230 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 25 
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, t . . . 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ( Associate Editors. 
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 10J4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14lines 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 
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Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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should appear in every letter. 
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, MARCH 25 , 1899. 
A grange at this copy of The R. N.-Y. will give 
a fair idea of the flood of questions that pour in 
upon us. They come from all classes of people, 
and deal with all phases of soil culture and 
country life. It is easy to see that this close relation¬ 
ship between editors and readers is of great value to 
all. We have always held that the closer an editor 
can get to his family of readers, the better the service 
he can render them. 
• • 
The writer has just returned from a visit to Mary¬ 
land, where he had a chance to observe the process of 
fumigating nursery stock for the purpose of destroy¬ 
ing the San Jos6 scale. We expect to tell the whole 
story soon. The process is so simple, cheap and sure 
that it would seem as though all nurserymen must, 
sooner or later, come to it. The best way to prevent 
the spread of this scale is to fumigate the young tree. 
There doesn’t seem to be much chance for an argu¬ 
ment on that point. 
• • 
Prof. M. V. Slingerland, of Ithaca, N. Y., who 
has been trying to secure a complete file of The R. 
N.-Y., has succeeded in obtaining all the volumes ex¬ 
cept that for 1856. He will pay $3 for that volume. 
So far, he has met with only one person who possesses 
this volume. It is interesting to learn that many of 
our readers not only renew their subscriptions year 
after year, staying with us from boyhood to old age, 
but also that they keep files of The R. N.-Y., as a 
growing encyclopedia of agriculture and horticulture. 
• 
• • 
It is reported that Gov. Roosevelt is not satisfied 
with the Agricultural Department’s compromise with 
Armour & Co. on the oleo cases. As is well known, 
Armour & Co. offered $20,000 and agreed to stop their 
sales in New York. Gov. Roosevelt is said to take 
the position that this is not enough if the State has 
any case, and too much if there is no case. At the 
time the compromise was first talked of, The R, N.-Y. 
opposed it, for it seemed as though the Department 
should be made to show what it had done for the 
people. Certain lawyers have charged a pretty fee 
for their services in this case. Now let them show 
the public what they have done in return. 
As ws go to press, it is reported that an agreement 
has been reached between the ofiicers of the Five 
States Milk Producers’ Association and Mr. J. D. Gil¬ 
more, who represents a syndicate of capitalists. As 
we write, no actual contract has been signed, but the 
syndicate agrees to take 20,000 cans of milk per day 
at an average price of 23* cents per quart, the pur¬ 
chaser to pay for transportation and to furnish clean 
cans. There are some details yet to be worked out, 
and until the contract is actually signed, it is not safe 
to be absolutely sure. We sincerely hope there may 
be no hitch in the programme, for milk producers are 
in sore need of a better market for their milk. 
• 
■ • 
A lawyer of this city, whose business takes him 
frequently to Washington, was commenting on the 
cheapness of the meals in the restaurants he patron¬ 
ized. He attributed this to the great amount of farm 
products that are sold there directly to the consum¬ 
ers. In the public markets, great numbers of farmers, 
truckers and poultrymen bring their products to be 
disposed of without the intervention of the middle¬ 
men. This may be bad for the middlemen, but it cer¬ 
tainly must be favorable to all the other parties con¬ 
cerned. Many cities have these public markets, some¬ 
times a small fee being exacted for the advantages 
furnished ; in other cases, the privileges being free to 
all producers. But license or no license, the method 
of disposing of the products of the soil directly to the 
consumer, is one whose advantages no one can gain¬ 
say, and whose privileges no one ought to deny. 
Members of the local Grange at Poughkeepsie are 
trying to arrange with the directors of the Dutchess 
County Fair to give the farmers a better showing. It 
has been suggested that farmers be permitted to sell 
their own products on the fair grounds. This would 
make the meeting a sort of farmers’ exchange or gen¬ 
eral market. This seems to us like a good suggestion. 
Farmers might not take hold of it largely the first 
year, but after they see the advantages of such a mar¬ 
ket, we think such a plan would be very popular. Seed 
potatoes, fruit,stock and other things would be brought 
to the grounds to be sold or exchanged, and the idea 
of trade and dicker would be attractive to many who 
see little at the average fair to interest them. We 
certainly hope the Dutchess County Fair will start 
this plan. If it reduce the temperature around the 
fakes and the side shows, so much the better. 
• 
• • 
On March 29 and 30, there will be a meeting of the 
American Association of Farmers’ Institute Man¬ 
agers at Rochester, N. Y. There is nothing quite 
like this Association in any other country. Thousands 
of farmers institutes are held in this country every 
year. Year after year the problem deepens as to 
how best to conduct these meetings. The people who 
attend demand better service and substantial instruc¬ 
tion. The managers come together and compare 
notes. It is like a gathering of teachers trying to 
settle upon the best methods of teaching. Few peo¬ 
ple realize what a great hold the farmers’ institute 
has secured upon country people. In this line of 
traveling instruction, our country is far ahead of 
Europe. This meeting will be an important one. 
The institute is no longer an experiment. We must 
have the best possible service. 
It is said that ours is the only Government which 
does not make its army veterinarians commissioned 
officers. In France, the veterinarians have a definitely 
organized corps; in Denmark and Switzerland, the 
veterinary schools are attached to the Department of 
Agriculture, but furnish students to the army. Austria 
has a veterinary school founded by the Empress Maria 
Theresa, which is under strictly military discipline, 
most of the students entering the army; the same 
conditions exist in other European countries. A well- 
equipped veterinary corps would not only prevent 
much suffering to animals, but would, also, save ex¬ 
pense to the Government. State laws are now de¬ 
signed to raise the status of the veterinarian, by re¬ 
quiring a higher standard of intelligence and educa¬ 
tion, and the Government should show a proper ap¬ 
preciation of his value to the army. 
■ 
• • 
A farmer on Long Island was recently approached 
by an agreeable and well-dressed stranger, who 
wished to purchase a farm with large buildings, ample 
shade, and other features suitable for a sanitarium. 
The farmer wished to sell his place, and a bargain 
was made ; then the stranger agreed to pay down $250 
to bind the bargain. He produced a certified check 
for $356, drawn on a North Carolina bank, and the 
farmer gave the stranger $106 in change. Then some 
neighboring contractors were invited to make esti¬ 
mates on alterations required by the buildings, and 
the stranger was so agreeable that quite a gathering 
of neighbors escorted him to the station and waved 
farewell from the platform. Days went by, the 
stranger did not return, but his check did, stamped 
“ fo-gery.” The farmer paid $106 for this experience, 
but it is hoped that this paragraph will prevent others 
from being obliged to take such a costly dose of 
wisdom. 
One must go to Connecticut or eastern Massachu¬ 
setts to realize how the electric roads are changing 
business in town and country. These roads run every¬ 
where. You can travel all over eastern New England 
on the electric car. City people often take their 
vacation in such travels, going day after day, always 
on new routes and amid new scenes. Among the hill 
towns, the electric road for freight and passengers 
is often cheaper and more serviceable than gravel or 
macadam on the usual country road. The coming 
plan is to carry freight by night and passengers by 
day, so that the farmer’s loaded wagon, even from 
distant farms, will be whirled into the city in time 
for the markets. It is truly a wonderful development, 
and one equally wonderful is the use of compressed 
air for cheap farm power. We hope to be able to tell 
soon how this compressed air or pop-gun principle 
can be employed on any farm of ordinary equipment. 
Two amendments to the pension law were made by 
the late Congress. One provides that women who 
hereafter may marry pensioners shall not, on becom¬ 
ing widows, be entitled to pensions, unless they shall 
have lived with their husbands until separated by 
death. The other amendment is aimed at pensioners 
who abandon their wives or minor children, living in 
soldiers’ homes or elsewhere, and leaving their fami¬ 
lies unprovided for. Hereafter the wife or child will 
get half the pension, in cases where the veteran sepa¬ 
rates himself from those naturally dependent upon him. 
Concerning soldiers’ widows, in a case recently investi¬ 
gated by the Pension Bureau, a man who enlisted in 
October, 1837, served through one Indian campaign, 
and left the army in April, 1838 He married five 
times, the final ceremony having been performed when 
he was 76 years old, and the fifth wife, should she live 
as long as her husband did, will be on the rolls in 1960. 
We sometimes think this country is so large, with 
such varied interests, that farm conditions at one end 
cannot seriously affect operations at the other. The 
recent Winter, and especially the late blizzard, have 
spoiled this theory. In consequence of the freeze in 
Florida, the northern glass gardeners report a very 
prosperous season, as the competition from early 
Florida vegetables will be very light. In Kansas and 
other western States, the hard Winter has left results 
that will affect farming throughout the country. Mr. 
C. Wood Davis, of Kansas, sends us the following note: 
The wheat in Kansas has been much hurt, especially on the 
lighter lands. I have one field of 100 acres that we shall certainly 
have to replant with com, and we have patches in other fields, 
probably equal to 10 per cent of their superficies, that will grow 
no wheat. The frontier towns have for six weeks been flooded 
with hides, and the cattle will die worse when grass first starts 
and the weak animals walk their legs off in the fruitless effort to 
get a full bite. I went through such an experience in the Winter 
of 1871-72, when two-thirds of the range cattle died, my losses be- 
ing 1,300 out of 2,400 steers. The deprivation of water kills more 
cattle than actual scarcity of grass, as without water, the cattle 
will not graze, even though the grass be bare and abundant. 
Farmers may certainly expect high prices for the meat-produc¬ 
ing animals during the coming years, as we have, since 1892, not 
only consumed all the increase, but eaten up one-fourth the breed¬ 
ers in the herds of both swine and cattle, and only in this way 
managed to secure the over-abundant supply of cheap meats. 
The effect of this loss of range cattle will be felt in 
various ways. Many dairymen and general farmers 
who have been breeding the lighter class of cattle, 
will go back to beef bulls, and this will, to some ex¬ 
tent, relieve the dairy business. Mutton sheep ought 
to improve, also. The chances are that beef feeding 
in the eastern States will pay better than for many 
years. Thus out of disaster good may come. 
BREVITIES. 
Old father Adam always took his wife 
To all fruit meetings when the earth was young— 
At least she went—and like a keen-edged knife, 
’Way down through history she sliced her tongue. 
She cut some apple scions in her haste 
And curiosity, and grafted them 
Upon her husband's fate—he did but taste, 
And thenceforth came no nearer than the hem 
Of Elen— yet, man-like, he dodged the point, 
And as he labored in the dust and heat, 
He blamed his wife that things were out of joint. 
“The woman tempted me, and I did eat! ” 
Some tough old traits the older Adam bred; 
Men call them “ human nature ”, and they grow, 
Harder with years in younger Adam’s head. 
For instance, when the younger Adams go 
To fruit conventions, you have noticed how 
They always leave the modern Eves at home 
To keep the house warm—they are posted now, 
And realize what awful things would come 
If Eve should know that their reserved back seat 
Is still excused as when the Earth was young. 
They have no wish to let the good wife eat 
Of science and apply it with her tongue! 
The microbe of my enlarges the head. 
The Golden poppy is the California State flower. 
Dishorn the ram, and make a “ renovated butter.” 
The hen is not necessarily in trouble because she appears to 
be brooding. 
We don’t care to “ keep up with the procession ” when it goes 
the wrong way. 
Hard to find ! An American who is proud of the situation in 
the Philippines. 
Be sure not to sow Crimson clover in the Spring, or cow peas 
until after corn-planting time. . 
We regard Dr. JenkinB’s article on The Feeding of a Tree, as 
the best statement of the facts we have read. 
It is said that the name of Barnum is worth half a million to 
a circus! Some names are not worth the face value of an agree¬ 
ment or promise. 
You do far more for your country when you add one inch to the 
tillable surface of your farm than when you help add 100 square 
miles of island territory. 
Wm. C. Barry, president of the Western New York Horticul¬ 
tural Society, has been made president of the newly reorganized 
American Rose Society. 
Full many a germ of foulest life and deed may lurk within 
your milk; go keep it clean, when in hot water not a germ will 
breed, and ice-cold water makes their backs feel mean. 
Deafness seems to be increasing, and “quack” treatments 
and appliances are multiplied. The ears are delicate things to 
experiment with. You are likely to lose more than you gain. 
