8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 4 
THE 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
1UK BUSINESS FARMERS' PAVER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1895. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, |2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 854 marks, or 10)4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “Adv.,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of Post- 
office and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in every 
letter. Money orders and bank drafts on New York are the safest 
means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay- 
able THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1896. 
A CHRISTMAS PRESENT 
reached The 11. N.-Y. on the morning’ after Christmas. 
It was a big mail containing more actual subscrip¬ 
tions than we have ever received on any correspond¬ 
ing day—with one exception, when Christmas came 
on Sunday, and the always heavy Monday’s mail was 
combined with that of Tuesday. This Christmas 
present is highly appreciated. We desire to thank 
our friends, one and all, for this evidence of their 
friendship. During 1896 we hope to make 52 substan¬ 
tial returns for it! Thank you ! 
0 
Unless you have such stiff, hard soil that you are 
sure subsoiling is needed, we would advise you to 
take your time and make sure before you do much of 
it. Try part of a field alone and see how it works. 
Be sure to study the advice from the Nebraska Station 
(page 3), and see how easily you can spoil the whole 
thing by doing it wrong. 
0 
One result of a possible war with England would 
be reasonably sure : This country would lose a good 
slice of its foreign trade in cotton, breadstuffs and 
provisions. South America, Australia, India, Russia 
and Egypt are able and willing to feed and clothe 
Europe. While we were fighting, these nations would 
be at work securing that market. It was while 
Americans were fighting among themselves that Eng¬ 
land won our shipping trade. We might win that 
back, but what would it profit the American farmer 
if American ships carried foreign food to Europe ? 
© 
On page 827, we stated that Dr. Jabez Fisher of 
Massachusetts, grew 1,100 bushels of Carman No. 1 
potatoes on three acres of ground. Next week, Dr. 
Fisher will tell us how he did it. This will present 
still another side to the potato discussion. Here we 
shall have an account of how high-priced seed was 
handled in order to give the largest yield to the 
pound. The amount of hand work needed in this 
operation, will frighten some of those Wisconsin 
growers, but readers may judge whether it paid or 
not when they read about it. 
O 
Most persons who have made a study of poultry, 
understand that cross-bred birds are often excellent 
for practical purposes. It is also pretty well under¬ 
stood what crosses are best for early chicks, or good 
layers. With many farmers the practical use of 
crosses ceases to be profitable, because it is carried 
beyond a point where the system will sustain first 
results. Crosses are most excellent for earliness and 
other qualities in the first cross ; but when we breed 
from the crosses, we make an experiment in every 
case, as once the fixed type is crossed, reversion fol¬ 
lows, and we have mongrels. We are told that many 
of our best breeds are the result of judicious crosses. 
Quite true, but they have been carefully selected until 
the type is fixed, and while the ultimate result is most 
satisfactory, the jirocess was not a practically paying 
one, except in the result. The breeds we have are 
good enough, and if we will use them, they will pay ; 
and that is what the practical poultry keeper is after. 
No one in business but wants to make success as as¬ 
sured as possible, and eliminate all things of an ex¬ 
perimental character; therefore we wish fowls that 
will breed true, and perpetuate the qualities we re¬ 
quire. Pure breeds will do this, mongrels and crosses 
will not. if we wish profitable crosses, then we must 
keep pure fowls for that purpose ; but after the first 
cross, no birds or eggs should come near our breeding 
yards. Regarding the qualities of breeds, there is 
much in management and feed. Leghorns can be 
made fat and to sit, and broody breeds, like the 
Cochin, can be made not to sit, and to exceed the 
breed record in eggs. There is a characteristic ten¬ 
dency in all breeds, and handled along that line, they 
will exceed other breeds handled the same, but taken 
“ all around,” there is not so much difference in the 
practical paying qualities as we are often led to sup¬ 
pose. Pure breeds—outside of their breed value—pay 
the best. With eggs and chicks sold at market rates, 
they will exceed mongrels, and above all, of chicks 
hatched, more will produce stock up to a paying 
standard. 
© 
The Short-horn breeders have done a sensible thing 
in preparing to make a separate breeding class for 
such cows of their breed as show marked ability as 
dairy animals. Many Short-liorn cows are good 
milkers ; in fact, you will find traces of Short-horn 
blood in many of the best grade dairies. The breed, 
as a whole, has been developed on beef lines. The 
scale of points, prizes and other incentives to improved 
breeding, have all been in the direction of meat pro¬ 
duction. Naturally, dairy qualities have been made 
secondary. Now it is proposed to breed the best 
dairy animals to a new standard. The result will 
naturally be a big cow with an increased capacity for 
giving milk. This is a wise move, but in what way 
will a dairy Short-horn be a better all-’round cow 
than a Holstein or a large Guernsey or Ayrshire ? 
© 
Congress has been legislating at a lively rate the 
past week. The report of the Secretary of the Treas¬ 
ury plainly shows that some provision must be made 
for raising extra funds for Government purposes, or 
it will be necessary to borrow and thus increase the 
National debt. The President sent a special message 
to Congress urging the passage of some bill that 
would bring financial relief. As a result, the House 
postponed its usual Christmas vacation, and offered 
two bills. One provides for an increase in the tariff 
large enough to provide $40,000,000 extra in revenues, 
and the other authorizes the sale of small bonds at 
three per cent, and the issuing of certificates of indebt¬ 
edness payable in three years. The object of these 
small bonds is to provide a supply of money whenever 
it is needed, and to reduce the rate of interest which 
the Government has paid on former loans. The tariff 
bill puts duties on wool and woolen goods and lumber 
and increases the duties on other articles except sugar 
15 per cent. The tariff bill may pass both Senate 
and House, but the bond bill is likely to fail, since 
the silver men in the Senate are in a position to kill 
it. They object to anything short of the free coinage 
of silver, and this bond bill is not enough of a com¬ 
promise to suit them. 
The business of this country would be on a better 
basis if the mail service in country districts were im¬ 
proved, and fractional currency were again in circu¬ 
lation. Free delivery of the mails in rural districts 
on the plan of city or town delivery, may be a long 
way off, but that is no reason why the Government 
should stand still and not attempt to give the farmer 
any better mail service than he now has. Go into 
neighborhoods where farmers have put in private 
telephone lines and made their own arrangements to 
have mail brought to their doors, and you will read¬ 
ily see the advantage of being brought into closer 
contact with the world. The farmer has not received 
his fair share of benefit from the mail service, and he 
should keep talking about it until he has his rights. 
As to the matter of fractional currency, we believe 
that paper money in sums of less than $1 would be of 
great advantage to many farmers. The Government 
would lose some of its present revenues from sales of 
money orders or for registering letters, but we believe 
that farmers would do an increased money trade by 
mail, especially if, instead of the higher express 
charges, we could have quick mail service at fair 
rates. Fractional currency is but a small fraction of 
the current needs of farmers. 
O 
We had no idea when this controversy as to the 
cost of producing a bushel of potatoes was started, 
that so many interesting and thoughtful ideas would 
be developed from it. Mr. Chapman this week, evolves 
a singular theory about the real value of the plant- 
food taken from the soil in crops. It is a singular 
theory—exactly the opposite of that held by the 
farmers on Long Island and in New Jersey, who use 
a ton of high-priced fertilizer to the acre. They tell 
of the wild herdsmen in Patagonia who live where 
there is no wood for fuel. They will kill a steer, cut 
the meat from the bones, make a fire of the latter, 
and use them to roast their dinner ! That is cheaper 
than it would be to carry other fuel from distant 
points, and the principle is not unlike that employed 
by the farmer who uses no imported fertility, but de¬ 
votes himself to getting out what there is in the soil. 
While Mr. Chapman’s plan may be the best for his 
farm and circumstances, he cannot lay it down as a 
suitable rule for all to follow. The value of such a 
discussion is not in making fixed rules for all to fol¬ 
low, but in leading people to compare their methods 
with others, and thus think out a possible improvement. 
Another side of this matter is the effect of this cheap 
production on the price of farm labor for employer or 
hired man. We shall take that up next. 
© 
According to theory, the cross of a Jersey bull on 
grade Holstein cows, ought to produce a fine dairy 
animal. The theorist would naturally take the 
smaller animal for the sire. Practical experiments, 
however, appear to show that heifers from such a 
cross are usually inferior animals, poorly marked, 
and not first-class for either milk or butter. On the 
other hand, the Holstein bull crossed on Jersey grade 
cows is said to produce a fine animal—larger and 
better colored than the opposite cross, and usually 
giving a large mess of rich milk. This is hardly 
what we have been taught by theoretical breeders, 
but practice seems to have proved that, in crossing 
these breeds, the bull should be of the larger size. 
We would like to have breeders explain this puzzling 
matter. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
I’m sorter house-bound, setting here beside the stove to-day, 
With this ’ere cold ! My wimtnin folks says, “ Pa, you're in the 
way ! ” 
An’ yet, they’re usin’ me first-rate. My wife has baked a pan 
Of that ’ere Injun pudd’n—you may beat it if you can. 
We never was no hands fer pie or pastry of no kind; 
But we can clear more pudd’n up than any crowd you’ll find. 
Two tablespoons of Injun meal—of scalded milk a cup; 
It makes a sort of chicken dough—just mix ’em gently up. 
Then comes another quart of milk—three pints would be a waste— 
An’ then molasses, half a cup, or more to suit the taste; 
An’ then a lump of butter that will fill a tablespoon; 
Then let it bake three solid hours—don’t take it out too soon. 
No eggs, no sugar—nothin’ more in that ’ere recipe— 
’Way back from Plymouth Rock that dish has come right down 
to me. 
An’ when I smell it cookin’ in the oven, I tell you 
That life puts on its reddest paint and covers up the blue. 
Let others stuff on pie and cake—I won’t have naught to say— 
Give me an Injun pudd’n like my wife has cooked to-day. 
A heavy drinker!—the house plant. 
Better enlist under General Principle. 
What gives live stock respect for a fence ? 
What is a “ breed ” but selected mongrels ! 
Impossible ! Wholesome thought without labor ! 
A four-handed man is one that keeps his brains handy. 
Do you know any all ’round man that gets good square wages ? 
If thy bones are lazy, work out the laziness and cast it from 
thee. 
Don’t trust a careless hired man to feed corn meal to dairy 
cows. 
Sugar beets and Alfalfa—a Colorado “ balanced ration,” 
page 2. 
Mighty few by-products from feeding a scrub. They are mostly 
good-bye products ! 
Better buy an old bull with proved daughters than a young 
one with a proved mother. 
A moulting lieu afflicted with mites! There’s a “scratching 
shed” for you that is of no value to agriculture. 
The sheep has an overcoat, but who ever saw him stay out in a 
cold rain to enjoy it when he had access to a dry and warm shed? 
Why not let some of our experiment stations try to cure a 
tuberculous cow by giving her perfect sanitary treatment and 
care ? 
A potato slice will act like spice to the sheep’s dry hay and 
grain ; it is succulence, tastes good, and hence you will find it so 
much gain. 
Does any one know how to make a hen sit when she doesn’t 
want to? In other words, can we coax a hen to incubation against 
her will ? Yes ! 
The best looking Crimson clover we have, was sown with tur¬ 
nips about the middle of July. It is larger than that sown alone, 
or that sown in the corn. 
You may make governments just as “paternal” as you please; 
still the classes that show the most energy and skill in conduct¬ 
ing their business, will come out ahead. 
Good for the man who says that his son shall have a better 
education than he enjoyed; but better for the son who has the in¬ 
sight to realize why his father says that! 
What is a germicide? When a germ goes into boiling water, 
carbolic acid, or certain other substances, that germ commits 
suicide. When the substance is put on to the germ against its 
will, it becomes a germicide. 
Some years ago, prophets told us that ground bone would soon 
be out of reach as a fertilizer—for lack of enough to supply the 
demand for it. It is now cheaper than ever, while twice as much 
is used. How is that ? More of it is saved! —less wasted. 
Planting apples and peaches in the same orchard is like letting 
a big dog and a cat eat out of the same dish. If there is not food 
enough for two—the dog will get it. It answers fairly well when 
there is no need for either to go hungry ; but that orchard must 
be fed. 
Immense quantities of powdered sulphur are used in California 
for insects that infest orchards. In >some orchards of large 
trees, they drive through with a broadcast seed sower, raising a 
dust of sulphur that covers three to five rows of 30-foot-high 
trees at once. 
