846 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 6 
“Rough on Rogues." 
LOOKOUT 
ALMANAC 
LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. 
DECEMBER. 
8 . 
Look out for bogus detectives. 
These gentry are preparing to do 
a good business. Their favorite 
scheme is to advertise for young men to do 
“detective” work. Many young farmers 
think it would be great sport to become de¬ 
tectives. They answer the advertisement 
and each receives a set of circulars which 
inform him that, if he will send $1, or $5, or 
sometimes $10, he will receive his badge 
and will be assigned to work whenever an 
opportunity opens in his locality. He sends 
the money and receives a nickel badge 
worth, perhaps, 20 cents. This he proudly 
pins to his breast and waits for an order 
to do special work. The order never comes. 
His friends of the “ detective agency ” have 
secured his money, and that was all they 
wanted. They are satisfied and he ought 
to be—that he is a silly fellow. Detectives 
are born—not made by wearing a 20 cent 
badge ! Sometimes when a notorious crim¬ 
inal is at large, such “detectives” make a 
good deal of fuss and occasionally not a 
little effort to capture him and obtain any 
reward that may be offered for him. Then 
they engage in a dangerous business, be¬ 
cause they are likely to arrest some inno¬ 
cent party, and having no more right to 
make an arrest than any unofficial neigh¬ 
bor, they are liable to prosecution for false 
arrest or for assault even if they only lay 
their hands on the suspected person. Even 
the regular, bona-fide private detectives 
have to obtain authority from the county 
courts before they can lawfully exercise 
their profession. 
« 
* * 
TnpcHflv You will observe that thisgentle- 
^ man has a very 
9- 
A level head is generally supposed to indi¬ 
cate steadiness and conservatism. Your 
level-headed man never “ slops over,” be¬ 
cause he never permits excitement to stam¬ 
pede him and drive his feelings into waves. 
Rock a bucket of water and it slops over. 
Rock a bucket of meal or bran and it 
clings together. In the same way a level¬ 
headed man does not allow his ideas to tip 
out of his head. But there may be such a 
thing as being too level-headed, too cau¬ 
tious, too conservative, too little influenced 
by emotions. The man in the picture has 
such a head. He looks as though somebody 
had used a flat-iron on his head or else sat 
down on it when the bones were soft. This 
is an abnormal condition. Look out for it. 
Stop at the proper level with your head as 
well as with everything else. Rise above a 
“ dead ” level. 
# 
• * 
WfidnPSdftV L ook outtliat you donotcarry 
® * economy to excess. Some 
IO. people lose their grip on econ¬ 
omy and let it slip into stinginess or ab¬ 
surdity. This note from the Florida 
Agriculturist is not bad as an illustration 
of economical absurdity: “ While we are 
economizing why not practice it a little on 
the mule ? If you ever saw a dog chasing 
a mule, you would observe that when the 
dog came up near the mule’s head, the lat¬ 
ter would point one ear at a charge bay¬ 
onet attitude towards the dog, and if the 
dog took the proffered bait, the mule with 
lightning-like speed of either fore or hind 
feet, would release himself from the dog, 
with an impressive warning more lasting 
than the dog’s life. This is a stratagem 
the mule inherited from his father, and 
one which his father resorted to in his 
warfare with the wolf, grizzly, etc. I often 
see some old mule at a ‘ jog trot,’ with 
his ears going at the rate of 60 seconds 
a minute. If he were brought to a sudden 
halt, and not allowed to move a leg joint, 
but compelled to keep up the same rapid 
motion of his ears for six consecutive hours, 
he would be so tired that he would prefer 
lying down and resting to eating clover. 
When I take into consideration the vermin, 
insects, etc., that continually prey upon the 
mule’s ears, I am only the more convinced 
that I could take the food that it now 
takes to grow a mule, and feed it to one 
with his ears pruned, and either make a 
larger mule or have a surplus of food when 
I got him grown.” 
* 
* * 
Thursday kook out y° u know what 
J you are doing when you try to 
1 I • put a new machine together 
and work it. Lots of good and useful im¬ 
plements are condemned as worthless sim¬ 
ply because the people who tried to handle 
them did not know what they were up to. 
Some friends of the writer undertook to 
put a potato planter together. They came 
back saying that something must be wrong 
because the pieces of potato would not 
come out.—“some bolt was lost!” Very 
intelligent men they were, too. What do 
you suppose was wrong ? They had put 
the seed pieces in the box where the fertil¬ 
izer should have gone. No wonder it 
wouldn’t “ work.” A good many useful 
machines are condemned because of just 
such things. Be alive when you put a new 
machine together. The directions are gen¬ 
erally plain enough if you study them care¬ 
fully. Manufacturers of some machines, 
however, might easily make their descrip¬ 
tions more understandable. 
most reliable banks in the country, too. 
Many poor people—nearly all Italians— 
had small sums of money in it and they 
got hold of the idea that their money was 
in danger, so they organized a “run” and 
came in hundreds to get their money. They 
made a line nearly half a mile long. The 
bank was “ all right ” and the authorities 
examined it, but these Italians would not 
be satisfied because a lot of scamps of law¬ 
yers and speculators got among them and 
frightened them for the purpose of getting 
a share of their money. For instance, these 
speculators offered to buy the bank books 
at 25 per cent, discount, and many of the 
poor people did sell their books in this way. 
It was a fraud, of course, but there are lots 
of frauds among us who are playing the 
same game only on a much larger scale. 
This is a cut-throat age. The annual inter¬ 
est on their money was nearly due, but 
this was payable only on condition that 
they did not withdraw it until the end of 
the year, and having violated this proviso, 
they lost the interest. After the collapse 
of the scare, many of them returned and 
again deposited their money, and besought 
the officers to allow them the forfeited in¬ 
terest ; but the request was promptly 
refused. 
milk, and milk rules low in price. No 
doubt the consumer pays just as much for 
it; while the difference will go into the 
middlemen’s pockets.” That’s so, and yet 
whistling is good for a man’s “spirits.” 
It’s a relief and a stimulant. Look out 
that you can add what this same friend 
does: “ But we are not utterly discouraged 
or cast down, for when we ‘ count our mer¬ 
cies ’ we find a good balance on the right 
side.” 
* * 
Look out that you are not too 
easily frightened about money 
matters. There was a “run” on 
a bank in this city last week—one of the 
Friday 
I 2. 
Saturday kook out for that chap playing 
^ the game of changing sawdust 
* 3- into grain by a " new process.” 
We told about him some weeks ago. He 
will circle about through the country, sure 
that the high prices now asked for grain 
will induce some silly farmer to believe bis 
story. Grain is high—higher than it ought 
to be even with the “short crop.” Just as 
one of our friends writes : “ It will make 
farmers whistle to pay their feed bills this 
winter and spring for the production of 
There seems to be a general belief that 
the new tariff on eggs will stimulate the 
poultry business in the Northern and 
Eastern States. Poultry breeders look for 
large sales of eggs and fowls for breeding 
purposes next spring. The McKinley Bill 
can never put a tariff on lice and cold. 
Kerosene and tarred paper are more useful 
for this purpose. 
PijsccUancims §Mucrti$'ing. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
CHEAPER AND BETTER THAN PAINT. 
ASrJ F ‘H°Tt l - 
A • Beach 
'I _ Va.' 
©Aucmt __ J 
CABOT’S CREOSOTE SHINGLE STAINS. 
Can be applied by any boy. 
Send 6 cents in stamps for samples on wood and 
illustrated catalogue of c-eosoted houses. 
SAMUEL CABOT, Sole Manufacturer, 
711 KILBY STREET, BOSTON. 
ANOTHER HAND-BOOK FOR THE RURAL-GARDEN FAMILY. 
NOVEIi—CONCISE—PR ACTICAL. 
THE NURSERY BOOK. 
A Complete Hand-Book of Propagation and Pollination. By L. H. Bailey. Uniform in Size and Style with 
Rule-Book of 189 1 Edition Profusely Illustrated. 
T HIS valuable little manual has been compiled at great pains. The author has had 
unusual facilities for its preparation, having been aided by many experts in 
many directions. The book is absolutely devoid of theory and speculation. It 
has nothing todo with plant physiology, nor with any abstruse reasons of plant growth. 
It simply tells plaiuly and briefly wbat every one who sows a seed, makes a cutting, 
sets a graft, or crosses a flower wants to know. It Is entirely new and original in 
method and matter. The cuts number almost 100, and are made especially for it, direct 
from nature. The book treats of all kinds of cultivated plants, fruits, vegetables 
greenhouse plants, hardy herbs, ornamental trees and shrubs and forest trees. 
CONTENTS. 
Chapter I.—Seedage. 
Chapter II.—Separation and Division. 
Chapter III.—Layerage. 
Chapter IV.—Cuttage. 
Chapter V.-Grnftnge. Including Grafting, Budding, Inarching, etc. 
Chnpter VI.—Nursery List 
Tnis is the great feature of the book. It is an alphabetical list of all kinds of 
plants, with a short statement telling which of the operations described in the flrst 
flve chapters are employed in propagating them. Over 2,000 entries are made In 
he list. The following entries will give an Idea of the method : 
ACER (Maple). Sapindacece. Stocks are grown from stratified seeds, which should 
be sown an inch or two deep; or some species, as A dasycarpum, come readily 
if seeds are simply sown as soon as ripe. Some cultural varieties are layered, 
but better plants are obtained by grafting. Varieties of native species are 
worked upon common or native stocks. The Japanese sorts are winter- 
worked upon imported A polymorphum stocks, either by whip or veneer- 
grafting. Maples can also be budded In summer, and they grow readily from 
cuttings of both ripe and soft wood. 
PHVLl.OCACTUS. PHYLLOCEREUS. DISOCACTUS (Leaf Cactus). Cactecr. 
Fresh seeds grow readily. Sow in rather sandy soil, which is well drained, 
and apply water as for common seeds. When the seedlings appear, remove 
to a light position. Cuttings from mature shoots, three to six Inches in length, 
root readily in sharp sand. Give a temperature of about (SO degrees, and apply 
only sufficient water to keep from flagging. If the cuttings are very Juicy, 
they may he laid on dry sand for several days before planting. 
UOOSEBER R Y. Seeds, for the raising of new varieties, should he sown as soon as 
well cured, in loamy or sandy soil, or thev may be stratified and sown 
together with tho sand in ttie spring. Cuttings, ti to 8 inches long, of the 
mature wood, Inserted two thirds their leug'h, usually grow reaiily, 
especially if taken in August or September and stored (luring winter. 
Stronger plants are usually obtained by layers, and tho English varieties are 
nearly always layered In tills country. Mound-layering Is usually employed, 
the English varieties being allowed to remain In layerage two years, nut the 
American varieties only one (Fig. 27). Layered plants are usually set in 
nurserv rows for a year after removal from the stools. Green-layering during 
summer Is sometimes practiced for new or rare varieties. 
Chapter VII.—Pollination. 
This hook is now completed, and It will be on sale promptly by January 1st. 
A FLOWER OF “ NICOT1ANA AFFINE,” AND ONE PREPARED FOR POLLINATION 
Price, in library style, cloth, wide margins, $1.00; Pocket style, 
paper, narrow margins, 50 cents. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
COVERED LAYER OF VIBURNUM. 
Will be ready for mailing in December. Orders filled consecutively as leceived. 
