420 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 28 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes- 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. CDLLINGWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, Pre»ident. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
OUT-DOOR BOO»vS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company 
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1890. 
It is a vfcry poor business man that gives 
himself away. Make yourself worthy of a 
price, and you’ll get that price. 
The R. N.-Y. will soon print some opinions from 
watchful farmers regarding the prospects for profit¬ 
able beef making in the Eastern States. In our 
judgment these prospects are slightly brighter than 
they have been for the past few years. There are 
various reasons which lead us to make this state¬ 
ment, which will be dwelt upon later. It is gratify¬ 
ing to learn that sheep feeders are encouraged at 
the outlook, and that this important branch of 
husbandry will he conducted on more business-like 
principles than ever before. 
During the past few wet seasons quite a good 
many farmers have hesitated about practicing level 
culture for potatoes, there being a belief that hilled 
potatoes will be more successful in withstanding 
wet seasons. The following noie from J. M. Smith, 
the successful market gardener of Wisconsin, 
shows how he stands on this question : 
“I have ceased to hill potatoes, believing that by 
plowing deep, making the land rich and very mel¬ 
low before planting. I can get larger yields without 
hilling than with.” 
Resuming certain potato experiments made 15 
years ago, with a modification or so to adapt them to 
conditions suggested by Mr. T. B. Terry, we have 
now five promising plots planted in this way. Plot 
1. Single eyes, from medium sized potatoes, planted 
three inches apart; Plot 2. Single eyes, planted 
six inches apart ; Plot 3. Two-eye pieces, planted 
six inches apart ; Plot 4. Halves, planted one foot 
apart; Plot 5. Whole potatoes, planted one foot 
apart. Estimating the crop by the growth of vines 
at this time, the largest yield wdl come from No. 5; 
the next from No. 3. Nos. 2 and 4 are alike and 
rate next. No. 1 rates lowest. 
How about that clover field ? Are you a clover 
farmer or a manure farmer this year? In other 
words, which will pay you better—to turn that 
heavy sod directly under and let it rot in the soil 
until you are ready to plant some crop on it, or 
cut, cure, handle and feed the hay, and then haul 
out the manure in the spring ? This is a question 
which you must figure out for yourself. There are 
lots of farms where it will be most profitable to cut 
and cure the hay. There are other farms where 
one would lose money by so doing. On these latter 
farms the proper thing is to plow the clover right 
under, and use fertilizers with the crop. Think 
this matter over fully before you touch that clover 
crop. 
What are the true powers of our Government ? 
How many of our readers ever stop to ask them¬ 
selves this question when judging the wisdom of the 
many schemes proposed for the benefit of the 
farmer ? Are these powers unlimited, or is there 
a distinct point beyond which legislation in favor 
of one class cannot go without working injury to 
another ? The R. N.-Y. is so much impressed with 
the importance of a thorough understanding of 
this matter that it has arranged with some of the 
best students of constitutional law in the country 
to define the true powers of our Government, and 
to show how these powers can be lawfully increased 
to meet pressing and special demands. Let us 
know exactly what we are doing before we demand 
changes in our laws. 
For years New England farmers made money. 
In thousands of cases it was the disposal of the 
farm profits that determined the future of the 
farm. One class of farmers put every cent they 
could collect into the bank, or sent their cash 
away to new cities in the West and South for in¬ 
vestment at a high rate of interest. Nothing was 
invested in the farm itself. Fertilizers, improved 
stock, methods and implements were not used be¬ 
cause they apparently gave a lower rate of interest 
than cash in bank or railroad stocks. Another 
class of farmers studied to invest a portion of the 
farm profits in the farm itself. Fertilizers were 
bought and judiciously used, the live stock best 
adapted to the soil and situation were bred, and 
the implements that reduced the labor bill most 
effectively were employed. Is it necessary for us 
to say which class of farmers have been breeding 
“abandoned farms?” Every farm ownor in the 
country may well hear these facts in mind. 
Neglect your farm and sooner or later you or your 
descendants will have to abandon it or spend cash 
to bring it hack to life. 
Secretary Blaine has submitted to the Senate 
a plan for building up our export trade with the 
Republics of South America. He makes the point, 
which the R.N.-Y. has frequently brought out, that 
“reciprocity” is really a tariff trade. When a 
tariff is no longer needed by our people it should be 
disposed of to the best advantage, like any imple¬ 
ment or article that is no longer needed in our busi¬ 
ness. It should he exchanged for foreign trade— 
for the right to sell our goods at lowest cost in a 
foreign market. Mr. Blaine proposes to authorize 
the President to declare our ports free to all pro¬ 
ducts of any nation on this hemisphere, on which 
no export duties are imposed, whenever-such nation 
shall admit free certain products of the United 
States. In this way “tariff trades” might be made, 
which would give us cheaper rubber, sugar, etc., 
and provide a better export market for our provi¬ 
sions, flour, and manufactured goods. This idea of 
“ reciprocity,” or even free trade is a business like 
proposition. The desirability of better export mar¬ 
kets for our surplus products is now generally rec¬ 
ognized. It is equally clear to a great majority of 
our people that a good many of our former “ infant 
industries ” are now large enough to take care of 
themselves. Uncle Sam has given them a good 
education. Now let him give them his blessing and 
turn his attention to some of the weaker members 
of the family. _ 
C^uite an interesting and original test of the qual¬ 
ity of potatoes was conducted last season at the 
Michigan Agricultural College. Thirty-seven vari¬ 
eties of potatoes were grown and accurate records 
kept to show the comparative yields. It was then 
proposed to test the potatoes for quality when both 
baked and boiled. There are eight families living 
on the college grounds. Each of these families re¬ 
ceived, durmg the winter, samples of the different 
varieties of potatoes. These were cooked as nearly 
alike as possible and each family marked, on a scale 
of 10, the different varieties for color, grain, flavor 
and mealiness. In no case was the name of the 
potato made known to the tester. The result is very 
interesting. It shows that while the quality of a 
potato is very largely determined by the soil and 
the manure, there are some heavy-yielding varieties 
that cannot be made to produce first-class tubers. 
In this test the heaviest yielders seemed the poorest 
in quality, though Munroe Seedling and Empire 
State ranked highest for quality with Garfield and 
Rural New-Yorker next. To the R. N.-Y’s surprise 
Rural Blush is marked far down on the list, which 
we assume is due to the fact that the soil did not 
suit this variety. What is the value of such an ex¬ 
periment ? The time is coming when potatoes can 
be sold for their quality and appearance. Is coming? 
Is here now. It is as possible for potato growers 
near large markets to secure an extra price for 
extra-quality potatoes as it is for a dairyman to se¬ 
cure a “fancy” price for fancy butter. Suit your 
soil to a potato. The leading grocers of Newark and 
other large cities have already begun to try potatoes 
by what they call the “cooking test,” and there is 
every evidence that before long a large part of our 
potatoes will be sold for quality. 
It is strange that the larger and more formidable 
species of animals are much more easily exter¬ 
minated than those of comparatively insignificant 
size. In all quarters of the globe in the struggle 
between man and the bison, the lion and the 
elephant, man is easily the conqueror; it is only in 
Ins contest with his diminutive foes that he is 
forced to succumb. In August 1887, the colony of 
New South Wales issued a proclamation offering a 
reward of $125,000 for any effectual method of ex¬ 
terminating the rabbits without involving danger 
to human life or the safety of domestic animals 
The offer was published in all parts of the world 
and over 14,000 projects and schemes were sub¬ 
mitted to the Royal (iommissioners in charge of the 
matter. It appears, however, that the wonderful 
fecundity of the gentlest and least pugnacious of 
all animals has triumphed over the ingenuity and 
science of the globe. The commission has decided 
that none of the plans is sufficiently efficacious to 
merit the reward. The methods of destruction 
proposed included the commercial utilization 
of the animals, inoculating them with the virus of 
some communicable malady, the introduction of 
natural enemies, electricity, destruction of burrows, 
poisoning, trapping, firing the country and thereby 
cutting off the food suppl\, and a multitude of 
other plans. The pests have already inflicted in¬ 
calculable injury on the agriculture of Australia, 
and threaten to ruin it almost entirely. The 
government of New South Wales alone has spent 
over $3,000,000 in its efforts against the plague, and 
irobahly as much more has been expended by private 
jarties in the colony. JTofessional rabbit hunters 
lave easily made $2,000 a year each from the boun¬ 
ties on the animals. In one season alone over 15,- 
000,000 skins were shipped to Europe, although 
poison is the favorite method of destruction, and 
five out of six poisoned rabbits die in their burrows. 
Still the Commissioners declare that they h ive 
found no evidence to warrant the belief that the 
pests caq be exterminated by any kuovyq m-'uiu, 
Wire net fencing affords some protection against 
their ruinous devastations, and the Commissioners 
recommend that the government should, in 
certain coses, advance money to the lessees of pub¬ 
lic lands in order to enable them to defray the cost 
of such fencing in the first instance. As the rabbit 
may be used as food, canned, potted, or as soup; as 
his skin and fur are valuable for the manufacture of 
gloves and felt, and as glue can be obtained from 
his carcass, while the remainder can be reduced 
to a valuable fertilizer, it seems a reflection on 
human skill that the animal cannot he profitably 
utilized—that so much food should go to waste in 
one part of the world while so many men and 
women famish for want of it in others. 
A well TO do farmer, who had made the most 
of his property by his own personal exertions, 
aided, of course, by his good wife, gave as his rea¬ 
son for wishing to educate his only son, that he 
might not have to work so hard as he himself had 
done. This is a wrong principle for any father to 
instil into the mind of his boy, and it is wrong be¬ 
cause it is false. The successful men, among the 
educated, are hard workers. If one studies the 
lives of men who have risen to high positions in 
governmental affairs ; of eminently successful pro¬ 
fessional men ; of those who have achieved celebrity 
in the world of literature ; of great scientists and 
inventors ; he finds that, without exception, they 
are hard workers, and that the genius, good for¬ 
tune, etc., to which men are so prone to ascribe 
their success, is the genius of hard work. To be 
sure, it is mostly brain work, but this is much more 
wearying than manual labor, and the average lon¬ 
gevity of these toilers is less than that of the 
farmer. But should the farmer deny to his sons, 
yes, and his daughters also, the privileges of an ed¬ 
ucation ? Far Irom it. The country demands ed¬ 
ucated, thinking, progressive farmers ; those who 
will place the profession where it belongs, beside 
the other learned professions. The successful 
farmer of to day must be something of a chemist; 
he must understand the underlying principles of 
natural philosophy ; he must be a machinist; he 
must have the organizing and leading power of a 
general ; he must learn to practice hygiene ; he 
must have the shrewdness of a lawyer, the penetra¬ 
tion and foresight of a merchant, the grace and pa¬ 
tience of a divine. Does he need education ? Most 
certainly ; but he needs it to make him a better 
farmer ; a more useful member of society, and not 
to enable him to get through life easier. Many of 
the agricultural colleges are fitting young men for 
more extended fields of labor, and every father who 
desires for his children the future success and use¬ 
fulness which every father should desire, should 
hold these inducements before them, and by this 
means incite them to the acquirement of an educa¬ 
tion, and not hold out to them the false and sordid 
motive of an easier way of making a living. 
BREVITIES. 
The boy needs fun. 
Ami the corn n< eds sun, 
To make an honest man or a perfect car of grain. 
Dark sha 'o for corn, 
sneer the boy to sc rn, 
Then pitch in and harvest crops that brlnrf you hitter pain. 
Thin out the stalks, 
When vollr smart boy balks. 
Don't forget //our childish days of many year* ago. 
Give corn a chance. 
Let the voting things prance, 
lr you bottle childish fun, beware of the overflow. 
Level culture—level head. 
SHORT stroke* with the hoe—long head. 
THE best kind of summer butter is cheese. 
IT is now time to plant cucumbers for pickles. 
HAVE you ever tried sowing rye with buckwheat ? 
The quicker beets are developed the better they are. 
The reverse is true of children. 
I)R. Hoskins writes us that he meant §1. instead of §10, 
as the cost per tree of thinniug fruit, page 3(57. 
Considering the fact that distilled water is used in Ice 
machines, what advantage will there be in using spring 
water ? 
THE R.N.-Y. gave up Bantam raising in despair when 
the last chicken of three broods was round drowned in 
half an inch of water. 
The Gishurst Compound (sold by all seedsmen) sprayed 
upon the plants—two ounces to a gallon of water—is a very 
effective aphid® exterminator. 
PINCH off your black raspberry shoots when about two 
feet high. To do a good job, it may be necessary to go 
over the patch two or three times. 
The best way to convince a man that t he cultivator in 
early May beats the hoe in June, is to make him hoe out 
a piece where the weeds shade the crop. 
We had roast beef aud green peas for dinner the other 
day We hail enough of the peas too. A vote was taken 
to see which would he given up—the beef or the peas—sup¬ 
posing we could have but one. The vote stood three to 
two in favor of retaining the peas. 
Two or three years ago. as stated at the time, cions of 
the edible and ornamental Japan Quince were grafted on a 
Baldwin Apple tree. AH the cions—five in number—grew. 
The Japan Quince bloomed last year. All are dead now 
except oue of the latter, and that is making but a feeble 
growth. 
Some years ago a misguided person made fashionable a 
fruit dish about twice as large os a silver dollar. It would 
not hold half a handful of fruit, yet it established the 
measure for the fruit that should accompany a meal. 
These little dishes have been the indirect cause of more 
disease and bad temper than it is easy to estimate. The 
fruit dish ought to be the largest dish used—at thisseason 
anyway. 
A commission is at work upon the game laws of New 
New York State, and will codify and revise them. At pre¬ 
sent the game laws are a sad jumble, and it is found 
almost impossible to accurately coustrue them. Such laws 
generally start wromt an\way. They should all i>e based 
on the reasonable propo-ition that the first, ri/ffit to the 
game belong-. 1. 1 1 !}c famitr (Hi yfbo^ Um 4 it is Fuad, 
