24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 11 
THE 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. Copyrighted 1805. 
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 8J4 marks, or 10{4 francs. 
ADVERTISING KATES. 
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- 
oflice 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 11, 1896. 
BOOKS GIVEN AWAY! 
The following books are all first-class—the best of 
anything in their line : 
Cloth. Price. 
The Nursery Book. “ $1.00 
First Lessons in Agriculture. “ 1.00 
American Grape Training. “ .75 
The New Potato Culture. “ .75 
The Business Hen. “ .75 
Do you want your choice of these books ? Send us 
one new subscription (not your own), with one dollar, 
and we will send you, prepaid any one of the above 
five books you see fit to pick out. Can you possibly 
obtain better pay for doing your neighbor the favor 
and kindness of introducing him to 868 pages of good 
reading matter ? No! You take the book, your 
neighbor takes the paper, and we take the dollar. 
You pull the wires that produce this result. 
© 
It will take some little time to decide that portable 
fence contest. A great many designs have been sent, 
and it is a problem to decide which is “best.” It is 
surprising to learn how many of such fences or 
hurdles are in use, and we are all likely to know more 
about it when the designs are printed than we ever 
did before. 
O 
We find that a good many of our readers have been 
draining muck swamps this past year—which were 
plowed and harrowed last fall. Now they want to 
know the best crops to start the swamp cultivation with. 
We want help in this matter. Who can tell us what 
crops are surest on these newly-plowed swamps ? 
Please give us leave to use a leaf of your experience. 
0 
A new fraud is reported at work in southern New 
Jersey. He sells cheap groceries, and promises to 
take eggs in payment—at 30 cents a dozen. Just as a 
matter of “good faith,” the faimer signs a note for 
the groceries, and the “ agent” signs a note for 
the eggs. The hens lay the eggs,but they decay long 
before they are called for by the groceryman. The 
agent’s note becomes yellow with age, but the farmer’s 
note turns up at the bank for payment. Do not sign 
anything for a stranger. 
© 
Dr. E. H. Jenkins, of the Connecticut Station, 
states in his report for 1895, that the low prices for 
cotton seed meal and dissolved phosphate rock, in¬ 
duced many farmers to use these substances with 
muriate of potash to mix their own fertilizers. In 
spite of various objections, these mixtures have given 
fairly good results. The nitrogen in the cotton-seed 
meal is more readily available than that in either fish 
or tankage. In some cases, the addition of a small 
amount of nitrate of soda helped the mixture by 
supplying nitrogen that was immediately available. 
There were some complaints that the mixture caked 
and would not run freely through the drill; but this 
difficulty was overcome by adding 400 pounds of dry 
and rather coarse raw bone. A simple mixture of 800 
pounds cotton-seed meal, 800 of dissolved rock, and 
400 of muriate of potash gave a fertilizer analyzing 
three per cent of nitrogen, eight of phosphoric acid, 
and seven of potash. A better mixture would be made 
of 300 pounds nitrate of soda, 600 pounds cotton-seed 
meal, 700 of dissolved rock and 400 of muriate of 
potash. The point is that there are often times when 
nitrogen in cotton-seed meal is considerably cheaper 
than in tankage, blood or ground fish. The object of 
home mixing being to save money, of course, it is 
necessary for the farmer to know where to buy 
his plant food cheapest. The chances now are that 
cotton-seed meal will be higher in price. 
O 
We wish to call special attention to Bulletin 94 of 
the Geneva, N. Y., Station. It is a pamphlet of over 
130 pages, and deals with the science of feeding plants, 
and the composition and use of fertilizers. It is the 
most comprehensive thing of the sort that has yet 
been issued by our experiment stations. It is well 
worth the study of any one who is interested in grow¬ 
ing a good crop, because it gives the principles of 
plant feeding in a simple way and in such form that 
it makes an excellent reference book. You should 
have it in your farm library. If you haven't a farm 
library, start one with this bulletin. It will make 
a fine starter. 
© 
Dr. Fisher, page 18, gives us an interesting state¬ 
ment about his potato crop. The most suggestive 
thing about it is the care that was taken in selecting 
and preparing the seed. The object was to make each 
sprout do its full duty. What a contrast between that 
method and the plan followed by some farmers. Take 
a piece of a little tuber picked at random out of a bin, 
with a thin, pale sprout six inches long, and put it by 
the side of one of the seed pieces prepared by Dr. 
Fisher. It is like comparing a poor little hunched-up 
scrub bull with a vigorous and healthy grandson of 
Stoke Pogis. Who will be weak enough to argue that 
the selected and trained seed will not produce the 
more vigorous plant ? Don’t waste a part of your 
crop on poor seed ! 
© 
New York is not the only city that is cursed with 
bogus commission merchants. A few months ago, a 
man giving the name of John E. Martin, opened a 
store in Newark, N. J., deposited a few hundred dol¬ 
lars in bank, and flooded the country with circulars 
soliciting shipments of produce. lie did a rushing 
business, securing such large consignments by the 
old, familiar methods—quotations higher than those 
made by legitimate dealers. Suddenly, one day, the 
store was closed, and large numbers of confiding 
shippers were out of pocket to the extent of their 
shipments. Some of them had received good, even 
high, prices for their first small consignments, but 
larger, subsequent shipments were unaccounted for. 
Some of them lost hundreds of dollars’ worth of 
goods. The moral is plain. 
© 
This discussion about the cost of a bushel of potatoes 
has stirred up so much excitement, that we hardly 
know whether or not to go on and get figures about 
the cost of an egg or a pound of butter. One thing 
we would like to know is, whether on these large 
poultry farms like that of Mr. Mapes, an egg costs 
less money to produce than in the average farm flock 
of 50 hens. We would like to know the relative cost 
of wholesale and retail egg production. There is one 
thing about a hen that the farmer does not always 
consider. She eats up odds and ends or sinti 11 lots of 
grain which would not otherwise be sold. The cash 
value of the egg is recognized, while much of the food 
that produces it would never have been sold. Thus 
it is hard to tell just what an egg or a pound of pork 
costs, because the hog and the hen give new values 
to unsalable products, and do it quickly. 
© 
The railroads clearly got the worst of it in the hear¬ 
ing about milk rates before the Inter-State Commerce 
Commission. They now propose to set farmer against 
farmer by telling the long-distance shippers that the 
nearby milkmen will monopolize the market if rates 
are graded by distance. A good many milkmen in 
the interior are signing petitions in favor of a uni¬ 
form rate, because they think that this will give them 
some sort of protection against the milkmen of Orange 
County and vicinity. They should see that there are 
two sides to this, for if the rate be uniform, the rail¬ 
roads are at liberty to go still further back for cheaper 
milk. So that while “protecting” themselves from 
milkmen between them and the city, they give an ad¬ 
vantage to those behind them ! There is a good deal 
more in this question than appears at first thought, 
for the decision will establish a precedent that will 
be far reaching in its effect. In any event, the farmer 
should pay his own freight. 
© 
The writer of this note purchased of a commission 
merchant some butter put up in one-pound prints, 
and nicely wrapped in parchment paper. It came 
from Ohio, was put up in attractive shape, and was 
supposed to be first-class butter—but it wasn’t. Of 
the same man, some roll butter was purchased. This 
came in a barrel. The rolls were of all shapes and 
sizes, some of them covered with artistic designs, and 
each roll was wrapped in a little square of white 
cloth. It was a mixed, miscellaneous lot, of all shades 
of color. Some of it was good butter—most of it was 
miserable stuff. But a couple of rolls were sorted 
out, that were of as good quality as the print butter ; 
but the price of one pound of the print butter paid 
for two pounds of the other. The milk from which 
the latter was made might not have been of quite so 
good quality as the other, but we don’t believe that 
there was the same difference as in the price. The 
way in which the butter was put up and packed made 
a big difference in price, however. 
© 
Here is a note from a subscriber in New York State. 
We get a good many like it during the winter season: 
My neighbor’s cows have a habit of gnawing his barnyard fences 
when they are let out during the day. Can you suggest any 
remedy ? 
In order to suggest a remedy, it is necessary to 
know more about the cause. If this gnawing is due 
simply to a bad habit, we would put barbed wire in 
place of the rails, and give the cows some corn stalks 
or straw to work over while they are outside. This 
would keep them out of mischief. If the cattle, as is 
most likely, gnaw the wood because they are diseased 
by improper feeding or some digestive trouble they 
must be cured. Possibly they want salt. If so, 
see that they have rock salt before them all the time, 
or are salted regularly once a week. Feed bran or 
oil meal in preference to corn meal. Make a “con¬ 
dition powder” by mixing two pounds sulphate of 
soda, one-half pound powdered nux vomica, and 100 
grains of arsenic. Mix them thoroughly and divide 
into 50 doses, giving one dose to each cow daily on 
her feed. Keep the cows in a laxative condition, and 
card them regularly if possible. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
MRS. LEGHORN HEN TO MR. SQUIRREL. 
I laughed at you when, all day long, I saw, 
How you with ceaseless toil laid nuts in store ; 
Now, fat and warm, your well-earned food you gnaw, 
While I am starved and frozen to the core. 
You, with the instinct of wild creatures knew 
That man is selfish—I, poor trusting fool, 
Lined his egg basket—now winds whistle through 
My fondest hopes and here I sadly cool 
My comb—unfed, uncared for, in disgrace. 
With nerveless feathers drooping, while that wretch 
Growls “hens don’t lay” beside his warm fire place, 
And curses me between each lazy stretch. 
Oh, squirrel ! Had I only learned your trick, 
And through the summer hours laid by a store 
Of food, I would not stand here cold and sick, 
With eggless nest and soul and body sore. 
Had I but served myself with half the zeal, 
That I have served my master—who can say 
That I would now the pangs of hunger feel 
And pass in wretchedness this New Year’s Day ? 
Knock doubt out! 
Fix, not mix your thoughts. 
Bakers like eggs with dark yolks. 
Don’t let an a get into your week days ! 
“ A dollar book for a new subscription 1” 
Never can be too good for seed—potatoes! 
Advice to the white-haired man—never say dye ! 
The hide-bound cow is bound to hide her profits. 
The story of “ Roup by the acre” begins next week. 
What Say ? Plenty of chance for you to talk—page 19. 
Are dairy Short-horns really needed in preference to other 
Dreeds ? 
Wonder if that “ leather chewer,” page 19, would try his teeth 
on a chain! 
When is dyspepsia akin to holiness ? When it comes from too 
much pie-eaty. 
Why do you use salt on asparagus ? Is it to kill weeds or to 
benefit the grass ? 
What’s the difference between “ would if I could !” and “could 
if I would ?”— will. 
No wonder a wife gets furious after a futile attempt to force a 
fire out of green fuel. 
“ Turn over a new leaf ! ” May be clover can’t do that on your 
soil until you use lime or potash. 
When is a chicken a cat bird ? When the taste for broilers has 
not been trained off the cat’s tongue. 
A good clover sod well plowed under, will make any soil laugh 
with the harvest. It is a case where humus adds humor. 
The discussion of the merits of “corn hay” is giving an added 
boom to the old plan of sending the stalks through a thrashing 
machine. 
“Straw potatoes” is the name given potatoes grown in south¬ 
western Illinois. They are grown under straw. We shall tell 
how soon. 
Dr. Fisher wants more available plant food in the soil than the 
crop could take out. Why? It will then be sure to have enough, 
and what is left will not all be lost. It is a case where “ a surjilus 
beats a deficit.” 
The “war scare” is subsiding. Who wants war anyway ? Cer¬ 
tainly not the Amer ican farmers who would lose much and gain 
nothing by a war with England. “ Let us have peace”—and a 
parity of gold and silver. 
The President’s message hinting at war caused a half panic in 
Wall Street. American securities shrunk in value. With the 
money lost in a week, the whole territory in dispute might be 
bought and given to either of the contending nations. Who lost 
that money ? Speculators. Will they try to get it back from the 
nation ? Yes ! Will they succeed ? 
