THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January" 21 
46 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, i Ait Editors 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ( Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY , JANUARY 21, 1899. 
Send us a club of four subscriptions with $4, 
and we will advance your own subscription 
one year free, or send one new subscription for 
a neighbor with 81, and ask for your choice of 
these books: 
New Potato Culture.80.40 
Business Hen.40 
The Nursery Book.50 
American Grape Training.75 
Horticulturist’s Rule Book.50 
We send any one of them, post paid, as a reward for 
sending us one new subscription. 
5 
for 
$4 
The headquarters of The R. N.-Y. during the meet¬ 
ing of the Western New York Horticultural Society, 
January 25-26, will be Parlor A, Livingston Hotel, 
Rochester, N. Y. Our latehstring will be on the out¬ 
side, and we will be glad to have any of our friends 
call while there. Please consider this a special and 
personal invitation. 
Take the fruit that comes to New York from the 
Hudson River Valley. Three good commission men 
could handle all of it and obtain better figures for 
growers than the 25 or 30 who now divide up sales— 
and profits. If three men working for themselves 
could do this, one agent working for an organization 
of the fruit growers themselves would do better yet. 
Prof. I. P. Roberts talks about what he calls “Win¬ 
ter horse dairying ”. This is done with good brood 
mares, and the milk is turned into a good sample of 
colt 1 The colt does its own milking, skimming and 
churning, and at four years old, ought to be worth 18 
cents a pound, at least. No use talking, the time has 
come when some of the feed on our eastern farms may 
profitably be put into horseflesh ! 
Who would work hard to pass a law that he well 
knew could never be enforced ? The politician. What 
sense would there be in his doing it ? He could thus 
make honest and honorable men believe that he is 
working in their interests. The bill would be appar¬ 
ently what they called for, but some innocent-looking 
clause would sterilize it. But when the bill fails, how 
does the politician explain its failure ? He usually 
blames the opposition party. 
The fight now going on over the quality of western 
dressed meat ought to be a benefit to the eastern 
farmer. If it be proved that the western packers have 
been using chemicals, and that this beef is in any way 
inferior, there will be a greater demand for fresh meat 
straight from the farm. In many parts of the East, 
it is now impossible to sell any meat animal except 
a small pig or a calf, the butchers dealing entirely in 
western beef. If these charges be sustained, there 
will be a demand for more of this home-raised meat, 
and local butGhers will have to build slaughterhouses 
once more. 
The reference in Ruralisms, page 22, to priority of 
name applied to new fruits, the variety in question 
being the Dewey strawberry, brings up a point which 
frequently causes confusion. Every originator of a 
new plant has the right to confer upon it some popu¬ 
lar and appropriate name, but he has no right to use 
a name already identified with another plant. The 
American Chrysanthemum Society and the American 
Carnation Society have done good work for the flor¬ 
ists in this line, requiring the registry of new Chrys¬ 
anthemums or carnations with their respective so¬ 
cieties, and settling disputed questions concerning 
priority of name. A man is not allowed to claim 
priority of name, unless this is proved by registry. 
While these societies have no legal right to insist 
upon registry, the value of their commendation, and 
of the publicity they give a new variety is so fully 
recognized by florists, that no other inducement is 
needed to impel registry. Surely the same system 
will prove equally valuable to organized fruit growers. 
A bill in the United States Senate provides for a 
subsidy to American vessels engaged in foreign trade. 
An amendment is proposed providing for a bounty of 
82 a ton on all American agricultural products shipped 
out of the country. The same Senator who intro¬ 
duced the amendment has also introduced a bill pro¬ 
viding for the free importation of seed wheat. While 
we do not like the principle of paying bounties to 
one industry which must, of course, be paid by other 
industries, we see no reason why the farmer shouldn’t 
be favored in this way as well as those engaged in 
any other industry. 
An organized effort is now being made to effect the 
passage of a National pure food and drug law, which 
would regulate interstate traffic. Under existing 
State laws, a man may manufacture dishonest goods 
in a State or Territory where their sale is not affected 
by existing statutes, and then ship ther. into another 
State in the original packages to compete with honest 
materials. The National Pure Food and Drug Con¬ 
gress is now working for such a law. The farmer is, 
of necessity, strongly interested in any pure-food law, 
since it applies to dishonest competition with his 
products, and there is reason to believe that this Na¬ 
tional law would be distinctly beneficial to agriculture. 
Our readers will notice a change in the make-up of 
the paper this week. Four extra pages are added, 
and the matter is grouped or put into departments. One 
criticism of the paper has been that various articles 
were indiscriminately placed, so that a busy man hunt¬ 
ing for some particular article spent too much time in 
the search. Hereafter, we purpose to group articles so 
that he who wants a fruit answer or to ask a milk ques¬ 
tion may know where to turn for it. So far as possible, 
each page will be made complete in itself. We have 
arranged for many strong and forcible articles by 
prominent writers, and they will be given at timely 
intervals during the year. 
Among the plants that have the ability to make 
use of the nitrogen in the air, is the bean. Beans, 
peas and clover carry on their roots the little warts 
or tubercles in which the tiny bacteria do their won¬ 
derful work. The bean has given us one of the most 
striking evidences of the value of these nitrogen¬ 
gathering plants. Years ago, western New York pro¬ 
duced famous crops of wheat. After years of culture, 
the land would not yield as formerly. Then bean 
growing became profitable, and after years of beans 
with feeding or saving the vines, the land was able 
to produce larger yields of wheat. The essential fer¬ 
tilizing element of wheat is nitrogen. Wheat culture 
reduced the supply of nitrogen. Bean culture brought 
it back—without cost to the farmer—and in the course 
of years, made the soil fit for larger crops. The beauty 
of beans, peas and clover is that they will give a 
salable crop, and also leave the soil better than it was 
before they grew, in nitrogen only ! 
While there is strong popular opposition to the im¬ 
mense combinations of capital so common nowadays, 
there is no question that these same combinations 
render possible great economies, and lower prices of 
their products. P. D. Armour says that, so recently 
as 25 years ago, in the meat-packing business in Chi¬ 
cago, the blood was allowed to run into the river, and 
men were paid $5 a load to cart the heads, feet, tank¬ 
age and other waste out upon the prairie, and bury 
them. To-day, a large packing plant depends largely 
for its profit, on the intelligent utilization of these 
waste materials. The large establishments manipu¬ 
late their own horns, hoofs, bones, sinews, hide trim¬ 
mings, etc., in their own glue works. The sweet fat 
of the cattle is made into butterine in their own 
factories. The sheep pelts are scoured, the wool re¬ 
moved in their own wool houses, cleansed and sold 
direct to the eastern cloth mills. The intestines are 
cleansed, salted and used for sausage casings in their 
own sausage factories. The blood and all animal re¬ 
fuse are treated by their own chemists, in their own 
fertilizer factories, with a view to preparing them to 
suit different soils. In some of the packinghouses, 
laboratories have been established where the inner 
lining of the hog’s stomach is made into pepsin. As 
has before been said, everything is utilized of the hog 
but his squeal, and these small economies, impossible 
to small operators, constitute a good profit. 
When the War Revenue bill made it necessary to 
put stamps on telegrams, express receipts and other 
similar papers, many people thought that, of course, 
the Government would compel the great corporations 
to pay these taxes. The telegraph and express com¬ 
panies knew better. They made the public pay for 
the stamps, and the lower courts sustain them. These 
great corporations, built up largely by public favors 
and with business increased by the war, refuse to pay 
their fair share of public expenses. They are willing 
to let the common people pay it for them ! This bold¬ 
faced public steal is a good thing in one way, for it 
shows plainly how these direct and indirect small 
taxes are almost invariably paid by the public. In 
the case of some indirect taxes, it is possible to hide 
this fact, but generally speaking, the common people 
pay the taxes—a few cents at a time, perhaps—and 
give that much to the great corporations. Is there 
no redress for this shameful thing ? 
Discussion concerning the quality of the army beef 
still continues, and there is very little, so far, upon 
which the outside public may base a fixed opinion, 
either favorable or unfavorable. The Department of 
Agriculture calls attention to the system of Govern¬ 
ment inspection, by which one would think it impos¬ 
sible for inferior or unwholesome meat to be supplied 
to any consumer. The assertion that chemicals were 
used to preserve the meat is strenuously denied by 
the packers, and by the officials connected with the 
subsistence department. It would seem, judging solely 
from public information, that the manner in which 
the supplies were handled and transported, in a hot 
climate, was the chief cause of trouble. If careless¬ 
ness, ignorance or negligence on the part of officials 
resulted in this trouble, which is casting suspicion on 
our meat products, we have a right to demand that 
the blame be placed where it belongs. Secretary 
Wilson fully realizes the effect of this agitation on 
the export trade in beef, and there is no doubt that 
he will make every effort for a fair and impartial in¬ 
vestigation. 
BREVITIES. 
When Teddy went to Albany, and nibbled on his pen. 
Before he wrote his message, there were lots of lazy men 
Who trembled to their shoestrings, and turned chilly in their 
bones, 
For in their hearts full well they knew that they were lazy drones. 
Great beefy politicians doing work that little boys 
Would be ashamed to call hard work—chair-holding office toys! 
And Teddy’s little message gave these chaps the hollow heart. 
“Let’s weed ’em out! ” said Teddy, “Give the lazy drones a start!” 
“ Hurrah! ” says Uncle Farmer— 
But hold on a bit, my friend, 
If we are going hunting drones, let’s push it to the end. 
Say, how about the robber cows out there inside your barn ? 
And how about the shiftless man who “ jest don’t care a darn ” 
When just a little careful thought would surely stop a loss 
And mend the hole that’s growing in the pocket of the boss ? 
Let Teddy kick the public drones, let us go back and try 
The virtue of a cowhide boot upon our home supply! 
Spell home with an H. 
Better tye up to a type. 
Hitch your wagon to a start. 
Don’t let the institute get too slow. 
The get-there man deals in can goods. 
What the cooperative creamery needs is confidence and milk. 
Gov. Pingree, of Michigan, seems to be greeting the trusts 
with a pin. 
The poultryman should lay up money when the hen lays down 
a December egg. 
How can you expect eggs from fowls when grit is “ scarcer 
than hens’ teeth ?” 
Many of the seed sellers drop from catalogue to circular this 
year. Just as well, perhaps. 
Uncle Sam will not permit intoxicating liquors in the mails. 
We wish he would spell it males. 
The wiser the man the less shame he has about asking ques¬ 
tions—only he thinks hard before asking. 
It is a popular belief, in some parts of England, that the burn¬ 
ing of egg shells will cause the hens to cease laying. 
Look out for him! Whom? The man who wants to develop the 
Philippines, and hasn’t half developed his own farm. 
“ Blood ” in the sap of a tree will not disturb the rabbit, but 
smear it on the outside if you want to make him unhappy. 
Did you ever know a farmer who paid more attention to the 
building of a pig pen than to building a child’s character ? 
Be just in dealing out your praise, give each his honest part;; 
too much will surely turn the head, too little turn the heart. 
“ Smokeless powder ” is to be made from corn stalks. We- 
know that they make words that smoke when they are left long 
in the manure. 
The scientists say that, if a man of average size were evapor¬ 
ated, he would make gas enough to fill a balloon. We can believe 
that from hearing some of them talk. After they had filled the 
balloon, they wouldn’t weigh an ounce less. 
The dairy cow deposits her fat on the inside—along the intes¬ 
tines and kidneys. It is not like a warm blanket on the outside 
as in the case of the steer. Because the fat is inside, however, 
is no reason why we should make the cow drink ice-col^ water! 
A French scientist has discovered that the concentrated juice 
of mushrooms is a sure cure for the bite of venomous snakes. 
The only disadvantage is that this mushroom antitoxin is a 
deadly poison itself, but the patient would, at least, have thei 
satisfaction of knowing that he didn’t die from snake-bite. 
