644 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 26 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman. Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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safest means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders paj 
al> le to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New 5 ork. 
SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 26, 1896. 
Again we wish to impress upon our readers the 
fact that none but the very best apples should be 
exported. This week’s shipments reach 120,000 bar¬ 
rels—about the limit of steamship accommodations— 
and the heaviest week’s exports ever known. Don’t 
ship poor fruit! 
O 
The Nursery Book, by Prof. L. H. Bailey, is a 
standard publication. There is nothing better of its 
class. We have a limited number in paper binding 
for sale at 50 cents each. It will not be sold here¬ 
after in paper covers, and when the present stock is 
exhausted, the price for the cloth bound book will be 
one dollar. Order at once if you want it. We still 
give it as a reward for one new subscription. 
0 
Some lumber dealer will make a good thing if he 
will manufacture suitable staves for a round “ tub ” 
silo, and offer them for sale at reasonable rates. There 
is sure to be a demand for such staves. We know sev¬ 
eral parties who would have built the silos this year 
if they could have bought the staves readily. It is 
evident that this form of silo is going to be very popu¬ 
lar, and there will surely be a great demand for first- 
class staves all ready to put in place. 
O 
You .will readily see how the telephone is of great 
service to Mr. Simpson in his Arkansas garden. On a 
moment’s notice, he can talk to any of his customers 
in the town, and any one who has handled perishable 
products will see the value of such a service. We 
would like to see a telephone wire running out of 
every farmhouse in the land. The world would be 
better for it. Why can’t it be done ? A monopoly 
stands in the way, and prevents the extension of the 
service at a price which farmers can afford to pay. 
O 
Ex-United States pomologist Van Deman, points out 
clearly the objections to such words as hermaphro¬ 
dite, bisexual, staminate, pistillate, to denote whether 
the flowers are “ perfect”—having both stamens and 
pistils—or “ imperfect,” having pistils only. We have 
long contended against the use of the word “ stam¬ 
inate”, because staminate flowers have pistils, also, 
and have used the better word “ bisexual”, meaning 
two sexes in one flower, hermaphrodite, or perfect. 
But we think the words “ perfect” and ‘‘imperfect” 
simpler and more appropriate, and we shall use those 
words hereafter. 
0 
The effect of a well-balanced ration on the human 
animal is well marked. We have had an illustration 
of this during the past year in watching the develop¬ 
ment of a little boy. About a year ago, he came out 
of an almshouse, where his food had been chiefly 
potatoes, brown bread and a little butter and milk. 
That was a diet containing but little mineral matter, 
and a small proportion of muscle-makers. As a 
result of such food, the child was but little better 
than a dwarf. His flesh was soft and flabby, and of a 
dead, unwholesome color, while his bones were soft 
and his joints were weak. Gradually his diet was 
changed. Instead of potatoes and corn meal, he was 
fed largely on well-cooked oatmeal and crushed 
wheat, with an abundance of milk, fruit and fresh 
vegetables. He had plenty of fish, but little, if any, 
meat. It was really a change from a very wide ration 
to just about the theoretical ration for a young calf 
or colt. One would hardly recognize the boy to-day. 
He has begun to grow. His flesh is as hard as pork, 
and of good color, while his bones are strong and 
firm. The new food has simply created a new boy. 
There never was anything like good oatmeal to put 
growth and thrift into young stock, whether it be 
boy, pig, calf, colt or pullet. We doubt whether you 
can find any food combination that will start the 
young things growing as will good oats. The four- 
footed youths will do their own crushing. Grind and 
cook for the children if you want hard, pink flesh and 
bright eyes. Oats make growth. Corn means sloth. 
0 
There is a great opening in the South for the sale 
of pure milk. Near such cities as New Orleans, 
Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, Atlanta, Chattanooga 
and others, it is possible for a dairyman to start on 
the plan worked out by Mr. Francisco, and develop 
an excellent trade. It would be necessary to go 
through a period of education first, so that customers 
might understand the true difference between ordi¬ 
nary and first-class milk ; but such education will pay 
well. With the cheap food and mild climate found at 
the South, and the lack of competition in producing a 
perfectly clean product, a dairyman who understands 
his business ought to make money near some southern 
city. 
o 
The horse breeders who report to us this week are 
not hopeful for the future. The shrinkage in the 
values of farm horses in the past few years has been 
remarkable. Last week, we saw a pair of heavy Per- 
cherons from Kansas that were bought for $250. A 
team not quite so good, but of much the same breed¬ 
ing, cost, in 1892, $500. The trouble with horse 
breeders is that they must carry their stock four or 
five years before realizing on them. Six years ago, 
farmers invested in expensive stallions and fixtures 
expecting fair prices for their colts. While the colts 
have been developing, prices have been dropping, until 
now the price offered for the colt is scarcely half what 
the breeder calculated would be necessary to pay ex¬ 
penses, and give even a small profit. Hogs, cattle or 
sheep could have been sold when prices began to de¬ 
cline, but the colt had to be kept and fed all through 
these years in order to make him salable. It is sad 
to think that man’s noblest brute friend should bring 
his master into such trouble. The last report of the 
United States Department of Agriculture gives some 
startling figures to show the loss in horse values. 
Here is one comparison : 
Number of Horses. Total Values. 
January 1, 1892. 15,498,140 $1,007,593,636 
January 1, 1896. 15,124,057 500,140,186 
To show how this loss has been distributed, we may 
compare a few of the western States where horse- 
breeding has been a recognized industry of great im¬ 
portance. 
Past and Present Values. 
1892. 1896. 
Kansas.$55,344,187 $20,609,057 
Nebraska. 36.298.768 16,259,065 
Missouri. 54,892,332 23 039,549 
Illinois. 91,872,771 34.502,959 
Iowa. 86,921,929 34,032,583 
Indiana. 53,388,703 23,732,946 
Ohio. 66,658,761 29,218,761 
Michigan. 40,757.393 20,340,685 
Pennsylvania. 51,867,709 28,629 629 
New York. 58 926,968 31,246,088 
Oregon. 9.911,171 4.625,783 
California. 26,010,045 13,114,251 
There is nothing sectional about this decline. 
Farmers in all parts of the country have suffered 
alike. The bicycle and the electric car have run over 
the horse, and squeezed out half his value. 
0 
Ever since the silo has come into regular use in pre¬ 
serving the corn crop, dairymen have been studying 
to find the best muscle-making grain to feed with the 
ensilage. Cotton-seed meal is the cheapest form of 
“ muscle-makers,” and there is no safer way in which 
to feed it than with corn ensilage. Some farmers 
have always felt that they could grow muscle-making 
crops cheaper than they can buy cotton-seed meal, 
bran, or other grain. For example, we have told how 
Mr. Bancroft, of Delaware, uses hundreds of tons of 
Crimson clover and cow peas in the silo. These crops 
help “ balance ” the corn ensilage, and cut down the 
grain bill. There are farmers who feel that, with 
present low prices for dairy products, good clover hay 
and a few pounds of wheat bran will act like the meat 
in a sandwich to even up the ensilage. In Canada, a 
mixture of one part sunflower heads, two parts horse 
beans, and four parts corn, are put into the silo 
together in the hope of obtaining ensilage which is, 
of itself, a “ balanced ration.” This plan of growing 
muscle-making crops on the home farm, is not advo¬ 
cated as strongly as it was several years ago. The 
price of bran and cotton-seed meal has fallen so low 
that, in many cases, the old argument fails, and it is 
actually cheaper to buy grain than it is to grow 
clover or peas. In many cases, it actually pays best 
to raise a heavy crop of corn for the silo on the land 
nearest the barn, and put the other grass land into 
Timothy to be sold every year—the money obtained 
for it to be spent for grain rich in muscle-makers. 
That is just what some long-headed dairymen are 
doing, and they are making a success of it, too. 
It is an old saying that there are tricks in all trades 
but ours. We all like to feel honest ourselves, and to 
believe that all of our own class are in that commend¬ 
able state. Still, sometimes, our confidence in human 
nature is sadly shaken. A reputable fruit firm in this 
city, last fall, purchased, at a leading grape shipping 
center in western New York, large quantities of Dela¬ 
ware grapes, for which they paid the packers $60 per 
ton. These buyers say that in the bottom of some of 
the crates containing these grapes, stones were found. 
Three cents a pound is a pretty high price to pay for 
rocks, unless it be for the purpose of throwing them 
at such dishonest packers. Such solid arguments are 
about the only ones likely to prove effective with 
people so thick-skinned and so destitute of honesty as 
to pack stones in fruit sold by weight. What should 
be done with such people ? 
0 
An old Arab proverb says that where the honey is, 
there the flies will be gathered together. The same 
holds good in other directions. In the article on 
Strawberries at Chattanooga, Tenn., when the fact 
became known that an immense crop of berries was 
awaiting buyers, the buyers came from many different 
points. Such competition, of course, always results 
in more satisfactory sales and better prices. None of 
these buyers would have been attracted by a single 
acre, or, indeed, by several acres of berries. By ship¬ 
ping such large quantities, too, growers were able to 
secure great advantages in shipping facilities. Mr. 
Hoyt, in his recent articles on the new apple culture, 
enforced the same truth. It is easier to sell 1,000,000 
barrels of apples in a single county than it is to sell 
1,000. These facts are worth considering by planters 
of fruits of all kinds. Wayne County, N Y., has 
gained a reputation for an immense production of 
evaporated raspberries, and there is no trouble about 
sales at good prices. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
THE SCRUB. 
If I should die to-night— 
Then would you look upon iny quiet face 
And wish me back again within iny stall ? 
Would all the years of eatiDg I have spent 
Devouring all your hard-earned grain and hay 
With scant return in butler, milk or meat, 
With little save a pile of leaehed-out dung 
And my society to leave behind ! 
Would such a life-work make you wish me back 
If I should die to-night ? 
THE FARMER. 
If you should die to-night— 
I’d be ten dollars better off by spring. 
That money represents the difference 
Between the food that you will guzzle down 
Before the snow melts and the milk and meat 
That you can manufacture from that food. 
If you should die to-nigbt—I’d thank my stars. 
And if you think of dying, let me take 
My ax and turn you into beef, at least, 
Before you die to-night ! 
Hen bane—lice. 
“ Doubts are devil-born.” 
How’s the Crimson clover ? 
Don’t take stock in a scrub. 
You can’t buy any stock food equal to good pasturage. 
The horse dealer talks himself hoarse without making a sale. 
Work the new thing slowly. Otherwise it may be a dear new 
idea. 
It’s truly alarming to see how some fellows lose faith in good 
farming. 
Potatoes at three cents a bushel—with the aid of millet— 
page 649. 
Catnip tea for garget—page 651. There is a chance for a good 
experiment. 
Who can coin a new word that will describe the flavor of the 
Logan berry ? 
We view with alarm—the scrub that you’ve harbored so long 
on your farm. 
Mr. Miller is just right when he says that the farm team should 
not be ruled by fear. 
English farmers want the bicycle taxed because it has nearly 
ruined the horse trade. 
A “ nagger ” is a hard nag to keep in the home. He or she is a 
“ kicker,” and likes to bicker. 
We have pumpkins growing in the garden that have a richer 
and more agreeable flavor than some of the California peaches 
sold in New York. 
Cotton seed meal and cotton-hull ashes. There’s a wonderful 
fertilizer for truck. With a little nitrate of soda added, it ought 
to give great results. 
Introduce good “ blood” into your herd, and then starve and 
stunt your heifers. Then you will have dried-up blood—good for 
fertilizer or hen feeding. 
Efforts are being made to stir up interest in the Angora goat. 
Every few years, this animal is “ boomed,” and each year seems 
to add a little to its popularity. It is slow growth, though. 
You must have a liquor tax license in New York State in order 
to traffic in hard or fermented cider in quantities of less than five 
gallons. We suggest that, when you sell yourself a glass of such 
cider and drink it on the spot, that you pay the tax to your wife. 
In giving the usual methods of keeping hen lice or mites from 
the roosts, Mr. Cushman omits the scheme proposed by O. W. 
Mapes. This is to keep the roost well smeared with some cheap 
fat or grease. Mr. Mapes has used this method with success, and 
it is worth trying. 
Maryland has a new law to guard against the sale or introduc¬ 
tion of trees or plants. No package of nursery stock is to be sold 
without a certificate that such stock has been examined by the 
State Entomologist, and pronounced free from insects and fungi, 
and no stock is to be brought into the State without such certifi¬ 
cate ! That will keep the entomologist busy '. 
