836 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 10 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert 8. Carman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
Frank H. Valentine, I v 
Mrs. E. T. Rovlk, } Associate Editors. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCBIPTIONS. 
Price, One Dollar A Year. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 
8s. 0d., or 8“4 marks, or 1014 francs. 
ADVERTISING BATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the Inch). Yearly order* * 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 26 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv 76 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-oflice and State, and what the remittance is foi, 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 Pear 1 . Ptreets, Nsw York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1898. 
5 Send us a club of four subscriptions with $4, 
q|» and we will advance your own subscription 
a one year free. New subscribers for next year 
will now get the paper from the date the sub¬ 
scription is received until January 1 , 1900. 
Why ? Now that the Supreme Court has decided 
that the United States Government has a legal right 
to prevent organizations among business men to 
monopolize trade and break competition, why do not 
the lawyers for this Government begin business 
against the trusts ? What is the matter ? Are they 
too busy studying laws to regulate the habits of our 
new islanders ? 
A Pennsylvania man was nearly killed by a drink 
of cider recently. This statement cannot be used, 
however, as a strong argument against the use of 
sweet cider, but against the pernicious practice of 
drinking the beverage through a tube extended from 
the bung-hole. A live hornet had gained access to the 
cider, and being partially swallowed, it inflicted 
several stings within the throat, the drinker narrowly 
escaping death from suffocation. Uowever, it was in 
cider that the hornet passed inside him ! 
What about fire insurance risks on houses in which 
incubators are used ? Readers report that some in¬ 
surance companies refuse to insure when incubator 
lamps are kept alight in the house. In some cases, 
such companies compel house owners to put the incu¬ 
bator outdoors in a building by itself. We want to 
hear from readers about this. What companies refuse 
to cover an incubator lamp in their policies ? How 
have they treated you ? We want your experience in 
order to put the facts fairly before the insurance 
companies. 
A recent shipwreck on the Australian coast shows 
the value of the humble pig. A number of live pigs 
were included in the cargo, and as there were no 
rockets on the vessel, the captain tied lines to a num¬ 
ber of pigs, and threw them into the sea. The intel¬ 
ligent porkers swam ashore, taking the lines with 
them, and communication being thus established, 
every one on the vessel was taken ashore by means 
of traveling cages. There have been times when the 
farmer was drifting on the rocks of a mortgage that 
Benj. Berkshire, Peter P. China, Charlie Cheshire 
or Chester White have hauled him back to safety. 
• • 
After the recent battle in Ejrypt, where the British 
soldiers shot down thousands of Dervishes, the country 
around the British position looked as though covered 
with snowdrifts. The Dervishes wore white cotton gar¬ 
ments of their own manufacture. These heaps of 
white-robed dead men not only meant that the power 
of the savage was broken, but that a great industrial 
revolution had begun. The Soudan has great possi¬ 
bilities as a cotton-producing country. Under Arab 
rule, there was little for export. Under English rule, 
the chances are that African cotton will become a 
great factor in the world’s market. England is the 
world’s great cotton buyer. Ever since our Civil 
War, she has been searching for a place to grow her 
own supply. Australia and India have failed, but 
Egypt and the Soudan promise, in a few years, almost 
to supply the English demand. Every extra bale 
produced in Africa will mean a hale less wanted from 
America. The effect of this loss will be felt chiefly in 
the South where the cotton is produced, although 
railroads, steamship lines and handlers will all suffer. 
There is nothing in the situation that seems to war¬ 
rant higher prices for cotton, even though this country 
were to manufacture its entire crop at home, and go 
out into the world’s market and compete with Eng¬ 
land ! The guns at the battle of Omdurman seem to 
have sounded the last warning to the South that her 
people must grow less cotton and more food. 
A recent poultry writer claims that hens sometimes 
lay shrunken eggs, that is, eggs in which the air space 
is larger than in the normal fresh egg. This air 
space is the chief guide of an egg candler in deter¬ 
mining the age and grade of an egg. This is only an 
approximate guide, for the temperature and amount 
of moisture in the air have considerable effect, but it 
is close enough for ordinary purposes. Still, if the 
hens are to play such tricks, and lay eggs already 
shrunken, what are the poor candlers to do, and how 
are we to distinguish strictly fresh from refrigerator, 
or held eggs ? It’s a very annoying trick of the hens. 
• • 
There is an agricultural college in Egypt, offering 
a four-year’s course in practical and scientific agricul¬ 
ture. One feature of the school is that each pupil is 
given a plot of over one quarter of an acre, and re¬ 
quired to cultivate it with his own hands. We are 
told that “ the employment of hired labor or other 
assistance ” is absolutely prohibited. The chances 
are that the fixed habit of doing their own work will 
do the young Egyptians more good than half the agri¬ 
cultural science they can absorb. It is an old story 
now how the subordinate English army officers taught 
the Egyptian soldier how to handle his gun before 
the higher officers could carry out their battle plans. 
Some of our own agricultural colleges would do well 
to teach less science and more skill with ordinary 
things. 
The papers state that, as long ago as July 1, the 
Department of Agriculture sent tons of vegetable 
seeds to Manila. We are told : 
The design of the Department of Agriculture, which has this 
matter in charge, is to experiment with all common vegetables 
and see whether they will flourish in the hill country in the island 
of Luzon. A large amount of seed potatoes will soon be sent to 
Manila, and will be distributed free among the natives, who will 
be encouraged to grow them for American consumption. The 
only potatoes in Manila are imported from Spain. 
We hope that this “American consumption” means 
only that Uncle Sam is looking out for the Americans 
who are to go to Manila. As for encouraging the 
Spanish islanders to grow crops that belong by right 
to farmers of this country—that is a policy that should 
be killed at once. 
One of the greatest helps in modern business is the 
stenographer and typewriter. But some men who are 
doing a small business, haven’t work enough to keep 
one employed. To meet this need, city firms make a 
business of furnishing these helps to those who need 
their services but cannot keep them constantly em¬ 
ployed. It’s a benefit all around. It is, in effect, co¬ 
operation. Farmers can benefit by cooperation in 
much the same way. Many a small farmer cannot 
afford to own a grain drill, a binder, a manure 
spreader, or a power fodder cutter. Cooperation will 
bring these within the reach of many such. A num¬ 
ber cf farmers can combine in buying feed, fertilizers, 
etc., by the car-load, thus securing lower prices. The 
Grange is a strong factor in bringing about these 
economies. 
Egg-eaters in England have been confronted by a 
new terror—the renovated egg. When an egg is too 
dingy, mildewy, and generally suspicious in appear¬ 
ance to be sold even as a cooking egg (which is the 
lowest stage in egg respectability), a composition of 
diluted vitriol is applied to the shell, giving a snowy 
purity and new-laid bloom extremely deceptive. The 
seller does not assert that the eggs are newly laid, 
but, as he says, their appearance shows what they 
are like. The virtues of the vitriol, however, do not 
extend beyond the shell, and the purchaser suffers a 
sad disappointment. The vender may take the stand 
of the Chicago dealer who was reproached for selling 
ancient specimens as “ guaranteed eggs.” He ex¬ 
plained, however, that he merely guaranteed them to 
be eggs, any further risk being assumed by the pur¬ 
chaser. 
The Paris Peace Commission, it is said, includes the 
cession of the Sulu Archipelago with that of the 
Philippines. The islands included under the former 
name are known to few Americans, and their mention 
will cause many of us to look up our atlases. Sulu 
(or Sooloo, as it is spelled by some authorities) in¬ 
cludes three groups of small islands, lying west of 
Mindanao, the large southern island of the Philippine 
group, and east of Borneo. North of the Archipelago, 
is the Sulu Sea, and south of it the Celebes Sea. The 
population is about 200,000. Although nominally 
under Spanish rule, irregular warfare has always 
existed between the natives and the Spaniards, the 
people acknowledging the authority of native chiefs, 
described as Sultans. From time immemorial, Sulu 
has been the headquarters of the Malay pirates. The 
islands have been visited by many English orchid col¬ 
lectors and naturalists, and the natives are more 
kindly disposed to English-speaking travelers than to 
Spanish or Dutch. The fauna and flora of the Archi¬ 
pelago are the same as in Borneo, and the land is rich 
in every sense, but a nation of Malay pirates does not 
appear a very desirable acquisition. 
Dr. Pearson, State Veterinarian of Pennsylvania, 
during a trip to Paris, visited the stables of the Paris 
Omnibus Company that uses 18,000 horses, mostly 
Pereherons. He says that they are fed largely on 
American oats and American corn. A daily ration 
consists of two pounds of African beans, and eight 
pounds each of shelled corn and oats, besides 10 
pounds of cut bay or oat straw. The horses are re¬ 
quired to go from 12 to 16 miles a day, and the aver¬ 
age life of a horse in this service is said to be five 
years, pretty short, it would seem, for the work re¬ 
quired. Dr. Pearson also says that the horseless car¬ 
riages are unpopular, and are gradually going out of 
use. They are not allowed in the parks of Paris with¬ 
out special permits. So the horse has not yet lost his 
job over the water. In spite of the frequent outbreaks 
against American products in some of the European 
countries, the people haven’t yet reached the point 
where they seem able to get along without our grain, 
meat and manufactured goods, and the demands for 
these products seem to be increasing. 
BREVITIES. 
I knowed a man, an’ his name was Brown; 
He sez, “ Now horses has gone way down ; 
Them cable cars an’ ’lectricity 
Don’t leave no show fer a man like me! ” 
An’ he went an’ sold his horses! 
An’ dairyman Jones, he lost his grip ; 
He throwed up his hands an’ quit the ship. 
Sez he, “ This oleo makes me sore, 
There aint no money in cows no more! ” 
An’ he went an’ sold his cows! 
I knowed a shepherd—Bill Smith, of Dee; 
“ Aint nothin’ left fer a sheep,” sez he, 
“ Without no tariff, them sheep won’t pay. 
I can’t raise wool fer to give away! ” 
An’ he went an’ sold his sheep! 
They’re huntin’ after good bosses now, 
There aint no price too good fer a cow, 
An’ wool is up an’ the butcher shops 
Is jest a beggin for good lamb chops; 
An’ them men are kickin’ themselves! 
Wait and work, don’t loaf and shirk! 
Extravagance baits the wolf at the door! 
Our horses make up a wry face at rye hay. 
“ I’m still in the wring! ” said the dish cloth. 
Where does the wolf usually get his suit of sheep’s clothing ? 
The busier the bread baker, the greater the loafer he becomes. 
You can’t clean land of weeds by letting the rain wash its face. 
Mr. Red Mite is chairman of the henhouse pole lice department. 
The egg of the good hen—hatch it. The neck of the poor hen- 
hatchet! 
Distill rye, and it causes riotous living. Pis till the soil, and 
the weeds run riot. 
A dangerous citizen—the man who growls at his wife, and then 
expects her to purr back. 
“ Straight as a string ! ” Whatever a politician has “ on the 
string ” is usually crooked. 
What is sugar ? A chemical mixture of carbon and water ! 
After being swallowed, it becomes a carbon ate? Certainly! 
Our first page articles this week show how western people are 
developing the idyllic side of corn culture and still keeping the 
stalk from becoming idle. 
The Wisconsin Horticulturist tells of eating a strawberry 
shortcake, November 1, from fruit grown in that State—Warfield 
and Enhance—both quite noted for second cropping. 
An indignant taxpayer near New York recently protested 
against the item of poll tax in his bill. He asserted that it was 
evidently unjust, because he had never owned a flag pole in his 
life! 
How it must weary a good veterinarian to find this definition 
of “ hollow horn ” in the New Century dictionary: “ A disease of 
cattle resulting in loss of the internal substance or core of the 
horn.” 
The feet of the Queen of China are of natural size. Large feet 
do not always make one stumble on the road to fame. You 
young men who are trying to crowd a No. 9 foot into a No. 7 shoe 
—pause and select a larger size. 
The representatives of the agricultural colleges at their recent 
meeting, had a chance to condemn the modern game of foot 
ball, but failed to do so. In one sense, the farmer certainly needs 
instruction in scientific “ kicking.” 
Cordite, or smokeless powder, requires large quantities of 
alcohol in its manufacture. Corn is used to make this alcohol, 
so that the farmers are not only feeding the soldiers, but also 
providing them with the real sinews of war. 
Some farmers in New York State lost their potato crop for the 
second time this year. Now they want to know whether they 
may safely put their trust in sugar beets. Cuba and Hawaii as 
American States would soon knock that trust out! 
