24 
January 14, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS EAR SI Ell'8 PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
IlKKUKKT W. COLLING WOOD, Kdltor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, t 
Mrs. K. T. Rovi.it, f 
Associates. 
John J. Dillon, liuslness Manaser. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, 52.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8 Ms marks, or 10% francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly sure 
we will make good any loss to paid subscribers sustained 
by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising in our col¬ 
umns. and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trilling differences between subscribers and honest, 
responsible advertisers. Neither will we be responsible for 
the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one 
month of tile time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rural New-Yorker when writing the adver¬ 
tiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance 
Is for, should appear In every letter. 
Remittances may be made In money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1905. 
TEN WEEKS FOR !0 CENTS. 
In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory purposes. 
We depend on onr old friends to make this known to 
neighbors and friends. 
* 
We take pleasure in stating that the Minnesota Ex¬ 
periment Station has begun the investigation of fence 
tt 'ire, nails and pipe. The -work will be done thor¬ 
oughly and well, and will result in great benefit to 
fanners. Good for Minnesota! Next! 
* 
The reports on eggs held in water glass are coming 
in. These eggs seem to have kept well, and for ordi¬ 
nary cooking purposes arc about as good as fresh eggs. 
Some people are trying to sell them in competition with 
fresh or cold storage eggs, and are disappointed because 
they do not bring more. Last Spring, while urging read¬ 
ers to try the water glass, we distinctly told them not 
to expect large profits from the sale of such eggs. We 
should he satisfied with keeping the eggs for private 
use at a time when fresh eggs are too valuable for home 
use. We have never believed that water-glass eggs can 
ever compete with cold storage except perhaps in small, 
local markets. 
* 
I'he Good Rook has a passage in Isaiah that says: 
“Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not 
bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not ?” 
The text app.lies directly to the men this year who on 
account of the high price of feed are spending their 
money for oat feeds and corn-and-oat feeds which they 
think are cheap because they sell at a relatively low 
price, but in reality are very dear. The dealer is inter¬ 
ested in pushing them, for there is more profit in that 
class of goods than in other kinds of feed. As a rule 
they are not nearly as good as early-cut hay, rowen 
or good clover hay, but you wouldn’t catch people pay¬ 
ing the prices they do for these oat feeds buying any of 
the three mentioned at even prices. 
* 
A recent medical report brings together some inter¬ 
esting facts concerning the condition of milk as retailed 
by grocers and small dealers in the chief cities of this 
country and Europe. As the milk finally reaches the 
consumer it is about alike in both continents as regards 
its state of preservation, judged by its bacterial contents, 
though the milk sold in American cities averages nearly 
48 hours old, while in Europe it is usually sold within 
eight or ]0 hours after milking. The main reason our 
milk is not inferior to the European article, though so 
prolonged in exposure, is probably due to quick cooling 
and the very general use of ice from the dairy to the 
consumer. Ice is plentiful enough in northern Europe, 
but farmers and dairymen apparently do not have the 
gumption to use it freely. 
* 
According to the New York State Department of 
Agriculture, there are 500,000 dogs in the State. If the 
proposed legislation, taxing each dog $2, goes through, 
the proceeds, $1,000,000 will be divided equally between 
the State and the locality whence the money is derived. 
The sum of $500,000 which the State would thus receive 
would he devoted to a number of agricultural interests. 
It is believed that the dogs would pay all the expenses 
of the State Department of Agriculture, the annual cost 
of the Geneva Experiment Station, and the farmer’s in¬ 
stitutes, and still leave $50,000 for the Cornell College of 
Agriculture. It is further urged that this tax would 
supply sufficient money to reimburse dairymen whose 
cattle arc destroyed by State orders because tuberculous. 
The State Department of Agriculture has been led to 
recommend this State dog tax because of the abnormal 
expense incurred in disposing of dogs suffering from 
rabies during the past year. One-half of the $10,000 
appropriated by the Department for dealing with infec¬ 
tious diseases of animals during the past year was used 
in expenses due to rabies. The owners of valuable dogs 
should he among the warmest advocates of the proposed 
tax. 
* 
It is generally understood that milk is a “perfect 
food for children. We encourage children to drink 
it because we feel sure that it contains food in a digesti¬ 
ble condition. 1 lie child can assimilate it at once. We 
believe there is “bone food” in the milk—that is, the ash 
or mineral elements which produce bone, like lime and 
phosphoric acid, and which promote digestion, like pot¬ 
ash. Ibis view is all right. We do well to encourage the 
children to drink milk freely. We do even better to 
encourage them td eat apples, as we shall see from the 
following comparison of the two: 
Pounds in 100. 
Winter apples. . . 
Milk ... 
Water. Solids. 
85.38 14.02 
80.40 13.00 
Phosphoric 
Ash. Acid. Potash. 
.20 .023 .155 
.73 .10 .19 
.Most people will be surprised to sec that apples con¬ 
tain about as much water as milk. The juice of these 
\\ inter apples contains over 10 per cent of sugar and. 
as we can see, fair amounts of ash. I he larger part 
of the ash in an apple is in the skin, just as most of the 
mineral elements in the wheat kernel are in the bran or 
shell. Eat the apple skin by all means. 
* 
After the fearful cold of last Winter many farmers 
decided to use some more effective system of house 
heating than stoves. Others reasoned that because last 
\\ inter was severe we were sure to have a milder season 
this year. I hat is where they made a mistake, and now 
there is another rush for information about systems for 
heating. Here are some good questions: 
An expert puts the relative first cost of steam and hot 
water plants at 13 for steam, and 15 for hot water, and the 
eost of operating 13% tons coal for steam and 10 hot 
water. In other respects lie makes little distinction. Is he 
correct as to coal i My dwelling house Is on an exposed 
knob, and is four miles from a plumber. A brother in the 
city through carelessness of a servant had his hot water 
plant frozen during a blizzard, with heavy damage and ex¬ 
pense resulting, and I do not feel like taking similar risk in 
the country. I know that water heat is good, no better how¬ 
ever than steam. What I want is the system least likely 
to give trouble in t lie - blizzard. A friend who some years 
ago had large experience in steam and hot water heating 
advises me : “By all means take steam. I prefer it. even 
in city houses." Another expert says: “Steam, if house is 
exposed; water in a city house." 
The only way to settle these things is to call for per¬ 
sonal experience. So far as we are able to learn the 
water pipes are more likely to he frozen than steam— 
though with reasonable care there should he no damage. 
The cost of operating hot water is less, because on 
warmer days less fire is required to keep the water warm 
than would he to keep up a steam pressure. Either sys¬ 
tem is more likely to break down than hot air, and this 
must be considered if any careless person is to have 
charge of it. We wish to hear from readers who can 
give reliable figures as to' cost of operation or liability 
to damage of the two systems. 
* 
All over the South farmers are greatly excited over 
the drop in the price of cotton. In some places they are 
reported as burning bales of cotton in the public squares 
of towns, expecting in this way to reduce the surplus 
and thus raise the price. This foolish waste of useful 
property will do no good. Some years ago western 
farmers burned corn as fuel, yet it was not long before 
the grain reached such a price that the food they con¬ 
sumed in this way would have nearly paid farm debts 
could it have been held. Another plan suggested is for 
the southern people to raise a fund large enough to con¬ 
trol 10 or 15 per cent of the crop and hold it back from the 
market. It is argued that grain prices are fixed and 
held by speculators who control the crop! Why not let 
southern planters hold the crop themselves and do their 
own speculating? In one way cotton differs from grain. 
Cotton is sold in large lots to dealers or mill owners. 
There is no retail trade for the raw material. Grain 
goes through a greater number of hands, and is sold at 
last in small lots—at retail. The retail trade in cotton is 
in cloth rather than in raw fiber. If the southern plant¬ 
ers could control 15 per cent of the year's crop and hold 
it hack they might create higher prices, but, apparently, 
this would act against them in two ways. More cot¬ 
ton, outside of their control, would be grown. European 
nations would redouble their efforts to grow their own 
supplies in Africa and other tropical countries. We 
pointed out last year that the high prices could not last 
on raw material which has no retail market. It seems 
evident that the speculative prices of last year partly 
caused a larger crop in this country and a better chance 
for Europe to obtain a supply in Africa. The only 
chance we see for the southern cotton grower is in a 
reduction of acreage and a smaller total crop. Coming 
through North and South Carolina at New Year's we 
saw hundreds of acres of cotton still unpicked. Most 
of it was poor—on land not suited to its growth. 
* 
I he Carnegie Institute at Washington, founded to 
assist and encourage scientific research and experiments 
likely to be of general value, but not of profit to the 
investigator, has recently granted Luther Burbank funds 
sufficient to carry on bis valuable plant-breeding work- 
in California for the next 10 years. Although having 
remarkable success in originating fruits and plants 
of immediate commercial value, Mr. Burbank’s work 
has so extended along lines of inestimable future pub¬ 
lic value without promising immediate returns that 
it has become burdensome to carry. It is understood 
that the amount provided by the Carnegie Institute is 
sufficient to develop Mr. Burbank’s plans to a satisfac¬ 
tory extent. A plant originator has no legal or other 
protection in the control of his products. The public 
has the benefit, and the one who carries on the ex¬ 
periments has little reward but the satisfaction of con¬ 
tributing to the general welfare. The Carnegie In¬ 
stitute expended this year $379,070 in various depart¬ 
ments of scientific research, scattering their benefactions 
through many States of the Union, to far-off Syria, to 
Nubia, Siberia and China, but it is doubtful whether 
any of these investigations will give more useful and 
lasting results than this timely aid to our widely known 
Californian plant breeder. 
♦ 
A German investigator claims to have discovered an 
antidote for fatigue—the long-desired lazy cure—in the 
form of an extract from the muscles of overworked 
horses. This extract is in itself a poison or toxin, but 
when injected in the circulation of healthy horses gives 
rise to an antitoxin, which can be extracted in more or 
less permanent form. When administered to humans 
by the mouth in moderate doses, this antitoxin or fa¬ 
tigue medicine gives rise to general good feeling and 
the capacity for an immense amount of severe muscular 
labor without weariness. Flic theory is that this horse 
antitoxin neutralizes the fatigue poison or toxin pro¬ 
duced in human muscles by prolonged exertion. It is 
claimed to be so much more powerful than the direct 
muscular poison causing "that tired feeling” we all 
know that only one part is needed to overcome 100 parts 
of fatigue toxin as produced in the muscles. The discov¬ 
erer recommends it for weak, nervous and indolent peo¬ 
ple. If true, what a boon this antitoxin might prove to 
the tired-out housewife, who must, perforce, rise with 
the sun every day, and to the listless hoy who turns 
the grindstone for the reaper knives in harvest. It 
might galvanize into useful activity some of the “Weary 
Willies" of our country roads, and so help to solve the 
overshadowing problem of effective farm labor! While 
waiting for this lazy-cpre, which may or may not materi¬ 
alize, let us keep ourselves in good working trim by 
steady industry, even if we do occasionally feel healthy 
and normal fatigue. 
BREVITIES. 
Wiiv does tlio San Jos<5 scale hesitate to suck the Klef- 
fer pear? 
You may lynch that mortgage by “getting the hang" of 
the feed and fertilizer question. 
Limoid was used in many of the so called “cold-water” 
paints. It is a good “sticker," which adds to its value for 
spraying. 
The dozens of readers who have written us about Italian 
farm laborers will he interested in J. II. Hale’s note on the 
next. pnge. 
What is in demand? First-class fruit, grain, slock and 
men. How does a man raise himself to first-class? By 
hands, head and character. 
We want to know how arsenate of lead compares with 
Paris-green as a poison for Potato beetles. If you have 
used it, please give your experience. 
Since dishorning became common it has become hard to 
buy horn. There was formerly a fair demand for horns, 
which were used for various purposes. 
We have a reader who says lie lias taken a job in town. 
He wants The it. N.-Y. stopped for the present, as lie wants 
to do everything he can to “win my affections from the 
farm." 
Niohti.v self questions for the institute speaker: Did I 
say anything to-day that will help a poor and discouraged 
farmer? Pan I put myself in such a farmer’s place? If 
not, what am I here for? 
Ten years ago The It. N.-Y. suggested a course In agri¬ 
cultural journalism at an agricultural college. A_t that 
time the idea was considered little short of absurd. Now 
such a course lias actually been established at the Iowa 
Agricultural College. 
Here comes a Massachusetts farmer: “I want to learn 
all I can about the hen business, for although I have a good 
farm of 70 acres, I don't intend to do much farming. Being 
72 years old, I am getting tired of hard work, and all the 
young fellows I have been able to hire seem to be more 
tired than I am.” 
If Representative Henry’s rural mail parcels post bill 
goes through the housewife will lie relieved from anxiety 
about the delivering of her fresh eggs and butter, or broil¬ 
ers, to say nothing about an occasional barrel of produce. 
We doubt, however, whether the rural carriers will rise up 
and call him blessed. 
