?2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 30 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FABNERS’ PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman. Editor-In-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
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. 6 d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
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of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
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count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Ad vertlsements 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, JANUARY 30, 1897. 
To our recent subscribers, we would say—our older 
friends are well informed of the fact—that The R. 
N.-Y., offers to send a small tuber of the new Sir 
Walter Raleigh potato to all subscribers who send us 
a two-cent stamp to cover the postage. The Sir Wal¬ 
ter is a seedling of the R. N.-Y. No. 2, and, as we be¬ 
lieve, from trials at the Rural Grounds, is equal to its 
parent in all ways, and superior to it in quality and 
perfection of form. 
0 
On page 67, a reader speaks of sowing oats in the 
strawberry patch and using them for mulch. We 
have heard of cow peas being used for the same pur¬ 
pose. In theory, this plan would seem sensible ; yet 
there are many who doubt whether it can really be 
made to succeed. If any of our readers have actually 
followed this plan of growing the mulching crop 
right among the berry vines, we shall be glad to have 
them tell us how it was done and how it succeeded. 
O 
The danger of wrong conclusions from seeing only 
part of an occurrence or hearing only one side of a 
story, was recently clearly shown to the writer. All 
through the winter, myriads of crows fly north every 
morning to their feeding grounds in the interior, and 
return to their roosting places near the coast, toward 
nightfall. A person who, probably, was not an early 
riser, noticing them flying south, came to the con¬ 
clusion that colder weather must be imminent, be¬ 
cause the crows were going south. He didn’t see 
them fly the other way every morning, or he might 
have concluded that warm weather was coming. It 
would all depend upon which way the crows were 
seen to be flying. It generally pays to hear both 
sides of a story. 
0 
Bergen County, N. J., was settled early in Ameri¬ 
can history by the Dutch and French Huguenots. 
These frugal and enterprising people cleared the 
land and dotted the county with their substantial 
stone houses. They were farmers, and up to within 
25 years, these farms were prosperous. There was 
profit in such products as rye, hay, potatoes and 
meat. Many of the old houses have now passed away. 
A few have been kept in repair, others have been 
torn down, while others present just such a picture 
as is shown on our first page. Their day has gone. 
The old-time farming they represented has also gone, 
for it is a striking evidence of so-called progress to 
realize that, within a few miles of such old ruins, 
people are now engaged in growing Christmas straw¬ 
berries at $6 a quart. 
® 
Mr. Bentzien and Mr. Latta, in this issue, touch 
upon a subject that is of great importance to many 
farmers. The low prices of past years have made it 
impossible for farmers to conduct their business just 
as they did in former years. They have been forced 
to practice many economies ; and they have been sur¬ 
prised to learn how much they spent on unnecessary 
operations and materials. The R. N.-Y. has fre¬ 
quently said that comparatively few farmers are 
really able to obtain profit out of a hired man’s labor. 
It is one thing to work to good advantage yourself, 
and quite another to direct another’s labor at the 
same time. The cost of farm labor has kept up, while 
the majority of the ordinary things it produces 
have fallen in price. We have long believed that 
thousands of farmers would be better off to keep no 
hired help, but instead, use the best of machinery 
and attempt only the work that the members of the 
family can do well. The two instances given this 
week show how this plan can be carried out in prac¬ 
tice, and we could show dozens of cases where skillful 
planning has enabled the farmer to save the hired 
man’s wages. The hired man will naturally ask— 
What is to become of me under this arrangement ? 
Are labor-saving devices to crowd out human labor ? 
If this be true, what is to become of the humans who 
were formerly supported by that labor ? That is a 
question that cannot be put off many years longer ? 
O 
About the best evidence we have seen that neces¬ 
sity is both father and mother of invention, is seen in 
the homemade windmills used in Nebraska. In some 
of the dry portions of that State, the settlers found 
themselves without money and without moisture. 
There was water below the surface, but it was use¬ 
less as drink for plants until it was raised to the 
level of their roots. It is generally supposed that 
considerable capital is needed to conduct pump irri¬ 
gation successfully. Many of these Nebraskans had 
little capital besides the wind that blew over their 
farms. They were forced to harness the wind with 
crude and cheap contrivances. The result is remark¬ 
able. One mill which cost only SI. 50 is lifting water 
enough to irrigate a large fruit patch. Another, 
costing but $8, is used to irrigate five acres of garden 
truck. Another Jumbo or “ go-devil ” like the one 
pictured on page 800 of last year’s volume drives two 
pumps and irrigates four acres of orchard. These 
mills certainly show how brains, sharpened on the 
grindstone of hard times, can cut a hole out of difli- 
culty. We expect to give pictures of a number of 
these cheap mills. Possibly some of them can be 
used elsewhere. 
0 
The so-called harrow trust, otherwise known as 
the National Harrow Company, has had another set¬ 
back. This company is a combination of manufac¬ 
turers of spring-tooth harrows. Each manufacturer 
assigned to the corporation the patents under which 
he was operating, and took back an exclusive license 
to make and sell the same style of harrows previously 
made by him, and no other, all the parties being 
bound to sell at uniform prices. A Pennsylvania firm, 
it seems, has been selling its product at prices more 
favorable to buyers than those which the company 
had fixed, and the latter applied for an injunction 
restraining the firm from so doing, and to recover the 
penalty. The action was brought in the United 
States Circuit Court of the Eastern District of Penn¬ 
sylvania. There were several points in the defense, 
but the presiding judge said that it was necessary to 
discuss but one of them, and that was that these 
license contracts are in unreasonable restraint of 
trade, and are part of an unlawful combination to 
control the manufacture of an important article of 
commerce, to destroy competition in the sale thereof, 
and maintain high prices. These different manufac¬ 
turers became agents of the corporation, and received 
exclusive licenses to manufacture and sell on their 
own account, but subject to uniform terms and con¬ 
ditions, which are prescribed by the corporation. 
The judge decided that this combination is injurious 
to the community, and obnoxious to sound public 
policy. These corporate monopolies don’t seem to 
have a legal leg left to stand on, still they appear to 
flourish. Why *? 
® 
The pond in your pasture is about dried up. There 
is just about water enough for 10 head of cattle. You 
turn in 10 steers and 10 calves. You would have no 
right to grumble if, after a few weeks, you found 
some of the calves dead and the others poor, puny 
little things—not worth raising. There was not water 
enough for all 20 animals. The 10 strong ones crowded 
the 10 weak ones away. You sow clover seed on a 
wheat field in the spring. Your theory is that the 
clover needs a nurse crop. The soil is dry. The usual 
spring rains do not come. The wheat plants utilize 
all the water and make a fair growth. The tiny clover 
plants die of thirst. It is the old story of the steers 
and calves. Instead of “nursing” the clover, the 
wheat succeeds in cursing it so that you fail to get a 
“catch.” The successes with clover sowed alone in 
the spring that are recorded on page 66, are due to 
the teachings of Prof. W. A. Henry, of the Wisconsin 
Station. Experiments at the station gave good re¬ 
sults, and some of the short-term students went home 
and tried it on their own farms. It was observed 
that lawns seeded with grasses only make a luxuriant 
growth. No one wants a “ nurse crop ” on a lawn. 
Why should a young grass plant need shade and 
“protection” any more than a corn or oat plant? 
There are many cases where spring seeding to clover 
seed alone will prove a very useful operation. The 
greatest danger to the clover will come from the 
large weeds. The truth is that the great value of a 
grain crop lies in the fact that it crowds the weeds 
down until the clover obtains a fair start. When the 
weeds get the start of the clover, they may be set 
back by clipping them off with a mower just above 
the clover plants. This experiment is well worth 
trying in localities where the season is dry and 
where the clover failed last year. 
0 
Of all the newspaper efforts to select a Cabinet for 
President McKinley, perhaps the most amusing are 
the selections for the army and navy portfolios. The 
men suggested are chiefly bankers or lawyers who, 
probably, could not to save their lives, “ shoulder 
arms ! ” or “box the compass 1 ” The idea seems to be 
that future fighting will be done with pens, tongues 
and dollars, and that “business men” rather than 
military experts should head these departments. We 
regret to say that this same idea seems to prevail with 
reference to the Agricultural Department. If a 
banker will make a suitable Secretary of the Navy, 
why should not a lawyer or dry-goods merchant make 
a splendid Secretary of Agriculture? That is just 
about where we are likely to come if the politicians 
are to have their way. We give President McKinley 
credit for a good deal of shrewdness. He knows that 
his administration will have a rocky road at best. He 
knows something of the general uneasiness among 
farmers, and must understand that more and more of 
them each year are taking personal interest in the 
Agricultural Department. He may safely put a banker 
or a butcher or a baker in the War Department, but 
if he select a man as Secretary of Agriculture who 
does not have the confidence of farmers, and cannot 
make them feel that he is their friend, he will miss a 
great opportunity. Give us a man who has some 
sympathy with the plain farmers of the land 1 Pay 
political debts, if need be, with other departments, 
but give us a man to represent agriculture ! 
O 
BREVITIES. 
The army worm has come and gone, 
That caterpillar dire, 
Which swallowed crops and weeds alike 
In spite of spray and fire. 
The more he ate the more he’d want, 
As greedy as could be; 
He stripped the farm of ears and leaves— 
And stalks, too, seemed to flee. 
But now he’s left the ruined fields 
Where all is bleak and bare, 
He’s hidden under sticks and leaves— 
His hibernating lair. 
So now’s the time to settle him 
Thus helpless, in our power, 
By burning up his hiding place 
Before the April shower. m. g. k. 
The worst Trust is a trust in “ luck.” 
Amateur poets are “ pome” ologists ! 
To “brake” a colt, you pull on the lines. 
The seller’s prices are way down cellar just now. 
A remarkable showing for a balanced ration—page 78. 
The bedbug lays about 50 eggs. That certainly is a bug bear. 
. A thoroughbred bull is a typewriter. He writes his type upon 
his calves. 
A good tool never “ talks back”—unless you forget to grease 
the wheels. 
Now, Mrs. Woman, are you responsible for your husband’s 
homemade loaf ? 
The weigh of the world ! You must pay 20 ounces to the pound 
and accept 12 ounces ! 
When the cows gnaw the fence, it doesn’t need a chemist to 
show that they need phosphates. Give them ground bone. 
The Hudson River fruit growers may learn how to conduct a 
fruit institute at the Connecticut meeting in Hartford, February 
9-10. 
Are the strong becoming stronger and the weak becoming 
weaker? Why? May strength or weakness come through the 
head? 
Who have succeeded with Crimson clover sown in the spring 
with oats ? How much growth does the clover make after the 
oats are cut ? 
Yes, sir, when you clean out your cellar, it’s going to pay you 
to burn a pound or more of sulphur down there with the doors 
and windows shut. 
Cutting corn fodder by hand is a man-killing job. It will chill 
your ardor while it warms you up. Who will add to what L. A. 
Clinton says—on page 69. 
Don’t forget to inclose the stamp when you write to a stranger 
asking a favor. By leaving it out, you stamp on his good nature 
and stamp yourself as a poor business man. 
You can control the cost of production easier than you can con¬ 
trol the selling price. Your wife may save in the preparation of 
the family food easier than you can increase your income. 
We have just received a check for 75 cents which was made out 
over two years ago, and had not been sent back for collection. 
That is a dangerous way to handle a check. It should always be 
cashed at once. 
Australians seem to have proved that chicken cholera will 
spread with fatal effect among the rabbits with which Australia 
is cursed. The Government hesitates to let such a scourge loose 
among the animals. 
If the motive power in man can’t push through legislative re¬ 
forms, we may have to try the votive power of woman. The 
motive power of the mare is said to be money. Man seems to 
have dropped to the level of the mare! 
Some rogues in Connecticut are making a dishonest living out 
of the prospect of free rural delivery of the mails. They drive 
through the country near large towns representing themselves as 
United States agents appointed to number farm houses. They 
sell large metal numbers worth about five cents for 25 cents. 
