8o8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 11 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
Elrww? 2. Cabman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Hebbebt W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
able 40 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , DECEMBER 11 , 189 7. 
In Wisconsin, an effort is being made to reforest the 
cut-over pine lands of the State. Some of the great 
lumbermen have promised to replant their cut-over 
lands with year-old trees, if the State will strictly 
enforce the fire law regarding forests. It is estimated 
that the planting can be done at a cost of $3 for 1,000 
trees, and 1,000 will cover an acre. It is time that 
replanting of our fast-disappearing forests were at¬ 
tempted, and a careful enforcement of the fire laws 
in both new and old forests is most necessary. 
© 
In the symposium in this issue on the outlook for 
sheep, as well as in the one two weeks ago, the fact 
stands out prominently that each breeder sees the 
dawn of prosperity in the breed he represents. Each 
pins his faith to his own breed. That’s right 1 To 
succeed with it, he must have full faith in it, and in 
its possibilities. If he hasn’t, what business has he 
with that breed ? The same is true in every calling. 
A man must believe thoroughly in himself and in his 
profession or business. This confidence is half the 
battle. 
© 
Fruit packed in peat moss has been shipped from 
Canada to England with great success. This packing 
material, when dry, is very absorbent; and is also re¬ 
garded as possessing antiseptic properties. Pears 
and tomatoes wrapped in tissue paper, packed in this 
material, and shipped in cold storage, traveled in ex¬ 
cellent condition, even when delayed in transit. Ex¬ 
periments will be made in shipping fruit thus packed 
without putting it in cold storage. The experimenter 
claims to have kept cherries in good condition for 
three months, when packed in this moss. 
e 
That the sheep business is in a flourishing condi¬ 
tion is manifested all over the country; from the 
western plains, where the breeding ewe has reached a 
higher price than for many years, through the stud 
flocks of the Middle and Eastern States and across 
into Canada, where we find everything in the male 
breeding line that is older than a lamb has taken its 
departure to fields of usefulness. In many cases, a 
large part of the lambs have, also, been disposed of. 
Canadian breeders are remarking the unprecedented 
numbers of sheep and cattle that have been shipped 
across the line into the United States the past season. 
Once more the man who had the courage to stick to 
his calling through the darkness of adversity has 
been rewarded. Even now some breeders, tempted 
by high prices, are selling their ewe lambs for meat, 
when they should be kept for breeders. 
© 
Four years ago, The R. N.-Y. gave quite an extended 
account of the proposed operations of Mr. M. Garra- 
han, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Garrahan is a successful 
market gardener. Most of his operations were con¬ 
ducted on high-priced bottom land located above the 
coal mines. The rent for such land was high, the 
overflow from the river filled it with weeds and 
trash, and the dumpings from the mines were slowly 
making it sterile. Mr. Garrahan conceived the idea 
of going back along the railroad to a farm that had 
been worked to a standstill at wheat growing. His 
plan was to buy this cheap land, and endeavor to 
make it over into a suitable condition for growing 
garden crops. This was to be done chiefly by means 
of chemicals and green crops, since little manure was 
to be found on the farm. It was a bold attempt to 
find the key that should unlock the plant food in that 
soil, and there were many who prophesied failure for 
the enterprise. Mr. Garrahan begins in this issue an 
account of his operations, and we will let him tell 
his own story. It is a remarkable one, and the suc¬ 
cess is characteristic of the man. What a pleasure 
it must be to master a farm in this way and lead it 
back once more to productiveness. God gave man 
dominion over, not only the beasts of the field, but of 
the field itself ; but the very best labor of brain and 
hand must be exchanged for that dominion. 
© 
There is much complaint among receivers of butter, 
at this time of year, about the quality of the receipts, 
creamery-made as well as that made in the dairy. It 
is off in flavor, often bitter, crumbly and streaked. 
The methods of handling the milk and cream may 
have something to do with this, but the greater part 
of the trouble is attributed to the cows eating frozen 
grass and other fodder. Dairymen, naturally, wish 
to save all the fodder possible, thus often pasture 
their cows long after they should be kept off tne 
fields. A brand of butter that has made a good name 
for itself, may receive a black eye by this false 
economy, to say nothing of the injury to the fields by 
this late pasturing. A good silo, well filled with a 
crop of corn, is a much more desirable, and a much 
cheaper way to furnish the cows succulence. It’s bet¬ 
ter for the cows, better for the product, better for 
the farm, better for the farmer’s pocketbook, and bet¬ 
ter for the farmer. 
© 
One interesting thing about the prize contest for 
farmhouse plans is the difference shown in the types 
of houses required in various parts of the country. 
The northern New England people want a house con¬ 
nected with the barn by means of closed sheds. Tne 
Southern farmer wants an open house, for it is more 
necessary for his comfort to let the air in than to keep 
it out. The farmer in the Mississippi Valley has a 
plan that suits his condition, and the Dakota farmer 
has another. We see. too, that there is quite a differ¬ 
ence in the cost of building the same house in various 
sections. When a farmer has 1,500 bushels of wheat 
or its equivalent in pork, beef, cotton or butter to put 
into a house, he naturally wants as much value and 
comfort as the money will buy. The value of a house 
depends not so much on the brick, wood and iron put 
into it as in the way these materials are arranged. A 
convenient arrangement of rooms may increase the 
selling or renting value of the house by 50 per cent. 
© 
In a recent issue of The R. N.-Y., Prof. Bailey is 
quoted as commenting upon the difference between 
gardeners in this country and in Europe, as follows : 
“ A man trained to gardening in Germany means a 
gardener for life, while here a man is a gardener one 
week, a car conductor the next, then a farm hand, 
and at the end of the month, he is off with a thrash¬ 
ing machine.” This, while true enough of the un¬ 
trained man-of-all-work who is often accepted as a 
gardener in this country, is both misleading and un¬ 
just when applied to the large body of intelligent, 
practical trained men employed as gardeners by those 
who really understand the needs of the occupation. 
These men are trained just as thoroughly, and are, in 
many respects, more progressive than their prototypes 
in Germany ; they have such interest in their work 
that they do not change their vocation with every 
whim, but are in the business to stay. This is a point 
that is not generally understood here, neither are 
their merits understood, as they are in the older 
countries of Europe. In many American communities 
any man who can dig potatoes, milk a cow, and mow 
the lawn, is looked upon as a gardener, and it is 
men of this class who lower the standard of the pro¬ 
fession. In Europe, such a man would not be called 
a gardener ; he is simply a garden-laborer. As em¬ 
ployers in this country more generally realize the 
education, ability, and practical knowledge required 
to make a successful gardener, we shall hear less of 
these indifferent workers who po se as trained garden 
workers. 
• 
An authority has recently given emphasis to his 
notion that tuberculosis is a dangerous, and treacher¬ 
ous foe. The fine-looking herd may be badly infected ; 
the more the herd has been coddled, the greater the 
danger. The disease germs must be actively over¬ 
come. Mere hygienic measures will render neithe. 
man nor beast immune ; though the danger from in¬ 
oculation can be lessened. Horses are seldom troubled 
by the disease—an argument in favor of horse-steaks. 
Very likely, the activity of the horse, and his good 
care, work together to protect him. He has vigorous 
exercise in the open air. The millionaire’s cow, not 
having to rustle for a living, makes a fat target for 
bacilli. Sunlight and fresh air kill the disease germs 
Swine are sometimes fed the offal from tuberculous 
cattle, and acquire the disease speedily. The Indians, 
likely, are infected in the same way, from unfit con¬ 
tractors’ beef. The poor creatures may have a mass 
of tubercles on portions of the offal which the Indians 
consider delicacies and eat raw. The death rate from 
consumption among those people is half of all deaths. 
We can contrast this rate with that shown in New 
York City, where the vital statistics have been 
gathered. The Jew, faithful to his religion, shows 
deaths from consumption at the rate of 76 to 100,000 
per year ; the native white American, 205 ; the colored 
people, 531; the Irish, over 600. The Rabbi inspects 
the slaughtering at the abbatoir, rejecting all sus¬ 
picious carcasses. This authority believes that each 
municipality will eventually have its own slaughter 
house, where trained officers will inspect at all stages. 
Perhaps then beef raising in the East will once more 
pay. 
O 
A six- year old boy in New Jersey was killed by an 
electric car. The boy’s father brought suit against 
the company and won damages for $1.500—which we 
should call a small price for a boy. The company 
appealed the case on the ground that the boy should 
not have been permitted on the street without a suit¬ 
able companion. Two courts have decided against 
the company, but now the Court of Errors and Appeals 
is evenly divided over the case. It is said that mil¬ 
lions of dollars are involved in the result. A former 
judge is quoted as follows : 
If the highest court in the State so fixes the law that there can¬ 
not be any recovery for the killing of a child of tender years by 
a street railroad car or a steam car if the parents of the child 
permit him to go on the street unattended or not sufficiently 
attended by some older person for a guardian, that will practi¬ 
cally put an end to suits for damages for the negligent killing of 
young children by these companies, for such children are seldom 
guarded by adults while away from home and, Indeed, in the 
vast majority of cases, their parents cannot afford to employ 
nurses or others to attend them. 
That is very true, for most people of moderate means 
are unable to provide guardians for their children 
that would suit the railroad companies. It is getting 
to be a remaikable state of affairs if the railroads are 
to claim the right to kill young children in this way. 
The people of New Jersey should start at once upon 
a crusade for the power to protect themselves against 
such outrages. Circulate petitions at once demand¬ 
ing the right of communities to protect themselves 
against-railroad slaughter. Capture your assembly- 
men before the railroads get hooks on them. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
Tell ye what, November’s dreary ; no use talkin’, I gitskeery 
When these sorter gray days come crowdin’ ’round a feller’s 
home; 
Reachin’ in an’ sorter pryin’ out old memories you’ve been tryln’ 
Fer to tuck away in hidin’; ole November comes a ridin’, 
Till ye think the bottom dropped out of things and Nature’s 
flopped. 
Got to flop her back, sez I, so I pitch right in an’ try 
Fer to hearten up our folk 9 , sorter polish up old jokes— 
Some old chestnut like enough, old as Phario an’ tough 
Ez his mummy, I trot out, when old care gits round about. 
On my heart I feel his file, raspin’, but I crack a smile. 
And jest think ahead to spring-like to git our folks to sing 
Home, Sweet Home, when things aint right—voices aint so awful 
bright 
As they was some years ago; but there aint no care can grow 
Anywhere in range when we tune them words an’ set ’em free. 
Talk about insecticides what kills bugs an’ other snides— 
Aint no germ of household wrong gut a chance agin that song. 
Pan America—the frying pan. 
The plaintiff at law has the sue y side, 
To lazy men, work is a transitory verb. 
Some people never grow except in years. 
Don’t separate your soul from its uppers. 
Encoubage the horse with the curry comb. 
Bough-minion —the position of the kitchen slave. 
The dentist can give you a tooth sum bill for fair. 
Ink— it stingeth when the adder foots up your bill. 
Who but a fool will guarantee the b^st of work without a proper 
tool ? 
“The inside track!”—the alimentary canal. Don’t give it to 
dyspepsia. 
Let’s eat more corn, fruit and vegetables, and send more wheat 
to Europe ! 
Brightness comes from scrubbing ? Any bright side to farm¬ 
ing with scrub stock ? 
The modern farmer must think and hustle—he must sell mind 
as well as his muscle. 
Can’t capture Crimson clover, eh ? Why not try bribing him ? 
He loves potash. Set Sir Muriate after him. 
Displaying your big Bible with no thought of what’s within, 
may well be stated this way—it’s a sinecure for sin. 
Oui, monsieur ! Jam means preserves, but you do not preserve 
your character by trying to jam it through a small hole. 
Special privilege ! That is the ledge upon which the ship of 
state may run some day. Better dredge that ledge out ! 
We think that, in a majority of cases, stable manure will sub¬ 
stitute for lime in sweetening the soil, but lime will not substitute 
for manure. 
In the Southwest, turnips are planted in different parts of the 
orchards and allowed to remain. Rabbits and mice feed on this 
bait and do less damage to trees. 
The latest humbug is an Ohio man who glued pieces of differ¬ 
ent corn ears together till it looked like one immense ear. He 
went around selling kernels from this bogus cob at an extrava¬ 
gant price. 
