3o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MAY 10 
means to secure health and longevity is taxed by mutual 
life insurance for the benefit of those who are shiftless and 
careless, and not infrequently it occurs that less care is given 
than the owners would otherwise give their stock, for they 
realize that if the animals die they are well sold in any 
event. We do not mean to imply that any fraud is in¬ 
tended, but merely that insurers bear with wondrous 
resignation what they are pleased to term the “ decrees of 
fate.” We suppose if the insurance companies would in¬ 
sure our stock to the full valuation against fire, we would 
not take all the precautions which at the present time we 
deem necessary ; but because they will insure for but a 
part of the value, we feel compelled to use electric lights, 
and keep night-watchmen, and in the case of more valuable 
animals to make the buildings as absolutely fire-proof as 
possible. Our prejudice against mutual life insurance or 
live stock insurance of any description may be based on 
false premises and illogical deductions, and while we 
would not seek to deter others from availing themselves 
of any supposed chance, we have never been able to see 
any good in mutual life stock insurance, and therefore 
feel compelled to auswer the Rural as we do. 
Franklin, Pa. 
From Galbraith Bros. 
On general principles, we approve of insurance, provid¬ 
ing the insurance company is thoroughly sound and is 
properly managed. We do not carry any insurance our¬ 
selves, but a great many of our customers do. We scarcely 
think it would pay the average farmer to keep all his 
stock insured; but for specially valuable animals, such as 
stallions, insurance is undoubtedly a good thing. We do 
not think any regular fire or life insurance companies 
do this kind of business, and our opinion is that special 
live stock insurance companies can handle the business 
better. A good many of such companies have gone under 
during the last few years, owing probably to low rates and 
improper management, such as taking risks out of pro¬ 
portion to the value of the animal and the premium paid. 
Janesville, Wis. 
From C. H. Elmendorf. 
I believe in keeping cattle and horses insured against 
fire when they are stabled; but I do not believe in what is 
properly called insurance of live stock. I do not insure 
the lives of any of my animals. Last fall when I was 
shipping a herd of cattle around to the fairs for exhibi¬ 
tion, I had a number of valuable animals in the lot and 
investigated as to whether it would pay me to have them 
insured or not. I found the rate was so high that I could 
better afford to take the risk than to pay the premium. I 
think if ordinary fire insurance is wanted it is best to deal 
with a fire insurance company: if life insurance is wanted, 
it is better to deal with a special company for the insuring 
of live stock if one of sufficient strength can be found. I 
do not think it advisable for the average farmer to insure 
his animals. The system is designed only for the benefit 
of the companies formed for the purpose, and not for the 
benefit of breeders or owners. In the herd of a systema¬ 
tic breeder deaths of animals from natural causes are com¬ 
paratively rare. One with a healthy herd need have a 
very few losses, as it is the policy of the wise breeder to re¬ 
tain only strong, vigorous animals for breeding purposes, 
and other animals are handled to sell at as early an age as 
possible. Therefore, the loss to the cattle-man by death is 
usually only an occasional calf and, once in a long time, a 
death from accident. 
Kearney, Neb. 
BUSINESS FARMING IN COLORADO. 
I MUST acknowledge that my harrow to be attached to a 
common plow was not the shining success I anticipated. 
The theory was all right, out the difficulty lay in manag¬ 
ing a walking plow with a harrow attached. I find that 
a small “A” harrow so attached to any riding plow as to 
follow the furrow next to the last, “ fines ” the soil to an 
extent almost impossible after it has dried half a day. 
This does not entirely do away with the necessity of har¬ 
rowing, as it fines only the surface; but it keeps the 
ground from becoming lumpy and drying out. We use 
quite extensively a three-furrow gang plow made at 
Rochester, N. Y., for spring plowing, and a little harrow 
trailed behind it does a world of good. We make potatoes 
our moneyed crop. The yield runs from 8,000 to 12,000 
pounds per acre. TiVe are not bothered with insect pests of 
any description, and at our altitude of 7,200 feet, the po¬ 
tato beetle is practically unheard of. The wire-worm and 
cut-worm bother the Late Ohios somewhat, however. Our 
principal varieties are the Late Beauty of Hebron, Salt 
Lake Rose, Rose Seedling, Charles Downing and Late 
Ohio. The last is by far the best “seller ; ” but does not 
produce so well as some others. Our more progressive 
ranchmen do about all their work with machinery. Ihe 
writer has used for three successive years, a potato seed 
cutter of his own manufacture, which quarters a potato 
exactly, regardless of size and shape. It works with a 
treadle and will cut from 300 to 400 pounds per hour. A 
potato sorter made by the Colorado Implement Manufac¬ 
turing Co., at Eastonville, Colo., is so far ahead of any¬ 
thing else in the market that it is a matter of surprise 
that any one will attempt to sort by hand for market. It 
works on something the same principle as a fanning-miil 
with the fan left out. The dirt goes into one place; while 
the small and merchantable potatoes go into different 
sacks. It is very complete, mounted on runners, and by 
hitching “ Old Bill ” to it and keeping it alongside of the 
pickers, the potatoes are sorted, sacked and cleaned as fast 
as picked up and at no appreciable increase of cost. As 30 
acres is about as small an area of potatoes as any one puts 
in, while in many instances hundreds of acres are planted, 
it would be impossible to handle the crops without every 
special tool that can be obtained. 
Our climate is so dry and cool that there Is no trouble in 
keeping potatoes a year if necessary. Our price now at 
home, is $1.50 per cwt., and there is a very ready sale at 
that. My cellar holds about 40,000 pounds. In it there 
are five 10x10x10-foot bins on each side of a five-foot alley. 
Over each bin is a ventilator and the top is so thoroughly 
timbered that I drive on to the cellar and empty the pota¬ 
toes right into the bins at the top through the ventilators. 
Of course, must seem to an Eastern farmer that a drop 
of 10 feet—which there is when I begin to fill the bins— 
would make the tubers rot in short order; but here there 
is no tendency to do this if one keeps the air circulating. 
A car runs out to the level of the top of a wagon, and the 
labor and time of loading are reduced to a minimum. For 
some years I used a three-horse rig like Mr. T. B. Terry’s, 
for “ hauling off ; ” but I find that four horses, two and 
two, or, “ strung out,” as we call the arrangement here, 
are more effective in hilly work or for short, sharp pulls. 
As nearly as possible all my farm tools are of a suitable 
caliber to be used with four horses abreast. Thus I use an 
18-foot-cut harrow, a gang plow which cuts 30 inches, etc 
In our soil we find the disk harrow preferable to the Cuta¬ 
way, for when four horses are put on and about 300 pounds 
of iron are put in the weight boxes, it will loosen up and 
fine fall plowing better than any tool we can get; and 
when it is not weighted, we find it the best possible tool 
for putting in all kinds of grain. The Aspinwall planter 
and the Hoover digger are extensively used and have prac¬ 
tically no rivals here. Grain hay is the rule; oats being 
the favorite. I bind all my grain hay with a self-binder, 
cutting it when in the milk, shocking and stacking the 
same as grain to be thrashed. 
As it seems that most Eastern people think we do all our 
farming under irrigation in Colorado, it may not be amiss 
to say that there is not an irrigating ditch within 10 miles 
of me. M. F. A. 
El Paso County, Colorado. 
MORE ABOUT THE NURSERY BUSINESS. 
From R. G. Chase & Co. 
Our trade for the spring of ’90 will compare favorably 
with that of previous seasons. In many sections of the 
Middle and Eastern States farmers are feeling poor; but 
they appear generally to appreciate the importance of in¬ 
creasing their plantings for market purposes. Yellow 
Transparent leads the list of summer apples ; Early Ripe, 
Red Astrachan and Duchess of Oldenburg following next 
in popularity. Baldwin leads the list of winter apples in 
those sections where this variety is a success. Ben Davis, 
Lougfield, Mann. Stark, Wealthy, and York Imperial are 
also largely planted. Bartlett and Keiff er are the two leading 
varieties of standard pears, Clapp’s Favorite, Lawson, Rut¬ 
ter and Seckel coming next. AngoulfSme still stands at 
the head of the list of dwarfs. Florence, Louis Phillippe, 
Montmorency, White Caroon and Windsor appear to be 
the most popular varitiesof cherries. There is a good deal 
of interest in peach planting in many sections, Crawford’s 
Early and Late, Foster, Garfield, Globe, Mountain Rose, 
Salway, Stevens’s Rareripe, Wheatland and Willet being 
the leading varieties. The call for quinces, chiefly Cham¬ 
pion and Orange, continues. There is also a steady demand 
for the improved varieties of Russian apricots. There is 
about the usual demand for grape vines, with Concord 
heading the list. Next in demand with us is the Geneva, 
a new white grape. There is about the average call for 
currants and gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries. 
We are pleased to note a steadily growing demand for 
roses, ornamental shrubs and trees, showing that our 
people are alive to the importance of beautifying their 
homes. 
From Sidney Tuttle & Co. 
The demand with us for grape vines this season has been 
quite limited. The large growers of grapes and many 
nurserymen have been growing grape vines in rather large 
quantities for the last few years, and have entirely over¬ 
done the business and ruined prices. Many are offering the 
vines below the cost of production. In small fruits we are 
having a good demand for the old standard leading varie¬ 
ties. Currants, such as the Cherry, Yersaillaise, Long 
Bunch Holland, White Grape, White Dutch and Fay’s 
Prolific have a good sale. The favorite gooseberries are 
the Downing, Houghton, Smith’s Improved, Smith’s Seed¬ 
ling and Industry. Among blackberries the demand is mostly 
for Snyder, with some call for Kittatinny, Lawton, Early 
Harvest and Taylor’s Prolific. Among raspberries, Gregg, 
Early Ohio, Souhegan, Shaffer’s, Cuthbert and Turner are 
the favorites, with some call for Earhart’s Everbearing. 
In strawberries the demand is largely for the leading 
sorts, including the newer varieties, such as Bubach, 
Jessie and Warfield No. 2. Jessie has proved a wonderful 
strawberry in the West. 
“ Looking Backward.”— In an old copy of The Genesee 
Farmer dated February, 1851, we are informed that the 
first executive message that contains the word “ manure ” 
had just been issued by President Fillmore. It appears 
that farmers had asked for an appropriation of $200 to pay 
for some experiments on various methods of deodorizing 
and drying night-soil, the results to be printed in the 
Patent Office reports. The money was not appropriated. 
“ President-making, not the best plan for preparing and 
using the food of plants is the leading idea in Washing¬ 
ton,” is the comment of the Farmer. This was 39 years 
ago; is it true to-day ? The editors of the Genesee Farmer 
also indulge in the following prophecy: “ We do not ex¬ 
pect that the number employed in impoverishing Ameri¬ 
can soils will diminish in 25 years. The improvers of 
arable land will a little more than double in that length of 
time, but the number of poor farmers will remain nearly 
stationary.” 
Womans Work. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
SERIES of memorandum books or tablets form a 
useful feature in systematic housekeeping. A card 
hung inside the door of the linen closet should contain an 
inventory of the articles in it, giving the contents for each 
shelf, and the number of articles in stock. Then there is 
no confusion in taking out or putting away clean articles 
when the house-mother happens to be out of reach. Sim¬ 
ilarly, when either winter or summer clothes are put 
away at the end of the season, a list should be made, giv¬ 
ing the number of articles and their location: if this is 
done, there need be no frantic rushing about to find needed 
garments when the seasons change. Such a list should be 
kept in a specified place, so that any member of the house¬ 
hold may know where to find things. Where there is a 
large family, this system of inventories will be found a de¬ 
cided aid in keeping things tidy. If the boys have a list 
of their garments hung in a convenient place, so that they 
know just where to look for clean stockings or collars, it 
will help them to get a better idea of order, especially if 
the rules are always rigidly adhered to. We so often see a 
boy go wildly clawing through several drawers or boxes 
when looking for clean clothes, and he usually pleads 
ignorance of their whereabouts as an excuse for his unti¬ 
diness. And that boy always does just the same when he 
grows up. and expects his wife to go about picking up and 
tidying after his wild plunges through the domestic arena, 
just as his mother did in his boyhood. Not that boys are 
the only untidy members of the family. We know girls 
who just step right out of their clothes when they undress, 
and leave them lying in an untidy heap on the floor; the 
clothes they put on in the morning are picked up, and the 
rest he there, crumpled and dusty, until the family 
straightener happens along to pick them up. We know 
girls who never think of putting away their clean clothes 
after the washing—" Oh, mother always does that, after 
she has mended them ”—and we see the same girls throw 
down their jackets in one place, their hats in another, and 
their gloves in a third. Certainly, the girls need an in¬ 
ventory, or some other system of order just as much as the 
boys. It is singular, too, that one untidy person in a 
family seems to have more effect than half a dozen orderly 
ones. Untidiness is a contagious disease which seems to 
spread from one to another as rapidly as the measles. 
* * 
* 
It is an excellent plan to have a tablet and pencil hung 
inside a kitchen closet, for the purpose of making memo¬ 
randa. As soon as any article begins to run short in the 
store closet, make a note of it; it saves a good deal of 
thought when making out a list for the grocer, and often 
prevents the omission of needed articles. Again, if one has 
a very busy day ahead, and there is any special duty 
which might be forgotten, make a note of it. These ideas 
may seem over-particular to those who believe in house 
keeping by the light of nature, rather than by an exact 
system ; but there is no doubt that scientific housekeeping 
is vastly more successful than a slip-shod no-system in 
domestic affairs. 
* 
* * 
SOME very sensible remarks relative to short weight in 
meat were published in a recent Rural. Though we are 
justified in believing that the majority of dealers are trust¬ 
worthy, it is certainly advisable to weigh everything as 
soon as it comes into the house—not only meat, but 
groceries, and, in fact, everything that is sold by weight. 
The knowledge that such a practice is carried out will be 
unobjectionable to an honest dealer, and will have a 
restraining influence on an untrustworthy one. I have 
always been accustomed to this plan at home, and expe¬ 
rience proves its value. Of course, it seems a trouble 
sometimes, when one is hurried, but it is a decided satis 
faction to know that one gets 16 ounces for a pound. By all 
means weigh your goods. 
* 
♦ * 
Now that an epidemic of house-cleaning is spending over 
the land, it is well to remember that the strongest soap is 
not necessarily the best, especially for such purposes as 
cleaning paint. Many of the so-called fine laundry soaps 
contain such a terrible excess of alkali that they are really 
destructive, especially to the hands. It is a great pity to 
use such stuff under the impression that it is most 
cleansing, and then roughen the hands so that sewing is 
an impossibility for days afterwards—very poor economy. 
EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
+■ 
* * 
“ IT is better to be 40 years young, than 20 years old,” said 
a bright girl discussing the flight of youth. Youthful¬ 
ness is really a matter of feeling, and happy is the woman 
who keeps the gaiety of youth through the swift-coming 
years of middle age. 
* 
* + 
Never scrub oil-cloth, but wipe it with a soft cloth and 
lukewarm water, or milk and water. Neither soap nor 
hot water should be used. 
^Ui.orfUancou.o 
In writing to advertisers, please mention the R. N.-Y. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla. 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla 
