196 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March. 20 
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. CSollingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Bafest 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 20, 1897. 
PLANTING TIME IS HERE. 
Are you among those who have not ordered a tuber 
of the Sir Walter Raleigh potato? If so, why? It 
certainly does not cost much to secure this potato. 
POTATO WANTED! 
JOHN SMITH, 
JONESVILLE, 
ALASKA. 
That order will be honored if you will send a two- 
cent stamp with it, though we would just as soon have 
you add some fact or suggestion from your farm ex¬ 
perience. Two cents for postage 1 That is the only 
cost to you. Our opinion is that the Sir Walter 
Raleigh potato is better than the R. N.-Y. No. 2 or 
either of the Carmans. Now r is the time to order it. 
Do so at once. 
© 
The new Hudson Valley Horticultural Society held 
a very successful meeting at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 
March 11-12. The new society starts with 150 mem¬ 
bers, and every prospect for a successful career. One 
striking feature of this meeting was the large num¬ 
ber of young men who attended. A full report next 
week. 
O 
Our impression is that a Northern dairy cow would 
have a severe case of sick headache at the mere sight 
of the mess of cotton-seed hulls prepared for her 
southern sister. These “hulls” seem to be more 
than 50 per cent lint, and we should call them just 
about as digestible as the contents of the family rag¬ 
bag. Yet the Southern cattle eat them well and 
thrive upon them when mixed with grain. There is, 
certainly, no reason why these hulls should be fed at 
the North. In fact, even on most Southern farms we 
should consider it better economy to feed ensilage 
and use the hulls for fuel. The butter from these 
hull-fed cattle was, certainly, too hard and crumbly 
to sell in Northern markets. 
© 
Accurate chemical analysis reveals some remark¬ 
able things aoout the manurial value of various sub¬ 
stances. For example, here are a few figures showing 
what some familiar substances contain in the way of 
plant food : 
POUNDS IN ONE TON. 
Nitrogen. Potash. Phos. acid. 
Corn cobs. 10 12 154 
Wheat straw. 12 10 2*4 
Oat straw. 13 25 4 
Corn fodder. 21 28 6 
Apples. 3 4 1 
Eggs. 44 3 8 
Average stable manure. 10 12 5 
Now suppose that some one comes to you and says, 
“ A ton of corn cobs is worth within 15 cents as much 
as a ton of stable manure, a ton of oat straw is worth 
50 per cent more, and a ton of corn fodder twice as 
much !” You would laugh at him, for you know better. 
You might cover an acre one foot deep with corn 
cobs, and obtain fewer potatoes than you would with 
five tons of good stable manure. As for oat straw and 
corn fodder—they are well enough in the manure pile, 
but no chemist can make your potatoes eat them 
when served alone. That may all be true, but don’t 
forget why the stable manure is better than the corn 
cobs. The plant food is in the cobs, but it is locked 
up in such forms that the plant cannot eat it. You 
might give a baby a sealed bottle of milk. The 
little thing would starve, though nothing but a thin 
glass separate its mouth from the milk. Burn the 
cobs, and the lime, potash and phosphoric acid be¬ 
come available. Chop up the straw and the fodder 
and let it mix with the manure pile, and they decay 
so that the plant can feed upon them. All this shows 
the necessity of knowing something besides the actual 
chemical analysis when buying a fertilizer. We 
should know not only the chemical analysis, but also, 
what forms of plant food are used. It is getting so 
that a farmer has only two methods of knowing just 
what he is buying. He may mix the chemicals at 
home, or buy only of dealers in whom he has absolute 
confidence. We have just been examining the analysis 
of a complete fertilizer claimed to contain the food con¬ 
stituents from “animal bone” only. To one who 
knows what bone is, it is evidently impossible to obtain 
the analysis given without using something besides 
the bone. The fraud is as evident as would be the use 
of vinegar instead of lemon in making lemonade. 
O 
A Vermont subscriber who has run a farm on shares 
for three years, says that he has about made both 
ends meet, with a gain of five Jersey heifers due to 
calve this spring. We will guarantee that many busi¬ 
ness men have less than that to show for the past 
three years’ work. This same man says : 
There is a creamery one-quarter mile from me that was built 
last year, which makes and sells our butter for four cents a 
pound, and pays the patrons every month. We think that is 
doing better than to make it at borne, and then trade it out at 
the store, or send it to some commission house and then, perhaps, 
lose it all. 
That brings up a question we have long wanted to 
discuss. Can you make and sell your butter for less 
than four cents a pound ? We would like to know 
about it. If you had this man’s chance, would you 
close the home dairy ? Why ? 
© 
Our scientific men may well take Bulletin No. 118 
of the New Jersey Station as a model for simple lan¬ 
guage and clearness of statement. This is the most 
readable essay on tuberculosis that we have ever 
examined. It is most readable because it tells the 
unlearned man just what the disease is without long 
words or technical phrases. Any man who can under¬ 
stand the English language will know from reading 
this bulletin just what “ consumption ” is and how it 
spreads and develops. We will venture to say that 
many who assume a wise air and pour out a flood of 
words about tuberculosis, cannot tell just what the 
disease is. This is a model bulletin. Would that 
there were more like it. Some of our scientists send 
up a cloud of words and then hide behind it with 
their facts or principles. Get down close to the 
people. Give us soluble mental food. 
© 
A subscriber in Connecticut asks this question : 
Turf ground, intended for next year’s corn crop, was plowed in 
November, and can be well manured with manure from grain- 
fed stock, the manure to be sheltered till applied. Would it pay 
to add to this, potash in some form ? 
We certainly believe that it will pay to add potash 
and phosphoric acid to manure in any section where 
commercial fertilizers are in general use. Good clover 
hay alone comes very near to being a “balanced 
ration” for milch cows. Yet what dairyman would 
feed it alone ? We consider it just as sound economy 
to add minerals to stable manure as it is to add grain 
to clover hay. We would add 30 pounds of muriate 
of potash and 50 pounds of dissolved rock to every 
ton of stable manure, mixing them in the manure as 
it is made. We feel sure that this use of chemicals 
will pay on any farm where fertilizers have ever been 
used. In the case named by our correspondent, 
where the manure is already in the yard, we would 
broadcast it and plow it in and then harrow in enough 
muriate of potash and dissolved rock to give the pro¬ 
portions named above. Feed the manure pile. It is 
like putting cash into the bank. 
© 
On page 191, Mr. Emerson, of Illinois, tells us how 
he plants potatoes, using a modification of the Rural 
Trench system. This is a little different from the 
usual plan, and Mr. Emerson adopted it because his 
soil is likely to be damp in the spring. By planting 
the seed pieces with a ridge over them, good drainage 
is secured, yet, when these ridges are harrowed down, 
level culture is given. Mr. Emerson says that he reads 
a paper for ideas and suggestions rather than for cast- 
iron rules. This is a great big country with widely 
varying soils and climates. A man in New Hamp¬ 
shire, some 12 years ago, fastened twigs into a stick 
and discovered the principle of cultivating crops with 
a “weeder”. A man in Kansas read about it, but 
found that, in order to work successfully on his soil, 
the teeth must be heavier and of a different shape. 
The principle was right, but details had to be re¬ 
arranged to suit the local needs. So it is with hun¬ 
dreds of other things. The underlying principle may 
be right, but we must change and modify the details 
in order to suit the local conditions. That is what 
The R. N.-Y. likes to bring out. We like to discuss 
principles of agriculture and have our readers fit 
them to their own needs. When a successful man 
lays down the law, it is well to remember that his 
rules are made of rubber rather than of cast iron. 
© 
It is interesting to watch the development of an 
egg in the incubator. Day by day, the wonderful 
process inside the shell is being developed, and we 
may study, through the egg tester, the marvelous 
growth of life. The first thing that strikes a thought¬ 
ful man is the fact that an egg is almost as sensitive 
as milk in its tendency to become stale. Let a sitting 
hen brood on an egg for 24 hours, and the process of 
incubation will be fairly under way. Many eggs are 
gathered and collected in such a manner that, by the 
time they reach the consumer, they are partly devel¬ 
oped chickens. When a dairyman puts pure, clean 
milk on the market, his only hope for a successful 
trade is to show wherein his milk is superior. He 
must show what the ordinary milk is, and how he 
gets rid of dirt and bacteria. The incubator gives the 
poultryman a hint along this line. Let him show 
his customers what it means to keep an egg close to 
103 degrees, even for a few hours. Then let him show 
how he is able to avoid this in his own practice. He 
can make the contrast between the “undeveloped 
chicken ” and the fresh egg so striking that customers 
will be found to pay the difference in price. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
What time’s that clock a sayin’ ? What? You don’t say! Half 
past eight ? 
My stars! I hadn’t no idee that it had got so late. 
It’s mighty close to bed time! This here book beats all! Say, John 
Go down and git some apples while ye gut yer slippers on! 
I’d feel played out to-morrow ef I didn’t clear my head 
With two good, meller Baldwins jest afore I went to bed. 
An’ don’t forget them Pippins on the west side of the bin, 
An’ half a dozen Greenings—don’t forget to throw them in. 
I haven’t touched no physic for a score of years or more, 
Since this here apple eatin’ got to be a certain chore. 
Come, mother, eat an apj:>le! John, you orter handle three, 
An’ Bill, you eat a couple more an’ leave the rest to me. 
You don’t catch me a braggin’ of no high domestic wealth, 
But Dr. Baldwin Apple, sir, will guarantee our health. 
What, nine o’clock ? It’s bed time! John, jest wind the clock! 
That’s right! 
Now, all hands eat an apple! Take the candle, boys! Good night! 
Deeds beat creeds. 
Spring plowing for oats. 
Let your light shine behind you. 
Plant lice! Bury the lousy hens! 
The bacterium is the king of leasts. 
Go to school to the mule and learn patience. 
Soet work by day means hard sleep at night. 
Mud! Mud! Wears out your horses’ flesh and blood. 
It’s hard to lift a mortgage against a falling market. 
To cultivate a corn row, step on your neighbor’s foot. 
Take thought for the morrow unless you want to borrow. 
Soot is not worth over one-fourth as much as wood ashes as a 
fertilizer. 
Be positive in your true negatives, and negative about being 
too positive. 
Does freezing hurt ensilage any more than it does bran or 
stalks ? Why ? 
“ Pumpkins on ice,” page 203. Who can tell a story with more 
pumpkins in it ? 
Reading stale news is like making mental chestnut grafts. 
Take something new. 
They won’t need much apple sauce with that apple-fed pork of 
Mr. Woodward’s—page 191. 
Sleep, plenty of apples, exercise, and a light heart ! There’s 
a home-mixed patent medicine for you ! 
No farmer can succeed who does not love the farm. Love with¬ 
out mental and bodily sweat will mean bankruptcy, however. 
“ Five dollars fine for spitting on the floor!” We find that sign 
in some Southern railroad stations. It beats a thousand, “ Please 
don’ts.” 
You buy sugar for the sweetness it contains. Buy potash salts 
on the basis of actual potash. Why buy kainit when the potash 
in it costs more than in muriate? 
You notice how little we hear about the “abandoned farms” 
of New England ? They are mostly taken up. Advertising and 
merit did it. They were good bargains. 
No, sir, hen manure is not equal to Peruvian guano. Why ? 
Poultry eat grain—sea fowl eat fish ! Fatten the poultry manure 
with bone and potash and you have guano ! 
It is not generally understood that the chief feeding value of 
earrots and parsnips lies in the large amount of pure fat they 
contain. They rank above all other roots in this respect. 
The Douglas fir would seem like a typical Scotch tree, yet the 
best specimens in Scotland are grown from Colorado seed. This 
is exporting “the glorious climate of Colorado” in small packages. 
Clean, sharp sand mixed with finely pulverized glass like old 
bottles, etc., and baked at a high temperature, will form a hard, 
porous mass. This is the basis of a new German filter which has 
given excellent results. 
The Kansas experimentors brought smutted oats from Ohio 
and planted them in Kansas soil. There is a theory that change 
of soil will kill the oat smut. It did not in this case. The oat crop 
was smutted. The smut is carried in the seed. Kill it by hot 
water or sulphate of copper before sowing. 
An advertiser sold, through The R. N.-Y., goods that went to the 
Azores Islands. We have attentive readers from Alaska to Argen¬ 
tina, and from Sweden to the Cape of Good Hope. In spite of 
Gen. Weyler, Cubans receive and read The R. N-.Y., and in 
plague-stricken India, the paper is studied. The “uttermost 
parts of the earth” are represented on our subscription list. 
