1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
535 
a little sugar to these, but they are good 
without.” 
“You use entire wheat flour in nearly 
every one ? ” 
“ Yes, it is more hygienic, and we like 
the taste better. My family like the rye 
and the rye and Indian best. When eggs 
are very high-priced, I leave them out, 
and the gems don’t go a-begging even 
then ; but there is no denying that an 
egg makes them nicer.” 
SUSAN BROWN ROBBINS. 
A SWING SEAT. 
The comfortable little swing seat 
shown in Fig. 344, is made from a grocery 
box, one side being removed, and the 
ends rounded for arms. The ropes are 
arranged in the manner shown to give 
proper support to the seat, so that it will 
not break or come apart. A little cushion 
gives a comfortable seat, while the back 
may be upholstered if out' desires to add 
the finishing touches. n. w. 
LITTLE CONVENIENCES. 
There are many little things that help 
about one’s work, if one can only think 
of them. Here are a few things I have 
found useful: 
Broom IIangkr. —The best one I ever 
used was made with a headless nail and 
a half-inch bit and stock. The headless 
nail was driven into the wall where the 
broom was to hang, and with the bit, a 
hole was bored near the end of the 
broom-handle—the hole at right angles 
to the broom, of course—and then the 
broom was hung on the nail. The ad¬ 
vantages of a hole over a string can be 
seen at once. A hole does not get twisted 
together and have to be picked apart, it 
never breaks, and it takes only one hand 
to hang the broom by the hole, whereas 
it takes two to hang it by the string. 
Improvised Refrigerator. —Our cellar 
is cold, but as the windows are open and 
cats are likely to get in, we have to be 
careful how we leave things down there. 
There was an old oil-stove oven which 
was not in use, and I carried it down 
cellar and put it on a shelf. In this, 
things can be kept cool and safe, and as 
there is a shelf in the middle of it, it 
will accommodate quite a number of 
dishes. 
Houskct.kaning Help. —Have a square 
piece of tin or zinc, one edge straight 
and flat, the opposite side bent slightly, 
with strips of wood fastened on, to pre¬ 
vent cutting the hands. When the tops 
of mop-boards are to be cleaned, or the 
edges of door and window frames, hold 
the piece of tin against the wall-paper 
to protect it from getting wet while the 
paint is being cleaned. 
Wood-Carrier for the Men Folks.— 
A common shorts bag, with a rope of the 
right length, its two ends fastened to 
the upper corners of the bag, makes a 
good wood-carrier when the kitchen 
wood-box is to be filled. The rope is 
slipped over the shoulders, or over one 
and under the other arm, then the other 
end of the bag is held up apron-wise and 
the wood piled in. A huge armful of 
wood can be carried easily in this way. 
SUSAN BROWN ROBBINS. 
On the Wing. 
IMPRESSIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
PEOPLE AND THINGS ALONG THE LAKES. 
[EDITORIAL correspondence.] 
An Italian Picnic. —Entering the sta¬ 
tion at a junction in Livingston County, 
the first impression received was a 
reminiscence of the New York Barge 
Office, for both waiting-rooms and plat¬ 
form were overflowing with Italians— 
men, women and children. They w r ere 
not newly-arrived immigrants, however; 
the children were sufficiently American¬ 
ized to chew gum and wear jean over¬ 
alls, while the younger women wore 
brilliantly decorated hats instead of 
shawls and kerchiefs. When the train 
came along, they all climbed into the 
cars, laughing, chattering and playing 
pranks on each other like a lot of school 
children. When their station was 
reached, they all trooped out, giving a 
smiling good-bye to the other passengers. 
1 asked the brakeman whether it was an 
Italian excursion. 
“ They’re bean and pea pickers, going 
out to work for the canners. A whole 
troop of them comes from the larger 
towns each year, working along to keep 
up with the crop. They board them¬ 
selves, and live in any old barracks. I 
guess it’s their way of taking a Summer 
vacation.” 
“ Are they regarded as desirable 
workers ? ” 
“Yes; they work hard, whole fami¬ 
lies together, and it’s generally hard to 
get any other help. Some of them seem 
pretty rough, according to our notion, 
but there doesn’t seem to be any trou¬ 
ble with them. There’s one thing I no¬ 
tice with all these Italians—they all 
seem to think such a lot of their own 
folks. You see a troop of them together ; 
they chatter away, calling each other 
pet names, and playing with the young¬ 
sters, as though they were happy just to 
be together. I don't suppose they really 
think more of their kin than we do, but 
they show it, and we don’t seem to have 
the same knack ! ” 
Cultivating the Sugar Beet. —In dis¬ 
cussing sugar-beet possibilities with one 
man who has a fine opportunity for 
studying general farm operations, I was 
struck by his lack of enthusiasm on the 
subject. He agreed that sugar beets 
opened wide possibilities to the farmers, 
but it was his opinion that the great 
difficulty lay in the mode of culture re¬ 
quired. Successful sugar-beet culture 
requires much hand work, and it was 
the opinion of this critic that the average 
farmer would not give this work. Under 
the inspection system adopted by some 
contract buyers, the grower would be 
obliged to give this thorough culture 
and thinning necessary for the best 
growth of the beets, even though he 
were not otherwise disposed to do so. 
But most of the farmers who are now 
trying sugar beets are sufficiently pro¬ 
gressive to use the best methods of 
culture. 
Small Fruits. —There is a large area 
in small fruits throughout western New 
York, but one change in conditions is 
the lessening outlet for evaporated black¬ 
berries and raspberries. A few years 
ago, there was a large trade in this line, 
but the demand now appears to grow 
smaller year by year. Formerly evapo¬ 
rated blackberries and raspberries were 
much used in mining and logging camps, 
railway restaurants, etc., but the cheap¬ 
ness and good quality of canned fruits, 
together with the abundance of oranges 
and bananas, has lessened this trade. 
Some War Talk. —When I left New 
York, Newspaper Row was blocked every 
day by excited crowds, who stood out in 
the roadway to watch the frequent bul¬ 
letins, while they sang “ My Country, 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup ” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
’Tis of Thee”, with convincing fervor. 
The crowds collect there still, but they 
are not quite so effervescent now as in 
the first days of the war. After this 
noisy patriotism, it was quite a surprise 
to see the small towns with few bulletins 
and no excitement, where people were 
quite content to get their news from the 
front once a day or even less frequently. 
It was not that they were not deeply in¬ 
terested, but the attitude was very well 
expressed by one elderly farmer, when I 
asked him whether he was not very 
anxious for more war news. 
“Of course I am, but I’m not worry¬ 
ing. I can’t fight myself, but so long as 
Uncle Sam continues to do business, 
things are bound to come out all right, 
and the best thing I can do is to raise 
big crops to feed our men who are doing 
the fighting. I guess a man can use as 
much patriotism in fighting weeds and 
bugs as in fighting Spaniards ! ” 
But while every one showed ardent in¬ 
terest in the success of American arms, 
and a desire to bring the war to a speedy 
conclusion, there was a marked feeling, 
wherever free expression was made, that 
we ought to have settled our differences 
without war. The forward policy of 
territorial expansion does not seem to be 
popular. War for humanity’s sake might 
be condoned, but not war for the acqui¬ 
sition of territory. I met one imperialist, 
who held that we ought to possess all 
the West Indies, as many Pacific islands 
as we could add to our collection and, in 
course of time, Canada and Mexico. I 
meekly suggested that we are not badly 
crowded in the United States, and that 
there are some serious home problems 
yet to be worked out ; but he held that 
the home problems would right them¬ 
selves, while we carried the gospel of in¬ 
dustry and clean living to the ends of 
the earth. Still, this was not the gen¬ 
eral view. Few other classes have suf¬ 
fered more than the farmers during the 
years of business depression, and as 
war began at a time when we were all 
hoping for legitimate prosperity, there 
is reason for a conservative attitude. 
This does not interfere with a patriotism 
that is sincere, without being spectacular. 
Peaches and Peach Curl. —Last year, 
The R. N.-Y. illustrated some of the 
peaches grown by King & Robinson, in 
Tompkins County. This orchard, when 
visited, was suffering severely with the 
leaf-curl, like all the other orchards 
this year. Some trees were already 
rallying from the trouble, others were 
so badly affected that a severe cutting 
back seemed their only salvation. The 
disease caused extensive dropping of the 
fruit, lessening the thinning ; ordinarily, 
from one-tliird to two-thirds of the fruit 
is removed in thinning. Does it pay to 
thin carefully? Mr. King thinks so; 
his choice peaches are packed in flat 
packages containing about three dozen, 
these being intended for the fastidious 
dessert trade. All the peaches are care¬ 
fully graded. Thorough working is 
given to the orchards, first with the 
plow, afterwards with the cultivator, 
until there is danger of knocking off too 
many fruits. The peach orchards slope 
down towards the shores of Cayuga Lake 
and, at first sight, the rocky soil looks 
quite unpromising, unless one knows 
something of the high-flavored, richly- 
colored fruit produced by this district. 
Many fine grapes are grown on these 
slopes, Vergennes being produced in high 
quality, and extensive young plum or¬ 
chards give promise of future productive¬ 
ness. 
Poultry with Peaches. —Mr. King’s 
partner, Mr. Robinson, has taken up 
poultry as a specialty, aside from the 
fruit and lamb crops in which both are 
interested. lie is an egg-producer, find¬ 
ing his market in New York City, and 
Leghorns appear to be his favorite birds. 
The eggs are put up in small packages, 
and are always uniform in grade, fresh 
and clean. By shipping nothing but high- 
class eggs, the name stenciled upon each 
package has become a warranty of 
quality. It is always noted that a man 
whose name is a guarantee finds no 
trouble in selling his stock a shade above 
market quotations. k. t. r. 
1898 
High 
Grade 
BICYCLES 
for Men, Women, Girls 
“•.Boys. Complete line. 
All brand new models. 
(75 ‘(Ukwood’ fur <32.HO 
_ _ <G0 ‘Arlington’ “ <24.50 
_Money In Advance. Others »t <15, <17 ud <20 
WB1TK TODAI for SPECIAL OFFER, , 7>00 * , 1JU0 
Shipped anywhere C.O.D.wlth privilege to examine. Buy 
direct from manufacturers,save agents & dealers profits 
far** Hla* Catalogs free. CASH BUYERS’ UNION. 
!« w. VanHuren Street, B4S4S, Chi. a**, LLU. 
$9.50 BUYS A VICTOR 
Adapted to Light and Heavy Work. Reliable and Pinef; 
Finished; Guaranteed for 10 Team. Write for 40 Page Cate* 
logos. Attachment* Free. 80 DAY8 FRJEX TRIAL. Addrea 
Dtpt.899 VICTOR HFS. CO., 90-98 Hu-kot Bt.,Chirac*. 
Some Bargain Combinations, 
This is a popular combination. The four books are 
by I*. H. Jacobs, and illustrated. The poultry papers 
are well edited, and recognized authorities. 
Price alone 
Poultry Keeper.$o.5U 
Inter-State Poultry man.50 
Designs for Poultry Houses.25 
Incubators and Brooders.25 
Diseases of Poultry.25 
How to Judge Fowls.26 
The Rural New-Yorker . l.uo 
Total. .CL DO 
Combination price, $1.50. 
Thrice-a-Week World. 
Gives you all the news of the whole world 
every other day. It is the next thing to a 
great dally paper. We can send it and Thk 
Rural New-Yorker, both one year, for $1.(56. 
Hoard’s Dairyman 
and The Rural New-Yorker, both one 
year, for $1.(55. 
The New York Weekly Tribune 
is the great Republican National Weekly. 
We send it and The Rural New-Yorker, 
both oue year, for $1.30. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. New Yc HK. 
$50 Sewing Machine for $19.50. 
WITH ONE YEAR’S SUBSCRIPTION TO THE R. N.-Y., $30. 
We should be sorry if any reader of The R. N.-Y. in any part of the eountry 
should pay $40 or $5Q, or even $35 or $30 for a sewing machine. We would be sorry 
because we can send him just as good a machine as is made for $19.50. The finish 
and appearance and attachments are in 
every way equal to the best machines 
made. We will send it ON TRIAL, freight 
paid, and you may return it at our ex¬ 
pense, if you are not satisfied; you shall 
be the judge yourself. We shall sell them 
at this price only to subscribers. We have 
sold thousands of these machines to sub¬ 
scribers, and we have never had one re¬ 
turned. Several families in connection 
with The R. N.-Y. have them ; that is why 
we can praise them so highly. 
For $19.50, we will send the machine to 
any subscriber, freight paid to any address 
east of the Rocky Mountains. For $30, we 
include a year’s subscription. After a fail- 
trial, we will return the money and pay 
freight both ways, if you are not satisfied. 
We will send it for a club of 10 subscriptions at $1 each, and $15 extra. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New York. 
