748 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November § 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
TEE B U8INESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1805 . 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all ordei’s p&y- 
able 40 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER .9, 1395. 
Any farmer who has some actual information re¬ 
garding- that ice cream business mentioned on page 
745, can make some money telling us about it. This 
is no chance for “hack” writers. They need not apply. 
0 
Read Mr. Chapman’s statement of the cost of grow¬ 
ing a bushel of potatoes—page 742. This is an inter¬ 
esting statement. We invite criticisms and compari¬ 
sons. What did your crop cost? Are your potatoes 
cheaper than Chapman’s ? Do they cost more ? What 
makes the difference ? Is it seeding, plowing, culti¬ 
vating, digging, or what ? By the way, was that 
Georgia man, page 740, right in selling his peaches 
for what he could get ? 
0 
Lumber is said to be a drug in the market on the 
Pacific coast. There are vast pine forests in Wash¬ 
ington, and many mills have been built of late. To 
make the matter worse, since the tariff was taken off 
lumber, 20,000,000 feet have been brought in from 
British Columbia. The result is an immense surplus 
in the California markets, with little chance of dis¬ 
posing of it, for lumber is too bulky a product to ship 
to the Eastern market. In theory, at least, this ought 
to stimulate building in California ; but it does not 
seem to have that effect. 
O 
A Camden, N. J., grocer and his clerk are in trouble 
through selling butterine. The State Dairy Commis¬ 
sioner and a detective entered the store, and each pur¬ 
chased a package of the stuff that was not properly 
labeled. The grocer demanded the return of the 
goods, and offered to refund the money paid, which 
offer was, of course, declined. He, thereupon, used 
force, and with his clerk, assaulted the two pur¬ 
chasers. Now, he is under bonds for trial for assault 
and battery, and the notoriety he has attained will, 
probably, not help him any when he comes to trial 
on the other charges. 
© 
A straw which shows which way the current of 
business is tending, is the order of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Co. for 6,000 new freight cars. This road 
does an immense through freight business with the 
West and South, and a considerable part of its freight 
consists of agricultural products. Crops in general 
are heavy this year. In addition, general business 
and manufacturing are beginning to improve largely. 
This general improvement will be favorable to all 
producers, and farmers are likely to benefit by an 
increased demand for their products. Better times 
are in sight! Let’s help them along to the best of 
our ability ! 
© 
A great many boys and young men now on the 
farm are planning to get away from farming at the 
first good opportunity. They have seen the hard side 
of farm life and, apparently, think that there is some¬ 
thing easier for them in the town. It is a singular 
fact that, while this migration to the city is going on, 
thousands of men in town are planning to go back 
some day and end their days in the country. We 
meet many of them. They are mostly clerks or in 
subordinate positions—knowing well that it is only a 
few years before younger and more enterprising men 
will crowd them out of a job After that the city 
will have but a small chance to offer them. They are 
looking ahead, saving their money as best they can, 
hoping some day to have a small place where their 
own labor may be turned directly into a means of 
support. They know from their city experience that 
so-called business men are only handlers, and that 
farming is the only occupation that enables a man to 
turn his own labor directly into food and shelter. It 
would be a good thing if some of the boys who plan 
to come to the city, could talk with those who plan to 
get out of it. 
0 
In the writer’s town, lives a man who has a physi¬ 
cian visit his family on a regular day every week the 
year ’round, to look after the health of the family. 
Whether this is an improvement over the Chinese 
method of paying the family doctor a regular stipend 
while the family is well, and stopping payment when 
they become sick, is a question. But certain it is that 
many cases of serious and often fatal-sickness, may be 
prevented if timely precautions be taken ; not neces¬ 
sarily the attendance of a physician, but for ordinarily 
simple ailments, the home remedies which every old- 
time housewife knew so well. In case serious diseases 
threaten, a skillful physician should be consulted, 
and above all, should quack nostrums be given the 
cold shoulder. The human body is too delicate a 
piece of machinery to be tampered with by charlatans. 
O 
Interest in a tariff commission is somewhat revived 
by the action of several large trade organizations in 
asking for it. The idea of a tariff commission is to 
put the whole matter of deciding tariff duties in the 
hands of a body of men like the members of our 
Supreme Court, who would have power to arrange 
schedules and charge rates of duties as seemed best. 
The arguments in favor of this plan are many. Under 
the present system of arranging a tariff bill, it is im¬ 
possible to secure a satisfactory measure. There is 
too much wire-pulling in Congress, and votes on other 
measures are traded back and forth for votes in favor 
of arranging certain rates of tariff. The constant 
agitation of the tariff question is a bad thing for the 
country. It is the most convenient issue of the age 
with which to obscure the minds of voters, and thus 
keep away from the discussion of higher and more 
important things. Of course it would be possible for 
a President to appoint men on such a commission who 
would bring the whole thing into worse discredit than 
ever ; but with a commission made up of honest and 
patriotic men, we believe that the country would be 
greatly benefited by the change. 
O 
While it may seem somewhat out of date, yet if we 
are to profit most by mistakes, we must note them 
when they occur to us most forcibly. It must seem 
evident to any one who travels much through the 
grain and dairy districts of New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania, that a serious mistake is being made by many 
farmers in providing fodder for dairy stock. It is a 
mistake in too many cases to rely on sowed corn. This 
is usually sowed in such a manner that the plants, 
from the time the grain germinates, occupy the whole 
surface of the ground, the seed being sowed either 
broadcast or with the grain drill. Prom numerous 
experiments, it has been shown conclusively that 
this is not the most economical method of providing 
forage, either green or dry, for our dairy stock. 
Whenever broadcasting corn has been compared with 
hills or drills and good cultivation, the latter methods 
have always produced not only a larger yield in tons 
per acre, but a superior quality. As a rule, sowed corn 
will appear more or less yellow at some period of its 
growth, owing to insufficient moisture for the number 
of plants which occupy the land. Fewer plants and 
thorough cultivation give best results. 
0 
The big potato crop and the consequent low prices 
all over the country, have forced many farmers to 
consider the feeding value of potatoes as they never 
did before. Even though grain is also cheap and 
abundant, it can be stored and fed in subsequent sea¬ 
sons ; while, however large the potato crop may be, 
it will all have disappeared by next July. It may be 
economy, therefore, under certain circumstances to 
feed the potatoes and hold the grain. Here are a few 
facts about potatoes as stock food. From the chem¬ 
ist’s standpoint, the comparative values of different 
foods would be about as follows : 
Potatoes. 
Value of 100 Pounds. 
.$0 29 Corn_.... 
$1 11 
Skim-milk_ 
. 23 
Wheat. 
.... 1 13 
Wheat bran ... 
Pumpkins. 
8 
Oats. 
. 08 
Good' clover hay.., 
.... 79 
Of course these figures are only comparative. The 
feeding value of the potato lies chiefly in its starch. 
In order to obtain the best results, the potatoes should 
be cooked—especially when fed to hogs and poultry. 
Prof. Henry concluded that 445 pounds of potatoes 
were equal to 100 pounds of corn meal in pig feeding. 
In this experiment, the potatoes were cooked in a 
kettle, and enough corn meal added to make a thick 
pudding or mush. In France, the potatoes are cooked 
and fed to cattle and sheep with excellent results. 
We have baked and fed them to horses successfully. 
Prof. Henry says the potatoes may be chopped with a 
root cutter or spade, and fed raw to cattle, horses 
or sheep—a daily ration of not over four pounds 
for sheep, 10 for a horse, or 25 for a cow. This may 
be safe, but we would prefer to bake or boil the pota¬ 
toes, before feeding to any animal. The raw potatoes 
appear to have a somewhat laxative effect, and small 
quantities of them may be good for cattle on dry feed, 
or where cotton-seed meal is heavily fed. From 
choice, we would cook potatoes and feed to hogs or 
poultry. We would expect them to be worth about 
one-fourth as much as corn meal when properly “bal¬ 
anced ” with stronger foods. 
O 
Every now and then we have a question or sugges¬ 
tion that gives us an idea of the vast extent of this 
country and its many varied farm interests. The 
fence problem gives a good chance for observing how 
farming differs in various parts of the land, because 
the fence is a costly farm feature, and farmers study 
well to find the cheapest fencing material. Here, for 
example, is the way they do it in Utah : 
An all-important question for all farmers is how to make the 
best and cheapest farm fence that can be made. This is done by 
setting' close together, say, six to ten inches apart ( Lombardy 
poplar cuttings, or any wood that will grow from cuttings, large 
or small, close enough to be a live fence against all kinds of live 
stock. If the cuttings are small, they must be grow r n three or 
four years, to be large enough to turn stock, but if large cuttings 
three to six inches through and firmly set and six to eight feet 
long, they may turn stock the day they are set. Such a timber 
fence, if properly set, will make the best possible fence and fur¬ 
nish plenty of poles for all purposes* It will make any farm 
worth from $10 to $20 per acre more. It would, if in general use, 
be a most perfect windbreak, and change the climate of every 
prairie country. It would take 10 pages in The R. N.-Y. to tell the 
half of its many advantages. a. j. c. 
Ogden, Utah. 
buck a fence would be objectionable in our country 
for many reasons. Yet, in Utah, it seems to be the 
very thing needed. Thus it is with many farm prac¬ 
tices. They are suited to localities, and cannot always 
be adopted entire by others. They do, however, give 
the basis for some useful experiments on a small 
scale, so that a farmer can feel his way to an adapta¬ 
tion of the practice that greatly helps him. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
A Southern mansion of a by-gone day. 
Battered and beaten by the hand of time. 
Showing beneath the.crumble of decay 
The scars of trouble—and of faith sublime 
Each rude and clumsy brick bore on its face 
A rough-marked cross—for all the weary years 
With ceaseless gnawing, had not cleared the trace 
Etched by the agony of hopeless tears. 
And one who knew the story told me how 
Poor, wretched slaves had made the brick by night 
After their cruel day spent at the plow— 
They wrought their second task by candle light. 
Beneath the burden of their hopeless task, 
Grown weary waiting for a better day, 
They wrote the only hope they dared to ask, 
The cross—upon those clumsy blocks of clay. 
And so the years have run their slow course through, 
The healing years that recompense our loss ; 
Yet, see, on crumbling brick still holding true 
The promise that was made upon the cross. 
Who will argue against success ? 
A new idea about dogs—page 746. 
Adam was the first person singular. 
The boss sets the pace for the crew. 
A well-kept Guernsey is an earnsy cow. 
A short hay crop means a blue grass prospect. 
That’s a point about sweet corn fodder—page 754. 
The cur is the bark terrier of neighborly disputes. 
Great thoughts seldom grate—small ones do that! 
How’s a mason’s trowel for setting strawberry plants ? 
Maybe you can hire an idle thrashing machine this winter. 
Wonder if General Apathy has headquarters at your house. 
M anted ! a drill that will sow discrimination with your seeds. 
Pasteur discovered many secrets of life, but could not prolong 
his own. 
The dry weather has made a slow growth of strawberry plants. 
Good ones should be scarce next spring. 
Will rye sown in July make a good fall green feed ? There’s a 
chance for some one to give the world some wisdom. 
That little boy who catches you at some mean trick, carries a 
dangerous concealed weapon of imitation inside his head. 
Try to strike a “ light in the upper story”—the light of knowl¬ 
edge. You will never light the world, though, with light litera¬ 
ture. 
Farmers, don’t go around asking those who handle your prod¬ 
ucts for a dopation. This will soon be a dough nation if you 
keep that up ! 
Corn is the only crop that has the spunk to send its rootlets out 
to gnaw a chunk of hard manure; so let these words of mine lead 
you to know your plant food must be fine. 
What a job a man has trying to find a good substitute for ensi- 
lage, particularly for fall feeding. If any one can offer anything 
better than what is suggested on page 743, we want it. 
We told our readers how they haul peaches, as freight, in Con¬ 
necticut on the electric roads at night. In Newark, N. J., bakers 
deliver their bread over the trolley lines, and thus save the labor 
of 40 men and teams. 
A California man tells us of a potato grown in that ‘‘glorious 
climate” which was so large that “six Irishmen made a supper 
out of it and left enough to fry for their breakfast!” Certainly 
you might call that a mealy potato. 
