1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4oi 
Short Stories. 
“ Keeping” the Sour. —The Michigan 
Frait Grower sajs : 
Too many cf us a r e forgetful of the deep mean¬ 
ing contained in two lines of the prayer taught 
us in our childhood at our mother’s knee : “I 
pray the Lord my soul to keep.” The most im¬ 
portant thing we can ask of the Lord, whether 
old or young, is that our minds may be kept 
well-balanced. This interpretation of the prayer 
is not often recalled, but it seems to us that it is 
the true one—the prayer that we can make dally, 
and still we know our duty is to follow the peti¬ 
tion with the best means in our reach to main¬ 
tain the balance of our minds. 
The writer says that this thought was 
emphasized while visiting an insane 
asylum, and learning how important it 
is to let the patients stay out ot doors 
and watch the growing things. Work 
in the garden or field is far better than 
drugs for an unbalanced mind. 
Sword or Home. —Lieut. Hobson had 
his day of fame, but Gen. Funston, of 
Kansas, is just now the hero of the day. 
It was proposed to buy a sword for him, 
but W. H. Barnes, of the Kansas Horti¬ 
cultural Society, thinks a home is might¬ 
ier than a sword He says : 
In a tight place, any General would trade a 
*10,000 sword for a *2 50 revolver, if the revolver 
was well loaded, or even a hatful of rocks might 
be better. In a pinch, David's pebbles were 
mightier than Goliath's sword. Gen. Funston 
has found a bride since he left us. A married 
couple should have a home. How much better 
to present them with a pleasant and useful home 
in Topeka than a useless sword. Let the sub¬ 
scriptions roll in, and buy them a home and then 
furnish it, and put a rig in the barn and money 
in the bank for the little necessities needed until 
he is settled. 
That is well enough, but don’t plant 
any Ben Davis apples for the young 
couple. 
Food Wanted. —The National Pro- 
visioner, referring to the European 
meat trade, says : 
To such Btraitshave the peasantry of Germany 
been reduced by the government’s restrictions 
against foreign meats, that dogs have lately be¬ 
come a national diet with the poorer people. 
To such an extent is this the case, that in the 
meat inspection bill now before it, the Reichstag 
recognizes this household animal as one of the 
country’s sources of food. In the bill is a clause 
requiring that dogs which are to be slaughtered 
for human food must be submitted to a proper 
officer for both an ante-mortem and a post¬ 
mortem examination. 
It says that Europe is “ eating itself 
out of hovue and home,” and must buy 
meat of Uncle Sam. Germany wants a 
chance to send sugar here free of duty. 
Oar meat packers want a chance to send 
their meat free to Germany. There is a 
chancsfor a tariff trade. If it be car¬ 
ried through, the American packer and 
the German sugar-beet manufacturer 
will be right, while the American beet- 
sugar grower will be left. 
Nebraska Corn Culture —In looking 
over the replies to your question on 
page 358, regarding Drilling vs. Check¬ 
ing for Corn, I notice that the objection 
to drilling the corn is that it is too 
hard to keep clean. My own experience 
has proved the reverse. Not only this, 
but I think fully four-fifths of the farm¬ 
ers in this part of Nebraska (Johnson 
Co.) now use the drill. My mode of put¬ 
ting in corn is to double list. I have a 
combined lister and drill, and about 
April 20, with the lister part I throw up 
the ridges three feet apart, which I let 
stand for three weeks, after which I 
attach my drill to the lister, put on 
three horses and break the ridges out, 
planting the corn 16 inches apart in the 
row. This virtually plows the ground, 
and at the same time, it puts the corn 
down farther than when checked, and it 
is less subject to drought and hard winds. 
After the corn gets up two or three 
inches in the furrow, with my three- 
section harrow, I thoroughly harrow it, 
putting the horses'on the ridges, taking 
three ridges at a time. When it is five 
or six inches high, I take the front 
shovels off my cultivator, attach a trough 
(j ast like a pig trough inverted) which 
follows the furrow and prevents the 
corn being covered by the back shovels. 
The two back shovels tear up the ridges 
and sift in fine soil around the corn, 
leaving the ground almost level. I cul¬ 
tivate three times, and am positive that 
no one can keep corn any cleaner than by 
this method, and perhaps not so clean. 
Tecutrseh, Neb. c. v. d. 
Fractional Currency. — The Path¬ 
finder, a paper printed at Washington, 
makes a good plea for the use of frac¬ 
tional paper currency. It says among 
other good things : 
With 10, 25, and 50-cent paper currency in cir¬ 
culation, trade will be considerably stimulate— 
esp cially mail trade. Uncle Sam w.ll be bene¬ 
fited by the increased postal revenues. When 
Congress makes it so hard to send money through 
the mails, it naturally discourages mall order 
business. Banks now very generally charge fees 
for collecting checks, and the need of a conven¬ 
ient postal currency is greater than ever. In 
China the principle is to make it so hard fora' 
plaintiff in court that no one will resort to a 
suit who can possibly avoid it. In this way litl- 
ga> ion is discouraged —a la Chinoise. The present 
attitude of our Government toward the people on 
the fractional currency' question is about the 
same. It is a mistake to discourage businefs by 
making it so hard to send money by mail. The 
city man can draw a cheek; the villager does 
not miss a dollar’s worth of time waiting at the 
post office for a money order to send 25 cents; 
bat the mass of the people, unused to business 
details, and remote from facili ies, find these 
things almost prohibitive. 
We have never been able to under¬ 
stand why business mt n in town and 
city cannot see that fractional currency 
and free rural mail delivery will help 
their trade. Instead of opposing these 
things, one would think such business 
men would be first of all to advocate 
them. 
Frauds in Stove Selling. —The stove 
sharks who go through the country sell¬ 
ing ranges and other stoves, seem to 
have picked up a new scheme. The 
agents verbally promise to pay for all 
the wood that is used in one year, over 
12 cords of 16-inch wood, and all the coal 
over 2% tons in the same time. In other 
words, one of these famous stoves is not 
to use over 12 cords of wood and 2 M tons 
of coal in one year. They also agree to 
furnish repairs until the stove is paid 
for, free of cost. They tell many other 
stories of this kind, many of which 
appeal strongly to a customer. The 
salesman, however, does not put these 
things on paper, but he merely talks 
about them, and another man comes 
around to collect the bills. This other 
man has either forgotten all about it, or 
else he says that salesman was not 
responsible, and has been discharged by 
the company. These people sell great 
numbers of stoves, and the stoves are 
usually good ones, in many cases fully 
worth their price. It is the plausib e 
story that sells the stove, and this causes 
most of the regret and trouble that 
follow the sale. 
Selected Plant Food. —Prof. S. A. 
Beach, of the Geneva Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, has been conducting some valuable 
experiments with lettuce. The object 
was to see what form of*nitrogen is best 
suited to feed that crop. Both scientific 
and practical men are now coming to be¬ 
lieve that most plants have decided pref¬ 
erences as to their food. For example, 
backwheat can make a fair growth on 
the coarser forms of food—such as 
ground leather and raw phosphate rock. 
Tomatoas and barley may be able to 
utilize soda ; various sorts of fruit may 
do better on chemicals than on manure, 
and so on. Prof. Beach knows that the 
practicil lettuce growers generally in- 
tibt that a compost of stable manure 
gives them best results. We saw the ex¬ 
periment in March, and there could be 
no doubt that, of all the forms of nitro¬ 
gen that were used, stable manure had 
given best results. Prof. Buach expected 
to follow with corn, so as to ask the 
same questions of that plant. Such work 
has great value. Oar farm plants vary 
in their feeding habits almost as widely 
as do our farm animals. The time will 
come when we shall learn to divide our 
supplies of plant food on much the same 
basis that we now divide our stock food. 
Studying Diseashs —A few days ago, 
we saw a man putting in a crop of pota¬ 
toes with the deliberate intention of 
losing them. He had done the best he 
could to inoculate the ground with the 
scab fungus, so that those potatoes might 
be attacked by it. At first thought, one 
would say that this was a ridiculous 
thing to do ; yet it was, probably, wiser 
than it would have been to try to pro¬ 
duce an immense crop. The object was 
to start the crop in that plot of ground, 
and then try to head the disease off or 
destroy it by using various well-known 
remedies. Even though the crop should 
be lest, the experience learned in fight¬ 
ing the disease will be of great service 
to those who follow the experiment. 
This is but one illustration of the value 
of accurate scientific work, even though 
on a small scale. The individual farmer 
cannot afford the time or the money to 
conduct these experiments, and learn 
the needed facts about his crop or ani¬ 
mals. There must be some one who can 
give his entire time to the slow and pot¬ 
tering work of studying diseases or in¬ 
sects. It costs money to perform these 
experiments, and the State does well to 
pay for them, and give the results to the 
farmers. 
“In Union 
There is Strength.” 
True strength consists in the union, the 
harmonious working together, of every 
part of the human organism. This strength 
can never be obtained if the blood is im¬ 
pure. Hood’s Sarsaparilla is the standard 
prescription for purifying the blood and 
regulating the whole bodily machinery. 
LFGGETT’S ANCHOR BRAND WHALE OIL SOAP 
FOR SPRAYINC TREES. Destroys 
all Insect life on bark, San Jos6 Scale and 
the like. Indorsed by authorities. 
Write for prices. Our Spray Calendar 
sent free. 
Leggett & Brother, 301 Pearl Street, N.Y. 
Paragrene. 
Better than Paris-green. Half the Cost. 
Does not burn the foliage. 
“I used Paragrene just as I would Paris-green. 
It did not injure the foliage, but killed all the potato 
bugs very quickly. I like it better than Paris-green, 
and shall always use it in future.” 
Suburba, Tenn. a. e. bunker. 
“1 have used and found Paragrene the best, 
quickest and safest insecticide I ever used, and 
recommend it to every grower of currants and goose¬ 
berries for absolute destruction ot the Currant worm, 
and does not injure the foliage. Please send at once 
two H-pound packages more of Paragrene.” 
Tivoli, Madalin P. O., N. Y. geo. w. fingar. 
Send for Pamphlet and Samples. 
FRED L. LAVANHUKG, Box 1070 B, New York. 
Cyanide 
Guaranteed 98 to 99 per cent., for generating 
Hydrocyanic Acid Gas 
the most effective fumigating material, to 
destroy scale insects on fruit trees and 
plants. The only positive eradicator of 
the dreaded San Jose Scale. Endorsed by 
all Agricultural Experiment Stations. “ A 
perfect practical remedy,” says Prof. W. G. 
Johnson, State Etymologist of Maryland. 
MANUFACTURED BY 
The Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co., 
No. 100 William Street, New York. 
Potash. 
NOUGH of it must be 
contained in fertilizers, 
otherwise failure will surely 
result. See that it is there. 
Our books tell all about 
fertilizers. They are sent 
free to all farmers applying 
for them. 
dERMAN KALI WORKS, 
93 Nuimu St., New York. 
Quick Fertilizer. 
There is nothing in the American 
market to day that acts so quickly and 
surely as a fertilizer as 
Nitrate of Soda* 
Apply to the surface in the spring. 
A small quantity does the work. 
Watch the crops closely and when 
they look sick or make slow growth 
apply the remedy promptly. Book, 
“Foodfor Plants,” tells all about it. 
John A. Myers, 12—O John St., New 
York, will send you free copy on re 
quest. Nitrate for sale by 
BALFOUR, WILLIAOSON & CO., 
27 William St., New York. 
.yVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV> 
Profits of Farming 
GARDENING AND FRUIT CULTURE. 
depend upon Good Crops and they In 
turn upon Good Fertilizers. The 
uniformly best fertilizer for all Crops 
and all soils is made by 
The Cleveland Dryer Co., Cleveland, O. 
Materials Supplied for “ Home Mixing.” 
i.WMWWVVWVVVWVVVVV11 
iJadoo Fibre and Jadoo Liquid 
Will give you Early Crops and Large Crops 
of Vegetables or Fruit. Send for Catalogues 
and be convinced of the merits of these 
new Fertilizers. 
THE AMERICAN JADOO CO., 
815 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. 
nith onr new patent 
Kerosene Sprayers 
U simple indeed. Kerosene emulsion 
made while pumping. Y2 varieties 
sprayers, Bordeaux and Vermorel 
Nozzles, the “World’s Best.’’ 
THE DEMINQ CO., SALEM, 0. 
Western Agents, Hennion «$c HubbeiL 
Chicago. Catalogue and formulas free. 
Our Guarantee 
That the ‘ ECLIPSE " 
SPRAY PUMP will do 
more work, do bet¬ 
ter work, and Eave 
one-half the labor, has 
been proven good in 
thousands of the best or¬ 
chards in America 
Don’t make a mietake, but 
get the Eclipse, and you will 
be satisfied. Send for Catalogue 
MORRILL & MORLEY. 
Benton Harbor , Mich. 
The Only Practical Method 
Cabbage Bug, is described in “ The Use of the Gaso¬ 
line Torch in Fighting Insects,” a book written and 
copyrighted by Fred REINLEIN, Mt. Vernon, Ill., 
which will be mailed for 10 cents. The method It de¬ 
scribes will be found to be also by far the best 
method extant for fighting Chinch Bugs, Squash 
Bugs, Plant Lice and Seale Insects. 
SLUG-SHOT. Used from Ocean to Ocean across this Continent. 
Hammond’s Paint and Slug Shot Works 
MANUFACTURE 
‘‘Grape Dust” for Mildew, “Cattle Comfort” to keep cattle 
comfortable in fly time, “ Copper Solution,” “Extract 
of Tobacco,” “Tlirip Juice,” “Sheep Wash.” 
FRENCH BORDEAUX MIXTURE IN PULP, 
reliable form for Immediate use. Sold by the seed trade. Send for 
circulars. BENJAMIN HAMMOND, Flshkill-on-Hudson, N.Y. 
WE SAVE FARMERS 40 PER CENT. FERTILIZERS 
We sell you direct—Actually pay you salesman’s expenses and agent’s profit. Write for 
free sample and book. THE SCIENTIFIC FEKTIL1ZER CO., PITTSBUKG, PA. 
