THE RURAL -NEW-YORKER 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
EiBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1888. 
Respectfully Submitted: that our 
well-to-do readers may wisely select the 
R. N.-Y. for 1889 as a fitting and service¬ 
able present to those of their friends less 
fortunately situated. 
“ITe” and “She” squashes. The first 
page of this issue illustrates what is 
meant by the discrimination. The words 
are not well chosen to indicate the differ¬ 
ence in form,since all squashes are the re¬ 
sult of the fecundation of the female or 
pistillate flowers. 
The R. N.-Y. is proud of its women 
subscribers. We did not suppose that so 
many would enter into the potato contest. 
Kindly words and a hearty appreciation 
of the* Rural’s endeavors to help on the 
good work of agricultural progress.—Ah, 
these are rewards enough for us 1 
Our friends who are storing celery 
should bear in mind that the protecting 
material—no matter what it is—should 
not come in contact with the leaves. 
The R. N.-Y. holds that there should be 
a space of several inches, six at least, be¬ 
tween the leaves and the protection. 
The contact of straw, stalks or soil with 
the leaves of the celery, first blanches 
them and then decay follows. 
Many of the dairy authorities advise 
the growing of parsnips as a food for 
butter cows. Many claim that this root 
is better than the carrot as a butter-pro¬ 
ducing food. It is frequently said that 
large quantities of parsnips are grown on 
the Island of Jersey. Have any of our 
American dairymen ever grown the root 
on a large scale? 
-- ^ I « « M » -- 
Several years ago we carefully trans¬ 
planted young corn plants from where 
they were too close, to places where they 
were not close enough together. But 
these plants were so checked by the re¬ 
moval that they were dwarfed for the 
season and bore comparatively little 
grain. Transplanting has no advantage 
over a second planting, which, of itself, 
rarely pays for the time and labor in¬ 
volved. 
Now for 1889, Rural friends! Give 
us your hand; give us your ear. Let us 
work together for good. Many thanks 
for your liberal support during a year of 
general depression. Let us hope that a 
brighter year is before us and that all 
who, through industry and integrity, may 
deserve success, shall find it in goodly 
measure. Your hand again, please, and 
again your ear! We wish you a very 
happy New Year and many returns. 
Henry Stewart discusses the ques¬ 
tion of feeding potatoes to stock on an¬ 
other page. A number of farmers have 
sent us notes on this subject, which we 
shall print next week. The practice of 
feeding the small potatoes appears to be 
almost universal, and few complaints are 
made of trouble attending such feeding. 
We have been feeding our small potatoes 
to a milch cow for the past month. She 
gets about two quarts every morning with 
bran scattered over them. The result has 
been in every way satisfactory. We feed 
the hens boiled potatoes, with excellent 
results. 
The SouTn Carolina Senate has 
honored itself by passing a law sub¬ 
jecting to dismissal from the Legislature 
any member who shall accept a railroad 
pass. The bill should be passed by the 
House without hesitation, and promptly 
receive the Governor’s signature. Legis¬ 
lating on railroad matters is one of the 
most important duties of members 
of the Legislature in every State. 
Passes are issued by the railroads 
to conciliate those to whom they 
are given—as a reward tor their forbear¬ 
ance if not for their friendship. They 
are in reality bribes for favorable consid¬ 
eration. The , interests^of railroads are 
frequently at variance with those of the 
people. Our lawmakers are elected to 
promote the latter. Is it not a shame 
that they should accept bribes from part¬ 
ies on whose claims, often inimical to 
these,they have frequently to take action? 
Heretofore cotton-seed hulls have 
been burned as waste, but a new use has 
•been found for them—they make a fine 
quality of paper. The Cotton Oil Trust, 
however, is likely to be the chief, if not 
the only gainer by this discovery. It 
already owns half a dozen patents on the 
process, and will doubtless buy up any 
other valuable ones that may be taken 
out, so as to monopolize the business. 
For some time it has been running an ex¬ 
perimental mill with a capacity of 25 
tons a day, near St. Louis, and it has just 
bought a large property near its oil- 
works there, on which it will at once 
erect a 100-ton paper-stock mill, in which 
the hulls from the cotton seeds will be 
used. It has also under consideration the 
erection of a mill of the same capacity 
at Little Rock, Arkansas, and probably 
another at Memphis. Will the Trust be 
willing to pay any more to the planters 
tor their seed, now that it can make more 
money out of it? 
TnE Payson Bill for the relief of the 
settlers in the valley of the Des Moines 
River has been pushed through the lower 
House of Congress in the extraordinarily 
short space of three days, and is now be¬ 
fore the Senate which should pass it at 
once. Two years ago the President vetoed 
a bill with the same object; but care has 
been taken to exclude from the present 
bill the features specifically objected to 
by him in his veto message. With proper 
diligence the measure should be a law in 
time to serve as a Christmas present or 
New Year’s gift to the perturbed settlers. 
It gives them a standing in the Federal 
courts, and provides for a chancery ad¬ 
judication of the questions involved in 
each case. There is grave doubt whether 
the conditions of the original grant have 
been complied with,and whether therefore 
the claimants under the improvement com¬ 
pany have any title to the land. It is 
not improbable that ultimately the Gov¬ 
ernment may have to indemnify one party 
or the other for losses incurred owing to its 
backing and filling as to whether the land 
was open to settlement or not. It ap¬ 
pears now somewhat m the position of 
a man who had sold the same land to two 
different parties—not a very dignified or, 
indeed, honest situation. 
MORE FUN ON THE FARM. 
T HE gamesomeness of the human 
animal—the desire for rest, and 
recreation, of intellectual man—both call 
vigorously for satisfaction, and things are 
not rightly disposed on our farms where 
these fundamental facts are not remem¬ 
bered. Time spent in play by working 
men is not lost. Let this truth sink into 
the minds of our “practical” readers. 
One continual “demnition grind” is what 
drives the young man from the farm, and 
scares the man of thought away from ag¬ 
ricultural pursuits. We have reason to 
thank God for farm machinery; more, 
even than our wives for the sewing ma¬ 
chine, but neither man nor wife is acting 
wisely who takes no advantage of such 
great blessings, by using a part of the 
saved time and money in recreation for 
themselves and their dependents. Our 
bodies and minds are worn out, our lives 
are made sad and shortened by too much 
hard work. The word “recreation” is 
rightly used to denote the playful sports 
that do recreate both mind and body. 
We believe in running the farm for all it is 
worth, and all the year round. Make 
farming a business, by all means, but for 
the very sake of the best profit, do not 
make it a drudgery without relief, to any 
one. The workman is worthy of his 
hire; and he is also worthy of his sport. 
Every farming neighborhood ought to 
have its organized sports, to lighten 
labor, to promote good fellowship, to en¬ 
liven existence, to perfect and adorn 
social life. It is not good to see 
statistics showing more insanity on the 
farm than elsewhere. Life, without 
social enjoyment and sport, tends to 
mental disease. 
--♦♦ »' -- 
ABOUT PORK. 
I F we have not stated all the particulars 
regarding the preparation of the fami¬ 
ly supply of pork products, we shall be 
glad to print what we have left out. 
The story seems to us pretty complete. 
What would the world do without the 
hog? We don’t imagine the world would 
stand still if, to-day, by some miraculous 
dispensation, every hog on the face of 
the earth should pass out of existence. 
There would be a very serious jar, how¬ 
ever, and it would be a good while be¬ 
fore the world satisfactorily adapted it¬ 
self to new foods. The hog is one of the 
most important factors in the world’s 
agriculture and commerce. The figures 
iven elsewhere show but a faint idea of 
is importance. 
Some very conscientious people declare 
that pork is a disgusting and unhealthful 
food—unfit for human comsumption. 
Every one has a right to think what he 
likes regarding pork or politics. It is 
right to be guided in such matters by 
one’s own convictions. As to the cleanli¬ 
ness of pork, it may be stated that there 
is no food under the sun that cannot be 
made disgusting by improper handling. 
The hog is not, by nature, a dirty animal. 
The animals described in this issue are as 
well cared for as sheep or cattle. Those 
who argue against the healthfulness of 
pork have most of the circumstantial 
evidence against them; for the country 
people who use pork as a staple article of 
food are certainly as healthy as the beef¬ 
eaters of the towns. 
Safety lies in moderation. We believe 
that most of the dangers of trichinosis lie 
in poor cocking, and that the evils that 
arise from an exclusive pork diet would 
be done away with by a daily supply of 
fruit and a greater variety of meat foods. 
The man who proposes to cure the world 
of pork eating might as well stop his cru¬ 
sade before he begins it, if statistics count 
for anything. It is a far wiser plan to 
teach the very best methods of producing 
a superior supply of pork products. 
This is what we have tried to do. 
OLEO AND ITS TRICKY MAKERS. 
A ccording to the report of the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
the tax on oleomargarine has had one de¬ 
sired effect in preventing the sale of 
bogus for genuine butter. The micro- 
scopist of the Department of the Interior 
examined 11,000 samples of butter, rep¬ 
resenting the stock of over 6,500 dealers, 
the past year, and found only 62 speci¬ 
mens of “oleo.” The sale of the article, 
however, has considerably increased and 
appears now to be on a firm basis. For 
example, at the time of his investigation, 
Boston had 200 retail dealers, who sold it 
in packages duly stamped “Oleomargar¬ 
ine,” while Chicago had 400, and in upper 
Michigan it was preferred to butter by 
lumbermen, on the ground that it kept 
sweet and palatable for a longer period. 
The “oleo” men, the Commissioner says, 
are coming to favor the tax, as it affords 
them a measure of protection like that 
given to cigar makers by the tobacco tax. 
They are not content, however, to rely 
on the merits of the article to extend its 
sale. From its first introduction they 
have depended on trickery to do this, 
and last week they had recourse 
to a new form of the old game. Armour 
and the other Chicago “oleo” makers 
bought up all the Elgin butter 
on the market and cornered the 
product. Prices boomed at once fiom 35 
to 41 cents per pound in the Elgin mar¬ 
ket. At this exorbitant figure most re¬ 
tail dealers could not afford to handle 
the article, and bought butterine in¬ 
stead. This was just what the “oleo” 
men wanted. In one week over 200 but¬ 
terine licenses were taken out in Chicago 
and a proportionately large number in 
other places where Elgin butter is in de¬ 
mand. The main object of the combina¬ 
tion was to force New York dealers to 
take out licenses and sell butterine. In 
this they met with only moderate success. 
In spite of the “corner,” large quanti¬ 
ties of Elgin butter were thrown 
upon the market, owing to the high price 
of the grade, and a reaction soon set in, 
the price sinking to 33 and even 32 cents 
per pound. As the “oleo” licenses for 
the current year run out on April 30, 
those who invested in them last week 
must sell enough bogus butter between 
now and May 1, to get back their invest¬ 
ment. 
SMALL-PLOT EXPERIMENTS. 
We beg of you, good editors of the 
agricultural and horticultural press, to 
cease your ridicule of the small-plot ex¬ 
periments. You are doing, in our opinion, 
infinite harm in all ways, and good in no 
way. There are hundreds of farmers who 
are ready to try an experiment on a small 
plot where there is one that is willing or 
that can afford to try the same experi¬ 
ment upon an acre. We insist that the 
A. B. C. of agricultural progress may be 
learned better by small-plot than by large- 
area experiments. The former can be 
conducted more thoroughly, studied 
more effectively, carried on with a more 
untiring interest and energy. What is 
indicated by small-plot experiments mav 
then be tested in the field. Tf 
one has 40 kinds each of corn, 
potatoes, peas, cabbages, small fruits, it 
would be a waste of his life and means to 
give to each an acre for trial. The small 
plot will indicate which are the best kinds 
and it will then be time enough to extend 
the test. Sir J. B. Lawes’s experiments 
which have imparted instruction to the 
agricultural world far beyond what has 
been offered by any other experiments in 
the same line, have been conducted for 45 
years on small plots. Had it been nec¬ 
essary to give an acre or more to each of 
these, in all probability they would never 
have been attempted, and the impetus thus 
given to agricultural progress and the 
knowledge of plant-foods might have 
been deferred possibly forages. Go you, 
dear agricultural editors, and do likewise. 
Hire or buy an acre of land and divide 
it into 40 parts or 10 parts, and upon each 
see what you can do to throw light upon 
agricultural problems. Persist in this 
work even for one year or two years, and 
then let us see if you are so ready to make 
faces at the R. N.-Y.’s experiments. See 
if youhy any economical method can raise 
at the rate of a thousand bushels of potatoes 
to the acre or 130 bushels of shelled corn. 
If so, try it upon a larger plot and see 
if what could be economically practiced 
on a small scale prove wholly impractic¬ 
able in the field. This work will do you 
good, dear fellow editors, whether you 
succeed in originating new methods or 
not. It will at least teach you a trifle of 
respect for those who have labored in a 
similiarway for 15 years, and of patience 
to wait awhile until the results of small- 
plot trials may be put to the test of gen¬ 
eral farm practice. 
BREVITIES. 
It appears that the hog is just as fond of 
pasture as is any other animal. 
A Merry Christmas, Rural Readers ! 
A very merry Christmas. Here is our 
New Year’s Number next week. We 
will try and start you into 1889 with a load 
of good nature. 
A subscriber will tell us next week of a 
method of utilizing addled eggs. This is a 
discovery well worthy of going upon the New 
Year’s record 
A correspondent, on page 847,says he lives 
on Long Island. His nearest neighbor is half 
a mile away ! What’s the use of going to 
Dakota to find room to farm ? 
Several of our readers who have green¬ 
houses write us that they propose to propa¬ 
gate the R. N.-Y. No. 2 potato during the 
winter. Two years ago"Mr. Peter Henderson 
described his method of handling the Early 
Rose when it first appeared. 
Does it do any real good to put a pan of 
water on the stove when the room is hot:* 
This question is up for discussion again. 
School teachers ought to understand it. And 
by the way, does it occur to you that a house 
needs ventilation as well as heat ? 
On page 847 Mr. Hallock answers a question 
regarding the culture of “ mammoth pump¬ 
kins.” The person wto asks the question in¬ 
forms us that he proposes to raise some very 
large pumpkins for exhibition next fall. He 
finds that pumpkins weighing from 100 to 150 
pounds always find a ready sale after the ex¬ 
hibition. Is this a new “ agricultural scheme ?” 
We have tried about everything in the way 
of covering for the feet. For work in frozen 
snow or for riding on a cold day, we have 
never found anything equal to the thick 
felt boots and heavy rubbers worn by lum¬ 
bermen in the pine woods. In wet and sloppy 
weather this foot-gear will not answer, but 
for clear, sharp cold there is nothing to equal 
it for comfort. 
The Duchess grape might not inaptly be 
compared to a small native, hardy Malaga, 
though it may have foreign blood in its veins. 
We have always regretted that it will not 
flourish at the Rural Grounds. But of all 
the native grapes known to us, we deem the 
Jefferson (Ricketts’s) the nearest approach to 
a perfect grape of any hardy variety in culti¬ 
vation. It is a little late and scarcely hardy. 
There’s a movement on foot to hold a 
National Dairy Fair in Chicago in the fall of 
K589. A committee of prominent Western 
men interested in dairy matters has been 
appointed to agitate the matter and raise 
funds. It is intended to have fine exhibits of 
dairy cattle, dairy products, dairy imple¬ 
ments, and to have a display of the methods 
of practical butter and cheese making after 
the fashion described by Secretary Woodward 
in a late issue. There has never yet been 
a genuine national dairy show in this country, 
except, perhaps, that held m connection with 
the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 
1876. The shows that have been held under 
the auspices of farmer-miner lteall and his 
high-sounding association were more adver¬ 
tising exhibitions got up for private gain. 
Let us have a genuine national dairy show 
this time, for the benefit of the dairy interest 
ofjthe country, managed by real farmers and 
dairymen. 
