246 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ApriL 2 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-ln-Cbief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, I AsROoiatP Editors 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, f Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents ner line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “Adv.," 75 cents per 
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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, ARPIL 2, 1808. 
While at all our navy yards and arsenals men are 
working day and night to prepare for possible war 
with Spain, Amerieans have been shipping flour and 
meat to feed Spain’s army in Cuba. Last week, the 
shipments of food from American ports were, proba¬ 
bly, larger than were ever known in a week at this 
season. With such a vast amount of food afloat, war 
does not seem so probable. It will be far better for 
our farmers to feed Spain than to fight her. 
O 
Mr. Garraiian gives sound advice on page 247 about 
improving worn-out lands. Many farmers lack the 
capital needed to buy fertilizers. For $100 in cash, a 
good buyer ought to be able to buy five tons of acid 
phosphate and one ton of muriate of potash. This will 
give a fair dressing for 20 acres of cow peas, at a cost of 
$5 per acre. Two or three neighbors might combine in 
such a purchase, and 20 acres of cow peas grown with 
this fertilizer will make quite a showing in any neigh¬ 
borhood. A heavier dressing would be much better, 
and some nitrogen would pay, but such fertilizing will 
make its mark on any poor soil, and is within the 
reach of almost any farmer. 
0 
Some Washington oleomargarine dealers have good 
reasons for believing that the way of the transgressor 
is hard. They have been convicted in the United 
States District Court of violating the laws governing 
the sale of oleomargarine, and the member of the 
firm on trial was sentenced to pay a fine of $1,500 and 
costs, and to be imprisoned for six months, while an 
employee was fined $500, with four months’ imprison¬ 
ment. At the trial, it was proved that the defendant 
had frequently violated the law by removing Govern¬ 
ment stamps and labels, but had never been convicted, 
because of the difficulty of securing a conviction, the 
officials had, in previous cases, accepted a compromise, 
and he escaped with a fine only. What care such rob¬ 
bers for fines ? It’s the odious imprisonment that 
causes the iron to enter their souls ! 
O 
The Canadian Government has passed a law pro¬ 
hibiting the importation of nursery stock from any 
country where the San Jos6 scale is prevalent. This 
law has become immediately operative, and it is 
asserted that it will become a great hardship to those 
whom it is directly expected to benefit. Naturally, 
it absolutely prohibits the importation of nursery 
stock from the United States. Many Canadian growers 
and dealers have placed orders for future delivery of 
nursery stock from this side of the boundary, and 
this stock cannot now be supplied to them. The 
question of paying some indemnity to such buyers has 
been brought before the Dominion Parliament. It 
seems quite likely that this law will result in great 
loss to our nurserymen, and they should take imme¬ 
diate action to have this law modified in some way so 
that trees already contracted for should be passed 
under inspection. 
© 
Tiik town of New Brunswick, N. J., recently offered 
the novel spectacle of a nocturnal tramp hunt, headed 
by one of the local aldermen. For many years, this 
town has suffered greatly from the depredations of 
tramps, who, following the line of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, terrorized housewives, and committed many 
petty crimes. As a means of lessening this evil, an 
ordinance was established whereby any tramp unwill¬ 
ing to work, or unable to give a satisfactory account 
of himself, was put in a chain-gang, and set to work 
cleaning the streets. So efficacious is this ordinance 
that the tramps now avoid New Brunswick as carefully 
as their prototypes used to avoid Hull and Halifax in 
the days when vagrancy was a capital crime in those 
cities. Consequently, the supply of street-cleaning 
labor waxes low at times, and the city fathers were 
reduced to the expedient of hunting the wary tramps 
after dark. That thrifty town is already very unpopu¬ 
lar with the knights of the road. 
0 
The United States Senate has passed a bill for the 
protection of song birds. This prohibits the importa¬ 
tion of birds’feathers or parts of birds for ornamental 
purposes, except living birds. It also prohibits the 
transportation of birds’ feathers or parts of birds to 
be used or sold, from one State to another, and also 
prohibits the sale, keeping or offering for sale of 
birds’ feathers or parts of birds for ornament. Any 
one who keeps such ornaments on hand for sale, is 
punishable by a fine of $50. Massachusetts passed a 
law somewhat similar to this, but there has been 
some difficulty in carrying it out. As we have before 
stated, if some one will now start a movement in 
favor of using feathers from our domesticated poultry 
for hat and dress ornament, our ladies will prove just 
exactly as attractive, and the poultry business will be 
greatly improved. 'No doubt, our “ manufacturers ” 
of new breeds will be prepared to furnish any desired 
color of feather. 
O 
The payment and collection of taxes afford some 
curious matters for reflection. In a certain New Jer¬ 
sey citj* whose officials have been sadly hampered in 
public works because of lack of funds from unpaid 
taxes, the tax officials in going over the lists of those 
in arrears for taxes, have discovered that $20,000 of 
these back taxes are due from men who are receiving 
salaries from thecity, some of them good-sized salaries, 
too. Since Greater New York became a fact, some of 
the city’s employees, notably the school teachers, have 
bad trouble in getting their salaries. One old Brook¬ 
lyn teacher, who hasn't yet received her January pay, 
has been notified that the taxes on the small house in 
which she lives are yet unpaid, and that she will be 
charged interest at nine per cent since January. She 
says that she can’t pay her taxes until she gets her 
pay, and purposes to charge the city nine per cent on 
her back salary. In New Jersey, a tenant must pay 
the taxes or. the house in which he lives if so notified 
by the collector, to be taken out of the rent paid to 
the landlord, and is liable to have his household goods 
sold if he do not. 
© 
The town of Foxcroft, Maine, contains taxable 
property valued at $485,000. It has suddenly found 
itself saddled with a debt of $175,000. Like many 
New England towns, Foxcroft had a “ war debt ” of 
$20,000. and an “ aid of railroad ’’ debt of $27,000. For 
30 years, the town kept on voting money to pay the 
interest on these debts and something on the prin¬ 
cipal. Taxpayers supposed that the town would soon 
be free from debt, and they kept the town treasurer 
in office year after year. It now appears that he 
pocketed all the town voted to pay on the principal, 
and borrowed all he could beside, giving his notes as 
town treasurer. He kept this up for years, and when 
likely to be found out, he committed suicide, leaving 
the town in debt nearly $175,000. The Supreme Court 
has decided that the town must pay, but this is evi¬ 
dently impossible, for heavier taxpayers would move 
away rather than attempt such payments. The town 
hopes to compromise with creditors at the rate of 25 
cents on the dollar. There are plenty of town and coun¬ 
ty treasurers whose accounts would not stand overhaul¬ 
ing. Whenever a political ring has had control of 
local offices for a term of years, it is pretty safe for 
taxpayers to shake up the system. 
© 
Mr. Smith’s article on the use of lime (page 238) is 
a fair statement of a problem that confronts many 
farmers on naturally sour land, who depend on grass 
and clover for the basis of their farming. Many such 
men have failed to obtain a good catch of grass seed, 
though the conditions of seeding and manuring were 
right so far as they understood them. The chances 
are that the blue-litmus test mentioned by Mr. Smith 
would have shown that the soil is acid, and until this 
condition is corrected, such soil cannot do its best. 
Many upland soils with apparently perfect drainage 
are too sour to produce good clover. Lime will often 
“ sweeten ” such soils so that even without extra fer¬ 
tilizer or manure, they will produce remarkable crops 
of grass or grain. We have observed that something 
of the same effect is obtained by constant and thor¬ 
ough tillage. By shaking and stirring up the soil by 
harrowing and cultivating tools, we let the air and 
sunshine into it, and to a certain extent, “ sweeten ” 
it and make it more available. There are two things 
about the use of lime that should be remembered. 
When it is to be hauled a long distance, we should 
buy it in the lightest form so as to avoid paying freight 
on water. When we buy slaked lime, we buy nearly 
one-third its weight of water—useless weight and 
bulk to handle. On the average farm, where the 
ordinary rotation is followed, the best time to apply 
the lime will be when seeding to grass or grain. We 
would never use the lime in connection with the potato 
crop, on which, usually, the bulk of the fertilizer is 
used. 
© 
So much has been said about the proposed beet- 
sugar industry that farmers in some parts of the East 
have become quite enthusiastic over it. Of course, 
with every such new enterprise, there are always 
those whose advice is, “ Boom it anyway, and take the 
risk !” This is dangerous advice in the case of beet 
sugar, for a large capital is required to build and 
equip a factory before a cent of money can be earned. 
A farmer may safely invest money in a creamery, for 
under good management, it will give him a market all 
the year round. A beet-sugar factory will run but a 
part of the year, and far more money will be needed 
to start it. The following statement by Prof. W. II. 
Jordan, strikes us as very appropriate just at this time: 
Doubtless farmers will be invited to invest in beet-sugar fac¬ 
tory stock. They will be told not only that the stock will be 
profitable, but also that it is their duty to share in the risks. 
They should be very careful in this matter. If the professional 
boomer appear among them, they should give him a wide berth. 
He may be resourceful in plausible argument, and it may be hard 
to resist the fascination of his apparently sound reasoning; but 
unless the farmers resist his appeals, history will repeat itself, 
and shares of worthless stock will be very widely distributed 
among those who cannot afford to suffer the loss. This does not 
mean that, under certain other conditions, farmers may not 
wisely own a share of the factory. If local business men of un¬ 
questioned integrity and sound business judgment take the lead 
in the new enterprise—men who as the directors of banks and 
other financial organizations have won the confidence of the com¬ 
munity by their successful and honorable methods—then perhaps 
the farmer may as safely intrust his money to them in this enter¬ 
prise as in some others. 
That states the case fairly and well. Let the shrewd 
and sound business men take the lead in this matter. 
If they go ahead and put up their money, farmers 
may, perhaps, invest—but not otherwise ! 
O 
BREVITIES. 
I’ve set on tills fence for an hour to-day, 
An’ mother has come to the door to Hay 
“ A lazy old man, with his hair turned gray 
An’ nothin’ to do but to set an’ play— 
Ye better be gettin’ that wood box filled 
Fer I won’t lug wood if yer dinner’s killed.” 
I set on the fence, an’ it does me good; 
A little of Spring sorter stirs my blood. 
I set here an’ study the Crimson clover 
A greenin’ an’ soddin’ the whole farm over. 
I’ve kinder been shaky, I own, that March 
Would throw out the clover an’ take the starch 
Right out of her back, an’ the neighbors, too, 
All said that I never could get it through. 
But yonder she is, an’ I never seen 
A handsomer plant or a greener green. 
Oh, Crimson! I’m tickled to death at you; 
The Winter was hard, but you stuck it through. 
I tell ye yer color is good to see— 
'"Yes, mother, I hear ye—an’ here I be!” 
Make small U se of the Big I. 
Special Dairy Number Next Week ! 
A “ piece ” of board—a sandwich. 
The runt never comes to the front. 
The cold-water man is well welded. 
Would ashes—burned-up resolutions. 
Can’t you raise your do-point a little ? 
A Baltimore horse died at the age of 48. 
He delights to bark and bite—the rabbit. 
Down with the robber rooster—fry him first. 
For the land’s sake!—use clover or cow peas. 
Live steam in the dairy means dead bacteria. 
One of the easiest things to add dis to is grace. 
The Velvet bean is reported a failure in California. 
This country Imported $1,831 worth of sauerkraut last year. 
What part of life is the viucil age—when you can stick best! 
Many a child’s character is broken down in its bringing up. 
Oatmeal and milk—makes all the youngsters look finer than 
silk. 
“Yes,” said the nose, as it turned up, “I believe in haughty 
culture!” 
Owego, N. Y., is ahead as a silo town—up to date—page 253. 
Who can beat it ? 
I lagged behind in the world’s great race, and now I suffer 
from “ lack of space.” 
The outside of Mr. Ballou’s little home is shown at Fig. 239. In 
a week or two, we shall show some of the inside fixtures. 
No, sir, it doesn’t make much difference where the fruit tree 
passed its babyhood, so long as it is strong and vigorous. 
A number of skunk farms have been started in various parts of 
the country, but, so far as we know, none has proved successful. 
Or course, you want your child to imitate your attempts at 
noble things. Remember that it will be easier for him to imitate 
your ignoble deeds. 
A cow eating 30 pounds of dry food and drinking 70 pounds of 
water in a day will breathe during the same time 192 pounds of 
air! What happens when the air is impure ? 
Is the Soja bean a leguminous plant ? Very much so. What is 
a leguminous plant? One that bears its seeds in legumes. Does 
it really have the power to take nitrogen from the air ? Not the 
least doubt about it. 
