572 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August-24 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' RARER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1805. 
Elbert S. Cabman, Edttor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8(4 marks, or 10Vi francs. 
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of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 26 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv .,” 75 cents per 
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Auvertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
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 p&y- 
able 1,0 THE RURAL NEW-YOKKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1895. 
The R. N.-Y. will be sent to trial subscribers from 
now till January 1, 1896, for 25 CENTS. The agent 
may retain 10 cents as commission, and send us 15. 
We desire representatives at every fair or farmers’ 
gathering. 
G 
Mr. Gii.lett’s article on “ Hired Men ” was origi¬ 
nally written about the time for hiring. We con¬ 
cluded to hold it until now —the time for testing the 
hired man’s value. His failures or successes are now 
most in evidence, and it is a good time to stop and 
see what is responsible for them. 
O 
That’s an interesting article on Crimson clover in 
Oregon—page 570. It does not do to measure success 
with this plant by the fact that it will survive the 
winter. When sowed after early crops it can gener¬ 
ally be depended on to make growth enough by win¬ 
ter to more than pay the cost of seed and seeding. 
o 
We may have a new California farm product in the 
Eastern markets, viz.: grain hay. California horses 
are fed almost entirely on wheat and barley cut and 
cured before the grain is fully formed. It makes ex¬ 
cellent horse food. Now that hay is so high, perhaps 
this grain hay will be shipped East. What a pity 
more of our Eastern farmers did not cut more of their 
grain early enough to make such fodder. 
O 
We are pleased to have Mr. Jamison’s experience 
with fertilizers. Last fall, he told us how he had 
started this experiment. He is a conservative man, 
and we well remember the time when he could 
scarcely believe that “ bag manure ” could be made 
to form a cheap substitute for stable manure. That 
is the way many of these perplexing questions are 
settled. People study and grow into them—experiment 
and test until some convincing proof is brought out. 
O 
The latest outbreak of the “ creamery shark ” is 
made in the State of Maine. The Secretary of the 
State Board of Agriculture issued a circular contain¬ 
ing clippings from The R. N.-Y. and other papers, 
describing the way this fraud does business, and warn¬ 
ing farmers against paying extravagant prices for 
creamery supplies. For this laudable work, the 
“ creamery shark ” has brought suit against the Sec¬ 
retary for libel. Of course, it is all bluff, but it gives 
honest people a chance to give this humbug another 
well-deserved beating. The Secretary’s office is at 
Augusta, Me., and any of our readers who have facts 
that will aid in his defense, are requested to send 
them to him. Always organize against a fraud ! 
O 
A New Y'ork State local paper tells of a swindler 
who visited the town in the guise of a hay buyer for 
a New York City firm, secured a car-load of the 
choicest baled hay, rejecting some that did not grade 
high enough to suit him, paid a good, round price—in 
checks on a bank in another town—had the hay 
shipped, and then left town. Incidentally he forgot 
to pay his board bill. The hay was sold by him in 
the town to wffiich it was shipped, for about the price 
paid. In due time, the checks he had given for the 
hay were returned protested. The New York firm says 
that no such man is, or ever has been, connected with 
them. Meanwhile the farmers who sold the hay must 
stand the loss. The moral of it all is that the great¬ 
est care should be exercised in dealing with strangers, 
no matter what promises they make, or whom they 
claim to represent. 
New facts about those “horseless” carriages in 
France are constantly coming in. In the recent race 
from Paris to Bordeaux and return, one four-seated 
carriage, run by a petroleum motor, covered the dis¬ 
tance, 706 miles, in 24 hours and 53 minutes. It made 
the entire return distance without a single stop. 
There were long lines of hills on the way, and these 
proved too much for the carriages driven by steam 
and electricity. The steam carriages were obliged to 
stop frequently to take in coal and water, while the 
electric vehicles also had to stop to renew their 
charges. It was a victory for petroleum, and the 
same principle is being successfully applied to light 
bicycles. With perfect roads, we would have these 
flyers in this country. As it is, we are likely to trail 
behind France for a good many years. 
O 
That is a new view of the “oleo ” question given 
this week—that of farmers who sell milk and butter, 
and buy this stuff for their own eating. They may 
say that they have as much right to do this as the 
man who sells broilers and buys canned corned beef 
for his own table ; yet that is not the point The R. 
N.-Y. has been contending for. Some day when that 
broiler man wakes up and finds that his corned “beef” 
was cut from the carcass of a fat horse, he will make 
a great row about it. If people want to eat tallow 
and pork fat on bread without cooking, there is no 
law to prevent them doing it; but the buttermaker 
has a clear right to say that these raw fats must not 
be colored and fixed up to imitate his product, and 
thus deceive the people. Already several substitutes 
for milk are being sold at a cheap rate. In a few 
years, these “ oleo-eating ” milkmen will be falling 
over themselves in their haste to secure laws that will 
legally distinguish milk from its substitutes. 
O 
Farmers in Rhode Island along the shores of Buz¬ 
zards and Narragansett Bays, make a valuable use of 
the sea weed which is thrown upon the land by every 
storm. This refuse is mostly in the form of a coarse, 
hard grass, torn up from the bottom of the sea and 
washed to shore. It is hauled to the farm lands and 
usually put on the sod after mowing. In a favorable 
season, the grass starts up through it green and vigor¬ 
ous. The cattle are turned in to eat this off. In the 
spring, sod, sea weed and all, are turned under for a 
crop of corn, some commercial fertilizer, high in phos¬ 
phoric acid, being used with it. The following year, 
potatoes are planted and then grain and grass again. 
The sea weed provides cheap humus for the soil, and 
some plant food, and thus gives back, to a slight ex¬ 
tent, some of the fertility washed into the ocean. But 
let no man, back on some interior farm, mourn be¬ 
cause the ocean is so liberal to the shore farmer—at 
least not until he has exhausted every effort to grow 
clover on all his idle land. The air is richer in nitro¬ 
gen than the sea, and the clover plant grows and 
places itself right on the field where needed. 
O 
In years past we have had something to say about 
the business of raising geese in Rhode Island. It has 
been a profitable branch of farming in that State, 
though just now, like many other things, somewhat 
dull. The best geese in the Boston and New Y r ork 
markets come from Rhode Island, and the growers 
there have attained a rare degree of skill in handling 
this portly and intelligent bird. To a stranger it is a 
singular thing to watch the flocks of geese running in 
the pastures like sheep. They are too big and clumsy 
to climb or fly over an ordinary wall or fence, but no 
animal is quicker or keener to find a broken gate or a 
hole through which it can crawl into the corn field 
or garden. One of their number will even stand as 
sentinel while the rest eat up the crops. The geese 
that bring the highest market prices are mongrels— 
obtained from crossing the wild gander on the do¬ 
mesticated goose. The ganders are either caught in 
traps or wounded in the water and then taken. It re¬ 
quires great skill and patience to mate them with the 
tame geese and the supply of these mongrels is limited. 
This matter serves to show' one of the curious feat¬ 
ures of a trade that few' people outside of Rhode 
Island know much about. 
0 
A certain farmer wanted to keep sheep. There 
isn’t much in wool now, they tell us ; but this man 
had an idea that good mutton and lamb would sell 
for fair prices—so he kept sheep—or tried to. In the 
township were a number of dogs who undertook to 
veto this man’s resolution. Like other politicians, 
they didn't purpose to let it be said that sheep paid. 
So they came by night and chased and killed some of 
the sheep. Now, the sheep owner was a man prompt 
to think and act. He loaded up the old gun, and the 
next dog that came to discuss the situation with the 
sheep, got an argument in the shape of a charge of 
buckshot that ended his debate forever. Long before 
the bacteria in the soil began to change that dog into 
available nitrogen, his owners and friends started in 
to avenge his death. They posted a notice signed 
“White Caps ” on the sheep man’s door, informing 
him that if he shot any more dogs, his barns would 
be burned. Where do you suppose that w'as? In 
Worcester County, Mass., “ in the heart of the Com¬ 
mon wealth,” as they say over there. That’s a nice 
state of affairs. The bond of sympathy between the 
cur dog and his owner is something that passeth 
understanding. 
G 
“ Mr. Farmer, your attention for a moment! ” said 
old Mrs.Tabby Cat, as she sharpened her claws on the 
leg of the table. “ I have just made readv to send 
out into the world a young and lively family of kit¬ 
tens. I want them to succeed, and, therefore, I boil 
down the observations of a long and busy life into a 
few words of advice, which I trust you will help put 
in practice. A cat is a dwarfed tiger—that's all. Its 
mission is to kill rats and mice. I am forced to ad¬ 
mit that the average cat has no particular gratitude 
or affection save as these qualities may be used to 
make its food supply come easier. A cat’s claws get 
their force directly from the stomach. That’s the 
point in a nutshell. Make a pet of the cat and stuff 
it with food that it doesn't have to hunt for, and you 
make a fool of it. It neglects its true vocation of 
hunting mice and rats, and is always up to some mis¬ 
chief—or asleep. Now I want my children to excel 
as rat catchers. Start them right. Keep them around 
the barn and grain bin. Don’t stuff them with cooked 
food. Give them a little warm milk, and turn them 
loose on the rats. Keep them out of the house except 
as hunters. They will then become of some use in 
the world and lead lives of honor and profit. That’s 
all, sir—thank you for your attention.” 
O 
BREVITIES. 
There was an old lady, as I’ve been told, 
Her heart was as tender as it could hold. 
She couldn't endure such a thing, you know, 
As hux-ting the smallest of beasts, and so 
When somebody gave her, in compliment, 
A beautiful lobster to boil, she went 
And took some cold water to start the job, 
Because it was “dreadful to scald poor lob.” 
See what a ridiculous thing she did ! 
If she had but plucked up her heart and slid 
The lobster right into the boiling pot, 
He’d scarcely have felt it, as like as not; 
But starting with water so cold—why she 
Just simply prolonged all the agony ! 
Don’t laugh at the foolish old lady, friend, 
Don’t snicker a bit till you up and send 
A few of your faults to the boiling pot. 
You’re keeping them now where they’ll ne’er get hot. 
Don’t keep a drone on your family throne. 
A weak knead makes the bread all dough. 
You can’t mend your luck by “darning” it ! 
Why don’t you arrange to join the Grange ? 
A satisfactory mother-in-law is a suit at law. 
Don’t use your learning like jewelry—to show off. 
The heart that says “I’ll try!” is a good canning factory. 
MaSy a Pocklington grape gets into a “ Niagara ” package. 
How many working days since you took a few hours for real 
play ? 
That “ old-fashioned ” potato bug begins to eat leaves near the 
ground. 
It will pay to try winter oats. Don’t throw money away on 
them, but try them. 
Our impression is that the dried blood sold as a fertilizer is not 
always a safe food for poultry. 
Nebraska pays a State bounty for beet sugar, and the fac 
tories there are said to be preparing for a heavy run. 
Hereafter the weather prophets must state with their daily 
predictions, how their previous day’s predictions really came out. 
The latest scheme we have seen for keeping a horse from break¬ 
ing through a road fence is to tie a bag over his head so as to 
blind him. 
The New York State excise law was evidently not made to be 
exercised. That is why the saloon men are exercised about its 
enforcement. 
A wrinkle on your forehead caused by hard thinking is a live 
furrow. One caused by “making up faces” at your luck is a dead 
furrow—of no value. 
Wanted ! A suitable portable fence to take the offensiveness 
out of that hog in the clover field—page 571. Where are the wire 
fence makers on this question ? 
It is said that the market for beef horns has greatly improved 
of late. One chief reason is that continued years of dishorning 
have greatly diminished the supply ! 
Geese breeders tell us that the goslings are sometimes lost by 
rolling over on their backs while in the pasture. They are too fat 
and clumsy to regain their feet. An old goose will roll them to 
their feet, but a hen-mother is likely to leave them. 
On one of the hottest streets in this city the cars are still pulled 
by horses. About midway of the distance is a low shed. As the 
cars pass it the horses are changed. Those hot and sweaty from 
their hard pull are taken under the shed and given a shower 
bath of cool water. How they do enjoy it ! A human being could 
not give stronger evidence of pleasure at this sprinkling and the 
subsequent rubbing. After a rest of half an hour, on they go 
again ! Keep the horse cool—somehow ! 
