492 
July 20 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE B USINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established, 1850. 
Copyrighted 1895. 
Egbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.0-1, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8 l / t marks, or 10)4 francs. 
ADVERTISING KATES. 
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 u Adv.," 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Auvcrtisements 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 
letter. Money orders and bank drafts on New York are the safest 
means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
ablU 10 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , JULY 20, 1895. 
Judging from our correspondence, there are many 
people in the State of Delaware who believe in the 
principles of the Single Tax on land values as advo¬ 
cated by Henry George. We are not surprised to see 
it stated in the daily papers that these Single Taxers 
are determined to bring their ideas to the front in an 
effort to graft them on the laws of Delaware. We 
doubt whether they succeed, but the discussion won’t 
hurt anybody but the people who prefer to talk tariff. 
o 
No, young man, when some smooth talker comes to 
sell you a powder which will double the quantity of but¬ 
ter made from your milk, don’t buy it. It’s a fraud. 
When somebody tries to sell you a great “ cure all” 
that is to bring dead organs to life, don’t buy it. It’s 
a fraud ! When some one comes with a bag of stuff 
and tells you that by scattering a few pounds of it 
over an acre of good ground, you stand a chance of 
capturing 150 pounds of nitrogen—what about that? 
Prime hay will be high this winter. We assume 
that every farmer who reads an agricultural paper, 
realizes that fact by this time. How many will make 
some money out of the information ? If a man has a 
fair crop of good hay, and can provide other food for 
his own stock, he has a chance to do some business. 
He should have sowed some fodder corn on all avail¬ 
able land as soon as he learned the facts about hay. 
This fodder would keep his own stock during the 
winter, which would leave the hay free for sale. How 
many farmers will do that ? It is a good business 
chance—such a chance as gives merchants or manu¬ 
facturers their profits ! 
O 
“ I can’t eat potatoes any more since they have 
begun putting that nasty phosphate on them, and dose 
them with Paris-green to kill the bugs ; they choke 
me, and I don’t believe they’re fit to eat,” said a 
woman who believes in all sorts of signs and moon¬ 
shine. An old farmer knows that “ fossifit pizens 
the ground.” Another won’t plant his beans or his 
potatoes until the sign is right. Another cuts his 
Canada thistles in the old of the moon to kill them. 
Another kills his hogs when the moon is growing, so 
that the pork sha n’t shrink. Talk about the super¬ 
stition of the Dark Ages ! This blind superstition and 
belief in signs, a"hd blind dependence on luck, is re¬ 
sponsible for more poor farming than any other, if 
not all other causes. 
O 
That is an interesting article by Mr. Newton on 
page 488. We have always contended that many 
farmers lose money on hired help. It often happens 
that the hired man has more cash at the end of the 
year than his employer. That is usually because the 
farmer is not a good hand to manage the labor of 
others. Very likely he can work to good advantage 
himself, but he can not do his own work, and also 
plan work for another that will yield a profit. In 
most cases, such a man will do better to do well the 
labor that can be performed by the members of his 
own family, and hire as little help as possible. Of 
course, to do this effectually, he must make use of 
the best tools and methods—but that is what all 
successful men must do 
O 
heavy cost. They were plainly accused of forgery and perjury 
by these farmers in their depositions, and they made the proposi¬ 
tion to abandon the creamery to those that had paid the $400 (and 
the bull), and each party pay its own costs. This was accepted, 
and the case settled last week. This is not a good section for 
sharks of their stamp or business methods. s. s. baker. 
Blackstone, Va. 
Our advice in such cases is for the farmers to com¬ 
bine and make a legal fight against extortion. These 
men did so and won. That’s right. If there were 
more communities like this one, American agricul¬ 
ture would be in better condition. 
Q 
“ Better days are coming,” was the motto which, 
years ago, a certain Grange had on its banner. That 
motto seems to have been appropriated by more 
farmers than ever belonged to one Grange ; and not 
in its hopeful sense, either. Instead of enjoying life 
to-day, and availing themselves of the pleasures and 
conveniences that are possible now, they delay every¬ 
thing until some time in the future. Mr. A is going 
to build a new house by and by, so there’s nc use fix- 
ing up the old one. He has selected a new building 
spot on the farm, and shade trees and other outdoor 
improvements are either placed there at once, or 
saved for the expected new home, and the old home 
gets barer and more forlorn each year. But “ better 
days are coming,” if the funerals don’t come first. 
G 
We have tried to obtain some facts about grass 
substitutes for Timothy and clover—page 486. They 
are evidently hard to obtain. Our experiment sta¬ 
tions ought to pay more attention to this matter. 
Doubtless many of the station directors think that 
having shown the great possibilities of the corn crop 
—as ensilage and dried fodder—they have done their 
duty. It seems pretty evident that in a season like 
this, most farmers will be obliged to depend on culti¬ 
vated crops of some sort for stock food. A dry, frosty 
spring is death to old meadows. The surest hay 
crop comes from fields in a rotation —with not over 
three years in sod. The plants are then always young 
and thrifty. There is a good proportion of clover 
and fewer weeds. Old meadows will do well in 
favorable seasons if given sufficient food, but in sea¬ 
sons like the present, they fail. 
Try it —that is if it is Crimson clover seed ! 
O 
In the past three months, at least 430 American busi¬ 
ness concerns, with 315,000 workmen on their pay-rolls, 
have raised wages and increased work. In most cases, 
this increase was back to the old rate that prevailed be¬ 
fore the financial stringency began. Most of this in¬ 
crease has been granted voluntarily—without strikes 
or “demands” on the part of laborers. It is a remark¬ 
able thing and a good thing. It seems to us one of 
those things over which every true American should 
rejoice—be he Protectionist, Free Trader, Prohibi¬ 
tionist, Populist, Goldbug, Silverbug, Greenbacker, 
Single-Taxer, Woman’s-ltighter, or what not ! 
O 
There’s another new idea outlined by Mr. Jamison 
this week. It is that of letting the hogs harvest and 
thrash the rye crop. Of course that wouldn’t pay in 
a section where rye straw is worth $20 a ton ; but 
those sections ai*e very few, and Mr. Jamison makes 
some good points about his practice. Do you notice 
how all these thoughtful men are devising schemes 
for cutting off the cash paid help ? Farm labor is 
expensive nowadays—if you measure it in bushels of 
grain, and that is why shrewd farmers are using 
their crops in new ways—so as to avoid paying money 
for labor that will add but little to the crop’s value, 
o 
There is one thing about the production of “sani- 
tary milk, that is important enough to warrant a 
place for it here. It is not only necessary to feed and 
house the cows' perfectly, and handle the milk in a 
clean and systematic way, but another condition of 
the cows must also be studied. Mr. Cottrell puts it 
in this way : 
“The milk from a fresh cow is richer flavored and 
more easily digested than that from a cow long in 
milk. We breed our cows so that calves are born 
every week in the year. A fresh cow gives much 
more than a dry cow, so that by having cows con¬ 
stantly calving, the great bulk of our milk is always 
from fresh cows. Farmers who have their cows all 
calve at one time, either spring or fall, will be able 
to produce ‘ sanitary milk ’ suitable for young chil¬ 
dren and invalids with weak stomachs, for a short 
time only, because as soon as the flow of milk begins 
to decrease, and the cows get in calf again, the milk 
becomes poorer in flavor and less digestible, and will 
continue to get worse until the cows dry up.” 
You will easily see, therefore, that the making of 
perfect milk is not at all the simple operation an out¬ 
sider might consider it. 
If it is impossible (in your mind) to take the family 
for a summer outing, the best compromise will be to 
buy two or three extra hammocks. “ Have one 
already. What do we want with any more ? ” One 
hammock isn’t enough, any more than one rocking 
chair is enough for a family. “ Turn about ” is rarely 
played fairly. When there is only one comfortable 
corner, the selfish or thoughtless member of the 
family too often occupies it. The tired mother with 
just a few minutes for a rest, would enjoy them best 
in the hammock ; but when she sees it already occu¬ 
pied by some one else, unselfishness will not allow 
her to interrupt the picture of ease, and she turns 
away, perhaps, to take up some task, knowing that 
if there is no place for her to rest, there are always 
places to work. 
O 
This seems to be woman’s year. Everything is 
going her way. Not without considerable opposi¬ 
tion, it is true, but she seems bound to make prog¬ 
ress along all lines. But a new movement for 
squelching unappreciative man, has apparently been 
begun, and seems to be countenanced by no less a 
personage than the First Lady of the land, Mrs. 
Cleveland. If it become general, man might as 
well take a back seat at once. It has been observed 
that a large proportion of the babies born this year 
are girls. The most conspicuous example is the 
latest arrival in the President’s family, which is the 
third. Have the women of the country entered into 
a conspiracy to bear only girl babies hereafter? 
And has Airs. Cleveland indorsed this by her practi¬ 
cal example ? If so, the days of the tyrant man are 
surely numbered, and his downfall is only a question 
of time. In his arrogant pride, he denies to women 
her “rights," but she will yet down him by means as 
certain as they are effectual. 
O 
On page 348, we printed a letter from Air. S. S. 
Baker, of Virginia, giving an account of his dealings 
with a dairy supply house in Chicago. Some of our 
readers have had similar dealings with promoters of 
creameries or canning factories. The following note 
will show them how the thing came out : 
Some time ago, I wrote you that the farmers here were engaged 
in a legal fight with the Chicago creamery sharks, and that we 
expected to win. We have done it, compelled a complete sur¬ 
render on their part, and have settled the matter with them to 
our entire satisfaction. They built what they called a $4,800 
creamery here. They succeeded in getting $400 in cash, and a bull 
valued at $500 (worth $50) that died in a short time, paid in by 
some of the stockholders that did not care to fight them. They 
sent agents and lawyers here to blow and to bluff. They took 
depositions of their agents in Chicago, and of the victims here at 
O 
BREVITIES. 
Mark thou yon man who in the spring, 
The sweat from off his brow did wring, 
And bared his brawny arms of sleeves, 
With air of one who quite believes 
That no existing weed or bug 
Can muster up the power to lug 
An obstacle of size to stop 
His march, unto a perfect crop. 
He started out both brash and bold, 
Too full of gunpowder to hold, 
And in vain boast and bragging, he 
Blew off one-half his energy. 
But now the weeds are big and thick ; 
His boast is dumb—his back is sick. 
He started out with much saltpeter, 
To kill the weeds in quick, short meter. 
But now the weeds may proudly flout, 
For his assault has petered out. 
Salt the sheep. 
Make your head save your sole. 
How’s the hired man holding out ? 
What buoys up that boy’s spirits ? 
Give the “old flag” a new send off. 
Lots of bluff in the creamery shark. 
Vacate your farm for that vacation. 
Jammed fruit makes poor preserves. 
Your wife needs a change of air—so do you ! 
Tue Ellerslie silos will hold ice in summer time. 
Don’t pay too much attention to the rites of labor. 
Texas is ahead of New York in enforcing legal prohibition. 
Give it a try ! What ? Hogging and sheeping your field of rye. 
There’s a difference between an acute conscience and a cute one. 
Sew up that hole in the hay crop by sowing a patch of fodder 
corn. 
Our first sowing of Crimson clover was made on July 6 in 
sweet corn. 
Trimmino off the horse’s mane may be called a hew mane opera¬ 
tion in this weather. 
In feeding “ balanced rations,” there’s a most important key to 
regulate the balance—individuality. 
We shall esteem it a great favor if some one can tell us how 
best to use steam in the farm laundry. 
The horn fly is propagated in manure. It will pay you to break 
up the droppings in the pasture with a mallet. 
Twenty years ago, northern Colorado was little better than a 
desert. Now it costs $65,00C just to buy the bags needed to hold 
the potato crop of that section. 
On the Fourth of July, we had in our house garden, 13 distinct 
sorts of fruit aud vegetables ripe and ready for the table ! After 
July 15, we shall average 19 different sorts at all times. 
At the beet-sugar factory at Chino, Cal., a sidewalk 1,000 feet 
long has been built of a mixture of sand and waste molasses. 
This mixture is said to dry as hard as a brick in the hot sun. 
For several years past efforts have been made to sell baled corn 
stalks. Such sales have been slow because hay has been plenti¬ 
ful. This year we have a short hay crop and an abundance of 
corn. Now is the time to boom the baled stalks at a fair price, 
and let the public see what they are. 
