THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FEB. 28 
166 
Sweet on Sweet Apples. 
L. H. G., Elkhart Co., Ind.— “ Few peo¬ 
ple like them and there is no market for 
them.”—R. N.-Y., page 86. 
Well ! well 1! well!! 1 If such is the ex¬ 
perience of The R. N.-Y., it is most decid¬ 
edly not my own. I would rather have one 
bushel of sweet than two of sour apples any 
time; that is, good, sweet apples as com¬ 
pared with good sour. I have never been able 
to get half the sweet apples I wanted; and 
when I did find some good ones and asked 
the price, it has been from one-third to one- 
half more than for sour, and when I 
‘ kicked ’ on the price, I was told, both by 
the grocer and the fruit grower, “Yes, but 
these are sweet, and worth more.” Sweet 
cider always commands a higher price than 
sour, sweet apples make better feed than 
sour for all kinds of stock except possibly 
hogs. Let us hear on the subject from 
somebody else. [Yes ; let us.— Eds ] 
A Farm Girl’s Plea for Sweet 
Apples. 
“ Frances,” Henry Co., O.—I have just 
read C. J. A.’s article on apples, in The R. 
N.-Y. of January 31, also the editor’s re¬ 
mark thereon; and if a girl is not intrud¬ 
ing [Bless you ! you and all the others are 
as welcome as May flowers with anything 
worth saying.— Eds.], I will say that no 
farmer can afford to do without a good 
supply of early apples, sweet and sour. 
The Porter is very good, but too late. 
Here in northwestern Ohio we have the 
Red Astrachan, a splendid apple, ripening 
the last of June and keeping on the trees 
several weeks; then the Harvest Apple, 
excellent, as everybody knows, along with 
the Strawberry, Primate and a number of 
others, which furnish a ready supply for 
cooking all the season. As to sweet ap¬ 
ples, they are great favorites here, and 
there is a good market for them. Sweet 
apples are good baked and eaten plain, or 
cut lup, with cream and sugar on them; 
they are also excellent for pickling, can¬ 
ning, preserving, and making cider for 
apple butter. The Sweet Bough is the 
earliest variety of which I know. The Jer¬ 
sey is an excellent apple for summer, and 
Denver a good winter sweet apple. Now 
if the editor will come up here any time be¬ 
tween July 1 and September 1, I will treat 
him to a plate of apples, sweet and sour, 
that I am sure will convince him that we 
need early apples. 
“Variety of Feed for Stock.” 
J. M. Rice, Shannon Co., Mo.—There is 
a thought in the editorial note that people 
feel better when they have fruit with every 
meal; so with stock, they do better with 
apples. The thought is this: More variety 
of food. We have on our tables a change 
in some way at almost every meal, and yet 
but few of us feel we have as much variety 
as we would like. But we feed our stock 
all winter with scarcely any change. It is 
hay and corn day after day. There may be 
nothing that will analyze any better in the 
required elements for a perfect ration, but 
do not animals, as people, “ hanker ” after 
a change ? We believe so, and we should 
raise and save a greater variety for winter 
feeding. 
Beaver County Weeds Don’t 
Smother. 
J. W. Dobbin, Beaver County, Pa.— 
I have grown the R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potato 
since its introduction, and my experience 
has been that it is easier to keep it free from 
weeds than any other variety I have yet 
tried. On account of its upright, single 
stem I can work so close to it with the 
horse cultivator,that there is but little work 
to be done by hand. Usually I prefer a steel¬ 
toothed garden rake to a hoe. With a little 
practice a person can do nearly double the 
work with a rake that he can with a hoe; 
but the former must be used before the 
weeds get a firm root. I do not know what 
weeds Mr. J. H. Rittenhouse has to contend 
with in Fayette County, Pa., but I presume 
they are rather tender or they would not be 
so easily smothered. Some of our Beaver 
County weeds, like Banquo’s ghost, “will 
not down ” for potato tops or anything 
else except timely adn vigorous cultiva¬ 
tion. In my trial plot, last summer, in 
which were grown Early Puritan, Sunlit 
Star, Charles Downing, Burpee’s Extra 
Early, Burpee’s Superior and Empire 
State, the R. N.-Y. No. 2 and the Beauty 
of Hebron, I could clean the weeds out of 
the row of R. N.-Y. No. 2 in one half the 
time it took to do so in any other row. 
In 1 91 5: A Dark View. 
Henry Stewart, Macon County, N. C. 
—Does Prof. Roberts expect the millennium 
in 1915 1 [Prof. Roberts said “the end of 
the next century.”—E ds.) It seems so, for 
not until that time comes can we expect 
all or anything of what he prognosticates. 
“ Men will have an extended knowledge 
of the laws of their well-being.” If this 
knowledge is to be utilized, it will necessi¬ 
tate an observance of the whole Decalogue 
and much besides, for does not our well¬ 
being depend upon morality as well as upon 
subjection to physical laws. 
“All law will be as natural to the farmer 
of the next century as light-giving to the 
sun.” Is human nature to be wholly sanc¬ 
tified by that time ? 
“Men will form a close partnership with 
Nature and Nature’s God.” This is “a 
consummation devoutly to be wished,” but 
is it to be expected ? • 
“Farmers will abandon the use of spiritu¬ 
ous liquors, tea, coffee and tobacco.” Alasl 
the Professor, I fear, is too hopelul. No 
doubt a moral regeneration must come be¬ 
fore a material one, and before men can be¬ 
come happy they must be virtuous. Expe¬ 
rience of 50 years past goes to show that 
men have morally degenerated and crime 
is more rampant now than ever before. The 
sense of justice and right is blunted, laws 
are not enforced, and “ they will take who 
have the power and they will keep who 
can,” quite as much 25 years hence as at 
the present day. 
The regeneration of agriculture, I fear, is 
far distant. It has a severe struggle before 
it. It is in conflict with the leading ele¬ 
ment pf the present social condition, viz., 
political corruption. No people are better 
than the laws they make, and the laws 
made represent precisely the moral status 
of a people. Can we expect the next 25 
years to change this sad condition of pub¬ 
lic affairs, in which a prominent Senator 
declares “the Golden rule and the Deca¬ 
logue have no part,” the truth of which 
declaration is apparent to every person? All 
this must come before the regeneration and 
prosperity of agriculture. All the expected 
improvements, mechanical and scientific, 
cannot improve the farmer’s condition 
without a great moral popular change. Not 
one of the prophets refers to the rural 
schools. Here is the seed bed of improve¬ 
ment. Not one says that in 1915 every rural 
locality will have a good and well con¬ 
ducted school and well attended churches, 
in which true religion, which is to do to 
others as we would have them to do to us,and 
a high tone of morality, will be taught and 
disseminated instead of creeds by which 
people are made to hate each other and live 
in hostility with neighbors. Not a word of 
that good feeling which makes one love his 
neighbor as himself and renders one the 
servant and helper of another is there from 
all these prophetic souls. And, moreover, 
how is this great nation to be so radically 
changed even materially without the co¬ 
operation of the other peoples. 
I may be a pessimist, but it seems to me 
that the world promises to become worse 
instead of better during the next century. 
Competition must be closer. The rich will 
grow richer and the poor, poorer. The con¬ 
flict between increasing capital and impov¬ 
erished labor will become more and more 
bitter from the sense of the gross injustice 
that one man in a few years can accumulate 
scores of millions of dollars into his own 
hands. These cannot be earned, except by 
a wholly inadequate payment for services 
rendered to his fellow men, and if not earned 
must be taken unjustly from other persons. 
Agriculture may be more productive; crops 
may be increased; the 1,000-pounds of but¬ 
ter cow (?) may be bred and fed; every 
material thing hoped for may be realized : 
but the farmer will not be better off until 
the moral nature of mankind is changed so 
radically that every man shall be given the 
actual value of his work; that jealousy and 
competition shall be abolished; that money 
earned by labor shall not be expended in 
great fleets and armies for the purpose of 
slaughtering men made in the image of the 
Creator: that true honor and honesty shall 
prevail in private and public affairs; and no 
laws shall be needed to keep men in the 
ways they should go, for universal brother¬ 
hood and love shall rule among men. Then 
the farmer may expect to get his just share 
of the common wealth according to the 
kind of work he may do. Can we expect 
all this in 1915 or in 1990? I fear not; or in 
2915, or as long as the world and mankind 
exist under the prevailing want of true re¬ 
ligion and morality. I know this Is the 
work The Rural would like to accomplish, 
and It is doing good work to this end. But 
what a vast field there is to work in and 
how inadequate all our efforts are to the 
harvest to be gathered. 
Water-Proof Canvas. 
O. K. Lane, Indianola, III,— On page 
25 of The Rural for January 17 is a call 
for hot-bed canvas. Away back In 1840 
country people used to make their own 
floor oil cloth. It wore for years by receiv¬ 
ing an annual coating of paint at the spring 
house cleaning. The cotton fabric was 
made of the desired size, then starched in 
good, thick wheat flour starch, then 
stretched and tacked on some out building 
to dry. As soon as dry a coat of paint was 
applied—usually mineral yellow ocher 
mixed with boiled oil. A mixture of white 
lead in the second and last coat gives a 
better wearing body. Any fiber or fabric 
saturated with paint, oil or tar decomposes 
at once. So by starching such fabric heav¬ 
ily, the threads are filled and the oil forms 
an enamel on the outer surface which 
makes it impervious to rain, and also binds 
the starch. There is time before next 
spring to test this plan on a small scale. 
Theatrical scenic canvas seldom rots as 
oiled hot-bed canvas does, because it is first 
sized with glue to keep the paint and oil on 
the outer surface. Just so with canvas 
chromo pictures. Sometimes such picture 
canvas cracks and peels. This is owing to 
the glue being too hard. We put molasses 
in such glue size as it makes it more 
elastic, when the glue is dry, just as 
a few drops of oil in resin removes the 
glossy texture of the latter. In 30 years’ 
experience as a painter I have seen printers’ 
rollers made of glue and molasses. The 
unexperienced would say such pliable 
elastic rollers were rubber. 
The farmer has use for this water-proof 
cloth. It makes a good wagon cover. Stack 
covers and such canvas to cover a working 
team that has to go in “all wind and weath 
er” save the harness. A cheap 50 cent over¬ 
all and waist so treated protect the man who 
handles wet corn fodder at this season. 
That old linen duster could be starched 
and painted black and be of further service. 
For hot-bed use all understand that any¬ 
thing painted a dark color draws more 
heat. Boiled oil has the best enamel and 
most elasticity and dries quicker than raw 
oil. There are only three oils—animal, 
vegetable and mineral. Only vegetable oil 
dries, and it is used in paint. Flaxseed or 
linseed is the best of paint oils. Competi¬ 
tion adulterates it nowadays with sub¬ 
stitutes such as fish oil, cotton, sun-flower, 
castor bean, and all inferior oils. Nut oil 
Is valuable; but expensive. Will the 
schools of 1915 teach painting, pigments and 
a knowledge of the oils ? Once It took nine 
months to tan leather; now it can be done 
in 48 hours. Once it took six months to 
corrode lead for paint; now it is done in a 
night. Are the products of each any 
better ? 
When writing to advertisers, please 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
Prepare 
For Spring 
To Prevent 
That Tired Feeling 
Or Other Illness, Take 
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Sarsaparilla 
Highly concentrated. Dose small. In quantity costs 
Jess than one-tenth cent a day per hen. Prevents and 
cures all diseases. If you can’t get it, we send by mail 
post-paid. One pack. 25c. Five $1. 2 1-4 lb. can $1.20; 
6 cans $5. Express paid. Testimonials free. Send stamps or 
cash. Farmers’ Poultry Guide (price 25c.) free with $1.0* 
tirders or more. L S. JOHNSON & (X)., Boston, Mass. 
BEECHAM'S PILLS 
cure SICK HEADACHE. 
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D’ye see those 
skates ? The Pitts¬ 
burgh lamp is 
ahead. It gives 
magnificent light. 
It is easy to 
for. 
It keeps itself clean—all 
but wiping. 
Send for a primer—can’t 
tell it all here. 
NEW KODAKS 
“ You press the 
button , 
we do the rest." 
Seven Xew 
Styles and 
Sizes 
all loaded with 
Transparent 
Klims. 
For sale by al 
Photo. Stock 
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Send for Catalogue. 
MOSELEY’S 
OCCIDENT 
CREAMERY. 
SOLD ON MERIT. 
Send for Special Introduc¬ 
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Freight Paid by us. 
MOSELEY & PRITCHARD 
MAHUFACTURINO CO., 
Clinton, • . Iowa. 
TRON KETTLES, FARM BELLS AND LARD 
1 PRESSES at manufacturers’ prices. Send for 
circular. S. P. HICK & CO., Sidney, Ohio. 
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