? 
Here’s something we have said before—like all good things, 
’twill stand repeating—we’ll say it till your heart is sore from 
good intention’s steady beating. Now spring is creeping o'er the 
land, give good resolve a steady jog, sir ; go out and take that 
pen in hand, and right the wrongs of Mr. Hog, sir ! 
The English papers continue to talk about milking machines. 
It is admitted that they do not milk clean, and are not a full sub¬ 
stitute for the hand. It is proposed to use them in the dairy dis¬ 
tricts of Australia, where cows are cheap and hand labor high. It 
is argued that in such a case, they can afford to lose milk by dry¬ 
ing off or injuring the cows rather than pay cash for milkers. 
In buying hatching eggs from a distance, the rule is to let them 
stand quietly for 24 hours before putting under the hen. The con¬ 
tents of the egg have been shaken together and displaced by the 
journey. They should settle and resume their perfect shape before 
incubation begins. Same way with your plans. Don’t rush them 
into execution the moment they strike you. Let them settle if you 
expect them to hatch anything. 
