348 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 22 
A LITTLE CHAT. 
This is not the season for subscription work, and we are not 
urging any of our friends to exertions along this line at present. 
We are, however, often asked for terms during the summer months, 
and to meet this demand, we offer the regular commission and con¬ 
tinue the $2 weekly premiums for clubs of five or more during each 
and every week. But let us say here that the offer of watch and 
one new subscription for $2, with 15 cents extra for postage on 
watch, is taking watches very fast. The offer holds good only 
during the month of May. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New York. 
We want your hook trade ! 
And now, while we are speaking of 
letters, here is one from the western 
slope of the Rocky Mountains. Here is 
a brief history of 16 years of work writ¬ 
ten by a subscriber in Montana : 
VARIOUS FRUIT NOTES. 
Our specialties are peaches, berries and plums, 
and this is the way we were surprised bv that 
much-talked-of Abundance plum. Our first tree 
planted in the chicken yard three years ago this 
spring, made slow growth, and is now only a 
little taller than an ordinary-sized man, with a 
stem as thick as a stout fork handle. Last spring, 
it was covered with blossoms from stem to the 
tips of the branches. Everybody admired theitree 
Many of the plums dropped off during spring, 
and afterwards I picked off where they were too 
bunchy. Later, I stood three bean poles over the 
tree, and tied up every little limb, and to every¬ 
body’s surprise, it brought to perfection 245 
plums which looked as beautiful as the litho¬ 
grapher’s plate. We have some more Abundance 
ready to bear which are now full of buds, and 
shall plant some more and, also, a few Burbanks 
and others for trial. n. g. h. 
Rothsville, Pa. 
The Carman grape sent me three years ago, 
fruited last year, but I cannot say anything in 
its favor; it was the poorest in quality of any of 
the 10 kinds I have growing. If it be no better 
this year, I shall put something in its place. I 
shall have to put it in the same class with the 
Belle strawberry which, on my soil, is a strong, 
healthy grower, productive, large berry, but very 
poor in quality. The Annie Laurie is one of the 
best in quality I ever raised, but unproductive. 
My soil is a gravelly loam, sandy subsoil. 
In 1895, I gave an old strawberry patch a good 
coat of stable manure, plowed it under and sowed 
it to Crimson clover; I had a good stand, which 
wintered well. I turned it under the next spring, 
and planted to potatoes—Late Rose, Carman 
No. 2 and White Star—in rows 3*4 feet apart. 
They were given level culture, the work being all 
done by hand, mostly with a garden rake, the soil 
being as mellow as an ash heap. The vines made 
an immense growth, completely covering the 
ground, but on digging, I got only 20 bushels 
where, a few years before, on the same piece of 
ground, 1 got 40. But adjoining this patch, which 
is long and narrow, I had another patch of 
strawberries. As soon as the berries were gone, 
or about the middle of July, I plowed that up and 
turned a furrow on to the last row of potatoes, 
leaving it there. There was about double the 
yield in that row, and more large potatoes on the 
side of the row under the furrow. If I had hilled 
up the whole patch would I have had double the 
yield ? 
When we moved from the east end of Long 
Island something over 40 years ago, we went on 
to a place about a mile east of Penn Yan, and in 
a small orchard on the place, found a tree that 
bore sweet and sour apples combined in the same 
apple. Some of the apples would be one-half 
sweet and half sour, some a quarter and less 
and in all proportions; evidently one was a 
larger apple than the other, as the line of separa¬ 
tion between the sweet and sour could be plainly 
seen, looking as though two apples of different 
sizes had been cut and fitted together. The color 
was also different, one being green and the other 
yellow. I do not know whether the tree is alive 
now or not. 
I do not think that the late frost hurt the 
peaches in this section; there is every prospect 
of a large crop. Strawberries wintered well and 
are looking fine. s. y. 
Yates County, N. Y. 
ing into the hundreds of acres, and the “ old set¬ 
tlers,” some of whom had been testing varieties 
and growing fruits here for years, were to be 
taught what kinds to plant and all the ins and 
outs of the business, and the people of the 
East were to be enlightened as to what kinds of 
fruit it was proper for them to eat, and there 
was to be a new era generally. Strange as it 
may seem—as it was with the town lot and real 
estate gambling schemes of the same date—men 
who were looked upon as quite level-headed, but 
who lacked common intelligence in these mat¬ 
ters, were led away into the wildest kinds of 
schemes in this line. Many large Italian and 
Silver Prune orch ards were planted in localities 
where it was not even known that the seasons 
were long enough to ripen these fruits. No 
investigations were made as to the soils requisite 
for the profitable cultivation of these fruits on 
any extended scale, or at all. One man (in the 
Willamette Valley, western Oregon) planted a 
block of ICO acres to peach trees, as that was a 
very profitable fruit in many p aces. He was 
going to show the more practical but “ moss- 
back ” ranchers how to do things in that line. 
A few years afterwards, he planted something 
else on the land that, perhaps, will, with the exer¬ 
cise of more judgment, give returns for the in¬ 
vestment. 
Can it be wondered at that—as in the case of 
the victims of the mining stock gamblers, wild¬ 
eyed and credulous moonshine chasers—some 
will be disappointed in the fruit-growing industry 
and outlook of our grandly favored State ? We 
have here—by Nature made—one of the grandest 
regions for the profitable production of fruit 
when it is intelligently carried on. j. f. cabs. 
Sec. State Board Hort., Tacoma, Wash. 
AS WE GO TO PRESS. 
EAST READING. 
The baby came to me the other day 
and said : 
“ Fader, I wants to ivitc a letter /” 
Considering that the young lady is not 
three years old, that was, certainly, a 
remarkable proposition. However, I 
gave her a pencil and piece of paper, and 
she started in with much flourish and a 
very wise expression on her face. In 
about five minutes, she came with the 
paper folded into a wad and explained, 
“ Dere is my letter !” Here is a copy of 
the letter -just as she “wrote” it: 
If any human being can make head or 
tail out of that, he is smarter than I am. 
I had to call the baby up and ask her to 
read the letter to me. After some study, 
she said that it read as follows : 
Dear Fader : 
I is a good baby. You is a nice fader. 
I love munner! 
Now that tells the whole story of the 
baby’s life as far as it has been worked 
out. Those hen’s tracks represented some¬ 
thing after all. When you come to think 
of it, that letter is about as good an 
epistle as an ordinary man cares to re¬ 
ceive. I am satisfied with it, at least. 
Now the point that we are after this 
week is that some people do not always 
make themselves exactly clear when they 
put their thoughts on paper. The baby 
may have known what she wanted to 
write,but an outsider would not be able to 
see anything in those tracks. A few words 
from the baby, however, made it all 
clear, and there was no further trouble. 
I have read articles in the agricultural 
papers and books that were supposed to 
help farmers, that were just about as 
clear as are those tangled lines in the 
baby’s “ letter.” The baby was right on 
hand to explain matters and straighten 
things out so that we finally got a true 
translation ; but some of these books 
and articles mix the reader up and keep 
him mixed, because the author is not on 
hand to tell just what he did mean. 
You see, some of our learned men forget 
their old primer days, and cannot realize 
that there was a time when what they 
noiv know was worse than Greek to 
of line is divided represent the letters 
and words which give it character. Give 
President Lincoln that length of line, 
and he could almost hang his Gettys¬ 
burg speech on it. Give it to some of 
our writers, and they will hang up their 
meaning by the neck until it is dead. 
We try to have the articles in The R. 
N.-Y. clear and easily understood. If 
for any reason they seem like the baby’s 
letter, we want our readers to call right 
out and we will have the author try it 
again. Every person, from the baby up 
to grandfather, knows what he or she 
meant to say, and will make things clear 
if called upon to do so. Don’t hesitate 
to call! It is just the same way with 
books ! The old-time agricultural books 
were oftentimes as complicated as the 
baby’s letter. The modern books are 
much better. There is now a good book 
to cover nearly every point of good 
farming. When you want any books of 
that character, remember that 
We came to Montana in 1880, and began 
taking The R N -Y. immediately upon 
coming. By its help in 11 years, we ac¬ 
cumulated a snug sum of money. Against 
The R N.-Y.’s advice to farmers, we went 
into the grocery business Same old story! 
Five years leaves us with nwst of our money 
gone, and back on a farm. By the aid of 
The R. N.-Y , we intend to regain what we 
lia/ve lost, and more besides. 
You don’t need to call him up to ex¬ 
plain what he means by the note. It is 
as clear as day—no tangled lines about 
it at all. There are plenty of worse 
places than the old farm. Don’t be in 
too much of a hurry to run away from 
it! The chances are that The R. N.-Y. 
and a good, sound book will make life 
on the farm seem a little better. Try it! 
The American Institute -will hold another fair 
similar to the successful one of last fall, at Madi¬ 
son Square Garden, September 15 to November 5. 
The display of fruits, flowers, plants and vegeta¬ 
bles will begin September 27, and last four weeks; 
$5,000 will be given in addition to medals and 
diplomas. A larger number of small classes 
will be provided than last year. 
Fruit Growing on the Northwest Pacific 
Coast.— A few years ago, on this northwestern 
Pacific coast—about the time of the “ booming” 
period here—every one seemed to have fruit 
growing and the planting of orchards on the 
brain. Not quite so bad as the mining stock 
gambling schemes and excitement at the present 
time in the region of Spokane, but people had it 
pretty bad. Orchards were planted everywhere, 
on soil that wouldn’t grow sorrel, and others on 
good land, and of all the varieties that the books 
told about. Any one that, some time or other, 
had read Downing, was a great authority on the 
subject, and a great deal was heard about horti¬ 
cultural boards and pomological societies, etc. 
Many large orchards were planted, some extend¬ 
Many a man will 
protect his money 
at the risk of his 
life. Thousands 
decline to protect 
their lives because 
it would require 
the sacrifice of a 
few dollars of their 
Imoney. Thia 
seems almost in¬ 
credible but it is 
true. Men feel 
and realize that the most relentless enemy 
of mankind, consumption, is slowly but 
swiftly creeping upon them. But in the mad 
race for money they refuse to stop and drive 
off the dread disease. It would require a 
sacrifice of both time and money and so 
they neglect it, until it is too late. 
There is no excuse for this. A sure and 
quick remedy is at hand. Dr. Pierce's 
Golden Medical Discovery cures 98 per cent, 
of all cases of consumption. It remedies 
all disorders of the digestion. It invigor¬ 
ates the liver. It makes new rich blood 
and builds up firm healthy flesh. It enters 
the blood ana drives out all impurities, and 
acts directly upon the lungs driving out all 
disease germs. It builds sound vital tissue 
in the lungs. Thousands have testified to 
their cure by this wonderful remedy after 
they were given up by the doctors and all 
hope was gone. Druggists sell it. 
•*1 have taken Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical 
Discovery, and can and do recommend it every 
place I go,” writes Mrs. J. D. Graves, of Sala¬ 
manca, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. (Academy Street). 
“ I am a traveling saleslady and have been for 
eighteen years. When I find people who are 
afflicted I tell them what Dr. Pierce’s medicines 
have done for me. Twelve years ago I was given 
up to die. I had what all my physicians called 
consumption. I had hemorrhage of the lungs, 
night-sweats, and in fact I fully realized my con¬ 
dition. I begged of them to let me try the 
'Golden Medical Discovery,’ and the result is, I 
■till live and do lots of hard work." 
w-w# • It is better to do 
Dr. Pierce sje£«?S5& 
than wait until the whole structure is ready 
to fall. Constipation is the one, all-embrac¬ 
ing disorder that is responsible for many 
other dis- v-v* 1 eases. Doc- 
tor Pierce’s PleaSant * Ple ?f“ t ir 
Pellets cure it. Drug- 
gists sell them. They never gripe. One 
little “ Pellet ” is a gentle laxative, and 
two a mild cathartic. They are tiny, 
sugar-coated granules. 
Nothing else is “just as 
good.” A permanent cure. 1 CllClo* 
them. 
The pith of the matter is that The R. 
N.-Y. wants to keep the baby close at 
hand so that all the tangled lines may 
be straightened out. According to my 
measurement, there are just 25 inches 
of black lines in the baby’s letter. 
When you come to think of it, the 
curves and angles into which that length 
Physical Culture. 
The necessity for castigating the “Baby" again gives Uncle Samuel 
great pain, but as the “Baby" still persists in prevarication and misrepre¬ 
sentation, he must be broken of that habit if possible. 
Uncle Samuel is surprised that the “ Baby" still keeps up that old bluff 
of infringement after Judge Grosscup, in the U S. Circuit Court at Chicago, 
in his opinion delivered March 1st, “busted" the “ De Laval” patent, and 
the “Baby's" papa, Mr. De Laval, had to pay the costs. 
Uncle Samuel is grieved that the “ Baby ” should cast a cloud over the 
value of Experiment Station records, because the “ Baby " is so badly beaten 
by Uncle Sam’s infant, The Improved United States Separator. 
But Uncle Samuel smiles when he sees that his own “ Infant ” is voted, 
not only the prettiest and strongest baby, but does its voork more thoroughly 
than any other. 
All Experiment Stations and all dairymen freely admit that Uncle 
Samuel’s Infant, The Improved United States Separator, does give better satisfaction than any other. 
Send for full illustrated circulars. 
Vermont Farm Machine Co., = Bellows Falls. Vermont. 
