7i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 26 
TEE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
TUE 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. 
Joiin J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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8s. 6d., or 8Vi marks, or 10i4 francs. 
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of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 26 cents per line. 
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We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
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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- 
able 10 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , OCTOBER 26, 1895. 
If any reader wishes a little hard cash by the first 
of next month, we would advise him to read page 720, 
and start out at once to earn it. 
© 
After this date, all letters for E. S. Carman should 
be sent to No. 5 West 82nd Street, New York. 
Q 
H. E. Van Deman says that there should be no “ e ” 
in spelling the name of Crosby peach. He says that 
he named this peach for a man that left the “ e ” out 
of his name. 
O 
Better think a long time before you buy an engine 
and boiler for the farm work. How much work have 
you to do ? How long must the engine stand idle ? 
What with rust and frost on pipes and fixtures, an 
idle engine is a costly loafer. Be sure you have work 
enough before you put your money in it. 
0 
Big apples and potatoes are fit “ for exhibition 
only.” Nobody cares to eat them—yet they attract 
the crowd’s attention. Same way with words. Those 
full of “ big I ” are only for exhibit. No sensible per¬ 
son believes them. The “ I ” should be in the quality 
that forces itself finally to the top. 
O 
A great meeting of the National Farmers’Congress 
has just closed at Atlanta. Our representative at the 
meeting makes this comment: 
The Congress comprised some of the ablest agriculturists in the 
world, and it is to be regretted that more time was not spent in 
discussing strictly agricultural topics rather than finance, boun¬ 
ties, subsidies and many other questions which are discussed at 
length at every political gathering in the country. 
We shall have more to say about this meeting later. 
G 
Mr. Woodhams (page 711), advises the greenhouse 
builder to hire a plumber and work with him so as to 
learn how to do this work. He might do that in a 
small place, but not in a large city where there is a 
union. The union workman would not work with a 
non union man. He would refuse to give up the 
secrets of his trade to an outsider, for that would be 
like giving away future jobs. The unions are very 
strict in such matters. They have to be or they could 
not live. 
© 
Some months ago, The R. N.-Y. gave its opinion of 
“The ELectropoise,” a device for which extravagant 
curative properties are claimed. The people who sell 
this contrivance promised, as proof of the value of 
their “ Poise,” to cure a person who has been an in¬ 
valid for some years. That person tried the device 
carefully for two months according to the directions 
of the company’s physician. He was to have tried it 
three months, but after two months trial, he was 
taken with a serious illness! His opinion of the 
Electropoise after the two month’s trial is that, as a 
remedial agent, it exerts no effect whatever. 
© 
The two articles by Messrs. Chapman and Collins 
this week, give us something to think about. Is there 
really any profit to be made in the use of improved 
machinery, or in scientific methods of farming ? That 
Indiana stockman does away with silos, barns and 
improved tools. The sheep eat what the cattle leave, 
and the hogs eat what the cattle cannot digest. 
Doubtless he gets less growth in his stock than he 
would if they were fed in warm barns ; but this in¬ 
crease would, perhaps, bring less than what he calls 
the share due the lumber merchant, the machine 
shop, insurance man, etc. As Mr. Chapman puts it, if 
machinery will enable a farmer to save two days of the 
week in producing a certain crop, it depends on what 
he can do in those two days to determine whether he is 
better off or not. It’s a great, big question. Most 
heads are too small to fit it. 
Q 
Market prices are sometimes influenced in curious 
ways. An illustration is found in the wholesale hay 
market in this city. Bills are usually rendered at the 
end of the month for the whole month. Purchases 
made at the beginning of the month and those at the 
end, are both paid for at the same time. It is said 
that many dealers take advantage of this, and make 
their purchases as light as possible at the end of the 
month, doing their heaviest buying at the beginning, 
thus having the use of the goods and the money for 
several days longer. So far is this practice carried, 
that oftentimes the market becomes very dull towards 
the close and brisk at the beginning of the month. 
o 
When a man first realizes that potash is needed to 
produce good fruit, his first idea generally is that 
wood ashes are in some way, superior to all other forms 
for use in orchards. As one man put it last week, the 
ashes came from trees originally, and, therefore, of 
course they would make better trees than stuff dug 
out of the ground ! According to such reasoning, a 
cannibal living on human flesh, ought to be the 
highest physical type of man ! A lusty beef or mutton 
eater could give the cannibal a thrashing—that is, if 
they could find a State where fighting is permitted. 
In these days of close figuring, a man must get over 
this sentimental idea about the great value of potash 
in ashes. 
O 
California fruit growers have given the world in¬ 
struction in the use of beneficial insects. Scale and 
plant lice threatened, at one time, to cripple the Cali¬ 
fornia fruit orchards. Various species of ladybirds, 
with such distinguished names as Novious Koebelei, 
Rhizobius ventralis, Rhizobius toowoomba, and Cryp- 
toloemus montrouzieri, were brought from abroad 
and set at liberty. They didn’t apply to the legisla¬ 
ture for a change of name, but started their mission 
at once, and have been of great service in clearing 
out injurious insects. This matter of setting one in¬ 
sect at war upon another, has been a great success in 
California; but perhaps the climate of that State 
gives it an advantage in this respect not enjoyed 
elsewhere. 
© 
The best corn fields at the South are likely to give 
the stranger an idea that the cultivator is rarely used. 
The rows appear to be clean, but midway between is 
seen a strip of green as though a line of weeds had been 
left by the hoe. It turns out to be a row of cow peas 
purposely left to fertilize the next year’s crop. After 
the corn is removed, the cow peas will grow on till 
frost. Next year the corn rows will be planted over 
the cow peas, and a new crop of the latter sowed 
where this year’s corn rows ran. So on, year after 
year, with acid rock and potash for fertilizer. On 
some Northern stock farms, it is convenient to raise 
corn on the same field year after year. Some varie¬ 
ties of cow peas thrive as far north as Massachusetts. 
Perhaps the same plan will answer North as well as 
South. 
© 
A city man tells the New York Post how he rented 
a farm for the summer. Instead of boarding with the 
farmer, he says that he gave $200 for the summer’s 
use of the farm and paid the farmer $14 a month and 
board to work for him. This was in New Hampshire. 
This man kept house on the farm about five months 
under this arrangement. He had a family of seven. 
They all claim that tb ey were better satisfied than wh en 
they boarded, and that leasing the farm was cheaper. 
The farmer cleared $270 cash for his five months’ 
work. He probably could not have made that much 
clear from his summer’s crop. This is the first case 
of just this sort of which we have heard, though we 
believe that other city men could be found to do like¬ 
wise. We wonder how many farmers would lease 
their farms on such terms. 
© 
A local paper tells of two farmers who, one year 
ago, were plowing in adjoining fields. As they turned 
at the line fence, they engaged in conversation, as 
farmers sometimes will. One drove a sleek, fat, 
spirited team ; the other a pair of veritable crowbaits. 
After a few minutes’ talk, the latter proposed to trade 
horses, which was finally done, the owner of the poor 
team paying $50 to boot, and the horses were ex¬ 
changed then and there. One year later, the two 
farmers again met. The former owner of the poor 
team, again had a poor team on his hands, and was 
willing to pay $50 to his neighbor to trade again for 
his former team which were now sleek and fat. If 
this isn’t a good illustration of the reason why some 
men are rich and others poor, we don’t know where 
to look for one. Of two farmers on adjoining 1 farms, 
one has a productive, well-cultivated and well fenced 
farm with good buildings ; the other has exactly the 
reverse. What is the trouble ? Is it luck ? Is it in 
the farm or in the man ? Who can tell ? 
O 
Every fall we feel like speaking a word in favor of 
cut green bone for poultry food. Some form of ani¬ 
mal food is especially desirable for fowls that have had 
a range of the farm through the summer. When frost 
destroys insects, those hens are forced to a sudden 
change of diet—the natural animal food is taken away 
from them. The problem of supplying this animal 
food during the winter, becomes a serious one. The 
bone cutter enables the poultry man to make the tough 
bone available. You cannot grind a fresh bone ; to 
bake or burn it means the loss of a good share of its 
nutriment. To cut it means to save it all and secure 
the needed animal food cheaper than in any other 
food. This machine means almost as much to poultry 
feeders as the first use of sulphuric acid on dry bones 
meant for farmers. Both make available food out 
of otherwise unavailable matter. 
© 
One of our readers went to a county fair this fall, 
and this is what he says about it: 
The first agricultural exhibit which, I am glad to say, was out¬ 
side the fair grounds, was a canvas with a circular hole in it, 
through which was the blackened face of a man who was almost 
constantly crying, “Oh ! ” to attract attention, and at a stand a 
pile of tomatoes. Three throws of these tomatoes were offered 
for five cents, and every time any one hit the head, he got a cigar. 
The crushed tomatoes around the head made a most disgusting 
scene. 
This game used to be played with base balls, but very 
likely the hard times forced that fakir to seek some 
cheaper missiles. It is a wonder that he didn’t claim 
that farmers should patronize his game because it in¬ 
creased the market for tomatoes! After all, that 
would be about as sensible as it is to claim that the 
manufacture of whisky adds to the price of grain. 
What do you think of a human mind that can find 
five cents’ worth of pleasure in smashing a tomato 
over some poor idiot’s head ? 
0 
BREVITIES. 
UNCLE SAM TO CUBA. 
Hello ! What’s this you tell me ? Here’s a telegram for me 
That says, “Now, Uncle, toss your hat for Cuban liberty.” 
Way off there in the water—if I’ve got the matter right— 
A spunky little feller’s got his dander up for fight, 
He wants your Uncle’s sympathy to help him break the chain 
That’s tied around his ankle by the cruel hand of Spain. 
Well! Well! My little feller ! When you talk of liberty, 
You hit a tender portion of your Uncle’s heart; for he 
Struck out for independence and the right to run his farm, 
To suit himself ! He won it with his musket on his arm. 
I know that human liberty is not an idle toy ; 
I’ve got a fellow feeling when an enterprising boy 
Stands up to face a tyrant like a sturdy little man, 
I’ve got to keep my coat on—but I’ll help you all I can. 
Stand fast my little Cuba—you’re in the fight to stay. 
If hope and wish were cannon, you would quickly win the day. 
Stand up and fight your battle, so that all the world may see, 
You have the strength aud bravery that fits you to be free. 
Set up your flag for liberty and justice and for right; 
I’ll see fair play ! No gouging, Spain ! Pitch in and win your 
fight! 
Keep the feet warm. 
Don’t slight the chores. 
Don’t delay starting the fires. 
The swill barrel is a waste station. 
Don’t hit the finger nail on the head. 
Disagree without being disagreeable. 
By their fruits ye know their spraying. 
It’s easy to find fault—difficult to lose one. 
Harp your hobby, but don’t carp about it. 
Keep everything but air out of a ventilator. 
Mr. Wright is right about that big apple—page 712. 
Too much sweeping raises a broom corn—on the hand. 
Your wife is the best of your resources. Husband her ! 
Why do you use whitewash in the henhouse ? Please tell us. 
New York City consumes 2,000,000 boxes of lemons per year. 
Why do you class boiled potatoes as “ green food ” for poultry ? 
It appears that E. W. Bull was quite a famous anti-slavery 
agitator. 
You are heir to the air that passes over your farm. Harness it 
and work it ! 
Is the “ crank” 50 years ahead of his time, or is the “ average 
citizen ” 50 years behind ? 
If you want to kill your chance for a job, have the smell of 
liquor in the breath that asks for it. 
Perhaps the most popular carnation in cultivation to-day is 
Daybreak—a flesh pink of very delicate shade. 
Now is a good time to subsoil afield that has a “hard pan.” 
Break that pan up and make it hold moisture, and thus pan out 
better. 
Young man, this thought I’d have you learn : It’s what you 
save , not what you earn, that takes the gold from out your sweat 
and makes you master of your debt. 
Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! the stock go marching up and down 
the clover field, when the ground is soft and wet; you wili surely 
fuss and fret all next season at its poor and scanty yield. 
