74o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 2U 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Extablixhed 1850 . 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collinqwood, Managing Editor. 
szi’h.'vssr- 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
Price, One Dollar A Year. 
To foreign countries Iri the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 
fls. 6d., or 814 marks, or 10‘/ 2 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 Notices, ending with ,l 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, OCTOBER 29, 1898. 
The managing editor wishes to thank the many 
western friends who have written inviting him to 
visit them. He hopes to accept some of these invita¬ 
tions later on. The first trip carried him through a 
part of Ohio. Then he came home to try to digest 
some of the wonderful things to he seen in that great 
State. It doesn’t do to try to see too much of the 
great West at once. He expects to make several more 
western trips—gradually working to the Par West. 
Our readers will hear all about it in due time. 
O 
It is remarkable how the farmers’ institute idea has 
been developed during the past 10 years. In the early 
days, a few hopeful and energetic men organized a 
few meetings, and thus started a movement that has 
acquired a vast influence in shaping agricultural 
education. Farmers now expect these meetings, and 
demand them. They call for certain speakers, and 
are ready to pay part of the expense when they can 
have what they call for. In some western States, it 
seems to us that this very interest is a source of 
danger. Once let the politicians find that there is any 
game for them in these institutes, and we shall have 
“ rings ” which will send out incompetent and useless 
speakers or lecturers, simply to pay them for some 
small political debt. There should be none of that. 
Give the farmers the best that can be obtained. 
© 
While the suggestion of our correspondent regard¬ 
ing aluminium tags for milk bottles on page 747 is a 
good one, such identification becomes unnecessary 
where customers feel certain that the bottles are 
properly steamed and cleansed. If every bottle is 
sterilized before filling, one feels entire confidence, 
whether individual bottles are retained or not. The 
fact that milkmen have been known to fill unwashed 
bottles while on their route argues extreme careless¬ 
ness on the part of the consumers, for one can tell at 
once whether the bottle is thus filled. If the milk is 
without the marked upper stratum of cream, and de¬ 
void of the thorough chill always present when it has 
been properly cared for, the customer should look into 
the matter at once. A good many dealers still use 
bottles with metal tops, often rusted in spots, and 
these should be abandoned. The stopper of paste¬ 
board or paper pulp, destroyed when removed, pos¬ 
sesses advantages over any permanent cap. 
© 
A western young man is reported to have aban¬ 
doned his intended bride at the altar before the cere¬ 
mony was completed, because he detected the smell 
of cigarettes on her breath. We aren’t told whether 
the young man himself was addicted to the tobacco 
habit. But why is it any worse for a woman to smoke 
than for a man ? Why shouldn’t she have just as 
much right to fill herself with beer and whisky, and 
go staggering through the streets, or wallow in the 
gutter, as a being who wears trousers ? Why should 
it be thought worse for her to curse and swear in the 
streets than for the being who has a monopoly of 
voting, but not of paying taxes ? Not long since, a 
“ man ” was convicted in Philadelphia of being a com¬ 
mon scold, and his lawyer tried to get him off with 
the plea that the conviction of one of the lords of 
creation for such an offense was without precedent. 
The judge decided that his plea was of no avail ; that 
he was guilty just the same as though he wore petti¬ 
coats. We are not defending any of these practices, 
or anybody who practices them, but we would like to 
know whether any of these offenses is worse when 
committed by a woman, and if so, why. 
The writer saw a carriage in southern Ohio last 
week, that has had a curious history. A farmer 
bought the carriage for $125, paid $25 down, and gave 
notes for $100. The former owner received informa¬ 
tion which led him to think the buyer was not re¬ 
sponsible, and that the notes would not be paid when 
due, so he went one day and took the carriage from 
the farmer’s barn, and drove home with it. The 
farmer had him arrested for stealing. The case went 
to the courts, and the farmer was found to have such 
a strong case that the other man finally offered him 
$10 and the notes to drop his suit. This was accepted, 
and the carriage was returned. It cost the farmer $15. 
The moral is that the law is often a costly thing 
to take into your own hands ! 
® 
Fruit growers have long had a quarrel with the 
banana. Though a foreign product, it comes in duty 
free. Its cheapness and alleged healthfulness lead to 
a large consumption, and many claim that it greatly 
reduces the sale of domestic fruits. Now it is reported 
that banana flour is coming into use, and that it will 
largely supply the place now occupied by whole-wheat 
flour. Manufacturers who have been experimenting, 
promise a meal or flour that will keep as long as wheat 
flour, and make a much more nutritious bread. If the 
new product fulfill these predictions, it will become a 
competitor of the wheat growers. But, perhaps, 
when that shortage of wheat, predicted by Sir William 
Crookes, arrives, we can fall back upon the banana, 
and still bid defiance to famine. 
O 
A new method of thievery has just come to light in 
this city, by which a number of houses have been 
robbed. During the absence of the man at business, 
and of the mistress on a shopping tour, a truck with 
two men drives up with a fine large couch which the 
driver explains they are to leave in a certain upstairs 
room. They grumble considerably about the extra 
work, but after leaving it, drive away. In the course 
of half an hour, they return with many apologies, ex¬ 
plain that a mistake has been made, and that the 
couch was intended for another place. Then they re¬ 
move it and drive away. When the mistress returns, 
she discovers that the house has been robbed. A con¬ 
federate of the two men, a small man, had been con¬ 
cealed in the couch, and during the interval while the 
couch was in the house, he had taken everything of 
value in sight. It is a daring, original and ingenious 
scheme, and the operators must be well posted as to 
the circumstances and movements of the victims. The 
plan is hardly likely to be extended to the country 
districts. 
© 
That reference to the hog as a grazing animal, in 
Hope Farm Notes, brings to mind scenes noted along 
the River Thames, in Canada, where droves of rotund 
black pigs were seen eating in the succulent pastures 
by the water, or wandering down to wallow in the 
river, scampering off with a conscience-stricken ex¬ 
pression when the steamboat came along. There can 
be no question as to the superior quality of their pork, 
over that of the sty-fed animal. Similarly, the hog 
pasture on an Illinois farm is quite a revelation to an 
eastern visitor. For many generations Spanish hams 
held a high position in t.he estimation of European 
epicures, and one reason given for their superiority 
was the mode of feeding. The animals were allowed 
free range, and fed largely upon acorns and beech¬ 
nuts in the forests. A similar practice used to prevail 
iu the pine regions of the New Jersey coast, where 
both cows and hogs were allowed free range, a custom 
not without its inconveniences. 
A New York burglar, who had imprudently entered 
a florist’s store, was recently captured while endeavor¬ 
ing to repose upon a bed of roses in the ice-box. It is 
hardly correct, however, to say that he was captured, 
for he earnestly besought the intruding policeman to 
take him, being half dead with cold, and full of aches 
and pains from his cramped position. The policeman 
said that he hated to disturb the man, because he 
looked like the principal figure in a funeral, lying 
there half-covered with roses. It would seem as 
though there was some retributive justice in this 
man’s position. Chicago “ hold-up ” men, since their 
season opened, in raiding butcher shops or saloons 
late at night, have developed an unpleasant habit of 
driving the proprietor of the place into the great ice¬ 
box, there to shiver while they ransack the place at 
leisure. It is only carrying out our great principles 
of expansion and reciprocity when we vary these pro¬ 
ceedings by putting an occasional burglar on ice, 
while the refining influences of the roses with which 
the New York burglar enveloped himself should aid 
the policeman in effecting a moral reformation. 
When riding through a farming country at this sea¬ 
son, one is sure to notice the appearance of the newly- 
seeded wheat. Some fields will be seen rough and 
cloddy. There will be many vacant spaces in the 
drills, and the lumps or clods have rolled back so as 
to break down the ridges between the drill marks. 
These clods, too, have absorbed moisture, and in many 
cases, the wheat is weak and spindling. In other 
fields, the surface is fine and well pulverized. The 
drill marks are deep, and the ridges between them are 
high and firm. On such fields, of course, the wheat 
looks better. It has had a better chance in every 
way, and it will have a better chance all through the 
Winter, for the ridges will hold the snow, and afford 
protection. Many of these cloddy fields could have 
been made as perfect as the others by one or two 
workings with roller and harrow. It is too late now, 
however, unless the lacking bushels of grain at har¬ 
vest can teach the farmer that the baby wheat plant 
is the parent of the full-grown stalk. 
a 
There are two sides to the good-roads question. In 
many places, the road improvement is adding rapidly 
to the local debt, and posterity will be called upon 
to foot the bills. We learn of places in New England 
where the question of improved roads has made a 
new political issue. Day laborers, very small tax¬ 
payers and riders of installment bicycles have com¬ 
bined and voted the money for road improvement. 
They are always ready to support the local candidates 
who will spend most of the public funds at road 
building. Property-owners who are forced to pay the 
taxes are often at the mercy of such voters. One 
argument often used is that improved roads attract 
residents, raise the taxable list, and so reduce taxes. 
Is there a country town that has had such an experi¬ 
ence? We would like to hear from readers about 
this. There is no use disputing the value of a good 
macadam road, but it is possible to go too fast with 
them, and create a debt that will be a great burden 
to our children. 
O 
BREVITIES. 
“HUSKING TIME.” 
The warm October suu tempers the air, 
Left chilly by the frost which, overnight, 
Crept down the valley, and obtained its share 
Of plunder where the leaves are flaming bright. 
Through the bare corn fields, stretching row on row, 
Like a great army, guarding patiently, 
Stand the great shocks of corn; the buskers go, 
With busy hands that Labor ceaselessly, 
Tearing the brown husks from the golden ear. 
Right gratefully the stalks give up their spoil, 
Across the field the yellow heaps appear, 
The true gold standard of the season’s toil. 
And the young farmer, husking in the field, 
His life ahead of him—with watchful eye 
He measures each fat shock, and marks its yield, 
And figures out his profits hopefully. 
But old grandfather—bent with years and pain, 
Watches the scene with old days in his heart; 
The closing of the year has come again, 
And younger men must carry out his part. 
• Get the stove ready. 
Don’t idolize the letter I. 
July weather in October. 
Desire sires the thought ! 
Mr. Blizzard is a blow hard. 
The silo is the proper corn asylum. 
Look out for the war veteran fraud. 
Grows thick as you clip—the clover. 
There are too many shelf-made men. 
Reducing the big head— pruning the top. 
Don’t try to operate your home without a “ co.” 
Fresh paint will make your new coat look stale. 
It’s the lazy horse that tries to keep out of a draught. 
Why are the steer feeders so slow to put up ensilage ? 
You can’t get the smallest new idea into a “ big head!” 
Mother is usually the piece commissioner in our family. 
You subtract your wife’s strength by adding to her labor. 
Scratching for food—fowl play. It makes a fair egg record. 
Men who are set in their ways seldom hatch out improvement. 
One way to give yourself away is to take yourself too seriously. 
Lots of us start out to keep a resolution and end by giving it 
away. 
A No. 1 pills grow on an apple tree. They make indigestion 
saucey. 
No man multiplies his results by dividing his attention to 
business. 
“ Life is a search for power ”! What sort of power are you 
searching for ? 
Ohio dairymen appear to be giving up the round silo. They are 
afraid it will “give”. 
A correspondent says that any man who would sell a 200-egg- 
a-year hen for less than $10 is too dull ever to produce such a hen! 
It it reported that peach trees are being planted all over the 
South by the million. A good thing overdone will undo many a 
hopeful man. 
Even a rooster permits his wife to cackle when she lays an egg. 
Most men add their wife’s results to their own score, and do all 
the family crowing. 
