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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 3 
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. Coi.lingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , OCTOBER 3, 1896. 
Some of our readers are feeding rape for the first 
time this year. They should remember that the rape 
will bear a great deal of frost without harm, after 
being uninjured until Christmas; yet, if sheep graze 
it while the frost is on, they destroy each leaf that 
they touch. The best plan is to keep the sheep off the 
rape until late enough in the day for the frost to get 
out of it. 
O 
A short course at an agricultural college will not 
turn out a full fledged scientist. A man can’t stuff 
his pillow with experiment station bulletins, and 
wake up in the morning a scientific farmer! The 
great value of the short course is that it will give a 
young man the right start under surroundings and 
among companions that will prompt him to continue 
the work of observation and investigation. Young 
man, why don’t you make your start this winter ? 
© 
The reports from hay dealers, in this issue, indicate 
that there is no immediate prospect that “corn hay” 
will be quoted in the general market. These shredded 
corn stalks make good fodder and, for many purposes, 
could be used in place of Timothy hay with great 
economy. Still, as we can see from the reports, 
dealers know little or nothing about it. For some 
years, at least, the corn stalk crop must be consumed 
on the farm. The future may make a place for it in 
the market, but with the present prices for rough 
fodders, the outlook is not brilliant. Within a few 
years, baled shavings have come into such general 
use as bedding that the sales of straw have been con¬ 
siderably lessened. 
O 
An old swindling trick in the city is worked as fol¬ 
lows by a poorly dressed man : He approaches some 
man or woman who, he thinks, might prove an easy 
victim, for these swindlers are usually good judges of 
human nature. He tells a pitiful story of hard luck 
and starvation, but doesn’t beg anything. Instead, 
he has a pair of gold eyeglasses which he has found, 
or which, in some cases, are an heirloom, very highly 
prized, which he will part with for a fraction of their 
value. The bait usually takes, and the purchaser 
soon finds himself the possessor of a pair of cheap 
glasses in brass frames, thinly washed over with gold, 
which can be bought almost anywhere for a few 
cents each. Now a local paper tells us that the same 
scheme is being worked m the country. It may also 
be worked with other goods than glasses. No one 
ought to need spectacles to see through this humbug. 
O 
Last spring, we told the story of a farmer in west¬ 
ern New York who mounted a small engine on his 
wagon, and thus secured a strong power for spraying 
fruit trees. A boy drove the wagon and attended to 
the engine, while two men held the nozzles and 
directed the spray. By means of this device, the 
work of spraying was robbed of many of its discom¬ 
forts, and was pushed rapidly along. This man 
worked for his neighbors, and had more engagements 
than he could fill. A man in Iowa now purposes to 
put a small engine and a cream separator and tank on 
a wagon, and travel from farm to farm separating 
the cream and taking it away, and leaving the skim- 
milk on the farm. He can cover a territory, each day, 
that will provide 3 000 pounds of milk. This will give 
him a profitable business, and save the farmers the 
time and expense of hauling their milk Instead of 
carrying it to some central power, the power will be 
brought to them. When the roads are made first- 
class, and we have a perfect “horseless carriage”, the 
same power that runs the separator will drive the 
wagon, and the horse will take a vacation. These 
two men, one in the East and the other in the West, 
have thought out two ideas, and made them practical. 
With each succeeding year, new men begin to investi¬ 
gate and experiment, until it is no wonder that agri¬ 
culture changes at almost lightning speed. 
© 
Mr. Moss tells us this week to beware of incubators 
that must depend on alcohol to regulate the heat. 
He overlooks an incubator that has been used some¬ 
what by Eastern goose breeders, and that is a tipsy 
turkey. These breeders say that they can force a 
turkey to incubate whenever they need her services. 
The bird is fed a spoonful of wine soaked into bread, 
and then put into a box so low that she is obliged to 
squat or brood. The next day, she is given another 
dose of the stimulant in this box, and, generally, 
after 48 hours, she is ready to hatch two lots of eggs 
in succession. It is said that no other domestic bird 
but the turkey will accept this alcoholic treatment, 
and breeders claim that it is a great convenience to 
be able to make such a large bird broody at will. 
This is, certainly, a case where alcohol is the main¬ 
stay of an incubator. 
© 
The country around the Ellerslie Farm is filled with 
summer boarders during the season. Most of them 
visit the farm during their stay, and examine all the 
processes for cleaning and purifying the milk. They 
go back to the city and order this milk for use in their 
own homes. Until they went to the farm, they did 
not realize how much difference there is between ordi¬ 
nary milk and that which is thoroughly clean. The 
evidence of their appreciation is shown in the fact 
that sales always increase when the summer boarding 
season is ended. One of the best advertisements a 
farmer can devise is to invite townspeople to visit his 
farm. If you have goods that possess merit, show 
them up, don’t hide them under a bushel ! Put some 
of your individuality into them, and then bring peo¬ 
ple to look at them ! Such people might not care to 
look at you, but they will examine that part of you 
that is in your goods. 
O 
Just now, there appear to be two principal classes 
of buyers of purebred live stock. They are farmers 
who want good males to head their flocks or herds, 
or a few good females to serve as foundation stock, 
and speculators. The latter want to buy purebred 
cattle at the prices usually paid for grades. With 
them, it is simply a business speculation, as they ex¬ 
pect to buy the stock for less than its value, and sell 
it within a year or two at a good advance. There is 
but little exchange among breeders just now. The 
best market is among the better class of farmers who 
desire single animals of merit. There are hundreds 
of such men among the readers of The R. N.-Y. 
While not pretending to be the special organ of any 
branch of the live stock industry, The R. N.-Y. has 
always advocated the emancipation of the scrub by 
the introduction of improved blood, and our readers 
have always been, and always will be, good buyers of 
superior animals. 
O 
In the State of New York alone, there are over 
2,000 epileptics who need something in the way of 
help, aside from what their relatives and friends are 
able to give them. These unfortunates have been, 
for the most part, kept in almshouses or institutions 
for the feeble minded, while many of them have been 
sent to insane asylums, though perfectly sane except 
during brief periods. Such treatment was the worst 
that could be given these unfortunate people. It is a 
pleasure to know that, hereafter, they will be kept by 
themselves—apart from ordinary paupers or the in¬ 
sane. The State of New York has purchased a tract 
of nearly 1,900 acres in the Genesee Valley, and has 
established a colony farm for ep.leptics. The place 
was formerly occupied by a community of Shakers, 
who sold it to the State when they became so few in 
numbers that they could not carry it on. Here the 
epileptics live in families or groups of 15 or less. 
Their life is spent chiefly in the open air at work on 
farm or garden, and in this quiet place, with simple 
food and little to annoy or excite them, it is no won¬ 
der that actual cures are reported. There is no hope 
for an epileptic when placed in the poorhouse or 
insane asylum—his disease is reasonably sure to end 
in insanity—but in this quiet and peaceful colony, 
there is hope for him, at least. Only those who know 
what it is to have the awful curse of insanity fall 
upon some loved friend or relative, can realize what 
such hope means. In Belgium, the insane are kept in 
farm colonies, and in most European countries, 
epileptics are treated on the colony plan. In this 
country, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, 
New Jersey, California, Minnesota, Texas and Vir¬ 
ginia have, either started such colonies, or are pre¬ 
paring to do so. It is a merciful thing to separate 
such patients from the insane or the ordinary paupers. 
© 
If Mr. Cottrell s plan of working the corn land this 
fall with a Cutaway, and then plowing it into wide 
ridges for the frost to work over as described on page 
653, is a succes;, he will save a vast amount of plow- 
ing. It is no small job to prepare 175 acres of heavy 
land for corn each year, and fall plowing is the most 
expensive part of it. This is an experiment that will 
be watched with great interest. Since The R. N.-Y.’s 
notes were taken, the corn has been cut, and Mr. 
Cottrell sends this report: 
We have cut the corn planted on the field that was ridged last 
fall. The yield from this ridged field was 17)4 tons per acre. The 
adjoining field, treated in our usual way, gave 13 tons per acre. 
Ihe extra 4)4 tons per acre may not all come from the ridging, 
but I think that it does. The soil in both fields is our very stiff 
clay the clay so dense that when water falls in a depression any¬ 
where on the surface, it stays until evaporated. We plowed both 
fields in the fall of 1895 Just as the ground began to freeze, we 
went into one field and threw the soil up into sharp, deep ridges, 
such as are made for planting sweet potatoes. These ridges ran 
north and south, giving the soil on each side of the ridge a good 
exposure to the sun, so that every warm day during the fall, 
winter and spring, both sides were subjected to both thawing 
and freezing. Of course, the field was fairly level. This method 
of treating clay ground in the fall seems to have a good 
many things in its favor. It insures a thorough drainage of the 
first six inches of soil, and the ground can be worked 10 days 
earlier in the spring. So much surface is exposed that a large 
mass of the soil is well aerated, and the repeated thawings and 
freezings pulverize the soil better than we can do with any imple¬ 
ments. Theoretically, the breaking up of the soil by the freezing 
and thawing, will release a large amount of plant food locked up 
in the stiff clay, and our increase in yield of 4)4 tons of green corti 
per acre, seems to show that the theory is correct. When we were 
ready to plant in the spring, we leveled the ridges with a disk 
harrow, and then treated the field in our usual way. We hope to 
be able to ridge 50 acres this fall. 
Of course, this treatment would not answer for steep 
hillsides, but for level land, it is well worth an ex¬ 
periment. Surely, if Jack Frost can unlock some 
of the fertility in the soil, we can, at least, make it 
as easy as possible for him to use his key. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
Of “bugs” that chew, there’s not a few. 
Their poison must be eaten; 
But bugs that suck, outside we duck 
Or else they’ll keep on eatiu’. 
Then Paris-green ’tis plainly seen 
Has got to go inside, sir ! 
But kerosene with soap, to cream— 
It kills them through the hide, sir ! 
One ounce of soap, one quart of oil, 
One pint of hot, soft water; 
One quarter hour churn up with power, 
Dilute ten times you oughter. 
Of Paris-green ore pound. I ween, 
To each two hundred gallons; 
Then keep well stirred. It is inferred 
These rules will save you millions. m. a. k. 
Drink will clog the think works. 
What's better than a Bose pear in its season ? 
Crooked men must be made to walk straight. 
Don’t give the little calf a cold frame to live in. 
“ germy side is inside,” said the hog as he finished eating 
the sour milk. 
Pure cream beats cod liver oil as a medicine. Make your cus¬ 
tomers realize that. 
We expect to startle you next week with some accounts of big 
crops on small areas ! 
Wheat comes nearer to being a balanced ration for a hen than 
any other single grain. 
The latest reported freak is a cat that jumps into the water of 
her own accord for a swim. 
The article on grape shipping this week, is by one of the largest 
shippers in the Grape Belt of Ohio. 
You can generally stump the stump speaker by asking if he 
practices in private what he advocates in public. 
Wheelmen bring a market to the farm. Put up a sign with 
“Pure Milk” on it and see whether some of them won’t stop 
and buy. 
Thrashing machines are now made with a blower attachment 
that distributes the straw over the stack and saves the labor 
formerly done by men. Another dusty job lost. 
What about Mr. Cushman’s remarks on killing the germs of 
tuberculosis? A farmer’s barn may become a perfect nursery 
for these germs unless it is thoroughly disinfected. 
You can wash a beefsteak after you get it. The only man who 
can wash a quart of milk clean—not adulterate it—is the milk¬ 
man. Make your customers realize that. It is a good advertise¬ 
ment. 
Mr. Moss says that he knows men who, not satisfied with the 
incubators they could buy . studied out the matter and made new 
ones. He is right. That is the way some of the most helpful 
machines are started. 
Speaking last week of the different forms of muscle-makers 
needed by different people, leads us to say that we have noticed 
that nervous and highly-organized people usually require meat 
rather than more bulky foods. 
It won’t be long before some wise man will demonstrate the 
fact that music has a good effect on a cow’s nerves. Then we 
shall find pianos in some of the prize dairies, with some one to 
play on them during milking time ! 
Those Kentucky pullets at Ellerslie did not know enough to go 
to roos when first bought. When put in the house, they would 
simply crouch upon the floor. It was necessary to put them on the 
roosts for several nights to start them. 
There is nothing equal to live steam for cleaning dishes or 
utensils. Can’t you manage to pipe some steam into the kitchen ? 
It would make dishwashing a scientific operation. You can put 
up such a steam pipe for the cost of maintaining your tobacco 
pipe one year. 
