272 
MOORE’S RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
“PPOCRE88 AND IMPROVEMENT.” and ho ha* work enough offered hi rn to keep a 
ainnnrr* mini i half-dozen men at work, tic 1 b not likely to re- 
MUUnE 0 n U n A L NEW-YORKER duc0 price* because butter, pork, flour and v«g- 
iiuiiml iu.it lUimui. etnbles are cheaper than when ho fixed his 
A NATION Ah ILLUSTRATED 
CUEAL, LITKIIAEV AMI KAMILV JEWSPAPKE. 
D. D. T. MOORE, 
OonductiHK Kditor and Publinher. 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, ANDREW 8. FULLER, 
A wMonini M Kditom. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., Cortland Village, N. Y„ 
EDITOII III THI Dm-IBTHIKT Or )l u«it, * r.mr. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., Little Fall*, N. Y., 
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Ceuta should be added to nhove rates for eaoli yearly 
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prices. But let a half dozen men come In to the 
| town to compete with him for hi* custom, and 
ho will then consider the cost of food, rent, 
&c., In fixing his prices. 
There Is a great deal of vicious talk resulting 
from the efforts of demagogues and partisans 
to arouse the prejudices and passions of farm¬ 
ers and gain their confidence, influence and 
suffrages or their money. Tho logical sequence 
of It. nil will be that the farmers will I >o worse 
swindled by the seventh bad spirit than they 
were by the first. If they do not keep their heads 
clear and cool and t heir eyes open. 
-♦♦♦- 
“ARE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS FAIL¬ 
URES I ” 
I®## 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1873. 
LESS HOURS' LABOR ON THE FARM. 
It is urged that farmers should work less, 
produce less and get more for what they pro¬ 
duce; that wbcnartlzans strike and get what 
they ask for -either more wages or less hours 
as a day's work lhoy enhance the cost or every¬ 
thing they manufacture to the consumer, and 
t his finally comes out or the pockets of the pro¬ 
ducer of raw products. Bence, when the me¬ 
chanic strikes for more wages or for fewer 
hours' work, tho farmer should diminish his 
effort and produce loss, In order to equalize 
values and distribute burdens equally. 
Would It not he wise for these sapient “re¬ 
formers' who urge tills policy,to recommend 
i h<;t all work cca -o on the farms during the pro¬ 
ducing months of next year! Wo think such a 
course would bring consumers of food to their 
senses: These political economists evidently 
ilo trn bellevi that the enhanced cost of living 
that would result to mechanics rrom sueh ces¬ 
sation of production, would add a stiver to 
the exactions of those who employ them. 
They seem to forgot that tho wages asked by 
striking mechanics are not hiaed alone upon 
the cost of food. Those who live in large towns 
and cities hnvo exorbitant, rents to pay. Those 
who exact those rents for t enements may mean 
to be oppressive In their exactions -often are. 
But there is some reason for high rents. Taxes 
on city property arc terribly burdensome. The 
cost of constructing, keeping in repair and 
meeting the demands of the tax-gatherers, Is 
enormous. Tho Bill Twksdb of our munici¬ 
palities, the swindling political system which 
is perpetuated by farmers who vote blindly— 
who vote lor men whose sole object Is to live 
in power and keep in power by tho acquirement 
and expenditure of money taken from the tax¬ 
payers' pocket*, are the cause of two-thirds of 
the trouble. 
No 1 We do not want any oue to suppose that 
we so regard them because of the criticisms wo 
have made upon them. They arc, tho host of 
them, far from perfect—far from realizing what 
ft was hoped they would be to the sons of farm¬ 
ers am] mechanics. But it should be remem¬ 
bered that the material with which to create 
such schools was, at first, “ In the rough." The 
pupils had not a clear Idea of what an agricul¬ 
tural and mechanical education should ho; 
and the available teachers were equally Igno- 
rant. Even if the teacher's conception was cor¬ 
rect, his own education aud acquirements did 
not. fit him for the work. He had still to con¬ 
form, in large measure, to the routine and 
studies which had been his In his school days. 
Special study with reference to an especial pro¬ 
fession, and that a practical one, he had never 
pursued. What was needed he scarcely had a 
conception of. He was still running In the old 
scholastic grooves, and education meant to 
him nothing but book-knowledge. 
No! We do not believe that agricultural 
schools have been a failure. The people, the 
pupil# and the teachers have, by experience, by 
discussion, by criticism, learned more clearly 
the character of the want to bo supplied. The 
Strictures that have been made upon the 
conduct of these collegos have served to point 
out what had never before been defined. It 
has resulted in arriving at. a more nearly true 
conception of what these schools should be¬ 
come. It lias created a well-defined demand 
for which there will surely be provldod a sup¬ 
ply. It has stimulated and encouraged the 
organization of schools of Technology, or tho 
creation of Technological Departments in 
schools previously established. It has directed 
the public mind to the Tact that education does 
not consist In merely tho study of arithmetic, 
grammar, geography, the higher mathoniaUcs 
and the classics that It consists in the fitting 
of men and women to enter upon the practical 
work of Iif m. If those colleges, their creation 
and conduct, and Hie discussion concerning 
them which has been evoked, had resulted in 
nothing more, they would have not been fail¬ 
ures. But la so far as they have failc-d. they 
have done good. It is well that we have men 
and women of Intelligence enough to perceive 
that they have failed. Such perception alone 
Involves a conception of what may he accom¬ 
plished by them. This conception In a modi¬ 
fied form, perhaps, will surely be realized. Such 
of these schools as are established should bo 
Improved—not by further subsidies from (Joy- 
criunent, but by doing hard work and by being 
made self-supporting. For what Is not .self- 
supporting in the shape of a school, is of doubt¬ 
ful utility ; at least, it le not likely to be appre¬ 
ciated as all such institutions ought to bo il 
they reach tho maximum of thoir efficiency. 
large fnrcn on which he can realize on the rise 
of property. The latter needs a place where ho 
can he surrounded wit h the comfort* of life and 
enn have a ready market for the things he 
raises Jhls hitter class, and many others, 
would do well to look about them. and pnfuubJy 
l ravel East, some distance, before they make up 
their minds that t.helr condition can be im¬ 
proved only hy going in one direction. Doubt¬ 
lessly many a farmer will leave Illinois before 
next spring for the West when he might have 
done better to have bough* out some farmer 
1 “ i4s ? •'! him who had the W«<niern fever. 
Estimating the cod. of the buildings, fences, 
walls and orchards at their lowest cash value, 
and deducting It from the price demandod for 
farms in many localities In the well improved 
portions of the West, and it will I* seen that 
the soil Is held at figures hardly above the un- 
lenecd prairies lying toward the land of sunset, 
if we now subtract, the value of public Improvo- 
ments that are proportion!)* a to the six'- of the 
farm in question, we shall in many cases find 
that wc are getting land at about what, railroads 
are salting for It five hundred miles to the 
cst. As to schools, churches arid other things 
that minister to the needs of civilization, their 
value is estimated not In greenbacks or even in 
Af'mJv uod thorofor* faft out of theoornpar/i- 
tlN is t-M i mate of value. Nor can take into 
the account the worth of friends aorl acquaint¬ 
ances who are within visiting reach. 
But there are ot her things In favor of going 
East, instead of West, if there Is reason for 
changing ones location. The further we go 
towards the seaboard cities the higher are 
prh ex for everything the farmer produces, 
while the further wc gn W est, till we approach 
tho. mining region, the lower is the price of 
nearly every article. Particularly is this tho 
i th butter. poultry arid jmrdou \otz- 
etabies; the things, after all. in which there is 
the most profit, considering the cost of their 
production. Then again, it must he kept in 
mind that the further West we go the higher 
becomes the price of nearly everything a farmer 
ha# occasion to buy, whether It is any kind of 
family 18 ,1,aterial or 14,1 idea for l he use of the 
--. 
RURAL NOTES AND QUERIES. 
The American I nsi (lute Fair is still in pro¬ 
gress. Since our first visit the additions to tho 
exhibition have been largo and interesting. A 
visitor can spend two or three hours at it profit¬ 
ably, Beside steam and gas engines of every 
style, steam pumps, lathes, sawa.&o,, there Is u 
power loom with a positive motion, that weaves 
•ivory description of dot h—even corsets proper¬ 
ly gored—and la in itself worthy of study. 
Another thing wo saw there w hich ought to he 
bettor know n than It is —a material tor covering 
tho band wheels of machinery hy which the 
working power of an engine or horse-power is 
increased at least !$3 per cent, by increasing the 
friction of the bolt on tho baud wheels. Then 
t.helr are shoemaker* at work making ladies 
shoes stitching, lining. Mewing on buttons, 
soloing and finishing - the whole process be¬ 
ing conducted before tho eyes of tho visitors. 
Tailors are at work. Ivory turning is being 
done. Blass blowing goe ; on. Ruffs for ladles 
are made and sold. Feinting presses m*e throw¬ 
ing off shoots. Washing machines arc in oper¬ 
ation. Tho tinkle of pianos greets the ear. A 
thousand things meet tho eyes of visitors that 
educate and benefit. 
yet feared nor hesitated, from motives of poli¬ 
cy, to denounce or praise any man or men, any 
measure or policy, when we believed the inter¬ 
ests of the people demanded either; nor shall 
we. If that is “ sitting nn the fence," so bo it; 
there is where we intend to stay. 
-*♦«- 
ralrons of Husbandry in New York Nlntc_ 
There aro counties in Northern New York in 
which Granges are being rapidly organized. 
Our gentleman with whom we talked the other 
day, said, “There is no use of talking. It may 
bo asserted that this is not n political move¬ 
ment., but the men in this neighborhood who 
are going into it. ami are moat active in It would 
not do so if there was not. some hope of acquir¬ 
ing and using political influence thereby. They 
arc sure to do this and to co-operate with one 
or the other of the political parties, inside the 
order; of course, this la legitimate; hut these 
men have wielded political power too long 
outside the order to be willing to abandon its 
exercise now. Hence they are enthusiastic 
Matrons, and will be heard from." This active 
organization of Granges, judging by what wo 
have learned, In this State, is largely duo to tho 
fact that the election is at hand; and this or¬ 
ganization is in very many easesBtlnmlatcdand 
brougiit about by some local politician. 
SHALL I GO WEST 1 ” 
Mechanics' wages aro high, and they can 
specify the number of hours they will work as 
a day's work, because they are too few in num¬ 
bers lu this country, and t he demand Tor their 
labor is disproportionately great. Their wages 
aro nominally high ; but often really no higher 
than those of the farm laborer who gets rent 
and food cheap. When labor is plenty in any 
avocation, it will ho cheap. When more oorn 
is produced than can be consumed, it will be 
cheap; when less, it will appreciate in price. 
Tho law which governs production and sale of 
food Is precisely like that which governs the 
production and sale of cotton cloths or any 
other manufactured material. No matter what 
it may have cost to make a yard of doth, if 
there are five times as many yards on tho 
market as can be consumed, tho cloth will bo 
sold cheap—will be bought by the consumer at 
less than cost to the manufacturer. That the 
high price of mechanical and manufacturing 
labor makes corn cheap is nonsonse. That 
cheap com or other produce will riot cheapen 
manufactured articles may or may not bo true 
—depoudlDg entirely upon the manner in which 
the market for manufactured articles is stock¬ 
ed. If theru is but one blacksmith In a town, 
This question still comes to us from young 
and old men, indicating a degree of restlessness 
that Is fatal to success In any locality. One of 
the best things for a man to do when he settles 
on a farm is to determine that it is to be his 
permanent home, and work accordingly. Tho 
determination to abide in one place results in 
an accumulation of influence and ability to 
succeed that the mere temporary sojourner 
cannot acquire. “Khali f go West?" asks a 
young man who bus nothing but his hands to 
work his way with. No ! stay here 1 Rent some 
of these neglected and almost deserted farms 
for a term of years and make money enough off 
of it to buy it. Keep as near tho largo consum¬ 
ing markets as you can—even though you do 
have to pay double for your Jund. Labor will 
be more plenty and cheaper and manures more 
easily obtained. 
“Khali I go West? "asks u man past middle 
^ge who lias “a hard, though good and well- 
conditioned farm,” that yields him a fair In- 
oomo with hard work- No 1 If you value life¬ 
long friends and associations and the comforts 
you have accumulated about you, stay wkero 
you arc. Better go East Instead of West.; and 
this remark reminds us of an editorial wo saw 
in the Prairie Farmer not long since, discussing 
tho question “ Is it best to go West ? ” It struck 
u» as frank, sensible kind of talk from a West¬ 
ern journal and wo cut it out. Hero arc threo 
paragraphs from it : 
That a young farmer with the hope of many 
years before him, aud the means to buy a sec¬ 
tion of land the other side of the Missouri, ha# 
Scotch Prevarication.—We have a Scotch cx- 
ohange which steals and steals from American 
papers—just as it lias a right to do if it wants 
to, since there Is no international copy-right 
law. It has got. us Into a bad fix several times; 
for we have copied from aud credited to It 
engravings that It stole from American papers 
and which wo had either forgotten about, or 
overlooked. Our friend Tiujrbbr of the Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist has more than on 00 sent us 
notes upbraiding us as receivers of stolen goods. 
Well! jvo did it “on the square” and credited 
the thief. Now this Scotch paper has a writer 
who calls himself an “Old Farmer" and writes 
“The Old Farmer's Note-Book," who is an old 
fraud. He will never go to any Scotch heaven 
wo ever heard of because he has a bad habit of 
approaching so near deliberate lying that no 
man can tell the difference. For instance he 
quotes, verbatim a paragraph from this Journal 
(and probably had just cut it out fresh) ami 
fu»y» “ Here is a capital notion from some Yan¬ 
kee Journal, whose mime I cannot remember, 
&c." The old prevaricator 1 He is not an 
" old farmer!” Ho would deliberately lie about 
ono thing as soon as another, and is probably 
one of i he editors of the paper who hasn't de¬ 
pravity enough to “lie square” and libels the 
character oj an “ Old Funner" by assuming it 
to) cover up his own iniquities. How was that 
Scotchman “brought ip,”any how? 
The Hcpnrl of Ihc Commissioner of Agricul. 
lure for 1872 hits been received. Tho Report is 
a volume of 534 pages and embraces a largo 
amount of valuable information. It includes 
the reports of the Heads of the different Divis¬ 
ions of the Department the Statistician, the 
Entomologist and Curator of I lie Museum, tho 
Chemist, tho Botanist, and sundry papers, di¬ 
gests of State Reports, recent Agricultural facts 
and details of Farm Experiments. So far as 
the Reports of the Botanist, Entomologist and 
Chemist, arc concerned there is a decided im¬ 
provement over previous report#. We must 
especially commend the increased zeal of En¬ 
tomologist Glover, because we have hereto¬ 
fore criticised his work without regard to his 
feelings. Wc are glad to commend when we 
can do ho honestly. Wc do this in general 
terms, reserving more careful notice of tho de¬ 
tails of tho different reports until such tiino as 
wo cun examine them carefully. 
«♦»-- 
“John, a Halifax Indian, * portrayed on 
next page, was sketched by Robkht Fulton in 
1H06. A correspondent at “Oak Burn,” noar 
Hudson, N. Y., sends uh the drawing, with the 
following explanation: 
“ 1 *ond you a picture of an Indtan, copied 
from Roman- Fulton’s Sketch Book, by his 
grandson, B. F. L. The original was taken by 
Mr. Fulton during an excursion tollalifax in 
lhllfl. Ah this was about tho period that Ful¬ 
ton's great invention became available on tho 
Hudson, this Indian picture may be of interest 
to some readers of tho Rural New- Yorker.” 
-»♦« 
Implements in the Field—It ought to be a 
law on every farm that every farm implement 
should bo under cover when not being used. 
Wo do not suppose that fanners who have tho 
Intelligence and enterprise to take and read 
agricultural paper* require to be prompted to 
save money by taking ©arc of t.helr Implements ; 
but there ought to be a public opinion iu each 
neighborhood that will make II »<i unpleasant 
for (i man to be improvident and shiftless that 
no such farmer can bo found. But there aro 
some such farmers left. 
“Farming Don’t Fay.”—So says Rev. Mr. 
Murkay. It Is nonsense. Farming docs pay 
to every man who known how to make anything 
pay. A man who can’t make farming pay, after 
having been educated to be a farmer, never 
will make any legitimate business pay—unless 
he haa greatly mistaken his vocation. We ven¬ 
ture t he assertion that there are fewer failures, 
in proportion to numbers, among farmers than 
among any other class of business men. There 
is more Independence, comfort and com¬ 
petence. 
- - ■— 
RURAL BREVITIES. 
“Sitting on the Fence.”—There are some 
good people who charge us with “ sitting on 
the fence” in reference to the “ Farmers' Move¬ 
ment.'’ There are a good many other people 
who cannot understand how a man may bo a 
Republican or a Democrat and find fault with 
or criticise the action of the party with which 
ho acts. If bo does criticise it he Is, per force , 
an enemy of the party—a renegade. There are 
a few people in tho world who think if a man 
criticises the acts or life of a farmer he is the 
farmer’s enemy. It has never occurred to us 
that wc were “sitting on the fence” until some 
enthusiastic fellow out West suggested it. For 
tho gratification of all such persons wo want to 
say, that whether on or off tho fence, whether 
on one side or tho other of It, wo shall always 
speak Hie truth plainly, giving credit where 
credit is due and blame wherever It is dcsorv- 
-- - avwvua ,, ■ l <•-, - - V TV LX ViUlDl III l.^ U VO>'l V « 
<?. *«* .... in*™.* 
certain, liuf. it t ho lunnur ir* soiuowh&t »kJ~ industii&l men* no uuittcr wijftt thoir occu- 
vanoed in Ufa und haa bur u bhort purse, the I P&tion. We do not propose to “go it blind” in 
case may be different. The former wants a 1 behalf of any class or interest. We have never 
Mrs. Ellen 8. Tupper has purchased the 
National Bee Journal. 
There is a man in Illinois who claims to be 
able to make barren cows fertile by a surgical 
operation. 
It Is announced by a Sacramento, Cal., paper 
that the Canada Thistle has made its appear¬ 
ance in that vicinity. 
1). W. C-, Union City, Mich., writes that the 
statement made In a news item that Dallas Co., 
Texas, produced 175,000 bushels or wheat last 
your is irioorroot; he does not believe that 
county ever produced 5,000 bushels of wheat in 
any one year. 
BUSINESS NOTICES, 
Happy now ure the children whoso thought¬ 
ful parent* have bouehtfor Uio:n " Avlludc,or Gamo 
of Birds,” They gather around tho table with bright 
eyes und smiling facet) utt it’o announced “ we are to 
have u gamo of Avlludc." A Whole winter of enjoy¬ 
ment combined with instruction for sewntu-flvecents. 
Sent post-paid, on receipt of price, by West & Lee 
W orcester, Mass. 
Consumer!* of silk find upon Investigation that 
the Eureka 50 and 100-yds. spools are tho beat and 
most economical to use. 
