S22 
MAY 42 
t 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ANational Journal for Country and Suburban Home’. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. C4RMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1888. 
Of the IB eggs of Red Caps set, 11 
hatched. -We have never seen a livelier, 
more uniformly marked brood of chicks. 
Professor Shelton calls attention to 
a mistake in his article on “Corn List¬ 
ing,” page 281. Listing was first prac¬ 
ticed in Brown County, Kansas, about 
1873-; not 1883, as the article states. 
Dr. Collier, the Director of the New 
York Experiment Station, talks as if he 
just knew what problems to work upon 
in order to help farmers, and from what 
we know and have heard of his persever¬ 
ance and sincerity, we have little doubt 
that the Station will thoroughly devote 
itself to just that work. 
The Editor of the Rural New-TorJcer 
would esteem it a favor if all who are try¬ 
ing the Rural Trench System of raising po¬ 
tatoes would write us a postal stating: (1) 
The size of the plot; (2) the quantity of fer¬ 
tilizer used , the manufacturer and price; 
(3) the name of the variety of potato planted, 
and any other particulars they may choose 
to add. 
whenever in their opinion such a course I 
was advisable. When the inspectors 
visited the farm of Emberry Hill, in West¬ 
chester County, they were resisted by the 
owner. The inspectors procured the ser¬ 
vices of the Sheriff. Hill resisted the 
Sheriff, too, and was indicted. Hill’s 
lawyer demurred to the indictment, and 
Judge Brown of the Supreme Court, last 
Monday, sustained the demurrer, and 
supported Farmer Hill. By this decision 
more than 40 cattle inspectors have been 
practically declared to have been acting 
without authority of law, and actions may 
be brought against them for trespass. 
We can’t help feeling a little queer as 
we read the explicit directions given by 
some of our excellent contemporaries as to 
how to cut potatoes for seed. We must 
begin at one end and “cut the eyes accord¬ 
ing to the spiral bud arrangement,” etc. 
Is there a sane farmer in the land that 
does not know that if he would secure 
seed that will give him the fullest stand 
and yield, he must be guided in cutting 
his potatoes by the apparent strength of 
the eyes? It very often happens that 
all the eyes of a potato are imperfect ex¬ 
cept those of the seed end, and that only 
those will grow. In such cases, either we 
must cut in halves or quarters, so that 
each part shall have an eye-bud, or take 
the chances of “missing hills” wherever 
other portions are planted. The Rural’s 
advice as to cutting potatoes might be 
summed up in these words: “Plant pieces 
showing one or more strong, full eyes, 
and reject all others.” If this advice 
were followed, we believe that there 
would be comparatively few missing hills, 
and that the yield would be increased 
accordingly. 
form the basis for improvement in dairy 
cattle. He proposes to secure four speci¬ 
mens—two heifers and two steers—of each 
of the following breeds: Jersey, Holstein, 
Guernsey, Ayrshire, Short-horn, Devon, 
and one or two polled breeds. He wants 
young stock so that all may grow 
up together, subject to the same condi¬ 
tions of feeding and handling. The heif¬ 
ers are to be developed as dairy animals 
and the steers are to be fed for beef. 
The yearly growth of the animals under 
like conditions and feeding and the 
amount of food consumed in proportion 
to their live weight will all be noted, 
and the old question as to the relative 
profit of large or small dairy cows will be 
again discussed. The Holstein breeders 
have practically agreed to furnish four 
animals for this experiment, and it is 
hoped that other cattle breeders will fol¬ 
low their example and furnish superior 
animals for the trial. We should say 
that the Director had a strong belief that 
the “general-purpose” cow is a profitable 
possibility. Well, she may be—at any 
rate it will do no harm to hunt for her, 
provided the hunting can be done at the 
public expense. 
THE SHADOW OF A DEBT. 
D r Hoskins has drawn a sad and pow¬ 
erful picture of one side of farm 
life. And it is a truthful picture, too, of 
many a man’s life. What was wrong in 
this life? There must have been some¬ 
thing, for it does not seem right that a 
man should find himself at 62 years of age 
looking back over a life-work with no¬ 
thing but despondency and gloom. We 
should say that our friend in the story 
took his first wrong step when he ran in 
debt for the Short-horn cattle. That debt 
laid the foundation for a life of worry and 
trouble, and this powerful story should 
teach a mighty lesson to all young men 
who are starting out in life. Ah! it is 
so easy to borrow money! We have such 
faith in our business ability! It seems so 
easy to pay principal and interest! This 
feeling of security has ruined thousands 
of farmers who now, old and gray, with 
only the remnants of life left, look back 
despondingly over hard and weary lives. 
Suppose our friend had kept his money; 
suppose he had gone on in the way of his 
fathers, gradually improving his stock, 
if he wished, by the introduction of a good 
bull; suppose he had absolutely insisted 
that his household expenses should fall 
below his income. Suppose he had abso¬ 
lutely resisted the temptation to borrow 
money to embark in new enterprises. If 
he had done this—and he could have done 
it—who can imagine that the story of his 
life would have been as sad as Dr. Hos¬ 
kins has pictured it? To our mind this 
is the key to the story—this is the secret 
of the failure. Debt! Debt! ! Debt! 1 ! 
The easiest thing in the world to get into, 
the hardest thing to get away from with¬ 
out leaving a portion of yourself on the 
hooks. There are other lessons to be 
learned in this story. They will be point¬ 
ed out in time. The point we want to 
make here is that no man ever can get on 
in life until he masters the'art of keeping 
out of debt; of compelling his expenses 
to sink below his income. 
THE “FARMERS’ FEDERATION.” 
Yesterday a charter was filed at To¬ 
peka, Kansas, for the “Farmers’ Feder¬ 
ation of the Mississippi Valley.” The 
capital stock is to be $20,000,000 in 2,000,- 
000 shares of $10 each. The charter is 
signed by members of 14 States and three 
Territories. This is the latest step in the 
movement for the development of what 
has been known as the Farmers’ Trust. 
The term “Trust” is so objectionable from 
the nature of many organizations bearing 
that name that “Federation” is much to be 
preferred. The Inter-State Convention in 
favor of the movement has been in session 
at Topeka during the week. The chief 
feature brought forward was a proposal to 
establish central agencies to do all the 
selling for the members of the association. 
In contradistinction to the Grange, the 
Trust or Federation undertakes to con¬ 
trol the prices of what farmers have to sell 
instead of controlling those of what they 
have to buy, and, as stated here a few weeks 
ago, one of the chief objects of the new 
organization will be the appointment of 
agents to sell all sorts of farm products 
to the best advantage. Very prudently, 
the convention decided to “go slow.” 
There is a great deal of danger that if any 
attempt is made in this country to hold 
farm produce for prices higher than those 
ruling in foreign markets, it will simply 
act as an encouragement to rival produc¬ 
ers in other countries, who will so flood 
our markets abroad, that we shall either 
We shall tell a good deal about insec¬ 
ticides in the next issue of the Rural. 
Not the whole story—hundreds of ento¬ 
mologists have been working for years 
and have not been able to do that yet— 
but enough to save many thousands of 
dollars to those who heed. Insects will 
come and insects will go. even after this 
Special Number, but we hope we may 
help in stopping a few that come from 
getting away with their plunder. 
As the result of again using rye pollen 
last summer on our rye-wheat, hybrids, 
which, by the recorded parentage, were 
three-quarters rye, two seeds formed. 
Though small and shriveled,they sprouted 
and the two plants are now alive and 
thrifty though smaller than the others. 
One of these plants has so entirely the ap¬ 
pearance of rye that a close comparison 
failed to show any difference. Differences 
will no doubt develop as the plant grows. 
Thus far our experience has been that the 
more rye blood in the hybrid plant the 
nearer is the approach to absolute ster¬ 
ility. t i _ _ 
Among the things that the Rural be- 
lives it has been taught by its plot experi¬ 
mentation is that in an impoverished soil 
it pays to use a liberal amount of fertil¬ 
izer for potatoes. Let our readers try as 
we have so often done, using upon differ¬ 
ent plots all the way from 250 to 2,000 
pounds per acre and note the result. But 
we don’t want a“phosphate” or a “super¬ 
phosphate” or an “ammoniated super¬ 
phosphate” or a “Swift-sure” or anything 
of the kind. We want a high grade of 
potato fertilizer. Buy the raw material 
and mix it yourself if you choose and can 
save by it—but let it have a high per 
cent, of available potash, nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid. 
All our people seemed last year to take 
fervent part in the memorial observances 
of Decoration Day, which now excels the 
“Fourth” in its power of cherishing pat¬ 
riotic feeling. But this is not all. For 
weeks the way to the cemetery has been 
trodden by busy feet, on the way to plant 
and trim and decorate the graves of 
friends. And this is seldom done by 
mercenary help. People of every social 
position seem to prefer to do this pious 
work with their own hands, and every 
year they do it better and better, each 
learning from others more and more about 
the selection and arrangement and later 
treatment of the plants used about their 
graves. 
The Government Bureau of Animal 
Industry in its attempts to eradicate 
pleuro-pneumonia in the neighborhood 
of this city, made a set of rules which were 
supposed to be in harmony with the laws 
of the State of New York, passed in 1867. 
These rules authorized the Bureau in¬ 
spectors to quarantine, tag and number 
all cattle in the counties of New York, 
Queens, Richmond and Westchester, 
An appreciation of salsify is slowly but 
steadily gaining ground. We are re¬ 
minded to speak of it now because we 
have just eaten our last “mess” taken 
from the ground, where it had remained 
all winter, being perfectly hardy. The 
roots when cooked were perfectly tender 
without a trace of woody fiber, and the 
quality delicious. It has a delicate flavor 
as peculiar to itself as is the flavor of as¬ 
paragus, and a great point in its favor is 
that we may enjoy it while green peas, as¬ 
paragus or greens of any kind are yet a 
long way off. The seeds may be sown 
now in drills a foot apart and about an 
inch deep, thinning the plants out to 
four or five inches in the row. Salsify 
may be cooked in several different ways, 
cut into slices and boiled first in water; 
then they may be fried, or they may be 
mashed and baked like potatoes, or they 
may be used for soup, in which case the 
oyster flavor is decided, or they may be 
sliced and dressed with vinegar, pepper 
and salt. The variety known as the Mam¬ 
moth Sandwich Island is said to be larger 
than and superior to the Long White 
French, though we have not tried it. 
Some months ago Prof. II. P. Armsby, 
a prominent chemist and author of a 
standard work on cattle feeding, thus 
tersely stated what hundreds have stated 
before: 
“A cow which naturally gives rich milk 
will still continue to do so, even on poor food, 
though in much smaller quantity; while a cow 
that naturally gives poor milk could not be 
much improved, even by the addition of rich 
food.” 
This statement has called out so much 
interest that we have decided to revive 
the discussion as to the relative import¬ 
ance of breeu or feed in milk and butter 
production. We shall soon publish a 
series of articles from some of our leading 
dairy authorities, that promise to be the 
most valuable contributions to dairy liter¬ 
ature that have been published for a long 
time. Whether breed or feed is most im¬ 
portant, it is evident that the cow is the 
basis of success in dairying. These arti¬ 
cles will be preceded by notes from some 
of our best dairymen on the breeding, 
selecting and rearing of graded heifer 
calves. Thus we shall combine the prac¬ 
tical experience of farmers with that of 
scientific experts. See if they do not 
agree. 
BEST DAIRY COW FOR NEW YORK. 
D irector Peter Collier, of the 
Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station, 
proposes a novel experiment, which, if 
carefully conducted, will be of consider¬ 
able value to New York farmers. He 
states that the average butter yield per 
cow in this State does not exceed 130 
pounds per year when it ought not to fall 
below 300 pounds. The Station, he ar¬ 
gues, should help in working out the 
problems of feeding, individual variations 
and breed characteristics, which must 
lose them altogether, or prices at home as 
well as abroad will be ruinously low. It 
is well therefore that the members decided 
to give the matter careful attention, fin¬ 
ally postponing consideration of the sub¬ 
ject until the holding of the National Far¬ 
mers’ Convention at Topeka in November. 
In order to avoid all possible entangling 
alliances or other complications, however, 
it was decided to confine membership to 
farmers and persons working with them 
or for them. A great many farmers’ as¬ 
sociations that started out with fair prom¬ 
ises of success have dwindled or collapsed 
altogether, owing to defects in their rules 
and organization,and itistobe hoped that 
this new association, learning wisdom 
from the mishaps of others, will avoid all 
dangers of this sort, and be not only a real 
help to the farmers of its own section; but 
a model for similar organizations in other 
parts of the country. 
BREVITIES. 
Mushrooms are $1 per pound, with a light 
supply. 
There were no rye heads the first of May 
this season. 
Our seedling potatoes (from the Rural 
Blush), started in boxes during February, 
were potted May 2, each plant being set in a 
three-mch pot. 
Scarcely one of the 60 different varieties 
of grape-vines growing at the Rural Grounds 
seems to have been materially injured during 
the past cold season. 
Don’t you believe that it adds to the value 
of a cow to have her halter-broken? We 
know that it does. The time to begin this 
breaking is while the cow is a calf. 
Dealers tell us that the California fruit 
trade is earlier than ever this year with fruit 
in exellent condition. They also say the straw¬ 
berry crop from the South has been lighter 
than usual. 
The egg market is dull enough now. Eggs 
retail in the markets at 18 for 25 cents. These 
are Western eggs. Near-by eggs sell at 11 for 
25 cents. As we have before stated, city peo¬ 
ple have a general idea that the quality of an 
egg is injured by long shipment by rail. 
The cultivation of dandelions for “greens” 
is getting to be quite an industry. The mar¬ 
kets are fairly well supplied this year, but 
more could have been sold easily. The prices 
now are 15 and 20 cents per quart. The first 
beets come with their tops on. The style at 
the restaurants seems to be to boil young 
beets with the tops and chop up all together. 
One of the most extensive small fruit grow¬ 
ers near the Rural Grounds prefers the 
Brandywine for a red and the Doolittle for a 
black raspberry. He chooses the Charles 
Downing as the most profitable strawberry. 
We find at the Rural Grounds that, growing 
side by side, the Brandywine has not been in¬ 
jured by the past winter, while the Golden 
Queen and Cuthbert have been injured con¬ 
siderably. 
On the new Rural farm is a five-acre hill¬ 
side field quite thickly covered with Red 
Cedars. They are of all sizes, from one foot 
to 20 feet high. Contrary to the advice of 
the neighbors, we propose to let these trees 
grow and even to plant out new ones from 
time to time. We believe they will make 
growth enough in the next 10 years to realize 
a good profit. Are we right? 
The need of a good editor in the State 
Department at Washington is being discussed 
by several papers. Such a need is evident 
to all who have examined the reports sent by 
our consuls, and published by the Department 
in pamphlet form. Many very valuable facts 
are brought before the public m these reports, 
but they are generally so wordy and drawn 
out that they lose many readers. If they 
could be pruned and boiled down before 
being published they would be all the more 
valuable. 
The supply of Southern vegetables seems 
heavier than ever this year. The streets are 
fairly lined with barrels and crates of toma¬ 
toes, cabbages, peas and beans. Asparagus, 
too, is very plentiful. The best asparagus at 
present comes from Charleston, S. C. The 
Maryland and Delaware crop will soon take 
its place and in turn give up to New Jersey 
and Long Island. Green peas from North 
Carolina and Virginia get the best price at 
present. String beans from Mobile and New 
Orleans are selling at good prices. 
We lately had occasion to remove several 
young Sugar Maples from a swampy wood. 
They were from one to two inches in diameter 
near the base of the stem and about eight feet 
high. The roots of these trees, in a fibrous 
mass, spread out almost on the surface of the 
ground, and there was no sign of a tap-root. 
Sinking a spade a couple of inches in a circle 
18 inches in diameter, the trees were readily 
lifted. They were transplanted in high, dry 
soil. Now, how deep ought this shallow circle 
of roots to have been set beneath the surface 
to best insure life and vigor? 
A “respectable grocer” who has been sev¬ 
eral times detected in selling bogus for genuine 
butter, has been sentenced to three months’ 
imprisonment by Recorder Smith, of this city, 
and, furthermore, the Recorder says, “I am 
going to send every one of the cart-grease 
butter dealers to prison now. This business 
must be stopped.” It ought to be stopped not 
only here, but everywhere else. Nobody 
objects to the sale of oleomargarine under its 
own name and for what it is. Its supporters 
claim that it is better than real butter; why, 
then, sell it as an inferior article? The law 
demands that it must be sold under its own 
name, and attempts to sell it under any other 
name deseive ana should receive punishment. 
