THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 26 
146 
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. 
Associate Editors. 
Frank H. Valentine, | 
Mrs. E. T. Rotlk, 
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. 0d., or 8*4 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 Not ices, 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-office 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 26, 1898. 
After every great blizzard, we read of losses among 
range cattle in the West, the animals dying of cold 
and starvation. The eastern farmer who starves or 
neglects his animals is fined or imprisoned for his 
cruelty. Why make an exception in favor of the 
wholesale neglect of the great cattle ranges, especially 
when the cattle men pay nothing for rent, and pay 
small taxes ? 
O 
The articles on the San Jos6 scale and fertilizers in 
New Jersey will be continued next week, as the regu¬ 
lar seed catalogue material absorbs about all our space 
this week. Readers will do well to preserve this 
issue. During the year, they will surely have occasion 
to refer to some article or advertisement here printed. 
Keep it as a text book on seed and tree ordering. We 
shall try to give other special issues on popular sub¬ 
jects during the year. 
O 
The change in farm conditions is well exemplified 
by what is known as the “ Carnation belt ” of Penn¬ 
sylvania. The original settlers chopped down trees 
and fought Indians; their sons raised wheat and 
wool, and their descendants of the present day are 
growing Carnations, with sweet peas and tomatoes 
as catch crops under glass. It is hard to say what the 
next stage will be in this evolutionary process—per¬ 
haps, orchids and hothouse peaches ! 
G 
The Government did not buy the Kansas Pacific 
Railroad after all—as seemed probable last week. At 
the last moment, the railroad syndicate raised its 
offer from $2,500,000 to $6,303,000, which is the face 
value of the bonds held by the United States. Later, 
the road was sold at that figure. The Government 
thus received the money it originally loaned, but lost 
all the interest, which would have amounted to $0,000,- 
000 more. It is stated as a reason for not buying the 
road that the Government has now no legal right to 
conduct such a business without special legislation by 
Congress. The Senate has resolved that the Govern¬ 
ment should not confirm the sale unless both principal 
and interest are paid. 
O 
Two bills in the interests of travelers as against the 
railroads, were before the New Jersey Legislature. 
One provided for a railroad commission, and the other 
gives municipalities power to compel railroads to erect 
gates or to employ flagmen at crossings. The first 
bill has just been reported adversely, and is thus 
killed ; the second bill has not yet come from commit¬ 
tee, but the chances are that the railroad interest will 
defeat it. It is a shame that the railroads of New 
Jersey should thus be permitted to dictate legislation 
in their own interest. The slaughter of life at grade 
crossings in New Jersey still goes on, and it will con¬ 
tinue to go on until the people rise and demand redress. 
New Jersey “ demands” of this character are usually 
made in a whisper. 
O 
The American warship, Maine, has been blown up 
iu the harbor of Havana, with fearful loss of life. It 
may have been an accident, or the result of foul play. 
In either event. Americans will not feel any increased 
confidence in our much-boasted navy. It has been 
whispered more than once that our warships would be 
of small account in a fight. It has been said that they 
are defective in materials and men. It, certainly, 
looks strange to a landsman when a crew within 
range of Spanish guns cannot keep their ship afloat. 
What would they do in a fight ? The value of iron¬ 
clads in actual warfare has yet to be demonstrated. 
They have never yet been fought by white men. They 
are, at best, but experiments. If the Maine is a fair 
sample of them, our seaport cities are about at the 
mercy of three or four European nations. 
0 
A scheme for repopulating the so-called abandoned 
farms of New England has been on foot for some 
time. This time the scheme is to buy up large tracts 
of this land and re-sell them in small lots to poor peo¬ 
ple now in the large cities. There is one fatal weak¬ 
ness in all such plans, that will be sure to break them 
down. That is the foolish belief that any creature 
walking on two human legs is good enough to make a 
farmer. Somehow, our benevolent friends will not 
drop the notion that any man set down upon a few 
acres of land must be able to make a living. The fact 
is that almost any man jumped directly from brick 
and stone to tillable soil, would starve quicker in a 
plowed field than he would on a street corner. It re¬ 
quires brains and skill to make a living on the farm. 
It is no child’s play to go to Nature for support. 
O 
Readers have been much interested in Mr. Garra- 
han’s “ Story of a Run-Down Farm.” Thousands of 
people have been trying to make a living on soil that 
lacks body and available fertility. The first period of 
extensive use of fertilizers came at a time of gen¬ 
erally high prices for most crops. Many farmers got 
the idea that farming without stable manure is too 
costly—requiring a large cash capital. Readers are, 
therefore, always glad to hear of any sensible plan 
for making the old farm work out its own fertility 
salvation. Again, Mr. Garrahan wrote just as he 
would sit down and talk to a neighbor. His story was 
told in available words. Large ideas in small words. 
We would like to hang that motto up in the oflice of 
every experiment station iu the land. Think in the 
language of the college—write in the language of the 
district school! 
O 
The R. N.-Y. does not advocate that its readers try 
any of the novelties dwelt upon in its review of the 
catalogues except in trial quantities, unless a con¬ 
sensus of the opinions of well-known and trustworthy 
experimenters is such that the risk of a more ex¬ 
tended trial seems one that it may be wise to take. 
Rut we do emphatically advocate that our readers 
carefully look over all the catalogues that seem to 
invite such attention, and select a trial quantity of 
all the new things offered that are set forth as better 
than older kinds. All of our readers who hope to 
progress in the business of farming in any of its de¬ 
partments, can afford to do this. It will pay in the 
end. There is no sure progress without experimenta¬ 
tion. It should be borne in mind that it is to the in¬ 
terest of seedsmen, florists and nurserymen not to 
praise unduly the new varieties of plants offered. 
O 
A TIGHT shoe bruised the skin on the toe of a Mis¬ 
souri man. Rlood poisoning set in, and the man died. 
He belonged to an accident insurance association, and 
his wife claimed $5,000. Payment was refused on 
the ground that the blood poisoning was not the re¬ 
sult of an accident, the chances being that the man 
intentionally wore the tight shoe in order to disguise 
the size of his feet. The case has been in the courts 
for several years, and a United States Court has just 
decided that the association must pay the $5,000. In 
defining an accident, the judge says: 
What is not the result of design or prearraugement, is acci¬ 
dental. No man intentionally wears the skin off his toes, and 
such injury must be considered accidental. 
This decision will, probably, give comfort to “kickers,” 
so-called, who are liable to have their corns stepped 
on when they protest against what seems to them an 
invasion of their rights. 
G 
It is said that, at the Mason City, Iowa, creamery, 
milk is received by the trolley-car system of electric 
railroads. A ten-mile-long electric line runs through 
a good farming country, and efforts are made to get 
farmers to ship their cans on the electric cars. This 
is the first reported instance where electric lines have 
been used for this purpose. J. H. Hale, in Connecti¬ 
cut, ships many of his peaches to Hartford over the 
electric line. The car leaves his place shortly after 
midnight, and runs into Hartford so that the peaches 
are all sold and distributed to retailers before day¬ 
light. If electric lines are to be strung along our 
country roads, they should not be given entirely to 
passenger service. Freight cars should be run at 
regular intervals, and thus give farmers a chance to 
ship their produce at a fair rate. In most of the east¬ 
ern States, any effort to permit electric lines to carry 
freight has been bitterly fought by the steam rail¬ 
roads, for they seem to feel that they should have a 
monopoly of that business. There is no reason why 
the electric lines should not give farmers a freight 
service, if they are prepared to do it at a fair rate. 
Did you ever notice the circus posters and other 
large bills stuck up in various places, for advertising 
purposes ? Did you know that posting these up is a 
regular business, that there is a regular organization 
of these bill posters, and that a paper is published in 
their interests ? This paper is filled with reading 
matter and advertisements of interest to this class of 
people, just as an agricultural paper is filled with 
matter of interest to the farmers. Its advertisements 
offer everything likely to be of interest in such work. 
The paper seems to be well supported, too. Yet many 
farmers can see no value to them in an agricultural 
paper, and when it comes to organization and cooper¬ 
ation, they seem to be afraid of each other. There 
doesn’t seem to be a business on earth too small or 
unimportant to organize and cooperate; yet many 
farmers seem to think it out of the question with 
them. “ In union there is strength.” 
G 
Ax American corporation with headquarters at 
Richmond, Va., has secured a monopoly of the dis¬ 
tilling business in Venezuela. For 30 years, they are 
to have the exclusive right to manufacture alcohol 
and other spirits. Another New York syndicate has 
secured the exclusive privilege for importing and ex¬ 
porting cattle and beef products, hogs, sheep and 
other live stock in Honduras. This company has been 
granted 300,000 acres of wild land for a breeding 
range, and is required to import a certain number of 
purebred breeding animals each year. It is. also, re¬ 
quired to sell to the government, live stock at the 
rate of cents a pound, live weight. It will have 
the exclusive right to import, export and manufacture 
canned meats, leather, lard, oleomargarine and other 
stock products. It won’t be long before the corpora¬ 
tions will own the Central American States. For the 
good of this country, the Monroe Doctrine might well be 
enlarged so as to control the affairs of the corporation. 
G 
BREVITIES. 
My name is Catalogue, I come before you every Spring; 
I blow my horn with every power of lung that I can bring; 
I scour tlie earth, and screen the sea, and liquefy the breeze, 
And bring the products in my hands as worthy “ novelties.” 
The printer takes his brightest ink, and daubs it with a brush, 
My leaves are green with envy, and my rose too red to blush; 
I call Munchausen from the grave to tell his tales anew 
About my startling “novelties”—their size, and what they do. 
Big words of m ighty strength must go whene’er their praise is sung, 
Because, like “ good things ” everywhere, the most of them die 
young. 
I have my fun, they have their run, my master has the cash; 
To print the words of those who buy, one needs must use a- 
But here I am with bigger tales, my grist I bring once more, 
Walk up, ye merry amateurs, and con my pages o’er ! 
Over-ripe— tough as tripe. 
Oh! that gab were not a gift. 
Silence will sterilize sound. Try it! 
“There are many worse off than you.” 
Above Pa—the wife of the henpecked man. 
A man is known by the company he keeps away from. 
A “ cold ” wave is usually done with a handkerchief. 
Go to the bulldog and learn how to remove a can't sir. 
The New York canals were made free January 1, 1883. 
Building an heir castle — letting the baby boss the family. 
This country needs better roads more than it does a better navy. 
“ I am not afraid of details,” said the fly, as he lit upon the 
docked horse. 
When duty presents itself, you do one of two things —do or 
dodge. Which ? 
Uncle Sam is likely to find the dose of German restrictive tariff 
a little too tonic. 
Don’t pray for more laws. Pray for the courage to enforce 
those we now have. 
“ Yes,” said the Holstein cow, at milking time, “ I am giving it 
down in black and white.” 
There are 115 students in the short-term dairy school at the 
Wisconsin Agricultural College. 
A bill in the New York Legislature will prohibit the killing of 
song birds or wearing their feathers. 
A Kansas judge decides that a bicycle is a necessary tool iu 
trade—not to be levied upon in an execution for debt. 
Impossible —to create any American product that a German 
professor cannot find loaded with microbes, bugs or germs! 
What is the best variety of corn for ensilage iu your section ? 
Our answer is—the variety that gives the best yield of grain. 
In the 34 months preceding December 1, 1897, the island of Cuba 
cost Spain $240,000,000. When will Spain know enough to get out ? 
The Eastern New York Horticultural Society has a bill before 
the New York Legislature to regulate the size of fruit packages. 
It is needed. 
A bill before the Massachusetts Legislature would make it 
compulsory to sell eggs by weight. The Leghorns and Minorcas 
will all favor it. 
No man hates himself worse than the quitter. He is always 
thinking what wonderful things he might have done if he had 
only hung on a little longer. 
A potato starts growing, stops and then makes another growth. 
The result is a prong. A man “ knows it all ” and then is made 
to realize some new fact against his will. It makes a bump on 
him, and a sore one. 
The doctrine Monroe 
Says, “ Hoe your own row, 
And don’t fall asleep while you’re hoeing.” 
So now, Hawaii, 
Stay just where you be, 
And put in your time, Miss, at growing. 
