9oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 27 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITOR8. 
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 27, 1890. 
One good thought trains the mind for 
another. 
issues ” will go with it ! Kick it out of American 
politics and the voter will be surprised to see that 
there is about as much difference between the tariff 
of Blaine, Rusk or Garfield and the tariff of Reed 
and McKinley as there is between what is commonly 
held to be the views of “Democrats” and “Repub¬ 
licans.” What we call “the people”—the great 
middle class of citizens, neither the very poor nor 
the very rich—should rule this country. It is our 
privilege to talk to this class of farmers and to 
provide a place for them to talk to each other—to 
put facts before them, without fear or favoritism. 
We are willing to leave the decision to their honest 
judgment. We have always found good farmers 
to be close and accurate reasoners. Their reason¬ 
ings are false only when their facts are distorted. 
We cannot believe that any fair minded man is 
afraid of a fact, especially when he is invited to 
nail that fact down if it is false. Consequently we 
do not expect to bid farewell to many of our old 
friends because of our position on “Farm Politics.” 
If there are any such we can only say, “God bless 
you!” We have nothing to take back and shall 
keep marching straight ahead. 
Last year The R. N.-Y. printed some very inter¬ 
esting figures of the family expenses of farmers in 
different parts of the country. We shall soon begin 
the publication of statements showing the cash 
sales from farms in different States. We feel sure 
that these figures will prove even more interesting 
than the others, besides teaching some very im¬ 
portant lessons in farm business. The first state¬ 
ment, by the way, will come from a farm in Wind 
ham County, Vt., where “abandoned farms” are 
most abundant. 
A simple experiment which farmers might try to 
their benefit is this: After spreading farm manure 
upon the field, say, at the rate of 20 tons to the 
acre, let them on one narrow strip sow bone flour; 
on another, superphosphate; on a third, potash; 
on a fourth, phosphate and potash, thus variously 
supplementing the farm manure. While in favor¬ 
able seasons the manure might be depended upon 
to secure a fair crop, such trials would indicate 
where the soil would profitably respond to the rein¬ 
forcement of the chemical constituents, and thus 
indirectly answer the question what particular 
kind of food it most needed. 
If Senator Stanford’s scheme of loaning govern¬ 
ment money at two per cent with mortgage se 
curity on land should ever become law, the land 
owner would be a man to be courted. He could 
borrow money from the government at two per 
cent, and then turn about and loan it to merchants, 
bankers or manufacturers at six per cent or more. 
Or the great trust and mortgage companies could 
foreclose on the farmers who are now in their debt 
and unable to meet their obligations, and then turn 
about and obtain money from the government 
which they would probably never obtain from the 
farmers who now occupy the land. The farmers 
would then be without land and without money. 
It may be urged that the “legal” rate of interest 
would be sure to fall to the amount charged by the 
government. We doubt it. Certainly it would 
nob with our present methods of doing business. 
The R. N.-Y. subscribers that we have met per¬ 
sonally have seemed to us level headed, practical 
business men. Those with whom we have cor¬ 
responded impress us in the same way. We are, 
therefore, not much surprised at the remarkable 
favor shown towards our department of “Farm 
Politics.” The idea of putting the cause of agricul¬ 
ture above that of party and of discussing National 
legislation as farmers- not as Republicans or Demo¬ 
crats—may be startling at first to old party men, 
but calm and fair reflection leads them to believe 
that there is “ something in it.” There is “ some¬ 
thing in it—there is everything in it or there is 
nothing in it, just as the farmers decide. New 
issues, new measures, new men i»re called for. Are 
farmers generally satisfied and contented ? Are 
taxes increasing or diminishing ? Is the country 
draining moreand more into the city? Is the avail¬ 
able wealth of the land tending more and more into 
the hands of a comparatively small class of citizens? 
Have any classes special privileges in excess of the 
good they do the community? What political party 
at the present time has leaders in Congress who are 
in sympathy with the common people ? Are those 
who make our laws men who fully represent the vast 
majority of common working people or the small 
minority of wealthy men who have succeeded in ac¬ 
cumulating vast fortunes in a quarter of a century? 
No matter how these questions are answered, we 
have a right to ask them, and the public have a 
right to contribute to the answers. Let us be frank, 
fair and straightforward. Let us talk things over 
man to man with the one single purpose in view of 
benefiting and ennobling American agriculture. 
Again, we take occasion to say that some of our 
old friends seem to think that the sole cause of our 
new departure is to make a covert attack upon the 
tariff. Read “Farm Politics” for any three succes¬ 
sive weeks and answer this question yourself. There 
is one tariff that we utterly despise and that we will 
break down, in our columns at least. That is the 
tariff that seeks to shut up “the other side,” to 
freeze out all adverse argument and make special 
pleading take the place of free and fair discussion. 
Down with that “ useless fence ” forever ! When it 
goes down see how many of our present “National 
At the recent meeting of the Farmers’ Alliance 
in Florida no sentiment was more vigorously ap¬ 
plauded than the oft repeated statement that war 
issues and sectional hatred must give way. “ Does 
this mean anything?” Thousands of good farmers 
who do not belong to the Alliance asked themselves 
this question. One of the best answers we can 
print is the following from the Charleston (S. C.) 
News and Courier on the defeat of Senator Wade 
Hampton. 
The war is over in South Carolina. Wade Hampton 
has been discharged from the service of the State to make 
room for a man who was too young to be a “ rebel.” Take 
the old gray coat out of the closet and look at it for the last 
time before It is thrown into the rag-bag—it represented 
something and meant something 20 years ago. Unfold the 
tattered old battle flag, under whose once glorious folds 
you, perchance, followed Hampton into the very jaws of 
death—look at it for the last time, and let the flames con¬ 
sumed. AH these things are hut dust and ashes. Tne agony 
Is over. The Confederate soldier has outlived his days in 
South Carolun. 
Let the memory of no brave deed or valorous 
record on the part of any American soldier die out. 
Let us learn to throw out only the hatred and bitter¬ 
ness and be just and manly enough to reverence 
the bravery of the soldier, no matter where he 
fought. _ 
It used to be my dairy job 
The pans and palls to wash, 
I’d rush them all about the tub 
With wondrous noise and swash ; 
I’d scrub them till they shone like stars, 
But often I'd forget 
To wash the big cloth strainer out, 
I hear the scolding yet. 
” Don’t know no better ? Won’t ye never learn ? 
Wash out ycr strainer or the milk will turn.” 
And as I think the matter o'er, 
’Twas just, I tr ust assert, 
The pans and pails but held the milk 
The strainer held the dirt; 
Good folks who’ve washed your pans the while 
Some simple thing you’ve spurned, 
You have no right to sit and grieve 
Because your milk has turned, 
“ Don’t know no b> tter ? Won tye never learn ? 
Wash out yer strainer or the milk will turn.” 
It is time to call a halt in the free land grabbing 
which has been going on for the past 25 years. 
Time now? It was time 15 years ago. It is time 
now to begin to take away some of the vast tracts 
of land that corporations and aliens have gobbled 
and held for an advance in price. We have in 
preparation a synopsis of the land laws that have 
been enforced since the Revolution; many of them 
if proposed to day would be regarded as little short 
of “revolutionary.” The fact is that the country 
has grown so fast in population and wealth that 
its land laws are not unlike the clothes of a growing 
boy. The boy grows while his clothes shrink. 
“Overproduction” is the result of overfarming: 
not farming too well, but farming too much land. 
Food taken from an Eastern farm represents just so 
much cash that was put into the soil. Shall the 
man who is forced to buy fertility be compelled by 
his government to compete with the man who has 
this fertility given him% We should have better 
farms and better and happier farmers if not a single 
acre of new government land were touched with a 
plow for 10 years to come. Every farmer in the 
country is interested in this matter, and should be 
outspoken in opposition to the present “ free pack¬ 
age ” land policy of the government, as well as to 
the vast irrigation schemes for the redemption of 
the “ arid ” lands. It is time to talk about decreas¬ 
ing expenditures. 
Through all times plaster has been regarded by 
many as a direct and very valuable plant food, es¬ 
pecially for clover. By others it has been regarded 
as of no value for the good reason that no visible 
effects followed its use. In the light of more recent 
knowledge such contradictory phenomena are ap¬ 
parently well explained. Plaster sets the fixed or 
insoluble potash of the soil free. That is to say, the 
sulphuric acid of the plaster combines with the 
fixed potash of the soil, forming sulphate of potash 
which is soluble. So, too, it may act upon the car¬ 
bonate of ammonia of the soil, which is volatile, 
fixing it as sulphate of ammonia, until, as such, it 
is used by the growing crop or passes through the 
soil in the drainage water. In most cases, it is 
probable that the lime of the gypsum has little, if 
any, effect in increasing the crop upon soils which 
are already well supplied with lime, and yet it is 
often upon just such soils that gypsum shows at 
its best. In such soils there is little doubt that 
potash, either in unleached ashes, muriate or sul¬ 
phate of potash, would have a more immediate and 
telling effect upon the crop. In this case the 
needed element (potash) is given to the soil in a 
soluble condition; in the other, the plaster splits 
into two parts, so to say, the lime becoming fixed 
and the sulphuric acid seizing upon the inert 
potash rendering it soluble. It will be seen that 
plaster is therefore what may fairly be called a 
stimulant—an excitant. How greatly soever it 
may increase the crop one season, we may look for 
a proportionate decline the next. 
The R. N.-Y. knows of several instances within 
the past few years where steps have been taken to 
bring suit for the substitution of old varieties of 
potatoes for new and high priced kinds like the 
well remembered case of Rural New-Yorker No. 2 
and Beauty of Beauties. Lawyers always want to 
know what actual proof of difference between two 
varieties can be given, before they will attempt to 
bring suit for damages. We believe there is no 
record of such a suit in American law from which 
a precedent could be taken, but a curious case is 
reported from Scotland. A farmer bought some 
seed potatoes which he understood to be Scotch 
Regents. When he came to dig the crop he found 
a mixed lot of inferior quality. He sued the person 
who sold him the potatoes. Experts viewed the 
crop and then gave testimony—one set swearing 
that the potatoes were Scotch Regents, while 
others swore they were not. At last the judge had 
a load of the potatoes brought to the door, and 
took the experts out and asked them to pick the 
potatoes that were not Scotch Regents. They 
could find only half-a dozen and judgment was 
promptly given to the seed merchant. How many 
varieties in present cultivation are so distinct in 
shape or color that we can positively swear to their 
identity, knowing, as we do, how the potato is in 
fluenced by soil, climate and treatment ? 
BREVITIES. 
Your black coat may be shiny. 
Your rants may bear a patch. 
Your shoes may need the cobbler. 
Your bat look like ” Old Scratch.” 
But if you can’t get better 
Without a step in debt, 
If your heart is unsullied. 
Just hold your head up yet. 
Breed off the briars. 
Suckers suck success. 
Shake an egg, make a dreg. 
Do you need your neighbors? 
Is there a ’‘cat hole ” in your barn door ? 
A MERCIFUL farmer is merciful to his farm. 
Take thiDgs easy while the weather is freezy. 
The frost is crumbling up our fall plowed sod. 
There is good chicken cholera medicine in a sharp axe. 
Feed the dog or he will try to lunch at your neighbor’s. 
Advice to farmers who are threatened with law suits 
for an infringement on a gate patent next week. 
English farmers find hundreds of uses for iron roofings, 
posts, etc. American farmers are just beginning to learn 
some of these uses. 
A MANUFACTURER tells us that the poorest paying Eastern 
farmers are those who are trying to compete with the West 
in growing grain and cattle. 
PUT the refuse corn-stalks from your horse and cow man¬ 
gers over the poultry yards to keep the feet of your poultry 
out of the cold mud and snow in thawing aud rainy 
weather. 
Two weeks ago we spoke of an English farmer who un¬ 
dertook to make a lot of spoiled hay palatable by steaming 
it in quantity. While this hay may have been made more 
" eatable,” the steaming could not add anything to its 
nutritive value. Does it pay to feed poor food anyway ? 
We learn of one or two Alliances in the West that 
will give a pantomime of The R. N.-Y’s. poem, “The 
Farmer Goes Up Head” for a Christmas entertainment. A 
young woman will represent “Miss Columbia,” while 
seven noys will represent the spelling class. A good reader 
outside will read the poem aud the characters will ‘ act 
out” their parts as the reading goes on. 
FARMING in 1940 ! The R. N.-Y. has plenty of subscrib¬ 
ers who can tell us all about the farming of 1840. If their 
memory can jump 50 years, their imagination can make as 
good a record. Some of them are going to tell us, within 
a week or two, what sort of a man they think the Ameri¬ 
can farmer of 1940 will be ! They will give us not only the 
probabilities but the possibilities as well. 
It is reported that a mau in Lockport, N. Y., has in¬ 
vented a process for securing aluminum so cheaply that 
it can be sold for 50 cents per pound or even less. If this is 
true we may safely look for another “industrial revolu¬ 
tion ” within a few years. Cost is the only thing that has 
prevented this light, strong metal from doing much of the 
work now done by the bulkier and heavier wood and steel. 
“ The people ” felt that Abraham Lincoln was one of 
them. In time of trouble or doubt he always had some¬ 
thing to say that inspired courage and confidence. This 
belief in Lincoln’s ability to feel and speak with the com¬ 
mon people is marvelous with younger men who were boys 
during the war. Who doubts that if Lincoln were alive 
to day he would speak words of wisdom that every farmer 
would listen to ? 
The damage done to the Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulip 
ifera) in the woods of thecountry about the Rural Grounds 
by the scale insect, is even greater than hist year. The sev¬ 
eral specimens in the Rural Grounds, including the varie¬ 
gated variety, are repulsive objects with their blackened 
limbs covered with the disgusting scales, which resemble 
so many sores. Unless some natural exterminator of tnese 
insects comes to its aid, the death knell of the N. J. Tulip 
is sounded. 
There can be no use in disguising the fact that the 
“single tax ” theory of Henry George is gradually gaining 
ground among farmers. It was formerly supposed that 
city workmen alone were interested in this matter, but of 
late years many farmers have become interested in it. We 
are informed that at the last election the first avowed ad¬ 
vocate of the “ single tax’* was elected to Congress from 
Ohio. We also have a note from a tax assessor In Massa¬ 
chusetts who is an advocate of the “single tax.” He will 
talk to us in “ Farm Politics ” next week. 
