596 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 27 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established i 860 . 
Elbkiit S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, I 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, f Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8 V\ marks, or 10{4 franc3. 
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 lioe. 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, AUGUST 27, 1898. 
A man, after traveling on a clay road over several 
acres of ruts, stopped a moment at a village store. 
“ How’s the going ? ” said some one. “Only fair to 
middling, but it will be better after they get out the 
rut scraper.' 5 At this, a man who was assisting grav¬ 
ity to hold down a nail keg said, “ Oh w-a-al, I guess 
the wagons ’ll wear down the ruts.” Any person who 
would torture human beings and horses and use up 
wagons in this way rather than spend an hour on the 
rut scraper, is not likely to distinguish himself greatly 
as a foreign missionary, and an India-rubber imagina¬ 
tion would be required to think of him as even a 
pati’iot. 
© 
According to the annual report of the director of 
the Leipsic (Germany) abattoir, 36.4 per cent of the 
cattle slaughtered there in 1897 were tuberculous. 
Under their system of inspection, it is not the prac¬ 
tice to destroy the entire carcass of an affected ani¬ 
mal. In the majority of cases, the disease is localized. 
After careful inspection, disposition is made of the 
meat in accordance with the degree to which the dis¬ 
ease has extended. Sometimes the meat is sold after 
being cooked or sterilized, while in other cases, the 
fat only is sold. The Leipsic authorities appear to 
consider the total destruction of a tuberculous car¬ 
cass both extravagant and unnecessary. 
0 
Here is a sample note from a reader in Iowa : 
There is a “chain letter’’going the rounds here asking that 
10 cents be sent to “Miss-, New York City,” for the benefit 
of the field hospital auxiliary of the Red Cross Society. Is it a 
fake? 
We do not know anything about this particular 
“chain,” but on general principles, we advise all our 
readers to break all the links that come to them. The 
scheme is to write a letter to some friend asking a 
contribution of 10 cents to be sent to some distant 
party. You are to send the 10 cents, also write three 
copies of the letter to three friends. Of course, they 
are expected to do the same. Hundreds of these 
“chain letters ” are now circulating throughout the 
country. A few may be genuine and helpful. The 
scheme affords too good a chance for rogues to secure 
plunder, and our advice to all is —break the chain ; do 
not copy the letter! 
e 
A northern man who has lived in Georgia for three 
years past, right in the vicinity of the peach belt, says 
that northern people have no conception of the deli¬ 
cious quality of those southern peaches where they 
are allowed to ripen on the trees. And they are sold 
so cheaply, too; yet many of them have gone to waste 
this year, l ie told about one old colored man who 
owned a “good bit of ground” back away from the 
railroad. While so many were setting peach trees, he 
thought he’d set a few. They throve in the favoring 
soil and the genial sunshine, and this year bore a 
heavy crop. But for want of that forethought lack¬ 
ing in so many of his race, no preparations had been 
made for marketing them, and before any one who 
could help him discovered his plight, the crop was too 
far gone to save—$1,000 worth of luscious peaches 
gone to waste. Not every one who can produce a 
good article can market it to advantage. Marketing 
is as important as producing. The southern growers 
are said to be trying the canning business, and soon 
they’ll be able to take care of all the surplus. The 
principal shippers are all organized, and have facili¬ 
ties for keeping in touch w’ith all the markets; thus 
they are able to place their peaches and other fruits 
where they are wanted, and the disastrous gluts of 
other years are avoided. 
About 3,000 years ago, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt 
after grain. Once the best grain field of the world, 
Egypt became a desert. Now we are even told of an 
Egyptian agricultural college with 60 pupils ! Great 
dams are being built in the Nile. These will store up 
the precious water and hold it for irrigation. There 
is every reason to believe that after her centuries of 
sleep, Egypt is once more to provide a surplus of grain 
and cotton for the world’s market. Every now and 
then, we read of a shipload of seed corn sent from this 
country to Egypt. This does not mean that the Nile 
valley is increasing its crop of maize. It must come 
to this country every few years for new seed, as the 
Egyptian corn rapidly weakens. 
© 
At the opening of the year, The R. N.-Y. promised 
a series of articles picturing and describing some of 
the varied social and industrial conditions that con¬ 
front the American farmer. Last week, a California 
man told us of his peculiar methods of keeping poul¬ 
try. This week, a Dakota man tells us what “ a one- 
man farm ” represents with him, and a Mississippi 
man tells of his trade in grade heifers. Next week, 
we shall learn about a Delaware farm, and so on, 
week after week, we hope to show how widely scat¬ 
tered Americans are trying to make the soil yield 
them a home and a competency. There will be strong 
food for thought in these articles, for they will show 
how men through habit or through study are adapting 
their methods and energies to the peculiar needs of 
their localities. 
© 
At several times during the past four years, we 
urged readers to invest in “ new blood” in case they 
had need of it. Prices were low for all sorts of pure¬ 
bred stock, and breeders were often forced to sell fine 
animals at very low prices. Many readers took ad¬ 
vantage of this state of affairs. The purebred bull or 
cow or pig or sheep has made a mark of improvement 
on their flocks and herds. It was wise economy, for 
now live stock is increasing in value. It is evident 
that, for the next 10 years, milk and meat-making 
animals are to bring fair prices. Those who bought 
in times of depression were wise. Those who buy now 
when good results are in sight also have wisdom. The 
R. N.-Y. readers, as we have found them, believe in 
good stock. Some of them keep but a few animals, 
but these must be first-class. They buy the best. 
© 
It is said that the school children of Atlanta, Ga., 
are to be burdened with a new study, that of reading 
gas and water meters. The superintendent of the 
city water department, tired of complaints about in¬ 
correct reading of the meters, thinks it would save 
trouble if people learned to read the meters them¬ 
selves. The school superintendent, looking for novel¬ 
ties, decided that this would be an instructive feature, 
and asks the board of education to supply meters for 
teaching the children. In point of actual fact, there 
is no reason why any person of average intelligence 
should not be able to read a meter. Many gas com¬ 
panies furnish any patron, upon request, a little 
card explaining this, and a careful housekeeper will 
always read the meter when the inspector comes, 
and see that there is no discrepancy in the figures. It 
would appear that there are a few features still miss¬ 
ing from the public-school course that are more 
vitally necessary than the reading of meters. 
© 
Years ago when cotton brought 10 and 12 cents a 
pound, it could be grown profitably on the lighter 
lands of the South. As the price fell to five and six 
cents, the usual thing happened. The light sandy 
lands where fertilizers must be used heavily could not 
possibly compete with the rich bottom lands of Texas, 
Alabama and Mississippi. Five-cent cotton was cruel, 
but it is driving the farmers on lighter soils into other 
lines of farming. In the Carolinas, many cotton fac¬ 
tories have been started, and hundreds who formerly 
tried to grow cotton now spin it inside the mills. The 
old cotton lands in these sections are, in many eases, 
deserted, for five-cent cotton means that it is cheaper 
to grow the cotton in Texas and haul it to Carolina or 
Virginia for spinning. These deserted cotton lands 
will some day be redeemed, brought back to a fair 
state of cultivation, and be used to produce bread and 
meat. Thus it is that agriculture is changed from 
the outside—by influences which it cannot control. 
The older farms of the country have changed from 
stock raising to grain, to fruit growing, to potatoes 
and to dairying—changing and varying with the de¬ 
mands of the market. 
O 
It is stated that statistics prove that 95 per cent of 
young men who are cigarette smokers are found unfit 
for military service. The R. N.-Y. abhors the use of 
tobacco in any form, and if it had the power to do so, 
would prohibit it absolutely. We believe that the 
tobacco habit is all outgo and no income. No man is 
happier for having contracted it. lie is not so happy. 
When one has formed the pernicious, disgusting habit, 
he craves for tobacco the same as the opium eater 
craves for opium, the alcohol drinker craves for wine 
or whisky. Such habits give no real happiness. They 
simply gratify an unnatural, enervating craving. 
They exhilarate for a little time, the sure penalty 
being melancholy, regret, a feebler power to resist the 
ever cumulative tendency to excess. Why, however, 
cigarette-smoking should be so generally condemned 
as far more harmful than cigar or pipe-smoking, we 
do not know. The tobacco used is just the same. The 
longer the smoke, the greater is the accumulation of 
nicotine, which is notably the case with a well-sea¬ 
soned “ brier-wood ” or “ colored ” meerschaum. 
© 
A dealer in ham and bacon at Yarmouth, Eng¬ 
land, was recently arrested on the charge of exposing 
for sale meat unfit for human food. In defense, it 
was asserted that the bacon and ham seized was Ameri¬ 
can produce, in the preparation of which boracic acid 
had been used as an antiseptic and preservative. Evi¬ 
dence was given to show that this meat would not be 
injurious to health, if eaten. The magistrate, how¬ 
ever, inflicted a fine of £10, and declared that the de¬ 
fendant had rendered himself liable to a total penalty 
of £400—nearly $2,000 ! We do not think that the 
health authorities of any country can be too vigilant 
in detecting dangerous food products, but we have 
noted several cases lately in English farm papers, 
where condemned ham or bacon was described by the 
offending dealer as American meat, and this is cer¬ 
tainly a matter for investigation on the part of the 
Department of Agriculture. If any of our packers 
are sending such goods abroad, we must end this, be¬ 
fore our smoked-meat trade is injured, as the cheese 
trade was by “ filled ” cheese. If, on the contrary, 
unwholesome foreign meats are stigmatized as “Ameri¬ 
can,” we must refute the libel promptly. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
Bill Day! 
John Hay! 
At the desk of state, 
Few the letters in their name, 
But they “ get there all the same,” 
Brains inside their pate. 
Bill Day! 
John Hay! 
Make no noise or bluff; 
Bill saws wood both day and night, 
John he makes his bay all right, 
Anglo-Saxon stuff! 
Bill Day! 
John Hay! 
Watch-dogs bold and true; 
Hear the Yankee rooster crow, 
John takes hold where Bill let go, 
Here’s good luck to you! 
Liquid air—page 603. 
Secretary Day should be knighted. 
PEACE. It began at 4:33 o’clock on August 12, 1898! 
It is easier to set an example than it is to hatch it out! 
It takes a will of steel sometimes to keep from stealing. 
Your wife is quarter master ? She ought to be half, at least. 
“ Smoked meat ! ” Your wife with ouly green wood for fuel. 
It’s a feature of the ofHce-holder’sdife to become a fee eliewer. 
A moral obligation is likely to turn the average citizen into cit 
run. 
Woe to the farmer’s boy who is troubled with foot trot in his 
horse. 
Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State. No grass will grow under 
his feet! 
Pound for pound, what stock on your farm pays better than a 
good cat? 
Give new things a wby’d berth. That is, ask questions about 
them before investing. 
“ Yes,” said the egg-eating hen, “the strength of the egg shell 
is determined by peck measure! ” 
Whew! Just look at those wheat-growing figures on page 590! 
Think of harrowing an acre for six cents! 
It is said that the White grub has small liking for cow peas. 
That may be another good reason for using cow peas before 
strawberries. 
There is no doubt about the healthfulness of olive oil. That’s 
no reason why rascals should sell us cotton-seed and linseed oils 
under the name of olive. 
Who can name farmers who buy and pay for all the fruit their 
families call for? We have been told that it.pays to buy rather 
than to raise fruit—but who ever does it ? 
One way of making pickles at the South is to pack in crocks or 
casks layers of cucumbers and green grapes. The grapes are 
expected to provide the acid—and they do. 
Biolooists say that not only do all known bacteria develop in 
milk, but that they are all capable of living in it. Sterilize the 
dairy appliances, and don’t use a flaring open milk-pail. 
It seems necessary to keep saying that there is never any 
nitrogen in wood ashes. They contain potash, phosphoric acid 
and lime, but nitrogen in some form must be added to make a 
complete fertilizer. Ground bone does this very well. 
Mentioning milk quality, on page 591, Mr. Chapman quotes the 
statement that “ the old farmer’s two cows, fed a little grain at 
each milking and treated gently,” gave milk which always 
tested high in butter fat. Isn’t the “ geutle treatment ” to be 
credited witli some share in the results, as well as the feeding! 
