04 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PER 8 
Jhuutsfl 
A 
♦ 
FARMERS’ INSTITUTES. 
(RURAL special report.) 
Great recent revolution in agriculture due 
to improved transportation facilities; 
its effects; consequent need of a change 
in agricultural practice; nature of this; 
greater concentration of labor and. 
capital needed. 
T HE Albany farmers’ institute was 
called to order at 10.30 A. M. Thurs¬ 
day, January 23, by the Institute Director, 
J. F. Converse of Woodvilie, N. Y., who 
gave a short outline of the work of the 
society during the winter. Prof. I. P. 
Roberts made the first address upon the 
subject of Fertility, Corn and Civilization. 
President C. K. Adams of Cornell Univer¬ 
sity, followed with a discussion of “ The 
Revolution in Agriculture.” He said : 
“ The processes of transportation have 
revolutionized agriculture. In antiquity 
and the Middle Ages it was not uncommon 
for a famine to sweep away half of the peo¬ 
ple of the country. It was not until this 
century that means were found for trans¬ 
porting the superfluities of one country to 
cheaply supply the wants o f another. It is 
only a little over 100 years since improved 
roads were constructed in England. The 
steam engine, the steamship and the rail¬ 
road are productions of the Xineteeth Cen¬ 
tury. 
Till 1S70 it required 2,200 tons of coal to 
propel a steamship of 3,000 tons, leaving 
only 800 tons of freight capacity. The 
triple engine has reversed these figures and 
made it possible to carry a bushel of wheat 
from New York to Liverpool for two cents. 
In 1800 it cost 3 56 cents to transport a ton 
of freight a mile. The introduction of the 
Bessemer rail has brought about a con¬ 
tinual reduction of freight charges till now 
the average rate is 86 100 of a cent per ton 
of freight per mile ; while the New York 
Central carries through freight from Buf¬ 
falo to New York for 13-100 of a cent per 
ton per mile. 
The resources of Southern Russia, India 
and Australia are made available in the 
same manner as our own. This has a won¬ 
derful influence upon us in the eastern 
part of the United States. We are suffer¬ 
ing in the same way in which the farmers 
of England are suffering, yet the prices of 
products here have not fallen appreciably. 
A laboring man can get a year’s food for 
his family transported 1,000 miles for the 
price of one day’s labor. 
It is no longer possible for any farmer in 
the Eastern United States to farm in the old 
hap-hazard way. We must do as they are 
doing in the Old World. We must use our 
intelligence in our farm operations. In 
England crops have increased two-fold and 
in Germany three-fold during this century. 
There lias been a continued decrease in 
yield per acre year by year in the United 
States during the same time. The people 
of the Western States have thought that 
the fertility of their soil was inexhaustible. 
When they find their mistake they move 
to new fields and renew the depleting pro¬ 
cess. The limit to this movement is nearly 
reached. The Rocky Mountains will prove 
a barrier. The time will come when a re¬ 
action will set in. The call will then come 
to the farmers of the East to increase their 
production. There is a better time in the 
near future for the Eastern farmer. Let us 
avail ourselves of the knowledge to be 
gained in agricultural colleges, from ex¬ 
periment stations and at the farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes so liberally provided by the State 
and Nation. 
Mr. Powell : During this address this 
question has arisen in my mind : What is 
to become of the farmers of New York 
State till the good time comes ? We must 
abandon the idea that we can grow 
grain and feed stock in competition with 
the West. We are cultivating acres up¬ 
on acres more than we can properly haudle. 
We must till our land better and grow 
crops that are more difficult to raise. Our 
farms are suffering more to-day from the 
want of labor than anything else. Let us 
call back the laborers from the towns and 
cities. 
Prof. Roberts : -We must stop playing 
at farming. There is no profession to-day 
on the face of the globe that is so compli¬ 
cated or requires so much time to learn as 
larmiug. With care and skill we put our 
hay in the barn the past summer at Cornell 
University for 87 cents a ton. I could not do 
that if the mower were plungingover stones 
half the time, but the crop was over three 
tons per acre. Our silage, compared with 
Timothy hay at $8 per ton, is worth 850 an 
acre. When I took charge of the Cornell 
farm it was poor. I threw the side hill plow 
on the brush heap and seeded down the 
land. What we tried to do was to farm less 
land and farm it better. 
Dairy Commissioner Brown: I have 
at home 20 acres on which we are keeping 
17 head of milch cows. 
Eyery pound of food that goes into the 
dairy is weighed and charged to it, as I 
would charge it to any other customer. We 
could not carry on a successful dairy with¬ 
out a silo any better than we could without 
a farm. We have no difficulty to sell our 
butter for 30 cents, but we make it for 
less than 14 cents. You are spreading 
yourselves over too many acres of land. 
Any energetic young man and his wife can 
make a good living and a profit on 25 acres 
of land. My cows give an average of 300 
pounds of butter per year. 
Colonel Curtis.— Not one farmer in 
500 has tested his cows or knows whether 
they are giving him a profit or running 
him into debt. He is going it blind. 
All the profit in dairying in this State is 
secured from one third of the cows. 
In the afternoon addresses were made by 
Honorable Edwin Willetts, Assistant Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
and Dr. J. A. Liutner, State Entomologist. 
M. F. w. 
A Peculiar Case of Land Swindling 
came to light at Little Rock, Arkansas, 
last Monday. About six months ago a 
man giving his name as Charles, made his 
appearance in the adjoining county of 
White, and at once installed himself in the 
good graces of the local minister, the Rev. 
J. R. Chumley, to whom he confided the 
statement that he was in reality an English 
nobleman traveling incognito, and the pos¬ 
sessor of a fortune amounting to fully 
8100,000,000 (1), 84,000,000 of which were in¬ 
vested in Birmingham. The minister, with 
a charitable gullibility truly charming, 
‘‘took it all in,” and with his new friend 
went to Little Rock where he introduced 
him as a man worthy of the amplest confi¬ 
dence. Charles purchased three fine farms 
near the city, gained possession of the 
deeds agreeing to meet the sellers on a cer¬ 
tain day and pay the price. Of course, he 
failed to appear, and the credulous farmers 
w ill endeavor to recover the titles to their 
farms in the courts. Land-swindling 
sharks have been very unusually busy of 
late. Their operations have covered a 
great many sections in the West, from 
bogus towm sites as far north as Duluth, 
Minnesota, to bogus farms and ranches in 
“ Greer County, Texas.” Never has it been 
more necessary for intending purchasers of 
Western lands to make certain of the valid¬ 
ity of the titles thereto than at the present 
time. Of course, the number of fraudulent 
titles offered for sale, is almost infinitesi¬ 
mally small in comparison with the number 
of valid titles in the market; still great cau¬ 
tion in puieliasiDg is necessary ; and so is a 
good deal of care in selling, for there are 
sw indlers among buyers as well as among 
sellers. Iu addition to those wanting to 
purchase land, others also are defrauded 
by swindlers in that section. In the north¬ 
western corner of the Panhandle of Texas 
is an immense grazing ground, and of late 
that section has been selected as the seat of 
the operations of a numerous gang of 
swindlers. They make their headquarters 
in some mushroom or paper town, procure 
or forge a number of signatures to petitions 
for the establishment of counties, file their 
bogus petitions with the Secretary of State 
and get ‘lie boundary lines established, and 
then hold bogus elections at which bonds are 
liberally voted. A high rate of interest is 
promised and the bonds are “listed” con¬ 
siderably below par. Agencies are then 
established iu the East as well as iu the 
West at which the bonds are sold to small 
investors who are told that large returns 
will certainly be made by these worth¬ 
less investments. 
ever advertisers or salesmen offer goods 
for prices far below r what it is claimed they 
are worth, one will never lose by leaving 
such traps for the credulous and greedy 
“severely alone.” In all large cities, and 
indeed everywhere people are always ready 
to buy up, w ithout any need of advertising, 
all useful goods offered for less than the 
regular market rates. In spite of this 
widely known fact, however, and of the 
obvious nature of this truth, sharpers are 
constantly offering wares at figures far 
below' their intrinsic value, and they con¬ 
stantly find it profitable to expend large 
sums in advertising and postage in order 
to secure the patronage of the large num¬ 
ber of dupes who are certain to be attracted 
by their alluring bargains. A very success¬ 
ful rascal of this kind who is well known 
to the police of this city as an “all-round 
fake,” calls himself John F. Latimer. He 
has been widely advertising in country pa¬ 
pers and by means of circulars and postal 
cards announcing that the Fay Type-Writ¬ 
er Works, in order tointroduce a new' type¬ 
writing machine, would sell anddeliver for 
81.85 a type-writer worth 835 ! In spite of 
the obviously fraudulent nature of such an 
offer, hundreds, yes, thousands of gudgeons 
in all parts of the country bit at the bait 
and sent in 81.35 apiece. In return some of 
the most remote received nothing; and the 
others were exasperated by the receipt 
of a box labelled: “ For the Amuse¬ 
ment and Instruction of Children,” con¬ 
taining a toy set of wooden blocks with 
large letters stamped on them. After 
“John F. Latimer” had cleared several 
thousand dollars by this ingenious scheme, 
the United States Post-Office authorities 
arrested him the other day for using the 
mails for fraudulentpurposes, butstraight- 
way he was released on 81,500 bail. Doubt¬ 
less. after the fashion of his tribe, he will 
soon start the same or a similar swindle 
under the same or another name, and find 
the same or another set of victims ready to 
become his prey. 
PiSccUnncou.s SUrcvtising. 
8^1 
|V 
DO YOU g 
WANT MONEY? E. 
r 2 \ 
•Zi 
Do you owe some one, 
or have you a mortgage [S^ 
*7] coming due that you can’t 
V| pay ? Why not earn what [v 
j[\ you need by acting as our 
special agent for a while? 
j[\ We offer a splendid paying 
jt j business that can be attend- 
Zjed to evenings or off days. 1^1 
^i{ If you really want to make 
enough money to pay your 
debts we offer you the IX. 
chance. A real wide awake 
man or woman will take 
advantage of the chance, 
Curtis Pi'hi.ishin'g Co., [v* 
. j Philadelphia, Pa. j ^ 
SHERWOOD’S STEEL 
CHEAP, HANDY and DURABLE. 
Kedivtion iu Prices Brings It In Roach of All. 
We will supply our TRADE west of (lie 
Mississippi River from the Sherwood Harness 
Co.. Kansas City. Mo. or from Home Office 
and Factory. 
SHERWOOD HARNESS CO., 
SYRACUSE, IV. Y. 
Warranted to be all w'e claim or money refunded 
Fraudulent Bargains.— The Eye- 
Opener has frequently warned his readers 
against having anything to do with extra¬ 
ordinarily liberal bargains, under what¬ 
ever pretext they may be offered. When¬ 
DETECTIVES 
Warned hi every County. Shrewd men to act under instructions 
in our Secret Service. Experience not necessary. Particulars free. 
tiraniian Detective Bureau Co. 44 Arcade,Cincinnati, 0. 
Srccs-’, perils' ami ^lant.L 
Trees & Plants 
Of all kinds at almost half price. Lov" 
ett’s Guide gives descriptions and 
prices, tells how to purchase, plant, 
prune, etc. It is a book of over 60 
pages, finely illustrated, free; with 
colored plates 10c. 
Trees & L-*lanl s Ly ATsiil a {"Special! y. 
A copy of that practical, horticultural journal.O rchard 
& Garden, free to all who state where they saw thisodvt. 
J. T. Lovett Co., 
LITTLE SILVER , N. J. 
OUR NEW 
S °-f> 
-ON- 
NEW APPUCA - 
‘ < „ TION 
°OD 
FREE S 
E 
E 
Choice Grown. 
S Higganum Mfg. Corp. v S 
P. O. Box 376, X. Y\ City. 
Johnson 
& Stokes’ 
GARDEN AND FARM MANUAL FOR 1890. 
Is the best published. 
Brimful of good things, 
crowded with illustra¬ 
tions from Nature, and 
the choicest list of rare 
and valuable novelties 
ever offered. On receipt 
of lO cent* In cash or 
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gether with a large pack¬ 
et of our new rubhaite 
ALL YEAR ROUND. 
By far the Beat Cab¬ 
bage ever introduced for early. Intermediate 
and late, catalogue price of which alone is 20 cents. 
Market Gardeners writ© for Special Prices. Mention this paper 
JOHNSON &. STOKES, 
217 & 219 MARKET STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
BOOK ever Printed. 
SEED 
ONE CENT 
PACKAGE, and 
tip, per rarity, scarcity, 
_“OSt. 1000000 extras. Cheap as 
* J?. IK W..t,d ttnnr orlrlrrtCC 
nrrnp fi pktsof ni> choicest Flower Seeds. 10c. Beau-. 
0 LlUo tifui catalog fri e. F B.01 ILLS, 1 horn Hill.NY 
CRAPE VINES 
at greatly reduced rates, Also 
Strawberries Blackberries. Raspberries, 
furrants, Wonderful Peach, and other 
i.JF*' iVurserv Stock. l*rtcu r+isoiinhU: De- 
gcrip. Catalog with instruction*forplnntiny tmtl pruning 
Flirt:. JOEL HORNER & S0H, Oelair. Camden Co.. H. J. 
Send 1 5c. in postage stamps 
for 3 Sample Vines. We have 
all Old and New Varieties, 
very cheap and warranted 
trile. PRICK LIST I- REK. 
GARDEN, FLUWLK&FIELD. 
POTATOES, FKUIT TKEES, 
PLANTS and VINES, all the heal kinds . • 
THE NEW CUKKANT •*Cr«ndull,” a/ruit specialty. | 
Our Free Catalogue is u Novelty all should have, ns it [j 
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hunt and exaggeration — too common. Semi your address on a jj 
uostal for it at once. Fit AN k FOK1) A SON, Ravenna, Ohio. | 
BERRY GROWERS. 
Improved Folding Paper Ilcrry 
Basket for shipping & delivering. 
I Icavier Paper. Square Bail and 
Cover. Send S'-- for 500 basket* 
or 2 cent stamp for sample. 
Detroit Paper Novelty C». 
Detroit, Mich. 
CHERT’S Send for our 
A K DEN 1890 
SEEDS. Catalogue! 
we mail free to all pttr- 
of seeds. It contains 
complete list of everything 
hat Is desirable iti Vegetable 
Flower See is Select 
Seeds. Seed Potatoes 
Bulbs, Plants, &c.. &c. 
\VM. C. BECKEKT, 
SKKDSMAN, 
ALLEGHENY, PA. 
SFf~ Mention this paper. 
iirUf ADA SPAULDING 
HE" Chrysanthemum 
Choicest Foreign and American Novelties warranted true | 
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reus Begun Us of linest strains. Chi ulogue on application. P 
T. H. SdAULDING, Orange, N. J, 
