794 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV. 22 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, ) EDtTORS 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, ) 
Rural Publishing Company: 
iniquitous business would be confined almost en¬ 
tirely to the City of New Orleans. But this com¬ 
pany which thus aids this gambling concern to 
evade the United States law by acting as its agent 
is declared by United States Attorney-General Hunt 
to be guilty of violation of the State statutes and to 
be liable to punishment therefor. Since the above 
was written, the Adams has decided to follow the 
example of the United States and refuse this busi¬ 
ness. It looks now as though this nefarious con¬ 
cern would ultimately be driven from its stronghold. 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN 
OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
Too much chicken. 
Then you’ll sicken; 
Too much cranb- rry sauce, 
Comfort vanished. 
You'll be banished 
To your bed. of course 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1S90 
“ Pray Heaven For a Thankful Heart.” 
A long-winded article 
Is not worth a partleie 
Unless the wind blows like a trumpet strong, 
And keeps It up steadily 
And increases readily 
In such event It cannot be too long. 
Fully 300 per cent more new subscribers have 
been added to our list so far this fall than were on 
our books at the same date last year! So the pub¬ 
lisher says. Why! it seems almost like a new 
family. You are welcome, “Dear Reader.” May 
your shadow ever increase! 
Notes from the Rural Grounds give this week 
the results of the third season’s experiments to 
solve the problem whether the fertilizer should be 
placed under or over the seed pieces of potatoes, a 
problem that, it would seem, might well be worked 
upon by the stations. Thus far the question is not 
satisfactorily answered. The average in favor of 
placing the fertilizer over the seed, as will be seen, 
is about 10 bushels to the acre. The experiment 
will be continued. 
Chemist Vooruees, of the New Jersey Experi¬ 
ment Station, having analyzed 31 different brands 
of bone this year, finds that the average valuation 
is $35.42 per ton; while the average selling price is 
but $32.74. With “ complete ” fertilizers it is quite 
different. Not to enter into particulars, which the 
bulletin (No. 74) gives in a plain manner, it appears 
that the nitrogen of the complete fertilizers costs 
about 21 cents per pound, and the phosphoric acid 
10 cents. The same elements in the bone analyzed 
cost about twelve and five cents respectively. 
What do you think about it, farmers? Is it wise 
for you to pay 21 cents for your nitrogen and 10 
cents for your phosphoric acid as in complete fer¬ 
tilizers, or twelve and five cents for the same ma¬ 
terials in ground bone. 
Many people are too prone to be continually 
instituting comparisons between themselves and 
those about them apparently more fortunate than 
they in the matter of wealth, position or other de¬ 
sirable cpnditions. This course inevitably leads to 
dissatisfaction with one’s own surroundings, how¬ 
ever desirable they may be. Not only this, but 
constant brooding over such matters unfits one for 
the labors and duties of life, and leads to a chronic 
state of mind far from desirable. Better far to 
compare one’s condition with that of those not so 
fortunate. Has your potato crop yielded only half 
the usual quantity? Think of the poor laboring 
man who receives no higher wages than he did one 
year ago, but who must pay for his potatoes double 
the price he paid then, while you are receiving full 
price for a half crop. Has your Apple orchard pro¬ 
duced “barely enough for home use?” Think of 
the thousands to whom such a thing as an 
apple is an unattainable luxury. Does the 
scarcity of ready cash compel the wearing 
of that rusty overcoat or threadbare suit another 
winter ? Think of the multitudes who are su¬ 
premely happy to get enough clothes to cover 
them without regard to quality, age, color or previ¬ 
ous occupant. Thank God for the pure water you 
drink, something not to be had for love or money by 
many a city dweller. Be thankful for the free, pure 
air. Nature’s tonic, unknown in narrow streets and 
crowded tenements where millions engage in a 
never-ending struggle to keep their wretched souls 
in still more wretched bodies. Be thankful for the 
quiet life you lead “far from the city’s madding 
crowdfor the intimate association with Nature, 
the great teacher. Think of all the advantages you 
enjoy of which so many are deprived. In short, in¬ 
stead of keeping the mercies of your more fortunate 
neighbors so close to your eyes that they shut out a 
sight of all your own blessings, substitute the things 
you have to be thankful for and see if many of your 
misfortunes are not eclipsed. 
Be thankful II your appetite 
Is good and strong. 
If when Into your food you bite 
The taste lasts long. 
Be thankful for the bloom of health 
Which cash won’t buy; 
Be thankful for the happy heart 
That melts a sigh. 
Be thankful for the pure sweet air 
That won’t rust luniis. 
And try to swallow all the words 
That might burn tongues. 
.Every subscriber to The American 
Garden is presented with a copy of this 
issue of The Rural New-Yorker, to which we in¬ 
vite careful attention. It has been said that The 
Rural New-Yorker is the “only weekly journal of 
horticulture in Americabut we make no such 
claim. We venture the assertion , however , that no 
other farm neivspaper publishes so much original 
matter on horticultural topics in the course of the 
year , while other subjects are in no wise neglected. 
The price of the tiro periodicals, taken together , is 
$3.00 a year. 
It is encouraging to find a strong corporation now 
and then which places principle above mere 
pecuniary gain. When the anti lottery law went 
into effect, thus preventing the Louisiana Lottery 
from scattering its circulars and other literature 
through the mails, it at once asserted that it would 
use the expresss companies for that purpose. This 
it has done. As soon as the officers of the United 
States Express Company noticed the increase of 
business arising from this cause, they at once issued 
orders to all the agents of the company forbidding 
them to receive or forward lottery tickets or adver¬ 
tisements or any packages which they had reasonable 
ground to believe contained such articles or money 
intended for the purchase of lottery tickets. The 
company may perhaps be influenced, to a certain 
extent, to this decision by the fact that an employee 
recently defaulted to a large amount through indul¬ 
gence in this sort of gambling. The Louisiana 
Lottery Company has offered the company large 
amounts of money to do its business, but its offers 
have been refused. The officers of the ex¬ 
press company have, been complimented by 
the Chief Inspector of the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment and many others for the stand taken. 
The Adams Express Company, on the other hand, 
takes the ground that it is none of its business what 
is contained in packages which are offered to it to 
carry, and is to day the mainstay of the lottery. It 
is said that were this company to refuse the lottery 
business as the United States Express has done, the 
Now what ? It is generally conceded that the 
farmers now hold the balance of power in Ameri¬ 
can politics. How will they exercise that power ? 
Answer that question and you reveal the future of 
the farmers’ movement. The student of American 
politics finds some interesting combinations and 
changes, but running through them all, he will find 
that the American people love justice and fairness 
and are sure to resent what they believe to be im¬ 
position and humbug. The “ voice of the people ” 
will drown out all opposition and facilities for 
shouting are improved as time grows. The farmers 
of this country have a noble work to do. With 
them it is a struggle, if not for life, for their full 
opportunity to enjoy life. The government has 
drifted away from its original purpose. Money and 
monied interests rule. Taxation is unequal, chances 
in life are unequal, liberty is unequal, and these 
inequalities have grown from causes which make it 
impossible for old time political leaders to divide on 
the true issue. Capitalists, bondholders, and monied 
men generally, with vast property interests at 
stake, cannot be expected to legislate in the true 
interests of the poor or debtor classes. But legisla¬ 
tion of some sort is needed. Who is to influence it ? 
We say the farmers, who are organizing and 
drilling as they have never done before. 
But—and here the student of history comes in— 
the farmers must he just, conservative and fair, or 
their movement will go to pieces like a rope of sand. 
Time after time parties have “ swept the country ” 
at election and gone to Washington with the mis¬ 
taken idea that because the people put them on 
guard, the people gave them unlimited privilege. 
What a mistake! This assumption led to a policy 
of arrogance, selfishness and political folly and, as 
a result, the party was swept out of office as com¬ 
pletely as it nad been swept in. This has happened 
time after time and it will happen again. The 
people demand reforms and will gladly intrust 
their cause to the party that seems to them pure, 
loyal and honest; but they will drop that party 
like a hot potato if they find the same old mean, 
bigoted, tyrannical spirit that has made them 
despise the old parties. The farmers’ movement 
promises much for America. Let us not let it all 
end in promise. Let it be built on principles so 
fair, broad and strong that all lovers of liberty will 
be attracted to it. 
It is seldom that the Justices of the United States 
Supreme Court come before the public in the line 
of temperance orators, yet the following extract 
from the recent liquor decision may he regarded as 
one of the most powerful temperance sermons ever 
delivered • 
It is urged that, as the liquors are used as a beverage, 
and the injury following them, if taken in excess, is volun¬ 
tarily inflicted and is confined to the party offending, their 
sale should be without restrictions, the contention being 
that what a man shall drink, equally with what he shall 
eat, is not properly matter for legislation. There is in this 
position an assumption of a fact which does not exist, that 
when the liquors are taken in excess the injuries are con¬ 
fined to the party offending. The injury, it is true, first 
falls upon him in his health, which the habit undermines; 
in his morals, which it weakens, and in the self-abasement 
which it creates. But, as it leads to neglect of business 
and waste of property and general demoralization, it affects 
those who are immediately connected with and dependent 
upon him. By the general concurrence of opinion of every 
civilized and Christian community, thei-e are few sources 
of crime and misery to society equal to the dram shop, 
where intoxicating liquors, in small quantities to be drunk 
at the time, are sold indiscriminately to all parties apply¬ 
ing. The statistics of every State show a greater amount 
of crime attributed to this than to any other cause. The 
sale of such liquors in this way has therefore been, at all 
times, considered the proper subject of legislative regula¬ 
tion. For that matter, their sale by the glass may be abso¬ 
lutely prohibited. It is a auestion of public expediency 
and public morality, and not of Federal law. There is no 
inherent right of a citizen to sell intoxicating liquors by 
retail; it is not a privilege of a citizen of the State or a cit¬ 
izen of the United States. In the prohibition or regulation 
of the traffic discretion may be vested in officers to decide 
to whom to grant and to whom to refuse liquor licenses. 
This decision grew out of a California liquor case. 
A retail liquor dealer applied for a license hut was 
refused on the ground that his place was in bad 
repute. Thereupon he sold liquor without a license 
and was arrested. He sued out a writ of habeas 
corpus and was discharged by the court on the 
ground that the ordinance made his business de¬ 
pend upon the arbitrary will of others and denied 
him the equal protection of the laws, the plea being 
that liquor should be considered the same as other 
merchandise. As Ave see, the Supreme Court has 
reversed this decision and now distinctly states that 
no one has an inherent right to sell liquor as he has 
to sell food or clothing. 
BREVITIES. 
I wish I had the power to blow 
Upon the sails of »our lost ship. 
If I count brlug her home, I know 
New hope would reach your eye and lip ; 
Lomr, Iona you’ve walled, planning this 
And that, tor " When my ship comes home! " 
Far. far away the vessel Is 
The winds are weak, she may not come. 
But trust and hope, some happy day 
A ship you little kuow will come 
With peaep for you and you will say, 
“ My ship comes home! My ship comes home !” 
Make a map of your farm. 
Know where your tile drains are. 
Make the acquaintance of yourself. 
Boys, read T. B. Terry’s “ Talk to the Boys,” page 792. 
Does it pay you to use a land roller ? How ? When ? 
Where f 
Have you read all about the broiler business on the 
poultry page ? 
How do you like our Thanksgiving bill-of-fare under 
Woman’s Work f 
There are places in the world where it will pay to raise 
Jerseys for beef or Herefords for milk or Shetland ponies 
for work. 
Come on, ye potato diggers. Chas. E. Clark, of Monroe 
County, N. Y., holds the championship up to date. See 
page 792. Next 1 
Let some enterprising Galloway breeder breed his cattle 
for thick hair and hide. What else is there to take the 
place of Buffalo robes ? 
“ There is no success like success itself.” But the grand¬ 
est successes of wickedness, we should bear in miud, are 
bound to lead to ruin sooner or later. 
To illustrate the beauties of our patent system we may 
state that a patent has been issued for a “ new process ” 
of curing meats, which consists in soaking the meats in a 
solution of soda befere putting them in salt! 
The proposed “ nursery trust” seems to have been given 
up. The promoters did not offer enough for the stock aud 
fixtures of individual nurseries and wanted to pay too 
much in “ shares.” The times are not yet ripe for such a 
“ trust.” 
Tennessee peach pits landed at New England nurseries 
have cost, in former years, about 00 cents per bushel. This 
year there are not enough pits in Tennessee to “go 
around” and, as we have stated, California pits are being 
used. Pits recently sent from California to Connecticut 
cost nearly $3 per bushel, including freight. Too much. 
They must be put here for less than that or there will be 
only an “ off year” demand for them. 
Last year, about this time, our asparagus bed was 
heavily mulched with coarse manure. The result was that 
all the mice and moles from far and near selected this 
sheltered plot for their winter headquarters, much to the 
injury of the plants, many of which were destroyed. A 
better way, we fancy, would be to leave the bed exposed 
until spring when manure or concentrated fertilizers may 
be applied with safety and with benefit to the plants. 
Secretary J. S. Woodward, who begins a series of ar¬ 
ticles on his new “ Lambery ” this week, w’rites us that he 
proposes to try the experiment of feeding steers to make 
beel in competition with the West. While there may not 
be as much profit in it as in early lamb raisiug, he believes 
that with the right class of steers, w’armly housed and 
quietly kept ou a proper combination of foods, there is a 
fair margin of profit besides the manure. “ We are going 
to prove It or lose some money,” he says. 
In the story “The Pie Hunter’s Profit ” last week, a hint 
was given about the number of men employed on the rail¬ 
roads of the country. The statistics of the Inter-State 
Commerce Commission are just at hand, and from 
them we learn that the American railroads give employ¬ 
ment to 704,743 workmen, independent of stockholders, and 
provide a living for 3,000,000 persons ! The railroad hands, 
the expressmen, the mail-carriers and postmasters and 
the workmen in the proposed government storage ware¬ 
houses would make a very good-sized army. 
Your subscription for 1891 wilt be free ( you now being 
a subscriber) If you send us a club of FOUR new sub¬ 
scriptions besides your own, at the club price, $1.50 each. 
