324 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 9 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE B US1NES8 FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850. 
Elbebt S. Cabman, Editor-in-Chlef. 
Hebbebt W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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able ^ THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 9 , 1896. 
NEW YORK COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
When Levi P. Morton was elected Governor of New 
York State, we think that most conservative and 
thoughtful men were disposed to believe that he 
would conduct his office in a businesslike way. The 
R. N.-Y. certainly thought that, at last, a man had 
been elected to the Governor’s chair who would rec¬ 
ognize the needs of improved agriculture. Governor 
Morton is personally interested in farming. We know 
that he takes a deep interest in matters that pertain 
to soil culture. We also know that he is a keen, 
shrewd and successful business man, who in his own 
business, recognizes the fact that men of special fitness 
and training, are needed to fill positions of trust in a 
satisfactory way. 
When the matter of appointing a new Commissioner 
of Agriculture came up, we were satisfied that Gov¬ 
ernor Morton would recognize the true needs of the 
farmers of New York State. We put ourselves on 
record as saying that we believed that the Governor 
would, in this matter, rise above mere partisan poli¬ 
tics, and appoint a man who deserved the office ; not 
because he was a mere politician, but because long 
years of experience, observation and study had taught 
him the true needs of New York State agriculture. 
We regret to say that Governor Morton has not 
risen to the occasion. In fact, he has made a most igno¬ 
minious failure, and has appointed the one man among 
the many suggested for the place, who is notoriously 
unfit for the position. Passing by such men as S. D. 
Willard, J. S. Woodward, George T. Powell and other 
men who have, by long years of service, proved their 
fitness for the position, he has appointed a man 
whose only backing for the place, so far as we can 
learn, comes from professional politicians ; men who 
desire to use the office for partisan ends. 
Governor Morton had a great opportunity, but he has 
failed utterly to meet the demands of the farmers of the 
State. He has simply yielded to the politician (probably 
carrying out some old political promise), and turned 
his back upon the truest friends of the farmers. There 
might be some excuse for this, if it could be said that 
the Governor did not know the real state of affairs. 
That cannot be said, however, for the case has been 
repeatedly put before him in the most forcible way. 
He has been waited upon by the members of the New 
York State Agricultural Society, Western New York 
Horticultural Society, and dozens of other influential 
organizations, who said to him, in effect, “ Appoint 
any of the candidates except this one politician who 
is particularly objectionable.” Farmers of wealth 
and standing, as well as those of humbler degree, who 
seldom leave their homes, have waited upon him. In 
fact, the issue has been defined with the utmost clear¬ 
ness ; yet, in spite of all this, he has done the very 
thing that he should not have done. G overner Mor¬ 
ton has been tried in the balance, and found wanting 
by the farmers of New York State. Here was a case 
that directly concerned agriculture. The farmers have 
not interfered in all the other hundreds of appoint¬ 
ments that the Governor has made, but in this case, 
they, with right, demanded a man in whom they had 
confidence. They have received a direct slap in the 
face. This matter of the appointment of Commis¬ 
sioner of Agriculture was one that came straight to 
the heart of our farmers. It had a direct bearing 
upon their business, and they have been watching 
the Governor with great care to see what he would 
do for them. He has failed to meet their needs, and, 
in our judgment, has missed a great opportunity. 
The R. N.-Y. has never taken an active part in poli¬ 
tics, but when the issue is forced upon us in this way, 
we do not hesitate to say that Governor Morton has 
placed himself in opposition to the best interests of 
New York State agriculture. We do not see how any 
self-respecting farmer in this State, can now support 
him for any further political advancement. The R. 
N.-Y. takes this position with deep regret, but the 
conviction has been forced upon us more and more 
during the past few years, that our politicians have 
no more regard for the welfare of the individual 
farmer, than has the gambler for the cards with 
which he wins his game. As, one after another, once 
trusted friends desert him, it becomes more clearly 
evident that the American farmer must take an active 
and independent part in public affairs. 
© 
There is a good point about that Manchester farm 
in Connecticut. Here are a father and two sons with 
their wives, living on one farm, and finding plenty of 
room to work and develop the lines of farming that 
suit them best. How much better such cobperation 
is than for this family to maintain three different 
farms, requiring three sets of tools and more capital, 
without correspondingly large increase of returns. It 
is a mistaken idea that the boy must go away from 
the farm in order to make a success of farming. This 
Manchester farm upsets that theory entirely. There 
is room on your farm for the boys. 
0 
A business that seems to have suffered greatly in 
some parts of the West, is that of mule breeding. 
When the great shrinkage in the price of horses 
began, it was thought that mule breeding would im¬ 
prove as a business; but two things seem to have 
upset these calculations. The South has always pro¬ 
vided the chief market for mules, but of late years, 
Southern farmers have begun to breed their own 
mules, so that the demand for Western animals has 
greatly fallen off. Then again, the drop in the price 
of horses has enabled the teamsters in Western towns 
to secure much better animals for the money formerly 
paid for mules. So that the Western mule has his 
sorrows like all the rest ot us. 
© 
“ What’s one man’s meat is another man’s poison !” 
It was a wise man who put that thought into words. 
The truth of the old saying crops out quite unex¬ 
pectedly—oftentimes where we least expect it. For ex¬ 
ample, take this letter from a friend in Connecticut : 
Iu The R. N.-Y. not long ago, somebody asked bow to get rid of 
rats in a barn, and the replies sent were nearly all to get a cat. 
My trouble is cats, and I wish to ask, in all seriousness, how to 
get rid of them. Just at the foot of our yard is an old barn. I 
can’t have a young chicken anywhere near it, and they have be¬ 
come a very serious nuisance. I am no shot with a gun, and if 
shooting be prescribed, I shall have to hire somebody to do it. 
Now a cat is a sure antidote for a rat, but a rat simply 
makes more cat, and when the cat itself becomes a 
nuisance, what is to be done to counteract the effect 
of the rat medicine ? Here is a case for our wise 
men. Will anything short of strychnine destroy the 
nine lives of a cat ? 
© 
Mr. Manchester tells us how he uses bran in the 
place of hay for feeding cows. Pound for pound, the 
bran is cheaper than the hay, and if the latter were 
ground as fine as the bran, it would occupy but little 
more space. In fact, as we have often stated, Tim¬ 
othy hay is the most expensive food one can give to 
a cow. At the writer’s home, good hay sells at &22 a 
ton from the farm. The best of baled hay cannot 
compete with it. With a silo and a few acres of oat 
hay to feed as dry roughage, our farmers might sell 
nearly all their Timothy, and thus make it one of the 
best crops on the farm. Many people still think it a 
wise policy to stuff a horse with 20 pounds or more 
of long hay each day. The R. N.-Y. has often told 
its readers of a new horse food in which hay, corn and 
oats are all ground to a coarse powder. This feed is, 
we understand, giving the best of satisfaction, and is 
certainly more economical than long hay and whole 
grain. 
© 
It is now time to attack the Elm-leaf beetle if you 
expect to cut it off this year. Late in May, the beetles 
lay their eggs on the under-sides of the young leaves. 
In about a week, the larvas or young worms hatch 
out, and at once proceed to feed on the leaves 
until full grown, when they go to the ground where 
they change into beetles. The time to fight this insect 
to the best advantage, is when the worms are most 
active, and the way to do it is to put Paris-green or 
other poisons where they will eat them. In other 
words, the tree must be sprayed with some poisonous 
solution, so that the under sides of the leaves will be 
covered. Last fall, Mr. Edwin Hoyt, of Connecticut, 
told us how he operates against this insect. A boiler, 
tank and pump are loaded on a wagon with a half¬ 
inch hose about 100 feet long fitted with a McGowen 
nozzle. For 100 gallons of water, one pound of Paris- 
green and three pounds of lime are used. It is 
also a good plan to add two quarts of molasses, 
which will make the poison “ stick.” A man with 
“ creepers ” climbs the tree, hauls up the hose and 
nozzle, and choosing a good position at some crotch, 
sprays the leaves from the under side. The entire 
cost of Mr. Hoyt’s outfit, which includes boiler, pump, 
tank, hose, etc., was about $ 275 , and, of course, the 
same outfit can be used for other spraying. In many 
towns, the Elm-leaf beetle is a sad pest. Now is the 
time to fight it. 
© 
/ 
We have been planning a mixture of chemicals for 
an oat crop—out of nitrate of soda, acid rock and 
muriate of potash. There was no good place in the 
old barn for mixing, and the farmer had never used 
chemicals before. So directions were given to mix on 
a level piece of grass near the field. A space 10x12 
feet was selected and covered lightly with soil. Then 
half the acid rock was spread and the lumps crushed 
with a shovel. Then more soil was spread, and then 
half the nitrate with more soil on that, and then half 
the muriate. In this way, the mixture was spread, 
with layers of soil between each layer of chemicals. 
The whole thing was then shoveled together and 
spread out several times. It was broadcasted by load¬ 
ing on a drag and spreading from that with a shovel. 
It was then worked in with a spring-tooth harrow. 
Of course, this was but a crude way of doing the 
work, but it seemed the best plan under the circum¬ 
stances. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
You, perhaps, have beard folks say—attheirworkor at their play 
“ I’m the one to show you how to do that right! ” 
I’m the man that knows it all, and my head is built so tall 
That it towers above all others in the fight. 
Oh, the chap that knows it all, with his knowledge right on call, 
Is a nuisance, sir, from any point of view ! 
For, though he be right or wrong, he has got so far along 
That he can’t absorb an atom that is new. 
“ Me or my or I or mine ”—how around his tongue they twine ! 
But the people size him up—he wonders why— 
But his head is hard as wood, and lie’s never understood 
That there’s neither size nor substance to his I! 
Don’t shun education. 
“ Good roads by bad men /” 
Money is certainly tight when it is drunk ! 
“ Progress and poverty”—running into debt. 
Plaster will make you master of stable nitrogen. 
It appears that Nebraska pays a bounty on chicory ! 
Too much champagne will make a real pain in the head. 
How many farmers realize why they put manure in the ground ? 
It’s a good slip of the pen when the hog gets into the clover 
field. 
How can a man grow by reading only what he already under 
stands ? 
What element do you need to balance the ration of your books 
this year ? 
Hard work will cure soft-shelled eggs in hens and soft-shelled 
ideas in men. 
“ Ball” bearings—that is the groove many a boy’s mind is run¬ 
ning in just now. 
Mr. Manchester’s corn and beans will make what the Indians 
called succotash ! 
Mr. Cushman makes some good points in advocating corn for 
poultry—page 330. 
Hot water purifies the skin, but what will make you pure 
within ? Not “ hot water ” 1 
You may have city privileges in the country, but you can’t have 
country privileges in the city. 
Teach your child to fear God, to love honor, truth, home, labor, 
health, soap and a tooth brush. 
Why did God make you capable and strong, except that you 
might help put down the wrong ? 
That ice cream, page 317, is cold comfort to the consumer while 
it warms the pocketbook of the producer. 
The Crimson clover reports are not all rosy. That is the way 
they started last year. The report from the Rural Grounds comes 
next week. 
We have some early Parker Earle strawberries. They were 
forced by removing the mulch early. They are grown in frames 
as described by Mr. Crawford last year. 
Scientific men now say that pure butter is as much a medicine 
as is cod liver oil. No doubt of it. Kill off oleo, and butter will 
be the medicine to cure many an ailing farm. 
If grandfather were alive to-day, and had only your years, do 
you mean to say that he would follow the methods of 60 years 
ago ? What a question 1 You know better. Then why do you 
follow them ? 
How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour by add¬ 
ing to the sweets of life and driving out the sour. Now here’s a 
word for you, my friend, just imitate the bee—pile up the sweets 
—drive out the sour in your own family. 
How the world does change. Here is New Jersey importing one 
bug from California to kill off another. Read Prof. Smith’s article 
—page 325. How our ancestors would have rubbed their eyes at 
the thought of setting one bug to eat up another 1 
At the Maine Experiment Station, an effort was made to hasten 
the heading of cabbage by tying up the outer leaves. The result 
was that maturity was not hastened, while the tied up leaves held 
the water and produced decay, so that not a single head was fit 
for market. 
This week Mr. Chapman tells us about what he considers a 
cheaper method of strawberry culture than the one proposed by 
Mr. Ballou. One thing he must remember, and that is the fact 
that Mr. Ballou has made the strawberry build him a home. 
That’s good enough for “ a poor man’s method.” 
