?64 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 16 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
TIIE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established, 1850. Copyrighted 18D5. 
Elbert S. Cabman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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8 s. 6d., or 8 l A marks, or 10 l / s francs. 
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of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
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Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
office and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in every 
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, NOVEMBER 16, 1395. 
“ Anchylosis.” —That may be a new word to many 
of our readers. Turn to page 768 and see what it 
means. Almost every one has a case of anchylosis. It 
may be located in ear, hand, foot, heart, brain or con¬ 
science. The R. N.-Y. is opposed to any anchylosis. 
That’s why we offer $170 cash to agents during 
November. Limber up ! 
G 
We hear so many good reports of the success of 
cooperative fire insurance companies that we wonder 
why more of them are not organized in country neigh¬ 
borhoods. The ordinary rates of fire insurance are 
too high. The reason is that, besides paying losses, 
the city companies must provide for big salaries, 
agents’ commissions and many other extra items, all 
of which must come out of those who insure their 
property. The cooperative company does not work 
for profit, but for protection entirely. There are no 
fat salaries or great office rents to be paid, and, con¬ 
sequently, the assessments to cover actual losses by 
fire are less than the charges demanded by other com¬ 
panies. There is no reason why the risk should be 
greater under the cooperative plan. 
O 
As Fred Grundy puts it on page 758, “ Mr. Hay is 
losing his prestige.” That’s a bad thing for a humbug 
to lose, and it must be admitted that Mr. Timothy 
Hay carries many of the ear-marks of a humbug 
about with him. He exhausts the land a good deal 
more than Clover, is worth, one-third less for feeding, 
yet manages to sell himself for, at least, 50 per cent 
more in the city market. He does this “ on his shape,” 
having kept up the old tale that his big, coarse stalks 
were the only safe roughage for horse food. His time 
is coming. Mr. Z. Maize Corn has always had just as 
much to him as T. Hay. The trouble was that Corn 
didn’t have any shape about him. His new tailors, 
Messrs, llusker and Shredder, have fixed him up so 
that people begin to recognize his shape. In a few 
years Mr. Hay will be called upon to take a back 
seat, while Corn will “go up higher.” 
G 
We give this week, as we believe, the best collection 
of facts about making clover ensilage that have yet 
been printed. “Why not cure the clover into hay?” 
some one will ask. In some damp climates it is almost 
impossible to make good clover hay. The crop must 
be pastured or put into the silo in order to obtain any¬ 
thing like its full feeding value. Mr. Bancroft might, 
perhaps, make good hay out of his Crimson clover ; 
but he has found that it gives more and better food 
when put into the silo. On Governor Morton’s farm, 
there will be, next year, over 30 acres of good clover. 
Corn ensilage has given better results there than any 
green soiling crop or any dry roughage. Mr. Cottrell 
believes that well-made clover ensilage from 30 acres 
will produce more milk than the best clover hay from 
that area. He, therefore, expects to put all the clover 
right into the silo, and use it for late summer feeding. 
Q 
The Grape Belt, published in Chautauqua County, 
N. Y., says that every bushel of potatoes grown in 
the county, and sold at 25 cents per bushel, is grown 
at a loss. That, if the farmer do the work himself, 
he is not half paid for his labor, and that, if he hire 
the work done at current labor prices, the potatoes 
will not pay the cost of production. These assertions 
may be true under certain conditions: On land valued 
at hundreds of dollars per acre for vineyard purposes, 
or on poor soil or that naturally unsuited for potato 
production, it may be true. Also where old-time 
methods prevail, and hand labor is mostly employed, 
it is undoubtedly true. Two of our correspondents, 
in widely separated parts of the country, have recently 
asserted that they can grow potatoes at 10 cents 
per bushel. If 25 cents must be realized to insure a 
profit, we fear that a greater part of the potato crop 
of this country this year, will prove a loss to the 
growers. New methods must be adopted, and cost of 
production cheapened, or we must bid adieu to all 
hope of profit from this one-time profitable crop 
Q 
During the past season, there were made in 405 
German beet-sugar factories, 4,102,837,760 pounds of 
sugar. It required 1,100,000 acres of land to produce 
the beets, which brought, at the factories, $3.50 per 
ton. The great proportion of this vast lump of sweet¬ 
ness will be sent to England and America. The beet- 
sugar business has been of great help to German 
farmers. It has given German agriculture a new in¬ 
dustry. This country is spending $125,000,000 or more 
each year for foreign sugar. Out on the Western 
plains are vast areas of land where sugar beets would 
grow to perfection. Americans now on them are 
barely making a living raising grain. They stick to 
grain because it is the only product for which they 
can obtain cash. If we could buy our sugar of them, 
instead of French and German farmers, every Ameri¬ 
can would be better off. 
G 
Some time ago, we read one of those remarkable 
stories that get into the daily papers about some new 
agricultural scheme that is to make a fortune for its 
originator. This time it was a hen ranch on an island 
in Puget Sound with some wonderful schemes for 
squeezing gold out of the hen. Naturally, we wanted 
to know about it. Here is the report from one who 
lives near by: 
In regard to the Eliza Island chicken ranch, it has passed out 
of existence. In the first place, the man who had charge was 
entirely unfitted for the position, being one of those men who 
know so much “more than it all” that in his brooders he despised 
the use of a thermometer, and depended for his knowledge of 
temperature upon his hand 1” 
That’s enough ! Never mind the other reasons. But 
don’t you sit down and laugh at that man until you 
know that you are not still worshiping old farm prac¬ 
tices that are just as far behind the times. 
G 
Readers are familiar with the various “ meals ” of 
meat and bone that are sold for poultry food. It 
seems that a similar product is made from the ref¬ 
use of the “ meat extract ” works in South America, 
and sold largely in France and Germany. It is pure 
meat, without bone, and is ground to a fine flour. 
Its latest use is in feeding calves, used at the rate of 
about one ounce of the meat powder to each pint of 
milk. An average analysis of this calf food shows 
that it contains 72 per cent muscle-makers and 16 per 
cent pure fat. When fed heav’ly to calves, it appears 
to have somewhat the effect of cotton-seed meal— 
causing constipation and, when, carried to excess, a 
form of paralysis. It is a dangerous food for young 
stock in the hands of a careless feeder. Most of the 
American meat meals, we understand, contain more 
or less bone, and are best adapted to feeding poultry 
—or, possibly, pigs. 
G 
The State of Massachusetts has authorized the 
spending of $400,000 for making State roads during 
the present year. The State will also provide steam 
road rollers under certain conditions. When a town 
of not less than 10,000 inhabitants will vote to spend 
$3,000 per year for five years on roads, the State will 
furnish a roller free. Or, if two to five adjoining 
towns, with a combined population of 12 , 000 , will 
unite and agree to spend $4,000 per year for five years, 
the roller will be furnished by the State. The towns 
are to keep the roller in repair, and if they fail to 
spend the required sum, the roller reverts to the State. 
Of all the many road laws recently passed, this is the 
most “ paternal.” It should be followed up by laws 
locating the State prisons near granite ledges, where 
the convicts should be employed breaking stone for 
roads—the stone to be sold at cost. Other laws should 
compel railroads to transport this stone wherever 
needed in the State, at half freight rates, at least. 
G 
The United States Department of Agriculture has 
issued a valuable pamphlet on certain infectious 
diseases of poultry. The most interesting article in 
it is one on Diphtheria in Fowls, or the disease com¬ 
monly known as “roup.” Poultrymen should send to 
Washington for this pamphlet, for it is well worth 
studying. The most interesting statement regarding 
this disease is the fact that fowl diphtheria may be 
transmitted to humans. The fact that the disease 
can be thus communicated, should end the practice of 
permitting children to fondle sick chickens, especially 
those suffering from “roup.” As for “ treatment,” it 
seems that a poultryman should remember what he 
would do with his children if one of them should be 
taken with a bad cold which proved to be “catching.” 
He would make the child warm and comfortable, feed 
it on nourishing food, and keep its nose or throat 
well smeared with vaseline or some other ointment. 
Follow out the same practice with the roupy hen, 
only take her in ample time. Read that poultry 
article on pages 770 and 771 of this issue. 
G 
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture goes 
about its work of preparing Farmers’ Institutes in a 
systematic way. We have just received a pamphlet 
giving the names and addresses of 192 speakers with 
a list of the topics they are prepared to discuss. 
These are sent all over the State wherever institutes 
are to be held. See what an advantage that is. Mem¬ 
bers of a Grange or farmers’ club may come together 
and select the speakers they desire and thus insure a 
good institute. In Indiana, much the same thing is 
done. A circular giving the topics of 161 persons is 
sent to all who are interested in it, and local man¬ 
agers of institutes can thus be better able to make a 
good programme. It seems to us this is an excellent 
plan and one that other States might well adopt. 
We ought to have the same thing in New York State. 
Complaints have been made that the institutes in this 
State are getting into the hands of a “ ring.” Some¬ 
thing must be done to keep up the interest in these 
meetings or they will fail to draw more than the few 
faithful ones who turn out year after year to ex¬ 
change views. 
G 
The last Michigan Legislature passed a bill with the 
following title : 
An Act to prevent the spreading of bush, vine and fruit-tree 
pests, such as canker worms and other insects, and fungus and 
contagious diseases, and to provide for their extirpation. 
By the terms of this act it becomes the duty of the 
citizens of Michigan to spray all plants that are in¬ 
fested with injurious insects. On the petition of 10 
freeholders in any township, the township board 
must appoint three commissioners who must notify 
all persons that permit injurious insects to gather on 
their premises, that spraying is necessary. If this 
notice is refused or neglected, it becomes the duty of 
the commissioners to enter the premises and do the 
spraying themselves, charging the cost of the same 
to the township ! Any owner, township officer or 
commissioner, who refuses to comply with the require¬ 
ments of this law, may be punished by a fine not ex¬ 
ceeding $50, or imprisonment in the county jail for 60 
days, or both. This act does not apply to the peach 
disease known as “ yellows,” for which separate pro¬ 
visions have been made. The theory of that law is 
all right, but can it ever be enforced ? 
G 
BREVITIES. 
Thanksgiving time ! The slow year once again 
Has dragged its seasons past. Now in review 
Come all the past year’s happiness and pain. 
The worn old heartache—the ambition new. 
Thanksgiving time ! Ah ! sadly to some homes 
The sweet old festival will come this year, 
Yet like a blessing fair and sweet it comes 
With balm of memory to dry each tear. 
Oh, weary ones in lonely homes to-day, 
Sad and unhappy—lift your eyes once more. 
Let memory’s hand the sweet old music play 
Of love and friends—lost in the days of yore. 
Hope and ambition change to memory 
In the sure alchemy of stern-faced time. 
Turn to your happier past to-day and see 
All your lost love come with its face sublime. 
Whose ax are you grinding ? 
A bray is no evidence of brain. 
Mighty few people coo at a bill. 
Slaked lime is slack in its action. 
Keep an eye, sir, on the temporizer. 
Raise sweet peas—and sweet peace ! 
The plant food in muck needs cooking. 
To defeat the purpose of the feet—grow a corn. 
Try a few strawberry plants in pots this winter. 
The baby of the household is a true “Captain Kid.” 
Last chance to dehead the scrubs before winter sets in. 
Don’t be too late in adding to that early apple discussion. 
A broom gives the wife a combination of sweep and tread 
power. 
Look out for that Presbyterian minister’s washing machine 
next week. 
Cows that must play bawl for their supper will “ strike out ” 
with their feet. 
Cheerful companions for your shut-in hours will be the smiling 
faces of your flowers. 
If you want <T 0 «s-bred chickens, use a fighting Game at the 
head of your flock. 
If you can afford to own two pairs of shoes at once—change 
them often—alternate every few days. 
We believe it to be a mistake ever to eat the ordinary “dried 
beef” sold in the average grocery without first cooking it. 
From San Francisco to Boston, city authorities are raiding the 
dealers who sell watered milk. There’s money in selling water at 
six cents a quart ! 
Hold the farmers’ institutes in small places. Don’t talk farm¬ 
ing to a crowd of town folks, and then measure your success by 
the size of the audience. 
