1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
879 
because its nature and the methods of treatment are 
better understood, though it has not been epidemic 
to the extent of some former years. The severity of 
the disease is, also, said to be decreasing. Its great¬ 
est danger seems to lie in the tendency to run into 
other and dangerous diseases like pneumonia; grip 
weakens and debilitates, thus opens the way for dis¬ 
eases which a vigorous constitution might resist. 
The president of the Hoard of Health says that it is 
impracticable to advise any general treatment, as 
there are such variations with different individuals. 
A thorough general treatment such as is given for 
severe colds is best. Avoidance of all conditions that 
tend to cause colds, is advisable. One doctor says, 
“ Keep warm, dry and clean.” It is generally thought 
that unsanitary conditions are favorable to the spread 
of the disease. George Washington is said to have had 
the disease in this city in 1789. 
Canadian Hay Taxes. —The Chicago Record recently 
told why the French-Canadian farmers have always 
raised so much hay : 
Two or three centuries ago, tithes were imposed for the benefit 
of the church, upon all agricultural products, and a list was 
made of them. The farmers were compelled to give the priests 
one bushel in 26 of everything they produced, whether it was ap¬ 
ples, potatoes, wheat, corn, onions, turnips or any other grain or 
vegetable. Everything that grows was on the list except hay, 
which for some reason, was omitted. Perhaps it was a mistake, 
but it is more likely the hay crop was so insignificant in those 
times that it was overlooked. In 1764, when Canada passed from 
French to British rule, the tithing law was confirmed and ratified 
by the treaty, and continues in force until this day in the Prov¬ 
ince of Quebec and wherever the Catholic church is strong. 
Therefore, to escape tithes, the farmers raise hay. 
A Canadian reader says that this does not entirely 
account for it. Most of the land occupied by the 
French is well adapted to growing hay. From 1% to 
2 tons per acre could be grown, and can be now in 
many places, and when hay brought $10 to $15 per ton, 
it was an easy way of making money. The low prices 
of late years are causing them to keep more stock, 
which will save many farms from destruction. Farm¬ 
ers are still compelled to give the priests one bushel 
in 26 of everything they produce, and are now taxed, 
at least in some dioceses, 10 cents per ton on their hay. 
This money tax was imposed because so many farmers 
were raising little else but hay. These tithes can be 
collected by law if farmers refuse to pay, but in 
many cases, they are not all exacted by the priests. 
The Telephone Monopoly. —The picture shown 
at Fig. 401, taken from the New York Herald, is a 
good illustration of the workings of the great tele¬ 
phone monopoly in our larger towns and cities. This 
monopoly secured patents on telephone instruments, 
and was thus able to dictate prices for service, as well 
as location for wires. The picture represents Father 
Knickerbocker as he is tied up by the telephone wires. 
He is obliged to pay extortionate rates for service, 
and oftentimes the service itself is not of the best. 
We ought to have more competition in the telephone 
business, for this would reduce rates, and give us 
better general service. The telephone monopoly has 
grown exceedingly rich at the public’s expense. The 
farmers’ telephone companies, which are being organ¬ 
ized all over the country, use the cheaper instruments, 
and obtain good service with them. The telephone is 
getting to be almost a necessity, especially on lonely 
country farms. We are always glad to see the system 
extended, and it seems a great pity that such a house¬ 
hold necessity should be monopolized and get into 
the hands of people who are working, not for the 
public good, but for their own selfish purposes. 
NOTES FROM NEW YORK INSTITUTES. 
CAUGHT ON THE BUN. 
Wliat Ai*e the Butter Fats ?—In talking with a 
most noted scientific man the other day, he said that 
it is strange that two matters were so prevalently ad¬ 
vised by dairymen, yet were not profited by. One 
is that rich feeding of cows increases the proportion 
of butter fats to other solids of the milk ; and the 
other is that the fats of the food are the direct origin 
of the fats in the milk. As to the former, if so, why 
is it that not a man in the United States is availing 
himself of the fact to increase the butter income of 
his dairy ? If the other is true, why is it that a change 
of foods makes no difference in the character and com¬ 
position of the butter ? It can be made a little softer 
or harder, but so far as we know, it is all butter alike. 
It is quite as true that fats in food do not make fats 
in butter, but that butter fats are derived from the 
albuminous parts of the food. Fat in food is a pretty 
general term. In composition, it is an ether extract, 
made up of some fat and a conglomeration of other 
things, such as wax, fatty acids, glycerides, chloro¬ 
phyll, etc., some of which are as yet undetermined. 
Butter fat is true fat, and a good cow, in producing 
butter, makes more fat in her milk than the whole of 
these substances put together taken in her food. Cows 
will go right on giving milk and making butter if 
every drop of the fat is extracted from their food, as 
has been proved. 
His Mind Eclipsed.—Why men will spend all 
Summer in raising crops and making hay to feed dry 
cows in the Winter, is what I can’t understand ! What 
return is there for hay and grain fed to dry cows, 
young stock which grows poorer all Winter, and pigs 
that weigh less in April than in the November pre¬ 
vious ? What has a man to show for his labor and 
feed? It’s like a fellow trying to prove that a beef 
cow is better than a dairy-type cow that gives 6,000 
pounds of 4%-per-cent fat milk in a year. To do this, 
they add a two-year-old steer to the cow’s credit, and 
forget to charge the steer with the cost of feed and 
attention. Why should not cows pay their keep when 
it costs most to keep them, and not wait until milk 
gets down to 50 cents per 100 pounds before they begin 
to earn anything ? 
Clean Hens. —“ It’s no use saying that a henhouse 
can stand air-slaked lime and dry tansy leaves. Make 
nests of tansy leaves sprinkled with air-slaked lime, 
and lice will not bother sitting hens, and there will be 
no vermin on the chickens. Don’t fasten hen roosts 
to the side of the building ; suspend them from the 
roof with wires, and rub a. little tallow on the wires 
now and then. Spray the roost poles twice a month 
with kerosene with a little carbolic acid in it. Hen 
mites live in the cracks of the building, and in the 
seams and cracks of the roost poles This cuts off the 
hiding place and supply of parasites. Make a dusting 
box, and keep filled with coal ashes with a little 
sulphur in it. Have ash wallows under sheds for 
the Summer hens, and the louse crop will be a small 
one. This for the poultry of the farmer. The com¬ 
mercial hen raisers have their own troubles, and 
remedies.” 
Cover Crop in Corn. —When going through the 
corn for the last time, sow two quarts of Dwarf Essex 
THE TELEPHONE SITUATION IN NEW YORK CITY. Fig. 401. 
rape, and four quarts of Crimson and Red clover to 
the acre, and cultivate in lightly. As soon as the corn 
is cut all three will make a wonderful growth. Have 
a flock of sheep handy ; they will pretty nearly 
winter on this catch crop. House them at night, feed 
clover and a little grain. In the Spring, you can turn 
under what is left on the field, put on oats and clover ; 
that field won’t need any phosphate, and the catch 
crop and its Winter feeding value have been clear gain. 
The rape roots, clover and manure have made a great 
gain in fertility for the field ; the field, if left barren 
as most corn stubble fields are, would have washed, 
leached and wasted much fertility. Fields covered with 
a catch crop in the Winter, waste little, and manure put 
upon them does not wash away, as a living plant rott 
is ready to seize fertility as fast as liberated. This is 
the experience of a 1900 farmer. j. g. 
STRAWBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 
WILL THEY SUCCEED TOGETHER? 
A reader in New York State asks the following 
questions: 
Not having any land suitable for strawberries, I am thinking 
of setting them between the rows of red raspberries, which I in¬ 
tend planting next Spring. Can it be done successfully ? What 
is the experience of others ? 
The questions were submitted to some of our well- 
known fruit growers, and the following opinions have 
been returned : 
Hittenger Bros., of Massachusetts, would not set 
out strawberry plants between rows of red raspber¬ 
ries under any circumstances. In dry weather, the 
raspberries should be cultivated, which could not be 
well done if the strawberries were there. 
J. F. Wygant, of Orange County, N. Y., says that 
strawberries and raspberries will not do well together. 
The shade from the bushes will injure the strawber¬ 
ries, so that they will be too small. Unless the rows 
of raspberries are about eight feet apart, and one row 
of strawberries through each center, one will get but 
few strawberries. 
W. D. Barns, of Orange County, N. Y., says that 
raspberries are usually set in rows, not more than 
five feet 'apart At this distance, they occupy and 
cover the ground, so that the crop between them 
would have little chance for growth, and would ma¬ 
terially injure the raspberry crop. Strawberries may 
be successfully grown in a young orchard the first two 
or three years after the trees are set, or in a vineyard. 
By making the raspberry rows seven feet apart, a 
single crop of strawberries might be grown success¬ 
fully. It would be more economical to set the rasp¬ 
berries the usual distance, and reserve the place of 
one or more rows for strawberries alone. 
A. W. Slaymaker, of Delaware, says that it is, in 
every way, more satisfactory to plant red raspberries 
so that they can be worked b ith ways. This, of 
course, would be impossible if the strawberries were 
placed between. He would much prefer to plant each 
kind separately. They can, however, be grown to¬ 
gether if one is ready to take extra trouble to give 
the best attention. The rows of raspberries must be 
at least seven feet apart, and all tendency to widen 
the rows must be strictly prevented. Give clean and 
thorough culture, and do not allow any suckers. 
Mulch the strawberry row as usual, when the ground 
is frozen, and work next to the raspberries in the 
Spring with a narrow cultivator, so as not to disturb 
the strawberry row. Do not, on any account, try to 
get a second crop from the strawberries. 
F. G. Tice, of Oswego County, N. Y., says that it 
can be done. “ I now have an acre in bearing which 
was grown in that way. If the inquirer has strong, 
well-tilled land, and give the best of cultivation, he 
can succeed finely. After preparing the land well, 
it should be marked out both ways 3x4 feet. The 
raspberry plants should be set in every alternate row 
the three-foot way, and on every mark the other way, 
thus making them stand 4x6 feet; then fill in each 
of the three-foot rows with strawberry plants, so that, 
when finished, the field will be made up of strawberry 
rows three feet apart, with raspberry plants in each 
alternate row, and four feet apart in these rows. 
These plants should be kept thoroughly cultivated 
and hoed. The strawberries should be allowed to 
make only a narrow matted row, not over 10 or 12 
inches wide, and thoroughly mulched with straw. 
“ Although I have not done so, I think it would be 
well to cut the entire raspberry growth the following 
Spring, so that a strong growth for the next season’s 
fruiting may be had. In other words, I think it would 
be advisable to sacrifics the first year’s fruiting of the 
raspberries, which at best, would be a small one, that 
the strawberry be allowed fully to perfect itself with¬ 
out the drain that the unrestricted growth of the 
raspberry would naturally make upon it, and that the 
raspberry, which makes much of its growth in the 
latter part of the season, be allowed to make a strong, 
hardy growth, not being stunted by attempting to 
perfect a crop of fruit at the same time. 
“After picking the strawberries, the vines may be 
cultivated out by working both lengthwise and cross¬ 
wise (which is why I recommend planting in rows 
both ways). Should the inquirer prefer to grow his 
raspberries in hedge rows instead of in hills, he can 
set 3x6 instead of 4 x 6 feet, but he can handle the 
field much more easily, and have far better fruit if he 
grow in hills. 
“On the field referred to, we succeeded in growing 
7,000 quarts of strawberries per acre, and now have as 
fine a stand of raspberries as we ever saw. Should 
the inquirer desire to take a second crop of fruit from 
the strawberries, he can do so, provided he keep the 
field perfectly clear of weeds, thoroughly cultivated 
after picking, fertilize and mulch heavily, and keep 
the raspberry canes well thinned out—not more than 
five or six to the hill. He must not expect as many 
or as early berries the second season on account of 
the shade.” 
WHY NOT KILL TRESPASSING POULTRY? 
TOO SMALL TO LAW ABOUT. 
Poultry as “ Wild. Game.”— One of our readers 
sends us the following item, which he found in an 
agricultural paper under the head of “ Popular 
Science ” : 
It may be an item not generally known, that the United States 
Supreme Court recently handed down an opinion to the effect 
that poultry running at large is wild game, and the persons on 
whom chickens may trespass have a legal right to kill them. 
He says he considers this opinion a just one, as a gar¬ 
den is too small a thing for two neighbors to go to 
law about. He says that, if a man has a right to kill 
a chicken in this way, there are many who would let 
the weeds grow rather than have a lawsuit. If tres¬ 
passing fowls are classed as wild game, farmers and 
gardeners certainly ought to know it. In this con¬ 
nection, Mr. Chas. A. Green makes the following 
statement: 
“ There ought to be some law which will prevent 
neighbors from imposing upon each other with ram- 
