488 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 24 
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. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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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 , JULY 24 1897. 
How about that street fair in your market town 
this fall ? Are you making plans for it ? In past 
years, many farmers have borne testimony to the 
value of a street fair for advertising their products. 
The tradesmen are willing to help it along because of 
the opportunity it gives them for advertising their 
wares. In many ways, it is of more practical value 
to farmers than the venerable horse trots so long 
dignified by the name of agricultural fairs. 
O 
Here is another story about the parlor match : 
I was sitting in a lawyer’s office when a parlor match, lying on 
the floor, five feet from either of us, ignited and burned out. The 
floor was bare, no sun was shining in, and no one had moved. 
We watched the match consume itself, but could not come to any 
conclusion why it ignited, there being no just cause or provoca¬ 
tion. As no damage was done, no adjuster was notified and no 
jury called. So we are still in the dark as to who or what struck 
Billy Parlor Match. 
That adds another side to the mysterious fire question. 
The path of safety lies through the safety match. 
© 
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson is said to be¬ 
lieve that fiat rails of steel offer the best and cheap¬ 
est material for country roads in western States 
where gravel and stone are unknown. He will have 
sample steel roads built in different parts of the 
country—if possible, near agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations where public tests can be made. 
Farmers have been hauling freight over steal roads 
too long. Mud, dust, and ruts have stolen too much 
of their time and power. It will be an agreeable 
change to a steel track. 
0 
It has always been a favorite scheme of fertilizer 
dealers to try to obtain credit for more actual plant 
food than they give by adding the words “ equal to 
sulphate of potash,” etc., to their analyses. If they 
sell four per cent of actual potash, it is easy to say 
that this would be equal to eight per cent of sulphate 
of potash, sinco the sulphate is half actual potash by 
weight. This often confuses farmers, for some of 
them think they are getting eight per cent of actual 
potash. The dealers in wood ashes are not to be out¬ 
done at this business. One of them has just quoted 
prices on a lot of ashes said to contain 11.60 per cent 
of carbonate of potash. His idea is that the buyer 
will overlook the word ‘'carbonate” and think he is 
really buying 11 per cent of actual potash. You 
might as well tell the man who buys a pound of bread 
that he is buying a pound of actual Hour. 
O 
It seems evident that Europe will be short of wheat 
this year, and that there will be an increased demand 
for the American crop. All the reliable foreign 
advices seem to agree that there is le3S wheat afloat 
for England at the present time than at any previous 
time in the past 10 years. The surplus of the Ameri¬ 
can crop will be quickly bought for foreign ship¬ 
ment, and prices will be somewhat determined by 
the way the crop is marketed. If the grain be rushed 
at once to market so as to make an apparent glut, 
buyers will be able to obtain lower prices. If the 
crop come in slowly so as not to stuff the elevators, 
trains and steamers, there will be greater competition 
for it, and prices will go higher. It is not, of course, 
possible to regulate the sale of wheat from the farm. 
Some farmers do not have proper facilities for storing 
grain. Others need the money at once, and still 
others have reasons that prompt them to sell direct 
from the thrasher. It would seem from the present 
outlook, therefore, that those farmers who are able 
to hold their wheat for several months, should cer¬ 
tainly do so this year. 
If artificial sunlight were as easily devised as an 
artificial climate, the modern florist would obtain 
complete control of times and seasons. There is no 
season of the year when greenhouse roses may not 
be obtained, and those plants which bloom annually, 
instead of successionally, are hibernated in cold stor¬ 
age, and thus bloomed at any season desired. But 
equable temperature, food and moisture are not the 
only requisites of plant growth, and in spite of this, 
a period of dull, sunless weather always results in a 
crop of pale, anae nie blossoms, that look as though 
reared in a floral orphan asylum. It is as difficult to 
raise perfect flowers without the life-giving sun as to 
rear well-nourished babies without a daily ration of 
mother-love. 
0 
Mr. Lewis tells us that his wheat is thrashed by the 
new-style separators that leave the straw long and 
straight. These separators were devised to answer a 
demand from rye growers. In some parts of the East, 
rye straw is worth more than first-class hay. Packers 
and stable keepers want long, unbroken straw. In 
order to furnish the best quality, the straw was 
thrashed by flails—a slow and cumbersome method 
where one has acres of the grain. The new sepa¬ 
rator takes the grain in sidewise, the heads alone be¬ 
ing thrashed or broken. The straw comes out with¬ 
out a break, and is bound into bundles by the machine. 
It is an advantage to have wheat straw handled in 
the same way. It packs closer and is more easily 
handled. It will not compete with rye straw in the 
market, yet these careful Jersey farmers say that it 
is profitable to pay a little more to have the straw 
unbroken and bound. 
O 
During the 10 months ending April 1, 1897, Ameri¬ 
cans imported 544,991 dozens of eggs, and exported 
812,294 dozens During the corresponding months of 
the previous year, only 262,432 dozens were exported, 
while imports in these months were 820,959 dozens 
These figures will, doubtless, surprise many people. 
The American hen is not only capturing our own mar¬ 
ket, but is gaining a market abroad. This market should 
be extended. Daring spring and early summer, there 
is an immense production of eggs—swamping the 
markets and the cold storage demands. Is it not pos¬ 
sible to secure a market for this surplus in some 
northern country ? Here is a good subject for our 
Agricultural Department to investigate. What coun¬ 
tries demand eggs, and how should they be packed 
and shipped ? This matter is as important for poul- 
trymen as the development of the foreign butter mar¬ 
ket is for dairymen. 
O 
The European papers report a new development in 
the milk business, which is being practiced in Sweden 
and Denmark. Milk is collected from the farms 
somewhat on the principle of our American creamery 
service. It is Pasteurized at about 165 degrees, and 
then frozen into solid blocks, These blocks of frozen 
milk are placed in stout wooden casks—filling them 
about half full. The remaining space is then filled 
with sterilized milk, after which the casks are her¬ 
metically sealed. They are then shipped by steamer, 
chiefly to England. The casks being perfectly full, 
there is no churning of the milk, while the blocks of 
frozen milk keep the whole mass cool, so that it may 
be preserved for more than a week. This scheme is 
much better than the plan to ship solid blocks of 
frozen milk, and the indications are that the French 
and even the Swiss dairymen will be able to ship such 
milk at a profit to England. We may imagine what 
the effect of such methods would be in our own country. 
It would be possible to ship such milk from Kansas 
or Missouri to New York City, and sell it there at a 
low rate. 
O 
The new pure-food laws of Michigan, which are to 
be very strictly enforced, require that all vinegar 
made by fermentation and oxidation without the aid 
of distillation be branded “fermented vinegar,” with 
the name of the fruit substance from which it is 
made ; all vinegar made wholly or in part from dis¬ 
tilled liquor must be branded “distilled vinegar”, and 
no vinegar shall be sold as apple, orchard or cider 
vinegar which is not the product of pure apple j uice. 
No one may make or sell any vinegar containing lead, 
copper, sulphuric, or mineral acid. Ignorance of 
adulteration on the part of a seller will not be 
accepted as mitigation of the offense, and a dealer 
who unwittingly sells a fraudulent or impure article 
is as fully responsible, in the eyes of the law, as one 
who manufactures such an article. This will make 
dealers very cautious in their purchases, hence com¬ 
pel manufacturers to observe the law. Michigan has 
recently enacted a law prohibiting the coloring of 
butterine, similar to that put in force in Illinois. 
The adulteration of molasses with glucose has, also, 
received attention, and such combinations may not be 
offered for sale unless labeled “ glucose mixture”, 
with the percentage in which glucose enters into 
their composition. 
O 
There are commission houses in New York City 
which are willing to take great risks in the southern 
vegetable business. We know of cases where men 
hire land to grow a crop. They use high-grade, sol¬ 
uble fertilizers. These fertilizers, the seed, and in some 
cases, their tools, are advanced on credit by the com¬ 
mission man. The grower has really no collateral 
security to give. He obtains credit for thousands of 
dollars while, in almost any other business, he could 
hardly borrow $100. He pays, probably, eight or ten 
per cent for the use of the money, and all his crop 
must be sent to the commission man who, of course, 
handles it to the best possible advantage. It is a 
great risk to take, yet it is said that, one year with 
another, the commission men make money at the 
business. 
O 
It would be a source of deep regret to us if we felt 
obliged to have our children spend their childhood 
in the town or city. We always feel sorry for the 
little ones who play all day on the hot stones and 
bricks, and never get away from man’s attempts to 
change the face of Nature. The town child is an 
artificial product, brought up on a very poor substi¬ 
tute for true and natural sentiment. The little folks 
at home dig in the dirt, play with the dog and calf, 
run under the trees, and grow and thrive like little 
animals. The sun gets into every inch of their little 
frames, and their muscles and lungs are sturdy and 
full. The flowers and the hens and the trees all talk 
to them and fill them with beautiful fancies. At 
night, they watch the fireflies dancing up the hill. 
These are happy days for the little folks on the farm. 
Whatever else may happen, we are raising a healthy 
and happy crop of the best sort of live stock. Mr. 
Farmer, do you realize what it would be to have only 
brick and stone in the hearts of your children ? The 
old farm is the place after all. 
o 
BREVITIES 
IT’S A WET RAIN : IT’S A WET RAIN ! 
It does me good to see it falling, falling on the land; 
The corn lifts up its shoulders with a firmer, stronger stand. 
The thirsty earth is drinking and the clover shows its head 
Jn meadows where the mower left it yellow, parched and dead. 
The trees are fairly smiling, for their leaves are clear and bright 
The rain has washed their faces with its sprinkler overnight. 
It’s a wet rain ! It’s a wet rain ! 
The chickens lurk in corners, and shake out their plumage gay 
The horses stretch in laziness—they’ve earned a holiday ! 
The children at the window count the raindrops as they fall, 
The sheep have found a shelter by the broken orchard wall; 
And mother, in the kitchen, hums the old songs o’er again— 
A blessing rests upon the farm—a blessing of the rain. 
It’s a wet rain ! It’s a wet rain ! 
“ Ground hog ’’—sausage ! 
Is your dog a debit or a credit ? 
A fatal idea! To hold the/too dear. 
Don’t set too many small ideas at large. 
Don’t worry the breadmaker in time of knead ! 
Buying pleasure is the purse suit of happiness. 
The household would like to fly from the house fly. 
Government Reports death to Cut worms—page 486. 
Don’t try to apply sulphur in the form of strong language. 
A strong mind for your own business—a feeble one for your 
neighbor’s. 
Yes, sir, we would certainly use potash in some form with 
every load of stable manure. 
How high does your personal thermometer have to go in order 
to make you register “ I scold ?” 
A little cash well spilled, a little glass well filled, a little 
character well killed—“ rum did it." 
No, sir, Bordeaux Mixture alone will not kill potato bugs. They 
do not like it, but it does not kill them. 
Thus spoke the felloe on the wheel—“ no grease ! ah there’s the 
rub! The axle’s heated and I feel a hubbub at the hub!” 
The New York City Board of Health should compel milk dealers 
to steam every milk can before it goes back to the farm. 
Mr. Greiner tells us —page 483—how a scoured milk can started 
a fire. Don’t let this frighten you from scouring the cans. 
Farm boiler explosions are constantly reported. Steam is too 
powerful and cranky to put in the control of careless or ignorant 
hands. 
Cultivation a9 a cure for potato bugs—page 485. We know 
that a sturdy plant can make a better fight against insect 
enemies. 
We know a number of fruit growers who have tried Mr. Kevitt’s 
plan of wrapping oiled paper around the boxes of fruit. All 
speak highly of it. 
Mr Lewis says that he never saw so much clover in the second 
grass crop as there is this year. The past winter was very 
favorable for clover. 
According to Mr. Chapman, page 483, it will require 40 average 
eggs to develop one laying pullet. He is a good deal nearer right 
than our fanciers will admit. 
Mr. H. M. Cottrell, the manager of Ellerslie Farm, has been 
elected Professor of Agriculture at the Kansas Agricultural 
College. An excellent selection. 
The average man with a hoe has a bad case of hilling habit 
He wants to make a great hill around every plant. In most 
cases, this is the very worst thing he can do. 
Labor is scarce in Kansas. The papers report that women can 
earn $2 per day driving teams in the harvest field. Wonder if the 
farmer pays his own wife such wages ? Why not ? 
