356 
May 19 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homei, 
EstablWud 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, J 
H. E. Van Deman, V Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 32.04, equal t* 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10J4 francs. 
ADVERTISING- RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly order* 
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 house* 
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, 
400 Pe»r! Bfcrwet, New York. 
SATURDAY , MAY If), 1900. 
The cold weather lingers late this year, and vegeta¬ 
tion is very backward in this latitude. Tender crops 
planted early in order to obtain the first chance in 
the market have suffered. When the warm weather 
does come crops, including weeds, will jump lively, 
and it behooves us to get ready for the slaughter. The 
green crops for soiling must not be neglected. They 
will be very useful before September. Get them 
started. 
* 
Tirfi soldiers in the Philippines are now getting 
canned beef again, because their distribution over 
wide and irregular territory prevents the issuing of 
refrigerated beef. Gen. Miles is in favor of beef on 
the hoof, but this is not advisable, because it would 
be necessary to send strong detachments to guard 
cattle driven to posts in the interior of Luzon, to 
prevent their capture by the insurgents. It is in¬ 
tended to furnish vegetables with the canned beef, so 
that some of the objections to its use in Cuba will be 
removed. 
* 
Every thoughtful American should be interested in 
such institutions as the Mills Hotel. The “slums” of 
a great city are the breeding i laces for the social 
cancers that eat out a nation’s life. It is a practical 
and noble charity to put clean respectability within 
reach of tnose who have felt that they could only 
afford vileness and dirt. There should be more of 
such institutions in smaller country places, in oppo¬ 
sition to the saloon and depot. “Pray with the pocket- 
book!” One reason w r hy you were given a pocketbook 
■was that you might use it for uplifting purposes. The 
“gang” at the country saloon, or other loafing place, 
is often dangerous, because there is no such thing as 
a police force to keep it civil or decent. 
* 
The oleo situation at Washington is interesting. 
On every test vote the House has shown a majority 
in favor of honest butter. The oleo men hoped to kill 
the Grout bill by holding it in committee, but they 
have been beaten at that game. In the Senate there 
will be more trouble, but if dairymen keep up the 
fight they can win. They want to make the Senators 
understand that this anti-oleo question is of more di¬ 
rect importance to them than any other public ques¬ 
tion now before the Nation. It is reported that Con¬ 
gressman Wadsworth, of New York State, will oppose 
the Grout bill. If he does, he will deserve the oppo¬ 
sition—from caucus to polls—of every man who owns 
a cow or who eats her honest product. 
* 
The following note is sent us by a Vermont sub¬ 
scriber. It is sound enough to deserve a place here: 
“We were once asked whether a silo would hold more 
of cut or of uncut silage. We know that our experi¬ 
ment station had weighed the corn into two silos of 
equal capacity, filling one with cut, the other with un¬ 
cut corn. They knew with certainty which silo held 
the most. We proceeded to tell the result, but were 
interrupted with the remark that they did not care 
what the experiment station said, they wanted to 
know what our experience was. We did not put so 
high a value upon our experience. We had never 
filled a silo with cut silage, and could not have guessed 
within a ton if we had. Why should the mere guess¬ 
work of a neighbor be rated so much above the accu ¬ 
rate weighing and figuring of an experiment station? 
Experience is a good thing, but to be valuable it must 
have some better foundation than guesses. Let us 
remember, also, that experience is not made any 
poorer by getting into print or by coming from an 
gricultural college.” 
Oregon’s State Commissioner of Horticulture, J. 
E. Baker, says that more trees are being planted, and 
more nursery stock sold in that State the present 
season than in seven years past. Over $250,000 of 
nursery stock from adjoining States has been import¬ 
ed for Spring planting. All shipments that come into 
the State are reported to the State Commissioner and 
to the local county inspector, who must disinfect or 
destroy the stock, if necessary. Large areas of fruit 
land in Oregon are practically free from diseases and 
insects which infest fruit trees, and the authorities 
realize the benefit of protective measures. A good 
snare of this fruit will be sent to the eastern States 
to be sold in competition with homegrown goods. 
* 
All who use chemical fertilizers will be interested 
in what is said on page 000 about raw phosphates, or 
“floats.” The phosphate rock is first ground to a 
very fine powder. It is then “cut” or dissolved by 
adding sulphuric acid. This is expensive, but has 
been considered necessary in order to furnish the 
plant with available phosphates. It seems that some 
plants Live buckwheat, turnips, large trees, and, to 
some extent, clover and cow peas, possess the ability 
to utilize the raw phosphates, or “floats.” They can 
do the expensive work of ’ dissolving” the rock. On 
damp and sour soils this woriv goes on faster. As the 
cost of a pound of phosphoric acid in “floats” is about 
half that in the form of acid phosphate, there is 
enough in the question to warrant a farmer in study¬ 
ing it. 
* 
It would not seem easy to get too much of such a 
good thing as cultivation so frequent and thorough as 
to suppress all weed growth, yet it is dawning on the 
minds of some Californian fruit growers that exces¬ 
sive cultivation of their orchards is not proving as 
advantageous as might be expected. While soil mois¬ 
ture is admirably conserved by the dust mulch thus 
maintained, it is found that a rapid diminution of 
humus and organic matter in the soil goes on under 
these conditions. Even a moderate growth of weeds 
would seem to be preferable to such excessive culti¬ 
vation. Moisture is very essential, but not the only 
factor required. Better results would undoubtedly be 
gained by growing clovers, peas and other leguminous 
crops to be retained on the ground whenever possible. 
It would be better to let the weeds get a slight start 
than to be continually turning the earth. 
ik 
v) The latest report is that the Five States Milk Pro 
ducers’ Association has found a buyer for their milk 
in Chas. R. Flint, of New York, a leading spirit in 
the great rubber company. Mr. Flint’s position on 
the subject of trusts is reported as follows: 
The time lias gone by when it is necessary to argue 
as to the right of large aggregations of capital for the 
purpose of industrial development to exist. The vital 
point at this time is to see that industrial corporations 
are organized and managed upon sound business prin¬ 
ciples and do not rush into over-production and thus help 
to create conditions of inflation which result in reaction 
and panic. 
This report may not prove true, but it has more 
of the earmarks of fact than any of the former milk 
statements. If this gigantic scheme can be carried out 
fairly and honestly, we feel sure that the milk pro¬ 
ducers will be benefited. 
* 
“Oleomargarine Is the stuff that is keeping us 
poor.” That is the way a bright young farmer of Sul¬ 
livan County, N. Y., summed up the dairy situation in 
conversation last week. “There isn’t one dairyman in 
a hundred in the county,” he continued, “who prob¬ 
ably understands the cause of our cheap prices for 
milk and butter, and the complete wiping away of 
the dairy butter interests. Several years back I had 
a trade in Paterson and Elizabeth, N. J., for my dairy 
butter at fairly paying prices. I first lost my Paterson 
man’s trade, and when I went to see him he frankly 
admitted that in order to meet the competition of his 
competitors he was obliged to take up oleo, which had 
entirely replaced dairy butter. The same condition 
prevailed with the other New Jersey customer. They 
tell me that they now keep only two grades—the fresh 
creamery and oleo. One New Jersey dealer who runs 
several stores in New York tells me that be handles 
oleomargarine by the carload. On the creamery but¬ 
ter he makes a profit of about two cents a pound; on 
oleo his profits are 10 cents a pound.” “These dealers 
admit to you that they ship this oleomargarine into 
New York City?” “Certainly, they make no bones 
about it to me. In fact, they say that they were 
forced to it. That as a matter of fact they would 
rather handle the genuine product, but as their com¬ 
petitors are handling oleo, and making 10 cents a 
pound, while the profit on genuine butter is only two 
cents, they think they might just as well have a share 
of the trade as the other fellows. When the State 
officials report the amount of oleo consumed in New 
York State they don’t take into account the butter 
shipped in this way to the neighboring towns in New 
Jersey, and from there sent for retail into the New 
York and Brooklyn markets. The friends of oleo call 
it the poor man’s butter, but they take good care to 
sell it for real butter at butter prices.” 
* 
As a rule The R. N.-Y. spends little time consider¬ 
ing the past. The present and future contain more 
living problems than we are able to attend to. Now 
and then we learn of a case where the past reaches 
out and provides for the future. For example, a 
reader in Connecticut had some old volumes of The 
R. N.-Y. which he wished to sell. Here is his letter: 
The advertisement placed In The R. N.-Y. sold the 22 
volumes J had on hand at a good price. If the money 
were put in a savings bank, the interest would more 
than pay my subscription price every year to The R. 
N.-Y., so I consider I get the paper free for life. This 
is a hint to others. 
We once investigated liquid air. The man who 
handled it said he could condense a gallon of it and 
then use the expansive force of that gallon to con¬ 
dense another one, and so on indefinitely. That came 
close to perpetual motion, but no nearer than this 
man who makes the old. volumes provide new ones, 
and still has the price of the old left. 
* 
Seven months ago there were millions of Americans 
who hoped that the Boers in South Africa would make 
a hrave stand against England. There were few, how¬ 
ever, who expected that on May 1 the Boers would 
still be in the field, with their own territory un¬ 
touched, facing the most powerful army that England 
ever put in the field. Yet, there they are. They are 
doubtless doomed to final defeat. The English are 
waiting to organize an overwhelming advance, but 
the Dutch farmers of South Africa have already made 
a record in history that will live for ages. The Boer 
soldiers are not paid for fighting. They cannot ex¬ 
change a limb for a decoration or a life for “a pension 
and a glorious memory.” Society women and ac¬ 
tresses do not go about begging money for them. It 
is one of the wonders of the century that these rough, 
untutored men can hold the great English nation at 
bay for so long. The nations of the world, and espec¬ 
ially America, may well consider whether there be 
not something in the rough loyalty and love of coun 
try that should never be stamped out. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
TO A POTATO RUG. 
Ugly little varmint, 
Gettin’ pretty big. 
Gluttonously feedin’, 
Lazy as a pig. 
Eaten all the taters, 
Won’t be half a crop. 
Guess I’d better spray you, 
That’ll do you up. 
Well I never! Disappeared, 
Just since yesterday. 
Taters eaten; guess I’m beaten: 
Too late now to spray. 
Mr. Bug, next year I’ll watch you. 
Yes, you’d better quake and feat; 
You'll be poisoned mighty deadly, 
Soon as ere the plants appear. 
_ e. d. s. 
Laziness is a disease. 
Do not chase the plow—push it. 
A stony field favors the blacksmith. 
A costly team—guess work and play. 
We hear too many groans from grown folks. 
No, the rat does not believe in kit chin work. 
Certainly, one may use a hoe tor a holy purpose. 
“Yes,” says the perfumer, “there are dollars in scents.” 
Why not cut a little rye for hay and save the Tim¬ 
othy? 
There ought to be a great market for American 
peaches in England. 
For the present generation an ounce of performance 
is worth a ton of pedigree. 
Read what is said about the short fruit package law 
on page 361. Who is to enforce it? 
Stand up and do your duty, sir, and deem it no dis¬ 
grace, to bud a lofty character upon a humble place. 
Correct— there is no hiding place for an insect so 
small that hydrocyanic acid gas cannot crawl in after it. 
A good big dose of cyanide where bedbugs do abound 
will cure full many a sigh at night and lead to sleep 
that’s sound. 
From an Ohio reader: “I am on the farm to stay. 
The R. N.-Y. shall continue coming to our house so 
long as it avoids big stories and tells the plain truth, as 
it does at present.” 
The Bureau of Charities of Chicago has applied to the 
county board for $300 worth of seeds for vacant-lot vege¬ 
table gardens. The board appropriated a similar sum 
last year for this purpose, and the results were very 
good. Apart from the food furnished, these gardens 
gave occupation to many idle men and boys, arousing an 
interest in farm life. Every city would be the better 
for such gardens. 
