668 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 5 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1885. 
Elbert S. Carman, 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- 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1895. 
Mr. E. W. Bull, the originator of the Concord 
grape, died at Concord, Mass., on Thursday night, 
aged 89 years. He had been in the State Senate, and 
a member of the State Board of Agriculture. A 
brief sketch will appear next week. 
0 
The point about green manure is—don't plow green 
stuff under in lwt weather. Either plow in in spring 
for an early crop, or let it become fully ripe before 
plowing. It will lose no plant food in ripening. 
0 
Iiow the world moves ! That colored man who 
guarded the Hale property with his musket, is likely 
to become a partner in the peach business. It was an 
Irishman, too, that suggested such a thing as a colored 
partner! 
0 
The cotton crop is reported short of last year. 
Brices are but little higher yet, and buyers are eager 
to get hold of the crop. If Southern farmers could 
now combine and hold their cotton away from the 
market, they could easily send the price up several 
cents a pound. That would be a blessing to the South 
that is hard to estimate. 
O 
Mr. Jamison makes a good argument this week in 
favor of tile drains as against broken stone. He is 
right in saying that tiles should be laid in such a way 
that they will last a lifetime. The stone-drain men 
should now be heard from ; but let them be sure to 
give all the particulars about the lay of the land in 
which the stones proved successful. 
o 
Tbe mites that infest poultry are a mighty nuisance, 
and the lice that work with them are able partners 
for evil. The hen man seeks their death. This fol¬ 
lows life, and in order to kill them easiest, we must 
know how they live and breed. Next week, Prof. 
Slingerland will tell us all that is definitely known 
about the pests. Strange to say, no one has really 
tried to trace their lives through. 
O 
A well-known seedsman paid $25 for the chance to 
exhibit his products at the Rhode Island State Fair. 
This service proved of little value to him, as the man¬ 
agers also admitted a crowd of side shows and “fakes” 
that drew the people away from the legitimate ex¬ 
hibits. You are killing your fair by such practices, 
gentlemen ! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, 
to tack the name “ agricultural ” on to your show ! 
O 
At the Iowa State Fair, field trials of corn har¬ 
vesters and potato diggers were made. Regular crops 
of corn and potatoes were growing on the grounds, 
and the machines were put to actual service before 
the spectators. This proved so successful that in¬ 
creased acreage in these crops will be planted next 
year. That is a feature which all fairs with perma¬ 
nent grounds might well copy. Show the crops in 
actual growth on the ground. 
0 
It seems as though every need is somehow met, 
sooner or later. Many city people have more or less 
house plants, blooming bulbs, etc. These require 
soil. But where is the city dweller, living, perhaps, 
in a flat or house where the street is paved with stone, 
the yard with brick, and not a bit of earth in sight, 
to get the necessary soil for growing these things ? 
Buy it, of course ! Of all the things the farmer would 
think of buying, the soil is about the last, unless he 
buy it by the acre. Yet, in the city, it is a regular 
article of commerce, and some of the seedsmen adver¬ 
tise soil at so much per peck or bushel. Think of 
living where you can’t pot a bulb or plant without 
buying the very soil in which it is to grow, and then 
be thankful for a home where Mother Earth is lavish 
m her gifts to all her children. 
co 
The new manufacturing enterprises at the South 
are not all large ones. Here and there throughout 
that region, are men who are doing a small business 
and doing it well. One man in South Carolina is 
growing tomatoes and canning them in a homemade 
apparatus. Last season, he says he put up 2,700 three- 
pound cans, and sold them all in his home county. 
This doesn’t compare with the immense output from 
large factories, but it made good trade for a farmer. 
There are lots of places at the South where such 
things can be done—so there are at the North, too, 
for that matter ! 
0 
At the North, the “summer boarder” has mostly 
started for home—a tighter fit for his clothes, let us 
hope, than when he started. Winter boarding on the 
farm is something new, yet it is to be attempted, as 
we see from this note : 
“ Pen us that pent-up thought ! ’’ Well, your articles on sum¬ 
mer boarders, have created one in me. I have recently pur¬ 
chased a beautiful old place, nine miles from Mobile, shaded by 
live oaks. The surrounding country abounds in wild game, and 
the finest of fishing. I want winter boarders. I have not much 
money to begin with. How should I proceed ? The depot is one 
mile distant; a good road to the city. I am located in the beauti¬ 
ful pine (yellow pine) woods, and have open fireplaces and pine- 
knot fires. o. s. 
Mobile County, Ala. 
Now here is a new industry for the South. Let some 
of our Northern readers tell how they started in this 
business. Don’t neglect to pen a few more of those 
“ pent-up thoughts.” ’ 
O 
On page 662, L. R. Jones gives the results of experi¬ 
ments with tomatoes under glass at the Vermont 
Experiment Station. Among the varieties tested, we 
find no mention of the one which is the standard kind 
of many of the market growers in this vicinity—the 
Lorillard. Hasn’t he tried this ? Or do not the ex¬ 
perimenters and the practical, every-day gardeners 
agree in their conclusions ? There should be no 
differences between them, but the marketmen are 
likely to be led to their decisions by the money that 
is to be made from certain varieties, and in actual 
practice we must accept their decisions. The main 
point Prof. Jones makes is, that it is safer, in glass 
gardening, to depend on naturally strong varieties 
rather than to spray for rot. The Ignotum is remark¬ 
ably subject to rot. Spraying with Bordeaux Mixture 
helps it somewhat, but it is better to use stronger 
varieties. 
0 
In the interior of New York State, within a few 
hours of New York City by express, and not more than 
one day distant by freight, potatoes and oats are sell¬ 
ing for 20 cents per bushel, and other farm products 
in proportion. Yet the money price of farm labor is 
almost as high as ever, and labor refuses to accept 
lower wages. On the contrary, measuring the labor¬ 
er’s wages by what they will buy of the necessities of 
life, it is doubtful whether ever in the history of this 
country, the laborer received so much in exchange 
for his labor as now. This may be a good thing for 
the laborers, but it is decidedly a bad thing for the 
farmer. Such high prices for labor mean loss or 
worse to him. He must do without so much hired 
labor, use more machinery, work less land, concen¬ 
trate his efforts, and reduce his outlay for labor, or 
the balance will be on the wrong side of the ledger 
at the year’s end. The price of labor must be reduced ! 
0 
Prof. B. D. Halsted of New Jersey, has written a 
valuable treatise on the poisonous plants of that State. 
Among others, he mentions red-root or paint-root 
Gyrotheca capitata) which produces a peculiar effect 
on swine. It abounds at the South, and is singularly 
fatal to white-skinned hogs. Black-skinned hogs are 
said to possess immunity from the effects of paint- 
root, and Prof. Halsted states that this claim is well 
founded. It is also claimed that, in Prussia, white 
horses are injured by eating milkweed, while dark 
ones are not. In Sicily, there are black sheep only 
—the white ones being killed off by a species of St. 
John’s-wort. These curious facts explain why, in 
some parts of the South, only black-skinned hogs will 
thrive. Prof. Halsted gives a list of 67 poisonous 
plants that grow in New Jersey. One singular thing 
about it is that some persons may safely handle, or 
even eat, plants that would be very injurious to others. 
An instance is given of one man who is not only made 
sick by eating strawberries, but cannon with safety 
walk through a field of them. Up to the age of 14, he 
could eat them with safety ; but since then, they 
have been almost as poisonous to him as poison ivy. 
0 
The English farmer is a growler, and he has a good 
deal of opportunity these days to exercise his growl¬ 
ing organs. The latest case is typical. For the past 
10 years English agriculture has been declining. 
Various efforts have been made to obtain National help 
or legislation that would enable the English better 
to compete with the foreigner. Among other things 
suggested, was the building of light railroads to serve 
as feeders to the main lines, and help to solve the 
vexed question of transportation. This project was 
referred to various “ committees,” but nothing ever 
came of it. In South Africa is a British colony named 
Uganda, as yet of no value to the Empire. The com¬ 
pany managing it, threatened with loss, beg the 
Government to come to their help. As a result, Par¬ 
liament decides to build a railroad costing $10,000,000 
to connect Uganda with the sea coast—the British 
taxpayers to pay for it. The Mark Lane Express is 
moved to make this comment on the transaction : 
Now, contrast the two cases. The English farmer, driven to 
desperation, and hardly knowing which way to turn, asks his 
Government not to make, but to assist in making, a few short, 
light railways, which would have, at any rate, paid the interest 
on any money advanced. He is refused. On the other hand, a 
number of capitalists, who have taken money from this country 
to the heart of a savage continent in the hope of obtaining extraord¬ 
inary gains, find that they cannot develop their property without 
a railway. Instead of completing their own enterprise, they apply 
to the Government of this country to make—not, be it remem¬ 
bered, to assist in making—a railway which it is contended can¬ 
not pay, and the Government at once proceed to comply with the 
request—at the expense of the British taxpayer. No comment 
can make this transaction appear worse than a recital of the bare 
facts. It is a disgrace to the Government of a civilized country. 
There are not a few Populists in England evidently. 
It won t hurt the farmers there or here to understand 
what class legislation and special privileges come to. 
Stop the whole of them ! 
0 
BREVITIES. 
Don’t you trust in free coinage of heel work, old man : 
There are folks so unskillfully bred, 
That they dream that by wearing their heels out they can 
Make their feet do the work of their head. 
Now the ratio of value betwixt heel and head, 
May be reckoned as 1 to 16, 
For one good hour of thought, by activity led, 
Will whip all your hard heel work up clean. 
What a foolish endeavor for you or for me 
To go tramping our heels to the bone, 
And expect that, by letting our poor legs run free, 
Our results will show vigor and tone. 
There is only one way to raise heel-work to par— 
On the corn of a very sore toe 
We must fasten a high valuation like tar— 
That is only inflation I know. 
Then appoint mind as foreman—put thought over legs, 
Let feet keep their legitimate place, 
Or they’ll walk you right off the place where life’s dregs 
Are reserved—at the jumping off place. 
The miser says my sir ! 
Saghalin has its uses—page 663. 
Motto of the ant hill—persevere ants. 
The race is not to the strawberry runners. 
Too many hens are strayers, rather than layers. 
The ne’er-do-well cannot learn the secrete of success. 
What is more refreshing than the flavor of a Bose pear ? 
The selfish man’s business is mine ing the things about him. 
Kerosene is the police to catch the pole lice in the henhouse. 
Watch the man who is long in going to find bis shortcomings. 
Can any one tell us of a tank heater in which gasoline can be 
used ? 
It was so hot last week that even a Maryland mule was sun- 
struck. 
Will you sell your farm for the official tax assessment for 1895 v 
Why not? 
Be sure and read what Dr. Jenkins says about different forms 
of nitrogen—page 665. 
“ Bill sticker and tobacco sign fiend ! ” Keep him away from 
your barn ! He’s a scrub ! 
Not long ago a man made $100,000 in wheat. A farmer ? Of 
course—he “farmed the farmer.” 
We have been canning some Crosbey peaches. The syrup is the 
color of liquid gold—the flavor is perfect. 
Here’s a principle of breeding that I wish you would take in— 
you cannot be a thoroughbred unless you scrub your skin. 
Last fall we told about that great Paragon chestnut grove of H. 
M. Engle. Mr. Engle informs us that he has another great crop 
this year. He anticijiated a short crop in consequence of last 
year’s overbearing. 
A Connecticut man has invented a scheme for making “straw” 
hats out of wood. A log of wood is cut by the machine into fine 
strips which, when wet, are woven more readily than straw, and 
make a durable hat. 
The question is often asked whether seed potatoes may not be 
as well soaked in the corrosive sublimate solution after being cut. 
Experiments at the New Jersey Station show clearly that it is a 
mistake to soak the cut seed. 
When people become faint, what do you give them to smell ? 
Ammonia ! In what form ? Generally mixed with some fat or a 
salt. When a soil becomes faint, we go for the ammonia again 
to “bring it to.” In this case, clover is the form we need. 
The Ponderosa tomato, though net quite so round and smooth 
as some others, is one of the meatiest tomatoes grown, and has 
fewer seeds than other varieties. It is excellent for canning pur¬ 
poses. The color is attractive when well grown and ripened. 
