74o 
November 3 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* *. 
Established 1850 . 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ) 
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, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (141 nes 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, NOVEMBER 3, 1900. 
As the years go by we are pleased to see that more 
and more of our readers use letter paper with their 
name and address printed on it. In many cases, too, 
the name of the farm is also printed. A good major¬ 
ity of the letters we receive are printed in this way. 
For many reasons this is an excellent thing. Printer’s 
ink, well displayed, is a mighty helpful partner for all 
business men, and farmers ought to get all the good 
they can out of it. 
* 
Last Winter a fashionable florist in New York had 
a monopoly of a wonderful carnation, the flowers be¬ 
ing retailed at $7.50 a dozen. This was not the va¬ 
riety Mrs. T. W. Lawson, widely discussed in the 
newspapers as “the $30,000 pink,” but a new seedling 
known as No. 666. It is a four-inch flower, flesh- 
white mottled with pink, with stiff 30-inch stems. The 
originator, knowing the value of the cut flowers, did 
not disseminate it, but continued to sell the blooms 
at a high price. This year it has discarded the three 
sixes for a more pretentious title, and is christened 
Prosperity. It has already provided its originator 
with a full dinner pail. 
* 
Tiie Department of Agriculture figures that during 
the cyclone at Galveston, Texas, the farmers of that 
region lost 1,000,000 bushels of corn, 300,000 bushels of 
rice, 68,000 bales of cotton, 2,500,000 pounds of pecans, 
3,000 trees, and farm animals worth $490,000—in all 
an irreparable property loss representing a value of 
$3,400,000. There was practically no insurance on 
that property, and little if any of the vast sums raised 
to aid the sufferers will go to repair this damage. The 
farmer must take the frowns or the smiles of Nature 
as they come, and master his own living. The towns¬ 
man stands with empty hands in the face of disaster, 
dependent on others for support. 
• 
The Green pea-louse may become dangerous to field 
peas as well as the garden product. We learn of cases 
in New York where these insects have nearly de¬ 
stroyed crops of Canada peas intended for soiling 
and green manure. If this pest continues to work we 
shall have another argument for the cow pea. While 
the lice will feed on cow peas the plants make such a 
vigorous growth that the lice cannot master them un¬ 
der ordinary circumstances. No use talking, the 
southern cow pea is the poor man’s friend. Our friend 
on page 737 wonders where the lice come from. With 
conditions just right one louse in six weeks may be¬ 
come responsible for 423,912 descendants! 
• 
Peach growing in this country is likely to be “col¬ 
onized,” or concentrated in the localities which offer 
the best business chances. Our opinion is that the 
mountains of western Maryland and West Virginia 
will some day represent in peach culture what the 
rich land of the Mississippi Valley represents in corn 
production. This does not mean that the local peach 
orchard, close to the great market, will not be profit¬ 
able. With good care it may be made more profitable 
than ever. The large peach, picked when just ripe, 
will always bring more money than half-green fruit 
carried 500 miles or more in an iced car. The expert 
growers in good peach land will not suffer, but the 
others, who try to grow on high-priced land the same 
grade of peaches which the mountains produce, will 
never be able to keep up. The result will be much the 
same as it has been with potatoes. A New England 
man this year went to Ohio and bought a carload of 
Carman potatoes at 31 cents. They will cost him 
delivered not far from 47 cents per bushel. Now the 
local farmer, growing potatoes on the old-fashioned 
plan, cannot compete with these prices this season. 
The only man who can do it this year is the one who 
was able to obtain a fair crop, in spite of the draw¬ 
backs of drought and disease. It is probable that for 
the trade of such a man the cheap western potatoes 
are not entirely harmful, for they diminish the local 
supply b> crowding out many farmers who did not 
know before that they are working at a loss. 
* 
Prof. I. P. Roberts, of Cornell University, Ithaca, 
N. Y., sends us this note: 
I would like to know to what extent Alfalfa is raised in 
this State, and also the failures and successes of those 
who have tried to raise it as a forage plant. 
This is an important matter. Alfalfa is doing won¬ 
ders for the farmers out West. Some few eastern 
farmers are also turning it into gold. What soil situ¬ 
ation and care does it require? We shall be pleased to 
have any of our readers step up to the captain’s office 
with information about Alfalfa. 
• 
We spoke last week of what America owes to her 
monopoly in corn growing. If England and Europe 
possessed the climate needed for the proper growth 
of maize their food question would be half solved and 
our exports of bread and meat would be quickly cut 
in two. Another thing that gives this country a great 
advantage in the world’s market is its vast stores of 
coal. The coal supply of England and France is grow¬ 
ing less, and also harder to obtain. Exports of coal 
this year will amount to $20,000,000, while 10 years 
ago the year’s exports were $6,856,088. We send corn 
which Europeans feed to cows to make butter which 
competes with American butter in London. We send 
coal which French manufacturers use in making 
goods which compete with the products made in our 
own mills! 
* 
The Agricultural College of Cornell University has 
started an entirely new course. Prof. John Craig has 
been appointed professor of extension teaching in 
agriculture and horticulture. As many of our readers 
know, the State has for the past few years given 
money for the extension of information to farmers. 
Under the leadership of Prof. L. H. Bailey, this money 
has been spent in holding schools or meetings and in 
organizing classes for nature-study. A reading course 
has also been organized, and it will surprise many to 
realize that this already reaches 20,000 persons. In 
fact, this system of instruction has become so popu¬ 
lar that it will be pushed harder than ever, and fully 
organized. Prof. Craig will be the head of this elabo¬ 
rate system. Reading clubs will be formed all over 
the State with elementary reading matter furnished 
by the Cornell Experiment Station. The classes will 
be carried on, ending with a short course at Cornell 
or a few weeks of special reading in the University 
library. Field experiments will also be attempted in 
connection with the reading clubs. This scheme for 
agricultural education is a mighty and far-seeing one. 
There is nothing quite like it elsewhere in the world, 
and we predict that it will have an ennobling effect 
upon the agriculture of New York and America. 
• 
A freight or express receipt is of no value so long 
as the goods shipped reach their destination safely; 
but, in case they are lost or damaged in transit, the 
receipt may be worth the full value of the goods, and 
nothing can be recovered without it. It is surprising 
to learn how many shippers throw away or lose their 
receipts at once. Commission merchants have a book 
in which claims against transportation companies are 
kept, and most of them will do their best to get a fair 
settlement for a shipper if the receipt can be had. 
Some transportation companies are prompt in 
straightening up these matters, while others delay as 
much as possible, dragging along for months and even 
years in some cases. Also at the time of shipping 
goods some write a letter from the railroad station, 
but fail to give the name of their home postoflice. 
Hence the check for the produce is sent to the wrong 
place, and returned unclaimed after a time, unless the 
postmaster happens to know where the man lives, and 
forwards it to him. In commission houses here I have 
seen bundles of 25 or 30 of these returned letters con¬ 
taining checks. Of course nothing can be done but 
to wait until the shipper complains. If he gives the 
correct address then the thing can be fixed up at once. 
Such things are annoying to all concerned. In one 
case a man sent money to pay for his subscription to 
this paper, but failed to give his address, and the post 
mark on the envelope was too dim to be read. His 
name was not on the mailing list, and we had no way 
of knowing where he was. He afterward wrote three 
letters complaining because the paper did not come, 
but each time omitted the address. Naturally, he was 
indignant at the supposed lack of attention, and fin¬ 
ally on being in the city, called on us. When shown 
all of his letters he had tne good sense to appreciate 
the joke. 
s 
As a parting shot before the election we print the 
much-discussed Grout bill on page 741. The argu¬ 
ments in its favor are briefly summed up on page 737. 
We have done our best to show farmers the great im¬ 
portance of this bin. There is nothing more import¬ 
ant to the cow man than the proper restriction of 
the manufacture and sale of oleo. In our opinion J. 
W. Wadsworth and S. E. Payne, of New York State, 
have shown that they are unfriendly to the Grout 
bill. That being the case, we advise farmers who live 
in their districts to vote against them. Such a vote 
will be a vote of protest which, while it may not de¬ 
feat will accomplish its object by showing that farm¬ 
ers are men enough to demand their rights. 
* 
We have been gathering opinions from southern 
men as to the future of the negro farm laborer. The 
negro question is now largely industrial. Most of our 
correspondents take a gloomy view of the situation. 
They say that the average negro is “ruined” by edu¬ 
cation and that his only future as a farmer lies in 
firm direction by a white man. A few large employ¬ 
ers think otherwise. These men say that the great 
advantage possessed by the South lies not in superior 
soil or climate, but in the cheap and efficient labor 
which a wise man can obtain from the negroes. It is 
now reported that the German government has sent 
to this country for educated negro farmers, who are 
to go to Africa to develop cotton growing in the Ger¬ 
man colonies. The desired men were found at Tus- 
kegee College in Alabama. Southern men may well 
stop to think what this means. Germany is one of 
our largest customers for raw cotton. She will buy 
nearly $50,000,000 worth of cotton this year. The Ger¬ 
man African colonies are well adapted to producing 
cotton, and every bale grown there will make one 
bale less for the American farmer to sell. What a 
strange commentary upon American civilization it 
will be if American negroes, denied their just rights 
in their native land, take their skill and energy to 
Africa and establish cotton growing in the Dark 
Continent! 
* 
BREVITIES. 
I’ll picture now a man—Just match him If you can; 
Let’s put the proper brand upon his brow. 
He had a chance to beat the partner of a cheat, 
But wouldn’t give his vote to save his cow. 
His Congress candidate was bold enough to state 
He wouldn’t vote to smother oleo; 
You’d think to hear him talk, his fingers held the chalk 
That marked the line on which the world must go. 
The man I have in mind just trotted on behind, 
A little dog that chases In the dust; 
He knew the fraud would go and vote for oleo, 
And give the good old cow a fatal thrust. 
He didn’t have the grit to go and firmly sit 
Right on that candidate and make a row; 
His heart was mushy stuff—he fell down at a bluff, 
And wouldn’t give his vote to save his cow! 
’Twill serve him right, I ween, when some day he is seen 
Arising on the politician’s toe; 
Oh, why not be a man, and get in while you can, 
A solid body blow at oleo! 
Stone fruit—a macadamized road. 
The liar believes in “tales I win.” 
It looks like a short clover-seed crop. 
Why, yes—food is often put into the waist basket. 
The income from tax on legacies last year was $2,884,491. 
Like a precious stone, a broody hen is improved by 
setting. 
“A pint of oil” to the hen from those Indiana Brahmas 
—page 747. 
“I am the stuff,” said the boy as he passed his plate 
the third time. 
God help the man with the hoe who hasn’t a thought 
longer than his hoe handle. 
The paramount issue with many a farmer’s wife is 
expansion of the woodpile. 
“Wolf in the tail” is a disease which exists only in 
the minds and tales of cow doctors. 
Strike a blow at oleo and give your Congressman to 
know he votes for Grout or has no show! 
Feed dealers say that the use of cotton-seed meal for 
feed is not increasing. Is this true in all sections? 
One way to succeed with Belgian hares is not to keep 
them, but give the care they ought to have to your hens. 
Old-fashioned advice is against planting trees of the 
stone fruits in the Fall at the North. What do northern 
growers say? 
Can any of our readers supply a copy of a little book 
entitled “Farming for Boys?” It was published about 
1865 by Ticknor & Fields. 
The scientists find an insect which works in and de¬ 
stroys cigarettes. We favor a large appropriation to ex¬ 
tend the work of that insect. 
Find a man and -wife who never had a quarrel, and 
see if one of them be not too weak and colorless to 
make a chalk mark on the sands of time! 
Your opinion of “mother’s victuals” is most likely 
founded on sentiment rather than on sense. Two to one 
your wife is the better cook of the two women who 
know you best. 
Last week we pictured Mr. Loop’s compressed air 
tubes for spraying. He now expects to use the same 
outfit for painting—spraying the whitewash or paint In¬ 
stead of brushing it on. 
