i78 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 13 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
TBE B U81NE88 FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman. Editor-ln-Ctalef. 
Herbert W Collinowood, Manaping Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s, 6d., or 8)4 marks, or 1014 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 Une. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv .,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Ad vertiseinents inserted on.y 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 ntme 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, MARCH 13, 1897. 
WE WANT 
A chance to handle jour book trade. Our readers buy 
thousands of books durinar the year. Why not buy 
them through Thu R. N.-Y. ? We can save you time 
and money. Books are tools. New books are con¬ 
stantly appearing. We keep track of them, and try 
to separate the grain from the chaff. We shall be 
pleased to advise you and help make the selection. 
Then we shall be pleased to sell you the books you 
select. We waul your book trade. Write us before 
you buy. 
O 
The programme for the meeting of the Hudson 
Valley Horticultural Society at Poughkeepsie, March 
11 to 12, is an excellent one. It covers the ground 
well. Farmers who attend will be sure to learn 
something, and will, also, have a chance to meet old 
friends and form new acquaintances. Plan to attend 
this meeting if you can possibly do so. It will pay 
you. 
0 
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. 
O 
We are selling a good many copies of “ The New 
Potato Culture,” by E S Carman. This little book 
costs but 40 cents in piper. It gives a condensed 
account of the long series of experiments Mr. Carman 
has made. Every phase of the question, from se¬ 
lecting the seed to cultivating the plant, is carefully 
considered. This book should be in every potato 
grower’s library. Another very useful little book is 
“ A Fortune in Two Acres,” by Fred Grundy. This 
costs only 20 cents, and is, in many respects, the most 
useful printed friend to the owner of a small place 
that we have. 
© 
The writer spent several days of last week at 
Tuskegee, Ala., attending a conference of negro 
farmers. He has attended a good many farmers’ 
“institutes”, but this meeting of colored men was, cer¬ 
tainly, the most interesting and instructive gathering 
he ever took part in. In early issues of The R. N.-Y., 
we expect to give an account of this “conference”, 
and we think that our readers will be both amused 
and instructed to learn how the colored race is slowly 
but surely rising to a more dignified and useful place 
in agriculture and skilled labor. “ The New black 
man” is appearing at the South. There can be no 
question about that, and he is going to exert a strong 
influence upon American agriculture. 
© 
Hardly a week passes that we do not receive letters 
from those who wish to know whether “skunk farm¬ 
ing” is a profitable business. Some years ago, we had 
an account of a farm in western New York where 
1,000 or more skunk pelts were produced for sale each 
year. The business was at that time quite profitable, 
and we afterwards learned of a number of other 
similar farms. So far as we know, however, most of 
them have now been given up. Their owners seemed 
to make money, but they could not stand the opinions 
and comments of neighbors and friends. The bad 
reputation of the skunk drove them out of business. 
A man to make a success of breeding any animal 
must get to pretty close quarters with his stock. A 
poultryman must be half hen and a dairyman must 
be half cow. Not many men can endure the reputa¬ 
tion of beiDg half skunk. The fact is that a skunk is 
a very useful animal—probably of more actual use in 
the world than the cat. Its reputation for odor is so 
bad, however, that it is likely to ruin any attempt at 
“ skunk farming”. 
© 
On page 186, C. B. K. tells of buying a purebred 
Guernsey bull to grade up his herd, and finding him 
utterly worthless as a breeder. This is, certainly, a 
discouraging experience. But the question arises, 
What should be done about it? Granted that the 
bull has been properly kept and handled, should the 
buyer who has paid an extra price for the animal for 
a specific purpose, stand the loss ? The probability 
is that he has already sustained a greater added loss 
by the failure of his plans than the first cost of the 
bull. Has the seller of purebred stock any right to 
sell an animal for breeding purposes unless he knows 
that he is fully capable of performing what is ex¬ 
pected of him, or guaranteeing that he shall be all 
right? No manufacturer would think of selling a 
machine for doing specific work without a guarantee, 
and the law would soon compel him to make resti¬ 
tution if all were not right. Why should not this 
apply to those who sell breeding stock ? It certainly 
is to the interest of breeders to make such matters 
right, at least to the extent of the price paid for a 
defective animal, and we believe that most reliable 
breeders would gladly do so. 
O 
A few facts about potash. On soils long in culti¬ 
vation that are not inclined to clay, the mineral ele¬ 
ment most likely to be needed is potash. The greater 
part of this substance that is voided by animals is 
found in the urine. For example, the urine of the 
horse contains 1 35 per cent of potash, while the solids 
contain only .35 per cent. Cattle urine contains five 
times as much potash as the solid manure. Sheep 
urine is richest of all in potash. Comparatively small 
quantities of potash are brought to the farm in pur¬ 
chased grain. Wheat bran and malt sprouts are richer 
in potash than any other grains, with cotton seed 
meal and linseed meal next. Of the whole grains, 
oats contain most of this substance. Here, then, are 
three facts : Potash is lacking in most light soils. 
We buy only small quantities of it in grain and other 
feed stuffs. The potash in manure is found mostly in 
the urine, where it is most likely to be lost by leach¬ 
ing or drainage. These facts certainly show the 
necessity of demanding a high per cent of potash in 
our fertilizers. We find large quantities of phosphate 
rock and fish or cotton seed meal with enough kainit 
added to give two per cent of potash, sold in the 
South for cotton fertilizers. No wonder the soils on 
which this mixture has been used year after year 
will not grow clover. Potash 1 Potash ! ! POTASH ! 1 I 
Don’t use a fertilizer with less than four per cent of 
it unless you know that your soil does not need it. 
© 
Some of the papers have been printing a remarkable 
collection of pictures said to show the features of 
Hon. James Wilson of Iowa, our new Secretary of 
Agriculture. The photograph from which our first- 
page picture is made, was sent us by Mr. Wilson him¬ 
self, and is, therefore, a correct likeness. Mr. Wilson 
is a Scotchman by birth and, for generations, his an¬ 
cestors have been farmers. At the age of 17, he came 
with his parents to this country and settled in Con¬ 
necticut. Two years later, the family moved to Iowa 
and bought government land. Mr. Wilson has lived 
in Iowa ever since. He is the oldest of a family of 14 
children and, like most men who went West 40 years 
ago, knows by personal experience what toil and 
privation mean. Starting as the teacher of a humble 
country school, he has, by thrift and good judgment, 
been able to produce what is considered one of the 
best stock farms in Iowa. He has served several 
terms in the Iowa Legislature, and three terms in the 
National House of Representatives. For the past six 
years, he has been director of the Iowa Experiment 
Station, and professor of agriculture in the Iowa 
Agricultural College. Practical farmer, experienced 
legislator and scientific student I It seems to us that 
these are ideal qualifications of a Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture, and The R. N.-Y. believes that President 
McKinley has made a wise choice in selecting Mr. 
Wilson. Certainly a man with such a history must 
realize the needs and wishes of the plain farmers of 
the country. While, of course, we understand that 
the powers of the Secretary of Agriculture are limited, 
it is true that his advice and suggestion will often 
decide matters that are of great importance to agri¬ 
culture. We feel sure that Mr. Wilson’s advice and 
ideas will be business-like and practical—and not 
based on theory or prejudice ! 
Seedsmen are offering the “ Australian Salt-bush” 
this season, and we have received a good many in¬ 
quiries about it. Some readers seem to think that it 
is a dangerous plant to get rid of after it once becomes 
established. Prof. S. W. Hilgard, of California, who 
was largely responsible for its introduction into this 
country, writes us as follows concerning it: 
The Salt-bush is not at all difficult to get rid of. The seed is quite 
perishable; the large plams, six to eight feet across, are killed by 
cutting the single tap root; the young seedlings are abundantly 
produced around tDeir margins, but are killed by a shallow plow¬ 
ing. We are not yet sure how much cold it will stand, or how 
well it does in lands destitute of salts. Some of our latest trials 
tend to show that it does well on non-salty sandy lands; but as a 
rule, I do not recommend its use where Alfalfa or clover can 
be grown. But we do know that it will do finely on salt-marsh 
where the water is not too near the surface—say, at least, 2)4 
feet below. The point in its favor in the arid region is that 
wherever alkali exists in the soil, irrigation is not needed for the 
Salt-bush. 
The chief value of the Salt-bush lies in the fact that 
it will produce a forage crop, readily eaten by stock, 
on “ alkali ” lands which will not sustain any other 
crop. Its culture is rapidly spreading in California— 
chiefly on land waere Alfalfa or grain will not grow. 
It would be folly to expect that it will give more 
digestible food to the acre than corn or clover in 
sections where these crops are at home. An English¬ 
man, led by the glowing reports of seme of our 
American ensilage corn crops, to plant maize heavily, 
would surely be disappointed. The reports might be 
true, yet the English climate is better suited to roots 
than to corn. The chances are that outside of its 
mission of providing stock food on land so full of 
alkali that other plants will not grow, the Australian 
Salt-bush will not prove satisfactory. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
Now, President McKinley, you are safely in tbe ebair, 
Before you act, rt mem ber who it was that put you there. 
Without tbe aid of thousands who had fought you oft before, 
Upon Defeat's hard benches you’d be seated sad and sore. 
These men deserted party, aud have trampled ’neatb their feet 
Politica 1 ambitions that were dear to them, and sweet; 
So, President McKinley, just remember where you stand, 
And bold the reins of government with true and fearless hand. 
Spell People, and not party, with your very largest P, 
And when it comes to Country, put a lot of ink in C. 
Don’t Trust in Corporations—let tbe farmer have bis share! 
Don’t trust alone in Tariff, sir, to make round places square. 
Stop borrowing of bankers, cut tbe National expense, 
The fraud appropriation and the salary immense! 
Stand up for arbitration—let our policy be peace, 
But back up little Cuba, and hurrah for little Greece ! 
Call up the foreign nations with their silver and their gold, 
And make them form a ratio ’twixt tbe metals that will hold. 
Stand up for public morals, put some nitrogen in trade, 
Put cash in circulation, and your iuture, sir, is made. 
The Lord’s laws are never unlawful. 
Tiie weigh of the transgressor is short. 
“ Help a fallen brother rise” by rising yourself! 
Soluble nitrogen makes a fool of the Lima bean. 
Corn on the hen’s bones will make a lame egg yield. 
A white lie is not a sterile lie; neither is a half truth. 
How many cubic feet of air for each cow in your barn ? 
Wanted, a fair substitute for skim-milk in the calf’s ration. 
A note from Leamington, Ont., states that the peach buds are 
dead. 
Don’t let a penny wise policy pound foolish ideas into your 
head ! 
The hack writer’s “ breeding pen ” breeds words rather than 
thoughts. 
‘‘The family Aim” is what the conceited man would have his 
wife sing. 
You can’t strike a fair average with high ideals and low 
practices. 
“ Into each life some reign must fall!” See that your share 
gives you the reins of your own will. 
Don’t test two quarts of bran against two quarts of corn meal 
aDd tuen say that bran doesn’t pay ! Feed by weight! 
The Rcral New-Yorker’s catalogue review which was begun 
February 27, is continued, in the case of some belated ones, on 
page 176. 
Rub some dry feed in the little calf’s mouth just after feeding. 
It teaches him to eat the feed and dries out his mouth so that he 
won’t suck. 
The amount of oxygen taken in daily must equal the sum of 
all the other food elements. Mix plenty of fresh air in your bal¬ 
anced ration 1 
The Missouri Experiment Station people claim that tobacco 
dust will destroy tne apple-root plant louse. Take the earth from 
the roots and put in the dust. 
Bring seed potatoes out Into the light! Don’t let the sprouts 
grow all bloodless and white! Snort, green and stubby the 
sprouts should be found, when you are ready to work up your 
ground. 
Prof. J. C. Arthur, of Indiana, announces a new fungicide for 
potato scab. This is formalin, waich possesses advantages over 
corrosive sublimate. Eight ounces of formalin to 15 gallons of 
water make the right bath for seed potatoes. 
A Maryland packer has been fined $100 for packing Maryland 
peaches and putting California laoels on toe cans. That strikes 
us as about the most foolish opeialion a man could do. It’s a 
sure way of giving a bad name to a good thing. 
The country is promised a new tariff bill as soon as the new 
administration can get at it. Among other things, it is proposed 
to put a duty on gypsum or land plaster imported from Nova 
Scotia. It seems to us that this would be a mistake. The agri¬ 
cultural duty of land plaster is to arrest ammonia. There is no 
good reason why farmers should pay more for his services. 
