632 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 25 
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. 
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-line orders, 25 cents per fine. 
Heading Notices, ending with “ Adi).," 75 cents 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 wbat the remittance Is for, appear in 
every letter. Money oi 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, SEPTEMBER 25, 1897. 
At the Rockville (Conn.), fair, $100 was offered in 
prizes for six cows, entered by one man, that should 
produce the most butter fat in 24 hours. The six 
winning cows gave 176% pounds of milk which con¬ 
tained 8.4 pounds of butter fat—equal to 9.8 pounds 
of butter. This is not a large performance as com¬ 
pared with many private records made at home. 
These six cows, however, are good business animals. 
With 24 cows competing for the prizes, the average 
weight of milk was 27.3 pounds and of butter 1.49 
pound. Such dairy contests are worth 10 times as 
much to the average farmer as is the “ horse trot”, 
yet the latter performance usually commands so much 
of the money that there is little for other prizes. 
Such dairy contests are usually surprising. Actual 
weights and analyses mark out the robber cows and 
show farmers the necessity of knowing what their 
cattle are doing. 
© 
The Department of Agriculture has made another 
shipment of American butter to England. One lot 
from Minnesota was packed in 56 pound packages. 
Another lot from Massachusetts was in small prints. 
The butter was prepared as nearly as possible like the 
French and Danish butter, which leads the London 
market. It sold at 24 to 26 cents a pound at retail— 
the same price for which the best European sold. The 
small packages in which the Massachusetts butter 
was packed were not liked by the English dealers. 
The report from the Department states : 
The London retailers’ margin for profit, 0*4 to 10 cents, and 
about seven cents on an average, was too great. The consumer 
paid twice as much for the Minnesota butter as the creamery in 
that State received for it, and of what the butter cost the con¬ 
sumer, the farmer who supplied the cream got less than two- 
fifths. 
The Minnesota butter paid a fair profit, but that from 
Massachusetts could have been sold to better advant¬ 
age in the markets nearer home. It is hard to see 
why any article of food should ever be sent out of 
New England for a market. Foreign trade in food 
should be reserved for those farming districts that 
have no local market. 
© 
A hotel keeper on a country road has a good many 
patrons who stop for dinner and to feed their horses. 
The horses munch their oats under an open shed and, 
like all horses, scatter a portion on the ground. The 
owners pay for the oats that are put into the manger 
—not for what the horses actually eat. The hotel 
keeper is a shrewd man, and he noticed that these 
scattered oats were eaten by the neighbors’ pigeons, 
or by wild birds. Whatever value they contained was 
taken away from his place. He bought 15 good hens 
and kept them in a little house near the shed. They 
quickly learned to watch for the oats when strange 
horses were fed, and for eight months of the year, 
need little else to keep themselves in good laying con¬ 
dition. Thus the food which was formerly lost to 
the hotel is now made to earn, at least $25 a year. It 
was done by substituting useful birds for useless ones. 
We have in mind two corn fields which illustrate 
much the same thing. Both were well fertilized 
Like the horsemen, the farmers paid for all the fer¬ 
tilizer that was put on the ground—not for what the 
plants utilized. Part of this fertilizer was not used 
by the corn crop. What becomes of it ? In one field, 
there is a crop of weeds. Frost will kill them and 
the ground will lie bare all winter. Like the pigeons 
and birds that ate the oats, the weeds rob-rather than 
enrich the farm. In the other corn field, is a thick 
growth of Crimson clover. It has smothered out the 
weeds ; it will live through the winter, save the fer¬ 
tilizer left in the ground, and add to it. The weeds 
are like the wild birds. The clover is like the useful 
hens. The shrewd farmer will keep his fields con 
stantly covered with some useful plant. There is 
great loss of fertility in the months of September* 
October and November, if the ground be left bare 1 
Cover it. if only with rye to be plowed under in the 
spring. 
© 
The story of Mr. Linder’s great family of boys has 
started up some of our New England readers—who do 
not like to be left out when well-bred human live stock 
is under consideration. A Connecticut minister has six 
sons—one a minister, one a doctor, one engineer, one 
printer, one lay preacher and one still at school. This 
summer, they all worked in the hay field together. 
There are, also, two daughters in this family, one girl 
is a minister and the other a doctor, and both are 
minister’s wives. There you have a Yankee family 
that will make a mark on the history of this country. 
It was just such stock that, in old times, carried the 
New England spirit all over the land. The hard 
Yankee soil has produced fine crops of men and 
women, with firm and solid fiber of mind and body. 
Ten Ohio boys all on the farm ! Eight Yankee boys 
and girls with the benefits o f college training ! Which 
family is likely to do most for the country ? Which 
would you rather have in old age ? T here is a tough 
question for you to answer. 
Q 
There has been much complaint of late years over 
the express and freight rates charged for transport¬ 
ing fruit. These rates are generally too high as com¬ 
pared with other merchandise, and certain fruits are 
classed in such a way as to make the rates almost ex¬ 
tortionate. At the recent Farmers’ Congress, the fol¬ 
lowing resolution was adopted : 
Whereas, The transportation of fruits and vegetables has be¬ 
come an immense volume of traffic, is constantly increasing, and 
is of vital importance to a large section of the country; and 
Whereas, The market price of articles yields but a scant return 
for the labor and expense of production, the cost of transporta¬ 
tion needs to be as moderate as may be consistent with justice 
to the carrier; and 
Whereas, Classification of freight for transportation purposes 
is in terms of the act to regulate commerce, and is, therefore, 
lawful, and as it is a valuable convenience, both to shippers and 
carriers: therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the president of the National Farmers’ Con¬ 
gress appoint a standing committee to be composed of three 
persons, to be known as the Classification and Rate Committee, 
to the end that shippers of fruits and vegetables can have a rep¬ 
resentative body in relation to the transportation of such freight, 
and to confer with the joint traffic associations. 
And further, that such standing committee prepare a written 
report to be presented to the next annual meeting of the National 
Farmers’ Congress, subject to their approval, containing the 
views of the committee with recommendations as to classifica¬ 
tion, rates and modes of transportation of fruits and vegetables, 
for railroad regulations in the States, as well as in inter-State 
commerce. 
The real object of such a resolution is to enable an 
authorized committee to make public the actual con¬ 
dition of affairs. It would be well if this committee 
could represent the shippers to such great markets as 
New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. A fair state¬ 
ment of the rates charged for fruit as compared with 
other classes of produce will be enough to startle 
most fruit growers. 
© 
Secretary F. D. Coburn, of the Kansas Board of 
Agriculture, issues a circular in which the following 
estimate of the cost of growing an acre of wheat is 
given : 
Interest on land ($15 per acre) at eight per cent. ..$1.20 
Taxes. 13 
Plowing. 30 
Harrowing twice.20 
Drilling.25 
Heading. 1.00 
Seed, average. (JO 
Total. $4.18 
It is said that many good farmers approve or have 
verified this estimate. With an estimated cost of six 
cents a bushel for thrashing, wheat on such an acre 
would cost 34 cents per bushel with a yield of 15 
bushels, or 22% cents with a yield of 25 bushels per 
acre. This is about the most favorable side of wheat 
growing that can be presented. There is another 
side. Careful estimates made by eastern men among 
the wheat fields of Dakota and Minnesota, indicate 
that $6 is a fair average of the cost of growing and 
thrashing an acre of wheat. On most of these farms 
in the Northwest, the average yield this season is 
under 10 bushels per acre, with 10 per cent loss in 
shrinkage. The soil, too, on farms long in cultiva¬ 
tion, begins to show signs of poverty in shorter straw 
and a smaller head. Already farmers in that section 
are talking of clover and dairying as helps for their 
soil. Our daily newspapers have worked hard to show 
that the western wheat grower is in a fair way to 
grow rich this year. Such papers, evidently, believe 
that “ dollar wheat ” in New York City means that 
Kansas or Nebraska farmers are receiving one dollar 
per bushel for their grain. While there is, unques¬ 
tionably, a more hopeful feeling among western 
farmers, there is no such thing as a “ boom ” yet in 
sight. The average farmer cannot make any fortune 
at growing wheat. The best that most of us can do 
is to keep on with the rotation of crops that has 
served us in the past, and try in every way to make 
one part of this rotation help the following one. 
© 
Last week, at Hazleton, Pa., a conflict occurred 
between striking coal miners and sheriff’s deputies in 
which a score of men, mostly foreigners, were killed. 
There is much controversy as to whether the sheriff 
was justified in ordering his men to fire upon the 
strikers. Radical labor men refer to the act as “mur¬ 
der,” while the extremists on the other side would 
even attempt to belittle the value of such human life. 
It seems to us that such deeds of violence are just 
what might be expected from public mistakes and 
crimes of the past. The coal-mine owners and opera¬ 
tors, while protected by a tariff on their product and 
by agreements among themselves to curtail competi¬ 
tion, have not been satisfied. Hordes of fierce and 
ignorant Europeans have been imported like flocks of 
animals, because they would work in the mines for 
less than Americans. All through the mining dis¬ 
trict, Huns, Poles and other foreigners are found 
even more of a menace to what we are pleased to 
call “ American institutions ” than were the Hessians 
who fought for King George. Their very presence in 
this country illustrates the selfishness and grasping 
spirit of the mine owners, and these murderous con¬ 
flicts are just what any fair student of history might 
expect. We are reaping the bad harvest of shameful 
history, and establishing precedents that are likely 
to affect farmer as well as town or mine worker. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
THE BROWN QUEEN. 
When it comes to laying, 
On the nest a staying, 
Cents and dollars paying, 
Brownie’s in the lead. 
Little chicks are stronger, 
Up and rustle longer, 
Better morning songer 
Than any beefy breed. 
Hawks and prowlers hunting. 
For our “ Baby Bunting”, 
Get the beefy runting 
For their morning feed. 
Roosts a little higher, 
Instinct makes her shyer, 
Good enough as fryer 
For any farmer’s need. ,r. k. h. 
Dock the windy man’s tale. 
Give the farm a good name. 
We would not put lime on strawberries. 
The milkman runs an a quart ic business. 
We favor spring plowing of sod, as a rule. 
It’s a pious duty to keep pie from the baby. 
Don’t delay too long in starting the fall fires. 
Can you clip any coupons off the chicken coop ? 
Frost works up the plowed sod—it’s a chill plow. 
The lazy man is always seeking for light—work. 
Get this “ be ” in your bonnet—I’ll be somebody. 
Yes, sir, the scrub cow is usually a robber bare ’un. 
The coward is troubled with “ the small of the back.” 
Cut down the running expenses—running after trifles. 
No one can accuse Mr. Linder of being a non-producer. 
A great difference between making a virtue of necessity and 
making necessity of a virtue! 
Keep level-headed over expenses. Use the sweat that pro¬ 
duced this year’s crop for liquid in the level. 
Colorado is coming to the front as a fruit State. It has “ per¬ 
petual sunshine ” and more frost than California. 
A “ variety show ”—of the fruits of immoral thinking! That is 
what some of our agricultural fairs are getting to be. 
A clover crop always leaves the soil better for having grown 
in it. Are you like clover in your relation to the world ? 
Who find country life lonesome ? Those who have nothing in 
themselves for company and those whose thoughts haunt them. 
A Washington (State) correspondent writes about Bartlett 
pears weighing 24 ounces each ! Too much of a Jumbo for us. 
Let Judge Common Sense issue an injunction restraining any 
congregation of scrubs on your place. A good officer to serve 
such an injunction is Mr. Thoroughbred Male. 
A sample from a western New York reader: “There is a man 
here that objects (on the ground of cannibalism) to eating cooked 
beets. One dead beat eating another dead beat ! ” 
An acid is baffled by a fat. Wrap food with fat and the acids 
of digestion have less effect on it. Is this why you use so much 
frying pan ? Is your food too valuable to be digested ? 
Don’t look at two rows of potatoes—one fertilized and the other 
not—and decide from the vines whether fertilizer pays or not. A 
good pair of scales may rub the scales from your eyes. 
Sir Robert Grifpen says that wheat fell in price because 
people, the world over, have been eating more meat. Now let 
them eat more fruit and thus reduce the price of meat and their 
own capacity for mischief. 
In France a woman has received a diploma as a veterinarian. 
In 1890, there were two women vets *n this country, besides one 
wheelwright, 40 masons, 58 blacksmiths, 48 coopers, two auction¬ 
eers and 32 woodchoppers—all women. 
You work, but the little child does not. It is making brain and 
bone. You have all the brains you can ever expect to have. 
Your bones are now so large and hard that they ache. Your 
teeth are going or gone—the chila’s are coming. You do not feed 
the calf just as you do the cow. Why then expect the little child 
to eat the same food that you do ? 
