820 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 25 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* *. 
Established, 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, 1 
H. E. Van Deman, vA ssociates. 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, j 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 
bs. 6d., or 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 “ 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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1899. 
New subscribers to The R. N.-Y. will 
now get the paper from the time sub¬ 
scription is received until January 1, 
1901. If you will send us a club of 
four subscriptions, new or renewal, 
with $4, we will advance your own 
subscription one year free. Take a 
few copies with you when you go away from home, 
and get up a club. If you want more samples, drop 
us a postal card. 
* 
So many of our esteemed contemporaries are 
spending energy and space in claiming that they are 
the only papers doing thus and so, that we begin to 
feel that The R. N.-Y. is rather lonely among the 
“onlys.” Our friends have covered about every pos¬ 
sible claim for excellence and, as we like to be orig¬ 
inal, we shall have to be satisfied wtth meekly claim¬ 
ing that The R. N.-Y. seems to be the only paper with 
a class of readers who know a good thing w*hen they 
see it—who don’t have to be told what a good thing 
is! 
* 
A Philadelphia magistrate recently made an un¬ 
usual decision in a case of embezzlement. The de¬ 
fendant was the driver of a furniture delivery wagon. 
Being sent out with a load of goods, for which he wa3 
to collect money from the purchasers, he collected 
$19, spent the entire sum for drink, and returned pen¬ 
niless to his employers. The evidence showed that 
the employers were well aware of the man’s intem¬ 
perate habits, and the magistrate held that Since he 
had misappropriated the money in the gratification 
of this habit, and not used it in any other way, the 
crime of embezzlement could not be made out under 
such circumstances. In other words, those who en¬ 
gage drunken employees must assume all attendant 
risks. 
* 
The Pure Milk Company, about which so much has 
been said during the past year, was finally incor¬ 
porated under the laws of Delaware on November 10. 
The authorized capital stock is $30,000,000, or 300,000 
shares at $100 each. Under its charter the Company 
is authorized to buy, sell, and deal in milk, cream 
and all dairy products, and to transact almost any 
legitimate business that will extend its trade. The 
charter is a long and complicated document, which 
has, apparently, been skillfully drawn. The man¬ 
agers of the Five States Milk Producers’ Associa¬ 
tion tell us that milk will be taken under the con¬ 
tract on December 1. That is all that they are pre¬ 
pared to say at this time. Of course this incorpora¬ 
tion does not settle the matter—in fact, the hardest 
part of the work is yet to come. The R. N.-Y., as 
well as all who are interested in the welfare of the 
milk producers, will welcome the success of this en¬ 
terprise, and give due credit to those who make it 
successful. 
* 
A few months ago, the New York Clearing House, 
a voluntary association of wealthy banks, organized 
for the purpose of economizing labor in balancing the 
complicated accounts of its various component banks, 
and thus facilitating exchanges, made a ruling that 
a charge of 10 cents each be made for collecting all 
checks drawn on country or other banks, outside of 
a small area, with New York as the center. This ir¬ 
ritating little “hold-up” to commercial activity, which 
would appear contemptible in a gang of tramping 
hoboes, has had more serious consequences than its 
projectors expected. So great has been the diversion 
of business by indignant depositors from the Clearing 
House banks to Philadelphia and other places where 
this petty extortion 'is not practiced, that it is said 
deposits of over $50,000,000, legitimately belonging to 
New York, have been placed in more accommodating 
banking centers. This has led to a stringency in the 
currency market, a higher rate of interest, and falling 
values in speculative securities, resulting in a vocif¬ 
erous demand on the National Treasury for more 
bond purchases, more anticipated interest, or any¬ 
thing that will loosen the surplus cash in the Treas¬ 
ury and give these Shylocks a momentary relief. One 
large banking house, the New York Produce Ex¬ 
change, has been cashing the checks of its corres¬ 
pondents, as far west as Denver, without charge, for 
some time, and is consequently getting the lion’s 
share of the business. It appears that the inordinate¬ 
ly wealthy individuals composing the Clearing House 
in its entirety are willing to risk a panic, with all its 
attendant horrors to the producing classes, for the 
sake of this selfish little grab. There is something in 
this money-peddling business that renders its de¬ 
votees rather less than human. 
* 
A friend sends us the following quotation from an 
old book on agriculture printed in 1779: 
It may not be looked upon as one of the smallest In¬ 
conveniences attending the profession of agriculture that 
so many of the most conspicuous writers on that subject, 
having been themselves entirely unacquainted with the 
practice of that art, and of consequence unable to select 
with judgment from the woiks of others, have frequently 
copied their errors with the same scrupulous nicety as 
the most valuable works. And, as it usually happens 
that, when a man indulges his imagination and creates to 
himself ideal plans of improvement, he can render them 
apparently much more perfect than anything that really 
takes place in practice—an inexperienced person is de¬ 
ceived, and frequently it would be better for him if no 
such books had ever been written. 
Things have changed greatly during the last 120 
years, but “human nature” remains much the same. 
Too many of our writers and speakers still indulge 
their imagination, and lead their hearers astray. 
* 
A Kansas poultryman read in some agricultural 
paper that boracic acid would preserve chicken meat 
almost indefinitely. He rashly assumed that the acid 
should be mixed with the feed of the fowls, so he 
tiiied the experiment, with the result that 762 fowls 
out of a flock of 800 died within 24 hours. It is said 
that he sued the paper which published the advice, to 
recover damages, but the court held that any man of 
ordinary intelligence should know better than to try 
to preserve the flesh of living fowls by administering 
Chemicals to them. What must we think, however, of 
any paper which would advise the use of boracic acid 
as a preservative? We know that in many States its 
use in foods is legally prohibited; that it is deleteri¬ 
ous, and that, when used in milk fed to 'infants, it is 
little short of murderous. The fact is, we see too 
much plausible misinformation printed in the public 
press, and a person who does not possess varied and 
specific knowledge may easily be deceived by it. 
* 
Tiif National Association of Manufacturers, com¬ 
prising a membership of over 1,200 leading manu¬ 
facturers, doing business in nearly every State in the 
Union, has adopted resolutions urging the establish¬ 
ment of an internal parcels post system similar to 
those in use in most civilized countries. The bene¬ 
fits of National and international transportation of 
light merchandise at cost are so apparent that 
the wonder is that our country was not among the 
very first to put the system in practice, but the rea¬ 
son has become painfully apparent in the opposition 
of our express companies. As far back as 1891, John 
Wanamaker, in his report to Congress, said that 
only four strong objections existed to the establish¬ 
ment of a complete parcels post in this country, and 
they were the four great express companies. They 
have throttled all reforms in this line since 1872, 
when the present prohibitive rate of 16 cents a 
pound was established, after an era of notorious lob¬ 
bying, it having been eight cents a pound previously. 
It is claimed that the actual cost of carrying a pound 
of mail in this country for the average distance is 
little more than six cents, and that in the face of the 
high compensation paid by the Government to the 
railroads for transporting mail, which is said to be 
in many instances several times as great as that 
exacted from the express companies for goods hauled 
on the same train. It has been suggested that it 
would be good policy to compromise with the ex¬ 
press companies by establishing a parcels post at 
about the foreign rate of six cents for the first pound 
and two cents for each additional pound up to 10 or 
11 pounds, the rate for both the latter weights being 
25 cents, and 11 pounds the limit, and to exclude 
from the mails the heavy freight of the various Gov¬ 
ernment executive departments, and the great pack¬ 
ages of cheap literature that are now being carried 
under the name of serial publications. It is not 
probable that this sop to the express companies wili 
be granted, as the demand for an extended and more 
useful postal service is growing so strong that sel¬ 
fish greed can no longer obstruct it. European coun¬ 
tries have long been favored With such progressive 
conveniences; Germany and Great Britain, for in¬ 
stance, even delivering fruits and vegetables to con¬ 
sumers through their parcels-post systems, as well as 
all forms of manufactured products. In looking over 
a list of countries which have long enjoyed the bene¬ 
fits of a cheap international parcels post, we find 
many that we have been accustomed to regard as 
backward in civilization such as Persia, China, Siam, 
the Transvaal and Orange States, etc. They are far 
ahead of our boasted progress, in this respect at all 
events. 
* 
At the meeting of institute workers at Geneva, Mr. 
Dawley told a story which illustrated the mischief of 
telling a half truth about a scientific fact or experi¬ 
ment. A cow was tested to determine a certain 
point about feeding. One man who looked the mat¬ 
ter up came back and said that the experiment was a 
success—the cow answered the questions that were 
asked of her. Another man who also went to the 
station came back and said “Yes, but the cow is 
dead!” The inference was that the experiment killed 
her. Investigation showed that the cow passed safe¬ 
ly through the feeding experiment, and was then 
fattened, sold for beef and slaughtered. It was 
true that the cow died, but it was only a half truth, 
and scant measure at that, merely to say that she 
was dead, and leave hearers to (infer that the experi¬ 
ment killed her. An institute speaker cannot possi¬ 
bly be too careful in making such statements, and 
then leaving his hearers to wander away from the 
road of fact into the wilderness of inference. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
U.-M.-P.-H.—Fate starts you off with these 
Four worthy letters fastened to your name; 
They have no meaning till you work and squeeze 
Two letters out of life for strength or shame. 
Dawdle through life, with no sand ’round your heart, 
’Shamed and afraid to use your birthright well, 
U.-M.-P.-H.—you make the H to start 
Up head; your life adds C—what does that spell? 
But go through life with energy and zeal 
And meet your troubles with a smiling face. 
And men will listen to your strong appeal 
And put T. R. right in the proper place. 
T, starting first, the R close to the U; 
Fate runs her eye along the letters—then 
Slowly and forcibly lifts up her shoe 
And kicks off II, while Justice says “Amen.” 
F. R. M.—Free rural mail. 
The stave silo staves off drought. 
Take good aim with your Amens! 
Certainly, the crow is a caw tious bird. 
Coal storage at home means a warm house. 
Miss Sally Cylic Acid is a dangerous young thing. 
“The reward of one duty is the power to fulfil another.” 
It is not always possible to square a man while he is 
’round. 
A why’d tire comes after an hour’s listening to the 
children’s questions. 
It’s an agreeable thing to find a man with wc’lls in his 
head. Most men have only I. 
The best reply to personal abuse is to live it down. 
A slow method, perhaps, but sure. 
“All for Jesus! All for Jesus!” It is 1,000 times as 
easy to sing that hymn as it is to act it out. 
An Oregon paper reports a third crop of strawberries 
on the same vines, the variety being given as Magoon. 
“Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee!” Hurrah! 
But who is “Thee?” Is it Miss Liberty or Mr. Self- 
Interest? 
It is quite true that fumigation will remove Insects from 
house plants, but that is no reason why the boys should 
learn to smoke. 
Missouri’s egg and hen crop is said to have been larger 
in value, last year, than the combined shipments of 
wheat, oats, corn and hay. 
Terre Haute, Ind., has passed a curfew ordinance, 
and imposed a prohibitive tax on cigarette dealers. The 
way of the bad boy is hard, in Terre Haute. 
The thing most lacking in the Klondike region is the 
true spirit of home. It is only a place for making money. 
Are there any farms of which this can be said? 
This sentiment comes from a Maine friend: “A man 
may have lots of fun by being a crank, but it is apt to 
impair his usefulness.” But what would the world be 
without cranks? 
Happy that man who looks back on his life, on the 
smooth places and the corners rough, and finds that when 
he captured his good wife he found a sound prize pack¬ 
age sure enough. 
The Illinois State Horticultural Society, in its premium 
list, says that a fruit which has been passed upon by a 
horticultural society shall no longer be regarded as a 
seedling. Do most societies adhere to this rule? 
To 
January, 
1901, 
for 
$ 1 . 00 . 
