THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Hornet 
Conducted by 
EGBERT S. CARMAN, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park j .ow, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1887. 
NOTICE. 
The Rural New-Yorker will he seat from 
this date to January 1, 1889—56 weeks — 
for the regular yearly price of $2.00. The 
senders of clubs of five or over may reset te 
50 cents for each yearly subscription in pay¬ 
ment for the work involved in securing the 
clubs. Or they may select suitable articles 
from our new premium-list. In this case, 
there is no cash commission allowed. , Speci¬ 
mens and premium-lists and our series of 
four cartoons will be cheerfully and promptly 
sent to all applicants. 
We have a reserve of Thanksgiving 
numbers of the R. N.-Y. which we shall 
be pleased to send to any names with 
which our readers may favor us. 
In a few weeks we shall begin, as an¬ 
nounced in our prospectus, a series of ar¬ 
ticles, by a practical and skillful painter 
of long and studied experience, -which 
will give all needed information about 
painting, mixing paints, the best paints, 
the value of patent or mixed paints. 
Both inside, and outside painting will be 
considered. No secrets of the trade will 
be withheld. 
We wish to thank those of our readers 
who have furnished us with the items, 
notes or short articles which have ap¬ 
peared under the heading of “Correspon¬ 
dents’Views.” It is desired that the 
Rural New-Yorker shonld be in the 
best and broadest sense a country home 
journal, and that all should feel that it is 
a home-like, family medium for an inter¬ 
change of thought and experience. 
We regard Henry Hales as. being the 
first poultry authority in America. He is 
probably GO years of age, and has given 
the greater part of his life to thoroughly 
trying the different breeds and to the 
study of poultry history and literature. 
Mr. Hales beginning with this number, 
will give to our readers the results of his 
long experience.—not in wordy, drawn- 
out articles, but in pithy paragraphs. 
Those who are interested in poultry may 
be assured that these articles will give all 
the important information touching the 
subject and in a condensed form never 
before presented in print. 
Parties who have been expecting to 
make money by shipping poultry to New 
York for the holiday trade will, we fear, 
be somewhat disappointed. The Thanks¬ 
giving prices were lower than ever, and 
there is every indication that Christmas 
will witness the usual “glut,” Now, the 
greater part, of the poultry sent here 
comes from the farmers who raise small 
fiocks and sell to the local “hen man.” 
Suppose each farmer should decide to 
send but 70 per cent of bis marketable 
birds? There would be a better feeling 
everywheie. What to do with the re¬ 
maining 30 per cent? Eat them and save 
beef bills. 
There is a good deal about potatoes in 
this issue and much that will pay farmers 
to study over. The man who has good 
seed potatoes next spring will have valu¬ 
able property, and as it is good business 
to look after any valuable property, care 
should be taken in storiug seed potatoes 
so they will rot and sprout as little as 
possible. It evidently does uot pay to try 
and keep seed potatoes in a cellar where 
there is a furnace, and it appears that 
handling the potatoes and moving them 
about is beneficial. One thing that far¬ 
mers will do well to remember is that be¬ 
cause potatoes are high this year there is 
no ceitainty that they will be high next 
year. The man who doubles his potato 
acreage next year on the strength of this 
year's prices will be disappointed. 
Prop. I. P. Roberts of Cornell Uni¬ 
versity is fully alive to the Importance of 
feeding for quality of meat. He will 
conduct an interesting experiment this 
winter. On.November 1 he selected six 
lambs weighing about 35 pounds each. 
Three of them will be fed largely 
on carbonaceous foods and the other 
three on foods rich in albumin¬ 
oids. In the spring they will be 
killed and inspected so as to determine 
the effect of the two rations. Other ex¬ 
perimenters will feed cattle in much tbe 
same. Avay, while Prof. Henry's experi¬ 
ments with hogs will be repeated in var¬ 
ious parts of the country. Farmers who 
Avatch these experiments and study the 
results will fiud themselves avcII paid. 
Some weeks ago our correspondent, 
“Bucephalus Brown,” spoke of the 
fact that the rate of interest in any sec¬ 
tion is generally determined by the amount 
of capital owned in the community and 
the economy of the inhabitants. As an 
example, it was stated that plenty of 
money could be obtained in Vermont at 
five per cent, while in the West two or 
three times as much could be charged. 
A subscriber in Iowa AVrites to say that 
he would like some of this five per cent, 
money out there. The best he can do, 
including commissions, etc., is nine per 
cent. He needs stock on his farm and it 
would pay him well to buy it if he could 
get money at five per cent. “B. B.’s” re¬ 
ply states the fact in a nutshell: “Unless 
lenders can get the large rates by sending 
West they prefer to lend it neater home.” 
The men Avho ha\ r e made money slowly 
and by close practices of economy, pre¬ 
fer to see it invested where they can watch 
it. “B. B.’s” remarks about the saving 
of the corn fodder are the soundest, kind 
of sense. 
Settlers in the Far West were quick 
to see and take adA r antage of the merits 
of Alfalfa as a forage plant. There are 
doubtless many localities in the older 
settled portion of the West where the 
plant Avould prove superior to many noAV 
in cultivation, hut its introduction is 
very slow. The cultivation of one crop 
or one set of crops for a number of years 
establishes a species of custom which it is 
exceedingly hard to change. Farmers of 
the West are so well used to handling 
clover and corn that it Avould be hard for 
them to make use of other plants in their 
places. Carrying out this idea, Prof. 
Storer states that American farmers have 
become so familiar Avith the cultivation 
and use of corn that it is hardly to be ex¬ 
pected that the majority of them could 
succeed in growing roots. For this rea¬ 
son, if we are to produce sugar success¬ 
fully in this country, it will naturally be 
produced from sorghum rather than from 
the beet. While this is all very true, the 
fact remains that the measure of profit in 
sorghum culture Avill depend upon the 
facilities for transporting the cane from 
the field to the mill. 
ARE WE WRONG? 
4 4YT7IIAT is gained by reporting the 
Vt yields of potatoes raised iu your 
rich garden land? Are not such reports 
misleading?” These questions have seve¬ 
ral times been asked by friendly contem¬ 
poraries. 
If it were uot known that the land is 
just about as rich as it can be made, yes, 
it would mislead readers. Besides being 
rich, this plot rarely suffers from drought. 
Being Avell drained, it never suffers from 
too much rain. Year after year potatoes 
have been raised on it aud the yield seems 
rather to increase than to lessen. We are 
ready to Avager a large amount of money 
with anyone disposed to contest.the state¬ 
ment—the money to be handed over to 
some benevolent enterprise—that next 
season, let it be Avet. or dry, Ave can raise 
on this plot of about one-tenth of an 
acre, or 33x66 feet square, no less than at 
tbe rate of 750 bushels to the acre, or S7>£ 
bushels on the plot. Is it uot something 
to have found out that such a yield can be 
produced on such land; and, further, is 
it uot something to have found out that 
the expense of making this soil just Avhat 
it is to-day, is very small as compared 
with the great crops yearly grown upon 
it? It might not pay farmers so to^nrick 
their land or any part of it provided it 
were subject to drought. Richness alone 
can not produce great crops upon any 
land that can uot supply that indispensa¬ 
ble concomitant of richness—moisture. 
But the writer kuows of hundreds of 
acres of land iu his vicinity alone, that is 
now just what the above plot was before 
it was drained and enriched. 
Again, the object in planting new va¬ 
rieties upon this soil has not been to show 
what they Avould yield under ordinary 
farm conditions, but what under the most 
favorable conditions, they could be made 
to yield. Now it is an interesting fact 
that we have found that those kinds Avhich 
yield heaviest on this specially prepared 
land generally yield best under the culti- 
A r ation usually given to potatoes in ordi¬ 
nary farm practice. 
POSTAL IMPROVEMENT. 
T HE United States Postal Improvement 
Association has for its object, 1, to 
secure reduced postage on seeds, plants, 
bulbs, and cions; 2, the reissue, of frac¬ 
tional currency for use in the mails; 8, 
the abolition of postal notes; 4, the issue 
of money orders for $5 or less for a fee of 
three cents; 5, it will also try to secure 
the repeal of tbe postal law in reference- 
to printing on wrappers, circulars, pamph¬ 
lets, and other fourth-class matter. The 
President is William Penn Nixon, of the 
Chicago luter-Ocesn, avIio has been quite 
successful in his efforts in previous postal 
reforms. The National Farmers’ A1 liance, 
the Grange, and several other agricul¬ 
tural associations heartily support the 
objects of the organization. So do the 
associations of nurserymen, seedsmen, 
and florists throughout the country, as 
well as various mercantile bodies. A 
vice-president is to be appointed in each 
State and Territory with a superintendent 
in each Congressional District, an assist¬ 
ant in each county and, a9 far as may be, 
an agent in each town throughout the 
United States. The membership fee is 
to be $5, which it is believed will afford 
funds enough to prosecute the work 
vigorously. 
The postage on seeds, bulbs and cions 
is now 16 cents per pound and the old 
rate of eight cents is held to be much 
more equitable. On similar matter Can¬ 
ada charges only four cents, and our gov¬ 
ernment carries Canadian goods of this 
kind Avithout extra charge, while exact¬ 
ing four times as much from its own 
citizens! There is little doubt that 
cheaper postage would so increase the 
dissemination of fruits, trees, etc. as 
greatly to increase the wealth of the 
country and the health aud happiness 
of the people. 
The Association very truly says that 
postal notes are iuconvenieut, costly and 
no safer to send through the mails than 
greenbacks. They can be obtained only 
at money-order offices, aud these consti¬ 
tute only 14 per cent of the post-offices 
in the country, and are so located that 
the farming population is not properly 
accommodated. The re-issue of fractional 
currency would do away with the iucon- 
vemtnce due to this cause, and be also 
handy iu shopping, paying-off help, and 
numerous other affairs. The issue of 
money orders for $5 or less would insure 
the safety of small sums passing through 
the mails, which cannot be done by the 
use of postal notes. 
A telegram from Washington this morn¬ 
ing announces that the fifth object of the 
association has already been partly ac¬ 
complished. The Postmaster-General has 
become alarmed at the effect of his order 
imposing letter rates of postage on printed 
matter in violation of the law. His ac¬ 
tion has aroused widespread indignation 
throughout the country. IIis order 
changed the practice of the Department 
during eight, years after the passage of the 
law to which he gives a new interpreta¬ 
tion. Borne of the most distinguished 
lawyers in the country declare that he de¬ 
serves impeachment for his violation of 
the law, by his new order. Startled 
by the effect of this, he has just directed 
that it shall be suspended where the post¬ 
masters are satisfied there was no intention 
of violating the law. We are much mis¬ 
taken, however, if the public will Vie con¬ 
tent with anything short of an absolute 
revocation of the order. It is maintained 
that the law clearly indicates that the for¬ 
mer practice of the Department was cor¬ 
rect, and that the Postmaster-General 
had no power to change or suspend the 
operation of the law as interpreted for the 
eight preceding years. Probably the 
most satisfactory way of disposing of the 
question would be by a clear amendment 
of the law as early as possible during the 
next session of Congress. 
The other objects of the Postal Improve¬ 
ment Association arc highly commendable, 
aud there could not be a better time than 
the present- for demanding national legis¬ 
lation to accomplish them. The Post 
Office Department will soon be self-sup 
portiug for the first time in the history of 
the country. This is due to the increase 
of business and not to any reduction of 
expenses, for these have grown propor¬ 
tionately with the traffic. This increase 
of business has persistently followed the 
substitution of cheaper postal rates. Since 
the substitution of the two-ceut rate on 
letters the busiuess has steadily increased 
until now fully 50 per ceut. more letters 
are sent than when the rate was three 
cents. With cheaper postage on plants, 
seeds, etc., there will be a vast increase in 
letter correspondence on the business, as 
welt as in mouey orders—the most profi¬ 
table branch of the Post Office business. 
If the postal rates are maintained as at 
present, it is not improbable that within 
a year the Department will be jielding a 
revenue to the Treasury instead of de¬ 
manding appropriations from it. But we 
don’t want any more revenue. The most 
difficult problem tioav before the Nation is 
how to dispose of its surplus revenue. 
Instead of drawing a revenue from the 
Post Office, few better means of using 
some of the surplus could be hit upon 
than to appropriate a part of it to the 
Post Office and lower postage rate not 
only on seeds, plan’s, bulbs, and cions, 
but on letters also. 
brvitiees. 
The New Year’s number will be the next 
special and the last issue of 1887. 
Country friends—fathers and mothers— 
read the article “Does Your District School 
Pay ? If not, why not ?” 
Colorado farmers have reduced the con¬ 
struction of storage dug-outs to a science. 
This is one of the things that “The East can 
learn of the West.” 
“Does Your School Pay?” See page 805 
By the way how far wroug is “Uncle Jacob” 
iu his esrimate of the importance of good 
schools in the country ? 
Let apple growers who desire to establish a 
reputation for their fruit, label each barrel 
“The best apples iu the middle and bottom” 
and sign their names and addresses in full. 
Here is something for you to think over. 
If chemical fertilizer had never been used 
would you bo hotter or worse off to-day? 
This is a big subject as you will find after 
thinking it over a little. 
All the. doors that were fitted with screens 
during the summer should now be fitted with 
storm doors. The same spirit that prompts 
one to defend his household from flies aud mos¬ 
quitoes should urge a defense agaiust cold and 
wind. 
A friend in Kansas Avrites that the drought 
taught him one lesson about farm stock. In 
very hot, dry weather a mule does better for 
farm work than a horse. The “melting point” 
of a mule, he says, is far higher than that 
of a horse. 
Some poultry shippers are trying a new 
plan for making their poultry presentable. 
The feathers are left on the head and half-way 
down the neck. It must be confessed that the 
birds look better dressed in this way than with 
the bare reck and head, but they do not sell 
so well in the general market. 
The oleomargarine men are loud in their 
assertions that the late Congressional legisla¬ 
tion has entirely failed in its objects. One 
of its objects was to force them to deal hon¬ 
estly. rta« it failed in that? If it has so 
utterly failed in its objects, why are they 
trying by every means to secure the repeal 
or modification of it? 
Referring to the article about the degen¬ 
eration of potatoes by our respected friend, 
Mr. B. F. Johnson, it occurs to us to say that 
his advice to raise seedlings from the best va¬ 
rieties of to-day is growing every year more 
and more difficult to follow. We rarely raise 
less than 75 different kinds of potatoes—and 
we rarely can find a seed-ball that contains 
seed. 
One thing that led up to the present system 
of cold storage for fruits was the old-fash¬ 
ioned plan of freezing apples. The family 
supply of apples would be put iu the attic— 
usually an unfurnished room. The apples 
would remain frozen all winter and when 
slowly thawed out in the spring they were 
found to be mellow and good. We have 
recently seen this plan advocated for tbe 
keeping of seed potatoes. Don’t try it. You 
will lose all you freeze. 
We have always taken the view that the 
better the farm press is, the more liberally it 
will be patronized. Instead, therefore of a 
readiuess to sneer at our contemporaries who 
show a worthy enterprise, wc are glad to see 
it and to comrnoud it. Honest enterprise in 
one paper helps all other good papers and as¬ 
sists iu wiping out of existence those thieves 
and parasites that live for a time on the good 
name Avhich others have created. 
The Rural is about positive that hundreds 
of dollars are thrown away by most farmers 
during their lives by using paints upon their 
houses—outside aud in—upou their out houses 
and fences, of an inferior kind or improperly 
prepared for the Intended purpose. The be¬ 
lief is based upon some observation and much 
experience. The series of proposed articles 
elsewhere referred to on painting, the best of 
paints, etc., will throw valuable light upon 
the subject. 
There are thousands of boxes of “Spanish 
onions” in the markets. As a matter of fact 
t hese onions are not “Spanish” at all. Most 
of them come from Sicily aud Lower Italy. 
They are large and shapely. Most of them 
are packed in stout crates. Many people pre¬ 
fer them to our native onions but we can see 
few if any points of superiority, it is said 
that these onions form the chief food of 
the laborer that grow them. A big onion 
with a piece of black broad, or a handful of 
“torfu”—ground parched corn—makes a good 
meal for an Italian onion grower. The Amer¬ 
ican gardener wants tnout and fruit. He 
wants to support churches aud schools aud 
educate bissousaod daughters. It will need 
high ocean, freight’ aud a higher “tariff” to 
enable him to eomiieto.with his onion-eating 
friend across, the water. 
