568 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 28 
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. 
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ADVERTISING RATES. 
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Of 10 or more liDes, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per Lne. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv.,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable bouses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Bo sure that the name and address of sender, with name of 
Pcst-office and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in 
every letter. Money o> ders 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, AUGUST 28. 1887. 
Here is a proposition that may be of interest to 
those among our friends who intend securing a few 
subscriptions for the remainder of the year. Send us 
four trial subscriptions for the remaining months of 
the year at 25 cents each, and we will send you your 
choice of the following books : 
The Forcing Book, by Prof. Bailey. 
The Nursery Book, by Prof. Bailey. 
The New Potato Culture, by E. S. Carman. 
The Business Hen, by H. W. Collingwood. 
These names will count for the premiums, if you de¬ 
cide to get up a larger club. 
O 
Gov. Hoard gave a sensible opinion, on page 559, last 
week, regardiu g the Illinois law against colored butter- 
ine. Conservative statements of this sort will have 
much weight with thoughtful people There should be 
a capable and honest dairy and food commission in 
every State, charged with the special business of 
enforcing just such laws. The manufacturers and 
dealers who counterfeit and adulterate food products 
have been let alone too long—so long that now they 
really think the market belongs to them. The mere 
fact of enacting a law does not disturb them. There 
must be some one behind the law whose business it is 
to see that it is properly enforced. Let us have prop¬ 
erly empowered dairy commissioners in every State, 
and then secure uniform laws prohibiting the color¬ 
ing of butterine in any part of the country. Then, if 
manufacturers wish to manufacture it in its natural 
color, let them do so and sell it, as they can easily do, 
at several cents a pound less than the price of good 
butter. 
O 
Wk have a field of sweet corn this year, planted on 
poor soil, that did not receive enough fertilizer. The 
stalks grew to a reasonable height, but as the ear 
started to form, they turned yellow, and gave evident 
signs of starvation. As an experiment, we scattered 
along the rows a small quantity of high-grade potato 
fertilizer—the object being to see if this eleventh-hour 
feeding would benefit the crop. A rain followed, and 
the change in the corn was remarkable. The stalks 
changed to a darker green inside of 48 hours, and 
many of them produced ears of fair size, while simi¬ 
lar stalks, not fertilized, barely grew small nubbins ! 
Probably most fertilizer farmers have had similar ex¬ 
perience, but it well illustrates one advantage to be 
found in using chemicals. A wheat crop may often 
be increased by a light application of nitrate of soda 
in the spring Potatoes and other crops may often be 
fed in this way just at the proper time. We know of 
western farmers who recognize the value of this plan 
by applying liquid manure to the corn just as it starts 
to ear. The liquid is hauled in barrels on one-horse 
sleds through the corn, and poured on the hills from 
dippers and pails. The effect is always noticeable, 
and such farmers might well go a step further and 
add superphosphate and muriate of potash to th.e 
liquid manure. 
© 
It is to be regretted that so few American farmers 
care to conduct their farms, so as to provide for “ the 
long run.” When a man is engaged in a permanent 
business from which he expects support and profit 
for many years to come, he will often lay out consid¬ 
erable money because it will pay “ in the long run.” 
Too many farmers work rather on the “ short-run ” 
principle. In the West it is rarely that a farm con¬ 
tinues for 50 years in the hands of the same family, 
and there is little, if any, inducement for a person to 
expend anything in improvements to outlast his own 
time. Consequently, there is a tendency to use short¬ 
lived buildings, tools and other appliances. The 
short-term tenant gets what he can squeeze out of 
the land, and leaves as little as possible behind 
him. Plenty of farm-owners conduct their farms 
as though they were tenants, having no personal 
pride in leaving strong and fertile ground behind 
them. “What has posterity done for me?” we 
recently heard such a man say. There are many 
reasons for failure or discontent on the farm. One 
that we often notice is a failure to put capital into 
the farm itself. It is a mistake to continue to take 
money out of the farm and invest it all in other lines 
of business. The farm itself rt quires capital like 
any other enterprise, and “short-run” farming is 
bound to be unsatisfactory. 
0 
It seems like old times to receive this note from a 
reader in New Hampshire : 
Local agents are selling a recipe for canning fruit without 
heating the same, using an article called salyx Can you tell us 
anything about this substance, and whether it would be safe to 
use it? 
We would not, under any circumstances, use this 
substance. It is, probably, salycilic acid. This acid, 
when combined with soda, is useful in certain cases 
of rheumatism—but keep it out of your preserving 
jars. There is nothing better than heat for making 
back numbers out of bacteria. 
Q 
On Friday, August 20, for the first time in six years, 
wheat sold at one dollar a bushel in New York, St. 
Louis, Baltimore, and San Francisco. Choice lots in 
car loads sold for even more than this in several mar¬ 
kets. The sudden jump in wheat prices was due to 
reports from the West and from Europe. It is now 
certain that the European crop is short, and that all 
European countries, except Russia, will be forced to 
buy more or less grain. In some parts of the West 
the spring wheat crop has been damaged, and this of 
course means less of the American crop to be offered 
for sale. The indications are that prices must advance 
still further. Many dealers insist that the conditions 
are such that wheat must reach SI 25 per bushel be¬ 
fore January 1. Of course this rapid rise in the price 
of wheat will operate to raise the price of flour and 
wheat bran, though why the latter should rise it is 
not easy to understand. The farmers who buy their 
flour (and there are thousands of them) are not so 
enthusiastic over “ dollar wheat ” as the daily papers 
would like to have us believe. 
O 
Our advices from the West are to the effect that the 
price of beef cattle of good breeding is slowly but 
surely rising. This advance is now so general that it 
cannot escape notice. Good dairy cows are also in 
active demand. Breeders of well- bred live stock seem 
more hopeful than at any time since 1892. It is not 
the business of The R. N.-Y. to attempt to help manu¬ 
facture any fictitious feeling of business confidence. 
We simply report what comes to us from authentic 
sources. During the past few years of low prices, we 
have urged our readers to invest a fair amount of 
money in good “ blood ” or pedigreed stock. Potatoes 
have been low in price, and thousands of good farmers 
improved the opportunity for securing strong and re¬ 
liable seed. Cattle and sheep have sold at ridiculously 
low prices. One dollar invested in well-bred live 
stock has had the former purchasing power of two 
dollars. Prices are now rising. Those who had faith 
enough to invest in good stock will reap their reward— 
and they deserve to do so. It is now just about the 
“last call” on bottom prices for improved animals. 
If you expect to put a better sire at the head of your 
flock or herd, it is high time that you made your bar¬ 
gain. There are thousands like you who have delayed 
their purchases. Competition among them will be 
likely to crowd up the price. 
© 
Modern public education, in the town schools at 
least, has been revolutionized during the past few 
years. Children are now taught to use tools, and the 
girls are taught to sew and to bake. Many a man of 
40 who reviews the school work done by his children, 
regrets that he could not receive such training during 
his own boyhood days. In some town schools, the 
typewriter is used in teaching .spelling and punctua¬ 
tion. Educators argue that when a child sees its mis¬ 
takes printed in actual type, it is far more impressed 
than when the mistake is shown in writing. We can 
readily see how a knowledge of shorthand can be 
made very useful to any one who attempts to make 
any record of his own thoughts or the thoughts of 
others. We have always believed that the ability to 
draw accurately will prove more helpful to the aver¬ 
age child than the “ mathematics ” usually taught in 
the country school room. Too much of the child’s 
time is spent at this “ciphering.” We regret to see 
that so many of these new educational methods and 
devices remain in the town schools. Some educators 
go so far as to say that the little district school 
should be given up—that if need be, the children 
should be carried at public expense to the town cen¬ 
ter, where large schools with modern appliances 
could be maintained. They present good arguments 
in favor of such a change, but in many districts we 
think it would prove a mistake at this time. We 
regret to see the rural school broken down for the 
benefit of the town school. 
© 
The Jumbo or “ Go-devil ” windmills pictured in 
this issue will probably strike the average reader as 
crude and clumsy affairs. Yet they serve their pur¬ 
pose as water lifters and, as Prof. Barbour says, 
point to a tendency to invent along new lines of agri¬ 
cultural engineering. These mills were born of neces¬ 
sity. Many of those who built them could not afford 
to buy the modern mills. They are like thousands 
of other farmers who cannot secure the cash with 
which to purchase the skilled labor of others. They 
are forced to put cheap and crude materials together 
with their own hands, or go without implements for 
operating or concentrating force. For untold cen¬ 
turies the winds have been blowing across the plains 
of Nebraska, and but feeble attempts have been made 
to harness them. Year after year, the crops on the 
surface of the soil have been dwarfed or killed out¬ 
right by lack of water. Down in the soil, beyond the 
reach of the plants, there has always been plenty 
of water. The problem has been to learn how to lift 
the water so that the plants might drink it. Many 
of those who most needed the water were without 
the money needed to buy the engines or mills made 
by others. Stern necessity crowded the Jumbo mill 
into existence, and who can honestly laugh at such a 
crude contrivance if it mean new life to the plains of 
Nebraska and new hope to thousands of farmers ? 
We doubt if such mills will be of much service east of 
the Mississippi, though we would like to try one on 
the farm, yet there may be something in this princi¬ 
ple that will some day teach us simpler and cheaper 
methods of harnessing the wind. Let us hope so. 
We suggest that the boys on your farm be encour¬ 
aged to experiment with a Jumbo mill. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
“Fader! Fader! Fader!” Hear the baby at the door! 
Trouble’s pack is on her oack, her little heart is sore. 
*' Dolly’s leg is bwoken, and tny kitty wunned away, 
Little Spottie gwouled at me—dere’s nobody to play!” 
‘Fader! Fader! Fader!” cries the baby at the door, 
"Tell about the Booger Man an’ sing ‘Ben Bolt’ once more.” 
“Fader! Fader! Fader! ” and the work is laid aside, 
And the happy baby, with her gray eyes open wide 
Listens to the story of the Booger Man again, 
Leaving at the threshold ah her trouble and her pain. 
“ Fader! Fader! Fader! ” ’Tis a gray-haired baby now. 
With a load of trouble and a basely broken vow. 
Life has turned to bitterness—to bitterness and sin. 
“Fader! Fader! Fader!” cries the baby—“ let me in!” 
“ Friends have turned against me—I am weary, old and gray. 
Give me back the happiness I lost along the way.” 
“Fader! Fader! Fader!” All your money, fame and power, 
All your pride and wisdom will be useless at that hour 
When before the Father like a little child you stand. 
Better sorrow’s nail marks than the world’s wealth in your hand. 
Did you ever see such weather ? 
Don’t be a home-groan product. 
Heating foods cause family feuds. 
Nurse the baby strawberry plants. 
Graft the stout heart on the weak knee. 
A “ feather in your cap ” is a tale feather. 
Nature has attended to the irrigation this season. 
Happy is the man who can make duty spell privilege. 
Who can use the golden rule in measuring a horse trade ? 
Know your own business, but don’t nose your neighbor’s. 
Sheep will eat raw beans. What other animal will do so ? 
Two foods not injured by being frosted—cake and cabbage. 
“ Good roads made by bad men ! ” Put the convicts at work. 
Bottom heat will often hatch out good behavior in the child. 
Spontaneous combustion of molasses is reported from Hawaii. 
Too much peaches and cream will lead to screeches and scream. 
Young man, don’t make a gamble when you select your better 
half. 
The crows are eating the sweet corn. They strip the stalks 
down almost as a man would. 
One of the worst “fors” of habit is doing things that you know 
are wrong, for the sake of policy. 
“Looks just like a bean vine !” is the comment of those who 
see the cow pea plant for the first time. 
Wanted ! A sure remedy lor the flea beetle. They often dam¬ 
age the crop more than the Colorado bugs. 
The latest scheme for keeping dust down is to sprinkle the 
road with water containing waste molasses. 
Most readers will agree with J. Forward, page 564, that running 
a hand separator is not a job desired by a lazy man. 
Charles H. Royce, a Cornell graduate, takes Mr. Cottrell’s 
place as manager of Ellerslie Farm. A gool appointment. 
A good thing for your school-room would be a small cage of 
silk worms. Let the pupils study the development of these worms. 
It was formerly the dasher of the churn 
That knocked the robber heifer in the head, 
But dairymen like others live and learn, 
So now they use the Babcock test instead. 
