744 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV 9 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
(34 Park Row, New York', 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban 
Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1889. 
NOTICE. 
T he rural new-york- 
ER is invariably discon¬ 
tinued at the end of the term 
subscribed for. Any copies sent 
to non-subscribers are sent with¬ 
out charge as specimens merely. 
The judges have divided the 
list of prizes offered to the prize- 
takers in the R, N.-Y's. Women s 
National Potato Contest into 200 
souvenirs. The amount of work 
involved in deciding as to whom 
the prizes shall be awarded is 
considerable and it will be sever¬ 
al weeks before conclusions will 
be arrived at and the results pub¬ 
lished. A considerable number 
who have produced large yields 
have failed to append the neces¬ 
sary corroborative certificates. 
Over one thousand R. N.-Y. readers 
sent in their names as contestants in 
the Women’s National Potato Con¬ 
test, and 550 have sent in their re¬ 
ports. 
Dairy Commissioner had rejected the 
Wanklin-Waller method, and pre¬ 
ferred the Adams as more accurate. 
There was no evidence to show that 
the milk had been adulterated or 
watered, but the assumption was that 
it had been skimmed. The accused 
was acquitted, and it is difficult to see 
how any other result could have 
been reached. Such trials as this may 
be needed to agitate the subject, but 
such contradictory results will tend to 
bring distrust upon all methods of 
analyses in the eyes of practical 
farmers. 
Even if such a combination as that 
proposed at the Mississippi Valley 
Wheat Growers’ Convention, could 
temporarily succeed in controlling the 
price and supply of wheat, long-head¬ 
ed farmers may ask would it not be 
likely to end in disaster to the Ameri¬ 
can farmer? Wouldn’t its chief bene¬ 
ficiaries be a handful of gamblers who 
are speculating for an artificial rise in 
prices in the bread market? The first 
effect of such a speculative combina¬ 
tion would undoubtedly be to draw 
all the reserves of wheat out of the 
granaries of Russia, India, Austral¬ 
asia, Chili, Canada and other surplus- 
producing countries, and it is not at 
all unlikely that the manipulators 
of the scheme would soon discover 
that the stock of wheat in the world 
is considerably larger than they had 
A cabbage-grower near this city 
who has made a reputation for sup¬ 
plying extra good red cabbage, was 
asked for the secret of his success. 
He stated that the seed was of less 
importance than the location and en¬ 
vironment of the plant. He said he 
always sows red beets all about his 
cabbages, and it is this that gives 
them their beautiful color. “That 
beats Jacob's cattle experiment all 
hollow, ” was the comment of a seeds¬ 
man who heard this theory expounded. 
Almost every week the daily papers 
contain advertisements of 4 ‘sore ” 
horses for sale. Last week a friend of 
the R. N.-Y. followed up one of these 
advertisements. He found 10 horses 
at the stable of the United States Ex¬ 
press Company in Jersey City. They 
were all young animals of good color 
and breeding—easily worth $250 each 
if entirely sound. He was offered the 
entire lot for about $1,100. So far as he 
could judge, the horses were hoof-sore 
—there seemed to be nothing the 
matter with their legs. There was a 
good chance that a few months on 
bare ground, without shoes, would 
cure them of most of their lameness. 
Some farmers like to speculate with 
these “sore” horses, hut unless a man 
is an excellent judge of a horse and 
something of a veterinary surgeon, 
there is a good deal of risk about the 
business. Buying from the express 
companies is much safer than buying 
from the horse railroads, because it is 
well known that the express people 
never buy poor horses. 
There seems to be a great deal of 
nonsense connected with the business 
of testing milk. During the past week 
a milk-dealer of this city was tried 
before a jury for selling milk contain¬ 
ing a lower per cent, of fat than was 
required by the regulations of the 
Board of Health. The chemist em¬ 
ployed by the Health Board analyzed 
a sample taken from a certain can in 
a delivery wagon, by what he calls 
the Wanklin-Waller method, and 
found that it contained only 2.64 per 
cent, of fat, while the regulations say 
that milk must contain at least three 
per cent. The driver of the wagon 
testified that he took a sample of milk 
from the same can, which was ex¬ 
amined by a chemist vho had been 
employed by the United States Gov¬ 
ernment and by the State Dairy Com¬ 
missioner, and who testified that he 
analyzed it by the Adams method and 
found that it contained 3.08 per cent, 
of fat. He also stated that the State 
imagined. The next effect of an at¬ 
tempt arbitrarily to raise the price of 
bread in this country would certainly 
be to extend the area of wheat produc¬ 
tion in other quarters of the globe, 
and by largely increasing the world’s 
supply permanently lessen the de¬ 
pendence of consumers upon the 
American markets. There is no doubt 
that the present low prices of wheat 
are due, partly at least, to the impetus 
given to foreign production during re¬ 
cent yearn by the cornering operations 
of a few unscrupulous speculators in 
our markets. If the effects of the 
operations of a handful of middlemen 
have proved so injurious, what disas¬ 
ters may not be expected from similar 
operations practiced by a combination 
of a multitude of producers? It is 
well to think calmly and deliberately 
over the questions ' briefly suggested 
here, especially when discontent at 
low prices and strange projects for 
artificially bettering them are in the 
agricultural air. 
$io. 
T HE R. N.-Y. offers a prize of 10 
dollars for the best column 
of “Notes on a Back Number.” Con¬ 
testants may select any number of the 
R, N.-Y. for 1889. They are to write 
short notes in approval or criticism of 
the various topics discussed in that 
number. The articles must not be 
over one column in length. The prize 
is to he given to the column showing 
the most sense, and in which the great¬ 
est number of topics are discussed. It 
is proposed to publish all the essays 
in the form of a “ Discussion ” sympo¬ 
sium. 
GRAIN FOOD AND BUTTER. 
( 'IAN you add anything to the dis- 
J cussion of grain feeds for butter 
on page 739? This is a very interest¬ 
ing subject and is well worthy the at¬ 
tention of every dairyman. There ap¬ 
pears to be a universal belief that 
corn-meal is the best grain food that 
can be given butter cows. During 
the past year the R. N.-Y. has tried 
quite a variety of grains, such as 
wheat and rye brans, “horse feed” 
oats and com-meal. Our test for 
quality of butter is the opinion of the 
“dairymaid” who makes the butter 
without knowing what the cow has 
eaten. Nothing has been found to 
equal good corn-meal for making 
hard, firm, yellow butter. The differ¬ 
ence between corn-meal butter and 
bran butter is to be seen at once. In 
our opinion, the better the cow the 
wider the difference and the quicker 
it is to be noticed. The point is raised 
in the discussion that corn-meal is not 
so good when fed while the cows are 
at pasture. The R. N.-Y., from its own 
experience, considers this point sound. 
While the cows have plenty of good, 
sweet grass, we would feed’less corn- 
meal and more bran. As our readers 
know, the R. N.-Y. has been feeding a 
good deal of cabbage to dairy cows ; 
with this cabbage we feed corn-meal 
just as we would feed it with clover 
hay. Mr. Newton’s idea that the hay 
of the butter ration has a marked ef¬ 
fect, on the quality of the butter is 
well worth thinking over. “A good 
hay feed combined with a poor grain 
feed will make a better quality of but¬ 
ter than a good grain feed combined 
with poor hay." 
We believe that most dairymen will 
agree with this statement. It is most 
respectfully referred to the considera¬ 
tion of the farmers who think that 
corn-stalks and corn-meal are a perfect 
ration for dairy cows. 
A VAST SCHEME AND ITS DRIFT. 
A CONVENTION of over 200 dele¬ 
gates representing the wheat- 
growers of 17 States and Territories in 
the Mississippi Valley, began its 
sessions in St. Louis on October 23 un¬ 
der the auspices of the Farmers’ Fed¬ 
eration of Topeka, Kansas. The an¬ 
nounced object of the meeting was to 
devise ways and means to obtain bet¬ 
ter prices for the wheat, and ultimate¬ 
ly, doubtless, for the other products 
of the farmers of the vast valley ex¬ 
tending from the Alleghanies to the 
Rocky Mountains and from the 
Canadian line to the Gulf. Those 
present disclaimed “any purpose of 
denouncing trusts or combines, ” or of 
forming one themselves. They simply 
sought to remedy existing conditions 
which force wheat growers almost to 
give their crops away. They denied 
any wish to charge exorbitant prices 
for the cereal; they merely desired to 
regulate the supply to such an extent 
that the demand will not be so exceed¬ 
ed as to result in disastrous compe¬ 
tition. 4 4 A good price for the products 
of the farm,” exclaimed President 
Allen very truthfully, “meansgood 
times, the revival of business, more 
employment for labor and better pay, 
the improvement of railroads, fewer 
failures and the liquidation of mort¬ 
gages.” 
“Realizing the individual feebleness” 
of farmers and 44 the great importance 
of unity of action as a class,” the 
President urged farmers to delegate to 
a power of their own creation the ex¬ 
clusive right to market their products. 
The Farmers’ Federation, with a pro¬ 
jected capital of $20,000,000, three- 
fourths of which it is proposed shall 
rest forever in the care of trustees to 
secure farmers in control, offers itself 
as the embodiment of this power. It 
claims that before reaching the con¬ 
sumer the products of the farms of the 
Mississippi Valley are charged $10,- 
000,000 paid annually as commissions 
to middlemen, and it proposes to do 
the whole business through a system 
of salaried agencies for $1,000,000 a 
year! Meanwhile the convention de¬ 
termined to 4 4 fix the minimum price 
that wheat shall be sold for in the 
Chicago market ” during the current 
season. Farmers are urged not to 
sell for less; but. instead, to “corner 
the surplus of 120,000,000 bushels in 
their granaries and farms and to 
notify Mark Lane that it will not be 
sent forward until a price is offered 
that will justify exportation. This 
would,” we are assured, “bring 
up the price of wheat in the home 
markets in all exporting countries.” 
Among the fine resolutions passed by 
the Convention one urged the making 
of ‘‘such reciprocity treaties with 
those foreign nations to which we ship 
our farm products as will cause ” 
them to remove the customs duties 
from American agricultural imports, 
1 • thereby causing us to receive a higher 
price for our foreign farm surplus, 
and thereby fixing higher prices upon 
all we sell at home. ” Another resolu¬ 
tion urged the repeal of all our duties 
on farm implements and on the raw 
materials used in making them. 
Judging from the reports of the pro¬ 
ceedings of the convention, that have 
reached us, the conclusion is inevit¬ 
able that had it been packed by the 
concoctors of trusts in general and the 
advocates of unrestricted free trade, 
its action could hardly have been 
more favorable to the objects both of 
these classes have most at heart. The 
proposed scheme is, in reality, a gigan¬ 
tic trust, designed, like other trusts, 
to restrict production and raise the 
price of one or more products to con¬ 
sumers at home and abroad. Farmers 
are now the greatest sufferers from 
trusts and their most influential oppo¬ 
nents ; surely those engaged in a 
trust for controlling the prices of the 
necessaries of life throughout the 
world would be hardly in a position to 
make war upon minor trusts control¬ 
ling matters of minor importance 
within a comparatively circumscribed 
area. 
Again, farmers are the loudest and 
most influential opponents of the re¬ 
peal or diminution of duties on raw 
materials, because their wool, sugar, 
etc., are in the shape of raw materials 
when they market them. With what 
face could they demand the abolition 
of duties on one or two particular 
kinds of raw materials for their own 
special pecuniary advantage while in¬ 
sisting on the imposition of heavy 
duties on other kinds of raw materials 
to the pecuniary disadvantage of the 
rest of the community? Again, the 
United Kingdom takes more than 
twice as much of our exported agri¬ 
cultural products than all other coun¬ 
tries combined, and the United King¬ 
dom imposes no import duty on any 
of them except on tobacco and intox¬ 
icants. In return for the abolition of 
taxes on the small imports of these 
few luxuries, are we to throw open all 
our ports to free trade in the multi¬ 
tudinous products of that vast work¬ 
shop? 
There is no intention whatever of 
raising here any question as to the 
wisdom of the policy advocated by 
the convention: we merely desire to 
state it and briefly suggest the drift of 
it in plain language so that every 
farmer in the country can clearly 
understand the matter. It may be 
time for farmers to change the policy 
most of them have hitherto followed 
with regard to trusts and the tariff; if 
so, no doubt this new scheme will re¬ 
ceive a generous support. 
BREVITIES. 
Read what Prof. Budd says about dwarf¬ 
ing Lima beans, on page 742. 
The indications are that the pickle crop 
will be very light this year. The crop of 
cucumber seed is also light. 
“ I CALI, a potato small when it comes un¬ 
der the size of a Plymouth Rock hen egg.” 
Clyde, Kan. a. g. w. 
The latest Government report places the 
average condition of potatoes as, with 
three exceptions, the lowest ever reported. 
The R. N.-Y. has a symposium coming 
on the best methods of growing, curing ana 
handling the clover-seed crop, that will 
prove very interesting. 
“ I SAVED the smut from corn last year 
and put a handful in the hill at planting 
time. Every hill so treated showed symp¬ 
toms of smut.” See O. K. L., page 742. 
That is an interesting article on the cost 
of living in Colorado, see page 742. How 
does it compare with the cost in your own 
family ? If you have the figures, please let 
us know how they compare with these. 
An Iowa subscriber who enters for the 
“ Notes on a Back Number Prize,” writes : 
‘‘Whether I receive the §10 or not, I feel 
that it is worth that much for a Granger to 
write essays on such diversified material as 
your paper contains.” 
FoxiNESS in a grape is a quality that need 
hardly be considered nowadays in so far as 
market demands are concerned. The Nia- 
ara is, as generally grown, one of the foxiest 
of grapes and yet it meets with a readier 
sale than any other native white grape to¬ 
day. 
The R.N.-Y. is informed that cabbages are 
sent from Belgium to the London market 
at a cheaper rate than the English rail¬ 
roads charge for carrying the vegetable 50 
miles. Cheap and rapid t ransit makes the 
Danish and Norwegian dairymen and the 
French gardener formidable rivals of the 
English farmer. 
“ I would like to buy some of your State 
of Maine Potatoes because thev look very 
much like the Rural New-Yorker No. 2” 
said a potato-grower not long since. 
‘‘ Brownell’s Winner will suit me because 
it looks so much like the Early Rose that I 
can sell it for that potato,” said a farmer. 
So it goes. How are you going to know 
that you are getting pure seed of desired 
varieties ? This is bad business, folks. 
“ Come, boys, let’s take a drink to begin 
the day on ! ” This remark came from a 
group of young men who followed the 
writer up the street from the ferry. The 
group soon disappeared inside a saloon. “I 
should not care to have that young fellow 
in my employ,” was the remark made by 
a business man. “When a man gets into such 
a state that he must leave his work to get 
a drink, he ought to be watched—lie’s not 
trustworthy.” 
Ok all the out-door games that the R. N.- 
Y. knows of, it would commend lawn- 
tennis to its readers, both male and fe¬ 
male. The exertion required in a four- 
hand game is not necessarily laborious or 
violent, while it may be increased or 
lessened to suit the temperature whether it 
be warm or frosty. There is no tedious 
waiting, the turns coining in rapid suc¬ 
cession. Again, it is not a game of chance; 
the most skillful couple will win in any 
extended series of games. It is an innocent, 
inspiring, social, healthful amusement. 
