1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
9 
THE CIRCULATION OF FARM PAPERS! 
In its issue for November 11, The R. N.-Y. suggested 
a plan for settling all claims about “largest circula¬ 
tion of any weekly agricultural paper, etc.” In brief, 
this plan was for an impartial committee to visit the 
different offices and have full swing to examine all 
evidence of circulation they could find or ask for. 
Having made affidavit to their report, the papers 
entering the test were to print the result for six weeks 
on the editorial pige. 
In presenting this proposition we had no desire to 
make any bluff or to detract from the advertising 
value of other farm papers. It was simply asking 
other papers to put in practice just what we have been 
doing for the past three months, viz : giving all ad¬ 
vertisers free access to our lists and subscription ac¬ 
counts. In our opinion nothing would do more to help 
legitimate advertising in farm papers than this readi¬ 
ness to show advertisers just what they are paying for. 
Believing that such a policy would result to the ad¬ 
vantage of both advertisers and publishers, if followed 
by all farm papers, we suggested the matter to others 
of the agricultural press. Only one paper approved of 
the plan as proposed. 
The Orange Judd Farmer, of Chicago, accepts our 
proposition in a general way, and then branches off in 
a challenge to any other Chicago paper. This calls 
up the Farm, Field and Fireside, which prints a fac¬ 
simile of its bill for postage for the week ending 
December 9, and calls upon others to do the same, and 
this is all the returns these weeks have brought us. 
We desire to inform these two papers that they 
either do not understand our proposition or intention¬ 
ally dodge the point. In making the suggestion we had 
in mind only the hest interests of the agricultural 
press in general, though, we frankly admit that we 
believe The R. N.-Y. will profit by the proposed com¬ 
parison. 
Before these papers start out with new propositions 
let them do what we have done and issue the same 
invitation to advertisers. That is a very simple mat¬ 
ter. The postage bill is but a small part of the evi¬ 
dence we are prepared to give. We wish to show 
advertisers that the readers of The R. N.-Y. are, as a 
rule, intelligent men, who pay full price and pay it 
willingly. We find that some farm papers are so 
eager for subscribers that they are giving subscrip¬ 
tions at less than half price or accepting even less 
than that out of consideration for premiums or “ pur¬ 
chasing privileges.” We wish to show that our circu¬ 
lation is high even in the face of this cheap competi¬ 
tion believing that advertisers will appreciate the 
difference. 
Now, to repeat: The plan we suggest is this: 
Appoint a committee of one from each paper. Turn 
the committee loose in each office with power to ex¬ 
amine any evidence wanted in the investigation of 
circulation cla ms for the whole of 1893. Then, when 
the rounds are made, let each paper publish at the 
head of its editorial columns, for a month, the result 
of the investigation, showing the exact paid-in¬ 
advance circulation of each paper, and the average 
price for the same. 
The R N.-Y. will gladly permit such a committee, 
to go through the records of every day in the year and 
examine paper bills, money received, subscriptions, 
postal bills—anything they like for the entire 12 
months of 1893. Make it one whole year—no single 
is' ue. 
We have a man ready to serve on this committee, 
and as soon as the Orange Judd Farmer and Farm, 
Field and Fireside or any other weekly farm papers 
will advise us of their cooperation, we will arrange so 
that the committee can get at work without previous 
notice. Don’t make new propositions. Accept this 
one or decline it. 
THE PROSPECT. 
The business policy of Southern farmers is chang¬ 
ing according to a large number of letters from bankers 
in all parts of the South, recently published in the 
Manufacturers’ Record. The farmers are growing 
more diversified crops, producing more of the needed 
and heretofore largely purchased food supplies, thus 
saving some of the money formerly paid for the latter. 
These letters also show that farmers are doing more 
of a cash and less of a credit business. The change 
was, partially at least, forced upon them. The low 
prices of cotton have reduced its food purchasing 
capacity, and impressed upon growers the necessity of 
producing instead of purchasing their supplies. The 
bankers, also, have refused to advance as much money 
as formerly on cotton, and growers have been obliged 
to practice a stricter economy. This has reduced the 
volume of general business, and is, psrhaps, less favor¬ 
able to tradesmen in general. The latter are said to 
be carrying smaller stocks of goods, and buying only 
as needed. The farmers are paying off their debts, 
and spending at home the money that formerly went 
to the North and West to buy provisions. These let¬ 
ters say that the South is less in debt than at any other 
time since the war. These are certainly encouraging 
reports, and if this be true with regard to the whole 
South, betoken the dawning of better days and of more 
prosperous times. The South has been growing too 
much cotton, and the sooner it reduces its production 
of this staple, and produces its heeded supplies, the 
more rapid will be the increase in its material pros¬ 
perity. The South has been paying too heavy tribute 
to the railroads, not to mention the horde of go-be¬ 
tween’s who have fattened while she has grown lean. 
t t t 
A STOUT active man knocked on the window at home 
the other day and asked for a breakfast. He was 
evidently a respectable man—simply out of work. 
Those of us who live near the large cities see much of 
the present want and destitution among the working 
poor. Most of these people do not want charity but 
work—a, chance to obtain an equiva'ent for their labor. 
Many well-meaning people say that the farmers of the 
country should now come forward and provide em¬ 
ploy mert for this army. There are two objections to 
this. Farmers anywhere near the cities have not 
work to offer. The great trend of farm invention 
and development of late years has been to squeeze out 
hand labor and put the machine in its place. The 
perfection of machinery in manufacturing has made 
the workman a specialist. He can do one smill part 
of a great whole and nothing else, and would be of 
little value on a modern farm except for unskilled 
labor. That is why a crisis like the present causes so 
much want and suffering. Modern workmen are 
trained to do but one thing, and when that thing is 
taken from them they are helpless. The great coal 
strike in England demonstrated that miners could not 
live on the wages offered because their ranks had been 
swelled by farm laborers who had left the farm to dig 
in the mines. As London Truth puts it: 
The diniculty In securinK a rair waKe seems to be this: If all men 
employed In pUs were to work .5).^ days per week, the amount of coal 
produced would not find a market. How comes this ? A vast number 
of aKrlcultural laborers found it dlflicult to Ket aKrlcnltural work, and 
therefore have become pitmen, for In this business they considered 
there was the most remunerative employment to be found for them. 
In 188G there were 6111,106 men employed; In 1802 there were 063,482. In 
order that the latter number should find work, the woiklntt days of 
the yyeek were reduced, with a consequent reduction of wages. 
That is true everywhere. A depression in one branch 
of livelihood drives numerous workers into another 
until that, too, is depressed. If the changes in our 
tariff and financial laws were in the hands of states¬ 
men instead of politicians and partisans—in other 
words, if the people had confidence and faith that 
laws were made for the people rather than for party, 
we would have fewer tramps and work-hunters than 
at present, because those who employ labor could and 
would plan and prepare work for the future. 
t X t 
The following remarks on the tariff are not intended 
for the eye of the partisan reader who will not shade 
his belief by the fraction of one degree. They are 
merely designed to call attention to a singular and 
thoughtful side of the subject. In a recent issue of 
the Louisiana Planter is the following resolution, 
which was adopted by the Louisiana sugar planters : 
Resolved, That It is the sense of this meeting that our Congressional 
delegation, both In the House and Senate, ougnt to oppose the pas¬ 
sage of the Wilson Bill unless the bounty provisions of the McKinley 
Bill shall remain intact. 
The chief argument was that the planters had in¬ 
vested a great deal of money in new machinery under 
the belief that the bounty would stand for some years; 
consequently they should have a chance to get that 
money out of the business. In the same paper was an 
excellent article on the need of drainage in sugar cane 
growing. After showing beyond a doubt that a good 
drainage system would largely increase the crop and 
the area on which it could be grown, the editor says : 
When the cane grower realizes the fact that perhaps at no distant 
date neither tariff nor bounty will protect him from the sharp compe¬ 
tition of the beet producers in the United States, then he will luiiy 
appreciate the necessity of superior drainage. 
That amounts to saying that so long as the bounty 
remains, many cane growers will not carry out the 
necessary drainage. If these men had invested money 
in pumps and drain tiles, would they ask that such 
an expense be considered by those who are to decide 
about the bounty ? The point we wish to make is that 
they will feel a change in the tariff most who are 
least prepared to grow their crops at the lowest rate. 
The men with the best tools and methods for growing 
a crop will feel the tariff changes least. 
t t t 
It has long been known by those on the “inside” 
that some millers and feed men are purposely adulter¬ 
ating “ground feed.” This is a favorite food for work 
horses in towns and cities. When properly made it 
contains equal measures of oats and corn ground to¬ 
gether. This makes a good ration for horses, and 
large quantities of it are sold. In many cases, how¬ 
ever, teamsters have found that their horses do not 
thrive as formerly on a given amount of this feed. “It 
is not so strong” as it used to be, and chemists of 
several States have been asked to tell why. The reason 
is that millers use oa.t hulls instead of whole oats to 
mix with the corn. The mixture looks like oats to a 
careless observer, but is really nothing but corn and 
almost worthless chaff. Toe object of adding the 
oats to the corn is to obtain protein, but the hulls 
really contain less of that substance than oat straw. 
In other words a miller might grind up straw and 
corn and have a better mixture than this “ground 
feed” which costs over $2r) a ton. That means over 
$20 a ton for the hulls which are hardly forth $;'). It 
is a great fraud, and one widely practiced, and one of 
the best arguments in favor of a regulation of the sale 
of feeding stuffs similar to the principle of our fer¬ 
tilizer laws. j; J t 
We have spoken of the losses to farmers entailed in 
the provisions of the Wilson tariff Bill vs. the lower 
duties on all farm products except foreign fruits. We 
are asked what {jains the farmer will make through 
tariff reduction. Here is what Mr. Wilson says in his 
report: 
To the farmers of the country we have given uuta.Te(l agricultural 
Implements and binding twine and untaxed cotton ties, for the addi¬ 
tional reason, In the latter case, that cotton la the largest export crop 
of the country, sold abroad In competition with the cheap labor of 
India and of Egypt, believing that It was sufficient for the private 
tax gatherer to follow the farmer In the markets of hls own country 
and not to pursue him Into all the markets of the world. 
Never mind where the tax-gatherer goes to, what 
will the farmer save by lower duties on these things? 
The most important is the farm implement duty. The 
Farm Implement News has collected a large amount 
of information on this subject—from the manufac¬ 
turer’s standpoint. There is, apparently, little to feir 
from European competition, t iough some think that 
English and German imitations of some of our 
smaller implements might find a market in the West 
and South, but our manufacturers do evidently fear 
Canadian competition. On this head the News says : 
Canadian manufacturers operate under the American system; their 
works are modern, and equipped with the best and latest npp'ianjes; 
their foremen are Americans or have served terms in the best factories 
In the United States, and their workmen are fully as Intelligent and 
as expert as ours. They get much of their material cheaeer, and 
labor at about 25 per cent less than our manufacturers have been 
paying. With these advantages they would be formidable competi¬ 
tors if free trade were reciprocal, and such reciprocity mlgnt be ques¬ 
tionable as a business proposition; but to open our tleids to them 
while theirs are closed to us would be a most stupid and ridiculous 
proceeding, as viewed from a business standpoint. And it mar bo re¬ 
marked that these tariff questions, which sp affect the commerce and 
Industries of the cpuntry, should be regulated and soiiled by business 
men, and not be left to a lot of lawyers and politicians who know or 
care nothing practically about commercial and Industrial affairs, and 
who wll; keep up this tariff agitation and tinkering, without regard to 
public welfare, so long as It can be used for party purposes. 
That last sentence is as sound a^ a nut. But if our 
manufacturing friends are to be considered so care¬ 
fully bow about farmers ? There is a big Canadian 
tariff on corn meal and other agricultural products. 
Why give Canadians free access to our markets when 
they keep us out of theirs ? 
X X X 
That discussion as to the relative profits of hand 
and machine planting of seed two weeks ago has 
started quite a discussion. Our position is that while 
it is possible to do better work by hand, the ability to 
work faster with the machine often counts for more. 
It seems to us, anyway, that the future of potato grow¬ 
ing is to follow the course of wheat. The crop to be 
profitable must be grown on large areas with all the 
help of improved machinery. The following note is 
from one who has used a planter several years : 
In regard to that potato planting question. It must be an uncommon 
case In which a man can plant potatoes cheaper by hand than by 
machine, or get more prollt from 10 acres of land. As for loose soil 
In the bottom of the trench under the seid. If ha lit hls ground prop¬ 
erly, he will have It with the planter. I prefer plowing twice, spring 
and fall, the spring plowing as near the time for planting as practi¬ 
cable; this In my gravelly soil thoroughly pulverizes the ground as 
deep as the plow goes. Iran my planter about four inches deep In 
this Une, light sjll. To Illustrate: In planting large seed last spring, 
I planted K N.- Y. No. 2 whole, besides cut seed wltho Jt changing the 
machine. The No. 2’8 were rather large and the planter made tome 
skips, but the yield was 20 to 30 bushels per acre better than my other 
seed though there were fewer skips with the other. If a man can 
secure help at a moment’s notice, perhaps he can do without the 
Asplnwall plante'. but with us, we would miss our planter-digger. 
Breed’s weeder, Clark’s Cutaway harrow and In reality haye to quit 
raising potatoes for market. 
That is the position we have always taken, viz : that 
in order to raise potatoes at a profit a farmer must 
provide himself with tools that will reduce the amount 
of unskilled hand labor. The cost of such labor is 
what destroys the profit. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The World's Fair officials made a rule not to admit any preparation 
for exhibition whose Ingredients were not known, On the ruling under 
this clause, we understand that Ayers was the only sarsaparilla ad¬ 
mitted to the exhibition, as Its formula Is not kept secret, and on this 
account comes under the head of a pharmaceutical preparation. 
The steel harrows manufactured by Itoderlck Lean Manufacturing 
Co., Manstleld. O., received the highest awards at the World’s Colum¬ 
bian Exposition. This harrow Is constructed so that by means of a 
lever it may be relieved of trash at any moment without stopping the 
team, and, when desired, the teeth may be adjusted to work at any angle 
best suited to the condition of the soil. It Is a substantial harrow, being 
constructed entirely of special steel, employs t o castings and has the 
smallest possible number of parts. The teeth are diamond shaped, 
forgsd and tempered. This company was established In 1863, and de¬ 
votes Its whole attention to the manufacture of steel harrows. The 
manufacturers will send further particulars If requested. 
