872 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 1C 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Wai.ter Van Fleet, 1 
H. E. Van Deman, V Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04. “qual to 
8 s. 6d., or 8!4 marks, or 10^ 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 Prick 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 , DECEMBER 1G , 1899. 
The New York live-stock breeders request the Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture to investigate the methods 
employed in dipping sheep at the Buffalo stock yards. 
Farmers need protection against the parasites and in¬ 
fectious diseases brought into the State on sheep. The 
breeders also demand an overhauling of the United 
States Quarantine Station at Garfield, N. J. It is 
claimed that the Station is in unsanitary condition. 
We have diseases enough in the State and country 
now. 
* 
We all know farmers who toil and slave from 
downy lip to gray hair with only a dollar in their eye. 
Every thought and energy is devoted to the task of 
adding to their income. Their reading and study is 
given entirely to the problem of increasing the crop 
output from the farm. Some of them win, that is, 
they acquire more property than they can possibly 
spend. Others, in spite of their toil and self-denial, 
fail—that is, they are unable to save what they 
hoped for. When old age taps such men on the 
shoulder, and they figure up the results of life, they 
find the best part of it lacking. The fun and bright¬ 
ness are lacking. They starved it out of their own 
lives and repressed it in their children, because they 
thought that it interfered with their struggle for 
property. That was the great mistake of their lives, 
and they realize it all too late. There should be 
bright memories when life grows dark. Fun on the 
farm is a fungicide for depression. 
* 
The rascal Miller, who fleeced thousands of poor 
people by promising wonderful profits, closed up his 
“bank” and escaped with over $700,000. From all 
over the country come reports of similar enterprises, 
in which sharp scoundrels have stolen money from 
greedy and covetous investors. As a rule we have 
little sympathy with people who are caught in such 
schemes. They ought to know that the great prom¬ 
ises cannot be honest, and that if they win it must 
be at the expense of those who lose all. We have 
never known the time when so many of these fraudu¬ 
lent schemes were worked so openly and easily. 
There is a mania for gambling and reckless invest¬ 
ments. It seems to us one result of the great devel¬ 
opment of trusts and inflated corporations. These so- 
called “syndicates” are clumsy efforts on the part of 
ignorant and grasping people with small means to 
imitate the larger trusts. It is evidence of the moral 
decay which the stock and price gamblers have 
started. 
* 
A certain daily newspaper, much given to the pub¬ 
lication of plausible fakes, recently had an article 
under scare headlines, compiled from a medical maga¬ 
zine, to the effect that cow’s milk is the most com¬ 
mon medium through which scarlet fever is dissem¬ 
inated, if, indeed, it does not originate with the cow. 
The main reason assigned for these conclusions is that 
scarlet fever is almost unknown in Oriental coun¬ 
tries, where cow’s milk is rarely used as a food for 
children. It might, with equal consistency, be claimed 
that the occasional use of rats and puppies as food 
by the Chinese renders them exempt from this dis¬ 
ease, seeing that it is common in Europe and Amer¬ 
ica, where the above familiar animals are not appre¬ 
ciated as table delicacies. The truth of the matter is 
that milk is a highly nitrogenous animal liquid in 
which many low forms of life, such as a variety of 
disease germs, can find temporary sustenance if they 
get into it, and thus be carried from one place to 
another. The same may be said of almost every food 
product used by civilized man. It has been asserted 
in Vienna that the crust of ordinary bread was a 
great breeder of dangerous germs; in England that 
rice pudding is specially liable to become affected by 
malignant microbes, and so on through the list. The 
scientific investigators cultivate these disease germs 
in test tubes filled with beef tea or some vegetable 
jelly, as all forms of life must have some material to 
feed upon while they live. Pure milk, as produced 
on the average farm, is probably freer from the 
chances of contagion than any perishable food pro¬ 
duct offered for sale. It is high time the fakemakers 
and tiresome theorists let up on the good old cow. 
She is the most useful and inoffensive of all our do¬ 
mestic animals. She carries life—not disease. Let 
up on the old cow. The most harmful microbes are 
those in the brains of her traducers. 
* 
The National Dairy Union will probably hold a pub¬ 
lic meeting during or immediately following the New 
York State Dairymen’s meeting at Cortland. There is 
a difference of opinion between some of our dairy 
friends regarding tbe best way to fight the oleo fraud. 
In the East, where much of the oleo is sold, many of 
the Stale ofidcials have decided views, which do not 
fully agree with those held in the West, where much 
of the oleo is made. We do not see why it is not pos¬ 
sible for the East and the West to get together with a 
fair comprom.se, so that dairymen generally may pre¬ 
sent a united front agiinst the enemy. No personal 
feelings should ever be permitted to keep dairymen 
apart in this important fight. We believe that ex- 
Govemor Hoard, of Wisconsin, commands the respect 
and esteem of a very large majority of American 
dairymen. We feel that they have confidence in his 
integrity, and in his ability to fight a good fight 
against oleo. Let us close up our ranks, throw aside 
personal feeling, unite on a fair and sensible plan of 
attack, and then move on to victory. 
* 
Several of our recent news notes have referred to 
explosions resulting from careless handling of dyna¬ 
mite or nitroglycerin. In some cases the explosion 
appeared inexplicable. It is evident that farmers 
make more use of these explosives than ever before, 
in clearing away stumps and stones, and it may be 
that familiarity breeds contempt. Remember that 
such destructive stuff should always be stored in an 
isolated place and handled with a full understanding 
of the attendant risk. Remember, too, that nitro¬ 
glycerin is a poison as well as an explosive. One re¬ 
cent case was the poisoning of several cows, which 
came upon some of the stuff in the pasture, and ate it. 
The poor beasts did not suffer from the explosive 
effects of the substance, but died from poisoning. In 
the hands of a doctor, nitroglycerin is one of the 
most powerful stimulants used for reviving the action 
of a flagging heart, seeming, sometimes, to bring a 
patient back from the very presence of death, but 
whether used to restore or to destroy, it is always 
dangerous. Don’t fool with explosives—or anything 
else. 
* 
We think that it is fair to say that a great majority 
of the plain working people of this country consider 
what is known as the “trust” question the most 
important problem before the American public. They 
realize more fully every day how these gigantic com¬ 
binations of capital and industry are affecting the 
smaller, individual workers and business men. There 
wiill, therefore, be something of a disappointment that 
President McKinley, in his message to Congress, did 
not take strong and definite grounds in advising pub¬ 
lic action. This is what he said, in part: 
It is universally conceded that combinations which en¬ 
gross or control the market of any particular kind of 
merchandise or commodity, by suppressing natural and 
ordinary competition, whereby prices are unduly en¬ 
hanced to the general consumer, are obnoxious not only 
to the common law but also to the public welfare. There 
must be a remedy for the evils involved in such organiza¬ 
tion. If the present law can be extended more certainly 
to control or check these monopolies or trusts it should 
be done without delay. Whatever power the Congress 
possesses over this most Important subject should be 
promptly ascertained and asserted. 
We think that the President might, with propriety, 
suggest that whenever a combination, a “trust,” uses 
a special public help or privilege to “suppress nat¬ 
ural or ordinary competition,” Congress should take 
that special advantage away. For example, certain 
industries were, some years ago, protected by tariffs. 
Now, these industries have combined to crush out 
natural competition and use their tariff to maintain 
an increase in' prices—which are too high now. 
Others are favored by the railroads, and others use 
the patent laws to the inconvenience or injury of the 
American people. The simplest remedy for the 
“trust” evil lies in stripping these gigantic combina¬ 
tions of their special public privileges. They are 
abundantly able to take care of themselves. They 
have occupied the cradle too long. 
Prof. J. B. Smith, of the New Jersey Experiment 
Station, made some careful experiments with crude 
petroleum on trees afflicted by the San Jos6 scale. 
These experiments certainly indicate that the petro¬ 
leum is a useful insecticide. There has been such a 
scare over this scale insect that many thoughtless 
readers grasp at anything that is written about it, 
and magnify the good or evil that is pointed out. For 
instance, some people have the idea that crude petro¬ 
leum is a cure-all for most diseases of trees. They 
even think that it is a fertilizer, and would almost 
put these useful experiments on a par with the non¬ 
sense that is written about boring a hole in the tree 
and pouring in sulphur and lime! Why will not peo¬ 
ple take a plain statement of fact at its real value? 
There is so much exaggeration of statement in the 
daily papers that careless readers are not satisfied 
with “straight goods.” Before long we shall have 
some one finding fault because crude petroleum 
sprayed on the trees does not improve the quality of 
the Ben Davis apple! The crude petroleum spray is 
useful, but it is not a cure-all. The petroleum used 
in the experiments showed a specific gravity of not 
less than 43 degrees. That is the stuff to use. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
“The Boers are shelling Ladysmith!”—so runs the story 
day by day; 
We shrug our shoqlders and are glad that Ladysmith Is 
far away. 
Perhaps we prate of what we’d do if we were caged in 
Ladysmith, 
For distance lends a grace to view and also lends to pluck 
and pith. 
What is a “Smith?” Old Webster says ’tis “one who 
fashions anything;” 
’Tis one who out of shapeless things some useful, worthy 
shape may bring. 
Old Webster knows, and so, I say, that there are Lady- 
smiths at home— 
Brave women, poor, undaunted, strong, who face to face 
with Fate have come. 
Alone, against the world they step from what we once 
called “women’s sphere,” 
And bravely shape a new life-work, though from the 
crowd hot jibe and jeer 
Are sent like shells at Ladysmith in Africa to bring 
them down. 
The boors go shelling Ladysmith with stinging words and 
angry frown. 
A Ladysmith is one w r ho makes our honest place for life 
and toil, 
Out of the shreds that man has left, a boor would sneer 
and taunt and soil. 
The Boers are shelling Ladysmith with all the force at 
their command, 
But happily their shells are weak; keep up your heart, 
the place will stand. 
A bad sign—signing paper. 
The farmer is a free rural male. 
The Roberts case bobbed up serenely in Congress. 
Mr. Con and Mr. Pro fight it out and then we know. 
It’s the early-hatched bird that puts worms in the 
mortgage. 
He becomes the devil’s tool who, through his life does 
naught but fool. 
The by-products of the saloon are good-bye products 
—health and honor. 
Mixed high-grade fertilizers are being shipped from 
New York to California! 
Worthy that man who, when the chance is nigh, to 
praise somebody won’t run in the I. 
We learn of a case where apple pomace has proved a 
good substitute for ensilage for cows. 
The rooster now with open throat proclaims our short¬ 
est day; while Sister Pullet meditates on changing laze 
to lay. 
The man who uses dynamite and wishes to know what’s 
in it, will find most likely that it holds a dose of die ’n a 
minute. 
Notice how the trolley man puts a high ladder on his 
wagon for fixing wires and lights? A similar rig helps 
in tree pruning. 
No, sir, it doesn’t pay to discount your prosperity be¬ 
fore it arrives. Don’t buy the new buggy on the strength 
of next year’s price of potatoes. 
Where are you going, my student friend? I’m going to 
lenoto if I have to spend my life in digging at one small 
root, I’ll dig up other good things to boot. 
An Ohio reader says: “Turkeys are too cheap here to 
sell, and we are trying to eat them. Have had turkey 
twice this week.” Even an Armenian would say amen 
to such a condition of the Turk. 
Congress worked itself up to a white heat over the 
extra wives of Congressman Roberts. Now, while it is 
warm over moral issues, it would be a good time for Con¬ 
gress to tackle a few other crying evils. 
Canada now admits catalogues and price lists from 
other countries free of duty, provided these circulars do 
not include almanacs or other printed matter designed to 
aid the sale of goods by persons in Canada. Formerly, 
such circulars had to pay a duty of 15 cents per pound. 
American seedmen and nurserymen will be gratified by 
this change. 
It is announced that a jack-rabbit sausage factory is 
to be started in Kansas, to utilize the increasing yearly 
crop of rabbits Why not? One famous and expensive 
French sausage is said to be made from a long-eared 
jack which isn’t a rabbit; the saucisson d’Arles, which 
is said to derive its mellow and rich flavor from young 
and guileless donkeys. 
