Jam Copies, 
ADDRESS OF THE FARMERS’ ALLIANCE. 
To the Farmers of New York : 
The Farmers’ Alliance of this State was organ¬ 
ized in Rochester, Maroh 21st, 1877, to unite 
farmers for the protection of their interests, and 
to remedy evils ot which we justly complain. 
First of these is the unequal assessment of taxa¬ 
tion, whereby most personal property escapes 
taxes, and the burden of supporting the State 
and local governments is borne mainly by real 
estate. This inequality yearly grows greater. In 
1871, the real estate of New York was assessed at 
$1,599,930,666, and its personal property.at 1122,- 
607,732. As the personal property of the State 
equals, if it doeB not exceed the value of t he real 
estate, these figures show that six years ago, near¬ 
ly or quite three-fourths of the personal prop¬ 
erty of the State was untaxed. In 1877, despite 
the heavy depreciation of real estate, it had 
swollen on the assessment rolls to •'52.370,252,758, 
while the assessed value of personal property 
had declined to $379,483,148. Taking the same 
rule as before, that personal property equals or 
exceeds the value of real ostate, it shows that 
six-sevenths of 8uch property is untaxed, Real 
estate is increasing its assessable value more 
than one hundred millions of dollars a year. 
Personal property is decreasing ten millions of 
dollars a year. While the burden on real estate 
is thus increasing, it is notorious that it is the 
least productive kind of property, aud costs least 
for its protection. Personal property, six-Bev- 
entli8 of which is untaxed, costs most for its 
protection and is best able to pay taxes. W o de¬ 
mand lawB which shall reach the untaxed per¬ 
sonal property of the State and which will apply 
the same rule, iu exemption for debtB.to personal 
property and real estate,—either allow real es¬ 
tate owners to deduct their indebtedness, as 
owners of personal property now do, or require 
the latter to pay taxes on all property held by 
them without regard to indebtedness. Under 
the present law, only real estate owners are re¬ 
quired to pay taxes on their debts. Justice de¬ 
mands that the Bame rule be applied to both 
kinds of property. 
A second cause of complaint is the discrimina¬ 
tion against local freights by the through lines 
of railroads. The products of the great West 
are carried through our State for lower rates 
than are charged to our own people. The cor¬ 
porations which do this owe their existence to 
the people of this State. This discrimination 
largely deoreasea the value of farming lands, and 
paralyzes not only agriculture, but every form 
of productive industry in this State. We de¬ 
mand just rates for local freight, and in this 
demand we have the earnest and active support 
of nearly all classes of business men. 
The third grievanoe which our Alliance seeks 
to remove is the monopoly in the Insurance busi¬ 
ness, whereby farmers are compelled to pay ex¬ 
orbitant rates for insuring their property. We 
demand a law for legalizing such insurance com¬ 
panies as the Grangers have organized in some 
counties in this State. With such a law the in¬ 
surance monopoly will be broken, three-fifths of 
the c jst of insurance of farm property will be 
saved, and the security will be at least as good as 
now. 
Farmers of New York, theBO are the measures 
which your Alliance was organized to secure. If 
the evils which we would remedy affected any 
other olass of citizens, a general uprising of that 
class would demand aud secure their removal. 
Unfortunately farmers have been too isolated to 
combine aud protect their interests. With the 
organization of Granges, local Allianoes, Farm¬ 
ers' Clubs, aud other local agricultural societies, 
united effort becomes possible. In the measures 
above outlined we can certainly unite. Their 
adoption will add several hundred millions of 
dollars to the value of farm property in the 
State without doing injustice to any. 
The numbers and natural political influence 
of New York farmers insure success iu any 
measures which we unitedly demand. All that 
farmers need do to secure their rights, is to so 
far forego party prejudices that they will not 
vote for candidates for legislative offices who 
are not identified with our interests, and fully 
pledged to secure the reforms which we ask. If 
this is done now, the next Legislature will con¬ 
tain a majority favorable to the interests of 
farmers. We ask nothing Have what is just and 
commends itself to every sensible mind. If 
farmers will not forego party to protect them¬ 
selves, the dominance of rings adverse to the ag¬ 
ricultural class, will be more decided than ever 
before. 
What we wish is thifl: 
First: That every farmer shall urge the nom¬ 
ination of legislative candidates who are fully 
indentified with the interests of farmers. Fail¬ 
ing this iu their own party, farmers should vote 
for good and true men nominated by the other 
parties. 
Seoond: Wo need some money—not much. 
All that is required is to arouse the attention of 
farmers of this State to the effort now being 
made. When this is done the organization of 
local Alliances to promote these reforms will 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
follow as a matter of course. If tbiB Address 
and the Platform of the State Alliance, can be 
placed in the hands of every farmer of the 
State, all after work will do itself. To distribute 
these documents and furnish money to perfoct 
our work through the State, we rely upon exist¬ 
ing organizations. By a resolution adopted at 
the late meeting of the State Affiance at Syra¬ 
cuse, Sept. 4-5, the Secretary w as instructed to 
issue an Address, and to oall upon every Grange, 
Farmers’Club, local Alliance or other Agricul¬ 
tural Society, for the sum of three dollars 
to be sent to the Treasurer of the Alliance, Mr. 
Jesse Dewey, Churchville, Montoe Co., N. Y. 
This appeal is Issued iu accordance with in¬ 
structions of the State Alliance. Let us add an 
earnest personal request that the email sum 
of money asked for be promptly forthcoming. 
Three dollars is not much to pay for eaoh of the 
six huudred or more agricultural organizations; 
but it will furnish a fund which will insure suc¬ 
cess to the reforms which we propose- Besides, 
we are very sure that wbeu any body of farmers 
take enough interest iu this cause to help it for¬ 
ward three dollars' worth, they will follow up 
their work and do whatever else is needed to 
make it entirely successful. But if they will not 
do so much as to send throe dollars for this re¬ 
form, it will be absurd to expect them to take 
any further interest iu the matter. 
To distribute this address so as to placo a copy 
in the hands of each of the four huudred thou¬ 
sand farmers of New York, is an arduous work. 
Any help thereto will be regarded as a groat 
favor. Agricultural and other journals in sym¬ 
pathy with this movement are requested to pub¬ 
lish this address. Copies will be sent to every 
Grange, Farmers' Club, Farmers’ Alliance, and 
other agricultural organization in the State. As 
many additional copies as are needed will be sent 
on application. Harris Lewis, 
President, Frankfort, N. Y. 
Wa. J. Fowler, 
Secretary, Plttsford, N. Y. 
HINTS BY THE ROADSIDE.—No. 3. 
THE DISTRICT SCHOOL. 
I am afraid the good influence of the school¬ 
master is fast departing frtm Ihe land, so far as 
the rural part of the nation is concerned. Is it 
possible that all the intelligence as well as the 
enterprise of our country is to be driven to the 
villages and the cities ? In a ride of ten miles, 
which I frequently take, I pass by four school- 
houses. One of these is upon the border of a 
village of six or eight hundred inhabitants. The 
house standB about half in the road, dusty, 
with uot a shade tree; while the windows are 
small, and the out-houses only passable. This 
is by far the best of the four. 
Number two is also half in the street, and has 
not a shade tree; its out-buildings are broken, the 
doers are off. and there is no privacy whatever. 
The steps to the house are broken aud uncouth, 
the windows email and roughly boarded, while 
a glance inside shows loss taste than iu the log 
school-house where I learned my A. B. O.'s, forty 
years ago. 
Number three is at the fork of three roads, is 
roughly boarded, with free ingress and egress for 
the winds and elements. Not a shade tree, and 
not an inviting feature. 
Number four has even less to attract the at¬ 
tention or set au example of taste or education 
for either teacher or scholar. 
Are these the places iu which we farmers ex¬ 
pect our children to learn to love rural life ? 
Are these the examples of taste and culture 
which are to elevate the next generation to the 
rank of intelligent beings? Is it not possible 
for the more affluent, well-to-do farming com¬ 
munities to Bet au example of taste and intelli¬ 
gence in the looatiun, construction and surround¬ 
ings of a neat house for schools and occasional 
lectures and meetings ? But as these are only 
u hints” I will not make them into a lecture. 
A TRAMPS' HOME. 
While speaking of educating our children, 
there is another claBS of persons I meet along 
the roadside besides our children ; I mean the 
tramps. These mostly walk at night, aud pos¬ 
sess themselves of whatever they can wherever 
found. These, too, must be sent to eohool and 
educated. Any being, tramp, insane, idiot, or 
criminal, is a child, and must have the educating 
care of the community. They must be taken to 
homes provided for them and educated, restored 
to manhood, and again prepared for caring for 
themselves. Thu farmers cannot do it alone, 
but they can ask tho people of the State to es¬ 
tablish a farm and workshops, where every man 
acknowledging himself unable to take care of 
himself, shall be set to work, fed, clothed and 
educated. 
HOME MANUFACTURES. 
In this era of machinery aud inflation, I fear 
that our fan ners are losing very mauy of the little 
souroes of industry aud employment which right¬ 
fully belong to farm lire. My neighbor Underhill 
haB five boys, and I see that each of them has 
two nice straw hats, one with a wide brim for 
the farm, and one with a narrower brim, aud 
more nicely made, for Sundays. These hats 
they braided and sewed themselves from oat 
^ and rye Btraw. These straws are the first joint 
from the head downwards, cut and stripped of 
the outer husk, wetted and braided, some in five, 
some in six and others in 6even strands together, 
in a great variety of ornamental styles. These 
hats are just as good as those costing $1 each 
at the village, while the making of them teaches 
the boys mechanical ingenuity. 
Ab butter-making has been very unsatisfac¬ 
tory this season, some of my neighbors have 
thought of making a few cheeses, as a variety 
in diet, but wherever the effort has been made 
W e have sadly found that wo must learn over 
again tho uack of doing this business in a suc¬ 
cessful way. Onr home industries, alas! are 
among the lost arts, I fear. 
FARM PROFITS. 
I hear many of my neighbors expressing 
doubts about tho profitableness of farm life, 
and wouderius if it would not be better to go to 
the government lands and begin anew. If the 
boys want to begin there, it may auswer; but 
for ns farmers over fifty years of age, who have 
a homestead and a family, associations and so¬ 
ciety, wo had best stay where we are, husband 
our strength, look carefully to tho ins and outs, 
aud bear the little ills we have rather than fly to 
those we kuow not of. 
The profits of farming are fully equal to the 
profits of any hone it legitimate business at the 
present time, while the care is much less, and 
there is little danger that, what we have will 
take wings and fly away. If there is hut little 
to sell, we must have but little to buy. A care¬ 
fully cared lor vegetable garden, early planted 
and well tended, and a well kept poultry yard, 
with milk, butter and corn, rye and wheat bread, 
will prevent having to purchase much. 
And this reminds me that my neighbor Smith 
has never purchased a barrel of flour iu all his 
farming life of thirty years. His father raised 
good crops of wheat, and he raises all his fam¬ 
ily need and some to sell. Ho takes care to buy 
up all the ashes, and to oompost all the straw ho 
can, aud to return to the soil as much as he 
takes away from it. Our boys would have less 
“heart-burn” and better digestions if they ate 
more corn bread with their pork, more beans 
and less of some other things. The celebrated 
« Hog and hominy ” diet, so often referred to iu 
the Gulf States, has much more of health than 
is usually attributed to it, from the fact that one 
so perfectly supplements the other in in¬ 
gredients. Hough Handel. 
Jam (£101101113). 
RAISING NEW PRODUCTS. 
There are many things which are profitable 
for the farmer to raise which are not now gener¬ 
ally produced in his locality, and Borne not in the 
United States; and if farmers more readily 
changed to new products, or sought out the 
special needs of their localities, more profit 
would result. The first purpose should be to 
raise everything wanted on the farm which it iB 
practicable so to do, so as to prevent , if possible, 
the necessity for purchasing anything. The 
next effort should be to raise somothiug which 
will bo tho most readily marketable at the near¬ 
est point. U near any considerable town, fiuits 
aud market gardening may ho desirable, and so 
are fine butter, fresh eggs, early fat lambs, fat 
poultry, fat calves; but never produce any 
second-quality stuff. Let your products be the 
best or have none. 
If farther removed from large towns, the more 
staple articles of grain, oattlo and vegetables, 
may bo the most profitable. Sheep-raising is an 
employment sadly neglected in the rougher, 
hillier* regions, where they should be oftenost 
found, aud where they arc most easily raised. 
Raising beets for sugar, is one of the most neces¬ 
sary industries which should bo established iu 
tho United States, and it is to be hoped that 
small factories for making beet-root sugar may 
bo established in many localities at an early day. 
Barley is always iu demand in the United States 
beyond tlio home production. Flax fiber carefully 
prepared, is one of ihe best paying crops. Oils 
of mint, camomile, poppy, wormwood, mustard, 
and a great uumbor of other plants can bo profit¬ 
ably produced in mauy parts of the country. 
Chiocory grows wild by the roadsides from Now 
England to Ohio, is raised as easily as parsnips, 
and enters largely into the preparation of coffee, 
to which it is said to give strength while it is be¬ 
lieved to be otherwise valuable. It is now chiefly 
imported. 
In climates where they will grow, hemp and 
jute offer valuble additions to farm crops; thero 
is also a market at 75 cents to $1 per pound for 
the wool of the Angora goat, and in rough, 
hilly locations, they may he kept at a profit. 
Large quantities of rye and oat straw, out from 
tho upper joint to tho head, are in demand for 
hat and bonnet mailers. 
Starting tomatoes and cucumbers in the house, 
or with cabbages and lettuce iu a cold-frame; 
sowing radishes and peas early and at successive 
intervals, aud a great number of similar opera¬ 
tion, give a better supply of food at home aud 
often enable the farmer to pay quite a little 
store hill for necessaries. 
BETTER CULTIVATION. 
There is no doubt that tho only way out of 
hard times for tho farmers is a better cultiva¬ 
tion—to expend on ten or twenty acres the same 
amouut of labor and of manures that lias here¬ 
tofore been expeuded upon one hundred. The 
gross receipts may not be as large, but the net 
profit will be greater. The force of the farm is 
now expended in getting over a great deal of 
ground, while not half tilling the laud or half 
economizing either that, tho material or the 
labor. The farm should not be simply a place 
requiring a great deal of walking, digging and 
harvesting to return a little cash. Like any 
other ImsiueBB, it should he immediately under 
the eye and hand of the master and his work¬ 
men, and we do not hesitate to say that twenty- 
five acres of land are ail that any one organiza¬ 
tion, consisting of the farmer and his family 
aud one or two hired men, oau attend to profit¬ 
ably. There is no profit, no leisure, no time for 
recreation or books, in the present farm system. 
The ambition to own a great number of acres, 
and tho belief that the land will bear forever 
without manure, have brought the farm system 
of tho United States to a state in which there is 
neither profit nor pleasure to anybody. If nine 
farmers out of ten, in tho eastern part of the 
United States, would carefully attend to the 
best tweuty-five acres of their farms aud let tho 
rest grow up to weeds and bushes, they would 
he better off in ton years than they will be if 
they follow their present plan, trying to skin 
over one hundred or two hundred acres. It is 
only perfect tillage aud consequent good orops 
that bring any profit; only the fat cattle and 
hogs, fat sheep and poultry, and fine horses that 
pay for their keep. All the poor crops, the poor 
butter and cheese, and poor stuff of any kind, 
actually cost the fanner more than he gets for 
them, besides wearing out in drudgery the lives 
of his wife, his boys and his girls, disgusting 
them with farm lifo, and causing his own death 
iu poverty before old age has come near him. 
But the fanner Bays, “Preaching is easier 
than practice,” and “It is hard to teach an old 
dog new tricks ; what our fathers taught us we 
must follow until anew system begins at the root 
and extends over the country.” 
But such a system must have a beginning and 
beginnings are always small, aud, moreover, 
this is not all preaching. Let the farmer who 
has ten acres under the plow begin Ibis fall by 
leaving five of those ten acres idle, untouched; 
let him jflow the other live thoroughly twice, 
turn every furrow smoothly, take off every spe¬ 
cies of rubbish uot covered, put all tho manure 
intended for the ten acres upon the live, aud, if 
Bowing thifl fall, see to it that the grain is thick 
enough, yet uot too much so, aud that it is har¬ 
rowed thoroughly and as smooth as the house 
floor. In the Bpring, plow again the portion cf 
the five acres not eown carefully with a mod¬ 
ern steel plow, harrow, and if not iu perfect 
tilth, plow again aud barrow, and then plant and 
sow, and use the hoes arid cultivator twice iu 
the corn field where heretofore used but once, 
pay double attention to the garden, double 
attention to keeping the tools under cover, 
double attention to raking up, piliug up and 
turning over a compost heap, double attention 
to the fences and the care of stock ; give one 
hog all the feed that two had before, one calf 
all the milk that two had formerly; iu short, 
spend just as much labor, timo and care upon 
one-half of all you had before, and no one need 
doubt the result. 
The farmer continuing in this way for a few 
years, will find he has time to think, to rest, to 
read aud inquire a little further how to increase 
the profits of his labor by new crops, or better 
systems of care aud cultivation. Remember 
that plowing three or four times and loosening 
the soil vory deep is not labor wasted ; that fifty 
tons of finely-rotted manure to tho aero are none 
too much, and that the cultivator can hardly be 
run too often. Major. 
--- 
IRRIGATION. 
In many places thero are large tracts of land 
to which it is difficult to get water, and which, 
especially in dry seasons, are practically valueless 
for grasB or cultivation. There is hardly a farm 
iu the eastern half of tho United atates with¬ 
out such plots, large or small, which it is de¬ 
sirable to restore to usefulness 
Where the soil is not loo thin to allow of 
deep cultivation, the remedy is an easy one, but 
where the rooky formation comes up to near 
tho surface, or where such cultivation is im¬ 
practicable, some other remedy must be sought 
for. I f tho outlay needed to carry a stream of 
water to the location, either by tho use of a 
hydraulic ram, a wind-mill or a water-wheel, can¬ 
not be made, then places should be provided to 
catch the rainfall, either by damming across a 
depression or the sloping sides of an eleva¬ 
tion, or by excavating one or more basins for 
bolding tho water. In a dike or dam, an over- 
tlow-pipo of wood or drain tile, is needed to pre¬ 
vent the walls from washing away. This is best 
made by having the end of the pipe elbow-shaped 
aud rising just as high as it is desired that the 
water should rise, while the pipe itself runs 
out under the embankment, rather than by 
