648 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 2 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Ei.liKin S. Carman. Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwooii, 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 
8e. 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 line 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv.,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely Onk Price Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Be Bure 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 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, OCTOBER 2, 1897. 
The contest for trial subscriptions will close Friday, 
October 1. All names received bearing postmark of 
October 1, will count for the premiums, and awards 
will be made at once. Terms for further work will 
be announced next week. 
3 
A suspension bridge made of fence wire is reported 
from Douglas County. Kan. A small stream there 
swells to a torrent after every rain, so that the chil¬ 
dren were unable to cross it in going to school. The 
county engineer, being asked to provide a remedy, 
procured a quantity of timber and fence wire. Large 
oak logs were used for piers ; strips of boards three 
feet long were fastened together with wire, and over 
these, a board walk two feet wide was fixed. Each 
end of the superstructure was anchored to the piers, 
and sides, made of a wire*network, were put up. The 
bridge is 200 feet long, and 60 feet above the water. 
This feat of home engineering contains a suggestion 
for foot bridges across gulleys or creeks about the 
farm. 
© 
“The New Black Man” has been made possible 
through the negro conference idea: This method of 
calling the plain unlettered people together strikes 
us as the most practical way of reaching “ ordinary” 
farmers with suggestion and inspiration in farming 
that we have ever heard of. Many of our northern 
farmers’ institutes may fairly be classed as failures in 
their ability to secure a hold on the common farmers. 
As at present conducted, they really create classes, 
and benefit but a comparative few. White men may 
not like to admit it, but they are behind Booker T. 
Washington and his negro helpers in their ability 
to secure the confidence and loyal cooperation of the 
farmers who most need their help. We hope to tell 
why this is so in another article. 
0 
A farmer drove into the Paterson, N. J., market 
the other night with 10 bushels of excellent pota¬ 
toes. “ How much ?” asked a dealer. “One dollar 
a bushel!” “Too much!” “ All right; I’ll take 
them home, and you’ll pay me 81.10 for them next 
week!” “I’ll take them now!” All signs — 
large and small—indicate that potatoes are to bring 
high prices before spring. They will not be likely 
to run very much over 81 per bushel to the farmer, 
for experience in the past has shown that people in 
towns will eat rice and other substitutes before they 
will pay more than a certain price for potatoes. This 
year, the singular condition prevails that sweet pota¬ 
toes are cheaper than whites. The “ feeding value ” 
of the sweets is higher, as is explained on another 
page, and they will be used as substitutes for the 
whites in many families this year. 
0 
There is, unquestionably, a better feeling among 
sheep breeders. Twenty years ago (1877) there were 
in this country 35,804,200 sheep, valued at 880 892,683. 
On January 1, 1897, there were but 36,818,643 sheep 
valued at 867,020 942. The best sheep year during 
this time was in 1884, when there were 50,626,626 sheep 
valued at 8124,365,335, though in 1893, our flocks were 
worth 8125 909,264. The sheep business ebbs and 
flows more rapidly than any other branch of live stock 
industry. At present, stocks are low. When wool 
went down, thousands of sheep were sold for what 
they would bring as second-class mutton. Now that 
there is confidence that both mutton and wool will 
increase in price, there is a rush to buy and breed 
better sheep. The breeders who have held on through 
thick and thin and persistently refused to lower the 
quality of their flocks, will now reap a harvest. To 
be sure, that is true of all lines of farming, but cir¬ 
cumstances have made it particularl y true of sheep 
just now. The rush has been for mutton sheep of 
late, yet the Merino breeders are hopeful with the 
rest. While there is little prospect for a return of 
the high prices of 15 years ago, there is still a good 
demand for American Merinos. The best breeders 
have steadily improved their flocks by breeding for 
size and constitution, but not at the expense of density 
of fleece. The result is that American Merinos are 
demanded by breeders in Australia, South America 
and South Africa, where most of the fine wool is now 
grown. There are many natural sheep farms in the 
country where no other sort of live stock could live 
with profit. During the past few years, the “ golden 
hoof ” of the sheep has been shod with lead. Now 
the weight is coming oil again. 11 Sheep are going up!” 
0 
One of our Connecticut readers, about four years 
ago, got ready to build a silo, and wrote a western 
man about buying a power and cutter. The western 
man wrote, “I think such corn as you could raise in 
Connecticut could be put in whole without cutting.” 
It doesn’t do to talk to a thoroughbred Yankee that 
way. This man made up his mind that he would 
show what some of the wornout land of New England 
can be made to do. This year, he filled the silo from 
three acres of corn. After well settling, and allow¬ 
ing 45 pounds of ensilage per square foot, there are 
76 tons, or over 25 tons per acre. Naturally this man 
wants some westerner to come forward with a better 
yield. The more you crowd some men down, the 
more they rise on you. They have good yeast in 
their blood, and a hard fisting makes it work. 
© 
Year after year, vast crops of wheat are taken from 
the wheat fields of Dakota and Minnesota. In that 
section, grain is more of a crop monopolist than cot¬ 
ton is in the South. How long can the western soil 
stand this heavy drain without exhaustion ? Eastern 
farmers who look to manure or fertilizers alone as the 
chief means of maintaining fertility, cannot see how 
such lands can be kept in full yield. Western scientists 
and farmers believe that the soil itself contains abun¬ 
dant material for hundreds of wheat crops. They ex¬ 
pect to make this plant food available by means of 
careful tillage and the use of leguminous crops like 
clover or peas. In next week’s R. N.-Y., Prof. E. F. 
Ladd, of the North Dakota Experiment Station, will 
describe a scientific method of treating these wheat 
fields. It will prove of great interest to all who wish 
to make use of what is called the potential plant food 
of the soil. 
© 
In The R. N.-Y. of September 11, we spoke of the 
arrest of Nathan Straus on the charge of selling 
adulterated milk. He was tried this week in the 
Court of Special Sessions, and the Justices, after a 
consultation, decided that Mr. Straus was guilty of a 
technical violation of the sanitary law, but suspended 
sentence. This means that, although the milk that 
was taken as a sample was found to be a trifle below 
the legal standard, the Court did not believe that 
there was any intention to violate the law. This is 
the opinion shared by most unprejudiced, thinking 
people. Mr. Straus has done too much philanthropic 
work among the poor of the city for any one to be¬ 
lieve him guilty of such trickery. Not only does he 
sell his milk at a price that precludes the possibility 
of profit, but it is given freely to those unable to buy. 
More than 500 poor babies in the city are now being 
fed upon this sterilized milk, and Mr. Straus has done 
much to educate the poor to the importance of health¬ 
ful food. The Board of Health ought to be in better 
business. 
0 
The notes on the free delivery of mail in rural dis¬ 
tricts on page 642, give a fair idea of the arguments 
in favor of the plan. No one can doubt that a regular 
mail service such as is here discussed would benefit 
those farmers whose chief communication with the 
outside world is by means of papers and letters. Most 
farmers who have once enjoyed this service, declare 
themselves ready to pay for it rather than have it dis¬ 
continued. We think that, in most of these “ trial ” 
districts, farmers will club together and keep up the 
service at their own expense after the Government 
gives up the experiment. Why should they be ex¬ 
pected to do that? Why should one community be 
forced to pay for its mail delivery while another has 
such service performed for nothing ? There is a de¬ 
mand in certain quarters for one-cent postage. That 
would mean a great saving to many business men and 
a larger deficit to be made up in the post office de¬ 
partment. In 1896, the revenues in this department 
amounted to 882,499,208.40, while the expenditures 
were 890,626,296 84. One-cent postage would make 
this difference larger, and present a stronger argu¬ 
ment against free rural delivery on the score of ex¬ 
pense. Three cent postage for town and country 
alike would increase the revenues and give the farmer 
what he ought to have—a better chance to do busi¬ 
ness by mail. 
© 
Two weeks ago, we noted how the French govern¬ 
ment legislates in favor of wheat growers rather than 
for wheat eaters. The price of bread has advanced 
in France, and the popular leaders of town voters are 
demanding a reduction or suspension of the tariff on 
wheat so that imports of cheaper foreign grain may 
force down the price by increasing competition. Some 
of the statements made by Paris newspapers in de¬ 
manding cheaper bread are remarkable. Here is one 
of them : 
Bread will soon be at three francs, then four, then ten, then a 
Jouis the kilo, and, finally, as the augmentation of price grows 
higher and higher, fashionable ladies will wear little pellets of 
bread in their ears, instead of diamonds, and a necklace com 
posed of grains of wheat will constitute a parure of far greater 
value than a necklace of diamonds. 
On the other hand, French farmers maintain that 
the present prices for wheat enable them to make up 
for some of the losses of the past, and that, as a 
matter of national policy, it is better for French 
townspeople to pay a higher price to Frenchmen 
than to pay a lower price to foreigners. They are 
likely to be sustained in this position, for the French 
farmer has never lost his powerful hold upon the 
government. While France is a wonderful manufac¬ 
turing nation, national legislation has, on the whole, 
favored agriculture. Hence the French farmer has 
prospered while the English farmer has failed. Last 
year, the United States sent 122,099 bushels of 
wheat and 1,194 barrels of flour to France, while dur¬ 
ing the same period, England bought of us 43,648,077 
bushels of wheat and 8,211,236 barrels of flour. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
“ The man who does not love a cow 
Is but a poor stick anyhow.” 
“ The man who does not love a hen 
Should not be ranked with gentlemen.” 
“ The fellow who neglects the sheep 
Might better spend his hours asleep.” 
“ Old Satan has a special jig 
For those who execrate the pig.” 
“ Let those who preach against the cur 
Be sent to Klondyke without fur.” 
So run the words of those who jog 
Through life with cow, hen, sheep or hog. 
For man with all his noise and stir,j 
Still lakes much of his character, 
With traits that mark him to the end, 
From his beloved, four-footed friend. 
Even Arizona is growing tobacco. 
There's an overproduction of duck. 
It takes a good man to tell what he knows. 
Jam down the manure in order to preserve it. 
Take the bull by the horns—and dishorn him. 
A raw wind will “ cook ” the hen’s egg record. 
The saloon is the chief breeding place for lunacy. 
The seeds of weeds repeat their parents’ evil deeds. 
Mr. Potato Tuber is making a rotten record this year. 
The shorter the ensilage is cut the longer it will keep. 
An epitaph for the scatterbrain—“ caught short on thought.” 
There are too many general-purpose men—have a definite 
purpose 1 
A proposed amendment to your constitution—“more sand in 
your mortal clay.” 
Six daily papers in a bunch in country districts without free 
mail delivery—see page 642. 
Only 2,875,897 pounds of wool imported in August. Smallest 
amount in any month for the past three years ! 
There are $30,649 in the old fractional currency still in circula 
tion. We wish there were 1,000 timea as much. 
Eve packed the apple full of evil—that is history, of course, but 
there’s not a trace remaining when it comes to apple sauce. 
The test of a dairy breed will be found in its ability to produce 
good grade cows. The business dairy cow for America is not a 
thoroughbred! 
Probably the poultrymen (page 654) who want eight square 
feet of floor space per hen, refer to cases where the hens do not 
go out at all during the winter. 
It was a French queen who said that the people might eat cake 
if they could not obtain bread. Make it Johnny cake this year 
and let America supply the corn meal. 
September, October and November are the nitrogen-losing 
months in this latitude. The soil is often bare, and the fall rains 
wash the valuable nitrates away. Keep the ground covered with 
a crop! 
An attempt has been made in South America for the transpor¬ 
tation and preservation of hay by compressing it to one-tenth of 
its normal bulk. It can be kept indefinitely in this form, without 
either flavor or food value being impaired. 
The average allowance per man in the Alaskan gold fields is 
one ton of solid food per year! The less water in that food the 
less the cost of getting it to camp. Sell water, but do not buy it 
for the farm. Don’t try to irrigate with stable manure. 
When Mistress Biddy lays an egg, 
The surplus rooster’s in high feather; 
He struts about on stiffened leg, 
And crows and cackles—both together. 
To busy nest the hen will hie, 
But he—poor worthless, idle screecher— 
Denied the right to lay, must try. 
To masquerade as a lay preacher. 
