VOL. XLVII. NO. 2017. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888, 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered According to Act of Congress, In the Year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
THE RURAL’S HYBRIDS BETWEEN 
THE RASPBERRY AND 
BLACKBERRY. 
The R. N.-Y. has kept its readers fully 
posted as to the rise and progress of its hybrids 
between the blackberry and raspberry, the 
seeds of which were planted in 1880. Three 
of these plants have fruited the present season. 
The first is, to all appearances, a raspberry. 
The plant is very vigorous, the leaves very 
large, the canes nearly thornless, the berries 
yellow, of medium size, rather soft and of the 
quality v of the Caroline. Imperfect berries 
were noticed here and there. The second 
bears a red berry of the same color, size aud 
quality of the Hansel. Some of these berries 
were also observed to 
be imperfect. . The 
third plant resembles 
a blackberry in every 
way, though the spines 
are less numerous and 
shorter. Some of the 
eaves consist of five 
pedate leaflets, as in 
the blackberry pure 
and simple. The back 
part of the leaves has 
none of the whitish 
down or bloom com¬ 
mon to the raspberry. 
The canes are fur¬ 
rowed as in the black¬ 
berry. The flowers 
resemble those of the 
raspberry, and the 
drupes separate from 
the receptacle as in 
the raspberry. *.• 
Our illustration, 
Fig. 317, which is true 
to nature, shows the 
abortive flowers upon 
the left specimen, aud 
several imperfect ber¬ 
ries (if they may be so 
called), as shown by 
the middle and right- 
fa a n d illustrations. 
The best berry bore 
five drupes. These 
were jet black, of 
large size and of the 
raspberry flavor in so 
far as could be judged. It will be remembered 
that these plants all came from raspberry 
mothers. 
If judged from the past season’s behavior, 
it will appear that little is to be hoped from 
this hybridization. We have about 15 plants 
which have not yet fruited, besides quite a 
number of hybrid seeds produced the present 
season. 
.. faxm Copies. 
FARM ERS’ D EBTS. 
There are many farmers who are in no dan¬ 
ger of getting into debt. They are well off, 
have money in the bank or loaned elsewhere, 
and make good profits from their farms be¬ 
sides their interest money. Such farmers al¬ 
ways have plenty of money; or, if not, they 
have only to draw from their invested capital. 
It is far otherwise with a large class of 
farmers. If not already in debt more or less, 
they are often near its borders and strongly 
tempted to enter. Two classes of influences 
are at work to get farmers into debt. One 
class includes the desire to make a show, to 
ride in style, etc. Often the farmer works 
hard and economizes, keeping out of debt till 
his children get grown up. They must have 
things that father and mother never thought 
of having. They have no scruples about run¬ 
ning in debt; it seems easy. The old folks op¬ 
pose in vain and the family enter upon a 
course which brings untold pain and sorrow. 
I have known an instance where a man and his 
wife worked hard, bought a farm and nearly 
paid for it. But one of their sons must have a 
fine horse and carriage and other things to 
match. The result was that the farmer got 
entangled.in debt and in the end, whiclf soon 
came, he lost all his property exceptjhis house 
hold goods. That son is worth very little to 
day, and the father and mother had no home 
in their old age except by the charity of 
others. It is a sad thing to go in debt to grat¬ 
ify pride or love of pleasure. Let farmers and 
their children beware of this great evil. 
But there is another class of influences 
which impel men into debt. There are times 
when it certainly seems best to hire money. 
Take an example. A son takes the old farm 
with its poor buildings. He brings his wife 
home, children are born to them, and he 
finds the cold, inconvenient house is killing 
his dear ones. He has a little money saved up, 
decides to fix up the old house as the timbers 
are good. He has, say, $200. This he thinks 
will do the work, but so much has to be done 
that in the end he finds himself one, two, or 
three hundred dollars in debt. Suppose he 
has to pay six, 12 or 18 or more dollars a year 
in interest, the added comfort and convenience 
and health of his family fully repay this, as 
well as the cost of repairing. Other cases 
occur at times when it seems necessary to 
run into debt; but if farmers were more 
deeply impressed with the evil of debt, they 
would suffer much before allowing them¬ 
selves to be bound by its chain. It is 
always best to have, if possible, a sum 
laid by to use in case of a sudden need for 
money. Sickness may come, a horse may die 
and a new one have to be bought, a thousand 
dnforseen cases may occur in which money 
will have to be used, and if it is not at hand, 
it must be borrowed. It is a very good plan 
to keep a cash account, noting down all money 
received and paid. This shows where the 
money goes. Too often it goes a little here 
and a little there for things not actually 
needed, and so when the real need comes the 
money to meet it is gone. Then it is hard to 
pay debts. Crops may fail, loss may come in 
many ways, and it is sad indeed when the 
relentless money-lender takes the farmer’s all. 
Let every farmer avoid debt as something to 
be dreaded and shunned. It is not neces¬ 
sary to be stingy and parsimonious, but self- 
denial is necessary, aud however hard, it is 
not as hard as financial ruin. plowman. 
SOME FARM NOTES. 
BY JACOB. 
Feeding Manure.—I frequently see it 
stated in my agricultural papers that a man 
should never give his cattle food that he 
would not eat himself. While this applies 
more particularly to dairy cows, it is implied 
that all cattle require sweet and clean food. 
My German neighbor eats food that my 
family would consider sufficient cause for in¬ 
stituting revolutionary proceedings; so I 
suppose that by the same standard my cows 
ought to have better feed than his. He never 
reads an agricultural paper. I like to tell 
him, sometimes, about the things I read. Re¬ 
garding this question of feeding clean and 
pure food to cattle, he said that in parts of 
Europe, farmers feed their horse manure 
to their cows, which eat it with relish. 
This I could hardly believe. I have fre¬ 
quently seen cows, at the close of a hard 
and long winter, eat manure, dirt and other 
offensive matter; but I had supposed it to be 
simply an abnormal taste brought on by a diet 
of poor or spoiled fodder. But I find in Prof. 
Storer’s Agriculture (page 483, voL 1) the fol¬ 
lowing extract from Laign’s “Residence in 
Norway,” written in 1859, which seems to put 
my neighbor right: 
“ I saw this forenoon a piece of rural man¬ 
agement that will scarcely be believed. The 
stock of this farm is 30 cows and 16 horses. 
The latter, of course, get no grain. A man 
came out of the stable with as much horse 
dung as could be heaped on his spade and laid 
it down on the snow. He brought one spade¬ 
ful after another till the stable was cleaned 
out,and he placed each spadeful in a little heap 
by itself. He then let out the cows, which ran 
to the dung and ate it with great relish. This 
repast, it seems, was given to them once a day. 
These cows were far from being in a starving 
condition, or driven by hunger to this strange 
diet. They were frolicsome, and their skins 
were clean and glossy. The inferior animals 
appear to be capable of forming acquired 
tastes as well as mau. If the farmer can 
avail himself of these, whether practiced at 
first by hunger or imitation,so as to spare oth¬ 
er food, he is wise in doing so. He should not 
wait until the cattle are starving before giv¬ 
ing them substitutes for hay and straw.” 
The object of this quotation from “Agricul¬ 
ture”, is to point out the fact that the qual¬ 
ity of manure must depend upon the quality 
of the food given. The manure from this 
twice-digested hay 
cannot be worth much 
for feeding. Such 
feeding is typical of 
the very lowest type 
of farming. It is cer¬ 
tainly a good deal 
pleasanter, if not 
more profitable, ,to be 
able to farm so that 
one can afford to feed 
so that a portion of 
value of the food may 
go to the manure. 
About Feed Mills. 
—How large must a 
farm be to support a 
wind-mill or any other 
power and a feed mill. 
It seems to me that 
the profit of a feed 
mill will hare to be 
determined by the 
number of head of 
stock kept, and of 
course the stock will 
be regulated by the 
size of the farm. The 
newer mills for grind¬ 
ing corn-and-cob meal 
seem to be about per¬ 
fect. The saving of 
the feeding value of 
the cob is, beyond all 
question, a great econ¬ 
omy. A good mill will 
cost at least -$80. 
want to know how 
much stock I must feed in order to make 
such a mill pay for itself. Must I keep five, 
10, 15 or 25 head of stock aud raise all my 
com before I can get my money back on such 
a mill ? The general opinion is that these 
mills are not profitable for small farmers. I 
wish those who use them would tell us about it. 
Feeding Rye.—A good many farmers in 
my country firmly believe that rye straw is a 
very healthy food for horses. The sheaves of 
straw, with the grain on, are chopped in a 
fodder-cutter and moistened with hot water 
just before feeding. Horses eat this food very 
well after they become used to it. It keeps 
them in good condition; it is a local tradition 
here that the rye straw acts as a vermifuge 
and also that the sharp spines dislodge bots 
from the wall of the stomach. Rye meal 
makes an excellent food for hogs and equal 
parts of rye and oats ground and mixed with 
half the bulk of wheat-bran make an excel- 
lentjfeed for cows. But ours is a rye country. 
This grain pays us better than any other. In 
other sections it might not pay to feed rye at all. 
THE R. N.-Y.'S HYBRIDS BETWEEN THE BLACKBERRY AND RASPBERRY.—From Nature. Fig. 317. 
