7H 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
OCT 27 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Home ■ 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1888. 
Ho one, as yet, has picked up the 
potato gauntlet which the Rural has 
thrown for 1889, though the plot will be 
more than doubled. 
“ The separator cleans milk of only such 
substances as are heavier than the milk. 
Any impurities held in solution remain un¬ 
disturbed T. D. Curtis, page 708, 
Rye will be scarce and high in this 
section of country, at least, next year. 
The daily rains have prevented farmers 
from sowing and it is now too late. 
Field after field of potatoes has not yet 
been harvested. 
“ As a rule, the more manipulation which 
any product undergoes, the more opportuni 
ties and the more temptations are offered for 
adulteration.'' 1 Prof. Babcock, page 708. 
-»» « ♦ »» - 
Major H. E. Alvord is a good judge 
of art and an enthusiastic agriculturist. 
Here is an extract from a recent letter: 
“I want the likeness of Sir John B. 
Lawes printed in the Rural for August 4, 
for framing for my station office, and 1 
would like to be one of a number to subscribe 
for several copies to be prepared from your 
plate, on heavy paper, especially for the 
purpose indicated. I speak for an '•art¬ 
ist's proof ‘ ’ as the reward for this sug¬ 
gestion .” 
We will have the copies made if a suf¬ 
ficient number of persons desire to pro¬ 
cure them. 
“A teacher's qualifications, in my opinion, 
must be genuine love of children, and good 
common sense, book-knowledge, and an in¬ 
teresting way of imparting instruction. 
One born in the country, or at least one who 
knows country life well, will be most apt to 
succeed in an ungraded district school .— 
MISS E. BEECHER, page 720. 
- 1 ^ ■. ♦ - 
A correspondent in this issue says 
that school commissioners should be book¬ 
sellers or book-agents, and supply text¬ 
books to pupils. This plan will not work 
Well. Some States expressly forbid the 
school officials to act as agents. There is 
too much profit in the school-book busi¬ 
ness. The publishing houses that issue 
these books, are practically, “trusts.” 
We know from experience how some of 
the agents of these publishing firms work 
to get the good-will and backing of school 
officials. The right way to supply our 
schools with unitorm and suitable text¬ 
books is to have such books prepared by 
the State Superintendents of Instruction, 
printed by the State and supplied to the 
pupils at cost. This is business. Why 
not? 
“ The cheapest way to get standard milk is 
to get cows and feed them so that they will give 
large quantities of milk, just rich enough 
to satisfy the legal standard. 
L. S. Hardin, page 708 
■ ■ ♦ - 
The agriculture of about every coun¬ 
try community is marked by two distinct 
purposes. The main object of one class 
of farmers, is to keep up the fertility of 
the soil, or to make it more and more 
productive. Raising cash crops is a mat¬ 
ter of second importance to that of sav¬ 
ing manure or the practice of a sound ro¬ 
tation. Such men farm for the future as 
well as for the present. This is farming 
on sound and sure business principles. 
Another class of farmers aim to get 
every cent they can from their soil. The 
crops that bring the most ready cash are 
raised, whether they exhaust the soil or 
not. Manure, crop rotation and similar 
aids to successful husbandry are put be¬ 
low the desire to make all the cash that 
can be made from this season’s crop. 
This is speculative farming, bound to 
fail in the end. There never has been a 
time in the history of American agricul¬ 
ture when it would prove more profit¬ 
able to pursue the first course indicated 
than it will to-day. 
The Rural’s potato contest has creat¬ 
ed more of a sensation in agricultural 
circles than any other similar scheme 
that has been heard of in late years. Not 
only has the interest in potato growing 
been revived, but farmers everywhere are 
considering the plan of testing some par 
ticular grain or vegetable on a small 
scale it may be, with a view to determin- 
ingthe exact conditions needed to pro¬ 
duce the best possible crop. An instance 
of this kind is noted on another page, 
where a subscriber announces his inten¬ 
tion of experimenting with buckwheat. 
These efforts should be encouraged. 
They indicate a progressive spirit of agri¬ 
culture that is highly encouraging. The 
object of the Rural’s “contest” was to 
show, in their most favorable light, the 
conditions needed to produce a heavy 
crop of potatoes. These conditions in¬ 
cluded cutting the seed, preparing the 
ground, fertilizing and cultivating. The 
Berraon we try to preach from this practical 
illustration is that farmers should copy 
the cultivation we gave these potatoes as 
carefully as they can within the limits of 
economy. We are certain that well-con¬ 
ducted experiments with other crops will 
point out exceedingly valuable facts that 
may serve as models for future cultiva¬ 
tion. By all means let; the trials be made. 
“There are hundreds of designs of poultry 
houses, but the best has not yet been discov¬ 
ered, as it is a matter of preference. I pre¬ 
fer one that has the floor raised three feet off 
the ground, the space closed on three sides, 
and open to the south, so that it will serve as 
a covered i~un in inclement weather. The 
nests and roosts may be on the floor above." 
p. h. Jacobs, page 721. 
MONEY IN HOGS. 
A DVICES from the West indicate 
that the farmers with good droves 
of healthy hogs are liable to come out 
best at the end of the year. Many farm¬ 
ers must look to the hog for their main 
source of profit. There has been no in¬ 
ducement, so our informants state, to 
keep hogs back after they were fit for 
market, and as a consequence there is a 
very small surplus stock in the country. 
Whenever hogs are unusually plenty, the 
receipts of corn at this season are small, 
for a good proportion of the crop will be 
needed for the hogs. This year there 
have been unusually large receipts of the 
new crop of corn. In fact, all the usual 
signs indicate fewer hogs on western 
farms than for a number of years. To 
use a dialogue very common just now— 
“What’s the matter with the hog-farmer?” 
“He’s all right!” 
“ No, I did not eat with the family. 
'Tuasnot what I was therefor. My place 
was to serve their meals when they ate. It 
needed one to wait upon the table and I was 
that one. 
Did 1 feel degraded? 
No, why should I any more than the doc¬ 
tor did when he attended to the needs of a 
patient, or the saleswoman does in a store 
when she waits on a customer ?"— hired girl, 
in Domestic Econony. 
A LITTLE HINT. 
EXPORTS OF BREADSTUFFS. 
I F you have made up your mind to 
make us a Christmas present this year, 
we had just as soon have it now as two 
months hence. The following letter was 
sent us by a subscriber in Minnesota. 
“I am much interested in your able and 
straightforward paper—the best I have 
seen for the purpose of enlightening 
faimers. I take it myself out of inter¬ 
est for farming, though not myself 
a farmer, and so as to be able to show 
the farmers around here a first-class agri¬ 
cultural paper. The wheat crop has, for 
some years, not been profitable up here 
and the reasons are many: poor cultiva¬ 
tion, poor fertilizing, too thick sowing, 
no subsoil plowing, etc. I think our fai¬ 
mers would find potato raising profitable 
the Colorado beetle notwithstanding, and 
I take the liberty, after your kind promise, 
to send you inclosed the list of names of 
farmers who would take interest in your 
potato-culture number. i think they 
are so enlightened that they will know a 
good thing on seeing it.” 
Now if you will write us such a letter, 
changing the wording to suit your locality, 
and send it with the names of 20 or more 
of your farmer friends, we will call it 
square on the Christmas present question. 
T HE effect which the shortage of our 
wheat crop, the growing tendency to 
ship flour instead of wheat, and especially 
the Chicago “squeeze” which ended on 
September 30, have had upon our export 
wheat trade, is shown by the Treasury 
Statement just issued, giving tables of 
the exports of breadstuffs for September 
and for the three months ending with 
September 30, together with a compara¬ 
tive table of the exports of the same arti¬ 
cles for the corresponding period in 1887. 
It appears that lor the three months just 
ended the entire exports of wheat from 
all the ports of the United States during 
the last three months were only 16,273,- 
975 bushels against 33,189,170 for the 
same period in 1887. Of the exports this 
year 3,736,034 bushels were shipped from 
New York against 13,308,413 a year 
ago. Boston shipped 481,658 bushels 
during the three months against 1,- 
571,211 for the three months ending 
September 30, 1887. The proportion 
was the same in ratio for all the 
other ports except those on the Pacific 
coast where the returns show an increase; 
the total exports of wheat from San 
Francisco, California, and Portland, Ore¬ 
gon, having been 7,232,263, bushels dur¬ 
ing the three months, against 5,665,615 
for the corresponding period last year. 
The falling off in the number of barrels 
of flour exported is by no means so mark¬ 
ed, however, the total for three months 
having been 2.615,126 barrels, in 1888 
against 2,949,955 in 1887. “Old Hutch” 
of Chicago in justifying his manipulation 
of the late corner in wheat, insists that 
American wheat is now worth actually 
over $1.25 per bushel in Chicago or even 
Duluth, owing to the shortage of the 
crop and the greatly increased demand 
for domestic consumption. Acting on 
this belief, or stimulated by his recent 
enormous gains, it appears from present 
indications that it is not at all unlikely 
that the old man will also attempt to cor¬ 
ner either November or December 
wheat. Should he do so, it would not be 
a bad thing for farmers to sell out during 
the consequeut period of high prices. 
From present reports, however, it appears 
probable that many will have little or no 
wheat for sale, as there are rumors that 
hundreds of farmers in the West, tempted 
by the current figures, have already sold 
so liberally that they will have to buy 
seed for the next crop hereafter ! 
THE NUT MARKETS. 
E very year, at this season, we are plied 
with inquiries as to the profit in ship¬ 
ping our common nuts to this market. 
We have never been able to secure accur¬ 
ate figures upon which to base an estimate 
of the market demands and the extent to 
w hich the trade could be built up. Most 
of the regular commission men handle 
the nuts, but as a sort of side issue only. 
Nobody seems to make anything of a 
specialty of the trade, and there is little 
apparent effort to increase the business. 
It seems to run itself. 
The following quotations are given for 
this week’s trading: 
Chestnuts $3 to 3 50 per. bushel 
Hickory-nuts $2 “ $3 00 ” ” 
Peanuts .75 “ $1.50 ” ” 
Butternuts 5>£ “ 7c” pound 
The best demand is for chestnuts. 
They are sold to the Italian street venders 
in large quantities. The immense crop of 
this season has not had the effect of great¬ 
ly reducing prices as might have been 
expected. The market has not been 
“glutted;” in fact, the demand has 
increased with the supply, and it seems 
likely that the trade in other nuts could 
be considerably increased if more interest 
were taken in it. 
Hickory nuts are used on street stands 
and by makers of confectionery. It will 
be easier to “glut” the market with these 
nuts than with any others, as there is 
least demand for them. Butternuts are 
in good demand and hard to get. These 
rich and meaty nuts are much sought 
after and 10 times as many as are now 
handled could be sold here. 
Many of the nuts that come here are 
sent by local buyers who collect them 
from the farmers’ boys. New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania and the Hudson River 
counties of N. Y. State send many 
barrels. A good many nuts are sent from 
the South, many being sent to Baltimore 
and reshipped to this point. 
Much has been said and written in 
years past about nut-raising as a business. 
We have been urged to plant nut-bearing 
trees in all places where shade trees are 
desired, and the point has been urged 
that the product of these trees could be 
profitably disposed of. There can be no 
doubt about it. The trade for good 
chestnuts, butternuts and walnuts in 
this market can be greatly extended, and 
if a man is ready to make a study of the 
best ways of packing, shipping and 
handling these nuts he can reasom.bly 
expect to build up a good business. 
w 
HOW? 
E find the following in tin. 
Farmer of October 20 : 
Ohio 
“The Editor, of the Rural New-Yorker 
bet $50 with Wilmer Atkinson that he could 
raise at the rate of 700 bushels of potatoes per 
acre, by what he calls the ‘Rural trench 
system.’ The plat contained one-eighty-eighth 
of an acre; planted April 20. in trenches three 
feet apart; dug September 28; yield at the 
rate of 583 bushels per acre. So says the re¬ 
port of the committee. The plat was too small 
No practical inferences can be drawn from 
results when such small plats are employed 
If the R. N.-Y. Editor wants to try it again 
on not less than half an acre, we will agree 
to give $100 to some charitable purpose if he 
raises at the rate of 700 bushels per acre he 
to give the same sum if be fails.” 
Our friend should not use the word 
“bet” in this connection. There is no 
“bet” about it in the accepted sense of 
that word. Suppose our friend announces 
in its columns that it will donate to the 
poor of Cleveland $100, if any one of its 
readers succeed in raising at the rate of 
700 bushels of potatoes on a specified area 
of land by a certain method of culture 
Would that be a “bet?” The cases are 
quite parallel as we view them and as any 
other person, not crankily squeamish 
would view them. The object to be 
gained is in the interests of agriculture 
and the means employed to gain the ob¬ 
ject are benevolent. 
We can’t accept the Ohio Farmer’s 
proposition at present without the cer¬ 
tainty of defeat, for the reason that the 
available parts of our experiment grounds 
with the exception of what is already 
under experiment and about one-twentieth 
of an acre, of which the “contest” plot 
was a part, are much impoverished. We 
have never contended that by this “trench 
method” so great a crop could be raised 
in poor soil the first season, no matter 
how much fertilizers might be used. We 
have merely contended (1) that on any 
land adapted to potato culture, the 
system will profitably increase the yield 
and (2) that on land similar to that of 
the one-twentieth of an acre alluded to 
at the rate of over 700 bushels to the 
acre can be harvested as averaged one 
year with another. We will make 
this proposition to the Ohio Farmer: 
Upon a half-acre of land of our ex¬ 
periment grounds, known to be im¬ 
poverished, stony and irregular, we will 
engage next year to raise 200 bushels of 
potatoes (400 bushels to the acre), or up¬ 
on this one-twentieth of an acre, 66x33 
feet or i26 hills, we will engage to raise 
35 bushels or at the rate of 700 bushels to 
the acre. 'I he second year upon the half¬ 
acre, we would engage to raise 250 bushels 
and the third 350 bushels or 700 bushels 
to the acre. 
However, it may interest all to know 
that it is our intention to see how great a 
yield we can secure on a measured half¬ 
acre of the impoverished land above allud¬ 
ed to. This was attempted during the past 
season. But the yield—378 bushels to 
the acre, or 189 bushels actual yield on 
the half-acre—was unquestionably reduc¬ 
ed by the Flea-beetle. 
brevities. 
The Potato Special next. 
P. H. Jacob’s article should be called 
“eggshells” instead of “nutshells.” 
The article on the Ailanthus tree, page 712 
is almost enough to start a boom in the culti¬ 
vation of that wood I 
Tuesday is generally the best day to buy 
live poultry in this market. Buying is gener¬ 
ally dull and a good many coops are carried 
over from Monday. 
Have you seen the new machines that Mr. 
Terry describes? Have you seen any others 
that you think would be practical and econom¬ 
ical? If y ou have, let us hear about them? 
Do YOU recognize Mr. Grundy’s pen picture 
of a country road in mud-time? This is a 
pretty free country, but it appears that some 
of us won’t allow ourselves to use our own 
roads. 
I enjoy, the Rural’s cartoons very much 
indeed, and think they will do many times 
more good than all the spread-eagle speeches 
now being made. j. c. stribling. 
Pendleton, S. C. 
A Well-Known N. Y. State farmer writes 
as follows:—“I have not kept steers or cat¬ 
tle for feeding for some years. We are sim¬ 
ply feeding what surplus stock we raise. I 
shouldlprefer sheep to cattle now. The West 
has beaten us_in that line of late years. In 
fact, I am not trying to farm it on a large 
scale, only to keep the ropes taut and go close 
to the shore. ” Are there.any other farmers 
working on this principle? 
