Aiig^ust 3 
536 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S RARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Uehbkut W. COLBINGWOOD, EdltOB 
Dk- WALrEB Van Fleet, / 
H. K. Van Beman. VAssoclates. 
Mils. E. T. Koyle, 1 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
Ss. Od., or 8>^ marks, or 10J4 frai.cs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement In this paper Is backed by a 
responsible person. But to make doubly sure we will make good any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising In our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly 
exposed. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guar¬ 
antee to adjust trilling differences between subscribers and honest, 
resimnslble adveiUsers. Neither will we be responsible for the debts 
of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. Notice of thecoiiiplaint 
must bo sent us within one month of the time of the transaction, ana 
you must have meulioued The IIuual New-Yorker when writing 
the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance Is for, should 
apiiear In every lett er. , 
Bemlttances rauy be made In money order, express order, personal 
check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1901. 
EvEitY day of the hot, dry weather lessens the 
chances for the corn and the apple crops. Winter 
fruit will undoubtedly he short. If there are any 
localities where, for some local reasons, apples are in 
sight, growers will do well to let the fact be known, 
for there will be a rush of buyers and sharp competi¬ 
tion for the fruit. 
In Mexico, corn forms a large part of the food of 
the people. Speculators have got hold of the supply, 
and are forcing the price up to such an extent that it 
is said thai the government may take off the import 
duty on corn from the United States. This would up¬ 
set the calculations of the speculators in short order, 
and in our opinion, is one good way to treat all those 
who attempt to monopolize the production or sale of 
necessities. 
Some of the most valuable space in the agricultural 
exhibits at the Pan-American Exposition is occupied 
by displays of whisky, rum and other alcoholic pro¬ 
ducts made from cereals. Why should such exhibits 
be put in the Agriculture Building? The present 
abuse of intoxicating liquors has done more than any 
other one thing to injure the farmer, by displacing 
legitimate farm products. It would be about as con¬ 
sistent to exhibit a mad dog in the live stock show be¬ 
cause the dog is a product of meat! We believe this 
is the fiz’st time such a disgraceful classiflcation was 
ever made! 
* 
The artist who drew the picture printed on page 
530 probably never saw a cow in his life. It was per¬ 
haps his misfortune to be born and raised in a town. 
That is about the worst start in life that an American 
citizen can have. He was “off” as regards the shape 
of 'the cow, but he sized up her feelings properly. The 
cow and her milker off in the country are the best 
friends of the city baby. The milk as it leaves the 
farm is pure and sweet—life-giving and nourishing. 
Some of it is fit to serve as an embalming fiuid before 
it reaches the baby’s botue. It is drugged and poison¬ 
ed by the dealer, and not by the farmer. 
« 
The famous Prof. Koch, of Berlin, the discoverer 
of the bacillus or germ of tuberculosis, announced 
last week at the London Tuberculosis Congress, that, 
in his opinion, based on long-continued and indis¬ 
putable experiments, bovine tuberculosis or cow con¬ 
sumption is not transmissible to human beings, and 
the dreaded human ailment also is harmless to ani¬ 
mals. Prof. Koch, in view of his great attainments 
and exhaustive studies of all aspects of consumption, 
may be considered a supreme authority, yet his con¬ 
clusions will doubtless be attacked by many of less 
experience. There is no denying that the evidence 
of the transmissibility of bovine tuberculosis to hu¬ 
mans is of the most flimsy character, and has never 
warranted the extremely harsh measures of inspection 
and destruction of valuable animals advocated by 
some medical authorities, and it is probable that suffi¬ 
cient reaction has now set in to call a halt in the mat¬ 
ter. We want all reasonable precautions to keep our 
dairy and beef animals free from disease, but we 
should be sure we are on the right track before going 
ahead at such destructive speed. Prof. Koch claims 
that human tuberculosis is disseminated almost 
wholly by the sputum and excretions of consumptives, 
and that the dread disease is practically curable in 
its earlier stages. The early recognition of the af¬ 
fection and the isolation of tuberculous persons in 
sanatoriums equipped by public and private means is 
the most promising method to reduce and finally 
stamp out the disease. Something of the same char¬ 
acter must be done with tuberculous cattle where the 
value is great enough. 
» 
Now is the time for the careful farmer to estimate 
his Winter’s supply of fodder. There will be many 
hungry mouths at the barn next Winter, and there 
are many long days before next April. The hay crop 
has not been exceptionally large in spite of the wet 
season. In many sections the corn is backward, and 
in many more the feeding value of the cornstalk is 
largely thrown away. It is not yet too late to sow 
fodder corn or to plant sweet corn for fodder. We 
shall continue to plant corn up to the middle of Au¬ 
gust on the higher points of the farm. The use of 
the shredder and other machines for tearing and 
crushing the dry stalk has Changed the whole plan 
of horse feeding on many farms. Shredded dry fod¬ 
der is quite equal to hay as Winter feed for horses. 
With a fair-sized field of Alfalfa a farmer can feed 
his stalks, sell his hay, or cut down his acreage in 
meadows. 
■ 
Now and then we receive a statement like the fol¬ 
lowing: 
I followed the advice given in your paper some time 
ago, how to prevent stinkbugs from eating squash hills. 
I lost 350 hills of squash by trying it. The advice I refer 
to was to put radish seed in each hill. The three rows 
were teetotally destroyed by striped and black stinkbugs. 
The nine rows that had no radish seed had no stinkbugs 
and very few striped bugs, and I managed to save them 
all. I have been a market gardener for 20 years, and I 
think I have had experience enough to take nobody’s 
advice hereafter. a. m. j. 
Akron, O. 
On page 387 a correspondent said he tried this plan 
in a small way, and asked for reports from others. He 
did not urge anyone to try it, neither did he claim 
that the radish drove the bugs away. He just wanted 
to know about it, and was very careful to make this 
point clear. We are surprised that any man with 20 
years’ experience in gardening, should change a mild 
suggestion into positive advice. If 50 men had each 
tried seven hills of squashes with radish seed in them, 
and reported results, it would have made a good ex¬ 
periment. We should all have learned something 
from it. For one man to try 350 hills was too much 
of a risk. Is he justified in blaming anyone for the 
loss of the squashes? Do any of us fully realize the 
responsibility we assume when we make statements 
in print about new or untried things? 
The cornod-beef-and-cabbage and houses-and-lands 
views of life will, if allowed 'to have their own way, 
crowd out the finer elements of one’s nature. It is 
possible for a man to be so intensely practical as to 
become dead to the poetry, beauty and music all 
about him in nature. All that he sees in a fleid of 
w'heat are the grain and straw, the hard work needed 
to handle them, and the money they will bring. In 
the great oak standing alone on the hill, he sees only 
shade for the cattle, and a sawlog and lot of fuel when 
it is finally cut down. The brook rippling over the 
stones is only a place to drink. In the grass-covered 
fields he sees only hay and pasture. The beauty of 
the waving grass and grain and the tree standing in 
outline against the evening sky, the music of the 
brook and the muttering of the leaves in the wind do 
not appeal to him. Yet these things are meant to 
smooth off the rough edges of toil and help a man to 
keep from being cold and hard and bitter. Any great 
amount of contemplation of nature may be out of 
place in the life of a busy man. Yet all with eyes 
and ears have time to take two or three doses of it 
a day; and no one ever committed suicide or went 
out to do some terrible crime as the result of taking 
such medicine. 
* 
'One form of nature study, which should surely be 
taught in every country school, is a knowledge of our 
common poisonous plants. A recent report from 
Pennsylvania tells of the death of three boys, who 
ate the berries of the 'Canada moonseed (Menisper- 
mum Canadense). This is a native climbing plant, 
found from Manitoba to Georgia and Arkansas, 
though nowhere, we think, is it very common. It pro¬ 
duces clusters of shining bluish black fruit, which, to 
the childish eye, strongly resemble frost grapes. The 
leaves are somewhat like English ivy, but smaller and 
not so leathery; the vine slender, growing six to 12 
feet long. The poisonous property of the fruit is simi¬ 
lar in effect to strychnine. The children w'hose poison¬ 
ing is referred to met with the moonseed while hunt¬ 
ing for wintergreen; ate the berries under the im¬ 
pression that they were grapes, and died within a 
short time, in spite of medical aid. Moonseed, False 
hellebore. Water and Poison hemlock, poison oak and 
ivy, and the deadly Amanita, which is usually re¬ 
sponsible for the cases of mushroom poisoning re¬ 
ported each year, should all be familiar to every 
country dweller, yet we know many who never even 
learn to distinguish between the five-fingered Vir¬ 
ginia creeper and the 'three-leaved poison ivy. An ex¬ 
cellent bulletin entitled “Thirty Poisonous Plants of 
the United States,” has been published by the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture; this does not, however, include 
the moonseed. 
ft 
No one need suppose that any of us know all that 
need be known about silage and the silo. The Winter 
barn pasture is a settled thing on many dairy farms, 
but no wise man will say that he has yet produced 
the finest quality of silage that can be made. It was 
once thought that the chemical action inside the silo 
was much like that in a jar of preserved fruit. Prof. 
King says that the two processes are quite different. 
When fruit is canned the cells of the fruit are killed 
at once, so that their action is stopped. When corn 
is cut into the silo the living cells are not destroyed. 
Their vital action goes on for some time, and this 
complicates the process of preserving the silage. It 
is quite likely that a thorough study of the matter 
may give us an entirely new method of building and 
regulating the silo. 
ft 
A SINGULAR spectacle was presented on a neighbor’s 
farm the other day. It was at the close of a long hot 
afternoon. Clouds were gathering in the north and 
there was a grumble of thunder. The farmer had al¬ 
ready done more than a good day’s work, but the hay 
was on the ground, so he dragged himself out with 
the weary team to save his crop. While he was sweat¬ 
ing at the barn two other men were playing tennis in 
the front yard. They were city men—boarding at the 
farm. As they played their lazy game the farmer’s 
wife was in the hot kitchen cooking their supper. 
Strange as it may seem, these men are in the com¬ 
mission business. They handle and sell the products 
of the farm. There they were, the handlers, playing 
in the front yard while the farmer toiled at the barn 
and his wife boiled in the kitchen. It was strange to 
see the handler play, while the producer worked. We 
do not mean to say that these players are idle or lazy 
men. No—they work hard at their business and put 
in long hours. They would probably say that if the 
farmer would hustle as they do, and show as good 
judgment, he would make more money. Perhaps, and 
yet it was a strange thing to see the handler play 
while the producer toiled. 
• 
BREVITIES. 
Oh, the practical man he tells us how. 
And the scientist tells us why. 
And the farmer wipes the sweat from his brow. 
And he wonders if help is nigh. 
For somehow or other the how won’t work 
Just when the why says that it should. 
Or else the why stops and begins to shirk 
And won’t do the job that he could. 
For half of your labor is thrown away 
With why roaming off in a dream. 
And how just plodding along till he’s gray— 
Oh, why can’t they work in a team? 
Baked apple time has come! 
Soft drinks after hard thinks. 
The best boss gets along without bossing. 
How about the mainspring In your headpiece? 
The Red Astrachan apple is too thin-skinned. 
The cow seems to be having her innings this season. 
The sheep doesn’t give the cow a fair show in the 
pasture. 
Leaf gall—some men show it when they turn over a 
new one. 
There is one doctor in this country for every 655 In¬ 
habitants. 
The hard head needs soft thinking and the soft head 
hard thinking. 
“Strike while the iron is hot!” but the present strike 
turns the iron cold. 
Great Interest has been shown in the recent articles 
on cranberry culture by Mr. Makepeace. 
What crop to sow in the corn for Winter cover? On 
our own farm we are sure of rye and Crimson clover. 
Clover and Cowhorn turnips mean an experiment. 
Reports from the West show great damage to the corn 
crop. That should make you give your own corn a little 
better culture or even lead you to sow more fodder! 
The following decision of a New York justice wili in¬ 
terest some married people: “No woman has a right to 
go through her husband’s pockets, nor has a husband 
the right to go through his wife’s pockets.” 
Just ride about the country in any section where 
farmers own their homes, and see what a blessing the 
climbing roses have proved. They are everywhere carry¬ 
ing beauty and sentiment in their teeth as they climb 
the porch. 
Quack or Witch grass spreads by means of under¬ 
ground stems or roots. To kill it these roots must be 
exposed to sun and air. A tool that jerks or tosses up 
the ground Is better for this pui’pose than one that packs 
It down. A good spring-tooth harrow is excellent. 
Is It safe to go down into an airtight silo, or into an 
old well? The old-fashioned test of lowering a lighted 
lantern is a good one. If the light continues to burn at 
the bottom of the silo or at the top of the water man 
may safely follow. If the lantern goes out—keep out! 
