THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH i 
138 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
(34 Park Row, New York), 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban 
Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, l EDITORS. 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 1 
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1890. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER’S 
PROGRESS. 
A NOTE FROM MR. CARMAN. 
result of the cheapening of food which 
must ultimately result from this new 
process ? 
THE BLUE SPRUCE. 
The man who knows it all must find 
the earth too small for him. 
No man has yet found the full 
capacity of one acre of land. The world 
is several thousand years old, too. 
If the R. N.-Y. could have but two 
spruces it would select the Blue and 
Alcock’s. The terminal shoot of the 
Blue Spruce, shown on the first page 
of this issue, is from a photograph. 
The best way to become learned is to 
begin by fully appreciating our own 
ignorance. 
Reports from nurserymen indicate 
a good trade in fruit trees and vines. 
The demand is better than for several 
years, but prices are said to rule low. 
The R. N.-Y. will soon give facts 
regarding the trade in nursery stock 
and seeds. Our “Business” depart¬ 
ment is started for just such matters. 
“ In fact, if a farmer has the 
‘gumption’ to produce something a 
little better than his neighbors can, 
and can secure customers who believe 
in him and trust him. he can make 
farming pay even now! ” This is 
what our friend says on page 134. 
Who doubts the truth of this state¬ 
ment? Now, then, we want to ask, is 
this ‘ gumption ’ a natural faculty 01 - 
can it be acquired? 
‘ ‘ The last number was a capital one, 
and the photograph of the agricultural 
implements on the first page tells most 
graphically the reason why most 
farmers are so poor. So many tools 
for a 93-acre farm is enough to make 
any man poor! Many of them are 
duplicates and could be used in more 
than one place. I do not know that 
this farmer is poor, but it would bank¬ 
rupt any New England farmer.” 
w. H. B. 
Yet it is strange that Mr. Warn, 
who owns the tools, makes his farm 
pay him and attributes a good share 
of his success to the fact that he has 
such a good outfit of tools. 
Read what Mr. Chase says about his 
clover crop, on page 134. This matter 
of handling clover is quite a serious 
one with many farmers. It used to be 
considered the worst form of heresy to 
do anything with clover besides feed¬ 
ing it to cattle. This was when the 
feeding of beef cattle was a more prof¬ 
itable industry. Recent developments 
in the dressed beef trade have changed 
that. There are now many farms 
where the clover crop should never 
touch the lips of stock at all. Farm¬ 
ers will gain by saving haying and 
feeding expenses and plowing the 
clover under when at its best growth. 
In fact, the Eastern farmer must learn 
to use more green manures with his 
fertilizers. 
r pO retain a control, or partial con- 
X trol, of the Rural’s editorial 
management, an employment which 
I have always liked, and to give up 
entirely its business management 
which has always been distasteful to 
me, have been hopes—rather than ex¬ 
pectations—that I have indulged for 
several years past. They have, how¬ 
ever, at length been fully realized. 
I have sold the property of the R. 
N.-Y. to Mr. Lawson Valentine and 
Mr. E. H. Libby. Mr. Valentine is 
well known as the proprietor of 
Houghton Farm, President of the 
Christian Union and Garden Publish¬ 
ing Companies, and a leading member 
• of the Boston publishing house of 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. There is no 
man in this country, as I believe, that 
has more earnestly striven to promote 
the true interests of agriculture, and 
of rural life in general, than has Mr. 
Valentine. His earnestness in the 
past has been shown by his emplov- 
ment of such assistants as Major H. 
E. Alvord, Dr. Manly Miles, Prof, 
Penhallow, etc., while his late pur 
chase of the R. N.-Y. gives assurance 
that this earnestness is unlikely to 
grow less m the future. 
Mr. Libby’s success with the Ameri¬ 
can Garden and his long experience 
in various fields of agricultural and 
rural enterprise well fit him for the 
exacting work which the business de¬ 
partment of theR. N.-Y. demands. 
During the past five years I have 
been ably assisted, editorially and 
otherwise, by Mr. H. W. Coll mg wood. 
He graduated at the Michigan Agri¬ 
cultural College in 1883 and owns 
and cultivates, at the present time, a 
farm of 43 acres which has been allud¬ 
ed to in these columns as the R. N.-Y. 
“Annex.” While now as managing 
editor, he will be enabled to give most 
of his time to purely editorial employ¬ 
ment, he may yet be expected to ren¬ 
der some assistance in the farm exper¬ 
iment work which it is now proposed 
to continue no less vigorously than 
heretofore. 
Whether these progressive measures 
shall result in a more intensive—a 
more instructive and valuable— Rural 
New-Yorker, remains to be seen. Our 
readers will so soon have the oppor¬ 
tunity of judging for themselves that 
we need, at this time, indulge m 
neither speculations nor promises. 
e. s. c. 
WHAT NEXT? 
Everything indicates a brisk trade 
in maple products this year. Dealers 
in spouts and other fixtures report 
good sales. There is every indication 
that the manufacturing season will be 
earlier than usual, and the product is 
sure to be heavy, as low prices in 
other farm produce have driven into 
the business many farmers who never 
entered it before. The first new sugar 
has already reached this market, 
coming from Delaware County. N. Y. 
The fact is, there have been many 
good sap-running days through De¬ 
cember and January. Judging from 
past experience, the indications are 
that the season will be longer than 
usual. It is hardly necessary for us 
to add that in the maple business, as 
in every other, the man who provides 
himself,, early,‘with suitable tools will 
come out ahead. 
I '' ROM the earliest times men have 
looked upon milk as a perfect 
food. Measured and handled as a 
liquid, it has been valued for its solids 
—butter and cheese. The separation 
of these solids was never complete. 
Chemistry easily demonstrated that; 
but old methods and instruments were 
unable to prevent a partial loss. 
Gradually improved methods reduced 
this loss of butter fats to a point that 
seemed to mark the limit. Then the 
separator startled the dairy world 
with its wonderful simplicity and the 
accuracy of its work. Now comes 
the extractor which goes a step fur¬ 
ther in advance and drives the butter 
from the whole milk without any in¬ 
tervention of cream-raising'appliances 
or churn. One might say that this 
ended the matter. But no, even 
after all the butter fats are taken 
from the milk, there yet re¬ 
mains nine per cent, or more of other 
solids—those which form the basis 
for cheese. Swedish chemists see 
in the skim-milk—generally regard¬ 
ed as a waste product—abundant food 
for man and beast. Years are spent 
instudying the matter. Asa result, we 
have a process which saves every 
atom of the milk solids and wkien 
even promises to find a use for the 
evaporated water. The R. N.-Y. has 
before it samples of the new product 
in its crude state, ground to different 
degrees of fineness and mixed with 
coffee, cocoa, flour and various sub¬ 
stances to form rations for animals. 
There can be no doubt about it—they 
are here, and the possibilities for 
cheap food combinations with this 
highly nitrogenous product as a base, 
will appeal strongly to the thoughtful 
man. What next ? Have we reached 
the end of milk ? What is to be the 
I T will hardly be denied that the R. 
N. Y. during the past eight or 
nine years has done more to keep the 
Colorado Blue Spruce before the pub¬ 
lic. than all the rest of the rural press 
E ut together. It has praised this 
eautiful conifer so highly and so 
often that it has been feared we 
would weary our readers of a tale 
more than thrice told. All this has 
been from its own observation of a 
few specimens growing in its Experi¬ 
ment Grounds, purchased while yet 
the tree was known to but a few pro¬ 
gressive people, who could afford to 
purchase high-priced novelties and 
take the chances, 20 against one, 
of their being worth the ground 
they occupied. It appears from the 
exhibit made this week that the one 
out of the 20 has been hit upon this 
time. As judged from our present in¬ 
formation, probably the Blue Spruce, 
where it will succeed, is, for ornamen¬ 
tal purposes, among the most hardy 
and valuable of evergreen trees. It is 
to be regretted that the specific name of 
“ blue ” has been given it. From seed 
not more than one m four or five 
shows the blue bloom on its leaves, 
which is its most captivating charac¬ 
teristic—a bloom similar to that which 
we find on the leaves of the pea plant, 
on the grape berry, on the fruit of the 
plum, etc. The only sure way of re¬ 
producing this delightful color is by 
grafting. Our friends should, there¬ 
fore, select their trees m the nurseries, 
unless they are prepared to raise seed¬ 
lings and to select the blue specimens 
therefrom. 
“THE DESERTED FARMS.” 
|>ROF. SANBORN’S article on page 
JL 132 is worthy of a careful read¬ 
ing. The R. N.-Y. has studied all that 
it could find written on the subject, 
and it free to say that Prof. San¬ 
born comes nearer the pith of the mat¬ 
ter than any other writer has yet 
done. Every old resident of New 
England will recognize the pictures 
outlined by the Professor. The writer 
spent many a day pegging shoes, 
braiding straw and sewing straw 
hats in a little New England neighbor¬ 
hood. These small industries enabled 
a family of three to live on four acres 
of thin, stony soil. It was not farm¬ 
ing ; it was not gardening. When 
the era of large manufacturing enter¬ 
prises came, all the little country 
shops were drawn to one great center, 
by the application of one principle of 
the modern trust. Deprived cf the 
money formerly paid them for mak¬ 
ing shoes or hats, the occupants of 
the little farms found that the soil 
could not support them, and they 
were forced to move away from land 
that never was intended by Nature for 
general farming. Prof. Sanborn is right 
when he says that the abandonment 
of many of these farms was simply the 
correction of a mistake. 
New England is a country designed 
by Nature for special industries. The 
conditions of climate are such that 
cotton spinning can be more success¬ 
fully carried on in the New England 
States than in any other part of the 
country. Unless the climate changes 
greatly, this industry will never be 
taken away from the north eastern 
part of our country except, possibly, 
that portion of it which has to do with 
the coarser grades of cloth. Farming 
and gardening can always be carried on 
in New England with more or less 
profit. Those who till the soil there 
must be specialists, selecting special 
soils, special markets, special crops 
and special manures and implements. 
But there are other blunders of ag¬ 
ricultural location and adaptation be¬ 
sides those in New Hampshire. Read 
this letter from a Kansas subscriber, 
you who imagine that all this discon¬ 
tent is confined to the East: 
“Considerable has been said about 
the abandoned farms in the East ; 
now I wish to ask the R. N.-Y.’s 
opinion on the following questions : 
Which State would it advise a per¬ 
son to locate in, taking into consider¬ 
ation the markets and prices? 1 in¬ 
tend that my chief business shall be 
fruit, sheep, hog and poultry raising. 
I shall keep cows chough fer my own 
milk and butter. In keeping the 
above stock I shall try to raise all the 
feed, etc., that they will consume and 
sell the surplus, if any. Of the sev¬ 
eral States in the East where land or 
farms can be had cheap, which State 
and what part of it does the Rural 
think most favorable for the above 
business? My capital is quite limited, 
therefore I do not expect to get a farm 
very near a large effy.” 
What shall be said to this Kansas 
man who seems so well convinced 
that he is in a wrong location that he 
wants to jump 1,500 miles to a farm 
that some other farmer has deserted ? 
Is he out of his head or is he gifted 
with superhuman intelligence ? Does 
he represent one of an advance guard 
of the army of men, who, after wan¬ 
dering about the country, have de¬ 
cided that the old New England home¬ 
steads are still best of all? The near 
future will tell us. This letter is but 
a straw. We could show dozens like 
it from Western farmers who, some¬ 
how, seem to think they can bring 
their cheap methods of producing 
crops here, and take advantage of our 
near-by markets. The R. N.-Y. does 
not believe that any great immigra¬ 
tion from the West to the East is pos¬ 
sible, still it is evident that the agri¬ 
cultural discontent and uneasiness are 
wide spread. 
BREVITIES. 
Plant a Blue Spruce. 
If you care for peas in the fall, try Blue 
Beauty. 
Have those who use a force pump for 
spraying potato vines had the experience 
given by Mr. Warn ? 
Abundance and Blue Beauty. Read Mr. 
Falconer’s article on peas, etc. Sandwich 
Island Salsify is the best. 
It seems to be agreed that the Dakota 
Red is a light-soil potato. Those who 
praise its table quality have grown it on 
light, sandy soil. 
IS there any person in this country who 
would not like to have “free trade” in 
some article he has to buy and yet be “ pro¬ 
tected ” on something he has to sell ? 
Tiie R. N.-Y. hopes soon to print the 
stories of those who won the prizes for 
cheese at the Vermont dairymen’s meeting. 
Our readers will find these records inter¬ 
esting and helpful. 
Catalogue notices will this week be 
found on page 145. Send for these cata¬ 
logues, examine them carefully aud order 
your seeds or plants in the light of the in¬ 
formation thus easily gained. 
Suppose the farmers of your section re¬ 
fused to vote one cent for the building of 
railroads for the next 10 years and spent 
the money that would be so spent in mak¬ 
ing better roads. Would they be worse off 
in 1900 ? 
Farmers, read your Rural New-York¬ 
er. Do not put it away to be read to-mor¬ 
row. Read it to-day. We are trying to 
make it more valuable to you than it has 
ever been, and we want every reader to 
know it and to appreciate it. We do not 
want our audience to go to sleep. 
Russell Sage puts it very forcibly when 
he says that the young man taught in a 
fashionable college is a house-plant, while 
the young man who cultivates himself is 
an out door growth and better able to stand 
a severe drought or a severe storm, which 
all are subject to in the variations of life. 
Indian Game fowls are said to be the 
coming table poultry. They are heavy 
birds, “deceivingin appearance,” and they 
weigh more than one would expect from 
looking at them. The R. N.-Y. has not 
tried them yet, but does not believe they 
can much excel the Dorkings for table use. 
It is time to sow tomato seeds if strong, 
stocky plants are desired. The plants 
should be transplanted twice or even thrice 
to insure an early, vigoi'ous growth. 
Drawn, leggy plants require two weeks or 
more to recover strength enough to start a 
new growth after they are set in the gar¬ 
den. 
A breeder in Iowa seems to be doing 
quite an extensive business in breeding 
hogs with solid feet. It is not claimed that 
these solid-hoofed hogs are superior in size, 
quality or vigor to other hogs. The solid 
hoof is a novelty and there are still enough 
farmers who are seeking for “something 
new ” to give these animals a large sale. 
It was predicted by the fungologist pro¬ 
fessors that potatoes grown where the 
l>light and rot prevailed last season would 
rot more after being placed in winter-quar¬ 
ters than in other seasons when blight was 
not prevalent. This seemed reasonable 
enough. The fact is, however, as we judge 
from our own potatoes, that potatoes have 
never rotted less. 
Robert Douglas, the veteran arboricul¬ 
turist, says that all of the Blue Spruces are 
vahiable and perfectly hardy, but that the 
blue specimens are most admired. That is 
true enough. Those of an ordinary green 
color could not be distinguished 60 feet 
away from a Norway in its earlier growth. 
But the blue specimens are a marYel Of 
fresh, delicate, odd beauty 
