THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4o 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, I ._. , _„ 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, f Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1898. 
We shall begin next week a report of a recent meet¬ 
ing of strawberry growers at Oswego, N. Y. This 
section is remarkable for its production of late-crop 
strawberries of fine quality, and the methods and sug¬ 
gestions of these northern growers will be of interest 
to all fruit men. Those who talked at this meeting 
were specialists who thoroughly understood their 
topics. 
O 
An English syndicate has recently purchased the 
menhaden fisheries at Pleasant Land, Long Island, 
forming a company with $10,000,000 capital. It is said 
that a new machine of English make will be used to 
make the fish into fertilizer, by which the oil and 
scraps are automatically separated, thus greatly les¬ 
sening the expenses. The improved machinery should 
cause some reduction in the price of the finished 
product. 
O 
Tiie soap fraud is abroad in New Jersey. Two men 
came to a country town, put up at a hotel, hired two 
carriages, and started out to sell soap at $5 a box. As 
a premium, they promised 40 yards of Brussels carpet 
with each box of soap—if the $5 was paid in advance. 
They are reported to have made many sales, after 
which they left town. The soap was delivered, said 
to be worth less than $1 per box, but the purchasers 
are yet waiting for the carpet—and, probably, they’ll 
continue to wait for some time. 
O 
The Supreme Court of New York State decides that 
dogs are property in the legal sense of that term. The 
legislature has the right to make a law compelling the 
licensing of dogs, but if the license is not paid, the dog 
cannot be killed or confiscated without “ due process 
of law.” Certainly not if the dog ranks with other 
live stock as “ property.” If this is good law, an un¬ 
licensed dog cannot be seized and killed any more than 
a sheep or calf. Of course, when the dog itself seizes 
the sheep, the case is different, for the dog always did 
enjoy special privileges. 
O 
Prop. Slingf.rland’s article on the use of bisulphide 
of carbon for Peach borers comes at a good time. 
California peach growers are using this substance 
largely, but Prof. Slingerland clearly shows why east¬ 
ern growers should not follow their example. Here 
will be a chance for the “ fake ” advertiser. Watch 
for him. He will advertise some “ new and wonderful 
scheme” for killing insects, and thousands of hard- 
earned dollars will go into his pocket. It will be this 
useless bisulphide of carbon remedy. He should be 
fumigated with some of his own fumes! 
O 
In the discussion of that Tennessee Farm Problem, 
the inquirer is advised so to plan as to do most of his 
work with very little hired labor. Then he is advised, 
besides the field crops, to put about 10 acres into 
“truck patches.” This advice would inevitably lead 
to one of the worst mistakes a farmer can make—un¬ 
dertaking more work than he can accomplish thor¬ 
oughly and well. The great mistake of most American 
farmers to-day is in trying to cover too much ground. 
We believe that every farmer should have a fruit and 
vegetable garden, and the markets of this Tennessee 
man may warrant his extending this to market size ; 
but he’ll need more help than his own hands, if he do. 
It seems to us that he should devote his best energies 
to the production of butter and eggs. The skim-milk 
will be excellent for both the laying hens and the 
growing stock, and the butter will remove but little 
fertility from the farm. He can raise the best heifer 
calves, and veal the others. His butter customers 
will, probably, take eggs and chickens, and he can 
develop the business along the most promising and 
profitable lines. But he shouldn’t undertake to do too 
much at first, or to accomplish everything the first 
year. 
O 
In the low-lying districts of Louisiana, the use of 
dredges will be a very important factor in opening up 
the land for cane cultivation.. In many of the Gulf 
parishes, the perfection of drainage can be obtained 
only when tide level is brought to back fields through 
the use of wide outlets, which cannot be made cheaply 
without dredges. The dredge boat most suitable for 
cutting through cypress swamps for the formation of 
plantation canals is lighter than that used for heavy 
digging through bayou banks, where the cut may have 
to be 30 feet wide and 12 feet deep, in order to reach 
tide level by the cheapest route. 
O 
The Maryland Game and Fish Protective Association 
has prepared a bill to be presented before the legisla¬ 
ture, for the protection of the terrapin. This bill will 
make it unlawful to catch diamond-back terrapin 
measuring less than five inches on the under shell, or 
to catch terrapin of any size, or to confine them in 
ponds, between April 1 and November 1. It is said 
that large numbers of small terrapin are annually 
destroyed by being caught and confined in ponds dur¬ 
ing the Summer. All attempts to raise them in con¬ 
finement have failed so far. and without a close season, 
these much-esteemed tortoises are likely to become 
extinct. 
O 
Prof. W. H. Jordan, of the Geneva, N. Y., Experi¬ 
ment Station, is securing a very strong corps of scien¬ 
tific workers. Mr. Harding, of Wisconsin, has just 
been secured as dairy bacteriologist. He has studied 
with Dr. Babcock and Dr. II. L. Russell for the past 
three years, and has given much attention to the re¬ 
lation of bacteria to cheese, and to the bacteria of the 
silo. Mr. Harding will study in Europe during most 
of 1898, and begin work at Geneva January 1, 1899. 
New York State dairymen will surely be helped by 
his studies of the changes that occur in the making of 
cheese and the preservation of ensilage. Mr. Geo. A. 
Smith, who is well known to those who attend New 
\ork institutes, has been secured as dairy expert. 
Mr. Smith is a practical man, and he will help bring 
the station closer to the practical farmers of the State. 
The R. N.-Y. is glad to see this station prosper. We 
want to see it get right into the field with the man 
who really handles the hoe. 
O 
Several weeks ago, we referred to experiments con¬ 
ducted by Prof. Waugh in Vermont; which indicated 
the value of soaking small seeds in a solution of pep¬ 
sin or diastase to increase their germinating or feed¬ 
ing power. Prof. Waugh writes that diastase has 
proved much better than pepsin for this purpose. He 
says : 
Our diastase is really only malt extract. We dissolve one part 
of powdered malt in 10 parts of water, strain it, and put the 
seeds to soak for 24 hours. A quart of malt, worth five cents or 
less, would thus make 10 quarts 'of liquid, or enough to treat 10 
pounds of tomato or radish seeds, or peas. 
As was explained before, this idea embodies much 
the same principle as that made use of by humans 
who chew “pepsin gum” or other substances to pro¬ 
mote digestion. The soaking of the seed makes the 
starchy matter more available as food for the little 
germ, and thus starts an earlier and more vigorous 
growth. This plan may not be entirely practicable 
yet, but there is something in it, and an investigating 
farmer may well try it in a small way. 
O 
Some of the stuff printed in the so-called newspapers 
makes one wonder whether the modern printing press 
isn’t about as much of a curse as a blessing. To say noth¬ 
ing of the grewsome details of murders, suicides and 
other crimes, great prominence is given to the nasty 
details of divorce cases, scandals, etc., and to the ex¬ 
ploiting and glorifying of all sorts of frauds and fakes. 
This sort of thing has come to be known in city par¬ 
lance as yellow journalism. Papers here and there all 
over the country are guilty of the same practices, and 
generally, each tries to outdo the other. Not long 
since, the southern papers reported a three-year-old 
preacher, then Atchison, Kan., came forward with a 
seven-year-old lawyer, and Chicago, not to be out¬ 
done, brought out a five-year-old doctor. The Atchison 
Globe has this to say : 
The newspapers are becoming sillier every day, in the matter 
of giving dead beats free advertising. The good advertisers 
never get a line, unless they pay for it, but any vagrant can get 
advertising free by telling the fool reporters fool stories. 
The excuse generally given by such papers is that they 
print what the people demand. They certainly wouldn’t 
January 15 
print such stuff long if the people didn’t buy it, but it 
is demoralizing and dangerous just the same. 
O 
The American Pomological Society has prepared, 
through a committee, a bill for preventing the spread 
of injurious insects and plant diseases on nursery 
stock. This bill will soon be offered to Congress, and 
will be vigorously pushed. In substance, the bill pur¬ 
poses to do two things : 1. To provide for careful in¬ 
spection of all imported nursery stock in the hands of 
the importer, before distribution or planting, and tc 
permit foreign inspection instead, if satisfactory. It 
may, also, be proposed to make such foreign inspection 
compulsory after October or December, 1898. 2. A 
rigid inspection of all domestic nursery stock is pro¬ 
vided for, in the hands of growers, during the growing 
season, before it can be shipped in interstate com¬ 
merce. The execution of the law is intrusted to the 
Secretary of Agriculture, who is given full authority 
to formulate rules and regulations, and to appoint in¬ 
spectors. A suitable appropriation is given him for 
the purpose. The present scare over the San Jos6 
scale has brought matters to a head, and such a bill 
is quite likely to become a law. Surely, fruit growers 
have as much right to a share of the law’s protec¬ 
tion as have live stock growers. The law has often 
stepped in to quarantine or “stamp out” animal 
diseases. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
He has just gone over the hill, my friend, 
Right over the hill by a shorter way, 
While we must toil on to the long road’s end, 
Through the dust and heat—we shall meet some day 
At the resting place—no, he is not dead, 
He has just passed on—why, of course, you know 
How we always would send one boy ahead, 
In our childish rambles of long ago, 
To pick out a place for a pleasant rest, 
Where we all might sit—he has gone before. 
It is only a few short years at best, 
Before he will call us—to toil no more. 
He has only gone by a shorter way 
To the resting place—no, he is not dead— 
Like the pioneer in our childish play, 
He has simply wandered off ahead. 
Blunt words are often sharp. 
Loaded for bear — the peach trees. 
Can’t live without care — the orchard. 
Overeating should be an indictable offence. 
The fruits of the lazy man’s work are sit rust! 
What bone is best to fertile lies with ? The jaw bone. 
The wouldn’t hen is made of steal—she’s an egg beat er. 
The coward carries a braking heart—it’s a brake on his courage. 
Bicarbonate of soda may keep your nose out of a “ cold ” 
frame. 
A good way to draw blood from a turnip is to feed it to pure¬ 
bred stock. 
“ We’re marching to scion ! ” said the sap, as it switched off at 
the grafting place. 
There are 600,000 barbers in the country. That means a close 
shave for the rest of us. 
The Sir Walter Raleigh potato was too tough for either frost 
or Paris-green—page 39. 
Sorrows are unfertilized eggs. Don’t brood over them. You 
can’t make them hatch profit. 
Which crops are most easily glutted V Those that are easiest to 
grow. Try something harder. 
The crank — one who thinks ahead of his time, and has turned a 
radical opinion into a sincere conviction. 
Mr. Gaurahan says, “ Handle dynamite as you would eggs.” 
Yes, like December eggs that cost 10 cents each! 
If you can get tobacco stems, by all means use them as bedding 
before putting on the ground. Cut them up if possible. 
We know one thing about poultry, a man may learn 90 per cent 
of the business from books, but the lacking 10 per cent is the key. 
Why does the dry and mealy Ben Davis apple become more 
juicy and spicy when grown in the dry climate of Colorado ? Is 
it irrigation ? 
The R. N.-Y. tried Teosinte at least 15 years ago. You cannot 
expect seeds from it north of Tennessee. The more you cut it back, 
the faster it will grow. 
Will it pay to try to separate the liquid manure from the solids 
before applying it ? On the whole, we doubt it. We think ab¬ 
sorbents will pay better ! 
The English War Dejiartment is experimenting with compressed 
flour. The flour is pressed into bricks which occupy only one- 
third the bulk of the loose flour. This pressure kills insects, and 
the flour cannot mold. 
The French chestnut crop amounts to about 300,000 tons yearly. 
The nuts form a staple article of food in many districts, being 
substituted for grains in making bread, as well as being used in 
soups, stews, and meat dressings. 
The bird known as goat-sucker belongs to the family caprimuli- 
gididce. A kid is a true goat-sucker. The latest dictionaries per¬ 
mit the use of the word kid as applied to an infant or half-grown 
child. You may, therefore, logically call your child caprimuli- 
gididse ! 
“ Cloves ” are the flower buds of a small tree, a native of the 
Molucca Islands. In 1895, 2,464,274 pounds of cloves were brought 
to this country. Some dealers with a cloven hoof extract the 
“ oil of cloves ” and then sell the “exhausted” whole cloves as 
genuine! 
The French Chamber of Deputies has been discussing an in¬ 
crease of duty upon American cotton-seed oil from $1.15 to $5 per 
100 kilograms, but the bill has been defeated, owing to the pro¬ 
tests of French soapmakers. An increase of duty upon cotton 
seed oil would add seriously to the cost of “ pure olive-oil ” soap. 
