THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. R4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1887. 
NOTICE. 
Alt, subscribers who desire the Rural's 
Seed Distribution must apply for it. 
Hitherto we have not required those who 
subscribe for the Rural in connection 
with other papers to make an application. 
This has caused confusion. It is only 
necessary to say "Send seeds.” 
Readers are respectfully reminded that 
the new posters, premium-lists, seed dis¬ 
tribution account,etc., together with speci¬ 
men copies, will be gladly sent to appli¬ 
cants. The retail price of the R. N.-Y. 
is $2.00, a year with a liberal discount to 
agents or all who will act as such who 
prefer cash to premiums. Address the 
Rural New-Yorker, 34 Park Row, 
New York. 
Prop. Budd, of Iowa, sends us an im¬ 
portant article on “Northern Nut Cul¬ 
ture.” It will appear in a week or two. 
The N. Y. Sun comes to the support of 
the Rural’s opposition to the Washing¬ 
ton Seed Store in this wise: “It is a noto¬ 
rious fact that the system of seed distri¬ 
bution from Washington has been swollen 
to its prescut enormous cost through the 
desire of Congressmen to be provided at 
public expense with little gifts with which 
to propitiate their rural constituents.” 
Have you made arrangements for the 
supply of ice? Such a supply will be a 
blessing next summer. Putting in ice is 
hard and disagreeable work, but the 
.pleasure that comes in summer from a 
generous supply of solid Christmas wea¬ 
ther is ample pay for the trouble. But 
don’t change the blessing into a eutse by 
using ice from some stagnant body of wa¬ 
ter. Ice is frequently taken from ponds that 
receive the drainage from stables, sinks 
and privies. Such water is fairly alive 
with disease. The germs are not destroyed 
by freezing. They reappear in the ice- 
water, as effective as ever to do injury. 
Better no ice at all than ice out of a 
filthy hole._ ™ 
We know a man who celebrated Christ¬ 
mas by making his wife a present of a 
bottle of some patent medicine. lie sat idly 
by and smoked his pipe while she worked 
herself almost to death's door. There 
were hundreds of little things he might 
have done to aid her, but no—he is a man 
and she is a woman. The dark places 
growing under her eyes have prompted 
him to try a business speculation at- 
Christmas. This bottle of medicine, se¬ 
lected because a largo bottle could be 
bought for a small price, will make am¬ 
ple return for the uncomplainiug devotion 
of the poor slave who receives it. This 
man is making an angel, lie will know 
his work when he sees that poor, thin face 
turned up to his from the coffin. Oh 
man, man, why can’t you see and know 
what a little tenderness and human feel¬ 
ing might do for her? Why can’t you 
make her more womanly by being your¬ 
self more manly? 
A Word For Hired Men. —Hired men 
'are not all rascals. Some of them could 
give their masters lessons in cleanliness, 
politeness and respectability. We know 
men who have worked for wages on the 
farm who would not disgrace any'society 
to be found in this country. If a mau is 
clean, well behaved and modest; if he 
does his work well and minds his own 
business, he will* not injure any farmer’s 
family by entering it. There are hired 
men who disgrace their calling. Foul of 
tongue, loose in morals, lazy and deceit¬ 
ful, they should not be allowed nearer to 
the family than the barn. But there art; 
good, faithful men and hoys working on 
the' farm, who are worthy of recognition 
and help.ljjj We put in a'plea for them. 
Much of their future value ascitizeus will 
depend upon the treatment they receive 
from those they work for. 
Our First-rage Cut. —Our artist rep¬ 
resents 1887 as a bright young farmer boy. 
Life is all ahead of him. He is full of 
strength and courage. ITe is not afraid 
of the future because be sees only the 
bright side of it. Poor old 1880 walks 
feebly and sadly away from the scene. 
ITis life is over. Some of the brightest of 
bis hopes, some of the most brilliant of 
the promises of his youth he buried in the 
past. Has lie lived his life well? Has he 
done his best or has he borne his part weak¬ 
ly—like a coward ? These are the thoughts 
that haunt him as he walks morn fully 
away to the end. Where will the boy 
stand next year? What will he do with 
the golden chances that are wrapped up in 
the uncertainty that lies ahead of him? 
Will 1888 find him sad or satisfied? The 
rainbow of hope arches away from his 
feet into the future, but who can tell 
what treasure lies at the end? We make 
our lives from day to dav ont of little 
things, insignificant in themselves, but 
mighty in their total. The year is before 
us all.* What will we do with it? Where 
will 1888 find us? 
A Temperance Lecture. —What a 
thirsty town is New York! It consumes 
6,000,000 barrels of beer a year, or at the 
rate of five barrels for every man, woman 
and child. The brewers receive eight 
dollars a barrel for this beer, less a dis¬ 
count ranging from 10 to 20 per cent. 
Granting that all dealers get the highest 
discount, which would allow for an occa¬ 
sional bad debt, the brewers would re¬ 
ceive a total of $38,000,000. But the 
dealer in retailing the beer expects to 
more than double his money, and it is 
known that an expert beer jerker will get 
from a keg three times its cost; while in 
many cases where froth is given for beer, 
four times the first cost is received. But 
allowing that only twice the original cost 
is made, it will be seen that the beer 
drinkers of Gotham pay annually #76.000,- 
000 for their potations. Considering the 
large number of teetotalers, women and 
children not of a drinking disposition or 
age, what a heavy bill in cash must many 
of the hpor guzzlers have paid for their 
sottish indulgence! The bill for wine 
and spirituous liquor must have been 
greater than that for beer—what a forci¬ 
ble temperance lecture is contained in the 
aggregate figures. 
Alas, the Poon Seamstresses!— Al¬ 
most all classes of working people have 
learned the trick of organizing in defence 
of their rights. Labor has been dignified 
and strengthened by such organization. 
One class of laborers never can organize. 
These are the seamstresses—the poor 
white slaves who drag on through years 
of slow starvation that dealers in shoddy 
goods may cut, down prices. The picture 
revealed by one who has studied into the 
real condition of these sewing women is 
simply horrible. It is not pleasant to 
think that in this century of which we 
boast so much, human beings are hound in 
such abject slavery. It seems ns though 
we had made very little progress in real 
charity since Hood sang the “Song of the 
Shirt” so touchingly. The competition 
in the clothing trade is intense. As the 
public becomes more and more expert in 
“beating down” prices, dealers wring 
more and more out of the blood of the 
helpless army of workers who, without 
one possible means of defence, must en¬ 
dure in silence. The people who run 
about from store to store, buying tlicir 
Christmas presents, cutting the prices 
down to the very lowest limit, help to 
strengthen the chain of the poor white 
slaves of the cities. Not a pleasant 
Clnistmas thought, but true. 
ABOLISH THE WASHINGTON SEED 
BITSINESS. 
An official holding a very high position 
in Washington, writes as follows: 
“ I understand Hint you are going for 
the seed abuse. I am in sympathy with 
you in this matter heartily. I know that 
the present Commissioner felt the same 
way prior to hi* appointment, but, like 
some of his predecessors, he has found 
Congress too strong and has had to fall 
into the old ways, striving only more fully 
to carry out the spirit of the law by en¬ 
deavoring to furnish good seeds and to 
distribute them according to their adap¬ 
tation to different sections. Tf the whole 
business could onec be put a stop to, Tam 
satisfied, from what I have seen through a 
number of Administrations, that it would 
be a great benefit not. only to Congress¬ 
men, but to the Department. An appro¬ 
priation ‘ot five or ten thousand dollars 
for the introduction of really new and 
promising things to be distributed among 
experiment stations should, in my judg¬ 
ment. form the limit of the seed business 
which this Department should carry on.” 
We don't want the Washington De¬ 
partment to buy any seeds at all, for we feel 
assured Hint the greater part of any appro¬ 
priation would he spent disadvantageous^. 
If the Hatch Bill, with acceptable mod¬ 
ifications,should ultimately pass,as we sin¬ 
cerely hope it may. the officers of the sta¬ 
tions are the right, ones to select and pur¬ 
chase novelties and to distribute them 
over their respective States. 
- 
FALSE SYMP ATHY FOR TRAMPS. 
The man w T ho will not work, neither 
shall he eat, according to the Scriptural 
admonition. Experiments for applying 
this rule to tramps have been tried in a 
multitude of communities; but generally 
with very little success. The Supervis¬ 
ors of Westchester Co, N. Y., think they 
have hit upon a certain means of accom¬ 
plishing this end, or of rendering further 
eating unnecessary. Supervisor See is 
the genius who invented this plan of rid¬ 
ding the county of the pests; but his 
fellow Supervisors heartily indorse it. 
They propose that every person convicted 
of vagrancy shall be imprisoned in a tank¬ 
like cell into which water is to be turned 
so that, the flow shall be such that the 
tramp can keep his head above water 
only by vigorous exertions in baling or 
pmijping the water. As soon as his 
efforts relax, the wretch must drown. 
This mode of punishing vagrancy is at va¬ 
riance with the State laws on the subject. 
It is also so widely at variance with the 
principles of humanity and the spirit of 
the age that the suspicion naturally arises 
that See and his fellow Supervisors are 
wags, making the tramp the butt of a 
joke after the fashion set by the “para- 
graphers.” There can be no possible ob¬ 
jection to making this miserable libel on 
humanity earn his victuals bv performing 
a stint of useful labor; but See does not 
propose that the labor shall be useful or 
productive—onlv that it shall be arduous 
and painful. The whole project is evi¬ 
dently a laughable joke, or else the Su¬ 
pervisors are simply ridiculous. 
The Central Labor Union of this city, 
which is composed of workingmen, and 
not of actual or potential tramps, 
assembled to the number of over 300 
the other night, and denounced the ac¬ 
tion of the jocular or ridiculous Supervis¬ 
ors as “inhuman and barbarous,” while 
“recognizing” in the tramp “the victim 
of our present, economic system,” instead 
of recognizing in him. ns other people do, 
the victim of incorrigible laziness and of 
an insatiable thirst for rum. This organ¬ 
ization is full of sympathy for the rascal 
who will not work at any price, while the. 
man who is anxious to work at. the best 
price he can get. it stigmatizes as a “scab” 
—it regards the tramp as a martyr and the 
scab as an oppressor. 
BREVITIES 
Carefully prepared winter live stock 
notes will appear next week. 
llow much nleoliol is there in a glass of 
“ hard ” eider? At least as much as there is in 
a glass of lager-bier. 
We hone to begin our Seed Distribution 
February 1st, It. will lie mailed to subscri¬ 
bers only, as hitherto, and only to those who 
apply. 
A farmer’s wife whom we met a few days 
ago picking up an armful of damp kindling, 
remarked that she would shed tears of delight, 
if a wood shed were provided. (!) 
“ 1 congratulate vou upon making the 
best, weekly agricultural pit per in the world.” 
So savsMr. E. H. Libby. Editor of the Amer¬ 
ican Garden and Our Country Home. 
Were we looking about for another coun¬ 
try home, the first, thing we should inquire 
about would be in regard to the purity of the 
water and an ample supply at all times. 
Mr. Jacohs tells us. on auother page, tlmf if 
the combs of Leghorn fowls lie cut off and the 
birds be kept, warm and comfortable, they 
will equal the Brahmas as winter layers. 
One of Bucephalus Brown’s “notions” this 
week is deserving of thoughtful considerat ion 
by all farmers. What he says about the chief 
cause of disease among country women is 
true. It is disgrace!ul, but it is true. 
Secretary Geo. W. Camphell, of Dela¬ 
ware, Ohio, says: “ 1 think the Rural satis¬ 
fies reasonable people, and that it is really 
equal, if not superior to any paper of its kind 
in nil the elements which goto make up a fam¬ 
ily horticultural journal.” 
“That is a grand picture,” writes Mr. Wood 
ward, “that, graces the first page of the R. N.- 
Y. of December 18. It ought to be steel en¬ 
graved and be framed to grace every farmer’s 
home. It is a whole volume on a single page 
and tells the whole story. ” 
Strawberry growers will read Parker 
Earle’s contribution beginning on the 
first, page of this issue, with interest, and 
lieneflt,. If there is anylfone in the country 
better fitted by experience to instruct as to 
strawberry culture, we do not happen to 
know the man. 
One of the manv societies for the preserva¬ 
tion of healt h in New York desires that all the 
manure made in the city stables should be 
baled and not be preserved in nits to give off 
foul odors. It. is claimed that the baling pro¬ 
cess is siinole. that, the baled manure is more 
easily handled and that much valuable space 
is saved, 
The oleo men still claim that dairymen are 
using oleo oil in their dairies. They never 
give names and facts. We don't, believe t.hev 
can. A few dairymen may have used the oil; 
but they would never dare to make the fact 
known. They would Ik? so thoroughly de¬ 
spised by all t heir fellows that life would be 
a burden to them. Nothing is worse than a 
traitor. 
January 16 at 11 o’clock a, m. begins the 
thirty-second nnmml meeting of the Western 
New York Horticultural Society. Place. 
Rochester. Common Council Chamber. All 
are invited to attend. Such men ns J. J. 
Thomas, Cha«. A. Green, Dr. Lintner, E. R. 
Goff and Charles Little will read papers. P. 
Barry, President; P. C. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Eogk are selling with us at four cents each, 
with a market for all we can possibly sunnlv. 
Grain fed to poultry nmdit fie turned into 
gold at these figures. There are plenty of 
hens in our neighborhood standing around 
with frozen combs and tors. Their owners 
decided long ago that there is nothing beyond 
a living to be made at farming, and a poor liv¬ 
ing at. that. 
Those of our readers interested in what is 
going on at the Rural Grounds maybe pleased 
to know t lud the barrel tiles were sunk 15 feet, 
when a powerful spring was struck which gave 
by the next dav six feel of fine wafer. This well 
is within 26 feet of the house and connected 
with the kitchen pump bv rustless iron nines 
passing through the cellar wall, With thanks 
for the suggestions of friends, it has been de¬ 
cided to cover over the top of the well so as to 
make it practically air-tight. 
Farmers about, the Rural Grounds are busy 
hauling manure from Hivor Edge. The man¬ 
ure is brought from Ill's eitv no the Hacken¬ 
sack River. Formerly It was sold bv the load 
without much regard to weight. This vear it 
is sold bv the ton. The empt v wagon and 
the wagon with its load are weighed us in buv- 
imreonl. It is hard to obtain a standard for 
estimating the value of such manure. Its 
weight is not constant, as it weighs more or 
less according to the amount of moisture it 
contains. Tn buying bv the ton one is ant to 
pay a high price for water. Some portions of 
every load arc about clear straw. 
Abb wealth comes out of the land. It, is 
handled and manipulated, twisted and tink¬ 
ered as it passes through the hands of 
man. but originn 11 v it. all comes from 
the land. The lawyer's fee. the rascal’s 
plunder all came originally from the 
land. Rome man rave his toil that wealth 
might be spent. The farmer stands at the 
basis of the universe. The recent trial of a 
“boodle” alderman in this cit.v cost ourtax- 
nn vers over *18,000. How many bushels of 
Wheat must be raised to make this good? 
Where did this money come from originally ? 
We eve naving high for justice when if costs 
£18,000 to send a single rascal to Ring Ring. 
At this rate the cities can easily spend more 
than the country can produce. 
The other dav Representative Hiscock of 
New York introduced a hill to subject all Ru- 
matra tobacco, of which anv part : s suitable 
for ciear wrappers, to a duty of 75 cents per 
pound if unstemmed rind 81 a pound if 
stemmed. The bill was lost, onlv 60 members 
voting for it and 165 against it. while it, needed 
two-thirds in its favor to pass. The vote 
probably settles the fate of the propositions 
to increase the tax upon oleomargarine, Con¬ 
gress mnv fail to reduce taxation, but. it 
will liardlV dare to increase it. All the “free 
trade Democrats.” together with Tbmdall 
and ino'-t of the other “ Protectionist ” Demo¬ 
crats and 16 Republicans v oted against the 
bill, whose passage was urged by tobacco 
growers; but opposed by tobacco manufac¬ 
turers. 
There are men enough in almost every 
neighborhood sitting nronnd the stove in the 
blacksmith’s shop, wagon shop, or corner gro¬ 
cery to mu a first-class farmers’ club. Now 
♦hev arc onlv a nuisance and in somebody’s 
wav. and their conversation, to sav the least, 
is not worthy of their manhood, and the to¬ 
bacco they smoke or chew would pav for 
several first class agricultural papers. How 
much better it, would be if they would organ¬ 
ize a elnb to meet one dav or every evening 
iu each week to talk over and post each other 
in the better methods of farming, and then 
snend an hour or more each dav in rending 
up on the topic* to be discussed. We never yet 
saw a fanners’ elub in a community wh«reits 
influence did not show for good on the farms 
of its members, and in the better keeping of 
their stock. 
In preparing ground for anv crop it must 
lie remembered that although a complete 
breaking no and loosening, so that roots can 
penet rate freely in all directions, is essential to 
free and rapid growth; vet it is a fatal mis¬ 
take to make a l>e<l of finely sifted clay or 
loam without n free admixt ure of some coarse 
dividing particles thnt will prevent, it from 
becoming compact and air-tight after being 
soaked with water Those who grow plants 
in pots soon find that out. Half decaved 
vegetable matter is the best, dividing material, 
as it is a valuable manure, or concocter of 
manure. Charred garden rubbish isexcellent. 
Rand and stones serve the purpose well, but 
merelv as divisors. The surface, especially, 
should have a coating that p«> rain can park. 
Wheat, etc,, in very fine soil, liable to com¬ 
pact. is very often heaved out and winter- 
killed A mulch of fine stable manure to serve 
as ft buffing between the impacting rain falls 
and the fine soil below, is of double service in 
such a case. 
