April 3 
228 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
TEE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman. Editor-In-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingivood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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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 ana make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New' York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1897. 
BRAIN TOOLS. 
Kooks are brain tools ! Thoughts live in print! 
Live men need live thoughts ! You want books ! We 
want your book trade! We will quote prices on any 
book or combination of books and papers. Just now, 
there is quite a demand for the following volumes : 
The Forcing Book, by Prof. L. H. Bailey. $1.00 
Vegetable Gardening, by Prof. S. B. Green. 1.25 
New Potato Culture, by E. S. Carman.40 
Handbook for Farmers and Dairymen, by Prof. F. W. Woll. 1.50 
A Fortune in Two Acres, by Fred Grundy.20 
The Business Hen, by H. W. Colling wood.40 
Principles of Plant Culture, by Prof. E. S. Goff. 1.00 
“ There are others ! ” What books do you want or 
need ? Let us know ; Knowledge is power. It may 
be in our power to furnish the book We want your 
book trade. 
• 
Some readers do not understand that the wholesale 
prices quoted for fertilizing chemicals are for very large 
lots only. For instance, the prices on nitrate of soda 
are for lots of 1,000 bags or over. Farmers cannot 
expect to secure any such terms when ordering 
small lots. 
© 
Some weeks ago (page 176), Mr. H. E. Van Deman 
stated that he did not know of any variety of apple 
or other fruit that is sweet on one side and sour on 
another. Two of our readers have already come for¬ 
ward with evidence to show that such apples have 
really been grown. When we get all the testimony 
together, we shall have an interesting exhibit ! 
a 
Nearly every year, as spring approaches, we re¬ 
ceive inquiries about securing immigrants as farm 
laborers. At the Barge Office, in this city,, is a free 
labor bureau. Any one wishing help, should write 
there to Mr. W. H. Meara, stating just what kind of 
help is needed, and for what work, the wages that 
will be paid and what nationality is preferred. He 
must also give satisfactory references, and furnish 
transportation to the place of destination. The 
bureau buys the tickets on receipt of the cash, checks 
the baggage of the immigrant selected, and mails the 
checks to the employer, thus insuring his arrival. 
© 
Our friend, J. L. Brown, of Nebraska, tells of a man 
who bought an irrigation pump and outfit costing 
$300, and turned the water upon a fine orchard of ap¬ 
ple and plum trees. He overdid the thing and nearly 
drowned the trees, so that he secured a growth of but 
little over two inches. Another man, unable to buy 
such an expensive outfit, paid $4 for a good cultivator 
and kept the surface soil “ everlastingly stirred up ”. 
He secured a growth of two to three feet on his trees. 
“ Irrigation with a horse’s leg!” That is entirely prac¬ 
ticable, and a cheap cultivator in the hands of a bright 
man may beat a fine engine and pump in the hands of 
a dull man. In most parts of the country, the rain¬ 
fall is sufficient to grow ample crops. The point is to 
hold the water in the soil, so that the plants can 
utilize it when most in need of it. Water is lost by 
drainage and evaporation. In heavy soils, we do not 
care to prevent drainage—in fact, we like to facilitate 
it. In light, open soils, a supply of vegetable matter 
will hold water enough for ordinary purposes. To 
prevent evaporation, we must work on the surface of 
the soil and break it up so that the passages through 
which the water would naturally escape are closed or 
clogged. When we keep the surface stirred up and 
fined, we make what is known as a “ dust mulch”. 
The soil water rises to the stirred surface and there 
stops—much as it does under a mulch of leaves or 
straw. “ Horse-leg irrigation ” does not add water to 
the soil, but it arrests it. It is like soldering up a 
hole in the milk can and thus saving milk, while pump 
irrigation is like pouring more in at the top. 
e 
A recent report of the United States Division of 
Entomology notes a singular business which is carried 
on in a little French town, and also in a Pennsylvania 
village. It is nothing more than the farming of 
spiders. These spiders are put into new wine cellars, 
where they spin their cobwebs over the new bottles 
and thus give the appearance of great age. The 
spider has always held an honorable place among 
insects. Legend has it that one of the breed gave the 
inspiration long ago that saved Scotland. Too bad 
that man should now put the spider to such a dis¬ 
honorable job as weaving the bogus evidence of old 
age around bottles of new wine. 
© 
Massachusetts has a law for the protection of 
roadside trees. The local government of town or city 
may mark the roadside trees which they wish saved, 
whenever a wood lot is to be cut, or at any time when 
they deem such trees in danger. No roadside tree 
can be cut down or injured in any way except after 
due notice and proper consent. The penalty for cut¬ 
ting down a roadside tree without permission is not 
less than $5 or more than $100, half of which goes to 
the complainant. One of the glories of New England 
country towns lies in the beautiful shade trees which 
line the streets and roads. Western New England 
has become a perfect swarming place for summer 
boarders, and the cool shade of the roadside trees has 
done much to bring such boarders from the city. 
Such trees are a regular part of the Yankee’s stock in 
trade, and the State does well to protect them. We 
would like to see all our country roads shaded in 
this way. 
© 
There are thousands of good people in this country 
who believe that our agricultural colleges have not 
lived up to their opportunities. Here is an extract 
from a letter from a graduate of one of these colleges 
that will illustrate what we mean : 
We have stepped clean away from the purpose of this estab¬ 
lishment, in many cases, and through our desire to compete with 
colleges having other purposes, we have forgotten “ what we are 
here for.” We have, too often, failed to touch the rank and file 
of farmers, and the very men we have educated, go to swell the 
ranks of professions and occupations not in sympathy with 
rural life. 
There is much truth in that. These colleges have 
been trying to light the fire from the top of the heap. 
What they ought to do is to get down and start it at 
the bottom. We must put leaven in the mass and 
not in the crust alone, if we are to make rural life 
what it should be. With all due respect for our white 
agricultural educators, we wish to offer the opinion 
that the Tuskegee Negro College stands at the head 
in its method of reaching those farmers who are most 
in need of help. We shall state plainly why we think 
so when we describe the Negro conference at Tuskegee. 
© 
We have close at hand as we write, a sample of a 
new stock food. It is a fine, brown substance, look¬ 
ing much as dried brewers’ grains would appear if 
they were ground fine. This substance is called “the 
new corn product”, and is really the hard, outer shell 
of the corn stalk—from which the pith has been 
taken—dried and pulverized. The pith of corn has 
the ability to absorb great quantities of water very 
quickly. It is used as packing between the inner and 
outer shells of war ships. If pierced by a ball, this 
packing will absorb water and swell so rapidly that 
the hole will be closed. Ordinary corn fodder con¬ 
tains about one pound of pith to 14 pounds of stalk, 
blade and husk. As there is a great demand for the 
pith, there is a large quantity of the stalk left. This 
is cut and ground, making a fine product containing 
more nutriment than Timothy hay. Careful ex¬ 
periments at the Maryland Station show that this 
new feed will keep as well as linseed meal or wheat 
bran. It is more digestible than corn blades, and 
gives better results than corn fodder when mixed 
with grain to make a “balanced ration”. Bulletin 43 
of the Maryland Station gives an interesting account 
of this new feed. We should say that a ton of it would 
occupy considerably less space than a ton of baled 
hay. It ought to sell at one-third the price of hay, 
and if it be properly put on the market, we predict a 
large sale for it. 
© 
Large quantities of frozen meat are brought to 
France and England from Australia. It is shipped 
in refrigerator chambers in which the temperature is 
kept far below freezing, and frequently six months 
elapse between the first freezing and its sale. When 
taken out of a cold atmosphere, this frozen meat 
decomposes very rapidly. It must be at once cooked, 
or it will putrify and become unhealthful. This frozen 
meat is much cheaper than slaughtered meat, and both 
in England and in France, some butchers buy it and 
retail it as fresh meat. This fraudulent practice 
works an injury to those who produce and sell fresh 
meat, for they are forced to reduce their prices in 
order to meet the competition from an inferior article. 
The French Government purposes to stop this busi¬ 
ness by means of a law prohibiting the sale of frozen 
meat unless its character be plainly stated. All 
markets where such meat is sold must display the 
sign, “Frozen Meat” in large letters. Now this frozen 
meat business, like the trade in “oleo”, seeks to thrive 
by stealing the reputation of standard goods. This 
meat is not equal to fresh beef, yet those who deal in 
it want to palm it off as fresh beef in order to secure 
the higher prices. The same fraud is growing in this 
country in the sale of “ Deviled” butter. Old stuff 
that no one but an Eskimo would buy is “ deodor¬ 
ized” by melting it, and then “ grained” by suddenly 
chilling it. Then it is repacked and put up in fancy 
papers to competa with pure creamery goods. In 
many ways this is a more dangerous fraud than oleo¬ 
margarine. The stuff does not contain anything but 
pure butter fat, and under the present laws, the 
manufacturers or dealers cannot be punished. We 
need laws that will prevent this substitution and 
fraud. Dealers who handle this Deviled butter must 
be made to tell what they are doing. 
® 
BREVITIES. 
Dear Rural: Kokomo, Ind., March 11, 1897. 
Iu our bakiug, we shall use potato leaven; 
We planted both the Carmans and the Rural No. 2, 
And /or these many favors, we are much obliged to you. 
And now let’s put a halter on Sir Walter right away, 
So mail the little fellow on the first bright, pleasant day; 
Just box him up and ship him—you know all the ins and outs. 
We’ll cut him up and put him through a double course of sprouts. 
We’ll sublimate and feed him, till he cannot help but grow, 
And when we get him started, w° will toot our horn and blow. 
So start Sir Walter Raleigh on with all the speed ye may. 
Don’t let your folks be crawly—there is no time for delay. 
And say to Mr. Carman, not to quit and holler, whoa ! 
Until he beats for earliness, the Early Ohio. 
We want a Rural seedling to mature in 50 days, 
And dodge the bugs and beetles, and the fungus fellow’s ways; 
Some line, precocious youngster with Sir Walter’s lively shank, 
To end his race in early June will suit a ’tatkr crank. 
The snorer is a sound sleeper. 
Niout is the time to go into a daze. 
Stick to wits and make stick to its. 
Don’t squirm at the thought of a germ. 
The lazy man never rains from his pores. 
It is hard to shake hands over the sarcasm. 
The road to success is more raw than royal. 
Spiced quail may be called “ game in season.” 
How do you like that wheel marker, page 222 ? 
A man is known by the campaign he keeps up. 
Which is worse, the commission man or the omission man ? 
Can you bring peace to your mind by giving some one a piece 
of it? 
Sosik of the clover-seed men evidently want us to go to planting 
plantain. 
We don’t believe any hen worth having was ever fooled by a 
“nest egg”. 
Too many calves that spring about in the fall are fallen away 
in the spring. 
There is a great difference between a high character and a 
hired character. 
Why is a horse shoe considered lucky ? Possibly because it is 
the “ironry of feet”. 
The Leghorn hen is a toiler, the Game cock is a “broiler”, and 
the surplus rooster a spoiler. 
The baby stuffing on cake is going through the operation of 
putting down a stopper ration. 
Feeding corn may cause the “ big head ” in horses. Treading 
on “corns ” may cure it in humans. 
The hog that spends cold weather on a pile of hot manure, is 
sure to catch pneumonia and have it—Simon pure. 
Cold winter locked the farmers up where trouble frets and 
stews, but spring came up with balmy breath and blew away his 
“ blues.” 
By weight, the proportion of the heart to the entire body of the 
average man is 1 to 169, and the average woman 1 to 149. Big 
heart is better than big head. 
There’s one of old grandfather’s weighs that we wish nowa¬ 
days could be found. In morals and manners, the old fellow gave 
—16 heaping ounces per pound. 
What makes the southern bovine sick—so sick it cannot even 
lick itself or e’en its living pick in pastures that are sweet and 
thick ? The tick ! the tick ! the southern tick ! 
Among new treatments for pneumonia, is the advice to drink two 
ounces of fresh chicken blood stirred into a cup of hot water, 
every four hours. Fowls are said to be exempt from croupous 
pneumonia. 
The word, “ autonomy,” is found in many papers just now. It 
means really the right of self-government. Your wife should enjoy 
an autonomy in the house and you in the barn. Probably the 
scrubs in the latter place will contest it with you. 
Yes, sir ! Milk and urine are both secreted out of the blood. If, 
for some reason, the glands of the udder do not secrete milk sugar 
and casein into milk, will the kidneys put them into urine ? Quite 
likely. The chances are that the cow with defective udder will 
have very effective kidneys. 
