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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 6 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
a XBB BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
Klbebt S. Cabman. Editor-In-Chief. 
HF.ru> list W. Colling wool), Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
8UBSCRI I’TIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
IV, foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. 6 d., or 8*4 marks, or 10 % 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 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 what the remittance is for, appear in 
every It tter. 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 , NOVEMBER 6 , 189 7. 
Last year the Post-Office Department handled 
11,972,654 pieces of mail matter illegibly addressed, 
with writing so poor that no one could read it. We 
frequently receive letters so poorly written that it is 
hard to make them out, and harder still to distinguish 
the name and address. 
Another common error 
is to write the name of 
the town and omit the 
State. The best rem¬ 
edy for this is to have 
name and address printed on paper and envelopes. 
It will not cost much to have that printed on your 
stationery, but it will help you in many ways. It 
gives people the impression that you are a business 
man. 
© 
The people of New Jersey—at least the few who 
voted at the special election—decided by 10,000 ma¬ 
jority that women shall not vote for members of 
boards of education. It seems surprising that so 
many Jerseymen are ready to admit that they are 
either “henpecked” or afraid of woman’s vote. The 
vast majority of public school teachers are women. 
At least 99 per cent of the home education or review 
of the teacher’s work will always be conducted by the 
mothers or sisters. Who, in the name of common 
sense, have a better right to a voice in the selection 
of trustees or teacher than these same women ? Like 
a great many other things, our school system is being 
fathered too much. It needs more mother in it. Too 
much father will add an s and smother it. 
Hothouse grapes, peaches, nectarines, apricots and 
muskmelons are among the delicae ies on the tables 
of our English cousins, at the time when we are eat¬ 
ing the unsophisticated product of the outdoor gar¬ 
den. It is noticeable that there is, in this country, a 
demand for choice hothouse fruit from fastidious 
buyers, but the ease with which such products are 
sent from the South or the Pacific coast gives entirely 
different conditions from those before European 
growers, and certainly tends to limit the demand for 
the hothouse crop. In most parts of England, it is 
rarely possible to ripen peaches unless the tree is 
trained flat against a wall, both shoots and fruit being 
carefully thinned and, in some cases, ripening must 
then be hastened by covering the tree with a glazed 
screen, a similar appliance being used to protect the 
buds in spring. Muskmelons cannot be grown out¬ 
side in Great Britain. 
© 
In the Eastern States the corn fields are generally 
left bare during the winter. In many western rota¬ 
tions, corn is followed by wheat, and this grain is 
often sown in the standing grain, or just after it has 
been cut. In the East, corn is generally followed by 
potatoes, and the potato crop is in turn followed by 
wheat. This gives a sod for the corn, but usually the 
ground is bare after the corn has been removed. Corn 
stubble is really the worst part of the farm to leave 
bare. The corn generally receives most of the manure, 
and is usually planted on a sod. The sod and the 
manure contain the greater part of the organic nitro¬ 
gen that is supplied to the farm. It will be noticed 
that corn makes most of its growth during the hottest 
weather, when the greater part of this organic nitro¬ 
gen is made available. After the corn is cut, there 
are large quantities of this nitrogen still in the soil, 
and unless there be some growing crop to cover the 
ground during September, October and November, a 
good share of this nitrogen will be washed out and 
lost. That is one great advantage of sowing Crimson 
clover and rye in the corn at the last cultivation. It 
not only covers the ground and gives a crop to plow 
under in the following spring, but it saves and holds 
the nitrogen that would otherwise be washed out of 
the soil and lost. We have found that the kitchen 
slops from one large family, with a little grain added 
to them, will nearly provide the winter’s supply of 
pork when fed to three good shoats. By sowing 
Crimson clover in the sweet corn, and adding a little 
potash and phosphoric acid, we shall save most of the 
nitrogen left in the soil by the corn and add what the 
clover will take from the air. It seems to us just as 
much of a mistake to leave the pigpen empty and 
throw the slops into the brook as to leave the corn 
field bare all winter. 
© 
Thebe are many prosperous and influential farmers’ 
clubs in the State of Michigan. Probably no other 
State can show so many of these organizations. Five 
years ago, these clubs were brought together into a 
State organization which has proved remarkably suc¬ 
cessful. It is safe to say that no other organization 
in the State has a greater influence upon legislation, 
as it is strictly non-partisan in its demands and sug¬ 
gestions. Here is the first of its declaration of 
principles : 
That all county officials be paid in full for their respective 
services by stated salaries fixed by the respective boards of 
supervisors, and that it be made a criminal offense for such offi¬ 
cials to receive any fees or other perquisites in addition to their 
salaries. Further, that the fees collected in county offices be 
readjusted on an equitable basis, and that hereafter, all such 
fees be turned into the county treasury and become a part of 
the general fund. 
That goes to the root of one of the worst evils of 
country polities—the political job. The politician is 
after the fees that are fed into the county office. 
Such offices are often held by men who draw, in this 
way, five times what they could earn in any private 
business. Shut off the fees and you will clean up 
county politics wonderfully. 
© 
The description of that New Mexico celery farm 
(page 723) suggests a number of things to think about. 
We have always been taught that celery requires a 
strong, moist soil to do its best, yet here are men 
growing celery of superior quality on the dry deserts 
of New Mexico. They do it by supplying, artificially, 
the conditions needed to make good celery soil. These 
are chiefly water and vegetable matter. Green rye 
and manure that would otherwise be wasted supply 
the humus and the great spring that would otherwise 
send its waters uselessly through the desert, supplies 
the moisture. Here is a good illustration of what 
constitutes one side of good farming. Man cannot 
master the seasons, but he can make use of conditions. 
How many acres of poor land there are at the present 
time, bare and exposed to the weather. The owners 
cannot afford to buy manure for them, but how little 
it would have cost to cover them with Crimson clover 
or rye. The waters of the spring or stream that flows 
through your farm are wasted. Can you not devise 
some plan for holding them so that the water may be 
used to irrigate at least a few acres? Our New Mexico 
friend has used these things so well that he can grow 
flue celery in the desert. Cannot you make some such 
use of them ? 
© 
The Union Pacific railroad owes the people of the 
United States nearly 81 for each man, woman, and 
child in the country. A statement of its account will 
show what claims the Government has against it. 
Principal of maturing bonds.$27,236,512 
Interest paid to October 1, 1897. 47,354,534 
Total.$74,591,046 
The United States Government being a creditor has 
not paid certain charges for transporting troops, sup¬ 
plies, etc., and on this account owes the road 816,085,- 
238. The road is also to be credited with cash pay¬ 
ments which bring its total claim to 816,523,648, so 
that it owes the people, represented by the Govern¬ 
ment, 858,067,398, It was proposed to sell the road 
on November 1 to satisfy the claims held by the 
Government, and a syndicate of wealthy men was 
formed to buy the property and thus control it. There 
being no competitive bidders, they expected to get it 
at their own price, and offered 845,000,000 for the 
Government’s 858 000,000 claim. It seemed at one 
time as if the Government would accept the offer, but 
a tremendous outcry was started in the newspapers 
against a deal that would give away millions of valu¬ 
able property to rich railroad men. The result is that 
the syndicate has raised its price, and now offers the 
full value of the Government’s claim, and this will 
probably be accepted. The Government lent the 
money originally to aid a railroad that promised to 
develop the West. From the beginning there has 
been scandal after scandal in its management. A 
comparatively few men have become wonderfully rich 
out of its earnings. While the Government may get 
most of its money back by this sale, it is a shame that 
this valuable property, built with the money of the 
people, cannot now be operated so as to give most 
benefit to the common people and farmers of the 
great West. For our part we would like to see the 
Government take the road and conduct it as an object 
lesson in public ownership. 
Q 
The Inter-State Commerce Commission has just 
issued their report of American railroad service. 
There are 182,776 63 miles in operation with 35,950 
locomotives and 1,297,649 cars of all classes. On 
June 30, 1896, there were 826,620 men employed on 
these railroads, and 8468 824 531 were paid in wages 
and salaries. The total of railroad capital was 
810,566,865,771 and the funded debt was 85,340,338,502. 
These railroads carried in one year, 511,772,737 pas¬ 
sengers and hauled 765 891,385 tons of freight. The 
gross earnings were 81.150,169.376, and the operating 
expenses were 8772,989,044. These figures seem very 
large at first glance, but let us compare them with a 
few agricultural figures for the same year : 
Value of hay crop. $394,185,615 
Value of corn crop. 567,509,106 
Value of wheat crop. 237,938,998 
Value of oat crop. 163.655 068 
Value of cotton crop. 259,164,640 
Value of horses and mules. 603.344 613 
Value of all cattle. 772,883 961 
Value of hogs. 186.529 745 
Total value of farm animals. 1,727.926 084 
Total value of all farms. 13,279 262 649 
Total value of farm mortgages. 1,085,995,960 
It will be seen that the corn crop for one year would 
pay all the railroad wages and salaries for 1896 and 
leave 898,784,565, or enough to pay for carrying 
4 939,328,150 passengers one mile, or for hauling an 
average train 1,097,606 miles. What would be thought 
of the farmers of the country if they tried to carry 
a debt equal to half the value of their farms ! Farmers 
are called “ hay-seeders ” by thoughtless people. The 
hay, the hogs and the wheat grown in one year would 
pay all the expenses of operating all the railroads 
and leave 845 665,314, or enough to pay for hauling 
one ton of freight 5,381,122 miles, or about 215 
times around the world. The railroad business does 
not begin to compare in magnitude and import¬ 
ance with that of agriculture. In fact, the railroad, 
like all other business enterprises, lives on the 
products of the soil. Its money is made by handling 
and sorting what farmers have grown and others have 
handled. Why should a railroad man be ranked 
above a farmer ? 
© 
BREVITIES. 
A kind of a sort of a—I don’t know — 
What ’tis gits a hold of me every year; 
A feelin’ that jest sets my heart aglow 
Whenever Thanksglvln’ time signs Is near. 
A feller with Yankee blood in his heart, 
Goes back to the root of his childhood days 
Whenever Jack Frost gives the nuts a start, 
An’ November winds through the branches plays. 
I ketch myself standln’ stock still—I go 
Around in a sort of a daze—’taint fair 
To stock ner the folks in the house, I know, 
But it jest creeps out of the frosty air. 
A kind of a sort of—fog in yer eye— 
A lump in yer throat—a daze in yer head— 
An’ yer thoughts jest jump an’ away they fly 
To the old home times that are lost and dead. 
A kind of a sort of a—I can’t say 
What it is comes in with Tuanksgiving time, 
Brace up an’ jest drive it away, you say ? 
I wouldn’t be guilty oftno such crime! 
Watered milk is well fed. 
Bell the belligerent sheep. 
There is germ death in live steam. 
Pride leadeth to the jumping-off place. 
Haughty culture—“ doing himself proud.” 
Which is the better—hindsight or oversight ? 
The mule colt may be called a bray sing heir! 
There’s rheum at the top—for the “ sore head ”! 
Bran mash is better than whip-lash for the horse. 
Right in place—the surplus rooster in the frying pan. 
Yes, sir, the Aunty dote has poisoned many a weak nephew! 
You can’t enlarge your mind by stretching your imagination. 
The principals in polities should take interest in its principles. 
There are too many candied statements from would-be candid 
friends. 
He who leaves a slippery walk to barn or house is a fall 
planter. 
Now let some scientific friend give us a weeping tree that will 
do to irrigate with. 
The whine made from “ sour grapes” keeps people so sober 
that they turn blue. 
Keep tobacco and “bitters” signs off the barn! Paint the 
name of your farm there instead. 
“ A Kitchen Pear ” Thus the English Royal Horticultural 
Society classes the once-famous Idaho. 
Surrosu preacherB were to limit their preaching to their own 
practicing. Would not the world be better off? 
Which is more like “class legislation”—the present system o f 
mail delivery in town or the proposed rural free delivery ? 
Water and heat have broken down our toughest rocks. How 
do you expect sun and rain will toughen the unhoused tool ? 
It is against the law for any clerk or employee in the post office 
department “ to borrow money or to contract debts which he 
has no reasonable prospect of being able to pay.” A good thing 
if the rule could be extended to others. 
FAITH FARM. 
John H. Smith, 
Jonesville, N. Y. 
