THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
March  19 
188 
THE 
Rural  New-Yorker 
TIMES  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK. 
*  * 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes. 
*  a 
ELBERT  S.  CARMAN.  Editor  In  Chief. 
HERBERT  W.  COLLING  WOOD,  Managing  Editor. 
Copyrighted  1892. 
SATURDAY ,  MARCH  IS,  1892. 
There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  complaint  recently 
about  the  poor  quality  of  the  cotton-seed  meal  offered 
for  sale.  Most  of  the  experiment  stations  have  re¬ 
ceived  many  samples  for  analysis.  As  Prof.  Voorhees 
explains  on  another  page,  the  trouble  usually  is  that 
the  meal  contains  too  large  a  proportion  of  hulls.  The 
simple  test  he  gives  will  be  of  value  to  many  farmers 
who  want  pure  goods.  #  * 
Some  months  ago  a  friend  in  Buffalo  sent  us  the 
name  of  a  commission-man  he  wished  to  recommend  as 
an  honest  dealer.  He  now  writes  to  tell  us  that  the 
same  dealer  has  not  used  him  fairly.  Here  is  his  com¬ 
ment.  “  If  these  chaps  were  obliged  to  make  a  state¬ 
ment  every  30  days  of  the  condition  of  the  stock  unsold, 
and  report  sales,  to  whom  made,  with  their  correct 
addresses,  there  would  not  be  so  much  chance  for  dis¬ 
satisfaction,  but  they  prefer  to  continue  to  grow  rich 
off  the  shippers  in  the  present  way.”  Is  there  any 
good  reason  why  commission-men  should  not  make  such 
statements  and  reports  ? 
*  * 
Such  a  pest  is  the  coyote  in  California  that  the  State 
pays  S3  for  his  scalp.  So  brisk  has  been  the  chase  after 
him  that  in  less  than  a  year  $  100,000  has  been  paid  out 
for  20,000  scalps.  In  the  adjoining  Territories  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico  there  is  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  coyotes,  and  as  no  local  bounty  is  paid  for 
their  extermination,  it  is  shrewdly  suspected  that  the 
hunters  there  are  quietly  absorbing  a  large  'share  of 
the  California  money.  Probably  the  superabundance 
of  the  animals  in  the  surrounding  territories  is  the 
chief  reason  why  no  Californian  appears  to  have  yet 
started  in  the  business  of  raising  coyotes  for  the  sake 
of  the  bounty.  *  * 
A  teacher  in  a  Georgia  public  school  is  reported  to 
have  succeeded  with  a  novel  method  of  managing  bad 
boys :  one  that  breaks  a  rule  is  obliged  to  give  a  bond 
for  his  future  good  behavior.  He  must  secure  two  or 
three  boys  on  his  bond  who  will  guarantee  that  he  will 
keep  out  of  mischief,  with  the  understanding  that  if 
the  principal  misbehaves,  the  bondsmen  will  be  pun¬ 
ished.  The  plan  is  said  to  work  well.  It  ought  to,  as 
it  is  based  on  a  principle  of  “human  nature,”  which 
objects  to  taking  a  whipping  one  has  not  deserved. 
Any  boy  or  man  would  exert  himself  to  keep  another 
in  the  straight  path,  if  a  step  from  that  path  meant 
punishment  for  himself  ! 
*  * 
ST.  Clair  and  Cass  Counties  in  Missouri  are  to-day 
furnishing  a  fresh  illustration  and  a  convincing  one, 
of  how  law  is  sometimes  perverted  to  base  uses.  Some 
20  years  ago  outside  capitalists  proposed  to  build  the 
Tebo  and  Neosho  Railroad,  and  to  aid  the  enterprise, 
the  two  counties  named  each  voted  $750,000  in  bonds. 
The  road  was  never  built  and  naturally  the  counties 
repudiated  the  bonds,  or  rather  refused  to  pay  a  bond 
the  conditions  of  which  had  never  been  carried  out. 
The  bonds  are  in  the  hands  of  so-called  “innocent 
third  parties”  who  have  brought  suit  in  the  United 
States  Courts  and  obtained  judgment  against  the 
counties.  Judge  Phillips  of  the  United  States  court 
ordered  the  county  judges  to  make  a  special  tax  levy 
to  liquidate  the  bonds,  but  the  judges  are  determined 
not  to  pay  and  do  not  comply.  They  are  accordingly 
in  contempt  and  will  doubtless  go  to  jail. 
These  iniquities  are  perpetrated  under  no  statutory 
law,  but  under  that  heritage  from  English  law.  known 
as  “Court  Precedents.”  Judges  have  decided  that 
a  bond  or  note  or  obligation,  no  matter  if  every  law 
was  violated  in  its  issue,  becomes  a  valid  claim  when 
it  gets  in  the  hand  of  an  “  innocent  third  party.” 
Under  these  unjust  rulings,  unsophisticated  persons 
have  signed  an  order  for  a  hay-rake  and  later  have 
seen  it  transformed  into  a  note,  which  judges  have 
compelled  them  to  pay  to  an  “innocent  third  party,’’ 
said  “innocent”  in  most  cases  being  a  “pal”  of  the 
scoundrel  who  worked  the  original  game.  If  a  man 
steals  a  horse  and  sells  it  to  an  “innocent  third  party,” 
the  owner  comes  and  takes  it,  as  he  should  in  equity. 
The  judges’  precedents  do  not  apply  to  him,  it  is  only 
to  paper  property. 
Can  any  one  conceive  of  a  greater  outrage  than  to 
compel  these  two  counties  to  pay  $1,500,000  for  a  rail¬ 
road  that  was  never  built  ?  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  “  inno¬ 
cent  third  parties.”  The  buyers  of  those  bonds  knew 
they  were  crooked  ;  if  they  did  not,  it  was  because  they 
did  not  investigate,  and  they  certainly  should  not  ask 
the  people  to  pay  for  the  bond  buyers’  neglect.  The 
chances  are  that  they  were  bought  for  a  song,  on 
speculation,  with  full  knowledge  of  all  the  details. 
We  believe  Pennsylvania  has  passed  a  law  which 
knocks  out  the  “innocent  holder”  in  these  cases. 
Other  States  should  follow  suit. 
*  * 
The  “Mexican  Primrose”  is  now  conspicuously 
advertised  in  many  papers  as  “the  grandest  of  all  new 
plants,”  the  price  asked  being  “  40  cents  each.”  Seeds 
of  this  plant — the  botanical  name  of  which  is  CEnothera 
rosea — are  offered  in  seedsmen’s  catalogues  at  five  cents 
a  paper!  They  germinate  readily.  The  flowers  re¬ 
semble  those  of  the  well  known  annual  Godetia  “  Lady 
Albemarle,”  which  is  itself  an  G5nothera.  For  this, 
climate  the  Mexican  Primrose  is  a  tender  plant  grow¬ 
ing  about  a  foot  high  and  of  a  semi-procumbent,  loose 
habit.  It  is  a  native  of  Mexico  and  parts  of  South 
America,  and  has  been  known  since  1783.  It  will  ap¬ 
pear  that  it  is  a  folly  to  pay  40  cents  for  an  old  “  nov¬ 
elty,”  when  scores  may  be  raised  from  seed  which  will 
cost  but  five  cents.  *  * 
Because  most  of  the  prosecutions  for  the  sale  of  hog 
butter  are  against  the  keepers  of  small  restaurants 
and  boarding  houses,  Justice  McMahon,  of  the  Tombs 
Police  Court,  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  the  officials 
of  the  Dairy  Commission  shield  the  big  and  influential 
men  while  they  go  for  the  poor  ones,  who  cannot  de¬ 
fend  themselves.  The  justice  is  better  authority  on  a 
simple  “drunk  and  disorderly  ”  than  on  violations  of 
the  dairy  laws — his  experience  has  been  so  much  more 
extensive  in  that  direction.  Few  restaurants  doing  a 
large  business  care  to  take  the  risk  which  accompanies 
the  sale  of  hog  butter  to  their  patrons.  They  have 
too  much  at  stake — the  hazard  is  too  great.  If  detected, 
their  business  might  be  ruined.  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  most  of  the  transgressors  are  in  the  smaller 
restaurants.  *  # 
At  this  season  members  of  Congress  are  overwhelmed 
with  requests  from  their  constituents  for  seeds  and  the 
various  reports  issued  by  the  Department  of  Agricul¬ 
ture.  Each  Representative  and  Senator  is  allowed 
8,000  packages  of  seeds  and  800  reports  for  distribu¬ 
tion,  and  most  of  the  members  from  rural  districts 
have  already  exhausted  their  stock  and  are  bargaining 
with  urban  members  for  a  transfer  of  theirs.  Of 
course  the  city  papers  are  loud  in  their  vituperation  of 
the  character  of  the  seed§  and  books  and  of  the  in¬ 
justice  of  this  sort  of  paternalism  which  supplies  both 
to  farmers,  while  giving  to  the  other  classes  in  the 
community  no  equivalent.  Farmers,  however,  should 
bear  their  jeers  and  sneers  with  equanimity,  conscious 
that  any  other  measure  which  would  equally  please 
the  farmers  of  the  country  would  meet  with  similar 
opposition. 
*  * 
It  would  seem  from  recent  action  in  Congress  that 
the  next  Presidential  campaign  will  be  fought  on 
financial  or  currency  questions  rather  than  on  the 
tariff.  A  majority  of  the  Democrats  seem  bound  to 
push  the  issue  of  “  free  silver  ”  to  the  front.  Eastern 
Democrats  seem  disposed  to  favor  tariff  reform  as  the 
leading  issue.  The  Republicans  are  apparently  waiting 
for  the  Democrats  to  attack  either  or  both  the  McKinley 
tariff  law  or  the  Sherman  silver  law  of  1890.  There  is 
no  disguising  the  fact  that  the  West  and  South  are 
enthusiastically  in  favor  of  some  sort  of  silver  legisla¬ 
tion.  With  silver  coinage  as  the  leading  issue,  the 
fight  will  be  largely  a  sectional  one  and  both  parties 
will  find  it  difficult  to  frame  a  platform  that  will  be 
acceptable  to  all  sections  of  the  country.  It  is  a  pity 
that  purely  financial  and  business  questions  cannot  be 
kept  out  of  the  fire  of  party  politics. 
*  * 
It  has  been  quite  generally  anticipated  that  one  of 
the  chief  obstacles  to  the  election  of  United  States 
Senators  directly  by  the  voters  of  the  different  States 
instead  of  indirectly  through  the  legislatures,  would 
be  the  reluctance  of  the  Senate  to  consent  to  an  amend¬ 
ment  to  the  Constitution  changing  the  mode  of  elec¬ 
tion.  Some  had  reasoned  that  the  Senators  would  be 
reluctant  to  sanction  the  change,  as  it  would  be  likely 
to  lessen  the  influence  of  great  wealth  and  command¬ 
ing  position  in  securing  their  election  ;  while  others 
supposed  that  they  might  consider  the  change  a  re¬ 
flection  on  the  methods  by  which  they  had  in  the  past 
been  chosen.  The  desirability  of  the  change  is,  how¬ 
ever,  so  generally  apparent  that  the  Senate  itself  is 
preparing  to  acquiesce  in  the  action  already  taken  by 
the  House.  The  Sub-Committee  of  the  Senate  Com¬ 
mittee  on  Privileges  and  Elections  has  prepared  a  Con¬ 
stitutional  amendment  providing 
That  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be  composed  of  two  Sena¬ 
tors  from  each  State,  who  shall  be  chosen  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  the  several  States  for  six  years  ;  and  the  electors  In  each  State 
shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for  electors  of  the  most  numer¬ 
ous  branch  of  the  State  Legislature,  and  each  Senator  shall  have  one 
vote.  If  vacancies  happen,  by  resignation  or  otherwise,  the  executive 
thereof  may  make  temporary  appointments  until  the  next  general 
election  In  such  State  for  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
Congress,  when  such  vacancies  shall  be  filled  by  a  direct  vote  of  the 
people,  as  aforesaid. 
This  reform,  so  urgently  advocated  by  the  farmers  of 
the  country,  is  certain  to  give  general  satisfaction. 
*  * 
THE  R.  N.-Y.  WANTS  TO  KNOW. 
It  will  not  be  contended  that  unprincipled  florists, 
seedsmen  or  nurserymen  should  be  privileged  to 
swindle  the  public  any  more  than  are  men  engaged  in 
other  mercantile  pursuits. 
Are  there  no  laws  sufficiently  explicit  or  operative 
to  punish,  by  fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both,  those 
florists,  seedsmen  or  nurserymen  who  sell  old  plants 
or  seeds  under  new  names,  or  who  systematically,  year 
after  year,  delude  and  plunder  innocent  purchasers  by 
their  alluring  engravings  and  descriptions  of  plants 
which,  in  fact,  have  never  existed  and  can  never  exist  ? 
If  so,  why  is  The  Rural  obliged  to  defend  itself  against 
costly  libel  suits  because,  in  the  discharge  of  a  duty  no 
less  evident  than  imperative,  it  has  set  itself  the  task 
of  exposing  such  crimes  ? 
Agiin,  if  The  R.  N.-Y.  ought  to  regard  this  as  a 
duty,  is  it  not  an  equally  imperative  duty  upon  the 
farm  press  in  general  which  rightly  sets  itself  up  as 
the  natural  guardian  of  the  welfare  of  the  gardeners, 
farmers  and  fruit-growers  of  the  country  ?  And  how 
are  we  to  reconcile  such  an  obligation  with  the  fact 
that  not  only  is  The  R.  N.-Y.  alone  in  this  taskful 
work,  but  it  has  never — to  the  best  of  its  knowledge — 
received  from  its  contemporaries  one  word  of  support 
or  encouragement  ? 
On  the  other  hand,  we  are  constantly  assured  by  our 
reputable  firms  that  The  Rural’s  exposures  must 
sooner  or  later  impress  upon  purchasers  the  necessity 
of  greater  caution  and  of  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
standing  of  those  with  whom  they  deal. 
*  * 
Brevities. 
You  sent  a  little  tuber  of  your  Rural  No.  2, 
A  migity  “  small  potato  ”  but  the  ‘’best  that  you  could  do,” 
You  said,  and  I  believed  It,  so  I  thought  that  I  would  try 
To  get  the  biggest  stalk  I  could  from  every  little  eye; 
I  cut  It  and  I  nursed  It  and  I  hoed  It  day  by  day; 
i  fed  It  fertilizer  and  I  fought  the  bugs  away ; 
I  dug  at  least  a  bushel  and  I  planted  all  the  crop, 
And  now  the  neighbors  come  and  buy  at  prices  way  up  top. 
And  here  we  have  the  lesson  that  this  simple  story  brings 
It  sometimes  pays  big  interest  to  work  up  little  things. 
You  did  a  heap  of  blowin’  ’long  about  three  year  ago 
About  yer  new  pertater  and  Its  mighty  yield,  an’  so 
I  ordered  ye  ter  send  me  one  an"  what  ye  ’spose  I  gut? 
A  little  dried  up  tuber  not  much  bigger  than  a  nut, 
Ye  orterbe  ashamed  to  send  such  little  fellers  ’round, 
1  slung  It  out  the  winder  an’  it  rotted  on  the  ground, 
An’  now  I  have  to  go  an’  buy  my  seed  of  neighbor  True 
An’  he  kin  charge  me  any  price  that  he’s  a  mind  to  do  1 
1  swan  ef  ’taint  enough  to  take  the  very  stltfest  tuck 
Out  of  yer  back  to  see  the  way  that  feller  does  have  luck. 
Breed  without  feed  will  soon  run  to  seed. 
In  time  of  overproduction  the  good  packer  is  as  valuable  as  the  good 
planter. 
Nothing  inside  your  hen-house  should  be  nailed  down.  Have  every¬ 
thing  removable. 
AN  interview  with  Col.  A.  W.  Pearson  on  spraying  with  Bordeaux 
Mixture  next  week. 
“  When  I  sell  my  tobacco  crop,”  writes  a  subscriber  in  North  Caro¬ 
lina,  “  I  will  be  ready  to  buy  chemicals  and  a  buggy!” 
IT  ought  to  be  comparatively  easy  to  “do  the  right  thing”  for  another 
—the  hard  part  of  it  Is  to  know  what  the  “  right  thing”  really  Is. 
It  is  reported  that  half-grown  turkeys  will  eat  squash  bugs.  We 
certainly  know  of  nothing  else  that  will  thrive  on  such  a  diet ! 
AN  extract  of  lettuce  is  largely  used  In  medicines.  It  is  a  sedative. 
There  is  no  better  “  spring  green  ”  for  nervous  people— or  any  other. 
A  friend  In  Cortland  County,  N.  Y.,  wants  us  to  “  holler  •  wide 
tires!  ’  as  loud  as  you  can  yell.”  We  always  did  like  a  broad-gauge 
man  ! 
Somebody  can  make  a  fortune  in  breeding  and- teaching  a  strain  of 
cats  that  will  kill  vermin  but  refuse  to  kill  birds.  Such  a  cat  could 
earn  $10  In  an  average  family. 
We  have  In  preparation  an  excellent  account  of  the  poultry  investi¬ 
gations  at  the  Cornell  Experiment  Station,  which  will  answer  many 
questions  that  have  been  recently  asked. 
Can  you  bring  an  old  meadow  into  profitable  bearing  without  plow¬ 
ing  and  reseeding?  Does  it  pay  to  put  manure  or  fertilizer  on  a  sod 
that  Is  half  weeds  and  useless  grasses  ? 
An  English  farmer  who  had  20  sheep  affected  with  the  scab,  was 
fined  $100  and  costs  because  he  did  not  promptly  notify  the  public  that 
the  disease  was  in  his  flock.  Is  this  right,  or  should  a  farmer  be  per¬ 
mitted  to  deal  with  stock  diseases  as  he  sees  fit  ? 
Just  100  years  ago  the  following  advertisement  appeared  In  the  New 
York  papers:  "Just  arrived  from  Great  Britain,  and  are  to  be  sold  on 
board  the  ship  Alice  and  Elizabeth,  Captain  Paine  commander,  sev¬ 
eral  likely  Welch  and  English  servant  men,  most  of  them  tradesmen. 
Whoever  inclines  to  purchase  any  of  them  may  agree  with  said  com¬ 
mander,  or  with  Mr.  Thomas  Noble,  Merchant,  at  Mr.  Hazard’s,  in  New 
York;  where  also  Is  to  be  Bold  several  negro  girls  and  a  negro  boy,  and 
likewise  good  Cheshire  cheese.” 
A  German  chemist  claims  to  have  discovered  a  simple  method  of 
testing  the  quality  of  milk  by  running  It  over  a  weak  electric  current 
connected  with  a  galvanometer.  Changes  are  induced  in  the  strength 
of  the  current  which  can  be  measured  so  that  quick  and  reliable  notice 
is  given  if  the  milk  Is  soured  or  watered.  The  inventor  of  the  butter 
accumulator  tells  us  that  electricity  will  certainly  churn  milk,  the 
objection  being  that  the  process  is  too  costly. 
The  Rural  has  often  Intimated  that  the  farmers  of  the  country 
have  no  special  reason  for  complaint  on  account  of  the  exceptional 
weight  of  their  indebtedness,  and  now  Major  S.  G.  Brock,  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics,  confirms  this  opinion.  He  states  that  farmers 
are  not  greater  borrowers  than  other  classes  of  business  men  and  that 
the  burden  of  interest-paving  does  not  press  more  heavily  on  them 
than  on  the  others.  Once  more  then, 
Should  farmers  ’bove  others  their  calling  regret, 
Because  above  others  in  life  they’re  In  debt  ? 
