722 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 26 
THE WEAL TH OF AMERICA. 
HOW IT IS DISTRIBUTED. 
Part X. 
The last thought we have to present 
in this series of articles, is in answer to 
the question asked last week : Why has 
Connecticut manufacturing beaten Con¬ 
necticut agriculture in the race for pros¬ 
perity ? 
There are three chief reasons for it: 
1. The manufacturers have been organ¬ 
ized. When State or National legisla¬ 
tion was needed, they organized and 
worked as one man to secure it. When 
cheaper transportation or better methods 
of buying or selling were desired, the 
manufacturers acted as an organized 
body, and were thus able to secure what 
they needed with the least force and 
expense. 
Farmers, on the other hand, have 
largely avoided cooperative effort until 
of late years. The Grange in Connecticut 
has taught farmers valuable lessons in 
the advantage of organization, but there 
are thousands yet who can see no reason 
for giving up what they call the inde¬ 
pendence of individual effort. The value 
of co5peration as compared with indi¬ 
vidualism in the farmer’s case, has been 
likened to the hand. Here are four 
fingers and a thumb. You are “arguing” 
with a person with whom some force is 
needed. You stick out your forefinger 
and punch him with it, and there is little 
effect. You take any other single finger 
or the thumb alone, and do the punch¬ 
ing, and you are likely to do yourself 
more harm than is done the person you 
wish to convince. But suppose you 
double the four fingers and the thumb 
into one fist and apply the same force 
you did to any single finger ! He paid 
no attention to any single finger, but a 
combination—the fist—quickly brings 
him to time. Only through honest and 
generous cooperation can farmers ever 
hope to secure what is justly due them, 
either socially or in a business way. 
Manufacturers have combined to advance 
their business interests. Farmers have 
acted as individuals too long. 
2. Manufacturers have been quicker 
than farmers to take advantage of the 
help that science brings them. They have 
utilized more wastes, and thus reduced 
the cost of conducting their factories. 
Take a single illustration. Here is a 
woolen mill located on the Connecticut 
River. The owners are sending abroad 
for thousands of dollars worth of chemi¬ 
cals needed in their daily work. A 
chemist comes to them and says that all 
these chemicals may be found in the 
river water that flows idly by the mill. 
He tells how that water may be pumped 
into tanks and treated so as to yield all 
those chemicals and save all that vast 
sum that is now sent abroad. We know 
on general principles that the average 
manufacturer is the sort of man who 
would not sleep nights until that plan 
was fully tested. If it succeeded, he 
would soon pocket the thousands that 
formerly went abroad, and make it 
an object for the chemist to study out 
other plans for saving wastes and thus 
cheapen the costs of manufacturing. 
Now see how differently the individual 
farmer has acted. The chemist comes 
to him and says : 
“ My friend, you are paying 17 cents a 
pound for nitrogen in your fertilizers, 
and even at that price you are often 
cheated. Now, right in the air resting 
on your farm, are tons of that precious 
nitrogen—more than you can possibly 
use in a lifetime. It’s there, and heye 
are clover, cow peas and other crops 
just begging for the chance to capture 
this cheap nitrogen and put it into your 
soil! ” 
That is a[greater discovery for the 
farmer than it would be to find the 
chemicals in the water ; yet, it we look 
about us, we can readily see that but a 
small proportion of farmers are making 
only half the use of clover that they 
might. Thousands of men who sneer at 
the use of “ nitrogen traps ” cannot to¬ 
day, without pinching, pay for the nitro¬ 
gen they bought in fertilizers last 
spring. 
Much the same is true of the feeding 
problem. Manufacturers have improved 
their engines, furnaces and fuel until, 
to-day, twice as much power is obtained 
from a ton of coal as there was 40 years 
ago. That means less waste, and all that 
waste has been turned to a profitable ac¬ 
count. On the other hand, plenty of 
farmers are still feeding Timothy hay 
and corn meal to big beefy cows, in the 
expectation of making money in the 
dairy. It is easy to see that, if manu¬ 
facturers had neglected the advice of 
scientific men as many farmers have, 
New England towns to-day would be 
deserted, because other localities with 
superior natural advantages, would sure¬ 
ly have drawn their trade away. 
3. Manufacturers have given their cus¬ 
tomers a uniform product, and have 
studied to serve the wants of the public. 
If the market demanded goods packed 
or prepared in a new way, the manu¬ 
facturers did not spend time grumbling 
and showing what fools their customers 
were. They supplied that want as 
quickly as they could. When they put 
a trade mark or special brand on their 
goods, they sought to have the product 
so uniform that a customer could safely 
buy 10,000 yards of cloth or 500 cases of 
tools by a single sample. Superior qual¬ 
ity and uniform grade of goods gave the 
manufacturer a reputation which has 
been a valuable part of his stock in 
trade. 
Has the average farmer been as care¬ 
ful of the reputation of his goods ? Look 
around you and see how many farmers 
that you know pack and sort in such a 
way that you can know from the out¬ 
side marks just what the package con¬ 
tains. Can you take a barrel of their 
potatoes or apples, and without opening 
it, safely guarantee to a customer that 
the contents will be all of a certain size 
and character ? If you cannot, it is easy 
to see that that farmer must sell under 
a disadvantage If his goods are not 
uniform, he will receive the lowest price 
oftener than he does the highest. 
In a genera] way, these three points of 
organization, making use of scientific 
helps, and suiting goods to the markets, 
mark the difference in success between 
Connecticut manufacturing and agricul¬ 
ture. Not for that State alone, but in 
every other locality in which farming 
has come to a point where something 
besides fertility in the original soil is 
needed to produce a crop. These three 
points will stand a good deal of thinking 
over, for they may represent all the dif¬ 
ference between success and failure. 
Live Stock Matters. 
AH INDIANA STOCK FEEDER. 
SOME PRIMITIVE METHODS THAT PAY. 
I met a neighbor driving some 40 head 
of cattle to change pasture. I said, 
“ Why do you have so many heifers— 
more than half ? ” 
“ O, they just came that way.” 
“ Then you breed your own cattle?” 
“ Y r es ; they are more uniform than I 
can buy. It’s pretty hard to pick up 
good steers any more, there are so many 
little, peaked Jerseys.” 
“ But that makes you lots of trouble 
with milk ? ” 
“No, we milk a few of the best for 
home use, let our help strip what they 
need, and let the calves run with most 
of the cows. It makes a big growth on a 
calf. If a man has good judgment, he can 
go to the yards and pick out stock cattle; 
but he can’t always tell what a steer's 
feeding quality is. That cow looks 
rough, almost a disgrace to the farm ; 
but her calves are our best feeders, while 
we have a smooth, pretty cow at home 
that breeds the poorest feeders we have.” 
“ How long do you keep the heifers ? ” 
“ Till they are two years past; they 
mature sooner than a teer. Then they 
rant so the third year, that they keep a 
herd disturbed, and one takes a big 
risk of some stray bull getting among 
them and spoiling the herd.” 
“ Why don’t you buy a fodder shucker 
and shredder, and cut all that fodder ? ” 
“ I farm on the principle that costly 
machinery, and still more costly labor, 
are hard to buck against when you con¬ 
sider that our taxes are much higher 
than they were, and count all kinds of 
losses. In the second place, I don’t waste 
feed as you think I do. During a winter 
like the last—cold and snowy—if cattle 
have two or three straw piles to run to, 
they eat fodder on the snow and do well. 
I work it this way : I have now two car¬ 
loads of hogs feeding. One man shucks 
corn all the time, beginning as soon in 
the fall as it will shuck at all. The fod¬ 
der is cut up after him, so that, prob¬ 
ably, two-thirds of my corn will be 
shocked with corn on it, and one-third 
with it shucked out. In the winter, if 
I don’t wish to feed so much grain as to 
give fodder, corn and all, I feed, say, 
two of fodder with the corn on, and one 
without. Sheep follow the cattle, and 
hogs the next day, by feeding in differ¬ 
ent fields. Cattle eat the bulk of the 
fodder, sheep pick it much cleaner and 
get some scattered corn, and hogs clean 
up all corn and droppings. There is 
hardly any waste, and what butts are 
left are plowed under and not lost. A 
man must see that stock are not over¬ 
fed. But after one is feeding and all 
IS DURABLE, ECONOniCAL AND 
EASY TO LAY. 
It will not taint water. 
For dwellings, barns, outbuildings, poultry 
houses, etc., 
IT HAS NO EQUAL. 
P. & B. BUILDING PAPER 
is the best in the market. Thoroughly water¬ 
proof and airtight. Will keep your house cool 
in Summer and warm in Winter. 
THE STANDARD PAINT CO., 
SOLE MANUFACTURERS, 
chicaoo oFFice, 6 Liberty st., N. Y. 
ISC-Its FIFTH AVE. 
Send for Sample* and Prices. 
Can be applied by 
any one on steep or 
flat roofs. 
LOW PRICE! 
DURABLE! 
FIREPROOF! 
If you are going to 
build or have leaky 
shingle or tin roofs, 
send for sample 
and circular. 
A. F. SWAN, 
38 Dev Street. N. Y, 
The Farmers’ Choice 
is THE 
SYKES 
Improved Iron and Steel 
ROOFING. 
For all classes of buildings, easily applied, cheaper 
than shingles, will last a lifetime, and is absolutely 
fire and lightning proof. Reduces your insurance 
and is the best roof manufactured. Write for our 
handsome catalogue and mention this paper. 
SYKES IKON & STEEL HOOFING CO.. 
Chicago, Ill., or Niles, Ohio. 
SHINGLES. 
are used to the ration, a hand can safely 
do it. I always make any changes my¬ 
self. In this way, by having plenty of 
grass, a man can manage without much 
outlay.” 
“ How many acres do you manage ?” 
“ About 800, and my winter help on 
the different farms, may work half of 
the time ; in summer, when the stock 
are on grass, they tend the corn. I hire 
outside at haying and keep about one 
hand to 250 acres. I have no costly silos 
or barns with insurance and machinery. 
The stock do their own harvesting, 
thrashing and grinding, and sheep and 
(Continued on next page). 
Don’t be deceived with poor Metal Sheet Roofing. Our 
PAINTED TIN SHINGLES are more durable 
than It Is possible to make a tin roof, put on in the 
old style. Our GALVANIZED S II I N G L KS 
are both RUST and RAIN PROOF WITHOUT PAINT¬ 
ING. No others are. 
THE NATIONAL SHEET METAL ROOFING CO., 
Jersey City, N. J, 
jy Look for this ad. every other week. 
HORSE BLANKETS 
ARE THE STRONCEST. 
▲ warded higbttt prize at World’* fair. 
Made in 250 styles. 
Square Blankets for the road. 
Surcingle Blankets for Stable. 
All shapes, sizes and qualities. 
The Best 5/A is the 
BAKER BLANKET. 
Many Have Worn 16 Years. 
Thousands of testimonials. 
Sold by all dealers. 
Write us for 5/A Book. 
WM. AYRES & SONS, Philadelphia. 
IN writing to advertisers, please always mention 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
All that’s 
Necessary 
in the way of 
tools, and any 
one can put on 
Neponset 
Water=Proof 
Red Rope 
Roofing Fabric 
Takes the place of back plaster in 
dwellings, and of shingles or clapboards 
in out-houses. Wind-proof, water¬ 
proof, frost-proof, and vermin-proof. 
A little girl protected from the rain with a 6heet 
of “ Neponset" is the trade mark. ai 
Neponset Black Building Paper 
for inside lining. Better than tarred 
paper; odorless and clean. 
r>-7S=> ( Fufi particulars 
Llk^Er \ and samples free. 
F. W. BIRD & SON, E. Walpole, Mass. 
SOLE MANUFACTURERS. 
> MM I 
BEFORE 
BUYING 
ANEW 
HARNESS 
Send 2-cent stamp for 80-page Illus¬ 
trated Catalogue of Custom Hand¬ 
made Oak Leather Harness, sold 
direct to consumers at wholesale 
prices. Why not buy from first 
hands and save the middleman’s 
profit. You can buy by mail as 
well as though here In person. 
Making to order a specialty. 
KING A CO., .No. 10 Church St., Owrgo, N.Y 
COOK Your FEED and SATE 
Half the Cost—with the 
PROFIT FARM BOILER 
With Dumping Caldron. Emp¬ 
ties its kettle in one minnte. The 
simplest and best arrangement for 
cooking food for stock. Also make 
Dairy and Laundry .Stoves, 
Water and Steam Jacket Ket¬ 
tles, Hog Scalders, Caldrons, 
etc. irS* - Send for Circulars, 
D. R. SPERRY * CO., Batavia, Ill. 
PUR >NTuN’S 
AGRICULTURAL BOILER 
Stands at the head of all articles for 
Cooking Feed and Heating Water for 
Stock, and is also the cheapest. 
15,000 Sold. Cooks, Boils, Steams 
anything. Write for prices. 
J. K. PURINTON & CO., 
Des Moines. Iowa. 
Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Swine. 
Geo. W. Curtis, M. S. A. Origin, History, 
Improvement, Description, Characteristics, 
Merits, Objections, Adaptability South, etc., 
of each of the Different Breeds, with Hints on 
Selection, Care and Management. Methods of 
practical breeders of the United States and 
Canada. Superbly illustrated. About 100 full 
page cuts. Cloth, $2. 
The Business Hen. 
This little book is one of the most popular we 
have ever published. Every one interested at 
all in poultry, seems to want it, and to ap¬ 
preciate it. It gets down to the practical side 
of the question, and treats of the hen as the 
means of making a dollar. The price in cloth 
is 75 cents, but as the paper cover edition is 
exhausted, we fill all orders in cloth covers at 
paper cover price, while a new supply of 
paper covers are being provided. Price, 40 
cents. Sent to any subscriber for sending us 
one new subscription. 
The Rural New-Yorker, New York- 
