362 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 3i 
“ Rough on Rogues .” 
LOOKOUT 
ALMANAC 
LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. 
JUNE. 
Monday k° ok out that you enter upon 
- J this week and month with your 
" • eyes wide open. Frauds of all 
sorts are doing a flourishing business just 
now. It does seem as though some of our 
people had lost their eyesight when they 
permit such transparent frauds to be car¬ 
ried out right under their noses. We would 
suggest that such parties had better b iy 
and wear them until they can see the end 
of their noses at least. Come now, attend to 
this or you will regret it. Look out for a 
scamp who stops at your house to buy a 
light lunch. At first he “ has no change,” 
and he tenders a $2. bill in payment. 
When he gets the change he suddenly dis¬ 
covers that he has a dime and wants the 
bill back again. When you count the 
change he returns, you will find it short, 
while he will insist that he gave it all to 
you. 
* 
* * 
Tnesdav k°°k out that you realize what 
* you are up to when you and 
3* your neighbors form an organi¬ 
zation for the advancement of agriculture. 
There must be no hanging back if you once 
begin a thing. If you start and then back 
out or become faint hearted and try to get 
“ on the fence,” you are worse off than if 
you had never started. The following re¬ 
marks by President E. G. Seeley, of the 
Milk Producers’ Union, are so true and so 
well-put that we want to rub them into 
the mind of every American farmer: 
‘‘The farmers are devising plans by way 
of theory—castle building it may be—to col¬ 
lapse and fall to the ground ; but they are 
thinking all the same, as they would not 
do had the Union just taken them, milk 
and all, right up in its arms, and taken 
care of them. We have never proposed to 
do this. We could not do a worse thing for 
the farmers. We have only thought to 
stimulate knowledge and effort, and to 
make that knowledge and effort more 
effective by co-operation. The field is a 
great one and in a crude state of culture. 
Wpdnpcda y Bad the Union absolute con- 
11 0U11CD j trol 0 j th( , SU ppiy there 
4* would I e little trouble about 
plans for doing the business. 
It has been said that President Seeley 
told them there was no hope. This, like 
several other sayings reported, is not true. 
He said nothing like it. He has said, and 
repeats it, there is nothing that can defeat 
the Union but the Union itself. If the 
Union insists on taking such unreasonable 
and revolutionary measures as to produce 
a wild and mob-like excitement, which 
shall cause the Union to withhold its milk 
at a time when the enemy can take posses¬ 
sion of the market, it will surely fail. 
Friends, do not be impatient or jealous 
one of another. There are many open 
questions yet to be solved by experience 
and deliberation. Nothing great and 
good is bom mature. Infancy comes 
first; manhood by growth and develop¬ 
ment. On our banner should be inscribed 
no such motto as: “ No hope,” but rather: 
“ We will win, if it takes years.” 
That is the sort of talk we like. Let’s 
have no half way business. You must 
learn how to follow—how to work in a 
team. You must realize that when you 
enter an association that is organized for 
business you have to cut off a portion 
of your individuality and throw it into the 
general fund. Keep quiet and save your 
wind for following. 
Thursday ■ Look out for “graveyard” 
* insurance frauds. There are 
5* people in this world who are 
depraved enough to gamble in human 
life. These folks take out an insurance 
policy on some person who is within a few 
weeks of death. They have some substitute 
who passes the necessary medical exami¬ 
nation. A woman in Oswego was found to 
have eight such policies on persons not one 
of whom had ever been examined, nor did 
they know they were insured. 
* * 
Friday Look out for a firm in Chicago 
s J that sends out a circular contain- 
ing the following : 
“ If you will send a photograph of your¬ 
self or any member of your family, we will 
make you a life-size crayon portrait free of 
charge. The only consideration imposed on 
you, is that you exhibit it to your friends 
as a sample of our work and thereby assist 
us in secur ing orders; also that you promise 
to get it framed in a suitable frame for a 
fine portrait, so that the work will show to 
advantage. This offer will hold good for 
10 days and is for a sample of our best 
work, for which dealers charge from $35 to 
$50.” 
What beautiful benevolence 1 Mark what 
they say about the frame for this picture. 
That frame will show off their profits far 
better than it will your likeness. 
Saturday ou ^ ^ or ^ wo “religious” 
J students who are now traveling 
/• through Pennsylvania, having 
a fine time as they travel. They are very 
fine, glib-tongued fellows. When they en¬ 
ter a community they go to the parsonage 
of the leading clergyman and state that they 
are theological students on a vacation and 
wish to find a quiet and respectable family 
where thev can board. They are so nice 
and respectable thac they easily find a 
place with some well-to-do farmer. They 
conduct family worship most effectively, 
being fine singers of Gospel hymns. They 
decline to eat mince pie that has brandy in 
it and are model young men in every par¬ 
ticular. After a day or two they fail to re¬ 
spond to the supper bell and a search re¬ 
veals the fact that they have plundered 
the house and departed with such money 
and valuables as they could find. This 
money will doubtless be spent in following 
up their studies—of human credulity. 
These rascals were in Reading, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, when last heard from. Wehope they 
will be in some horse pond when the next 
intelligence arrives. 
A CITY MAN’S FARMING. 
Servant of a Servant.—I am the slave 
of a hired man. I go to the city every morn¬ 
ing, transact my business, and get home an 
hour or so before dark. Now and then I 
come home a few hours earlier and am able 
to help in the field ; but for the most part, 
the hired man, whoever he may be, works 
as he sees fit during the day. I have had 
all sorts of men—shirks who spent the 
hottest part of the day uoder a tree, 
“smart” fellows who “know it all” and 
upset all my nice little plans because they 
“ know a better way,” city boys who stone 
the chickens and chase the cows, and hon¬ 
est, steady men who work well and faith¬ 
fully whether I am there or not. It is only 
now and then that we can get one of these. 
They almost invariably work into the 
ownership of a small place and become 
master instead of man. Some of them bet¬ 
ter themselves by this change, while others 
would be better off if they remained in 
service. I have nothing remarkable in the 
way of agricultural success to record. My 
farm is not a source of wealth to me. I 
might be able to make a living on it if I 
could give it my whole attention. I cannot 
hope to instruct practical farmers: some of 
my experiences may amuse them. 
Bantam Raising.— Poultry seems to pay 
us better than any other stock. We like 
poultry and enjoy caring for the little 
cnickens. Our “ plan of farming ” is to 
raise all the chickens we can and produce 
grain enough to feed them. If we can do 
this, with hay enough for the horses and 
cows and sweet corn, Lima beans, and 
potatoes enough to pay the hired man’s 
wages, we think we do well. We try to 
raise good specimens of popular breeds of 
poultry. Just now we have Wyandottes, 
Dorkings and Patagonians. We started to 
breed Bantams. One little Bantam hen 
showed a strong desire to sit and we gave 
her a chance on seven of her own eggs. She 
made more fuss than a big Cochin hen. 
Maternity tamed her. Before she went on 
her eggs she was as wild as a hawk, think¬ 
ing nothing of flying directly over the 
barn. She is now as tame as a kitten ; we 
can handle aud pet her without any bother. 
She hatched four of her eggs and killed 
one chicken before she left the nest. The 
three chickens left were about as delicate 
as violets. A straw would trip them up, 
and unless they were brooded every few 
moments they would stand and tremble 
with cold, while other chickens were run¬ 
ning about in comfort. The hen thought 
more of her food than of her chickens. One 
night we found all three stretched on the 
floor seemingly chilled to death. Placed 
in a basket under the stove one “ came to 
life,” and lived two weeks, when the hen 
killed it. We now have another little hen 
sitting on 10 eggs, but a number of these 
are evidently bad. From conversations 
with neighbors and friends who have tried 
to raise Bantams, I am satisfied that they 
are bad breeders. Many of the eggs are 
never fertilized, and the chickens very fre¬ 
quently die in the shell. I am told tnat it 
is better to hatch the eggs under large hens. 
I wish some of those who have succeeded 
with Bantams would tell us how they 
managed. 
Plowing Rye Under.— The hired man 
that I had last fall put in some rye. The 
soil is very poor. On a part of the land 
corn had been grown. On the part which 
grew the corn he plowed and harrowed, 
while on the bare part he merely worked 
with the Cutaway. Where the land was 
plowed the crop is fair ; where no plowing 
was done it is not worth cutting, and I 
shall plow it under and plant corn, using 
about 500 pounds of bone meal to the acre. 
I do not understand why this crop turns 
out as it did. One would suppose that the 
corn crop took out so much fertility that 
the rye would be poorest on that part of 
the field. I did not know that rye requires 
deep plowing. I would like to know how 
others have succeeded with shallow work¬ 
ing of the soil. Do tools like the Cutaway 
give the soil enough of a stirring up ? Rye 
as a green crop, particularly for bill-side 
fields, is worthy of more attention than it 
receives. It grows rapidly, prevents wash¬ 
ing of the soil, and supplies just what the 
corn seems to want. I don’t see why it will 
not pay well to sow rye on the fall plowed 
corn ground, put the manure on the rye 
and plow it all under in the spring. 
Lima Beans and Cabbage.— One of my 
masters (hired men) last year had worked 
fo^ a market gardener near Boston. He 
urged me to plant Lima beans on one side 
of the poles only. This, he said, would 
give a better chance for horse work, as 
there would be less danger of tearing up 
the plants with the cultivator. This seemed 
sensible, and thus far the plan works well, 
as we can drive the cultivator close up to 
the poles on the side where the beans are 
not planted. The same man objected to 
setting out cabbage plants with a dibble or 
trowel. He wanted to plow them in, so I 
told him to go ahead. Every third furrow 
he would stop his horses and set the plants, 
kicking a hole in the loose soil to make a 
place for each. The next furrow would 
roll up against the plants and fix them in 
place. In this way he worked about twice 
as fast as he could with hand tools, and 
every plant lived and did well. I am con¬ 
vinced, however, that a poor plowman 
would have made a sorry job of it. 
Killing Insects.— Communities near 
New York are frequently visited by mid¬ 
night parties who desire to witness fights 
between dogs, roosters or human beings. 
The skill and energy displayed by these 
gentry in dodging the law is worthy of a 
better cause If we could only induce them 
to take an active interest in finding pug¬ 
nacious insects that would fight and de¬ 
stroy potato beetles and other insect pests, 
and thus gratify their sporting instincts, 
they would do the world a service. Se¬ 
riously, I think we ought to pay more at¬ 
tention to the breeding of insects that will 
prey upon our garden pests. I have fre¬ 
quently noticed the good work done by the 
“ Lady beetle ” in eating the eggs of potato 
beetles, and I am told that an imported 
Australian insect of much the same sort is 
clearing the California orange groves of 
the scale insect. There are several par¬ 
asites that infest the potato beetle, aud I 
would like to buy them by the gallon. I 
think our entomologists ought to tell us 
more about useful insects. By the way, I 
think the toad is a good deal of a fraud, 
for he eats many insects that are useful. I 
am sure that he has little relish for potato 
beetles, though I don’t blame him for that. 
Killins Cutworms.— Salt, ashes and a 
crop of buckwheat are recommended as 
good agents for fighting cut worms on large 
fields. An Englishman tells me that in 
his country nitrate of soda is praised for 
this purpose. Of course it is broadcasted 
and harrowed in. The English nitrate 
dealers have a great stock on hand this 
year and are anxious to dispose of it. They 
are studying evtry possible means of util¬ 
izing their product. Have any American 
farmers tried this ? CITY FARMER. 
p;i$TcltHttC0U£ §Uvtrti?sitt0. 
Please r ention R. N.-Y. to our adver¬ 
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The soft, velvety coloring effect so desirable for 
house exteriors can only be produced and perma¬ 
nently held by the use of 
CABOT’S CREOSOTE SHINGLE STAINS. 
For Samples on Wood, with Circulars and full 
Information, apply to 
SAMUEL CABOT, 
70 Kllbv Street. Boston, Mass. 
Mention Rural New-Yorker. 
EMPIRE 
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for 2 year».'< 64-page Catalogue FREE. 
Address W.B. PRATT, SecV. 
HOW DOLLARS ARE MADE! 
Cheap Lands and Homes in Kentucky 
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi 
and Louisiana. 
2 000 000 acres splendid bottom upland timber and 
dock lands. Also the llnest fruit and mineral lands 
m me continent for sale on favornble terms. 
FARMERS! with all thy getting tret a home in 
... bllvdnnlfl Sun It'D find IlbllllS 
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est and (Quickest Cincinnati to Jacksonville, Fla. 
For Correct Countv Maps, Lowest Rates and full par¬ 
ticulars, address D G. Edwauds, Gen. Pass. & Tkt.Agt., 
Queen At Crescent Route. Cincinnati, O. 
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