212 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 27 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' 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 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 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 line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adi).," 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Ad vertisements 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 cf 
Post-office and State, and what the remittance is for, appear 1 
every letter. Money orders and bank drafts on New York are th- 
safest means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make aii oraers ys., 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York 
SATURDAY, MARCH 27. 1897. 
PLANTING TIME IS HERE. 
Are you among' those who have not ordered a tuber 
of the Sir Walter Raleigh 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 to coven• postage ! 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 is the time to order it. 
© 
A company which was formed several years ago to 
manufacture “ egg food ”, a substitute for eggs, has 
just gone into the hands of a receiver. This condi¬ 
tion was brought about by the dishonest acts of the 
originator and former president of the company. He 
had, probably, been eating the fraud he had been 
foisting upon others, and wound up his career by 
cheating those who had been associated with him in 
cheating others. 
O 
It takes a stout-hearted man to use a weeder for the 
first time on good corn or potatoes. It does seem as 
though the whoie crop would be pulled up. When 
you go onceover the field and look back at the plants 
aii bent over and twisted you want to quit and go 
bacK to tfie old cultivator. It doesn’t seem as though 
the plants could possibly stand such treatment. They 
do stand it, however, and before long, they straighten 
up and start growing again with new energy. The 
principle of killing young weeds among growing 
crops by using a harrow or “ weeder ” has come to 
stay. It is one of the true economies of agriculture, 
and progressive farmers must come to it if they hope 
to save the labor bill. 
© 
The possibilities in poultry raising that are opened 
up by the succesful operation of such incubators as 
the mammoth one described on page 207, are start¬ 
ling, to say the least. The great economy possible is 
the strongest point. The cooperative creameries are 
slowly driving the private dairies out of business. 
Are we to have cooperative hatcheries on the same 
principle ? The old hen is likely to find her occupa¬ 
tion gone as a hatcher, but she and her cousins, the 
duck, goose and turkey, cannot be dispensed with to 
lay the eggs. Many prefer such breeds as P. Rocks 
and Wyandottes because they are good sitters and 
mothers, but with the township hatching done by 
machinery, the non-sitting breeds will have the prefer¬ 
ence. We have before said that there is a good open¬ 
ing in almost any town for an enterprising individual 
to run an incubator and hatch eggs for his neighbors ; 
how much larger will the field be with such an incu¬ 
bator as we have described. The prices of poultry 
and eggs have been steadily declining in the general 
market, in common with other products ; this enforces 
the need of greater economy of production. Perhaps 
this Mammoth incubator is one step in that direction. 
The actual capacity of this incubator, if filled, is 44,880 
ducks’ eggs, or 53.856 hens’ eggs, but it is doubtful 
whether it can be operated to advantage if full. Mr. 
Truslow says that the actual variation in 24 hours is 
never more than one-half degree, and usually less 
than one-fourtn degree. By raising the egg trays to 
a higher level when the eggs begin to pip, they are 
brought into a higher temperature and hatched at 
about 103 degrees. A great deal of very nice calcu¬ 
lating has been necessary in perfecting this machine, 
and is still necessary to have'it do its work to perfec¬ 
tion. 
A Philadelphia paper is responsible for the story 
of a resident of one of the suburbs, who owned a small 
hennery, and built up quite a trade selling fresh-laid 
eggs delivered before breakfast. His prices were 
high, but the quality of the eggs compensated for 
this, and his trade increased. Recently, however, an 
occasional ancient egg aroused suspicion, and an in¬ 
vestigation revealed the fact that the enterprising 
poultryman owned only nine hens, and was selling 
nearly six dozen eggs a day. When confronted with 
these facts, he was confounded for a time, but tried 
to explain by saying that he owned an incubator in 
which his hens were kept, and which caused them to 
lay frequently during the night as well as during the 
day. It is probable, however, that his egg trade de¬ 
clined rapidly in spite of his ingenious explanation. 
O 
The tendency seems to be to hoard money during 
hard times instead of keeping it in circulation ; this 
only tends to make times harder. A recent incident 
in a Pennsylvania town shows that the opposite of 
this practice, even on a small scale, might tend to 
make better times. A local paper received from a 
farmer in the morning, a §5 bill for his subscription. 
It was immediately marked, paid out and a man 
detailed to keep track of it during the day. At night, 
he reported that it had paid $105 in debts, and was 
again in the hands of the farmer who paid it out in 
the morning. It would have been a small matter, and 
the farmer might have thought of little consequence, 
for him to keep that $5 bill in his pocket that morn¬ 
ing ; but, in that case, all those debts would not have 
been paid. So far as the farmer himself was con¬ 
cerned, he owed $5 less than in the morning, and still 
had his $5. Keep the money in circulation ! 
© 
The North Carolina Experiment Station neatly ex¬ 
poses a fertilizer fraud in that State. A certain 
“ Champion Chemical Process Company” offers to sell 
a high-sounding chemical formula, with “rights” to 
use it for $4, while the chemicals it represents are to 
be sold for $4 more. Stripped of nonsensical and 
high-sounding items, the formula is as follows : 
12 pounds sulphate of potash. 
12 pounds nitrate of potash. 
12 pounds sulphate of ammonia. 
100 pounds lime. 
20 pounds carbonate of soda. 
12 bushels common salt. 
The directions are to add this to enough rich earth or 
swamp mud to make a ton. The actual fertilizing 
value of this stuff is 69 cents, and the man who puts 
lime and sulphate of ammonia together will lose a 
large part of that. Think of a man charging $4 for 
such information as that, and then making up a fer¬ 
tilizer without phosphoric acid ! Four dollars would 
pay a four years’ subscription to The R. N.-Y. 
© 
In that discussion as to spring cultivation of the 
strawberry (page 205), we think that Mr. Farmer is 
right when he says that, where berries have been 
cultivated through the fall, so that no large propor¬ 
tion of surface roots have been made, a spring cultiva¬ 
tion is safe and practicable. If, however, the bed was 
left in the fall, so that the roots have formed near the 
surface, we should consider it little short of folly to 
tear up the soil. In this case, we should, certainly, 
leave the mulch between the rows. We lost much 
fruit last spring because a careless hired man worked 
up the soil around some plants that had not been cul¬ 
tivated in the fall. The upper soil was full of strong 
feeding roots. When these were cut off, no good pur¬ 
pose was gained, while the very vitals of the plants 
were destroyed. The effect was noticeable at once. 
Great plants of Parker Earle that had prepared to set 
200 or more berries, stopped growing as though they 
had been shot and, finally, produced only a few poor 
dwarfs. Don’t kill strawberry roots by cultivation ! 
That is the nut of the question ! 
© 
We have often referred to the use of bicarbonate of 
soda and vaseline in treating “ colds” or mild cases of 
catarrh. In the writer’s family, this treatment is in 
constant use, and we have not had a serious case of 
“cold” or sore throat during the past winter. The 
other day, we found a hen in a breeding pen of fine 
Black Minorcas with the early symptoms of roup. 
The disease was, evidently, spreading and we decided 
as an experiment to try our own treatment upon the 
hens. At night, the hens were caught, one by one, 
and “ carbonated ”, The nostrils were first pressed 
and wiped off. Then a small quantity of bicarbonate 
of soda was blown up each nostril, and a large 
quantity blown through the open mouth upon the 
back of the throat. The inside of the mouth and 
throat and the head, beak, comb, wattles and upper 
neck were then well smeared with vaseline. So far 
as we can judge at present, this treatment has arrested 
the spread of roup. Hereafter, at the first sign of the 
disease, we shall put the hen in the hospital, give her 
dry, warm quarters, plenty of meat and ginger in her 
food, and use the bicarbonate and vaseline freely. It 
is certainly worth trying. 
O 
v In November, 1895, the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission gave a hearing in this city to complaints 
made by the Milk Producers’ Protective Associa¬ 
tion, against the railroads carrying milk to this 
city, an account of which was given in The R. N.-Y. 
of November 30, 1895. They had a number of griev¬ 
ances, but the principal one was that the railroads 
charge the same rate for hauling milk regardless of 
distance. The Commission has just made its report, 
16 months after the case was heard. It decides that 
the “ uniform rates are unreasonable, unjust and un¬ 
duly prejudicial to producers nearer the points of de¬ 
livery for the New York market.” It decides that 
there should be four groups of stations, first, those 
within 40 miles of the terminal; second, those within 
the next 60 miles ; third, those within the next 90 
miles, and the fourth, those beyond 190 miles. It 
says that the rates should not exceed 23 cents per 
can for the first group, 26 for the second, 29 for the 
third, and 32, the present rate—for the fourth. A 
rate which is 18 cents per can greater on cream than 
on milk, the present difference, is held not to be un¬ 
reasonable. Some minor recommendations are made 
for some branches. The order is limited to inter¬ 
state traffic. This decision seems to us to be a fair 
one, and will greatly help the nearby producers, while 
working no injustice to those more distant. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
THE FARM POLICEMAN. 
Tlie stanch policeman of the farm is Blue Sulphate O’Copper. 
He tackles mildew, rot and rust—Oh, he’s a fungus-stopper! 
He does his best detectire work disguised as Bordeaux Mixture. 
If treated well, he’ll come to be upon your farm, a fixture. 
Now, if you trust this constable, and watch his evolutions, 
You’ll soon attend the funeral of fungus’ dissolutions. 
Six pounds of sulphate, hang in bag, in gallons six of water; 
Four gallons water, four pounds quicklime you slake as if for 
mortar. 
These two concoctions then you mix (or keep as stock solutions) , 
With wat r, then, four times dilute, before you start ablutions. 
Stir up the mixture or the stuff will be precipitated— 
This constable will work the best when greatly agitated, m. g. k. 
The cur is a bark keeper. 
Pro teen— under 13 years of age. 
Put a spring on the spring work.- 
The Devil’s trust is in moral rust. 
A “ strong article ”—stable manure ! 
Best fruit is from young strawberry plants. 
What acid suits the sheep best? Lack tick. 
Grease is usually all fat, but Greece is all muscle just now. 
Ask the cow the same feeding question you ask the scientist. 
True “ Ides of March I’d better get ready for spring work. 
Cats will carry diphtheria from a sick room and broadcast it. 
One variety of “stove shark’’ makes his wifecut the stove wood. 
The ability to enjoy sound sleep should be the night trait of 
human. 
A mulch of straw on the berry ground is cleaner than a mulch 
of dust. 
Yes, the way cow peas will “ run ” shows that they are leggy 
legumes. 
“ Woodman ! Spare the tree !” In other words, feed, prune and 
spray it! 
Use bone and potash on the meadows. Grass will grow under 
that feat. 
There’s danger in the flowing pail, from the cow that carries a 
whisky tail. 
It is soil pillage to try to make fertilizers take the place of 
proper tillage. 
Who can sell the Timbrell strawberry in the general market ? 
A fine berry spoiled by its appearance. 
You should have, at least, nine acres of ground in order to 
carry three acres of strawberries successfully. 
“ The man is the platform!” Correct—if you have the chance 
to jump on him and nail him down when he warps. 
Take your own opinion of yourself and let your wife mark it 
down without love or prejudice. What would there be left ? 
If you would give your growing plant a proper balanced ra¬ 
tion, use muscle-makers of the horse in constant cultivation ! 
In speaking of your life success—in which your wife has had a 
share, don’t brag too much of what you've done, but give full 
credit to the pair. You didn’t pull the load away in single har¬ 
ness; now let’s see if you can’t analyze the / and make it over 
into WE. 
Caccecia Responsana and C. Excessana ! Who are these gentle 
men ? The first is an insect said to be as great an apple pest as 
the Codling moth. The other is a leaf roller. They are Austra¬ 
lians. We do not want them here. Entomologist Howard says 
that we must guard against them. 
A bulletin from the Geneva, N. Y., Station says that the 
little black flea beetles not only eat through the leaves of potatoes 
and tomatoes, but that the grubs from their eggs burrow into the 
tubers and cause the “pimples” often noticed on potatoes other¬ 
wise smooth. Bordeaux mixture on the leaves is the best medi¬ 
cine for flea beetles. 
