1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE TROUBLES OF THE FARM . 
DEVELOPMENT OK WESTERN LANDS. 
How Can the Eastern Farmer Compete ? 
Part II. 
Great Western Competition —The area of agri¬ 
cultural land that has been opened at the West is a 
vast empire in itself, and the system of farming adopt¬ 
ed is naturally extensive in its character. The pro¬ 
cesses in this system of farming are necessarily rap¬ 
idly destructive to the fertility of the soil. Crops are 
grown upon the same land successively, as wheat and 
corn, until the yield begins to run down, when new 
soil is sought. This is depleted in a few years, and 
thus the wheat belt has moved steadily from the East 
to the Far Northwest. The effect of this most de¬ 
structive practice on so great a scale has been not only 
steadily to depreciate all values at the East, but more 
serious is the depression of the farming spirit which 
has come over the farmer himself. He has seen the 
value of his farm steadily decline until the accumu¬ 
lation of years of industry has been wiped out, while 
his income has hardly been sufficient to meet the run¬ 
ning expenses of his farm. 
The Eastern Farmer has accepted these condi¬ 
tions as the inevitable result of the great development 
of the times, and he has not studied sufficiently the 
necessity of adopting new methods that would better 
enable hi -n to meet the changed conditions. His policy 
of management should be entirely opposite to that of 
the western farmer—most intensive in character. His 
only way successfully to meet the competition from 
cheap land with its destructive processes, is to keep up 
the fertility of his own soil, and obtain from it maxi¬ 
mum yields, thereby reducing to the minimum the 
cost of his production In California, one wheat field 
may be seen containing 25 000 acres, while there is 
another wheat ranch of 50,000 acres, which requires 
the labor of over 200 men and over 1,000 horses to get 
the land plowed and the seed in, requiring the time 
from July to the middle of January. 
Cost ol‘ Wheat. —From reports obtained of a very 
large number of wheat growers, the estimated cost 
of growing and marketing an acre of wheat is, for the 
New England States, $20 22; middle States, $18 18; 
western, $10 89 ; Pacific slope, $13 08. A Minnesota 
wheat grower of 37 years'experience, says that wheat 
on farms of 100 to 2C0 acres, cannot be grown for less 
than $16 per acre, if the cost of the plant food is 
charged against the crop, as it should be, and that 
the yield in that State does not often average above 
16 bushels per acre. In our extensive system of wheat 
growing, the average yield per acre for our entire 
country in 1897, was 13 bushels, while England by her 
intensive methods, averaged 29 bushels, and Scotland, 
37 bushels. With the price of wheat ruling for many 
years below the cost of production to the eastern 
grower, he need not necessarily have been forced out 
of his home markets, but rather by converting the 
raw material into a finished product of higher value, 
such as poultry,eggs,butter, cheese, higher-grade dairy 
stock, and finer horses, all of which require greater 
skill and more intensive methods, he could realize 
paying value for his wheat and other grain products. 
The Western Dairy.—While the West is very 
rapidly increasing in dairy production, and butter is 
following the history of wheat in steadily-declining 
prices, the eastern dairyman need not necessarily be 
driven out of his dairy work. Western dairying is, 
also, on the extensive plan. Great numbers of cows 
are being put into dairy work, many of which will 
help to swell the dairy product, but their production 
can be made only at a loss. This increasing competi¬ 
tion can be met by the eastern dairyman only by elim¬ 
inating from his herds all low-producing cows. His 
selection of cows, breeding and care, should be from 
the standpoint of maximum yield, and upon the basis 
of less numbers with larger yield, the lower value of 
dairy products from the West can be successfully met. 
The Horse Question.— While the West has been 
overstocking our markets with a cheap grade of 
horses, eastern breeders have bred too largely of the 
same grade. At the same time, horses of more quality 
have been selling at good prices all through the past 
years of low value for common stock. The East being 
a natural grass country, should have supplied the 
eastern markets with a higher grade of hay. Grass 
culture has not been studied as the opportunity has 
afforded, and the grain competition of the West could 
to a much greater degree, be met by a more extensive 
production of the best grade of hay, for which the de¬ 
mand in our eastern markets far exceeds the supply. 
What Is Left. —The best development of agricul¬ 
ture at the East has not yet been attempted; the 
value of smaller farms more highly-enriched and 
thoroughly tilled has not been fully comprehended ; 
the eastern farmer is handicapped in attempting to 
work over too many acres of depleted soil, and the 
advantages of a more intensive system applied to 
every branch of production have not, as yet, been 
well understood. Competition with wes'ern products 
will have to be met for many years yet to c me. Mil¬ 
lions of acres of arid land will turn out marvelous 
production as irrigation is applied to them. This 
production will, however, be obtained in the future 
at increased cost. The eastern producer can success¬ 
fully meet these conditions, by building up the pro¬ 
ductive power of the soil, by reducing hia acreage, by 
the adoption of more intensive methods, and in the 
growing of more high-grade products. The cost of 
production, as between the East and the West, is 
steadily becoming more equalized, and under this con¬ 
dition, the advantage will be with the eastern farmer 
in proportion as he studies the economies of his busi¬ 
ness, and takes the fullest advantage of the ODportuni- 
ties that are within his reach. geo. t. towell. 
THE CANADIAN HEN IN ENGLAND. 
The Canadians are determined to get their share of 
the foreign trade in poultry and eggs. They go about 
getting it in a business-like way. Prof. Robertson, the 
Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairying, recently 
sent to England two trial shipments of poultry. This 
poultry was fattened at the Experiment Station, and 
sent in cold storage to London and Liverpool, as an 
experiment. We are soon to have details of the feed¬ 
ing and shipping. Prof. Gilbert, of the Experiment 
Farm, says that they found Barred and White 
Plymouth Rocks, White and Silver Wyandottes, 
and crosses of the Indian Game with White Java, fine 
birds for feeding. It is quite remarkable how the 
White Wyandotte is coming into prominence as an all- 
’round fowl. These Canadian b'rds were penned up 
and fed three times a day for four or five weeks. They 
were then dressed and shipped directly to England. 
They were plucked but not drawn, and weighed on an 
average 5^ pounds each. They brought on the other 
side $1 76 a pair, or 16 cents a pound, wholesale. 
The English dealers say that these figures would 
probably be maintained on small shipments, but 
heavier consignments would bring the price down to 
14 cents a pound. The chickens cost about 50 cents a 
pair, and during the feeding, each pair consumed 
about 31 cents’ worth of food, making the total cost 
81 cents a pair, with no charge for labor. The pack¬ 
ing cost three cents a pair, and the transportation 
and selling charges not more than 22 cents a pair, 
which makes a total of $1.06 a pair or 53 cents each, 
delivered in the London market. Apparently, then, 
10 cents a pound would about pay for the birds in 
London and all above that price will be profit. The 
chances are that the Canadians will increase this 
business considerably. We regard this as legitimate 
work for the experiment stations to carry out, and 
some of the stations on this side of the line might 
well go into this sort of partnership with the hen. In 
1898, the United States exported 2,754,810 dozens of 
eggs and over $150,000 worth of poultry. 
Events of the Week. 
Domestic.—The American Alkali Company, a chemical trust, 
has been Incorporated in New Jersey with a capital of -¥30,000,000 
. . Legal inquiry is being made into the death of Mrs. Bar- 
guet, of Mount Vernon, N. Y., who died of dropsy after a three 
months’ illness, during which she received Christian Science 
treatment only. . . Troopers are rounding up all the men con¬ 
cerned in the rioting in the Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) district, non¬ 
union men being taken along to identify the dynamiters. Snow 
on the mountains is 10 feet deep and very soft. The sheriff 
of the county has been arrested as a rioter. He was a member 
of the mob which seized a train carrying United States mails, 
and appropriated it to transfer the rioters. . . It is said that 
the President contemplates calling an extra session of Congress 
early in the Fall. . . The President has given gold medals to 
a number of foreign sailors who displayed heroism in rescuing 
shipwrecked Americans during the great storms last November 
and December. . . The prohibition of transmission through 
the foreign malls has caused an enormous demand for the anti- 
imperialistic pamphlets issued by Edward Atkinson. . . May 
6 the batter in a ball game at Montclair, N. J., was instantly 
killed by a ball which struck him under the heart. . . Street¬ 
car strikers at Duluth, Minn., used dynamite to stop traffic May 
(5. Four cars were derailed, and five persons injured. . . A 
tornado swept over Oklahoma May 6. Much property was dam- 
aged, and several lives lost. . . Great forest fires are raging 
in New Jersey. . . Storms in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia 
caused great damage May 8. In Texas, an entire family was 
drowned by the sudden overflow of the Brazos River, and other 
disasters occurred in the Panhandle district In Canadian Coun¬ 
ty, O. T., the storm destroyed, at least 20 farmhouses, and did 
much damage to growing crops At Chickasaw, 17 buildings 
were wrecked, and 14 persons injured. Several farmers and 
ranchmen are reported killed or injured in their fields. . . The 
Chinese government has sent a protest against the extension of 
the Chinese Exclusion act, by Executive order, to Cuba. . . Fed¬ 
eral prisoners in the State Penitentiary at Raleigh, N. cl, com¬ 
plain of having been flogged for refusing to work outside the pris¬ 
on walls. . . May 8 northwestern plow manufacturers at Chicago 
advanced prices 15 per cent. . . May 9, 75 masked men rode 
into the town of Lebanon, Tenn , with the intention of mobbing 
a colored man who had attempted to kill a woman. The negro 
had been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, and sent to Nash¬ 
ville. As the mob could not reach him, they seized two other ne- 
391 
groes accused of breaking into a house, and carried them off for 
lynching. One escaped ; the fate of the other is unknown. 
A combine has been formed, taking in flour mills at Duluth, 
West Superior, New York, Buffalo and Syracuse, with a capital 
of 140,000,000. This combine will fight the Minneapolis combina¬ 
tion. . . A disastrous gas explosion occurred in New York 
May 10, caused by the changing of the meters; 13 persons were 
irjurrd. . . Michigan passed, May 10, a drastic anti-trust law. 
. . John Copeland, an aged farmer at Kanona, N. Y., was 
visited by burglars May 10, and robbed of 11,255 in money, two 
notes and some silverware; Copeland did not believe in banks. 
. . Strikers at Duluth, Minn., blew up a street car with dyna¬ 
mite May 10; 15 passengers were on the car, but none was killed. 
The cars are run by non-union men. . . W. D. Boggs, teller of 
the Frst National Bank of Delaware, who conspired with others 
to misapply funds, and abstracted $107,000, has been sentenced 
to five years in prison and $6,500 fine. . . During a terrific 
windstorm which wrecked houses, and killed one man in Cold- 
water, Kan., doing damage in other sections, a stretch of wire 
fence three-quarters of a mile long was carried three miles 
and wrapped securely around a church steeple. . . Michigan 
has passed an Income tax law. it provides for a rate of one- 
fourth of one per cent on incomes of $1,000 yearly and upwards. 
. . . An 11-year-old boy at Chester, Pa , May II, threw a lasso 
over an engineer of the Reading Railroad, while the train was in 
motion. The other end of the rope was fastened around the boy’s 
waist, and as the noose pinioned the engineer so that he could 
not loosen the rope, the boy was dragged for a block and then 
drawn under the wheels, being ki led before the engineer could 
stop the train. . . Illinois is discussing the restriction of the 
sale of carbolic acid; 21 per cent of Chicago’s suicides make use 
of this drug. . . A tornado on the Texan border May II did 
damage on both the American and Mexican side. At Hondo 
( hihuahua, 22 men were killed, and a quantity of mining prop¬ 
erty destroyed. 
Farm and Gardeu.—A break in the Erie canal near SpeDcer- 
port, N. Y., May 10, submerged villages and farm lands, causing 
great damage to crops. The interruption to traffic, together with 
the grain blockade at Buffalo, seriously affects transportation of 
cereals. . . Judge William Lawrence, president of the Ameri¬ 
can Wool Growers’ Association, died recently at his home in 
Ohio. . . The strawberry season opened at Laurel, Del., one 
of the great shipping stations, May 10, which is several days 
earlier than usual, and the crop promises to be enormous. . . 
The Ambler bill, which directs that the owner of any inclosed or 
occupied farm lands may of himself, or by any member of bis 
household, hunt or kill rabbits or English hares on his own prem¬ 
ises, at any time, has become a law in the State of New York. 
This enables farmers and crchardists legally to protect their 
fruit trees. . . May 7, Moweaqua, Ill., was visited by a terrific 
hailstorm, which caused great damage to fruit crops. . . Secre¬ 
tary Wilson has awarded the contract for furnishing to the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture vegetable and flower seeds during the 
coming year to Charles Parker, of Santa Clara, Cal., at his bid of 
$61,900. The contract calls for 14,124,568 packets of seeds, 1,000,568 
of which are of flower seeds Each Congressman will be entitled 
to 5,000 packets of the vegetable seeds, 400 of flower seeds, 50 of 
grass seeds, etc. The vegetables include 10 different kinds, while 
the flower seeds comprise 20 distinct species. . . At Wabash, 
Ind , a contract was recently awarded for the largest ditch ever 
dug in that State; it is called the Bear Lake ditch, and will drain 
27,000 acres of land. . . Half a pound of nails and tacks was 
found in the stomach of a cow killed recently at Dover, Del. 
The new plow trust, which controls 80 per cent of the concerns in 
this country, admits that prices will be raised in the 8outh. 
The South Jersey strawberry crop promises to be extra large, 
but pickers are scarce. . . The Michigan raspberry crop, which 
promised to be unusually large, is in dauver of being ruined by 
a small black insect, which has appeared in enormous numbers. 
. . Roswell P. Flower, president of the New York State Agricul¬ 
tural Society, died suddenly May 12, aged 64. 
Army and Supplies.—The report of the Court of Inquiry is 
approved by the President. It finds that Gen. Miles’s allegations 
are not sustained, and that the canned beef was good and fresh 
when delivered, but unsuitable for a field ration. Gen. Miles was 
criticised for not reporting promptly the fact that the food 
caused sickness, and Gen Eagan was sharply criticised for pur¬ 
chasing so much of the beef. 
Philippines.—Hard fighting occurred north of Calumpit May 
4. A strong force under Gen. Luna was driven from their en¬ 
trenchments, and scattered by a brilliant charge led by Gen. 
Wheaton. Operations were difficult owing to rough country! 
heat and rain. . . Aguinaldo declines to treat with Spain con¬ 
cerning the release of the Spanish prisoners, on the ground that 
America holds sovereignty of the Islands, and he can treat only 
with us. . . President Schurman, of the Philippine Com¬ 
mission, sends encouraging news as to the progress of peace 
negotiations, though fighting still continues. Gen. Lawton’s 
expedition has seen very hard fighting. . . May 8 the Filipinos 
at San Fernando ran a railway train with an engine at each 
end almost up to the American outposts and, before they could 
be reached, a gang of natives sprang off the train, tore up sev¬ 
eral lengths of the track, boarded the train again, and got away 
before they could be reached. . . May 10 army gunboats steamed 
up the Rio Grande, driving away the rebels. A hot attack was 
made on the American lines at San Fernando May 9, but the 
rebels were repulsed. 
Cuba.—Stevedores at Havana struck May 5, for an advance in 
wages from $2.50 to $3 a day. An attempt to replace strikers with 
Chinese resulted in a big fight. The military authorities, whose 
work was delayed by the strike, gave the ringleaders five minutes 
choice between going to work and going to jail, and work was 
resumed without further trouble. . . Lieut. Nay, of the Thirty- 
first Michigan Volunteers, has been tried by court martial, at 
Santa Clara, for drunkenness and conduct unbefitting an officer 
and a gentlefhan. He has been acquitted, merely being fined a 
month’s pay for conduct prejudicial to military discipline. Gen. 
Bates, commander of the district, criticises the court martial 
severely. Nay was guilty of ruffianly conduct towards women 
and children, entering respectable houses by force, and invading 
the sleeping rooms. Gen. Bates thinks that the court which 
excuses him takes a remarkable view of conduct becoming to a 
gentleman and officer. . . It is now stated that each Cuban 
soldier is to receive $75 from the American fund. . . Reports of 
outrages by bandits continue. May 9 seven bandits held up a 
Boston man and four Cubans near Santiago. The American 
tricked the bandits into dropping their weapons, and with his 
companions, captured and jailed the whole party of highwaymen. 
Samoa.—A truce has been arranged at Apia, and the Samoan 
rebels have agreed to a cessation of hostilities pending the 
arrival of the Commission. . . In a detailed account of the 
tight of April 1, In which American and British officers were 
killed, Capt. Hufnagel, the German plantation manager, is 
accused of directing the landing party into affiambush. 
