THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCT 22 
and has scored 93'o' points. Mr. Thompson 
■writes that he has ref used $100 for Sweepstakes. 
Think of it—a rooster worth more than a cow! 
Envoi (Topics. 
BUCEPHALUS BROWN'S NOTIONS AND 
IDEAS. 
The Value of Corn-Fodder. —In a coun¬ 
try where wastefulness on farms is so general, 
and so great, it is perhaps hard to name the 
greatest waste. But it seems to me that the 
waste of corn-fodder, especially in the West, 
is so enormous that it might justly be styled 
criminal. Edward Atkinson quotes Presi¬ 
dent Garfield as quoting from Ralph Waldo 
Emerson the statement that “mankind is as 
lazy as it dares to be.” In the fruitful West 
men can summon up courage to be very lazy 
and that is no doubt one reason why so much 
corn-fodder is wasted there. 
They Cannot Afford It. —Notwithstand¬ 
ing the fruitfulness of the West, farming has 
become there as elsewhere, a very close busi¬ 
ness. It is so close that the saving and wise 
use of corn-fodder on many Western farms 
may well turn the scale in the farmer’s strug¬ 
gle with the world. But, alas! the wasteful 
habits of a lifetime can hardly be corrected in 
old age. The youug men of the West must 
see to this thing. Who can say that were a 
general economy to take the place of the gen¬ 
eral carelessness in this respect, money might 
not soon become as plenty and cheap West¬ 
ward as in the East ? 
A Little Difference Terns the Scale. 
—It will not take a very large difference in the 
demand for capital to reduce interest rates 
greatly. We all know how low the prices of 
farms fall in neighborhoods where the emigra¬ 
tion fever seizes upon the people. Without 
any loss of productiveness or impairment of 
markets, farms in such localities have been 
known to be depressed one-half, and even two- 
thirds in price, in two or three years. The ex¬ 
act reverse is the case where farmers are com¬ 
ing in freely and buying land. The change 
from five farms too many to five farms too 
few, in one neighborhood, will often add tens 
and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
the money value of the land there. 
It is Just so with Monet*.—I have fre¬ 
quently seen just the same thing occur in re¬ 
gard to money. Let there be but $10,000 
more money to lend on mortgage in a town than 
there is call for, and interest rates will some¬ 
times be reduced one-third. It has so changed 
where I live. When I was younger, and want¬ 
ed to hire money, I might hunt the county 
over in vain to find it at less than eight or 10 
per cent. Now, in the same place, it is diffi¬ 
cult to place areal estate loan at five per cent. 
This has been caused partly by an increase of 
loanable capital, but more by a great deer ease 
of borrowers. 
What has This to Do with Corn-fodder? 
—Let us guess that there are one hundred 
millions of dollars’ worth of fodder wasted in 
the great corn States. Turn this into pro¬ 
ducts salable for cash, aud the call for loans 
would certainly be greatly lessened. If by 
this aud like economies the demand for loans 
on mortgage falls below the supply of loan¬ 
able capital, interest rates would come down 
by the run. It is as sure as that big crops of 
cotton aud grain break down the prices of 
these or other farm staples. The effect of 
this law can no more be escaped by the 
money-king than by the farmer. 
Feeding Horses Too Much.— I think its a 
very good time now to say a word about the 
folly of keeping work-horses ‘’seal-fat” all 
winter, especially when mostly standing Idle. 
If you are fitting them for sale, this may do, 
but otherwise it is a positive aud a great in¬ 
jury to the beast and his owner. I know too 
many farmers who feed their horses too much 
and their cows too little, and lose money both 
ways. 
How it is In jurious. —A horse for use does 
best witb just enough feed to replace the 
waste of his system, and of a kind to keep him 
“feeling well." More than that is a damage 
in every way. He wants a little fat under bis 
skin, a little between his muscles, and less, 
but some, about his bowels. If he gets fatter 
it collects about the heart, impairing the force 
of its action; it infiltrates the muscular tissue, 
lessening his strength; it accumulates about 
the digestive organs weakening their efficien¬ 
cy. He cannot get rid of it as the cow does 
by discharging it into her milk. It “wads 
him up all over,” as a good borsemau puts it, 
making him less serviceable, less vigorous and 
more subject to all sorts of ills that horses are 
heir to. 
No More Shoes.—L ong experience h»s 
justified me in the conviction that, except in 
rocky countries and on city pavements, there 
is absolutely no need of shoeing horses. It is 
an absurd, iujurious and expensive old super¬ 
stition. I find both for driving horses, and 
for heavy team horses it is the same. While 
working them steadily every week day their 
hoofs keep fully up to the wear, and all the 
notorious dangers and evils of bad, or even <. f 
good shoeing, are seen no longer. In the life¬ 
time of a horse you will save his value in shoe¬ 
ing and gain his value again in service by dis¬ 
pensing with this bad practice. 
Why Has It Endured So Long? —This is 
an argument often heard in favor of horse¬ 
shoeing. “If it were not good it would have 
been long ago abandoned.” Not so; old su¬ 
perstitions die hard, especially when so many 
are interested in sustaining them. The black¬ 
smiths insist upou its necessity, and the com¬ 
missions they give to the multitude of hired 
drivers make them all sustain it. The tim¬ 
idity of iuexperienced horse-owners, who 
want to be “ on the safe side,' 1 sustains it. The 
occasional necessity of it, under particular 
conditions, sustains it. More independence 
aud freedom of thought aud judgment than 
the avex-age man has,are required for his break¬ 
ing free from it. hese are the reasons why 
it continues. 
[Will Mr. B. Brown kindly inform us how 
we are to drive hoi es over icy roads without 
shoes?— Eds.] 
LONG ISLAND NOTES. 
The peculiar prepotency of the Dutch 
Belted cattle is now*here more plainly shown 
than on the east end of Long Island. A few 
of these cattle have become scattered over 
this section and it is a common thing to see 
cattle with the unmistakable belt clearly de¬ 
fined. They are usually known by the rather 
indefinite name of “Holstein grades.” 
There has been a big boom of late in potato 
raising on Long Island and it is surprising to 
see the quantities which are shipped to New 
York aud Boston. The improved implements 
for digging potatoes have had much to do 
witb the increase in production. The Hud¬ 
son digger is chiefly used. As yet no planter 
has been tried with any degree of success. 
There is evidently a big field for the Aspin- 
wall planter on Long Island if it will do the 
work successfully. 
The prevalent belief that grapes will not do 
well along the ocean seems to be a mistake, at 
least so far as Long Island is concerned. I re¬ 
cently saw a buuch of the Agawam raised by 
Mr. Saxton of Patchogue, which would com¬ 
pare favorably with any I have ever seen. 
Mr. Saxton says they were raised within 20 
feet of the South Bay. 
lu the vicinity of Riverhead there seems to 
be a grape-growing belt. They seem to grow 
aud bear any where, everywhere. Very little 
attention, however, has been given to their 
cultivation, and but few are grown, except 
for home use. 
The white flint, seems to be the favorite 
corn with the farmers of Long Island. They 
say the dents run too much to stalks to be 
profitable. They say, further, that the latter 
exhaust the land and do not mature so well 
as the smaller varieties. I saw a specimen 
ear raised at West Deer Park which measured 
over 16 inches in length. 
The experience of the Long Island farmers 
seetns to conviace them that for general mar¬ 
ket purposes there are no better or more pro¬ 
fitable potatoes thau the Early Rose, the 
White Elephant and the Burbank. They say 
that every year they try the new kinds, but 
have as yet found nothing to excel these. 
The Empire State is increasing in popularity. 
At tbe annual meeting of the Suffolk Coun¬ 
ty, N. Y. farmers, held at Riverhead on the 
5th inst., Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., spoke of the 
enormous waste of fertilizing material in New 
York City. He said .that over 1,519,000 cubic 
yards of garbage beside an enormous quan¬ 
tity of sweepings were, worse thau wasted 
every* year. It is taken out at a cost of $1,091,- 
000 on scows and dumped into the bay and 
ocean to injure the best harbor in the world 
aud pollute the shores of the Island. It is a 
wrong to the present and succeeding genera¬ 
tions thus to waste the products of the soil. 
The Divine command is to replenish the earth 
and subdue it. It is the duty of the present 
generation to trausmit the soil to those who 
shall follow us in as good condition as we found 
it. He presented a scheme for tbe utilization 
of these waste products of large cities which 
impressed the farmers favorably and which 
may lead up to someth!ug practical. 
J. H. G. 
DRY WEATHER NOTES. 
Spring plowing this season has stood the 
drought better than fall plowing; even oats 
were a better crop on spring plowing although 
usually they are best on fall plowing. On a 
neighboring farm a piece of land was covered 
duriug the winter with a light coating of 
strawy horse and cow manure. The latter 
part of May, after all other crops were in, it 
was plowed, and at that time it was seemingly 
as dry as an ash heap. It w*as planted to 
Evergreen sweet corn. There was no rain 
after this until the first of July, and then only 
local showers, but the corn made as luxuriant 
a growth as it would have made in an ordi¬ 
nary year on uumanured land. One farmer 
seeing the ruinous effect of the dry weather 
upon his field of potatoes, took 40 barrels of 
water from his well and put it upon them: but 
the effect was different from bis expectations, 
as it killed the vines outright. During tbe 
driest part of July, I mulched very lightly six 
rows of late potatoes (the mulch lying loose 
was not over an inch in thickness): on Sept. 
19 they were as green as ever while those be¬ 
side them of the same variety though uot 
mulched, were perfectly dead. 
Last year crops grown on tiled land were 
decidedly better than those grown on untiled 
land. The drought, however, did not com¬ 
mence until July, This year the best crops of 
all kinds are on lands that in ordinary years 
ought to be drained: while those crops raised 
on tiled laud are very little, if any, better 
than those on upland. This is no doubt due to 
lack of rainfall during the latter part of win¬ 
ter and the early part of spring, the ground 
being comparatively dry from the start. 
There is an unlimited number of old straw 
stacks aud old corn stalks that could be used 
for mulch, and it seems strauge that so few 
take advantage of them. One or two out of a 
neighborhood, perhaps, experiment in a small 
way during a dry season. The next year is, 
perhaps, wet and mulching is unnecessary 
and when the next drought does come their 
former lessons are forgotten, or they do not 
want to spend the time. w. D. R. 
Rockville, HI. 
m doincs. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Henry George’s Tax Theory.— Farmers 
can hardly pay the excessively high taxes now 
and all they could raise would not pay the 
Henry George tax. b. r. 
Broad Ford, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—The weakest part of Henry 
George and his tax theory is that be keeps 
away from figures. His books are very elo¬ 
quent and plausible, but they are not backed 
up by the facts which men like Edward At¬ 
kinson have faithfully compiled. Mr. George 
nroposes to raise all the tax from laud. It 
will lie interesting to know what, this tax will 
be,supposing land to remain at its present val¬ 
ue, and Mr. George, as we understand it, 
hopes to make land cheaper, so to speak, so 
that all may have a chance to enjoy it. Pro¬ 
fessor W. T, Hams, some months ago, invest¬ 
igated this subject and went through some in¬ 
teresting figuring. The census for 1SS0 gave 
the total assessment of real estate and person¬ 
al property iu the Union at $10,902,993,543. 
Of this $13,030,700,925 stand for real estate. 
The U. S. Census does not give the items for 
land alone, but Massachusetts publishes an ag¬ 
gregate of property and taxes, showing the 
separate items “ laud exclusive of buildings” 
and “ buildings exclusive of laud.” Under 
this estimate land represented a value of $587,- 
324,693 and tbe buildings $752,669,001. Tak¬ 
ing tbis for a basis aud figuring out the rela¬ 
tive values of property in town and country, 
it is found that we have, in round numbers, 
buildings worth $6,437,000,000, and building 
sites and agricultural lauds worth $6,592,000,- 
000. Allowing for the fact that the rate of 
assessment for taxes is, on the average, rated 
at two-thirds tne market value, the actual val¬ 
ue of the land held as private property in the 
United States iu 1880 was a trifle less than $10,- 
000,000,000. Now the total of taxation, na¬ 
tional aud local, amouuts to nearly $.800,000, 
000, so that under the George theory of taxa¬ 
tion owners of lands would be called upon to 
pay a tax of nearly 8 per cent, of the value of 
their property. 
Co-operation and Independence.— Far¬ 
mers are advised on all hands to uuito in bene¬ 
fiting by the advantages of co-operation. In 
making their distant aud larger purchases and 
in making themselves felt iu support of the 
right iu selecting lawmakers, there cau he no 
doubt of the good to themselves and the coun¬ 
try of their combining solidly. But iu ordin¬ 
ary affairs they should preserve all the inde¬ 
pendence which they, above all classes, pos¬ 
sess, and which makes them the bulwark of 
national safety and prosperity. A people ac¬ 
customed to allow a governing class to regu¬ 
late everything for them soon falls into the 
degraded helplessness of the Egyptian fella¬ 
heen. And States soon decay or yield unless 
jealously careful to give no power into the 
hands of a central government, which is not 
strictly for the common good of all. w. 
Tyrone, Pa. 
An Appreciative Friend. —I have been a 
subscriber to the Rural since December last 
and I am much pleased with it. My interest 
in it grows stronger every week. I wish that 
every man in this and all other towns in the 
couutry would read it aud feed as much inter¬ 
est as I do in promoting the objects for which 
it is working. The last cartoon tells a good 
story. Tbe previous ones are also good, hut 
you will have to try hard to beat the last. It 
is about time that the Goliath in American 
politics was put under foot of the David of 
the penal code, and I will sling as many stones 
to do it as my feeble ability will permit. 
Ulster Co., N. Y. amos cheney. 
R. N.-Y.—The picture is a strong one, but 
there are better ones coming. The day when 
such pictures shall cease to be useful will 
never come until every man shall provide him¬ 
self with a pile of stones to sling at fraud, 
crime ami dishonesty whenever they show 
their heads. The vote is the American’s wea¬ 
pon. 
Intelligence at the Fairs.— Of all the 
exhibitors at the fairs this fall, nobody seems 
to have made more money than the man who 
offers “three shots at a nigger’s head for five 
cents.” He seems to be everywhere. He has 
a canvas screen with a hole in it about large 
enough for a man’s bea 1 to go through. A 
negro puts his head through the hole aud all 
who are willing to pay five cents can throw 
three balls at him. One of these “exhibit¬ 
ors” told me that he averages over $15 per 
day. and does more business than any other 
similar “show.” Speaks well for the intelli¬ 
gence of those who patrouize tbe fairs, doesn’t 
it? B. h. c. 
Somerset Co., N. J. 
Good Price for Poultry. —We sent a 
coop of Light Brahma chicks to Chicago. 
They w*ere 5’-.j months old and weighed, net, 
seven pounds each. Our merchant secured 
two cents per pound advance on the highest 
quotations on account of the fine appearance 
of our chicks. Is not that pretty good? It 
costs no more to raise good birds than poor 
ones. e. h u. 
Wilmot, Indiana. 
R. N.-Y.—An article to be acceptable to 
those who care least for price must be pleas- 
iug to the eye. This idea is as old as business, 
but it is as true now as ever. 
A Prediction. —I judge from the exhibits 
and interest at our State 'air that two points 
of farm economy are sure to come. The 
Cleveland Bay is going to be the favorite 
horse for farmers in this State to breed, and 
Red Polled cattle will divide the honors with 
the other breeds. This I think is a safe pre¬ 
diction, judging from the way farmers talked 
at the fair. e. d. 
Barry Co., Mich. 
EXCESSIVE TAXATION OF FARMERS. 
I do not propose to w*rite any elaborate ar¬ 
ticle on this question, but to give u few state¬ 
ments of facts which are not generally under¬ 
stood by all. In School District No. 16 there 
are 14 mortgaged farms, ami also over 200 
mortgaged farms in the town of Windsor. It 
is believed this is a fair specimen of the condi¬ 
tion of things all over this county, and over 
the State, to a great degree. This capital has 
paid little or no taxes ou roads, bridges or 
schools, and has contributed little, if any thing, 
on town, county* or State taxes, therehy leav¬ 
ing nearly* all tbe burdeu of taxation upon the 
producing classes and the farming interests. 
If the State tax, which is almost $9,000,000, 
was the only tux collected by assessment from 
our people it would lie less grievous, but when 
they are subjected to all the local taxation, 
which is estimated to be more than double the 
amount of State tax, or over $30,000,000 in all, 
then comes in the euormity of the grievance 
in all its vast proportions. 
To compel the farming community to pay 
all the taxes on the laud which is occupied, 
whether the taxpayers own it or uot, letting 
the larger share of personal property* iu our 
State, chiefly owned by corporations nd cap¬ 
italists, entirely escape, is an oppression. 
It is unconnected with political parties, yet 
political parties will be held responsible for 
their aettou iu maintaining so odious a sys¬ 
tem, and one so utterly indefensible. If this 
system is to continue, if the personal wealth 
of our State is to hide from the assessor and 
nearly all escape taxation, then indeed will 
our laboring population be left as peons or 
serfs. 
What kind of laws would I pass, then? I am 
not prepared to say, in detail, what kind they 
