February 25 
146 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homei, 
Established i860. 
Elbebt S. Cabman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Hebbebt W. Collinuwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, (. Aasoclate Editora 
Mbs. E. T. Roylb, f Associate noitora. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
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Remittances may be made in money order, postal order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 25, 1899. 
England is preparing to spend $800,000 a year for 
30 years in constructing a great lake for the irrigation 
of Egypt, by damming the Nile. Egypt has an ex¬ 
panse nearly seven times as large as New England, 
but the crop-producing portion of the country is hardly 
as large as Vermont and Rhode Island combined. This 
is - merely the strip bordering the Nile. The work 
planned is the reclaiming of the Libyan and Arabian 
deserts. This work, when completed, seems likely to 
affect cotton-producing very seriously. 
This fearful blizzard will teach peach growers one 
lesson that is forgotten in each generation. They 
must diversify their crops. After several fairly mild 
Winters, the peach growers edge further and farther 
away from diversified farming, and put all their eggs 
in peach trees. Then comes a week like the last one, 
and they are left without an egg—or a peach. That 
means a scattering again back to different crops. 
The special production of tender fruits like peaches 
or plums is a gamble—and most growers understand it. 
The assertion, on page 136, that it is a restraint of 
trade to compel farmers to take out a license before 
vending their own products, and that, therefore, such 
law or ordinance is unconstitutional, seems to put 
the whole question in a nutshell. There are two 
sides to every question, and the license question has 
been discussed in The R. N.-Y. quite freely; but this 
point as to the legal right of a license ordinance seems 
well taken, and is worth bearing in mind. In law, 
you cannot compel a farmer who simply sells his own 
produce to pay a license. 
The recent blizzard is reported as being more de¬ 
structive of fruit buds than any similar “ cold wave ” 
since 1872. The peach crop in New England is dead. 
The Georgia crop is reported greatly injured ; in fact, 
from every section come tales of disaster. It is too 
early yet to give up the peach crop entirely. We shall, 
doubtless, find, as we usually do, that there are spots 
in this great country where peach buds may laugh at 
a blizzard. Reports are that many thousands of Ben 
Davis apple trees have baen killed in the West. Oar 
eastern apple growers will not grieve over that 
The poor despised horse has been having his innings 
this week. The number of horseless carriages in New 
York has been increasing rapidly of late. But the deep, 
mealy snow under which the streets have been buried, 
has proved the Waterloo of many a rubber-tired self- 
propelling cab. Many of them have been abandoned 
in the snow, and others have been humiliated to the 
extent of being pulled out of the drifts by the dis¬ 
carded horses which they had been supposed to sup¬ 
plant. But it isn’t every week that we have such a 
snowstorm. It is probable that inventive genius will 
overcome these difficulties, and that the use of these 
carriages will largely increase. From the standpoint 
of the city sanitarian, it is a very desirable condition, 
but from that of the horse breeder, it is not. 
The butterine makers are now engaged in a cam¬ 
paign of education, and appear to be pushing their 
product under its own name, with considerable vigor. 
Samples are distributed by special agents, rather 
than through the grocery dealers. Household tests 
of this butterine open a very interesting legal ques¬ 
tion. In many localities, the law compels boarding¬ 
house and restaurant keepers who use any butter sub¬ 
stitute to announce the fact by a placard, displayed 
conspicuously, and bearing the announcement in let¬ 
ters of a specified height. Would this law apply to 
households where wage-earning members of the family 
pay a regular rate for board ? If so, it might be neces¬ 
sary for the housekeeper to remove the motto “ God 
bless our home ” from its frame, and substitute there¬ 
for the startling legend “ Butterine used here ”. In 
the mean time, Philadelphia butter dealers complain 
that the sales of oleo are so large in that city that the 
price of genuine butter is falling, and this largely be¬ 
cause, as they assert, the State food inspectors settle 
the cases they find against oleo dealers. 
One remarkable thing about the short courses in 
agriculture this Winter is the number of men of mid¬ 
dle years who are attending them. When these 
courses were started, they were planned for young 
men—farmers’ boys. Some pretty old boys are now 
taking the short courses. It is no uncommon sight to 
see men of 50 years in the class-room, and these men 
make, perhaps, the best students of all. Their judg¬ 
ment is mature, they have had the practical experi¬ 
ence on the farm, and they recognize the need of close 
study and thought. The short course gives flavor and 
ze3t to the lives of such men. What a useful and pleas¬ 
ant way of passing the Winter ! These short courses 
in agriculture have reached degrees of usefulness 
that were hardly dreamed of by those who started 
them. They were designed for boys, but older men 
are likely to get most good from them. 
One ton of wheat removes as much fertility from 
the farm as 100 tons of butter, and one ton of hay re¬ 
moves the fertility equivalents of 87 tons of butter, 
according to the Canadian note on page 136. No won¬ 
der our Canadian friends are devoting keen attention 
to the butter industry, in spite of their prodigal ship¬ 
ments of hard-wood ashes. Several months ago, The 
R. N.-Y. discussed the drain on our country’s fertility 
involved in agricultural exports. There is another 
side to this matter, also. It isn’t always the amount 
of exported plant food that does the mischief—it’s the 
character of that plant food. Take this table, for 
example: 
Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Potash. 
Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. 
One ton of wheat. 40 17 10 
One 150-pound boy.... 4 2% l A 
One 120-pound girl .... 3)f 2)4 1*5 
On the plant-food basis alone, it would be better to 
raise boys and girls to send off the farm. That is 
what some people do—what an awful mistake to value 
your own flesh and blood at its plant-food value ! 
When Mr. Hamilton Busbey failed to be reelected 
vice-president of the New York State Agricultural 
Society, he felt surprised to think that any statement 
about his case had been made in print. 
“ I do not read The Rural New-Yorker 1 ” he said. 
Mr. Busbey made a mistake in not reading The R. 
N.-Y. He neglected his education, and failed to see 
himself as others were able to see him. He, probably, 
reads it now with some care. 
“ What do the agricultural papers amount to any¬ 
way ! ” 
That was the recent remark of a politician at Al¬ 
bany, who is, evidently, about 10 years behind the 
times. His idea seems to be that all editors have their 
price, that they discuss public matters on the basis of 
party politics alone, and that a comfortable office or a 
fat job of public printing will keep them quiet. This 
man became very thoughtful when told of agricultural 
papers that kno y no party lines, but which advocate 
measures for the benefit of agriculture without asking 
which political rascals are to be hurt. The influence 
of the independent agricultural papers is constantly 
growing stronger. 
Complaint is often made by men who do business 
with the officers of experiment stations or agricul¬ 
tural departments, that there is too much “confiden¬ 
tial ” correspondence. You ask for an opinion on 
some leading public question, and you get it, but with 
it often comes the information that it is “ confiden¬ 
tial ”, and not to be repeated. The statements may 
be all true, and the public ought to know it, but they 
are made in “ confidence” because that is the way to 
avoid losing some powerful support or political influ¬ 
ence. How can the people have confidence in public 
men who make so much of their knowledge “ confi¬ 
dential ” ? It is unfortunate that so many of our ex¬ 
periment stations and agricultural departments must 
be at the mercy of politicians for their necessary ap¬ 
propriations, At the dedication of the new dairy 
building at Geneva, we wondered why so many poli¬ 
ticians were called upon to speak. Senator John 
Raines made no bones about saying that such public 
buildings are obtained'through wire-pulling and polit¬ 
ical influence. He made the cynical remark that the 
United States Secretary of Agriculture is “ one of the 
slickest politicians in the country.” It is a shame 
that scientific institutions designed to investigate and 
explain the great truths of agriculture, must wear 
the brand, if not the collar, of some political boss. 
On the first page mention is made of a creamery that 
failed. No wonder ! It was started in a basement 
under a harness shop. What a combination ! Yet it 
illustrates about the general conditions in the dairy 
industry not so very many years ago. Little regard was 
paid to the environments of the dairy. Any old cellar 
or out-of-the-way place was good enough to set milk 
and make butter. Little was known popularly about 
bacteria, microbes, germs, sterilizing, Pasteurizing, 
etc , and still less was any regard had to these mat¬ 
ters. But what a change ! Thanks to the labors of 
painstaking scientists like Prof. Babcock, whose face 
is pictured on our first page, buttermaking is reduced 
to an exact science, and the haphazard methods of 
former years have been forced to the wall. The neces¬ 
sity for cleanly surroundings and sanitary methods is 
now recognized by all progressive dairymen. 
At the New York State dairy meeting, some one 
asked Dr. W. H. Jordan why more agriculture should 
not be taught in our high sehQols Dr. Jordan re¬ 
sponded that he was not personally in sympathy with 
the term agriculture, as to what is to be taught in 
the public schools. He thought the public schools 
should teach the law of methods and order of Nature. 
These things are as important to other people as to 
farmers. The grade of teacher that teaches fractions, 
geography and spelling, cannot teach science. Of two 
teachers, he would put the wisest and most experi¬ 
enced over a class of children, and give the more ad¬ 
vanced classes to a teacher of less experience. It 
takes a person, he said, who knows a thing profoundly 
to put it in plain language. He thought we would 
have to begin at the normal schools, and prepare the 
teachers there for the work in public schools. The 
agricultural colleges could not teach farmers. They 
are teaching leaders. He has an idea that the time 
will come when we shall have an agricultural high 
school, where children who have learned the funda¬ 
mentals of science in the public schools, may be taught 
the application of these principles to agriculture. 
BREVITIES 
What a glorious place this world would be, 
It would float like an airy bubble, 
If we foolish mortals could only see 
A blessing as big as a trouble. 
We give but a thought as we plod our way, 
To the blessing that comes to-morrow, 
And yet, from the troubles of yesterday 
How we slavishly try to borrow. 
The great big end of our life’s ttlescope 
We turn on our troubles and sighing, 
But the small end only—with feeble hope— 
Spies blessings that need magnifying. 
Why w r ill you cut slices of life away 
As bait for the wolves of despairing, 
While blessings are waiting along the way 
With treasures of hope for your sharing ? 
Put plenty of team on the plow. 
We may rest the body by working the brain. 
Good butter is not pure fat—it contains brains. 
The Table of Contents this week will be found on page 150. 
“ Fruit of the meadow ” is the name given a butter substitute. 
The black book is better than the black bottle for inspiration. 
Bose pear growing will not be overdone. It is too hard to get 
good trees. 
Congressman Curtis, of Kansas, a Kaw Indian, is chairman of 
the Committee on Indian Affairs. 
Realize it! What? That 60 per cent of the education your 
child will receive comes from the example you set before him. 
“ Working under difficulties!” Some men stay under them, 
while others dig a hole large enough to bury the difficulties in. 
The Kansas Agricultural College expects to start a “ business 
school” for teaching typewriting, stenography, etc. What a 
mistake! 
When you see a farmer who talks about dairying as “ chores ”, 
put him down for a “farming-don’t-pay ” man. Keeping cows 
for profit is a business, not a chore. 
A reader in western New York says that he used his disk har¬ 
row on the roads after heavy snow storms. This pushed the snow 
out inter a wide track, packed it hard, and prevented “ pitch- 
holes.” 
A bill before the New York legislature would prevent persons 
who are not United States citzens from practicing veterinary 
medicine. It ought not to make much difference to a suffering 
animal where the vet. was born. 
An English engineer proposes to use steam in place of powder 
for blasting coal in mines. A “ cartridge ” or tube containing 
pure water is bored into the coal, and quickly heated by elec¬ 
tricity. Such a cartridge, Hi * 3)4 inches, holding 8 2-5 cubic 
inches, can be heated to high-pressure steam in 1)4 minute, and 
will burst with a force of 1)4 ton. 
The pure beer bill, now before the New York legislature, is 
being urged as a farmers’ measure. The reason for this is that 
oak shavings and aloes, burnt and otherwise worthless grain, 
are now used by the brewers, and it is asserted that, if this can 
be prevented, the prices of hops and barley will be greatly in¬ 
creased, to the manifest benefit of farmers. The brewers oppose 
the bill, which creates an investigating committee to analyze 
samples of all the beer made in the State, and others oppose it, 
on the ground that existing pure-food laws are sufficient, if en¬ 
forced. 
