5i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
•Tuly 15 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established, 1850. 
Ei.bert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, I Ass(K . if ., Kditors 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, j- Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, J2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8y t marks, or 10S4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “Adv.," 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
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, JULY 15, 1899 
The story is told, in a western paper, of a man 
who had been appointed dairy instructor in three 
schools in as many different States. Of course, he 
could accept but one position, but the point is that 
he must have been recognized as thoroughly compe¬ 
tent, or he wouldn’t have been thus honored. In these 
days, when there is such a cry about unemployed 
labor, there is a big moral in this that is worth pon¬ 
dering by young men—and young women, too. 
* 
We think there are too many “fads” in our so- 
called modern system of teaching the young in public 
schools. There are too many experiments with new 
methods and studies. The design seems to be to teach 
children to be smart rather than substantial. Among 
the new schemes suggested is “physical culture.” We 
know of one student who nearly broke down under 
the gymnastics required for this course. One would 
think that the average child can find exercise enough 
at home helping mother or relieving father to culti¬ 
vate his physical system properly. 
* 
In Philadelphia, the Pure Butter Dealers’ Protec¬ 
tive Association has started a crusade against oleo. 
The Association employs detectives to collect evi¬ 
dence and an attorney to conduct prosecutions, and 
there seems no doubt that this independent campaign 
will cause a flutter among fraudulent sellers. One of 
tne first arrests made at the instance of the Associa¬ 
tion was that of a grocer who sold one-half pound of 
oleo as pure butter, at butter prices, to a detective. 
He was held in $600 bail. It is said that over 300 
warrants will shortly be served for this offense, in 
Philadelphia alone. 
* 
Last week, we copied an item from the Texas Farm 
and Ranch, advocating the selection of our old friend, 
Prof. T. V. Munson, as special representative at the 
Paris Exposition, of American grape culture. The 
R- N.-Y. would be pleased to see Prof. Munson ap¬ 
pointed, as he is the best possible representative that 
this country could send abroad. His knowledge of 
grape growing is complete, and he is already well 
known in France as a careful student and thoroughly- 
posted man. We fail to see where a better American 
representative could be selected. Let it be Munson, 
by all means! He is the man for the place! 
♦ 
One of the developments of the past few years is 
the moving-picture machine. A series of pictures is 
taken of rapidly-moving objects, like a trotting horse, 
a train of cars, or almost any scene. Then by a 
specially-constructed machine, this is projected upon 
a screen like the well-known stereopticon screen, and 
the whole original scene is reproduced. The United 
States Department of Agriculture is using this method 
in the interest of science. A small oak tree is being 
photographed, the machine being so arranged that a 
picture is taken each hour. The pictures will show 
the tree from its first appearance above ground, until 
it is a foot high with all its leaves developed. These 
pictures are for experimental purposes, to test the 
machine, but it is intended to use the machine to 
watch the development of fungous diseases, insects, 
parasites, etc. The possibilities in this direction are 
almost unlimited. Such pictures can be used to illus¬ 
trate lectures, in class-rooms and the like, and will 
show more than hours of talk and columns of print. 
Pictures might be taken at regular intervals, of a 
baby, a chicken, colt, or any live stock. Then when 
maturity was reached, every change taking place 
throughout the several years required, could be 
shown in a very few minutes. The application of 
this could be made not only interesting, but its eco¬ 
nomic possibilities in the way of study and research 
are something wonderful. 
* 
The R. N.-Y. has spoken of the use of crude petro¬ 
leum by some railroads on their roadbeds to keep 
down the dust. An experiment is reported as about 
to be made in Iowa, of using this oil on country roads 
as a cheap substitute for paving. The road is simply 
to be graded, and then the oil used, with the 
idea that it will turn off the water—a sort of water¬ 
proof coat, as it were. The experiment will be 
watched with much interest, and there are any num ¬ 
ber of localities that could furnish roads for experi¬ 
ment, if needed. It’s a new idea to grease the road 
instead of the wagon. 
* 
There are a good many farmers yet who start their 
haying right after the Fourth of July, no matter what 
the season is. It would often pay them better to start 
June 20, but they think all their weeding and hoeing 
must be done first. Most of them have to, or do, hire 
extra help for their haying. A neighbor, who used to 
be a month or more at his haying, now hires a lot of 
help, and gets it all done in a week or less. He says 
that his hay is so much better cut early that he doesn’t 
have to feed anywhere near as much grain, and, in 
reality, it doesn’t cost him as much as though he 
hired less help and was so much longer about it. 
* 
A report from Fort Wayne, Indiana, states that 36 
samples of milk sold by regular dealers were exam¬ 
ined, and only one was free from chemicals used for 
preserving. The authorities promise to publish a list 
of the dealers whose milk is free from chemicals, and 
another giving the names of those who use them. 
These lists ought to be printed in the daily papers so 
that the public may know just what they are buying. 
We have always claimed that this publicity is the 
only way to drive adulteration frauds and humbugs 
out of business. Their whole trade is a counterfeit 
one, based on an effort to sell an inferior or poisoned 
article under the guise of pure and wholesome food. 
Publish their names in full, and show the people just 
what they are selling! That is the surest and quick¬ 
est way to drive them out of business! 
ik 
Ten years ago, some of our wise men were sad, be¬ 
cause they thought Argentina was likely to interfere 
with our foreign wheat markets. That country was 
on the point of a promised boom. It had an abun¬ 
dance of wonderfully rich land close to tide water, so 
that the cost of shipment to Europe was light. An 
abundance of cheap labor was, also, promised. It 
was this very cheap labor that upset all calculation. 
Cheap labor lacks skill, and the richest land poorly 
tilled cannot compete with thin soil well handled and 
worked with improved machinery. That is the way it 
always goes. There are a dozen rich and fertile sec¬ 
tions in this country which, one would think, might 
easily run the New England farmers out of business. 
Yet, somehow, these keen-brained Yankees keep at it 
with improved methods and tools, and ask no favors 
of the Government! “It’s more in the man than in 
the land.” 
A recent law passed in New Zealand, called the 
“Shearers’ Accommodation Act,” gives factory inspec¬ 
tors the duty of examining buildings used to house 
shearers and other wandering laborers, upon farms or 
cattle ranches. This class of labor, being hired for a 
short season only, is often furnished with tumble- 
down and unsanitary shelter; but hereafter, the in¬ 
spectors are to see that proper buildings are erected 
and kept in decent condition. It is likely that the 
provisions of this law will be extended, in the future, 
to permanent farm laborers, since it would be absurd 
to control the housing of men who are in a locality 
for a short time, and to overlook those who expect to 
continue in the same place. Do our authorities give 
any attention to the sanitary accommodation of hop- 
pickers and other classes of nomadic labor? What 
would an inspector think of the bed you provide for 
the hired man? 
* 
A communication printed recently in a New York 
daily paper lamented the decadence of sweet corn on 
the ear, as sold in city markets. The writer of the 
letter stated that, while the corn seems fresh and 
juicy, the sweetness and flavor are entirely lacking, 
and infers that farmers no longer grow good varieties. 
This is, of course, an incorrect inference, though the 
earliest corn often seems somewhat deficient in flavor, 
even when fresh. But the real truth is that the city 
consumer rarely has an opportunity to eat “roasting 
ears” in their best estate. No other farm product 
loses flavor more rapidly after gathering than green 
corn, and, if it could be sold promptly to the con¬ 
sumer, we should hear no complaints of its deterior¬ 
ated quality. In our own vicinity, people buy local 
green corn which has been sent to New York and then 
shipped out again to the locality where it was grown, 
to be sold by the butcher or grocer. Consumers 
there, too, complain that this traveled corn is de¬ 
ficient in flavor. 
* 
Friends of the Ben Davis apple have put up the 
best argument they can for him. Now let us give 
Ben a rest. Most of these friends admit that the 
apple is a disappointment when eaten out of the hand. 
It is a fine-looking fruit, but as we get it in the East, 
dry and of poor flavor. It is all very well to say that 
the bad reputation of Ben Davis nas been earned by 
fruit grown in localities where this variety should 
not be planteu. We get few of the good ones at this 
side of the country. Unless the western growers send 
better specimens to Europe than they send to the east¬ 
ern markets, it is only a question of time before 
European consumers will raise an outcry against it. 
The English horticultural papers are already begin¬ 
ning to shout against Ben Davis. It is charged that 
Ben Davis apples have been put on the market labeled 
“Spitzenburg” and “Northern Spy.” Such work is as 
great a fraud as selling oleo for butter, or filled cheese 
foi full cream. The R. N.-Y. thinks the western Ben 
Davis growers are overdoing their business. They 
will have to face a demand for an apple of higher 
quality, and then what will they do? 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Californy! Californy! With your climate rich and rare 
llieres one old fruit too much for you, and that’s the 
Bartlett pear. 
lour lazy sunny climate paints the rose upon the peach 
But Oh! the flesh is like a chip with flavor out of reach! 
You suck the flavor from the plum, you waste too much 
on paint, 
You lose both Satan’s sourness and the sugar of the 
saint. 
But good old Brother Bartlett from his foggy eastern 
farm, 
Has proved himself too much for you—you can’t destroy 
his charm. 
Oh, yes! You paint him gaily and you try to make him 
drop 
His grip upon the flavor that has sent him to the top 
He might become a giant if he’d let it drop and grow, 
He won t forget his Yankee blood—he firmly answers No' 
Californy! Californy! You’re a dreamy, sunny land- 
You ossify the juices of the fruits that cannot stand,’ 
The languorous temptation of your climate rich and rare 
But can’t seduce the flavor of the good old Bartlett pear’ 
The middle man shall be first. 
Which is better—a push or a pull? 
Unequally distributed—this year’s rain. 
I he worst middleman is the meddle man. 
The best place for the surplus rooster is in a pot-pie. 
Small potatoes—the early ones in the droughty re¬ 
gions. 
WANTED-the connecting link between a fool and his 
money. 
“I am down to bed rock,’’ said father, as he took 
charge of the baby’s cradle. 
Is a man s patriotism measured by the amount of noise 
he makes on the Fourth of July? 
Some folks not only take the law into their own hands, 
but they undertake to take the Lord, also. 
Better give a man with a pot of paint the whole road 
than to quarrel with him about the right of way. 
Turnips and beets for late Winter use are sown in 
July, at any time when the ground is in good condition. 
We have met a good many people who talk about 
casting their burden on the Lord, when their intention 
is to pass their responsibilities to their relations. 
An Alabama friend says that cow peas will feed land, 
folks, horses, mules, cows, hogs, turkeys, chickens and 
quail. 
Money beats love for securing a cook and dish washer, 
yet one man writes us that he thinks he could get a 
second wife easier than he could hire a girl to do house¬ 
work! 
Delaware is dry! One of our readers, writing on 
July 4, said: “I hope the cheap powder, whisky and pa¬ 
triotism that will be exploded to-day may, at least, 
bring rain.” 
Whenever you see a neighbor with his life all out of 
joint, and bitterness o’erflowing from his cup, it just 
becomes your business his bruises to anoint, and from 
your own life’s sweetness fill him up. 
Lome German chemist has made oleo by mixing almond 
and other nut paste with animal fats, without the use 
of milk. He will have a nice job to sell it, however, 
unless he pretends it is made from milk! 
A farmer at Red Hook, N. Y., caught a huge Ameri¬ 
can eagle July 4, the bird being in the act of carrying 
off one of his Spring pigs. We think that the bird of 
freedom could be in a better business than stealing 
shotes on Independence Day. 
We will add to the “education” talk about the little 
Hope Farm people that, when the Madame left the nor¬ 
mal school, she believed that a child should never be 
whipped. That was theory. The actual care of children 
has demonstrated that the shingle and the switch are 
close to the foundation of society! 
