November 21 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Ti2 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FARM EES’ PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country hik! Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman. Editor-in-Chief. 
Herbert W. Coi.i.in<;wood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SU KSCRXPTIONS. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
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. 
Ad vertiseraents 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-ofllce 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 to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 , 1896 . 
There are 40 working days between November 16 and 
January 1 . Read “A Wave of Prosperity ” on page 7 76 . 
© 
E. S. Carman’s address, until next May, will be 
No. 5 West 82nd Street, New York. 
© 
Several parties have applied to us for further in¬ 
formation regarding' the Armenian refugees men¬ 
tioned on page 740. Letters sent to Col. Holland, 
Salvation Army, New York, will doubtless receive at¬ 
tention. We would like to repeat that these Armenians 
are all men, as no women were able to escape. Some 
of the men are, however, ready to do housework on 
farms. 
O 
On page 775, will be found the first installment of 
a series of notes on gardening. These notes will be 
made a regular feature of The R. N.-Y. from this 
time on. They will apply more particularly to such 
flowers, fruits and vegetables as are grown in the 
window or small garden. Readers are requested to 
send questions for this department. We will endeavor 
to take the knots out of any hard question that your 
plants may ask you. 
o 
The Geneva Experiment Station has done well to 
show up the percentage of humbug in “ Natural Plant 
Food”. This stuff was advertised in some of the 
agricultural papers last year. The R. N.-Y. promptly 
stated that its valuation could not reach one-half the 
price charged for it, and the Geneva Station amply 
verifies this statement. Sometimes, when patent 
medicine men are cornered, by a true analysis of their 
mixture of hay tea, rum and sulphur or tar, they re¬ 
ply that their medicine contains a homeopathic 
principle that the chemist cannot discover. There is 
nothing of this sort in a cheap fertilizer, and the 
chemist is truer than the agent! 
© 
Goose raising on a large scale could be made profit¬ 
able at the South. The warmer climate of that section 
would enable breeders to secure birds for the early 
market in advance of northern breeders, just as south¬ 
ern lambs now come in ahead. Possibly, the market 
for geese will not stand much of an increase of stock. 
The majority of Americans never tasted roast goose ! 
After one good mouthful, people might sing the old 
song : 
It is my opinion, 
Stuffed with sage and inyun 
There is no bird flies is half so nice 
As goose with sage and inyun. 
Geese will sell after consumers get a taste of the meat. 
© 
The English Mark Lane Express takes a very hope¬ 
ful view of the future of wheat prices. Speaking of 
the past, it says : 
Were agriculture an inferior occupation from which the dis¬ 
contented could “knock off” with no more warning than a demon¬ 
stration in Trafalgar Square, wheat would have ceased to be cul¬ 
tivated in England from October two years ago, when value went 
considerably below 20 shillings per qr., and cultivation seemed 
only possible at an absolute loss. Luckily for England, if not 
for farmers themselves, the position is different. Agriculture 
cannot be lightly abandoned; rotations cannot be disturbed at a 
month’s notice. 
The English “quarter” contains eight bushels, and the 
shilling is worth 24 cents in our money. During the 
past two years, wheat has been slowly rising in the 
English markets. The average price for December, 
1895, was about 25 shillings per quarter, while the 
chances are that the average for December, 1896, will 
be 30 shillings or more. English farmers do not con¬ 
sider this a speculative advance. In fact, the only 
speculation in England seems to be an effort to keep 
prices down by urging farmers to sell their grain at 
once so that it will come into market right in the face 
of the heaviest shipments from this country and Russia. 
If the English farmer will hold back his wheat, or 
sell it only in small quantities, the market will not 
be glutted, prices will be held up or even increased, 
and the demand for American wheat will be stronger. 
The English speculators evidently believe that the 
world’s increase of wheat production is not keeping 
pace with the increase of population. The Mark Lane 
Express puts it in this way : 
The whole epoch of over-production is clearly on the wane. 
Argentina, the last great factor on that side of the account, is 
found to have arrived on the scene only just in time to balance 
the declining wheat exports of India and Australia. In America 
and in the United States, wheat cultivation is maintained, but the 
population increases year by year, while the yield of wheat is 
stationary. Thus over-production is a vanishing danger, and 
with the close of the present century, will have vanished alto¬ 
gether. 
That is about the situation as viewed from the Lon¬ 
don grain markets. England is the greatest wheat 
buyer of the world, and it is evident that her mer¬ 
chants expect to be obliged to pay more for wheat 
and flour in the future. 
0 
On page 769, The R. N.-Y. advises a reader to let 
hardwood sawdust decay before using it as a mulch 
in the peach orchard. There is a popular belief that 
fresh sawdust will “ poison ” land, or in some way in¬ 
jure crops. Why sawdust should prove more injurious 
than straw or leaves is something we cannot under¬ 
stand, yet we would not advise any one to use fresh 
sawdust heavily. If our friend would use the saw¬ 
dust around 20 or more of his trees, and carefully 
note the results, he would do a real service to horti¬ 
culture. On general principles, it is poor economy to 
haul a load of mulching material up a steep hill. A 
stout man may carry on his back seed enough to pro¬ 
duce 10 tons of excellent green manure in the form of 
clover, cow peas or rye. Sunshine and water will 
work for you cheaper than any other team you can 
have on the farm. 
0 
It is announced that horseless mail wagons will 
soon be used in New York, for collecting the mails. 
This is about the first attempt to use these horseless 
wagons in the public service. If they are successful 
it is highly probable that many more horses will find 
themselves out of work These wagons will run 
about the streets picking up the mail from the boxes. 
The letters will be stamped, assorted and made ready 
for shipment right in the wagons. People who live 
in cities are certainly greatly favored by the postal 
authorities. If but a fraction of this great zeal could 
be employed in improving the mail service in country 
districts we would all feel the effect of it. One of 
the best things that can happen to a city merchant is 
to increase the facilities for reaching country people 
by mail. We cannot understand why city men do not 
see that it is to their interest to encourage free de¬ 
livery of the mail in the country. 
© 
At last, Commissioner of Agriculture Wieting has 
succumbed to political pressure, and made an appoint¬ 
ment of an assistant in the important Metropolitan 
District to succeed the efficient B. F. Van Valken- 
burgh, who has so ably filled the position for the past 
12 years. The new appointee is Fred. H. Kraclie, a 
young man almost unknown to the trade. Person¬ 
ally, he is said to be of good character, and it is to be 
hoped that, for the good of the trade and of the pro¬ 
ducing interests of the country, he may maintain the 
vigorous warfare against frauds so well waged by his 
predecessor. But he was not the choice of the trade, 
who had urged the appointment to the place, if a 
change must be made because of political affiliations, 
of an older man of long experience, and one whom 
we are told is of high personal character, and thor¬ 
oughly posted in every detail of the business. From 
a business standpoint, the appointment is not to be 
commended. We shall have more to say about it 
next week. 
© 
The New York Herald has compiled some remark¬ 
able figures showing the cost of life in New York 
City. The people who live and visit on Manhattan 
Island spend, in round numbers, SI,000,000 each day 
for rent, clothing, food, drink, amusements and other 
expenses of mere living. Each day in the year New 
Yoi’kers buy $21,000 worth of milk. The daily con¬ 
sumption of meat is 800,000 pounds, valued at $70,000 ; 
and of bread 2,000,000 pounds, valued at $90,000. The 
liquors consumed in a single day cost $140,000, while the 
daily smoke requires $80,000 worth of tobacco. In other 
words, the cost of the liquor and tobacco consumed in 
this great city is $21,900,000 greater each year than all 
the bread and meat consumed by New Yorkers in the 
same time ! There is something for you to think 
about. Out of the 15,000,000 voters who cast their 
ballots on November 3, less than one per cent walked 
up the valleys and over the hills to vote directly against 
the liquor traffic. The Prohibitionist vote was almost 
an imaginary quantity this year, because temperance 
people thought there were more important issues. 
What is more important to American farmers than 
the fact that in one great city where cold and hungry 
people are found, twice as much money is spent for 
“ the Devil in solution ”, as is spent for meat! 
O 
The Rhode Island Experiment Station people have, 
certainly, done valuable service in studying out some 
of the most important principles that govern the 
goose raising industry. They have shown how best 
to mix up the breeds in order to secure suitable mar¬ 
ket birds, and how to produce cheap forage in large 
quantities. Early this year, Prof. Shaw of Minnesota 
told us how he was able to pasture six sheep and 10 
lambs for 5% months on one acre of land. To put it 
another way, one acre of land provided the food 
needed to make 550 pounds of lamb. At the Rhode 
Island Station, they are able to produce, at least, 
1,000 pounds of goose meat on one acre, on much the 
same principle as that worked out by Prof. Shaw. In 
showing how one acre of land properly treated can 
be made to produce the food grown on 10 acres of 
ordinary pasture, the Rhode Island Station -prepares 
an object lesson for all stock growers, for it is no dis¬ 
grace for a cow, a sheep, a hog, or even a man, to 
follow in the tracks of a goose. We need more of 
this practical work at our experiment stations. Get 
down to the level of the farmer’s business. Don’t 
dress little ideas up in big words, but bring big ideas 
down to A B C. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
“REPUDIATION! 
Well, now, election’s over, and I hope you’ll stop your noise. 
You ain’t done nothin' else but talk an’ argue witli the boys. 
You say you’ve “ saved the country,” but jest Agger out the cost 
Of apples, corn, pertaters an’ the like that you lost, 
While inarching in processions or a workiu’ with yer jaw, 
An’ now, John Jones, you listen, for I'm layin’ down the law. 
There ain’t no single standard gonter rule this farm, fer I 
Will have my say respected or I’ll know the reason why. 
We’ve tried the single standard of your “ say so ” all too long. 
My rights has dropped down constant an’, I tell ye, it’s all wrong. 
You’ve had the gold of “ say so ” till ye got way out of reach, 
But now the mints is open to the silver of my speech. 
I’ll have my way, or every time you stick your head indoors, 
You’ll hear 16 words spoken, sir, to every one of yours. 
What’s that ? I made a solemn vow upon my wedding day, 
That, come what would, I’d always jest love, honor an’ obey? 
Now that's yer single standard, but it doesn’t work, I guess— 
I didn’t know no better when I up an’ answered “ Yes ” ! 
But now my eyes is opened, an’ I jest stand here an’ state 
I ain’t no slave to no man, but I’ll jest repudiate ! 
Never say dye—to your hair ! 
The good or the cheap—which ? 
Turn that level clay soil up to the frost! 
Read the article on milk fever, page 778. 
The black side of white arsenic—page 769. 
The table of contents will be found on page 777. 
Grind up that bone of contention and use it to grow a crop of 
good will. 
It takes a man with solid teeth to get a square meal out of a 
round steak. 
Helpful son printing may sometimes be done with a shingle— 
with a crack in it. 
Cultivate your home market. There’s no place like home for 
business development. 
Are you well hardened for winter ? Don’t be like a peach tree 
with too much tender growth. 
Who can tell us what the effect of using large quantities of 
fresh sawdust as mulch will be? 
Denver, Colo., milk dealers are obliged to secure a certificate 
of registration before doing business. 
Read the notes on shipping Thanksgiving poultry—next page. 
Try to supply what the market calls for. 
You honor a person by saying, “ You are a goose ! ” The goose 
has a better brain than any other being that wears feathers ! 
A fine apple to eat out of the hand at this season is the Cox 
Orange Pippin. There are few good apples fully ripe just now. 
The old-process oil meal was the method of cooking fat meat 
so that the grease stuck to it. The “ new process” uses a broiler. 
You want to make a prize youngster out of that baby ? Good. 
In the first place, don’t let him eat any lean meat until his second 
teeth are fully formed ! 
The Carman Peachblow potato will be tried another year before 
deciding whether it is worthy of introduction. We want to make 
sure that it is really a “peach” before blowing about it. 
The death of Prof. McGee, as described on page 777, illustrates 
the danger of wearing loose or flapping clothing when at work 
about machinery. A blouse or cardigan jacket is far better than 
a coat in such places. 
The horticulturist at the New Jersey Station has an interesting 
variety test of strawberries under way. Some weeks ago, a num¬ 
ber of growers sent The R. N.-Y. lists of what they considered the 
best six varieties. The horticulturist has planted the varieties 
thus named in groups, and will give equal culture to all. 
Our western readers are sorrowful because the rise in the 
price of wheat came too late to help them. Here we have a New 
Jersey farmer who doesn’t want higher wheat because he buys 
his flour. You would be astonished to learn how many thou¬ 
sands of American farmers there are who buy their flour ! This 
is a big country with many sides to it. One farmer may consume 
what another produces. 
