24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 13 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Hoan. 
Established. 1850. 
Herbert W. Collinuwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, 1 
H. E. Van Deman, VAsBociatea. 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 0d., or 8% marks, or 10>4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with "Adv.," 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance is for, 
should appear in every letter. 
Remittances may be made in money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1900. 
Mr. Barns told us last week about the New York 
law covering the size of fruit packages. The State 
Department of Agriculture will see that the law is en - 
forced, and the “short,” or pony package, must carry 
its brand. The law will never be fully satisfactory 
until the same requirements are enforced in other 
sections, like New Jersey and the New England 
States. Fruit growers in these States should see to 
it that bills are passed this Winter, so that uniform 
packages may be used all through the eastern States. 
• 
We have been obliged to skip a week in the pub¬ 
lication of Prof. Johnson’s articles on the use of hy¬ 
drocyanic acid gas. The second article, next week, 
will show how the gas is used in the orchard. These 
articles are sure to attract attention. Perhaps the 
entomologists frightened us a little too much over the 
San Jos6 scale, but there is no getting around the 
fact that this insect will be widely scattered unless 
the trees leave the nursery clean and free. We do 
not hesitate to say that we shall insist on fumigation 
for all trees we buy for our own orchard. 
• 
wants of confined fowls, and sufficient energy to carry 
out the necessary details, but in the hands of the 
average town dweller it is little less than slow mur¬ 
der. One can fancy a time when only persons of 
proved fitness will be allowed to own or handle these 
helpless creatures, but such a restriction will mark an 
epoch in true civilization, yet to be attained. 
* 
\ A period of excessive cold always brings consider¬ 
able loss to those trades whose product is delivered in 
bottles. Milkmen and manufacturers of mineral 
waters were heavy losers during the first week of 
1900, yet we think that, taken altogether, the dairy¬ 
men lose more bottles through the carelessness of 
customers than from any other one cause. One milk¬ 
man asked us if we could guess how many bottles 
were returned, in one batch, by a single customer who 
took one quart a day. He had just received, from this 
person, 26 bottles, which had been held back, and 
many of them being imperfectly cleaned, a great deal 
of extra work and annoyance was given to the dairy¬ 
man. This Shows that the dairyman must always 
have a large excess of bottles floating among cus¬ 
tomers, in addition to the natural loss by breakage, 
and this condition adds materially to the expense of 
bottled milk. We need a campaign of education 
among the dairyman’s customers. 
* 
What an inspiring thing it is to see an old man 
with ripened experience and tested powers giving a 
fair share of his life to the public service. He has 
worked hard and wisely. With gray head has come 
a competency. He is satisfied with enough —which 
is all the good Lord promises anyone. Instead of 
striving and toiling after more than he can possibly 
spend he recognizes the debt he owes to society, and 
spends time in these public services which younger 
men cannot afford to take up. Such veterans are 
needed to serve on boards of education and other 
public commissions. They do their country a real 
service, when they give time and thought to such 
things. Society has made it possible for them to give 
the hard work up to younger hands. It is no more 
than fair that they should help organize and improve 
society when their hard work is done. How much 
better this is than to spend every energy in chasing 
a dollar up to the very last gasp of life. 
One of the topics arranged for discussion by an 
Ohio farmers’ club is sanitation on the farm, includ¬ 
ing the water supply, heating the dwelling, drains 
and cellars, importance of sunlight and pure air, and 
the care and location of barnyards and feed lots. A 
discussion of such subjects might well be considered 
by most farmers’ institutes. Much of our sanitary in¬ 
struction is given solely from the standpoint of the 
town sanitarian, who can discuss improved plumb¬ 
ing, the arrangements and trapping of waste pipes, 
and the proper fixtures of the bathroom, but who 
would find himself entirely at a loss in advising the 
sanitary disposal of farm wastes. Rural sanitation »s 
a science of itself, and one to which farm organiza¬ 
tions are now giving needed attention. Many of the 
Winter epidemics, which bring suffering and death fo 
country communities, are preventable, and will be pre¬ 
vented when sanitary laws are more fully under¬ 
stood. 
* 
The R. N.-Y has had occasion of late to comment 
on the cruelties inflicted on live poultry, closely 
packed into crates, during transportation and ex¬ 
posure for sale. The sufferings of these cramped and 
crowded fowls are plain to all who are obliged to 
frequent the markets, but even the agents for the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ap¬ 
parently do not see their way successfully to cope 
with this evil, and it is not likely to be lessened until 
some means are taken to induce the transportation 
companies to make more favorable rates for carrying 
live animals. Another growing abuse is undoubtedly 
fostered by the great amount of literature describing 
the profits of poultry, now being issued. Everywhere, 
in town or village, in the back lots of the residence 
districts, one can see narrow yards, fenced in with 
the pitiless wire netting, the barren and filthy en¬ 
closure crowded with disconsolate and drooping fowls, 
half fed and never sufficiently watered, whose owners, 
deluded by unreliable and unpractical writers on egg- 
production, are wondering “way hens don’t pay.” A 
flock of fowls may run at large about a farmyard and 
get no attention from the owner, but their life is one 
of independent and well-fed bliss, compared with the 
draggled and starved prisoners in many village yards, 
because they have at least access to many of the 
bounties of Nature. Poultry-keeping, both with profit 
and pleasure, is entirely possible in the narrow limits 
of a town lot to those who have intelligence and 
kindly feeling enough to study and anticipate the 
We spoke last week of the value of a personal letter 
written to your Congressman. We do not think that 
farmers generally understand how useful such a letter 
may become. It is true that the average Congressman 
thinks at times that he represents only himself and 
a few sharp politicians. It is a good thing for all 
concerned to disabuse his mind of this belief every 
now and then. Let such a man receive 500 strong, 
brief and dignified letters, with evident sincerity shin¬ 
ing through the lines, and he will realize “what he Is 
there for.” We say again that your Congressman 
is working for you. As a farmer you have certain 
rights which he is bound to respect, or forfeit your 
support. You certainly do not want a man at Wash¬ 
ington who acts as though he knows more about your 
own business than you do. There are two bills be¬ 
fore Congress that are of peculiar interest to farmers. 
The Grout bill places original packages of oleo under 
the police regulations of any State they may enter. 
The Davidson bill puts a tax of 10 cents a pound on 
all colored oleo. We urge farmers to insist that their 
Congressmen vote for these bills. Don’t be afraid of 
them, but write up, man fashion, and tell them just 
what you want. 
* 
Readers will remember how, last Spring, we had 
quite a little to say about the American Apple Con¬ 
sumers’ League. We observed that few restaurants 
and hotels serve first-class eating apples to their 
guests. As an experiment we began to call for apples 
in some form whenever we ate a meal at a public 
table. This met with fair success, for most hotel- 
keepers study hard to please their patrons. Those 
who joined the American Apple Consumers’ League 
pledged themselves to call for apples at every public 
eating-house that they visited. As an evidence of 
what can be done by this simple plan, we print this 
letter from the proprietor of a large restaurant in 
New York: 
I have been a reader only one year of The R. N.-Y., 
but I have been particularly interested in your frequent 
writings on apples, so much so, that I have introduced 
them in my restaurant, and am working up quite a de¬ 
mand for them. The trouble I experience, however, is 
in finding those delicious apples about which you write. 
Can you recommend to me some man or men from whom 
I could obtain a fine eating apple that has a name, and 
one that I could get right along during the season as I 
want them? I am not particular about the price, if I 
could get the quality. 
This man tried the plan, and found that it leads 
to trade. There are men in this city who will walk 
by many restaurants in order to reach a place where 
baked Spitzenberg apples are served. Our restaurant 
friend probably started his trade with Baldwin or 
Northern Spy, and was then induced to invest in Ben 
Davis! Why not all join the Apple Consumers’ 
League, and thus give our fine American apples the 
talking they deserve? Begin now and talk apple 
wherever you go. 
* 
A rill now before Congress provides for a tax of 
two cents a pound on oleomargarine not colored so 
as to resemoie pure yellow butter, and a tax of 10 
cents a pound on oleo colored in imitation of yellow 
butter. This leads the National Provisioner to say: 
The framers of this amendment represent, almost ex¬ 
clusively, but one part of a single branch of agriculture, 
that of butter making. Evidently it is their intent to 
legislate out of existence one of the great commercial 
industries of the country. 
1 his gives the whole case of the oleo men away. 
^ here is now a tax of two cents a pound on oleo. 
Millions of pounds are made and sold—mostly to 
those who think that they are buying and eating 
butter. I he new law will make no difference with 
oleo left in its natural color. It can be sold freely 
under its own name, but that is not what the makers 
and dealers want to do. They want to color the 
steer s fat, and then steal the reputation that belongs 
to the old cow. If to compel a “great commercial in- 
dustiy to be honest is to wipe it out, the wiping 
process might be carried elsewhere to advantage. 
• 
BREVITIES. 
THE DAIRY COW. 
Her head is long and slender, with her face 
Stamped with the tenderness of motherhood, 
ihe eye is kind and gentle with wide space 
Above, for honest brains—the wide mouth should 
Be set with firm, strong teeth, and powerful jaw 
To run her millstones, and her ear should be 
Lined with soft, golden velvet without flaw. 
A long, thin neck—for you will never see 
A steer's neck steer the way to butter fat; 
Don t mind if hip and shoulder bones stand out 
On which you may with safety hang your hat. 
A wide, deep chest shows that the heart is stout; 
You want a sloping back, a rib well sprung, 
A stomach like a barrel deep and wide. 
With great capacity for food and lung. 
An udder squaring low on every side, 
A zig-zag milk vein larger than your wrist 
Runs far up to her heart and then turns in 
A well-shaped teat quite filling out your fist. 
Her hind legs well apart—a soft loose skin, 
Yellow as gold, with soft and oily touch, 
Fine, silky hair, a long and slender tail. 
Active and full of nervous life—now such 
Is Mrs. Dairy Cow, queen of the pail. 
An experienced hop grower—the toad. 
May the good Lord keep us out of law! 
It’s time to quit promising and begin practice. 
A perfect gold mind—mind your own business. 
The English seem to be appalled at "Uncle Paul." 
What’s the difference between loss avoided and clear 
gain? 
The present is the best New Year’s present you will 
ever have. 
’Tis better for the dairyman when he can hang his hat 
on Bossy’s hip than to have it covered up with fat. 
God gave you a chance to hold dominion over natural 
forces. You must master them, or be mastered by them. 
By refusing to buy the Danish West Indies, Germany 
avoids competition between beet and cane sugar on her 
own soil. 
The pigeon-post service from those beleaguered towns 
in the Transvaal may be regarded as the latest thing in 
free rural mail delivery. 
The Bordeaux Mixture is nearly a cure-all for plant 
disease. Water applied inside and out is much the same 
for humans. 
Of course you can tell us how Congress ought to settle 
the currency question, but can you tell how to protect a 
windmill tank from freezing? 
Fat men rarely have pneumonia. A layer of fatty 
tissue around the lungs allays cold. Most fat men, how¬ 
ever, would gladly exchange their fat for wool. 
There is quite a noisy outcry against the practice of 
taking a stick to an unruly child. Does this mean that the 
slipper has gone out of fashion, or that the “talkative one 
per cent” of people are heard from first? 
A son of Rockefeller, the Standard-oil man, has been 
speculating in leather, and, according to Wall street, he 
is $17,000,000 short. Doubtless the young man realizes the 
truth of the old saying, that there is nothing like leather. 
The French Chamber of Deputies is discussing the legal 
status of sow’s milk. A petition has been sent to the 
Chamber, asking that sow’s milk may be permitted as 
nourishment for babies. Some doctors are said to 
favor it. 
Prof. Waugh says that the honey-bee has a greater 
reputation for work than he deserves. He seldom be¬ 
gins work before 8:30 in the morning and quits about 4:30. 
He will knock off for the smallest rain, and sometimes 
for a cloud. 
A New Jersey schoolboy was drunk in the schoolroom. 
This was the result of eating "brandy drops.” On the 
outside these "drops” look like chocolate candy. In¬ 
side there is the vilest of alcohol. Yes, sir, the whipping 
post is the place for people who make and sell such stuff 
to children. 
