AUG 40 
526 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER- 
DISCUSSION. 
THE IDLE POOR OF THE CITIES. 
C. W. TV., Huron County, Ohio.— On page 
448 the Rural asks: “What is to be done 
with the idle poor ot the cities ?” Judging 
partly from history, partly from observation, 
and partly from self-consciousness, I believe 
that idleness is not congenial to the American 
people, or to the Northern European races 
that have come among us. Like the use of 
opium, tobacco and alcohol, however, indul¬ 
gence in it doubtless begets a tolerance for 
it, which ultimately may become a crav¬ 
ing. Possibly, too, this unnatural vice may 
even in some degree become hereditary. 
I would ask these questions: Are there 
places where all those who are idle might find 
work ? Are any of the productive industries 
of the country seeking the services of these 
idlers, or is it not, rather, true that every one 
who finds a place where he may earn his living 
thereby displaces some one else ? I saw an ex¬ 
tract not long ago from a business journal in 
the iron trade, in which was shown the great 
economy effected by the substitution of crude 
oil for coal in the production of steam. This 
change, which was effected between October 
and March last, had in the Chicago Rolling 
Mills alone resulted in the displacement of near¬ 
ly 100 men, while it had rather increased than 
diminished the out-put of the concern. An 
equal displacement must have occurred iu the 
coal-mining, carrying and handling industries 
in consequence of this same improvement. 
Is it not true that the economies which are 
being so rapidly made in all lines of industry 
are of the same kind—always increasing the 
producing power, while employing a smaller 
force of laborers? If so, what wonder that 
“ this worthless, idle class is constantly in 
creasing in numbers.” As each economy is 
effected, a new adjustment takos place. The 
workers jostle each other on, and, with some 
exceptions which are not hard to find, those 
who are finally displaced from all employ¬ 
ment will be those in whom the tenacity of 
the working habit has become most weaken¬ 
ed. But, if this is true, the existence of this 
class of idle poor is but a symptom and not 
a disease. The work of the world is now done 
through costly machinery, by methods which 
are very efficient. This puts great wealth 
within the reach of a few, but, unfortunately, 
it is not evenly enough distributed. A very 
unfairly large proportion of it rewards capi¬ 
tal ; while too little of it pays labor. Among 
the people there is need enough of the prod¬ 
ucts of industry, but there is a lack of pur¬ 
chasing power where the need exists. There 
is power enough to supply all that need work, 
and more, but that power can not be applied 
to production for lack of a market. Even as 
it is, more energy is expended in selling most 
articles of consumption than in their produc¬ 
tion, and their price is more than doubled to 
the consumer by that fact. Should those who 
have been crowded out. go to work simply on 
their own energy? In order that they may 
buy anything they must sella part of the pro¬ 
duct of their own industry. But in order to 
enter the market, they must produce an arti¬ 
cle as good in quality and as low in price as 
that which already holds it; hence they must 
work in the most efficient manner, through the 
machinery by which the line of goods which 
they would put in the market is produced. 
Unless they are to produce everything for 
themselves, shelter, food and clothing, and 
have nothing to 8911, they must become em¬ 
ployes. If, failing to find employment, they 
should try as best they could to supply their 
own needs, a Digger Indian would be better 
off than they; but even in that case, there is 
no place where they might stay and illustrate 
their independence. The problem to be 
solved, then, takes such a shape as this: 
1. To provide an opportunity for every per¬ 
son to apply his unit of energy in the most 
effectual known manner, in supplying the 
needs of the world. 
2. To identify' the commercial demand with 
the needs of the people. 
These two are the complements of each 
other. One cannot be solved without the 
other, but these requirements being satisfied, 
poverty would thereby be abolished. Given 
the power, is the world willing to abolish 
poverty? I have never known an instance 
where a sufferer from poverty would not be 
glad to abolish his own, but when it comes to 
abolishing poverty generally, I fear there will 
be great resistance. 
WHY FARMING “don’t PAY.” 
E. L. F., Elba, N. Y.—I see of late a great 
deal about “farming don’t pay,” in every 
agricultural paper. Why does not farming 
pay? Is it on account of over-production or 
owing to the slack and slovenly way in 
which the business is carried on? A great 
many suppose that any one can farm. 
That is where many make a mistake: all of 
us who have been brought up on the farm are 
I not farmers. As ; 1 was riding through a 
neighboring town last spring, I saw a field on 
which manure was being drawn. The heaps 
were mostly coarse straw and there were 
about two bushels in a heap and 80 feet apart. 
I stopped and asked the man what crop he in¬ 
tended to put in there. He said: “Oats.” I 
asked him if the land was rich. He said no it 
was very poor. He thought if be gave it a 
good coat of manure he would get a good 
crop. This man is one that says; “ Farming 
don’t pay,” and 1 should say he need not go to 
a guessing school on that point. Then there 
are other men who will plant a little patch of 
corn, a little one of potatoes, a little one of 
beans, a few acres of wheat; the same of oats, 
a little of everything, and when harvest 
comes, they have a little of everything and not 
much of anything to sell with which to pay 
their debts. Instead of raising a crop of some 
one thing, and having a crop to sell, such 
men fritter away their time and laoor and say 
they don’t think farming pays now. 
I am acquainted with another man who has 
a large farm, but who is a good deal in debt. 
He grumbles all the time about hard times; 
but bis binder is out in the orchard housed 
under an apple tree; his harrow is in 
the fence corner in the field, and his wagon is 
outside the barn. Next spring when he 
wishes to use these tools, he will find them 
ready for repair, and he will say nobody can 
make farming pay in this country. 
Another man that I kDow of has 100 acres 
and last season he raised on his farm 1,100 bush¬ 
els of wheat; 800 bushels of barley; 500 bush¬ 
els of oats; 1,100 bushels of corn in the ear; 80 
bushels of potatoes; seventy-six tons of hay; 
besides apples, pears, peaches, strawberries 
and raspberries. He feeds out all his corn and 
a good many oats; fattens ten or twelve 
steers every winter, and makes about 400 
loads of manure every year. He makes farm¬ 
ing pay. 
W. F., Glen Cove, N. Y.- -Apropos of 
Rambler’s “ Long Island Notes,” page 475,1 
would say that hereabout the truck business 
is passing out of the hards of the old Ameri¬ 
can families because the young folks in these 
families take to “ nicer ” employment. Pota¬ 
to beetles were never before so abundant as 
they have beeu with us this year. Instead of 
giving two doses of Paris-green, as we used to 
give our crop in years past, I have poisoned 
our potato vines four times this year, and to¬ 
matoes, egg-plants and tobacco have only 
been preserved alive by poison and hand-pick¬ 
ing. Last year’s prices for asparagus ruled 
very high the whole season through; this 
year to begin with, prices ruled very low, but 
in a couple of weeks they advanced to living 
rates. Out of 29 kinds of strawberries I had this 
year, Sharpless was the best of all in weight 
of crop and the fine appearance of the berries. 
This variety seems particularly adapted for 
our heavy land, but it is useless on the light 
soil. Again, some of my neighbors say that 
Sharpless is unsatisfactory with them. So 
with stre wbernes in particular, it is a matter 
of certain kinds for c ertain soils and locations; 
but, taking it all through, I think Sharpless 
has a wider range than any other large-fruit¬ 
ed variety, 
“a significant movement.” 
V. H. F., Albany, N. Y.—The recent meet¬ 
ing at Rochester of the representatives of 
organized agriculture in this State, noticed 
in the last Rural, is certainly a move in the 
right direction. The farmers of New York, 
in common with these of other States, have 
suffered lrom the oppression of organized 
capital, brought to bear upon the law-making 
and law-executing powers, if not upon the 
judiciary as well. If any one doubts this, 
let him study the history of attempted agri¬ 
cultural legislation iu the different States 
the past winter. How many dressed-beef 
bills, oleomargarine bills, and other acts 
clearly in the interest of farmers, were 
lgnominicusly defeated ? Of a long list 
of laws passed in New York at the last 
session by a Republican Legislature, and 
signed by a Democratic Governor, not a sin¬ 
gle one was of any special importance to 
farmers, the most numerous class in the State. 
Money was voted with a lavish hand to pla¬ 
cate other classes, e. (/., the law providing 
that the laborers on all State works should re¬ 
ceive not less than $2 per day of eight hours. 
This was a bid, pure and simple, for the 
labor vote, but here, with a stupidity that il¬ 
lustrates their unfitness for the positions they 
hold, these demagogues neglected to make 
appropriations for these increased expen¬ 
ditures, so that their work is likely to recoil 
on their own heads. By the provisions of 
this bill, laborers on the Erie Canal who 
never pretended to really earn the $-.50 form¬ 
erly received for 10 hours’ work, now receive 
$2 for eight hours. Lock-tenders who used 
to fight bitterly for a position paying $40 to 
$45 per month, now receive $90 per month, as 
they must work 12 hours each day. Was this 
legislation called for? Most emphatically not, 
and no one who favored it should ever re¬ 
ceive a farmer’s vote for any office again. But 
how does this affect the farmer? It adds to 
his already too heavy taxes. Its tendency 
is to increase the price he must pay for labor. 
No man will work on a farm for the wages 
a farmer can afford to pay, when he can get a 
“soft” job for 25 cents per hour. It tends to 
make farm help dissatisfied and exacting, 
even though but a small percentage of the la¬ 
boring class can find employment on public 
works. This is but one example of many that 
might be given to show the need of farmers’ 
organizations. Farmers have been too much 
the slaves of party. Other classes have 
learned the folly of this, and have proved the 
power of organization. Farmers in some 
parts of the country have done the same, but 
when the farmers of the whole country unite 
in common cause, their power will astonish 
the world. 
THE DAVIS SWING CHURN. 
E. H. Andrews, Glastonbury Creamery, 
Conn.—L et me add to the discussion on 
churns by answering the following questions. 
“ Can you get more butter by using the 
Davis Swing Churn than by using another?” 
I say, yes.—We do get more butter from 
the same amount of cream, because it 
thoroughly churns all the cream, completely 
separating the butter from the butter-milk. 
A careful farmer living near our creamery, 
who has used one of the most noted cylinder 
or crank churns, finds that so much cream 
sticks to the arras and the inside of his churn, 
before the butter comes, and is afterwards 
washed off into tho butter-milk, that in churn¬ 
ing that over, he has sometimes made from 
bis butter-milk a pound of butter for each six 
to eight pounds of butter made directly from 
the cream. One of our patrons recently re¬ 
ceived a letter from a dairyman in New Jer¬ 
sey, saying that he had made a discovery 
worth patenting—that churned butter-milk 
would yield from one-fifth to one-eighth as 
much butter as cream. The Davis Swing 
churn has beeu tested here with several other 
kinds, and never came out second best, and 
its butter-milk has no cream left in it and will 
not make butter. 
“Is the butter made in the Davis Churn of 
better quality than that made in other 
churns? ” To this I answer without hesitation, 
yes. The butter comes in grains about the 
size of wheat, varying slightly in size with 
the temperature of the cream. These grains 
of butter are easily separated from the but¬ 
ter milk, almost every drop of which can be 
washed out; while the unbroken grains of 
butter remain in the churn, and can be placed 
on the butter-worker to be salted and balled, 
without giving the butter any of the “salvy ” 
look, which comes from mashed and broken 
grains, so common from other churns. Butter 
so made, not only looks better, but tastes and 
keeps better. 
“ Does the butter come in a shorter time?’* 
No, I do not think it does. Some rotating 
and beating churns bring butter a little more 
quickly; but the Davis Churn will bring it as 
quickly as any churn can do it, and do it well. 
We vary from 30 to 40 minutes in churning 
from 80 to 100 pounds ot butter. 
“Is running the Davis easier work?” I 
think it is. The smaller sizes can be pushed 
back and forth as easily as a cradle, and with 
our larger-sized churn the power required to 
swing it is very little. 
“A TARIFF ON BANANAS.” 
F. R. W., Monroeville, in. J.—I was 
much interested in an article on a “Tariff on 
Bananas,” in the Rural of July 20th, as an 
import duty on them would influence the price 
of other small fruits, especially strawberries. I 
grow strawberries myself and suffered this 
year from the low prices. In order to ascertain 
the cause and to see what I could do to im¬ 
prove the sale of my own berries, I went to 
Philadelphia in the bight of the season, stayed 
all night with my brother who is a commis¬ 
sion merchant, and was iu the market by 
three o’clock a. in., and was completely sur¬ 
prised—almost dumb-founded—to see the 
quality of the bulk of the fruit that was put 
on the market. Loads after loads of straw¬ 
berries were piled up in front of Dock Street 
Market that morning, that were not worth 
picking, much less paying freight and com¬ 
mission od. They sold at from three cents a 
quart to 50 cents a 00-quart crate, and brought 
all they were worth. 1 was satisfied that the 
reason why we have to take such small prices 
for our strawberries, is on account of this 
worthless stuff flooding the market. If some¬ 
thing could be done to stop this trash from 
coming into the murket, we could get a better 
price for our fruit. It does not seem to me 
that putting an import duty on bananas 
would do any good; for when a man wants a 
banana ho certainly would not buy a box of 
strawberries. I think one mistake a good 
many growers make is in letting the plants 
make too many sets. If we would shorten 
the runners in rows we would haye fruit of a 
better quality, though less in quantity, and 
quality is what we want. 
MR. CRAWFORD’S STRAWBERRY 
REPORT FOR 1889. 
OMITTING THOSE OF WHICH A SPECIAL REPORT 
IS MADE ON PAGE 522. 
The safest way for those who want better 
strawberries than those they now have is to 
test the new kinds for themselves. This costs 
far less than is generally supposed, and is the 
only way of judging correctly. An outlay of 
about two dollars a year would enable a per¬ 
son to do the work. He need not occupy over 
half a rod of ground with a single variety, 
and he should always test the best that he al¬ 
ready has alongside the'new candidates. A sin¬ 
gle season’s experience is not always conclusive, 
for a variety may do well one year and make 
almost a failure another, but the following 
notes will show what most of the new kinds 
and some of the old ones did for Mr. Craw¬ 
ford this year. His farm is at Cuyahoga 
Falls, O. 
Crawford. —The plant is very large and 
stalky, dark green, and free from defects. It 
has a perfect blossom, and is a good bearer. 
The fruit is large to very large, somewhat 
irregular at first, but never coxcombed. 
Color, bright, glossy red, and lighter within. 
The flesh is firm, and of excellent quality, one 
of tho best. It produces a good number of 
strong runners, and is a variety of decided 
character. 
Daisy. Mr. Crawford finds to be vigorous, 
productive, early, large, roundish, bright red, 
and of good quality. 
Miami. —This is a good grower and bearer, 
very late, and of good quality. He has fruit¬ 
ed it in a small way, and believes it to be val¬ 
uable. 
Osceola.—T his is claimed to have many 
good qualities, and to be the earliest of all. 
Warfield. —Whosoever has this may con¬ 
gratulate himself, for it is a very valuable 
sort, and more likely than any other to super¬ 
sede the Crescent. With us it is equal to that 
variety in health, growth, and productiveness, 
while it is far superior in size, beauty, and 
firmness. It is wonderfully productive, and 
continues of good size for a long time. It has 
a tart, agreeable flavor. 
Cloud.— Mr. C. expected this to be very 
early and immensely prolific, but was dis¬ 
appointed. It commenced to ripen about a 
week later than tho early sorts and was only 
moderately productive. It produced the 
most on tho poorest soil. When grown in 
the matted row on very rich ground the 
leaves were about two feet high, but there 
was very little fruit. 
Pineapple.— This was a disappointment to 
Mr. Crawford, as it proved to be neither 
more nor lefs than the Bonanza, a variety 
that he tested and discarded some years ago. 
It was originated aud named at Ada, O. A. 
M. Purdy, who had it on trial, renamed it 
Pineapple. It came to the surface again in 
Maryland last year, as something new, and 
was so well recommended that Mr. C. procured 
a stock. This last spring he sent for more, 
and planted half an acre, all of which he will 
destroy. The fruit is large but terribly mis¬ 
shapen, salmon-colored throughout, and as 
salvy as a banana. 
Hampden. —This was unsatisfactory in 
growth, and many of the berries failed to 
reach maturity. The fruit is quite sour and 
lacks gloss. 
Louise.—M r. Crawford had only a small 
bed in bearing, but he is inclined to think well 
of it. It is only a moderately good grower, 
but bears abundantly, and the fruit is of good 
size aud quality. Some of the largest speci¬ 
mens are slightly misshapen, but usually they 
are of good form and line-looking. 
Gold. —This is less productive than expect¬ 
ed, but the fruit is good aud very uniform in 
shape. It is round and rather light red. Tho 
plant is strong and healthy. 
Bomba. —This is all that was claimed for it. 
The plant is vigorous, sends out a moderate 
number of runners aud makes a great many 
crowns. It produced a large amount of fruit 
that ripened early, and was of great size, 
durkf,color, llrm_ flesh, and; quite, satisfactory 
