724 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 14 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1800. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, 1 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, ) 
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 % marks, or 10* *4 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 u 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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Remittances may be made in money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearly Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1899. 
Many of the Sugar-maple groves have been severely 
injured this year. The Forest worm stripped their 
leaves, and the drought nearly finished them. The 
trees are weak as a result of this double injury. 
Should they be tapped next year? If animals were in 
a similar condition, we would surely give them a good 
rest. Are not trees living things with needs of re¬ 
cuperation? 
* 
The new horticultural trial grounds of The R. N.- 
Y. are situated at Little Silver, N. J., in charge of Dr. 
Walter Van Fleet, our new associate editor. Dr. Van 
Fleet has had many years’ experience, and is an au¬ 
thority on the science and practice of horticulture. 
The new grounds are large and well adapted to test¬ 
ing vegetables and fruits. Dr. Van Fleet will also 
spend much time in studying the behavior of novel¬ 
ties, as compared with standard varieties, in widely 
separated localities. We confidently predict that this 
feature of The R. N.-Y. will become so practical and 
timely that it will be indispensable to all who care to 
keep up with the horticultural procession. 
* 
The Rochester, N. Y., Board of Health is trying to 
prevent the sale of milk in that city, except from cows 
that are tuberculin-tested. They would bar out all 
cows that respond to that delicate test. No wonder 
that the milk producers have organized to resist such 
a decree. The plan of the Board of Health in many 
places seems to be to draw the line of danger at this 
delicate test. The injustice of this plan is evident 
when we realize that cows have responded to the test, 
and still continued to give absolutely wholesome milk 
for years. They have kept at their work until they 
died of other diseases or injuries. The test will in¬ 
dicate the presence of tiny and harmless tubercles, 
but it does not by any means decide whether the milk 
is injurious or wholesome. Farmers will welcome a 
fair veterinary inspection or sanitary regulations, but 
they stand squarely on their rights when they deny 
the justice of this balancing their business on the 
point of a needle. 
* 
New York gave Admiral Dewey a great reception. 
The big city has always been rather niggardly in the 
way of public celebrations, but on this occasion she 
outdid herself. Millions thronged the dusty streets, 
and howled themselves hoarse in adulation of the 
naval hero. The spectacle of a man doing, in a busi¬ 
ness-like way, the thing he has been trained to an¬ 
ticipate for 40 years, seems entirely to astonish the 
American people. A number of costly fighting ma¬ 
chines, paid for by taxation of Spanish peasants, were 
smashed by some still more costly machines paid for 
by the toilers of America. Without disparaging 
Dewey, who is a modest and effective man, of whom 
any American with red blood in his veins may well 
be proud, it might be profitable to contrast him with 
the originator of the Concord grape, tons of which 
were eaten by the thirsty crowds during the intervals 
of cheering the military and naval pageants. He was, 
also, a New England man. His name was Bull. He 
was obscure and practically unknown in his lifetime, 
and died in poverty. He took the wild and acrid fox 
grape, tamed it, and made a thing of joy and National 
profit out of it. Forty years ago a bunch of well- 
flavored grapes was a luxury, only to be indulged in 
by the wealthy; now they are retailed in basketfuls 
by the million, at six pounds for a dime! The east¬ 
ern grape industry, founded almost wholly on the 
adaptability of the Concord and its descendants to our 
great range of climate, is worth more yearly to our 
country than the whole Philippine Archipelago is ever 
likely to be. This is a victory that leaves no sting— 
that makes every one richer and none the poorer. Is 
it really good civilization to laud the destroyer to 
the skies and utterly neglect the creator? Both men 
followed their chosen vocation; both were successful 
and honorable. One is buried under honors, the other 
never encouraged during life and forgotten in death. 
* 
About eight years ago, when prices for cattle be¬ 
gan to go down, The R. N.-Y. advised its readers to 
buy breeding stock. It did not seem possible for 
prices to go much lower, but they did, until many 
stockmen quit the business in disgust, and many val¬ 
uable herds were scattered. In the face of falling 
prices, we continued to advise the purchase of good 
stock. It was the chance of a lifetime to invest a 
dollar in “blood.” The men who took this advice are 
now happy, for the live stock business in this country 
is passing into the greatest “boom” it has ever known. 
For several years to come the breeding of good beef 
and dairy stock will be a “sure thing.” The high 
prices for beef will tempt many dairymen to switch 
from butter to tallow with a beef bull engine. That 
is all the more reason why the dairyman who has 
built up a fine herd should stick to his type, and im¬ 
prove it if possible. 
* 
Recently a young woman completed a bicycle ride 
of 700 miles within 84 consecutive hours, on a coun¬ 
try road in Long Island. She finished this nerve-rend¬ 
ing feat in tears and hysterics, bordering on collapse, 
and gained thereby a notoriety which she professes 
greatly to dislike. Of 00111*86 she was a city girl. The 
treadmill toil of the female sewing-machine oper¬ 
ators, in the vilest sweat-shops of the metropolis, is 
child’s play compared with such an idiotic waste of 
vitality. It is in order to remark that if this young 
woman had expended her surplus energies on useful 
household work, it would have been more in accord¬ 
ance with the fitness of things in general, but the 
truth is that the tendency of modern city life is to 
destroy the domestic tastes, and thousands of girls 
are growing up in our large cities with no more con¬ 
ception of true home life, than a hen has of the phil¬ 
osophy of Confucius. It is far different in the coun¬ 
try, where a closer contact with Nature is apt to instill 
a real liking for the sedate joys of life, rather than 
for a brief flash of vociferous publicity. 
* 
December 20, 1896, Joseph Wilkins and Howard 
Butler were apprehended in Philadelphia, while in the 
act of removing stamps from boxes containing oleo. 
Wilkins was an extensive dealer in oleo at Washing¬ 
ton, D. C., and Butler a clerk in his employ. It was 
stated that the dealer had previously violated the 
law on numerous occasions, being leniently dealt with 
by the authorities. This time, however, he was sen¬ 
tenced to six months’ imprisonment and $1,500 fine, 
his clerk receiving a sentence of four months’ im¬ 
prisonment and $500 fine. This was in February, 1898. 
An appeal was taken, and an effort made to prove 
the law unconstitutional. It was not until the latter 
part of September that the United States Circuit 
Court of Appeals rendered a final decision in favor of 
the Government, affirming the verdict, and directing 
the District Court to enforce the sentences imposed. 
It seems hard that nearly two years’ fighting should 
be required to secure punishment of a flagrant viola¬ 
tion of the law, but there is satisfaction in knowing 
that this case will furnish a precedent in dealing with 
future breaches of the oleo laws. 
* 
We wonder whether the writers who urge the use 
of oleo as a worthy food product have ever really 
eaten it for any considerable period. The writer lived 
for nearly two years with a cooperative colony in a 
southern State. The native butter was scarce, and of 
miserable quality, our dairy was in an embryonic 
state, and from motives of economy it was not deemed 
practicable to buy good northern butter. So we tried 
to content ourselves with oleo as a fat ration. Scarce¬ 
ly one individual out of 300 ever professed to like it, 
and many cases of sickness, treated by resident phy¬ 
sicians, seemed to be directly caused by eating the 
oleo. The use of refined cotton-seed oil in most cul¬ 
inary operations was a decided relief, and was fol¬ 
lowed by a general improvement. We bought the 
oleo directly from several of the great packing cor¬ 
porations composing the “beef trust,” in quantity, 
paying a good price, and demanding the highest qual¬ 
ity manufactured. We found it necessary to make 
frequent changes in the parties from whom we pur¬ 
chased it, as the first consignments would invariably 
be a close imitation of butter in texture, taste and 
odor, and evidently contained a high per cent of real 
butter. Subsequent shipments would fall off rapidly 
in quality, until they became too rank even for our 
degenerated palates, when we would try another 
member of the same chain of factories. This, we have 
heard since, is a regular dodge to secure new custom¬ 
ers, while farming the older ones for higher profits. 
Now, there is no fault to be found with the use of in¬ 
testinal fats when openly sold and recommended, if 
one become so depraved in his tastes as to relish 
such mixtures,, but to claim that oleo, as now put on 
the market, is a worthy substitute for meat and but¬ 
ter, is an outrage on common experience. 
* 
“The western farmer is getting to be a merchant,” 
said a western man recently. 
“What does he sell?” 
“I used the word merchant as a descriptive term 
for a man who has the capacity for placing or selling 
goods. The farmer has always been a good producer, 
but a very poor seller; that is, he has had the capac¬ 
ity for turning out goods, but has lacked the capacity 
to know how, when and where to dispose of his pro¬ 
ducts to the best advantage. His chickens, his eggs, 
his grapes, and his larger crops—of wheat, corn, etc., 
have been picked up by the speculator and middle¬ 
man at ridiculously low prices; and, in consequence, 
the farmer has raised a mortgage, while the man who 
has made a business of buying his crops has raised 
money. You will notice that the farmers are get¬ 
ting together. The apple growers are comparing 
notes, and the great wheat and corn belts are begin¬ 
ning to grow men who can sell their crops as well as 
raise them. A great many farmers last year were 
smart enough to store their wheat, and when dollar 
wheat came into vogue, brought it out, and at a good 
profit. There is a good deal of corn being stored now, 
and in other words there is a general tendency to ‘feel 
around’ and get prices for their goods, as opposed to 
the old method of letting it go to the first buyer that 
came along.” 
* 
BREVITIES. 
I wish I had the power to blow 
Upon the sails of your lost ship; 
If 1 could bring her home I know 
Fresh hope would touch your heart and lip. 
Long, long you’ve waited planning this 
And that—for “when my ship comes home,” 
Far, far away the vessel is; 
The winds are weak, she may not come. 
Perhaps becalmed, with idle sail. 
She floats in some dim, dreamy bay, 
Or where the savage waves assail 
She pounds her seasoned ribs away. 
But hope and trust! Some day—some day— 
Up from the depths your ship will come 
With guarded treasure, and you’ll say 
“My ship comes home! My ship comes home!” 
I* _ 
Ground bone is good hog food. 
Brains are sharpened on pains. 
Is the present price of steel a steal? 
Apple prices are likely to go higher. 
Who can pound wisdom into penny fools? 
Why is there a shortage of apple barrels? 
What are the mites that develop into rights? 
At what age can your little pigs crack corn? 
A good reason for sowing rape in drills—page 73L 
Reports are that cow peas are standing more frost 
than corn. 
1 his is the season when both politicians and chestnuts 
come in for a roast. 
“How can I obtain a constant supply of butter at lowest 
cost?” Buy a billy goat! 
To liven the temperance dairyman’s lunch, the kick of 
the cow will provide milk punch. 
Hard when one drops satisfaction when he alights at 
the station of Old Age. 
One day last week brought two letters from people who 
want to know about skunk farms! Don’t ! 
Mr. Clark Allis reports four “Spring” lambs dropped 
September 30. Some one with a good pocketbook will 
have lamb for Christmas. 
Will maple-sugar makers please rise and report 
progress on the Forest tent-caterpillar? It is reported 
in Vermont that a parasite is destroying this pest. 
Four Pennsylvania Congressional candidates united re¬ 
cently in an agreement not to furnish any free beer or 
liquor during their canvass. Free drinks usually cost 
the candidates, in the district mentioned, from $6 000 to 
M0,000. 
“As long as the horse and the ox—all the beasts of bur¬ 
den in fact—and the heavy workers of the human race 
are exclusive vegetarians, it is no use claiming that a 
flesh-and-blood diet is essential for the performance of 
the most onerous labor.” 
The Dutch have been carrying on a silent but genuine 
war with the Javans for 300 or 400 years, and are not yet 
in peaceable possession of a large part of Java. The na¬ 
tives have nothing to do but fight and hide in the bush 
when pursued. Can Uncle Sam “beat the Dutch?” 
