126 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 19 
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, l Associate Editors 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, ^ Associate suitors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1898. 
Look over the appended list of books. Don’t you 
want one ? You can get one or more without money. 
You have a neighbor who does not take The R. N.-Y., 
but who wants it. Get his subscription, send us his 
dollar, and for your work, we will send you your 
choice of these books : 
The Nursery Book.80.50 
Horticulturist’s Rule Book.50 
New Potato Culture. • .40 
Business Hen.40 
The Dairy Calf.25 
Spraying Crops.25 
Landscape Gardening.50 
You may have a book for every new name sent. 
O 
We have been obliged to make some changes in the 
arrangement of articles since adding four extra pages 
to The R. N.-Y. Our plan is to group the articles into 
separate departments, as far as possible. Hereafter, 
considerable extra space will be given to live-stock 
matters and market reports. Next week, we shall 
issue our annual seed catalogue number with several 
new and striking features. 
O 
The German decree against American fruits is said 
to be aimed almost entirely at the San Jos6 scale. 
All fruit is to be inspected, and passed, if free from 
the insect. All live plants and shrubs are absolutely 
prohibited. The German farmers are said to be in 
favor of even a stronger measure, while the fruit 
dealers at German ports want American fruits ad¬ 
mitted under inspection. In this country, the dealers 
would, probably, have the best of it. In Germany, 
the farmers usually get what they demand. 
O 
In Massachusetts, efforts are being made to pass a 
law requiring every liorseshoer to pass an examina¬ 
tion and take out a license—paying, of course, $5 for 
it. In New York State, it is proposed to establish a 
State Bureau of Steam Engineering, so that all who 
handle steam engines may have some proper person 
to pay a license to. No wonder farmers are opposing 
the principle of such license boards. If it keep on, 
a farmer will need a special license to milk a cow, 
another to feed his horse, and another to eat baked 
beans for his dinner. 
O 
It is claimed that a good deal of the dairy salt now 
on the market is adulterated with cooking soda and 
powdered corn starch. In Illinois, this adulteration 
has got to the point where the dairy commissioners 
have been obliged to take hold of it. It is said that 
the object of the adulteration is to prevent the salt 
from caking, and also to produce a greater fineness. 
While there is no injury to health in such adultera¬ 
tions, it is a fraud nevertheless, and those who sell 
this loaded salt should be made to tell just exactly 
what they put into it. 
O 
The Kansas Pacific Railroad owes the United States 
Government over §6,000,000 for bonds that were issued 
to help build the road. These bonds are due, and in 
order to get its money, the Government must sell out 
its claim or take the road and operate it through a re¬ 
ceiver. Thus far, only §4,500,000 have been offered for 
the Government's interest in the property. In order 
to make its title secure, the Government will buy a 
first mortgage of §7,515,255.15, and will then practi¬ 
cally own the road. This seems to be about the only 
way for the Government to avoid losing the difference 
between what it has put into the road and the §4,500,- 
000 which a syndicate of railroad men are willing to 
pay for it. The Government finally got its money 
back on the sale of the Union Pacific. The syndicate 
now hope to make their profit by getting the Kansas 
Pacific for over §1,000,000 less than the Government’s 
claim. Thus, by holding the road in the hands of a 
receiver, the Government will get a small interest on 
its debt, and stand a chance of finally selling out at a 
fair figure. We would like to see the State of Kansas 
own and control this road, if such a thing were pos¬ 
sible. 
O 
Every farmer in New Jersey should bring what in¬ 
fluence he can to bear in favor of the bill to give local 
governing boards the power to protect railroad cross¬ 
ings. At present, the railroads do about as they 
please. About all they can be made to do is to ring 
the engine bell and blow a whistle as warnings. The 
slaughter of human life at New Jersey grade cross¬ 
ings is awful. Hardly a cay passes without reports 
of death and disaster. The bill now before the Legis¬ 
lature will enable municipal and town authorities to 
force the railroads to respect human life. The rail¬ 
road lobby is fighting the bill. All the mere reason 
why you should support it. 
O 
A pretty effective argument for good roads is found 
in the practice of some of the truckers towards the 
west end of Long Island, who draw their produce to 
the city markets. Leading out from Brooklyn are 
good, hard roads; beyond these main roads is gener¬ 
ally found considerable sand, through which a loaded 
wagon draws heavily. The practice of farmers living 
along these sandy highways is to put on about twice 
as much load as the team can draw, and employ what 
is called a tow team to help draw the load until the 
hard road is reached, when one team can handle it 
easily. This is a practical argument that is likely to 
appeal to many that could be influenced in no other 
way. It’s a sort of dollars-and-cents argument. 
O 
In the English markets, meat produced in England 
and Scotland sells at six cents or more per pound 
above the dressed meats brought from America and 
Australia. Butchers often practice the fraud of cut¬ 
ting up the American beef and selling it as “ Choice 
British.” For several years, English farmers have 
tried to secure and enforce a law requiring all dealers 
to label and brand all imported meats, and sell them 
for just what they are. The object is to make a spe¬ 
cial class for British meat, and thus obtain a higher 
price. Thus it is that farmers all over the world are 
suffering from competition from substitutes in their 
home markets, and everywhere there is a demand for 
food laws that will prevent fraudulent substitution. 
O 
First Class in Chemistry. —Put a large shovelful of 
hen manure into a tight box, add a good handful of 
lime or wood ashes ; mix, and close the box. In 24 
hours, get close to the box and take a long breath 
through the nose. Then smell of a bottle of “ am¬ 
monia ” and see how the odor from the box resembles 
that from the bottle. 
What does that show ? 
That ammonia is passing away from the hen manure. 
The lime stirred the ammonia up to anger, and off it 
goes hunting for more agreeable companions. What 
of it ? Well, ammonia costs about 15 cents a pound 
when you buy it. When you drive it all away, you 
lose 75 per cent of the value of the hen manure. 
Is that what wood ashes or lime will do to hen 
man ure ? 
Exactly—it won’t do anything else ! 
O 
In 1856, an Englishman named William Duncan 
went as a missionary to a wild trading-post in British 
North America near Alaska. The post was sur¬ 
rounded by a fierce tribe of Indians who practiced 
idolatry, cannibalism and other hideous practices. 
No white man dared go among these Indians. Trade 
was conducted through a hole cut in the wall. Mr. 
Duncan gained a few words of the Indian language, 
and then went fearlessly out among the Indians. In 
time, he gained their confidence, and actually estab¬ 
lished a small church and an industrial colony. The 
little community grew slowly and prospered—removed 
from saloons and other evil influences of the frontier. 
It is, by all odds, the most remarkable success in civ¬ 
ilizing heathens that has been known on this conti¬ 
nent. About 12 years ago, Mr. Duncan came to Wash¬ 
ington and secured permission from the United States 
Government to remove his colony to Annette Island, 
off the coast of Alaska, and under the protection of 
the Stars and Stripes. The move was made in good 
faith, and another prosperous town sprung up, and 
these former savages became honest and faithful citi¬ 
zens. Now some schemer has introduced a bill into 
Congress to throw Annette Island open to gold prospect¬ 
ors ! This would bring to the colony just the influ¬ 
ences that Mr. Duncan has tried to keep out. The 
Indians came to the island in the first place to avoid 
the blighting influence of the white man’s rum and 
ruin. It will be a disgraceful thing if the United 
States Government now repudiates its contract with 
these simple Indians, and opens the island to gold 
hunters. It does not seem possible that Congress will 
consent to such a thing. 
G 
The New York Mercantile Exchange has passed res¬ 
olutions ad rising the State Agricultural Department 
to accept the compromise offered by Armour & Co. in 
the oleomargarine case. The State sued for nearly 
§2,000,000. Armour & Co. offer §20,000 and an agree¬ 
ment to give up the manufacture and sale of bogus 
butter ! This resolution is based on the ground that 
the case against Armour & Co. is so weak that there 
would be no sense in bringing it to trial. Why was 
the case started then ? What has all this fooling been 
about ? Who is responsible for it ? That is what plain 
farmers want to know. Nobody denies that, while 
this fooling has been going on, Armour has been 
breaking the law and coining money by doing it. 
O 
Egypt was once the great grain field of the world. 
It is likely again to affect the world's agriculture. 
Since the British occupation, the cotton crop of the 
Nile Valley has been doubled. Even Americans import 
100,000 bales of Nile cotton each year. Engineers have 
stated that, if the waters of the Upper Nile car be used 
to irrigate the Nubian deserts, cotton fields will be 
made that would render England indepen lent of 
America for her cotton supply. The fertility of the 
soil in the Nile Valley is remarkable, and Egyptian 
labor may be obtained at 15 to 18 cents per day. Grain 
and sugar may, also, be produced in this wonderful 
land, when once the water supply of the Upper Nile is 
under control. Egj’pt has been asleep for centuries. 
Now she is waking up. Kipling says of the English 
sergeant in the Egyptian army : 
He drilled a black man white 
And he made a mummy fight. 
The present expedition to the head of the Nile may 
mean wonderful things to the world’s agriculture if 
the waters of that river can be controlled so as to 
water twice the land that is now under cultivation. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
The German Kaiser sits up nights to guard his apple trees; 
In every shadow on the road, a lurking thief he sees. 
We sent our good dried fruit abroad—the Kaiser did but wink, 
And learned men forthwith declared that they were soaked in zinc; 
Our hogs have diphtheritic throats—he knows it by their squeal; 
Our horses are alive with germs—there’s death within our meal. 
Our hams and bacon are too strong, our cotton is too weak; 
Our flour won’t rise, our springs won’t fall, our butter tubs will 
leak. 
Once more the Kaiser calls to arms. Oh! hear the bugles bray! 
The Fatherland’s invaded by the bug from San Jose. 
Call out the guard along the Rhine—tie up the Baltic Sea, 
And let the Kaiser load his gun beneath his apple tree, 
And notify old Uncle Sam to wipe his apples clean ; 
They want no bug from San Jos6 in Germany, I ween. 
Water is fertility. 
A blue bury—burying your sorrow. 
Mu. Halter is an extensive stockholder. 
Who was ever made sorry by making sure ? 
When did civilization begin to need the millionaire ? 
The razorbaek hog! Did he ever shave off a mortgage ? 
It wasn’t a skim-milk calf that attracted the prodigal son! 
We want to hear from those who have cultivated blueberries. 
The extreme of whole souled is obtained by knocking off the w. 
Thumb pruning for little trees, but thump pruning for little 
habits that are fixed. 
Exports of flour to China are increasing. An appropriate trade 
with th eflowenj kingdom ! 
The human heart hungers for praise. The sharper and the 
fraud understand that well. 
Massachusetts chemists have found a “ temperance drink ” 
which contained over 41 per cent of alcohol. 
“ I done my duty as I seen it! ” Oh, yes !—but why did you put 
on smoked glasses before you looked at it ? 
There are “ wolf teeth ” in the creamery shark. They seem to 
cause blindness in the farmers who think they want a creamery. 
The unburned coal passing through the fires in Greater New 
York in one year is worth 8325,000. How much gets through your 
stove ? 
While Uncle Sam is trying for a share of the English butter 
market, Miss Canada is shipping small sample packages to Ber¬ 
muda. 
But little over 30 cents’ worth of plant food in a ton of anthra¬ 
cite coal ashes. Yet the ashes may pay on a sandy soil by bind¬ 
ing it together. 
The beef cow puts fat on her own back. Where does the dairy 
cow put hers? Watch the dairyman and his wife on their way 
to church some Sunday. 
The British Commissioners of Lunacy prove by figures that in¬ 
sanity is more common among single than among married men. 
According to this, marriage is a preventive of insanity ! 
The New York Assembly has passed a bill requiring dealers in 
Paris-green to secure a certificate or license from the State Agri¬ 
cultural Commissioner. All Paris-green must contain, at least 50 
per cent of arsenic. 
A New York State man has put a layer of ice three feet thick 
over a half acre patch of strawberries, hoping in this way to hold 
the plants back until very late in the season. We would prefer 
to have cow manure under the ice. 
