788 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 28 
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. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
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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 
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We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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Post-office 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 28, 1896. 
E. S. Carman’s address, until next May, will be 
No. 5 West 82nd Street, New York. 
© 
Read John Gould’s “ Primer Science” article about 
ensilage on page 784. We would like to add to what 
he says that milk is a perfect food, yet no man would 
care to live on skim-milk and butter! Condensed 
milk is ahead of cheese and water. Who will choose 
stewed sun-dried peaches when he can obtain prime 
canned goods ? Analysis is all very well for picking 
Nature’s combination apart, but synthesis, or the 
opposite of analysis, fails to give man the power to 
duplicate these combinations. 
a 
“ An enemy at our doors!” That is the heading 
we frequently find in the southern papers nowadays. 
The “ terrible pest ” which is said to be creeping over 
the southern farms, is our old friend, Johnson grass, 
which The R. N.-Y. sent out for trial in one of its 
free seed distributions years ago. It has, certainly, 
become a trial to those farmers who permitted it to 
spread over the cultivated fields. It yields immense 
crops of forage ; but woe betide the corn or cotton 
field in which it secures a fair start. It has gone so 
far that special tools for killing out the grass have 
been devised. Any good plant out of its place becomes 
a weed. 
© 
We advise our readers to examine Mr. Van Valken- 
burgh’s statement, printed on page 783. This man has 
made a clean and honest official. After 12 years of 
valuable service, he is retired because he is not classed 
with the dominant political party. There may be 
Republican dairymen in the State of New York who 
prefer, for this office, a Republican who has all the 
details to learn, to an honest Democrat who has had 
12 years’ experience. There may be such dairymen— 
but we doubt it. In any event, the strongest effort 
should be made to retain the assistants who, as Mr. 
Van Valkenburgh says, know all the details of the 
business. 
O 
L. D. Gale tells, on page 789, about having to 
hustle around to fill the orders that come to him, 
whereas, only a few years ago, he had to hustle 
around to get people to buy his products. This 
change is the result of just two things—the produc¬ 
tion of a good article, and judicious advertising. The 
founder of one of the greatest of our New York 
dailies used to say, ‘ ‘First print the news, then make 
a big fuss about it.” If you have a good thing, 
advertise it, get people to talk about it, then after 
that, it is pretty likely to advertise itself. Farmers 
should do more advertising, varying the methods 
according to circumstances. 
O 
No ! The R. N.-Y. has no candidate to suggest for 
the position of Secretary of Agriculture in President 
McKinley’s cabinet. We have suggested and nomin¬ 
ated people for State or National positions before 
now, and have found, as the result of it all, that we 
used a lot of valuable space to no purpose. We have 
in mind several men, any one of whom would fill a 
cabinet seat with credit, but we don’t expect to see 
any of them selected. The Secretary of Agriculture 
will be one of the President’s advisers. The Presi¬ 
dent will fairly be held responsible for the National 
affairs of the next four years. He would be foolish 
to let some one else select his advisers for him. If 
we were President, we would put in the chair of agri¬ 
culture some personal friend whom we knew to be 
competent and in whom we had full confidence, and 
then keep a general oversight of the affairs of the 
department. We would not try to “ recognize” this 
section or that, or this organization or the other, but 
would carry out the same principles we would in con¬ 
ducting a private business. President McKinley 
knows what he is about, and TnE R. N.-Y. will not 
waste its words in suggesting or petitioning. 
© 
The Farmers’ National Congress met at Indianapo¬ 
lis recently and, after some discussion, passed a reso¬ 
lution to the effect that the tariff on all shoddy, 
woolen rags, etc., used to adulterate cloth should be 
made so high as to prohibit imports. We regard this 
as a step in the right direction, and we would go 
further and place the manufacture and sale of this 
shoddy cloth under government control on much the 
same principle that the manufacture of oleomargarine 
is handled. We believe that the fraudulent use of 
shoddy does more harm to American wool growers 
than the loss of the tariff on wool, and wool growers 
are as deserving of government protection as are 
dairymen. 
O 
Mb. Webb, on page 784, makes a good point in 
showing that the sweet potato crop requires a large 
amount of potash, while the average fertilizer sold 
in Delaware contains less than three per cent of this 
substance. The western States are passing laws to 
regulate the trade in fertilizers, and the various ex¬ 
periment stations issue tables of analyses. We notice 
that in these western brands the per cent of potash is 
usually very low. The mixture is usually one of 
bone, blood, tankage and other slaughter-house 
refuse, with a small amount of kainit or muriate of 
potash. Our advice to western fruit growers is to de¬ 
mand at least seven per cent of potash in such goods, 
and to buy only on guaranteed analysis. 
© 
Read what Mr. Gale says on page 789 about his ex¬ 
hibit at a street fair. He seems to have worked up a 
perfect gale of trade from a small “ starter” of a 
breeze. What he says about developing the home 
market is as sound as a rock. The writer often sees 
farmers driving through his town to New York with 
sweet corn and other vegetables. Twelve hours later, 
peddlers will come back from the city with the same 
class of vegetables and sell them from house to house 
at a good profit. There is a neglected “ home mar¬ 
ket”, and it is much the same in any large town. 
The street fair is an excellent thing. Now that the 
larger fairs are surrendering to “ freaks” and ques¬ 
tionable exhibitions, we advise those farmers who 
oppose such things, to stay away from the large 
exhibitions and give their time and work to develop¬ 
ing smaller fairs which they can control. The way 
to make the managers of the big fairs clean up is to 
stay away from their grounds. 
© 
It is evident from the letters we receive that some 
of our readers have taken very kindly to the idea of 
serving on the New York police force. We under¬ 
stand that already 300 men from the country are 
serving as policemen, and still more are wanted. 
There was a time when a New York policeman was 
generally regarded as a big brutal fellow who de¬ 
lighted in smashing heads with his club. The time 
has gone by when beef ranks above brains on the 
police force. The mental examination is now the 
hardest for applicants to pass. What the depart¬ 
ment now wants are clean and sound young men of 
good character and clear head. There was a time 
when petty politicians could dictate to the police 
department. That day has gone by, and the men 
have reason to know that merit will win. The New 
York police force, as at present conducted, certainly 
offers better opportunities for an ambitious young 
man than either the army or the navy. 
O 
As reports continue to come in, we find that many 
farmers are succeeding this year with Crimson clover 
who were sadly disappointed with it in former years. 
Of course, much of this success is due to the more 
favorable weather conditions we have had this fall, 
but it is also true that the leguminous plants like 
clover, beans and peas, require characteristic fer¬ 
ments or bacteria in the soil before they can thrive. 
It has been noticed by many that such plants will 
gain in vigor when successive crops are grown, year 
after year, on the same ground. This fact has often 
puzzled farmers because it could not be accounted for 
by any of the accepted rules of cultivation or manur¬ 
ing. The truth was that the bacteria needed to de¬ 
velop the crop were not present in the soil first. As 
crop after crop was grown, these bacteria spread so 
that, at last, all the conditions needed to produce 
a good crop are present. This simple explanation will 
account for many so-called failures with Crimson 
clover that have, at last, grown into successes. 
What a noise there would be if you should pass 
through the kitchen some day and find your wife 
pouring out a quart of nice cream for the dog’s din¬ 
ner, or deliberately throwing half a pound of good 
butter into the dish water. There would be such a 
storm that the lights of home would be just about 
blown out. Yet, how much worse is that dog feeding 
than your own scheme of feeding good grain and hay 
to those scrubs out in the barn ? On general princi¬ 
ples, we will back the dog to give the better returns 
for the food. How much worse is it to put butter 
right into the dish water than to feed the cows an un¬ 
balanced ration containing so much fat that they can¬ 
not digest it ? We give you the floor for a reply ! 
© 
The henwife suspected an occasional large louse on 
the hens, though seldom could one be found. Kero¬ 
sene oil is bad for such vermin, and a little goes a 
long way, though its application to the individuals is 
a tedious process. A wholesale method was desired. 
A strip of cloth was suspended across the little door 
through which the hens made their exit to the yards, 
so that, as they passed through, it would brush 
lightly over their backs ; this was then saturated 
with oil. So far so good, but a number of them res¬ 
olutely refused to risk their lives by passing through 
any such trap, and it was many days before some of 
them could be prevailed upon, by gentle urging, to 
make the venture. Even yet, some of them go through 
with a jump as though expecting something to drop 
on them. The cloth should be of some quiet color 
like gray or brown, as hens are often afraid of bright 
colors. 
© 
BREVITIES. 
A BABY’S SYMPATHY. 
I sat in sorrow one sad, lonely day— 
The shadow of a coming trouble near. 
Grim doubt came creeping with its arms of gray 
From the damp fog where lurked remorse and fear. 
No hope came to me in that bitter hour, 
No friendly hand reached out in sympathy; 
Despondency, with cruel, grasping power 
Had chained my soul, and would not set it free. 
But baby came to me as though she knew 
The doubt that bound me—climbed upon my knee 
And said, “I love you fader—yes I do— 
Because I know my fader does love me.” 
Oh mighty faith of childhood—doubt and fear 
Fall back before the baby’s soft caress. 
Content—if her weak father’s love is near, 
To trust her life to him in happiness. 
Ah! If we larger children could but keep 
The baby’s faith to ward off doubt and sin, 
We would not fear the slow and steady creep 
Of Time while bringing our life’s harvest in. 
But somewhere—on the road from babyhood, 
We lose our faith within the world’s rough play. 
Forgetting that the loving Father stood 
And said, “I love you” all along the way. 
The next currant event is pruning. 
A chii> on your shoulder is a chip o’ war. 
Make your hog a present of a pen wiper. 
Don’t apply for a pen shun. Write your thoughts out. 
The palm will drink twice as much water as the baby. 
“ A Table of Contents.” The happy farm family at dinner. 
The Leghorn rooster’s comb unfits him for a brush with his 
rival. 
The way to create interest in the farmers’ institute is to run it 
on sound 'principles. 
They tell us that the mills and shops are opening. How about 
that shop on your farm ? 
Will southern poultrymen give us actual facts about feeding 
cotton-seed meal to poultry ? 
Laughter and good feeling are the oil of a meal. This is the old 
process of aiding digestion. 
Bad men making good roads do more for their country than 
good men making bad roads. 
In the farm live stock shop, you may use the Leghorn hen as 
the laythe for turning out cash. 
First call for Sir Walter Raleigh potato came Friday, Novem¬ 
ber 13. The mails are now full of them. 
Our friend on page 787 says that some men can’t run even a 
wheel-barrow as it should be run. Is he right ? 
Our women folks are glad that the bedbug articles are over. 
Hereafter, they say that they want “ bugology ” in another pew 1 
No! Grass will not turn green with envy when you put all the 
manure and fertilizer on other crops! Nitrogen is the green 
painter I 
You wouldn’t loan your money to a stranger without an imme¬ 
diate account. Don’t send your property to a strange commis¬ 
sion man without demanding prompt returns. 
T. C. Kevitt has a “ strawberry barrel ” which he purposes to 
keep under glass through the winter by placing a sash on each 
of four sides around it with boards on top. It will not do to let 
the barrel freeze solid. 
Prof. Redding advises against feeding whole cow peas to poul¬ 
try, since they might swell and burst the crop. One way to open 
a human skull for the study of anatomy, is to fill it with dry 
beans and pour in water. The swelling of the beans will burst 
the skull apart. 
Clover hay is a better food than Timothy. Every one knows 
that, yet Timothy brings a higher price. There is a prejudice 
against clover, chiefly on account of its dust, though this might 
easily be overcome by moistening it. If clover cannot win against 
prejudice, there is a poor chance for shredded fodder. 
