428 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
FE8 23 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Home >, 
Conducted by 
BIBKHT 8. CAKMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1889. 
The Rural New-Yorker for 1889, will 
be, as hitherto, invariably, $2.00 a year for 
single subscriptions, and $1.50 in clubs 
of five or more. 
Mr. Stewart on page 106 says: “ All rules 
for feeding are modified more or less by the 
character of the cows." Don't forget this 
iohen studying the rations proposed by 
chemists. 
The President has signed the bill mak¬ 
ing the Department of Agriculture an 
executive Department with a seat in the 
Cabinet for its head. Very properly the 
honor of being nominated the first Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture in the National 
Government has been conferred on Nor¬ 
man J. Colman hitherto Commission 
er of the glorified Department The 
business of demonstrating that the change 
is likely to be beneficial to the greatest 
industry of the nation, and that there is 
a broader mission for the new member of 
the Cabinet must, however, fall upon the 
man whom President Harrison may ap¬ 
point after the fourth of next month. 
The “Parrot Painfully Pounded ” on 
page 135 
If governments find it wise and neces¬ 
sary to suppress gambling dens which 
take money from the idle and the dis¬ 
solute who have never learned any noble 
or proper use of money, how much more 
and how much stricter should be the sup¬ 
pression of that diabolical modern form 
of gambling which keeps jthe- pr:cc» oi 
grain and other necessaries of human 
exintcsco in fluctuation, and always robs 
either the poor consumers by enhancing 
prices, or the struggling and ill-paid 
producers by suddenly lowering them. 
Our people, pr/.Lnt as tkv.y are, cannot 
long tolerate such monstrous wrong. 
“7 believe it is conceded that lime rep¬ 
resents no plant food—it merely prepares 
for use what is already in the soil." —D. C. 
L., page 126. 
If, as is reported, the proportion of 
farmers who attain 8n age of 80 or more 
years is 461 in a total of 1,000, and of farm¬ 
ers’ wives 800, the figures do not show 7 by 
any means that farm house work wears out 
the women. Both women and men rust 
out faster than they wear out. The re¬ 
turns are said to show that out of 1,000 
women over 80, all but 50 were busy 
house-wives. On comparing the looks 
and manners of ladies from town and 
country making purchases in a popular 
store the other day, a striking difference 
was manifest between the country women, 
ruddy with good health, lively in manner 
and vigorous in movements, and their pal¬ 
lid, distressed-looking, and slow-moving 
sisters from the close rooms of the town. 
“ I believe if I had silage or roots to feed , 
I could, feed more cheaply .”—C. F. O , 
page 126. 
It is true that we see and hear compar¬ 
atively very little of late years, of the 
pretty, lively birds that used to fill the 
air with warblings and chirpings more 
w r elcome to most ears and more pleasant 
to most nerves than the costliest piano 
thrumming. But whether the crows are 
the cause is very doubtful They are as 
scarce here as any of the small birds have 
become. The children, however—bliss 
them!—ate sempiternally full of chirp; and 
they, and a canary here and there, are 
now the chief sources of the genially 
animating chirrups that are left; for the 
grown-up girls, who used to be the 
w'arblers supreme of all, when singing 
over their work without caring for 
listeners, seem to be now taken up, even 
before they are young women, with prem¬ 
ature questions of fashion, dress, and 
company; and are, for the most part, 
only heard in song as evening screechers 
over the keys of an instrument.^ 
l 'As lime increases in bulk three times in 
the change to a hydrate by the absorption of 
water during the process of air-slaking, it is 
necessary, to prevent loss, to buy it by weigh t 
and not by measure.'’’— page 123. 
The other day Mr. Cottrell introduced 
into the New York Assembly a bill pro¬ 
viding for the establishment by the State 
Dairy Commissioner of not more than 
four dairy schools for the purpose of giv¬ 
ing instruction to young men and women 
in the management of dairies, the pro¬ 
duction of milk, and the science and art 
of making butter and cheese. It author¬ 
izes the Commissioner to hire farms, 
cows, churns, pans and all other needful 
dairy implements and appliances. The 
product is to be sold, and the proceeds to 
be paid into the State Treasury. The 
Commissioner is also authorized to ap¬ 
point an assistant, well acquainted with 
the chemistry of butter and cheese, who 
is to superintend the dairy school system, 
for the support of which an approp iation 
of $30,000 is provided. Many of the 
political papers—in their non-agricultural 
issues, of course—are strongly opposing 
this measure; but if the farmers really 
approve of it—and why shouldn’t the} ?— 
they can certainly secure its passage by 
making their wishes pr mptly and em¬ 
phatically known to their representatives 
in both branches of the legislature. 
We have seen a number of men work¬ 
ing on country roads during the past few 
weeks. The mild winter has been good 
for road-making. Last week we saw a 
gang of men trying to macadamize a road 
through a swamp. Stones were piled on 
the frozen surface to the depth of a foot 
or more and gravel was to be placed on top 
of these. The road-makers may not know 
it, but this piece of road-making will 
result in nothing but a painful failure. 
The macadam-road is made of stones and 
gravel, they say. Sure enough 1 So is a 
house made of bricks, wood and nails, but 
unless the bricks, wood and nails are put 
where they belong, the house w ill be good 
for nothing. It is folly to put the stones 
on the road unless they can rest on a 
8oKH fnv-. T‘v true that the 
frozen ground is solid enough at present, 
but w r hen the frost comes out, in the 
spring, the stones will be sure to work 
out of place and the road-bed will 
be worse than before. If we are to use 
stones on the road it. is absolutely lcccc 
sary that we dig out the surface of the 
road to such a depth that the stones will 
not be thrown out by the frost. Any¬ 
thing less than this is half-way business 
and will give less than half satisfaction. 
In the effort to make personal property 
bear its just share of taxation, the Ohio 
legislature proposes that the assessors 
should actually administer oaths as to 
the real value of the personal property 
owned by tax-payers. When this plan 
was tried in England about 200 years ago, 
the result was that the returns were actu¬ 
ally less than before. Is it likely that 
subterfuge and perjury are more abhor¬ 
rent to the Ohioans of to-day than to the 
Britons of two centuries ago? It is mar¬ 
velous how movable taxable property 
often disappears. In 1882, 118,286 
watches were listed for taxation in the 
Buckeye State, but in spite of the increase 
of popu ation and wealth in the interval, 
only 114,631 were listed in 1887—adisap- 
pearance of 3,655 taxable watches in five 
years 1 In Hamilton county, consisting 
mainly of Cincinnati with its city pop¬ 
ulation of about 325,000, the number of 
watches decreased from 9,283 to 8,659; 
while in Geauga county with its farmer 
population of 15,000 or thereabouts, the 
number had increased from 845 to 922. 
The same rule applies to pleasuie carri¬ 
ages, money on hand, credits and all 
sorts of personal property. Any moral 
deductions from such a state of affairs? 
NOW, TAKE IT BACK, SIR. 
Last week’s R. N.-Y. referred to a 
person who has industriously circulated 
the renort that our No. 2 potato is really 
a variety originated by him some (our 
years ago. He now—perhaps from fear 
of having laid himself opm to prosecu 
tion—moderates his claim. Still he ad¬ 
vises all to purchase loth kinds and try 
them side by side. The R. N.-Y. is exer¬ 
cised over this matter for the one reason 
that both innocent and unpiincipled par¬ 
ties may plant and sell the spurious for 
the genuine R. N.-Y. No. 2, thus caus¬ 
ing the confusion and unceitainty necis- 
sarily arising from the dissemination of 
two very distinct varieties under the same 
name. All seedsmen and others who 1 
are interested may readily determine one 
kind from the other by sprouting one 
tuber of each in a warm, light room. 
The sprouts of the No. 2 will be dark 
purple, nearly black; those of the other 
green. The price of the No. 2 is $16 a 
barrel and the entire supply, we are in¬ 
formed, is nearly exhausted. The R. N-Y. 
has evidence that the person who up to a 
late date claimed the No. 2 to be one of 
his seedlings, knows them to be entirely 
distinct. We now call upon him in jus¬ 
tice to the R. N.-Y. and to the public, to 
make an explicit statement to that effect. 
Otherwise, in due time, we shall publish 
our evidence and abundantly show his 
method of seeking to benefit himself at 
the R. N.-Y.’8 expense. 
ACCIDENTS AT GRADE-CROSSINGS. 
T HE large number of accidents due to 
railroads crossing other roads at 
grade, so forcibly illustrated in the car¬ 
toon in the Rural of January 7,1888, has 
directed the attention of the legislatures 
of many of the States to the necessity for 
legislation to do away with this fruitful 
cause of disaster and death. In 1887 
there were 41 persons killed and 57 injur¬ 
ed at such crossings in this State, and in 
1888 the killed numbered 28, and the in¬ 
jured 34. In the three yearsending with 
1887 the total number of deaths at the 
grade-crossings in the single city of Phil¬ 
adelphia amounted to 133; while in the 
same year the number of deaths in 
Chicago reached 142, of which 16 occur¬ 
red in a single month! A special com¬ 
mittee appointed, some time ago, by the 
Massachusetts legislature, in its report 
just made, shows the great difficulty and 
expense of altering the existing grade- 
crossings. Of these there are 2.260 in the 
Bay State, and the expense of altering 
them is estimated at $48,131,000. This 
enormous sum is nearly equal to one-third 
of the aggregate capital of the 60 cor¬ 
porations that reported to the Commis¬ 
sioners in 1887, and is nearly 90 per cent, 
of their gross income for that year, 
while it is six. and one-half times as 
much as they paid in dividends. The 
Commissioners advise that the making 
of new grade-crossings should be abso¬ 
lutely prohibited, and that the alterations 
of the old ones should be made gradually, 
the dividend-paying roads abolishing five 
per cent, and the non-dividend-paying 
road3 2’ a Ccut. of their crossings every 
year. Their plan proposes to put the 
work under State authority and to divide 
the cost between the railroads and the 
cities, tow 7 ns and counties benefited by 
the change, limiting the tax to be im¬ 
posed on any community to some fixed 
proportion of its assessed valuation, 
and leaving the proportion to be 
paid by each party to be determined by 
the circumstances in each case. New 
York and a considerable number of other 
States are likely to make laws relating to 
this matter this year. Whatever conces¬ 
sions may be made to the railroads with 
regard to crossings at grade already made, 
the construction of new crossings of the 
kind should be absolutely forbidden. 
The aggregate list of killed and wounded 
owing to thie cause every year in the 
whole country, must be as heavy as that in 
many an important battle, and no further 
extension of the evil should be permitted. 
AN UNJUST ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH 
DOWER. 
D OWER is the provision the law 
makes for a widow out of the land 
ow r ned by her husband, and the word has 
reference exclusively to real estate. 
Dower is allowed in all the States except 
six, and in all the Territories except four. 
The amount of it is generally a life inter¬ 
est in the use, income and profits of one- 
third of the husband’s real estate; but it 
varies greatly. In Nevada the widow takes 
the entire community property after the 
payment of debts and other obligations; in 
Washington Territory she takes half the 
common property, subject to the debts of 
both; while In Wyoming she takes the 
entire estate, real and personal, after 
paying the debts, provided it does not 
exceed $10,000. In all the States and 
Territories where dow 7 er is allowed, it is 
necessary that the wife should join in a 
conveyance of the husband’s real estate 
in order to give the grantee, mortgagee 
or purchaser, a good title. As a rule, if 
there is no statement in the conveyance 
or mortgage that the wife releases her 
“dower, and right of dower,” she can 
enforce her dower on the death of her 
husband. 
Under existing laws in New York, the 
wife is assured of one-third interest in 
any real estate her husband may own at 
any time after the marriage, and of this 
she cannot be deprived without her own 
free consent. 
Mr. Eugene F. O’Connor, of Brooklyn, 
has just introdued a bill into the New 
York Staie Sena’e, which, instead of giv¬ 
ing the widow a life estate in one-third of 
the lands which the husband may own at 
any time during his married life, provides 
for giving her the use, income and profits 
of a third of the lands which the husband 
owned at the time of his death. The 
effect of this provision would be to enable 
the husband to deed away all his real es¬ 
tate at any time during marriage without 
his wife’s consent and free from all claim 
on her behalf. The husband would be 
left absolutely free to do what he liked 
with the land during his life-time with¬ 
out hindrance from his wife. 
This bill may be good for the husbands, 
but it certainly is not good for the wives 
of the State; nor is it just to the thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of shrewd, earnest, 
hard-working, helpful wives who have 
contributed a fair share towards the sup¬ 
port of their families and the acquisition 
of whatever property may have been ac¬ 
cumulated. The Rural New-Yorker 
is strenuously and earnestly opposed to it. 
It is with no doubtful voice that it 
calls upon all the wives and other women 
of the State to join with all the manly 
husbands, fathers, sons and brothers of 
the grand old Empire State to see to it 
that such an unjust law shall never find a 
place on ber statute books. 
BREVITIES. 
The Guernsey cow is gaining a reputation 
as a butter colorer. She is said to be superior 
to the Jersey in this respect. 
One of the finest apple orchards the R N.- 
Y. has ever seen was mulched every three or 
four years six inches deep with salibmeadow 
hay. The hens were turned in periodically to 
give it a thorough scratching over. 
Entomologists, pray give ns a practicable 
mixture that will kill the flea-beetle. The 
R. N.-Y. has little hope of raising at the rate 
of over 700 bushels of potatoes to the acre, if 
these pests prove as numerous and unattack- 
able as last season. 
A good many farmers trace much of the 
fertility of tbeir farms back to the bog-pen. 
Everv load of manure carried to the field is 
first worked over bv the hogs. The hog-pen 
is thus the gate to the farm. One can make 
plenty of manure by this svstern. Can you 
make first-class pork as well? 
A Strenuous move is being made bv eattle- 
meu and butchers of Texas, New Mexico, 
Arizona and Colorado to establish direct 
communication with meat consumers every¬ 
where, in opposition to the costly system of 
sending the cattle to Chicago for butchery 
and meat distribution. As it would give large 
room for reduction of prices of moat to the 
eaters, ana prevent what would otherwise be 
a gigantic and overpowering monopoly, it is 
to be hoped that these Soutbwesterners will 
be fully successful. 
Intimacy with nature favors health, 
strengh, happiness and length of life. Adam 
Dietrick born near Jena, in 1711. was a plain 
farmer; but so close an observer of plants and 
plant life as to become a valued correspondent 
of th“ botanists of the universities, including 
Linnaeus. His descendants have all been 
plant lovers. His son Frederick, was Professor 
of Botany at Eisenach till 82 gears of age. His 
grandson David, was custodian of the’ her¬ 
barium at Jena University until his death 
lately at 90 years of age. He was vigorous in 
mind and body to the last, and an especial 
desire and delight of young students was to 
have his company on botanical excursions, 
and this be seldom declined. He knew all 
about every plant of the region and where to 
find it. 
A Bill now pending in the New York 
legislature provides for the increase of the 
salary of the Dairy Commissioner from $3,000 
to $5 000 a year. It also gives him and bis 
assistants in tracking “oleo,”free access, in¬ 
gress, egress and regress to and from all places 
of business, factories, farms, buildings, carri¬ 
ages, vessels and cans in the manufacture and 
sale of dairy products or any imitation or 
substitute, together with: 
“ Power and authority to enter and open any place 
of business, factory, building, store, bakery, hotel, 
tavern, boarding house, restaurant. «aloon, lunch- 
counter, place of public entertainment, carriage, car, 
boat, package, vessel, barrel, box, tub. or can con¬ 
taining or believed to contain articles manufactured, 
sold, or exposed for sale.” 
With such ample inquisitorial powers on 
the side of the lew-enforcers, surely the law¬ 
breakers should have a slim chance of escaping 
detection and punishment 
A New and highly disturbing factor has 
come prominently into our grain markets. For 
some time several railroads have been buying 
grain both as a speculation and for the sake of 
the addition its transportation would afford to 
their traffic. It has been done so quietly, 
however, and to such a moderate extent as to 
escape general public attention. The Balti¬ 
more and Ohio, however, under its new man¬ 
agement, has embarked in the business so 
heavily as to increa c e the grain trade of the 
Monument Citv to an extraordinary extent at 
the expense of Philadelphia and New York. 
It is charged that this new departure has been 
taken, not so much out of railroad greed and 
need of business as for the private and per¬ 
sonal gain of those who run the road. It Is 
believed that the policy is in direct violation of 
the’law, and a demand is made on the Inter 
State Commerce Commissioners to takq 
prompt'wd efficient measures against it. 
