6 l 2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 26 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
llKBBEUT W. COLLtNGWOOD, Editor. 
H. E. Van Dbman, J 
Frank H. Valentine, '-Associates. 
Mbs. E. T. Hoyle, j 
John .T Dii.i.on, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. (id., or 8* *4 marks, or 10y s 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. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance is for, 
should appear in every letter. 
Remittances may be made in money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1866 
We’ll be there! 
Where? 
At the New York State Fair at Syracuse on Septem¬ 
ber 4-9. This fair promises to rank as the best of 
the series, for the managers are working hard to cover 
every detail. The R. N.-Y. will be represented there 
in better shape than ever. We shall have a large tent 
with chairs and tables, so that our friends can make 
themselves comfortable. Leave your baggage with 
us so as to feel free to walk about with comfort. You 
can eat your dinner in the tent, and rest quietly there 
during the heat of the day. You will be welcome! 
Come and see us! 
We’ll be there! 
On page 561, we reported the experience of a Michi¬ 
gan man who sowed grass seed from the Agricultural 
Department, on his lawn. The result was a worthless 
lot of plants which were rooted out at considerable ex¬ 
pense. We want to add that this experience occurred 
several years ago, before the Department began its 
careful investigations of seeds. Under the present 
system of seed testing, it would hardly be possible for 
such worthless stuff to be sent out. The work of seed 
testing under the charge of Mr. A. J. Pieters has be¬ 
come very efficient and useful, and promises to become 
of great practical value to farmers. 
* 
The Steel trust is driving the price of wire off the 
earth, but thus far the wire worm is able to manu¬ 
facture a full supply at the old price. The wire worm 
is a nuisance, but he has possibilities which some of 
our scientists should encourage. He will eat almost 
anything, but will trouble the roots cf strawberries 
less than many other plants. One reason is that he 
does not like strawberries as well as he does the roots 
of weeds that grow with the berries. Now, gentle¬ 
men, give us a breed of wire worms that will leave 
our cultivated crops, and live entirely on weeds! 
There is no charge for this suggestion—in fact, we 
will pay well for breeding stock of this worm! 
* 
Agricultural Commissioner Wieting, of New 
York State, has issued a letter saying that he has 
been informed that many of the milk dealers in large 
cities return milk cans uncleansed and in a filthy 
condition. This is construed as a violation of the 
State Agricultural law, and such milk dealers are no¬ 
tified that further practice of this kind will be fol¬ 
lowed by prosecution for violation of the law. This 
is an excellent move. We have often urged that the 
(lealers in the city should be compelled to steam all 
milk cans before returning them. This end of the 
line is the place for such steaming, and the vigorous 
enforcement of such a law would help dairymen, and 
improve the quality of the milk sent here. 
* 
In some parts of the East, local butchers in small 
towns find themselves confronted with new troubles. 
Hardly one of them now knows what it is to slaughter 
an animal, except it may be a calf or a hog. Their 
meat is brought to them in me wagons of the dressed- 
meat companies. Formerly this meat was shipped out 
from the city in individual lots, but now there is a 
large storehouse in the county town, with wagons 
running out to the little villages. Thus the dressed- 
meat companies have the business in their own nands. 
Formerly the butcher could paint “Choice Meats'’ on 
his wagon with some chance for making his custom¬ 
ers think he had any choice. Now buyers understand 
that there is practically no choice about it. Many of 
these butchers see before them the fate which has 
overtaken the saloon keepers. Several years ago, 
these men mostly owned their saloons. Now a great 
majority of them are mere agents for the large brew¬ 
ers, who own the business fixtures, and pay the keeper 
a salary or a commission. That seems to be what is 
coming in the meat business. In the old days, there 
was competition in both buying and selling. Now 
the old advantage in buying has been wiped out, and 
there is nothing to do but cut up and sell the meat. 
In time, many of our local butchers will be simply 
agents for the great meat companies. The public will 
not be benefited either by lower prices or better 
meat. The tendency of the modern corporation seems 
to be all in one direction, so far as the individual 
small dealer is concerned. He is to be crushed out! 
* 
The following letter meets with our hearty ap¬ 
proval, and we are glad to give it space: 
J see, from your statement, that Peter M. Gideon has. 
by a succession of reverses, been brought to the bottom 
of his resources, in his old age. I wish to make the 
following proposition to your readers and all others who 
have planted the Wealthy apple, to send to you or to 
him direct, if you will give his address, one cent for 
every tree in bearing, and continue it each year while 
he lives. I love him because he loves his fellow man, 
and has done so much for him in his gift of the Wealthy 
apple. a. s. DOBSON. 
Traverse City, Mich. 
The Good Book says, “There is that seattereth and 
yet inereaseth.” We understand this to mean that 
there are kinds of giving which bring in far more 
than they take out. The man who remembers the 
originator of the Wealthy apple in this way, will gain 
far more than he loses. What a strong and beautiful 
tribute this will be. The R. N.-Y. will send the money 
to Mr. Gideon, or readers can send it themselves to 
Peter M. Gideon, Excelsior, Minn. 
* 
All through the West where clover grows success¬ 
fully, grain farmers mostly argue that it is not econo¬ 
my to buy nitrogen. They will often agree that phos¬ 
phoric acid is useful for the clover, and some of them 
are satisfied that potash is also necessary. Most of 
the grain and dairy farmers stop there, however, and 
say that clover will supply all the nitrogen the wheat 
needs to make an economical crop. The fertilizer 
used, therefore, is usually a mixture of kainit and dis¬ 
solved phosphate rock with, perhaps, a pinch of tank¬ 
age added. This is used mainly to aid the clover, so 
that it may secure the needed nitrogen from the air. 
The experience of farmers in the older parts of the 
country is that wheat responds quickly to an applica¬ 
tion of available nitrogen, and we are glad to see that 
the Ohio Experiment Station has started out to learn 
whether clover supplies all that the wheat can eco¬ 
nomically use. Tankage was added to the potash and 
phosphate, and in every case, this addition of nitrogen 
has produced a large gain in wheat. This gain was 
also noticed in the crops which followed the wheat. 
This indicates that the clover does not furnish nitro¬ 
gen enough on that soil, and this is just what the ex¬ 
perience of farmers who use fertilizers heavily would 
show. We feel satisfied that nitrate of soda would 
have given even better results than the tankage, for 
nitrate seems to be peculiarly suited to wheat grow¬ 
ing. 
* 
The last New York Legislature had under consid¬ 
eration, for a considerable time, a bill intended to 
regulate the dealings of commission merchants. 
Among other things, it required them to furnish con¬ 
signees with the names and addresses of buyers of 
their consignments, and placed other petty and 
harassing regulations upon the business. The bill 
met such determined opposition from the better class 
of commission merchants that it failed to become a 
law; but such a law was enacted by the last Minne¬ 
sota Legislature, and from reports, meets with little 
favor from business men in that State. There are 
some very unreasonable clauses in the law, which 
make it almost impossible for commission men to 
comply with it without much additional expense, and 
it is to be taken to the Supreme Court for a decision 
as to its constitutionality. The law requires that 
commission men shall furnish the shipper with the 
names and addresses of customers to whom he sells 
the produce, and this involves a large amount of extra 
work. Besides this, it is ’ frequently almost, if not 
quite., impossible to get these names and addresses, 
when produce is sold in small quantities. This seems 
to be one of the most objectionable features of the 
law. The law also requires that the commission men 
shall furnish bonds in addition to taking out a license, 
and the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, who 
have charge of this matter, state that they will not 
accept personal bonds, but must have collateral which 
can be turned into cash. Surety companies will not 
furnish bonds to guarantee payment of a man’s busi¬ 
ness obligations unless they have collateral for the 
full amount. The Commission requires a bond of 10 
per cent of the actual business done, and this would 
often require more collateral than the commission 
man has invested in his business. As this bill is 
drawn, it practically requires commission men to give 
bonds to guarantee the payment of their bills, which 
is a thing not asked of any other business man. 
Commission men there have unanimously agreed not 
to comply with the law, at any rate, not until after 
the confirmation of its constitutionality by the Su¬ 
preme Court. The objections noted seem to be the 
principal ones against the law. This measure will, 
doubtless, come before the next Legislature in New 
York State, in a little different form. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Mary Ellen’s gut a beau—come up Sunday night an’ so 
I jest thought I’d set him out, so’s to see what he’s 
about. 
Wife, she set with us an’ talked half an hour—then off 
she walked 
Up to bed an’ left me there, sorter holdin’ down my chair. 
Gut so sleepy I ’most fell off my chair—ashamed to tell. 
Mary Ellen up an’ said: “Pa, why don’t you go to bed?" 
So I says “Good night!” an’ quit, looks ez though I ain't 
in it.” 
Wife, she raked me with her tongue. “Don’t ye ’member 
when ye's young 
You gut madder than a bee when you come a-courtin’ me. 
An’ my folks ain’t off to bed ’fore it’s nine o’clock—you 
said, 
Ought to know enough to clear out when courtin’ scrapes 
is near. 
Pretty work ef you can’t trust your own daughter- 
guess ye must 
Think more of her now," says she, “than ye ever did 
o’ me.” 
Wasn't nothin’ I cud say—I jest let her talk away. 
Till she talked herself asleep; but i thought a mighty 
heap. 
Laid awake a-thinkin’ there, till my girl came up the 
stair, 
Stopped and kissed us both all ’round—I felt better I’ll 
be bound. 
When her beau asked me next day, wasn’t nothin’ I cud 
say. 
Makes a big hole in our home, but it's right an’ has ter 
come. 
Wasteful habits are fund i cides. 
A dry remark may prove a wet blanket. 
What good apple will stand most abuse? Baldwin! 
Yes, said the pump handle, I am an exercise commis¬ 
sioner. 
Like a person out of humor is a soil that’s out of 
humus. 
Of course, in our opinion, the “fresh” heir should be 
assaulted. 
No, sir, you can’t always increase your fun by adding 
to your funds. 
The disease which affects the lazy man’s heart is usu¬ 
ally a case of can't, sir ! 
Yes, sir, cow peas will make a run-down farm walk 
up to the captain’s office. 
The beams in our own eyes must be sawed off—they 
will never rust or rot out. 
I wouldn’t take the job of Mr. Root with all the per¬ 
quisites thrown in to boot. 
The best information we can obtain about many things 
is that it pays to keep away from them. 
Don’t stuff your head choke full of trash, sir, and then 
expect it to turn out the stuff that makes men. 
Late sowing, a "trap crop” or quick-acting fertilizers 
are the Fall measures to head off the Hessian fly. 
Abundance & Burbank! How the public have sorted 
out these two Japs from the great company of plums. 
It seems strange that such a promising variety as the 
Carman peach is not being generally tested at the North. 
“Say nothing but saw wood”—that advice is always 
good, but to earn your salt, you must saw something be¬ 
sides dust. 
The Ohio Experiment Station demonstrates that, on 
the thin, rented lands of that State, potash is needed to 
produce full crops. 
Y'es, sir, investing your money in robber stock, which 
eat more than they pay for, may be said to be capital 
punishment. 
Some farmers do their best with fruit, while others 
love some form of brute, and still the question rises 
whether it pays to put the two together. 
One nurseryman suggests that those desirous of test¬ 
ing fumigation with cyanide of potassium, without the 
expense of constructing a house for the purpose, may 
make a satisfactory trial when shipping stock in a re¬ 
frigerator car. 
Lawn mowers and garden tools in general are prom¬ 
ised an increase of 20 to 30 per cent in price next year. 
The rise in the price of iron pipe has been 170 per cent 
since the season opened. How those trusts do cheapen 
their products to the consumer! 
When the scrubbiest of roosters undertakes to go and 
knock half the feathers off the game cock strutting in 
your neighbor’s flock, he will have his hour of triumph, 
though defeat’s electric shock may mark him like a 
butcher for, at last, he’s bloodied stock. 
No use talking—millions of apple trees are being plant¬ 
ed. We see the young orchards wherever we go. No use 
then to set out fruit? One can hardly say that, because 
setting the tree is only one step toward a crop of apples. 
It comes down to a contest of care. No tree can take 
care of itself, though many farmers think otherwise. 
This thought makes business for the nurserymen, and 
saves the careful grower. 
