THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
482 
JULY 26 
T. FARMERS’ CLUB-DISCUSSION. 
A Woman’s Intensive Comments. 
E. S. L., Holmen, Wis.—I always liked 
the phrase “intensive farming;” perhaps 
because all the phenomena of growth, cul¬ 
tivation and development that belong to 
country life are intenselv interesting to me. 
If T might, T should still fly to the garden 
at daybreak to learn the exact amount of 
progress things had made since I reluctantly 
left them the evening before. In The 
Rural I have a sympathizer who answers 
my questions, explains puzzles, points out 
dangers ahead and puts me in the way to 
prosperity whenever possible. Seven years’ 
reading of its meaty columns inspires me 
to speak as I feel of some late issues, after 
first expressing my great satisfaction over 
the long-desired index. The article I like 
best, in The Rural of June 14, is: “ A 
Girl Tn a Garden.” Her wisdom in choos¬ 
ing those three specialties is rare. “Family 
Cheese making,” page 384, is worth the 
year’s subscription to me and doubtless to 
many others. Why does not the lady who 
writes “ Rank Heresy,” on page 391, leave 
her table standing in its proper place, al¬ 
ways set, from one meal to the next ? We 
remove only the food and soiled dishes, 
brush off crumbs (table cloths last so much 
better), replace dishes so soon as washed, 
cover with a large, neat spread, and so save 
much labor. That new milking machine 
in Scotland is fine; one cow is easily milked 
by hand ; where many are kept machinery 
can be afforded. I do wonder if Judy Jones, 
page 391, will take as I mean it, my answer 
to her question, “ How can we educate the 
public conscience and create right senti¬ 
ment on this very important subject ?” To 
me, after 20 years’ experience, there appears 
but one way : that is, to gather, as nearly 
as possible all the women of a neighbor¬ 
hood, village, or city ward into some at¬ 
tractive. informal, wholly inexpensive and 
needfnlly elastic association for the discus¬ 
sion of matters that concern women as home¬ 
makers and home-keepers. Get some suit¬ 
able speaker whenever possible to give 
foundation thoughts that shall be recog¬ 
nized as authoritative by the stupid and 
indifferent ones whom you can not per¬ 
suade yourself. Have a question box ; meet 
at the church or schoolhouse, or town hall, 
so as not to condemn some women to extra 
labor in providing the eternal cup of tea, 
cake and fixings, and let the members of 
the society grow into real women as fast as 
possible. “Hints Aoout Farm Houses” 
is worth its weight in gold, especially 
the directions for ventilating. “ Care of 
Cellars” just goes nicely with it. “Is 
Science Too Dry for Mothers ?” No, not 
exactly too dry, but it needs some practical 
women to bridge it down to the already 
overtaxed mothers who most need its sug¬ 
gestions. Can not you, dear, kind, sensible 
RURAL, reprint Mrs. Allen’s book of “ The 
Man Wonderful In The House Beautiful ” 
or; something else that will answer ? Let 
it run through the year as a serial after 
tbe manner of “ Andersonville Violets.” 
“A Paternal Government” is obliged to 
do things that look ridiculous to a self- 
governed people, but it can do much need¬ 
ful good. In my native canton of Thurgau, 
Switzerland, the May-beetle called “June- 
bug” here, did as much harm as the pota¬ 
to-bug does here, and the government 
required every man to catch and destroy a 
certain quota of them under heavy pen¬ 
alties. They are easily caught and not un¬ 
pleasant to handle, but woe to the careless 
man who did not try to make up his quota 
until the last day! Shrewd youngsters 
with an eye to pocket money quickly 
caught all that flew, and as the shrewd 
“ Paternal ” always set a quota sure to use 
up every last catchable bug the man who 
bought his bugs had to pay an extortionate 
price. As thunder-storms cause many fires 
there the government insured, 40 years ago, 
everybody, and then sent “Fire Inspec¬ 
tors” at all and any unexpected times to 
see that people did not become careless. 
Education was compulsory, quite thorough, 
practical; few text-books were used, object¬ 
teaching being preferred, and teachers, 
after long trials, were hired for life. Draw¬ 
ing and penmanship were given, as they 
should be, equal time and attention. Sing¬ 
ing and reading the notes were taught 
along with the alphabet. Natural history, 
bible history, natural philosophy were so 
taught as to be a very great delight to 
us. A toy telegraph found its way into 
the schoolroom directly telegraphy was 
an established fact. All the phenomena of 
galvanism and electricity that a child 
could grasp were exhibited on the teacher’s 
desk at times by itinerant scientists. Our 
schoolyard contained many choice fruit 
trees. The^boys .aud girls of the senior 
class gathered the fruits 'when ripe and 
distributed them to all the children. 
Sweet, huge, Black-heart cherries passed 
round from desk to desk on a hot after¬ 
noon, in a white willow basket, made sum¬ 
mer study much less of a hardship than it 
might have been. One absurd hit of fun 
I remember taking part in. Long before 
daylight on St. Sylvester’s day the scholars 
gathered in and about the teacher’s domi¬ 
cile, shouting until hoarse, the words: 
“ Sylvester,get up !” “Sylvester,stand oof!” 
rings in my ears still, after 40 years in 
America. The last boy or girl at school on 
that day was nicknamed Sylvester, and 
carried that name for the day. This was 
on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s gifts of 
some sort were invariably given to all the 
pupils by the teacher on the first day of 
school each year, and the teacher received 
a gift from the scholars. In some previous 
time of famine a bequest had been made to 
cause a certain amount of bread to be dis¬ 
tributed to our school on set days. To 
avoid waste, and yet deal honestly with 
the well-meaning testator, the loaves 
ranged all the way from huge, brown, bar¬ 
ley ones to tiny French rolls, and the chil¬ 
dren chose what they liked. The white- 
aproned baker and his big, white, willow 
basket make such a pretty picture in my 
childhood memories. 
Plows Vs. Harrows. 
Prof. C. S. Plumb, LaFatette, Ind.— 
I consider a plow of first importance on the 
farm—of greater importance than harrow 
or cultivator. Further, I fail to see how 
one of these tools can take the place of an¬ 
other. If the plow has not been used in the 
same year, within a reasonable period, I 
do not believe a harrow will do to prepare 
the ground for the growing of farm 
crops. We have used a harrow here for a 
number of years, known as the Gopher. 
This has cutting, flange-like blades. For 
several years this has been compared with 
the Albion and the common corn plow in 
cultivating corn. The Gopher blades are flat 
and scrape and cut somewhat like the hand 
hoe. For three years, in cultivating, the re¬ 
sults have been slightly in favor of the Go¬ 
pher. In ’88 and ’89 the result was quite no¬ 
ticeable. I do not believe that the use of the 
new diggers and cutting harrows is to be 
condemned, unless they are used without a 
plow preceding them. In experimental 
work of my own, I have noted that cereals 
gave most favorable results where the sur¬ 
face soil was compacted. But I interpreted 
the results in this wise. The soil had been 
well plowed, a roller had simply compacted 
the soil at the surface, firming it about the 
seed and leaving a fairly firm wall of soil 
about the plant stem, to aid it in maintain¬ 
ing an erect position at maturity. The soil 
five inches below was not compacted, and 
in this the roots could easily spread. In 
conclusion, I fail to see how the use of new 
diggers and cutting harrows is to be con¬ 
demned, unless the breaking-up plow is to 
be entirely discarded. 
The South Carolina Political Cam¬ 
paign. 
J. C. Stribling, Anderson Co., -8. C.— 
I am personally acquainted with Mr. Till¬ 
man who is the champion of the farmers 
of this State, and have watched both sides 
of the political question with a great deal 
of interest since the “ farmers’ movement ” 
first began the agitation of the vital ques¬ 
tion of political economy and justice in 
this State. I know that Mr. Tillman was 
among the first to advocate the agricultural 
college, experiment station and farmers’ 
institutes in this State, and In considera¬ 
tion of these facts and that he has posed as 
a leader of the farmers only when chosen 
by the farmers, and that he is a farmer 
and dairyman himself and was born so, I 
cannot call him a fraud for being what he 
is—a good farmer and dairyman and true 
friend to the farmers’ interest which in¬ 
cludes his own interest also. It has been 
truly said by the anti-Tillman side that all 
these educational institutions demanded by 
the farmers have been granted by the poli¬ 
ticians ; but the farmers say that it is after 
the fashion of the fellow who bought a 
horse for his wife and rode it all the while 
himself. The agricultural college was 
smothered under the wing of the South 
CarolinaUniversity in the city of Columbia, 
as an “ annex,” and one of the experiment 
stations passed near by as a city lot, while 
the farmers’ institute officers and speakers 
are merely politicians, lawyers and their 
farmer wire-pullers, who junket around the 
State on $5 per day and expenses paid. If 
that is not politicians buying horses for the 
farmers’useand doing the riding themselves 
what is it ? The campaign in this State is 
pow at yery high heat aud extreme meas¬ 
ures and means are used by both sides, and 
the line of the contesting factions is well 
defined between the towns and the country. 
The towns are anti Tillman and the country 
is for Tillman almost to a man. As all the 
newspapers are published and mainly sup¬ 
ported by the towns, the large majority of 
them are anti Tillman. But notwithstand¬ 
ing these great obstacles in the way, “the 
farmers’ movement ” is gaining strength 
day by day, and during the last session of 
the South Carolina legislature, by hard 
pulling the farmers drew their college from 
under the wing of the South Carolina Uni¬ 
versity, and are now building a grand agri¬ 
cultural college and experiment station at 
Fort Hill, a very fine plantation in the 
Piedmont belt of this State, which planta¬ 
tion was presented to the State for this 
purpose by the late Hon. T. J. Clemson. 
The farmers now are demanding control of 
the farmers’ institutes, board of agricul¬ 
ture, experiment statious, the Hatch fund, 
and the fertilizer tax ; the abolition of all 
unnecessary offices, and a reduction of the 
salaries of many of the present officers, and 
this is mainly the cause of all the howling 
we now hear. 
Just here it is proper for me to say to you 
that I am not a politician and never was a 
candidate, neither do I belong to either of 
the organizations known as the “ Farmers’ 
Movement,” or the Alliance. You may be 
surprised to hear a true-born South Caroli¬ 
nian say that his State has not, in reality, 
any such things within its borders as 
Democratic or Republican parties, but we 
have here instead “a straight out white 
man’s party,” and the negro party, com¬ 
posed of the negroes and a few office-seeking 
white people. The white people of South 
Carolina who possess the property and the 
brains, and compose the true yeomanry, 
have not had an opportunity to test their 
real political status as the East and West 
know and understand it, since emancipa¬ 
tion, which has precluded the possibility of 
any other issue in this State except a race 
issue, and, of course, if the South Carolina 
farmers’ movement were defeated, they 
could not, and would not, go to the negro 
and demagogue party, but would unite 
again with all the yeomanry of South 
Carolina. 
Loaning Money to Farmers ; Per¬ 
sonal Liberty. 
E. E. R , Grayson, Nebraska.— I like 
TheJ R. N.-Y.’s idea of the farm loan ar¬ 
rangement. What is due the farmer is 
ju-tly due other trades as well, and were I 
where I could, I would plead against such 
a gigantic folly with all my power. Those 
to whom it would be the most benefit do 
not want the loan at any rate and the other 
class would be no better off if they had 
no interest at all to pay Then, there is 
another matter (page 402. B. S. L.) Do you 
not know that many things “ rape liberty?” 
Bless your heart, if a man has not spunk 
enough to send his children to school, he 
should be compelled to do so if it takes a 
raw-hide to do it. “ Personal liberty I” 
How the cry comes “sounding down the 
ages.” It killed Abel, it downed Samson, 
it laid Alexander in the dust, it has com¬ 
mitted all manner of mischief ever since ; 
and it is now shaking its fist in the face of 
temperance, progress and right, and crying, 
“ I will do as I please, God or no God.” 
Some time ago you asked if Gen. Butler’s 
figures about Western homesteads could 
be proven. Well, lam “right in the middle 
of it.” There has been a great deal of that 
very thing done,and many men have proved 
up and received as loans more than the 
land was worth. But people’s eyes are 
opened now and loans are getting scarcer. 
Two men left here last month who had run 
through with all three rights, loaned 
money, spent it and just got enough to¬ 
gether to get away with. Our crops, except 
corn, look poor indeed, and many are dis¬ 
couraged. Some will certainly suffer this 
winter. The writer has other ways of get¬ 
ting necessaries or he would be in a strait 
too. 
The American Book-Company Not 
A Trust. 
H. A. V., New York —The R. N.-Y. of 
July 5, is at hand, and on page 442 I find an 
article relating to this company, that is so 
good in the main and shows so clear an ap¬ 
prehension of our purpose in forming the 
company that I desire to call the reader’s 
attention to one unfortunate sentence: 
“ The new arrangement is a sort of trust.” 
Two other articles in the same paper show 
that it has a clear idea of what a trust 
really is. We have no element of the trust 
organization or policy. We are incorporated 
under the laws of New Jersey where some 
of oqr directors reside, Wp pyyn ftftd P 9 ?i* 
trol the copyrights or publishing rights of 
all the books on our list under the laws of 
the United States. We bought them out¬ 
right from their former publishers with the 
plates and the “ good will ” connected with 
their school-book business. Our purpose in 
doing this was to reorganize this branch of 
business in accordance with the require¬ 
ments of the public. We will fulfill the 
contracts made by our predecessors and we 
have already made a reduction of price to 
all those who had contracts for the supply 
of books. We hope to be able to make 
further reductions in future years. We are 
fully aware that our business is one that 
must have the confidence of the public. It 
will be our aim to merit the confidence 
of the people. We shall offer books 
that have been accepted as standards and 
shall sell them at the lowest possible 
prices. There are dozens of publishers who 
have not sold their publications to us and 
with whom we have no connection. They 
will endeavor to make things lively for us. 
We aroquite willing to meet their competi¬ 
tion in quality or prices and shall not avoid 
any contests within those lines; but our 
competitors seem disposed to carry on the 
struggle for patronage solely on one ground 
—namely that we are a trust. I am re¬ 
minded of the story of the good old Quaker 
who would not kill a dog that had annoyed 
him, but he would give him an ill name. 
He therefore pushed the dog out of the door 
and yelled : “ Mad dog I ” This outcry of 
“trust” is the cry of “mad dog.” It re¬ 
mains to be seen whether the people will 
fall upon us with sticks and stones or 
whether they will inquire as to the motives 
of those raising the outcry. There are no 
constituent firms, companies or organiza¬ 
tions of the American Book Company. We 
stand squarely on our own bottom as a cor¬ 
poration under the laws of New Jersey and 
we expect to be governed by the laws and 
protected by them. Ten years ago it would 
not have harmed an organization to call it 
a trust. The word is a good, honest one; 
but it has attained a new and disagreeable 
significance. Certain words have been de¬ 
cided by the courts to be libelous. It has 
not, I believe, been decided by the 
courts that it is libelous to call anv 
company a trust, but the name has a 
tendency to create public opinion of an 
unfavorable character. I do not think that 
The R. N.-Y. intended to “give us an ill 
name ” and I therefore write in mild re¬ 
monstrance at being called any “ sort of a 
trust.” 
Trees Winter-Killed. 
G. G. G., Lewisburg, Pa.—I n central 
Pennsylvania I have noticed that the fol¬ 
lowing trees were seriously affected by our 
late mild winter, viz. : weeping willows, 
Lombardy Poplars, and buttonwoods. In 
my locality no small fruit seems to have 
been affected at all. There were very few 
pear, apple, or peach blossoms, and there 
will be very little of such fruit, but there 
has been a fair crop of all small fruits. 
B. B., Sangamon County, III.—I have 
always been successful in clearing my 
fields of gophers by opening their holes late 
in the fall and rolling in a potato, plugged 
and poisoned with arsenic. I think the 
gopher of Manitoba and the North is a dif¬ 
ferent auimal from the pocket gopher that 
we have here. I have never been able to 
poison moles, but the gopher question is a 
very small one with me, although they were 
once very numerous. 
MULTUM IN PARVO. 
Wheat for Horses.— A writer in the 
London Field speaks of the advantage of 
soaking wheat to be fed to horses. He says 
that if it be soaked and otherwise treated 
as barley is done in its first stages toward 
malting, it will, by this treatment, lose 
none of its nutritive properties. Because 
maize is used as the sole feed in many in¬ 
stances, the fact is not evidence that wheat 
may be used with the same open hand. In 
the first place, maize is given to horses and 
cattle too, for the most part, on the cob. 
This makes it safer feeding. In a horse’s 
mouth—with his teeth naturally made for 
grinding grain-food—maize does not break 
down to paste, but is only reduced to gran¬ 
ulated atoms. Wheat, on the contrary, 
will break down into fine flour, which, with 
the saliva, will form paste balls, after 
merely crushing it. In this condition it 
mechanically obstructs the stomach and 
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