284 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APR 27 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
KIBERT S. CABMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 34 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1889. 
Friends and patrons of the R N.-Y., 
are respectfully notified that our trial po¬ 
tato ground is full. 
“ If the chemist can prescribe something 
that will nr event mold, I think we can raise 
our potatoes smooth." —M. H. W., page 282. 
Two “ Women’s Contest ” plots have 
been planted at the Rural Grounds, both 
according to the R. N.-Y.’s Trench sys¬ 
tem. The first was planted to the No. 2 
(100 pieces), No. 3 (50 pieces), No. 4 (100 
pieces) and Brownell’s Winner 113 pieces, 
making 363 in all—the area being one 
fortieth of an acre. The other plot was 
planted to the No. 2. 
“ I have for years found that cattle having 
a free use of their heads have thriven better 
on less feed than those confined in stanch¬ 
ions —H. A. W., page 283. 
You have a given amount of good seed 
and manure. You are able to perform a 
given amount of work. This, we may 
say,is the capital for your farm operations 
this year. Now, then, the question is:— 
Will you make more money by spreading 
that seed, manure and labor over 20 acres 
than you will by condensing it on 10 
acres? Take any multiple of these figures 
and apply the problem to any farm in the 
country. The way this question is settled 
will have very much to do with the profit 
or loss on many a farm where profit 
means contentment and peace, and loss 
means desperationjand worry. Think it 
over. 
It is going to pay you to read every word 
ot the story, •*Our First Farmers' Institute 
which begins this week. It's sound, sensible 
and truthful. Read it and think it over. 
Lots of so-called “ dairy authorities” 
are urging farmers to go into winter 
dairying. Make arrangements, they say, 
to have the cows calve in September or 
October so that their milk flow will be 
heaviest when butter and cream are high¬ 
est in price. A good deal of such talk is 
given without any limitation whatever. 
Now, in many places near New York, and 
also in the vicinity of summer boarding¬ 
houses, cream and milk are highest in 
price in summer, when summer boarders 
and city visitors are on hand. Thus we 
see that the man who gives such general 
advice, without any qualifications, is an 
unsafe guide. We also see that the way 
to get the most out of the cream and but¬ 
ter is to know 7 when either will bring 
most and then make it. The only way to 
know is to investigate and think. 
--- 
“ The idea must be dinned into the inner 
consciousness of our legislators and city 
fathers that these great carrying, lighting 
and communicating corporations are given 
t heir public franchises and virtual monopolies 
to serve the public and not to enrich them¬ 
selves inordinately .' 1 '— W. I. Chamberlain, 
page 281. 
New t York City now receives a great 
many horses from the NorthjY^st. In 
former years the lumber camps were able 
to use the surplus of good horses raised in 
that section. Of late years horse breed¬ 
ing has been developed to such an extent 
that the camps cannot utilize all. Thus 
some fine animals are sent East. The 
Northwest is not a corn country. Horses 
there get more oats and wheat bran for 
grain feed. One would suppose that 
such teed would develop tougher and 
more serviceable animals than the corn of 
the Middle West. Such seems to be the 
fact. While these Northern horses are 
not so heavy and fat as those raised 
further south, they are tough, wiry and 
solid, and are greatly liked for street 
work. As a rule, however, they are 
poorly broken. More care should be 
taken about breaking them before they 
are shipped East. 
‘‘A man must use his brains if he wants 
to succeed with a machine. A harrow or a 
weeder run over a piece of corn or potatoes 
on a hot, dry, sunny day at the proper time, 
will kill all the weeds; but if used on a wet 
day or after the weeds are up it is worse 
than useless."— L. W. Curtis, page 278. 
■-■ »<«■»« »- 
No kind of legislation more deeply 
concerns the farmer than that designed 
to protect him from railroad discrimina¬ 
tion. One of the worst offenders in this 
line is the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose 
policy has greatly contributed to reduce 
the value of produce and land in many 
wide sections of the State. While other 
industries have been plundered through 
the favoritism and corruption of railroad 
managers, beyond all doubt agriculture 
has been the greatest sufferer. Some 
time ago the Grangers appointed a Legis¬ 
lative Committee of six, whose duty it was 
to push legislation in the interests of 
farmers at Harrisburg. There is a bill 
now before the legislature against rail¬ 
road discrimination, and it is charged 
that at least three of the Granger Com¬ 
mittee have for upwards of a month bten 
strenuously obstructing its passage. 
Would it not be well for the Grange to 
investigate this matter? 
11 If the value oj the smoothing harrow 
were properly understood and if it were 
more used by the Southern farmers, it would 
save m ons y clearing ana cultivating the 
young crops at the busiest season of the year. 
In such times a good team and harrow used 
at the proper time would do more work in 
one day than six plows and ten horses could 
do in the same time ."—J., C. Stribling, 
page 279. 
For years the root crop has been a 
staple product of English farming. For 
generations English farmers have been 
taught to believe that it is impossible to 
raise good stock without roots. Times 
change. New conditions twist practices 
all about. Even now good English farm¬ 
ers are seriously considering the profit of 
continued root culture. It has been clear¬ 
ly shown that the cost of the crop has 
steadily increased from year to year. The 
silo has provided the friends of silage 
with a series of remarkable figures on the 
cost of cattle food. It is not at all prob¬ 
able that the English root crop will be¬ 
come a memory, but it is clearly certain 
that it will be lessened. The point we 
wish to make is that you may have been 
conducting unprofitable farm operations 
for years simply because they have al¬ 
ways been found in your neighborhood. 
A little careful experiment and study 
might show you clearly that they are un¬ 
profitable. Now is a good time to think 
of such things. 
“ Some farmers harrow corn land immed¬ 
iately after plowing, plant, then roll, and 
harrow over once or twice more. This leaves 
the land in fine condition for the cultivator; 
but should a heavy, beating rain follow soon 
after, the soil will pack almost as solid as a 
road, and it must be stirred again by some 
means before it bakes, or there will be tribu¬ 
lation."— Fred Grundy, page 278. 
A friend of the R. N.-Y., a good bus¬ 
iness man, born on a farm and well ac¬ 
quainted with agricultural methods, re¬ 
cently made a visit to the Rural Grounds. 
On the way from the station, a large, 
fine-looking farm-house was passed. 
“That’s a good farm-house ; how large 
a farm does that represent ?” said our 
friend. 
“Sixteen acres of cultivated land ! 
That farm supports two families. The 
girls have a piano, the family take plenty 
of time for holidays and visiting, and a 
little money is saved every year.” 
Our friend shrugged his shoulders. 
“That beats me; 1 couldn’t do it; I 
thought I could learn how to handle al¬ 
most any business, but I wouldn’t attempt 
that.” The man who makes “farming 
pay” will be found working on solid busi¬ 
ness principles and there are surprisingly 
few men who excel in other lines of busi¬ 
ness who could take up agriculture with¬ 
out previous training and make anything 
like a success of it. 
“ Harrowing potatoes is not practiced by 
any of the large growers of this locality. 
For first cultivation nearly all have adopted 
the method of covering the entire surface of 
the row, the young plants included, soon 
after making their appearance, the soil for 
the purjiose being moved from between the 
rows. 1 '— L D, Cook, page 278. 
That is a new path of usefulness start¬ 
ed by the Vanderbilt University, in Ten¬ 
nessee. It offers to give full instruction 
in road making and engineering to one 
highway official from each county in the 
State. The course of instruction is to 
consist of “lectures and practical work 
on the economical location of highways 
to conform to the conditions of topogra¬ 
phy and traffic; principles of the con¬ 
struction of new and the reconstruction 
of old roads, and of maintenance and re¬ 
pair; methods ot drainage; simple high¬ 
way structures; retaining walls; drains, 
culverts, simple bridges; a study of the 
system of highway administration, etc. 
The roads of Tennessee are as bad as 
those of any State in the Union, so that 
this plan is likely to be of great advan¬ 
tage to the farmers of the State, whose 
welfare is most deeply dependent on the 
condition of the roads. Isn’t the exam¬ 
ple worth following by institutions of 
learning in other States also ? If they 
cannot afford to give roadmasters gratui¬ 
tous instruction, would it be well to 
make to the State an offer of such services 
on favorable terms ? 
As our readers are aware, potash salts 
contain a very important fertilizer ma¬ 
terial. Under the law all foreign sub¬ 
stances used for fertilizing purposos are 
admitted free of duty. In 1870, however, 
the Treasury officials discovered that 
potash salts of a high degree of purity 
were imported by certain persons, under 
this law, while they were really used for 
the manufacture of chemicals. Accord¬ 
ingly the Secretary of the Treasury de¬ 
cided that any so-called manurial salts or 
fertilizers containing 30 per cent, of free 
potash or over, should be subject to 
duty. This ruling has ever since been a 
source of no inconsiderable loss to farmers 
on account of the consequent increase in 
price of Stassfurt salts which contain a 
high percentage of potash. Secretary 
Rusk has been investigating the matter, 
and has learnt from the Treasury De¬ 
partment that the decision was made 
solely to prevent fraud, and that the De¬ 
partment was ready to admit such salts 
duty-free, provided assurance could be 
obtained that they would be really 
used for fertilizing purposes. It is sug¬ 
gested that the manufacturers of ferti¬ 
lizers, who are the chief importers of these 
products, should give bonds to the 
Treasury that all such salts they may im¬ 
port shall be used exclusively for ferti¬ 
lizing purposes. The suggestion is likely 
to be adopted, in which event there 
should be a considerable decrease in the 
prices of potash fertilizers. 
ADDITIONAL NAMES. 
T HE following names should be added 
to the list of contestants in the 
Women’s Potato Contest. 
Miss Jennie Sullivan, Bergen County, 
N. J. 
Miss Nellie Stillman, Alleghany Coun¬ 
ty, N. Y. 
Mis. M. Crawford, Cuyahoga County. 
Ohiol 
Mrs. T. H. Hurst, Cuyahoga County, 
Ohio* 
Nancy J. Neff, Belmont County, Ohio. 
Mrs. E. M. Mehan, Beaver County, Pa. 
Mrs. Susan P. Fowler, Cumberland 
County, N. J. 
TIPS IN PLACE. 
W HEN we consider that tips for 
horses are only about half the 
weight and cost of full-sized shoes, and 
that in certain circumstances they are 
much better and safer, it is surprising 
that they are not getting more rapidly 
into use. They never contract the hoof, 
but keep it in a natural healthy shape, 
and allow the frog cf the foot to be 
planted squarely on the ground, and thus 
lessen the jar to the leg joints, and their 
liability to be injured, besides giving a 
firmer grasp on slippery ground. The 
surface of the hoof to which the tip is to 
be nailed should be pared down enough 
to make it level with the hind part, so 
that it will set flat alike from toe to heel 
when the the horse is stepping on the 
ground, or standing on the stable floor. 
THE GOLDEN BELL. 
T HE Golden Bell may fairly be called 
the queen of early-blooming shrubs. 
It is about the earliest to bloom. It is 
extremely hardy. It is of exceptionally 
vigorous growth and long-lived. It 
blooms from top to bottom, and it blooms 
every spring. Confined to a single stem 
it forms in three or four years a beautiful 
little tree 
Forsythia viridissima is the species 
seen in every garden. F. Fortunei is of 
comparatively recent introduction and in 
several important respects is superior to 
the first named. The flowers are larger; 
it is of more vigorous growth and blooms 
some two or three days earlier. The 
leaves are larger, the branches stronger 
and it is quicker to foim a shrub of ma¬ 
ture and ample proportions. 
The Golden Bell should be seen in 
every garden. It is beautiful when cov¬ 
ered with its bright yellow, four petaled 
flowers which appear before the leaves; 
beautiful for its bright, luxuriant foliage 
after the flowers have fallen. But of the 
two, choose by all means Forsythia For¬ 
tunei. The genus was named" after Mr. 
Fortune who sent it to us from Japan. 
The latter bears his name both generical- 
ly and specifically. 
THE RIGHT KIND OF TALK. 
T HE following extracts are taken from 
a letter recently sent the R. N.-Y. 
by Edwin Willits, the new Assistant Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture. We like such 
talk: 
“ I wish most emphatically to say to 
you that I have not accepted the 
position of Assistant Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture because it is a political position, 
but in spite of if. I want no political po¬ 
sition, and this place came to me because 
the scientific workers and the agricultural 
college people thought (whether true or 
not time will demonstrate) that I have 
qualifications for organizing and conduct¬ 
ing in its widest scope the scientific work 
of the Department, and for bringing it 
into harmonious relations and co-opera 
tion with all the experiment stations of 
the country. I did not seek the place, 
had no thought of it, did not know of 
the movement till my name was ready to 
be sent to the Senate. 
But I have been impressed so fully with 
the importance of the grand impulse of 
the day to apply science to agriculture, 
that if the men associated with me think, 
as they seem to have done, that I am the 
man to represent their wants in the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture and to biiug it 
into full sympathy with practical agricul¬ 
ture, I will not decline, though my plans 
here in the local field are only half de¬ 
veloped. 
I am to have charge of the scientific 
work; that is the Secretary’s wish. 
President Harrison told me that I owed 
my selection to scientific and not political 
influences, and, so far as I can, I shall try 
to satisfy the Rural and all other friends 
of agriculture that there is a place in the 
Department for such a man.” 
“ As a rule, the practice commonly fol¬ 
lowed by intelligent farmers in any section 
is the best under the conditions prevalent 
there, however unwise it may seem to wise¬ 
acres in another section where the conditions 
are entirely different ."—J. A., page 283. 
brevities. 
Strawberries retail at 25 cents per quart. 
Read what Uncle Bucephalus says of “the 
true maple taste.” 
Are you reading President Chamberlain’s 
forcible monopoly articles l 
Mr. J. M. Smith tells, in answer to a ques¬ 
tion, how ne treats his strawberries. 
Farmers in Western New York are evapo¬ 
rating apples—not this year’s crop, however. 
The R. N.-Y. would be glad to know 
where it can procure a plant or so of the 
Austrian Copper rose. 
For the first year in the R. N.-Y.’s exper¬ 
ience, the white-blackberry canes came 
through the winter without much injury. 
Mothers and daughters, read what Miss 
Taplin has to say in her “Chat by the Way.” 
It is good, sound advice from a good woman. 
In the R. N.-Y.’s field culture of potatoes 
this season, the trenches are dug by the 
winged shovel plow run twice to the Irencb. 
This gives the desired depth and width. 
It appears that some farmers are making a 
little money at growing roasting pigs for this 
market. There is quite a demand for these 
juicy little fellows. It will ^pay to work up 
this market. 
The Cumberland (Triumj; h) is one of the best 
strawberries ever tried at the Rural Grounds, 
as we repeatedly stated years ago when it was 
introduced. Now it is coming to the front 
as all the R. N.-Y. ever claimed for it. 
We are giving our asparagus bed a liberal 
dressing of kainit—probably at the rate of 
1,500 pounds to the acre. This furnishes 
potash and salt, the latter of which is thought 
to be helpful to asparagus plants, though 
there is no evidence to that effect that we 
know of. A dressing of sulphate of ammonia 
at this time would no doubt hasten growth 
and increase the size of the stalks, 
