February ifi 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homea. 
Established 1850. 
Herbebt W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, j 
H. E. Van Deman, v Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Rotlb, 1 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 12.04, equal to 
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personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1901. 
Mr. Manchester touches a vital point on the pocket- 
book nerve (page 111) when he shows the difference 
between weight and measure in feeding grain to cows. 
This same mistake runs all through business. We 
get into the habit of comparing things with the eye, 
which is only a half comparison at best. It is an old 
saying that “the master’s eye makes the fat ox,’’ but 
the master’s scales will fatten both ox and pocket- 
book. 
* 
L\ connection with the article on New York farm¬ 
ing a few stock statistics will be interesting. ’The last 
census taken found 5,548 cattle, 75,809 horses, 037 
mules, 4,077 sheep, 1,482 swine and 226 goats on Man¬ 
hattan Island. 'The remarkable feature of this is that 
226 goats can make such a remarkable showing. Let 
a stranger travel through the upper part of New York 
and he will surely report thousands of goats at large. 
The census man could find only 226. Give us 226 men 
as tireless and “numerous” as New York goats, and 
we will agree to move the world. 
* 
Some of the so-called farmers’ organizations of this 
country are useful chiefiy as illustrations of what such 
things ought not to be. This is not true of the Con¬ 
necticut Pomological Society, which is, in many re¬ 
spects, a model. It is controlled by the fruit yrowers 
and is conducted in their interests. The nurserymen 
have a fair showing, but the growers come first—as 
they should. The infiuence of this Society has been 
remarkable. It is recorded in the orchards all over 
Connecticut, especially in the quality of the fruit. Yes, 
the horticulturists of dozens of other States might 
well take this Society for a model. Perhaps, though, 
they would have to import a few Yankees in order to 
build it! 
* 
The Senators who make up the minority of the 
Senate Committee on Agriculture say that the Grout 
bill is a menace to a legitimate industry. Let’s see 
about that. There are 17 manufacturers of oleo, and 
about 5,000,000 people who depend more or less upon 
the cow for their living. The 17 make their money 
by coloring cheap fats in imitation of butter, and sell¬ 
ing this product at a price which is based on the be¬ 
lief that it is pure butter fat. As at present con¬ 
ducted, the most profitable and important feature of 
the oleo business is the deception attempted and prac¬ 
ticed by those who make and sell it. 'I'he Grout bill 
will, as we believe, do more to break up this fraudu¬ 
lent and deceptive business than anything yet pro¬ 
posed. The true “menace to a legitimate industry” 
comes with the defeat of the Grout bill. 
Some men who are invited to talk before conven¬ 
tions and institutes imagine that their reputation is 
going to carry them through rather than hard work. 
We have in mind now a man with a National reputa¬ 
tion, who traveled hundreds of miles to address a 
dairy convention, but instead of having his subject 
fully prepared, and a systematic line of thought to 
offer, seemed to wait for the spirit to move. We 
heard him tell, just before his address, some reporters 
who were after points that he “hadn’t the least idea 
what he should say. Nothing written out,” etc. We 
think he was right. The inspiration theory didn’t 
work; the talk was ragged and dry, and instead of 
enthusing his audience and adding to his reputation, 
our opinion is he will not be invited again. The class 
of farmers who attend dairy conventions are of the 
higher grade, students and readers of dairy literature. 
“Patent matter” or anything second grade will not 
fill the bill. To give an audience new ideas, or old 
ones in new form that will set their minds at work 
and make them better farmers, is worthy of the high¬ 
est encomium, but it requires careful preparation and 
a good solid foundation first of all. The “I-feel-above- 
you,” or “I-know-it-all” spirit discourages, but the 
“I’m-one-of-you” and “humbly-but-very-cheerfully- 
trying-to-help-you” spirit lifts up at once. 
In Maine paupers are cared for at public expense 
on town farms. In a certain Maine town a pauper ap¬ 
plied to the authorities for help. He had four chil¬ 
dren. The selectmen carried the children to the poor 
house in a wagon, while the pauper himself rode there 
on his own bicycle! That must indeed be a flourishing 
section, where even the paupers are able to own 
bicycles. Two reasons were given the writer for the 
fact that in most rural districts of Maine there were 
few very rich people and still fewer very poor ones. 
These reasons were—Prohibition and apple culture. 
It was stated that the wheelman mentioned above was 
a pauper by heredity. Both his father and grand¬ 
father before him spent part of their lives in the poor- 
house. It is perfectly safe to say that the intelligent 
production of first-class red apples will bring general 
prosperity to any rural section of New England. 
« 
Several weeks since Prof. Phelps told us how the 
proportion of protein in hay was increased by the use 
of extra nitrogen in the grass. Other experiments 
show much the same thing. The Tennessee Station 
tried some experiments with corn, using various mix¬ 
tures of chemicals. The corn grown where no nitro¬ 
gen was used gave an average of 10.88 per cent of pro¬ 
tein. Where nitrogen was used the average was 11.66 
per cent. This fact, that the composition of our grains 
and fodders can be changed by the use of soluble ni¬ 
trogen, is an important one, especially for dairymen. 
The man with a good corn crop is well provided with 
carbonaceous food, whether he shreds the dry stalks 
or puts them in a silo. It is the payment for the pro¬ 
tein that empties the pocketbook, and if by using solu¬ 
ble nitrogen we can add one or more per cent of pro¬ 
tein to our rough fodder, it is the best of business to 
do so. 
* 
Last week we printed a news item to the effect that 
oleo had been bought by agents of the New York 
School of Forestry and paid for by the State. We de¬ 
sire to state that this has nothing to do with the Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture at Cornell, which is wholly dis¬ 
tinct from the College of Forestry. The two colleges 
are not connected in their business organizations. We 
are informed that the oleo was bought by some one 
connected with the Forestry College in ignorance of 
the law. It was supplied to contract woodchoppers 
in the Adirondack forest, and the purchase was a 
blunder—not a crime. We make this statement be¬ 
cause some have gone so far as to say that Cornell 
University favors the use of oleo. That is too absurd 
to be considered for an instant. Such a thing could 
not possibly occur in the College of Agriculture, and 
the University will make the matter right promptly 
and effectively. 
* 
What have our scientific friends to say to the man 
who, on page 110, frankly says that he does not know 
what “protein” means? Here is an intelligent man, 
evidently, with a good library, who balks at one of 
the most important terms used in discussing scientific 
agriculture. The experiment-station men have dug 
out a vast number of important facts connected with 
stock and plant feeding. They have published these 
facts in what seems to them clear and simple lan¬ 
guage. It is clear enough to the 10 per cent of farm¬ 
ers who follow such things, and study them. It is 
evidently not so clear to the 90 per cent who are not 
naturally interested, but who may need the informa¬ 
tion even more than the others. We think that the 
scientific men have been more successful in digging 
out facts than they have been in rubbing them in 
where they belonged. Strictly speaking, it is prob¬ 
ably not their business to attempt to do this rubbing 
in. They have pretty well done their duty when they 
finish digging out the truth. 
* 
At this season, a painful sight to every horse lover 
is the straining effort of the business teams to get up 
the gangway from the New York ferryboats. The 
combination of heavy gales with falling tide drives 
the water out of the river, and although the ferry 
piers are floating, rising and falling with the water, 
the variation is often so great as to cause a moun¬ 
tainous slope of the gangway. Here the heavily-laden 
horses strain and tug, too often cruelly lashed by 
brutal drivers. It is a noticeable fact that, among 
these teams, small private owners do not appear to 
give the same care and kindness to their animals as 
big business firms. One would think that the small 
truckman or dealer whose horse is his working part¬ 
ner, and to whom the animal represents much of his 
capital, would treat this faithful worker with extra 
kindness, but more often it is the hired teamster who 
is seen encouraging his horses in a hard place, and 
using moral suasion rather than the whip. The fact 
is that brutality to any working animal does not pay, 
and'a brutal driver is always a losing investment. 
That may explain the situation, for the hired driver 
who injured his horses would be discharged or docked. 
* 
We find people who are disposed to make light of 
the San Jos6 scale. Some go so far as to call it a 
“scarecrow,” got up “to give the entomologists some¬ 
thing to talk about.” These people probably never 
saw a tree or shrub that has been killed by the scale! 
There are many such—in fact, within the next few 
years thousands of trees will be as dead as posts from 
the attacks of this little insect. The question as to 
whether nurserymen should be compelled to fumigate 
their nursery stock before delivering it has now 
reached the point where most horticultural societies 
decline to discuss it through fear of a quarrel between 
nurserymen and growers. This seems to us a very 
short-sighted policy. We think there is no question 
but that nursery stock thus fumigated is safer to 
plant, but we frankly confess our doubt as to the wis¬ 
dom of a compulsory law. Just now there is hope 
that spraying with crude petroleum will prove an 
effective remedy for the scale. The trouble is to find 
a grade of petroleum that will not injure the trees, 
and a pump that will spray it properly in a mechan¬ 
ical mixture with water. 
* 
BHEyiT/ES. 
RUR.ALETTES. 
Why are some people always found 
Behindhand in the race? 
They hide their talents in the ground 
.And then forget the place. 
• 
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air” 
Because no seedsman “boomed” it with an “ad.” 
And sent it running upward to “Get There.” 
* 
If you do not love your work, 
Kven though you never shirk. 
Though you toil unceasingly 
You a slave will ever be. 
• 
“I love you!” ’Tis the highest compliment 
That ever reached a woman's ear, I say; 
When 20 years of married life have sent 
The wrinkles chasing o’er her face; and gray 
Into her hair. Then, if her husband can 
Honestly say “I love you,” 'tis the best 
Tribute that can be wrung from any man. 
And she who hears the words is truly blest. 
For packed within them is a human life. 
With all its longings, hopes and dreams and feais. 
With w'hich an honest man may crown his wife 
Queen of her sex; in spite of wasting years! 
No one has a right to a wrong opinion. 
Let frost get at the potato bin if you want to raise 
tuber kills. 
To err is human; to keep on erring after you know 
better is inhuman. 
It looks as though the evaporated raspberry might 
have another inning. 
No dairyman will lay up treasure who buys by weight 
and feeds by measure. 
No, snow is not a perfect “cover crop" for an orchard. 
Get something to grow. 
The more your orchard ground is tilled, the more with 
humus it should be filled. 
Wh.vt are the most prominent parts of speech? With 
many speakers—wind and I. 
One thing helps empty out the milker's pall. The edge 
upon the milker’s finger nail. 
We feel sure that the waste molasses from beet sugar 
factories will prove a very useful stock food. 
How is a man’s self esteem pruned into a shapely and 
useful tree? By the judicious use of an honest wife’s 
tongue. 
Think of a man who is not thorough enough to raise 
a good crop of potatoes imagining he can succeed with 
ginseng! 
A NEW Porto Rican law now in force increases the 
internal revenue tax on oleo from two cents to 10 cents 
per pound. 
The recent death of Schuyler Worden removes another 
man whose works live after him—the Worden grape and 
Worden Seckel pear. 
A GOOD woman is a crown to her husband! Correct, 
and if she does her duty her conversation will also be a 
cross at times. * 
It has been found that when milk is held for 10 minutes 
in a closed vessel at 140 degrees, the bacillus or germ of 
consumption is killed, while the milk is not injured. 
The Oregon Experiment Station finds that a hot air 
temperature of 200 degrees, held for 10 minutes, will de¬ 
stroy the smut spores in seed oats. This gave better re¬ 
sults than soaking in blue vitriol or formalin, or in hot 
water. 
