368 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE i 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
MBKRI 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1SS9. 
POSTSCRIPT. 
A S we go to press with the last pages 
of this issue, news comes from the 
Rural Grounds that the following mix¬ 
ture seems to repel the flea beetle: Two 
parts of fine, sifted unleached -wood ashes 
to one of plaster, which had previously 
been poisoned with London-purple in 
the usual way, and snuff (tobacco) at the 
rate of one pound to a barrel of the mix¬ 
ture. It is thought that the fleas are re¬ 
pelled by the ashes alone. The London- 
purple was added to kill the potato 
beetles and thus to render an additional 
application unnecessary. "We learn that 
the flea-beetle is very destructive on many 
Long Island farms. 
-♦ « > - » > 4 »- 
“No greater mistake is made in the man¬ 
agement of stock, than the plan too often 
adopted on the principle that all that is nec 
essary is that the animals shall be well or 
liberally fed. Horses that are well cared 
for and always carefully used will do well 
on a very ordinary ration ; while horses re¬ 
ceiving no care and that are carelessly or 
severely handled will not thrive on the best 
of feed."— Dr. Kilborne, page 363. 
We have got yet one more name to add 
to the list of judges for the R. N.-Y. Po¬ 
tato Contest. It is that of Mr. A. W. 
Cheever, a practical farmer, and agricul¬ 
tural editor of the New England Farmer 
as well. 
The R. N.-Y. wants all the help it can 
get in the battle with the flea-beetle. 
Some of our correspondents write us that 
they have been troubled with the insect 
for some years. What we want to know 
is, what have they done to keep it in 
check? 
“So we try to coax ourselves to believe that 
a beefy cow will pay her way with the help 
of the steers. But will she do it? Not in the 
East where land and feed are high-, or in 
the West where dairying is made the busi¬ 
ness of the farm."—A. L. Crosby, page 362. 
We gave, last week, an item of news 
concerning the proposed effort to foster 
the flax industry in this country. TheR, 
N.-Y.is assured by those who have carefully 
looked into the matter that there is much 
of promise in the idea. It is confidently 
claimed that a new machine has been per¬ 
fected that will revolutionize the flax in- , 
dustry almost as completely as Whitney’s 
invention of the gin revolutionized the 
cotton industry. Figures on another 
page show how America would be bene¬ 
fited by such a revolution. 
“They beat Mr. Terry in China, for they 
keep asses and mides and feed them on the 
potato tops; they cannot afford even hay. 
Horses, like men, must live on what they can 
get, not on what their fancy may dictate , or 
their apvetite approve. There is a wonder¬ 
ful elasticity about the reguirements of the 
animal body."— Mr. Davenport, page 363. 
---- 
T-wo horses on the New Jersey farm 
have not had 100 pounds of hay during 
the past month. They have had good 
pasture, when not at work, cut grass, 
wilted or partly cured, and grain. They 
have kept in excellent condition though 
they have done their full share of work. 
This fact is worth noting in connection 
with the ideas advanced by those who 
discuss Mr. Terry’s plan of feeding clover 
hay to horses. Do we feed our horses 
more gram than they need ? The R. 
N.-Y. believes that many of us do, just 
as it believes that many of us eat a great 
deal more meat than we need. 
The R. N.-Y.’s asparagus bed (consist¬ 
ing of many so-called new kinds) is at¬ 
tacked by the asparagus beetle. On 
several plants the writer saw last week 
hundreds of eggs, a dozen or more of the 
beetles and about fifty of the worms 
(larvae or grubs). These worms may be 
seen eating the leaves just as the currant 
worm eats the leaves of currants and 
gooseberries. As soon as our readers 
discover plants so infested it is better to 
do one of two things, viz., dust them 
with sharp, sifted coal ashes, slaked lime, 
or, what is surer to kill, Paris-green or 
London-purple and plaster. But the use 
of poisons would necessitate great care in 
washing the shoots unless cutting ceased 
after the application. 
“In my opinion the feeding of less hay and 
a little wheat bran or whole oats, will not 
only prove more acceptable to the animals, 
but also tend to better results m building up 
the bony structure of the growing young, as 
well as in promoting its general thrift. In 
my own case, I consider such a mixture of 
feed, as also an occasional feed of corn fod¬ 
der, and even straiv, not only economical but 
healthful."— John M. True, page 362. 
TnAT despised plant, the cactus, is 
destined to become a power in the devel¬ 
opment of the Southwest. The plant is 
nutritious, succulent and hardy. It 
grows where nothing else will and sup¬ 
plies almost enough water to relieve the 
thirst of cattle. When mixed with the 
native cotton seed it forms a more per¬ 
fect ration than any other product indig¬ 
enous to that region. But along with 
these good qualities it is cursed with 
thorns so sharp and terrible that even 
the animals maddened by thirst or hun¬ 
ger are held at bay. Thus these thorns 
prick millions of dollars away from Texas. 
Did nature make a mistake in this ar¬ 
rangement? 
“Some horses are very easily kept, and 
will do a moderate amount of work, and at 
the same time, keep fat, on a ration that 
would barely keep the skin and bones of an¬ 
other horse together. No general ration can 
be given that will suit all cases ."— Dr Kil- 
borne, page 363. 
There are several points about the 
sorghum sugar industry that deserve at¬ 
tention. One is that only in a country 
possessing plenty of coal and water, 
abundance of cheap land and a warm 
climate can a factory be successfullv 
maintained. Another is that sugar can 
be made cheap only by the introduction 
of cheap labor. Sorghum cane brings 
but $2 per ton. Take from this price the 
cost of growing, hauling the crop, and 
what is there left to attract an ambitious 
farmer? Still another point is the fact 
that the plant for a factory is so expen¬ 
sive that only a rich corporation can 
work the business. The R N.-Y. sug¬ 
gests that convicts in our State prisons 
might be made useful in the sorghum in¬ 
dustry and thus help to settle the prison 
labor question. There is already a clamor 
from some parties that Alaska should be 
used as an American Siberia. It would 
be better to locate the American Siberia 
in a warmer climate and employ convicts 
at sorghum sugar making. 
Is cream, cream? We are used to call¬ 
ing milk, milk,without any regard to the 
fact that there are such wide differences 
between different samples that they 
might well pass for different substances. 
The R. N.-Y. has been studying, with 
considerable care, the milk from the vari¬ 
ous cows that ran in the pasture, and the 
result would indicate that what we call 
“milk’’varies so greatly in actual value 
that it is impossible to adopt for it any 
standard price that is fair. Now, is it 
the same with cream? Will a quart of 
cream from a Jersey cow make any more 
butter than a quart of cream from a Hol¬ 
stein. supposing both samples to have been 
raised under exactly the same conditions? 
Those who advocate the cream-gathering 
system of dairying argue against the in¬ 
justice of paying a uniform price for milk 
when it is clearly evident that one sample 
of milk may be far more valuable than an¬ 
other. They assume that cream is cream, 
in other words, that the difference be¬ 
tween the butter-making ability of one 
cow and that of another stops at the 
creamer, and that one sample of cream is 
just as valuable as another. Are they 
right? 
“The people have the unquestionable right 
to demand that the government shall offer a 
fair prioe for the railroads, and that if the 
owners refuse to sell, it shall construct com¬ 
peting lines where such lines would be most 
effective, and operate them for the benefit of 
the people as a department of the Civil Ser¬ 
vice."— C. W. W., page 369. 
TRADE SECRETS. 
T here are a-half dozen things in this 
paper that might properly come 
under this heading. There are plenty of 
them in any number of the Rural. We 
mean bits of experience and observation 
that, if worked out by a mechanic as a 
part of his trade, would never be made 
public. When a mechanic hits upon 
some method that enables him to do his 
work a little cheaper or better than his 
fellows can do it, he keeps it to himself, 
guarding it as a part of his stock in trade. 
Intelligent farmers do not work on this 
principle. That is plainly evidenced by 
reading through a file of the R. N.-Y. 
This year we have already given at least 
100 plans for work, that are deserving of 
being patented and are worth hun¬ 
dreds of dollars to the originators. Some 
of the men who guard their “trade 
secrets ” most zealously accuse farmers of 
being stingy and illiberal. This is a great 
mistake. In the matter of square gener¬ 
osity and conscientious desire to aid their 
co-workers, the best American farmers 
stand pre-eminent. 
It is a part of the R. N.-Y.’s business to 
collect and publish these trade secrets. 
Most of those to whom we apply are very 
willing to give information. They realize 
that they lose nothing by helping their 
fellows. In fact, they believe that they 
will gain in the end by improving the 
general character of agricultural produce. 
Here is one instance that shows two 
things. A short time ago the R. N.-Y. 
set out to find how certain dairy prizes 
were won. Lists of questions were sent 
to the various prize-winners. With one 
exception, they replied promptly, giving 
minute and interesting accounts of the 
manufacture of the prize articles. The 
one refused to tell how the work was done 
unless the R. N.-Y. paid $100 for the infor¬ 
mation, It seems evident that in print¬ 
ing this symposium the R. N.-Y. gave its 
readers information worth a good deal of 
money, while those who contributed to 
the fund of knowledge were exceedingly 
liberal-minded men and women. 
“I say it with the fullest conviction, after 
years of struggle in that land and in this, 
that the American farmer who is indus¬ 
trious, intelligent, persevering, is one of the 
most favored of men; his lot is, or should be, 
one of peace and comfort, and if there be 
such a thing as envy in my heart, there is 
no man I envy so much." —C. Booth, page 
365. ____ 
RAISING TROTTERS ON THE FARM. 
A T a farmers’ institute held at Friend¬ 
ship, N. Y., last winter Mr. Seth 
Fenner made the following statement: 
“I can select 100 trotting-bred stallions 
in my vicinity, and take all the colts they 
have ever sired and sell them at auction, 
and they would not bring enough to pay 
for the service of the stallions that sired 
them.” 
This statement seems to have stirred 
up the breeders of trotting horses to a 
high degree of excitement. Mr. C. J, 
Hamlin, president of the Buffalo Interna¬ 
tional Fair, has sent out a letter in which 
he gives the names of 13 farmeis, neigh¬ 
bors of Mr. Fenner, who have sold colts 
at from $300 to $1,700. These colts, he 
says, were “raised by farmers who pay 
but little attention to horse breeding, but 
owning good mares, they know the value 
of good crosses.” Then he goes on to 
say that “the American trotting horse 
should receive the most careful attention 
of the farmers of this land. Foreign 
markets are being rapidly opened. Every 
important nation in the world is looking 
at the American trotter. The time is not 
far distant when this land cannot 
raise enough good horses to supply the 
export trade. The sure and valuable in¬ 
comes the small farmers of France have 
been reaping from the sale of horses to 
Americans will soon be repeated in this 
country where we may look for the buy¬ 
ers of the world.” 
It occurs to the R. N.-Y. that Mr. 
Fenner may have been nearly correct in 
his statement without weakening in the 
least Mr. Hamlin’s argument. There 
are good horses and poor horses. The 
farmers who select a trotting stallion just 
because his services are to be secured for 
a small sum or who take an inferior mare 
to a high-priced etallion and expect a 
first-class colt arc always drsappuiuted. 
Mr. Hamlin’s figures prove that the farm¬ 
ers he mentioned patronized the best 
stallions. Mr. Fenner can perhaps make 
his assertion good and show farmers who 
have patronized poor stallions at a high 
rate for service and then handled the colts 
so that they proved failures. We believe 
Mr. Fenner went on to speak of the in¬ 
fluence of a fast horse on farm morals and 
industry. We have never had much ex¬ 
perience with very fast horses. Old 
“Doll” and “Bill” can get us over the 
road at a rate of speed that keeps busi¬ 
ness going. We know good men who 
thoroughly enjoy a ride behind a fast 
horse and who are in no way spoiled by 
the ownership of a good trotter. We 
have had neighbors whose sons were most 
certainly carried into fast habits, fast 
acquaintances and fast moral dt cline by a 
fast horse. This leads us to conclude 
that lots of men who try to raise trotters 
are totally unfitted by nature to under¬ 
stand or appreciate that business. A 
good deal of the loss from fast-horse breed¬ 
ing is due to these misfits. 
“The farmer's son is just as honorable 
and is as honorably employed when taking a 
load of hay to town and carting a loaa of 
manure home to enrich the farm,as he would 
be if standing behind the merchant's counter 
measuring dry-goods, and the prospect of 
setting up in business for himself is as 100 
to one in favor of the worker on the farm, at 
the present low price of farms, compared 
with the chances before the clerk."— Frank¬ 
lin Dye, page 366. 
BREVITIES. 
Strawberries are cheap and will be 
cheaper. 
READ the “ Extract from an English Let¬ 
ter ” and then he doubly thankful you are an 
American citizen. 
Of course you have planted some fodder 
corn for the cows to eat in August. The 
R. N.-Y. has planted some roots too. 
Strawberries and cream, baked potatoes, 
good bread and butter, lettuce and the 
promise of green peas in a few days. Do you 
want anything finer? 
One of our readers finds the handling of 
apple wood profitable. We learn that there 
is a good demand for second growth ash. It 
is used for base ball bats. 
The R. N.-Y. ha« a field badly run to brush 
and weeds which it wants to clear. The plan 
is to mow- the brush in August and turn in 
some sheep. Is this right? 
Some years ago §26,000 were refused for 
the famous Jersey cow, Mary Anne of St. 
Lamberts. She was sold at auction last 
Tuesday for $2,100. The uninitiated will 
ask what has become of $23,900 of her value? 
Large crates about the shape of peach bas¬ 
kets are now made for green peas and string 
beans. They hold about as much as the old- 
time square crates, and can be packed one in 
another, and thus returned in a less bulky 
form. 
For three years we used “oniony” milk 
and butter. This year we have none of it. 
This happy result has been brought about by 
keeping the cow away from the onions. She 
has not been pastured for weeks, but is fed 
cut gra c s and grain. Soiling pays us. 
It is a great advantage to plant potatoes 
that will sprout evenly. Some varieties are 
curious in this respect. Part of the plants 
will grow to a higbt of several inches before 
the (thers appear. On weedy grouud it it 
evident that this causes much trouble. 
Last year Lima beans Drought a good 
price. The cold, damp spring ruined all the 
plantings and the crop was light. Sweet 
corn last year was low. This year in the 
vicinity of the Rural Grounds everybody 
plants Limas and reduces the area of sweet 
corn. What will be the result? 
Some people say that oatmeal and other 
cereal foods do not agree with them. The 
writer believes that this is sometimes due to 
the fact that too much milk is taken with the 
oatmeal, forming a pasty, mushy mass. He 
has acquired the habit of nibbling a cracker or 
slice of bread while eating oatmeal and milk, 
and thinks it is helpful. 
As is noted elsewhere, the sweet corn can¬ 
ning industry will be sure to lead the silo in¬ 
to any community. The silo affords the best 
means for preserving the stalks from which 
the ears of corn are removed. It is only a 
matter of time before this fact will be amply 
demonstrated. In these times agriculture is 
forced to settle itself into the most profitable 
grooves or go out of business. 
It may be well to repeat here what was said 
last year about the chemical composition of 
the corn plant. The leaves and the husks are 
the most nutritious parts of the plant, con¬ 
taining three-fourths of all the albuminoids. 
It is evident then that the most profitable 
corn for ensilage is one that suckers freely 
and presents the greatest amount of leaf sur¬ 
face with the smallest stalks. 
Western agriculture is adapting itself to 
new conditioi s with amazing rapidity. We 
have a letter from an Iowa subscriber who 
says he has contracted to raise sweet corn for 
next season’s use in Iowa canning factories. 
He has 138 acres in sweet corn to be used as 
seed exclusively. The sweet corn canning in¬ 
dustry has been supposed to belong to the 
Northeastern part of the United States. It 
would appear that this notion is uufouuded. 
