I 72 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MARCH i5 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
<34 Park Row, New York), 
A National Journal for Country and Suburban 
Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1890. 
The man who respects his soil 
and treats it properly, is sure to 
win the respect of his fellow 
men. 
Raising dahlias from seed is scarce¬ 
ly less interesting than raising chrys¬ 
anthemums from seed, though these 
are just now a more popular class of 
flowers. There are few seeds that 
germinate more freely than those of 
the dahlia. Sowed in a six-inch pot 
on February 25, they began to break 
the soil on March 2, and on March 5 
the first leaves were entirely above 
the soil. Most, if not all, of these 
seedlings will bloom before Septem¬ 
ber, or, at any rate, before frost. 
They are offered by seedsmen at from 
10 to 25 cents per packet. 
Some weeks ago a R. N.-Y. corre¬ 
spondent was ridiculed because he 
said that coming relations between 
this country and the South American 
Republics would make it necessary 
for some of our people to learn Span¬ 
ish in order to keep up profitable 
relations. We are now informed 
that the Brazilian authorities wish to 
locate schools of agriculture, and are 
anxious to secure enterprising men 
from this country, who have suffi¬ 
cient practical and theoretical knowl¬ 
edge of farm life to enable them to 
teach agricultural science. One 
thing required is that such persons 
must speak Spanish or Portuguese. 
Many of our young scientists have 
studied French and German for the 
purposes of study. Are they willing 
to study Spanish for the purpose of 
teaching ? 
-- 
Reports from hay dealers are not 
at all encouraging so far as prices are 
concerned. A very heavy crop was 
produced last year and the mild 
winter has lessened the usual con¬ 
sumption both in city and country. 
There seems no prospect for better 
prices—in fact, it is believed that 
prices must fall lower after the open¬ 
ing of spring. Hay dealers here ad¬ 
vise the shipment at once of all the 
hay that can be moved. Dealers in¬ 
sist that much of the stagnation in 
the hay business is due to the fact 
that a large proportion of the stock 
sent here is poor in quality. Fine 
early-cut Timothy always sells at a 
good figure. F. Williams & Co., are 
so desirous of an improvement in the 
quality of the hay sent to this market 
that they propose to offer $750 in 
prizes for best car-load lots. 
John Splan is just back from Eng¬ 
land where he went with some trot¬ 
ting horses which P. T. Barnum took 
along to show our English friends 
what American horseflesh is capable 
of. Mr. Splan believes that it is pos¬ 
sible to sell a great many first-class 
trotters in England. Those he had in 
charge were easily sold and he brings 
back orders for many more. The 
English, he says, are a nation of horse 
lovers and they have long known of 
the American trotter’s value. Still, 
they are generally surprised when 
they ride behind a good one for the 
first time. They do not care for trot¬ 
ters to be used for racing. The de¬ 
mand is for good road horses and this 
is the demand which American breed¬ 
ers should strive to supply. It will 
never do to send poor stock to Eng¬ 
land ; but it seems very evident that 
the English demand for well-bred 
horses of good speed and style will 
grow into a lucrative business. 
--- 
Speaking of the possibilities of 
“skim-milk on the square ” recalls a 
conversation with one of our leading 
agricultural chemists. 
* R. N.-Y.: Can you, with this case¬ 
rne and suitable grain foods make up 
a^palatable dish that will analyze as 
favorably as roast beef .and potatoes? 
Prof. X.: Undoubtedly. We can 
make a food fully capable of sustain¬ 
ing life at a very little cost. The 
trouble would be to get people to eat 
it—to break the meat and potato 
habit. 
R. N.-Y.: If such a food ever be¬ 
come general, our descendants 150 
years hence, will be a toothless race, 
will they not? 
Prof. X.: Yes; but why not? The 
world would be just as well off with 
teeth as the exception as with teeth 
as the rule. Besides, my teeth cost 
me $20 every year. It would be a 
measure of economy to get rid of 
them! 
The R. N.-Y. is informed that the 
Canadian Government supporters are 
engaged in revising the tariffs on some 
of the products sent into Canada from 
the United States. It is proposed to 
increase the duty on flour from 50 
cents to 75 cents per barrel, while to 
offset this increase, the duty on corn 
and corn-meal will be removed. The 
alleged purpose of the increase of the 
duty on flour is to “protect” and 
foster Canadian millers. Can the re¬ 
cent purchases of large American flour 
mills by British capitalists have any¬ 
thing to do with this new tariff ? The 
duty on corn and corn meal is removed 
because there are only two counties in 
Canada where corn growing is profit¬ 
able. Last year we sent to Canada, 
2,894,834 bushels of corn and 152,023 
barrels of corn meal, on which was 
paid a duty of $288,000. If this duty 
is removed, who will receive the bene¬ 
fit of this money—the Canadian con¬ 
sumers, the American farmers or the 
handlers ? Our exports of corn to Can¬ 
ada ought to be largely increased par¬ 
ticularly as the Canadians propose to 
increase the duties on pork products. 
A number of letters somewhat like 
the following have reached the R. N.- 
Y. this winter. 
* ‘ I have had quite a good deal of 
trouble this winter with both cream 
and milk of a blue tint. Both seem 
to be as rich and high colored as the 
products sold by different dairymen 
round about us, but the difference in 
the looks hurts the sale of mine very 
materially. Having had many years’ 
experience in caring for cows, I am 
certain that mine get all necessary at¬ 
tention as regards feed, etc.” 
Mr. Henry Stewart writes us that 
this blue milk is a special indication 
of tuberculosis. We shall have more 
to say about this matter next week. 
In the mean time, owners of cows giv¬ 
ing milk of this character should make 
sure that the trouble is not due to the 
feed. Com-meal and good clover hay 
are the best possible feeds for producing 
well-colored milk. If this ration fan 
to do it, a sample of the milk should 
be sent to the State experiment sta¬ 
tion for analysis. There is nothing 
like moving in time in a matter of 
this sort. The R. N.-Y. does not wish 
to frighten dairymen unnecessarily, 
but, at the same time, it is well enough 
to investigate a matter of this kind. 
Are we reaching a point in cattle 
production when the supply will be 
found so low that prices must go up ? 
In view of the unsatisfactory prices 
of the past few years, this question 
may appear at first ridiculous. But 
is it ridiculous when we consider the 
natural results of the last few years’ 
business? It is true that there has 
been a sort of stampede among cattle 
men, and that the market has been 
overloaded and kept overloaded 
because many have overestimated 
the number of cattle in the country 
and have rushed their stock in fear¬ 
ing the market would go still lower. 
The result is that thousands of cows 
and heifers which should have been 
kept for breeding purposes have been 
sold for beef, while thousands more 
have been spayed and fattened, and 
many calves have been killed. 
There’s no use disputing the fact that 
many farms have been nearly de¬ 
pleted of cattle. The markets already 
begin to show the effect of this busi¬ 
ness. There never was such a dis¬ 
tinct difference in price between the 
best steers and the common sort as 
there is to day, and the difference 
promises to increase rather than 
diminish. Now is emphatically the 
time for the breeder of good beef cat¬ 
tle to “ get ready.” The market is 
coming. The farmer who invests in 
a pure-bred bull of the beef breed best 
suited to his locality, and starts in to 
supply grades of the highest quality, 
will make no mistake. 
The pictures of the tools used by 
Mr. Warn and Mr. Terry have started 
anew the discussion of an old subject 
—how many tools does a farmer need? 
Of course, widely different views are 
expressed by men who believe they 
fully understand what they are talk¬ 
ing about. One man is certain that 
the price of the tools shown by Mr. 
Warn, even with the agent’s commis¬ 
sion taken out, would ruin him. An¬ 
other man says, with equal earnest¬ 
ness, that he can find a use for every 
tool shown and that he only wonders 
why several others were not added. 
Is it possible that both men can be 
right ? There are many tools that can 
be used but a few days each season. 
The only way to get profit out of them 
is to be able to use them for many 
years. They must be properly cared 
for or they will represent a loss. 
Again, many farmers object to a col¬ 
lection of different tools that can be 
made to do almost similar work like a 
Cutaway and a Disk harrow, for ex¬ 
ample. Such “doubles” are useful 
in seasons when certain kinds of work 
must be done at once. Mr. Terry 
spoke of this in describing his tools. 
The ability to rush his work by put¬ 
ting two teams on the same sort of im¬ 
plements has frequently been worth 
m one season half the cost of the extra 
tool. It is very hard to say where 
the farmer shall stop in this imple¬ 
ment business. The R. N.-Y. speaks 
of both sides of the matter to em¬ 
phasize the fact that, after all, it 
is a study for the farmer himself to 
work out. 
Recent statistics in several sections 
appear to indicate that farmers may be 
called the debtor class. Other classes 
would doubtless borrow money as 
freely if they could get it as easily; 
but as a borrower the farmer has al¬ 
ways the advantage that he can offer 
the safest kind of security for the 
loan. The financial maxim that the 
rate of interest is determined by the 
amount of risk does not hold good in 
his case, however; for he has always 
to pay a high rate, owing chiefly to 
the bonuses and other exactions of 
middlemen. Senator Yance of North 
Carolina has just introduced a bill for 
the relief of the farmer from this un¬ 
fair discrimination. It provides for 
the establishment of a United States 
Agricultural Depository in every 
county in which the average yearly 
gross value of the cotton, wheat, oats, 
corn and tobacco produced and sold 
for two years previously exceeded 
$500,000. Every owner of such pro¬ 
ducts may deposit them in the nearest 
depository and receive Treasury notes 
equal to 80 per cent, of their net value 
at market prices. He is also to receive 
a warehouse receipt, on the presenta¬ 
tion of which and the payment of the 
amount received together with inter¬ 
est at the rate of one per cent, per an¬ 
num, and warehouse insurance and 
other charges, he can get back his de¬ 
posit. Russia has lately established 
many government banks which lend 
money to farmers at low rates of in¬ 
terest. England is appropriating vast 
sums for the relief of the farmers of 
Ireland ; but the political press of 
this country is bitterly opposed to 
this attempt to relieve distress among 
American farmers. Of course, the 
project would cause great expense 
owing to the enormous cost of so many 
warehouses and in other ways; and, 
after all, do farmers desire or deserve 
such special governmental assistance ? 
A NEGRO STATE. 
S IX years ago a very prominent 
State official of Mississippi said 
to the writer, in discussing the negro 
problem: “This race question will 
never be settled until the negroes go 
off somewhere and show what they 
i.re capable of doing for themselves. 
Let them be permitted to make their 
own record—good or bad—and the 
white people will accept it as they 
would any other.” The speaker knew 
that he spoke in confidence. It was 
merely an opinion shared, in private, 
by thousands of thoughtful Southern 
men. It is probable that he thought 
such an experiment would prove, be¬ 
yond a doubt, that the negro is incap¬ 
able of self-government, and that, left 
to himself, without the example or 
advice of white men, he would soon 
produce such a state of society that 
for the sake of civilization, the whites 
would be called upon to interfere. 
This is one viewaof the matter. The 
writer believed then, as he believes 
now, that there is no reason why a 
black man cannot learn enough of 
self-denial, self-control, and self-re¬ 
spect to enable him, with his fellows, 
to maintain the dignity of self-govern¬ 
ment. It is not claimed that every 
black man in the country to-day is a 
safe citizen, nor is it denied that one 
who wished to do so could easily se¬ 
lect 100.000 or 500,000 black men, who, 
if put by themselves without the 
guidance of stronger minds, would 
quickly produce scenes of crime and 
anarchy. It is only claimed that 
with proper training and inspiration 
the negro can become a safe citizen. 
We have always believed that the 
negro must hew out his own place in 
society and politics. So long as he 
permits somebody else to make this 
place for him, he will be an inferior 
man. We can carry an individual 
up to a certain point of his career, 
but beyond that point, which marks 
the boundary between dependence and 
independence, he must rely upon his 
own resources. It is the same with 
the negroes as a race. 
These thoughts are suggested by the 
news from Oklahoma referred to in 
these columns last week. It is evident 
that the negroes are determined to 
test their capacity for self-government 
by swarming into the country in such 
numbers that they can control the 
elections ; in fact make it a Negro 
State. There are many reasons why 
this experiment should be permitted 
to work itself out. Let the negroes 
who go into it fully understand that 
they are on trial. Let them succeed 
in organizing and maintaining a strong 
and just State government, and the 
race question will be practically set¬ 
tled. Let them fail, and their race 
goes back 50 years in its march of im¬ 
provement. 
A word about the probable effect 
upon agriculture of the formation of 
one or more Negro States, The black 
man is the best cotton grower in the 
world; in fact, the cotton crop of this 
country cannot be produced without 
him. He must stay where he is and 
work out his future there, or go to 
other parts of the country where cot¬ 
ton can be grown. In a word, it de¬ 
pends upon the white people of the 
Gulf States to say whether or not a 
good slice of the national cotton field 
shall be transferred to southern Califor¬ 
nia or to the tracts of land in the 
Southwest that will be reached by the 
vast systems of irrigation now pro¬ 
jected by the government. 
BREVITIES. 
There will be a demand for young roos¬ 
ters of good breeding. 
A ROAD machine used in the wrong way 
is worse than no tool at all. 
Provide a supply of “ham sandwiches” 
for your cows by sowing oats and peas 
together. 
Never forget the importance of prepar¬ 
ing the surface properly when sowing grain 
or grass seeds. 
That person who tells about dried beef 
on page 175, has found a way of making 
dressed beef pay him. 
As we write, ice seems a strong probabil¬ 
ity. We are having our coldest weather. 
As usual, however, that “warm wave” is 
forming out in Montana. 
The R. N.-Y. is glad to learn that Mr. 
J. H. Hale has been appointed a special 
census agent for work on nurseries, seed 
farms and florists. It looks as though 
rural matters will be fully covered by the 
coming census. 
Butter was never more plentiful in the 
market than it is now. It is a fact that the 
widely prevalent “Grip” injured the sale 
of butter to a noticeable extent. Those af¬ 
flicted with that disease craved fruits and 
other cooliDg foods. 
Tell us why a portion of the money 
appropriated for the distribution of seeds 
by the Department of Agriculture cannot 
be spent for “new and rare plants and 
cuttings.” If there is any good reason why 
this cannot or should not be, let’s have it. 
“ If not, why not ?” 
A recent note from a subscriber who 
wishes to dispense with ice and keep up a 
constant flow of cold water through a 
creamer, has caused a good deal of discus¬ 
sion It seems settled that with wind-mill 
power a supply tank is an absolute neces¬ 
sity, and most of the smaller wind-vnills 
generate more power than is really needed. 
Several farmers have sent us drawings of 
original devices for maintaining a constant 
flow of water. We shall, show them later. 
