776 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV. 15 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINQWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
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, NOVEMBER 15, 1890. 
Know your load before you fire it. 
Ip we had had the least idea that our exposure 
of the peculiar methods of Mr. Childs would have 
resulted in popularizing him as a candidate for 
Congress, we would have waited until after election 
before presenting the case. 
Between now and Christmas we shall send to 
every subscriber to The Rural New-Yorker a copy 
of The American Garden, which we think is one of 
the finest journals of horticulture in the world. We 
hope every reader will regard it as an acceptable 
Christmas present. 
We have received from Mr. Parry, of New Jer¬ 
sey, one tree of the Giant Japan Chestnut (grafted) 
and one of the Japan Reliance, both of which, we 
are told, produced fruit this year, the Reliance be¬ 
ing but one year old and the Giant two years. The 
Reliance is scarcely three feet high and yet there 
were Jive immature burrs on it and one mature burr 
containing a chestnut twice as large as the average 
American chestnut. The quality was not of the best. 
How deep shall we plant our potatoes for the 
best paying crop? Shall we put the fertilizer above 
or below the seed pieces? How much fertilizer may 
we profitably use? The R. N.-Y. has for from three 
to six years been tugging away at these vitally im¬ 
portant problems. One of them it has answered— 
that is, for its impoverished soil. Further trials 
are needed for the other two. Why don’t the ex¬ 
periment stations take them up? Reports for three 
years’ trials will be found in another column as to the 
depth at which potato seed may profitably be placed. 
Thus far, a depth of four inches takes the prize. 
But the three seasons have been characterized by 
an unusual amount of rainfall, and the trials must 
still go on for from three to five years ere we may 
hope to answer the question involved in a way that 
will carry authority. 
The annual convention of the representatives and 
directors of the agricultural colleges and experi¬ 
ment stations will be held at Champaign, Ill. No¬ 
vember 1114. The R. N.-Y. hopes that this con¬ 
vention will take the bull by the horns and discuss 
the disposition that is now being made, in some 
States, of the agricultural college funds. Now, 
gentlemen, you may as well know, first as last, that 
the people are demanding more practical work from 
our experiment stations and better chances for a 
farm education at our agricultural colleges. The 
farmers are now “on top ” in State affairs, and be¬ 
fore the year is over your institutions will be 
looked into as they never have been before. The 
R. N.-Y. does not say to you “ be warned in time,” 
but it does say—meet the demands of the people or 
the people will select others to carry out their de¬ 
mands. This convention can do much for agricul¬ 
ture. What ? It can publicly disapprove of the 
policy of these colleges which are 11 agricultural for 
boodle only.” It can select as its officers and repre¬ 
sentatives men Whom the people know to be in sym¬ 
pathy, by training, education and practice, with 
the farmers. As a matter of fact, the convention 
can not do anything else and be true to its duty. 
Monopolies die hard, and when at last they die 
perforce in one form, they are likely to revive 
speedily in another. It isn’t a transmigration of 
souls, however, tor they have none; but a trans¬ 
formation of bodies. It is considerably over a year 
since the Sugar Trust received its “death blow” 
from Judge Barrett, of this city, and though the 
“doctors” of the Supreme Court and the Court of Ap¬ 
peals, after careful diagnosis, have successively 
pronounced the stroke fatal, the monster is only 
just now going through the process of dissolution. 
Judge Barrett’s decision declared that the North 
River Refining Company’s charter was null and 
void, because the company, by joining the trust, 
“ a menace to the public welfare,” had violated the 
conditions on which it had been granted, and the 
two appellate courts have confirmed this decision. 
From this test case it followed that all the other 
corporations belonging to the trust were also legally 
defunct, and that the trust itself was an outlaw in 
the business world. Delay in the proceedings 
against the monopoly by the State authorities has 
been caused by the appeals of its managers for time 
to reorganize it, so as to bring its operations under 
the shelter of the laws of New York State; but 
meanwhile it has been notoriously making ur¬ 
gent preparations to transfer the whole busi¬ 
ness across the river to New Jersey, whose 
lax corporate laws would have allowed it 
full scope for extortion. But while our State 
officials procrastinated, one of the disgruntled cer¬ 
tificate-holder’s application to a Judge of the Su¬ 
preme Court for the appointment of a Receiver, has 
put an end to the artifices of the trust for maintain¬ 
ing its existence in defiance of the laws, or for evad¬ 
ing its responsibilities under them. While it is cer¬ 
tain that, according to the recent decision, at least 
three Receivers will be appointed—two to represent 
the conflicting interests in the property, and the 
third, the Court—it is not improbable that there 
will be nine, one for each of the great refineries in 
the trust subject to the Court’s jurisdiction. With 
the appointment of the Receivers, nothing appar¬ 
ently remains for the monopoly but to liquidate and 
distribute the property among its respective 
owners. The profits of the concern, however, have 
already been so enormous, and the outlook for in¬ 
creased gains under the McKinley Bill are so allur¬ 
ing, that it is not improbable that the preeminently 
bright legal luminaries in its munificent employ¬ 
ment will devise some-means for resuscitating it in 
some other form, which will evade the legal compli¬ 
cations which have proved so disastrous to it in its 
present shape. In about two and a half years’ exis¬ 
tence its net profits have amounted to over $28,000,- 
000, or 20 per cent, per annum on a capitalization of 
$50,000,000, a large proportion of which was 
“water.” Meanwhile, undisturbed by the fate of 
this gigantic member of their pestiferous brood, the 
other trusts continue fearlessly extending their 
operations and multiplying their millions extorted 
from the pockets of the patient public. 
WHAT DOES IT MEAN ? 
The election is over. We may now carefully con 
sider results and the causes which led to them. The 
Republican party has met with the worst defeat it 
has known since the war. It is worse, if anything, 
than the “tidal wave ” of 1882, when General But¬ 
ler was elected Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. 
Cleveland carried New York State by 200,000 
majority—worse because States and Congressional 
districts are lost to the party, that never have been 
lost before, while all along the line great majorities 
have disappeared like snow. What does it mean ? 
The country is thoughtfully asking this question. 
Hundreds of explanations will be offered, but 
we believe the following reasons may be considered 
the chief ones. 1. The farmers, particularly at 
the West, took a more independent stand than they 
ever have done before. 2. The country demands a 
reduction of the tariff rather than an increase. 3. 
There is an uncontrollable discontent and unrest 
among the farmers and interest-paying classes. 4. 
The times were just ripe for a revolt against “ ma¬ 
chine ” methods, dishonest candidates and corrupt 
prmciples. 
It is certain that the farmers in the West, South 
and Northwest have never before taken so much in¬ 
terest in a general election. When we think of 
such States as Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana either 
changed completely politically or brought to the 
very last verge of the “ doubtful ” point by the 
votes of the farmers, we may regard it as settled 
that the “farmers’ movement” is one of the strong¬ 
est political revolutions of recent history. There is 
every evidence, too, that it will be a permanent 
movement, forcing a new issue and a new division 
of parties. 
There is no disguising the fact that the country 
has pronounced against the McKinley Tariff Bill. 
This sentence is most pronounced in New England 
—the result in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire and Rhode Island being directly attribut¬ 
able to the tariff discussions. Prices for goods have 
unquestionably risen since the bill became a law. It is 
true that all of this increased price was not directly 
due to the tariff bill, but if the bill had not been passed, 
shopkeepers could have had no excuse for “ mark¬ 
ing up their goods.” The Republicans were obliged 
to face the fact of an increased price and it meant 
their defeat. There can be no doubt that the present 
feeling among the majority of the people of this 
country is towards a reduction of the tariff,_ and 
this election will do much to intensify this feeling. 
The R. N.-Y. has frequently expressed the opinion 
that few towns-people realize the strength and ex¬ 
tent of the present political movement among farm¬ 
ers. It has become customary for city men to sneer 
at such “ granger movements,” assuming that they 
will fall apart from their own poorly balanced 
weight. This is a wonderfully mistaken idea, and 
those who attempt to ignore the truth will be so 
rudely awakened that they will hardly survive the 
shock. No, the farmers, and the issues they repre¬ 
sent, are now fairly launched in politics and there 
is no way of heading them off so long as they are 
just and dignified in their demands and character. 
The result in Pennsylvania is a direct rebuke of a 
notorious political corruptionist. In Illinois Mr. 
Cannon lost his seat simply because of his vulgarity 
in the House. At least 100 cases can be given 
where the people have silently but most effectively 
stamped the brand of disapproval upon would be 
“ bosses,” political criminals and vulgarians or upon 
dishonest methods or “ gerrymandering.” Country 
people are thinking about political matters more 
than they ever have done before. Old issues are 
dying out and thousands of voters evidently decided 
that this was the best year they could find for voting 
just as their best judgment dictated. 
In the mighty attack upon the record of the last 
Congress, many good men went down who should 
have been saved. The farmers of Wisconsin ought 
to be ashamed of themselves for defeating Gover¬ 
nor Hoard and the Bennett School Law. The farm¬ 
ers in Ohio who defeated Colonel Brigham have 
little cause for congratulation. There are other de 
feats which The R. N.-Y. greatly regrets, but, as a 
whole, we believe the election will prove a very 
wholesome lesson and that its influence upon future 
legislation will ba for good, because it will teach 
parties that the great body of independent voters 
will not submit to arrogant and arbitrary rule. 
THE DIFFERENCE. 
It is unfortunate that the name “chemical fertil¬ 
izer” should be generally accepted as something 
different from “manure.” They are precisely the 
same thing. That is to say, if we desire to answer 
the question, “What is manure?” we must answer 
that it consists of just those constituents which by 
chemists are called nitrogen, sulphuric acid, gyp¬ 
sum, potash, copperas, ammonia, magnesia, silicon, 
etc. If we burn a quantity of straw, grass, wood, 
flesh or any other substance, we have the ash con¬ 
stituents remaining. They are the so called chem¬ 
ical fertilizers, excepting that the nitrogen, carbon, 
oxygen, hydrogen, etc., have escaped in the form 
of gas. If we take a rock and pound it to a very 
fine powder, we have a manure or fertilizer, and its 
value depends upon its content of those materials 
which plants need. We do not consider bone or 
South Carolina rock a chemical fertilizer per se, and 
yet either is, in fact, just as much a chemical fer¬ 
tilizer as is nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, 
muriate or sulphate of potash, for the reason that 
they are valuable as a plant food only as they con¬ 
tain those substances. It is just the same with any 
kind of manure. The essential difference between 
farm manure and chemical fertilizers is that the 
former is bulky, slow to decay, yielding up to 
plants its nourishing elements not until they have 
become soluble by slow combustion. While, too, 
this bulk is decomposing, it exerts a mechanical in¬ 
fluence on the soil, making it lighter, admitting 
more air and moisture to the plants which are 
hungry to avail themselves of either. 
It is with agricultural chemists as with other 
scientific individuals—they are not aware to what 
extent the employment of so called scientific terms 
renders their work Greek to the mass of those they 
seek to instruct. If farmers were at once to under¬ 
stand that chemical fertilizers are merely concen¬ 
trated farm manure , they would not be so prone to 
regard a sufficient understanding of the action of 
these fertilizers as something beyond their compre¬ 
hension without an amount of study which they be 
lieve themselves unable to give to the subject. 
Concentrated manure and farm manure would be 
the better names to give respectively to the waste 
products of the farm, and to those self-same pro¬ 
ducts which are now known only as chemical fer¬ 
tilizers. 
BREVITIES. 
Reuben bought a big stone alter; 
For ttie water of the city 
Sent bis stomach out of ki ter. 
And he thought It was a utty 
To be forced to stop Ills drinking 
On a sultry summer day, 
While his backi.one wa> unlinking 
In i he sun’s most torrid ay. 
Then he emptied In his water 
And he watched it trickle through it. 
And although hehadu’t oiter, 
Being very sure to rue It, 
Down bel<<w the purifier 
Did he put a lump of ice 
Satisfying his desire 
For cold water in a trice. 
But you all gues- how It ended 
Though the water was made curer. 
Yet the le J itseir was blended. 
With some deadly ‘-germs” far surer. 
Than their brothers in the water— 
They were not hurt in the freeze. 
The re tilt was that he caught a 
Touch of active -‘ germ ” oisea-e. 
Now take warning from this tale, sir, 
if y u want to spend your cash, sir. 
In tills manner. I’ll go bail, sir. 
That your plans will gj to smash, • Ir, 
Education is a titter 
Wasteful tilings from life It brings, 
But you'll knock life out of kilter 
If you go to jumping tilings. 
Keep up the fires. 
Cows like cabbage. 
It will be a hard winter. 
The patent system is a tax. 
Cultivate a farmers’ club. 
Begin to fatten the turkey. 
A GOOD roadster makes a road stir. 
It is safe to trust the people to rule themselves. 
The failure of the cider crop may prove a blessing In 
disguise. 
Have any of our readers ever tried the plan of combining 
with their neighbors to hire a doctor t 
The way to advertise a good horse is to drive past the 
man who thinks he “ owns the road.” 
A feature of next week’s paper will be an illustrated 
account of the workings of the new ballot law in the lower 
wards of New York City. 
Attention is called to the article on pig raising on 
page 778. Mr. Theo. Louis is, without doubt, one of the 
best authorities ou swine that we have in the country. 
Reports of The R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potato are uniformly 
good. It seems to succeed almost everywhere. From the 
single little tuber sent out two years ago many of our 
readers have now seven or eight bushels. 
We are very glad to note the successful efforts made by 
Prof. Henry to perfect the course in agriculture at the 
Wisconsin Agricultural College. This course is much like 
that at Cornell, and embraces blacksmithiug, carpenter 
work, wood turning, horticulture, chemistry, stock breed¬ 
ing and feeding, ami dairying. The butter extractor, sev¬ 
eral Kinds of centrifugals, iu fact, all improved con¬ 
veniences and implements may be studied. It is au ex¬ 
cellent course for young farmers. 
