464 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAR 8 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1889. 
NOTICE TO THOSE WHO DESIRE 
TO ENTER FOR THE R. N.-Y.’S 
WOMEN’S NATIONAL POTATO 
CONTEST: 
All who desire to enter for the 
Women's Potato Contest are respect¬ 
fully requested to send in their names 
before the 20th inst Full instruc¬ 
tions and a list of the contestants 
will be published at about that date. 
This number of the R. N.-Y. is a regu¬ 
lar Farmers’ Institute. 
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. 
One of our subscribers writes that she 
thinks the souvenirs should be divided 
between the East and West. That is also 
the opinion of the R. N.-Y. 
- »« « ♦ »» »- 
“ Are there no farmers and dairymen in 
embryo to whom a good home, wages , and 
experience would be a benefit before a per¬ 
sonalundertaking? When countrymen all 
fock citywards they may help the city, but 
they kill the country. What sort of a physi¬ 
cal corporation is that in which the best 
blood rushes to the heart and stays there? 
A. C. C , page 162. 
-♦ ♦♦ -. 
Twelve different varieties of tomatoes 
were grown last season upon a poor soil 
which had not been manured for many 
years. The soil was given a liberal dress¬ 
ing of a high-grade complete fertilizer. 
The vines grew thriftily and bore abun¬ 
dantly. What we cannot account for is 
that all of the tomatoes were of a yellow¬ 
ish red instead of being of various shades 
of red peculiar to the varieties. 
■- * '■ * I I » -. 
Quite a noted French dairy authority 
has recently advanced the theory that 
milk can be most readily and safely 
shipped and stored in a frozen state. 
Experiments in France go to show that 
frozen milk can be transported with the 
greatest ease, and that when thawed out, 
after days or even weeks in a frozen state, 
it retains all the characteristics of fresh 
milk. A number of experts attempted 
to pick out the thawed milk from 
specimens that had never been frozen. 
They were unable to do so. The appli¬ 
cation of the principles of cold storage 
has about revolutionized the fruit bus¬ 
iness. Shall we witness a similar rev¬ 
olution in the milk business? 
--- 
A Large advertisement is appearing in 
many papers which displays a three- 
column picture of “a view of Fulton 
Row, Washington Market, New York 
City,” and which offers to send seeds to 
any address trusting to the honesty of 
the recipient for pay. It is signed “ New 
York Market Gardeners’ Association, No. 
39 Dey St., New York City.” The R. 
N.-Y. has refused this advertisement sim¬ 
ply because of its peculiar character and 
the fact that a letter-box in the hall was 
all that a Rural representative could find 
as a materialization of the association. 
ing the first cutting very early. W. L. 
Devereaux, an observing young entomolo¬ 
gist of Western New York, arrived at the 
same conclusion two or three years ago, 
by studying the habits of the insect. He 
advocated making the first cutting early 
in June, thus enabling the second crop to 
escape the aitacks of the midge. When 
practical farmers and scientists both 
arrive at the same conclusions by dif¬ 
ferent methods, the results reached are 
worthy of the attention of farmers 
generally. The importance of this sub¬ 
ject may be inferred from the fact that 
many farmers who formerly secured a 
considerable revenue from cutting the 
second crop of clover for seed, have been 
unable, for the past few years, to secure 
seed for their own sowing. If early 
cutting is a solution of the problem, it is 
well worthy of adoption. 
The new “ American Meat Company ” 
has already bought nearly 2,000,000 acres 
of grazing land in Mexico together with 
large herds of cattle closely resembling 
Texans. It is likely to make still heavier 
investments just across the border, in 
the near future. The import duty on 
Mexican cattle is 20 per cent, on their 
value. Animals intended for breeding 
purposes, for the improvement of our na¬ 
tive stock, are alone admitted free. Even 
a gigantic syndicate will hardly have the 
impudence to claim that imported Mexi¬ 
can steers or even long-horned cattle- 
frame-works can be intended for breed¬ 
ing purposes. The prices for Mexican 
cattle are so low that they will hardly 
average $10 at the frontier; but even at 
$10 per head the duty would add $2 to 
the cost of each—if it is paid. There 
have been a multitude of complaints of 
the smuggling of live stock from Mexico 
into Texas, New Mexico and California, 
and for some time there has been a great 
need of greater official vigilance and 
more customs officers on the frontier. 
The necessity for both is now consider¬ 
ably greater than ever, especially along 
that part of the line separating the New 
Mexican and Mexican property of the 
syndicate. 
Attention is called to the remarks of 
J. W. on page 162, in relation to the 
clover midge. His observations seem to 
establish the fact that a crop of seed may 
be secured from Medium clover, by mak- 
Under date of February 9th, Sir J. B. 
Lawes writes the R. N.-Y. as follows; 
“I am forwarding to you, by book post, 
our results of potato growing. I know 
that you have paid much attention to the 
potato plant and take a great interest in 
its cultivation. You will be surprised to 
find how much there is to learn about a 
plant of this sort. My soil is not at all suit¬ 
ed to the potato; it is too heavy and the 
rainfall is not large enough. You will 
observe that we are trying to connect 
the production of starch and sugar with 
the supply of nitrogen in manure. Sug¬ 
ar in the root crop, and starch in the 
cereal crop and potato are the great¬ 
est products which the agriculture 
of the world aims at producing. The 
soil itself is the main source of the 
nitrogen, but if the soil does not yield 
enough, or if we require larger crops, we 
must then have recourse to some com¬ 
pound of nitrogen.” 
The R. N.-Y. has found by its potato 
experiments, in a soil that needs all kinds 
of food, that nitrogen alone does not in¬ 
crease the crop. It has further found 
that when a liberal supply of nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash is given, ad¬ 
ditional nitrogen does not materially in¬ 
crease the crop. 
-• » ■ ■ ♦ «» ♦- 
One thing is becoming painfully evi¬ 
dent in the warfare against wealthy mon- 
opolies—the extreme difficulty of check¬ 
ing their career of extortion by legislative 
enactments. Take the telephone mon¬ 
opoly for instance. Some time back the 
legislature of Indiana fixed the 
maximum rate for telephone rent at a 
reasonable figure; but the company at 
once met the movement by suspending 
the service in the Hoosier State alto¬ 
gether. In view of the inconvenience to 
which the people are thus subjected, the 
legislature is considering the repeal of 
the law. Warned by her neighbor’s ex¬ 
perience, Ohio has rejected a similar bill. 
A bill before the Illinois legislature fixes 
the maximum telephone rent at $6 per 
month. There are two bills before the 
Missouri legislature, one fixing the rent 
at $4, and the other at $3 per month. In 
that State there are 6,000 telephones and 
the annual rent is now $100 apiece. If 
either of the bills pass, the telephone 
company threatens to give Missouri the 
same treatment that has proved so 
effective in Indiana. When, a few years 
ago, Rochester, N. Y. was at war with 
the same telephone company, and the 
latter suspended business there altogether, 
it was forced at once to yield when the 
authorities and citizens ordered that all 
telephones should be removed from 
offices and other buildings, and that all 
the wires should be promptly taken 
down. This would entail a large per¬ 
manent loss. Why doesn’t Indiana try 
what the effect of such a drastic remedy 
would be? 
I N the vicinity of the Rural Farm in 
New Jersey are to be found all sorts 
of dairy cows—grade Jerseys, grade 
Holsteins, grade Short-horns and scrubs. 
We are making tests of the milk of as 
many of these cows as we can get. These 
tests will make very interesting reading 
when they are completed. 
ABOUT OUR ROADS. 
A PENNSYLVANIA subscriber sends 
us the following: 
“ Give us another Road Special in the 
spring. You have no idea of the amount 
of good the last one did. It waked up 
nearly all the other papers; but they 
took good care not to give the Rural 
any credit. I have seen everything por¬ 
trayed in the Rural’s cartoon, except the 
card-playing,and that omission was due to 
the mishap that no one was thoughtful 
enough to bring his cards with him. We 
are getting road machines in nearly all the 
districts, which means good roads in the 
near future.” 
This road question is getting to be a 
very serious matter. Every discussion of 
it brings to light some remarkable facts. 
Take the township in New Jersey in 
which the writer lives, for example. 
Every citizen admits that during five 
monihs of t the year it is impossible to 
haul 60 per cent, of a full load over 
our roads. Various “ enterprising ” peo¬ 
ple want to have the roads macadamized. 
The great majority of the voters violent¬ 
ly oppose this for two reasons:—1. Be¬ 
cause the town cannot afford it. 2. Be¬ 
cause the present system gives, in the 
course of 10 years, a good proportion of 
the citizens a good chance to draw the 
road money as salaries for performing the 
duties of road-master. Investigation 
shows that during the past 18 years the 
sum of $45,000 has been expended for the 
roads in this township. It is estimated 
that for $30,000 every foot of road in the 
township could be graded and macada¬ 
mized. There is a tendency noticed in 
our State legislature to place the control 
of roads in the hands of the county or 
even the State authorities. In many dis¬ 
tricts, where the worst roads are to be 
found, such a change would meet with 
violent opposition, though it is highly 
probable the roads would be greatly im¬ 
proved. Imagine some skilled road en¬ 
gineer, backed by State or county author¬ 
ity, going into a township where for years 
the inhabitants have comfortably divided 
up the road money while “visiting” on 
the roads. Such an engineer would not 
meet with the most cheerful reception in 
the world; but who will deny that he 
would make the roads better? 
ANOTHER GIGANTIC BEEF 
SYNDICATE. 
T HE most gigantic association ever 
formed in this or any other country 
for the purchase and production of cattle 
and the sale of beef, has just been or¬ 
ganized under the laws of New Mexico, 
and by the name of the “ American Meat 
Company.” The chief projectors and 
backers of the scheme are magnates of 
the Standard and Cotton-seed Oil Com¬ 
panies. Stephen Dorsey, Col. Robert 
Ingersoll, and other New Mexican ranch¬ 
ers who own large herds of cattle and 
over 50,000 acres of grazing land, have 
put their property in the pool at from 
$12 to $20 per acre, and, of course, have 
made a large profit by the transaction. 
Osmond Hammond Jr. has entered by 
pooling his Western Dressed Beef Com¬ 
pany with slaughter-houses at Kansas 
City, 1,000 acres of land, and 12 markets 
in Baltimore. The concern has pur¬ 
chased 1,828,000 acres of grazing land 
across the upper Rio Grande, in the State 
of Chihuahua, Mexico. This vast tract 
consists entirely of ranches whose owners 
have become stockholders. Fifty miles 
from Kansas City, 10,000 acres of grazing 
land have been purchased. 
The idea is to ship their own cattle from 
their ranches and purchased cattle from 
other places to this grazing farm, fatten 
them there, and reship them to Kansas 
City, where they are to be slaughtered, 
and from that point the moat is to be 
distributed in refrigerator cars to Eastern 
markets. The scheme contemplates the 
establishment of markets in all the prin¬ 
cipal Eastern towns and cities and the 
sale of meat direct to the consumer. The 
capital of the organization is put at $25, 
000,000, divided into 250,000 shares at 
$100 a share. The actual cap ; .talizati n n, 
however, is only $15.000,000,of which $7, 
000,000 have been already subscribed at 
$75. Of the balance of $8,000,000, one- 
half will soon be put on the market, also 
at $75 per share, for public investment. 
The authority to add $10,000,000 more to 
the capital stock was obtained in view of 
the possibilities of further growth suggest¬ 
ed by the desire expressed by many 
other ranchmen to come in. The “Big 
Four ” have already a capital of over 
$50,000,000 in their business, and a lively 
competition both in the East and West 
is assured between the new and old con¬ 
cerns. In the West the competition for 
cattle will probably have a beneficial ef¬ 
fect in raising the prices of stock; while 
in the East the competition for customers 
is pretty sure to lower the prices of meat 
to consumers, and consequently still fur¬ 
ther depress the prices of home-raised 
stock for the shambles. 
BREVITIES. 
We shall be glad to know more about cow- 
pea hay. 
It appears that the “horse doctors” are 
still cutting out “ hooks” from horses’ eyes! 
The Farmers’ Club has a rousing attend¬ 
ance this week, and the discussion is a lively 
one. 
Is your experience in the use of different 
foods for butter the same as that given by 
Mr. Stewart on page 159? 
We are informed that a farmer in Niagara 
county, this State, has been indicted for neg¬ 
lecting to destroy peach trees diseased with 
the yellows. A test case will be made of the 
matter. 
Of eood-sized potatoes with a medium num¬ 
ber of eyes, cut to two-eye pieces, the R. N.-Y. 
estimates that eight bushels will plant an acre, 
if the pieces be dropped every foot in drills 
three feet apart. 
We can understand why small fruits are 
not raided'on every farm; why celery, cabbage, 
etc., are not. But there is no rra e on that oc¬ 
curs to the R. N.-Y. why asparagus should 
not be raised on every farm—a plot large 
enough to supply the family with this splen¬ 
did vegetable. If there is any vegetable that 
can be raised with less trouble and cost, kind¬ 
ly mention it. 
The Hon. Charles L. Flint, of Boston, Sec¬ 
retary of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul¬ 
ture for 25 years—from 1853 to 1878—died at 
the age ot 65, last Tuesday, at Gilman Ga., 
to which place he had gone for the benefit of 
bis health. Among his published works are 
“ Manual of Agriculture,” “Milch Cows and 
Dairy Farming,” “Grasses and Forage 
Plants”. Esteemed by all in life, Mr. Flint 
is honored and mourned in death. 
The people of Pennsylvania will eoon 
have an opportunity to vote on the adoption 
of a prohibitory amendment to the State con¬ 
stitution. A telegram from Reading in that 
State tells us that at a public meeting of farm¬ 
ers held at Scbmfferstown on last Wednesday 
evening, the drift of the argument was that 
“the passage ot the amendment would lead to 
bankruptcy among the agricultural class¬ 
es,” and it is proposed to effect an anti- 
prohibition organization in every township 
in Lebanon County. Surely that could not 
have been a representative meeting of farm¬ 
ers? Was it “ packed” by village loafers; or 
was it composed of only the bibulous handful 
of soil-stirrers with whom “farmin’ don’t 
pay” in that neighborhood? 
During the week the delicious qualities of 
oleomargarine and its vast superiority to 
mere butter have been set forth with glowing 
eloquence before the legislature of Massachu¬ 
setts. For cleanliness, wholesomeness,purity, 
freshness, aroma, palatableness and many 
other virtues, it is claimed that nothing equal 
to it in the way of fat can be placed before 
pauper or plutocrat. Why, then, should the 
champions of such a paragon of conglomerate 
perfection insist that their favorite should 
pass to the public under the guise of an in¬ 
ferior article! Let it go on its own merits, 
and be sold under the nice, appetizing pink 
color which the dairymen and butter-men 
demand. Let “oleo ” and butter each have a 
fair show, and give the “dear public” a 
chance to select one or the other without dan¬ 
ger of deception. 
The anti-dressed beef bill has been slaughter¬ 
ed by the Republicans in the Pennsylvania 
legislature, and “ there’s music in the air ” 
about Harrisburg. It is well known that the 
“Big Four” have had a well stocked lobby 
working earnestly and persuasively with the 
legislatures of all the S'ates where bills of 
this kind have been introduced, and it is 
charged that it cost the Chicago syndicate $60, 
000 to defeat the measure in Pennsylvania. 
Borne allege that this sum was given to State 
Chairman Andrews for distribution among 
bribable Solous, and that he has kept all but 
$15,000; while others maintain that it was 
sent to Senator Quay, Commander-in-Cbief of 
the Republican JNational forces in the late 
campaign and “boss” of Pennsylvania poli¬ 
tics, as a part of the campaign fund,for which 
thanks were to be returned by defeating legis¬ 
lation hostile to thy donors, A oommittee 
of the legislature has be u appointed to inves¬ 
tigate the scandal; bqp luere’s little doubt as 
to the nature of its ivpt, i« 
