506 
THE RURAL MEW-YORKER. 
SEPT 7 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
•National Journal for Country and Suburban Home' 
Conducted by 
EKBERT S. CARMAN, 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. #4 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1889. 
THE R. N.-Y. WOMEN’S POTATO 
CONTEST. 
r |^HE reports of those engaged in this 
contest must be received at this 
office on or before October 1st. 
The potato vines to which we applied 
the Bordeaux Mixture “blighted” as early 
as any .others. We attribute the 
“blight,” in our case, first, to the flea- 
beetle and, second, to the wet season 
which induced rot. 
TheR. N.-Y., as usual, planted a hill 
or so of all the novelties in water and 
muskmelons. The melons were late in 
setting, owing doubtless to the wet 
weather, and up to this time few have 
ripened and those that have done so were 
of inferior quality. The R. N.-Y.’s ex¬ 
periments this season—and we have never 
been more pains-taking with the work— 
have been disappointing and unsatisfac¬ 
tory in one way or another. 
The R. N.-Y. sent out small tubers of 
the “No. 2” potato last spring. Some of 
our friends were displeased because the 
tubers were not larger. TheR. N.-Y. 
did its best to send samples. On page 
590 are some reports of the yields ob¬ 
tained from these little tubers. One man 
man got 19 34 pounds from his sample. 
When you see the price at which the po¬ 
tato will be sold next year, you will see 
what he made by his attention to a “little 
thing.” 
“ No crop should be fertilized or manured 
without leaving a few rows or a small area 
unfertilized for comparison .''— A. L. Cros¬ 
by, first page. 
-♦ < »-» « »»- 
Attorney-General Hogg, of Texas, 
declares that any combination of farmers 
to prevent competition in the purchase of 
merchandise is a violation of the Anti- 
Trust Law lately passed in that State. 
The question arose with regard to the ac¬ 
tion of the Farmers’ Alliance in boycot¬ 
ting jute-bagging, that body urging the 
planters of Texas and other Southern 
States to use cotton-bagging exclusively, 
so as to punish the jute-bagging syndicate 
for its extortion. The Alliance, however 
was fully aware of the scope of the law, 
and the members propose individually to 
fight the abomination. Few of them are 
likely to patronize ginners who buy any 
kind of bagging except what they want. 
What Jerseyman says, on page 602, 
about a walking record for horses is 
worth considering. The most valuable 
farm pace is a walk. The R. N.-Y. 
pointed out the fact, some weeks ago, 
that all the freight that passes over our 
great railroads must first be transported 
by horse power. Improvements in the 
speed of this horse work have not kept 
pace with the wonderful developments of 
railroad transportation. Draft horse 
breeding is now a regularly established 
business in this country. Before long 
there will be as much money invested in 
it as there is in the business of breeding 
trotters. The R. N.-Y. sees no reason 
why the draft stallion with the best walk¬ 
ing record before a load, should not com¬ 
mand attention proportionate to the trot¬ 
ting stallion that heads the list of speed¬ 
ers. There is something in this idea. 
Breeders of draft horses should start the 
record. 
A French seed grower and dealer in 
produce writes to the R, N.-Y. as follows: 
“ As American apples sell very well in 
England, and the crop in France is very 
short this season, I would like to try 
them here and buy apples from American 
dealers. But I do not know any fiuit 
merchants in your country, and I would 
be obliged to you if you could give me 
information about this trade and the ad¬ 
dresses of the best shippers, At the saute 
time, I would like to know where I 
could buy cider apples at the lowest 
prices, and the names of the principal 
merchants. ” 
The R. N.-Y. has sent instructions and 
addresses, and it is to be hoped that the 
correspondence may lead to a new market 
for American apples. It is doubtful if 
there will be much of a surplus this year 
for export, but years of plenty are to fol¬ 
low, and we need all the markets that 
can be found. 
Prof. Byron D. Halsted assumes, 
and perhaps correctly, that the rot in po¬ 
tatoes is due to a fungus. We have this 
to say about it: This year, as last, those 
vines died first which were first and most 
seriously attacked and injured by the 
flea beetle. We know of several fields 
about us that were not infested with the 
flea-beetle. There was no rot in these 
fields. The R. N.-Y. has tried about 50 
different kinds of potatoes the past sea¬ 
son, all growing within a few feet of one 
another. In every case, so far as our 
careful attention to the matter offers a 
guide, it would appear that those varie¬ 
ties which were most injured by the flea- 
beetle have rotted most; those which 
were the least harmed by the flea-beetle 
were injured least. Has Prof. Halsted 
considered the potato rot from this 
standpoint ? The question we raise is 
whether the fungus is the cause of the 
rot or a consequence of the injury sus¬ 
tained by the vines in consequence of the 
perforated leaves and the continuous wet 
weather which gave very favorable con¬ 
ditions for the fungous growth. We are 
fairly confident that just precisely the 
same cause which killed the potato vines 
this season, aggravated by continuous 
rain, killed them last year. 
-^ - 
A Commissioner appointed by the leg¬ 
islature of Vermont to ascertain the acre¬ 
age of abandoned farm lands in the State, 
reports that 200,000 acres formerly culti¬ 
vated have been abandoned by the own¬ 
ers. As a rule, the abandoned farms are 
scattered in different parts of the State; 
but the Commissioner finds that many of 
them are so close together as to make 
colonization by communities possible, and 
he proposes that inducements should be 
offered to Swedes to become occupants 
of the deserted farms. The proposition 
meets with general approval, and next 
spring an attempt is to be made to estab¬ 
lish an experimental colony of 50 Swedish 
families. Should this prove successful, 
the plan will be followed till all the aban¬ 
doned tracts are once more occupied. 
In all parts of the State the people are 
drifting from the farms into the towns or 
to other parts of the country, chiefly the 
West. The deserted farm buildings and 
fences are fast falling into decay and the 
once cultivated fields are growing up in 
timber. Many farms can be bought for 
less than the “improvements” on them 
originally cost. Is it likely that where 
the hardy, frugal, industrious Vermonter 
failed to make a living, the hardy,'frugal, 
industrious Swede will succeed? 
“ Agricultural writers should be quite 
sure they are right before they ridicule 
every one who does not follow their teach¬ 
ing." —B. R., page 593. 
upWENTY-FIVE dollars are offered by 
A the R. N.-Y. as follows: Fifteen 
dollars for the largest and best shaped 
R. N.-Y. No. 2; $10 for the second-best. 
Description and weight should be sent in 
before November next. Those only who 
may be entitled to one or the other of 
the above prizes, as judged by their own 
reports , will be asked to forward the 
specimens to this office. 
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE 
DRESSED-MEAT LAWS. 
A ttorney-general clapp of 
Minnesota, will make an appeal to 
the State Supreme Court from the de¬ 
cisions recently rendered by two Circuit 
Courts against the constitutionality of 
the “dressed meat” law. He maintains 
that the presentation of the cases did not 
fairly cover the points of the law. In 
both instance the cases were made up to 
suit tbe views and interests of the dressed 
meat syndicate, and were presented be- 
fore courts of its own selection. The de¬ 
cisions were rendered upon application 
for a writ of habeas corpus, and, as is 
u'ual in such cases, the Judges decided 
off-hand, without hearing the arguments 
of counsel and without the mature delib¬ 
eration required by the importance of the 
question involved. It is contended that 
a law against tfie sale of imported dressed 
meat for sanitary reasons, is just as much 
within the police powers of the State as 
laws against the sale of imported liquor 
or oleomargarine, and such laws have 
been repeatedly declared constitutional 
by the State and United States Courts. 
The constitutionality of the “dressed- 
meat” laws is a matter of great importance 
to the stock-growers not only of Minne¬ 
sota and the other States in which similar 
laws have been passed; but also to those 
of several other States in which the pas¬ 
sage of “ anti-dressed meat ” laws was de¬ 
feated chiefly on the ground that such 
laws would be unconstitutional. Of 
course, it pays the wealthy dressed-meat 
syndicate to contest every case to the bit¬ 
ter end; and the State should support its 
own laws by carrying a test case to the 
court of last resort—the Supreme Court 
of the United States. 
“I still think tnat the catalpa" (C. speciosa 
by preference. Eds.) “ is one of the best 
trees in the world for pasture groves. Its 
growth is rapid and its broad leaves make 
a shade so dense that neither weeds nor 
brush can exist beneath it. Stock will not 
eat it ."— F. Grundy, page 592. 
A FARMERS’ TRUST. 
66fT>HE Farmers’ Federation of the 
JL Mississippi Valley,” has called a 
convention of the “wheat-growers of the 
Mississippi Valley” to meet at St. Louis 
on October 23, for the purpose of forming 
a gigantic syndicate, or trust, for the pur¬ 
pose of putting and keeping up the prices 
of wheat, corn, cotton, cattle and other 
agricultural products. Meanwhile the 
promoters strongly urge the farmers of 
the Northwestern States and Territories 
to hold their wheat off the markets till 
after the meeting of the St. Louis conven¬ 
tion, “unless such prices shall be offered 
as will justify a reasonable profit above 
the cost of production, or $1 per bushel.” 
The “federation,” it tells us, is a joint- 
stock company, with a capital stock of 
$20,000,000, only $5,000,000 of which 
can be put on the market and sold. 
Farmers and local shippers can obtain 
this stock at the rate of 10 cents on the 
dollar, and the “federation” will not be¬ 
gin active business until $2,000,000 out 
of the $5,000,000 have been taken 
up. Consignments of grain, cattle and 
other produce are to be made by 
farmers to salaried agents of the 
syndicate, who will charge the usual 
commissions, but the profits will be di¬ 
vided pro rata among the patrons. It 
proposes to make a reduction of 90 per 
cent, in the number of middlemen and 
thus save a vast sum annually in commis¬ 
sions. An equal proportion of the retail 
men are also to be “wiped out.” The 
chief evils to be remedied are the unprofit¬ 
able prices of cattle and wheat, due to 
glutting the markets and exorbitant 
charges in handling; the excessive num¬ 
ber of middlemen of all sorts, who eat up 
the profits that should belong to the pro¬ 
ducers, and the extortionate charges of 
the owners of elevators and stock-yards. 
Lower rates of freight by rail and water 
will, it is expected, be also secured, and 
the welfare of the farmer be advanced by 
securing lower charges and better prices 
for all his products. A good deal can be 
learned and something can be hoped for 
from all such projects. In the present case, 
doubtless not the least forcible objection 
would be that a “ federation ” or “ trust” 
with a membership of several millions, 
having a multiplicity of products and 
often conflicting interests must be a very 
unwieldy and unmanageable organization. 
A SERIOUS MATTER. 
r T'HE ORANGE JUDD FARMER is 
asked by one of its readers why it 
gives so much attention to Northern” 
Montana. We need not publish the reply 
made to the inquiry, further than to say 
it is essentially evasive and untrue. The 
reason why it is full of Montana adver¬ 
tisements and Montana glorification edi¬ 
torials, is that the company owning the 
paper is personally interested, in a pecuiu 
iary way, in the sale of Montana lands. 
It is true also that these editorials which 
are assumed by the reader to be a candid, 
unbiased record of the information glean¬ 
ed by the editor as he travels about the 
Territory, and of the opinions formed in 
consequence of his careful and thorough 
investigations, are really advertisements , 
pure and simple, according to contracts 
entered into with certain Montana agen¬ 
cies. 
If the Orange Judd Farmer were the 
only farm journal engaged in this bad 
business, we might not think it worth 
while to call public attention to it in 
this conspicuous way. As it is, we 
deem it our duty, and it would seem 
to be the duty of all journals 
that have the good of their readers 
at heart, to publish the fact that this 
Montana boom is instigated, in a great 
measure, by a syndicate of agricultural 
editors acting in concert with railroad 
officials. TheR N.-Y. knows nothing of 
Montana, having declined polite invita¬ 
tions,first, to join this little editorial vis¬ 
iting band which was, a year or so ago, 
so liberally treated by the Montana rail¬ 
road officials, and, later, the proposition 
to become pecuniarily interested in the 
enterprise which promised “immense re¬ 
turns for a small outlay in money.” It 
may be all that is claimed for it. Chin¬ 
ook may in a few years rival the most 
favored Eastern cities. Our view is that 
those editors who have invested money in 
such lands and who are praising every¬ 
thing appertaining to them with scarcely 
any qualification, while their readers are 
left in utter ignorance of the incentive, 
are prostituting their high calling to the 
level of the most unprincipled monopo¬ 
lies, trusts or other combinations con¬ 
ceived and carried on chiefly from mo¬ 
tives of greed, with little, if any, consid¬ 
eration for the real welfare of those who, 
through this editorial puffery, are directly 
or indirectly induced to leave their pres¬ 
ent safe homes to endure the hardships 
and uncertainties of pioneer life. 
“ The R. N.-Y. No. 2 potato planted was 
the size of a hen's egg. I cut it into 10 pieces 
of one eye. each and planted in a poor soil 
without fertilizer, 12 inches apart, etc. 
The yield was remarkable. There were 68 
potatoes which weighed 19^ pounds," etc .— 
Bee page 590. 
BREVITIES. 
Red aoples are wanted by the fruit sellers 
in New York. 
Young Leghorn roosters are the greatest 
nuisances that a poultrymau can have in his 
flock. 
Next week one of our correspondents will 
gives some reasons for throwing stones at a 
horse 1 
It seems that wood bending is a regular 
business and one in which there is less compe¬ 
tition than any other wood industry. 
No person should ever drive a horse who 
does not know how to harness or uuharness. 
The women folks are included in this. 
The development of the dressed beef indus¬ 
try has made it possible for farmers to obtain 
bones for fertilizing purposes in larger quanti¬ 
ties than before the business started. 
If the sugar trust people do not behave 
themselves, there will be a big boom in bee 
keeping in this country. Farmers will fight 
the trust by supplying a share of their sweets 
in honey. 
One of the lambs used in a feeding experi¬ 
ment at Cornell University died from the ef¬ 
fects of a stone in its bladder. The R. N. Y-. 
feels confident that many of our domestic an¬ 
imals, horses more particularly, suffer from 
this trouble. 
Some of the farmers near the Rural Grounds 
“make work” in picking up potatoes. Some 
pick into bags and load the bags into the 
wagon. Others throw the tubers into the 
wagon and pick them over while unloading. 
The R. N.-Y. will have light boxes—-just 
large enough to fit into the wagon box two 
abreast. These are easily handed aqd cat) bt) 
quickly emptied. 
