88o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
DEC. 20 
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, DECEMBER 20, 1890. 
The London Live Stock Journal, which is making 
the most of every rumor regarding cattle diseases 
in this country, has the following to say: 
“ Another incident that calls for explanation is the 
silence that has been observed concerning the 
alleged case of pleuro pneumonia in New Jersey. 
This was reported in the Rural New-Yorker, a 
thoroughly reliable paper, but we have seen no 
further notice of it in the American press.” Cer¬ 
tainly. Nothing more was said about it because 
there was nothing to say. The diseased cattle were 
discovered and promptly slaughtered. What more 
is there to say about them? Our friend may rest 
assured that American cattlemen are far more 
anxious to discover and kill all ailing cattle than 
the English papers ever can be. What is more, we 
are stamping out the disease a good deal faster than 
they are manufacturing new “ outbreaks.” 
You are not a money-making machine by 
nature. 
When I was a bay on my grardfathor's farm, 
I got In the hahlt of ‘making a face ” 
To show my dlspUasure-Grandmother's alarm. 
As she pointed at me was awful to trace. 
Don’t make up a face! Don’t make up a face ! 
S’pose it should fre ze so, then -what a disgrace ! 
I looked at myself in the mirror one day. 
Ami made up the very worst “ face” I could screw. 
The sight of it drove all my pleasure away, 
The old lacy’s wanting just frightened me through. 
Don't make uo a face! Don't make up a face! 
S'pose It should freeze so, then what a disgrace ! 
Now heed ye the warning, ye people who say 
Keen things that are spiteful and think you are smart 
Suppose they should rankle and sting us alway, 
And .ton lose control of them after they start ? 
Don't make up a face! Don’t make up a face! 
S’pose It should freeze so, then what a disgrace! 
The best evidence of holidays wisely spent will 
be given on the morning of January second. A 
bright head and a light heart, or a dull head and a 
heavy heart will tell the story. There is little sat¬ 
isfaction in wishing a “Happy New Year!” to a 
man that, from holiday excesses, is inclined to wish 
that he had never been born. 
It is a pity that there should not be a practical 
way by which hungry land might enter into and be 
the recipient of the good things that the holidays 
dispense so freely. The relations between the jolly 
season and worn-out lands and deserted farms are 
somewhat close and interdependent, though we are 
not wont to consider them very attentively just now. 
One of the most interesting topics we have for 
future discussion is that of the situation of a young 
dairy farmer in Pennsylvania. His milk business 
does not pay as it should, and he has serious 
thoughts of making a desperate plunge—selling all 
his cows, growing grain, straw, hay and potatoes, 
and depending entirely upon chemical fertilizers 
and city stable manure with green manuring. 
Will it pay him? Hundreds of men are debating 
the same question, and we mean to put all the facts 
before them. Let all hands be well defended—the 
cows, the bull, the farm chemical fertilizers and 
the hired man. 
Urine is a poorly balanced manure because it is 
weak in phosphoric acid. It has been suggested 
that if we could use some phosphatic substance, like 
“floats” or finely ground phosphate rock, as an 
absorbent, we could save the liquid manure, and 
add the needed amount of phosphoric acid—kill 
two birds with one rock, so to speak. Mr. Bowker 
tells us that this has proved a failure in his experi¬ 
ments, for the reason that the rock contained too 
much carbonate of lime, which acted to free the 
ammonia ; so that while an addition of phos¬ 
phoric acid was secured, it was made only at the 
expense of the far more valuable ammonia. 
A Pennsylvania friend sends us this note: 
“ When next the spirit moves The Rural to take 
the farmer to task for permitting the best speci¬ 
mens of his fruit and other products to gravitate 
to the outside, let it look around and see if it can 
find any editorial brethren who are sometimes in 
the habit of sending the finest issues of their paper 
as specimens to prospective subscribers.” The R. 
N.-Y. does not recognize the word “ finest ” at all. 
We aim to put into each issue of the paper the best 
work and thought we can muster. We have al¬ 
ways said that the only fair way to judge a paper 
is to take it for 10 weeks—start anywhere. No 
man can issue 10 “ finest numbers” in succession. 
The R. N.-Y. tries to make itself grow from week 
to week. 
One of our Wisconsin friends sends us the follow¬ 
ing note: “The millers in this State refuse to 
grind Japanese Buckwheat because, they say, it 
makes bitter flour. Do the millers of the Eastern 
States grind it? Does it make good flour else¬ 
where ? ” The writer used considerable flour made 
from Japanese Buckwheat last year, and gave it a 
careful test by the side of other reliable brands. It 
was voted first class in all respects, being, to his 
taste, fully equal to any of the samples tested. 
Some millers in New York State use the Japanese 
Buckwheat, while others follow the example of 
these Wisconsin millers. We do not believe their 
action is justifiable. It seems to use like the action 
of the Michigan millers towards Clawson Wheat 
when that variety was first grown. What is there 
about Japanese Buckwheat that will make bitter 
flour ? Let some of our experts tell us. 
The Farmers 1 Alliance is not at all a unit on the 
proposed Sub-Treasury scheme. One section hotly 
indorses the measure, while another condemns it as 
“class legislation,” granting special privileges to 
the farmer which are denied to other workers. 
One thing was clearly brought out at the recent 
Alliance convention—the Sub-Treasury plan is 
merely a part of the general financial scheme which 
the Alliance wishes to substitute for our national 
banking system. As is well known, the Alliance 
wishes to do away with national banks and issue 
money directly to the people. But if the banks are 
abolished, how can the money be brought into cir¬ 
culation? Through the warehouses proposed by the 
Sub-Treasury bill, the government would issue 
money in exchange for the products which the 
farmer would have to store. The government 
would thus take the place of middleman and 
banker and, as the Alliance fondly hopes, wipe out 
the extortionate profits of the money-lender and 
the speculator. There is one thing about this 
scheme that must be admitted by its most ardent 
supporters: it is entirely an experiment. No one 
can tell just how it would work. One can guess at 
it or tell what it would probably do, but that is all. 
The American people would never be willing to ex¬ 
periment on a large scale with a plan that has in it 
such possibilities for failure. 
Just at present is a good time to biiy, but a poor 
time to sell ? Why? Because the “ stringency in 
the money market ” diminishes the amount of cash 
available for buying and selling goods, for paying 
taxes and debts and making settlements. In ordin¬ 
ary times men can do a “ paper ” business, without 
handling large amounts of cash, but when the 
amount of cash becomes limited people become un¬ 
easy and refuse to accept “ paper ” until they are 
convinced that there is plenty of cash back of it.Then 
people are obliged to sell “securities,” notes, live 
stock, land or other property that represent actual 
cash value. But in these forced sales the price is de¬ 
termined by the buyer and not by the seller. The 
holder of securities must let them go for what the 
buyer will pay or for what his cash necessities 
force him to accept. The intrinsic value of the 
securities- is not affected. When cash once more 
becomes plentiful the market price rises and a 
profit is made. The man who always has a little 
cash ahead is great. The difference between the 
cash price and credit price of any article may rep¬ 
resent the difference between a bank account and 
a bank debt. Another point in this connection is 
the fact that for the reasons given above, now is 
the most profitable time to buy farm property. 
City men who desire to obtain farms will never 
find a better time than the present to buy them. 
The Cherokee Strip or Outlet is an oblong tract 
of land containing 6,022,244 acres north of the In¬ 
dian Territory and south of Kansas. Prior to 1888, 
it was leased from the Indians for a nominal rent 
by the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association, 
which sublet grazing privileges to a number of 
cattle kings and syndicates. Since then the Asso¬ 
ciation has occupied the land in a high handed way 
without any valid title, and over 500,000 of its 
cattle are still reported to be in the territory, de¬ 
spite the President’s proclamation ordering their 
expulsion not later than last October. Indeed, it is 
very doubtful whether the Indians ever had any 
right to even lease the territory without the con¬ 
sent of the government, and that has never been 
granted. The treaty of 1828 ceded the tract to the 
Cherokees in perpetuity as an outlet to the buffalo 
ranges west of the 100th meridian, but it was never 
conveyed to them in fee simple. Now that the 
buffalo has disappeared and the Indians have other 
means of subsistence, the object for which the 
grant was made has ceased to exist. The Cherokee 
Strip Association, however, appears determined to 
acquire the ownership of it. It first offered $2,000,- 
000 to the Indians for it, then raised the bid to 
$10,000,000, and finally to $20,000,000. It is reported 
that English capitalists are to be invited to invest 
in the land. The country, however, is wanted for 
white settlers, and they should have it. It is 
splendidly adapted for grazing, and at small expense 
for irrigation its fertile plains could be converted 
into rich farms. Indeed the valleys of the Cimar¬ 
ron and the Salt Fork of the Arkansas are suscept¬ 
ible of a high degree of cultivation without the aid 
of artificial water channels. Good public land fit for 
agriculture is already very scarce. The Western 
pioneers urgently demand that this territory shall 
be thrown open to settlement, and are not likely to 
view with patient toleration the efforts of a syndi¬ 
cate of earth-grabbers to gain possession of it. The 
government should lose no time to abate whatever 
claims the Indians may have to it, and annex it to 
Oklahoma for settlement. Under no circumstances 
should it be permitted to fall into the hands of a 
speculative syndicate, native or foreign. 
Two years ago Benjamin R. Tillman was an ener¬ 
getic but unknown farmer; to day he is the best 
known State Governor in the Union, and though 
his policy is bitterly opposed by a strong minority 
in his own State and in some points strongly dis¬ 
approved by a large proportion of the people 
throughout the country, still the general drift of 
opinion is that if he is a fair specimen of the stuff 
the farmers can supply for governors, it would be 
well for the country if more use were made 
of it. Some of the chief points of his inau¬ 
gural must meet with general commendation. 
Lynch law, which has been a disgrace to the State, 
especially as colored people were almost its exclu¬ 
sive victims, must cease, even if to accomplish this 
end every sheriff in the State must be removed. 
The law’s delay must stop; one fair, speedy trial 
must end each case. “Tax-dodgers,” corporate 
and others, must be made to contribute their full 
share to the burdens of the State. The State mili¬ 
tary school must be abolished, and the appropria¬ 
tion for it used for a girls’ school, which shall teach 
useful arts and eschew ornamental accomplish¬ 
ments. There is a praiseworthy ring of sound com¬ 
mon sense in his recommendations, and with a four- 
fifths majority of the legislature behind him, the 
Farmer Governor of South Carolina will doubtless 
be able to secure legislation in favor of his sugges¬ 
tions. 
We could fill an entire issue of The R. N.-Y. 
with the letters of those who write commending 
our plan for conducting “Farm Politics.” There 
are plenty of people who do not indorse state¬ 
ments they have seen in that department; but all 
seem to agree that a fair and candid discussion of 
National legislation as it affects agriculture, can¬ 
not help being of great advantage. Many other 
papers have started such departments; but their 
discussions seem to be more or less cramped. One 
is the organ of some farmers’ association, while 
another either has some personal grievance to fight 
for or is so firmly welded to some special idea or 
party that it cannot be just and fair to all. The 
R. N.-Y. puts the cause of agriculture above party. 
At the same time it fully understands the strength 
of party ties and the difficulties men of mature age 
experience in believing their party capable of 
wrong. We shall open this page wide to all men 
who will discuss political affairs as they relate to 
farmers. We realize that great industrial changes 
are going on and that farmers are full of discontent 
and unrest. What is needed to restore confidence 
and prosperity ? New legislation or a correction of 
old legislation ? Higher intelligence or better busi¬ 
ness ability ? These are the things we want to find 
out, and for this reason we invite farmers of all 
parties and sections as well as of all organizations 
and creeds to come together and “talk it over,” 
dropping party, creed, sectional or society feeling 
in an effort to learn what is best for the American 
farmer. 
BREVITIES. 
If you'd turn the farmers’ movement 
At the crossroads to the right. 
Up the road that leads lo freedom. 
Past the paih that ends In night, 
I would frame this simple platform, 
To be pasted In your hat. 
Now the big procession’s started, 
Keep her moving—to do that 
Keep vour head cool, 
Keep your head cool, 
Don’t slop over. 
Don’t act the fool. 
Why not halter-break the rani ? 
Where shall we go for potash ? 
Are you a book-keeping farmer ? 
Who rides on ignorance rides a mule. 
When the shoe pinches an error clinches. 
Do bees need a bounty to make them take more honey ? 
Put a fair estimate on the value of the fun you get out 
o#.14fe. 
Dio the phosphoric acid out of your head. It is worth 
$1,000,000 per ton in making plans for next year’s work. 
Notice that we begin on page 891, a series of articles by 
The R. N.-Y.’s favorite contributor, Mrs. Mary Wager- 
Fisher. 
The revolution iu South Carolina is complete. Senator 
Hampton has been defeated for the Senate by a man un¬ 
known to the country at large. 
Lawyers like litigation. Doctors desire disease. Rail¬ 
roads require raised rates. Saloons seek soul-sellers. 
Farmers nud feeding fussy factory folks funereal fun. 
Here we have the Director of the Iowa Station telling 
us that he hauled 420 loads of manure last winter from 
town for use on the station farm. There is a bottom then 
to Iowa soil ? 
We hope some of our readers are trying the plan of 
keeping the hen manure wet. We have described the 
process several times. There is ammonia in this process. 
Ammonia is but another name for cash. 
A PRIVATE letter from Mississippi informs us that farm¬ 
ers are selling their half crop of cotton at cents—a 
lower price than last year. Will cotton cloth bo cheaper 
in consequence of this drop in price of the raw product ? 
Who gets the difference then f 
The R. N.-Y. learns that the Farmers’ Alliance at its 
next meeting in February will declare a “boycott” against 
all papers that do not support its views. This will be an 
unwise and foolish proceeding. The “boycott” is a danger¬ 
ous weapon—dangerous for the handler. 
2135. Jf that number, 2135, appears on your address 
label, it indicates that your subscription expires with 
the last number of this year. Have you renewed yet ? 
