34o 
MAY 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
appointed in its belief that it will be of interest to 
its readers. Still, having read the paper for sev¬ 
eral years past, I cannot help believing that every 
one of its many subscribers ought to be progressive 
and original enough to have something of interest 
to contribute to its pages. I have Deen on this 
farm just 20 years. Not a stick or stone or tree 
was on it as an improvement when I bought it, and I 
feel thankful that I have been able to rear a family 
and surround them with the comforts of a pleasant 
home.” 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1890. 
Believe in nest-eggs. Take a little hunger 
from one meal to another. Take a little 
enthusiasm from one job to another. Let 
them breed. Never fill yourself up. Never 
pour yourself all out. 
For the farmer’s home use what crop is more 
easily raised ; what crop is more easily gathered ; 
what vegetable is more delicious than asparagus ? 
We have received the following suggestive note 
from F. K. Phoenix, of Wisconsin “ Our agricul¬ 
tural depression suggests a familiar comparison : A 
young man inherits a fortune and becomes dissi¬ 
pated and wastes away his fortune. In a lucid 
interval he seeks a farmer-friend’s counsel as to 
how to recuperate. What does the farmer tell him ? 
‘ Quit your dissipation. Be sober and attend to 
business. ’ What else could he tell him ? And now 
will some one of our practical farmers tell me why 
that advice is not as good for a dissipated nation as 
for a dissipated person ? Dissipation is the trouble 
with America, American farmers and workers. If 
they do not themselves dissipate, they vote _ to 
license the many impoverishing forms of vice, 
crime, dissipation and folly from which every 
farmer and worker suffers. It is all in the family 
or nation, and for every wrong, unprofitable act 
done by any member, all must suffer. Why is not 
this simple, common-sense business truth and the 
swift redeeming power of the farmers’ ballot for 
national temperance taught, especially in our farm 
journals and institutes ?” 
The Rural Grounds were never before quite so 
full of plants for trial. Considerable as is the work 
of sowing the seeds and setting and labeling the 
plants, the work of the careful experimenter is no 
more than fairly begun. 
On another page the R. N.-Y. gives the main 
features of the Bennett School law with a note from 
Governor Hoard of Wisconsin. The daily papers 
would have us understand that the Germans of 
Wisconsin fiercely oppose this law because it in¬ 
sists upon the teaching of the English language. 
The R. N.-Y. cannot believe that the intelligent 
German farmers of Wisconsin fail to realize that 
this is an English-speaking nation. 
The R. N.-Y. has often wondered how little 
chickens are able to digest whole wheat or cracked 
corn. We have a brood of little fellows this year 
that have had only two meals of soft food. They 
have eaten plump wheat and cracked corn almost 
entirely, and are as brisk and healthy as one could 
wish. How do they digest this whole grain ? Have 
you never asked yourself this question ? Mr. Jacobs 
is to tell us what he knows about it next week. 
Don’t you believe you feed your chickens too much 
sloppy food any way ? 
Here you have a synopsis of quite an extended 
conversation between the K. N.-Y. and a number of 
Orange County milk farmers: We make too much 
milk. The big surplus regulates the price. Most of 
us keep too many cows. The result of this is that 
our bills for feed are so heavy that profit is next to 
an impossibility. This is good for the feed men, 
but bad for farmers. There may be more actual 
profit in making five cans of milk than in making 
10 cans. Fewer cows and different grain crops that 
will cut down the feed bills should be our motto. 
Plenty of men go about preaching this doctrine to 
their neighbors, while all the time they are planning 
to increase the size of their own herds. Neighbors 
must be honest with each other in this respect be¬ 
fore milk producers can hope to receive their honest 
share of profits. The present condition of the milk 
business has developed a class of milk farmers who 
assert that the chief study of their farming should 
be how to cut down the feed bill. Some go so far 
as to claim that they should keep only stock enough 
to consume the grain that can be grown on their 
own farms. Others propose to use grain hay and 
buy only the most concentrated cattle foods. The 
milk farmer naturally feels a pride in sending a 
large quantity of milk to market. Pride eats up 
profit in too many instances. In the present state 
of the market it looks as though a slice might be 
cut off the feed bill by discharging the scrub cows. 
to donate, it now offers $1,000,000 per annum, and 
engages at once to advance sufficient money to re¬ 
pair ail the broken levees of the State. Briefly, it 
tells the people of Louisiana: “ Authorize us under 
protection or your laws to swindle whatever dupes 
we may find in the country and out of their pluckings 
we will pay you $1,000,000 a year as your share of 
the plunder.” Will the people'disgrace themselves 
eternally by accepting such an atrocious bribe? 
Will they become partners in this infamous swindle? 
It takes in now $2,000,000 a month, so that for a 
bribe of $25,000,000 it demands the right to rob the 
people of at least $275,000,000 ! It has already se¬ 
cured nearly the two-thirds of the legislators neces¬ 
sary to override the Governor’s veto, and if it can¬ 
not purchase enough of the others it will bend all 
its efforts to elect corrupted members to the next leg¬ 
islature. For 22 years this monstrous progeny of 
‘ ‘ carpet-bag ” misrule has paid the State only 
$40,000 a year as the price of its dishonor. What a 
comment is its present offer on its character. Any such 
scheme which can afford to pay such an enormous 
tribute and still gain colossal fortunes for its owners, 
concedes that the ticket-holder’s chance of drawing 
a prize is one in a myriad. 
For years the tendency of young men who labor 
for others has been to leave the country and seek 
the cities and larger towns. The causes of this are 
supposed shorter hours of labor, larger remunera¬ 
tion, greater social advantages, increased oppor¬ 
tunity for advancement and many minor reasons. 
The success of the present movements for shorter 
hours with increased pay will doubtless render 
some of these causes still more potent. A success¬ 
ful city business man who was a country boy years 
ago, returns to his former country home, rich, 
well-dressed, apparently prosperous and happy. 
He is pointed out as an example of what may be 
accomplished in the city. Had he remained in the 
country he would probably have been a plodding 
farmer all his life. Now he has money, leisure for 
travel, recreation and study. The impression seems 
to prevail also that city people don’t have to work 
so hard as country people. This all sounds very 
nice, but how about the 99 country boys who 
came to the city at the same time as our 
successful friend and made miserable failures ? We 
never hear of them although there are probably 
at least 99 who fail where one succeeds. The suc¬ 
cessful ones are not those who have been sticklers 
for shorter horn's, but, on the contrary, they are 
the hardest workers. Nothing but the hardest 
kind of work will bring success in the city, and long 
years must often be spent with meager pay be¬ 
fore a profitable position is secured. What seems 
to the country boy a munificent salary often shrinks 
into a mere pittance after board, car-fare and other 
necessaries are paid for. Then the city dweller has 
more temptations to spend money. There are ad¬ 
vantages in city life, but there are many disadvant¬ 
ages, and it is utterly impossible for a stranger to 
get a desirable situation without influence. Let the 
country boy who has an itching for city life, ponder 
these thoughts and ask himself if the game is worth 
the candle. 
The R. N.-Y. has one horse that is naturally a 
fast walker; it has another that is best designated 
by the name of “slow poke.” We conceived the 
brilliant idea of working these two horses together 
in the hope that the fast horse would make the slow 
horse ashamed of himself and thus get more speed 
out of the team. Probably many of our readers 
can tell us the result before we can write it. In 
order to maintain any speed above the normal gait 
of the slow horse, the fast horse was obliged to pull 
the load and the other horse too. This was dis¬ 
couraging and the fast walker became a “slow 
poke ” himself. Put a good hand and a poor hand 
together and what “average ” do you strike? 
One of the most impressive and thought-inspiring 
articles addressed to young men we remember to 
have seen has recently appeared in the New York 
Tribune, written by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and now 
published in a little pamphlet of four pages. We 
would that a copy were in the hands of every one of 
our readers both old and young. “How to Win 
Fortune ” is its title. Are you discouraged young 
man ? Does prosperity seem far away—impossible 
for you ? Know that the richest and most success¬ 
ful men of to-day started out in life poor boys, and 
that poverty is the most efficient of all disciplines 
if only there are courage and perseverance behind 
it. This is no less true in farm than in mercantile or 
professional life. In this connection we call the 
reader’s attention to the article ‘ ‘ The Way to 
Success ” on page 347, and also abstracts from Mr. 
Carnegie’s pamphlet under “What Others Say.” 
Next week we shall hear from the other side through 
several distinguished college graduates. 
The R. N.-Y. has frequently referred to the 
pleasure it takes in introducing new writers to its 
readers. Some of the men best qualified to instruct 
young farmers have never written a line for the 
press, and the R. N.-Y. may well feel pleased when 
it succeeds in inducing such men to give their ex¬ 
perience. The following note from an excellent 
Illinois farmer, who has promised to write the story 
of his farm experiences, will show what we mean: 
“I have never written a line for the press except 
in response to the Rural’s request, but I will try 
to give a description of my career without much 
sentiment and only hope the Rural will not be dis¬ 
Both the Senate and the House bills relating to the 
recent decision of the United States Supreme Court 
with regard to “original packages” relate ex¬ 
clusively to the traffic in intoxicants. Perhaps the 
exclusion of all other matters equally affected by 
the decision is wise, as the prompt settlement of 
the question so far as liquor is concerned is of para¬ 
mount importance and should not be jeopardized 
or delayed by combining it with legislation on 
other subjects. Doing so would strengthen the an¬ 
tagonism to this particular object by uniting against 
the bill the opponents of all the measures affected 
by its provisions. The pow'er of the State to deal 
with many other articles of inter-State commerce, 
in some of which farmers are deeply interested, 
will remain crippled, however, unless Congress takes 
action with regard to such articles. Under the de¬ 
cision, for instance, oleomargarine can be imported 
into this and other States which have legislated 
against it, and be sold in defiance of all State laws, 
in the “original packages,” however small they 
may be. Nor need the dealers take out a license, 
and nobody must interfere if it is sold as butter or 
colored to imitate it, even when the law expressly 
forbids such deception or ordains that it must be 
colored pink or be of some other hue. Dealers in 
milk too, can sell “ imported ” milk of any kind or 
quality in the “original packages,” and defy State 
or municipal inspection. It is evident that one or 
more other bills should be promptly introduced 
into Congress, giving the several States power to 
legislate in such matters. All subjects in which 
agriculture is particularly interested should be 
bunched in one bill, and the farmers of the country 
should insist on its prompt passage. 
The members of the Louisiana legislature are 
elected for four years and a biennial session began 
last Monday. Governor Nicholls’s message was 
largely devoted to a vigorous protest against the 
proposition to extend the charter of the Louisiana 
Lottery. In it the corrupting influences of such 
gambling devices on the masses, and the manner in 
which, when they are legalized, they debauch the 
representatives of the people were trenchantly 
emphasized. By way of answer, the company has 
doubled its offer of $12,500,000 as a present to the 
State for an extension of its charter for 25 years. 
Instead of the $500,000 a year it formerly promised 
BREVITIES. 
One hundred years or more ago, grandfather built a fence, 
A man of wondrous energy was he, and thought and sense, 
Grandfather was a thrifty man, ho always picked a bone, 
With anything that stopped the plow, and, most of all, a stone. 
And so. whenever ho came across a stone, with zeal intense, 
With stalwart arm he’d quickly toss it straight into the fence. 
So day by day and year by year the stones he tossed and threw, 
And though at last the field was clear, the fence was hid from view. 
A stone’s a very little thing, but throw 15 a day, 
And keep it up for 90 years, and on the heir you lay 
A burden that will mako him groan, ’twill cost more than it’s worth. 
To move the stones so bravely thrown and utilize the earth. 
If grandpa had but realized that mites may grow immense, 
By “ adding to ” he’d never made a target of that fence. 
Work with hoe, go it slow. 
The kicking habit in cows can be bred. 
Cow’s tail in the pail, makes butter without sale. 
Green grass makes yellow butter and blue milk. 
Who ever saw a lazy cow that excelled as a butter 
maker ? 
It is not the cow with the largest udder that makes the 
most butter. 
A LIGHT estimate of the importance of starting right, 
makes a heavy heart later on. 
Try heating the milk as soon as drawn from the cow to 
take the “ oniony ” taste out of it. 
Why do not some of our labor friends try to regulate 
the hours of leisure instead of the hours of work ? 
HAY is low in price all over the world. In England it 
sells for just half the price offered three years ago. 
If a crop of city boarders will pay you better than a crop 
of potatoes, cultivate the boarders—don’t plant them ! 
Owing to certain pugilistic proclivities the Angora goat 
would seem to be a good animal to keep about a dairy. 
In the middleman discussion two worthies have been 
overlooked; the book agent and the school book fiend. 
Are they to be classed as “ necessary evils ?” 
The station bulletins which we are receiving now tell 
us about the earliest and best peas, potatoes and the like. 
Why not wait until next winter to mail themj? Such 
information would be timely then. 
We may now say definitely that from 2,500 seeds (hybrids 
of Rosa rugosa and many different varieties of Teas and 
Hybrid Remontants) planted last fall, we have 225 plants. 
Of these a considerable proportion may be expected to 
perish from mildew and the accidents inseparable from 
out-door existence. 
MR. W. C. Raymond, of Vermont, sends us a couple of 
roots of a white blackberry which was found growing wild 
on a farm near him. As the mercury frequently falls to 80 
degrees below zero there, he concludes that the variety 
must be hardy. The berry is very sweet, he says. A pro¬ 
lific, hardy white blackberry would be an acquisition. 
