NOV 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
RURAL NEW'YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Home% 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1888. 
Attention is called to the parrot that 
has recently joined “The Post Office 
Club.” This bird is a first-rate type of a 
well-marked class of agriculturists. All 
he can say is, 
Farmin’ don’t pay 1” 
There are several members of the Post 
Office Club who propose to argue this 
question with the parrot. We shall give 
them all a chance. 
-- 
''The coming age will know no farm fences. 
Farm fences and common pastures will both 
die a natural death soon”-.—C. A. Green, 
page 7 <6. 
The Botanist of a Western Experiment 
Station writes as follows: 
“I want to tell you how I like the 
Rural’s plan of thoroughly working up 
special topics. I hope all your readers 
appreciate it. I was particularly inter¬ 
ested in your last special on seed breed¬ 
ing, as I have some experiments under 
way in that line.” 
If the Osage Orange hedge is allowed to 
grow over five feet high it will suck the fer¬ 
tility out of a strip two rods or more m 
width".— F. Grundy, page 776. 
It is pleasant to know that the liberal 
press of the country have very generally 
given full and fair accounts of the 
Rural’S Potato Contest and the results. 
Surely this will do good in stirring up 
farmers to a realization of the fact that 
much larger crops may just as well be 
economically raised. A few of our es¬ 
teemed farm contemporaries have not 
cared to allude in any way to the Rural’s 
earnest efforts to bring this about, but 
we fancy that in the near future they 
will find it expedient to advocate the 
principles of the Rural’s Trench System, 
let them call it by what name soever 
they will 
“If political fences could be abolished, 
farmers could well afford to pay for all 
other kinds. And that is the nearest I can 
get to the solution of the fence question ".— A. 
L. Crosby, page 776. 
There are few farm papers that do not 
advise their readers to gather the leaves 
and place them in heaps to rot. We have 
always done this, not for the profit of it, 
but in order to tidy up the lawn and 
paths. Two years ago we collected a 
heap of leaves not less than 10 feet high 
and 15 feet square at the base. The heap 
has remained where it was made ever 
since. The residue at this time could be 
carried away in two wheelbarrow loads, 
and the leaves are not thoroughly rotted 
yet. It is slow, puttering work to gather 
and cart leaves. We believe it to be 
work that does not pay if the value of 
the rotted residue be alone considered. 
“ There are many road and line fences espec¬ 
ially' which with the shrubs and trees grown 
up in force, now occupy from two to three 
rods of ground. Is we reckon the aggregate 
on an 80 -acre farm we will have several 
acres devoted to fences," H. T. French, page 
777 
-♦ . . ♦ «<- ♦■ - 
“Editor of the R. N.-Y.: Franklin, 
Neb., Nov. 8.—I will accept your 
challenge of $50, for next year, provided 
the money be paid to the Franklin 
Academy, Nebraska.” c. s. harkison. 
It is the R. N.-Y’s opinion that the 
judges appointed to determine the yield 
might more appropriately designate the 
charity or charities to which the money 
should be donated than either of the con¬ 
testing parties. It is our hope that 
many good and generous people will ac¬ 
cept our challenge, so that in the im¬ 
probable event of the R. N.-Y’s success, 
there will be an amount to be given to 
charitable objects proportionate to that 
number. 
“ Barbed wire fences are so much cheaper 
and require so much less care thatthere can¬ 
not be a doubt that they will take the place 
of all farm hedges in the future, except in 
cases where ornamentation, aside from the 
protection of crops, is taken into considera¬ 
tion." Robert Douglas, page 777. 
A well known breeder of Ayrshire 
cattle tells how he came to look upon 
that breed as the most valuable for his 
use. He sells milk and butter. He 
started with a herd composed of good 
grades. A few Ayrshire heifers were 
introduced and bred to an Ayrshire bull. 
The milk from every cow was carefully 
weighed and it was agreed that the cows 
giving the lightest yields of milk should 
go—let them be Ayrshire, grade or scrub. 
Many an Ayrshire failed to reach the 
mark set by the grades, but slowly the 
best of the Ayrshires triumphed until 
the stable contained nothing else. It was 
a fair and practical test of superiority. 
Would it pay to make such a test in the 
ordinary dairy? Weighing and record¬ 
ing the milk from 25 cows would require 
about half an hour per day. Would it 
pay? Well, you can’t get to the bottom 
facts regarding the value of your cows 
until you do it, that’s sure. 
“No one can tell what a given amount of 
manure or fertilizer is really tvorth to any 
one. What is meant is that if fertilizers 
must be purchased in some form in the open 
market then the nitrogen, qiotash and phos¬ 
phoric acid are worth the amount stated. 
I. P. Roberts, page 780. 
Do our readers realize the change in 
New England agriculture that the traffic 
in Chicago dressed beef has wrought? 
Less stock for fattening, less manure, 
consequently more money spent for com¬ 
mercial fertilizers. It is changing the 
chaiacter of the dairy stock too. The 
difficulty in disposing of home-raised 
beef at paying prices must drive out the 
“general-purpose cow,” and lead to the 
breeding of smaller animals. Jersey and 
Ayrshire grades are looking up in New 
England. We feel the effect of the trade 
in western potatoes in New Jersey. Until 
cold weather sets in Jersey potatoes are 
forced to compete in price with the 
hundreds of car-loads of potatoes that 
are shipped here from Michigan, Ohio 
and other Western potato growing sec¬ 
tions. So Jersey farmers realize that the 
art of holding their potatoes to advantage 
is almost as important as the art of rais¬ 
ing them. The best methods of handling 
and storing potatoes are of the utmost 
importance to us just now. 
“In the whole farming territoi~y of Wayne 
Co., farmers can get along without highway 
fences. This fact is demonstrated by the 
absence of some of the fences at the side of 
roads along every other farm; but this is 
only a temporary arrangement and in a 
year or so a new fence is put up because the 
owner wants to pasture the adjoining lot, 
perhaps for only one season and even less." 
—W. L Devereaux, page 776. 
Last Wednesday the twenty second 
annual convention of the National 
Granger Patrons of Husbandry began at 
Topeka, Kansas. The utmost cordiality 
and good feeling prevailed. The order 
is steadily increasing in influence and 
membership. During the past year 193 
subordinate granges have been organized, 
the greatest increase being in North Car¬ 
olina. The general sentiment was voiced 
by the president, Acting Worthy Master 
Draper, of Massachusetts, who declared 
that the organization never needed a 
more perfect system in the supervision of 
its legislative interests. He recommend¬ 
ed that some person with authority to 
act, should be stationed at Washington 
during the session of Congress. He de¬ 
nounced Trusts as injurious alike to pro¬ 
ducers and consumers. He spoke of the 
alarming increase in food adulterations, 
which threaten the healthfulness of near¬ 
ly every article of diet. The purposes of 
the order demand protection of the weak 
and restraint upon the strong, and to this 
end equitable tariff legislation was 
strongly advocated. A harmonious or¬ 
ganization, a fair financial condition and 
a prosperous outlook should make the 
Patrons of Husbandry rejoice. 
“If your horse runs away and does damage 
you must pay for it. If your hired man al¬ 
lows your cattle to do damage on the road, 
you are responsible. What I suggest is but 
an extension of the same principle. We 
would all be suprised to see how fences would 
vanish under such a law. There 
would be neither road nor line fences—only 
the present pasture icould be inclosed, and 
the owner himself should be permitted to 
iudgewhatis a “sufficient barrier" for his 
own stock, or pay the damages." E. Daven¬ 
port, page 776. 
WHAT ARE YOU FARMING FOR? 
H OW many of our readers can give a 
satisfactory answer to this question? 
Come to think it over, what are you farm¬ 
ing for? Why are you not in some other 
business? Do you love farming and find 
as much profit in it as your friends and 
relations find in other occupations, or are 
you just farming' because you can’t do 
anything else? Now we believe that 
these things are worth thinking about. 
Here we have a great proportion of the 
people in this country living on the farm. 
Do they know why they are there ? Are 
they just living along without knowing 
just why they live as they do? We were 
led to think of this matter by hearing a 
man say, with a sneer, that farmers lived 
in the country because they couldn’t do 
anything but farm. He is wrong we 
know, but his words started a new 
train of thought. “What are you farm¬ 
ing for?” It is a plain, fair ques¬ 
tion. Let the farmers of America answer 
that question fairly and honestly, and we 
believe the answer would make one of 
the grandest and most complete argu¬ 
ments for farm life that can ever be writ¬ 
ten. We propose to investigate the mat¬ 
ter. We invite our friends when renew¬ 
ing subscriptions for next year, to state 
in a few words or lines why they are 
farmers. Let us have the facts. Do we 
live on the farm because we have to ? We 
will keep a record of the answers. We 
believe the story will astonish a good 
many of the croakers. 
daily dimishing; its treasury is bank¬ 
rupt ; its influence has vanished. To such 
a condition has the most powerful labor 
organization that has ever been seen, been 
reduced by misapplied energy and mis¬ 
management within a couple of years. 
Surely there’s a salutary lesson here for 
all classes of the community. 
BREVITIES. 
Read Robert Douglas’s suggestion as to 
the most durable fence. 
Silage like that shown at Fig. 385, is about 
good enough for human consumption. 
Mr. Devereaux presents some sensible 
suggestions respecting farm fences on page 
776. 
After all that has been said concerning 
hedges, does not Robert Douglas, page 777, 
state it fairly? 
How many of our readers have observed 
the ill-effect of feeding cotton seed meal 
described on page 780? 
We expect to get a good deal of winter en¬ 
joyment out of our three barrels of nuts. 
How many have you saved? 
All you three-horse farmers will do well to 
read Mr. Terry’s article on page 779. Has the 
mud ever cut down your load by half? 
An abstract of the laws relating to fences 
will be found on page 788. A large proportion 
of the legal controversies into which farmers 
are drawn arise from fence differences. 
A few weeks ago one of our correspondents 
told about his experience with a steel rail as 
a harrow and drag. It appears that many of 
our readers have long used a heavy timber 
for this purpose. 
Wk have received from Wm. Laverick, of 
Auburn, N. Y., a box of Kieffer pears raised 
on a graft worked upon a Bartlett. They are 
large, showy specimens, very juicy and spicy, 
but still of the nondescript Kieffer flavor. 
We are thinking seriously of constructing 
a “Storage dug-out,” like those employed in 
Colorado, for storing potatoes and roots. One 
trouble is we have too much rain, and the 
dug-out will have to be made so that it will 
not act as a ditch. 
DECADENCE OF A ONCE POWER¬ 
FUL ORDER. 
EPRESENTATIYES of the once 
powerful order of the Knights of 
Labor quietly began holding its twelfth 
annual convention at Indianapolis last 
Tuesday. The Powderly faction, the 
Barry faction, the Charleton faction, the 
Buchanan faction, the Quinn faction and 
several minor factions were all represent¬ 
ed, and were it not for their wrangling 
little would probably have been heard of 
the meeting. When, after the Grange had 
reached its highest point in 1874, selfish 
and unprincipled men brought discord 
into its ranks and its membership began 
rapidly to diminish, what ghoulish glee 
animated the political press! How the 
“tunny” paragraphers bubbled over with 
merriment at what they jeeringly charac¬ 
terized as the collapse of the “hayseed” 
movement ! Their jubilation proved un¬ 
timely and their prophecies false, but by 
many of them still the very term 
“granger” is used half jestingly half con¬ 
temptuously, as indicating something at 
once amusing, crude and awkward. 
Tne sudaen shrinkage in the member¬ 
ship and influence of the Grange, how¬ 
ever, was simply insignificant in com¬ 
parison with that in the somewhat 
cognate order of the Knights of Labor. 
Two years ago its membership was close 
upon 1,000,000. It united men of every 
country, craft and creed. Its influence 
was well-nigh irresistible. Politicians, 
officials, and Legislatures were ready 
sycophantly to yield to its behests. Its 
coffers were over-flowing with the willing 
contributions of its members. Its 
General Master-Workman dictated to 
Congress as did his assistants to the State 
Legislatures. Its walking delegates shut 
up factories and workshops, stopped 
travel and traffic, alike on street cars and 
railroad trains, with a snap of their 
fingers; while multitudinous boycottings 
terrorized, crushed, or brought into sub¬ 
mission all opponents. In the frenzy of 
the moment, its members imagined that 
their organization, although really repre¬ 
senting but a small minority of the indus¬ 
trial classes of the country, was omnipo¬ 
tent. Strikes were inaugurated,'every where 
on slight provocation and with utter dis¬ 
regard of the losses and inconveniences 
which they must bring upon all other 
members of the community. Ere long 
the continued assessments to pay the cost 
of idleness, cooled the ardor even of the 
most enthusiastic. What was gained by 
increase of wages was lost by decrease of 
work. Discontent set in, and with it 
demoralization. Selfish and unscrupu¬ 
lous men forced their way into leader¬ 
ship, and their recriminations and wran- 
glings have been the history of the order 
for the last two years or more. Its mem¬ 
bership is now less than 200,000, and 
The veteran Jonathan Talcott says that in 
his experience, not one new variety of potato 
in a dozen is worth having as a gift. But he 
speaks well of the R. N.-Y. No. 2. It is quite 
true, as Mr. Talcott says, that a variety that 
succeeds well in some localities is compara¬ 
tively worthless in others. 
The political fight is all over. All you 
folks who failed to exhaust your enthusiasm 
in the campaign are respectfully reminded 
that the Rural will give a good road machine 
for a club of subscribers. The road machine 
issue may be of more importance to your 
township than the tariff ever could be. 
We shall be glad to have our readers give 
us their ideas concerning the proper rule for 
placing valuation on farm property. We 
shall have a new census soon. What is your 
farm property worth? Should it be rated at 
its intrinsic value or what you call its worth? 
Let us start a discussion ot this subject. 
The papers state that a family in Vermont 
found in a roll of butter a small tin box in 
which some dairymaid had placed a letter 
stating that she was ready to marry the right 
sort of a man. This young woman makes 
herself liable to arrest. Such a note will 
surely come under the head of “foreign sub¬ 
stances” noted in the oleomargarine laws. 
In estimating the value of stable manure 
made from a given grain or fodder, it is well 
to remember that such foods vary in compo¬ 
sition. What you call “good hay” may 
not be worth as much as the hay from which 
an analysis was made. Animals vary as 
manure makers, too. The manure from one 
may be worth considerably more than that 
from another. 
Another evidence of the fact that the 
work of the cream separator is imperfectly 
understood is shown by the question asked on 
page 780. Many friends of the separator 
have claimed too much for it, as was clearly 
shown on page 708. This has had its natural 
effect—parties have belittled the separator’s 
work and failed to give it credit for what it 
really does. For example, our New Hampjj 
shire correspondent has been informed that 
the skim-milk from a separator is valueless 
for feeding purposes. Such a statement is 
absurd, as we have shown. 
A friend sends us a clipping from a local 
paper in which the death of a young woman 
and the serious injury of a young man are 
detailed. The party went out driving. A 
cur dog darted out irom a gate under the 
heels of the horses, frightening them so that 
they became unmanageable. They ran away 
with the result given above. Our friend says 
this incident fully demonstrates the value of 
the cur dog. It does. What is the value of a 
man or woman who will keep a miserable 
little cur and allow it to bark and yelp at 
passers-by ? Is such a dog worth less than its 
owner? 
Dr. T. H. Hoskins writes us as follows:— 
“I am of the belief that the relative decline in 
the agricultural interest, as compared with 
other property, has reached its lowest point, 
and that the majority of our young people in 
New England are going hereafter to stay at 
home, for the very good reason that no other 
section is furnishing any better opportunities. 
The burden of advice from all our recent 
emigrants, which comes back by letter, is— 
“If you are anyway comfortably fixed, stay 
where you are ! ” All our good farmers are 
really making money, our markets are im¬ 
proving, railroad rates are being reduced, 
prices of all supplies are lessened, and nothing 
but the constitutional discontent of the Yan¬ 
kee can find anything the matter with our 
surroundings.” 
