532 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 8 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
TEE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert 8. Cabman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Hebbebt W. Colunswood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon. Business Manager. 
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Address all business communications and make all orders pay 
able 40 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets. New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1896. 
Some of our readers are trying the experiment of 
cutting the Timothy with a grain binder instead of 
mowing it in the usual way. The grass seems to cure 
well in bundles, and is much more easily handled. 
It takes up less room in the barn by one-third, and 
is easily fed out. It is a good way to cut the hay. It 
is a good thing to cut some of the oats that way— 
about a week before you would cut them for grain. 
That makes “ oat hay ” or grain and fodder on the 
same stalk. 
G 
Three years ago, The R. N.-Y. described Mr. Fran¬ 
cisco’s plan of making and advertising “ Certified 
Milk.” At that time, both the name and the plan 
were new ; but now it is hardly possible to take up a 
dairy paper without seeing how some one is making 
“certified milk.” That is good, so long as the cer¬ 
tificate back of the milk is honest. Mr. Francisco had 
a good idea, and was glad to make it public. In one 
way, Mr. Clark’s new hay culture is just as remark¬ 
able as the certified milk scheme. 
G 
Mr. Woodward gets the spraying question about 
right, on page 526, when he compares spraying to in¬ 
surance. The past year has been free from many of 
the insects and diseases that, in years past, have done 
so much to ruin fruit. Therefore, some unsprayed 
orchards will produce just as good fruit as those that 
were sprayed. In many cases, it has been the same 
way with potatoes, and some farmers may reason that 
it does not pay to use the Bordeaux Mixture. We think 
that they will make a mistake if they do so. The R. 
N.-Y. would spray on general principles just the same 
as it would cultivate or manure. 
Q 
On page 500, The R. N.-Y. called for information 
about flies and sweet peas. It has been reported that 
the blossoms of the sweet pea, in some way, are 
offensive to house flies. We would like to learn what 
our readers have observed about this matter. Mr. 
Wm. Ives, the librarian of the Buffalo Library, sends 
this report: 
Referring to a notice of the effect of sweet pea blossoms upon 
flies, in a late Rubal New-Yorker, I would say that I observed, a 
few days ago, a number of dead flies lying around a large vase of 
sweet pea blossoms on my desk. A few live flies were upon the 
peas, but were, evidently, very sick or intoxicated, and were soon 
numbered with the dead below. 
We shall be pleased to have reports from others. 
® 
Something new in American agriculture is the sum¬ 
mer class now being conducted on the farm of Geo. 
T. Powell, in Columbia County, N. Y. The students 
are young men from the cities who have capital, and 
who desire to invest that capital in farming or fruit 
growing. They spend three summer months on the 
farm in orchard and field, doing such work as spray¬ 
ing, pruning, shipping fruit and cultivating—learning 
all they can of the necessary work on a well-ordered 
fruit farm. In the fall, they will go to Cornell, and 
take a scientific course—in the meantime, selecting 
farms of their own and planning to lay them out 
while studying. This, as we have said, is a new 
thing in American agriculture. During the year, we 
receive many letters from city men who desire to 
move into the country, but who do not just knowhow 
to begin. Some of them make a trial of working 
with some chance acquaintance who owns a farm, but 
such people are seldom satisfied, because, in this way, 
they do not learn just what they need. Mr. Powell’s 
plan will appeal to a class of young men who have 
the capital required to conduct farming on a genuine 
business basis, and such farmers will benefit any 
neighborhood in which they operate. Among other 
remarkable propositions, Mr. Powell says that he has 
one from a large manufacturing company, a member 
of which proposes to come and take a course of study 
that will enable him to instruct and advise their mill 
operatives how to cultivate a garden plot to the best 
advantage, and thus have something in the way of 
support when there is no work in the mill. 
G 
Let me go it alone ! said Mr. Hay, as he saw the 
farmer making ready to plow up the old meadow for 
a reseeding. I haven’t a word to say against Mr. 
Grain—he’s all right in his place ; but it goes against 
my grain to have him come in and crowd me out. 
He's only a lodger, anyway ! He doesn’t intend to 
stay with you a full year, while I am going to hold 
the fort for five or six years. He just comes in with 
his great feet, and crowds my folks out until they 
quit in disgust, so that, when he finally goes out, I 
can’t get tenants for half the ground. This talk that 
I couldn’t get through the winter unless he stood by 
to “ nurse” me, is all nonsense ! Don’t you believe a 
word of it! It’s just an old superstition that this fel¬ 
low has kept alive in order to keep himself in a fat 
job. Give me the whole field this year, and I’ll guar¬ 
antee to pay for it in an increase of hay. 
G 
We have no doubt that many of our readers have 
asked themselves those questions about a winter crop 
that Mr. Morse has put in words on page 528. Most 
of us, however, would not find a good growth of 
Crimson clover or of rye troublesome in the spring, 
for we would quickly work it under for green manure. 
It is true, however, that for some truck or garden 
crops, green manuring would not answer, and it is an 
advantage to have the crop die down in the spring. 
On page 430, Mr. Geo. T. Powell told us that there 
was no loss when the spring killed most of it, for it 
had served its purpose by living through the winter 
and protecting the soil. The use of turnips, and the 
plan suggested by Mr. Stroud on page 529, are well 
worth trying. Few farmers in this country seem to 
realize the great value of the turnip crop. The seed 
may be sown late in the season, after some other 
crop, and the turnips will furnish an immense amount 
of food for stock. The cheapest way to carry breed¬ 
ing pigs through the winter is to keep them in warm 
quarters, and feed them on turnips and a little bran 
and corn meal. Turn to the turnip. 
G 
Seven years ago, Mr. D. H. Nash, of New Jersey, 
seeded a field to Timothy. His plan was to use about 
a bag of a high-grade fertilizer to the acre, with the 
seeding. Through some mistake, the men who put 
on the fertilizer failed to regulate the drill, and for 
quite a stretch of ground, the fertilizer went on at 
the rate of a ton to the acre. That was seven years 
ago, yet this year, the best piece of grass on the farm 
was on that part of the field that received the heavy 
dressing of fertilizer. The difference between that 
part and the rest of the field is quite remarkable. 
For seven years, that extra fertilizing has given su¬ 
perior crops. Mr. Nash says that he was quite an¬ 
noyed when he came back and found this “ waste ” 
going on. Now he wishes that he had stayed away 
until the whole field was covered at the rate of a ton 
to the acre. We have often heard of cases where the 
effect of fertilizers was manifested for three or four 
years, but this grass was certainly the most striking 
illustration of the lasting effect of chemicals that we 
have seen. It was the more remarkable because 
Timothy is supposed to need constant supplies of 
nitrogen in order to keep up its growth. 
© 
A reader of The R. N.-Y., for some years has used 
a certain brand of potato fertilizer. This year, he 
was induced to change his former practice and use 
another brand made by the same company. As the 
potatoes grew, they did not show a satisfactory color 
and size, and the farmer began to suspect that the 
fertilizer was not what it should be. The only way 
to make sure seemed to him to send a sample of the 
fertilizer to the State experiment station, and have it 
analyzed, and then compare the analysis with that 
guaranteed on the bags. He sent his sample, bub was 
informed that the chemist could not make an analysis 
until the name of the company making the fertilizer 
was given. The farmer refused to give this name, as 
he felt that it was none of the chemist’s business to 
know who made the goods. The demand for the 
name, probably, made him a little suspicious that his 
sample would not be fairly examined. He does not 
yet know whether his goods were genuine or not, and 
he naturally wants to know how he is going to find 
out if the station chemists will not tell him. What 
are these stations for—he asks—if they are not to 
help farmers in just such a case as this ? We have no 
doubt that many other readers have asked the same 
question, and The R. N.-Y. is going to try to get an 
answer for them. Next week, the directors of some 
of our leading stations will give their side of the mat¬ 
ter, and then we shall hear from farmers. 
G 
The newspapers report that the Council of the 
Borough of Columbia, Pa., has passed a resolution 
prohibiting the sale of milk, except such as is pro¬ 
duced by tested cows. All cows must be tested with 
tuberculin by the State Veterinarians, and no milk is 
to be accepted from animals that respond to this test. 
This action, it is said, has created quite a little ex¬ 
citement among dairymen, and it is reported that the 
farmers’ organization of Lancaster County will bring 
suit to restrain the council from enforcing this resolu¬ 
tion. It will, certainly, make a very interesting case, 
for it is of much importance to know whether a local 
government has any right to pass resolutions that 
will interfere with the business of those who supply 
the town with food. We expect to have the facts in 
this case from both sides—viz., producers and con¬ 
sumers of milk. It is well enough to hear the whole 
story, since this same question may be raised in any 
town or city. 
Q 
J. B. Lozier, of New Jersey, has, probably, the 
largest establishment for boarding horses in this coun¬ 
try. Valuable horses are sent to his place on about 
the same principle that humans are sent to summer 
hotels or comfortable boarding houses. In speaking 
of the amount of hay needed by a horse in good work¬ 
ing order, Mr. Lozier says : 
I think from eight to ten pounds* of hay per day sufficient for a 
horse in driving condition. Hay is always fed in excess; the 
horse has a very small stomach, and the purpose of the hay is to 
distend it so that the other foods may be properly digested. A 
large amount of hay, therefore, is detrimental to digestion, and 
gives the horse what is vulgarly called, hay-belly. Horses in 
training seldom get over six pounds a day. 
Our opinion is that those who have really weighed a 
day’s ration of hay and observed the effects of heavy 
feeding, will generally agree with these statements. 
The trouble is that most people estimate by “ fork¬ 
ful ” rather than by pound. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
When Farmer A within one crop 
Puts in another called a “catch,” 
He might as well shut up his shop 
If on the henhouse door the latch 
Has rusted down or fallen off; 
For out comes Biddy with her hatch 
Of thrifty chicks that run and scoff, 
And with their toes dispatch the patch. 
The catch crop then they dispossess, 
For art and science are no match 
For chicks that tack an r and s 
Upon the catch and spell out scratch. 
Have you a tool room? 
The baby is watching you. 
Under the lash for lack of cash. 
Get rid of the bear spots in your temper. 
Mr. Clark has the hay fever—and, also, the hay ! 
“ A preserved pair”—a happy old married couple. 
What have you to say about the horse—hay question ? 
Get the grocery stores to advertise and sell your bottled milk. 
The harder you think on a wrong thought, the worse off you are. 
The good daughter never leads the father’s heart to slaughter. 
The poison O. K, Saying a thing is all right when you know 
it isn’t. 
Is it the coming woman or the woman coming ? It makes some 
difference ! 
Like to the house that’s founded on a rock, are apple trees on 
Northern Spy stock. 
“ Baited breath ” ! when the drinker uses cloves or coffee to 
hide the smell of whisky. 
A poison ivy vine growing on a street corner is more dangerous 
than a dozen so-called “ mad dogs.” 
It is reported that farmers who fed cotton hulls to cows last 
winter, are now troubled with cotton worms. 
The country is full of bolters this year. Give us the hen that 
will bolt her moult and keep on laying all through it. 
That is a back-handed compliment for the Columbian rasj) 
berry on page 531. Are birds as good judges of fruit as they are of 
worms ? 
You can cultivate tastes in the hen and teach her to like food 
that she would hardly look at, if given for the first after she be¬ 
gan laying. 
There is a grim humor in Dr. Hoskins’s remark that it is a good 
thing that names of Russian plums are lost or mixed up. Such 
jawbreakers would kill any fruit. 
Many an acre of good oats has gone to straw and grain when 
they should have made good oat hay. A week’s difference in 
cutting turns strong food into weak. 
Some one has said that the Puritan’s idea of hell was a place 
where every one was compelled to mind his own business and 
keep away from the affairs of others. Strange as it may seem, 
that would be nearer heaven for some people. 
The latest proposition for shipping butter long distances is to 
pack it in boxes made of glass sides held together with gummed 
paper—the whole thing covered with a layer of plaster of Paris a 
quarter inch thick. This, it is claimed, will keep the butter and 
prove much better than cold storage. 
Here is a poison ivy note from a Massachusetts reader : 
“ Apropos of ivy poisoning, I wish to say that thick whitewash is 
excellent, and, combined with blue vitriol as thick as Bordeaux 
Mixture, is still better. I once knew a boy to eat some ivy leaves 
in foolish bravado, and it made him very sick.” 
