THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 5 
88 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chifef. 
Herbert W. Coi.lingwood, Managing Editor. 
(*»»“">*» BA, 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. 6d., or 8i4 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. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of 
Post-oflice and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in 
every letter. Money orders and bank drafts on New York are the 
safest means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1898. 
Farmers in some parts of the country are much 
exercised over the fact that a new counterfeit $100 bill 
is in circulation, which is so skillfully executed as al¬ 
most to deceive experts. Needless to say that editors, 
as a general thing', are not losing any sleep over the 
matter. The R. N.-Y. is welcoming all the 100-cent 
bills that are sent this way ! 
O 
It is of interest to note the continuous employment 
given “ good hands ” by long-headed farmers. A faith¬ 
ful employee, who knows the land, the animals, the 
household, and the proprietor, is worth much more 
than the new hand. lie is a business partner in ef¬ 
fect, working on a salary, for he has a ready eye for 
crops and stock, and is willing to put in the extra 
hour on a pinch. Verily, reliability is a commodity 
that is always marketable ! 
0 
Some more importers are making life a burden for 
the customs officials. A firm now makes the claim that 
the articles commonly known as tail and wing feath¬ 
ers are not feathers, but quills, and as such should be 
admitted free of duty, while feathers have to pay a 
15 per cent duty. This looks like splitting hairs, but 
it is an example of the tricks to which some importers 
resort to evade the law. We wonder what these people 
would call the growth that goes to make up the flow¬ 
ing tail of a horse ! 
O 
Few articles of food are so badly adulterated as 
molasses. Out of 192 samples examined in Connecti¬ 
cut, 03 were adulterated, chiefly with glucose. This 
bogus molasses is just about as much a fraud as is 
oleomargarine. In one case, a cheap and inferior 
sweet is used, and in the other, a cheap and inferior 
fat. Efforts are being made to regulate the sale of 
this glu-lasses, on something of the principle of the 
“ oleo ” laws. Dealers are to be forced to state upon 
their packages whether they have put up the pure 
goods or not. Such a law is well worth trying. 
0 
Have you read how the friend on page 87 was saved 
from being swindled by the soap fraud because he had 
read about him in The It. N.-Y. ? He saved $5, enough 
to pay for his subscription for five years, while his 
neighbors who, probably, couldn’t afford to take a 
paper, were swindled out of $5 each—at least, eight or 
nine of them within a radius of three miles, and, prob¬ 
ably, others! The probability is that these blacklegs 
took enough money out of that territory to pay for The 
R. N.-Y. for every farmer in it. Besides, the soap was 
worthless. And still we hear the cry that “ farmin’ 
don’t pay ! ” 
O 
The miner bound for the Klondike region has a long 
and icy road before him. Every pound of freight must 
be packed for miles on the backs of Indians, or hauled 
by dogs up the steepest hills. Of course, he rejects all 
waste freight. There is little use in carrying a load 
of powder and shot. Food is the most important 
thing, and water is the part of food most likely to be 
found on the Klondike. There would be no sense in 
carrying canned fruits which are 60 per cent water, 
when dried fruits will save the freight on all that 
moisture. With ice and snow on every hand, no one 
carries water to the Klondike. It would be a good 
thing for many farmers if they could follow the same 
principle in buying plant food. A ton of stable manure 
contains 1,500 pounds of water which is no more valu¬ 
able than that in your own spring or well. It is well 
to buy manure when it does not cost too much, but the 
cost of hauling and handling that water is a useless 
expense. As for the organic matter in manure, a few 
acres of your poorest land sowed to cow peas, and fer¬ 
tilized with potash and phosphoric acid, will give you 
cheaper organic matter than you can buy in manure, 
and leave the land in better shape, too. 
0 
The New YoTk .State Board of Health has been ex¬ 
pending a little money in testing the dairy herds at 
State institutions. This serves to protect the inmates 
from diseased milk, and sets a good example. The 
article on our first page tells how these tests are con¬ 
ducted. While we are thinking about the State Board 
of Health, it occurs to us that a veterinarian or two 
would not be out of place upon it. Very likely, it 
may have to pass upon the fitness of men for herd 
testing, and physicians do not get such training in 
comparative medicine as would be useful in that event. 
Then our brothers of the yoke and stall have many of 
our ailments, and we theirs. 
O 
At the annual meeting of the New York State Asso¬ 
ciation of County Agricultural Societies, the question 
as to the best attraction for a county fair was raised. 
In a newspaper’s report, one delegate claims that 
“ oriental dances ” attracted the most people. Horse 
racing seemed to stand at the head, and races in lum¬ 
ber wagons, and marriage ceremonies stood well up 
on the list. One fair, last year, is said to have had a 
colored-baby show which proved the greatest attrac¬ 
tion of the year. We have always supposed that the 
State appropriated money in this line for the purpose 
of encouraging agricultural products. There is a 
chance for argument as to whether public marriages 
or colored-baby shows may properly be considered as 
coming under this head. 
O 
We have just received word of the death at Bush- 
berg, Mo., on January 2, after a two years’ illness, of 
Mr. S. E. Meissner, of the firm of Bush & Son & Meiss¬ 
ner. He was well known in the horticultural world, 
in European countries as well as at home, perhaps as 
much for his active work in connection with the Bush- 
berg Catalogue and Grape Manual, as through his 
connection with the nursery, vineyard and orchard 
business in which his firm is engaged. This catalogue, 
which is a recognized and valued authority on Ameri¬ 
can grapes, was first published about 30 years ago. 
The last edition was published during 1895. No other 
work has given such varied and trustworthy informa¬ 
tion respecting the varieties of grapes now in cultiva¬ 
tion. This manual was the work of Mr. Meissner. He 
will be long remembered for his self-sacrificing work. 
O 
The following suggestive note comes f rom one of our 
subscribers in Ohio: 
For 40 yearn and more, I have been interested in farming, breed¬ 
ing most of the time Short-horn cattle and mutton sheep; for the 
past 20 years, Shropsliires exclusively. Now, although past my 
four score, I have just started in breeding pigs, which have been 
my abomination to such an extent that, for about 30 years, I 
have had none on the farm. So you see that it can’t be told what 
a man will do in his dotage. 
A man is never too old to get over a prejudice, nor 
should he ever consider himself too old to start an 
enterprise of this sort, especially if he have children 
who can safely be trusted to carry it on. What a mis¬ 
take it is for an old man to sit down with folded 
hands, and try to pass the last years of a busy and 
helpful life in idleness and regret. Far better to work 
on with noble plans for the improvement of the farm. 
O 
The railroad interests of New Jersey will do all they 
can to defeat the bill which seeks to protect grade 
crossings. At present, all the law requires the roads 
to do is to ring the engine bell and sound the whistle 
when approaching a crossing. Local authorities can¬ 
not compel the roads to give better protection. The 
bill now before the legislature will, if passed, give 
governing boards of town, village or township, the 
power to force railroads to protect such crossings with 
gates or flagmen. It will cost the railroads $100 per 
day for any failure to obey orders. The slaughter at 
grade crossings in New Jersey has been fearful during 
the past year. It will continue unless this bill become 
a law. Farmers are directly interested in this matter. 
The Grange and every other farmers’ organization 
should move at once, and bring all the influence they 
can secure to bear upon members of the legislature. 
The railroads do not own New Jersey—they only thinli 
they do, because the people have failed to do their duty. 
O 
A NEWSPAPER report states that a Baltimore genius 
has discovered a process by which butter may be made 
directly from the vegetable foods upon which cattle 
are fed, without the intervention of the cow*. Oil 
being extracted from the vegetables, a secret process 
with the radiant energy of powerful electric light 
gives it the same chemical composition as the animal 
oils. Prof. Jordan’s feeding experiments, demonstrat¬ 
ing the fact that, when fed upon foods from which all 
fat has been extracted, the cow continues to give milk 
of the same composition as when fed fatty foods, sug¬ 
gest that the fat globules in milk are a part of the 
milk-making machine, rather than its fuel. There is 
an old proverb concerning the impossibility of extract¬ 
ing blood from a turnip, which may apply to this new 
process. The making of butter from vegetable oils is 
not, however, a new idea ; both peanut and cocoanut 
butter are now in the market, and are recommended by 
dealers in hygienic foods. They are said to be easily 
digested, and to keep better than ordinary butter. 
O 
In former years, emigrants from the old country, or 
at least, the majority of them, spread over the west¬ 
ern part of the United States. It is well understood 
how whole sections of the West have been built up 
in this way by foreign farmers or farm laborers. This 
condition of affairs has now largely changed. Last 
year, the total immigration to the United States was 
230,000. Of this number, only 491 started for Kansas, 
but 650 for South Dakota, and but 21 for the new 
lands in Oklahoma. The South gained fewer yet from 
this foreign immigration ; for example, only 59 went 
to North Carolina, 50 to Mississippi, and 36 to South 
Carolina. Where, then, did these immigrants stop ? 
New England received 35,000 of them, Massachusetts 
taking 24,581, while 94,263 or 40 per cent of the whole 
remained in New York State, and 33,525 found homes 
in Pennsylvania. The great State of Missouri, capa¬ 
ble of maintaining 20,000,000 people, received only 
1,777 of these foreign immigrants. In other words, 
the East is now gaining more rapidly from foreign 
immigration than is the West. The fact, also, seems 
to be true that there is less movement from the East 
to the West than formerly. It is said that most of 
the emigrants who now come to this country are, as a 
rule, laborers, who do not seek homes of their own, 
but rather expect to do the hard and laborious work 
which most Americans are ready to give up to them. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
A mail may sow his wild oats in his youth, 
And plow them under in maturer years, 
And seek to grow a better crop—in truth, 
He fertilizes with regret and tears. 
For youth’s mistakes, regretted, wisely used, 
May serve as humus in life’s fruitful soil, 
And help produce the harvest ne’er refused 
To those who labor on with honest toil. 
And yet the wild-oat crop may sour your ground, 
For evil tendencies are in the grain, 
And though you think them dead, they may be found 
To crop out in your child crop once again. 
Undone work is full of leaves. 
True as steal —the robber hen ! 
Clean money—cents without scents. 
Is pasty butter just as good for pastry ? 
Who can hatch profit from an onion set V 
It’s safe to gamble on the gamboling hen. 
Taking the baby to walk is airing the heir. 
Are your hens cacklelated to pay for their food ? 
Too much pastry will paste the food to the stomach. 
Don’t cultivate the cross patch—harrow her or him! 
Too many men take their spiritual advice out of a bottle. 
The way to pasture ize butter in Winter is to feed ensilage ! 
Eat or sell the robber hen’s eggs! Don’t incubate an incubus. 
The poultryman who buys a Black Minorca rooster black males 
his hens. 
Fell by the weigh side ! The robber cow when they set the 
scales on her milk. 
It’s a mean man that will steal another man’s thunder. Noise 
may be his only possession. 
It is said that there is hardly an orange-growing section in 
California that is out of sight of snow. 
Certainly, sii—the guinea hen is the Leghorn that lays 200 eggs 
worth three cents each, and eats $1 worth of food while doing it. 
If I had a cow that gave such milk, I’d buy my wife a dress of 
silk; a balanced ration I would feed, and get more cattle of that 
breed. 
Rats and mice are reported unusually numerous in parts of 
New York State. They will be after the young trees. Protect 
them—the trees ! 
Here is a recipe for making the purest butter color known: 
Ensilage and clover hay and Jersey or Guernsey blood. Good 
pasture will do in Summer. 
The Codling moth flies at night. So does the bat. Now if the 
moth can be induced to fly inside of the bat, the battle of the 
apple grower will be easier. 
A large manufacturer of oleo driven out of the business by a 
recent law, now goes to making soap from “the same old grease”. 
The soap is honest, at least. 
Some of the experiment stations are issuing what they call 
condensed or popular editions of their bulletins containing a 
boiled-down statement of the facts. A good idea ! 
Allsrice is the dried berry of a small tree. This country im¬ 
ports about 4,500,000 pounds yearly. It is not all spice by a good 
deal. The Connecticut Station found half the specimens examined 
adulterated with ground cocoanut shells. 
A new pulp bread, which is made without grinding the grain, is 
sold in Belgium, and is now being introduced in England. The 
whole grain is moistened and pressed into dough at one opera¬ 
tion, without grinding into flour. This bread is rather close and 
dark-colored, but agreeable in taste, and retains all the food con 
stitueuts of the whole grain. 
