18 
January 7, 
THE RTJRAL NEW-YORKER 
“CAREFUL CONSIDERATION” CONGRESS¬ 
MAN GETS HIS. 
It seems a shame to “rub it in” on 
some of these “careful consideration” 
gentlemen, yet doctors tell us the only 
way to make a strong treatment ef¬ 
fective is to see that it really gets into the 
system. Just prior to the last election 
one of our readers in Pennsylvania wrote 
his Member of Congress and asked him 
certain questions, including the follow¬ 
ing: 
I understand there is a movement on 
foot tp put the rural delivery routes under 
the old Star Route system of letting to 
the lowest bidder. Would you favor such 
a-plan? Will you, if re-elected, support a 
parcels post measure similar to those en¬ 
joyed by European nations? 
The dignity with which some of these 
gentlemen pass out words of wisdom is 
something awe-inspiring, but somehow 
it does not work as it did once. Our 
friend who wrote the original letter 
says: 
I enclose a copy of his reply. Lucid, is 
it not? I was quite overwhelmed by so 
much information, all in one lump. 
Lucid? Well—judge for yourself. 
I am not sufficiently familiar witli the 
changes you desire in the rural delivery 
service to state what stand I would take; 
but you may rest assured that if the serv¬ 
ice in this district can be improved to 
serve the people better, I shall put my best 
effort behind such changes. 1 am using 
the greatest amount of effort to ascertain 
with exactness what the people of the dis¬ 
trict want in regard to the parcels post 
movement, and when the wishes of the 
majority are known I will act to make 
their wishes effective. It would be easy 
enough for me to answer your questions 
in the affirmative now before election if 1 
considered them lightly, and it is only 
because of the deep sense of responsibility 
that I entertain for the office which I ask 
you to give me that I refrain from making 
a more sweeping declaration of my inten¬ 
tions. 
And here comes the sequel: 
I had the intense satisfaction of seeing 
him defeated by 700 votes in a district 
where he should have received a majority 
of 4,000. Well, times are changing; and 
politicians with “the deep sense of respon¬ 
sibility” can but sit up and take notice; 
and “my people”- will yet get what they 
want. 
Surely “my people” will get what they 
want just as soon as they realize that 
' they belong to themselves and not to 
“me.” For this is one of the gentlemen 
who might have been reelected if he had 
been sensible enough to know how the 
people felt about parcels post! 
Imitation Asphalt; Cement and Coal Tar. 
J. L. B. (No Address).— I have heard 
that a mixture of coal tar and cement 
will take the place of asphalt in roofing 
a barn or shed, and prove satisfactory. 
What are the facts about this? 
Ans— I do not know of any instance 
where this has been tried out. I should 
myself doubt its success, especially if 
the plan is to use the cold liquid coal tar. 
The coal tar would be a long time in 
becoming hard, but in doing so would 
shrink in volume and this, I fear, would 
leave the hardened product too porous 
to shed water even if it did not become 
so brittle as to be injured by cracking. 
I know from actual trial that when coal 
tar is mixed with sand, after the coal 
tar has been boiled sufficiently so as to be 
hard when cold, the sand being put into 
the coal tar hot and the sand dry, giving 
a stiff mortar when hot, the layer when 
cold was not impervious to water. It 
does not follow certainly from this, how¬ 
ever, that the same would be true with 
coal tar and cement. The inquirer could 
readily make a trial on a small scale 
which would satisfy him as to the prac¬ 
ticability of its lying on the roof until it 
becomes hard, and whether it would be 
likely to be waterproof. F. H. king. 
THE COW AND THE MAN. 
The North Dakota College sends out the 
following circular about cows: 
“If a cow gives 175 pounds of butter in 
a year is worth $60, how much is a cow 
worth that gives 350 pounds of butter in a 
year? Suppose that butter will average 25 
cents the year round, and it will do better, 
and that the feed is worth $40 for the 
year. The first cow would give a return 
of $43.75, less $40 for feed would leave 
a profit of $3.75, counting that the milk, 
calf and manure pays for the labor. The 
second cow would give a return of $87.50 
for butter and would give at least 4,000 
pounds more of milk, which, at 20 cents 
per 100 pounds (and it is worth more for 
feed), would bring $8. The calf from fke 
good cow is also worth more, but let that 
go. The return would be $95.50, less $40 
for feed, or a profit of $55.50 on the same 
basis as the other cow made a profit of 
$3.75. It would take practically 15 175- 
pound cows to make as much profit as the 
one 350-pound cow. $3.75 is 6.2 per cent 
on $60, and $55.50 is 6.2 per cent on 
$985.16. On the basis of percentage in¬ 
come, when the 175 pound cow is worth $50, 
the 350 cow is worth $895.16. The keep¬ 
ing of the cows should be looked at from 
the business standpoint. The poor cow is 
dear at any price, but the good cow is 
usually not rated at her real value.” 
Our answer is that it depends on the 
man in front of the cow. for the feeding 
aud care is what does it. Put a purebred 
cow in the hands of a scrub dairyman and 
a scrub in charge of a good man and we 
will back the latter. We buy fertilizers 
and feeds on the strength of their an¬ 
alysis—or at least we ought to—but the 
real test is the man who uses them. Some 
farmers will waste plant food or feed. That 
is why the dairy value of a cow or the 
farm value of a fertilizer will depend on 
the man. 
H 
Milch Cows on Rape. 
If milch cows should be turned regularly 
into a pasture where they can feed on 
Dwarf Essex rape, would the rape impart 
a taint to their milk? If the rape should 
be cut and fed just after the cows are 
milked, would such a course overcome the 
difficulty? w. h. l. 
Yes. where cows are pastured on rape 
the milk will be tainted. Thus the rape is 
better pasture for steers, sheep and hogs. 
It is much like using turnips or cabbage. 
When these are fed just after milking the 
the milk is not tainted. The trouble is duo 
to volatile oils which will pass out of the 
system in 10 hours or so. Thus if fed just 
after the milk is drawn those taints will 
disappear before another milking. 
Corn with Potatoes. 
I have a small farm of about 10 acres. 
The land is in good shape. I would like 
to plant all I can and get the best results. 
Could I plant in drill potatoes and some 
small-stalk early sweet corn such as Golden 
Bantam or some other small kind; plant 
in hills 18 inches apart every other hill? 
I wish to plant cabbage and cauliflower on 
a side hill. Ought I to lime or fertilize? 
I am going to manure the piece. I had 
sweet corn on it this year. A. B. c. 
Luzerne Co., Pa. 
If we understand your question you 
think of planting sweet corn in the hills 
of potatoes. Unless the season is exactly 
right you will not get full crops of either. 
There must be an abundance of moisture 
and the soil must be stuffed full of vege¬ 
table matter. We have tried this many 
times, but with few successes. If you use 
a good coat of manure the cabbage ought 
to make a fair growth. We should use 
lime broadcast and harrowed in. 
Lame Horses. 
What is the best remedy for a horse that 
;s very sore in the front feet? I had a 
jood team which are very sore; these horses 
;ame from the city, off hard roads. 
Michigan. K - 
Shoe with leather pads under flat bar 
shoes. Clip hair from tendons and blister 
repeatedly with cerate of cautharides. 
a. ,s. A. 
I* 
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ERE’S the place where 
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READER: If you want to make money 
with poultry as the Curtiss brothers are 
making it, subscribe now for the FARM 
JOURNAL, and get with it the new 
for particulars and ask for circulan J 
D. It. SPERRY & 00., Batavia, 111. 
c 
urtiss Poultry Dook 
B 
which tells how Roy Curtiss, a New York 
farmer’s son, starting with a few neglected hens, 
has built up at the famous NIAGARA Farm, the 
largest poultry plant in the world , with sales of 
over $100,000 a year. 
Roy wanted to make some money. He saw 
that the hens on the place were almost entirely neglected, and 
proposed that if his father (a grain merchant and farmer) 
would furnish the feed, he (Roy) would take care of the 
flock, and supply eggs and chickens for the farm table, and all 
that were left over were to belong to him. His father agreed 
and Roy went to work. 
In two years he was using so much feed that 
his father had to cry quits, but the boy kept right on. He 
had grit and “ go,” just like your father’s boys, and was 
determined to succeed. He would start at two o’clock A. M. 
for Niagara Falls, thirteen miles away, with poultry and eggs 
to sell. His brother joined him in the business, and it grew 
and grew. They took the farm, paid off the mortgage, built 
and added to their plant, learning slowly how to avoid losses 
and make profits. Their tender spring chickens and delicious 
ducklings captured the best hotel trade of Niagara Falls, 
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things” in the poultry business. 
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devise their own methods, and learn by their own mistakes. 
Such a guide as the CURTISS POULTRY BOOK would 
have saved them thousands of dollars and years of lost time. 
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This book describes fully their methods of managing incu¬ 
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