376 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June^5 
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. Colling wood, 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-llne orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv." 75 certs per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Advertisements 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 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, JUNE 5, 1897. 
Here is a question we wish to submit to our readers: 
“ If a man has 200 rods of poultry fencing to put up, 
will it be cheaper to buy the ready-made fencing, or 
buy the wire fence machine and make the fence at 
home ? ” We are somewhat interested in this matter 
ourselves, as we expect to put up considerable poul¬ 
try fence this fall. If any of our readers have had 
experience in this matter, we shall be pleased to hear 
from them. 
O 
We are constantly receiving from our readers, re¬ 
quests for the symptoms and cure for chicken cholera. 
It seems that the ordinary poultrykeeper assumes 
that a dozen or more different diseases of hens are 
all grouped under one heading as “ cholera.” When 
a hen is troubled with diarrhea from any cause, the 
tendency is to treat her for ‘ 1 cholera ” at once. True 
chicken cholera is not at all common, and an easy 
way of distinguishing and treating simple poultry 
diseases is greatly needed by many amateurs. The 
notes on page 382 ought to be helpful in this line. 
O 
Judge Logan, the originator of the Loganberry, 
has this to say about the way some nurserymen have 
treated the public: 
The Loganberry is reproduced from seed, and while such seed¬ 
lings are essentially Loganberries, not one in one thousand is 
equal to the original. Such seedlings are rank frauds when sent 
out as the Loganberry, and unprincipled nurserymen in this 
Slate, having in view only a little temporary advantage, have 
been flooding the East with such seedlings, and wherever sent, 
the result has been condemnation of the Loganberry. It is like 
testing the merits of the Bellefleur apple by trees raised from 
its seed. 
Judge Logan has received no pecuniary advantage 
whatever from this fruit. He gave it freely to the 
public. It is a shame that nurserymen should nurse 
frauds in this way. The true Loganberry is well 
worth testing, but many will condemn it because 
worthless seedlings do not represent it fairly. 
Q 
Suppose you are supplying butter to private fami¬ 
lies, and one of your customers tells you that Jones 
over the way buys lots of butter, but wants it put up 
in square packages with a rose stamped on each cake, 
and just so much salt to the pound. You go to Jones 
and say, “I would like to sell you butter, Mr. Jones, 
but you must take what my other customers take. I 
can’t stop to satisfy all your cranky notions. Here is 
my butter—I want you to take it.” You would not 
get Jones’s trade. He might buy your butter for 
cooking, but that is all he would do. If you expect 
to sell butter to Jones, you must give Jones what he 
wants. While he has a tongue of his own, you can’t 
make him swallow your ideas about butter. The 
customer dictates the trade. The English people are 
the great butter buyers of Europe. There was a 
time when they bought large quantities of American 
butter. At that time, there was comparatively little 
competition. Since then Denmark, Australia, and 
other countries have sent more and more butter to 
England, and American exports have steadily declined. 
Why ? Largely for the same reason that you lost 
the trade of Jones. The dairymen of Australia and 
Denmark have studied the tastes and wishes of the 
English people. A good share of the American butter 
and cheese sent abroad was made for the American 
market, which demands a different class of goods 
from the English market. The time has gone by when 
the English must buy our butter or go without. They 
are now in the position of Jones—we must give them 
what they desire or lose their trade. It is a pity that 
more of our creamerymen do not study the needs of 
the foreign trade and prepare butter specially for 
export. It is not likely that our exports of butter 
will ever become what they ought to be until this 
very thing is done. Then there will be less competi¬ 
tion in our own market. 
O 
The reports concerning the condition of the farm 
hired man indicate that he has held his own during the 
depression as compared with other workmen. Except 
in grain and hay farming, improved machinery does 
not seem to have crowded him very hard, in fact, on 
many farms, he has had a surer income than the 
farmer who hires him. We would like to call atten¬ 
tion to what Mr. Garrahan says on page 380 : 
To sum up, I have never known a person who Identified himself 
so closely with his employer’s interests that his presence seemed 
necessary for best results, who ever had to look for a job for any 
length of time. Neither does he, as a rule, have to move far from 
home to obtain employment. Such men are usually appreciated 
at their face value, in their immediate neighborhood. It seems 
impossible to get a competent foreman who knows how to handle 
men to advantage, and plan work intelligently. 
Young men who have lived on the farm all their 
lives may well consider that statement before they 
decide to hunt work in town or city. 
© 
In 1895, the Michigan Legislature passed a law re¬ 
quiring that all orchards infested with injurious in¬ 
sects or contagious diseases should be sprayed or dis¬ 
infected. The enforcement of this law is placed in 
the hands of the “ Peach Yellows” Commissioners, of 
whom there are three in each township appointed 
on petition of 10 freeholders. Last winter, this law 
was amended so as to cover the effectual spraying or 
destruction of trees infested with the San Jos6 or 
other scale insects. This law permits the commis¬ 
sioners to enter an orchard to spray or destroy the 
trees when the owner refuses to do so, or the law 
may be enforced under penalty of fine or imprison¬ 
ment. This law is said to have worked reasonably 
well, and it has not yet been found necessary to 
bring any cases into court. Many orchards have been 
sprayed that would, otherwise, have been neglected 
when such neglect meant danger to nearby trees. 
Now that the San Jos6 scale has been well scattered 
over the country, such laws are necessary. The man 
on the next farm has no more right to breed insects 
and send them to destroy my crops than he has to 
send his dog to steal my dinner or his horse to 
trample down my corn field. 
O 
Which will yield the more food, a pasture or a 
meadow ? The Michigan Station people undertook 
to answer this question by selecting two plots of 
grass as nearly alike as possible—each plot two rods 
wide and four rods long. On one, the grass grew in 
the ordinary way and was cut for hay ; on the other, 
it was cut frequently with a lawn mower in imitation 
of pasture. The pasture crop was cut seven times 
and produced 29 pounds of dried hay. On the date of 
the last cutting, the grass on the other plot was cut 
and dried, producing 100 pounds of hay. Two other 
trials were made and, as an average of the whole, the 
frequent clippings gave 95 pounds of hay and the 
single cutting gave 384 pounds. Analysis showed that 
the young grass from the clipped plot was more 
nutritious than the grass from the single cutting. 
That agrees with the universal belief that young 
pasture grass is the most nutritious of all green 
fodder. The extra weight of the hay shows that 
there is more actual food in an acre of grass when it 
is permitted to stand until large enough for hay. 
Add to this the fact that cattle leave much grass 
uneaten, and also destroy more or less, and it is seen 
that soiling stock has some advantages not always 
considered. At the New Jersey Experiment Station 
farm, the cattle run in a yard for exercise, but are 
never at pasture. The green food is ali cut and 
brought to them, and we have no doubt that this is 
the most profitable way to feed them. 
© 
It is not generally known that the United States 
Department of Agriculture at Washington has estab¬ 
lished a seed-testing laboratory. This laboratory is 
thoroughly equipped for testing seeds, having in use 
a greenhouse where soil tests are conducted. The 
chief object of this laboratory is to examine samples 
of farm and garden seeds which are suspected of 
adulteration. As many of our readers know to their 
cost, seedsmen frequently send mixtures containing 
inferior or dead seeds, and a large amount of weed 
seeds. We venture to say that thousands of farms 
have become infested with dangerous weeds in this 
way. The Department now purposes to test free of 
charge all samples of seed which are sent them by 
farmers or dealers. We hope the time will come, 
when farmers can buy such seeds under an official 
guarantee j ust as they now buy fertilizer. Certainly 
it is no more disastrous for a farmer to buy ground 
leather in the place of dried blood, than it is un¬ 
knowingly to seed down his farm to thistles or wild 
carrot. We hope that our readers will take advan¬ 
tage of this seed-testing laboratory. The time will 
come when the better class of farmers will refuse to 
buy small seeds except from such seedsmen as will 
agree to an official test. This is one of the ways in 
which the Department of Agriculture can be of serv¬ 
ice, and we hope farmers everywhere will endeavor 
to work with the Department, to make seed testing a 
success. 
o 
During the past few years, a number of the experi¬ 
ment stations have tested “ artificial ” soils for forc¬ 
ing crops under glass. Very good results have been 
obtained with sifted coal ashes, with a small quantity 
of peat mixed through them. Prof. S. W. Johnson 
states that he advocated the use of peat in 1862. The 
“ soil ” mixture used at the Connecticut Station con¬ 
sists of 300 pounds of coal ashes, nine pounds of peat 
moss, and a small quantity of lime. This mixture 
has given excellent results when used in the green¬ 
house. It is entirely sterile. There are no insects or 
fungi about it, and when well watered and supplied 
with soluble plant food, plants grown in it have given, 
on the whole, better results than those grown in the 
ordinary compost. It seems to be evident that, where 
the conditions of watering and feeding are under con¬ 
trol, it is more economical to apply the fertilizer as 
needed rather than to store it up in the soil ahead of 
the crop. 
o 
BREVITIES. 
Have you canker worms or pear slugs ? 
Keep a-flghtln’ ! 
Sawflies, codling moths or plant bugs ? 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
While you’re foolin’ roun’, they’re feedin’, 
While you’re cussin’ ’em they’re breedin’— 
An’ good pizen’s what you’re needin’, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
You will want some Paris-green, sir, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
Insect powder, kerosene, sir, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
Oh, these bugs’ll keep you humpin’ 
With their hoppin’, skippin’, jumpin’, 
What you got to do is—pumpin'. 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
Butterflies, an’ grubs, an’ millers, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
Beetles, bugs, an’ caterpillars, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! 
Be they plump, or be they flaccid, 
Hellebore, arsenic acid, 
Are the things to make ’em placid, 
Keep a-fightin’ ! m. g. k. 
Don’t lower the hired man ! 
Search the peach for vermin. 
Keep the dog in a tied-y condition. 
Coal gas tar for hen lice, page 372. 
No use putting culls in cold storage. 
Failure comes and slugs the sluggard. 
Fob a nervous hen, the Minorca makes mighty little fuss. 
“Come off the perch! ’’ says Mr. Kerosene to Mr. Hen Louse. 
Eternal, internal and external vigilance makes the price of 
success. 
Keep kainit away from manure that is worked over by hogs or 
poultry. 
The potato bugs are upon us. The flea beetles have had their 
innings. 
We promise an excellent fruit article next week on From Plant 
to Consumer. 
Want to do something for your grandson ? Plant White pine 
on your waste land ! 
There is grit in a grindstone, but you won’t gain any when 
your nose is held to it. 
“Yes,” said Crimson Clover, “lam an in corn grew us crop, 
yet in perfect harmony with profit.” 
A “ piece ” means a lunch or small meal. Dyspepsia would like 
to make a “ piece ” maker out of you. 
Make the barn gutter get tight, so it will hold water. You 
can’t abstract fertility through concrete. 
We have had too much rain. Good for the oats, millet and cow 
peas, but bad for the Lima beans and potatoes ! 
In 1890, there were 14,213,837 horses in this country. At the 
same time, the total steam-power capacity of the country was 
4,662,029 horse power. 
Seed8mkn seem to think that the plan of supplying seed sweet 
corn on the ear does not pay. Yet that is the way to know what 
ears you expect to raise. 
A neighbor has two acres of Crimson clover which he is cut¬ 
ting green for the cows. Usually he feeds green rye at this sea¬ 
son, but the rye is so far advanced this year that it is too hard for 
such feeding. 
Beets, mangels and turnips will “ take” the potato scab if 
grown on soil where potatoes were scabby. Radishes, parsnips, 
salsify and carrots are in but little danger. So say the Connecti¬ 
cut Station experimenters. 
While California is taking steps to punish food adulterations, 
Oregon purposes to economize by abolishing the office of food 
and dairy commissioner and putting the State veterinarian in 
charge of the work. That is extravagant economy ! 
It is said that a ton of butter can be sent from Montreal to 
England for 45 shillings. The American line from New York 
charges 75 shillings a ton, yet this American line is paid nearly 
$13,060 per voyage in subsidies on the theory that this increases 
American trade I 
