86o 
December 28 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1895. 
Elbebt S. Cabman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Hebbebt W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
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of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
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count line. Absolutely One Pbice Only 
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 p&y- 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets. New York. 
SATURDAY , DECEMBER 28, 1895. 
THANK YOU! 
Our readers are responding- nobly to that invitation 
to send just one new subscription in renewing for 
next year. Single subscriptions are quite the excep¬ 
tion this year. The majority send not only their own 
name, but that of some friend or neighbor. Thank 
you ! It is just this kindly spirit that makes Tiie 
It. N.-Y. strong and able to accomplish some good in 
the world. Let this good work be kept up ! 
© 
We would like to hear from any of our readers who 
have fed dried brewers’ grains to poultry. How do 
they compare with other grain as to price, feeding 
value or effect ? Under what circumstance would you 
buy them for poultry ? 
Q 
If any of our readers have given the dry Bordeaux 
Mixture a fair trial, we shall be pleased to have them 
tell us about it. If this fungicide can be made effec¬ 
tive in the form of a dry powder, with none of the 
trouble of dissolving in water and the force required 
to spray it, we shall have taken another progressive 
step in the science of combating plant diseases. 
0 
The North Carolina Experiment Station warns the 
public against a somewhat new fraud—a seed ped¬ 
dler, who is trying to sell a wonderful new plant, of 
which he says: 
It resembles all other varieties of clover, peas, beans, etc., 
grows two to four feet high on ordinary laud and is adapted to 
thin or sandy soil. It is far superior to manure to plow under. 
The plant is Alsike clover not at all suited to North 
Carolina or the South. 
© 
During the past year, we have had quite a little 
discussion concerning the life habits of the White 
(jirub—the insect that does such damage to strawberry 
plants. Are these grubs found in the manure piles ? 
Many farmers who claim that they are, have proved 
the fact to their own satisfaction, at least, by sending 
insects taken from the manure pile. Prof. Slinger- 
land has been examining some of these insects, and 
will tell us what they are next week, 
© 
“Good Roads Made by Bad Men!” There is a 
slogan the farmers of this country may well take up 
for a party cry. Why keep up expensive jails for con¬ 
victs ? Their health, their morals and their future 
behavior will be better for a season of exercise at 
road-making. Their labor applied to road improve¬ 
ment will interfere least with the work of men who 
have families to .support. There is no reason why a 
man need be abused, starved or beaten because he is a 
convict. Give them fair treatment, but take them out 
of the jails and let their evil bring forth good on the 
highways. 
© 
Last February, a correspondent figured out the 
cost of a building and yards suitable for housing 
1.000 hens in comfort. lie proposed building one 
house 300 feet long and 24 feet wide, with 50 yards 
connected with it, each 12x150 feet. The cost of 
materials and labor to build this outfit w r as estimated 
at S3,708 15. The hens would be crowded into a small 
space with every convenience for quick and handy 
work in caring for them. This design was for high- 
priced land where the poultryman could buy all the 
food. Now, Mr. Mapes’s plan is the reverse of this. 
His hens are on land that would otherwise be idle. 
Ilis little houses cost him complete about $40 each. 
He can, therefore, house 1,000 hens for $1,000, for his 
feeding device enables him to dispense with all the 
cost of yards which, in the other case, amounts to 
nearly $800. With their present arrangements, Mr. 
Mapes and his son can easily care for 50 houses, or 
2,000 hens. In case of disease or fire, it is evidently 
better to have the birds in 25 houses instead of in 
one. It would be interesting to know which of these 
systems will produce the cheapest eggs—all things 
considered. Certainly, Mr. Mapes has shown what a 
hen man can do on cheap land. 
w 
One of the most successful poultry men we know 
of recently advised a friend to throw away all the 
feeding tables and theories of scientific men and feed 
what the hens called for and what made them lay. He 
believes in proved science, but would warn farmers 
against trusting too much to theories. It is true that 
trying to seek out a scientific ration for a hen is like 
walking in the dark. We cannot apply all the rules 
that have been so carefully investigated with four- 
footed animals because the hen’s habits of life, her 
covering and her digestive apparatus are all different. 
We hope to bear all these things in mind in preparing 
the article on “Feeding the Hen,” which will begin 
next week. 
© 
“ You may say what you like about your chemical 
fertilizers, whenever I use stable manure or wood 
ashes, I always get better results than I do with the 
chemicals alone !” That is a statement often made 
by good farmers who are unable to explain it. The 
result of those experiments with lime in Rhode Island 
gives a good explanation. The soil is acid. The 
manure is alkaline and the ashes contain lime. This 
“sweetens” the soil and enables the plants to thrive. 
The fertilizers are acid and cannot be used to advant¬ 
age until the sourness is neutralized. We believe 
that this will explain many apparent failures with 
fertilizers on well drained soil that no one suspected 
of sourness. 
0 
There’s another new idea about the cost of pota¬ 
toes on page 858. This one comes from a point pretty 
close to old l*lymouth Rock. Think of it, ye Western 
men, of spending $138 in labor and money on one acre 
of potatoes ! That’s an awful risk for a man to take 
with drought, blight, scab and other enemies threaten¬ 
ing to ruin his crop. Another idea is that of letting 
the Timothy hay reduce the cost of the potatoes. 
Suppose wheat or rye, seeded to clover, had been used 
instead of Timothy and the clover plowed under for 
the potatoes instead of manure, would not that be 
cheaper in the end, than cutting the Timothy three 
years and then using $00 worth of manure ? Cannot 
that immense cost of planting, cultivating, digging 
and sorting be cut down by modifying some of the 
methods detailed by Mr. Currier last week ? It seems 
to us that the cash cost of this acre is beyond all 
reason ! 
© 
In a recent bulletin from the Cornell Experiment 
Station (No. 1C2), Prof. L. H. Bailey says that many 
trees fail to bear because they are propagated from 
unproductive trees. There are no two trees alike in 
habit of growth or vigor, or in the amount of their 
crop. They differ as do cows or sheep of the same 
breed under like conditions. You cannot make every 
hen lay 150 eggs per year, and you cannot make every 
tree bear a heavy crop of fruit. You would not use 
eggs from a robber hen for raising next year’s layers 
(maybe you do, though you ought not to). You would 
not buy a bull to head your dairy herd if you knew 
that all his previous daughters were “beefers.” Why 
then use scions in grafting from trees that you know 
are failures? Prof. Bailey’s method is to use the best 
grown nursery stock of apples (mostly Spy), and top- 
graft with scions from trees that have proved to be 
good bearers. Who will argue against that practice ? 
© 
The R. N.-Y. tries to keep its advertising columns 
clean. We assume that an intelligent man knows 
what an advertisement is. The advertiser pays for 
space in wnich to announce what he has to sell. It is 
not so much what is said as the man who does the 
talking that the buyer has to do with. We try to do 
business with reliable and honest men who are jealous 
of their reputation and would not willingly deceive 
buyers. We do not see them all—most of the business 
with them being done by mail. Now and then an 
advertiser not of this character gets in and deals with 
our readers to their disadvantage. This appears to 
be the case with Wynkoop Bros., of Milford, Del. 
These parties sell Crimson clover seed. A number of 
complaints from those who have bought seed from 
them have reached us. They have apparently held 
money belonging to our readers for a long time with¬ 
out satisfactory reasons ; there has been no end of 
trouble over their shipping arrangements and in a 
number of cases that we know of, they have sent out 
seed mixed with wild mustard and half a dozen other 
vile weed seeds. Some of this seed was simply awful 
in its foulness. We therefore warn our readers not 
to buy seed of Wynkoop Bros., if they expect prompt 
attention and clean seed. We are unable to obtain 
any satisfactory explanation from them and hence 
put them on the black list. 
© 
The last issue of The R. N.-Y. for the year wouldn't 
be complete without a reference to the much-discussed 
fraudulent commission merchant. He still lives and 
is still doing business—although not always at the 
old stand ; for his somewhat peculiar methods neces¬ 
sitate a frequent change of base. In the first issue of 
the year, we paid our respects to A. J. Clark, who 
we were satisfied from our investigations, was none 
other than a figurehead for that arch fraud, Stephen 
II. Hayt, and warned our readers against him. Re¬ 
cently we received inquiries about him—at a different 
location, however, from his former one. Some one 
had shipped him goods for sale, and was unable to 
hear further from him. Investigation revealed the 
fact that he had left the place from which he adver¬ 
tised, several weeks before, and no one knew any¬ 
thing about him. He is probably doing business in 
the same way somewhere else—perhaps, under an¬ 
other name—and then there will be a new crop of 
complaints. And there are many more like him. 
There are also many reliable firms ready to receive 
goods. They don’t make such big promises, but they 
will do the best they can with what they receive. 
Why patronize these frauds ? They will soon die out 
if the shippers will let them alone. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
There was a man in our town and he had wondrous whys. 
He went unto an Institute—his talk was just this size: 
“Say, mister, what is nitrogen and legumes—what are they ? 
And carbohydrate, oxygen and carbonate, I pray; 
And what is an albuminoid, and what is chlorophyl ? 
And what are these bacteria you tell us how to kill ? 
Somehow it’s worse than Greek to me, this learned stuff you said, 
While these big, undiscovered words are buzzing at my head.” 
The people laughed, the chairman rose and pounded with his cane. 
The wise professors wag their heads and look a look of pain. 
They sat on our inquiring friend and ridiculed his whys; 
Aud yet he had the right of it ! The questions they despise 
Were just the things he had to know ’ere he could understand 
The matters they were driving at in speeches wisely planned, 
ixud lots of those who laughed at him and ridiculed that day, 
Knew less than he, but were afraid to “ give themselves away.” 
And so they wisely wagged their heads at each big-sounding word, 
Altlio’ they scarcely understood a fraction that they heard. 
Chop up your scientific terms and deem it no disgrace 
To make your science soluble at every talking place. 
Noxious air knocks us out. 
Don’t show weekness on Sunday. 
Evkh know right to wrong any one ? 
A man may be all write, and yet all wrong. 
Top-gbafting is “getting it through his head.” 
Tue old farm horse is not a scrub—he is a pensioner. 
Don’t attempt the “sugar cure” for a child’s crying habit. 
A young boy aud an old horse make a good team—page 854. 
Too big a bulk of useless work will make the smartest sulk. 
Many a home is in distress because it hasn’t a good mistress. 
The rich man ought to have more fun in giving a turkey than 
the poor man has in eating it. 
The Hackney horse will not have the “knee-action” unless he s 
propagated from proper-gaited parents. 
Mb. Mapes has a hen that always lays a small egg with no 
white in it. It is apparently pux-e yolk. What causes that ? 
We don’t believe that any healthy and self-respecting hen will 
ever call for artificial heat in a well-built and well-drained hen¬ 
house. 
Some weeks ago, we had a note about wild mustard seed. We 
find that it sells in Chicago, all the way from 30 to 00 cents per 100 
pounds. 
Pkof. Edwabd B. Voobhees, of New Jersey, has been appointed 
director of the Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station. This is an ex¬ 
cellent selection. 
May Santa Claus at every henhouse slop, and on to Mrs. Hen this 
present drop—the power to rally early from her moult and sing 
her lays as lively as a colt. 
“ Maintain the Monroe Doctrine !” Uncle Sam has waited so 
long before sounding that slogan that it is now a very slow gun 
with which to maintain his dignity. 
Salmon caught frozen in British Columbia, were sent via Aus¬ 
tralia 22,000 miles to England. Months after being caught, they 
were sold in line condition in the London market! What next ! 
Miss Cloveb and Mr. Cow Pea will drag nitrogen out of the air 
and give it to you. The fertilizer dealer bags it and makes you 
pay 16 cents a pound for it. The difference in price between 
dragged and bagged nitrogen may represent the difference be¬ 
tween profit and loss. 
We shall soon print a singular agricultural contrast in the 
shape of two statements. One is from a New York State farmer 
who makes a good living on two acres—the other from an Iowa 
farmer who uses railroad iron for a harrow, and sells 32-cent 
wheat and 14-cent corn. It will be an interesting study of the 
wide variation in American farm life. 
Why is one engine better than another ? It develops more 
power from a pound of coal. Why is A a better workman than B? 
A develops more energy from a pound of food. Up in the lumber 
camps, they used to tell us that “ a poor chopper takes just as 
much room at the table as a good one.” It’s the same with horses, 
cows, pigs and hens. Why feed poor ones ? 
