324 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 30 
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. Collinowood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, | A8SOoiate Editors 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, j-Associate iscmors. 
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. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATE8. 
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 line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Ad vertisements 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, APRIL 30, 1S98. 
PRIZES FOR HOUSE PLANS. 
There has been much unavoidable delay in announc¬ 
ing' the results in the contest for the house-plan prizes. 
The last of the judges is now looking them over, and 
we shall make a report just as soon as possible. Fifty- 
eight plans in all were submitted, and it has been a 
great task to compare them accurately. 
© 
Steamship companies report that the expectation of 
war will prevent many tourists from going abroad as 
usual. It is estimated that American tourists spend 
$100,000,000 abroad every year, and their letters of 
credit being payable in gold, the money thus spent 
makes a serious drain. It is quite possible that a large 
proportion of this money will be spent at home this 
year, greatly to the advantage of the country. 
© 
Tiie new barn at the Wisconsin Agricultural Col¬ 
lege is a novelty in the fact that iron was used for 
truss work. Thus constructed, the barn has no posts 
in the cow stable, and none on the main floor above, 
where teams are driven through. This barn is 86 x 50 
feet, and the use of iron trusses in place of posts makes 
a great savirg in room. Galvanized-iron shingles 
will make a good barn roof, but shingles of ordinary 
iron will rust on the under side, as the cattle and the 
hay produce too much moisture. It seems that farmers 
are divided in their opinions as to the value of steel 
siding for barns. We hope to give shortly a picture 
of a steel barn, and then we shall have a chance 
for a full discussion of the matter. 
© 
In one seed store, the writer was informed that they 
no longer sell tobacco dust or stems. These are largely 
used as insecticides and fertilizers, and most seedsmen 
have carried them in stock. But our informant said 
that, to do so now, they would have to take out a 
Government license, the cost of which is so high that 
there would be no profit in the business. Another 
extensive seed firm said that they are still sell¬ 
ing tobacco dust, and purpose to continue to do 
so, and if the Government wishes to take it up, they 
would make a fight on it. That is right; the Govern¬ 
ment may compel seedsmen to take out a license to 
sell seeds yet, on the ground that they are injuring its 
seed business. Between its publishing various kinds 
of books and pamphlets, running an advertising 
sheet and seed shop, giving away hog cholera reme¬ 
dies and the like, the Government is getting to be 
quite a business concern. 
© 
There are 16,000,000 Spaniards and 70,000,000 Ameri¬ 
cans. Spain is bankrupt and sterile. America is the 
richest nation on earth, and the most energetic. The 
Spaniard obtains his energy and vital force from eat¬ 
ing bread, oil, onions, chestnuts and cheese. The 
American eats more meat than any other human. Yet 
Spain actually contemplates fighting America. Why ? 
Because a war between the two countries must be 
fought chiefly on the water, and the Spanish fleet is 
nearly as large as our own. If our fleet were as large 
as that of France or England, there would be very 
little thought of war. There is much truth in the 
notion that the best way to avoid a fight is to be m 
good condition for one. The Senate has rushed the 
country into a war over questions which many of us 
believe that President McKinley could have settled 
honorably without bloodshed. Now that Spain has 
practically kicked our representative out of Spanish 
territory, we are informed that this country is not 
ready for war—that an army must first be gathered 
and equipped. Some of those who shouted loudest 
for war may now be first to turn and find fault with 
the Administration. This should not be. We may 
have differed as to the best way of freeing Cuba, but 
now every true American should support the Govern¬ 
ment in its efforts to end the war promptly and 
decisively. 
© 
Perhaps the most costly and delicate of all fungi is 
the truffle. Many efforts have been made to cultivate 
it, in some eases with success, but its germination 
has always been a mystery. Now it is announced by 
a contributor to the French Academy of Sciences, 
that the truffle is a true mushroom, which may be 
propagated by spores without trouble. The ordinary 
way in which truffles have been cultivated is by bury¬ 
ing over-ripe and decaying specimens in sandy loam, 
under beech, hazel, oak, or Cedar of Lebanon trees. 
Sometimes oak sawdust is mixed with the soil. The 
truffle has been cultivated in this way, with varying 
success, in France, Italy, and Great Britain, always 
realizing a high price. 
O 
The State of Michigan has a law which provides for 
the inspection of all nursery stock sold in the State 
and such orchards as are supposed to contain danger¬ 
ous insects or diseases. All nurseries and tree dealers 
selling nursery stock in Michigan must take out a 
license, and give a bond of $1,000 that they will sell 
no stock that has not been inspected. If required to 
do so, they must furnish a list of their customers for 
the use of the inspector. No bond is required where 
a nurseryman in another State simply fills orders by 
mail. It. seems that 92 nurserymen and 33 dealers 
have taken out licenses, and given bonds under this 
law. But little San Jos6 scale has been found in the 
State. Some dealers are said to object to the law, 
but on the whole, it seems to be giving satisfaction. 
Michigan leads the States in efforts to control insects 
and plant diseases by legislation, and it must be said 
that such legislation has been helpful. 
© 
Inundations of sea water along the coast of Essex, 
England, caused serious loss and anxiety to the farm¬ 
ers in that district last AVinter. The statement was 
made thait this sea-soaked land would be unfit for cul¬ 
tivation for five or six years to come. After examin¬ 
ing samples of the sea-soaked soil, Prof. Voelcker says 
that the amount of salt contained was equivalent to 
an affusion of 3 M to 3% tons per acre. This would be 
enough to injure crops of wheat or barley, but would 
not hurt grass. Such crops as mustard, rape, cabbage, 
mangels, and perhaps, oats, might be sown, even with 
this amount of salt in the soil, but Prof. Voelcker 
pointed out the fact that tramping the land with 
horses and plows while wet would be decidedly dis¬ 
advantageous. The washing out of the salt by rain, 
and the growing of crops to absorb it, were suggested 
as the best means of eliminating the salt from the 
land. The first method is the more satisfactory one, 
and to render this effective, rapid drainage should be 
provided for. The “alkali” lands in the West are 
treated in much the same way. Where they can be 
irrigated, the first step is to flood them and wash out 
as much as possible of the alkali. Subsoiling and 
loosening the upper soil will help this washing. 
© 
The legislature of Illinois passed a so-called anti¬ 
color law which prohibited manufacturers from color¬ 
ing oleomargarine in imitation of butter. Two out of 
three circuit court judges in Illinois have declared 
this law to be unconstitutional, and a brief statement 
of the reasons for and against this decision will be in¬ 
teresting. Here seems to be the principal ground for 
the majority opinion: After declaring that butter 
and “oleo” are made of much the same materials, 
therefore practically the same thing, the judges say : 
The legislature, by this act, says that the manufacturer of this 
article, called by different names, may use anuatto or other harm¬ 
less coloring matter, to make his goods more salable, and in the 
same act says that another manufacturer producing the same 
article, but called by another name, shall not use annatto or 
other coloring matter in his goods. This is, in our opinion, an 
unfair and unjust discrimination in the act itself, which is not 
justified in law or good morals, and is a violation of the individual 
rights of the citizen, which invalidates the act. 
On the other hand, the judge who dissented says : 
If a substitute for coffee should be discovered, and an article 
should be manufactured that would contain all the properties and 
ingredients of coffee, from which a wholesome, stimulating and 
nutritious drink could be made, having the flavor and taste of 
coffee, a law to prohibit the manufacture of such a substitute, 
might with some reason be said to be unconstitutional; but a law 
which prohibited the manufacture of such a substitute in the 
shape of Jthe natural coffee berry to resemble natural coffee, in 
a form and manner likely to deceive the public buying coffee, 
would be clearly constitutional, because it is apparent that the 
prohibition would be directed, not against the wholesome manu¬ 
factured article, but against its manufacture in imitation or 
semblance of a well-known natural product. 
Fair-minded people generally will, we think, agree 
that the minority judge has the better of this argument 
from a common-sense standpoint. He has, also, the 
best of it in law, for the same point has been upheld 
by higher courts in other States, and by the United 
States Supreme Court. In all these cases, the point is 
made clear that the oleo manufacturers seek to color 
a cheap fat and then sell it in disguise for a more ex¬ 
pensive one. 
© 
The New Zealand government intends to make trial 
shipments of apples to London this season and, in 
order to insure the growers against loss, will guarantee 
one penny per pound clear for all fruit accepted for 
export. If the sale in London clears the price ad¬ 
vanced and expenses, leaving a surplus, this surplus 
will be handed over to the fruit-growers’ unions in 
New Zealand, to be distributed by them to the orchard- 
ists sending the fruit. New Zealand, Australia, Cape 
Colony and Canada are all making strong efforts for a 
share of the British fruit trade, which will make them 
competitors with our growers. 
0 
The excitement over the existing war with Spain 
has drawn attention from Alaska and the Klondike 
mining regions. It is quite likely that many young 
men who had planned to try their fortunes in the 
gold mines have been kept at home by the war talk. 
Alaskan development is still going rapidly on. and we 
are learning more and more about that strange north¬ 
ern land. Mr. Van Deman’s article this week gives a 
fair idea of the outlook for farming. This outlook is 
certainly not promising. It would be folly for any 
ordinary man to expect to make a fair living on a farm 
in Alaska. There is said to be one primitive silo in 
Alaska, and only one plow team ; but years ago, the 
Russians failed to establish agriculture on a firm 
basis. On some of the small islands, the raising of 
foxes has become a promising industry—the islands 
being rented from the Treasury Department. On the 
whole, Alaska appears to be a country for the miner, 
fisherman and lumberman, with little or no chance 
for the farmer, and less chance for the man who 
fails at mining or fishing. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
The rooster crew a cruel crow right at his hated rival, 
So bloodthirsty that it would leave small hope for his survival; 
And yec, he paused before the fight, to put this warlike question, 
Like one who seeks a remedy for mental indigestion. 
“ Before we baste each other o’er with sanguinary gravy, 
Pray tell me why that crow was like a vessel in our navy ? 
I can’t expect an answer on the first spur of the minute, 
I’ll use my spurs upon you in the coming fight—and win it. 
We have unarmored cruisers in our navy, as you know, sir, 
While that defiant note was but a big unarmored crow, sir ! ” 
The other rooster saw the point down went each ruffled feather 
“ I find my honor satisfied ! ” They walked away together. 
How oft some aptly spoken word will make red anger scatter, 
For wit is sharper far than spur, and mind will master matter. 
Sure may be killed by extra slow. 
An honest blackleg—the Minorca hen. 
Closely connected—victuals and vitals. 
The devil never tries to wear out soul leather. 
Some men must be hired to discharge their duty. 
The war prospect has boomed the price of mules. 
The East Indian would as soon eat millet as wheat. 
What do you hope to hatch out of your “ nest egg ” V 
Do straitened circumstances ever lead to crookedness ? 
A combination of money and pocket produces combustion. 
You may be a Prohibitionist, yet the head of a whine company. 
How many farmers will admit that their boys are smarter than 
they are ? 
Bull work in the tread power may be the bulwark against 
weak calves. 
Jones says that the dyspeptics and the insane both have ailey 
mental troubles. 
Why should the bald-headed man breed Angora goats ? He 
needs mo’ hair. 
It required two Iowa courts to decide that dogs are property in 
the eye of the law. 
Which causes the greater amount of trouble and suffering— 
laziness or overwork ? 
The boy claims that the seat of wear and the seat of war are 
often common territory. 
The moldy butter tub—page 319. A good remedy for both mold 
and scold is to “ dry up.” 
Who, in the end, will pay the larger part of the cost of a war 
with Spain ? The farmer ! 
The talking hypocrite has a bad case of “ hollow tale.” “ Cut 
it off and cast it from thee.” 
Can any one give an instance of an iron building that has ever 
been damaged by lightning ? 
You won’t hurt your dignity, good sir, by hitchin’ a bit of your 
strength to some work in the kitchen. 
The Spanish are bull fighters—so are some dairymen—they fight 
against the introduction of good bulls. 
Men in old times could pull themselves up with the labor of 
their hands alone. Now they must do it with their heads. 
The man who blocks out too much work in April, is likely to 
have a “June drop ” of his courage when the weeds fairly start. 
The Ohio Station says that practically all the mixed fertilizers 
sold in Ohio are made of tankage, acid phosphate and muriate of 
potash. Who could expect good results with such a mixture on 
potatoes ? 
There has been a remarkable demand for information about 
Spring wheat this year. Farmers in New York and New Jersey 
think that they can sow it and obtain a good crop. They are 
doomed to disappointment. 
The Seminole Indians in Florida have for years earned their 
living with a rifle. Game is becoming so scarce that they must 
now earn it with a hoe. The hoe is a great civilizer, but it can¬ 
not compete with the weeder and cultivator. 
